Delver Magic Book VII: Altered Messages (17 page)

The algors could not fully understand why the name of the dwarf king flowed through their collective consciousness. They stared at the remains of their dead expelled from the ground and wondered if it was a sign they could not, should not, ignore. Ghosts may not speak, but memories of the dead can still influence the thoughts of the living.

The algors decided not to question the event any further. They all began digging with their claws. They would make another pit and carefully place the remains back into the desert sand. They would wail in sorrow once more over the memory of their dead.

When they were finished, most would return to the sandstone cliffs, but many would venture off into the barren wasteland... alone. Those that traveled off into the desert would seek comfort in isolation, hoping the temporary break from the community would heal the reopened wounds.

But whether they set out alone or remained with the group, every algor would remember what happened in the desert. They would recall the past battle with the dwarves and then wonder why the remains of their dead were forced from their resting place. They would also remember the name of Bol Folarok.

Desiv smiled. His connection to the algors' awareness remained just at the fringe. He was not noticed, but his link remained strong enough to gauge their response. He knew he had succeeded. The seed was planted.

Ryson walked with heightened expectations toward the center of town. He kept a brisk pace but did nothing more to blatantly arouse attention. He was a delver, and the citizens of Burbon knew him well. As long as he didn't go sprinting through the streets, no one would question his intentions, even if his pace seemed slightly faster than usual.

He had been summoned to Sy's headquarters where he was to meet with Enin and Holli Brances. He was not surprised to
hear of their arrival. The wizard and the elf guard sought an audience with both him and the captain of the guard, and the delver was happy to oblige. It actually brought him a sense of relief. He hoped their appearance might shed some light on his own strange misgivings, for even as everything appeared quite normal in Burbon and the surrounding lands, Ryson could not quell a growing unease within his soul.

Despite the peace and serenity of that crystal clear day, he continued to believe something was not quite right. It was so very odd. The air was crisp and clean, the sky blue, the sun shining brightly, and yet a thickening gloom seemed to hang around him like a heavy, wet blanket. There was nothing specific, and it was nearly impossible to explain. He couldn't even raise an alarm with the town guard, for there was nothing of substance, no evident danger.

As he made his way to Sy's office, the delver could not help but study the expressions of the citizens he passed. Their near disregard for his activities was in direct contrast to his own reflections. The people of Burbon appeared at ease. They showed no anxiousness, and for good reason. They were all settled into their daily activities, found comfort in their normal routines, and delighted at the absence of any chaos.

Their serenity calmed the delver, but only to a degree. The seemingly baseless apprehension that gnawed at his insides filled him with both curiosity and confusion. He wanted to understand it, but answers eluded him.

It all seemed so out of place. He had not heard of any unsettling rumors. Visitors from other towns made no reports of disturbances at home or on the road. There was not a single conflict in all the land that Ryson might view as the source for his restlessness.

There was, of course, the incident with Okyiq, but that situation was being handled by the half-delver, Pru Fallow. Ryson had found no further sign of the large goblin on subsequent scouts. He saw no reason to believe Fallow would fail in his mission, and thus, Okyiq was no longer a concern. 

Still, the delver sensed a building despair. It was very much like feeling a slight ache from an old injury or hearing a distant rumble of thunder before angry clouds of some massive storm even appeared on the horizon.

His delver senses, however, failed to catch even the slightest hint of suspicious activity. Ryson didn't see any unexplained shadows in the forest, nor did he catch some disturbing scent in the breeze. He didn't hear any unnatural rustlings in the distance or even feel an unsettling wind across his face.

Quite simply, Ryson had no idea what was causing the unease within him, but he could not discount the sensation. It was like a premonition, as if all his senses came together, each one picking up a small vibration at the same time. There was not enough for him to understand the underlying cause. He just felt as if something was very wrong, and he hoped an answer might wait for him at Sy's office.

Once at the guard's headquarters, Ryson was directed to a room where Enin and Holli waited with Sy. He wondered if his friends sensed the same hint of misfortune in the air, if he might see it in their faces, but he was welcomed with smiles. Though he knew their visit was no trivial matter, the purpose did not weigh on them with any great burden. The wizard even began the conversation with a topic of great delight.

"How's Stomps?" Enin asked, eagerly awaiting news of the dog he had given to the delver.

"He's doing great," Ryson replied. "He's home with Linda right now."

"You're all getting along?"

"Absolutely."

The wizard was thrilled by the news but clearly didn't want to leave it at that.

"When I get the chance," Enin proclaimed, "I'd like to stop by and see him. I'd like to know if there's anything else I can do for him. I don't want him to think I just forgot about him."

Ryson remembered that, on some strange level, Enin could actually communicate with dogs. He looked forward to bringing the wizard to his home, maybe even getting the chance to find out what Stomps was really thinking.

"I think he'd like that. Actually, I
'd like it too," Ryson admitted.

"Maybe when all this is settled," Enin offered.

And finally, there was a hint of the trouble that brought Enin and Holli to Burbon and might also explain the delver's growing unease.

"That's fine," Ryson responded, "but can you tell me what you're talking about. What's going on that needs to be settled?"

"A dwarf messenger reached us with a disturbing report. Petiole has escaped."

Ryson did not expect that type of news. It seemed both absurd and troubling at the same time. He realized immediately the issue was no small matter, but he could not believe the escape of an elf elder would have caused him the distress he had been feeling. Still, he could not simply dismiss the incident and questions surfaced in his delver mind.

"How did Petiole manage to escape the dwarves?"

