Secrets of the Elders Kindle Version
Page 30
“Lady Cassandra… is that you?” he asked. Her lips moved to respond but he could hear no words. Then the stone warmed in Elise hands and the sorceress’ words flowed from his fiancée’s mouth.
“Poor children, I am here with both of you.” Cassandra spoke through her in a light voice.
“But I watched them execute you?” Elise asked in her own voice.
“Alas, the woman you knew as Lady Cassandra has been murdered by the vile traitor Fafnir. Long has the wretched half-blood Jotnar coveted power, and finally to our misfortune he has gained it. Woe be the future of New Fal with him sitting on the council of twelve.” Cassandra lamented the despicable man having power over the civilization she had helped create inside the core of Acadia.
“If you are not Lady Cassandra, who are you?” Corbin inquired perplexed.
“I am Cassandra, a reflection of her at least. Long ago, I was wise enough to store a sliver of my soul inside the Onyx you now possess. When I died a piece of me split off and remained here, stored with what is left of my power in the living realm.” She explained.
“I did not know such a thing was possible.” Corbin said.
“I see the world you live in so much more clearly now. What fools were we not to heed the warnings of our brother race, the gnomes. We can only dare to hope that it is not too late for the people of New Fal. The two of you must act as their saviors… you must be their voice of reason, freeing the bonds that chain our society to the corrupted abomination.” Cassandra spoke as if this were the obvious course of action.
“But milady, how can we do anything? Corbin has been murdered and I am trapped here in a dungeon far away from my people.” Elise asked, filled with hopeless despair.
“Dead? Oh no, my dear… Corbin is not dead. He is very much alive, just not inside his body at the moment.” Cassandra rejoiced at delivering the great news. “His absolute love for you bound his spirit to Acadia long enough for his soul to gather in this protective cocoon of psychic energy.” She explained, referring to the thick living blankets of blue energy that were swirling around his spiritual form, although Elise could not see them.
Corbin’s mind danced around the form of Elise, rejoicing in this truth and thrilled at the new possibility of hope presented to them.
“Corbin Walker you will need to return to your corporeal form alone, if you can still find it, for I cannot help you with that. The longer you are out of your mortal coil the more damage may be caused, not to your mind or soul, but to the Acadian shell that is your body.” The implications were dire, if he could not return quickly enough his body would cease to be habitable.
“But what of Elise and my people in Riverbell?” he was still too concerned for their fate to think of himself.
“Fear not, for I have a plan. The universe has opened up to me in a different way, never had I such vision in life. Your journey is past the ruins of Ul’kor to the surface. I sense it is there that you will find a great mage, named Isaac, who will have the answers we seek. I will help Elise escape, buying time until you can free the people of New Fal from the shackles they unwittingly live under.” She carefully instructed.
“Lady Cassandra, wasn’t the surface destroyed in the great wars?” Elise asked, not understanding how someone named Isaac could be living up there.
Corbin understood however, he had guessed it while exploring the Ul’kor ruins but did not want to fully accept the reality. “It’s all been a lie Elise, everything they told us about our history.” He guessed correctly, Cassandra confirming his suspicion with a solemn nod.
“It was necessary to protect the survival of mankind. Unfortunately, there is not nearly enough time for us to go over our long embattled history right now. The top priority is for you to get back to your mortal shell. I will give you a boost, but you must hurry and be on your way.” Corbin knew she was right, he could feel it as if the longer he drifted in this form the less substantial he was becoming.
“Elise, I will come back for you, I swear it.” He vowed to the woman he loved more than life itself.
“I have faith in you, go now and track down this Isaac. Find out how he can help us and come back to me.” She fully believed in her heart of hearts that the man who dared to defy death just to speak with her one last time would find a way home again. It still pained Elise to feel his presence fade away and be left alone once more in the cold dank cell.
“You are not alone, my dear.” Cassandra corrected her. “Now hold the Onyx to your forehead so I can channel my magic through your avadhuti, into the physical plane.”
Elise did as she was instructed, closing her eyes as the warm stone touched the soft skin of her forehead. Clouds of purple energy swirled from within the rock moving in tendrils outward, covering her body with the magical will of Lady Cassandra. Weaving with mystical mastery, she opened a rift around them in the physical plane that dropped Elise through a void.
Landing on her feet in the dust she almost dropped the magical artifact. As Elise looked around, she was dumbfounded at the heavy expenditure of power Cassandra had unleashed. Where only moments before she had been sitting in a New Fal dungeon cell, now she was miles away in the village square of Riverbell! There was no time to stand in awe however. An astonished farmer named Barth stood stock still, rubbing his eyes in disbelief at her sudden appearance.
“Don’t just stand there Barth, alert the entire village. We are in danger, and we have to escape right NOW!” she barked at the man, determined to set her people on the journey that would take them safely away from this cursed kingdom.
Chapter 21
The cramped utility tunnels were pitch-black, even the Vanidriell dwellers, who were accustomed to darkness having grown up in caves all their lives, had a hard time seeing further than an arm’s length ahead. They had stopped to rest hours ago and the time for moving on was well past, but neither gnome had the heart to tell Logan that. His brother’s lifeless body was laid respectfully on the stone floor, covered with a wool blanket from his pack.
