The Heavenly Host (Demons of Astlan Book 2) (15 page)

“And roughly fifteen leagues wide at their base, if you could measure such a thing.” Gastropé nodded in agreement. “According to our school’s Geomancer. However, that is taking in the rapid rise in overall altitude; ground level would be a third to half of a league to start with there. So they are only going maybe two leagues higher than whatever you want to call ground.”

Maelen looked at him askance. “That’s a rather incredible height. I know that they are said to be unimaginably tall, but a 48,000-foot-tall mountain seems a bit more than unbelievable. I’m not sure there is enough air at the height to breathe.”

“There would be air at that height, but it would be quite thin,” Elrose stated. He was also a Master of Enchantment, so was quite familiar with airflow and density.

“According to the masters at my school, only the aetós can breathe at that altitude, and even they have trouble and can’t exert themselves too much,” Gastropé said.

“So, you are saying the Grove is basically surrounded by an impenetrable range of mountains?”

“I don’t know if your young and handsome friend is saying that, but I will,” Trevin D’Vils said, appearing from a side corridor leading into the foyer they had just entered. This foyer let onto a spiral ramp leading up and down, rather than the more traditional spiral staircase. The ramp was built for hauling furniture and equipment between the various suites and the labs. Elrose had quietly directed them this way to use the ramp to get down to the labs due to his large-wheeled trunk.

Jenn noted that the councilor was once again seriously underdressed in blousy sheer silk pants that went only halfway down her calves, and a vest made out of the same material that left way too much cleavage and midriff exposed for her seriously advanced age. She was also wearing an insane amount of jewelry: several diamond necklaces, bracelets, armbands, ankle rings, toe rings and finger rings. Jenn shook her head.

Elrose and Maelen nodded in respect to the enchantress, as did Gastropé. “The mountains are very high, higher than Oorstemoth’s ships can sail, in fact. Of course, mountains are peaks, so there are gaps and valleys, but the mountains are concentric and those valleys have extremely complex and dangerous currents. Only the aetós know them, and they patrol them diligently.”

“So how did the first residents ever make their way in?” Gastropé asked curiously.

“Hmm,” Trevin murmured, apparently really seeing Gastropé for the first time. She walked up very close to him and ran her right hand gently down his left bicep and forearm. “A fellow Turelanean, and as I mentioned, such a strong, young, handsome one. This trip is suddenly looking much more interesting.” Trevin smiled very brightly and more than a little disquietingly. Gastropé coughed uncomfortably.

Trevin chuckled and spun away, moving slightly apart again. “When the first residents of the Grove arrived, the mountain ranges were a bit more normal-sized. Let’s just say they’ve been fortified over the last several thousand years by the residents.” She smiled back at them as she started down the spiral ramp. “Our residents are quite good at erecting things.” She chuckled.

“Several thousand years?” Maelen asked. “How long has the Grove been there, as we know it today?”

Trevin shrugged. “A very, very long time, longer than even I’ve been alive.” She glanced sharply at Jenn for some reason. Jenn could not help but blush, feeling guilty about her internal fashion commentary despite the fact that there was no way the enchantress could know what she’d been thinking.

“As you probably know, the Grove is a refuge and migration center for beings fleeing other realms. There are numerous Sidhe there, along with nymphs, dryads, satyrs, centaurs, minotaurs and various related species. In particular, followers of the gods Cernunnos, Artemis Agrotera, Pan and Dionysus.”

Jenn had never heard of any of those gods, except perhaps Pan. Trisfelt might have mentioned him, a satyr god if she remembered correctly. She was so busy pondering this she almost missed Tevin’s final remarks. “It is also unique in that it is multidimensional.” This last bit of information Trevin imparted as if an afterthought.

“Multidimensional?” Elrose asked, puzzled.

“Yes, meaning it exists simultaneously and well, I guess you could say contiguously, on multiple planes at once. Dimensionally transcendent is the term some of our druids use. One nice feature for us, but I’m afraid most likely disturbing for you two visionaries, is that this nature makes scrying and Seeing very difficult there, both in and out, since multiple realities collide/coexist in the Grove.”

