Trials

by Pedro Urvi

“It’s the effect… of crossing the portal…” said Komir, who was beginning to get some of his strength back, even though he still could not move. And the pain, unfortunately, did not ease.

  Another buzz told Komir of the arrival of Kendas to his left. He was also affected by the strange physical effects of crossing the portal.

  It took the three friends some time to recover completely.

  “Any idea where we are?” Komir asked, with a gasp of relief now that he was over the painful experience.

  Kendas shrugged.

  Hartz shrugged too. “Don’t ask me!”

  “I think we ought to explore…” Komir said, and the three men crossed the chamber carefully, alert to any sudden danger.

  “There are some stairs here,” Kendas said, pointing at the wall opposite the portal.

  “Where do they lead?” Hartz asked.

  “To the ceiling, but it’s sealed…” Kendas replied.

  “There doesn’t seem to be any other way out of here…” said Komir once they had checked the chamber. “Let’s wait for the others and see if we can manage to get up there.”

  When they had all crossed over and recovered from the adverse effects of the experience, they went to the stairs. Hartz and Kendas tried to lift the sealed trapdoor by pushing with their backs, but to no avail.

  “Phew… impossible…” said Hartz as he gave up.

  “Komir, you should try with the medallions, those stairs seem to be sealed by some arcane means,” said Kayti as she checked the ceiling.

  Aliana went up to Komir and offered him her hand with a smile. He took it and smiled back. They reached out to Asti and she joined them. The three bearers formed a circle with their hands linked.

  “Focus on finding your inner energy,” said Aliana, “and once you do, ask the medallion to open the sealed trapdoor.”

  Komir had no trouble doing so; each time he found it easier to find his power. From his medallion came a crystalline flash, followed by a brown one from Aliana’s and then a ruby one from Asti’s. The Ilenian magic was becoming active. The medallions shone once more, simultaneously, filling the empty room with light.

  There came a stony crack above their heads, followed by the sound of rock being dragged against rock. An opening appeared at the head of the stairs.

  With a huge smile of satisfaction Hartz went up to the next level, sword in hand.

  Kayti tried to stop him but she was too late. “Wait… you halfw…”

  Hartz ran up the stairs and came into a room lit by oil lamps. This puzzled him. If they were in an Ilenian temple, or some other place of Ilenian origin, there could not be oil lamps burning; even he could see that. Although he had to admit that lately his ideas had been getting pretty good, brilliant even. Perhaps he was not such a moron after all…

  Something moved to his right, and Hartz turned to face the danger.

  “Don’t move a hair, you damned Mage!” he shouted, using his Ilenian sword to threaten a figure in a dark tunic with a volume in its hand.

  The figure took a step back and collapsed onto the floor.

  Hartz was taken aback. Had he caused the Guardian to die of fright? No, it could hardly be that — or could it? He glanced around the room, and it seemed vaguely familiar… Another figure appeared in a doorway with a staff in his hand and a volume in the other. He wore a grey hooded tunic. Hartz could not see his face but had no doubt it was another Mage. Something in his guts told him. Without second thoughts, and shouting at the top of his voice, he charged at it with the intention of skewering him before he could work his magic.

  But he was not quick enough.

  The Mage raised his staff. Pointing it at Hartz, he cast a rapid spell.

  Hartz felt a cone of freezing cold reach his body. The cold was so intense, so icy, that it seemed to be freezing his soul. He looked at the Mage for the briefest of moments before he was frozen alive and lost consciousness.

  “Noooooooo!” shouted Kayti, who had just arrived in the room. “I’ll kill you!” she yelled and ran toward the Mage, with Kendas following close behind.

  The Mage muttered under his breath. Pointing at Kayti with his staff, he conjured a whirlwind which threw the redhead flying to the end of the room. She lay there stunned by the blow.

  Kendas saw what was happening and hesitated. He would not have time; this Mage was too fast. He looked around and saw an altar with a sarcophagus like the one they had just left behind in the Temple of Fire. The Mage pointed his staff at Kendas, who leapt behind the altar. Suddenly he found himself surrounded by a ring of fire which stopped him moving from his hiding place.

