Deals and Dangers

by Kay L. Ling

  The others were disappointed that they hadn’t found the gem she’d told them about—the one that healed witnesses. Felith suspected there was no such thing. It was just a story to get them here. She was obsessed with killing Tyla and her staff and replacing them with Outcasts. How Elantoth had survived the last major attack, Felith couldn’t say, but they wouldn’t survive this one. Nor would anyone else living nearby who ate the vegetables Sheamathan was about to poison.

  “We’re almost back to the cave,” Lanimore said, interrupting Felith’s thoughts. “Are we going to let her join the circle this time?”

  “No,” Felith said decisively. “She’s grown dangerously powerful now that you fools have let her use our rare gems. I’m not letting her link minds with us.”

  “But you know how the Focal Gem drains us,” Lanimore persisted. “And we still have four more fortresses to conquer.”

  “She’s harmless,” Hoy said, taking Lanimore’s side as usual.

  Felith gave a derisive snort.

  “Well, harmless to us, I mean,” Hoy amended. “If she wanted to hurt us, she would have by now.”

  Felith was tired of this argument. “How many times do I have to tell you—she’s biding her time. At the moment, we’re still useful to her.”

  “She’ll always need us!” Yevin shouted. “She can’t rule alone!” His temper had always been bad, but lately, the smallest things set him off.

  The she needs us argument had grown wearisome, too. Felith had begun to think the others didn’t remember arguing these same points over and over. He sighed and dropped the subject.

  When they returned to the cave, Sheamathan threw up her hands in exasperation. “Finally! What took you so long? Did you find anything?”

  “No,” Lanimore said.

  “It’s just as you said, Sheamathan. There’s nothing there,” Yevin said, rubbing the new lump over his right eye.

  “Then if you are through wasting our time, I have vegetables to poison and enemies to conquer.”

  Franklin dropped Tyla and the others off on a hill with a good view of the fields. He was wearing an orelia feather behind his left ear, and as Tyla watched him drive away, the weight of what they were about to do made her knees weak.

  The staff had harvested the first vegetables Marrid had grown, but there were new crops now, and they were nearly ripe. Tyla looked behind her and her heart was heavy when she saw Elantoth in the distance. Life in this region revolved around the fortress, and thousands of lives depended on the outcome of the Hail Mary plan.

  “I can’t believe she plans to poison our vegetables,” Arenia said. “Emanicus gnomes killed everything outright. What she plans to do is worse.”

  “When it comes to evil, they’re amateurs compared to her,” Tyla said.

  “I don’t know about that,” Kaff countered. “They’ve done terrible things with the Focal Gem.”

  “True, but they got their ideas from her,” Tyla said. “They studied what she did during the Great Upheaval, and she taught them more in person.”

  “I feel sorry for the breghlin fighting with the Outcasts,” Kaff said. “Many didn’t want any part of this. When I killed some, I reminded myself they’re the enemy, but I still felt guilty.” He stared into the distance as if picturing the regiments marching here.

  There had already been far too much death and destruction, Tyla thought sadly as she sat down to wait for Loud Mouth. If Elantoth fell, The Emanicus would have defeated the greatest and the least of the fortresses, and the rest would fall before long. The militias would probably surrender, thinking it was useless to fight, and while Tyla hated to admit it, they might be right. Emanicus gnomes would use the Focal Gem to destroy entire regiments, and the troops would die horrible deaths. At one time, she had believed it would be possible to overcome The Emanicus without sinking to their level and using Dark gems. Now, that seemed hopelessly naïve. In an all-out gem-power battle, the ones using Dark gems would almost certainly win.

  So far, enemy gem masters had given militia troops welts, projected blinding pain, and transformed an Outcast into a monster to fight on their side. If they had been able to do all that, without the Focal Gem, she hated to think what Emanicus gnomes would do. They might give the militias paralyzing deformities. Or transform them into rats and lizards. And if they added S’s powers to theirs by letting her join their circle—well, she refused to think about that.

