The Tower Of The Watchful Eye: The Legend Of Kairu Book 1 (8 page)

Found it.

Can you do it?
She asked.

I don’t see
why not. I’ll have to gather a few items.

I searched
through the scroll and found the four items I needed: Goat’s fur,
Blood of a Possessed, Bee’s Honey and Vlas Herb. I had to draw a
circle on my forehead with the blood, lie on the goat’s fur then I
induce a deep sleep with the mixture of honey and Vlas. I was then
supposed to cast the ancient spell the scroll describes on the
Demon.

I’m starting
to see why this was buried in the bottom of the pile.

I didn’t realize mortals could be so silly,
Cathy said.

You know what
they say: ‘The old ways are the right ways, that’s why they are
still around.’

Whatever you say,
she
said.

Most of these
supplies could be picked up from various supply rooms around the
Tower. The Blood of a Possessed was going to be much more of a
challenge. I was going to have to sneak into Master Gerth’s room
and take it. It says in the scroll that all Blood of the Possessed
should be protected by the Master of Demonology.

Couldn’t you just kill him?
Cathy
asked.
Seems like it would be
easier.

Things don’t
work that way here.

Shame
, she said.

I left the
ritual room and checked the nearest window I could find. It was
still bright enough out that Gerth might still be in lectures. I
climbed down the stairs quietly until I made it to his floor. I
noticed the door to his bedroom was opened a crack and I hesitated
on what to do. I gathered my courage and headed down the hallway
checking the doors.

The Masters’
floors were huge, consisting of a bedroom, a private study, and
seating and storage areas. There were only two locked doors out of
all the ones I found. I tried to crouch down to look through the
keyhole when I heard a shuffling sound. I straightened up and
turned around as Master Gerth walked around the corner.

“
Second Keeper?” he asked unsure. “Is everything
ok?”

“
Of course,” I answered shakily.

“
Then why are you waiting for me by my study?” he asked
confused.

“
Ah,” I said my mind racing for a lie. “I was going to ask you
if I could check your storage room.”

He studied me
for a second. “What would you need from there?”

“
Nothing,” I answered quickly. “I just wanted to check the
inventory.”

“
That seems strange,” he said as he studied me.

“
I know it sounds strange,” I said. “But as the new Keeper, I
thought it would be best as to know exactly what we have. I have
been studying the ritual scrolls and wanted to make sure we had all
the necessary supplies should anything come up.”

I’m kind of
happy with that lie.

No comment,
Cathy said.

Master Gerth
chuckled. “Those dusty old things? I can’t remember the last time
we had to resort to such Ancient Magic.”

“
Better to be sure now, then not have everything when we need
it,” I said starting to lose confidence.

Master Gerth
laughed and shook his head. “You Keepers, always thinking in the
past. If it will help ease your mind, I’ll open it for you.”

“
Yes, thank you,” I said.

“
You would be better off checking Master Baker’s storage
though,” Master Gerth said as he led me down the corridor. “I know
those old rituals require some crazy herbs and he controls them
all.”

“
Yes, but plants can be common and found everywhere,” I
said.

“
True, I do have the rarer stuff,” Master Gerth
said.

We stopped in
front of the storage room door and opened it with a wave of his
hand.

“
I have to get back to my quarters and finish my lecture for
tomorrow,” Master Gerth said as he turned to me. “Can I trust you
on your own?”

“
Of course,” I nodded. “Being a Keeper is a great opportunity
for me. I’m not about to ruin it on my first day.”

He chuckled
softly. “Very good. Just let me know when you have checked
everything so I can lock it back up.”

He turned
around and headed for his bedroom and I silently sighed in
relief.

We are in.

Either he’s really gullible or you actually have some
potential,
Cathy said.

Thanks for
your vote of confidence. Did you hear everything that was said?

Only your side,
Cathy
answered.
If I listen careful, I can hear
your words echo through your mind.

Interesting.

Yeah, so maybe you can STOP SHOUTING YOUR THOUGHTS AT
ME,
Cathy shouted.

I entered the
small storage room and looked around. It wasn’t anything
particularly impressive, considering Gerth is the head of
Demonology. A bookcase full of dusty old volumes, a couple of
unlocked trunks containing old robes and scattered personal effects
littered the room.

Along the back
wall was a single shelf holding a few items. These were what I was
here for: a heart in a jar, large talon-like things and a couple of
vials of blood. I looked behind me to make sure Master Gerth wasn’t
there before I picked up the blood from the shelf. In poor
handwriting on a label was ‘Blood of a Possessed Mage’.

I pocketed it
as I left the dusty room. I walked back to the door to Master Gerth
bedroom and knocked.

“
Yes?” he called out.

“
I’m done, thank you Master,” I called back.

“
Everything is in order?” he asked.

“
A little dusty but good,” I chuckled.

He chuckled as
well. “It’s been a long time since anyone has gone in there. Maybe
it’s due for a cleaning.”

“
I’ve got to go, Master,” I said.

“
More jars to count?” he joked.

I laughed.
“Yeah, there are a few more things I need to do before
tonight.”

“
Good luck, Second Keeper,” Master Gerth said as I headed for
the stairs.

That was
almost too easy. The other stuff is going to be a cake walk.

Good. I can’t wait till I’m out of here,
Cathy said.

Yeah, me
too.

Chapter 7

The rest of
the day went smoothly. I had gathered everything I needed and hid
it, along with the scroll, under my bed. I had spent some time
studying the spell, before I had hit it. It called for a large
amount of magic but I wasn’t powerful enough to do it. I was hoping
to weaken Cathy enough so I could force her out of my mind. I had
to cut the study session short when Keeper Anderson informed me it
was time for the Coming of Age Ceremony.

