Wizard's Blood [Part Two]

by Bob Blink

  “On the other hand, now that we know they are aware of them, we don’t have to restrict their use as much. In areas we control, the flow of key people and goods can be expedited in ways that will have a positive impact.”

  “They could start mimicking what we have been doing,” Vaen said. “Depending on how much they know, they might start sending teams into Seret and Angon to cause trouble. We need some means of monitoring if this happens.”

  “I’m concerned that Cheurt might start using wizard teams to target our leaders,” Jolan said. “He couldn’t do that easily before, but if he can figure out how to open any of the hundreds of idle portals in Seret or Angon, he will be able to slip teams in. By the time we could get someone at one of the locations to check, they would be long gone. It would be a nightmare if he were to turn up himself. I suspect only the risk of getting shot will hold him at bay. Magic-wise, he is all but unstoppable at the moment. Also, Cheurt has range. He can cause damage at ranges that only our snipers would have a reasonable chance of hitting him. In addition, he also has these triad teams we haven’t figured out which are also quite powerful. We need to arm the castle guards with coppered bullets just in case.”

  “You’re still going to be high on his target list,” Vaen said.

  “I don’t know why,” Jolan responded. “I’m no longer much of a threat.”

  “He can’t know that for certain. Besides, the matter has to be personal. He has wanted you dead since he learned you were on Gaea and all this time you have thwarted his plans, killed his people, and frustrated his attempts. You even escaped when he should have killed you the other day. He has to see the portals as a way to finally finish the matter.”

  Jolan nodded.

  “I think he’s watching us,” Shyar said. She had been quiet most of the meeting since she was still getting herself oriented and fully aware of everything that was going on.

  “You can tell?” Vaen said surprised.

  “Since you gave me the staff some of my odder abilities seem stronger. I can’t tell if it’s me or Jolan he is focusing on, but I’ve only sensed his ‘eyes’ when we are together.”

  She blushed. Cheurt had been there at a particularly inopportune time the previous night. “I would guess he somehow has established a link to Jolan and from what you told us about Farsight, now can see where he is. We will have to be careful to limit what he might learn this way.”

  “Can you sense him now?”

  “No, I would have said something. The intrusion periods are small, usually less than a minute, and are well spaced. It helps that he can only make one viewing a day.”

  “You had best take extra care from this point on,” Vaen warned. “He might just surprise you one of these days.”

  “Cheurt’s a problem,” Wylan said, “but an even greater matter is the mobility they may have suddenly achieved. We had a capability they couldn’t match. Depending on what they know or are able to figure out, this could turn into a long war with a very uncertain outcome.”

  Chapter 160

  “You want to go on a dragon hunt?” Jolan asked in surprise when Asari raised the matter some days later. “Asari, we’re in the middle of a war.” Jolan had known that Asari had been intrigued when they had found the dragon symbol on the map, supposedly showing where the dragons would be found. He’d known something was on his friend’s mind for some time, but he’d have never guessed what Asari was proposing. Even if the map was correct, he didn’t know how to go about a journey to the indicated location. It would most likely take months, and Jolan was sure if they found anything at all, it would be the remains of the long lost reptiles. Scientifically it might be an interesting endeavor, but it was hardly appropriate at this moment.

  “I have a feeling it’s really important,” Asari answered, his jaw set with determination. He needed to make Jolan understand this was more than a whim.

  The matter had come up after one of the long afternoon sessions to review the current status of the war and what little they knew of Ale’ald’s action with regards to the new knowledge they supposedly had. Asari hadn’t been mentally engaged today, and Jolan finally decided to ask him what was bothering him since the trend had been becoming more pronounced the past few days.

  It had been almost two weeks since Shyar’s escape, and at best Ale’ald was taking only small actions with respect to the portal system. It raised hope in some of their minds that perhaps Cheurt hadn’t learned as much as they feared.

  “Our guess is they don’t know more than how to activate portals, but it does look like they can do a remote activation which is unfortunate,” Buris explained. “I don’t think they know anything about the maintenance mode or how well we can monitor what they are doing, which makes sense because those functions were something Ronoron hadn’t become involved in.”

  “How extensive has their probing been?” Dibon asked. Some of the Council of Mages had taken to joining the briefings.”

  “Clearly Cheurt learned a few addresses from probing Ronoron. A group was sent to the old Seret portal at Tomas’ place. Three of their wizards walked into the trap we had set there and were killed. A similar event took place at the Oasis. That one killed two of them. Both traps have been reset, but no further attempts have been made at those locations.”

  “Almost all other activity has been located at portals within Ale’ald itself. Given how many of the portals in Seret that Ronoron was instrumental in locating, one would think they would have tried others if they knew the addresses. Similarly, there have been no unexpected activations in Ygooro or in Tilano. Maybe those are safe for now, and as long as we don’t use them, I don’t seen any way they can discover them. My guess is they are slowly building up a map of sites much as we did in the beginning. They send a wizard to a portal, activate it, and record the resulting address. At some point I’d expect to see some of their agents attempting the same procedure in Seret and Angon.”

