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

he spoke openly of it.

“You don’t trust me.” A simple statement that revealed a hint of pain.

Lief frowned, irritated at being exposed by a novice magic caster. He responded sullenly. “The magic is new to you. It is dangerous to stumble about blindly trying to find new uses.”

Enin felt no insult. Instead, he considered the possibility. Again, his attention slipped from the room. He spoke to himself, not to Lief, or anyone else. “Am I stumbling about? I don’t think so, not really. I build from spell to spell. Each new one is a key to another and another. There is knowledge in that. Taking small steps on what is known. But what if I simply threw the keys away, or ignored them for once, simply began to alter the magic in some new untried way? That would be stumbling. I might make a major breakthrough. Then again, I might destroy myself or the entire town. I guess that’s what they’re doing in the desert, away from everyone else.”

Sy shook his head. He allowed Enin’s attention to remain on his personal questions as he spoke to Ryson of a more immediate danger. “You came across a serp in the hills? With goblins and a shag?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Scouting out the wall?” Sy demanded.

“Probably.”

Sy grumbled, almost like the light growl of a panther.

Ryson tried to ease his worries. “I scattered the goblins. Disarmed a few and sent them running.”

“They’ll be back.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I called out a warning to the serp before I left. I told him we’d double the guard and be ready for any raid.”

“And we will,” Sy accented. “What happened with the shag?”

“I can’t take out a shag on my own,” Ryson admitted slightly embarrassed.

“I never expected you to, but I still need to know what it was up to.”

“It was with the serp.”

“Not attacking?”

“Only me.”

Sy folded his hands behind his back as he scanned the maps of the surrounding hills. “So the serp’s got a shag on its side now.”

“It seems.”

“That’s not very comforting.”

“It’s a big one though. It’ll be easy to spot in the clearing.”

“Well, if Enin didn’t sense them, they didn’t get too close. I still don’t like it.”

Ryson finally struck on the true point of his visit. “I think they were looking for a blind spot. And I think they might have found one. One of the reasons I came here was to warn you to build another tower.”

“Where?” Sy asked firmly.

“Southeast corner of town.”

“Really? I can’t remember them ever coming from the east?”

“The blind spot is more to the south. We need the angle to cover it.”

Sy rubbed his chin, considered the whole of the news brought by the delver. “I’ll have to take a look at that. I don’t think there’ll be a problem with building another tower, especially if it helps keep the goblins away, but what bothers me is that shag. What’s a shag doing with a serp and a pack of goblins? I though shags ate goblins. And even if we build a sixth tower, a shag might not care if we see it coming or not. If it wants to attack, it may run right up to the gate.”

“I don’t think it was there to attack. It looked like it was just guarding the serp.”

“Maybe, maybe not. Dealing with goblins is one thing; dealing with a hoard of shags is another.”

“I only saw one.” Ryson countered.

Sy remained wary. “That may just be the first of many. The serp may be tired of being beaten back from the wall. It may have decided it’s time to bring in a bigger weapon. I want to take a look. If you’re not going to be here the next few days, I need to be extra careful. You don’t mind do you? You can point out where they were, and you can tell me anything else I need to know about this dwarf-algor war.”

These words seemed to snap Enin to attention. “A war? Between the algors and the dwarves?”

“That’s what Ryson tells me,” Sy answered then turned his attention back to the delver. “You have a quick moment before you leave? I just want to go up on a tower and you can point out where they were.”

Ryson looked to Lief. “It’s the least I should do. I’m not going to be able to scout for them for the next few days. Do you mind?”

Lief showed no reservation. In fact, the thought of leaving the room for a tower appealed to him. It would not be exactly like climbing the trees of Dark Spruce, but it would be close.

The four quickly exited the office and the command post all together. Lief breathed deeply the open air. The buildings that lined the streets they walked still seemed to close upon him, but he was at last free of the tiny enclosed room.

They spoke of the algors and the dwarves as they walked briskly to the southwestern tower. Sy allowed the guard to remain as the four made the climb to the elevated platform. He did not always openly offer information to his soldiers, but he never deliberately hid things from them, either. He spoke of the dilemmas forthrightly, unconcerned that the lookout would overhear.

“Where did you come across the serp?”

Ryson pointed deep into to the hills. “There, just beyond the third hilltop from the clearing.”

It was a good distance away. Sy nodded to the budding wizard. “That’s why you didn’t sense them Enin.”

“Yes, that is rather far.”

Sy gazed out over the rolling hills.

“And the shag was with the serp?”

“Not the whole time,” Ryson admitted. “I found shag tracks on the top of that third hill. I believe it was acting like a lookout.”

