Chapter 10
It took most of the next day to reach the ruins. When they were about one kilometre away from them, Onnil stopped and sat on the grass.
“Let’s assume that any occupants don’t know that we’re here,” Onnil remarked getting her binoculars out. “Five buildings,” she said.
“How could they know?”
“There are ways.”
“Are there?” Janol sounded intrigued. “You’re also assuming thingy back there was lying.”
“Yes. I think he might have been. Let’s just stake the place out and see if there’s anyone about. And be quiet,” Onnil instructed.
Janol suspected it was a way of avoiding any more questions rather than any concern over the occupants hearing them.
They took turns looking through the binoculars. Neither of them saw any sign of life.
“Right let’s go in and see what’s in there,” Onnil suggested. “And be careful and if I tell you to do something, do it.”
Janol and Onnil carefully approached the compound. All five buildings were intact and surrounded a rough pentagonal courtyard. Each of the doors looked onto the central area.
When they reached the nearest building, Janol tried to scratch a wall with his knife but nothing happened.
“Careful, you’ll blunt the blade. It’s the strongest material known,” Onnil advised. “Quiet now,” she added before Janol could ask how she knew.
Janol carefully examined the material from which buildings were constructed. It was dark and smooth. Suddenly Janol realised that he had seen the substance before. Five years previously some landscaping at a neighbouring farm had gone wrong. People had rushed to see what had happened. There was a huge pit and at the bottom, beneath the soil and rock was the same substance that these buildings were made from. The embarrassed landscaper had explained that it was what the world was made of.
The first two buildings they searched both consisted of several rooms. Neither showed any sign of human habitation. However, the smell and the spoor indicated that animals had been using them as dens.
The third building had a shut door. Onnil put her finger to her lips to indicate to Janol to be quiet. She crept up to the door, listened briefly and then slowly opened it. Light poured into the previously dim room and it revealed that Hitlow had been lying about the presence of any other people. Lying asleep in a room with the door shut was a prisoner. His hands and legs were chained together and the chains were attached with a rope to a wall, too high for one person to reach unaided. The prisoner had access to what must have been a large bowl that looked as if it had contained water but had long since been drunk. He had also soiled himself several times. With this and the general filth were a large number of flies. He was showing signs of dehydration and starvation.
The prisoner stirred a bit as the door opened letting in some light. He slowly sat up and mumbled something about how they shouldn’t be long now. As he looked up and his eyes adjusted to the light he realised that the people coming in were not his usual visitors.
“Who are you? Are you with the other four?”
Janol and Onnil looked at each other. Four?
“Quick in!” Onnil whispered.
Janol slipped into the room and Onnil slowly closed the door behind them, leaving a small gap.
“I’ll keep watch. See if you can free him,” Onnil ordered from the door.
Janol began to walk to where the prisoner was but then the room went dark. Onnil had shut the door. He froze unable to see where to step.
A few minutes later, the door suddenly reopened. The light temporarily blinded Janol but it had not affected Onnil. There was a crack, followed by a thump as a body fell to the floor. Onnil bent over checked the body and then picked up the rifle that the man had been carrying. She dragged the body towards Janol.
“Well don’t just stand there,” she remarked. Taking the hint Janol walked over to the prisoner.
Onnil followed him over to where the rope was attached to the wall and looked at the chains. “How do you get it unlocked?” she asked pulling on them.
“They have a key. Where are they?”
“Well they didn’t have one when we searched them,” Onnil replied. “I take it you’re a prisoner of Fritloch, Hitlow, Gil and him,” she nodded to the unconscious body.
The prisoner nodded.
Janol started to search the body looking for a key. “No key here,” he said as he searched the two pockets for a third time.
“Can I ask why they didn’t just kill you?” Onnil continued.
“They’re expecting a ransom. Who are you?” he asked again.
Onnil nodded. “I don’t think they’ll be collecting it. They’re in no a fit state to do that. Do you have any idea where they might have hidden the key? By the way what’s your name?”
“Hyul,” the prisoner replied.
