Spirit of Mages (Rift of Chaos Book 2)

by A. J. Martinez

  "Thank you," Rey Ling replied. "How many vehicles did you request?"

  "Three, Lord Ling," the Hilipia answered.

  "Good. And...oh! It looks like they are here already." Rey squinted and gazed down the cobbled streets. A much larger machine was arriving. It ran on four black rubber wheels. It stopped on the side of the streets making loud and rapid humming sounds.

  "Hurry up now! Load the kaminyte!" Rey commanded his men. "The quicker, the better."

  "Why in such a hurry, Lord Ling?" Yochan asked.

  "I just don't like to be in the presence of that bitch queen," Rey snarled.

  "Sir, I suggest that you don't say that out loud," Yochan whispered.

  Rey chuckled and said, "Oh, I wish I could yell it out. Come on, let's move."

  *****

  He rode with his men on the back of the hayunsuh. Five tons of kaminyte were being delivered to the queen on three vehicles. As the vehicle turned at an intersection, Rey saw the castle of Gemzeh dynasty. Built on the highest hill of the capital city surrounded by a moat.

  Rey had to visit the queen three times a year to deliver kaminyte. He would always get into an argument with the queen that would get him into trouble and kicked out. One time he hurled his sword at the queen, yet he managed to stay out of prison. This time it would be no different. He was glad it only had to be three times a year. "If I have to see this bitch any more than three times a year, I would hang myself." He would always say.

  "Please sir, try to control yourself this time," Yochan reminded.

  "Don't worry about me, my good assistant. I have learned my lesson, but it would be glorious to get the chance to smack her pale face and see it turn red," Rey snickered.

  The hayunsuh went up a hill and Rey knew that they were very near. When the vehicle went through the gates of the castle, Rey Ling gazed up at it like he had been doing for the past decade, as if it were the domain of a fiend. Its windows were triangular as well as its roofs, twisting like a walrus mustache. A wooden bridge extended all the way to the entrance over the moat. With haste, his men unloaded the kaminyte, carried it over the bridge and into the castle.

  Guards opened lavished doors. Rey and his men entered. The kaminyte was taken to an underground chamber while Rey went to the throne room. He followed a long hall until he saw Queen Gemzeh sitting on her throne, chatting with her maids and drinking tea.

  The first thing that Rey noticed was her jaw. Good god, what an ugly thing, he wanted to say. The queen had almost no lips and her eyes were really small and somewhat diagonal. Her face had age spots and her eyebrows...well, Rey thought she had them burned off. Her frown looked like a fiend's mask, like the ones that hung on the wall. Her gown was so beautiful of red and golden with silk that it did not match her face. Rey always thought that she was really a man. The queen never married or had offspring. Her hair had so much volume that the crown was clasped into her knots. A golden tiara with jewels hanging like chandeliers. Pins rising from her hair knots formed a fan. The top of her throne had two sculpted dragon heads biting a crystal ball. When she finally noticed him she gasped and quickly dismissed her maids.

  Two guards tried to stop Rey as he entered the throne room, but then the queen commanded them to release him. "Stop!" she said. "I summoned him here."

  "Why is it that your guards never recognize me?" Rey asked.

  "Have you no manners walking into my throne room without an escort? You should know better, Rey Ling," Queen Gemzeh answered, raising her chin. "Your father had more respect and..."

  "My father is not here. You have to deal with me, oh wise queen," Rey interrupted.

  Gemzeh grunted and balled her fist. Her mouth became a line when she scowled and Rey wanted to burst out in laughter. He loved infuriating her.

  "How dare you interrupt me when I am speaking," the queen snarled.

  "I like to be quick with what I say," Rey replied, holding in his laugh.

  "Tell me the amount of kaminyte you delivered and get out of my throne room," Queen Gemzeh barked.

  Rey stepped closer to the throne. The guards stopped him by each placing a hand on his chest. "You can speak to the queen from right there, sir," one guard said.

  "I'd rather not raise my voice," Rey said.

  "Do not get any closer to the queen unless you want to go back home injured," the guard threatened.

