by Ann Macela
Everybody was talking about Saxt’s presentation, of course, even without new information. The lack of hard data didn’t deter speculation, however—about the “real” purpose of the Merlin Office, the probable success or failure of assigning Indies to established teams, and the difficulty of replacing team members. A few people feared the measurement results would determine what level of evil items the teams would receive to destroy. Most did not want their scores made public.
Johanna yawned. Exactly what she’d heard at the reception.
“Tired?” Clyde inquired. “I heard you had quite a morning.”
“More than a little nerve-wracking, and I didn’t sleep well last night either.”
“I’ve never seen a spontaneous blade casting,” Jim said.
“I’ve never even heard of one,” Jazara put in.
“They’re rare,” Clyde said. “I know of only one other in this country in the last thirty years. The boy must have been extremely scared.”
“Let me tell you, I was extremely scared and extremely happy that man was present.” Johanna pointed at Saxt, who was standing by the engineers. “He handled the bully very efficiently. I was afraid I was going to have to stun Chuck if he tried to hit Ben with his blade.”
“I don’t like to think of a Sword who’s a bully.” Pat hit one of his beefy fists into the opposite palm. “I can’t stand bullies. Had to fight a couple in school for giving my brother and sister grief. They stopped messing with anybody after I finished with them.”
“I wish I’d known you then,” Jim sighed.
“Jake and Saxt are giving Chuck one more chance, with the Grim Reaper. Ben’s excited about his new abilities, of course. We all enjoyed explaining to his mother the benefits of being a Sword. She knew Swords and Defenders receive full college scholarships, but was unaware of the other benefits like medical coverage.”
“We take good care of our Swords,” Rosa said, patting Johanna’s shoulder.
“I hope the Ogden boy takes advantage of his reprieve,” Clyde said. “I know both parents, and they’re good people. I’m sure you’re anticipating training a new Sword.”
“Yes—”
“May I have your attention, please.” Saxt’s voice boomed out of the public address system before she could say more.
A team Johanna didn’t recognize walked into the arena and into the etched lines of the pentagon. In its center a five-sided stone column rose from the floor, and a team member placed a crystal bowl on top of it.
“As you can see,” Saxt said, waving a hand at the team and the apparatus, “we’re ready to begin our testing. Because almost all the teams present signed up, we’ve decided to modify our original routine and test for only half an hour per team. Today is meant to be a demonstration only, to give each team an idea of its output. It’s not the base-line measurement we’ll take later. We’ll pay special attention to output at the five-minute, fifteen-minute, and thirty-minute times. Teams will produce energy as if a level-ten item was in the bowl, and, at the halfway mark, they are to send as much power as they can into it for five minutes. Here’s Gary to explain the machinery.”
Gary Witherspoon was the skinny member of the duet, Johanna noted, in contrast to the slight pudginess of Herb Ball.
Gary pushed his glasses up on his nose and took the microphone from Saxt. “Our data capture apparatus consists of a ceramic holder for a wire made of gold and silver twisted together. When the Defenders create the golden ring of energy, they will cast it to float within the arms of the C, so the wire will pass through it. The wire and other sensors on the C collect data from the ring. All that information is fed by the cable to our recording instruments in the room off the arena. That’s basically it.”
He handed the mic to Saxt, who said, “In answer to your requests, we will not post the results, and we will discuss them individually with each team. Remember, our unit of measure is the ‘Merlin,’ and the readings we’ve seen in our preliminary tests range from four hundred to eight hundred on our scale. It will take us about fifteen minutes between team readings to reset the apparatus. We’ll test as many teams as we can before six o’clock, and then we’ll break for dinner. If teams wish to continue tonight and tomorrow morning, that’s fine with us. Any questions?”
When no one spoke up, Saxt said, “Okay, set your pentagon, team, and generate your ring.”
The team cast its fortress. From the colors in its walls, Johanna calculated the team levels ranged from ten to about fourteen. Each Defender supplied energy to create the ring from which the Swords would draw power.
