Into The Ruins

by Blink, Bob

  “I must speak with Ardra or Lyes,” she said. “It’s urgent.”

  “Not until you’ve been through the testing,” the woman informed her as she turned to leave. “They’ll get to that later today.”

  Many glass later she was finishing the meager meal that had been provided. She was no longer being held in the large cell, but had been relocated to another area for those who had passed the testing, but hadn’t been talked to individually. She was about to stand and return to the small room with the cot, when someone sat down next to her.

  “It appears our fortunes have reversed themselves,” Rigo said, pointing to the band that Suline wore. The last time they’d spoken, she was in charge and he’d worn the bands.

  Suline looked into Rigo’s eyes expecting to see resentment for what had happened before, but saw instead curiosity.

  “I hear you turned yourself in,” Rigo said.

  “I’m not with Carif,” Suline protested. “Not since it became apparent what she was planning.”

  “Why did it take you so long?” Rigo asked.

  “I knew she was looking for me. I know too much of what she has done and what she plans. I didn’t know who I could trust.”

  “How would you know so much?”

  “I made the first trip to your homeland using the stolen amulet,” Suline confessed. She saw the tightening of his eyes as she spoke. Quickly she added. “I ran away when I realized what she planned. She wanted me to lead the group who attacked your barrier.”

  Rigo studied the woman. She was nervous, but he sensed the strength and truthfulness in her. He also noted something else. He touched the bands of ribbon. “How did you know about these? Have we been penetrated so quickly?”

  “I listened in on your conversation with Ardra and Lyes this morning. You are looking for someone who can track Doorways.”

  That clearly surprised him. “How could you possibly . . ?”

  Suline interrupted him. “I have a couple of unique abilities. One allows me to monitor what happens at any place I have been without being observed. That’s how I know a lot about Carif. I have been to that office, and I monitored her discussion with members of her Eight. I know where she’s gone. I know a number of things you need.”

  “You know where she is?” Rigo asked immediately.

  “I know the city. Not exactly where in it. She never revealed that in the room. She and her friends knew where they meant when they spoke of it and never provided explicit information as to the location. I also know where some of her Casters are hiding.”

  Rigo stood suddenly. “Let’s go. You need to tell this to all of us at the same time.”

  Chapter 81

  Rigo led Suline upstairs to an office she knew very well. Carif’s old office was one she had visited before to report to the Saltique and listened in on the former leader’s personal conversations here many times. Rigo had stuck his head into Ardra’s office on the way and he was lucky enough to find both Ardra and Lyes. He asked them to join him, and to see if someone could chase down Nycoh. He pointed to Suline, who Ardra clearly recognized, and indicated she needed to keep a watch on her. Jeen was back in the Three Kingdoms helping King Rhory deal with the after effects of the Hoplani attacks.

  Nycoh was here in Nals for a few days, something she was starting to do more often. Rigo suspected she was growing tired of the administrative aspects of her position, and he knew she was spending a lot of time with Lyes just as she had with Fen back at the Outpost. She’d shown a keen interest in the symbolic magic, almost as if she was drawn to it. From what he’d heard from Mitty, she was also making the rounds of the Senior Instructor Casters here at the Guild University. She obviously had a program of her own in mind, but as yet hadn’t spoken of it to Rigo. He would have to ask Jeen and see what she knew. Rigo was amused to see that Nycoh was even starting to carry her own version of a staff. Hers was made of the same material as the armbands they wore, and didn’t have one of the flashy power crystals on top. But it had its own set of symbols engraved in the hard material. Rigo wondered how she’d managed that. From personal experience, he knew the material was normally impossible to mark.

  “You recognize her, don’t you?” Ardra asked as she hurried into the room. “She’s the one who captured you and helped watch over you when Carif was holding you prisoner.”

  “I know,” Rigo replied. “She has an interesting story to tell. You all need to hear this.”

  Nycoh had apparently been nearby, as she stepped into the room before the others had gotten comfortably seated. She looked carefully at Suline, knowing she had never seen the woman before. She looked at Rigo expectantly.

