“What’s to stop me from hunting them down and paying them back for some of that pain?”
Jelnick sighed. “There are a number of things.” He paused, “First, they are wizards and you might find them harder to deal with than you imagine. Try and strike me now if you think it would be easy to pay someone back for your pain.”
The man looked wary, but then rapidly struck at Jelnick’s leg. His fist moved so fast it seemed to blur, but three feet from the wizard it struck and rebounded from an unseen barrier. The man roared in pain and frustration. Jelnick stood, a bored expression on his face.
“Wizards,” Jelnick said, waving a hand, “know that they are not a physical match in a fight, so they take measures. You will need more than speed and physical strength to fight a wizard.”
“Second,” Jelnick held up a pair of fingers, “the demon didn’t just make you stronger, faster and nearly impervious to normal weapons. He also bound you to me and my magic.”
“Try and move,” Jelnick commanded. The man was suddenly frozen in place. He strained and grunted with effort but was unable to so much as twitch.
“I can do that to you anytime, anywhere I please,” Jelnick said breezily. He gestured slightly and the man was suddenly able to move freely again. He stood panting and looking resentful.
“Third,” Jelnick held up three fingers, “there is always this. Pain.”
As he spoke the word, the man fell to the ground, writhing, his face a rictus of agony. The wizard made another gesture and the man lay on the floor, panting.
“So, you see, my dear Ebony—that’s your new name by the way—in spite of your strength and power, I have plenty of ways to apply the stick. But I’m sure you’ll agree; you were attracted to my service more by the rewards than the punishments.
“No normal man can challenge you. As long as you remain attentive to tasks I set you, you will live your life in the lap of luxury. The best food, clothing, women, whatever you desire, you shall have it. Only serve me on the tasks I give you. You thought it was a good trade when you volunteered, do you disagree now?”
“No, Master Jelnick,” the man, now known as Ebony, replied. “I agree, this is a most fair trade. I was momentarily overcome by the feeling of this new power. Please forgive my rudeness.”
“I understand,” Jelnick mused. “I remember how I felt after the demons changed me, though my change was much different from yours, I remember the feeling of power. It is intoxicating,” he laughed bitterly. “But don’t let it happen again. It may be difficult and costly to find the right man to become one of my Charzen, but I have removed those who did not serve me properly in the past and can and will do so again in the future,” he intoned ominously.
“I am yours to command, Master Jelnick,” Ebony said as he clapped his closed right fist to his chest above his heart and bowed.
“Good,” Jelnick said as he looked at his new minion. “See that you do not forget it.”
Chapter 14
Skryla – Castle Kord, Thirdir Pass
After two days of nearly non-stop activity, Dorull, paused and turned to Eril.
“There, that’s the last of them, or at least the end of the unique ones. I still have more, but they are simply more of the same.” He sat heavily, as Eril was still examining the last item he had been shown, a strange contraption with a ring attached to a bracelet that Dorull had said he didn’t know the function of. “Boy, you wear me out. Though, I say, you excite me as well. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had such an attentive audience. Most wizards are little interested in old artifacts whose purpose none can divine, especially when they no longer function. But, you, boy, you aren’t just putting on a show of interest. I can see it in your eyes. You actually care about these old things as much as I do.”
Eril nodded as he continued to fiddle with the artifact.
“Master Dorull, I do care. Even more, as I look at these things,” he gestured with the strange device in his hand, “they give me ideas, make me think of trying things I haven’t before. And even if they didn’t, I feel awed to hold something that was made so long ago. I wish I could meet those who made them.”
“Ah, there we agree completely, boy, I would give much for the chance to meet those old masters. But enough of the past, I wish to see a new maker at work. Tonight, we eat and rest, and tomorrow you will begin making something new, while I watch.”
§ § §
“You can make another one, can’t you?” Dorull asked as Eril sat eating the porridge and bread of their morning meal.
Eril looked into his bowl. “I suppose I can, Master, I just haven’t thought of it in a long time. I really didn’t know what I was doing the first time I made one.”
“That is the part that amazes me most,” Dorull said, standing up from the table and beginning to pace. “How you could create so powerful an artifact without even having an idea what you were doing. It confounds me.” He shook his head, staring at the floor.
“I just did what Master Silurian suggested; make a ring that was the exact opposite of my power ring. I’ve never used it; in fact, it frightens me. That’s why I never thought much about making another, but I can see why you’d want one, and you won’t take mine.”
“Quite right. I’ve told you, boy, there can never be too many line cutters in the world, and you will certainly need the one you have. So, I ask again, can you make me one now?” He stared at Eril. Eril could feel the weight of that gaze.
“Yes. Maybe not today, but I think I can make another one, Master,” he said, looking down, unable to hold that expectant gaze.
He continued to look down for several moments until he heard a strange sound, almost like an old dog coughing. Looking up, Eril saw Dorull was laughing, a smile on his face and tears coming down his cheeks from the force of his mirth. Eril was confused at the reaction.
Finally, Dorull finished laughing and got his breath back.
