by Blink, Bob
That would mean a vote would be forced, and he already knew, whatever rumblings were going on, that he held the winning hand for that vote. Soon, he would be king. Then he could settle with Lopal. Hopefully what he offered them would be enough, but if not, he would abandon Kellmore to them. He’d initially thought it wise to keep them as an ally, but if Lopal wanted more, he’d have no choice. That meant Mydra was no longer important to him. He’d have to see if he could have Roit find and dispose of her.
No one had any idea how the King had been poisoned, even though everyone was certain now that had been what had killed him. He was certain they would never make the connection. The poison had been absorbed while the king was in his bath, the deadly ingredient added to the buckets in the bowels of the castle and carried by unsuspecting servants up to fill the bath. Then the water had been drained away afterwards. The poisoner had never been anywhere close to the king. He was a nameless face in the masses that served unnoticed. It was too soon, but eventually something would have to happen to him. The Duke could already think of several ways he could die that wouldn’t raise suspicions. The Duke smiled. He sat in his chair and wondered as he sipped the hearty wine his servant had brought up from the cellar a short time earlier. How much longer before word arrived he wondered.
Not too far away in the castle, the former queen heard a discrete knock on the door. Her servant opened to find the birdmaster waiting nervously outside.
“Come in,” Usaya said. “Is there word?”
The man nodded quickly. “It probably is meant for Rhog – I mean the king, or whatever …” The man stopped. He was uncertain as everyone else these days what the proper authority should be. Rhog had not been formally named king, but given the news probably would be. “The note was meant for King Rupermore originally, so I thought it should be delivered here. It is from Loum. I fear it is not good news.”
“Let me have it,” Usaya said, her hand shaking minutely as she reached out for the message.
The birdmaster handed across the note, then looked at the floor.
“No!” cried Usaya as she read the note. “It cannot be! Not Rhory too!” Loum had briefly documented their find, including the discovery of Rhory’s burned armor among the cremated bodies. He could only assume that Rhory had died with his men.
Chapter 55
Tana’s travel bubble faded away and she hopped off the transfer point and immediately headed across the room to where Burke had set up his temporary office. With all of the trips they were making of late, he felt it easier to be close at hand when each of his team members reported back from one of their searches. Once they had a lead he would finally be going himself. As it was, he needed to stay here in the fortress and coordinate the efforts of all the members of his team. He could see already that like the others Tana had found nothing. Well, it was a large continent with a lot of places to hide if one was so inclined, and they had very limited resources for this kind of thing.
“No signs of them at all,” Tana said when she made her formal report. “No one has seen any outsiders, and there are no odd events that would suggest they passed through clandestinely.”
Burke nodded. He hadn’t expected anything else. There had been too many such reports and he was certain they were not going to find them this way, but as yet hadn’t been able to come up with a better plan. They had come to rely on the magical necklaces to guide them and had never had to try and chase down a wizard who was actually hiding from them.
“Go and get some rest,” he told her. “I’ll have a new assignment for you in the morning.”
Tana grimaced at the thought, but dutifully nodded and hurried off to her quarters.
Everyone was as tired of this chore as he was, Burke noted. Like the Elders, Burke was now convinced that something very unusual was happening here. This was the first time ever that someone outside the group was wandering around free after learning of their existence. That didn’t sit well with the Elders at all. They liked to have a firm control of all who knew about them, and while Rigo had never actually been to the fortress here, he knew generally where it had to be. He had to be brought in, or possibly eliminated. The risks if they were exposed could be too much of a problem.
There had been other distractions, but Burke had been somewhat isolated from them of late. Multiple missions to push back against the persistent Razmot had been fielded. Normally, given his strength in the power he would have automatically been included. Now, a measure of how urgent the Elders deemed finding this missing wizard, Burke was not allowed to go. Too much focus was being expended on this one task in his estimation, but then his opinion wasn’t being sought by the Trio of Elders. From him they wanted only one thing. Rigo.
In the past weeks every effort had been made to investigate Rigo’s history. Painstakingly they had pieced together a picture of Rigo’s background and his actions in the village where he had grown up. There were mysteries there as well. He had a reputation of being a bit different, but no overt signs of ability had been discovered. What was somewhat disturbing was the strange manner in which he had come to the village. No one there knew where he was really from either. The Elders had gone so far as to authorize travel to Kal’ran, the far off home of Rigo’s adoptive mother, just in case there was something being hidden there. Kal’ran was more than three months across the Great Sea by ship, and was infrequently visited by the group. They had never found anyone with the power there, and while it was known for a number of exotic and highly prized foods and wines, had little that the group really needed. They could get there as quickly as anywhere else that had a transfer point, so the journey had not taken them the months it would anyone else. But nothing had been learned. Like everyone else they had interfaced with there, Rigo’s adopted mother came from a family that had no history of magical ability. The trip gained them nothing more than a large supply of goods that the traveler had thoughtfully brought back.
