The Baldari (Book 3) (2 page)

S’erom arrived with his small army back at the beginning, the village where they had all met to begin the journey to the north many days in the past.  They had made the crossing of the desert without incident, safe from the Talls once they had traveled a half day into the orange sands as usual.  Unlike previous missions he’d participated in, there had been no waiting for evening when the
Opening
appeared just as the sun set each day in anticipation of their return.  This time, the
Opening
appeared in the middle of the day as they rode up to the proper spot, almost as if someone knew they had arrived.  S’erom wondered if the crystal that N’itess carried had something to do with this.  It was an idle thought, and all but forgotten in the disorienting transition from the desert to the dark green jungle where they exited the
Opening
. 

They had returned.  It could hardly be considered a successful mission.  They had gathered far less of the crystal than had been captured the last time he’d been to the Tall’s village where they mined the colorful rock.  He had returned with only a fraction of the men he’d departed with.  Less than one of six who had ridden away with him had returned.  Would he be judged based on the losses?  Compared to many missions he had done well.  Frequently none returned, and usually even a smaller percentage.  He’d been on a mission one time where only five of them had returned, the rest killed in battle for some little understood gain.  Perhaps he had done extremely well after all. 

S’erom looked at his fellow A’ardaugh.  His people were being depleted.  While they were many, they were not infinite.  At some level he realized his people were being consumed.  If this kept up, someday there would be none of them left.  Didn’t that matter at all?  Sadly there was no one to raise such questions with, and he could see the dull glaze that filled the eyes of those around him.  They were being released.  He’d felt the odd sense of purposelessness that accompanied the release in the past when he’d been one of the fighters with no responsibilities.  They would be free to return to their village until called once again.  Each was releasing the U’nydyn who had carried them for days.  The beasts were given a final mental push to return to the jungles from whence they had come.  Like the warriors, they were eager to be freed from the unnatural demands in their tiny minds, and they bounded away, the bands of control fading from memory as they put distance between themselves and those they had carried for so many days.  Most were much thinner than they’d been when the journey had begun, and they would hunt and feast tonight.  Even a few unwary A’ardaugh would provide meals for the ravenous U’nydyn.

S’erom felt none of the listlessness this time.  He still felt a presence that was directing his actions, and understood that he was not yet free to return to his own home.  His mate and young ones would have to wait, despite the yearning he felt to run to them.  He knew they would believe him lost, and he wished to reassure them he had survived, at least for now. 

After a few moments, S’erom realized he was not alone.  Two others remained with him, although like himself, they had released their U’nydyn along with the others.  Each had a large bag at their feet, the crystals that had been gathered far in the north.  They had so few that only the three were required to transport them the rest of the way.  The U’nydyn wouldn’t be required for that.  While S’erom hadn’t been one of those who had made the delivery the last time, he’d watched after other missions where a number of his fellows had stepped through another
Opening
to deliver the spoils of their attack.  None talked of where they had gone, and when they returned some time later it was as if all memory of the experience had been wiped from their minds.  Either that, or they had been commanded not to speak of it.  S’erom wondered if he would recall anything of what he was about to experience.

Other than the three of them, the square was empty, their compatriots hurrying home as S’erom longed to do.  As his mind worked through the memories of the last few days, the
Opening
appeared where it always did, and without thinking about it, the three A’ardaugh bent to retrieve the bags of crystal, then marched forward into the portal that would take them somewhere else.

They exited into a small valley deep in the mountains.  S’erom couldn’t help but look around, wondering how far from the village they had just left they might be.  While the valley was lush and green, it was surprisingly small, with almost all of the available space taken up by the structures a short distance away.  Given the number of structures there must be a large number of individuals who lived here.  S’erom wondered how they survived.  There was no room to grow Ler’ver’ar and the game had to be nonexistent given the steep walls of the surrounding mountains.

