With the meal over, we were all feeling pleasantly comfortable. The plates and silverware were spirited away and the maidens helped each of us to our feet. My mom walked over and wrapped an arm around the healer, giving her a quick squeeze. “Alera, dear, might I ask that you stay in this wing? I would like to keep you close so your portal stays open without you having to open it again and again.”
Alera backed up and bowed formally, smiling brightly. “It would be an honor, my Queen.”
Mother then turned to Lin and Julia. “You two had better get going, though, I do believe the one you call Hons is searching for you.”
“How can you tell?” asked Lin raising an eyebrow.
Smiling, she said, “I’m an all-powerful being, remember? That, and I can see him out the window.”
Sure enough Hons was in the garden and did indeed appear to be looking for them. Now flustered and embarrassed, the two girls quickly rushed out the glass door held open by one of the maidens and into the early evening air.
Both of my parents ushered the rest of us out the door we came through and into the main hall. Once there, my mother left us to attend to something with the maidens.
“Alex, what can you tell me about this place?” my father questioned jovially.
I looked around the room trying to find what he was referring to. Nothing really stood out that I hadn’t noted coming in; there were the same tapestries, etc.; I mean aside from the most gorgeous architecture and woodwork details I had ever seen, including all the books from Rosa’s library. But I was pretty sure he was driving at something not so mundane. So I switched to mage sight, and the effect was startling. My astonished eyes noted where rivers and streams of magic were designed to flow throughout the entire keep and far into the grounds beyond. Oddly though, while the banks of the magic rivers were present as well as some small residual traces of the arcane, the flow itself was missing…the river was dry!
“Well, this is odd…it’s like someone turned off the magic.”
He clamped a firm hand on my shoulder. “That’s my boy! Well done, son, well done indeed. And, yes, you are absolutely correct. The magic has been turned off, and you are the one who needs to turn it back on.”
“Why me? Let alone, how do I do that?”
He smiled and wrapped one arm around my shoulder, careful not to dislodge Nia, his other arm around Maya and started steering us through the other wing and down a flight of stairs. “Like we said over dinner, events that happen on a world are not really in our control; but what’s on the world is, you following?” Maya shook her silver curls. “Ok, an elf analogy then…we Nova are the ones who build the garden, condition the soil, put up a nice fence around it, create flagstone walkways, provide good water, and make sure there is the right amount of sun exposure for the garden to thrive. The gods then come in and plant the vegetables, weed the plants, kill the pests, and manage the harvest.”
I thought about that for a second. “So…you don’t control where the magic river water goes, just how much is there?”
He squeezed us tighter. “Exactly! The gods control the where, and let’s face it, they’re idiots. Back to the water analogy…say the world is a bucket and water is magic. One of our jobs is to fill that bucket with water from an endless well. But every time a god uses their powers, the level of the water goes down and, worse yet, every time a magical creature is killed before its time, a small hole is punched in the bucket. See what’s happening?”
“I think I get it,” said Maya. “We’re getting to the point where you can’t fill the bucket fast enough to keep it full.”
“Smart girl! And you’re right, it hasn’t gotten to the point of no return yet, but the water is draining faster than we can fill it. Not much faster, but faster none-the-less. At this rate, we’ll be seeing the last generation of almost all magical beings on the planet. In 1000 years, there won’t be a single dragon, unicorn, or even pixie left if we can’t plug a few leaks.”
“So how does the evil Duke fit into all this?” I asked.
“In this case, the evil one is like a disease; his minions are destroying magical creatures in droves as you’ve already seen at the pixie encampment.” Nia made a pathetic little squeak on my shoulder, and my father’s face grew solemn as he nodded and continued, “Which feeds back into our bucket analogy and the loss of magic. Furthermore, he’s also killing humans and the other human-like races and turning them into undead, which robs the gods of this world, such as they are, of followers and weakens them as well. If he prevails, this world will someday be nothing more than a lifeless husk.
We reached the bottom of the very long flight of stairs and were now faced with an impressively solid iron door that seemed to have withstood the tests of time rather nicely. Father let go of us and turned to face all of us.
“Put bluntly, we need your help. Down here planet side, your mother and I don’t have the powers we have in the stars. It’s even hard for us to spend more than a few hours at a time outside these walls.”
“What do you need us to do?” Maya, Nia and I asked as one.
He smiled proudly. “There are two things that need to be done. The first thing is that the empty river channels of magic you saw must be restored, and this fortress is the key to that. Think of it as removing the top section of a dam so that more water can flow over. In truth, it’s not that difficult since it’s one of the main functions of this place. Unfortunately, when we left it in the care of the gods and humans they made a mess of it, and now it needs an enchanter’s touch.”
“The second thing, as you might have guessed, is to stop the villain who is putting all the holes in my bucket so-to-speak and stop him for good this time. No offense, Winya, you did a marvelous job last time.”
We all stared at him, not comprehending. “What last time?” I asked.
Now he was the one who looked puzzled. He shook his head and explained, “The Duke, the Lifebane, leader of the undead horde…he’s the same Duke that Winya killed.”
