by Kay L. Ling
He turned past the flyleaf to the first facing pages which showed grotesque creatures like the ones on the throne. The next facing pages were blank—at first.
And then words began to form.
Ommort Mirkstone
Elias stepped back, his face suddenly pale. His hands were noticeably trembling, and Lana’s stomach did a slow, sickening roll.
“We know what a mirkstone is,” Jules said. “But what does ommort mean?”
In a tone barely above a whisper Elias said, “Ommort is a rare variety of mirkstone.” He wet his lips. “I call it ‘deadman’s switch.’” Specific actions within a warded area trigger commands stored in the gem. In this case, opening the book was the trigger.”
Lana froze as the pages began to turn of their own accord, rustling loudly as they flipped faster and faster. When the motion stopped, the book lay open at the last facing pages which showed ornate weapons and jewelry set with gems.
In a low, menacing tone the book said, “You are not Sheamathan. Ommort mirkstone activated.”
Chapter 2
Elias slammed the book shut as if that could somehow stop whatever evil he’d set in motion. Deadman’s switch. Lana felt a mounting sense of dread.
“Jules, bring me a burlap sack,” Elias ordered calmly, his tone at odds with his frightened expression. “You’ll find some in the granary.”
Jules looked puzzled, but he left the throne room without questioning.
“What are you going to do?” Lana asked.
Elias straightened and sighed. “I don’t think we should leave the book here. I’ll take it back to Strathweed, and with the help of my reference books, maybe we can find a way to mitigate the damage. For all we know, the book itself may provide some clues.”
He should have known better than to open the book. When would he ever learn? His obsession with gem powers always got him into trouble, but it was pointless to lecture him now.
“Anything belonging to Sheamathan is likely to be dangerous,” he said heavily. “I know that, and yet I—well, what’s done is done.”
Its gem-encrusted leather binding was a work of art, but like everything Sheamathan owned, the book was evil. “So, what happens next?” she asked, swallowing the sharp words on the tip of her tongue. “And is there a way to stop it?”
Elias ran his fingers through his beard, scowling. “An ommort mirkstone can store multiple commands, and the warding spell will determine when and how the commands are released. It’s too late to stop whatever has been set in motion, but we should find and destroy the stone in case there are unreleased commands. Unfortunately, it could be anywhere.”
“Are there any gems—like ones that give foresight—that could help us find it? Or at least tell us what spells we’re dealing with?”
Elias shook his head, his frustration palpable. “Mirkstones shield themselves. If it were easy to find them or access the imprinted information, they’d be useless.”
Jules returned with burlap bags. “Here, I brought a few,” he said, a bit winded.
Elias shook one open and edged toward the book as if trying to capture a wild animal. In one swift motion, he yanked the bag over the book and then thrust the bag at Jules. “Here. You’ll be in charge of taking it back to Strathweed.”
Jules lifted his hands in protest and backed away. You’d think Elias had offered him a sack of vipers, but the book might be just as dangerous. “Take it to Strathweed! Why?”
Elias continued to hold out the bag. “We don’t know which spells I triggered, but studying the book may provide clues, and it would be wise to have my reference books at hand.”
“For all we know, she didn’t use a spell from this book.” Lana pointed out, sympathizing with Jules’s reluctance to take it along.
“True,” Elias conceded, “but even so, we’ll see what spells she recorded, and they may provide valuable insights.”
Jules shifted uncomfortably, “Why do you want me to carry it?”
“You’re wearing the Challenger’s Blade. If the book holds any more unpleasant surprises, the knife may protect you.” He made another attempt to give Jules the bag.
Lana thought Jules might refuse, but he handed her the spare sacks and took the bag, holding it away from his body.
She looked back at the throne, unable to shake the feeling that the jeweled eyes in the carved images were watching her. “Let’s go, this place gives me the creeps.”
