by Blink, Bob
“It is difficult,” Rigo acknowledged. He felt a bit of a thrill. He had already learned something. The woman might be lying, but something in her manner suggested otherwise. If these people didn’t know how to cross the Ruins then the Three Kingdoms were safe from them, and they weren’t the force behind the Hoplani.
“We were surprised to find the little patch of protected lands in the harshness of the Wastelands where we arrested your friends. Are such places common and is that how you make your way across the desert?”
“You must already know the answer. You have the journal that Ash’urn was keeping.”
“Ash’urn,” she said, savoring the unusual name. “That is the older gentleman? Yes, we have his books, but we cannot read the language.”
“Sketches usually don’t require much reading,” Rigo replied bluntly.
“How do you cross over the infected zones to these patches of normalcy?” she asked, ignoring his comment.
“I’ve seen that you know how to make Bypass portals. Those easily will take you between those locations you know of. Of course, if you don’t know of them, then you have a problem.”
“Yes, we can make the Doorways, but you and I both know that at some point the way is blocked by the Ruins. The magic of the Doorways no longer works.”
So, they’ve been exploring, Rigo realized. Somehow they have been able to go out into the Ruins and visit some of the places we’ve been. That’s how they caught Ash’urn and Orna, and it sounds like they have gone all the way to the oasis where a staff is required to go onward. How did they obtain the knowledge of the locations? It had to be from the Reading they talk about that was applied to Orna. They were able to extract the locations from her in such a way they could use them. That is something we could not do at home, which suggests they have abilities we do not.
“You killed my companion to obtain the images that have allowed you to visit the Ruins,” Rigo accused her.
“Your friend should not have died,” Carif lied. She would have died from the degree at which they were probing her mind, but she should have lived longer to yield up more valuable information. “Her mind was resistant, and the strain killed her.”
Rigo slumped in his chair. He had known that Orna was dead, but to have it confirmed made it more real. “Someone will pay for her death,” Rigo warned impotently.
Carif waved her hand dismissively. “You are in no position to do anything.” She examined him for a moment, then asked as she carefully watched for his reaction. “Are the staffs required to pass through the blocked zones?”
“Staffs?” Rigo asked, doing his best to feign ignorance.
“We found two staffs during our explorations,” the woman told him. “Both were badly damaged, but I cannot help but wonder if they were somehow key to your travels.”
“You found our walking sticks,” Rigo replied. “They are of no value.”
Carif shook her head. “I am not so certain. I have my people looking into them. Perhaps they will reveal their secrets. Perhaps you will under the right stimulus,” she said pointedly.
“Good luck,” Rigo said. “There is nothing useful I can tell you about the staffs under any conditions.” He hoped he looked unconcerned, but this was an area he didn’t want her to pursue. He didn’t know how the staffs worked, but he had some ideas that they might be able to capitalize on if their abilities were more advanced than those of his friends.
Rigo wasn’t entirely pleased she dropped the matter as easily as she did. That suggested to him that she had every intention of pursuing it later, perhaps under conditions where Rigo wouldn’t have as much ability to resist her inquiries.
“What about the Chulls and the Durvin?” Carif asked as she danced between topics. She already was certain about this, but wished to see how the foreigner answered.
“Chulls? Durvin?”
“The wild beasts that roam the Wastelands,” Carif explained impatiently. “The images from your friend shows huge caverns filled with the beasts. They also show you riding upon them through the desert. Do you control them? Are you responsible for them attacking Sedfair?”
A further suggestion these people do not control the Hoplani and are at their mercy. Rigo was learning more than he could have hoped.
“They attack my country as well,” he replied. He could see where this might be a common ground and could see no reason to conceal it. He needed something they might have in common, and if the Hoplani offered that common ground, so much the better.
“I suspected they did,” Carif replied. “The images showed battles with the creatures and a large barrier of some kind that attempts to hold them back. I would like to know more about that barrier.”
“That has been our most effective defense,” Rigo said. “I know a little, but I would need to have others from my land to show you how to build it.” The lie came easily, and he thought she might believe him.
“What about the Baldari?” she asked next.
“What is a Baldari?” Rigo asked. “Another creature?”
“The Baldari are a race of small dark skinned men. They have been prone to attack our western border. They are quite fierce. Do you know of them?”
Rigo could think of no reason to lie, nor a way he could do so without this woman seeing through it easily. “I have never heard of the Baldari,” he said truthfully.
Carif examined him carefully. “I believe you are telling the truth part of the time. It is very important to separate the truths from the fiction. I must also know how you crossed the Wastelands.”
“It sounds like you have tried and failed,” Rigo said smugly. “Unfortunately for you, there is no way I can show you how to cross. We are unable to return, and so there is nothing we can reveal that would help you.”
“I am certain it relates to your staff,” Carif said. “You will tell me . . .”
“I cannot tell you what I don’t know,” Rigo said interrupting her.
