As soon as they’d eaten a cold supper, Eril bid everyone goodnight and headed for his room. As soon as he got in, he secured the door, got out his communicator, and flew out the open window. He perched atop the roof ridge so that he could be sure he was not overheard.
He spent the next hour relating all they’d found to an increasingly excited Master Silurian. At one point he was also speaking via the hub with Master Dorull. Both masters were excited about the books he’d found, and they wanted him to devote all his time immediately to getting the Primary gate working, if possible. Eril promised he would.
Master Silurian said that the secret would not last long, but that Eril should involve as few of the locals as possible so that it could last as long as feasible. That being the case, they told Eril his best bet would be to set up house-keeping in the cave and only come to the village for supplies. They also wanted him to keep a communicator on him at all times. There were reports of demon and charzen activity coming in from all over the continent, and they were very concerned for his safety.
§ § §
The next morning Eril, together with Fil, loaded up Took’s wagon with a mattress, bedding and a week’s worth of supplies. Took had insisted that Fil help him get everything to the ruins. Fil drove the wagon off in a direction almost the opposite of where they needed to go.
Once they were well out of the village, Fil stopped the wagon off the road under a stand of tall oaks.
“Right, Eril, just why did you have me drive this way? We aren’t going someplace you haven’t told me about, are we?”
“Fil. How many people in the village saw us drive out with this wagon, do you think?”
“I dunno, ten ‘r twelve maybe?”
“And do you think I want . . .”
“Oh, I get it. Right, we don’t want’em to know where the entrance is. But then how are we gonna get all this stuff there?”
“Wait, I got it,” she said, “You’re gonna use magic, aren’t ye?”
“You got it, Fil. I am.” He got off the wagon and approached the horses. “We need to get these unharnessed and staked. I’m not taking them to the cave.”
Fil jumped down and started rapidly undoing straps. “But we are taking the wagon?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Eril said with an uncertain tone.
“What do ye mean, ‘You think so?’”
“Well, to be honest, I’ve never tried moving a wagon with passengers before.” He waved at her look of alarm. “I’ve moved things bigger and heavier lots of times. I’ve just never tried to move a wagon while I was sitting in it. I doubt it will be much different than when I rode my chest across country.”
Fil’s jaw hung slack. Eril wasn’t sure which of his statements had caused the shocked expression, but he was reasonably sure that he’d never seen her look so shocked.
“So you’re planning on making the wagon fly with everything in it and you expect me to ride along, even though you’ve never done this before?”
“Well, no, actually, I thought you’d stay here with the horses while I move all this to the cave . . .”
Eril stopped speaking when he saw the building rage in her expression.
“So, you thought I’d just stay here while you fly with all this stuff to the cave?”
Eril nodded.
Her expression grew darker still.
“And you were worried about people seeing us leave town, but you don’t think they’ll find a flying wagon suspicious?”
“Well, I was planning on having it be invisible . . .”
“So, you’re just gonna leave me here with the horses while you fly an invisible wagon to the ruins, drop off this stuff and fly it back?”
Eril couldn’t meet her eyes.
“And you thought I’d be fine with this plan, where you fly off and leave me behind?”
Shuffling his feet, Eril hesitantly looked up. “I thought you’d be happier this way. I told you, I’ve never flown an entire wagon before . . .”
“Eril, you stupid git. I’ll not stay behind with the horses while you fly off with the wagon. You’ll take me too, and you’ll fly me so smooth I won’t believe we left the ground! Right?”
“Yeah, uh, I guess so . . .”
Fil finished hobbling the horses and made sure they would be fine for a few hours, then she mounted the wagon, sat on the passenger’s side of the driver’s bench and glared at him.
Eril hesitantly mounted the driver’s side of the bench and sat gathering his thoughts.
“What are you waiting for, mister mighty wizard?”
“Nothing, I guess.”
Eril opened his mind to see the wagon and the force lines surrounding it. He concentrated and pulled power from his rings, and the wagon slowly lifted off the ground. It wobbled gently, like a boat on the water, until he got the forces stabilized. They were only three feet or so above the ground, but Fil was gripping her seat with white knuckles, all sign of her previous bravado gone.
“Okay, I think I’ve got it now,” he said, softly concentrating. “Now I’ve just got to invoke my invisibility amulet and hope it covers us. I’ve never tried using it on something this big before either.”
The world then took on the slightly grayed appearance it had when he was using the invisibility spell. He wasn’t sure if it was covering the wagon so he lowered it back to the ground and said, “Fil, can you jump down and see if the whole wagon is invisible?”
“You’re not going to run away and leave me, are you?”
“No, I’m just not sure the spell is covering the whole wagon and the only way to be sure is have someone look from outside.”
“Okay,” she said, jumping down from the wagon. “You just better not leave me.”
She moved several feet away from the wagon.
“That is the strangest thing,” she said, awe in her voice. “I know you’re there. I know the wagon’s there, but I don’t see anything, just some marks where the wheels are pressing into the dirt.”
