“He certainly had me fooled,” Sherree admitted.
She pulled an amulet from an inner pocket and placed it against her forehead. Her brow furrowed in frustration. “But it is not my imagination. Serin Gell is here and Martin Varroon brought him,” she did not seem to realize she was speaking out loud. It was rare for the Lobenian to lose control. “I don’t know how long we can hold out. No, I don’t know where we will be hiding. When will your team be here,” she paused, “that long, well, we will just have to manage.” She placed the amulet back in her pocket. “Looks like we will be on our own for awhile,” she announced.
Jerremy drew out Master Togan’s amulet. “This is Jerremy DeSuan, Master Artisan, please respond,” he sent.
A deep sense of sadness and loss came through the link but nothing tangible, no thoughts that could be formed into words. Jerremy dropped the amulet. He only had two others, one that Sherree gave him and one from Simon Trenca. He was hard pressed to think of what a newly raised Accomplished of the Willow Guild could do to help, but had no one else to call.
“Simon, this is Jerremy, please respond.”
“What can I do for you?”
“We need help. Serin Gell is one chamber above us. It seems Martin Varroon is a traitor and I fear Master Togan has been Condemned,” Jerremy sent while trying to keep the anxiety he felt from being transmitted along with the words.
“Where is the chamber you are in and who is with you?” Simon asked.
“Sherree Jenna and Joel Glader, a Two-bolt Accomplished of the Aqua Guild are here with me. We’re in the central building beneath Lake Tomlin,” Jerremy replied.
“We should keep moving,” Joel suggested.
“He’s right, let’s go,” Sherree added.
Jerremy nodded his head and followed them, but did not remove the amulet. He motioned for them to stop after traveling about a hundred strides and then made an archway in the wall. They passed into a room with a door facing the opposite way. He then filled in the arch and began forming marble walls in the back half of the room, making it so there was no entrance and anyone who came through the door would only see a wall, hopefully never suspecting the existence of the hidden chamber he just made.
“We are hiding in a secret chamber. You contact me when whatever help you organize gets here and then I’ll tell you where we are,” Jerremy sent, hoping the Battencayan born Accomplished had enough contacts to make a rescue possible.
“I’m in the city of Bon, escorting Miriam and Ron Benhannon to Daniel’s estate. We are in the process of booking passage up the Hirus to Ducanton. I feared Serin Gell would come after them seeking revenge. It seems he chose to start with you and Sherree. I’m sorry about that,” Simon replied.
“We believe he is after the artifact, a silver box inscribed with the letters D.L. within a sarcophagus. For the moment, he seems more interested in that than in us,” Jerremy replied.
“D.L., Della Lain. Jerremy, you found the lost flute of Della Lain!” Simon sent along with a rush of excited emotion.
“No, the letters mean, Determined Lethal,” Jerremy corrected. “The contents are deadly and the whole thing has been warded to make anyone who gets near it extremely sick.”
“I don’t pretend to be an expert on ancient script, but Serin Gell no doubt knows scores, if not hundreds, of lethal spells, and one more is hardly a reason to risk capture. No, the artifact has to be something left there by Della Lain, maybe not the flute, yet something she wanted hidden and protected from the world,” Simon replied. Several moments later he sent, “I am going to inform Senior Forester Galloway, he is in Aakadon and can declare an emergency. I’m also going to contact Samuel, perhaps he can reach a Senior Soarer and we can get the Eagle Guild involved as well. Meanwhile, do the best you can to keep from being captured, and don’t trust any members of the Tomlin Project. You said Martin Varroon led Serin Gell to you and suspect your mentor has been Condemned, there is no way to know who else has been compromised.”
“Thanks Simon, I owe you a gratuity,” Jerremy replied, and then placed the amulet in his pocket.
“Who did you contact?” Sherree asked. “Can you make a bench?”
Jerremy summoned the potential and formed the requested item. They sat, eyeing each other, and the longer he thought about Simon’s interpretation of the inscription, the more it made sense. “My contact in the Willow Guild believes the lethal box belonged to Della Lain, could he be right?”
