by Bob Blink
They moved from wall to wall. Rigo acquired the three combat magics he had seen the Brryn use, and several varieties of more powerful shields. Increasingly he grew frustrated as he found nothing that addressed the strange magic that held Mitty trapped. Finally, they had visited each of the locations that Koess knew of where magic was locked in the crystals.
“That’s the last one,” Koess said sadly. “I’m sorry Rigo. I know you haven’t found what you are seeking.”
“Perhaps we missed something,” Rigo said hopefully, looking around, his eyes much more in tune to the strange sights of the Void.
“We didn’t,” Koess assured him. “I was here a long time. I know exactly how many sites there are here. We have visited them all.”
Rigo didn’t want to accept what Koess was saying. He felt he had the magic to match the Brryn, but not what he needed to release Mitty. He must have missed something. He wanted to check again, but something in the back of his mind warned him it would be futile. If he hadn’t found it here, he would have to go back and take it from the Brryn. Time must be growing short. He didn’t know how long they had been in the Void. Time didn’t mean much here, and he hadn’t been paying any attention.
Feeling defeated, he turned to Koess. “Take us back. It isn’t here, and Nycoh will need what I have learned. It will be two against three, but at least we have a chance now.”
Koess looked around, and then headed off in a direction Rigo thought had to be wrong. Once again they moved between a series of meaningless tunnels. In a much shorter time than it had taken them to travel from the portal to the memory walls, Koess stopped and announced they were back.
Rigo knew that Koess had to be mistaken, and asked about the speed with which they had returned.
“Distances change in the Void,” Koess replied as if that explained it.
Rigo had little choice but to accept Koess knew what he was doing. There was zero chance Rigo could have found his way around. It all looked similar to him.
“Where’s the portal?” he asked, hoping Koess had sensed it and that was why he was so confident they had returned to the right place.
“It’s not here,” he said. “Perhaps they had to close it down. We will just have to wait until they open the way once again.”
Rigo knew that shutting down the portal had been a very real possibility, and tried to convince himself that was the likely reason they hadn’t found it, as opposed to the worrisome possibility Koess had brought them to the wrong spot. With little other choice, they settled down to wait.
An indeterminate time later, Koess suddenly pointed in another direction. “It’s over there,” he said.
“I thought you said it was supposed to be here?” Rigo asked.
“They must have moved it,” Koess said. “Come on, let’s go.”
Rigo could still not sense the portal, and wondered if Koess really did. He was tempted to connect with him again just to verify what he was saying, but Koess was already on the move. Rigo hurried after him.
“See,” Koess said sometime later. “Here it is.”
Rigo was unable to detect anything, so Koess pointed him carefully and guided him down one of the tunnels. Just about the time Rigo was convinced he was simply headed down one of the infinite pathways, he suddenly stepped out of the Void and into a heavily treed enclosure. This wasn’t the cave where they had started, but his friends were waiting.
Daria wasn’t one to show emotion openly, but she wrapped Rigo in an embrace that would have created some issue had Mitty been there.
“We’re okay,” Rigo finally managed as he pulled himself free of the bear hug that Daria still held around him. He looked back to verify that Koess had indeed followed him out of the portal.
As soon as Koess stepped free, Nycoh closed the portal, and to Rigo’s surprise opened a dozen normal ones.
“We must go. Quickly. The Brryn have been looking for us.”
Following the others, Rigo and Koess made their way through a series of portals, eventually ending up at the hideaway in the Ruins.
Chapter 78
The hideout in the Ruins was actually a very good spot to go for safety. No one other than a small fraction of the wizards and Casters even knew it existed. For most of those, it had probably been a very long time since they had been there, if at all. Those who had visited had almost certainly traveled via the Bypass that had once existed in the library at the Outpost, and hence they really didn’t know where it was. Only Rigo and his closest friends had actually crossed the desert to find it. Even better, any thoughts of the place were almost certainly buried in among years of random memories. It was not a place that would be a recently visited location, so if the Brryn were tapping the memories of any captured wizards, it was unlikely they would stumble onto its existence. At best, they would know there was a place somewhere in the Ruins. The Ruins were a big place.
Once they were safe from being tracked, everyone relaxed somewhat. No one had been to Daim’s hideout since Rigo had left, and they all took a long look at Mitty. The barrier was in place exactly as before, and while no one could really tell, Rigo thought she looked paler than she had before he’d left for the trip into the Void. It might have just been his worry, but it was possible being trapped inside the field was starting to affect her. Rigo reached out and ran his hand along the solid edge of the cylinder. He no longer feared that such an action would trigger the sleeping response. The shields he had acquired in the Void made him every bit as immune as the Brryn were. Unfortunately he hadn’t found anything that would release Mitty.
“That was quite a show with all those portals,” Rigo said. “I had never thought of doing something like that.”
“We had an encounter with the Brryn and had to use that approach to escape,” Nycoh said. “They found us, perhaps the rod alerted them somehow. They built the things, and may be more sensitive to its magic than we are. They destroyed the cave, and we barely got away in time. The multiple Bypasses confused them and they weren’t able to track us. I’m not sure how many times we will be able to get away with that.”
