The Warded Box

by Guy Antibes

  Jack didn’t tell her that he needed the bone to carry out Eldora’s instructions. He wondered if he would forget the vision or the hallucination or whatever it was. The Sanctuary of the Wild River. He was too scared to ask Halippa if such a thing existed. He might have to admit that a goddess had appeared to him. He shook his head. It all had to be a hallucination.

  Tanner and Jack spent the rest of the afternoon in a few taverns and pubs. Although the boundaries kept changing from interview to interview, Jack felt they acquired a good feeling for what was going on, and it meant they had to continue to work their way down the coast. The road to Gameton crossed three insurgencies. The only warning going south was the preponderance of Black Finger wizards, but they hadn’t yet coalesced into a faction and weren’t expected to until the end of summer. Everyone had their own estimation of what was to happen. Most people felt the king of Tesoria would have to abdicate at some point. No one thought the Loyalists had much of a chance.

  “Why aren’t the Loyalists doing a better job?” Jack asked.

  “I’m not a politician, but I am guessing the king is weak. A strong king unites, and a weak king is trampled by his advisors. Didn’t they teach you any of this stuff when you went to your extended school?” Tanner said.

  “They did, and I learned what you just said, or that is how I interpreted what I read. Master Yokel often didn’t come to the same conclusions the book did. He thought that weak kings were better for the people.”

  “Pie in the sky, if you ask me. Too strong a king is as bad as a weak king, though,” Tanner said.

  That was more in line with what Jack felt. Indecision wasn’t a good quality in anything that he could tell. Tanner ripped his veil off as soon as they walked into the inn, but Jack didn’t since he was more interested in washing up for dinner.

  He took off the red veil, examining the embroidery for the first time. It looked like a circle of waves. Jack rubbed his hand on his beard and looked into the silvered glass mirror in his room. He gasped aloud. Where Eldora kissed him in his vision, the blue shape of lips adorned his cheek.

  Jack was stunned. He had thought he had endured some kind of hallucination, maybe from a Second Manipulation, but he rubbed at his cheek. It was a lip rouge of some kind, blue in color. He took a handkerchief and rubbed it off. A goddess had kissed his cheek. How could something like that happen? He washed his cheek, but a faint version of the lip rouge remained. It looked like a bruise, but it was definitely in the shape of lips.

  He splashed water on his face again and scrubbed, but it was on as solidly as a tattoo. He put the Eldora veil on and ran out into the street, looking for the veil vendor. The man was just putting his goods away.

  “I need another red veil,” Jack said. “Just a plain one will do.”

  “And one for your lady love?” the man said with a smile. “She already has hers. I didn’t like the embroidery. She was a little peeved, but let me replace this.”

  “Certainly,” the man had to do a little unpacking but came up with a suitable replacement.

  “Thank you, and maybe sell me a white one if she changes her mind.”

  “Ah, fickle love is still better than no love at all,” the man said.

  Jack wasn’t so sure, but he jammed the other two veils in his pocket. He wouldn’t wear the one Lark gave him, but he would have to tell Ralinn that he had been in Eldora’s temple. He ran up to his room and changed veils, still wearing a red veil. He rubbed at the lip marks again, but he couldn’t get them off.

  ~

  He trudged down the stairs, seeing the other four in his party already sitting down to dinner.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Jack said. “I had to replace my veil. It got dirty.”

  Lark laughed, “How does a veil get dirty?”

  “I imagine one good sneeze can do it,” Tanner said, looking at Jack with a smile. Tanner’s veil was off, and he seemed much more comfortable without one. Unfortunately, Jack would be more comfortable with a veil on for the foreseeable future.

  “Did you have a pleasant afternoon?” Jack asked Ralinn.

  “I spent most of it in my room,” she said. “Lark gave me exercises to do. I have been remiss while we have been traveling.”

  “And what did Lark do?” Tanner asked. He leaned his cheek on his fist with his elbow on the table.

  “Lark and I strolled through Pestersee,” Helen said. “I’ve never been here, and Lark has only visited once before.” She looked at Jack. “Did you two have an exciting time?”

