Talismans

by Lisa Lowell

  With a wrench Raimi came to herself and felt how the sun had shifted to the far side of the bay as she had concentrated on her deep spell, but now she knew. If she set the seals, the stewards would come as God prepared them. Each would be tied to a Wise One as a loyal companion, devoted to their one queen or king, an immortal and steady friend, meant to serve. Were they even real? Raimi did not know, but she had answers enough. As she knew waters would always flow and eventually meet the sea, so she would have faith that this too would come to fruition.

  Yet having successfully created another deep magic spell, Raimi felt little accomplishment. Perhaps she still carried the fears that her magic would cause bad long term effects on those she loved. Perhaps her lingering sense of melancholy stemmed from Owailion's departure. Since she was staying within Tamaar's shield to work on the palace gardens her husband was not free to come visit her every night and so for the first time since her arrival in the Land Raimi was essentially alone for extended spaces of time. Either way, she had plenty to occupy her time during the days. This palace did not require the stone pathways and strong walls that Paleone did but instead it dripped with hanging gardens suitable to the tropical sea shore it occupied, and this kept Raimi's mind active during the daytime.

  However at night she dreamed with alarming vividness. Owailion had warned her that dreams for a Wise One were important, especially if you remembered them. Owailion often wakened with a perfect design for a palace dripping out of his mind and had shared these stunning images with her so she appreciated why he understood exactly how to build each grand mansion. Raimi's dreams, up until now, came hazily, as if through deep water and the imagery all seemed symbolic.

  Now alone in the Tamaar palace Raimi slept in one of the glorious, open rooms with a balcony that looked out over the deep turquoise bay and that water somehow made it into her dreams. A three mast ship had drawn close into the narrow harbor and dropped anchor just beyond the Seal. In her mind's eye it was the same vessel from Imzuli's bargain but without a soul aboard. Instead Raimi just heard a voice in her head.

  “Raimi, are you there?” She seemed to recognize the male voice, and it brought discomfort unlike God's voice. Who was it? Stylmach? She remembered the slight accent and it concerned her dream self but she had to listen anyway.

  “Yes,” she replied in her dream.

  “Will you speak with me?” asked Stylmach seductively. “Please, Raimi, tell me about yourself.”

  This time she automatically told him all she knew; Queen of Rivers, Wise One magician, married to Owailion, friends with Mohan and Imzuli. At mention of the white dragon the sorcerer hummed knowingly but didn't interrupt. Then when she mentioned her Talismans the dream interrogator grew interested enough to ask more probing questions.

  “Raimi, tell me more about this bowl. It is magic?”

  “It shows the past,” Raimi explained, dreaming a familiar sense of alarm. Why was she giving her short life story to this dream character? She deliberately tried not to share what specific things she had seen in the bowl.

  And the sorcerer sensed her reluctance, so instead he switched topics. “That's a lovely mansion you have there. We have seen others coming up across the Land. Is it yours?”

  “No,” she answered flatly, hoping Stylmach would not go further.

  “Where is yours? I assume you are a great enough magician to warrant such an elaborate palace as this.”

  Was he playing to her supposed vanity? Was she so sensitive that she felt shame that Owailion still had not built her a home? No, she wasn't tempted to fall for that ploy but she also was not willing to reveal where hers would eventually be built.

  “Mine is coming,” Raimi answered since in the dream she didn't feel like she could be rude enough to not say something.

  “Ah,” the outlander commented knowingly, insinuating that she was further down the list because of a perceived weakness on her part. Then he began to feed on her more pernicious instinct. “Everything you touch will go wrong somehow. Look how your guide and friend Imzuli ended up being the thief of the rune stones. Why is Owailion unable to build your palace? He cannot even find someplace to conceal the pipes so you can play hide-and-seek for them. It seems so silly.”

  Then the sorcerer drew her back away from that distressing line of self-doubt and plunged her into more alarming areas. “Raimi, tell me of the Heart Stone,” he commanded.

