by Bob Blink
The first indication of the band’s effect came when it touched the shield. With a sharp pop and a series of forked fingers of bright white light, the band fought the shield that was protecting Tryll from Rigo’s weakening onslaught. The light display lasted for only moments, then suddenly the band contracted more, tightening against the skull of the Brryn woman. As it did so, she let out a scream of agony, and cried out in a language they didn’t understand. A second later she switched languages and spoke again, this time her words easily recognizable. Perhaps she made the change because that was how she’d spoken to Brock and was appealing for his help. Perhaps she realized who they were and knew they wouldn’t be able to understand her own speech.
“Take it off,” she demanded. “Not like that. It’s not supposed to be used over a shield.” Then she wailed again, thrashing in Kaler’s arms as she slid to the floor.
Lyes was reaching toward the woman, when Daria shouted out a sharp, “Wait!”
Rigo agreed. There was no question that the band was working, although just what it was doing wasn’t certain. It had subdued the woman and brought down her protective barrier. That much was clear. It had also saved their lives. Rigo had no illusions how close the end had been. They had been over matched, and if Lyes hadn’t acted, they would all probably be dead now. Tryll was probably being truthful that the band had been applied improperly, but she might be hoping for an opening. Removing the band for even a second would grant her access to her power, which could mean flight, or her regaining control of the situation.
“Leave it on her,” Rigo commanded.
“It might be killing her,” Lyes said.
“It might,” Rigo agreed. “But we can’t risk her accessing her magic again. She would destroy us all. Her magic is so much more powerful than ours. The combined assault of Nycoh and myself was only marginally greater than she could command on her own. She also knows a few tricks we weren’t prepared for. Daria is right, leave it on.”
“Can we question her like this?” Nycoh asked. “A Reading is usually performed with the subject awake.”
“Go and get Ashli,” Rigo said. “We’ll have to see what she thinks. From what we just experienced, I think Jeen is right. I believe it would be unwise to attempt Linking with her. Hopefully we can still get something with Ashli’s help.”
Rigo looked at the body on the floor that twitched occasionally, but was now silent.
While they waited for Nycoh to return, Rigo and Lyes examined Brock. He was still out. Kaler had struck him pretty hard, and the band he wore was still firmly in place. All attempts to dislodge it failed. Since they didn’t know the magic used to release it, they bound Brock’s hands and set him to one side.
“What did you do to her?” Ashli asked when she appeared suddenly with Nycoh and saw the prostrate form of the Brryn on the floor.
Rigo quickly explained what had taken place, emphasizing the strength of the magic they had encountered and the dramatic effect of the band.
“Can you still perform a Reading? Is it safe to even try?”
“I’ve never tried with an unconscious subject,” Ashli admitted. “I’m not certain what we can expect. I can’t see any risk to me due to the band. A Reading isolates the subject and the inquisitor. If this doesn’t work, we may need to wake her up somehow.”
Rigo wasn’t certain there would be a safe way to do that, but kept his thoughts to himself. He’d wait and see what Ashli found. He knew that whatever she discovered would be viewable by the rest of them later. Ashli knew what they wanted. A list had been created earlier, and foremost upon it was the means of unlocking the cylinder that held Mitty captive. Unfortunately what a Reading revealed was not always under the control of the person performing the Reading. One had to wander through the mind seeking, never knowing in advance what would be found. Another potential difficulty was the language barrier, although because Tryll had clearly learned their language, that might be less of a problem.
Ashli knelt and clipped the metal band in place over Tryll’s temples, barely finding room because of the blocking band that was already in place. Then she sat on the floor and began the session. Ashli appeared to be asleep, and Tryll spasmed several times, but otherwise all was quiet. Then with a shriek, she jerked straight and began to shake. Ashli let go of the end of the metal clip and sat back.
“She’s dying,” she said quickly. “I don’t know if you can stop it.”
“Did you get anything?” Rigo asked, uncertain if this might be a further trick by Tryll, and not yet willing to risk removing the band.
“Some, but not nearly everything on the list. I haven’t discovered how to release your consort.”
That decided Rigo. “Daria,” he said. “One of your knives. Keep it to her throat. If she shows any sight of being fully awake or taking action, finish her.”
Rigo reached toward the band.
“Rigo, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Nycoh warned.
“She’s Mitty’s only chance,” Rigo said. After seeing how strong this one was, Rigo had little doubt that attempting to capture one of the others alive was going to be impossible. If nothing else, the fact one of their kind had been taken would put them on alert.
He reached for the band, but found he couldn’t get his fingers under it to find a purchase. He turned her head and tried to dislodge the connection, but it was magically fused and acted as a single continuous piece.
“Kaler,” Rigo shouted. “Can you cut it off?”
