Delver Magic Book VII: Altered Messages (24 page)

Therese gritted her teeth. She did not wish to simply release the half-delver, but how could she deny the delver? Since Petiole escaped from his cell, it seemed as if every dilemma lacked a clear solution. She knew the delver was not deliberately forcing her into a corner, but she felt as if she was being compelled to accept the unacceptable. Ultimately, she decided she owed the delver infinitely more than one token gesture of goodwill, and in that regard, she made her decision.

"Very well. I will trust
you
, Ryson Acumen."

"Thank you."

"If you don't mind, Queen Therese, I would like to follow this teleportation trail now, without further delay," Enin requested before casting his spell.

"Do so, and then move quickly to Portsans. Bring Petiole back here as soon as possible."

"I intend to."

Without another word, Enin cast a spell of teleportation. He, Ryson, Holli and Pru disappeared from the entrance to Dunop.

Therese shook her head, obviously dissatisfied with everything that was happening. She turned to a counselor and offered her opinion of the matter.

"None of this sits well with me. Petiole, the goblin, a magic caster, even the half-delver; all of it is somehow related. I recall the words of the elf guard regarding the gremplings. She said it was possible they could have been following the orders of a sorcerer. She was being truthful, but I wonder if she is willing to see all the possibilities. And will they all be as truthful when they return."

"You suspect something?" the counselor asked.

"What I suspect is irrelevant. What I know is that magic is the underlying connection in everything that has happened here. And the elves use magic."

Venturing into a new section of Dark Spruce, Ryson and Holli immediately sensed potential danger. Enin's teleportation spell thrust them into an unknown environment and neither was given a chance to slowly adjust to threats in the distance. While standing in thick brush, each offered warnings to what they sensed in the surrounding forest.

"There are dark creatures about," Holli warned, as she could sense their magical emission. "Definitely razor crows in the trees, a few gremplings as well, but they are farther out."

"There's something else here," Ryson called out as he sniffed the air. "I think it's a serp."

"The serp could be controlling the crows," Holli warned. "We must be prepared for a possible attack."

"I will disperse the birds, if necessary," Enin stated, but something in the air bothered him as well. "There was a conflict here, but not one involving razor crows or gremplings. I believe the serp was involved. The battle was not a physical one."

"What do you sense?" Holli requested.

Her tone was close to demanding. Still grappling with so many varied sensations, the elf struggled to identify every possible peril. Even as she viewed herself an apprentice to the mighty wizard, she was also his guard, and she believed it was her responsibility to protect the party.

"A battle of wills through magic," Enin offered. "Not a spell, but a conflict that raged across a magical connection."

"That's got to be the serp," Ryson stated. "Probably took control of a monster out here."

Enin shook his head.

"This was no simple manipulation. This was a war. The echo of hostility is remarkable."

"Do not forget," Holli reminded the group, "this is where the spell caster brought Okyiq. They might have stumbled upon a serp. Anything could have happened here."

Heeding her own warnings, the elf quickly checked the tracks around her. The impressions in the tall brush indicated clear markings of both a human and the monstrous goblin. She could see that Okyiq had moved about—both in and out of the tall weeds—but the human tracks showed no wide range of movement. Coming to a quick conclusion, she sought confirmation.

"Enin, has another teleportation spell been cast here?" she asked.

"Actually, yes," Enin replied with a nod. He analyzed it quickly and revealed his findings. "It goes to Portsans. And there are remnants of other teleportation spells very close to this spot. They all connect this area with Portsans. There was quite a bit of coming and going here."

Holli attempted to place the findings in some logical order, but there were too many pieces and not enough information.

"Ryson, where is the serp?"

The delver pointed to the north.

"Over there. It's not far, but something's wrong. It should know we're here, but it's not moving... and it doesn't smell right." He paused and took in one long breath through his nostrils. "I think it's dead."

"That would explain why I can't sense it," Holli revealed. "Do you have the scent of the large goblin or the spell caster?"

Ryson took even greater care in sniffing the wind. He carefully separated the scents he could identify and quickly offered everything he could detect.

"They were here, but they're not now, not any where close anyway. I think there was also another serp, but it's gone too."

