Emerius considered a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t really know where Iboghan would be. Tingai didn’t seem to be concerned about it, only about going toward the north. East sounds as good a direction as any. Maybe we’ll run into an old road or something else that will tip us off that it’s near.”
“Master Rindu,” Sam said as he turned toward him. “Do you sense anything, anything at all, like you did at Gromarisa?”
“No, Sam, I am afraid not. I do not doubt that I will sense something when I am close, but I can feel nothing now.”
“Okay,” Sam said. “Well, unless anyone else has any other ideas, I think we should just go east. There are those sharp hills that way, so if we can jump to the foot of them, that seems like a good start. Ix, Nalia, any other suggestions?”
“Your plan seems the most reasonable way to proceed,” Nalia said.
“I don’t have any objections,” Ix added. “Let’s get started.”
They made five jumps that day. After each, they scouted the area looking for any signs that might indicate there was a large cave system close. They found nothing.
Rindu tried to extend his senses for anything out of the ordinary, anything at all, but to no avail. The number of trees and thus living creatures increased at they moved toward the east, but there was nothing of the feeling he encountered when they were close to the first artifact.
“It seems like we’re just shooting arrows into a bush, not aiming but poking around blindly,” Emerius grumbled. “How do you track a hole in the ground? What do you look for? I have found caves before and there is nothing that indicates where a system lies. At least, nothing further than a quarter mile or so away.”
Rindu saw Sam tense and the way his eyes narrowed, he thought the young man might snap at the hunter. Instead, he took a deep breath and nodded. “I know, Em. There’s really nothing else we can do, though. I’m not sure how Rasaad is going to find the cave, but we can only do what we can do.”
“Sam,” Ix said. She was sitting on a rock, head hanging. “I may be able to make one more jump today, but that will be it. I’m very tired.”
“No. You’re done for the day. Let’s go back to Whitehall. Maybe Lahim Chode can give us some information. You should rest so we can start again tomorrow.”
The assassin nodded tiredly.
Sam meditated to learn the location and then teleported everyone back to Whitehall. Rindu saw that the monumental task was weighing heavy on Sam. As the others split up to go their own way, he put a hand on Sam’s shoulders.
“Sam,” the Zouy said. “Do not let the difficulties we face wear you down. We will find the cave and the artifact. We must remain positive and channel our energies toward the solution. Perhaps a little rest and meditation will improve our outlook on things.”
“Yeah, I think that might help. I’m going to go check in with Lahim Chode and Dr. Walt first. We have several hours yet before dinner. Maybe we could work on my problems with harmonizing myself with others? If you have the time.”
Rindu smiled at Sam. “That would be wonderful. I will think of another way I might explain it to you. Come to my room when you are able.”
“I will,” Sam said. “I’ll see you in an hour or so.” He walked off toward Dr. Walt’s library.
“Is he still unable to harmonize with others’ rohw?” Nalia asked.
“I am afraid so,” Rindu said, turning toward his daughter. “It is because he came to his training so late in life, I think. He will understand it, make it his own. Eventually. I can do naught but try different techniques until he understands it. The primitive mind is complex. Who knows what it will take?”
Nalia nodded, her gaze unfocused. “I will think upon it as well. Maybe I can find something that may help. I know how important it is for him to progress.”
“Would you like to participate this afternoon? It may help Sam if you are there, taking part in his training.”
“No,” Nalia said. “I think it would make things worse at this time. We have not been completely at peace lately. It is my fault, but until I can correct it, I believe I would be a distraction.”
Rindu looked at his daughter. “Very well, but do not delay in setting things right. We never know when the unforeseeable will happen and take away our ability to do so. As it is said, ‘Only put off until tomorrow that which you are willing to die having left undone.’”
“I will, Father. Thank you.” She kissed his cheek and moved off down the corridor.
When Sam arrived at Rindu’s room just over an hour later, Rindu met him at the door. Instead of inviting him in, though, he stepped out into the hall. Torim Jet stepped out right behind him.
