Smart Alec in the Dark Lands

by Donald Wigboldy

  Alec followed the train of thought and asked in turn, "Do you think that maybe he is a wizard? I know some can create illusions. Most of our wizards don't have a talent for it or maybe simply don't think that they are useful; but if there is a wizard powerful enough to cast a spell into the tower through which he could listen and speak, then maybe he is part of what is going on here. This Zmaj could be what Ediyem sent us to find."

  "Maybe," was all the dragaoin would admit.

  Shaelamee glanced at her gear sitting on the floor before asking, "So what do we do now? Those hollows we were following have been doing their best to waste our time here. Do we keep trying to work out where they've gone or do we chase after these new ones instead? Maybe you have different plans entirely."

  Looking between the two, Alec's mind was half paying attention as he considered whether they had already discovered part of what Ediyem had enlisted them to find. If this Zmaj wizard was controlling the hollows or otherwise influencing their development, then they might very well have found out why the hollows were acting differently from what they had been.

  While he was new here, the others were very acquainted with the common hollows and apparently they hadn't changed their ways for decades. It made him wonder other things as well.

  "The apparition kept calling you 'son of dragons'," the young wizard mused.

  "And I already told you that I didn't recognize him," Helios stated trying to nip his questions in the bud gruffly.

  Alec nodded. "If this was an illusion, it could be anyone. They might be someone you know or knew using a different appearance to throw you off. There is also the possibility that it is someone who knows you from the past. He could be working with someone that you knew who could have told him your belief that you might be a descendent of dragons."

  "It wouldn't matter. We still need to find this wizard, I believe. If he has others with him, then we will find them too.

  "On the other hand, if this apparition or wizard has nothing to do with the hollows beyond watching them..."

  "We should still find him?" Alec suggested. "He could know something about what we are looking for here.

  "I still wonder why he contacted you at this time. It sounded like he might have a way of watching you even from our travels here beyond the Soyanne."

  Tapping her bare foot, Shaelamee asked impatiently, "So should I get changed for battle or not?"

  "For a girl who prefers to wear nothing, you certainly seem obsessed with what you wear these days," Helios said with a tilt of his head to the side giving her a curious look.

  The purple shadows appeared on her cheeks at his comment, but Shaelamee bore the embarrassment without retort.

  The dragaoin looked out the window a moment before replying, "If you two can stay awake, then give me a couple hours to rest. We will find the source of these hollows today."

  Looking at Helios curiously and listening to his confidence in his statement, the other two glanced at each other afterwards as well. The window remained open while Helios slept for the short time asked for before they removed the rods readying to go. Mounting the salamanders after leading them outside, the three riders waited for Helios to cast his tracking spell and moved out once more.

  Alec asked, "Were the ones that attacked us last night from the same group?"

  Answering with a nod, Helios said nothing more as he concentrated on the freshest of the trails leading away from the tower. It seemed similar to the previous day. The path led deeper into the town heading towards the hills behind the abandoned buildings. Helios began leaving the other two to check the trails set to confuse his tracking ability. He would rush to the left or right hurrying his salamander to follow the tracks only to double back after maybe fifty feet. The false trails were shorter than the previous day and Alec guessed that they had less time to set this than they had before they arrived in the abandoned town.

  Shaelamee's incapacitation had played into their enemies' hands.

  The thought made the young wizard wonder yet again if the hollows had grown significantly more advanced or if someone was guiding them to appear so. If they were just empty shells, void of real intelligence, then how were they being controlled? He had been told that the hollows acted mostly on instinct, so how would this supposed enemy control brainless beings?

  Three more intersections were similarly falsified, but the next actually continued to the right. They were in the shadow of the hills now. Cliffs hollowed out of the tall hills often formed the back of these buildings, but not all of them ended at the cliff's edge. Storehouses would make use of the thick stone perhaps to help keep things cooler inside. If they were mostly used for food or wine and with the hills getting taller beyond the closest ones, there could be additional catacombs beyond what their eyes could see.

  None of them were strong in earth magic. Wizards in Alus could search through the stone for miles to learn what hid within a cave or mountain without ever setting foot inside such places. They didn't even need open caves to let their minds see deep into the land around them.

  Alec had begun training to ride the wind, which was the air equivalent, but it was a more advanced skill that wasn't usually entrusted to novice wizards. Once he was an apprentice it would be ingrained into him and would be one of the main spells his type of wizard would use, but his mentor had given him a taste of the spell without breaking tradition beyond that. It was known to him, but not in his list of usable spells yet.

  Stopping in front of one of those kinds of buildings, the three looked into the dark interior wondering if it was worth continuing this search.

  "Now this could definitely be a good place for an ambush," Shae said in a cheerful voice. It was said as humorously as the girl could make it. The problem was that was what they were all thinking.

  "You're certain that they didn't just make another false trail here?" Alec asked swallowing past a nervous knot in his throat.

