by Victor Kloss
Ben threw a sausage at Charlie. “If you don't stop beating yourself up, I'm going to hit you. Now, I have another job for you, one that I think could be just as important as the final journey.”
Charlie's face changed like a flick of a switch, curiosity melting away his self-pity.
“What is it?” Charlie asked, sitting up.
“The High Council.”
Ben had given the High Council a lot of thought recently, especially after Queen Elizabeth had mentioned them just before his final test to retrieve the sword. He remembered, from what seemed like an age ago, that a wood elf by the name of Lantis, had said they were a society of twenty-four of the most powerful sorcerers, and that Queen Elizabeth had originally got her armour from them.
That meant they were powerful. Very powerful. And yet they knew almost nothing about them.
“There isn't a lot known about the High Council,” Charlie said, breaking Ben's thoughts. He had stood up, and was now pacing slowly, hands behind his back. It was like his upset with Natalie had never happened, so enraptured was he in this new puzzle.
“They must have a role to play,” Ben said. “I feel like it might be important, and I want you to find out what that role is.”
Charlie gave an enthusiastic nod. “I can do that. There are a few sections in the library I've recently been granted access to, some really old. I'm sure I can find something.”
“Good,” Ben said. “And in the meantime, you're going to help me and Josh learn how to use Elizabeth's Armour and, more importantly, stop the two of us killing each other in the process.”
— Chapter Four —
Box Dwarfs
Getting into the Institute without being noticed was more difficult than Ben anticipated. As he'd predicted, the place was a mad house, with Institute members dashing around, rushing to meetings, formulating war plans and trying to manage entire armies from their departments. Ben assumed, because of that, slipping in unnoticed would be a piece of cake. But with everything going on, he had forgotten that he had been assigned to a group of apprentices who were uncommonly good with the spellshooter. It was their duty to guard the Institute from any attacks it might receive. Though that had not yet happened, the apprentice Spellswords, led by the Spellsword Zadaya, seemed to be everywhere, and Ben had a hell of a time avoiding them.
“Dagmar has given us access to a level-three phantom room, supplied with the spells for exactly the sort of opponents you will need to master first,” Charlie said. His head bobbed with enthusiasm as he spoke, almost dislodging the books and transcripts under his right arm that he had recently accumulated.
“That's great, but how do we get inside?” Joshua said, impatiently. He was looking at the Institute entrance with some concern. “We've all got assignments; if we get caught, we're in trouble.”
“Don't worry about that,” Ben said, with a dismissive wave. “Just make sure you keep your shield hidden, as that will attract attention.”
Ben eyed up the Institute entrance one more time. He knew Zadaya currently had his team round the very back of the Institute, studying its architecture, in case any enemy tried scaling the building. They would be there an hour at least, as the Institute had many magical defences to stop people scaling it, and learning them all was no small feat.
But there were other problems. Joshua and Charlie were also both part of different teams, and they were inside. If any of those apprentices spotted them, there could be trouble. On top of which, there was always Aaron, who was probably spending the majority of his time wondering where Ben was and if he was doing something that Aaron could nail him for.
All in all, Ben thought, getting into the Institute wasn't as straightforward as usual.
“Do you seriously expect to march in and not be seen by the hundreds of members and apprentices?” Joshua asked.
“Something like that,” Ben said, with a smile.
Ben moved before Joshua or Charlie could make any further complaints.
The trick was confidence. He made a beeline for the entrance, holding Elizabeth's scabbard close to his leg, so that it wouldn't flap and cause undue attention.
It took sixty seconds to stride through the courtyard. Ben purposefully kept his eyes on the front door, ignoring the two guards who stood inspecting everyone that passed. He heard Joshua curse, but ignored him.
Ten seconds until they were in.
They'd done this a million times; why was his heart pounding so much?
Five seconds. He could see the Institute insignia clearly on the front door.
The answer was the sword. If anyone spotted that, he'd be in trouble.
