"Can we travel there… by the ley lines?"
"We should be able to. I kept feeling a pink and purple portal, but I'd wager it isn't a portal at all, but that other scepter, and probably the case that held it in Dereka was designed as much to hide it as for anything else."
"Then… hadn't we better go and see if we can get it, before the ifrits do?" asked Wendra.
A rueful smile crossed Alucius's face as he realized that he had been trying to avoid returning to Hieron and the Residence of the Matrial. "We should."
"You really don't want to go there, do you?"
"That doesn't matter," he replied. "You're right. We need to get there before the ifrits do." He turned and started back toward the Table chamber. "We can come back here later, if we have to."
Wendra followed, humming under her breath to Alendra.
Once she was out of the passageway, Alucius used his Talent to close the hidden doorway. Then he stepped down into the depression where the Table used to be, all too many years before. Wendra stepped down beside him. He took her hand and squeezed it.
"Are you ready?"
She nodded.
Alucius concentrated.
The three began to sink into the very rock itself, merging into the misty blackness of the worldthread that they would travel westward, toward the pink and purple that marked Hieron—and the second scepter, Alucius hoped.
Chapter 146
Norda, Lustrea
« ^ »
Two oil lamps set in light-torch brackets illuminated the room whose walls were primarily of ancient stone. On the northern wall, newer stones showed where recent and hasty repairs had been made. The stone ceiling displayed years of soot from torches and lamps.
A single figure stood before the oblong Table that dominated the middle of the underground room. The odor of wood oil and that of the energy that powered the light-torches mixed in the air that hung heavy in the dimly lit chamber.
Waleryn stepped closer to the Table, his eyes fixing on the purplish glow in the center of the Table, a glow that expanded until the entire top surface of the Table glowed purple. Almost immediately, a grid appeared above the surface of the Table. Close to a third of the sections of the grid were purple; the remainder were red.
The shadow-engineer concentrated on the grid, and another grid section changed from red to purple. A moment later, the entire grid vanished.
The engineer turned and walked to the side of the room, lifting a wooden box two yards long but less than a third of that in height and width. Carrying the box, he stepped onto the Table, then began to sink into it, vanishing into the Table, leaving the barred Table chamber empty, the oil lamps flickering but slightly.
After a time, the Table glowed more brightly, and the engineer reappeared, carrying a small pack. He was breathing heavily as he eased himself off the Table and walked to the crude and flat table set against the recently repaired wall. There he set the pack down.
He settled onto the stool beside the flat table. Almost a quarter glass passed before his breathing returned to normal, and he stood and began to remove items from the pack.
Chapter 147
« ^ »
The purple pink portal became less and less like a portal and more and more like a brilliant point of crystalline light, burning evilly through the misty blackness of the ley line that Alucius, Wendra, and Alendra traveled westward. There was no clearly defined portal, only two rings of pinkish fire. Alucius tried to signal to Wendra that they should try to emerge on the lower level. He could only hope she understood. Silvered purpleness shattered away from him.
Almost before he broke out of the misty darkness, Alucius was looking for Wendra, but, this time, she and Alendra were beside him. The unseen but strongly felt purpleness infused the very air, filling the entire hexagonal stone chamber.
Alucius had his rifle up and ready even before he saw the ifrit holding the scepter. In general shape, the scepter was close to the replica he had seen in the Table chamber in Dulka, a length of silver and black—two metals exuding light and intertwined—topped with a massive blue crystal. The crystal glimmered with energy, a deep and brilliant purple that was almost too bright to look at or sense directly.
A broad smile crossed the ifrit's face as Alucius started to squeeze the trigger. Alucius released the trigger pressure. The pinkish shield had flowed around the ifrit, and Alucius remembered what had happened when he had tried to strike the first pink crystal of the Matrial.
The ifrit looked familiar.
"You're Tarolt."
"That is not really my name, but yes, I am. It would have been much easier if you had just pulled that trigger."
