The Jewel of Nirune (The Sword of Time Book 1)

by William Smart

  "Magic potion?" Billy said in surprise. "What do ya' mean magic potion, no such thing as magic… Hey! You guys are all talking English." as the realization hit him.

  There was stunned silence in the room for a moment, they had all been speaking Putonghua or as it is more commonly known Chinese. They all looked at each other in amazement.

  “Um, yes Billy,” Uncle said. Trying to think of what to say in this new development.

  “You all been playing’ some kind of joke on me? Cause it isn’t funny making’ people suffer you know.”

  Zhoulin stepped closer to the bed, "No Billy, " she said, "we weren't making fun of you, but we need to talk about everything that has happened."

  "Happened?" Billy said. "All that is happened is. I got attacked by some kind of weird lizard or something, Mister Dog and you guys are trying to help me. What else has happened? Oh, and I have been really sick and somehow ended up here." He thought for a moment, "and I gotta go use the John again, hey you guys got any toilet paper?" He looked at them all for a moment. "I don't know what you guys are up to," he said, looking at each of them. "Some strange stuff going on here. First, you can't speak English and now you all can? I wake up in a strange country, it's so hot I could roast. Talking Dog? I feel like Alice in Wonderland. I just don't know," He said. With that, he got up and walked outside. They all stood there in silence for a moment.

  “Well,” Uncle said.

  “How is this possible?” Brother Dog said, “one minute he can’t understand the slightest thing and the next minute he speaks your language perfectly.”

  “And is perfectly healthy after being chopped up by your sword,” Uncle said.

  “Please Uncle,” Brother Dog said. “I might have killed him, not something you should joke about”.“And he seems to remember nothing of what has happened,” Zhoulin said.

  "Well, he has not been conscious for most of it," Uncle said. "It seems this creature, this thing, whatever it is isn't totally evil. Or perhaps I should say it probably won't kill him and might protect him."

  “I would hope it is so,” Brother Dog said sincerely. “I will go and see what is taking him so long.”

  “Billy was standing in the yard staring up at the stars

  “I can’t find the big dipper,” he said.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s a constellation.” Billy said quietly, “a group of stars that should be in the sky every night but I can’t find it. If I can find the big dipper and the little dipper then I can find the North Star and find my way home.”

  “Don’t worry,” Brother Dog said, “there has been a series of mistakes made, but we will take you home.”

  “When?” said Billy.

  “Tomorrow,” said Brother Dog, “we will take you home tomorrow.”

  It was an odd looking group that headed to the meadow where Billy had first arrived and Zhou Lin had battled the Wolvers. They were quiet as they walked. Billy had miraculously recovered and seemed in fine spirits. He walked between Brother Dog and Zhoulin.

  “So how do we get there do we take a plane, or bus, or what? How far are we anyway? Like I am sure this place isn’t anywhere near home, is it?” Something about the magic that was making him able to understand and speak to his friends translated the word plane, as “flying wagon of many strong horses.”

  Zhoulin missed a step “Flying wagon?” she said. “What is a flying wagon? Billy looked at her oddly and said. “I said airplane!” once again it was translated incorrectly Brother Dog, who actually understood both Billy and Zhoulin and was puzzled. But said nothing, he listened to them argue for a moment.

  They had not yet explained to Billy about the symbiotic creature that was attached to his side. They were not sure if they should. He thought it was just a scar it had almost completely disappeared into his skin except it was a brown color, but on close inspection, it was obviously not his skin.

  They had discussed at length what the permeation of this could be. The creature had healed him and obviously given him the ability not only to understand them but speak their language. There was no way of telling if this would continue once he was back in his own home. They reasoned that this thing was somehow a manifestation of some strange Wolver poison. But none of them could answer how this piece of scar tissue that had fallen off of Billy had mutated in such a strange way actually lived for several hours and moved of its own volition.