  “We have a bit of a race going on,” Wylan interrupted. “There are hundreds of the portals, and we don’t know where many are located. We have started an effort to map out locations and addresses of all the portals we can find both here and in Seret. It is likely at some point some of their agents will start trying to activate portals as a way of initiating the kind of behind the lines missions we had been running before. They have to know we can see a portal open, but they’ll probably be hoping we don’t know where a specific portal is located. For the moment, that’s true for far too many of them.”

  “Can’t they see what you are doing and start recording all the address codes you are uncovering? In a way you could be giving them information they can’t get easily themselves.”

  Wylan shook his head. “Shyar discovered that we could block them without their realizing it. Ale’ald has taken to leaving their prime portal activated at all times. We think that is so they can monitor the opening and closing of any new locations, by them and by us. Using the maintenance peeking function we have been able to observe a single wizard seemingly stationed inside where he can watch. We are quite certain they don’t know, as we didn’t until Shyar discovered the fact, that if we log into a portal, say the one they are monitoring from, it is locked from the system and doesn’t reflect any updates.”

  “You mean they can think they are monitoring, whereas in reality we can be opening and closing portals and the fact would not be observed by them?” Vaen asked.

  “That’s right,” Buris added. “We have tried it with a couple of useless portals and we could see that the wizard assigned to monitor showed no reaction to the changes in status. If he’d seen the new entries, we are certain he would have made some kind of notes. We also have an advantage because we are relatively certain they have no more knowledge of the old language than we had in the beginning.”

  “As a result, we have a new operating procedure,” Morin explained. “To start with, we are limiting the use to essential trips for now, but each time we want to activate a portal, we make sure Buris has
them in the peeking mode. We make our trip, and then deactivate the portals used. When it looks like they have something planned, we drop the peeking mode so they don’t get the idea that we might be monitoring them. I suspect we have blocked a few of their tests inadvertently, which might be causing them a bit of concern. It might even make them think some of the portals no longer function, whereas we have yet to find one that can’t be activated. As it is, we are building up a list of portals in Ale’ald, although in many cases we don’t know where they are.”

  “What is the situation with regards to our use of portals in Ale’ald and Kimlelm?”

  Wylan grimaced. “The situation there has deteriorated and is likely to get worse. Ale’ald now knows the dangers the portals pose and has taken to watching them. In major locations, they have relocated or readjusted the distribution of their people so they are close to any portals. It has made their use very difficult. We are seeking new portals, but it’s hard to do in Kimlelm, and in only a few places have we been able to work with locals to protect a couple of well hidden portals that it is unlikely the enemy will stumble upon. We are lucky they don’t have maps even as poor as ours often are. Those are the kinds of places for which we need to protect the addresses.”

  “The impact on operations must be showing,” Jolan said.

  “Very much so. Our covert activities have slowed markedly. Without the kind of support we have been able to supply in the past, many of the resistance cells have had to adapt to independent action. Some were ready to do so, others not nearly so. Our effectiveness is going to be far less than expected for the foreseeable future. At the same time, we have to be prepared for enemy covert actions, even here in Cobalo at some point. It’s inevitable they will get some people through.”

  “I know it’s a drastic step, but has anyone tried to destroy one of the portals?” Dibon asked. “If we could eliminate some of the ones we don’t use and thereby close a backdoor, it might be helpful.”

  “Doesn’t work,” Jolan said. “We’ve tried to see what can be done and thus far we have been unable to affect them in any way. They’ve withstood over a thousand years of neglect and work like they are new. There’s more to them than we realize.”

  “What about the war in general? We have troops on the ground in Kimlelm. Is that advance and liberation moving ahead?”

  “Once again, not as well as we’d like,” Wylan explained. “It didn’t take them long to learn of our new crossing points, and they responded with large troop relocations. We are well dug in thanks to the terrain, but it will take a number of major engagements with significant losses likely on both sides to make much more of a move into the country. Some of the plans that we’d been developing required use of the portals to slip people into positions behind them. Those are no longer viable, so we need to come up with alternatives. The most likely situation is a long stalemate. I suspect we will go into winter in the positions we now hold.”

  “That’s not good,” Vaen said. “A whole winter for Ale’ald to recover and plan. We still don’t know what other surprises they might come up with given the time. They might even be able to develop more of the gas and gliders. That would be very bad for the troops we have in Kimlelm. What about the Nexus? I’ve heard nothing said about the security there.”

  “As far as we know, it remains a secret. Neither of the Tilano portals have been activated, and our one trip up there a few days ago once we knew we could go securely, showed no one had been there.”

  Vaen turned to Jolan. “Is there anything you can bring from Earth that might help our situation?”

  “Nothing I can think of a means to acquire. Our big problem at the moment is less how dangerous Cheurt has become, but the mobility we’ve let our enemy gain. The portals are beyond anything that exists on Earth, and I can’t see that there would be anything there that could help. I’ll keep working with Gene and see if we can come up with any ideas, but I wouldn’t be too hopeful.”