  “This is Suline,” Rigo said by way of introduction. “She’s on the list, but came to us yesterday. She has an interesting story to tell. She claims she isn’t aligned with Carif despite her previous efforts on the Saltique’s behalf. She hasn’t come in before because she was hiding from Carif.” Quickly Rigo summarized what Suline had told him before. When he finished he noted that Lyes was examining her carefully, and Rigo knew he had noticed the same thing he had. Lyes had that ability now.

  “You claim you have the ability to detect Doorways and their endpoints, so long as they aren’t masked,” Ardra asked when Rigo finished.

  Suline nodded. “It’s something I’ve been able to do for some time. It’s how I was able to track your initial arrival in Sedfair back into the Ruins.”

  “I’m even more interested in how she knows that we have been hoping to discover someone with the ability,” Nycoh said. “You claim you can listen in and monitor someone from afar. I’ve never heard of someone with that ability.”

  “I have been monitoring Ardra and Lyes when they discussed matters in this office,” Suline admitted. She briefly summarized the meeting she’d overheard the previous day which had led her to coming in.

  Both Lyes and Ardra were surprised at the detail. It was as if she had been in the room with them.

  “How did you come by this ability?” Nycoh asked. “This Ghost Doorway as you call it?”

  “It was accidental,” Suline explained. “I was learning how to create Doorways, and was adding the glyphs to my staff. I was never very good with glyphs, they were always my weak point and almost prevented me from earning the staff. I was nervous about making a mistake, and ending up creating a spell that took me somewhere and I couldn’t get back. There were always stories of such things going around the students. Now I know better. Anyway, that was on my mind when I first executed the spell. I ended up creating the first Ghost Doorway. It took me some time to realize its unique features, and I decided to keep it to myself. I found that I could open a normal Doorway, or the modified one, depending on how I focused my thoughts. Perhaps there is something odd in my glyphs that makes it possible?”

  Nycoh looked at Rigo and shook her head minutely. Like him, she suspected the ability was inherent, and based on what she was thinking and not what she had crafted or the trigger phrase. What Suline described was the kind of magic an inherent wizard called, where the magic executed was driven by the thoughts. Like Rigo and Lyes, Nycoh had sensed the very weak spark of inherent magic in Suline.

  “Have you ever tried creating the Ghost Doorway with another set of glyphs?”

  “No,” Suline admitted. “There was never the need. I always had the staff on hand, and it worked as I wished.”

  “It might be interesting for someone else to try using her staff,” Rigo said, then realized his mistake. The ability to make Doorways was one of those that required a Caster to create her own glyphs. Another Caster wouldn’t be able to use Suline’s glyphs to make Doorways. They could look and see if there was anything odd about her symbols. That was something Fen would be useful for. He had an eye that could pick out miniscule differences.

  “I’d like to see these skills demonstrated,” Nycoh said.

  “I’ll need my staff,” Suline said.

  “She didn’t have one when she turned herself in,” Rigo
said. He looked at Suline.

  “I hid it,” she admitted. “I was worried what might happen if I walked up to the guard with it in hand.”

  “Is it anywhere close?” Lyes asked.

  Suline told him where she had left it. Lyes stood and left the room, returning a few moments later. “If it is still there, we’ll have it shortly.”

  “Let’s talk about your other claims,” Ardra said. “You say that Carif and the surviving members of her Eight relocated to Yaul. This is something you overheard them discussing in this room?”

  “That’s right,” Suline agreed. “They never said exactly where in Yaul, but it was obvious they had a place set aside as a contingency. The rest of their Casters were split between a couple of camps spread around Sedfair. It was clear that none of the Casters knew about Yaul.”

  “Yaul’s a big place,” Lyes said. “They probably aren’t wandering the streets, so finding them will still be difficult.”

  “Perhaps if we are close enough, and if Suline actually has the abilities she claims, we might be able to pick up on any Doorways they use to come and go,” Nycoh suggested.

