by Jae Vogel
Dion tested the bridge and found it would support his weight. He looked down and didn’t notice any spikes at the bottom, just a shallow stream of dirty water that flowed a few feet deep at the bottom. It was still a thirty-foot drop. He trod across the bridge with care and stayed in the middle. It moaned under his weight and he doubted the bridge could hold much more than what he weighed.
Once across the bridge, he mounted the ramp and walked up to the doors. The second before he raised his hand to pound on the door, a bolt of lightning ripped across the sky, which almost blinded him. He counted two seconds between its appearance and the sound of thunder. The noise was loud enough to deafen him. Based on the last time he timed the lighting, the storm wasn’t going anywhere. He’d left his smart phone back at the house this morning. He doubted there would be a signal in this place for a weather report.
Shivering from the wet cold, Dion pounded on the doors. No one came to answer him, so he tried the handle. Locked, just as he suspected. Whoever was inside that tower didn’t want to deal with whatever lurked in this night land. Dion waited a bit longer and pounded again. He prayed the lighting would not pick this moment to try some target practice.
This time a peephole opened up inside one of the big doors. The peephole was about five feet from the ground and no more than six by six inches. It was built for concealment and he didn’t notice the tiny door until it opened. A pair of eyes starred at him until it shut.
There were multiple sounds from the other side of the massive doors as someone unlocked them from inside the tower. Dion stepped back as he couldn’t tell which direction the doors would swing. The lighting gave him a better look at the doors, which were covered in metal and studded with spikes. Whoever built the tower knew the entrance would be a weak point if it were under attack.
The doors swung out very slow. Dion could hear a clacking as they opened. It occurred to him that the doors were too heavy to be pushed and had some kind of mechanical system to open them. He’d noticed a small stone building attached to the tower near the base and wondered if it had something to do with the door’s operation. He doubted it as the outbuilding would make the door vulnerable to an opposing force. Whoever built the tower wanted everything protected on the inside of it.
The doors took a full minute to crank open. Dion guessed this was for protection as well. You didn’t want huge doors that could be swung open quick during combat. If the doors locked in place when they opened, this gave extra protection to an adversary who tried to storm them from the ramp. Although, given the lack of any structures in the visible distance, where could anyone hide who attacked this tower?
There wasn’t much light on the inside but Dion could see a figure who held a lantern. The doors stopped their motion at the apex. Since he had nowhere else to go, Dion stepped inside and let the cold water drain from his clothes. His hair was matted down from the wind and rain. He shivered from the walk through the storm.
“Please step inside a little further so I can close the doors,” a voice said to him. Dion complied and tried to wipe the water from his face.
He thought the voice sounded feminine, but the thunder muffled his hearing. Dion couldn’t be sure how anything sounded until his sense of sound returned to normal
Dion heard the doors began to move back in place when he was clear of them. Once the doors closed, he heard the sound of locks as they snapped into place. This had to be done by something automatic since the dim figure in front of him hadn’t moved since he’d entered.
Once he managed to wipe the rain from his face and his vision adjusted to the dark room, Dion was able to see the person in front of him.
The person who’d opened the door was a woman. She was dressed in black.
Not only was her outfit, a dress which cascaded to the floor, black, but so was the woman who faced him. Dion himself was dark in complexion, but this woman was the color of a black diamond. She appeared to be in her thirties and had blood red lips. Her hair was straight and flowed down to her waist, but was unkempt. As his vision further adjusted to the room, he could see she held a short spear in the other hand. Her nails were the same brilliant red color as her lips. She was also barefoot.
“Pardon the spear,” she apologized. “But we can’t assume anyone knocking on the door is a friend. I’m Kiley Mahen. We’ve been expecting you, Dion.”
“You know my name,” he stated. Somehow, this wasn’t a surprise.
“I know a lot about you,” she told him. “The elemental grandmaster you need to find isn’t here, but she’s supposed to be back soon. The sooner the better for all our sakes. Come upstairs with me, I’ll get you some dry clothes and everything will be explained.”
Dion heard a rumble to his right and turned to look. The lamp cast long shadows in the room they were inside and Dion noticed the large boxes and crates piled around them. They were in some kind of storage area or warehouse with wooden crates piled every place. He saw all manner of tools and metal piled up in on corner. The level they were on, the ground floor, was easily two levels high to accommodate whatever they needed to bring into to the tower. The stairs to the tower where built into one side of it. He could see the doorway leading up to the next level.
“You bring people into this room?” Dion asked her. “Guests are shown the warehouse?”
“This tower was built for defense,” she told him. “It has guarded the Borgia Pass for the past thousand years. It’s only in the last hundred years the pass was at peace. We were sold the tower because no one thought there was the possibility of invasion again. Besides, air power takes out any reason for a huge fortress such as this place represents. Do you want to go upstairs and get into some dry clothes or do you prefer to stay down here and shiver?”
