The Sac'a'rith (28 page)

That started a conversation about various famous magi whom they knew but I had never heard of. They talked about places and times that I knew nothing about. I wondered where I might be that was so different from home. The known and settled section of the galaxy was large, but there seemed to be nothing to connect their history with the little history I knew.

“Have you ever seen anyone like me?” I asked.

“What? Oh, you mean others of your species?” asked Stormblade.

“Yes, other Zalionians,” I said.

“I know of a race that looks a lot like you, but is much shorter; closer in size to a human. That is the only race that I know of which resembles you,” said Stormblade.

“In truth, if you had not put down your weapons when we first met you, we might have jumped to the wrong conclusion and attacked you,” said Fiercewind.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because lately, anything in our forest that is not one of the forest people or a known friend is trying to push us out,” said Stormblade.

“The humans are pushing them in, and they push you?” I asked.

“Those and others. Our borders get more crowded every season,” said Stormblade.

I was going to comment that it might be best if they spread out to neighboring planets, but just then we arrived at Narcion’s house. We searched inside until we found a large box, and then they helped me decide what kind of thing he might want to save if they were finally forced to destroy the house. After we’d filled the chest, we moved into the gate room.

As I stood before the gate, I noticed the pattern around the ring was slightly different to the one back on Narcion’s cruiser. I traced my finger through some of the carvings and wondered exactly what they meant. Slowly I started to feel the room slip away and only the ring was present in my mind.

Ragnar’s voice came from somewhere beside me and said, “We are ready when you are.”

“Yeah, just a moment,” I said. I kept working my way around the ring, trying to discern a pattern, until my finger touched on one specific engraving. “There, this one is right,” I mumbled to myself. Memories came flooding into my mind from it and with them came a single word. I called that word out loud, and as before color started to fill the gate.

“So the runes are the key,” said Stormblade.

“What?” I asked as I came out of the trace-like state I had slipped into unawares.

“The gate is locked, and only certain people can open it. We have suspected that the runes were more than just enchantments, and apparently we were right. They must be keys to other gates,” said Stormblade.

“I’ll help you to carry this through,” said Ragnar, picking up one end of the crate.

I was sure I could carry the whole thing by myself, but that seemed a rude thing to say, so I seized the other end. I said, “Goodbye, and thanks for everything,” and walked into the gate.

As before, I passed through what appeared to be jump space and then stepped out into Narcion’s cabin. It was exactly as I had left it. Not a single thing was out of place; perfect blandness. Ragnar came through the gate after me and we put down the chest next to the gate. The gate closed behind him as if it knew its task was done.

Ragnar was looking around the room, examining everything visually as if he were looking for something. Before I could say anything to him, over the ship’s intercom I heard Crivreen’s voice: “Great, you’re back! I’ll be down there in a minute; until then, hold tight. I am going to move the ship through a few jumps.”

“Jumps?” asked Ragnar.

“Yeah, you’d probably better wait till that’s over before you head back. I don’t know what effect they will have on the gate,” I said.

Moments later we were in jump space. Once we had cleared it, I saw Ragnar leaning on the wall for support. “What just happened?” he asked.

“Crivreen is moving us to a new location. I am sure he has a reason. Have you never traveled through jump space before?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “What is that?”

“It is how spacecraft travel great distances. It is somewhat disorientating the first couple of times, but after a while you get used to it. If I know Crivreen, we will be jump … ” I started to say, but I was cut off by our next entrance into jump space.

Crivreen took us into jump space three more times after that. Ragnar, having never dealt with the post-jump hangover before, was not doing well. I hoped the effects would pass soon. I could not imagine what it was like never to have experienced jump space and then go through several rapid-fire jumps in succession.

Before he could completely recover, Crivreen came bounding in and said, “Hey, Narcion … but that’s not Narcion!”

“No. Why did you think it was?” I asked.

“You went through that gate to find him, and then I saw on the security camera that you had come back with someone, so I assumed that meant you had found him,” said Crivreen. “Who is this, then?”