“I’m Onnil and my quiet friend is Janol.” Onnil replied opening up her backpack. She took out some dried meat and handed Hyul her drinking flask. “We were heading north when we got interrupted by your former gaolers. You are quite welcome to come with us if you like, until we reach some form of civilisation.”
Hyul nodded. He tore clumsily at the strips of meat and downed some of the water.
“Don’t eat and drink too much if you were hungry or dehydrated, it can do more damage than good,” Onnil advised. “We’re going to go and look for the key. Do you want the door left open or closed?”
“Open if you don’t mind,” Hyul replied. “I’d like some fresh air.”
“Ok, we’ll see you shortly, hopefully with a way of unchaining you. Here,” she said handing Hyul the rifle. “If he wakes up then feel free to shoot him.”
Janol and Onnil approached the fourth building; its door was closed as well. They carefully opened it. Inside there were four rough beds and rubbish strewn around the floor. There were even a couple of bones lying about.
Before they went into the room, Onnil took Janol aside. “Janol, before we go and unlock Hyul, I’d rather you didn’t mention to him about how we met, binoculars or anything about unarmed combat. I’m a friend of your family and we’re going looking for … your … your long-lost uncle Bob.”
“Okay,” Janol replied unsure. “Can we make him my uncle Bifot. I’ve never heard of a Bob.”
“Okay, but don’t worry it’ll all make sense eventually,” Onnil replied. “Come on, let’s look for that key.”
They searched through the filth finding two unloaded rifles, some stale rations and eventually a key. They were just leaving the room when they heard the sound of two rifle shots. They rushed in to find Hyul standing over the corpse of the fourth kidnapper.
“What happened?” Onnil asked.
“He started to wake up.”
“Oh well. That’s one less person to feed,” Onnil remarked going over to Hyul. She unlocked the manacles around his arms and legs.
“What are you going to do now?” Hyul nervously asked standing up, wobbling and trying to stretch his aching muscles.
“Well, we’re going to see if there’s anything interesting here,” Janol replied, “and then in the morning we’re going to leave heading north.”
Onnil examined the rifle. “Out of ammo,” she remarked. “We’re going to have to be careful.”
“Why?” Janol asked.
“Hitlow has a reason to return here,” she replied.
“Did you not kill him?” Hyul asked.
“No. There was no need and I try not to execute people in cold blood,” Onnil replied dryly. “Now did they have anything else of use?” Janol was not sure if she was reprimanding Hyul or not.
“They didn’t really have very much,” Hyul mumbled. “They were always arguing about who got what.” He stared at Onnil, as if only noticing her dark skin for the first time.
“Well, let’s carry on looking,” Onnil said ignoring Hyul’s stares. “You rest here.”
Hyul ignored Onnil’s advice and went outside and sat at the entrance of the building. “Fresh air,” he exclaimed.
Onnil and Janol carried out a further search of the fourth building but there was nothing else of interest. However, the fifth building looked like it might have something as it had a closed door. There were two panels on the right hand side. In addition, scuffs on the ground in front of the entrance but the surface of the building was unmarked. The door had no handle and would not open.
Janol tried to push it, with no effect. He then tried to get some purchase on it and pull it while Onnil looked on in amusement. Eventually he gave up. Onnil examined the door briefly and shook her head but after glancing over to check that Hyul was not watching, she winked knowingly at Janol.
They returned to the cleanest of the empty buildings and ate some of their meagre rations.
Hyul was soon asleep from exhaustion and Onnil motioned to Janol to follow her outside. She led him to the fifth building stood around three metres from the door and just stared at it. “I wish we’d looked here before freeing Hyul,” she whispered.
“Why? What’s in there?”
“Don’t know! Hopefully ancient machines!”
“That do what exactly?” Janol asked excitedly, his mind immediately going back to his collection of artefacts.
“Well, let’s find out.”
“Can you open it?”
“I’m not sure. No harm in trying, though.”
Janol was quite excited. He had assumed that they would not have been able to get inside. “Why all the secrecy?” he asked.