They had almost reached the doorway when the bag jerked violently. “Stop, thief! Put me down!” Jules almost dropped the bag.
Lana stopped short, nearly running into Elias. She hadn’t expected the book to speak again. It had delivered the prearranged warning, and she had assumed that was the extent of its abilities.
“Is it sentient?” Jules asked, clearly unsettled by the idea.
The book thrashed about inside the bag. “As sentient as you,” it answered irritably, “and far more intelligent.”
Lana swallowed hard. “Are you sure you want to take this thing?” She already knew what Jules would say, and if she had a vote, she’d vote no. Who knew what the book was capable of.
“I hadn’t expected this,” Elias said. “But I need the book, so we’ll have to make the best of it.”
Jules said through gritted teeth, “We may need another cage.”
The book continued to struggle. Lana couldn’t imagine what it planned to do if it managed to escape.
“Stop that,” Jules growled, apparently more annoyed than afraid.
The bag stopped moving. Lana eyed it warily. Must be it couldn’t use gem powers without input from S; otherwise, it would defend itself. Still, it paid to be cautious.
They left the throne room. As they walked down the passageway, Jules continued to hold the bag away from his body as if it might bite him, but he couldn’t do that forever. The book was too heavy.
“I was thinking,” she said. “Sheamathan’s private chambers would be a logical place to hide the deadman’s switch.”
“True,” Elias agreed. “I know she has a safe there. She told me so herself. It holds her most valuable gems.”
“If we can’t get in any other way, we’ll get the gnomes to break down the door,” Lana said.
“Don’t count on it,” Jules told her. “They’re still afraid of S, and who can blame them—especially after what we’ve seen today. Anything that belonged to S is potentially dangerous. Places like the throne room and her private chambers are the most likely to be booby trapped.” He frowned slightly, as if something had just occurred to him. “Elias, you said ommort could be activated by specific acts within a warded area. Does that mean, even if you hadn’t opened the book, we might have triggered it some other way?”
“By setting off a different ward? Absolutely,” Elias said, conveniently sidestepping some of the blame. “In fact, it’s quite likely.”
Nice try, Lana thought, unconvinced. But if he was right, a different ward could have been even worse; they probably wouldn’t have gotten the announcement: ommort mirkstone activated. “We wouldn’t even know anything was wrong,” she said.
“Does that mean you’re glad Elias opened the book?” Jules asked with a wry smile.
“No, but at least we know we have a problem. And now that we’ve triggered the deadman’s switch, it’s all downhill from here. The worst we can do is trip a few booby traps.”
Jules glanced at her. “Why don’t I find that comforting?”
“Opening the door to S’s suite shouldn’t be as dangerous as triggering the deadman’s switch, right?”
“I don’t know about that,” Elias countered. “Her booby traps—if there are any—could be just as bad.”
“Return me to the throne room and leave. You do not belong here,” the spell book said in an ominous tone. It lurched within the bag. “You are in grave danger.”
Jules glanced nervously at the bag. “I don’t want to involve the gnomes in this. If we can find something to use as a battering ram,
I can probably break down the door myself.”
Lana allowed herself a quick look at his powerful arms and shoulders. Yes, maybe he could. Before S had turned him into a wolfhound, he’d been a blacksmith . . . and it showed. “If we’re set on getting inside, let’s take another stab at the mirkstone lock. Finding the right password is probably safer than breaking in. What passwords did you try?”
“We thought the password might involve gemstones, so Elias ran through the names of all the common ones, and when that didn’t work, I tried plants, animals, and anything else that came to mind.”
“Could we trick S into revealing the password?” Lana asked.
Elias gave her a skeptical look. “How would we do that?”
“We could mention the mirkstone lock. That might make her think about the password, and then you could read her mind.”
“Even without her former gem powers, she shields her thoughts well,” Elias said. “I’ve tried to read her mind a few times with little success. No, you’ll have to try to guess the password, and if you have no more success than we did, we’ll attempt to break down the door.”