“Maybe not today, maybe not today, he says,” Dorull chuckled and nearly broke down laughing again, but got himself under control.
“Boy, if you had said it would take you a year to make another line cutter, I would have considered that quite timely, and now you even consider the possibility that you might create one in a day . . . it unhinges my mind. I haven’t laughed that hard in at least a decade. Let’s see what you can do!”
It did take more than a day. Eril spent the whole first day just setting up his equipment, he had never done it all before and spent as much time figuring out where all the parts and pieces of his new equipment went together as he did in planning how he would make another line cutter. As he worked, the soldiers manning the castle garrison watched silently. Biruell spent most of his time with the soldiers, while Eril was working with Master Dorull. The soldiers of the garrison had little to distract them, so they watched and commented among themselves, though they never approached.
At the end of the day, he had everything ready, but Dorull said that it would be better to start fresh in the morning. They spent the evening with Dorull telling stories of wizards he’d known, and places he’d been while lounging in stuffed chairs in front of the hearth of Dorull’s sitting room. The weather had turned bitter cold, rain whipped the castle, while the wind tried to invade every crevice. Eril felt sorry for whatever guards had drawn sentry duty that night.
The storm broke sometime during the night, and in the morning, they awoke to the castle courtyard crusted with ice and a clear, frigid, blue sky.
“We will have to wait until at least mid-morning,” Dorull said, looking out at the courtyard, “for it to be warm enough to melt the ice and begin this experiment.”
All the previous evening, and during the morning, Eril had been puzzling over the last artifact Dorull had shown him. Eril felt certain that it was a zdrell artifact, and since Dorull had said that he agreed, but had no notion of its function, Eril had not wanted to put it down and still had it now. He was certain that the bottom section was designed to be worn on the wrist,
but that left the ring sitting above the back of the hand and he could not imagine a use for it. There were no markings on it anywhere and looking at it with his zdrell sight had yielded no more insight.
Just as he was about to put it away, he happened to look through the ring with his zdrell sight. He was shocked when the mountain peak above the castle seemed to leap at him. He looked away, and the mountain had not moved. He looked again with his sight through the ring and again, the mountain appeared to fly to meet him, and the more he looked, the closer it seemed.
“Master Dorull, I’ve figured it out!” he said, waving his wrist. “It lets you see things closer, but only when you look through it with zdrell sight. I just saw the mountainside over there close enough to name the weeds growing out of the rocks on the ground.”
“So that explains it,” Dorull said nodding. “No wonder I could never work it out. I’ve never managed any sort of zdrell sight without a demon amulet, and I never would have thought of using that on this thing. Well done. Keep it, Eril, you’re the only one who can use it, and I think that could prove most useful. Just make sure you don’t tell the garrison commander, or he might want to use you for sentry duty,” he said grinning.
“Thank you, Master. I think it might be very useful, and I sure won’t tell the garrison commander,” Eril grinned.
“Yes, yes, now, show me how you use this zdrell of yours to make a ring, yes?”
“Yes, Master, at once.”
§ § §
Eril had gone out earlier in the morning and lit his small forge. They did not have much quality coal, so he had to stoke the hearth and stir out the impurities to get a hot enough fire. They came out together and Eril stirred the coals and used his foot-pump bellows to bring them up to heat.
He dropped a small strip of iron into the hottest part of the forge as he continued to pump the bellows, waiting until the metal was white hot, then reached out with his zdrell and picked up the metal strip and bent it into a circle, working carefully to seal the ends into a seamless ring.
Dorull, watching while clutching his demon-sight amulet, let out a gasp. The watching guards muttered among themselves about the strangeness of wizards, but they did so quietly.
“Amazing, boy. I’ve never seen anything like that before. You are moving those force lines and using them as if they were your own hands. I’ve known a few wizards over the years who could twitch a line here or there, and they thought they were some great thing. You though are the authentic article. I can hardly wait to see you take that ring and make a line cutter out of it.”
Eril was sweating with the heat of the forge and the effort of working on the ring, but he also felt a glow of pride. Master Silurian had said many kind and complimentary things over the years, but he had never spoken with the awe Eril heard in Dorull’s voice. He had also never worked with this large an audience before. As Dorull had been speaking, Eril had again placed the ring in the hottest part of the forge to heat it hotter still.
When he sensed the temperature was correct, Eril lifted the ring again with his zdrell and set it rotating slowly while he searched for the parts of the metal he could disconnect from the surrounding force lines. He had difficulty seeing where to work at first, but as he found one, then another, it got progressively easier. The ring kept cooling off, and Eril had to place it back in the coals and pump the bellows to get it hot again. The more disruptive lines he set, the faster it cooled until he could tell it was sucking the very heat from the forge.
Eril knew he could continue to make the ring even more destructive, but felt that if he went much further, it would destroy itself, so he stopped. He floated the ring out and quenched it in an ice-water filled bucket. It steamed for only a moment, and then the entire bucket of water turned into a solid block of ice.
If Dorull had been impressed before, it was obvious he was even more so now. The watching guards were deathly silent.
