Looking at the head of the column, Amir spotted Richard walking close to Mia. She’d been keeping the man near her ever since the ambush at the fortress. Amir still didn’t know what to make of him.
The high priestess has been relying more and more on Rick to keep us out of harm’s way. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. He claims to know the path to the dwarves’ old home, but he has no map, just some unseen friend he claims is flying higher than anyone can see and guiding our way.
Actually, Amir knew the unseen part wasn’t exactly true. On two occasions, he’d spotted something in the air. As a giant, he’d always had good eyesight. Whatever it was had been too high to make out, but there had definitely been something there.
Pointing overhead, Amir glanced at Tracer. “Do you believe Rick’s story about the flying bird that shows us our route?”
Tracer shrugged. “He calls it a drone in his language. I have seen a lot of things in my four-hundred and eighty years of life. A bird of metal that sends messages to someone on the ground would not be the strangest thing I have ever encountered.”
“So you believe him?”
Tracer walked half a dozen steps before replying. “Do I believe him?” She nodded her head. “Yes, I think I do. I believe there is a lot he is not telling us, but I also believe what he does tell us is the truth as he knows it.”
Mulling over the elf’s reply, Amir had to admit he agreed with her line of thinking. The human had tried to explain that the black armor wasn’t his, but when pressed, he’d admitted that he was pretty sure he had a set of his own. The man also claimed to have gaps in his memory but insisted that he remembered being at the dwarves’ old home once before, although he refused to say when or for what purpose.
When Amir remained silent, Tracer asked, “You like him, don’t you?”
Nodding his head, Amir said, “I suppose I do.” He gave a half grin. “I mean, when I’m not trying to kill him, that is.”
A laugh burst out from Tracer before she caught herself. Several elves in front of them turned around and stared. She pointedly ignored them. “I suppose trying to kill him does cut down on the comradeship a little. For my part, I have to admit having Rick assigned to our team and spending so much time with him learning his language has made me fond of him.” She gave a wink. “I mean, despite the fact he is a human.”
Amir nodded and dropped the subject. He wasn’t quite ready to admit that he was also fond of the human. He touched the pouch beneath his chainmail where it dangled on the leather thong and imagined Glory’s face with a yellow flower in her hair. The image faded away. He glanced ahead at the human.
I wish I knew what was going on in the man’s mind.
* * *
“I wish I knew what is going on in that mind of yours,” said Nickelo. “You have been keeping a lot of your thoughts in your private space lately.”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, Nick. Our mission has me confused.”
Richard glanced at Mia walking to his right. A strand of her long black hair had come loose and was blowing in the breeze. He fought an urge to reach out and tuck the errant hair back into the strip of blue cloth holding the rest in place. The ring on his finger grew warm. He kept his hand resting on his waist belt.
“Oh, you have been thinking all right, but I calculate it has not been about our mission. You forget who you are talking to. I can sense the increase in your heartbeat when you are near the high priestess. The ring’s sensors have also picked up an increase in her heartbeat when she is around you.”
“Really? Her heart beats faster? Uh, not that it matters.”
Something silver flashed in Richard’s mind. The image resembled eyes. The ring on his finger grew noticeably warmer. A feeling of guilt washed over him. He wasn’t sure why.
Mia must have sensed him looking at her. She glanced over and smiled. “Are you talking to your drone again, Rick? You have that blank look you get on your face sometimes.”
“Uh, yeah. I, uh, was just verifying our position. We should reach the entrance to the tunnel I told you about sometime around noon tomorrow.”
“Liar,” said Nickelo. “You were talking to me. Instead of making up tales, you should be figuring out what we are going to do when we get there.”
Mia sighed. “It is unfortunate this drone of yours cannot see inside the mountain. It would help to know what we will be facing.” She glanced around at what few elves were left in her command. “Our lancers have paid a heavy price for my bad choices. I do not wish to make them pay more.”
