“You may be right,” Klaybear added thoughtfully, “the morgle are highly intelligent; in fact, I’d bet they are more intelligent than us.”
“So are we stuck here,” Blakstar asked, “unable to move or act?”
Thal shook his head. “No,” he said, “I just need to alter the orthek and cast it on each of us instead of down this hallway, so that we will see the orthek triggers instead of the orthek triggers revealing themselves to us.”
Blakstar and Tevvy wore duplicate puzzled expressions.
“Don’t worry,” Klaybear said, “I know exactly what he means.”
The awemi and kortexi looked at each other and shrugged. Thal grinned and held up his rod again and sang, “dedo-okwum-skou-maghinam,” and continued to sing the phrase as he moved to each of his companions and touched each forehead with the tip of his rod. As soon as he finished the phrase the first time, a rainbow of colors gathered around the tip of Thal’s rod, circling it once before all joined into a single white point, glowing at the tip of the white maghi’s rod.
When the rod’s tip touched Klaybear’s forehead, he saw an explosion of multi-colored light; after his vision cleared, he looked down the hallway but saw nothing extraordinary. Tevvy turned to look at Blakstar and gasped. Klaybear smiled to himself, knowing that the kortexi was glowing brightly with a number of colored lines–green, yellow, orange and white–attached to his person and his sword, the yellow and white the thickest, and all the lines disappearing into the stone ceiling. Tevvy shielded his eyes; he turned to look at the others, his eyes widening further as Klaybear knew he was seeing similar lines attached to both Klaybear and Thal, although the kailu knew the differences: on him the green lines were thickest, while with Thal there were more colors, in fact, all the colors of the rainbow, and all equally thick, about the size of Tevvy’s arm. His eyes widened with wonder, and Klaybear smiling at him.
“You’re glowing,” Tevvy said, “and there are colored lines attached to each of you, as well as your rod, staff, and sword.”
“Look down at yourself,” Klaybear directed.
Tevvy did and gasped again, seeing what Klaybear saw, lines of colors similar to Thal’s although not as many or as thick. “Does everybody look like this?”
Thal nodded. “That is why using the orthek on one’s self is unusual,” he replied softly, “but that’s not why we are here.” He gazed down the north passageway. “There might be something down there,” he noted, then turned to look east; Klaybear and the others followed, also looking north, and then east.
“There is something powerful down this way,” Thal noted, “but what it may be we cannot tell from this distance.”
“Why are there different colored lines?” Tevvy asked.
“Each color corresponds to a particular elemental power,” Thal replied, “the three fundamental elements are earth, water, and air, and the colors corresponding to them are orange for earth, green for water, and yellow for air; beyond these three there are fire–red–and ice–blue–then light–white–Void–black–and time–purple. Since you are an awemi, most of the colored lines are orange and yellow, corresponding to the elements of earth and air from which your particular species was formed. We are wethem, formed from earth and water, so our colors are mainly orange and green.”
“But there are more than two colors on each of you and me,” Tevvy noted.
Thal smiled. “Yes,” he went on, “you see truly, for we are, also, members of particular orders that each specialize in teka that uses some forces more than others.”
“But my order doesn’t use teka . . . ,” Tevvy started to protest, then stopped when Klaybear grinned at him.
Klaybear looked at Thal. “We are going to have to have a special class with some of our fellow chosen,” Klaybear said, “to disabuse them of the notion that they do not use elemental forces.”
“But I thought my skills increased over time by constant practice,” Tevvy protested.
“That’s right,” Blakstar put in, “the more I practice swordplay, the better I become at using a sword because my physical skills increase.”
Klaybear shook his head and laughed; Thal still grinned at them both. “Blakstar,” Thal began, “I want you to take out your sword and prepare to fight as if some enemy, say, a puri, were about to attack you while Tevvy watches, then he will do the same while you watch.”
Blakstar raised an eyebrow at the maghi’s request but complied anyway. The moment he snatched will-giver from the sheath at his hip, Tevvy drew a sharp breath; Klaybear saw elemental lines attached to the sword, yellow the largest, then all the elemental lines pulsed.
