"That's Borin Krue, right?" inquired Jesse, unexpectedly breaking their repose by returning to his original topic of discussion, and just as abruptly becoming the new center of attention for everyone, including Marcus, but excluding Crumly.
"Waldo?" Crumly asked, as Borin's face and voice began to coalesce through an inebriated memory of summers past.
"Pardon me," Goren offered shortly, while shoving Selina out of his way, and then dropping to one knee to continue the next stage of his duties.
"Hey!" Sarah shouted indignantly as she managed to catch herself before falling.
"Get your hands off my Wife!" Marcus shouted while reaching to grab the unruly Rogue, and then momentarily dropping back as a result of Goren's painful head-butt.
Goren himself offered no further sign of violent behavior, but rather simply returned to the task of preparing the crystals in the correct circular pattern on the ground.
"Hold!" Borin commanded while drawing his sword, and then dropping the blade while falling backward due to Goren's abrupt kick to his solar plexus.
"Fear not, milord," Goren assured Jesse, who along with Sarah had taken several tentative steps back to avoid any further aggravation of the volatile Rogue.
"What's going on over there?" Merfee demanded, briskly making his way toward the commotion while followed by several others, including Magnatha, Nefari, and Aqua.
"Attack!" That shout came from just outside the camp, immediately followed by the war-howls of what had to be at least a hundred Trolls.
As Goren placed the last crystal in position, a bright flash engulfed the entire camp, suddenly striking the first wave of invaders who then had only enough time for a single unified guttural screech before freezing in position as they transmogrified to stone.
A number of their comrades, who had not yet cleared the protection offered by the outlining foliage, were only partially affected by the artificial sun. Many of their number lay screeching, their bodies half in and half out of the light, flesh and fur emerging from stone, too heavy to be dragged to safety by what limbs were left them. Several among the remaining force made futile efforts to reach the injured, only to meet similar fates as their igneous clawed hands and feet met with the unforgiving light.
"The crystals will not last for long!" Goren shouted. "Everyone draw in close!"
Though yet stunned by the rapid turn of events, the order was met with no objection as everyone, Tarots, Bards, and Fighters alike, quickly assembled about the young Rogue. As the light began to fade, Goren turned the four outside crystals one half turn inward. The light then shifted, becoming a brighter refracted dome that was much smaller, but still large enough to engulf the allies.
"Everyone listen," Goren began. "As I'm sure some of you have already gathered, our attackers are Trolls.
"Obviously," Selina replied, thereby earning her a doubtful glance from Crumly.
"What you see in the clearing is but a fraction of their force in total," Goren announced with confidence.
"And how is it you know this?" Borin asked.
"Aye. That be a fine question, Goren Stelthak," Magnatha added.
"Is this more of your Prophecy mumbo-jumbo?" Merfee asked, finding himself uncomfortable with any deduction lacking the sole usage of the five senses.
"No," Goren answered quickly, ignoring the slight and trying not to allow his voice to reflect the urgency of their situation. "The Prophecy only provided that we would be attacked. It was not specific to the location, or how long after our meeting that the attack would take place. It did refer to the attackers as unclean children of shade or stone."
"Well, that explains the light crystals," Merfee confirmed, glancing briefly about the dome of light, "but it still sounds as if your information was derived from mumbo-jumbo."
"Who cares where he learned of the attack?" Nefari asked. "What's important is it worked."
"All right. What now?" Sarah asked.
"Now we must escape," Goren replied. "More importantly, the Trickster must escape," he added as said Trickster continued to squint about while attempting to see if there were any giant birds among the statues.
After a moment, with the continued aggregation of eyes now concentrating solely on him, Jesse finally turned his attention. "Uh… That's me, right?"
"In a moment, the crystals will die," Goren told them quickly. "We must prepare ourselves as best we can, for Surripere's word only provides for the preservation of Prophecy."
Upon this last revelation, Jesse, who was yet the center of attention, quite abruptly found the majority of those around him shifting from a tolerant countenance to a somewhat less than friendly appearance. There followed a short but awkward moment wherein the politic differences between outside and inside the dome of light seemed to have become slightly less distinctive.
"Until now, Lord Surripere has never taken a direct hand in the shaping of destiny," Goren continued. "These," he said while withdrawing a handful of tiny translucent crystals, "are the only known Scapegrace artifacts to have survive the ages intact."
"What are they?" Minuet asked, standing on her toes and peering over the edges of his cupped hand.
"A form of mana crystal," he said while lowering his hand to give her a better vantage.
"What do they do?" Borin asked suspiciously.
"They are similar to gate potions."
"Then we can escape!" Perdil blurted while expelling the breath he had been holding.
"Some of us, yes. Some of us… Well…" Goren half-answered ominously.
Accordingly, Perdil immediately re-held his breath, except for a small amount which escaped in the almost inaudible whine that manifested as he struggled against hysteria.
Nefari opened Goren's hand, and counted the crystals. Then she counted everyone among them. "There is exactly one crystal for everyone here," she announced.
"Not all of the crystals are true," Goren added, and then poured all the crystals into Nefari's hands. "The false crystals will leave their holders here to die, or be captured."
