Serpent in the Mist

by Cleave Bourbon

  Ianthill headed up the makeshift gangplank as Lady Shey and Gondrial met Sanmir and Enowene on the opposite side of the ship.

  “They are all out,” Sanmir said. He held up his blow staff. “That sleep potion should keep them asleep for a couple of hours.”

  Kyrie stepped out of the shadows. “I weakened the peg; the ship is just barely holding onto the scaffolding. A good jolt and the peg will give way.”

  “Good. Everyone on board, and hold on to something,” Gondrial said. “This ship will be hitting the water hard.”

  After everyone was on board, Gondrial was about to draw essence to remove the peg when he heard shouts.

  “EY! You on that ship. You canno’ be up thar!”

  “Everyone, hold on,” Gondrial shouted as he released the essence. The ship lurched and stopped.

  “Is the stabilizer peg released?” Ianthill shouted to Gondrial.

  “Aye, I can see it on the ground.” Gondrial jumped up and down as if the ship would move down the scaffolding ramp under his weight.

  A bell rang out in the night and men scrambled.

  “They have sounded the alarm,” Kyrie bellowed.

  “Is that what that alarming sound is?” Gondrial chided.

  “Quick, help me raise the sails,” Sanmir said. “Use your magic and get those sails up!”

  “Aye,” Ianthill said. “Sanmir can fill them.”

  Lady Shey, Ianthill, and Enowene began to draw in essence, and the sails moved into position. After they were extended, Sanmir used his command of the elements and manipulated the air to fill the sails. The ship jolted forward and headed down the ramp.

  “Hold on!” Ianthill exclaimed.

  The ship hit the water full sail, tossing the small party around despite them holding on to the railing.

  The ship sailed through the harbor, but not out of danger. A frigate had joined them in pursuit, presumably the dock master.

  “How are we going to get away?” Kyrie asked Ianthill.

  His face warped into a wide grin. “Don’t worry, we will.”

  Gondrial, Lady Shey, Ianthill, Enowene, and Kyrie gathered on the bridge. The four master wielders joined hands, and Kyrie grabbed ahold of the ship’s wheel.

  “Remember, draw the essence from the sea as soon as we clear the bay,” Ianthill instructed. “I don’t want to damage Seabrey.”

  The frigate was steadily gaining on them as they cleared the bay area.

  “I wish I could see the dock master’s face,” Gondrial smirked.

  “Concentrate, Gondrial!” Ianthill snapped. “Now, draw the essence from the sea now!” They each drew in essence. “Okay, release it to me, and I will handle the rest.”

  As the wielders released their essence to Ianthill, the ship lurched forward and then slowly rose out of the water and became airborne.

  “It’s working!” Kyrie said excitedly.

  The ship gained altitude, and her sails filled with Sanmir’s wind, propelling her faster and faster. Soon the frigate and then the sea were far below and almost out of sight.

  Chapter 17: Devyn’s Trial

  The last light of dusk settled on the horizon as Morgoran, Erinthill, Kerad, Vesperin, and Devyn entered the Hall of Ancients. Erinthill and Vesperin patted Devyn on the back, wished him well, and took their leave of him through a doorway that led to the attached temple of Loracia, where they prepared to join Brynna and Melias in healing prayers to Loracia and Fawlsbane Vex.

  Morgoran led Devyn to a long corridor. “At the end of this corridor is the entrance to the Chamber of Ancients. Every wielder who ever trained on this island has been through that chamber, and every single wielder has left a part of their own essence there for future generations. New wielders were sent through to specifically heal essence sickness, and then to leave their own essence when they had learned the ways of wielding later in their training. It was discovered over time that patterns in wielding essence recurred generation after generation. The essence of a former wielder that fits your essence pattern will bind with you and open you up to handle wielding essence and cure your sickness.”

  “So your essence is in there?” Devyn asked.

  “Aye, as is Ianthill’s, Gondrial’s, Shey’s, and hundreds more.” He wavered for a moment. “But I must warn you, son.” He cupped the back of Devyn’s head. “So are the essences of Toborne, Naneden, and Drakkius.”

