Runic Revelation (The Runic Series Book 2) Page 13

  “I need to show you something,” Erasmus urged.

  “What's wrong?” Kalibar asked. Erasmus said nothing, but opened the door to the Runic Archives, pulling Kalibar inside. Kalibar, wearing his eyepatches, continued the act of being blind, allowing Erasmus to guide him into the room. It was truly massive, with dozens of rows of shelving standing several stories tall, each stuffed to the brim with thousands of magical artifacts. To one side of Archives was a door that opened to reveal a long hallway, at the end of which was the Testing Chamber; that's where Erasmus led Kalibar. The chamber was thirty feet long, thirty feet wide, and had ceilings 30 feet tall. The walls were a light blue color to Kalibar, due to his newfound ability to see magic in the shields protecting the walls. They were, in actuality, stark white.

  Erasmus led Kalibar toward the center of the chamber, to a small white table there. On top of the table, Kalibar saw a familiar object: Kyle's ring.

  “We've done it,” Erasmus stated, his tone oddly neutral. Kalibar frowned.

  “Done what?” he asked. Erasmus gestured to the ring.

  “We've decoded Kyle's ring.”

  “You did it?” Kalibar asked, taken aback. Erasmus gave a slight smirk.

  “The three dozen Runics may have helped,” he replied wryly. “I've had them working three rotating shifts around the clock. Each was assigned a few runes to decode.” He gestured to the white table; next to the ring sat a long, rectangular crystal with dozens of runes inscribed onto its surface. “After they decoded the runes, I had them copy the runes in the proper sequence onto that crystal slab.”

  “That's a pretty big slab,” Kalibar noted. It was true; the ring was dwarfed by the two-foot-long crystalline block beside it.

  “Yeah, well the runes on that ring were so small we couldn't see them without using a series of magnifying lenses,” Erasmus replied. “Never mind tracking the connections between runes...they were inscribed in three dimensions inside main crystal. We laid them out in straight lines – all two hundred of them.”

  “Two hundred?” Kalibar exclaimed. His magical staff – the latest in modern runic technology – was nearly six feet long, and carried a similar number of runes. The center gemstone of Kyle's ring was two carats, at most. To think that all of those runes could be packed into such a small area...it gave him goosebumps. The Ancients had truly been masters of runic technology...and Ampir had stood head and shoulders above them.

  “Tell me about it,” Erasmus muttered. “In any case, if I trigger the sensory rune on our runic copy over here,” he stated, walking up to the rectangular crystal, “...it'll reproduce the functionality of Kyle's ring.”

  “You've already done it,” Kalibar guessed. Erasmus nodded, but to Kalibar's surprise, his friend's expression was hardly joyous. Kalibar's brow furrowed. “What's wrong?”

  “See for yourself,” Erasmus answered. He closed his eyes for a moment, and re-opened them. “There,” he stated.

  “There what?” Kalibar asked. “Nothing happened.”

  “Exactly what we thought...at first,” Erasmus agreed. “But I assure you that it is doing something. We were about to give up on guessing what that something was until one of our brighter Runics noticed that the last rune in the activation sequence doesn't code for any magic effect at all.”

  “What?”

  “You know how password runes are just sensory runes with a particular shape? And if you weave that shape, it will activate the sensory rune?” he asked. Kalibar nodded. “Well,” Erasmus continued, “...it turns out that the last rune in the sequence is meant to send a password to a sensory rune far away.”

  “Wait, so the ring just transmits a message?” Kalibar asked. “Surely it does more than that!”

  “Afraid not,” Erasmus replied. “Other than a few runes to protect the ring from being destroyed, that's all it does.”

  “Impossible!” he exclaimed. He stared at the ring on the table, then turned his gaze back to Erasmus. “You're sure?”

  “As sure as I can be,” Erasmus replied. Then he gave a rueful smile. “You know, I didn't remember it until now, but Xanos himself had called the ring a...what was it?”

  “A glorified transmitter,” Kalibar recalled. He'd completely forgotten about that as well. “He knew it all along,” he realized.

  “That's right,” Erasmus stated. “And you know what really terrifies me? That Xanos figured that out in seconds, and it took almost forty of my best Runics over a week to confirm it.”