Alucius concentrated on creating a web of blackness to cast around both ifrit and scepter.
"I don't think so." Purplish energy shredded Alucius's web.
A black javelin of force flew from Wendra toward Tarolt, slamming into his leg. He limped backward, lowering the scepter so that it formed a complete shield. Wendra's second javelin struck that shield, and Alucius could sense the shield weakening.
"How can you believe that turning a world into dead land is good?" Alucius knew there was little point in asking, but wanted to occupy Tarolt as he formed another black lifeforce missile, a hard task indeed, because there was so little lifeforce in the small stone chamber.
"Good is what enables a people to survive in glory and power and dignity," replied the ifrit. "Not surviving, or surviving in squalor and poverty, is bad."
"I can't believe you think that destroying all life on a world—"
"You can believe whatever you wish to believe. What you believe has no effect on the universe, only on yourself." The ifrit smiled coldly. "Beliefs change nothing. Actions do. They change the arrangement of items in the universe. The universe remains as it was and will be. Beliefs have value only to the believer. There is no absolute good in the universe; there is only survival. Those who survive determine which beliefs rule."
"So might makes right?" Alucius hurled another black javelin of darkness, a javelin that shredded off some of the purple shield.
"Has it ever been otherwise? The universe does not need to have meaning. It is. You need the comfort of meaning."
Alucius knew that the ifrit was wrong, but now was not the time to unravel that puzzle. He flung another missile, one that weakened but again did not penetrate the shield created by the scepter.
"Besides, all life that is superior is the same. Have you asked the ancient ones what sustains them?"
"The ancient ones? The soarers?"
"The ones you call soarers are but half the species." The ifrit's smile grew broader—and colder. "They were no different from us, save that they are dying, and we will live. They have but told you what they wish you to know. That, too, is the way of all life." He stepped back into a doorway concealed by a Talent-illusion until the ifrit shredded it. The tall figure quickly backed up the steps.
Alucius hurried after Tarolt, with Wendra almost at his side, throwing up a green golden shield before them and aiming another black missile at the ifrit. Somewhere he could sense Talent-alarms going off, and bodies moving toward them.
No sooner had Alucius reached the top of the narrow staircase and stepped through the upper archway than he and Wendra were enfolded by blinding purplish pink, light that was visible not just to Talent-senses, but to eyes as well. Alendra whimpered and began to cry.
As if it had never been destroyed, there, floating in the center of the stone-walled chamber, rotated a massive, multifaceted crystal. The Talent-like roots of purple energy no longer flowed into the rock, but directly to the scepter held by Tarolt. Even the once-cracked stone walls of the chamber had been regenerated or repaired, so that the stone was smooth and flawless.
Alucius could sense that the ifrit was having trouble trying to translate out of the chamber while still maintaining control of the scepter. As before, Alucius could feel the heat building inside his nightsilk undergarments, as well as Alendra's a
nd Wendra's discomfort. He forced himself to cast another Talent-missile at Tarolt.
Wendra followed with one of her own, then another.
As blackness cascaded around Tarolt, the oak door burst open, and more than a squad of Matrite special guards poured into the small chamber. Their pistols came up, some aimed at Alucius and Wendra, some at Tarolt.
"Shoot them!"
The ifrit raised the scepter, its aura blinding and stopping the Matrites. Then he vanished.
"Link to the earth!" Alucius ordered. "Now!" Even before he spoke, he had begun the linking process, extending thin threads.
Beside them, the massive crystal began to slow, no longer spinning above the stone floor, but beginning to wobble.
Alucius forced himself to concentrate on strengthening and intensifying his links to everything around him, weaving some of those threads around Alendra as well. At the same time, as he began to feel that the links to earth were stronger, he pressed lifeforce darkness around the faltering purple crystal.
He extended that blackness against the resistance, a resistance that suddenly shredded into purplish threads that exploded away from the crystal. Wrapped in its covering of darkness, a darkness added to by Wendra, the crystal contracted, pulsed, and contracted again.
