Compendium

by Alia Luria

  “I did retrieve some audio from them,” the book replied.

  Could you replay it for me?

  “They were from the Order of Vis Firmitas?” asked an older, hushed voice in Mia’s ear. “Are we certain?”

  “Yes,” said another unfamiliar voice, worry present in his tone. “We aren’t prepared to travel, but if they’re sending clerics to retrieve it, we’re no longer safe holding it here.”

  “I agree,” said the first voice. “It will have to be moved.”

  “Do we suspect any assistance from within?” asked the second voice.

  “No, Rosewater doesn’t believe we’ve been infiltrated. Nevertheless it will have to be moved to a more secure location.”

  “When?”

  “Tonight,” said the first voice. “Before those clerics are missed.”

  “I can’t believe Rosewater left his granddaughter in charge while he’s in Willowslip. There’s no telling how long he’ll be gone.”

  “Perhaps a reward for giving up two cycles of her life?” the first said, lowering his voice.

  The conversation cut out there. Mia’s heart quickened. They were going to move the Shillelagh tonight. Is that all you got?

  “They walked out of range. Do you want to pursue them?”

  No. She gritted her teeth. But we have even less time than I thought.

  Uncle, can you hear me? Mia silently asked SainClair. The time for discretion had passed. They needed to hurry.

  Compendium was attempting to establish a connection for her. She looked down through an open sky light from above the room that contained her uncle, Cedar, Borus and Mallus, still not certain of her next step. Below, a single Druid was posted to guard them. He was young, with barely a bristly beard painting his pale face. His head lolled back in a gentle rhythm as he repeatedly drifted off into unconsciousness, snored gently, and awoke with a small snort to adjust his position. His desk wasn’t outfitted for a comfortable nap. Its hard wood equally matched the hard wood of the chair in which he was slouched over. Even though every round of nodding brought him deeper into repose, Mia still didn’t wish to risk his sounding the alarm and bringing others down upon them.

  The clerics were held in separate pens, formed from thick vines gnarled together into cages. They were quite beautiful, in fact, but their purpose left Mia cold inside. Each pen was secured by an arched door with a metal lock. Cedar, Borus, and the others were sprawled out in tiny cells, without even room to lie fully down. It was rather barbaric actually. Mia suspected these were just temporary quarters.

  “Mia?” a voice finally sounded into her ear.

  Yes, Uncle, she replied, careful not to state any of her thoughts aloud. I‘m directly above you. We need to get you out of here and fast. We need to incapacitate the guard.

  “He already looks rather incapacitated to me.” Her uncle’s dry, wry voice echoed in her mind, and she stifled a chuckle into a small smirk.

  I take your meaning, but I was hoping for something that would give us some time to get a head start on the guards. Do you think you could cause a distraction?

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he said. Very faint whispers came from below, the minute sounds of her uncle and the others engaged in halting conversations through the walls of their individual pens. Mia suspected Brother Borus, as he was never without an opinion on their circumstances of the moment and certainly not afraid to share such opinions. Then a great loud moan erupted from one of the pens below, promptly followed by a bellow. Mia stifled another chuckle. SainClair was going for drama indeed. The young Druid snapped awake at the yell, nearly displacing himself from his precarious spot in his chair. He looked about furtively for signs of danger, confusion, and alarm, which mixed with the sleep that still clung to him like a warm blanket.

  “What? What?” he yelled, clamoring to his feet and moving toward the holding cells, still a bit confused.

  “’Tis my gut,” yelled SainClair. He was doubled over, holding his midsection. “It came upon me fiercely, with demon’s fire. My bowels.” The others looked on in surprise, their faces pressed up against their respective cages. A look passed between them, but none looked up to see Mia peering down from above. The guard moved toward SainClair and fumbled among his robes. Positioned as she was, Mia was unable to see what was happening, but SainClair helpfully clarified.

  “Good god man. I canna hold it much longer. We shall all suffer if you canna get me to the facilities. By all that is holy, why is there no chamber pot?”

  Keys jingled in the Druid’s hands, but he paused. “I’m, er, not supposed to, er, open the door with no one else present,” he stammered.

  SainClair must have sensed him wavering. “This is a medical emergency, man,” he fairly yelled. “The pain, ’tis unbearable. I’m going to shit right here if you don’t get me to a chamber pot.” He groaned again and dropped to his knees. The Druid fumbled with the keys again, but then Mia heard the clink of the key settling into the lock. It was time to move.

  The skylight was angled down the sloped ceiling. It let the light in and was open to the elements. She thought the Druids must get rather soggy, given the very open nature of their windows. Then again, with so much tree cover, maybe the rains never made it down to this level. As the ruckus reached its crescendo, she dropped a thick length of vine out from one of the trees and down through the ceiling. It already was secured tightly to a higher branch so as not to obstruct the night lights through the skylight. Within moments the vine was down, and Mia hastily slid down it. Her leather boots landed on the plank floor of the detention room with a soft thud. The Druid had just gotten the pen door open and was trying to drag SainClair out of the cell when he spotted her from the corner of his eye. She immediately grabbed a metal pitcher from the desk and flung it at the guard.

