The Silver Portal (Weapons of Power Book 1)

by David J Normoyle

  “The others will come for us,” Simeon said.

  “They shouldn’t.”

  Simeon had figured out that their captors hoped to use the two of them for bait. Nevertheless, he wanted them to come. “Whatever happens, we have to work together,” he said. “I’m sure of it. We all received these weapons for a purpose, and only together will we achieve what we were meant to.”

  Twig’s breathing sounded loud in the dark stillness. “Do you believe we have souls?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Simeon said. “But I believe in something beyond ourselves.”

  Simeon’s bound arms ached, and he tried to adjust them into a more comfortable position, but the task was hopeless.

  The boulder at the entranceway scraped open, surprising Simeon. He hadn’t expected Ull Axilium to return so quickly. A shadow entered their chamber, and footsteps approached them. A teardrop of red flame sprang to life on top of an open palm. The palm rose higher, giving Simeon a view of a smiling old man with a cropped white beard and flowing white hair. He wore a white jacket, finely cut, with small gold clasps running down the center.

  He could only be the Lord Protector Zubrios himself, though Simeon hadn’t expected him to look so... ordinary.

  “Sorry to disappoint,” Zubrios said. “Those who come under the influence of the Order often expect red horns to sprout from my head.”

  “Evil that comes in pretty forms is the most dangerous kind,” Simeon said.

  “Evil, is that what you think I am?” Zubrios laughed, a rich, textured laugh that almost made Simeon feel foolish for calling him evil.

  Almost.

  “You are young yet. Contrary to what storytellers would have you believe, the world isn’t divided into good and evil. It’s human nature for those on one side to paint the other side as evil. Most people, I’ve found, live best in a world of black and white, good and evil. They can’t handle the uncertainty of everything being different shades of gray, which is the reality that those of us who truly look at the world have to deal with.”

  “You invaded Pizarr, killed my countrymen.” Some of my tribemates could have been lost in the war, perhaps even Tarla. No, I won’t think about that. “Just to extend your power and influence.”

  “Pizarr, the land of warriors, had become broken.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Look with your mind, not with your heart,” Zubrios said. “The Pizarrian women do all the work. The men hunt or fight. For centuries, they had the central areas of Mageles to prey on. The fiefdoms, isolated villages and strongholds, were weak and perfect for the Pizarrian raids. When I united the fiefdoms and protected them, the Pizarrian warriors had nowhere to attack. Some of the men still go hunting in the Terafin Forest. The rest...” Zubrios shrugged. “The Pizarrian way of life isn’t sustainable in the modern world.”

  Simeon opened his mouth to object then closed it again. He remembered how much time the men of his village spent in the tavern. He thought about how Xelinder died.

  Simeon had expected that if he ever met Zubrios, they would be on opposite sides of a fierce battle. He’d never suspected that the Lord Protector would try to win him over. He’d suspected even less that he would feel himself swayed by the Lord Protector’s smooth words. He tried a different tack. “The silver portal,” he said. “Bringing powerful magic users back across. Undoing all that Grell created. Was that plan of yours just lies spread by the Soylant Wizards?”

  “Breaking the world in two, however good intentioned Grell was, was not a good thing,” Zubrios said.

  “Better to have non–magic users enslaved?”

  “It’s possible for a world with powerful magic users and those without magic to live side by side in harmony.”

  “That’s not how things worked in practice.” The story of how Grell had decided that full separation was the only hope for equality for those without magic was well known.

  Zubrios studied Simeon for a long moment. “Your staff will help create the portal. I had hoped for your aid, but I see that won’t be forthcoming. That doesn’t mean we can’t work together after. I hope that will happen.” The Lord Protector turned toward Twig. “What about you, young lady? You have been silent, and your mind is as dark as the sea on a moonless night.”

  When she didn’t reply, he continued. “I heard about what you did in the city, killing the murderers who roved the streets. I applaud your good work, but it’s hard for any one person to make a difference like that. Wherever I have gone, I have tried to bring more order. If you visited my capital, you’d find that Soirbuz has less crime than any big city. One of your comrades is from there. Ask him if you don’t believe me.”