"Do you sense any immediate danger beyond the crows and gremplings?"

"No."

"Neither do I. Follow these tracks carefully, as will I. I want to know what happened here."

Ryson acknowledged the request with a nod and put his focus upon the trail left by Okyiq. He followed the tracks out of the tall grass. Once in a clearing, he peered about for just a moment, kneeled to feel the prints with his fingers, and then leapt back up to his feet. He began to glide across the woods from one point to another, examining every detail he could find.

Holli took a different path. The elf stepped away from the immediate tracks of the goblin and looked upon the surrounding forest as a whole. She eyed each trail from a distance and placed everything in context with what they had already discovered.

Enin and Pru carefully moved aside and remained clear of the elf and delver. They said nothing, simply watched as the other two members of their party swiftly but thoroughly covered the grounds.

Pru found the sight both curious and humbling. Despite his own abilities, he marveled at how quickly Ryson found the smallest signs in the most obscure places, and at how effortlessly Holli switched from one trail to another. While the delver raced about using his eyes and nose to drink in every shred of evidence, the elf glided through that small section of woods focusing on subtle details.

"I found the serp," Ryson called out with a warning. "Not a very pleasant sight. It's been chewed up. I don't think it was a shag or a river rogue that attacked it. If it was, it would have just carried off the whole thing."

Holli quickly moved to the delver's side and inspected the corpse.

"Gremplings started to make a meal out of it," she noted. "They ripped away the scaled hide, then the razor crows interrupted them. The birds shredded away the skin at the openings."

Holli reached down to the serp and felt around the dead creature's neck.

"Its throat was crushed," she revealed.

"By Okyiq," Ryson added, and then nodded to a space between two tall trees. "The two battled over there. The tracks were strange. The serp actually let the goblin get behind it. Things went bad for it from there. I'm pretty sure Okyiq just threw the body over here and then went back to the tall grass."

"I saw the same thing. This is all very confusing."

Holli and Ryson returned to Enin and reviewed everything they could determine from the signs on the ground. Putting everything in perspective, Holli revealed her growing misgivings.

"Okyiq and the spell caster did not stumble upon the first serp. The serp that died teleported to this spot after they arrived. It appears the serp meant to meet with the goblin after the magic caster teleported away. Its trail indicates a specific purpose. I believe it battled with the goblin for control and lost, then lost its life as well."

"There's more that's bothering you about this, isn't there?" Enin asked.

Holli and the wizard shared a magical link. It allowed her to monitor his activities so she could effectively work as his guard, and it enabled him to assist her in the areas of spell casting. The connection offered him special insight into her thoughts and emotions, but he would not casually read them as if they were his to do with as he wished.

"A great deal more," Holli replied. "The goblin kills one serp, but a second serp returns to this same spot. Why? Why does another serp risk its own life? It confronts Okyiq, but it doesn't die. The serp and the goblin leave together through yet another teleportation spell. Serps, a goblin and a spell caster; all teleporting between here and Portsans. What is the connection to the dwarves, or to Petiole? There are no answers here, just more questions."

"Then we will go on to Portsans and find the answers there," Enin declared.

The wizard intended for them all to leave immediately. He was prepared to cast the spell of teleportation when he heard a surprising rejection to his plans.

"I'm not going," Pru stated before Enin could begin the spell.

The half-delver even stepped back several paces to create a buffer between himself and the others. Pru had felt trapped in Dunop, imprisoned through no fault of his own. He had no intention of being dragged along on some chase he didn't understand and cared about even less.

The defiant reaction surprised Ryson the most. His delver curiosity was exploding within him. From Okyiq's message to the death of a serp, every aspect of their findings defied reasonable explanation. Holli was correct; there were far more questions than answers. His delver blood rushed with the desire to uncover the solutions, to go to Portsans and bring illumination to the hazy unknown.

He could not imagine Pru simply dismissing the puzzle. Even a half-delver should have been overwhelmed with the desire to find a solution to the mysteries that lurked near each inexplicable detail.

"Don't you want to know what happened?" Ryson asked. "Don't you want to know who's responsible for all of this... why you were held in Dunop?"