“Koess and I wondered why you relocated the portal,” Rigo said. “Had I been thinking faster you wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble making all those portals. I can move us using the Brryn means of travel now. Even they would be unable to trace that.”
“Well I hope they follow some of my dead ends,” Nycoh said. “A couple of them open up over the lava pits you found in the Ruins. Maybe that would surprise them a little.”
“You found the magic?” Jeen asked. She was encouraged by his claim to have acquired at least some of the Brryn’s secrets.
“Some of it,” Rigo said.
“Just some of it?” Lyes asked.
“There were difficulties accessing the magic recorded in the Void. Much of it seemed to be irrelevant to the task at hand. It would have taken too long to try and get everything that was available.”
“What kinds of things did you find?” Nycoh asked.
“I’ve already mentioned their Transfer capability. That will allow me, and I’m hoping at the very least Nycoh, to move around undetected. We won’t have to rely solely on Suline to mask our movements. The special shield they use was there as well. Actually a couple of variations of it. I also found the three fighting spells we have observed. There was a fourth, but it is so destructive I can’t see how it would be useful.”
“What about something to help Mitty?” Daria asked.
Rigo hung his head. “Nothing,” he said softly.
“You can’t use their fighting magic to break through the spell that holds her?” Lyes asked. “We have seen that break through our own protection often enough.”
“That would be a very last resort. I suspect I can destroy the cylinder, but it is likely I would kill Mitty in the process of doing so. There has to be a more direct and much safer approach.”
“Where will you be able to find that?” Kaler asked.
“One of the Brryn is goin
g to tell me,” Rigo said angrily.
“Those few spells are all that they have that we don’t?” Jeen asked, not wanting Rigo to become fixated on Mitty’s predicament.
“They are stronger in everything. They also know a great many things that we don’t. But this handful of magic is what makes them effectively unbeatable. What they did to create the Ruins, and the Hoplani, are areas where we have no experience. I detected many disciplines like that. But those things won’t be helpful in bringing them down.”
“Based on what you said a moment ago, it sounds like you don’t believe anyone other than I will be able to acquire these skills,” Nycoh said.
“I hope that I can even transfer them to you,” Rigo agreed. “The fact Koess couldn’t acquire them suggests any who haven’t been transformed as we have, are unlikely to have the ability to learn any of the Brryn magic. Something in the Brryn makeup, which we acquired through our ancestry, and which was somehow activated by that device in the valley, makes us different.”
“Shall we try?” Nycoh asked. She wanted to know if it was to be two against three, or whether Rigo was going to be on his own.
“We need to know,” Rigo agreed. “Our path forward depends on how far we can spread these abilities.”
Passing the new abilities to Nycoh was as straightforward as passing any other magic skill between wizards. Unlike some of the beginner skills, Nycoh was able to integrate the new abilities and access them immediately. She demonstrated to herself by raising the protective barrier that would stand against everything except the sparkling black cloud. Nothing would stand against that, but it was difficult to employ against a person because it was slow enough moving, that stepping or Transferring out of its way was usually not difficult.
Unfortunately, as Rigo had suspected, the abilities could not be passed to the others. Neither Jeen nor Lyes was able to acquire them. Rigo already had known that Koess wasn’t able to learn the new skills, but Jeen and Lyes were among the strongest wizards. Lyes was a full mage, so Rigo had held out hopes, but it appeared it was just he and Nycoh. Two against three, and the Brryn not only were fully comfortable with this magic, but might be stronger with it, and might have additional skills that Rigo hadn’t discovered in the few days in the Void.
“Will it be possible to retrieve the other magic from the Void at a later date?” Nycoh asked. Rigo could sense that she was intrigued by the added powers, but they were mostly for combat and Nycoh clearly had an interest in the more constructive uses of magic.
“I would doubt it,” Rigo replied. “Didn’t you indicate Jeen was concerned that the rod was weakening from the stress?”
Jeen blushed, and confessed her secret. “There was nothing really wrong with the rod,” she said. “I was concerned that holding the Bypass open might stress it, and it was the only access to getting you home. I wanted to minimize the time it was exposed just in case. When I examined it when we returned here, I can’t see that it has become any worse. The crack looks unchanged.” She looked around at the others who were surprised by her revelation. “Also,” she added, “I was uncomfortable that its use might be able to attract the Brryn. I cannot say why, but it might be something I sense because of the Linking I performed.”
“That turned out to be correct,” Daria said. “They did find us, and it has to be because we were using the rod.”
Nycoh seemed pleased at the news, and not at all bothered she had been misled. “So we might be able to go back. Even though the cave is destroyed, there are obviously other locations that would serve.”
“Returning to the Void is something to be considered carefully,” Rigo said. “It is a disturbing place, and I would have been unable to find my way. Anyone who goes, would need Koess along. The extended period he was forced to endure gave him the ability to function there. I would have been lost and gone mad before accomplishing anything.”
“Perhaps he would be willing to go once again,” Nycoh said. “Once this is all over. There might be more to gain.”
