Andoran's Legacy

by M. Gregg Roe

  “Would it be possible for me to visit Marilee?” inquired Almera.

  Audrey shrugged. “I don’t see why not. But maybe I should ask first. They’re going to try to signal me on the first day of next month. They’ll circle their view around my cottage just after dawn. Whether that works or not, I’ll go visit them then. And I’ll ask about visitors.”

  Almera hoped that the creatures would agree. She had developed a real fondness for Marilee. The two of them had made use of the caravans to exchange numerous letters with one another. They both cared deeply about Audrey, and that had bound them.

  It was only after Audrey departed, saying that she had cleaning to do, that Draymund finally spoke up. “I don’t think that Audrey has any idea of what she has agreed to. And we should ask your father to examine that ring of hers.”

  “I share your distrust of the crystalloids. I suspect that they have motives beyond mere altruism.”

  Almera slid over next to her husband and rested her head on his right shoulder. “It is unbelievable how complicated our lives have become since that farm girl seduced our son.”

  “Only because you decided that she could stay with us,” he added with his usual smirk.

  “I regret nothing.” In hindsight, their lives before Audrey came had been dull and mundane.

  “Nor do I.”

  After sitting quietly for a few more minutes, Almera went to clean up and dress. It was time to go see her father.

  The drawing was remarkably lifelike, but what was being depicted was decidedly not normal. As far as she knew, Gabriel hadn’t drawn anything in years. But the talent he had shown as a child was still evident. Each stroke of the stylus across the textured surface was confident and precise. He rarely used the gum eraser that sat nearby.

  That morning, Gabriel had stopped by their living quarters only long enough to say a few words and change out of his armor. He went straight to the Temple of Arwon, but even the LifeStaff hadn’t been able to solve his problem. Fortunately, while he was at the Guard headquarters (no doubt apologizing for missing work), a note had arrived from Hankin that offered a solution of sorts. After reading it, Gabriel had rushed out and bought drawing paper along with an assortment of styluses in different thicknesses. And then he had begun to draw pictures while she and Marryn looked on.

  Medea decided that she had to say something. “The trees are hurling stones?” she asked.

  Gabriel paused and frowned. “I am drawing a picture of pine trees throwing stones,” he said slowly.

  Medea felt for her son. The young man could describe his drawing, but he simply couldn’t say out loud that he had seen such a thing himself. Despite that, the story of what had happened was becoming to come clear. Eventually she would write it out longhand, and Gabriel could hopefully correct any errors, maybe by pointing to words or making more sketches.

  “That’s the last one,” she ordered. “You have work tomorrow.” And it was already late.

  “Yes, Mother. Actually, this may be the last one necessary.”

  Medea smiled at her obedient son. “I’m happy to hear it.”

  After going to the kitchen for some apple cider, she returned to the sitting room to wait for Gabriel to finish. Marryn was in her room sulking, or possibly asleep by now. She and Denis were currently at odds, but tomorrow they might be gazing into each other's eyes with vapid expressions as they declared their love for one another. Medea had given up trying to keep track of how many times they had broken up and then reconciled. It was just a phase. Marryn kept threatening to date someone else, but she never did. The two of them would either figure it out or break up for good. At this point, she really didn’t care.

  She had just finished her cider when Gabriel walked in and handed her the drawing. She studied it carefully before commenting. “The stones all have square sides, like maybe they’re cubes. You’re trying to shelter the others while they get the boat into the water. That explains the weird dent in your helmet. It looks like the bottom of the boat is damaged.”

  “The boat sank,” he said, then smiled broadly. “But we were near the shore and the water was shallow.”

  Returning his smile, she said, “And you can obviously tell me everything that happened after that. But it can wait until tomorrow evening. We can invite Kora over.”

  “Thank you, Mother. Good night.”

  “Good night, Gabriel.”

  She took the drawing and placed it on the table with the others. There were only six, but they definitely told a story. Her favorite was the one showing the valley with the oddly shaped flowers. Gabriel really did have a talent for sketching and drawing.

  Back in her bedroom, she changed into her flannel nightgown while pondering why her son had lied to her earlier that day. One thing that Gabriel wasn’t at all good at was lying, and that was exactly what he had been doing when he mentioned that Audrey didn’t remember what had happened to her after being separated from them. That meant that she did remember but was keeping it secret for some reason. Medea was content to wait for now, but eventually she wanted to know everything.

  Saxloc had rarely seen Hankin angry. But he was definitely angry now, even clenching his fists as they stood facing each other outside of the Witch’s Castle.

  “It’s Audrey’s choice,” said Saxloc, holding up both his hands. “She doesn’t want either Ermizad or Celebern to know.”

  “She doesn’t trust me,” he scoffed in reply. “I know how to keep a secret better than any of you. My job requires it. If she doesn’t want me to tell anyone else, then I won’t. But I was there. I want to know what happened to her. Is she planning on telling Siljan?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll talk to her.” He was tempted to just tell Hankin, but Audrey would be furious.

  Hankin’s smile was sly as he let his arms drop. “Tell her that I know that she met with Aliva in Glasston. I told Siljan about that, but no one else. I don’t tell Novox everything.” He turned and strode away.

