Guardians of Camlan

by A. T. Gilbert

  TexBadass punches me in the shoulder and I have to stop myself from laughing out loud.

  SirAsh3r: Next, the Scaling Weed is really easy to use. Just eat the leaves. You can chew them and swallow like any other food, and the game should give you the time countdown for how long the effect will last.

  Erinocalypse: Are we ready?

  SirAsh3r: SteelFeather and Balderdash13 can you guys start the climb first in case you need to take out any soldiers at the top.

  SteelFeather: You got it.

  Balderdash13 nods. Callidus raises his hand as though he wants to be called on.

  SirAsh3r: Yeah, Callidus, you go in the first wave too. Your Backstab will be perfect.

  Erinocalypse: Good luck.

  I watch the three rapidly chewing a handful of leaves of Scaling Weed. SteelFeather is the first to begin the climb. As he places his fingertips on the smooth, cold stone a broad smile breaks. I can just imagine what he’s feeling. Experiencing that magic for the first time is a heady feeling. Callidus has disappeared, but the two tanks begin their stealthy climb and once they are about fifteen feet above us, I begin chewing my own Scaling Weed.

  Attention: Scaling Weed has adjusted your stats as follows:

  +5 Strength

  +10 Dexterity

  +5 Stamina

  EFFECT: Increased Strength, Dexterity, Stamina, Increased ability to grip vertical surfaces by 200% for ten minutes.

  Another quick glance to the top of the wall, and I see that Balderdash13 and SteelFeather have nearly reached it. The ten minutes of effect is plenty for me. I reach up as high as I can stretch and begin my ascent.

  When I am only four or five feet from the top, I hear the clang and crash of swords on the parapet above me. I can’t see anything from this angle, but I hear SteelFeather’s familiar grunt as he wields his weapons. They seem to be doing a good job of staying quiet. Hopefully they are not drawing the attention of any of the other soldiers standing guard.

  I peek my head over the top of the wall and see a uniformed corpse lying just below me. I maneuver a bit to the right so I can climb over without stepping on him. In just a few more minutes, all six of us are at the top of the wall, crouched low in the shadows, successfully remaining out of sight of the other soldiers.

  “Where to now, boss?” SteelFeather asks Erinocalypse.

  She looks around, weighing our options. There are soldiers to the right and to the left of us. Any staircase or ladder we find to go down will likely involve fighting more soldiers. Which we can do, but as before the more attention we draw to ourselves, the less likely we are to successfully compete our quests.

  Erin turns to me. “Is there any reason we couldn’t use the Scaling Weed back down the other side of the wall?”

  “Into the courtyard?” I consider this briefly. “I don’t see why not. There might be a higher chance of being spotted in the closer space.”

  “Yes, but it’s nighttime. Maybe all the NPCs are at dinner or in private quarters.”

  I nod. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  This time I only need to chew one leaf to add the requisite amount of time to my Scaling Weed effect countdown. I’ve been more comfortable going down than up, so I activate my little bit of Stealth and lead the way down into the courtyard.

  It’s lit enough that I can see there isn’t anyone working in the garden or waiting at the well. The blacksmith’s fire rages. It’s hard to tell, but I think I see someone in those shadows. I can’t be sure it’s not a soldier, but I begin my descent anyway. I don’t hear anything beyond the muffled noises of the horses and in just under a minute I have reached the ground, just as my Stealth wears off. We are descending in the courtyard near the edge of the vegetable garden.

  We still need the blacksmith to help us create the Flame of Eavoth.

  That’s our next stop.

  Chapter 31

  “Horace?” I whisper when we get close to the blacksmith’s shop. “Is that you?”

  “Why are you whispering,” a familiar voice says. “I’m the only one here.”

  “Yeah. Great. Great.” The warmth from the fire draws me in. I pull out the branch from the yew tree and the copper we managed to get and place both on the cold anvil. “We’ve got the stuff. Can you help us?”

  “Good,” he says when he sees what I’ve brought. “Very good. I thought it would be a lot more difficult for you to get both of these.”

  “Yeah, well. We may have had to promise Crowhurst we’d leave and never come back to Castle Nennius.”

