Harmonic Magic Series Boxed Set

by P. E. Padilla

  She hesitantly lifted one of the compresses, the one on his thigh wound, and gasped. “How is this possible?” she asked.

  Sam looked at the arrow wound, which had been a nasty torn hole because of all the movement when the shaft was in his limb. It had closed up most of the way and looked like it had been healing for a week.

  “It is a simple thing, really,” Brother Mosian said. “In theory. Application is a little more difficult. The vibrations of the rohw stimulate the body’s repair mechanism. Energy infused in the right way causes it all to speed up, tissues to reproduce much more quickly than would otherwise be possible. So, too, with the infection. The rohw attacks it, vibrates it so quickly it liquefies, and then turns to gas so that it can be drawn out of the body and expelled where it can do no harm. Have you not seen the Zouyim do such things?”

  “The Zouyim,” Torim Jet said, “have never been able to do such things. True, we can correct imbalances in the rohw in an individual, and we can promote healing so that it occurs more quickly than otherwise, but we cannot mend physical wounds in such a manner.”

  “Truly?” Brother Dilkin said. “Perhaps it is something discovered in our years of isolation. We would be honored to discuss it with you and show you what we know.”

  “That would be marvelous,” Rindu said. “Thank you, Brothers.”

  Marge stood near the bed wringing her hands. There were tears in her eyes. “Thank you,” she said as she bowed. “Thank you. I have never seen anything like that in thirty years of healing.”

  “You are very welcome,” Brother Mosian said. “It was my privilege to help.”

  Dr. Walt had produced a small notebook from somewhere and he was furiously writing in it. Sam was sure the brothers would be interviewed later.

  “Let us allow Emerius to rest,” Torim Jet said to Nalia, Rindu, Sam, and Ix. “We still must dress your wounds as well. And then we can speak of this miraculous use of the rohw.”

  They all agreed and left the room. This, at least, was a bit of good news to temper the day they had endured. He thought maybe they would be able to travel. His own injuries weren’t that serious. He just hoped they wouldn’t be too late to get the last artifact. Maybe he wouldn’t be laid up for several days after all.

  Chapter 16

  “You have learned how to harmonize your rohw with others,” Rindu said to Sam as they sat and ate breakfast. “You finally understood and implemented the technique in time to help defeat Ayim Rasaad. You, Nalia, and I melded our energies, matched frequencies, so to speak, so that we could act as one. With that energy shielding Nalia, she was able to defeat Ayim Rasaad in combat without being harmed by her awkum.”

  Sam nodded as Dr. Walt sat down. Sam thought the scholar had probably heard half of what Rindu had said. He looked interested, his eyebrows high up on his forehead, his eyes focused on Rindu’s mouth.

  “It is a good skill to have, and we will practice it later so that it may serve you without fail should you need it in the future.”

  Sam nodded again, and Dr. Walt was so engrossed, he nodded too.

  “However,” Rindu went on, “there is another skill that I have not shown you, arguably a more powerful one. It deals with resonant energies.”

  He waited for Sam to say something, but Sam didn’t know what to say, so he remained silent.

  “Do you know of such things?” Rindu prompted.

  “No,” Sam admitted.

  “Is it resonance in a sense of waves and frequencies you speak of?” Dr. Walt asked, gesturing with a spoonful of some sort of oatmeal.

  “I speak specifically of the rohw, but the same applies to such things as you mention, I believe.”

  “Oh,” Dr. Walt exclaimed, “then I may be able to add some information to the discussion.”

  “By all means, please do so.” Rindu waved his hand toward the scholar in a seated bow.

  Dr. Walt pushed his glasses up on his nose as he constantly did, and used his lecturing voice. “Well, then, first let’s speak of resonance itself. Resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate with greater amplitude at some frequencies compared to others. The specific frequencies that cause the maximum amplitude are called resonant frequencies. The key here, I think, is that at resonant frequencies, even small waves can produce large oscillations.”