“Senior Practitioner Chen would have said so if that was the case,” Sherree stated as if there was no possibility her mentor could be wrong.
Joel scratched his chin and then licked his lips. “No one knew of our discovery before we contacted our leads. Yes, I know Martin seems to be compromised. He did not appear to be a Condemned but his response through the amulet causes me to believe he is one, yet not disfigured the way they usually are. His first thought when I informed him earlier about the artifact was the same as that of your friend,” he nodded in Jerremy’s direction. “He spoke of Della Lain until I told him Fenton Chen stated the contents were Determined Lethal and had ordered us quarantined.” He glanced at Sherree. “I believe your mentor might be in error. If the object in the sarcophagus is the flute, and it falls into Serin Gell’s hands, he will destroy it, Tarin Conn will break free, then we and everyone else in the world will be in for the fight of our lives.”
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Could Fenton Chen be wrong? Sherree found the possibility difficult to believe, yet Joel had raised a reasonable doubt. Whether her mentor was correct or not, Martin Varroon was the one who led Serin Gell to the chamber. “Senior Practitioner Chen could be right about the inscription. Your Oceanic believed the letters stood for Della Lain and someone had to have informed the renegade. Whatever actually is in the sarcophagus, clearly they believe it is the flute, and that is what’s driving them,” she pointed out.
“Emphasizing his title does not make him correct,” Jerremy replied. “But I agree with your assessment of Serin Gell’s motivation.”
“Regardless of who is right or wrong, we are in extreme danger. Sherree, does that spell you used to locate the potential emanating from the amulets also indicate the direction of Aakacarns?” Joel asked a very good question.
Sherree summoned the potential and nearly screamed. Life force energy was all around the outside of the chamber Jerremy so skillfully crafted. Two sources were on the other side of the wall behind them, with pairs to the right, left, above and beneath their location. There was nowhere to flee. “We are completely surrounded,” she announced and could not keep the fear from her voice.
“We’ll fight,” Jerremy stated, but even he sounded half-hearted. What chance did they have?
“Stone Guild, can you reinforce the walls, draw more of the marble from the surrounding walls and floor into your construct?” Joel asked.
Jerremy nodded his head, pulled his baton from his waistband and began to glow with potential. The energy flowed into the walls, which gave off a violet hue. Sherree could feel the outside potentials increasing. The enemy was now actively trying to get to them.
Joel cast a spell and the water around the sphere turned into solid ice, strengthening the walls Jerremy was trying to hold together. Sherree had no spells in her repertoire useful for such an endeavor, but she knew of one that could be useful if the enemy succeeds in breaking through. Her Serinian friend was blinking rapidly and licking his lips, meaning the strain was draining the moisture from his eyes and mouth, eventually he will dehydrate to the point of passing out.
A small crack appeared in the wall behind them, then another and another, each spreading and crawling ever farther and wider. Cracks began in the other three walls and chunks of marble fell to the floor until the walls were gone and only the ice held back the enemy, most were expressionless members of the Tomlin Project, all of them bald and empty-eyed. Serin Gell and two of his affiliates were hiding among the aggressors. Now she could focus her spell, Easi
ng The Pain, amber beams of light shot from her fingers, striking every Aakacarn in sight, causing them to go numb and stiffen, just like a patient on the operating table, unfortunately she did not hit all of her foes.
Jets of hot water assaulted the ice. A burnt amber beam struck Joel and after about ten heart beats he began to scream, the sphere vanished and water began breaking down the ice. In a whoosh, Sherree was swept off her feet, barely having time to draw a breath before being completely submerged. She swam into a sphere occupied by several stiffened Aakacarns, Salla and Daria, both expressionless, and the next moment she went stiff, no longer having control over her own body. It was as if she were a separate entity trapped in a fleshly container. That body began to scream. She was aware of the pain the body she occupied was in but felt detached from it. Before she could count to twenty the pain stopped and the two Aakacarns sharing the sphere with her regained their freedom of movement, her spell was broken.
