The Song of a Poisoned Star

2

The pale northern forests of the New World were dotted with abandoned slinth buildings, all full of gold; and the Grand Duchy of Illia, which had claimed this area, was helping itself to this new source of wealth. But Illian soldiers were spread thin across the frontier. So mercenaries, freebooters, adventurers and any other scum that wanted the pay could go on runs like this to rob graves and strip the treasures of the dead, and the Grand Duchy would buy whatever gold they found, at a reasonable discount. Another place had been discovered, another notice had been posted in Gwum, and the expedition was due to set off from this Illian fort into the wilds of the New World.

Bilen had seen this with her gift for futuresight, months ago. Or at least, she'd seen the fort, and the time. But that's all she'd seen; the rest had been cloudy, far more than normal.

Because he's here, she thought. What did Gunter say his name was? Kiril. Our futuresight interfered with each other, and we both just saw nothing. And I don't know what's ahead now.

The mercenaries loaded up a pair of donkeys with equipment and food. Kiril made his slinth carry everything, and barked orders at it mercilessly. Bilen and Molina just had themselves. When the expedition was packed and ready, the Illian soldiers grunted directions at them and gave everyone their weapons back; then they opened the fort doors.

The fort stood on a ridge of land. Behind them, to the south and east, were wetlands, full of flying lizards and biting bugs and animals which filled the night with alien cries. Beyond that was settled lands, little human villages huddled together on the Gwum peninsula which stretched east into the Spined Sea. Molina and Bilen had slogged through that swamp to get here, and Bilen was thoroughly fed up with it.

In front of them, though, was a pale forest.

Its edges stretched away to the north and west, the trees growing close to each other. The Ilians had cleared away the ground around the fort, but it was regrowing, white shoots pushing up from the ground. There didn't seem to be any other plants, just the ghostly trees.

Bilen bent down and touched one; it was rubbery, more like a mushroom than a weed. She shivered and stood, and followed the rest of the party.

The Ilians had built their fort here because as well as being able to see for miles across the wetlands, they were watching over an old road which lead into the forest.

A slinth road, Bilen thought. A road that leads to abandoned villages filled with gold. This was built by the ancestors of that slinth over there, who then left it and forgot about it. I wonder what happened.

She shivered, not just from the bitter wind.

Inside it was quiet and dark. Up close the trees didn't look like trees: they were pale and fleshy, with hard white spurs that resembled bone, covered in fronds.

The road was flat squares of stone, grey and yellow, interspersed with green copper. Pale roots, thin like mushroom mycelia, had grown up through the stones; and what copper was still left was green and curled. It was slow going for the donkeys and humans. The slinth's clawed feet worked perfectly on the rough terrain, however: it could get a purchase as its four huge toes wrapped around or dug into whatever it crossed.

She could feel some sort of magic, old and faint, like a metallic aftertaste; but she had no idea what it was. It was like nothing she'd ever experienced before. She wondered how much of the New World was like this, forgotten and brooding; or if she was in this part because it was special. Either way, it didn't make it any more pleasant.

This feels like first ones magic, she thought. Now, that's worrying. It might explain why I'm here, though. Did the first and the slinth have anything to do with each other? Whatever happened, it was a long time ago.