by Bill Albert
The weather wasn’t yet cold enough to freeze this far south, but the continuous rain was taking its toll on them. The afternoon that they reached the outskirts of Atrexia they were soaked and tired and barely hanging on to their mounts. They paced Gallif and Jakobus reached over and grabbed the reins in Gallif’s hand and brought Snow to a stop.
“No,” she growled. “I have to go on.”
As Jakobus held Snow in place Kavelle walked her horse in front of them so Gallif could not make a run for it.
“Look at yourself, Gallif,” he said plainly. “Look at you.”
She looked down at her dirty and wrinkled hands and then brushed her pale and limp hair from her face. She looked at Snow and was saddened by the gray matted fur of her coat and how it had lost that pure white beauty. Her shoulders drooped from exhaustion, but she tried to hide her fatigue.
“Please, let me go,” she cried.
“Please, let us help you,” Jakobus said. He pulled the reins from her and dismounted his own horse. He stood, soaked in the mud, and looked up at her. “How long has it been? A few weeks since the fire? Getting there today or tomorrow won’t change it.”
She looked down at him and saw the concern and affection on his face. She leaned down and gently rubbed her fingers across his kind face. He took a firm hold on her wrist and caught her as she fell into him. He held her in his arms as Kavelle led them to the nearest inn.
***
Gallif woke to the sensation of cool water being padded against her lips. She looked up and saw Kavelle holding a soaked rag. Kavelle, who had slept for several hours, looked at her and smiled.
“There is some fresh fruit and bread here for you. We’ve eaten and figured you’d be hungry when you woke up.”
Gallif smiled and took a bite from some fresh melon that Kavelle offered to her lips. She quickly swallowed it and took another mouthful before Kavelle could take the fruit away. As she let the juices run down her throat she took a deep breath. She felt better and much cleaner with no serious aches or pains. She realized she was nude in the bed and wrapped herself deeper into the blanket.
Kavelle laughed at her modesty and offered her a drink of water.
As Gallif drank she saw the window on the far wall and a grayish light streaming down to the floor. She looked at Kavelle but didn’t need to ask what was on her mind.
“It’s the next morning,” Kavelle said. “You slept almost twenty hours.”
Gallif took a long drink and then spotted her armor placed carefully on a chair next to the bed.
“It’s all there,” Kavelle ensured her. “Jakobus is also taking care of the horses and making sure Snow gets fed and cleaned,” Kavelle added, knowing of Gallif’s next concern.
Gallif nodded her thanks. She downed all of the fruit that was left and unashamedly started to dress.
***
Two miles from the grounds of the school she felt a churning in her stomach. There should have been markers here, carefully placed rocks or tree limbs that pointed to the first secret path to the school. Another half mile in and all that remained of the markers were burnt twigs and limbs. A mile away and the overturned wagon that indicated a secret entrance remained lodged in a ditch, but the unusual blue green grass was a dull brown. The rest of the way Gallif spurred Snow and rode hard. They both knew the safe way through the forest to the school and both Jakobus and Kavelle were soon left behind. When they finally caught up with her she was standing several feet in front of Snow staring at the grounds she had known so well. They didn’t approach her or try to stop her as she stared at the remains of the closest thing to a real home she had known for a long time.
The main building of the school was almost completely gone. There were charred lumps of wood left at some points, but nothing even slightly recognizable. The material was bubbly and disfigured as it had been melted by some intense heat. She looked to where she knew one of the entrances had been, but the door frame was completely gone, and stones were scattered nearly twenty feet away. It was obvious the worst part of the fighting had happened here.
She looked to the second building where the dorm had been. The skeletal frame of the building still stood, but the timber was black with a gray brittle ash. The walls of the first floor still stood, but the entire second story had collapsed in on the building. It looked as if most of the center of the first floor had just been removed and the weight of the second floor had been too much for the supports.
Too much in shock to cry she slowly walked to one of the walls. There were no bodies here, she could see by the debris fields that they had been removed from certain spots, but she could see the burnt remains of some of the students’ personal belongings. She recognized part of a wooden stool that Beradi had kept in her room splintered into pieces in another pile. The white oak wood was easily identifiable even after the blaze and she knew no one else at the school had anything like it. There was a patch of a purple and blue dress that she had seen Rosario wear scorched and torn near a charred wooden cabinet. She entered the area and gently pulled the cloth away from the ashes. She ran it through her fingers and heard the whispers of the trip to Atrexia they had taken to buy the dress. The dress Gallif had hoped Rosario would someday let her borrow. She pocketed the long, thin patch of cloth and left the area.
The stable had been left mostly untouched. There were marks and smudges against the walls that indicated some combat had taken place very near. The doors were open and all of the supply cases outside had been torn open and emptied. It was impossible to tell if they had been looted during the combat or by scavengers after.
Kavelle and Jakobus had been watching her and darted forward after she quickly ran into the building. They arrived at the door to see her staring down at a man and a woman. They entered with their weapons ready even though Gallif left her flame sword in its sheath.