With a rush of relief, he passed through; barely an Institute member or even a guard glanced his way.
“That wasn't too bad, was it?” Ben said, giving them both a grin. “Don't know what all the fuss was about.”
“We still have to get up to the Diplomacy floor,” Joshua said, eyeing the chaos around them.
Charlie was also looking anxiously about, and made a sudden movement to conceal himself behind Ben. “That's Krane Lodestone. He thinks I'm working full-time on dark elf rider patterns.”
“Let's get a move on,” Ben said.
Ben headed swiftly up the stairs, with a confidence that left no members in any doubt that he belonged there. Joshua and Charlie followed right behind, with slightly less swagger.
“Room four,” Ben said to himself.
He smiled briefly at the Spellswords passing by, but few paid him any heed, which suited him just fine. Nevertheless, he sighed with relief the moment he pulled out the key and entered the phantom room, and then locked it from the inside.
“Walking up here hasn't been so daunting since the first spellshooter test,” Charlie said, wiping his brow.
Ben surveyed the room, and was pleased to see it was one of the more equipped phantom rooms, designed for the single purpose of training apprentices against specific types of opponents, in this case, dark magic-based Unseens.
The room was a good size, with an elevated boxing ring in the centre, complete with a soft floor and ropes. On one side of the room were all sorts of weapons, from short swords to six-foot halberds. On the opposite side were rows of compartments filled with spells of each element. There was even a metallic framework complete with wooden planks, near the ceiling, to cater for simulated combat above ground.
“So, what's the plan?” Ben asked, rubbing his hands together eagerly.
Charlie put his documents down in the corner. “Realistically, I think it's going to take seven days for you to be competent enough to use your pieces of armour, if we can do at least five hours a day in here.”
“Seven days?” Joshua said. “Do we have that much time?”
“Seven days would be good going,” Charlie said sternly. “Even then, you'll have to keep practising several hours a day on your journey.”
“Seven days will be fine,” Ben assured him, though he kept his anxiety to himself. The idea that they wouldn't be ready to leave until the war was seven days old sent a shiver up his spine. “So where do we start?”
Charlie picked up an old leather-bound book, the cover of which was almost completely ruined, and expertly thumbed to the back.
“This book was written only twenty-two years after Queen Elizabeth died, by one of her healers who may have been present at key times in her life. Of course this person could be talking a load of nonsense, and just trying to sell his book, but there was some useful information in here, especially if he was that close to her.”
Ben listened with rapt attention; even Joshua appeared captivated. Charlie reminded him of a teacher, and thought again how suited he would be to the Scholar Department.
“The very first step, as you are probably aware, Ben, is to be able to hold your piece of Elizabeth's Armour comfortably, without having a heart attack.”
“Yeah, he has a problem with that,” Joshua said, with a small smile.
“I'd like to see you hold this thing,”
Ben said, tapping the scabbard. “It's like trying to hold a nuclear missile that's going off.”
“Well, you're going to have to hold it, if you want to take out Suktar,” Charlie said. “And Joshua will have to be equally comfortable defending with his shield to give you time for that killer blow. So that's where we'll start.”
“Okay,” Ben said, eyeing the scabbard and the sword warily. His hands hovered over them, and he felt the scabbard, but he was loath to put his hand on the blade, knowing full well what happened last time.
“Slow down,” Charlie said, holding a hand out, his face a picture of alarm. “You weren't thinking of drawing the sword, were you?”
“Maybe,” Ben said, a little uncertainly. “Shouldn't I be?”
“Oh no,” Charlie said, shaking his head vigorously. “You're not ready — not nearly ready.” He turned to Joshua. “That goes for you as well. Yes, you can touch it, but you can't use it. I don't want to see you interacting with your armour until I say so.”
Ben was afraid Joshua might take offence to Charlie's authoritative manner, but found to his surprise that Joshua instead gave a small smile.
