by Bill Albert
She cut at it and hit the dirt wall. She put all her weight and muscle into a second strike and briefly embedded her short sword into the wood mace. They struggled for control and she pushed her body against the aquilus and pinned it against the dirt. It kicked at her and missed. She kicked back with her left leg and her boot connected hard with the aquilus’ knee. It gave a painful shrill and doubled forward. Gallif had seen this move before and knew the aquilus was trying to bite into her arm. She quickly twisted and her shoulder hit her attacker in the jaw.
She knew the fight couldn’t continue in the confined space and took advantage of having stunned it. She dislodged her short sword from the mace and with one hand for leverage scrambled up and out. She lost her footing on the last step and dropped on her back to the ground.
Before she could regain her senses there was another screech as the elf used its mighty legs to launch itself from the hole. She saw it arch up and rolled just in time to prevent it from landing directly on her.
The aquilus was steady on its feet and started pounding at her with the mace. She kept rolling to get away and the mace smashed into the uneven ground. As she rolled she got a handful of dirt and tossed it at the creature. It dodged long enough for her to stop and get her bearings. She still had her short sword in her right hand and felt something roll by her left. Out of instinct she grabbed it and jumped to her feet. She was relieved to see that what she had collected was a broken piece of branch. It was three feet long and round enough for her to get a good grip. She could also tell by the weight that the wood was petrified.
The aquilus came at her and she ducked a wild, but powerful, thrust. She struck at the creature and at the same time slapped her natural wood club against the mace. She hit both targets and deflected the mace while cutting deep into the side of her attacker.
It stepped back and in what little light that was left she saw the madness in its eyes. She had no time to think about it as a definite madness was in her own eyes and she advanced.
She dodged another swing and used the club to smack the aquilus in the chest and she continued forward. It feigned an attack at her head and she avoided it again. It redirected the mace and caught her in the back of her knee. She started to fall but used the club to steady herself.
She put all of her strength into the club as the mace came at her. The two weapons caught dead center, and both split in half with pieces flying everywhere. Before the elf could decide on its next move she fiercely stabbed at it. The blade caught the aquilus in the chest and she pushed the sword straight through. Impaled, the creature twisted wildly. She pulled free and smashed it in the side with what was left of her club.
The attacker dropped to the floor and after a few desperate breaths stopped moving.
Gallif stood and watched it die. She dropped the remains of her club to the ground and let out an ear-splitting scream of rage. She stood staring up at the forest canopy until her breathing slowed to normal.
She went back to the path she had been following and continued on. After another hour there was only the light of the stars to help her. She came to a break in the forest and saw three trees on the other side. Each tree marked the entrance to another path through bushes. She ate an apple from the first tree as she inspected the others. The third tree was a white ash and she knew, like the deer tracks at the stream, that it was not natural for this part of the country. She was about to enter that path when it occurred to her that the apples should not have been there either. Only the evergreen in the middle was natural for this forest so she chose that path instead.
A giant grizzly bear was along that path and came at her gnashing its teeth for fresh dinner, but she easily managed to outrun the beast and loose it after wading across a wide, but shallow, river. Even her ability to deal with animals could be hampered by a hungry bear.
After the river she walked peacefully for some time until her sense of smell alerted her to a problem. There was no noise and very little light, yet she could clearly detect the odor of burnt timber.
With no other clues as to the source of the smell she took several quick and quiet paces north. There the smell was completely gone. She retraced her steps and went further south. Again, there was no smell. Back in her original position she went east and after a few deep breaths discovered that the odor was stronger. Followed the smell and started deeper into the forest.
After repeating the process several times, she found herself standing by the smoldering remains of a campfire. She studied the embers and knew that the fire had been put out very quickly. She drew her short sword and listened to the forest. She heard branches being moved to her right and looked up just in time to see her attackers jump down from the tree. Four dwarves, old, strong, and experienced, were standing before her. Each wore metal armor and had a mighty hammer in its hand.
She stood with her short sword held high. There was a loud grunt and a crunching sound from behind her. Too late to escape, a fifth dwarf came hurtling at her. She spun back and sliced at it. The dwarf ducked and she missed but it collided with her waist and rolled her to the ground. It started punching her with its hairy fists and she rolled to protect her injured side. In doing so the dwarf missed and its fist collided with the hard ground. It howled in pain as she bucked it off of her. She planted a hard kick in its side as it started to rise, and it rolled away.
The other four dwarves had moved in for the attack. She circled wildly trying to determine which one was going to strike first. As she took a deep breath an idea came to her and she looked at the details in each of her attackers. Gallif realized what was happening and she stood still, let her arms fall to her sides and said, “I deny this! I deny these images!” As she watched the four standing dwarves shimmered like a heat wave and disappeared.
She took a few more deep breaths and waited for her nerves to calm down. The fifth dwarf groaned as it tried to sit up. Before Gallif could respond he downed a bottle of healing potion and looked up at her.
