“That’s a hell of a risk you’re taking with Calibot’s life,” Devon said.
“Oh, really,” Zod said, giving Devon a threatening glare. “He’s the one running this operation. He brought us in here without really knowing what he’s doing and is taking chances solving puzzles on the fly. His last decision cost the life of an old friend.”
“As I recall,” Devon said, turning on Zod, “he didn’t want to bring you along at all. You insisted on coming and brought that old friend with you.”
“Enough,” Calibot said quietly. “Bickering doesn’t help us. Besides, I’m pretty sure Uncle Zod’s right. It’s a portal. Otherwise, why would there be a stair leading up to it? I just wasn’t sure how to use it.”
He turned his attention back to the black circle on the ceiling. It offered no hints. He put a hand up. It disappeared into the darkness. He climbed one step, and the rest of his arm vanished. He pulled it back down, and it reappeared just as if the darkness were some sort of hole in the stone.
“All right,” he said. “Here goes.”
Calibot held his breath and resumed ascending the stairs. When his head reached the portal, he kept walking. He was encased in darkness. He couldn’t see anything, but he kept climbing.
And then, suddenly, he was standing in an entirely different room, as though he’d been magically transported there, which, Calibot supposed, he had. The room was very small, because it was dominated by a giant, stone dragon head, which protruded from the wall. Its chin rested on the floor, leaving only a few feet of space in the otherwise circular room and no other way in or out. Magical lights sat at equidistant points around the walls and glowed softly without providing a lot of illumination.
Despite the dim light, Calibot didn’t have trouble seeing, and he was genuinely surprised to see Liliana standing in front of him, leaning against the dragon’s snout. She looked as though she’d bathed. Her hair shone as though it were its own light source, and her face was clean and rouged. She wore an elegant but practical gown made of cotton with a dragon pattern woven into the chest. A small, grey stone bound with a simple leather cord hung from her neck.
“Hello, Calibot,” she said with a smile.
He was about to reply when Zod and Devon suddenly appeared next to him. They both looked shocked at the change in their surroundings and spent a second taking them in.
“How the hell did you get here?” Zod said when he saw Liliana.
“I left my chambers and found myself here,” she said. “Crossing the portal seems to have changed my attire.”
“Wait, you didn’t change yourself?” Calibot said.
“No,” she replied. “I went to my chambers as Gothemus instructed. I found the present he’d left me – this.” She thumbed the stone around her neck. “Then I left through the door and found myself here and differently adorned.”
Calibot rolled his eyes. What had his father done to the place since last he was here that it seemed to teleport people from place to place?
“More magic,” Devon commented.
“Of course,” Zod spat.
“Was it like this when you were growing up here?” Devon said.
“No,” Calibot replied.
“I’m not so sure that’s true,” Liliana said.
“Why,” Devon asked.
“There was always more room in the tower than should have been possible,” she said. “And Gothemus used to disappear for days at a time. I’d have no idea where or when he’d gone. And then he’d suddenly be back.”
“This place has always been magical,” Zod said. “I just never realized how much.”
Calibot wanted to groan, but he hid his anger. More secrets his father kept from him. More evidence his father never truly trusted him, never actually believed in him. And why should he? Calibot had no interest in magic. He’d wanted to be a poet, and, no matter how much Gothemus knew about the mystical workings of the universe, poetry was something he never comprehended. He stared straight ahead to conceal his bitterness.
“Where’s Alistair,” Liliana asked.
No one said anything. Zod’s expression turned black.
“He didn’t make it,” Devon said.
“What happened?” she said.
“More magic,” Zod growled.
They fell silent again. Absently, Calibot gripped the pommel of Wyrmblade. A shock went through his arm, causing him to let go immediately. He managed to keep his face passive, contain his surprise. He’d never felt a surge of energy from the sword quite like this one. It was intense and powerful. Cautiously, he gripped the pommel again. The shock returned immediately. Wyrmblade was alive in a way it hadn’t been before. It was as though previously it had been waiting for this moment, as if it hungered with excitement for whatever was about to happen. Calibot shared its sense of anticipation, which disturbed him.