“I’m game,” she said. “I love a challenge.”
A couple minutes later, lost in thought, she heard a loud buzzing noise behind her. She turned and shrieked when she saw a swarm of huge bees flying toward her. Before she could run, Elias and Jules had grabbed her arms. “It isn’t real,” Jules said. “It’s just an illusion.”
“Looks real to me,” she gasped, trying to pull free. The urge to run was overwhelming.
“It will be over in a few seconds,” Elias assured her.
The buzzing reached a crescendo and the bees flew right through all three of them. Elias and Jules let go, and Lana whirled and watched in amazement as the bees disappeared.
“Bees this time,” Jules said calmly to Elias who gave a little chuckle. “Last time it was two-headed bats.”
Elias turned to Lana, “It doesn’t always happen, but we should have warned you. It’s some kind of ward, presumably to keep breghlin away from S’s suite.”
“Wouldn’t they figure out after a while . . . what they’re seeing isn’t real?” she asked shakily.
Elias shrugged. “I suppose they’ve always turned and run, so whatever they see never reaches them. Besides, real or not, anything created with gem powers frightens breghlin.”
She felt a little miffed. How could both men have forgotten to mention the ward? Especially after discussing wards and booby traps a few minutes ago. Elias had a strange sense of humor, and she wouldn’t put it past him to have a little fun at her expense, but she was surprised at Jules. She glanced at him, and even though his expression was innocent, she suspected he’d just played a joke on her. If so, she supposed they were even now. Not long ago she’d told him Elias’s frigid underground stream was great for bathing, and he’d come back half frozen.
When they reached S’s suite, she was still annoyed and even more determined to guess the password. Elias and Jules hung back and watched as she examined the door. Just as they’d said, there was no keyhole and only a small brass doorknob. She thought for a moment. The password would be something simple. No one at Shadowglade could activate a mirkstone lock since it required gem powers, so basically, any password would do. For that matter, even an ordinary mechanical lock would keep out breghlin, but this was more convenient.
She tried a few mental commands, and when none of them worked, she ignored the voice in her head that said she’d never find a solution. She wasn’t a quitter, and being stubborn had its advantages. Think. Think. What could it be?
A slow smile spread over her face.
After a moment the tumblers clicked, and resisting the urge to gloat, she bit back a cry of delight.
“I don’t believe it!” Jules cried, actually sounding upset that she’d succeeded. She turned and broke out laughing at the look on his face.
“Remarkable,” Elias said, shaking his head.
“What was the password?” Jules demanded. “And how did you figure it out?”
Jules had a competitive streak, so her quick success had to be annoying. Even though she was anxious to get inside, she humored him. “I was thinking about the story in One Thousand and One Nights. The simple phase, ‘Open Sesame’ opened the cave mouth where the treasure was hidden. I figured S might have used something like that, something ridiculously simple. After all, she was the only one here with gem powers. So, I told the lock ‘let me in’ and the door opened.”
Elias chuckled. “Embarrassingly simple. You’re a wonder, my dear. I doubt it will be as easy to open her safe, but let’s go inside and see. Jules, draw your knife. We don’t know what we’ll find.”
Years of using dark gem powers had tainted Elias, so Jules’s knife would continue to glow as long as Elias was present, but if the glow brightened, it would serve as a warning.
“I hate to ask, but could you take this?”
Before she could refuse, Jules handed her the bag with the spell book, and drew his knife. It began to glow.
He pushed the door open cautiously and looked inside, using his upraised knife to light the immediate area.
“You will pay for this intrusion,” the book intoned.
“I’ll take my chances,” Jules said as he stepped inside.
Lana and Elias followed close behind, and Lana felt like a burglar creeping about in the dark. The dim glow from Jules’s knife wasn’t much help, and she squinted in the darkness. After a moment, her eyes began to adjust.
