by Bob Blink
The Baldari who had been taken from the valley were now integrated with those in the oasis. S’erom had taken charge of that effort. S’erom had also traveled with a team of wizards to make periodic checks of the remote tribes they knew of to try and determine if they were being assembled for any kind of attacks. Suline had been along on the travels so she could learn the locations of the villages with the intent of using her unique spying ability to monitor remotely. No sign of any mobilization was discovered. The Brryn were not planning anything with the Baldari.
The surprising thing was there had been no major attacks anywhere. What were the Brryn waiting for? The only reports of anything unusual were a couple of odd instances in a couple of remote villages in Sedfair where a number of businesses had been destroyed and the employees killed. Nothing specifically tied these attacks to the Brryn, but no other explanation had been forthcoming either.
“What of you two?” Daim asked, addressing his question to Rigo and Nycoh. “You show an obvious physical transformation, but has anything changed with your magic? Have you acquired any new abilities with the changes?”
Nycoh was the first to answer. “Nothing new,” she reported. “The abilities I do possess seem somehow incomplete and trivialized in my mind. I feel somehow that I should be able to do far more than I can and what I can do is, for lack of a better term, novice level magic. I sense a power waiting to be claimed, although I cannot say what, or by what means I should be able to acquire it.”
Rigo nodded his assent. “I feel the same. I have realized that I am now a full mage. I credit that more to Ash’urn than to the transformation. Somehow he passed all of his knowledge of Casting to me. Through no effort and credit of my own, I have joined the select group that is well versed in both disciplines of magic.”
“Your sense that your magic is impotent is worrying,” Daim said. “It sounds as though you are viewing your capabilities through a Brryn mindset. If this is true, then your observations are one more reason we should fear a direct encounter with the Brryn.”
“They have to be aware of this,” Lyes said. “So where are they? Why haven’t they taken us to task for the invasion of their valley and the destruction of their chamber?”
“I don’t think they are ready,” Jeen said as she stepped into the room. She looked harried, as though she had been hurrying to get here.
“Who’s watching Mitty?” Rigo asked. He had thought that Jeen hadn’t come because she was with his consort.
Jeen shot him an annoyed glance. “I’m surprised you care,” she said.
Rigo grimaced. Obviously Jeen had sided with Mitty and thought he was out of line.
Before he could ask again, she added, “She’s staying with Rosul, down the coast in Sedfair. Fen has agreed to stay with her, so she has some protection, and he can carry her away if she is discovered.”
Rigo was surprised, but decided that was as good a place as any. Rosul was a long way from the capital, and in an out of the way location, not known for Casters or wizards. It was unlikely the Brryn would think to look for her there, so long as she refrained from bringing attention to herself by not scanning for the Brryn. Rigo was certain the Brryn would be able to locate her if she was to continue her monitoring of their activities, or in this case, looking for them. He said as much to Jeen.
“She’s promised to hold off on her searching, at least while she is there. Fen, or I, will take her elsewhere if we want to make a search attempt, and then quickly relocate her. That should keep her hidden, at least for a while.”
“I am curious about the statement you made a moment ago,” Daim said. “Why do you believe they are not yet ready to attack us?”
Jeen looked at the small group. “We are in trouble,” she said simply. “The headaches I have been enduring since my foolhardy attempt to Link with the Brryn after the raid have begun to subside. I have gained some knowledge of them as a result of that effort. I am not certain how useful it will be, but it is important you know what I have learned.”
“You have knowledge that the Linkage extracted from the Brryn?” Lyes asked.
Jeen nodded. “The three Brryn who escaped are named, Kytra, Hyndl, and Tryll. Kytra is the one who Mitty has been watching for so long, and the one who has been behind all of the attacks the past years. Hyndl is the male, and is a real unfriendly character, although he lacks the raw power of Kytra. Tryll is more of a follower, she will do whatever the others wish.”
“How long had they been in that chamber?” Nycoh asked.
“Over six thousand years,” Jeen said. “They are normally very long lived anyway, but the chamber suspended any aging for the duration of their entombment. However, it has side effects, and that was what I was referring to. The abilities of the Brryn atrophy over time in the chamber. To offset this, and give them abilities even they normally don’t have, was one of the functions of the crystal device that Rigo shutdown. Without the device, an amplifier they call it, they can’t perform much of their magic. That is most likely why the Baldari have been left alone, and why the captives weren’t targeted against us when we arrived. They also cannot mount a strong attack against us.”
“Is this a permanent degradation, or something temporary? Daim asked.
“Sadly, it is very temporary,” Jeen replied. “This Kytra could have already recovered. She has been regaining her own strength for a long time. The others are more than likely the problem. They were just released from the effects of the chamber, so their magic is most likely weak.”
“For how long?” Rigo asked.
“A couple of weeks at most,” Jeen said pointedly. “We have been given a respite, but probably a very short one.”
“Do you gain any sense of their powers?” Nycoh asked.
