“What’s next for you two?”
“More healing,” said Alicia. “We’ve taken care of all the serious injuries.” A cloud passed over her features. “At least the ones we could help. But there are plenty of cuts to heal, burns to soothe, and broken bones to mend. Seeing you was a good excuse for a rest. Mending bodies may not be as dramatic as cracking open the earth or creating forty-foot high waves, but it’s just as tiring. Magic is magic, regardless of how it’s being used.”
Carannan nodded. His daughter’s fatigue had lessened since he had seen her a few days ago, but she still looked worn. At one point, she and Sorial had worked nonstop for three days straight without sleep, saving lives and preserving limbs. Any lingering suspicion of wizards had dissipated; Sorial and Alicia were feted and loved by nearly all the people, including many of the prisoners of war whom they attended.
“That scoundrel Rotgut was here to see me earlier today,” said Carannan. “Got himself promoted to general somehow. I think he has his sights set on my job. He said the queen offered him command over the remnant army in Obis once we leave for Vantok but he refused. He wants to go home as much as I do. Now that Rexall is the head of the queen’s personal retinue, I’ll have to find a new undercommander. I suppose I could do worse than Rotgut. Still leaves open the question of who to put in charge when we leave. I’ll let Her Majesty make the decision. She knows these men better than I do.”
“After General Greeg’s betrayal, I wonder how much she trusts any of the top military men,” said Sorial. Neither he nor the queen had spoken much about the turbulent events surrounding Myselene’s ascension to Obis’ throne, but Carannan was aware they had both been targeted for assassination.
“I suppose Mother will be thrilled about the prospects of going home.” As always when speaking about Lady Evane, Alicia’s tone was guarded. Carannan hadn’t given his estranged wife much thought during the past few weeks, although he knew from messengers that she was safe in Sussaman with the rest of Vantok’s survivors.
“I’m sure the idea appeals to her but she won’t like the long trip and will be aghast at what she finds when we get there. I don’t have any illusions that the city we return to is going to be like the place we left behind. It’s been sacked, looted, and burnt. Those who have taken up residence there have ill-used it. Your mother probably envisions that all our house will need is a quick tidying up and everything will be back to normal. Then again, maybe I underestimate her. Perhaps her time in Sussaman has changed her perceptions.” To be fair, Evane had borne up better on the road than he had expected. Rumor had it she had taken up with a lover along the way; perhaps that was the reason. Surprisingly, Carannan didn’t resent the possibility. Once, it would have stung his ego but he was beyond caring about such things. Let her find what comfort she could.
“Does she know you’re all right?” Alicia asked.
“Of course she does. We may not be the best matched couple but I’m not a cruel man. I sent word to her shortly after the battle letting her know that you, me, and my sister are alive and well.”
“I suppose I should visit her. I haven’t seen her since Basingham.”
“Yes, you should.” There was a hint of reproach in Carannan’s voice. “You’ve been unnecessarily callous to your mother, especially of late. I blame myself for that in part. Maybe if I’d been kinder to her, less dismissive, it might have improved your perspective. The fact of the matter is that she loves you in her own way, she just has had trouble coping with what you’ve become.” Alicia’s status from birth as The Wizard’s Bride had created a distance between mother and daughter; Evane hadn’t allowed herself to get too close because she knew that, at some point, duty would take Alicia from her. Over the years, that small rift had widened into a chasm. The friendless Alicia had looked elsewhere for affection: Carannan, Vagrum, and eventually Sorial.
Carannan could tell by the expression on his daughter’s face that she was considering his words. Finally, she said, “Take care of yourself, Father, and listen to the healers when they tell you something. Myselene has assigned a good man to your care so, even if he says something you don’t like, you should heed him. It’s your best chance of being in peak condition in time for the journey to Vantok. We’ll see you again as soon as opportunity allows.”
