The Map Maker's Choice

by Matthew J. Krengel

  For now, she needed to focus on aiding in the search for Tasker.

  6: The Divide Falters

  The search of the city took four days and turned up nothing but a handful of Adherent soldiers hiding in basements and cellars. The local populace was not nearly as friendly as they had been in Duluth. Many of them chose to be banished with the Adherents, and Jane figured at least half of them left on the two ships. They were sent out under heavy guard, the rebel soldiers nearly outnumbering those fleeing.

  “Where could they have taken Tasker?” Jane muttered. She was slumped in a chair inside the main part of the castle. The room in which she sat was spare in its decoration—three chairs and a sofa filled the middle of the room, and a few small paintings and a half-dozen weapons of various makes were fastened to the walls. Jackie and Carvin sat next to each other on the short couch. Jacob was standing behind Jane, massaging her shoulders. The only replies were shrugs. Jane leaned back and sighed as Jacob dug into a particularly tight knot in her neck.

  “It’s like whoever took him just vanished off the face of the earth,” Jacob said dejectedly. They had come to rely on the dwarf so much for guidance that, with him gone, they were at a loss what to do.

  “Where’s Eriunia?” Jane asked. She had not seen the elf in almost a day. She figured that the explosion had nearly done the elf in, and she deserved to rest and to heal for a few days.

  “She said something about checking the records kept by the elf commander,” Carvin said. “I haven’t seen her since.” He leaned back in the couch and closed his eyes as if ready to fall asleep.

  “I’m going to go check on her,” Jane said after a minute of silence. She rose and looked back at Jacob. “Are you coming with me?”

  “Of course,” Jacob said with a half-smile. He reached over and took her hand in his. Together, they walked out of the room. They entered a stone hallway, brighted only with a long strip of carpet, which ran down the length of the castle. A few rebel soldiers were stationed throughout the castle, but most of them were out in the city overseeing the rebuilding efforts.

  Jane and Jacob walked down the hallway until they reached a room at the end marked with an Adherent emblem. Inside, they could hear someone moving around and muttering.

  “Sounds like she’s talking to herself,” Jane said with a smile. They pushed the door open and were greeted with a view of the elf surrounded by records scattered across every surface in the room, many stacked four or five deep.

  “Wow,” Jacob said. He looked around in amazement. These quarters were artfully decorated with bright colors and painted murals of grand landscapes, making it hard to tell where the ceiling and walls met. In the middle of it all, Eriunia sat on a wooden chair, leafing through another volume.

  “Did you find anything?” Jane asked.

  Eriunia looked up at them and shrugged. “I’m not sure, really.” She held out a sheet of paper for them to see. “This is a record of the ships that arrive each day.” She pointed to a single entry. “Look here. This one had a ship arriving from an unmarked point of origin and carrying a single man. Here’s the interesting thing,” she continued. “They don’t give his name or any other information about him. This was about two weeks ago.”

  “Why is that so interesting?” Jacob asked.

  “The commander who took over for Carvin’s father was obsessive about keeping records of everything,” she explained as she waved her hand over the lists spread out around her. “He has lists and records of every shipment and guest who visited this island since Yerdarva’s attack.”

  “Why leave out the name of this one?” Jane asked, following Eriunia’s reasoning.

  “Exactly!” the elf exclaimed. “Why would they leave out his name and home port? Must be someone important and powerful. It would be someone who wants to remain unknown and wants his passing to remain unmarked by any watchers.”

  “And . . . ?” Jane prompted, not sure where she was going with this.

  “I’m sorry. I forget you don’t know our world as well as your own,” Eriunia replied. She grinned sheepishly. “There’s one organization with that kind of power and one individual who belongs to it who would want to remain unknown.”

  The blank looks on Jane’s and Jacob’s faces told her she needed to explain further.