“Whenever you’re ready, Swords,” Saxt said.
Inside the ring the team’s Swords drew their blades, someone said, “One, two, three,” and the Swords shot beams from their blades into the bowl.
After five minutes of watching power flow into the bowl, Pat and Jazara glanced at each other and said together, “Booooorrrrrring.”
Johanna had to laugh. Both Defenders were notoriously impatient when no evil item sat in the bowl. This time, however, she agreed. Even Rosa, who actually liked to watch water come to a boil, shifted restlessly.
Sitting in front of her, Clyde turned so he could see everybody. “I’ve been thinking about our situation and all the Council has planned. I called Fergus earlier today for his advice. We discussed going public with our development now, while the measurement people, and more important, the teams are here. We need a wider pool of people to try our method. What do you think?”
“I think you’re right,” Johanna said after a moment’s reflection. “I’ve been saying all along that producing at our level is a matter of trust, opening up your center and giving all the energy in you. Teams have already reached that trust point. Maybe one of them can do it after we show them how.”
“Visitors won’t or can’t let it all out,” Jim added.
“Yes, finding individuals on our own hasn’t been working,” Dorothy agreed.
Rosa nodded vigorously. “I really like the idea of the teams trying the method when we’re here to explain and help. We’ll know right away if we have the right recipe.”
“What if …” Jazara started.
“Keep going,” Jim encouraged.
“What if, before we announce our discovery, we ask Saxt Falkner if he’d like to practice with us? At the reception, I overheard him tell Jake he hoped to work in a session or two while he was here.”
“Excellent idea,” Clyde agreed. “At the very least, he’ll have first-hand knowledge and experience of what we do and how we do it. A most influential person to have on our side if acceptance comes down to an argument before the Council. Who knows, he might be someone who can share energy also.”
“As a level fifteen,” Jim added, “he should be able to keep up with us.”
Johanna listened while the rest of the team enthusiastically endorsed Jazara’s suggestion. She agreed, bringing Saxt into a practice would certainly impress the man with their method. Why, however, was her magic center jumping around in her chest like an ecstatic student who’d just cast her first lightball? She rubbed that point directly under her sternum, but the pressure did not stop its excitement.
“Okay, Johanna? … Johanna?”
Rosa’s voice brought her back to reality when the chef asked, “Are you all right?”
“Yes, fine, I agree.” She glanced up to find everybody looking at her hand. She shrugged helplessly. “Uh, my center seems to think it’s a good idea, too.”
“That clinches it,” Pat grinned. “Who’s going to speak to Falkner, and when do we want to do this?”
“I vote for the sooner the better,” Jazara said, and she and Pat exchanged a high five.
“Tonight or tomorrow morning,” Clyde said with a nod.
“Tonight?” Johanna couldn’t stop her voice from almost squeaking. What was wrong with her? She never squeaked.
“Whenever Falkner wants,” Dorothy said. “Why don’t you and Clyde ask him before dinner? He’s only stand
ing around right now, and I don’t expect they need him for the tests. He might like to get away from them for a couple of hours.”
“Okay,” Johanna acquiesced. “If we’re going to really show off, we ought to do it right—destroy a piece of the Cataclysm Stone. It wouldn’t hurt to have him realize what we faced with that monster. Even the tiny bits are potent.”
“Another excellent idea.” Clyde rubbed his hands together. “People, we are about to make history.”
Chapter Six
As he followed Johanna’s team to a practice room deep in the Defender’s building, Saxt worked at keeping a straight face. He really wanted to grin like a kid who’d unexpectedly been given a reprieve from boring homework. After all, watching the testing procedure without an evil item in the bowl ranked right up there with watching snow melt. Besides, Gary and Herb wouldn’t have tonight’s results until tomorrow.
He’d seized the chance Clyde and Johanna had offered and agreed to a time right after dinner. Why wait? His excited magic center began jumping around like his diaphragm was a trampoline. They both needed the practice.
