by Damien Black
‘You can’t get us in further for a better look?’ asked Horskram.
The Earth Witch shook her head. ‘No. He’s counter-scrying, I can’t get past the shards.’
‘How did the two of you come into contact?’ asked the adept.
‘He approached me about a year ago,’ replied the witch. ‘Said he had something big in play. I’ve endeavoured to have as few dealings with the man as I can – his soul is depraved beyond all reckoning and he gives sorcerers a bad name – but he was just as arrogant as I remember him.’
‘You don’t need to remind me of his character,’ said Horskram. ‘What big something did he mention?’
Adelko’s sixth sense was quickening by the second. His mentor was hungry now, yearning for further evidence of the warlock’s crimes.
‘He wouldn’t divulge details unless I agreed to join him – said something about a great power returning, and a new age of sorcerer-kings. He wanted me to work for him, subdue the woodlanders and help him unite the Wadwos into an army.’
‘What was this army purposed for? Did he say?’
‘He didn’t go into specifics, but he suggested that in the next couple of years he would have the northerly Free Kingdoms under his control. Said I could have the run of Vorstlund, he would control Northalde, and someone else would have Thraxia.’
‘Reus’ teeth, he’s talking about Abrexta!’ snarled Sir Braxus.
‘So what did you tell him?’ asked Horskram, ignoring the knight.
‘I told him I wanted no part of his grand schemes,’ replied the witch. ‘I’ve more than enough with my own realm here in the Girdle. The beasts and birds of the forest are all I seek to govern, Friar Horskram, though you might find it hard to believe that. I want no part in the doings of mortal men.’
‘I imagine your response pleased him,’ said the adept, steering the subject back to Andragorix.
‘Oh yes, he showed his true colours then – started screaming at me, saying he’d tear down the Argael one tree at a time if I didn’t change my mind. I told him if he wanted a war he could come and get me. I didn’t reckon on his being able to enthral the Wadwos on his own.’
‘His powers have grown since I last fought him,’ said Horskram. ‘What else did he say?’ Both Adelko and his mentor could sense there was more.
‘I was coming to that,’ replied the Earth Witch. ‘Before things turned ugly and he was still trying to convince me to join him, he mentioned that he had an apprentice who would help him win over the Ice Thegns. He also said he had a special task in mind for me.’
Horskram raised an eyebrow. ‘A special task?’
‘Aye, said he needed someone to help him get at the druids and marcher lords, in the Westerling Isles.’
She paused, still staring at the pool.
‘Go on,’ the adept pressed.
‘Again, he wouldn’t go into specifics, but I had an inkling of what he was talking about… I studied at Kell, you see, a long time ago.’
Adelko’s sixth sense was at breaking point. He felt he had to speak.
‘You’re not telling us everything you know,’ he said softly.
‘No I’m not,’ she replied, unfazed. ‘Because you’re not either.’ She turned to look at Horskram. ‘You say you’ve been hunting this Andragorix for years, and only now you seek my help? There’s more to this than a personal vendetta between you and one warlock. I know full well what the druids guard on Kaluryn – and if a madman like that is trying to get his hands on it, then these are dangerous times for all of us.’
She closed her eyes, suddenly looking very tired. The image in the pool flickered and went out. The light in the cavern slowly recovered its previous fluorescence.
‘I don’t just use this thing to see across space, but then you probably know that,’ she continued. ‘The opaque curtain of time can be parted too, on occasion, and I’ve had glimpses of things to come.’ A sadness entered her voice. ‘This is the future I’ve feared most of all. So why don’t you tell me your story, and I’ll tell you as much as I can that will help you.’
Horskram paused, glanced at Adelko, and nodded. ‘Not here,’ said the adept.
The novice understood right away – Horskram didn’t want everyone to know, especially not newcomers to the mission like Kyra.
‘Very well, let’s go to my quarters.’ The Earth Witch stood and spoke another word. Another ford rose, this one connecting to a second lip of rock in a different part of the cavern. A tunnel led off from it.
‘Do you have to pass through here every time you want to go out?’ asked Braxus as they crossed the bridge and stepped onto the shelf. ‘Must be very inconvenient.’