  Once again, Twig didn’t reply.

  “I must go,” Zubrios said. “I’m sorry I have to leave you in such bad conditions. I can’t allow light in, or the magic will leak out. And you must remain bound in case you do something stupid. However, I feel your friends will be along soon, and we can end this. Once the portal is open, Mageles will be a different place, a better place.”

  Zubrios walked back to the entrance, and his teardrop of red light winked out. He pushed open the boulder, walked out, and closed it again, returning them to darkness.

  “His lies taste of honey,” Twig said.

  Chapter 43

  Lukin trudged up the hillock, breathing another man’s stench.

  He hated how serious everything had become. The adventures he’d imagined in his head had involved killing his enemies, sure, but the deaths hadn’t been messy. The keening of the wounded on a battlefield, the stench of a corpse that had relieved itself, the awful darkness of losing a loved one like Flechir or even a recent companion like Fellanni—those were experiences he could do without.

  He wanted a little less ugliness from the adventuring gods and, as always, more taverns. In addition, he wanted rid of the weight dragging at his shoulders. Robbing Jearg’s mansion had been dangerous, but for him only. When he’d fallen into the Hatori, it had just been him and Mortlebee. If they failed to stop the silver portal, the whole of Mageles was in danger, apparently. That was the kind of responsibility Lukin didn’t want.

  Lukin adjusted the breastplate around his shoulders. He snorted out half a laugh. Perhaps that was the weight that he complained of.

  “Something funny?” Mortlebee asked.

  “Ballic must have sweated like a pig. It smells like several generations of vermin lived and died inside these clothes.”

  “Are you worried they’ll suspect?” Mortlebee nodded toward the clerics farther up the slope, marching ahead. “The sparrow-crest has glanced down at us several times. He knows we shouldn’t be here.”

  “Let me worry about them,” Lukin said. The four of them had waited by the outskirts of Blackstone, and around midnight, twenty clerics had started up the hillock toward the tombs. Lukin and the others had followed, hoping to intercept them close to the top.

  Lukin looked backward. They had fashioned a loop on one of the belts for Suma’s axe, and Carew stood on that side of her to disguise that she carried an axe rather than a sword. Redbirds sometimes carried weapons other than swords, so it wasn’t that unusual. Suma looked a little short, but other than that, with helms on, there was little to tell the four of them from other redbirds.

  Lukin winked at Suma. “Doing okay.”

  She gave him a weak smile, and Lukin faced forward again. How come every girl I meet is immune to my charms? Suma wasn’t even that attractive, but in a desert, every female was an oasis. That explained why Carew stuck to her like glue and why Mortlebee stared at her every time he thought no one was looking. Suma wasn’t beautiful like Fellanni had been—now that had been one fantastic-looking woman until her unfortunate end. And Kreesta... Lukin licked his lips as he remembered the girl from Jearg’s mansion. She had been—

  Mortlebee gave Lukin a dig with his elbow, and Lukin returned to the present. He didn’t have time for such imaginings, but he was only human.

 
The clerics ahead had slowed, and the sparrow-crest waited for them to catch up. “I don’t recognize you,” he said.

  “Just off the boat from Yalsomme,” Lukin told him. “Drey told us that something important was happening soon, and he’d decided to send more men.”

  The messenger to Indigo Street Temple didn’t mention bringing four extra, the sparrow-crest thought. “I wasn’t told anything about it.”

  “Tell me about it,” Lukin said. “No one lets me know anything either. Just off the boat and looking forward to some rest, and we get sent up to whatever place this is in the middle of the renka night. What’s going on here, anyway?”

  “Fall in line behind my men,” the sparrow-crest said. “Try to keep out of the way as much as possible.”

  Once they were marching together as a group and no one was paying them any more attention, Lukin glanced across at Mortlebee, mouthed the word “easy," and winked.

  Mortlebee sighed in a long-suffering manner.

  Two of the clerics picked up torches at the entrance to the tombs and carried them high as they entered the narrow tunnels. Armor straps jingled, and scabbards rattled against legs. Lukin reached out and touched the cool stone of the rough wall on his left, uncertain of the impulse that made him do it.

