Kemi felt her heartbeat raise after realising the power the invaders had brought with them and the panic set in. She ordered a retreat back to the castle but everyone still had to avoid the canon loads still being shot towards them from the large rolling machines. Jay studied the movement of the tornado and understood it was completely under the control of Amaya who was holding the magical stones. He had no chance to engage on the side of the battlefield where there were soldiers or machines coming at them. He would have to get behind them somehow but there was no way out from the valley other than a small passage through the mountain. Even that would take several days to come around.
Their strategy of limiting the enemies’ march forward had caused themselves to have nowhere to escape out. Only smaller exits through the land were available for an escape. To his anger, he already saw a few soldiers that were running towards a forest where they could escape through. If he had time, he would set out after them but he had to bring the soldiers still willing to fight back to the castle. He wondered if the soldiers set to guard the small passages for escape would stop those trying to leave the battlefield. Or perhaps the Redonian forces had sent some soldiers to cut off any mean of escape.
The tornado stopped moving forward and was now, instead, increasing in width that was creating stronger winds. Those on the safe side of the wind assembled behind it and stopped in a line after an order was given. The defending troops hurried back to the kingdom and could see they were not being followed but everyone was still ordered to pull back. Jay rode fast and caught up to Kemi who said she was not happy with the information that had told nothing about any magic stones.
Little Choices
Well back at the kingdom, Kemi ordered a complete increase of protection on the doors and strengthening of the walls. Whatever machine that had been dragged back was placed on the walls to be ready again. Jay confirmed with the forest people that the earth stone was still in the burnt forest. He said he needed the magical stone and told Kemi about the power of the magical stone when used as a weapon. He reminded her about the escape of the forest people from Prince Theran at the castle of Kiwen. She understood and called for some of the specialist men that worked for her. No one really knew much about these men other than that they were assassins and Kemi intended to keep it like that. Not everyone was happy that Kemi had let the men into the castle but she had made it clear to not interfere with these men. She told the six assassins about the plan of getting the earth stone back and asked them to get it for her.
The army was unlikely to attack a few men if their eyes were fixed on something else like the castle, she hoped. With some of the allied army fleeing, the six men could hopefully be seen as cowards trying to leave the fight. The plan was executed immediately and six men were let out to the mountain side to move behind the enemy at nightfall, while an attack would surly commence. Kemi looked over the land and saw the intruders take down the tornado and then reveal an enormous strong army with many machines made of wood with some metal, some of which were not visible before. She stood on the highest point of her castle and could see faintly through a looking glass how the trees behind the army had started to grow again. She was worried Amaya might realise a magical stone which was hidden and set soldiers out to search for it.
The leader of the forest people, Hun, told Kemi that if they could get to the Alumrylite stone before the attacking army went back to them, they could use it as a weapon. Kemi was now fully briefed on the situation and asked if the forest people could teach out the secrets of the magic stone. They previously had been apprehensive doing so but Hun told her they would let her knew all its secrets so she could defend her people. She knew they had all the right to be cautious about who knew the secrets about the magical stone and was happy to hear they were willing to share their knowledge in a time like this.
Jay was healed further after getting the feeling of pain back after relaxing a little. He got treated for a cut he didn’t notice earlier but remembered the healer putting his arm back told him about the blood coming from the arm. The preparation was in full speed and the arrow canons were being brought up to the high walls by the soldiers finally. Jay looked over to the school that was being sighted far away and thought about his friend. He heard a voice behind him saying that the wise men had found something else with the shadow stone and rushed up to Kemi. They said they might have stumbled upon a dangerous magic that could come from the Alumrylite stone and they didn’t know its true power. Kemi wondered what they meant and the wise men explained that they had found an old book with an older language containing information about seven Alumrylite stones from well over a thousand years ago in another time and they were used to shape the land as well as for war.
Surprised to hear there were now seven magic stones, Kemi felt she needed to listen carefully. ‘None of the seven magical stones were known to have been used before in the Grasoll land and the book came from their library,’ said the wise man holding the book. Kemi looked at the book that seemed very old and wondered where they found it. One of the wise men said he remembered hearing rumours that there were some really old books from 600 years ago when the Grasoll kingdom was new. He had never read them before but knew they were somewhere in the castle. He said he found them in one of the tombs together with some of the old skeletons of past scholars of the kingdom. He began to read from one of the books that was a diary written long time ago.
Kemi learned that the previous advisor to the first king of her bloodline had met a strange group of people that had spoken a very different language. It said in the book that he was given a scroll that was breaking apart of old age. But he was able to translate it with the help of the people that had learned the native language. When Kemi asked who these people were that did not speak the same language, the wise man could not answer. He could only tell her that the advisors were intrigued by the people that seemed to be from a different time. He noted that their clothes were completely different from what everyone was wearing. He also had written that he found the people nice but full of imagination because they spoke about magic that had already, at that time, since long disappeared in the stories told to children.