The sorceress favoured him with a dusky smile as she led them up the corridor. It was lit with the same pale green moss as the entrance. ‘There’s more to my little grotto than meets the eye, sir knight,’ she said. ‘I’m only showing you what I want you to see.’
She said no more on the subject and the Thraxian shared a puzzled look with Adelko as they followed her.
The tunnel zigzagged its way upwards before emerging into a chamber lit by more glowing fruit, this time hanging from vines that lined the walls and appeared to grow directly out of the rock. The floor was decorated with rugs that detailed more sylvan forest scenes, and chairs and tables carved from wood were dotted about. On the tables were silver trays bearing fruits and sweetmeats and ceramic amphoras. On the chairs were delicately embroidered silk cushions. Those caught Adelko’s eye: they were quite rare in the northerly Free Kingdoms.
‘At least those blasted Pilgrim Wars of yours were good for something,’ said the sorceress as she caught him eyeing them. ‘Contact with the Sassanians has given you Urovians some of the finer things in life, even if you had to butcher thousands to get at them.’
‘You’re not an Urovian then?’ asked Adelko.
The sorceress stared darkly at him, indicating the subject wasn’t up for discussion. Adelko dropped it.
She ushered them into seats. ‘Refresh yourselves with food and wine,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry, I haven’t magicked it. Most of it comes from my vinyards and gardens, the meat is provided by animals who have agreed to sacrifice themselves for the good of my realm.’
The adventurers exchanged wary glances, then sat down to eat and drink. Adelko fell on it hungrily enough – right now he didn’t care if it was magicked, truth to tell. It tasted good. The wine was a rich tawny colour and delicious.
When they were done the sorceress rose. ‘Now I think it is time you and I spoke together, Friar Horskram.’ Adelko noticed she didn’t refer to him by his usual honorific – but then he supposed the Earth Witch acknowledged no masters.
The adept got to his feet. ‘Sir Torgun and Sir Braxus, you should accompany Adelko and me, the others can stay here.’
Adelko felt his heart surge. Adelko and me... It was good to know his mentor had no doubts about bringing him along to secret councils any more.
The sorceress led them out through another tunnel. This one ended in stairs that climbed straight upwards before exiting into a chamber fashioned from hanging gardens. Sunlight was streaming through oval windows, their shapes formed by vines overlaid with thatch-eaves.
Adelko blinked – he was sure they hadn’t come up far enough to be above ground again. There was more to her grotto than met the eye all right.
The rocky ground beneath their feet was perfectly smooth. Bumblebees and hornets buzzed to and fro, and bluetits and red robins fluttered amongst the leaves and branches. The verdant walls of the strange chamber were suffused with the same silvery gossamer substance that permeated the entire Girdle.
In the middle of the chamber was a round wooden table, bearing an embossed carving of Kaia in her mortal form of a curvaceous woman at its centre. Around it were half a dozen wicker chairs. Another amphora was perched on a smaller table with earthenware cups next to it.
‘You are right to be cautious,’ said the Earth Witch when her four guests had s
at down. ‘This sort of thing shouldn’t be so openly discussed.’
‘You’ll get no disagreement from me there,’ said Horskram.
She poured them each a cup of wine before taking one for herself and sitting down.
‘Well, you have your privacy – and a stoop of my finest wine. Now is the time, I think.’
The adept nodded and took a sip before telling her their story. By now it was a long one, and Adelko was pleasantly buzzing his way into his third cup when his mentor was done.
‘Those are fearful tidings,’ sighed the Earth Witch. ‘My foreboding was not misplaced.’ Through his tipsy fugue Adelko sensed considerable anxiety in the sorceress. ‘So Andragorix did want help getting the third fragment – in fact that was probably his real reason for soliciting my aid, he’s doing a fine job of controlling the Wadwos and subduing the woodlanders by himself.’
‘You mentioned you studied in the Island Realms?’ pressed Horskram.
‘Yes, I know all about their magic defences. I would have been a valuable tool,’ she said, anger entering her voice for the first time.
