Summoner school 5 a reve.., p.18
Summoner School 5: A Reverse Portal Fantasy, page 18
“This place is wonderful,” Atlesia said as she followed behind the dwarf. “I don’t even feel like I’m inside. It’s nothing like the tunnels in the gnome city. I always feel so crowded there.”
“That’s because gnomes are shorter, and they favor cramped spaces where they can hide like the little rats that they are,” one of the other dwarves sneered.
“Careful,” Mike said, and the leaves on the top of his head shook with rage. “I spend a lot of time with the gnomes.”
“Really?” the soldier chuckled.
“That’s an interesting mix,” the leader said with a glance over his shoulder.
The rest of the walk across the bridge was silent as we all stared around at the monolithic statues of dwarves that rose out of the abyss, the grape vines that crawled down the sides of the mountains, and the smell of smoke and water that seemed to be ever-present. I held onto Sarya and Atlesia’s hands to make sure that neither of them fell over the edges of the walkway, and it helped to keep me steady as I stared at the tall buildings ahead and the gardens below. The only sound was the occasional gasp from my girlfriend as she found something else to admire, and occasionally, a grunt of approval from Rarus.
“The great hall,” the leader said and pulled all of our attention back to him. “You will meet with Lord Nadouk. Do not try to deceive him, or you will quickly go from guests to prisoners.”
“Of course,” I said with a reassuring smile.
The great hall was surprisingly small compared to the tall buildings that flanked it, but the golden double doors were wide enough for a giant to pass through, and the stone pillars were carved to look exactly like petrified trees. It was even more impressive when we walked inside to see a square room with more tree pillars and a long stone table with high-backed chairs inlaid with more gold and silver. Everything had been meticulously carved and polished until it shined, and I spotted several large rubies and emeralds embedded into the backs of the chairs to form the images of different styles of weapons wrapped in flowering vines.
“Welcome to my meeting hall,” the dwarf from the council said as he came out from the back.
“Lord Nadouk.” Sarya stepped forward, swept into a deep curtsy, and then smiled sweetly at the grumpy dwarf. “Thank you for bringing us into your realm. I’ve always wanted to see Vur Falduhr. My father has told me many tales of your adventures together.”
“Which is the only reason you weren’t dispatched right away,” Lord Nadouk said and then nodded to his soldiers as they all took their place along the walls. “But do not think for a second that I won’t kill you myself if I find that you’ve become a traitor to the nine realms.”
“I would willingly lay before your great axe,” the politician’s daughter said.
“We’re here searching for that mage that was camped in the woods,” I said as I stepped forward. “It looks like he’s been gone for a while. We had a tracker on him, but it went out two days ago.”
“You track your friends?” the councilman asked and motioned for us to sit at the table. “What do you do with your enemies?”
“Kill them,” Rarus grunted and plopped down in a chair with an emerald mace embedded into the back. “Alec Enzaron made the mistake of underestimating us.”
Lord Nadouk’s eyes went wide with shock as he looked around at all of us. We’d each taken a seat around the table, but I knew that each one of my friends was just as tense as I was. The dwarven councilman might seem to be on our side, but so had the headmaster, and I had no intention of being caught off guard.
“We didn’t come here to fight,” I said and shot a glare at Rarus. “But we need to know what happened to Jason. Lord Kaylen said that he trusts you, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but if you betray us, then we will do what we have to for the safety of the nine realms.”
The silence in the room grew until I could hear the breathing of each of the guards, but I didn’t look away from the dwarven councilman. Lord Nadouk stared at me as if he could read my mind, and he finally nodded and motioned to the leader that had shown us inside. Still, I reached into my pocket for Bane and held the onyx tightly just in case we ended up in a fight for our lives.
“I thought your concern was with the technomages,” the councilman said as the other dwarf hurried away. “Is this Jason part of their nefarious plot?”
“No,” I shook my head and forced my shoulders to relax. “I think that he’s working with the cultists and the shadow creatures. He said that he was coming up here to track them down to stop them, but I don’t think that’s true.”
“Oh?” he said and leaned back in his chair. “You think this mage is here to help the shadow creatures?”
“We do,” Sarya said and put a hand on my arm. “And we know that the dwarves would never sully their honor by working with the cultists. Especially since the cultists wish to fulfill Kruwyn’s fantasy of ruling the nine realms.”
“Kruwyn,” Lord Nadouk said and ran a hand over his braided beard. “It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that name. You’re sure that these cultists are following his edicts? Even though he’s been dead for so long?”
“We are,” the redheaded elf said. “Jason is the great-grandson of Kruwyn. And he’s the one that killed Alec Enzaron during our battle, but we have reason to believe that was to stop the late headmaster from revealing his involvement with the shadow creatures.”
“We just need proof,” I said. “That’s why we put a tracker on him and let him come up to the mountains.”
“Give him enough rope to hang himself with,” Rarus said with a malicious grin.
