The content of this page is © copyright Stephen Deas 2001 and is used here with permission.
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I was not prepared for the sight of the Imperial Encampment. I had thought, perhaps, to see an array of yet more tests, perhaps within the earth walls of some temporary fort. Yet, instead, my eyes were greeted with the sight of a single vast building, wondrous and strange. Two great arches, set at right angles and merging together at their peaks, fashioned of gleaming white stone, so bright I could not look at them without screwing my eyes almost shut, and with curves so perfect I could not believe they had been hewn by any but the finest sculptors. And mounted upon the top of these arches, a lofty spire, whose colour ran from the same flawless white, seamlessly through haze and smoky grays until the very pinnacle was darkest midnight black.

Lostra pulled close. "Do you have such wonders in your land?"

"I have seen stranger things. But usually called something grander."

"If you're lucky, you'll see it move."

We drew closer, and I began to see doors, fortified and guarded, in each of the legs. Only then did I truly understand the size of the fortress we approached, for the legs alone rose half as high again as the walls of Icantoka, and if it could walk across the land upon them, as I suspected it could, I began to regret I had not one of my own, with which to simply stride into the cities of my enemies, ignoring their battlements to set myself down where I chose. I could feel the sorcery of the place, seeping out and reaching to me through the air, like some delicate aroma, faint, yet succulent and irresistible. In all my travels, I had never met such a device.

We entered into the doors of one the legs, leaving our animals to graze untended around the fortress - though I soon learned there was space enough for them inside as well. I had expected a long and arduous climb to reach the higher levels, but it seemed we had walked no distance at all when we emerged into brilliant sunlight, standing at the base of the darkening spire, looking down the sweep of one vast arching leg, and across the swathe of the horizon, high enough I could clearly see the Silver Sea, and, with my eyes squinting tight against the light, perhaps Lostra's ship, harboured there.

"You are lucky we are here," said our escort. "I am Vann. You will be responsible to me for your actions here. I will be receiving your Life-Sand. You will be making your request for goods to me now, so we may begin to gather them. We were not made ready for you arrival, as is customary. Why is this?"

Lostra bowed. "We are attacked. We seek help."

"The Bone Emperor's protection extends to you while you are here. It does not reach into the Silver Sea. We cannot help you."

Lostra bowed again. "We do not seek your protection. We are attacked by creatures armed and travelling with devices of magic. The sorcerers of the Bone Empire are known to be the most powerful in the world, far exceeding our own feeble abilities. We seek knowledge from them, so we may learn their nature and defend ourselves."

"We seek the Well of Shadow," I said.

Vann looked at me long and hard. "I have heard of this place. But it lies beyond the Empire. Far beyond, in a place none but the greatest of sorcerers can reach. Or so I am told." He turned to Lostra. "These sorcerers steal the sand."

"Yes, fort-master Vann."

"Then the Empire will help you. You wish to stay?"

"Yes."

"Then I will show you where you may do so."

The fort, I soon discovered, was far more than a fort, but more a whole town - a small one, but a town nonetheless, which moved about the lands of the Empire, trading good wherever they were needed. I did not feel it when it moved, and we were not permitted outside to see, but I did not need to see to know how fast it must travel. An hour would go by, forced to the confines of our rooms - for the power needed to move it left none remaining for the magical portals scattered throughout its interior and which were the only means of moving from place to place within it. And at the end of that hour, the portals would open again, and Lostra and I would go outside to the balconies of the upper spire and stare at looming mountains, whose peaks had not even scratched the horizon from our last position, or at lakes which Vann told us were a thousand miles from the Silver Sea. Yet at each point we stopped, though we were permitted to view the marvels of the Empire, we could not leave the fort. The doors remained barred to all but Vann's soldiers. In this time, we struck up conversation with other travellers, who had entered the fort at some previous destination, and now found themselves confined with us, much to their discomfort. As the days drew on, and I became more familiar with the workings of the magic portals, and thus with the design of the place, I found more and more of these hapless souls, together with many citizens of the Empire who were not soldiers at all, but lived within the fort, making their living as merchants, or providing goods and services to those who wished to travel. I listened to stories of woe - rooms of Sacred Peaches, rotting and useless, messengers who could not deliver their messages, bureaucrats intended to collect some minor tribute, or else with it collected, but no means to deliver it. Many, I learned, would forfeit their lives, through no fault of heir own, yet seemed to accept this with a passive nonchalance I could not understand.

"They know they will return. They have discharged their duty to the best of their ability. Their ability was found wanting, so they will die. But they have not neglected their duty, so they know they will return to a post more suited to their talents," said Vann. "Is it not so in your land, Skyrie of Icantoka."

I had to shake my head. "All the people I have met believe as you do, that they will return in some way. Yet I have not met any who are so inclined to put their belief to the test." I remembered the ferocity of the battle before Icantoka finally fell. "Especially those from my own land."

Vann frowned. "Then how do you regulate yourselves? Do you not strive to fill every position with the man whose talents most exactly match the requirements of what they must do, no more, no less?"

"I would say, each man strives for the highest position they can attain, irrespective of their ability."

"Then I do not understand. You must live in chaos."

I could not argue. Skyrie Chaosbringer. I have not been called by that name, but it would not be false.

