Delver Magic: Book 06 - Pure Choice (17 page)

The swallit nodded.

"I understand."

Ryson didn't, and he pressed for
an explanation.

"Do you know what caused
it?"

"I believe so, but continue
with everything else you know first."

The delver glared unhappily at the
swallit, but finished the explanation of his findings.

"That's most of it. They
didn't move their camp. Even you can see that. It's not just the trails. It's
the condition of everything around us. They wouldn't have just left their food
and weapon stores like this... easily found and an open invitation for
goblins."

"Obviously. Any thing
else?"

"There's a strange scent
lingering at the center of the camp. Nothing I can identify specifically, but
it's there. I'm pretty certain it's the scent of dark creatures, but it's not
the goblin thieves. I have their scent and it doesn't match. This isn't one
particular creature. More like a mix. That's why I'm unsure."

"Wouldn't that indicate a
possible incursion into the camp?"

"No, you don't understand.
The creatures weren't here, their scents got blown into the camp from a
distance. It might have been a larger pack of goblins and maybe some shags, and
even some river rogues that were able to get close to the camp due to the elf
disappearance, but they never entered the camp. For some reason their scents
just got trapped here. It's unusual, but it's definitely there."

"That's everything you
sense?"

"You think I'm missing
something?"

"Quite the opposite. You
discovered more than I expected. Now tell me, what is it that really bothers
you about all of this?"

Ryson looked to the swallit with
surprise.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Answer the question,"
the swallit responded gruffly.

"It's pretty obvious. The
elves just disappeared. One moment they were here and the next moment they were
gone. No intruder, no raid or attack. No sign of a struggle of any kind, no
indication of surprise or concern. Even the elf guard trails in the trees
around the perimeter show the same thing. That's probably what has me the most
concerned. Whatever it was that happened, it caught them all off guard. Even
the elf guards had no idea it was coming. Something that can catch an entire
camp and its elf guards by surprise has to be dangerous."

The swallit nodded again, but said
nothing. It began to pace around the camp on its hind legs, looking about from
one section of the camp to the next, appearing somewhat like a human going
through a market and trying to decide what to purchase.

"Are you going to say
anything?" Ryson finally wondered aloud. He offered everything he had
discovered and he waited impatiently for information from the swallit.

The dark creature, however, was
caught up in its own considerations.

"Be quiet," it demanded.

The swallit continued its walk for
a few moments more and then stepped up to the delver. It made one definitive
statement, followed by a simple admission.

"I know what happened, but I
don't know why."

"How about telling me what
happened?"

"That's the easy part,"
the swallit grunted. "A portal was opened at the center of this camp, an
extremely large portal to the dark realm. That is why you saw the strange
markings of a hot wind on the dirt. The wind came from out of the portal and so
it only affected the ground at the opening. But this was no ordinary portal. As
I said, it was extremely large and it only existed for a scant moment in
time."

"So it was a quick, hot
breeze from the dark realm through a large rift!" Ryson acknowledged.

"Yes, such a blast of
restricted hot air would certainly make strange markings on the ground. It also
helps explain the scent of the dark creatures you noticed. While there are more
rogues, shags and goblins now near this emptied camp, additional scents came
from beings on the other side of the portal. They never entered the camp, but
the portal offered a trail to their scent. It's not a surprise your delver
senses noticed this."

"You think the elves opened a
portal?"

"No, the portal was opened
from the other side, from the dark realm. Every elf was teleported into the
mouth of the portal when it was opened. That is why their trails simply
ended."

Despite offering an explanation
that answered most of his questions, the swallit's words surprised the delver.

"And you're sure about
this?"

The swallit was very certain, for
portals had become almost an obsession to the creature.

"The very first time we met,
it was in this forest. Do you remember the circumstances?" the swallit
asked.

"Actually, I do. You were
running through the trees and you didn't want to stop."

