A Threat of Shadows (21 page)

“He told you about the valley where we found the map?” Douglon asked. “And you never told me?”

“I was going to, but when I followed the old man’s directions to his cave with ‘huge veins of silver’, all I found was one streak so thin it was barely visible. I had spent my whole hunting day on a wild goose chase.” Patlon’s scowl turned a little sheepish as he looked at Douglon. “I didn’t feel like telling you I’d been duped. Then when we really did find the valley, it seemed too late…”

“You never saw Gustav again?” Alaric broke in before Douglon could answer.

Patlon shook his head again, then paused. “Now that you ask… maybe.” He tugged absently on his beard. “After you ran off with the map, Douglon, I stopped by the tavern at the river crossing and had a drink. Partway through the evening, an old man came in and sat near me. Hulgrat and Swenrich were there, and”—he glanced at Douglon—”I may have been telling them about what you did.”

Douglon growled again.

“You stole from me!” Patlon exclaimed.

“The old man?” Alaric reminded him.

“Yes, well there was something familiar about him, but I couldn’t seem to look at him clearly enough to figure out what. He just sat nearby, and I had the impression he was listening. Then at one point, I looked over and he was gone. I honestly haven’t thought about him again until right now. But now that I think about it, he did remind me of Gustav.”

“It was him,” Alaric said. “Shade Seekers have a way of affecting what people focus on. They call it influence. Gustav could have manipulated you until you didn’t care enough about him to pay attention.”

“Then he knew I had the map,” Douglon said, “months before I ever met him.”

Alaric nodded absently, struck by an idea. Influence. Gustav used influence. The questions that had been fluttering through his mind since he met this group settled. Answer after answer burst into light.

“If Gustav is skilled at influence, that explains everything.” Every single thing. “It’s easy to make people not notice someone they weren’t looking for in the first place, like an old man in a tavern, but I think Gustav’s influence may range far past that.

“I think Gustav is the reason you are all together,” Alaric said. “If he had tracked Douglon near Kordan’s Blight, Gustav could have used influence to draw Douglon to him.”

“No one drew me,” Douglon objected.

“If Gustav was good at it, you would have thought it was your own choices that guided you,” Alaric said. He gestured to Milly, “It’s similar to the magic the borrey used.”

“That doesn’t explain why Ayda is here,” Brandson pointed out.

“They both came to you at about the same time, right?” Alaric asked. “Then it makes sense. An influence spell to draw someone isn’t one that Keepers use, but I understand the concept.” He ignored Ayda’s snort. “You can draw a specific person if you know a great deal about them. The better you know them, the more specific to an individual the spell will be, but it will work over a smaller distance.

“Gustav knew little about Douglon. Just that he was a dwarf, really, but since Douglon’s probably the only dwarf within two days’ walk, Gustav could afford to be vague. Since he didn’t know how close Douglon was, he would have wanted to make the spell as general as possible. I’m guessing he drew any intelligent, non-human. That would bring Ayda as well.”

“You might be right,” Ayda said. “I hadn’t planned on going to Kordan’s Blight, but I never thought much about it. I have a hard time paying attention to things sometimes.”

Douglon rolled his eyes. “Sometimes?”

“And it explains why I just couldn’t focus on him. Ever,” Ayda said. “I thought he was just boring, but I could barely look at him.”

“I’m sure he knew you would notice too much about him if you did,” Alaric said.

An irritated line creased her brow. “That’s why I don’t know what color he is, why I didn’t ask how the dragon knew him, why I never wondered about the wizard at all.”

“So Gustav kept drawing Ayda back whenever she left?” Brandson asked.

Alaric groaned. How had he not seen any of this? That’s what Gustav had been doing in the woods when Ayda had wanted to leave. It wasn’t Brandson that had convinced her to stay at all. Gustav had used his influence. “I thought elves were hard to influence,” he said to Ayda.

She winced. “That’s another thing my father said was human about me. I’m easy to fool.”