  He chuckles. “Okay. We’ll do this and then you can be on your way.”

  “No,” I clarify. “He thinks we already left. We had to break back in just now.”

  Horace let out a long low whistle. “You broke into Castle Nennius on top of already being on Crowhurst’s bad side? I mean, I’m impressed. I admit it. But do you have a death wish?”

  “I know. It’s kind of a mess. But if you can help us with this, I figure—I hope—it’s late enough that we can sneak up to Professor Dove’s library without being seen.”

  “Yeah, I’d come up with another option if I were you.”

  “Noted.”

  He chuckles again. “Okay. Let’s get started. You want to learn how to do this, right?”

  Quest Completed: From the Smallest Spark

  Description: You have gathered the necessary ingredients to create the Flame of Eavoth

  Reward: +200 XP; Recipe for Flame of Eavoth

  Requirement: Magic Level 25; Alchemy Level 1; Small Piece of Pure Copper; Blossomed Branch of Yew Tree

  “Absolutely,” TexBadass says.

  “That’s what I figured. So here’s what we do.” Horace clears a space on his workbench near the anvil and gestures us over. “Put your branch and your copper here. You’re going to need the space.”

  While we make our moves, he adds more wood to the fire, so it burns hot.

  “Take out your— You all have a knife or dagger or something, right? Take that out. Now, on the branch, I want you to measure the length of your hand, from the tip of your middle finger to your wrist.”

  I hold the branch against my hand, trying to figure out how it fits and how long his hand is. “How long? Can you show me your hand again?”

  “As long as your hand, SirAsh3r. Yours. I assume Professor Dove has already explained to you the magic imbued in your own labor? Right. So, line up the tip of your finger with the top of the blossom. Then, using your Dagger, cut off the branch where your wrist hits it.”

  I’m sure I’m going to do this wrong. I don’t want to have to climb that tree again. I swallow. I measure twice. Three times. I glance over to see what the others are doing, but TexBadass is already done, and Erinocalypse’s hands are so much smaller than mine it doesn’t help me anyway.

  So, I take a breath … and I cut. I cut off the blossom where I think I’m supposed to.

  “You should now have two pieces of branch, right? One stick and one blossom. Good. Next for the copper.”

  Thank god for video game mechanics. Once we get the recipe for this I won’t have to remember all these steps.

  Horace holds up a small metal piece.

  “This is an Alchemist’s Ring Mold. It’ll take any metal and some magical substances, and you’ll find it automatically sizes perfectly to whatever you’re working with. As you advance in your alchemy studies, you’ll find many of the magical items you may want to create will require a mold like this. For now you can use this one. Grab your copper. Okay, who’s first?”

  When I step forward, he shows me where to drop the copper into the crucible, he tells me what I’m watching for and exactly when to pull it out of the furnace. I grasp the tongs so tightly I feel like I’m going to bruise my own hands.

  “Okay, now quickly, without spilling any, pour your copper into the mold.”

  My hands start shaking. My palms start to sweat. I don’t want to rush this and spill the molten copper, but if I don’t get this poured soon I might d
rop the whole thing.

  “Good. Good, SirAsh3r,” he says, watching over my shoulder.

  As Erinocalypse and TexBadass melt and pour their own copper, I wipe my sweaty hands off on the inside of my cloak. I think that’s the hardest parts, and it’s done. Probably. Maybe. We’re almost on our way to being real alchemists.

  “Just a few more steps,” Horace directs.

  I hear a couple of small thunks and look to see SteelFeather and Callidus entertaining themselves by throwing pebbles against the castle wall.

  “Really, you guys?”

  SteelFeather just laughs and tosses another one.

  “Hurry up,” Callidus says without looking at me.

  Horace clears his throat.

  “Sorry.”

  “Right, as I was saying. Just a few more steps. Your ring should be cool now, so remove it from the mold and fit it around the narrowest end of your stick.”

  As I place the ring on the branch, it seems to adjust and take control of where it wants to rest. Only one inch past the end of the branch, even though I could have sworn the wood was much too narrow there to fill the ring. As we have been placing our rings, Horace has set out a small pot in front of each of us.

