Resonance: Harmonic Magic Book 3

by P. E. Padilla

  “You don’t really have to come with us each day,” Sam told Palusa Filk. “It’ll just be boring travel on roads until we get to Tramgadal.”

  “I know,” the Zouy said. “I will travel with you today and then decide if I will continue or wait until you make it to the slopes of Kokitura. I have been within the fortress for weeks now and would like to experience the open road again for a time. If you do not mind, that is.”

  “No,” Nalia said. “We do not mind at all. Your company is welcome.”

  “Then let us travel,” Palusa Filk said, smiling and leaping onto her manu bird. “The sooner we can get to Kokitura, the sooner you can bring the Brothers of the Rohw back to begin their work. Gythe has been long enough without Zouyim disciples.”

  Sam teleported them to the site of the ruined compound at Marybador, and soon they were on their way toward where the Zouyim temple had been.

  Chapter 35

  Ix looked over at her companion. Ru Wilkes—she supposed she should have referred to him as Commander Wilkes—looked older than he had when she had last seen him a year before, much older than the time would account for. He had spoken of the long months on the Gray Man’s business, hardships and danger and then the realization that the entire world had changed while he and his men were trying to make their way back home.

  He was still solid, though, still vital. If anything, his older, more settled perspective made him seem even more of a soldier. No, not more of a soldier, more of a commander. That was the difference, she realized: he now radiated the air of command. He hadn’t had that before, or at least not as prominently as it was now. She wondered if he was really as comfortable as he seemed about the new order of things.

  They had been traveling together for over a week, making their way toward the fortress he had seen, the one they all believed to be Chetra Dal’s. Now that they were closing in on their destination, they were riding their manu birds instead of teleporting. With nothing to do but talk, she had found him to be a good man. As if her opinion on what a good man was meant anything. He wondered if he saw her as a good woman, as someone to rely on.

  She had never cared what anyone thought of her, but her perspective had changed over the last several months. Her honor meant more to her, and her reputation, especially when it represented her clan name, was important now as it hadn’t been since her parents had died. She hoped she could erase the black marks against her.

  “It shouldn’t be too much longer,” he said. “I recognize the terrain here.”

  He swept his arm out as if to include the flat land stretching all the way to the horizon. There were a few scattered trees, mostly short and misshapen things, tenaciously clinging to the land but looking as if the wind would scour them from it and carry them away. Here and there were the mounds of hills, most of them flat-topped with sides that looked like rumpled bolts of cloth curling around them. The walls, some of them sheer but all looking to be made of dirt and not stone, often had runnels cut into them from the past season’s rains. None were very big, not from where Ix was sitting on her manu bird’s saddle. Maybe they would seem bigger when they got closer to them.

  As the two rode around one of the flat-topped hills, Ru Wilkes stopped, putting his hand out to signal Ix to stop as well.

  “I thought…” he said, looking around warily. “I thought I heard something. Maybe it was just the wind.” Still, he remained where he was, scanning the area. He didn’t seem too surprised when the creatures came at him from around a fold in the land that made up the base of the hill a few moments later. He drew his sword as he leapt off his manu.

  Ix didn’t bother dismounting. She teleported directly off her bird’s back into the path of the incoming monsters. The assassin knew it was the first time the commander had engaged the mutant creatures Baron Tingai had created. They had talked at length about the foes they may face. He didn’t seem fazed, but went about slashing with his sword in a cold, methodical manner. The man was a pure professional.

  The assassin lost sight of her companion, caught up in the midst of her own battle. With only two of them against what had to be two dozen mutated creatures, she could fully utilize her teleportation abilities, disappearing as they attacked her, only to rematerialize behind them to slash at them with her ring daggers. She almost laughed at the joy of being able to move again after dealing with the boredom of her travels for so long.

  A couple of times, it looked as if Ru Wilkes would be overwhelmed by their foes, so Ix would teleport near him, slash and slice and puncture some of his attackers to one side or the other of him, and allow him to move to a more advantageous position.

