The Heartstone Saga by Archibald Bradford (short novels in english .TXT) 📕

It wasn’t the first time that Nameless and his girls had been underground, the last time being when they found Volka’s shield beneath the Sansee Wastes.

But following the course of a methodical excavation like that was different than following the whims of an Antlion queen’s colony; without Queen Julia to guide them through the rough-cut stone passages they would have very quickly gotten lost in the winding labyrinth.

And somehow Nameless had forgotten the muted feeling of so many tons of rock above his heads in the claustrophobic space.

Following the queen’s lead, they delved into the longest of her daughter’s tunnels. Mostly it was sandstone around them, but once they reached the bottom they inevitably hit a hollowed out space that ended with walls of solid granite, largely untouched by her daughter’s workers and their tools.

“This is it. This is the deepest tunnel she had.” Julia fretted as she looked to Jan, already snuffling around; “Please, there must be something!”

But all too soon the Wolfen sighed and shook her head.

“I’m sorry Queen Julia, but all I smell is your workers and us.”

The Antlion’s chin trembled and she wrung her hands together.

“I... I don’t know what we do now.”

While they talked though, Nina moved around the room, tapping at the walls and floor with her hands and feet, her brow furrowed in concentration.

“Dearheart what is it?”

“Shush. Antlions aren’t the only ones who understand the bones of the earth.”

A bit indignant at being shushed, Ophelia crossed her arms over her breast, but said nothing.

Erica gnawed at her lip and shook her head.

“No offense to the old dog-lady, but maybe Grant would have been a better choice, not for Bruti’s nose but for Linda’s ability to-”

“SHUSH!” Nina repeated, much louder this time, the ground around them shaking alarmingly.

All eyes looked to her as she glared at the harsh granite wall, her fingers moving through the occasional gouge from an Antlion’s tool.

Queen Julia drifted closer to her, the handful of soldiers that had accompanied them into the excavated colony eyeing the tiny red girl, gauging the level of threat she might present to their sovereign.

Eventually Nina turned to the queen and shook her head.

“Are you sure this is the deepest part of your kid’s colony?”

“Yes, why?”

But the Gigas didn’t answer; instead she took up her hammer and lightly struck the wall, a few chips of fractured stone falling away as once again they felt the vibration of her strength through their feet.

Immediately after hitting the wall she set her palm against the smooth stone and closed her eyes.

Everyone in the little chamber was breathless as they watched her.

Finally she nodded her head firmly.

“Cool. Your daughter was right, there are caves down here.”

Miranda drew closer to her, the glowing lost-tech orb in her fist sending the giant’s shadow dancing across the solid wall.

“I’m not going to ask how you know, but are you sure?”

Nina nodded, choosing not to get prickly about the inane question.

“I’m sure. But they’re above us. It looks like Avita’s workers missed it with this tunnel and gave up once they hit the granite.”

“So what does that mean?” Jez asked impatiently from her perch on Kala’s back.

After her rebellion against Ophelia, she had opted to stick closer to her Amazon bond-sister.

The Gigas shrugged and turned towards the desperately hopeful queen.

“It means you need to show us the second deepest part of this place.”

Erica looked back at the sloping tunnel they just came down, distaste on her face at the idea of climbing back up it, but out of respect for the worried Antlion Queen she didn’t complain.

Not long afterwards they were standing in a similar little node within the colony, except here the walls were sandstone again.

Jan sniffed around, but once more shook her head helplessly, any scents of the former Antlions overwhelmed by the latter ones.

“Spread out!” Julia ordered her soldiers and a small group of workers she’d summoned from the surface; “If Avita found a way into these caves it must be near here!”

Nina set to work examining the walls, but Nameless felt a growing sense of frustration from her.

“I know it’s here somewhere, I can feel the open space.” She muttered to herself as she moved around the room, then back through the tunnel that lead to it.

Feeling useless, Nameless just did his best to stay out of the way.

But a few minutes later he felt a jolt of excitement from his Gigas as she stopped in her tracks.

“Light! Somebody bring me light!”

The tunnels of the colony were certainly more spacious than an actual ant-colony, but they were crowded now as everyone converged on Nina to see what she’d discovered.

Unable to get past the press of bodies, Miranda tossed her glowing orb to Ophelia, standing closer to the giant.

“Yep. Fucking hell I deserve a promotion or a cake or something.”

“What have you found?!” The queen demanded, her girls moving aside to allow her through.

“Look here, this isn’t natural.”

Nina smacked her palm against the wall, a chunk of loose sandstone falling away.

“Was that... plastered in place somehow?” Ophelia asked as the Gigas kept digging with her bare hands.

“Mortared.” Nina corrected; “But let’s not split hairs. Now everybody quit crowding me so I can do this thing.”

Soon she had cleared away the plugged up hole, revealing a narrow opening, where presumably Avita’s workers had initially discovered the hidden caves that they now sought.

Once again Nina asked for light, and this time tossed the light orb through the opening.

“Bit of a drop. We’ll need rope for the squishies.”

The Antlion workers came prepared and once they had helped Nina to widen the opening, they tossed down a ladder made from rope and solid planks of wood.