  “Why was Aliva there?” he mused to himself. Audrey hadn’t said a word about it.

  Hankin had seemed happy earlier as the three of them told their story with the aid of the drawings. Saxloc had really enjoyed it, not even minding the laughter from Medea, Marryn, and Kora.

  He headed home, enjoying the way the nearly full moon lit the city. It was cool but not cold. Autumn had been remarkably mild so far.

  When he arrived at the iron gates, he queried the mansion. Audrey was in her sitting room, probably sitting on the rug, and there was no one else there. She had been invited to attend tonight but had declined. He followed the winding paths to her cottage, knocked once, and then entered.

  “How did it go?” she asked, glancing back in his direction. She was sitting on the rug petting Benson, who was lying just in front of her. She had lit a fire in her fireplace, but only a small one.

  “You really need to see Gabriel’s drawings, but here’s what Marryn wrote up.” He handed over a piece of paper, and she began to read it as he seated himself in the chair to her left.

  “A flower attacked Hankin? The trees threw those weird rocks? I had no idea. I kind of wish I’d seen it now.”

  She still didn’t know the full story, including how desperate he had been to follow her. But no drawing could really express that. After she handed back the paper, he told her what Hankin had said.

  “Of course he found that out,” she sighed. “Fine. You have my permission to tell Hankin. But if he tells Celebern, I’m teleporting him back to that island and leaving him there.”

  Saxloc laughed at her now-devious expression. “I’ll let him know. So why was Aliva in Glasston?”

  She looked directly at him. “I’m not allowed to tell anyone. And please don’t ask her about it.”

  “I won’t.” But now he was even more curious. Did Aliva have some relation to Audrey’s new job as an agent of the crystalloids?

  “Go home, Saxloc. As soon as Benson gets tired of being petted, I’m going to bed.”


  “He get’s tired?” The cat was incredibly happy from what he could tell, purring loudly and with his eyes closed.

  “When he tries to bite me, that means he’s had enough. Go home.”

  He obeyed, but he went the long way back. He had a great deal to think about.

  Audrey stopped with the spoonful of rice porridge halfway to her mouth. Suddenly there were words on the surface of the table in front of her. The perfectly drawn characters were about an inch high. They were white but with a thick black border that made them stand out clearly against the light-colored wood. They read “adaptation complete,” which seemed like a strange thing to be imagining. After returning the spoon to the bowl, she reached out tentatively with her left hand. Her fingers covered the letters as she ran them across the surface, but she couldn’t feel anything.

  The letters suddenly faded out, but new ones then faded in. “Surveillance warning,” read Audrey aloud. Tomorrow morning was when the crystalloids were supposed to view her cottage. Daragrim was still working on how to record when they viewed the mansion’s grounds from above.

  More words appeared, this time on two separate lines and surrounded by symbols that resembled one that she knew well. And there was another difference: The two lines were alternately brightening and dimming.

  ‡ display details ‡

  ‡ engage countermeasures ‡

  “It’s a choice,” said Audrey, feeling excited. “Display details,” she said firmly.

  This time there were both words and a diagram that was obviously the floor plan of her cottage. Red squares marked not only her location in the dining nook, but each door and window. She read the words to the right of the diagram several times, trying to understand them.

  < continuous owner position tracking >

  < continuous owner magic detection >

  < multiple action triggers in surrounding structure >

  < general area surveillance monitoring >

  As an experiment, Audrey pushed back her chair, stood and then moved to the side of the table. Not only did her position change within the diagram, but the entire display rotated so that it was facing her. That was pretty neat.

  “Who is the owner?” she asked, and the answer replaced the display.

  < Audrey av Marilee av Karin av Andoran >

  It was her exact lineage from Andoran. “Who are you?”

  < Guardian Ring #1 >

  She had suspected that it had to be the ring, but she wasn’t even wearing it at the moment. It was numbered, so there were obviously more rings like it. And what did guardian mean? The crystalloids hadn’t mentioned anything like what she was experiencing. That might mean that they didn’t know about what was happening to her, which was a bit disconcerting. Fortunately, she could just go ask them.

  While finishing her breakfast, the surveillance warning returned, but it vanished when she told it to. That was obviously due to the mansion’s magical systems. Some kind of notification apparently got sent every time she opened a window or door. That was annoying but not really surprising. Almera was nosy to a fault.

  After getting dressed and grooming herself, Audrey put on the ring, pinned on her broach, and then teleported to the crystalloid’s sitting room. It smelled less musty than before, and there was no puff of dust when she sat down on one of the couches. She had to wait a while before a crystalloid appeared through the magic door. Renata promptly spun over and hopped up onto the table.

  “You cleaned,” said Audrey, smiling.

  Renata laughed melodically. “Yes, and it was not easy. Andoran simply used magic to clean everything. These bodies aren’t really designed to dust and mop.”

  Audrey chuckled as she tried to imagine it.

  “Why are you here, Audrey? Is there a problem?”

  “I have questions about the ring you gave me. First of all, how many are there?”

