She paused for a moment and then smiled fully at him. Seeing that smile did something he couldn’t name inside of him, but he liked it. “I guess that’s why I like being around you, Eril, master wizard,” she said the last with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.
Chapter 73
Eril spent the next three weeks in a dizzying mix of trying to be in all places doing all things at the same time. He studied the two gate manuals relentlessly, half so that he could answer questions Dorull kept posing, and half because after what he’d seen in his battles in Jull, he knew that, somehow, gates were key to everything.
He spent part of each day manning the gate, making sure that the coal fires were recharging it for all the use they were putting it to. Multiple times each day either he or Zeldar brought people to or from Salaways, and more rarely, castle Kord. He also explored trying to activate other gates in the system.
Of the seventeen countries in the continent of Skryla, there had been originally twenty-five operating gates, including the two primary gates and four secondary gates. So far, Eril had been able to determine that the second primary gate in the continent, in Hath, had been either damaged or destroyed.
Of the four secondary gates, only the one at castle Kord and another at Zeg, the capital of Floric, still seemed to be functional. The standard gates at Pratchett, Filduvey, and Chazotra on the west coast of the continent, still seemed functional, though Eril hadn’t gone through them. On the east coast, the gates in Galancia, in the country of Espilona, Trisk, in Kard, and Kroftwarm in Kolanter, with one more gate near no current city at the north end of the island of Chosil, all responded.
In the interior of the continent, only the gate of Duloria, in Caravain, as well as the gate at Salaways still functioned. This meant that for moving from one end of the continent to the other, there were still quite a few functioning gates, but not very much within the interior.
When Eril discussed this with Dorull, Zeldar and Master Silurian, everyone but him seemed to think these were good results. “Twelve of the original twenty-five gates on this continent appear to function, or at least respond to your test, Eril. That’s much better than I’d hoped.” Master Silurian rubbed his hands together. “Yes, and with this primary gate and two functioning secondaries, we should be able to continue to use the system, even if some of our locations come under attack.”
Silurian turned to Eril, “You’re going to need to start seeing if you can actually go through and see what is on the other side of these gates. Some of them may be buried in ruins, like this place, or possibly walled over. Who can say? But I need you to investigate the gate in Pratchett first. If you can make it work, I have someone who needs to get from Salaways to Jonlondra sooner than is practical for overland travel.”
“I’ll start working on it today, Master.”
“Good. Let me know if we can use the gate. If we can’t, I’ll have to see if there is some other way to get her there quickly.”
Eril didn’t know who ‘she’ might be, but he wanted to see if he could get that gate functioning.
§ § §
Eril spent the next two days trying to figure out why, even though the gate to Pratchett seemed to respond, he couldn’t get it to open up. He scoured the main gate manual for possible causes for a gate not to open. He found several possibilities, but ended up eliminating each of them.
Finally, he went to the theory manual to see if it had any insights. Initially, it too didn’t seem to be of any help. Finally, in a section on unusual gate conditions, he found a reference to a situation where a gate was indeed open, but would seem closed if the far side gate was physically blocked within less than two inches from the edge of the gate. The only solution suggested was to remove or destroy the blocking object.
For another day Eril puzzled how to remove whatever very solid object appeared to be blocking the gate. He couldn’t use any sort of explosive spell, both because the gates blocked the passage of spells, and because he couldn’t afford the chance it would damage either of the gates at each end.
Finally, he came upon the idea of using his sword. He’d already tried picks and spears. Whatever was blocking the gate was too sturdy to be pierced by those things, but he remembered that his sword had actually cut through stone when he was fighting the charzen.
Once he had the gate open again, he pulled his blade free from the scabbard and pushed it through the gate until it contacted whatever was blocking the gate. At first, it didn’t seem to work any better than a regular sword had. He pushed, but he felt like he was trying to get through an impenetrable barrier.
Frustrated, Eril thought that maybe it wasn’t uniformly solid. He tried again at a different part of the gate, and again made no progress. He did this three more times with similar results. Then, on the fifth try, he felt the blade begin to sink deeper. He pushed and the blade sank to just over half its length before it wouldn’t go further.
He pulled the blade out and tried at a spot just next to where the blade had penetrated. This time there was no give. He tried two more times again before he found a place where the blade sank in. This time once he had sunk the blade in as deeply as he could manage, he tried rocking the blade to cause it to cut to the sides. This worked, but slowly.
Eventually, he was able to describe a large square. It appeared he had found a mortar joint between large stones. After working at it for over three hours he felt he had scribed all around this stone. He then focused his intent into the blade and willed it to cut chunks out of the block he had described.
It was long and exhausting work, but Eril was able to carve pieces of stone out, then reach through the gate and pull them back through. The experience of working while being partially through the gate was very unsettling. Every time he reached through, it felt like his arm was being stretched in some bizarre direction.