Kaler stepped forward, pulling his belt knife. As he knelt to attempt what Rigo had asked, Tryll gave a sudden violent shudder, and then with a rattle in her throat, lay suddenly still. They had all seen enough death to realize she had passed. As if to provide proof of the fact, the band suddenly lost all color, and dropped away from her head, falling to the floor.
Ashli checked her quickly. “She’s gone,” she said. “She’s not faking this.”
Rigo swore. He stood and looked at the body on the floor. So close, and they failed to get what he had come for.
“Rigo, look,” Lyes said.
Rigo looked where Lyes was pointing and noticed that the band that had been around Brock’s head had fallen away as well. Brock appeared to be breathing however. Ashli scurried over to check.
“He’s okay,” she said after a moment. “He’s unconscious, but that’s from Kaler’s blow. I think he’ll be okay, but we’ll have to see once he comes to.”
Rigo walked over to where Nycoh and Daria stood. He surveyed the scene.
“How do you think the other Brryn will see this. Is there any chance they will believe normal wizards did this to her?”
“Not the way she is now,” Daria said. “She has no obvious wounds on her. What would she have died from? You will need to burn her with your Brightfire to make it appear she fell to magic.”
“What about her shields?” Lyes asked as he walked over to join the discussion. “It’s unlikely they will believe she failed to have any of her shields in place. Either a personal shield or a facility barrier would have defeated Brightfire.”
“She was strange about her shields,” Nycoh said. “Perhaps they would accept she had only a normal facility barrier, after all that is what was in place when we came in, and was without a personal shield inside.”
“Even then they would expect her to have detected any Bypass that allowed us inside,” Rigo said. “We would like to keep them from realizing this was done with advanced magic.”
“That would mean a standard shield on the building, nothing inside, and we got in and surprised her before she could raise her own protective barrier,” Daria said. “I don’t think they will believe that. They aren’t stupid, and you saw how quickly she switched to the Brryn version of a shield.”
“Perhaps, the killer was already inside,” Kaler suggested. “Perhaps she had the full protective barrier around the building, but no personal shield inside.” He looked over at Brock, still unconscious on the floor. “We suspect she was
using Brock for more than simple servant duties. Perhaps she was ‘enjoying’ him, and something happened that allowed him to break free of the band, and he lashed out before she realized the danger.”
“I have a feeling the bands don’t come off without the Controller being fully aware,” protested Lyes.
“What other choice have we got?” Nycoh asked.
“The final option is that someone came through the full barrier using the Transfer,” Daria said “That would have alerted Tryll someone had arrived, but she would have assumed it was either Kytra or Hyndl. She wouldn’t have been concerned, and therefore might not have raised her personal shield, feeling secure since they are the only three with such capabilities. That would have left her open to attack.”
“If they think along those lines, they will believe some of us have acquired some of their magic, which is what we hoped to prevent,” Rigo said.
“I don’t think you have much choice,” Daria concluded. “Drag her to the bedroom, blast her so they can’t check to see what was done to her, and hope they are confused by what they see. It’s necessary to do something to her body anyway, because you won’t want them to see the burns around her temples the interaction of the band and her shield created. They might know what that is. I believe the odds are small, but they may be misled because they will know only a Brryn can acquire such abilities, and they must believe they are the only surviving Brryn.
There were no ideal choices, and in the end, Daria and Kaler dragged Tryll’s body into the bedroom where they dumped her on the bed. Rigo triggered a blast of Brightfire, that severely burned the corpse, taking away much of the side of her head where the revealing marks had been.
When she died, the barriers around the structure failed, and Brock would have been free to escape.
Rigo doubted it would fool anyone, but there was no more they could do. It was time to leave. Kaler picked up Brock, and Rigo Transferred all of them back to the assembly point in Sulen. While there, the group discussed what had been learned, then broke up until the next day. Ashli promised to see to Brock, and Rigo headed alone back to the hideaway in the Ruins, where he would have to confess to a captive Mitty that he had failed.
Chapter 82
They met again the next morning. Ashli explained that Brock was going to be okay. He was disoriented from the experience, having only partial memories of what had taken place since he had been surprised and captured two weeks earlier. Ashli also summarized the results of her abruptly terminated Reading. She had gained some useful information.
“The Brryn are limited in their ability to use their mental links for communication,” Ashli said. “Like the Baldari, the normal range is limited. The Brryn and Baldari are roughly equivalent in range. It was that amplifier device that gave them the incredible range and the ability to control Baldari in large numbers and at any location. Now, they can’t communicate with each other, nor with the Baldari unless they are reasonably close together. That is good news on a couple of fronts. Tryll wouldn’t have been able to alert her companions last night, and the Baldari who we still have been keeping in the Ruins for their protection should be free to return home. Kytra won’t be able to sense them or control them.”
Nycoh smiled. “S’erom will be pleased to learn that. He has been pressuring me to allow his people to return to the jungle. He was willing to stay shielded himself, since Kytra probably was more sensitized to him, but thought the others might be safe.”
