by Guy Antibes
Jack had a room to himself, so he sat up in his bed. If everything worked as it had, he would just have to drop to either side to sleep for the night. He would imbue the pommel with the coercion counterspell that Simara had taught him earlier in the day. He was ready.
The sun dropped, and the room darkened. Jack sat up, his palms sweaty with anxiety. With this, he would be done with the sword for now. He closed his eyes and concentrated on gathering his power as he had done before. The spell came into his mind, and he combined the two as he had before. He pushed with his will and the resistance dissipated as everything flowed into the pommel of the sword. When he finished, he leaned his back against the wall. He felt power pulsating through him, something he hadn’t experienced before. It was a draining experience.
“What a surprise! I didn’t think you could communicate with me.” the patriarch said in Jack’s mind. “It matters not. I am ready for you.”
Jack’s eyes grew, but then he knew what he had to say. “I am with many friends; we have the seeker and are coming for the orb.” He somehow wrenched the communication closed and fell forward senseless.
~
“Wake up. Did you try to imbue last night?” Tanner said putting something wet on his face.
“I did,” Jack said. His nose felt stuffy, and he noticed that Tanner was wiping the blood from it.
“You must have landed flat on your face, young man,” Quist said. “You shouldn’t have tried it on your own. Naughty boy.”
“That’s me,” Jack said. “My bloody nose isn’t the worst of it,” he said watching Helen clean the bloody floor. “The patriarch talked to me last night.”
“He was here in this room?” Tanner said, stopping his ministrations.
“His voice. In my mind, he said he didn’t think he could communicate with me. He said he is ready for us.”
“What did you tell him?” Tanner said.
Jack smiled. “I am with many friends. We have the seeker and are coming for the orb.”
“You warned him we are coming?” Simara said.
“No, he didn’t.” Helen smiled and patted Jack’s knee. “He warned him about the Black Finger Society.”
“But if the Black Finger Society prevails?” Simara said.
“We may have to help Gant, to a point,” Helen said, nodding her head. “But we will let them soften each other up a bit—”
“Or we have no chance,” Quist said.
“That is for sure,” Jack said. He grabbed the sword that was on the bed and tried out the first two spells. “It works like I intended!”
“That is a unique experience for you?” Simara asked.
“Mostly with swinging a sword,” Jack said. “Try a compulsion spell. Let’s see if what I did last night imbued the pommel.”
“I’m not particularly proficient,” she said, but she closed her eyes and muttered the word that she had taught him. “Turn around.”
Jack turned around, looking a little blank faced.
“Take off your shirt.”
“Why are you telling him to do that?” Helen asked.
“Something that he wouldn’t want to do around women,” she said.
Jack complied.
“Kiss me,” she said.
Jack took her into his arms and gave her a long, lingering kiss and let her up again.
Simara took a deep breath as her face turned very red. “See?”
“See what?” Jack asked. “I’m not under compulsion, but I happily did as you asked. Did you think I’ve never kissed a girl before?”
“I’m not a girl,” Simara said, somewhat flustered.
“You are reacting like one,” Tanner said with a smirk.
The wizardess left the room before the others laughed.
“That also isn’t the first time I’ve taken my shirt off in front of a girl,” Jack said. “I did grow up with two sisters.”
“It is time to move on if you truly are up to it,” Tanner said.
“Yes, it is time to put an end to all this,” Quist said.
Jack had wished Quist had been more forthcoming about wizardry, but he had retrieved the manual. Unfortunately, Jack couldn’t do much with it until Simara had removed whatever it was that kept Jack from understanding the words. He could have been further along by now.
They went down to eat breakfast before they headed north again, but it might be their last time. Jack felt wonderful. He had some tools back, and they were closing in on the orb—finally—and his appetite was as good as his mood.
There were just about through when an older man burst through the double door into the inn. He looked around and spotted Jack and the rest. The man seemed to relax and sighed. He walked over to them.
“You are the friends of Heros?” He spotted Jack’s sword. “Of course you are. May I sit? I have been on the road trying to catch up to you.”
Tanner let the man catch his breath. He raised his hand. “Another plate, please.”
“Thank you,” the man said. “I am Grigar Soffez. Where I live everyone calls me Grigar.”
“Because you live in the same city as Heros?” Helen said.
“I do, most of the time, but I have been following you ever since you left Rugiz.” The man took another breath. “I am too old for this.” The breakfast came, and the man began to eat. All of them let him enjoy his breakfast. “That is better.”
“Heros did some checking around the day you left. When he found out the girl is the daughter of a Black Finger Society member, he sent me to warn you.”
“We know Igar Khotes is of the Black Finger Society. We met him,” Tanner said. “He stole our objects of power and is heading to steal another from Aramore Gant.”
Grigar waved the name away. “We know about him. He is demented but highly dangerous.”
“He has possession of the object of power that we seek.”
“I know that too. What you don’t know is that they had previously arranged to meet.”
Jack’s stomach flipped. “The Black Fingers and the patriarch, together?” He looked at his friends. “We can’t defeat them all.”