By evening, he had carved a big enough chunk out of the rock wall that he was able to pass completely through the gate and crouch within the hole in the rock wall blocking the gate he had created. Once he was within the wall and fully out of the gate he was able to use magic and burst the rest of the way through the stone wall.
When he was finally able to step out of the hole on the other side, Eril was shocked to see that the gate on this end had been deliberately blocked by a stone wall over six feet thick. It was no wonder he hadn’t been able to penetrate it earlier. Someone had gone to great effort to ensure this gate was closed. Only the amazing properties of his sword and his perseverance had allowed him to finally penetrate the obstacle.
Eril had no idea who had blocked the gate or why, or when, but they had been very thorough. The space he emerged into was a room that reminded Eril of when they had opened the gate into Salaways. It appeared to be some sort of basement room, which made sense as this gate, like the others, was built into the rock wall of a mountain.
This room also was covered in dust and had large, barred double-doors of the sort Eril was coming to expect in gate reception rooms. The wood of the doors was still in good repair, and Eril had to search the far side with his zdrell sight to find the two heavy bars that secured the doors from that side.
Once he had removed the bars and applied sufficient force, the doors swung reluctantly outward. Eril only pushed them far enough to pass through. He then invoked his invisibility amulet and using his sight to guide him, rather than light, he worked his way up out of the basement where he started.
It didn’t take long to figure out that, like castle Salaways, this gate was in the base of a castle built into a mountainside. Soon, Eril was moving into places where the castle was very much occupied and busy. The further he got into the inhabited parts of the castle, the harder it became for him to remain undetected. Even though unseen, he continually had to dodge to not bump into, or be knocked over by the people who thronged the passageways. This was a very busy castle.
Once he finally arrived in the main castle courtyard, Eril could see, that although it was dark, there was a lot of acti
vity. There were literally hundreds of people moving about. Unsure whether he had just arrived at a special time, or if this was the normal level of activity, Eril decided he had seen enough and retreated back into the basements.
It took even longer getting back down than it had coming up. Partially because of a few wrong turns, but mostly because of continually having to duck, dodge, or move, to avoid being bumped into and thus found out. He was very glad that the portion of the basements where the gate was located was one of the few parts of the castle not bustling with activity.
When he finally arrived back at the gate room, he closed the doors and re-set the locking bars. Turning around, he was about to crawl back into the hole through the wall when he saw something inscribed into the stone that blocked the gate.
This gate closed by order of his highness, Gils Triskan Tarsk, King of the realm of Jolondra, 3645 A.L.
Well, now he knew who and when this gate was closed, but not why. He would have to look into that when he got back. Crawling through his hole in the wall, he ended up crawling through the still open gate. He was overjoyed to be back and able to walk freely again.
Chapter 74
A day later, Eril stood in one of Master Silurian’s studies in Salaways.
“Eril, I want to introduce you to someone,” he said, gesturing to a woman dressed all in black seated at the side of the study. She looked to be no more than thirty-five, but her solemn air and the look in her eyes impressed upon him that she had seen terrible things.
“This is Kirina. She is a weidge, and has an important task she must accomplish in Pratchett. She’s the reason I had you concentrate on clearing that gate. I need you to take her there today.”
Eril looked at the elegant weidge and said, “Does she know we have to crawl through the hole I made to pass through the gate?”
“Yes, she does, Eril. She won’t be dressed like this when you two make the trip. The important thing for you to know is that her time in Pratchett may be short or long. I doubt it will be less than two days, but probably not more than two weeks. When she has finished her task, she’ll need to be brought back swiftly, and you may need to use some power to extract her.
“I’ve given her a communicator, but you’ll need to be ready to respond quickly when she calls, as it may be very urgent.” He handed Eril a communicator, which he put into his trouser pocket, so he would be able to easily tell when it buzzed.
The woman, Kirina, still hadn’t spoken.
“Go get some food. Zeldar had some questions for you too. I’ll need you to be ready to take Kirina in two hours.”
“Thanks, Master,” Eril said, and left, unsure of what was going on, but trusting Master Silurian’s wisdom.
§ § §
Two hours later, Eril was waiting at the gate when Kirina appeared. She was still the same woman, but she looked very different. Her hair was now put up in an elaborate braid that perched to one side of her head. The dress she now wore had several layered rainbow-hued skirts, and her cream-colored bodice showed just a hint of cleavage.
Eril was too stunned at the transformation to say anything for a moment. She came forward and smiled at Eril’s flustered state. “I can see that my disguise is having the desired effect, master wizard.” She winked and pulled around a large shoulder bag she wore.
“I got a roll of cloth we can put down inside your tunnel so that I don’t end up dusty and looking like a scullery maid.”
Eril nodded at this comment, unable to form coherent sentences.
“Will I need to get into the main part of the castle on my own wits or can you help me with some sort of invisibility spell?” she asked.
“I, uh, I can help with that, but I’ll have to go with you. I’ve already made it to the main courtyard of the castle before. Will that be far enough?”
