Delver Magic II: Throne of Vengeance, Jeff Inlo [graded readers .TXT] 📗

At the guard headquarters, Ryson moved past two soldiers with Lief at his side. The guards let them pass into Sy’s office, each nodding in recognition at Ryson and taking long glances at the tall, thin stranger that walked with him.

Sy Fenden, captain of the guard, just dismissed a subordinate with new duties. He looked toward Ryson with an expression of welcome, unlike the first time he met the delver. But he, like everyone else in Burbon, had gained a new appreciation for Ryson now that the magic seeped through the land.

“Good day, Ryson.” He made a quick nod to the stranger. “Friend of yours?”

The tone was pleasant and accommodating, but also somewhat demanding. Sy had maintained the duties of mayor and chief officer ever since the first goblin attack on Burbon. When the people no longer trusted the duly elected officials, they had turned to the town guard for protection, as well as leadership. This newcomer was unknown to him, and it was his duty to check all strangers.

“Hey, Sy!” Ryson greeted the captain as he stepped in the office, allowed Lief to move past, and then shut the door. “Yes, this is definitely a friend.”

Friend or not, Lief immediately struggled with the environment. It was hard enough for an elf that lived in the wilderness of Dark Spruce to be surrounded by the fortified wall and the myriad of buildings of Burbon. Now, he stood in a room with no windows and only one door, which was now closed. He could deal with the caves of the dwarves easier than he could deal with this. This environment was manufactured, unnatural. Straight even lines, squared corners, perfectly aligned patterns of bricks; it was so different from the creative, nearly whimsical pattern of the intertwined branches of his true home. When the trees grew together, they did so with a strange balance between confusion and harmony. The construction of the humans tossed aside this balance and accented the straight, level and organized. It was disorienting to the elf.

Ryson sensed Lief’s displeasure. One glance at the elf revealed the taut muscles, the eyes searching for an opening to the sky. If Ryson yelled out suddenly, he imagined Lief might jump to the ceiling. The delver took no pleasure in this and spoke quickly to hasten to the point of the meeting. He made introductions first.

“This is Lief Woodson. Lief, this is Sy Fenden.”

Lief bowed in greeting.

Sy’s eyes fell upon the elf with great interest. “Lief Woodson? The elf? The one from Sanctum?”

“The same,” Ryson acknowledged.

Sy immediately threw out a firm hand. He was meeting an elf, a member of a race he never knew existed until a few seasons ago, but he was also meeting what he considered a soldier, a good soldier. Ryson reported every event which occurred within Sanctum, Lief performed beyond the call of duty, acted heroically in the face of true danger. That kind of bravery immediately earned Sy’s respect, and he felt no hesitation in offering his praises.

“Ryson told us what happened in Sanctum. I can’t say that I understand it all, but I’ve learned to trust what he says. You were one of the first to recognize the danger. You knew something had to be done. Everyone here is in your debt.”

Again, Lief bowed. “Thank you, but there are no debts.”

Sy would not allow his praise to be revoked. “Be that as it may, I know I want to thank you.”

Once more, Ryson spoke quickly. “There are some new problems. It seems there are repercussions from our endeavor at Sanctum.” Ryson searched for the words to explain. They were not easy to find. “It’s difficult to explain, but it seems the dwarves …, remember what I told you about Tun, the dwarf who died? Well, the dwarves aren’t happy with the algors. They’re apparently going to start a war.”

To his credit, Sy showed no sign of doubt and did not ask for lengthy explanations. He immediately focused on his primary responsibility.

“What threat does it have upon Burbon?”

Ryson shrugged. “As far as I can tell, none.”

“Wars often spread,” Sy said with a knowing tone.

“But the dwarves live underground and the algors live in the desert. I think, at least for now, it’s not a threat to us. Not to you anyway.”

Sy picked up on the reference. “But it is to you?”

Ryson grudgingly nodded acceptance. “Lief and I are going to warn the algors. We’ll be gone for a few days.”

Now it was clear, clear why the delver was so uneasy. Sy considered the thought of defending Burbon without the delver’s services. He knew there would be times when the delver wouldn’t be available, but he was as wary of the coming dormant season as anyone else. At first, he grasped for options.