“The headband, which saved you last night, is exactly what you suspected. It is designed to block anyone’s access to magic, be they Brryn or not. Like the bands we have used before, they are self activating, although somehow linked to whoever applies them, which is why Brock’s band came off when Tryll died. Oh and she was telling the truth about not applying the band when a personal shield is in place. The two magics are not compatible. That’s what eventually killed her.”
“Did you learn any more about their shields?” Nycoh asked.
Ashli nodded. “As you discovered, their personal shields are far superior to our own, and can resist even their own magic for an extended period of time. That’s especially true when a single opponent is involved. It usually takes a couple of simultaneous attackers to break through. The protective barriers that can be erected around a structure are even stronger, and the usual form of overcoming them is the cloud magic.”
Ashli smiled. “You already know that a normal Bypass can’t pass into a protected structure, and that this Transfer you have learned will allow you to do so, but not without alerting anyone inside. The Brryn can make even stronger shields by augmenting them with physical devices.”
“The amplifier,” Rigo said.
Ashli nodded. “With the amplifier they can create a shield that even the Transfer cannot penetrate, at least without some special conditions. I sensed they can create authorizations, much like we have done in the past, to allow certain individuals to be exempt from the blockage. The augmented shields are also extremely difficult to breech, even with the cloud magic, which apparently overcomes virtually every other form of shield.”
“The chamber in the valley was augmented by one of the amplifiers,” Nycoh said, “but it was overcome by the magic the rod produced.”
“Two likelihoods,” Ashli said. “The amplifier had been shut down, and so the strengthening of the shield was dying out and couldn’t be sustained in the presence of the rod’s attack. Also, I sensed, but was unable to discover before Tryll died on us, that there are some exotic magics that can be formulated that are extremely potent. They are not something an individual can simply call upon. Not even the Brryn. That’s all I know about them.”
“Did you learn anything about Kytra or Hyndl?” Rigo asked.
“Very little,” Ashli confessed. “The session ended too quickly. Hyndl is a nasty one. At least Tryll believed so. If that is the case, and he is worse than Kytra who we have a bit of background on, we have plenty to worry about.”
“You didn’t learn where he is hiding?”
“I don’t think even Tryll knew that. I also don’t think she cared. The Reading did confirm that Kytra is staying on the island that Suline found, and even better she had been inside the underground part of the compound. I was able to retrieve a memory of the place. I believe it is good enough to use to create a Bypass. I don’t know if it can be used with your Transfer.”
Rigo smiled for the first time since the attack the previous night. Some good news. He didn’t know yet how they would use it, but perhaps their next target would be Kytra.
Chapter 83
The Brryn reaction to the killing of Tryll came swiftly. Kytra and Hyndl found her body in the mansion the following morning when they came looking for her when she failed to return to Kytra’s island as usual. Neither had an idea what to expect, but both were shocked to discover she had been killed. Disturbed, and prepared for an attack, they had carefully searched the grounds for anything that would reveal what might have taken place. When they left more than a glass later, they were of different minds what had happened.
Hyndl was convinced the rebel wizards were behind the killing. He wasn’t certain how they had managed it, but was positive they had discovered some means that allowed them to defeat the protective shields and get inside the mansion without being detected. He refused to believe that Tryll would have been so careless as to leave herself defenseless, especially against the magic she knew the wizards they had been systematically eliminating possessed. The burns on her body had looked like nothing more than Brightfire, which anyone with the gift could manage. That only said that she had been caught without her personal protection. It didn’t explain how those responsible had managed to get inside. Any use of the Bypass the wizards were restricted to should have instantly alerted her. He was left with the conclusion they must have discovered how to Transfer. That he considered worrisome. If they had learned that, and were able to perform the advanced magic, what else might they have discovered? Also, how many
of them were there with the more fearsome powers?
Kytra felt very differently. She was convinced that Hyndl was over reacting. She had observed and studied the wizards and Casters of these lands for a very long time. She had held many captive for months, and had probed their minds. None had had any awareness of the Brryn magic. None had sufficient Brryn blood to advance to a level that would allow them such powers. Most only knew one or the other discipline. Very few had realized the sum of the two branches of magic was far greater than the individual parts.
Still, there was much that was difficult to explain. As careless as Tryll could be, she was self-centered and aware enough not to leave herself exposed to magic she knew the wizards had mastered. She was also skilled and quite quick with her own powers. That suggested something was at work she didn’t understand. She felt a chill when she thought that Nyk might be behind this. It would explain a great deal. He could have easily bypassed any protective measures that Tryll had established, and while she might have been shocked to see him, it is unlikely she would have been frightened by his unexpected appearance. He could easily have killed her, and made it appear that someone of lesser skills had done so.