The Adventures of Benjamin Skyhammer (9 page)

Higgins considered this a moment, then nodded. "But that doesn't change the fact that your sword still didn't get through the bars."

Skyhammer grinned. "Not these bars, no. But those, yes." He pointed with his sword tip to the bars and spikes in the darkness ahead.

Realization dawned on Higgins' face. "Of course! The Royal Circle ends right here. Over there, the bars across the crevasse will be normal strength not magically powerful." She smiled and held her hands up. "Tell me what to do."

"Okay, Bethany." He raised his eyebrows in question.

She shook her head. "Not even close."

"Move the carpet forward until it is as close to the edge of the Royal Circle as you can get. Then stand at the back." He liked solving physical problems like this. Made him feel like he was back outside the Royal Circle, Relic hunting. Where ingenuity and muscle strength counted for something. And he especially liked solving a problem that Higgins couldn't. He chortled to himself.

Higgins did as he instructed, nudging the orange carpet right next to where the magic ended started.

After stepping to the front of the carpet, he positioned himself with one foot forward and one back. He stretched his sword out into the darkness ahead of him, close to the right-hand wall. In a quick, focused movement, he thrust the sword up then pulled it back, as if he was going to plunge it in to someone behind him. The sword sliced through ten of the bars on the shadowed side. When the sword crashed into the last bar still inside the Royal Circle, the blade rebounded against the bar, unable to break it. The movement pulled Skyhammer forward. For a few nerve-wracking seconds, he teetered at the edge of the carpet, gazing down into the well of blackness.

Higgins grabbed his hips and pulled him back onto the carpet.

He breathed a sigh of relief. He preferred the darkness to seeing the bottom. It meant he could delude himself into thinking the ground was just a few feet down. "Thanks. Ready for a second time?"

"Yup."

This time he sliced the blade of his sword along the left side of the bars. Cut-out pieces tumbled into the blackness below, leaving a dark hole. There was no sound of them hitting the bottom. Skyhammer shivered. Much deeper than a few feet then. He wondered what was happening above the Crystal Lines now that the Keeper was trapped in the fissures. Since no one had ever escaped from the Lines, his attackers would believe him dead, their mission accomplished. He resolved to prove them wrong. What a surprise they'd get when the Sorcerer changed more Retrographs.

Skyhammer fetched a length of rope from his backpack, then tossed one end of it up into the hole he had created on the non-magic side. Judging by how quickly it fell back down, he determined there were more bars above.

"That's a lot of cutting." Higgins had realized what he was testing. "And climbing."

He thrust his sword through the gaps in the bars above his head. "Oh, we won't be climbing." The blade went through to his hilt. "Need to find out one more thing first. Raise the carpet two feet higher please."

This put the carpet four feet below the bars. Reaching up, he threaded the rope end through a gap between the bars, then around the bar closest to the edge of the Royal Circle and back down. He tied a knot then yanked on the rope. The bar held.

"Lower the carpet to about ten feet please."

As the carpet sank, Skyhammer tightened his grip on the rope. When the carpet stopped, he swung in the air two feet above it.

The carpet rose so he could stand.

He tied the rope around himself. "Raise the carpet a few feet again." He thrust his sword into the dark hole he had made in the bars on the shadowed side and sliced down the left then down the right. Pieces of bar fell past his nose, clinking against the crystal walls as they continued down to the bottom of the fissure.

"And now, the grand finale!" He put away his sword and stood at the edge of the carpet, facing Higgins. He grasped the last bar that was inside the Royal Circle.

Chapter 9

Countdown to ceremony: 14 days

"Raise the carpet very slowly please."

Higgins nodded, her face serious. As the carpet rose, Skyhammer maintained his grip on the bar.

"Stop!" He sat down, still holding the bar. Leaning back, shoulders out over the fissure, he threaded his legs between his arms. A thrust of his hips lifted his body up and on top of the bars on the Royal Circle side. He poked his fingers through a gap and wiggled them. "Hi, Higgins!"

She rolled her eyes. "Nice work."

Once Higgins, their backpacks and the carpet were on top of the bars, they rose straight up the fissure.