“Good to see you again, Gallif,” Pate said honestly. “We knew you would some back.”
“We hoped you would return,” added Anamita.
“Is there anyone else?”
“Some,” Pate said. “There were a few who have gone off to Atrexia or other places underground for a while. There are still small herds of aquilus roaming the area. Occasionally they come back here for food.”
“Rayjen?”
“No,” Anamita said. “He led the fight to protect us, but there were too many of them.”
“What happened?” Gallif asked. There were hundreds of questions going through her mind.
“Just before sundown a fire started in the kitchen. We all went running to it and before we knew it they were coming at us in waves. First aquilus, more of the monsters than any of us had seen, then orcs.”
“That’s not possible!” Gallif protested. “There are safeguards to prevent that.”
“Yes,” Pate barked at her. “We know that.”
“How?” was all Gallif could ask.
“We don’t know for sure,” Anamita said quickly.
“But we have some good ideas,” Pate interrupted with anger. They glanced at each other and Anamita motioned for him to wait.
“What’s going on?” Gallif asked. “What aren’t you saying?”
“We think someone from the inside gave them information,” Anamita said. “It was the only way they could have known where the school was and how to get in.”
Gallif took several deep breaths before she continued.
“There was a girl,” she spoke hesitantly. “Her name was Maura; she would have arrived a few weeks after I left.”
“I remember her,” Anamita nodded. “She got here.”
Pate looked at Gallif accusingly and shook his head.
“You don’t think she was involved in it,” Gallif gasped. “She would have just gotten here!”
“No, I was with her when the attack began. She was as surprised as the rest of us.”
“Did she live?” Anamita took a deep breath and then shrugged. Gallif wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or not. “What a
bout Luvin?” she finally asked as her thoughts came together.
Anamita started to answer, but Pate cut her off with a grunt of anger. “The traitor, Luvin. He betrayed us!”
“No,” Gallif said weakly.
“Yes, he was the one who brought them our way. I saw him behind the waves of attackers doing nothing to help us.”
“He left the school that day,” Anamita spoke quickly.
“He graduated?”
“No,” Anamita reported as Pate coughed in disgust. “He had been making up fantastic stories to try and impress people. No one believed him and some called him a liar.”
“I don’t understand,” Gallif said as she brushed her red hair back. “He was young, a little foolish, but loyal to this school,” she said. “And its founder,” she added looking steadfastly at Pate.
“He betrayed us, and I will destroy him,” Pate claimed.
“No, you won’t,” Gallif said as her grip on the handle of the flame sword tightened. “Your honor,” she reminded him.
“I don’t give a damn about what happened before the last day,” Pate challenged her. “But I will seek revenge.”
Gallif saw the emotion in his face and suspected there was more that she did not know.
“There was a legend starting to grow after you left, Gallif,” Anamita said. “Everyone was talking about the beautiful woman who rescued the giant Third Minister. Every time we went to Atrexia we heard stories about her. She was becoming very popular.”
Gallif shifted uncomfortably as Kavelle and Jakobus came closer to listen. She nodded for Anamita to continue.
“There was talk of tributes to her. We suspected it was you.”
“Yes,” Gallif nodded. “I was there.”
“Then Luvin claimed that he had been there, too. Said he had taken part in the battle,” Anamita explained. Pate laughed at the thought, but Anamita continued quickly. “Not one of the stories that anyone else heard involved him. None of the witnesses saw him there.”
“He was there!” Gallif screamed with a growing sickness in her stomach. “YES! It was me. I took on part of the attack force while Luvin helped the elite guard,” she spoke quickly. “There was no one else there so anything you have heard from them is a lie. The only others involved in the combat are the elite guard and they would have remained silent about what happened. Luvin was involved in that fight and he was as much responsible for the rescue as I was.” She took a few steps away from them to force herself to calm down. It wasn’t just anger at them that she was feeling. She knew that there had been a reputation growing about her and she had never once given Luvin the credit he deserved.
Anamita and Pate looked at each other quizzically. They had believed Gallif had been there, but they had not suspected Luvin.
Gallif turned to face them with her hands on her hips defiantly. “He was telling the truth,” she said and drew her flame sword. “He was there, and I will fight to protect him if I have to.”
“You may have to,” Pate said defiantly. “You’d think differently if you were here when they attacked us. When they slaughtered us. When they killed my father.” Despite all his bluster for a moment Pate’s voice broke and he briefly glanced away.
“Rayjen was his father,” Anamita said quietly. “Rayjen spoke briefly before he died.”
“I never suspected,” Gallif said.
“You weren’t supposed to,” Pate said. “You pointed out how I had been there longer than anyone. There was a reason for that. My father believed in tests within tests. Sometimes tests you didn’t know about.”
“The way you treated Luvin...”
“Was to see if you had the character to protect a friend at any costs,” Pate said. “That morning it was as much a test of that as it was to see if you were wise enough to realize the armor was fake. Father was very proud of you.”
Gallif shifted slightly and put a hand to her heart before she spoke again. “My sympathy,” was the best she could say. Then she asked, “Is there a grave?”
