by David Wells
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I’m just wondering about the price. I hope we can afford it.”
“Whatever it is, we have to.” She stopped and turned Alexander toward her. “You said it yourself: If Phane gets the Stone, everything is lost. What price is too high?”
He shook his head slowly; he couldn’t bear to put words to the price he feared.
“Alexander, tonight was a triumph. You’ll see.” She stood on her toes and kissed him, and for a long, blissful moment, he lost his ability to focus on anything else.
Chapter 7
He slept fitfully and woke with a start just before dawn. He dreamt he was standing in Mason Kallentera’s workshop, talking with the court wizard of Glen Morillian. Mason told him that a force of ten thousand Rangers would leave for New Ruatha in two days’ time.
After several moments of pondering the strange dream, Alexander realized it was a dream-whisper spell. He rose with a renewed sense of purpose; his plans were progressing. Unfortunately, all he could do for the moment was explore the Keep and make preparations for a journey to the Pinnacles.
He realized with sudden dismay that he would have to leave his army on the eve of its first battle. They would be looking to him to lead and he would be absent. He needed a general he could count on, a man he could trust.
The Rangers had set up a large conference room as the royal dining hall. All of Alexander’s friends and all of the wizards sat around the table finishing breakfast when Alexander broached the subject.
“Isabel and I have to leave as soon as the scourgling is contained. Anatoly, I need you to take command of the army and lead the battle against Headwater.”
Anatoly looked up sharply and met Alexander’s eyes. “No,” he said firmly and went back to his breakfast.
“Anatoly, I need someone I trust,” Alexander said, trying to sound reasonable.
“I agree,” Anatoly said. “Find someone else. My place is beside you.” Alexander opened his mouth to protest, but Anatoly cut him off with a look that Alexander had seen many times under the tutelage of the old man-at-arms. “Your father, my best friend, charged me with protecting you and your sister. I will not fail him.”
Alexander took a deep breath. “Then who do you suggest?”
“General Markos is a capable man,” Anatoly offered.
“I don’t know General Markos,” Alexander said. “I need someone I can count on absolutely.”
Abigail interrupted. “You don’t have to decide immediately. Maybe time will present you with a better choice.”
“Maybe,” Alexander said. “But I’m worried about what my absence will do to the morale of the soldiers. This will be their first battle. They need a leader to rally around, and I can’t be there.”
Jack cleared his throat gently. “Am I correct in assuming that you mean to go to the Pinnacles to find the Fairy Queen?”
Alexander nodded. “The Sovereign Stone has to be the first priority. Unless someone has another way, I have to go to the Valley of the Fairy Queen to get the Stone—and the sooner the better. As it stands, Phane could reach the Reishi Keep within a few days. If he can’t make the powersink work, he’ll start looking for an alternative. The day he finds one is the day we lose.”
“Perhaps I can be of assistance in this matter,” Jack said. “I can work up a story to circulate through the troops that will both alleviate their discontent over your absence and present the enemy with a false trail to chase.”
“What do you have in mind?” Alexander asked.
“In truth, I’m not quite sure of the specifics, but I’m very certain that the less Phane learns about your true plans the better. I can create a false story about a mission vital to the success of our cause that only you can accomplish. I’ll have to think on the details a bit though. I need something you’re going after that’s important enough for you to leave your army. I would welcome any suggestions.”
“The third Bloodvault is important,” Kelvin mused.
Lucky nodded. “Especially if we had reason to believe that it contained the secret of Wizard’s Dust.”
Jack smiled like the sunshine. “That will do nicely. The means of disseminating this story is vitally important. The public story must be that Lord Alexander has departed on a secret mission that may hold the key to victory. Only a select few know of his purpose and destination. At the same time, we carefully leak the false story and a destination that will lead our enemies far afield. My experience with large groups is that rumors spread faster than wildfire.”
“I like your idea, Jack, but I’m still left without a viable general,” Alexander said.
“I see wisdom in Abigail’s advice,” Jack said. “Time will present you with the right person for the job.”
“I hope you’re right; things could go very badly without the right leadership.”
After breakfast, Alexander and Isabel headed out to explore the Keep. Many wizards had requested Kelvin’s assistance with various items and rooms within the Hall of Magic so he didn’t join them. He was the foremost expert on the discipline of magical enchantment, and they had discovered rooms full of items that he was uniquely qualified to identify.
Anatoly caught up with Alexander and Isabel at the entrance to the Keep.
“Alexander, I hope you aren’t too angry with me for defying you, but you must understand that my first duty is to protect you. Besides, I’ve never led an army before, so you would do well to find another.”
Alexander appraised his old mentor for a moment. “I understand your position, but I still need a general. There’s no one I trust to get the job done more than you. Hopefully, another will present himself in time.”
“For today, may I join you?” Anatoly asked.
“Glad to have you along,” Alexander said. “We saw a platform yesterday that rises up above the rest of the Keep on the south side, and I want to take a look at it.”