And what a practice! They were going to destroy a piece of the Cataclysm Stone. How he’d wanted to participate in the destruction of the pieces they’d already carried out. His schedule simply hadn’t permitted it, and all he could do was send his regrets to the organizers. Now he had his chance. After hearing all the tales about that evil-item monster, to participate in killing even a small part of it exhilarated him to the core. This was what being a Sword was all about.
Saxt was luxuriating in the ambient energy the team exuded simply by being together when they turned a corner and opened a door. As expected, after leaving their coats in the antechamber, they walked into a “D” room, one of those used solely for practice with and destruction of evil magic items.
Was he glad he’d come to Chicago? Oh, yes. They had no facilities like these in Cleveland.
The five stone-clad walls glowed with high strength spells designed to restrain unleashed, undisciplined power. Candles in sconces along the walls flared when Jazara cast flamma to light them. Everyone put on their robes, and Saxt made sure his Sword robe was fastened correctly.
In the center of the fifteen-foot-radius pentagon engraved in the floor rose a low, five-sided pedestal with a clear crystal bowl on top. Clyde, who carried a small lead box, moved to the pillar. “Saxt, you may want to see what we’re going to destroy.”
Saxt stepped into the space to stand beside the older Sword.
“Brace yourself.” Clyde opened the lid.
A putrid odor wafted out of the box. With it came such anger and hatred and vileness that Saxt almost drew his blade reflexively. He barely stopped himself from gagging. Glancing at Clyde, he muttered, “Oh, hell!”
“Exactly.” Clyde carefully tilted the box and slid a tiny piece of crystal into the bowl.
“That can’t be bigger than a small paper clip,” Saxt said after he studied the dull dead-black shard.
“Our expert on evil items estimates it’s a level ten, maybe eleven.”
“If such a small chip has this much power, I’m surprised you were able to destroy even half of the original Stone.”
“The consensus of opinion credits a number of factors for our success,” Johanna said, joining them by the pedestal. “First, the Stone was not in one piece. Second, in the original battle we threw everyone on campus into the fight and called in reinforcements. Third, we were battling the smaller, slightly weaker Finster piece, and the larger part of the Stone, the Ubell remnant, was some distance away. Alton Finster, the smaller’s manipulator, was not here. I doubt he could have wielded it even if he had been present. When we killed it, he collapsed. While the larger piece tried to help its severed part at long distance, its owner, Bruce Ubell, was not in the fight at all. The combination of all that allowed us to destroy the smaller Stone.”
“Personally,” Clyde said, “I attribute it also to sheer luck and enough of us to overcome the item.”
Johanna sighed. “So do I.”
Saxt eyed the small sliver in the bowl. He had the distinct impression it was aware of him. “I think I’m happy Tylan’s shot shattered the big section.”
“We’re ecstatic. None of us would have ever thought of shooting the monster.” Clyde paused, gave Saxt a sharp glance, and said, “Before we begin, we need to explain something about our process.”
The tone of his voice brought Saxt’s mind and center to high alert. He looked from Clyde to Johanna. Then, as he’d learned to do in business discussions when somebody used those words, “explain something,” he assumed an interested expression and waited.
“Let’s get out of the item’s radius,” Johanna suggested.
They all moved over to one of the stone benches that were positioned about two feet from the walls. Dorothy, Pat, and Rosa sat down.
“We’ve discovered a method to increase our energy output,” Clyde said. “Substantially.”
At that statement, Saxt held himself perfectly still while synapses fired off in his head and his center—his exact reaction when he heard of a new company with enormous potential. He knew, without hearing another word, he had hit the opportunity of a lifetime. All he said was, “Go on.”