“I don’t want anyone to know that I can get into here.”
“Apart from me!”
“Apart from you. So you keep it a secret.” Onnil smiled back. “Keep an eye out for Hitlow and make sure Hyul doesn’t come out.”
Janol went back and stood at the door of the building where Hyul was sleeping. He kept trying to watch Onnil and the prairie, while at the same time ensuring Hyul stayed asleep.
Onnil approached the door. She touched one of the panels on the right. There was a slight straining noise and then the door slid open. She turned and gave Janol a thumbs-up sign and went inside.
Suddenly there was bright yellow light from inside the building. Janol resisted the urge to run up and see what was happening.
Onnil reappeared after a while carrying a pile of objects. “Go and have a look! I’ll stand guard,” she said.
Janol ran over to the open building and cautiously wandered in. The inside was littered with dead insects, cobwebs and sandy soil. He could see footprints where Onnil had walked. He looked up to see the source of the light. The entire surface of the ceiling was glowing yellow and was as bright as a normal sunlit day but the colour gave everything an unusual harshness. Scattered around the room were several open boxes.
In the centre of the room was a table and on top of it, there was a large dusty box covered with buttons and switches. On the wall were several open empty cupboards and last of all there were what looked like the remains of chairs scattered around the floor.
Janol spent a while searching and examining things but found nothing of interest. He returned to Onnil who went back in. The lights went out and she came out shutting the door behind her. She was about to walk away when she motioned to Janol to join her.
“Put your hand there!” she pointed to a panel beside the door.
Janol complied.
She whispered something to the other panel. “You can remove it now. Now I want you to put your hand against the panel again and say the word, ‘Open’.”
“Opin!” Janol said. Nothing happened.
“It’s pronounced ‘open’. Try again.”
“Open!” The door slid open.
Onnil nodded. “If you ever return here then at least you can get in. Put your hand on the panel just inside and try ‘lights on’ and ‘lights off’.”
It took Janol several times to get the pronunciation right but when he did, the lights went on and off as instructed.
“And finally ‘Lock’,” Onnil said. “That locks it. Remember those phrases.”
“What language was that?”
“English,” Onnil replied. “I think Comspeak has evolved from it. Though it has been heavily influenced by other languages.”
“You mean you don’t know.”
“I don’t know everything,” she replied looking at the building. “Nothing else works and it’s not connected to the network anymore so I can’t give you access to anywhere else.”
“Thank-you” was all Janol could say. He started repeating ‘Open’, ‘Lights on’, ‘Lights off’ and ‘Lock’ to himself. Eventually he asked, “What did you find?”
“Wands. We’ll play with them later.”
“I thought you couldn’t do magic.”
“No. But you might be able to.”
“But I don’t have a licence,” Janol replied, liking where this conversation was going but trying not to get his hopes up too much.
“Well, I might just have to give you one.”
“Can you do that?”
“Does it really matter? Do you think Gultipif has a licence?”
“I suppose I could have a shot,” Janol said slowly starting to get excited at the prospect.
Onnil stopped and looked at the bag containing the wands. “Shit, not only am I the sodding mentor. Now we’ve found the magic sword? Arse!”
“But they’re wands,” Janol replied confused.
“Yes, but … never mind,” Onnil muttered to herself. Eventually she said, “Come on let’s get some sleep, we’ll speak about it more. Once we’ve offloaded Hyul with someone. You keep first watch while I have a rest.”
They returned to the room where Hyul was now snoring and soon Onnil was asleep. After a couple of hours, Onnil woke and told Janol to get some rest. Janol had difficulty getting to sleep. Was he really going to learn magic? How could Onnil issue licences? How had she known how to get into the building and operate the door? Did they have that sort of building in Emchoo?
By the time he did manage to drift off to sleep, he had convinced himself that Onnil had been winding him up.
In the morning, they ate up most of their remaining food and then packed up. Janol was desperate to ask Onnil about the wands but she acted as if the previous night’s conversation had never happened.