  Facing four of the creatures, all human-sized and a jumble of person and animal parts, Ix dropped into a low stance, ring daggers at the ready. Two of the monsters, one with fur all over and strange, lupine eyes, and the other with scales like a snake covering its naked body, lunged in. The wolf attempted to snap at her with its teeth while the scaled creature clawed at her with both hands, quick as the snake it looked like.

  Ix threw a lightning-fast front kick at the wolf creature’s chin, snapping its jaws shut. She felt something break as she did it, maybe teeth or the jawbone itself. Spinning off to the left, she used the momentum to slash at the snake creature’s arms, cutting a shallow gash in one but striking a much deeper cut in the other. It hissed at her as it drew its arms back.

  Before she even realized, the other two—some sort of half-bird creature and a mutant that didn’t appear to have animal parts but instead looked like a stretched human, over seven feet tall—had gotten close. She reacted on instinct, continuing her rotation to lash out with both daggers at the bird monster as it reached for her with its talons. She was surprised to hear a clanging sound, like metal hitting stone, with no apparent effect. Ducking under a wild swing by the stretched mutant, she danced back a step to get a better look at her surroundings.

  All four of her attackers were moving toward her, the wolf creature whining, the snake mutant dripping blood from its wounds, but the other two uninjured. She spared a glance at Ru Wilkes, his sword darting around blocking and attacking the two creatures in front of him. All that was left was to finish off the remnant.

  Ix waited until all four of her attackers were almost within reach, then she teleported and struck the stretched man-creature and the wolf from behind, driving the long blade of her ring daggers into the back of their necks. The blade went through their spinal cords and both instantly dropped to the ground, unable to move anything but their heads.

  The last two took only a few seconds more. She disappeared and appeared so rapidly around the snake creature, it was confused and stopped moving altogether. Ix took the opportunity to drive her daggers into the kidney and, angling the blade to slip between the ribs, into the heart from behind. That left only the bird creature with the arms like stone.

  The mutant was quick, as birds are, and it had just enough caution not to respond to most of her feints as she teleported around it to confuse it. She finally lured it to over commit when she appeared behind it and struck toward its neck like she had with the others. It twisted, putting its talons up to block her daggers. When it did, Ix teleported to the side and drove both blades into its eyes as it turned into them. The lifeless corpse slid off her weapons and lay still on the ground.

  Ru Wilkes walked up to her, a slash on his arm causing blood to run down the length of it and drip off his fingers. Other than that, he didn’t look any worse for the wear.

  “I guess that would be confirmation we’re close to our destination,” he said. “Not a party sent out specifically to attack us, I think. Just a patrol.”

  “Yes, that would be my guess as well,” Ix said. “Are you all right?”

  The commander looked down at his arm and then shook his hand, flicking the blood to the ground. “Yeah. It’s just a scratch. I’ve gotten worse practicing with wooden weapons.”

  Still, Ix cleaned and bandaged the wound, telling him to keep an eye on it as
it healed. Some of the mutants had nasty diseases, and claw and tooth could easily transmit them.

  “We should probably be a bit more careful now,” she said. “If there are patrols, I’d just as soon not allow them to see us.”

  Ru Wilkes agreed with her, and they continued toward where he recalled the fortress to be.

  It wasn’t far. Within an hour’s time, they were rounding another of the flat-topped hills and the sight opened up in front of them. It was a much larger hill than most of the others they’d seen, and on top of it sat a squat fortress.

  Ix looked it over carefully. The walls didn’t appear to be very high, though being on top of the cliffs of the hill, the top of the wall was far from the ground. The buildings, poking up above the tops of the battlements, were squat and blocky, too. It didn’t look like much to her. Then again, she was used to Whitehall. She supposed her attitude affected her opinion of any other fortress.

  “That’s it, then?” she asked her companion.

