Blood of the Earth

by David A. Wells

  There was a box of six gold rings, each of which allowed the wearer access to the magical protections and capabilities of the Reishi Keep, much the same as the rings Alexander had found in Blackstone Keep.

  One of the more useful items was a flagon that poured an endless stream of clean water.

  But of all the treasures contained within the Wizard’s Den, none compared to the small stone box filled to the brim with Wizard’s Dust, enough to create dozens of wizards, enough for several mage fasts, enough to tip the balance of power in Alexander’s favor.

  Once he had thoroughly grilled Malachi, he turned to the other sovereigns for advice.

  “Balthazar, what can you tell me about the Wizard’s Den?” Alexander asked.

  “It can be opened by you and you alone, and then only when you hold or wear the Stone,” Balthazar said. “I added that feature to ensure that you couldn’t close the door while the Stone was inside unless you were inside as well. Within the Wizard’s Den with the door closed, you are in a world all your own. Nothing outside can reach you; conversely, nothing within can reach outside. Your clairvoyance will not work beyond the walls of the Den as long as the door remains closed. Time does not pass within the Wizard’s Den unless there is a living being inside. If you put someone in the Wizard’s Den and close the door, they will experience the flow of time as the rest of the world does, but if there are no living beings inside the Den, then time does not pass. Hence, you can leave a plate of steaming hot food on your table, close the door and return days later to find the plate of food still hot and fresh.

  “I added the balcony and endless fog for a very specific reason. Some items of magic cannot be destroyed without prohibitively dangerous consequences. The fog exists to give you a place to dispose of such items that is quite beyond anyone’s reach. Simply toss the item over the balcony railing and it will fall through the fog for all time; but be certain, because once you cast an item into the fog, it’s lost forever.

  “The room will remain at a comfortable temperature regardless of conditions outside, provided the door is closed. I added the hearth because fire sooths me and I occasionally like it warmer. As for light, you have no doubt noticed the glowing stones in the ceiling. They are controlled by your will, providing a range of illumination from sunlight bright to total darkness. The fog provides ambient light as well but the door to the balcony will close out any light from beyond if you want total darkness.

  “Of all the powers conferred by the Sovereign Stone, the Wizard’s Den is one of the most helpful. There are countless uses for such a place and it has served us all well during our service to the Seven Isles.”

  “Thank you, Balthazar,” Alexander said.

  Then he proceeded to detail everything that had happened since he last spoke with the council. He told them how he had defeated Shivini and the price he’d paid. He told them about the campaign he was waging against Zuhl’s forces on Fellenden and about the invasion of Ruatha by yet more Andalian Lancers. He told them about his journey to the Reishi Isle and his dreams with Rentu. Finally, he told him about the Nether Gate and the vitalwood tree. They listened with interest, absorbing the details and integrating them into their understanding of the state of the world.

  “Your move against Zuhl is wise and correct,” Balthazar said. “If he’s permitted to build a fleet, he will dominate the world through sheer numbers. Your effort to secure one of the keystones of the Nether Gate is also vitally important, though I fear Phane is ahead of you on that score. Securing the nectar of the vitalwood tree is an excellent first step toward defeating Phane’s hold on Isabel. What is your next move?”

  “I intend to return to Blackstone Keep and clear out the Wizard’s Den, have the wizards examine and study everything we find, and refurnish the Den with items that I know won’t try to kill me.”

  “A wise precaution,” Balthazar said. “You might suggest to the Guild Mage that he adapt one or more of the banishing spells into enchantment spells so that he can empower weapons to destroy creatures from the netherworld. In that way you can arm yourself directly without having to rely on another wizard to cast a banishing spell for you.”

  “I hadn’t considered that,” Alexander said. “I’ll definitely suggest it. Also, I plan to ask Kelvin to take the mage’s fast with some of the Wizard’s Dust we found. I’ll need any suggestions you can offer for improving his chances of success.”

  “Of course,” Balthazar said. “Although, I must caution you, properly preparing for the mage’s fast is a lengthy process. It will take some time and I suspect the heartstone of the Keep will fail before he’s ready to enchant another.”

  “I know, but there’s nothing else I can do about it,” Alexander said.

  “I suggest you bring the bridge into the world of time and substance before the Keep’s magic fails completely or else your people will be trapped,” Balthazar said.

  “You’re probably right,” Alexander said.

  “Have you given any thought to securing the keystone on Tyr?” Constantine asked. “The Nether Gate is still the greatest threat you face.”

  Alexander nodded. “Once I’m done at Blackstone, I’m headed for Tyr. I’m hoping that I can reason with the dragon Bragador. If not, things might get more complicated.”

  “Indeed,” Balthazar said. “I would not advise a direct confrontation, especially with her brood nearby. Dragons are exceedingly powerful, especially those that have lived for several centuries. Fortunately, they’re also quite intelligent and not beyond reason. If you can convince her of the danger the Nether Gate poses, she might agree to allow you to cast the keystone into the endless fog of the Wizard’s Den to permanently eliminate the threat. Although, I expect she will demand a price and probably a costly one.”

