The God-Stone War m-4

by Michael G. Manning

  I had cultivated a certain freedom of speech amongst those that served me, but Peter constantly surprised me. There were grumbles in the room at his presumptuous questions, but I held up a hand to forestall their complaints. “The barrier enchantment around the castle should be strong enough to keep any one god from breaking it quickly. Two will probably be able to accomplish the task easily, but it will take them some time; hopefully as much as half an hour or possibly more. Three combined would probably shatter it within minutes, and that is the main reason for the difference in the evacuation plans,” I finished. I left unsaid my other reason, for it involved a great deal of personal risk, and that was never a popular topic among the Knights of Stone. They were fine with risking their own lives, but never mine. “Any further questions?” I asked him, to make sure he was done.

  Peter bowed his head deferentially, “No my lord, thank you for your patience with my inexperience in these matters.”

  “If that’s out of the way then, we can proceed to current matters. I’ve given the broad outlines of our emergency action plans,” said Dorian, “but now I would like to move on to two particulars of pertinence in the present. First, the disposition of Master Grayson’s hunter’s this week, as well as any changes he would like to make before the anticipated arrival of the gods in less than two weeks’ time. After that we’ll go over the advance evacuation schedule that is to begin at the end of next week. We need to make sure everyone that isn’t absolutely needed, is out two days prior to Karenth’s return.”

  Dorian went on for some time before calling Chad forward to discuss the positioning of his scouts. No matter how many of these I attend, they never get any less boring, I thought while stifling a yawn. It wouldn’t do to let the men see me showing signs of disinterest.

  * * *

  Late that afternoon I checked the message boxes and found Cyhan’s reply waiting for me. Opening the box, I saw a neatly folded piece of paper. Unfolding it I saw his distinctively bad penmanship. His handwriting was on a par with Penny’s, in fact it might even be worse.

  My Lord,

  Your message is received and understood. Currently it is still morning as I write this. Will make haste and should return within five days. Look for us on the morning of the fifth day hence. That will be the morning of the festival.

  Your Servant,

  Cyhan

  “Six days!” I muttered to myself. That meant he’d be force marching the men. I considered writing another letter to try and make him slow down rather than tire them out, but in the end I decided it would be pointless. That was the sort of order he’d ignore. He always was a damn overachiever.

  Instead, I simply drew a deep breath and penned a quick acknowledgement. At least they would get to enjoy the festivities. Checking the rest of the boxes, I found another message, this one from Marc.

  Mort,

  I hope this letter finds you well.

  The journey to Agraden has been noteworthy only for its boredom. We should arrive in another day, and Marissa’s uncle assured us that he will have room for us until we can find a place of our own. Despite my true reason for moving here, I find I am somewhat looking forward to seeing new things, and the search for whatever remains of the Gaelyn family library might also prove interesting.

  I will write again once I have some definite news, or at least something interesting to tell.

  Marcus

  I read through his short note twice and found that despite my original opposition to his move, I now felt relieved to know that he was well away from all the excitement in Lothion. I considered my reply carefully before setting pen to paper again.

  Dear Marc,

  I’m glad to hear that your journey is almost done. I do hope that it wasn’t a hardship for Marissa. Don’t forget that if the house costs more money than we anticipated, I will write a letter of credit for you. The bankers in Albamarl assure me that they have a stable arrangement with the moneylenders in Agraden, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

  Things are busy around here, what with the festival preparations at this time of year. There always seems to be something. Perhaps if you get well settled, I can make the journey to visit next year some time. One visit and I’ll be able to set up a circle, which will make any future trips trivial.

  Write soon.

  Mordecai

  I felt a bit dishonest for not mentioning any of my recent problems, but given the distance, the only thing my friend could have done about them would be to worry needlessly. Pushing those thoughts aside, I rose and went to find Walter. I wanted to meet with him and make sure he remembered the specifics of how to raise and control the barrier enchantment around the castle. As I walked, I decided we should include Elaine this time. She was older now, and there was always the possibility that neither he nor I would be around to activate it when needed.

  Chapter 15

  Walter and his daughter stood beside me in a small room not far from the great hall. The room itself had originally been designed as a small waiting room, but I had repurposed it as a central place to control the enchantments that protected Castle Cameron. The walls were unobtrusively marked with runes that effectively hid the room from magical sight, while the door would only open to the touch of a few specially designated people… both of whom were standing next to me.

  This was the first time Elaine had been inside, and I had just finished adding her to the short list of people that the enchantment would allow to open the door. She looked about the room with observant eyes. “So this is the room that controls the keystone for the barrier enchantment?” she asked carefully.

  I nodded.

  “It’s a rather unassuming room. Somehow I always imagined it would be more impressive,” she said with a half-smile.

  “Since very few people will ever see it, I felt ornamentation was unnecessary,” I responded dryly before gesturing to the stone pedestal that stood in the center of the room. “Everything is controlled from there.”

