Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (78 page)

“
What are these barriers?”

“
They are made from angled slats plated with hardened metal. The triad operates from the inside, and uses optical devices with mirrors and lenses to allow them to see over the top without exposing themselves. This allows them to move around and to cast spells while being fully hidden behind the barrier. The barrier deflects most of the bullets, including the very high power rounds that Jolan brought from Earth, unless these are fired from a close enough range. We have had one instance where these rounds have been able to penetrate and kill the wizards inside.”

The Queen glanced up at her, indicating she wanted to know more.

“
Ale’ald sent a couple of groups into our two main portals here at the College last week, which is very disconcerting. The first group suddenly appeared at the Buris portal. It was a triad, and they walked out into the room. Buris thinks they expected to trigger one of the explosions and were surprised to discover themselves surrounded by armed men. They were probably equally shocked to discover that they couldn’t execute any magic. Unfortunately they recovered quickly. The few spells launched against them by our mages waiting outside the nulled area were too weak to damage their shields, which were already in place when they came through. The triad was able to quickly slip back through the portal and disappear.”

“
So you were unable to stop them?”

“
Not that time, but Buris alerted Morin at the primary portal, and we were ready in case it happened there, which it did two days later. This time Morin had a team present with one of the sniper rifles, and Buris was keyed to shut down the portal they had used to arrive from as soon as they entered. Since they couldn’t execute any spells, they couldn’t reopen it, and the rifle was able to break through the barrier and kill one of the wizards inside destroying the triad. That made them vulnerable to our mages and their magic. Another was killed in the minutes that followed. We hoped to capture the remaining wizard for interrogation, but when he seemingly surrendered, a few moments later he suddenly keeled over dead. He ingested some kind of poison that took only a minute or two to work. It is something to watch for next time. We will have to incapacitate any wizards we capture until we can check them for the poison.”

“
Obviously they are learning. What happens if they send dozens of wizards through at once?”

“
Since they don’t appear to know how to lock the portal open for large groups, they can only come a few at a time. This gives us a bit of an advantage, but we share your concern. If one of the triads was able to get outside the deadened zone, their magic would make them almost impossible to deal with.”

“
Several weeks ago you mentioned that some of your researchers thought there might be a way to permanently disable some or all of the portals. Has there been any progress with that?”

Nerila and Rifod believe the control area is located somewhere in Tilano. Altz is continuing to investigate the materials we brought from Ygooro. Nerila has had an eventful month by the way. She finally turned to a level five and just last week she delivered twins, so both she and Rifod are temporarily unavailable for further investigations. They are the most effective investigators we have, so their being sidelined is a real loss, but they have lives to live as well as any others.”

“
Has anyone physically gone to Tilano to check? Maybe we could find it rather than simply look through old records.”

“
No,” Vaen replied. “It is far too risky. For one thing, we spent a great deal of time in Tilano examining the ruins. While we didn’t know what to look for, nothing that seems like it would be related was discovered. Further, it seems that Ale’ald is unaware of the Tilano portals, and the only way we can reasonably get people there would be to activate one of them. That would make the addresses known to Ale’ald. With the Nexus hidden away there, we don’t want to give them anything that hints the place exists.”

The Queen shook her head. “It doesn’t seem that we are in a very desirable position. What about Jolan and his team? Has that silly trip to the far side of the Settled Lands yielded anything we can use?”

“
The last we heard, they were on the lake down there within a week of the planned destination. Within a few days we should know if they found anything. It will, of course, be months before they can make the return trip with any discoveries.”

“
Fortunately winter is not that far away,” the Queen said. “Maybe that will give us a bit of time to get prepared.”

“
Actually, I fear the winter will be to Ale’ald’s advantage more than our own,” Vaen said sadly.

“
Yes. So you’ve said in the past. Wylan, what bad news do you have for me?”

Wylan grimaced and mumbled something to himself. “Much of the news is bad as you already suspect. Three members of Seret’s ruling Parliament have been assassinated in the last two weeks. We still don’t know how anyone got to two of them, other than magic was clearly used. The third was taken out in full daylight by one of the dragoncursed triads. No nearby portals had been activated for days, so the triad was either in place for a long time or slipped in from farther away and made their way into Seret. Needless to say the remaining members are quite nervous, and steps have been taken to relocate them to undisclosed locations.”

“
What about Queen Iril?”

“
No attempts have been made on her, but she is far more carefully guarded. Thought has been given to relocating her and, maintaining contact via radio, which would be impossible for Ale’ald to trace.”

“
What else?”

“
We have lost four covert teams and two in country networks in the past days. It shows how dangerous it is becoming to use any of the portals within the occupied territories. Ale’ald seems to be watching all of the portals they can find, even if they haven’t been activated anytime since they started watching. Each of the lost teams used a portal we thought was secure and which had never been used before. We can only assume they were intercepted on arrival.”

“
What can you do?”

“
At the moment it is starting to look like we will have to revert to the old method of getting people into place. That means weeks of effort and all the risks of trying to slip into the country. It is going to seriously hinder any operations we hoped to mount.”

“
What about more standard military encounters? Are we still in a face-off with Ale’ald?”

“
For the most part, although their triads have given them the advantage in several encounters. Since they can operate at long range, even the snipers cannot effectively target them. The snipers now have to get close to have a chance of penetrating those metal barriers. It greatly increases the risks. The triads understand the matter, and tend to be mobile, not giving the snipers time to get into place. If we can’t find a way to counter them, I fear we are going to lose a lot of men come spring.”

“
There’s nothing from Earth that can help?”