“The magic you control is unique and powerful,” Carif said, revealing she knew more about him than he liked. “But you have seen that the bands have stripped it from you, and as long as you are under my control, you will wear the bands. That means any man better armed or physically stronger will be able to force you to his will. That is something you must accept. You must also accept that those people answer to me and will do whatever I demand.”
“That makes you very powerful,” Rigo noted.
“Yes. Yes, it does. It means I can use whatever means needed to extract information from you. You should consider that carefully.”
Rigo felt a touch of doubt inside. She could do as she claimed, and he was not certain he could conceal everything he did not wish her to learn. It wasn’t clear if his knowledge would help her, but he didn’t wish to risk it.
“I can’t give you what I don’t know,” he said again.
“We will see if that is the case. Perhaps I should have your friend, the older one, brought in and torn slowly limb from limb. You could watch and listen to his screams. As you do so, you can consider what you wish to tell me. If that fails, well, there is also the Reading. You wouldn’t survive that, but I might learn what I want to know.”
“You would learn nothing,” Rigo said positively, but inside he wasn’t so sure.
“We will see. I will give you two days back with your friends. If you have not elected to be forthcoming, then we will proceed as I have outlined.”
Rigo wished he could tap his power for just a moment. He’d burn this woman from existence. He wondered if his staff would have been able to overcome the blocking bands. It had always had the ability to appear when needed and overcome almost anything. It didn’t matter. The staff was damaged beyond hope. He’d tried to call it to him anyway, but for the first time it hadn’t come. He was certain this woman controlled the local version of magic, but at the moment she didn’t carry one of the staffs, and from what he had seen that made her vulnerable. Sadly, he couldn’t take advantage of her weakness.
&nb
sp; “Take him back,” she said and stood, turned, and left the room.
Rigo exhaled slowly. He had survived, for the moment. He had also learned several important things. But now they had a clock to beat. In a couple of days, Ash’urn was at risk, and himself if he allowed his friend to die without giving in to Carif’s demands. Rigo had no idea what they could do about it, but they had to find a solution soon.
Chapter 42
The Island
Northeastern Sedfair
Lyes hadn’t seen his brothers Stev and Ruch in more than two years. They had come to the island less than half a season after he had joined the University, and they hadn’t been back to Nals since. He had made the one trip up here, the long hard way one summer break, but this was the first time he’d been here since then. Only twice since the island had been set aside for the secret community had a Doorway been made to the place, and that had been a long time before. Lyes arrival by such magic indicated the Queen’s concern about events and her desire to have the people here informed.
“You’re here to stay?” Stev asked. Like Lyes he had the thick brown hair similar to their father. He was just a finger width taller, but was noticeably wider and stronger. Their other brother, Ruch beat them both on that account. Like Lyes, Stev had demonstrated ability with the inherent magic at an early age, starting their campfire without resorting to the usual glyphs as did everyone else. Two years younger than Lyes, he had yet to show the ability to create a Doorway, but there were hopes that he would do so, increasing the groups flexibility. Ruch had none of the inherent magic, but like everyone here he studied the symbolic magic as taught by a former student of the University who had not been chosen to join the Guild itself.
Lyes nodded solemnly. “My involvement in recent events will easily be discovered. The Guild will be looking for me. I had to disappear. They would have questioned me, perhaps performing a Reading to see who I am aligned with. We couldn’t risk that.”
Stev pointed. “I see you carry the staff now,” he said.
“Not from the Guild. The Queen herself gave this to me. She said I need to be able to function quickly and that staff will aid me in doing so.”
“Can you use it?” Ruch asked.
“Not everything, of course. But there are a number of spells that I have already learned to use. People don’t understand the complexity built into the staffs. The basic spells are present, but the skillful user is able to modify the form the magic takes by adjustments to the triggering phase. That makes it very tricky and takes a lot of training. It is something taught in the final year which I will now be missing.”
“The spells don’t require the Caster to create them?” Ruchs asked. “I thought that was the case for all complex spells.”
Stev was shaking his head. He was more knowledgeable than his brother. “There is a class of spells that anyone who knows the proper trigger can use, regardless who created them. Sort of like the spells for heating and making fire, except each of these has a unique activator. Those are what are normally etched into the staffs. Fortunately, most of the basic combat spells fall into that category. As Lyes was explaining, they can be customized with training.”
“Look here,” Lyes said, and rotated the staff. One third of the staff was smooth wood, unmarked with any symbols. “The staffs generally come with space left for the owner to add his own spells for those that require Castor creation, or simply to tailor the staff for more specific applications. It takes a careful hand, and I’ve not thought about what I should add.”
“So each staff is unique?” Ruchs said.
“They don’t start out that way, but over time each user typically modifies his staff. We were taught that several starting configurations are available, and that a few of the top Casters, like the Saltique and some of her senior people, sometimes create the entire staff on their own. Even the general spells that come on the starter staffs are more powerful if the Caster etches the symbols into the shaft personally.”
“Where did the Queen get a power staff?” Stev asked. “None of the royalty have ever had skill with Magic as far as I recall.”