S’erom wondered if there was any way into the valley other than the
Opening
.  The walls of the cliffs rose higher than anything he’d ever seen before, and as near as he could tell were equally steep and unscaleable on all sides.  The sheer rock walls rose from the grasses of the valley floor high into the sky, disappearing into the snowcapped peaks impossibly high above them.  The A’ardaugh were a nimble and capable people, but he could not imagine anyone being able to make their way either up or down any of the cliffs that surrounded the cluster of structures.  Perhaps that was intentional. 

S’erom had little time to study their surroundings.  His attention was brought toward the unusual structure directly in front of them, and the group of young female A’ardaugh who were hurrying forward to greet them.  The females were a varied lot, some attractive and others not.  Obviously they had not been chosen because of their appearance.  They were all dressed in unusual garments, and looked like the young female who had brought the activated power crystal to N’itess back in the village before they had set out on their journey to the north.  He realized that in some way the females served the same master as he and the warriors did.  Their function was here, although what they could do that so many were required he couldn’t guess.  In addition to the odd building, S’erom could count almost two dozen conventional huts that must be the residences for the young females.

Two of the females approached him with their arms out, clearly wishing to relieve him of the bag he carried.  A soft mental request reached his mind, and he responded using the polite form of agreement, stretching out his hand and passing the bag to the closest, and the small glowing crystal N’itess had handed him before running off, to the other.  They bobbed politely, and turned away.  The two warriors on either side of him followed suit, and they watched as the females hurried away with the pitifully small quantity of crystals.  S’erom knew that several A’ardaugh warriors had died for each of the crystals captured.

Briefly his attention turned to the large structure that occupied most of the available space.  It was far larger than any building that would be found in an A’ardaugh village, but he’d encountered buildings as large in some of the villages of the Talls.  This one, however, was different than any he had seen.  It was high, standing several levels above them, and cylindrical, not a shape that was uncommon, but the perfection with which the structure had been shaped was remarkable.  Similarly the material from which it had been made was unfamiliar.  It appeared to be constructed from some kind of semi-translucent pink material.  To S’erom’s eyes, it could have been made from a single large piece so smoothly the walls flowed.  Even the steps up to what had to be an entrance, closed of course, were made from the material.  The material pulsed and flickered with multi-colored lights running randomly through the material, and S’erom sensed the same force that had accompanied N’itess and the crystal he had carried.  That suggested that the structure was protected in much the same way, but the strength of the force was unimaginably greater than what had protected his fellow warriors.  Somehow S’erom knew the answers to many of his questions lay within the structure directly in front of him.  He also knew he would be unable to approach the building, and even if he could, his life would be forfeit before he reached the walls.  Along with the thought was his surprise that neither the structure nor the valley were protected by soldiers of any sort.  Even with that realization, he knew it would be incredibly dangerous to approach the glowing structure without directions to do so.

Having completed the delivery, he now felt a strong urge to leave.  He turned and found his fellows were already several steps ahead of him as they walked toward the
Opening
that had appeared a short distance behind them.  He was the last through, and found himself back where they had started once again.  Each of them was now free to go his own way, and S’erom felt the impossibly strong desire to run for home overlaying the feeling of emptiness that told him he was no longer being controlled.  The others must have felt the same, and they each ran off, not bothering to bid the others even a formal farewell.  It was not as though they were friends.  They had been impounded and directed to perform a task together, but none had been friends before it happened.

As S’erom hurried out of the village, seeking the trail to his own even smaller village several glass away, he realized he remembered what he had seen on the far side of the
Opening
.  He even thought he knew about where the strange structure was located.  In the distance was a mountain peak that he was certain he recalled from a journey taken with his father when he was a youth.  If he was right, the small hidden valley was far to the south of this village.  It would take many weeks of hard travel to reach the base of the mountains one would have to climb just to approach the peak he had seen.  He didn’t know what would be required to travel the remaining distance to the small valley, and from what he had seen, once there, getting down the walls would have been impossible.  He also knew that he wouldn’t tell anyone what he had seen.  He could sense the power of the command that blocked him from speaking of the matter.  He didn’t mind. It wasn’t important.  He was far more concerned that whatever had placed the block and controlled his mind and drove him to travel to the land of the Talls might detect his awareness of the location.  Perhaps it wasn’t something that should be known, and he might be deemed expendable as a result.  He worried over the idea all the way back to his village, losing the thought only as his own hut came into view.  He dropped all other thoughts and ran toward his home, his thoughts projected ahead of him, greeting his mate and family.

