Sovereign Stone (30 page)

The first was Wizard Hax. He was busy studying a very old-looking book and was concentrating deeply. Alexander tried to make contact with him, but failed. It was as if he wasn’t even there. Hax couldn’t discern his presence at all.

Next, he tried Mage Landi, who was sitting in an easy chair staring off into the distance like he was lost in the realms of his own mind. Alexander positioned his awareness directly in the line of the wizard’s sight and tried to get his attention, but again he failed. He wondered what it was that permitted Phane to see him when no one else could.

Then he saw Wizard Ely snoring gently with his head down on a book. Perhaps he could reach him through his dreams. He gently pushed into the wizard and for a moment all he saw were the insides of the old man, but when he focused on reaching out to him, he quite suddenly found himself standing in a library with countless bookshelves stretching off out of sight.

He was looking at Wizard Ely. The place had the quality of a dream; time was disjointed and there were gaps in reality that led nowhere, but Wizard Ely was alert and attentive. He was a bit startled to see Alexander and frowned with a mixture of concern and curiosity.

“If you are truly Lord Alexander, then tell me where you’re going and why,” Wizard Ely said.

Alexander smiled. “I’m going to the Fairy Queen to seek her help in retrieving the Sovereign Stone. It’s good to see you’re cautious, Wizard Ely.”

“Your understanding of your powers has grown. That’s very good. How can I assist you?”

“I come to you with a warning. The shades are loose in the world. Shivini, Rankosi, and Jinzeri are all free of the netherworld, and I don’t know how to send them back where they came from.”

Wizard Ely was alarmed. “That’s terrifying news indeed. I will send warning to your forces at once and speak with Mage Gamaliel on the matter as well. How did they come to be in the world?”

“Isabel touched the mind of a horse possessed by a demon and opened a connection in her mind to the netherworld. When she was pulled into the darkness, I was able to send my awareness in after her and bring her back. The first time, the creatures living in the darkness were alerted to the passageway. The second time, the shades followed us back through her mind and into our world. She said she heard their names when they passed through her psyche.”

“Astonishing,” Ely said, “I’ve never heard of such a thing. We will do what we can to defend against them. I have a warning for you as well. The scourgling has escaped and was last seen running south and east, I presume toward your location. Mage Gamaliel has dispatched three wizards and a company of soldiers, but I fear they will not be able to catch up with the beast before it reaches you. We were trying to find a way to warn you after several attempts at a dream-whisper spell failed.”

Alexander felt the chill of fear flood into him. The scourgling was beyond his ability to defeat. His only hope was distance and speed. If he could get to the ocean and onto a boat before the demon reached him, he might be safe for the time being.

“Thank you, Wizard Ely. Send word to my father that my sister and I are alive and well.”

“One last thing, Lord Alexander, Kelvin was angry with himself for not suggesting this before you left. He’s put a message board in his smithy. His hope is that he can place messages there for you to read with your clairvoyance. At least we can get information to you if you periodically look in on the Keep.”

“Tell Kelvin he’s a genius. I’ll look in on you from time to time.”

Alexander separated himself from Ely’s dream and drifted up and away from the wizard’s body. The old, grey-haired man came awake and stood excitedly, drawing the attention of the other two wizards in the library. Within seconds he had apprised them of the situation and all three were headed for Kelvin’s smithy. Alexander gently brought himself back to his body. His eyes came open to see Isabel watching him intently.

Chapter 26

 “Alexander, you’re still bleeding. Let Lucky tend to your wounds while you tell us what happened.”

He nodded and lay back against his pack so Lucky could apply healing salve to the gashes on his legs. Now that he was thinking about it, the pain was more intense.

“I managed to make contact with Wizard Ely but only because he was sleeping. I had no luck with anyone who was awake. Ely said they’ll start looking for information about the shades.”

Once Lucky finished applying the salve, Alexander started to feel drowsy. He drifted off to sleep with Isabel next to him. His friends let them both sleep the entire night without waking them for watch. Neither of them had slept well in the previous several nights and everyone knew they were exhausted.

They both woke well rested the next morning. Isabel smiled up at him and sighed. “No nightmares. The darkness is gone.”

Alexander gave her a hug and they got up to find Lucky cooking breakfast over a small fire. They spent the day traveling through peaceful little mountain valleys nestled between tall, narrow mountain peaks that reached high into the sky. Between Marla’s guidance and Slyder’s eyes, they were able to avoid the few potential dangers that they might have otherwise encountered.

The five ravens were still floating high in the sky watching them and tracking their movements for Commander P’Tal. Every time Alexander looked up at the black birds circling overhead, he felt a greater sense of urgency. His troubles were multiplying. He didn’t know what the shades would attempt to do, but he was sure it wouldn’t be good—and then there was the scourgling. After some reflection, he decided he needed to tell his friends about it. There was no telling how quickly it would track him down, but he was sure he didn’t have very much time.

“Wizard Ely said the scourgling escaped,” he said while they walked.

Everyone stopped.

“When?” Anatoly asked urgently.

“I’m not sure. He just told me it was loose and headed our way.”

“What’s a scourgling?” Marla asked.

“It’s a beast from the netherworld that’s hunting Alexander,” Lucky said. “We know of no way to destroy it, so we lured it into a trap and had it contained within a magical circle. Now that it’s escaped, it’ll be coming.”

“That’s one of the reasons I’ve been setting such a fast pace today,” Alexander said. “I’m hoping it’ll lose our trail once we make it to the ocean.”

“That’s a fair assumption,” Lucky said, “but it may simply slow the thing down.”

