The Spell Realm (21 page)

Dania frowned. “What are you trying to imply?”

“She’s right,” Jandison said, apparently catching on. “We all know how close Ganir was to Dasbraw’s sons. Why don’t you modify those parameters, Dania, as Augusta suggested?” Augusta noticed that Jandison seemed to be sitting up straighter, his posture and demeanor more confident than usual. He was assuming the role of the Council Leader, she realized with some amusement.

Still, she could see that Dania wasn’t about to give in. The old woman needed some nudging. “Be careful with the map when you do it,” Augusta said softly, knowing that Dania would be the only one who would understand the reference. “Old documents can be so fragile.”

Dania opened her mouth, then closed it. She understood all right. If she didn’t do as Augusta asked, the scrolls given to her by Augusta—the ones with Lenard’s writings—might suffer. It was quite a dilemma—violate Ganir’s privacy or let the precious scrolls be destroyed—and Augusta waited to see what the old woman would do.

“Fine,” Dania said, abruptly giving in. “Let me see what I can do.”

Another revelation spell later, the map showed a series of blue dots mapping Ganir’s location. There was a clear trail to the mountains in the west, a trail that stopped in what appeared to be a canyon.

“How interesting,” Kelvin said, a wide smile splitting his face. “Looks like Ganir has done quite a bit of travel lately.”

“Indeed.” Jandison looked positively gleeful. “I can’t think of any reason for Ganir to leave Turingrad . . . except one.”

“He must’ve been in contact with Blaise all along,” Augusta said, as though the idea was just occurring to her. “And if that’s the case, perhaps that’s where the creature is hiding. Right there, somewhere around that canyon.”

Dania pursed her lips in irritation, but didn’t say anything. Augusta knew she’d put the old woman in an untenable situation, but she didn’t care. The important thing was that the Council had arrived at the exact conclusion Augusta had been hoping they would reach: that Ganir was a traitor who knew the location of their enemies.

“So what do we do now?” Moriner asked, glancing at Jandison. “If that’s indeed where they are, then we need to figure out a plan of action. We all saw how powerful the creature is. We can’t show up unprepared.”

“No, we can’t,” Augusta agreed. “In fact, I’ve already started thinking of some spells.”

“We need something powerful, and we need a good plan for coordination,” Kelvin jumped in, stating the obvious.

“I have something we could use,” Augusta said, barely able to suppress her nervous excitement. “I call it the fusion spell. It’s powerful—much more powerful than anything you’ve seen before. If done correctly, it would allow us to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, and then make the hydrogen fuse with itself, becoming helium . . .” She then proceeded to explain what such an event would mean, and how the power unleashed would be akin to the power that fueled the sun and the other stars.

The silence that followed her explanation was deafening.

“But wait,” Gina said, staring at Augusta, “given your own math, the energy released at such an event would be unfathomable. Surely it would kill us along with the creature.”

Augusta nodded. She couldn’t fault her young colleague for being afraid. Unchecked, this spell could do more than kill them. If her calculations were correct, this kind of spell was capable of destroying half of Koldun. “I have a way to contain it in a small area,” she told Gina. “It would be a complex defensive spell, but I’m confident that it could be done, and we could ensure our safety.”

“We need to study this more,” Jandison said. “Given the magnitude of the destructive power unleashed by this fusion spell of yours, we should only use this measure if we have no other choice.”

“Agreed,” Moriner said.

“Of course,” Augusta said. “I would be happy to use more conventional means against the creature. Does anyone have any suggestions?”

“Well,” Jandison said, “here’s what I would propose . . . ”

They proceeded to work out a plan that sounded like it should succeed, and Augusta departed the meeting feeling much more confident about their prospects. If all went well, her fusion spell might not be necessary, and she certainly wouldn’t need to implement her plan C.

Chapter 34: Barson

“Were you in the training room of the Tower?” Barson asked Dara, sitting down at her table. “Or did you put some kind of a protective spell on me, something that can heal injuries as they occur?”

“What? What kind of spell would that be?” She gave him a surprised look. “I’ve never heard of a preemptive healing spell. Why do you ask?”

Frowning, Barson told her what happened with Larn and the others. As he continued talking, her face turned pale.

“One of you could’ve died,” she whispered, her gaze filled with horror. “Barson, thank you for not killing him. I’ve heard rumors about Ganir’s mind control tricks, but I never thought he could be capable of something like this.”

Barson waved his hand dismissively. “Of course. I would never kill Larn. But if you didn’t heal me,” he said, returning to his original concern, “then who did?”

“Augusta?” Dara suggested. “Or maybe one of our allies—though I don’t know what any of them would be doing in the Guard barracks.”

“Well, it certainly wasn’t Vashel,” Barson said, thinking of the conversation he’d just had with his ally. “He told me what he overheard from the Council meeting, and I’m sure he would’ve mentioned it if he’d done me such a huge favor—”

“What did he say?” Dara interrupted, and Barson filled her in on Ganir’s absence and the Council’s plans regarding the creature.

“The spell Augusta came up with sounds very dangerous,” Dara said, her eyes wide with awe and reluctant admiration. “But I have to say, your lover is bright. Very, very bright.”

“Also very stubborn,” Barson said, beginning to get angry again as he remembered the fight he’d just had with Augusta. “And very arrogant when it comes to her own abilities.”

At Dara’s questioning look, he filled his sister in on what happened, explaining how their argument had spiraled out of control before he could talk to her about his plans for the Tower.

“So what are you going to do about her?” Dara asked when he was done.

