The Sphere (The Magi Series #2) (21 page)

“But you were able to do it.  And that’s the important
part.  Let’s go in and get something warm to drink.”

Olivia and Elijah entered the woods and walked toward the
house.  When they went inside, Phinneas greeted them both.

“Well hello there,” he said.  “I couldn’t find any cider so
I made a pot of tea.  Where’s the cider?”

“I told you, Phinny,” Olivia said gently.  She touched his
shoulder and spoke very clearly.  “Remember, we don’t have cider.  I need to
get some.”

“Oh that’s right,” Phinneas replied.  He grinned at his
mistake.  “I must be getting old.”

Olivia softly rubbed his back as he placed the pot of tea on
the center table.  Her eyes looked worn and discouraged.  “It’s okay, Phinny. 
Have a seat.  I’ll pour you a cup.”

“That’s kind of you,” Phinneas said jovially.  “I’ll take
two cubes of sugar.  So what are we here for?”

“We’re going to talk to Elijah about the sphere, remember?”

“Of course!” Phinneas stated.  “Is he coming with us?  He
would make a great addition!”

Elijah looked at Olivia in surprise.

“No,” Olivia said.  “You are going to stay here, remember? 
I need you to continue your research on the possible locations.”

“Ah, yes.  That’s right.”

The three of them sat for a moment in silence, sipping their
tea and listening to the rain outside begin to pick up again.  The droplets drummed
loudly on the roof, making Elijah grip his cup more tightly, gathering as much
warmth as he could from the steaming liquid.

The sun had long since set and the room was completely dark
except for the abundance of candles and lamps around the room.  Olivia lit a
few more of them as the darkness became much more obvious.

Soon, Phinneas excused himself for bed and Olivia walked him
back into their room.  She returned with maps and the large book Elijah
retrieved for her.

Olivia let out a large sigh, one of the few signs of
weakness she allowed herself to express, especially in front of Elijah.  “I’m
very sorry about Phinneas,” she said.

“Don’t be,” Elijah replied.

“I know it can’t be comfortable,” she said.  “I’m never
quite sure what he’s going to say or what he’s going to remember.”

“You don’t have to be sorry about that,” Elijah insisted. 
“It’s not his fault, and it’s certainly not your fault.”

“I know that,” Olivia said.  “But there’s more I am
apologizing for than his behavior tonight.  I’m afraid that tonight is more
than just your first training.”

“I don’t understand,” Elijah said.

“I think I’ve found where one of the cubes is,” she said.

“Really?” Elijah asked.  “Where?”

“Not so fast,” Olivia instructed.  “Let me show you
something.”  She opened up the massive book to the very middle.  Elijah scooted
to the edge of his seat, and Olivia sat next to him.  “Look at this.”

Elijah read a few lines which he didn’t understand.  It was
all a narration of some prison sentence for one of the local Magi.  Some man
had apparently killed some of the Magi for an unknown reason and was sent to
Valcore immediately after the sentence.  Before Elijah could finish the page,
Olivia turned it again.  The next archive was more interesting because he
recognized some of the names.  It was about Savenridge and one family’s description
of the land.  He read a few lines and then Olivia turned the page again.

Elijah huffed.  “You’re not giving me enough time.”

“That’s because you’re looking at the wrong thing,” Olivia
said.  “Look at the writing.  What do you notice?”

Olivia flipped back to the original page, then to the next
page, then to another.  Elijah looked at it carefully.  He looked at the
dates.  The first one was from 1644.  The next one from 1821.  The next one
didn’t have a date.  Elijah looked back at Olivia.

“The only thing I can think of is that it’s written by
different people, but that’s obvious,” he said.

“Then why didn’t you say that before?” Olivia said.  “That’s
what I’m trying to show you.  This is an account handed down from person to
person.  The very first archive is dated right in the middle of the Magi Wars
in 1164.  The very last archive…”  She stopped and looked solemnly at Elijah. 
He knew what she was going to say before she said it.  The book was, after all,
in the possession of his family for some time.

“It was written by my parents before they were killed,
wasn’t it?” he said.

