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“SOUND OFF, CHIPMUNKS,” Myrch said.
“Huh?” Padg said.
“Never mind,” Myrch said. “Everyone okay? Dun?”
“Yeah. Tali?”
“Just,” said Padg.
“What the hell was that place?” Dun said.
“A massive great vent?” Padg said.
“I don’t think you’re too far off there,” Myrch said.
“Do you think that thing controls all the vents, everywhere?” Tali said.
“Maybe,” Myrch said.
“How’s your hand,” Dun asked Tali.
“Hurts.”
“You got anything you can treat it with?” Dun said.
“Yeah, but I can’t do some of the grinding and mixing one-handed.”
“Anything we can do to help?” Padg said.
“Sure, I need to help me tear up one of those sacks.”
“And, Dun, I need some wound-wort. It’s in the tiniest jar in the bottom of my bag. No, not that one, here.”
“Look, whatever you’re going to do, can you hurry it along? We haven’t got forever here,” Myrch said.
With Dun grinding a pestle and Padg tearing strips, some form of slave and bandage first-aid was administered.
“Thanks,” Tali said.
“Go now?” Myrch said.
“Okay, patience,” Tali said.
But they moved on.
The corridor out of the opposite side of the vent cylinder was similar in size and air-shape. It smelled less oily, slightly more, musty. Dun recognized the smell of compost before he started picking up traces of it under his feet. They passed over an intersection, where more compost seemed to be adding to their new carpet. Although it was a complete crossroads they passed, the compost only seemed to be in the left-hand passage and underfoot, more and more as they walked. The next crossroads they passed was doorways, not passages. Curious, Tali tried one of the doors. It pushed open easily. As well as a lot more compost, she could smell, mushrooms, or at least where mushrooms had been. And smells of sap bearing plants rotting. The air in the room felt dry. Inside she felt around and found racks of shelves in bays, each one carrying trays of compost, some with mushrooms, some with something dead and decaying. Dun tried the door opposite and, save for a different variety of mushroom, it was the same. They walked on and found room after room on each side. The ones they bothered to check were all the same, dead flora, except for a few mushrooms and air dry as a bone. They counted two, four, six, eight rooms a side.
“All too little too late!” a voice said ahead of them out of nowhere. “Who are you, and what do you want here?”
“We mean no harm!” Myrch said.
“Liar!” the voice screamed. “They have all spoken those words, or words like them, who came here. And now I am the only one left. Do. Not. Lie. To. Me.”
And ear-splitting, high-pitched sonic slap crashed across them all, pinning them to the spot. Dun pressed his hands to his ears and clenched everything else. He felt like he was going to be sick. Then it stopped. The ringing of the aural attack reverberated from everything that wasn’t fixed down for a few seconds. Then there was silence.
“I am not without my defenses, even now. I have others. Do not test me. Do not lie. I have a device that can tell me if you lie by the amount of stress in your voice. A true marvel of the age. Of the age that was...”
“I’m sorry, who are you?” Myrch said.
“I will ask the questions,’ the voice said. “And you will answer.”
“It would be easier to answer if we knew your name,” Tali said. “Please?”
“You may call me the Sentinel. The last, for all it is worth. Now the truth, please.”
Dun answered, “We’ve come from the Bridge-folk. To find you.”
“Not the only reason though, I think.”
“No. Once my father, he came this way, I think. He was an explorer; he made maps. I have one with me...”
The voice softened, and said, “Hmm... I think you are safe. Step forward into the steam.”
A loud hissing indicated where they were to step. The steam tasted sharp and acidic but smelled sweet at the same time.
“At your feet is a cart. Please place any weapons in it.”
“No way,” Myrch said.
“Then you may not enter,” the Sentinel said, simply.
“I’ll wait out here,” Myrch said.
“As you wish.”
The others placed their weapons in the cart, knives and their last sword-spear. Tali hadn’t mixed any more weaponized potions since the encounter with the rat-thing, so she figured she was safe. Once she’d placed her last knife in the odd smooth cart, it began to move ahead of them into the steam.
“Hey!” Tali said.
“Do not be alarmed, follow the cart,” the Sentinel said.
They walked on into the steam. The cart trundled on ahead of them. The steam thinned out, and they followed the cart into what their air-sense said was a spherical room, with something in the center, a pillar or something lower.
“Your weapons will be kept safe and returned to you when you leave.”
“What about Myrch?” Dun said.
“Your care about him is touching. He will meet you when you leave. But you are not here for him, for all he thinks.”
“What do you mean?” Dun said.
“You have questions you would ask of me.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Err..” Padg said, “I have one. What exactly are you... you know, sentinel-ing?”
The Sentinel chuckled, a deep-throated, warm sound.
“Come forward, young Bridge-folk. Bring all your questions. I will hopefully give them the answers they deserve. And you still haven’t told me your names.”
“Dun.”
“Padg.”
“Tali.”
They walked forward, to the middle of the sphere, to what turned out to be a dias with a throne-like seat atop it.
“May I touch your faces?” the Sentinel said.
“Sure,” Dun said. The others murmured assent. The fingers were gentle pads, with the paper thin skin of the old. Warm.
“You are all so young, to have to”—he paused mid-sentence—“never mind. You are the last to visit me from the river. I am Sentinel of the systems. It is a burden I have carried long. I hoped I would pass on my burden before now but my people became... Well, at the end, they came to me for answers but could not understand them. Had stopped listening to things they did not want to hear.”
“What happened to them?” Dun said.
“All in good time,” the Sentinel said. “First you must know the where, before you can know the why. And to do that, you must discover if you can understand at all.”
“I’m not sure I understood all that,” Padg said.
“Hmm, you might,” the Sentinel said. “I hope. Are you ready?”
“Is there some kind of test?” Dun said.
“Of sorts.”
“Oh another ritual, hooray,” Padg said. “What happens if we fail?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“No. Nothing, you just go on your way, none the wiser.”
“Oh,” Padg said.
“Are you ready?”
“I guess so?” Dun said. “You guys feel ready?”
“Sure,” Tali said.
“Why not?” Padg said.
“What do we do?” Dun asked.
There was a hissing noise from in front of the dais, and they detected the slight suck of air into some kind of space below them.
“Here,” the Sentinel said and handed Dun a knotted rope. “The rope is tethered up here. Descend into the room below. It is like this in shape, although it has but one way in and one way out. Explore what you find within, and then tug on the rope three times when you wish to come back here.”
Dun lowered the rope carefully into the hole. “Coming?” he said.