  Eventually, Emanicus gnomes would become too sick and insane to function, but it wouldn’t matter. The militias would be crushed by then. If S needed new lackeys, woodspirit groups like the Seekers would replace Emanicus gnomes, and S would rule Ahmonell undeterred. The Hail Mary plan, as Franklin called it, was truly born of desperation, Tyla thought. It had to work. It just had to.

  “Will you memorize your part or read it?” Arenia asked, sitting down beside Tyla.

  The passage was short, and Tyla planned to memorize it, but she was glad it was written down in case she panicked and her mind went blank. “I’ll memorize it.” She took the paper from her pocket.

  Zeetha paced nervously while reading her own part. She was wearing a long white gown, which seemed out of place in this setting, but she insisted it was good luck to wear white when fighting dark powers. Tyla supposed that made as much sense as wearing an orelia feather.

  After Tyla had memorized the passage, she checked her gem pouch. It wouldn’t do to discover at the last moment that she was missing a gem she needed. Everything was there, and she had brought something else with her for sentimental reasons—the knife Ben had carved from alamaria. Such a small amount of alamaria wouldn’t give her gem powers much of a boost, but Ben would be pleased to know she had used it.

  Parcune sat with his hands clasped around drawn-up knees, looking over the vegetable field. Kaff, who had been walking about, burning off nervous energy, came and sat down beside him. They usually avoided each other, nursing old grudges, so it was good to see them sitting side by side. Maybe they’d finally put the past behind them.

  Parcune was surely the most humble gnome alive, Tyla thought, looking at him fondly. He’d risked censure from Elantoth’s elders to deliver messages between Elantoth and Strathweed. He’d driven Tyla, Arenia, and Olissa to the obelisk and watched over them while they used their oracular powers. He’d taken shifts in the Pedestal Room while also serving as a guard. If there was a job no one wanted, he volunteered and never expected any thanks. She was glad he had come today. He deserved to be here.

  Loud Mouth wasn’t likely to return for a while, but Tyla kept watching for him, looking forward to his return and yet dreading it, too.

  She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it seemed like at least an hour, when Parcune exclaimed, “Look! There’s Loud Mouth!”

  Tyla shaded her eyes. Yes, there he was. His brightly-colored feathers shone in the afternoon sun. Despite the warmth of the day, she felt cold. If S and Emanicus gnomes had left Strathweed, they’d be here in fifteen or twenty minutes.

  Everyone rose to receive Loud Mouth’s news, including Zeetha, who clutched the copy of the spell to her chest.

  Loud Mouth landed. “They’re on the way. I circled over the carts a few times, listening to them. S was laughing about her plan to poison the vegetables. Her spell will poison the soil, too, so nothing will ever grow there again.”

  “How can anyone be so evil,” Arenia muttered.

  “I’ll set up a ward to make sure they don’t detect us,” Olissa said. “Kaff, turn us invisible.”

  “Should I make another surveillance flight?” Loud Mouth asked.

  “No. Stay here,” Tyla said. “You’ve done enough. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “I was nervous when I made some of us invisible on the battlefield, but I’m even more nervous now,” Kaff admitted. “But don’t worry. No matter what happens, I’ll maintain the field.”

  “If you think you’re nervous,” Zeetha said, “imagine how I feel. Your part is easy compare
d to mine.”

  Kaff didn’t answer.

  In what seemed like no time at all, two carts came into view.

  “There they are,” Kaff said.

  “We see them,” Olissa said. “We’re not blind.”

  Everyone in the group was tense, but they couldn’t afford to start snapping at one another.

  “Stay calm,” Tyla said, which seemed hypocritical considering her palms were sweating and her heart was beating so fast that she could hear her pulse in her ears.

  The carts stopped on a hill a half mile away. From that position, S and her companions could see Elantoth. Tyla couldn’t help wondering what was going through S’s mind as she looked at the fortress. She had called it Shadowglade and herself the Queen of Shadow. Now, it was Elantoth Fortress again, and the rightful owners—gnomes—were in charge, and that must gall her. Olissa was right. S wouldn’t want anything to do with Elantoth now. She’d rather destroy it.

  S and the gem masters got out of the carts. While S walked the field, the gem masters sat down . . . in a circle.