What was more strange was that when the advisor asked them what country they served, they had told him nothing. They only said that they had crossed the vast ocean for four weeks to finally arrive at the shores of the continents. Kemi said it must be a mistake because, at most, it would take10-12 days on a small boat to reach the large island of Tarika to the north. One of the wise men suggested perhaps they came from outside but Kemi said it was impossible since the waters outside of Taroo were too dangerous to sail even with a big ship. She asked where the people left to and one of them said, the advisor named Helmi that had met them, the people he met left for an abandoned mine to disappear into the ground close to where the Domoro Land began.
Kemi looked at an old map from the time of the written book. The map did point out several things they all recognised but Kemi told them she had never known about any mine that would be there. A commander told them there was a small gorge there but there was no cave or anything that showed an opening there. They thought it must be something there but with no knowledge of where to search, they might as well dig up the whole land. Kemi wondered who the people were since they spoke a different language but at the moment, it had little significance. She had little patience in her voice when she asked how it was possible a book like this had not been placed inside the royal library. Such a book should have been of importance. She was told that they didn’t know why the book was taken into the tomb, but also that it was in such a bad state that much had been lost.
When asked of what it said about the magical stones on the readable pages, the wise man told her only some of the information was still in it because Helmi wrote it down on paper that at the time was thought to last but they knew it did not. The ink had faded much but he said he had been able to read some of it. One page that was half said something about bringing people bac
k from the afterlife. It sounded like a fairy-tale but no one knew for sure what it meant. He said there was some of information there but they also had to go on the pictures to puzzle some of the text together. There was a strange word on one of the pages of the thin book and again, it was nothing they had heard before. ‘Amaram,’ said one of the advisors and none of them knew what it meant because Helmi had not put any translation other than the name.
Kemi put away the book when she heard another wise man speak to her. He pointed to the pictures and said it was a picture of all the stones in a circle. The earth stone the forest people had in their village was clearly painted with trees around it. The wind and fire was beside the earth stone on each side and was the ones the Redonian rightful king had in his possession. Three other stones were more faded due to the page being folded. But by the look of them, at least one of them would be a water magic stone. They focused on the one stone that they could see that was dark in colour. The shadow stone, the wise man said, which the Grasoll land were in possession off, was a very powerful one and was not limited to what they had been using it for.
According to a small section in the book, it could also create a curse that made people almost immortal. The wise men could not read a big part of the text as it had been ruined by time as well. There was something about bringing forth a cursed person that was infected with its power but not much else about the magical stone’s magic. The book did say the Alumrylite stone would react to the true feeling of the one wielding it whether it be good or evil. If a person with a twisted heart connected with the Alumrylite stone, they might unleash its true horror. Kemi was not sure about what they were talking about but asked what horrors. ‘Poison or something else that took over the mind of someone,’ one of the men said he believed but said he was not sure.
Whoever could properly connect to the shadow stone could release some real evil from it. They happened to get the shadow stone and had been using it to try to do good but it was the most dangerous one, according to the book. Kemi asked about the three last Alumrylite stones and the wise men said they didn’t know where the rest of them were but two of them were most likely water and light. ‘Perhaps the water stone is in a temple as the shadow stone,’ a wise man said behind her.
’Or perhaps it is not even in the land, ’said another. There was no clue about the whereabouts of the light or water stone or what the last magic stone might be since there was no information about them that was readable.
‘Perhaps the Redonian kingdom is in possession of them all and had yet to show them,’ said one of them. If Redonia had been holding on to this knowledge for all this time, they had done so with complete secrecy from everyone else. Not knowing at a time like this was hard but Kemi hoped the magical stones were somewhere else and not in the possession of Redonia. She asked about the raising of the dead and other abilities it might have but the wise men said they had read that if the dead came back, they might not want to fight beside them, because their memories would be scrambled as told in the book.
She told them it was not very helpful to have a magic stone that could bring her own kingdom down. One of the men told her the book said a strong dark soul was needed to make the power come out so they should not be in danger from it. Kemi thought a little and asked what would happen if the shadow stone could be aimed at the attacking army. They looked at her and told her it was a mistake to keep using the magic stone for such purposes. She told them the knowledge of having the shadow stone, that was the most powerful one, might prove well if they could figure out how it worked.
