The Adventures of Benjamin Skyhammer (13 page)

Rantama smiled. "Each Byndari got a copy soon after they were made. We all assisted in deciphering the relief on the wall. We are pleased that magic will be spread across Pingala."

"Yeah, it's great," Skyhammer said, finger still following the lines of the drawing. "So who figured out what it meant?"

"A Byndari called Almazi. She had a background in social and human art history."

"Had?" Skyhammer looked up.

"Yes, well." Rantama frowned. "Almazi disintegrated while exploring some way outside of our home territory. Possibly an animal got her. A great loss to Byndari culture."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Skyhammer realized Rantama wouldn't have heard about Hermit's death. He told his friend what they had found at Murk Lake.

Rantama was silent for a while then sighed. "Another fine Byndari lost so soon." He plastered a smile on his face. "But enough about Byndari. Why are you back at the Academy?"

Skyhammer stretched one arm along the back of the couch. "I'm investigating the Retrograph changes as per the King's orders. And my own interest." He paused. "Maybe investigating is the wrong word. Hunting down the Retrograph Sorcerer, with express instructions to bring her back to the King."

"Her?"

He shrugged. "A guess. We think that only a woman would have the balls to break a piece of the Retrograph Vault and remove it." A chuckle. "Just kidding. We have no idea who it was."

Rantama's jaw had dropped. It looked quite comical since he didn't have a mouth or jaw, just a slash surrounded by twig lips. He was almost too shocked to speak. "What happened to the Vault?"

"I went in there. Somebody, the Sorcerer, has broken off a piece of it and removed it from the Vault."

"How do you know it was taken out?"

Skyhammer's eyebrows lifted. "As opposed to?"

Rantama shrugged. "Thrown into the cavern?"

"Hmph. I didn't consider that."

"And this is why research on the Retrograph Vault has stagnated." Rantama picked up a small salt statue of a butterfly from the bowl on the table and licked it. "No human dares to disturb the sacred Retrograph Vault. Do you know how often Rantama has tried to encourage the Keeper to experiment on the Vault?"

Skyhammer shook his head.

"Except you of course, you weren't around long enough for me to harass you."

Skyhammer laughed, a little embarrassed.

"And another thing. How do you know it was a woman?"

"I was just--"

"There are three orifices on a human female's body and two on a male's."

"I know!"

"Well, a man or a woman could take a piece out of there."

"But how could that Sorcerer then change our Retrographs?" Skyhammer was silent a moment, then told Rantama about the drawings, the magic slates and the knives.

Rantama listened with a small frown on his face.

"What do you think?" Skyhammer asked, eager to hear the opinion of a non-human.

For a long time, Rantama didn't answer. Just when Skyhammer thought that Rantama hadn't heard his question, the Byndari sighed loudly. "Rantama's first instinct is that someone is threatening to stop the ceremony, destroy magic and kill the King. But then Rantama is assuming a lot of things. But at first glance, that's what it seems to be."

"We think that as well. If this Sorcerer can change Retrographs then who knows what else he could do."

"Who's we?"

"Higgins, Ms. Floss and I."

"You've told Ms. Floss?"

"We thought she might have some insight."

"What does she think?" Rantama looked down at the drawings on the table.

"The same as you." Skyhammer spread his arms in a gesture of bewilderment. "We just have no idea. The Sorcerer could be anyone, anywhere."

"Now wait just a minute. If we say it's most likely the Sorcerer is a human-"

"Because only humans have Retrographs-"

"Exactly. So. Humans can only do magic in the Royal Circle. We assume that the Sorcerer is using magic to make the changes. Since you didn't find anyone in the Retrograph Vault. Thus-"

"The Sorcerer must be in the Royal Circle," Skyhammer exclaimed. A doleful look crossed his face. "Rantama, there are 1.5 million humans in Floatilla alone. How can we find the Sorcerer in that?"

Rantama's shoulders sank. "Good point. But we have nothing else. At least if you're in the Royal Circle when something comes up, you're right there."

"I guess."

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Let us help you find the Retrograph Sorcerer. There are Byndari in every capital city and in most villages in most countries. If there is a whisper of a rumour about this Retrograph Sorcerer, we will know of it. If you get any more information on him or her though, make sure you let us know right away."