  Komir came up the stairs, and Aliana and Asti moved to stand beside him. He watched what was happening with his heart beating fast. He looked at the Mage and instinctively knew he had to protect himself from the enemy’s power.

  “It’s a Mage!” he cried to his two companions in alarm. “Protect yourselves!”

  The Mage raised his staff.

  Three flashes from the three medallions, each with its distinctive elemental tone, lit up the hall.

  The Mage cast his spell.

  Three protective spheres rose around the bearers.

  The enemy spell had no effect on them. Komir breathed out in relief.

  In response the enemy Mage raised a protective sphere around his own body.

  A tense silence filled the room.

  Komir decided to act. He unsheathed sword and knife and began to walk towards the Mage, trusting that his sphere would protect him.

  “Komir, wait!” Aliana said behind him.

  Komir stopped and looked at her uneasily.

  “We’ll do it together, the three of us,” she said. The two girls walked up to him.

  “Earth!” cried Aliana, holding her medallion in her right hand. A brown beam flashed from it and began to attack the Mage’s sphere.

  “Fire!” cried Asti, following the Healer’s example, and a red beam flashed from her medallion.

  “Ether!” cried Komir, and a crystalline, almost translucent beam attacked the Mage’s sphere.

  The three bearers kept attacking, while the beams tried to penetrate the protection. Komir was amazed to see what they were capable of with the medallions. More power! More! he begged of his own medallion, and the beam seemed to get even stronger. The enemy mage was not conjuring, which Komir guessed was either because he had problems or else because he was saving energy in order to keep up his shield. He struck the floor with his staff, murmuring words of power as he did so. A ripple beneath the ground began at the point where the staff had hit the rock and moved towards the group like an underground wave, lifting the floor as it passed.

  Kendas pointed to it. “Careful!” he said.

  Komir saw the floor rise in front of him in a great undulation and realized that the sphere would not protect them against this.

  He was not wrong.

  The floor under the bearers’ feet rose and destabilized them completely, so that they lost their balance and fell. Komir rolled to one side and got back to his feet. The sphere which protected him from magic attacks vanished, and suddenly he felt naked before the Mage. He was now at the mercy of that being’s magic. He thought of using the medallion again, but rejected the idea. He grabbed his sword with both hands, took a step forward and said to himself: We’ll do it the Norriel way.

  A voice, kind but firm, came from under the Mage’s cowl.

  “In order to keep the sphere active you must keep up your concentration. It’s a spell that requires a great deal of study time to perfect, and there’s a real art in managing to hold it steady. It takes years of practice…”

  Surprise at hearing a man speak stopped Komir in his tracks.

  “But of course you wouldn’t know what I’m talking about, would you, young warrior? Given that you’re not a Mage, nor were you the one who cast the spell. It was created by that Ilenian medallion hanging round your neck.”

  Komir thought at once of his past confrontation with t
he Dominator Guzmik. This Mage was not an Ilenian Guardian, as he had thought at first, but he was certainly a Sorcerer wanting to kill him. Convinced of this, he prepared to attack.

  “Komir, wait!” Aliana begged.

  He looked at her in confusion.

  “That voice… it sounds familiar… I think I know it…”

  The Mage raised his staff and showed it to her.

  “And this… do you recognize it?”

  Aliana looked at the object with half-closed eyes.

  “It’s the… it’s… the staff of power of...”

  The Mage pulled back the cowl, and Komir saw a blond man with grey eyes and kind features, with a light golden goatee. He was still in his thirties, attractive, and he was smiling.

  “Haradin!” cried Aliana full of joy. “I can’t believe my eyes! Haradin!”

  “It’s been quite a while, my dear Aliana,” the Mage said, with a small bow to the Healer. “It gladdens my heart to see you safe and sound.”

  The man with grey eyes twirled the staff, and the ring of fire which imprisoned Kendas vanished.

  “Whether you’re a friend of Aliana’s or not, I’ll cut your throat if anything happens to Hartz,” said Kayti in a threatening voice, limping perceptibly to the side of the big Norriel, who was still frozen in the middle of the room.

