The women froze, as the sound of a small hand resounded through the door to their secret meeting place.
Agytha dared not even breathe. There were no windows in the store-room, and only one door. If it were forced, they would be caught.
Karlya’s hand was on her sword, her eyes, good and bad, searching each of the others for some explanation.
None could be offered.
For a moment all was quiet, and Agytha hoped that the person, whoever it was, would give up and leave.
Another knock shattered the silence, along with her hopes. The sounds were firmer, insistent… knowing.
“Shukra,” Karlya whispered, “you have to open it. We’ll hide.”
They moved as quietly as they could, the handmaidens secreting themselves behind the nearest shelves, while the Valkyrie padded noiselessly over with Shukra herself, and took up position behind the door.
Her blade was drawn and her stinger poised as Shukra’s trembling hands opened the simple bolt.
The door opened with a deafening creak.
Agytha and Chione couldn’t see who was there; instead they just heard Shukra’s voice.
“What?”
The two exchanged an anxious look, but parsimony was to be expected of Shukra. A prolix and affable greeting might have inflamed rather than soothed suspicions.
“I need to speak to you all, urgently.”
The voice was faint, muffled through the shelves, but familiar.
“Alone. Come tomorrow.”
“It’s fading already, but I can still see the trail of essence Miss Agytha and Chione left. Perhaps as they were hurrying to some hiding place? And I think its Miss Karlya behind the door?”
Three astounded harpies emerged, wings drooping.
In the doorway, Diantha gave frail smile, her cloudy eyes looking forward without focusing on any of them.
Agytha was relieved to see that she was alone.
Truly, Nemoi watched over them.
“May I come in?”
Karlya guided her with a hand, helping the thin, frail young woman navigate around the stacks of books.
Once she was settled the others joined her. The cramped space felt even tighter with the extra addition at the table.
“Alright, what got you up here in the middle of the night?”
Chione had an anxious edge to her voice.
Diantha hesitated before answering, as though some internal struggle were still playing out within her slight form.
“I have continued my investigations since we last met. I have some results now, but not the ones we expected. It’s… strange, seemingly unconnected with subterfuge at court, but my findings are significant I’m certain. I took the news to Lady Shedet this afternoon, after siesta, but… she has ordered me to drop the line of inquiry and to focus on exposing the traitor. Just as she has declined to investigate the rumors among we smallfolk of the highborn departing Ramhorn in advance of the attack, and suppresses any news from the Rootflood.”
Dispirited as the woman seemed, the others watched her with, hope shining bright in their eyes, peering anxiously into Diantha’s dark ones.
“That’s why I’ve come to you. I know I’m onto something important, but… Lady Shedet seems no more interested in the affairs of the smallfolk or ogres than Lady Ventora. I… thought… wanted to think that she cared about everyone. That she was doing what was best for all harpies. But she wants what’s best for her faction, for her and the other nobles. She can’t even see the danger of ignoring all these disturbing events.”
They were words the noblewoman in question would certainly not have allowed the girl to take back, yet still Diantha was hesitating.
Still unsure who to trust.
Shukra broke the silence.
“Highborn knew Ramhorn would fall. Ventora’s working with the enemy.”
Diantha drew a sharp breath. For her it must be the confirmation of her worst fears – it certainly had been for Agytha.
The others stared around at the scrawny, black-feathered figure of Shukra. She avoided their eyes.
“We had planned to only tell our allies,” Karlya observed.
“Did,” was the bookish harpy’s typically monosyllabic reply.
Agytha took over the story from there, aided by Chione and Karlya’s interjections, telling their guest all they had learned about the forewarning that the nobles had of the fall of Ramhorn.
By the time she was finished, Diantha looked stunned, even fearful.
“So it’s really gone that far,” she murmured.
“You can see why we didn’t try to expose Ventora directly. Even if the nobles believed the story-”
“Which they weren’t gonna,” Chione cut in.
“-with so many of her faction potentially involved, exposure would only end with forcing Ventora’s hand,” Agytha finished.
