Unpredictable Fortunes (The Memory Stone Series Book 3)

by Jeffrey Quyle

  The leader of the trio moved forward eagerly, while the hindmost member involuntarily stepped partially into the empty room Theus had baited him into.

  Theus closed his own eyes, then flared the brightest light he could imagine into his own hand that held his staff, hoping to momentarily blind the magicians.

  Their voices cried out in surprise. Theus ceased the light, opened his own eyes, then swung his sword at the man who had stepped into the doorway and was blind. The blade struck the man in the chest, and he gave a sobbing noise, as the light over his head flickered out. Theus released his hold on the hilt of the sword as it stuck in the man’s ribs, and then Theus placed both hands on his staff and pressed it forward as hard as he could, with all his weight ramming it forward. He struck the nearest magician in the gut as the man turned in reaction to happenings behind him – even though his eyes could not yet see in the aftermath of Theus’s bright flash.

  The magician was hurled backwards, and fell into the leading magician, sending them both tumbling down to the ground. Theus raised his staff and slammed it down at the head of the nearest man, striking a fatal blow. His light overhead flickered out as well.

  The third magician blinked his eyes rapidly to clear his vision. He saw Theus standing over him, raising the staff again, and the magician extinguished his light, plunging the hallway into darkness and depriving Theus of sight of his quarry. Theus smashed the staff downward, while at the same moment, an angry red beam of light erupted. The beam seared across the edge of Theus’s arm, leaving him in pain. His momentum carried the staff downward, but it only struck an empty spot on the floor from which the magician had rolled away.

  And then Theus heard a grinding noise and a scream. He flung himself protectively against the wall of the hallway and listened. There was no sound near him. He thought of the black magicians’ trick of projecting a light away from their bodies. If he could do the same, he might be able to illuminate the hallway for a moment and see where his opponent was, without giving his own position away.

  But his arm hurt, and it was distracting him.

  The hallway suddenly lit up, lit from lights down below his knees, and he saw that a pair of granitines were in the hallway, on either side of the bloody body of the third magician. He and the other magician in the hallway had fallen fatal victims to the attack of the stone sentinels of the temple.

  “Theus friend, are you well?” Crystal’s voice asked.

  “My arm hurts, but that’s all. Thank you for your help,” he answered. He stepped over and worked his sword free from the body of the first invader he had killed.

  “Where are the other magicians?” Theus asked.

  “They are being taken care of,” Gem answered. “The temple is safe. Thank you for your help.”

  “No, thank you for your help!” he answered. He wiped his blade clean on the robes of his dead opponent, then placed the sword in his belt.

  “Let’s get these bodies out of here. Where should we take them?” he asked.

  “You go out; we’ll rid the temple of this garbage,” Crystal told Theus.

  More granitines were coming down the hallway to assist. Theus gritted his teeth in pain, then created a light, and walked onto the porch in front of the temple, where he sat on a step.

  His arm was bleeding. He knew it wasn’t a serious wound, but it would need to be tended. In Limber there were no markets, no apothecaries, no kitchens he could go to for supplies to create one of his remedies. He would deal with those matters later. He used his knife to slice a strip of cloth from the bottom of his tunic, and he then awkwardly tied it around his wound. When finished, he stepped back in the open, under the blue sky of the morning.

  Theus stood on the steps in front of the temple, and watched as dozens of the granitines approached him, coming from the surrounding city as well as from inside the temple.

  He felt compelled to thank them. He would not have been able to defeat the black magicians without them. Although he had felt slightly uneasy about the strange creatures during his first day of acquaintance with them, they had proven to be invaluable allies.

  “Granitines, thank you,” he called out. His words seem to disappear into the empty city, and he decided to try again.

  “Granitines! My friends! Listen to me!” he shouted the words, and pounded the end of his staff on the stones loudly to gain attention of the unusual crowd.

  “Granitines!” he called again. Movement was ceasing, except for those who were still moving in closer to him. He was encircled by the stumpy stone beings.

  “Thank you! You saved me, and you saved the temple. Limber is safe because of you. I never heard of you before I got here, but I’m glad to know of you and to work with you!” he kept his voice loud, and felt his throat growing scratchy.

  “You are faithful servants. The people who lived here before were fortunate to have you,” he added.

  “Tell them you are going to bring new people back to the city,” the guiding Voice suddenly spoke to him.

  “What?” he screwed his face in an expression of puzzlement. The voice had thrown him off his train of thought.

  “My next mission for you is to send you to the Jewel Hills. You will go and invite the farmers and others there to move to Limber, to re-inhabit the city, to bring it back to life,” the Voice expanded.

  “And while you go on that journey, ask the granitines to prepare the city for humans to return. Ask them to prepare fields where humans can plant crops and pasture herds. Ask them to repair the buildings. And most importantly, tell them to restore the temple, so that worship can begin again,” the voice was commanding in its dictation to Theus.

  “Is all that going to happen?” Theus asked in astonishment. It seemed beyond what could be practically achieved.