  “You needn’t worry,” Haradin assured her. “The effects of the freezing will disappear by themselves in a matter of hours. Nothing will happen to him. I could accelerate the thawing process, but there’s some risk in doing so.”

  “In that case don’t. But if you lie to me and any harm comes to Hartz, consider yourself dead, Mage,” Kayti said, looking at him with the eyes of a tigress.

  “Same here, Mage,” Komir said, joining Kayti.

  “I assure you that nothing bad will happen to him,” Haradin said with complete confidence.

  Aliana went up to Hartz and placed her hands on the Norriel’s head, then concentrated. A moment later she looked at Kayti and nodded with a smile. The redhead seemed to relax a little. Aliana turned to Haradin.

  “Where are we? What’s this place? We thought we were in an Ilenian temple. What are you doing here, my dear friend?”

  Haradin smiled.

  “And you wouldn’t be wrong, Healer of the order of Tirsar. Allow me…” He murmured a word, and a white light appeared at the end of his staff, lighting up the whole room.

  And then Komir recognized where he was.

  “We’re in the Temple of Ether, under the Egia Lighthouse!” he cried in amazement. “We’ve been here before, in this chamber… but we didn’t find the secret passage under the altar.”

  Haradin nodded.

  “Your appearance out of the shadows was truly impressive. The poor priest of the Order of Light who was making an inventory of the hall almost had a heart attack when he saw this big fellow enter.” He indicated the unconscious man on the floor. “For one moment I thought myself that the Ilenians had returned from the depths of the Earth to claim possession of this temple.”

  Haradin woke the priest of the Order of Light. He got up with his face as white as if he had seen a ghost rising from a sarcophagus.

  “Easy, Brother Leonius, easy, there’s no danger, they’re friends,” Haradin said soothingly. “Go tell Abbot Dian that we have guests.”

  “Yes… yes… of course… right away,” he said, and ran out of the chamber.

  Aliana hugged the Rogdonian Mage with enthusiasm.

  “I’m so happy to see you recovered, my dear friend!” she said.

  “Oh yes… the last time you saw me I must have looked pretty terrible,” he replied, with a laugh of genuine amusement.

  “It was in the Usik forests, during our escape. You were still half-petrified…”

  “I’m still suffering the consequences: a truly horrendous experience. I wouldn’t wish it upon any mortal… From what Gerart told me I owe you my life, young Healer.”

  “Gerart? How’s the Prince, is he safe?” Aliana stumbled over her own words, with a sudden anxiety she could not hide.

  Komir noticed her concern and felt a twinge of jealousy burning inside him. He wondered whether it was well-founded.

  “Yes, Prince Gerart is well, and has been leading the fight against the Norghanian and Nocean troops. He’s proving to be a very good leader, with admirable courage and charisma. We’re all very proud of him; his behavior has been exemplary. A worthy son of his father.”

  “I’m glad to… to hear that… I had no news of him… whether he’d managed to get out of the Usik forests alive…” Aliana said, blushing and immediately trying to hide the fact.

  Komir noticed this, and felt a certain uneasiness growing in his stomach.

  “It was clumsy of me to fall into that Ilenian trap,” Haradin admitted. “The thing is, I didn’t see it coming. I was so close to getting what I’d spent so much time searching for that my eagerness got the better of me. A mistake which I can assure you I won’t ever make again.”

  “What were you searching for that nearly cost you your life, Haradin?”

  The Mage looked at Aliana’s medallion, and his eyes narrowed.

  “That very special medallion hanging round your neck, my dear. I’d been on the trail of the Ilenian temples of the five elements for a long time, but I’d never managed to puzzle out where they were. I worked for years trying to find them, deciphering every hieroglyph, every Ilenian relic that had been found. I knew of their existence, but luck eluded me. At last, I found the trail which led me to the Temple of Earth in Usik territory. Where the Ilenians had buried one of their lords, together with an object of immense power… an object I wanted to possess… the Medallion of Earth. Which I now see is in your power…”

  “If you want it, it’s yours, Haradin, but I believe the medallions choose their bearers, from what we’ve gathered. I don’t know whether it’ll let you manipulate it. Although as a great Mage, with immense power, you might be able to interact with the Ilenian artifact.”

