“That’s not good enough. It is their birthright, you know. Besides, they will learn everything at least twice as fast once that is done. If you don’t contact Priestess Anezka this very minute, then I will!” Zdenka grinned. She’d never seen his sisters handle him before.
“Well, I figured she might be really busy getting ready to activate Leo’s Circle,” Zoran replied, wondering if that would mollify her. It didn’t.
“I know for a fact that she has almost nothing to do at all until Jiri gets it done. She’s sitting around being bored. Now you get her here immediately, Zoran.”
“Okay, okay. If you are sure that she isn’t needed there, then okay I will.” Zoran replied. He relaxed and made contact with Priestess Anezka.
Hi, Zoran here. Yes, all is well. Say, are you busy right now? Can you take a day off and visit us here in Brn? I have a little ceremony that I’d like you to perform.
Sure. Honestly, it has been rather boring here. I’ve read all the novels that your Uncle Milan has. About two more weeks, maybe three and we’ll have made our second Circle. Incredible, isn’t it?
Sure is. Thanks. When can you come?
Give me an hour and I’ll drop in on your Circle. Is that okay?
Sure. Thanks a bunch. I’ll explain more when you come.
“Okay, sis. She’s coming in about an hour. Satisfied?” Zoran teased her.
Lida put her hands on her hips. “Well, it’s about time.” Then she broke into a laugh, he did too.
They were there to greet Priestess Anezka when she arrived. Again, Zoran had advance knowledge of her coming via his Circle. “Hi everyone. Glad to be back. You know it is awfully stuffy around Baron Milan’s place. Much more homey around here. So what’s up, Baron Archmage,” she used his formal title to tease him a bit.
“I need you to perform two Ceremonies of Ascension.” She gave him a totally surprised look. “Come on into the dining room and let me explain.” An hour later and three cups of tea later, Zoran had her fully briefed. Lida added her own observations that had convinced her that both girls were Duska.
“Well, the only positive way to know is when I take their hand and walk into the Circle,” she pronounced. “Can I meet them now?”
A bit later, the two teens came walking slowly into the room. Although she had been told that they could only walk if they wore the highest of heels, she was still a bit surprised when she saw them. “Come here and chat with me. I am Priestess Anezka Zar.” Per her request, everyone left the dining room, leaving her alone with the teens.
A half hour later, the teens, with big smiles on their faces, headed back up to their rooms, very excited. The others entered, Anezka also was grinning broadly. “You are very likely right. Those two ought to have had this ceremony when they were ten or eleven at the very latest! We begin tomorrow at nine sharp. Make sure the Circle is well protected when we do this, Zoran.”
“Thanks, Anezka!” Zoran replied. “Say, can I have a private word with you? I’ve got some unanswered questions that you might be able to answer.”
After the others said goodnight, the two were alone. “I’ve been having some strange connections with my Circle.” Suddenly, she gave him her full attention. One by one, Zoran outlined what he considered unusual effects.
“You are right to bring this up with me, Zoran. Forgive me. I ought to have known that something was up the moment that your eyes changed color. These are some effects that must be researched. Allow me to study Bandar Zar’s documents more fully. To be honest, neither Jiri nor I have read them in their entirety. As soon as we found the instructions for creating new ones, we went into action and have been doing so ever since. We ought to have read all of his documents first.”
“No, you did what was really needed, Anezka. If you had not come along when you did, we would not be in the power position that we are in today. Take your time. None of these effects are causing me any problems — well except for those nightmares, which really was Chika calling out to me. Those are gone now. Let me know what you find out.”
“Absolutely, Zoran! I will study them in total detail when I get back. Dumb me, spent all this time reading Milan’s novel collection when I ought to have been studying Bandar’s documents.”
The next morning, everyone gathered beside the Circle of Ascension. Priestess Anezka and Zdenka helped both girls down the many stairs to the basement. Neither wanted any misstep in their heels to delay this vital ceremony. She took Chika first, while Zoran held on to Akira and provided her with some commentary as the ceremony progressed. Specifically, he did not want her becoming alarmed when the two disappeared from view.
