Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (81 page)

Jolan nodded as he eagerly continued to shovel the food into his mouth. He could almost sense the nutrients going to work, and more of his usual strength returning. For a few minutes he forgot he had a million questions, and was content to finish the savory bowl that Shyar had ordered for him. Soon he was finished and, while eager for more, he suddenly realized he had totally ignored everyone around him while he had been focused on the food.

“
I’m sorry,” he said to all. “I guess I forgot myself. I didn’t realize how much I needed that. I don’t suppose. . . .?”

Shyar stood and took his bowl and dumped it into a container on the way to the FoodSynth. Moments later she came back with another bowl and placed it before him. He could feel his mouth watering and wanted to jump right in, but instead fought off the desire and looked at his friends and said, “Somebody going to tell me what happened?”

Asari and Shyar took turns, explaining what had happened once Jolan became unable to travel, resulting with the creation of the large Mage’s Box and placing him inside. They explained the decision to continue on since they were close and hoped something might be found to help. Their second choice and backup plan would have been to seek out the natives and see if they had any kind of local cure. At the time Shyar had been very concerned that Asari might come down with the same problem, and she had no means of making another of the Boxes. He was a bit surprised to learn that Shyar had the ability to create one of the marvels, but nothing she did any more shocked him that much.

“
It was a bit of a risk putting me in there. It might not have worked as you hoped.”

“
Logic said it had to, and there was really no other choice. You were within hours, perhaps less if Iach-Iss is correct, of dying.” Shyar said this matter-of-factly, but Jolan could sense the magnitude of the concern she had felt placing him inside the Box and then having to go off leaving him there alone.

“
That is a marvelous device,” Iach-Iss said in his increasingly familiar rumble. In the thousands of years I have been on Gaea, I have never seen the like of it. Even we have yet to find a means of creating a true stasis chamber. When this is over, I would love to examine it in greater detail.”

“
But how did I get here?” Jolan asked.

Shyar explained how they had come to the concealed entrance that she had been unable to pass through, but which Asari had been able to enter easily. She explained her concern when Asari disappeared inside and was gone for almost half a day before returning.

“
Why could Asari pass through?” Jolan asked.

“
Dragon-friend,” rumbled Den-Orok. “It is surprising the blood held for so long.”

Jolan was confused and it showed on his face.

Iach-Iss smiled. “In times long past, there were a few humans with whom we formed a special bond. There was something in their brains that allowed for a special kind of communication. You have probably already sensed we are telepathic. For those special few, we could communicate over long distances in such a manner, and we could sense each other’s existence. Asari appears to be a descendent of one of these, and while his ability is very much degraded, once the nodule was triggered, he was able to sense our existence, even if he didn’t really understand it at the time.”

“
What would have triggered his ability?” Jolan asked.

“
From our discussion, we think the teleportation your staff exposed you to must have been responsible. The staffs are not simple objects of magic, but were jointly created using some of our technology. The ability to teleport was one such aspect.”

There were questions being raised that Jolan wanted to probe, but he wasn’t sure where to start. The dragons referred to technology rather than magic. There was something there he needed to understand. The medical lab he had been in until just a short time ago had clearly been an example of highly developed technology and not magic of some sort. The dragons were different than he’d thought for so long. Another thing was nagging at the back of his mind.

“
Earlier you said something about explaining what had been done and if I might want something undone. Why would I want you to modify anything? You apparently saved my life.”

“
Sometimes we are unable to limit ourselves. That was one of the reasons things went so bad in the past, but we will talk of that later. When I was examining you I found you had one of the nodules in your brain. They were rare even in times past, but they marked the truly unique mages and wizards. Yours was essentially switched off for some reason, perhaps because you grew up on Earth, where the power is all but nonexistent. As part of your treatment I simply had the medi-table feed the appropriate signals to start it up once again. It will take some time, perhaps a couple of years to fully develop.”

Jolan wasn’t sure what this meant or whether he was happy about it or not. “What will it do?”

“
Well,” rumbled Iach-Iss. “As your people like to measure these things, it will allow you to advance to your true potential. From the size of the nodule and the few I have examined in the past, I would estimate you will eventually develop into a level fifteen or greater mage.”

“
Fifteen!” Jolan exclaimed with a start. “I’ve never heard of a mage of that level. I thought ten or eleven was a high as one could go.”

“
There were not many, but they had incredible power. It is one reason so much damage was done during the wars, and why they were able to inflict so much damage on us despite our advanced technology.”

Jolan was still trying to understand the implications of what he was being told. He certainly couldn’t ask to have the possibility undone, especially since they might need every powerful mage they could find if this war was to be won, but he wasn’t sure he felt comfortable with someday having such power.

“
You have referred to technology several times. From what I have seen in the hour or so I have been conscious, you appear to be more technologically advanced than Earth. It appears you have technology that exceeds anything that I have detected in our review of many of the old records. How does that fit in with your magic?”

“
Our technology is different than that of the people of Gaea from the period you have been studying. Also, as I suspect you are starting to realize, we have no magical power. Our capabilities lie in a far superior technology.”

“
And you are not native to Gaea?” Jolan asked, the suspicion that had been forming in his mind finding voice.

Off to one side Den-Orok nodded. He rumbled to Shyar, “You said he was a smart one.”

