Aster Wood and the Book of Leveling (Volume 2)

by J B Cantwell

  “Father!” I shouted down the corridor. I was guessing that, chances were, he hadn’t made a miraculous recovery in my absence. He would still think I was Brendan.

  He looked around from where he was standing, apparently talking in deep thought to a patch of wall in need of his council.

  “Brendan?” he squinted in our direction in the dim light.

  “We have to go,” I said, crossing the room to him.

  “Is that you? My boy! Did you find it? Did you—”

  “Yes, I found it,” I lied quickly. “But now we have to go. We’re in danger here. We must jump away from here, and quickly. Do you need any of your things?” I looked around the disheveled room, not sure what was junk and what was useful. If being in the Triaden had taught me one thing, it was that sometimes extraordinary items looked anything but.

  “Jump?” he asked, looking confused. Then his eyes fell onto the stone in my hand. “Ah! I see you have found the Kinstone! It has been many years since I’ve seen it!”

  “What, this?” I asked, looking down at the rock. “What’s a Kinstone?”

  He looked confused.

  “I think too much time on Earth has played with your mind, my boy,” he said. “Give it here.” Before I could stop him, he snatched the stone from my hand and held it up above his head.

  In the split second between the rock leaving my hand, and Almara’s mouth opening to give the command, I realized his intentions.

  “Jade!” I screamed. “Now!” I reached out both hands, one to Jade, one to Almara, and we barely held on as he spoke the word and pulled us behind him into a jump.

  As the fabric of space circled our rocketing forms, I realized three things in quick succession. First, Almara and Jade both had recognized the stone. Second, Almara knew how to use it. And third, I had to get it back from him. This man who had been talking earnestly to a wall a moment ago was not the best one for us to be following into interstellar jumps.

  We landed on soft sand in the stark light of day. Almara leapt away from us before I could grasp his robes.

  “Jade!” I shouted as I scrambled after him. “Stay with me!” I held out my hand to her and she didn’t argue. Together we ran.

  In a split second his hands were above his head again, his mouth forming the word I couldn’t hear him command. I grabbed him.

  We spun. This wasn’t going to work. If he kept jumping, we would lose him for sure, and then where would we be?

  I readied myself for the landing, and this time when it came I tackled Almara to the ground. Morning light trickled through trees as I pressed the tiny man into damp forest earth. I held both of his hands down, squeezing the one that held the stone.

  “You must release it,” I said, trying to sound calm. “Give me the stone. You are not well.”

  He spit out a mouthful of twigs and leaves.

  “What could you possibly do with the Kinstone?” he asked. “It won’t work for you. You are confused!”

  “No, I’m not. Please let it go and give me a chance to explain.” I felt his hand loosen its grip ever so slightly, and I took the opportunity. I released both of his hands and grasped the stone. When I had it, I stuffed it deep into the side pocket of my pants. Slowly, I released Almara up from the bed of leaves, not sure if he would attack me.

  Luck was on my side. He hadn’t yet forgotten again who I was, or who he thought I was. He sat on the ground and looked up at me.

  “Please trust me,” I said. “There is something wrong with the stone.” It was a lie. I didn’t know anything at all about the stone. All I knew is that if I let it fall back into his hands, we’d lose him again, probably forever.

  “Something wrong?” he asked. “But how can it be? There cannot be anything wrong with the Kinstone.

  “In blood and fire the stars await

  To lead us—”

  “Beyond Jared’s gates,” Jade finished.

  We both turned to look at her. She stood over the two of us, her green eyes wide with recognition and amazement.

  “What?” I said.

  She looked dazed.

  “I remember it now,” she said. “The stone was kept in the castle when I was a young child. In the mosaic room.”

  “What wickedness is this?” Almara spat, his long, bony finger pointing up at Jade. “How do you know such things?”

  She looked down at him, forcibly reminded that he still didn’t recognize her, and then turned, taking several steps away from us.

  I stood up and followed.

  “What is it?” I asked quietly, so Almara couldn’t hear me.

  “It’s a link,” she said, staring blankly into the trees. “It’s a link that only works for the head of the family. For us, that’s him. He’s the only one who can command it.”

  “But, if this is your family’s stone, why did the Solitaries have it?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Perhaps they stole it when they drove us from Riverstone the first time.”

  But that didn’t sit right with me. The Solitaries had clearly thought the stone belonged to them. Hadn’t they told me that it had been passed down from Jared over thousands of years, and that they were Jared’s descendants?

  I turned back to Almara.

  “Father,” I said softly. But I had waited too long.

  “Brendan, is that you?” he began.

  Ugh.

  I knelt down beside him, and he embraced me before I could speak. Over his shoulder I saw Jade’s eyes flash angrily as her father clung to me.

  “I need you to focus, to answer a question,” I said, pulling away uncomfortably.

  He looked at me with eyes of a young child, obedient and frightened.

  “Where did the Kinstone come from?”

  “The Kinstone?” he said. “Why, from my father, of course.”

  “And where did he get it?” I said.

  “He took it, his birthright,” he said. “When he came down from the mountains, he brought it with him.”

  “The mountains? What mountains?”

