War of Power (The Trouble with Magic Book 3) (6 page)

The unmistakeable prickling of his skin told Karryl that Mordas was still working. He waited outside until he could sense the spell was complete, then banged on the door with his fist. Minutes trickled by until he heard the sound of bolts being drawn. The latch clicked and the door swung partly open. Inside the massive hall, Karryl secured the bolts before turning to look at Mordas. What he saw filled him with dismay. Usually elegant and serene, the physician-mage gazed at him in despair, her green eyes dark with anguish. Her long auburn hair clung to her flushed cheeks and scalp in lank, sweat-soaked strands. Her shoulders drooped as her arms hung limply at her sides, and it seemed to Karryl that she was about to burst into tears. Throwing propriety to the wind, he stepped forward. With both his arms round her, he placed his hand on her damp hair and pressed her head against his shoulder. She offered no resistance as Karryl slowly allowed some of his power to flow into her trembling body. As he held her he looked over her head, across to the centre of the hall. On a slender stone pedestal sat the crystal, its shape revealed by the dark cloth that covered it, showing quite clearly that it was still whole.

Mordas pulled back a little, looked into his face and gave an embarrassed little sniff. “Thank you for that. I’m so sorry. That was never meant to happen, but I felt so totally drained and disheartened.” She gestured towards the crystal. “The spell isn’t working. I can’t seem to get the resonance right. The one time I did manage it, I couldn’t sustain it.”

Karryl crossed the room and lifted her cloak and bag off a large wooden peg set into the wall. “I suggest you leave it now. Go home, have something to eat, and rest.”

Mordas nodded mutely as she slung her bag onto her shoulder. Her cloak draped around her she walked slowly to the door. With her hand on the latch she looked back at Karryl, her eyes imploring. “Would you try?”

Karryl folded his arms and gave her a knowing smile. “At the risk of offending you, I was going to anyway. Now go.”

She opened her mouth to say something else, but Karryl’s dark eyes challenged and she slipped quietly out. Karryl shut and bolted the door behind her, then leaned against it. For a few minutes he stared down the room at the crystal, his agile mind rapidly assessing the dozen or so resonance spells stored indelibly in his memory. He was almost certain he knew which one Mordas had been using. He also knew that it was only suitable for a female voice.

Taking a few steps down the room, Karryl knelt down on the cold flag-stoned floor and folded his hands. His voice barely rose above a whisper. “Blesséd, beloved and all-knowing D’ta, to whose graciousness we owe our power, please hear me in this time of need.”

He waited, his hands still folded, his head bowed.

“That was very nice Karryl but I’m rather busy at the moment. Can it wait?”

Karryl smiled to himself. “How long were you thinking of?”

“About two days.”

The young Mage-Prime stood up and pushed his hands into the pockets of his robe. “I could probably stretch to two hours, but that would be the outside.”

There was a long silence before the amethyst-eyed goddess spoke again. “What is it you’re doing exactly?”

“I’m trying to devise a way of augmenting a resonance spell to shatter a containment crystal. It’s completely defeated Mordas. I had to transfer some of my power to her; otherwise I think she might have collapsed.”

There was another long silence. “Can it possibly wait, at least until tomorrow?”

“Not at all, I’m afraid. It should really have been done by now.”

D’ta’s curiosity was obviously piqued. “What is it that’s contained in the crystal?”

Karryl played his trump card. “Essence of Wraith.”

There was a sound in his head like a muffled explosion. He grinned, and stood in contemplation of the cloth-covered crystal as he waited.

D’ta’s voice entered his mind once again, her tones carefully measured. “Father says that if you will open your mind he will give you the formula of a spell. You will be able to remember it until your task is complete. Then it will be erased. We wish you well.”

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, Karryl prepared to receive the spell. He didn’t have long to wait, and he recognised the entity’s voice immediately. Without any kind of preamble the deep baritone filled his head with the words of the long and complex spell. For a full five minutes Karryl’s retentive memory stored every harsh, guttural syllable, every inflection and nuance while his blood chilled in his veins. The spell was Vedric.