"Absolutely. Thank you. That's a weight off my mind, having Byndari eyes and ears in every city."

Someone rapped on Rantama's door. Skyhammer bolted to the bedroom, threw a blanket over Higgins then rolled under the bed.

Rantama opened the door. "Professor Bumble! What can Rantama do for you?" Two sets of feet began walking towards the sitting room.

His empty juice glass. Skyhammer's heart jumped in fear. If the professor entered the sitting room, he would know Rantama had a visitor. They were about to be discovered!

"Just letting you know the guard's been taken off the teachers' quarters." The footsteps halted. "Skyhammer and Higgins seem to have left the Academy grounds."

"What a shame, Professor! Thank you for letting Rantama know. Good night!"

The door closed.

* * *

Skyhammer woke up in Rantama's bed knowing that he didn't want to go back to Four Hills. Without the Retrograph Sorcerer, it was failure, just going back because he had no other option.

Leaning back against the headboard, Higgins snoring beside him, he opened his Whorl. The scent of frying bacon wafted under the door. Would the pages be turned over again? He held his breath.

One drawing was flipped.

"Poof," Skyhammer whispered.

"Nnngg?" Higgins mumbled, then rolled over, eyes shut.

In every Retrograph that included the sixth page, it was turned over. None of the other five pages was touched.

But there was another new change. A change that, at first glance, looked like it had nothing to do with magic or the ceremony.

Chapter 13

Countdown to ceremony: 13 days

Skyhammer shook his head in disbelief. In one Retrograph, Rantama's sitting room had been de-cluttered, as though the school cleaners had been hired to spruce up the room. Every bookshelf was tidy, books organized from tallest to shortest. Every single piece of knitting was piled up neatly, blankets in one pile, pillows in another, toys in a third, biggest on the bottom, smallest on top. It looked like a different room.

Those changes, although startling, were not what truly unnerved Skyhammer. Seeing his own body manipulated was what scared him. Because, in the same Retrograph, Skyhammer's left hand now covered Rantama's mouth and his right hand held a book.

"Like puppets on a string," he murmured. Familiar though, in an odd way, this Retrograph. The changes. The book was entitled
Chronicles of Feorag
. He'd read it. Couldn't remember the plot though. And he certainly hadn't touched it last night.

He let out a huge sigh.

"More changes?" Higgins was watching him.

Skyhammer described the changes to her.

"You don't remember what the book was about?" she asked, sitting up and beginning to get dressed.

Skyhammer swung his legs over the side of the bed and pulled on his clothes. "No clue. But since the book's in the other room, I'll just have a look at it."

As they entered the sitting room, Rantama called from the kitchen, "Eggs, bacon, toast and juice! Hope you're hungry!"

"You shouldn't have gone to the trouble for us," Higgins protested.

"Nonsense. Rantama loves any opportunity to cook. And you'll need strength to reach Four Hills. It's a long walk."

"We have horses," Skyhammer said.

"You do?"

"We left them in the woods tied on long leads when we got in the canal boat to come here." Skyhammer sat down at the tiny kitchen table.

Rantama looked at Higgins, who shrugged.

"We can only pray that nothing ate them," she said. "He was desperate to take the boat here." She buttered a piece of toast.

"Mem'ries," Skyhammer said through a mouthful of egg and toast.

Rantama took off his apron and sat at the table with them. "Rantama slipped out this morning to talk with Ms. Floss." He smiled at them both. "She said to pass on the message that Spelunk had returned from Hermit's house and it looks like Hermit was killed approximately three years ago. He definitely didn't die from natural causes."

Skyhammer nodded.

"He must have seen the Retrograph Sorcerer go into the Vault and was killed so that he would keep quiet about it," Higgins declared.

"Rantama agrees, dear."

"But if the Retrograph Sorcerer went in the Vault three years ago and has been able to see and change Retrographs that whole time, why did he wait until now to show his power?" Skyhammer wondered aloud.

"Simple," Higgins replied. "The Wall. The Retrograph changes only deal with the Wall and that wasn't found until a few months ago."

