Kastori Revelations (The Kastori Chronicles Book 1) (14 page)

But Cortanus provided no answers. It could only ascertain ranges and probabilities. And it had none.

Cyrus sat down. The food had started to fill his stomach beyond a comfortable level. He worried about Celeste and Crystil and how well they would dodge the giant creature at night, without any protection. That didn’t even touch on the other creatures in the forest, or what unknowns they might face.

“Cortanus, this is just… I’m sorry, I still feel a little insane. I’m going to go take a nap and hopefully not dream about my sister and Crystil hating me, which I probably won’t need to since they might still really feel that way. Alert me if either of them come within view, but otherwise, man, I need to sleep without wondering if I’ll be an appetizer for that creature up there.”

“Understood,” Cortanus said.

Cyrus headed to his room with more questions than answers—ones he could not find the answers to. Where were Celeste and Crystil? Were they safe? Did they find water? How would they react to his return? Would they kick him back out again? What else did they not know? Were there civilizations here hidden away? Were they, too, artificial?

Was the whole planet some amazing creation of a civilization so advanced he couldn’t even comprehend it?

But at least he finally had a pillow, food, water, and a sense of security.

22

Through the thicket of the forest, with trees rising even higher than near the plains, Crystil and Celeste walked with their rifles cocked. After the first hour, with nothing more than grazing and napping precora in their sights, they lowered their rifles, their fingers removed from the trigger and their steps less cautious.

Crystil’s mind never ventured far from alert status. With one man down and only two of them left, she had to more than double her vigilance. Even if she couldn’t do anything about an attack from the great monster, she still wanted the illusion of being ready to take meaningful action.

It helped to see Celeste maturing as she was. As Celeste and Cyrus were, perhaps the older Orthran’s presence had kept Celeste from growing. Such a thought initially seemed ludicrous, given that Crystil had heard Celeste’s slap
.
But as Crystil thought about it, ducking under branches and stepping over tree roots, she saw that moment as not contradictory to her initial hypothesis, but confirmation of the budding point for Celeste.

“It’s not quite the wild, dangerous threat we thought it would be, huh?” Celeste said few feet behind Crystil. “Remember that first day and I saw the giant arachnia and lupi, I was nervous that we were in some serious trouble. But seems like we’ve found some peace and quiet.”

“You have an unusual definition of peace and quiet,” Crystil said in a gentle tone. “Relatively speaking, you’re definitely right, though. Seems like most of the creatures to be feared are taking advantage of the daytime and dodging the one thing everyone and everything really fears here.”

As she spoke, an aviant screeched loudly above, bringing Crystil’s gun straight up in the aviant’s direction. Though still trigger-ready, she avoided becoming trigger-happy. She lowered her gun as the aviant flew toward the mountains. She looked through the forest, swearing that she could see an arachnia in the distance. It seemed more of an illusion, though, and Crystil turned her attention to Celeste.

“Wonder what kind of animals and beasts we’ll see up there,” Celeste said, mostly to herself.

Crystil had no reply, only the thought of “
Whatever comes, we’ll deal with
,” and resumed progressing.

A little under an hour later, Crystil saw the edge of the woods. Colorful vegetation formed a wall at the end of the forest. The trees had gotten more plentiful and thicker as they had walked, and the wildlife appeared more often, but nothing threatened Crystil or Celeste. Crystil stepped out of the trees first, and her eyes immediately went to the tallest mountain. It went so high, she could not see the peak.

“What do you think is up there?” Celeste said. “At the peak, I mean.”

“Lack of oxygen and death,” Crystil deadpanned.

“That’s it?” Celeste said, disappointment palpable in her voice.

I hope not. I’m as curious as you are.

“Probably not,” Crystil said. “I have nothing to back that up, though. Probably great views, nothing more.”

“You could see the entire planet from up there,” Celeste said. “Imagine being able to see all of Anatolus.”

