“Yeah, I’ll do that. I feel naked without having my master ring nearby,” Eril said, shivering at the memory of the amulet with his two most powerful weapons flying away from him. “I may have to find some way to keep those close, so I can’t lose them. I never should have gone near that demon without both of those rings on. Things would have gone much differently if I had.”
“No doubt of that. Though if you’d shown up with that line-cutter out, the demon most likely would have just fled. Who was the wizard that summoned the demon? Did you know him?”
“Oh, I knew him all right,” Eril said, bitterly. “He was another journeyman I worked with in Jull. I thought he was a friend, but it turns out he was a spy working for the demon wizards all along. He was supposed to help with the defeat of Jull, if needed. He never got a chance to betray them because I kept all the battles out away from the city. I remember him being pretty upset. I guess now I know why.”
“How did he find you?” Dorull asked, an eyebrow raised skeptically.
“Like I said, we were working together. I don’t remember when, but I must have mentioned I was working near Argaland. He must have been traveling almost non-stop since the battles to get here this fast.” Eril looked around, somewhat guiltily. “Don’t worry. I never told Carge, that was his name, or Master Turek, for that matter about the ruins or the gates.” He sighed. “Now I’m happy I didn’t.”
“Let that be a lesson to you, Eril, no two lessons. First, trust should be given slowly, if at all, especially in a time of war like we’re in now. Second, no matter how powerful you are, you are only one person. Whenever possible, have a team. Sadly, too often those two things conflict,” the old wizard said, shaking his head.
Eril nodded and stood there, thinking. Dorull pointed at the stairs. “Why don’t you and your lady there go up and get your locket and rings, then get back down here. There’s work to be done and no time to do it all.”
“Yes, Master,” Eril said, and Fil nodded and silently accompanied him up the stairs.
§ § §
Over the next several days, everyone continued their constant work to prepare for the conflict they knew was coming. The final work was completed on the support for the water wheel, and Eril then lifted it into position. The routing of the water was completed, and the massive wheel began to churn.
For now, it only moved a series of gears in the ironworks. The Dynolyth wasn’t close to being re-built, though Dorull worked long days with several of Kason’s assistants trying to get the job done. Some of the time Eril was there helping him, but quickly found out that unless Dorull had a specific task or question for him, he didn’t want Eril getting in his way.
For his part, Eril had a continually changing round of tasks that kept him busy from early morning until he fell exhausted into bed. He helped ferry people through the gates, worked on creating additional power rings, and studied relentlessly from the two gate books.
He picked up where he had been studying before the whole “demon incident” came along. Carefully studying the spells in the gate manual, he was finally able to find the spell that opened into the ‘in-between realm’ the gates used to do their magic. He had many suspicions about what he would find if he went there.
Later that day, he used the opportunity of ferrying workers back to Salaways to consult Master Silurian.
“Master, I’m pretty sure I’ve found the transit realm the gates use,” Eril said, waiting to see his old master’s reaction.
“Good. Will that let you create gates of your own?”
This was the last thing Eril had been thinking.
“Uh, no. I don’t think so. There’re over one hundred and fifty spells involved in the creation of a permanent gate, and I understand less than a quarter of them.”
“Hmmm. So, what then is the significance of this discovery?”
“Well, two things. First, if I can open a portal to that realm, I could go through and then presumably open another portal of my own to any place on Skryla, or the whole world.”
Master Silurian sat back in his chair, contemplating. He steepled his fingers. “Yes, that would be very useful, as I presume you could take others through these portals with you. You could effectively be able to go almost instantly to anywhere. Yes, useful indeed. What is the second thing?”
“Well, I’m not sure, but from that letter left behind by the chief archivist said, I’m guessing that this in-between realm isn’t empty. I think it may be where they hid all those books from the library, and who knows what else,” Eril enthused.
“Hmmm. If you’re right, that could be significant indeed. Yes, this definitely bears looking into. But, as I’ve never heard of this in-between realm, nor, even in the old tales, of zdrell masters being able to simply go from one place to another without a gate, there must be some sort of catch or difficulty we aren’t aware of.”
Eril’s enthusiasm dimmed momentarily, but quickly recovered, because if he could just open a portal to the in-between realm, he could figure out the rest later, or so he thought.
“Don’t do anything rash,” Silurian cautioned. “When you believe you are ready, make sure either Dorull or I are on hand to keep your portal out of this world open. We can’t take the chance of losing you, no matter how great the reward.”
The Master’s caution was infectious. As soon as he mentioned the possibility of Eril getting trapped in the in-between realm, Eril started seeing all of the other details he hadn’t yet considered.
So far, when he’d opened a portal to one of the empty realms, he’d not tried to get to a particular location within a realm. The in-between realm, supposedly, would have a geography, just as this world did.
He would need to see if he could figure out how to open a portal to a specific spot, which is what the gates did. But they stayed continually connected, so he would have to try and figure out how they did it.
