Yamara - Book 1 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

None of my companions brought up the incident on the following morning. They acted as though nothing was out of the ordinary, though I did catch Sandala studying me a few times. Brina seemed more friendly then before, but I attributed that to the prior nights intimacy. I had to admit to myself, she was pretty good in the sack. From my own past, I knew a night with me left an impression not soon to be forgotten - or at least, that's what virtually all of my partners expressed in one fashion or another.

I caught myself then, realizing that Brina was not as simple as she seemed. I was amazed that I kept falling for her act, and reminded myself yet again that the beautiful girl was perhaps the most dangerous of all my companions. At least to me.

While we were resting from the hottest rays of the suns at midday the question was finally broached. "What now?" Sandala asked, looking at everyone but me.

"What do you mean? We look for treasure like we always do," Brina said from fairly close beside me.

The others had surely heard our passion in the night, but they pretended to ignore it. For the time being, at least.

"She means more then that," I guessed, glimpsing at the hidden undertone of Sandala's question.

"Aye," She admitted, catching my eyes and staring at me for a moment before breaking away. "I mean both that and more. Treasure we always seek, that much is true. But there is more here then we thought, I think."

"What?" Kryl huffed, anxious to be on with things.

"Yeah, what?" Brina seconded.

"Keeden," I said, barely loud enough to be heard by them all.

Sandala smiled warmly at me. "Yes, Keeden. He was here for a treasure we knew nothing about, but I think that perhaps we should search for it nonetheless."

"What kind of treasure?" Brina asked, the thought of plunder overcoming everything else for her.

"Yamara?" Sandala asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

I nodded and took a deep breath and let it out before speaking. "He told us all of some psionic presence he sought out here, but he didn't elaborate. When our minds merged, I saw a lot of things in his, most of them confusing or strange or just messed up. Some were more clear then others though. I suspect his obsessive madness is what caused many of those visions and memories to be disjointed and confusing.

"One in particular though stood out though. It was of him descending into the silt to find a strange building made entirely of something that looked like steel. He saw a sealed doorway with a glowing light next to it that looked like a release for the door." I paused a moment, struggling to remember it properly before continuing.

"He wasn't actually there though, just his mind, so he could not open the door. Instead he walked through it in his dream traveling. Inside were strangely designed and lit passages through the building, all of them looked the same. Still, he somehow knew where he was going, because in his memory he moved with a purpose and never faltered at any intersections. He came to a great open pit in the floor and floated down it. There were no ladders or stairs or anything, so we will need to bring rope if we try to find this place. Descending forever it seemed, past many other openings into other passages, he finally reached the bottom. A tunnel there took him to a room with another sealed door. Inside of it was a great many strange things. Machines, I think, yet made so intricately and serving what purpose I have no idea. No smith I know of could have fashioned the things down there, but it is there that the treasure he sought rests."

"What treasure is it?" Brina asked, caught up in the thrill of it.

"I don't know," I admitted. "And neither did he, I don't think. But it's down there, a glowing nimbus of some sort of energy or power or magic or something, hidden in that room."

"Down there? Any idea where or how deep in the silt?" Kryl asked, clearly intrigued at the prospect of a difficult task but trying not to show any interest in it.

I thought for a moment, sifting through what remained of Keeden's memories in my head before responding. "Yes, I think I could figure out where if I walked along the edge of it. I'm not sure how deep it is, but I don't think it was too far down."

Kryl snorted derisively but held his comments back. Sandala looked lost in thought as she pondered what I had said. Arktan looked on calmly, ready to support whatever decision was made. Brina appeared excited at the prospect of a new treasure. But then again, she always acted that way.

"Well, what do you say? I can tell Brina wants to try for it, but what of the rest of you?"

"How are we supposed to get under the silt without suffocating?" Kryl asked. "Especially when you don't know how deep it is!"

"It's simple, my friend, we just go and find out," I said to him, smiling encouragingly.

"Yeah, and if we can't find it, then we give up! No harm done, right?" Brina said, sounding excited.

He grunted after a moment and threw up his hands. "Alright, fine. But if I die under the dust, it'd damn well better be a quick death!"

Arktan chuckled, his voice as deep as I remembered it being. "Arktan will help," he said, and I saw the humorous look in his eyes that made me wonder if he meant he would help us find the treasure, or if he would help make sure Kryl died quickly if it came to it. I appreciated the dry sense of humor, and cracked a faint smile.

"Good! It's settled! Let's go find it," Brina said, grinning widely.