“Boy, I don’t know what you’ve done, but that may be the most frightening magic I’ve ever seen,” he said, his voice a gravelly whisper.
Eril too was impressed and frightened by the ring. His first line cutter had required etchings to achieve this ring’s level of disruption. This ring carried its disruptive characteristics in the very structure of the metal. He knew it would require no etchings; it was already complete.
Eril stared at the frozen bucket for a moment, then using zdrell warmed the water enough to reach in and pull out the ring. He could feel the power and cold in it. He heard gasps from some of the guards but ignored them.
“How do we test it, Master?” Eril said, holding the ring between his thumb and forefinger, in front of his face.
“Test it? I seem to remember something about a line cutter being able to dissolve solid matter, as flame melts ice, or something to that effect,” Dorull said weakly, looking pale and staring at the ring with something like fear.
“Would you mind if I tried destroying that stone?” Eril said, pointing his free hand at a head sized stone in the courtyard near the stables. The guards near that part of the courtyard suddenly found reasons to be elsewhere.
“No, no that should be fine,” Dorull said, still sounding dazed.
Eril put on the ring.
The world seemed suddenly darker, as though it were twilight, not nearly midday, he could feel a bleak force drawing on his strength, and the power ring did little to help. Quickly, he slid the master ring onto his finger and felt strength and control return to him, but was chilled by what he saw when he looked at his hand. The line cutter was surrounded by a black nimbus, it was drawing life and power from everything around it. He knew instantly that if he didn’t do something, he would have to destroy it before it destroyed everything.
As soon as that thought occurred to him, he remembered that he had not cast the sealing spell that he had used on both the power ring and the previous line cutter. He spoke the incantation rapidly and saw with wonder a boundary surround and contain the nimbus of blackness. The boundary continued to contract until it reached the edge of the ring itself and then stopped.
The whole world brightened again, and Eril let out a sigh of relief.
“I never looked at my other line cutter with my master ring before. I’m glad I remembered the sealing spell before it was too late.”
“So am I, Eril. I could feel it taking my strength, but you seem to have it under control now.” The old wizard shook his head and stared at the ring as though it were a coiled viper. The courtyard was deserted, except for the two of them.
“You know when I said there could never be too many line cutters in the world?”
Eril nodded.
“I’ve changed my mind. I had no idea what I was talking about. That thing is destruction personified. It is one thing to read about the power of these things. It is quite another to see and feel it. Even contained, it scares me still.”
“Me too, Master, but I still have to see if I can use it.”
“Yes, boy, but be very careful, and keep that master ring of yours on, you may well need it.”
“Yes, I will,” Eril said, turning his attention inward to the ring and then outward to the rock he had chosen. As he touched and directed the reservoir of destruction in the ring, destroying the rock was easy. It just disintegrated into a small pile of sand. What he found difficult was stopping with just the rock. Eril could feel the power of destruction, trying to escape and destroy everything in sight, but it was contained and could only do what he willed it to do. As soon as the rock was gone, he quickly pulled off the ring and put it in his belt pouch. He did not want it on him any longer than necessary.
“I’m glad that’s done,” Eril said, shuddering in relief.
“As am I,” the now older seeming wizard agreed. “I will want to keep that thing under lock and key until the need arises. I almost wonder if it is worse than what it is used to fight. No wonder the demons fear line cutters. Everyone should.”
Chapter 15
The experience of cr
eating the line cutter dimmed Eril’s and Master Dorull’s enthusiasm for creating new objects. There were so many artifacts in Dorull’s collection for Eril to study that it was nearly a month before either of them seriously thought about creating a new artifact. Only when Eril was examining a power storage ring, similar, but highly inferior, to the one that Eril had made for Master Silurian did he acknowledge that he had been avoiding all thoughts of making new artifacts himself.
“Master Dorull,” Eril said, holding up the old ring. “This really isn’t a very good storage ring.”
Dorull raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “Not very good, you say? Eril, storage devices are very rare. I admit I have heard of better ones, but this is the best I have in my collection. It loses a charge very slowly. I have others that are hardly worth the effort of using because they lose a charge almost as fast as you invest them.”
“I understand, Master, but I created a ring for Master Silurian that was much better than this one. I could do that for you too. Or maybe…”—he trailed off as he examined the ring more closely with his zdrell sight—“I bet I could make this one better . . . “
Master Dorull surprised Eril by snatching the ring away.
“No, boy. I already told you this is the best I have. If you think that you can improve one, let me get you one of the other lesser rings for you to practice on. I need that ring,” he said, cradling the ring carefully and looking at Eril out of the corner of his eye.
Eril was trying to not be offended but felt irked that after everything he had done, the wizard still didn’t trust him.
“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “Get me one of the others, the worst you have, and I’ll see what I can do with it.”
Dorull did not seem to notice Eril’s agitation.
“A fine idea, boy. I’ll find you one right now.”
Eril went to set up his tools and found he was feeling happier than he had in days. The prospect of making, or in this case remaking, something excited him.
The Journeyman for Zdrell Page 7