“Regent Cery is the right man for the job. None of the other petty nobles in the territory of New Ruatha can be trusted.”
Anatoly grunted, “Not surprising.”
“How’d your inspection of the military go?” Alexander asked while he fished a nut from the bowl.
“They have about ten thousand heavy cavalry, twenty thousand infantry, and another twenty thousand archers. They’re well trained and organized. General Markos is a good commanding officer. His men respect him and he knows his business. Precious few have any battle experience and their equipment is a bit old and worn, but all in all, they’ll be a good addition to our forces. I’d like a little time to train them and improve their equipment before sending them into a fight, though.” True to form, Anatoly delivered his report succinctly and clearly, without embellishment.
Abigail picked up when he stopped. “I was impressed by their archers. They have a larger bow than I’ve ever used. It’s no good for riding, but on foot it can send an arrow about twice as far as my bow with three times the force. The thing stands a few inches taller than me and the arrows they use are a good six inches longer than the ones we’re used to.”
“Huh, that could be useful. Are the raw materials to make more readily available?” Alexander asked.
“Yep,” she said. “We walked through the trees they use to make them in the northern edge of the forest. I talked to the head bowyer, and he said he could make a thousand a month if he had a hundred men to help him.”
“Good, the more the better. I’ll talk to the Regent and ask him to make the arrangements to start stockpiling weapons.”
Alexander turned his attention to Jack. “How’d it go with your bards?”
“Quite well, actually, they took to the lyrics and music quickly and with enthusiasm. I guess it’s to be expected given that this is the biggest story to be told in millennia. I also told them about the wanted posters. Those will be discredited and torn down by week’s end,” Jack said confidently.
“Sounds like we’ve accomplished everything we needed to. If we can just lose Commander P’Tal, we’ll be in good shape,” Alexander mused.
Adele entered tentatively. “Lord Alexander, dinner is served.”
Alexander and Lucky stood in unison, both with a smile.
“Thank you, Adele. It smells wonderful, even from here.”
They enjoyed a leisurely meal while they discussed strategy and politics. Alexander knew he could win some of the territories over for a time without the Thinblade, but he would need the ancient badge of office that the magical sword represented if he was going to have any chance of uniting the whole island of Ruatha. That meant Blackstone Keep. He started to feel anxious to be on the road again. He felt safe enough here with the heavy guard and the palace secured against any unfamiliar visitors, but he knew it was only a matter of time before the enemy attacked. When they did, there would be death. The best way to prevent that was to deprive them of their target.
After dinner, he walked Isabel to her room and kissed her goodnight. They shared a look of longing and desire. They had agreed to wait until they were married, but sometimes they both regretted that decision.
Alexander looked into her eyes for a long moment. “We’ll have all the time in the world,” he whispered before kissing her on the forehead.
Her hand slipped from his as he turned and willed himself to put one foot in front of the other. He dared not look back. Once he was in his room, he closed the door and leaned against it like he was holding it shut against an irresistible force.
Chapter 50
He sat down to meditate for a few minutes before bed. He’d decided that he needed to explore the magic available to him more fully. He put a heavy pillow on the floor and got comfortable, sitting cross-legged with his back straight, hands folded in his lap, and eyes closed in the dim candlelight of his sitting room.
He began the deep breathing that Mason had taught him and allowed the tension and stress to drain away. Once he was relaxed, he began the process of quieting his mind. As each thought, worry, or concern intruded, he recognized it, observed it without emotion for a moment, and then dismissed it. Soon his mind was quiet. He drifted in the simple peace of meditation for a time and then found himself adrift in the firmament. He had no location, no point of awareness, and no form. He was one with all.
At first, he felt overwhelming confusion at the cacophony of thoughts and events that inundated him. It felt like the whole of reality was taking place within the theatre of his mind. It was far more than he could see, hear, or understand at one time, so he just observed. He took the mindset of the witness. There was no involvement, no attachment, no emotion, only awareness.