Blakstar turned to look at Tevvy. “What?” the kortexi asked.
“Put your sword up and watch,” Tevvy commanded, stepping forward to the center of the intersection where Blakstar stood looking back at him; the kortexi shrugged and re-sheathed his sword, then stepped back so he could watch. Tevvy stood for a moment relaxed, then suddenly stepped forward into a defensive stance, a dagger appearing in both of his hands; Klaybear saw the orange and yellow lines pulse, but no elemental forces were attached to the mundane daggers.
Blakstar looked from Tevvy to Thal back to Tevvy again. “I see what you mean,” he admitted. He turned back to Thal; Tevvy relaxed and put both daggers away. “Why wasn’t I taught any of this?” Blakstar demanded.
Tevvy snorted; Klaybear had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing out loud.
“Have you forgotten how your colleagues treated you,” Thal asked, “when they got even a hint that you might be using teka?”
“Okay, okay,” Blakstar replied, “I get it now, but shouldn’t we be moving on here? Don’t we have a job to do, or have you forgotten?”
Thal’s eyes widened in surprise. “I am sorry,” he said after a moment’s thought, “but he did ask a question.”
“You can keep answering it while we walk,” Tevvy said, “which way?”
Three pairs of eyes looked at Klaybear, who looked first north, then east. He pointed east. “Toward the sound,” he said, “at least until we determine what it is, and what triggers might be attached.”
Tevvy nodded, then looked at the rubble-blocked south passageway. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing to the mass of orange and purple light visible with their enhanced vision; the colors flickered slightly.
Klaybear turned toward the blocked south passage.
“It looks like,” Thal began, “someone used earth and time forces to reinforce the stone blocking the passage while slowing the flow of water through the stone; weaken either force and the pressure of the water outside would burst through, flooding this whole area,” Thal finished.
Tevvy shook his head slowly, wrapping his arms around himself. “I really don’t like this,” Tevvy noted, “can we move a little faster, I mean, a lot faster?”
“That was my idea,” the kortexi added impatiently.
“I’m trying!” Thal exclaimed, “but he keeps asking questions!”
Tevvy held up his hands. “Hey, it’s my job to be curious,” he explained, “and his job is to answer questions.” He turned and stalked away, east and toward the throbbing sound.
Thal stood with his mouth hanging open; Blakstar shook his head and followed Tevvy without another word.
Klaybear held his stomach, doubled over for a moment with silent laughter. “If you could only see your own face,” Klaybear laughed.
Thal’s eyes widened more than before. “He did ask,” Thal replied weakly, “and didn’t they both deserve an explanation for what they were seeing?”
Klaybear grinned at Thal and clapped him on the shoulder. “They did indeed,” he said, and took Thal’s elbow and led him after the other two, still shaking slightly with suppressed mirth.
Klaybear noticed that the south wall of the passage pulsed with orange and purple light down its entire length, but these forces were only visible when he looked directly at the wall next to him: the forces were invisible to his enhanced vision as
he looked down the passage. As he moved east down this long passage, he could also see that the murky water beneath the grate was moving with them, eastward; the south wall, in spite of the ortheks, continued to seep water that puddled and trickled across the stone, eventually running into the trough cut into the floor.
“The water is all flowing that way,” Blakstar noted to Tevvy as they paused, the awemi checking what looked at first to be a mechanical trigger in the floor.