  "This is where they went," Helios stated with a frown. The sorcerer said something under his breath and gestured.

  Four balls of light appeared and the dragaoin magic user sent them forward into the dark interior of the building. Decaying furniture was all they could see from the doorway, but it didn't make them feel any more secure about entering. They all knew that the path had led them here, which meant whether they could be seen or not, the hollows were somewhere inside.

  Helios passed his reins over to Shaelamee before dismounting. "You two stay here for a moment. I will look inside first. I can escape with a simple spell and we can flee if necessary with that lead."

  Nodding as she understood his magic, the girl didn't need to say anything though Alec felt her nervousness shiver through her back touching his stomach and chest. She leaned into him often now and keeping her water held inside like a human meant her bare back was dry as was her hair. He wondered why she did it now. This didn't feel like teasing, but maybe it was simply that the girl was comfortable with him. They were also stuck riding together anyway, so maybe it was her making the best of a bad situation.

  The thought was fleeting as his attention remained riveted on the silver scaled dragaoin while he entered the building. His orbs of light illuminating both the interior of the building and the sorcerer as he entered, the two outside were able to watch as he carefully walked deeper into the first room looking for where the hollows had gone.

  Chapter 15- The Reborn

  Four white globes of light spread out around Helios causing his scales to gleam even though the glowing orbs were little stronger than a torch individually. They were just enough to light up the large entry chamber of the building that might have been used as some governmental base once upon a time. While Helios had studied much about Atropos and had heard the stories from the older generations which had been forced to flee their world to avoid the black dust storms that had plagued many areas for months after the war had been decided, there was still a lot that he did not know.

  Atropos had been a world with many great cit
ies. A world that had been tamed in part was also one that had a lot of wilderness left to be conquered. Millions of dragaoin had lived here, but the clans which had once fought each other had spread out deciding long ago that they would all live better without being in continual conflict. Towns and cities formed over thousands of years. Countries developed around them and some of the newer generations eventually began to fight over resources that each might want.

  It had never really been from need though, he had been told. There had always been enough resources for all the dragaoin. The Zmaj eventually rose to power. They fought as well, but their people had studied magic. They had built advanced machines and conquered the world in new ways. Setting the countries which had been warring straight with their growing power, the Zmaj had brought about a new more peaceful age until the dark elves and their armies of beast men had come.

  Even the magic of the Zmaj wasn't enough to stop black dust that could turn a being into dust in mere moments. War machines would rust and age as well. Power sources would drain as if used for centuries in an instant. They just couldn't stop the ultimate weapon of the Ciemnosci.

  The Zmaj were realistic and knew when they couldn't win. They had joined the Ciemnosci and left their world behind until it was safe for a few guardians to return, but they had also been sent by the dark elves to harvest more time sand from the magic held in the land. Atropos was made of magic and held the power which the Zmaj and other dragaoin tapped into on a much smaller degree. Magic was also part of his people and many had said that they believed that they were descendents of the dragons which had once visited this world.

  Helios looked at the walls and noticed markings that looked like runes. Any pictures in wood frames would have dissolved into dust when the clouds hit. Only stone and glass would remain. It made the silver scaled sorcerer wonder how so much furniture remained inside this building if it had been struck by the black sand. It should have been reduced to a few metal parts at most, but this furniture appeared to have been made of cloth with frames of wood and was only slightly aged.

  Magic, it had to be that someone had resisted the clouds with their magic. There were stories of great wizards who had done their best to keep the dust at bay. Without them, the dragaoin as a race would probably have been all but wiped off the map by the Ciemnosci. There would be a few hidden in remote lands well away from the cities which might survive as well without magic he supposed, but this city had been attacked. The rest of it proved that the likelihood of this building having been spared was unlikely.

  Its door was gone, a cleanly removed piece of wood most likely or two. Metal hinges set into stone had been left there, the sorcerer recalled without turning back to check his memory.

  Was it because so much had survived that the hollows had come here? Were they formed from the fallen city's former residents returned to defend it from the living?

  There was nothing moving in this room. He looked up and saw a ceiling twice as high as he was tall. Stylized panel squares had been carved into stone. Some gold paint or perhaps real gold flakes remained around the edges of some. If it was paint, it had survived the sands as well. Light fixtures hung from chains. Globes of glass remained in place and surprisingly few had broken since that time.

  A wood door stood open across from him. Wood, the material that should be destroyed like the door at the front of the building had been. Certainly magic had saved this building. Did the wizard who had managed this go to Cenestraya? His power must be extreme, the sorcerer guessed. Helios hadn't needed much teaching in the ways of magic, so his knowledge of wizards was still limited; but he was fairly certain that he was right.