“So now what?” Zod said.
“We get the Eye,” Liliana replied.
“How?” Zod said. “Where?”
“It’s right there,” Calibot said, understanding easily what the sword was telling him. “Behind the dragon. No. It’s in the dragon.”
Liliana pushed off the sculpture, and everyone turned to the stone head dominating the room. Devon looked amazed. Zod rolled his eyes.
“Of course,” he said. “He hid it in a dragon sculpture. That makes perfect sense.”
“How so?” Devon said, not taking his eyes off the edifice.
“He was absolutely obsessed with dragons,” Zod answered. “Why do you think fire magic was his favorite? It reminded him of dragon’s breath. He even changed his last name to Draco.”
“What?” Calibot said. “Our name’s not Draco?”
“Yours is,” Zod spat. “It was the name he insisted your mother give you when you were born. Ours is Vensor.”
Calibot gaped at him. Another surprise. Another thing his father never told him. Calibot felt the gulf between his father and him grow wider. He was right that Gothemus didn’t know him at all, but he was beginning to believe he didn’t know his father either.
“But why?” was all Calibot could manage.
“Like I said,” Zod answered, “he was obsessed. And besides, ‘Gothemus Draco’ and ‘Zod the Fearless’ sound a lot more impressive, and that’s important when you’re trying to conquer the Known World.”
Calibot felt his head spinning. Learning all this about his family was too much. How could he have grown up and never known his last name was supposed to be Vensor, not Draco? It was as if this whole thing had been planned from before Calibot was born. He suddenly feared his father had orchestrated every last detail of his own life, as well as Zod’s and Calibot’s, leading them all to this moment. Was that possible? Was he that powerful?
“Perhaps we should focus on the last stage here,” Devon said.
Calibot turned to face him and read compassion in his eyes. Devon was clearly able to perceive Calibot’s distress and wanted to soothe him by giving him something else to think about. Calibot didn’t know whether to be angry or grateful.
“Fine,” Calibot said.
He pulled Wyrmblade from its scabbard and held it aloft. It ignited immediately, and the flames burned quickly, as though they were hungry and looking for something on which to feed.
“What are you doing?” Devon said.
“What you told me to,” Calibot answered.
The energy from the sword surged through him. He called the indefinable idea of the Eye of the Dragon into his head. He shut out all thoughts of his father and Alistair and Elmanax and the Council of Elders and every other damned thing he’d had to deal with for the past weeks and concentrated only on the artifact he had never seen.
Wyrmblade’s flames roared higher and turned white. Zod, Devon, and Liliana shielded their eyes, and Calibot felt incredible heat pouring off the sword. There was a loud rumble, and Calibot felt the tower shake as if there were an earthquake.
He stared in wonder as the stone dragon slowly opened its
jaws. Liliana stepped away from it, looking both frightened and amazed. Dust fell from the ceiling, making Calibot fear the tower would actually collapse.
It took a full minute for the statue to complete its transformation. When it was finished, the maw was wide enough for Calibot to enter without having to stoop. He would have to step over the teeth, but otherwise a portal large enough for a person lay open before him.
Inside the mouth was what looked to be a tunnel. It extended thirty feet or so. On the back wall was carved another dragon head – this one in profile. In the eye was a large, perfectly cut ruby. It glowed with a light of its own that shone through the chamber, bathing the stone in crimson.
“By the gods,” Devon said.
“That’s it,” Zod said. “I haven’t seen it for years, but I’ll never forget it. That’s the Eye of the Dragon.”
Calibot couldn’t help but marvel at it. If it were just a precious stone, it would be worth thousands, possibly tens of thousands on the market. But it was so much more. It was the key to the entire economy and balance of power in the Known World. So far, at least five people had died because of it, and that was only in the last few weeks. How could one jewel mean so much?
