Yamara

"Um, there's nothing here," Brina said, looking around us carefully.

"How deep?" Sandala asked, glancing around us with barely hidden fear.

"Well, if we are standing on the dock, then it used to be at our level. Then the water dried up, so it must be on the bottom now. I'd say very deep if it were a ship from my world, because in order for something to sink deep enough to hide the masts and sails, it would have to go at least 20 or 30 feet under, perhaps more. But here, who knows."

Arktan took a coil of rope off his shoulder and passed it out, making sure each of us tied it around our waist and left a few feet of room between us. He did this wordlessly, trying not to interrupt Sandala as she began to quietly focus her thoughts. I could a strange sensation gathering around me, and it felt very much like a wizards spell did on my homeland.

Then she was finished, but the feeling of magic about me did not waver. The dust we were standing in had been moving, slowly at first and then faster. Now it was finished moving, but only because it had been banished from a sphere around Sandala roughly 10 foot in diameter. "There, a bubble of air surrounds us, we can descend into the dust and still breathe freely. If we go too far though, the dust will cover the bubble around us and we will eventually suffocate."

The dock was visible beneath our feet now, which drew surprised gasps from my companions. It was made of some sort of metal none of us had not seen before. Metal at all, in such a quantity was a kings ransom to them, let alone a strange and unknown alloy. Regardless, it was mere proof that our adopted quest was worthy.

I nodded and closed my eyes to try and remember as exactly as I could. Reasonably sure of myself, I nodded again to myself and began to walk off to the side of the dock. In three steps my foot encountered nothing but dust, and I found myself falling. The dust rushed at my face as I fell into it, and I felt panic closing in on me. Then I noticed it stayed roughly a foot away from my face, parted by some unseen force when my fall was halted by the rope around my waist. Sandala lowered herself off the edge of the dock and came next, the envelope of air she sustained pushing the dust back in front of me. Anxious to explore, Brina quickly followed us. Kryl and Arktan stood firm, easily anchoring the rope and keeping us from descending further.

I could sense something then, as I hung suspended from my lifeline. It weakly penetrated the silt and the psychic bubble surrounding me, a familiar pulling. It reminded me of Keeden at first, then I realized it was not him that it reminded me of, but rather the psionic powers he had shared with me.

"It's here, below me... I can sense it!" I said to them. "Lower me further, we must be close!"

I faintly heard Kryl grumbling up above, but could not make out which words he had chosen to mutter about me. A few moments later I descended further by several feet. The light dimmed as the extent of Sandala's bubble began to be covered over with dust. Almost perfectly, I saw a dark shape materialize in front of me out of the silt. The poor lighting made it hard to make out details, but I could tell that it was a solid surface of something. I reached out and ran my hands along it, deciding it must be the hull of ship I was searching for.

"I found it!" I called up excitedly. "Now we need to find a way in," I muttered to myself.

Making a rather rash decision, I untied the rope from my waist quickly and dropped down. I fell only a couple of feet, my body crashing into the hull of the ship before I could get my feet beneath me. I heard Brina curse quietly behind me and a moment later, she thudded onto the ship beside me. I was already on my feet though, wondering how well Sandala's concentration would hold up if I began to search around.

"Be careful you do not separate to far or you will leave the bubble of air," Sandala said almost as though she was reading my mind. I almost stopped and stared back at her suspiciously. Maybe she was. I grew suddenly afraid then, and closed my eyes and called upon what little I had of my recent psionic powers. I felt no intrusion or other presence save that of what was in the ship, and that was not invasive but simply a beacon of psionic energy. Satisfied, I relaxed and opened my eyes.

Brina was staring at me, concern evident on her face. I smiled at her to show her I was okay and saw the instant relief cover her features. It was becoming obvious that what I was sure had once been a ploy to win my trust and confidence was becoming real.

Sandala dropped lightly behind us, saving me for the time being by ruining the moment. Her fall was a boon to us in more ways then that, for when the dust was parted around her it revealed a structure that rose off of what we were standing on and had a door placed in it. I revised my thinking and decided we must be standing on a metal deck instead of a hull. For the life of me though, I could not fathom why anyone would make a ship out of steel instead of wood. It would surely sink.

