The Baldari (Book 3)

by Bob Blink

  As the boat pulled ashore, Burke surveyed the beach, and seeing nothing unusual, leaped out onto the reddish mud. His boots sunk several fingers deep, but he moved quickly and soon was above the muddy section. He waited for several of his fellow wizards to disembark and join him. He wished to have them close. If matters became dicey, Linked Brightfire was the strongest weapon they had available. He was a little uncomfortable based on what Daim had told him about the shields employed by the puppet Casters who had helped the Baldari when they attacked Nals. Not much could stand against Brightfire, but if they had protection, his team could find themselves in trouble. Satisfied by his support, he then stepped forward toward the reddish topped plants.

  The top of the plants reached to his shoulders, and the ball of red was about the size of his head. Burke couldn’t know that the plant was called Ler’ver’ar by the Baldari, and was the source of their most favored food staple. He would have liked to examine the plant more closely, perhaps even bringing one of the pods back to Ash’urn for examination, but he’d learned that could be dangerous. The plants looked innocent enough, but who knew what might be released if he attempted to hack the top off. He’d get advice before making the attempt. They weren’t after plants anyway, so taking a risk for curiosity’s sake wasn’t wise. As Burke stood by the field he suddenly realized what struck him about the field. The plants totally dominated the vast meadow. There were no other plants growing in the area. No weeds or small vines grew around the base of the trunks. He had only seen that back home in cultivated areas where someone had put forth great effort to keep everything else away. That was true here as well. While a single species might dominate, there were always other plants growing around and in between to take advantage of the unused area. Here there was nothing. The dirt was bare around the root base.

  Burke felt a sudden chill. His eyes scanned the horizon. As usual, he couldn’t see very far, but at least here he could see over the tops of the red pods. If this field was cultivated as he believed, then someone or something had to cultivate it.

  “Bring the boats ashore,” Burke commanded. “We are going to have a look over that hill.”

  Chapter 25

  “Where is this place you found?” Jeen asked.

  “Kal’ran,” Ash’urn replied. “Actually, I think we need to give Fen the credit. It was his persistence and keen eye that deciphered the glyphs and found a way to activate the Waygate.

  “The what?”

  “Fen started calling it that, and it seems fair to allow him to name it. It’s more than a Bypass. It reached farther than any we can make, shrugging off the effects of the Ruins to allow a single jump from the eastern side all the way to Kal’ran.”

  They were gathering at the Outpost to discuss the finding and how to move forward. Representatives of the Guild were due to arrive with Rigo shortly. Jeen looked forward to seeing Rigo. They hadn’t chatted in some time. Events seemed determined to keep the old friends apart. At the moment, only Jeen and Ash’urn had arrived at the meeting room.

  “There’s no magic in Kal’ran,” she objected. “No one has ever found anyone with the gift there.”

  “Isn’t that interesting,” Ash’urn noted. “The Caretakers, as they call themselves, are also ungifted, yet they have been somehow blessed with some unique abilities. I suspect it is not without purpose that far off Kal’ran has never produced even fledgling wizards.”

  Jeen was about to question what Ash’urn meant, when Daim suddenly hurried into the room. He smiled briefly at Jeen and Ash’urn, then stopped and stared at the large color sketch that Ash’urn had made of the distant artifact. It showed it as it appeared today, floating above the bottom of the bowl, with the glowing symbols around its base pulsing with red light. Somehow Ash’urn had captured the rolling effect of the lighted symbols, even though his drawing was static.

  “That’s how it appears now?” Daim asked, but it was clear he understood that to be the case. “It looks natural somehow.”

  “It also has the remarkable ability to push back upon the weather,” Ash’urn said. “The occasional dust storms have been unable to fill the bowl beneath it, nor have they been able to coat it with sand. It stands clear and bright in the middle of that strange place.”

  “It was probably designed to do so,” Daim suggested.

  Ash’urn shook his head. “Perhaps weather in general, but I’m certain now that the artifact predates the Ruins.”

  That earned him a quick glance from Daim. Before they could pursue the matter, more people arrived. Ash’urn smiled as Rigo stepped into the room. With him were Ardra, Fen, Lyes, and Professor Meyter. Daim didn’t know the professor, but Ash’urn had informed him the man was coming. He had been instrumental in their activation of the Waygate.

  “Nycoh didn’t come with you?” Jeen asked Rigo as she greeted him. He looked well. Relaxed and fit. Obviously he and Mitty had been good for one another.

  “She said she would come alone,” Rigo said, looking around as if he could spot her somewhere. “She planned to return to the Three Kingdoms last night. I expected she would already be here.”

  “No one’s seen her,” Jeen said.

  “I’m certain she’ll arrive soon,” Rigo said. His eyes had discovered Ash’urn’s sketch and he walked over to have a look.

  “I’d forgotten how impressive it was,” Rigo said, noting the scale set by the figure who had to be Fen standing at the lip of the sand bowl. “I can’t believe they found a way to activate it.”

  A few minutes were consumed as those who didn’t know the professor were introduced. Nycoh still hadn’t arrived, but they elected to get started.