  “One, but we think that Andoran intended for there to be a total of seven. That was clearly his favorite number. His symbol is composed of seven lines, and there are seven types of magic.”

  Neither of those things had occurred to Audrey, but it all fit. “You have seven legs and this room has seven sides.”

  “Audrey, is the ring … communicating with you?”

  “You knew about that?” she said accusingly.

  “Allow me to explain.” Renata rotated gracefully as she settled onto the table. “The notes we found with the ring were incomplete. They were also confusing, with many things crossed out and quite a few illegible scribbles. There was mention of adding more powers, including some type of communication, but it wasn’t clear if he got around to any of that before he died. He never mentioned the ring to any of us, and we only found it after he died.”

  Audrey held up her right hand. “It calls itself a Guardian Ring.”

  “Guardian? How does it communicate with you?”

  It took her a few minutes to describe what had happened earlier. The ring could make the words appear to be anywhere, including floating in the air. While taking her bath, Audrey had asked for information about crystalloids, but there was far too much of it to take in.

  “This is unexpected. I don’t think that the ring is actually alive, but it is sentient, perhaps in the same way as some of the more advanced constructs he created.”

  “Like a Collector?” asked Audrey, and two of Renata’s legs jerked.

  “Do you know everything?” she complained. “Yes, exactly like that. It is intelligence, but without emotion or free will. Are you paying attention?”

  “Sorry.” She had asked the ring about Collectors, then received another flood of information. “There’s still one Collector out there, right?”

  “Yes. We monitor it, but it hasn’t been active for some time.”

  Audrey paused as she read more of what was displayed in front of her eyes. “I can command it—tell it to stop collecting or to do something else.” She could even order it to permanently deactivate, essentially killing the creature. “I need you to show me where it is. It’s dangerous.”

  “The remaining Collector was one of the things we eventually planned to have you look into.” Renata rose up and then bowed in the crystalloid fashion. “We are at your service, Guardian.”

  “Guardian?”

  “It seems an appropriate title for you,” explained Renata. “You are now the guardian of Andoran’s Realm.”

  The statement startled Audrey. She jumped to her feet with an eager expression. “Does this mean I’m in charge now?”

  Renata laughed as she wheeled off the table. “I would be worried if I hadn’t already learned so much about you from your mother. Come on. We can show you where the Collector’s base is located in the Gray Forest. That will allow you to teleport there. Is something wrong?”

  “I had a bad experience with the Gray Forest once,” she confessed, grimacing at the memory.

  “The ring should protect you there. If it doesn’t, then just teleport back.”

  But would she be able to teleport if she was being assailed by wasps again? Well, it was too late to back out now. Audrey followed Renata through the magic door.

  39

  ‡ Guardian ‡

  It was anticlimactic. As soon as Audrey appeared inside the Gray Forest, she knew that she was safe. She was as without color as everything else. The two huge constructs guarding the entrance to the Collector’s base of operations obeyed her instantly, pulling open the heavy iron door. She ordered them to follow her inside and close the door. Then, feeling slightly guilty, she stepped away from them and spoke the sequence of nonsense words that the ring was showing her. The two creatures fell into their component pieces, creating a deafening clatter. They were nothing but scrap metal now.

  Once inside, she continued her work, finding many of the constructs to be barely functional. She found a large room filled with metal boxes that apparently contained things that had been collected (and which she wasn’t about to look inside). Another room housed neat stacks
of metal plates etched with information. Finally she found the metal box—really more of a building—that served as the Collector’s flying vehicle. She hadn’t seen it personally, but she had talked to people who had. The metal was rusty and dented. One corner of the vehicle seemed to have melted. And standing motionlessly nearby was the Collector.

  The Collector looked exactly as Petra had described it, a simulacrum of a human, but with an expressionless face and soulless eyes. Audrey could see all that perfectly even though the room was completely dark. It was another of the ring’s powers.

  Standing in front of the creature, she said, “Report status.”

  “Inoperative.” The voice was inhuman, emotionless. “Conveyance unrepairable. Servant numbers insufficient. Collection suspended.”

  Audrey consulted the ring briefly. “Cease collection. Standby mode. Execute.”

  “Acknowledged.” It turned and walked away with an odd gait.

  Despite being centuries old, the Collector seemed to be in reasonable condition. From now on it would simply maintain its base and occasionally expose itself to the sun to recharge. Maybe someday she would find a use for it. If not, at least it would never harm anyone again.

  After a moment’s thought, Audrey teleported to her bedroom. The ring promptly informed her that there was someone in her cottage. She walked out into the sitting area and startled Almera, who was sitting near the fireplace holding a cup of tea.

  “Audrey, where have you been? Bennet sent someone here to see why you hadn’t shown up to teach this morning.”

  “What did you tell them?” asked Audrey, mentally cursing herself.

  “That you had forgotten and gone out.” She smiled. “I hinted that you may have had too much to drink last night.”

  Audrey rarely drank that much anymore, but she certainly had in the past. “That’s close enough. As soon as I freshen up, I’ll head over there. I’ve got two classes to teach this afternoon.”