  As they walked further into the lions’ den, the tension inside Lukin dissipated. “The moment before the battle is the worst,” Flechir had told him. He’d added, “Unless you get stabbed in the groin during the battle; then that part becomes the worst.” Lukin smiled. Underneath the million layers of leathery hide, the old man had been a kidder at heart.

  The tunnel opened out to a circular chamber lit up by over a dozen torches, with several darkened exits. Although the area was large in comparison with the tunnels, it was crammed with scarlet-cloaked clerics. Just as Suma and Carew, at the end of their group, entered the chamber, however, others began to exit.

  After an initial swirl of confusion, space began to open up as the clerics who’d originally been in the tombs then piled out. Lukin, following the compass in his head, stared at a point in the wall. As the chamber emptied, he was able to see clearly a boulder blocking an entranceway. The three remaining weapons were behind that wall—likely Simeon and Twig too.

  Lukin turned back to Suma. “They are behind the boulder to the left. We’ll need your strength-mage powers to get in.”

  “And you think the eagle-crest will allow us to walk in, take the weapons, and walk out?” Mortlebee nodded forward. “What about the Lord Protector?”

  Lukin looked forward again. He wasn’t sure how he had missed them before.

  Less than five paces away, Ull Axilium stood beside the Lord Protector. Zubrios once again wore a white jacket, this one speckled with dust and cut slightly differently from the last.

  On the other side of Ull Axilium stood a gray-haired hawk-crest. “Fast. Get all the men out of sight,” the hawk-crest said. “Leave the way clear.”

  The sparrow-crest directed the clerics toward the darkened entrances.

  “Are you sure they are coming?” the hawk-crest asked.

  “We know they are close.” Ull Axilium pulled a blue crystal from a pocket and held it up. “Whether they are fifty paces away or five hundred, we aren’t sure.”

  Or five paces away, Lukin thought. As he had suspected, the ability of the tracking crystal to detect the weapons wasn’t nearly as exact as the ability of his ring. We might just get a chance. Everyone would be waiting to spring a trap on the bearers entering from the front. If the four of them were stationed close, they’d be able to get Suma to that boulder, and she could get them in. Getting out would be another matter, but the five of them would be reunited and have their weapons back again. In addition to escaping, they’d have to be sure to get the crystal from Ull Axilium. It all seemed impossible, but “impossible missions” was an adventurer’s middle name.

  I have to do it, I have to do it now. The thought from Carew was so strong that Lukin turned around. He couldn’t see what was disturbing the boy, but his lips were trembling.

  Lukin gripped his arm. “Keep calm,” he whispered. Zubrios had thought-mage powers and wasn’t far away.

  “What is it?” Suma asked him, also having become aware that something was wrong.

  Lukin caught snatches of further thoughts from Carew, enough to figure out that something was seriously wrong. It was almost as if...

  That’s not possible.

  Chapter 44

  The concern in Suma’s gaze was a knife in Werac’s guts. I have no choice, he told himself.

  “I’m sorry,” Werac said, touching her hand. “I never wanted it to happen like this.” He then grabbed the spike on the top of her axe and pulled, knowing if she didn’t have the axe, no blood would be shed.

  Suma reached for her axe, confused. Werac lowered his shoulder into her chest to knock her back then stepped away from her.

  “Father, it’s me.” Werac threw off his helm.

  “Why you—” Lukin drew his sword and charged.

  Werac scrambled backward, and before Lukin reached him, Ull Axilium had sped across the chamber to stand in front of Werac, his sword before him.

  Mortlebee drew his sword. Suma stood frozen in place, staring at Werac, the truth of who he was and what he had done gradually dawning on her. Werac had to look away as hurt spread across her face.

  The clerics who had been secreting themselves in the tombs rushed back into the central chamber, swords in their hands, and surrounded the three bearers.

  Zubrios walked to Werac, put his hand on the boy’s shoulder, and smiled. “You brought me gifts.”