  “Work,” Tanner said. “It looks like we will be heading into Black Finger territory. They haven’t declared one way or the other yet. That is the general consensus. Loyalists control most of the southern part of the country. If we try to pick our way straight through to Gameton, we will run through the territories of three disputed insurgencies. Everyone and their mother has an insurgency. Each one has their own leaders and their own agendas. Am I right, Lark?”

  “Right,” Lark said. “I’m not too excited about taking Jack through Black Finger Society areas, though. They have a habit of trying to convert wizards.”

  “People have tried before,” Jack said, “and failed.”

  “You think you are that strong?” Ralinn asked.

  Jack nodded. “Twice it has been attempted, and twice it has failed. Maybe if the wizards were stronger, but…” he shrugged his shoulders. “I wouldn’t be worrying about me; I’d be more concerned with yourselves.”

  “I can take care of Ralinn and me,” Lark said, a little more protectively than Jack had expected.

  “Tanner and I will protect you,” Helen said to Lark, just as protectively. Something was definitely going on between the pair.

  Lark’s hand shot up. “I haven’t ordered yet. Let’s see what choices they have at this place.”

  Jack shivered involuntarily. The action reminded Jack of Eldora’s hand coming up out of the river as she rose from the water to talk to him. He closed his eyes and shook his head to get the vision out of his mind, but it was no dream, and the proof was on his face. Why him, he had to ask himself? Was he the only wizard’s helper in the world?

  He wondered about the blue, lacquered box up in his room. Now he had two relics from the gods. Tanner and Helen knew about Takia’s Cup, and Tanner knew about the second warded box. He shook his head again, nearly wincing at Eldora proclaiming him pure in heart and without guile. Who was she kidding?

  Tanner nudged Jack. “You must be having an interesting conversation with yourself,” he said. Tanner looked at the others. “We had an interesting experience in the temple of Eldora this afternoon.”

  Ralinn’s eyebrows shot up. Jack could imagine how shocked her face must have looked. “Did anyone talk to you?”

  “The senior priestess.” Tanner looked up at the ceiling as he recalled the name that didn’t need recalling. “Halippa.”

  “What did she say?” Ralinn said.

  “Jack’s sword was exposed as an object of power again, wasn’t it Jack?” Tanner said.

  “Yes,” Jack kept his response to one syllable on purpose.

  “They also found out Jack is a wizard’s helper.”

  Ralinn put her hands on the table and leaned forward. “They did?”

  Tanner nodded. “Why don’t you tell the rest of the story?” Tanner said, looking like an evil person ripping the wings off of flies and the legs off of spiders.

  Jack cleared his throat and told the story without his meeting Eldora.

  “That can’t be all,” Tanner said. “You said you had a vision.”

  Jack gave Tanner a pleading look, but Tanner would have none of it.

  “A vision?” Ralinn asked.

  “I might have had a sending from Eldora, the water goddess.”

  Instead of awe, all four of them laughed at Jack. That earned Tanner a dirty look, a well-deserved one, as a matter of fact, Jack thought.

  “And what did she say?” Tanner asked. The needle hadn’t been extracted yet.<
br />
  “She wants me to do something in Gameton at her temple.”

  Lark leaned forward. “How do you expect us to believe you?” he said smiling.

  “I don’t.” Jack had said enough. He folded his arms hoping that was the end of it. Tanner had had enough fun.

  “Show them the bone.”

  Jack glared at Tanner. “I shouldn’t. It is in a warded box—”

  “That you have access to. Go up and get it.”

  “No,” Jack said.

  “Then I’ll go up,” Tanner got to his feet.

  “Maybe we should both go up,” Jack said between his teeth.

  “Let’s,” Tanner said.

  After they began climbing the stairs, Jack began his tirade. “What do you think you are doing?”

  “Informing our fellow travelers of a significant event,” Tanner said.

  “Do you think I wanted to share it with them? The time isn’t right. How can we trust Ralinn and Lark with such a thing? You all laughed when I said I talked to Eldora.”