“You haven’t made bad decisions,” Richard said. “How could anyone have known vampires would attack the city? Heck, you and that staff of yours saved our lives.”
Mia nodded her head. “Yes, the Staff of the Lady of the Tree was the difference between life and death. My fear is that even its magic will not be enough if the tunnels under Old Drepdenor are filled with the same undead. Perhaps our quest was doomed before we ever started.”
“Then why go on? Why not return home now, before we’re all killed?”
“You know why, Rick. If we do not find another yellow gem to stop what is happening to our land, there may well be no safe place anywhere on our world. All will die. Our only hope is to press onward.”
Richard wasn’t so sure, but he didn’t naysay her. He wasn’t sure what they’d find in the dwarves’ old home. Rack his brain as he might, he couldn’t remember anything about Old Drepdenor that indicated there was a yellow gem there. The color blue kept flashing in his mind.
“Yes,” said Nickelo. “I have scanned the memory banks of the battle helmet you wear. Wanda recorded everything up until the time she was removed from the helmet. I have told you all I know. You supplied the dwarves with some blue gems you found. They were using them to create armor and weapons of Holy Metal. The other wizard scouts and you were doing recons of the Dragars’ spaceport in preparation for an attack by the dwarves and their human allies. You were getting ready to make a recon of the Drepdenor tunnels. That is why you gave your brother one of your battle suits. That is all I know.”
“So you’ve told me,” Richard said. “It still feels like someone else’s history, not mine. I don’t remember having a brother. My memory of my past is pretty much a blank. You told me parts of the battle helmet’s databanks are also blank.”
“I did not say blank,” replied Nickelo. “I said they were inaccessible. It is as if someone or something only wants us to know the minimum necessary to complete our mission. Logically, the helmet’s databanks should contain information about where we came from and the people you have known in the past. I am positive that data is in the helmet’s memory banks, but I cannot access it. I have been unable to construct an algorithm that can tell us why.”
“Well, a lot of things elude me too, so don’t take it so hard,” Richard said. “In the meantime, have the drone concentrate on the area around Old Drepdenor. You sent me an image of an opening in the side of the mountain. I think that’s our best point of entry. The only problem is that if anything still lives in those tunnels, it probably also knows about the entrance.”
“Hmmm,” said Nickelo. “I calculate it is not living things you need to worry about. Technically speaking, vampires are not alive.”
“Forget the science lesson. Just make the drone do what I said.”
“Compliance, oh greatest and most wondrous of wizard scouts.”
“Oh, put a sock in it.”
Chapter 43 – Dreams
____________________
Richard and the others reached the foot of Old Drepdenor just as the last rays of sunlight disappeared over the horizon. Mia wanted to press on, but Richard convinced her that if the vampires were in the tunnels like he feared, they’d probably be more active at night. For once Lord Derander agreed with him. Between the mage and him, they were able to persuade the high priestess to wait until morning before trying to breach the ancient mountain fortress.
The elves made
a cold camp for the night. As close as they were to their destination, no one wanted to risk a fire. That meant eating uncooked rice and dried meat for supper. Richard opted to pass on his share of the food. It wasn’t that he wasn’t hungry. He was always a little hungry. It was just that given the choice between eating a handful of dry rice or letting his self-heal take care of his nourishment, he chose the self-heal.
“Wise decision,” said Nickelo. “I calculate eating such a meager amount of food is not worth the effort.”
Richard sealed his battle suit but didn’t activate it. Curling up next to a log, he got as comfortable as he could. “Says someone who doesn’t eat. If you don’t mind, you can keep those kinds of calculations to yourself.”
“Compliance.”
Expecting some kind of snide remark from his battle computer, Richard was pleasantly surprised when none came. He closed his eyes and dozed. Not that his body needed the rest, but the strain of the last few days had taken a toll on his psyche. He knew he needed a little sleep to refresh his mind. Sleep didn’t come easy, but when it did, he let it take him where it willed.
