Engines & Demons - The Undestined

Chapter 16iii

The Field-hand scrambled back up the bank, to the point where he had pulled the bushes aside. Tahlia scowled at his retreating back, then followed him. When she reached the base of the island's sloping side, the boy was already clambering upwards.

"Come on!" he called down.

Tahlia was utterly exhausted, and frozen from the river and the rain. The slope above seemed too high and rain soaked to climb, but the sight of Maddock, a mere Field-hand, and a farmer's son at that, climbing with seemingly no effort, gave her a new resolve which bypassed the weariness in her body. She started to climb, following the trail where the sprawling bushes were not so thick. She found, to her surprise, that there were steps leading up the island's sloping side. They were steep and thick with moss and plant debris, but they seemed solid and led upwards in a straight line.

She climbed with legs that were two dead weights, and arms that would not stop shaking. The hill was a rounded curve, so as she climbed higher, the steps were not so steep and she soon found herself at the hill's summit. She was standing on a narrow plateau, barely two metres wide, which fell gradually to her right before dropping out of sight. To her left the hill sloped upwards and then it disappeared in a sharp curve towards the raging river. The plateau was covered in dense bushes with large cup-like leaves that reached up towards the falling rain.

Maddock was pulling away the grass and weeds from around the base of the nearest bush, and as he pulled, the large leaves swayed back and forth, spilling more water over his back and neck.

Tahlia had no energy to ask what he was doing, so she simply sank onto her knees and knelt, her arms clasped about her shaking shoulders. The image of her warm bedchamber back at the fortress suddenly dropped into her head. The thought of her freshly made bed, and the table next to it heaped with food, fresh from the kitchens, was as clear as if she were there.

Maddock had pulled the tangled weeds away from the bushes and begun to push his way among their straight vertical branches.

"Come on," he said again.

"We will never get dry in there," said Tahlia, not moving.

She could just see Maddock's face as a pale oval in the darkness of the bushes, looking over his shoulder at her.

"So stay out there in the rain," he said and began to push himself further into the bushes' darkness.

Tahlia immediately pulled herself up and crawled after him.

"You cannot talk to me like that! I told you who my father is, and may I remind you that he will not take kindly to..."

Her voice died as she reached Maddock's side.

He was crouched in the middle of the bushes, where the branches were tall and thick, and their cup-like foliage formed a compact domed space. Water still dripped from the green roof above, channelled by the leaves into thick heavy drops, but the ground seemed quite dry. The chamber was lit by a strange blue light, coming from the ground; from a square hole in the top of the hill where Maddock was kneeling.

She crawled forward to get a better look. A set of steps led down into the hill, to an open space below.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It's a temple, I think."

"Is it one of the old places?" asked Tahlia. "Like the Sanctuary?"

"Don't know. Could be I suppose."

Maddock began climbing down the steps. Tahlia immediately went to follow him, then stopped.

"Do the Communicants know about this place?"