  “Place the stick in the pot.”

  “Does it matter which way?”

  He looks at me like I’m speaking a different language. “What are you talking about?”

  “Well, I mean, it can’t lie flat in here, right? So, does the copper end go at the bottom or at the top?”

  “SirAsh3r.” He shakes his head at me, exasperated. “It doesn’t matter. It’s literally just to hold the stick. It’s storage. However you do it is fine.”

  I settle on copper side down. Just in case. If it comes loose or something, I don’t want there to be any chance that I’ll lose it. Oh my god, why am I so nervous about this? I try to shake it off.

  “Last bit. Grab your blossom.”

  I follow Horace’s instructions perfectly as I place my yew tree blossom against the embers of the furnace, catch it on fire, and then use that fire to light the copper end of my stick.

  A small flame burns at the bottom of my earthenware pot. I can’t help but admire it, letting the warmth spread across my face as I lean over it.

  “That’s it,” he says. “You’re done. You’ve got it. The Flame of Eavoth will burn indefinitely. You can put it out with water, of course, but that one branch will never run out of fuel if you leave it alone.”

  “You done?” Balderdash13 appears at my elbow.

  “I have a few extra molds, too. Interested?” Horace says.

  I am, and with a little bit of haggling I become the proud owner of an Alchemist’s Ring Mold that soon lives in my inventory. TexBadass and Erinocalypse decline, but I think I want to advance in Alchemy and may need to create this Flame of Eavoth or something similar again.

  “This was … ” I’m grinning. I’m practically vibrating with excitement. “This was amazing, Horace. Thank you.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He grins too. “It’s fun for me and I don’t get to do it that much. Just wait till you see what Professor Dove has in store for you.”

  He carefully secures the lid to my pot and hands it over. The earthenware pot, with the Flame of Eavoth inside is promptly stored in my inventory.

  Alithia Potion ingredients: 7 of 8 acquired.

  So close. Just one ingredient left to go till we get to make the potion.

  As Erinocalypse and TexBadass are saving their ingredients, I check my map. There are still several yellow dots indicating our open quests, so it takes me a moment to find the one I’m looking for. Ida, the gardener who had asked us to destroy the Noose Vine, is in the Great Hall.

  I don’t know how we’re going to get to her without being seen.

  Chapter 32

  Maybe it’s the late hour. Maybe it’s because Captain Crowhurst believes we have left the castle, but when we creep back in to the entrance hall from the courtyard, there are no guards anywhere near us.

  Callidus keeps one eye on the map, and one on Ida’s movements, leading us to one of the hidden corners halfway under the staircase.

  “She’s over there,” he gestures. “In the Great Hall. I guess— No, wait. She’s moving. She’s moving toward us!”

  Ida rounds the corner into our line of sight. Erinocalypse quickly fires off Petrify, freezing the gardener in her tracks. SteelFeather and Balderdash13 dash forward, pick up the petrified woman and bring her back to our hidden corner.

  “What in the—” she sputters the moment the spell wears off.

  “Shhh!” I put my hand over her mouth but remove it quickly when it seems like she might bite me. “Be quiet.”

  “We have completed the task you set for us,” Balderdash13 says. “The Noose Vine has been destroyed. Burnt to the ground.”

  Quest Completed: Annihilate the Invader

  Description: You have returned to Ida the gardener to claim your reward for successfully destroying the Noose Vine

  Reward: +300 XP; Ice Blossom

  The gardener looks impressed, and then seems to immediately pull back, as though she doesn’t want to tip her hand.

  “Very well. You did. On behalf of Queen Vivian, I thank you.”

  “So, you’re going to help us find an Ice Blossom, then, right?” Callidus asks.

  Ida rolls her eyes. “Now? It’s late. I have to get up at dawn for—”

  “Now. Please. Ma’am,” Balderdash13 says haltingly. “Please.”

  She looks around at each of us in turn. “Very well. Follow me.”

  This is the last of the ingredients we need in order to make the Alithia Potion, so that we can get the truth from the queen about who jailed Dulock. And, of course, while we’re with her we can hopefully, casually embed the Cambion Jewel somewhere in the throne room. So close.

