The Awakening of Dreams, page 7
part #3 of Averot'h Series
I overpowered my disappointment.
“Thank you, Master Ta'rik. Let your spells be clear and strong,” my eyes went to the tanks with beer. “And safe,” I muttered.
~
“So, we are back to the starting point again,” Rohan summarized, when we left the brewery.
I exhaled deeply and gestured in despair. “I guess so.”
Moonshine lit the streets as rats swarmed around the sewers.
“What's this?” I pointed to the sign above the brewery door. It depicted a strange animal.
“It's a goat,” Rohan groaned. “A black goat.”
I gave him a lopsided smile. “At least we know where your favorite beer is brewed.”
He clicked his tongue. “He is adding something addictive to it, bastard, I knew it! That's why my head almost exploded this morning!”
“You should drink fruit juice,” I advised him, still smiling.
“Yuck!” Rohan shivered. “I would rather drink that bloody Goat.” Then he slouched. “We failed today, didn't we?”
“Get some sleep and tomorrow we will start from the beginning,” I said. “We are smart. We are determined,” I continued to encourage him. “We will find the Ka'tan. We are not defeated yet.”
Rohan nodded.
“Good night, Rohan.”
“Good night, Leisha.”
I had the impression he wanted to add something, but he decided otherwise.
I took one last glance toward him, a slim figure disappearing around the corner, not knowing it was the last time I would see him.
CHAPTER 11
DURING the night, I ran through my options.
I had one trump card in my hand. But it was a dubious one.
Martell the Burned, my grandfather, lives on the outskirts of the city. From an aerial view, his residence has the shape of a triangle bordered by a grey wall. Inside the triangle, a dark, serrated structure spirals twenty feet above the wall.
Towers and spires are forbidden in the city.
Still, my grandpa built something infinitely close to it for himself. And, of course, no one dared to complain.
I opened a black gate. On the left, there was a low building with white stucco, a guesthouse. The guesthouse stood in stark contrast to the dark spire hovering above it. I knew it was intentional. Martell wanted his guests to feel small and uneasy when they entered his realm.
I continued to the base of the spire.
~
My grandfather is even more reclusive than Ta'rik. I was sixteen when I last saw him, when he paid a visit to my mom, his daughter. Since then, he hasn't left his mansion.
There are rumors about him, of course, promoting so many theories it would suffice for an entire whole book.
My favorite one, untrue, yet funny, held that he invented the spell of invisibility, and is, in fact, walking among us, laughing at our stories about him.
Other sources claim he was so tired from rebuilding the city that he took a well-deserved fifty-year-long vacation. According to another theory, he was just too bored by the world to go out, while some other, more malevolent voices told a story full of lascivious women, wine and toxic substances.
In fact, no one knew anything. I had no idea what my grandpa was doing all days either. Or nights, when it comes to that.
Nevertheless. If I could persuade him to help me find and eliminate the Ka'tan, the Council man would stand no chance. After all, it was Martell who killed the largest number of Ka'tans in its long history.
~
“What do you mean I cannot see him?!” I was almost yelling at the guard in front of the entrance doors to my grandpa's house.
The guard didn't even blink. He was in his forties and his face seemed to be right from a tephir's skin, grey and stiff. Also, his body filled the corridor behind him completely. There was no way I could sneak around him.
But I could eliminate him with a spell...
The guard's eyes widened until no white remained under his eyebrows.
All at once, I realized he was a wizard too, and fighting him would be a foolish thing.
It seemed the guard relaxed a bit as well.
“Your grandfather is ill, Your Grace,” he said with a low-pitched voice. “I have orders to let no one into his private rooms.”
“But it is very important,” I insisted. “There is a new danger, new evil in the city, and he is probably the only one who can stop it.”
The guard slowly shook his head. “His Grace is not able to accept visits.”
I took a deep breath. “When he gets better, please let me know,” I said.
The guard's face transformed into the impenetrable tephir's skin again. I might talk to a wall with a greater success.
I left Martell's house immersed in troubling thoughts.
He was never ill. I was sure about it.
But now he is. Even so seriously that it prevents him from meeting other people.
I could only hope he would get better before it is too late.
~
I headed to the bakery for Rohan in need of his sharp wits.
With my gaze down, I passed Diagonal Street and turned left at the corner to Chapel Street.
Perhaps, it was an unnatural silence that made me lift my eyes.
The moment I saw the scene, I stopped, rooted to the pavement, my eyes widened in horror.
There was a noose hanging from a tree, and the head inside the loop belonged to Rohan.
I nearly screamed and suppressed the urge to run to the gallows through the crowds that gathered around it.
Rohan's rigid body slightly twisted in the wind.
There was no way I could help him.
He was dead.
~
I found the Minister standing out the window, his slouched back to me.
“Sir–” I began.
“I know,” he said softly, not turning to meet my eyes.
I paused for a moment, not knowing what to say. “I examined the place. Whoever did it, he covered his tracks thoroughly. But it was the work of a wizard, no doubt.”
