The Warded Box

by Guy Antibes

  First, he pried a stone from the cobbles and tossed it along the floor. A single fountain of flame shot up. Jack threw water at it with his bracer, but as the water seeped through the floor, there was no hissing. The flames were magically created by some kind of spell that was way beyond his experience. The easy way wouldn’t work, so he gathered as much power as he could and began building layer after layer of ice on the cobbles. He couldn’t make any section very thick, or it might trigger the ward.

  The ice layer was about an inch thick through the whole section. Jack walked back and was about to adjust the layer when he heard the faint shouting of Ralinn. “Wessa is coming! Wessa is coming!”

  Out of time, Jack ran as fast as he could and skidded on the ice. The flames began to melt the ice beneath him, forcing Jack to teleport the fifteen feet farther to safety despite his misgivings. He looked back to see the shell of his helmet, still burning on the cobbles along with the quickly disappearing sheet of ice. The corridor turned, and Jack looked up at the entrance to the sanctuary. Wave motifs were worked into the stone and carved into the tall wooden doors.

  He could hear voices coming his way. He tried the latch, but it was locked. Teleportation had worked before, but now the spell didn’t work at all. The voices were coming closer. Jack frantically looked around the entrance and found a corner. He invoked invisibility using the blade of his knife and tried to calm his heart. Surely anyone could hear it from twenty feet away.

  “The stone four from the right,” Wessa said, reading from an old parchment.

  “There. That is the last obstacle.” She stopped. “I can’t believe they got this far, there is the boy’s helmet. The others must have been burned.” The archpriestess said. “My instructions say it is magical fire.”

  She walked up to the doors and pulled out a key. “This is the only way to get in,” Wessa said. She used all her strength to turn the key. When the door opened up. Jack could smell the water.

  “This door should block all magic directed at it,” Wessa said. “Look around. I’m sure they didn’t make it this far, but we must be absolutely sure.”

  “No one is in the chamber,” a priestess said. Jack thought she might be one of the young priestesses that Parena had scolded.

  “Then we will return and tell Bachan Darkwaist that he needn’t worry about Aralinn Waterford or the others.” They were about to shut the door when Jack slipped through the opening before the women could stop him.”

  “I felt a breeze,” the young priestess said.

  “Perhaps it is the breath of Eldora,” Wessa said with a laugh. “We will purge Eldora from Tesoria soon enough.”

  The door was closed, and the key locked Jack into the Sanctuary of the Wild River. He reappeared in the darkness of the chamber. Eldora’s sacred place was now Jack’s prison.

  “Where is the Wild River?” Jack asked himself. His question echoed in the chamber cut from bare rock.

  The pool was placid. A faint blue light seemed to diffuse through the water, nearly making it seem to glow in the dark. Jack touched the tiny blue box at this throat and pulled the bone out of it. It was time to finish the errand.

  He looked back at the locked door. If the chamber filled with water, he would die. If he couldn’t get out of the locked chamber at all, he would die. Along the way he had joked to himself about the nobleness of dying in the sanctuary, but his joke might turn into something very serious and very real, if not from the spell, then from being locked in forever. He doubted that Wessa would give up the key and the instructions to Ralinn.

  Not wanting to think anymore about his likely demise, Jack pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. He didn’t think he was important enough to anyone to merit a god’s attention to his plight.

  Jack took a deep breath and then sighed as he looked at the tiny bone. He put it back in the box and decided if he were to die, at least he would rub the makeup off his face that hid Eldora’s kisses. There was no need to hide them now.

  “Thank you for letting me meet Ralinn,” Jack said as a final uttered prayer to Eldora. He retrieved the bone from the box and filled himself with power and will before he plunged his hand into ice cold water. He said the trigger word with a forceful voice, “Restoration!”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  ~

  J ack’s hand seemed to freeze in place. The bone began to pulsate in his grasp, so he continued to pour more power into the object until the pool seemed to turn into vapor all at once.

  A brilliant, intense, blue light seemed to flood the sanctuary. Jack gasped and fell on his back, looking at the mist rising up from the pool. It seeped into the rocks for what seemed like forever until Jack was left in utter darkness.

  He tried to light a torch, but his powers were gone. He could still feel the bone in his hand, but the power had left that too. The same thing had happened when he drained all the power from the Serpent’s Orb.

  Jack’s hand went to the orb, and he sighed with relief when that filled him with power. He let go before he drained it. The torch came to him like it should, and he sat up. The doors to the sanctuary were wide open. Perhaps it was a blessing from Eldora? He hoped he would never know. All Jack wanted to do was get out of the sanctuary. He looked at the pool once more. All the water had disappeared. Did the pool go wild? He still didn’t understand the name, but then goddesses had their own ways.

  When he put the bone back in the case, Jack could feel power returning. The bone, River, had done its… Jack sighed. Of course, the pool wasn’t wild—the bone was. The Wild River referred to the bone that would activate the warded water. Jack still had no idea if he had successfully performed the errand.