“Come.” The voice of Serin Gell compelled the body she was in, and it obeyed.
They all floated to the surface and walked into the compound. The body Sherree was in glanced down and she noticed long strands of yellow-gold hair falling from beneath her silks. Soon she would be hairless, she knew what that meant. Nothing in her life prepared her for being Condemned. She tried with all of her mental capacity to blink one eye, just one, a single act of self-will, but her body was no longer hers to control, she was just a passenger.
Ahead and peripherally she noticed Jerremy, hairless, and Joel, also hairless. Each and every member of the team was completely bald, but had not as of yet been disfigured. Serin Gell stepped in front of her. “One of my associates wanted to keep you as his pet, but I have other plans for you. I now have two of the four Aakacarns who defeated me at Bashierwood and am half way to triumphing over all of you, but that is for my leisure time. You are mine now. I don’t know if enough of your intellect remains and can understand what I am saying, but if some part of you does, know that my associates are leading your impotent Ducaunan friend right to my doorstep. Think on that until I get around to finishing the Condemnation I began on you,” he told her in a scratchy tone of voice, and then walked over to the silver box floating in the air beside two other members of the Serpent Guild, a male taller than Jerremy, and a plump female.
He aimed a baton at the amulets protecting the artifact, ice crystals formed and the gemstones cracked. Serin Gell kicked them, they fell apart, and he then opened the silver box. What do you know? Fenton was wrong and Jerremy’s contact had been right, inside was a flute. The world would soon be at war and all she could think of was death destruction and loss. She was filled with despair, but she could not cry because tears were beyond her ability to control.
The tall One-bolt Accomplished accompanying the pasty-faced Pentrosan shouted for joy and pumped his fist in the air. “Are you going to destroy the flute now?”
Serin Gell closed the lid and turned to face the crowd. “Not yet, Jordan, when the trumpet of Tarin Conn is in my hand, I will use it to destroy the flute.”
His other associate, a slightly plump woman, joined the conversation. “I’m sure you are strong enough to destroy the crescendo and free our Supreme Maestro right now.”
Serin Gell seemed tempted, but then shook his head. “No. After I have the trumpet, and have had my revenge on Daniel Benhannon, both of which will come to me shortly, I will destroy the flute,” he stated and eyed the people he had just Condemned. “Enough talk, we must be going.”
His baton was now within the folds of his cloak. He replaced it with a piccolo. “Everyone gather around. Follow the notes I play and focus your potential into me,” he commanded, and then began performing a Melody.
The brain in the body Sherree occupied. The one that was hers but not hers, registered the notes, potential flowed into her, and was focused at Serin Gell. Three heart beats later, they were all facing a rocky hillside. “Follow me,” her master commanded.
She was taken to a chamber and ordered to remove her silks, which she refused to do, but her body did not listen to her and complied with the command. Serin Gell aimed his baton at her and went to work. The body that used to be hers began to scream while various parts were ripped away from her and the twisted Aakacarn seemed delighted by each and every wail. She did not bleed to death, which meant the spell had to be healing the flesh nearly as fast as the individual parts were torn away. The pain was hers but not hers. Fenton would have been so proud. She finally achieved clinical detachment, aware of the agony yet, cut off to the point of indifference. The body she had been born with was no longer hers and all of the pain belonged to it. He was molding it, changing the shape into something not even close to human. She was no longer staring strait ahead, but from the sides, kind of like a small bird or a fish. Her hands and feet resembled flippers, so it was a fish he was creating out of her.
All the efforts and sacrifices she made were for nothing, striving to be at the top of her class, following the rules to the best of her ability, always exceeding what was expected of her, and denying herself the love of a decent man who would have married her in a heart beat. If she had it all to do again, she would only change one thing, accept Daniel’s proposal. No, she would propose to him as any decent Lobenian would, except she would do so privately, so she could have him and her career. The hypocrites in Aakadon say she can have any sexual partner she wanted so long as she is discrete and does not procreate, but she cannot marry him. The body she was in was shedding tears now, she wept along with it, for the things that could have been but never will be, and for the thought that this same fate awaits the man she should have married, but did not.
