Mage's Path 2 Page 3

  “Interesting,” Lachlan said. “You’re right, of course, Jack. There is some urgency, and I was about to get distracted. Carry on into the control room. Melinda, I’ll tell you more about the theory and applications of the principles of red and black to magical spaces in due course. If I forget, remind me at an opportune moment!”

  Melinda bowed her head to that.

  “Or if you can’t find an opportune moment,” Jack quipped, “you can wait until a completely inappropriate one when we’re trying to do something urgent. You’ll be successful then too, I’m sure!”

  They all laughed. “Go on, Jack,” Lachlan urged, gesturing to the door. Jack turned the handle, pushing the black door open.

  Light flooded into the corridor and Jack stepped through into the strangest room he had ever seen in all his life.

  The King’s City was far to the south of the Shadow Tower and the town of Oakwood, south of anywhere Jack had ever known, on the warm southern coast of the Noonlands. In that city there were said to be giant airships that people would fly from place-to-place in. In a matter of hours, they would make a journey that would take a week on horseback. Jack had never seen one, but Jory, a man from the village he’d grown up in, said that he’d seen them a long time ago. Jory had described them, like huge bulbous mushrooms floating slowly through the sky, controlled by a team of men in a glass and steel cockpit that dangled on ropes below a huge sack of heated gas.

  This room was what Jack had always imagined an airship cockpit to look like.

  It was a semicircular space, and it was smaller than he had expected. Behind him, the wall with the entrance door in the middle was a straight span of flat brick wall about fifteen feet in length. In front of him, a semicircle of raised panels like the engine room of some huge machine curved round from wall to wall. There were six enormous levers in the middle of this panoply, and they all seemed to be of different metals. Some gleamed like silver, others had the dull matte sheen of cast iron, and still others were the rippling silver and gold stripes of enchanter’s gold.

  There was a forest of knobs, dials, readouts, and smaller levers clustered around the six main levers, like an outgrowth of ferns and undergrowth clustering round the six central trees of the metal levers. The whole thing really did give Jack the feeling that he was looking down on a mechanical forest. It had the same jumbled sense of sprawling growth, the same naturally occurring sense of order, and the same mystery and potential.

  And then there was the viewing window.

  Instead of a curved wall of brick or stone, the chaotic control desk looked out through a curved, floor-to-ceiling glass viewing port. To call it a window would not have done it justice—it was a luxurious viewing station, the curve giving a panoramic overview of the tower’s grounds and the valley and woods beyond. Jack could see that the reds and golds of fall had taken their place in the leaves of the forest and the valley trees. There was a bank of rainclouds off to the east, but in the west the dipping sun was sending majestic beams of light through the mists that rose from the forest.

  “It’s… wonderful!” Jack said breathlessly after a moment. He’d never seen anything like it. Despite all the monsters and magic, the strange feats of power and the new spells, for some reason this marvelous control room affected him more deeply than anything he’d seen so far. He turned to Lachlan, his eyes shining with excitement. “This is it, then? This is how the tower travels?”

  It was only very recently that Jack had discovered this ability of the Shadow Tower. Lachlan had revealed it as Jack was recovering from his exertions in the battle with the tower. Up till that point, Jack had assumed that it was stationary and fixed in position. After all, who had ever heard of a traveling tower before?

  But Lachlan was being pursued, and that was something else that Jack and Melinda had only recently learned. They were both not fully clear yet on the details of Lachlan’s past; through a long conversation with Ivan, Jack had learned how Lachlan had once wielded the mighty red armor and black sword of Azhoth, a long time ago in another world, a place called Nightvale.

  During the war with the enemies of this mysterious land he called his home, Lachlan had created Ivan by mistake. He had intended to create a familiar—a short-lived, magical servant to do his bidding in battle—but through chance he had created Ivan as a permanent creature, a living, breathing, thinking being, and one that was enormously powerful in its own right. This was an abomination to the mages of Nightvale.

  Though the war had been won thanks to Lachlan and his might, he was pressured to destroy Ivan. He refused and chose exile rather than to destroy Ivan. Lachlan and Ivan were cast out of the land of Nightvale, and after long wandering had ended up where they were today.