"We can zip around to the mountain path and go straight across the mountains to the Vault." Skyhammer peered back across the Crystal Lines. The sun had set in the hours they'd been in the fissure. A few lights flickered from the Palace. Floatilla hung like a chandelier high above them. A lumpy dark line delineated mountains and starry sky.

The half-mile mile buffer zone was quiet this time of night.

"How many days would the mountain route add?" Higgins mused. "Six or seven, right? We can't afford that. We've already lost one day inside the fissure and we still have no idea who or where this Sorcerer is."

"We can't afford to die if they see us either," Skyhammer argued. His throat closed up at the thought of being in another magic battle, powerless to defend himself.

Higgins faced him. "It's night. No one will be able to distinguish us from other carpets. We stay in the buffer zone. Land in the village closest to the Retrograph Vault, walk through the village and we're in the forest and home free. No one'll track us in there." The carpet rose out of the fissure and headed for the mountains.

Skyhammer's thoughts leapt ahead to the Vault. Maybe the Retrograph Sorcerer would be there, waiting for him. The most magically powerful human in the world versus the human with no magic powers at all. But out of the Circle, maybe his magic wouldn't work. But maybe it would work and that was why the Sorcerer wants to stop the ceremony. So that other humans can't use magic outside the Circle as well! Or-- stop! Just wait and see.

* * *

"Think the Retrograph Sorcerer knows we're after him?" Skyhammer was grateful the sky had cleared. Stealing two horses on a cloudy night was hard enough but navigating their way to the Vault would've been almost impossible without the stars. Leaving a bag of money in place of the horses still made Skyhammer feel guilty, even though he had left quite a bit more than the horses were worth. They needed the speed though.

Higgins shrugged. "The King meeting with the Keeper is a pretty good sign, I'd say." She patted her horse's neck.

"He has to know the King would try to find him."

"Why do we think it's a him?" Higgins grinned. "I mean, would a man really have the balls to change the King's Retrographs?"

"Now, now, you don't have to bring your previous relationships into this-"

"At least I've
had
relationships," she shot back.

"Hey now! I had . . . one." Skyhammer chuckled as he held a branch out of the way for Higgins. "But what's the point?"

"Of relationships?"

He rolled his eyes. "Of overturning the drawings of the ceremony. Does the Sorcerer mean to communicate that he is sabotaging the ceremony? Or is there another meaning? Maybe he wants to destroy magic entirely. If he plans to kill the King with the sword, like in his Retrograph, that is certainly a way to destroy magic." He couldn't bear the thought. The ceremony was two weeks away. Magic power was two weeks away. He couldn't let this Sorcerer ruin his chance.

"Save that question for when we catch her."

As they continued through the dark forest, Skyhammer puzzled over relationships. Romantic relationships. Three years ago, he would've bitterly retorted that there was no point to relationships, only a maelstrom of pain and despair. Maybe a pointed stick in your heart. Funny that a woman with the name Spark could so totally douse a flicker of love. But they had just been kids anyway. He was over it now. Not bitter at all. He unclenched his jaw. He didn't want these memories carrying him back to the Retrograph Vault and the Academy but they were like a tidal wave and he was the beach.

He'd never figured out why Spark left without saying goodbye. His Keeper of the Retrograph Vault ceremony was supposed to be the day they showed everyone they were officially a couple. She never showed up to the ceremony and never again at the Academy. In three years, he'd heard nothing.

In the beginning, he'd thought she had been kidnapped. The Academy's principal took him aside when she heard that rumour and told him that Spark had withdrawn from the school and wasn't coming back. The principal didn't reveal why.

He'd spent a week in the weapons room, going through sword forms and fighting anyone who came in. Slept there too. Even Higgins left him alone. Spark was the only other person he'd met that was born without magic powers. They'd planned to be Relic hunters together, him and Spark, looking for magic together. He wasn't going to hang around, visit the Retrograph Vault once a week, and eat himself to an early grave like the last Keeper.

Then Spark was gone. The only person who could understand, really, truly understand what it was like not to have magic powers. She'd dealt with her lack of magic with more violence but still, they'd finally found each other. How could she just leave like that? A jolt of hurt rocked him, surprising in its force. He thought he'd moved on. He imagined putting the feelings into a box and tossing them onto a bonfire. Better.

