The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3)

by Mackenzie Morgan

  “From what I understand, your guards are going to shoot arrows at me and I’m going to use magic to stop them.”

  Darrell nodded. “That’s the general idea. See you out at the field.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Fifteen minutes later everyone was assembled at the meadow. Laryn was with Steve when Ariel found him, so she came with him.

  Darrell glanced around the group. “We decided to run a practice drill with Myron in the center to show you what we want.”

  “Excuse me?” Brandon’s eyes were big as saucers. “You want us to shoot at Myron? I’m sorry, sir, but no, I’m not doing that.”

  Darrell grinned. “Chris said you might object so some of us who’ve done this before are going to shoot at him, but since we just decided to do it we don’t have our bows with us. If we could borrow yours, we’ll get started.”

  Brandon handed his equipment to Darrell and stepped back several paces.

  “Don’t worry, Brandon,” Kevin said. “It’s going to be all right. You have my word.”

  Brandon nodded, but he stayed where he was.

  “Let me get this straight,” Laryn said, looking at Darrell. “You five are going to stand in a circle and shoot arrows at my nephew.”

  “We’ve done this before, Laryn, dozens of times. He won’t get hurt,” Darrell answered.

  “I should hope not,” Laryn said. “What kind of Master Sorcerer would he be if he couldn’t handle a few arrows?” She glanced around as the guards handed over their bows and quivers. “If I’ve counted correctly, there’s an extra bow. Do you mind if I play?”

  Chris grinned as he handed Laryn the sixth bow and quiver.

  After the five Tellurians and Laryn spread out in a big circle and armed their bows, Darrell called out instructions for the benefit of Marcus and the guards. “On the first few rounds, we’ll fire individually. As soon as Myron blocks one arrow, the next one is fired. I’ll start and we’ll go around the circle counterclockwise.”

  Darrell fired the first arrow, which bounced off Kevin’s shield and landed about halfway between them. Before that arrow hit the ground, Chris fired the next one. And so it went, one arrow after another for the next five minutes. Then Darrell called a halt so everyone could pick up their arrows.

  After all the archers were back in place with full quivers, Darrell said, “This time Myron will catch the arrows and stack them in a pile.”

  Five minutes later, Darrell called a halt. “Those are the two drills we’ll work on today. Later we’ll move on to this one.” Darrell turned around and notched an arrow. “Fire at will!”

  For the next few minutes, arrows were flying at Kevin from all directions. At first he let them bounce off shields, but after about a minute of that, he began catching them. Within minutes, the archers were out of ammunition.

  When Darrell called a halt that time, he motioned for his guards to come over and collect their weapons.

  Kevin joined Marcus at the sidelines while the others collected the arrows and returned the bows. “Take it one step at a time. Don’t worry about that last drill. Like with all magic, start small, master that, and move on. Today, one arrow at a time, and don’t worry about missing it. If you do, I won’t.”

  Marcus nodded, but he didn’t look very confident.

  As Marcus made his way to the center of the circle, Chris stepped beside Kevin and whispered, “Are you sure you can do this?”

  Kevin took a deep breath. “I hope so.”

  Steve and Laryn were the first to leave, followed by Joan and Karl. Right before Joan left, Chris told her he was going to watch the drill and asked her to let Ariel know where he was in case something came up. Then he settled down to watch with Kevin.

  An hour later, Darrell ended the session. Marcus had spent half the time using his shield to deflect the arrows and the other half trying to catch them. Kevin didn’t have to intervene even once when he used his shields, but if Kevin hadn’t been there to back him up when he was trying to catch the arrows, he’d have been a human pincushion. Kevin didn’t know who was more wiped out, Marcus or him.

  As they made their way back to the castle, Marcus apologized for missing so many arrows. Kevin laughed. “You should have been there the first time I tried to do it. It’s harder than it looks, but once you get the hang of it, it’ll be a lot easier. At least you didn’t miss any with your shield. I did. If it hadn’t been for Glendymere, I’d have been dead a dozen times over.” Marcus didn’t say anything, so Kevin added, “Look, you’ve got to be drained, physically as well as magically. Why don’t you take some time off, restock your energy supply, and go relax for a while. There’s nothing pressing this afternoon, is there?”

