Axis VI
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“We have to go back,” Axis announced, not even bothering to return the sketches to her hiding spot. Every single one had been tampered with—although by who, she didn’t know. The strange combination of Lina and Ekta had been changed to conservative images of either just the Goddess or the God. And always on separate pieces of paper—her stack of sketches had somehow grown in size and heft.
“You sure these aren’t how he drew them? It makes sense for someone to have gotten through my firewalls and deleted my observations, but physical pieces of paper hidden in your room under lock and key? Who else has access to your house besides you, Cir, Smoke, and me?”
“Bibi and Babu. Cir’s uncle. That’s it.”
“Would any of them have been able to alter the images? After all, you were gone all day until tonight.”
“I’ve never met anyone who could draw like Cir. Have you?”
“No,” Steele agreed ruefully.
“So, it’s official. We go back.”
“Back where? Smoke and Cir were on the train heading to Elias this morning. Isn’t that where we should be looking?”
“This is bigger than us. Someone, or something, is destroying our evidence. We can’t even trust what we saw with our own two eyes. This has to be the work of Outenders. I’ve read almost every book ever written on the creatures.”
“When did you have time to do that?” Steele asked.
“My deciphering major may not have been as strenuous as I led everyone to believe…”
“I knew it! I knew you were too good at deciphering to take three years to finish.”
“As a student, I had access to the major library in Sapphiris. It’s bursting with tomes on the Outenders and the Corruption.”
“What’s the Corruption?” Steele asked, pacing back and forth throughout Axis’s kitchen, her sleek boots tapping a staccato rhythm into the heavy wood floor.
“Apparently, it’s an event that happened twenty-seven years ago. But I haven’t seen even traces of what different scholars describe as the Corruption. Until yesterday.”
“And what are these traces?”
“Outenders. Their dead language, which I’ve studied but shouldn’t have seen scrawled across the ground for anyone to see. And warped towns. I’ve never heard of a warped town before. Everything I’ve read talks about the twelve cities of Lore—that’s it. If there were other warped cities out there, wouldn’t we know about them? I’ve visited all twelve cities briefly, and none of them were warped. Once again, until yesterday.”
“Smoke has seen warped towns before.”
“Really? And Cir hasn’t?”
A look passed over Steele’s face too quickly for Axis to read before she said, “Hmm, maybe I misunderstood him. He might have just been mentioning that Outenders are connected to supposed warped cities. You know how End Hunters get.”
“Curious they even have a profession when Outenders and warping didn’t seem to exist until yesterday.”
“You never questioned it before,” Steele pointed out.
“I figured it was government precaution more than anything. End Hunters double as Enforcers. Cir and Smoke had been sent to Lazarenth to do little more than guard duty. And I’m quite familiar with Lazarenth—I’ve never seen that starstraight monastery before.”
“That caught my attention too. So you’re saying we just grab the bullet and rush into Lazarenth, alone, right as the sun sets?”
“Maybe Cir and Smoke went back there. It’s worth a shot.”
“And what if they come back here and we’re gone, with no way of getting ahold of them because of their warped tech aversion?”
“Easy. We leave them a note.”
“And if that note is tampered with while we’re gone?”
“You can stay if you want, Steele. But I have to go.”
“You’d really throw me to the Outenders that quickly?” Steele said, feigning disgust.
“I think the Outenders are more likely to be in the warped town, don’t you?”
“So, it’s a suicide mission then. While I’m happy you picked me to survive, I don’t think Cir would take kindly to me staying behind while you go to Lazarenth, alone.”
“Suggestions? We’re wasting time.”
“Easy. We’ll tell Terra where we went and to talk to Cir and Smoke if they get back before us.”
“Good idea! The odds of an Outender stealing away with our neighbor is less likely than them warping a note at this point.”
Axis didn’t bother mentioning that the warped town had been completely devoid of human life—a town that had been bursting at the seams with people a couple days before. Hopefully the Outenders, if they were lurking around at all, would be hiding in the ruins of Lazarenth, not cozying up with their neighbor.
