Page 47 of Spectral Seas (Spectral Worlds #2)
A S ABBY DREW closer toward the floating beacon the others slowly materialized from the mist to meet their path with his. First was Leta. He glided up close to her to coast by her side. The two then merged paths with Soren and, soon after, the remaining reptoid, Sss’kyrone. Abby’s dragon flew faster than the hover discs, but rather than race ahead, he circled the three in a short perimeter, on alert for any further surprise aerial attacks from the mist.
None came.
The mist darkened ahead of their path then thinned to a transparent vapor as the steep, rocky face of a dark, ink blue mountain came into view.
Sss’kyrone veered his disc upward and over to a jagged ledge that was wide enough for all three hovers land. His words drew out slow as he stepped onto the blue-black rock. “We’ll park-uh here,” he said, “then cuh-limb to the top. It’sss not far.”
Leta and Soren flew their discs up to beside him. As they dismounted their discs, Abby hovered on a warm updraft beside the ledge, the leathery wings of his dragon tented open and steady to either side. “I’ll scout ahead,” he said.
“Be careful,” Soren said softly. “If they see you on the back of that beast, you’re done for.”
Abby grinned. “I won’t get too close,” he said. “And if I’m quick, they won’t notice I’m not one of their own.”
Soren nodded.
“Really,” said Leta. “Be careful.”
“I will,” said Abby. Then, with little effort, he and his dragon were ascending the face of the mountain.
More of the barren blue-black rock face passed by, then a steep incline of smooth stone. The mist dissipated, replaced by the high overcast sky and the filtered light of the blue Indici sun.
The smooth wall stone was topped with dark ancient stone embattlements, each manned by tall, sculpted warrior, not unlike those on the roof of the abbey.
Abby flew up past statues, tucking himself close to the beast’s neck to avoid being seen by anyone. He continued to fly upward until he was confident that he was high enough to spy back down without detection. Then he brought the dragon level to soar open winged on a thermal updraft and gazed down onto the island’s high mountain peak.
Below, he found no peak but instead a plateau, rimmed by a ring of the dark ancient stone embattlements he’d passed. There were a couple dozen Indici wandering about, and a few stone structures he couldn’t easily identify, but what drew his gaze was the massive mechanical device towering in the middle. In a spectral plane where everything was a hue of blue, there below was a giant spinning multi-ringed, multi-colored gyroscope. Its five wide bands were inlaid with thousands of brilliantly shimmering crystals from every plane, Indigo sapphires from the Indicus plane, yellow sapphires from Pratinus, green emeralds from Viridis, and the red rubies of the Maro plane, all slowly spinning around a fiery glowing blue orb. The ominous machine was similar to the one they discovered hidden in the garden, except this multi-colored sparkling wonder was without a shielding cover and multiple times the size of the first—the machine was a giant quant.
With a subtle twitch of a temple muscle, Abby’s oculars amplified and mapped the plateau and the location of the Indici, then with a tug of the reins, the dragon dipped and dove back down into the surrounding mist to rendezvous with the others.
VERRUP, VERRUP. The dragon flapped its wings slow and wide to break the dive, then gently eased itself onto the tip of the ledge.
“What did you see?” asked Soren.
“I found out what they’re using the crystals for,” said Abby. “They have another quantum device. And it’s much bigger than the one we found.”
“How much bigger?” asked Soren.
“Not near the size of a bubble, but big enough for a mass event.”
“They’re opening a rift to the void,” said Sss’kyrone.
“Could they do that?” asked Leta.
“Sure,” said Abby. “It’s large enough.”
“Is it guarded?” asked Soren.
“There’s at least twenty warriors up there,” said Abby. “We’ll have to be careful.”
“We have no choicsse,” said Sss’kyrone. “We mussst climb.”
~*~