Eril spent several more days studying in the gate theory book about opening portals to specific geographic locations within a realm. As he suspected, there was much less written about this, and what was written was definitely more theoretical rather than practical.
Eril had encountered this type of evasion in many of the books he’d studied with Master Silurian. In his experience, it usually meant that the person writing may know of a topic, but not have personally experienced it. He guessed that it was sufficiently complicated that only a very few could do it. This caused his enthusiasm for the project to dim further.
Meanwhile, he was creating two or three power rings each day, and his stockpile was growing. With the way multiple unfinished rings interacted with one another, he found it easiest to do a few each day, rather than try and do large batches.
Once he had a stockpile of twenty-seven of the rings created, Master Silurian took Eril aside and said, “Eril, I’m glad you’ve been able to create so many of these rings. My only concern is that as powerful as they are, they could be used against us. So, I’m going to reveal something to you that technically I shouldn’t.” He looked very grave as he said this.
“You remember what is special about the rings awarded to a wizard when they are promoted to master status?”
Eril thought for a moment, and then did remember. “Once a person puts them on, no other person will be able to put that ring on ever again?”
Silurian nodded. “Correct. Each master wizard ring has a spell cast on it that activates when the next person puts it on. It is a spell only known by the senior-most master wizards. Since you haven’t been officially recognized as a master wizard, you shouldn’t be taught the spell, but that really is only a formality. You have won your master status many times over by right of combat, so, officially recognized or not, you really are a master wizard by any practical standard.”
Eril had known this, but rarely allowed himself to think on it. He had now bested at least ten master wizards after the war in Jull. He hadn’t allowed himself to think of it since he’d left Jull.
Master Siluria
n continued, “In any case, I need to teach you this spell so that you can incorporate it into these power rings. We will have to be very careful who we give them to, in any case, but we really cannot chance them falling into the hands of enemy wizards. The spell can only be overcome by someone who knows how to cast it, and I think that if you embed it into these power rings, it should keep them safe from any of the demon wizards.”
“Thank you for your confidence, Master.”
“Eril. I hate to say it, but I think nearly getting eaten by that demon might have been a good thing for you.” He hurried on before Eril could object. “I don’t mean the damage was good, but frankly, you were starting to get rather overconfident, especially after all your successes in Jull. I’ve been watching you the last few days since you’ve recovered, and you have regained some of your former humility, and that’s a good thing.”
Eril nodded. He really couldn’t think what else to say.
Master Silurian spent the afternoon teaching Eril how to cast the ring spell. As usual, Eril picked it up very quickly, and also immediately saw how it could be reversed, at least by him.
Once he was confident in the spell, Eril went back to the power rings he’d created and enchanted each of them. He also got the rings Dorull, Zeldar, and Master Silurian had and cast it on them. He cast it on his own power ring as well as both the line-cutters.
No one wanted to put the line cutter he’d made at Dorull’s castle on, for fear of what it would do to them, but Eril didn’t mind imprinting his own line cutter. He also felt no need to cast the spell on his master ring, as the ring already only responded to him.
With these things accomplished, The Master had Eril work on creating more of his rebounding amulets as well as normal shield amulets. When he had told Master Silurian that he had discovered a way to create amulets or other spell storage devices with only a few hours of work, he had at first been angry at the injustice, but then saw how useful it would be for someone to be able to create useful amulets at a much faster than normal rate.
Chapter 79
After several more weeks went by with everyone being involved in their various preparations, Eril thought he was finally ready to attempt to open a portal into the in-between realm. Both Dorull and Master Silurian were present for the attempt.
Eril had originally wanted Zeldar there too, but neither Dorull nor Silurian trusted him to the level they wanted him to know of the project. Eril realized that, though Master Silurian was trying to build a coalition against the demon wizards, the only wizards he trusted completely were Dorull and Eril.
They decided that the best place to conduct the trial was in the basement of castle Kord. Eril checked over his notes and then began the incantation to open the portal. It took much more effort and energy to open a portal to the in-between realm than it did to open one to an empty realm or the demon realm.
Once he finally had the portal open, Eril cautiously approached to look through. The sight on the other side was puzzling. It appeared to be a vast open plain under overcast skies. Nothing but short brown grass covered the ground in patches. A breeze blew, but there was no sign of life.
Without actually going through the portal, Eril looked as much as he could. The plain was nearly flat in all directions Eril looked.
“Throw a rope through, Dorull,” Master Silurian said.
Dorull threw the coiled end of one of their pre-prepared ropes through the portal. It landed and lay on the dusty ground on the other side.
“I guess we had better go with the real test,” Silurian said.
Eril then made sure that the rope he was wearing was tied securely around his waist.
“You have your rings on and sight active?” the Master asked.
“Yes,” Eril replied.
“Alright, then. Walk through carefully, and come right back if you feel anything amiss. If you’re in distress, we’ll pull you right out.”
