by Kay L. Ling
“Yes, they constantly surprise me. When we get back to Shadowglade, we should give them duties that are a bit more challenging.”
“Well,” he said, getting down from the cart and dusting himself off, “I suppose we should get some sleep. If we get an early start we might reach Shadowglade for breakfast.”
Elias said wistfully, “A plate of orelia eggs sounds delightful. With coffee instead of raaka to wash it down.”
Jules found Shadowglade’s bleak gray walls strangely beautiful after being away so long. It had been exciting to venture into unknown territory, but he preferred the comfortable and familiar, and he hadn’t realized till now how much he missed everyone. Not just Lana and Franklin, but the breghlin cooks, servers, and maintenance staff whom he tended to take for granted.
The blast from a signal horn pierced the air. Someone had spotted them. Word would spread quickly, and the staff would drop whatever they were doing and come out to greet them.
He was right. By the time the carts had come to a stop behind the castle, staff had gathered on the lawn, waving and cheering excitedly. Franklin burst through the door with Tyla on his heels.
Jules leapt out of the cart.
“You’re back sooner than we thought!” Franklin said, giving him a friendly clap on the back. “Not that we’re complaining!”
“We sure have missed you!” Tyla said. “Franklin did a great job while you were gone, though,” she added hastily.
“I’m sure he did.”
“So, how’d it go?” Franklin asked. “I assume you reached the barrier.”
“Yes, but as we thought, we couldn’t break through. I have so much to tell you!”
“Same here. A lot happened while you were gone,” Franklin said.
Jules tensed. “How’s Lana?”
“Fine,” Franklin said after a brief hesitation. He looked at Tyla and a wordless communication seemed to pass between them.
“What?” Jules demanded, his former fears rushing back.
“She’s fine, Jules. She had an unexpected adventure, but everything’s all right now.”
“What kind of adventure? I had a premonition she was in danger, and Elias confirmed it.”
Franklin looked impressed. Just then, Elias joined them and Jules said, “I haven’t gotten the full story about Lana yet, but something happened while we were gone.”
“We’ve been worried about her. What happened?” Elias asked.
Tyla looked at Franklin again, as if asking permission to share the news, and then blurted, “The armory—she found a way in!”
Jules gaped in stunned disbelief. “She did?”
“It was risky,” Tyla began.
“But you know Lana,” Franklin interrupted, grinning. “We couldn’t talk her out of it, so we went with her.”
“How did she manage to get past the wards?” Elias asked.
“With anomalous gem reactions,” Tyla said. “But there was a problem. She went inside the armory before the reaction had finished.”
“The first part went all right,” Franklin said. “She made the ravilor produce cold air and ice instead of welts. Then she changed the energy field. I wasn’t the best student in science, but I know mass can change to energy and vice versa. I guess that’s what happened. The energy turned into a solid—an iron dome covering the hill.”
Jules let out his breath in a rush.
“Iron,” Elias repeated, shaking his head. “How did she get out?”
Just then the rest of the Amulet Team trooped by, staff members at their heels bombarding them with questions. Franklin waited for the commotion to die down before continuing. “We didn’t know how to get her out, so we sent for gnomes with gem powers, and they stayed up all night going through your notes. Tyla found the solution, and it was pretty ingenious, if you ask me.” He paused and smiled at Tyla.
“Go on,” Elias urged.
Tyla picked up the story. “After we burned S’s throne, you demonstrated a gem and made it turn into a shovel. Remember?”
Elias nodded, still looking puzzled.
“It was color change simbioryte. After your demonstration, Lana tried it, and the original shovel disintegrated. You said her topaz caused an anomalous reaction.”
“Ah, I’m beginning to see where you’re going with this,” Elias said, “but surely a color change simbioryte couldn’t turn into an iron dome.”
“No,” Tyla said, “but using three of them side-by-side, amplified with alamaria, made them turn into big sections of iron. Then we used topaz, and some of the dome disintegrated.”
“Brilliant!” Elias exclaimed, looking surprised that Tyla had come up with this creative solution.
Thank goodness she had, Jules thought, impressed with Tyla’s ingenuity. If Lana had remained trapped for days—well, it was best not to think about that.
“So we got Lana out,” Franklin said, “along with a couple cartloads of weapons.”
“Yes, and some unexpected things too,” Tyla said, shooting Franklin a conspiratorial smile. “We’ll show you later. Anyway, the next day the iron dome was gone and the energy field was back as if nothing ever happened.”
“The original ward kicked in as soon as the reaction wore off,” Franklin said. “Lana doesn’t know since she didn’t come last weekend.”
“It’s not like her to miss a weekend, especially when she knows you could use a hand. You’re sure she’s all right?” Jules asked.
Franklin didn’t seem concerned. “I think she’s just embarrassed. She could have died in there if Tyla and the others hadn’t rescued her.”
“I warned her not to take undue risks, but I can’t be too hard on her. She’s too much like me.” Elias turned toward the armory with a thoughtful expression. “Sometimes mistakes lead to discoveries. This has given me an idea. When Lana comes, we’ll discuss it.”