  “Remember the assassin I fought during the battle at Palisade Head?” Eriunia asked, only then realizing they had been in Duluth during the battle. Had she told them of the fight? “During the battle, I fought the assassin who kidnapped you—” she nodded toward Jane—“and brought you here. I wounded him badly, stuck an arrow through his shoulder, but he managed to escape. I think it was he who visited Isle Royale and arranged for the kidnapping of Tasker.”

  “I remember him,” Jane said with a shudder. The man reminded her of a cobra, ready to strike, and he didn’t care who he killed. If Tasker was in his hands, she hoped the dwarf was still alive.

  “The assassins are based somewhere in the deserts of the Middle East,” Eriunia said. She motioned to a rough etching of the world. “West of the lands of Akkadia somewhere is a hidden valley in the great wilderness lands. In that valley is the fortress of the Hashashin assassins, but no one knows exactly where they’re located. They accept contracts through a few shadowy connections scattered across the old world.”

  “Why would he come back?” Jane asked. Suddenly she noticed a flicker of pain go across Eriunia’s face and wondered what the elf knew and wasn’t telling them.

  “When I returned to my father,” Eriunia said, “I found out that the Temple had approached the Seeli Council and asked in strong terms that members of the council apprehend Tasker. The council flatly refused.” She dropped the book she had been reading and stood. Her wounds were healing quickly, and many of the cuts on her face had vanished. “It may be that the Temple is sensing its power is beginning to erode and has decided to resort to the assassins to solve the problem.”

  “But why Tasker?” Jackie asked. “I mean, yes, he’s a leader, but he’s hardly the only leader we have. Why not come after Jackie or Carvin or you, for that matter?”

  “That I don’t know,” Eriunia replied. “I think I did manage to decipher the name of the ship that came in, though.” She smiled ­triumphantly.

  “I thought you said it didn’t get written down,” Jacob said. He scratched his head.

  “Ah, they didn’t write it down coming in because the assassin was on board,” Eriunia explained. “But they made a mistake and wrote it down as it was leaving.”

  “Why would they do that?” Jane asked.

  “Because the assassin was not on board when it left,” Eriunia replied. “I think he left by foot or horseback, which means he’s still somewhere around this area.” She turned a logbook around for them to see. “The name of the ship was the Calendia, and it was sailing to Akkadia. It was a brigantine with two masts and room for a hundred raiders.”

  “So a ship built for pirates and speed?” Jane asked. “Or it could be used for moving an assassin secretly and quickly.” She was beginning to understand what they were up against. This assassin organization would hound them mercilessly.

  “Exactly,” Eriunia said. She slapped the logbook on the desk with a firm hand.

  “All right, so we assume the assassin was involved,” Jane said. “How does that help us?” She sat down on a chair and looked at the elf while she waited for an answer. Jane was having a hard time seeing what this tidbit of information would do for them.

  “Not too far from here lives a being who could give us great insight into what’s happening. She researched the making of the Divide in great depth and has deep knowledge about the device that powers it,” Eriunia said. “If we were to find her and get her to help us, we might be able to gain a step on the assassin.”

  “Where is she?” Jane asked. She had a feeling the ans
wer was going to be something she didn’t want to hear. “How hard can it be to find one person . . . right?”

  “Harder than you might think,” Eriunia replied. “She’s become very secretive over the last several decades, but the last I heard was that she was living near Woods Lake, northwest of here.” She looked around the room and studied her handiwork, bits of paper strewn everywhere. None of them were important to the rebels, except maybe to show what the residents of the island had been doing and preparing.

  “Woods Lake?” Jacob asked. “I don’t think I’ve heard of that one, but we do live in the land of ten thousand lakes, so there might be a few I’m missing.”

  He strode over to the wooden desk and pulled out the top middle drawer. Inside was a mess—obviously, Eriunia had already been through it once. Still, he was curious, so he flipped through the papers and pens. Tucked into the corner was a small key. Jacob wondered what it was for. He picked it up and found it heavier then steel or iron would have been. It was so weighty, he wondered if it was an alloy of gold. He held it up and examined it in the light from the window.

