It was unclear how long Slate and Arianna had been riding in the bleached heat of the desert when a giant rock formation in the form of a bull’s horns came up from the sand to block the sun. The shape was represented on the travelers’ map, one of the few things in the desert that were, as the town of Saityr’s Quarry, the town Ginny had made clear no longer existed.
A bizarre scene revealed itself to the riders as they neared the rock bull. Dozens of points of light sparkled about the low hills rising up to the formation, reflections from scattered ruins. Arianna was the first to notice the huge gashes in the red rock mountain, the scars of a massive mining operation. Around dozens of buildings built into the mountainside were blast-holes gaping like sores, with rails and platforms running in and out and trails of scree trickling down like gore.
“My Gods…What did someone do here?” asked Arianna. “It’s like Alm is bleeding.”
“It’s awful,” Slate agreed. “What do you think they were mining?”
“I don’t know,” Arianna said, “All this destruction, what could possibly have justified it?”
Slate and Arianna dismounted when the path became too littered with stones, continuing on foot and leading their horses through the ruinous wastes.
They passed the tin skeleton of an operations building, corroded and full of holes. When they stopped to investigate, a loud bang of metal on metal sounded from somewhere in the near- distance. Chestnut reared up in fright as two figures, then three, appeared from over a low hill.
“Hello?” cried Slate. His voice was lost in the expanse of the desert.
One of the figures gave a wave.
“Do you think we should go talk to them?” Slate asked Arianna.
“Yes, I think so,” she said. “Though, I'm a bit cautious. What could they be doing here?”
“Mining? Hunting?” Slate guessed. “Maybe they know of a well.”
"We need water," Arianna said.
"Then let's go talk to them," Slate said. "But be ready to run."
The two left Pilotte waiting with the horses, though the wulf still followed halfway after them as they went to meet the strangers, ready to defend if he had to.
“Do you have anything to eat?” an emaciated man begged. The others with him were a woman and an even sicker-looking child.
“We do have something to eat,” Slate answered. “We have more than enough to share.”
“Do you have any water?" Arianna asked.
"Yes," the woman said. "It is practically all we have."
"If we share our food with you, will you share your water?” asked Arianna.
“Bless you, of course. Bless you! Come with us,” the ghost of a woman said weakly but happily.
Slate and Arianna followed over the sand hill to a patchwork tent riddled with holes and worn thin by the unforgiving desert sun.
“Please, can you share your food with me and my family now?” the man begged as soon as Slate and Arianna sat down on his rug.
“Of course, of course,” said Slate. He reached into his sack and brought out crackers and sausage, which the family accepted with ferocity.
“Careful not to eat too fast, Dora, you’ll hurt your stomach,” cautioned the mother, restraining herself from devouring the food.
Slate and Arianna watched the family eat until the father looked up at Slate with eyes more present, sharp, and full of life.
“Praise the Gods, thank you, thank you,” he said.
“Please, there’s no need for thanks," Slate said. "You can have all you want. How far are we from food that you are starving so badly?”
“We aren’t too far from food, but we can’t get to town,” said the woman.
“Why not?” asked Slate.
The man lifted his pant leg to show a malformed limb, thin at the top, with bubbling folds of skin at the bottom.
“What happened?” asked Arianna.
“It’s from the mines,” the man said. “It’s all from the mines.”
“What was mined here? Who did this to you, to Alm?” Arianna asked.
“Opal Pools,” the man answered. “At first they were alright, even good for this city. We had always been a goldquartz quarry, and we were blessed with a good spring and a lake. Lots of folks from Proterse would buy our goldquartz and vacation here. But then Opal Pools found tynarium in the mountain, said they found lots of it. We didn’t know what it was, tynarium, but the attention it attracted was even better for the city than the lake. Lot of money came in, lot of new work for the men and women around here, for the people from down in TkLawt, for traveling workers coming down from Aurora Falls. Opal Pools built schools, a firehouse. Dammed up the river and gave us glowing street lamps.”
“I was able to get an oven, a real, hand-wrought oven,” the woman interjected. The idea still seemed to excite her.