She thought for a moment. “If I have some time to observe, that should be perfect. I have several contacts in the castle already. If I can find one of them or say I’m there to see them, that should work.”
“Okay, then are you ready to go?” he asked.
“Yes. Is there anything you have to do to prepare?”
“No, just this,” he said as he pushed the control to open the gate. “Just step through with me for the first trip. We’ll have to crawl for the second one.”
With that, Eril stepped confidently through the gate and emerged in the great cavern of the Primary Gate. Seconds later Kirina joined him.
“This is amazing,” she said, staring into the huge expanse. And this is all underground?”
“It sure is,” Eril said with pride. “It looks great now compared to when I found it. We’ve been working on cleaning and fixing things up for several weeks now.”
Eril turned back to the gate and set the controls for the gate at Pratchett. He felt certain he could have made the transition directly from Salaways to Pratchett, but since he had carved out the hole while working from here, he didn’t want to muddle the transition. In a moment, the gate was open, though it didn’t look like it.
He walked along the arch of the gate to the spot where he thought the hole in the wall existed on the other side. He used a stick he’d set aside to probe for it and quickly found it.
“Can you give me that cloth now? I’ll go first and lay it down inside the tunnel, and then you can crawl through after me.”
She nodded her assent, and he took the cloth and began his crawl through the gate. He pushed the cloth to unroll ahead of him and then smoothed it over the stone. Once everything was in place, he reached back through the gate to gesture her to follow.
When they were both standing in the gate reception room, Kirina gave Eril another small cloth to rub any dust off of any part of her costume that he could see.
“That wasn’t so bad,” she said. “It did feel worse crawling than walking, but I could get used to it, especially since we just went three-quarters of the way across the continent with no more effort than going to breakfast.” She smiled.
The smile once again left Eril speechless. He decided that action was the best remedy for being flustered. He went over to the double doors and used his zdrell sight to check for anyone in the corridor. Once he was sure it was clear he lifted the bars holding the doors and then pushed them just wide enough for them to pass.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to hold my hand the whole way up to the courtyard so that my invisibility spell will cover you.”
“I’d be honored, sir wizard. Such a polite young man.”
She was teasing him, and Eril knew it, but he couldn’t deny the effect it had on him nonetheless. He thought he’d never seen a woman quite so beautiful, and certainly not this close. He tentatively held out his hand, and she took it firmly with both of hers. He then invoked the invisibility amulet, and they started up the basement corridors.
The castle didn’t seem to be nearly as busy as when he’d first visited, which Eril appreciated as it made getting to the courtyard undetected much easier.
It was late afternoon, and the base of the courtyard was already in shadow with only one wall still lit by the setting sun. They moved around until they found a shadowed area where Kirina could emerge unobserved.
“This is good. I should be able to take it from here. I’ll try and make it back down into the basement when I need a pickup. In any case, I’ll use the communicator to let you know when I need to be picked up,” she whispered. “Wish me luck,” she said as she let go of his hands and stepped confidently out into the courtyard.
“I do,” Eril whispered so softly only he could hear his voice. He stayed watching for a few moments as she confidently walked up to a servant and began a conversation that resulted in the servant leading her off.
With Kirina delivered, all Eril had to do was get himself back down to the gate without being detected. He was more familiar with the way and quickly found the room. The only thing that concerned him was that there were several other sets of footprints in the dust that he was pretty sure hadn’t been th
ere when they’d gone up.
He moved into the room cautiously, his senses alert. There was no one there now, but he was fairly certain someone had seen the door that they’d left open and had been in the gate reception room. He cursed himself for not having secured the door before they’d gone up.
Unable to do anything else, Eril closed and re-secured the door. Anyone coming to investigate would be unable to determine how the bars had been removed, but there was no way to cover up the tracks and, of course, the hole in the wall covering the gate from anyone who entered the reception room. He knew this was a real potential problem, but one he would have to deal with later.
Eril got down and crawled out through the tunnel in the wall. He considered pulling the fabric on the floor through the gate with him and then decided against it as the hole was evidence enough if someone investigated the room.
Emerging on the other side of the gate, he gratefully stood up. He really didn’t like crawling around on rough stone floors, nor passing through the gate in that posture.
§ § §
Eril hadn’t asked, and neither Kirina nor Master Silurian had elaborated on what her task was in Pratchett. On the one hand, he really wanted to know, but he had learned the truth of enough secrets in the last couple of years that it felt like he was probably better off not knowing any more of the machinations that Master Silurian had in play.
It was night here in Argrave, and he was feeling wrung out from his travels and the stress of the day. He was just heading to the dining area to grab a snack before heading to bed when he ran into Fil.
“There you are, Eril,” she said, smiling. “Are you finally done with all that odd gate clearing stuff?”
“Yeah, I managed to open the gate, and then I had to go get someone and bring them through. All the running around has got me ready for some rest.”
“Well,” she said, nodding up towards the surface. “I was just about to head back home myself. Do you have it in you to go with me?”
The Journeyman for Zdrell Page 45