“Is this something that can wait?”

“No, the algors have to be warned as soon as possible.”

“I was hoping that you might be able to wait until I get another delver from Connel.”

“Too long,” Ryson replied sadly.

Like a true strategist, a true commander, a true soldier, Sy accepted the situation. He nodded his head, punctuating his acceptance. “We’ll be fine. We’ll put men on horseback, send them out in patrols of four, armed to the teeth. I’ll have to assume the goblins will know you’re gone. They’ll look to take advantage, I’ll make sure there isn’t any. I can put lookouts on the walls as well as the towers.”

Ryson was about to explain the presence of the goblins in the hills when he was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Sy did not even glance toward the entrance. “Come on in, Enin.” And Enin opened the door and stepped through.

Sy felt the need to explain his apparent supersensory perception to the elf. “I know his knock.”

“He has very good hearing,” Ryson added. “Almost as good as mine.”

Before Ryson could make an introduction, Enin’s attention centered directly upon Lief. “This is an elf. Am I correct, am I correct?”

“Yes, Enin. You’re correct. This is Lief Woodson, an elf.”

Enin was delighted, not at meeting an elf for the first time, but for his own perceptions. “I knew I felt something strange. You came in earlier, right? Around noon time, right?”

Lief looked to Ryson with confusion.

“He’s a practicing wizard,” Ryson answered the unasked question. “He’s been focusing on sensing races other than humans, kind of acting like an alarm system. He’s been experimenting with spells so we can be prepared for goblin raids.”

“It’s not really a spell, not really,” Enin interjected. “More of an aura I allow to surround myself. The magic seems to bend differently around different races, especially the ones that need the magic to walk on the land. You didn’t bend the magic like that, but you were different, different like our delver friend, not the same as humans.”

“He’s like a spider. If something other than a human walks in his web, he’ll know.” Ryson then turned to Enin. “By the way, I came across a serp in the hills today. He was with six goblins and a shag. Did you sense any of that?”

Enin displayed unhappiness. “No, not at all.”

“They probably didn’t come close enough to the wall, but they were out there.”

“Missed them, huh?” Enin rubbed his chin as his concentration seemed to fade out of the very room. He began to chatter, talking to Ryson at first but then only to himself, ignoring everyone around him. “I don’t seem to have great range. I know when they get close to the wall, and certainly when they’re inside, but not too far beyond. I wonder why? I guess I couldn’t sense things forever. I’d go crazy. I’d sense every creature in the land, and then what good would I be? I’d just be confused. But I’d like to increase my range. I should be able to sense the hills. I wonder if I could come up with a spell which would energize me, give my senses a boost. No, that wouldn’t be any good. Spells take energy. I would only be able to boost it for short periods. That might be helpful if we had an idea when they were coming, but it wouldn’t be any good for general surveillance. Still, I should consider this, a spell which would increase the range of my senses. Even for a brief period, that might be a very useful spell. How would it go? Wind and earth? Air might even be better. Mix of a sight spell, expansion, and energy? I don’t know. I better be careful with this one. I might accidentally send out a force wave.”

“That would be helpful,” Sy said sarcastically.

Enin heard Sy’s voice but not his words. He snapped back to the here and now with a confused expression.

Ryson noted the scrutinizing stare of the elf upon the wizard. “You’ll have to excuse him. He does that sometimes. He starts thinking of spells, and he just goes off into space.”

“He should be careful,” Lief replied with an edge. “Speaking out loud of possible spells, spells with power, is a dangerous thing.”

Enin looked quizzically at the elf. Lief was tense. Was he tense at the presence of a wizard? No. He was tense at being in such a small room. Still, the elf was wary of him, Enin could sense that much. The elf apparently didn’t like wizards, certainly not human wizards. Perhaps ‘like’ was too strong a word, but the elf certainly didn’t trust Enin.

Enin faced a good deal of that from his human neighbors within Burbon, at least at first. Now, after he proved to be helpful, he earned their trust. But this was an elf. In Enin’s studies, he learned that the elf was the most capable of seizing the magical energy. Why would an elf mistrust him? It hurt him, and