  Haradin remained thoughtful. He was looking at the medallion with his silvery gaze.

  “Would you mind if I tried?” he asked at last. There was a touch of excitement in his voice.

  “Of course, Haradin, please do. How could I refuse.”

  The Mage smiled and reached out his hand to the medallion. Just before grasping it he stopped and closed his eyes.

  “The medallion’s rejection is quite painful…” Aliana warned him.

  A blue gleam issued from the Mage’s hand and enveloped the medallion. Haradin kept it up for an instant, as if analyzing the powerful object. A golden gleam from the medallion surprised everyone. Haradin stopped.

  “You’re right, Aliana. The medallion rejects me, even using my power. I don’t believe I can use it… you can’t imagine how sad it makes my heart… I perceive the power within the medallion in all its immensity. I don’t understand why it refuses me. Since it’s an Object of Power, a Mage should be able to manipulate it… Why can you, a Healer, use it and yet I, a Mage, can’t? It doesn’t make sense… For what purpose did the Ilenians make these?”

  Aliana, feeling uncomfortable, took a step to one side, her eyes on the floor.

  “We… we believe we’re… the Bearers… that we’ve been chosen…”

  “We?” Haradin said, arching his eyebrows.

  “Komir is the Bearer of the Ether Medallion,” Aliana said, looking at the young Norriel, who showed Haradin his medallion. “Asti is the Bearer of the Fire Medallion,” she went on, pointing to the young Usik.

  Asti showed her medallion to Haradin and said:

  “I… Bearer.” Aliana smiled at her.

  Haradin looked at both and was silent.

  “You’re in possession of three Ilenian medallions…” he said, trying to take in that extraordinary fact. “That’s something unheard-of… It’s a discovery on an enormous scale, and with even greater repercussions.”

  He went up to Komir and examined his medallion close
ly, without touching it. He used his power to analyze it, then rapidly did the same with Asti’s. When he had finished, he looked at Aliana and proclaimed:

  “This is the greatest discovery of the last hundred years! More than that, the last millennium! Three of the very powerful medallions of the Lost Civilization, found and borne by three young people… It’s something of inconceivable importance. The repercussions will be unimaginable.”

  “I’m sorry, Haradin, we don’t follow you…” said Aliana in puzzlement.

  Haradin smiled and returned to Aliana.

  “Chance doesn’t exist, my dear Aliana. If you’ve found these medallions and are in possession of them, it’s for some very powerful reason, Destiny, not chance. Otherwise it would be me holding your medallion, but it’s not. I’m better equipped to use it because my Gift is powerful, and not only that, I’ve studied the Ilenians and their magic. Even more, I found it first. But, did I manage to get hold of it? No, the Ilenian trap stopped me. Can I get hold of it for myself now, even though your generous heart offers it to me? Not that either, as we just saw. Not even with all my power and all my knowledge can I get it for myself. No, it’s not by chance, Aliana, it’s for a reason.”

  “And what reason is that?” Komir asked. His expression was surly.

  “I’m afraid, warrior, that’s a conversation for later, as there’s a lot to understand first. Now that I come to think about it, where are the other Temples, and how did you come to appear here? Where have you come from?”

  Komir looked at the Mage, unsure whether to trust him or not. He did not know him, and he was a Mage… On the other hand, he was Aliana’s friend. Not a mere acquaintance, but someone closer, someone in her confidence. If Aliana trusted him, perhaps he should too. He decided to remain cautious, but in deference to Aliana, to tell the Mage everything they knew. He hoped he was not making a mistake. He remembered the negative reaction of Mirkos the Erudite when he refused to hand over the medallion to him.

  “Follow me, Haradin. I’ll show you how we got here.”

  Komir led him to the lower level and showed him the secret artifact. Kendas followed them in silence and went to stand behind Haradin. This made Komir feel more at ease. In case of trouble Kendas would help him. But the Mage was too taken up with the discovery to pose any danger. He was barely able to breathe with his excitement.