Land of the Giants, page 2
Kyra helplessly looked around as if searching for a way out. She clearly did not want to share her secrets but saw no better option, and if their story was true, these men had saved her life. She took a deep breath and tried to think where to begin.
“My name is Kyra Tarvano. I am the High Marshal to the Kingdom of Agarta, charged with protecting my people and leading our military. I see by your reaction you are surprised to hear this. Make no amends, I am not offended. I find your tale quite amazing, almost fantastical. You see, there are no such things as gnomes. They are the stuff of bedtime stories told by old handmaidens. Tales whispered of a race long lost to Acadia, who ages past left man to his plight and crept into the bowels of our planet to live in peace. To see you here in flesh and blood, with your diminutive size and silver hair, I now know that those stories had a truth to them.”
Bipp grinned sheepishly at her.
“I know nothing of any kingdom of man that dwells alongside the gnomes, or of any forgotten lands called Vanidriell. However, your tale speaks of truth. For Acadia has certainly been invaded, conquered, most likely. The jotnar, a brutal legion of ice giants, descended upon our lands with a fury and darkness we have never known. The brutal blue-skinned devils were wiping every human from the planet like a tidal wave of death and destruction. There is…was…nothing we could do to stop them. With our future bleak and extinction near at hand, it was decided that we would construct the Citadel before all was lost.”
“Is that what this building is called, the Citadel?” Logan asked.
Kyra opened her arms wide, gesturing all about them. “This is the Citadel, our salvation. She is not a building but a ship, an ark, a vessel to wade through the sea of stars and bring us to a new home.”
“Where is this sea of stars?” Corbin asked. “We have not seen any signs of water in some time now.”
Kyra smiled. “I don’t mean a sea. It’s to the heavens I refer. The Citadel was created to take us deep into the heavens and bring us to a new land, one safe from the jotnar.”
Corbin gulped. He had read of the heavens in Elder Morgana’s books. They spoke of an infinite night sky. The idea of it had always left him unsettled. He wondered how his ancestors had been able to live without fear of falling into the limitless void over their heads. Judging by Logan’s face, he was thinking much the same.
“Then why are you still here?” Bipp gave voice to the question in all their minds.
Kyra pulled herself upright, steadying her weak legs by leaning against the wall. Logan wanted to help her, but she looked like she might attack him if he offered. Her eyes were locked on the adjoining chamber and its rows of frozen glass tubes.
“That, gentlemen, is exactly what I intend to find out.”
Kyra recovered in no time, having the stamina of a healthy young woman with concerns far too important to waste time lying about being sick and feeling sorry for herself.
As the poison worked its way out of her system, Logan could see color returning to her bronze skin, which was a good deal darker than the underworld dwellers of Vanidriell. Though he knew it must be true, the whole idea of her being from Acadia seemed absurd to him. The Elders had always taught that the surface world was destroyed in the Jotnar Invasion, scorched under the melting devastation of doomsday devices. Yet there she was, defying the old stories.
Kyra may have been smaller than Logan and Corbin, but she was taller than most women Logan knew and commanded a presence that conveyed to all she met that she was, without a doubt, in charge. She led them into the adjoining room, the “Sleeping Chamber,” and searched for some sign of what had happened.
They entered with weapons drawn, ready to fight at the first hint of a spider attack. Iridescent blue light washed over them as they entered. Logan immediately realized that he had misjudged the size of this chamber. It was easily twice as large as he originally thought.
As they came to the first row of “sleeping chambers,” he paused to look up. The glass capsule was capped on both ends with metalwork that was attached to all manner of tubes and rested a good three feet off the floor. Its glass was frosted over so that he could only dimly make out the humanoid shape locked inside the ice.
Logan took a step back. His arms fell to his sides and he stared up the rows in awe. How had his life become so complex? When did he go from the village laze-about to crazed adventurer? He wondered if the two were even exclusive concepts. He certainly felt like the same old Logan. Yet here he was, in a room filled with his frozen ancestors from a time they knew of only from fairy tales. He could only hope that he was ready for what might lie ahead.