Sandala chuckled and stood up. She brushed the sand off of the back of her legs and put her cloak around her shoulders. "Yamara, do you think you can find it from here?" She asked me.

I thought for a moment before responding. "Yes, I think I can. Any ideas on how we make it through the silt if it's buried?"

She smiled at me and replied, "Do you really need to ask?"

I did, since I had no idea what she had in mind. Then it dawned on me from her calm behavior. "You're a psionicist too!"

"The blood of my ancestors runs strong in me," she said, as though that explained it. "I can do some things with my mind, though I am no match for Keeden nor, I suspect, even you now that you have found yourself."

I hate surprises. Always have, always will. "I'm certainly not much of a threat right now, I barely know anything about this mental magic."

She raised an eyebrow curiously and said, "I wonder if Keeden would have agreed with your self-assessment."

Did she know more then she let on? I found myself forgetting to breathe for a brief moment. The pudarin wench had caught me off guard. I came out of my corner quickly though, and tried to change the subject while I tried to figure out what, if anything, was going on with her and I. "So how can you protect us from the dust?"

"It is a trick that many of the more gifted members of my tribe possess. During sandstorms those of us with the power can create a bubble of air around us that repels the blowing sand. I have never tried it in a dustbowl before, but I think it might work, though not as well." She replied without missing a beat. Maybe I was being paranoid. Then again, when wasn't I being paranoid?

I nodded, glad to have that cleared up. I rose as well and put my own cloak on. The added warmth was unwelcome, but the protection from the sun would be. In spite of a few days spent under it, as well as the magical healing I had undergone, my skin was still nowhere near as darkly or deeply tanned as my companions. I could not imagine what it would be like to wear only a loin cloth as Sandala did. My breasts and nipples were always sensitive, in spite of childhood abuses and their subsequent toughening as I grew up. A sunburn on them did not sound like my idea of a good time.

Brina hopped up beside me, and a glowering Kryl and still ambivalent looking Arktan followed. I waited a moment while everyone prepared themselves to leave the shelter the ruined building we had found provided us, then closed my eyes and tried to remember what I had stolen from Keeden's mind. Relatively sure of my path, I set out then, weary of any other aggressive inhabitants of the ruins.

It took nearly two hours of winding through the ruins and backtracking through rubble before I managed to lead them to the shore of the Sea of Lost Souls. No sign of any other indigenous life showed itself to us, which pleased all of us except for Kryl. Once there, it was another half an hour before I found what I believed to be the correct place along the shore.

"From Keeden's mind, it lies out there some 100 feet and then down into the silt," I said, pointing directly out from the shore. "Now I'm guessing here, but this reminds me of a dried up ocean where I'm from, filled with dust and sand instead of water. If that's the case, then this building we're looking for must be some type of a ship. If it's a ship, then I'm willing to wager there's a dock nearby that would take us out into the silt without risking falling into it."

They looked at me blankly. I sighed and said, "Ship... that's a large vessel that floats on water and carries people. Kind of a like a wagon built for water. A dock is what the ship is tied up to so that people can get on and off of it, or load or unload cargo from it."

"If there is water enough to float wagons that carry people on them where you are from, then truly it must be a wondrous thing to behold," Sandala said, grasping the concept the quickest.

"I hope we can find a way to get to your world, Yamara," Brina said earnestly. "I want to go there too!"

Kryl just huffed rather quietly, unimpressed. Arktan did what he always seemed to do, which was stand there and wait for something better to do.

"Arktan, can I borrow your great sword?" I asked the faradwim after studying the strange shoreline for a moment. He looked at me blankly for a moment, head tilted thoughtfully. Finally he shrugged and grinned a very toothy grin. I was reminded of an alligator I had once seen kept as a pet by one of the Ornithrym's senior members. I smiled thankfully to him as he handed it to me.

I very carefully walked along the edge of the shore, dragging the tip of the two handed sword in the dust to see how deep it was. My suspicions were all but confirmed as I noticed that it sloped gradually away from the shore, just as a lake or sea filled with water would. With each pass along the shore I stepped a little deeper into the silt, until it was up to my knees and walking became quite difficult. It was not unlike wading through snow. I chuckled at the thought of explaining snow to my companions.

Finally, I found what I had been searching for. Unfortunately, it was much deeper then I thought it would be, up past my waist in fact. Nevertheless, I then proceeded out on it, walking very carefully and testing each step before taking it. I glanced back and saw my companions staring at me with a mixture of shock and wonder. Here I was, nearly a hundred feet out from them in the silt and still above it.