“So the serp is using some of our own methods.”

“It would seem. Anyway, when I first spotted the serp, the goblins were with it, but not the shag. I chased the goblins away. When I came back to get the serp, the shag was ready to defend.”

“It does sound like a personal guard. And you saw no signs of another shag?”

“None.”

“That makes me feel a little better. Now, where’s this blind spot?”

Ryson pointed to the edge of the clearing directly south of Burbon. “See the base of that hill, the one that extends furthest into the clearing? What if they crouched below it? At what point would they be visible to this tower?”

“They wouldn’t, but the tower over the south gate would have a direct view of them.”

Ryson shook his head. “It’s too high. The lookout would have to lean out over the railing to see below him at that close range.”

“And if he did, he’d take an arrow between the eyes,” Sy acknowledged.

“Exactly.”

Sy tapped his fingers together. “They’d get right to the gate. It’s surprising it took so long for them to find it.”

“Maybe this is a new serp. I haven’t seen one with a shag guard before.”

“Not a good time for you to be leaving.”

“I can’t do much about that.”

“I know, I’m just reminding myself of what I’m up against.” Sy looked over to the southeast corner of the wall. “You’re right about the new tower. That’ll cutoff the blind spot, but it’s going to take a few days to build. I’m going to have to keep guards outside the gate until then. I don’t like it, but I have no choice.”

“A spider!” Enin blurted out.

The rest of the men upon the tower gazed at him questioningly. Enin ignored them, whispered confusing words, until Sy called for his attention.

“Enin? Enin!”

“Huh? Oh sorry, I was just thinking out loud.”

“I know. What were you thinking?”

“Ryson compared me to a big spider. That’s the answer.”

Sy shook his head. “Your senses are always helpful, but it won’t be enough in this case. You won’t feel them until they get close to the wall, by then it’ll be too late. I have to be warned when they get close to the clearing, not the wall.”

“They won’t get to the wall,” Enin asserted. He stopped his explanation and again stared out to the edge of the clearing. He spoke as if he were alone on the tower platform. “Spider’s web, spider’s trap, spider’s warning. It’s all the same. Make the trap where the flies are, or where the flies can be caught. A binding spell, like a force field. I’ve done that before. I need to alter it slightly, not a shield but a trap, a web. Think of a spider. How to focus the energy? Yes, that’s it, that’s definitely it.”

Without another word, Enin raised his hands. He looked first to the sky then to the blind spot as defined by Ryson. His fingers curled, pulling in the magical energies that flowed freely in the very air that surrounded them all. He tapped into his inner power as well, the energy he allowed to fill his core. He became a siphon and a conduit, mixing the power of himself with the free flowing magic. Two intertwining circles of a pale white hue formed around his wrists.

Ryson watched with great interest. He had seen wizards cast spells before; after all he had battled Ingar upon Sanctum. Still, this scene filled him with wonder. A seemingly normal human was pulling power from the very air. When he was young, he thought of magicians as entertainers that shuffled cards with extraordinary skill. Now, now they were powerful men and women with the ability to control energy of an unknown magnitude.

The sight was awe-inspiring, perhaps even more so for the elf that noted the scene with guarded amazement. The white light and the spheres indicated a skill he could not have expected. He said nothing, but the significance of such power was not lost upon him.

Enin kept his attention focused upon his spell. He ignored those that watched even as he could sense their growing amazement. As the circles of energy swirled, he redirected his hands at the base of the hill to the south. The rings of power flew from him, flipping over and over as they danced through the sky. They hit the ground at the point of the blind spot. Hundreds of long strands exploded from the circles, forming a giant web of glowing white. It remained visible as its whiteness clashed with the green and brown hill grass.

Enin nodded in approval. “It’s visible in the day, maybe even at night. I don’t know how much it will glow. It won’t matter. If they see it, they’ll know their blind spot is no longer feasible. If they don’t, we’ll have a few more prisoners.”

“They won’t be able to break through it?” Sy questioned.

“They could. It’s not the strongest spell in the land. They’d be able to cut through it with their short swords, but not while crouching down and hiding from this tower. It will take a little more effort than that.”

“What about the shag? If a goblin can cut through it, it won’t stop a shag for a moment.”

Ryson offered his own understanding. “A shag won’t be able to hide behind the slope of that hill. It’s too big.”

Sy nodded. A shag would be too big to utilize the blind spot. The lookout from this tower would spot it. Only the slight goblin could truly use the edge of the hill for cover. The web would work. He reveled in the victory. It was not always the actual physical struggle which turned the advantage. More often, it was the battle of strategy, the deployment of forces, obstacles, and resources. Confident in the overall approach of the web, Sy