“You didn’t have a vision about this attack?” Daim asked Mitty bluntly.  They were all gathered in the main conference room at the Outpost after Ardra had brought word from Nals that the Baldari had once again attacked Fernwah, seemingly seeking more of the power crystals they had raided once before.

“Nothing,” Mitty admitted.  She was more surprised than Daim that she’d been unaware of the Baldari incursion, as Fernwah was in Sedfair which was her home, and she would have thought it more likely to have visions of anything happening there than anywhere else.  After the vividness of her vision regarding the assault that had destroyed Ald’del and brought the diminutive warriors into southern Kellmore, she had been prepared for more such images, but thus far there had been none.  She hadn’t had the other dream either, for which she was grateful, but now she was convinced these images were real, and not premonitions of the future, but something that represented a danger they were as yet unaware of.

Daim stared closely at the white haired young woman.  Her pale eyebrows stood out against her tanned skin, her light brown eyes peering back at him unflinchingly.  She had become one of this group, in part because of the Binding with Rigo, but also because of her own abilities and inner strength of character.  She was well liked, and while she was the only one present who had almost no skills with magic, somehow she belonged.  All of the others were either wizards with the associated inherent ability to call magic, or they were SpellCasters, and had learned the symbolic magic that in many cases gave them as much power as the wizards.  A couple members of the group were versed in both disciplines.  Such individuals were being called mages by their fellow magicians.  Mitty had learned just a little of the symbolic magic some months before as she tried to gain an understanding of the healing skills.  Her efforts to learn had ended when the former leader of the Guild in Sedfair had been captured.  That and her Binding with Rigo, had resulted in a number of activities that had cut short her efforts.

Daim looked too young to be the leader of the varied group of wizards, but then Nycoh who had previously held the position before deciding she had other matters to investigate, had been even younger.  He looked to be in his early thirties, with dark brown hair that was neatly groomed and cut to fall just below the collar of the wizard’s robes he wore.  His hair flowed smoothly into the expertly cut beard that was trimmed to a length equivalent to the width of several fingers.  He was muscular and fit, and confident beyond his apparent years.  Only his eyes managed to reveal the wisdom and true age that lurked within the youthful frame.  He’d been a very old man two and a half thousand years ago when he’d stored his personality into the magically enhanced crystal built into a ring which had waited to be released until just a couple of years ago.  The current reincarnation of the Master Wizard had been his second return.  The first use of the ring as well as the recharging that Nycoh and Jeen had pursued when they realized they needed the old wizard once again had damaged the crystal minutely.  The gaps in his memory that were a direct result of the damage were less obvious now, some of the memories having returned or been augmented by notations in the Master Wizard’s old journals.  Daim admitted there were still areas that were lost to him, but they were less important now.

Daim had been intent on leadership of the wizard community when he had first returned, believing himself more capable than any of the younger, relatively newly advanced wizards.  Nycoh and Jeen had fought his efforts, but later, when Nycoh had realized she wished to step away from the administrative duties, had urged Daim to seek the position.  He hadn’t been the group’s leader very long, and he now seemed less certain that having the responsibility was as desirable as he’d once believed.

“Have you had any visions of future attacks?” he asked.

Mitty shook her head.  “I don’t believe I am like Queen Mos’pera,” she said.  “I don’t see the future.  What I see is current, something that is happening even as I sense it.”

