Authors: John Buttrick
“We should head back to the compound. Much as I would’ve liked to find the source of the illnesses on this visit, it seems this is probably going to be the first of many trips,” Sherree told her escorts.
Neither one of them disagreed so they went back to the compound. For five days they searched the city for the contagion. Master Togan and his team continued their research of the city, which meant they had to find Sherree and her little team every few marks for relief of the symptoms. At night, Sherree studied the notes Fenton gave her and eliminated one infection after another. She had hoped to make the discovery on her own but had to admit she needed consultation.
“Senior Practitioner Chen, this is Sherree Jenna,” she sent through the amulet.
“I have been expecting this communication for several days.” He replied with no trace of emotion coming through the mental contact. “I can sense the frustration along with your words.”
She had not meant to relay her feelings, she would have to work on that, learn to communicate what she wanted and nothing more. “I have been over every part of the compound and the sunken city, casting all of the spells I know and those you provided on locating germs, bacteria and viruses, but have found nothing that could explain the illnesses, although I do know the contaminated area.”
“And that is where?” Fenton asked.
“Definitely Tomlin, every time I eliminate the symptoms they reoccur after only a few marks spent in the sunken city.”
He questioned her thoroughly for over half a mark. “You seem to have covered every natural possibility. What is left?”
The answer was obvious. “The cause is unnatural,” Sherree replied.
She knew of high power Melodies in the Aloe Guild library that were restricted according to ranking. She would not be permitted to learn a Melody that would mummify her and therefore was not granted access. Could there be spells that caused illness? Why?
“Aakacarn to be precise,” Fenton sent in respons
e to her reply to his question.
“Are there spells of the Aloe Guild that make people sick?” she asked. Because, if the Aloe Guild had no such spells, that left the Serpent.
“Yes, such Melodies exist, but are ancient and nearly forgotten, except by a few scholars and myself.”
“I seriously doubt any Accomplished here would have such Melodies in his or her repertoire. Do you think the Serpent Guild might have such a spell and be involved?” Sherree communicated her fears.
“The young are quick to allow their imaginations to run wild. The reports I have received on Serpent Guild activity indicate they show no interest in Lake Tomlin,” Fenton replied and paused briefly before adding, “Have you considered an amulet?”
Sherree shook her head, even though Fenton could not see the gesture. “Yes, once I decided to contact you, the amulet was the first thing that came to my mind.”
It was kind of like asking a man on a horse if he intended to ride somewhere, even though the intention was obvious.
“Communication is the major use for amulets, this has been true for centuries, but they were used much more extensively a thousand years or so ago,” Fenton re-educated her.
She knew almost any spell could be set in an amulet, but doing so seemed pointless except for communication. She could cast any Melody with a Da Capo to maintain it, leaving no need for an amulet, and that thought begged the question she sent to her mentor, “What would be the point?”
“Historically, they were a non-lethal way to cause people to avoid a particular area.”
“You mean, there could be an amulet warding the city,” Sherree concluded.
“I believe it to be a high probability. The amulet could have been left behind by its previous owner when the city was abandoned,” Fenton sent.
The possibility produced another question. “Was it left unintentionally or on purpose?”
“Good question, the answer to which may be revealed when you locate the device. I leave you with this assignment, go back to the city and locate the amulet. On page ten, section three, of the binder I gave you, you will find a Melody to locate Potential. It is similar to the one used to locate all Aakacarns within your visual range, except this one allows you to sense the direction of its location whether you can see the energy source or not,” the Senior Practitioner instructed her.
Sherree was pleased to have a direction to follow. “Thank you for the guidance.”
“Thanks are not necessary. Accomplishing the task is the focus, so stay with it and keep me informed.”
“I will do so,” Sherree sent and then ended the communication and went to sleep.
The next morning Sherree ate breakfast with Jerremy and then they met Joel at the lake. As they passed through the
green copper gates of Tomlin she cast the Melody Fenton suggested and immediately sensed the potentials of her companions along with a force drawing her attention to the right, straight toward the central building. “This way,” she told Joel, seeing as it was his sphere of air they were depending on.
“We searched the home of the Accomplished of Tomlin days ago,” Jerremy commented. “You were quite thorough, yet we found nothing.”
“What I’m looking for is definitely there but may not be out in the open, which means your repertoire might be called upon,” Sherree replied.
“I knew the success of this endeavor would be up to me,” Jerremy replied with his nose in the air.
“It’s about time you contributed something more than your mere presence,” Joel commented.
The easy banter lightened the mood. The men had been discouraged after devoting so much time with so little result. Sherree chose not to tell them of the amulet theory just yet, she wanted to be sure before bringing it up, but the spell she was maintaining proved there is an active potential being used in the direction of the central building. They passed through the entrance and down the main hallway, like they had done many times before. Jerremy summoned a ball of light. Eighty paces in, she came to a stop. The life force potential was directly beneath her feet.
“Jerremy, make an opening in the floor right here,” she told him while pointing at the spot.
The Serinian glowed violet and a cone-shaped beam shot from his right hand, creating a circular hole in the floor three paces wide. Sherree could see another hallway through the opening. “Joel, we need to get down there.”
The Pentrosan-born Accomplished nodded his head. “Hey, Stone Guild, make the hole bigger. If I go down there without you two holding my hands, I’m not the one who will be swimming through to the lower level.”
Jerremy widened the hole and Sherree took hold of Joel’s right hand while the tall Serinian took hold of his left. Down they floated to the lower hallway. She let go of the hand and bent down, sensing the active potential beneath her feet. “We have to go deeper.” She told them.