‘Well at least he won’t be getting your help,’ said Horskram.
Braxus leaned forwards. ‘What about Abrexta? She’s closest to the Islands – could she be his next attempt to get at the druid clans and the fragment they’re keeping?’
The Earth Witch nodded. ‘It’s quite possible. I wasn’t aware of her before – I’ll try and scry on her, see what I can find out.’
Braxus sat back, nodding and taking a sip of wine. He looked somewhat relieved. Adelko sensed he was deeply troubled about his homeland, and desperate for something he could bring back to his father.
‘What about the Vorstlendings?’ put in Sir Torgun. ‘If Andragorix is planning to send a Wadwo army to attack them, shouldn’t we warn them?’
‘If we succeed in our mission we won’t have to,’ said Horskram. ‘His hold on the beastmen will be released and they’ll revert to type.’
‘It explains the abducted women though,’ added the Earth Witch. ‘He’s obviously trying to breed a Wadwo army – the things develop very quickly, growing to maturity within a year or two. Normally they rarely breed, but with someone controlling them…’ She made a disgusted noise. ‘It doesn’t even bear thinking about. Those poor women – most of them won’t survive childbirth, if you can call such abominations children.’
‘All the more reason to stop him, and right soon,’ said Horskram. ‘Yon fortress lies on our path. We’ll raze it to the ground – Kyra knows the leader of the resistance movement, we’ll reconnoitre with them on our way there.’
‘Aye, I’ve kept an eye on Madogan,’ said the Earth Witch. ‘Brave man. I tried to help him where I could with my Golem until…’ She let her words trail off as a hint of ice entered her tone. Sir Torgun’s face hardened.
‘Never mind,’ interjected Horskram quickly. ‘What else can you tell us about Andragorix’s defences?’
‘They are hard to assess,’ she replied. ‘It depends on how much elan he has left over from controlling the Wadwos and summoning Saraphi to attack me. I would have thought that would be enough to keep him occupied – exhausted for that matter – but given what you’ve just told me…’ She shook her head. ‘He conjures up two demons – one to steal the fragment at Ulfang, another to try and kill the pair of you – then conjures yet another to make off with the fragment at Graukolos… and all this while he was contending with me too? You say you fought him several years ago – I’m amazed you survived, if he’s grown this powerful!’
‘I barely did,’ conceded Horskram. ‘But no… you’re right. He’s much more powerful now than he was back then. What I don’t understand is how… the Headstone is useless until it’s reunited. Where has he got this extra power from, to get at it in the first place and threaten you?’
The Earth Witch tapped her fingers thoughtfully against her cup. ‘That riddle might be answered by another,’ she said.
Horskram looked at her quizzically. ‘What do you mean?’
‘This bid to reunite the Headstone, after hundreds of years… No one has attempted it until now.’
Horskram shrugged. ‘What of it?’
The sorceress pursed her lips. ‘Seven hundred years, and not one single attempt,’ she said. ‘Ask yourself why – there’s been plenty of accomplished warlocks in that time, and no few who would have been mad enough to try it.’
Horskram shrugged again. ‘Morwena thought she could do it – why she even went to the trouble of enthralling Søren so he could recover it for her in the first place!’
‘Aye, Morwena was always ambitious, and vain, and power-hungry,’ said the sorceress, her eyes hardening. ‘But she knew what she was doing. She had to have been confident of being able to use the thing before going to all that trouble to get it. She lived in the Watchtower of the Valley of the Barrow Kings, who were there before the Islanders… That would have given her access to all the ancient learning of the Elder Wizards. So she must have believed she could actually learn to wield the power of the Headstone.’
Horskram looked surprised. ‘I was always under the impression that the Headstone was its own guide, so to speak – the words set down on it – ’
‘… are the most potent ever written in the Sorcerer’s Script,’ the sorceress finished for him. Aye, that much is common knowledge among us sorcerers. But to learn to use them you need to have knowledge from another source…’
Adelko thought back to the day long ago in Narvik when Horskram had placed his first book in front of him. A book to tell you how to read other books…
‘Like a manual you mean,’ said the novice. ‘For learning how to read?’