The party left the cobold horde far behind, fleeing as fast as they could through the cramped tunnels beneath Ul’kor palace. For a while, the humanoids could still be heard running up and down the corridors above, bitterly searching for any sign of the intruders. Bipp reasoned the monsters were too ignorant to figure out they were in the maintenance shafts beneath the building. Only an engineer would think to check inside them, and he doubted there were too many plumbers in the mix of rabble up above.
No one had spoken for some time now, dwelling on the loss of their newest companion. The stuffy air felt palpable with sorrow, so thick that even Grubble felt on the verge of tears, although this could have been more out of frustration than anything else. Logan was not sure how long the tears had been running down his numb cheeks. He felt cold and alone, though his good friend Bipp sat close at-hand.
“Corbin… I’m so sorry for your loss. My heart bleeds for you.” Bipp croaked, not sure if the man was listening but needing to check he was not lost in some sort of catatonic state again.
Logan looked over at him with cloudy green eyes, unaware what his friend had just said, “It’s all so crazy… he can’t be dead.”
“I’m sorry lad, but the man’s cold as a wet stone in the wind.” Grubble said, his words layered in remorse.
Logan pressed the palms of his hands against his closed eyelids, shaking his head. “All these years… all this time I had… and I wasted it.”
“Aw c’mon Logan, you can’t say such things.” Bipp denied, trying to comfort him.
“You don’t understand. When I was growing up all I could ever think about was how to get him to leave me alone… just give me some peace and quiet, but every time I turned around, there was my little brother following me around again.” Logan’s heart felt as if it would burst from the pain choking his body. “I have spent years walking around and acting like a jerk… wasted, just wasted all that time I could have spent with him.”
Corbin’s body twitched beneath the blanket, breaking the conversation as Logan quickly shuffled away from it startled.
“Just the rigor mortis creepin’ in, fellas.” Grubble muttered, having seen it more times than he would wish upon anyone. The pair looked at him surprised by the uncharacteristically intelligent observation; this was probably the smartest thing to come out of the old gnome’s mouth in ages. Usually it was bloody this and blazes that, followed by some spitting.
The body twitched again proving him wrong by sitting upright! Now Grubble was the one frightened, putting distance between himself and the apparent zombie. Corbin’s head slowly turned under the blanket, to look directly at them. As the man moaned, Bipp was the first to react, hopping forward and clunking him across the head with his small frying pan.
“Ouch!” Corbin yelled gripping his forehead.
“Fer Crystal’s sake, Bipp, what the hell are you doing?” Logan shouted, snatching the pan from his friend’s grip before he could swing again.
“Thought he was a zombie, sorry…” Bipp shrugged, uncomfortably embarrassed, but still not quite sure he was incorrect.
“Who in the hell believes in zombies? What are you, ten?” Logan scolded, helping his brother sit back up. A small egg shaped bump was beginning to swell on his head where the pan had connected.
“Yeah, what are ye thinkin? Zombies… pish posh.” Grubble half-heartedly added to the scolding.
“Ugh… hey guys… I’m back.” Corbin’s mouth was dry as sawdust, and his head was throbbing.
“How in the blazes are ye still alive then, lad?” Grubble asked flabbergasted, while Logan noticed he still had not put away his axe.
“It’s a long story… I’ll tell it when we get out of this place.” Corbin tried to stand, but his legs would not support him, so Logan braced his body. The humans had to crouch low anyhow, the maintenance shafts being built to accommodate gnome workers. A crashing sound echoed through the tunnels, deafening in the closed quarters.
“Hey this is great! Now Logan can tell ye all those things he’s been meaning to say!” Bipp exclaimed excitedly, while emphatically nodding his head.
“Eh… what was it you needed to say?” Corbin weakly asked his big brother.
Logan bit his lip, put on the spot, “Wha-? Oh nothing the little fella probably bumped his head or something… who knows what he’s even talking about half the time?” he stammered.
Corbin was too disoriented to take note of the exchange, shrugging and turning his head away to stop the room from spinning. Logan silently scowled at Bipp who just shrugged innocently at the man.
“You got some timing I’ll tell ye Falian, sounds like the rats done found our hidey hole!” Grubble gathered his supplies from the floor, slapping Bipp’s pack into his chest.
“Probably the work of Baetylus…” Corbin reasoned, rubbing the tight muscles in his legs to get blood flowing again.
“The All-Father? So that was actually him back in the king’s court? Why would...”
Corbin cut Logan off. “Honestly, we don’t have time for that right now. We have to focus on getting out of here alive.”
“I second that one.” Grubble agreed and turned to head down the shaft.