Back in Rigo’s village of Daro, his former brothers had been surreptitiously tested for ability with magic. Such techniques existed, but were impractical for other than isolated cases, but nothing was found. They were Normals, those without a hint of ability. All in all, they had learned nothing. There was nothing to suggest who he was or where he had originated, and how he was managing to do some of the things he had, especially given the relative weakness in the power he had demonstrated to Burke.
The one insight might have come from Gadil. Burke had pursued the question of the staff with the wizard on multiple occasions. Gadil had spent long hours in the special library that existed here in the fortress. The books had been here when the place was discovered by the Trio, but most couldn’t be read. They were written in a language that was no longer known. Only a few had short sections in a very old version of the common language, which had given scholars a grasping point for digging further. Gadil was one of those who had more ability in the strange language than anyone else, and aided by the unexplained ability of the young wizard Nycoh who could read parts of the language, had discovered a few facts that might shed some light on the matter. The young girl had also discovered among the texts in the vast library several that suggested that certain spells could be verbally executed, even by those without natural ability, Normals in other words, to mimic their own inherent magic. Great hope was being given to this discovery as it might be a means to augment their force and if the right spell discovered to be able to overwhelm the ever increasing number of Razmot. Of course the problem remained that while Nycoh could read some of the texts, she had nothing with which to base the sounds of the words, which was crucial to proper execution.
“There are suggestions that the staff might be a construct by a wizard of immense power to perform a specific task,” Gadil had said. “The staff would be linked to the wizard who created it, or potentially to someone else if that was the plan. Like my staff, any wizard above a certain power level could increase their existing abilities somewhat by having it at hand, but unless that was the person for w
hich it was intended, tapping the full abilities would be impossible.”
“Then the staff that Rigo possesses could indeed be granting him power he wouldn’t normally have?” Burke had asked.
“That is what I believe the texts imply, but my ability is poor and I’m guessing as much as reading. The problem to be explained is how a staff we believe was built many centuries before could be targeted to someone alive today. He could not have built it himself, or he would have power far above that of any of us. All of us together wouldn’t be able to duplicate the effort today, even if we knew the required technique.”
Burke had found no other answers, but was convinced that Gadil had uncovered an important clue that might reveal a great deal if he could only see how it fit into the mystery. He was convinced the staff was behind Rigo’s ability to disappear. Rigo was the only wizard who had ever eluded them, and he was also the only wizard who had a staff that was clearly from the Old Age.
That left Burke no closer to where Rigo might have gone. In all the weeks of searching, there had only been one clue that offered a possible answer, and that had just come to his attention the day before. He was still trying to decide what it might mean. One of his team had brought word of a breakout in a place called the Digs, a mine worked by criminals with life sentences. The breakout had apparently been squashed relatively quickly, but the story hinted at the disappearance of five recently arrested individuals. They were being detained in the mine at the time of the breakout, and were not to be found after the matter was settled.
Five was the wrong number, of course. Rigo had been traveling with three others, so who was the fifth if it had indeed been him? The breakout and disappearance was another mystery, and Burke didn’t feel comfortable with the coincidence. And where might they have gone? He had pondered that mystery since learning of it the day before. He had spent most of the night staring at maps of the region trying to see how they might have come there and where they might have gone. He could make a case for how Rigo might have ended up at the Digs, but how they could have escaped unseen when everyone else was quickly caught or killed was more difficult.
There was one seemingly unrelated matter, that he was becoming convinced might be the clue he needed. Despite supposedly focusing his full effort on finding the missing wizard, Burke had found himself with many hours with nothing to do while waiting for his people to return from the missions he had sent them on. During some of the idle hours he had continued to keep track of possible new wizards they would have to investigate when this matter was finally concluded. One of the magical tracking necklaces had made a connection to a new mage, and then had become separated from the person it had linked with. That happened sometimes. It had happened with Rigo. Any coincidence he wondered? Usually the two were linked again relatively quickly, but that hadn’t happened in this case. The necklace had resurfaced recently, not linked but in a place far from where the wizard had been initially found and in a place one would not expect. It was along the eastern border of Lopal, not far from the start of the Ruins. Burke found that to be very odd.
He had marked the location where the necklace appeared to be on his map. Interestingly enough it was on the eastern side of a large range of mountains from where the Digs were located. He’d drawn a line on the map to connect the two. Was there a route through the mountains? The one wizard they had in the group who was somewhat familiar with the area said no. He did say there was a story of an old route under the mountains that had been closed many decades before. Burke found that very interesting.
Just for the moment suppose the five missing people had been Rigo and his friends, and someone new that Burke didn’t know about. Could the fifth person be the new wizard that Rigo had somehow linked up with? It wouldn’t surprise Burke in the least. Could the group have found a way under the mountains? Perhaps they were still trapped there and that was why the necklace hadn’t been reunited. Burke didn’t think so. The necklace wouldn’t have gone there if there wasn’t an almost certainty that the linked wizard would soon come across it.