“You two stay here,” Onnil said as she picked up her bag. “I’m going to see if Hitlow’s returned.”
“Let’s assume that any occupants don’t know that we’re here,” Onnil remarked getting her binoculars out. “Five buildings,” she said.
“How could they know?”
“There are ways.”
“Are there?” Janol sounded intrigued. “You’re also assuming thingy back there was lying.”
“Yes. I think he might have been. Let’s just stake the place out and see if there’s anyone about. And be quiet,” Onnil instructed.
Janol suspected it was a way of avoiding any more questions rather than any concern over the occupants hearing them.
They took turns looking through the binoculars. Neither of them saw any sign of life.
“Right let’s go in and see what’s in there,” Onnil suggested. “And be careful and if I tell you to do something, do it.”
Janol and Onnil carefully approached the compound. All five buildings were intact and surrounded a rough pentagonal courtyard. Each of the doors looked onto the central area.
When they reached the nearest building, Janol tried to scratch a wall with his knife but nothing happened.
“Careful, you’ll blunt the blade. It’s the strongest material known,” Onnil advised. “Quiet now,” she added before Janol could ask how she knew.
Janol carefully examined the material from which buildings were constructed. It was dark and smooth. Suddenly Janol realised that he had seen the substance before. Five years previously some landscaping at a neighbouring farm had gone wrong. People had rushed to see what had happened. There was a huge pit and at the bottom, beneath the soil and rock was the same substance that these buildings were made from. The embarrassed landscaper had explained that it was what the world was made of.
The first two buildings they searched both consisted of several rooms. Neither showed any sign of human habitation. However, the smell and the spoor indicated that animals had been using them as dens.
The third building had a shut door. Onnil put her finger to her lips to indicate to Janol to be quiet. She crept up to the door, listened briefly and then slowly opened it. Light poured into the previously dim room and it revealed that Hitlow had been lying about the presence of any other people. Lying asleep in a room with the door shut was a prisoner. His hands and legs were chained together and the chains were attached with a rope to a wall, too high for one person to reach unaided. The prisoner had access to what must have been a large bowl that looked as if it had contained water but had long since been drunk. He had also soiled himself several times. With this and the general filth were a large number of flies. He was showing signs of dehydration and starvation.
The prisoner stirred a bit as the door opened letting in some light. He slowly sat up and mumbled something about how they shouldn’t be long now. As he looked up and his eyes adjusted to the light he realised that the people coming in were not his usual visitors.
“Who are you? Are you with the other four?”
Janol and Onnil looked at each other. Four?
“Quick in!” Onnil whispered.
Janol slipped into the room and Onnil slowly closed the door behind them, leaving a small gap.
“I’ll keep watch. See if you can free him,” Onnil ordered from the door.
Janol began to walk to where the prisoner was but then the room went dark. Onnil had shut the door. He froze unable to see where to step.
A few minutes later, the door suddenly reopened. The light temporarily blinded Janol but it had not affected Onnil. There was a crack, followed by a thump as a body fell to the floor. Onnil bent over checked the body and then picked up the rifle that the man had been carrying. She dragged the body towards Janol.
“Well don’t just stand there,” she remarked. Taking the hint Janol walked over to the prisoner.
Onnil followed him over to where the rope was attached to the wall and looked at the chains. “How do you get it unlocked?” she asked pulling on them.
“They have a key. Where are they?”
“Well they didn’t have one when we searched them,” Onnil replied. “I take it you’re a prisoner of Fritloch, Hitlow, Gil and him,” she nodded to the unconscious body.
The prisoner nodded.
Janol started to search the body looking for a key. “No key here,” he said as he searched the two pockets for a third time.
“Can I ask why they didn’t just kill you?” Onnil continued.
“They’re expecting a ransom. Who are you?” he asked again.
Onnil nodded. “I don’t think they’ll be collecting it. They’re in no a fit state to do that. Do you have any idea where they might have hidden the key? By the way what’s your name?”
“Hyul,” the prisoner replied.
