by Kay L. Ling
“Why?” she persisted.
There was a long pause. “Never be in charge ‘less he be mean,” came the answer in a tone that implied this should be obvious.
Lana leaned forward. “You’re saying that no one will respect him or do as he asks unless he’s mean?”
Several murmured their agreement.
“The crueler the better. That kind of breghlin be put in charge. Always been that way.”
S probably had appointed the strongest, most ruthless breghlin to oversee field workers, miners, and tradesmen, knowing they could maintain control. That thought led to another. Dungeon and mining camp guards didn’t need to be vicious. They dealt with slaves and prisoners, usually gnomes, who were easily subdued. Lana smiled slowly. No wonder she’d been able to win over some of Shadowglade’s guards. Wally and Grace were probably pushovers compared to many of the others. Elias and Jules were in charge now, and they wouldn’t reward breghlin for being cruel—quite the opposite. Lana said firmly, “Gem Master Elias isn’t cruel, but you respect him and do as he says.”
At first no one answered, and then Tina Ann said hesitantly, “But he has gem powers. If we makes him angry, we doesn’t know what he’ll do.”
Lana opened her mouth and closed it again. She had been about to say that Elias would never use gem powers to punish them, but they might interpret that as weakness, and besides, she wasn’t sure it was true. Still, she needed to convey the idea that rulers, including those with gem powers, could win obedience without using force.
“A strong leader is respected because he’s smart and wise and makes good decisions. He doesn’t need to be cruel.”
“How can he be strong if he’s actin’ weak?” one of the females asked, frowning at the concept.
Lana thought a moment, trying to find the right example. “Suppose Brenda Ann hits you. You’re very angry and it would feel good to hit her back. Tell me, is it easier to hit her or to walk away?”
After a brief silence one said in disgust, “That’s a dumb question. Who would walk away? That’s weak.” Several nodded in agreement.
“You haven’t answered me. Which is easier to do? Hit her or walk away?”
“It be easier to hit her. Hard to walk away,” Tina Ann said firmly, which silenced the group.
“That’s right,” Lana said, relieved that someone understood and agreed with her. “It takes a strong person to walk away.”
Another said, “But if you turn your back, you gonna be attacked.”
“That’s possible. And I’m not saying you should never defend yourself; I’m saying fighting isn’t always necessary. A strong person knows when it’s best to walk away.”
The looks on their faces said they still found her way of thinking strange, but at least they were mulling it over.
“S isn’t in charge of your world anymore, and things are changing around here. Elias and Jules are running things, but they need help with important jobs.” She paused to let that sink in. “They’re looking for wise, not ruthless breghlin. Ones strong enough to walk away from a fight.”
Total silence reigned. Were they following anything she said? Even if these concepts seemed foreign now, she hoped they’d take root.
“Wise is best . . . not mean,” Tina Ann said thoughtfully.
“That’s right,” Lana said. “Stop looking for violent mates. They’ll never get important jobs. We can’t trust them.”
The young breghlin who had walked in on Lana and Jules kissing said, “Gem Master Jules ern’t violent or mean. He make you a good mate.”
Once again they began growling lasciviously and smacking their lips. Lana felt her face flush. News traveled fast. “He’s a good man, but we may never be mates,” she told them. “He has important things to do here, and I have responsibilities at home, in my world.”
“You should be mates,” Tina Ann insisted, ignoring her excuses. “You would make powerful youngones.”
Hoping to shift the conversation away from herself, Lana said, “I’ve never seen breghlin children. Where are they?”
“With the oldones. When the youngones be weaned, the oldones care for them. Middleones has to work all the time,” Lou Ann answered matter-of-factly.
“So, you don’t raise your own children—youngones?”
“The oldones, they be good teachers,” Lou Ann said. “They know more than us. Someday, we be oldones and we raise the youngones.”
Maybe they didn’t have strong maternal instincts. Or maybe they had simply accepted this system because S had made life too demanding for them to raise families. The oldones who could no longer endure hard physical labor tended the young.
Lana heard footsteps and turned toward the door, thinking it was Jules or Franklin come to see if she was all right. Instead, it was two guards, making their rounds. They did a double take when they saw her.
“Everything all right here?” The gnome’s eyes flicked over the group before coming to rest on Lana’s face.
“Yes. I’ll be spending the night here.”
He tried to hide his disapproval, as did his companion, but their half-hearted smiles weren’t very convincing. “We’ll check back in a couple hours.” They walked away.
“Gnomes hate us,” Brenda Ann muttered when the guards had gone.
“They’re afraid of you, and you’ve given them reason to be,” Lana said.
The group sat in sullen silence, refusing to look at her. She hoped she hadn’t offended them. She needed to speak the truth, but if she wanted them to take her Ministry of Breghlin Affairs seriously, she couldn’t constantly side with the gnomes. It would be best to end the discussion now and get ready for bed.
She reached for her backpack and pulled out the long T-shirt she planned to sleep in, and that reminded her. “Where are your new nightgowns?”
They began rummaging through the storage baskets near their bedrolls, and Lana went to close the door, leaving it open a crack so the guards could speak to her.
