by Guy Antibes
Valanna still felt exposed and dirty, riding for two days with her hands tied, needing help to mount and unmount, and then suddenly, freedom. Berin motioned to Asem, who took his wife’s hand. Only two women dressed in dark gray accompanied them, walking a few paces behind.
“It’s time for you to freshen up, Valanna. Tonight, we will talk about our next step and find out what is happening since we left Balbaam.”
Berin led them between towers and tall buildings that had to be five stories high until he climbed a few steps and walked through a large door. Valanna looked up and failed to see the top of this particular tower. The stripes that she had seen from outside the city were made up of lines of stone blocks that poked out from the wall. It still made the towers look severe and she wondered why they would adhere to a single style of architecture for hundreds of years.
The first floor was cavernous. The ceiling must have been at least thirty feet high. Polished stone floors made footsteps echo off the polished stone walls. She couldn’t help get the impression of solidity and strength, but it began to make her intimidated.
Valanna stopped in the center of a foyer that must have taken up half of the floor. She closed her eyes and clutched her hands into fists and vowed not to become intimidated. She blinked open and rushed to their little group. The Colcanan women had passed her by and no one had seemed bothered.
They stopped at a bank of doorways. Valanna counted six doorways.
“These are lift shafts,” Berin said. “This tower is twenty-two stories high and we get up and down using lifts. It’s a simple enough pose and you can get to the desired level by using a specific power word. I brought Marta and Deeda to escort you to your rooms and teach you the lift spell. That sixth door is a practice shaft; it only goes up two more floors. We were told if you stay that you all have sufficient capability to learn the pose and key words. I must make other preparations for your stay with us. We will have dinner on your floor. There is a dining room at the front that looks over the little square at the entrance.” He bowed to them and stood in the shaft. Berin assumed a pose and said a word and lifted out of sight.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Kulara said. The walk seemed to have eliminated her ill humor.
Valanna looked uncertainly at the lift shafts, but then lifted her chin. She would conquer the fear she currently felt. The woman who introduced herself as Marta took her hand and they stepped in.
“You see this disk? Stand on it.”
Valanna noticed a thick wooden disk about four feet in diameter and stood in the center. Marta pushed her a little to the side. The woman stood straight and held her hands straight out from her wrists, arms stiff, palms down. “Tenasee,” she said. The disk began to rise without a wobble and rose up.
“You are now nineteen floors above the ground floor,” Marta said. “You can step off.”
The inside of the shaft had a ’19’ painted next to the door. After she stepped off, Marta put her hands on her knees with a finger pointing at the disk and crouched. “Porta” The shaft disappeared from view. “The descend pose is a bit harder than the ascend one, but it is the same no matter what level you are on. Tenasee is for the nineteenth floor and works the same in any of our towers.”
Valanna looked at the doorway. “How do you bring a disk up?”
Marta smiled. “Both index fingers pointing down in to the shaft will bring one to you, if you say ‘Besso’. The lift will stay there until commanded with another pose.”
“And if I want to go from the fifteenth level to this one, I still use Tenasee?”
“Smart girl! Yes, the power word takes you to a prescribed height. That’s why they are all basically built the same, except for height. Let me show you to your room.”
“Are Asem and Kulara on this same floor?”
Marta nodded her head. “This is a floor for visitors only. We are strict about such things at the Magician’s College. Please don’t go to other levels without an escort.”
Valanna responded with what she hoped was a smile. The institution seemed to be run by strict rules. Just how strict, she guess she’d find out soon enough.
~
“I have a nice room,” Valanna said to Kulara at dinner. “It has a bathroom with a toilet and a basin with running water. I’ve never heard of poses that would do that.” They stood at a window admiring the view. Valanna looked out through windows set in the deep part of the vertical runnels of the tower. She had never seen such a sight from so high. The towers in Balbaam were only five stories high, no higher than the other buildings that she had passed entering Bitrium. The city, from nearly four times higher, looked small beneath her with people the size of insects scurrying from place to place. She felt like a bird flying above Bitrium.
Kulara grinned. “I tried to get Deeda to tell me the poses and words, but she said she didn’t know them. The Colcanans keep all of these secrets to themselves. So we only know how to get down and get back up to this level. I never thought there could be such innovation, but there is. The only way to survive towers so tall is to have a way to get people up and down without walking hundreds of steps every day.” She, too, looked out at the city darkening in the fading twilight.
Valanna laughed. “But think of how the magicians here would be in very good physical shape.”
“Indeed.”
Berin had invited two older Colcanan magicians to sit next to each of the women and they all sat when the pair arrived together. They were both men dressed in the ubiquitous dark gray but at least the clothes were made with differing styles. Asem’s dining partner was his old friend, Berin.
A young woman and boy, dressed in a light gray, served them a covered plate of food. They opened wine bottles and set them on the table along with glasses before they bowed and left. The way they looked at the older men, she thought they might be important members of the College.
“So, I hear you are an accomplished magician,” the man at her side said.