“I don’t know,” Barson admitted. He hated the fact that he couldn’t make Augusta stay in the Tower, where he could ensure her safety. Like it or not, with the way things currently stood, he couldn’t force her to do anything. “I don’t like the idea of her going after this creature, but I don’t know how to prevent her,” he said in frustration. If Augusta were a regular woman, it would be easy; he could lock her in a room and keep her here. But with a sorceress, things were more complicated.

Dara gave him a sympathetic smile. “That’s what you get for falling for a sorceress,” she said, echoing his thoughts. “If she wants to go, you have to let her . . . and hope for the best. If anyone can land on her feet, it’s Augusta. Besides, there is no other choice. We’re too close to our goal for you to get distracted by this matter.”

Barson nodded, his jaw clenched tight. He knew his sister was right. He couldn’t waste his energy fighting with Augusta right now, not when they had so much at stake.

“Yes,” he agreed, forcing his thoughts away from his lover. “We don’t have any time to waste. According to Vashel, the Council is departing for the mountains tomorrow—which means we need to finalize our plans tonight.”

Chapter 35: Blaise

Slowly regaining consciousness, Blaise became aware of the fact that he felt amazingly good—a fact that surprised him, given that his last memory was that of the storm. Opening his eyes, he saw Maya, Esther, and a number of villagers crowded around him, their faces full of concern.

“What happened?” he asked, becoming aware of an unusual silence. The deafening din from the storm was gone. He could still hear an occasional rumble of thunder, but it was distant now, as though the storm had passed. His heart jumped as he realized that Gala was nowhere to be seen. “Where is she?”

“You should take a look outside, Blaise,” Maya said, a strange expression on her face.

Frowning, Blaise rose to his feet. The people stepped back, letting him pass, and he made his way to the front door. Carefully opening it, he peered outside, expecting to be slammed with rain or wind, but all was calm. Had Gala managed to put up the shield?

Stepping outside, he looked up at the sky—and what he saw there made him stop breathing for a moment.

The skies directly above were clear—but on the edges, the storm continued to rage. He could see the lightning bolts piercing the dark clouds in a never-ending assault and the twisters in the distance—but none of that touched the village or the area immediately surrounding it.

The only mark in the moonlit sky was a small dot near the edge of the black clouds.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Blaise turned to see Maya and Esther standing there, looking up at the sky. “Where is Gala?” he demanded. “What’s going on?”

“Don’t you see?” Esther said reverently, pointing up. “She’s there.”

Looking up, Blaise peered closer at the dot he’d noticed before. He couldn’t tell what it was from here—but that was an easy fix. Rushing back into the house, he grabbed one of his prepared spells and loaded it into the Stone. A second later, his vision was eagle-sharp, and his hearing was magnified.

Running out onto the street again, he looked up at the sky, his heart hammering in his chest.

The dot was indeed Gala. She was floating in the air, a calm, almost blissful expression on her face. Her eyes were closed, and her lips were curved in a small smile. She looked beautiful and strikingly peaceful—and she was the one who was controlling the storm, he realized with a chill running down his spine.

His mind reeled from the magnitude of what he was witnessing. The complexity was beyond his comprehension. She wasn’t merely creating weather patterns; she was directly counteracting the storm. It seemed . . . impossible.

For a moment, the urge to go to her and bring her down to safety was almost overwhelming, but Blaise restrained himself, knowing that breaking her concentration now could be deadly. She was in control at the moment, and she needed to stay that way for everyone’s safety, his own concern for her notwithstanding.

Bringing his attention back to the ground, he saw the same awe and shock reflected on the faces of villagers who had come out of the house. “She’s amazing, isn’t she?” Liva breathed, staring up at the sky, and Blaise nodded.

He knew that a new legend had been born.

* * *

With the immediate danger from the storm averted, Blaise focused on helping the village manage the devastation left behind. They started off with a search for survivors among those who hadn’t made it to safety before the worst of the storm hit. With his enhanced hearing, Blaise was able to locate five people buried beneath the rubble of their homes and heal their injuries. In the meantime, the villagers found an old couple that were already beyond his help, having been crushed by their falling roof.

Once everyone was accounted for, they began assessing the damage done to the homes. Aside from Liva’s house and that of her neighbors, no other dwelling was habitable. Several houses had burned down from the lightning strikes, while hail had destroyed the roofs of most others.

It was an utter disaster.

“It will take us years to recover from this,” Liva whispered, her eyes swimming with tears as she gazed at the piles of rubble where houses once stood. “In all my years here, I have never seen a storm that bad. Usually there is some damage, but we’ve never lost so much.”

Blaise’s heart squeezed with pity. He couldn’t even imagine what these people had to be thinking, how devastated they must be. What bothered him the most was the defeated look on these stoic people’s faces. They had survived so much, only to be forced to start all over again.

As he looked around, an idea began to brew in his mind. He and Gala would not be able to stay for much longer, but before they left, there was something he could do to ensure the villagers wouldn’t suffer like this again. He could use sorcery to help them rebuild—and make sure that the resulting houses were far stronger than the weak structures they just lost. The houses in Turingrad were usually made of stone, and they were much sturdier because of that.

It didn’t take much time to gather the rocks of just the right size and shape. The spell to hollow them out was fairly easy—the inside hole was a half-sphere, the code for which was straightforward. The door opening was trickier. Still, though far from a stonemason, Blaise managed to spell a fairly even opening leading to the empty space inside every rock.

What he now had were miniature rock houses.

It was time for another spell. This one was more nuanced, as he had to have the molecules of the rocks multiplied in just the right amount and alignment. After an hour of concentrated coding, Blaise walked over to what used to be the village square, placed his rock in the middle, and stepped back, loading the spell card into his Interpreter Stone.

A minute later, a large stone structure stood there. It was not the most aesthetically pleasing house, but it was made of solid rock—and thus far more durable than anything made of wood. A few more spells took care of carving out the windows.