Epic Of Ahiram (Book 1) (43 page)

Tanios turned around and returned to Taniir-The-Strong Castle.

He spent the next hour discretely questioning the young maidens serving in the kitchen, but it was in vain. None of them had seen the young man that morning.

Either they are sincere, or they rival the Adorant in the vice of lying,
he thought.

The Adorant were servants of Baal known for their entrancing singing that could subdue the will of the strongest man.

One of young women, however, did point out that early this morning, she had heard muffled sounds coming from Whisper Grove. The others giggled, but one look from the commander convinced them this was no laughing matter.

“When was that?” he asked sharply.

The young woman took a couple steps back. He added in a softer tone, “I do not mean to scare you, but I need to know when you heard the muffled voices, and what business brought you to the Officers’ Garden?”

“I did not go to the Officers’ Garden,” came the quick reply. The young woman stood wide-eyed, hands clutched, frightened, and upset. “I was watering the herbs like Master Habael said. He told me to do it when the first rays of sun hit the ground in front of the wall over there. This is what I do every day. Those herbs are very, very important to Master Habael, and he wants them watered every day at precisely the same time. Once, I forgot to do this, and Master Habael was very, very sad, and some of the plants with beautiful smells died. Then, all of us we were very, very sad, because we liked those plants a lot. One of them, the little green one with a small beautiful blue…no, velvet…velvet flower, cured my mother from fever, and the other one, with big furry leaves, Master Habael used for my nephew when he was teething and—”

“So, was it at the first or second hour of the day?” interrupted Tanios.

The maiden took a couple more steps back.

“The first…no, the second…I think…I don’t know.” She started crying and ran to an old woman who consoled her.

“Do not mind her, Commander Tanios. She is a good girl. I would say it must have been closer to the end of the first hour because this is when the sun hits the hedge separating our garden from that of the officer’s. You know, Whisper Grove is on the other side of that hedge, close to the wall, so I am not surprised if she could hear what was going on over there.”

Tanios thanked the older woman and went out to inspect the bed of herbs that the young servant had told him about. Why Master Habael chose this spot to grow these herbs was beyond him. The ground was still wet, and the young woman’s trail was easily discernible.

The Officer’s Tower had two doors, one leading to the Servants’ Garden and the other to the Officers’ Garden. A short moment later, the commander stood in Whisper Grove. He peered through the hedge, but it was too thick to see the bed of herbs on the other side.

Whisper Grove was a secluded area behind a cluster of thick, tall bushes, ideally suited for romantic encounters. A cursory look at the signs of struggle convinced him that the murderer had come to the fateful rendezvous. He knew from the erratic imprints of boots that the man had tried to free himself from a powerful grip. The fight had been brief.
The murderer must have taken his victim by surprise. Either the criminal is a strong warrior, well trained in close combat to overcome a junior of the High Riders, or…
He inspected the grounds closely.
No sign of blood
, he thought.
The murderer struck at close range, confirming my suspicion that the victims knew and trusted him
.

Tanios saw footsteps nearby.
High Rider’s boots,
he thought.
Someone light on their feet,
he added as he followed the trail. It ended abruptly at the wall of the Officer’s Tower.

Why here?
wondered a baffled Tanios. He inspected the surrounding grounds.
No signs of footsteps by either door, which means the murderer did not drag the body into the castle. But why bring the body toward the castle? It seems the murderer is intent on dropping the bodies inside the castle. But why? This seems completely senseless
.

He looked up.
The Silent must never go against the facts, however strange they may seem,
he quoted absent-mindedly from the
Book of Siril. If the murderer has managed to transport the body, then I might be able to pick up his trail on the second or third floor,
he thought.

Still disbelieving what he was seeing, he went back to Whisper Grove and followed the footsteps again; and again, they led him to the same spot.
Decidedly, whoever is plotting these crimes knows what he is doing.
He looked at the red ribbon he had found and wondered whether the young man who had left the castle earlier this morning, and the one who came to Whisper Grove, were one and the same.

I highly doubt a woman would have managed to kill a skilled athlete like this Junior High Rider, carry his body on her shoulders and climb the wall, unseen. She must have had an accomplice who went to the grove in her stead. But what if there was no woman involved?
he thought
. Then, I would be chasing a ghost.

Reluctantly, he went back inside the castle and climbed to the second floor. As he reached the wide corridor, he froze and remembered the bit of dirt by the window. He wanted to kick himself for his negligence.

The murderer must have been nearby while I stood venting my frustrations
, he thought. He was now furious and felt as though the murderer was taunting him. He went to the window and examined the dirt once more.

So the murderer managed to climb the wall with the body and sneak in unseen
.

Tanios was shaken, for that meant the security apparatus he had put in place had been breached without anyone knowing about it. He got up and was about to follow the tracks when Jedarc called to him from the Lone Tower. The expression on the young man’s face told Tanios that he did not have to look any further for his answers.

High Priestess Bahiya came back to her room in haste. While speaking to the King, she received a
Metarim
(a mental image) from her daughter calling for help. At that same moment, the first giant geyser hit the participants in the Game of Gold as they were climbing through the Pit of Thunder. The athletes were bracing themselves for the second hot geyser, and Hiyam had started calling on her mother for help. Bahiya locked her door, went to a large, mahogany chest, opened it, and took out a small, round mat and a small, silver box.

She unrolled the mat. Its dark surface had three golden concentric circles. The image of two ram horns filled the inside circle. She stood on the horns and opened the small, silver box carefully. It contained an oddly-shaped prism and five small spheres of differing sizes, each nestled in its own compartment. The high priestess stared at a small, golden orb for less than two seconds until it lifted silently in the air and began circling her. Bahiya kept her gaze locked on the small object as it passed in front of her until a throbbing yellow light shone inside it. After a short while, a hazy sheet of light rose from it, and the image of her daughter appeared on its surface. She was hanging from a rope while water shot up, pummeling her against the wall. Down below, she could glimpse a strange, black light.
nar hittim
, she thought, frightened
, The black energy of the spell world. Here? Impossible. How could this be?

