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By Root 1341 0

powerfully built, gleaming defiantly in the scorching sun… so strong, so new, that Calhoun didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. They were not freestanding; instead they had been carved right out of cliffs of solid rock. Calhoun had looked upon similar structures in his youth, but they had always been silent and empty… a mute testimony to more ancient times when such fortresses provided great measures of security. Back before invaders from another world had shown up with mighty weapons that were capable of reducing such places to shattered shadows of their former selves. Never had Calhoun looked upon such a fortress “keeps,” they were called in such pristine condition. Not only that, but even at this distance he could see people moving through it, walking the parapets, going from one carved entrance to the next with confidence and casual athleticism. It was like watching history come to life. Along the bottom ridge of the fortress wall was an array of tents, private accommodations for some of the privileged higher-ups.

It took him a moment to realize that Shelby was speaking to him, and he focused his attention on her with effort. “What did you say, Eppy…?”

“Mac… where are we?” she asked with genuine concern. He saw how she was looking at him, as if worried that he’d somehow taken leave of his senses… or, at the very least, lost track of his priorities.

“Xenex.” He couldn’t quite believe it until he actually said it. It was as if the spoken name of the place lent it reality that it didn’t have moments before.

“Xenex,” she repeated tonelessly. “Your homeworld. Xenex.”

He nodded. “I… think so, yes.”

“How the hell did we get to Xenex?”

“A gateway,” he said. “There was a huge one on the ice world… much bigger than either of those transportable devices that the Iconians had. It was activated, and I took us through there to here…”” “Here’ being Xenex.” She adopted a professional, clinical attitude, sizing up the sky, the sun. “It… could be,” she said slowly. “I was only there the one time, but”

“It is, Eppy, trust me. I was there a hell of a lot longer than one time,” Calhoun told her. He stayed rooted to the spot, unwilling to move, worried in some absurd fashion that if he did, what he was seeing would simply vanish like a passing soap bubble. His nostrils flared slightly, and he frowned. He looked for some hint of smoke or damage or signs of battle from the Keep, but there was nothing, which certainly seemed at odds with what his other senses were telling him.

He was so focused on his environment that he started slightly when Shelby stepped right in front of him. “Mac,” she said firmly, “what’s happening? I know you. I know your body language better than I do my own. You’re tense…”

“We just stepped through a gateway onto Xenex, Eppy. Isn’t that enough reason for tension?”

It was a sign of how dire their situation was that Shelby didn’t tell him to dispense with the annoying nickname of “Eppy” that he favored. “There’s even more going on here than that,” she said. “It’s as if you’re in full battle mode. Like you’re detecting an immediate threat. What’s going on? I have a right to know, a right to be as prepared as you.”

“You couldn’t possibly be,” he said, and then instantly regretted the harshness of his phrasing.

Shelby, however, did not appear to take offense. Instead she simply inclined her head slightly, and said, “If you mean I can’t be the fighter you are, considering your background, fine, point taken. But my mind’s as sharp as yours, Mac, and information will help me as much as it will you.”

He drew in a deep breath of air to confirm that which he’d already surmised. “There’s been fighting,” he said.

“How do you know? I don’t see any sign of it.”

“Nor do I,” he admitted. “But… I can smell it.”

“What do you smell?”

His instinct was to protect her from the situation, but it was an instinct that he had to override. He knew she deserved better than to becoddled and sheltered, and besides, if he was right, she was going to find out sooner or later anyway. “Blood. There’s blood in the air. Blood and death.