Runes and Relics

by Kay L. Ling

  “It seems like you’d miss a lot of useful information if you only test for anomalous reactions on the good gems.”

  His comment caught her off guard. “Maybe so, but it doesn’t matter since we don’t plan on using Dark gems.”

  Seeing her puzzled expression, he said, “A Fair Lands gem that disrupts dark powers would be very useful, don’t you think?”

  “All right—I see where you’re going with this. Yes, it would be useful, but drawing dark powers to perform the tests would be dangerous.”

  “You’d have to do that? I thought just bringing the volatile gems together made them react.”

  “No. It doesn’t work that way.”

  To prove her point, she took the phorish out of the drawer and put an aventurine beside on the desktop. Nothing happened. At home, when she had combined infused phorish with aventurine, she had gotten music—a bizarre but harmless reaction.

  “See? Being close isn’t enough. You have to draw their powers to create a reaction.”

  Franklin looked disappointed. “Will it work if you only draw one?”

  “Good question. I’ll just draw aventurine and see what happens.” She touched it, drawing its power, and the phorish beside it gave off a single, high-pitched note. “Well, that’s interesting. I didn’t expect any reaction. At home, when I drew power from both, I got a series of tones. I’ll touch both now.” Still touching the aventurine, she placed a finger on the phorish. The note became louder. Soon, multiple tones began, forming a pleasing, repetitious melody. “That’s it!” she cried. “That’s how it sounded at home!”

  Franklin gave her a long look. “Just drawing aventurine gave you a weak reaction. Which is better than no reaction. If you could disrupt or alter a Dark gem’s power to any degree it would be helpful.”

  “What do you have in mind? Why the sudden interest in disrupting dark powers?”

  “Jules has been trying to find a way into the armory. We can’t get in unless we neutralize the ravilor and disrupt the energy field.”

  “I had almost forgotten about the armory.” The armory had a sophisticated, twofold defense system. The primary feature was an energy shield, like a force field. But a Dark gem called ravilor gave you welts if you came in contact with the shield.

  “We don’t need weapons as badly now, but we still want to get in.”

  “Aventurine might disrupt the shield, but who knows what kind of anomalous reaction we’d get. Before Elias left, he warned me not to sail too far into uncharted waters. He said most anomalous reactions were strange rather than dangerous, but I should be careful. He was referring to good gems, of course, since that’s the only kind we use.”

  She had seen a notation about ravilor in his notes a few minutes ago, but hadn’t connected it with the armory at the time. “Elias tested ravilor with heliotrope and got an anomalous reaction,” she said, trying to find the page again. “I have heliotrope with me, so maybe I could knock out the ravilor.”

  Franklin sat forward in his chair. “What kind of reaction did he get?”

  “Hang on. I’m trying to find it.” She flipped through more pages. “Here it is. ‘Heliotrope combined with ravilor produced an area of intense cold. Ice crystals formed within a radius of several feet.’”

  “Ice sounds better than welts.”

  “That’s for sure. Too bad neutralizing the ravilor is only half the battle. Then we have to deal with the energy shield.”

  Franklin nodded and refilled his coffee. “I don’t understand why S used ravilor. The shield should have been deterrent enough.”

  “Maybe she figured anyone trying to break through the shield would give up if they got welts.”

  “Who knows how her devious mind works. Is there any chance heliotrope could disrupt both—the ravilor and the energy shield?”

  “According to Elias’s notes, heliotrope only disrupts ravilor. Which brings us back to aventurine. Most native gems go bonkers when combined with aventurine.”

  Franklin rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “So just use aventurine on both.”

  “Ravilor and aventurine might cause a dangerous reaction.”

  Franklin sighed. “So, we have no solution for the energy shield.”

  “I wish we knew what gems S used to create it.”

  The spell book spoke up, “If aventurine reacts with most native gems, it is likely to produce a reaction no matter what gems she used. And there is no reason to believe the reaction would be dangerous. Ravilor is a Dark gem, and it produced nothing worse than cold and ice.”

