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Chapter 15
The waves lapped at the side of the boat as it pushed forward in the eastern sea toward a remote island housing the artefact of Fenerra’s desire. Fendrick gathered a troop from The Forgotten for their mission to retrieve the artefact, utilising his limited network of influence as a new Captain. Dai and Welk had agreed to join him, alongside three others from Fendrick’s alma mater, the fifth division of The Forgotten.
“I can see land.” Tristan held on to a rope attached to the mast as the boat bounced over the choppy waters.
“Looks like we’re approaching the island everyone, get ready.” Fendrick gave the command to his troop, before gathering his own things and heading to the steering. Looking out to their destination, he could see monolithic outcroppings piercing the sky, dotted all across the island’s surface.
“Some lost ancient city? Never heard of it before, and I’ve been alive for four centuries.” Dai held the steering’s wheel firmly, keeping the ship aligned as well as he could through the strong sea winds. The sun reflected off of the dark murky waters, occasionally being hidden by fluffy stratocumulus clouds, another sign of potential storms on the horizon alongside the choppy waters. “Sure you can’t share with us what we’ll be looking for, Fendrick?”
“Strictly need to know I’m afraid. Sorry, Dai. I hate to hide it from you all.”
“You’re making a fine leader, boy,” interjected Tristan, standing nearby, jostling in tandem with the rocking wood beneath his feet.
“Lower the sails! We’re nearly there, let’s take it in nice and slow.” Dai shouted down to the others on the deck. The ship juddered as the sail was lowered, the rudders struggling with the roiling waves. Dai expertly guided the ship to shore, and before long ran aground on the sandy beaches on the west of the island.
“Drop the anchor, and let’s get ready to explore those ruins.” Fendrick stepped back down to the deck and watched as the others lowered the anchor into the sea. The gangplank was erected, and they all stepped down one at a time, with Fendrick taking the lead. Last to cross, the bridge quaked under Welk’s feet, and for the first time Fendrick saw fear paint the giant elf’s face. Dai threw out a hand to help his friend and pulled him to shore. Welk stayed silent, attempting to save face in front of the group.
“As we aren’t sure that the artefact will even be here, we’ll split up into two groups to try and cover more ground. Sergeant Dai, you lead the second group. Ryker, Podge, you go with him. Sergeant Welk, Kolt, you’re with me. We’ll walk into the city ruins together and we’ll pick a side once we’re in. Everyone understand?” Fendrick commanded the group as Tristan stood aside, nodding along.
“Aye aye, captain.”
The troop stepped off of the beaches and made their way to the centre of the monoliths. After a few hundred meters, storm-weathered buildings came into view. Smaller and mostly lost to time, barely their frames were left standing, only remnants of their walls and flooring remained. A beaten stone pathway soon emerged, leading towards the city proper.
“Looks like the city takes up most of the island. Strange seeing such a large settlement entirely separate from the continent,” commented Fendrick to Dai.
“I’d heard that in the past the waters off the east coast were far lower. The continent stretched out nearly a hundred kilometres further in my grandfather’s days. Perhaps it was linked with the mainland during its prime.”
“Perhaps. A city this large existing more than a thousand years ago is truly astounding, regardless. I imagine it’s been plundered many a time before our visit. Probably shouldn’t get our hopes up for finding anything of real value.” Fendrick looked out to his left and right, taking in the vast sprawling network of ruined buildings, crawling out as far as his eyes could see, before ending in the vast ocean waters. Ahead, a number of the monoliths slowly grew before their eyes, the distance at sea concealing their true height. “What are those? Buildings? Warding Obelisks?”
“I’ve heard stories that they were once used to draw the magic from the planet’s crust. Look, you can see faint runes still pulsating on their surface from this distance. Seems they’re still connected.” Kolt spoke up, approaching from behind with keen enthusiasm. She eagerly pointed to the closest monolith, tracing the runes from the bottom, upwards. Fendrick attempted to follow her finger but struggled to make out more than a dull red glow emanating from the monolith’s surface.
“Would that mean this island is safe from the magic drought from closing the well?” asked Fendrick.
“I can feel some magic in the air. It’s weak, but definitely more present than was back in Inarell. It’s similar to how it feels around the great tree in Pen-y-lyn. The feeling is growing as we near the monoliths,” said Dai.
“Aye. Fascinating technology. That whoever lived here so long ago could produce something like this… It’s amazing.” Kolt’s eyes shone with childlike wonder as her gaze bounced between the four largest monoliths dotted around the cityscape like the points of a compass.
“I never knew you knew so much about ancient shitholes, Kolt. Maybe if you spent more time training and less time with your nose in old books you’d finally get that promotion you’re always crying about.” Podge cleaned out his ear with a dirty middle finger, blowing away the loose ear wax before wiping it clean on his uniform.
“Maybe if you weren’t such an abrasive arsehole you wouldn’t be stuck ranked lower than Kolt.” Ryker laughed as he slapped Podge on the shoulder, before gently nudging Kolt on the side with his other elbow.
“Glad to see you’re all just as close as ever. How you’ve all been together in the Fifth for the last sixty years I’ll never understand. You’re just as close to working together in perfect harmony as you are to ripping each other’s heads off. Have been since I joined seven years ago.” Fendrick turned and smiled at the three members of the Fifth, before catching the winking eye of Tristan, walking a few feet away from the group but keeping stride with them.