"Follow me out!" I called to them. The air was still and my voice carried louder then I'd intended to them. I wondered how I was ever going to get the dust out of my clothing. Then I snorted and realized I virtually had no clothing. A groan followed, for that meant I would spend some serious time trying to get it out of places I really did not want it getting in.

Probably because I was thinking about it, by the time my companions had begun venturing out single file towards me, my womanly areas were itching furiously. I vowed right then that I would stop at nothing to get off of this hot and barren world. My vow actually contained quite a few other choice expletives, but since I am the one telling the story, I have chosen to try and preserve what small amount of good taste that I can.

"It's right here," I said when the finally reached me. My nether regions still felt quite chafed and irritated, but I knew that trying to do anything about it right now would only compound matters. See, more good taste. I could have referred to it as a broad selection of less then gentile terms, but I chose to go with something a little less vulgar. Just because I can make a sailor blush does not mean I have too. That is what being - or at least knowing to be pretend to be - a lady is like.

"Um, there's nothing here," Brina said, looking around us carefully.

"How deep?" Sandala asked, glancing around us with barely hidden fear.

"Well, if we are standing on the dock, then it used to be at our level. Then the water dried up, so it must be on the bottom now. I'd say very deep if it were a ship from my world, because in order for something to sink deep enough to hide the masts and sails, it would have to go at least 20 or 30 feet under, perhaps more. But here, who knows."

Arktan took a coil of rope off his shoulder and passed it out, making sure each of us tied it around our waist and left a few feet of room between us. He did this wordlessly, trying not to interrupt Sandala as she began to quietly focus her thoughts. I could a strange sensation gathering around me, and it felt very much like a wizards spell did on my homeland.

Then she was finished, but the feeling of magic about me did not waver. The dust we were standing in had been moving, slowly at first and then faster. Now it was finished moving, but only because it had been banished from a sphere around Sandala roughly 10 foot in diameter. "There, a bubble of air surrounds us, we can descend into the dust and still breathe freely. If we go too far though, the dust will cover the bubble around us and we will eventually suffocate."

The dock was visible beneath our feet now, which drew surprised gasps from my companions. It was made of some sort of metal none of us had not seen before. Metal at all, in such a quantity was a kings ransom to them, let alone a strange and unknown alloy. Regardless, it was mere proof that our adopted quest was worthy.

I nodded and closed my eyes to try and remember as exactly as I could. Reasonably sure of myself, I nodded again to myself and began to walk off to the side of the dock. In three steps my foot encountered nothing but dust, and I found myself falling. The dust rushed at my face as I fell into it, and I felt panic closing in on me. Then I noticed it stayed roughly a foot away from my face, parted by some unseen force when my fall was halted by the rope around my waist. Sandala lowered herself off the edge of the dock and came next, the envelope of air she sustained pushing the dust back in front of me. Anxious to explore, Brina quickly followed us. Kryl and Arktan stood firm, easily anchoring the rope and keeping us from descending further.

I could sense something then, as I hung suspended from my lifeline. It weakly penetrated the silt and the psychic bubble surrounding me, a familiar pulling. It reminded me of Keeden at first, then I realized it was not him that it reminded me of, but rather the psionic powers he had shared with me.

"It's here, below me... I can sense it!" I said to them. "Lower me further, we must be close!"

I faintly heard Kryl grumbling up above, but could not make out which words he had chosen to mutter about me. A few moments later I descended further by several feet. The light dimmed as the extent of Sandala's bubble began to be covered over with dust. Almost perfectly, I saw a dark shape materialize in front of me out of the silt. The poor lighting made it hard to make out details, but I could tell that it was a solid surface of something. I reached out and ran my hands along it, deciding it must be the hull of ship I was searching for.

"I found it!" I called up excitedly. "Now we need to find a way in," I muttered to myself.

Making a rather rash decision, I untied the rope from my waist quickly and dropped down. I fell only a couple of feet, my body crashing into the hull of the ship before I could get my feet beneath me. I heard Brina curse quietly behind me and a moment later, she thudded onto the ship beside me. I was already on my feet though, wondering how well Sandala's concentration would hold up if I began to search around.

"Be careful you do not separate to far or you will leave the bubble of air," Sandala said almost as though she was reading my mind. I almost stopped and stared back at her suspiciously. Maybe she was. I grew suddenly afraid then, and closed my eyes and called upon what little I had of my recent psionic powers. I felt no intrusion or other presence save that of what was in the ship, and that was not invasive but simply a beacon of psionic energy. Satisfied, I relaxed and opened my eyes.