Gradually the flurry of the countless events occurring everywhere at once faded into the background. He started to see the firmament as a whole. A great, living, breathing, dynamic ocean of potential with a wave moving through it that manifested the present moment where it crested. It was constantly moving, shifting, and changing. And it was beautiful, not so much for what it was itself, but for the moment of now that it created and all of the beauty, love, and life that took place in that one precious moment.
Alexander simply observed for a while. His awareness floated on the firmament like an oil slick spread impossibly thin across the whole ocean of potential. The crest of the wave faded into a background music of impossible complexity and beauty. It made his heart soar with the possibilities it represented. And then, quite suddenly, he felt a jolt of fear. Was this the rapture he’d been warned about? Had he lost himself to the endless potential of the firmament?
His awareness slammed back into his body with such force that he lost his balance on the cushion. He stood and paced for a few minutes, trying to remember every detail of the experience. Then he thought of his journal and spent the next several minutes writing. He wasn’t sure what value the experience represented but he knew with certainty that he had accessed the firmament.
After giving it some thought, he sat down again and tried to repeat the process. This time it was easier. Only five or ten minutes passed before he again found himself drifting pleasantly in the limitless ocean of potential. This time he had an objective: Phane.
Alexander’s awareness was all encompassing and spread out across the firmament. At the moment he focused on Phane, he felt impossible motion and a sensation of shrinking. His point of focus went from the impossibly large to a single point on the crest of the wave that was reality.
He was floating high in the air above the central square of a large city. Fires burned everywhere. Soldiers moved in squads from door to door, dragging the inhabitants out into the street and setting their homes ablaze. He could hear cries of desperation from the victims and righteous shouts of command from the soldiers.
He looked around for Phane. The Reishi Prince was standing on top of a flat-topped pyramid in the center of the giant flagstone square in the middle of the city. On either side of him stood a creature that made Alexander shudder with fear and disbelief. Each had two arms and two legs and a head like a man but that was where the similarities ended. The creatures stood eight feet tall, were exquisitely muscled, and had skin that was a smooth shiny black like obsidian or the surface of oil. Their faces were without eyes, nose, or mouth. Instead, they simply had indentations where their eyes and mouths should have been and bumps where their noses should have been. They had no hair or genitals. Their knees were those of a canine and their large feet were those of a raptor. They had oversized hands, and each of their six fingers ended in a three-inch-long, razor-sharp talon. Alexander could see the darkness of their auras and knew at a glance that they were from the netherworld.
He took a moment to study Phane’s aura. The Reishi Prince had dark and angry colors that were murky and opaque but glowed brightly and extended farther from his body than any aura Alexander had ever seen. The power of the man was clear. His connection to the firmament was intense.
A few steps down the side of the p
yramid stood a cordon of soldiers wearing the plate armor and crest of the Reishi Army Regency. Alexander looked around and saw fires burning all around the city. Phane watched, while the hopes and dreams of hundreds of thousands of people died by his command.
Alexander realized he was seeing Karth. The capitol city had fallen, and quickly. There was still a bit of fighting here and there, but Phane stood in the center of the city for all to see. The message was clear. Karth was his. Resistance was pointless.
Alexander let go of his focus and returned to himself more gently this time. He opened his eyes and looked around his room. It was hard to imagine the scale of suffering he’d just witnessed. Karth was a large city, almost as big as New Ruatha, and it was being systematically destroyed, leaving its inhabitants to suffer the loss of homes, loved ones, and their very lives. He felt helpless in the face of such suffering and angry at his helplessness. Worse, Alexander knew with certainty that any who stood against Phane would suffer a similar fate if he failed.
For the first time since he’d received the mark on his neck, he was fiercely grateful for it.