“We will be going to a chamber with more space,” Rindu said to him. “Brother Torim has agreed to help.”
Sam bowed to the white-haired Zouy. “Thank you, Master Torim. It is an honor. I really appreciate you and Palusa Filk helping me.”
“You are one of us, Sam,” Torim Jet said. “We have no official Zouyim Temple and at this time, there are only we three—if you do not count our newest disciple Chen Bao Ling—but once we are able to meet and decide, your precise place in the order will be determined. One thing is clear, Sam: you are our brother in the Zouyim Order. It is my obligation and my privilege to aid in your training.”
The three went into a room just down the hallway. It was larger than Rindu’s chamber, and empty of furnishings or obstructions. “This will suffice,” he said.
Rindu turned toward Sam. “I would like you to remain motionless and soften your gaze. Brother Torim and I will generate rohw so that you may see clearly our energy signatures. Then, we will merge our energy and act in harmony, in unison. Pay close attention to our rohw and how it flows and interacts, one with the other. Do you understand?”
“I do,” Sam said.
Rindu and Torim Jet both began generating rohw, extracting it from their surroundings. He looked at Sam to make sure he was seeing it. Once there was sufficient energy surrounding them so that he knew Sam could see its movement clearly, he motioned to the other Zouy to begin.
Using movements from the kori rohw, the two projected their energy, combining it with the other’s, merging it. Torim Jet allowed Rindu to take the lead. He took control of the combined energy and moved it around the room, creating patterns and whirls in the air that he knew Sam could see. After doing so for a full minute, he gathered up the combined rohw and projected it toward Sam, pushing him back toward the wall gently, as with a strong wind. He smiled inwardly as Sam’s eyes widened. Then, he separated his energy from the other Zouy and allowed it to dissipate into his body.
“Did you see?” Rindu asked.
“I did,” Sam said. He gave a small smile and added, “I felt it, too.”
“Did you see how we combined our rohw?” Torim Jet asked. “Was it evident that we, at the same time, surrendered part of ourselves while still maintaining control and thus became a harmonious whole?”
“I think so.”
“Good,” Rindu said. “Now it is your turn to try. You and I have tried repeatedly, so this time I would like you to attempt to come into harmony with Torim Jet.”
“Okay.” Sam immediately shifted into the deep, rhythmic breathing he had been trained to use when doing work with the rohw.
Sam gathered rohw with lidded eyes. He still, more often than not, closed his eyes to concentrate when doing something unfamiliar, but Rindu knew that he probably wanted to see Torim Jet’s energy so he could try to merge with it.
“Now, Sam,” Rindu said. “I want you to see the pattern of Torim Jet’s rohw. More, I want you to feel it. Latch onto it, make it your own, but do not greedily snatch at it. Instead, control your own energy to match that of his. It is somewhat like when you teleport, changing your vibrations to match that of the location you wish to travel to.”
Sam’s eyes narrowed even further, locking onto Torim Jet’s energy. To Rindu’s rohw-sensitive sight, Sam glowed brightly, compensating for t
he strangeness of the situation by generating more rohw than necessary. He had the look of a child snatching at a favorite toy, only to have an older child pulling it away each time. Rindu could see him getting frustrated.
“Relax, Sam,” the Zouy said. “It should be an easy partnering with the energy. Do not grasp for it too firmly or, as with a wet seed, it will pop from your grip.”
Sam stopped, breathed more deeply, and relaxed his shoulders, which had tensed from the effort he was expending. He seemed to be doing better, relaxing and causing his own energy to flow around that of Torim Jet, but still he could not seem to come into harmony with it. Try as he might, Rindu could not see anything that prevented the melding of the rohw.
After half an hour, with Sam dripping sweat and exhaustion evident on his face and in his posture, Rindu stopped them.
“That is enough,” he said. Sam’s shoulders drooped as he opened his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Master Rindu, Master Torim,” Sam said. “I just can’t seem to do it for some reason.
“The blame is mine, Sam,” Rindu said. “I cannot determine the problem. From what I saw, you should have succeeded. Brother Torim, did you see something I missed?”