Brina was staring at me, concern evident on her face. I smiled at her to show her I was okay and saw the instant relief cover her features. It was becoming obvious that what I was sure had once been a ploy to win my trust and confidence was becoming real.

Sandala dropped lightly behind us, saving me for the time being by ruining the moment. Her fall was a boon to us in more ways then that, for when the dust was parted around her it revealed a structure that rose off of what we were standing on and had a door placed in it. I revised my thinking and decided we must be standing on a metal deck instead of a hull. For the life of me though, I could not fathom why anyone would make a ship out of steel instead of wood. It would surely sink.

Just as in Keeden's dream, a small button that glowed with an internal yellow light was placed beside it. Pushing caution away, I pushed the button and waited. My wait was unnecessary though, for instantly the door hissed and began to slide open. It was unlike any door I had ever seen, but as soon as it opened magical lights along the ceiling came to life, some flickering at first but eventually growing strong enough to show a passage.

"We found a way in!" Brina called up to Kryl and Arktan. A few moments later Kryl landed on the deck with surprising agility and came to stand with us. He had another coil of rope around his shoulder, and the rope that Arktan held remained behind us, hanging into the telekinetically made pit.

There was no sand inside. Only some dust on the surface of everything. The lighting above, entirely unnatural, did a good job of lighting up the passages for us. The air inside the ship was very stale. Dead for countless years, I was surprised that we could even breathe it. Following Keeden's memory, I led the way down the passage. Kryl was next behind me, with Brina shadowing him. Sandala brought up the rear of our company.

In what seemed like no time, I had found the pit that Keeden remembered. Glancing into it, I laughed. In his memory it had seemed like it was quite deep, but in reality, it was a fall of less then 20 feet. I nimbly jumped down, landing softly and looking about. Kryl was there in an instant, scowling at me even before his legs absorbed the fall. I smiled sweetly and took off again. I could practically feel Kryl's eyes glaring at me as he hurriedly tossed the rope up to Sandala to tie off on something so that we had a means of getting back out. By then Brina had already leapt down herself and followed after me.

Our passage through the tunnels was easy to track, given the thick dust on the floor. With that in mind, I had no trouble in heading towards our goal. Brina was beside me quickly, and she flashed me an excited grin as we explored the abandoned ship. A few more turns, courtesy of the mental map from Keeden, and we found the steel door guarding shut the treasure we sought.

"Brrr," Brina said, clutching her cloak about herself. I had not noticed myself, but under the dust and out of the sunlight, it was almost chilly. I enjoyed it though, knowing how miserably hot it was outside. I remembered then the problem I had outside, and wondered at how I had so easily forgotten it in light of the discoveries we had made.

"This had better be worth it," I muttered.

"Worth what?" Brina asked.

"Worth all the sand and silt that I've got crammed in places that nobody but me has seen in quite some time," I griped. "It's going to take me a long time to clean all that out of there, especially in a world without much water!"

Brina grinned, "I'll be happy to help you with that."

I chuckled, unable to stop myself. "Okay, well maybe there's been one more person then me that's seen them recently."

Brina seemed to glow at the praise, but we quickly got back to our goal, which was discovering what lay behind the door. I could hear Kryl stomping through the passages after us, which meant he was getting close to catching up. I held my breath and reached for the buttons beside the door. A red light was above the strange pad, and I was certain it was an intricate lock. Studying it carefully, I realized quickly that, while different and strange, the diagrams on the buttons were actually numbers ranging from zero to nine.

"You can read?" Brina asked in awe.

"Aye, it's uncommon on my homeland, but not as rare as it is here." I replied.

"What does it say?" She asked me.

"There are a bunch of numbers on it, one through three across the top, then four to six in the next row, then seven, eight, and nine, and finally on the bottom a zero."

"Wow," was all she said, suitably impressed.

I smiled faintly but studied the pad of buttons and tried to remember what Keeden had seen. In his memory, he had just passed through the door, not even noticing the buttons. I struggled to focus on them though, and finally I thought I remembered him seeing four of them lit up out of the corner of his eye.

I pushed them carefully, one at a time. One. Two. Three. Six. The light above them changed from red to green and the door opened with a hiss. More stale air rushed out at us, but what awaited inside was no fearsome monster ready to feast upon our flesh.

We stepped inside then, with still no sign of Kryl or Sandala catching up to us. I glanced back, curious but saw nothing. "I might have confused our tracks up a bit back there to give us some time alone," Brina said, glancing about nervously at the admission.