“Yes,” she said.  “Which is one reason why I didn’t want you
reading this.  Had I told you what was in it, I knew the temptation would have
been too great.”

Elijah looked down.  He didn’t want to tell her that he already
gave into this temptation even despite not knowing about his parents.  He
almost wished he
had
known because at least that would have been a
better reason to give in.

“Am I allowed to read it now?” he asked.

“Not yet,” Olivia answered.  “I’m afraid nothing they wrote
was very specific, which was probably very wise of them in case it fell into
the wrong hands.”  She closed the book and sat back in the couch.  “Let me tell
you the history of the sphere in a little more detail.  Do you know anything
about the Magi Wars?”

“Only what Arthur told me last year,” Elijah answered. 
“That the Magi and the Maliphists were fighting for a long time and the Magi
were almost all killed off.”

“Yes,” Olivia said.  “That’s where the legend of the sphere
begins.  And, not by coincidence, that is where this book begins.  As you know,
before the wars, the Magi were spread all over the world.  We had cities and
civilizations in many locations.  Some were among the common people, and some were
hidden far away.  But when the Magi Wars began, it became apparent that our
entire existence was threatened if we did not defeat Maliphist the man. 
Therefore, everyone from every city who could fight fled their homeland and
gathered to fight Maliphist and his followers.”

“Where was this war?” Elijah asked.

“I’m not quite sure specifically,” Olivia answered, “but most
of our scholars believe it happened somewhere in central Europe, possibly
present day Germany or Austria.  Anyway, as you know already, Maliphist had
created a super weapon in the form of a sphere.  Why he never used it, no one
knows, but upon his death, the Magi somehow came into possession of the
sphere.  That much has always been legend to anyone who is interested in
folklore.  However, the rest of the story is extremely important and much less
known.

“The Magi high council voted to destroy the sphere.  Much to
their frustration, they couldn’t.  They worked together and did everything they
could think of, but the sphere would not yield.  So, the high council met for
days to decide what to do with the sphere.  They finally agreed that the next
best thing to do would be to hide it. 

“In order to keep it safe from even their own temptation,
they took apart the sphere and gave each cube to the four most respected nobles
of the Magi families.  The nobles were told to go to the four corners of the
world to hide their cube.  After that, no one but the nobles knew where the
cubes went.

“Some believe the nobles were experts in one of the four
elements, so they were given the cube with their element.  If so, it would make
sense that they hid the cube somewhere on the earth related to each element.”

“So,” Elijah chimed in, “if they were water controllers they
may have hidden it in the middle of the ocean.”

“Exactly,” Olivia said.

“The middle of the ocean!” Elijah said.  “That’ll be
impossible to find!”

“Isn’t that the point?  Remember, their original plan was to
destroy it, so making it impossible to find is the next best thing.”

“So what are we supposed to do?  Swim to the bottom of the
ocean and search every inch?”

“If we need to, yes.  But that’s why this book is so
valuable.  It literally has centuries worth of clues so we don’t have to do
that.”

Elijah rubbed his head.  He hadn’t realized how enormous
this task was.  Finding a small glass cube the size of a golf ball hidden
somewhere in the whole world by people who wanted it hidden would be nearly
impossible.

“So now that you’re clear on that,” Olivia continued, “I
want you to look at something.”  Olivia turned to the back of the large book to
a penciled-in drawing of a large square trapped inside a circle.  It was penned
in red ink, but looked fresher than the other entries.  “Does this mean anything
to you?”

Elijah looked at it carefully.  “No.  What is it?”

Olivia shook her head.  “I don’t know.  I believe this was
something drawn by one of your parents.  The penmanship is similar to the final
pages of this book, which would have been written by your parents.”

Elijah’s stomach gave a lunge just like it did when he read
the note from his father inside the watch.  He imagined his mother carefully
drawing this picture.  Maybe she drew it while she sat on the bed and his
father paced the room giving her instructions.  Or maybe his father drew it as
they studied in the library together.  It gave Elijah chilly bumps thinking
about it, but the drawing made no sense.

“Is this the only thing they wrote?”