Charlie turned back to his small leather book, and started trailing a finger through it. “The sword and the shield differ from the other pieces of armour in several ways: they posses higher levels of magic, they are harder to control and they respond differently.” Charlie looked up at both of them. “But, according to this book, there is one difference more important than all the others.”
“And that is?”
“They have a low-level sentience.”
Ben frowned. “You mean they are alive? They can think?”
“According to this book, yes,” Charlie said. “Of course, this book could all be absolute nonsense, in which case I'll promptly hack the thing to pieces and throw it in the bin. But I'm going to operate on the basis that it's somewhat accurate. It gives us a good starting point.”
“And what starting point is that?” Joshua asked, now looking at Charlie with genuine curiosity.
“We need to get you able to communicate, eventually telepathically, to a low-level consciousness,” Charlie said.
“I was just about to say the same thing,” Ben said, looking slightly bemused and running a hand through his hair. “I assume you have some sort of plan?”
“Much like you always do,” Charlie said, grinning. “The plan is box dwarves.”
“Box dwarves?”
Joshua frowned. “Are we talking about literally getting dwarves in the ring and going for a round of boxing, or something else?”
“Something else,” Charlie said. “Box dwarves have the honour of being one of the least intelligent races in the Unseen Kingdoms. I would put them just ahead of the monkey.”
“That's strange. Dwarves aren't normally that dumb,” Ben said.
“These are an anomaly,” Charlie said. “You'll see what I mean when I summon them.”
“So what are we supposed to do, fight them?” Joshua asked, glancing at one of the many weapons on the shelves.
“You can choose a weapon for self-defence, but that's not the point, and frankly, I doubt they could hurt you if they tried,” Charlie said. “Your job is to get inside their head and communicate to them. Ultimately, you should be able to command the box dwarves around the ring. Gaining that ability is the first step you'll need to being able to master your pieces of armour.”
“Makes sense.” Ben nodded. “Let's try it.”
Both Joshua and Ben grabbed a short sword, ducked beneath the ropes and hopped into the boxing ring. Charlie went over to the shelves full of spells and picked out a blue one, before inserting it into his spellshooter.
“I'm going to cast just one at first,” Charlie said. “He may or may not have a weapon, but even if he comes fully suited with plate mail and sword, I doubt he'd be able to touch you, so don't worry about getting hurt.”
Ben had questions, but before he had the chance to voice them, Charlie raised his spellshooter and fired into the centre of the boxing ring. The spell hit the floor with a soft puff of smoke, which rapidly rose, until Ben could make out a short stubby form. Within moments, it had solidified, leaving a small, rather rotund dwarf staring stupidly into space, clearly wondering what he was doing here. Ben immediately realised why Charlie had referred to the box dwarf as one of the least intelligent races in the Unseen Kingdoms. His eyes were dull and his mouth was half-open, threatening to drool some peculiar-coloured saliva onto the floor. He kept blinking, as if trying to register the environment he was in. It took him several moments to realise that he bore a club, with a knobbly end, and several more to spot Ben and Joshua.
Slowly, the dwarf moved forwards towards Joshua.
Joshua instinctively raised his sword. He didn't look scared exactly, but he was frowning with concern. “What do I do?”
“Don't kill it, for starters,” Charlie said. “That would defeat the whole purpose. We're supposed to be practising with it.”
The box dwarf eventually reached Joshua and swung his club, almost in slow motion. Joshua blocked it with ease and then moved back into the centre. The box dwarf turned slowly, like a truck with a particularly poor turning circle.
“Okay, Ben, your first objective is to make it stop,” Charlie said. “Joshua, you let it keep on following you around, while you, Ben, try to communicate with it telepathically.”
“That's not really my strong point,” Ben admitted.
“Just direct your attention on the dwarf and infuse your thoughts into it,” Charlie said, now sifting through another book. “A lot of it is about willpower and intention, which you're exceptionally good at.”
