The Last Knight (An Awakening the Lightforged Novel)

Chapter 5: Ghostmine

Steal, fight, forage, maintain. Without infrastructure, that's all we have, now. Just keep going. But it's not enough.

C. 5 days, 21 hours since the assassination of rebel leadership

Estingai hopped out of the speeder, eager to get this over with. It was later than she would have liked. They'd had to wait to make sure the auroras were far enough away that they wouldn't be directly overhead on the way here or the way back. Just in case.

The initial burst of energy the auroras had given Estingai was waning—though the Auroralight would last for a full week with mild use—and everyone kept looking at her with pity. Except Kozasana. Estingai's friend kept looking at her like she would snap at any moment, which made Estingai want to do exactly that.

She was grateful for her mask as she waited for the others to get out of the speeder and off their bikes, then hide the vehicles under some carefully crafted rock formations made specifically for that purpose. Nightstone's base, Ghostmine, was closer to the coast, and Imaia territory, necessitating more extreme precautions than any of the other factions.

Estingai checked over the georaural settings while the others arranged some leaves and fallen branches to cover the vehicles. There was more coverage from trees and plants here than at Wolfden, Estingai's own base, but they still needed their lightcovers until they went inside. The mask made it a bit harder for Estingai to get a good look at some of the more complex wire frames encasing the biogems that powered the vehicles, but she was used to it. The speeder had seemed a bit off-balance to her on the ride over, and sure enough, one of the wires that pressed against the biogems to control their output was a little loose. A few careful twists with the pliers she carried at her waist corrected that.

Once the speeders—stolen Imaia prototypes that used emerald georaurals to hover over the volcanic rock littering the continent, leaving no tracks in their wake—were safely out of sight, Estingai turned from the others and hopped down into the large hole that concealed an entrance to the old mine.

Kozasana followed first. Aari, their envoy, who would take care of things once Estingai made sure everything was safe, came last.

Looking around, Estingai frowned. With all the color here, and the humid and salty air, she felt like there should be some oruu around. There was no sign of the little spirits, however. Not for a few years, now.

Estingai glanced up at the sky, trying to find Atjakuu, but the stone walls restricted her view, and they were too far from the Twilight Band to see Efruumani's moon, anyway.

The spirits' disappearance, at least, had solved an ages-old debate of whether it was the oruus' appearances that gave everyone such a precise sense of time, or if that was something they possessed independent of the spirits. It was three hours, ten minutes, and forty-eight seconds past midday, and Estingai needed no oruu to tell her that.

Looking at the dark, foreboding entrance to the mine, Estingai's stomach grew tight. She had to force back a sudden assault of claustrophobia. She drew in a deep breath of the salty, humid air, but that just conjured images of this hole filling up with water, the mine completely flooded, those inside drowned.

Her heart pounded, and Estingai realized she was drawing in deep, shuddering breaths. She had to flex her fingers and roll her shoulders to reassure herself as she remembered being trapped underground, clawing her way out of the rubble, then wandering for hours in pitch black winding tunnels. Her forehead grew hot, hands clammy.

Gritting her teeth, Estingai shook her head and brightened her yellow and blacknodes, giving herself a bit of good luck and the ability to sense nearby uses of Auroramancy. There was some deeper in the mine, too faint for her to make out any individual signatures.