  Brother Dog had kept it to himself, but it was possible that this seeming accident and odd manifestation was done on purpose and was no accident at all. Was this some new attack on the universe, some new more insidious plan to destroy all life, not Wolver? How much of what Wolver did, was Wolver madness? Perhaps there was more to the Wolver than he had believed. They had always been taught the Wolver was more or less an infestation, a mindless scourge on the universe. But what if they actually had a plan? All the encounters he had seen and heard of seeming random madness. Now, this new idea had started to niggle on his mind.

  “Where did they come from?” He had always assumed being a Wolver was like having a disease. Like the human disease, they called leprosy. Once you had the disease you were the disease and could infect others. But what if there was a Wolver nation out there somewhere, planning and plotting. He shuddered to think about it. It took them most of the afternoon to reach the meadow evening shadows were beginning to form.

  “Hey, I remember this place,” Billy said. “This is where I first saw you guys.”

  Uncle looked around the meadow.

  “Yes, I suppose it is.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  “You do nothing,” Uncle said. “I will prepare the magic and when the time is right you will enter into the light much as you did to get here.”

  “I came here being chased by some weird kind of wolf lizard thing.”

  “Of course, I apologize,” Uncle said. “I believe we can forgo that part. It should be as easy as stepping through a doorway.”

  “Oh Ok,” Billy said hesitantly. “So this is some kind of magic?”

  “Yes, I suppose,” Uncle said, as he went over to the little pond where the water fell off the rocks. It was obviously a magical place when one looked at it. There was not a mountain or river in sight from which the water fell it came directly out of the air. Billy examined it curiously sticking his hand in and out of the flow several times and finding nothing. However, he kept getting an odd stabbing feeling in his wounded side like a stitch. He mentioned this to Brother dog who had no answer, but the warrior wondered if this could be related to whatever had attacked the boy. Perhaps it was triggered by magic since the fountain was the embodiment of such. But he said none of this to Billy.

  The trees and insects were more beautiful than Billy had ever seen. Somehow it was just there like an oasis except it was in a meadow surrounded by a forest and the water tumbling down over the rocks coming from nowhere. Like a spring from the sky.

  “Now comes the real test.” Uncle thought uncertainly. So far he had been unable to get any response from this new staff that had been formed in magic after his battle with Lijiang. He stood before the pool of water and started to chant some spells, just small ones. Spells to call the wind and the water. A breeze swept past briefly and was gone. Was that his doing or just the wind? He wondered. He stood before the little falls and began to cast a merging spell to bring one time in line with the other. Open a door into the other place. A simple spell to send back Billy whence he had come put the world back to rights. He chanted and danced a little, oblivious to who was watching him.

  Nothing was happening, he sang louder and danced harder for so long that he was beginning to lose hope in his own powers. Just as the sun was beginning to set. A little glow from the end of the rod, yes it was working. Good. He chanted higher and higher as the magic began to take hold all around him.

  A small breeze began to be a frantic wind, in swirling, dancing gusts of air, and then a cyclone of power began to surge around him. It was wonderf
ul, he swung around and around like a dervish. At first, he was ecstatic with the new power. He had never felt such power. He knew it was the new staff. Real magic power.

  Then something began to happen a slight feeling that something wasn’t quite correct. Something was amiss. He could almost feel a shifting as if control was slowly being removed taken away from his grasp. Something evil.

  Laughter was in the air. There was a glow around the little falls a black abyss was forming. He could hear Brother Dog and the others shouting at him. He tried to control it, but slowly he could see claws emerging he fought with all his might. The claws seemed to rip at the fabric of time and space and he felt the presence of another in the new magic staff another power fighting against him.

  This shouldn't be happening. He thought. It was a simple enough spell, but he couldn't seem to control the amount of energy. It kept getting stronger and stronger. A voice in his mind made him groan.

  "Did you really think you could defeat me, little wizard?"

  He recognized the voice. It was Lijiang. But how could this be? Lijiang had lain dead in front of him in the meadow. He struggled for a moment with the image; it was hard to resist such a powerful mind. For a moment he almost saw... something it was hard to grasp like a leaf in the wind he grabbed for it with his mind.

