Blood of the Earth (13 page)

Chloe broke his brooding when she buzzed into a ball of light a couple of feet in front of his face. She floated closer with a stern look.

“Stop that!” she said.

Alexander was both startled and bemused by her tone.

“You are not a ranch hand. You are Lord Reishi, Sovereign of the Seven Isles. I know your heart, I have seen your soul. You can overcome these challenges, but not if you sit here brooding over the problems you face. Stop looking back at the past, forget what you used to be, let go of what you wanted for your life and embrace what your life is now. You are the focus of hope for all those who want freedom. You have great power at your disposal and you have something precious that none of your enemies will ever have.”

Alexander frowned questioningly.

“You are surrounded by people who love you, people who will do anything for you. Do you think Phane has one single person in all the world that he can trust with his life? Do you believe that any of the people in Zuhl’s court think for one second that Zuhl would risk anything of value to preserve them?

“You have people all around you who would sacrifice their lives for you without question, people who know without doubt that you would risk your own life for them. That’s why I know you will be victorious. Love will triumph. It has to.”

“I love you, Little One. Thank you,” Alexander said with a soft smile.

Chloe buzzed up and kissed him on the cheek.

“I love you too, Alexander.”

“Will you watch over me while I talk to the sovereigns?”

“Of course, My Love.”

Alexander touched the Sovereign Stone and his consciousness translated into the timeless place that was the Reishi Council Chamber.

Balthazar stood. “Alexander, when last we spoke you were preparing to do battle in Grafton province. What has transpired?”

Alexander took his seat with a sigh. “A great deal, I’m afraid. I have need of your counsel. It seems that every time I succeed in one area, the enemy makes inroads in another.”

“Such is the nature of war,” Balthazar said. “You can never be strong in all places. The key to victory is knowledge, both of one’s self and of one’s enemies.”

“We succeeded at Grafton,” Alexander reported. “Ithilian is free of military forces loyal to Phane, although there’s no telling what his agents are up to. Phane’s army on Ruatha has been destroyed with minimal loss on our side, except for the city of Northport.” Alexander took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It’s been completely razed.”

Five of the six sovereigns sat forward with alarm. Malachi smiled with interest.

“How many lives lost?” Balthazar asked.

Alexander shook his head. “A few thousand on our side, those who refused to heed the order to evacuate. The vast majority of the population was relocated to other cities.”

“So just the wood and brick of the city was lost?” Darius Reishi said.

Alexander nodded. “I ordered the Guild Mage to deploy a dozen weapons he created. The devastation was staggering. The city is nothing more than a wall surrounding a field of rubble.”

Balthazar smiled and then chuckled in his belly. “Brick and timber is easy to rebuild. A single life lost is gone forever.”

“Oh, there was great loss of life,” Alexander said. “My father tells me there were more than eight enemy legions within the walls when we attacked. They all fell.”

“War is a horrible business, Alexander,” Balthazar said, “all the more so for those with a conscience. I take it you are on Ruatha now.”

“Yes, I’m in Blackstone Keep and there’s a shade loose here: Shivini. He says Phane has bound him to his will and ordered him to destroy the Keep, kill me, and take the Stone.

“So far, I’ve had one confrontation with him and survived, but at great cost. He led me to a giant spinning crystal in the heart of the Keep that seems to be feeding the fortress energy. Shivini damaged the crystal’s balance. It’s wobbling now and I don’t know what to do about it.”

Balthazar took on a very serious expression and thought for a moment. The other sovereigns waited for him to proceed.

“This is grave news indeed,” Balthazar said. “I built the Reishi Keep and invented the concept of the heartstone. It’s the power source of a magical keep. In essence, it’s an artificial wizard.”

Alexander frowned in confusion.

Balthazar nodded with understanding as he donned the mantle of the teacher. “A human wizard links his mind with the firmament and injects his will. The heartstone is designed to form a permanent link to the firmament for the purpose of injecting a very specific set of predetermined spell forms into the firmament when triggered by the occupants of the Keep.

“It must spin with perfect balance to function correctly. Once it’s thrown out of balance, there’s little that can be done to correct it without re-enchanting the heartstone itself.”

The magnitude of the damage settled on Alexander. “What happens when the heartstone fails?”

“It will fall and shatter,” Balthazar said. “The Keep will lose all of its magical protections and weapons, but it will retain its natural fortifications.”

“How long?”

“Depending on the degree of wobble, a few months, maybe a year,” Balthazar said.

“Will it degrade gradually or will it all go out at once?”

“Bits and pieces will begin to fail, sometimes sporadically until the heartstone topples and shatters. Everything will stop working at that point.”

“What would it take to fix it?”

“An arch mage enchanter with the right instruction,” Balthazar said. “I can provide the instruction, but you must provide the enchanter.”

“The Guild Mage is an enchanter. Can you help me help him become an arch mage?”

“If you have a sufficient quantity of Wizard’s Dust,” Balthazar said.

“I don’t at the moment. But Lucky is a master alchemist,” Alexander said. “How can I help him become a mage so we can make the Wizard’s Dust we need?”

“That is much easier, although not without challenge. I can teach you a series of exercises for him to perform that will expand his understanding of his link with the firmament. If he practices diligently, he will be able to advance.”

“Good, let’s start there,” Alexander said.

Balthazar taught him a single exercise and drilled him until he could repeat it verbatim without error.

“When you leave here, go to a quiet place and write this exercise down for your friend. Once you’ve related the task to him and he’s practicing the exercise, I will provide the next in the series.”