Just as in Keeden's dream, a small button that glowed with an internal yellow light was placed beside it. Pushing caution away, I pushed the button and waited. My wait was unnecessary though, for instantly the door hissed and began to slide open. It was unlike any door I had ever seen, but as soon as it opened magical lights along the ceiling came to life, some flickering at first but eventually growing strong enough to show a passage.

"We found a way in!" Brina called up to Kryl and Arktan. A few moments later Kryl landed on the deck with surprising agility and came to stand with us. He had another coil of rope around his shoulder, and the rope that Arktan held remained behind us, hanging into the telekinetically made pit.

There was no sand inside. Only some dust on the surface of everything. The lighting above, entirely unnatural, did a good job of lighting up the passages for us. The air inside the ship was very stale. Dead for countless years, I was surprised that we could even breathe it. Following Keeden's memory, I led the way down the passage. Kryl was next behind me, with Brina shadowing him. Sandala brought up the rear of our company.

In what seemed like no time, I had found the pit that Keeden remembered. Glancing into it, I laughed. In his memory it had seemed like it was quite deep, but in reality, it was a fall of less then 20 feet. I nimbly jumped down, landing softly and looking about. Kryl was there in an instant, scowling at me even before his legs absorbed the fall. I smiled sweetly and took off again. I could practically feel Kryl's eyes glaring at me as he hurriedly tossed the rope up to Sandala to tie off on something so that we had a means of getting back out. By then Brina had already leapt down herself and followed after me.

Our passage through the tunnels was easy to track, given the thick dust on the floor. With that in mind, I had no trouble in heading towards our goal. Brina was beside me quickly, and she flashed me an excited grin as we explored the abandoned ship. A few more turns, courtesy of the mental map from Keeden, and we found the steel door guarding shut the treasure we sought.

"Brrr," Brina said, clutching her cloak about herself. I had not noticed myself, but under the dust and out of the sunlight, it was almost chilly. I enjoyed it though, knowing how miserably hot it was outside. I remembered then the problem I had outside, and wondered at how I had so easily forgotten it in light of the discoveries we had made.

"This had better be worth it," I muttered.

"Worth what?" Brina asked.

"Worth all the sand and silt that I've got crammed in places that nobody but me has seen in quite some time," I griped. "It's going to take me a long time to clean all that out of there, especially in a world without much water!"

Brina grinned, "I'll be happy to help you with that."

I chuckled, unable to stop myself. "Okay, well maybe there's been one more person then me that's seen them recently."

Brina seemed to glow at the praise, but we quickly got back to our goal, which was discovering what lay behind the door. I could hear Kryl stomping through the passages after us, which meant he was getting close to catching up. I held my breath and reached for the buttons beside the door. A red light was above the strange pad, and I was certain it was an intricate lock. Studying it carefully, I realized quickly that, while different and strange, the diagrams on the buttons were actually numbers ranging from zero to nine.

"You can read?" Brina asked in awe.

"Aye, it's uncommon on my homeland, but not as rare as it is here." I replied.

"What does it say?" She asked me.

"There are a bunch of numbers on it, one through three across the top, then four to six in the next row, then seven, eight, and nine, and finally on the bottom a zero."

"Wow," was all she said, suitably impressed.

I smiled faintly but studied the pad of buttons and tried to remember what Keeden had seen. In his memory, he had just passed through the door, not even noticing the buttons. I struggled to focus on them though, and finally I thought I remembered him seeing four of them lit up out of the corner of his eye.

I pushed them carefully, one at a time. One. Two. Three. Six. The light above them changed from red to green and the door opened with a hiss. More stale air rushed out at us, but what awaited inside was no fearsome monster ready to feast upon our flesh.

We stepped inside then, with still no sign of Kryl or Sandala catching up to us. I glanced back, curious but saw nothing. "I might have confused our tracks up a bit back there to give us some time alone," Brina said, glancing about nervously at the admission.

