“I will. But we’re going to the Sphere first.”
25
The grey substance that passed for ground had a slight spring to it, and the crimson sky was unwavering.
The Wolverines found it difficult to judge their progress. There was too much uniformity in their surroundings, and no landmarks except for the white structure they were heading towards and the star hanging above it. The place was bright and uniformly lit, but they couldn’t see where the light was coming from. They marched in silence.
Stryke turned to Coilla, walking beside him, and spoke in an undertone. “Think we’re doing right?”
“Do we have a choice?”
He shook his head. “What about Dynahla?” The shape-changer was forging ahead, and out of earshot.
“Don’t know. There always seems to be another twist to him.”
“Looks to me like we’re being led a merry dance. You know I’d go to the end of this or any other world for Thirzarr, but…”
“But is following Dynahla the right way to go about it?”
“Yeah.”
“Again, what choice is there?”
Stryke sighed. He looked back at the column marching behind. “I’ve been neglecting the tyros. I’ll check on them.”
Coilla nodded, and he headed down the line.
Dallog and Pirrak were at the end of the column, several paces to the rear of Wheam, Chuss and Keick, and Stryke came to the trio first.
“All well?” he asked.
“We’re fine, Captain,” Keick replied.
“Though we never dreamed we’d see anything like this when we signed up,” Chuss added.
“Always bet on the unexpected,” Stryke advised.
“It’s incredible,” Wheam said, sweeping an arm at the bizarre expanse they were moving through. “I can’t wait to include it in my epic ballad.”
“Still working on that, eh?”
“When I can. In my head, mostly.” He pointed at the item in question. “I composed some more today.” He reached for his lute. “Perhaps you’d like to-”
“No. We’re in enough trouble.”
He left Wheam looking bereft.
Stryke found Dallog and Pirrak in whispered conversation, which they broke off when they saw him.
“Corporal.”
“Captain,” Dallog returned.
Pirrak gave an edgy nod and said nothing.
“You’re still bunching,” Stryke announced.
“Captain?”
“I wanted the Ceragans mixed in with the band, Dallog, but that hasn’t happened.”
“Aren’t we all Ceragans? Whether native or adopted?”
Stryke wondered if that was a dig. “New recruits, then. They won’t learn the band’s ways from each other.”
“With respect, Captain, you’ve seen how well we work as a unit. It made sense to keep us tight.”
“What doesn’t make sense is disobeying one of my orders.” He cut off the corporal’s response with a flick of his hand. “But I’m not minded to make an issue of it now. We’ll sort this later.” He looked to Pirrak. “You’re not saying much, Private.”
Pirrak fumbled for a reply.
“He’s… shy,” Dallog offered.
“Shy?” Stryke said. “I’ve heard orcs called a lot of things, but never shy.”
“These new recruits are young. They’re far from home. All this is unsettling for them, and it takes them in different ways. That’s another reason I’ve kept us as a unit.”
“The best way to toughen ’em is in the field, with combat.”
“You can’t say we haven’t had plenty of that. And maybe there’s more to come.” He indicated what lay ahead with a nod.
Stryke looked up. The white structure was suddenly and inexplicably nearer, no more than a modest arrow shot away. He couldn’t work out whether the peculiar geography of this place had made it seem further off than it really was, or whether magic played a part in drawing it, or them, closer.
Stryke made his way along the column, passed its head and joined Dynahla.
“What is that thing?” he asked, gazing at the white slab.
“An entrance, to this world proper,” the fetch replied.
“You mean this isn’t it?”
“This is no more than a vestibule. Our real journey begins in there.”
The building, if building was the right word, was an enormous, pure white block, not unlike a giant brick. It was as wide, deep and tall as any fortress they had ever seen, but bore no other resemblance.
Stryke approached it and laid a palm against its surface. It was as sleek as glass and slightly warm. He had no idea what it was made of.
The rest of the band arrived and began their own investigations.
“It’s completely smooth,” Coilla said, running a hand over it. “No sign of joins or seams or-”
“You won’t find any,” Dynahla assured her, “or a door. It’s designed to be impenetrable.”
“If that means it’s supposed to keep us out,” Haskeer declared, “it’s bullshit. This’ll do the job.” He lifted his axe.
“I wouldn’t do that,” the shape-changer cautioned.
Haskeer ignored him, took a swing and struck the wall a hefty blow. The axe rebounded and flew out of his grasp, causing several Wolverines to duck as it soared over their heads. At the same time Haskeer was thrown back, as though hit with a mighty punch. He landed heavily on his rump.
“Meet it with force and it returns that force,” Dynahla explained. “Increase the force and it repays with interest.”
“Now he tells me,” Haskeer grumbled as he got to his feet. His glare wiped the grins off the watching grunts’ faces.
“So how do we get in?” Stryke said.
“I’ll need the instrumentalities for that.”
“You said they don’t work here.”
“They don’t in the sense of taking us somewhere else. But they have other uses.”
Stryke shrugged, got out the stars and handed them to him.
Dynahla slotted them together with such speed and dexterity that the others couldn’t follow. Then he held the assembly of instrumentalities against the wall for an instant before stepping back.
A pair of parallel grooves appeared, working their way up from ground level, about as wide apart as an orc with his arms stretched out. When they got to above the height of the tallest band member they turned left and right, and kept moving until they met, forming an oblong. It had the shape of a door, but no visible means of being opened. Stryke was about to comment on that when it began to change colour. The white turned to grey, and the grey to black. In seconds it came to look like an entrance, albeit to an interior in total darkness.
Dynahla returned the instrumentalities to Stryke and said, “Do you want to go first?”
“How we gonna see in there?”
“That won’t be a problem.”
