by Guy Antibes
Tanner laughed. “And what does that mean about anything here?”
“Fasher wanted me trained or something.”
“Or something, Jack. He wanted you to learn a bit more about life than he possibly could teach you in Raker Falls. Do you think you could have had all these experiences if you followed Fasher around like his niece has to do?”
“I wanted to learn more about wizardry,” Jack said.
“And you haven’t? We are all impressed by what you’ve picked up,” Tanner said. “I wouldn’t be heading up the mountain if you weren’t by our side. It isn’t just the seeker cube. If you’ve noticed, we haven’t needed that, but we have still needed you. Who rescued us from the cottage basement? It wasn’t Helen or me, last time I checked. Have I ever had to wipe your nose? I’m no nursemaid, and neither is Helen.”
“Then what is Quist?”
Tanner shook his head. “I don’t know why Quist is with us, but he has been useful.”
“Holding horses while we did stuff.”
“Indeed. A band like us always needs a good horse holder.”
That made Jack smile. He found his anger had blown out.
“I’m sorry,” Jack said. “I should have taken the news more maturely.”
“It’s okay,” Tanner said, sitting on his bed. “I was a kid not that long ago, you know. We do need you. If nothing else you are keyed into those objects of power.”
“I didn’t know about the sword.”
Tanner chuckled. “If I didn’t get that sword in your hands, Fasher would have skinned me alive. It is one of his most valuable possessions, so we have to get it back, if nothing else.”
Jack was getting more partial to the one he had imbued. “So we have to fight both groups.”
Tanner nodded. “I’m happy that Heros sent us some help. He knew we’d be a little thin, but now we have three wizards among us.”
“I am a Takia’s font, not a wizard,” Jack said.
“As good as. Come on down and let’s do a little talking before you turn in.”
Jack nodded. “I’ll be embarrassed.”
“What were you planning to do, leave for Reoja in the middle of the night?”
“I hadn’t gotten that far,” he admitted as he stood and followed Tanner back to the common room.
“The Takia’s font has returned,” Grigar said. “I, for one, am very glad you are back. I assure you, your master did not pay me to join you. What you did for Heros and his three family units can’t be properly repaid. If I can, I’d like to save the person in the keep.”
“Well, then. What ideas have you come up with while I’ve been behaving younger than my age?” Jack said.
“Your age,” Helen said. She looked more alert after Jack’s outburst. “I’m sorry.”
“No need. I’m sure all of us are sorry enough,” Jack said. He realized it would take him some time to get completely comfortable around his friends. But he realized he still thought of them as such.
Grigar began by describing the road up to the keep. He’d been there a few times in the past few years. “Half the keep is on the edge of a precipice that falls hundreds of feet down into a rocky chasm. It helps keep the wolves and bears from sneaking up on the keep,” he said with a smile. The rest of the keep faces a little forest with lots of cover. That is where the wolves and bears attack from.”
We are fighting one bear and a pack of wolves,” Tanner said.
“Exactly. The old gatehouse is a half-mile down from the keep. The slope is not quite steep enough to prevent a carriage or a wagonload of provisions from reaching the place,” Grigar said. “The Black Fingers will probably be in a little hamlet at the base of the peak. The keep is midway up. There is a back way that I was shown that starts at the hamlet. Horses only.”
“No people?” Jack asked.
Everyone groaned.
“Jack is back,” Quist said. That comment did make them laugh.
“So we will attack the Black Fingers first and then move up to get the patriarch,” Jack said. Easier said than done, he thought.
~
They camped a few miles from the cluster of houses and the single inn of a tiny village. Grigar took Jack and Simara aside.
“What can you do from a wizardly point of view?”
Jack described to him what he could do personally, which other than teleporting wasn’t much.
“I am best at throwing things,” she said.
“Like dirt?” Grigar said.
“That too.”
“Show me,” the Soffez wizard asked.
