by Bob Blink
Emerging on the far side they hurried away from the ear numbing roar and the shower-like wetness and scrambled parallel to the valley below until they emerged into the sunlight once again. There, for the first time the full beauty of the valley below them was revealed in a spectacular view that showed a wide valley that seemed to go on forever with a huge lake that filled most of the valley immediately below them. In the far distance and wrapping around the right hand side rested another range of impressive mountains, these either snow capped or barren rock near the tops.
As he became accustomed to the view, Jolan realized just how far they must have to go.
“Where’s our path?” he asked the other.
“We continue downward, all the way to the lake,” Asari replied still having to speak loudly to be heard clearly over the falling water behind them. “See there, part way around the lake the small island off from the edge of the lake? It is there we will turn away from the lake and make our way up the last range of mountains. On the far side of the mountains we’ll find the Trailways and my home. We can rest there a few days, arrange for horses, and start our way to Seret.”
There was no easy way to judge the distance due to the immense size of the lake. Assuming the tiny trees were the same pine-like trees that currently surrounded them, a considerable walk remained just to reach the jump off point to those incredible mountains.
“Lead on,” Jolan urged with far more enthusiasm than he felt.
For the rest of the morning they continued down, his knees burning with the constant need to slow the natural tendency of the steep incline to urge them onward. The rocky sections were the worst, with the jarring steps tiring the joints rapidly. They followed the rushing river that flowed from the base of the falls for the first couple of miles as it crashed over massive boulders and between narrow gorges, only occasionally finding a wide and deep path where it could flow dark and smooth for a while. Finally the river broke left and continued down the rocky gorges in a series of much smaller waterfalls, while they continued straight ahead, walking at an angle to the downward slope of the hillside. They walked through trees scattered between the ever present gray rocks, but sensed the decreasing slope and the easing of their efforts until the way became more of a walk and less of a climb. There was no trail, but they only had to backtrack once when Asari miscalculated their way. Finally, they stood on the shores of the immense lake, and sat while they ate their lunch and rested from the descent.
“We follow the lake through the valley until we reach the island I showed you above,” Asari said after a swallow of lake water. The path will be mostly flat and grassy, and we can set whatever pace you prefer. Camping is good, and of course water and food plentiful here. There are fish in the lake, and also the giant predator that patrols the depths, but we have no reason to fear it as we will not be venturing onto the water.
“Is this another one of the wizards creations?” Jolan asked.
“I don’t know if the creature is natural or not,” Asari responded, “but once my father and I saw it take a boat with two men in a single swipe. Why they were here and how they managed to get a boat to this remote place I don’t know, but their fate is an example of why this place remains a wilderness.”
“I want to show you something,” Jolan said as Asari made his way up from the stream below camp where he had been bathing. Jolan had bathed a bit earlier while the younger man was off hunting their dinner. Despite the coldness of the mountain water, it had been extremely refreshing to wash the trail dust and sweat resulting from the punishing days of hiking since first reaching the lake three days ago from his body. It would have been better warm and with soap, but who was complaining.
The past several days had been great despite the long and rigorous hikes that they had made each day to get where they were so quickly. However, Jolan was getting back in shape, his muscles stretched and strengthened, and they no longer complained at the challenging workout presented to them each day. Even better, he knew he could survive here in the woods, even without the meat brought in daily by Asari’s bow or his handgun which he knew would never be useful for bringing down game. He knew how to find three different kinds of nourishing and tasty tubers as well as a half dozen fruits that grew abundantly in this country. He knew of leaves, flowers and grasses that added flavor in addition to being rich in key vitamins. He even knew of a ferocious looking snake that was actually quite meek and superb after being baked in the coals of a campfire.
He also knew a great deal more about the geography, history and political framework of the countries that made up the Settled Lands. In some ways the place wasn’t too different from home, and getting an alliance to work against what he was suspecting Cheurt was up to would require some interesting political maneuvering. In terms of technology, Gaea seemed to have reached an early 1800’s level. In some ways they were a bit advanced, probably aided by instances where magic could replace technology, and in a few areas they were significantly behind. It was a framework he would have to learn to operate in. It was too early to even try and guess how things would evolve. Everything depended on whether they could attract the attention of the right people once they made it back to civilization.
“You’ve been practicing, haven’t you?” Asari asked when he saw the row of basketball sized rocks aligned in a row along the top of one of the large slabs that made up one edge of their camp. “Have you unearthed any new capabilities?”
When Jolan had discovered his beard had stopped growing, he became very interested in what other abilities might be latent in his mind, and had engaged Asari in several conversations about abilities he’d heard of. His friend admitted that most of his knowledge came from the same place as his expertise on Dragons, from the various songs sung by the wandering musicians he heard from time to time. Even so, he was able to come up with a variety of possibilities for the other to explore.
“I seem to have discovered I know a couple of things based on ideas you raised the other night,” Jolan admitted.
Asari smiled. “Okay,” he said. “Go ahead. Impress me.”