  All he knew is that something happened, something extraordinary by his reckoning. He wondered if the traps were still active. Jack pried another cobble from the fire field and tossed it. Flames shot up. This time he knew he could teleport to the other side, and in less than a moment, he was on the other side. The burned threads were still burned, so he successfully avoided the crossbows. The falling floor was still fallen. A woman, her back facing him had slipped and fallen in. He shuddered and moved on.

  He stood at the door where Ralinn and Corina had been and knocked before entering.

  “Jack?” Ralinn said. She ran to him and put her arms around his waist. “You made it. Well, we knew you made it since the air turned blue for a moment and then moved on. It was strange.”

  “I know how strange,” he said. “The traps are still intact. It looks like a sister didn’t make it across the little chasm.”

  “We heard,” Corina said. “I hope you won’t mind if I don’t give you a hug. I’m not in the best shape right now.”

  Jack looked at Ralinn.

  “I did what I could,” Ralinn said. “But she needs to see a proper healer, wizard or otherwise.”

  “Can you walk?”

  “Up those stairs?” Corina shook her head.

  “Then I will carry you.”

  The woman looked miserable. “I don’t see how you can,” she said.

  “I can walk up the steps,” Jack said, “and while I do, I will levitate you just enough, so I don’t fall myself.”

  “You can do that?”

  Jack smiled. “I think it’s worth a try.”

  He took her in his arms and levitated her body until her weight didn’t bother him. They began their journey up the stairs. Ralinn lit a torch and looked back to make sure they were all right. She screamed.

  “Down there,” she said pointing.

  “At the bottom?” Jack said.

  Corina glanced down and shut her eyes. “They are all dead,” she said.

  “Who?”

  “Wessa and the rest of her group.”

  He wanted to look, but in his position, he didn’t. “We can continue to move up the stairs.”

  They reached the top and found Parena sitting on the floor of her alcove.

  “I waited and waited,” she said. “Wessa passed through here, and t
hen I didn’t hear anything. I was about to give you all up for lost until I heard your voices. Was that blue flash your doing?”

  “Eldora’s,” Jack said. “I put one of her bones in the sanctuary pool, and the rest was up to her. What a spell that was. Worthy of a goddess, but I don’t know what it did.”

  Ralinn looked behind them. “You didn’t hear any screams, did you?”

  Parena shook her head.

  “The blue flash or mist or whatever it was. Could it have killed the Black Fingers?” Jack asked.

  “We will find out as we ascend,” Corina said. “If that happened, it was worth my getting shot.”

  Jack continued to carry Corina, but he was losing his strength. They just about walked past the door to the embassy.

  “This where we will leave you,” Ralinn said. “If the Black Finger priestesses are dead, come to the embassy to tell us.”

  Parena nodded. “I will.” She shuddered. “There will be so many bodies, but at least the scourge of Black Finger influence on the temple will be lifted.”

  Jack carried Corina into the storage room and teleported her to the other side of the door.

  “Can you stand for a bit?” Jack asked her.

  She nodded.

  Jack returned for Ralinn. She looked at him with glistening eyes. “This might be the last time,” she said.

  She pulled him down and kissed him for an inordinately long time before releasing him. Jack went in for another, and when they broke apart, he teleported them both to the other side.

  They walked slowly, hand in hand toward the other stairway. Corina had already started and was hobbling ahead of them. Ralinn clutched Jack’s arm as they walked slowly until Jack felt recovered enough to pick Corina up again. Soon they were back in their quarters. Jorey was gone, so he carried Corina up to the first floor.

  “There is a healer in the embassy, right?” Jack said.

  “This way,” a woman said. She led them to a clinic. Helen was in one bed, so they put Corina next to her.

  “What happened?” the healer said, as she helped Corina settle on the bed.

  “A crossbow,” Ralinn said. “The bolt punched through her arm.”

  The healer made a face. “I will take care of her. We will let one of your people know when she is ready to be moved downstairs. Helen will be spending the night, so it might be better if they keep each other company. I think something is happening outside.”

  Jack left Ralinn with Corina and Helen as he ran out into the market. The Sparrows were in disarray. Tanner and the soldiers from the embassy fought the Sparrows. Jack pulled out his wand and his sword and waded in, but his power depleted quickly. He had to rely on his sword skills, which were getting him into trouble.

  He grabbed his knife and recharged his magical energy feeling the knife’s stored energy deplete, but he could use his magic again. More men, commoners from the look of them, joined in, and soon the Sparrows were swept away. Jack ran up the stairs to the temple and found Parena talking to a group of anxious sisters.

  “Oh, Jack!” She looked relieved when she spotted him.

  “The blue mist killed all the committed Black Fingers. Those who were involuntarily converted fell, but it appears they will recover.”

  “Did the mist leave the temple?”

  “It flashed through Gameton, I was told, but I haven’t heard anything specific. It looks like I am the senior sister until Ralinn claims the position of archpriestess.”

  “What?” Jack said.

  “She was to succeed Wessa Fanstrong when she retired in twenty years or so. With all this, she will have to step in now. It is her calling.”

  “I thought she never was really a sister.”

  “She was never not a sister, is more like it. We can take our leaves from time to time.”

  Jack was stunned. “Can an archpriestess have a boyfriend?”