Simara lifted up a handful of soil with her magic and moved it into a tree.
“Can you do the same thing with heavier objects?”
She pursed her lips and looked down. “Honestly, the bigger the objects, the less I can do.”
“Then stick with dirt. Gather sacks of it. If you can pelt the wizards with clouds of dirt, it will distract their concentration, giving Helen and Tanner a chance to use their weapons. What else?”
“The usual: fire, closing doors.”
It was obvious that Simara’s wizardry wasn’t particularly offensive. “Any healing?”
Simara brightened. “I spent a year at the center for healing arts,” she said.
“And she knows the counterspell for coercion,” Jack said.
Evidently, once prompted, Simara knew more than she had stated. Grigar assigned her to support Helen and Tanner and excused her to join the others.
“Now what about you and that pigsticker of yours,” Grigar said standing with fists on hips.
“I’m not much with a sword,” Jack said.
“I’m sure neither are the wizards. I’m not. Let’s see a good solid bolt. See what you can do to that tree over there.” Grigar pointed to a tree with a trunk about six inches in diameter.
“You want me to knock it down?”
The wizard narrowed his eyes, gazing at the tree. “If you can.”
Jack nodded. He pointed his sword at the tree, realizing that it was heavier than his wand, but he knew the bolt would go where he willed it. He gathered in his strength and cried out the trigger word.
A thick, white, crackling bolt shook the sword as it left the tip and crashed into the tree severing the trunk.
“I think you need to put out the fire on the two ends,” Grigar said drily. “That will do. They won’t be able to match that, but enough to bore a hole through your young body.”
“Do you know a shield spell?” Jack asked.
“The best defense is plate steel, and you have your cuirass to protect you.” Grigar folded his arms. “It is better to rely on the physical, and then use the magical. Shields can drain precious power.”
“What?” Jack said.
Grigar pointed at the burning ends. “Get some water and extinguish the fire.”
“Can’t you do it with magic?” Jack asked.
“Of course I can, but I need to conserve my power. Go on, now.”
Jack returned with water and doused the flames before returning to where Grigar had sat. He examined the tip of his sword and wiped off the soot caused by the wizard’s bolt. If he had used his hand, his skin might have burned off, Jack thought. That was why experimenting was dangerous, as if he hadn’t been reminded a million times already.
“Light,” Grigar said. “Bathe that rock with light from your sword.”
Jack did so. He tried to focus the beams of light, and it worked, but he could feel a drain on his power when he did.
“One more time, and think of Takia’s flame that you saw coming from the bowl. One short burst. You will likely feel the power leave you.”
Jack nodded. He closed his eyes and imagined the cord of intense flame that he coaxed out of the golden bowl. “Where?”
“The same rock,” Grigar said. “Focus,” he said softly. “The best trigger word will likely be ‘Takia.’”
Jack pointed his sword at the rock that he had lit up and focused on the goddess’s name. He
willed a short burst and invoked the Lajian goddess firmly, but quietly. A slug of thick, bright light, quite different from the light and much more potent than a wizard bolt, flew in a straight line to the rock and splashed against it.
“You will need more water,” Grigar said.
That set Jack off to running. The fire was larger, but Grigar had already used some of his power to keep the fire from spreading. Jack looked at the rock. The slug of fire had created a pocket in rock.
“I did that?”
Grigar nodded. “How do you feel?”
“Relieved that I didn’t try that on anyone. I don’t think I could ever use that on a person,” Jack said.
“Don’t. It will make a mess. Your wizard’s bolt is better. That is all the magic for now except a little coercion to see if your sword will stop the spell without any intervention on your part.”
Grigar took a deep breath and then opened his eyes and said a word that Jack had never heard.
“Come out from the trees, Quist,” Grigar said.
“Quist?” Jack asked, but was surprised to see the burnt-out wizard walk toward them.
“Why are you here?” Grigar said.
“To observe,” Quist said.