The light had brightened perceptibly and with it, Skyhammer's mood. They were nearing the Retrograph Vault. A loud growl erupted from behind him. Skyhammer twisted around, sword held high, eyes darting left and right. "I thought I heard a bear."

"You did. I'm un-BEAR-ably hungry!" Higgins rubbed her stomach.

Skyhammer groaned. "We'd better get you fed. Your brain's turning to mush." He led the way to an open glade off the trail.

As they chewed on spicy dried meat and sipped from their water flasks, the twittering of birds rose around them, curious squirrels stopped by and the sun warmed their skin. The horses munched grass on the other side of the glade. Higgins and Skyhammer opened their Whorls.

Glancing over at his partner, Skyhammer was not surprised to see tears sliding down her cheeks as she flicked through her Retrographs. Polygon. He slid over beside her and put his hand on top of hers.

She smiled at him through her tears. "She was my best friend."

Skyhammer nodded. "She gave up her life for you. For what we're doing."

Higgins leaned her head on his shoulder. He inhaled her vanilla scent, wishing he could take her pain away or dull it at least. At last, she stood up, eyes dry, and closed her Whorl. "We have to find this Sorcerer before she kills the King and stops the ceremony." She pulled him up. "Let's go." Higgins led the way this time.

Tired from their sleepless night, Skyhammer stared at her horse's swaying rump, eyelids sagging, mind wandering. The drawings of the Wall were done by a talented Byndari artist. Skyhammer felt relieved that he had had a chance to view the drawings again at the Palace. The Sorcerer had turned over his first set of drawings. Would he . . .? He opened his Whorl and flicked to the drawings in the Palace. The first Retrograph appeared.

He straightened up so fast his lower back spasmed.

The Retrographs had been changed again.
His
Retrographs.

"Higgins?" he squeaked.

She turned in her saddle, concern crossing her face when she saw him. "What happened?"

Shaking his head, he stared at the Retrograph in front of him. The table in the Palace was still covered with the five drawings. But the papers had all been flipped over so only their blank backs showed.

"What is it?" Higgins pulled her horse up next to him and grasped his arm.

Eyes wide, unable to tear his gaze away from the Retrograph, Skyhammer whispered to her what had changed.

Her jaw dropped.

Skyhammer flicked to the previous Retrograph and gasped. The pages had all been turned over in that one as well! And in the previous five Retrographs where he recorded the drawings. Would he ever see the drawings in his Retrograph again? His stomach clenched; so much of his past could disappear from his Retrographs. He never made an effort to remember anything he saw; why would he when he could just look at his Retrographs? What else had the Sorcerer changed?

Cautiously, he flicked back again. Nothing, nothing, nothing, then...

With a savage jerk of his hand, he closed the Whorl.

Higgins shook him, almost screaming in his ear. "What?!"

Skyhammer contemplated running away, back out to the jungle, the desert, any place where he could forget what he had seen. The Retrograph Sorcerer had touched him. Was watching him. Not just the King. He wanted a bath. Why did the gods insist on getting him more involved with the stupid Vault? He didn't want to be Keeper. Why didn't they just pick someone who was interested?

He stretched his arms up over his head, then dropped his hands to rest, clasped, over his skull. After a moment, he felt in control of his emotions, enough that he could explain to Higgins that in one other Retrograph there had been a change. One that involved her.

She clasped his hand for comfort as he described the round table with four slates on it. Two slates from the guards, one from Higgins and one from Polygon. Each slate had a knife plunged into its center. There were no marks of damage on the slates but it was obvious what the Sorcerer was trying to say. She was planning to destroy magic.

In a panic, Higgins opened her Whorl again. The drawings in her Retrographs were turned over as well, no other changes. "Why did the Sorcerer only change your Retrographs to show you the magic slates?"

"Who knows why that crazy person does anything," Skyhammer muttered. "But it's obvious they mean to sabotage the ceremony and destroy magic. Somehow the Sorcerer knows that the ceremony can destroy magic power as well as give it to people."