"I was running from danger.
It was because a portal opened up that connected this land with the dark
realm... my home. That portal allowed a twisted creation to move back and forth
between the two planes of existence as it hunted beings of all types."

"I remember. A slink ghoul
named Baannat created an animated vessel to capture magic. The vessel was made
out of the skins of dark creatures."

Ryson also recalled his personal
dealings with the slink ghoul. They were not pleasant. He had fought Baannat on
two different occasions, and though he defeated the ghoul each time, Baannat
avoided complete destruction. He believed the ghoul to be trapped in a shadowed
realm of nonexistence.

"I knew that portal was a
danger to every dark creature, including me," the swallit explained.
"Since then, I have been not only concerned by the opening of portals, I
have trained myself to sense them. It is not difficult for a dark creature,
certainly not difficult for me, for it is a link back to the land of
my
origin. When one is created, I can
sense it, if I'm not too far off. When this portal initially opened, I was much
further away, but it was very powerful. This made me... curious. You should
understand that."

"So you came here to investigate?"

"Of course. And I have been
here for some time. I wondered if the portal might reappear. It hasn't."

The information did not offer any
true solace to the delver.

"Are you saying Baannat has
opened another portal? I was told that wasn't possible. He's trapped in some
kind of void, at least that's what I was told. Do you think he's behind all of
this?"

"No, I do not think it's him.
The magic is somewhat familiar but it does not point back to the slink ghoul. I
remember the portal Baannat opened. It is not the same. It is, however, very
strong magic. The echoes of the spell still linger in the air. There was a
great deal of disturbance in this land. I attribute that to the massive use of
teleportation. Something was very intent on taking these elves and forcing them
into the portal."

"Forcing them? But there
wasn't any sign of a struggle."

"You don't struggle against
instantaneous teleportation."

The thought of being teleported to
some distant place against his will and being unable to resist stirred a new
fear in the delver.

"The magic can do that?"

"Powerful magic can... very
powerful magic guided by a very, very skilled sorcerer. Whoever did this had
access to vast amounts of energy and a talent beyond my reckoning. The elves
never had..."

The swallit stopped abruptly and
swung around to stare into the forest.

"Someone else has
arrived," the creature announced. It quickly sniffed the air. "A
teleportation spell... a human and an elf."

The swallit turned back around to
gauge the expression on the delver's face as Ryson also took in the scent.

"Friends of yours it
seems," the swallit confirmed. "I have nothing to say to them."

The swallit dropped down to all
fours and headed deeper into the forest.

"Wait!" Ryson shouted.

"I have told you all I
know," the swallit called back. "It is more than you would have
learned on your own. You are indebted to me, Ryson Acumen."

"Who were you talking
to?" Holli asked.

"A swallit."

Holli eyed the delver, not with
suspicion but with expectation for an explanation, and Ryson did not disappoint
her.

"It was interested in what
happened to the elves, but it had nothing to do with any of this. It actually
gave me more information than I expected."

Ryson went on to explain
everything the swallit had told him. When he was finished, he turned to Jure.

"You can cast strong spells.
Not too long ago, you basically did the same thing in the valleys. You opened
portals and forced thousands upon thousands of goblins back into the dark
realm. Could someone have done the same thing here?"

Jure considered the question, but
only for a moment. He didn't wish to seem hesitant in his assessment or appear
to be withholding information.

"Is it possible? Yes. But is
it probable? I don't know what to say. It would take a great deal of magic.
When I did it, I had an enormous reserve of energy available to me. If that
much magic came together again, I think I would have sensed it."

"Maybe you did sense
it," Holli posed. "You said you felt something come from the forest,
an echo of powerful magic. Maybe you did not isolate the initial spell because
it was originally cast in the dark realm, but the echo might have reached you
in Connel. Could it be that is what you noticed?"

Again, Jure wished to answer
quickly, to aid those who looked to him for advice, but he needed to consider
the memory of past magic, a tremor that was felt quite some time ago that
reverberated through his own magical spells. Isolating it was difficult. It was
only a pulse through time and space.