  “I’ll pay it,” Alexander said. “I have to. One last thing, I might know where the last keystone is. Apparently, Carlyle Fellenden was given an item at the end of the war by Barnabas Cedric. A small box. Could a container be enchanted to prevent divination spells from locating its contents?”

  Balthazar nodded. “Yes, of course. If Mage Cedric was unable to destroy the keystone, he would probably have sought to hide it from the world. Such a device could also be keyed to a specific bloodline, much the way the Thinblades are.”

  “So only someone from the Fellenden line could open it?”

  “I’m speculating, but that’s what I would have done,” Balthazar said.

  “Thank you, gentlemen,” Alexander said.

  With that, he walked away from the table and opened his eyes to find his friends resting quietly while they waited for the chaos outside the Wizard’s Den to subside. Chloe smiled at him and flew up to eye level.

  “Were they helpful?” Chloe asked.

  “Yes, very much so,” Alexander said. “There are a number of things over there,” he gestured toward the desk and bookshelves, “that are deadly in the extreme. I think we’ll wait until the wizards can help us before we start going through Malachi’s stuff. There are also a number of things that will help us greatly, maybe even tip the balance of this war in our favor.”

  Chapter 30

  Before Alexander opened the door to the Wizard’s Den, he and his friends lined up against the inside wall to either side of the door to protect themselves against the effects of Selaphiel’s power. They’d spent several hours resting and waiting until Chloe believed it would be safe.

  Alexander braced himself and willed the door to open. With a popping noise, the stylized archway opened to reveal a calm and quiet grotto.

  Isabel’s scream shattered the still air and sent a thrill of fear racing through Alexander. He whirled to see her slump to her knees with her hands on either side of her head as if she was trying to keep it from flying apart. He knelt before her, helpless and terrified.

  Jaws clenched, eyes shut against the world, breathing deliberately through her nose, Isabel struggled to overcome Azugorath’s tendrils as they once again bored into her soul. After several
moments of struggle, she relaxed and staggered to her feet with Alexander’s help.

  “The darkness is back,” she said weakly as she put her head against his chest and wept.

  He held her tenderly as quiet tears streamed down his cheeks. He wanted to tell her that everything was going to be all right, he wanted to banish the darkness within her, he wanted to strike out at Phane for doing this to his love … but he was powerless. So he just held her. She cried for several minutes before mastering her emotions and scrubbing the tears from her face.

  “Is there anything I can do?” Alexander whispered.

  “You’re doing it,” she said. “I’m all right now. I just wasn’t expecting the darkness to come rushing in so quickly or so forcefully. It’s like it was waiting for me and I wasn’t ready for it.”

  “Are you sure you want to go with us?” Alexander asked. “You could stay in the Wizard’s Den while we travel.”

  She shook her head. “Every time you open the door, it’s going to be like this. I’m better off keeping my mental defenses up against it than hiding from it. It’s a constant struggle, but I can manage to keep it at bay, for now anyway.”

  Alexander closed his blind eyes in an effort to shut out a reality that he didn’t want to face. He was losing Isabel to Phane’s vengeance.

  Panic and despair threatened to overpower reason.

  With an effort of will, he shifted his focus from the problem to the solution. He had succeeded in obtaining the vitalwood nectar he needed for the potion that would heal her. The last ingredient was blood of the earth. Once he had that, she would be saved. As he focused on that thought, a renewed sense of urgency began to build within him. He wished he could tell her about it, but the sovereigns’ warning had been emphatic—no one could know about the blood of the earth.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  She nodded with a weak smile.

  He cautiously stepped out into the world from his Wizard’s Den and surveyed the scene. The vitalwood tree was completely enclosed in a shimmering sphere of magical force. The leaves didn’t flutter and the boughs didn’t sway in the gentle breeze whirling around the deep mountain valley.

  Within the sphere of force that Selaphiel had wrought, time ceased to pass, shielding the tree from any who would do it harm and depriving the world of time and substance of its vital essence.

  The lake was almost gone, the water having been sucked up into the vortex. The stone shelf they stood on was scoured clean of sand. Even the small stones that had littered the surface were gone, leaving the shelf bare as if it had been meticulously cleaned.

  There was no sign of the smoke demon that Malachi Reishi had left within the Wizard’s Den for his wayward son, no sign of Selaphiel who had stood guard over the vitalwood tree for millennia, and no sign of Jinzeri or his host.

  “Do you think Selaphiel’s rift banished Jinzeri?” Alexander asked Chloe as she orbited his head.

  “Almost certainly, My Love. Creatures of the light or the dark can’t long resist the pull of a rift in the world. When it opened, Jinzeri was too close to escape.”

  “What about Truss?” Isabel asked.

  “That is harder to know,” Chloe said. “Jinzeri may have been pulled from him before he was drawn bodily into the rift. Otherwise, he is lost forever as well.”

  “If Truss is still out there, I suspect he’ll be looking for a way to cause us problems,” Alexander said. “Let’s stay alert on our way out.”

  Jack pointed to the muddy slope of the island that had just hours before been submerged and said, “What’s that?”

  Alexander sent his all around sight to the place where Jack was pointing. There, stuck in the mud, was a branch from the vitalwood tree.