She paused as a dawning realization hit her.

“I’ll bet that’s where that thing lives during the day. Colder up there, easier to sleep.”

Crystil did not want to talk about it and send Celeste down an anxiety-inducing conversation, but the commander agreed. No one had seen where it went during the day, and the peak of the mountain made the most sense.

“Come on,” Crystil said.

What looked like a vine wall from afar slowly came into view as a multitude of thorny flowers in several exotic colors. Crystil had never seen such vivid colors cloistered together. Bright pink, dark and light blue, a grass-green and a vibrant orange color were just the most noticeable ones.

“Beautiful,” Celeste said.

An entirely different thought went through Crystil’s mind.

“Don’t touch anything, Celeste,” Crystil said authoritatively. “I guarantee you this is poisonous. It’s like the wildlife on Monda. The brighter it is, the more toxic it is.”

Celeste grimaced but said nothing. Crystil took two steps back to try and assess a way around it. The thicket climbed about ten feet high, making a climb impossible without getting pricked. She looked both ways and did not see an opening in any spot. As far as she could see, there was only one way through, and that was with a slow, extremely methodical slicing with their knives.

“I hope you don’t mind manual labor,” Crystil said as she reached into her boot. “We need to cut our way through here.”

Celeste grabbed her knife. Together, the two patiently cut their way through, spending hours doing nothing but removing plants, flowers, and roots. Crystil never bothered to ascertain how far she had to go until the very end when, after removing a blood-red flower, the ground sloped into the mountains, turning from patchy grass to dusty hills.

She gave a wry smile, and though she didn’t like thinking about him, not having Cyrus made this portion of the mission a lot easier. Hearing his complaints about being bored, not liking the work, and wanting adventure would’ve made her want to use that knife for more than just cutting plants.

She finished trimming just enough of the plant life to duck and did so with ease. Celeste followed but cursed when she pulled her right leg out.

“You all right?” Crystil said.

“Yeah, I think I pricked my leg on it,” Celeste said as she walked forward, extending her right leg out for scars.

Neither woman saw anything to alarm them. Crystil thought she saw a white scratch mark, but if that was true, then the thorn had not penetrated the skin, and they almost certainly had nothing to worry about. Their attention shifted to the mountains ahead. With no defined paths to walk on, they had the entire terrain to explore as they wished. From where they stood, Crystil saw four different caverns. One barely went twenty feet in, but the other three were inconclusive. Of the three, two would require some careful climbing to get to.

Crystil nodded in the direction of the easiest cavern, and Celeste followed closely behind. The cavern had a wide mouth but did not go deeper than a hundred feet. Crystil turned on her night vision goggles to see if she missed anything but saw nothing but burn marks—marks which she ignored since they didn’t provide water.

They climbed toward the second cave. This one went deeper and required them turning a dark corner. They had walked in for nearly ten minutes, and though the distance was not great, the treacherous steps behind them meant they could not escape quickly if needed. Crystil readied her rifle and slowly turned the corner, ready to fire at anything that attacked them.

Nothing came. It was a dead end. Crystil dropped her gun and motioned for Celeste to head back outside.

When they returned to the mouth of the cave, the sun had begun setting. It would only be a matter of minutes before the planet belonged to the monster.

“So what now?” Celeste said. “We don’t have trees or the ship. We can figure something out. Right?”

“We’ll have to sleep here,” Crystil said, looking at the cavern grounds. “Won’t be comfortable and we may have to go deep in the cave depending on how much interest the thing takes in us. But if we stay right here and keep quiet, we should be fine.”

“OK. I’ll take lookout first.”

Crystil looked with pleasant surprise at Celeste. She had meant to mention that, but if Celeste was getting to the point first…

I don’t have to lead. We can go as equals.

“Do you have any questions about lookout?”

“Not really. Just watch for anything dangerous, right?”