“My name is Ragnar. I am a relative of Narcion’s, in a way.”

“I see,” said Crivreen. “
Are you sure it was a good idea to bring him here?”

“Well, I suppose I’d better get you back,” I said.

“No, wait,” said Ragnar. “I think I can help you to find Narcion.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“If you take me to where he went through the portal, I might be able to read the traces and get an idea of who cast the gate,” he said.

“How?” asked Crivreen.

“Every magus has a unique pattern in the magic they cast, so I should be able to read that pattern in the traces,” he said.

“But wouldn’t something like that fade with time? It has been weeks,” said Crivreen.

“The chances are not great, but Zah’rak said you have very little magic out here, so I am hoping that no other spells have been cast in that room since the portal was opened. If so, I have a good chance of getting a reading,” he said.

“That is why you have a pack,” I said.

“Yes. I planned to ask you if I could come with you, but Stormblade forbade me,” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Zah’rak, do you know where you were?” he asked.

“Some remote planet, I thought,” I said.

“Tell me, what do you know about the Great War?” he asked.

“Not much; just that it gave rise to magic and caused the Empire to fall,” I said.

“Really? It was a defining moment for life as you know it,” he started.

“Sorry, I’ve never been much good at history, and it was fought far from here,” I said.

“This is going to be harder than I thought,” he said.

“I have studied it extensively. What did you want to say about it?” asked Crivreen.

“You have?” I asked.

“Yes, and you should too, but maybe I can give you a crash course later,” he said.

“Well, as you know then, there was a time when magic was just a fantasy here, and no one thought much of it, until the sorcerers came and changed all that. They tried to use their power to take control of this realm, but Grandmaster Vydor led a massive army of wizards and mundanes and pushed them back. Thus the age of magic was born,” said Ragnar.

“That is the really, really short version, but yes,” said Crivreen.

“Do you know where those sorcerers came from?” asked Ragnar.

“Yes; another realm, Korshalemia,” said Crivreen.

“Another realm? What is that?” I asked. I felt as if I were back in Narcion’s house, listening to Stormblade and the others talk. This was all alien to me.

“It’s like another universe, a whole other reality separate from our own,” said Crivreen.

“Exactly; and that is where you were just a few minutes ago, Zah’rak,” said Ragnar.

“What?” I asked. I was trying to wrap my mind around the conversation, but with little success.

“So Narcion is from Korshalemia?” asked Crivreen.

“No, I don’t think so, but he lived with us for a long time,” said Ragnar, and then he went on to tell Crivreen what they had told me about Narcion.

“Why did Stormblade forbid you to ask if you could accompany me?” I asked, as I finally started to catch up.

“Grandmaster Korshalem has ordered that all travel between the realms must cease. He is trying to completely sever our ties with this realm. As a wizard, I fall under the jurisdiction of the current grandmaster of the realm, and therefore am subject to his laws and rulings,” he said.

“But you came anyway,” said Crivreen.

“As far as I know Grandmaster Vydor, who is the grandmaster of this realm, has no such rule and, as a wizard in this realm, I will now fall under his rulings,” he said.

“Sounds like you’re splitting hairs,” said Crivreen.

“If you want to send me back, I will go. However, I am a trained wizard; I can help you find Narcion and perhaps teach you some magic along the way,” he said.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“My people are on the decline. Soon we will retreat into the mountains and be forgotten. This is my only chance to change my future. If I did not grasp this opportunity, I would always wonder ‘what if I had?’ I had a small opportunity back there in Narcion’s house and I took it,” he said.

“
What do you think?
” I privately asked Crivreen.

“
You went through the gate looking for clues and found one, potentially a big one. Even if he fails to read the trail to Narcion, he knows magic! Think of what he could teach us!”
replied Crivreen with a great deal of excitement.

“Do you realize that if you ever go back, you will be a criminal?” I asked.