  They both stood there silently for a long moment, staring at the ring laying in the center of the white table. Finally, Erasmus looked up at Kalibar, rubbing a hand over his shiny, bald head.

  “So this brings up the obvious question,” Erasmus said. Kalibar nodded, tapping his goatee with one finger.

  “Right,” he replied. “If the ring is a glorified transmitter, then what's been protecting Kyle – and all of us – all this time?”

  “My thought exactly,” Erasmus agreed. Kalibar stared at Kyle's ring, the center gemstone glittering a faint yellow-blue in the harsh light of the magical lanterns bolted to the walls. He idly remembered that it had been pure yellow before he got his new eyes; now it had a yellow center, with a light blue tint at the edges. He shook his head slowly, considering the ramifications. If the ring was just a transmitter, then it couldn't have protected Kyle from anything...and it couldn't have teleported Kyle to this world.

  A glorified transmitter, he mused. So who is the ring transmitting to?

  He turned away from the ring, staring at nothing in particular.

  “I need time to think,” he muttered.

  * * *

  Kalibar sat down on his bed, staring at the spot where the assassin who'd tried to murder him yesterday had lain. The body had finally been moved a half hour ago, the forensic evidence collected. Not that there had been any evidence to collect, other than the body. It had been a clean kill, with no damage at all to the surrounding furniture. Not a bloodstain on the carpet, or on Kalibar's bedsheets. The assassin's body and head had been transferred to the Royal Medical Examiner's office, where a careful autopsy would be performed.

  He glanced at the full glass of greenish liquid on his nightstand. It was the narcotic drink Jenkins had prepared for him – and that Kalibar had declined – since he'd become Grand Weaver. If he hadn't needed the pain-killing drink before, he certainly didn't need it now.

  Kalibar shook his head, realizing he was woolgathering. He'd come up to his room to get away for a while, to strategize, but his meeting with Erasmus had shaken him.

  He sighed, rubbing his eyes wearily. Ever since he'd met Kyle, Kalibar had wondered how the boy had been transported here. At first, he hadn't really believed that Kyle was from another planet. Such an idea had seemed preposterous, laughable. But then he'd seen Kyle's timepiece...the “watch” with such amazing technology, such minute, perfect craftsmanship, powered by a mysterious, non-magical energy...it had convinced him that Kyle was for real.

  An alien from another planet.

  Yet he was so inexplicably human...indistinguishable from any other boy, save for the enormous amount of magic he generated. And Kyle had somehow recognized horses, which were also apparently on his planet...Urth, he'd called it. None of it made much sense.

  Kalibar shook his head; he was woolgathering again. But why not? He laid down on his bed, still fully clothed, staring up at the ceiling. The real question was how Kyle had gotten here. Of course, the fact that Kyle's ring was a powerful transmitter was an obvious clue. If the signal were capable of traveling far enough, it could conceivably reach from one planet to another. The ring, then, might allow someone to determine its precise location from an enormous distance.

  Kalibar closed his eyes, thinking back to what Kyle had said about his dreams. He'd only been half-listening at the time, what with his numerous head injuries, his blindness, and the threat of Orik's plot to overthrow the Empire hanging over him. Now he wished he'd been paying closer attention. The dre
ams had all been of Ampir, his wife, and his son. Of them experiencing the final hours of the Ancient war that had destroyed the Empire. Ampir had taken his family to a chamber, and had supposedly created a portal to another world, teleporting his son to safety, right before a giant magic death-machine had stomped the life out of him.

  But before that, he'd given the child a ring...

  According to Kyle, it had been Ampir's ring. And Erasmus had confirmed that Kyle's ring was indeed of Ancient origin. Which meant that Ampir's son had traveled to Urth, and somehow, over the next two thousand years, it had gotten into Kyle's hands. It was extraordinarily unlikely that Kyle had any blood relation to Ampir's son...after all, a lot could happen in two thousand years. The ring must have changed ownership countless times through the hundred or so generations that had passed. So why would anyone want to bring Kyle – a complete stranger – to this world? And why the dreams?

  Kalibar frowned, stiffening suddenly.