Milly looked at Ayda, her brows drawn together. “Why would he keep drawing Ayda back? He needed Douglon’s map, but what did he need Ayda for?”

Alaric looked at Ayda. Why did Gustav want her there?

Ayda shrugged. “Maybe he just liked me.”

“That can’t be it.” Douglon shook his head. “He must have had some other crazy reason.”

Ayda ignored him and looked to Alaric for an answer.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “Maybe it was because you have such unusual powers.” Alaric certainly felt better knowing where Ayda was. Maybe Gustav had noticed the same sort of thing; the idea that Ayda had the potential for something extraordinary. Or devastating.

“So if Gustav was just after the treasure,” Brandson said, “why not just steal Douglon’s map?”

“He couldn’t read it,” Alaric said. “The runes on that map are complicated. To anyone other than a Keeper, they would say the gibberish Gustav read. Shade Seekers study runes, but not to the extent Keepers do. I’m not sure anyone studies ancient runes the way Keepers do.”

“Which means,” Ayda said, “not only did Gustav draw the map to him, but he also drew one of the only people on earth who can read it.” She smiled sweetly. “I think it’s reasonable to think that Gustav drew you as well.”

Alaric snorted. That old wizard hadn’t drawn him. He had already been seeking information about Kordan. His own journey had brought him here.

Except here was finally an explanation for the ridiculous coincidence of finding this exact group. Gustav had drawn them together. And it explained the slight fuzziness Alaric had felt the whole time they were together. It was Gustav, subtly controlling everyone’s decisions for his own gain. Alaric had never heard of anyone using influence so subtly.

“A troubling idea,” he said. “Gustav seems to use influence as a kind of net, sending out ideas of what he wants and then drawing in whatever it catches. What’s even more troubling is that it still might be working. Borreys are ridiculously rare. What are the chances that we would stumble across one right when we decide to follow Gustav?”

“Do you think Gustav’s still around then?” Milly asked.

“I don’t know why he would be,” Alaric said, “but he could have set things in motion before he left. It’s still a big coincidence, but every other coincidence so far has been Gustav’s doing.”

“Well,” Brandson said, “there’s one thing Gustav didn’t plan. In attempting to collect a team to find his treasure, he’s also brought together the perfect group to stop him—dwarves who know what the nomads are doing, a Keeper who knows about the Wellstone, and an elf who knows where Mallon’s body is.”

Alaric looked around the group as they all nodded.

“So where do we find Gustav?” Brandson asked.

Alaric felt the pressure as one gaze after another turned toward him. It would have been nice if he had an answer.

Chapter 23

Alaric looked around the group. “We’re not on a treasure hunt in the safety of these hills any longer,” he began.

“Yeah, nothing dangerous here…” Douglon muttered to Ayda.

Alaric ignored him. “Since Gustav is a Shade Seeker, he is most likely headed to Sidion.”

At this, Milly paled and Brandson shifted.

“Do you know where it is?” Brandson asked.

Alaric nodded. “I haven’t been to the Shade Seekers’ Keep itself, but I’ve been close enough to know where it is. Douglon probably does too.”

The dwarf nodded.

“It’s not an easy place to get into.” Alaric looked at Milly. “We need to go through Kordan’s Blight and get horses. We’ll drop you off at your home. Now that things are settled with Patlon, you’ll be in no danger.”

“Home?” Milly asked, one eyebrow rising. “You’re not sending me home.”

“I suppose I can’t convince you to stay home, either, Brandson?” Alaric asked.

Brandson leveled a steely gaze at the Keeper. “Mallon killed my parents. I’m not going to just sit by and let Gustav bring him back.”

“We may not be great wizards or powerful warriors,” Milly said, “but we aren’t just going to go sit at home while you all go off to stop Gustav. A lot of regular people like us are going to suffer if Mallon is raised. It’s only fair that we should get to help stop him. You don’t have to be some great hero to contribute something good, you know.”