‘Exactly,’ said the Earth Witch, catching his eyes with her own. He felt as though she were probing him, appraising him in some way…
She looked back at Horskram as he exclaimed: ‘Reus’ teeth, how could I have been so blind! You’re right!’
‘Loremasters tell that Ashokainan also coveted the Headstone,’ continued the sorceress. ‘He too lived in a former Watchtower, in the Great White Mountains that guard the lands you call the Empire. He tried to ensorcell Antaeus on one of his voyages, to get him to recover it for him.’
‘I’ve never heard of such an account,’ argued Horskram. ‘According to the loremasters I’ve studied, Antaeus lived more than two millennia ago. Ashokainan is said to have been hundreds of years old, but that would still place him centuries after Antaeus.’
The Earth Witch shook her head. ‘He lived for well over a thousand years until Søren slew him,’ she said.
‘So you say…’ Horskram still looked dubious. He didn’t like being shown up on his lore, especially not by a pagan sorceress. ‘In any case, what relevance does he have to Morwena?’
‘Don’t forget Morwena sent Søren to kill Ashokainan, as one of his Seven Deeds – he was an unwanted rival you see, she wanted him out of the way. How convenient that the Watchtower was destroyed along with him – according to some accounts, by Søren’s own hand at Morwena’s behest.’
‘… so no one else could get their hands on the texts needed to use the Headstone.’
‘Exactly. Of course the same thing happened to the Watchtower of the Valley of the Barrow Kings when Søren killed Morwena.’
‘Which leaves only one Watchtower intact and inhabited,’ finished Horskram.
‘Where is that?’ asked Adelko.
‘Somewhere in the Hot South,’ said the sorceress. ‘In the Sultanates of Sassania.’
‘I know of it,’ said Horskram. ‘But the warlock who dwells there is by all accounts a recluse, much like yourself. He meddles not in the affairs of mortalkind, and suffers none to approach him.’
‘Just so,’ said the Earth Witch. ‘But by the looks of it, Andragorix has somehow got his hands on this ancient knowledge. If he’s spent the past three years poring over grimoires written by the Elder Wizards themselves, and not just diluted copies…’
‘
… that explains his increased powers,’ said Horskram.
‘Well,’ put in Sir Braxus, ‘you’d better tell us about the last time you fought him, Horskram. Give us some idea of what to expect at least.’
‘That I’ll do when the time is right,’ said the adept, though he looked severely troubled.
‘Be of some cheer,’ said the Earth Witch. ‘Your powers must be considerable to get past my defences, and that talisman you carry should give you some protection from his sorceries.’
Horskram’s eyes narrowed. ‘The blood of the Redeemer is no talisman, but a relic of our faith,’ he said darkly.
‘The two are no different to me,’ replied the Earth Witch, unruffled. ‘People see things in whatever form suits them…’
Adelko had to smile at that. His mentor had hinted at this much, during their talk of theology in the Argael. Horskram glanced at him disparagingly; perhaps he sensed what his novice was thinking. But he said nothing more on the matter.
‘I think we have spoken enough,’ said the sorceress. ‘I’ll need to rest before I try to learn more about this Abrexta – Scrying is draining work, especially when you’ve a wizards’ war to fight on top of it. You should all do the same – you’ll need your strength for the trials to come. I noticed many of you are carrying injuries too, I’ll see to those as well before you leave.’
Sir Torgun glared at her, distrust and hatred scored across his face.
‘Oh for Kaia’s sake, what are you expecting, sir knight?’ she demanded. ‘Healing potions that turn you into zombies? I’m a skilled herbalist as well – I was thinking more along the lines of King’s Wort and Marius’ Weed, nothing your lily-white Marionite monks would be ashamed of using.’
Torgun said nothing, but turned away with a disgusted expression. The sorceress ignored him pointedly. ‘Oh and that reminds me,’ she added as they all rose to leave. ‘I’ll give you some Wose’s Bane to take with you – should give you an edge against the Wadwos. I’ll make sure you’ve enough to give to Madogan as well.’