Ukina sat tentatively in Chihon's chair and placed her hand on Lorit's, patting it gently. "You'll find a way."
Lorit snorted. He didn't want to admit his weakness, but Ukina had a right to know. She was dependent on him to get her out of trouble and back home. "I'm losing power quickly. That's the danger of the bond. When one of us is injured, the other one is affected, too.
"While Chihon is powerless, so am I. That's why I had Kedrik with me." Lorit folded his hands in his lap and hung his head. "I didn't have enough power to travel to Veldwaite on my own."
"So, you can't send me home even if you want to." Ukina laughed.
"I may not have the power to do it myself, but I can have another wizard do it." Lorit was angry with her. He didn't need the queen tagging along as he tried to save Chihon and figure out what Ghall and Tass were up to, but he couldn't send her home to be hung.
"Please don't send me away alone. I need your help to save Sir Adane." She squeezed his arm. "I can't go on without him. He's my rock."
Ukina sounded like the scared, young princess she had been when Lorit first met her. He couldn't send her back, but what was he going to do with her to keep her out of the way?
"I'll make sure that when we take you home, we can help him, too," Lorit said absently. He was more worried about Chihon than he was about the queen. He needed to find a way to help his partner before he grew too weak. "The shards of the egg are interfering with our abilities to remove the arrow spells." Lorit made a fist. "I wish I had the egg, so I could see what its magic looks like untainted."
Ukina stared off into the distance before bringing her gaze back to Lorit. "The egg was shedding flakes of gold and bits of shell." She made a motion as if sifting through a small pile in the palm of her hand. "There's debris in the box in the treasury where the egg used to be."
Lorit's spirits rose but fell just as quickly. "I wish I had visited the treasury. If I had my magic, I could go fetch the cast-off from the egg."
"I know the treasury." Queen Ukina smiled.
"But you're not a wizard, and I don't have enough power to travel to Veldwaite and fetch them."
"No, but you said Kedrik could take me there." Queen Ukina shrugged. "Can he?"
"Are you sure about the egg?" Lorit worried that the egg must have been compromised or else it wouldn't have so easily flaked off when Chihon was shot. Would it still hold enough power to help?
"I'm sure," Ukina said. "The dust from the shell and the golden flakes that came from the egg are there, in the treasury. All we have to do is go and get them."
"I'll make arrangements for Kedrik to take you there."
After Lorit found someone to send word to Kedrik, he returned to his study. He thought he'd find Ukina there, but the room was empty. Where had the queen gone off to, and what kind of trouble was she getting into now? Lorit wished he had the magic to send her home on his own. He should have done it the instant they arrived. Now she was running around the keep unsupervised getting into who knows what.
The door opened noisily. Lorit hoped it was Ukina, but it was only Kedrik.
"I have a task for you," Lorit said. "Ukina knows the treasury. She can guide you there to retrieve the box that used to house the dragon's egg."
Kedrik nodded. "Then we bring it back here?"
"Yes. Then you bring it back here. Alone." He looked at Kedrik to make sure the boy caught his meaning.
"You want me to leave Queen Ukina behind?" Kedrik whispered.
"Yes," Lorit said. "She should never have come with us in the first place. I can't have her here getting in the way, but I need those egg sheddings."
"What if she commands me?"
"Disobey!" Lorit put his arm around Kedrik's shoulder. "You're not a citizen of Veldwaite any longer. You're a citizen of Amedon and a wizard. Your loyalty is to us."
"Yes, sir." Kedrik looked down at his feet and mumbled.
Before Lorit could say anymore, Ukina entered. She had borrowed clean travel garb from someone in the keep and looked ready for her adventure. She strode up to Lorit and put her arm around him, giving him a squeeze. "Don't worry. We'll be back before you notice we're gone."
Lorit suppressed the guilt he felt. Leaving her behind would not be his proudest moment. If all went well, the nobles and the guards would simply return Ukina to the cells and she'd be right back where she started before she'd hijacked his transportation spell. Once he had healed Chihon, he could help Ukina recover her kingdom.