“Let’s be done with this,” Zod said.
“I agree,” Calibot said. “Let’s get the damned thing and get the hell out of here.”
He approached the mouth of the dragon. He noticed Wyrmblade’s flames had died down to their usual intensity.
“All right, Father,” he said. “You’ve lured me all the way here. Let’s see what you want.”
He stepped through the mouth and into the chamber. To Calibot’s surprise, the walls were plain. Nothing adorned them at all. He would have thought, with his father’s vanity, they would have been intricately carved with runes or dragons or a tableau of the Vensor brothers’ triumphs. But aside from the dragon on the back wall there was nothing.
Liliana stepped through behind him.
“Wow,” she said.
Devon and Zod came through next. There was an audible pop, and then they vanished.
“No!” Calibot screamed. “Devon!”
“They’re fine, Calibot,” Liliana said. “They’ve been transported outside.”
“How do you know that?”
“I don’t know,” she said. She fingered the stone around her neck. “Ever since your father gave me this, I know things I didn’t before. Evidently, this last part of the journey is just for you and me.”
Calibot stared incredulously at her. She had the same calm look of indifference she nearly always did, but this time she smiled at him.
“Why both of us?” he said.
“This pendant wasn’t the only gift your father gave me,” she replied. “As I said, it came with information.
“There is a reason I failed as your father’s apprentice. I have a rare gift. I possess innate, magical abilities. This ‘wild magic,’ as Gothemus called it, alters magical energies. So, whenever I cast a spell, the wild magic changes it somehow, so it doesn’t work the way it was designed. For example, when we first confronted Elmanax in Eldenberg, I cast a spell that was designed to cause him intense pain. I knew I couldn’t defeat a gnome in magical combat, but, I thought if I could hurt him, it would buy us time to find some other way to win. Instead, the spell mutated, and I teleported him away.
“Your father took me on as an apprentice, because he recognized this ability in me immediately. I don’t know why he didn’t explain it before now, but he must have had his reasons.”
“But that doesn’t make sense,” Calibot said. “If your wild magic changes spells, why would he take you as an apprentice? You’d never be successful. He wasted his time and yours.”
“Because,” she said, smiling more broadly, “your father was the same. He too had these innate, magical abilities. Somehow, he mastered them, so he could control what they did. That is how he became such an accomplished sorcerer. He could change the spells to do far more than they were usually capable of. By mastering both traditional and wild magic, he became the greatest wizard the world has ever known.”
Calibot stared at her in amazement. Here was yet another fact about his father he never knew. He suspected no one knew this one. His father was truly the most enigmatic person in the Known World. Calibot had believed until today he knew him better than anyone else. But that wasn’t true at all. Calibot just knew a different Gothemus Draco than everyone else. It was the same with Zod. He knew a Gothemus no one else did. But neither he nor Calibot nor anyone else really knew Gothemus Draco.
“So why does he want you here?” Calibot said.
“I can only guess,” she said. “But I think he sees us both as his heirs. He intends for you to have Wyrmblade and the Eye of the Dragon. He has given me the gift of understanding how to manipulate wild magic. The only thing remaining is for you to get the Eye. I think I am supposed to help you.”
Calibot considered that. It made sense in the way all his father’s puzzles did. They had logic that, if you could crack the code, you could understand. It was Liliana who not only brought him news of his father’s death but also Wyrmblade. She had protected him, however inadvertently, several times along the way. When they scattered the ashes, Gothemus left a special message and gift for her in the tower too – the only person other than Calibot to be accorded such an honor. Her chamber door led her directly here, back to Calibot. The conclusion that they were both his heirs and their fates linked was inescapable. His father had planned it all.
“All right,” he said. “Any idea how to do it?”
“No,” she said. “You?”
“None. I just keep getting ideas and answers when I need them.”
“It’s been the same with me.”