Maya let out a yelp of surprise as the bracelet on her wrist flared with light and heat, then changed into a sword and dropped straight down, clattering angrily on the cobblestone floor.
“He’s what? Oh, I am going to kill that sick, evil bastard again and again, as many times as it takes! This has gone from duty to a matter of honor. I’m sorry, Maya, if I startled you.”
We all knew Winya’s story and were rocked by the revelation; but after a few seconds of thinking, it was the only thing that made sense. He was killed at about the right time and he was a Duke, the dots lined up.
Father smiled at Winya as Maya cautiously picked her up off the floor and stroked the blade in a calming manner. “That, my girl, is the right response but don’t let rage get in the way of making a smart military decision.”
“Yes, sir! You are absolutely right, sir!”
“As you learned last time, just stabbing the Duke isn’t going to cut it. He has too much power for that to work anymore. He will just sink back into the darkness for a few years and come back even stronger.”
“How do we kill him then?” Maya asked, getting down to business.
Father smiled. “Well, hitting him so many times that he turns into a fine powder and then loading the powder into a tungsten carbide canister and launching it into a black hole might work. But if you really want to do it right, you’ll need this fortress and all its glory.”
“Meaning what?” a confused Maya asked.
Smiling he turned and opened the large metal door. Inside was a very dusty room with two rows of wide, heavy columns running the length of the rectangular space. The walls had the remains of weapon racks, complete with old rusty swords and halberds, down the sides. There had once been some sort of grand ornate carpet stretched between the columns, but it had for the most part, turned to wool dust.
My father sighed. “Pity, this was such a beautiful room once, looks like someone absconded with all the art and made it a warehouse. I had grown quite attached to
the painting that once hung on that wall. Oh well, you’re not here for an art tour.”
He led our bewildered group between the pillars to the back wall. This contained a work of art that no one could remove. It appeared to be a painted mural showing a grand battle. On one side were warriors that resembled humans but looked like they had streams of light coming out of their backs, and they were in a pitched battle with what could only be demons - ugly misshapen creatures carrying huge broadswords. For some reason, I found the images to be disturbing, but Maya was inspecting it with fascination
“The Queen always thought something was odd about this wall; she thought it was a door,” Winya added.
“It is, it just can’t be opened from this side, except by me and Alex.” He took my hand and placed it flat on the wall. “Son, reach out, you should be able to feel something. Do you feel it?” I nodded. There was indeed something in the wall, something metal. “Good, now turn it.” With a twist, the room was filled with the sound of rough stone rubbing on metal, and with a final clank, the wall parted and opened inward by an inch. Arcane blue light radiated from the crack.
“Come, this will help explain.” He pushed open the door, flooding the room with the blue light, which had the effect of a solid wall of magic smashing us in the face. “Sorry about that, forgot to warn you.” He smiled apologetically.
It was obvious what was inside. Well, let me rephrase that, it was obvious what the room contained; what it did, on the other hand, was a complete mystery. Inside was a large round stone platform and hovering above it was a ten-foot tall, five-foot wide sapphire, and it was glowing…a lot. It was beautiful, but looking at it was like looking into the sun on a cloudless day. In front of it was a small raised solid stone table that came up to about my waist. Set into it was a empty triangle-shaped slot.
“Welcome to the heart of Sky Raven Fortress,” Father beamed.
“Did you really name it that?” questioned Nia suspiciously.
“Well, no, but you probably wouldn’t be able to pronounce its real name.”
“Ahuh, you know pixies invented that con, right?”
“What is this place?” asked Maya, looking around. She walked up like she was going to touch the floating gem. Instantly, my mother flashed into sight and intercepted Maya’s hand gently.
“Maya, darling, best not to touch it; it would leave a nasty mark!” She smiled and beckoned her gently to rejoin the rest of us.
Father grinned and stepped back so Mother could move up front and she began, “This is more my area of expertise now. As you can feel, this crystal is giving off an unlimited stream of magic. Think of this as the world’s well of magic and this,” she pointed at the slot in the stone, “is the problem.”
“There’s nothing there.”
“That’s the problem. That slot is for the key that unlocks the flow of magic for this world. Without it, no more magic will flow, leaving only what is already here. Normally, on a world with this much inherent magic, it takes several thousand years for the magic to dissipate even without extra inflow, but with the “holes in the bucket” as your father said, it’s draining away fast.”
“So what happened to the key?” asked Nia, clearly concerned.
“After the last great war, the nebulia weren’t needed here and this fortress was placed in the care of the mortals. These mortals were given directions never to remove it, but as time went on, they forgot the promise they made and soon only saw the fortress as a source of power. After a long and bloody war of their own, they decided to split the key into three parts and give one part to each of the three great races of the age. One was given to the dwarves, where it has always resided in the vault where they put it centuries ago. One was given to the elves, and the last one went to the humans of the time. We need you to retrieve them and join them together here where they belong.”
We looked around at each other. “So how do we find them after so many years?”
