Echoes of the Fourth Magic tcoya-1

by R. A. Salvatore

  Mitchell stood dumbfounded at the magnificence before him, having no witticisms sufficient to retaliate against this place of beauty.

  “We are but a simple folk!” Andovar chuckled proudly.

  “Soldiers o’ the spirit,” Belexus added.

  “This is unbelievable!” Del cried when his breath came back.

  “Incredible,” Reinheiser agreed. “How could you possibly have made this?”

  “Twas made by no hands of ourne,” Andovar answered.

  “Then who?” Reinheiser pressed, eager, almost frantic, to know what power in Aielle was capable of creating something like this.

  Andovar seemed unsure of how to answer the physicist. He and Belexus exchanged questioning glances, wondering how much they should say to the strangers. The men noted the caution in Belexus’ reply.

  “We do’no’ know,” he said. “Bellerian says only that it was made by a friend.”

  “Sit, then,” Andovar said, quickly changing the subject, “and know yerself blessed in seeing the power o’ the Emerald Room!”

  Anxious for more of this wondrous place, the men readily complied. As they made themselves comfortable on some plush furs that Belexus had brought along, Andovar walked to the middle of the bridge. When everyone was settled, he looked up at the crystal ball and spoke to it.

  “Blue!” he commanded, and instantly the room was bathed in blue light, gleaming through the crystal walls.

  “Red!” Andovar said, and the room obeyed.

  He looked at the strangers, and their amazed expressions urged him on with his demonstration. “The water!” he ordered with proud conviction, and the room went black. Then the walls of the gully lit up, the light dancing enchantingly through the water of the stream in flickering designs about the room. Every now and then came a silver flash as a cave fish flitted by.

  “Dark!” Andovar cried, and the room went black yet again.

  “Witness to the night, Andovar,” came Belexus’ request.

  “By yer wish,” Andovar replied. A quiet hush held for a moment. Finally, when Andovar felt himself prepared, he raised his eyes in the blackness toward the crystal ball and called clearly, “Witness to the night!”

  The room remained dark for a second. Then a crimson ball, a perfect representation of the setting sun, appeared low on the wall opposite the door and the room lit up accordingly. The ball sank quickly behind an illusionary landscape turning the western sky of the dome fiery red in a beautiful sunset highlighted by the black silhouette of a lone cloud.

  Soon the red dissipated into the deep blue of dreamy twilight, and dots of light, stars, made their first twinkling appearance all about the sky. Blue deepened to black and soon a million stars shone clearly. The men stared in blank amazement as a huge, silvery moon rose on the wall directly behind them and made its way overhead. Soon it, too, disappeared behind the room’s horizon, and gradually the room began to lighten until the first rays of dawn peeped from the wall behind the men. With this first hint of sunlight, Andovar’s request was completed and the room faded to darkness.

  “Light,” Andovar commanded to bring back the normal illumination.

  “My God, Belexus,” Del whispered.

  “Magnificent!” Reinheiser exclaimed. “I must know more.”

  “Me sire’ll be glad ye’re pleased,” Belexus said, but he halted Reinheiser’s coming stream of questions with a wave of his hand. “Ye must be resting now,” he explained. “The night’s been winding long as we tarry and me and Andovar huv duties before dawnslight.”

  “When will you return?” Del asked.

  “On the two-morn, the day behind the morrow’s night,” Belexus answered. “We’ll be coming for ye when the time’s for going. Until then, ye stay here and rest. Ye’ll find yer food in a sack under the table o’er the bridge.”

  “Steps go into the brook where it flows out o’ the room by the wall,” Andovar added, pointing to the wall on the right. “There’s for washing. Back against the pull, she’s drinkin’ clean.”

  “Ask o’ the room as pleases ye,” Belexus said. “But be wary, for ’tis the strength o’ yer own mind that truly brings the changes.” His voice went low with seriousness. “And being a friend, I warn ye, hoping ye’ll heed me words: the tomes and scrolls across the way are alone for the eyes o’ Bellerian. They’ll no abide the gaze o’ any other.”