“There was a meeting after Aramore Gant left Rugiz and when he left these two ladies at a village that I will not name. We don’t know what it was, but returning Simara to her father was one of the conditions.”
“Which we did instead of him.”
“But, as I understand it, you were able to stop him from converting his daughter.”
“We did,” Jack said. “So they will still be fighting for more objects of power?”
“Who knows? I am a wizard of some capability, so Heros tasked me to find you and join your group.”
“A wizard?” Quist asked. “How can we believe you aren’t one of the Black Fingers?”
“Two things. I don’t wear gloves,” Grigar waved clean fingers at them, “although you should be aware that the black fingers can be removed. They are wizards, after all, but more importantly this.” He produced one of the little gold coins that Jack had used. “I know you have two of these: one for the male mercenary, Tanner Simple, and one for you, Jack Winder. I also know one secret.” The man leaned over and spoke in Jack’s ear. “You teleported past the gate to our city.”
“He is genuine,” Jack said.
Quist looked jealous, but that was understandable. “What can you do for us?”
“For one, I know where the patriarch is. A wizard that I have known for most of my life withdrew from society. You might say the wizard was a pioneer of the Black Finger Society since the person began to collect objects of power. However, the wizard became a hermit who wanted to fondle the objects, not use them to dominate the world.”
“Just like the opposite of the patriarch,” Helen said.
“Right, except the churchman wants to rule by himself. The Black Finger Society has its own hierarchy and wants their society to take over.”
“The result is the same,” Simara said. “My father doesn’t want to rule, but he is greedy for powe
r, and he was taken in by their philosophy. That was why I left his tutelage and fled to Corand.”
“If I were in your shoes, I would have done the same.” Grigar finished his breakfast. “Shall we be off?”
“If we do that, we will rush to our deaths,” Quist said.
“No. I am in communication with the wizard. We are still friends, and the wizard is still in control of a little keep. Gant has commandeered the gatehouse about a mile from the keep itself. It is our thinking that Gant may need a Takia’s font to penetrate my friend’s defenses. The power of your Serpent’s Orb is unavailable to him, or he would be sitting in the keep as we speak.”
“We have to get through the Black Finger wizards first,” Quist said.
Grigar smiled. “Certainly that is an impediment, but not an insurmountable one. That was very refreshing.” The man burped. “Let’s go.”
The Soffez wizard followed Jack up to his room. “Heros said you were a surprising young man.”
Jack was always leery of flattery because he had often used it ineffectively himself. “I don’t know about surprising.”
“You said you had all your objects of power stolen, yet that sword is one.”
Jack smiled. “You can tell? So you are a competent wizard.”
“More than competent, actually,” Grigar said.
“I made this one over the last few days,” Jack said.
“You made this? May I touch it?”
Jack was reticent to let any wizard touch his work, but the man did know how he penetrated the Soffez city. Unless his friends blabbed it to the Black Fingers, no one else knew, so he handed it over.
Grigar touched the sword in various places after raising his eyebrows. “A bit crude, but one would expect that for a beginning Takia’s font. Who taught you how to do this? The burnt-out wizard?”
“No. Simara had seen her father make one.”
“You learned from an external point of view?”
“She knew a bit more than that. Mix the spell and your power, and then use your will to force the mix into the object.”
“That is how you did it? It knew it was crude, but you could have been killed.”
“I fainted each time,” Jack said.
“Each time. How many spells are in here? The wizard bolt imbuement I can sense, but I don’t know the others.”
Jack sighed. He had gone this far, he might as well tell him everything, he thought. “I have an anti-coercion imbuement attached to the pommel and an illumination spell on the guard.”
“Where did you get the light spell?” Grigar asked.
“From a little golden finger bowl that belonged to Igar, her father.”
“A bowl this big around?” Grigar made the shape with his hand. “This size?”
Jack nodded.
The wizard nodded. “That isn’t just an object of power, it is a treasure called Takia’s Cup and a recently unhidden holy relic of the Takian church. It is said that Takia used that bowl to drink wine at a feast when she first manifest herself in Lajia. It is thousands of years old. Igar was fully ignorant of its significance.”
“It is in great shape,” Jack said. “Igar couldn’t make it work—”
“But you could?”
“It seems I can break through some of the restrictions. I think I have a lot of power.”
“Touch my wrist,” Grigar said.
Jack could feel his power leak into the wizard.
“You are one of the few that didn’t begin to drain me. Amazing. No wonder your master sent you to retrieve the orb.”
“You know about that?”
“Only what you told Heros. He told me all he knew, but don’t worry. Give me a demonstration.”
Jack showed him a wizard bolt, which didn’t seem to impress Grigar very much, but the light from the guard had him sitting up.
“Takia’s light: bright, colorless, and without heat. I wondered what spell the Takian priests and priestesses used to make it. Be careful how you use that aspect of your sword, Jack. There are awful rumors about that light and that bowl.”
“I was able to make fire belch from it,” Jack said.
Grigar laughed and shook his head. “Takia’s fire? It is rumored to rival the sun’s rays.”