Jolan turned to face the rocks and moments later a series of thin jagged lines of bright light burst from his fingertips and made their way almost instantaneously to the first of the rocks, where they merged and encircled it. The lines of light pulsed and flickered wildly, and then faded completely away.
Asari looked at Jolan questioningly, and made his way over to the rock, which he picked up. After a brief examination, during which he found no sign anything had happened to the rock, he set it back down and said. “That was impressive.”
“I thought so too,” Jolan agreed wryly. “You think I’m doing something wrong?”
Before the other could reply, Jolan motioned him to stand back.
“Okay then, how about this one?”
This time there was only the briefest flicker of light that seemed to depart the general vicinity of Jolan with no specific point of origin. Once again, virtually no time was required for the light to cross to the rock, except this time the rock exploded from rest and flew through the air, smashing violently into the hillside some fifty feet away.
Asari’s jaw dropped. Before he could comment, Jolan unleashed another series of flickering lights and five more of the rocks were blasted into the air just as their predecessor had been.
“Dragons protect me,” Asari whispered.
“Ha, that’s nothing,” Jolan boasted. “Watch.”
At the end of the flat base rock where the six smaller rocks had rested a few moments ago, sat a very large boulder. Asari couldn’t remember it being there, but it must have been because it had to weight five or six hundred pounds and he couldn’t imagine any way Jolan could have placed it there himself. As he watched, the huge boulder suddenly rose into the air and rotated slowly, while Jolan turned and grinned at him. Taking his hands and simulating crushing them together, the massive boulder shuddered and crumbled into a thousand smaller pieces that rained down on the ground.
Of course Jolan’s hand had nothing to do with what happened. It was just his way of visualizing what he was doing. The action was initiated by his mind. Exactly how was still very much a mystery, but the results were impressive.
Smiling he walked over to Asari.
“What I don’t understand is where the energy comes from,” he said.
“What do you mean?
“I mean there’s no free lunch. Back home I sometimes read stories. In many of them the person who used magic became tired or almost sick from the toll such exertions demanded of him. Sometimes the hero would black out, and take days to recover, and was constantly eating bread and cheese to replace his energy stores as though there were enough energy in a mouthful of food to support such feats. I feel great. I’m not tired, I’m not weak, and I’m ready for more. I feel like I could level this entire meadow, and then head out for a nice run. Crushing that rock took a lot of energy. It had to come from somewhere.”
Asari shrugged. Such things were beyond him. His friend would have to seek his own answers.
“Do you feel anything?”
“A little,” he admitted. “Sometimes when I’m sick my brain feels like it is floating a bit above my skull. This feels a little like that.”
“Maybe you should take it easy. There might be some side effect you don’t know of yet.”
“Perhaps,” Jolan agreed. “I want to show you something else first.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small ebony box Asari hadn’t seen before. It was polished and smooth, and very small. About a half inch thick, it was rectangular with the long side about two inches long and the short side about an inch. Jolan placed it casually on the rock and stepped back.
“How about you open it?” he suggested.
Asari reached out doubtfully as he hadn’t seen anything that looked like a lid, and placing his fingers along the top tried to lift off the top. Of course, the box didn’t separate, but surprisingly it didn’t lift away from the rock either. He gave a stronger pull, and found he couldn’t move it from its rest position no matter how hard he tried. He looked at Jolan.
“Smack it with this,” his friend suggested, handing him one of the large rocks.
Asari looked at him doubtfully, but when he nodded his encouragement the young man brought the rock down with all the force he could muster on top of the small box. He heard some crunching noises and felt something give, but when he lifted the rock away he saw that all the damage had been to the bottom side of the rock. The small box sat there totally unharmed.
Jolan reached past him and effortlessly lifted the box away from the rock. Just as effortlessly he lifted the lid away, to reveal a softly padded interior.
“The box is far too small to be useful,” replied Asari a bit confused.
“It can be made bigger,” Jolan responded
“Where did you get this?” Asari asked.
“I made it. While you were down by the stream. Suddenly I knew how. I don’t think I’m supposed to be able to do something this sophisticated. In fact, I think it’s one of those things known only to a very few who use the power. I think it’s called a Mage’s Box.”
“Can you make another?” Asari asked.
“That’s one of the odd things. I can make it go away. I can bring it back. I can make it in a number of sizes, the biggest about two feet long and a foot deep, but I don’t seem to be able to make two of them at the same time. Oh, and here’s something neat.”
He placed the box inside his pack that was lying nearby. He picked it up and moved it near to where Asari was standing.
“Pick up and move the pack,” he suggested.
Asari tried, and found while the pack would move, he was soon stopped by something inside that wouldn’t move from its current position. He knew it had to be the small black box. He set the pack down.
Jolan surprised him by reaching down and picking up the pack himself. Of course it moved effortlessly without constraint. He handed it to Asari who found he could now move about with it freely.
“If I give it to you, it doesn’t care where you go. But if you try and move it from where I put it after I’ve told it to stay put, there is no way you can move it. I wonder if even the greatest of wizards could move it without my permission. Seems like a pretty neat way to protect one’s possessions and guard any little secrets lying around.”
Demonstration over, he pulled the box out of the pack.