Ukina walked over to Kedrik and looked him in the eye. "If you succeed in this, when I get back on the throne, I'm going to make sure your mother has a nice place to live and plenty to eat for the rest of her life."
The queen guided Kedrik to the Sorcerer's Stone and hopped up on it. "Ready?" She extended her hand.
"Wait," Lorit said. He grabbed Kedrik and drew the boy close to him. He leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Bring her back. Don't leave her behind."
Kedrik breathed a heavy sigh. "You're certain?"
"Yes," Lorit said, releasing the boy. "Now go, and hurry back."
Kedrik stepped on the stone and grasped Queen Ukina's hand. Kedrik was clearly nervous to touch the monarch of Veldwaite, but they quickly turned to a sparkling shower of violet light that faded almost as soon as it started, leaving Lorit alone with his thoughts.
Lorit paced for a while but soon tired of that. He sat in his chair and waited for Kedrik and Ukina to return, got up, paced for a while, and sat once again. He hoped that the egg debris would be the key to helping Chihon, not only for himself, but if Tass had the egg, there would also be trouble ahead and he would need all of his strength and that of Chihon to defeat her.
The door opened and Kimt entered. "Worried?" Kimt asked.
"I am," Lorit said. "How is Chihon doing?"
"Not very good. She seems to be getting worse. I can't remove the arrow spell, and I don't know what to try next."
Kimt looked lost. Lorit knew she was a fine healer. If Kimt couldn't help Chihon, no one could. He waited as she seemed to struggle with herself. Finally, she looked at Lorit with concern on her face.
"I was researching this in the library earlier today," Kimt said. "I couldn't find anything in much depth about dragon's eggs, but I did find a few references to techniques used to defeat the types of spells that grip Chihon."
"What did you find?" Lorit asked.
"You're not going to like them. Most of them are similar to what we already used on her. I don't think she can stand any more of that."
"I don't want to have to use those spells either, but if we have no choice..." Lorit would do anything to help Chihon, but he'd rather not use something as powerful as the fire spell they had used on her earlier when they healed her of the enchantment on the water.
Lorit paced, considering what to do next, when the Sorcerer's Stone lit up with a violet light and Kedrik appeared. Queen Ukina held his arm tight in hers as if he were going to escape at any moment. Lorit smiled at the thought. She'd probably held onto him the whole time as if her life depended on it, afraid he would leave her behind.
Kedrik held a small canvas bag in his free hand. He stood there stiff, looking uncomfortable until Ukina released his arm.
"I take it you were successful?" Lorit asked.
"We were." Ukina took the canvas bag from Kedrik and handed it to Lorit. "This is what was left in the egg's box when it was brought to me from the treasury. It's mostly powder and fine gold flakes."
Lorit took the pouch from her. He opened it and peered inside. The magic that emanated from the dust was pure and clear. "This feels like the magic that's in Chihon." He put the pouch in his pocket. "Let's go see her."
Chihon was asleep when Lorit entered. He sat on the bed and gently shook her. She opened her eyes and looked at him. "Where did you go?"
"We went to fetch something that may help." Lorit patted his pocket where the small canvas sack was secreted away. He pulled it out and set it on the bed next to her.
"What is it?"
"It's from the dragon's egg. The egg was shedding when they took it from the treasury. Kedrik fetched the powder and brought it here. Let's see if this is any help."
Lorit reached out with his magical sense and touched the tiny fragment of the egg that lay close to Chihon's heart. It was bright gold, almost blinding in its intensity. He probed for the arrow's magic and found that, too. It was dark and putrid, like rotting vegetation in a murky swamp, in sharp contrast to Chihon's native magic, which was a cool violet strand that mingled with her life force.
He reached for the arrow's magic and tried to find an end of the thread, as he had with the other spells. He traced it in and around her, but he could find no end. He extended his hand to Kimt. "Help me here, Kimt. See if you can find it."
Kimt added her power to Lorit's and searched along with him, looking for the end of the thread that was the arrow's magic. "I think I see it here."
