by Randal Sloan
Finally after what seemed like forever, Kelsey yelled, “I think I’ve found something!” Everyone rushed to her location.
Kelsey was standing just on the other side of the fountain. She pointed excitedly to words that seemed to be glowing in the air. Unfortunately, the words looked like gibberish.
“What did you do?” Jesse asked. For some reason, he spoke in a low voice. He didn’t know why, but he felt constrained to do so.
“I just asked it for help,” Kelsey told him. She also spoke quietly. “I was getting frustrated and just said it out loud. Some kind of disembodied voice responded and it did something to cause this to appear.”
They all just stared a moment. Suddenly, Carisa had an idea. Speaking slightly louder, she said, “Fountain, please display everything in Third Century Callidore Common.”
“As you wish,” the unknown voice replied. The letters floating in the air changed. Suddenly they made sense, easily readable words!
TOP LEVEL HELP
Welcome
Visitor Log
Detailed Help
Everyone stared in shock!
Finally, Carisa tried to explain what little she knew. “I’ve heard of such a thing or at least the possibility of it. I read about it in my father’s library. It was a story from the future — the Far Future it said. In that story, they had what they called an Artificial Intelligence, an AI they called it, and it could communicate with words it made appear in the air. It’s like having a magic person that only exists inside the construct. All we have to do is tell it what we want.”
She raised her voice. “AI,” Carisa said, “Please, read the ‘Welcome’ from the help menu!”
The voice responded immediately. “Welcome to the inter-dimensional portal. I am called Aurora. Although I do respond to the command title AI, I prefer to be spoken to by name. My purpose is to assist you in your inter-dimensional travels. However, due to your access level I will be limited to basic support functions.”
Carisa had no idea what any of that meant, so she decided to try the next item on the menu. “Aurora, please read the information from the last visitor log.”
“The last visitors from your side of the portal were a party of four from the Kingdom of Callidore, the world of Glaedr’tor. They requested and were given access to a storage facility.”
Now they were getting somewhere. “Aurora, we would like to enter the storage facility accessed by that party.”
“Please provide the command code.”
Carisa looked at the others. That wasn’t good. They had no idea of what that meant. “Aurora, please explain what that is.”
“A command code is a word or phrase used to secure access. You are given three attempts to provide the correct code before you will be locked out. The command code for the storage facility did have a hint attached, if you would like to hear that information.”
“Yes, Aurora, please provide us with the hint,” Carisa answered, trying to keep the exasperation out of her voice.
“I am small and furry, but I am kept warm by the arms of royalty. I have two names, but the name that matters is only known to the few.”
Carisa didn’t have a clue, nor did any of the others, but suddenly Jesse grinned. “I know this one! One of the few things I was able to keep with me after being separated from my mother was a small teddy bear. It has been passed down for generations.”
He spoke in a more enunciated voice. “Aurora, the command code is ‘Fuzzy Boy!’”
“Please follow the beacon to the designated storage facility. Thank you for visiting today. Do let me know if you need anything else before you depart.”
Clearly, they were being dismissed. A blue flashing light appeared above the fountain before moving toward the right side from where they were facing the fountain. The four quickly followed. As they reached the wall on that side, an opening appeared.
The group quickly rushed inside. Laid out on shelves before them were weapons — a sword, two staffs, and a bow with a quiver of arrows. Without a doubt they were the Talismans of Power!
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
It's Always Choices
JAILYN TURNED TO look behind her as Jesse and the others rushed through an opening in the wall that suddenly appeared in front of them. Good! They were on their way to complete their quest. It was up to her and her small party to make sure they had something to come back to. She smiled grimly. Oh, she’d do her part, she’d make sure of that.
As she turned to look forward again, she saw two men coming into view, along with a handful of soldiers that trailed behind them. One of the men was in wizard robes and she immediately recognized the dark aura surrounding him. Lord Vipero in the flesh. She prepared a spell for him, a sort of welcome spell. Wouldn’t want to kill him too quickly; she wanted him to see his death before she dealt it to him.
As they moved closer, climbing the embankment to reach the ridge, Jailyn held herself ready — just a little closer…
Raamial raised his swords and the commander of the soldiers stepped forward to meet him, while the rest of the sand people moved out to engage the other soldiers. Jailyn knew she would have to ignore them and let that battle go as it would. She would just have to trust that everyone would do his job. One thing she knew; not many a man would be able to best Raamial. She’d already seen that.
Jailyn couldn’t help but feel the shiver of fear that ran through her at the sorcerer’s dark aura, causing her to unconsciously strengthen her shields. Without her newfound power, she would have been worried, but that moment of fear burned away when her anger flared. This was the man that had killed her mother.
Of course, the Dark Lord had a lot of power of his own, mostly gained through the Dark Arts. He was much more powerful than any other sorcerer she’d faced. He sent a dark dagger flying toward her. With a flick of her finger, she burned it out of the air with the dragon fire.
