Warrior's Heart (Book 1 of The Warrior Chronicles)

Chapter 18

Darkness receded piece, by piece. There was a pale light, then a gust of cold wind. Leyla shivered, blinked and everything came back into focus. She was lying down, looking up at a grey-blue sky. How had she gotten out of the goop? The clouds moved overhead and a bird called. She didn't recognise the sound. Did the Land of Light have a different species of bird?

Becoming aware of her body, Leyla felt the slightly damp gravel beneath her fingers. Shouldn't it have been grass? This doesn't mean anything. They've knocked me out again and placed me somewhere. Her mind finally focused and she rolled to a crouching position, a small piece of tree branch falling out of her hand. She watched it roll towards the tip of her boot, then looked up.

Trees. There were no trees! Everywhere she looked she saw rocks; massive red boulders that cast shadows every which way. The ground too was bare aside from the puddle of black a few feet from where she had been lying. A slight foreboding shiver crept up her neck, but she ignored it and adjusted her bow and sword. Don't think, just move. Trudging over the red dust she could make no sense of she climbed the tallest of the boulders around her. The sight that awaited her left her frozen.

She was standing on the edge of a steep butte and the drop in front of her was so deep that she could not see the ground bellow. . Around her were what seemed like hundreds of other buttes; gigantic rugged rocky structures pushing their plateau's at the sky. Although it was hard to see them clearly, there seemed to be buildings of some description on some of the buttes.

Leyla clutched at the hilt of her sword as she allowed her eyes to scan the sky for a second time. By Tevvuk's beard, there were three moons! Two were white while the third, the largest of the lot, gleamed a pale blue.

No.

Leyla turned her back to the scene, closing her eyes so she could catch her breath. This couldn't be real. None of this could be real. She must be dreaming. Yes. She had to have been dreaming. Either that, or she was losing her mind...

She ran her hands briskly over her face, then slowly, opened her eyes. The three moons were still in the sky and in this direction she could see small brown mud huts speckled across the plateau she was on. Lined up in two rows, the huts began not a few minutes walk from where she stood and seemed to continue all the way to the edge of the plateau where a taller structure loomed. Damn it, I've gone mad!

When her palms began to sweat, Leyla clung to her officer training. Accept. Act. Survive. It was what had to be done in moments of peril. No matter which way she looked at it, this could not be Gaia. If this was not Gaia, then there was only three possible options: the Light Landers had done something to her mind, she had really crossed into another dimension or she was dead and this was the afterlife. No matter which of those three options had come to pass, there was only one thing she could do to keep her sanity. She had to assume she had crossed dimensions and carry on with her mission.

Find Michael and take him back to Gaia.

Feeling steadier now that her mind was focused on a goal, Leyla checked her weapons, amazed that there was no trace of the black substance on her uniform. Then, with one hand on the hilt of her sword and the other on the strap of her quiver she walked towards the brown huts.

Up close, the mud-huts were larger than they had first appeared. The Domed single floor structures were wide and appeared to have basement floors that had been dug into the rock. Keeping to the shadows, she walked between the small buildings and looked into the windows. The living quarters had little furniture, seemed spacious enough to house families or five or six, but had no one inside. Where was everyone?

The sound of a door slamming, had Leyla ducking behind a wall, then looking across the road to a slightly larger hut. Two women had come out, both dressed in simple brown tunics with colourful beaded belts. They didn't seem to be carrying weapons.

Leyla observed them from her hidden position. Their height was similar to Greenlanders; not as tall as a Warrior and not as short as a No-Lander. Their skin, on the other hand, had a similar golden hue with the people of the Giant Forest, with an added tinge of red. They spoke with sharp sounds Leyla couldn't understand, their almost identical black curly hair swinging to the rhythm of the hand gestures that accompanied what had to be words.

After what seemed like an eternity, they turned in the opposite direction from Leyla and began walking down the dusty road.

Keeping to the shadows once again, Leyla followed the women, convinced that they would lead her where there were others. She needed to find the inhabitants of this place so she had someone to question on the whereabouts of a nine-year-old boy. That was, if she could find a way to communicate!

The women passed several more huts, all as empty looking as the previous ones, until they came to the tall building Leyla had noticed from the boulder. This structure was four stories high and made of, what appeared to be blood-red wood. Its door, unlike all the others she had passed so far, was wide open and the sounds of ruckus laughter spilled from within. Bizarrely the building had no windows to speak of, save for one at the very top floor.

It seemed the entire plateau was gathered inside, which meant someone in there had to have seen the boy. Knowing that she was taking a risk, Leyla followed the women into what she could only describe as a gambling den. Tables, lit by bright hanging candles and surrounded by eager bodies, filled the entrance and all of the mezzanine's above. A quick look around from a position near the door, assured her of what she had surmised; no swords, arrows, or spears in sight.

A man stumble down the wide staircases at the centre of the building, held up by two women who wore only sheer red dresses. Were they entertainers? Everyone was so engrossed in their pleasures that no one had noticed her presence. But they would and before that happened, she needed to gather more information.

Keeping close to the walls, Leyla scanned the mezzanine floors for able fighters. There were several dozen who looked like they could brawl. At least twenty who wore pick-axes on leather belts and almost everyone seemed to be carrying knives in their boots. Judging by the way they moved, none of them were trained soldiers. And yet a place such as this where money was exchanging hands... surely there would be security measures?