Excerpt (~1500words) from an unpublished epic fantasy novel (adult, ~145k words). Introduces Vess and Kheshi and their descent into an ancient subterranean temple as they search for magick. Download here. Full manuscript available upon request.
“No. Me first.” Kheshi said, unclipping his urumi blade. He drew the blade and, with a flick of the finger, turned it on like it some sort of lantern. Vess stared. When she’d asked him about it, he said it was forbidden of him to speak of the urumi to anyone but another Tachi. She could see, with the dark backdrop of the door, the blade flickering blue light. To her, magick. Without another word, he disappeared into the darkness. A minute passed. Then another.
“Vess, come.” His voice came. She sucked in breath, not realizing she’d been holding it. With a long breath out, she made the sign for Eion and stepped into the darkness. She saw Kheshi’s urumi dancing left and right as he used it for light. Clearly, the hallway opened up into something cavernous. In the distance, she could hear the droplets of water from the river, making their escape into this pool of mysteries.
“Kheshi,” She called. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, yes, come. Come.” She could hear the impatience in his voice. Had he found something? She quickened her steps, occasionally snatching glances at the wall or ceiling where the light revealed longfaded paint. Those scenes would need to be analyzed, reconstructed, she thought. Later. The prize was still beyond her. Kheshi’s sword became bigger and after a minute, she could make out his solid form. The hallway melted away into the main chamber.
“Eion’s breath, the ceiling must reach up near the riverbed. It feels impossibly hollow.”
“Unnaturals,” Kheshi muttered. “Come, look.” Vess followed Kheshi to the edge of the room. As she did, she heard her footfalls ring out into the cavern. She knelt and washed a hand over the floor.
“Polished quartz. Impossible,” she murmured. It reminded her of a gameboard, the quartz alternating in yellow, white, and black diamonds. Standing back up, she nodded to Kheshi, his face lit in blue light, to continue, making a concerted effort to relax her face. Her eyes must be wild.
When they got to the edge of the room, the wall was crenulated, and small archways held small statues every few feet. They walked along the wall. Each crenulation was a small rectangle room with the same statues. The statues were perplexing, incomplete almost, like a curled finger that reached up to a man’s waist.
“These attached to something?” Kheshi remarked, pointing at the finger statues.
“I was thinking the same. But what?” Vess replied, then, the thought just occurred to her. “This isn’t your people’s place, is it, Kheshi?”
He shook his head vehemently. “No. It would have been recorded in the Librarium. This place is old. Old and unnatural,” he added. Out of the corner of her eye, the next crenulation seemed different. It was full. The shadow. She screamed. Kheshi’s urumi flashed, striking out at the tsuskhun. She heard nothing but rock crumble.
“A statue,” he said. “Not a live tsuskhun, but a statue of one.”
“Who would build statues of those beasts?” Vess said, her voice nearly cracking.
“Unnaturals. I knew it.”
“What?”
Kheshi took a step toward the small chamber and bent, using his urumi as a light source. Blood seeped through the statue where he’d cut it.
“It can’t be,” Vess said. Kheshi put a finger to the liquid and examined it up close.
“This is tsuskhun, but trapped in a rocky shell.”
“Do, do you think this place was built with magick?”
“I know not, but this, this is unnatural. Do not worry. It’s dead.”
“We need more light in this damn place. But of course, it would have been lit by magick.” She needed to think. Perhaps the builders had added another option. No, that’d be candles. Skylights were out of the question; it just caused more water to seep in. She let go of a few of the more creative curses she knew, drawing a sideways glance from Kheshi.
“First things first, if there are any more of these stone tsuskhun, you should destroy them. I—I think each of these crenulations had a stone tsuskhun and somehow, opening the door brought them back to life. I know that sounds crazy, but look, that little statue we’ve seen, it was attached to the tsuskhun.”
