Still a good hundred yards out, Sal was suddenly very conscious of how little he knew about the granite Tile. He didn't know if there were any Spire granites left after the battle. But if there were, how close could be get before they sensed him through the ground? Would they be able to pick his "bits" out from the surrounding forest, the way Ruby sees heat or Emerald sees vitality? Feeling very exposed, he ducked behind the trees beside the road and touched Amethyst. Slipping into the gemstone's magical spectrum, the world around him took on a decidedly lavender hue, a surreal overlay to the natural sight provided by his right eye. He saw Prau easily through the woods between them -- a brilliant white skeleton, shaded in violet against the whitish backdrop of the tower before him.
White?
If the Granite Spire should have any aura at all, he thought it should be muddy brown like what he'd seen around Keth and other granites, but the Spire glowed white flecked with shifting colors, weak, throbbing, almost as if it could fail at any moment, but white nonetheless.
And Prau walked right up to that anomaly and raised a hand to knock.
But he never got the chance to. Before he could make contact, the wall itself rippled, and a man-shaped form emerged, exuding the brownish aura that Sal had expected from the Spire.
A granite mage. So there was still one -- at least one -- on Ysre.
Sal wiggled his toes in his boots, wondering if the leather soles were thick enough to block his current aura from being felt through the ground. He backed away from the tree, just in case the foliage could serve as a conductor.
Prau conversed wildly with the granite, emphatically, his pointed finger jabbing more than once at Bastion. He was too far away to make out what he was saying, but whatever it was, he wasn't pleased. Sal couldn't help but smirk a bit at that.
The granite stood there, unperturbed throughout the tirade. When the thug stopped to catch a breath, the granite spoke. Sal could barely see his mouth moving, but it was enough to rein in the ranting ruffian. He turned to direct Prau into the portalless tower when his granite aura sharpened, presumably to meld himself and his visitor with the tower wall.
...and his head whipped around in Sal's direction.
Crap! He feels something.
Sal launched himself into the air, hoping he understood Amethyst enough to allow for levitation. It was rough going for a moment, but he caught himself, and lifted himself higher into the treetops until only his gemstone eye provided any sight worth using. In the distance, he saw the granite form drop into the earth, and a muted violet-brown skeleton raced through the ground toward Sal's last position.
He was about to be found out.
Frantically, Sal sifted through everything he knew about Amethyst, the spells that the soulgem could cast, the theory behind the magic, anything that might be able to hide him from prying granite eyes. He locked on to the null field... only to dismiss it. How could that possibly hide him? Sure, the field forms a magical barrier, but it also cut the subject off from magic, which would in turn cut Sal off from his Amethyst-borne ability to levitate.
Unless...
Sal knew that he was winging it, but with no better options, and the violet-brown aura growing ever closer, he had nothing to lose. He set his mind to wield the null field, but altered it in his perception. He visualized the normal field, as a barrier directing itself inward, toward the mage. In his mind, he flipped the field inside out, with its area of effect radiating outward from himself instead of inward. With this image firmly in mind, and with a silent prayer to God or the Crafter or whoever was running the show here, he wielded.
The field popped into place, about a foot around him in all directions. Sal's brow beaded with sweat as he waited for gravity to reassert itself, but it never did. He hung there has he had before, suspended on wings of lavender magic. So that part of his spell worked. He was inside a null field, but still able to wield and affect the world around him. He hoped fervently that it meant what he thought it meant.
The ground far below him rippled as the granite broke the surface, and sweat beaded anew on Sal's forehead. Would he see him up there, on the far side of the leaves? His amethyst aura should be strong enough for a granite to see even through the trees.
The granite stood there, dirty brown eyes glowing darkly as he scanned the area. Finally, he turned those brown-grey orbs upward, studiously taking in the treetops. His eyes turned toward Sal, lingering there for a long, stomach-clenching minute, before moving on to inspect another bough. Sal barely breathed as the granite continued his examination of the area. After what seemed an eternity, the granite rippled into the earth, then sped back toward the tower and his waiting accomplice, Prau.