  Parena’s eyebrows raised, and then she looked at him with her face filled with pity. “No. The archpriestess is celibate. It is a tradition laid down hundreds, if not thousands of years ago. No close contact with males.”

  “But I have Eldora’s kisses.”

  Parena looked closely at Jack’s face. “No longer,” she said.

  I will be on my way then,” Jack said, his heart in his throat. He turned, his mind mostly blank as he walked down the stairs and into the market. Commotion still ruled the square, but Jack could hardly see it or hear a thing. Ralinn’s last kiss. He sighed. He knew it was going to happen, but no amount of anticipation prepared him for the shock of being told they were no longer a pair, even temporarily.

  Tanner grabbed Jack’s shoulder. “We are going to attack the castle, Jack. You must join us. We won! You and your Alderachean-damned abilities prevailed. I never thought your errand was a Black Finger killer. That blue flash that went through the city. They all dropped dead.”

  “Not all,” Jack said. “Those not thoroughly converted dropped, but they didn’t die.” He said listlessly. He took a few deep breaths.

  “Are you all right?” Tanner asked.

  “No. My energy is low. It was gone for a moment in the sanctuary, but I’ve replenished it a couple of times.”

  Jack clutched the little, blue box and received a jolt of energy so strong that it made him stagger. Whatever it was wiped some of the dark clouds that gathered around him ever since his talk with Parena.

  “Lead me on,” Jack said.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  ~

  T hey ran to the castle. Jack was able to keep up with Tanner, but as he reached the castle, he began to limp. A contingent of Ran Maltwill’s troops and another group of Panderites were battling with Sparrows and what must have been Kadellians at the castle gate.

  Tanner held Jack back. “We can sit this one out until they get inside.”

  The Panderite wizards finally stood in front of the gate and blew it down. Jack had no idea how they did it, but the gate fell backward into the castle courtyard. He joined the troops into the courtyard and fought with wand and sword through the press of men and led others into the castle. There were black-fingered bodies scattered throughout the castle.

  Jack finally recognized where he was and led Tanner and a squad of Panderites into the king’s quarters. A dead Black Finger wizard sprawled on the floor wearing the king’s clothes. In the bedroom, Bachan Darkwaist died sitting in a chair. Jack looked around the room until Alky walked in with a squad of guards.

  “Are there any secret passages or bedrooms or something?” Jack asked.

  Alky nodded. “There is a secret study that the king used to get away from everyone.” He pulled a drapery cord. “It is behind the curtain.”

  Jack swept the drapes aside and rushed into the room. A cot was set up in the middle of the study. He hoped King Kaleen would be alive, but the man on the cot was dead, and it wasn’t a recent death.

  “The king is dead,” Alky said. “They kept his body preserved, but I can tell it is beginning to smell.”

  Jack finally noticed the sour smell of death. A Panderite wizard pushed his way in.

  “A fitting death for the man who let the Black Fingers invade our land.” He made a face. “I will use another preservation spell on the body. The Black Fingers’ magic ceased to work when the blue light killed them.”

  The wizard intoned a trigger word that Jack didn’t catch in his state of shock. He walked out of the room and pulled Alky with him.

  “Word of the king’s death has to get out,” Jack said.

  Alky patted Jack on the shoulder. “It is already done, Jack Winder.”

  Fighting was still going on around them as Jack and Tanner rushed toward the embassy to tell Lark and Jorey, but they met them on the way.

  Lark was surrounded by troops of all the factions, even a group of what looked like Norris Everlight’s criminal element. Lark held up his hand. “You have news?”

  Tanner nodded. “Your father is dead, and not recently. His body was under a preservation spell
, so they could claim his death at the time of their choosing.”

  “After Prince Larkin had been assassinated,” Jorey said. “I’m sure Whelham would ride triumphantly into Gameton to claim the throne.”

  “Ah,” Tanner nodded. “He was behind it all?”

  Jorey shook his head. “The Kadellian Black Fingers were. Whelham was and is a pawn. He was on his way back from Wilton when the flash hit. We have reports that the blue flash didn’t pass Gameton’s walls. That was you, Jack?”

  “Not me,” Jack said. “The waters of the sanctuary were spelled. It must have been done eons ago. I was just the helper.”

  “Your bruises are gone.”

  Jack sighed. “Eldora gives, and Eldora takes away,” he said.

  The second errand was complete, and after all the action, he felt deflated and all used up. Lark and Ralinn could take their newly elevated positions, and that meant Jack could return to Raker Falls. He didn’t know how he felt about any of it.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  ~

  T esoria crowned larkin its king the next day. Ralinn was invested as the Archpriestess of the Eldoran temple. Jack, Tanner, Corina, and Helen were in attendance at the coronation. Ralinn’s investment ceremony was private. Only sisters could attend. Corina wasn’t invited, even though she was a former sister.

  Whelham Waterford died the minute he tried to sneak into Gameton. Evidently, the curse of Eldora was still active in the city.

  They still occupied the basement of the Corandian embassy. Jack played with his knife. He had a lot of powering up to do, and he was thankful the blue box still provided him with power, and he was in the process of filling his objects with magic when a knock alerted him.