Dion was about to apologize when he heard the rumbling noised and turned to look again. The light had cast a beam on the bars of a cage. No, it was another entrance of some kind. The bars blocked something from entering the bottom level of the tower. This had to be the small, attached building he noted on his approach to the tower. From the bars, he could see the eyes of something very big stare at him with hunger.
“That’s Draco,” she told him. “We keep him in the former stables. Don’t need to keep teams of horses in reserve any longer since the tower doesn’t guard the pass. There is a barn out back for the ones we need. We do use the old stables to keep Draco inside when the weather is bad. Can’t let him run free in the tower, too dangerous. He has plenty of room to hunt outside when the weather is good. Keeps the deer population under control and people away.”
She held the lantern up a little bit higher and Dion could see the face of a very big adult lion that starred at them from the bars. The beast didn’t look very friendly and all Dion could see in those eyes was a big cat who considered him dinner. “Draco” growled again, the source of the rumbling noise he’d heard.
“That cage door is locked?” Dion said to her.
“Of course,” Kiley replied. “How stupid do you think we are? Draco is a wild animal. Always will be. The only reason we have him here is for protection. Now come on, don’t you want to see the rest of the tower?”
He followed her to the stairwell. His shoes made a squish every time they touched the stone steps. Water still dripped off him. The stairwell felt chilly, it was obvious the tower lacked any kind of central heating. He wanted to ask the women where they were, but Dion decided to take his time about gathering information. She’s known his name when he arrived and acted as if he was expected. Plus, she knew about the Aether Grandmaster he needed to locate.
At least the grandmaster didn’t appear to be in danger. One of the reasons for his trip to the clock tower in the mall was to rescue her and obtain full aether elemental powers. But, according to this woman, she was gone. At least for the moment.
The other thing he wanted to ask her about was….
“You uncle is upstairs too,” the woman told him, as she looked back. He red lips contrasted with the rest of her
appearance and Dion noted she had red eyes to match. Who had red eyes unless they were bloodshot? In this woman’s case, the entire cornea was red. Was she even human?
“I expected to meet my uncle on this side,” Dion remarked, “just not as quick.”
“He informed us about your arrival,” She told him. “Your uncle is an interesting man, to say the least. He seems to think his birthright was stolen from him. He also felt he could manipulate the abyss to do what he wanted. But now he’s opened a gate to it and we have to deal with the consequences. You’ll learn more when we get the great hall.”
He exited the stairwell into a smaller room. Dion looked up to see the light of the lantern vanish into the open space and realized the small room was divided by a series of partitions. The tower solved the problem of privacy by creating dividers inside each level, but this one lacked a ceiling for some reason. He stopped and let the water flow off him. Kiley opened a small cupboard door and took out some dry clothes.
“Here you go,” she said. “There’s a towel with them too. On the floor, you will find a basket. Drop your wet things into the basket. The maids will take care of them later. Put on what you find in the bundle.”
Dion took the clothes from her.
She handed him a pair of boots. “These should fit you. I’ll be outside with everyone else. When you are ready, come and see us. There are a number of people out there who want to meet you.” She opened the door on the other side of the partition and left him with his clothes.
Dion removed his dripping clothes and dropped them in the basket next to the door. After drying himself off with the towel, he unfolded the clothes she gave him. It consisted of a tunic and pair of loose hose. Since he didn’t want to violate her hospitality, Dion went ahead and put them on, followed by the boots. This was a little bit difficult since there weren’t any chairs in the vestibule. Comfort was not a big item to whoever lived in the tower. And he didn’t even know if it had a name or did they just call it “The Tower”?
He left the vestibule and shut the door behind him. Dion found himself in a large hall, which was, once again, two levels in height. Whoever built the tower wanted it to impress everyone. At one end of the hall was a large fireplace with a stack of wood, which burned and produced enough heat for the entire hall. In front of it was a long table where a group of people was seated. They turned to him when he approached.
It was that moment he recognized his parents.
Chapter 5
Dion’s mother jumped up from the table and ran to him. She wasn’t his height, but his mother could still toss her arms around him. Dion was relieved, as he now knew both of his parents were safe, something which concerned him for the past year. His father stood up and walked over to Dion too, placing his arms around both Dion and his mother.
The other person he noted at the table was his Uncle Seth. His uncle sat closer to the fire, near the three women at the head of the table. As Dion expected, he didn’t look too happy to see him. It was obvious his uncle was not in charge in this place. If anyone was in control of this tower, it had to be the three women on the other end of the table.
One of whom was the same woman that greeted him when he entered the tower.
“I was worried we’d never see you again,” his mother wept on his shoulder. “I knew you’d find us, I always knew you would make it here. Your father worried it was too much responsibility, but I knew you’d come for us.” She continued to sob.
