Into The Ruins

by Blink, Bob

  Even though their travel had delayed the setting of the sun, it was late in the day, and dusk was less than a glass away. Suline nodded her agreement. This was a comfortable spot, and the size of the oasis made the Wastelands seem less pressing, if only the pressure on her senses could be set aside. Kirin ordered the guardsmen to make camp, and they directed the two horses that were pulling the wagonload of supplies into the clearing, where the men quickly offloaded the essential items and efficiently made camp. Before long, the welcome aromas of seared bison and baked brack root filled the air.

  “How long do you think it took them to make the crossing?” Suline asked Kirin as they ate.

  Kimm probably has those memories, but from what we have seen, it appears they made their way on foot to each succeeding safe zone. Then they jumped back for re-supply.

  “It must have been harsh, not knowing how far the next zone would be, and unable to use magic in between,” Suline mused aloud.

  “We can’t be certain that magic was restricted all the time. The Wastelands didn’t block us around that artifact. Perhaps the land is riddled with areas where magic works normally and they moved between such zones.”

  “Maybe the artifact pushed aside the effects of the Wastelands and that is why our magic worked there,” Suline countered. “Around each of these little green islands, magic is completely useless. It is likely that way over most of the Wastelands.”

  “If that is the case, then they knew something we don’t. I cannot see how anyone could cross between these islands without resorting to magic sometimes. Look at what happened to Assh.”

  Assh had been shot by a small plant when they explored around the last safe zone. The pellet that struck him was almost instantly fatal. By the time Suline reached the man, it was too late to use what magic she could have called upon to remove the pellet and cure the infection. He had died, and rapidly started to decay. They had left him rather than risk carrying something unknown back with them. The death weighed heavily on the minds of the other guardsmen, who had become very cautious when outside the oasis.

  Morning brought a couple of surprises. First was the discovery of another staff, also split and charred like the one they had found with the woman and old man when they had captured them.

  “They do use staffs,” Kirin insisted.

  “Perhaps,” Suline replied thoughtfully. “But why are they damaged, and why only two? Also, notice there are no runes inscribed into the staff to make it work. Neither staff was constructed to allow a power crystal to be attached. There were four of the strangers. Are the other staffs waiting to be found farther up the trail, or did they only have the two? That is difficult for me to understand. And if the staffs became damaged and they traveled on without them, how did they manage to still access their magic? There is something important we are missing.”

  “We will bring it back to the Saltique nonetheless,” Kirin directed, and handed the broken stick to one of the guardsmen to put into the cart.

  The next thing they discovered was they were unable to continue onward.

  “The vision is clear in my mind, but the Doorway will not form,” Suline complained angrily. What could be blocking her? she wondered.

  “It’s not just you,” Kirin said a moment later. “I cannot create a Doorway either. For some reason we are being prevented from moving to the next location.”

  “That is one place we were specifically ordered to investigate,” Suline said angrily. “The next stopping point is where the Chulls come from. We must find a way to get there.”

  Kirin was equally frustrated. The Saltique would not be happy if they returned so soon, far short of their ultimate destination and without having viewed the vast chamber where the Chulls were formed. If they could reach the spawning place, there was hope that the fearsome creatures might be eliminated, ending the long-standing threat to Sedfair.

  “Nothing,” Kirin said finally after trying several more times.

  “I wonder if we can come at it from the other direction?” Suline said, and tried to open a Doorway to the spot her memory said was some distance beyond the place where the beasts were formed. She cursed loudly after a few moments when that didn’t work either.

  “What did you do?” Kirin asked.

  Suline told her how she’d tried to jump past the Chull Farms.

  “There has to be a way,” Kirin objected. “The strangers passed through here. We have their memories to show it happened. How did they do it? We must discover the means they used. I don’t want to report failure.”

  Neither did Suline, but a flash of intuition told her they were not going to succeed. She was suddenly certain that the staffs that they had dismissed so casually were somehow linked to the stranger’s ability to make the Doorways.

  “How can that be?” Kirin asked, the doubt apparent in her voice after Suline had told her what she suspected.

  “I don’t know, but the staffs have suddenly become important. If we are blocked, they may be the key to moving onward.”

  Kirin was doubtful, and spent the rest of the day trying to learn how they might proceed. Suline thought the woman might actually try and walk across the Wastelands, but by late afternoon even Kirin had given up.

  “We have to go back and report our failure,” she said dejectedly. “The Saltique will not be pleased.”

  Chapter 39

  Queen Rosul found it more than a little ironic that the last months of her reign were busier than she could recall for many years. One would expect at this point that matters would be well in hand and winding down, with only minor issues to attend to, including formally bidding farewell to those she had relied upon for years and preparing to hand over power. Of course, she didn’t know who would soon be leading the country forward. Another month before the candidates would be announced, and then a month for them to make their individual pitches to the country, followed by the selection.