They followed Kyra farther into the great hall until they found several broken glass chambers. Sheets of webbing covered the area. Kyra judged that the arachnids had worked for a long time to weaken the integrity of each stasis chamber until they were finally able to get inside.
“They’re so big,” Corbin whispered, taking in the height of the frozen men.
Kyra explained that the two of them were smaller than most Acadian men. She assumed it had something to do with the effects of gravity, having lived so deep inside the planet of Acadia. She noticed Bipp’s disapproving frown and quickly added that he seemed the perfect height for a gnome. He gave her an appreciative smile at this.
“Follow me,” she ordered, heading into an adjoining corridor.
Kyra’s clothing was torn and sticky from the webbing, and she was, for lack of a better word, a mess. After they passed through the Sleeping Chamber, she wasted no time finding the Waking Room and changed into her military gear. Donning tight, black leather pants with grey padding on the side of either thigh and a matching leather jacket with protective padding on the sleeves, she felt slightly better. She wore the jacket over a form fitting black shirt with a modest square collar.
Seeing her dressed for combat, Logan began to get a better picture of her as a military leader. Her long, raven-black hair was pulled into a more practical pony tail, and the tight jacket collar accentuated her high cheekbones. When Kyra looked at Logan with her chocolate-colored almond eyes, he felt like a scrutinized ant.
Wasting no time, she led them down another hall into a larger tiered area. Various mechanical devices jutted up out of the floor, each with glass cubes resting in their centers and rows of buttons with symbols on them underneath. Kyra moved to the closest terminal and tried punching keys, but nothing happened.
“We need to get one of these back up,” she said, opening a panel and fidgeting with the innards.
“Shouldn’t we try to find some sort of record of what happened here first?” Logan wondered, mulling over the dilemma. He was not comfortable being so exposed. Though Kyra seemed to be quite comfortable with her surroundings, they had no idea what to expect or what might be around each corner.
“That’s exactly what this unit can tell us…if we can get it operational again.” She frowned at the broken terminal. “I’m going to try to repair this. Keep an eye out in case some of those creepy spiders try sneaking up on us.”
She did not wait for him to answer, crouching down and falling to work messing with the guts of the terminal. She worked for some time until, finally, she gave up and blew some loose strands of hair out of her face. “It’s no use,” she huffed, biting her lip and stepping back to scowl at the broken machinery. “We’re just going to have to wake some of the others.”
“Wait, you mean you can actually dispel the ice surrounding them?” Corbin asked excitedly.
“Of course. That is what we built the Sleeping Chambers for.”
“B-but that’s…” Corbin’s voice trailed off and a wild look bloomed behind his eyes.
“Science?” Kyra offered.
Corbin snapped his attention back to them, and for a split second Logan thought his brother might try and hug her. “No! That’s incredible!” He grinned like a madman, and Kyra took a step back. “I’m sorry, I should explain myself. Lady Cassandra said we needed to travel long and far and find the surface dweller Isaac. And now here we are, talking with an actual Acadian and about to wake up more!”
Kyra shook her head. “I’ve never heard of anyone named Isaac.” Logan could see she did not want Corbin to get his hopes up.
“But there have to be hundreds of men and women in that room,” Corbin said.
“Thousands, actually.”
“So it stands to reason one of them is named Isaac?”
“I guess, sure.”
Corbin beamed. “Then we will help you wake your people, and you will lead us to this man Isaac.”
Kyra twirled on her heel and headed back to the Sleeping Chamber. “C’mon, men, follow me.”
Over the next day and half, they helped her wake one after another of the frozen humans. Each required the same care and thoughtful consideration as they broke the news that they were not only still on Acadia, but that several centuries had passed. Some took it well, but others broke down in tears, raging over the injustice of it all.
