"Will the duke do anything, Mother?" asked Marley.
"He will be forced to do something. Most of the farms supplying food for Arthea are around here."
"And what if he doesn't, mother? What will we do then?"
"I'm sure the duke will be anxious to rid his land of orcs. But if he doesn't and the threat becomes too bad, we will head for Kethlon and move in with my mother for a while."
"I hope she has room for us too, El. I have no parents and Jeff's father lives in Ji'roh. I don't particularly want to go there. Not only don't I like Jeff's father much, but my hair seems to go frizzy that close to the sea."
Elly and Marley had a good laugh at this. Adrianna was thirty-eight years of age and Elly had known her years before she had married Jeff. With her long, dark, wavy hair, high cheek bones, dark brown eyes and flawless white skin, Elly would often notice the reactions of any man looking in her direction. Elly knew that her friend secretly enjoyed this attention and always made an effort to make herself look her best before going into the city.
Elly looked at her friend now who had obviously spent some time in front of a mirror before she had come over. As she had done many times before, Elly thought about how plain she was compared to Adrianna. She knew that many men found her attractive too, but if she was near Adrianna she would always get the second glance. Elly spent quite a lot of time outside helping with the farm work, so her appearance had been made somewhat harsher by the sun. She knew that Adrianna refused to do any of the dirty farm jobs. Her hair was black and also long, but not quite as long as Adrianna's. She was not as tall as Adrianna which made her look very short next to her husband.
El stopped laughing suddenly. "Did you hear that?"
"I didn't hear anything," said Adrianna.
"Me neither," said Marley.
"Gerry, is that you?" shouted Elly.
There was no response, and the kitchen was quiet. Elly could see that she had both Adrianna and Marley very scared now - she was scared herself.
Elly was listening so hard now, she started to imagine noises. Her imagination was running wild, picturing a horde of orcs running across their field to the house. An orc throwing a flaming torch on their rooftop and her daughter slaughtered in front of her.
After five tense minutes that seemed like an hour, no noises had been heard.
"You have me so scared now, El," said Adrianna. "I hope the men get back soon, I hate being alone here after what's happened today."
"Where are they, anyway? It's been close to three hours since they left. It shouldn't have taken them that long to talk to the duke. I don't like that they will be on the road in the dark."
Elly walked to the front door and opened it to see if she could see the men coming up the road. As she swung back the door, a large curved dagger was thrust into her stomach. She hadn't even time to register what was happening before her life fled from her and she collapsed to the floor in a heap.
Marley screamed, and Adrianna just went a deathly white, unable to move from her chair. Adrianna hardly noticed Marley running towards her. She barely registered the large axe head that had been driven right through the young girl. She didn't even register the swinging axe that took her head from her shoulders.
Chapter 2
Revenge
"Search the place, quickly. We must find those warriors. These obvi-ously weren't them," said Feygrus. Ki'janna cautiously moved off into the next room while Feygrus went off in the opposite direction. A few minutes later, the two orcs met back up in the kitchen. "The place is empty."
"It is, but I found this in the next room," said Ki'janna, holding out a great axe.
"Only the one?" asked Feygrus.
"That's all I found. It was just lying against the wall in there," said Ki'janna, pointing through the door he just came from.
"I think we have lingered here too long. I don't think we can stop word of our arrival getting out now. Let's get back to camp. When the company comes through, we'll do some more thorough scouting. We need to learn the strength of our new enemy."
* * *
The attendant announced them to all in the large conference room. Ten men were sitting around the far end of a large, solid oak, oval table. At the head was Duke Angus, to his right was General Kehar, who both Gerard and Jeff knew well, and Master Pilk sat to the duke's left.
Master Pilk was an unofficial part of Gerard's company when he was in the army. For the last three years in the Arthean army, Gerard was a captain of a company, with Jeff as his sergeant until he was injured. Master Pilk was not a master at the time; he was in his final year of a ten year apprenticeship while Gerard served his final year in the army.