“They are a level of sorcerer well above our strongest wizards and mages,” Jeen said. “I have really little concept of what they are capable of, but it is clear that the protective shields we can create are nothing compared to what they can generate. Our strongest magic won’t have any effect on them at all. Their magic, on the other hand, will be capable of stripping away the shields we can create. We will be unprotected against them. That applies both to our personal shields and those we have erected around the Outpost and the castles. That was why I am late. When I woke with this knowledge, I spent the morning persuading the King and Queen to go into hiding. They did not like the idea, considering it running away. We will have to inform the temporary rulers in Kellmore as well as the Lamane of this danger.”
“All of our barriers can be defeated?” Lyes asked. “I thought the barriers we placed around structures were more formidable than personal shields.”
“The static ones are more vulnerable. The personal shields have the advantage of being able to move away from the disruptive magic to some degree.”
“You didn’t happen to learn any of this magic through the Linkage?” Nycoh asked.
“I am aware of what some of it is, but I am nowhere near strong enough to learn it. I gained nothing that we can actually use.”
“Do you have any idea where they have gone?” Rigo asked. “Perhaps we have an opportunity to take this fight to them before they are ready.”
“I fear they are already far too strong for us,” Jeen replied. “Not that it matters. I believe they have gone to a cluster of islands far off the eastern coast of Sedfair. Much farther than anyone has explored. The Brryn I linked with had many memories of visiting that place, and there are structures on a number of them.”
“Can you use the memories to make a Bypass?” Rigo asked eagerly.
Jeen looked uncertain. “I haven’t tried. The memories are not like those obtained from a reading, and I don’t know if they can be used. In addition, you should know the Brryn do not make portals the same way we do. They use a different approach, and theirs are completely untraceable. They see ours as transparent, even those we think are masked. They can sense the existence and the ends of any portal we make near them. If we attempt to go th
ere, and they are nearby, they will be aware of us.”
“What choice do we have?” Rigo asked. “We need to know where they are, and take what action we can while they are at their weakest. I think we need to seek out their hideaway as soon as possible.”
Jeen nodded. “I will see if it is even possible when we finish here. Perhaps I can find one of the islands where we don’t expect to encounter them just so we can experiment.”
“Did you learn why they were in the chamber?” Nycoh asked. “If they created it, why did they seem trapped?”
“They warred with the rebel wizards, our precursors, and matters grew out of hand. Even the Ruins became more than planned. Do not underestimate them. It was very clear from the mind I tapped that the Brryn hate those of us with power who are not pure Brryn. They see us as vermin to be exterminated. We will not be able to reach any kind of truce with them. They were expecting to be released several thousand years ago, around Daim’s time, but something must have gone wrong. The Brryn I Linked with hadn’t been awake to think about his situation, but I could sense he expected to be in the chamber for about half the time that actually passed.”
“I wonder if the Rift had something to do with it?” Daim pondered aloud. “The Rift disrupted magic worldwide and might have disrupted their system as well.”
“I think there is more to it than that,” Nycoh said. “The Hoplani Farms came after the Ruins, and predated the Rift. There is something else involved.”
Jeen explained what little else she knew, and promised to keep them informed if anything new materialized. While she and Nycoh went off to test whether she could create a Bypass to the far off islands, the three men discussed developing teams of combat wizards trained in Linking their abilities. With the multiplicative gains to be realized by Linking, perhaps they could gain the power required to offset the shielding Jeen had warned about.
Chapter 72
“You don’t know what Nyk had in mind?” Hyndl asked. The two Brryn that Kytra had rescued were now fully awake and mostly recovered. Hyndl was nearly as tall as Kytra, but decidedly heavier, although compared to Rigo he would have been thin. Next to Kaler he would have looked emaciated. He was well muscled, his strength apparent. Like her he had very pale white skin. His lavender eyes, common to all of the true Brryn but which neither Nycoh nor Rigo had inherited, were half hidden by his thick brows. His hair was cut very short, but not so much its distinctive color was lost.
Now that Kytra was free of the pod in which she had spent the last few thousand years, her true height could be appreciated. She stood just a little taller than Rigo. Willowy and slender, she moved with a careful grace. Her eyes showed the sharp intelligence and hinted at the cruelty lurking inside. Tryll on the other hand, was decidedly shorter and not nearly so shapely. Her face was also coarser, and her widely spaced eyes lacked the bright intelligence that marked Kytra as a leader. While Kytra had her hair in a thick braid, Tryll had allowed hers to hang free. Thick and straight, it nearly reached her waist. All of them had an ageless look and no one would have guessed they were older than their mid-twenties.
They could have actively attacked the wizards and Caster’s home bases, but Kytra wanted to show them what she knew of the world as it existed now, before they began their campaign.
“Not beyond the fact he intended the rest of us to stay asleep inside the chamber for as long as it suited him,” Kytra replied, addressing Hyndl’s question. “I have no idea how long he was gone from the valley before I awoke. Obviously it was a very long time. There is ample evidence of his activities dating back thousands of years. I would guess he wasn’t in the chamber with us more than a couple hundred years.”