Kimt led Lorit to the end of the thread that made up the arrow's spell. It was fastened around Chihon's magic and her life force. Lorit reached for Chihon's life force and pushed power at it to increase it. His power flowed into her. Her life thread should have expanded and broken the foreign spell, but nothing happened.
Lorit tried harder. He reached out to touch the magic of the dragon's egg and see if he could use that to aid him in his effort. At first, it felt like he was making progress, but suddenly, Lorit's magic drained from him. It was gone as if he had never had magic. He could no longer sense Chihon's magic, or for that matter, any magic at all.
He reached for Kimt's magic, but there was nothing. Lorit panicked. He tried to touch his own magic.
Nothing.
Lorit reached out to access the magic of the elementals he had been granted during his trials, but that was gone, too.
"What happened?" Lorit cried.
Chihon sat up in the bed. She had a look of relief on her face, as if the pain and sickness were gone. "You cured me."
"I can't feel your magic,” Lorit said.
Chihon put her hand over her heart. "I can't feel it either. What happened?"
"I don't know. But the arrow spell is gone." Lorit turned to Kimt. "What do you see?"
Kimt studied Lorit intently, then Chihon. She shook her head. "Nothing. There's nothing. No magic at all...no, wait. There is something." Kimt reached for the canvas bag. "Let me see that."
Lorit handed it over to her. She examined it closely. "I can feel a little bit of your magic in this bag." She held the little canvas bag between her hands and concentrated. "Yes. Just the slightest trace."
Kimt held her hand over Chihon's chest. "And I feel just the slightest bit of the dragon's egg in you...Not much, but it's there. See if you can access it."
Lorit tried to touch the magic that Kimt spoke of, but there was nothing.
He held out his hand. "Incendo ignio," he commanded the fire. This was one of the first spells any wizard learned.
Nothing happened.
"My magic. It's gone!" Lorit cried.
Chapter 33
Tass returned to Veldwaite with the precious egg in her care. She threw the knight in the temple dungeon almost as an afterthought. She would question him later, but didn’t expect much.
She set the egg on the desk before her. It was not what she had expected. It was not shiny and smooth like most eggs. It was rough and bumpy and tended to shed a fine white powder that rubbed off on her hands as she explored its surface. The gold lace and embedded jewels also seemed lackluster and dull, but the egg must have been hundreds or thousands of summers old. No matter, she would use it as best she could.
Ghall sauntered into her study. He still seemed to think the study was his by the way he entered without announcing himself.
"Making any progress with that thing?" Ghall asked.
"Not much. It seems to shed a lot of this white powder." Tass rubbed her hands together and a fine white snow fell from them to coat the desk before her. She knocked on the egg with her knuckles. It was solid.
"It seems pretty thick." Tass scraped at the egg with a fingernail. "It can't have been shedding like this all along or else it would be gone by now."
"What are your plans for it?" Ghall asked.
"I'm going to use it to kill Sulrad. He has some protection, but this should provide extra magic that he hasn't seen before. That should be enough to take care of him once and for all."
"Be careful. Last time you tried that, he banished you. Make sure you're not simply carrying the egg into his hands."
Tass's hands trembled at Ghall's slight. She stilled her breathing and calmed her heart. "I know what I'm doing. This was in your treasury for generations, and you never even knew it was there."
"Be that as it may, Sulrad is a lot more powerful than you seem to think."
Tass prickled at his remarks. She should be running the temple by now. Sulrad was old and weak, but something was keeping him alive and strong. Ghall had only been with the temple a few summers. He had never seen Sulrad at his most powerful, but Tass remembered. She remembered a priest with so much power he could travel to a different city each day just to break his fast with the local priests. He wasted magic like it was a river of water flowing into the temple, not a trickle of wizard's blood.
"Oh, I'm quite aware of Sulrad's power. I've seen him at his mightiest." Tass hefted the egg once more and carefully rested it on the desk.
