An unseen light source provided illumination without shadows, and the small circular room suddenly seemed at least twice the size it had been. It remained damaged and debris filled, with furniture broken and tipped over.
“Somebody had a powerful rage,” Rosh said, appraising the damage.
A spiral staircase stretched upwards to a second level and descended into the ground below them. “Rosh, guard that stairway,” Dexter ordered, moving towards it and motioning for Jenna to follow him.
Rosh did as he was asked, but his eyes drifted upwards as Jenna scaled the staircase above him, rather than watching into the depths as he had been bade.
Above Dexter and Jenna found it to be much the same. The room had once been a library and a dining room, but the furniture and bookcases had been broken and turned over. The ceiling and upper portions of the wall were missing as well, giving them a clear view of the hull of the Voidhawk as it floated in the void above them. Dexter waved at his ship before turning and heading back towards the staircase.
“Dex, look at this!” Jenna hissed, stopping him in his tracks.
Dexter turned and looked where her pistol was pointing. There was a stain on the floor. A red stain. He stepped closer to it and bent over, studying it. He scuffed it with his boot and saw that, while mostly dried and congealed, it was still tacky enough to have been liquid not so very long ago.
“Think anyone’s left?” Jenna asked him, reappraising the room and wondering if there were any additional blood stains to be found.
Dexter pursed his lips and straightened. “We need to leave, this could be a trap!”
Jenna’s hand caught his arm as he started to head back to the stairway. “Dex, we need to see if there are any survivors.”
Dexter frowned, then nodded after a moment. “But we move quickly,” he said, moving down the stairs rapidly and not stopping until he reached Rosh.
“What’s going on?” Rosh asked as they hurried past him.
“We found blood, only a few hours old,” Jenna explained.
Rosh looked up and then down again, a smile making its way on his face. “About time,” he said, anxious to fall in behind them.
“Jenna, get back to the ‘Hawk and make sure it’s safe and ready to move. Rosh, you come with me,” Dexter said, starting down the stairs again.
Jenna looked at him, lips parted in silent protest. Rosh brushed past her, anxious to be on the move. She clamped her mouth shut and, jaw clenched, hurried back out of the ruined tower to the ropes that would return her to the Voidhawk.
Descending what felt like another 12 feet, Dexter and Rosh exited the staircase and stepped onto a floor that had the texture of fine sand. They looked around and saw that the room extended far away and was carved from the very asteroid they were on. The wall the staircase was next to had several wooden walls that looked to be holding cells. The walls showed signs of battle, with portions of wood being scratched, missing, broken, or blackened by fire.
“Don’t touch anything,” Dexter mumbled, moving forward cautiously and peering into each of the rooms as they passed them. Rosh shrugged and followed after, drawing his large sword and holding it in front of him.
Across a short stretch of sand from the wooden rooms a dais rose out of the sand, carved from pure marble. Atop it lay two tables with their corners touching to form a wide ‘V’. Upon each table was scattered various implements that looked to be arcane and mystical in nature.
“What in the-“
“I don’t know,” Dexter said, cutting Rosh off without meaning to. “Let it be, there be something unnatural about it all.”
Rosh nodded, the hair already standing up on the back of his neck. He turned and looked behind him, wondering just what it was that the small wooden rooms had contained.
“Captain,” Rosh said, “I’m itching for an honest fight, but there don’t seem to be none of that here, what say we head back?”
Dexter glanced at him then away without saying anything. He felt much the same. Still, the place deserved investigating…
Dexter stepped up on the marble platform and studied the arcane items on the tables. They seemed scattered rather haphazardly, a brazier here, incense there. An unrolled parchment with some gibberish scribbled on it within a dark fluid that Dexter suspected was blood. He reached down for an amulet and stopped, remembering what he had told Rosh about not touching anything.
They both felt more than heard a hum pulse through the room. Dexter turned to look at Rosh, who was likewise looking at him. They studied the room surrounding them and wondered what could have caused it.
“What’s going on?” Rosh asked.
“I’m for wondering the same,” Dexter admitted. “Time to be heading for the ‘Hawk.”
Rosh nodded and turned back to the staircase. Dexter glanced at the table again, his eyes falling upon a silver flute this time. He cocked his head curiously and found himself wondering what a flute would be doing there, especially one so small and shiny and, well, cute.
“Cap!”
Dexter shook his head and looked up, feeling as though he was waking from a dream. He turned to look at Rosh, who had not even taken a single step towards the staircase.
“You said don’t touch nothing!” Rosh said, pointing at him.
“I didn’t!” Dexter said defensively. His eyes fell to where Rosh was glaring and he saw the flute in his hand. “How’d this… I mean, I didn’t mean to!”
Rosh staggered backwards towards the marble dais as the sand under his feet shifted and rumbled. Something burst up from it, sending a spray of sand upwards that concealed the origin of the attack. It sank back into the sand just as quickly, moving away from them and leaving behind a disturbance in its wake.
Rosh jumped up onto the dais besides Dexter in time to avoid another of the strange assaults, though this time he caught a glimpse of a tooth filled maw snapping shut on the empty space his leg had occupied a heartbeat before.
They looked around at the room and saw several places where the sand shifted and roiled, disturbed under the surface by whatever the strange things were that could move through it as though they were fish in water. Or, more accurately, sharks.
“Now what?” Rosh asked.
Dexter looked at the flute in his hand and wondered the same thing. He shoved it in a pocket and drew his pistol. “Think we can make a run for it?”
Rosh chewed on his lip for a moment then looked back at the table and grabbed up a small silver goblet. He studied it for a brief moment, then shrugged and tossed it over a dozen feet towards the staircase. In less time than it took either of the two men to hold their breath awaiting a response the sand erupted around the cup, with ambiguous forms snatching at it. By the time the sand and dust settled the cup was nowhere to be seen.
“You first, Captain,” Rosh said, grinning.
Dexter scowled and turned to look at the table again, wondering if there was anything they could use there to help them.
“I’m thinking we’re in for a bit of a wait,” Rosh offered, clearing off a spot on the table and sitting on it casually. He leaned his sword against the table as well and watched the sand with a critical eye.
Dexter opened and closed his mouth. Rosh was right; they were trapped for the time being. He wondered how long it would take for Jenna or Kragor to get anxious and start looking for them. His eyes widened at his earlier premonition that the tower was a trap. He still felt it was, but wondered now if the trap was for the poor bastards like him and Rosh, or for the Voidhawk.
Jenna climbed up the ropes to the deck of the Voidhawk with ease. Once there she looked around and saw Bailynn working alongside Kragor, who seemed to have taken a liking to the girl recently as well. Keshira was securing the ropes controlling the mainsail and Bekka was on the helm, she presumed. Even Jodyne was helping out on the deck with the station keeping. Jenna sighed and went towards the aft crossbow, intent upon loading it in case Dexter’s suspicions were correct.