“No,” Olivia said.  “But I believe it to be very significant. 
I just wish I knew what it was.  I truly believe if your parents had had more
time…”  Olivia swallowed hard, which made a funny noise in her throat as she
spoke again, “…then they would have located the rest of the cubes.  I think the
clues are here.  I just hope they left enough for us to find.”

“I thought you said that you found one of the cubes,” Elijah
reminded her.

“Yes.”  She opened up one of the maps she brought from the
back room.  “The first cube was found here.”  Olivia pointed right in the
center of Mongolia.  It had already been marked and circled with a purple pen. 
“I believe the next one is here, in the southern part of Spain, right next to a
national park called the Sierras de Cazorla.  Do you see here?”  She pulled out
a map of Western Europe.  She circled and identified cities around her target. 
“From what I can tell, I believe the wind element is hidden here.”

Elijah rubbed his head.  “Even if you’ve narrowed it down to
the city, we’re looking for a needle in a haystack!”

“I’ve narrowed it down even further,” Olivia said with a
smug smile.  “The good thing for us is that we know our history.  There used to
be a Magi city right by what is now the Sierras de Cazorla.  It’s only ruins
now, but I believe the cube is hidden there.”  She highlighted the area again
for Elijah’s benefit.

“Why would the Magi hide it inside a city?  I thought they
were supposed to hide it so no one would find it.”

“I’m not sure,” Olivia answered.  “But nonetheless, I’m
certain it’s there.”

Elijah continued to stare at the maps.  Then he said, “So
what’s next?  Are we going there to search?”

“I am,” she said.  “I’m sorry, Elijah.  You and I are the
only two who know anything about the cubes, and putting us both in the same
place, in a potentially dangerous place, would destroy everything we have
worked for if something were to happen.  I had hopes at one point that Phinneas
would accompany me, but alas, his company, although pleasant for me, would be
too risky.  I will need to go alone.  And I must ask for your hospitality by
looking in on Phinneas every few days for me.”

“Of course,” Elijah said.  “But how long will you be away?”

“I don’t know,” Olivia said.  “It could be a month, maybe a
little more.  If I’m slightly off on the location, it could take longer.”

Just then, a loud knock at the front door startled both of
them.  Olivia stood up to answer it.  A small man of about twenty stood,
soaking wet with a note in his hand.

“Master Riley sent this,” said the boy.  “He says it’s
urgent!”

“Thank you,” said Olivia.

The boy was quite scrawny and had a mousey quality to him. 
He had bushy hair that was already thinning on top and a set of teeth that
stuck out from his top lip.  He was quite twitchy and frequently looked around
as if he was being watched.  As soon as Olivia took the note, the boy scurried
off, and Olivia closed the door behind him.  She opened the note and read it
without expression.  Then she crumpled it up and threw it in the fire.  “That
was Bernard.  He’s a messenger for the council.  He works with Master Riley, a
senior in the council, and Riley has quite the connection with the foreign
marshals.  He is in charge of keeping tabs on the Maliphist activity.”

“Is everything okay?” Elijah asked.

“No,” stated Olivia.  “Apparently, the Maliphists have just found
the sphere.”

Chapter
11:

THE RACE

Elijah stared at the note being rolled around and torn apart
by the flames inside Olivia’s fireplace.

“I thought you said we were the only ones who knew about the
sphere, besides the Maliphists,” Elijah finally spoke.

“We were,” said Olivia.  “Bernard only reports information
he is given by Master Riley.  Therefore, the Maliphists must want the council
to know they have it.  They are arrogant enough to think that what we do now
won’t matter.  They believe this is the beginning of the end for us.”

“Is it?” Elijah asked glumly.

“We’ll see,” Olivia answered.  “They’ve started the race. 
They just don’t know it yet.”

“What do you mean?” Elijah asked.

“They have the sphere, right?”

“Right.”

“And they believe it will help them destroy anything they
want, right?”

“Right.”

“And when they find out it doesn’t, they’ll wonder why.”

Elijah understood now.  “You’re saying it’s only a matter of
time before they figure out about the cubes.”

Olivia nodded.  “Yes.  And our only hope is to collect all
the cubes before they find out about them.”

“How long do you think that will take them?” Elijah asked.