“Yes,” Pate barely whispered as he nodded. “Just beside the cabin where the morning light can bathe it.”
Gallif told Kavelle and Jakobus to wait for her there, and then quickly left the grounds running at breakneck speed.
She traveled as fast as she could. She covered the real and fake areas on the path she had followed on that final test. When the brush became too thick she crawled and refused to let the pricks and cuts in her face and hands from thorns slow her down. She reached the cabin in under an hour. The sun was setting and there were shadows across the cabin from the nearby trees.
In a final burst of speed she sprinted to the side of the cabin Pate had indicated. There was a simple grave there with only a few unmarked stones and a wilted flower. She sat and cried for several minutes as the grief and anger flooded over her. She wanted to grieve his loss respectfully and properly, but at the same time she was almost overcome by the urge to find and destroy every monster elf she could.
She finally wiped the tears from her face and stood. She forced herself to look away and caught sight of a small crop of wildflowers growing a few yards away from the grave. She pulled a handful of the yellow blooms and laid them gently near the stones.
For the first time on this visit she looked at the cabin and saw the glimmer of lights inside. She looked at the grave and then again at the lights and slowly walked to the door. She took a deep breath, and, to her great relief, the door opened as she pushed on it. Her relief was short lived as there was no sense of a jump cast when she went through. There was also only one door off to the right on the chamber inside. She had hoped to spend a few moments in his private room and get some sense of him one more time, but this door led to the room with the key puzzles.
The room hadn’t changed. The keys were still there and the six-sided pedestal with the floating key in the middle was exactly as she had left it. She briefly considered picking up the keys and inserting them at random into the slots but, unsure of why, she knew that it wouldn’t work.
She blinked several times and suddenly knew that that would be too simple. ‘Tests within tests’ Pate had said. Rayjen had put tests within tests. Were there clues?
“Of course,” she said aloud. “Tests within tests and clues within,” she said. Rayjen had usually given his students challenges but there were always clues. Leaving the results to a random act of keys in slots wouldn’t have meant anything to him.
“Tests within tests and clues within,” she said. Then a smile slowly crossed her face. “Tests and traps,” she said.
She quickly scooped up the six keys and went to the pedestal. She looked at them, made sure they were big enough to test her idea, and then looked at the floating key in the cylinder. She took two of the keys and put the teeth of one key into the loop of the second. She held the first key up and let the second swing gently beneath it. She quickly, but gently, made a chain of the six keys. She had saved the key that had the biggest teeth for the bottom link and carefully swung them a few times to make sure that they were connected.
She pushed aside the strong emotions she had and held the chain out at arm’s length above the cylinder with the floating key. She waited until the keys were steady and slowly lowered them inside. The mist that hovered around the key caused some distortion in the light so her first attempt to catch it failed. She took a slow, deep breath until the key chain stopped swinging again and then, ever so slowly, lowered it to the loop of the floating key. This time the teeth caught the glistening key. They didn’t hook the object but nudged it and it gently changed its position to a slight downward angle. Again, she waited patiently for the chain to stop moving. She was holding her breath when she made her third attempt. This time the teeth dropped inside the glistening loop. She pulled back just a bit and made sure it was hooked firmly, and then pulled the prize out of the cylinder slowly and steadily. When it was outside the glass edge, she cupped all seven keys in both her hands and thanked Rayjen for his faith and support in he
r.
She took the glistening key in her right hand, replaced the others on the display table, and approached the wall where the panel still hung. She put the key in the lock and twisted it clockwise twice before it stopped. As the door slipped open the key vanished. She took a firm grip on the edge of the door and opened it up slowly.
She let out a long sigh as she looked inside at both of the treasures.
***
She had spent the night sitting on the ground next to Rayjen’s grave. She was quiet, rarely moved, but her mind was as active as ever. She thought of everything that had happened since she’d last been at this cabin and tried to examine the incidents for any puzzles within puzzles. Was there something there she hadn’t seen? Finally, with a second sword and sheath attached to her left side and the flame sword on her right, she started walking back.
Just as dawn broke she was very near the grounds to the school when the faint sensation of smoke caught her attention. She stopped in her tracks and took a deep breath. Then she tilted her head slightly and listened to the forest. There was the distinct crackling of a building burning. There were the even more familiar howls of the aquilus monsters going in to combat.
She was at a full sprint when she leapt through the tree line near the school. She kept running hard and downed three well armored orcs before anyone knew she was there. A fourth orc, incredibly large and strong, turned and instinctively struck at her with its massive axe. The blade hit her, but the armor, deflected all the damage. Before the orc could position itself to strike again, she deftly chopped at it with her flame sword and removed its left arm. The orc howled and stumbled several feet before it fell to the ground.
Gallif saw that Jakobus had been cut off from Kavelle, Pate, and Anamita and a half dozen aquilus were surrounding him and poking at him with their spears. She fought through some straggling elves and was soon at his side. Jakobus had never before felt the urge to kiss a human but would have done it then and there if it had been possible.
