The Serpent's Orb

by Guy Antibes

  “He is a font, Amara,” Grigar said.

  “Touch my hand young man,” Amara said. “Oh, yes, a strong one too. You could use the orb had you the will to do so, but it takes so much, and young people are so stunted when they first come into their power. Now, what about the bowl? Oh, is it golden?”

  It finally dawned on Jack that Amara was blind.

  “It is, sister.”

  “Let me hold it again!” She fondled it for a while. “I am amazed beyond belief. This is Takia’s Cup! That brilliant bolt of flame came from this?”

  “An object based on it,” Grigar said. “Jack made the object, but the magic was destroyed when he used it.”

  “Ah, it would be.”

  “You saw the bolt of light?” Jack blurted out.

  “I am blind to mundane light, but I can see magic being used. It has some advantages over normal eyesight,” she said. “If I want to cook, I must infuse everything with magic. It does become tedious at times,” she sighed, “but one does what one must do.” She paused for a moment. “You must leave, all of you. The single man in the guardhouse is a font, like Jack. All you will do is kill each other, I’m afraid,” she said. “I am resigned to lose my collection.”

  “Your defenses!” Grigar said.

  “A font can overload them if they can find a weak point such as the secret entrance.”

  “We can help you,” Tanner said. “I’ll not leave you to be destroyed by Aramore Gant.”

  “Is he handsome, my brother?”

  “He is in a way,” Helen said.

  Tanner snorted.

  “If a woman says that, it means he is cute,” the woman smiled.

  “What about you, young man? Will you help defend me?”

  “I might have been responsible for him coming here,” Jack said. “I feel, I feel…” It was hard for Jack to get the words out. “I feel guilty for all the damage he has caused during his trip to Lajia.”

  “Don’t. Takia has led him here, I am sure.” She handed the bowl back. “I will leave you now. Talk it over again if you want to help me. I have a dark feeling about the whole situation. We might all end up holding hands, leaping to our deaths.”

  Her comments still seemed to echo in the air, but Amara had disappeared.

  “I hate it when she does that!” Grigar said.

  “She teleported away?”

  “Something similar,” the wizard said. “She is aligned to an object in the keep. Amara walked here but whisked herself back. She is probably chuckling how she shocked you all.”

  “I am suitably shocked,” Helen said, “if that means anything.”

  “How could she walk here?”

  Grigar shook his head. “Another object of power, most likely. She also makes them, you know, and she is much more powerful than I am. Remember, it is she who ensures the keep doesn’t slide down into the abyss.”

  ~

  Jack and Grigar slept while Tanner and Helen traded watches. Nothing else transpired until the dawn of the next day. Jack sighed as the day to deliver the orb had passed. He was a truant, not that he hadn’t gladly been a truant during his schooling, but not as a wizard.

  “Action!” Helen said.

  Jack was already awake lamenting his failure. They quickly moved toward the gatehouse. Simara struggled with Aramore Gant in one of the upper-floor windows. “Let me out, or I will kill her!” he called out when they got close enough.

  “He is bluffing,” Helen said.

  “Or he doesn’t care,” Tanner said.

  “What about you, Grigar? What do you think?”

  “She is just another Black Finger wizard.”

  Jack nodded behind the shield. He extended the wand and shot a bolt that sizzled through Simara’s hair. Both of them ducked out of the way. “Let her father do the honors,” Jack said.

  They heard another scream. Jack knew it was Simara’s voice. Was it another ruse? Would the patriarch be that hard-hearted? He shook his head. “Let’s go back.”

  They retreated. Helen spat into the dirt. “I am tired of this cat and mouse play we are embroiled in. I say we attack and let Alderach decide who wins.”

  “What about Takia?” Grigar said with a smile.

  “I don’t care who makes the decision,” Helen said.

  Gant poked his head out the window and then withdrew it. “I will make you an offer,” he said. “I will trade the Serpent’s Orb for the golden bowl. I swear by Alderach’s horns.”