Ben nodded. With Joshua the subject of the box dwarf's interest, focusing was a lot easier. He thought about the countless times he'd commanded his spellshooter, sometimes firing spells that required huge amounts of willpower, focus and vision. Surely this couldn't be more difficult than that? But he'd never reached inside someone's head before.
Ben went for the spellshooter routine; he was familiar with it and it felt less awkward. He focused on the box dwarf, who was currently taking a clumsy swipe at Joshua. Ben envisioned the dwarf stopping and, with a thought that harboured no reservation, sent it right at the box dwarf.
Nothing happened.
“Did you even send the communication?” Joshua asked.
“Course I did. But clearly it didn't get through the dwarf's thick skull.”
“Granted, its skull does look thick,” Joshua admitted, with a small smile.
“Try again,” Charlie said, undeterred. “It may take several goes for it to truly impinge.”
Ben tried again. Nothing, not even a flinch. Several more attempts yielded similar results. He clenched his fists, and tried ramming the thought down the dwarf's throat.
“Don't do that!” Charlie said, noticing Ben's tensed expression. “It's just like the spellshooter; if you let anger get in the way, it will never work.”
“With or without anger it's not working,” Ben said. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes,” Charlie said, emphatically. “Just keep trying. It's like anything: it takes practice. You can't just expect to get it first go.”
“No, Ben normally takes at least two or three goes before he gets it, don't you, Ben?” Joshua said.
Ben wasn't sure if that was a compliment or a thinly barbed insult, but he ignored it, and re-doubled his efforts.
Ben spent a moment collecting himself. This shouldn't be that difficult, he thought. He took a deep breath, cleared his mind, and then sent another thought — this one much softer, cleaner, but with just as much intention. It was a simple order to get the box dwarf moving.
“There you go!” Charlie said, with a clap of the hands and a pump of the fist.
Ben grinned with delight. The box dwarf hesitated for about five seconds before resuming his amble towards Joshua.
It took Ben several more attempts to repeat the feat, and he soon noticed the da
mpness on his forehead. But after almost an hour of toiling, he was able to start and stop the box dwarf at will.
“Good!” Charlie said, looking so pleased it made one wonder if he had achieved the feat himself. “Now we switch. Joshua, you're up.”
Joshua attacked the task with a resolute determination, as if his primary goal was to finish it before Ben had. Time and again he focused on the box dwarf, willing it to stop moving. However, Ben had the advantage of greater experience and aptitude in firing the spellshooter, which wasn't hugely different from stopping the dwarf. Joshua was still trying to get the dwarf to stop by the time Ben had been able to hold it still for a good ten seconds.
“I think you broke the dwarf,” Joshua said, giving Ben an accusing glance.
Ben gave a shrug and a smile, but resisted the urge to reply.
“Summon another one,” Joshua said, turning his attention to Charlie.
“I really don't think that's the issue here.”
“It might be,” Joshua said, stubbornly. “And it can't hurt, can it?”
Charlie gave an exaggerated sigh. He shot at the box dwarf, who promptly disappeared in a flash of red smoke, and then fired another one. It looked identical to the last, and in wonderful slow motion headed towards Ben, club raised.
Ben could see Joshua firing a thought at it as soon as it had formed.
If anything, the dwarf sped up a little.
“What am I doing wrong?” Joshua said, raising his arms, and looking at Charlie with exasperation.
Charlie raised a hand. “First of all, you're losing your cool. You're not going to move a pebble like that. Take a break for five minutes.”
Joshua paced around the ring, looking up at Charlie every thirty seconds to check whether five minutes had elapsed.
“We're going to wait here all day until you calm down,” Charlie said. “Stop pacing, and just relax.”
Joshua gave Charlie an accusing frown. With some effort, he stopped pacing, and attempted several more deep breaths. To Ben's surprise, he kept at it until the frustrated frown left his face, revealing a calmness that he hadn't shown since he had first attempted to stop the dwarf.