Enin revealed everything that the dwarf messenger had relayed to him. The information was sketchy at best. While there was enough for the delver to comprehend the plausibility of the escape, many other questions followed.

"Someone smuggled magical rocks into his cell?" Ryson wondered out loud. "Who could have done that... and why would they have wanted to?"

"No idea," Enin professed. "I imagine that's what Therese Folarok wants to discuss."

While the delver wondered about certain details, the town's guard captain focused on more sweeping matters. Sy tried to assess Petiole's escape as it related to Burbon. He realized it held significance between the dwarves and the elves. He also understood it might affect certain human towns, especially Pinesway and Connel. With so much at stake, he could understand Enin's inclusion in the matter, but there was another question he could not answer.

"So why did you come here?" the captain of the guard inquired. "Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to help out, but why didn't you go directly to Dunop?"

"It seems Queen Therese also wishes information on a half-delver named Pru Fallow."

"What's he got to do with this?"

"I assume that's what she wants to know. He was found outside a tunnel entrance to Dunop at the exact moment Petiole escaped. He claimed to be chasing a large goblin. He said the goblin was a threat to Burbon. Is this true?"

"Yes," Sy admitted, and then the captain explained everything that had occurred and his experiences with Okyiq.

"So you asked a half-delver to kill the goblin?" Enin asked, somewhat surprised at what he was hearing.

"Yes," Sy responded without displaying any remorse. "He was a threat I couldn't ignore."

"Hiring an assassin seems a bit severe," Enin professed with obvious amazement over the drastic measure. "This Okyiq just left a message—rather ghastly I admit—but beyond that, it sounds like he didn't do anything more to Burbon."

"That's not true. Not too long ago, he led a raid against us, even got inside the walls. Civilians were killed. He was captured, but I let him go."

"Why would you do that?"

"I let him go because he promised to kill the goblins that followed him. It was his followers that killed the civilians and looted the town."

"I still don't understand," Enin revealed.

"It's not that difficult," Sy responded with a growing annoyance at having to explain his actions. "Okyiq is dangerous. I thought it would take him at least ten cycles of the seasons to find every goblin that followed him, maybe more. It barely took him any time at all. When he was done, he came back with that message. He wasn't just boasting. He was threatening us, letting us know that he had completed his task and was turning his attention back toward us. I think that's all pretty clear."

Holli noticed the discussion was becoming slightly heated and extremely unproductive.

"It is pointless to argue over past decisions," the elf stated. "We came here to obtain information on Pru Fallow, not to debate the manner in which Sy protects this town."

"I guess you're right," Enin conceded. The wizard looked back to the captain. "Do you have any idea why Okyiq or Pru might have headed toward Dunop?"

"No. Pru was supposed to track Okyiq until he dealt with him. I gave him seven days to complete the task. I haven't seen or heard from him since he left, but his time isn't up yet. I just thought he was being careful. If Pru is claiming he followed Okyiq, then it was the goblin that wanted to head toward Dunop. As to why he might do that, I have no idea."

"What about you, Ryson?" the wizard asked. "Any ideas on this?"

"Not ideas," the delver responded,  "but things don't add up. I know how fast Pru can move and I have a good idea of how much of a head start Okyiq had on him. I can't see how the goblin could have possibly made it all the way to Dunop without Pru catching up to him. It doesn't make sense."

"That's a good point," Sy added, "but as I said before, Pru might have been biding his time. He wasn't supposed to just catch up to Okyiq. He was supposed to take care of him. Maybe he didn't get the opportunity and just kept following."

"I'm not sure that makes any more sense," Ryson countered. "With that crossbow of his, Pru would just need a to get close enough for a clear shot. What else was there for him to do?"

"I can't say, but we don't know what he might have run into in the forest. Maybe Okyiq met up with another group of goblins and Pru had to work his way around them."

"I guess that's possible," the delver conceded.

"Further assumptions are also somewhat pointless," Holli advised. "According to the message we received, the dwarves are holding Pru Fallow. When we go to Dunop, we can ask him directly as to what happened. We came here to obtain certain information regarding the half-delver. We only needed to confirm his story. We have done that."

"That's true," Enin professed, "but I want to know if anything else is bothering Ryson."

As all eyes turned to the delver, Ryson felt his burden of discomfort expand. He had no intention of hiding it, but he had said nothing about his worries. He could not help but feel slightly cornered as the topic dramatically switched and focused upon his unshakable misgivings.

"How do you know something is bothering me?" the delver asked somewhat defensively.

"I can feel it," the wizard professed, "but it's not in the magic. It's something else, something I can't describe. There's an aura of dread around you."

Ryson was no longer surprised by Enin's question.

"In all honesty, I can't describe it either. Something just doesn't feel right."

"Can you be a bit more specific?"

"No. Actually, I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on it. I thought that whatever brought you here might explain it."

"You now know what brought us here... questions regarding Petiole's escape. Do you sense a possible association between the two?"

Initially, Ryson recognized no such connection, but he did not wish to be too quick to dismiss the thought. He considered the importance of what had happened, but even as he sensed all the havoc that might be unfolding, Ryson could not completely match Petiole's escape with the unease he felt. Something else was tugging at him. There was a deep resonance within his spirit, and whatever the cause, it was not completely tied to the occurrences in Dunop.

"No, I don't think that's it," Ryson revealed. "I don't know why, but that just doesn't seem to explain it, not all of it anyway. There might be a connection, but it's small... insignificant. There's something else. It's like an old wound that's been opened."