The gates were solid. It took four pounds of rendered bear fat applied to the hinges and a team of horses to open the doors to the great greeting hall. As they led their horses into the great greeting hall, Echal cringed for their horses shod hooves rang out against the smooth inlaid floor. Catrin smiled to herself as she watched him. She wasn't sure if it was more for security that he was concerned or if there were still the feeling of being a naughty boy tracking mud into the house.
They had barely had time to dismount, before the hall took notice of them and its ancient lights came alive, glowing with the warm golden white light of an early fall day. The room was magnificent. Enough room that should he have chosen to do so, Echal was quite certain he and Pavel could have held a horse race inside and had no fear of hitting the walls. Despite Catrin's casual amusement at Echal's expense earlier, gaped open-mouthed like a child seeing a snowfall for the first time, once the lights came on and gave scale to the space. Sha took it all rather in stride, she pointed off to the far corner "Water closets are there, and the stables next to them. It looks so much larger when it is completely empty like this."
Sha, Jan, and Ma'Li gathered up the horses as Jayen and Pavel went ahead to check the stables area. Echal, Catrin, and Savon spread out to do a full sweep of the rest of the room. Using heavy rope to tie closed any doors leading off of the room as they went. As they completed their circuit of the perimeter and made it back to the stable area, they could see the horses unloaded and bed rolls were out. Most of all, though they could hear the delight in Sha's voice, "Oh it still works. It works it works." They walk around the small partition to see what has her so excited and there gushing from the wall is a stream of steaming water coming from high on the wall and tumbling to the grates in the floor. "Washing areas! It's not as good as the soak tub back home but we'll not stink of weeks on the road tonight!" Just behind his left shoulder, Echal heard a visceral growl and then felt Catrin push past him, stripping off gear and outer garments alike as she headed for the water.
Echal stared absently at the thick layer of dust on the ground, fed and washed properly for the first time in what felt like an eternity, he could feel the fog of sleep settling in. Before he surrendered to his exhaustion, he realized what had been bothering him about the floor. Dust but no tracks but theirs. No bird droppings. No mouse droppings for that matter. Even insects and the spiders that lived off of them seemed to be totally absent. An eerie side effect of the nature of the hiding spells, still the reality of it and totality of it impacted on him in a way that little else had. They really were the first one's here in a really, really, long time.
Calm Before the Storm
Sha let them all sleep. The long trip had been hard on everyone. Her parents weren't as young as they used to be and dragging them all over the world was probably not a good idea. She smiled to herself as she readied the breakfast supplies and headed to the little farrier's forge next to the stable, it might not be good for them, but telling them that might not be good for her. Jayen was not a man to be coddled any more than Savon was.
The little forge was magically heated, she had truly hoped it would be. The thought of trying to find firewood in the area had concerned her. She had thought that they might end up having to burn furniture that had become too rotted with time to be useful. She was actually impressed that the rot seemed minimal. No insects eating away at things made preserving them much better. The tea was warming, and the oatmeal was bubbling along nicely. She sat in the quiet light of the morning and tried to relax. There was information here that had been suppressed by the other Tzadi of the White Spire. Maybe for good reason and maybe not, but one way or the other, they would soon have access to truths that had been buried for longer than the lives of the oldest of the Tzadi now living. The Red Spire reminded her in so many ways of her time at the White Spire. Long days of training and discipline. Days of sneaking out while her sisters slept to learn what she was not yet supposed to know. She smiled at the memory, oh wouldn't they all have a fit if they knew what she was sneaking into this time. She heard a muffled noise and looked up. "Smelled it did you?" she asked her brother with a small smile.
"Um, yeah. Any chance some of that is for me?" Echal gave her a shy smile.
"Of course. I figured I'd give Ma'Li an extra bit of rest this morning, too. No reason she should wear herself down before the big day ahead of us." she thought for a moment. "Chal, I know you trust her, and I mostly trust them both, but keep an eye on Mah'El today. What we have here is a temptation for any being. Perhaps for him more than most."