  In the past month the attacks along the border by the unending herds of Chulls had increased beyond predictions, and the Army had begun pressing her for additional troops. The treasury was simply not up to the task, and some means of augmenting the tax revenues would have to be found if the crown were to be able to support the growth trend that she had been seeing the past five years. She could simply order the guard expanded, and leave the problem of paying to her successor, but that wasn’t the way she ruled. Leaving a major problem that showed her inattention to detail was not a legacy she wished.

  The Baldari situation also exacerbated the situation. Three times in the past month they had launched major attacks along the border. These had been repulsed, but the costs were becoming dear. Larger forces of the invaders, riding on the now familiar reptilian ponies, were pressing deeper into the country. The losses from these encounters were unacceptable, and while a number of Casters had been provided, more were needed. Their effectiveness could not be argued, but they were spread too thinly at the moment. Rosul knew that many who were not accepted into the Guild had skills that would have sufficed against the attacking Baldari, and wanted to press the Saltique to increase the Guild numbers by forming a cadre of Casters with this as their primary task.

  More than once she had sent messages to Carif regarding the problem, pressing the Guild to supply more capable Casters to fight the creatures, but of late she had been unable to win the attention of the Saltique. It was almost as if she were being ignored, not a possibility since the woman clearly hated her and was likely biding her time until Rosul was gone. Then she could move forward with whatever program she had in mind as she manipulated the new Queen. Rosul wondered if she wished to force a confrontation by sending a royal order for the woman to appear. They were at war for all intents, even though none had formally been declared. She could force Carif to appear, but almost certainly fireworks would follow.

  Rosul ran her fingers through her gray hair and picked up the missive that had appeared on her desk a short time earlier. Now this. It had to be bad news. The note hadn’t arriv
ed by any messenger and thus far no one was aware of it. No one else would be, other than her consort. Kall had already left, dressed as agreed, for his meeting with his Army friends. It was a regularly established meeting, and provided much valuable intelligence. Tonight his departure served another purpose.

  She fingered the note once again, her eyes scanning across the handwritten words. It said nothing really, and was unsigned. It looked like a note to herself, a task she didn’t want to overlook in the coming days. But she had not penned it, and the words were those that she had agreed upon with the author, the exact wording yielding clues to the time the writer would appear. The note had arrived seemingly out of thin air, having been transported to her desk by a subtle variation on the Doorway spell that allowed moving objects between locations unseen. A Doorway that small could be created almost anywhere, and could be done so without it being detected. Doing so, however, required one with extraordinary skill and an ability that was far from common anywhere.

  It was from Lyes, she knew. What could the young man want that he was willing to risk being discovered to speak personally with her? Their communications were typically infrequent and passed via the magical transfer in written form. A personal face to face meeting could potentially risk a discovery that would reveal to the Saltique that she had spies within her midst. While Lyes wasn’t formally inside the Guild at the moment, it was only a matter of time before he was chosen. As a senior student at the University he was invaluable, but once inside the Guild his worth would increase ten-fold, even if she were no longer the Queen. Perhaps his value would be even greater because of that very fact. She had one other set of eyes within the Guild, but that person was not positioned ideally and thus far hadn’t proved as useful as Rosul had hoped. Lyes knew this, so for him to propose a meeting like this he must have something he considered worth the risks involved.

  He could arrive unseen via one of the Doorways. Unknown to most everyone, Lyes was able to create them. Unfortunately, normal Doorways required an extremely complex spell, and was detectable by many within the Guild. There were even those who could tell where a Doorway began and ended, and if one attempted to mask the end points, the ease of detecting the spell was even greater. It wouldn’t do for anyone to discover that a Doorway had been used to penetrate the castle. Someone would start to wonder who within the Caster community might be visiting with the Queen. That meant Lyes would have to come by more conventional means.

  Across town, Lyes and Fen had just finished a meal at the Flaming Pigeon, a small inn that provided a decent meal and fine entertainment at prices that students could afford. The dinner had supposedly been arranged so Lyes could show Fen a little more of Nals, and get them out of the dorms where the meals were somewhat routine this time of year when the full student body was not yet in attendance.

  “That was fabulous,” Fen said enthusiastically as the entertainers completed their final bow and retreated off the stage.

  “I thought you would approve,” Lyes said. “I doubt they have anything quite so grand back in Slipi.”

  The two students pushed their chairs away from the table and headed out into the street. It was well past dusk, the streets dark except for the glow balls set upon poles at key locations down the street.

  “This girlfriend of yours doesn’t mind you coming so late?” Fen asked.

  “She has to work and will have just finished a short while ago. I feel bad about leaving you to go back alone, but I don’t have many opportunities to visit her,” Lyes lied.

  “It’s not a problem,” Fen replied good-naturedly. “I know my way around now, and it’s not like the streets here are dangerous.”

  “Do not become over confidant,” Lyes warned. “This part of the city is busy at this hour and well patrolled. Later tonight there is more to fear than you might suspect.”

  “I’m going straight back to the dorms,” Fen promised, and waved as he headed off in a direction that would have him back on Guild property within a short time.