  “As if that means anything to him,” Helen said.

  Gant called out again. “That is what you melted the stone in the wall with, wasn’t it?”

  “Of course,” Jack said, lying. “You really will trade for the orb?”

  “For a true relic, of course. Takia really existed. Alderach did, too, but not as a cow. She truly did drink from that bowl and brought it with her from the clouds.”

  Jack wasn’t sure that was the truth, either, but he let the patriarch go on. The thoughts of getting his hands on the orb without dying seemed to be very appealing.

  “How do I know you won’t turn around and use it to fry my friends and me for your dinner?”

  “You will have to trust me, as I have to trust you.”

  “Is Simara really dead?”

  “No, I’m not,” she called out. “My father is hurt. We are the only ones left.”

  She didn’t have to say that, Jack thought. He thought she was lying now that he knew the woman was skilled at it.

  “You have an hour to give me an answer,” Gant said.

  “Do you have a clock with you?” Jack asked the mercenary.

  “Any soldier worth his salt can tell the time well enough,” Tanner yelled back.

  Without waiting for an answer, Gant called from the window. “I will wait for an hour, and then we will destroy you if you do not agree to the exchange.”

  The charm in the patriarch’s voice had disappeared. All Jack heard were the shrill caws of a man-made evil by his arrogance and ambition.

  They retreated to their safe space and waited for a quarter of an hour, the way Tanner figured it, when Grigar raised his head.

  “Time to leave,” he said.

  “What?” Tanner looked at Grigar blankly until understanding lit his face. “Your sister! What does she see?”

  “Magicians with objects of power are heading up from the hamlet at the foot of the mountain, twenty or more. We can’t fight on two fronts. I can see no other path than to join my sister. Circumstances have made our choice.”

  They grabbed their things and ran to the horses to get the rest of their possessions.

  “No horses, we must proceed on foot,” Grigar said.

  The wizard led them into the woods and then they had to wait for Amara to determine where they were by Jack’s objects of power before giving them further directions. They stopped at a rockfall. Upon close inspection, the rocks were from a part of the ruined wall that must have circled the keep. Jack wondered what Amara had set up instead of the wall.

  “Jack, you are best suited for this, but we can’t allow a mistake, or it will cost us our lives. Hold my hand and lend me strength.”

  “I will,” Jack said.

  He extended his hand and felt Grigar pull so much power from him that his whole arm hurt. The wizard spoke a word, and a shimmer appeared in front of them.

  “Single file and quickly. Amara keeps the gateway open for a minute, no more. She can sense an intrusion and will address it immediately, except for us.”

  Tanner jumped right through, followed by Helen, Jack, and then Grigar was the last. When they were far on the other side, Grigar closed his eyes, and the shimmering abruptly ceased.

  “We are under the keep’s protection, now,” Grigar said. “I must sit and recuperate.”

  Jack didn’t say anything, but even he felt a little drained.

  “She said the path is clear in a hundred paces.”

  “What is a pace when you are climbing rocks?” Helen said.
>
  “That sounds like something Quist would say,” Tanner said. “Poor devil.”

  Devil was right, Jack thought.

  After a few minutes, they emerged from the rocky defile onto a gravel-strewn, overgrown path. Jack looked up to the keep. It wasn’t so small seen up close, but it wasn’t a huge castle. He was surprised how it clung to the side of the mountain with one side leaning over the precipice.

  They found Amara waiting for them at the entrance.

  “There was a landslide long ago,” she said, “that almost toppled the keep back then. I bought it for a pittance, and the keep is locked into place with my magic. If I die in the middle of the night, there is a good chance the keep will be my coffin at the bottom of the chasm.”

  “Don’t say that, Amara!” Grigar said. “Let us go inside and look from the upper floor. It has a good view of the guardhouse.”

  She led them through a courtyard. Goats, sheep, and two cows stood in the stables where horses were once kept. Planting boxes filled the rest of the space.

  “How do you do it on your own?” Helen said.