“Good. Move forward slowly until you can feel the wagon, then hop on and we’ll go.”
She moved forward, blind, until suddenly as she made contact with the wagon bed, she said, “Ah, there you are,” and jumped up into the seat.
§ § §
With Fil on board, Eril eased them out from the trees and then immediately sent them up a couple of hundred feet. Once again, Fil gripped the seat tightly, but her mouth also hung open with wonder.
“You’re sure we’re not going to fall?” she asked, shaking, possibly with excitement or fear, or both.
“I don’t think you need to worry. It is no more work for me to hold the wagon one foot in the air than it is to hold it a thousand. I’ve also had a lot of practice flying, just not with a wagon.”
Eril didn’t want to alarm Fil further, so he didn’t push them too quickly as they floated past the edge of the village and over the castle ruins.
“Cor, we’re moving right smartly,” she said.
Eril just smiled and focused on finding a good spot near ‘their’ entrance to land. He didn’t want the wagon to suddenly appear where anyone would easily see it. The place he found was blocked from view on three sides. They would have to move the things from the wagon further than he really wanted, but he thought the concealment worth the hassle.
As the wagon gently settled to the ground, Fil turned to Eril and said, “Eril, that was the most amazing experience of my whole entire life. I’d never imagined I’d get the chance to see the world like the birds do. Thanks.”
Her eyes shone, and Eril found himself almost starting to choke up from the emotion in her voice. He shook his head and looked down to cover his embarrassment and said, “It was nothing, Fil. I’m glad you could be here with me.” Eril snuck a quick glance at her face as he finished the sentence. He didn’t know how to interpret the look she was giving him, but neither did he know how to interpret the way his insides were churning.
Choosing to ignore the moment for now, he climbed int
o the back of the wagon and started to remove the ropes tying things in place.
“We’d better get this stuff moved down below as quickly as we can so we can finish and be seen coming back to the inn before the end of the day.”
Fil stood up, nodded, and saying nothing, got to work.
It took them almost two hours of going up and down the stairs to get all of the things moved and set up in the dormitory closest to the main hall. They also scouted around to find enough of the metal chairs and tables to populate the office near the hall and to make the dormitory livable.
After they had everything set up, they stopped long enough to have lunch. Fil asked him questions about his time as an apprentice. He told her a very basic story of his days apprenticing with Master Silurian.
This led to a discussion of demons and demon wizards. Fil did not have to be convinced of the badness of demon wizards as the area had weathered enough evil sorcerers in the last thirty years that virtually no wizard was welcome. This explained the reaction of the village folk when he’d arrived, even though he’d ended up solving their bandit problem.
Eril took the opportunity to impress on Fil just how much danger he would be in if the demon wizards discovered who he was.
“Fil, I really feel sorry that just by being here I might be putting you and your village in danger. If a charzen shows up and I’m not around to fight it . . .”
“Eril, nont will tell outsiders anything about you.”
“I’m not afraid of that, I’m afraid that someone will repeat some of the stories I’ve already heard being told about my work on the bandits or finding the ancient weapons cache . . .
“These are the kind of people who kill first, just to get your attention, then ask questions.”
“Well,” Fil said, getting up and putting their meal leftovers into a basket. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. We’d best be flying that wagon back to the horses if you want to be seen coming back today.”
“Oh, aye,” Eril said, smiling grimly and heading for the door.
As they reached the stone door and Eril set and locked it, he stared for a moment. “We’re going to have to see if we can find another way in and out. This stairway and door are too obvious and right now I’m the only one who can open or close it.”
Fil looked thoughtful. “I think I might’ve seen something yesterday when we were exploring. I’ll check on that tomorrow.”
Eril almost objected to her assumption that she would be there tomorrow to help in the search, but checked himself before he could say anything. She probably would be there tomorrow whether he wanted her or not.
§ § §
As they again ascended above the ruins, Fil asked, “Can we circle the whole ruins and maybe the village before we go back?”
Eril was a bit surprised by the request, but understood the desire to see the ruins from the air as he’d already done that himself. He got them about five-hundred feet up and then circled the whole site. Once she’d seen enough, Eril sent then towards the main part of the village. He deliberately went quite a bit faster than he’d flown previously and Fil whooped with delight.
When they got above the village, Fil encouraged him to take them a bit lower, so she could make out details. Eril told her she needed to make sure to not make any noise since the invisibility spell wouldn’t cover sound. Fil had to stifle her giggles as she took pleasure from seeing several people she knew in the village going about activities that they had no idea were being observed. Eril was curious, but didn’t want to break the silence.
When Eril finally brought the wagon back down to where they had left the horses, Fil finally burst out in laughter.
“Eril, I don’t know how you don’t spend all your time flying. That was incredible. Could you have gone even faster?”
“Yeah, but I really like to be higher when I go faster. It’s no fun to run into birds or bugs.”
“Oh Eril, I thought I would die when I saw Tameril out back of his house smoking his pipe. His wife hates it and has threatened to leave him over it. I wonder how he gets the smell off his clothes?” She said all this while working on getting the horses harnessed to the wagon.