It was amazing, however, the speed with which they became clear-headed and functional again. Bipp said they recovered so easy because there was no spider venom in their systems.
As they woke more of Kyra’s crew, things sped up exponentially with more hands able to help in the awakenings. It did not take long before Logan, Corbin, and Bipp were not needed and told to wait patiently until the work was completed. The Citadel residents reminded Logan of worker ants busy taking care of the nest. An entire brigade of men and women filled the area, working diligently to bring the exotic equipment around them back to life.
These were the ancestors of his people. He had heard stories and read snippets of lore on how the Acadians relied on technology, but never in a million years did Logan expect to witness it firsthand. Glass screens became like living things, with floating words and images he did not understand. Heating systems turned on, warming the rooms, and all manner of oddities he could not explain were happening all around him.
At first he and his companions were thankful for the respite, and even for the dried, paper-like food they were offered. It tasted like licking dirt but satisfied their hunger and gave them strength again. But then, as more time passed, he began to grow impatient.
“This is getting ridiculous,” Logan said. “She’s treating us like second class citizens.” He paced back and forth while complaining loudly to Bipp, who just shrugged in silence from his perch on the countertop.
“Logan, keep your voice down,” Corbin cautioned, looking around to see if any of the nearby workers had paid them any notice.
“What in the blazes do I care if these Acadians hear me?” Logan glowered, raising his voice even louder, as if daring some of the workers to pay attention.
“I’m sure the marshal has her reasons for being away,” Corbin said, gesturing to all the men and women bringing the Citadel back to life. “It has only been a couple days, and there seems to be a lot going on that requires her attention.”
“Even so, there has to be something we can do other than sit here twiddling our thumbs,” Logan said, making the gnome chuckle.
Corbin cocked his head to the side and tapped his lips thoughtfully. “Hmm, as far back as I can recall, not once do I ever remember my older brother actually looking for something productive to do,” he teased, sharing a smirk with Bipp. “In fact, Bipp, did Logan ever tell you exactly how productive he used to be back home? Oh yes, he was always getting to the fields at harvest…just in time to sneak off for a nap, that is. One time he slept for five hours straight, and old man Harper almost shaved the nose clean off his face working a scythe through the crops!”
Bipp giggled at the mental imagery, and Logan folded his arms over his chest. Maybe it was true that in the past he had spent more time lying about than doing meaningful work, but that was then, and things had changed. Now life was filled with adventure, and he wanted to run after it with both arms.
“How can you just sit idly by while Elise is down there fighting for her life?” Logan snapped at his brother.
The instant he said it, he regretted his choice of words. Corbin’s face dropped, and he glared shamefully at the floor, his thoughts drifting inward to his fiancée, who was on the run with their entire village, trying to escape the tyranny of Magistrate Fafnir.
“I-I’m sorry, Corbin. I didn’t mean that.”
Corbin nodded slowly, brushing away the notion with a wave of his hand. He knew better than to take his brother’s words to heart. Logan could be gruff and brash at times, but Corbin had to believe his heart was always in the right place. And anyhow, his words did ring with a little truth. Though it was all Corbin could do not to dwell on thoughts of the woman he loved fleeing execution from the capitol, he had given his word that he would find the man named Isaac. According to Cassandra, he was the key to freeing them from Baetylus.
“I know you didn’t. Elise is always on my mind,” Corbin said. “I just think it’s better if we stay on good terms with these people. The last thing we need is the marshal becoming angry with us and turning her back on locating this Isaac fellow in her ranks.”
“Are you kidding? We haven’t seen her for days. That woman has abandoned us. The least she could do is come back around so I could check out that nice little backside of hers, though, eh?” Logan joked, elbowing his gnome friend, who laughed harder than he thought warranted and almost fell off the counter.
“Um…” Corbin stared at something over Logan’s shoulder, his mouth open in surprise.