  “How do I avoid them?”

  “You don’t. Their essences may heal you like any other.” He pushed him along. “We will all be here in the temple should anything go wrong. There is a rope hanging at the center of the hall. If you pull it, a bell will sound in the temple to alert us that something is wrong, and we will come running.”

  “I wish I had the Silver Drake here with me.”

  “I wish I had never told you about that. You can do it without her.”

  Devyn could see on Morgoran’s face that he didn’t quite believe that. “I am not so sure,” Devyn concluded.

  “There is no other choice at this point, I’m afraid. We are here, and she is not.”

  Devyn nodded and began his trek down the corridor. Even though torches lit the way, the hall seemed to grow darker as he neared the chamber door. He pushed the chamber door open and peered into the room. A couple of sconces with torches dimly lit the room. In the center, an ornate rope with a frilly end dangled from the ceiling. Its weave consisted of different colors forming a pleasing pattern. The walls were mostly smooth except for an enormous stone sconce jutting out of each one, filled with jagged-looking, glowing green crystals.

  Devyn entered the room and walked up to one of the crystals. He reached out and touched it, but nothing happened. He stood there a long time before visiting each crystal in turn. Am I supposed to say something or do something? he thought. He turned back to the doorway, intent to go and get Morgoran, but as soon as he took a few steps, the stone door closed and fit seamlessly in the stone around it. Devyn could not even see the creases of a door anymore. Feeling stifled, he began to gasp for air until he noticed the flames from the torches moving due to puffs of air coming from a series of holes in the walls near the ceiling. He thought about pulling the rope since nothing was happening, but Morgoran said it was for emergencies, and this was not an emergency. He decided to sit on the floor and wait until Morgoran came to get him.

  “Remain standing,” a voice boomed in the room when Devyn started for the floor.

  “Who’s there?” Devyn asked. There was no answer.

  “I said, who’s there?”

  Several ethereal apparitions seeped out of the walls. They came forth as transparent mist. The crystals glowed green as soon as they appeared. “We are the vestiges left behind. We are what is left. The essences of those who came before. You have touched the vessels of our being.”

  “The crystals?”

  “Aye, that is where we dwell.”

  Devyn caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see balls of mist, which he assumed must be the captured essences of the wielders before him, floating from each of the crystal sconces. Hundreds upon hundreds of the ethereal forms entered the chamber. “Can you cure my sickness?”

  “This is your trial, Devyn Adair. We have been waiting for so long.”

  Devyn was confused. “You have been waiting for me?” He began to feel uneasy as the room filled up with even more of the balls of mist. “How do you know my name?” He started to move toward the rope. “One of you is supposed to bond with me and cure me, right?”

  Mist snaked its way up to his head, blocking his way to the rope. It formed into a face eye to eye with him. “I am the essence of Salazera. I can cure you.” Devyn opened his mouth to talk, but before he could get a word out, the mist entered him like a puff of air, and he breathed it in deeply. He started coughing and couldn’t catch his breath. He bent over and put his hands on the top of his thighs. He coughed again and then stood upright, taking a deep breath. The mists were swirling around him, and as soon
as he started breathing in, they all entered his torso in rapid succession. He gasped and writhed but could not stop them. He reached for the rope nearby as the last of the mist entered his body. The room was spinning, and his head felt like it had been cleaved into. He felt himself falling to the floor. Reaching out for the rope, he fell short. From the floor, he could see more mists coming forth from the crystal vessels. He opened his mouth in an attempt to call for Morgoran to help him. The new mists surrounded him and began to enter his body. The pain became unbearable, and Devyn closed his eyes. When the pain subsided, he opened his eyes to see more mist pouring out of the crystals. Devyn tried to scream as they floated toward him. Again the pain came, and Devyn felt himself go limp.