  Marcus shook his head no. “I don’t have anything lined up. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go lie down for a bit.”

  When they reached the castle, Marcus went on his way while Kevin and Chris went back to Kevin’s office.

  “I’m ready for something to drink,” Chris said. “What about you?”

  “Something cold,” Kevin answered as he sat down at his desk. “Maybe some scog.”

  “Do you want to go down to the dining room, or shall I send someone?”

  “All I want to do is sit down and not think for a few minutes.”

  Chris stepped back out into the reception area to ask one of the pages to go get them some scog. When he returned, he shut the door. “I have a question.”

  Kevin nodded.

  “What you said to Marcus on the way back,” Chris said. “I don’t remember you having that much trouble with the arrows.”

  “I didn’t,” Kevin said. “But I thought it might make him feel better if he thought I had.”

  “How do you think he did today?”

  “Okay, not great, but okay. He’ll get better with practice. I have no doubt about that, but I’m not sure his first reaction to an attack will ever involve magic. If he stops and thinks, yes, but his reflexes are geared toward physical defense. I’m not sure we can change that.”

  “Practice did it for you,” Chris pointed out. “When Gaynor attacked, you reacted without thinking, and your reaction was magical.”

  “True, but I’m not a physical person. He is.” Kevin shrugged. “All we can do is try. Let’s see how he does after a few more sessions. Maybe the drills will work and the shields will become instinctive. Unfortunately we won’t know unless he gets attacked again, and I hope that doesn’t happen.”

  “Same here,” Chris said as the door opened and Ariel stepped inside with two mugs of scog. After handing one to each of them, he left, pulling the door to behind him.

  Kevin leaned back in his chair and sipped his scog. After a couple of minutes, he sighed, sat up, and said, “Okay. What’s next?”

  Chapter 41

  Caitlyn's Story

  After Joan left the sparring field, she went to the playground and watched the children for a few minutes. When she caught Serra’s eye, she tilted her head towards a bench Darrell had set under the tree, and headed in that direction.

  “How are things going?” Joan asked when Serra joined her.

  “Fine, at least out here.” Serra frowned as she sat down beside Joan. “You look like you’ve got something on your mind though.”

  Joan watched Caitlyn play in the sandbox with a couple of the other children. “I need to borrow Caitlyn for a little while. I have to ask her some questions about what happened the night her father was killed, and I’m not sure how she’ll react. She may not be back this afternoon.”

  “Haven’t they already questioned the children? Corey said he talked to Gen. Crandal while he was at the chapel.”

  “He did. She didn’t.” Joan sighed. “But it seems they should have talked to her, too. She told Hayley a couple of things they didn’t know.”

  “Why did Hayley wait so long to mention it?”

  “She thought they’d already talked to Caitlyn. It was a comment she made to Marcus that brought it all out.” Joan shook her head
. “From what I understand, when Gen. Crandal and Myron were talking about interviewing the children, they said they were going to talk to Corey, but Caitlyn was too young to have noticed much. Hayley told them Caitlyn might know more than they thought. She thought they’d taken the hint and questioned Caitlyn. They didn’t, so now I get to.”

  “I don’t envy you,” Serra said.

  “I’m going to try to get the answers they need without stirring up all the trauma, but I’m not sure that’s even possible.” Joan stood up. “I really hate this.”

  “Good luck.”

  A few minutes later, Joan and Caitlyn headed over towards the pasture where the horses were grazing. Joan whistled and her horse trotted over to the fence. She picked Caitlyn up and let her sit on the top rail and stroke the horse’s nose. While Caitlyn was distracted, Joan said, “You never did tell me about your adventure.”

  “What venture?” Caitlyn asked.

  “You know, when you and Corey hid out in the woods.”