Logan felt a flush of warmth creep up his neck at the realization that someone was standing behind him. When Kyra cleared her throat, he felt twelve inches tall. He turned to face her, wearing a sheepish grin on his reddening face. For all his bravado, there was something disarming about Kyra that he could not put into words.
“The technicians said you’ve been creating quite a commotion, demanding my presence?” Kyra spoke it as a question, but it felt more like an accusation. She held her arms crossed and her hip cocked to the side.
“Um…oh…well….” Logan scrambled to gather his thoughts under her withering stare.
“What my brother means to say, Marshal Tarvano, is that we feel our group could be useful to you and would like to be included in some of your plans.” Corbin extended the olive branch, hoping to diffuse the situation.
“Oh, I see. So tell me, which of you would like to get to work on the quantum drives, and which has a degree in micro-holobionetic design?” Kyra asked without the slightest trace of sarcasm in her voice.
Logan looked at his friends in defeat, hoping they would have a witty comeback. Bipp just shrugged again, which made Logan’s blood boil.
“Exactly. Leave my people alone and stop causing a ruckus. They are trying to do their job and get the Citadel functional again,” Kyra said, gesturing around the control room.
Logan wasn’t sure if it was something in her body language, an overreaction to his embarrassment, or if it was the ape of a man standing at her side glowering down at him, but something inside him snapped at her words, and he could not contain himself.
“Listen, sweetie, I dig that we don’t fit in around here, and we probably seem a little backwards to you—you know, ‘cause us Falians didn’t grow up with all these fancy doohickeys. But who the hell saved your sorry behind when it was being sucked dry, wrapped nice and tight with a tiny spider’s bow?” Logan asked, moving in nice and close to the brute for good measure.
Bipp stood on the countertop, his jaw hanging low, and Corbin rubbed his forehead in frustration. Kyra just stared at Logan in expressionless silence. The longer she glared, the more his resolve broke, and he could see the silliness of the whole situation.
“It would appear you are correct,” Kyra said. The last words he expected to hear.
“I am?” Logan asked.
“Make no mistake about the value I place on what you did for us. We’ve found hundreds of stasis tubes destroyed by those spiders. They must have been feasting on our people for generations now. Had you not come along, I would not be alive today, and for that, I am forever grateful,” Kyra said with little to no emotion while the large man beside her smiled warmly at them.
Logan was at a loss for words, all this time he had been letting himself get worked up over her seeming dismissal of them once her own people were awake. Now he felt like a petty child for seeing it as a slight.
“The lad is exactly as you have described, my lady,” the large man said in a deep, brassy voice that came from somewhere beneath the thick yet carefully trimmed brown beard which covered his upper lip and chin. Logan caught himself staring at the man’s facial scar, which ran across his cheek and over his upper lip, disappearing into the mass of hair.
“Gentleman, this is my weapon master, Stur Skorsgard, head of the Silver Lions, leader of the Agarta Footmen, and Arch-Guardian to the kingdom,” Kyra introduced the brute, who towered over the men with broad, rounded shoulders and arms the size of tree trunks. He was fully geared for battle, wearing a brigandine with elaborate golden lace patterns woven into the black fabric. A padded leather jacket hung down to his knees and split at the waist so he could move quickly. The entire suit of armor was made of a flexible network of interlocking plates stitched inside the fabric. Across his chest and arms, the padding was dyed blue with an indigo roaring lion standard on both shoulders. He wore black steel gauntlets that covered his forearms and had a man-sized broadsword strapped across his back. The blade was so large, Logan wondered how he could even wield it fast enough to actually fight. Then again, judging by the size of the behemoth, he guessed the warrior could handle himself even without the weapon.
“Goodly met, lads.” Stur placed his fist in an open palm and bowed slightly, and Corbin and Bipp awkwardly returned the salute. “You have my undying gratitude for keeping the Lady Tarvano safe when I could not.”
“We were just in the right place at the right time, Weapon Master,” Corbin sincerely replied. “We only did what anyone would in the same situation.”
_preview.jpg)