  “That’s something worth taking with us,” Alexander said. With help from Hector and Horace, he climbed down to the water and waded across to the lake. The branch was about seven feet long and six inches thick. Alexander could see the powerful colors of the wood as he wiped the mud from it. He put it in the Wizard’s Den before wading back across the lake and climbing up to the stone shelf. After he changed into dry clothes, they set out.

  By an unspoken agreement, Hector took the lead and Horace brought up the rear. The group slipped back through the crack in the wall, moving slowly through the dark of the caverns by the light of their night-wisp dust, always wary of the glow worms and always alert for the passage or presence of Rexius Truss.

  When they reached the chamber that held the Nether Gate, Hector knelt to examine the ground.

  “This is odd,” he said. “A set of tracks leads into this chamber but then the same set leads right back out.”

  Alexander chuckled, motioning toward the stone wall conjured by the dead wizard. “Looks like Truss is alive … and trapped,” he said. “Let’s make sure he never gets out of this place.”

  “That is a terrible way to die, My Love,” Chloe said.

  “I know,” Alexander said with a sigh, “but the important part is that he dies. Truss is a surprisingly resilient little weasel and there’s no telling what his experience with Jinzeri has taught him. He may know things that we can’t allow Phane to learn. Besides, I still owe him for abducting Isabel.”

  Chloe came to a stop in her orbit around his head, floating several feet in front of his face.

  “This man stole Isabel from you?” she asked.

  Alexander nodded. “I got her back from him, though, and put an arrow through his shoulder in the bargain.”

  “He sounds like a very bad man, My Love.”

  “He is, Little One. If we had the time, I’d hunt him down and finish him myself, but we have more pressing concerns right now.”

  She nodded and flew to the stone wall, buzzing into a ball of light and vanishing into the aether, taking the wall with her. Once they filed past, she returned to the world of time and substance, returning the wall with her and sealing the chamber below, trapping Rexius Truss alone in the dark with nothing but the Nether Gate and glow worms to keep him company.

  “Jack, can you draw a map of the route we took to get here?” Alexander asked.

  “Of course,” Jack said, taking his tablet from a pocket. “How much detail would you like?”

  “Enough to guide some soldiers back here safely,” Alexander said. “Make sure to note the traps we found.”

  “Not a problem,” Jack said as he started drawing.

  They retraced their path to the entrance of the hidden fortress, stopping occasionally to allow Jack to add the most recent passages to his map, and carefully peered out into the meadow beyond. Isabel tipped her head back and linked her mind with Slyder, who had been waiting for them in the treetops.

  “I don’t see the beast anywhere,” Isabel said, “but Rentu and about twenty of his men are camped on a high stone shelf on the other side of the meadow and they have three pairs of scouts watching the fortress entrance. If they haven’t seen us already, they will the moment we step out into the light.”

  “Then let’s give them what they expect,” Alexander said. “Little One, I need you to follow the illusion I’m going to project and let me see through your eyes so I can maintain it long enough to lure Rentu away from here. I guess we’ll find out the range of Mindbender’s magic.”

  “Of course, My Love,” Chloe said before buzzing into a ball of light and vanishing into the aether.

  Alexander grasped the hilt of his sword and focused his mind. The world narrowed down to the moment—he was in a fight and he had a sword in his hand. Everything else faded away.

  He visualized images of himself and his friends running from the entrance of the ancient fortress across the meadow. It was a bit disorienting at first, seeing himself through Chloe’s eyes while she followed his illusion, but within a few moments that too faded into the background.

  Rentu’s scouts called out an alarm, and the hunting party started clambering down from their perch atop the stone shelf. Alexander’s illusion reached the edge of the meadow and e
ntered a ravine that led in the opposite direction of where he really needed to go. He found that the range of his illusion magic didn’t seem to matter, as long as he could see what he was doing. The possibilities were nearly distracting enough to make him lose his focus on the task at hand.

  Within a few minutes, the clearing was empty and Alexander was leading his pursuers away into the forest. He maintained the illusion for almost ten minutes to ensure that Rentu and his men would be far enough away that Alexander and his friends could escape and gain a significant lead.

  Through Chloe’s eyes, he saw a small cave entrance in the side of a rocky outcropping and sent his illusion into the cave, waiting just long enough for the lead men in Rentu’s hunting party to see them enter.

  “That ought to do it,” he said, drawing his awareness back from Chloe and asking her to return to him. “We should have a good twenty minutes head start.”

  They left the cave quickly, looking this way and that for any sign of a scout left behind just in case, but saw nothing save the wild mountains. Within an hour, they were making headway through the dense forest, traveling in the general direction of the Reishi Keep.

  Slyder flew from treetop to treetop keeping watch for the hunting party, but Isabel reported that they were well behind and still confused by the ruse. Alexander had gained them the time they needed to avoid a confrontation.

  They traveled as quickly as they could through the forest of the untamed Reishi Isle, occasionally coming upon a predator, but most were natural creatures, easily commanded by Isabel’s magic. The darker creatures that inhabited the island were mostly absent from this area, probably due to the presence of the beast.