“That was also why we didn’t tell anyone not already committed to our cause,” Karlya added, with another reproachful glance at Shukra.
“The Witch Laureate may be… challenging to understand,” Diantha said, with a light smile, “but she understands others surprisingly well. It seems that the situation is too dire for me to hesitate any further. We’re allies by necessity already.”
“Then you won’t be taking that news directly to your mistress?” Karlya asked.
“It’s a betrayal of Lady Shedet, who took me in and had my pledge of service… but… she wouldn’t listen anyway. Not to the words of a mere handmaiden. I don’t think she could even imagine that the conspiracy extends so far as… sacrificing an entire territory, either. The highborn are all certain that the collapse of the defenses there was due to the sabotage of malcontents among the smallfolk and non-harpies. They would see this are more lies and betray from below, not above.”
The young woman’s thin hands clenched atop the table.
“She won’t move for the sake of the smallfolk. She doesn’t trust us… even I was just a tool to her. Exactly like you said. She won’t even protect my own family. So I suppose I’m joining you after all.”
“How’s your family involved in all this?” Chione asked, looking lost.
“Everyone possible has been pressed into helping with the excavations under the Great Basin. But something’s wrong there. It’s not what they’re telling us.”
“Yeah!” Chione said, nodding, “I said before, they’re doin’ way too much diggin’ under the Basin jus’ for warnin’ or defense tunnels. I hear some folks went missin’ lately too – they leave for the mines in the mornin’ and don’t come home at night. ‘Sides, how’s the enemy gonna tunnel all the way up Mount Skycrown?”
Agytha shook her head, feeling lost. “If not for protection what else can it be? Surely they couldn’t… be trapping dissenters down there?”
“What roused your concerns?” Karlya asked the newcomer.
“My sister is one of the women working down there. I’m worried about her. She told me this morning that one of the ogres managing her section has stopped coming. I examined the entrance for myself, and I could see… something there. Traces of a sort of magic I don’t recognize. It’s not harpy magic.”
“It can’t be the enemy’s spells, can it?!” Agytha said, aghast. “Could they be lurking under the Eyrie already?!”
“Why would they?” Chione asked. “Wouldn’t they jus’ attack already if they was?”
“Ventora has nothing to gain by allowing even the Eyrie to fall,” Karlya pointed out.
“Assurance?”
The others stared at Shukra that time, and she was forced to explain.
“She could have them there in case she’s discovered.”
Agytha felt a chill, despite the closeness of the room.
“You mean… if she were to be exposed anyway, she could take the throne by force, with the enemy’s help.”
Karlya released a long, slow breath.
“If that’s true, it isn’t just the ‘miners’ who would disappear. Thousands would die.”
“So these miners, they’re, what, diggin’ tunnels to link up with the enemy? Let them walk right into the Palace?”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“That may be so,” Agytha said. “We have to investigate this, and the other flights have to know too. If this is really happening, it may already be too late.”
“If we’re caught everything will be over – the resistance can’t go on with Shukra, nor without Aggy and Chione.”
Karlya spoke with conviction, yet the words still sounded like a joke to Agytha’s ear.
Shukra was irreplaceable, but it was hard to believe she or Chione could really be so vital.
“Maybe,” she said, with an uncertain air, “but we have to do what we can. If we can find enough proof to convince the Valkyries then we might have a chance – and that means we need someone who can make sense of whatever magic it is down there. If Diantha can’t, then the only chance is Shukra.”
On that all were agreed, and unhappy as the witch might be, the five resolved together that they must indeed take the risk.
Yet painful as it was to delay in such an uncertain and dangerous time, they couldn’t investigate the tunnels while the workers were at rest – whoever might be watching the excavations would catch them at once.
As such, they retired to their various rooms for the night, to prepare for the morrow, and try to snatch all too little sleep.
~~~
The following morning they walked openly through the streets down in the Great Basin.