Master Pilk was said to show great promise as an apprentice wizard, but with a wild side. He tended to dabble in magic's with a power beyond that which he could comfortably control. This was against all the teachings of the academy. Students were constantly told stories about wizards' catastrophic events for ignoring this recommendation. As a first year apprentice Pilk's response to that principal was, 'how are you to learn control of a greater power without first wielding it?' His instructor informed him that he would know when he could suitably control a greater power.
Due to Pilk's rebelliousness, he had trouble finding a master to tutor him at the start of his fourth year; fourth year apprentices were required to be tutored by a master before completing their final six years. He finally found a Grand Master wizard from Yulon. Grand Master Reibeck was beyond normal years to take on an apprentice, but saw a younger self in Pilk. Grand Master Reibeck agreed to move to Arthea for the term of Pilk's apprenticeship. Arthea didn't have many wizards in those days, and of the ones they did have, none enlisted their abilities in helping the Arthean army.
Their attitudes changed when the Arthean walls were breached sixteen years ago. But even before that time, Pilk befriended Gerard and was instrumental in securing a few of Gerard's many victories. Not officially enlisted in the army, as that was forbidden for an apprentice wizard, no one stopped Pilk accompanying Gerard on his missions. When Gerard left the army Pilk continued his friendship with him and would often travel out to his farm for visits. The year after Gerard left the army and Pilk graduated as a master wizard, he enlisted in the army and a few years later was promoted to senior master wizard for his achievements in the service of Arthea.
The other seven men around the table were all captains of the Arthean army. Some of them Gerard knew, but others he didn't recognise. It was obvious, though, that this conference was strictly military. The duke asked the men and boys to take a seat. Vik followed his father around the right side of the table and took a seat next to him. Trent followed Jeff around the left side and sat down next to his father. Once they were seated the duke spoke up, "I'm sorry to delay you further from your families, gentlemen. I know you must be quite anxious to return to them, but on relating your story to Master Pilk, he was quite adamant that you return. So, Master Pilk, please begin your questioning."
Master Pilk stood up in front of them all. He was a very short man, and even standing, he was scarcely as tall as Gerard was sitting. He was wearing his usual red and blue full length robe, which was actually made to be worn as a half-length robe for a tall wizard. It had gold trimmings and gold buttons in the centre. He wore a short, pointy hat on his head, matching the blue and red of his robe. A number of golden stars were staggered haphazardly around the hat, which, when you looked at them long enough, actually moved to new random positions every so often. This could be very distracting to those that didn't know the wizard, but Gerry, Jeff and the two boys were used to it.
"For my first question, I need to conduct a small, er, demonstration, with your permission, my lord Duke."
"Since when do you ask permission for any of your demonstrations, Master Pilk?"
Master Pilk just looked at him and shrugged. He then took a few steps back and began to mutter a small incantation, as he traced an arch in the air in front of him and then finally pointed to
the diagonally opposite corner of the room. When he was finished a pale blue stream of energy began stitching itself together in front of the wizard and another in the corner where the wizard pointed. In a matter of seconds a small, pale blue magical field, very similar in appearance to the orcs' magical door the boys had seen, was positioned in the two locations in the room. Everyone was silent for a moment, looking back and forth at the two magical doors in awe.
"To the boys I ask, is this what you saw in Bilwarks Grove?"
Trent spoke up tentatively, "Not exactly. The one we saw in the grove was substantially bigger and it was purple, but otherwise, yes, it is the same."
"Purple in colour? Hmmm...And substantially bigger, you say? How much bigger?" asked the wizard.
"Maybe as much as four times the size, Master Pilk," Vik spoke up.
"Why is the colour of import, master wizard?" asked Duke Angus.
"I'll get to that point in a minute ... ah, er, my lord Duke. Trent, what shade of purple was this, ah, what did you call it, magic doorway?"