I watched the dwarvish councilman for any signs that he wasn’t surprised by this news, but his eyes widened when Sarya said that Jason was Kruwyn’s relative. My hand was still on Bane’s onyx, but the stout man’s face turned bright red with rage as if the mere thought of the cultists following the evil mage’s edicts was enough to make him go to war. I glanced over at my friends to see what they thought, and Atlesia flashed an encouraging smile while Mike nodded just enough for me to see it.
“We do know where the shadow creatures have made their base,” Lord Nadouk said after what felt like an eternity. “My scouts have been keeping an eye on it. They were concerned when they saw the other mage in the forest, so he has been under surveillance as well.”
“And?” I asked and leaned forward in my chair. “Did he talk with any of the cultists? Or summon any of the shadow creatures?”
The councilman’s eyes narrowed at me like he wasn’t sure how much of the reports he should share, but then he sighed like the years had finally gotten to him.
“He left with them two days ago,” he said. “There were mages and shadow creatures there, but my soldiers couldn’t tell if the younger man went willingly or not. He’s been in their camp ever since.”
The scout leader came back into the main hall with an older female dwarf at his side. The dwarven woman was hunched over and held a tall golden staff in one hand and a silver bowl in the other. Her long silver hair hung down in thick braids decorated with bits of metal that clinked together with each hobbled step, and velvet purple robes clung to her frail frame like a blanket.
“I told you that those creatures would bring nothing but ruin and destruction,” she said in a raspy voice. “But you never heed my warnings. And now we have these children here to do what should’ve been done before. It always falls on the feet of babes to do what the elders were tasked with.”
The older woman set the silver bowl down on the table with a heavy thunk and then turned milky-white eyes in our direction like she could see each of us despite being blind. Lord Nadouk quickly motioned for the scout to fetch something and then pulled out a chair for the dwarven sage as if she was a higher rank than him. She stared at me for so long that goosebumps erupted on my arms, but the link was broken when the frail woman turned away. She climbed into her seat with a lot of grunting and groaning before she focused on our group again.
“That one there will do great things,” she whispered loudly to Lord Nadouk and motioned to me with one knotty finger.
“Thanks,” I said with a forced smile.
“Don’t thank me yet, boy,” she laughed, and the sound reminded me of wind through a broken windowpane. “The only way to do great things is to face terrible things.”
I nodded in agreement and then looked around at the others. It felt like the old sage had just made a prophecy about my life, and I hoped that meant that we were destined to win the battle with the cultists. After all, if I was really supposed to do great things, then I was sure that included saving the nine realms from impending doom.
“Here’s the water,” the scout leader said and rushed forward with a jug in his hand.
“Put it in the bowl,” the old woman said while Lord Nadouk retook his seat. “And don’t any of you cast any magic while I’m scrying. That goes double for you, Minotaur. I can feel your water magic from here, and I’ve known enough of your kind to know you enjoy your pranks.”
“Not when it’s this serious,” Rarus said with a roll of his eyes.
“What are you planning to do?” I asked and leaned forward to see the rippled surface of the water.
“I’m going to scry for that mage… Jason, was it?” she asked and then waved a hand over the bowl.
Silver mana dripped down from the old woman’s fingertips and flowed into the water. The rippling surface started to pulse faster as if it were in the middle of a storm, and then it flattened itself out to become as still as a mirror. The sage’s magic still floated on the surface like a fine powder as a picture started to form.
At first, it showed what looked like a large camp filled with tents, but then inky blackness swirled over the scene until there was nothing but darkness. A pair of bright blue eyes appeared in the image just like the ones that I’d seen in my dream, and then the water exploded upwards as if a bomb had gone off.
The old sage screamed in horror and scooted all the way back in her chair while Lord Nadouk grabbed the scrying bowl and shoved it into the middle of the table. I stood to see if there was anything left of the picture, but the magic had faded, and there was nothing left but a few drops of water. The dwarven woman grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the silver bowl when I reached for it and gave a firm shake of her head like a warning.
“What in the briny deep was that?” Rarus huffed.
The minotaur used his magic to pull the water droplets off of the table and dump them back into the scrying bowl. There were still fragments of silver mana left behind, but there was something wrong with the magic that I couldn’t put my finger on. Rarus and the others wouldn’t have been able to see it, but the dwarven woman shook her head and muttered a quick spell to disperse the mana like she was afraid it would attack us again.
“I’ve seen those eyes before,” I said and retook my seat. “It was in a dream when I found the base in the giant’s realm.”
“I remember you telling us about that,” Atlesia said.
“Jason is definitely still in that camp, then,” Sarya said and drummed her fingers on the table. “They must have a mage that can sense scrying magic. It would explain how they forced you to wake up from your dream. There aren’t many who can master it, so we should--”
The redheaded elf was cut-off mid-sentence as a portal opened near the front of the room.
“My lord!” a young dwarf shouted as he ran into the hall through the gateway.
“What?” Lord Nadouk snapped as he looked up from the sage.
“The camp,” the soldier panted. “It… it vanished.”
Chapter 12
“Vanished?” I asked and glanced at the silver scrying bowl. “When?”
The younger dwarf looked from me to Lord Nadouk like he wasn’t sure if he should answer my questions, but the councilman nodded in approval, and the soldier bobbed his head so much it was like he was a hairy bobblehead.