Priestess Anezka began her special chant, and at the correct time she took Chika’s hand. Together, they slowly began walking around the Circle, stepping on the seventeen colored threads. Suddenly, Zoran was connected to his Circle and was a silent observer of the actual Ceremony of Ascension! Priestess Anezka instantly realized that he was present as well! Another unexpected side effect, she thought. Nevertheless, she continued with Chika. As expected, the teen got dizzy, disoriented, and nauseated. Still, the two continued to walk the Circle. At last, the two entered the Shadows, at which point everyone else saw them disappear.
Anezka led Chika, one by one, to all of the sixteen planets in the Federation of Planets, much as had been done for Zoran during his ceremony. After the trip was done, she repeated it, only this time, Chika began to understand. Her special gland now fully activated. Gone was her dizziness, her nausea. The third trip around, Chika thought, Well there is one planet that I never want to go back to! It was Asami, of course.
Anezka then brought them back to the Circle. Chika was all smiles, though quite awestruck. “Wow, sis! Wow!” Next, Priestess Anezka did the same with Akira, but had a much easier time of it, because she had not yet had the misfortune to have gone into the Shadows as had Chika. An hour later, the ceremonies were over.
“Zoran, Lida, I charge both of you to fully train and brief both Duskas about their new powers. I must do some heavy research immediately.” She looked at Zoran and he, her. Both knew that his presence with her during the ceremony was an anomaly. It had never happened before. All thanked her and then she departed for Gladno.
Lida took charge of the two teen Duskas, making their training as Duskas her sole objective. Still Zdenka made her take time for her own magic spell training. During the next two weeks, Lida had the teens work on their mental communication skills, to take notice of their special warning of immediate danger, and their ability to Shadow Walk.
In turn, Zdenka noted that the teens literally doubled their rates of learning. Lida had not exaggerated this effect. Now Zdenka began to wonder why this was so, but had no immediate answer, other than it was so. She found herself feeling slightly jealous of Duskas and their skills.
Chapter 23 The Yeller Problem
During late May, Zoran reached a decision. He needed to inspect Dolni Island. Was it inhabitable? Would the Yellers actually be able to survive there? He had many questions and few answers. He announced to all that he needed to go and personally inspect the island.
“Zoran, that’s dangerous. Besides, what makes you think the Yellers will move there and how? They are just animals, mean and vicious at that,” Karel replied.
“I doubt that Kazimir will be looking for me there. Karel, I think that we humans made the Yellers vicious. At least I got that idea from the history books that we all read when we started. However, I agree, we ought to proceed with caution. There is no telling what we may find there. I was never privy to everything Kazimir was doing. Who knows, he might have some secret fortress there. Ideas on how to proceed?”
“Well, we should go aerial first. Reconnoiter the place before you set foot on the island — that’s the safe way. If we go on foot, who knows what we may encounter. Perhaps Bernard has some dogs that can run out ahead and spot dangerous things,” Karel suggested.
“Sure, got three good ones,” Bernard volunteered two minutes lat
er when Zoran and Karel asked him. “It’s a pretty big island from the map, at least the size of Kazimir’s entire occupied lands. How are we going to search something that big?”
“Only one real way, we Shadow Walk. If we used our Fly spells we would be at it a year,” Zoran replied.
“True, even if I used my falcon form, it would take a very long time to search that large an island. When do we start?” Karel asked.
After informing the others of their plan, Zoran held hands with Karel and Bernard. “Karel, you search to the right of us. Bernard, you search to the left of us, and I’ll cover the center. Look for any obvious signs of villages, roads, crop fields — anything that might indicate humans inhabit the island.”
“Look for smoke clouds from smithy’s or people’s chimneys,” Bernard added.
“I will take a north-south zig-zag path. Here we go.” He concentrated and stepped them into the Shadows. Momentarily, he appeared above the planet and then zoomed down over Dolni Island. He moved in closer until they were several hundred feet above the mountainous island. Below them, dense stands of forests fought the hard granite stone. Here and there they spied streams and an occasional pond. From this height, they could not see if there were animals on the grounds, but they saw no villages or other signs of human inhabitation. However, this was only their first day.