“Nicely done,” he said. “I just wish you’d realized what was happening before you broke my nose,” he added wiping blood from his face. The potion was doing its job and his bruises were healing, but blood still covered his armor.
“You were a bigger threat.”
“Thank you,” he said. “How did you know what it was?”
“Two signs,” she said as she offered him a hand and helped him stand. “Those four dwarves weren’t just alike they were exactly alike. Same bruises and marks on their armor.”
“Good. What else?”
“Noble dwarves would not attack without reason,” she said with a crooked grin.
The dwarf smiled at her with approval and nodded his head. “You’re okay,” he said and walked into the darkness before she could ask him anything else.
Gallif waited and thought carefully of what had happened and allowed herself to feel pride in the discovery.
After a while the ground was rougher and she perched on top of the mound to study the area. Less than a mile away she saw a small cabin nestled neatly into the natural landscape. The lights leaking through the closed door and the boarded-up windows seemed unusually white for a wood fire and there was no smoke coming from the stone chimney.
She made it to the cabin without incident and went inside without pausing.
EIGHT:
DOORS
Gallif was slightly disoriented as she entered feeling lightheaded enough to hold on to the door frame for support. She let her other senses inform her that there was no one else in the room as she closed her eyes and steadied herself. She took several deep breaths and when her mind was calm, she opened her eyes.
The room she was in was small and cramped like the cabin outside but there were doors on the center of each wall. The cabin she had approached would not have been big enough to lead anywhere else and she had seen no other doors on the outside.
She knew she had been exposed to some kind of magic casting. Suspecting it was illusionary she concentrated and told he
rself that there could be no doors to the cabin she had seen. She removed all other thoughts and repeated that this interior was not possible in the exterior she had seen. When the room remained the same and the doors stayed in place, she realized it was not an illusion and regained her thoughts.
The door opposite her opened and Rayjen came in.
“Welcome, Gallif, I knew you’d make it.”
“Barely,” she said as she was reminded of the pain in her side. She put a hand there to support herself as Rayjen rushed forward. He gently put on arm around her to keep her from falling.
“Come with me,” he said. “I can help you in there,” he said indicating the door he had come from.
Slowly and carefully he helped her walk and she again felt the sensations as they passed through another casting. She wasn’t as completely disoriented as she had been the first time and was surprised to find Rayjen pause to steady himself.
“Sorry,” he said. “Going through a jump casting is sometimes kind of rough.”
Gallif nodded but was to taken by the room before her that she couldn’t respond.
This room was bigger than the first with single windows on each of the other walls. The walls were made of stone and there was a huge fireplace with a roaring fire on the wall to their left. The wall opposite of the one they had entered was lined from end to end with books, potion bottles, and dozens of other curious items. Along the right wall were clothes, a bed, a wardrobe and other personal belongings. The wall behind them had several cupboards and in the center of the room was a large table with two chairs on each side. There were various decorations across the room and a gentle cinnamon smell filled the air.
Rayjen took Gallif to the table and helped her sit down. He quickly went to one cupboard and returned with a small bottle and a pure white cloth. She didn’t need to see it or smell it and she leaned to one side as he carefully began to wipe the liquid on across her scars and bruises.
“You said jump casting, before,” she spoke before he could say anything. “I’ve never heard of that. What is it?”
“Well, I believe it was best known as transport casting. As it has been worked on more casters changed the name, but it is the same thing.”
“Oh, I’d heard of it as that, yes,” she nodded. “I just didn’t expect the dizziness.”
“It means that one end of the jump isn’t exactly even with the other. Even though you don’t actually jump from one level to another you get the feeling you did,” he smiled. “Like real life, some jumps are better than others,” Rayjen added.
He accidently rubbed hard on a tender spot in her side and she jerked back from the stab of pain. He profusely apologized and waited for her to settle down before he continued.
“You’ve proven your abilities just by getting here. The challenges out there were specifically designed for your talents. Well done.”
“Thank you, sir,” she said. She was finding it unsettling that Rayjen had used an aquilus elf as a test on her and was fighting the temptation to say something to him.
“I must apologize for one of the encounters you had,” he said as if he had read her thoughts. “I miss cast the meeting with the digger. It was supposed to test you on whether you would attack the aquilus or not. The ground wasn’t supposed to fall away and force a confrontation.”
“I would always attack one of the monsters,” Gallif said without thinking.
“I see,” he said looked away from here and it was clear he was disappointed. “Some things are hard to unlearn.”
“I could stay,” she blurted quickly.
“No,” he said as he continued to apply the potion. “There is nothing you could gain by staying with us and there are other opportunities for you now.”
“Will I remember the school?” she asked. Most of the pain in her side was gone and she sat up straight in the chair.
“Of course,” Rayjen chuckled. “You will be allowed to return whenever you want.” Rayjen finished and returned everything to the cupboard. He went to another cupboard and opened the doors. Inside was a tray with a bowl of hot soup and a glass of water on it. He brought the tray to her and then added a spoon and a few slices of bread. She started eating heartily and didn’t say anything for several minutes.