  “How is it kept hidden?” Ardra asked.

  “It is something like an illusion, the kind that Lyes is capable of, but on a much grander scale,” Ash’urn said. “There are also other protections at work. You can’t approach it by water. There is some kind of magic that transports you from one side of the lake to the other. The Caretakers indicate there is no way to overcome that barrier.”

  “How certain of that are we?” Daim asked.

  “Thus far all we have is the word of the Caretakers,” Ash’urn said. He was doing most of the talking since he’d been the only one capable of speaking with the Caretakers. “I suppose they could be mistaken, or perhaps, for reasons we don’t understand, being misleading. I’d wager that the magic required is beyond the ability of any of us. I’m also not sure how they would take to our experimenting around the lake.”

  “I can’t see what they could do about it,” Ardra said. “This might be important, and since they don’t have magic, they would be hard pressed trying to stop us.”

  “Is there really a need?” Rigo asked. “Even though it’s a bit inconvenient, there seems to be a way inside that is open to us. From what Ash’urn says, even if we were able to open a Bypass to the island just outside the Repository, we still would be unable to get inside. Perhaps we should figure that out first.”

  He looked to the others. While he waited for a response, he noted that Nycoh had stepped quietly into the room and now stood silently in the back. She nodded his way, her eyes meeting his.

  “Even once we are inside it appears we are going to be restricted in what we can do,” Lyes pointed out. “From what we observed, everything is protected by another strong barrier. We didn’t spend a lot of time experimenting, but it didn’t seem that we would be able to access the materials there.”

  “You say there are learning booths?” Daim asked. “Perhaps we need to see if the answers are to be found there. It might be that once someone goes through the complete set of instructions someone appears to have left behind for us, that little problem will go away. The fields that protect the books might simply be a way of protecting the materials from aging. After all, they appear to have been there a very long time.”

  “It’s more than that,” Ash’urn said positively. “This place was set up, protected, and hidden away. Whoever did so was hiding it from somet
hing.”

  “Let’s go have a look then,” Ardra insisted, impatient with all the talking. “We need answers to the new magic our enemy is using. This place is the best chance that has been revealed so far.”

  Everyone wished to go at once, but Rigo and Ash’urn objected. Nycoh as yet had said nothing.

  “I think we should go in two teams. Everything about this place appears safe enough, but that is based on a single visit by our friends. There might be more to it than we realize. Clearly there is magic at work that we don’t understand, and have no response to. It wouldn’t be good if the heads of both the Outpost and the Guild ended up trapped inside this place.”

  Rigo’s words made sense, and two teams were formed. The first to go would be a team made up of Rigo, Ash’urn, Fen, Nycoh, and Ardra. When they had returned safely, the second team consisting of Lyes, Professor Meyter, Jeen and Daim would have a look. Each team contained two of those who had been part of the initial discovery group. With this decision made, the first group disappeared through a Bypass that would take them to the artifact in the Ruins.

  Daim was conversing with Professor Meyter when Lyes walked over to where Nycoh stood examining Ash’urn’s drawing of the artifact.

  “You decided not to go?” he asked. Nycoh had been selected for Rigo’s team, yet she had remained behind. Lyes had learned that she often followed her own wishes in such matters. It was often difficult to know what she was thinking.

  She was silent for a moment, then turned and looked at Lyes. They hadn’t spoken much of late.

  “I’ll go on my own later. I’d like to examine it without someone else directing my observations.”

  Lyes shrugged. “I thought maybe you had decided to go with us.”

  “Do you think that would be a good idea? What would your friend Nori think of that? I saw you with her in Nals. She’s very attractive. Is the relationship getting serious?”

  Lyes flushed. This wasn’t something he wanted to discuss with Nycoh. He’d hoped to avoid the matter, but now she’d brought it up and he was uncertain how to respond. He felt as if Nycoh could sense he had already started sleeping with Nori, something that had happened much faster than Lyes would have expected. It had taken himself and Nycoh many months to progress as far. Then, of course, things had turned sour. It was his fault, and he didn’t know how to backtrack now.

  “I’m not sure,” he stammered.

  “You’re not sure? Seems like a problem you have, not being sure I mean.”

  This wasn’t going well. He shouldn’t have approached Nycoh at all. She’d made her thoughts known when they parted.

  “Perhaps your way is better,” he said finally, and turned to walk back over to speak with Daim, noting Jeen across the room out of the corner of his eye. He knew Jeen and Nycoh were close, and he could tell she had been watching the two of them covertly.

  In far away Kal’ran, Ash’urn led the way as Rigo and the others stepped out of the Waygate and into the lobby of the Repository. The artifact had been floating unchanged in the middle of the Ruins, and had worked exactly as before. The small group looked around. The place was empty and quiet, just as it had been the last time Ash’urn had been here.

  “The Caretakers supposedly will know that we are here,” he said. “They said that they could sense when someone arrived through the Waygate. If you wish to speak with them, we can visit the village when we are done here. They can’t enter anymore than anyone else, so they won’t disturb us while we are inside.”