Dutifully, the trio kept at it each day. Zoran was not satisfied until he’d searched the whole island. If the Yellers were going to be relocated here, he had to be confident in his own mind that humans were not here, for both their sakes. On the fourth day of their search, Zoran estimated that their path of zig-zagging had them near the middle of the island, about half way along its east-west length.
“Hey, look over here,” Bernard called out. “That looks like a human construction.” The three saw what looked like stone blocks, cut with a perfectly straight edge. Zoran moved them in for a closer look. “That’s a building!” a shocked Bernard added.
“Can we be seen? Should we cast Invisibility?” growled Karel.
“No, we cannot be seen. We are Shadow Walking. Only an alert Duska could detect our presence. What is this place anyway?” Zoran asked, becoming very curious. Here in the middle of nowhere was some kind of stone construction. He zoomed in even closer. Regular gray granite stone blocks, similar to those used in the construction of Castle Dorumova, lay in a flat square approximately thirty feet across. Trees and brush encroached around the edges and grasses fought for life between the many cracks. None of the three had ever seen anything like this. They could see no signs of inhabitation so Zoran decided to arrive on the stonework.
“What is this place?” asked Karel, after verifying the stone was real and solid.
Bernard, ever cautious, surveyed their perimeter, but could see little into the dense trees that surrounded the square. “Has a fortification wall fallen over somehow?” This seemed the best theory he could muster at the moment.
“I don’t sense that anyone is around or that there is any immediate danger,” Zoran replied. “I have no idea what this place is, guys. One wall does not a fortress make. Possibly a holy temple of some kind, long unused. Fan out, let’s see if there is more to this than what we see here,” he suggested.
“If we are going exploring, I ought to fetch my dogs,” Bernard volunteered. “They can detect trouble sooner than I can.”
“Okay, we’ll give you a minute, Bernard. Good idea. We do not know with what we are dealing here on this island. General Janos will have my head if I go around taking chances,” Zoran deferred to the stern warnings with which his general had admonished him several days ago.
Five minutes later, three dogs began scampering about, running out ahead of Bernard, as he began exploring what lay around this stonework. Zoran and Karel flanked him, swords drawn ready for trouble. Fifteen minutes later, having dislodged five snakes, they arrived back where they started. “This only gets stranger by the minute,” Zoran scratched his head. They had seen absolutely no other signs of anything but the wild landscape around the whole area.
“This is it — the whole construction?” asked a very confused Bernard.
“I hate it when people make these confounded mysteries,” growled Karel, his anger rising. “What’s the bloody use of having a thirty foot stone wall lying flat on the ground anyway?”
“Well, it’s not like this is a stone quarry,” Zoran discarded that possibility.
“Hi fellows, we just had to pop around and see what you’ve discovered,” the alto voice of Zdenka came from behind the three. “Wow, what is this place?” She and Jarka had teleported over to see for themselves what Bernard had excitedly described to them when he came to fetch his dogs. One ran up to Jarka and began licking her hand, which she didn’t appreciate, wiping it on her dress.
“No other signs of anything around it,” Bernard reported. “Told you this was a weird one. We searched about a quarter mile perimeter and found absolutely nothing at all, just pristine forest.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Zdenka spoke and then wished that she hadn’t. After all, her experience with stonework was extremely limited, so of course her opinion was worthless. Then, she had an idea, conservatively she said, “Perhaps someone was building a temple here and only got the base done before they left. That would explain it.”
“Hey, I like that idea,” Zoran complimented her. “That’s the best idea so far. I wonder who built it and when. The stonework looks amazingly similar to that in Castle Dorumova.”
While they were discussing this possibility, Jarka found a stout branch and began tapping on the stone, moving methodically along its surface. Curious, Bernard asked, “What’cha doing, dear?”
“Tapping. Seeing if it is solid all over. Hey, come here everyone!” her tone changed from boredom to enthusiasm. The others gathered round her. “Here, listen to this tap over here and then to the tap at this spot,” she asked eagerly.