  “Oh no!” Tyla cried. “They’re about to use the Focal Gem!”

  “What do you think they’re—” Parcune began. His voice trailed off as a cold wind swept over them, blowing toward Elantoth.

  After a few seconds, the wind died away, and the air became still again.

  Tyla turned to look at the fortress, and her breath caught in her throat. Midway between here and the fortress, a shadow had appeared, blanketing the ground. It was moving slowly and stealthily toward the fortress. She had never seen an attack from this perspective, and it was no less chilling watching it from a distance. She didn’t want to see black vines covering Elantoth. They were proof of deadly wards.

  “We have to start the spell,” Zeetha said in a tight voice.

  Tyla took out the gems. Now that the moment had come, she felt surprisingly calm and focused. She drew the gems’ power, set them on the ground beside the alamaria knife, and recited her part of the spell.

  Zeetha began to read, her voice far steadier than her hands. Don’t panic, Zeetha. We’re counting on you. You can do this.

  Tyla was tempted to check the shadow’s progress, but she kept her eyes fixed on the field. If the spell worked, there should be visible evidence, and it might not last long. Zeetha continued to read, her tone growing more confident as she neared the end.

  Tyla realized she was holding her breath and forced herself to breathe.

  S had returned from walking the rows of vegetables. She stood, arms crossed, watching the gem masters. Absorbed in what they were doing, they paid no attention to her.

  S turned and looked toward Elantoth, checking the shadow’s progress. She seemed to be looking right at Tyla’s group. Even though Tyla knew they were warded and invisible, she fought an irrational fear that S could see them. Finally, S looked away, and Tyla relaxed—only to jump a second later at a loud crackle of energy from the field below. It broke the gem masters’ concentration, and a few stood and looked around frantically, assuming they were under attack. S looked around, too.

  Please let the Hail Mary work! Please! The noise indicated something was happening.

  “Is it working?” Kaff asked anxiously.

  “I can’t say for sure,” Zeetha said, “but I think—”

  Glittering particles appeared, forming a huge ring around the vegetable field, stretching from ground to sky like a vast shimmering fence. Tyla stared in awe.

  “Yes!” Arenia cried, grabbing Tyla in her excitement. “It’s working!”

  Tyla couldn’t speak. She could only stare, fixing this in her memory. The particles twinkled like millions of tiny stars.

  A second crackle of energy sounded, louder than the first. The ground began to tremble—not as violently as the earthquakes Tyla had felt in the barrier zone, but disconcerting all the same.

  Suddenly, the particles vanished, the ground stopped trembling, and everything became eerily still.

  The gem masters were all on their feet now, and while Tyla couldn’t hear what they were saying, they were obviously alarmed. Did they understand what had happened?

  “And there you have it,” Olissa said in an awed voice. “The creation of an Amulet. Good job, Zeetha and Tyla.”

  Tyla turned to look at the fortress. In all the excitement, she had momentarily forgotten about the shadow. It was gone!

  “You can drop the invisibility now,” Olissa told Kaff. “They can’t hurt us now. They’re sealed inside.”

  “I’d feel better if we made sure the new Amulet is working, first.”

  “It can’t hurt to be cautious,” Zeetha said. “How would you test it?”

  “Easy,” Kaff said. “Throw a stone through the barrier and see if it disintegrates.”

  “For that matter, if we get close, we’ll feel the repelling force,” Olissa said. “I’m glad I took that walk to the Fair Lands Amulet barrier. Everything makes more sense now.”

  “I’d like a closer look at our captives, anyway. Let’s go,” Tyla said.

  “Do you think they’ve figured out what happened yet?” Arenia asked as they walked.

  “I think so,” Parcune said, chuckling.

  S and the gem masters were standing near the invisible barrier, engaged in a heated conversation. One gem master threw up his hands in dismay and walked away. Another stabbed an accusatory finger at S, his face twisted in rage. S made a hand motion, like waving an insect away, and the fellow doubled over and collapsed.

  “What a lovely life they’ll have together,” Olissa said, grinning.