“I will go,” Kheshi said. He was not the loquacious type. Well, unless he was telling a story. Vess watched him, or, more aptly, his urumi zip down the line and over to the other side. Gods, the room was enormous. And Kheshi seemed to have faster feet than Shoul. She watched his blade carefully but saw no other strike. Kheshi confirmed it with an all-clear shortly after. Vess took her torch and walked it along the wall, hopeful of a clue, tracing her fingers along the cut stone, done by a master’s hands—or magick’s hand. Her mind drifted for a moment as she imagined herself, high in a tower, praised as the one who rediscovered magick. Were it only so simple, she thought. Yet the smile on her lips stuck.
“Vess.” Kheshi called out, “Look here.” She made haste toward the glowing blue sword, not thinking for the first time how Kheshi could abhor magick when he was using it himself. Vess met him at the east-central part of the room. He stood by what she concluded had to be some sort of light. It was almost globular, the size of a man’s torso, fitted to the wall like a giant candleholder. In the center, there seemed to be a wick.
“Do you have an extra match?” She asked, not wanting to use the wilder flame of the torch. Her mouth was dry. From lighting a lantern! She shook her head and lit the match, slowly moving it to meet the wick on the wall. The match fell from her finger. She didn’t notice. It had been a lantern, well, of sorts. She watched in awe. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. The wick had lit and then taken off, fire rippling across the crevices in the wall. It zipped up and flashed down, spreading through the entire room, all the way from the bottom to the top, a hundred or more feet above. She looked over to Kheshi and saw him as if the sun were at its peak. His eyes were scrunched and hard, darting between the different flames as they raced to wherever their end was.
“It’s…”
“Impossible?” Kheshi ventured. Vess laughed. “Incredible. Impossible. Ingenious. I don’t know what ‘i’ word would fit.”
“Evil.”
She shoved him with a laugh. “Oh come on, it has to start with ‘i’. Is—is that a smile I see Kheshi Hishige? Well, I never thought I’d see the day.”
“I should do a proper reconnaissance now that we have light.”
“Hmm, right.” She shook her head as he darted off in a low run. Did Khannates run everywhere, or was that just a Tachi thing? She’d have to ask him. It was strange. With the room bathed in full light, this room appeared to be the only room. A near inconceivable find, but Vess found herself feeling almost sad that this was it. Realizing she could sketch and take notes, she wandered around the room, making her way to the center.
“Look. The white quartz. There’s something encased in them—an animal maybe. It’s hard to tell.”
“Hmm. In our city of Volo Volo, we have a museum of artifacts. Nothing unnatural, you see, but I remember walking through and seeing a tiny beetle encased in amber. There was a little plaque next to it. It said it could precede any nation and was thought to be used as jewelry for ancient peoples. I don’t think I’d wear an insect around my neck.”
“Do you wear any jewelry, Kheshi?”
“I will temporarily wear tokens of my kills. Until I can exchange them with a Tachi Mensay. But I suppose you could say I wear my tattoos. They serve the same purpose as jewelry does.”
“So your tattoos are Tachi related?” She’d been wondering but hadn’t found a way to ask. There was a long blade tattoo that started at his neck and looked like it went further. A large fang and a tiny tsuskhun decorated his left arm, while a tsuskhun’s spout and the head of an icur.
“Yes. They are all scars. We tattoo on them as reminders of the danger of our trade and as remembrances of the honorable foes we’ve faced.”
“How many do you have?”
“Forty one. Most are small, but then small cuts can sometimes kill as well as a deep wound. I’ve had luck. And lots of poultices.” He chuckled, as if getting wounded was anything but traumatic.
“Well, let’s hope there’s nothing else in here that may give you a 42nd one.” Vess said, her eyes flicking around the room.
“Look here,” Kheshi said.
“The tile is bigger.” Vess said, stating the obvious.
“Can you make out the inscription?” Vess shook her head. “Bits. Clide was the language expert. It’s in the old tongue—that word there is ‘hope’ and… oh, I think that says ‘enter’.”
“Enter.” Kheshi echoed, scratching at his cheek.
“That means there’s more. Another chamber. I knew it. I blasted well knew it. This isn’t the end. It’s the beginning.” Vess said.