“Hear the difference?” she asked.
“It sounds different. Maybe it’s due to a difference in the stone,” Bernard replied.
“No, silly, it’s a hollow sound. There is a space beneath this central area. Let’s mark out its dimensions. Here, stand here, this seems to be one corner.” Bernard moved where she pointed. A few minutes and a lot of tapping later, Karel, Zoran, and Zdenka stood at the three other corners of the hollow area, while Jarka stood by proudly looking at the space they defined. “Ten by ten, big enough for a person to enter. I wonder if there is some secret door that somehow opens. There must be some chamber below ground.”
“Could it be a burial ground? Could this be a tomb?” asked Zdenka, wondering aloud what constructions might be hidden in this manner.
“I don’t think so,” Jarka replied thinking hard. “No head stones, no ornaments, no flowers — no nothing to indicate this was an important person’s tomb. I wonder how it opens?”
She began to cast a number of spells. “Well, no magic is radiating, so the opening mechanism must be mechanical. No pull rings, no levers. How does this thing open?” she said getting somewhat hostile about it not revealing its mysteries to her.
“Maybe it doesn’t open,” Zdenka suggested. “Perhaps, after they put whatever in the chamber, they sealed it up with these stones. Maybe it is a tomb.”
“Well, they didn’t count on Jarka Mitova Dragan!” she retorted and began casting her Mystical Door spell. After its sixth casting, she added a Light spell. “Ah ha! Now we are getting somewhere. Okay, everyone, there are steps leading down. I’ve got a door opened inside and a light going. Shall we go exploring?”
“What about the air? Perhaps it is poisonous,” Karel volunteered rather worried about charging into some underground chamber with no easy exit at hand.
“I’ll bring my dogs along. Keep a close eye on their behavior. If they sense danger, they’ll let us know,” Bernard suggested. One by one they and the three dogs stepped through her magical door arriving on a long set of descending stairs.
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br /> The walls absorbed the sounds of their feet and breathing. A musty smell registered in their noses, but the dogs eagerly trotted on down the steps. “Hey, look at these rotting bags,” Jarka commented. One was on either side of the walls. As she touched it, the leather crumbled into dust. A bright light radiated from a stone affixed to the wall. “And there was light!” she humorously declared.
“A Mage has had a hand in here,” Zoran declared. “Let’s follow the dogs. If you see any more of the lights, open their bags.”
“Wait, let me go first! There could well be all manner of traps in here for the unwary!” Jarka exclaimed, pushing Zoran back from the lead.
“Say, are my dogs in danger?” Bernard asked, suddenly worried about their safety.
“They are probably okay, they weigh a lot less than a person. Weight is likely the trigger.” She slowly descended the stone stairs. After some fifty feet, she halted. “Ah, just as I thought. A trap!”
“See, Zoran, it’s good to have a thief with you,” Bernard jested. The others chuckled.
“Only a fool wouldn’t,” she teased them. “Let’s see if I can disarm it. Ah, yes, there. You see, if I had placed my full weight on this step, then the stone would have moved down a bit and something bad would have come flying out from these two holes in the side walls. Spears or arrows would be my guess. It’s safe. On down we go.”
“Thanks, good work, Jarka,” Zoran praised her and followed slowly after her.
One hundred feet below the surface, the stairs opened into a twenty foot square room with ten foot tall ceilings. The dogs were in the middle panting and waiting for Bernard. Jarka found another rotting leather covering and suddenly light began to illuminate the room. “Oh my!” she exclaimed. As the others joined her, they too had similar exclamations.
Stacked against the far wall were five wooden boxes, whose wood had dry rotted. The weight of their contents had then burst the sides. Gold coins, silver coins, gems, and jewelry lay in piles mixed with bits of the remains of the boxes. Against the left wall was a table which held armor and weapons, while against the right wall was another table holding a number of books carefully wrapped in oil coated skins, well preserved. The prints of the dogs were clearly visible in a layer of dust a half inch thick.
Zoran Chronicles Volume 1 A Dragon in Our Town Page 33