The Ceremony
was short, only two Apprentices today. Their choices were made
quickly and efficiently and The Keeper recorded the choices as the
oaths were sworn. We were out of the library and back upstairs
before I could get bored.

The Keeper was
right; it shouldn’t even be considered a ceremony anymore.

He then
retired to his bedroom mumbling about ‘the damn stairs’ so I took
it as a sign we was done for the evening. I returned to the bedroom
to prepare for the ritual.

I hope you know what you are doing,
Cathy nagged.

Trust me. I’ve
memorized everything.

We demons have a saying,
she said.
‘
Never trust a human.’

Well, you are
going to have to start.

I rolled up
the scroll and stood up from the bed. I placed the scroll on the
night stand and dropped to my hands and knees to retrieve the items
from under the bed. As the ritual described, I lay the goat’s fur
out onto the bed ensuring that when I lay down, I would be covering
as much as possible. I took the containers of Vlas and Honey and
pounded them into a paste with a pestle and mortar. I set the
mortar on the floor beside the bed and sat down on the goat’s
fur.

I took a deep
breath and opened the vial of blood. The metallic, almost rancid
smell made me gag but I dunked my finger into it and removed some
blood. It felt almost chunky as I put the cap back onto the vial
and drew a circle on my forehead with the blood.

Let’s hope
that’s a perfect circle.

How hard can it be to draw a circle?
She asked.

Hard, when you
are drawing on your own forehead.

I wiped my
finger off on a spare rag I had grabbed for this occasion. I placed
the vial on the nightstand before picking up the mortar and pestle
from the ground. Using the pestle, I took a scoop of the mixture
and opened my mouth but couldn’t eat the paste. I took another deep
breath and steadied myself before forcing myself to ingest the
concoction. The mixture was sweet and bitter at the same time and
with the stink of the blood, made me feel dizzy. I placed the
pestle and mortar back on the ground and tried to get into position
on the goat’s fur.

The world went
fuzzy as my limbs grew as heavy as rocks. I hoped I was in the
proper position.

***

I opened my
eyes to the world of my subconscious. The lone tree stood in the
middle of the clearing but the whole ‘world’ was now covered over
in a thin haze. The haze was probably a side effect of honey/Vlas
paste and I walked through it to the tree.

Cathy, still
dressed as ‘my wife’ from the other dream, was standing half inside
the tree with a bored look on her face. The tree had stopped its
normal pulsing movement as the scroll described it would. Under the
Deep Sleep, my mind would relax and make it easier to release
Cathy.

“
Let’s do this quick,” Cathy said in a bored tone.

“
And to think, I was just starting to get used to your
company,” I said sarcastically.

“
Don’t make me break our deal and kill you,” she
said.

“
Alright, alright,” I said holding up my hands in defeat. “So,
the set up I’ve done should be transferring power to me from the
world around right now, but it’s going to take some time because we
don’t have other Mages to help me gain power faster. I’m still
waiting for the Blood of the Possessed to work.”

“
What’s the deal with that stuff anyway?” she asked with an
interested look.

“
It should hold some of the magical properties of Demons in
it,” I explained. “My body will draw on it to counter your magic
and weaken you.”

“
And the goat’s fur?” she asked.

“
I…I’m not sure actually,” I said trying to think. “My guess
is that because it is an ancient ritual, goat’s fur was common
bedding at the time and that it is just important to be lying
down.”

“
So why did you use it?” she asked.

“
I didn’t want to take any chances,” I replied. “I don’t think
we should be doing this with one person but we don’t have any other
choice. I haven’t heard of any exorcisms lately. The new rule is:
‘If there is even a trace of a Demon, better safe then sorry.’ I
would rather not risk it.”

“
Yes, I can see,” she said slowly as she started to show signs
of weakening, “how your pathetic life would be important to
you.”

“
Even when weak you can still insult me,” I said crossing my
arms.

“
It’s what I do,” she smiled weakly.

“
My conscious mind is fighting back, but I don’t feel any
stronger,” I said worried. “We have to finish the ritual before you
regain your strength.”

“
But,” she started but couldn’t finish.

“
I have to,” I said. “I don’t need that much power anyhow. As
part of our deal, I’m not trying to kill you.”

“
No,” she breathed. “Don’t… understand. You... need...
proper...” Her eyes closed and this must be the sign I needed to
begin.

I forced a
large amount of power into my hands. This spell was going to be
weird to cast. I needed to create a curse powerful enough to attack
the Demon’s soul but not kill it. I was only trying to weaken the
soul enough so I could remove it from the tree.

My finger tips
grew cold and the palms of my hands grew itchy. I started to move
my hands around in circles, creating an orb between my two hands.
The orb grew slowly, glowing dark purple as I continued to feed
energy into it.

I had only one
shot at this, if I hit the tree, I will only weaken or kill my mind
and I’ll be trapped in a subconscious coma forever. I had to hit
Cathy dead on.

The orb
continued to grow but I could feel myself growing tired. It was a
weird sensation to feel; being tired and wanting to sleep while in
a dream. I had to stay awake though. If I slept here, who knows
what would happen to me.

The orb grew
to about ten centimetres across and I couldn’t force anymore energy
into it. The ritual called for twenty centimetres but this would
have to do.

Through the
haze and my exhaustion, it was getting difficult to see. I aimed
for Cathy and released the orb. It streaked towards her in a flash
of purple and hit her squarely in the chest. She shrieked and
twisted as her eyes shot open. The usual white light in her eyes
grew duller by the second until nothing but blackness remained. Her
screaming stopped and the tree released her. The body landed on the
ground hard and didn’t move.

I staggered
over and fell to my knees in front of her. Slowly her body turned
to ash and blew away in a wind that I couldn’t feel. The tree began
pulsing again and the gap where Cathy had been filled in, going
back to normal. I was alone, kneeling by the tree.