"Shoot them! Now!" commanded someone.
Alucius ignored the commands, Talent-pressing darkness around the failing crystal. A high, whining sound knifed through Alucius's ears, but he crammed more darkness around the crystal. A heavy, leaden, splintering sound echoed through the chamber.
Instantly, huge cracks and rents appeared in the chamber's stone walls. Feeling like an immobile and massive miniature mountain, tied in place, as well as protected by his threads that felt as though they went everywhere, Alucius forced yet more darkness around the crystal.
With a dreamlike slowness, the crystal stopped rotating and tumbled down toward the stone below. Faint purplish light swirled as if it were smoke, providing a trail. All the glass and crystal in the world shattered—that was the sound when the pink purple crystal struck the stone.
A single piercing shriek followed, so high in frequency that while Alucius could not hear it, his very flesh felt as though it were being flayed apart from within. Silver green blackness flared across the underground chamber… a blinding wave of color and power… drowning Alucius and Wendra—and Alendra.
Chapter 148
Salaan, Lananchrona
« ^ »
A spray of pink and purple Talent-mist appeared in the center of the Table, concealing for a moment the appearance of Tarolt. The older ifrit staggered off the Table, pitching forward and landing in a large crumpled heap on the stone floor of the Table chamber. The scepter he had carried flew through the air, striking the stone wall to Tarolt's left, then slamming to the floor. A hairline crack appeared in the stone.
Trezun moved forward and quickly scooped up the scepter. It was untouched, seemingly without a mark or a smudge upon it. Transferring it from hand to hand, as if the metal were too hot to hold firmly, he glanced toward the other two ifrits who had appeared in the doorway of the staircase that led back up to the conference room.
"So that's what it looks like," offered the recently arrived ifrit, a woman even taller and more muscular than Trezun. "It doesn't seem that special."
"It is more… special… than you know," replied Lasylt, stepping forward and taking the scepter from Trezun. "Barylt… you and Trezun carry Fieldmaster Tarolt up to one of the beds, where he may recuperate."
"His force levels are low," observed Trezun as he lifted Tarolt's shoulders. "He must have had some difficulty. He could have encountered the young colonel."
"Even if he did, he was successful in retrieving the scepter, and that was what mattered." Lasylt nodded. "Take him up and return immediately."
The senior fieldmaster watched the Table intently, but the Table remained inactive, without a flicker in the unseen purple glow that surrounded its surface. Nor did any other figures emerge from the Table.
Before long, the other two returned.
"Bring out the other scepter, but leave it in its casket," Lasylt ordered Trezun.
Barylt remained standing silently beside the Table, one hand resting on the butt of the light-cutter holstered at her belt.
Wordlessly, the Recorder opened the hidden door to the strong room and disappeared down the short corridor, returning shortly with the silver and black metallic case.
"Put the case beside the Table," Lasylt said.
As Trezun did so, the senior fieldmaster took the uncased scepter and set it on top of the metal case.
"You don't want them in the strong room?" asked Trezun.
"No!" snapped Lasylt. "There is no shield for the one, and it acts as a portal. If you put them in the strong room, the Talent-steer will be able to translate directly in and out of the strong room. We cannot guard both places at once, not effectively, not with but four Efrans, and we must watch continuously until more of the others arrive." Lasylt frowned.
"Are the translations not going well?" asked Trezun.
"Several have already perished in the long tubes from Efra. There is less lifeforce remaining in Efra than we had calculated."
"We may not have to worry about the lifeforce mass here, then," suggested Trezun.
"We may not, and you should consider yourself fortunate to be here," replied Lasylt. "Most fortunate."
Baryk glanced at the Table, then at the bare stone walls and the unadorned stone floors. The slightest shudder traversed her frame.