  FAINT VOICES FROM SOMEWHERE in the distance became louder and louder as Devyn regained consciousness. He expected to see Morgoran, Melias, and the others. Instead he was in a rich, wood-paneled room with a warm fire burning in an impressively-carved stone fireplace. As he regained his senses and could see more of the room, he was reminded of some of the hunting lodges near Brookhaven, minus the animal heads on the walls. At the room’s center sat a rustic, wood-carved table with matching chairs, and sitting on those chairs were two people Devyn didn’t recognize. The man, who looked like a much older version of Gondrial, was dressed in dark green robes. He was talking and puffing on a white clay pipe. The woman sitting next to him, laughing with a high-pitched voice, was dressed in a white robe and also occasionally puffed on a white clay pipe. From what Devyn could see of her, she had blonde hair and a pleasant demeanor.

  Devyn groaned and sat upright. “Where am I?”

  The woman in white put down her pipe on the table. “Ah, welcome, young Devyn Adair,” she said.

  “Come here and sit at the table. We have much to discuss,” the man in green said as he pushed out one of the chairs with his foot under the table.

  Devyn reluctantly accepted the invitation and sat in the chair.

  The man puffed his pipe and sat back in his chair. “My name is Zarluflast, but people call me Zarl for short.” He offered his hand toward the woman in white. “My dear.”

  The woman took her cue. “Oh, and my name is Loris.” Her voice was only a whisper, soft and faint.

  “We are the keepers of the Hall of Ancients,” Zarl said with a flourish of his hand. “We have brought you here because we need to discuss your future.”

  “Yes, dear,” Loris said, “we are acting on instruction from Fawlsbane Vex himself.”

  Devyn looked around the room. “Is this a lodge?”

  Zarl looked at Loris and put down his pipe. “We should go ahead and cure the essence sickness now, my dear, before we proceed any further.”

  “I agree.”

  The pair moved toward him, and the entire room went dark. When the light returned, Devyn was sitting up from the same spot where he had been left unconscious before. Exactly the same scene as before with Zarl and Loris laughing and smoking at the wooden table occurred again. Only this time, Loris came to him as soon as he opened his eyes. “Is this a dream?” he wondered aloud.

  “Aye, it is a dream,” Loris said. “Just not the same kind of dream you are used to.”

  “This lodge, as you asked before, is inside of your head. We are in a dream construction of your making. I quite like it. Spectacular job,” Zarl commended.

  “So, I am cured of the essence sickness?”

  Loris patted him on the head. “As cured as you will ever be.”

  “You are still on the floor in the crystal chamber. No one has come to check on you yet, but I am sure it is only a matter of time. Morgoran will wake you up and see you are cured. No one will be the wiser of what has actually happened to you.”

  “Oh, and what has happened to me?” Devyn asked.

  Loris grimaced and moved back to the table.

  “What?” Devyn asked again.

  Zarl stood from the table, took up his pipe, and puffed deeply on it a few times. “You have been through the trial of the ancients.”

  “And?”

  “Do you have any idea how the chamber works?” Zarl asked.

  “Aye, Morgoran said that I would enter the chamber and the essence left behind by the most compatible wielder would bind with me and cure the essence sickness.”

  “Aye, and that is precisely what happened, only . . .”

  Loris could see Zarl’s hesitation, so she spoke up. “We were all joined with you. Every wielder known to pass through this chamber. You are an impossible man. You are compatible with all of us.”

  “How can that be?” Devyn asked. “That can’t be right.”

  “No, it cannot,” Zarl agreed. “However, there is one possibility that Fawlsbane Vex mentioned to me long ago, and it is why we are here now. The Tome of Enlightenment.”

  “What is the Tome of Enlightenment?” Devyn asked, now feeling skeptical.

  “The Tome of Enlightenment was the first book given to all races of the world. As soon as a person looks upon it, they may read it. It was the book that first taught the concepts of magic. Dragons read it and learned Dragon magic, some men read it and learned to wield essence, some men read it and learned to mindwield, and so on. Each race read it differently, and each race received knowledge of magic from it.”