"I have a feeling I know what happened, and I'm sure I know who's responsible for me being held in Dunop."

Holli, Enin and Ryson looked expectantly at the half-delver, and Pru voiced his own assumptions without restraint.

"I think the dwarves are responsible."

"The dwarves?" Ryson questioned.

"Yeah, no one else was keeping me there."

"But Okyiq led you there."

"I think the dwarves knew about him the whole time. I think they were all in on it together."

"You can't believe that."

"Care to wager on that?" the half-delver shot back with a snarl of disgust. "It's the only thing that makes sense. Okyiq leaves a bunch of goblin fingers near Burbon. He knows we're not going to miss that. It's done for a reason... to get our attention. Then, he runs off with a spell caster. The caster makes sure he stays ahead of me, but where does he go? Right to Dunop. Doesn't that tell you something? I know what it tells me... the dwarves knew he was coming."

"That seems a bit far-fetched," Ryson responded. He didn't wish to simply dismiss the half-delver's accusation, but it rang more of resentment than of thoughtful contemplation.

"Does it?" Pru shot back. "That dwarf queen sure asked a lot of questions, questions that seem kind of reasonable, unless you look at it in a different light. She wanted to know why a goblin would run to a dwarf tunnel. It's a good question, and maybe the answer is obvious. Maybe because the dwarves wanted him to. Maybe they set all of this up. They get me in a tunnel and then they free Petiole and start pointing the finger at me so no one blames them."

"That's ridiculous," Ryson stated. "The dwarves want to recapture Petiole."

"Do they, or is it all a show?"

"But why would they free him?"

"To give them an excuse to start something with the elves," Pru revealed. "Don't forget, I was in Dunop the whole time. I heard what they were saying. Quite a few of them were blaming the elves, even wondering if some humans might have been involved."

"I agree that tensions are now running high," Holli interrupted, "but your assumptions seem based more on emotion than fact."

"You want facts? Let's talk about those magic stones. How did they get in the cell? No tracks, no scent other than dwarf. Who delivered the stones? You think someone just teleported down there and handed them over to Petiole? I don't think so. I heard the dwarves talk about that too. It's not easy to teleport down to the city as it is. It must be next to impossible to just appear in one of those dungeons. What about it wizard? Am I wrong?"

"I admit it would take enormous skill to teleport directly into Petiole's cell, but there must be another answer."

"Oh really? And what might that be? No tracks, no scent, just teleportation spells sending some elf off to the coast."

"Then why would they ask me to investigate?" Enin questioned. "They knew I would be able to follow the trail of the spell."

"Who knows. Maybe they have some other mystery waiting for you at Portsans. That dwarf queen seemed awfully insistent that you go there as soon as possible. That's why I'm not going."

Pru turned to Ryson.

"You asked me how I can turn away from this," the half-delver said. "You think because I'm part delver I just have to know the answers? Well, I know enough of them to walk away. I can thank my human half for that."

And that was just what Pru did. He walked away and left Enin, Holli and Ryson to consider his words.

"I do not believe Pru is correct about the dwarves," Holli finally broke the silence that fell upon Enin and Ryson after the half-delver's abrupt departure, "but I do think care is in order. While the dwarves have legitimate reasons for sending us after Petiole, the path we must follow is becoming quite obvious, obvious enough to believe we are being led to Portsans, and something may indeed be waiting for us there."

"Then let us meet it and put an end to these questions," Enin declared as he cast a spell of teleportation that brought them to the coastline of Uton.

Upon their arrival in the coastal city of Portsans, they could see, hear, smell, and even taste the sea. They stood upon a grassy plane at the top of a tall, rocky cliff. Waves crashed on the shore below, creating a mist that appeared to float in the air until another spray of water exploded upwards to replace it. On the horizon, the sea met the sky in one long flat line that appeared to stretch on forever, as if both were pressing against each other with equal force and caught in an endless stalemate. High above, white clouds fashioned a billowing serenity in the deep blue blanket of the heavens, while the rocks below shaped a rugged determination to stand against the pounding surf. The sky, the sea, and the land appeared to meld together with calm acceptance of each other, and yet stand apart with stark boldness in the very same instant in time.