"Give me a moment," Jure
requested.

The wizard looked down upon the
ground as he cleared his thoughts. He focused beyond the current flow of magic
and beyond the remnants of the illusions cast by the swallit. He tuned in to
the trace memories woven into the land around him, the distant remains of spell
fragments and the past intentions pressed into magic that could never be
destroyed, only harnessed or absorbed.

Jure stepped over to the clearing
near the center of the abandoned elf camp, to the exact spot where Ryson
noticed the strange wind driven patterns on the ground. Jure looked about as if
searching for something hidden behind some door that no one could see. He held
out his hands and waved them through the air, at times fanning it back into his
face.

"I'm not sure if this has
anything to do with the magical pulse I noticed, but there was a portal opened
here not too long ago," Jure revealed. "It was opened and closed
fairly quickly."

"That supports the swallit's
story," Holli noted, her expression growing darker as it matched the
unease in her spirit. She might have accepted banishment for the good of the
camp, but she could never completely disconnect herself from her previous life,
her role as an elf guard sworn to protect the elves of Dark Spruce.

"There are traces of teleportation
spells as well," Jure continued. "A massive discharge actually. Maybe
that's the true echo of the disturbance I felt. I can't ignore the existence of
the portal, but the vast energy dedicated to teleportation still lingers here.
It was quite a release of magic and it still resonates throughout the
area."

"So the swallit was telling
the truth?" Ryson asked, but he already knew the answer. The elves were
gone and Jure was confirming what had happened exactly as it was told to him by
the dark creature.

Jure was not ready to confirm the
swallit's account. He remained guarded in his inspections of the elf camp, and
he continued to concentrate on the echoes of the magic. Something deep within
the remnants of the spells separated the sensations of energy from the
surrounding magic. Even as a distant memory, it stood out with much greater
vibrancy.

Holli noticed the wizard's
concern.

"You sense something
else?"

Jure responded quickly to the
question, offering what knowledge he could.

"Not something else, but
something within the magic that was used. I don't know how to explain it, but
it is very... concise. The echo of energy was not only created by its vastness,
but also by its makeup. The spells themselves were clearly very potent, but the
magic was not only vast, it was also extremely distinctive."

Holli's skills as a spell caster
were growing, and though she could not match Jure's sensitivity to the energy,
she understood the subtleties of his explanation.

"Is there anything within the
magic that may reveal who, or what, is responsible?"

Jure paused, as if trying to
compose his thoughts, and then spoke almost apologetically.

"I'm having a hard time
connecting with the magic."

Holli did not wish to challenge
the elder wizard, but the statement left her confused.

"That seems to contradict
everything you have said so far."

"Not really. The shards of
spent magic stand out for me, but I'm having difficulty absorbing the loose
residue. Spells do more than leave an imprint in the magic, even well after
they're cast. Spells shape the magic, give it purpose. When the purpose is
fulfilled, the majority of the magic is freed back into the land, waiting to be
reclaimed, but the energy of the actual casting—the essence that came from
within the spell caster that is separate from pure magic—falls away on its own.
Sometimes it will hold to a small amount of the magic. Normally when I absorb
that magic, I can analyze it beyond its basic intentions and gain greater
insight to the spell as well as the caster."

"You are unable to accomplish
this here?"

"It won't let me, and that's
what makes it so strange," Jure admitted. "Most teleportation spells
leave a trail. They can be followed, sometimes even days after they are cast.
There's almost always a path due to the way magic condenses the effect between
time and space. It's like a lingering memory and I can almost grasp each one...
almost
, but even the residual traces
of the spells seem to be forcefully rejecting me, as if the energy used doesn't
want to be a part of me. That's why it's so distinctive. It's like it's
repulsed by my presence. I can tell it's there, but it won't let me take a
clean hold of it."