“Pretty much. Keep your gun in your hands at all times. Trust your gut. And wake me up if you need me. For any reason. I’ve done shifts where I didn’t get to nap, so getting the opportunity to pass out for even just a couple hours would be a miracle.”

Crystil noticed the creature flying in from the far right. It could not have come from the mountain peak unless it had taken a long circle. She tried not to ponder the issue any further, knowing it wouldn’t do any good. Trying and succeeding, however, did not line up for her.

Celeste thanked her, and Crystil rested her head on the ground, using her backpack as a stiff pillow. She tried adjusting the containers of water and rations inside, but her actions produced minimal results for her comfort. Her mind spun as she tried to recap the mission.

I taught them well. I see Celeste growing. But Cyrus… it’s too late for him. If we find water, knowing there’s at least food here, we can try and find him if Celeste wants. But he had no supplies when he left. We’ll be hunting for a decaying body. She’s going to like that.

Wonder what Emperor Orthran would do if he saw how I’d failed Cyrus. Fire me? Shame me? Just say nothing? Never did know with that man. Masterful politician. Smar—

“You awake?”

Crystil jolted, her hand going to her knife. She apologized quickly and sat up slowly.

“I get jumpy like that sometimes. Unexpected noises don’t sit well with me. How can I help?”

Celeste looked up at the sky as if trying to locate the monster. When she couldn’t, she shrugged and raised her hands.

“I keep waiting for that thing,” she said, pointing to the sky, her voice just above a whisper. “To come down and annihilate us. I’m terrified of that. I know if it does come, it’ll probably be quick and relatively painless. But I’m scared to death, Crystil. I don’t want to die. I know it’s coming, and we can’t do much, but I want to die surrounded by you two, not in the pit of the monster.”

Crystil stood up and put her arm around Celeste as she finished speaking. The young girl enveloped Crystil tightly.

“When I was in the military and a bodyguard for your father, I knew I could die at any second,” Crystil said, her eyes trained to the sky as she spoke, ever alert. “A magicologist could target a spell, and I’d have to take it. An assassin might come, and I’d have to sacrifice myself. Or I could just have dumb luck with something stupid like a ship crashing. But we had a rite that helped me.”

She paused as she heard a loud swoop and the ground shook, but when she peeked outside of the cavern, the outline of the monster was on the other side of the forest.

“Before I went on missions, and before I became one of your father’s bodyguards, they performed a funeral rite for me. Literally, they all acted like it was a funeral. They put me in a casket and placed my rifle on my chest and my sword in my hand. Four of my closest comrades carried my casket to a burial ground, and I laid there, with my eyes closed, as everyone gave their remembrances and a military funeral. They used blanks for the salute, but they had everything else you’d find at a military funeral. They lowered me onto the ground, and everyone left. I was only ‘allowed’ to leave when everyone was gone. It’s funny, you know on a logical level it’s fake, but it feels so real, you really feel like you died and what you’re doing now is just a bonus. If you die, you feel like it already happened, so what is there to fear?”

She looked into Celeste’s eyes. They seemed to understand how it worked for Crystil, but not for her.

“The lesson of all of this is that if we die, so be it. I know that sounds nihilistic, but it’s not. We didn’t feel pain at all of the wars of the past, and we won’t feel pain for whatever happens in the future. We feel what we feel while we’re here, so when we look up at the monster in the sky, maybe at first we feel fear and death. But we choose our future reactions, and I choose acceptance. I accept that that thing is up there, I accept that I may die, and I accept that I will die someday. Does that help?”

Celeste smiled and gave a hesitant nod.

“It doesn’t all make sense, honestly. But I do get the essence of what you mean.”

“I understand. For what it’s worth, for over half of that rite, I still thought ‘fake, fake, fake.’ But then when my comrades came and told me to rest in peace, that brought a chill. But immediately following the chill was that acceptance, born out of the realization that death would not be terrible, and I had no reason to fear it.”