His father removed his arms and stepped back. “As you can see,” he announced to Dion, “We are guests of the ladies who own this tower. As is your Uncle Seth.” He glared at his brother.
Dion was happy to be reunited with his parents, but he needed to know something. When he last confronted his uncle outside the shopping mall, his uncle made a claim that needed to be resolved. This might not be the best time or place to ask such questions, but he had to know for sure.
“I’m glad to see both of you too,” he told them. “But there is something I need to know.” His mother released him and stood back.
“What is so important you need to hear it from us before we get out of this place?” she asked.
Dion looked up at the great hall and thought for a few minutes. He had to word his question with care or he’d never know the truth. And he needed to know, or it would affect his ability to get them all back home. He could see a small window near him and watched the lighting illuminate the sky once again. The storm raged in the distance. He was grateful he’d found his way to the tower before it got this bad.
While the thunder boomed outside, Dion looked the great hall over. He could see several small rooms and partitions that were built into the far end of the wall. Metal pipes ran down into the rooms, which confirmed what he thought. The tower had its own plumbing system and it was protected by the walls. This had to be a recent innovation. Indoor plumbing would not be big concern to a war tower.
Banners hung down from inside the walls. The entire hall was illuminated by lamps and candles. He couldn’t see any electrical devices inside, which seemed to indicate the tower didn’t have electricity. He wondered if this particular time circle used electrical power or did the tower lack it? Surely, wiring the entire tower for power would be expensive, but so would any construction work need to make it into an estate and not a military emplacement.
“I want to know if you are my real parents,” he asked his mother and father. “Uncle Seth claimed you aren’t. I don’t expect much in the way of truth from him, but I need to know.”
His mother appeared shocked, but the look on her face told him a lot, as she lowered he head. His father put his arm protectively against the shoulders of his wife and looked at their son.
“We’re you foster parents, Dion,” he told him. “We planned to tell you when you were much older, but I see my brother has forced this issue.”
“I hate to interrupt this moment,” Seth Bach spoke from the table near the fireplace, “But we have to talk about something. In particular, the reason we are all in this place. You’ve just had your tearful family reunion and I sympathize with what you had to go through to be here, Dion.”
“In spite of the fact that it’s because of you I’m here,” Dion snapped from across the room. “You did your best to keep me from reaching the elemental grandmasters that just happened to be working in the shopping mall you owned. You had my parents abducted over a year ago and paid to have my friends snatched away too. You’ve threatened me with all kinds of things and tried to keep me away from fulfilling my quest. Now, what on earth could you have to say?”
“I think he’s a little bit angry, don’t you?” It was one of the women at the other end of the table, close to the fireplace. “Why don’t you come and sit at the table Dion. Dinner is almost ready and I’m told you like beef stew. The cooks are serving it tonight. I’m sure you’ll like their recipe.”
“Let’s go sit down,” his father said to him. Dion still thought of the two people who raised him as his real parents, even though they’d confessed to being his foster parents. Dion followed them to the table where they seated themselves between his uncle and the three women on the end.
“So what did you want to talk about?” Dion said to his uncle. “I don’t have the slightest idea where I am. I went through a door into your clock tower in the middle of the mall and emerged in two different rooms. The last one ended up across the fields. Where is this place?”
“Outside the time circle you remember,” his uncle Seth replied. “I expect you understand this after what you had to endure. Sorry about all the trouble I had to put you through to get you to the tower, but it was the only way I could accomplish it. I knew if your parents were gone, you’d do anything to get them back, including obtaining full elemental powers from the grandmasters. No, they weren’t in on my little ruse. I really didn’t think you would pull it off, but you impressed me. And now you are here to obtain the Aether Grandmaster’s accolade, but she is nowhere to be found.”
“Why did you allow her to leave?” one of the other women asked her.
“Wasn’t my place to stop her.”
Dion looked at the two women who sat next to Kiley Mahen. It took him a few minutes to realize it, but they were related. The same body types and facial structures. All were as dark as Kiley, but they were of different ages. The one who sat next to her wore the same kind of gown, but it was golden yellow. The woman to her right was dressed the same too, but she wore green.
Although Kiley appeared to be in her thirties, the women in yellow looked in her late twenties, with the remaining women in her early twenties, perhaps just eighteen. All of them possessed the intense dark complexion and red eyes. If they were the same age, the women would’ve passed for triplets.
Dion tensed as another clap of thunder boomed outside the tower.
“Don’t worry about it,” the women in yellow said to him. “Lightning rods protect this place. We’ve put them all over the tower.”
“Forgive our lack of manners,” Kiley said to him. “These are my sisters, as you probably can tell.”
“There is a slight resemblance…” Dion began to say.