“Just long enough for the disruption to pass” Tryll mused.
Kytra shrugged. She didn’t know what Nyk had intended, but clearly he’d had more in his mind than he had revealed when all of them had initiated the extended sleep. “Whatever he planned, something must have gone wrong. I have seen no signs of him since I have been awake.”
“At least now we will have the opportunity to eliminate these rebels once and for all, “ Hyndl said. “From what you have told us their magic falls far short of those we had to deal with during the Conflict. Everything seems somewhat primitive. Are they really as backwards as they appear?”
“Something happened, something beyond the fall that followed the Conflict and the spread of the Ruins. It had been difficult to piece together an accurate history from the remote access to their brains. I have sensed a series of collapses. We will need to grab a number of the people in both lands and extract additional background from them. That will give us a full knowledge of the languages they use as well.” The Brryn could always communicate with the locals via their mental link, even to the point of extracting thoughts from those who couldn’t project, but that would reveal who they were. Kytra could see reasons where they would want to pass anonymously, at least until they were ready to reveal themselves.
“It will take some time for us to advance this primitive technology,” Hyndl said.
“I guess we will have to get used to the backward living for some time,” complained Tryll.
“Maybe the people will welcome us once they understand we are their superiors who can show them a much better way of life?” Hyndl wondered aloud.
“Not at first,” Kytra replied. “I have seen enough to understand that these people value their freedoms far too much. They will resist our rule. They will need to be taught otherwise. They will also need to accept once again that the practice of magic by anyone other than Brryn is forbidden. The law will once again provide harsh penalties for those who violate this rule.”
“That never worked in the past,” Hyndl reminded her.
“This time we will enforce it more rigorously and eliminate all who have the gift when they are discovered. We have seen what benevolence breeds.”
Kytra ignored the Baldari tribes as she showed the others the current status of things. The Baldari were of far less use now, partly because the rebels had the ability to defend against them, and more importantly without the amplifier, they would be unable to effectively control large enough numbers of them to accomplish much of anything. That would be the situation until a new amplifier could be constructed, which might not be possible at all if the chamber wasn’t simply buried under the massive piles of rock. She worried the rebels had found a way to destroy it somehow, which would be a significant setback to their plans.
For that reason they had come back to the mountains that surrounded the valley where they had all been entombed and protected through the centuries. It was imperative they understand if the chamber was simply resting under all the rock that had been dropped onto the valley floor.
“Do you remember where exactly the chamber is located?” Tryll asked. “I hope we don’t have to move all of this.”
Hyndl looked at the valley in disgust. “They are crude, aren’t they. They couldn’t really hope that burying it would keep us from it?”
“I don’t know their thinking,” Kytra said, “but I am concerned they might have done more than simply bury it. We need to know what remains.”
Hyndl nodded, and after Kytra pointed out the approximate location of the chamber, they set to work. It was a good test of their endurance, and as they reduced the rock to powder and swept it away, she was able to evaluate how much progress they had made toward a full recovery. Even as powerful as they were, there was a lot of rock that had been knocked free of the mountains. It took most of the morning to work through it to the floor of the valley itself, and then to search around to find the remains of the chamber.
“I thought you said their magic was primitive and limited,” Hyndl said as he examined a badly burned section of now inert wall material. Even the residual magic one would have expected in the pieces had been overcome. “The chamber and everything in it has been completely consumed. To be able to do this requires control of some of our most advanced spells. The chamber was designed
to resist nearly every form of magic. I should know. I helped Nyk design it.”
“I cannot explain it,” Kytra said, her thought distracted by the immense loss she saw before them. “None of those I have witnessed have demonstrated this level of ability. There is something at work here I don’t understand.”
“We better understand it before we get ahead of ourselves,” Tryll suggested. She wasn’t eager to go up against rebels who might have powers equal to her own. That had been what had cost them the Conflict the last time, and she’d hoped from what Kytra had been saying they would have only low level wizards to deal with now. There were also a lot of the rebels, and only three of them. She didn’t like the odds. That had been one of the shortcomings in the Conflict. The Brryn had been greatly outnumbered.
“I took over two hundred of them as helot,” Kytra argued. “None of them could have done this. None of them could use any of the advanced forms.”
“Perhaps there are some among them more powerful than the others,” Hyndl said softly. “Perhaps those you never encountered. They might have remained hidden from you.”
“Do you think Nyk created his own little kingdom after he left the chamber?” Tryll asked. “He might have left behind descendants who are in control and more powerful than the others. They might not be happy to know about us, and might share powers equal to our own.”
That was a thought that hadn’t occurred to Kytra. Nyk could have escaped the chamber after a few hundred years, found himself the most powerful sorcerer in existence, and ruled the world for the remainder of his life. Without the offsetting effects of the chamber he would have died thousands of years ago, but he could have left behind a brood of offspring who inherited some or all of his powers.