Echal looked at her sharply, then just nodded. "Suppose I hadn't really thought of it that way."
"That's why we always do best when you let me do the thinking." she grinned at him. "Now grab a bowl if you want some, it's about as done as it is going to get."
Echal just grunted and reached for a bowl. He hadn't realized how tired he was until he got a good night's sleep. Maybe he'd let her do the thinking for a little bit. The whole being in charge thing was exhausting. He shook his head at the irony, and to think those idiots thought he would want to be a king and have to be in charge all the time. He thought of his time traveling with Catrin in the guise of a merchant. Maybe a wealthy merchant might not be so bad, the only thing that galled him is that it left his father's ancestral lands in the hands of usurpers who would not properly care for them. That smacked to him of dereliction of duty, but to fight it he would need to become King, and that would still leave his father's lands in the hands of a Ducal regent. Yeah for a little while at least, let Sha do the thinking. His head hurt.
It wasn't long and Ma'Li was in taking over from Sha, and not long after that before the others were slowly crawling out of warm bed rolls to face the day. Savon grabbed a bowl of hot porridge and stole a quick kiss from the cook. "I tell you, if I weren't dying to know what we spent all this time trekking out here for, I would spend the whole day sleeping. Been too long since we had a proper wash and a full night's rest in a secure location."
Jan chuckled. "Tell me about it. You're right though, even I can't wait to see more of this place."
With that, they all got ready for a long day. The first task was to check the side doors leading off of the main chamber. However, one after the other, they found each of the doors easy to open, but the entry ways sealed by invisible barriers of magic. Each warded to prevent entry.
"We could just go through the wall instead." Savon shrugged.
"That would damage the Spire, and I don't have to remind you we don't know how to repair it properly." Echal answered him. "We'll revisit that idea if we can't find another solution." He sighed. "We have so much of this place to explore and only food for two months. That is if we save nothing for the trip back and rely on hunting. I don't see how we can see more than a fraction of it on this trip, anyway."
Savon looked as if he wanted to argue the point, but Jayen dropped a large hand on his shoulder, "M'boy's right. This isn't a smash and grab raid for the old man," Jayen chuckled, "no matter how much it may feel like it. We're dealing with a wonder of the ancient world that should be preserved if possible. We know the main exit at the far end of the hall is not warded, let's go that way. Perhaps we can find a way to drop the wards without damaging the structure?"
Savon deflated. He knew that they were right, but he has spent all winter trying to get them to this point; he wasn't about to let a little blocked door get in the way at this point. "You're right, but I'm not leaving here empty-handed."
Echal barked a harsh laugh, "No we are not. I just want some caution. Let's let Sha take point as we're not likely to run in to any creatures, but magical traps or tests to keep out common bandits might be an issue. Catrin can join you and Sha, as she is a lot more likely to need your brand of help on this than mine. To be honest, at the moment this is all a bit out of my depth at the moment."
"You heard him, lets go this way." Sha grinned as the happily took point. Echal had a sinking feeling. The path of least resist
ance was usually a trap, but in this case it seemed the only viable option.
An Improbable Ally
Not Alone
The exploration up the main corridor leads to many blocked off passage ways. Frustration is building until early afternoon leads them into the Grand Assembly Hall. This was the location where the Spire's ranking members would meet. The chamber was almost as large as the Geat Greeting Hall and lined with row upon row of intricately carved benches. In the center of the room was multiple binding circles laid in concentric rings around a central gem stone the size of a large strawberry and the deep purple color of the last rays of sunset. A faint cool glow was coming from inside of the stone. Sha's eyes widened as she recognized what she was seeing, she nearly bowled Catrin and Savon over as she pulled back from the room. "Get Echal! This is big!” She gasped as she slowed back to a normal pace and tried to calm herself. Catrin hesitated only long enough to be certain Sha wasn't injured, and then took off after Echal at a run.