  Lana had almost forgotten the spell book was listening. By its own admission it knew zilch about Fair Lands gems. Which meant it knew less than zilch about anomalous reactions. If she decided to try something risky, she would do it based on her own logic, thank you very much.

  Franklin gave the book a distrustful look. “We can’t be sure it’s safe, so she isn’t trying it. Especially with Jules and Elias away.”

  He was only looking out for her, but she bristled at him making the decision for her. Elias and Jules might be gone for weeks, and they would be taking risks of their own. She would love to surprise them by finding a way into the armory. While she placed no faith in the spell book’s opinions, it had made a valid point. Ravilor, a Dark gem, hadn’t produced anything more dangerous than ice. At home, she’d created an earthquake, and that hadn’t stopped her from experimenting.

  “Life is never without risks,” she said at last.

  Franklin frowned. “Well, that’s true enough. But I wouldn’t want to—”

  Tyla walked in. “It’s nice to see you, Lana. You asked for me?”

  Franklin didn’t finish what he was saying, partly because Lana didn’t give him the chance.

  “Yes, have a seat, Tyla. If you can spare the time, I’d like to go through these notebooks and see if Elias recorded any experiments with a Fair Lands gem called aventurine.”

  “I’d be happy to help you.”

  Franklin stood. “Don’t think you chased me away, Tyla, but I have things to do. I’ll let you two get to work, and I’ll see you at lunch.”

  “Will you have a little spare time this afternoon?” Lana asked him.

  “Sure. What do you need?”

  “You can walk us out to armory. We know heliotrope and ravilor produce cold and ice. That’s perfectly safe, so I may as well try it. As for the shielding ward, if we don’t find anything here about adverse reactions with aventurine, I may go ahead.”

  “I shouldn’t have put the idea in your head. If something goes wrong, I’ll feel responsible.”

  “Don’t worry, if I decide to sail uncharted waters, I’ll have you and Tyla on deck, ready to man the lifeboats.”

  Chapter 6

  Elias’s notebooks made no mention of aventurine, and Lana decided to view the lack of information as a green light to experiment. Tyla pointed out that even if the anomalous reaction was nothing harmful and Lana got into the armory, there might be wards and booby traps inside. Lana said that wasn’t likely, partly so Tyla would stop worrying, and partly to convince herself. Lana really wanted to do this. The idea of personally defeating S’s wards and breaking into the armory was all too appealing.

  But she began to have second thoughts by the time they were ready to leave. It was one thing to risk her own safety, but quite another to endanger Tyla and Franklin. Maybe she should wait for Elias and Jules. She brushed the thought aside. She would do everything possible to ensure their safety. She’d insist they watch from a distance, and if she got through the wards, she’d go into the armory alone and make sure it was safe.

  Since it wasn’t far, they walked to the armory, and Tyla and Franklin chatted about the books Tyla had been studying. Lana was only half-listening, her mind on what she might find in the armory. Xenon had been inside during S’s reign and reported seeing swords, spears, pikes, and other weapons, some decorated with gems. Probably gnome weapons, seized during the Great Upheaval. Lana realized Franklin had just said s
omething to her. “Sorry. Daydreaming about weapons. What did you say?”

  He pointed. “The armory is inside that hill.” He removed his neck chain, which held an iron key, and gave it to her. “If you get past the ravilor and the energy shield, you’ll need this to unlock the iron door.”

  Lana slipped it over her head. “A locked door in addition to wards? Isn’t that overkill?”

  “We think the armory was built when gnomes owned the castle,” Franklin said. “A locked door was probably enough. S added the wards.”

  “Makes sense.”

  No grass or plants grew on the armory hill, but groundcovers had begun to grow everywhere else. As they came closer, Lana could see a door set into a cutaway section of the hill.

  “Do you think the ward’s energy field prevents plant growth?”

  “I wouldn’t doubt it,” Franklin said. “You’ll be able to feel the malevolent energy in a minute.”