  Loris took over. “Then the tome was lost. After the magic war, much of the ability to use essence and mindwield was lost with the men and women who died, taking the secret with them to the grave. We need that tome to be found.”

  “I asked Fawlsbane Vex, when he still walked among us, where it was located. He told me that one day, when the need was dire, a man would come to take the trials who would join with all the essences of the chamber, and the combined knowledge he would receive from the joining would tell him where to find the book.”

  “So where is it?” Loris asked pointedly.

  Devyn closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand. “I have no idea.” Devyn opened his eyes again and looked at his hosts intently. Loris and Zarl were adamant that he knew where to find the tome; both were transfixed and hanging over him like ghouls. “There is something more to the story than what you are willing to reveal to me,” he said. Zarl and Loris stared at each other with maniacal grins and faded away.

  After a moment, the room dissolved, and Devyn found himself on the side of a mountain. It was late winter or early spring because the air was brisk but there was no snow. A cool breeze made him shiver and pull his cloak around him tightly. He had not been aware he had a cloak. Tall grass swayed in patches of greenery between rock outcroppings.

  “What was all that nonsense about?” Devyn was startled by a voice immediately behind him. “Whose idea was it to put you in that chamber?” Devyn spun around to see a familiar old man with a long grey beard and grey robes standing behind him. He had a long walking stick he leaned on for support.

  “I remember you,” Devyn said. “You were the man in the shop that sold me the jade statuette I gave to Kelle.”

  “You have a remarkable memory, Devyn Adair of Brookhaven.”

  “What are you doing here?” He glanced at his surroundings. “What am I doing here?”

  “I am here for you. It seems you have had the unfortunate experiences of both essence sickness and its cure.” He took a step forward, planting the walking stick firmly in the ground. “You are here because I willed it so. We need to have a conversation away from all those other wielders you now have rattling around in your head.”

  “Why is that? I mean, what purpose does it serve?” Devyn asked. He felt he could trust the old man for some reason.

  “What, all the wielders bonding with you?”

  “Aye, why did that happen? What are they doing?”

  “Well, that is a tough question to answer, but I will give it a shot.” He gestured to a nearby boulder that might serve as a spot to sit down. Devyn was glad to get off his feet. The old man creaked and cracked as he found a spot to sit down. He still relied heavily on the walki
ng stick.

  “I am about to reveal to you the location of the Tome of Enlightenment. Those wielders knew long ago that your line would be the one I gave the knowledge to, so they wanted to be a part of it, some for their own gain. Those essence you took on have very real, live counterparts in this world, and they think they were clever enough with what they left behind to manipulate you into revealing the location to them.”

  “How could you possibly know where the gods hid the tome?”

  “Ah, you see, you already are gaining knowledge you did not have knocking around in that head before. How did you know the gods hid it? Hmm, you didn’t even know about the tome until a few minutes ago.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well, I do. That was most likely Loris or Zarl. They have been blocked from you now so we can talk, but they have already left an imprint of knowledge.”

  “If you reveal the location to me, what would stop them then, once you are gone?”

  “I will make sure you absorb their knowledge and expel the rest. They will not be able to do what Loris and Zarl have already attempted, nor will they be able to reveal the location to their live selves and make a rush on the location of the tome.”

  “How are you going to do that? You would have to be Fawlsbane Vex,” Devyn stated.

  “Aye, I would. It’s a good thing that I am then.”

  “You are Fawlsbane Vex?” Devyn exclaimed.

  “I am Vex. The Fawlsbane half is a nickname I got when I slew Fawl and took his sister Loracia as my wife.”

  “You are the father of dragons and the creator of men.”

  “I am afraid so. You can continue to doubt, if you wish. This mountainside illusion is a moment lodged in time, so no rush.”

  Devyn immediately fell to his knees.

  “Oh, do get up. I took this form so we could be comfortable and amiable, precisely to avoid what you are doing.”

  Devyn took his place on the boulder as before.

  “There, that’s better. Now that we have all that out of the way, let me go ahead and bind those spirits in your head.”