  Ida turns to lead us back through the Great Hall where there are still at least a dozen people still eating, including a handful of Crowhurst’s soldiers.

  “Wait.” I put my arm out to stop her before she rounds the corner. “Where are you taking us?”

  “Hmph. Well. If you must know, the only Ice Blossom plant in all of Castle Nennius is in my private quarters. Which is down under the kitchen, but I have to go through the Great Hall to get there.”

  “There’s no other entrance? No other way we can find it?”

  “Nope.”

  “Oh, wait—” TexBadass begins before I interrupt him.

  “What about … can you just go there yourself and then bring it back here? But, like, the whole plant so we can each pick our own blossom.”

  “Are you kidding me, boy?” she asks, balled fists on her hips.

  I cringe a little but press on. “We can’t be seen by those soldiers. And because of how the magic works we each need to pick our own blossom.”

  “First of all, don’t you condescend to me.” Her finger is pointed in my face and her voice starts to rise. “I know how the magic works. Second of all, I suppose me struggling to carry an enormous plant through the Great Hall wouldn’t attract any attention at all, right? You think that solves anything?”

  “SirAsh3r,” Tex tries again.

  But I’m really agitated now. I am determined to get this woman to hold up her end of the bargain. “Look, Ms. Firth. Ida. I don’t know what it would look like to see you carrying a plant through the hall. Because I’ve never seen an Ice Blossom. Because I’m still waiting for you to honor our agreement and give me one.”

  “Asher!”

  I shush TexBadass immediately, irritated, but he’s gotten my attention. “What?”

  “I got this.”

  “What do you mean you’ve got this?”

  “Well, now. Seeing as you don’t pay me the proper respect I deserve, it is no wonder you don’t know what it is I can do to rectify this situation.”

  “Spit it out, Tex.”

  He pouts a little before telling me. “That spell I got, the one I looted in from the Noose V
ine. Didn’t I tell you the name of it?”

  I rack my brain. “Shield of something?”

  “No, it was something with a curtain,” Erinocalypse says.

  “Dude, just tell us.”

  “It’s the Curtain of Invisibility,” he says finally. “I mean, obviously, I haven’t tried it with a big group of us, but it should get us through the Great Hall unseen.”

  Balderdash13 throws her arm around the big man and kisses his cheek.

  “Whoa, okay now. That’s not really necessary.” He seems flustered.

  “Can it hide all of us? Do you think maybe the tanks and Callidus should stay here since they don’t need an Ice Blossom?”

  “If you could have made your travel plans before you bothered me, that would be great,” mutters Ida.

  “Yeah, y’all stay here,” TexBadass directs. “You two stay close to me. Looks like the distance only covers a couple feet on either side of me.”

  “Ready?” Ida says impatiently.

  We nod, and half a second later she is already strolling around the corner and between rows of tables in the Great Hall.

  Enhancement received: Curtain of Invisibility

  Description: You will remain unseen for the next ninety seconds by staying within four feet of the caster

  “C’mon,” Tex whispers, leading us.

  There’s a close call when one of the soldiers leans back and stretches. I have to jump back out of the way so he doesn’t hit me, and in doing so nearly leave the circle of the spell. Erinocalypse grabs my arm to steady me and keep me close.

  The ninety seconds of invisibility is almost up when we stumble through the narrow doorway near the kitchen. Erinocalypse closes it behind us and we follow Ida down the spiral staircase to the room below. It’s smaller than I expect; there’s really only room for her bed, a small set of drawers with a washbasin on top, and a large, blue and silver plant sitting in the corner.

  “It can’t be in the sun,” Ida explains when she sees me staring. “That’s why they gave me this room. It’s supposed to be a wine cellar, but Queen Vivian thinks the Ice Blossom is more important.”

  The plant is taller than me, in a pot about three feet in diameter, and there is not a hint of green anywhere. Instead, the thick stalks look like metal rods, flexible silver beams rising out of the dirt. As the stalks branch out into leaves, the brilliant silver transitions to a dull blue, with ice crystals coating the surface of each leaf. The blossoms scattered around the plant are a stark, snowy white and look a little like magnolias, but with deep black centers.