Sal watched them both melt into the tower, and watched a moment more to be sure that they were gone before retreating, maintaining both his levitation spell and his null field as he left.
Crisis averted, he breathed a sigh of relief, and gave himself a moment to process what he'd just done. A reverse null field. Delana's gonna keel over when she hears this.
* * *
"Are you out of your goat-kissing mind?!?"
Sal saw Retzu's disbelief echoed in faces across the room -- Delana's mothering worry, Senosh's bewilderment at Sal's passion for answers, Menkal's bemusement at the foolishness of youth, Jaren's nausea at the thought of him testing the implied protections of prophecy. They'd all had their peace with him, and all of them, on some level, thought he was insane. He threw up a placating hand. "I know, Retzu, I know, but listen. I---"
"You could've been killed," the assassin pointed out, rolling right through Sal's attempts to calm him down. "The only diamond mage in the world, and you could've been killed. Worse, you could've been captured. You -- with all your unique insights on magic and knowledge of the Cause, of our plans, our weaknesses -- you are the perfect prize for the Highest, the perfect blade to put to our throats. Do you have any idea how stupid it was for you to run off like you did? Haven't we lost enough over the past few days?"
"I know, I know!"
"And you," the assassin said, jabbing a finger at Marissa. "You let him do it!"
"Do you really think I could've stopped him from---"
"It's Long Harvest, that's gotta be it! Too much merriment left you sizzled in the kippa, eh?"
Sal cast a sideways look at Marissa and muttered, "Translation?"
"I think it means that your brain is cooked, or something."
Sal nodded. "Got it."
"What am I going to do with you?" Retzu demanded, missing their exchange entirely.
"Well, you can start by sitting back down so I can tell you what I saw."
The assassin paused in midstride, and danced from one foot to another, as if the sheer effort of not pacing was too much for him.
"Sit down, Sticks," Delana urged. "He's already gone and come back, the prisoner is already free, and whatever danger he was in has already passed---"
"For now," the irate assassin clarified.
"Yes, for now. In any case, ranting isn't going to do us any good at this point. Just sit down and let's hear him out."
Retzu fidgeted a moment longer, then threw himself into his seat. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with both hands, and muttered, "This better impress the bleedin' salts outta me."
"Okay," Sal started. "Before I turned Prau loose, I used some sapphire magic on him. I tried to hypnotize... ummm... use Sapphire to convince him to work for me instead of the bad guys. That didn't go so well."
"I coulda told you how to do it," Menkal suggested, amidst the ever-present flick of wood chips falling from his latest whittling project.
"Yeah, well, I kinda made it up on the fly. I didn't think to ask. Anyway, I couldn't hypnotize him, but I found that I could encourage him to ignore my presence, to not be able to see or hear me. So I whammied him---"
"Uh, 'glamoured' him?" Marissa suggested.
"Yeah, 'glamoured' works too. Made him forget everything about him being held captive and then I turned him loo
se. We expected him to turn north, toward the city, but instead he went south, and led me right to the Granite Spire. A granite came out of the tower to let him in -- it's really cool how they do that, without a door or anything -- but he noticed me somehow, and took off to find me."
"See?!?" Retzu demanded of Delana, pointing to Sal in outraged victory.
"Hush now, and let him finish his story," she replied softly, belying the warning crackle of electricity at her fingertips. The assassin sighed his frustrations and contented himself to chew on the ends of his mustaches while he fumed.
"Anyway, I levitated myself---"
"That's quite a feat," Delana breathed, marveling. "The fact that you even figured out how is amazing on its own, but coupled with the fact that you have no formal training in Amethyst... Many of my Tile have to study for years to learn the proper concepts to allow for levitation. It comes across as so unnatural that some are never able to reconcile the theory with reality."