Maelen gave her a very odd look. “And how exactly is that stable? It seems to me that it would extremely volatile and dangerous.”

Elrose had a rather disturbed look on his face and seemed to be in agreement with Maelen.

“One might think.” Trevin shrugged.

Jenn noted that Gastropé’s pallor had increased at this, predictably.

They continued down the winding ramp and then down a long corridor before arriving at Councilor D’Vils’ laboratories. There were guards in Turelanean style uniforms and turbans guarding the main entrance to the labs, which seemed a bit unusual to Jenn. Lenamare just kept his magically locked. They had gone through the main entrance to the councilor’s space and then down a long corridor with doors on each side before coming to a set of very large doors that were currently open wide into a very large, domed room.

Given the fact that there had been multiple armies with horses and a multitude of demons hiding in the nether regions of the palace, all the various wizards’ labs, the storage rooms and now this large room, Jenn was starting to wonder if the Council dungeons were not larger than the palace proper. The underground warren was full surprises. This room was definitely one of them.

The room was a large rotunda with a domed roof with what appeared to be a large glass window at the apex. However, given how deep underground they were, Jenn doubted that it was an actual window. The walls were lined with ivy, particularly dense over long fluted columns spaced evenly every ten feet or so around the rotunda. The center of the room was dominated completely by a large dais with a circular ramp surrounding it. The ramp’s path led directly to two large round columns inscribed with runes and connected by a rune-carved arch, all of marble.

It was definitely one of the most ornate and beautiful runic gateways Jenn had ever seen, which admittedly was not that many. Currently the gateway was off and the other side of the room was visible through it. In the room already were Lenamare, Jehenna, Damien and Lord Gandros, who were chatting as they entered. Several other people in Turelanean garb were in the room, securing three wagons’ worth of equipment and tending to the horses pulling the wagons.

Damien came over to Jenn and Gastropé, smiling apologetically. “Sorry we have to basically kick you out of the city, but I’m not seeing many alternatives. We need the two armies to leave.”

Gastropé shrugged. “I agree; I’m just happy you aren’t tossing us out the front gate and into their arms.”

Damien chuckled. “A couple of members of the Council of Magistrates have suggested as much, but rest assured, neither council had any particular love of either the Rod or Oorstemoth before they decided to surround the city.”

“However, and more important,” Gandros said, coming up on their small group, “what Elrose and Maelen have told us is quite troubling, and the city may be in for much worse than these two armies. We need to know what we are up against and this seems like the best investigative path available at the moment. I’m not sure what, if anything, this expedition will be able to find, but we need as much information as we can get to prepare.”

“You’re sure”—Jenn looked at Damien directly—“that you’ll be able to get Rupert and his cousin to us once they return?”

Damien looked a bit awkward for a moment and finally said, “At the moment, they are safely outside the city and a very long way from here. As soon as I am able to reestablish contact with them, we will coordinate. I am sure that if joining you is the safest course of action for them, then we can make that happen.”

Jenn nodded. “Okay. It’s just that Rupert’s sort of been my personal charge lately and I’m just very worried about him out there basically on his own with Edwyrd. He has something of a knack for getting in trouble.” Gastropé suddenly coughed for some reason.

Damien smiled. “I understand. We established a means of communication before they left, but the wards are blocking them. Once we can open up those lines of communication, I will have information on Rupert and will relay it to you.”

“Thanks.” Jenn smiled, as relieved as she could be at this point. Gandros was now talking to Elrose and Maelen.

Jehenna walked over to Jenn with Lenamare following. “You do understand this is very inconvenient for us?” she asked Jenn in her usual bitchy tone of voice.

“Sorry, just obeying orders,” Jenn apologized, trying not to smile at being able to inconvenience the woman.

