Exiles From The Sacred Land (Book 2) (24 page)

Faint voices from somewhere in the distance became louder and louder as Dorenn regained consciousness. He expected to see Morgoran, Melias, and the others. Instead he was in a rich, wood-paneled room with a warm fire burning in an impressively-carved stone fireplace. As he regained his senses and could see more of the room, he was reminded of
some of the hunting lodges near Brookhaven, minus the animal heads on the walls. At the room’s center sat a rustic, wood-carved table with matching chairs, and sitting on those chairs were two people Dorenn didn’t recognize. The man, who looked like a much older version of Gondrial, was dressed in dark green robes. He was talking and puffing on a white clay pipe. The woman sitting next to him, laughing with a high-pitched voice, was dressed in a white robe and also occasionally puffed on a white clay pipe. From what Dorenn could see of her, she had blonde hair and a pleasant demeanor.

Dorenn groaned and sat upright. “Where am I?”

The woman in white put down her pipe on the table. “Ah, welcome, young Dorenn Adair,” she said.

“Come here and sit at the table. We have much to discuss,” the man in green said as he pushed out one of the chairs with his foot under the table.

Dorenn reluctantly accepted the invitation and sat in the chair.

The man puffed his pipe and sat back in his chair. “My name is Zarluflast, but people call me Zarl for short.” He offered his hand toward the woman in white. “My dear.”

The woman took her cue. “Oh, and my name is Loris.” Her voice was only a whisper, soft and faint.

“We are the keepers of the Hall of Ancients,” Zarl said with a flourish of his hand. “We have brought you here because we need to discuss your future.”

“Yes, dear,” Loris said, “we are acting on instruction from Fawlsbane Vex himself.”

Dorenn looked around the room. “Is this a lodge?”

Zarl looked at Loris and put down his pipe. “We should go ahead and cure the essence sickness now, my dear, before we proceed any further.”

“I agree.”

The pair moved toward him, and the entire room went dark. When the light returned, Dorenn was sitting up from the same spot where he had been left unconscious before. Exactly the same scene as before with Zarl and Loris laughing and smoking at the wooden table occurred again. Only this time, Loris came to him as soon as he opened his eyes. “Is this a dream?” he wondered aloud.

“Aye, it is a dream,” Loris said. “Just not the same kind of dream you are used to.”

“This lodge, as you asked before, is inside of your head. We are in a dream construction of your making. I quite like it. Spectacular job,” Zarl commended.

“So, I am cured of the essence sickness?”

Loris patted him on the head. “As cured as you will ever be.”

“You are still on the floor in the crystal chamber. No one has come to check on you yet, but I am sure it is only a matter of time. Morgoran will wake you up and see you are cured. No one will be the wiser of what has actually happened to you.”

“Oh, and what has happened to me?” Dorenn asked.

Loris grimaced and moved back to the table.

“What?” Dorenn asked again.

Zarl stood from the table, took up his pipe, and puffed deeply on it a few times. “You have been through the trial of the ancients.”

“And?”

“Do you have any idea how the chamber works?” Zarl asked.

“Aye, Morgoran said that I would enter the chamber and the essence left behind by the most compatible wielder would bind with me and cure the essence sickness.”

“Aye, and that is precisely what happened, only . . .”

Loris could see Zarl’s hesitation, so she spoke up. “We were all joined with you. Every wielder known to pass through this chamber. You are an impossible man. You are compatible with all of us.”

“How can that be?” Dorenn asked. “That can’t be right.”

“No, it cannot,” Zarl agreed. “However, there is one possibility that Fawlsbane Vex mentioned to me long ago, and it is why we are here now. The Tome of Enlightenment.”

“What is the Tome of Enlightenment?” Dorenn asked, now feeling skeptical.

“The Tome of Enlightenment was the first book given to all races of the world. As soon as a person looks upon it, they may read it. It was the book that first taught the concepts of magic. Dragons read it and learned Dragon magic, some men read it and learned to wield essence, some men read it and learned to mindwield, and so on. Each race read it differently, and each race received knowledge of magic from it.”

Loris took over. “Then the tome was lost. After the magic war, much of the ability to use essence and mindwield was lost with the men and women who died, taking the secret with them to the grave. We need that tome to be found.”

“I asked Fawlsbane Vex, when he still walked among us, where it was located. He told me that one day, when the need was dire, a man would come to take the trials who would join with all the essences of the chamber, and the combined knowledge he would receive from the joining would tell him where to find the book.”

“So where is it?” Loris asked pointedly.

Dorenn closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand. “I have no idea.” Dorenn opened his eyes again and looked at his hosts intently. Loris and Zarl were adamant that he knew where to find the tome; both were transfixed and hanging over him like ghouls. “There is something more to the story than what you are willing to reveal to me,” he said. Zarl and Loris stared at each other with maniacal grins and faded away.

After a moment, the room dissolved, and Dorenn found himself on the side of a mountain. It was late winter or early spring because the air was brisk but there was no snow. A cool breeze made him shiver and pull his cloak around him tightly. He had not been aware he had a cloak. Tall grass swayed in patches of greenery between rock outcroppings.

“What was all that nonsense about?” Dorenn was startled by a voice immediately behind him. “Whose idea was it to put you in that chamber?” Dorenn spun around to see a familiar old man with a long grey beard and grey robes standing behind him. He had a long walking stick he leaned on for support.