Daim nodded his head.  He had been the one who had given a name to her ability.  “She’s not a normal Seer,” he’d said.  “At least that is not her strongest ability.  She has
Farvision
.  She’s a Farseer.  I had heard of those with such ability in my time, but was never blessed with encountering one.  They have the ability to sense events from other locations, often very far away.  Usually the visions are a warning of danger.  I was told long ago that once the ability is mastered, a Farseer can concentrate on an area and force visions of what is happening there to appear.  Most with
Farvision
also have the abilities of a Seer as well.”

“Mitty’s visions come of their own accord,” Rigo said softly from his seat next to his consort.  “She is unable to control them at this time.”

Rigo had been in bed next to her when she had woken with the screams of the dying Monks of Ald-del in her head that night nearly a month earlier.  He had taken Mitty to the Outpost where they had gathered the force that had hurried to the monastery only to find the smoking ruins and dead inhabitants.  They had pursued the murdering Baldari only to discover they had developed some means of protecting themselves from the magic that had defeated them in the past.  Only Nycoh’s surprising and previously unrevealed power had saved the kingdom of Kellmore from a bloody attack.

Of all of those present, Rigo had probably changed the most in recent months.  While he was as concerned as the others at the recent attacks, overall he was more content and relaxed than they had seen him in years.  The Binding with Mitty had marked a release from ghosts that had plagued him for more than a decade, and he now looked more than satisfied with his situation.  He wore clothing that was an odd mix of the Three Kingdoms’ style, with a strong slant toward the garish coloring popular in Sedfair.  He was obviously a man of two lands.  He and Mitty usually lived in Nals, although that might change once Queen Rosul relinquished the Throne to the new Ruler in the coming months.  The elections were due to be held in less than two weeks, a bit earlier than had been originally planned, but Rosul was anxious to be relieved, and matters of state had settled down.  At least it had seemed so until this most recent attack.

“I’m not yet convinced that Mitty will be mostly restricted to what her
Farvision
reveals,” Daim said.  “I have spoken with Mos’pera on this, and she agrees that while she was wrong when she warned Mitty about revealing what she saw, it is likely she will have a mix of both
Farvision
and the talent of a true Seer.  Only time will tell.  It will be important to examine each vision to attempt to discover which is which.  With time, telling the two apart will be automatic.”

Mitty shook her head minutely, but didn’t say anything.  Mitty felt this wasn’t the time to pursue the matter.  To date, she had demonstrated little of the abilities that Queen Mos’pera commanded.  What Mitty saw most frequently were current events, not something yet to happen.  Not always, however.  There had been exceptions.

“They were after the power crystals?” Jeen asked.  “I didn’t think they used magic or would have a use for them.”

Ardra nodded her head, her long reddish hair reflecting the light of the power globes.  She lacked the inherent magic of most of those present, but was a powerful Caster, and as co-director of the newly structured Guild in Sedfair, she was confident of herself and her abilities.  The Guild was an even more complex organization than the Outpost as Casters, Wizards, and those who were both struggled somewhat to find their new path.  Men were now as prominent in the organization as women, and Lyes, who was well known to all those present in this meeting, was her partner in leading the organization.

“That appears to be the case,” she said.  “They made a straight path for the city of Fernwah, taking care to travel unseen, then broke into two groups, with one heading straight for the mines that they had attacked once before.  They clearly knew what they would find.  Once they cleaned out the storeroom, those with the crystals rode away without attempting to help their fellows.”

“They are not a very loyal group,” Ash’urn noted softly at the explanation.

“I thought they didn’t get very many of the crystals,” Nycoh said. 

“They didn’t,” Ardra agreed with a certain satisfaction.  “After the last attack, once a week the output of the mines have been shipped out of Fernwah.  There were only a couple of day’s output in the storehouse when they attacked.  I suspect they were disappointed by their gain.  They lost a lot of men for very little return.”

“I believe there will be more attacks as they seek the power crystals,” Nycoh said.  “Even Casters will be at some risk as the Baldari will be after them for their staffs each of which carry one of the crystals.”  She nodded her head at the staffs that Ardra and Ash’urn each had braced next to their seats.