I grinned then. I had to admit, it was hard not to like the girl. Instead of saying anything I grabbed her face and turned it toward mine. Without warning, I kissed her, our soft lips mashing almost roughly against each other. My tongue slipped into her mouth as she gasped in surprise at the assault, but she responded quickly. After a brief moment of the passionate kiss I released her and stepped back. She nearly stumbled then, so caught unaware was she. I winked at her and said, "There's nothing like a girl after my own heart."

I moved further in then, and only barely managed to hear her whisper to herself, "Yes, yes I am."

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

Her breath caught in her throat and her face showed that she was scared. "Nothing," she quickly stammered out. I stepped closer to her, raising my eyebrow to show that I did not believe her.

She took a few quick deep breaths and dropped her face shamefully. I let her for a moment, then I gently raised her face up with my hand until our eyes met. "Brina, what did you mean by that?"

"I mean I am after your heart!" The words gushed out quickly from her. "You're so exotic and different and beautiful! You're weak but that doesn't stop you, you make up for it and turn it to your advantage. I'm after your heart because somewhere, along the way, probably last night, I gave you mine."

Inwardly, I groaned. This was not a good time or place for this discussion. In my opinion, there was never a good time or place for that discussion though. "Brina," I said, trying to come up with something. "You're a sweet girl and I trust and value you as a companion more then I have perhaps any other. In time who knows what can happen. For now, let us worry about the present and let everything else come to us as it will."

She nodded, unshed tears threatening to spill from her eyes. She blinked them away rapidly, trying to hide them. "Yeah, I know, sorry, I just got caught up in things."

I smiled and leaned towards her, catching her by surprise with another deep and passionate kiss. This one lasted longer, but I knew our time was growing short. She was not as surprised when I ended that kiss, and I saw her smile at me. I knew that, for the time being, I had made things alright with her.

We moved through the room then, looking for the treasure I had seen in Keeden's memory. It seemed empty and lifeless, however. The machinery and design was the same as Keeden's memory had been, even the very spot where I had seen the glowing magic. It too was empty though, only a strange pad of some sort of metal on the floor gave sign to any difference other then the rest of the floor.

I stood on the pad and glanced around, trying to remember some clue from Keeden's dream. Nothing to me though. I glanced around and moved about the room, studying the machines. Translating the archaic written language into something I could figure out was slow, but I soon found one that was labeled in something I could understand. It said, "ON". I pushed the button and instantly the machines lit up. I snatched my hand back quickly, wondering at what strange magic was at work.

"What did you do?" Brina asked, staring at a machine in front of her that had seemingly come to life with the rest of them.

"I think I woke them up," I said. I looked at the machine again and saw a lit up display that showed a needle hovering in the red at the left end of things. Other displays showed other things, but I could make little sense of them.

Suddenly the room glowed a little brighter. Glancing up, I saw the swirling ball of magic I had seen in Keeden's dream had appeared. I heard Brina gasp from the side and knew she had seen it too.

"It's beautiful," she whispered, stepping towards it without realizing it.

"Stop!" I said, glancing at the needle I had seen and noting that it was moving deeper into the red at the left end of the dial. "We have to be quick about this, I think that whatever is keeping it alive is about to run out. If one of us goes, it might not work for the other." I cursed the fact that she was closer. Had it been me, I would have simply jumped into it and taken my chances. Knowing she was closer made me try to convince her that we could share it. Perhaps we could, I supposed, and that might not have been a bad thing really.

"Okay, then hurry," she said, reaching out her hand towards me.

I approached her and took her hand in mine then, and together we walked towards it. Before we stepped into it, she said to me, "Are you sure about this?" The slight tremor in her voice I could understand, I felt no small amount of trepidation myself.

"We've got nothing to lose," I said, as much to convince myself as her. I looked calm and confident on the outside, but inside I was not so certain. "I have a question though."

"What?" Brina asked me, both of us staring into the energy instead of at each other.

"What did you mean when you said I was weak?"