  “Um, okay,” Sam said. “I can understand that. I remember reading about a suspension bridge that started vibrating because of the wind and then began resonating. Eventually it shook itself apart—”

  “Very good Sam,” Dr. Walt interrupted. “That is a wonderful example. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge. You have it right.”

  “Yeah,” Sam said. “But I still don’t understand what this has to do with the rohw.”

  “Just this, Sam,” Rindu said. “If you are in tune with the rohw you are using, you can find the resonant frequencies and increase the power of the energy many times over. At least, you can cause the effects to be multiplied because of the increase in the size of the waves through which the energy is expressed. Does that make a little more sense?”

  “I suppose,” Sam said, scratching his head. “Can you show me a practical application?”

  Rindu’s mouth twitched into an approximation of a smile. It was merely a hint of movement of his top lip at the corners, but for Rindu it was close to a smile. “Of course, by all means. I want you to watch what I do, Sam, so that you can duplicate it. Watch closely. Are you ready?”

  “Ready.”

  Rindu pointed his hand at an empty bowl sitting on the table. The bowl lifted a few inches and began to spin. Then it slowed, stopped, and then floated back down to rest on the table. He arched an eyebrow at Sam.

  “Did you see the rohw I used to complete the task?” Rindu asked.

  “I did.”

  “Good.” The Zouy stepped back. “Now I want you to do the same thing, and I will add rohw at a resonant frequency so we can watch the effects.”

  “Got it.” Sam began controlling his breathing carefully, taking deep, measured breaths. He closed his eyes for a moment to picture the energy he had seen coming from Rindu and then duplicated it the best he could. He opened his eyes to watch the bowl rise shakily off the table. It wobbled for a moment as he tried to start it spinning, but then the spinning became more stable, more fluid. Finally, it was rotating without a wobble.

  “Very good, Sam,” Rindu said. “Now, observe.”

  Rindu flicked his hand and the bowl began spinning faster and faster, madly zipping around. Sam could hear the sound of it cutting through the air, a soft whirring. It increased, the sound becoming more high-pitched as the bowl spun faster and faster. Sam was afraid it was going to shake itself apart and spray them with ceramic shards.

  The Zouy was already motioning to the bowl, though, making the reverse gesture, as if pulling the energy back out of the spinning dish. After a few moments, the bowl stopped spinning and settled back on the table. The entire time, Sam had not done anything with the rohw after getting it started to begin with.

  “Thus you see a small demonstration of how even small acts with the rohw can be magnified. The trick, of course, is knowing the resonant frequencies of the particular rohw. Do you understand, Sam?

  “Yeah, I think so,” Sam said.

  “Would you like to try it?” Rindu said.

  Sam had expected that.“Sure. What do I do?”

  “Become one with the rohw, the particular energy that is performing the task,” Rindu said.

  “Okay, but how do I do that?”

  Rindu raised his eyebrow again. “It is not so unlike what you did to harmonize with my own and Nalia’s rohw. The difference is that you are trying to become one with the active rohw, the energy that is performing a specific task. It is much more difficult.”

  “Oh.”

  “Here,” Rindu said, motioning toward the bowl to make it rise again. “Look carefully at the threads of the rohw, at what they are doing, how they are formed, what their basic makeup is. Do you see?�
�

  “I see some, but not great detail. Is that because it’s a simple web of energy?”

  “Perhaps,” Rindu said, “and perhaps not. As it is said, ‘The fool sees the cloth, but the skilled man sees the thread.’”

  Sam sighed.

  “Now,” Rindu said, “soften your eyes and look at the makeup of the energy, how it is used. Then using your connection to the rohw, add your own force to it to make it resonate. Add a little of your own rohw of the same basic makeup to make the motion speed up.”

  Sam let his eyes go out of focus so he could see and feel the rohw Rindu was using. He thought he saw a pattern in the fine strands making up the force that was spinning the cup. He then reached out his senses and felt what was moving it. Once it seemed that he had an understanding of it, he tried to emulate Rindu. He flicked his hand toward the spinning cup, projecting a small amount of his own rohw into it.