"It wasn't that hard," Sal demurred. "Not half as hard as figuring out how to flip a null field inside out."
"What? I mean... what?"
"Well, yeah. That's how I hid from the granite -- inside an inside-out null field."
"That's nonsense, Sal," Delana argued. "You can't flip a null field inside out, especially not around yourself. Just attempting to cast it would block you from casting it!"
"See, that's what I thought too, but I didn't have time to talk myself outta trying it. Anyway, it worked. Here, I'll show you."
Sal stood and moved to the middle of the room, reaching out to Amethyst as he went. He instructed the mages present to engage their magical sight. When he was satisfied that everybody could see his violet aura, he wielded. The null field snapped into being around him, at a distance of about a foot from his body, just as it had earlier in the day.
Delana barely stifled a scream as she scrambled back even further.
"See?" Sal said.
"That's impossible!" Delana exclaimed. "How...? How?!?"
Menkal sat dumbfounded, silent for a moment. Finally, he erupted in insane laughter, his whittling completely forgotten.
"Remarkable!" Jaren marveled aloud. "One minute, I could see your vitality, and the amethyst aura surrounding your eye, and the next... Sal! You're invisible!"
"Magically, he might be," Marissa rebutted. "I can see him, plain as day."
"Me too," Retzu added, no longer raving.
"Is it safe?" Senosh demanded, his eyes blazing a warning. "Can it harm us?"
Sal hadn't thought of that. "Well, I dunno. I wouldn't think so. I mean, an ordinary null field can't hurt you, so why should this?"
"Stand still and hold the field for a second, Sal," Menkal said. "I want to try something."
The sapphire's glowing blue eyes dimmed, then glowed, then dimmed again. "It's like Marissa says. You appear and disappear when I switch between natural sight and magical. Now hold still," he repeated. "Oh, and I apologize in advance..."
"Apologize for what?"
But Menkal was already doing whatever he was doing, the sapphire's eyes blazing as he wielded his magics. A snowball appeared in the air before the mage, then shot toward Sal. As soon as it touched the null field, it flew apart, the magics that held it together dissipating. The physical remnant of the spell showered Sal with dusted snow, only for it to vanish moments later.
"Cool!" Sal breathed in awe.
"Very cool indeed," Menkal agreed.
"Let me try," Sal said, lightning already crackling at his finger tips. He sent a thin spark Menkal's way, but just as the snowball had, the spark vanished as soon as it touched the field. Caught up in inspiration, he pushed the boundaries of the field outward until it encompassed Menkal as well.
"Whoa, where'd he go?" Jaren shouted. Sal could almost feel the emerald's panic as he switched back to his primary sight, and then his relief as he sighed and collapsed into his chair.
Sal continued his experiment, casting again the spark that had failed once before, only this one hit Menkal, eliciting a surprised yelp.
"Blessed Crafter!"
"Yeah, can you imagine what we could do if I was able to teach this stuff to our amethysts? If Marissa were able to figure out the runes for it?"
"An army, protected from magic by magic..." Retzu mumbled, stunned, as he considered the possibilities.
Sal swelled with pride. He'd just handed them an awesome weapon, if he could figure out how to use it properly. Yeah, his chest was sticking out a bit further than usual, but he did nothing to suck it back in. He'd earned it. "Guess this gets me out of those training exercises for a while, huh?
"Not hardly," Retzu said, smoothing his beard and mustaches absently. "Watchbreak, bright and early."
* * *
Retzu wasn't sure how long the discussion stretched on after Sal's revelation. He was lost in his own thoughts.
What an amazing gift this would be to the Cause!
And how completely unjust, that it should come barely two days after the Cause had lost its father. How different would things have turned out, if those granites had not been able to pierce Reit's chest and steal his life from him! He would be the one here, reveling in his friends' discoveries, parsing the intelligence, formulating plans, cheering victories.
Mourning losses. This was his life. Not Retzu's. For the assassin, it was all one sick joke, and he fumed at the Crafter for setting him up as its butt.