Koess shook his head. “I had forgotten what it was like. It is more disturbing than I recalled. I would prefer never to attempt it again.”
“There is another problem,” Rigo said. “Magic doesn’t work there. Not ours, nor that of the Brryn. I could not access the knowledge locked in the crystals. That is something else that Koess learned only through extended time in the Void. Had it not been for something Ash’urn passed to me, the attempt would have failed. There is a good chance, even if you and Koess both made the journey, you would be unable to learn what you wish.”
“You are saying that knowledge is out of reach?” Nycoh asked unhappily.
“I cannot be certain, but we need to understand the Void far better. Perhaps the crystals could be extracted and brought back, and then accessed. It is a matter for another day.”
“What are our next steps?” Daria asked. “It sounded a short time ago like you intend to go after the Brryn.”
Rigo nodded. “I have to. They are the only ones who know how to free Mitty. Have we learned any more about them while Koess and I were gone?”
“They continue to seek those who are gifted, both inherent wizards and Casters who are skilled in magic. They are after us specifically. Kytra has made appearances in the various capitals, and has made it known that she and her two friends will soon be assuming rule of all lands. She has released a list of more than two-dozen names. Somehow they know the senior people within the magic community. All of our names are on the list. She has demanded we be turned over. Anyone known to aid us will be killed if discovered.”
Rigo looked around at the others. “What about Daria and Kaler?” he asked. “What about Fen? What happened to him?”
“Kytra knows about Kaler and Daria. They are the only non-gifted on the list. Fen was somehow overlooked. We sent him home to stay with his family. He is young, and a Caster, which makes it easier to conceal his ability. Also, his family lives in a small village where he is unlikely to attract the attention of the Brryn.”
“Does he understand why he was sent away?” Rigo asked. “He probably thinks he is being pushed away because of what happened to Mitty.”
“There might be some of that,” Nycoh admitted. “Lyes tried to persuade him otherwise, but he feels a lot of responsibility for Mitty’s plight.”
“He had no choice,” Rigo said. “We must make him understand he is not at fault.”
“Later,” Jeen said. “For now, he must bear the burden. Any trips to where he is increases the risk he will be discovered.”
Rigo sighed, but agreed. “The Brryn come first.” He looked at Jeen. “What more do you know of the three of them? Did your Linking provide any insights?”
“Kytra is the strongest. Hyndl is the most vicious. Tryll is the weakest, and the least intelligent. If you want to target one of them, she would be my choice.”
“There is another reason to choose her,” Nycoh said. “Kytra is seldom seen. She makes sporadic appearances, but her attention is elsewhere. Hyndl is most often seen in Sedfair, and along the eastern coast. As yet, we have no idea where he stays. He might go to stay with Kytra, wherever she is.”
“And Tryll?” Rigo asked.
“She has taken over an estate in the port city of Nulwar. I’ve had some of our people keep a remote watch on her to see if we might learn anything useful. There is no way to be certain the others don’t drop in on her, but her actions are consistent with one who is living alone. I think she likes the comforts of living where there are others to gather and provide food and other conveniences.”
Rigo remembered Nulwar. Inge had first told him about the place a long time ago.
“She’s probably our target,” Rigo agreed.
“What do you plan?” Kaler asked.
“I’m not sure just yet. I’ll have to have a look. Unfortunately it’s not so simple as before. We can’t simply isolate her and kill her. Somehow we need to capture her, isolate her from her magic, and find a way to tap into her
knowledge. All of those are major obstacles. If we can block her magic, then a Reading might work. Either that or a Linking. There has to be a way to learn what they did to Mitty. It might be we overpower her, render her unconscious, and keep her that way. I’ll bet Ashli can come up with a method for doing that. The blocking bands clearly failed, so we can’t count on them. All of this will have to be done without alerting Kytra or Hyndl. We cannot have them show up in the middle of our attempt.”
Rigo looked at the others.
“This is going to be risky.”
“Simply being a wizard is high risk these days,” Lyes replied.
“What about Suline?” Rigo asked. “Has she had any luck finding where Kytra hides out?”
Chapter 79
Suline stood atop the highest cliff of the small island and let her eyes wander across the sparkling blue waters of the ocean that stretched away from the island in every direction. A light salty breeze tossed her long blond hair, bringing the fresh scent of the ocean. This was so different from any port city she had ever visited. Now she understood some of the appeal to the sailors, those intrepid men who took their small ships so far from land, risking the anger of the gods and the great storms. Here was purity and freshness unlike anything she had experienced before.
Behind her, the way they had come, a handful of islands could be spotted in the distance. They had come from one of those to this place. This was the forty-third island they had scouted thus far. Other than the one island with the decaying foundation fused into the rock atop the rocky knob that faced into the sea breezes, they had found nothing that hinted at occupation, now or anytime in the past. The foundation had been old. Very old. Whatever structure it had supported was long gone. Not even a few blocks of stone had survived the years to hint at what might have been there. Suline surmised that was a good sign. What they sought would have existed impossibly far in the past, so maybe the foundation was a clue the Brryn had been here. She wished it to be true.