  The object I was indicating was four foot in height, made of plain grey granite. The top was smooth except for a number of symbols lightly engraved in the hard stone. The wall directly in front of it was adorned with twelve pieces of flat, clear glass, each one twelve inches on a side. In fact the glass had originally been made to be window panes. Such things were expensive, even in the city, where they were most frequently used, but I had bought them with a new purpose in mind.

  I pointed at the symbols across the top of the stone pedestal. “Each of these corresponds to one of the glass panes you see on the wall, and each of those panes corresponds with another pane located at various points around the castle. There are two mounted high on the outer faces of each of the four main corner towers, approximately twenty feet from the ground. Those account for the first eight panes you see there. You activate each one simply by apply a small amount of aythar, here…,” as I said that, I activated the first symbol.

  The top leftmost pane of glass abruptly changed. Where before it had shown nothing but the grey stone it was mounted against, it now appeared to be letting in the afternoon sunlight from outside. An empty field could be seen beyond it, with trees a hundred or so yards in the distance. A few small buildings were visible in the field of view, buildings that had been built there against my advice. I had warned the people of Washbrook that I could not protect anything built beyond the stone walls of the town.

  Walter remained silent. He had seen most of this before, but Elaine was amazed. “Is that the western side of town? Beyond the wall?” she asked in a tone of wonderment.

  “Yes.”

  “How? Is it some sort of illusion? Are you passing the light with the same sort of magical spell that we use for our invisibility?”

  Walter coughed.

  “No,” I answered. “We tried that originally, and although your father managed to make it work for short periods, of time we were unable to design an effective enchantment that could maintain the effect.”

  “How else would you do it
then?” she said in puzzlement.

  Walter spoke up then, “Mordecai and I created a type of portal enchantment between each of the matching panes of glass. When it is active, the glass is actually serving as a real window between here and the location of the other piece of glass.”

  Elaine’s eyes narrowed, “What if an enemy discovered the connection? Could they enter the keep through the portal?”

  “No,” her father replied smugly, “The enchantment, the portal lies within the glass itself, so only light may pass. If anything else were to physically try to pass, it would break the glass and destroy the portal simultaneously.”

  “In addition, the portal is only open when the enchantment is activated here,” I explained. Passing my hand along the top of the stone, I ‘turned on’ the rest of the windows, and soon we could see out from many vantage points. “The first eight, as you can see, look out from the tower walls, showing us the land around Washbrook. The last four look out from the towers around the outer wall of Cameron Castle; from those you can see the town itself.”

  Elaine studied the stone, and I let her try her hand with the symbols. She was easily able to turn them on and off. “What are these for?” she asked, pointing to the symbols along the bottom row, “Do these activate the barrier?”

  “Those light the warning beacons,” I explained quickly. Each of the towers, both those of Castle Cameron and those of the town walls, had a large glass sphere mounted atop their tower roofs. “This one turns the signal on and makes the color a bright blue,” I said pointing to the left most of the bottom three symbols. “The middle one sets it to yellow and the one on the right is for barrier around the entire town and the castle. The next one down just sets it around the castle proper and it’s more powerful in that configuration… less area to cover.”

  “What are those two?” she asked, pointing to the two I hadn’t mentioned yet.

  “Those open the barrier in one of two places, either the city gate or the castle courtyard gate, without removing the main portion of the barrier,” I answered. “That way you can…”

  “…let in refugees without dropping the defenses entirely,” Elaine finished for me. Although she was bright, and a quick learner; her tendency to jump ahead was occasionally annoying. “How will you know if something tries to slip in with them?” she added.

  “Here,” I told her, pointing to another rune. “This one activates the window near the city gate, and this other one does the same near the castle gate.” I turned them on to illustrate the point.

  “But they are so small, how would you… oh!” she remarked, cutting off her statement abruptly.

  “Were you about to ask how we would see well through such a small window?” I said with a faint smile.

  She nodded. “Yes but I can see now, when the portal windows are open, more than just light passes. I can sense everything beyond the glass, just as though I were standing behind a regular window.”

  Walter spoke then, “That’s right, and so long as the glass remains intact, it will function that way, but remember that magic will pass both ways. If you open it and you sense something powerful, such as one of the gods, you must close it immediately, as well as the barrier; otherwise you risk yourself along with our defenses.”

  “Yes, of course Father,” Elaine replied demurely, though I could tell the advice annoyed her. If she had been a teenager, she might have rolled her eyes… fortunately she was older than that.

  “Needless to say,” I said, breaking the tension, “you are only to use this room if I am away and your father isn’t present. You already know the rules for determining whether we will use the red, yellow, or blue signal, but in my absence it is quite simple. If any of the gods show up while I am away, it should be red… immediate evacuation. If it is only one and you think the barrier will hold for a while you might use yellow to allow more time for an orderly evacuation but if there is any doubt don’t risk it.”