  "Very well then." Rey cleared his throat, brushed himself, then looked at the queen. "Today we have delivered five tons of kaminyte. It is currently being loaded to your underground chamber. Normally we would deliver six or eight tons but we were a little short this time."

  "Why is that?" Gemzeh asked, leaning forward.

  The way she rested her arms on her lap as she leaned in was a very masculine pose. I am sure she is a man, Rey thought.

  "The Golden Gear factory has been very busy with other projects," Rey explained, "and as much as I love to pay my debts to the queen, other commitments have taken away time from mining for kaminyte."

  "Other commitments?" Gemzeh repeated.

  "Yes, other commitments," Rey repeated, unpleasantly.

  "Such as what?"

  "Such as creating new innovations for the people," he answered.

  "You have time to create gadgets for the people, but you don't have time to mine for my kaminyte? Do you think that you are nearly done paying your father's debt?" The queen questioned.

  Rey hesitated to answer as his anger rose. "I am only halfway done paying for the damages that my father caused with the rise of machinery throughout Tong Doran Cho. I understand that, though our inventions have benefited our country greatly, the Golden Gear factory has also caused massive pollution in the air and nature. However, I assure you that we can also overcome this. Golden Gear will..."

  "Silence!" The queen shouted. "Golden Gear is a selfish organization. Your grandfather refused to do work for royalty. He was a selfish man and only wanted to profit from his creations."

  "Yet he gave us the invention of the train at no profit to him. He was a real selfish man indeed," Rey Ling said sarcastically.

  "Consider this debt punishment from the Omungi Galou for damaging rivers and causing a plague decades ago," the queen responded and smirked. "Don't think that just because Golden Gear is independent that it does not have to follow the law. There is a way to get all this debt off your shoulder, Rey Ling."

  "Yes, you have told me before but I won't do it," Rey said. "Golden Gear will not make tools of war for the Gemzeh dynasty. I absolutely refuse. I'd rather pay off this debt till I die than to help you wage war on other countries. My grandfather and father may have made some mistakes in the past but they were not men of war. They were not so hungry for money to make weapons for you. The Ling Cho family has invented trains and other vehicles for transportation. We have created gadgets to perform better tasks and have sold them to people, but we will never profit from the blood of others. That is my promise to my father."

  The queen laughed at Rey and he held in his anger, wishing that he could pull out his new invention concealed in his boots and kill the bitch queen.

  "So when the Yama country and other nations attack us again, you won't bother to help your country?" The queen asked.

  "Since when has any country ever attacked us? We attack them. We always win the battle," Rey answered. "I don't know what it is that you are planning, but I don't want to be part of it. Don't ever expect me to make weapons and, by the way, my father regretted ever making firearms for you."

  Rey Ling spun around and walked towards the long hall. The two guards that stood by the large door blocked his way with their spears. He turned around again and looked at the queen.

  "Bow to the queen before you exit the throne room," Queen Gemzeh commanded.

  Rey did as he was told and bowed his head. The guards moved out of his way and he rushed out of the castle. It did not take his men long to haul the kaminyte to the underground chamber of the castle. They all boarded the hayunsuh by the castle entrance,
eager to go back home.

  "We are all ready to go, Lord Ling," said one of his men.

  "Good. You can return home without me. I will see you tomorrow in the factory," Rey replied.

  "Are you sure?" the worker asked.

  "Do not worry about me. Return home safely," Rey said and bowed his head.

  Yochan stayed behind with Rey Ling and they watched the hayunsuh going down the hill.

  Rey and Yochan ran to a verdant area with cherry blossom trees. They hid behind a tree and looked left and right, making sure that there was no one in sight. From within his vest, Rey Ling pulled out a pouch as big as his hand. It contained a solid object. Rey took it out and it glowed purple. A gem shaped like a star with an eye in the center that blinked. It was an item that had fallen from the sky one night when Rey was only ten years old. His father had given it to him before his death and Rey swore to never tell anyone about it. His father called it the Omnistar. There was nothing like it in the world, or so he thought.