The Keep was as empty as always until they reached the Hall of Magic, where they started seeing a few people here and there. Each wizard had a couple of Rangers to help with exploring and cataloging the contents of the Keep. Alexander led the way to the end of the long hall, and with a thought, he opened the door to the base of the central tower. He was becoming accustomed to the power of the Keep Master’s ring and was beginning to see the Keep itself like an extension of his own mind and body.
He led the way past the sentinel and up through the central tower until they reached the balcony level that led to the two sky bridges. He opened the door to the long arching pathway that led to the giant platform and stepped out into the sky. The views of the Keep were spectacular from the bridge. They could see towers and spires rising high above them and hundreds of grandly constructed buildings covering the surface below. The place was truly a city of vast and magnificent complexity. Alexander still found wonders at every turn. He hoped the platform wouldn’t be an exception.
Where the bridge met the edge of the giant platform, the stone melded together as if it were all cut from the same giant block. The platform’s surface was made of the same ubiquitous black granite as the rest of the mountain and it was smooth and level. The edges had no railing or even a curb, and the fall was hundreds of feet to the buildings below. Aside from multiple towers rising up into the sky, this was the highest place on the mountain.
“What do you suppose this was used for?” Alexander asked.
“It might have been an assembly area,” Anatoly said. “But I’m not sure why they would have picked the highest part of the Keep to assemble their troops.”
They spent a few minutes walking around on the huge platform before they found an open area. As they drew closer, they discovered that it was at least a hundred-foot square cut into the surface. The floor below was over a hundred feet down. A staircase led from the top, down along one wall, around the corner and down to the floor.
They descended with caution and curiosity. Once they were outside the field of sunlight that fel
l through the opening, Alexander took his vial of night-wisp dust from its tube and held it high as they made their way into the dark, giant chamber. They found huge stalls, one after the other, lining corridors easily a hundred feet wide and almost as tall. In the first stall was another hole leading down to another level. Alexander made a note to come back and inspect that area later.
They pressed on into the darkness and found that most of the place was nearly empty. The floors of each stall were littered with the desiccated remains of some form of structures, but from what little was left, it was nearly impossible to determine what had once been there. They found an occasional bone from a cow or a horse and sometimes a deer or an elk, but those bones were old and brittle from centuries of exposure.
When they reached the far end of the long corridor, they discovered a second giant passage leading down to the level below. Around the corner was another passage up to the platform above. They took the stairs down and found that the south end of the second level was open to the sky.
Light poured in, making it easier to explore the nearby stalls. In the first stall, Alexander saw the shape of something that caught his imagination, and he pulled it from the decayed debris. It looked like a giant scale nearly two feet long and a foot and a half wide and reddish brown in color. It was lightweight, yet strong. The outer surface flaked away easily, but the core of the scale was intact and looked like reddish-black metal. With a jolt of excitement and awe, Alexander knew what used to live here.
“Dragons,” he whispered as a chill raced through him.
Anatoly and Isabel looked at him, and he offered them a look at the metal that was at the core of the scale. Their eyes grew wide at the truth of Alexander’s statement. He pulled up his tunic to look at the dragon-scale chain shirt he wore underneath. The color and quality of the metal was identical to the core of the giant scale that he held.
“Kelvin will want to see this,” Alexander said excitedly. “We’ll have to find another way to the paddock that doesn’t involve the central tower. I want to keep that off-limits for the time being, but we need to get some Rangers up here to search for more scales.”
They made their way back down another long, wide corridor looking into each stall with renewed interest. Now that they knew what they were looking for, they discovered many more dragon scales and even a tooth. It was like wandering through a childhood fantasy.
They returned the way they came with one scale each and the tooth.
Alexander sealed the central tower and started walking briskly down the Hall of Magic, calling out to the first person he saw. It was Mage Landi, who had teamed up with Jack and Abigail to explore a secondary corridor off the main hall.
“Have you seen Kelvin?” Alexander asked from a distance.
“In fact, we were just going to see if we could find him,” Landi said. “We’ve made a rather remarkable discovery that I believe he’ll want to see.”
Abigail was bubbling with excitement. “It’s a workshop like nothing I’ve ever seen before. There are smithies and foundries and tools for hundreds of workmen, with all the raw stock of iron, lead, and copper we could ever use.”
Alexander, Isabel, and Anatoly smiled with excitement of their own as they each held up a dragon scale.
Isabel giggled at their looks of astonishment. “We found dragon scales. Hundreds of dragons used to live in the Keep. There are lots more where we found these.”
“Mage Gamaliel will be doubly pleased,” Landi said. “Come, I believe he’s helping Lucky identify a few items in his new laboratory.”
They entered a large room with a high ceiling to find Lucky looking around with a wistful expression of simple happiness and Kelvin holding a rectangular box of carved bone in both hands with his eyes closed. He was chanting softly under his breath.