  “I understand,” she replied smoothly, her attitude with me was much more deferential. I wondered if I would have similar problems someday with my own daughters. Imagining Moira’s sweet smile and eager to please demeanor, I couldn’t believe it. Surely not, I told myself.

  “From here I think the only things we need to worry about are the preparations for the festival. We’ve done as much as we can to prepare for the worst, and we should have almost a week after the festival before they arrive,” I told them both.

  “I don’t know if I’ll be able to enjoy myself with a sword hanging over our necks,” commented Walter.

  “You can manage! I for one intend to enjoy the dancing,” Elaine said with enthusiasm. “No sense in worrying over things we can’t change.”

  Inwardly I agreed with her, but I had a feeling I would still have the same problem as Walter.

  * * *

  The next few days went by uneventfully, and despite my fears I could find little else to do to prepare. I had been preparing for years already. Instead, I used some of the time to work on the glass mirror that Gram and Matthew had inadvertently broken.

  It was still two days from the festival as I stared at the glass fragments I had spread out upon the worktable in front of me. I was a bit frustrated already, for I had been staring at them for some time. My first effort had been to organize the pieces by shape and size, and somehow begin fusing them back together. That hadn’t worked at all.

  While I could easily fuse any two pieces together, they weren’t necessarily the ‘right’ two pieces. They were so small and so many that I had little hope of fitting them back together as they had been originally. “I might as well just melt all the glass down and create an entirely new mirror from it then,” I said aloud to myself. I didn’t really want to do that though; my intention was to restore the mirror to its former state, complete with any flaws or imperfections that had made it a keepsake.

  I took a deep breath and tried to relax. No good would come from beating my head against the wall. After a time I let my mind wander a bit, and I realized that I could hear the tiny voices of the pieces of glass. Now that it was shattered, each shard had its own unique voice. Focusing on them was merely a matter of patience and practice. Compared to their tiny songs, the beat of the earth was like a massive drum and the sky outside sounded like a rushing river.

  Of course none of these were true ‘sounds’, but that is the only way I can describe them. Along with those, I could also hear the faintly disturbing melody of what I had come to think of as ‘death’ underlying the others, much like a counterpoint to the song of the rest of the world. Why couldn’t I hear it before? I wondered. It was only since rescuing Walter’s spirit from the void that I had begun to hear it running alongside all the other voices of the world.

  Turning away from that topic, I focused again on the tiny shards of glass that lay before me, concentrating on their small harmonies. At first they were all separate, but as I let my attention drift, they began to come into focus as pieces of a more elaborate harmony. Perhaps I could ‘convince’ them to resume their former condition…

  That was a dangerous thought, especially since I had once again given Elaine the day off. I wasn’t supposed to exercise my abilities as an archmage without someone keeping an eye on me. Still, this couldn’t hurt much. I won’t go far, I assured myself.

  With that, I opened myself to the wider influence of the crystalline melodies that lay across the surface of my work table. Keeping myself tightly anchored, I joined the tiny glass songs to my own and slowly began coaxing them into returning to their former state. The effort, though small, took intense concentration, and my sense of time rapidly faded while my consciousness grew ever more ordered.

  An observer watching me would have seen the fragments slowly rearranging themselves, moving and locking into place with each other. That same observer would probably have become bored, for while I had lost my perception of time, hours slipped by unnoticed as Penny’s mirror gradually reformed.

  Eventually, I was almost done
, but I was having trouble remembering what the word meant precisely. For that matter, I was no longer sure exactly why I was doing what I was… I frowned and a memory appeared; that of a woman’s face. I forced myself to focus upon the memory, for I felt instinctively that it held the clue to my reason for being there.

  The woman’s eyes were dark brown, and her hair fell around her in heavy brown curls. In appearance she was much like Penny. Penny? For a moment I struggled to remember the significance of that name. Penny! That’s her mother… I must have dredged up a memory of her from our childhood. With the memories I found it easier to withdraw from the work at hand, but not before finishing; and as I coaxed the last few pieces into place a stroke of inspiration hit me.

  Making subtle adjustments, I altered the now complete mirror, working as quickly as I could before the vividness of my memory was gone. Stepping back, I studied what I had done, pleased with the result. I hope she likes it, if not this might upset her even more.

  Chapter 16

  Though I had anticipated Cyhan’s arrival the day of the festival, he managed to outdo himself and arrive very late the evening before that. Coincidentally, it also led to a lot of work on the part of those at the castle who were responsible for feeding and welcoming our soldiers back. No one complained though, at least not aloud. Well, perhaps that wasn’t true after all, I have little idea what may have been said in places out of my earshot.

  What the servants didn’t know, however, is that I wouldn’t have punished them for their negative sentiments. In fact I was a bit irritated myself, though I knew it was irrational. They had returned because I had commanded it, and they returned at the time they did because they had pushed themselves to the limit to return as soon as humanly possible.