Sovereign Stone (2 page)

Jack smiled slowly but broadly. “I like the way you’re starting to think. Stories are the most powerful magic of all because they sway the masses.” Jack cocked his head like he was looking at Alexander in a new light. “You might have made an excellent bard, if it wasn’t for all this business about being King.” He smiled with a sparkle in his eye. “Well, no matter, I’ll get started writing a song about the murderous indifference of Phane and his netherworld minions. No sense letting a bunch of soldiers tell it, they’ll undoubtedly leave out the important parts.”

Alexander chuckled. “Good. Isabel, if you could keep an eye on the scourgling, I need to go check on something else.”

“Of course. I’ll let you know what happens.”

“I’ll stay as well. I might get lucky and be able to witness the encounter firsthand. Could provide useful detail for my song,” Jack said.

“What are you going to check on?” Abigail asked.

Alexander took a deep breath before he answered. “Phane. If he doesn’t need the scourgling in Karth anymore, then he’s probably on the move and I need to know where he plans on going next.”

“Is that wise?” Lucky asked. “We don’t know if he can harm you when you look in on him with your clairvoyance. Last time he wasn’t aware of your capability, but now he may have taken precautions.”

“I’ll be careful, but I want to know what his next move will be. If he’s coming to Ruatha, we need to know. I also want to take a look at the army that’s headed our way and see who’s leading it.”

Chapter 2

It had been a week since Alexander found the Thinblade. Seven days spent searching Blackstone Keep and they hadn’t even scratched the surface. The place was enormous. Under different circumstances, he would have been happy to spend months exploring the ancient fortress. It was full of mystery and possibility that ignited his imagination and gave physical form to many of his childhood fantasies.

Even the mundane was miraculous in Blackstone Keep. After several hours of meditation on the Keep Master’s ring, he’d found that he could command the ceilings of any room to glow with soft illumination. It was a simple thing but very welcome in the pitch-black inner rooms of the Keep. After a bit of further investigation, he discovered that once awakened, the light in any given room could be turned on or off by touching a panel on the wall near the door.

After he and the Rangers had spent a few days exploring the quarters on one side of the paddock, they found a small part of the Keep meant for housing soldiers, and the Rangers moved from their camp under the stars. Alexander knew there were plenty of other quarters available but he didn’t want to venture too far into the Keep just yet. There were other matters of greater importance than the comfort of their lodging, and the barracks would be more than adequate for the time being.

On the third day after their arrival at Blackstone Keep, Jataan P’Tal had shown up with a company of about a hundred soldiers from Headwater. Alexander was confident that they couldn’t reach across the gaping chasm that served as the primary defense for the Keep, but he doubled the watch just in case.

It looked like the General Commander of the Reishi Protectorate was settling in for a siege, a fact that didn’t present any immediate problem but troubled Alexander just the same. He was trapped. Fortunately, he was safe within the Keep, but in time he knew he would have to return to New Ruatha, and the small army camped on his doorstep was in the way.

At first he had worried about an adequate food supply, but then he discovered a larder that was even more magical than the lighting. The room was clearly a storeroom, but its storage bins were empty when he first discovered them. The thing that caught his attention was a waist-high pedestal just a few steps inside the door with the imprint of a hand in the center. It took an hour of focused and deliberate meditation on the Keep Master’s ring to discover the purpose of the room. But even after he did, he was frustrated to learn that he couldn’t make it work. It required a connection to the firmament that he couldn’t seem to create except when he was in a state of deep meditation.

When he brought Lucky to the room, he was struck dumb with awe when the alchemist placed his hand on the pedestal and linked his mind to the firmament. The storage bins in the room quickly filled with dried rice, beans, salt pork, and jerky. The storeroom was a magical larder that could produce basic food staples, provided a wizard capable of making a reliable connection to the firmament was there to operate it.

He had discovered that the seven rings in the jeweled case he had found in the Bloodvault were similar to the Keep Master’s ring. He wanted to give one to each of his friends but quickly found that a connection to the firmament was necessary to use the lesser rings as well, so only Lucky received one.

Lucky reported that the ring allowed him to see the Keep in his mind’s eye as well as to control the bridge. Alexander was happy to hear that, since he would have to leave eventually and he wanted to make sure that his people would be able to protect the Keep and still come and go as necessary. The secondary rings solved that problem.

On the fifth day, he had discovered the beacon towers. Once he understood what they were, it was a simple matter to activate them. Tall towers topped with cones of stone rose from the four cardinal points of the massive Keep. With a flick of his mind, the cones began to glow with a bright white light, sending a clear signal that Blackstone Keep had a new master.

He had practiced with the Thinblade daily, testing its power and sharpness. He was awed by it. The Sword of Kings was beyond his wildest expectations. He could cut through a stone the size of a man’s head with a simple flick of his wrist. No real force was required, only motion. The Thinblade was sharper than sharp, but much more. He discovered, quite by accident, that the blade would not cut him.

He’d been trying to wield his new sword like he would have wielded an ordinary blade and it made his movements clumsy. In a moment of terrifying carelessness, he misjudged the position of the Thinblade and would have, should have, cut off his hand just above the wrist, but the blade simply bounced off his arm. After a moment of stunned gratitude, he tried, much more carefully of course, to cut himself with the Thinblade and found that the thin edge would not make contact with his flesh.

Anything else was fair game though. He cut through stone, wood, or steel with ease. With a bit of practice, he found that he could wield the Thinblade with much greater quickness than he could wield a normal steel sword.