She looked at her daughter and spoke to her in silence
. Hold on, Hiyam, I am intervening.
She saw her daughter smile before the image faded away. The priestess focused on the floating orb, slowing it down until it stopped in front of her. She picked it up and dropped it carefully in its compartment, for the orb was now extremely hot.

Bahiya stared at the prism and sighed.
This is going to be far more dangerous than I expected. I cannot do this alone. I need help
.

Resolutely, she focused her attention on the left golden circle on the strange mat she stood on. Immediately, a green, dull light throbbed along its rim. She looked at the right circle and a blue, dim light throbbed along its rim. Bahiya waited until the blue and green lights began to appear and disappear in unison, then she gazed at the middle circle.

“Tamri,” she whispered.

The circle vanished and after what seemed like an eternity, Tamri materialized before the priestess, standing on the left and right circles.

“High Priestess Bahiya,” exclaimed the Adorant. “Forgive me for not being ready, but I was not expecting you.”

Behind the young woman, Bahiya could see the golden outlines of the city of Babylon. “I am facing a nar hittim, Tamri. I need your help.”

The young woman blanched. Even though she was an accomplished Adorant, able to carry the most potent magic with her voice, she recoiled at the thought of facing the black light of the Arayat.

“Bahiya, this is deadly.”

“It’s my daughter, Tamri. She is under attack.”

Tamri’s face hardened. “What do you wish me to do?”

“Stand eight absorbers” Bahiya said, “but do not link them to the Arayat,” she added quickly.

Tamri breathed. Absorbers are special glassy orbs made to absorb hostile energy that would then normally be dumped into the Arayat. A trained magician could stand eight absorbers with a flick of the hand when they are not linked to the Arayat. But since these defensive artifacts were not made to distinguish between sources of magical energy, a magician who would link an absorber to the Arayat carelessly could cause the absorber to take the energy from the Arayat, fill it beyond capacity, shatter, and release an explosive force that would wreak immense havoc and possibly shatter reality by causing the Arayat to leak into the physical world. No member of the priesthood of Baal was allowed to link more than two absorbers to the Arayat at the same time.

“I am ready,” said Tamri.

Bahiya heaved a deep sigh. “Good. I am raising the conjoiner.”

Not waiting for an answer, the high priestess stared at the prism inside the silver box. It lifted up slowly and stopped a short distance from her eyes. She lightly touched it with her right index finger and it moved away along a straight line. It went through Tamri’s image until it reached the window sill.

The sun struck its clear surface, and the strange object shot out a thin, blue ray that hit the priestess between the eyes. Instantly, the image of Tamri faded away and formed clear and true within Bahiya’s mind. Conjoining meant having the image of the person you were joined to inside your head. Bahiya could clearly see the thin, blue ray touching Tamri’s forehead.

“To neutralize the nar hittim, I need to find its source in the Arayat and strike it down. Whomever is doing this will surely try to wrest control of the concentrators from me and use them to kill me. You will know I am under attack when the conjoiner begins to heat your forehead. I want you to use your voice to channel that power to the absorbers.”

Tamri’s eyes brightened. “Very clever, Bahiya. The attacker will not sense the absorbers and will not know what to do. Still, how do we release the energy inside the absorbers into the Arayat?”

“Let’s worry about that a bit later,” replied Bahiya dismissively. “One thing at a time.” Ignoring her friend’s inquisitive gaze, she added, “Whomever is using the nar hittim is a master magician. Let’s hope our little ploy will delay him long enough for me to neutralize his attack. Are you ready now?”

Tamri nodded. Bahiya gazed at the silver box until her sight clouded. Two orbs and two concentrators rose and began circling her. Tamri gasped. She had never seen anyone do this before. Not even High Priest Sharr.

“Bahiya, how—?” asked Tamri, but Bahiya ordered her to be quiet. Tamri held her breath.

The four objects were zipping along within their appointed circles. Bahiya had chosen a paired configuration with each orb being fed by one concentrator exclusively.
Time to raise the hunter,
she thought. She gazed at the small sphere the size of a pebble, inside the silver box, and as she was about to raise it in the air, a wave of power, unlike anything she had experienced before, hit her with the strength of a hammer. She nearly lost control of the concentrators and the orbs, but her hardened will and the long hours of training prevailed. Hearing Tamri’s voice ring in her mind, Bahiya knew the Adorant had begun singing to deflect the attack away from her. Tamri had opened a channel to the Arayat and like a vortex, it was sucking everything into its path back to the spell world. Bahiya said a quick prayer of thanksgiving for the hours she had spent training to resist the allures of an Adorant’s voice.
If I can’t keep free from Tamri’s voice, we will both end-up trapped in the Arayat forever.
After a short while, the unbearable pressure lifted and she breathed a sigh of relief.
Much better,
she thought.

“Tamri, this attack was vicious. How are you holding up?”

“I am fine,” replied the Adorant. Her voice was low and shaken, but still strong.

“We are almost there. Time to fill the orbs…” Tamri smiled. Bahiya glanced at the orbs and gritted her teeth.
Next time I am in Babylon, I will have a word with the Office of the Procurator of the Orbs. He promised me that this new generation of orbs could be charged twice as fast as the old ones, but here I am, waiting still.
Gradually, the concentrators’ color shifted from dark green to dark red, and finally, to a pinkish white. Bahiya was relieved. They were empty. Inside the orbs, a yellow light was glowing.