  Amara laughed. “My keep is filled with magic. I may not see as you do, but I can feed the animals and care for my tiny crops. If a plant is sick or dies, I can sense it, probably before you can see it, dear,” she said.

  Jack was impressed. The cobbled pavement was clear of weeds, and Amara’s crops had no weeds to compete with. She had done well to compensate for her disability by using magic rather than by using her other senses. She proved to be a powerful wizardess, remembering what Grigar said about using other means rather than magic so one wouldn’t lose their power. He followed them as the wizardess took them up the stone stairway to the parapet that ran around the entire keep. No soldiers manned those walls.

  The view was amazing from the wall. Jack could see sunlit fields dappled by clouds on the foothills leading plains in the far distance. He moved over to the side facing the chasm and looked down into an abyss that was shrouded with darkness. If the keep ever fell, no one would ever be able to harvest the objects unless they had a mile of rope, he thought.

  Jack leaned over, hoping to catch a glimpse of the bottom, but Tanner pulled on his shirt. The jagged shards of rock, dimly glimpsed, were seared in his memory. To fall was certain death.

  “You were leaning over too far,” he said.

  “It goes down and down and down. There are spikes of rock down there. I saw them,” Jack said.

  “Then try not to practice flying.”

  “Wizards can fly?” Jack asked. What a wonder that would be!

  “No, wizards can’t fly,” Amara said. “Don’t put foolish notions inside that boy’s head. He already has enough foolishness to work with as it is.”

  Jack was taken aback. “How do you know?” he said to the wizardess.

  “You are eighteen, so Grigar tells me?”

  “I am.”

  “All eighteen-year-old boys are filled with foolishness. The problem is they are man-sized, as are you, and that makes their antics dangerous, unlike a boy ten years younger,” Amara said.

  “I’ll bear that in mind,” Jack said.

  “Do that,” she sighed. “Time to go inside. We have a few minutes before the Black Finger Society reinforcements arrive.”

  “Ah,” Jack said. “The hour was to give them time to reach us from the rear.”

  “Indeed,” Tanner looked at Amara. “You have an interesting residence. I look forward to seeing how you live.”

  “You aren’t interested in my objects of power?”

  Tanner chuckled. “I would have no use for them. My magic is vestigial at best.”

  “You have picked up some learning along with your sword, mercenary.”

  “Tanner, please. Learning was forced down my unwilling throat when I was a boy,” the mercenary said. “Manners and a fine vocabulary do not an expert swordsman,” he nodded to Helen, “or swordswoman make.”

  “Grigar, at least you brought interesting friends with you, this time. He generally has a few family members accompany him.”

  “It is easier to use the front gate, Sister,” he said.

  “I’d be happy to let you out right now, if you prefer, Brother,” Amara said with a smile as she opened a door and went inside.

  It seemed to Jack that she was enjoying the company. Unfortunately, they brought a crisis to the keep with them. He began to feel guilty again, but Jack took a deep breath to tuck that inside and followed them in.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  ~

  T he interior of the keep was dark. Grigar lit torches and lamps as they went.

  “Oh. Thank you, Grigar. The lighting is only on for guests, who don’t come very often,” she said.

  “That is all right. I’m a guest, aren’t I?’

  “You all are,” Amara turned and looked at them with sightless eyes. “Through here to see my treasure.”

  She opened the door. When Grigar lit the lamps, mirrored surfaces reflected the curiosities on thick glass shelves.

  “So much glass!” Helen said.

  “It cost me quite a bit. That was before I lost my sight. My collection is impressive, yes? I don’t need the mirrors anymore, but I can see each one as well as you,” she said. “Jack’s objects would fit into my collection except for Takia’s Cup. I wouldn’t be able to see it very well.” Amara patted Jack on the shoulder.

  She pointed out a few of her treasures. She picked up something that looked like an iron Jack’s mother kept hot on a metal shelf above the kitchen fireplace.