“It might,” Jack said, nearly giddy from Grigar’s reaction. “I shot an intense flame with it. Even though I barely used my power, the bowl became hotter than a wizard’s wand. Anyway, for my purposes, a wizard’s bolt is better because I can steer it.”
“Steer it?”
Jack told him of his session in the field.
Grigar solemnly looked at Jack. “You are a raw talent. You could become a great wizard, but quite frankly, I think it likely you will kill yourself at some point. All the best wizards die young.”
Jack smiled. “So does that mean you aren’t one of the best wizards?”
Grigar couldn’t keep from grinning. “You have me there. I will amend my statement, many of the best wizards die young.” He tilted his head and looked at Jack. “I think you and I will get along.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
~
A ccording to Grigar, the keep was three days away on the slopes of the mountains that loomed ahead of them. Jack looked at the bluish mountains that showed up when they were at the top of one of the ever-steepening, rolling hills.
He was five days away from being gone from Raker Falls for two months. He had long lost hope he would ever deliver the Serpent’s Orb to Fasher on time. Jack would grieve on the fifth day. He really didn’t want to fail, and Tanner reminded him that Fasher would forgive him, given all the trouble they had gone through, if they stayed alive.
Everyone made comments conditional on that or surviving somehow some way. It made Jack a little depressed, but Grigar wasn’t as bothered as the rest, and he knew the capabilities of the Black Finger wizards ahead better than any in the group.
“This is the last inn,” Grigar said. “Tomorrow, we leave the Notiz Road. Get a good sleep and eat well.”
Tanner nodded. Jack looked at him acting subservient to the Soffez wizard, yet Tanner had been the leader and the decider for the entire expedition starting in southern Corand when they first met. They sat down at dinner and began to reminisce.
After a little drinking, Helen squinted at Jack. “It is too bad you don’t have Fasher’s sword to help us.”
Tanner furrowed his brow and was about to say something, but Jack had caught the comment. He thought one of them had intimated that Fasher had hired them, but Jack wasn’t in a position to challenge them.
“Fasher’s sword?” Jack asked.
“Oops,” Helen said, turning red. “I didn’t mean what I said.”
Jack felt deflated. “Has all this been orchestrated by Fasher? Is the patriarch really our enemy?” The enormity of Fasher being behind everything was nearly too much right now, just before they were to clash against a group of formidable wizards and one who might be more powerful than them all.
“You told me that you knew Fasher well, but not that he hired you as my nursemaid,” Jack said. “The sword was planted in the weapons tent that you led me to, wasn’t it? No wonder I got a great price.”
“So?” Tanner said. “You have been an integral part of our group since we started.”
“Simara was my backstop? She already admitted Fasher had hired Henry and her to grab the orb.”
Simara put her head in her hands. “Henry and I weren’t supposed to take the orb, Jack. The patriarch was an unforeseen complication.”
“Quite a complication!” Jack said. “I’ve been made a fool.” He didn’t know what to think other than his friends—were they really his friends?—had betrayed him.
“I wasn’t hired by Fasher if you must know. Isn’t that right, Tanner?”
Tanner nodded. “I met Quist in Bartonsee, just like I said.”
“All my adventures have been artificial?” Jack asked.
“No,” Helen said. “We were hired to protect you.
Everything started to go wrong in Bartonsee when you met the patriarch. Tanner and I think he created his plan to capture the orb there. We were supposed to help you with negotiations with Derr Mason. He truly didn’t want to give up the orb. Fasher said he wanted you seasoned.”
“I am so seasoned I am overdone,” Jack said thinking of a bird on a spit. He thought he was part of the group, but he really wasn’t. It was a field trip at school into the woods to find animal signs. He had done that in extended school, and they ended up being chased out of the woods by an angry bear. How different was this?
Did Fasher give him the Alderachean primer to purposely keep his wizard progress restricted? Obviously. He looked at Quist. None of them were looking at him, concentrating on eating. Quist had given him the wizardry manual with the befuddlement spell or whatever it was attached.
“I’m going up to my room,” Jack said, leaving his dinner partially uneaten.
His face burned, his body shook. He was in no mood to see any of his friends again. He thought back to his match with Penny in the forest. He had been abandoned then, and he felt like he was abandoned now. He slammed his head back into the pillow in his uncomfortable bed. He looked up at the ceiling and let his mind go blank.
Maybe all this wasn’t worth it. Maybe he would be better burned to a crisp in a wizard accident. Seasoning! Fasher put him through all this on purpose. How could he bear to see the man again? All of his wonder with the magic sword. It was all part of the play, and he was an ignorant player. The thoughts went through his mind again and again and again.
Tanner opened the door. Jack gritted his teeth and turned to face the wall.
“Jack,” he said.
“I know my name. Fasher didn’t pay you to remind me what it was,” Jack said, “or did he?”
“Why are you so angry? What difference does it make if Fasher paid us or if we just joined forces?”
“I don’t know, but it does. I feel like I was treated like a little kid.”
“And you aren’t compared to the rest of us? Even Simara is a fully qualified wizard.”
“And I am a wizard’s helper.”