  It was gone, something of great importance had just slipped through his grasp, and he was for a moment destitute at the loss of such an important thing. But he could not imagine what it was. He opened his eyes and once again he was hiding in a little cupboard in his old family home.

  “You cannot control or defeat me!” came the voice of Lijiang in his head.

  “I don’t understand!” he said, “I saw you dead.”

  “Yes! You don’t understand my little wizard,” Lijiang chuckled mockingly. “that body was full of disease, it was ill and lacked, shall we say the power that I need. After all I have been using it for nearly 300 years.”

  “What are you talking about my body is old,” Uncle said, “I don’t understand.”

  “Oh, you are such a fool. Your body is full of untapped power Wu Qing Xu! The old man gasped. No one knew his name, how was it this court wizard could know such a thing? A name was a wizard's power and he had never told anyone his.

  “Hahaha! Old man! You carry the name of power from your grandfather, but you are too foolish to know it. The wizard, you stole your magic from was, in fact, your own grandfather. And the night I killed him I was looking to do to you what I will do now. Somehow the old man hid you from me that night and for many years to come, but now I know exactly who you are. You worry about hurting the little flowers and birdies so you repress the power that is within you. The power with which you could have ruled the whole world, but you could not defeat me. You could only kill me and in doing so release my essence so this day I could relieve you of your mortal soul and replace it with mine.”

  The wind blew around Billy and the others in almost hurricane force. Uncle Xu was hanging in midair. They stared in awe as a huge black hole was appearing before their eyes in the sky! It was like the very fabric of space was slowly being torn asunder. Strange things seemed to be crawling on the very edge of the strange rift in the sky, they clawed and tore as if trying to enter into their plane of existence.

  “Something is wrong!” Zhoulin yelled over the sound of the wind.

  "Yeah, I'd say," Billy said, unconsciously as something crawling and evil looking stretched its claws out into his world, then fell back again as if stung by the very air.

  “Uncle!” Zhoulin shouted into the screaming wind. Uncle’s face contorted for a second there was another face there.

  “Lijiang!” Zhoulin said in shock. There was power flowing from Uncles staff like water from a tap it was visible to the eye. She had noticed this staff was different from his old one, he had never said how he had come to possess it. Just had it in his hand after his battle with Lijiang.

  Being a good apprentice, she didn’t ask, although she suspected it had a good deal to do with Lijiang. There was a distinct shadow now surrounding Uncle, engulfing him. A strange battle was unfolding before them, a battle that Uncle appeared to be losing! His face was contorted in pain and blood was coming out of his mouth.

  “We gotta do something!” Billy yelled.

  “But what?” said Brother Dog.

  Zhoulin jumped with all her strength. She managed to grab Uncles’ legs, hoping to pull him down. It wasn’t as easy as one would think even though they were hanging in midair, she yelled as they began to spin higher and higher.

  She began to lose her grip on Uncles' silk robe, desperately she reached out to find a grip and accidentally caught Uncles' staff in her hand. There was a flash of light and suddenly she was in an old broken down house. There were flashings and yelling from deep within the house. She tried to run toward the sound, but the house shook under her feet like an earthquake and she was thrown about like a stone in a tumbler. She finally had to crawl, she dragged herself to an open doorway.

  There before her, locked in a deadly embrace, was a young man who somewhat resembled Uncle and a slithering creature that reminded her of Wolver but not quite. Perhaps the entwining of many creatures.

  They were in a death struggle!

  The creature was wrapped around the young man like a mouse in the grip of a Boa Constrictor. Deadly long teeth were at the young man’s throat edging closer and closer as the young man struggled for freedom. Pulling itself, salivating and growling the creature squeezed the man. He struggled, but his lower body twitched now as the creature squeezed the life from him. Lightnings were all around them. Zhoulin had no weapon, but she knew she didn’t have time to find one. She pulled herself up in the doorway and for a second the house stopped moving. She jumped on the back of the creature.

  The house disappeared and they were hanging from a rocky precipice, staring down at thousands of jagged rocks below. She scrambled not to fall off the slippery creature as it twisted about, to the rocks below, now soaked in water as the lightning storm flashed around her. She fell, but managed to grab a sharp rock, it cut into her hand but she held fast. She dangled there for a moment terrified of the chance of falling. She tried to gather her thoughts.