  The silver scaled dragaoin was a sorcerer and believed that his inherent magical power had come from his lineage. His nose and face spikes were virtually nonexistent. Many of the young dragaoin had made certain to tease and deride him for it. Noface was the name given to him and Helios had embraced it. His power had arrived and if he had wanted the sorcerer could have made his antagonists afraid of him. He could have reaped vengeance for years of derision and abuse, but that wasn't his goal in life.

  The sorcerer preferred helping and protecting people with his magic. The Ciemnosci had found the budding sorcerer and sent him on his first mission to Atropos. It was his first and only as it had dragged on and on for years, but Helios hadn't really cared that they had essentially exiled him. He was on Atropos, the world formed by dragons according to their legends. His power grew here and there were few to bother him as the dragaoin continued to delve into what he could do.

  Helios pushed through the door confident that even if dozens of hollows were beyond it, he could destroy them or escape with a quick use of his spell. The next room was darkness until the orbs moved ahead of him. The dragaoin couldn't see without them. Some races might be able to see without light, but not his. His magic compensated for his weaknesses, the dragaoin thought with a small smile.

  There was more furniture here. It was in better condition than the outer room in fact, even with so much time since the war's end.

  Helios stood in the doorway a moment looking for enemies. It was empty again, but there was another door. He had to be inside of the stone of the hill now, but it was as smooth and square as the outer room had been before this. There were more decorations including a few paintings on the walls and there were more runes to be seen here as well. He noted a few on the back of the door and wondered if the previous one was similarly marked. He would have to look when he left this place, Helios thought.

  Though he thought that he heard a voice calling from the outer doorway, the dragaoin continued inside. There had to be hollows inside this place. His spell told him the path of the creatures he followed had continued through here.

  Looking down, the sorcerer noted something that he had missed earlier. There seemed to be fewer tracks inside of the building. He had looked beyond the building and seen no more. How could any of them disappear? He didn't follow just one, but the lingering trace of all of those which had trapped them inside the tower during the night.

  There was another closed door, but no enemies to be seen so far. The tracks led through it and Helios wondered why the hollows had bothered to close each door. It would definitely have made him think this was a trap if the hollows were thinking beings. Even if he could still believe that this group was an exception to the norm, Helios wondered if it was a trap conceived by their undead minds.

  Something made the sorcerer pause. There was nothing here but more furniture and yet another door. Calling on a simple spell, Helios created an invisible bit of magic. Shaped like a hand, he used it to open the door. As it opened, a flare of magic issued an explosion of fire. When it died out, Helios noticed the glow of another rune fading away that had been set within the frame of the doorway.

  His instincts continued to save him.

  Two of the lights moved inside at his whim. Movement beyond the doorway made the sorcerer wait. A hollow, less decayed than many he had seen over the years, moved back from the doorway. There was another and another. As Helios watched, he thought that his eyes caught many hollows inside lined up on either side of the door.

  "Come in, son of dragons. It seems that the magic you embrace has protected you from my simple test."

  A second invisible hand reached out to finish opening the door wide. The first had been destroyed with the explosion, but it was a simple spell and required very little magic to use. If he needed it, Helios was pretty certain that his higher level magic could still reach outside to escape even if they tried to cling to him. Some of their arms might travel with him, but that was a cost that they would deserve if they attacked him after being invited inside.

  Entering the room cautiously, the blue eyes glanced at the hollows which backed off from the entering sorcerer. They would have to leap to him to touch the dragaoin now, but that meant only a brief instant if they truly attacked him.

  Seven, eight, nine, ten, he counted the hollows which let him pass. He fel
t like there should be more. Certainly there been more in each of the attacks on his party over the last few days. The previous night he guessed that there had been dozens on the tower, even after he had destroyed a couple hollows which had tried to slip in through the roof and the one was flung out through the broken wall by Shaelamee.

  His attention slipped from the hollows slightly to a figure dressed in red wizard robes. The cloth almost seemed to be part of the dragaoin in front of him since the creature also had red scales. Eyes, that were mostly black, stared at Helios calmly.

  "Are you the one behind these attacks?" Helios asked demandingly. His voice wasn't quite as calm as the red Zmaj, but he didn't showcase worry either.

  With a shrug and wave of his hand with its sharp red claws glinting in the light of the glowing orbs; the Zmaj replied, "Yes, and no. Can you call them attacks when they merely tested you to see what potential you and your companions had? You were sent here to find something, but you were willing to destroy anything that got in your way too.

  "These children got in your way showing you some of their potential and some paid the price for it." The crimson dragaoin shrugged, "It pained me to see them lost so soon, but perhaps Atropos will restore them again with time."

  Frowning at the red wizard, Helios said, "So you admit to having sent them to attack us... even if you try to hide behind calling it a test."

  "Of course, I don't need to lie to you."

  "Why?" the silver sorcerer questioned once again.

  "Why don't I lie to you or why did I test you or some other question? Be more specific, child," the Zmaj wizard said with a smirk.

  "Both," Helios was brief in his answer and never released his scowl.