Agytha’s chest was pounding as they neared one of the deep shafts that had been opened up. There were people everywhere; harpies, ogres, beastfolk and naga. Even the occasional dryad or other more rarified species could be seen.
She wished Karlya could have been with them, but the scarred Valkyrie was far too recognizable – unlike a few handmaidens. In her stead was another woman, Thalia, a Valkyrie she could trust, who was less known about the Eyrie.
Shukra and Diantha, both vital to the investigation, could not be replaced so easily, but the witch had disguised them all to an extent. Through a combination of water and wind manipulation, she had applied a light coating to the feathers and scales of each of them, to distort the light and alter their natural colors. The magic was not so convenient as to alter faces too, but the retiring Witch Laureate had not been seen outside of the palace in years, while Diantha was a near-nobody even within it. As such, it was not faces but general descriptions which most needed to be obscured.
As exposed as they felt, there was little reason for anyone to pick them out. They had chosen one of the busiest sites precisely for the bustle and chaos, insuring that no-one would pay them any particular attention.
Even so, they dared not attempt the proper entrance to the shaft they were targeting. The risk that one of the harpies watching the entrance might challenge them was too great. Instead they were moving through the back-streets, looking no more than ordinary workers, there to help load the spoil into carts to be hauled away.
It was brought up by pulleys and ropes, held in giant barrels atop an elevator platform that moved through a side shaft. The opening doubled as ventilation, and as a route to supply the miners without blocking up the main entrance. The waste would be dumped out, into an open yard which had until recently been the home to some misfortunate souls who made the mistake of living where a mineshaft was required. Then, while it was shoveled into carts, the empty barrels would be filled with tools, rope, grease and other miscellany, as well as some meager sustenance for the miners far below.
At the appointed time, another such load arrived, and the girls got to work, loading the supplies they had brought.
A commoner looked much like a bag of food or pile of ropes, when curled up in a barrel and covered in some woven sacking.
Certainly no-one among the laborers digging rock into waiting ram-pulled carts was bothering to count how many women had stepped onto the elevator, and whether they all stepped off again.
At the bottom there was another harpy waiting of course, ready to receive the supplies, but she was alone. The miners would only take what was needed until they had enough waste material to load up and sent to the surface again.
The woman who looked them over was Dioni, their contact. Her muscled arms showed signs of harsh daily labor, and her bedraggled and dirty plumage was more brown than orange. She extended a hand to Diantha first, and helped her to her feet.
“Thank you, sister.”
“Of course. These are the… friends you mentioned?”
“Yes, please take us to the place right away.”
It had all been arranged.
After smearing themselves with the dust and dirt of the mine the quintet looked little different from any other workers. Pilfered tools from the barrels added to the effect, and they set off with their guide towards the area where the most recent disappearance had occurred.
Torches were spaced sparingly, for most of the workers needed little help to see. In the gloom the laborers went to and fro, carrying tools and pulling rubble. Down many side-paths they heard them hard at work extending and widening tunnels.
While dark, it was intensely hot, the air heavy and stale, yet the workers of all species were attacking their tasks with haste, even as sweat poured from their bodies. Any who failed to maintain a quick pace were soon reprimanded by the overseers, even if they were struggling to stand, and more than once they heard threats of reduced rations or reassignment to worse duties. What duty might be worse than this toil of hammering and hauling rock, Agytha didn’t like to imagine.
She felt painfully out of place there, and she saw Chione and Shukra were just as uneasy. They had never imagined that the people of the Great Basin could be treated so harshly.
Yet Diantha and her sister ruffled not a feather at the sight.
If that was normal to them, it made Agytha wonder what else was seen as ‘normal’ under the Empire.
“This is it,” Dioni said at last.
They had come to a quieter area, where several tunnels met.
The hammering and clink of picks were distant echoes, felt as much as heard, and no-none had passed them in several minutes.
“This section is supposed to be completed. Kerates was last seen entering this tunnel, looking for a pickaxe he’d left behind.”
“Do you see anything?” Agytha asked, of Shukra and Diantha.
The former just shook her head.