  Suline shook her head. “Carif and all of her Eight are capable of masking their Doorways,” she explained. “Just being in Yaul would allow us to know that Doorways are being made, but it wouldn’t be enough to locate the source. One can monitor over a significant distance. Only if someone without the skill to mask the end points were to visit them, would I be able to sense their location.”

  “We’ll have to resort to luck and hard work,” Lyes said. “Even so, if Yaul is actually the place, the area we have to search has been reduced to something manageable.”

  While they were talking, the Caster Lyes had sent to search for the staff returned with the device. He handed it to Lyes, then respectfully stepped back out of the room, closing the door behind him.

  Lyes examined the staff. “The glyphs look pretty normal to me,” he said, and passed it to Ardra to examine. She came to the same conclusion.

  “I think we need a demonstration of your claims,” Ardra said.

  “I’ll need the staff and this band to be removed,” Suline said, holding up her arm to show the blocking band.

  That was the difficulty. They would have to allow her access to her magic. She had passed the loyalty test, so that shouldn’t be a problem, but in theory she might be a plant and able to execute a damaging spell. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Carif was aware of the loyalty check being performed on all Casters. What if she had found a way to overcome the check? Rigo didn’t know much about how it worked. It was a form of magic that was unique to the Casters, and he was counting on their assurances that it was reliable. On the other hand, the room now contained the two heads of the Guild, the leader of the Three Kingdom’s wizards, and Rigo. All people Carif had reason to wish dead. Rigo recalled the spell that had violently destroyed the residences, and didn’t know if Suline was capable of creating such a spell herself.

  “How about we perform the demonstration somewhere else,” Rigo suggested. “Without everyone present.”

  His concern wasn’t lost on anyone, and even Suline realized she wasn’t fully trusted as yet.

  After a bit more discussion, Rigo, Ardra, and a couple of duty Casters relocated to a spot outside of Nals. There they had Suline demonstrate she could sense the Doorways made by the duty Casters who were hidden behind the nearby hill. She correctly detected when they made a Doorway, and where they went or came from. Clearly she had the ability she claimed.

  “Show me the camp you said you know of,” Ardra asked after they were finished testing her ability to detect the travel portals. “You said you have been there and have watched them before.”

  “Shurl was one of those I traveled to the Three Kingdoms with,” Suline announced. “We camped there before.”

  As she talked she executed the spell to create a Doorway, but this time it was smaller than usual and they could see through to the far side. They could also hear voices. It was as if the Doorway opened a short distance from the center of camp and perhaps a man height in the air above it.

  “Did you purposefully adjust the size of the Doorway?” Rigo asked intrigued. He had seen various sizes, but it was always a matter of the ability of the wizard. To be able to adjust the opening was a skill he had not seen before.

  Suline nodded. “When I plan on observing, I usually make the opening smaller. It’s active on the far end, and I’m not sure if someone could pass through if they walked into the space where the opening exits. That’s one reason I usually make it high up.”

  “Can you make it larger as well?”

  “When I experimented, I made one that was four times as wide as normal,” she said.

  They watched and listened. It was obvious that these were rebel Casters, and they were waiting for one of the Eight to visit with orders. It seemed she was expected the next day, or perhaps the day after. Then they would be free to act again rather than sitting around in camp. Satisfied, Ardra signaled Suline to close the Doorway.

  “You claim that if you create the Ghost Doorway so you can pass through, you can immediately return without the need to activate a return Doorway?” Rigo asked.

  Suline nodded. “That’s how I first explored the camp you had in the Wastelands. I was afraid to simply travel out there. I might have been trapped, yet with this kind of Doorway, I could just step back and be home. I didn’t need my magic to work at the other end.”

  “I want to go there,” Ardra said. “If you’ve been there, you know the surrounding area. Is there a spot we can observe the camp from a reasonable distance without being seen?”

  Suline nodded. “I know just the place. I can create a normal Doorway to take us there.”

  “Uh-uh. I’ll make the Doorway. I’m not yet ready to fully trust my life with you. You can provide the image we need. First give me your staff.”

  Reluctantly, Suline passed it over, and when Ardra pulled out the blocking band, she held out her hand to receive it.

