Part I
“We shouldn’t be here!” A girl’s voice whined as Draya followed a flight of stairs in the rock-face which was not a rock face. “Our mothers will kill us if they learn we were here.”
The lure of the unknown had a firm hold on Draya, so she didn’t mind her friend’s complaining. Well, she isn’t wrong, the girl thought. “Relax. If we’re in and out by sundown, they’ll never know.”
Zakiya’s fingers relaxed a little in her grasp. “Okay.” Soft of voice, the girl followed along. “Um, well, in that case, we can probably explore until the sun’s two fists off the horizon.”
Looking straight up, Draya shielded her eyes and let out a low moan. “Spirits damn us, that’s not much time!”
Zaki made a sign to ward off evil. “You shouldn’t speak like that. The spirits might hear.”
Draya rolled her eyes and shook her head before she started down the steps again. They were too uniform, too even for her to believe they were natural, though many had deep cracks, and one had fallen away completely.
“Why come here, anyway? Anything could be here.”
Grinning at her best friend ever, she could feel her own eyes sparkling. “Because no one wants us coming here. As you say, anything could be here!” She gestured at the vista. “Besides, who could argue with that view?”
“I’m sure it was beautiful all those years ago. Now, all I see is decay.”
They faced north as they came around a bend in the stairs. Huge glittering spires of stone-which-was-not-stone stood off in the distance, some touching the sky. Most were gray. Some leaned against one another. Others crushed shorter ones. About half of those she could see had their roots below sea water, waves crashing against their lower levels. Dark gray not-stone paths wound between the intact structures.
They continued to descend, with Draya staying in the lead. “Welcome to the formerly great city of Magatai! None have walked here in…” She tried to think of the right word, then shook her head. “…well, longer than you or I have been alive.”
Zaki snorted. “Three times ten times our age of ten, to hear the chronicler sing the song.”
Draya grinned at her. “Then imagine the glory! If we return with something of the Old World, everyone will envy us. A pair of girls. Men won’t let women go to the river without an escort.”
Her friend bit her lower lip, eyes downcast, and scuffed her foot against the not-stone upon which they stood. “You get me into so much trouble. Your brother still won’t talk to me after you got me to dump a sack of feathers on him last season.”
“What? He’s still mad about that?” Draya asked. She didn’t even try to suppress a giggle.
“You’d just dumped a pot of honey on him. He had to walk to the village stuck all over with feathers!”
She shrugged. “His loss. You’re all kinds of awesome. Now, are we gonna explore or what?”
Zakiya wriggled her hips atop everything else. “I guess, if we don’t go in too far… How dangerous could it be?”
Very. That’s the fun of it. Giving Zee a grin, she beckoned her onward. “C’mon, then! This’ll be so much fun!”
They ventured onward. The sun sank a few fingers towards the west as they followed the not-rock path between the collapsing buildings. Large lumps of some unidentifiable material lined the streets. Wagons? There was no sign of their tongues. They looked made of metal, but it crumbled at her touch.
She jumped. A tremendous crack sounded as Zaki squealed. She found her friend hunched over and holding herself, looking down as she squatted on her heels. “What’s wrong?” she asked. When Zee didn’t answer, she stepped over next to her and saw what she was looking at.
Clad in crumbling cloth, oddly cut and sewn, lay a human skeleton. Bony hands clutched something long and thin she didn’t recognize. One hand was on a handle, finger in a metal (she guessed) ring, while his other hand held the object further up. “This happened long ago,” Draya murmured. Zaki still flinched when her hand landed on the girl’s back. “It can’t hurt us now.”
Swallowing, the other girl nodded. “How long ago, I wonder.” She kept her eyes down. “What happened here? People left bodies in the street, unburned, unburied.”
Draya bit her lip as she looked at the skeleton with fresh eyes, then she looked around. “Most look as if they fell over. Nothing’s picked at their bones.”
“This place is bad,” Zaki said. “A terrible place with evil spirits.”
“Come on, let’s move on.”
Zee’s head snapped up, her eyes finding Draya’s in a heartbeat. She saw fear there, but also trust. The trust was for her. “You’re sure we should continue?” she asked.
She looked up at the sky again. “We have hours before we need to leave. Let’s go.” She tried to pick up the long, odd thing the skeleton clutched. As she did, the bony finger pulled the curved piece of metal in the ring back towards the butt of the thing.
She let go with a startled cry as a boom sounded. A moment later there was a resounding crash, and she saw glass fall from the upper level of one of the ruined buildings, to shatter on the street below. “Wicked!” she said with a grin.
Zaki jumped as the thing made the terrible sound. Suddenly on her feet, she looked further down the street. “That… it threw something. How? I couldn’t see; it was so fast. It broke the ancients’ glass!” She looked down and tilted her head. “Forget spears and shields. An army with these weapons could win any battle.”
