“What’s happening?” Corin asked, covering his face with his cloak.
“It’s the vents,” Much said, laughter in his voice. “Who knows how long they’ve been out of use? And now they’re busy pushing all the years of muck out of them.”
Even through his cloak, Bradok could tell that Much was right. The dust and debris rained down for a full ten minutes.
As the dust finally began to drift out of the air, Bradok rejoined Tal and Perin at the fountain. As the minutes passed, the human seemed to be breathing easier, his color returning.
“That was the right thing to do,” Tal said.
“Lucky guess on my part,” Bradok said. “I don’t know who this Galoka guy was, but this city of his is amazing. I’ve never dreamed anything like it.”
“I want to know how they’re moving so much air,” Much said. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “In another hour or so, the air should be completely replaced. It’s incredible.”
Perin stood up slowly, gripping Bradok’s shoulder for support. “Thank you,” he said, breathing deeply. “I feel like myself again.”
He wobbled a bit, and Tal put out a hand to steady him. “Take it easy for a while,” Tal said. “We can rest here, can’t we?” he asked Bradok.
Bradok checked the compass. The Seer held her spear at her side, which usually meant it was all right to stop. He nodded to Tal. “We can stop here,” he said.
“Good,” Much said, rubbing his hands together eagerly. “I’m going to inspect those machines, see what I can learn.”
“Maybe there are some books or murals that tell the story of Galoka and his followers,” Corin said with equal zest.
“It looks pretty picked over,” Bradok said, plopping down by the fountain. Then he looked at them and smiled. “Explore all you want,” he said. “Just take someone with you.”
Corin looked for Omer and motioned to the other. Omer grinned and ran after him, still clutching the rag doll Much had made for Teal. Bradok had noticed that the dwarf never went anywhere without the doll. He seemed happy enough as long as he had the doll close by.
Bradok leaned against the base of the fountain and watched the hands on the clock turn, counting off the minutes. It felt so good just to sit and rest, he didn’t notice as several hours passed. Only the diminishing light in the cavern eventually alerted him. Clearly the daylight above was fading into night.
He rose just as Corin returned with Omer, Kellik, and Rijul in tow.
“Have you just been sitting here all this time?” he asked, chuckling.
Bradok nodded.
“Boy have you missed it!” Rijul said, full of youthful enthusiasm. “This city is enormous. All sorts of things to explore. There’s at least three more caverns off this one.”
Kellik nodded. “They’ve all been looted, like this one, but it’s like the looters didn’t know or care what they were looking for,” he said.
“What do you mean?” Bradok asked.
“The inside of the buildings have been trampled,” Corin said. “The furniture is smashed, the tapestries ripped, but we’ve found weapons and tools and valuables just lying around in the mess.”
“Who tears a building apart but doesn’t take weapons or valuables?” Bradok wondered.
“Someone who is stupid,” Kellik said, shrugging.
“Or someone looking for something specific,” Rose said, joining the group. She held what appeared to be a book with a metal cover.
“I found this inside a burned-out library,” she continuing, holding out the book, made entirely of polished steel, so they could all see.
Bradok knew instinctively that it had been made of the same, corrosion-proof steel as everything else. At the edges, along the spine of the book, ran an intricate metal hinge so the book could lie flat for easy reading. The front had been painstakingly engraved with the title: Galoka, His Travels and Teachings. Below that was a subtitle: The Chronicles of Starlight Hall.
Something in Bradok yearned to touch the strange metal book. He reached out and opened the cover, revealing fifteen metal pages bound into the spine with small metal rings. Each page was perfectly flat, and each was the same size. Tiny rows of engravings marched down the pages like columns of ants, and Bradok had to lean in close and squint to read the words.
“I’m sure it’s all very fascinating,” Chisul’s voice interrupted them as he came striding up with a small group, all carrying the fruits of their scavenging. “But what makes you think the people who wrecked this place were looking for that?”
“I didn’t say they were,” Rose said, still cradling the book reverently. “But whoever burned the library wanted these people’s knowledge destroyed. I bet they didn’t count on a metal book that was able to survive the fire.”
“Yeah, I can agree with that,” Chisul said, a grin on his face. Then he looked around at the magnificent hall. “This whole place feels good, feels right.”
“What are you talking about?” Much asked, joining the crowd.
“Just that this place is perfect,” Chisul said. “It’s got light, air, clean water. We’ve even found some seeds for trees and vegetables and a garden cavern where they used to grow food.
“In fact, this place has got everything we need. Best of all, there’s no one to protest us just moving in,” he added.
“I don’t know,” Corin said worriedly, running his hand through his beard. “Something bad happened to the people here, and someone sure tried to destroy this place.”
“Maybe a long time ago in some fairy tale,” Chisul mocked him. “But no one’s been here for decades, maybe even centuries.”
Bradok had to admit Chisul made good points.
“There’s no telling if these caverns are truly secure,” Much argued. “We’ve barely begun to investigate all of them.”
“We can secure them one at a time,” Rose said eagerly. “Check each one out, make sure they’re safe, and then move on.”
“I don’t think that will work,” disagreed Jeni in her dreamy voice, which drifted above the crowd.
All eyes turned to where the peculiar Daergar girl stood, rocking from one foot to the other, undulating her hips as she moved.
“I bet the compass won’t let us stay here very long at all,” she said.
Bradok reflexively put a hand to his pocket then hesitated. He liked the idea of staying in the fantastic city, and he wasn’t sure he wanted the opinion of Reorx’s compass. Before he could extract it from his pocket, however, Corin spoke up.
“Why do you say that?” he asked Jeni, narrowing his eyes. “What do you know? Have you discovered something you haven’t told us about?”
Jeni shook her head, pointing to a pile of rubble at the base of the clock tower. Bradok had been staring at the tower for hours and hadn’t noticed anything odd, but as one the group followed Jeni’s pointing finger and approached the rock pile.
“What are you getting at, girl?” Kellik demanded.
He opened his mouth to say something else, but the words died in his throat. There, in the center of the pile, everyone saw the same thing: covered in dust and looking for all the world like a rock was a skull. Once Bradok could see it, he also saw what looked like an armored chest and arm, ending in a long, curved spike.
“What is that?” Rose said fearfully.
Bradok pushed his way to the front and picked up the skull. What had made it so hard to see before was that it didn’t look like a skull, at least not like any he’d ever seen. There weren’t any holes for eyes, just a smooth, curved surface all the way across the front of the face where the eyes should be. Two vertical nostril slits sat high in the center of the forehead, and the upper jaw held a double row of backward-facing, needlelike teeth.
Much bent down and picked up two long, curved bones from the floor, holding them up close to the skull. They were long enough to be arm bones, but everyone could see they were wicked, curving teeth.
“This jaw bone is two separate pieces,” Much said, holding the huge teeth in place against the skull in Bradok’s hands. “The bottom part must be missing.”