She sent her own magic dagger flying toward the man; her old trick with the fire dagger encircling an ice dagger with a core of null magic. Buried in the center was a tiny core of dragon fire. Just enough to singe his eyebrows, she thought. She saw the look of surprise, first at her defensive fire destroying his dagger and then as hers struck, his shields stopping all but the dragon fire.
He responded, of course, throwing several dark darts at once, thinking she’d try again to stop them with her fire, knowing she’d never get them all. But that was why a wizard had shields and her shields easily could handle a few darts. So instead, she ignored them, letting them splash against those shields while sending several of her own daggers back at him. This time she withheld the dragon fire from the core of them, because she wanted to see how good his shields were.
Both wizard shields held, although neither had expected those first attacks to succeed. Jailyn was surprised that the Dark Lord’s attack affected her more than she wanted to admit. Of course, the source of that power was more costly than she would want to pay. Jailyn knew she should just use the dragon fire and be done with him, but she just couldn’t do it. Not yet! She wanted him to know his fate before he died.
Both wizards responded with a similar exchange, sending even more powerful strikes back at each other. Of course, those attacks had similar results. Vipero’s dark power was strong enough that it worried her, but still Jailyn withheld the dragon fire; she knew that was confusing him. He had to be wondering if she was out already. What he didn’t know was that she had a near limitless supply between herself and Gavriel, but she wanted to savor her revenge so she withheld it.
That was stupid of her she knew, because he had much more experience in battle than she did — her own mother a casualty of that battle experience. Moments later, her arrogance almost cost her.
Lord Vipero changed his strategy, sending a slash of dark lightning to strike, not at her but at Gavriel standing beside her, surprising them both with the sudden onslaught. Gavriel was knocked to the ground, their shields barely holding, and Jailyn’s heart clinched. For a
moment her vision darkened and her own shields wavered, losing the strength Gavriel was feeding to her.
Had her desire for revenge cost her everything?
Her heart finally started beating again when Gavriel raised a hand to let her know he was alright, but Lord Vipero used her moment of weakness to strike directly at her with a second bolt. That bolt staggered her and she was barely able to hold those shields, leaving her shaken and terrified. He continued the onslaught, sending bolt after bolt at them, each one staggering her a little more. She dared not let this continue.
That had been Jailyn’s real worry — the Dark Lord would still do something to catch her off guard and the unexpected move against her bonded one had almost done that. His dark power was frightening.
It was time she ended this. His attempted strike at her bonded one angered her and she fed that anger into her shields so that she was ready for the next bolt. Still holding onto that anger, she fed it into her own bolt that she sent to strike him, mixing in multiple layers of magic, including a core of null magic. It seemed to work, getting his attention while she prepared to send the dragon fire. His shields held, just as she had expected them to, but she saw the surprise in his eyes.
“So you don’t like that,” she said. To keep him occupied, she sent another bolt of her own, still feeding on her anger. That one drove him down to his knees. It was time to end this before she did something stupid and someone in her party paid the price.
“You killed my parents,” she told him as he looked up at her. “It’s time for you to pay the price.”
She readied her dragon fire; she would kill the man and be done with it.
Gavriel had watched as his love battled with the evil sorcerer. At first he’d been pleased that she handled him so well. He had been able to supply her with his magical power through their connection, for after all she was maintaining the shields for the ones still on this side of the Land Between the Worlds. Then Lord Vipero had surprised them, attacking not Jailyn but him, and he felt her shields waver. That scared him more than the attack upon his own person, for his bonded one meant everything to him.
But she recovered, holding off the next attack and he felt her building the dragon fire. No! Not like this, his brain screamed. Gavriel’s mother had often warned him about allowing anger to control one’s magic. That was the first step to becoming overcome with the dark power. What she was doing, the way she was doing it, he knew it was wrong. The Dark Lord must be stopped, but not this way.
He managed to stand, placing a hand on her arm, turning her slightly toward him. “Not like this, love. I know you need revenge, but if you do this, I fear you will become like him.”
Tears in her eyes, Jailyn was shocked as she saw a reflection of herself in her love’s eyes. She looked like the monster she knew the Dark Lord to be.
She sent the dragon fire flying, but she twisted it so that it circled around Lord Vipero, effectively trapping him. That would be sufficient. She would make sure that he stood trial and an executioner could end him. Justice would still be served, just not at her own hand.
Raamial met Commander Maxim’s first thrust with his left hand as his right brought his own sword in for the attack. Maxim used his dagger to block that thrust, no surprise there. Both men were merely feeling out the other. They circled each other, each testing the other, neither man finding a weakness in the other’s defenses.
Maxim tried to use the superior reach of his sword to keep Raamial off balance, but instead the younger man used his quickness to keep him in close. The Commander tried to use his larger size to catch the younger man by surprise in his next attack, but instead Raamial slipped the thrust off his right hand sword, causing the man to almost lose his balance and making his block of the left hand thrust a near thing, raising first blood.