“My men didn't find anything helpful either.”
Ammes took a deep breath while gazing out of the window. “Did you know we were good friends with Rohan's father?” His tone made it clear how hard it was for him. “Even more than that. Rohan was my nephew.”
“I know, sir.”
“I ensured him his son would be safe and happy here before he applied. I have failed terribly.”
I cleared my throat. “With all respect, sir, it's not your fault. Put the blame on me. I knew how dangerous this investigation would be. I underestimated hazards posed to him. It was me who failed.”
He finally turned to me. “I will never forgive myself. It will always be my fault.”
The minister looked broken. “He was a smart boy,” he muttered. “He didn't deserve this.”
I didn't know what to say. I simply couldn't find words to comfort him.
“I will pay a visit to his family–” I started, but the minister interrupted me.
“I would advise against it, Your Grace,” he said. “I don't put the blame on you, but his family might.”
“Ah.”
“I will talk to them. I will pass your condolences, though.”
I nodded solemnly. “Thank you, sir.”
At last, Ammes sat down behind his desk.
“I may assign you another assistant, Your Grace. He –”
Knocking on the door interrupted the Minister.
“Come in!”
A man entered the room.
“Captain Haris from the Night guard,” Ammes introduced the newcomer. “He volunteered to work with you.”
The soldier turned to me. He was the very opposite of Rohan. In his late thirties, he was of average height with unusually short black hair, brown eyes and a scar running from his left eye to his thin lip. His square face seemed to be sculpted from one piece of granite. Even a thick blue-and-grey uniform couldn't hide his strong muscles beneath.
He fixed his eyes on me.
I could read human characters easily even without any spells. The Captain was an exceptional human specimen.
Strong, determined, and absolutely merciless.
While Rohan was a thinker, this man was a born killer.
I imagined he could be an asset, but I had already made up my mind.
I shook my head. “No. He could be killed too,” I said to Ammes and then I turned back to Haris. “Captain, thank you very much for your offer.”
Haris nodded and left.
The Minister's dark eyes stared at me. “So, whom do you want to help you, Your Grace?”
I sorted my options, rejecting one after another.
It didn't take long, anyway. The list was pretty short. And the result made my gut wrench, though it was of no surprise.
“I guess, I'm on my own,” I murmured.
~
Sorrow and tears came later that night. I was half sitting, half lying on my sofa, not able to stop crying.
Rohan was a boy with an exceptional brain, wicked sense of humor, and strong family ties. He cared for his siblings and parents, it was clear from how he looked at and behaved toward them. Sure, he was cocky and horny at times, but I couldn't blame him for that, since I knew he had crush on me.
He had a bright future ahead of him.
He should have…
I felt sorry for him.
I felt sorry for his grieving family.
Last but not least, I felt sorry I couldn't protect him enough.
I had to drink three cups of water with special calming herbs before I finally drifted off.
INTERMEZZO
THE Minister Ammes of House Riverre sat behind his table, immersed in thought. Leisha left half an hour ago, but he still contemplated their dialogue. He was grateful to her, she had a sincere interest in finding and stopping the Ka'tan, unlike many others of her kind.
Ammes remembered the night when his cousin, Adeleine, brought the message from Syrdan the Just himself into the fortress of their House. The soon to be Warlock urged them to leave the city as soon as possible, since he envisioned his fore coming battle with Ver'del the Great would result in the city's demise, accompanied by the loss of a thousand innocent lives.
We evacuated in several hours, Ammes recalled. And saved hundreds of lives.
My father passed on the message to other friendly Houses, and even to several unfriendly ones. Thus, the night's meeting of Adeleine and Syrdan lead to the salvation of thousands of souls.
Now, lives of his people were endangered again.
But this time we are prepared.
Ammes considered wizards aggressive and largely non-cooperative species, who tolerated humankind purely due to profit-seeking reasons. Humans were useful as hard workers, producers of wine and other goods, growers of fruits and vegetable, or traders. Were they not useful, the minister believed humans would be eradicated in a few weeks, if not days.
In their large eyes we are just their poor inferiors.
Yes, there were exceptions. Perhaps the most famous was Syrdan the Just, the Warlock who spent almost an entire lifetime as a human peasant at a distant farm, and who ended tyranny of the Council and the previous Warlock. The exception included his children and his wife as well. Further, there was a new wizard at the eastern gate who healed the most common human illnesses for free. Ammes was going to visit him and personally express his gratitude. The Minister recalled that one of the highest wizards in the city, Valar, helped to renovate the merchant quarters after they were literally annihilated by Martel.
But that was the end of the list. The rest of wizards considered humans a mere pain in their assess.
Ammes smirked when he recalled Haris referred to wizards as 'sandbags.'
The Minister's face grew solemn again. He believed a war between the two species was inevitable.
Hence, two decades ago, Ammes set himself a noble objective: to work towards human protection, and his sharp and tireless mind found several pieces fitting into the picture. His ultimate goal was simple: raising the power of humans so that they won't be left at the wizards' mercy, but, on the contrary, they would be their equals.