  The order was irresistible. Raimi could not stop herself and part of her realized her deepest fears had come true. That sane portion of her mind still asleep screamed out in alarm, trying to resist, but she was not strong enough to fight the compulsion. There had been a reason to fear this nightmare man but she simply had to tell him about Heart Stones. Could she manipulate that request?

  “Heart Stones are a Wise One's conscience,” she began, striving to give only the most innocuous details. “It prevents us from using our magic for evil.” She hoped it was so, or Stylmach's name magic could force her to do something she would regret for an eternity.

  “Ah, and do you have one?” Again Stylmach insinuated that she might be unworthy of such a blessing. Or was he hoping to get more details, such as how to obtain one for himself; plucking them off a river bank like a skipping stone.

  “Yes.” She would resist the impulse as much as possible, and gave no freely offered information. She would not point out that to be a magician in the Land one must have a Heart Stone or the Seal would block them out. What would happen if an outlander sorcerer acquired one? What if this Stylmach commanded her to give her stone to him? Would he be able to cross the Seal?

  “Raimi, tell me how you found your Heart Stone.” Again the command washed over her insistently. Without recourse she told him about finding it at the bottom of the river, implying that it was not born with her into this world. She hoped that led the sorcerer astray enough to not ask that she give it to him.

  Abruptly the nightmare began to grow too foggy in her mind. Could the sorcerer not maintain the link to her? Raimi squirmed frantically, detesting the connection. A nightmare of demons would be preferable. She was going to betray the Land and all the people she loved.

  “It is time for me to go,” Stylmach announced eerily. “Raimi, your shields will remain down to me and Raimi, you will forget this conversation completely.” With that the dream faded away but he parted with the final chilling promise. “We will speak again tomorrow night.”

  Chapter 18 – Nightmares

  Raimi awoke at dawn feeling unrested. Why must humans have to sleep? As a magician she should at least have the ability to stay awake like the dragons, she thought groggily. She walked, stretching as she moved onto the balcony and looked out at the brilliant ocean that spilled out from under the cliff. No ships came near the Land – no one to trade with – but she wondered if outlanders would come to try to break through the Seal and she could see them coming like Tamaar claimed. How would a human see them coming?

  Well, Raimi thought, she could experiment with some more deep magic. She had already created a language spell and the guardian for Lake Ameloni as well as the spell binding the palace shields to the door stewards for the future Wise Ones. She might not be able to see evidence of these spells, but it was worth a try to do another one. Was there a similar spell she could utilize to keep sorcerers away from the Land?

  Raimi looked out over the water and drew on the deep magic, grounding it in the roots of the Land. Then she wished that every ship that …no, she could not capsize ships just because they carried a sorcerer. Perhaps something more benign. Thinking for a moment she instead bound the spell so that every magician traveling over water became seasick, no matter the size of boat or how strong the remedy they might concoct. Yes, that she could wish into being. Raimi felt restless with the powerful need to do something, anything to defend the Land from the evil she sensed creeping in on her.

  Then, to rid herself of these premonitions Raimi worked hard the day around gardening the palace at Tamaar; roses, wisteria,
and exotic plants she could not recall the name of but she imagined they smelled wonderful. These gardens might not be seen or appreciated by anyone for a thousand years but they needed to complement Owailion's work and be self-maintaining until the palaces became occupied, so here again, she crafted deep magic. Besides in this case Raimi felt reasonably sure she wasn't going to harm anyone by involving herself or her magic.

  Abruptly another thought brought a shiver to Raimi's spine. She knew settlers would come breaking the Seal, building villages all up and down the rivers. She had witnessed it in the Talisman bowl. Perhaps the other distressing events like Imzuli's mountain or the devastation on the Lara Delta were natural and not caused by outlanders. Yet someone had destroyed her home on the delta. Raimi wished passionately that she could unsee that destruction. Perhaps it took place over millennia? Mountains fell and land rose in that kind of time frame. Maybe the Wise Ones could prevent some of the things they had seen and so many beautiful places did not have to be destroyed. But the coming of settlers always had seemed inevitable and somewhat welcome.