“At this point, I’ll take what I can get,” Alexander said. “Marla, how far is it to Highlake City?”

“At this pace, we should arrive by tomorrow evening.”

“Any chance the Druid Council can send the scourgling back to the netherworld?” Abigail asked.

“Doubtful,” Marla said. “It’s one thing to banish a demon without substance but quite another to attempt such a thing with a demon that can manifest physically in our world.”

“It was worth a try,” Alexander said to his sister. “For the time being, speed is our best option. We should press on.”

They traveled quickly the rest of the day, wasting little time for meals, preferring to eat on the move so they could cover more ground. They pushed on until darkness made it too treacherous to continue and then made camp in a wide spot on the narrow trail that wound through steep rock walls.

There was no wood for a fire, so they ate a cold dinner by the light of night-wisp dust. Alexander always marveled at the stuff. It was a pure and scintillating white that seemed to store the light of the sun for later use. He kept the vial sealed in a bone tube to prevent the light from showing through when he didn’t want it. Marla was intrigued by it and inspected it closely.

As they lay their bedding out on the hard stone, the air suddenly went chill. Alexander dropped his bedding and stood, looking around for the ghost he knew was coming.

The silvery, translucent silhouette of Nicolai Atherton wavered into view not six feet from him. Alexander faced the ghost as Isabel and Marla gasped in unison. Alexander motioned that they were safe.

“Hello, Nicolai,” Alexander said calmly, in spite of the icy fear running through his veins. Nicolai wasn’t dangerous but he had a way of showing up just before things got interesting.

“You’ve freed the shades!” he said, clearly distraught. “They will seek out the Nether Gate . . .”

Before he could finish, another ghost wavered into view not far away. He was a tall, imposing figure dressed in a breastplate with the letter R emblazoned over the heart and a rich velvet cloak flowing from his shoulders. Even though his face was the transparent, silvery light of a ghost, Alexander could see the malice and madness alive in his glittering eyes.

The second ghost laughed maniacally. “The puppet of the Rebel Mage has sealed the fate of the world. You’ve finished the task I started two thousand years ago.” He pointed at Alexander and faded out of sight, laughing hysterically.

“You must destroy the Nether Gate before the shades find it,” the ghost of Nicolai Atherton said. “Everything depends on it now.” The last words came from very far away as he flickered out of existence.

Alexander sat down hard. He felt defeated.

One problem after another rose up in front of him. He had no idea what the Nether Gate was, but he knew it was bad; Nicolai Atherton wouldn’t have come to him if it wasn’t, and whatever it was, the shades wanted to find it. The timid little voice of optimism in the back of his mind said “at least you know what they’re after.” Alexander snorted at the fatalistic humor of it all.

Isabel knelt next to him. “Alexander, look at me,” she commanded. “What was that? Was that Mage Atherton’s ghost?”

Alexander nodded and looked up at her. When he saw the intelligence and fierce passion for life in her piercing green eyes, it gave him a bit of his strength and resolve back. The challenges that lay before him seemed insurmountable, but he would never have imagined how far he would come since that horrible day in the north pasture hunting wolves. He resolved once again that, come what may, he would press on through every obstacle in his path until he could live in a world safe from the twisted ambitions of narcissists who craved power and safe from the dark appetites of netherworld creatures.

“Anybody happen to know what the Nether Gate is? Or where I can find it?” Alexander asked no one in particular. He was answered with dumbstruck silence. He put his hand on Isabel’s cheek and did his best to smile at her before getting up and laying out his bedroll in silence.

“Who was the second ghost?” Jack asked.

Alexander sighed. “I presume it was Malachi Reishi,” he said while he made ready for bed.

“That was terrifying,” Marla said. “I never even believed ghosts were real.”

Alexander actually laughed. “Says the woman who’s friends with a dragon.” He gave her a sidelong glance and she smiled a bit sheepishly.

“At least a dragon is flesh and blood. It’s a real creature.”

“True enough, but that just means a dragon can tear you apart. A ghost can only scare you to death. I’m quite sure that Malachi Reishi would have done his worst to me if he had the power to do more than mock me from the aether.”

“What do you think he meant about finishing the task he started?” Anatoly asked.

Alexander shook his head. “If I had to guess, I’d say he created the Nether Gate, and the shades know how to make mischief with it and it sounds like he expects them to do just that.”

“I wonder what it does,” Isabel said.

“I’ll bet it has something to do with the netherworld,” Alexander said.

“That’s a sound assumption,” Lucky said. “I have my suspicions but they are almost too terrifying to contemplate.”

Alexander sat up and looked at his old tutor. “Tell me.”

Lucky nodded. “It may be that Malachi Reishi constructed a gate to the netherworld, much like the Reishi Gate. With such a device, he could call forth an army of dark creatures to do his bidding. My great fear is what the shades intend to do with it.”

“What else?” Alexander said with the numbness of defeat. “They intend to open it.” He rolled over and slipped his night-wisp light into its bone tube.

He slept fitfully, dreaming of a future ravaged by dark beasts that didn’t belong in the world of the living. He felt guilt for having let them into the world, but in those moments of clarity when he weighed the cost of not acting as he had, when he thought of leaving Isabel to die in the clutches of the darkness, he knew he wouldn’t have done anything differently, even knowing the consequences of his actions.

Chapter 27

Dawn broke over a somber camp. The crisp mountain air was chill and dry. The sky was clear and the brightness of the new day did little to lift Alexander’s spirits through the gloom of overwhelming challenges—each on its own was more than he believed he could bear, but together felt like nothing short of the death of the world.