She hated what this evil man was doing to her body, which was shaped like a fish, flat and long with arms and legs that could be pressed flat against the torso, of which anyone looking at it would be hard pressed to determine the gender. Standing was difficult and she could hardly draw a breath. Lungs were not meant to be compressed in this manner and she knew the laboring heart in her chest only beat because the spell compelled it to do so. She should be dead. Serin Gell’s alterations were so extreme the body could not function in its current state for long, guaranteeing death in the near future, unless he chooses to rearrange her into a different form.
Chapter Fifteen: A Plan in Motion
Serena wiped perspiration from her brow while trying to keep the river to her left and not get sidetracked down an oxbow, which would lead to a lake they would have to circumvent, again. She could have sworn that last one was passable when they came by the first time on their way south, it must have rained and covered the original path. Gray clouds hid the sun, night would come early, and she needed to find a place to camp.
“I remember drier ground farther north and to the east, about a half a span ahead,” Ana Tigress informed her.
“That’s exactly where we are going,” Serena replied as if she had planned to stop there all along.
Duggan nodded her head as if convinced her team leader had everything under control while Ferret accepted whatever Serena told him as a fact. Taltin no longer flattered her, but he offered no criticisms of her decision making and obeyed without question. SuTamkin, on the other had, sneered as if he knew she only remembered the drier ground after it had been pointed out to her. That and a score of earlier remarks showed he did not respect her. She would have to do something about his attitude. Of the one hundred forty-three surviving sasquatches under her command, twenty-one, including Gurrumble, had been left in the swamp to discourage pursuit, so she had plenty to choose from if it became necessary for one of them to carry the illegitimate son of a lord. He had the intelligence to keep his mouth shut this time, perhaps sensing her mood.
“Serena, what have you to report?” Vance Cummin’s voice sounded in her mind.
“Ana, I am receiving a communication, take the lead,” she said out loud and then fell in second position behind Tigress and concentrated on the conversation in her head. “I have the trumpet of
Tarin Conn tucked under my right arm.”
“That is good news. Rather than teleport to Serpent North, why don’t you come to me at my residence in Holcum?”
The reply put her in the unfortunate position of having to make an explanation she had hoped to avoid. “I need a team to meet us in Rivertown.”
“One is curious as to why I should send another team. A task was delegated to you. The choices, strategy, tactics, personnel, and resources were left up to you and none of your requests were denied. Did I err in entrusting the task to the wrong person?”
She chose not to dignify that question with an answer. “I was successful in obtaining the trumpet but the price was not without cost. Five members of my team survived, the rest died in the assault and infiltration, leaving me not enough combined potential to perform, Teleportation. The trumpet is shielded in a cedar box and we are unable to open it,” she sent and then took a deep breath, not caring that her team was seeing her sweat, yet glad they could not hear her conversation. “I take full credit for taking possession of the trumpet and full responsibility for the losses incurred. On balance, the Serpent Guild benefits, and as team leader I am calling on the authority you gave me to allocate ten Accomplisheds to be at Rivertown when I arrive.” It was a bold move to demand help rather than beg for it, but she had succeeded in her task and refused to be treated like a failure.
“Communicate with me when you arrive at your destination, a team will be sent, per your authority to allocate resources. Your leadership lacks efficiency, but in the end it is the results that count, so I will be lenient. Next time, report to me sooner, and in the future do not make me learn through other contacts what should have been reported to me by you.” he replied. It was scary how much that man knew. “Just so you know. Daniel Benhannon is following your team and even though he has been Silenced, the Supreme Maestro has plans for him, which means discouragement of pursuit is your only option.”
To Be Chosen (The Maestro Chronicles) Page 30