“It’s… strange,” Diantha said, from her sister’s side. “There’s some sort of enchantment all around us down here, but it’s faint, just traces for now. I can’t understand it, but it definitely isn’t Harpy magic.”
“Just gotta go take a look then,” Chione said.
She and Thalia took the lead as they began down the suspect path.
It was a few minutes of silence from there, as they strove to avoid any sounds which might draw attention.
Supposedly these tunnels were empty for now, but the unfortunate Kerates certainly hadn’t disappeared into the wind.
Agytha’s feathers were standing on end as they walked on.
Though warm, the stone was slightly damp underfoot, unpleasant to tread, and the air felt stifling.
With the sounds of digging fading into nothing it was too still, and too quiet.
At any moment they could come upon some terrible device of the enemy, lurking in wait.
One of the automatons that had ravaged Grand Chasm, Southtown and so many other settlements.
“There!” someone hissed.
Agytha tensed, but she realized it was Diantha.
The girl had her fingers outstretched, pointing towards a spot on the uneven, jagged surface of the tunnel wall.
They crowded around, and Diantha gripped a chunk of the rock.
Thin arms strained, and then before their eyes the piece came away.
A small object sat nestled in the exposed cavity; a polished, shaped stone, carved into the form of a star, pointed rays emerging out in many directions.
“It’s supernatural,” Diantha affirmed, stating the obvious “I can see faint traces leading out of each of the points, perhaps to other objects like this one.”
“This is no harpy magic,” Agytha observed, her voice low and urgent. “This must be the work of the enemy. The invaders have been here!”
“No,” Shukra said.
She was looking closely at the object, her fingers brushing the surface, feeling the essence within.
“It’s Ogre magic.”
None of them could say what that meant.
Even Shukra was far from an expert on the little-studied and seldom-used art of the Ogres, but she told them what she could.
It was not performed through an individual mage speaking incantations, but instead the magic worked through ceremony, a ritual conducted by a gathering of learned ogre mages, acting on the land itself through focuses spread in advance. The most common use was to move large volumes of earth and rock, or prepare a cavern for the growing of Erdroot.
“Then this is just from diggin’ the tunnels?” Chione asked, looking disappointed.
“That can’t be,” Dioni said.
The woman looked shocked at the conversation taking place before her, and fright was clear in her wide eyes at the suggestion that the enemy could somehow be there, in the depths of Mount Skycrown. As she spoke she glanced over her shoulder, perhaps imagining that some mechanical hand might appear out of the gloom at any moment, to take her. Still, she kept her nerve and said her piece without letting the shake of her hands bleed into her voice.
“I’ve… been working on the project since the start, and we’ve never seen or heard of any ogre mages. I didn’t even think they could use magic!”
Agytha had to admit, if only to herself, that she had shared that misapprehension.
“Most can’t,” Shukra said. “Rare now, since the Empire. Like Naga magic.”
Agytha and Chione shared a look of surprise. She was glad to see that her friend also had no idea the Naga possessed magics of their own.
“So why is this focus here?” Thalia asked. “And has it already been used?”
“It still holds magic,” Diantha said, “but without knowing more about how ogre spellcraft functions I can’t say if this is a residue from a spell already worked, or if the spell was never performed at all, and this focus was just forgotten here.”
“Could this be why Kerates came down here?” Agytha asked. “To place it? Or even recover it?”
Dioni shook her head.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but Kerates was an ordinary laborer, not a magic-user.”
“Or so he said,” Chione pointed out.
“None of this makes sense,” Agytha said, with a sigh. “Why would the Ogres wish to put focuses for ritual magic down here?”
“Maybe there are ogre mages working on the project?” Diantha suggested. “A web of meshed magical focuses like this could do more than just move rock. They could work very effectively to detect further excavation. That is what the tunnels are supposed to provide; warning and protection against the enemy.”
“Then it really is… nothing?” Chione asked, looking deflated. “The nobles jus’ got some ogres to help with the project, and there’s nothin’ sinister about it?”
