by Bob Blink
“What does it do?” Ronoran had asked him when he saw the wide eyes and shocked look on Jolan’s face as he silently read the spell to himself that night.
“Pray you never live to see this one executed,” was all Jolan had told him. No wonder the War of Mages had caused such devastation.
They had finally reached the third level down and were near the back corner. The books and scrolls here were better organized, as if someone had carefully gone through each one and then decided it belonged down here, and then had carefully categorized it and placed it with related material, much as was done in the library proper in the upper levels. This was one of the last sections, leaving only the second level of unopened boxes to go through.
In a repeat of the previous long and fruitless night, he, Shyar and Ronoran painstakingly looked through books and scrolls for hours. They were getting tired, and Ronoran had already voiced the desire to “call it a night” when Shyar bumped into one of the smaller bookcases and knocked it over with a tremendous bang, sending books scattering across the floor.
The three of them froze for a moment, then Shyar laughed nervously.
“What are we doing? There’s no one that can hear us down here.”
Still, the sudden noise had shaken each of them, and after righting the bookcase, they decided they’d finish for tonight once they cleaned up the mess. Jolan scanned each book he picked up before placing it in the bookcase, but it was the typical odd assortment that they usually found on this level. Most didn’t seem like they belonged here and he dearly would have liked to ask Chancellor Vaen why some had been relegated to the dungeon. They had almost finished putting everything back when Jolan paused.
“Did you find something?” Shyar asked seeing him pause.
“Calculus of Solids,” he read the title aloud as he translated it. He hadn’t thought that mathematics had advanced to that level here on Gaea. He opened the book and flipped through the pages seeing diagrams and pages of formulas. Okay, so maybe he was wrong. He made a mental note to ask Ward about the subject and see what kind of answer he got. He could always mask the question in terms of some of the projects they had going.
He was about to close the book and put it away when his flipping brought him to a loose sheet that fell out and onto the floor. He felt a chill run up and down the backs of his arms as the folded sheet came to a rest on the floor.
Setting the book aside, he reached down and silently picked up the piece of paper. He unfolded it with great care, knowing somehow that this is what they had been seeking.
“A map?” said Ronoran. “We’ve seen hundreds of maps down here.”
“This is different,” Jolan said. Something in his voice must have given his excitement away as both Shyar and Ronoran looked at him sharply.
Jolan brought the piece of paper closer to one of the glow bulbs and spread it out on a convenient box. On one side was a detailed drawing of a city, showing the locations of many of the major buildings. Looking closely, he could see that most were labeled, although the print was small and somewhat hard to read in the light here. Jolan flipped the sheet over and found another map, this one of all of Angon and sections of the surrounding areas. Many cities were marked, more than he’d seen on any map before. Angon was even spelled differently, with two “n’s” on the end. One city was marked clearly, and he knew that this was the city which was shown in detail on the other side. “Ygooro,” he mouthed softly.
“One of the seven lost cities,” Ronoran said hearing what Jolan had said.
“Seven lost cities?” asked Jolan.
“Seven cities were completely destroyed and their locations lost over time after the War of Mages. Actually, they know where five of them are and have spent some years digging through the remains, but Ygooro isn’t one of them. I think you’ve just discovered the sixth city.”
“What’s the last one called?”
“Tilano. The lost city of the mages,” Ronoran answered. “That’s one the staff at the College would really like to find.”
“Look in the book,” Jolan asked, and waited while Ronoran walked over and searched for any other sheets of loose paper.
“Nothing,” he said.
“This is what we’ve been looking for,” Jolan told them unnecessarily.
“We can’t take it out of here,” Ronoran reminded him. “How are you going to get all that detail?”
“Shyar, could you make some light here over the map?”
While Shyar lit the area, Jolan pulled out the iPhone and took multiple pictures from different distances of both sides. He looked at the results, and then shot a few more pictures where he thought he’d missed something.
“We can put it back, but let’s move this book somewhere else, somewhere it isn’t likely to be found but where we can get it again if we need it.”
Once they had put the book away and finished up, there was nothing to do but slip away and get back to their rooms. Jolan would take time to review the pictures later, and try and draw the map from the photographs. Then he would bring his copy down here and compare.
Chapter 73
Jolan had spent more hours than he cared to think about transcribing the map from the pictures on the iPhone. Thank heavens for the ability to expand small sections of the picture into something that filled most of the screen or he’d never have had a chance at getting it done. Drawing was way down the list of Jolan’s marketable skills, and he’d had to work slowly to get something that was useful. Yesterday he’d had Ronoran take him back down to the original, and he’d compared results. He found a few places he needed to make changes, had taken a few more pictures, and was now finishing up. He now had a map of long ago Angon, and a detailed map of a city that had long ago ceased to exist. He didn’t know why, but he knew the maps were going to be important.