“It’s apparently an honorary thing,” Lyes replied. “When crowned, the Queen is presented a staff by the head of the Guild, signifying she is officially part of the community, and that she has a leadership role over the members. Some of the monarchs take their staffs with them when they retire, others forget about them and leave them in the royal stores. Others are still there because the Queen dies while serving. Queen Rosul told me there were almost a dozen of the staffs at the castle, essentially forgotten about over the centuries it took to accumulate them.”
“Let’s get you settled in,” Stev said, “and then you will need to greet the Elders.”
“Elders first,” Lyes said. “I will be here for a while. I can sleep in guest quarters tonight and get settled later. The news I carry is too important to delay.”
“What has happened?” Ruchs asked, surprised by his brother’s urgency.
“You can listen in. I wish to tell this as few times as possible.”
The brothers started across the island, heading away from the beach where Lyes had arrived. He hadn’t known how much the place had changed since his last visit and had chosen to exit his Doorway near where passengers were brought ashore when transported here by ship. There was no formal dock. That would have revealed that the island was used. Instead, passengers were offloaded from the ships into much smaller boats, which could pass between the thick trees that bordered the island and follow up one of the small inlets to a secluded beach where they disembarked. From there it was a short walk into the center of the island where the structures had been built in a small bowl. The combination of the thick foliage and the bowl surrounded by small hills effectively hid the community from passing vessels, of which there were very few in this part of the country. As one of hundreds of small islands along the coast, it would take a determined searcher a very long time to discover that this one was occupied.
Nearly three hundred lived on the island at the moment, of which just over a hundred and twenty were gifted, the rest being family members who had come along. Water and cultivated items were not a problem, the island being large enough to meet their needs, and some fishing was possible in the interior lagoon, but game was limited. As a result, the Queen’s family at the estate made arrangements to periodically provide shipments of the missing items out to the island under the cover of darkness. The approach wasn’t without some risk, but it had worked well enough for many years. With Lyes present, they would be able to make a Doorway to distant locations and bring in the needed items without needing to rely on local supply as they had been doing. There would normally be no one out here to detect any Doorways that were made, and he always made sure to mask end points as an added precaution. That might be important as now someone might be searching for them. Up to now, no one had reason to even suspect they might exist.
They moved quickly through the well established, yet hidden from anyone off the island, pathways that took them into the center of the village where the Elders lived. Soon Lyes and his brothers were seated in the large greeting room, explaining what had taken place.
“These strangers are skilled at the kind of magic we can call upon?” Shas, the more senior of the Elders asked. She was consorted to Jasin, the second Elder.
“That is how it appears. I was with the King when we visited the village. The stories of the villagers are consistent, and the Army Caster was quite specific about how his staff was destroyed.”
“The Queen is willing to risk our discovery to pursue this matter?” Jasin asked. “She might have consulted with us.”
“It’s a multifaceted matter,” Lyes explained. “The strangers might represent an outside force that could be either friendly or turn into an adversary. She wants to ensure we don’t inadvertently anger whoever they are. In addition, the Guild has now learned that such magic exists, which could start them to wondering if any in Sedfair have
such capability. That means we have already been revealed to some degree. Finally, there are people who have the skills, well developed. If we could learn from them, we might be able to make a substantial leap toward our hoped for goals. She believes the risks are warranted.”
“How does she wish us to proceed?” Shas asked, still not entirely comfortable with the surprise revelations.
“Obviously, we must be more alert than usual. In addition, I’m to take a team to each of the four backup locations. It is imperative that each is prepared in case we are discovered and have to split our community and flee. That has always been a risk, but the dangers of discovery are far greater than before.”
“This can be explained to the rest tonight at dinner,” Shas agreed. “Many will not be happy. We are a small enough community. Splitting us would cause the breakup of many friendships.”
“Understood,” Lyes said. “The Queen knows this, but if we can learn to use our magic rather than be limited to simply ineffective spells, think what it might mean. We would never be able to upset the Guild as we are, nor will we ever attract sufficient normal Casters to our cause without being discovered. I cannot ever see us being a match for them the way we are at the moment.”
Later as Lyes and his brothers went off to settle him into his own quarters, Lyes told them what he’d learned about the strangers in more detail.
“Who discovered them?” Ruchs asked.
“A novice named Fen,” Lyes said. “He lived in one of the border villages. He just happened to be where they appeared, but was skilled enough to recognize their power.”
“And he was brought to Nals?” Stev asked.
“He was scheduled to come soon anyway, and the Saltique wanted to question him. I hope he is going to be okay.”
“Why would you worry about him?” Ruchs asked.
“He is young, curious, and talented. He told me about what had happened before he was taken to meet Carif. She warned him to keep it all secret. When they discover I’m gone, they will make the connection that I was seen with him, and his part in my learning of the strangers will become known. It was not his fault. He was not warned to silence, something they should have done before he was ever brought to Nals if they wanted the secret kept. But the Guild isn’t always just in its reaction to events they don’t like.”