“That can’t be,” Dioni said.
“I don’t know what you all seem to, but Diantha’s told me enough that I understand how serious it all is. Whatever’s happening at court, this has to be related - there are too many people missing. Kerates, but others too. Most of them are ogres. That can’t be a coincidence.”
“She’s right,” Agytha said. “Diantha, can you follow the traces of mana this object is releasing?”
The other nodded.
“They run straight – just seeing it would be enough for anyone who knew what it was to follow.”
“So if Kerates noticed it then he might have recognized what it was, and tried to do the same.”
“Well then, let’s find out what he woulda seen,” Chione said, taking the lead.
She hesitated, however, after a step into the dim tunnel.
“Er… which way we going?”
Diantha led them from there, on to the next such focus, and then down, moving through descending tunnels that wound slowly but inexorably lower.
As they did, the mana grew stronger, and both Shukra and Diantha became sure they were approaching some sort of focal point for the ritual.
Their progress halted at a barricade. It had been a door, but wooden beams blocked it closed, sealing off the tunnel completely.
A written sign gave a clear warning of the danger ahead, while simple symbols depicted the threat more viscerally for any worker unable to read.
“A tunnel collapse,” Thalia said, eying the sketch of a figure, being crushed under a boulder. “How convenient.”
Chione had put her eye to one of the cracks in the beams, and she gave a low whistle.
“Sure is blocked up back there though. Tunnel’s packed with rock.”
“Then there really was a collapse,” Agytha remarked.
“Could be they collapsed some of the ceiling on purpose,” Chione pointed out. “Or had a few witches fill it in.”
“But why? Just to hide whatever was done here?”
“Maybe. Maybe so they could come back later without worryin’ about the place bein’ disturbed. I say open it up an’ we’ll find out how much of the tunnel really collapsed. Prolly only a few foot.”
“Wait,” Diantha said. “There’s another enchantment here. Harpy magic. It looks like some sort of warning spell. If we disturb it, whoever placed it will know.”
Chione gave a frustrated grunt at that.
“S’always something.”
“Then do we go back? Try another path?” Thalia asked.
“They could all be this way,” Dioni said. “A lot of tunnels are closed off for instability.”
“The traces all gather in this direction anyway,” Diantha added. “If there are any answers, they’re through there.”
“Then we should just kick the door open already!” Chione declared.
“And get caught?” Thalia asked, looking unimpressed. “Were you not listening?!”
Agytha felt for her friend there – Chione might not be learned, but she had her own form of smarts, in the form of her unconventional cunning and insights.
“Yeah, an get caught!” Chione said, nodding.
Agytha found herself regretting that moment of sympathy.
She placed a hand gently on Chione’s wing.
“Chione… we can’t afford to get caught, or we’ll be exposed, remember?”
The thickset woman laughed at her slighter friend.
“Aggy, don’t you get it? We’re just a gaggle of miners what got lost, took a wrong turn. Look at us, we’re filthy, feathers all over the place, with tools in hand, here in the middle of a mine. Who’s gonna recognize a handmaiden in a place like this? Our own broodmothers wouldn’t know us!”
“Perhaps not,” she admitted, “but whoever the spell brings will never allow us through! Surely you don’t mean to fight!”
“I mean if we gotta Thalia here’s prolly got us covered. But no,” she said, quickly shaking her head at the unimpressed looks of her allies. “We get caught to see exactly who it is that comes. If they’re watchin’ over this place that means they gotta know somethin’ about what’s in there. Else they’d never be trusted to guard it, an’ they’d wanna know what all the fuss was over some caved-in tunnel! So whoever stops us, they’ll have no idea we’re onto them, an’ we just gotta find out who they’re workin’ for to know whos’ behind all this!”
“She’s right,” Dioni exclaimed, “they would never waste a witch just on securing a few unsafe tunnels! Not unless they were being actively excavated!”
She looked amazed that she hadn’t thought of that herself.
“Chione, you’re a genius!” Agytha said, grinning.
“Clever,” Shukra affirmed.