"Rantama, my Retrographs have been changed," Skyhammer said.

The Byndari d. "Again? What changed?"

Skyhammer recounted the changes.

Rantama sat, silent and thoughtful, staring down at the table. "Let's go into the sitting room. If you're done?" Higgins and Skyhammer nodded.

Not for the first time, Skyhammer wished that Byndari had facial expressions beyond smiling and frowning so that he could get some clue as to what his friend was thinking. "What do you think?" he asked finally, as he sat down on Rantama's couch.

The Byndari pulled the drawing in question out from under his bowl of salt statues and positioned it in front of them. "Almost impossible to say. Rantama might hazard a guess that the Sorcerer thinks that humans having widespread magic powers is a danger to the world." He shrugged. "What else did you say was different?" He yanked a bag out from beneath the table, withdrew a needle and a ball of yarn and started crocheting a granny square.

"My hand covering your mouth." Skyhammer wanted to say it meant that maybe he shouldn't be listening to the Byndari or maybe they were lying about something. It felt wrong to say that to his Byndari friend though, so he held his tongue. The Byndari were helping the humans and the other species.

"Perhaps the Byndari are saying something that humans do not want to hear," Rantama suggested. "We
are
advocating practically a truce between Nasuchu and the other species. If this Sorcerer is political in some way, it may not be in his or her best interests for the ceremony to go ahead. Maybe they are anarchists. Or he could be the leader of some group planning to destroy the King or Floatilla."

"Do you really think there are people out there wanting to do that? If the King was destroyed then magic would be gone and this Sorcerer couldn't do his magic."

"Unless they already don't have to perform magic in the Circle," Rantama said.

"Aaagh. Don't make my job any harder, please! The last thing I need right now is a Sorcerer who can perform magic outside the Royal Circle." Skyhammer frowned. "I don't even want to think about that."

"What is certain is that you have to find this Sorcerer before the ceremony." Rantama picked up a new strand of wool with his needle.

"I know."

"He-"

"How do you know it's a he?" Skyhammer's eyebrows raised.

"For convenience sake, let's say it's a he. Rantama thinks that either the Sorcerer is going to affect the ceremony somehow or the Sorcerer knows that something is going to happen at the ceremony. Either way, we need to find this person."

"Which brings us right back to the fact that we have no idea who it is," Higgins interjected.

Rantama crocheted away, round and round his square.

Skyhammer cleared his throat. "Have you heard of a book called the
Chronicles of Feorag
?"

Rantama didn't look up. "It's on the shelf over there where you left it."

Skyhammer's head jerked up in surprise. "Of course." He stood up and crossed over to the bookshelf in the corner of the sitting room.

Higgins and Rantama followed him.

"Not that one! By the window. Third from the top. Why do you ask?" Rantama's voice was casual. "You and Spark hated that book."

Skyhammer pulled the book off the shelf, his hand trembling. There it was. The connection. The niggling idea had begged for acknowledgement, but he had ignored it. Couldn't any longer though.

Spark. Only she and Rantama, of course, had any connection to that book and to Skyhammer. He knew Rantama wasn't the Retrograph Sorcerer. That left only Spark. And it fit in with the rest of the changed Retrograph - every item organized and tidy. Covering Rantama's mouth, presumably because he was lying about something. Connecting that with their heated arguments about the book and its unreliable narrator. The three of them had discussed the dangers to society of withholding the truth, among other themes from the book. He'd never talked about
Chronicles of Feorag
with anyone other than Spark and Rantama.

"Well?" Rantama rested his crocheting on his lap.

If Spark was trying to communicate through his Retrographs, if she had magic, if she was the other Keeper . . . Skyhammer couldn't take it in. He stumbled back to the couch.

"What is wrong?" Rantama stood up, crochet square falling to the floor.

Higgins sat beside him. "Are you okay?"

"I know who it is."

His two friends looked at him, waiting.

"Spark."

"What?" Rantama sat down and leaned forward. "How do you know?"

Skyhammer took a deep breath. "This book was placed prominently in the changed Retrograph. When you reminded me about Spark and I reading this and discussing it with you . . ." He trailed off.