  Depression followed Raimi's work that day and so at dusk Raimi went swimming in the bay to wash away her dark mood. She hoped to relax with the realization that she had only a few more days to work on the gardens and then she could go and follow Owailion. The water in the deep harbor she hoped might be just the thing to ease her tension.

  However Raimi was wrong. Instead she felt as if she would drown, which was silly since her gift with rivers and swimming applied to any body of water. The dark of the deep bay made her feel as if something toothy might come up and nibble on her toes and so after only a few hasty minutes in the water she waded back out and went to bed early.

  Unfortunately the dreams descended again. A ship sailed into her sleep, but she did not remember it from her nightmare before. Oddly enough in this vision the vessel came across a snow field, coming up the Lara River to a branching, as if following her retreat, invading her mind. The ship remained unmanned and adrift. She vaguely recalled Stylmach and while familiar, she could not recall where she had heard his accusatory tone.

  “You are a naughty little witch, Raimi. You cast a spell on me. I've never been seasick and now suddenly I am? How is that? Answer me, Raimi.”

  The compulsion on her rocked her head on its neck with the force. Seasick? Had she made him ill? How could she not remember this powerful magic? Was this from her former life? Raimi gulped, and then carefully replied to the mysterious sorcerer, “I did not put a spell on you.” It wasn't a lie technically. She had put a spell on all sorcerers, not him specifically.

  “Well, it was powerful. What's the cure?” the outlander demanded in a sour tone.

  Raimi didn't feel the compulsion tied to that question to force her to answer, so she didn't. “What do you want of me that you are invading my dreams?”

  “I want you to help me become a Wise One,” Stylmach replied frankly. “And if you don't, I will make you destroy every stone in your Land.”

  Raimi thought she would shake with fear at that prospect but something of the Wise One slipped into her sleeping mind and she felt a streak of defiance come to the surface. “Rivers might flow upstream once in a while but that's what it will take, you know,” she boldly replied.

  “Raimi, tell me what it takes to become a Wise One of the Land.”

  The magical imperative made the snow darken in her nightmare and she could not gather the will to fight it, except in her tone. “You don't. Anyone who manipulates others is unworthy of being a Wise One. God chooses us, wipes our memory, gives us a Heart Stone and brings us to the Land. You must ask Him.”

  This bold reply did not deaden her tormentor's fixation on the subject. “Raimi, will possessing a Heart Stone turn me into a Wise One?” Stylmach snarled.

  Raimi kicked at the black snow as she fought how this flow was going to pull her away from the Land and all she loved. “I don't know. I forgot all when I arrived.”

  Another query burned into her mind. “So Raimi, what are some of the limits to your magic with the Heart Stone?”

  She was beginning to hate the sound of her own name. If she ever escaped this Stylmach she would change her name without a thought…after she ripped this single-minded sorcerer to shreds. “Yes, many that you will find bothersome. For instance, I cannot lie. I cannot kill unless it is in defense of the Land, others or myself. Also I may not do anything that is not honorable and good in the eyes of God, such as use name magic to manipulate people. I am obligated to protect the Land from demons and sorcerers like you and my life is dedicated to that. And…and I cannot have children.”

  “Interesting…you cannot lie?” Stylmach sounded doubtful.

  “No, not even when you are not forcing me to answer your worthless questions. Now let me go,” she ordered, to no effect.

  “I am not done with you.” Then he stated the words she feared the most. “Give me the Heart Stone, Raimi.”

  The Queen of Rivers trembled with icy fear and in her mind she wailed for Owailion's help, but in a nightmare her call failed, blocked by Stylmach's command. Owailion could not help her. And she did not want her husband near to see this shameful act. What if the sorcerer commanded her to attack the man she loved as well? What if Stylmach began manipulating Owailion too?

