Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (14 page)

Slowly she looked up at Jolan, and then walked over to him. “Show me,” she said.

Behind where the girl couldn’t see, Vaen smiled and nodded to Jolan. Jolan, Tishe and Altz headed out of the office and down to the portal where they jumped immediately up to the ruined city of Tilano.

“
Yuk,” she said, looking at the muddy and collapsed buildings stretching out into the lake.

“
This was once an important place, for reasons we don’t understand. We don’t even know for sure what we are looking for. Do any places here stand out to you as locations we should search?”

Tishe looked at the city, then asked to walk along the edge of what had been the lakeshore and was now a bit of a valley. After they had walked a quarter of a mile she stopped and pointed.

“
Three places,” she said. “There, there, and up against the mountain over there.”

The first location they had already visited. It was a total ruin and they had found nothing. It might have once been important, but would be of no use to them now. The other two locations they could search.

“
Thank you,” Jolan said, and started back toward the portal.

“
I want to come with you,” Tishe said suddenly.

“
It’s smelly and dirty down there,” Jolan said, hoping to discourage the girl.

She looked at him with her unwavering gaze.

“
Okay,” Jolan said finally. “Let’s go have a look.”

It took a couple of hours to make their way down into the city and start their way across the city to the locations Tishe had pointed out. Part way to the first of the areas she had selected she suddenly stopped and shook her head.

“
It’s not that one,” she said “You can check it later, but it’s not important. Let’s go to the last one.”

The third location was considerably farther away, but Jolan was inclined to indulge the girl. Something told him she was real, and so they backtracked and turned south and continued on their way. When they arrived they found a very large, ornate looking building that had been subjected to years of underwater abuse. The back side of the building seemed to butt into the hillside rock, which rose almost vertically for hundreds of feet. This was one of the areas Asari had had to find a way around when he’d circled the lake weeks before. Uncertain what they would find, Jolan led the others inside for a look.

The front area was reminiscent of other buildings they had searched in the city, but towards the back after passing through a large set of doors they found a surprise.. The room here was huge, and, while much of it showed the same mess and damage as the rest of the building, off to the back wall was an area that was free of damage. The shields that had protected this building had failed, but the protection provided by the portal that stood there had not. A large hemisphere of pristine building surrounded the structure, including a small building that was obviously a display for something.

Jolan, Altz, and Tishe walked over to the portal and looked. It appeared totally undamaged. Before attempting to activate it, Jolan wanted to see what else was here. He walked over to the display area, which was completely open in front and saved by the portal magic, and found a miniature version of the area they were standing in. In addition to the room and the portal, the display showed a section of the hillside that was open, with a long tunnel into the hillside. Well inside the hill the model showed a large room with some kind of platform. On the wall next to the display was a metal plate with a series of symbols carved into it. The mage’s language, Jolan realized immediately.

“
Dragons preserve us!” Altz exclaimed suddenly. “The Nexus.”

Jolan looked over at Altz with hope in his eyes. “The Nexus? You’re sure?”

“
It’s one of the things I hoped to find a long time ago. I recognize the symbols for it. This display seems to indicate that the Nexus is buried deep inside the mountains here, with a tunnel that leads from this platform back to the core.”

“
That can’t be right. I saw where Cheurt makes the transition. It’s in the forest, not buried deep inside any mountain.”

“
That might explain some of the difficulties you have told me that he seems to have with the transition. I had never heard of these problems when I studied some of the old records. He might not actually have found the Nexus, but is operating on a fringe of the device, greatly limiting his capability.”

“
Do these spells look at all familiar?” Jolan was pointing to the two groups of text in the mage’s language that formed vertical columns of characters on either side of the plaque.

“
I’d guess those are basic spells for the operation of the device. We need to bring this back to the College and have some of Vaen’s experts have a look at it.”

While the two men had been examining the plaque with fierce interest, Tishe had been wandering around the rest of the platform, looking at each area that had survived the harshness of being underwater for centuries.

“
Here,” she said, calling for their attention.

Jolan and Altz walked over to where she stood. Directly in front of her was a vast expanse of stone mountain, carved with symbols in the ancient language. At first it looked simply like more of the display with some kind of description, but upon closer examination, they located an almost invisible semicircular crack that passed through some of the text and outlined a large opening. All attempts to move the stone failed.

“
It’s bound with some kind of ward,” guessed Altz. “I have never seen the like. We are going to need some kind of expert to open this passage. I think from the display, this is where the tunnel that leads to the Nexus core is located.”

“
You and Tishe see about getting the plaque. I want to bring that back with us. While you’re doing that, I want to look and see if the portal is operational.”

While the two of them went inside, Jolan walked over to the stone monument. He had violated one of Wylan’s directives and had brought one of the
activator
crystals along with him. He’d known there was supposed to be another portal in the city some from Asari’s maps. While he could easily enough activate the portal directly, with Altz and later Tishe along, he didn’t want to use the spells where others could observe. They were trying to keep that knowledge spread as thinly as possible for now, and even though he should be able to mask the spell, he never fully trusted that ability. He walked over and plugged the crystal into the slot and allowed it to run the sequence. Moments later he withdrew the discharged crystal and verified the portal was now activated. The string of possible destinations was growing. He wished he could read the symbols, rather than just memorize the shapes and memorize the associated location.

Moments later Tishe and Altz came walking back, with Altz carrying the large plaque under his arm.

“
Let’s go see what we can learn from this,” Jolan said, and the three stepped into the portal and returned to Cobalo.