There was a faint glow surrounding everything on her desk where the white powder rested. The debris shedding from the egg had power. Lots of power.
She scraped a pile of the white powder together to see if it would concentrate the magic. As the fine white powder stacked up into a tiny pile no bigger than her fingertip, the golden glow surrounding it became more and more pronounced.
"What are you doing?" Ghall asked.
"Nothing, just tidying up a bit. This powder seems to get into everything." Tass stood up. "I must be going." She hoped Ghall would get the hint and leave. She didn't really have anywhere to go. She had the beginnings of an idea of how to take Sulrad on directly and didn't want Ghall watching as she tested her theory.
"I suppose I must be going." Ghall unwound his lanky frame from the chair and stood. He turned to Tass as he left. "Just don't hand the egg over to Sulrad. Can you manage that?"
Tass held her breath and counted to five. She calmed herself and smiled her broadest smile. "I'll be careful."
As soon as Ghall closed the door, Tass rushed over and locked it. She returned to her desk and carefully probed the fine white powder. The golden glow was strong and pure.
She drew the power into herself and funneled it into her perception as she reached out to Quineshua. Far off on the island where the temple ruled, Sulrad sat in his study. He was weak and old. Much more so than she'd believed. He must be fading away, but he still held a core of power that she was unable to defeat.
She probed for the amulet that Sulrad protected so secretively. She knew he had it somewhere near him, somewhere where he could rush to protect it at a moment's notice. She knew Sulrad well enough to know that he would not hide something so precious to him far off in the hills or bury it deep in the ground. Sulrad wanted the things he valued near him so that he could enjoy his dominion over them.
She had been one of those things. He had wanted to keep her close, but no longer. Where was that amulet? Using the power of the egg, she searched for it, probing Sulrad and his surroundings until at last she found it. It was right there, in the temple. Inside the altar. Sulrad had used the Charm of the Joiner to build the temple so many years ago and had left it there in the altar where he performed his twice-daily sacrifices. She laughed to herself. It was obvious. She should have thought of it before, but the spells he used to hide it from her had been enough. Now they were not.
Tass grabbed hold of the Charm with her magic. She imagined it sitting on her desk before her. She saw its shiny gold form and the glowing violet of the large jewel in its center. She probed deeper
and deeper, getting a feel for every curve of its surface, every stone and jewel embedded in the gold, and every nick, scratch, and speck of dirt on it. She saw it as if it was there. She pulled with her magic and that of the egg.
It fought her.
She pulled harder.
Nothing.
Tass dug deeper. She accessed the magic of the temple in Veldwaite and reached for the egg itself. She pulled at the Charm with all her might.
Her head flared with pain. It was as if someone had jabbed red-hot needles behind her eyes. Tass grabbed her head and screamed with the agony of it.
The Charm was fighting back.
It took a while before she could think again. When the pain subsided from a sharp burning needle in her eye to a moderate throbbing, she was able to lower her hands and reflect on what had happened.
The Charm was protected. Not by Sulrad. Tass recognized Sulrad's magic, and the protection came from someone else. She thought she had felt it before, but she wasn't quite sure. It was a wizard's magic, but also a sorceress's.
That was it. It was Zhimosom's magic. How had Zhimosom's magic come to protect the Charm?
She felt for it again, more gently this time. She just wanted to feel the spell around the Charm, not draw it to her. She didn't want a repeat of the last effort. Her head still throbbed.
There it was. A simple spell, really. It was formed from Zhimosom's magic, wrapped tightly around the Charm, but it was blended with other magic, not just the wizard's. There was more of the brilliant gold and a blend of strange magic that she didn't recognize. It didn't matter. The one she wanted was Zhimosom's magic. That was what she needed to defeat. It was Zhimosom's magic that held the rest of the spells in place.
She picked at it until she found the thread she wanted. Tass followed that thread in her mind's eye. It led off into the distance, fading until it was nothing more than the gossamer of a single strand of spider silk, yet with the power of the egg to help her, she was able to follow it back, back to Zhimosom himself.
Master Wizard Page 20
