by David Wells
“The giant and the small man in black are something else. The one in black is Jataan P’Tal, General Commander of the Reishi Protectorate. He’s a battle mage and he is beyond deadly. You all saw him catch that wyvern rider’s javelin and kill the wyvern with it. I watched him kill six armed and armored soldiers in as many seconds with nothing but a knife. He’s been hunting me for the past few months. I’ve managed to stay one step ahead of him until now. If we face him, use your bows to engage. If he gets close, he’ll kill you. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get the Sovereign Stone and get out of here without running into him at all.”
Chapter 46
They went back inside the Keep, more wary now than ever, and took every staircase up that they found. The place was musty and smelled of death. Occasionally, they found the remains of someone long-dead. The Keep had been the site of a horrendous battle long ago. Forces of magic had been unleashed in that fight that hadn’t been seen for millennia.
About midday, they came to a room with an observation deck on the north side of the Keep. Alexander carefully probed the room for threats with his all around sight before he cautiously ventured out onto the broad stone deck, looking for nearby wyverns. He didn’t see any above him, but he did see a few perched below on the outer walls of the Keep.
Then something else caught his eye outside the walls of the Keep. He motioned for his friends to join him while the Rangers secured the room and prepared a hasty lunch. Not a mile from the outer walls of the Keep was a broad stone platform about thirty feet square, raised three feet off the ground on three sides and gently sloping down to meet the grass on the fourth. It was made of flat black stone with a single wall a foot thick rising from the edge opposite the slope. The wall was rounded at the top, twenty feet high and thirty feet across at the base. What drew Alexander’s interest was the aura of pent-up power that radiated from the thing. There was magnificent magical energy contained within, yet it was somehow dormant and inaccessible.
Alexander pointed at it. “What is that?”
“That is the Reishi Gate,” Lucky said. “There’s one just like it on Ruatha a couple of leagues from Blackstone Keep. There’s supposed to be a Gate on each of the Seven Isles. They were built by the First Reishi Sovereign so he could move soldiers quickly without the need for a navy. He used the power of these Gates to bring all of the Seven Isles under his dominion. Later, they were used more for trade than anything else, until the Reishi War when they were again used to move armies. They’ve been dormant since the Sovereign Stone was lost.”
Alexander frowned. “What happens when the Sovereign Stone is retrieved from the aether?”
Lucky shrugged. “That’s hard to say. Perhaps nothing, but they may become active again for anyone to use. Or they may become active only if the Sovereign Stone is bound to one with Reishi blood. There are many things about the ancient times that are a mystery.”
Alexander stared at the Gate and weighed his options. He knew Phane planned to use the Gates to move soldiers from Karth to Ruatha. He also knew that Phane had sent Jataan P’Tal to take the Stone from him as soon as he retrieved it.
He had already risked so much and lost far more to come here. Now that he was so close, he wondered if retrieving the Sovereign Stone was the right thing to do. It had been safely outside of the world of time and substance for millennia. Bringing it back into this world could do more harm than good, yet he also knew that Phane would stop at nothing to get it. With the shades in the world, it was entirely possible that Phane could join forces with one of them or even bind one of them to his will and retrieve the Stone himself. The only place Alexander knew for certain that Phane couldn’t reach the Stone was within the Bloodvault at Blackstone Keep.
His plan was born of desperation but it was the only sure way to give the future a chance. With the Stone, Phane would be unstoppable. Without it, he would be a formidable enemy but he wouldn’t have the knowledge necessary to build an army of wizards. Alexander decided again that his plan was the only way to save the Seven Isles.
They moved back into the Keep. By now Alexander wasn’t sure where he was or how he was going to get out once he found the Stone. He reminded himself to face one problem at a time. They came to a hallway that was thirty feet wide and had the stain of what was once a carpet running down the center. The ceiling was so high they couldn’t see it with the light of the night-wisp dust. The hallway looked like it led somewhere important.
Two Rangers were scouting several dozen feet out in front. Alexander was scanning the way ahead when he saw the shimmer of magic across the hall not three steps in front of the Rangers.
“Stop!” he commanded. They both came to an abrupt halt and faced into the darkness with their short spears at the ready. Alexander approached carefully and inspected the field across the hallway with his second sight. It gave off a faint aura of magic. Just past the field was a set of giant double doors on the left wall of the hallway, which continued on into the darkness. Directly across from the double doors was another hallway that formed a tee with the hall they were standing in. It was equally as wide and the ceiling was shrouded in darkness.
“There’s a magical field across the hallway just a couple of feet ahead,” Alexander said. “Lucky, can you see it?”
Lucky shook his head. “Nor do I feel the tingle of magic that I do when I come to the warding shields within Blackstone Keep. I advise caution, Alexander. This is likely a trap and probably a deadly one if it has stood here for all these years.” Lucky gestured to the giant set of double doors. “If I had to guess, I’d say the room beyond those doors is the throne room. There will undoubtedly be passages leading from there to the royal chambers.”
Alexander motioned for everyone to back up a few paces. He stood ten feet from the magic aura, drew an arrow, and carefully tossed it. Three inches into the field, the plane glowed intensely, stopping the arrow in midflight. With a flash, the shaft burned in two and clattered to the floor. The faint aura of the trap remained.