Calibot nodded. Somehow, that didn’t surprise him.
“Well, let’s go see what happens, then,” he said.
He walked deliberately towards the Eye. Liliana accompanied him without comment.
With each step the tower rumbled. It was as though it were somehow coming alive. When he was halfway there, it shook with each step, with each quake larger than the previous one.
He slowed his pace and looked at Liliana. Her expression was as impassive as always. She clearly had total faith in her master. He scowled and wished he shared it.
When they were only about five feet away, the floor in front of them cracked. Calibot stopped and put a hand out to arrest Liliana. She too stopped, but she continued staring at the Eye of the Dragon.
The floor before them crumbled, falling away into a chasm filled with lava. Intense heat wafted up, and Calibot started sweating. He stared at the Eye. It was too far away to reach and seemed to glare at him with malicious intent.
“Now what?” he said.
Liliana thought for a moment. She fingered her pendant and looked infuriatingly calm.
“You have to want it, Calibot,” she said. “This is your moment of truth. Your father has prepared a path for you, but now you have to choose it.”
He cursed. What did she mean “choose it”? This was ridiculous. Of course he’d chosen his father’s damnable path. Hadn’t he come all this way? Hadn’t he done everything he was supposed to?
“But I have,” he protested.
“Not in your heart,” she said.
Calibot sighed. Even weeks after his death, his father was still a bastard. He still wanted to make Calibot proclaim him somehow.
“Fine,” he said. “I accept it. I want the Eye of the Dragon.”
There was another loud crack. Lines formed in the wall surrounding the Eye, and it too crumbled and fell away. They stood now on the lip of a precipice going down into what appeared to be a giant volcano. Where the hell were they? How had his father accomplished any of this?
But despite the fact that the walls had fallen, the Eye of the Dragon hung suspended in midair just where it had been. It was still out of his reach, but it had not fallen into the magma. Its internal light had intensified. It shone like a
beacon across the desolation below.
“Help me,” Calibot said. “I don’t know what to do.”
Liliana stretched out her right hand. She flexed her fingers, turned her hand over, and beckoned the Eye. It obeyed, floating softly towards them.
Some instinct Calibot didn’t understand told him to hold up Wyrmblade. He held it out, and the Eye altered course to move to the sword. Calibot watched in astonishment as it went right to the pommel. The dragon-shaped handle came alive in his hand, wriggling as though it were a real creature. Slowly, it wrapped its tail around the Eye of the Dragon, pulling it in and securing it.
At last, it held it tight, making the two artifacts one. The Eye flared with brilliant red light, and Calibot at last understood everything. He knew his father’s plans, and he knew what he needed to do.
A moment later, the volcano vanished. They were standing in the waiting room of Gothemus’s tower. Wyrmblade’s flames went out, and Calibot sheathed it. He turned to Liliana.
“Let’s go,” he said.
It was time. Destiny was at hand.
Chapter 30: Battling Elders
For a moment, Zod was terribly confused. He’d been in Gothemus’s tower and stepped into the dragon’s mouth after Calibot and Liliana. Now he was outside, and Calibot and Liliana were gone. Devon was with him, though. Was this more of Gothemus’s magic? Where were they?
He heard shouts and looked to his left. His eyes slammed open in stunned surprise. What remained of the army he brought with him across the Wild Lands was engaged in a terrific battle with what looked to be Eldenbergians. Yes, that was definitely Eldenberg’s banner.
He spent a few seconds studying the fight. His forces were outnumbered and getting overwhelmed. If something wasn’t done soon they would be routed and possibly slaughtered.
“Come on!” he shouted to Devon and took off at a run for the battle.
“Wait!” Devon yelled after him.
Zod ignored him. He needed to get to his troops.
“Lord Zod, stop!” Devon cried.
Something in his tone made Zod listen. He came to a halt and turned back to Calibot’s lover.
The Sword and the Sorcerer Page 20