A minute later the Commander slipped a strike past one of Raamial’s swords to draw his own first blood. The two continued circling, striking blows at each other but neither quite able to get the fatal blow in, although both soon sported several cuts. Neither could seem to best the other and each had gained a deeper respect for the other man. If things had been different, could they not have been friends?
Nevertheless, they continued to battle each other even as the Commander realized that none of his men were going to make it through. If they all fought like the man in front of him, he easily understood why. He also gradually began to tire, a combination of the heat and the fact the man he faced was many years younger. He began to grow desperate, his strikes against his enemy more wildly thrown in the hopes of getting a lucky strike. He could see it in the other man’s eyes. He knew it too.
All this time the two had ignored the world around them, but suddenly they were both thrown off their feet by what felt like an earthquake.
The four on their quest had returned with the Talismans of Power.
Jesse led the way out of the Land Between the Worlds. He held within his hands the Sword of Destiny, a flaming sword that held tremendous magic and an edge that would cut through anything. The sword had never been bested in battle and every true King of Callidore had been knighted with the sword before taking his place on the throne.
Just behind him came Kelsey, the Bow of SkyFire in her hand and a brace of magical arrows on her shoulder. The flaming arrows would fly further than any other arrow known to man and would penetrate any shield a man might carry. The quiver had an unending supply, each arrow magically replaced after use. The bow was traditionally carried by the Queen to the King of Callidore. She had an arrow already notched in the bow.
Each of the companions held one of the two Staffs of Ironwood in their hands. The two staffs held the power of the earth within them and would block any sword that attempted to cut them. The staffs were given as a sign to the trusted advisors to the King of Callidore.
At a signal from Jesse, the two staffs struck the earth, shaking the very ridge on which they stood, announcing their presence and demanding those in battle stop to recognize them. The earth shook violently with the impact of the staffs, the force magnified many times. The results of that were more than even Jesse expected.
The first to his feet, Maxim abandoned his foe to rush forward to strike at the boy. If he could kill him, their mission would be accomplished. He wasn’t counting on Jesse’s reaction. Automatically coming to guard position, he met the Commander with a swing of his own. Neither was expecting what happened.
The Commander’s sword shattered as the two swords met in mid air, causing him to lose his balance. Before he could completely regain that balance, he felt a sword at his throat.
“Yield or die,” Jesse demanded.
Maxim was no fool. It took him only a fraction of a second to realize that even if he managed to somehow escape the sword at his throat, he would have no chance with the men that remained, and especially that sword. Or perhaps the girl would loose that arrow, no hope of avoiding it this close.
“I give,” he replied, dropping the shattered sword he’d barely managed to retrieve and held only by his fingertips.
Then something happened that no one could possibly have expected.
Trapped within that circle of dragon fire, Lord Vipero knew he was doomed indeed. It was only a matter of time. At some point he would find himself tried and convicted of his crimes, and quickly executed thereafter. His desperation was near complete.
He’d realized with their first exchange of magical attacks that somehow he and his master had vastly underestimated his opponents. Where did she come from? Unbelievably, somehow, she controlled the dragon fire, although she had withheld it after her first attacks, giving him false hope.
Then it’d all became quite clear when she told him, “You killed my parents.” That he’d understood. Up until the end, she’d just been toying with him. With her proclamation demanding revenge, he finally understood. She was savoring the kill; that he could understand.
Somehow, even with that proclamation, she withheld the killing strike, instead trapping
him here. Not that it mattered in the long run. He could see his fate.
Then the boy and his companions reappeared from the Land Between the Worlds and an insane idea came into his head. When the two Staffs of Ironwood struck the earth, the girl momentarily lost her concentration, letting the dragon fire slip for just an instant.
That was all he needed! Lord Vipero darted past her and the ones holding those Talismans of Power he’d not believed in before that moment, throwing himself into the Land Between the Worlds. He vanished from sight.
Jailyn, forewarned that she would have a near instant decision to make, now knew what that decision involved. Grasping Gavriel’s hand with one of her own, and Kynin’s with the other, she dashed after the Dark Lord, pausing only long enough to yell to her friends.
“I love you all,” she told them, the tears streaming down her face. “Now I know why I must go away. Do what you must, take back the Kingdom of Callidore. I will return when I can.”
She slipped into the portal, pulling along with her the others that were destined to go. Just as the last one entered, a burst of light came from the edge of the sun as it once more came into view. The eclipse was over. The doorway to the Land between the Worlds was closed once more.
The ones left could only stare in shock. Their leader and the friend they’d all come to love so very much was gone and there was no way even one of them could follow.
Kelsey was the most shaken up and she let her tears flow. She wondered, Will I ever see you again, my sister? Please be so very careful. Please come back to me.
She couldn’t help but wonder one other thing. What is that world like on the other side? If only I could have taken a peek. They had been so close to it, only a few feet away, but they had done what they had to do, hurrying back with the Talismans of Power. Of course, without that return, would her friends still have been triumphant?