  It was then she realized this was all a dream of some kind. A deadly dream, but still a dream, even though she believed she could die. She closed her eyes and concentrated, searching for some weapon in her mind. There was a strange shift in reality. She could feel it. Something was suddenly different! Her body seemed to change. She felt huge muscles moving under her tawny pelt, her vision was sharp and her tongue licked her lips past razor-sharp teeth.

  Alive like never before. A deep growl rumbled in her throat as she felt her sharp claws slide out of their sheaves in her massive paws. She jumped nimbly from rock to rock and once again was on the creature killing her mentor.

  It was glorious as her teeth sank deep into the flesh of the thing that was trying to kill Uncle. She ripped and tore with all her strength. She now saw Uncle as if coming out of a daze began to change before her eyes and now there was not a man locked in the creature's embrace but a ravening wolf biting and clawing.

  She screamed like a mad thing her mouth swelled to twice its normal size. She grabbed the creature's head into her mouth and bit. Blood and juice poured down her throat. She gloried in the joy of the kill as the creature stopped moving under her claws. She chewed on the head for a moment, enjoying the crunch of the bones in her teeth.

  Somewhere there was an explosion. She was falling.

  She awoke on the ground. Billy had her head on his chest as Brother Dog wiped at her face with a cool damp cloth.

  “What happened?” she said.

  “It was amazing,” Billy said, after a moment. “Some old wizard attacked Uncle. Lijiang was it?... He was chasing Uncle attacking him, then you jumped and tried to pull Uncle down, but Lijiang Turned into a snake or I guess it would be a Chinese dragon. He was trying to kill you both. It was really we
ird and it was all in midair, you must remember jumping on him.”

  “Yes,” she said quietly.

  “The battle was fierce,” Brother Dog said. “I have never seen such a battle before little one and I would be proud to stand beside you if ever you need me.

  "Yes," Billy said, "something went wrong with the spell for sure it looked like there was some kind of portal or something opening up and all these strange things started to crawl out from another dimension or something. Wow, it was intense. The green light was there, but it was brighter than I have ever seen it, then there was an explosion."

  “Yes, an explosion did seem to come from the green light,’” Brother Dog agreed.

  "Oh," she said, "I remember an explosion I thought it was part of the dream."

  “Yes, well if you don’t know, the falls blew sky high.”

  She sat up and looked. It was true. The magic falls were gone, completely obliterated. Where the beautiful falls had tumbled over the rocks down to the lovely pool, water lay on the ground, making a muddy hole where the water slowly drained into the surrounding meadow.

  “Where is Uncle?” She said looking around the meadow.

  Uncle was lying on a blanket not far away.

  “He is badly wounded!” Brother Dog said. “There is a nunnery near here we will have to carry him there and perhaps they will be able to heal him. And even now you are awake, but you should see someone. You might have injuries of which we cannot see.”

  "I will go to the nearest village and bring help, on four feet, of course, I can go quicker than you and it won't be hard to find. I can smell it from here. You humans smell. I am surprised you can't smell the foul place." He looked at them for a moment reprovingly.

  "Please write a quick note so I can get help to follow me to the edge of the forest. It would not do for them to see what we have done to their lovely magic fountain. So In the meantime, you need to build some kind of litter and move the old man there."

  It took some time for the promised help to arrive. Which was a good thing because Billy and Zhoulin had a terrible time moving the old man to the edge of the forest far enough away that no one would see the devastated fountain. Not much was said as they walked to the nunnery. Billy and Zhoulin were exhausted from moving Uncle to the forest. Luckily the convent was located near a small river, somewhat away from the smelly little village much to Brother Dogs enjoyment. Billy was fairly certain that none of the nuns had seen or noticed the now missing Magic fountain, but he was sure someone would, and probably sooner than later. He was anxious to leave, but Zhoulin assured him that no one would say anything about them. This was a place of peace. All secrets remained here.