Eril held his breath as he stepped over the threshold of the portal. Then he was standing on the other side. He carefully let out the breath and breathed in slightly. The air had a smell like nothing he’d ever encountered before. It was stale and had a slight metallic edge to it. He also noted that it was extremely dry. As he continued to breathe he felt like the moisture was being sucked out of him. He yelled back through the portal.
“It doesn’t seem to be killing me, but the air isn’t something I’d like to live in all the time.”
“Good enough,” Silurian said. “Step back through, and then we’ll try something else.”
Eril was only too happy to step back across the portal threshold. He took a deep breath as soon as he was back across.
“What do you think?” Dorull asked. “Is it something people could live in?”
“I’m not sure. I really didn’t like the air, and it is so dry, you can’t believe how arid the air felt. But, in short stints, I guess you could live with it.”
“Okay,” Master Silurian said. “Throw that marker through and then close the portal, Eril.”
Dorull threw a wooden marker with the number one marked on it in ten-inch-tall characters. They pulled the rope back through, and then Eril allowed the portal to close.
“Good,” the Master continued. “Now, Eril. See if you can open a portal to the same spot.”
After resting for a moment, Eril focused his mind and pushed to re-open the portal. Again, he was reminded that this was much harder than opening a portal to other places, but eventually, it opened.
The view that greeted them was much the same, but it was definitely not the same location. Without doing anything else, they threw their second marker through and closed the portal. They repeated this eight more times, and each time saw substantially the same view, but in a different location. On the ninth try, Eril thought he saw what might have been some kind of structures off in the distance, but they were certainly more than a mile away.
Having thrown out all ten of their marker boards, Master Silurian decided to call it a day. Eril was bone tired. Opening portals to the in-between realm might have gotten slightly easier as he gained practice, but it was still an immense amount of work each time he did it.
As they sat eating a meal in Dorull’s study, Eril said, “Well, that didn’t work out nearly as well as we wanted.”
Dorull grunted in agreement.
“True, true,” Silurian said, dipping a piece of bread in his soup. “We had all hoped that the phenomenal ‘luck of Eril’ would attend us, but we still made significant progress.
“Eril, you must realize that a day like today would be considered a great triumph by most wizards. You have such unusual talent, you aren’t used to the pedestrian level of progress that most of us wizards experience. Before I met you, I would have reveled in today’s level of success and been fully prepared to keep trying for at least another couple of years at a minimum before I would have been at all discouraged. Isn’t that so, Dorull?”
“Aye,” the other wizard said, gesturing with his fork. “I’ve told you before, boy, that I would routinely spend six months to partially master a complicated spell. There is no need for discouragement here, though there is room for impatience. The demons will move soon. Months at most. Maybe only weeks. That is our dilemma. We may have to put off finding this in-between storage facility, but for now, we should keep trying.”
§ § §
The next day they repeated the process and put out nineteen markers. They had meant to put out an even twenty, but the portal opened up, showing their marker number four from the previous day. Eril’s next attempt did not bring them back to any of the previous markers, but the fact that even one had landed in the same place gave them hope that eventually Eril could gain control of where the portal opened.
After the third day yielded similar results, only one opening in thirty attempts overlapping with a previous location, Master Silurian decided that they each needed to return to their previous tasks and that Eril should continue searching in the various gate books fo
r more information.
Eril, for his part, opened up portals to the in-between realm two or three times a day. Usually at least one of those ended up being at a place where a marker had already been placed. This was heartening except there seemed to be no pattern to it and since they had over forty markers out there, it just seemed that the chance for getting lucky was higher, but it was still just luck.
He finally caught a break about a week later. He was following a footnote in the gate maintenance manual that referenced a variation of the spell that linked to the in-between realm and contained an extra element that seemed like it might be a geographic control.
Taking the manual with him, he went to the extreme corner of the cavern where he did his portal experiments and cast the modified version of the spell. At once, the result was different. On the other side of the portal, he saw numerous large stone buildings. He wanted to jump for joy, but all the prior disappointment made him cautious. He closed the portal and immediately cast that version of the spell again. To his utter joy and relief, the portal opened in the exact same place it had been previously.
He ran clear across the length of the cavern to tell Dorull, who was, of course, working on the Dynolyth.
“I think, I’ve solved the portal problem,” Eril said, breathing hard.
“What? You have?” Dorull said, making his way out of the mass of parts he was surrounded by. “Then, let’s get a message to Silurian, right away.”
Dorull grabbed a communicator out of one of his many pockets in the work vest he wore and activated it. After several moments, Silurian responded, and they agreed that they should all head to Dorull’s castle.
In less than an hour, they were all back in the basement at castle Kord. Eril opened the portal, and everyone again saw the buildings Eril had seen. They threw a rope through and then Eril tried to close the portal. As expected, the portal wouldn’t close completely because of the rope blocking it.
Eril enlarged the portal and then asked each of the older wizards to try and change the portal’s size. They both were able, though Master Silurian broke out in a sweat as he focused on it.
The Journeyman for Zdrell Page 48