Catrin found Echal and Pavel in one of the small offices that they could reach, she could hear them trying to guess what some of the items they found were supposed to be used for. She poked her head inside the door, "Echal, Sha says she has found something big. Wants you there."
Echal's head snapped up, and he looked to Pavel. "Yeah, yeah, I'll grab the others but you two don't poke it yet. If it's dangerous, my place is at her side."
Echal grinned at his brother, "Poke at it? Me?" as he headed for the door at just under a run.
"I mean it!" he yelled down the hall and then heading off to the other offices to collect the whole crew. "Damn careless crazy fool," he whispered to himself, though even he wasn't sure if he meant Echal or himself.
Pavel needn't have worried, the others hearing the commotion found him, and they made it back to Sha just a few moments after Echal and Catrin. Fortunately, Sha was mostly over the shock. "Ok, there's a powerful spirit locked up in there. I don't know who or what exactly it is, but they've got it behind enough circles to hold the Ravager himself."
They all looked at each other, "So what does that mean?" Echal asked.
Sha shook her head. "How should I know? I mean maybe it is a powerful demon trapped here to be used to power the place, though I would have thought the ancients would have put him in a more secure place." she still looked bewildered.
"Look what's the risk?" Echal was getting impatient.
"It could try to possess one of us and turn them against the rest." again she shook her head. "It could really do anything we just don't know. The only thing we can be certain of is someone was scared enough of it to lock it in this spire and expend a tremendous amount of magic to do it. I don't know if all the Tzadi from the Spire could accomplish it today."
"Okay, so if I go talk to it?" Echal asked.
"You want to WHAT?!" Catrin asked.
"Well, we either try to ignore it and it's way too powerful to just be ignored, obviously. Beings that powerful tend to not ignore those who try to ignore them. Or we can carve through the walls and hope it really can't get out of there..." he stopped and shrugged his shoulders. "What other option is there?"
Sha was thinking hard for a moment. "Catrin, if he gets possessed, do you have enough juice to put him down without killing him?"
Catrin frowned, "At those dosages, it's always a close thing but yeah, I can put him down."
Sha grinned. "Well Big brother, best you don't hear the rest of this. Can't have pulled from your mind what you don't know. `So get out of armor, we don't want to give that thing any advantage if we need to do this."
Echal grimaced and Jayen asked, "Are you sure I shouldn't be the one to do this? I mean..." he trailed off.
Echal just smiled at him. "Nope, this one is on me. There's no people I'd rather have to bail me out if things go bad than you."
Sha just murmured under her breath, “Other than who ever put him there to begin with."
Introductions
Echal felt a little naked leaving his weapons behind, but Sha was right, they wouldn't save him and could only make him do things he would later regret when his senses were restored to him. So with one last kiss for Catrin, he strode into the room as if he owned the place. He smiled as the thought to himself, I might as well as much as possession means anything. "You there! What is your purpose here?" He called out to the glowing stone in the center of all the protective wards.
A moment later a strangely accented voice replies, "Young Tzadi, free me and I will richly reward you."
Echal grins friendly like, "Now that doesn't sound evil at all."
The voice was tinged with more irony than mirth as it replied, "I suppose not. You want a tip young Tzadi, good and evil are fluid. Once people I thought of as good, murdered my family and imprisoned me here. I who was once considered a pillar of my community, was hunted like a dog across the continent to be brought here for imprisonment. Good, and Evil, are much in the eye of the beholder."
"So why should I trust that you and I have the same view of these things? How, if I were to release you, can I be assured that I am not simply adding to my enemies?" Echal sat casually down in the first row of benches and idly picked up one of the many books stacked on it.
"I could give you my word." the voice said, and the irony was even stronger.
"The value of a stranger's word may have devalued some since the time that they trapped you in here." Echal replied dryly.
"Just so. Perhaps we could learn to trust each other over time?"
