The Broken Key (02) - Hunter of the Horde (21 page)

Moving closer as Kevik opened the lid of the chest, he could see the magical items inside. They were in two distinct piles, one on either side. “You moved them up here?” he asked.

Kevik nodded. “Since I’m up here more than not, it seemed the prudent thing to do,” he explained. He reached into the chest and drew froth the box containing the two identical rings. After closing the lid, he turned and proceeded back into his workroom.

“I thought you had moved back into the manor?” Bart asked.

“Since I have the notes you supplied, I doubt if I’ll spend much time out of here until I’m done,” he replied.

Bart returned with him to the workroom.

“I forgot to tell you when they were last here that I identified some of the items,” he explained. Kevik set the small box on the table and opened the lid. “These rings were part of what I was able to get to before coming across a trap.” Bart came to stand next to him and looked at the rings. “A trap?” he asked.

“It just about killed me.” He took the two rings from the box and held them up. “If Riyan and Chad hadn’t been here I would most likely be dead.”

“What is it you want me to do?” Bart asked. When Kevik handed him one of the rings he took it.

“As you know, when I identify something I get visions about the item,” he explained.

Bart nodded, he remembered the past instances when Kevik had identified items back in the Ruins.

“For these, I think I understand what they are and what they are supposed to do,” he said as he slipped the ring he held onto his finger. “One of the visions showed two men, miles apart. One of the men began to be attacked and the second one immediately raced to his aid.”

Still holding his ring between his fingers, he turned his gaze from it and looked to Kevik. “I don’t understand,” he said.

“I believe these rings allow those wearing them to be able to communicate with each other in some way,” he explained.

Bart’s eyes widened in surprise at that. “If that were true, then these would be powerful indeed,” he said.

Kevik nodded. “I just don’t know how to activate them, nor do I know what form of communication they will take.” He could see the indecision in Bart’s eyes about putting the ring on. “It won’t hurt you.”

“Are you completely sure?” he asked.

Kevik paused a moment then said, “Yes.”

Trusting in him, Bart slipped the ring on. He didn’t feel any different. “Now what?” he asked.

“I’ll stay here in the tower,” he said. “Take your horse and ride away from the tower for a mile then stop. I’ll try to contact you through the ring.”

“You think this is actually going to work?” Looking to Kevik, he bore a less than optimistic expression.

“If I can figure out how it works, absolutely,” he said with sincerity.

“Alright then.” Bart left his side and headed for the stairs down.

As Bart entered the stairwell, Kevik turned his thoughts to the ring. How to make them work? A more experienced magic user would have been able to discern the mode of operation when he had identified them.

He remembered a book he had leafed through in the library below that had spoken of magical items. One section had been devoted to magic rings. He wished that he had taken more time to study it when he had looked through it, but he had been searching for the arcane symbols he needed to understand to make the spell to complete his staff.

A passage came back to him. It had said often the ring must be twisted upon the finger while the magical word of activation was spoken aloud. If there was a magical word needed, this won’t work at all as Kevik didn’t know what it was. He took the ring in the fingers of his other hand and twisted it around the finger it was on. Nothing happened.

He then proceeded to twist it several different times, first one way then the other.

Each time he twisted it, he would say one of the many magical triggers he’d come across during his studies. Every time he came up with nothing.

Then all of a sudden a picture appeared in his mind. From the looks of it, it was the area to the south of his estate. The way it bounced around made him believe he was getting it from Bart. Excited, he hurried over to the southern window and saw that Bart was indeed riding in that direction. It worked! But how? What triggered it? He was sure it wasn’t anything he had done.

Looking out the window, he realized Bart must have somehow triggered the latent magic within the ring he bore. Kevik’s mind went into high gear as he thought about how this had come to be.

First off, Bart wasn’t magical, so that had to imply that the trigger wasn’t magical in nature. Could he be toying with the ring in some way? Then he thought that Bart was most likely thinking about him and his request to experiment with the rings.