* * * *

After meeting with Vaen, who promised to put her best people to work on the spells, they went in search of Ronoran. He was in the cafeteria with Asari and Luzoke. Since no one was nearby, they explained what had been discovered, which raised the level of excitement and the three pushed aside their lunch, eager to go and have a look. Since Jolan had already explained to Vaen that he was going to have Ronoran take a look at the ward, they went immediately to the portal room and made the transition to the new portal in the system.

Ronoran looked at the wall for long minutes. Jolan didn’t know how his friend worked, or what triggered his understanding of these things, but after a bit he reached out and touched three of the symbols among the many of the text. Each one he touched glowed gold, and after touching the fourth symbol the wall simply melted away leaving a dark opening in front of them.

Ronoran turned back to them grinning. “It wasn’t meant to be very hard. This was simply a closure for when the pathway wasn’t being used. I’ve seen the same kind of ward elsewhere a few times.”

The six of them looked at the dark opening. It seemed to Jolan that Rifod and Nerila should be here, but they were at the large library far to the south, and he was anxious to have a look. Altz and Tishe were new to the group, but they had been caught up in the excitement and were every bit as anxious as the others.

“
Why are we waiting?” asked Luzoke as he started forward.

The others followed suit, and as they entered the dark cavern Jolan prepared to initiate his mage’s light so they could see where they were headed. That proved unnecessary. As soon as they crossed the threshold of the tunnel, a series of recessed glow bulbs came on, one after another stepping away into the depths and gradually lost to view as the gentle curve of the tunnel became obvious in the light. The walls of the tunnel were absolutely smooth, and the floor was flat with an obvious pathway down the center. A short distance into the tunnel was a large rectangular structure that almost blocked the full width of the tunnel. The center of the opening was opaque, and completely dark. One could see the lights of the tunnel behind the object even though there didn’t seem to be anything inside the opening of the object. It was possible to bypass the structure on either side by passing single file.

“
What is it?” asked Asari, as he slipped past into the tunnel behind.

“
I think one is intended to step into it,” said Altz, “but it doesn’t seem to be functioning. We might want to leave that for later.”

One after another the six slipped into the tunnel behind the object and started on the long walk. From the model they knew it was a long way, and had brought along food and water. The ten mile trip along the long tunnel was dull, unchanging, and uninteresting. The tunnel had a slow curve to the right, with infrequent straight sections. Hours later they came to another of the objects and, after slipping around it, they realized they were in a large room. Suddenly the lighting in this area came to life, showing the large chamber and the raised platform in the center.

“
I had to turn on the glow bulbs,” Luzoke said. “These didn’t come on like the others.”

Jolan nodded without really hearing, his attention focused on the platform. He was hopeful that this was the true Nexus, but was concerned by the fact he couldn’t feel it’s presence, something he’d been able to do at a considerable distance in the forest. Slowly he walked across the floor of the cavern, and when he was within five feet of the raised area he suddenly became aware of the Nexus. When he stepped onto the platform he couldn’t believe the strength of the feeling. Here was power far beyond what he’d experienced in the forest with Asari so long before. Somehow the power was collimated, with very little leakage, and it couldn’t be detected at all until one was very close. Jolan suspected that Altz was correct. Cheurt hadn’t found the Nexus. Jolan looked up at the ceiling far above him. Somewhere up there, maybe a thousand feet, maybe two thousand, was the spot in the forest where he’d stood. Cheurt had found the leakage from the Nexus core. It could be detected over a wider distance because the field had spread as it moved away from the center. Had it always been that way and the builders hadn’t cared, or had it become slightly detuned over the centuries left alone? Jolan doubted he would ever know.

The others had stepped onto the platform with Jolan, and their faces reflected their awe at the feeling the Nexus caused. Only Asari stood without realizing the power that lay dormant here. Reluctantly, Jolan stepped off the platform and walked a few feet away until he could no longer sense the pulse of the node. He made a circle, scanning the walls of the cavern. In the far back was an array of equipment. There was no mistaking the orderly array of softly glowing cabinets. He had never seen the like here on Gaea, and as he approached he could see these were subtly different than such equipment racks would have been at home. A field protected the equipment, and he could only approach within ten feet of the racks. Ronoran came over, and after a few minutes shook his head.

“
I have no idea what to do here. This is different from any ward or shield I’ve ever encountered.”

Dragon magic? Jolan wondered. Vaen had said the Dragons had built the Nexus, and that their magic was different. Perhaps this was the first proof of that.

The rest of the chamber was clean and neat, but basically empty. It appeared that the intent was to come and use the platform to transfer, or return and leave. When they walked back to the tunnel opening they realized the center of this rectangular object wasn’t dark like the one near the tunnel entrance. They could see the opening of the tunnel at the far end, with the light from outside shinning brightly into the opening. Obviously, people were not expected to walk the hours as they had to reach the core.

“
It’s okay,” Tishe said, and suddenly walked into the opening. She disappeared, and a few moments later reappeared.

“
It takes you back to the beginning. The one out there now shows all of you standing here.”

Since there was little they could do in the cavern at the moment, the group followed Tishe into the mini-portal, and soon stood outside the opening of the tunnel in the bright sunlight.

“
We shouldn’t leave it like this,” Tishe said, looking out at the city. “Someone might see what you’ve done here.”

Jolan had been concerned about the possibility, but once they started draining the lake he couldn’t see what to do about it. When Asari and Luzoke had made their walks around the lake they had looked for any sign that Ale’ald troops had been in the area. They hadn’t seen anything, but it was a big place so that was hardly conclusive.