Looking around, Draya shrugged. “Looks to me like they lost.”
Zakiya took in a deep breath and picked up the weapon, eying it. She was careful not to point the open end at either of them as she did. “We will take this back with us. In time, we will learn to copy it.”
Grinning, Draya nodded. “So, worth the trip, then?”
Zaki dropped her left shoulder and smiled back at her. “If we succeed. Let’s see what else is here.”
She stood up and hugged her friend. “Who knows? What other wonders are in this place? It’s huge, and empty, and all ours.”
Zee hugged her back. “Let’s make a deal. When one or both of us become elders and important people, we’ll lift the ban on this place.”
“Deal!” Draya skipped back. “Let’s go look through some windows. Even I’m not crazy enough to go in, not unless I’m sure there’s treasure worth it inside.”
“What treasure is worth enough to risk running into a lurker?”
Snorting, Draya answered. “That weapon, for one. I will be a warrior. With or without this ‘thunder bow.’”
“You already are a warrior. You best your brother in near every match, and he is five years older than you.”
Draya laughed, the reminder lifting her spirits even higher. Behind shattered shards of glass in the front of another building were several wooden people, posed in various stances. “What are these?” Draya asked. “Why are they here?”
“Liani uses such things to help her sew,” her friend answered. “She makes them after the bodies of her clients, so she need not have the one for whom she works stand there for who knows how long. Maybe these once displayed fine clothes?”
Draya tried to picture this place, full of clothes and customers. Clean walls and gleaming metal racks. “But how did they light the place? I see no candle holders or sconces for torches.”
To this, Zee had no answer.
They came to a more intact building. Tables filled with glass cases lined the floor, most broken. Despite this, many small pieces of glittering metal sat in plain sight within the remains of those cases. Long strands of fine loops, mostly untouched by age, sat in some of them. In others, far smaller bands lurked. Then her eyes landed upon an item so beautiful, so unique, she wanted it.
The metal links were of a reddish hue, made of some metal she had never seen before. From where it clasped behind the neck of another wood woman, shining stones came down, paired to flank the neck, one in each color of the rainbow. But it was the pendant which truly called to her. Made of the same metal as the rest of the piece, a four-taloned claw-hand grasped a massive stone of pure black.
“Draya?” Zaki’s voice snapped her out of her trance.
She turned to the other girl. Blinking, she looked around and found they were both inside the big room with the broken cases. “Yes?” she asked.
“I thought we weren’t going into any of the buildings,” her friend prompted. “It’s getting late, too. We have to leave soon.”
“B-but, we just started.”
Zaki shook her head. “Not my fault you spent an hour staring in here.” Of course, when she raised her hand, Draya noticed a half a dozen golden bracelets hanging from her wrist, and the pouch on her belt hung lower.
An hour? “Gonna share some of your haul?”
Smirking, Zaki shook her head. “Nope. But hey, you could grab some stuff yourself. We can probably spare a few more minutes.”
Nodding, she smiled and cast her eyes over the various bits and bobs. Jerking her head at the necklace. “That’s mine,” she said.
“Sure thing, sis.”
She chose some small rings, only one of which fit on her largest finger, as well as bracelets. Biting her lip, she sighed and stood there for a long moment, dithering, wondering if further exploring would be worth her father’s wrath. I suppose it isn’t, though I’ll likely never come back here.
“It’s time,” Zaki told her after watching her fill her pouch. “We have our prizes, though I think mine is the greater find. Let us not risk our mothers’ wrath.”
Scoffing, Draya shook her head. “I’m more concerned with my father’s anger.”
“Why? Your mother was a Sister of the Spear, before she left to raise your brother and you. She could easily bar you from ever joining those noble women, if she takes a mind.”
Draya’s back stiffened and her shoulders pulled back. She thought she kept her face still as she studied an intricate ring. Pale metal, with an emerald set in it.
Zaki grabbed her arm and pulled her around to face her. “She already has, hasn’t she?”
She avoided looking the girl in the eye. “I am the best spear in the village. She declared I am to wed Gwedi, of the Stone Dogs. I do not wish to marry, or bear some man fifteen sons. I—”
Narrowing her eyes, Zaki gave her a small push. “Then, this was some mad gamble? You thought by bringing back wealth or power of the old world, the Spear-Sisters would open their ranks to you without your mother’s approval?”
Flushing, she looked at the ring, then the necklace. “Probably not. But I wished to spend time with my best friend.” She looked at her friend. “Before she separates us.”
Zaki frowned. “When?”
Clearing her throat, she again looked away. “I leave for the Little Hut at sunrise to meet my future husband.”
The girl pulled her close. “Why not tell me?”
She hugged back. “I wanted one last adventure with you.” Sniffing, she stepped away and reached to pick up her prize.
Everything went black.