Movement before him caught his eye, and he saw Delana breaking away from the rest, headed his way with a peculiar look in her eye. He knew that look. Salt of the Abyss...
Before the amethyst could close the distance with him, the assassin came to his feet and made for the exit. He could hear her over his shoulder, calling distantly after him as he ducked through the opening in the pavilion, but he paid her no mind. He was not having this conversation with her. Frantically, he recited his hilts, searching them as he often did -- for focus, for answers, for peace.
Death is cold and hard, like the iron chains that restrain the murderer.
He wanted to be cold right now, hard enough that the merest thought of his brother didn't bring him to his knees.
Death reflects our inner being, like the brass plate reflects the sunlight.
And it did reflect his inner being -- dreadfully so. He felt empty. He was shol'tuk, Crafter take it! Death was his trade, his art. It came to all men -- most often, before the dead man or his loved ones expected it to. Retzu knew this better than most. Retzu lived this reality!
But Reit wasn't just any man.
Death is a conduit...
Copper. Like the assassin that had betrayed his Fellowship and his mentor, driving her to give up the gold. And like Fila. Dear Fila...
He couldn't talk to Delana or Jaren. Not right now. They expected too much of him. But he had to talk to somebody.
Retzu pointed his toes toward Bastion's southern gates and set off into the late afternoon with purpose, oblivious to the bustle of the camp and the merriment before him.
* * *
"Retzu!" Delana called, following him out of the open tent flap. But it was to no avail. The black-clad assassin didn't hear her. Or wouldn't. Whatever the case, he marched off toward Bastion and Crafter knew what, his pace showing not the slightest hint of hesitation.
This just would not do. Something had to give.
She sighed and headed back into the pavilion, and to the awkwardness that hung palpable in the air. There really wasn't anything pressing that still needed to be covered, but Retzu's abrupt departure left a sense of business being left undone. Nobody knew quite how to react, so they just started to... meander off.
"Menkal," she called, approaching the sapphire mage.
The old man turned to greet her with a sympathetic smile, holding up a placating hand. "Nothing needs to be said. We understand. To be honest, I'm surprised how well you're holding up, considering."
"Thank you, Blue. But tell me... How did your meeting with the dragons go?"
>
"Very well, actually," he said, his face lighting up at the mention. "They're really rather hospitable. Once you get past the teeth and all."
"Wonderful. I don't suppose..." She paused for a moment, her fingers toying absently with the ring that hung about her neck. She glanced up the road again, toward a man who had long disappeared into the crowd, and her thoughts turned reckless. Did she dare? "Do you think... that you could introduce me?"
Chapter 7
Delana marched steadily forward, barely watching the path before her as Menkal prattled on in the background. She knew she should probably be paying closer attention -- they were about to meet a dragon, after all -- but her mind was unavoidably occupied with trying to suss out the secret of Sal's impossible spell.
She formed the concepts in her mind, carefully arranging each one, examining them for consistency. Mana is energy. All energies have both active and passive properties. All energies have an opposing force. Mana has an opposing force. Energy can be directed. What can be directed can be shaped. On and on, she sifted through the various truths that she used to construct her spells, looking for any flaw in her logic. Finally, confident she had every concept accounted for, she wielded...
...and the spell died. Frustrated, she continued to pour mana into the spell. The field flickered in and out of existence around her, snapping into place for the barest instant, falling apart as Delana was cut off from the magics that formed it, then springing to life again as she regained her magic, over and over.
"Salt of the Abyss!" she cursed, releasing her hold on Amethyst.
"Language," Menkal chided gently. Delana's reply was decidedly more salty. The sapphire chuckled. "I mean, you're letting things frustrate you more than you ought."
"You think I don't know that?" she snapped, and immediately felt the worse for it. It wasn't Menkal's fault. "It's just this new null field that Sal came up with..."
Fractures (Facets of Reality Book 2) Page 11