“Did they perform any magic during the attacks?” Jeen asked.

“The only sign of any magic was the protective barrier as they rode into Fernwah,” Ardra explained.  “Arrows would not strike home, and as the small group fled at the end, the barrier prevented the wizards and Casters from being able to strike.  During the actual battle they reverted to their more familiar form of fighting, using only their swords and a few with small bows.”

“Was there any sign how the barrier was being produced?” Ash’urn asked.  He had been quiet through most of the discussion, listening rather than offering suggestions.  To Rigo, Ash’urn looked older somehow.  Frail wasn’t a word that fit exactly, but his long time friend was less robust than he’d been before they had set out across the Ruins.  The taxing journey and the ordeals that had followed appeared to have taken a toll on the older man.  While Ash’urn’s mind appeared as sharp and insightful as ever, and he had wisdom that rivaled Daim’s and a knowledge base that might be even more extensive, for the first time Rigo worried that age might be winning its battle against him.  Apparently even Shara had been concerned enough to raise her own worries to Nycoh.

“One of the Baldari carried a short torch-like object with one of the power crystals on the top.  It was said to be glowing with a light purple light.”  Ardra looked at Daim as she finished the description.  The importance of the color was not lost on the others.  “Did you see anything like that when you encountered the invading force in southern Kellmore?” she asked.

Jeen shook her head.  “None of us were looking, and the number of Baldari was larger than we had encountered before.”  She looked at Nycoh, who shook her head negatively as well.

“Nonetheless, Ardra’s revelation is a pretty clear indication the Baldari have some familiarity with magic,” Daim pointed out.  “Perhaps they have learned something from the materials they have stolen in previous attacks, although we don’t have the ability to create such a barrier, so that seems hard to fathom.”

“They are still coming from the south?” Rigo asked.  In his mind they needed to discover where the warriors originated and pursue them back to their homeland.  This had to end.  For far too long they had been free to hit and run as they wished.

“We assume so,” Ardra said.  “As usual they fled back into the Wastelands, and those present weren’t prepared to follow them into the unknown dangers there.  The tracks were followed far enough to see they turned south at one point, but that could have been to mislead us.  We believe, however, they originate from south of the great mountains.  That’s where your people tracked those that Nycoh destroyed as having come from, isn’t it?”

Rigo nodded.  “We followed their tracks back to the Great Central River.  Mitty’s claim that they came up the river somehow appears to be verified.  The tracks appeared at the edge of the river, just north of the mountains.  The river there passes between steep rock cliffs with no banks to travel upon.  They would have had to ride upon the water, yet there was no indication of boats or any other kind of craft.  It remains a mystery how it was done.”

“We are going to have to track them through the Ruins,” Daim said.  “A group of wizards is going to have to see if the trail of the group that attacked Fernwah can be followed.  Even if not, it is imperative we know what lies along the southern edge of the Ruins close to Sedfair.  The southern border of the country itself is well mapped from what you’ve told me, and there is no sign they have found a way across the mountains within the country itself.”

“We will need patrols all along the southern borders,” Ash’urn suggested.  “They came up the Great River and turned west, but they could have just as easily turned into Lopal.  For that matter, the eastern side of Lopal has multiple breaks in the mountains.  I once considered making my way through those mountains and heading to the south myself.”

Rigo looked at Ash’urn.  He remembered.  That was where Ash’urn had been headed when he, Kaler, and Daria had first encountered him.

Ardra nodded.  “The borders will need to be patrolled.  That is where they are coming from, and we need to know they are coming.”

“Even if we know, what can we do?” Jeen said.  “Even Nycoh and a squad of our strongest wizards weren’t able to penetrate their barrier.”

“The barrier appears to protect them as they travel,” Ardra acknowledged, “but once they reach their destination they shed it and are vulnerable.  Once discovered they can easily be followed, and a large force of wizards and Casters alerted to be on hand when they reach their destination.”