“You know,” Steele said, looking out the window at the sun, which was sinking lower all the time, the sky a burning haze of purples and oranges, “I don’t know if we should wait for the bullet. I don’t know the exact hours, but we’re running out of daylight.”
“So how will we get there then? And don’t you dare say running!”
“Easy. You know Smoke.”
“Where could he possibly be hiding such big animals?”
“Just outside of town…”
“So we will be running then,” Axis said miserably.
Steele only grinned. “I’ll go grab a coat and tell Terra where we’re going. Meet me in front of my place in two?”
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“Ok.” As Steele practically ran out the door, Axis pulled on her most comfortable shoes and the same longcoat she’d borrowed from Cir the day before. She threw on one of his broad-brimmed hats for good measure.
“Might as well meet the blasted creatures in style.”
***
The running was just as horrid as always, and Axis almost shouted in pure relief as two large figures came into view, silhouetted by the sinking sun.
“The same horses from before! How did they even end up alone in Lazarenth anyways?”
“Smoke said he stumbled across them when he and Cir were chasing the Outenders. Said it was a miracle. But then, everything with four legs that can be petted, tamed, or ridden is a miracle to that dear, starstraight man.”
“Amen.”
Axis went over to the little fiery horse she’d ridden before, but before she could hoist herself up, the large black horse nudged her with his head.
“Looks like he wants to take you,” Steele said, positioning herself on the little horse as though she’d been born riding.
It’s those long legs again, I swear. Makes her good at everything.
Shrugging, Axis clambered onto the black horse and her and Steele took off into the encroaching darkness.
The ride was almost silent, save for the crunching of the horses’ hooves and the whistle of the wind. Because they were alone, Axis tugged her hair out of the tight bun her grandmother had flawlessly done and let her hair go free. Steele seemed to always have her hair down—Axis wasn’t sure how she got away with it, but then again, Axis never saw her friend at work.
As the sun slunk into the earth, the night sky quickly became illuminated with the cosmic colors of their galaxy. Stars sling-shotted overhead like millions of loose coin. Thick bands of ethereal color beamed through the black, illuminating Steele’s silvery hair and the silver color of the horse’s body. Axis secretly loved the night—Lore became a different place. A mysterious place. A wild place. A place of a strange brand of magic. Complete opposites from the quaint and structured day life of the twelve cities. People almost never traveled at night, although it wasn’t forbidden. The Concord didn’t need to forbid things when culture so easily dictated the whims of the Loreians. The current tone was retiring early, so most people never saw the night sky, the stars, or the hint of life beyond their quiet globe.
Even as a little girl, Axis had chased the stars. Her parents had found her out of bed countless times, her little fingers curled around a scope in front of her window, a braided blanket wrapped around her, her Ammie tucked in her arms.
The horses seemed to have an uncanny sense of where Lazarenth was. Thankfully, because Axis had no idea how to get there in the dark. Before yesterday, her prior visits had all been via bullet.
Fifteen minutes later, they were slowing the horses to a passive walk, taking in the eerie scene in front of them.
The city hadn’t changed, but seeing it at night was different, cosmic. The trees that had speckled the town remained, even though the buildings had been warped and torn apart, hollowed out and gutted. The white bark gleamed in the darkness, and the blue and purple leaves glowed like starflies. All the sunlight they’d consumed during the daytime stretches suffused them with light which lasted throughout the night. It made the town easier to see, although they could only see patches of light in the uneasy darkness.
“Think we’ll find them?” Axis whispered, her eyes and ears on alert for the telltale signals of Outenders. But the night was silent now that they weren’t galloping.
“I don’t know. Lazarenth isn’t exactly a tiny town. In fact, it sprawls more than most.”
“But if you were Cir and Smoke, where would you go?”
“I guess where the monastery remains were?”
“Let’s go there then.” They started working their way up toward the monastery, Steele leading the way. She had an uncanny sense of direction for the strangest locations.