  “Hey!” he said, ducking and bringing his arms up to shield his face. Behind him SainClair plucked the pitcher, which was still spewing water, from the air and swung it in an arc, bashing the Druid across the back of the head. The young man crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Mia gave herself a moment to take a deep breath and grin before she quickly grabbed the keys and freed the others. SainClair dragged the guard’s inert body into the pen. Once they were all assembled, and hugs and thumps on the back had been exchanged, everyone began to speak at once, and even though their voices were low, Mia found herself shushing the others.

  “We have to remain quiet,” she said. “There isn’t much time. I know where the Shillelagh is, but they’re moving it tonight, so we need to act quickly. When are the guards set to change over?”

  “This fool was to be on duty until dawn, although it’s possible that someone could come to check on him before then. Hand me those keys, my dear,” SainClair said, and grabbed the keys from her hands. He walked back behind the desk and inserted a key into a tiny hole in a panel of wood. It didn’t turn, so he tried another, and another, and another. Finally the fifth key opened a panel flush to the wall, and behind the panel was stowed the clerics’ weapons and gear. SainClair pulled a scrap of cloth from his bag and gagged and bound the unconscious Druid. Then he locked him in the pen.

  “It’s late, and there aren’t many Druids about, but we’d best get moving,” Mia said. She was still nervous, but she felt considerably better now that she was with the others. She looked over to Cedar, who was buckling a knife onto his belt and fixing his sash over it. He looked up just then, and their eyes locked. Mia felt herself blush slightly. Her heart didn’t seem care that it wasn’t the right time to express her feelings, and her flesh reddened as the blood rushed to her face. He gave her a crooked smile and stepped forward, pulling a leaf from her hair.

  “You’re positively filthy,” he said.

  “Yes, well, I’ve been crawling around inside hollow trees like a beetle,” she replied, arching her brow. “It tends to make one a bit dusty. If you require me to rescue you perfectly scrubbed and in formal attire, your cell is still there if you’d like to wait. It may be a whi
le, though,” she said, twisting her mouth in a grimace.

  Cedar smiled. “Filthy is fine,” he said, and gave her a mock salute. Mia resisted the urge to thump him on the shoulder. They didn’t have time for banter.

  One by one, they made their way quietly up the vine, with Cedar, Mallus, and SainClair pulling Borus up.

  “You need to serve more of your stew, Brother Borus, and eat less of it,” Mallus said with a gasp as he leaned over with his hand on his side, breathing heavily.

  “If ye’d like to partake of me special recipies going forward, son, you’ll do well ter shut yer trap,” said Brother Borus, but he smiled at the young cleric.

  They made away from the central guard station as quickly as their tired bodies would allow. “Where are we headed?” SainClair whispered to Mia, as she led the way.

  “There’s only one lift to the level where the Druids are holding the Shillelagh. There shouldn’t be any guards, as, according to Compendium, they focus most of their manpower near the lower levels, but it only takes one to sound an alarm.”

  SainClair nodded.

  “They must be trying to mask its signature by embedding it in a powerful elder, but they got spooked by your presence and now want to move it.”

  “How did you find it if the elder masks the signature?” her uncle asked.

  “We got it directly by hooking Compendium up to their system. It didn’t need to rely on a sensor to find the Shillelagh.”

  “Lucky we have Compendium then,” SainClair said, his eyes clouded and distant.

  Lucky indeed. She lost herself in her own thoughts as the group crept along quietly, all of them tense and alert. Mia was a little unnerved. Compendium was certainly powerful enough to obtain the information, but she was certain Taryn would have warned the other Druids about Compendium.

  They reached the transport room with little fanfare, and her uneasiness grew. “I’m going to scout the lift,” she said.

  “Don’t you think someone else should do that?” Cedar asked. “You’re the only one who can speak to Compendium, and that bloody book is the only thing that can locate the Shillelagh.”

  “You’ve all risked plenty coming here already,” she said grimly. “I should be the one to scout.”

  “Nonsense,” said SainClair, in a tone that brooked no argument. “Cedar will scout up ahead. He moves more silently awake than you do dead asleep.”

  “Aye,” said Brother Borus, “and we’d best get movin’.”

  Mia frowned deeply but could find no fault with their words; Cedar was by far the stealthiest of the group. He stepped into the lift and looked up nervously. Mia unclasped the green cloak from her shoulders and swung it around his. “At least take this,” she said.

  She squeezed in next to him to show him the controls. “Push the lever for the level you want, which is this one,” she said, gently tapping the fifth lever. “When you’re coming back down, push this lever,” she said, gesturing to the second one. Cedar nodded, his dark eyes focused on her hands. Mia swallowed hard, resisting the urge to make a scene. She was successful, but she openly stared at him as she gently closed the door on the lift. From the other side, she heard him flip the lever, followed by the faint whir of the mechanism that drew the car upward and away from her. Mia took a step back and held her breath.