  "Are you ready, Yochan?" Rey said and placed his goggles over his eyes.

  Yochan nodded, wearing his own goggles that he kept inside his tunic. Yochan was the only person that knew about the Omnistar and the only person that Rey trusted with his life. "Let's go," he said.

  Rey extended his right arm forward holding the Omnistar. The eye of the gem opened wide, its magic punched a hole in the air and opened an oval window to another location. A window floating in thin air, its rim was nothing but purple energy chirping like lightning. The window expanded up to seven feet. Yochan jumped in first. Rey Ling look around one last time and did not see anyone coming, then leapt into the portal that took him back to his hometown.

  *****

  As they fell through the portal, they were pushed by its force. Thrown to their destination, they landed on a hardwood floor. Rey landed on Yochan's arm and the bald man yelped. Rey quickly stood up hiding the Omnistar in his vest pocket. He had opened a portal to his office in Takiyong, his hometown.

  "Sorry about that," Rey apologized while giving a hand to Yochan.

  "Why couldn’t we just take the train like civilized people?" Yochan grumbled while holding his arm.

  "It saves time," Rey answered. "The train takes hours to reach the Xindalu Pathways. I would hate to waste a whole day because of that bitch queen. Thank the heavens I have the Omnistar. I can continue working on my air vessel."

  "We cannot keep traveling with that magic item, my lord," Yochan said. "One day that thing will stop working and we will end up in some strange place we know nothing of."

  "You worry too much Yochan," Rey replied and chuckled. "Get some rest."

  Yochan brushed the dust off himself, bowed then exited the room.

  Rey Ling sauntered to his desk and gazed out the window. The sun was setting, casting a rainbow of purple, red, and yellow hues. Its last lights gave the town a romantic view from three stories high. A train ran through the town just a mile away from the factory building. It left a trail of smoke as it ran by. Rey could see children playing with kites in the cobbled streets. A school of martial arts practiced in a grassy area.

  Rey Ling grew up here. He loved this town. His father once told him that centuries ago this was a small kingdom and his family were its rulers before the Gemzeh dynasty came and conquered. Rey's family had risen again to wealth because of his grandfather, Hui Ling Cho. His family was depending on him to carry on the legacy, maintain their wealth and protect their company from the Gemzeh dynasty. It was a burden he carried proudly.

  In this building his office was on the third floor. On the walls he had drawings of ideas for gadgets and Xaianian codex with numbers for measuring his inventions. There were wooden models on a table of trains and hayunsuh set in a miniature town. There was a flying vehicle hanging from the ceiling that looked like a kite. He had designed a chair with wheels for those who lost the ability to walk. He wanted to invent more things that would make people's lives easier with transportation, communication and his favorite, air travel.

  In his office he would sit for hours, thinking of ideas with pencil and paper. He would stare at the town for inspiration, thinking of how he could help people.

  By the door there was a portrait of his father, Wan Ling Cho. He sat down in a comfortable chair at his desk and looked at the portrait. Don't worry father, Rey thought, I will finish what we started. When I was a boy I told you that I wanted to fly and you wanted to make that dream come true for me. You started to build the air vessel and now I am going to finish it for the both of us. More importantly, I am going to keep that bitch queen away from our invention. She has no idea of what I am doing.

  Someone knocked on the door. "Come in," Rey responded.

  The door squeaked open and a young woman walked in. She was short, about five feet tall. Her hair was short, down to her chin, and eyes bright brown. She wore a green dress with a corset and long wide sleeves cascading from peaked shoulder pads.

  "Sixiam, my dearest sister," Rey said with a graceful smile.

  "Your air vessel is shite," she snarled.

  Rey raised an eyebrow and stood up from his desk with a sigh. "Not my air vessel," he said. "It will be the best vehicle that Golden Gear has ever made. We are making history here, so tell me what is wrong."

  "How can a giant balloon lift such a heavy object? This is becoming real dangerous. One of our workers already got injured," Sixiam complained.