Burke’s intuition screamed at him that this was where Rigo had gone, or would be going soon. He couldn’t see why or where the man was heading, but he was convinced this was where he would find him. The conclusion felt right even if the clues were tenuous. He didn’t think he could convince the Elders and he was to see them tomorrow to explain his progress. Or lack of it as was more the case. He knew he was going to try and make a case for going to have a look. It would be difficult. The only traveling point nearby was two days walk out into the Ruins. Why there was one there no one knew. It would also be dangerous. The Razmot originated in the Ruins, so he would have to take several others with the power to drive the beasts away. That would detract from the ongoing efforts to control them, so the Elders might be reluctant to agree. Well, it was their decision, but if they really wanted Rigo, they would have to make some concessions. Of course if he turned out to be wrong, then he could well be stripped of his authority. While there were those who felt he ought to be raised to the same level as the Trio, he had detractors who would like to see him reduced in responsibility. He had been condescending to many over the past year, and those would love to see him fail.
Chapter 56
Four days ago they had crossed over into the Ruins. There was no sign, nor any official boundary, but it had been obvious to each of them that they were no longer in the normal land that constituted Lopal. This place was different. The changes were small at first, but within a couple of hours the land had changed into something none of them had ever experienced before. Now after several days they had come to accept the strange reddish rock that slowly baked and crumbled under the glaring sun and endless sands that surrounded them. The heat from the sun was intense in the daytime, and then the land turned surprisingly cold at night. The temperature swings were more excessive than made sense for either end of the range. Rigo was certain that somehow magic had a hand in creating the odd environment here.
Within an hour of starting each day the heat from the sands had soaked through their boots and made their feet burn, which made walking arduous. They had to wear more clothing than was comfortable or they quickly burned from the intense sunlight. As a result they sweated profusely. Each had fashioned a makeshift hat to provide some comfort for their heads. At night, they barely had enough clothing to stay warm. There was nothing to burn, and Rigo used his magic fire to heat rocks so they could stay comfortable. They were always thirsty, yet had to ration their water. More than any other item, the precious liquid would limit their ability to continue into this forsaken land.
Why would someone put anything out in a place such as this? It certainly would discourage anyone from stumbling across it he guessed. Without the clear pull that drew him where he was expected to go, he never would have been able to find the way.
Rigo forced one foot in front of the other. Something inside screamed at him to leave this place, but he had to keep moving. His body wished him to leave, but his mind kept urging him onward despite the physical discomfort. It was for him they had all come here. But he wasn’t at all comfortable with being here. To escape what he was enduring, his mind tended to wander.
“Still thinking about the necklace?” Daria asked some time later seeing he was distracted.
He nodded. Yeah, as a matter of fact he was. The necklace continued to worry him. Different than his own in many ways, but obviously designed for the same purpose. Jeen had recognized it immediately when they had come across it hanging in plain view from an old structure as they marched from the ruins of the decaying village at the outlet from the abandoned mine.
“Don’t touch it,” he’d warned her as she reached out to examine it.
“Why?” she’d asked. “I won’t take it with me. I remember what you said. I just want to see if it’s really the same one. It looks like it has the same imperfections as the one that was taken from me.”
“Once you touch it the link will be reestablished. I don’t kn
ow what they can tell, or how quickly they might know, but I’m certain they will know it has found you again, even if you leave it behind once you’ve connected with it.”
“They can’t know I’m with you,” she objected. “Aren’t you being overly cautious?”
“Even if they don’t know you are with us, they will know where you are and will most likely send someone here to find you. That’s how they appear to operate. Anyone who finds you will find the rest of us.”
Jeen withdrew her hand. “How could it have gotten here? No one has been here in years from all we can see.”
“It’s magical. Who knows how it works?” Rigo said. “My staff can traverse large distances when it needs to find me. I don’t know exactly how that is done either, but I’ve tested it often enough to know it happens.”
Rigo couldn’t help but wonder what the necklace meant. How much did Burke and his group know? Could they have found out that Jeen, or from their perspective, an unknown wizard had joined their group? Would the mere presence of the necklace here tell them that a wizard was coming this seldom traveled way and raise their suspicions? Even if they knew, could they get here quickly? A lot of questions he couldn’t answer, but he was left with an uneasiness that settled into his stomach. He wished there were a way to destroy the necklace, but something told him that wouldn’t be possible, and its sudden disappearance would be a significant clue to Burke. He couldn’t put it in the staff with his own for the same reason. There was no more room inside it anyway. There was nothing to do but move onward leaving the thing undisturbed. He was certain it would appear once again, and might be a moving beacon that would reveal to Burke, if not their movements, at least a suspicious movement of a wizard they might want to track down. Either could lead to the man appearing at an inopportune time. The problem was he couldn’t think of what to do about it, nor what actions to take if the bastard did appear.