The hollow sensation in his head told Karryl that the entity had withdrawn, and he sat quietly for a while, pondering the necessity for using a spell from the most hateful and reviled of the four disciplines. Having reached a satisfactory conclusion, he stood up and moved to stand near the pedestal which held the crystal. Holding the dark blue cloth between thumb and forefinger, he drew it smoothly away and let it fall to the floor. The crystal had darkened, the streaks and patches coalesced into a dingy blackness which lurked brooding in its lower half. His lip curling briefly in disgust, Karryl took two paces backwards and began to vocalise the spell, closely watching the dark crystal as he pronounced each abhorrent word. Gradually he moved away from the pedestal, his voice becoming louder, his tone more harsh as he drew away from the stone. Echoing and re-echoing, the final emphatic words filled the hall with a tremendous crescendo. Then all was still. In the sudden and oppressive silence, nothing moved. His heart thumping with trepidation Karryl approached the pedestal. The crystal appeared intact, untouched by the power of the spell.

Without warning, a blinding incandescent light flared outwards and upwards from the crystal, sending the gathering darkness into full retreat. In the time it took Karryl to raise his arm to shield his eyes, the light had already faded, leaving only a tiny glowing nucleus. Taking a moment to let the after-image clear from his eyes, Karryl hurried forward. He reached the pedestal just as the miniscule glow finally winked out. As if made from clear glass, the stone glinted in the half-light, its purity unmarred by any alien colour or markings. What had once been a receptacle for evil was now a thing of beauty and perfection. Taking advantage of what little daylight remained, Karryl picked up the dark blue cloth from the floor and wrapped it around the crystal. With the object tucked carefully into the deep pocket of his robe, he stepped out of the hall. Through the gathering darkness of the winter evening, he cut across the palace grounds to Lady Evalin’s cottage, tucked away just a few yards down a little lane just outside the perimeter.

* * *

Karryl was hardly surprised when the footman who answered the door informed him that the Lady Evalin was expecting him, and showed him into a small but comfortable room with a log fire crackling in the grate.

Karryl stood warming his hands at the cheery blaze until Evalin’s strong vibrant voice made him turn. “Master Karryl. ‘Tis indeed a pleasure to have you visit me.”

Seating herself elegantly in a tastefully upholstered chair a little away from the fire, she gestured towards a similar one beside it. “Sit yourself down and we’ll exchange gossip. Mallen will be bringing tea shortly.”

Karryl smiled and gave her a short but respectful bow. “Thank you Lady Evalin, but before I sit down perhaps you could tell me what I should do with this.”

Removing the wrapped crystal from his pocket, he unfolded the dark blue cloth and held out the sparkling stone towards her. Evalin stood up, and Karryl’s skin prickled briefly as she gazed at the crystal and assessed it.

She sat down again, her dark eyes alive with amusement. “Well, if it’s yours I suggest you lodge it in the treasury and get a receipt. Where did you get it?”

After placing the stone in her outstretched hand, Karryl sat beside her and was about to relate the events of the afternoon when Mallen the footman came in with a tea-tray, placing it on a small low table in front of them.

Evalin held up her free hand. “Thank you Mallen. I’ll pour. There’ll be nothing else for tonight.”

Mallen bowed. “Thank you my Lady. Goodnight.”

Once he had left the room, Evalin placed the crystal on the table and poured tea while Karryl told her about Symon’s collapse, Mordas’ attempt to destroy the contaminated crystal, and finally the spell the entity had given him which had resulted in the clear and shining stone which now sat on her table.

She sat, thoughtfully sipping tea while she contemplated the crystal, then putting down her cup, turned to Karryl. “‘Tis a pity I have to tell you that Mordas is now the owner of what is probably the largest diamond in the world. Did you know?”

Karryl nearly dropped his teacup as his eyebrows rose to their limit. He gulped down the rest of his tea and stood up. “I’d better return it to her and give her the good news.”