  With that, the rangers bowed low in farewell and departed, and the four men heard Belexus lock the door behind him.

  “Better than any planetarium I’ve ever seen,” Del declared with a wide smile, obviously enchanted with the place.

  “I don’t get it,” Mitchell said, confused but certainly not enchanted. “They walk around with swords though they’ve got the technology to do this.”

  “This room has nothing to do with technology, Captain,” Reinheiser offered.

  “Oh, really,” Mitchell snapped, suspecting the direction of Reinheiser’s doubts. “Then how does it work?”

  “The man Andovar named it,” Reinheiser answered, hesitating as if he was making a reluctant concession. “Magic.”

  “You’re as sick as the rest of them,” the disgusted captain declared.

  “Perhaps,” Reinheiser retaliated. “But I know what lies plain before me. Think of all that has happened to us,” he continued in open defiance. “You yourself carry the scars of bullet wounds that should have killed you instantly, and yet you stand here talking to me. How, Captain? How is that possible?”

  “I don’t know!” Mitchell shouted. “Maybe they’re advanced medically-or maybe these scars aren’t real!”

  “An illusion?” Reinheiser retorted. “Yes, of course, this whole experience could be an illusion. Or perhaps a dream.”

  “Yes!” Mitchell cried, seeing the revelation.

  “No!” Reinheiser shouted right back at him. “Don’t you see the trap, Captain? Why is this an illusion? Perhaps the illusion was our lives before the Unicorn.”

  “That’s crap.”

  “Of course it is,” Reinheiser agreed. “And it is also ridiculous to think that this land, Aielle, is imaginary. An image that persists for days, weeks, is not an illusion, it is reality. And as insane as this all seems, it is truly happening.”

  “I wouldn’t expect this of you,” Del said to Reinheiser. “I mean, you being a scientist, devoted to laws and precise calculations. I didn’t think there was room in your world for something as illogical as all this.”

  “Laws, measurements,” Reinheiser snorted. “They are only tools. They have their uses, but they are limited. No, there is something else here. I can feel it, I can taste it. There is a power here, a magic in the air, that the laws of science as we understand them cannot explain.”

  “Bah!” Mitchell blurted, throwing up his hands and storming away.

  Reinheiser shook his head, his ensuing smile reflecting pity for the ignorant man.

  Despite the tense atmosphere, they all slept better that night than they had since the Halls of the Colonnae.

  The next day proved difficult for Mitchell. As anxious as he was to get this whole business over with, certain that its end would somehow bring about a reasonable explanation and a return to normalcy, the frustration of sitting and waiting quickly became more than he could bear.

  That day was anything but boring for Reinheiser. He set to work with enthusiasm, testing the limitations of the room’s power. That would have been absorbing enough to satisfy him if the parchments and scrolls on the desk had not been a constant torment to his insatiable curiosity. He stayed away from them, though, for he believed in this magic he had witnessed and, not yet understanding it, respected it enough to heed Belexus’ warning.

  Del and Billy spent the day recuperating from the trials of their weeks on the road. They were both excited and charmed by this strange world in spite of its dangers, in spite of their recent losses. Especially Del. But being forced to accept one impossibility after another had created intense pressures, and both of th
em needed to unwind. They talked with nostalgic fondness about old times and wondered what was yet to come, all the while enjoying the show provided by Reinheiser’s experiments.

  “Maybe I was wrong about him,” Del said, noting the physicist’s enthusiasm as he worked the lights and illusions.

  “No you weren’t,” Billy answered with flat certainty.

  “But look at him.” Del smiled. “He’s thrilled about this whole thing.”

  “His old rules are defective. They don’t explain what’s going on, so he’s trying to find new ones that can. That’s all there is to it.”

  “I don’t know,” Del argued. “He threw out that Mr. Computer act of his and got emotional last night, even defended this completely impossible place against Mitchell. That’s not the Reinheiser I know.”