“Huh,” Alexander said, “doesn’t look like we’ll be going that way.”
Then he saw lights coming from the other end of the hallway. His first instinct was to retreat, but then he reconsidered. He held his light higher and waited. The torchlight grew closer, but then it started to move more slowly toward them.
“What’s your plan?” Anatoly asked with characteristic bluntness.
“If I’m the only one who can see that field, then maybe this is our best chance to kill the battle mage,” Alexander said.
Anatoly nodded. “I like it,” he said and then turned to Lieutenant Wyatt. “Prepare your men for a fight but do not attack until the order is given.”
Wyatt quickly formed his Rangers into two groups left and right of Alexander and his companions. They waited until the enemy was only thirty feet away. Alexander was almost disappointed to see that it was Duke Truss with a dozen Andalian Lancers, only three of whom carried the long force lances that were so effective on horseback but were so heavy on foot. The rest were armed with swords. Jataan P’Tal was nowhere to be seen.
When Truss saw Alexander standing his ground and flanked by Rangers, he smiled a little and motioned for his men to stop. The three with the force lances pointed them at Alexander and his men.
Alexander idly wondered about the range of the force blast the lances projected.
“Rexius Truss, you’re looking well with only one hand,” he said with a taunting smile. “I’m tired of running. If you want a fight, then come and get one.”
“Where’s my whore?” Truss said. “Have you tired of her already?” He shook his head sadly. “Perhaps she was never worthy of my attentions.”
Alexander stood his ground, his eyes glittering. He wanted to cut Truss into pieces, but he knew better than to move through the magical field. Instead he decided to taunt the petty little noble some more.
“She’s quite well,” Alexander said. “You know, she laughs about you and your, um stature, from time to
time. She really doesn’t like you. I can’t say I blame her. In fact, I’m sure I’ll get a hero’s welcome when I tell her that I cut off your other hand.” Alexander drew the Thinblade and smiled at Truss.
“Phane wanted us to spare you until you get the Stone for him like a good little lapdog, but I really never cared about any of that,” Truss said with building rage. “Everything was perfect until you came to Glen Morillian and ruined it all. I was going to marry Isabel and become the deciding voice on the council. The whole valley would have bowed to my whim. Then you arrived and took my woman and my holdings—and my hand!” He shouted the last word with veins bulging from the sides of his head.
“Attack!” Truss commanded with such force that his voice broke.
The three Lancers released their energy blasts, and all of Alexander’s men were knocked from their feet and sent sprawling to the floor. As Alexander sailed through the air, he thought to himself that at least now he knew that the range of the Andalian lance was greater than forty feet. He also knew that the magical field in front of him only stopped things of substance from passing while allowing magic through without hindrance.
A moment after Alexander and his men were hit by the magical blasts, five of the Lancers reached the magical field on the other side of the giant double doors. Alexander hadn’t noticed the second field because it was obscured by the aura of the first. The fact that there was a second field only served to reinforce the importance of the room behind the double doors. All of these thoughts rushed through Alexander’s mind as he lay flat on his back trying to regain his breath.
He looked up to see the five Andalian Lancers frozen in the plane of the field for a brief moment before it glowed brightly and sliced them neatly in half from the center of their heads down through the middle of their bodies. Parts fell away on both sides of the field, with the severed edges neatly cauterized by extreme heat.
Alexander shook off the fog in his head, got to his feet, and approached to within a few feet of the field on his side of the giant double doors. The three force lances were lying in pieces on the floor along with the remains of their owners.
Alexander smiled and waved the enemy to come forward. “Come on, the trap’s spent, it can’t hurt you now.”
They didn’t buy his ruse. Truss cursed him and ordered his men to retreat. They carefully withdrew down the hallway.
“I was really hoping to get Truss,” Alexander said, shaking his head.
He went to the wall, put his hand against it, closed his eyes, and pushed through the stone with his all around sight. The room on the other side of the double doors was large, perhaps even vast.
He stepped back and carefully slid the Thinblade through the stone, then drew a doorway in the surface of the wall. He put his boot against the center of the outline and pushed. A section of wall a foot thick fell inward, crashing to the floor and sending chips of stone skittering off in all directions. The echo returned to him a moment later.
Alexander cautiously stepped through the impromptu door and surveyed the chamber within. It was well lit by a series of mostly broken-out windows high overhead in the arched ceiling. It resembled the entry hall in construction, over two hundred feet long and a hundred feet wide with stone support beams running up the walls, then arching over to meet their counterparts in the center of the high ceiling. The floor was made of white marble shot through with veins of blood red.
On the far end, a raised dais formed a half circle stretching from one corner to the next and reaching forty or fifty feet into the room. A single chair carved of white marble and gilded in gold occupied the center of the dais. Alexander stood in the Reishi throne room.
Anatoly entered next. The moment he set foot on the marble floor, the figure sitting in the throne stood. Alexander hadn’t even noticed it at this distance, but when it stood, he knew exactly what it was. He had faced a creature like this in Blackstone Keep.