“I am Valanna Sleekbottle,” she said extending her hand. Sleekbottle wasn’t her real last name, but she didn’t feel like telling it to this man who just talked to her without introducing himself.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Everyone in Bitrium knows us as Service,” he pointed with a quick up tilt with his chin to the man who sat across the table and next to Kulara, “and Willing,” he pointed to himself.
“Those are plain names.”
Willing nodded. “We take on a new first name when we reach a certain level of training. Berin is getting close. Our training and practice never ends.” He smiled at their host who bowed his head in return. Willing certainly put on a jovial front.
Valanna realized that Honor’s first name might very well indicate a high level of training since she was a Colcanan. She would have to ask Marta if she saw her again.
Berin stood. “We are pleased to have two Deans of the College with us, tonight. Please accept our hospitality as humble as it is.”
The three Colcanan put their hands on the dull metal domes covering their plates. Valanna looked at Asem who did the same thing. Valanna put out her hands and did the same. Kulara didn’t look very comfortable.
Berin said, “May the gods give us strength.”
The two deans repeated his words and then Valanna repeated the words close behind them. Berin lifted the cover and Valanna followed the deans. She looked down at the gray boiled meat surrounded by boiled potatoes and some orange root vegetable. It looked tasteless. Kulara couldn’t help make a face, while Asem just looked amused by it all. Valanna wondered what the wine would taste like and expected the worst. She wasn’t disappointed.
She wondered what kind of culture these people created and conversely what kind of people this culture produced. The men talked in a relaxed, friendly way, but Valanna detected a sinister undercurrent. Maybe not sinister, but arrogant? Superior? She didn’t think she could trust them like Asem.
After the bland dinner, Berin and the other two men wished to meet alone with Asem. Kulara
joined Valanna in her room.
Kulara sat on Valanna’s bed as Valanna went to the window, looking down at the pinpoints of light in the city below.” I don’t trust them,” Valanna said. “Asem seems to be quite taken with Berin and the other two Deans.”
“Don’t be fooled, my girl. Asem has known Berin for many years and he will be careful about what he tells them. We are not among enemies, but we are not among friends.”
Valanna put her hand against the window frame. “Why did we come here, anyway? I thought we were going to Espozia.”
“Asem knows what he is doing. The Colcanans have an extensive network of spies throughout Santasia. It is better to work with the Colcan magicians than against them, at least that is what he told me last night.”
Valanna shook her head with a touch of dismay. She had decided to take charge of her life and do what she could to eradicate her inner fears and now they were nearly prisoners, up in a tower without the means to escape.
“I suppose there is nothing to do.”
“Just wait. We won’t be stuck up here for the rest of our lives. In the morning, we will be allowed to go out into the city.”
“And if they withdraw their offer?”
Kulara pursed her lips and walked to the door. “Then we will face tomorrow. You don’t have to be so pessimistic, Valanna.”
“I’m just trying to anticipate events a bit more. It helps me fend off the fear.”
The older woman gazed at Valanna for a moment. “I had better start anticipating more, then. Believe me, I’m not so sanguine about Santasia.”
~
Valanna yawned and went into the bathroom to get ready for the day. She spent a few minutes looking out the window at the dour city. She heard a knock on the door and opened it.
Marta stood in front of her. She looked defensive. “I’m sorry. I am to instruct you not to use the lifts.”
“Why?”
“Don’t worry. It’s just until another set of visitors come.”
“Why should that affect our mobility?”
“I shouldn’t tell you, but one of them might be known to your party.”
“Do you know their name?”
She shook her head. “Just enjoy the view for today. There is breakfast arrayed in the dining room. You are free to move about this level.” She bowed and left Valanna standing at the door.
How could she anticipate this? She didn’t know anyone from Colcan except for Honor Fidelia. Honor. Was she a Dean? Her name was like the foolish names that the Deans had taken.
If Honor were arriving, then, at least, she would know where they were keeping Trak in Espozia. She thought that Asem would happily be left wandering around their floor if he could get the latest information. Asem had still kept silent about his ultimate aims for Trak.
She could ask him. That’s what she’d do so she could figure out how she could affect her own future. Maybe Kulara would be willing to teach her another pose today, but right now, her stomach needed a bit of attention and the dining room would be her next stop.
~~~
Chapter Twenty-Six
THE TOWN OF GORINZA LOOKED A BIT DIFFERENT from all of the others they had moved quickly through. Honor or Malena always bought supplies since Trak spoke with a bit of a Pestlan accent and had lighter hair. None of them wanted to attract any attention, but they all desperately wanted a cooked meal.
Honor led them into a restaurant, much too small to be a tavern or an inn. They all sat down on one of the few tables in the intimate establishment and an older woman, perhaps the owner, came in to take their order. She stopped to gawk when she recognized Honor’s face.
“Honor, it is so nice to see you again! It’s been so long,” the woman said in Pestlan. The woman put her hand to her mouth and said the same thing in Santasian. “What has brought you here and who are these people?” She looked at Malena and Trak with concern.
“It is all right, Sunbeam, these are friends of mine, but we won’t bother with names, shall we?”
“No, no.” The woman’s forehead broke out with a sheen of sweat. “For my mistake, the food is free.”
Honor snorted. “It would be free anyway.”