  Tanner laughed. “It is kind of funny. They should see the bone thing though.”

  “In the dining room? In front of all those people? It is a relic like Takia’s Cup.”

  “Which you didn’t bring, I noticed.”

  “How do you know I don’t have it?”

  Tanner smiled. “Because if you had it on you, it would have shown.”

  “Are you my friend?”

  “I am,” Tanner said smiling, “but I’m also your bodyguard. I need to know what you have and what you don’t.”

  They reached Jack’s room. When Jack turned the latch, he opened the door to a man lying on the floor.

  “Is he dead?” Jack asked.

  “How do I know?” Tanner replied.

  Eldora’s warded box was close to the body.

  “He is dead,” Tanner said. “I’ll drag the body to the hallway.”

  Jack was anxious about taking the box, but it didn’t bite him before, so it should be safe. He picked it up and straightened up. The box turned from ratty to deep blue.

  “Who could have known about it?” Jack said.

  “Anyone in the dining room,” Tanner said. “I apologize. I could have kept my mouth shut. Someone had to have run up here while we were dining.”

  “But then how did they know where my room was unless I was already being spied on? I think you are off the hook, and one of those priestesses at the temple isn’t being very loyal to their goddess.” Jack said. “Either way, we should be leaving tonight.”

  “I’ll take him to my room. Take the box downstairs. Let’s at least have a decent dinner before we leave.”

  Jack returned downstairs and told them what happened in his room.

  “Perhaps we should leave now?” Lark said.

  “No.” Everyone looked at Helen.

  “Why not?” Ralinn asked.

  “Because I am hungry. We can leave after we eat.”

  Lark sat back. “You two know more about this than we do.”

  “Don’t touch this,” Jack said. He touched the top, and the box changed. “Can you see the change?”

  “Amazing!” Lark said. “That dingy little box is an object of power.”

  “I think it is beautiful,” Ralinn said. Jack still hadn’t mentioned the red veil, but he figured Ralinn already knew.

  Jack pulled out the bone. It was about as long as Jack’s index finger and curved slightly. “I don’t know the significance,” he said.

  “I do,” Ralinn said. “Put it away.”

  Jack did as she said. She hopefully had something to add to the bizarre afternoon and evening. “It is the bone of a fish that Eldora supposedly ate when she visited our world. There are only five bones in existence, and they are all relics of the goddess. They all have power, and they all have names.”

  “This has a name?”

  “Hold it out. I can’t touch it,” Ralinn said. She looked closely at the bone. “River.”

  That made sense to Jack, since he had to find his way to the Sanctuary of the Wild River in the temple.

  “So, you knew about all this?” Jack said.

  Ralinn looked around. “Not here. When we are riding again.”

  Jack didn’t want to wait, but he also didn’t want to do anything that would disturb the group any more than it was already. Tanner sat down.

  “I’ve taken care of the visitor. I assume you’ve ordered my meal?” he said to Helen.

  She nodded.

  “Now I can put the box away?” Jack asked. He put it in his shirt anyway. He could feel his body absorb power. He looked down and touched the Serpent’s Orb, still around his neck and felt the exchange of power from the box to the orb. Perhaps he wouldn’t have to wait five years, but then Tanner had already spoiled Jack’s story, spoiling his little fit of spite.

  Chapter Ten

  ~

  T anner took them out the eastern gate in the late evening, but they threaded their way through the mostly empty lanes that circled the city until they hit the southern road and proceeded south toward the Loyalist area crawling with Black Finger Society members.

  Ralinn didn’t waste any time once they emerged from the outskirts of Pestersee. They rode together with Tanner riding in the back. Luckily, they rode in the light of a brilliant moon.

  “They recognized your veil, didn’t they?” she said.

  Jack nodded in the dark. “The first priestess sensed my sword and then touched me, finding out that I was a helper. I thought you had given me a red veil as a joke.”

  “No joke. That is a meaningful veil, but I had it made for Lark, not you. They told you what it meant?”

  “They did. I am a lamb being led to the slaughter, not a love-smitten country bumpkin.”

  “Were you love-stricken?”