* * *
“Balance is the key,” said Alicia, sitting cross-legged on the bed they shared in the latest makeshift “palace” - actually an inn in western Obis commandeered by the queen. This was the first opportunity circumstances had given them to discuss in depth what their next move should be now that Justin was gone.
“I agree. Have you ever heard of The Balance of All Things?”
“No. Didn’t see it. Didn’t read a reference to it. But Justin obviously thought it was important. Important enough to make it his dying words and to think that finding it would allow us to continue his quest.”
“I’m out of my depth,” admitted Sorial. “This gets into the theory of magic, where I ain’t got experience.”
“I wish I’d had more time at the library. I learned some things but not nearly enough. At least we know the portals are involved. Since they’re the only places where our universe and the Otherverse touch, we have to assume there’s a way to breach the gateway. We saw it when we were transformed.”
“The answer isn’t to simply re-enter a portal.”
“No. I doubt that would accomplish what we want. We’d probably end up like Kara and your brother - trapped and powerless. We need something more.” Her brow furrowed with concentration.
“We’re going to have to invest new Lords of Fire and Air. The sooner, the better.”
“I agree. Balance means air, fire, water, and earth.”
“It’s more than that. Till we lead the right candidates into the portal, there’s a danger of a rogue wizard coming into power - someone with no loyalty to Myselene who may have his own agenda. That’s what happened with Justin and we don’t want it repeated now. This gives us an opportunity to choose the next air-wizard and fire-wizard rather than leaving the matter to chance.”
“You sound a little like Ferguson, you know. That was his philosophy: build a cadre of loyal wizards. It didn’t exactly work out for him. Toward the end of his life, none of the four wizards were on the best of terms with him.”
“I hope my ethics are cleaner than his.” Sorial’s voice conveyed his disdain. “I ain’t lying or manipulating. But if there are latent wizards among us, they deserve to know it, and the only way for them to find out is to get close to a portal.”
“And if they choose not to enter the portal? What if there’s only one viable fire candidate and he doesn’t want the power? And what if we need him to enter the Otherverse? What then?”
It was an uncomfortable question but he knew it was a possibility. Not liking it didn’t make it go away. Not everyone singled out by Ferguson as having viable bloodlines was going to hear the call of the portal. There was no guarantee even with the most direct genealogies and Sorial suspected that some of the names on Ferguson’s list might be long-shots. When it came to picking the next generation, his and Alicia’s choices might be limited.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“Because you’ll do what you have to do. I’m not saying you and Ferguson are the same. He was twisted and consumed by power but his initial plan had merit. We have to achieve what’s necessary for the greater good even if it forces us to adopt some of Ferguson’s less savory methods. If your concerns are correct, our battle could be for the life of every man, woman, and child in this world. If that means tricking or conniving to get a reluctant person to step through a portal…”
“…We’ll do it.” Sorial said the words with a conviction he didn’t necessarily feel. But if anyone had the right to make that statement, it was her. When it came down to it, he had entered the portal of his own volition. The circumstances hadn’t been ideal but it had been a conscious choice, the culmination of a journey embarke
d on for that specific purpose. It had been different for Alicia. “Saying that, have you forgiven Rexall?”
“No, although I’ve come to terms with what he did and what I am. But the bitterness I feel toward him is why neither you nor I can be involved if someone has to be ‘helped’ along. Let the soldiers do the deed. That way, we might escape being the target of lingering resentment. We can’t afford to start out at odds with one of our own kind.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Given the chance, I don’t see many people refusing the opportunity to be a wizard. They don’t understand the curse in the gift. They see glory, adulation, and a chance to be one of the most powerful people in the world. That’s enough to seduce almost anyone, especially now that our deeds in the Battle of Obis have been exaggerated.”
“Your deeds,” she corrected with a wry smile. “They hardly ever mention me. ‘Sorial, the Great Lord of Earth, Savior of Obis, Magus Prime, Defeater of the Fire Wizard. Oh, and his pretty little wife, The Lady of Water.’