“I’m not sure when they vanished,” he said and gripped the hilt of his sword. “My team and I went to check on the camp the way we always do, but it just wasn’t there.”
“Could there be an invisibility shield?” I asked and leaned forward in my seat. “It wouldn’t have the same magical signature as a barrier. You might even feel it push back against your natural mana.”
“I-I don’t think so,” the dwarf said and stared off into space like he was reliving a memory. “No. I didn’t feel anything like that. It was just gone.”
“Invisibility shields take powerful mages,” Lord Nadouk said as he stroked his beard. “And they’re hard to maintain over large areas.”
“Not if you’re a technomage,” I said.
The look of realization on Lord Nadouk’s face told me all that I needed to know about his conversation with Lord Kaylen. The councilmen had clearly already had the chat about the technomages trying to join forces with the cultists, but the dwarf didn’t seem to believe the story until that exact moment. The hairy man drummed his fingers on the table as if he was calculating just how bad it would be if we were attacked on both sides.
“You’re sure that you didn’t feel what the human described?” Lord Nadouk asked the soldier.
“Positive,” he said, and a relieved sigh echoed around the table.
“Good,” I said and started to stand. “I still want to go check it out myself. There are spells that summoners can do that will help.”
The old dwarven woman reached up and put her hand on my forearm to stop me before I could make another move, and I slowly sat back down in the chair. There was something about the sage that I couldn’t put my finger on just yet, though it was probably because she had that same chaotic energy that my grandmother always had when she had an idea. She nodded in approval when I made myself more comfortable and then reached for the silver bowl with her long knotty fingers.
“I will check again,” she said. “Fetch me more water.”
“I still have some left,” the scout leader said and quickly refilled the scrying bowl.
“Good, good,” the old woman said.
Silver mana dripped from the sage’s hand into the bowl as the water started to froth again. Every muscle in my body tensed as I waited for the black nothingness and the bright blue eyes to come into focus, but this time it was nothing but an empty valley. The old woman nodded, tapped one long fingernail into an area with trees, and then frowned as she scanned the rest of the snow-covered field.
“There was nothing there,” the soldier reiterated. “Even the trees were silent as if they were asleep. And the wind went still the second that we stepped foot inside the valley. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I turned my attention to Atlesia and Mike as the young dwarf relayed exactly what had happened at Jason’s camp. The tree-man and flower nymph hadn’t been able to connect with the plants then, and I drummed my fingers on the edge of my chair as I thought about how quiet the forest had been in the gnome realm during the wraith attack. There had to be some kind of spell that could do that, but it wasn’t one that I’d ever heard about.
“They are gone,” the sage said and ended the scrying session. “There is not a trace of life anywhere in the area. The trees and wind were silent because there is no mana left. They may wake in time, but for the moment, no one should enter the valley.”
“I need to make sure that they didn’t leave anything behind,” I said. “And if they used a mana spell like that, then I might be able to see where it pooled and find out what kind of sigil it was.”
“You can see mana?” Lord Nadouk said in an impressed tone. “Most trained mages do not have that skill. You must have inherited it.”
“Probably,” I shrugged. “It’s been helpful. And it will be again when I go to that valley.”
“No,” the sage said in a firm voice. “If you go there before you are ready, then you will die.”
The air seemed to be sucked out of the room with the declaration, and I stared at the old woman in shock. There was so much finality in the statement that it was like she’d prophesied about my life again. I took a deep breath to force my lungs to work, ran a hand through my hair, and tried to process the warning.
“You said that I can’t go before I’m ready,” I said. “What would make me ready?”
“That I cannot tell you,” she said and started to stand. “But you’ll know when you are. Now, I need to go put my old bones to bed. It has been far too exciting a morning for this old woman.”
I watched the old sage hobble toward the side door and bit back the irritation that flooded me at her vague warning. She hadn’t said that I shouldn’t go at all, so there had to be something waiting for me to find it, but there was something about the dwarven woman that lent weight to her words, so whatever it was would have to wait until I was ready.
“She’s right about the valley,” Lord Nadouk broke the silence. “Even if there wasn’t something there that could steal the mana, it would be too dangerous for all of you to go. None of you have wind magic. And that valley, and the mountains around it, are known for being able to cut through flesh all the way to the bone.”
“Your dwarven scouts made it just fine,” Rarus said. “And I’m tougher than dwarves.”
“Maybe so,” the politician said in a polite tone. “But even my scouts don’t wander around the mountainside looking around for clues. They do their rounds, and then they leave through portals. It’s too dangerous for all of you to go out alone.”
“Especially with the storm that’s brewing,” the scout leader from earlier piped up. “It’s the primary reason that I brought you under the mountains in the first place. There would be no way to interrogate you if you’re ripped to shreds by wind and lightning.”
Rarus rolled his eyes at the scout, and even Ramis seemed irritated with the implication. The minotaurs had spent most of their formative years on a fishing boat, so storms were nothing new to them, but that was on the warm seas and not at the top of snow-capped mountains.