  “Find anything?” Jane asked from where she was sitting. The wooden chair seemed to be the most comfortable piece of furniture in the room. Carved of some type of dark-brown wood and engraved with pictures of animals and trees, the wood was something she had never felt before. It was smooth and soft to the touch.

  “A key,” Jacob replied. “It almost feels like gold or lead, I’d guess. It’s really heavy.” He held it up for them to see and noticed a flicker of recognition in Eriunia’s eyes.

  “May I see that?” Eriunia asked slowly. She held out her delicate hand and watched as he dropped it into her palm. She turned the key over and over, examining each side from every angle. Finally she passed it back to Jacob. “Hold onto that. I believe that’s the key to a treasure chest. Not just any old treasure chest, though,” Eriunia continued. “Many times, the places unlocked by a key like this are world-changing.”

  Jane’s and Jacob’s eyes lit up when she said “treasure,” and they both piped up, “What treasure?” A bit of greed erupted in Jane’s eyes as she thought about the treasure Grandpa Able had described to her. Even a small portion of it would mean her mom would never have to work again. She could find a nicer assisted-living building for her grandmother, or even pay for in-home nursing so she could stay at home.

  “I don’t know, but keys of that skill and material are only made for very important items,” Eriunia replied. “Sometimes finding the chest is just as hard as finding the key. However, that is something we can investigate later.” She could tell that anything she said would be outweighed by the thoughts of treasure floating around the boy’s head.

  Jacob tucked the key into his pocket and patted it with a broad smile. Another adventure to look forward to. “So, how do we go about finding this holder of knowledge?” Jacob chuckled as he tried to copy the stiff language Eriunia sometimes used.

  “I know someone who’s found her recently who could point us in the right direction. Coronia’s just south of here, but getting to her could be difficult,” Eriunia replied. “You see, even though Duluth is on the frontier of this world, there are places where those searching for adventure gather. One of them is south of here a few hundred miles. At one time, it was the capital of a culture that vanished from the earth. Over the last few decades, it has become a gathering place of all sorts of unsavory types.”

  “Kind of a wild-west type place,” Jacob muttered. He saw the questioning look in her face but didn’t have time to explain what he was talking about.

  “The people who lived there built a pair of beautiful cities around the mighty Mississippi River,” Eriunia explained. “For a time they flourished. Then one day they simply vanished from the world. No one truly knows what happened to them.”

  “Just like the Anasazi or the Olmecs?” Jacob said. “I wonder if that’s where the Twin Cities is located on our side.” He looked over at Jane.

  “Sounds like the right location, but I guess I don’t know,” Jane replied with a shrug. It was odd to think of vanished civilizations on this side where on her side were bustling cities filled with people.

  They walked back to the main room and rejoined the others. Bella and Puck had joined Carvin and Jackie at some point, and Eriunia explained to everyone what she had found and the options open to them. The others were quiet until she explained where they were going to go, and then Bella spoke up.

  “You’re going to the Outpost?” Bella squeaked. Her face paled but then she squared her tiny shoulders and pushed out her chest in a show of bravery. She knew the stories of those who frequented the Outpost, a place any honest person avoided at all costs. “I’ll go with you if it’ll help,” she said. Rumors said the place was a den of thieves and cutthroats ruled by a pair of twins from the old world. They were satyrs from the mountains of Greece, driven from their village for crimes too numerous to name. After finding refuge in the ruins, they let it be known that others of their type would be welcome. Over the years, they had built quite the following.

  “Thank you, Bella,” Eriunia replied. “I’ll need Jane, Jacob, and you, Bella, for this.” She held up her hand as protests came from Jackie, Carvin, and Puck. “The fewer the better for this trip. If the brothers decide to interfere with us, we may need a rescue mission.”