“But then everyone got sick,” the man continued. “Started to get so sick. People started to die, fast. Coughing up the strangest stuff after being in those mines. Of course, certain bodies held out longer, so the foremen pointed to them and said, 'See, nothing’s wrong here.' But mainly, people started to get sick.”
“And then all the babies born were already dead,” the woman said sadly. “The schools they built just sat there. There weren’t any children to fill them.”
“Except Dora,” the father said proudly, grasping his frail daughter tightly. “And Faim, my son. He’s in back."
"Did everyone die?" Arianna asked.
"Not everyone," the man said. "When the tynarium was gone, which was almost as soon as it was found, and so many of my friends had died, they decided that the best thing to do was to flood the valley, to try to wash away the sickness. They tore up everything they could, barely even left the buildings, tore up the mine tracks and wells and even the fire station. They hauled it all away, broke the dam, and flooded the valley. Didn’t give us but a half a week’s warning beforehand. We couldn’t leave, Faim was too sick. We sat right up there on the mountain and watched the town get washed over. But all the water did was wash more waste out of the mines and onto the plains, destroyed the lake. You see what’s left. All we’ve got now is our spring.”
“Is there anyone else left here, other than you?” asked Slate.
“Maybe,” said the man. “It’s hard to move, though, so I don’t know. Can we have more to eat, please?”
Slate gave the family the rest of his remaining food. After it had been devoured, the man stood up.
“We are so grateful for your help, friends,” he said. “Please, I want you to meet my son.”
He beckoned for Slate and Arianna to follow him through a tattered fabric partition to the back of the tent. Slate saw the faint outline of a body there, covered by blankets in the dark recess.
“Faim?” the man asked the boy, “Faim, I want you to meet Slate and Arianna. They have brought us food to eat!”
An almost undetectable ruffle signaled life within the blankets. Slowly, a bony hand reached out and pulled down the fabric to reveal two huge, blue eyes staring out from a sunken face.
“This is my son, Faim,” the man said as he knelt next to his boy. “How are you feeling, Faim?”
The boy’s body tensed, but he couldn’t speak. As Slate’s eyes grew more accustomed to the dark, he could see the child more clearly: pallid as the moon, his skin stretched taught over his bones. Whatever muscle tissue he once had was gone. Dark veins ran in visible striations all over his translucent body.
“He’s feeling better. Aren’t you, Faim?” asked the father.
The boy's eyes bulged in terror like the deadened eyes of the itchy fish Slate had helped Hid Hidli catch.
“He’s so strong, my boy is,” the man said, trying to hold back tears. “He’s so good, he never complained. He’s like an angel, like a gift from the Gods. See how beautiful he is? How his skin turns clear? He’s like an angel.”
Slate and Arianna watched as the man washed his son’s ghostly face with a damp cloth, speaking
inaudible words of comfort. When at last the father had covered the boyand dried his own eyes, he showed Slate and Arianna out of the dark space.
“If you’d like to stay the night, we can find you something to sleep on,” the man offered. "Though, you shouldn't stay long. Death is all around."
"Perhaps we should leave now," Slate said.
"When we reach TkLawt, we can tell the authorities you are out here," Arianna said. "They will come to rescue you."
"There are no authorities in TkLawt," the woman said. "But thank you for your kindness."
"We will try to find help, anyways," Arianna offered.
"Come, I'll show you the well," the man said.
"Is it not poisoned?" asked Slate.
"I test it every day," the man answered. "It has not yet been poisoned."
"Thank you, then," Slate said. Without making any eye contact, he offered a goodbye to the others in the tent, and then stepped back out into the sunlight.
After filling their canteens, Slate and Arianna fled back to Pilotte, Patch, and Chestnut. They mounted the horses and rode out from the shadow of the Bull's horns.
"What's tynarium used for?" Slate hollered over the sound of the horses' thunder.
"Nothing that I know of," Arianna hollered back. "Not anymore. It hasn't been used since before the Fall. Since the age of the Gods."
Chapter 22