“I won’t be able to go back. In an hour or two, Stormblade will guess what has happened and wait no longer; he will destroy the gate,” said Ragnar.

“Why?” I asked.

“Remember, Grandmaster Korshalem has forbidden any connection between the realms. They risk running afoul of the Wizard Council if they do not destroy it,” he said. There was an ominous tone to his words that made it clear they would not risk that.

“But how would they even know it was there?” I asked.

“When you activated the gate, it betrayed its presence,” he said. “That is probably why we found that sorcerer near the house. I am sure that seeing the gate activated a second time will be enough for the Wizard’s Council to send someone out to see what has happened. Stormblade will no doubt stay by the gate until they come, so that he can explain to them what happened and show them that he destroyed the gate.”

I was very unsure what to do. I suspected that Stormblade was delaying the destruction of the gate to give me time to send Ragnar back to them. Since that was the law of their land, I probably should send him back, but Crivreen had a valid point: if I sent him back, we would have nothing to go on. He represented the only potential lead we currently had. In the end, nothing else really mattered; we had to rescue Narcion. “Okay, allot him some quarters and teach him how to live on a spaceship. Based on my visit over there, I doubt if he has ever seen one before.”

I left them to chat and went back to my quarters to get a decent night’s sleep for a change. The next morning the three of us met for breakfast in the mess hall. I noticed that Crivreen and Ragnar’s choice of breakfast was drastically different. Crivreen had a very heavy meat-based meal and was drinking some concoction that I could not identify. Ragnar had lighter and more balanced fare, a meal comprising mainly fruits, grains, and vegetables, and his drink was pure water. Crivreen ate fast with big bites, and Ragnar’s consumption was slow and careful.

What struck me as even odder was when I looked down at what I had unconsciously chosen to eat; it was much the same as Ragnar’s. While I was a slave under Donovan, I would have killed for a meal like Crivreen’s, but the years training and living with Narcion seemed to have changed my tastes. He taught me that a proper meal was part of preparing for battle. The right mix of food would give the energy and clarity of mind that a warrior needed to get an edge over any worthy opponent. Looking at Ragnar, whom I knew by experience to be a great warrior, I felt even more certain that Narcion was right about food. I would have to make an effort to teach Crivreen to eat a healthier diet.

As I sat down at the table, Crivreen was chatting up a storm, asking Ragnar what seemed like a thousand things at once. When he paused long enough to take a bite, I asked, “Crivreen, why all the jumps yesterday?”

“Oh, yeah, I need to fill you in on that. After you left, I decided to use the time to do some overdue maintenance on the ship. Being out here without a proper dock limited what I could achieve to some extent, but there was still plenty to do. While I was working, I found a tracking device on our hull. I removed it and tossed it into space as hard as I could. I didn’t want to risk jumping while you were over there because I did not know what would happen if you tried to gate back while the ship was in a jump, so I just flew away from the tracking device until you came back,” he said.

“Are we safe now?” I asked.

“Safer. If whoever planted the device decides to follow it, they can find where we were yesterday. If we stay here too long they could conceivably track us down, but that would take time and I suspect we will be getting underway today,” he said.

“I thought I asked you to do some research?” I said.

“Yeah, I was going to get to that, but … ” he said.

I just shook my head and cut him off. “You engineer types are all the same. Well, see what you can find out now that you have done some maintenance.” I turned to Ragnar and asked, “How are you doing?”

“Oh, I’ll manage. There is a lot to take in. I can see why you looked so confused most of the time in the forest. Everything is so different here,” he said.

“We will need to get him an environmental suit and some clothes that will blend in better,” said Crivreen.

“Narcion has plenty of armor. I can enchant it, and then it will adjust in size. As for clothes, that will require a stop at a station,” I said.

“We will need to make him an ID in his name,” said Crivreen.

“Oh,” I said. “Yeah, that too. Fortunately we have plenty of those and Narcion taught me how to make them, so we can always get more,” I said. “Do you think those IDs the government gave us are still valid?”