  “If you bring the first settlers back to the city, the granitines, and fate, and other powers will make this city come back to life. It will be restored, and it will become the kingdom that helps to protect humankind once again,” the Voice spoke with astonishing passion.

  Theus didn’t believe it was possible, but he couldn’t resist the powerful persuasion of the Voice. Perhaps it was possible, a small part of him whispered. Perhaps he could live in the city when it was restored, and open his own shop dealing with healing cures and memory stones, and he could find a wonderful woman who could fill the empty spot in his heart where the memories of Coriae continued to dwell.

  The granitines began to shuffle, as they sensed that he had run out of words to speak to them.

  “Granitines, you have been heroes,” he tried to find the right way to introduce the incredible new message he was about to deliver.

  “Granitines, I want to ask you to be even greater heroes now. You have already kept me alive,” he told them. “Crystal brought me in out of the blizzard when I would have died. And then many of you helped defeat the black magicians in the temple,” he added.

  “Now,” he paused, not to be dramatic, but simply because he couldn’t believe he was going to try to offer them such an audacious, unobtainable goal. “Now, if you will help me with a great, great dream, we can do something bigger than we could have ever hoped for.

  “I am going to leave the city now, and go to the people who live in the Jewel Hills. I will invite them to come with me, to move into Limber and bring the city back to life, with humans who will live here, and work here, and,” he knew the Voice and the granitines wanted him to mention the last item, “they will worship here, in this temple.”

  The small beings began to buzz, and then numbers of low-pitched throbbing messages began to pulse through the ground. The bottoms of Theus’s feet vibrated with the feel of all the energy being broadcast.

  “I will bring people here, but you all have to prepare the city to receive them while I am gone. You must repair the city, and restore the temple, and create fields and pastures where they can raise crops and herds of animals, so that people can live here once more. Can you do that?” he asked. He didn’t know w
hat to expect in the way of an answer.

  “You are asking us if we can fulfill our destiny?” Crystal came up beside him. “Of course we can do these things! We were made by the Father to serve and preserve the city and its people. If you can bring humans back to the city, we will have the chance to serve once again. And the Father will have worshippers in his temple once again! He will return, and he will grow in power!

  “This is a great promise; look,” she urged him, and he saw that the gathered granitines were beginning to speed away from the temple, spreading out in all directions.

  “What’s happening?” Theus asked.

  “They are going to work. They are ready to start now. When you bring your humans back, we will have at least part of the city ready. We will have the temple ready. We will work on preparing the fields and the pastures again. We will even start to rebuild the road through the mountains, so that the humans from outside can easily come here, and the humans here may travel away,” Crystal astonished Theus with her rapid delineation of plans.

  “How long will it take you to bring your humans here?” Crystal asked.

  “I don’t know,” Theus replied in confusion. He hadn’t expected to be sent back to the Jewel Hills on a mission. He’d imagined returning several times, but never to run an errand. And he couldn’t imagine that he would have great success in persuading people to leave the Jewel Hills. He doubted his own father would even follow. Perhaps Thera would, and perhaps some other local farmers – those who were adventurous and those who were failing. But to spend time among them begging them to leave everything to come to a city that was only a mythical name, a lost city?

  “I’ll be gone at least a month,” he reckoned.

  “That’s not much time for us to repair the entire city,” Crystal had a frown in her voice.

  “There won’t be that many people at first,” he tried to ease her worries. “There won’t be enough to use the whole city.”

  “How many will there be? How long will it take you to fill the city?” the granitine asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe a handful at first,” Theus tried to set modest expectations.

  “We will be ready for them when they arrive,” Crystal sounded decisive.

  “I’ll let you get to work,” Theus didn’t know what else to say or do. He might as well proceed with his travels, he decided.

  “Theus,” the Voice spoke to him again. “Before you go, you’ll need provisions. There is a hoard of treasure remaining from the old kingdom. Go to the palace and take as much as you need to purchase the supplies your people will need.

  “Gem will lead you there,” the Voice instructed.

  “Where’s Gem?” Theus asked Crystal.

  “Over here!” the granitine spoke up from the spot where it sat quietly.

  “Can you take me to the palace to find money and treasure?” Theus asked.

  “Why not?” Gem asked as she glided over to stand next to him. “It won’t take but a minute,” the creature said casually. “Let’s go.”

  Theus followed her down the boulevard just a few hundred yards, to a gated wall. He had a momentary flashback to Southsand, and the fearsome wall that had surrounded the palace there. The Limber wall was protective, but not as ominous and frightening as the other.

  “Let’s go,” Gem glided through the open gate and into the palace grounds, followed by Theus. They entered a small side door, then wandered through halls and into a large underground chamber. Gem began to glow, and within minutes, Theus stood looking at stacks and piles of coins that appeared dull.

  “Just shine them and they’ll gleam,” Gem told Theus.

  Theus stood looking at the treasure in astonishment.

  “I can’t carry all of this!” he spoke in bewilderment.

  “You don’t have to take it all at once,” Gem pointed out. “What do you need it for?”