  Nothing happened.

  Sam frowned at the cup. He flicked his hand again, sending more rohw into the spinning cup.

  The dish remained unchanged, rotating at exactly the same speed.

  He tried one more time, thrusting his hand out and projecting a large burst of rohw energy. The cup hurtled away from him as if he had struck it with his hand. Still spinning, it bounced off the table and then fell, end over end, until it struck the stone floor and shattered.

  “Oops,” Sam said, and felt his face go hot.

  “That was not resonant energy, Sam,” Rindu said. “That was close to a tantrum.”

  “Sorry. True, I was frustrated, but I thought that if I put more energy into it, then I could do it.”

  “Rarely does adding brute force make things better,” Rindu told him. “It was not the amount of energy you were sending, but the manner and the frequency in which you were sending it.”

  “I tried to match the frequency,” Sam said, “but it didn’t seem to work for me.”

  “It is fine. We will practice and you will become more proficient at it. Please just remember that it takes very little rohw to cause great changes if you have discovered the resonant frequency.”

  “I’ll remember,” Sam said, shoulders slumping.

  Dr. Walt had remained silent the entire time. Sam looked over at him, and the scholar looked back at Sam with sympathy in his eyes.

  “It’s fascinating to me to watch lessons such as these. When Rindu has tried to teach me things in the past, I myself cannot grasp even the simplest of concepts. I do love to see it when others who are much more proficient with the rohw—like you, Sam—are learning new things. It’s like watching real life demonstrations of physics concepts I’ve always known but never truly appreciated fully. Magnificent.”

  That lifted Sam’s mood a bit. He enjoyed it that Dr. Walt got so excited about such seemingly simple things.

  The three finished their meal, and before Sam had a chance to do it, a servant came to clean up the shards from the cup he had shattered. “Sorry,” Sam told the man. “I was going to clean that up myself.” The servant nodded to him and smiled.

  “I think we need to do some traveling still today,” Sam said as they were leaving the dining room. “I’ll go and check on Emerius first, and then the rest of us will go out and try to get a half a day in, at least. Tomorrow, with or without Em, we’re back to full travel days. We don’t have any time to spare if we mean to get the artifact before Chetra Dal does.”

  Sam found Ix in Emerius’s room, chatting with him. The big hunter looked well, if a bit tired. Thinking of it, though, Sam probably looked tired as well.

  “Ix was just telling me what I missed, with the healing by those Brothers of the Rohw and all that. Make sure to tell them thank you from me and to let them know if they ever need anything, I’ll be happy to repay their kindness.”

  “I’ll tell them,” Sam said, smiling, “but you’ll see them again. If not today, then another time. I think we’ll be seeing a lot of them in the future. You look good, Em. How do you feel?”

  “Actually,” Emerius said, “I feel better than I’ve felt in a long time. Maybe they healed more than they thought. I’m ready and able to get back in the fight.”

  Ix gave Sam a knowing look. She had already had this conversation with him, it seemed.

  “Great,” Sam said, “but not today. A few of us are going to go do a partial day of traveling, just to get the muscles moving and to see how the rakkeben do with being on the trail. They were all injured, so we’re not sure how much they can handle right now.”

  Emerius narrowed his eyes at Sam and tilted his head slightly. “Part of a day? You’re only going to jog around, not do anything big or explore much?”

  “That’s right. It’ll be pretty boring really. I’d probably rather take a nap, but you know, I kind of have to go.”

  “Yeah,” Emerius said, “sure. Is Ix going?”

  At the same time she said yes, Sam said, “If she wants to.” Then, Sam added, “But we don’t need her to go.”

  Sam got glares from both of them. He didn’t know what he did to earn those, but he wasn’t going to let it deter him. “Really, Em, it’s not going to be much. I only need two or three people with me. I could probably do it myself, just to get a little further toward our goal and then learn a new place to teleport, but I’m sure someone will want to come with me to make sure I don’t trip and fall on my face.”