The room was in a state of ordered disarray, much like Lucky’s smaller workroom back at Valentine Manor. It was clearly the alchemical workshop he had claimed as his own, and it was obvious from the clean surfaces that he had done a lot of work to make the place usable. It was filled with tables at odd angles, each one covered with boxes, books, or arrangements of glassware. Some looked like they hadn’t been used for thousands of years, but a couple were clean and looked like they had just been set up. One was busy bubbling and sputtering with three small burners powering the apparatus.
Lucky motioned for silence when they entered, and he waved them over. Kelvin was deep in concentration, and Lucky clearly didn’t want him to be disturbed during the casting of his spell. His eyes widened and he smiled with pure joy when he saw the scales they each carried. It was all they could do to wait for Kelvin to finish his identification spell. When he opened his eyes, they were standing in front of him holding up their treasures.
Excitement danced in his eyes from the knowledge of the identification spell, but when he saw the scales, his look of surprise and wonder made everyone laugh.
He took the scale from Alexander with gentle, almost tender, reverence and inspected the metal at its core. “Blackstone Keep does not disappoint. I’ve often dreamt of exploring this place but I never dared to hope for such profound discoveries.”
“There’s a lot more where these came from,” Alexander said. “I also found a tooth.” He held up the sharp, spike-like tooth. It was six inches long, thin, and as white as bleached bone.
Mage Landi smiled. “It seems that our discovery of the entire hall of workshops is the least of today’s finds.”
Kelvin laughed. “I doubt that very much. A good workspace and the proper tools are the foundation of magical creation.” He carefully set the scale down and picked up the little bone box he had been inspecting. “However, this may be the crown jewel of the day.”
He spoke a string of words in an old language and the lid popped open to reveal seven narrow little vials of glowing white dust as pure as fresh snow. Each was only a couple of inches long and less than half an inch in diameter, but the contents was priceless.
“Wizard’s Dust!” Mage Landi and Lucky said in unison.
“Indeed. And there’s enough here for seven new wizards,” Kelvin said. “I have not mentored an apprentice through the mana fast in eleven years, yet I have a dozen men ready for the trials.”
Mage Landi spoke cautiously, “Perhaps you should consider taking the mage’s fast. I realize it would consume all seven vials, but an arch mage may serve our cause better than seven novices.”
Kelvin shook his head. “I briefly considered that. Without an arch mage to act as my mentor, I would risk death. And my services, such as they are, are needed. Seven new wizards will be of greater value in the long run anyway.”
Both of the mages looked to Alexander. “Mage Gamaliel, I trust your judgment. Do what you think is best.”
“I’ll send word for the apprentices as soon as we eliminate the threat of the scourgling,” Kelvin said. “For now, we should make plans to collect all of the dragon scales and have them brought to the workshops. I can use them to make powerful armor and weapons for the soldiers of our army.”
Chapter 8
The next six days were spent working.
They found five levels in the dragon’s aerie, each with room for a hundred dragons to make their home. There were also human barracks on each level, presumably for quartering handlers or possibly even dragon riders. A dozen Rangers set up a small outpost at the aerie and worked tirelessly in search of scales and teeth. They found a route that could accommodate horses and they cobbled together a small cart to haul the scales back to the workshops in the Hall of Magic.
Lucky spent the majority of his time preparing potions for the journey to the Pinnacles. He found a number of important ingredients that were still viable sealed in magically preserved containers. With the abundant glassware of his new workshop, he was able to keep a dozen potions cooking at a time. When Alexander poked his head in on him, Lucky was happily working away at one project or another. He had even set up one of his tables as a small kitchen
and always seemed to have a pot of something to eat simmering over a burner.
Alexander spent some time studying the Keep Master’s book and made a number of important discoveries about Blackstone Keep. The shields protecting it also served to prevent enemies from using spells like clairvoyance to view inside the Keep or to enter the Keep through magical means. The bridge platform was the closest they could get.
He also discovered that the Keep had a number of platforms that were meant to serve as wizard-powered weapons positions. They tapped into a wizard’s connection with the firmament, expanding the link while shielding the wizard’s mind from the temptation of limitless creation, then assisted him in vividly visualizing a powerful magical attack that could reach to the plains below.
There were two such positions near the bridge platform and three more, one each on the north, south, and east points of the Keep. Alexander went to one of the west positions overlooking the bridge platform with Kelvin and attempted to activate the weapon but discovered that he needed to establish a conscious connection with the firmament in order to make it work. He could only touch the firmament during deep meditation—but Kelvin had no trouble making it work.
The platform was a simple half-circle balcony that jutted out from the wall of the Keep and looked down on the bridge platform and the plains. The balcony was bordered by a low wall with a pillar in the center extending a foot above the height of the wall.
Kelvin placed a hand on each handprint carved into the top of the wall to either side of the small pillar and established a connection with the firmament. Moments later a burst of white-hot magical fire sprang forth from the top stone of the pillar and stabbed down toward the scourgling. It hit the beast full in the chest, knocked it over backward in a somersault, and sent it tumbling across the platform. Alexander was elated with the power of the weapon but dismayed when the scourgling bounded to its feet and loped back to its position at the edge of the abutment. At least they had a way to defend against most enemies.