by Kay L. Ling
“Does S know it’s raining?”
“I doubt it. And we’re not telling her.”
They reached the cart path. Jules had tied the maraku to a tree, and it was chewing soggy groundcover. If it kept raining, getting back to the portal might be difficult, but she was willing to risk it if Jules was. All week she had looked forward to coming to Shadowglade, and she was too stubborn to go home now.
“If Elias can’t stop the rain, we’ll have to consult S,” Lana said as she joined Jules on the driver’s box.
He prodded the maraku, and they started up the muddy trail. “She’d never talk.”
“We’ll convince her,” Lana said darkly.
He glanced at her. “What do you have in mind?”
“Suspend the all-powerful Queen of Shadow’s cage over the moat. The water must be rising by now. I wonder if beetles can swim. Or tread water.”
“Lana, I’m surprised at you,” Jules said, grinning. “You’re as bad as Greg and Jordy. Next thing I know, you’ll be suggesting we drip hot candle wax on her or poke her with sticks!”
Lana folded her arms. “Don’t tempt me.”
Chapter 13
“Has it been only a week since you were here?” Elias asked Lana. He draped her dripping jacket over the arm of a high-backed chair that looked like it belonged in a museum of sixteenth-century furniture. “It seems much longer, but considering the constant turmoil around here, I suppose that’s not surprising.”
Lana studied the chair. It looked like a gothic throne, but it had a hinged seat that lifted for storage. Its upright panels terminated in carved finials. The workmanship was marvelous. Another just like it stood behind the imposing desk. “You’re coming up in the world,” she told Elias. “Nice office!”
Jules threw his jacket on top of hers, and they sat in chairs in front of the desk.
“This room is a nice size, and it’s convenient to the main passageway, but a curse upon whoever built this place with so few windows.” Elias frowned as he looked around the windowless room.
“You need a nameplate on your door,” Lana said, trying to coax a smile from him.
Elias harrumphed at that. “Elias Grayson. Ministry of Disasters.”
“Jules tells me it’s been raining since Thursday.”
“Yes. One more problem to deal with in addition to trying to find a way into the armory, controlling the breghlin, and gathering however many gnomes with gem powers we can find. We haven’t seen the end of wards and booby traps, either.”
“Really? What happened?”
“Yesterday I sent two breghlin to the root cellars to get crates of vegetables, and as soon as they entered, hundreds of rats materialized.”
Lana’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding!”
“I wish I were. The breghlin came racing back, shouting about rats, and one of the kitchen staff—Brenda Ann, I think—came to tell me that breghlin had always been required to get permission from S before fetching food supplies. S gave them a scepter to carry to the root cellar, and they assumed it was to prove they had permission to enter. But as soon as Brenda Ann told me this, I knew better. Unless you’re carrying it, you trigger the ward, and voila, rats! Brenda Ann knew where to find the scepter, so I took it to the root cellar. Fortunately, that banished the rats, and we got our vegetables.”
“If it weren’t for Brenda Ann, we’d have a rat infestation and no turnips,” Jules said, grinning. He might find it amusing, but Elias clearly didn’t.
“And if that weren’t enough excitement for the day,” Elias continued wearily, “I had just gone to bed when a breghlin came knocking at my door, saying two pythanium had arrived with messages for Sheamathan. Obviously, the creatures weren’t aware that S is a beetle, and her pet pythanium—whom they call Head Spy—is dead. They insisted on speaking to one or the other.”
Jules shot forward in his chair. “What? Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I didn’t want to bother you. You were rising early to meet Lana.” Elias’s mood seemed to lift, and Lana noticed a devious glint in his eye. “We’d preserved the dead pythanium’s head, so I fetched it, impaled it on an iron poker, and went outside to meet the spies. I told them, “S is unable to accept messages these days, but you can deliver your news to Head Spy. It was a terrible pun, and I’m afraid they didn’t find it very amusing.”
