20 | Aqueduct

Even lifeless, the little petrified bees still click in his mind with their strange, identifying little riddle.

Stone Sun Bees

-

A thousand wings, so strong in might, shimmering crystals in the light—

“Shimmering crystals in the light,” Eli grumbles to himself, then snorts. Everything must be nearly impossible for him to figure out, at least until he stumbles upon it. That, or he isn’t as sharp as he once was.

Well, he knows he isn’t…but duller than even he believed.

He puts those sets of thoughts aside.

Carefully, Klia pokes at the handful of bees no more than pebbles now as they give off the faintest pale light. She gives him the sad puff out of her bottom lip Eli remembers from Abner at that age. Despite the cold water and the seeping despair, Eli chuckles. Thinking of how Lyra would be under all these circumstances, he gives the girl a kiss on the forehead. She bats at his beard and wrinkles her nose.

“Sorry,” Eli says, “I’ll have to trim this up next time I find a mirror. Let’s get out of here—I don’t know when the night is or even if that matters down here. You’re certain Thistle is down there?”

She nods vigorously, packing her book back into her bag and holding it to her chest.

This presents another set of problems. Grunting to himself, Eli manages to secure his pack over one shoulder, as little of it getting wet as possible. On the bottom of the waterway, it comes up to about the middle of his chest, not as deep as he first believed. Carefully, he fastens the girl’s pack to the outside of his, as away from the water as possible. Wet food and clothes will dry—paper will as well, but it isn’t the newest, and Eli is afraid it will become too ruined to write on.

“Come here,” he says, putting an arm around the girl and holding her against him. She’s much too short to stand in the water, and they will both be warmer this way. “Keep an eye on your bag there and make sure it doesn’t fall in the water.”

She wraps her arms and legs around him as if she’s frightened he’ll disappear—she may be certain her brother is down this dark tunnel, but Eli has no doubts it frightens her still—and holds onto their bag.

With what little light he can discern from the handful of stones, Eli heads into the dark.

* * *

It is not as long a walk as he feared. In the dark, in the oppressive cold of the water, Eli eventually wishes very much to be out of it. He is not shivering but feels the cold all about him, the clammy nature of his skin too long soaking.

I am too old for this, he tells himself, not for the first time.

Klia is utterly silent and still throughout the entire journey. Every so often, Eli asks if she still feels they are going in the correct way, and she’ll give a little nod.

Eli has been suspicious this tunnel will go on forever, bolstered mainly by the idea that there are other places those doors lead to, so water will be needed elsewhere in this ancient underground city. Eventually, they must come to another open space led to by the waterway.

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And they do.

Something dim reaches his vision at the end of the tunnel, and he wades quicker. Klia lifts her head in time for the tunnel to reach the other side. Numbly, Eli sets her on the broad stone edge of the aqueduct along with the pack, keeping a solid arm around the girl.

No stone floor stretches out from the edges of this section of the waterway. Breathing unsteadily, Eli leans over the edge, being careful of the rock which has eroded with time.

A drop falls so far that even his stomach twists. He cannot discern the bottom, and when he flicks a pebble off the edge, he does not hear it clatter. Massive pillars of stone, some only half-carved and some crafted into features of giants, reach into the darkness. On and on the aqueduct carries across the massive space, held on stone legs as intricately sculpted as the curve above the tunnel. Light shimmers down from a pinpoint above, likely another entrance into the world below. Eli sees no way of reaching it.

“Too many stories,” he murmurs, and pats Klia on the back, gently, more comforting himself than her.

The girl has finally begun shivering, and Eli believes he might as well. Down the gentle waterway, he spots where they can safely get out of the cold, and it isn’t a place where predators are likely to sneak up.

Better yet, Eli spots something else.

Getting Klia back into his arms, he wades a few hundred more steps down the water, setting her out onto the wider edge of where a platform once reached the cavern wall. It has long since fallen to pieces, but the section that remains is stable enough, supported by a column directly beneath. Besides, they are not so heavy.

Klia points at what drew Eli to this little section of the aqueduct—a tree has managed to sprout. There is a little soil and a sapling of a variety Eli doesn’t recognize, likely fallen down through the scant hole in the cavern far above them. With a little sunlight and so much water, it isn’t much of a surprise something could cling to life down here. Its roots reach down into the waterway itself. It gives Eli some concern, given the state of the plants and animals with the mutated magic, but it also has a few fallen dead branches. Enough to make a fire and dry their clothes. He is worried the girl may catch cold.

“Here,” he says, untying his pack and pulling another one of his few old shirts out. “I’m going to look around the tree, you take off your wet clothes and put this on, alright? I’ll make a little fire to dry your things.”

She’s giving him such big, sad eyes, he asks, “Do you need help?”

She shakes her head, taking the shirt delicately. Eli reminds himself that eight years old is not too young to know how to dress oneself.

“Stay right here and don’t go near the edge,” he warns, and she nods.

Leaving the girl to have some privacy, Eli wanders around the sampling, ignoring his own wet clothes. He’ll change out of them before he catches his death.

The Elder, indeed, he grumbles to himself, irritated he must be so concerned with such things. Where is Abner? And what is he plotting?

The tree is much thicker than Eli first anticipated. Around the back of it, more roots stretch out, grasping over the small gap between the ancient walkway and the cavern’s side. Eli believes he can walk across it should he try. Depending on what Klia tells him, this may be the way to go. Poking gently at the tree’s trunk with first the tip of his sickle, then with his hand, he can determine nothing particularly hostile about it, though that isn’t to be trusted. Rarely do trees fully come alive and do anything of a hostile nature, but as Eli discovered recently, they seem to be alive enough now to mess with the minds of old men and young girls.

He is not above considering that it may come alive in the middle of the night and consume them. Thinking of the Unknown creatures, Eli shivers.

Collecting what dead bits of branches have fallen to the stones below, Eli lights the smallest fire he can manage and hangs Klia’s wet things over one of the lower branches, watching and finding no reaction from the still and silent giant of a young tree. Perhaps growing down here doesn’t do it so much harm, but there were those bees turned to stone, so Eli isn’t certain.

Sitting Klia down before the little flicker of a flame, finally casting more light into this place than the handful of bees Eli piled down on the edge of the waterway, Eli hands her the leftovers of the cooked rat and changes into dry clothes himself. The other food is persevered, so they should eat the rat first. A part of him wishes to cross the makeshift bridge of roots and explore what is in the tunnel out of this watery place. It is late, so he restrains himself.

Klia looks about as asleep as one can be while still awake, chewing automatically. Eli gives her the last remaining dry shirt so she has more than one. Their dirty clothes will be dry eventually. Eli needs sleep, and so does she. They will not be leaving for a while.

He eats what little bit is left of the meat she does not, and drinks carefully from the aquifer, finding the water clear and sweet, and fresh. It chills the inside of his chest. Quiet is so acute in this place, particularly with the lack of any childish babble from the girl. Abner was a talker. Eli supposes Klia would be as well, but perhaps not when she is so tired.

Leaning against the trunk of the tree, Eli says, “Come here, dear girl.”

With one of the tiny stone bees clenched in her hand, Klia crawls over and curls up against Eli’s chest. She’s much warmer than he feels. He tucks his arms around her, keeps his feet near the fire, and means only to doze off and on, not knowing the danger of the tree with the sunlight far above fading fast.

He sleeps much longer than he means to, pure dark around them save the embers of the fire. When he glances around the edge of the tree, he finds bright eyes on him.