Tevvy looked at the water then nodded. “That’s because the pumps we hear are drawing the water out of the lowest point, which is called the sump, and putting it back into the swamp.” Tevvy shook his head and moved on, continuing to check for mechanical triggers while the throbbing sound grew louder. When they reached another intersection, mirroring the first except that the hole and grate here were larger, Klaybear saw many colored lines of force descending into the hole and the elementally driven pump that constantly drained the well of water and kept this level of the fortress from flooding. Red, green, and purple lines of force pulsed in sequence with the throbbing of the pump; the level of water in the hole lowered as the pump, like some great beast taking a drink, sucked water from the well, pushed it through hidden conduits back into the swamp, then paused while the well slowly refilled. To the south, the passage ended in rubble after only five feet; further east, the passage traveled past a door on the south wall before becoming blocked by rubble, but this door, unlike the one he had seen at the west end of this long hallway, was closed and in good repair. Looking north, he saw a sight similar to what he had seen in the west intersection: the passage was dimly lit and had evidence of elemental forces operating, with a trough cut into the floor; this trough was also covered by a metal grate.
Klaybear and Thal carefully examined the forces operating the pump, looking for any elemental trigger; Tevvy looked for anything mechanical. After a few moments, Klaybear nodded to Tevvy, and the awemi moved over the grate toward the door, which he quickly examined. He listened at the door, but shook his head and signaled the others forward. Blakstar drew his sword while Klaybear stood beside him with mace and staff held ready; Tevvy quickly opened the door. He saw a dimly lit stairway ascending, empty of anyone.
“Do we go up?” Tevvy whispered.
“If this is the dungeon level,” Klaybear replied, “we better look around for any of the captives,” he added, looking back the way they had come, “just in case the morgle does decide to flood the lower levels, and . . . ,” but he did not finish the thought, as there was no need. The others had turned back toward the east intersection; he closed the door and followed. He followed the others north up this hallway, stopping when they found a door on the west wall.
“Is that some kind of trigger?” Tevvy asked, as they stood looking at the lines of orange, green, and purple attached to the door.
Thal nodded distractedly; he was focused on the iron door.
“How do we get past them,” Blakstar asked, “without setting them off?”
Klaybear hushed them. “We leave he who is most capable of unraveling the riddle alone to discover how to solve it,” Klaybear replied softly.
Blakstar nodded; the three of them waited, watching Thal, who was mumbling to himself and pointing at the door. Klaybear signaled to Tevvy and pointed north; the awemi nodded and touched Blakstar’s arm, and the two of them moved silently north.
“Anything I can do to help?” Klaybear asked after a few slow minutes had passed, counted by the throbbing of the pumps.
“Huh?” Thal said, then his eyes focused on Klaybear. “Usually, when the force of time is involved,” Thal replied, “then one must either remove it first or last, most often first, as it tends to place the other forces into a momentary stasis so that they can be removed. In this case, if the mechanical lock is picked, then a pulse is sent to three different places: the orange is tied to the ortheks reinforcing the walls and the purple, I believe, goes back to the pumps, but the green–I am not sure what it controls.”
“Something to do with the pumps,” Klaybear suggested, “and the flow of water?”
“That may be,” Thal said, tapping his chin thoughtfully, “if so, then we should be able to . . . ,” he started to say, reaching out with his rod and touching the orange line of force then pulling it toward the door; a thicker line came out of the east wall, and this line ran north and south to which the smaller line was attached. “Take it with your staff and maintain it,” Thal went on, “and we will sever it and re-attach it to the main line.”
Klaybear reached out with the tip of his staff, touched it to the orange line of force where Thal’s rod held it. When staff and rod met, the orange force line broke, and Thal took the end he held and touched it to the thicker line; it merged with the main line. Thal nodded to Klaybear, and the kailu released the orange line; it faded out immediately.
“Now the green,” Thal said, touching his rod to the green line, pulling it down from the ceiling where, like the orange, they saw a thicker green line running north and south. Klaybear, for the second time, touched his staff to the green force line, the line broke, Thal fed his end back into the main line, and Klaybear released his end, which winked out. They did the same to the purple line, pulling the thicker, main line from the ceiling. Blakstar and Tevvy came down the passage as they were removing the purple line.
“Find anything?” Klaybear asked.
“Another intersection, hallway, and stairway,” Tevvy replied.
“You can unlock this door,” Thal noted, “it is now safe.”
