Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (73 page)

The next day they found more than they could have expected. In addition to formal clothes for each of them, was a note indicating they should empty the box, then check back in a half hour. Wondering what the note was all about, they did as instructed. The next time they opened the box it was loaded with a variety of pastries and sweets for the feast that would follow the ceremony. Some ingenuity had been involved because items were limited to the fifteen inch opening at Jolan’s end, but whoever had been in charge was up to the task. Jolan also knew he owed some people favors. They must have been up most of the night preparing all these items.

The process was repeated several times, and they took wines and some of the kingdom’s finest ale through the small opening. Afterwards came fully cooked fowl and large slabs of venison, all cooked and wrapped to remain warm. By the time they were done, they had far more food than the crew would be able to consume, especially since the cooks were already at work cooking up the fish that Burk had been marinating since the previous afternoon. The final item was a pair of matched, intricately worked gold necklaces. Such workmanship could have only been performed with magic, and Jolan wondered if the necklaces had some function beyond the obvious.

The ceremony itself was relatively simple, with the captain performing the required reading and the formal recording in the ship’s log, and Jolan and Shyar each having a moment to speak their thoughts. The party afterwards was a different matter. Everyone ate more than was sensible, and there would be more than a few heads heavy from drink the next day. Burk had been right about the Chach, the reddish colored flesh was better than any fish Jolan had ever tasted. The crew danced and partied until late into the night, continuing on even after Jolan and Shyar slipped away. Asari captured key events using the camera on his iPod, which was almost discharged despite his careful husbandry of the power since leaving Cobalo. He’d have Jolan put it in the Mage’s Box the next day where it would be safe along with their guns and several other key items they’d brought along.

Wisely the Captain decided to delay their departure another day giving everyone the chance to recover. Assuming the weather held, in a bit less than a week the ship would sail past the southern border of Angon, passing by the great mountains along the coast with the Lost Territories only a few short days after that.

Tishe realized it had been nearly a month now since Shyar and Jolan had left. The time had passed very slowly for her, and she missed having contact with Shyar. The short time she’d been back Tishe had developed a strong bond with her, more so than anyone except Janie back on Earth. She could always mind-link with her, but she felt that would be an imposition at this point. This time belonged to her and Jolan, and Tishe didn’t want to interfere. Still, knowing that their journey wasn’t even half over was a bit depressing. She hadn’t even been able to be part of their Bonding Ceremony. That was something they should have done here before leaving so all of their friends could participate. Tishe knew there would be a party when they returned, but hoped that there might be a duplicate ceremony. At least she’d been able to organize the College staff and help create the food that had been shipped to them. She thought it was telling that the Queen had wanted to send them a special gift when she’d learned of the plan.

Tishe was constant in her support of their objective however. She couldn’t explain her premonition, but she sensed that Asari was right this time and they needed to find the dragons, or perhaps it would only be the place they had disappeared from. There was something there to be found, something that would change what was surely coming. That was another thing. She couldn’t say when, but Ale’ald wasn’t simply biding its time. They were being restrained for a reason. Something was going to happen, and when it did the war could well shift toward Ale’ald as the eventual winner.

Tishe hadn’t had much personal involvement in the war of late, and wasn’t even really up to date on recent skirmishes. Buris told her a little when she asked, but mostly she was out of the loop. Chancellor Vaen was very concerned about her being exposed, especially since Ale’ald had learned about the portal system, and might suddenly mount an attack almost anywhere. Tishe didn’t expect it to happen that way. Ale’ald would be cautious and systematic about their approach. Some of their schemes that had been bold had turned against them. They now had an advantage, and they would try and maximize any benefit they could realize from it. Not that she was one to be able to change anything. She had her powers, but most of them weren’t directed toward war.

Tishe sighed. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have things to do. She stopped her pacing and turned with sudden resolve toward Ward’s office. He had her working on a couple of advanced techniques, and she had some questions. Maybe she could get her mind off everything else for a while.

* * * *

Morin looked at the list of portals that he had been creating as a result of watching Ale’ald’s efforts. It was becoming quite long, although by far the majority were in Kimlelm and Ale’ald proper. They were lucky that Jolan had stumbled across the crystal from his ancestor that gave them an insight into the old language. While the old names often had little meaning, a combination of the name and the lists that Nerila had found usually gave them the vicinity of a portal. Otherwise they’d have had no idea if all of these being investigated were somewhere nearby.

For the most part Morin had no means of checking out the portals that Ale’ald had activated. Sometimes, when Wylan asked, he had Buris set up and take a look through a new portal at a time when Ale’ald didn’t seem to be active. In a few cases the look had given them a clue to where the portal was located, but for the most part it had been a waste of time. They learned more by simply watching how Ale’ald operated with the portals. Thus far, Ale’ald had never placed any portal into the locked open mode, which Angon had used when they wanted to send a large number of people or supplies through. That suggested strongly that they didn’t know of the feature, and were restricted to sending people through one at a time. That was good for Angon. Early on, Morin had been concerned whether they would be able to cope if Ale’ald suddenly marched a few hundred soldiers into their mists. Now it appeared they simply didn’t know how to do that.

A limited number of the portals Ale’ald had activated were inside Seret and Angon. That meant they had spies loose in both countries. Twice now portals appeared to have been used to move a couple of wizard teams into place to support an attack on troops in Seret. The new teams were something Wylan called triads, and were apparently extremely strong. Even worse, they seemed to have come up with some means of reducing their exposure to the snipers. The last time they had appeared they had wiped out the better part of a regiment near Chuk.

