Stoneweaver

Stoneweaver - Chapter 12

Mist shielded the docks as the dawn rays sloughed through them, obscuring Welden's passage. He stashed a cloak in a nearby hidey-hole this time, as he should be back during daylight hours, and didn't want to rely on rain moving in.

The city wouldn't be near his destination for well over an hour, but waiting till later to dive would reduce his chances of setting out unobserved.

With a final check that he was, in fact, unobserved, although with this mist he'd have heard anyone near enough to see him, he dropped into the water, a bubble of air securely about his head. The gemstone would only allow him to take so much air with him, and given the task ahead he may well need to resurface a few times to replenish his supply, but he should have time. He'd take as long as needed.

He summoned the water, folding it around himself, and wasted no time sending himself plummeting toward the depths. The gemstone allowed him to make amazing speed through the water, although he did have to keep the air in a firm wedge ahead of him to brush aside the smaller sea life which got in his way, and he slowed as the light diminished, eventually opening his lamp to provide some extra illumination.

The sea bed arrived soon enough, and he'd been slowed enough by that point that he didn't have to make an abrupt stop. Pressure had been building up on the sheathe of water protecting him, but his shell allowed him to keep it from his body, although it remained a constant feature, and he didn't want to think what would happen to him if he lost control of his own water.

Cutting a wide zigzag path towards where he believed Terevuss to be situated, he had to rise slightly when the land jutted up, but this required little enough of his concentration that his mind still managed to wander.

He didn't feel the same fear from being surrounded by water this time, or at least not as dramatically. Maybe because he didn't have such a large obstruction directly above him, even though it'd have been faster to swim clear of it than to swim back to the surface from here. But the fear didn't appear to be there. Maybe because he was returning to his first love, archaeology. Going where no man had been for centuries, to uncover lost lore. Would that be enough to erase his fears? Or would his mission be overriding it?

He allowed memories to return of the terror he'd felt at being buried alive in the mines, with no light, and no sound of anyone nearby, just that faint trickle which had threatened to become a flood. But it hadn't. A part of him had been ready to accept it. Zienna had been lost to him over a year before, taking his hope with her. But he'd stumbled down the new tunnel the collapse had opened, and after what may have been a day, or only an hour, he'd spotted a faint glow, the fungus which now grew in his lamp, and discovered the remains of a city he'd never worked out the name of. Standing at an angle, it appeared to have subsided, collapsing into the hole which had sealed it tight against the elements.

His attention returned to the present as he made out what appeared to be a road, covered now by undersea vegetation, but still distinguishable. Adjusting his route to stay with the road, he felt sure Terevuss would be ahead. He felt a relief when he spotted the marker alongside the road. He couldn't easily decipher the markings through the growth, but could tell they faced him, so he was headed in the right direction.

The writings in the unnamed city had taken him some time to decipher, the years having eroded his knowledge of the old languages, but he'd eventually managed to understand enough. The trickle of water he eventually discovered had tasted odd, and the fungus had returned a couple of times, but they'd kept him alive long enough to learn what he could, and to uncover the cache of gemstones which had let him escape his tomb. Some books he'd managed to peruse before Narvon's men had discovered him in the library had filled some of the gaps in what had happened to the world, and now he had to travel to Terevuss for a few final details necessary for his plan.