  “Jules said he felt a sense of dread, which was a warning to stay away, but he kept going. Good thing he drew the Challenger’s blade and it protected him.”

  “If you call getting welts up his arm protecting him.”

  “Without the knife, he would’ve had welts all over his body.” Seeing Tyla’s frightened expression, Lana added, “As soon as we feel the sense of dread, we’ll stop. You guys move further back, and I’ll use my gems.”

  “You can disarm the ravilor from a distance?” Tyla asked.

  “I hope so.”

  Tyla hugged herself as if feeling a sudden chill. “If it doesn’t work from there, will you go closer?”

  “No, I think it would be safer to go to Plan B and use aventurine, hoping it disrupts both the ravilor and the energy shield. Aventurine is so volatile it may work from farther away.”

  Franklin said heavily, “Face it, this is all guesswork.”

  “That’s why it’s called an experiment,” Lana said.

  They all lapsed into silence, walking at a more cautious pace.

  As they neared the hill, she started to feel gloomy and despondent, but she figured it was just her nerves until it intensified to the terrible sense of dread Jules had described. “Stop here. This feels pretty bad. If we go any farther, we may trigger the ravilor.”

  Franklin looked worried. “I find it distracting. Won’t it affect your concentration?”

  She was thinking the same thing. She hadn’t factored in trying to use gem powers while fighting negative emotions. “I think I’ll be okay.”

  “I hope so,” Tyla said nervously.

  “Elias got intense cold and ice crystals. I may only get a cool breeze and rain since I’m not drawing ravilor, just heliotrope.” Elias’s words echoed in her mind, “We don’t know what we don’t know, so to speak.”

  Franklin and Tyla moved back a few yards, and Franklin called, “Good luck, Lana.”

  She took a deep breath, looked at the iron door, and pictured walking inside. Anticipation, optimism, and excitement overwhelmed the ward’s negative emotions. Taking heliotrope from her gem pouch, she drew its power. Nothing happened. Seconds became minutes and she continued to hold the stone, tempted to move closer but not willing to risk it. Come on! This should work!

  Then the cold wave hit her.

  She shivered, how much from excitement and how much from the cold, she couldn’t say. It was no arctic blast and she didn’t see ice crystals, but it was still pretty impressive.

  Tyla shouted encouragement. “Good job! We can feel it from here! How long will this last? Is it permanent?”

  She wished she knew. Most anomalous reactions were only temporary. She turned toward them. “Temporary, I think. So, before this wears off and the ravilor is dangerous again, I need to disrupt the energy shield and get inside.”

  She took the aventurine from her pouch. “Now for the aventurine. I’ll try to disrupt the shield.”

  “Be careful,” Tyla called.

  The aventurine warmed to Lana’s touch, and she advanced slowly. The feeling of dread eased, which was a good sign. The air around her began to shimmer; the energy field was taking on a visible form. Another good sign? Probably. Maybe.

  The closer she came to the armory door, the harder it became to walk. The energy field was doing its best to repel her, but so far, she was winning.

  Despite the cold, sweat dripped into her eyes and ran down the back of her neck. The aventurine was becoming uncomfortably hot. Was she reaching the limits of its power?

  Every step was exhausting, but she kept going, her legs aching with the effort. Finally, when the door was no more than a few feet away, she seemed to hit an unyielding barrier. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t move another inch. The aventurine was burning her palm. This is it. I can’t go any farther. Like it or not, I have to turn back. She was finding it hard to concentrate, and if she lost control, she’d be covered with welts before she made it back to safety.

  She turned and shouted to Franklin and Tyla, “I’m sorry, but I can’t go any farther!”

  “It’s okay! Good try!” Franklin called.

  “Just come back!” Tyla shouted.

  She ran, ignoring the pain in her legs. There was no resistance moving in this direction. If anything, the force field was pushing her away from the armory door.

  She reached her friends and stumbled to a halt. Franklin took her arm to steady her.

  “Almost, almost,” she gasped, breathless and shaking. She sat down on the ground and tried to catch her breath. “Could you see the air shimmering? That had to be part of the anomalous reaction.”