Jerremy focused his spell at the floor, creating another hole, this one large enough for the sphere to pass through. What they found was not a hall, it was a chamber with no point of entrance other than the one Jerremy had made, no wonder they never saw the room, it had been hidden, deliberately, no doubt about it. Water flowed down into the chamber, flooding it quickly. If not for the sphere, they would have been sucked in as if flushed down a drain. Directly below them, in the center of the floor, a sarcophagus sat, four paces long, two wide, and two deep. They locked hands and Joel floated the bubble down and to the right of the marble coffin.
“Whatever is inside could not be very large,” Jerremy commented.
“There is no image or inscription to say who or what is in it,” Joel stated the obvious. If there was a body, it had to be that of a child.
Her spell could not be wrong and she no longer had any doubt, the active potential was coming from inside the sarcophagus. The moment the sphere touched the marble coffin, Sherree began to perspire, a headache radiated from her temples, and she nearly vomited. It was a struggle
yet she managed better than Jerremy and Joel, who emptied the contents of their stomachs onto the floor. That did it. The smell was too much. Her breakfast joined theirs. While she was wiping her mouth, Joe had the presence of mind to step away from the coffin, which offered some relief and left the vomit floating in the water several paces away. The nasty assault on their bodies lessoned enough to allow Sherree to concentrate, so she summoned potential and did away with the rest of the symptoms, for herself and the men.
“There’s a spell emanating from the sarcophagus and it is making us sick,” She told her escorts.
“Considering this was the quickest illness ever to come upon me, I’m forced to agree,” Jeremy stated.
“You led us straight to it. Did you know this was here?” Joel asked.
“Fenton Chen and I discussed the possibility of something like this being the contagion. After ruling out any natural cause, we decided I should look for the unnatural, for Aakacarn involvement,” Sherree replied. “I used a spell from his repertoire.”
Jerremy was staring at the sarcophagus and then shook his head. “Why woul
d anyone want to make us sick?”
“To discourage us from coming near this chamber and the sarcophagus in particular,” Joel rightly concluded. He possessed twice the age and experience of his companions and it showed.
“My thought as well,” Sherree said while studying the marble casket.
She cast a levitation spell and focused on the lid, lifting the slab up and over to the right of the sarcophagus, and then gestured for Joel to edge closer to their discovery. “That’s near enough,” she told him a pace before the bubble of air could come in contact with the casket, not wanting to be sick again. From this distance the interior was clearly visible.
An oblong silver box with the letter
s
D.L.
,
in golden script on the lid, lay snugly within the dimensions of the sarcophagus. The latch was a gold-hinged device with two walnut-sized rubies, clearly amulets, embedded in it, and one of them had to be the ward.
“This, whatever it is,” Jerremy said while pulling an amulet from a pocket within his silks, “is a significant discovery. I need to inform Master Togan right away,”
“And Martin should be made aware of this,” Joel added.
“Wait, both of you. Before we do anything more, I need to consult Fenton Chen. Just breathing the air near it made us sick, we have no idea what actually touching it would do. This thing needs to be safely disarmed and then we can proceed,” Sherree insisted.
Joel nodded his head. “It is better to be cautious. Go ahead and have your consultation.”
“Very well,” Jerremy reluctantly agreed, but did not put away his amulet.
Sherree placed Fenton’s amulet against her forehead. “Senior Practitioner Chen, this is Sherree Jenna.”
“Accomplished Jenna, proceed with your report,” Fenton’s voice sounded in her head.
“I have found the contagion. It is one of two amulets on the latch of a silver oblong box within in a marble sarcophagus, in a hidden chamber beneath the lower level hallway of the central building. On the top of the box are the letters D.L., do you know what they stand for?”
There was a long pause, so long Sherree wondered if her mentor had fallen asleep. Just when she was about to repeat the message, his response came, “Do not under any circumstances attempt to open the box or remove it from the chamber. I now understand why the ward is so strong. The contents of the box have been Determined Lethal. It is an ancient warning, but we dare not disregard the danger.” The anxiety in his sending came through along with the words, and the threat had to be serious for the unflappable Fenton Chen to lose control and broadcast his feelings.
“What should we do?” Sherree sent.
“You said, we. Who is with you?”
“Jerremy DeSuan, a One-bolt Accomplished of the Stone Guild, who created the entrance to the hidden vault, and Reservoir Joel Glader, a Two-bolt Accomplished of the Aqua Guild, who is providing breathable air,” Sherree replied.
“Have either of them informed anyone of this discovery?”
“No, I wanted your advice on how to disarm it before we did anything else,” Sherree replied.
“That was excellent thinking. You three are to remain in the chamber under quarantine. There is no way for us to know what you have been exposed to. The safe way is the best way. I will send a team of experts and they will examine and then assist you in recovering the object,” Fenton replied decisively.
The idea of being quarantined was not in the least appealing. “But it could take days for a team to arrive. What are we suppose to live on? What should we tell Master Togan and his team?”
“Being a Senior Practitioner has a few privileges attached to it. I can declare an emergency and have a team floating on the Hirus almost immediately. Do not be so dramatic. The morning is young, the team I send will be there within half a day, and at most you will miss only one meal. Did you have luncheon plans?”
Sherree was glad he could not see her blush, even though Jerremy and Joel could. The Serinian arched an eyebrow at her. The Pentrosan looked at her askance and then smiled. She turned her back and did her best to ignore them. The last thing she wanted was to come across as a whiny child to her mentor. “I didn’t know you could respond so quickly. Of course we will establish the quarantine.”