The Tower Of The Watchful Eye: The Legend Of Kairu Book 1 (48 page)

Don’t doubt a Master,
Cathy
said
. They didn’t get to where they are
without earning
it.

I reached the
door to the Archives Room and pounded on it with my hand. “Keeper
Anderson!” I called out. “It’s Andy, open up!”

The door
opened quickly. A raggy looking Keeper Anderson smiled in relief.
“It’s about time you showed up. Can’t you see it is a mess down
there?”

I hurried
through the door and he shut and locked it. “I moved as fast as I
could. This wasn’t an easy task.”

“
I bet,” he said motioning to a table with a plate of food. “I
saw you coming and prepared some food. Eat up; there is a lot to
talk about.”

“
Are you sure this is the time to eat?” I asked. “I have two
Mages watching the staircase and Master Gerth is being
overrun.”

“
Larose was just up here,” Keeper Anderson explained. “He’s on
his way down and will take care of it. Did you bring the
items?”

I handed him
the Staff and grabbed everything else from my bag before sitting
down to eat. He examined the items before putting them on a table
and leaving the room quickly.

You’ve been
quiet in all this.

I doubt anything I could say will help you right now,
Cathy said
. I’m still
trying to think of a way we could stop all this.

The Keeper
re-entered the room with a book and flipped through the pages. He
stopped on a page and ripped the sheet out and threw the book
aside. He studied the page nodding as he read.

“
What happened here?” I asked breaking the silence. “How did
it get to be like this?”

The Keeper
looked up. “You created quite the storm while you were gone.
Larose’s Mages found dead in Balendar, Pryce’s Mages found dead in
Nesqa, the Evenawks retake their capital.”

“
To be fair, Larose’s Mages were dead when I got there,” I
said.

“
It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Larose blamed Pryce, Pryce
blamed Larose for the Mages in Nesqa and Pryce exploded on Larose
about the Evenawks. According to Pryce, Larose purposely freed the
Evenawks to remove many of Pryce’s Mages. He claimed that Larose
was trying to usurp the Tower.” Keeper Anderson barked out a laugh.
“The irony.”

“
What happened next?” I asked.

“
Pryce declared war on Larose to ‘take back the Tower’,”
Keeper Anderson answered. “Larose and Pryce fought right there in
the room. Old Larose almost had him until Pryce revealed he was
possessed. Pryce fled the room and the Masters started hunting him
through the Tower. They split up their school to keep everyone
safe.”

“
Then the possessed Mages struck,” I said.

Keeper
Anderson nodded. “Yeah. Pryce’s minions are everywhere and they are
poisoning more minds with every moment. The Tower has fallen.” He
scoffed. “Not that it was doing any good to begin with.”

“
Going around certainly showed a sinister side to the Tower’s
influence,” I replied.

“
You could say the world would be better off without it,” The
Keeper said.

What’s he up to...
Cathy
mused.

“
That would be true,” I said. “What is our plan to fix this?
Do we still complete the ritual to Silence Pryce and restore
order?”

“
That was never the plan, my boy,” The Keeper said getting a
weird look in his eye. “This is something that needs to be done.
For the good of everyone. I have studied for years and this is the
only way.”

“
What are you talking about?” I asked confused.

“
My boy,” The Keeper grinned, “We are going to destroy
magic.”

Chapter 41

Shock doesn’t
even begin to sum up what was happening in my head. Both Cathy and
I were speechless with what we had heard. We had gone from trying
to straighten out the Tower to destroying magic itself.

“
You want to run that by me again?” I asked cleaning out my
ears.

“
We are going to destroy magic,” he repeated. “Wipe it off the
face of Kalenden. Think about it, no more Mages controlling people,
no more Demons trying to break into the world, no more abomination
creatures that don’t belong here, it will be just Humans governing
over themselves.”

My head was
spinning like a top. “So, not only destroy magic but kill off two
races as well.”

I pushed the
plate of food away and buried my head in my hands. This was pure
insanity. “What brought you to this conclusion?” I asked.

“
I have had a lifetime to study the Archives and see how the
Tower works. Just like the Keeper before me,” he said. “Magic has
been the stain on this land that prevented Balendar and Nesqa from
achieving peace. Every time they get close, the Mages intervene.
That’s how the keep control. By keeping them in turmoil so they can
play the heroes. Balendar and Nesqa will finally settle their
problems for good.”

“
And the Evenawks and Nao?” I asked starting to get angry.
“What justification is there for killing off two races?”

“
The Evenawks are forever tainted by the Mages intervention,”
The Keeper explained. “Do you really think they can form a society
and live peacefully with everyone? No. They know nothing but
vengeance and anger. Once they rid themselves of the remaining
Mages they will strike out for a new enemy.”

“
Chieftain Harik is a good leader,” I countered. “He will
prove that the Evenawks can live in today’s world.”

“
Ah, yes the Last of the Bloodline,” Keeper Anderson smiled
smugly. “So they don’t attack this generation. What’s stopping them
after he is gone? We are talking an entire era of oppression here.
Can you predict they will stay passive for ever?”

“
No, but who can predict the future?” I asked. “We won’t know
what they will become but we can’t deny them the right to
choose.”

“
Yes, we can,” The Keeper replied. “That’s why the Order of
Magic intervened to begin with. The Chieftains were too aggressive
and needed to be put down. Look into your history, The Evenawk War
was a collection of Balendar, Nesqa troops led by the Mages to
defeat the Chieftains and pacify the tribes.”

I sat
silently, absorbing the new information. “How do I know you’re not
lying?”

The Keeper
picked up a book on the desk and threw it onto the table I sat at.
The title, ‘The Evenawk War’, decorated the front. I opened the
book and started flipping through the pages. It was a collection of
old war diaries from the Mage leaders.