Brandson and Milly were sitting, chins raised, daring the others to disagree. Alaric nodded to them. “All right then. Does anyone have any ingenious ideas on how to stop him besides chasing him across the country? I think we have to assume he has the cooperation of his dragon, so he’ll be moving a lot faster than we will on horses.”

“Could you draw Gustav back here the way he drew everyone?” Milly asked.

Alaric shook his head. “An influence spell can prod someone in the direction that you want them to go, but once they realize it’s happening, it’s worthless. I don’t think I could fool Gustav into thinking he wanted to come back and find us.”

“Can you do something else magical?” Brandson asked. “Grab him and bring him here or make some sort of glowing trail to find him?”

“It doesn’t work that way. Magic is pretty limited. Everything living has energy. Magic involves redirecting that energy. To do that, it has to travel through me. But it’s like heat—a little is okay, too much burns.” He held up his bandaged palms.

“But Keepers in the past have done amazing things,” Milly said. “What about when Chesavia fought the water demon?”

“Chesavia was killed by the water demon,” Brandson pointed out.

“Actually, she wasn’t,” Alaric said. “Chesavia died because she used too much magic. The demon was strong, too strong to be destroyed without Chesavia using more energy than she could manage. She knew it. She chose to continue past what her body could handle. She defeated the demon, but it cost her her life.

“Keepers aren’t great wizards or powerful warriors, either. Chesavia was one of the few who single-handedly saved the day.”

“Then what good are they?” Douglon asked.

“We work more with knowledge than magic. We spend a lot of time watching for trouble, searching out the truth if we find the rumor of any. Then we try to assemble the people that could do something about it and provide them with the knowledge they need.”

“Well, that is perfect,” Brandson said, rubbing his hands together. “We’ve definitely found trouble, and the group’s assembled. Provide us with knowledge.”

Alaric laughed and Douglon spread a map of Queensland out on the floor. At the top, in tiny detail, rose the Wolfsbane Mountains. The great river snaked south from them until it flowed off the southern end of the map. The Scale Mountains ran down the western edge, and the Marsham Cliffs lined the eastern side.

Patlon pointed out the location where the nomads were rumored to be gathering to Douglon.

“That’s a huge valley,” Douglon told Alaric. “It’s well supplied with water. A large force could gather there.”

“How many are there?” Alaric asked.

“No idea,” Patlon said. “It’s all just rumors.”

“Isn’t that near the entrance of Duncave? Haven’t the dwarves bothered to see what’s going on right above their heads?” Alaric asked.

Patlon shrugged. “Humans are always wandering around on the surface. It’s hard to keep track of them.”

“You need to convince King Horgoth that he needs to,” Alaric said. “Queen Saren needs to know if there’s an army on her border. Douglon, where did you and Patlon find that valley with Kordan’s tower and the treasure map?” He marked the area Douglon showed him on the map, west and a little south of Queenstown along the edge of the Scale Mountains. “I don’t know why Gustav would go there, but he was looking for it when you met him, Patlon.” Alaric turned to Ayda. “Gustav will need to get Mallon’s body. Is it well hidden?”

“It’s safe in the Elder Grove, but not hidden. I didn’t know anyone would look for him. It might take the wizard some time, but he’ll find it.”

“I think we need to fix that,” Alaric said. “I doubt we can hide him so well that Gustav will never find him, but we can buy some time. How long would it take us to reach the Grove?”

“Three or four days,” Ayda answered. “But I don’t know a way to hide him that a Shade Seeker won’t figure out.”

“I think I can come up with some tricks that should slow Gustav down.” None of which would be pleasant. “I can at least guess how he’ll go about looking. Can you show me where the Elder Grove is?” Alaric asked Ayda.

Ayda glanced at the map. “It wouldn’t help you for me to mark it on the map. I’ll need to take you there. It’s near the northern end of the Greenwood.”

Alaric looked over the map. “I think we should go there first. Gustav will have to spend time searching while we can go directly there. It might help us catch up.”

“Then we’d better get moving,” Douglon said.