As he reached down to pick up the glittering gem, Evalin leaned forward and placed a restraining hand over his. “Wait a while. It’s quite safe here. I’ll find something suitable to put it in presently.”

Karryl sat down again and Evalin looked at him intently. “I understand now why Mordas failed to keep the appointment. But tell me if you can, why she wanted to see me this afternoon.”

Karryl leaned back in his chair, unable to take his eyes off the great diamond as the flickering firelight seemed to imbue it with a life of its own. “Mordas thinks, and I agree with her, that Symon is in need of a rest cure somewhere away from Vellethen. I’m certain she had somewhere in mind, but she felt she had to ask your permission.”

Evalin thought for a moment, then her dark eyes sparkled as she gave him a secretive little smile. “Not my permission, only that of the beings who inhabit the place she was surely thinking of. I would only be the go-between. Leave it with me and I’ll make the arrangements. I trust you and Symon will be at home tomorrow?”

Karryl gave a wry little smile. “Well, I was going to try and find the entrance to the hiding place of the third artefact. Still, as I’ve got a fairly good idea where to look, I suppose a few more hours won’t make much difference.”

Evalin listened with interest as he went on to tell her about the work he had done with Keril’s book and the partial solving of the riddle. When he had finished, Evalin clasped her hands beneath her chin and sat in quiet contemplation for a few minutes.

A little smile played across her lips as she turned to Karryl. “If the entrance is where you think it is, I may have the answer to the ‘old bones’.” She stood up and beckoned to Karryl. “Come and give me a hand.”

His curiosity roused, Karryl followed her into another room. Impressed and amazed, he looked about him. The large room was similar in size to the store room in the palace where he had helped Symon locate the amulets they had used against the Wraith. However, Evalin’s room was filled to capacity, not with boxes but books. Ceiling-high bookcases occupied every wall. Two large tables in the centre of the room were piled with neat stacks of books and boxes of scrolls.

Evalin pointed to one of the tables. “If you’ll clear a large space on there, I’ll try and find a book I haven’t seen for years.”

While Karryl shifted piles of books, Evalin crossed to a wide bookcase against the far wall and stood peering up at the top shelves. Not seeing what she was looking for, she moved along to the next one.

A short while later she turned to Karryl. “I think I see it.” She gestured towards a corner of the room. “Would you bring over those library steps?”

Karryl went to fetch the set of high, platformed steps while Evalin unlocked and opened the wide diamond-paned doors of the bookcase. Standing on the steps she began to ease out a long flat volume which lay across the tops of other books. Gradually she worked it towards her until she could grasp it in both hands, then carefully passed it down to Karryl. Opened out, the long, fairly narrow but weighty book took up the entire width of the space he had cleared.

He watched fascinated as Evalin slowly turned the pages. “In this book is a record of the ancient burial grounds in the city, going back to a time before the palace was built where it is now.”

Karryl was puzzled. “I thought no records existed of ancient Vellethen.”

Evalin held up a finger. “And you’d be right. This particular volume is fifty percent observation and fifty percent speculation. I believe it was compiled not long after the original palace was completed, but we may just be lucky enough to find what we’re looking for.”

Stunned, Karryl stared at the book. “You mean, you think the way to the artefact lies through a burial ground?”

There was a mischievous twinkle in Evalin’s eyes. “Indeed I do, and I’m also thinking that the bones in the riddle will not be any old bones.”

Karryl folded his arms and frowned. “Who do you think it could be?”

Evalin gave a knowing smile as she bent towards the page she had just turned to. “This looks promising.”

Together they studied the yellowed vellum sheet. The left hand side nearest the spine was taken up with two short widely spaced lists of names neatly written in an old style script. The remainder of the page showed a carefully drawn map, while a rectangle near the top right-hand corner contained a depiction of a crown. Below that again, and nearer the centre of the page was a cluster of irregular round-edged shapes which Karryl took to symbolise two groups of trees. A finely drawn double line led diagonally from the rectangle with the crown to the bottom of the page. From this line, two other narrower ones led round the trees, each line ending in a square containing five dots arranged in a circle.