  Werac had thought that when his father stood at his side, he would know he’d done the right thing. But he still felt wretched.

  Werac handed over the axe, and his father turned it over in his hands. “A beautiful piece.” Zubrios looked across at Lukin. “You have a fifth weapon to give me?”

  Lukin turned in a circle, looking around. There was no escape.

  “I could ask Ull Axilium to take it from you,” Zubrios said. “Strength-mages aren’t good with delicate things like finger bones, though.”

  Lukin pulled the ring off his finger and threw it at Zubrios. It flew over his shoulder and bounced against the far wall.

  “Gromley,” Zubrios said.

  Gromley marched across and picked up the ring and handed it to Zubrios. Gromley gave Werac a smile and a nod. Since their mission had been a success, Werac hoped that Gromley would be returned to his father’s good graces.

  “You brought them to me as promised,” Zubrios said. “Great job, Son.”

  “Thank you.” The pride that swelled within Werac was pricked and deflated when he caught sight of Suma.

  Her hurt had turned to anger. She had told him how her father had wanted to kill her and how her brother had sent her away, alone. She had trusted again and been betrayed again.

  “Did you bring any to my side as you had hoped? Convince them that the Order just wants to use them?”

  “They don’t trust your plan to create a portal through the Grell Barrier,” Werac said. Neither do I. “If you could reconsider that, perhaps...” He’d been about to say that he might be able to persuade them that his father wasn’t the bad guy they had been led to believe he was before realizing that none of them would ever listen to him again. He had befriended and betrayed them all.

  “The portal is happening,” Zubrios said. “The legacy of Grell is that everyone in Mageles distrusts the idea. Once it’s open, they will see there was nothing to fear. Ull Axilium, would you open the way to Luttrell’s Tomb? With the power of these weapons, I will be able to open the portal tonight.”

  “The bearers are still armed.” Ull Axilium still stood between the bearers and Werac and Zubrios.

  “An oversight on their part, I’m sure.” Zubrios nodded at the bearers. “Drop your weapons, please.”

  Lukin scowled as he dropped his sword.

  “Live to fight another da
y. Exactly. You, too.” Zubrios gestured at Mortlebee, who was even more reluctant. “I didn’t know the hardship Ull Lackma was inflicting on your people, I promise.”

  Mortlebee dropped the sword as though it was hot. Reading the bearers’ thoughts wasn’t a good way to win their trust, Werac felt. He hated that most about his conversations with his father.

  “Ull Axilium, open the way into Luttrell’s Tomb. Open it wide. Gromley, have the bearers brought inside, and bring torches. Light the tomb up. Today is the start of a new era for Mageles. Today, we breach the Grell Barrier.”

  “Should we wait for Ull Dreidnan and Ull Rohaim?” Gromley asked. “They are still in Pizarr.”

  Zubrios didn’t bother with an answer. Ull Axilium shoved the boulder aside, and the Lord Protector strode into the darkness within.

  Chapter 45

  Pulses of pain flowed across Simeon’s shoulders. He tried to adjust his body into a more comfortable position, but the ropes didn’t allow any movement.

  Simeon came to attention as the scraping sound indicated someone was coming. More light shone through as the boulder was pushed completely out of the way. The Lord Protector marched straight to the center of the tomb and raised his hand, and a globe of red light formed over his head.

  Simeon was able to see the tomb clearly for the first time. Several stone coffins had been turned upside down, creating the raised platform he’d been just about able to make out previously. On the platform, hundreds of crystals of various shapes glittered. With the red light flaring above them, a wave of color flowed through the crystals, a swirl of reds and blues and yellows and greens and purples. The crystals appeared to be actually moving as waves of color pulsed and shifted, a wonderful sea of iridescence. The sight took Simeon’s breath away and made him forget his pain for a moment.

  The crystals had been kept in darkness to store magic. The magic would start to leak out since light had been brought in. That could only mean that the Lord Protector intended to use them immediately. He was going to try to create the silver portal. Simeon reached toward the crystals with his mind, looking for a center as Sierre had taught him, hoping that with so many, he’d succeed where he’d failed before. But no, still nothing.