Every day he had meditated and sought to make contact with the firmament. His practice was paying off. It usually took several minutes of calm empty-mindedness before he found his awareness floating freely on the currents of the firmament. He tested his limits and was pleased to find that he could stay in the timeless ocean of possibility indefinitely while still maintaining a connection to his physical existence.

His connection to the firmament was different than that of other wizards. They had to be cautious of becoming lost in the limitless possibility and rapture of creation. Alexander didn’t experience the firmament in that way, but he also couldn’t make a connection as reliably or as quickly as other wizards. It was a source of frustration, but he’d made up his mind to focus on the capabilities he could rely on and make do with them.

While limited in scope, his magical vision was profound in the insight it gave him. He’d been able to see the aura of living things since he was a child. The colors that surrounded others gave him a window into their character, intent, and capacity for magic.

Much more recently, he’d discovered a limited form of clairvoyance that allowed him to see all around him even with his eyes closed. It was like seeing his immediate surroundings with his peripheral vision all at once. With a little focus, he could direct his all around sight to a single point nearby and see clearly, down to the smallest detail.

He could even see a few moments into the future, although he had no idea how to make it happen deliberately.

Perhaps the most powerful magic he had was long-range clairvoyance. It was his only magical capability that required a deliberate connection to the firmament, but it allowed him access to information in a way that few others could match.

***

Alexander returned to his quarters. It was a simple room cut into the interior of the mountain and had a small balcony on the west wall facing the bridge platform. He took a quick look down to the road below but saw no sign of the enemy soldiers or of the scourgling.

Sitting on his balcony, he started the process that led to the firmament. It was becoming more familiar and reliable.

He started with several deep breaths, relaxing his muscles one body part at a time. Once he was physically relaxed, he focused each breath on deepening his relaxation and allowing tension and anxiety to drain away.

When his body felt heavy and warm, it was time to begin quieting his mind. He allowed any thought that came to him to capture his attention and focus, but only for a moment. He acknowledged each stray thought before dismissing it. One by one, he let the thoughts come to him, and one by one, he let them go, until they came more slowly and then not at all.

When he found himself in a place without thought, where his mind was quiet yet alert and aware, he knew the firmament was close. Sometimes it took several minutes of holding his mind in a state of empty-mindedness before he would slip free of his physical form; other times it happened quickly.

This time he found himself floating in the limitless expanse of the firmament after only a few moments. He let himself drift, listening to the music of reality humming with impossible complexity in the background before he focused on his location.

With a sensation of impossible speed, his point of awareness formed just outside his balcony. He took in his surroundings, looked at his meditating body, then turned his attention toward the bridge platform. He focused on moving his awareness slowly rather than simply willing it to be in a different location.

Floating toward the smaller peak, he saw movement on the spur road. The enemy soldiers were crossing the spur just as the scourgling was coming up the road from below.

With a flick of his mind, Alexander moved his point of awareness to a place a few feet off the side of the spur road and twenty feet overhead.

The scourgling didn’t even seem to notice the soldiers on the road as it charged with single-minded determination back up to the bridge platform. If the soldiers had been on foot, they might have been all right. But when their horses saw the beast running toward them, many of the terrified animals bolted. More than thirty of the panicked horses slipped off the sides of the spur, carrying their riders to their deaths on the plains far below.

Several of the remaining soldiers managed to survive by quickly dismounting and allowing their spooked horses to go over the edge without them. Still a few others were able to rein in their horses tightly enough that they couldn’t bolt.

But the scourgling didn’t attack.

It simply ran, headlong, through their ranks like they were little more than brush on the side of a trail.

Jack would have his story.

Alexander refocused his vision on a splotch of dust rising on the horizon. In a blink, his awareness was hovering over the leading edge of a force of five thousand soldiers, all wearing the crest of New Ruatha. The army moved slowly but steadily toward the giant black mountain that was Blackstone Keep.

More than anything else, the sight of Kelvin Gamaliel leading the army gave him hope. He’d worried about the Guild Mage many times since the battle with Jataan P’Tal at the palace in New Ruatha. The north wing had collapsed while both men were still inside. Alexander had held out hope that Kelvin had used some form of enchanted item to protect himself when he brought the entire building down with his magical war hammer.

He was gratified to see that his hope was well founded. The half a dozen wizards riding with the Guild Mage gave him even greater hope.

Alexander relaxed his focus, and his awareness melted back into the firmament. He was no longer in any single place. Instead, he rode the wave of reality through time, with every thought, feeling, and action taking place in the present moment thrumming in the background like a symphony of impossible variety. He took a moment to float there on the crest of the wave before bringing his real purpose into focus in his mind’s eye.

His awareness coalesced high in the air above the ocean. Below was a ship sailing north on a strong breeze. Alexander cautiously descended toward the vessel. It looked to be manned by experienced sailors. Two things immediately caught his eye: the Reishi flag flapping in the wind atop the main mast and the soldiers of the Reishi Army Regency manning the catapults and ballistae on the fore and aft decks.

Alexander moved closer, looking cautiously for the Reishi Prince. When he didn’t see him on deck, he moved his point of awareness next to the captain of the boat. The grizzled old man was holding the wheel of the ship and listening to another wind-worn sailor.

“Captain, I’m telling you this is a mistake. The Reishi Isle is cursed. Its waters are filled with unspeakable things,” the sailor said.