  “You do need someone to look after you,” the hunter agreed. “Fine, I’ll stay in bed and rest. I’ll even let Ix go.”

  “Oh,” the assassin said, “you’ll let me go, will you?” She disappeared.

  The shock on Emerius’s face made Sam laugh. “I’m pretty sure she did that to make a point,” he said.

  “Yeah. I got that.”

  The assassin appeared again, right where she had been. “It’s pretty hard to keep me from going when and where I want,” she said. “You know, just so you understand that.”

  “Okay, okay,” Emerius said. “Point taken. I was joking anyway.”

  “Good, now that we understand each other—” Ix turned toward Sam. “If you don’t need me, I guess I’ll stay here today. Maybe I can show Mr. Hunter here how to play stones.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Sam said. “I’ll be taking the brothers back to Rohwbyt first and then putting a few miles on. We’re starting late and will end early, so it’ll be an easy day. Tomorrow, we’re back in business, though. We need to get that artifact.”

  Sam gathered up Nalia and Rindu and then the brothers, and headed to the stables. Torim Jet walked with them, discussing things with Brother Dilkin the entire way. It sounded to Sam as if it was the same conversation as the day before about the healing techniques used on Emerius. It was fascinating, but he didn’t understand much of what they were discussing.

  Nalia smiled at Sam. “How did you get Emerius to agree to stay in bed?”

  “Actually, it was pretty easy,” Sam said. “I told him it would be a partial day and that we wanted to see how the rakkeben would do since they were injured, too. I said only a few of us would go just to keep our muscles moving and to evaluate whether the rakkeben could try whole days again starting tomorrow. He decided he’d be better off staying here and resting.”

  Nalia looked at Sam quizzically. “Ix is staying to keep him company, is she not?” she said.

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “I thought as much. They have been inseparable lately.”

  “I think it’s good,” Sam said. “They balance each other out. I think it only strengthens the team.”

  She nodded but said nothing more.

  Shonyb came up to Sam and nuzzled his hand. She seemed to be in good health. Of the rakkeben, she had received the fewest injuries, just three or four shallow gashes. Her movement was the same fluid motion she normally used, so she at least didn’t seem to have any lingering effects of yesterday’s battle. Sam absently petted her shaggy head, giving her ears a good rubbing as he watched the other two rakkeben. He wondered how Skitter was doing wit
h the Guiding Council meetings and his friendship with the cats.

  Cleave had some visible cuts, areas where fur had been torn off, but they glistened with the salve the healers had applied and didn’t seem to affect his movement. Rindu’s mount, Zumra, was humming as he normally did, dancing as if he was ready to go back to traveling. Two of his cuts looked deeper than those the other two rakkeben had received, but they didn’t seem to faze him a bit. Sam smiled at his antics.

  “Are we all ready to go?” Sam asked loudly so that everyone could hear him over the conversation. There were nods all around and a few affirmative statements. “Good, then let’s get started. First we’ll go to Rohwbyt to drop off Brothers Dilkin and Mosian.” He nodded toward the brothers, who inclined their heads toward him.

  He took his position on the ground and quickly entered the khulim. Nalia knew him well enough by now that she quietly positioned the humans and their rakkeben in the most effective manner. No sooner had everyone said their brief goodbyes and Torim Jet moved aside than Sam teleported them away.

  Chapter 17

  They appeared just outside of Rohwbyt. Sam didn’t like teleporting into a place where people may be standing around. He had never materialized within something, either inanimate or human, and he never wanted to

  “Okay, Brothers,” Sam said to Dilkin and Mosian. “I will be back in five days to move you—and all that you want to bring—to Whitehall. Are you sure that is enough time? I can come back whenever you would like.”

  “That is sufficient time, Sam,” Brother Dilkin said. “Thank you. Our whole way of life was based on being able to pick up and leave almost instantly when our Zouyim brothers found us. Five days is more than enough. Anymore and we will become extremely lazy, and the Zouyim will have to punish us to instill a good work ethic.”