The Circle of Duty

by Owen Elgie

  “To start with, they kept attacking the same house. They didn’t fight hard, they fought smart and each time, we lost the Guardian as we defended the prison. But they never wanted to break the prison, they were always aiming to end the Guardian and then ‘miraculously’ be repelled at the last minute. What this eventually gave them was the power of the Guardian passed into the weakest possible vessel, Maria.”

  Everyone frowned as I pushed on through the details as I saw them.

  “Maria couldn’t control the powers inside her, which was why we were all summoned by The Messenger to Egypt. We needed to choose another person to take her place in The Circle and have the power transferred from her, therefore bringing The Drake Stone into the open.”

  I sipped slowly from a goblet of water and did my best to maintain my balance on this high wire I was trying to traverse. No-one else spoke though. Until.

  “Why would anyone go to this much trouble to take The Drake Stone if it was then going to be used as nothing more than a tool to reach the child?” Andrea probed at my logic for the first time, that silent anger still on her face.

  “I don’t know. We can all see what happened now though can’t we? The power being syphoned off all of us wasn’t the only reason The Drake Stone was valuable was it? Em said when we first gathered here to run this mission that when The Drake Stone was first discovered all testing on it was stopped at the word of The Mage when he discovered that it was able to store Dragon energy but I think that it’s capable of so much more. Mind control.”

  “Again you are reaching towards conclusions.” It was The Elder but her words were still without anger. She was testing my logic. I needed to show her I was right.

  “We can all see that Leatherpants and whoever he was working with did the same thing twice. We’ve all got our memories back so we all now know that we did the same things twice. We travelled to Argentina to investigate what had taken place but in the first version, we went with Leatherpants with us. It was the version where we went without him that we could remember, the second trip. Every situation in this house that we’ve been going through was the second time we’d done it. Each time it was so Leatherpants could move us around to the positions he wanted.”

  I sifted back through the memories of what we’d been doing and hanging before my mind’s eye, in each and every situation, Leatherpants was newly present in so many recollections. He was always there. Always smiling his too wide smile and always pulling the strings.

  “Surely he would have just taken us all to pieces if he had the ability to just steal away our memories? He must have had all of the members of The Circle controlled in this way so what would be the need to go to all of this trouble?” The Elder spoke to the gathered meeting but at least they were valuable words. She seemed to have forgone the sneering derision of me but she was still smart.

  I pondered the question before answering with a question of my own.

  “How strong is he?”

  No-one answered. Em tilted her head in her usual fashion so I could only imagine that she didn’t understand the question.

  “If you’re strong enough to do the damage, you do it, no questions asked. If he was the all-powerful monster we’re all worried he is, why not destroy us all himself? Why, of all of the races out there who he could have used to destroy us, did he choose the relative weaklings that are the Tayne? In every choice he made, he went for the same type of option.”

  Everyone just wore they’re frowns of worry and confusion.

  “Not one of you has ever played poker have you?”

  Silence as the frowns deepened.

  “He’s been bluffing all along. He’s throwing possibly the world’s biggest dummy. Everyone in The Circle is used to things happening in a certain way. We’re the big gun so we’re used to getting our own way through the use of intimidation or through force, and it’s been that way for so long that no-one looks for anything else. He just made us behave in the way that he wanted, expecting attacks to come in the way everyone was used to, before undoing us with a new tactic. All we did was think that he had vast power because of the results not because of the evidence we were being presented with. He made the Tayne do his bidding by force because he dangled the exact thing they’ve ever wanted, freedom and the strength to resist the bullies, allowing him to take control. His misdirection has allowed him to take what he’s been after, not huge magical ability.”

  Silence followed as everyone digested the words.

  “The logic is sound,” stated Em into the silence. I took the continued lack of comment as a wider agreement in what I’d said. Em spoke again though.

  “That still doesn’t give us a reason why the child was taken from us or where she is currently being held.”

  The silence remained but now it seemed so much more pressure filled on the inside of it than it had done a second before.

  “He needed both The Drake Stone and Maria, that was the point. I think he’s going to try and use The Drake Stone to remove the power of our Argentinian Guardian and transfer it into himself. He’s been next to possibly the most awesome power on the planet for hundreds of years and has seen so many other people be granted it while no matter what he does, he just can’t get close. He was openly dismissive of me despite the ‘proper’ way he should have behaved. Deep down he just wants to sit at the top table with the other Guardians.”

  “That isn’t possible,” Andrea was direct with her assessment of my theory. “He would need an enormous amount of power to be able to complete something of this kind. We are only able to do it as we have all of the Guardians to pull from. Where could he possibly find that kind of energy?”

  I thought for a second but the answer was clear.

  “The Tayne,” I answered somberly. “He’s going to use them as the battery for his little spell.”

  This time the silence around the room was serrated as well as heavy. No-one dared move for fear of being caught by what the facts meant.

  “He couldn’t be that mad?” asked The Elder, fighting against her own shock to give the words sound. “He wouldn’t bring about the genocide of a whole race just for the power of a Guardian?”