“No,” Torim Jet said. “I felt your energy, Sam, felt you channeling it correctly. I expected at any moment for our rohw to become one, but it did not. I, too, do not understand it. I have not encountered its like; it is a mystery to me. Perhaps it is due to you being from Telani. I do not know. I must think upon it.”
Rindu wondered if Torim Jet was correct. “Do not despair, Sam. We will find the reason and you will succeed. It may be as the old saying, ‘the cloak most difficult to find is the one you are already wearing.’”
Sam looked confused for a moment, but only sighed and remained silent. Rindu should have used one of the sayings from Sam’s world. The young man just did not seem to understand the wisdom of Gythe.
“We will try again when we are able,” Rindu said to Sam. “I believe it is time for dinner now, and I am hungry. Would you accompany us to the dining hall?”
“Yes,” he said. “It would be my pleasure.”
At dinner, Sam revealed that neither Lahim Chode nor Dr. Walt had any other information for them. They would just have to continue in their current endeavor, searching the area for the opening to a cave system that stretched on for miles underground. Rindu wished he could think of something to help narrow their search, but he could not.
Chapter 54
The next day, they gathered at their normal location. Rindu had decided he would begin bringing Sunedal with him each day. He still had a feeling that some sort of battle or danger was impending and he wanted to use his new weapons if the need arose.
Ix seemed refreshed and rested from her efforts the day before. After Sam had teleported the party to their ending point from the day before, she was ready to get started right away.
“Today is the day,” she said to no one in particular. “I have a good feeling about it.”
Rindu wondered if the assassin had some sort of talent for premonition or if she was speaking from intuition. Often they were the same thing. In any case, he hoped she was correct. If they delayed too much longer, Rasaad and her army would catch them.
With the first of Ix’s jumps, things were different. The road they had been following had all but disappeared between where they started and where Ix teleported them. Rindu looked around and saw the hills they had used as a reference. She had brought them exactly to the location they wanted to go.
Sam looked around and down at the faint remnants of the road they had been traveling. “What now?” he said. “Do we backtrack or continue on?”
Emerius shielded his eyes with his hand and looked toward the east. “There is a break in the trees where the road was. I think we should follow it. It’s obvious the path continued on this way but has fallen into disuse. Isn’t that exactly what we were expecting? Iboghan was a tourist spot hundreds of years ago but there isn’t much call for people to go there now. I think continuing on is our best bet.”
Rindu watched Sam as he looked at each of the others in turn, gauging their agreement. He got the blank expression on his face he normally wore when speaking with Skitter. Finally, he said, “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. The road had to lead somewhere. Why not to the cave?”
Ix made three smaller jumps, hardly further than line of sight each time, before they stopped to rest.
Sam was off to the side, near a meadow area set in the midst of a stand of trees. He was shaking his head and rubbing his temples with his palms. Rindu walked over to him.
“Are you well?” the Zouy said.
“I…” he rubbed his head more firmly. “I have this horrible ringing in my head. It feels like a migraine coming on.”
“Come, let us sit with the others in the shade and I will see if perhaps you have a blockage in one of your rohw pathways.”
Sam followed Rindu for a few steps and then stopped. “Hm,” he said, looking back toward where he had been just moments before. “It just disappeared. There’s no trace of it now.”
Rindu looked at him quizzically. “It just stopped? You do not hear the ringing, do not feel the pain any longer?”
“No,” Sam said. He took a step back toward where he was and Rindu could see in his eyes that the pain had come back. “Wow, there it is again.” He took another step. “Yep, it’s stronger now.”
“Step away from there, Sam,” Rindu said calmly.
When he did, Rindu went toward the area Sam had been, one slow step at a time. Within two steps, he felt what he had been too busy to notice before. There was some kind of resonance coming from the center of the meadow.
“Sam, you are fine. There is something there, in the meadow. It is causing vibratory energy to bounce back and forth between you and the source, increasing in intensity until it is causing you pain.”