His attention was drawn back to Bart when he saw him come to a sudden stop and turn back to look toward at the tower. An image formed in his mind’s eye of the tower and himself standing at the window. This had clearly come from Bart.

“Can you hear me?” he asked aloud. He took the thumb of the hand which bore the ring and began rubbing its band as he concentrated on Bart. “Can you hear me?” Bart remained unresponsive. “Bart,” he said as he continued rubbing the ring with his thumb, “Can you hear me? If you do, wave your arm.” He looked out the window, hoping to see Bart wave back at him. Again, he continued sitting upon his horse motionless.

Kevik closed his eyes, thought about Bart. Then he spoke in his mind: Bart, wave your arm. He opened his eyes and saw Bart begin waving his arm. “Yes!” he cried out.

Calming himself, he closed his eyes and again thought of Bart. Come on back. Opening his eyes again, he saw Bart returning to the tower. He practically skipped in his excitement. Racing down the stairs, he exited the tower before Bart had made it back.

“Did you hear me?” Bart asked as he rode up to where Kevik was waiting for him.

“No,” Kevik replied. “But I think I saw in my mind what you were seeing.”

“How does it work?” he asked.

“I believe the magic is activated when one of the two people wearing the rings thinks of the other,” he stated. “I was rubbing the ring as I thought of you, though I’m still not sure if that’s a part of the activation process or not.” Bart secured his horse and they walked back into the tower. “So we can send our thoughts and what we see back and forth?” he asked.

“It would seem so,” replied Kevik. “It may take some time before we have it mastered.”

“These may come in handy when we resume our search for the remaining segments of the key,” commented Bart.

When they returned to the third floor, Kevik held out his hand for the ring Bart wore.

He gave it up reluctantly. “I don’t plan on wearing the other so it would do you no good,” explained Kevik. “Can’t have your thoughts intruding upon mine at a crucial point during an incantation.”

Bart glanced around at the blasted remains of the workroom and nodded.

Kevik replaced them in the small box and returned them to the chest.

“What else did you find out?” questioned Bart.

Kevik turned around and saw him looking at the other items resting on the bottom of the chest on the side where he placed the box. “I didn’t get all of them,” he explained.

Pointing to the ones next to the box he said, “Just these.” He picked up the ruby and said, “This has healing properties. It cured a headache I had after the encounter with the trapped magical item.” Putting it back in, he drew forth the ring with the red stone. “I believe this one may protect the wearer against fire.” He held it out to Bart, “Care to test it for me?”

“Uh, no,” he replied. For the only way to test it would be to put it on and try to burn yourself in some way.

Kevik grinned and put it back in the chest.

“What about the rest of them?” he asked.

“I’ll see about them once I finish my staff,” he said. Closing the lid, he stood up and turned to face him. “That needs to be the first order of business for me if we don’t wish to see our two fellows sent off down south for awhile.”

“I understand,” Bart replied. “You need me to help you clean this up?” Glancing around the room, he could see that there was still a ways to go before this room would be restored to its original state of order.

“I would appreciate that.” As Kevik picked up the broom to do a more thorough job on the floor, Bart began straightening the overturned furniture and removing the broken table by the top of the stairs. It took them an hour, but they managed to restore the room fairly close to the way it was before the blast.

Later that night after a brief meal of stale bread and meat that was about to turn bad, Bart was up in his room within the manor house. Several rooms contained fireplaces and his was no exception.

He stood at the window which overlooked Kevik’s tower and observed the light in the third story window indicating Kevik was again working on his spell. Behind him a fire roared in the fireplace, a stack of wood which he had brought up from what had been piled within the first floor of the tower earlier that evening sat beside it.

Bart admired Kevik’s devotion to his craft, they were alike in that respect. Before the debacle with the attempted overthrow of his father, Bart had worked with the best his Guild had to offer to perfect his skills in the arts of the Shadowed Path. In fact, he had almost reached the point where there was nothing more that could be learned from them.

