Looming Shadow: Journey to Chaos book 2

by Brian Wilkerson

  “How so?”

  “If I can prove that your Haunted Castle is the final lair of Dengel Tymh, then people the world over will flock here to see it. Other scholars, mages, and their students, families on vacation; all of them will come and spend money here. The world will see this country as more than a mana-free zone and so the top brass will want the country to look nice for them, and with so much attention focused here, they will be friendlier to the locals. You can improve the lives of everyone in the country.”

  Caffour considered this and said, “What if I didn't want to take such a risk? What if I like our situation the way it is now?”

  Suddenly, the atmosphere intensified. Eric could feel it on his skin. It was perfectly measured and controlled spiritual power filling the area with its potency. It was a light pressure on him, but Caffour was pushed to his knees. Haburt's eyes glowed pale grey.

  “In that case, I would say that I am not asking for permission. I am extending a mutually beneficial offer.” He increased the pressure and forced Caffour to kowtow. “When I return home, I hope to tell the world about your magnificent hospitality and how you should not be treated like mongrels because of your pitiful spiritual power.” He recoiled his spirit and Caffour shivered uncontrollably. “I trust we understand each other?”

  The monkey humanoid made an admirable attempt to regain control of himself, failed, and shivered for a minute longer. Nearby civilians made no attempt to help him. They feared the stranger's power and so they pretended they didn't notice him. Zettai memorized what he did and filed it away for future reference. At last, Caffour's spirit settled and he stood up.

  “Yes, I understand your intentions perfectly. If you will follow me, I will take you to our local expert and mountain guide.”

  The governor led them out of the marketplace, and past the main area of the town, to a house at the base of the mountain. Unlike the other buildings that were made of mud or stone blocks, this one looked like it was molded with earth magic. It reminded Eric of the designs he'd seen in Roalt’s Brown Town of Art and Creativity. This home was made of chocolate-brown stone with two dark chocolate orbs set above a triangle-shaped hole. Caffour knocked on the door and his raps formed the first part of “shave and a haircut” and someone from inside finished it.

  “She's home.” At their puzzled looks, he pointed at the Fog cloud hovering at the mountain's peak. “She breathes a lot of Fog.”

  “Does that mean she’s an ‘addict’?” Zettai asked.

  “She’s something.”

  Inside the house was a single room with a fire pit, a cistern, and floor-to-ceiling writing. All of it concerned the mountain: its geography, topography, weather, Fog level/intensity, and what appeared to be hymns in praise of it. While this was interesting for a bookworm like Eric, the truly fascinating thing was the writer herself. She was examining a glowing rock on a tablet at her right and carving more notes into a pedestal on her left. When she was done, she pushed the pedestal into the ground with a wave of her hand and brought a fresh one up with the same gesture.

  That’s magecraft! SILENT magecraft! It puts her on Basilard's level!

  Caffour stood straight with his back to her and announced, “Travelers, I present to you, Lady Sias, Duchess of Daici, Mistress of Minerals, and High Priestess of the Cult of the Mountain.”

  The lady put her chisel on the table and turned to face her guests. She wore a bright brown ankle-length cloak that was free of all dust and grime. Underneath was a similarly clean green dress and white petticoats. Attached to the fabric at the hem, the waist and neckline were rocks of assorted colors. She pulled back her hood to reveal long, pink hair and said something in sign language.

  “Are you deaf or missing a tongue?” Tiza asked.

  Sias glared. Basilard smacked Tiza atop the head and signed in reply. Sias smiled and signed again, and thus began an extended conversation between her and Basilard. She didn't pay attention to Haburt, despite his attempts to gain it, and Basilard pushed him aside when he stepped in their way. Ultimately, Basilard signed something that made her blush, giggle, and finally nod.

  “You're supposed to ask for a guide,” Haburt said coldly. “Not a date.”

  Basilard winked. “Who says I can't have both?”

  He bowed to Sias and walked out of the hut.