The woman bowed. “Of course. I only have a chicken stew ready immediately, but I have bread baked fresh this morning.”
Fresh bread. It had been a week since they had ventured into a town long enough to eat.
“Are you in touch with Vintner?”
The names were not Santasian. He looked more closely at their hostess and now noticed a lighter complexion than a typical Santasian. The woman must have been a Colcanan. Perhaps a spy?
The woman nodded. “Let him know that I am taking a male person of interest and a former guild member to Bitrium. We should be there in a week or so. Now treat us as if you don’t know us.”
“I will, Miss,” Sunbeam said. “Would you like a bit of ale or wine with your meal?
“Wine,” Malena said.
“Ale for me.” Trak wondered if they could have some food for their trip, but after their meal, the woman brought out a pot sealed with wax and a wineskin.
Honor let Trak put the pot on his horse, but kept the wineskin. “I chose the wine, since I like it better, and so does Malena,” she said giving up the tiniest of smiles.
~
Trak looked at the mountains lining the horizon from his vantage point within the trees at the top of a wooded hill. They avoided a town to the west. Honor claimed that Colcan lay on the other side of the mountains. He might feel less hunted in Colcan, but he didn’t know what the Colcanans would want of him.
Malena’s glances made him uncomfortable. If he didn’t know any better, he would think that she was romantically inclined, but Trak could never erase the diffidence she showed to all of the dirty Yellows. Was it an act? That kind of thinking repelled him and the fact that she was years older than he was, but then Val was older, too. He wished she hadn’t have been a Warishian spy. Honor was diffident enough, but she didn’t look at him with those yearning eyes.
Another few days, Honor had said, and they would be over the mountains. He urged his horse on along the path to catch up to the two women. They didn’t stop to appreciate the view. He shrugged.
“Catch up. We don’t want to be caught so close to our goal,” Honor said.
“When are we safe?” Malena looked behind her at Trak. He didn’t know the answer.
“On the other side of the mountains. Until then we are in danger,” Honor let her horse slow until she was even with Trak. “If we are attacked, it’s important that you flee. Once you reach the mountains, head west until you reach the main road to Colcan.”
Trak felt like a schoolteacher scolded him. “I can make a wind pose,”
“On a horse? I don’t think so. If I don’t know any mounted poses, then you don’t.”
He didn’t remind her he could swing the sword Neel gave him. It still swung from his waist and would serve well enough against common brigands, but what to do with magicians? He took out his knife and used it to scratch the word ‘worry’ into his inner arm, beneath his shirtsleeve. If he could remember his poses then he could remember the release word. The challenge would be to remember that there was something to release.
His preparations made him feel a bit more confident. He lifted his sword a few inches from the sheath and let the blade fall in. Now let the brigands come, he thought as they entered into a thick part of the forest.
Honor rode ahead with Malena, riding in silence. Trak thought of it as companionable silence, each of them thinking their own thoughts, probably about reaching Colcan.
Trak thought he heard a rustling in the trees above them and looked up to see men dropping from the trees. He tried to pull out his sword, but pain exploded in the back of his head.
~
The smell of bacon woke him up. The sun seemed to be coming up rather than going down as it was at the time he had been hit. His head pounded as he tried to stand up, but his hands and
feet were tied. He rolled over and saw his captors talking at the far side of a clearing. On the other side, he rolled to see Malena and Honor still out, he hoped. They were tied up and bandits likely would not be tying up dead victims.
A bandit noticed him stirring and walked over to him.
“You’re not so tough,” he said. Trak noticed that the man wore Neel’s sword at his waist. “We were told you were great magicians.” The man nudged Trak with his boot and just chuckled. “We know how to take care of magicians.” He laughed some more.
Trak couldn’t do a thing and as he struggled with his bonds, he began to sink into the realization that the three of them were in real trouble since their captors knew they were magicians. Would the guild be close behind?
One of the men brought over some bacon and told Trak to open his mouth. Despite his predicament, Trak savored the bacon. “Thank you,” he said once he swallowed.
The man grunted. “Meal for the condemned.” The other men in the group all laughed.
“Where are you going to take us?” Honor said, blinking her eyes open and squinting when she talked. Trak could see her head must hurt more than his.
“Mozira,” the man who had fed Trak said. He had a fistful of bacon to give to her, but she refused anything to eat by clamping her mouth shut. Should Trak have done the same thing?
“Is Malena okay?” Trak said.
Honor rolled over and examined the girl. “She doesn’t require any bonding. She’s dead.” Trak could hear the pain in her voice. “You have killed her, murderers.”
One of the men kicked Honor in the head and she went still. “Don’t call us murderers.”
What kind of people had captured them? Trak would find a way to make the criminals pay. He looked at all six of them, memorizing their faces. No matter what happened, he vowed to return to this area and find them.
They turned Malena’s body over and one of the bandits cut her bonds and dragged her body into the woods. Trak concentrated on the clearing. He would also find her body and bury it as soon as he possibly could. His mind’s eye imagined the worse, a skeleton with weeds growing through her bones. They wouldn’t have killed her if it weren’t for him. He hoped that Honor survived her second blow to the head. Trak felt unbelievable guilt.