“
We’ve talked with Gene, and he agrees with Jolan. The type of things that would help, he sees no quick way of getting. The only way would be to somehow open a diplomatic channel with the government on Earth, and that has risks as well. Besides, Gene suspects it would take several years before the politicians there could accept our existence and then get around to deciding how to help us. We don’t have the time. In addition, that would mean multiple trips to Tilano, which would clearly reveal the portals to Ale’ald.”

“
Okay. Think about whom we can bring together to start brainstorming. We need some fresh ideas. We all agree Ale’ald is slowly gaining the upper hand. Let’s meet again same time tomorrow and discuss how to move our thinking forward.”

Vaen and Wylan left the Queen’s meeting room discussing whom they might want to bring to the meeting. They had already held their own meetings, and simply had not come up with any counters to some of Ale’ald’s recent actions. Vaen was surprised to see an agitated Tishe waiting outside.

“
What’s wrong?” she asked as the girl hurried towards her.

“
It’s Jolan,” she said. “He’s dying. He may already be dead.”

Vaen paled. “Come. Explain to us what happened.” They hurried into a small room off to the side and closed the door so they could talk privately. None of them noticed Denelere waiting to see the Queen off to the side. Clearly, she had overheard what Tishe had said. There was little point in hanging around. She wouldn’t learn any more and had been fortunate to overhear as much as she had. Besides, Vaen didn’t trust her. She had been a bit too inquisitive a few weeks back when trying to find out where Jolan had gone. It was best if she wasn’t even around when Vaen came out of the small room. She decided she could see the Queen later. This needed to be passed on immediately. She wished she knew where Jolan was, but that information had been closely guarded for all the weeks he had been missing. Still, this would be forwarded immediately. She would go into town and pass the word to her handlers. Cheurt would know within days.

The countryside had turned rocky and steep, yet Asari knew they were headed in the right direction. He’d thought himself in good shape, but even he was having trouble matching Shyar as she tackled each new obstacle with grim determination. He wouldn’t have been surprised to see her walk up a vertical cliff if one had been so foolish as to stand in their path.

Yesterday had been especially grim as they marched away and headed in the direction that Asari felt pulling at him. He had been unable to get the picture out of his mind of the lone Mage’s Box sitting in the middle of the wilderness alone and unwatched. Jolan was left farther behind them as they pressed into the ever steeper hills that occupied the land on the northern shore of the lake. Asari didn’t know if the Mage’s Box would help Jolan survive or not. Putting a living being inside was something that had never been tested. At least he’d never seen Jolan attempt it. He could only hope. He was given some encouragement by the continuing existence of the Travel Box. Like the Mage’s Box that had convinced him that Jolan was still alive when he had been kidnapped back in Seret, the continued presence of the Travel Box gave some assurance that Jolan still lived. For most of the day Shyar carried the small lid in her hand as if to reassure herself.

All day Asari paid special attention to the direction they traveled so that he could find his way back to the spot where they had left Jolan. It was an unnecessary exercise, but he couldn’t help himself. Asari knew that Shyar would have no problem finding the box again. Jolan’s fate rested entirely on Shyar. If something happened to her, then there would be little point of trying to find the spot again. The Box would disappear, and Jolan would die before Asari could get back to him. What they needed now was a portal so they could get Jolan back to the medical mages in Cobalo, although Asari couldn’t help wondering if they would have any luck treating Jolan. Vaen had survived the odd infection she’d been attacked with only because of her own defenses and not because of anything the medical teams had done for her. Maybe he and Shyar should have tried to find the natives once again. They lived here and would most likely have some knowledge of the infection. He couldn’t believe his friend might die. Not after everything they had gone through together.

At one point Shyar had looked back at Asari, silently asking him which path they should take when the mountain split into two adjacent valleys. He could see how red rimmed her eyes were, and knew she had been fighting hard to contain herself while they continued on. That shook Asari as much as anything. If Shyar had doubts, then Jolan’s chances were grave.

They had made camp at dark the previous night. Shyar had gone to extremes in her preparations, wiping the area they planned on staying with blasts of
rolling fire
and an intense
energy-blast
. Nothing could have survived her attentions. Then she erected a stout barrier, with wards and spells that would incinerate anything that attempted to cross into the area where they stayed. No fire was started that night. Instead Shyar had used her Mage’s light to provide for them, and they had eaten from the supplies the Travel Box offered. Few words were exchanged between them. Each was wrapped up in their own thoughts and memories.

Neither had slept well the previous night, and morning had found them looking ragged and frazzled as they started out again on the trail. Now the path they followed wound ever upward through the rocks and trees. The forest had turned to pine and the lake, when the turns through the hills allowed them the proper perspective, could be seen laid out far below stretching into the distance until it disappeared on the horizon.

There was no trail, and they had to pick their way through the rocks and along the sides of the steep hills. Sometimes they came to a sudden edge that dropped away alarmingly and allowed them to see the valley thousands of feet below. Each time they came to what seemed a dead end, Asari was able to find a small pathway that led them deeper into the mountains and always higher.

This high in the mountains it was a bit cooler, and water flowed from the melting snows that still covered the peaks far above them. Frequently they had to step through or around the streams that cut across their path as the water rushed downhill, later to flow into the great lake they had been on only two days before.

Morning turned into afternoon as Asari urged them onward. More than once Shyar had looked at him long and hard as if assessing his certainty of their direction. He knew she wanted to question him, but he wouldn’t have been able to explain what made him certain they were headed correctly. At one point they came to a small flat area that was covered with grass despite the mostly rocky base. Off to their right was a solid granite wall that extended hundreds of feet in either direction and rose at a steep angle several thousand feet toward the top of the mountain.