He found the first piece himself. After they were forced to flee Averot'h, he travelled to the south, to the Big Sea, and even farther away, where people had a different color of skin and talked different languages. He spent several years in those fascinating countries, observing and learning, until he met a merchant one day. The merchant claimed he came from across the ocean, and his goods were uncommon indeed. One of his items caught Ammes' attention. It was a short, but deadly weapon made of steel capable of penetrating wooden laths or destroying pieces of a rock. Ammes bought it, though he had to trade all his money along with some of his personal belongings to acquire it.
Secretly, he studied the weapon, and learned how to produce another one. He was certain the weapon could kill a wizard. That's why there were tens of similar weapons stored in his strongbox in the basement of Gatherings palace. Only Captain Haris knew about their existence.
Captain Haris…
Captain Haris constituted another piece of the final picture. He was a former mercenary from the east who fought many already forgotten battles among belligerent cities until the war ended and he had to find another way of living. Gaining employment at an iron coal mine, he worked for several years. During the day, he dug the ore underground, and at night he spent his money on whores and alcohol. One night at a tavern, completely drunk and covered by iron dust from his heels to hair, he brawled with a wizard. Even the feeblest wizard can kill a human with a handful of spells, so when Haris assaulted the sorcerer, regulars at the tavern expected him to be dead in a few seconds. But they were wrong. It seemed lethal spells had no effect on Haris, who was physically strong enough to break a wizard's neck and turn him into dust.
When Ammes heard the story from the Captain himself for the first time, he attributed it to the Captain's boasting. However, the more he thought about it, the truer the story seemed. Haris claimed he was covered by iron dust.
And metal repel magic.
An improbable coincidence provided Ammes a clue on a possible defense against spells. Since then, every time Haris went on his night watch, he secretly covered his body with iron dust.
A metal tapping interrupted the Minister's thoughts.
Ammes started to count.
One, two, three.
He straightened in his seat, opened a drawer, pulled something out and let the thing rest on his right thigh, invisible behind the desk to any visitor, but available to him in a split of a second.
Speaking of protection, there was another pressing issue: wizards disguised as humans. Ammes' father once joked that half of the deputies in the Gatherings are in fact wizards. There was a hint of truth in that joke, however. A human couldn't impersonate a wizard, but the opposite was rather simple.
That's why Rohan devised a simple recognition test. Because magic is repelled by metal, the Law of action and reaction demanded metal was repelled by magic as well. Ammes didn't understand the entire theory, that was Rohan's domain of expertise. Anyway, Rohan constructed an apparatus resembling a compass. In a compass, an iron needle was attracted to the north magnetic pole. In Rohan's apparatus, an iron needle was repelled from the center to the edge whenever a wizard came by, because even when a wizard was not conjuring, his or her magic was still around. Rohan built several devices, one of them was secretly located at the entrance to Gatherings palace, close to the palace guard. At all times, one of the guardsmen assigned to the entrance belonged to Captain Haris' unit, and his primary task, not known to other guardsmen, was to identify disguised wizards.
A knock on the door announced a visitor.
Ammes took a deep breath.
“Come in!”
The door opened and Captain Haris walked in. “Sir.”
“Take a seat, Captain.”
Haris did as instructed.
Ammes calmly inspected his visitor.
“What brings you here, Captain? You should know I appreciate your offer of volunteering to Her Grace, Leisha.”
Haris raised his left eyebrow slightly. “She shouldn't have declined the offer. Does she have some other ally?”
Ammes shook his head. “I don't think so.”
In the case the apparatus detected a wizard disguised as a human, the guard at the entrance was instructed to knock a special pipe behind a curtain leading directly into Minister's office, so the Minister would be warned in advance.
The signal was three knocks.
Ammes felt beads of sweat forming on his forehead and resisted the urge to wipe them off. The Captain Haris sitting in front of him was actually a wizard.
~
The minister tried to look as calm as possible. In fact, he did a test of his own, when he offered the seat. Captain Haris never sat. He always stood at attention, straight as a ruler.
But the creature before Ammes sat down, not knowing Haris' habits.
The similarity with the original Captain was striking nevertheless. The fake Captain had the same scar running up from his lip, the same square jaw hemmed by short hair, the same indifferent gaze. He was of the same height and build as Haris, and he even managed to mimic some of Haris' typical gestures, or lack of it.
Ammes wondered if he would have been able to uncover the visitor's true nature without warning from his guard.
Why he is here? What does he want?
The Minister's fingers of his right hand touched the cold, steel surface of his hidden weapon.
Did he come to kill me?
He didn't know what his chances would be, if the answer was yes. One-to-one, at best. Likely less.
Make this discussion as ordinary as possible.
“If you are concerned about Her Grace,” Ammes said with a bored tone, “I can assure you she is more than capable of taking care of herself, Captain.”
Haris nodded. “I thought so. Did Her Grace mention her intentions?”