“I remember you,” Dorenn said. “You were the man in the shop that sold me the jade statuette I gave to Tatrice.”

“You have a remarkable memory, Dorenn Adair of Brookhaven.”

“What are you doing here?” He glanced at his surroundings. “What am I doing here?”

“I am here for you. It seems you have had the unfortunate experiences of both essence sickness and its cure.” He took a step forward, planting the walking stick firmly in the ground. “You are here because I willed it so. We need to have a conversation away from all those other wielders you now have rattling around in your head.”

“Why is that? I mean, what purpose does it serve?” Dorenn asked. He felt he could trust the old man for some reason.

“What, all the wielders bonding with you?”

“Aye, why did that happen? What are they doing?”

“Well, that is a tough question to answer, but I will give it a shot.” He gestured to a nearby boulder that might serve as a spot to sit down. Dorenn was glad to get off his feet. The old man creaked and cracked as he found a spot to sit down. He still relied heavily on the walking stick.

“I am about to reveal to you the location of the Tome of Enlightenment. Those wielders knew long ago that your line would be the one I gave the knowledge to, so they wanted to be a part of it, some for their own gain. Those essence you took on have very real, live counterparts in this world, and they think they were clever enough with what they left behind to manipulate you into revealing the location to them.”

“How could you possibly know where the gods hid the tome?”

“Ah, you see, you already are gaining knowledge you did not have knocking around in that head before. How did you know the gods hid it? Hmm, you didn’t even know about the tome until a few minutes ago.”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, I do. That was most likely Loris or Zarl. They have been blocked from you now so we can talk, but they have already left an imprint of knowledge.”

“If you reveal the location to me, what would stop them then, once you are gone?”

“I will make sure you absorb their knowledge and expel the rest. They will not be able to do what Loris and Zarl have already attempted, nor will they be able to reveal the location to their live selves and make a rush on the location of the tome.”

“How are you going to do that? You would have to be Fawlsbane Vex,” Dorenn stated.

“Aye, I would. It’s a good thing that I am then.”

“You are Fawlsbane Vex?” Dorenn exclaimed.

“I am Vex. The Fawlsbane half is a nickname I got when I slew Fawl and took his sister Loracia as my wife.”

“You are the father of dragons and the creator of men.”

“I am afraid so. You can continue to doubt, if you wish. This mountainside illusion is a moment lodged in time, so no rush.”

Dorenn immediately fell to his knees.

“Oh, do get up. I took this form so we could be comfortable and amiable, precisely to avoid what you are doing.”

Dorenn took his place on the boulder as before.

“There, that’s better. Now that we have all that out of the way, let me go ahead and bind those spirits in your head.”

“Wait, why not just get rid of them and make them leave me completely?”

“Because they will all impart knowledge into you once they are absorbed. It would be like having hundreds of masters teaching you how to wield all at once, rather than one master over hundreds of seasons. It is to our advantage.”

“Don’t I have a say in this?”

Fawlsbane Vex sat back like he had not considered that before. “All right, aye, you have a say. What say you?”

Dorenn thought for a long moment before answering. “Before I answer, why are you going to give me the location of the tome?”

“Ah, a good question. Because one wielder should not have so much of an advantage over another. I am sure you have heard of the wild magic.” Dorenn nodded. “There is no defense. The tome will tell those with the wild magic how to use it and others how to defend against it. You will have this knowledge to give. There are ways to use the tome to hurt people, and I am sure that you will not use it in such a way. You will find and liberate the Silver Drake, spread the knowledge of the tome, and restore balance and order to the Sacred Land. You will do this with whatever it takes.”

“You say one wielder should not have the advantage, yet that is what you are doing by giving me the tome.”

The old man wrinkled his nose. “We can bandy about with words if you like, but I have other things to do, better things. I meant one type of wielder, of course. I would think you could understand that. You come from a distinguished line of wielders, which I have trusted for thousands of seasons. I will go on trusting you as I can see aspects of you that no one else would be able. However, you are, no doubt, going to have to do some things in my service when you leave here that others will see as downright evil. You must not waver. It is a tremendous burden, but that is why you will bond with the essences. You will have all the combined knowledge and strength of all the wielders before you. How much you will keep of the Dorenn Adair you are now is up to your strength of will.”

“I must say, I have always been interested in wielding, and the prospect of being the most powerful wielder alive is tempting.”

“Now, don’t go thinking you are some kind of deity. You will have the knowledge, but you will not have the other wielders’ experiences. You will have to watch yourself. You will make horrible mistakes with just as horrible of consequences if you run around full of yourself. Always remember that with every decision that you lack experience, seek out those whose experience can help you.” He vacillated. “Choose your allies carefully. There will be those who will not understand or believe you. There will be those who will try to stop you or control you. Look for those with the experience to help you but not get in your way. If anyone becomes an obstacle to your grand purpose, eliminate the obstacle. One more issue, you have knowledge at your disposal, but you cannot access all of it. Your mind cannot handle such things. Take care to access what you need. The essence you have absorbed is a shadow of the wielder it once belonged to, and sometimes shadows lie. I can make a shadow puppet against a wall in the shape of a bird, but it is not an actual bird; it is an illusion.”