  “Oh,” Caitlyn said as the horse stepped in close enough for Caitlyn to scratch his ears. “That was scary.”

  “I bet it was. What did you do?”

  “I held onto Corey’s hand most of the time. And don’t tell him, but a lot of the time I had my eyes shut. I didn’t want to see.”

  “What were you afraid you’d see?”

  “The bad men, the men who were yelling.”

  The horse was ready to go back to grazing, so Joan picked Caitlyn up and set her back on the ground.

  Once Caitlyn was on her feet, she said, “They scared me.”

  “I bet they did.” Joan took the child’s hand and started towards the castle. “They’d have scared me, too.”

  “It made me feel a lot better when they got on that boat.”

  “Did you see them on the boat?”

  “Uh-huh, and it was out in the river, not at our dock. My stomach felt better then.”

  “Do you remember how many you saw?”

  Caitlyn shook her head. “I know it was more than four. And one man kept coming and going.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, he was there, then he wasn’t, then he was. Coming and going.”

  “Like he might have gone down a ladder and then climbed back up?”

  Caitlyn shook her head quickly. “No, no, no. No ladder. That’s what Corey said when I told him about it. He didn’t go up and down. He was there, then he wasn’t, and then he was there again. In the same spot.”

  “I got it,” Joan said as she stopped and turned towards Caitlyn. “Like if you’re looking at me, then you close your eyes,” and she covered her eyes with her hands, “then open them again,” she said as she jerked her hands away. “Right?”

  Caitlyn laughed. “No, not like that. They were out in the river. I wasn’t scared anymore. My eyes were open. He was there, with another man, then they weren’t. I kept watching. I wondered where they went, but then he was back. Poof!”

  “What about the other man?”

  Caitlyn shook her head. “He didn’t come back. Just the man. And I still don’t know where he went.”

  “Do you still want to know?”

  Caitlyn nodded. “I’ve never seen anyone leave like that before. I want to know how he did it.”

  “I do, too.” Joan took Caitlyn’s hand again and headed back towards the playground. “Let me see if I can figure it out. I’ll let you know.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Kevin and Chris had only been back from the sparring meadow a few minutes when Joan knocked on Kevin’s door. She heard Chris laughing right before he opened the door.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked as she walked in.

  “Your timing,” Chris answered, still laughing.

  “I had just asked ‘what’s next?’ when you knocked. It struck Chris as funny,” Kevin explained. “Now, what can we do for you?”

  Joan sat down. “I’d like for you to put on a little demonstration.”

  Kevin frowned. “Magic?”

  “I guess you could call it magic, key magic.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “I want you to stand outside where Caitlyn can see you. Then, while she’s watching, I want you to use your key to disappear and then reappear.”

  Kevin nodded. “I can do that. When do you want me?”

  “As soon as we’re done in here.”

  “You talked to her?” Chris asked.

  Joan nodded.

  “How did she react?” Kevin asked. “Did it upset her?”

  “Not really, but the only thing we talked about was the men on the boat. I kept it light and treated it as an adventure.”

  “And you think a key was involved?”

  “From the way she described it, I’d say yes, but I could be misinterpreting her description. She knows what she saw. It’s putting it into words that’s giving her trouble, which is why I want to run this experiment.”

  “So how are we going to set it up?” Kevin asked.

  “I want you to be in the background, in her line of sight, but not the focus of her attention.”

  “Why not?”

  “If I tell her to watch you and tell me if that’s what she saw, she might say yes just to please me or to get me to stop talking about it. I’d rather she see you by chance. Then, if she points it out and tells me that’s what happened, that that’s what she saw, we’ll know it’s valid.”

  “Excited utterance,” Chris said.

  Joan turned towards Chris and nodded. “Exactly. If she does that, we can feel confident in saying the slavers used a key.”

  “So where do you want me?”

  “I’m not sure. I need to get her interested in something. Then you can walk into her line of sight, use the key to leave, come back, and then walk on.”