His thoughts turned to Jolan and Asari. He was a bit surprised they’d gone off at a time like this on something as silly as a dragon hunt. They might be able to come up with a solution to the current approach being followed by Ale’ald’s wizards, although Jolan wasn’t any more knowledgeable about this type of problem than anyone else. For a time Morin had hoped that Vaen would call them back, but it didn’t appear that was going to happen.

The Lost Territories wasn’t a good place he knew. He’d been in the Land of Giants himself and that had been bad enough. There was far too much that wasn’t known about the place and, as resourceful as the two men were, Morin would be glad when they returned safely. It was simple foolishness that had allowed a woman to go there as well, no matter how powerful a mage she was.

* * * *

“
We’ve got to tell them,” Nerila said, disagreeing with her husband that they should wait until they knew more. Trying to do any kind of research at the same time the massive quantity of materials they had hurriedly brought from Ygooro were being sorted and put away in the designated areas was all but impossible. Even so, Rifod had stumbled across something that could be invaluable if they could just find the specifics of how and where the task could be accomplished. “Perhaps someone might have an idea where to look. We have been somewhat out of the loop for a long time.”

Rifod disagreed. He liked his facts more thoroughly verified before he brought them to someone’s attention. That was especially true of something this important. They might be creating concern where none should exist. If they just spent a bit more time, they might find something that would confirm matters one way or the other. Of course, Nerila was quite pregnant at the moment, so he didn’t want to upset her by arguing either, thus he was torn about how to proceed.

“
All we have is the one reference that implied it could be done. There is nothing that said how.”

“
I think it’s important that the note also said there was a specific location where the task could be performed. That implies there is someplace we haven’t found, and it could be very important. What if Ale’ald were to find it first?”

Rifod didn’t have an answer for that. It would certainly be bad if the reference were accurate and their enemy gained the type of control implied by the small handbook.

“
What exactly do you want to tell Vaen?” he asked.

“
Simply that we found an unsubstantiated reference that seems to imply there is a central control location for the portals. From there it is supposedly possible to shut down any portal, and maybe the entire system, in a way they cannot be activated in the manner we are used to. I also got the impression that once that has been done, the special protection that has kept the portals in prime condition all this time would be lost as well. It would be possible to physically destroy one of them.”

“
We don’t know that,” Rifod objected.

“
We don’t know any of this for sure, but I don’t think we can afford to wait to be sure. It is something she needs to know might be possible.”

Rifod relented. Nerila was right, it just didn’t sit well to have something potentially this important so poorly understood when they brought up the matter with Chancellor Vaen.

* * * *

Chancellor Vaen considered her options. There was much that had happened in the past couple of days. The matter that Nerila and Rifod had just brought to her attention concerned her greatly. She planned on getting Tishe involved. The girl could come up with solutions when none seemed remotely possible. She also wished that Shyar were here, but in truth that was more because she felt confident in her abilities, although she had no special knowledge in this area. Vaen decided she’d also have Tishe have a long talk with Altz. His knowledge of the past and his research might lead to a clue where this place was located.

The sudden appearance of the Ale’ald triads and the seemingly bullet proof barriers they hid behind while attacking was also a grave concern. In the two cases this week, hundreds had been killed, including both members of one of the sniper teams. While it seemed insensitive, she was very happy their gear had been recovered by the second team and had not fallen into Ale’ald’s hands. In both of the attacks, the wizard triads had escaped unharmed after inflicting significant damage on the defending army.

She had only a couple of days to bring Jolan and Shyar back if she decided to do so. Then they would sail beyond the edge of Angon into the mountainous region of the Lost Territories. The maps they had didn’t show any of the portals in the whole of the Lost Territories. If that were true, they would have to sail back, which could take a great deal of time, before they could even begin to search for a portal.

She shook her head. There was nothing they could really do that wasn’t being done. She decided not to burden their search with an awareness of what was happening here. Tishe had made her sense of the importance of the mission known, and that was enough for Vaen. She would have to handle this one her own.

She almost forgot one item that had been bothering her. When the Queen had sent the two necklaces over the other day, the woman who had brought them struck an odd cord with Vaen. She seemed entirely too interested in Jolan and Shyar and what they were doing. It could have been the nature of the wedding gifts being delivered from the Queen in such a manner, but perhaps not. She didn’t get the name while the woman was around, so she would have to ask the Queen who the woman was. Vaen knew she’d seen her before, but had never paid much attention to her.

The
Wave Runner
was two days out from the multi-day island stop over and was now forced to tack into the wind as the curve of the Settled Lands brought them to a heading that ran increasingly counter to the prevailing air currents. While this made for a brisk breeze across the decks, their progress was slower than it had been, which, while not unexpected, promised to delay their eventual landfall by several days. Otherwise the weather had been all they could hope for, with Jolan and Shyar enjoying the morning on the open deck near the bow of the vessel. Even though the decks were tilted and the bow rose and fell as it crashed through the rolling waves, they were not concerned. A slight touch of magic had them firmly anchored to the deck, and they rose and fell with the ship, as they watched the shore off to port. They could barely discern the mountains that they were approaching and which marked the official western border of Angon, even though the country was virtually deserted in this part of the land. The harsh desert that covered most of Southern Angon didn’t offer much for the average settler. Jolan and Asari had seen how dry and barren the land was during their weeks of searching for Ygooro.