  “Emotional?” Billy replied. “No, you’ve got it wrong. He got excited, but he never lost control of his emotions. He found a new toy to play with, a new frontier to explore. It was the same way on the Unicorn when he figured out the time distortion and thought we were going to find an advanced society. There’s nothing wrong with being curious or wanting to learn, but Reinheiser’s got this self-destructive need to know absolutely everything about absolutely everything.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” Del sighed. “I just thought there might be hope for him.”

  “Believe me, buddy,” Billy said, “that snake is as cold-blooded as ever.”

  No one visited the men that day. But that night as they slept, Bellerian came and woke Del. He motioned Del to keep quiet and led him out into the torchlit tunnel.

  “By the words o’ me son, I can put me trust in ye,” Bellerian said after he had silently closed the door.

  “You can,” Del replied, intrigued, hoping that Bellerian would ask something of him. Though he knew little of the rangers and their ways, and understood not at all their dedication to the unknown duty that Andovar had hinted at, Del realized that these men were unquestionably honorable. And recognizing in them the qualities of the proud and principled heroes that his calculating and mysteryless world so desperately needed, he was anxious to prove himself worthy of their company and respect. “I owe the rangers my life. I won’t betray you.”

  “Good in hearing,” Bellerian said. “Then I beg a small favor of ye.”

  “Name it.”

  “Take this.” He handed Del a bone cylinder, both its ends capped with cork. “When ye be in the realm of Illuma, seek ye the Silver Mage and give him this. Tell him I gave it to ye and that it is from our friend o’ the wood.”

  “Mage?” Del asked. “You mean wizard?”

  “Ayuh, a very great wizard indeed is Rudy Glendower.”

  “Wow.” Del whistled, thrilled at the prospect of meeting such a man. This world was growing more and more fantastic to him every minute. What would a wizard be like? he wondered. What kind of power could this Rudy Glendower command, if any at all? Remembering his immediate surroundings, Del looked at the venerable and iron-willed man before him with a surprised and questioning expression.

  Bellerian read the look on Del’s face and smiled. “No, me friend, I am no enchanter, but only a mortal man akin to yerself. None but four wizards be chanting spells in Aielle.”

  “Of course, the Four trained by the Colonnae,” Del said, remembering Calae’s tale. Bellerian’s nod confirmed Del’s guess, and Del pressed on, even more excited.

  “Tell me how to find this man.”

  “Ye should’no’ huv a difficult time of it,” Bellerian replied, “Glendower bein’ the only one in all Illuma whose blood runs pure to human. And unless the ways of the dancing children huv changed, Ardaz, as they name him, is ever about.

  “Show that to no one,” Bellerian continued soberly, indicating the bone case. “And bechance someone sees it, tell him ye found it by the roadside. Keep it our secret.”

  Del assured the Ranger Lord that he would carry out the task. As Bellerian turned to leave, Del called him back. “You’ve trusted me and I thank you for that.” He studied Bellerian’s every reaction as he spoke, hoping to word his request just right. “Could you trust me some more? Could you do me a favor?”

  Bellerian nodded cautiously.

  “I want to know about the room,” Del asked. “Is it the magic of one of the Four? Did the Silver Mage create it?”

  Bellerian hesitated for a moment, but then nodded, for having asked a favor of Del in the name of friendship and trust, he had no choice but to return the courtesy. “Suren the mark of Ardaz is upon it,” he said. “But in troth ’twas more the spellcasting of another. No more can I tell ye.”

  “I understand,” Del said, satisfied. “And I thank you for saying as much as you did.”

  “Go now and rest,” Bellerian said. “Tomorrow finds ye on the road.”

  Del rejoined his snoozing companions and quickly fell into a sleep filled with heroic dreams of magics and sword-play and rescues from the fiery jaws of evil dragons. But then one image held him, dominating his train of thoughts with disturbing incessancy.

  An eye was watching him.

  A green eye, studying his every move and penetrating deeper to scrutinize his thoughts and the very feelings within his heart.

  Finally the eye released him from its probing and Del dreamed that he was floating in the air. Up he went, past the trees and clouds and beyond to a million stars-stars that spoke to him with their flashing lights and showed him fleeting glimpses of wondrous secrets and powers. They limned the edges of his consciousness, teasing him with unimagined knowledge, but he could not decipher their flickering code.