  “I need to pay for provisions to feed the people who move here,” Theus answered. He tried to estimate how much he could spend to buy food and supplies, and how to transport it. He needed a caravan, he thought wistfully.

  “I could buy a whole caravan!” his mind flipped form wishing to realizing. He could afford to charter an entire caravan to carry wagonloads of food from Greenfalls towards the Jewel Hills, then he could meet it and lead it in the direction of Limber.

  He placed his bag down and poured handfuls of coins into it. When he tried to lift it, the seams began to bulge. He quickly emptied out a portion of the booty, leaving more than enough still in the bag for his use.

  “Is there anything else, Voice?” he called.

  “You are prepared. Carry out your duties, and do not dawdle. More storm clouds are gathering, more horror will be unleashed, and there are many ancient wrongs that you must undo,” his mentor told him.

  “I’d just like to live a simple life here in Limber with friends,” Theus said softly.

  “I have to go now,” he told Gem. “Which way is south?”

  The granitine showed him the direction.

  “Tell everyone I said good bye, and I’ll be back with friends as soon as I can,” he told her, and then he disappeared.

  Chapter 17

  Theus’s first step took him into the foothills on the southeast side of the mountains on his way to Greenfalls first, and then to the Jewel Hills after he’d secured delivery of supplies. He was worn from having fought and used his power during the morning before he’d taken the magical step south, but he still was able to walk, thanks in part to his sturdy staff. He ate food from his pack, after digging down through the coins he had carelessly poured into the pack, and he ate a few plants he found growing along the way.

  His mind darted energetically through the many extraordinary discoveries he had found thrust upon him in the past day. The granitines, Limber itself, the plan to repopulate the city, the battle with the magicians – they were all like adventure stories he might have learned as a child, yet they were all happening to him, in his own life, and all within the span of a single day.

  He hoped he could persuade people to leave the Jewel Hills to settle in Limber. Once he had a caravan contracted in Greenfalls, he would head east to test his luck in recruiting. There would doubtless be a few who would go, but when they arrived in the lost city, their numbers were likely to be swallowed up by the vast emptiness of the city. It would feel lonely. And the Voice would blame him for the lack of people who made the decision to inhabit Limber.

  He brooded on the topics as he walked, trying to imagine different ways to make Limber sound appealing to the people of the Jewel Hills. When he reached the mid-afternoon, he decided he had enough energy restored to move again, and he made another magical jump that happened to land him directly on a large road.

  There were no vehicles or travelers in his immediate vicinity when he arrived, which gave him time to lean heavily on his staff and gasp for breath. He began walking west at a slow pace, letting his body adjust to the consumption of so much energy. As he walked, he heard distant noises behind him, and he turned to see several wagons slowly gaining on him.

  He moved over to the edge of the road, and within half an hour the wagons caught up with him and began to pass him. There were many of them, he saw, and he realized that it was a caravan.

  “Are you heading towards Greenfalls?” he asked the driver of one wagon that drew even with him. The driver was a grizzled older man with a bushy beard and a large, floppy hat.

  The man looked down at Theus, then took off his hat and wiped it across his brow, revealing a bald head above a gray fringe of hair.

  He put the hat back on. “We’re going to the only place this road goes – to Greenfalls. Where the river did you think we were going?”

  “I want to go to Greenfalls too,” he said. “I’m glad I’m going the right way. How much further is it?”

  “We’ll be there tomorrow afternoon,” the driver told him, as the wagon began to pull ahead of Theus’s slower pace. Theus nodded his thanks for the inform
ation, and continued walking as the wagons continued to roll by.

  “Who’s in charge of this caravan?” Theus asked a man astride a horse when he came riding along the side of the train a few minutes later. “Is it Vanline?” Theus asked.

  “No, Vanline’s probably in Greenfalls right now, preparing to take his next caravan to Great Forks. He should be in that part of the delivery cycle,” the rider answered easily. “Do you know something about caravans?”

  “I worked in Vanline’s caravan once, on the way from the Jewel Hills to Greenfalls. That was the only time I worked in a caravan though,” Theus answered.

  “We could use a hand to help us bring this group home to the city; they’ve been a little needier than expected,” the man told Theus. “I’ll ride up to see Carswile to ask him if he wants help, if you want to join us.”

  “Sure,” Theus shrugged. He’d travel a little more slowly than he would if he journeyed on his own with magical powers, but he might get some information about how to find other caravans and arrange for one to carry goods for him.

  The man rode his horse forward, while the rest of the caravan slowly inched past Theus. Minutes later, the horse rider came back.

  “You really know how to do this job?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Theus nodded.

  “Then you’ve got the job. Climb on the last wagon when it comes by and ride along. When we set up camp, help set up the corral and handle and feed the animals. You’ll stand a watch of guard duty, and tomorrow you’ll help us get the corral emptied and closed up. Are you sure you still want the job?” the man asked Theus again.

  “I’m in,” Theus agreed, and he waited for the last wagon to provide a ride.

  The driver on the wagon was a young man, accompanied on his bench by a pretty young woman holding a baby. Theus explained his new job and was waved onto the back of the wagon.