When the whole set was finally charged and cleaned, they worked just as Dorull said. More importantly, they found that they worked equally well for the other members of the castle complement besides the three wizards. Eril witnessed first-hand the way the captain of the guard coveted the senders once he had seen them in action.
Eril spent the next few weeks working to “wake up” as many of Dorull’s artifacts as possible, while also trying to teach both Dorull and Zeldar how to charge things up themselves. After two weeks of frustration, Zeldar was able finally to master the modified version of the spell he had been casting to create the energy orbs for years, to create the stable containers Eril had created. He had less success transferring the energy into artifacts but could occasionally get it to work. Unfortunately, when he failed, it tended to be destructive both to him and the artifact he was working with.
Dorull, for his turn, was quickly able to transfer the energy stored in an orb to most artifacts but proved wholly unable to create the orbs, no matter how many times Eril and then Zeldar showed him. Dorull wasn’t at all discouraged by this and calmly stated that he was sure that with ten years or so of practice he was confident he could master it.
In addition to the many sets of communicator pairs around the castle, Eril was able to restore utility to many artifacts including several wands that were able to cast fireballs, lightning bolts, magic missiles, or long flames of fire. One that excited nearly everyone was a baton that gave the holder the ability to fly much as Eril could. It even projected a shield bubble around it to protect the user from the rush of air in high-speed flight and to lessen the effects of bad landings.
There were numerous pieces of armor and blades that when charged grew lighter and sharper, in the case of the blades, and virtually impenetrable, in the case of the armor. The entire castle was abuzz with daily discoveries as so many of Dorull’s previously useless artifacts came back to life.
Dorull looked twenty years younger and was constantly thrusting some new item at Eril to have him see if he could revive it. Not all, less than half, of Dorull’s artifacts, were able to be revived just by charging them with magical energy. Some, Dorull believed, were simply too damaged or old to still function. Others seemed to require more than just a new charge to return to a working state if their purpose was even known. In any case, Dorull wanted everything he could get charged up on the chance that he would later figure out why it wasn’t functioning.
After several days of casting the orb spell to capture energy from the fire into orbs and then transferring that into artifacts or letting Dorull take the finished orb to do the same, Eril, hit himself in the head as he realized something.
“I’ve been so stupid!” he said, continuing to slap his forehead.
“What?” Dorull asked as he looked up from the latest item he had just finished charging.
“I spent so much time trying to figure out how Zeldar’s spell worked and how I could adapt it to help us, I totally overlooked what I already had! And it’s not like this is the first time I’ve done this sort of thing. Argh, I can be so stupid!”
“Speak sense, Eril, or I might be tempted to join in slapping you,” Dorull growled.
“Okay, I showed you my three rings the first day I came here, right?”
“Yes, so?”
“But I don’t think I fully explained what each one does,” Eril said, pacing.
“I believe you did explain them to me somewhat, but at the time the explanations were a bit vague, especially with the Master ring.”
“Yeah, well, the Master ring is still hard to explain without you being able to see with zdrell like I do. But that isn’t what I’m talking about. The power ring, remember I said it generates magical energy by pulling it in from the surrounding area?”
“Yes, I believe that is what you said.”
“But, what I forgot, is that it doesn’t just take in magical energy, but all kinds of energy from the local environment. Honestly, I’ve always kept my usage really low so as not to become dependent on it, but don’t you see, it is doing the same thing as Zeldar’s spell, but without the middle step of turning it into an orb.”
Dorull stared for a moment, processing what Eril had been saying. He abruptly stood up and growled, eyes blazing at Eril, “Are you saying that you could do with that ring alone what we have been doing here with all this work with fires and the orb spell, that you could have just channeled power from that ring to charge artifacts without all the extra steps . . . and you could have done it from the first day you came here?”
Dorull looked as though his eyes were about to pop out of his head.
Eril nodded silently, afraid to say more.
“Eril, you idiot. When I showed you my artifacts, how many times did I say that I was certain that if there was some large source of magical energy that many of them could be made functional again?”
“Quite a few times, Master,” Eril said, looking at the floor.
“And it never occurred to you to transfer magic from your ring to charge up any of these?” He gestured around the room.
“Ah, it did occur to me once, Master, but I’d never charged anything before, and besides you got excited about line cutters and storage rings, and I forgot, and then the battle happened, and I just didn’t think of it again until now.”
“So, have you tried it?”
“Not yet. I’ll do it now. But now I think of it, I bet the fires are still a good idea since fire is a good source of concentrated energy to turn into magic.” Eril looked a bit more hopeful.
“Then,” Dorull seemed to calm himself by main force, “by all means, Eril, try it now.”
Eril grabbed the first uncharged item that came to hand from off the large pile of still uncharged artifacts. It was a brooch that Dorull had said was probably a shield spell of some variety. He focused on transferring power, just as he’d been doing for days with the orbs, but now sourced the energy from the power ring.