That was when he had met Gerrick, the man whom he backed in the failed coup. He had taught him things which his father had frowned upon, such as forgery. Cut from a different mold, he saw in Gerrick someone who could further the influence and prominence of the Thieves Guild with greater skill than had his father. And that was why he had backed him as he had.

Bart sighed. Gerrick had gone to ground shortly after the coup failed and none had heard from him since. Not for the first time the question of where he was crossed his mind.

Turning from the window, he went to the bed and made ready for sleep. Tomorrow he planned to pay a visit to the Warriors Guild and let Chad and Riyan know what they planned to do. He placed a few more logs on the fire and then quickly slipped under the covers. The room was still quite chilly despite the fire roaring not ten feet away. Before drifting off to sleep, he wondered how Kevik could stand being in the cold of the tower.

Kevik was burning the midnight oil as it were. Before him was the charred manuscript which held the explanation of the symbols Bart had supplied. He had been greatly relieved when he discovered it had survived the blast earlier that day. What he would have done if it had been destroyed he didn’t even want to contemplate.

There were five key symbols he had problems with which were integral to the spell of infusing the staff with magic, three of them he has already mastered. The attempt to master the third one had precipitated the explosion. His former master had stressed repeatedly the need to speak each word properly, that to deviate even minutely could prove disastrous. Kevik hadn’t really taken that warning very seriously, that was not until he had almost died because of it.

The final two symbols were proving to be quite tricky despite the words of advice provided by Bart’s friend. More than once he wished he still had the guiding hand of his master to lead him through. But as his master once said, ‘To wish for what can never be is a waste of time better spent on the matter at hand.’

He leaned back in his chair and stretched. As a yawn escaped him he came to the conclusion that he was through for the day. Only a foolish magic user would practice magic when tired, too easy to misspeak a critical word.

Getting up from his chair, he debated whether to return to the manor house or not. In this new robe he had found in his master’s old room, he didn’t feel the cold nearly as bad as he had in his old one. It wasn’t due to any magical properties, simply that it was thicker and of better quality.

He glanced to the shuttered window and knew he would have to brave the cold outside if he were to gain the manor house, and the added warmth it would afford him. It didn’t take him long to come to the conclusion that the tower really wasn’t all that bad.

So throwing a few more logs on the fire, he pulled his cot out from the other room and placed it in close proximity to the fireplace before settling in for the night.

Unfortunately sleep eluded him as he laid there. His mind was too full of the spell he was working on. Before he even realized it, a couple hours had passed and sleep was still an unobtainable goal. The fire had subsided, the glow from the few flames still working to turn the wood into ash among the coals gave the room a reddish glow.

Seeing as how he was still awake, he figured he had better get up and put a couple more logs on the fire to maintain the warmth for as long as possible. He pulled the cover off him and sat up on the side of the cot. When his feet connected with the cold stone of the floor, a shiver went through him. Man it was cold! As he came to his feet he realized that winter hadn’t even arrived yet.

Kevik shuffled quickly to the woodpile stacked near the fireplace and placed several additional logs on the fire before returning to his cot. No sooner had he sat down than the window overlooking the area between the tower and the manor house was abruptly illuminated by a flash of bright light. A man’s cry was heard at the same time.

Leaping to his feet, he raced to the window and threw open the shutters. A cold breeze hit him as he looked out at the scene below. A glow surrounded a man standing in the area between the manor and the tower. At first he thought it might have been Bart who had triggered the defensive magics of the place but quickly realized it was another.

The man was frozen, held immobile by the spell surrounding him.

Thoughts of the men Bart had said might be coming flashed through his mind. Kevik scanned the area but could see neither associates of the man nor the man’s steed should he have arrived on horseback. Though he saw no one, he didn’t dismiss the possibility that others could be about. What if they had gained the tower itself?