  Kevin nodded. “Got it.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  By the time Joan got back outside, Caitlyn was involved in a game of hide and seek with the other children. Joan watched for a few minutes while she tried to come up with a way to incorporate their experiment into the game without drawing the attention of the other children. Her only other option was to take Caitlyn out of the game and get her involved in something else. But what? She looked around, trying to come up with a plan.

  North of the playground there was an area the guards used for practice, but the only thing going on was target practice. On the other side of the playground was the stable, corral, barn, and blacksmith shops. Neiven was inside the shop working, but he was making horseshoes, probably the dullest thing he ever did. The horses were all on the far side of the pasture, so there wasn’t going to be any help there. The grounds men were working around the area, but no one was doing anything that would interest a child.

  Just as Joan was about to give up, she felt a gentle tug on her hand. When she looked down, Caitlyn asked, “Have you figured it out yet?”

  Joan squeezed the little girl’s hand. “Not yet, honey, but I’m working on it.”

  About that time, Karl, Chris, Kevin, and Alek walked out of the dining room and headed towards the family gardens. They hadn’t gone five yards before they caught Caitlyn’s eye. “Isn’t that Karl?”

  “Yes, it is,” Joan said. “Wonder what he’s doing out here?”

  “Let’s go ask him.” Caitlyn started to pull on Joan.

  The men stopped halfway between the dining room and the garden and stood in a ragged circle facing each other, talking.

  “Wait a minute. It looks like they’re talking right now. We need to wait until they’re done.”

  “How can we tell when they’re done?”

  “By watching and seeing what they do next,” Joan answered.

  Kevin wasn’t looking towards Joan and Caitlyn, and neither was Karl, but Alek was.

  “Is she looking this way?” Kevin asked.

  “Sure is,” Alek answered. “I’m not sure what Joan’s saying, but it’s working. Caitlyn’s watching us, but not you.”

  �
�Huh?” Chris asked.

  “She’s looking over here but she’s not watching Myron any more than she’s watching the rest of us. I’d say this is a good time to try it.”

  Kevin pulled his key out of his pocket, turned it, and went back to his office.

  Caitlyn gasped and squeezed Joan’s hand. Joan didn’t say anything, just waited. A few seconds passed, and then Kevin was there again.

  “Did you see that?” Caitlyn asked, jumping up and down and pulling on Joan’s hand. “Did you see him? He was there, then he wasn’t, then he was, just like the man on the boat. That’s what I saw! Just like that!”

  Joan picked Caitlyn up and hugged her. “Let’s go ask him how he did it.”

  “But I thought we had to wait until they were done.”

  “They are,” Joan said, turning so the little girl could see the four men. “See, they’re waiting for us. Let’s go tell Myron about the man on the boat.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  That evening there was a knock on Kevin’s door shortly after he and Chris returned from dinner. When Chris opened it, Gen. Crandal said, “Cpt. Lawrence said you wanted to see me?”

  Kevin nodded. “Joan talked to Caitlyn today.”

  Gen. Crandal sat down. “And?”

  “We’re dealing with a key.”

  Gen. Crandal sighed. “Well that explains what happened to the captives. I wonder if that same crew is responsible for a few of the other raids, like the one on Longleaf Lake.”

  “So what are they doing?” Chris asked, frowning. “Using the key to jump around the world and pick up captives wherever they happen to land?”

  “I don’t think it’s quite that random,” Kevin said. “The slavers had a boat at Syrando, and according to what Marcus heard, it sounds like the same boat was at Rochdale.”

  “Can you take a boat through the energy field?” Gen. Crandal asked.

  Kevin didn’t answer for a moment. “I’m not sure. I know I can take furniture, but the largest thing I’ve tried to carry was a bed. A boat’s larger, but size and weight don’t make any difference. Picking up a chair is the same as picking up an apple, but it would take a sorcerer to do it.”

  “What kind of boat did the slavers have on Longleaf Lake? Do we know?” Chris asked.