“So we go to Ibitsal with the candidates, choose two new wizards and identify our successors, then join Myselene on the road back to Vantok?”
Sorial nodded. “We have to find the book and hope it decodes the rest of this puzzle. There are things we don’t know and, given the dismal failure rate of past attempts by men with greater knowledge and experience, we’ve got to be sure. In the end, it’s a question of what we’re trying to do beyond ‘stopping Armageddon.’ Is it possible for us to physically enter the Otherverse?”
Alicia considered. “I don’t think so. At least not in our current forms. We’re made out of matter and the Otherverse is pure energy. The two are antithetical. When the energy from the Otherverse fuels magic, it goes through a conversion process. Something similar must happen in reverse, something that would transform the matter of our being into a form that would be compatible with the Otherverse. It happened to your mother and brother. They were able to communicate with you in a recognizable fashion. You knew them and they knew you.”
“They died before accomplishing that.”
Alicia was quiet for a moment. “And that may be what’s necessary for anyone to cross over.”
* * *
The last time he had left Ibitsal, with the echo of the booming voice from the Otherverse still in his ears, Sorial hadn’t thought he would ever see this place again. Yet here he was and the portal chamber looked no different than it had twenty weeks ago.
Next to him, Alicia shivered, and it wasn’t from the cold. This, after all, was the place of her rebirth. “Bad memories?” he asked.
“Strange as it may seem, I have few of this place. I remember things before I went through the portal - climbing all those stairs, listening to Maraman boast, watching what happened to Kara. But afterward - it’s all a blur. Some of it was the drugs they gave me but most was shock. My first clear memory after being pushed through the portal was seeing you arriving to rescue me - a naked, bronze god come to take me back home.”
Sorial turned to Rotgut, the only person presently inside the chamber other than himself and his wife. The members of the so-called “wizards’ company” remained outside, watching the horses and the two dozen candidates. “Let them come in. I want them to see this place. Those with talent have to go up with us.”
Five of the twenty-four showed indications of possessing the talent, including Carannan’s sister. Two had an affinity for fire, two for air, and one for earth. Justin and Ariel could be replaced immediately and there was a spare ready to inherit Sorial’s title when the time came, but none of Ferguson’s water candidates had the aptitude. There was no future Lord or Lady of Water among them. Alicia’s successor was still out there somewhere, yet to be discovered. Sorial couldn’t help but wonder how Justin would have coped with this situation.
A band of sixty-one, with enough guards to intimidate the pockets of mercenary-turned-bandit remnants from Justin’s army marauding across the North, they had set off from Obis a week ago with the intention of determining the accuracy of Ferguson’s predictions. Alicia in particular was surprised by the success rate. Records in the Yu’Tar Library had indicated that fewer than one in four thousand people possessed the talent to become a wizard. Whatever his faults, the late prelate understood how to research bloodlines. The absence of another water-wizard was a concern only for future practitioners of magic. Certainly, it was irrelevant for Alicia.
The first of the candidates had heard the call of the portal while more than a day away. During the next ten hours, the intrusive comecomecome had insinuated itself into the minds of four others. For the rest, including Sorial and Alicia, there was only silence.
Some of the more superstitious members of the group had been reluctant to enter Ibitsal. Its reputation extended beyond the North. Depending on what story they had been told, it was damned, cursed, or haunted. Sorial considered allowing the most averse to remain behind but, in the end, curiosity impelled them forward, winning out over anxiety. The opportunity to gaze at the portal, a relic of a long-dead world, was too great an opportunity to allow to pass.
The decision of who would be asked to enter the portal was made jointly by Sorial and Alicia. For air, they chose Lavella, Alicia’s aunt and her predecessor as Vantok’s Wizard’s Bride. She was smart, loyal, and humble. The only negative trait was her age. Most wizards entered the portal shortly past Maturity, as had been the case for Sorial and Alicia. Lavella was into her middle years, which augured a short term as The Lady of Air. When approached, she accepted with a gratitude that was almost fawning.