“This was great, Eril. Promise me you’ll let me help more tomorrow. I can’t wait.”
Eril just nodded. “Sure,” was all he said. He had never seen Fil smile so much or look so happy. The whole thing confused him.
Filora spent the ride back to the inn telling Eril all the things she’d seen from the air that were different from how they looked on the ground.
“That invisibility thing you’ve got, Eril. You could get into real trouble with that.”
“I know. Too many people have secrets, and I should know, so I don’t use it unless I really need to.”
Fil appeared to take his comment in deep, so he didn’t ask what she was thinking about at that time.
Chapter 50
Over the next week, Eril spent most of his time in the cave studying the main gate manual. Fil came for a few hours each day, brought fresh food, and explored while he studied. Since he didn’t have a spare communicator, he ran a sensing line of the type he’d learned from Gordal so that he knew when she was at the door. He also ran another so he’d know if anyone else showed up snooping around.
Eril’s previous experience with the secondary gate had given him a basic understanding of gate operation, but the information in these two manuals was much more complete and in greater depth. Unfortunately, it was also intensely frustrating. The writers of the two manuals had assumed their readers would have a much greater understanding of magic and the universe than Eril, and likely anyone living, currently had.
It was bad enough that Eril was reading in Klathar, a language that was much more complex and subtle than Herglish. But more than not understanding many of the words, he had a hard time understanding the examples and concepts that the books described. He was thankful that the operations manual both explained how to do things and then referred to sections on why those things were important, even if more than half the time he failed to grasp the explanations.
After another day of being so frustrated he was on the verge of tears when he communicated his progress to The Master, he resolved to stick to just following the operations directions and going to the gate theory book to find understanding. When he came across a reference he didn’t understand, he just moved ahead and hoped that eventual comprehension would come.
After two weeks, he finally got far enough in the operations manual that he was able to start changing things. He found a section that spoke specifically about his current situation where the Dynolyth, the large device which used the broken water-wheel to power the gate, was inoperative. Once again, the builders of the gate system had taken this possibility into account.
While the gate was designed to be powered by the action of the Dynolyth, it could be charged by other means. The major difference between this primary gate and all others was its storage capacity. It was designed to have sufficient storage to power the entire system at normal use for over two weeks and could power it for months in a reduced mode.
There was a significant depression off to the side of the arch, a fire pit, built to allow charging the gate reservoir the same as they had with the secondary gate. The difference here was two-fold. First, the pit was designed to burn coal, and the ceiling above had a special cone to draw the smoke upward to keep the coal burning safely, without fouling the air of the cavern. Secondly, there was a thick line of metal bars inscribed with runes that ran from the pit to the gate reservoir.
The spell to activate the bars and have them transmute the heat from the fire pit into magic was cast into the metal and all Eril had to do was invoke it, then keep the fire stoked and the magic would flow into the gate. The method of invoking the transfer was also clearly spelled out in the manual. Eril was initially very excited about the possibilities this afforded for use in other places, but unfortunately, the creation of the spell and its initial casting int
o the bars was not in the manual, so Eril couldn’t duplicate it elsewhere.
Fil, in her wanderings, had already found the storeroom where the coal had sat for the last thousand years, so they didn’t have to go find it. Eril had been on the verge of going into the village to try and find a source for coal when Fil told him she’d found it, but hadn’t thought it mattered.
Both of them were mad with the other for a couple of days afterward as each assumed the other should have been clearer about what they wanted or needed. Master Silurian told Eril he needed to apologize, and to his surprise, when Eril had apologized, Fil apologized as well.
§ § §
With the gate charging slowly, Eril continued his studies and found something unexpected. The reservoir didn’t just power the gate. The entire underground complex had been powered from it. When Eril discovered this, he found that many things he had thought long dead, came to life. The entire underground complex had been designed to be lit from the gate power.
Once Eril found the method to activate it, he suddenly found that the underground went from dark and depressing to nearly as brightly lit as the outdoors. The immense central cavern had lights high up near the ceiling. When they activated, Eril for the first time was able to see the entire cavern at once and marveled at how large it was.
Fil yelped the first time she stepped into the newly illuminated space. “Eril, that’s huge! I’d no idea it was really this big. Someone really built this?” she said looking around in wonder.
“I’m pretty sure, this was a natural cave, initially. Look at the walls and the ceiling. But, you can see they did work on it. And the offices and dorms and stuff, those might have been side caverns, but you can tell just from looking that they really enlarged and smoothed everything. This must have taken years to build.” They both gazed at all the previously hidden parts of the chamber.
They soon found that with lighting invoked in the main chamber that it extended to all the offices and corridors as well. There were small runes by the doorways of each room that when pressed, either lit or extinguished crystal domes in the ceilings of each room and at intervals along the halls. Eril no longer had to maintain the various spells he’d cast to provide them light to work.
The Journeyman for Zdrell Page 29