His musings were interrupted by a light knock on his door. He set the drawing marker aside and walked over to the door. Shyar waited outside with a hint of a smile on her face. Without a word, she stepped aside, revealing who was standing behind her.
“Asari!” Jolan exclaimed in surprise.
He could feel a catch in his throat and a sudden watering of his eyes. Without a word he took the remaining two steps required to wrap his old friend in a tight embrace. Asari returned the hug with equal enthusiasm.
“Ye gods man. You have no idea how worried I’ve been about you,” he said when they finally pulled apart.
“Shyar told me there have been a couple of attempts to kill you,” Asari answered. “I guess I’ve been lucky. They haven’t found me. I got your warning, but I already knew something was up. They’d passed through Trailways before I got back there.”
“What am I doing? Come in. Sit. You look tired.” Then realizing something, he said. “Shyar; how did you get him in here? Isn’t it against the rules?”
“Do you care?” she asked playfully. “When he approached me in town there was no way I was going to allow him to remain outside. There are always ways around the inspections. Half the spare time of most students is used to find ways to defeat the rules. It seems to be a challenge of sorts.”
Jolan looked at the two of them. Somehow they had overcome the unfortunate parting from their first meeting. Asari must have made quite an apology to her.
“I knew that’s where you were. I was afraid you might go after Cheurt. It looks like I was wrong.”
“You were right. I followed him back to the Nexus. I was just about to make a try, and then I knew it was the wrong thing to do. Do you know that one of his people is now going to Earth? It looks like Cheurt is staying here.”
“Ryltas,” Jolan said nodding. “When they questioned Toran he said as much, but it’s good to have independent confirmation.”
“So you already knew,” said Asari, a bit disappointed that his news was old news.
“Don’t look so disappointed. I appreciate that you made the effort to let me know. We just learned a few weeks ago, and it was only by chance. We still don�
��t know what to do about it, and it looks like I’ll never be able to use the Nexus myself.”
“Did something change? I thought you expected the spell was in your memory somewhere?”
“Didn’t happen that way. It looks like there’s a lot of Cheurt’s mind that didn’t get copied.”
“Well, at least it sounds like you reduced Cheurt’s team a bit.”
“Two of the people we saw in the Land of Giants when I arrived. He’s also lost one of his new recruits, and possibly two more, but we don’t know for sure.”
“I got one as well,” Asari said, happy to have added to the score.
“Where? When did this happen?”
“On the way here. I was a week from Angon and I saw one of Cheurt’s archers. At first I wasn’t sure because he wasn’t dressed as they always did in the forest, and he didn’t have his bow with him. He looked pretty dejected. But when I got a chance at a closer look there was no doubt.”
“He was alone?”
“Didn’t wait to see. He was alone when I saw him, resting up against a tree. If someone else was around, I didn’t want to take any chances. I shot him while he was resting there, and then hurried away.”
“You shot him? With what? Didn’t he have his shield up to protect him?”
“Don’t know, but it wouldn’t have mattered. I shot him with one of these.”
Asari reached into his quiver and brought out an arrow. He handed it to Jolan and watched for the reaction.
“This is dusted with copper,” Jolan said in surprise. “How did you do that?”
“I still had the three empty pistol cases from Seret when we found you in the dungeon. I went and saw Lorem. You said he could probably separate the copper just like the merchant had done. He didn’t want to admit it, but I finally pushed him enough. Then he was able to help me coat the arrows. He’s a better metalsmith than people realize. I wasn’t positive they would work, but from what we could do with the pistol, I was willing to gamble.”
“And you killed Cheurt’s man with one of these?”
“Went right through him and stuck in the tree. I wanted to go get it, but thought it might be a stupid move. I left it in him so if he has company Cheurt will probably see the arrow eventually. It doesn’t matter. We aren’t going to get him this way.”
“Cheurt has lost at least three then. I’d love to see his face when this news reaches him.”
“You look really tired,” Jolan said, suddenly realizing they had time for this later. Maybe you want to sleep and we can talk in the morning. How about food?”
“Sleep,” said Asari gratefully. “I pushed pretty hard to get here. Didn’t get a place in town, but waited outside for someone I’d recognize. Oh, I almost forgot. This is for you.”
Asari reached into his bag and pulled out the book he’d brought from the back room.
“My dad found it. We could never open it, but he said it had to be important. Maybe it’s just more junk, but I thought you might be able to have a look.”
“Ronoran can open it. We’ll have him do it tomorrow. Come on, you can have my bed.”
“You won’t have a place to sleep,” Asari objected.
“Yes he will,” said Shyar, taking Jolan’s hand and pulling him toward the door.
Asari nodded to himself as if something had been confirmed.
“I was right about you two,” he said smiling.
“You weren’t right,” Shyar said firmly, ‘but you are now. Welcome back Asari. Jolan missed you more than he’ll ever come out and say. We’ll see you in the morning.”