  “Perhaps I should make the Bypass,” Rigo said. “I can make a masked one, and we don’t know if there is someone there who can detect them.”

  “That’s wise,” Ardra agreed, although she hoped none of the Casters located at the camp had the ability to sense a nearby Doorway. That alone might alert them that someone had located them. Soon they were on a hillside overlooking the camp. It looked the same as it had through Suline’s special Doorway, and they counted the Casters who were moving about. It was lunchtime, and they were gathered around the communal fire eating. No one had reacted to their arrival which implied they either weren’t monitoring, or no one in the camp had the ability to detect their arrival.

  “Eighteen,” Rigo whispered after he counted those in the camp.

  They watched a little longer, then Rigo made the Bypass that took them back to Guild Headquarters.

  Back in the conference room, Nycoh looked at Suline. “You understand why we are uncertain about you. While you were demonstrating your skills to Rigo and Ardra, Lyes and I talked with one of the professors here. If you are willing, there is a way to be certain of you. Something more thorough than the loyalty test.”

  “A Reading,” Suline said softly.

  “That’s right,” Nycoh agreed. “I’m told a cooperative Reading is not supposed to be dangerous, and you would be unable to hide any deceit from the testers.”

  “I had hoped that what I revealed to you would be enough,” Suline said. After a moment she added, “Okay. I’ll do the Reading. Hopefully then you will know I can be trusted.”

  Two days later the monitoring group informed Rigo that Bonn, one of Carif’s remaining Eight, had arrived at the camp. Suline had kept a continuous Ghost Doorway open to the camp and they had been able to follow the conversations of various members of the group. Several in the camp had been part of the group that had attacked the towers that produced the barrier in the Three Kingdoms, and others had been among those who had driven the Chull
s into Nals.

  Ready to leave at a moment’s notice, Rigo, Ardra, Nycoh, and more than thirty wizards, most from the Three Kingdoms, but a handful of Lyes former islanders, including his brother, made the jump through a pair of masked Doorways to the positions they had marked off for their attack. Lyes was back in the Three Kingdoms. Daim had asked him to visit, and Jeen was still there watching the Outpost in Nycoh’s absence. Rigo made one Bypass and Burke the other. Burke commanded the second group. Daria and Kaler, as usual, were close beside Rigo. Both had their bows today. This wouldn’t be a battle where knives and swords would be of much use.

  Positioned, with their actions already carefully planned, Rigo waited with the others. They couldn’t see as much as they would like since the meeting was taking place inside a large tent. Even Suline couldn’t make the Ghost Doorway required, as she had never been inside the tent. There were limitations to what she could do.

  Then one of the Casters came hurrying out of the tent. She immediately made a Doorway and stepped into it. Suline named the village where she had gone, and opened a following Doorway to the same location. A pair of the Sedfair wizards stepped through. They would follow the woman and learn as much as they could. It was unfortunate that Suline couldn’t go along, as they might move on from where they had gone, but it was more important she was here to follow the leaders if possible.

  It wasn’t much longer when Bonn stepped out of the tent with several of the other Casters. They were still talking as she walked forward and opened a Doorway of her own. Rigo recognized the woman from the days she had been one of his watchers.

  “Masked,” Suline muttered softly beside him.

  Bonn finished talking and started walking toward the open arch. They wanted her alive if possible. They couldn’t allow her to step into the opening and disappear. Obtaining her staff was one of their high priorities. Even the staff without the Specialist was desirable.

  Rigo was close enough to hear the release of the heavy crossbow bolt. It crossed the distance quickly and buried itself in Bonn’s right shoulder, pinning her to the tree she had been walking past. As usual, Kaler’s shot had been right on target. They had opted for the crossbow because most magic was destructive and hard to limit. Many had been healed after major sword and arrow wounds, but those struck forcefully with magic were often much harder to save. The hope had been that the arrow would cause Bonn sufficient pain she would drop her staff, and thereby be unable to respond, and would hold her anchored where she fell. Daria was ready with her own bow should another shot be required to keep her from escaping.