  The dreams! He sat up suddenly, slamming his fist into one palm. Then he got up from the bed and began to pace. The dreams...how could he have overlooked that? They were, without a doubt, Ampir's memories. Kalibar had assumed they'd been stored in the ring, and somehow Kyle had triggered their release. But if the ring was just a transmitter, then where had the memories come from?

  Kalibar stopped, running a hand through his short, white hair. Then he looked down, staring at the tips of his boots. They were black, with numerous crystals embedded in the surface. Blue wisps of magic glowed faintly from each crystal. What an incredibly simple but powerful gift, to see so precisely what others could only feel vaguely. Sensing magic the traditional way – feeling the patterns with one's mind – was difficult and slow, requiring years of practice. If he'd had the ability to visualize the patterns as a child, to see magic streaming to these patterns in real time, he would have become a prodigy. Magic would have been so easy and intuitive, he would have become the most gifted Weaver in history...perhaps the greatest wielder of magic who'd ever lived. Like...

  He felt goosebumps raised up on his arms, and a chill run down his spine. He closed his eyes, remembering the voice that had reverberated in his mind mere hours ago.

  You wanted to meet me.

  Kalibar felt his heart pound in his chest, and he stared off into the distance, at nothing at all.

  And now you have.

  “Dear god,” he whispered.

  It came to him then. He'd been at Crescent Lake with Kyle, talking about Kyle's dreams. He remembered staring at the waterfall in the distance, watching the countless droplets glitter in the morning sunlight. They'd been talking about Kyle's dreams.

  What I wouldn't give to meet the man, he'd said.

  Kalibar brought his trembling fingers to his eyelids, closing his eyes and passing his fingertips over them. His heart thumped rapidly in his chest.

  Of course!

  “Dear god,” he repeated, another chill running through him. He sat down on his bed, resting his palms on his knees. It was so obvious now! How hadn't he figured it out earlier? But no, it was impossible...the man had died over two thousand years ago. Or had he? If he'd somehow managed to survive all these years...

  Kalibar stared at the communication half-orb sitting on the end-table, the one he'd used to summon the guard previously. Runes shone on its surface, dozens of glowing blue patterns that only he could see.

  Someone had been able to see magic like this, long ago. And they'd become the most powerful wielder of magic of all time. The most powerful Battle-Runic of all time.

  It had to be Ampir!

  Kalibar put a hand to his face again, running his fingers over his eyelids, feeling the swell of his eyeballs underneath. He lowered his hand, opening his eyes.

  Of course Ampir wouldn't know any other way of seeing. It was all he knew, this amazing sight...and now he'd given Kalibar the gift of his perspective. Which meant, of course, that the man he'd met...that unthinkable wellspring of power...

  But he died, Kalibar told himself, shaking his head slowly. Even in Kyle's last dream, Ampir had died...

  But he knew it wasn't true. It could be no one else. And only a man as brilliant as Ampir could have found a way to fend off the greatest enemy of mankind...death.

  You wanted to meet me.

  Kalibar laughed suddenly. He'd wanted to meet Ampir, that much was true. And for some unknown reason, through some impossible stroke of luck, the most powerful Runic ever known had come to him, giving him back his sight.

  Suddenly the doorbell rang. Kalibar flinched, then got up from his bed, striding into the main suite and peering to see who was behind the door. To his surprise, it was Master Owens, followed by a shaken-appearing Erasmus. Master Owens – usually preternaturally calm – looked uncharacteristically distraught, his face pale and drawn. Kalibar grabbed his eyepatches from his breast pocket, putting them on. Then he rushed to let the two men in.

  “What's wrong, gentlemen?” he asked. Neither Erasmus or Master Owens said anything, but Owens shook his head, his lower lip quivering slightly.

  He looked terrified.

  Kalibar felt his guts twist, knowing that the fact that Owens himself had come to bring him news meant that it had to be about one of two people. And judging by the look on Owens' face...

  “What is it?” he demanded, grabbing the man by the shoulders, struggling to stay calm.

  “It's Master Banar,” Master Owens replied, his voice quivering. “Kyle went to train with him this morning.”

  “And?” Kalibar pressed, his toner harsher than he'd planned. Owens paled, and Erasmus stepped in, putting a hand on Kalibar's shoulder.

  “Master Owens found Master Banar a half-mile from the Tower,” Erasmus interjected. Then he dropped his gaze to the floor. “Banar is dead.”