  34 The Fury

  Lumin Cycle 10152

  SainClair grabbed Mia’s arm at the elbow to still her pacing. Brother Borus stood near the entrance to the transport room, keeping careful watch for any Druids approaching from either direction.

  “It’s been too long,” she muttered, mostly to herself. SainClair patted her elbow in what was intended to be a reassuring manner, but the frown lines around his mouth, the slight squint in his eyes, and the furrow of his brows belied the gesture.

  “We must wait a bit longer,” he said, but his voice sounded soft and unconvincing.

  “He may have been discovered,” she hissed. The thought caused a shooting pain to radiate up her side. “If they’ve found him, it may have accelerated the plan to move the Shillelagh. We’re risking the mission as well as Cedar,” she snapped.

  Right after the lift mechanism had begun to churn itself upward, Mia had charged Compendium with the task of following Cedar’s movements and instructing him where to go. The lift had stopped, and he had been moving in the direction of the Shillelagh. Then suddenly Compendium no longer had been able to sense his presence. It was as if Cedar had winked from existence.

  “It is possible that the shielding that keeps me from directly sensing the Shillelagh without hardwired access to the system also prevents me from taking any readings in that portion of the Village,” it said.

  Even if that were true, Mia didn’t relish the thought of Cedar creeping about with no means of communication deep in enemy territory.

  “All right,” she said finally. “This waiting is madness. Time is running out.”

  SainClair sighed deeply and scratched his bristly chin with his grimy fingers. Then he nodded. “I suppose we have no choice,” he finally said.

  The lift was only big enough to hold two of them at a time, so it took two trips to get them all assembled on the proper level. The night had grown even cooler, and Mia shivered. Whether from the cold or the fear settling in her stomach like a once-fine cheese now green, the electric jolt ran down her spine, through her legs, and into the floor. Following Compendium’s instructions, she led the group along the walkways. Her heart thumped in her chest as she pictured Cedar’s mangled form in a number of gruesome scenarios. She tried to push those thoughts out of her mind and concentrate on not getting the rest of them killed or captured.

  “There is no logic in pursuing such thinking,” said Compendium’s calm voice, breaking through the fog in her mind.

  Certainly not, but sometimes people can’t help it. It’s involuntary.

  “I have spent a lot of time interacting with the minds of people, and it is always fear that is your downfall.”

  Well, some people are just proud, or greedy, or mean.

  “Ah, but deep down so many of those negative traits can be linked to fear. Desire for power is a fear of impotence and rejection. Greed is born from fear of poverty or insufficiency.”

  Well, what about those who are just mean?

  “They fear rejection. If they give others cause to hate and fear them, then they will have risked no emotions of their own.”

  Are you trying to distract me with philosophical discussion?

  “Perhaps,” said Compendium. “I was merely expressing my observation that many human problems can be avoided by not letting yourselves be consumed by fear.”

  It’s not that easy. Mia sighed. How does a book know what fear is anyway?

  “Just because I am incapable of experiencing fear does not mean I am incapable of understanding it and recognizing it when I see it,” Compendium replied.

  And I suppose you think I’m letting fear cloud my judgment?

  “I certainly can read your fear. As for whether it is clouding your judgment, I suppose that remains to be seen. I believe you were correct when you insisted that we press on or risk the mission.”

  At least you’re on my side.

  “I don’t take sides,” said the book.

  I don’t suppose you can really, but I like to pretend that you’re loyal to me.

  “Well, in that case,” said Compendium, “we should turn right at the next intersection in the path. Around the next bend is where I lost contact with Cedar. The elders housing the Shillelagh should be straight down that pathway. You’ll find an entrance to a massive structure built around the elder grove.”

  As they approached the elder grove of the Druids, Mia signaled for the clerics to stop behind her. Even from a distance, she saw that the trees stretched skyward in an impressive arc. SainClair pulled a small looking glass from his robe and scanned the path and across the massive trees.

  “I don’t see him,” he whispered to Mia.

 
; “Compendium can’t sense him either,” she said. “I think we’d best make for the Shillelagh and hope we find him along the way. We don’t have time to mount a search right now.” Her heart ached to say those words, but they had to retrieve the Shillelagh foremost.

  “If something is blocking Compendium’s sensors and transmitters, I’d best confirm its location now,” Mia continued. She pulled Compendium from her robes, and the others huddled around her. She instructed it to show her the schematics it had downloaded from the Village that included the Shillelagh. Compendium marked their location on the map so they could get a clear picture of the direction in which to proceed. Once everyone had a chance to study the details, they brainstormed.

  “I expect we’ll meet resistance,” Mia said. “All we need is to get in, grab it, and get out.”

  Brother Borus clenched his hands on the massive axes strapped to his waist. “Och, I’m ready for the bastards,” he said, a menacing glint in his eye.

  “Me too,” said Mallus. He pulled a metal rod from his belt and extended it into a staff.

  “That’s ingenious,” said Mia, nodding her approval.