  Outside, Basilard spoke at length about Sias and her work. She was a geologist from Angisland that came to study the mountain's interior, the species of rock threading it, and the effect its Fog had on the parched land. When she reached the peak, she had a religious awakening and founded the Cult of the Mountain. For the last ten years, she’d been both researching and worshipping the mountain.

  “I’ve never seen you so taken with a client before,” Nolien said.

  “I’m not ‘taken.’ I’m simply interviewing predecessors.”

  “Then what's with the charm all of a sudden?” Tiza asked.

  “The Mother Dragon says, 'one catches' –”

  “It's the pink hair, isn't it?” Eric asked. Basilard paused and this was a fatal mistake. “Pink hair makes you hot, doesn't it?”

  “No, it doesn't.” Tiza opened her mouth. “Tiza, say one word about 'pink hair' and I'll tell Nolien about Sathel's presents.” Tiza's mouth clicked closed. “That goes for you too, Eric. I can tell Annala about your problem with Magic Sight. You as well, Nolien. I can tell everyone your secret.”

  Nolien was incredulous. “You're kidding, right? That's no threat.”

  “True, but I wanted to be impartial.”

  Back at his office, Caffour offered to assign each of them to a host family for the duration of their stay, but Basilard refused. He didn’t want his party split up under any circumstances. Instead, they made camp as they had for the last week. Then, he sat down with the governor and demanded to hear everything he knew about this Crimson Killer.

  “Corpses have been found in the streets and in homes, shriveled and bloodless. There are also cases of people disappearing outright. While the former appears to be random, this second group has two similarities: their parents are either dead or estranged and they have a keen interest in magic.”

  Basilard groaned at this last piece of information. Caffour raised an eyebrow. That was not the reaction he was expecting.

  “Is there something wrong, Mr. Bladi?”

  “Hopefully not. Has this criminal been tied to rape?”

  “No, that doesn’t happen here.”

  Basilard’s eyes glowed dangerously.

  “Due to our mutations, few in this town are sexually compatible with anyone else. No one has yanked my banana in ten years!”

  “My condolences, governor; please continue with the Crimson Killer.”

  “Oh yes, of course. The most popular one is the Ancient-Magic-Zombie-King. A king that lived in the aftermath of Ceiha's golden age two thousand years ago. When the empire was falling apart due to the Avatar War, this king turned to dark magic to preserve his chunk of it. Instead, it preserved his body and he was trapped within the castle on the mountain until the first researchers came to investigate it. They accidentally released him and, by then, the king had gone mad from isolation. He killed them and went on to terrorize the country. He lives by stealing blood from his victims.”

  “Close but not quite,” Basilard said. “The more likely option is that he fled here to escape his lawful punishment and was so desperate that he made a contract with the one deity that would take him in: Death. Then he used the castle as his new base of operations to maintain his ego. The other mountain with its abundant Fog is also a possibility. He would need a great deal of energy for his forbidden research. The abductions are experiments and the husks are him feeding to dilute his cursed blood. In other words, this Ancient-Magic-Zombie-King story is correct except for the origin.”

  “Do you know him?” Nolien asked.

  “No. He's a stranger to me. As far as I'm concerned, he's just one more monster.”

  The novices wisely dropped th
e subject.

  “Anything else?”

  “There’s also a strange epidemic in this part of the country, but don’t worry! The Death Priests said it’s not contagious. The symptoms are black sores, decaying skin, weakness in the limbs, and depression about the inevitability of death. The priests say he’s responsible.”

  “That’s necro-poisoning. It’s a side effect of necrocraft; both using it and being the victim of it. I’ll make sure he pays for tampering with the flow of life.”

  The next morning, they met Sias at the start of the trail up to the mountain. The way up was steep and rocky. Glowing green fungus grew on random ledges, yet Sias was still wearing her formal gown.

  “Are you stupid?” Tiza asked. “You can't climb in that.”

  Sias glared and Basilard smacked. The lady of rocks smiled in his direction and he bowed his head. She picked up her skirts and walked up the path with him at her side. The rest of the group followed behind them.