The next Lady of Fire would a peasant woman of twenty-five. Most of the selections on Ferguson’s list were noble born; she was one of the exceptions. Excela’s circumstances - sold by her parents into servitude as a maid and whore - reminded Sorial of his own upbringing. Although not formally educated, she was smart and eager for the opportunity to distinguish herself.
Sorial, Alicia, Lavella, and Excela - they would represent the first united quartet of wizards in more than one thousand years. This was what Justin had hoped for but never achieved. It had also been Ferguson’s goal. Irony had decreed that both needed to die in order for it to come into being. There would be more changes, probably sooner than later, but filling vacancies would be left up to those who remained. His eventual replacement, a lad named Dorthik, was the lone son of a minor noble and displayed more arrogance than Sorial would have preferred in the next Lord of Earth.
Upon entering the portal chamber, the first thing Sorial and Alicia did was to establish a permanent travel station, using earth and water to create a shallow well that could be used as a magical focal point for instantaneous translocation. It was a trick Alicia had learned from the Yu’Tar Library. Justin had accomplished something similar with fire; she had reasoned there was no reason it couldn’t be done with water or earth. She supposed it might also be possible with air, although she didn’t understand how a pocket could be contained to represent a stable travel-point. In the future, Lavella might want to investigate that.
Led by Rotgut, the candidates entered the cavernous room with the five potential wizards at the fore. Sorial motioned for them to follow as he started up the stairs. Alicia brought up the rear while the remainder of the band waited below, gazing up. The portal itself couldn’t be seen from the ground level but no one wanted to miss whatever might be visible of the impending transitions.
The smooth, round top of the pillar was no different than it had been on Sorial’s last visit. The impenetrable depths of the portal beckoned to him, as if daring him to enter for a second time. Soon, perhaps, but not yet.
Something had changed, however. A pole had been driven into the stone ring near the outer edge - an act of inelegant brute force. From its curved top hung a lantern and in that lantern burned an ever-bright flame. So, Sorial hadn’t been the only wizard to visit this portal in recent weeks. Only fire-wizards could create flames that never died; Justin had been here recently, probably setting up a
gateway either for travel or spying. With his death, the flame had ceased to pose a danger, although it would continue burning until it was magically extinguished.
The seven visitors stood at an equal distance from each other around the portal’s perimeter, looking down. Two of them would pass into that blackness. Sorial remembered what it had been like to be on the edge, with the call of comecomecome throbbing through his mind, crowding out other thoughts and feelings. It hadn’t been a moment to savor - he had been in a race against death - but knew what each of these five was thinking and feeling. Fear, anticipation, and an itch they needed to scratch. Ultimately, it would be more difficult for the three who wouldn’t be transformed than the two who would be. Even once they were far from Ibitsal, they would be haunted by the portal’s song until circumstances finally allowed them to pass into its depths or death claimed them.
“Even if I was a great speech-maker, which I ain’t, there wouldn’t be much to say,” he remarked. “How do you mark an occasion like this, and does it need marking at all? Lavella and Excela, you’re about to join an exclusive group. Alicia and I welcome you with our arms spread wide. You’ll be called on to use your powers before you understand them. Hopefully, as the weeks and years pass, you’ll gain mastery through practice and study.
“Dorthik, Liesel, and Basil, it will be difficult for you to watch but your time will come. Wizards burn out faster than normal humans; it’s a tragic fact of our existences. Use the intervening years to prepare yourself. Read the ancient texts. Sequester yourselves in the great libraries of the continent and become familiar with all the tomes and scrolls about magic you can find. Then, when you’re called on to serve, you’ll emerge from the portal not as a raw novice but as an adept with knowledge to match your power. It’s an advantage Alicia and I didn’t have.”
Shadow of the Otherverse (The Last Whisper of the Gods Saga Book 3) Page 49