  “Mount Neri,” he said.

  “So he stole it?” I asked.

  “Of course not! How can you steal your own birthright? The lines were drawn as clear as day all the way back to the first of us. He took it, yes, but he took what had belonged to his father, and his father before him. It has always been this way. When one of our kind leaves this life, the next takes up the Kinstone.”

  I sat back in the leaves, understanding now what I hadn’t before. I wasn’t just descended from Almara, but the entire Wood family was descended from Jared, himself.

  Just like the Solitaries.

  I had wondered how the entire village had not been born with the gift of magic, all being descended from Jared. But not all of them were free of the gift; Erod clearly had it. When Almara’s father had fled the village, as Erod had done, he must have brought the stone with him. That’s why they believed the stone belonged to them, despite its lineage through the Wood family.

  And Almara, this insane old man, was the only one who could use it.

  Finally, I spoke again.

  “Ok,” I said to the both of them. “The plan is that we head for the Fire Mountains. That’s where the book is supposed to be, so that’s where we need to go.”

  Almara’s eyes widened.

  “Book?” Jade asked.

  Almara turned away. He spoke in a low, harsh whisper. “The Book of Leveling lies deep in the fire. Alas, it has never been found since it was hidden there so many ages ago.”

  His hands were gripped over his chest as he began to pace, his fingers working madly in his nervousness, and I realized he was shaking.

  “A journey to the Fire Mountains is not to be embarked upon lightly. They are beautiful from afar, but there is evil there, inside and out. In the Fire Mountains, the Corentin rules. Invisibly. Savagely.”

  He cut a path through the fallen forest leaves with his dragging feet.

  “We tried to get there,” h
e mumbled. “But we couldn’t find the way. And then they fell. One by one they fell.” He stopped and put his head in his hands, overcome.

  “We have the way now,” I said gently, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Just tell us how.”

  “You do not understand,” he said, looking up at me. “We stand to lose more than just our lives by entering that place.”

  I ignored his warning. I was too full, still, of the adrenaline from my flight to really consider his words. Erod had renounced his own people for me and this cause, might even be dead by now, and I wasn’t about to push his sacrifice aside.

  “It all comes down to this,” I said. “Your life’s work. You know we have to go.”

  I turned to Jade, who stood frozen, watching our exchange. I nodded towards Almara, and she understood. She might not have agreed with me all the time, but months of traveling together, facing down monsters side by side, meant that some of her trust in me still held fast. She walked up behind him and rested a hand on his shoulder.

  “Maybe,” she said quietly. “Maybe if you think of Mother, of Morna, then maybe you will discover how.”

  “Morna? How do you know of this, girl?”

  “How will that help?” I whispered to Jade.

  She shrugged. “He always told me that were it not for Mother he would have always chosen the wrong path. That she was the reason he chose the right one.”

  “Listen to me,” I said. “I’m going to give you the Kinstone, but you have to control yourself. You have to think of Morna and try to take us to the Fire Mountains. If you can do that, we can get to the book and fix everything. Do you understand?”

  His eyes were unfocused.

  “Morna.” Then he looked up at me and nodded.

  I pulled the Kinstone from my pocket and handed it to him, gripping his arm with one hand and Jade’s with another. He raised it above his head and shouted “Herrash!” into the misty forest.

  We landed in a meadow, surrounded by rolling green hills. I quickly snatched the stone from Almara and looked around.

  There wasn’t a mountain in sight.

  “I don’t think this is it,” I said. “Can you try again?”

  He took the stone.

  “Remember, Fire Mountains,” I said.

  He raised the stone.

  Flat, snow covered prairie.

  He raised the stone again.

  “Morna” I whispered.

  A rocky beach.

  “Argh!” Almara shouted. He stomped away from us, and I snatched the stone from his waving hands before he had a chance to use it again. He walked around in circles, muttering angrily.

  I found a boulder and sat down, trying to figure out what to do.

  Jade stood, arms crossed, and looked at her father.

  “What are we going to do now?” she asked, glaring at him. “He cannot get us there.”

  “No,” I said.

  All the pieces of the puzzle sitting right in front of us like a feast in front of a starving man, but we couldn’t get there. An idea tickled the edge of my brain, and without realizing what I was doing, I found my fingers moving around in the pocket underneath my shirt. They grasped an old piece of parchment, and I pulled it out, unfolding it and studying the ornately scripted instructions. Kiron’s instructions.

  “It’s time for us to learn to make a link,” I said, my fingers tracing over the strange writing.

  “But how?” Jade asked. “We don’t know anything about making links.”

  “We don’t,” I said, “but he does.” I stood up and approached Almara, trying not to frighten him in the middle of his frenzy. “We will need to make a link.”

  He stopped pacing.

  “Of course, you would think that,” he said, smirking. “But we have not the tools we need.” His hands gripped the hair on the sides of his head as if he meant to rip it from his scalp. I placed my own on his wrists and stared him in the face.

  “What do we need?” I asked calmly.

  “Gold, for one thing,” he said.

  “Gold, we have.”

  He blew a snort through his lips, clearly not believing me.