  Raimi tried to delay the inevitable. “How can I give it to you? You're not real. You're only a nightmare.” Indeed she hoped that a nightmare was all she faced, but at the moment she was only lying to herself and she knew it.

  “Hold the Heart Stone out to the ship, Raimi.”

  The command slammed into her like rocks at the bottom of a waterfall, crushing and icy. She gasped, striving for a way free of the pounding power of that order and could not come up with a way to avoid doing as she was told. Like her hand performed the actions of a puppet, she reached into her soul and pulled free the little blue orb. In her nightmare she closed her eyes and held it out over the snowfield toward the boat.

  “You will forget that we have had this conversation. You will not speak to anyone of this. You will not do any spells against me, ever Raimi.”

  Then an invisible hand reached out and snatched the globe from her hand. Raimi remained aware enough to see how the slow pulsing orb abruptly sped up its beat to match the pace of its new owner's heart. Then the nightmare faded and Raimi woke up gasping in the dark.

  “Raimi, what's wrong?” she heard Owailion's welcome voice in her mind and she lay back against the pillows in relief.

  “Nightmare,” she explained to her husband. She could tell he was somewhere in a tent up in the mountains, just rising for the morning while she still had a few hours of starlight, being farther west.

  “Tell me about your nightmare,” he suggested gently, since he couldn't be there with her.

  “That's just it; I can't remember anything of it. I just feel….empty.” She sighed, wondering what was going on with her. For nights now she had such awful dreams that unaccountably eluded her and she just could not imagine enduring more. “I think I have a good enough grasp of the gardens here that I can complete what I must from a distance. Can I come join you?”

  “I would love your company. I'm up here in the western edge of the Great Chain. Oh, and just be warned. I've finally found a place for your second Talisman.”

  Raimi smiled through her exhaustion. “I'll tell Tamaar that I'm leaving and then join you.”

  * * *

  Owailion stared in wonder at the change he saw in Raimi after only a few days away from him. The light had fled from the river in her eyes. She looked haggard and the dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep did not explain it all. Indeed, a Wise One could grow ill? If so, then that was it, but what had caused this change? Raimi might claim that she was not sleeping well, but the lurking prophesy of Enok haunted him.

  Well, he would do what he could to help her recover. Owailion conjured a huge luxurious bed in the tent he used while up in the mountains and insisted that she rest there that
day. Now here with him again Raimi finally slept peacefully. While she napped, Owailion privately, for he suspected she would not appreciate his investigations, utilized her Talisman bowl to go back and look at her activities during her time in Tamaar. He saw her working on the gardens, the deep spells, occasionally swimming and then going to bed every night. Nothing else seemed to happen. With no disturbing dreams Raimi awoke after a few hours and then came to find him at his work site.

  “Okay, so you finally hid the pipes,” she began as she looked over the stunning scene of a great pit set in the pass between two huge mountains as Owailion guided a white foundation stone into the hole.

  Owailion nodded and she could see the secret smile on his lips. “I realized that I would not get any more inspired ideas until I faced my fears. And when I did, I found a place for your pipes. I knew then that the thing you and I want least to do is confront Imzuli. The minute I thought about that I knew the pipes belonged with her.”

  Raimi looked better for her nap, Owailion noted but her look of puzzlement slowed him pointing that out. She finally asked, “You went and spoke with her? And you also hid the pipes with Imzuli. Now you are telling me where they are? Isn't that defeating the purpose of hiding the Talismans?”

  “No, the purpose isn't to hide them,” he countered. “The idea is to challenge you, force you to pass some kind of magical task. You and I are both reluctant to talk to Imzuli. I passed my part of the trial when I went to give her the pipes and saw that she was indeed asleep. I know she did not make the deal with that sorcerer to stay awake. Now it's your turn to speak with her about the stones…and ask for the pipes. That is your trial.”

  Raimi swallowed with worry. “That's going to be another nightmare. You know that I worry about everything I involve myself in ends up for the worse, and this could very easily go sideways.”