  “What?” Kalibar exclaimed. “How?”

  “Murdered,” Master Owens replied. “Impaled through the back of the head by the looks of it.”

  “And Kyle?” Kalibar pressed, dread coming over him. Master Owens shook his head mutely. Kalibar swallowed in a dry throat. “Is he...?”

  “Missing,” Owens replied.

  “Damn it!” Kalibar swore. He turned from Erasmus and Master Owens, clenching and unclenching his fists.

  They've taken my son!

  He closed his eyes, feeling suddenly numb. The cold, calculating part of him examined the possibilities, and came up with only two. They've taken him, or killed him, he deduced. A vision of Kyle lying on the ground, eyes staring lifelessly upward, appeared in his mind's eye. He shook his head to clear it of that horrid image, opening his eyes. Master Owens and Erasmus were both staring at him. He turned away, unable to face them.

  I was supposed to protect him, he thought, a familiar shame creeping over him. I was supposed to protect my son, and I failed.

  Again.

  Kalibar felt a hand squeeze his shoulder, and he turned to see Erasmus standing there. His old friend was one of the only people who knew about Kalibar's long-dead son. One of the few who understood what Kyle had really meant to him.

  “We'll get him back,” Erasmus promised. “I've already mobilized the guards. Say the word, and a dozen Battle-Weavers will fly out to find him.”

  Kalibar nodded mutely, knowing that if he spoke now, his voice would crack. He had the sudden, desperate urge to fly out of the Tower, to scour the Empire for Kyle himself. But he knew that he could not. He was Grand Weaver now...the entire Empire was his to protect. He could not endanger the lives of millions to save one, no matter how precious that one life might be.

  But that was exactly what Ampir had done.

  Kalibar turned back to Master Owens; the Weaver was still staring at the floor, clearly struggling to maintain his composure. Kalibar sighed, putting a hand on the man's shoulder.

  “Send Battle Weavers to find him,” he ordered. Master Owens nodded silently. Then Kalibar paused, a chill running down his spine. “Where's Ariana?”

  “I sent her to her room in your
retirement suite,” Owens answered. “Erasmus took the liberty of asking a few Battle-Weavers to guard her until more formal arrangements could be made.”

  “Thank you,” Kalibar replied, relieved. “Thank you both. If you could double the wards in her room,” he added, glancing at Erasmus.

  “Consider it done,” Erasmus replied. Kalibar gave his old friend a weak smile, then walked over to the communication orb and activated it. At the same time, he turned back to Master Owens.

  “No more outdoor lessons,” he stated firmly. “Teach Ariana in her room.” Master Owens nodded silently. He stared at Kalibar for a long moment, fidgeting restlessly. Kalibar frowned. “What is it?” he asked.

  “We...” Master Owens answered, “...Ariana and I were only a mile away...we'd talked with them minutes before it happened.” He lowered his gaze to the floor, shaking his head slowly. “I'm sorry, Kalibar.” Kalibar put a hand on Owen's shoulder.

  “It's not your fault,” he replied. Master Owens nodded, but he did not look convinced. Kalibar sighed. “I can only hope Kyle's Aegis will protect him.”

  Owens swallowed visibly.

  “He wasn't wearing the Aegis,” the Weaver murmured, refusing to look up from the floor. Kalibar paused, a chill running through him. He felt suddenly as if the world were crumbling around him, and struggled to maintain his composure.

  “I see,” was all he could manage. He felt a sudden anger building within him, and tried to suppress it, without success.

  Not wearing his armor!

  He turned away from Master Owens, feeling the anger growing, turning into a cold fury. He grit his teeth, wondering how Kyle could possibly have forgotten to wear his armor, the Aegis of Athanasia, a breastplate so powerful that it would have made him nearly invincible. Perhaps not to Xanos, but still...

  Not wearing his armor!

  He closed his eyes, then turned back to Master Owens, using every ounce of self-control he had to stop himself from screaming.

  “Explain how this happened,” he ordered, his voice icy calm. He saw the blood drain from Master Owens' face, saw the man's hands trembling slightly at his sides. Owens opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. Kalibar stared at the man for a long moment, watching him struggle. “Name the guard who woke Kyle this morning,” he commanded.