Dave Smeds - The Sorcery Within

The white garb of the Po-no-pha was absent, nor could a single woman be seen.

"Setan," Gast said reverently.

The twins absorbed the view, if for no other reason than the length of time since they had seen so much water in one place. Finally, distractions fell aside, and their glances settled on the citadel once more. At the very center of the cliff, though faint from the centuries, the twins were able to discern a symbol etched into the stone surface: a dragon in its death throes, an arrow jutting from its midsection.

"The emblem of Alemar," Alemar said. "It is no myth. He built this."

"The mountain is honeycombed with chambers," Gast said, "but the only way in is there." He pointed to a portal near the lake. Both the opening and the entire pool were surrounded by tile trim, some of it now cracked and moss-ridden, but obviously set by a master mason.

"I don't see any guards," Elenya said. Furthermore, there was no door, only an empty frame, thus nothing that could be locked.

"There seldom are any. There is nothing to steal inside. It contains only what you bring."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see soon enough once you go in. I'll believe that there are physical relics inside only when you bring them out."

Not only was there no guard, but the village stood a good half-mile away. An open pasture took up the center of the valley, the few dozen grazing animals it contained the only obstacles between the twins and their goal.

"Now we wait for sunset," Alemar said.

The doorway led into darkness, an ominous blackness impenetrable to Motherworld's brown glow. They had crossed the valley in silence, hugging the edges of the orchards for cover, and now, at last, Alemar and Elenya could reach out and touch the place Keron had sent them to find. The entire trek had lasted twenty-three months. To be certain it was no phantom, Alemar reached out and brushed one of the tiles with his fingers.

"You are sure?" Gast asked.

"It wouldn't make much sense after all this to turn back now," Alemar said. "Give us the layout once more in detail."

Gast sighed. "Immediately within is a small antechamber. You should each take a torch from the stack you will find there. Five corridors lead into the mountain. It doesn't matter which one you take. All will soon bring you to stairways. Take only those which go upward. If you continue straight or descend, you will be lost in mazes. In ages past, before the school was founded, men died within them, unable to find their way out.

"You will need to light your torches at the stairs. At the top, you will find another antechamber. Beyond it lie a series of large rooms. These are the chambers within which the ken are tested. To become a Bo-no-ken, one must enter the first and return. The Hab-no-ken must penetrate the second room, as I once did." For a moment, his voice quavered. "The Zee-no-ken must survive the third."

Gast searched their faces. "If what you seek is truly within the citadel, it must be past the third chamber. Some of the Zee-no-ken have reported seeing a portal at the end of that room. If any have entered, they have never emerged to tell the story."

Suddenly he reached out and clasped Alemar's hand. "I don't want to lose you, my son."

Alemar stepped forward and hugged the old man. "We have to try, master."

"I am not an old fool," Gast said as they separated. "The danger is literal. Only one out of every two who venture into the third room survive as whole human beings. Even the first claims victims. What guarantee have you that your quest is true?"

"Only the word of a ghost," Alemar said, his throat sore. "But you still haven't said what isin the rooms."

"All the fears you have ever felt," Gast said. "And nothing else. Remember that: Whatever happens inside, it is nothing more than fear."

"We have company," Elenya said.

They turned toward the mouth of the valley. They heard echoes of many hoofbeats and saw a night-lit shroud of dust.

Gast said, "If they are Po-no-pha, they must leave their weapons and wait for permission of the High Scholar to approach the citadel. But now the ken will know you are here. Go in now, or lose your chance. Take off your clothes."

The twins blinked.

"Take them off," Gast insisted. "You don't want clothes in there. Leave your weapons as well."

They stared at him skeptically.

"Trust me," he implored. "I have been inside. You haven't."

Elenya toyed with the fastenings at her collar. "You can't expect us to leave our weapons here. What happens when we come back out?"

Gast was adamant. "What good will two swordplayers do against many Po-no-pha? And in there, weapons will only be your ruin. You will be undone by your fears." He groaned. "I wish there were more time to prepare you."

The intensity of his plea eventually persuaded the twins to strip, but neither would disarm. They stood ready, naked except for their belts and the weapons hanging from them.

"I feel like an imbecile," Elenya said.

"You look like one, too," Alemar said.

Elenya shot him a backhand swipe. He ducked it. "I see you haven't changed a bit." She smiled.

They needed the humor. One look at Gast's expression was enough to dismay the stoutest heart.

"Choose separate routes," the healer said. "And God be with you." In Zyraii, the phrase meant a permanent farewell.

"And with you," Alemar said. The noises from the far side of the valley were stronger. They took deep breaths and stepped into the dark passageway.

Full of bitter thoughts, Gast gathered their clothing into neat piles and began to prepare the proper eulogies.

THE CORRIDOR WAS LITwith cerulean light. It seemed to come from the stone walls themselves, and though this should have dispelled any shadows, the impression was of shadows everywhere. Alemar peered ahead, half expecting something to come shambling toward him, but all that appeared were forks and curves, steps and intersections of halls long lost to sepulchral dust and the mephitis of ancient sorceries. The dread of the wight reawakened, an almost forgotten memory given an unwelcome resurrection.

The passageways contained no artifacts, no designs, nothing to indicate that they may have served some purpose other than the one to which they were now being put. It awed him to think of the man-hours it must have taken to build this place. Who was this ancestor, that he should construct so laboriously a site he meant to abandon?

He turned a corner and saw a stairwell on his left, sinking into the depths of the citadel. Remembering Gast's instructions, he ignored it and soon found another ahead to his right. The path he had followed led up the steps, marked by channels in the dust. He paused at the base.

Laughter rebounded down the stair, deep baritone cackles that froze him where he stood.

Goose pimples rose on Elenya's flesh. No human voice had produced that laugh. She looked behind and farther down her corridor and wished that she and Alemar had not separated. The source of the mirth lay upward, where, until a few moments before, she had planned to go.

She understood why searchers of ancient times had passed by the climb and found their fates deeper within the maze.

She struck her flint, igniting the torch. A cheerful glow dispelled the somber blue of the werelight, momentarily buoying up her spirits. The desert people knew how to make their lamps and torches. This one, from the stack in the anteroom, burned almost without smoke, consuming the brand very gradually.

She found it hard to think of herself as an Elandri princess and of the relic as her ancestor's work. She was Po-no-pha. What was she doing intruding on chambers meant only for the ken?

"Elandri tu," she murmured, trying to convince herself the words were important to her. For Elandris, for the empire, for her father's people. For duty.