"How do we know which…"
"What has been written by Lord Surripere will come to pass, regardless of what actions we might take, or choices we may make," Goren replied in answer to Tuda's broken question. "So make your choices, then," he told them all. "Make your choices, and know that Fate is served.
***
Sarah turned and followed her new host to the left, through another set of swinging doors, then on through yet another long corridor.
When at a point of particularly colorful though volatile verbal exchange, this individual had conveniently interrupted her discussion with her not-so-successful interrogator, who by coincidence was wearing identical apparel. Obviously, brown was in this year.
"And here we have the infamous Lab," continued the man in the brown suit as if coming to the end of a waxworks tour. In contrast to his colleague, this gentleman proffered a more affable interaction, though his lack of direct eye contact, due primarily to his mirrored glasses, invariably left Sarah with the distinct impression that such implied anonymity was no doubt intentional. If she had not known better, which she didn't, she might have thought the men in brown were playing the old good cop/bad cop routine.
Regardless of their paint-by-the-numbers version of psychology 101, she did find communication easier now that the evil half of the brown twins had taken his partner's advice, and was now presumably on the coffee break suggested.
"As you can see, Mrs. Hoffman, the Doctor has reconsidered," he offered with a confident smile, continuing to guide her directly to the work-area Kwibee now occupied.
Sure enough, there he sat, typing furiously at a terminal, apparently unaware of anything but what he was so obviously intent upon achieving.
"What's going on, Doc?" she asked cautiously.
"At the sound of her voice, Orval glanced up. She noted several cuts and bruises about his face as he looked at her through glasses that had been broken in half, and then taped back together. He squinte
d at her through his right eye-the one she had hit-as the left was now swollen shut, evidently the result of governmental paint-by-the-numbers persuasion 101.
"What's she doing here?" Kwibee asked without inflection, and then returned his attention to the terminal. "She's an untrained civilian. All she'll do is get in my way."
"Oh, I think Mrs. Hoffman will prove invaluable, Doctor. After all, she's had first hand experience."
***
The portal's light faded as those holding the true crystals suddenly found themselves standing on a small beach, the evening tide lapping at the sand as gulls cried in search of their evening meals.
"Welcome!" shouted an enthusiastic voice from overhead. Then the gull who had issued said greeting swooped down to join them.
The small group glanced about, seeking some bearing on their surroundings. The coastline was unfamiliar to them all.
Recognizing the bird's voice, and therefore realizing that the Rabbit was now the Gull, Jesse asked, "Where exactly are we?"
"Mother? Father?" Aqua abruptly called, her distress flashing to panic as it became obvious they weren't among those to have drawn genuine gate crystals.
"Calm down, dear girl," the Gull soothed. "I assure you, your parents were not killed. In fact, of those who survived, your parents and the wolf were the only ones to escape."
"Who are you?" Ezlea asked absently while casting about as if she had lost something. "Are you an Enchanter?"
"No, milady. My name is Surripere, and I'm afraid Hobson did not make it through the gate."
"I've gated with Hobson dozens of times," Ezlea insisted angrily, and not at all comfortable that a talking bird, who wasn't an Enchanter, knew of her enchantment's name.
"Perhaps, but not through one of those gates."
"We have to go back," Aqua told Jesse, her eyes pleading. "I know my father. He won't go home. He'll try to save the others and end up caught himself."
"There's really nothing that can be done until we conclude our business in Deja first," Surripere insisted.
"And why is that?" Selina asked.
"Well, for one thing," replied the Gull, "we must complete a specific task before your crystals will function again. The task is essential if we are to free the world of the Empire's dominion."
At this, Borin's concentration immediately doubled as the Gull cocked its head, seeming almost to grin while watching his shift in expression.
"Okay, look," Jesse began with a wary expression. I realize this whole thing is most likely the result of some quack-happy M.D.'s idea of a psycho-bandage, but I never signed on for…"
"Shhh," Borin hushed him.
"But…"
"Shhh!" commanded both Selina and Ezlea.
"Survivors," Marcus said lowly. "Does that mean there were any who didn't survive?"
"All died except the wolf, Aqua's parents, the Halfling girl, and her father," replied the Gull, addressing Jesse, rather than Marcus.
Jesse couldn't understand why, but for some reason, the old crone's death was upsetting. His brow furrowed. He turned away as he found himself fighting back tears.
Ezlea quickly joined him, one arm wrapping about his shoulders while the other clasped his hand in support.
"My friends," whispered Aqua softly, her legs suddenly too weak to hold her weight as she dropped to the sand to sit in silent grief.
"Even my own Vassals," intoned the Gull lowly in reference to Goren and Crumly while staring at the sand. "I watched them both fall."
"Father," Borin whispered.
The Gull turned, and hopped onto a rock in front of Borin. "You should know that he went out as a Warrior. Professor Krue killed three Trolls before they overwhelmed him. He was sober, and his mind was clear of purpose. You would have been proud of him, Valiant."
Borin had no need to fight back tears. There were none to struggle against. He stood, maintaining his dignity, and then turned from the others to walk the beach, alone.
The adventure continues, in the fourth book of the four comprising the series. That work, entitled Rendering Nirayel: Demons Dreaming , by Nathan P. Cardwell, will soon be available at DDP.
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Rendering Nirayel - Thief's Prophecy Page 13