Kemi pointed to a picture in the old book that seemed to be a collaboration between different Alumrylite stones which would bring a different ability as the one used by the attackers. One of the men told her Helmi could only translate some of the text and much of the information was still in the language of the people that he got the book from. He said they believed that combining the Alumrylite stones would prove to create something much stronger than the magical stones themselves could create. On one of the pictures were the light and shadow stones together with the last unknown Alumrylite stone. Behind them was a shadow coming from a circle that shined of light and one of the men said perhaps the stones together would bring something back that had once been dead.
Kemi read in the book that the shadow stone could produce a poison but even for her, the old language spoken 600 years ago was a little tough. She was told by one of the wise men that even if they were to find a way of using the poison, it would curse the land and make it inhabitable for years even if it did kill the enemy. One of the wise men had been reading another book found in the tomb together with the first one. He interrupted and said he suspected that Helmi kept the information about the stones purposely away from the king at the time. When Kemi asked why, he said that the old advisor made a big discovery before he disappeared without a trace. They said the magical stone had, according to the other book, been in the hands of a people across the sea in Redonia and a monk took the shadow stone after a battle ended badly for the people in charge of keeping it safe.
The monk took it to the Grasoll land and built the temple on top of the hidden room. They had found the last words written in a diary by the monk next to his bones inside the room. He began to read and it said in his diary that the Alumrylite stone destroyed the land it came from. He had no faith in the men that had showed too much interest in its power and failed to see the destruction that followed. One of the men believed Helmi might have found out that the kingdom was holding the magic stone and could have figured out that the Alumrylite stone was in the temple. It was possible, said one of them, that Helmi puzzled it all together after looking for answers.
Kemi wanted to know where Helmi’s grave was so it might be opened to hopefully find something of use but none of the wise men had ever seen any tomb or grave with Helmi’s name on it. ‘There was no trace of the king’s advisor in the temple either,’ another one of them said. Highly annoyed at the lack of information, Kemi told them to continue looking for clues. Kemi was a good person to her people and felt she might not be able to save them if she used the shadow stone, as it would make the land inhabitable. She hoped her assassins would have luck to bring the earth stone back to them.
Voices
As the night came, so did the attacking army and was bringing the fully assembled force with repaired weapons. The leaders then led the army in the front and from the castle, Kemi and the rest of the army, was watching over the intruding army getting closer every second. Kemi could not believe they had been pushed back to the castle. She told Jay that they should have been able to push them back since they had much more soldiers. She then asked the officers that were responsible for the information gathering how they missed that Redonia had such strong weapons. They tried to explain that no one was able to enter and that the Redonian kingdom was impossible to gain information from if coming from Grasoll land. The royals were known for never speaking to anyone about their kingdom and kept themselves isolated from the rest of the world. Only the kingdom of Canteria or Ocenia were allowed to trade with them but they still could not enter the land without permission. And if they did, they were watched carefully.
Kemi was angry and wondered how they were able to combine the two magical stones’ power and create such a powerful magic. The wise men said the Alumrylite stones must not have been used for hundreds of years outside of Redonia and had been all but forgotten by the world. There had been rumours about storms or fire erupting near where the Redonia army had its training ground, but one of the officers said the area was far inland of the island of Redonia where people were not allowed to venture. They told her that since they had never had any trade relationship with the Redonian kingdom, they had very few friends in the land that could speak about anything. There were a few that had been willing to speak but none of them had ever heard about any strong magic.
Kemi shook her head and said her father, for some reason, hated them and thought them very rude as well as
uptight. One of the officers for the Domoro land’s army said that the queen’s nephew, Char, lived there but had signed a paper of never speaking about what went on at the Redonian kingdom. He said it was Nami’s brother and even she would know nothing about what went on there. ‘It was hard to get information on how the magical stones worked,’ a wise man said and after speaking to Hun, the leader of the forest people, they found out they only knew part of its power. The forest people only knew the tree growing and earth shaking abilities of the magical stone but nothing else.
Kemi told them to find out more while there was time and she believed, at this point, the castle would stand strong against the army outside. She knew, for now, they were safe but not for long if the canons and other weapons would be used. Jay wondered how they had been able to obtain such knowledge of advanced weapons. Especially mechanical beasts and large structures that rolled over the ground. The wise men said the countries across the ocean were different in land and had less resources such as trees. They knew the Redonian kingdom had the biggest fleet of ships and that all the wood they imported came from the land of Canteria. ‘Perhaps the rough land had forced them to focus more on technology,’ one of the wise men said.
From the school the students had placed themselves next to the opening of the secret wall and were making final preparations. Sophia never left her father’s side and neither did Isabel. They kept an eye on the enemy far away from them at the moment and they worried about the people in the castle. Jay looked over the torches below that were burning brightly and lightning up the darkness that was now over them.
World of Taroo Page 48