  Jack laughed. “I wouldn’t tell them such a thing. I told them I had multiple girlfriends.”

  “Do you?”

  Jack recognized Ralinn’s tone of voice. It was one of interest.

  “In the past—the far past at this point. Someone said I was pure of heart, but I wasn’t so pure before I became a wizard,” Jack said.

  “There must have been a purifying moment for you.”

  Jack laughed. “It seems I’ve had a few of those already. I can’t believe all this. Why did Lark give me the veil?”

  “Because Lark saw you as a helper. I’m not a priestess, but I had worked with them to learn wizardry before Lark took me in. I am in contact with the sisters—

  that is how priestesses of Eldora refer to themselves: sisters of Eldora.” She laughed softly. “I guess I am a little sister of Eldora. She is a real goddess; you must believe that, now.”

  “I do,” Jack said, except he didn’t believe. He knew. Just like he knew Takia was a real goddess; although he didn’t have the benefit of a visitation, he had felt her power through the cup, and it was unlike the power he felt using the stored magic in the Serpent’s Orb. “I heard someone mention the Sanctuary of the Wild River,” he said quietly enough that no one else could hear. “Have you heard of that?”

  Ralinn gasped.

  Lark turned around in the saddle. “Are you all right, Ralinn?”

  “I am. I just got a chill. Don’t worry about it,” she said, more loudly to her mentor.

  “You aren’t supposed to know of the sanctuary. I’m not supposed to know of it. It is a sacred place in a protected location in the Gameton temple.”

  “Like only helpers being able to touch the fish bones?”

  “Those are relics from the goddess herself,” Ralinn said.

  Eldora looked pretty complete to Jack, but he couldn’t begin to guess what gods did. He had seen a finger bone before, and the fish bone wasn’t like anything in a human body as far as Jack could tell, so he had a hard time believing what Ralinn told him. It didn’t matter anyway, since the fish bone and the box were both incredible objects of power.

  “Riders from the rear,” Tanner said. “Jack
you might want to ride with me.”

  “Isn’t he your bodyguard?” Ralinn asked, looking back at Tanner.

  “I have a few weapons in my quiver that Tanner doesn’t,” Jack said.

  He stopped his horse and let Tanner catch up to him.

  “How many?” Jack asked.

  “I’m not sure, but I saw riders on the hill behind us. Let’s have Ralinn ride ahead with Helen and Lark, so we can get off the road and hit them from the rear,” Tanner said.

  Jack and Tanner left the road and waited for the riders to pass. In moments, at least one hundred men passed them. Jack looked at Tanner, with his mouth open. He closed it and said. “I think we made a mistake.”

  “We did indeed. Let’s follow. Don’t engage unless you have to,” Tanner said.

  Jack looked up the road at the riders disappearing over another hill. He wanted to fight through the uniformed riders, but there was nothing he could do against so many. He had to rely on Tanner’s judgment in the matter, even though Helen and Ralinn were cut off. Jack found he didn’t really care what happened to Lark.

  “Now,” Tanner said.

  Their horses climbed back onto the road and then moved ahead so they could make out the tail end of the column. The pair of them proceeded for a half mile until Jack heard something to his left and drew his wand, not trusting his ability to use a sword on horseback. He heard the metallic grind of Tanner drawing his sword.

  “Settle down,” Helen said, riding out of a small copse of trees. “Those were Loyalist soldiers. When I saw how many there were, we hid, just like you. It looked like they didn’t care about us.”

  Tanner sighed. “I thought there might be a few sent out by whoever sent the man to Jack’s room at the inn. There were too many to engage.”

  “I’m sure they weren’t after us,” Lark said.

  “Are we still sure we want to travel this road? We are likely between troop movements, and that means there is trouble up ahead,” Tanner said.

  Lark summoned a globe of fire to light up his map. “There is a crossroads not far from here that leads east,” he said.

  “Then we will go west and spend the night at that village if we can wake up the innkeeper,” Tanner said. “Any pursuit will know we are likely to head for Gameton, so they might not think of heading back to the coast.”