“Feedback?” Sam asked.
“I am not familiar with that word,” Rindu said. “What does it mean?”
“Well,” Sam scratched his head, obviously trying to figure out how to explain it. “When signals interfere with each other, they can cause a violent shrieking kind of sound. Oh, I don’t know how to explain it. I’ve heard it before when a microphone, a sound transmitting device, gets too close to a speaker, a sound-emitting device. The sound signal goes through multiple times, repeating and causing a particular sound based on the resonance frequency of the original sound. Or something like that. Dr. Walt could explain it better.”
“I see,” Rindu said. “I will try something, Sam. Wait there.” He walked a few steps toward where Sam had encountered the pain.
The Zouy stopped and closed his eyes, allowing the strange vibrations go through him, absorbing them and analyzing them as they did so. The solution came to him suddenly. Making small adjustments in his body’s own vibrations, the irritating effects of the area stopped.
“Sam,” he said, “I want you to match my body’s vibrations exactly. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” Sam said, “though you may have to nudge me if I get stuck. Hold on.”
Sam closed his eyes and began to breathe regularly and deeply. Rindu saw his energy signature spike as he entered the khulim. Then, Sam opened his eyes slowly and looked at Rindu, eyes unfocused, his gaze softened. Within a few minutes, he had matched the Zouy’s vibrations exactly.
“Very good. Now, walk with me.”
Sam, hesitant at first, took one slow step. When nothing happened, he took another. Realizing there would be no pain, he took the last few steps until he was standing beside Rindu.
“I am not sure what the vibrations signify,” Rindu said. “Let us find out.”
As they entered the middle of the meadow, Nalia and Skitter came toward them to see what they were doing. By the time Rindu noticed them, they were already well into the clearing. He was surprised to see that there seemed to be no effects on either of them. He would have to think upon that later. For now, he was more concer
ned about what had been causing the vibrations to begin with.
Sam’s foot struck something and a metallic thunk sounded. When the other three went to see what it was, they discovered a half-buried sheet of some kind of metal.
“What is it?” Nalia asked.
“I do not know,” Rindu said, knocking on the surface of the metal.
“I think it’s a door,” Sam said.
Skitter had gone off a few feet, looking at a strange hole in the ground. As Rindu turned to look for the hapaki, the furry creature disappeared into the blackness.
“Sam,” Rindu said, “Can you talk to Skitter? He just disappeared into a hole.”
Before Sam could answer, there was a solid click and a hiss and the metal at their feet shifted and slid out of the way, revealing a man-sized hole in the ground.
“What do you know.” Sam said. “It must have been spring loaded and when Skitter hit the release, it opened. Good job, buddy.” Skitter was just now scrambling up out of the darkness, a smug look on his whiskered face.
Sam started through the doorway, using his rohw to cause the tip of his staff to light the corridor, illuminating a set of stairs. The hole Skitter had gone through was visible to the side, near the ceiling of the stairwell.
“Be careful, Sam,” Rindu said. “I am unsure yet what caused the strange vibrations we felt.”
“I will. I just want to look around a little.”
Rindu shared a look with Nalia and then followed immediately after Sam. Gravel, dust, and the occasional rock cluttered the set of stairs they descended. At the bottom—Rindu had counted forty steps—there was a small landing with a single door. It was more conventional than the one at the top of the stairs, with a rounded handle that Sam grasped and turned. There was a click and Sam pulled it open. The door squealed loudly as the door resisted the movement.
Sam poked his staff into the blackness, lighting up a hallway that was similar to the corridors in Whitehall, but lower and not so wide. It was perhaps wide enough for two men to pass without brushing shoulders with each other or the walls, but just barely. The door Sam had opened was metal, as the one above, though different in design. The walls beyond it were some kind of stone, but not any variety Rindu had ever seen before. It looked like the crumbling walls of some of the ruins he had seen, but not quite so deteriorated. It had probably been sealed up for centuries, slowing its eventual demise.
Harmonic Magic Series Boxed Set Page 93