A dream, or maybe it was more of a memory, swept over Richard while he dozed. He was lying on the ground overlooking a spaceport. The port was located at the base of a mountain. He instinctively knew the mountain was Old Drepdenor, the previous home of the dwarves. The man that Nickelo had told him was his brother was lying on the ground near him. There were two kids with them, a teenage boy and girl by their looks. The spaceport stretching below them in his dream was indistinct. Even so, he was able to make out enough to know it was protected by a shield of some kind. The faintest wisp of a memory told him the shield was a time-bubble. He wasn’t totally sure what a time-bubble was, but at the same time, he was sure he was looking at one. The time-bubble was composed of three smaller bubbles, all connected to form the whole but yet at the same time, separate. One of the smaller time-bubbles was green, one was orange, and one was purple. Something yellow glowed where the three time-bubbles intersected.
Is that a fourth time-bubble? Richard wondered.
The yellow glow moved as if it were a living creature.
A feeling of agony washed over Richard. The feeling seemed to come from the yellow.
“Help me,” came something from the yellow that was not a voice.
“Help you how?” Richard asked in his dream.
Instead of replying, the feeling of agony from the yellow glow increased. Richard thought he sensed another something in the fourth bubble, besides the yellow. The other something was dark and full of hate. Richard shrank back. The something’s eyes, if eyes it had, turned and focused on Richard. Evil like he’d never felt swept over him.
“My master cannot protect you here,” said the something. “Come. Come to me and feel my mercy.”
The yellow screamed. So did Richard.
“Rick! Rick!” shouted voices from far away. “Wake up.”
Richard felt hands shaking him. He struggled against his dream. The other something latched onto him with its evil, refusing to let him leave. Somehow the yellow was able to reach out and give him a shove, breaking the evil’s grip. As he floated up toward the light that he knew was consciousness, he sensed the evil strike out at the yellow.
“You shall pay for that,” said the evil. “The agonies you have felt will be as nothing compared to what I have in store for you.” The evil struck out again.
The yellow screamed, although the scream had no sound.
Richard matched the yellow’s scream, only his scream had a lot of sound.
“Wake up!” shouted a feminine voice. “By the Lady, wake up!”
Richard opened his eyes. Two red points of light stared back at him. He thought the command to deactivate his visor. When the night-vision filter disappeared, the two red lights turned into twin pools of silver-speckled orbs of black.
Reality came rushing back into Richard’s mind. “Mia,” he said, rubbing at his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
The high priestess rose from where she knelt next to him. “You tell me, Rick. You were the one screaming. I daresay any vampires or mercenaries within half a league know we are here now.”
Rising to a sitting position, Richard looked around in the light of the full moon to see everyone in camp staring at him. “Sorry,” he said. “I, uh, I was having a dream.”
Shifting her staff from her right hand to her left, Mia shook her head. “Nay. From the sound of your screams, it was more a nightmare. I fear you have placed us in danger. We can remain here no longer.”
The memory of what he’d seen and felt in the dream rushed back into Richard’s mind. “You’re right. We need to leave before it’s too late. We have to rescue him.”
Standing next to Mia, Lord Derander glanced at her before looking at Richard. “Go where? Under the mountain? I thought you said it was too dangerous to try it at night. Who is this that you want us to rescue? Our quest is to find a gem. We do not have the resources to go rescuing everyone in trouble we meet.”
Richard ignored the mage and focused on Mia. Although it was dark, the silver specks in her eyes reflected the moonlight back at him.
“If it is too dark for you,” said Nickelo, “why don’t you activate your night vision filter again. Oh, and by the way, I too would like to know where you are planning on going and who you think we need to rescue. I was not privy to your dream, if a dream it was.”
Richard paid no more attention to his battle computer than he had to Derander. His full attention was on the high priestess. “I saw something. It was yellow. I don’t know how I know, but I’m certain it has something to do with the gem you seek. He’s in trouble. We have to save him.”