As she started to undress, she was glad there wasn’t much light. She pulled her T-shirt on over her underwear and quickly crawled under the blanket.
It soon became apparent that the breghlin didn’t share her concerns about modesty. They yanked off their tunics and pants and were in no hurry to pull the white nightgowns over their malformed bodies. Suddenly she felt guilty for complaining about her own body’s minor imperfections.
Lana rolled over, hoping she could fall asleep. A few months ago she had spent the night in a Tree Home, surrounded by gnomes who had rescued her from a handful of breghlin. Now she was sleeping with a roomful.
Chapter 19
Lana woke the next morning to whispers and scuffling feet. Last night, despite the drone of voices that had continued after she closed her eyes, she had fallen asleep and slept soundly.
Through half-opened eyelids she saw breghlin getting dressed for the day. Some would go down to the kitchen and cook for the rest of the staff, some would tend torches and oil lamps, and others would mend uniforms, clean rooms, deliver messages, and run errands.
Spending the night here had been a cross between a childhood sleepover and a college dorm party, and she was glad she hadn’t lost her nerve. They had listened to her views on nonviolence, and perhaps one or two had taken her message to heart. She considered that a major victory.
When the last one slipped from the room, she squinted at her wind-up watch. Ten minutes after five. Knowing Elias and Jules, they’d be up soon. After eating breakfast they’d head to Elias’s office and have coffee while they worked.
Lana stretched and yawned. She dressed quickly. Despite being a castle, Shadowglade was bleak and primitive. The massive stone block walls made it seem like a gigantic version of Elias’s cave, only it wasn’t as homey and there was no underground river for bathing. There wasn’t even a shower or a real toilet.
She put on her jacket, grabbed her gem pouch, and started for the terrace where she could see if it was still raining. The castle was silent a
t this hour, and in the wavering torch light she could almost imagine S walking down the passageway wearing a long black dress.
Lana was still thinking about S when she reached the terrace. How many times had the woodspirit sat drawing sketches while enjoying the view of her garden? S had ruled Shadow for generations, hated and feared by everyone. It didn’t seem like much of a life. But S had found pleasure in others’ misery, and if her life had been lonely, she hadn’t seemed to mind.
Lana hesitated in the doorway. The terrace floor was slick with rain. Water pooled in low spots. It must have rained all night, but right now there was only a light mist, and the air felt cool and refreshing.
According to Elias, parts of Shadow went months without rain, and here at Shadowglade, rain came infrequently in sporadic downpours. Shadow desperately needed rain, but this was too much of a good thing.
There had to be a way to stop it.
Lana stepped from the protection of the doorway. The sky was beginning to lighten with the approach of sunrise. She sat down on a bench and dug through her pouch to find aquamarines to boost her infused foresight. Elias and Jules had already used gem powers to look for a solution to the unnatural rain, and they hadn’t been successful, but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t try.
The gems grew warm in her palm, and she opened her mind to receive impressions. For a while the gloomy thoughts felt like her own, but then she began to see disturbing images: acres of swamp, stagnant lakes, and fields of knee-deep muck. Twigs and branches floated down a muddy stream. Emaciated gnomes stood on the bank, hunched over in despair. Was this what Shadow would look like in a few months? There would be no crops, no pastures. Gnomes, breghlin, and animals would starve.
She opened her eyes and drew a deep breath. If she dwelled on scenes like that, she’d be too discouraged to continue, and she’d never find a solution. Closing her eyes again, she made her mind as blank as possible and was relieved to see nothing but gray mist.
Eventually, the gray mist resolved into an image, and she saw a dimly lit room with stone block walls, but the image was hazy. She took a deep breath and tried to draw more energy from the gems. The image rippled and then sharpened. Now she recognized the room. It was Elias’s office. The closed spell book was on his desk, jeweler’s tools beside it.
Her point of view shifted. Now she was standing behind the desk, looking down at the book. Gems were missing from the cover. Several lay on the desk: two red, one violet, one black, and one iridescent blue. Yesterday, she had thought about replacing malevolent gems with benevolent ones. Did this vision mean she should do it? Would switching the gems make the book more cooperative? Did the spell book know the secret to ending the rain?
A gust of wind whipped Lana’s hair across her face, breaking her concentration, and she opened her eyes, feeling slightly dizzy. The mist had become a downpour, and sheets of rain swept across the terrace. Shivering, she retreated into the passageway and tried to convince herself that their situation wasn’t hopeless. If there was even the slightest chance that altering the gems on the spell book might lead to a solution, she had to try it.
Turning her back on the rain, she headed for Elias’s office.
When Lana finished operating on the spell book, tools and gems littered the desk.
The book had put up a fight.
She had hovered over each gem, pliers in hand, and used the decibel level of the book’s shrieks to decide which gem to remove first. As soon as she had removed that first gem, the book had fallen silent. Then she had tested the rest of the gems for malevolent powers and removed all the offenders, replacing them with phorish, aka “happy gem.” All but one. She had selected the final gem with great care after studying Elias’s notebooks. The last gem held a wide range of extrasensory abilities, including telepathy and clairvoyance.
Lana stroked the cover absently and felt the gems grow warm under her hand.