“Well, I dunno about that,” she replied, suddenly bashful.
Her tail was moving with a happy little wiggle, like a caria at a saucer of cream.
With a plan agreed, the more recognizable members of the group backed off.
Chione and Thalia would brave whatever response was summoned, while Agytha and the others would be close at hand to come to their aid should things go wrong.
It didn’t take much for Chione to trigger the enchantment warding the tunnel. All she had to do was give the barred door a good rattle and wait.
She was still there, pretending to want to pass through, when they heard steps in the tunnel behind them.
A trio of harpies appeared, two with a martial bearing and swords strapped to their thighs. The third, with long black hair in braids and delicate blue and yellow plumage, moved more gracefully, airs of the lesser nobility to her despite her small stature.
The handmaiden couldn’t see mana, or decipher complex magic the way that Diantha or Shukra did, but it was obvious that this was their witch. She was even wearing a ruby bracelet, an obvious magical focus.
“Oh, thank Nemoi!” Chione said, spreading her arms and beaming at the newcomers.
The Woman looked taken aback, faltering just as she’d been about to launch into what was likely a stern warning.
“Had to get some tools what we left down a side passage. Clean forgot about them last night, but there’s so many tunnels an’ all that we couldn’t fine the way back out. Think you can help us out?”
“You certainly won’t find your way back through there,” the woman said, with a cold, distrustful stare.
“See, Told ya, Euphemea!” Chione said, slapping Thalia’s shoulder.
The Valkyrie’s feathers ruffled at the unexpected impact, but Chione was too into her role to notice.
“She were sure this was the way out! Told her the sign looked right dangerous, but she coulda’ swore we used this path yesterday evening.”
“Given that it collapsed three days ago, she would be mistaken,” answered the other.
“Hah! You owe me a share o’ fruit, Euphie! Anyhow, no harm done. Good thing you came when you did though! Oughta put a guard here or somethin’!”
“I shall make the suggestion to my Lady,” the witch replied dryly. “Now if you will follow us, we will direct you back to your work.”
Chione fell in with her, walking alongside the increasingly irritated spellcaster.
“Your lady, that’s Lady Tanit, right?”
“Certainly not.”
It was a wild shot in the dark, and so Chione felt little surprise when it missed.
“Nah, really though,” she persisted, “weren’t you with her when she had a tour o’ the bigger tunnels a while back?”
The woman sighed.
“If you must know I was there in attendance to my Lady Tiye. Not everyone in Lady Tanit’s retinue is her personal retainer, and there were nine other noblewomen of the court besides her.”
Chione was stunned; nine more… all likely in on the conspiracy.
For a dangerous moment her alarm showed on her face.
“I told you that at the time,” Thalia said, covering for her. “Even Lady Tanit doesn’t have that many attendants just for an inspection. Especially with how busy she is after the terrible attack on Ramhorn.”
“Indeed,” the witch said, with a cold and distant expression.
They spoke no more until they were out of the side tunnels, and back to the clangor and chaos of the active mining sites.
The witch left them there, with a stern warning to get back to work, and not wander off again.
Agytha, Shukra, Diantha and Dioni met them a few junctions later. They discussed the discovery in hushed tones whenever they could hear one another over the digging. Of all of them, it was Diantha who showed the greatest alarm at what they’d found.
“Lady Ventora would have been likely,” she said, “and a few others like Tanit would have been understandable… but Tiye….”
Agytha, not privy to the events of the Royal Court, save through second-hand account and rumor, cocked her head.
“Tiye is still part of Ventora’s faction, is she not?”
“Yes, certainly, but… at least before the war she had a reputation as more of a moderate voice. Lady Shedet made common cause with her at times. If even she is supporting this conspiracy-”
Diantha was cut short as they neared the elevator shaft once more, and were once again surrounded by people.
She had said enough for both Chione and Agytha however.
The handmaidens exchanged a glance, and each saw on the face of the other the same anxious question.
Was the entirety of Ventora’s faction involved?