“I don’t know where to go,” she said softly.
“The Land of Starpoint covers a vast area, Gallif. Where have you wanted to visit?”
“I’d like to tour the Rainbow Mountains,” she said honestly though she knew it was hopeless.
“Wouldn’t we all,” he chuckled. “We get the cities along the border but only the Giant Lords go further in,” he said as he got a mug of tea from a second cupboard. He sat and took a hearty drink before continuing. “Where else?”
“North,” she said with only minor enthusiasm. “Explore the Stack Black Mountains and see the ice fields.”
“If you do, you should try to make it to the ice fields within the next two months. At night, just after dusk, there are some amazing spirits in the sky. Every color of the rainbow can be seen, and they seem to stretch on forever,” he said with a light in his eyes. “I was quite the explorer in my youth, Gallif,” he chuckled.
“I imagine you have seen some pretty breathtaking and exciting places,” she smiled.
“As will you,” he said, “while you continue to search for what you need most. When you will find it, you will stop.”
She put down the spoon and looked at him hesitantly. They both knew what she was thinking. “I thought I found it at the school.”
“Yes, for a time you did, but things change in the school. Students come and go regularly. Even the teachers will change eventually.”
“I could stay and teach. My training is good enough.”
“Training you have,” he said as he took her hand. “Now you need to put them into practical use to gain experience.”
“When I was nine, my brother and myself were living on the streets,” she protested. She stood and walked to the fireplace and stared into the blaze. “When I was eleven it was just me. I had plenty of experience.”
“Unfortunately, even our society has an underclass,” Rayjen admitted. “It gives the kind of experience brought on by hunger and desperation,” Rayjen said. “That isn’t something someone can teach or learn in any school.”
She turned and went back to the table. She sat down on the opposite side of him and did not return to her meal. “You knew, didn’t you?” she asked after a moment.
“Yes, I knew. When we met in the Keometric marketplace I knew what you wanted and needed. I couldn’t give that to you, but I could help you find it and make it permanent.”
She shook her head. As desperately as she wanted to stay at the school, she knew that she couldn’t find what she wanted there.
“How will I ever repay you?”
“Yesterday, without having to, you lead Luvin into a battle to rescue a giant. If that courage and determination and sense of right is something you learned from my school than you have repaid me already,” he said. “Come with me,” he said as he stood and offered her a hand. “One more challenge before you go.”
Though she was healed now she took his hand and together they walked back into the room that she was first in when she entered the cabin. They both felt the disorientation as they passed through the door but, prepared for it, they recovered quickly. He approached one of the side doors and put a hand on the edge. He did not grasp it but when he pulled back his hand the door opened as if he had. When it was completely open, he let his hand slide off and the door stood still.
There was a large brass key ring with a dozen latch keys hanging from it on a hook on the inside of the door. He took it and pressed it into Gallif’s palm.
“In the center of this room there is a many-sided pedestal with a glass cylinder in the center,” he informed her. “In the center of that is a small glass key and each side of the pedestal has various keyholes of different shapes, sizes, and directions. Pick one, pick two, pick
three keys, whatever your instincts tell you, and use the keys in anyway your senses tell you. If you chose correctly the glass key will be free to you. That key will open the closet in the far wall.”
“What’s inside?”
“Something powerful,” he whispered to her. “Something that will be for your benefit.”
Gallif took the keys and wrapped her fingers tightly around the brass ring. She took a deep breath and stepped inside the room. She didn’t feel the same disorientation that she’d felt when she entered the cabin but still had the feeling, she was now someplace else. She looked back to see out the door she had entered but there was nothing there. Instead of the door it was just a plain dark wooden wall.
There were six walls in this room, and all were bare save for the opposite. That wall had a cabinet built into it. The door had no knobs or handles but there was one small keyhole in the center.
In the center of the room was a six-sided pedestal which also emitted the only light. Each side was slanted and had various keyholes of different shapes and sizes. There were keyholes in groups of different numbers that made letters or odd shapes. There were keyholes at odd angles and distances from each other. In the center of the pedestal was a glass cylinder. It was lighted from beneath and surrounded by a mist, apparently floating in midair, a glass latch key hung in the center. At first she was tempted to reach in and grab the key, but she resisted.
She circled the pedestal several times and studied the combinations. Some looked like simple trees, some looked like letters, some numbers, and all of them gave her some image or another.
She looked at the keys carefully. Each had a shaft three inches long and a hook shaped tooth. She removed one from the brass ring and studied it closely for any markings or hints of where it belonged. Finding none she took a second key from the brass ring and checked it as well. She found six picked at random were identical in every way.
She held the six keys in her hand and looked at one side of the pedestal. Then she studied a second and a third until she had seen them all. She was shocked to find one thing in common on each of the sides. Despite all the imaginative combinations each side had a single keyhole sitting on its own someplace on the panel. Six identical keys in six identical keyholes, she reasoned. She walked around the pedestal placing a single key in each of the single keyholes.