Tevvy nodded once, then checked the door thoroughly for any mundane triggers. “Just in case,” he noted, by way of explanation, then he unlocked the door. He pushed the door open, and their nostrils were assailed by a stench so foul that Thal had to turn away and stuff the sleeve of his robes in his mouth to muffle the sound of his retching.
Klaybear turned to Thal, touched him with his staff and sang, “nemfakenawet.”
Thal stopped retching. He turned and smiled at Klaybear. “Where did you learn that?” he asked.
“Lidelle,” Klaybear replied. “He told me of the orthek after we met the first morgle,” he added, “thinking it might help you in the future.”
“It does,” Thal said, “as I cannot smell anything but clean, pure air.”
Klaybear followed Tevvy and Blakstar through the door, entering the main cell area of the fortress, facing a row of square cages, but there were no other sounds besides the sounds of the pumps still throbbing, coming through the doorway and passageway behind him. Tevvy grabbed him and the others, pulling them down so he could whisper.
“I’ll take Klaybear and go right,” Tevvy said, “Thal and Blakstar go left; this will enable us to search faster.”
“How do we open the locked cages,” Thal asked, “if we find anyone?”
“There has to be a guard around here somewhere,” he replied, “with the keys, which will be faster than me trying to pick every lock.”
They nodded and moved in opposite directions, not meeting until five minutes later outside the room at the center of the rows of cells.
“Find anyone?” Tevvy asked.
Blakstar shook his head. “Not even a guard,” the kortexi replied.
“We did find a way up from this area,” Thal added, “a large dumbwaiter.”
Blakstar jerked a thumb at the center room. “What’s this?” he asked.
“Torture chamber, I’d guess,” Tevvy replied.
“Anyone inside?” Thal asked.
Tevvy shrugged. “Now that you two are here,” he said, “we can find out.” He pushed open the door, and he gasped. “This is where I saw her!” he exclaimed, going into the room, dimly lit by flickering torches, but empty of anyone. He looked up to the ceiling and frowned. “No iron grate,” he noted, pointing to the ceiling. At the center of the room, Klaybear saw a low table, like a bed, with animal furs lying in a heap as if someone had pushed them aside on getting up. Tevvy moved past the table to a hole in the
floor and looked into it; he grabbed a torch from a nearby bracket to shine down the hole.
“What are you looking for?” Klaybear asked softly, coming up to stand next to the awemi, now seeing the torchlight reflected on the surface of the dark water filling the hole.
“This is where I saw Sutugno,” Tevvy replied, looking up, “on that table with a ponkolu who looked like Rokwolf, and then I saw some of the captives pouring sewage through this hole, and the way the purem were talking, they were pouring it onto Rokwolf, so I thought we might be able to see down into his cell, but that is not possible, since this is the lowest level of the fortress,” he finished, confused.
Klaybear put one hand gently on Tevvy’s shoulder. “You did mention that you thought it might have been some kind of nightmare, because of the maze into which the ponkolu sent you.”
Tevvy nodded, and Klaybear saw that his eyes were wet. “And worst of all,” Tevvy spoke in a voice that shook, “I haven’t seen a single sign of Elanor.” He threw the torch he held into the hole; it hissed and went out with a hollow splash, and he stalked out of the room.
Klaybear and Thal exchanged a look; Blakstar’s eyes followed Tevvy out of the room, and the kortexi followed him without waiting for the others. Klaybear and Thal stood for a moment looking around the room, noticing for the first time a dark patch on the floor between the two doors on the southern wall of the square room; they moved toward it and stood examining it for a moment.
“What do you make of that?” Thal asked.
“Hard to say,” Klaybear replied, “it has no definite shape, but it might be large enough for a person.”
“Larger than a person, I think,” Thal said, “and it looks like it was hot and may have caught on fire; I think the edges look burned.”
“A ponkolu?” Klaybear suggested.
Thal shrugged. “Perhaps,” he said after a moment, “or maybe someone spilled acid here, for all we know.” He moved to the door; Klaybear followed.
Klaybear found Tevvy and Blakstar waiting outside.
The Redemption, Volume 1 Page 106