“Have you eaten?” Franklin asked, and when Elias shook his head, Franklin said, “We’ll rustle you up some breakfast, and then we’ll show you what Lana discovered in the armory.”
“And we have something to show you,” Jules said, grinning. “I’ll get it and meet you inside.”
Elias said, “The entire staff will want to see it, so after breakfast I’ll call a meeting.”
“Good. Everyone’s too excited to work anyway,” Tyla admitted. “They’re dying to hear what you learned about the barrier.”
Franklin asked, “Did you stop at any of the sites marked on the map?”
“We did,” Elias said. “The most important was Last Hope, and despite its depressing name and grim history, Last Hope has given us new hope.”
Chapter 17
Friday night, as Lana was getting ready for bed, something inexplicable happened. Jules was in her head, but not in the usual daydreaming about him way. No, he was in her head—talking! She sank onto the bed, partially undressed and completely confused.
Lana, I’m back, the voice in her head was saying, Can you hear me? Lana?
She thought about him way too much, but she never thought she’d lose her sanity over a man, however handsome and desirable he might be.
Handsome? Thanks! replied the voice. Don’t worry, you’re not crazy,
Okay, this was just freaky weird. What was going on? How was he inside her head? Could he see her too? Suddenly self-conscious, she slid into bed and yanked the sheet over her.
No, I can’t see you, he answered. Unfortunately.
How could he contact her from Ahmonell? Or even from the Amulet? They’d established a telepathic link once before, but he’d been only a mile or two away.
I’m in the Amulet with Raenihel and a few other gnomes. We’re trying an experiment. We found a gem at Last Hope that lets multiple users combine their powers.
She gasped. The Focal Gem! They’d found the Focal Gem?
Yes! Raenihel said you’d know about it. One of the spell books you found in the armory said we should look for it.
She spoke aloud, even though he could hear he
r thoughts. “That’s right. I can’t believe you found it! So, you and some of the Anen clan opened a telepathic link to me?”
Exactly. A telepathic channel. Very useful, isn’t it?
“Yeah, it’s great. Only I guess it means we’re on a party line.”
Party line?
She laughed. “This isn’t a private conversation,” she explained.
True, we all hear your thoughts.
Time to end this call—before she thought about something embarrassing.
Were you planning to come tomorrow? I can pick you up in the morning.
“Sure, that would be great. The earlier the better. Around eight o’clock?”
“I’ll be there.”
She waited a moment to make sure the only thoughts in her head were hers, and then she threw back the covers and danced around the room. Jules and Elias were back! If it weren’t for the armory fiasco, she’d be even happier to see them. By now, they’d probably heard all about her misadventure. At least she had gotten the weapons out and found more spell books.
She finished undressing and got back into bed. Tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough!
Lana found Jules waiting for her on the Ahmonell side of the portal. “I’m so glad you’re all right!” he said, crushing her in a fierce hug, and then lifting her off the ground and spinning her until she was dizzy and laughing. He put her down and kissed her hair, her face, and her lips. Wow! She’d brave any number of life-threatening scrapes for a reunion like this.
“I bet I’m in for a lecture,” she said as they walked to the cart.
“Not from me. And Elias won’t scold you either. Your mishap gave him an idea.”
When they reached Shadowglade, they went straight to Elias’s office. He was sitting at his desk with a spell book open, and Tyla was looking over his shoulder.
“Lana!” Tyla cried, beaming. “I’m glad you came this week.”
“Sorry about last weekend. I just wasn’t in the mood. Jules said Elias wouldn’t lecture me, so here I am.” She grinned at Elias. “Welcome home!”
“No lecture can match the lesson you learned the hard way. Have a seat. I want to show you what we found at Last Hope and describe our own risky experiments. These may not look like much,” he said, indicating the row of wooden objects on his desk, “but there’s quite a story behind them.” He went on to explain where the team had found them and how Parcune had discovered the gems inside.
“They don’t look valuable, which is good, because they were still on the cart after our weapons and food were stolen,” Jules said.
“Stolen!” Lana cried, and Jules went on to tell her about Parcune being captured by breghlin, the team rescuing him and making friends with his captors, and then getting a breghlin escort to the Amulet barrier.
“How did they know where the barrier was?”
“They’d been to a place with a repelling force, which could only be the Amulet barrier. The region used to be cloaked in fog and full of S’s monsters.”
Jules would be retelling these stories years from now, Lana thought with an inward sigh. She had missed so many adventures.
Elias picked up the tale and described their failed attempts to breach the barrier, explaining how the rose-colored gem had strengthened the repelling force, making it even harder to break through.
Her heart sank, and she resisted the urge to say it sounded pretty hopeless, and said instead, “It will be quite a challenge.”
“All the way back to Shadowglade, we theorized about various gems and possible spells, but came no closer to finding a solution.” He sat back in his chair and folded his hands, studying her intently. “But after hearing about your adventure with the armory, I think you’ve pointed us in the right direction.
“Really?” she gave him a blank look.
“We should focus on anomalous reactions. The Amulet has an energy field that turns intruders away, much like the armory ward. If we can find a reaction that disrupts it, perhaps we can break through the barrier.”