  “Look team, the truth is that whatever he’s going to do is not something we’re likely to want to happen. Now this is where we have to find him and destroy whatever he’s doing. We’ve got two races of people hanging in the balance now.”

  “But how should we expect to locate Mr. Ward?” Em was standing now but her head was tilted again so she was unsure what the path to take would be.

  “Mike removed the shards of The Drake stone from all of us and he was able to do it by following the link between the pieces. They’ve all come from one stone so they all behave the same way, magically speaking. That means that we can use those pieces to locate the rest of the stone, wherever it is.”

  “My Lord,” it was Mike speaking softly, back to his more familiar place as feeling on edge even being at the table. “I was able to use the linking magic only because I had one piece of The Drake Stone to place near to another. I was able to create the link only because I was able to bring the pieces so closely together. We aren’t in a position to do that with the rest of the stone.” He spoke strongly but there was a hint of fear wrapped in the words.

  I just smiled.

  “We have the perfect weapon to use in this situation which will give us what we need,” and I banged my hand on the bed hard.

  Behind me, the heavy doors opened and Mark walked in carrying a heavy old chest. Setting it down on the bed before me, he nodded curtly to everyone before turning on his heel and marching back out, the ever ready soldier.

  Around the bed, more confused expressions.

  “What weapon have you brought us? What have you seen which none of the rest of us have which can save us?” The Elder was again stating fact but she was now just looking for the answer. She obviously didn’t like being in the position of not knowing.

  Across the table from The Elder, Andre
a nodded her head and spoke just as I opened the lid.

  “He has Banus Stones.”

  “All we need to do is channel the power from the fragments of the stone we have, into the stones of the map, and we can locate the remaining pieces.”

  I wasted no time in laying out the marker Banus Stones and, using a small piece of adhesive tape, attached the shards of The Drake Stone to them, one on one. I’d like to think it was at least magical adhesive tape but no-one else seemed that impressed.

  When I’d finished doing what I needed to, I asked Em to use her power to create a map of the world in the bed, akin to her display when we had first set out. She complied without any hesitation and the surface of the large bed warped and buckled as outlines of land masses and oceans formed themselves. She was careful not to disturb the Banus Stones as she worked what she needed to and soon the world was laid out before us.

  I handed control of the actual casting here over to Andrea. She was far stronger than me in terms of direct control of magic but she was also the one who’d shown me this method of finding anything so I thought it wiser to let her lead the way.

  One by one we all placed our hands flat on the edge of the bed and waited for the command to begin.

  “I need everyone to focus their attention, their power, on an image of The Drake Stone in their minds.” Andrea spoke with wintery calm but it was clear to see that there was a deeper emotion driving her. We were all feeling it and knew that we had to find out where Leatherpants was.

  I closed my eyes and summoned the image in my head, pumping as much detail into it as I could muster. I imagined the same purple hue burning within it as I’d seen crisscrossing Em’s suit when she was using the maximum level of energy she could. I added the sensation of the sharp piece that had been carved from my neck and the cold stab which had come from the effects it had had on me, all the time willing more and more power into the picture.

  “Excellent. Keep adding more power,” spoke Andrea as the scraping sounds of stone on wood began to etch the air. “They’re moving, keep going.”

  I risked a look at what was taking place. Each of the people involved were utterly motionless and had their eyes closed, each with a slight crease in their foreheads as will and focus built and built. Mike looked the most affected by the process but that was to be expected, he wasn’t as strong as the rest of us. The bed had taken on the appearance of a game of Risk being played by two invisible men. Stones slid drunkenly around the fabric map. Closing my eyes again and taking a resolute breath, I pounded my power at the image I was holding in my head and the scraping noises grew in both volume and speed.

  Until all of the stones stopped their journeys, settling at the points that they were heading for. Everyone held their attention still, all of us maintaining the energies within the construct for fear of losing our one and only lead.

  Andrea broke the silence.

  “It is done. We have the location of The Drake Stone.”

  Everyone else opened their eyes and took in all of the detail before them. Around the map were tiny piles of dust, dotted on various locations supposedly signifying a piece of the whole stone. Looking at them it was clear to make out that they all corresponded to our very own prison sites, including here in Wales. The Banus Stones had been broken ever so slightly to leave some kind of marker on the smaller concentrations, while the main pieces gave the stronger location.

  And it was easy to see they were all pointing to the same place.

  One by one, all of the stones had arranged themselves into a tower which reached well towards the high ceiling of the room we were in. They were all balanced rod straight and there was no hint of any wobble in them. They were held in place as if by a powerful magnet, unflinching in the show of there being one location where the whole of The Drake Stone remained.

  “Turkey?” My geography had always been a little sketchy at best.

  “Very good,” said Em, indicating I wasn’t quite as bad as I’d thought, “This is a great concern though,” she finished with a large dose of apprehension added to her words.

