Ten minutes ticked by before Jasper felt the spell reset. “S?ams?a?dur, Ihra, you’re up,” he said, waving them over.

  The durgu looked like he’d swallowed a mug of sour milk as he stomped over to him, grumbling beneath his breath about the unnaturalness of flight.

  “What’s that?” Jasper asked with a grin. “If you don’t want to fly, you could always swim for it. You’ll probably only lose one, maybe two limbs max.”

  S?ams?a?dur was unamused. “Just get it over with,” he growled.

  “This will hurt for a couple of seconds, but then it gets better,” Jasper warned as he pressed his hand on the prince’s shoulder and willed the essence into him.

  A spasm racked the man’s back, but he bore it stoically, scowling as a pair of spectral wings sprouted from between his rib cage and beat lethargically. “That’s it?” he asked. “But how do I control them?”

  “Just think of where you want to go; the spell does the rest.”

  “I-” S?ams?a?dur’s speech slurred into a howl as he rocketed into the air, ascending a hundred feet in about two seconds before he jerked to a sudden and complete stop. “Kruvas?,” he cursed loudly.

  S?ams?a?dur blurred forward as he tried again, and his curses rang off the rooftops as his shin smacked into the side of a nearby building, before finally managing to pull high enough to disappear behind a row of apartments.

  “Damn, that’s got to hurt,” Jasper winced. “I wasn't that bad of a flier in the beginning, was I?”

  “Some people are naturals,” Ihra shrugged. “Others are natural screwups.”

  Jasper chuckled as he placed his hand on her shoulder and imbued her with his second cast of the spell. Her shoulders writhed as the wings emerged, but she was used to it by now and didn’t complain about the pain.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t have a third cast of the spell available, which meant he was stuck waiting around for ten minutes. In a city possibly occupied by an unknown enemy capable of wiping out the grand civilization surrounding him. By himself. Get a grip, he chided himself and plastered a smile on his face as he waited for Ihra to depart.

  “See you in a - oof!” The air was crushed out of his lungs as Ihra’s arm snaked around his waist and cradled him against her chest as she took off into the air.

  Jasper squirmed uncomfortably, suddenly keenly aware of exactly where his head was pressed, but had the good sense to keep his mouth shut. Ihra generally had a good sense of humor, but there were limits to everything, and he preferred not to take an unexpected plunge into the glowing violet water.

  They rocketed past S?ams?a?dur in a matter of seconds, and leaving the durgu? in their dust, angled toward a distant pavilion where a trio of familiar figures awaited them. But it took a few minutes to get there, as they flew, Jasper craned his head around, taking in the view.

  The city was even more breathtaking from above. If anything, he’d underestimated its size before. Beyond the flooded quarter in which they’d emerged, the city continued for dozens of miles, with the heart of it built on a low-lying plateau that overlooked the sea. The blue orb awaited them here, hovering above an expansive building at the edge of the cliffs that looked in particularly bad repair, but it was still some miles away from the pavilion where the others were waiting.

  He only had a few minutes to study the city, though, before Ihra dove down, hitting the pavement with a running stop. Extricating himself from her grasp with a muttered thanks, Jasper hastily greeted the others. “Find anything interesting?”

  “We thought it best not to wander off before you arrived,” Nissila?t answered smoothly, although Jasper could tell from Tsia’s scowl that it had not been an altogether harmonious decision.

  “We could have at least searched the nearby buildings,” she muttered.

  “And if we stumbled upon enemies?”

  “If there are enemies, then we’re surrounded anyways,” Tsia pointed out. Frankly, Jasper agreed with her, but he opted not to take sides.

  “Well, we’re here now.”

  “Where’s the durgu?” Nissila?t pressed, and Jasper grinned.

  “Tsia could fly circles around him, if that tells you anything.”

  “Kruvas?!” Jasper turned as a pained yelp echoed behind him and tried not to laugh as the durgu crashed into the roof of a nearby building. The wings’ momentum carried him forward, and he plunged off the ledge. Unfortunately, the durgu panicked, and like a driver who hits the gas instead of the brakes, surged straight into the earth. “Urgh.”

  The durgu rolled over with a groan and, as the four jogged over toward him, Jasper's fingers twitched with Circle of Protection. “You alright?”

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  S?ams?a?dur fixed Jasper with a glare as he set up, his hand dabbing at the blood that had streamed from his nose, but his irritation melted away as the spell hit him. “Aye,” he grunted. “Nothing injured but my pride. How do you make that look so bloody easy?”

  “Perhaps durgu? aren’t meant to fly,” Jasper replied, offering him a hand up.

  “Well, this durgu certainly isn't. Though now that I think of it, I’ve never heard of a dwarven mage who can fly.” S?ams?a?dur accepted a towel that Ihra fished out of her bag and cleaned the blood off his face before looking around at the pavilion. “Find anything interesting?”

  “They didn’t look,” Jasper replied, hiding a chuckle as a Tsia threw a victorious look at Nissila?t.

  “And the orb?”

  “To the northeast, I think,” Ihra answered. “It appeared to be on the northern edge of that acropolis.”