"Time may not matter for you, but I do not have it in abundance this trip." Echal shook his head. "I am Echal Smithson, out to see a bit of the world."
The humor was evident in the voice's reply this time, "True in every word, yet far from the truth. I like you Echal 'Smithson'. I am Harder Mclaughlinkor, Tzadi of the Blue Spire. I can tell when you lie, and to your credit, you did not. However, you are not a smith's son on a hunting trip, who just happens to be radiating raw magical talent and finds this place after uncountable centuries to talk to me." he hesitates as if gathering his thoughts. "I will start with my story, and then you can give me yours. It really has been a long time since I've had a guest"
Echal blinked to have had his story dismissed so easily, this wasn't some gate guard he was trying to get past. This was a being of astounding intellect and ancient age. Echal looked down at the book in his hand while he waited for Harder Mclaughlinkor to begin his story. His eyebrows shot up as he recognized the seal on the books. These weren't from the Red Spire; they were from the White. What were they doing way out here?
Harder Mclaughlinkor
"As I said, my name is Harder Mclaughlinkor. I was born into a powerful Tzadi family. My Father was of the Golden Spire and my mother was of the Green. When my time of testing came, I chose the Blue Spire because restoring the unity of the fractured kingdoms seemed to me, to be the highest goal. My early years passed as many in that time, working my way up through the ranks and honing my skills both as a Tzadi, and as a diplomat. My crowning achievement in those days was a truce between the northern kingdom of ColwodNoVas and the Mountain Dwarves of North Shield."
"With the increased trade and prosperity brought on by such an arrangement, I decided to take a wife. She wasn't a Tzadi; she was a merchant's daughter. Beneath my rank, my father said, but she brought true joy to my life. We were happy for many years but were unable to have any children. It was my one regret over those days. When she passed, I did not marry again for more than a century. I took leave of my position, and entered solitary study at this time, so it was that I was away from the center of things when the great war between the Tzadi broke out." the voice grew wistful as if recalling distant pain long dealt with. "Oh, there were many excuses as to why it had to be fought. Some of them were probably even true, but in the end it mattered little. I lost both parents to that war, a war that in the end only set up the conditions for my eventual situation." The bitterness here was palpable.
"The Tzadi were weakened and sc
attered. No one could really be said to have won that war, least of all the common people caught underfoot. It is said that we wrecked the world, but I could see it recovering. I could see signs of hope springing up anew. Still the damage was done, and there was a mass call for someone to blame. All Tzadi were mistrusted, and we learned to our dismay that going out alone had become dangerous. Sometimes a lone assassin, and sometimes a riotous mob, but Tzadi were under threat in many places. Many lost their lives because they wouldn't cause the massive casualties needed to assure their safety."
"It was in the middle of this chaos that I returned from my time of solitude. I met a younger Tzadi of the Green Spire and love sprang up anew. Maybe this was what gave me hope when so many others had lost theirs. My Arla may have been my first wife reborn, or she may have just been another rare and beautiful soul." The depth of loss in this strange voice pulled at Echal. He could sense the rage at the senseless loss of it all and the bitterness of injustice. "Either way, when the powerful cabal of Tzadi, in a classic bit of revisionist history put forward the assertion that it was the Male inclination toward war that caused the Tzadi war. That most of the casualties of that war were men, only seemed to strengthen their claim. That mostly it was men who fought wars between Kingdoms made it seem only logical. Tzadi war is not like that but what king viewing his shattered kingdom wouldn't jump at the opportunity to show his people a 'solution'. I say that now, but I was not so forgiving then. You see, I had been called away to help deal with an ongoing dispute with the Dwarven Kingdom. While I was gone, a neighboring kingdom was stirred up by the cabal in the White Spire and sent an army to my home city. My wife went into labor and could not defend herself." The bitterness in the voice broke Echal's heart. "They tore them both apart and scattered the body parts to the corners of the kingdom."
Heir's Legacy Page 11