"I would describe it as a deep purple," replied Trent.
"Oh my! And how long did you say it took to take form?"
"By the time we noticed it til the time we arrived at its location was close to an hour."
"Hmmm," said Master Pilk with a finger on his lips and his thumb resting on his chin. For a moment the room was incredibly silent and any who looked at Master Pilk would have taken him to be a statue with the exception of his pointing finger tapping gently on his chin.
Finally the duke spoke up, "Master Pilk, do you intend on sharing any information with us, or would you have us continue guessing?"
Master Pilk lifted his head slowly and faced the duke, and his expres-sion changed as if noticing the duke in the room for the first time. "My lord Duke, another demonstration, if you please? Captains, can you please rise and come and stand behind me." The captains looked at each other briefly but eventually did as instructed. Master Pilk stood facing the magic door he constructed. When all captains were lined up behind him, he said, "Please follow me through this, er, magic door, if you will. Count to two after the person in front of you enters before entering yourself. It will save some confusion at the other end." Once he had said this he proceeded to step through his door...and came out the other end, walking straight into the wall and bumping his head. "Hmmm, I have a habit of getting the exit the wrong way around." Turning toward the captains, he warned, "Just beware your exit."
The first captain shook his head and then stepped through the magic door. As he came through, he also bumped into the wall, as did the next captain, and the next. The rest of them sitting at the table couldn't help but chuckle at the comical sight. All seven captains walked through the portal and all seven bumped into the wall in varying degrees of severity.
"Although this demonstration is very amusing, Master Wizard, I fail to see its relevance," said the duke.
"Excuse me, my lord, but I think I see the relevance," said Vik boldly. All eyes turned to the boy.
"Then speak up, Vik. I'm sure your explanation will be easier to understand than our resident wizard."
"Before Master Pilk walked through the door, it was a pale blue. And well, it is still a pale blue but a lot paler after all eight men have gone through. I think what Master Pilk is saying is that with each use, the magic door loses some of its power, and as it does the colour fades," explained Vik.
"Hmmm, the boy is bright indeed. Yes, yes, very bright. He is correct and I have more power than I thought I did. Usually, my doors can only transport about four or five people before it dissipates. Hmm indeed, I must explore that later ... but yes, the boy is right. This is what we wizards call a 'gate'. As Vik correctly deduced, it is a magical doorway to another location. When one walks through it, the magic splits them into tiny particles, sending them through indefinite space to the linking doorway or gate, where that gate will reassemble all the particles into their original form. In doing this, a portion of the magic held within the gate is used up, until such time as the gate loses all its magic and dissipates. The visible effect of this is a lightening of the colour. As you witnessed, my gate began as a pale blue, and that is the strongest gate I can conjure and I can only place the gate exit within my line of sight."
"So, what you're saying is that this orc gate will only be able to transport so many orcs through it before it dissipates?" asked Jeff.
"Hmm, well, yes and at the same time no," answered Master Pilk cryptically.
"Oh, wizard, you really try my patience sometimes," cried the duke. "Tell us plainly and simply please, what we can expect of this gate."
"I will try, my lord Duke," said Master Pilk, a little taken aback by the request. He paused briefly as though gathering his thoughts and sorting them out into the simplest format he could. "Vik described the orc gate as being a 'deep purple,' did he not?" The duke nodded and Master Pilk went on, "Deep purple is many, many more shades darker than pale blue. My pale blue gate can transport, as it now seems, around ten people through it before it becomes useless. Multiply that number by the amount of shades darker than deep purple is to pale blue and you'll have some indication as to how many orcs can come through this gate. That in itself is a huge number. Now, if I, er, wanted to increase the power of my gate and I had a wizard with me with enough power to do so, I could get him to add his power to the gate and thus make it more powerful, lasting longer and transporting more through it before it fades. The size of this gate indicates to me that more than one wizard was involved in forming it, as no wizard I know of, save perhaps my old tutor Grand Master Reibeck, could alone form a gate of that size, and certainly not with the obvious power this gate contains. In short, my lord Duke, whoever it is that has formed this gate has formed it to stay in place for a long time and has enough help to do so."
