Acropolis

Mother

The Serpent lay sleeping in her den. Andelko wished the voices in the distance, perhaps the travelers, would be quiet. He didn't want to wake Mother but perhaps the travelers were so accustomed to passing this way that they knew Mother was a deep sleeper.

Mother's head rose and fell like the tide and truthfully, she was the color of a mountain.

A few trees blocked the entrance to her cave. The top of the mountain where her head rose was too steep to climb and too risky to fall into. The entrance of her mountain den seemed an easy entrance—but no one has been able to risk it, says Andelko.

Acacia imagined all the possibilities—scree traps falling, poisonous symbiotic lizards, snakes, firebirds, Milko...

All may be companions to Mother.

Then Mother's companions are far trickier than she.

Chiron and Circinus stood aback. She was afraid of making any noise, speaking her thoughts aloud, but many thoughts ran through her head.

I could take the unicorns in with me for their mighty horns and protect them or I could take it like I am and run.

There was no time to think, "Chiron—Circinus, are you willing to go in with me?"

Chiron's knees buckled under him. Acacia gasped, trying not to elicit a scream and trying desperately to stand back despite wanting to catch his sore body.

"I have been trying to hide it...I've been afraid...wanting to be strong...I just need rest."

"I will go." Circinus insisted.

Acacia decided to walk astride Circinus instead of letting him carry her in case she was knocked off or hindered Circinus in any way. Circinus wasn't weak, without pity, but far young. They left the packs with Chiron for the swiftness of escape.

Phillipi was always connected to the outside world. Although the wilderness did not have the careening catacombs and bomb tunnels of the cities, the ancients set up forgotten underground trade routes to the unicorn cities, probably where the original black markets began. The black markets were probably why the wild and cultivated worlds became separate. In the old days, they would trade poppy, stolen treasures from our world (maybe to take to the Serpents of the Mound), and even unicorn slaves.

Were these slaves the cultivated ones? If they were, then that would make them either far more aggressive or submissive since the word goes that they were used as entertainment in the arenas, sometimes tortured by their rider's tenacity to hold on, and worse, by stabbings. By word, some escaped into the mountains to become wild or to become refugees in the unicorn city.

For all Acacia knew, the tunnels leading in and out of Mother's den led anywhere, even to the fruit.

Daphne must have it. Or it is buried with Conrad? But I'm involved with my friends. Why? So, I can stop the war? Why haven't I told Andelko where I suspect the fruit might really be? If I did suspect, why first, didn't I prompt Chiron or Circinus?

Circinus's breathing was heavy, even for a small stead. Acacia realized her breath was staggering too since the dive into her nagging thoughts. Her thoughts were louder than the breathing. A larger wind came from the tunnels and it hissed.

"I stop here," Circinus said, looking at the curving branches in the earth. "We are close. Look what litters the floor!"

Acacia squinted through the dwindling light. What appeared to be bones, human bones, scattered the ground in larger heaps the farther the entrances led. Something was more peculiar about these bones—they shone with the slightest swash of Acacia's torch. They shone like gold and were littered like skeletal potpourri. Of all the treasures to count not one stolen weapon!