To his chagrin, the energy flowed even easier than it had from the orbs and as he experimented, he quickly found that he could pull even faster from the ring than from a full orb. The only side effect was that he felt the drain of the energy he normally felt when he took off the power ring, and the ring got noticeably colder the longer he transferred power. In almost no time the brooch, which had a significant reservoir, was fully charged.
Eril looked up into Dorull’s expectant face. Before he could speak, Dorull said, “It went just as easily as with an orb, didn’t it?”
“Yeah, it did,” Eril replied, looking embarrassed. “In fact, I think it might even be easier.” He grimaced.
“Alright, Eril hand it over,” Dorull demanded, holding out his hand.
Eril began to hand over the brooch.
“Not that, Eril, your power ring. The least you can do is lend it to me to see if it works as easily for me. After all, you said you could make more of these.”
Eril, feeling the sting of the rebuke, put down the brooch and slowly took off and handed Dorull his power ring. His embarrassment over not thinking of the power ring was somewhat balanced by resentment over Dorull demanding to use it.
Dorull must have seen the resentment in his countenance because he spoke brightly to Eril. “If this works as well as I think it will, I will forgive all your errors, Eril.”
As the ring settled fully on his finger, Dorull gasped. “Uh, I had forgotten how powerful this thing is.” His eyes were open showing their whites. His breathing became more rapid.
“I, I… can see why Silurian told you not to keep this on all the time. The energy is so intense. With this kind of power, the kind of spells I could work . . . Yes, yes this could get addictive and in one so young, . . . yes, but in an old man like me . . . ”
With visible effort, Dorull took control of himself and focused his attention. He picked up the second flying wand they’d found and focused his attention on it.
No one said anything for several minutes, but when he finally look
ed up the wand was glowing in the way the other had when fully charged.
Dorull smiled. Eril was not sure how a smile could look both happy and predatory at the same time, but this one did. “Yes, Eril, that was easier. I will admit I’m not sure I’d have known how to do it before my experience working with the orbs, but I feel certain that if I’d had access to this,” he gestured to the ring, “I would have been able to figure it out.”
“I’ve already said, I’m sorry, Master . . . “
“Right. So now we work on you making another couple of these power rings so that both Zeldar and I can carry this work on more efficiently.”
Dorull turned to Zeldar, who had walked into the workshop halfway through the whole scene. He took off the power ring and handed it to Zeldar. “Try this and see if you can charge some senders.”
Zeldar looked at Eril questioningly. Eril just shrugged. Zeldar put on the ring and in moments was rapturous about the experience. Even so, it took him several tries before he was finally able to charge anything. Once he figured it out, he went on a tear, running around charging everything he could lay his hands on.
Chapter 23
Grimor, Castle of the Grand Ruler
Ebony wandered through the back of the room, passing among and sizing up the other charzen. It had only been two months since his transformation, and until this point, he had not seen any other of Lord Jelnick’s chosen servants. This wasn’t surprising as he had been told there were never more than twelve charzen alive in the world.
Two more entered, followed immediately by Lord Jelnick himself. By Ebony’s count that made eleven charzen in the room, possibly all that there were anywhere.
Lord Jelnick strode to the front of the room with his majordomo. The majordomo and held up his hands. “Your attention, please, gentlemen.” He lowered his hands and waited until they were all facing him.
“I’m sure you are wondering why you are all gathered here.” Lord Jelnick looked around, seeming to measure each of the eleven charzen, one by one. “I have brought all of you together because I require your assistance in an unusual endeavor. The whole reason the charzen were first created was to assist me in cleansing the world of the loathsome artifacts of the zdrell masters. I was able to defeat the zdrell masters in the Great War, but part of my pact with the demons is that I keep this world safe for them, and that means eliminating any artifact that might hurt them. The most dangerous artifacts are the line cutters. I spent years searching out and destroying them, but now at least one more has surfaced and possibly a zdrell master as well, though that has not been confirmed.”
Jelnick waited for the surprised murmurs to die down. “The demons have made it very clear that they would not risk themselves again in this effort. I needed men who could fight wizards, but who did not need to use magic to do it. You are all the beneficiaries of this. Most of you are young enough to never have been part of this process as the last line cutter was destroyed over three hundred years ago.
“We are less than ten years away from beginning our new assault on Skryla. I will not have this disrupted because of the this artifact. Time is of the essence. Even one line cutter could delay our attack by years. I refuse to allow this,” he thundered.
“All of you will be traveling to various places in Skryla via demon transport to find, and if possible, destroy any line cutter that you find and any zdrell wizard as well.”
Ebony was surprised. He had no idea that there was anything in this world the demons feared. These line cutters must be dangerous artifacts indeed if the demons refused to face them.
“You will each be given an area to search,” Jelnick continued. “As much as possible you are not to draw attention to yourselves. In Skryla, they do not know of or fear the powers of charzen as do all the people of Grimor. I would not send you now except you are the only ones beside myself who can be transported by demon means, and we lack time for you to arrive through normal travel.