  Then, abruptly, he was back in the Emerald Room, weightless still and hovering beside the crystal ball that hung above the bridge. And the eye was in the ball!

  He awoke in darkness, the others breathing deeply around him, and all as it should be. He looked above the bridge and thought that he saw a flicker of green before all went black.

  Del did not sleep the rest of the night. He wasn’t afraid, just curious. Something was calling to him and he longed to know what, or who, it might be.

  Chapter 12

  The Witch of the Wood

  REINHEISER PREPARED A little surprise for his companions the following morning. He had learned much about manipulating the powers of the Emerald Room, even to the extent of coinciding its magic with events in the outside world. Confusion greeted Del, Billy, and Mitchell when they were awakened by the illusionary light of a sunrise within the room at the same moment that the real dawn was breaking outside. They barely had time to stretch the restful sleep out of their muscles and reorient themselves to their surroundings when Andovar opened the door.

  “Come,” he said, “suren ’tis a merry day, and Avalon awaits.”

  And when the men emerged from Bellerian’s house, they saw that Andovar was not exaggerating: it was indeed a beautiful day, comfortably cool and with a winsome spring breeze carrying the fragrances of budding life. Puffy white balls of clouds floated across the rich blue sky, and the sun beamed as if rejoicing that the last traces of winter had at last been left behind.

  “Get yerself a morning meal,” Andovar said. “We’ve the time. Belexus is gone scouting the road ahead and sha’no’ return for a while, and I huv a notch in me sword needin’ fixing.”

  Del drew his own sword. “Do you really think we’ll need them?”

  “No’ for guessing,” Andovar replied. “Evil ones do’no’ stalk the grounds o’ Avalon, but sunpeak shall pass above us afore we see her blessed boughs. The road is e’er filled with dangers in the wild northland.” Del’s expression was caught somewhere between excitement and trepidation. “do’no’ worry, me friends,” Andovar added to console them all, “for this day ye ride beside the mightiest warrior o’ this age.”

  “Such humility,” Mitchell grumbled, his sarcasm undiminished by a good night’s sleep.

  “I speak not o’ meself,” Andovar retorted coldly. A proud man, proven in battle, he didn’t take lightly b
eing insulted by an outlander. He stared unblinking at the captain and continued in a low, grim voice, “Me blade is worthy, alike all o’ the rangers, but Belexus is the one making the deeds for the singers o’ songs.”

  Mitchell ignored the words and the glare, acting as if Andovar didn’t even exist.

  “Killin’ the whip-dragon to save yer lives marks Belexus at fifteen,” Andovar told Billy and Del. “And he is no’ but a young man. The great Bellerian killed but twelve in his fightin’ days, and the beasts were more about back then. And Belexus once showed a true dragon to the other world. Not a big one, but even a small dragon is a foe beyond the strength of mortal men.

  “But not beyond Belexus,” Andovar explained, his smile one of admiration untainted by envy. “By what me own eyes huv seen, even the largest o’ the dragonkind’d be hard put to it by the ringing sword of Belexus Backavar, son o’ Bellerian and prince to the Rangers o’ Avalon.”

  “Backavar?” Del asked.

  “ ‘Iron-arm’ in yer tongue,” Andovar explained. “ ’Tis a name he hus earned since his first fighting days. I am no wrong in saying, me eyes as witness, that he is a mightier warrior than Arien Silverleaf himself!”

  Their looks told Andovar that they did not recognize the name.

  “Arien Silverleaf,” the ranger repeated reverently. “Ye’ll be meeting him soon enough, for he is the Eldar of Illuma and very great and wise. But no more o’ yer questions. Things are needing doing and time is not enough!”

  Belexus soon returned, and once again, unexpectedly, the four outlanders were left speechless. They stood in a grassy meadow, sheltered by a ring of huge boulders that seemed purposely placed to maintain secrecy. Andovar and another ranger worked nearby, selecting horses for the journey, and the men were indeed relieved that they would not be walking this time. Suddenly the horses began whinnying and stomping their hooves.