Jehenna frowned. “Here, take this with you; keep it on your person at all times.” She thrust a small, smooth, rectangular metal box at Jenn. The box was made of some sort of black metal, about the size of a small jewelry box. It had a good-sized gem embedded on one side, with a gold rim holding it in the box lid. Well, not really a lid; there were no seams on the box. It was smooth with rounded edges and no discernable means of opening it.

“What is it?” Jenn asked.

“It contains a variety of sensors and recording equipment for monitoring power levels, fluctuations, locations and time,” Lenamare stated.

“Yes. If you are going to go off hunting a goddess, we decided you might as well collect some useful information about deities while you are at it,” Jehenna stated.

Jenn was puzzled. “But isn’t that exactly what Master Elrose is doing with all his gear?”

Jehenna shook her head. “He’s trying to detect a goddess and solve the mystery of his visions; he’s going to be too focused on that purpose to record background and ambient information.”

“Or power manifestation levels of the deity,” Lenamare added.

“Power manifestations?” Gastropé, who had been standing beside Jenn, asked.

“Yes. If she uses her power on or around you, we want to measure it so we can learn more about god magic,” Jehenna said, nodding.

“So what do I have to do?” Jenn asked.

“Nothing. Just keep it on you at all times,” Lenamare said.

“Unlike your diary,” Jehenna added.

“So then I just bring it back to you and you can extract the measurements?” Jenn asked.

“That would be the preferred option,” Lenamare agreed.

“Preferred option?” Gastropé asked.

Lenamare shrugged. “I’ve got links to it, so I can always find it. The box is constructed of adamantite with mithral circuitry. It is as close to indestructible as I can make it. In the event that one of the goddess’s power manifestations incapacitates or otherwise vaporizes you, we should still be able to recover the box.”

“And it would provide a great deal of useful information on the nature of a deity’s destructive magic, so we can prepare defenses,” Jehenna stated.

Gastropé made a gulping noise, and Jenn frowned. “Great,” she said without a lot of enthusiasm.

Lenamare nodded. “You are correct. It is a great piece of work, given how little time I had to prepare it. I do think it is one of my best arcane devices. And, again, on such short notice.”

“Everyone!” Trevin was up on the dais. “Let me have your attention. We are almost ready to depart for the Grove.” She smiled brightly. “This will be quite an adventure for you, my young friends, and I include the two of you in that comment.” She gestured to Maelen and Elrose. “Master Lenamare will, in a few moments, order the wards to be adjusted to allow my runic gateway to open.”

Trevin gestured to the gate behind her. “The gate will take us to the Western Outer Grove, which is about thirty-three leagues from the previous Abancian border. We’ll then have about a half hour’s journey, on foot, to the fortress at Fierd’s Rest.” Jenn had never heard of either of these places. Abancia, of course, she knew about; it was a long-defunct kingdom south of Turelane.

The Enchantress continued, “We’ll have a nice, if slightly late, dinner there and then spend the night. We’ll need to resume our journey before fierdrise, which will mean taking the lift to nearly the top of Widow’s Peak.” She looked to Maelen. “Which, you’ll be happy to hear, only has an elevation of 1.2 leagues.” She chuckled. “From there we shall go through a tunnel to the eastern slope. With Fierd’s first rays of light, we will open the Fierdal Bridge to Grove Home. We’ll spend the day and a night in Grove Home as my crew finishes preparing the Nimbus for our journey, and then we’ll begin that at fierdrise the next day.”

~

Wing Arms Master Heron sighed with exhaustion as he covered the crystal ball on his desk. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

“A positively productive series of both post-active and pro-active discussions, if I do say so, My Lord?” Wylan questioningly stated to the arms master.

Heron opened one eye and just stared at the protectator. Eventually he said, “As you say, Protectator, as you say; I am heartened that you are able to recognize this.” He opened his other eye and sat up. “Now, Protectator Wylan, I need to write a few things up from our meeting. Since we missed dinner, please notify Cook that I am ready for my supper, and have his people bring it up. Also, ensure he serves you food as well. I know he’s a stickler for people eating on time, but you were working with me.”