  “What else do we need?” I asked. “Just humor me, please.”

  He fell to the pebbly beach, squeezing his head. Now it appeared he wanted to crush his skull.

  “We have no frame,” he said, forlorn. Then he looked up, frightened and waiting for my reaction.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It was lost,” he moaned. “The brothers took the frame that our quest carried. They stole it and use it this very moment to wreak havoc on all of the lands. Without the frame, we are lost.”

  I looked at Jade, confused. But she didn’t understand any better than I did.

  “What is a frame?” I asked.

  He froze, not understanding.

  “Brendan,” he said, “how can you of all people ask me such a question? You, who are so talented with plotting. Are you ill?” His hand reached out and touched my head, searching for an unseen hurt.

  “No,” I said, trying to think fast. “No, I’m not ill. But my friend here, well, you know, she doesn’t know about all this stuff. And you’re so much better at explaining it than I am. Maybe you could teach her.”

  He paused, pondering each word that I spoke. And then, suddenly, he was on his feet, addressing us both like a professor in a college auditorium. It was alarming, the swiftness of the change in his demeanor.

  “To make a link one needs four things,” he prattled. “First, one needs gold. Gold is the power that fuels the link. Second, one needs dustfire. Dustfire is the basis for the creation of the connection between worlds, as dustfire is universal on all worlds where humans can walk. Third, one needs to know the incantation by heart, so much so that no distraction imaginable could permeate its recitation. It must be spoken three times, again and again, so that the power from within the man can be drawn out and transferred to the link. Fourth, and last, one needs a frame.”

  “And what is a frame?” I asked, as if it were purely for the benefit of Jade’s learning.

  Almara’s eyes twinkled at me as though we shared a secret, and he turned to her.

  “A frame is a map,” he said to Jade slowly, as if talking to someone a bit dumb. “It is a map of all the cosmos in our universe.”

  Jade’s eyes were wide, drinking him in. It was the first time he had spoken directly to her without insult.

  “The seer focuses on the point in space on the other end of the link, and gives the incantation simultaneously. The two actions are entwined as the musician’s hand and voice are entwined. They each operate differently, but are irrevocably connected, one unable to function without the other. It is a great art.” He stood now with hands on his hips and appeared quite satisfied with his description.

  “But, what is a frame?” I asked again. “Is it on paper? Is it on stone?”

  Almara laughed.

  “It is not on anything, as you well know,” he nodded towards me. “It is within. The frame that I had, the one that was stolen from me, was contained within a small piece of diamond.” He bent and sifted through the pebbles at his feet, choosing one that suited his story. “It was about this size,” he said, holding up the walnut sized rock. “Frames are so rare. In my lifetime I have known of only three, and seen only one. They are placed within objects of desire, the makers unable to help but connect the immensely valuable frame with artifacts of similar value. They are inscribed with the six pointed star.” His finger traced the outline of an invisible star onto the face of the rock.

  I froze, staring at Almara with my jaw wide. Then, looking at Jade, I saw that she had the exact same thought.

  The medallion.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Almara was bouncing up and down like a kid on Christmas Eve. It had been many long years since he had created a link.

  But his enthusiasm concerned me. He had been excited about the Kinstone as well, and that had not turned out at all as planned. Not to me
ntion the uncontrollable tic he seemed to have of releasing Torrensai whenever he felt in the least threatened.

  On the balance, I couldn’t decide if it was good to have him with us or if we were worse off for it. In any case, he had remained as focused as we had yet seen him and hadn’t forgotten me again. Though he still thought I was Brendan, maybe if we allowed him to help us with the link, he might come back to himself more. Maybe he would even recognize Jade.

  She sat alone nearby, looking crumpled. I walked over to her and crouched down, putting my arm around her shoulder.

  “It’s going to be alright,” I said. “We’ll get him to come back to himself. It’s just going to take some time.”

  Her eyes moved to Almara as he knelt beside a small pile of driftwood.

  “What do I do?” she asked, her voice small and injured. It was a question for a parent, not for me.

  I looked over at Almara, who was holding both hands out over the pile of wood as if it were already alight and warming them.

  “Maybe try talking to him,” I suggested. “It can’t hurt. And maybe he’ll get used to you. Start to remember. He was pretty excited to teach you—us—about links. Just keep asking questions. He’ll come around.”

  She stared at me, concern and doubt in her wide eyes, and then back at him. He was a stranger to her.

  “Come on,” I said. “Nothing’s going to change with you just sitting here.”

  I stood up and offered her my hand. She took it and I hauled her tiny frame to standing.

  “Just pretend you’ve never met him before. Give him a chance to get used to you.”

  I nudged her towards him. She stumbled over and then knelt down next to him.

  “Hello,” she said quietly. She looked back at me and I nodded encouragingly. “What are you doing?”

  For a moment he ignored her. But she persisted, not leaving his side. Eventually he looked up at her, distrust in his sharp gaze.

  “What do you care, girl?” he snapped. His mood had shifted again, and his teacher-like patience had vanished entirely. “Leave it to Brendan to bring back a girlfriend from Earth.” He snorted, his hands continuing to dance over the flames only he could see.