  “That’s the one I saw, yes. What do you think? Is that where Chetra Dal lives?”

  Ix scanned the hill, the walls, the structures. “It has to be. With mutants patrolling, what else could it be?” They had seen two other patrols but evaded them easily. “I should go in and scout it out.”

  The commander looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “You promised Sam you wouldn’t go in or engage them in any way.”

  She cursed softly under her breath. “I did,” she said grudgingly. “Okay, let’s go back to Whitehall. I can teleport us all back here whenever he wants to come.”

  She moved her manu bird next to Ru Wilkes, grabbed his arm and his manu, made sure her skin was also touching her bird, and activated her power. In a blink, they disappeared as if they had never been there at all.

  That same day, Sam, Nalia, and Palusa Filk stood in the middle of what was left of the village of Tramgadal. It had been called “the gateway to Kokitura” because it was at the start of the trail up the mountain to the Zouyim temple. It looked the same as when Sam had passed through it last, more than two years before. Well, less than a year in Gythe time, but to him it had been more than two years.

  The few buildings still standing leaned as if they would collapse in a stiff breeze. Shrubs and weeds poked up out of what used to be the floors of rooms, and the entire village had the lifeless chill of abandonment.

  Birds flitted around them as the little party made their way to the end of what had been the main street of Tramgadal. Sam stopped and looked up the trail. It wound up the slope of the mountain and disappeared after just a few turns. His hands were shaking.

  “I can’t believe we’re here,” he said. “When we were here last time, I knew we couldn’t spare the hours we’d need to go to the top of the mountain to see the ruins of the temple. Now, though, here, right now, it almost seems unreal. I’ve heard so much about the temple, and now I’ll get a chance to see the history for myself.”

  “Do not become too anxious, Sam,” Nalia said. “There is nothing left of the temple of legend, just a few stone blocks littered around the area where the Zouyim temple once stood. That is my understanding. I have not looked upon the temple grounds since it has been destroyed.”

  “Yes, that is correct,” Palusa Filk added. “The last time I was there, nothing was left of the temple structures. However, there were the bodies of my brothers and sisters, and many soldiers. Those will be gone now, back to the soil from which they sprang.” She wilted and Sam knew she was remembering that day.

  “I know,” Sam said. “I’m not expecting buildings or anything. It’s the place I’m interested in, the vortex of power where the ley lines meet. I have heard a lot about how powerful the rohw is at that location, even more so because of the generations of masters who wielded the energy there.”

  Nalia smiled at him. “Yes, that will not have changed. Let us begin. The sooner we depart, the sooner we will reach the top.”

  The trio made their way up the winding path to the former site of the temple at Kokitura.

  “I like to think I’m in pretty good shape,” Sam said as they made the turn on yet another of the many switchbacks, “but this is a tough hike.” He wiped his forehead with his sleeve. The air was cool, which he was thankful for. Any warmer, and he’d be soaked with sweat.

  “It is the height of the mountain,” Nalia said. She didn’t seem to be having any problems with the hike. “As we go up, the air becomes harder to breathe.”

  Sam nodded. Of course. He knew that the mountain was around fourteen thousand feet in elevation. He hadn’t done much hiking on high mountains. His body didn’t know how to handle it. He would have to watch for signs of altitude sickness.

  “Cheer up, Sam,” Palusa said. “We are almost halfway there.”

  Sam expelled a breath and put his eyes on the trail in front of him. Almost halfway. He focused on putting one foot after the other and then another…

  His two companions were kind to him, hiking slowly and stopping for breaks more often than they probably would if he was not with them. He ate what he could and drank often from the hydration pack he had brought from home, but it still seemed like the longest day he had ever had.

  The hike took them over ten hours, but when they finally made the last turn on the trail and a relatively flat and open area spread out before them, Sam knew that he had reached the site of the temple.

  He didn’t need to see it. He could feel it. His fatigue melted away, and his body tingled as if he was standing on electrified ground. It felt to him as if the hairs on his arms were trying to stand up.