“I’m Onnil and my quiet friend is Janol.” Onnil replied opening up her backpack. She took out some dried meat and handed Hyul her drinking flask. “We were heading north when we got interrupted by your former gaolers. You are quite welcome to come with us if you like, until we reach some form of civilisation.”
Hyul nodded. He tore clumsily at the strips of meat and downed some of the water.
“Don’t eat and drink too much if you were hungry or dehydrated, it can do more damage than good,” Onnil advised. “We’re going to go and look for the key. Do you want the door left open or closed?”
“Open if you don’t mind,” Hyul replied. “I’d like some fresh air.”
“Ok, we’ll see you shortly, hopefully with a way of unchaining you. Here,” she said handing Hyul the rifle. “If he wakes up then feel free to shoot him.”
Janol and Onnil approached the fourth building; its door was closed as well. They carefully opened it. Inside there were four rough beds and rubbish strewn around the floor. There were even a couple of bones lying about.
Before they went into the room, Onnil took Janol aside. “Janol, before we go and unlock Hyul, I’d rather you didn’t mention to him about how we met, binoculars or anything about unarmed combat. I’m a friend of your family and we’re going looking for … your … your long-lost uncle Bob.”
“Okay,” Janol replied unsure. “Can we make him my uncle Bifot. I’ve never heard of a Bob.”
“Okay, but don’t worry it’ll all make sense eventually,” Onnil replied. “Come on, let’s look for that key.”
They searched through the filth finding two unloaded rifles, some stale rations and eventually a key. They were just leaving the room when they heard the sound of two rifle shots. They rushed in to find Hyul standing over the corpse of the fourth kidnapper.
“What happened?” Onnil asked.
“He started to wake up.”
“Oh well. That’s one less person to feed,” Onnil remarked going over to Hyul. She unlocked the manacles around his arms and legs.
“What are you going to do now?” Hyul nervously asked standing up, wobbling and trying to stretch his aching muscles.
“Well, we’re going to see if there’s anything interesting here,” Janol replied, “and then in the morning we’re going to leave heading north.”
Onnil examined the rifle. “Out of ammo,” she remarked. “We’re going to have to be careful.”
“Why?” Janol asked.
“Hitlow has a reason to return here,” she replied.
“Did you not kill him?” Hyul asked.
“No. There was no need and I try not to execute people in cold blood,” Onnil replied dryly. “Now did they have anything else of use?” Janol was not sure if she was reprimanding Hyul or not.
“They didn’t really have very much,” Hyul mumbled. “They were always arguing about who got what.” He stared at Onnil, as if only noticing her dark skin for the first time.
“Well, let’s carry on looking,” Onnil said ignoring Hyul’s stares. “You rest here.”
Hyul ignored Onnil’s advice and went outside and sat at the entrance of the building. “Fresh air,” he exclaimed.
Onnil and Janol carried out a further search of the fourth building but there was nothing else of interest. However, the fifth building looked like it might have something as it had a closed door. There were two panels on the right hand side. In addition, scuffs on the ground in front of the entrance but the surface of the building was unmarked. The door had no handle and would not open.
Janol tried to push it, with no effect. He then tried to get some purchase on it and pull it while Onnil looked on in amusement. Eventually he gave up. Onnil examined the door briefly and shook her head but after glancing over to check that Hyul was not watching, she winked knowingly at Janol.
They returned to the cleanest of the empty buildings and ate some of their meagre rations.
Hyul was soon asleep from exhaustion and Onnil motioned to Janol to follow her outside. She led him to the fifth building stood around three metres from the door and just stared at it. “I wish we’d looked here before freeing Hyul,” she whispered.
“Why? What’s in there?”
“Don’t know! Hopefully ancient machines!”
“That do what exactly?” Janol asked excitedly, his mind immediately going back to his collection of artefacts.
“Well, let’s find out.”
“Can you open it?”
“I’m not sure. No harm in trying, though.”
Janol was quite excited. He had assumed that they would not have been able to get inside. “Why all the secrecy?” he asked.
“I don’t want anyone to know that I can get into here.”
