Page 23 of Spectral Seas (Spectral Worlds #2)

I N UNISON, THE robed trio of monks eerily glided backward out of the open gate onto the platform. Abby and the Umbra were next to exit, followed by the three Viridians. More than a century had passed since Abby’s last visit to the Indicus Plane and it was as gloomy as he remembered. The thick perpetual mist of the monastic blue plane meant that day was never brighter than a dusky twilight and that the night was a black, inky void. And it was night, so the only light beyond the glass elevator car came from the string of tall, blue flamed torches that lined the edge of the platform then trailed out into the darkness. The further away the torches stood in the billowing mist, the ever fainter the light grew, faded stars burning blue.

The monk to the right retrieved a lantern from the ground. He waved a hand past it, igniting yet another subdued blue light, an orb just bright enough to illuminate the stone path at the platform’s edge. As the light bearer stepped forward to lead the group, the second monk slowly raised his arm in the direction of the first. From the end of his low hung sleeve emerged a thin, bluish, scaled reptilian hand with long, dark blue, pointed talon nails. The monk stretched his pointer and middle fingers together, the former oddly longer, and directed the group to follow the light bearer.

Abby gestured for Leta to precede him. It was then that he noticed that her skin and white uniform were now blue, as were the suits of the Viridians, and yes, the cuff of his white shirt peeking from his coat sleeve and the back of his own hand. He spun his wrist, his palm was blue too, and not in the way that a light tints the surface of its surroundings. Abby was well versed in planar physics; due to the physics of Indicus, everything in the plane became a shade of blue—the mist, the flames, their clothing, their flesh. The speed of light and wavelength frequency adjusted to the plane’s place in the spectrum. The spectrum of the Viridis Plane was more forgiving, allowing for a wider array of color; here in the Indicus Plane, however, everything would be a shade of blue.

Abby waited for Uhggwa and his guard to pass before falling into queue, putting himself between the Viridians and the two trailing Indici.

“Do you think these monks took a vow of silence?” chin-chipped Leta.

“It’s possible,” said Abby. “But I think it’s a bit of theater for the sake of the Viridians. They’ll have something to say when we reach the monastery.”

“How far away is it?”

“Not far, the monastery overlooks the Bubble.”

She spun her head around. “From where?”

“Look up there to your far right, breaking through the mist.”

Far above them loomed three large, illuminated blue discs forming a triangle above a cluster of a circular blue lights, all fading in and out behind the wafting sheets of fog .

“Oh yes,” she said. “I see the windows now. Why aren’t we walking up toward them?”

“The monastery sits near the edge of a sheer cliff. Up ahead, the path cuts back and reverses. Then it’s all uphill.”

They continued single file. Though their march was silent, Abby didn’t rule out that rest of the group were communicating amongst themselves. Uhggwa and his guards could communicate suit-to-suit in their native language of gurgles so subtle that they could have full conversations undetected, and the Indici and the Umbra could both shadow speak solely with their minds. He was truly the odd man out.

Abby soon found his breathing heavy due to the combination of the perpetual mist that warmly licked his flesh and dampened his lungs, and the suffocating inky night that clung to the group in the form of heavy shadows that sometimes enveloped a member whole as they passed through the voids between the string of torches. The only constant was the lantern the light bearer used to press forward through the cottony sheets of fog.

They approached two tall torches, one directly in front of them, the other to the left. When the light bearer reached the forward torch, he turned to the second, then reversed back toward Abby. When he did, the blue orb lantern the monk held before him appeared to float upward. It was only when he passed that the ascending stone path illuminated near Abby’s shoulder—the cutback.

Without the light bearer leading the way, Abby used his ocular augments as the forward guide. The augments lit bright against the silhouettes of the Viridians’ helmets and the two faint, blue torch flames. When the two torches were near directly above, the Viridian in front of him abruptly turned left. In his place appeared a rough rock wall. As Abby made the turn, he attempted to assess the wall’s height, but as it faded into the inky black above the torch’s glow, the range detection of his ocular implants were of little help.

They were not far up the incline when from the deep dark came a lone howl, more dog than wolf— AROOOooo . The light bearer slowed and raised his lantern high. AROOOooo , came the howl again. The light bearer stopped. The howl was replaced with a soft growl, grrrrrr , coming from high to Abby’s left—what he assumed was uphill. Another growl followed, grrrrrr , but behind them.

“There are two of them,” chipped Leta.

“At least,” said Abby.

Grrrrrr , came yet another, this one forward.

“They’re circling us,” said Abby.

“What are they?”

“The Lupo. The other inhabitants of the Indicus Plane.”

“So close to the monastery? I thought they only inhabited the wilds.”

“It’s odd,” agreed Abby.

The three growls returned in near unison, GRRrrrr , louder, closer, continuous, GRRrrr .

SoooWeeeeOooo came a whistle from behind Abby. He turned to find one of the trailing monks holding a long, thin tube, its metal reflecting the torchlight. The monk drew it into his hood and again came the whistle, SoooWeeeeOooo .

The growling stopped.

From the other side of the path came the unmistakable flap of wings, fwhop … fwhop … fwhop , growing louder as they passed overhead, FWHOP … FWHOP … FWHOP , then barking, followed by whimpers, a cry, a moist CRACKLE , CRACKLE , a yelp, a CRACKLE , then no more.

All but the monks froze. “What was that?” chipped Leta.

“My bet,” said Abby, “one of the monks’ indigo dragons.”

Still holding the lamp on the path, the light bearer turned his hooded head back toward the group. With his free arm, he beckoned the others forward. Abby took one step, then briefly stopped again. From his vantage downhill, the light bearer’s eyes, hidden before by his cowled hood, were revealed—two embers burning blue.

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