  After the meeting that left them all feeling a bit helpless, Asari had cornered Jolan with the matter of seeking the dragons.

  “How could it be that important?” Jolan said. “There haven’t been any dragons for centuries. They have to be dead.”

  Stubbornly, Asari resisted. “You remember your hunch about Ygooro? A lost city, yet you knew it had something we needed. Look what came of that. We all supported you, even though we didn’t understand how you could be so positive. Now I do. I know that we have to seek out the dragons.”

  “Asari, it would take months to go there and return. Can we even get there? From the maps it looks like we’d have to get back to Cheurt’s old Nexus and then make our way through some pretty wild mountains.”

  “We can’t go that way. My Pa and I spent a lot of time in that area. If there’s a way, we couldn’t find it. We have to go the long way around, by ship. We could come up from the south.”

  “You, on a ship? For at least a month? You have to be kidding.”

  Asari grimaced at the thought. “I’m going. I hoped you’d come with me. There’s nothing you can really do here at the moment. You can see that the war is going to stagnate for a long time until the sides figure out what this change means. It is the perfect time to be gone. By the time we return, Cheurt would have lost the use of the amplifier, if you’re right that the battery will fail. We might come back with something that will give us the edge again. I can’t explain why, but I know it’s true.”

  Sensing that his friend was serious about attempting the journey alone, Jolan said, “Let’s talk with Shyar.”

  Chapter 161

  Jolan had never bought entirely into all the dragon lore that seemed to be so important to many of the people in the Settled Lands. Even the references and list of names that Nerila had given him so long ago had seemed a bit suspect to him. While he doubted he’d ever get to the bottom of the myths and tales, he expected that something far more mundane was really behind the whole matter. He was therefore more than a little surprised at the interest and acceptance Asari’s desire to go investigate the creatures generated.

  ‘What brought up this sudden interest in dragons?” Shyar asked when Jolan and Asari first told her of Asari’s plan.

  Asari explained to Shyar some of what they had learned in Ygooro about the creatures. He also explained the reference Jolan’s ancestor Utar had made to where they could be found and the much later discovery of the symbol on the ancient maps they had been using to locate portals. He also tried to explain the growing sense of urgency he’d felt the past weeks about the need to seek out the dragons.

  “I sense he’s right,” Tishe said suddenly. She had come in during the discussion and quietly listened and watched Asari as he explained his plan.

  Great, Jolan thought. Now there are two of them with a hunch.

  Shyar had also listened to all Asari had to say with a great deal more acceptance than Jolan would have expected, and after Tishe had spoken up, she was nodding her head slowly as if coming to a decision.

  “We should go with Asari,” she said finally, and Asari beamed from ear to ear. “Not only do you owe him, but you know Tishe is seldom wrong about these kinds of things. How often has she seen what you would have overlooked?”

  “Vaen would never support such a trip right now. There are too many things that could happen.”

  “We’ll just have to ask her. After all, we are free to follow our own beliefs, so we could go without her blessing, but you’re correct it would be better if she was in agreement.”

  Vaen was far easier to convince than Jolan would have suspected. She was a bit taken aback when the idea was raised, but as Asari, Tishe and Shyar argued the various points, she soon became a supporter.

  “I can see a number of advantages,” she said finally. “To start, I think getting you and Shyar out of Cobalo might be a good idea. Not only would a trip allow you proper time together after so long, but Shyar still senses Cheurt’s spying on Jolan. One never knows when he might look in, and it’s p
ossible he could learn things we’d rather not have him aware of. Can you imagine if he used his Farsight and happened to see you at the Nexus. What damage could that do? A trip on the ocean would serve to confuse and distract him. There would be nothing he could reference as to where you were going, and it would have to concern him. A sea voyage just now wouldn’t make sense to him.”

  “We would be out of touch for several months,” Jolan argued.

  “If you don’t start now, you will hit the winter storms on your attempted return. If you are going to go, it had best be soon. Besides, from what you described you wouldn’t be fully out of touch.”

  “I’ve never tried the Travel Box before, so I can’t be certain how well it works,” Jolan said.

  “It sounds like you can leave the box in Buris’ lab, and from wherever you are you will be able to extract items placed in it, including messages. You could also place items or messages in the box, which we could retrieve on this end. That seems like a pretty reliable means of communicating and essentially instantaneous. We could keep you informed of developments here, which will be few if Wylan and his advisors are correct. Asari is correct that until next spring the situation will remain static. If there is any chance such a trip could yield an answer to our problem, it is worth every effort to investigate.”

  “I’m no longer much of a mage,” Jolan said. “Without the staff and amplifier, I can’t perform as I once could so I might not be missed, but Shyar is the most powerful mage you have. She might be needed.”

  “Second most powerful,” Shyar said correcting him and indicating Tishe. “Besides, I’m going Jolan,” Shyar finished leaving no room for disagreement.