“For whom do you observe?”
“The Black Finger Society,” Quist said.
Jack realized that Grigar had used the compulsion spell on the wizard instead of him.
“What did you intend to do with what you saw in this clearing?”
“Tell Igar Khotes and the rest so they could devise a defense.”
Grigar looked up at Jack. “If you were wondering why Quist didn’t admit to being hired by Fasher Tempest, you now know why, young man.”
Jack took a step back, thoroughly in shock. What Quist did was infinitely worse than anything Tanner or Helen had done. “Why?” Jack asked.
Quist looked at Jack and narrowed his eyes, but he kept silent.
“Why did you do it?” Grigar asked.
“The Black Finger Society restored my power. I would be accepted into their society if I could deliver the Serpent’s Eye into their possession.”
“Do you want to kill him?” Grigar asked.
“Not me,” Jack said. “He has been a friend.”
“Waiting for the right time to betray you. I imagine he made contact with Simara’s father a few times.”
“When he helped put away the horses at his mansion,” Jack said. He looked at Quist. “Wait, he said he already had his power restored.”
Grigar nodded. “He doesn’t have much power, but I can see that it has been hidden.”
“So he put the muddling spell on the wizard manual when he grabbed onto my wrist in Derr Mason’s house. Simara seemed to have been able to remove it well enough.”
Grigar smiled and spoke a word. Quist dropped to the ground.
“Did you kill him?” Jack asked.
“No, no. That is for you and your friends to decide. I would say, that without him you would be heading to my friend’s keep by yourselves. I wouldn’t have caught up. So there is that,” Grigar said.
“He doesn’t have black fingers,” Jack said as he picked up Quist’s boots to drag him back to their camp.
“Don’t you remember? He wasn’t accepted, yet. I doubt if they would. His power seemed to be average or less. They would have likely killed him when his usefulness ended. Such is the depravity of the Black Fingers, at least in Lajia. They are a scourge on us all.”
Jack arrived in camp with Quist still out.
“What happened?” Simara asked.
“Quist was listening in,” Jack said.
Tanner raised his eyebrows. “He has had a habit of doing that. So what?”
Jack looked at Grigar who encouraged him with a wave of his hand.
“He wasn’t hired by Fasher Tempest,” Jack said. “The Black Finger Society restored his power so he could steal the Serpent’s Orb from us.”
“But he is burnt-out,” Helen said.
“A ruse,” Grigar said. “I am more adept than the person who hid the spell. Quist could use magic, but only after unlocking whatever had suppressed it.”
“I wondered why Fasher mentioned only you and not Quist,” Helen said to Tanner. “I had expected a change in him after losing his power, so—”
“We all gave him allowances for that,” Tanner said. “I still can’t kill him, as deserving as he might be. We will tie him up and deal with him when we return from the mountain.”
“I’m fine with that, as long as he doesn’t run away,” Jack said.
“He won’t. I have another spell that I can use,” Grigar said. “A nasty Third Manipulation, as you would call it.”
Quist was wrapped up in a tarp and hidden in the woods. He would be out for three days, according to Grigar. They assembled back as twilight fell.
“Grigar said that Simara would protect you two,” Jack said. “We will come at them from the front?” Jack looked at Grigar.
“If there is a front,” the wizard said. The inn, as I remember it, has a back door and a front door. Windows cover the rest of the exits.”
“The shutters that are everywhere?” Jack asked.
“Yes, but it is colder here, so there are a few sheets of waxed paper in between the outside and inside shutters. They won’t be able to see out.”
Tanner thought for a bit. “We will go tonight. No one wants to kill Quist, but will these wizards try to kill us? We could always just burn the place down.”
“We shouldn’t damage the villagers any more than we have to,” Grigar said, “if we are to gain an ally in the person who inhabits the keep.”
“The more restrictions on our actions, the lower our chance of success, you know,” Helen said.