Brina laughed a little at that and turned to look at me. "Sorry, I didn't mean it to sound bad, I meant you're not as strong as any of us are. It's kind of nice knowing there is somebody weaker then me in the group though, so I'm not complaining!"

I chuckled at that. It was true, she did not look to be very strong herself, but I had learned the night before that looks were often deceiving. There seemed to be something about this world, it may be dying of dehydration, but the people on it very much alive.

Before Brina could return her attention to the magical energy in front of us, I pulled her to me again for a very quick kiss and said, "I'll show you strength."

Before she could respond, I threw both of us into the shimmering lights, entirely uncertain at the wisdom of my course of action.

Chapter 7

Given my recent history, I suppose I should not have been surprised by what occurred. Nonetheless, it was not everyday that I mysteriously appeared in the middle of a street wearing clothing modest only to the basest of whores with a similarly dressed woman in my arms. Fortunately for Brina and I, what seemed like a torrential downpour was in the process.

The shock of the strange surroundings was not my first concern, by any means. First it was base and raw joy at being inundated by the rainfall. Brina was speechless, and a little frightened, having never seen so much water in her entire life, let alone in a single place. Our clothing, what little we wore, was quickly plastered to our skin. It was night out, of that much I was certain, but the tempest that raged around us kept me from gauging a more accurate time. What was important to me was that it was a real night, with no extra suns in the sky.

Gathering my senses before Brina had even begun to do so, I snatched her hand and pulled her quickly after me, dodging towards a building from which I could see light leaking through the windows.

We drew stares from the few patrons of the tavern almost instantly. Conversation faltered, though it did not come to a stop. Glancing about the room, we both saw that there were eight customers, with a single serving girl and an older man with no hair and a patch over one eye behind the bar. After the initial shock of two young woman dressed like harem girls stumbling in from what seemed a monsoon wore off, the customers returned to their own business. More or less. We both knew that every eye in the place was still on us, even if not directly. From snatches of conversation I overheard I felt a wave of relief wash over me, the people here spoke the same common tongue Brina and I knew, though the dialect was once again something I would need time to become accustom to.

"Where are we, Yamara?" Brina asked quietly.

"I'm not sure," I said, moving towards the barkeep and hugging my arms about myself as though I were a lost waif seeking help.

"Please sir, could you help us?" I asked, my voice adopting the same tone that my manner showed. Brina fell in beside me, using her youthful looks to her advantage to appear as my younger sister or similar ward.

The barkeeps eyes roamed freely over both of us before he put the mug he was wiping with an already dirty rag down and leaned towards us. "What sort of help are you needing?" His voice was gruff and in character with what I expected from his appearance.

Ignoring the obvious connotations his leer put into his question, I said, "My sister and I are lost, could you please tell us where we are?"

"Aye, very lost I say!" He laughed roughly, and then nodded towards our appearance. "Where ya from, dressed and tanned as ya are?"

Cursing mentally, I struggled to figure out a safe answer. Finally, so as to not hesitate to long before responding, I said, "From the south, good barkeep, we were on our way to the city of Belleville when bandits beset us and captured my sister and I." His expression was not as bad as I expected at my blatant lie, so I pushed on with the tale. "We were kept bound and blindfolded for weeks and forced to dress like this. Every night at least one of the brigands would force other things upon us as well."

The barkeep now wore a guarded and suspicious expression, but I could see that he was also on the verge of believing me. "We don't know how long we were forced to continue as we were, but finally they put us into a wagon a few days ago and did not allow us to leave it for anything. At least we had the privilege of a chamber pot!"

I paused then, acting overcome at the recollection of our fictitious ordeal. The bartender leaned forward in interest, and I knew the hook had caught. "If you're slaves, then how're ya here an having weapons at your sides?"

I hid the smile within myself. He was still suspicious, but now he wanted to believe me. "They left us guarded by only two men in a nearby building and one of them decided to have his way with me," Brina said, speaking up in the perfect voice and tone of a young girl who was trying to be brave and strong in spite of the terrible tragedies that had befallen her. "My sister's chains were long enough to wrap them around his throat when he lay between my legs."