"Can a gate be closed by any other means?" asked Duke Angus. Master Pilk uttered a brief incantation and waved his hand at the gate and instantly it disappeared.
"As you just observed, my lord Duke, a gate can be shut down as easily as it was created. The problem is that it is only easy for the wizard who initially created the gate. There are two other ways I know of to close down a gate. One is to overwhelm it magically and the other is to overwhelm it physically. To overwhelm it magically, you would need enough magical power to exceed the magical power of the creators of the gate. To overwhelm it physically you would need to send enough matter through the gate quick enough to force the gate to expend all its magic before any wizard has the chance to strengthen it again. I'm afraid to say that neither of those options would prove to be an easy thing. And I have one more concern."
"More concern?" asked Jeff. "Isn't what you have already told us concern enough?"
"Yes, Jeff, it is. But my other concern is the time it took to create the gate."
"Why should that be of any consequence?" asked the duke.
"Because, my lord Duke, the time to create a gate normally indicates the distance the two gates are apart from each other. As you observed with my gate, the effect was instantaneous. As I can only create a line of sight gate, the forming is always quite quick. However, I have constructed a gate once while I was standing on top of a hill to a location I marked many miles away on the edge of the horizon, and the gate did take quite a few seconds to complete."
"Are you suggesting that the origin of this gate could perhaps be from anywhere on the continent?" asked Duke Angus.
"No, m'lord. As it is obvious to me that more than one wizard created this gate, and the gate I told you about just now was created by me alone, I am suggesting that with the immense power of the gate combined with the construction time, this gate was likely created by someone of another world. Not on Ka'ton at all and possibly had no idea as to where the gate's exit would form."
"Another world?" asked the duke in disbelief, while the rest of the men in the room look stunned. "Is that even possible? And what do you mean they possibly had no idea where the gate exit would form?
"
"To answer your first question, yes, it is possible in theory and with enough power. The power needed is staggering however and would require a large number of magic users to cooperate, which, ah, can be a huge achieve-ment in itself. As to your second question, you will remember that I said I can only construct gates within line of sight. The reason for this is because a wizard needs to keep a detailed image in his mind about where he wants the exit to form, and be able to point in the direction of that location. I know of some wizards that can form gate exits in places they have been before, because they have so much focus they have memorised every detail of that place. I fear I lack that focus at present. One of these wizards told me that it was possible for him to form a gate in an unknown location a certain distance from him, depending on, er, how much power he put into the spell. He said the problem with that is that you have no idea where the exit will be. It could well take you over the edge of a cliff, or even form in the middle of a large rock, although that is unlikely. You see, magic will normally take a line of least resistance unless forced to do otherwise, so a rock would no doubt cause too much resistance. But the point is, it can be a dangerous thing indeed to walk through a gate not knowing where it leads. Moreover, the further the distance travelled the more inaccurate and uncertain the gate exit becomes."
"My lord Duke, upon seeing these orcs and fighting them, I could well agree with Master Pilk's observation. I have never seen or heard of orcs the size of these, nor have I seen them wield such finely made weapons. There is something very different with these orcs. Even, by what the boys observed, with the manner in which they scout. It seemed too organised by orc standards," said Gerard.
"I agree. I think we need to find out more about these new orcs. If possible, we need to close that gate before too many of them come through. So, Master Pilk, I think at the very least, you need to go and investigate this gate, which will mean you will need an escort. As you are all well aware, we have few men to spare. We have only your seven companies currently in Arthea captains. Another ten companies are within a day's march of our walls on various missions. So, General Kehar, how many men would you suggest we can spare as escorts?"
The Gate - A New Breed of Orc (The Gate Series Book 1) Page 4