The scope of the loss he’d witnessed staggered him. He’d been chosen to protect his people from the kind of loss suffered in Karth. Then it occurred to him that perhaps he wasn’t just supposed to protect Ruatha but the whole of the Seven Isles. How many countless lives had been lost or crippled this night in Karth? How many more would fall if he didn’t protect them?
He’d been committed to his inherited duty ever since he realized the significance of the threat, but now it was much more real. There was more substance to the enemy and greater proof of his evil. Alexander felt a smoldering anger in the pit of his stomach. He was glad the task of ridding this perversion from the world had fallen to him. He still had no idea how he was going to accomplish such a thing, but he knew now more than ever that he had to find a way. Phane must die, and sooner would be better than later.
He paced for a few minutes before going to bed, the scenes of destruction and carnage still vivid in his mind. He stepped back from his emotions, and with ruthless severity he quenched his anger and forced himself to go to sleep. As much as he wanted to nurse his feelings and dwell on the injustice of his enemy, he knew the most important thing he could do was to find the Thinblade. That meant he would need to be well rested for tomorrow’s journey.
He woke just before light the next morning and dressed in his riding clothes. He came down the stairs to a quiet entry hall with his pack ready to go. He took a moment to inspect his weapons and rest them on his pack against the wall next to one of the armoires. He saw a light in the sitting room and found Lucky and Anatoly talking quietly over a cup of tea.
Lucky poured him a cup and added a dollop of honey and a shot of cream. Alexander took it with a smile and sipped carefully. The first sip was always his favorite. He loved the pungent aroma and the feeling of the heat flowing into his body. He savored the sensation for a moment before lowering the cup into his lap.
“Karth has fallen,” he whispered.
Lucky and Anatoly looked at each other, then at Alexander. Lucky began the inevitable string of questions that Alexander knew his statement would provoke.
“Did you have another clairvoyant experience?”
Alexander nodded, then took another sip of his tea. He always liked this time of the morning just before daybreak when everything was quiet and undisturbed. He spoke softly. “This time I had much more control. I think I’ve figured out how to make it happen when I want it to and how to control where I direct my vision. I saw a large city with a pyramid in the middle of the central square. Phane was on top of the pyramid with two creatures from the netherworld that I never want to see up close.” He shuddered at the memory of the terrifying-looking monsters. “Karth was being razed by the Reishi Army Regency. The whole city was on fire.” Alexander looked down into his tea.
“I was hoping Karth would keep him occupied for a bit longer,” Anatoly said before finishing off his tea.
“Can you describe how you entered the firmament?” Lucky asked, leaning forward with interest.
Alexander recounted the experience in as much detail as he could remember. Lucky listened intently without interrupting. When Alexander finished, Lucky sat back and looked up at the ceiling for a few moments.
“That is entirely different from my own experience with the firmament and from the descriptions of other wizards’ experiences. Typically, a wizard describes the firmament as a vast and endless potential that is entirely apart from the wizard. It beckons with the promise of your greatest desire made manifest and plays on emotion with intensity. No wizard to my knowledge has ever experienced being spread across the firmament … except …” Lucky stopped and looked off into the distance, lost in his own thoughts.
Alexander waited patiently. He knew from long hours of study under the tutelage of the Master Alchemist that Lucky could tune the world out and search the recesses of his mind for an obscure fact or memory and that it was best to leave him to it.
Several moments later, Lucky’s eyes refocused and he looked at Alexander. “I recall reading an account of the experiences of an ancient Reishi arch mage. He lived during the era of the third Reishi Sovereign, maybe three thousand years ago. If memory serves, this mage described his experiences with the firmament much the way you do. As if he became part of it and could listen to the music it made. He did talk of the rapture that was a constant tug against his reason and took great pains to express just how much effort it took to avoid losing himself in it, so his experiences are different in that regard. I’ll ask Kelvin to see if he can find the volume. It may contain information that I don’t remember or that I didn’t understand at the time.”
Abigail, Jack, and Isabel came into the sitting room, each dressed for travel. Alexander poured Isabel a cup of tea as she sat on the couch next to him. She smiled her thanks.