“Apart from me!”
“Apart from you. So you keep it a secret.” Onnil smiled back. “Keep an eye out for Hitlow and make sure Hyul doesn’t come out.”
Janol went back and stood at the door of the building where Hyul was sleeping. He kept trying to watch Onnil and the prairie, while at the same time ensuring Hyul stayed asleep.
Onnil approached the door. She touched one of the panels on the right. There was a slight straining noise and then the door slid open. She turned and gave Janol a thumbs-up sign and went inside.
Suddenly there was bright yellow light from inside the building. Janol resisted the urge to run up and see what was happening.
Onnil reappeared after a while carrying a pile of objects. “Go and have a look! I’ll stand guard,” she said.
Janol ran over to the open building and cautiously wandered in. The inside was littered with dead insects, cobwebs and sandy soil. He could see footprints where Onnil had walked. He looked up to see the source of the light. The entire surface of the ceiling was glowing yellow and was as bright as a normal sunlit day but the colour gave everything an unusual harshness. Scattered around the room were several open boxes.
In the centre of the room was a table and on top of it, there was a large dusty box covered with buttons and switches. On the wall were several open empty cupboards and last of all there were what looked like the remains of chairs scattered around the floor.
Janol spent a while searching and examining things but found nothing of interest. He returned to Onnil who went back in. The lights went out and she came out shutting the door behind her. She was about to walk away when she motioned to Janol to join her.
“Put your hand there!” she pointed to a panel beside the door.
Janol complied.
She whispered something to the other panel. “You can remove it now. Now I want you to put your hand against the panel again and say the word, ‘Open’.”
“Opin!” Janol said. Nothing happened.
“It’s pronounced ‘open’. Try again.”
“Open!” The door slid open.
Onnil nodded. “If you ever return here then at least you can get in. Put your hand on the panel just inside and try ‘lights on’ and ‘lights off’.”
It took Janol several times to get the pronunciation right but when he did, the lights went on and off as instructed.
“And finally ‘Lock’,” Onnil said. “That locks it. Remember those phrases.”
“What language was that?”
“English,” Onnil replied. “I think Comspeak has evolved from it. Though it has been heavily influenced by other languages.”
“You mean you don’t know.”
“I don’t know everything,” she replied looking at the building. “Nothing else works and it’s not connected to the network anymore so I can’t give you access to anywhere else.”
“Thank-you” was all Janol could say. He started repeating ‘Open’, ‘Lights on’, ‘Lights off’ and ‘Lock’ to himself. Eventually he asked, “What did you find?”
“Wands. We’ll play with them later.”
“I thought you couldn’t do magic.”
“No. But you might be able to.”
“But I don’t have a licence,” Janol replied, liking where this conversation was going but trying not to get his hopes up too much.
“Well, I might just have to give you one.”
“Can you do that?”
“Does it really matter? Do you think Gultipif has a licence?”
“I suppose I could have a shot,” Janol said slowly starting to get excited at the prospect.
Onnil stopped and looked at the bag containing the wands. “Shit, not only am I the sodding mentor. Now we’ve found the magic sword? Arse!”
“But they’re wands,” Janol replied confused.
“Yes, but … never mind,” Onnil muttered to herself. Eventually she said, “Come on let’s get some sleep, we’ll speak about it more. Once we’ve offloaded Hyul with someone. You keep first watch while I have a rest.”
They returned to the room where Hyul was now snoring and soon Onnil was asleep. After a couple of hours, Onnil woke and told Janol to get some rest. Janol had difficulty getting to sleep. Was he really going to learn magic? How could Onnil issue licences? How had she known how to get into the building and operate the door? Did they have that sort of building in Emchoo?
By the time he did manage to drift off to sleep, he had convinced himself that Onnil had been winding him up.
In the morning, they ate up most of their remaining food and then packed up. Janol was desperate to ask Onnil about the wands but she acted as if the previous night’s conversation had never happened.
“You two stay here,” Onnil said as she picked up her bag. “I’m going to see if Hitlow’s returned.”
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