Hierarchy (Book Four of the Torrent Skies Saga)

Chapter Twenty-Five: Shiver

Lugaria had not lied. Where he and Agrata insisted the village had sat, there was a crater of dark earth, steaming in the evening light. Standing at its edge, Katerin touched the soil, her stomach twisting. There were no claw marks, no blood, no signs of wreckage or fighting.

There was no village where a village should be.

Only she and Agrata were close by, as the others had been moving around the exterior of the village. She could see Fykes and Brazen overlooking the single remaining building.

The crater was deep, almost cone shaped, and the size of an entire village, with steep sides. Katerin peered down, biting her lip. "Anyone have a rope?" Her yell was too loud in her ears, and in the evening chill. But the air was not the only thing that made her cold. This was not right.

Agrata offered her a long rope after a moment. She tied one end around a tree that would hold her, and the other end she knotted, looped around her legs and waist, and leaned on it. Fykes arched an eyebrow. "You're going down there?"

"Well, there's nothing up here..."

"I doubt that the earth just swallowed the town," Brazen said.

Katerin shrugged and began lowering herself down the crater. The dirt was torn and soft, as if it had been violently churned. She expected to find harder layers of soil some ways down, but there was nothing but soft earth to leave her slipping as she descended. Even the damp clay she found was soft, as if it had erupted under some vast amount of force. As if an overlarge arrowhead had stabbed the earth and vanished.

At the bottom, the crater narrowed to a point, a few feet wide. Once she reached it, she waved, and Agrata slackened the rope.

She took several minutes, rooting around in the dirt. At first, all she found was dirt, torn roots, and moisture, that even in the winter's chill, were still warm. In fact, it was so warm in the crater's bottom, she regretted her apparel as she began to sweat. Finally, in her digging and shuffling, she found something solid. Tugging on it, she heaved, and still it would not budge.

It felt glassy, for if it had not, she would have assumed it to be another ancient root, long buried by the turning of soil. It took a measure of her strength to pull it free. In doing so, she found a palm sized emerald, nearly too hot to grasp, under the soil.

"Anything?" Fykes called, and she could just make him out above her.

"This," she said, holding up the gem by her fingertips.

A heavy wind blew, and from where she was, she could see the trees bending to its force.

"What?" asked Brazen. He was attempting to light a torch, and when he got it, the wind blew again, and huffed it out almost vehemently.

"It's an emerald," Agrata relayed to them. "You coming up?"

"I don't see—" Katerin began, but there was a strange howling in her ears. She heard heavy footsteps and the back of her neck prickled.

"Weapons!" Lugaria barked the word like it was an order in the distance. The wind picked up once again.

The howling gale picked up the loose dirt around her, tossing it about, and she was blind, as she heard a series of grunts and weapons sliding free of sheathes. The emerald in her hand burned like fire up her arm, aggravating her wrist. Between the confusion the wind brought, and the pain, she dropped the gem. There was a flash of fire, and she heard Brazen let out a cry.

All alone, in the dark.

She barely heard Lodyne's whisper through the tearing wind.

"Brazen?" she called. She still could not see, as dirt and debris swirled around her. "Fykes?!" She scrambled for the edge of the crater, but the rope had gone slack, and her climbing got her nowhere.