“One other thing though,” he added as an afterthought. “It appears to be a stasis container.”
Asari looked at him blankly.
“Just one more thing I’d have said was impossible. Once closed, no time passes for anything inside the box.’
“I don’t understand,” Asari said.
“Okay. Suppose you put a chunk of ice in your pack and left it there until we get to this place called Trailways. What would you find in your pack if you looked after we got there?”
“Nothing. This ice would have melted and the water run out or evaporated.”
“Uh-huh. But inside the Mages Box the ice would remain exactly as it was, and when you open it, even years later, the ice would still be frozen ice, just like it was the instant you closed the box.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Yah. I know. Kind of nifty, huh?”
Asari shook his head and walked over where he had left his worn and ragged clothes. Jolan sat on a rock and watched as he dressed, and looked down at his own attire. He was no longer looking so neat himself, and his jeans had developed a hole over one knee. He needed to have some cleaning and patching done, as well as find someplace to stock up on replacement items.
“Are you about ready to tackle that last hurdle,” Asari asked, returning to where Jolan sat thinking.
Breaking camp only took a few minutes, and as they walked by the large stone artifact that occupied the north corner of their campground Jolan asked again, “No one really knows how long they’ve been there?”
“All that is known is they predate the Mage Wars, and are scattered almost randomly around the whole of the Settled Lands. They were made with the power because they don’t weather and crumble like the stones around them, but why they are located where they are and why there are so many is uncertain. People have made suggestions, but there is no known way to test them, so I doubt anyone will ever be certain.”
Jolan looked the structure over for the last time as they walked past. He’d spent an hour or more the previous evening in careful examination after Asari had told him a little about it. The arched section was almost twice his height, and was wide enough that ten people could stand inside the rounded indentation at the front. The circular area in front was large enough for dozens of people to stand comfortably, and was free from weeds or any growth after all these years. There wasn’t even a significant accumulation of dust and debris after so long a time. Something prevented the forest from moving in on it, which implied to Jolan that the structure wasn’t as inactive as Asari claimed. No writing or symbols existed anywhere he could see, and there was no sense of the power here, not that he had any reason to believe he would be able to tell.
Chapter 9
With a sigh of satisfaction, Cheurt settled into the saddle of the large horse, one of two that had been waiting for him at the agreed location by the rest of the caravan from Ale’ald. Each of the men had been allocated two horses, allowing them to switch off when one became tired, thus making much swifter progress on their return journey home. Cheurt also knew he could use his power to extract even more from the horses, pushing them far beyond their normal endurance limits if he wished. This technique would significantly shorten the lifespan of the mounts, but what were a few horses when the alternative was even a few days delay in his returning back to the Academy.
The trip back from the Land of Giants had gone extremely well thus far. They had made swift progress, and had easily hidden their passage through the Trailways by the use of their power, ensuring no bothersome ques
tions would be raised about there being wizards in the far country. Now they were on the road to Ale’ald, which was seldom traveled anymore, and where their presence on the road would raise no unwanted questions. This road was the only way in or out of the country through the vast range of mountains that formed the spine of the Settled Lands, and separated the four main countries of Gaea.
“We press for home,” he told Ryltas, indicating he wanted to make every effort to speed their return.
His friend nodded, and passed the word. They should be able to make it back in four or five days, perhaps a bit more depending on the weather. He told the caravan leader of their plans, and knew the man would follow along behind, arriving days after the wizards.
Cheurt was anxious to be back. The time on Earth was necessary, but was a distraction from tasks he felt he needed to be managing. Now that everything was more or less in place on Earth, he would be making only one more trip in the foreseeable future. In a month, perhaps a little longer depending on what he found in Ale’ald, he would escort Ryltas to Earth and show him around. He had already arranged a place for him to live, and had coached him extensively on how things worked. He figured a week with him on Earth, and he could return. Ryltas was scheduled to stay on Earth for a year or more, dedicating his efforts to seeking the information they desired. He would make regular short trips through the Nexus, leaving reports of what he had learned with one or more of Cheurt’s team that would be sent to make the pickups.
Cheurt was still a bit uncertain if any action needed to be taken back on Earth against the student he knew as Randy. The man had served his purpose, and for some reason he made Cheurt uncomfortable. Had the man been here on Gaea he would have eliminated him long ago. After all, Randy’s girlfriend seemed to be satisfying Cheurt needs; all of them. In addition to wondering if Randy’s death would create complications with the funding of his activities on Earth, Cheurt was concerned about Earth’s obsessive police and the fact the man lived on the very land where the Nexus deposited him. It might not be wise to draw any attention to the place by having the primary resident disappear. Cheurt just couldn’t help wondering if the man would notice the frequent use Ryltas would need to make of the Nexus and become curious. He already seemed to be more aware of Cheurt’s coming and going despite the blocks he’d tried to put into the man’s mind. What happened if the man’s memories suddenly returned. It could never happen here, but who knew how effective his magic really was on that powerless planet. That was the problem of using the power on Earth. His abilities were so diminished, much of what should be simple, just didn’t happen.