  For a long time, the mages of Nightvale had been content to let Lachlan go on his way. He had almost been forgotten about. But then the old King of Nightvale died, and the new ruler decreed that Lachlan and Ivan could not be allowed to continue to exist in the world. Ivan was an anomaly, a freak of magic whose very existence undermined the rules that the mages of Nightvale lived and did magic by.

  So began the long, slow hunt for Lachlan the warlock and Ivan, his familiar. For long years they had been out of touch with Nightvale, and the hunters could not find them. But now, through some device that Jack did not fully understand, Lachlan had learned that the hunters were getting close. He had put them off with his own dark magic, but now the time had come.

  They were to leave; this meant the tower would travel once again.

  “Where exactly are we right now?” Jack asked in a quiet voice, as he gazed out of the window and then back at the controls.

  “You mean in the world?” Lachlan asked.

  Jack shook his head. “In the Tower. By my reckoning, at this moment we should be standing deep inside the tower’s middle floor, nowhere near any window that I’ve ever seen from the outside. And yet here’s this huge window, and we seem to be as high up as we could get—almost on the roof of the tower!”

  Lachlan laughed and rubbed his hands together. “Marvelous, isn’t it?” he said. “You’re seeing the tower’s place magic on display here. In actual space, we are in fact deep inside the tower, as you say. We have to be, because the transit process when the tower travels is somewhat… traumatic.”

  As he spoke, he moved to the central control panel and began to fiddle with some of the smaller levers there. “Our physical bodies need to be as deep inside the tower as is possible,” he continued, “to protect us from the somewhat wild energies that are released on transit. But the tower’s magic is able to give us this overview that we need to successfully steer ourselves while we travel. Hmm… Why is this not working?”

  He said this last sentence to himself, breaking off his explanation with a frown and holding his hands up in exasperation.

  “What’s the matter, Lachlan?” Melinda asked.

  Lachlan scowled down at the controls. “These minor levers and stabilizer dials won’t turn… Perhaps it’s because we’re not quite ready to travel yet.”

  He took two long strides to the far side of the room and grabbed up a strange-looking brass cone that was attached to the desk by a flexible tube. Raising this to his mouth, he spoke. “Ivan? Ivan, are you there?”

  He held the mouthpiece to his ear and waited, and after a moment his face brightened. He’d received a reply, though neither Jack nor Melinda could hear what was being said from the other side.

  “That’s right, Ivan, we’re getting ready to leave. Please lock all the main doors, then bring Spark and Max up to the control room and join us here.” He listened for a moment longer and then put the tube down.

  “Ivan will be up in a minute,” he said. “He’ll bring your creatures up with him. Now, this should work since the tower knows that everyone is on the way. It’s just the warmup cycle after all…”

  Again, he moved to the center of the desk and tried moving some more levers and twirl some more knobs. Jack exchanged a look with Melinda, who rai
sed her eyebrows at him. It was clear to both of them that whatever Lachlan was not being successful in whatever it was he was trying to do.

  “Hell’s teeth,” Lachlan cursed under his breath. “Why is this not working?”

  He stepped quickly to the left of the control panel. Here, there was a set of three drawers. He opened one and glanced inside, then swore again. “I’ve forgotten to bring my map and crystal ball,” he said, opening the door to the corridor. “Bear with me, I’ll be back in a moment.”

  “We’ll not touch anything while you’re away,” Jack assured him.

  Lachlan stood in the open doorway and gave a bark of laughter. “No need to worry about that. The controls only work for me, since I’m the tower’s master. Touch whatever you like.”

  The door slammed. Melinda met Jack’s eyes, and he saw the thought enter her mind at the same time it came into his. The tower’s master. What if…?

  Jack stepped forward, surveying the expanse of arcane controls in front of him. He laughed, feeling bewildered. “I wouldn’t know where to begin,” he said, holding his hands up.

  Melinda came up beside him and put a hand on his arm. “Try to use your instincts, Jack. Let your magic lead you.”