The sentinel was the size of a man and was made completely of black stone. It was armed with a shield and a spear with a sword at its belt. Alexander remembered the last time he had fought a sentinel. It had been all but immune to normal steel weapons. He hoped the Thinblade would prove effective against this magical guardian or they might have a real problem.
In the back of his mind, he wondered why it had only awakened when Anatoly entered the room. He’d been in the room for several moments before Anatoly. He’d cut a hole in the wall and pushed a section of stone onto the floor, and yet the guardian only woke when Anatoly set foot on the marble floor.
It started toward them. Alexander quickly scanned the room for any magical traps or auras but saw none. He moved in a few paces to give the Rangers room to enter.
“Stay clear of it,” Alexander said. “I doubt your weapons will harm it.” With that he drew the Thinblade and began to advance. The thing stopped midway across the room and faced Alexander but didn’t challenge him. Alexander took another step forward but still the magical guardian did nothing.
Anatoly began to advance and the sentinel started moving toward him while ignoring Alexander. The animated statue strode past Alexander with its spear leveled at Anatoly.
“Stand down,” Alexander commanded.
Anatoly stopped as did the sentinel.
“Anatoly, come toward me but give the sentinel a wide berth,” Alexander said.
Anatoly nodded and carefully circled around the sentinel. It stood stone-still like it was nothing more than an ordinary statue. Alexander gave Anatoly a questioning look.
He shrugged.
“Turn around,” Alexander commanded.
The sentinel obeyed.
“Return to the throne and sit down.”
The sentinel marched to the throne and sat down.
“Lucky, why is that thing obeying me and why did it start advancing only after Anatoly stepped into the room?” Alexander asked.
Lucky shook his head slowly, looking perplexed. “I have no idea. Nothing about this makes any sense.”
“I guess I’ll take what I can get,” Alexander said. “Lieutenant Wyatt, search the room for exits. There’ll be at least one hidden door.”
Wyatt nodded and started issuing orders to his men.
Alexander went to the throne with Anatoly and Lucky and faced the sentinel. He stood staring at the impassive magical guardian for several long moments.
“Will you obey my commands?” he asked.
The sentinel nodded once.
Alexander looked at Lucky, who shrugged.
Jack came up alongside them, keeping a wary eye on the sentinel. “Wyatt found two exits that look like they lead to servants’ preparation areas, and there’s one leading from the dais over in the corner, plus a secret door directly behind the throne.”
“Good, send scouts through the door in the corner,” Alexander said.
Jack left to relay the order while Alexander tried to understand the inexplicable behavior of the sentinel. It just made no sense.
Jack returned and reported: “It leads to a sitting room. There are three doors leading out.”
“Anatoly, take everyone into that sitting room. I’ll be along in a moment. Maybe we can put this thing to use.”
Once the room was empty of his people, Alexander faced the sentinel. “Stand,” he commanded, and it stood. “Do not allow anyone to pass from this room through those two doors, except me,” Alexander said pointing at the door in the corner of the dais and the secret door directly behind the throne. “If anyone comes from those two doors, they are permitted to leave without challenge. Do you understand?”
The sentinel nodded. Alexander wasn’t sure the magical guardian actually did understand. It was a little like having a conversation with a rock, but at least it nodded. He left the throne room and joined his friends in the sitting room. There was one door that was slightly larger than the other two and it was in perfect condition while the other two were warped, rotten, and brittle. He tried to open it and found that it was securely locked. One
slash with the Thinblade cleaved the door down the middle. Half fell away clattering to the floor while the other half swung silently open on its triple hinges.
They cautiously moved down a narrow corridor that opened into a circular room at least a hundred feet across. The ceiling was ten feet high supported by a ring of columns. At one time it might have been a very plush bedchamber, but now any furniture that once filled the room was nothing but dust. Two sturdy doors led out of the room, each in perfect working order with no sign of age or decay.
There was also a spiral staircase leading both up and down. After a cursory search, Alexander decided to take the stairs up. If Malachi Reishi died while commanding the defense of his Keep, it stood to reason that he would have been somewhere high where he had a view of the surrounding area. Alexander was getting closer to his goal.
On the next level was a library, but the years had destroyed the contents. Bookcases were toppled or crumbled under the weight of the books that had once lined their shelves and the books themselves had turned to dust. Alexander wondered at the difference between this place and Blackstone Keep. There, the books and many of the rooms were intact, while here, most everything seemed to have suffered the ravages of time.
They moved up another level. It looked like it had once been a laboratory or a workroom for a wizard or an alchemist. It was in a shambles as well. The tables were broken and decayed to the point of crumbling. Most of the glassware was shattered on the floor and the shelves had fallen over, haphazardly scattering their contents. The place was a mess. Alexander quickly surveyed the debris littering the floor. Most items were broken, but a few were intact.
One in particular caught his eye. It glowed with such an intense aura of magic that for a moment all he could do was stare in disbelief. It was a heavy glass vial sealed with a glass stopper that was secured with silver wire. It contained a pure white powder, the color of sunlight on new-fallen snow. It was something that Alexander had only seen once before in powder form. He knew at a glance exactly what it was.