Urns filled with stalks of dead weeds and odd, spiky plants stood against one wall. In the center of the room, a couch and chairs made of leather stretched over bones looked disconcertingly like crouching animals ready to pounce.
Jules skirted the furniture and headed toward the far wall. Rather than waiting behind in the dark, Lana and Elias trailed after him.
Books, maps, and stacks of sketches filled several freestanding bookcases. The room smelled like old leather, and there was another odor that reminded her of the oils and lacquers her father used in his woodworking shop. Framed pencil and chalk drawings hung on the stone walls along with a couple oil paintings.
Lana briefly scanned the books but had trouble reading the titles. She spotted a mineral oil lamp on a low table near the couch. Good thing she had her lighter. Lighters were one of the few things from home that worked in Shadow. Battery-operated or electrical devices were useless. Dumping the spell book and burlap bags on the couch, she removed the glass chimney and lit the wick.
“Much better. There’s another lamp on that bookcase,” Elias said, pointing. “Bring it with you.”
She lit the lamp and hurried after the men into the next room.
This room was much smaller. She shone her light about and froze when she saw a cocoon-like thing hanging from the ceiling. Was this where S had slept? It seemed likely since the closest thing she had seen to a bed was a couch in the sitting room. A slit ran down one side of the long, woven bag, and once an occupant crawled inside, the bag would envelop him. “She slept in that?” Lana asked in amazement.
She moved closer as Elias began to examine it. “I think so. Sleeping upright seems unnatural, but she may have found it comfortable.”
“Unnatural,” Lana repeated. Yes, that described S, all right.
An ornate wardrobe stood nearby. She opened it and shook her head at the collection of nearly identical long black dresses. “S seriously needed a wardrobe make-over,” she muttered. Running her hand along an overhead shelf, she found black undergarments, and a stack of black leather pouches—perhaps for carrying gems. Pretty much everything S owned was black.
“Her desk is over here,” Jules called from across the room. “And I found the vault.”
Lana turned to look. Jules held aside a heavy tapestry, revealing an iron door as tall as he was. “I tried several variations on the passwords you used with no success.”
She joined Elias and Jules, and set the lamp on the desk near the va
ult. The vault door had no visible lock. She ran her hand over its smooth black paint. “Why couldn’t S have a tiny little safe that we could chisel out and carry away? This door looks impregnable.”
“I wasn’t expecting a built-in vault,” Elias said. “But we shouldn’t complain since, thanks to the gnomes’ generosity, whatever it holds will soon be ours.”
“I’m sure she used a difficult password,” Lana said, frowning at the door and willing it to reveal its secrets.
“Any suggestions?” Elias asked.
“Try gem names again. That wasn’t a bad idea, and it makes even more sense here since the safe holds gems.”
“If she used multiple gem names that have to be given in order, we could be here for years,” Elias said gloomily.
“Then you’d better get started. Maybe you’ll get lucky like Lana did,” Jules said, smiling. Elias looked doubtful. Jules cleared his throat. “While you’re doing that, I’ll poke around in the other room. We could have overlooked something valuable.” He escaped to the sitting room.
Elias turned to the vault door, his brow furrowed in thought.
Sometimes motion helped her think, so Lana started to pace. If nothing else, it was a good way to work off nervous energy. She wasn’t sure what they would do if they couldn’t guess the password.
Before long, Elias abandoned mental commands and tried gem names out loud, pausing after each one. When that proved unproductive, he switched to pairs of names, occasionally trying the names in reverse order. The longer he tried, the more frustrated he became until finally he shouted, “Hang it! This is useless!”
Lana leaned against the desk. She had an idea, but it was sort of a long shot. “Is it possible to erase a mirkstone password and create a new one?”
Elias turned toward her, rubbing his forehead. “Not that I’m aware of. Once the stone has been imprinted, it retains the password indefinitely.”
“But if someone figured out your password, you’d need to change it, right?”