  Lyes watched the youngster as he headed confidently down the street, then turned and headed the opposite way. He moved through streets that he’d come to know well, and a short time later was near the front entrance to the castle. Hiding in a copse of trees, he reached into the pocket of his pants and withdrew the thin blue slice of crystal. The crystal contained an image that he had made and stored more than two years ago in case a time like this materialized. He had a couple of other similar crystals that contained images he’d gathered from trips around the country. Most of those were of people who had died, and he had captured their images against a future need. The Queen and King had agreed to his capturing this image and to this kind of subterfuge. The crystal he now held contained an image of Kall, the King, and with it Lyes would create an illusion that made him appear just like him. The Queen couldn’t easily leave the castle, so he would have to go to her. Her movements were noted by far too many people to be covert.

  Holding the crystal in his left hand, he next withdrew a thin tube of coarse paper that was covered with glyphs. Deftly, he withdrew the paper that was coiled inside the tube. Had the tube been discovered, a simple triggering phrase would have caused the tube and its contents to be burned instantly to ash, the results unreadable. The spell on the paper was long and complex, and had taken him two glass of careful drawing to create. More importantly, it was a spell that one of their group had uncovered in her researches, and was unknown even to the highest members of the Guild. It also required something they lacked to activate. Lyes hadn’t found anyone else who had been able to make it work, so the Casting required something special he must have and others didn’t.

  Laying the crystal onto the center of the page, Lyes softly muttered the words that activated the spell, his mind simultaneously forming a vision of what he needed to wear. Moments later, he felt the magic encase him. He slipped the crystal back into his pocket, and carefully coiled the paper and slipped it back into the tube. He would need it once more tonight if all went well, then he would destroy the paper. Satisfied, he stepped out of the trees and made his way down the path toward the gates of the castle.

  “Your Majesty,” one of the guards at the drawbridge said, bowing respectfully as Kall passed by on his way into the castle. The guard had seen the King leave earlier for his usual destination. It was unusual, but not unheard of, for the King to be back this early.

  Lyes nodded at the guard as he walked confidently through the gates and into the castle. Anyone that didn’t come within a few inches of him, wouldn’t see through the false image the spell had created, and would instead see Kall, the Queen’s consort, whose image Lyes had used in the activation of the spell. He could confidently make his way into the castle, down the guarded halls where the Queen waited, without fear of being challenged. The spell could be very dangerous if it were to become known to the wrong sort of people. That included certain people within the Guild in Lyes mind, and he was honored that the King and Queen trusted him enough to provide the image that allowed him to pass unrestrained through the most closely guarded section of the castle. Before long he came to the door of the quarters shared by the King and Queen. He opened the door and stepped into the room.

  Inside, Queen Rosul was sitting in a large chair opposite the fireplace, waiting for his arrival. She stood after he closed the door and walked his way. She examined him closely, then whispered softly, “Lyes?”

  Lyes allowed the spell to drop away, and suddenly he looked like himself. The Queen shook her head in wonderment. “I had forgotten how effective that spell can be. An assassin could make good use of the knowledge. We are fortunate that few, and especially none within the Guild know of it.”

  She pointed to the chair opposite the one she had been waiting in, and Lyes made his way there and sat down.

  “What has happened?” she asked anxiously, eager to understand what had caused Lyes to risk exposure.

  Lyes explained how he had overheard two Guild members discussing the premature
arrival of a student scheduled for the upcoming class. The student, a male in this instance, was to arrive uncommonly early and a special request from the Eight had been sent to the Chancellor to see he was settled in and kept busy until the rest of the class arrived. Lyes had found this curious. Men were not normally treated with such attention, and he’d never heard of anyone being brought to the University so far in advance of the beginning of class. He’d decide to see what he could learn, and had pretended to be assigned to help show the young man around.

  “Who is he?” the Queen asked, knowing Lyes must have learned something important.

  “His name is Fen. He comes from one of the small border villages. His father is a senior military man there, but otherwise there is nothing special about him.”

  “He is gifted?”

  “Very much so, it seems. He is also curious, eager, naive, and awed by the opportunity that has been given him. He sees the University as a dream that has finally been realized. Already he has gathered more texts than he can possibly learn in his first year.”

  “Do you think he is extraordinarily powerful. Does he have some potential that makes him of interest to the Guild?”

  Lyes shook his head. “His abilities remain to be seen. I believe his potential is high, but that can’t be known until he is tested. He is here early because he witnessed something.”

  “Something important, I assume, given that you have risked much to tell me?”

  “Very much so,” Lyes agreed.

  “The Guild is operating behind my back again, aren’t they?”

  “It would seem so,” Lyes said.

  “Tell me what you have learned,” Queen Rosul directed.

  Lyes took some time to report what he had learned from Fen.

  “They can perform magic without the need of a staff or other magical notations. Their magic is not slow or weak under these conditions. According to Fen they were skilled and very powerful.”