Luminous Citadel Snippet

Part 6 of the serial story

This isn’t as long as I would like it to be, but I’m still figuring out how much plot I want to put in it. It’s already well on the road to novella. Don’t want it to get too long! You can find the first parts here:

Helikon made a small shrug. “We sleep when we are tired. The peoples of the dark live underground, in the hidden places at the edges of the world.”

Nyssa, who had quietly been clearing the dishes from the table, spoke to Dione, who rose and joined her in the room Wilt was thinking of as the kitchen. Wilt felt the absence of her warmth, for she had been seated very near him without touching. 

“This is extraordinary,” he told Helikon, his mind racing on the ramifications of a world with night. But why should there be, in this artificial place? It was as though someone had left the room with the light burning in the ceiling, and no one knew how to turn it off again. “Do you know why?” 

Helikon shook his head. “We know very little about the ancients. If there were records?” He shrugged again and spread out his palms. “They did not leave them to us. There are stories. We... we do not know if we can trust the stories.” 

Wilt could only imagine that they were like the myths and legends of his own world. He had no idea how long these people had been here, with all the constraints of their refuge. Had they not come here the people of the planet would have all died. The tradeoff, though, was this reverted state of warfare and...

“Did you say there are less males born than female?”

“Yes,” He turned his head, and Wilt realized Helikon wasn’t paying attention to him any longer, “by about three to one...” 

“What is it?” 

Wilt could hear it now, a shouting, and a low throbbing drumbeat. 

“The dark comes.” Helikon jumped up from the table. “We must go to the defenses.” 

Wilt looked at the strange weapon he’d been given, then picked it up as he stood. Dione came darting through the curtain from the sleeping room, belting on a short sword. Helikon had already sheathed his, and was dropping down the rope ladder rapidly. Wilt gulped, didn’t look down, and got his feet on the rungs. 

He was never quite sure, later, how he’d made it to the ground. He hadn’t fallen, that was the only certainty. His knees were rubbery and wobbled, but he wasn’t sure if that was the speedy descent, or the knowledge that a raiding party bent on enslaving them was on it’s way. Dione had landed lightly on the balls of her feet, then caught his hand to run with him after Helikon. Behind them, Wilt caught a glimpse of the rope ladder being pulled up. All around him, the same thing was happening. Children were being carried or hurried up the ladders, then the means of entering houses or reaching the bridges between trees were pulled up after the people who had fled. It would be difficult, but not impossible, for raiders to reach them there. 

Wilt paid more attention to where he was being taken as they reached the edge of the smooth lawn under the trees. It gave way to tufts of tall grasses, and more standing rocks amongst them, and it was here that Helikon leapt upwards higher than seemed humanly possible, his sword in his hand. 

Dione squeezed his hand, and when Wilt looked at her, she made a patting, down gesture with her free hand. Then she dropped the hand she was holding, pulled her own sword, and jumped up into the air. Wilt looked up, seeing that several of the arboreal tribe were spreading out over the grasslands, all looking towards the edge of the forest and heavy brush which lay a few hundred meters away. This must be where danger was lurking. 

Holding his weapon, ready to raise it and fire, but careful not to touch the button, Wilt scanned the treeline.