Mia stared at Richard for five heartbeats before looking at Lord Derander and Master Freestrod. The frown on Derander’s face gave his opinion. Freestrod merely shrugged his shoulders. Turning back to Richard, she said, “Him? Him who? Our quest is to find a gem, not a person. A gem is not a person.”
“I know,” Richard said, confused himself. “Nevertheless, they are connected. We have to save him.”
“Rick,” said Mia as if choosing her words carefully. “I—”
Standing off to the side near Tracer, Grapeon, and Skylark, Amir lowered the butt of his hammer so it rested on the ground. “Some gems have souls.”
The big man’s words were unexpected enough that everyone, including Richard, turned to look at him.
“What?” said Mia. “What did you say?”
Amir shuffled his feet. “Stones and gems can communicate if you know their language. Some gems have souls, or perhaps it’s more of a case that some souls are gems. Even Shaman Blackroot doesn’t know for sure.”
Mia took a step toward Amir. “What are you trying to tell us? You are the elf friend. If you say we should abandon our mission and go rescue this person of Rick’s, then who am I to say nay? Is that what you are telling us to do?”
Amir touched his hand to a bulge under his chainmail before lowering it back to his hammer. He glanced around at the group of elves, then finally turned to Richard. “I too was dreaming. I also saw yellow. The yellow called to me through…something. The call came from long ago, but at the same time, it seemed to come from now and beyond now. The yellow is being tortured. It was asking for our help.”
Something Amir said piqued Richard’s curiosity. “You said the yellow called to you through something. What do you mean by something?”
Amir stared long and hard at Richard, then let his sledgehammer rest against his leg. Raising his hand to his neck, he tugged on a leather throng and pulled out a small pouch that had been hidden beneath his chainmail. He opened the pouch and poured the contents into his free hand.
From what Richard could see, Amir’s palm was filled with jagged shards of some kind. Sensing the shards were important, he thought the command for white light. A bright beam shot out from the forehead of his helmet, illuminating Amir’s hand. Yellow light reflected back from shattered pieces
of what had obviously been a gem. Mixed in with the shards was a yellow flower. Richard detected a faint magic emanating from the flower.
“I calculate the magic is a preservation spell of some type,” said Nickelo. “I detect no magic in the gem pieces, although I do get the impression they once held great Power.”
The results of Richard’s passive scan gave him the same impression. He pointed at the shards in Amir’s hand. “What are they?”
Amir let go of the pouch and wiped at his eyes before looking down at the shattered gem. “These pieces are all that remain of the Heart-stone, the yellow gem that was entrusted to my clan.” He looked up at Richard. “It was destroyed by someone wearing a suit like the one you wear now. I did not see his face, but I could tell he was a human male. After destroying the gem, he killed many of our giants before making his escape. He also killed…he, uh…” The big man wiped at something in his eyes with his free hand.
When no one said anything for a full ten seconds, Richard whispered, “And the flower?”
Seeming to stare at the flower mixed in with the handful of shards, Amir wiped at his eyes again. When he finally looked at Richard, his eyes were shiny, but there were no tears. “Glory and I were to be married. She was wearing this flower the day the human destroyed the Heart-stone.” Sensing Richard’s confusion, Amir said, “That is what we called the yellow gem given to us for safekeeping. The Heart-stone held the destructive forces of our world at bay. Once it was destroyed, they were unleashed. I do not think our world will continue to exist if we do not find a replacement for the Heart-stone.” He picked the yellow flower out of the dull pieces of yellow gem and held it between two fingers. “Glory always liked yellow.”
“Liked?” Richard asked already knowing the answer but having to ask anyway.
Amir looked away from the perfectly preserved flower and locked eyes with Richard. “Yes, liked. The human wearing the suit like the one you wear now killed her. I made a vow over her body that I would find him and get revenge. I have dedicated my life to doing so.”
Wizard Gigantic (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 9) Page 38