  Fen was already showing Ardra one of the training booths. She was seated in front of the panel, and staring at the screen that displayed the instructions in her native language. Ash’urn led Rigo to another of the active units, and he was soon scrolling through the material himself. He spent longer at it than the others had during the last visit, finally looking away from the screen and standing up.

  “It doesn’t look like it is going to explain how to access the texts here,” Rigo said. “Unless that part is later in the instructions. From what I get, it looks as if it is expected that one has access to the texts and this shows how to go forward. I am beginning to believe that the protection you described is something that was activated afterwards as additional protection for this place. Something must have happened and someone wanted to hide and preserve the knowledge here.”

  “I intend to spend some time here tomorrow and read through the entire set of instructions,” Ash’urn said. “It is essential we find a way to see what knowledge is hidden here.”

  Just then Ardra and Fen walked over. “Let’s have a look at what else is here,” she said.

  They spent the next half glass walking through the facility. Ardra stepped into one of the working readers out on the floor, and showed she had already learned something. With a carefully placed palm, she was able to open the drawer where texts were to be placed for reading. Now if they could just access the tantalizingly close stacks of scrolls.

  “You can’t get at the scrolls inside the training units,” Ardra said. “Those are somehow locked in place. The training booth says that virtually any book can be placed in the reading compartment of the rest of these units and it will be translated into the user’s native language. It would be interesting to bring something in the language of Sedfair, and see if someone from the Three Kingdoms can read it.”

  Ardra had obviously gotten farther into the instructions than Rigo had

  They walked through the facility. Rigo had no more luck getting through the barrier that protected the scrolls than the others had the last time. In the back, they found a long desk with a number of texts stacked with less care than those on the shelves. They were still behind some kind of protective barrier, but Rigo could sense that it was noticeably weaker than the magic that protected the materials on the shelves. He suspected the magic that protected these was somehow related to the magic that had been employed to halt the aging of the facility. This might be a place to start. They might have more luck accessing the scrolls here than those in the shelves.

  After another glass, it was time to leave, and allow the other team to have a look. Afterwards, they would set up some kind of rotation, so that only a certain number of people were in the facility at one time. They would have to decide who might be the most effective at learning how to use this place.

  Some time later, after the second group had returned from their tour of the repository, Lyes said, “The Guild library has a number of very old texts that no one has ever been able to read. Even if we can’t access the materials stored in that place, we might be able to use it to read those old scrolls.”

  “The Outpost has a number of such texts as well,” Nycoh observed. She and Ash’urn had spent more time in the Outpost’s library than anyone. She had yet to visit the Repository, but had an image of the place from the descriptions provided by the others. She had already decided she would be one of the first to go and study carefully everything in the training session.

  Daim muttered softly to himself. “The old Citadel had several hundred ancient texts that had never been translated. It is unfortunate that I didn’t think to move them into my cave in the Ruins. They are lost along with the old headquarters.”

  “Are they?” Nycoh asked. “You explained that the Citadel was not protected and the centuries that passed wore it away, but perhaps the protective spells on the texts preserved them well enough they might have survived. It would be worth visiting the location of your old campus and see if anything remains buried somewhere.”

  Daim considered Nycoh’s suggestion. He didn’t think anything would be found, but it was worth a second look. He’d returned to the location twice since he’d been resurrected, and found nothing had remained. Of course, he hadn’t attempted to move tons of earth to see what might be buried.

  The group spent another glass deciding who should be on the teams that would begin investigating the repository. Once two research teams had been defined, each made up of five Casters and five wizards, a mixed team
drawn from the Guild and the Outpost, they broke to inform those selected of their new task.

  As the others left, Nycoh pulled Fen aside. “Come with me,” she said. “Let’s see what is really there.”

  Chapter 26

  S’erom met with the rest of the attack force at the usual gathering place. The name of the village that had once existed here no longer mattered. The area had ceased to be a home for any A’ardaugh some time ago. Everyone who had lived here was gone. The men had all been killed in one battle or another. No one knew what happened to the women. S’erom could guess, but what did it matter?

  He would be First once again. No one told him, but he knew anyway. So did all of the warriors who were arriving. It was a position he was used to assuming. He’d filled it far too often of late. In truth, he’d been extremely lucky to be alive and in command once again. He couldn’t remember the same warrior being First more than twice in the early days when he was simply one of the fighters. He’d survived against the odds. Maybe that was why he kept being chosen. This might be the last time, however. The target this time had been attempted before. He knew where they were going and that none had succeeded in the earlier attempts. Why they kept going back and what was important there mystified him. Of course, the whole matter of this war was something beyond his understanding. Somehow he suspected his chances of ever seeing his family again were very small. He wished he could simply refuse to go, but that wasn’t an option.

  He didn’t know his Second, beyond which warrior he was. That was fine by him. Every battle there had been a different Second, mostly because they hadn’t survived. Only one Second had come back with him, and for some reason they had not been paired for repeat assaults. Perhaps his former Second was a First now with another force. The current one was from a village far to the north of his own, and they had never met. He knew who he was the same way he knew everything else they were about. It was in his brain. How it had gotten there was another matter.