Lana and Jules burst out laughing. “What happened then?” Lana asked.
“They left rather hastily. I don’t think they’ll be back anytime soon.”
Elias’s glanced at the clock on his desk. “Thunderation, where is my coffee? I asked for it a half hour ago!”
As if in response to his ill-humored outburst, a female breghlin shuffled in with a silver coffee pot on a tray. Her frightened expression said she had overheard him. Barely glancing at Lana and Jules, she set the tray on the desk. “Forgive me, Gem Master Elias. The guards on first duty, they wanted breakfast—said they was in a hurry.” Sheamathan’s cruelty to servants was legendary, so it was little wonder the server was afraid.
“Everything around here comes before me,” Elias grumbled, but his expression softened when he saw the breghlin trembling. “Never mind, your coffee is worth waiting for.” Waving a hand toward the pot, he told Lana and Jules, “Have some. She makes the best coffee in Shadow, and it’s just what you need after driving through the rain.”
The server’s face lit like the sun emerging from clouds. She made several nervous curtseys and turned to Lana and Jules. “Does you want anythin’?”
“No, thank you,” Jules said, glancing at Lana who shook her head.
After another awkward curtsey, the breghlin retreated from the office.
“The coffee smells wonderful,” Lana said.
Elias stood, opened the seat of his chair, and took out three ceramic mugs.
“That’s convenient,” Lana said.
“Clever, isn’t it?” He put the mugs on his desk, finally looking more cheerful. It must be a family trait to need coffee to face the day. He served all of them and then settled back in his chair, his mug nestled between both hands. “Now then, where were we?”
We were discussing disasters, Lana thought, reluctant to mention her recent adventure. Especially now that his mood had finally improved. Glancing at Jules, she suspected he was thinking the same thing.
Elias slammed down his mug, sloshing coffee onto his desk. “Gerstlits! Near the portal!”
Lana’s face crumpled. When would she ever learn it was useless to hide things from a man who read minds? She slid back in her chair, as if with those extra inches she could distance herself from his irritation and from the problem.
“Lana saw three,” Jules said hesitantly, “but there are probably more. They’re moving to higher ground where it’s drier.”
Elias scowled. “They’re moving about during the day?”
“It’s fairly dark in the forest. Maybe they think it’s nighttime.”
Elias seemed to have forgotten his coffee. He sat muttering to himself, inventing grisly punishments for Sheamathan—something about making her run a gauntlet of gerstlits, with successively fewer legs each time.
Jules rested his mug on his thigh. “We’ve never actively hunted gerstlits, but now that they’re becoming a menace, it’s time to start. For that matter, we need to eliminate all of S’s unnatural creatures.”
“Who has time for that?” Elias grumbled. “And what weapons will we use? Swords and spears from the armory we can’t get into?” He folded his arms.
Lana thought back to Franklin’s comments. As much as she didn’t like the idea of bringing guns here, it could come to that.
“Who has time?” Jules repeated angrily. “We’ll make time. Lana came through the portal on her own today for the first time. I arrived ahead of schedule and found her up in a tree. She could have lost a leg or been killed before I found her.”
“Good thing I’m faster and nimbler than the crocodillos,” she said.
“Croc
odillos?” Elias looked amused despite the seriousness of the matter. “The name fits.” He gave Lana an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry your first solo trip nearly ended in disaster. We must do something about the creatures. I’m reluctant to rearm the breghlin, but if we need to kill gerstlits, breghlin are violent and like to kill things. Why, only this morning—” He stopped abruptly.
“Hey, you can’t say that and not finish,” Lana protested. “Only this morning—what?’”
Elias looked at Jules, as if to get his permission. “It’s a long story,” Elias said reluctantly. “Yesterday, Jules, Franklin, and I cleaned out rooms for the gnome and breghlin ministries. We asked three breghlin to round up chairs, desks, and bookcases, and then clean and polish them. Apparently, while they were working they got into a row over the Ministry. Two were in favor of the Ministry since we’ll be giving out supplies from S’s storehouses. The third said it was a joke. Anything of value would go to the gnomes. At that point, your supporters attacked the fellow and tried to break a chair over his head.”