“
That is correct,” Iach-Iss agreed. “We came to Gaea many thousands of years ago, and we are not native to this world. We came here from the far side of the Galaxy, but encountered problems and were forced to find a world to set down on. Our sensors indicated that we may have crossed more than spatial boundaries during the anomaly, which is partially born out by some disturbing differences in some of the fundamental natural constants. Once here, we realized our ship was far more badly damaged than we had originally suspected. We lacked the means to make the needed repairs and would never be able to return home.”

“
We were shocked to find a world where the locals relied upon those with an unusual ability to tap an unseen source of power to accomplish many tasks that would normally be performed by machine. The reliance on this power had severely limited their normal development. At that time, they were very disorganized, and many of the groups fought against each other. We tried to help. For a while it seemed we made significant progress, but in the end, it all fell apart.”

“
What you describe must have taken a very long time.”

“
We are a long lived race, and we have learned to extend our normal span significantly. We have been on Gaea more than ten thousand of the local years.”

Jolan leaned back stunned. Ten thousand years! Given time, they could learn the whole history of Gaea, and answers to many of the questions that had gone unanswered. The means to defeat the wizards were probably waiting inside the two dragons that sat so casually across the table from him, although they had admitted that many of their number had perished at the hands of wizards, and perhaps mages, during the war. Yet those men of power had been far more capable than those that lived today. It was something to pursue, but he felt himself getting ahead of things. They had been telling him how he had been retrieved and brought here.

“
You said Asari has an innate ability to communicate with you. How come he was never able to do so if you have been awake for several months? For that matter, how is it you can speak the current language, since it didn’t exist when you apparently went into some kind of suspended state?”

“
Asari’s ability is much degraded. We could sense that he and a small handfull of others, still exist in the world, but none retain the ability to communicate. We might be able to fix that, but that is for later. Since none could communicate back with us, we had thought it best to simply remain unknown to the current world. There are only two of us left after all, and there seemed little we could offer any longer. Of course, when Asari walked into the compound triggering all sorts of alarms, the situation changed. For one thing, in Asari’s case the pull was strong enough to bring him here on an impossibly long journey to find something that he could only sense was important.”

Iach-Iss paused and Den-Orok continued.

“
We were able to scan the records that have been gathered while we were asleep to get a sense of what has been happening in the world. We obviously were far less effective in ridding the world of a certain strain of wizard than we thought. The rise of those in Ale’ald is a clear throw back to the ones we fought before. As for the language, our system had tracked the mutation over the years and was able to give us a mental update to the current standard.”

“
They have a system that allows them to see what is happening anywhere in the Settled Lands,” Shyar explained. She had obviously had some of this conversation before. “I was able to see right up to the door of Cheurt’s castle. They are making changes there again.”

“
Satellites?” Jolan asked.

“
Of course,” Iach-Iss replied. “We installed several thousand of them to allow a complete coverage many thousands of years ago.”

“
Several thousand? And they are operating after all this time unattended?”

“
Why would they not?” rumbled Den-Orok. “They are simple devices well able to look after themselves.”

“
These allow you to gather pictures of the world below?”

“
Video and much more. They link together in an almost living sense to perform a variety of tasks.”

Jolan sensed the explanation for a number of small mysteries at hand.

“
Would their satellites provide input to a set of monitors that allow one to track movements through the wilderness areas in the Land of Giants?”

Iach-Iss nodded. “A primitive application, but a means of watching over some of the wilderness enthusiasts was requested. They sometimes were able to get themselves lost or in trouble. I had forgotten we had set that up. You must have seen it from your question.”

“
Asari’s father found it. I couldn’t see how it might work or what it was for.”

“
He might have been drawn to it,” Den-Orok said. “Since Asari has the ability to sense us, his father might have as well. Sometimes the ability lies dormant for several generations until triggered, but then it is foremost for a time.”

Once again the possibilities and many questions were taking Jolan away from where he had been heading.

“
What happened when Asari suddenly showed up here?”

“
Needless to say we were quite surprised. We had our attention focused on the lands far from here. Nothing on this world can penetrate the barrier we set up, so there was little reason to be concerned. The only exceptions were ourselves, of course, and those few we considered Dragonfriends, but we were certain that none were anywhere close. This is not a particularly hospitable part of the world to humans.” Iach-Iss looked meaningfully at Jolan.

“
Asari’s unexpected penetration of the barrier forced us to suddenly consider our possible courses of action. We allowed him to explore, while we sampled his mind to find out who and what he was. It didn’t take long to realize that he, Shyar, and yourself deserved our help.”

“
We were a bit concerned what response our appearance might cause him, but when he “found” us it was as if he expected us all the time,” Den-Orok said. “He was a bit careful, but he didn’t show the fear and panic we had come to expect by those that first encountered us.”

“
By that time we already knew Shyar was waiting outside, and were able to probe her mind as well,” Iach-Iss continued. “We liked what we saw, and allowed Asari to escort her inside. We had thought to exchange histories a bit and then proceed, but both were extremely concerned that we immediately try and do something about you. From what we had learned from their minds it appeared that you would keep quite safely until we were ready, but you are an impulsive race. Must have something to do with the shortness of your existence. So we set out to get you back here. From the description of what had happened and a small sample of Asari’s blood the cause of your predicament was known.”

“
We traveled in a skimmer,” Asari said enthusiastically. “It’s even more fun than the airplanes from Earth.”