Shyar pulled Jolan out and shut the door behind them. She’d seen the emotion and the rapidly blinking eyes when Jolan had seen Asari standing there at the door. She knew what it meant to him to have his friend back safely. She didn’t know Asari, not yet. That would change. Somehow she felt the group was now whole.
Chapter 74
“Lost?” asked Prince Mojol. “How could a ship get lost. They would be in sight of land for the whole trip.”
“A poor choice of words, your Grace. I should have said sunk.” Ambassador Irile was the unfortunate official of the Kimlelm government who had been elected to bring the news to the Prince. She watched him carefully to see how he was going to respond. The rumors she’d heard suggested the Prince had a bit of an unpredictable streak to his behavior.
“The Mermaid’s Friend was sunk? She was one of the finest ships in all of Angon’s merchant fleet. I find it hard to believe she could have been sunk.”
“There were eye witnesses your Grace. One of Kimlelm’s coastal watchers came across the ship shortly after the storm had passed. They watched as she slipped beneath the waves. By some miracle they were able to rescue a number of the crew. They can confirm that it was indeed the Mermaid’s Friend that went down.”
Mojol rubbed his unshaven jaw in distress. This was horrid news. The new rifles had been lost. There would be no chance of replacing them before winter set in, which meant it would probably be the following spring before a new shipment could be sent. Winter was not a time for sailing the oceans of Gaea. If a ship like the Mermaid’s Friend could be lost then this season foretold worse than normal storms were coming. The loss of the ship also meant that the expansion parts for the telegraph system to add the redundant line were also now on the bottom of the sea. He understood now what Jolan had meant when he suggested a second set of wires following an alternate route was advisable. They’d had an outage that lasted almost ten days until someone had been able to locate the broken line and repair it. Lineriders someone called the repairmen. Fortunately Jolan’s people had a way to estimate where the break had occurred, but it still took time to get people out to that area. Weather could cause breakages, and once the enemy understood how the system worked they would have to worry about sabotage. For all the benefits the system offered, it was somewhat fragile in operation.
“Where are the crew members now?”
“We realized you would want to speak with them. They were brought into the port city of Wint with the coast watcher ship. Arrangements have been made to bring them here. They are a day or so behind the messenger who was dispatched immediately with the news. You should be able to speak with them by tomorrow afternoon.”
“How many are there?”
“Nine were rescued, your Grace. I was told eight are traveling and will be here in Yermo tomorrow.” She was wondering if he’d ask about the missing man. He either heard something in her voice or was quick to question unexplained details.
“Is something wrong with the ninth man?”
“He seems to be missing, your Grace.”
Mojol looked at her with a question in his eyes. “Missing?”
“No one thought it was important to watch the crew members. They had just been saved from drowning after all, and were guests of the state. The morning after they were checked by the medical team and given a place in one of Wint’s better hotels, he was not to be found. It appeared that his bed had not been used. It is most disturbing.”
“You think he ran away? Why would someone do that?”
“The suggestion has been made that he might have had something to do with the sinking of the Mermaid’s Friend.”
“That would have been suicide. The man would have known that his chances of being rescued were almost non existent.”
“I raise the issue as something you might want to pursue with the crew. One of the comments in the brief note that was forwarded by messenger is that he was relatively new to the crew, and was seen as a bit strange by the survivors.”
“Has word been sent to Cobalo?”
“Someone is seeing to that now. Would you like to go to the telegraph center?”
Mojol shook his head. “No, not until I’ve talked with the crew. There is nothing I can add at this point.”
“Mojol thinks the missing sailor was an agent for Ale’ald?” asked the King of Angon. That seems a bit unlikely. There was no way anyone could have known that ship woul
d be used to carry something special to Kimlelm.”
“The suggestion has been made that someone may have slipped men aboard many of the ships. It might be wise to have all the crews examined and look for relative newcomers or anyone who seems a bit unusual,” said Polun, one the King’s chief advisors.
King Otar looked at Chancellor Vaen who had joined them for the meeting. “Someone wondered if a compulsion spell might have been used on the man. Is such a thing possible? I thought a compulsion was something that was acted on immediately, and that didn’t have any long term lasting control. This man would have had to be under the control for weeks, if not longer, and acted only under special conditions.”
“We know very little about the capabilities of the compulsion spells. They are not something we favor. There is nothing in the nature of compulsion that would limit the time it could be in place, but we have never heard of a circumstance where a dormant spell was placed to be triggered later by a special set of circumstances. If this has happened, it is something new and is potentially a grave danger.”
“There could be hundreds of people under the control of such spells scattered throughout the land,” suggested the King’s daughter Sayusta. “Is there no way to test a person and see if he is under a spell, or to at least clear the spells from a person’s mind?”
“We are searching the old records,” replied Vaen. “As I explained, this is something new and for the moment we have no idea how to deal with all the implications.”