“Very well, although I may need to leave Lucky to his studies here in the Keep,” Alexander said. “If that’s the case, I’ll need all of the exercises before I depart.”

“Of course, but these things are best done at a measured pace and in the correct sequence,” Balthazar said.

“Lucky knows what’s at stake, he’ll do what he must.”

So much had happened since he last spoke with the council. He wanted to make sure he consulted them on every matter of importance. Their counsel might provide some vital bit of knowledge but it all hinged on giving them complete information and asking the right questions.

“Isabel has become a Sky Knight and one of the triumvirs of the Reishi Coven,” Alexander said. “She’s brought the forces of the fortress island to our side in this war and they’ve already proven invaluable. They helped sink a fleet of Lancer transport ships from Andalia and they delivered the weapons that destroyed the legions dug in at Northport.”

Balthazar smiled with satisfaction. “Well done, Alexander. Choosing the woman you will spend your life with is the most important decision any sovereign, indeed any man, will ever make. It sounds like you’ve chosen well.”

“She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, but that’s not why I’ve mentioned her. Prior to being taken by the Sky Knights, she had been poisoned. We used a potion made with fairy dust to stay the poison for a time but it wasn’t a cure. Mage Gamaliel found an item in the stores within Blackstone Keep that he believed was her best hope and had it transported to the fortress island.

“It was made by an arch mage named Desiderates.”

Both Constantine and Darius sat forward with increased interest.

“As Isabel explained it to me, the item was a wish spell.”

Constantine tipped his head back and laughed with pure joy.

“He was finally successful? After all those years of failure,” Constantine said, shaking his head. “He never did know how to give up. I always admired that trait in him.”

“He asked Isabel that I relay a message to you that he won your bet.”

Constantine laughed again.

“He was never satisfied with success until others knew that he had succeeded,” Constantine said. “I am curious about the workings of his spell.”

“Apparently, he bound the essence of his consciousness and soul to a small box. When Isabel invoked the spell and opened the box, she found herself within a place out of the world of time and substance where she had a conversation with Desiderates. He looked into her mind and then offered to help her in every way he could.

“He cured her poison. For that I’m forever in his debt. But he did much more. The Guild Mage had given Isabel a necklace that allowed her to talk to animals with her mind. Desiderates amplified the power of the necklace and bound it to her so that she can not only communicate with animals but command them as well.

“Unfortunately, during the journey to the Valley of the Fairy Queen, we were attacked by a demon possessing a big cat. Once the cat was killed, the demon possessed Isabel’s horse. When she tried to calm her horse through the power of her necklace, the demon touched her mind, opening a rift to the netherworld within her unconscious and drawing her into the darkness. I followed her in and brought her back out, unknowingly freeing the shades in the process, and leaving the rift to the darkness present in her mind.”

The sovereigns stared at him silently.

“Desiderates gave her conscious control over the passageway so that she can keep it closed and prevent the darkness from using her ever again.”

“A connection to the netherworld is as dangerous as it is powerful,” Balthazar said. “Has she attempted to use it for anything?”

“No. Magda, one of the triumvirs of the Reishi Coven, warned her to keep the passage closed.”

“Good, I would suggest you reinforce her warning,” Balthazar said. “No good can come from the darkness, no matter what the denizens of the netherworld promise.”

Alexander nodded. “There’s more. When I became bound to Chloe, the Fairy Queen demanded that I sire a fairy child through Isabel. The conception opened a conduit within Isabel’s psyche to the realm of light. Desiderates made this conduit accessible at will, rather than only subconsciously.”

The Reishi Sovereigns sat in dumb silence for a moment before Constantine smiled and shook his head. “I’d say my old friend outdid himself.”

“I would tend to agree,” Balthazar said. “An active connection to the realm of light has the potential to be magnificently powerful.”

Alexander nodded. “After Isabel survived the mana fast, she was able to tap into the realm of light to heal others and even created a spell that channels the Maker’s light into a beam capable of banishing a scourgling.”

“Impossible!” Malachi protested.

“She saved my life with it,” Alexander answered. “I’m telling you all of this to provide background so you can help me save her. Phane has been busy. He’s created a unit of soldiers bound with creatures from the netherworld—they’re called wraithkin.

“These men have powers like nothing I’ve ever faced before. They can teleport short distances, healing any injuries they’ve sustained instantly each time. I’ve only succeeded in killing them by attacking the head. They bested the Commander of the Reishi Protectorate, a battle mage, and killed another mage in our first encounter, not to mention nearly a dozen Rangers.

“I was injured during that fight and Isabel tried to heal me, but failed. We’ve since come to understand that the wraithkin’s daggers are enchanted to infect the wound of those injured so that any attempt to magically heal the wound will fail. Ultimately, I was healed through the use of fairy dust, but they tell me it stopped my heart for a time before the taint was eliminated.

“More importantly, healers who attempt to use magic on the injured are infected with some form of dark magic. We’ve already lost one wizard who tried to heal an injured soldier.”

Alexander took a deep breath and held it for a moment before letting it out all at once.

“Isabel’s colors are tainted with darkness. It doesn’t seem to have any effect on her connection with the firmament but her link to the realm of light has been compromised. I’m terrified that the taint might spread.”

Malachi started to laugh slowly and deliberately. “My son will be victorious in the end. He’s taken your Keep. He’s taken your woman. It’s only a matter of time before he takes your life and the Sovereign Stone with it.”

Demetrius sat forward, scowling. “You are my own son, Malachi, and I count Alexander as a far better addition to this council than you.”

Malachi started to protest but Alexander stopped him with a raised hand.