Chapter 149
« ^ »
Time passed. How much, Alucius was not certain, but he began to unlink from the chamber around him. He glanced at the cracked stone walls, walls that were beginning to sag inward and would not long last against the pressure of the soil around and the structure above. Cracking noises flowed around him, and the stones underfoot felt unsteady. He could not sense much of anything with his Talent, and only faint light filled the chamber, light coming from the doorway that led to the stairs up into the Residence of the Matrial—or the Regent, Alucius supposed. Only the barest trace of skeletons lay on the stones inside the entry to the underground chamber, and the oak door had disintegrated into dust, while even the iron hinges had vanished into rusty dust that lay heaped at the base of the stone doorframe.
Had years passed? Alucius swallowed. Had they been frozen in time when he had linked to the world itself?
"Everything's… dead." Wendra's voice was small.
That was why he sensed little. There was little enough to sense. Between the ifrit's actions, the failure of the crystal, and their defenses, they had sucked all the lifeforce out of everything around them—for yards at least.
"We didn't get the scepter," he said dully.
Wendra said nothing.
Should they have come to Hieron first? Had they failed because Alucius hadn't wanted to return to Madrien, and the place where he'd almost died once before? "I'm sorry. We should have…"
"I agreed with you," Wendra said. "We can't do any more here, can we?"
"No. The scepter was the only thing. Well… except for the torques, but with the crystal gone, they can't power the torques, and without the scepter, they can't re-create the crystal."
"We need to get something to eat. I do anyway. We're too tired to do anything more without eating," Wendra said.
"There's some travel food in my jacket and belt pouch," Alucius suggested.
"There was. We ate it. The soarer was getting forgetful or tired about meals."
"We could go back to Dereka…"
"Do we have to go there?" asked Wendra. "The soarer said that we could travel anywhere along the ley lines."
"I'm sure we can." Alucius's lips quirked into a crooked smile. "But I don't know how to determine where I am… or whether we'd end up under several yards of soil and stones? Do you?"
"Oh…"
"The Red House in Dereka isn't too far away from the Table chamber…
and we can check that case that I thought might have held the other scepter at the same time."
"Can we go?"
He nodded, reaching out and taking Wendra's hand. "There's a portal in Dereka, where there once was a Table. It's crimson gold."
They walked down to the lower level, where the stone walls seemed slightly more sturdy. Even so, it seemed to take forever before they could find the misty blackness beneath the stone and drop into the world life-force lines.
Deep in the blackness, Alucius wanted to shiver, but he concentrated on the crimson gold and on projecting that image to Wendra. He could sense the growing power of the ifrits Tables, especially the maroon and dark green of Salaan, the blue of Prosp, and another Table, one of a bright brown, as well as the other older Tables in Soupat and Blackstear. Then, too, he could feel the purple and pink of the scepter, almost on top of the maroon and dark green. Slowly, too slowly, it seemed, they moved closer to the faded crimson gold of Dereka… until they burst out of the blackness and through the silver…
Almost before he broke out of the misty darkness, Alucius was looking for Wendra, but, once more, she and their daughter were close beside him. Although he had the rifle up and ready, the ancient Table chamber was empty. He could sense someone in one of the chambers up the steps and farther toward the north end of the building.
Alucius stepped out of the oblong pit, and dust swirled around him as he reached down and offered a hand to his wife.
This time, Wendra was the one to sneeze, but far less noisily than Alucius usually did. With his free hand, he rubbed his nose, trying to stop a sneeze before it started. What light there was in the chamber filtered through the doorway framing the bottom of the staircase.
They moved quietly up the steps and came out into the smaller chamber. As he moved to the larger chamber, with the empty windows overlooking the main north-south boulevard of Dereka, Alucius realized that it was late afternoon. How long had he been locked into timelessness? He shivered as he considered that they could have been locked there for far longer. The soarer had not mentioned that problem. Then, there were more than a few items that she had overlooked—and the ifrit had suggested even others. He wondered what else they would discover along those lines.
Corean Chronicles 3 - Scepters Page 65