She considered that. “Maybe. It depends on the reaction. In my case, the energy field changed to iron, and that was a problem. A different gem combination might have worked better, but without knowing what gems are in the ward, I couldn’t test combinations in advance. I used aventurine because it makes most native gems go haywire.”
“But we know which gems operate the Amulet,” Tyla said.
Elias looked startled. “We do?”
“Yes. One of the new spell books listed the gems.”
“Well. That could change everything,” he said slowly, and his gaze grew distant as he considered the matter. “Knowing which gems operate the Amulet should help considerably. The energy field controls both the repelling force and the barrier. If we can duplicate Lana’s results and convert the energy into any kind of solid, we’ll be able to come right up to the barrier and eventually break through.”
Jules cut in, “But according to Franklin, the iron dome reverted to energy the day after Lana got out. A temporary solution isn’t much help.”
He was right, Lana thought, disappointed. The gnomes needed an anomalous reaction that wouldn’t wear off. If the Amulet resumed normal operation in a day or two, anyone who crossed wouldn’t be able to get back. And if the armory was any indication that was exactly what would happen.
Lana frowned. There was something significant about that, but she couldn’t think what it was. She sank into a reverie, searching for the elusive point. What was she overlooking? Maybe it would help if she framed the issue in more familiar terms. The spell controlling the ward was like a computer program. Fair Land gems had disrupted the programming, transforming the energy field into iron. But when the effect wore off, and the iron turned back into energy, the system had come back online.
Lana’s eyes widened. “It rebooted!” A thrill of excitement ran through her. “The minute the reaction wore off, the ward kicked in again. If the Amulet would do the same thing—”
Three uncomprehending faces stared at her.
How could she explain the concept so they’d understand? “When computers malfunction, the first thing we do is shut them off, then turn them on again. We call that rebooting. It’s the same way with other electronics. You hit the reset button. More times than not, that fixes the problem.”
Jules said, “So what are you saying? We need to reboot the Amulet? How do we do that?”
“The same way I rebooted the armory ward,” she said, feeling increasingly certain this could work. “We find an anomalous reaction that converts energy to mass. Cutting off the energy stops the faulty programming, just like pressing a reset button.”
Elias considered that briefly. “I think I understand. The spell that operates the Amulet would reengage, and the Amulet would function normally again.”
“Bingo!” Lana said, grinning.
“Gnomes and breghlin could go home, but none of you would be able to cross,” Tyla said.
Lana shrugged. “Getting you home is all that matters.”
Elias said, “If Lana’s theory is right, we need to find a gem combination that shuts down the energy field or turns energy into mass, either of which will accomplish the same thing.” He turned to Tyla. “I need the list of gems that operate the Amulet. We’ll run tests, drawing their powers while simultaneously drawing power from Fair Land gems until we get the right anomalous reaction. We’ll start with aventurine, since it’s hyper-reactive to native gems.”
Jules said, “If this works, we’ll go back to the Amulet with the Focal Gem and more gnomes who have gem powers.”
“The Amulet’s energy field is vastly more powerful than the armory’s, so we’ll need a large group,” Elias agreed.
Lana felt a surge of new hope. “We’ll start testing combinations this weekend.”
“Whatever we come up with, let’s make sure it can’t make matters worse,” Jules said.
Elias sighed. “Yes, no more blunders like using an energy beam against a force that absorbs
energy. I should have known better.”
“It was an honest mistake,” Jules told him.
Tyla nodded. “It made sense and you took a chance, just like Lana did.”
“And you didn’t have to be rescued afterward,” Lana pointed out.
Elias frowned. “Overconfidence can lead to all kinds of trouble.”
“You’re seldom guilty of that,” Jules said, and then he chuckled. “At least you’ve never hit yourself in the head with a rock.”
That coaxed a smile from Elias. “Or lost my head altogether.”
Inside jokes, Lana thought, wondering which team member they were referring to. “I’d like to hear those stories.”
“Raenihel’s nephew kept us from being bored,” Jules said in a tone that suggested he had plenty of stories to share. “Elias, when you discussed the mission with Raenihel the other day, what did you say about Kaff?”
“We had an honest discussion. Raenihel isn’t blind to Kaff’s flaws, but he doesn’t take them seriously enough. He thinks Kaff’s gem powers and ambitious nature make him an ideal leader. Good character is more important, and I told him so.”
“Kaff’s gem powers are stronger than Raenihel’s. I think Raenihel envies him.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it.” Elias stood. “I need to stop in at the gnome ministry office. Two weeks from today, we’ll hold a meeting here to discuss the Amulet mission, and I want as many clan leaders as possible to attend. While they’re here, we’ll give back the spell books Lana found in the armory. I’d like to keep them, but that wouldn’t be right.”
“It feels like we’re making progress,” Lana said. “We don’t have all the answers, but we’re a lot closer now than a couple weeks ago.”
Jules smiled at her. “Let’s go for a walk. I’ll fill you in on some of our adventures, especially the funny parts with Kaff.”
Chapter 18
After their walk, Lana and Jules headed back to the office. As they were coming down the passageway, Lana heard voices, and the tone told her something was wrong. Jules shot her a frightened glance and they took off at a run.