Donnchadh nodded. “Let’s go.”
They slipped away from edge of the depression. As they did so, they heard the high priest call out one more time: “Behold the price of rebellion. Behold the price of betrayal. Behold the price of disobedience.”
IX
Artad and Aspasia had negotiated and agreed to the Atlantis Truce, and both had also left behind A their agents to continue a covert war against the forces of the other. The Wedjat, founded by Gwalcmai and Donnchadh, watched these minions, following their actions over the millennia.
Almost five thousand years after Donnchadh freed the Undead from their prison under Giza, rumor trickled back to the Wedjat headquarters in England from the Watcher of Giza that something strange and unnatural was happening in the depths of Africa on the side of a massive mountain. These rumors came from travelers who emerged from the interior of the continent, floating down the Nile. A Wedjat was dispatched with specific orders to investigate these rumors.
It was an arduous journey, crossing the continent, traversing it north to south, then around the edge of the Mediterranean to the dark continent. And that was only the first half of the trip, and, as it turned out, the easiest. In Africa the Wedjat linked up with the Watcher of Giza and spent a month resting and recuperating and preparing for the journey to the interior. There the man learned a little bit more — the travelers reported a strange forest of black poles growing on the side of a massive mountain, one of a pair of white-capped peaks known to the people in the area as the Twin Sisters.
He also learned the disturbing fact that the Wedjat were not the only ones to hear of this strange occurrence. The Horus-Guides ruled in Egypt and they too had heard the rumors. The Wedjat departed Giza just two days ahead of an Egyptian military column with the same mission — to search out the truth of these rumors. Instead of going due south along the Nile, as the Egyptians did, the Wedjat traveled east to the coast and took transit in a trader’s vessel that plied the shoreline.
He traveled south, listening at each village and port the vessel stopped at for more stories of the black forest and the Twin Sisters. For weeks he heard nothing as he went farther and farther south along the coast. Finally, he found those who knew of the Twin Sisters. He continued south until he reached a point at which the locals told him the Twin Sisters were due west. He disembarked from the boat and struck out on land. Within a few days he could see one of the Twins himself, a white-capped mountain floating above the haze of the horizon to the west. From what he had heard, though, he needed to go to the second mountain to see the black forest. It took two more days before a second peak loomed on the horizon.
As the Wedjat approached from the east, the column of Egyptian soldiers, minus almost half their number after battling their way south from the headwaters of the Nile, also arrived within sight of the two mountains. The commander saw what was on the northern slope of the eastern-most mountain and, as he had been instructed, completed his report and immediately sent it back with his fastest riders toward the border of Egypt, where it would be forwarded by Imperial dispatch riders.
The Wedjat initially saw nothing strange on the second mountain as he approached it with the rising sun be hind him. He first swung to the south, between the two great peaks, and looped around the farther mountain. Thus it was almost a week after the Egyptians sent back their report before he could see the northern slope and what had caused such consternation among the ranks of the soldiers from Giza: on that slope, above the tree line, was a vast spider web of black, covering over four kilometers in diameter. Strange beasts stalked among the web, continuing to build and expand it.
The Wedjat, who had studied the scrolls in Avalon, had never read of such a thing. He also spotted the Egyptian soldiers about two kilometers away from his position. Seeing that they were doing nothing but observing, he found a position from which he could keep an eye on both the construction on the mountain and the Egyptians.
And then he waited.
Two weeks passed.
Shortly after dawn one day a small, glowing, golden sphere flew by. The Wedjat had read of such a thing — it was a tool of the Airlia. It circled the mountain, then disappeared to the north. He could tell that the Egyptians had seen the golden sphere also. The soldiers began packing up their camp. The Wedjat wondered what to do — stay there, or go back to Avalon and report on what he had seen? But whatever was being built on the slopes of the mountain was still under contruction. He decided to stay.
Two days later the Airlia craft came. Nine lean black forms against the blue sky. They came to a halt about five kilometers above the mountain, bracketing it. A golden light crackled at the tip of each of the craft and pulsed down to the ground, passing into the mountain. There was a momentary pause, then the top of the mountain exploded from within.
As far away as the Wedjat was, the blast wave lifted him off the ground and threw him twenty meters away. The sky darkened from smoke and dirt, turning day into a strange night. As the Wedjat scrambled to his feet, ears ringing, rocks and debris tumbled down about him, and he only narrowly escaped death.
He looked to the south, toward the mountain — or where a mountain had been.
X
The starship used a slingshot maneuver around the star to decelerate from interstellar speed. It was a small ship, a scout, and as the craft slowed, its sensors aligned on the signal that had diverted it to this system from its centuries-long patrol. The nose of the ship turned toward the third planet out as the data was analyzed. The signal was strange — a passive one, a uniform reflection of light rays of the system’s star from something on the planet’s surface, but there was little doubt the unusual effect was contrived by intelligence.
Searching out, analyzing, and then eventually reporting back concerning any intelligent life was the ship’s mission. The nature of the species that crewed it was to find, infiltrate, consume, and ultimately destroy any intelligent life not like it.
Having picked up no active scanning in the solar system or signs of advanced weaponry, the ship emitted an energy pulse as it sent a spectrum of scanning signals toward the third planet to determine the source of the crude signal.
Unknown to the crew, the pulse was noted by passive sensors as it penetrated the atmosphere and reached the surface of the planet. A sophisticated computer, operating on low-power mode, intercepted the pulse, analyzed it, and projected possible courses of action in a matter of moments. In low-power mode the options were limited and the course of action was quickly selected.
Donnchadh opened the lid of the tube to a flashing red glow. She sat up, her body sluggish and uncoordinated after so many years in the deep sleep. She had to blink several times to focus her eyes. She saw Gwalcmai’s lid slowly swing up and he sat up as she climbed out of the tube, her bare feet touching the cold deckplate of the Fynbar. She quickly threw on a jumpsuit and boots.
“What is it?” Gwalcmai asked, his voice hoarse.
Donnchadh went to the ship’s control console and sat in the pilot’s seat. She powered up the main computer. She shut down the warning light. Data scrolled across the screen and she tried to make sense of it.