  Nalia saw his smile and came over to him. “You feel the rohw,” she said.

  “Yes. It’s…it’s amazing. I’ve never felt such a concentration of the vibrational energy, not even at Whitehall.”

  “Generations of rohw masters trained and lived here,” Palusa Filk said. “The area is a vortex, a meeting place of several ley lines, but the focused use of the energy over hundreds of years have made this a place of power unlike any I have ever known or heard of.”

  “It feels like…home,” Sam said. The two women smiled at him, nodding.

  “Yes,” they both said at the same time. “Home.”

  Sam spent more than an hour pacing slowly around the place where the Zouyim temple had once been. The altitude made his breathing difficult, but since he was no longer climbing, he hardly noticed it. Instead, he marveled at the feeling of the currents of rohw as they swirled around him.

  The area was generally flat, near the crest of the mountain itself. He could pick out a few shapes that appeared to be stone, but most were covered by the dust of years and snow of months. He walked up to one large mound and, scraping away the dirt and snow, found that it was indeed stone, the remnant of a wall of some sort.

  Nalia had been walking silently beside him. “It is all that is left of the grand temple. A few shattered stone blocks. Nothing more.”

  Sam nodded as he scratched at the obstructions covering the blocks. He was surprised to see plants, some kind of weeds, growing over and poking up in between many of them. What’s more, there were trees, though most looked stunted and sickly.

  “Nal,” he said without taking his eyes from the plants and trees, “how are there trees up here? We’re way too far above the tree line for anything to be growing here.”

  “Ah,” Palusa Filk said, coming up from her own inspection of the temple grounds. “That is one of the fascinating things about the temple. The masters long ago were able to channel the rohw in such a way as to nurture trees and plants. There were orchards planted around the temple walls as well as within. Fruit trees, vegetables, we had fresh food ready to hand at all times. To see the flowering of the fruit trees in the spring, knowing that it was impossible for them to thrive in this harsh climate, was a joy, but not even the greatest of the wonders of Kokitura.”

  “Amazing,” Sam said. “It looks as if whatever the masters did, some of it still remains. Once the temple is rebuilt, I be
t the trees here could be nurtured back to health. They look unhealthy and weak, but they’re alive.” As he spoke, he noticed the beginnings of buds on the branches of some of the trees. They, at least, seemed to know it was spring.

  Sam sat down on a particularly large mound that looked to be a stone block. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve looked around enough for now.” He looked toward the sun, moving its way toward the horizon. Even now, he was in the shadow of the peak of the mountain. “I will meditate for a moment and learn this place, and then we can go back and have the Brothers of the Rohw prepare to come here tomorrow morning.”

  Both women nodded. They moved off a few feet and began softly conversing, allowing Sam to do what he needed to do. Within minutes, he was done. The vibrational signature of the place came to him quickly, almost as if he had been there before and just needed reminding. No doubt it was an effect of the vortex of power.

  Beckoning Nalia and Palusa to himself, he dove into the darkness of his mind, set the vibrational signature of Whitehall, and the three left the cold mountain peak without a sound.

  Chapter 36

  “We found the fortress,” Ix said as she waved a half-eaten piece of bread about as if to describe the place. “We ran into some patrols of the mutated creatures, so it seems that it’s the right place.”

  “That’s good,” Sam said, taking a bite of his stew. “We got to the top of Kokitura Mountain, and I learned the place so I can take the brothers up there tomorrow morning. That shouldn’t take long, and then you can take us to deal with Chetra Dal.”

  Sam noticed Rindu’s face, even more blank than normal, and he opened his mouth to explain himself, but Rindu spoke first. “Do not worry, Sam. I took no offense to your speech. It still has not been proven to me that the enemy we face is in fact my old master, but even if he is, what you say is accurate. We must ‘deal with him.’ It is regrettable, but necessary. All of Gythe is at stake.”