  “I don’t like it,” Carvin grumbled. He didn’t want to split up. He knew of the satyr brothers by reputation only, but he also knew his father had had dealings with them. That alone made him nervous about the plan. Anyone his father had dealt with was bound to try and double-cross them. “You should have let me gather our forces and clear that place last year when I wanted to.”

  “Well, that’s an argument for another day,” Eriunia defended. “We needed the supplies they could offer at the time. If this goes wrong, then you have my blessing to burn their outpost to the ground.”

  Carvin’s eyes lit up at the idea and he half rose to his feet. Already, his mind was cataloging the troops he would take and the support he would need to smash the defenses the outlaws would muster. He would rebuild the place as an outpost of the city of Duluth and bring a bit of order to that chaotic corner of the world.

  “Let’s try doing this the quiet way first,” Eriunia pleaded. She saw the light in Carvin’s eyes and wished to defuse it before he got really rolling. Big things were coming. She could feel it. It was right around the corner, and it felt wrong.

  “Fine, but I’m going to ready a rescue mission just in case something goes wrong,” Carvin grunted. “Something with overwhelming force.” A smile covered his face. The thought of having five hundred of their forces clean out the stinking cesspool clearly thrilled him.

  “Fine,” Eriunia agreed.

  They sat talking for almost half an hour when a shout of surprise echoed from the courtyard. A moment later, another shout followed. Jane glanced at Eriunia. The elf shrugged.

  Jacob walked to the door and cracked it open to glance out. With the city liberated and many of the most loyal Adherents shipped out, the rebels were only loosely patrolling the streets in teams of three, just in case any Adherent spies tried to start something. It was a big island, and they were spread a bit thin. He wondered if they had missed something and the Adherents were trying to mount an attack, but the thought vanished from his mind when he looked outside.

  “Interesting,” Jacob said in a shocked tone. He surveyed the courtyard and pondered the change that seemed to have taken place only moments before.

  “What’s interesting?” Jane asked. She stood up and walked to him. He opened the door wider. The courtyard spread out before them, just as she remembered it, except that in the middle of the courtyard stood a pine tree. Covered with moss, it rose about forty feet tall. “Where did that come from?”

  Two rebel soldiers stood staring at the tree in sheer amazement. One of t
hem finally turned and looked at Jane and Jacob.

  “He was standing right here a minute ago,” one of them said. “And then he vanished, and the tree appeared.”

  He walked to the tree and tentatively placed a hand on the bark. “It just feels cool. Like any tree,” the man said. His hand came away covered with tiny bits of dirt and wood.

  The other soldier stared closely at the tree. “There’s an ant on it,” he said, pointing, but just then a breeze came up and the insect fell to the ground. “It’s dead.”

  Jacob turned to Jane. “Killed by the trauma of crossing between the Divide in such an odd way, most likely,” he said.

  “Magic,” the soldier muttered. “It has to be evil magic left over from the Adherents.”

  The first soldier stepped away from the tree, wiped his hand on his pants, then held it close to his body as if worried he, too, would soon vanish. “All yours to deal with,” he said, looking at Jane and Jacob.

  “It’s just a tree,” Jane replied. She shook her head. “All this fuss over a pine tree. It doen’t look any different from any other tree.”

  “But it wasn’t here a minute ago,” the first man protested. “There was a flash of darkness like the Divide was taking him, and then the tree appeared.”

  “Jane, check your map,” Jacob asked. He motioned to her jacket, where her map was rolled up tightly in an inner pocket.

  Jane pulled out her map and stepped back into the keep to a small table, followed by Jacob. She unrolled the map and tried to dive down into it as she had done a thousand times. This time an angry wall of darkness rose up in front of her for the barest of moments, then vanished. Before her was the image of her map and a wall of darkness that stretched out into infinity. She examined the wilderness that was Isle Royale on the human side of the Divide. She soon spotted the confused rebel standing in the middle of a clearing in the forest. He looked about, unsure why he was there and what to do about it.