“Good morning, Gem Master Lana,” the book said cheerfully, its voice higher than usual. “I trust you slept well.”
Lana’s mouth fell open, and it took her a moment to find her tongue. “I did. Thank you.” She had hoped the operation would improve the book’s disposition; even so, this transformation came as a shock. She took her hand from the cover. “How are you feeling today?”
“A bit unusual.” It paused as if considering. “I cannot describe it, but I suppose it is of no importance.”
What else about the book had changed? Was it possible that the text had reappeared? Hardly daring to look, Lana opened the book.
Faint but legible writing covered the pages.
She let out a cry of delight. The ommort mirkstone hadn’t erased the words. It had probably triggered a spell to hide the writing, and removing the malevolent gems had reversed the effect, at least partially.
“Are you all right?” the book asked in a concerned tone.
“All right? I’m more than all right!” Finally, something had gone right. Better days were coming; she felt sure of it. She closed the book and danced around the desk, throwing her arms in the air, shimmying her shoulders, and laughing.
“Dear heavens!” came a startled voice from the doorway.
She froze and looked toward the door. Elias’s astonished expression made her face flush with embarrassment. Jules was shaking with laughter, his hand over his mouth.
“You’ll be dancing, too, when you see this,” she promised, reaching for the spell book. She opened it and turned it toward them.
“How is this possible?” Elias cried. He and Jules hurried over to examine the book. The writing hadn’t darkened, but it was readable.
“What happened?” Jules asked, looking up in amazement.
“Three guesses.” She waved a hand at the tools and gems on the desk and closed the book. “You’re a better judge than I am, Elias, but I think I removed all the malevolent gems. I replaced them with phorish and a benikka.”
“And then the writing appeared,” he said, nodding.
She wouldn’t mind a little praise for pulling this off. Modesty aside, it was pretty amazing. But right now, both men looked too shocked for compliments.
Elias touched the cover and said quietly, “Have there been any other changes?”
“Gem Master Elias! How nice to see you this morning,” the spell book cried, making Elias jump. “Have I ever told you how nice you look in green? That color is most becoming on you.”
Elias snatched his hand away, his mouth hanging open. Jules’s eyes were the size of orelia eggs. Lana gave the men a lopsided grin, as if to say, “There’s your answer.”
“Your morning coffee is late. Thunderation!” the book sputtered. “Breghlin can be so unreliable.”
Elias sank into a chair. “Other changes indeed.”
Jules sat down, a smile playing at his lips. “The spells are back and the book seems far more agreeable now. Maybe we can find answers to our problems.”
“Like how to stop the rain, and how to get into the armory,” Lana said.
Jules ran a hand through his damp hair. “This rain is causing havoc. Early this morning we got a report that water was running through the maraku barn, so Elias and I went out to help the breghlin dig drainage channels. We haven’t eaten yet, and I’m starving.”
“Now that you mention breakfast, I’m hungry too,” Lana said. “I can’t believe I operated pre-coffee.”
“You must have slept well. By the way, how did it go last night?” Jules asked.
“Fantastic. I’ll tell you about it over breakfast.”
“I’m hungry, but I’m far too excited to eat,” Elias said. “You and Jules go without me, but bring me back something, if you don’t mind.”
“We’d be happy to do that,” Jules said. “I don’t blame you for wanting to stay and study the book.”
Midway to the door Lana remembered something she wanted to ask.
“Can I ask a question?”
Elias had already taken his seat behind the desk and had started to rea
d. He gave a distracted “mmmm” without looking up, which she took as a yes.
“Sometimes S used gems alone, and other times she used a spell with gem powers. I don’t get how that works. How do you know when you need a spell?”
Elias looked up, frowning slightly as he considered her question. “When you use straight gem powers, you must use the gem’s abilities in the present time. When you use a spell, you can make the gem powers activate at whatever time you chose. And you can use a spell to perform a complex function. For example, if you and Jules were to use telepathy now, you only need gem powers. But if you wanted to send a message later, triggered by a particular set of circumstances, you would use a spell. Does that make sense?”
Lana nodded. “I think so.”
“If you need to heal someone who’s with you, you would simply use gem powers. But if you needed to heal someone far away, you would transmit healing powers, and that would require a spell.”
“There’s so much to learn,” Lana said with a sigh. “Having the spell book should help a lot.”
“I hope so,” Elias said, turning his attention back to the book. “Somewhere within these pages I must find a spell that stops the rain.”
When Lana and Jules returned from breakfast, carrying dark bread and a hardboiled orelia egg for Elias, they met him coming up the passageway.
“You’re out of the office,” Lana said in surprise. It was hard to believe he had taken a break from the spell book.
“I’ve had a breakthrough,” he whispered, glancing surreptitiously toward his office. “Technically, the spell we’re dealing with is not a rain spell, although rain is the result. All these years S had a drought spell in place, allowing for brief periods of rain where and when it suited her. To properly end that spell, one must use specific commands that will not only end the drought, but also return the climate to its natural state. The ommort mirkstone did neither. It simply overrode S’s original spell with a command that was the equivalent of saying ‘never let a drought occur again.’”