  "Everything we do is dangerous. There is always risk involved and remember, every worker in this company is medically covered by Golden Gear. Their pain is our pain, as I like to say," Rey replied. He was always optimistic, never letting the smallest thing bring him down. "My dearest sister, I taught you to stay sharp between the ears."

  "Why don't you come down and take a look," Sixiam said with her hands on her hips.

  Rey Ling sighed and followed her to the factory. They exited his office, went down the hall and entered an elevator. Rey pulled a lever aligning it with a number for the first floor. The elevator clattered and clanked and brought them down to the first floor of the building. They exited the elevator, walked through the lobby and down a corridor that led to the main factory.

  Inside the Golden Gear factory men worked melting metal and forging it into parts for a train. Workers carried coal in wheelbarrows moving back and forth around the large factory. There were fire mages using pyromancy to merge tubes of steel creating a body for a three-wheel vehicle. Some men carved wood, making toys for children. Gears were lifted with tongs from a pool of black fluid that cooled the hot steel. There were hundreds of men and women working in the factory. It was filled with people doing both manual and mental labor.

  Rey Ling walked amongst his workers, greeting them with a smile. He always made sure that everyone was taken care of. As he walked with his sister, he saw two finished trains that were to be taken to the north for a new track that was built. To his right were a few hundred hayunsuh that were finished and right next to them were smaller versions made for children that required pedaling for movement. Ten workers approached carrying parts for what was called an engine. It was what made trains and hayunsuhs move, the most important part of the vehicle, invented by his grandfather Hui Ling Cho.

  Rey stepped aside, making space for his workers to pass. He continued on till he reached a door that took them to another section of the factory where he kept the kaminyte, and where he hid his air vessel. He closed the door shut and locked it. His sister went up a set of steel stairs that took her to the second floor of the section. Rey followed her up till he reached a door. Again he closed the door tightly shut with a lock. He walked over a steel bridge looking down at men working on his air vessel. It was fifty feet long, shaped like a boat. His men were making a giant balloon made of nylon that would be able to lift the ship into the sky and travel for days.

  Sixiam stood next to Rey Ling and pointed at the air vessel.

  "Take a look. How in the world can a balloon lift a ship high into the air?" she a
sked, frustrated. "This is the most insane invention I have ever seen. This is too dangerous. The balloon carried the ship a few feet off the ground and popped within a few minutes. It fell and caught one of our worker’s legs. Thankfully it wasn't his whole body."

  "Where is the injured man?" Rey asked scanning the area below.

  "He is seeing a doctor right now," Sixiam answered. "What bothers me the most is that you don't want us to tell anyone about this thing, but the worker is already running his mouth."

  The last thing Rey wanted was for the queen to hear about this air vessel. I will be damned if Queen Gemzeh finds out about this, he was thinking. Maybe I should work on this myself with three or four men. This is my personal project after all.

  "Everyone, listen up!" his voice boomed. "We will postpone this project until further notice. I must rethink the design of this air vessel."

  The men below bowed their heads, picked up their equipment and tools, and headed for the exit.

  Rey stood there gazing at the air vessel. How can I make this thing fly? he asked himself. I will have to run some more tests before even trying this one.

  "Why haven't you tried it?" Sixiam asked.

  "Tried what?" Rey raised an eyebrow.

  "Creating an engine to make this thing fly," she replied.

  Rey chuckled, then said, "That might work on a train or hayunsuh, but I don't think that..." suddenly an idea kindled in his mind. "Yes...yes...yes...why not." He looked at Sixiam, lifted her and kissed her red cheeks. "That is a great idea. At first I thought that an engine would be too heavy for an air vessel but it just might work. Why didn't I think of it before? After all, everything else we have done runs on engines, so why not a flying machine. Good heavens, I feel stupid. "

  Suddenly, the wall to the right side of the air vessel exploded inward. It was an unexpected burst that created a hole bigger than the flying machine itself. Rey Ling had never seen such an explosion inside his factory.

  "What in dragon's blood was that?" he yelled. Rey ran around the steel bridge and down the stairs to the first floor.