  “I think she has mind control,” Tiza whispered.

  “That's absurd,” Nolien whispered back. “If she had mind control, it would bleach her hair grey. Something else is controlling him, if you know what I mean.”

  He walked around a boulder in their way while Tiza scampered up and over it and jumped down on the path in time to tap her foot, waiting for him. Eric jumped down beside her, Zettai tried to sneak up on her, and Haburt walked behind Nolien but in full view. They walked this way until they reached the first cliff and the true base of the mountain.

  Up close, Eric could truly appreciate how sheer the cliffs were. His neck creaked, craning back far enough to see the top and, even then, Fog obscured the summit. It was a black mountain that was sandpaper smooth. This wasn't natural; no amount of weather could do this. The only blemishes were caused by previous mountain climbers.

  “Hey, Professor,” Eric said after a drink, “did Dengel invent magical rock-climbing equipment?”

  “Yes,” Haburt said with a dry smile. “They're called 'wings.'”

  The path of sky was quicker and safer and fit Dengel's ego of hovering over the land. It was yet another reason Haburt was willing to spend so much time and money to reach this castle. Few people from Dengel's age could reach it easily enough to call it home.

  Here, Sias held out a hand to get their attention and signed. Basilard translated,

  “The castle at the top of this mountain belongs to me, but an evil spirit prevents me from entering it. I have brought you here to assist me in exorcising him so I may claim my birthright. The mountain warns me of traps that the fiend has set against me. Booby traps are in the lower reaches and a fear field is in the upper reaches. The mountain will generate all the hand and footholds you will need. When you reach the Fear Field, count to forty-two and you will be level with the source of fear and one step away from fire.”

  “You hear that, Fan-girl Damsel?” Tiza asked Zettai. “This is dangerous.”

  “I'm not a damsel and I ain't afraid of no ghosts.”

  “Are you sure?” Tiza asked. “I hear it likes the girls.”

  “I ain't afraid of no ghosts!”

  She grabbed their bag of mountaineering equipment and suited herself up. Tiza grabbed the next set and thought aloud of the ghosts she and Nolien encountered in Najica and the horrors they inflicted. Nolien was third and spoke of how they defeated them. Eric completed the square because he wanted to hear the story. Neither Tiza nor Nolien wanted to talk about it.

  Sias didn't equip any gear. Instead, she put a hand on the mountain and levitated five feet. Basilard had to use Magic Sight to make out the signs she made at that height.

  “She wants to know what's taking so long,” Basilard said while hooking up Haburt's gear.

  “I want to know how she's doing that,” Eric and Zettai chorused.

  This made the latter blush. Despite her insistence that she wasn't a “fan-girl damsel,” she privately admitted that Tiza had a point. It made her feel awkward around Eric because embarrassing fantasies popped into her head.

  “I'll ask once we catch up.”

  The last time Eric climbed a mountain was during gym class on a climbing wall. It terrified him and he often fell before reaching the top. Today, he would climb without a trace of his former weakness. He reached for a stone and Shadow Dengel generated next to him.

  “You will die, loser.” Eric grabbed a second rock and pulled himself up. Shadow Dengel floated beside him. “You know better than anyone how dangerous this will be. Why put yourself in danger?” Tiza was like a squirrel in a tree, reaching the top so fast. “Or her?” Basilard was already there and scolded her for recklessness until the rest of the party caught up.

  “Do not be afraid,” Sias signed and Basilard translated. “I have asked the mountain to look out for you and it has accepted my request. It will catch you if you fall.”

  Then she ascended higher.

  “How’s she doing that?” Zettai asked. “Wind magic?”

  “I bet it’s gravity magic as an offshoot of earth magic,” Eric said. “She uses the mass of the mountain to adjust local gravity. She’s not rising off the ground as much as the mountain is pulling her up.” He looked to Basilard for confirmation. “Am I right?”

  “Eighty points,” the senior replied.