“Wait.” Corbin gathered the group in close. “It does not matter where we go; the Crystal will track us down and guide these cobolds to our location, but not if I have anything to say about it.” He clasped the Svalin back in place over his ear lobe, thinking what a fool he had been to blindly follow the deity, no wonder he had been so insistent to have him take off the mind-shielding device. The magical ward in itself would not be enough however, so Corbin fell into his trance, the throbbing ache of his head making it difficult to find a focus. During the short time he was out of body, Corbin had kept his mind together by sheer force of will and working the psionic energy, unraveling new mysteries in the psychic aether that would have taken the layman years to comprehend.
Now that he was alive again, the aether flowed into new patterns much stronger than before, intricately bending to his will. The area lit up from a bubble of psychic energy that grew first around his heart then stretched outward covering the entire group. Grubble panicked inside, not knowing what to make of this devilry, but not willing to let on to the others his fear. The bubble split off forming around each of them like a cocoon, smoothing out against their contours, and disappearing into their skin. The tunnels were echoing with the sounds of bloodthirsty cobolds, far off in the distance at the King’s chamber.
“What is this stuff?” Logan asked in awe as it disappeared.
“I do not fully understand yet, but you can think of it like a blanket to protect us from Baetylus’ filthy probing suggestions. To him we just became invisible.” Corbin felt weak and tired from expending so much energy, his body already feeling stiff and aching from the near death experience.
“Great stuff… let’s get going.” Grubble said grouchily and raced down the hall, tired of waiting around for magic tricks.
The brothers followed after him with Logan bracing Corbin’s weight, helping him make his way. Bipp was staring at his arms, wondering where the magical shield went, and whether he should be worried if Corbin got a sudden craving for meat. Hopping up, he clicked his heels and chased after the group into the darkness.
Logan was the last of them to climb out of the maintenance shaft; he wanted to make sure the gnomes had a boost to get out through the floor. The cobolds could be heard from somewhere distant in the network of tunnels below, at first there had been enraged screams at losing their trail but that had turned into more of a boredom as time dragged on with no sign of the intruders. They must have been having a hell of a time trying to find the group without the mental suggestions of Baetylus.
Grubble judged that they should be on the far side of the palace at this point, the opposite direction to home unfortunately, but far enough away from the cobold horde to regroup and come up with a better plan to get out of Ul’kor.
“What part of the castle is this?” Logan asked Bipp, looking around at the strange place. The walls were actually somehow dyed a turquoise color that, even covered with dust, stood out in stark contrast to the drab walls from earlier.
“Only poffers fancy enough to care about coloring walls is the clerics' guild in Hodric’s Hill.” Grubble decided. He could do without all the flim flam of different colors. The black and white his beard had become over the last fifty years was color enough to last the rest of his lifetime.
“Be about right, if you see the ruins carved overhead.” Bipp pointed straight up at the ceiling of the curved hallway, where a large rounded stone was set as part of the structure, with another old gnomish ruin carved into it.
“It’s some sort of protection spell, right?” Corbin asked the scholarly little engineer.
Bipp nodded; impressed to hear someone else in the group knew something of ancient symbolism. “Cleric magic to be precise, this is probably the infamous Crow’s Guild.” Bipp reasoned, rubbing his bulbous nose.
Around the corner, the hallway abruptly came to a dead end, splitting to either side and forming new paths. “Which way do we go?” Corbin asked the gnome who was inspecting the keystones above the entranceways to determine just that.
“Says Wisdom and Botanicals…” Bipp translated, pointing at each in turn.
“Elder Morgana always said; when in doubt choose the wisest path.” Logan joked, deciding for them and prompting Corbin to search for signs of life ahead. He scrunched his forehead finding something peculiar.
“There is something do
wn there, it’s not sentient… I can’t explain what it is I’m sensing. Almost like a pulsing…” Corbin pointed in the opposite direction.
“Alrighty then… that way it is.” Logan turned about face to the hallway his brother referred. The path snaked back and forth, which was odd, as there were not many rooms off it that they had seen thus far. Each room was empty, some held nothing more than a mortar and pestle or even an alembic for alchemy, but most were pillaged long ago by the invading horde. Corbin let them know they were getting closer as the alien feeling grew stronger. Around the last corner, they had to stop short as the path prematurely came to an abrupt end. This time with no other paths splitting off, instead it looked as if the entire corridor had been sealed away with a wall that had been plugged tightly into the space.
“This is it! This is the source of the pulsing.” Corbin tapped the hot stone, unsure what to make of the strange carvings covering it.
Bipp studied the area carefully, his concentration intense, rubbing his nose. “Probably more human trouble by the looks of it.” Grubble complained kicking the dusty floor while he paced.
“Hmmm… this is very interesting. These inscriptions are not just written in High Gnomish but also from the magical dialect, so they are not only ancient but were also used by only the most advanced mages of Ul’kor.” Bipp thought aloud.
“Huh, so ye can’t translate it then?” the old gnome contemptuously grunted.
“Didn’t say that, did you guys hear me say that? That’s not what I said, spent half my twelfth year at Pomk University learning High Gnomish, happens to be one of my specialties… hehehe.” Bipp held his hands at his waist beaming, but the group did not seem impressed by his scholarly knowledge.
“Right… anyhow says here, more or less, that this area’s been sealed off.” He added.