Lana laid her head in her hands and groaned. The Ministry wouldn’t last long if her staff beat up everyone who annoyed them. She refused to look at Jules, fearing the inevitable “I told you so” look. He thought breghlin were untrainable savages, and to be perfectly honest, he might be right.
Elias cleared his throat. “Your supporters are in the maraku barn shoveling dung. The injured fellow is in the infirmary, no doubt reconsidering the Ministry’s benefits.”
An uncomfortable silence hung in the air.
“Franklin tested several groups of gnomes and found more with gem powers,” Jules said, mercifully passing up the opportunity to taunt her.
Lana looked up. “That’s great! Are any from Tyla or Raenihel’s families?”
“Yes. Quite a few, which tends to confirm our idea that gem powers are hereditary.”
“I wish I had been here to see that.” She couldn’t be present for every important event and she accepted that, but it still bothered her at times. She asked Elias, “Did Jules or Franklin tell you about my party? We had a great time with Greg and Jordy.”
“Yes. Please send the boys my regards.”
“They have a lot of interesting stories about Shadowglade. Like the one about the curious hole in the passageway.”
“Hole?” Elias glanced from Lana to Jules.
Lana was sure Jules or Franklin would have told him by now, but when she looked at Jules, she could see it had slipped his mind.
“Sorry, Lana. I never gave it a thought between the rain, testing gnomes, and setting up offices.”
“Hole,” Elias repeated, waiting for an explanation.
“A hole in the wall—just outside the throne room,” Lana explained. “The boys crawled inside and found a long, narrow room.”
Elias looked intrigued. “What was inside?”
“Nothing. They went from one end to the other in the dark without bumping into anything, so I guess the room was empty.”
Elias shook his head. “I don’t recall a hole in that passageway.”
“Can we go look?” Lana asked.
“Certainly.”
Elias took two lightgems from his desk drawer and led the way. As they approached the throne room, he activated one of the gems. Lana and Jules spotted the hole at the same time and hurried toward it with triumphant smiles. Behind them, Elias asked, “Where is the hole supposed to be?”
Lana stopped and pointed. “Right there.” Jules, standing beside her, must have thought he was blocking Elias’s view. He stepped back, and Lana repeated, “It’s right there.”
“This is no time for pranks,” Elias said.
“You can’t see it?” Jules asked.
Elias answered irritably, “All I see is a stone wall.”
Elias wouldn’t joke about something like this. For whatever reason, he couldn’t see the hole. Lana knelt and stuck her arm into the opening. Elias crouched down beside her. “Your arm appears to be cut off by the wall.”
“Really?” She withdrew her arm. “You try it.”
“Not a good idea,” Jules said hastily.
“If my suspicions are correct, you’re right about that,” Elias said. “Lana, guide my hand to the hole. Stop before I touch it.”
She let go when his fingers were a couple inches away. “Okay, you’re close.”
He paused, as if waiting to see if he sensed anything, then reached out. Yelping in pain, he snatched his hand away, and then stood, muttering under his breath. “Just as I thought—someone created a ward to hide the hole.” His brow furrowed and he said, “And the most curious part is, they must have used Fair Lands gems.”
Chapter 14
Fair Lands gems? That made no sense. Lana looked at Jules and was amazed to see he didn’t look surprised.
“When you couldn’t see the hole, I assumed it was something like that,” Jules said. “Whoever made the ward made sure it couldn’t be detected by anyone with dark powers.”
“But who at Shadowglade could make a ward like that?” Lana stuck her hand into the hole again, feeling around the opening. “And where would they get Fair Lands gems?”
“They could have used dual-world gems,” Jules replied.