  The climb continued cliff after cliff and ledge after ledge. The mountain attracted the sun's heat and Eric's hand burned from grabbing one sunbaked handhold after another. In every other way, the mountain assisted his climb. It was a remarkably benevolent construct. Instead of handholds moving out of his reach, more formed out of the smooth stone for him to grab, and instead of pushing him away, it pulled him closer to its surface. It even warned him of booby traps by making them pulse red.

  “Daylra, did she really ask the mountain to help us?”

  “Short answer, ‘yes.’ You'll need to ask the professor for the long answer.”

  After some-odd hours climbing, Sias created a perch large enough for all of them to sit on and eat lunch. While the rest of them plopped down in exhaustion, Sias gracefully descended to a kneeling position and spread her skirts around. She looked as fresh and clean as if she were strolling in a park. Once he caught his breath, Eric asked Haburt about her unusual magic.

  “Miss –” She glared at the old man. “Lady Sias is indeed using magic. It resembles the Holy Natural Elemental Veneration Empowerment that I read about in college.”

  “What does that mean?” Zettai asked.

  Tiza didn't understand and didn't care. Nolien secretly knew how it worked because his family’s personal style of magic worked on a similar principle, but didn't want to say. Eric knew about it, but wanted to hear more. Basilard read his dirty book.

  “It means she has developed a spiritual connection with the mountain by worshipping it. On a fundamental level, it is similar enough to standard earth magic. The key is that it ignores the First Law of Magecraft. She only needs the Second and the Third because the mountain supplies the rest.”

  “Could I do this?” Zettai asked.

  “Hypothetically, yes. If you spent a decade or more living on and around the mountain, venerating it like a deity, studying it, contemplating it, and otherwise living like a cloistered nun, you too could harness earth magic without need of mana or geology.”

  Zettai asked a dozen more questions over the course of the meal and, just like with Eric, each one became more acute and complicated. The last one (“Is this magic chaotic?”) stumped him.

  “On one hand, it doesn't use chaotic energy and this has been documented in other areas. On the other hand, the nature of chaos is to make possible what we think is impossible; belief determines reality. On the third hand, this practitioner is mildly insane –” Another glare. “–possessed of a different mindset so chaos may have a hand in it after all.”

  As Eric climbed, the sun got in his eyes, but the sun was at his back. Shielding his eyes, he looked around and saw a shiny piece of metamorphic rock. He swung over to it and
landed with his feet to either side. With both hands, he pried it loose. He was about to chuck it when he decided otherwise and placed it in his pack. It would make a great souvenir for Annala – his friends, he amended hastily

  “Hey, Professor!” Eric shouted up, red faced. “What's volcanic rock doing here?”

  “Did you forget, Mr. Watley? I already explained how –”

  Then it happened. It was invisible, but Eric could feel the pressure of a spell falling over him. He looked to Basilard, who confirmed his suspicions. They were now entering the Fear Field that Sias warned them about earlier. Any second now, he would see his worst nightmares made manifest before his eyes. Until they reached the source, the best they could do was ignore them. No matter what you see or hear...Basilard told them. It's not real. Ignore it and move on. Sure enough, four feet higher, the mountain disappeared and Eric was in Roalt Castle’s throne room.

  The hall was grand, detailed, and crisp. All the illusions he'd seen before were just fuzzy enough to distinguish as illusions. This one even had birdsong and the smell of lavender to complete the effect. He himself stood at the far end, next to a door, and the room extended before him into a throne. Unless the illusion destroyed his bearings, it sat in the open air and away from the mountain.

  The door opened and Annala walked in. She was dressed in a slutty maid outfit and a choke collar. The leash was held in the hand of the man sitting on the throne. Nulso was dressed as a king and wore Kasile's crown. He yanked the leash and Annala stumbled forward. At first, she held her ground, but Nulso was relentless. She approached the throne despite her struggles. She begged for mercy and the collar choked her into silence. She arrived at Nulso's feet; meek, obedient, and crying.

  Eric knew what was coming and his first instinct was to rescue her, but it would mean letting go of the mountain. Instead, he closed his eyes and muttered, “Not real. Not real. Not real. Not real.”