“Only the El’dorei know. I’ve been trying to get away from these two for years, but the senior command seems to think I’m the only one who can keep them in line.” Kolt ruffled her short hair, shaking her head as her eyes almost rolled back into her skull.
“They just know that we’re the only reason why you’re even slightly successful as a leader,” retorted Podge.
“Said while on a mission under the command of former Private Fendrick Hurst, the best private I ever had.” Kolt winked at Fendrick, before shooting daggers at Podge.
“That the Fifth would allow such brazen disrespect for the chain of command. Youthful arrogance at play. If you were my private, I’d have you running errands for the rest of your life.” Dai sneered at Podge, who recoiled in fear and placed his hat in his hands.
“Sorry, sir. I’ll be sure to stop now.”
“Don’t even bother, Sergeant. I had him working as my PA for an entire year and he still comes at me with this much shit. You learn to let it wash over you,” said Kolt.
Welk laughed, which drew awkward glances from Podge and Ryker. “Youth.”
“He talks?” whispered Ryker to Podge. Both cowered behind Kolt as Welk’s ears pricked up, slightly turning in their direction with a raised brow.
“Well, you’re with me today, boys. So, I expect you on your best behaviour or you’ll be in for a shock when we return home,” chuckled Dai.
“Yes, sir.”
The group passed the first monolith and Kolt approached it, running her fingers along its surface. “I can feel the energy dancing on my fingers. Incredible.”
Dai joined in, passing his hand over the rune covered surface. A feeling like pins and needles leapt over his fingertips, the reds of the runes breaking as his fingers passed over them. “The enchantment is weak, but still present. That it would last this long… Truly wondrous magic, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Large cables ran down the monolith’s length; tightly coiled black wires were plumbed into its surface several metres above even Welk, ending in a heap at the base of the structure. Kolt grabbed a hold of one, following it from its origin to its end. “Severed. By something. Not cleanly either. Were these monoliths pumps? And these cables a distribution network?”
“We’re not here to find that out, unfortunately, Kolt. Come on, let’s keep moving.” Fendrick called Kolt and Dai over, as Welk lead the other privates through the city.
“Aye aye, sir.” Kolt made a mental note of the monolith’s design before dropping the cable and making her way over to Fendrick alongside Dai.
Continuing in near silence, the group eventually found themselves at the centre of the four largest monoliths: inside a sprawling network of roads and streets amongst mostly destroyed and dilapidated buildings. What little Fendrick could make out of the architecture told him this city belonged to no culture he was familiar with, and the wonderment in the elves’ eyes betrayed that they thought much the same. The clouds continued growing overhead and the light pitter patter of rain began. Water dripped off of the overgrowth that consumed much of the buildings, their verdant greens darkened in the overcast skies.
“There’s no trees.” Tristan spoke up as the group made way to cover: a large building with the remnants of a roof that shielded them from much of the rain.
What?” Fendrick turned to his mentor, his brow furrowed.
“There are no trees in this city. Vines and shrubbery have consumed much of the architecture and ravaged the roads. But there’s no trees. In all the millennia this city must have stood abandoned, not one tree has grown in its midst. It’s strange.” Tristan shook his head, “It’s probably nothing.”
“Fen?” Kolt looked quizzically at Fendrick as he stared into space away from the group.
“Sorry. Thought I heard something. Must have just been the wind.” Fendrick made his way to the centre of the group, “Ryker, can I have the parchment from your packs, and a pencil.”
“Yes, sir.” Ryker rummaged through his rucksack before handing a rolled parchment to Fendrick, alongside a small set of drawing tools.
Fendrick began drawing up a rudimentary map, marking out the main roads and the monoliths. “This here,” he pointed to one of the points he marked on the map, “is the monolith we passed on the way here. We’ll call it the western monolith.” Drawing a dotted line between the western monolith and the eastern, he continued, “I’ll take the north side of the city, and you, Dai, will take the south. Use the monoliths as way stones.” Water dripped down slowly from the rafters, landing on the parchment and smudging some of the pencil lines on the map.
“Sounds like a sensible plan. Easy enough,” remarked Dai.
“We won’t want to waste too much time rummaging through every ruined building in the place. Fenerra told me the artefact we’re looking for would have been revered by this civilisation. It will therefore most likely be contained within larger buildings: churches, or perhaps stately homes. We’ll search those first. Another parchment, please Ryker.” Accepting the new parchment, Fendrick began recreating the map, “You take this one, and mark out the rough location relative to the monoliths you find. So we know which buildings we can ignore on any future searches. I expect this mission to take a day or two, but we’ll stay here longer if needed. We can return to the ship at night, where we have food and water for about a week. By the end of this, I want to have either found the artefact, or where it would have been stored. Everyone understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Any questions?” asked Fendrick.
The others glanced around, shuffling their feet. Podge broke the silence with a hoarse cough.
“I’ll take that as a no. It looks as though the rains will pass relatively soon. For now, we can wait it out, don’t want to have to start the searches soaked through to the bone. But if it continues with no sign of stopping, we’ll just have to deal with it.”
Tristan nodded, before pulling a cigarette from his jacket and lighting it with a match. “Mission, start.”