  “Concern? What’s in Turkey?” Back in the dark.

  “That looks as if he has taken The Drake Stone to Gobekli Tepe in southern Turkey. It is an ancient temple site which was unearthed very recently. Archeologists from all over the world are very interested in the site.”

  “OK. So what’s the problem? Lots of people to avoid when we do our thing?” It was unnerving to see Em look so concerned.

  “Not at all. I’m worried that Mr. Ward may have found something else at that site. You see it wasn’t always called Gobekli Tepe. Generations ago it went by another name and if Mr. Ward has set his camp there, he may really be able to unleash an almighty havoc. He’s based himself at the ruins of Bress Tal.”

  31

  “If he’s taken The Drake Stone back to its original home, there must be a wider reason to what he’s doing. We must move immediately.”

  Hearing the details she just had was enough to break the almost paralyzing hold that had been wrapped around The Elder. As she spoke she jumped to her feet and strode for the doors. Everyone else followed her, releasing the power from the bed and the Banus Stones all collapsed.

  She powered through the doors of my bedroom, the rest of us trailing behind her, looking like she was aiming for the main lobby area. Mark had spun from his position of guard as we had all left the room. His presence at least stopped her carrying on into the house and exposing us. She reached into her pocket and hurriedly punched keys into a small phone. It was answered before there was a chance for it to ring. Chinese words poured down the phone with a vibrant urgency and although I had no clue what had just been said, I could tell that she was setting something terrible into motion.

  “What are you planning Lady Elder? We can’t let any of the other staff here see us.” I was nervous but her sudden haste made me even more so. I was trying to remain as calm and respectful as I could as I probed for answers but I was sure it just sounded like I was being facetious. She replied while still running through her own plans.

  “I am going to have the entire site razed. I’m going to have so much power sent there from so many locations that when the dust settles, there will be nothing more left than a smouldering crater.”

  “What!?!”

  “The Drake Stone and the child will likely survive what will take place but I will make sure that the treachery of my servant will be remedied.”

  This wasn’t good at all.

  “I don’t think that that will be the best course of action available to us.” I needed to bring her back from the edge without there seeming as if I was just calling her plan stupid. Maybe I really was learning how to talk to people in the correct way? This time, it was Andrea who responded.

  “We need to cleanse every sign of what has been done to us here. The Elder is going to do the right thing by taking decisive action.” She’d spoken from behind me but her words showed me clearly that she was angry about something. Very angry.

  The Elder snapped her fingers and the soldiers who’d been silently in the room with us were immediately at her side.

  “Get back to my temple and prepare yourselves for a fast jump and to bring every ounce of doom down on our enemies.” She gestured purposefully and the troops all jogged through the Cascade Bridge she’d brought into existence. They were heading back to China to gear up for something awful, towards the expanse of grassed area I could see beyond the event horizon of the Cascade. I had to stop this.

  “Elder.” I was still trying to hold onto some level of control as I spoke but I was now throwing my own authority into what I was saying, rather than coming across as begging. I needed her to see me as an equal. “We can’t just revert to type. We need to be smarter.”

  “Are you suggesting that my plan to remove the enemy from existence is foolish? You think that I am feeble minded?” Her eyes were glittering with a familiar surety, leaving me somewhat back to where I’d started.

>   “I’m saying,” I began, hoping to avoid too much conflict, “that Mr. Ward has been working all of the time with the knowledge of what actions will be coming next. He knows our plays so he’s set to defend against them. If we just revert back to what has always been the ‘correct’ thing to do, we’re just going to be playing into his hands. We need to do something different.”

  She did at least consider what I’d said. She narrowed her eyes as she pondered what I was suggesting but Andrea broke in before The Elder had a chance to respond.

  “What would you have us do in the situation?” That anger was rising in her voice, even higher now. “Would you suggest an elaborate attack? Surely you wouldn’t be suggesting that just this small band do the job alone?” Her venom was more than a little off-putting. I just didn’t know where it was coming from. I‘d been reviewing my memories as closely as I could since I’d had them returned but I just couldn’t see what the issue was.

  “I’m saying that we have to evolve our thinking to be able to survive. Elder, will you continue to prepare whatever it is you are going to prepare, but don’t pull the trigger yet. Yes Andrea, I am suggesting that a small force could be able to complete the operation and that’s mainly because Leatherpants isn’t expecting it. As long as we can keep the Tayne away from him then the casting can't happen. Simple.”

  This time, it was The Elder who broke through the conversation.

  “I will do as you say Mr. Johns, but I will only refrain from unleashing the power I have for as long as it takes to prepare what needs to be done. I will give you that time to be able to resolve this ‘quietly’ before I will unleash our more familiar ‘loud’ response.” I swear I almost fell over. How far had things come that now it was The Elder agreeing with me and Andrea was the one looking down her nose. Andrea turned to protest but caught the words before they came, The Elder’s expression showing that she may have been willing to listen to me but that didn’t mean all of the old hierarchy and order had been thrown out of the window.