Grigar nodded. “That is why I said any more than we have to. What about Igar Khotes?” He looked at Simara.
“If you can put him to sleep like you did Quist, I would prefer it.”
Jack could tell she was conflicted. She had volunteered to see her father, so even though he had tried to involuntarily convert her to the Black Finger Society, she still wanted to reunite with him. Jack looked at his own fingers and still didn’t understand how that would work. He would ask Grigar once they had retrieved the orb. He had a lot of things to discuss with the man.
“Speaking of sleep, I suggest you get some,” Tanner said. “I will wake you up when it is time to get ready.”
Jack tied up his cuirass and put on his helmet before he went to sleep and tucked his weapon at this side. He wanted to be ready when Tanner gave them the call in the darkness of the morning. The unveiling of Quist and the planning for the attack in the morning prompted Jack to think he would never be able to sleep, but as soon as he heard other snores around the camp, not Quist’s, he sighed and fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty-Three
~
“W hat is this?” Jack asked, his eyes opening in utter blackness. He struggled with the blanket or whatever someone wrapped him up with. “Funny is funny,” he said. “Even I know this isn’t the time to kid around.” He continued to try to get out of the dark cocoon that held his arms to his side. The guard of the sword, still underneath him, poked his side.
He realized that he was alone, where ever that was, and called out again and heard nothing. He paused and decided he had to get some kind of bearings. It looked like Quist was able to communicate with the Black Finger Society at some point when they arrived. No one ever really kept track of him. Jack sighed.
He rolled around on uneven ground. He was probably tucked into the forest in much the same way that Quist was, but the wizard was asleep, and Jack wasn’t. He touched the hilt of the sword and found it was pointing at this foot. He would have to burn his foot off to get out of his binding, or did he?
Jack remembered he could curve a wizard bolt. The question was could he bend it enough to keep it from incinerating his foot. He decided it was worth a try, even if he did have to sacrifice the sheath. He closed his eyes an
d then laughed. Why did he have to close his eyes if his bindings left him in total darkness? He imagined the wizard bolt cutting through the cloth from his ankle to his hip.
Jack took the deepest of breaths. This was just the kind of thing that everyone warned him against, but he couldn’t passively stand by. He tried to remain calm as he married his power with the trigger word. “ZAP!”
He was nearly overcome with smoke as he continued to use his will to move the bolt up toward his hip. The fabric’s smoldering overcame him, breaking his concentration. He coughed and struggled, but he felt cooler air mix with the smoke. Jack held his breath as he found the slit and put one foot through it and then another, and after a fit of coughing, he emerged, looking up at the starry night.
Jack was alone, but he wasn’t at the campsite. He figured he had been taken and dumped in another place. Probably back the way they had come. Why didn’t they just kill him, he thought? Why didn’t they check to see if he had slept on his sword? Jack had to shake his head. He doubted that Tanner and Helen would be making all the mistakes the Black Fingers made, but he would take advantage of their incompetence.
Now he wished he would have tucked some food in with him, but he had his armor. He lit a torch and looked at the blanket that was his shroud. He saw the burn hole of a wizard bolt and removed his cuirass. He rubbed at the scorched metal right where his heart would be,
He looked around for his companions, but didn’t find anyone. They had tried to kill him, and that might turn into an advantage if Jack decided to attack the Black Fingers. The night was chilly, so Jack wrapped the blanket around him and searched for some time, before finally emerging from the forest on the Notiz Road. The mountain was on his left, so Jack knew what direction to walk.
The landscape was unfamiliar, and Jack hadn’t paid much attention when they had traveled to the little hamlet. The darkness lent a sinister and foreboding feel to the road, and the mood made Jack fear for his friends.
The light seemed to be increasing by the time Jack recognized their campsite. He found the place where Quist had been put and found nothing. The attackers had taken their horses. Jack rummaged through all the garbage, but anything of value had been removed.