Anatoly took the opportunity to change the subject. The fall of Karth was not a good note to begin their journey on. “The stables will have our horses ready with supplies for our trip. I spoke with the stable master yesterday. He’s a gruff old man but he knows his trade. He showed me the horses he has for us and I must say I’m impressed. We should make good time.”
Adele came in somewhat timidly. Light was just beginning to show on the edge of the sky outside the balcony doors. “Forgive the intrusion, Lord Alexander. Would you like breakfast now?”
Alexander looked up and gave the middle-aged serving woman a smile. “Yes, thank you, Adele.” She looked pleased and hurried off.
There was a knock at the door. Anatoly rose to answer it while Alexander closed his eyes and focused on his mind’s eye. He sent his vision to the door and tried to push through to the other side but found that it was too far away to see clearly. The door seemed to create a barrier to his vision at this distance. He made a note to himself. He’d decided to experiment with his magic when the opportunity presented itself. He knew his all around sight had a limited range that allowed him to see things in his mind’s eye, while his clairvoyance was like seeing through his own eyes as if he were actually there.
He backed off and watched Anatoly lift the bar and open the heavy door to admit Kelvin and the two assistants he had in tow. They were each carrying a large bag. Kelvin was wearing his red-hued black plate armor and had his giant war hammer. Before the door closed, Alexander sent his vision down the hallway. The farther he went, the darker it got and the less clearly he could see details. Halfway down the hall, he was as blind as if he was simply remembering what the hall looked like. When the door closed, he opened his eyes and felt a moment of disorientation before his real vision took over for his magical sight.
Kelvin had his assistants place the bags on the low table in the middle of the sitting room before he walked them back to the door issuing instructions. Lucky followed and requested that they search the library for the tome describing the account of a wizard who experienced the firmament similarly to the way Alexande
r had described.
Kelvin returned smiling broadly, with Lucky trailing behind. “I come bearing gifts.” He took a seat in front of the two large bags. “My magical calling is enchantment. I’m not very skilled at casting spells, but I can imbue items with magic better than anyone alive.” He made the statement matter-of-factly without hubris or conceit. “My calling has led me to become a master craftsman, since only items of the finest quality and materials can withstand the powerful energies involved in the enchantment process. As such, I am always making or acquiring items of fine quality and I have amassed quite a collection over the years. I’ve brought some of these items to offer as gifts today.”
Everyone was surprised, except Lucky who looked like he knew this was coming. “Kelvin’s work is known far and wide,” he said. “Kings and nobles regularly petition him to make items of power for them. These gifts will help us succeed against Phane, so accept them in the spirit in which they are given.”
He gave Alexander a look that forestalled any protest. Lucky knew Alexander was uncomfortable receiving gifts of great value, especially when he had nothing to give in return.
Kelvin faced Alexander. “Many years ago I visited the central Island of Tyr and struck a bargain with an ancient dragon who lives there named Bragador. She’s a magnificent creature.” He smiled almost wistfully at the memory. “Dragons view time and life a bit differently than people do. They do not die of age. Instead they grow stronger, wiser, and more powerful with every year. She has lived for nearly twelve hundred years. Bragador tested me in ways I did not believe I could endure but I survived her trials. Once she was satisfied that I was worthy of her acquaintance, she allowed me to offer her a bargain. In that bargain I acquired a load of shed dragon scales. Within each scale is a core sheet of dragon steel.” He tapped his breastplate. “I made this suit of armor from those plates. Dragon steel is many times harder than the finest steel and much lighter. It requires magical fire to work because normal fire has no effect on it. With the remaining dragon steel, I made this.” Kelvin lifted a flat-black shirt of finely wrought chain armor that had just a hint of red to it. It was made of metal rings so fine that Alexander had to lean closer to actually see the tiny little rings all linked together.
Thinblade Page 45