As the horses trudged up the slope, Axis noted the faint smudges of the Outender dialect sprinkled underfoot. The script barely glittered anymore—only a trained eye would have been able to pick it out. But even though a remnant remained, the Outender language was silent, dead in a way.
It was easy to follow Steele and her mount—the two of them gleamed like holy armor in the night’s peculiar light. No longer racing to find out the fate of their spouses, and not wanting to alert anyone or anything of their presence, they traveled slow enough for Axis to get a good look at her surroundings. She’d actually been to this part of Lazarenth before the warping, although she doubted many others had. Now that they were traveling slower and she had time to take in her surroundings, the location of the monastery was obvious—this was where the old water fountain had been. Almost no one in town had known about it; it was off the beaten trail, but to keep Axis occupied while her parents worked, her grandparents had sometimes brought her to Lazarenth on foot and explored the city and the surrounding landscape. The water fountain had been their best find—featuring a towering image of a holy knight, visor down and sword half-buried in the dirt in front of its shod feet.
Axis had always pictured herself as the knight, even though most historians agreed that the holy knights of old had probably been male. She’d never bothered mentioning the fountain to anyone.
Now she wondered if she should have.
“Something seems… off, doesn’t it?” Steele asked.
“I was feeling the same way, but I don’t hear anything—that’s it! It’s quiet. Too quiet.”
“Now that you mention it,” Steele trailed off. “Maybe we should go the rest of the way on foot. This kind of silence seems worse to me than the usual night sounds, even though, honestly, Lore at night scares me.”
“Really? You always struck me as the tough, independent type.”
“That secretly hates the night, yes.”
Axis raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything else, dismounting her horse and slipping off her boots.
“Why are you taking off your shoes?” Steele asked, petting her mount on the neck before walking over to join Axis.
“I’ll be the epitome of stealth now!”
“Or you might step on a sharp rock and be the epitome of noise.”
“We can see enough from the leaf light to avoid rocks.”
Steele muttered something to herself. “Fine, if I can’t convince you to wear your shoes, I’ll just prepare myself to run fast if something finds us and you’re wasting time throwing your boots on.”
“Deal.”
Suddenly struck by inspiration, Axis removed Cir’s longcoat and turned it inside out, the familiar tan now a pitch black. She’d be harder to spot this way, although the rest of her tan clothing and Steele’s bright hair made stealth impossible. Disappointed, she fought her way back into her boots and jogged after Steele, who was already working her way up.
“How much farther?” Axis asked.
“We’re close. See that ridge up ahead of us? Should be up there. What’s left of it at least.”
“There might not be anything left to see. The structure collapsed unnaturally fast. All I remember was a gaping hole in the ground, darker than night.”
“You’re the one who said we had to come back here, at night.”
“And I’m not going back on that. But I wish I still had my revolver at least.”
“But it’s not like the mistbullets did any good.”
Axis didn’t bother responding. Would they run into Cir and Smoke? Were the two of them even out here at all? And she was getting tired of all this running around.
“Get down!” Steele hissed, grabbing onto Axis and pulling her down to a crouching position. “Someone’s already there. See the outline?”
She hadn’t realized they’d gotten so close to the monastery remains. She strained her eyes in the gloom, looking for the shape Steele had seen. They were maybe a hundred feet from the remains, hopefully hidden among the patch of trees they were kneeling in.
“Isn’t that some kind of…”
“Guard,” Axis finished, clenching her hands into fists.
“It does look like an End Hunter. Maybe we should talk to him?”
Axis fought back the urge to laugh. “Does it look like he’s here to chat? He’s clearly guarding the monastery.”
“But I don’t think he’s with the Concord,” Steele whispered. “He’s wearing all black. That’s why we almost missed him. Without this macabre light from the starstraight trees, I wouldn’t have been able to pick him out at all.”
Axis was about to ask Steele what their next move should be when a wonderfully familiar voice broke through the oppressive silence.
“You friends with Knight?”