  “Don’t tell me we’re going to fly there,” the prince grunted.

  “It would be the fastest way,” Jasper interposed, “But I’m curious to see more of the city. Who knows when we’ll get another chance to explore a place like this?”

  “I think we should fly-” “As long as we don’t have to fly-”

  Nissila?t and S?ams?a?dur paused as the two spoke over each other, and then the prince resumed speaking. “I’d rather stay on my two feet if we have a choice. Besides, we still don’t know if we’re alone here. We’ll have to split up if we fly, but it’s safer to stick together,” he pointed out.

  “You have a point,” Nissil?at agreed, swallowing her objection, and Jasper looked to the others. “Anyone else have a preference?”

  “While we’re here, we might as well see if there’s loot,” Ihra spoke up, while Erin and Tsia shook their heads.

  “Then it’s settled; we’ll continue on foot for the time being,” Jasper decided. “Should we search the pavilion before we leave?”

  Agreeing to stay within sight of each other, the group split up to search the edges of the pavilion. While from above, Jasper had assumed it was a market, up close, it was clear that the open-air plaza must have had a different purpose. There was a massive discolored area near the center where something far too large to have been a merchant’s stall had been removed, though its shape was so irregular that he couldn't even hazard a guess as to its purpose.

  Finding nothing of import, they continued up the street, pausing to search any buildings that looked interesting. And as they did, a picture of the city’s doom began to unveil. Judging from the sheer amount of abandoned buildings, stripped bare of every furnishing - and in many cases, even down to the studs - it was clear the city had not fallen overnight.

  Its people had had time to flee with their possessions and their lives, though not all of them had chosen to do so. While about half of the homes were stripped bare, others appeared to have been inhabited until the end. Lavish manors sat empty, with tables still set with plates of solid and gold and mummified flowers in vases carved from pure gemstones. For the most part, these manors were in pristine condition, yet there were small but telltale signs of violence everywhere.

  In one manor, Jasper found a chair smashed to pieces, on top of an ugly brown stain spread across a pale marble floor that he felt certain was blood. In another, the back door hung loosely on its hinges, with the bars that had been nailed across it smashed beyond repair by something with inhuman strength.

  Yet, despite the many ancient crime scenes they found, Jasper couldn’t help but notice that something was missing. “Where are all the bodies?” He finally blurted out.

  “What bodies?” Tsia asked as she fiddled with a large sapphire ring she’d snagged in the most recent manor.

  “Where are the bodies?” He repeated, “And why hasn’t this place been ransacked? There are signs of a fight all over the place, but there are no bodies and the valuables are still here. What sort of invader buries the dead and doesn’t take their possessions?”

  “Maybe they’re cursed?” Tsia screwed up her nose as she pulled the ring off her finger.

  “The bodies could have just rotted away,” Erin piped up.

  “The bodies rotted, but the flowers survived?” Ihra expressed Jasper’s thoughts for him. “That seems unlikely.”

  “Or maybe the dead got up and walked away,” Jasper suggested.

  “Crap, are you saying there’s zombies,” Erin groaned.

  “Not sure if zombies a? la Walking Dead are a thing here, but we’ve run into other types of undead, haven’t we, Ihra?”

  “We have,” she agreed slowly, “but if they’re here, where are they? We’ve encountered nothing thus far, not even rats,” she pointed out.

  “Actually,” S?ams?a?dur cleared his throat. “There is something out there. I haven’t seen it, but my mind has brushed against others.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” “Do you know what it is?”

  Jasper and Ihra spoke over each other, and the durgu answered Jasper’s question first. “I don’t think it knows we’re here,” he spoke quietly, “The minds I’ve sensed seem to reside in the north of the city, near the black forest, and I have not noticed any come near us. As to what it is,” he shook his head, “I cannot say. The thoughts are pure madness, but they are not that of an animal - of this I am sure. Nor can they be undead,” he continued.

  “And how do you know that,” Jasper growled, annoyed that the prince had known an enemy lurked in the city and had not bothered to tell them.

  “My ability doesn’t work on the dead,” S?ams?a?dur explained. “So whatever I am sensing is alive, in one way or another.”

  “Great,” Jasper sighed, “So we’re alone in a city with a horde of madmen.” He quirked his brow at S?ams?a?dur. “You will tell us if they approach, right?”

  “Obviously,” the prince waved his hand dismissively. “But what was the point in everyone worrying?”

  How are we supposed to plan for a threat we aren’t aware of? Jasper wanted to snap, but he bit his tongue. While he wasn’t happy the prince hadn’t warned them, this was no time to argue. “I think we should focus on the mission now,” he spoke up. “Maybe we can get in and out before they know we’re here.”

  As no one objected, the group picked up the pace, heading straight for the acropolis that jutted above the city.

  They marched in silence for several hours before they reached the bottom of the cliff, and the deeper they delved into the city, the more signs of violence appeared. In some places, entire streets were stained a rusty brown, and yet, the site of massacres still had not a single body. Someone or something had removed them, while touching very little else in the city, and Jasper’s sense of paranoia mounted as, despite Samsadur’s assurance that there was no one else around them, he became certain that they were being followed.