By the sixth day of what I had begun to think of as our imprisonment, I had found a place where my fellow travellers, trapped with us, congregated, where the talk was loud and free, and wine and ale could be bought. I would call the place a tavern, but it was not, for it gave no more shelter than lay though its portal entrance, no fire burned, no bards sang, no windows gave outlook onto a dark and stormy night. Nevertheless, I had found this place, and took to passing my idle hours inside it, questioning any who would give me their time, learning about this place, the Bone Empire. And always, asking for the Well of Shadows, though I had learned nothing more than fort-master Vann had already told me. And, too, each one I spoke to asked me the same question - did I know what had happened? Did I know why they could not leave. I gleaned from them some rumour of revolution, an attack on their Emperor, though when they understood I was not from the Empire, they would not speak of such things in front of.

One man, in particular, I noticed, would watch me, each time I entered. Would study me intently, yet was careful to avoid me. I had a mind to walk directly to him and confront him, yet, confined as we were, I drew instead some amusement from watching him, watching me, seeing which of us could be the more covert, and all the time, watching Lostra, happy and oblivious. I had grown to expect his presence, and so when I next returned and he wasn't there, I felt a strange disappointment. Yet I had barely time to wonder on this, when a hand brushed my back, and he was sitting at my very table. He learned close to me.

"You're not from here, are you?"

I laughed. "Surely everyone must know this by now. I am from a land across the Silver Sea."

"Yes." His voice rang with urgency and purpose. "This is what they say. It is true, isn't it? You from a land called Icantoka?"

I could not help myself. "No. I am from a village that was once called Skyrie, and is now called nothing at all. I have most recently conquered Icantoka."

He recoiled. "You are a warrior? No - surely - I was certain you are a sorcerer."

"Perhaps I am both." Though I wondered why he would think such a thing, for I had not cast a single magic since entering leaving the Silver Sea.

He shook his head. "Such do not exist... unless... Of course, I forget - you not from the Empire. Is it true, then. There are a people from beyond the Silver Sea who practice both the art of the sword and the art of sorcery?"

I smiled at him. "Who is to say?"

He nodded sharply - as much to himself, as to me. "I am right. You are a sorcerer. I have watched you, you know. I have seen you study our magics. Are you a spy? Yet you must be a sorcerer - why else would you seek the Well of Shadow."

"Why indeed?"

"Yet you carry a sword. Why?"

"For when a spell does not serve my purpose, perhaps?"

He nodded again. "You must help me."

"Must I?" I watched him carefully now, the rest of the room fading into a blur of sound and motion.

"Yes. I must escape this place."

"I understand it is forbidden, though I do not understand why."

"I will tell you why. We are ruled by the Bone Emperor, yet his Speaker, who should have been his closest, most trusted aide, who had only but that day been elevated from the rank of Precursor, tore the Bone mask from his face, and revealed there was no Emperor at all. The court is thrown into confusion. The imperial guard seek to hunt down and kill all who even know of this."

I raised an eyebrow. "Then, friend, have you not just condemned me to death? And this is how you seek my aid."

"They brought the Speaker to the Silver Sea, where he was to die the death of Wilting, yet, being a sorcerer of no small talent himself, and having friends who had not, at that time, been captured, he escaped."

"I'm sure this is of great interest. I do not understand why I should help you. Should I not take you in hand and turn you over to the fort-master?"

He sneered at me. "Not if you wish to live, for I would tell them, whether I wished it or not, what I have told you, and then we would die side by side."

I slipped a knife from my sleeve and into my hand. "Then perhaps I should do their work for them, friend."

Now his disdain turned to fear, which I found far more agreeable. "You seek the Well of Shadow. The Precursor will know how you may reach it. I can take you to him."

"And who is this Precursor?"

"The Speaker! The one they seek! You came here to seek the Well, did you not?"

"I came here to seek many things," I replied, wondering how he knew this thing. "I also seek those who would harm the Silver Sailors."

"I know nothing of that."

"Unfortunate." I let the dagger slide back into my sleeve. "And how will I help you escape?"

"You are a sorcerer."

"As are you, unless I am mistake. Yet you remain."

He sighed, slumped. "It is true. I am a sorcerer. And, I had thought, a strong one. But I cannot pass the wards that have been placed on the portals, and without the portals, I do not know how to reach the outside."

I shrugged. "Surely a simple transportation spell, if you have such a thing, to travel far enough to be sure you are through the walls, and a little levitation to sink carefully to the ground. And then a fast horse should be all you require."

"You idiot - don't you know anything about this place? Firstly, the walls are hexed to prevent any such thing, and secondly, do you really think all these rooms are contained within a single walking fortress? Of course they're not. There are hundreds of them, and their portals all lead to a single place, this place. Perhaps you have not had time to understand, but this is a city, it is enormous. Millions of people live here, hundreds of thousands of soldiers are garrisoned here. We are in a null-place, perhaps far beneath the Skullcap mountains, perhaps not even in the world you know of at all. The only way out is though a portal to one of the walking forts, and from there, through its defences, to the world outside." he stood up. "I cannot stay with you for long - if they find me before I am able to escape them, I would not wish to bring death upon you."

"You are most generous, I am sure."

He nodded. "I will find you again, soon. Have your decision made."

I would return, one day, to the infinite citadel, with its hundred walking gatehouses, and discover how truly vast it ran, yet I have never known with certainty where it lay, or even whether it existed in one place, or in many, connected across mountains and valleys, across continents and seas, even, in the end, across worlds. As to its creator, I can but admire their skill, patience and artistry, and presume they were from a different age, for surely such creations lie now beyond the talents of mere men.

The content of this page is © copyright Stephen Deas 2001 and is used here with permission.
It may not be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the permission of the author.