I grinned then. I had to admit, it was hard not to like the girl. Instead of saying anything I grabbed her face and turned it toward mine. Without warning, I kissed her, our soft lips mashing almost roughly against each other. My tongue slipped into her mouth as she gasped in surprise at the assault, but she responded quickly. After a brief moment of the passionate kiss I released her and stepped back. She nearly stumbled then, so caught unaware was she. I winked at her and said, "There's nothing like a girl after my own heart."

I moved further in then, and only barely managed to hear her whisper to herself, "Yes, yes I am."

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

Her breath caught in her throat and her face showed that she was scared. "Nothing," she quickly stammered out. I stepped closer to her, raising my eyebrow to show that I did not believe her.

She took a few quick deep breaths and dropped her face shamefully. I let her for a moment, then I gently raised her face up with my hand until our eyes met. "Brina, what did you mean by that?"

"I mean I am after your heart!" The words gushed out quickly from her. "You're so exotic and different and beautiful! You're weak but that doesn't stop you, you make up for it and turn it to your advantage. I'm after your heart because somewhere, along the way, probably last night, I gave you mine."

Inwardly, I groaned. This was not a good time or place for this discussion. In my opinion, there was never a good time or place for that discussion though. "Brina," I said, trying to come up with something. "You're a sweet girl and I trust and value you as a companion more then I have perhaps any other. In time who knows what can happen. For now, let us worry about the present and let everything else come to us as it will."

She nodded, unshed tears threatening to spill from her eyes. She blinked them away rapidly, trying to hide them. "Yeah, I know, sorry, I just got caught up in things."

I smiled and leaned towards her, catching her by surprise with another deep and passionate kiss. This one lasted longer, but I knew our time was growing short. She was not as surprised when I ended that kiss, and I saw her smile at me. I knew that, for the time being, I had made things alright with her.

We moved through the room then, looking for the treasure I had seen in Keeden's memory. It seemed empty and lifeless, however. The machinery and design was the same as Keeden's memory had been, even the very spot where I had seen the glowing magic. It too was empty though, only a strange pad of some sort of metal on the floor gave sign to any difference other then the rest of the floor.

I stood on the pad and glanced around, trying to remember some clue from Keeden's dream. Nothing to me though. I glanced around and moved about the room, studying the machines. Translating the archaic written language into something I could figure out was slow, but I soon found one that was labeled in something I could understand. It said, "ON". I pushed the button and instantly the machines lit up. I snatched my hand back quickly, wondering at what strange magic was at work.

"What did you do?" Brina asked, staring at a machine in front of her that had seemingly come to life with the rest of them.

"I think I woke them up," I said. I looked at the machine again and saw a lit up display that showed a needle hovering in the red at the left end of things. Other displays showed other things, but I could make little sense of them.

Suddenly the room glowed a little brighter. Glancing up, I saw the swirling ball of magic I had seen in Keeden's dream had appeared. I heard Brina gasp from the side and knew she had seen it too.

"It's beautiful," she whispered, stepping towards it without realizing it.

"Stop!" I said, glancing at the needle I had seen and noting that it was moving deeper into the red at the left end of the dial. "We have to be quick about this, I think that whatever is keeping it alive is about to run out. If one of us goes, it might not work for the other." I cursed the fact that she was closer. Had it been me, I would have simply jumped into it and taken my chances. Knowing she was closer made me try to convince her that we could share it. Perhaps we could, I supposed, and that might not have been a bad thing really.

"Okay, then hurry," she said, reaching out her hand towards me.

I approached her and took her hand in mine then, and together we walked towards it. Before we stepped into it, she said to me, "Are you sure about this?" The slight tremor in her voice I could understand, I felt no small amount of trepidation myself.

"We've got nothing to lose," I said, as much to convince myself as her. I looked calm and confident on the outside, but inside I was not so certain. "I have a question though."

"What?" Brina asked me, both of us staring into the energy instead of at each other.

"What did you mean when you said I was weak?"

Brina laughed a little at that and turned to look at me. "Sorry, I didn't mean it to sound bad, I meant you're not as strong as any of us are. It's kind of nice knowing there is somebody weaker then me in the group though, so I'm not complaining!"

I chuckled at that. It was true, she did not look to be very strong herself, but I had learned the night before that looks were often deceiving. There seemed to be something about this world, it may be dying of dehydration, but the people on it very much alive.

Before Brina could return her attention to the magical energy in front of us, I pulled her to me again for a very quick kiss and said, "I'll show you strength."

Before she could respond, I threw both of us into the shimmering lights, entirely uncertain at the wisdom of my course of action.

Continued in Chapter 7

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