  “We saw it,” Franklin said. “The energy field was warping around you.”

  “I think it was weakening or I wouldn’t have gotten that far. Even so, it was like walking into a sixty-mile-an-hour wind. I wish I could have made it to the door, but I couldn’t coax more power from the stone.”

  Franklin grinned, and said in a dreadful Scottish accent, “More power? I’m givin’ ‘er all I got, Captain. If I push ‘er any harder, she’ll blow!”

  Lana burst out laughing at his imitation of Scotty from Star Trek. Tyla’s confused expression made her laugh all the harder.

  “That’s it!” Franklin cried, eyes widening.

  Lana stood and brushed off her pants. “What?”

  “More power!” Franklin said, as if it should be obvious.

  Lana raised a brow. “You have some dylithium crystals kicking around?”

  “No, but we have the next best thing—alamaria.”

  “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” Lana said, shaking her head. “Alamaria amplifies any gem power.”

  Franklin looked immensely pleased with himself. “I guess I’m useful for something.”

  “Of course you are.”

  Tyla studied her with a worried frown. “Does this mean you’ll try again?”

  “Darn right! The extra boost from alamaria might do the trick.”

  They started back to the castle, and Lana thought the matter through. “Franklin, could you get a cartload of alamaria from the mine?”

  “Sure.”

  “Do we need that much?” Tyla asked. “What about the pedestal that used to hold the spell book? That’s alamaria.”

  “Great idea,” Lana said. The only problem with using the pedestal was that the staff would wonder what she was up to when they saw her taking it out of the castle. She would rather not say she was trying to break into the armory since it would be a letdown if she failed. But using the pedestal was easier than getting alamaria elsewhere.

  They decided to make do with the pedestal, and by the time Franklin had brought a cart around, the entire staff seemed to know she had asked breghlin to load it onto a cart. A group had gathered outside to watch: guards, servers, cooks, and stable hands.

  “Whatcha doin’? Xenon asked Lana. “Ya can’t burn that like ya did the throne.”

  Six breghlin wrestled the pedestal onto the waiting cart. The springs sagged under its weight.

  “
We don’t want to destroy it, we want to use it,” Lana said. “It isn’t evil. It amplifies gem powers, good or bad.”

  Brenda Ann eyed her with open curiosity. “Where ya takin’ it?” Brenda Ann was never shy about asking questions.

  Lana wished she could order everyone back to work to avoid answering their questions. “Um, we’re using it to get past one of S’s wards.” She supposed that was a pretty big clue.

  Xenon’s eyes became the size of an orelia egg. “The armory,” he said in an awed voice. “You be tryin’ to get through the ward that burned Gem Master Jules.”

  Lana had nearly forgotten. Xenon had taken Jules to the armory and had seen what had happened that day.

  “That’s right,” she admitted since it seemed pointless to deny it. Hopefully, they’d return with a load of weapons.

  “Everyone back to work now,” Franklin said, and called to his helpers, “Thanks for loading the pedestal.”

  The staff reluctantly left to resume their duties.

  “Well, the cat’s out of the bag now,” Franklin said. “We may as well get this over with.”

  They climbed into the cart and Franklin drove. As they started across the field, Franklin said, “You don’t need to take it off the cart, do you?”

  “No. It should work fine from where it is.”

  “I don’t want to spook the maraku, so I’m going to stay further back this time.”

  “Good idea.” She tilted back her head and closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth of the sun. This time, she felt less apprehensive. Things had gone fairly well last time, even without alamaria.

  When she opened her eyes and looked at Tyla, she could tell Tyla was as nervous as before. She was twisting the hem of her tunic around her fingers. “Still worried?” Lana asked.

  “You’re braver than I am,” Tyla said quietly. “You’re going up against one of S’s wards, and she was a master of dark powers.”

  “We used to think S was unbeatable. But where is she now? In a cage. We outsmarted her before. We’ll do it again.”

  Tyla gave her a weak smile and then looked away.