“
I know this is a lot to drop on someone,” The Keeper said
calmly. “That was why I sent you on this quest. To see for yourself
what the world really is. We don’t have the time to go through
every book in history to show you what I have seen so I need you to
trust me and know that this is for the greater good.”

“
You are asking for a lot,” I said.

“
No more then when I asked you to collect the items,” he said
as he gathered up the items and brought them to the
desk.

He removed the
Demon’s Bane from its box and placed it into a mortar and pestle.
He started to pound the Demon’s Bane into a dust while he added the
Vial of water.

“
What about the Nao?” I asked.

He sighed
sadly. “A necessary sacrifice. They are already outside of the
world so nobody will notice they are gone and Balendar could use
the resources from the Szwen Forest.”

“
Destroyed for their resources,” I repeated
disgusted.

“
Hey!” he snapped. “Like I said, it is a necessary sacrifice.
I happen to be good friends with Mistress Velias and she would
agree with me if I explained everything to her.”

Keeper
Anderson added the Tail Feather to the mortar and pestle and lit it
on fire with some magic. It burnt down as he hammered it into his
mixture.

“
So then what are we doing?” I asked standing up from the
table. “How do we ever do something like this?”

“
We need to charge the Staff and you will have to perform the
ritual on this paper,” he said as he picked up the page he tore
from the book. “It will encase the Tower in a shell that freezes
time within it. You then have to banish the Tower to the Spirit
Plain and sent a Pulse to cover all of Kalenden. Anyone with magic
will be rendered Silenced.”

“
So, we will become simpleminded?” I asked taking the
page.

He paused. “A
necessary sacrifice.”

I ran my hand
through my hair. Can you believe this?

I didn’t know such a thing was possible
, Cathy said.

What do we
do?

I...don’t know
, she
answered.

“
It’s ready,” Keeper Anderson said as he poured the contents
into a cup.

He held the
cup in his palm and the liquid changed from red to light blue as he
pushed powerful magic through his hand.

“
What is that for?” I asked.

“
For me to drink,” he answered. “In order for this ritual to
work, it needs two sacrifices. One to power the Staff and one to
give up magic for the spell. I will drink this and transfer my soul
into the staff. It will be up to you to transfer all your power
into the spell. Bring me the staff.”

I grabbed it
and handed it to him. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

“
You are powerful enough,” Keeper Anderson said. “That is why
I recruited you. You are probably the most powerful Mage in the
Tower. Not even Gerth can cover himself completely in scales AND
still use spells. Don’t ever doubt your powers.”

“
Thanks,” I said. “But that’s not what I meant.”

The Keeper
took a deep breath and looked me in the eyes. “This is bigger then
you or me. I know your sacrifice is great but remember I’m
sacrificing my life too. This IS the right thing to do. I wish it
could be different but it isn’t. I trust you to make the right
decision.”

He gripped the
staff tightly and the tip started to glow brightly. Looking down at
the cup, Keeper Anderson took a couple of deep breaths before
drinking it down in one swallow. He made some faces and threw away
the cup.

“
Tastes terrible,” he said.

He grew pale
as his body jerked like he was going to throw up. He opened his
mouth and with a last breath, a light blue mist left his body and
transferred into the staff. The Keeper’s body dropped to the ground
and I grabbed the staff before it could fall. I looked down at the
lifeless body of the Keeper.

‘
I trust you to make the right decision’. Is there even a
right decision?

You’ll have to trust your gut on this one,
Cathy said.

What am I
going to tell the others?

Nothing
, Cathy answered.
Not until you’ve made a decision.

Okay.

Andy, I...
Cathy stalled then
sighed.
We’ll talk more after you make it
out of the Tower. We can’t keep your friends waiting.

I slid the
staff between my pack and back, put the ritual page in my pocket
and headed for the door. The carnage on the stairs had grown in my
absence and I hurried down the stairs towards Hector and Vanessa.
When I passed Master Baker’s body, I stopped to look for Gerth. He
lay motionless in a circle of dead Mages and I moved on. There was
nothing that could be done there.

I arrived to
where I had left Hector and Vanessa and stared in shock at the
carnage in front of me. Bodies covered almost the entire ground as
a slow moving Master Larose walked with many swords floating by
him. The swords lashed out at anyone that got close to him before
returning to his side.

I looked
around and found the partially charred body of Hector lying on top
of a pile of bodies. A cough alerted me to the battered body of
Vanessa in the corner by the stairs. I raced over to her and
crouched down to begin healing.

“
Don’t...bother,” she forced out. “Need...to say...I’m
sorry.”

“
Don’t worry about that,” I said. “Let me heal
you.”

She shook her
head slightly. “I’m...already dead. Just a matter...of time. After
Binds of Silence...regret actions. Tried...too hard...to impress
Greg. I’m sorry.”

I looked down
at her as she barely clung to life. “You are forgiven. We all make
mistakes.”

“
Thank you,” she breathed as she closed her eyes.

She passed
away peacefully in front of my eyes and I couldn’t look away. I had
hated her for her torment for years and in such a short time she
had managed to redeem herself. She helped me get through the Tower
and held onto life just so she could apologise. I held her hand for
a second and whispered goodbye before standing up. Just like Lily,
the Tower has claimed another good person with its lies. I needed
to get out of here.

Larose’s
carnage lay before me and I followed it to the stairs. I watched
him get to the stairs at the next level and I took the stairs down
as far as I could go. With the path mostly cleared out on the way
up, I focused on using Illusion to make my way from staircase to
staircase.

The remaining
Spirit Mages had been overrun by a group of four possessed Mages.
They turned to me and I covered myself in scales except for one
hand covered in Ice. As the possessed Mages sent their little Fire
Balls, I swatted them away until I was close enough to charge.