Losing Lanterns

By Christina Lea

Zira, a roguish explorer and treasure-hunter from a medieval world, is drawn into the multiverse-spanning machinations of a charming, amoral mystic. She finds herself exploring the between-space known as Qalidar and strange echoes of her own home world. While dealing with a personal loss, she discovers disturbing things about the forces that shaped her universe and the inhuman intelligences that are trying to warp it even further.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christina Lea
• Release date: Aug 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310773532

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Losing Lanterns

By Christina Lea

Cover Art by Diego Gisbert Llorens

Map by Monkey Lot

Copyright © 2015 Christina Lea

All Rights Reserved

This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any

reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein

is prohibited without express written consent of the author. This product is a work of

fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events is purely coincidental. Names are either wholly invented or used fictitiously.

Cover art used with permission via Peryton Publishing.

www.christinalea.com

Thanks to Michael Eidson for inspiring (and editing) the story that started all this, and to Tom Loney for reliably honest advice and criticism. I won’t say I couldn’t have done it without you, but I’m glad I didn’t have to.

And thanks to my brother, Michael Lea, for several pieces of Zira’s world. I wish you could have seen the end of this story, among other things.

Table of Contents

Map

Part 1: As Always

Part 2: Between

Part 3: Nightwalker

Part 4: Ruins

Part 5: Outside

Part 6: The Web of Urizen

Part 1: As Always

Zira leaned over the edge and watched the ship's shimmering, pulsing wake. The moon was new tonight so, apart from whatever magical glowing things lived in the waves, the only light came from stars and a few lanterns. Without turning from the multifaceted surface below, she asked the short, bearded figure beside her, Fentar, are you sure there's not a storm coming?

I'm no prognosticator, kid, but the sailors don't think so. And besides, out here in the middle of all this nothing, you'd think it'd be hard for clouds to sneak up on you.

Zira bristled at being called kid but had to admit that, next to the dwarf, she might seem child-like. She had been born with a touch of the fey and, even without considering her fluorescent green eyes, had a distinctly elfish look about her. Her dark, wavy hair was bound away from her fine-boned face by a handkerchief. Her clothes were covered with haphazardly sewn-on pockets filled with lenses, tools, and dubious talismans. Her latest find, a crystal pendant from the forsaken crypt beneath an abandoned Gotaro monastery in the Constellation Islands, she wore around her neck.

I suppose so, she said, shrugging. And- A noise stopped her. The sails, previously tight against the steady wind, were rustling. Looking up, she noticed that the darkness had deepened. The stars were no longer visible. The wind sounded strange, as if carrying distant voices. There was a flash, followed within seconds by a crack of thunder that Zira could feel in her stomach, and suddenly the ship was a broken termite nest swarming with sailors. Zira tried to keep her balance on the lurching ship and stay out of the way as the rain raked over them in waves like chain link curtains.

Another nearby flash of lightning drew Zira's attention to something even more disturbing than the abrupt elemental assault. Three cloaked figures were walking towards her across the water. The ship was racing and pitching wildly, but the walkers stayed alongside it, level with Zira, as if on an extension of the deck. Far behind them, where there should have been nothing but water, the image of a pale obelisk flickered against the horizon. The walkers all carried staves and wore heavy leather clothes. As they approached, Zira could see that they were wearing strange helmets with convex glass face plates and their staves were chased with ornate metal-work.

Zira backed away, collided with a sailor, and tumbled into the stairway to the decks below. Peering back out, she looked for Fentar and spotted the three strangers again. They were on the ship, spreading out and turning their heads from side to side in an exaggerated, sweeping motion. One of them approached the first mate, presenting its staff like a badge. They were too far away for voices to carry over the din, but the man's face suggested that the stranger was speaking. Then, after only a few words from the mate, the stranger raised its staff and a stream of pale green light sprang out of the end, washing over the sailor. Zira thought she could see his skeleton before the smoking corpse collapsed on the deck.

This attack turned the swarming termite frenzy into a wounded animal frenzy. While the strangers continued to coldly execute every sailor in their paths, Zira looked around for Fentar and finally spotted him clinging to some rigging near a forward mast. Glancing around to make sure the strangers were occupied for the moment, she dashed to Fentar. How did you know? he asked, before Zira had a chance to say anything. The storm, I mean. You knew.

I'm not sure, Zira said. But I didn't know about these... whatever these guys are. Have you ever seen helmets like that?

Fentar shook his head. The staves, though... The temple guards in Alef Kur carry something that looks similar, but I've never seen them shoot anybody with one.

We're well past Malleghon, though, or any other Kurrian city, Zira said, then frowned and added, not that it would explain anything if we weren't. Hey, didn't the captain say something about life boats when we got on board?

Don't think we can handle the bastards ourselves? Fentar goaded. Before Zira had a chance to reply, they saw one of the walkers take a saber to the belly, shrug it off, and hurl his assailant into the storm one-handed. Fentar said, Never mind.

Zira felt something brush past her ear with a sound like leaves rustling. She spun around and saw nothing, but heard the strange rustle again. This time she was able to make out an ephemeral humanoid shape coalescing in front of her. The more directly she looked at it, the hazier it got, but she was able to keep it somewhat in focus by looking next to it. The figure was a man, slender, with some kind of apparatus built around his waist, and ropy protuberances trailing off into nothingness from several parts of his body. He was wearing... it was either a form-fitting garment, or nothing. Hard to tell without looking directly at him.

The leaves rustled again, and Zira realized it was the ghost-man's voice. ... with me. You must walk into the Storm. Can you understand me?

Zira nodded, then looked at Fentar, who was squinting in the same general direction. I understand your words, Zira said. But there's nowhere to walk! We can't just- She stopped herself, thinking of how the strangers had arrived. Can we?

The figure began to glow, shimmering with yellow light so that it was plainly visible at any angle. He was made of some kind of crystalline substance, shot through with multicolored veins and shadowy mechanisms. The device around his waist and the strange tendrils were all gold. His face was youthful and serene. You can. Keep in your mind my image and the feeling of earth beneath your feet, and the Storm will give you your road.

Zira looked at Fentar again, and they both shrugged. For luck, she muttered a Zotzen charm she had learned while studying the ruins of Korl Amak. She stood and took a step forward. The ground felt different, and the ship was fading away. She took another step, and could barely see it, although she could make out some kind of structures around her, or maybe trees. Fentar was still with her, so they continued walking as the glowing figure receded before them.

Their benefactor faded into the storm, but they did as instructed and kept going. Soon, there was no denying that they were on a road - land - with trees around them. Say, Fentar asked, keeping