  Tyla felt the repelling force from twenty feet away. “Let’s stop here and throw the stone.”

  Kaff picked one up and hurled it. It flew twenty feet and disappeared. “I’d say we’re safe. I’ll make us visible now.”

  When the group appeared, S and the gem masters stopped arguing.

  “What have you done?” S cried. Her eyes moved over the group and settled on Zeetha. “You helped Elantoth gnomes? Not only is that surprising, I would not have thought you capable.”

  Zeetha stared at S with utter contempt.

  “Once again, you can rule the Amulet,” Tyla said. “Only this one is a lot smaller, with fewer subjects.” She turned toward Elantoth and made a sweeping gesture. “Look, you have a splendid view of Elantoth from here.”

  S made a choking noise.

  “And we generously provided you with several acres,” Tyla went on. “Between rainwater to drink, and this whole field of vegetables to eat, you should be able to live for months!”

  The gem masters, who were standing among the vegetables S had just poisoned, let out a terrible moan.

  “We can’t eat these,” one of the gem masters said, turning doleful eyes on Tyla.

  “Why not?” she asked innocently.

  S gave him a silencing look, and he didn’t answer.

  Muttering under her breath, S walked away. She didn’t have months, much less years, to find a solution, but even if she had a hundred years, it wouldn’t help. She hadn’t been able to free herself from Ahmonell’s malfunctioning Amulet after more than two hundred years, and she hadn’t been able to get through the Fair Lands Amulet, either. She had expanded it, which was the best she could do, and even that wouldn’t work here.

  “I love happy endings,” Loud Mouth said.

  “So do I,” Tyla said, her weariness suddenly gone. “Please tell Franklin the Hail Mary worked, and ask him to take us back to Elantoth.”

  Chapter 69

  Tyla walked into the fortress with a lighter heart than she’d had in months. Franklin and Kaff had gone to tell staff members they could return, and Parcune was getting the group’s personal items from the Tree Home. Ben, Xenon, and Amos were bringing the animals back from Franklin’s, and tomorrow, Franklin would bring the spell book and the library books.

  Olissa had told Tyla all of this was premature. Outcast troops were still on the way. But Tyla believed she, Olissa, and Zeetha could h
andle the troops who were about to discover they were leaderless.

  Now that Emanicus gnomes were trapped in the micro-Amulet that regarded everything outside its borders as a separate world, communication gems were useless. When Outcast commanders saw there were no black vines on the fortress and realized Elantoth hadn’t fallen, they would try to contact their leaders to no avail.

  Tyla planned to contact the commanders herself and show them, if necessary, what had become of their leaders. Breghlin troops would go home. Most hadn’t wanted to fight in the first place.

  “I need your help,” Tyla told Arenia and Zeetha as the trio walked down the silent passageways.

  “What would you like me to do?” Arenia asked.

  “Contact the fortresses and tell them what we did. I’ll talk to them later, but I want to get the word out immediately.”

  “What about Mierek? They’re still in enemy hands.”

  “I’ll inform key individuals in Mierek City. Just contact the other fortresses. Meet us in the office when you’re done.”

  When Tyla and Zeetha reached the office, Tyla said, “Can I borrow your dendrite ball and Marrid’s leebstone book?”

  “Certainly.” Zeetha took the items from the woven bag Marrid had bequeathed her.

  Tyla opened the leebstone book. First, she recorded an image of the circular band of glittering particles that had surrounded S and The Emanicus gnomes. Then she made an image of S and the gem masters arguing, and one of Zeetha and S glaring at each other through the invisible barrier. Finally, she made one of Rimwick in the dungeon.”

  “I plan to share these images. Is it all right if I use the one with you and S?” Tyla asked.

  “I suppose there’s no reason to hide my involvement,” Zeetha said. “Go ahead. Who will you share it with?”

  Tyla smiled. “Kitana Windan is about to get the biggest news story of her life. Bring your chair around so we’re both visible in the dendrite ball.”

  Zeetha laughed. “All of Ahmonell will know in a few hours.”

  “Go ahead and summon her. It’s your dendrite ball.”