Elias nodded slowly. “Ones found in both Shadow and the Fair Lands. Yes, that’s possible. There aren’t many that fit that description. Perhaps half a dozen. They’re common gems in your world, but rare here.”
“How rare? As rare as ommort mirkstone?” Jules asked.
“No. Not as rare as ommort, so I see your point. Dual-world gems would be obtainable. Still, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the ward-maker used actual Fair Lands gems. We’re not the only humans to come here. There is no telling what others brought to Shadow long ago.”
Lana was only half listening. She had hoped to find a mechanism inside the hole that would allow them access, but there was nothing. So, why was the hole here? It must serve some purpose. Frustrated, she got to her feet. “Do dual-world gems have the same powers in both worlds?”
“Good question. Yes, they do,” Elias answered. “And the same ability to burn beings with dark powers.”
Lana dusted off her hands. “I thought only Fair Lands gems could do that—something to do with their origin.”
“No, the gems are indistinguishable in every way.”
“So, it’s safe to say S didn’t own any dual-world gems,” Lana concluded.
“I haven’t found any.”
Jules’s said, “If the gems are truly identical in every way, it presents some interesting possibilities.”
Lana prided herself on having good deductive reasoning, but she had no idea where he was going with this, and judging by Elias’s expression, neither did he.
Jules drew the Challenger’s blade, and when the blade began to glow, he said to Elias, “The other day, when we tested the gnomes on the terrace, someone asked if the gems in my knife were all from the Fair Lands.”
“Yes,” Elias said, “and we determined it has three dual-world gems: malachite, jasper, and chalcedony.”
“And we said one or more of the gems, rather than the knife itself, might have activated the gnomes’ powers. If so, I hope it’s a dual-world gem.”
“I do too,” Elias said. “The gnomes won’t need many. One per clan should do.”
Lana said, “If they’re rare here, I can bring some from home. They’re not expensive.”
“First, we must prove Jules’s theory,” Elias said.
Jules had turned his attention back to the mysterious hole. Crouching in front of it, he moved his knife past the opening, and the air rippled like someone throwing a pebble into a pond.
“Whoa, look at that,” Lana breathed.
Jules looked up. “When I do this, I feel power vibrating through my hand. I’d like to know whether the ward uses Fair Lands or dual-world gems, but I’m more interested in who made the ward. Elias, you said people have come here over the years—”
; “But how many had gem powers? Lana interrupted.
“Not many. That’s what I was thinking.” Jules passed his knife over the hole again and shook his head as the air rippled. “This may be a crazy question, but could the ward have been made by a gnome?”
Elias pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Not long ago I would have laughed at that idea, but if activator gems have been here all along, as you speculate, it’s possible. A few gnomes might have touched the gems and triggered their latent powers without even realizing the gems were the catalyst. Still, why would there be gnomes at Shadowglade who weren’t under S’s control?”
“And what would they have been trying to hide?” Lana’s eyes widened. “Remember what S’s spell book said? ‘I was nothing when the gnome owned me.’ And then Jules said, ‘What was a gnome doing with a spell book?’ and the book slammed shut.”
“I think you’re onto something.” Jules sheathed the knife and stood.
Elias said, “You’re right. That made no sense at the time, but now it does.”
“There have been gnomes with gem powers before now,” Lana said with growing excitement. “And one of them owned the spell book.”
Jules said, “The book called the gnome a weak old fool.”
Lana gave a derisive snort. “Knowing S, anyone who refuses to use dark powers is a weak old fool, and her spell book would feel the same way. And gnomes aren’t likely to use dark powers.”
“Right,” Jules agreed, brushing a cobweb from his shirt. “Or they wouldn’t be gnomes for long, they’d be breghlin.”
“Could that be how . . .” Lana began, her voice trailing off.
Elias said grimly, “Their disfigurement came from the darkness in their own hearts, but dark powers may have played a part as well. Then Sheamathan turned their deformities into permanent mutations.”