“For those of you who have never been transported by a demon, know that it is not pleasant, as you have to transfer briefly through the demon world. You can go nearly anywhere in the world in just moments, but those moments are painful, so I do not ask it except when truly needed. This is one of those times. I will meet with you individually to give you your assignments and send you off. With your assitance we will quickly end this threat to our plans. That is all.”
The other charzen fell to talking among themselves. Ebony stood lost in thought. Every charzen had undergone immense suffering to become what they were. That Jelnic would describe transport via the demon world as unpleasant meant that it would be truly horrific. Ebony wasn’t pleased with that thought but hoped that the time saved would be worth the pain.
Chapter 24
Skryla, Castle Kord
The next day, as Eril was sleepily eating his breakfast gruel, Dorull walked in, energy in every footstep, and asked, “So, what exactly do you need to make another pair of these rings?” He held up his hand, pointing at the ring clearly encircling his middle finger.
Eril realized that the fact Dorull had the ring on was likely the reason he felt more tired than usual, and why Dorull seemed so energized. Not only that, as Eril looked closer, Dorull looked younger. His skin, which had been the most wrinkled Eril had ever seen, now was smooth and taught. Dorull had always moved with the shuffling caution of an old man, but now he was standing straight and moving confidently.
“You look younger, Master.”
“I expect I do, Eril,” Dorull said standing and preening a bit. “After Zeldar finally got tired of charging everything in sight, I took the ring back when he went to bed. Then I did something I’ve put off for far too long. I used some of the abundant power this ring provides to cast a rejuvenation spell. I can’t tell you how good it feels to have a body that isn’t falling apart,” he smiled at Eril.
“Why didn’t you cast one before, Master?”
Dorull chuckled, and even that didn’t sound like the raspy scrape Eril was used to. “Did Silurian teach you any healing magic?”
“No. I asked about it once, and he said that there would be time to learn it later. We never got to it.”
Dorull pulled out a chair and started to sit, but then pushed the chair back to the table and started pacing around the room. “The thing you have to understand, Eril, is that healing magic is complex, which is probably why Silurian didn’t teach you any. But there is another reason why outside of weidges healing magic is nearly unheard of; it is very energy intensive.
“For instance, if you were to get a shallow knife cut, I could probably heal it in a few seconds, but . . . but I probably wouldn’t be able to work magically for the rest of the day. In order to perform a rejuvenation spell like I did last night, I would normally have been storing up magic daily for at least a month or more. But with a source of power like this ring, this marvelous little ring. I didn’t have to wait at all.”
Eril stared at him dumbfounded. Master Silurian had many times talked to Eril about the utility of storage rings in performing more powerful spells, but now he finally understood it.
Dorull was impatient with Eril’s thoughtfulness. “So, Eril, what do you need, and how soon can you start?”
§ § §
Eril opted to use the same materials to make the new rings that he had used when he made his original power ring. Back then, Eril had hardly understood what he was doing and had simply followed Master Silurian’s mandate to create a ring that drew on and focused force lines. With all that Eril had learned about magic and force lines since then, he felt confident that he could do it more easily, but he was also more than a bit worried that he wouldn’t be able to duplicate deliberately what he had previously done by instinct.
He had made his original power ring using gold finished with a silver inlay. Both materials were quite abundant in Dorull’s stores, so he decided that there was no point in switching. He spent most of a day using his Master ring to allow him to examine the power ring with his enha
nced zdrell sight.
The next day he was setting up his forge, bundled against the dry cold air and getting all his materials prepared when he heard a commotion from the sentries in the main guard tower. At first, he ignored it, but when several of the guards who had gathered to watch him ran off at commands from their superiors, he looked around to see what was going on.
“Captain!” Eril called as he saw Captain Herriman of the castle guard striding rapidly towards Dorull’s workshop. “What is happening?”
The captain hesitated, but then Dorull came out into the courtyard, and all three walked rapidly together. “Master Dorull, as you know I had a sentry across the valley looking down the road for the normal approach. He has one of your magic sending units and reported ten minutes ago that he saw someone, or something coming up the trail at high speed.
“At first, he thought it was a horse at full gallop, which he reported to the tower guard via sender. But now he is saying that it looks like a man running, but one running faster than a horse can run. Whoever or whatever it is, they are nearly into the saddle of the pass and will reach the castle in moments, if the reports are to be believed. In any case, I thought you should know.”
Dorull looked grave. “Let’s get up on the wall so we can see what this is about.” He immediately set out; the captain and Eril followed. As soon as they reached the battlements and looked out into the pass, they saw a plume of icy dust pointed towards them with a running figure at the front of it.
Eril could scarcely believe what he was seeing. In less than a minute the running figure covered over half a mile headed straight towards them. The closer he came the more apparent it was that this truly was a running man. His legs moved so fast that they were nearly a continuous blur. He wore loose trousers and robe and some sort of turban on his head. He wore no shirt that Eril could see and his chest was the color of rich garden soil. As cold as the winter air was, his state of near-undress was almost as shocking as his speed.
The Journeyman for Zdrell Page 12