  “This is what protects the Keep from falling into the chasm. It binds my magic to the very ground beneath our feet. We are very good friends, this object and I.” She pointed out a few others, but Jack found himself getting bored. Most of the objects did things he didn’t really understand, but Grigar seemed to be enthralled by her descriptions, despite the fact he had probably heard all this countless times.

  Jack had hoped she had objects that controlled the fires of the earth. He had an object that controlled the fires of the sky. He wasn’t disappointed, but Jack was no more excited about all the valuable objects than the yawning Tanner and Helen leaning against a pillar examining her fingernails. There were no magic swords like Jack had, or magic armor, or an object that would make a horse run all day without collapsing. He caught Amara describe one object that kept robes clean.

  Amara cocked her head. “Time to go back out on the parapet,” she said. “The reinforcements have just passed your last night’s camp.”

  Jack counted twenty-two wizards and wizardesses pausing at the camp where the shields had been discarded. About half of them wore gloves, but they were too far away to see if any had black fingertips. Had the four of them waited the full hour, they would have been destroyed. The trade offer had to have been a ruse, he thought.

  A contingent of three wizards picked up the shields and walked slowly toward the gatehouse. It looked like words were spoken, but only a sound or two made it up to the parapet.

  “I see smoke coming from the gatehouse,” Helen said.

  Jack’s gaze turned to the structure. He saw a tendril of smoke emerge from one of the windows. The reinforcements looked restive. A gout of flame bathed some of the reinforcements who had drifted past Jack’s line in the dirt. The attack prompted a flurry of activity. Wizard bolts primarily shot through the sky with occasional streams of flame, although most of the flame came from the gatehouse.

  Jack could see Simara climb out of a ground floor window. She pulled her father’s body out after her, helped by someone inside. A wizard bolt shot a Black Finger poking his head around a shield, so the patriarch was still on the second floor.

  The other person jumped out and helped drag Igar’s body away from the gatehouse. The patriarch must have noticed the movement, as Simara crumpled to the ground, victim to another bolt. The third person ran into the woods rather than join his comrades. Father and daughter lay in the dirt. Neither moved.

  More s
moke began to fill the air as the gatehouse fire began to grow. Flames began to lick out the windows. Jack looked up at the pillar of smoke now reaching into the late afternoon sky. They stood and watched the flames consume the structure. The roof finally collapsed in an explosion of flame.

  The Black Finger wizards dragged Simara’s and Igar’s bodies away. Jack could see the shaking heads. It appeared they were both dead. The other wizard finally emerged from the woods holding his arm. He gestured to the keep and back into the woods.

  “I’m not so sure the patriarch was in the gatehouse when it collapsed,” Tanner said.

  Jack immediately pulled out the seeker cube. “No, he didn’t he is over there,” he pointed into the forest, “and the orb is moving.”

  “Watch out!” Helen said as wizard bolts and streams of fire leaped from the Black Fingers to fall harmlessly on Amara’s spell. “We are protected. Do you think this is the first such gathering at my doorstep? It is the first group that has set fire to the gatehouse,” she said. “Although I can’t see the gatehouse, I could sense the show of force by both parties. Aramore Gant continues to show how powerful he is, but if he could truly control his power, he wouldn’t have had to run.” She took a last look at the wizards. “The two wizards dragged out of the gatehouse are truly dead. They were lost to my sight. One was the girl?”

  “Yes,” Helen said.

  “She was the one who betrayed you?”

  “And another, also dead.”

  Amara patted her brother’s back. “No one should fight against you, Grigar.”

  The wizard grunted. “I didn’t seek their deaths. You know me better than that.”

  “I do.” She walked through the door back into the keep, but paused and clutched her chest. “Gant has found the back entrance,” she said gasping. “True to his current nature, he has blundered through with much power, and it has diminished him. Be prepared for a confrontation. He has more defenses to cross, but I am afraid he is up to them.” She coughed but straightened up. “I have repaired the spell. The Black Finger Society does not have the power of Aramore Gant. We do not have to worry about them.” She continued into her residence.