My mother pushed her long hair behind her ears. “Oh, we already know where they are, we are just unable to get them. These bodies of ours are barely better than a human’s, and we lack what you would call ‘life skills’. But as I said, the dwarves have theirs locked away in one of their underground vaults near their capital. The human one should be easy; well, in a sense…ok not at all.”
“So where is it?”
She sighed, “It's in Rosa’s black room.”
I thought about that for a moment; I had only heard Rosa mention the place once in passing, and then she changed the subject immediately. Using our link, I contacted her, “Rosa, we’re going to need an item that is in your ‘black room’; is that a problem?”
I thought our link was going to shatter from overload. “WHAT? Who told you about the black room?” I sensed extreme panic and downright fear coming from her as I tried to send her calming thoughts.
“I don’t want to be calmed! The black room is where I keep all the unusual and more important cursed items that Xarparion has obtained over the centuries. It’s another pocket dimension vault like the Enchanters Hall. It’s very large and very dangerous. For the past 200 years or so, I’ve just been throwing things through the doorway to avoid going in there. And now you want me to venture in there and actually find something? Oh crap!”
“I’ll go with you and help you look,” I volunteered.
“No, you won’t. It’s much too perilous for anyone but me.” And she cut our connection short as she continued to panic over the details.
Shaking my head, I returned to the conversation with my parents.
“I doubt a bunch of elves will be fun,” Maya said teasingly, obviously carrying on part of the discussion that had I missed while talking to Rosa.
“Well, that’s the thing; the elves don’t have it.” Mother smiled mischievously at us. “It seems the dark elves took it away from them as plunder years ago. I do believe it is currently being used as a paper weight by their current King; it should be fun to watch you obtain it!”
I looked at Maya with a bit of a smirk of my own. As expected, she was stunned, absolutely stunned, in fact. “I get to go home?”
Mother leaned over and gave her a warm hug. “Yes, and you will both need to take off tomorrow to go get it.”
Startled, Maya looked into her eyes. “I’d love to go anytime, of course. There’s so much I want to show Alex, but we just got here. My troops aren’t finished with all the security sweeps and we need to do some specialized training.”
Mother shook her head and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Maya, I have some upsetting news. The Duke has broken the treaty and is turning his army toward your people. If you both get some rest and leave in the morning, you should make it there in time to warn them.”
“How long until they get there?”
She smiled. “The lead elements are already near the Capital, but the real fighting won’t start for about five days unless something changes his plans. But don’t worry, you will get there in three, and don’t be concerned about the how, that’s our job. Right now, we need to get all of you out of here. Spending too long in here is not good for you and you all need sleep.”
Reluctantly, we were led back upstairs and into the main hall once again. Once there, we were greeted by Alera and three of the maidens from dinner. Alera stepped forward gushing with excitement, “Greeting again, your majesties.”
“Alera, my dear, everything is going well, I take it?” said Mother.
She smiled brightly. “Yes, the maidens have completed their preparations and the bed chamber stands ready. The maidens can take them up immediately.”
Mother swiveled to face Maya and me. “You two aren’t being left alone until I get a hug from each of you. I need lots of hugs to make up for twenty years.”
She wrapped us both in a hug and we hugged her back. As she released us, we noticed she was crying again; she tried to wipe away the tears but couldn’t. “I’m sorry, but I’m so emotional with you both here; I think I’ll leave y
ou two alone for now.”
In a flash of light, she was gone, leaving us with Father. “Don’t worry about her. You have no idea how happy and relieved she is that you both are here. Now come here, both of you; I need a hug as well.”
He got just that and even a kiss on the cheek from Maya. Chuckling, he took a few steps back. “Now, get some sleep you two and we will see you after breakfast.” And just like Mother, he vanished in a flash of light.
Leaving us no time to contemplate how they did that, the three remaining maidens approached us. “Please follow us; we have prepared a room for the three of you.”
With distressing normality, we again found ourselves following someone to an unknown location. But as it turned out, we were led to the top floor of the tower at the back of the keep, one of the towers with the large stained glass windows and the balconies. The stairway getting there were rather ordinary spiral steps, but we passed several closed doors as we went up. The maidens told us that those rooms had not been cleaned yet, but all were for the royal family, apparently meaning us.
The room at the top, on the other hand, was extremely clean and well worth the climb to get here. The chamber was enormous for just a bedroom, containing a bed that was nearly as large as Maya’s and mine put together. It was clad in silky blue sheets and blankets and had a ornately decorated canopy top, with fresh flowers tucked into slots in the upholstered sides. There were also several soft comfortable-looking chairs and a small table around the outside of the bed area. Two armor and weapon stands already held our armor. Bookshelves and armoires were tucked into various corners. The artwork on the walls looked to be paintings of natural settings, and a small fireplace crouched low on the wall not too far from the bed, burning logs on the hearth crackled merrily and gave off an aromatic scent.
Aside from the door we entered through, there were four others; two appeared to lead into dressing rooms and one was a washroom. The last was an expansive glass door that led out onto the balcony.
Return To Sky Raven (Book 2) Page 13