“However,” Clyde continued, “our development is still in an experimental stage, and we haven’t wanted to announce it until we understood it better. Greater output requires sharing energy totally, letting go with no regard for reserves or egos. Over the past couple of months, we invited five Independents—three Defenders and two Swords—to practice with us, to see if they could open themselves to our greater sharing. We didn’t fully explain what we were asking them to do. Maybe we should have said more or showed more, but we wanted to see if they could come to it as we did, more or less by accident, spontaneously and instinctively. They didn’t succeed.”
“We concluded,” Johanna took up the tale, “that what we were asking involved the kind of trust a team lives on, and visitors, especially those who have never been on a team, find it very difficult to simply walk in and share totally.”
“How much power are you talking about generating?” Saxt asked.
“We’re not certain,” Johanna answered. “ It’s hard to gauge when you’re in the middle of it. By the appearance and feel of the ring, by what we’re able to do with the energy, I’d estimate an exponential amount over the standard method. It’s clearly more than the average of the levels producing the power to begin with. Your testing apparatus should give us more information.”
“Where do the Council and I come in?” Saxt glanced around the circle of faces. They were being totally truthful with him, his business talent was telling him that. He still wanted to see the process for himself before he completely believed them. And now wasn’t the time to worry about how it might affect the measuring project.
“We’d like you to take part in a practice where we show it all,” Johanna said. “If you like what we’ve discovered, and especially if you can join us, we can discuss how to develop it.”
“On the other hand,” Dorothy interjected, “if we’re the only ones who can increase output this way, we need to know that. Maybe someone else can pick up where we leave off.”
“What do you say?” Clyde asked, “Want to try it?”
Saxt gazed at Clyde, then Johanna. His insides, both those related to his business talents and those connected to his Sword abilities, were settling down to a happy vibration. Of course he had to learn what they did. His business instincts kept his face and voice bland—he wasn’t going to show his reaction yet. “Let’s see what you have.”
“All riiiight,” Pat and Jazara both drawled and bumped their fists together.
“Don’t mind them,” Rosa said with a chuckle. “They’re love to do this. We all do.”
“Man,” Pat proclaimed, “it’s almost as good as a soul-mate bonding.”
Saxt only raised his eyebrows. He’d believe that when he’d lived it.
> They stepped inside the lines of the pentagon etched into the floor, the Defenders moving to the inner points. Clyde told Saxt to stand between two Defenders with one of the walls at his back, not in the usual place of a Sword next to the pedestal. He and Johanna took up similar positions, she across the circle, slightly to Saxt’s right.
“We’re all going to create the ring, but a little differently than in the traditional manner. We call it ‘weaving’ the ring,” Johanna said. “After it’s formed, we’ll start it moving clockwise—’spinning’ it.”
“Moving?” He’d never heard of a moving ring—or of the Swords helping to create it when about to destroy an item. They usually saved all their power for their blades.
“According to our observation, the weaving and the spinning are what increases the power,” Clyde stated. “If you want to stay out of the mix to observe, that’s fine. You might have a more objective view. If you want to contribute your energy into the ring, please join us.”
When they created a ring, the Defenders pulled energy from their centers and pushed it out their hands. Although the energy “melted” together, it retained the “flavor” of its producer. When Saxt was taking power from the ring for his blade to destroy an item, he could tell whose energy he was using. This team’s method sounded definitely different. “What do you recommend?”
“We’d really like you to join us,” Clyde answered. “Observe, then do as we do to send energy. The rest will take care of itself.”
His center revved up and hummed. If it was happy, he was happy. “Okay, I’m ready for whatever comes. I want to take part in all of it.”
“Fortress first,” Clyde said. “Full power. One, two, three, castellum.”
Saxt joined in casting the pentagon. A similar, slightly weaker sense of power and well-being washed over him as it had when he and Johanna cast one for the kids.
He didn’t have time to enjoy it, however. Translucent walls swirling with violet, silver, and gold sprang into being, climbed to the ceiling, and closed over them in a roof. Inside the fortress, the air sang with so much power he could have taken it into his pores without needing the ring. The team effect again, only greatly multiplied. Their fortress could contain a bazooka of evil magic.