  Jack took a breath and held it for a moment, then let his magical awareness surge to the surface. It overlaid his whole experience of the world, expanding outward and coloring everything the way a different colored shade on a lamp changes the whole appearance of a room.

  “Let me guide you,” the tower’s voice said in his mind, in a voice as clear as if she had spoken into his ear. Her voice was melodious and soft, deeper than what one would expect from a woman, but with the grace and confidence of a queen.

  “The Tower,” Jack gasped aloud. “She spoke to me! In my mind!”

  “Go on,” Melinda urged. “Try the controls. Lachlan said they need to warm up first—see if you can start that process.”

  Jack held his hands over the controls for a moment and then, as clearly as if a finger had pointed to it, he was aware which dial needed to be turned, and by how much. He dropped his hand to the control desk and began to work.

  Within moments, the whole control desk had begun to vibrate. There was a deep thrumming vibration that ran through their feet and rippled through the air around them, like the heartbeat of some huge animal. The deep whump, whump, whump sounded like the beat of mill blades spinning through the air, but the sound was so low that Jack felt it in his belly more than heard it with his ears.

  Countless glass-covered dials on the control panel danced and bounced like compass needles held near a magnet. The levers themselves seemed to gleam brighter as if lit from within by a magical illumination.

  The levers, dials, and knobs moved under Jack’s hands with ease. He was guided to them all, little gold and silver buttons and switches made of luminous blue and green crystal. One after the other, in a sequence that he could never have remembered in a thousand years, he activated the controls under the steady and confident guidance of the tower.

  When at last he was done he stepped back, breathing as if he’d just run a sprint. The whole room shimmered with magical potential. He knew without being told that the tower was ready to travel.

  And then there was a banging on the door.

  “Jack? Melinda?” came Lachlan’s muffled voice. “Is the door locked? Let me in! What’s going on?”

  Melinda stepped to the door and tried to twist the handle to let him in. “The damn thing won’t open!” she said in disbelief. “Jack, the tower’s playing tricks on us!”

  Jack smiled. “I don’t think so,” he said quietly, stepping to the door. “I think it’s working exactly as intended.”

  He put his hand to the door, and it opened smoothly outward, revealing Lachlan’s unimpressed scowl and Ivan’s mischievous grin.

  Max and Spark came barreling through the door together and immediately began to roughhouse with each other in one corner. Lachlan strode in, his arms struggling to contain a rolled-up map and a big ball of smokey crystal. Ivan brought up the rear, closing the door carefully behind him.

  As soon as he looked at the control board, Lachlan’s eyes widened, and he stared at Jack in amazement. “You…” he stammered. “The tower…”

  “Yes,” Jack said. “I operated the controls. The tower guided me and somehow told me how to do it. Lachlan, I think an unintended consequence of our recent battle is that the tower has transferred its loyalty from you to me.”

  It took a while for Lachlan to process this news. I could see his mind reeling, disparate emotions and thoughts fighting for his attention. Finally, he regained his composure and nodded slowly.

  “It makes sense,” he said. “The door to the control room will only open to the tower’s master, and to the people who the master decrees can have access. I didn’t realize at first. When you opened the door, I just assumed the tower was allowing you access without feeling the need to ask me. Perhaps if I’d tried the door, it would not have worked…”

  “When was the last time you were in here?” Melinda asked.

  A knowing smile slowly expanded on Lachlan’s face. “Not since before the battle. This explains a lot. Normally I would expect to feel the tower’s awareness as well—not strongly, but there should be some connection. But since the battle I’ve felt nothing. This explains all kinds of … minor anomalies that have been occurring.”

  “What can you show us in your crystal ball, Master?” Ivan cut in. “Whatever the situation with the tower, surely we need to get ready to move.”

  The little room was crowded now that everybody was packed in, but Lachlan moved to the only spot on the control panel where there were no actual controls. Here, right by the left-most wall, a flat surface of dark polished wood could serve as a desk or table. He rolled open the map halfway, revealing a neatly drawn representation of the area around Oakwood town. There was the river that ran past Oakwood, through the forest, and into the tower valley. There was the Shadow Tower itself, and looking closer Jack saw many small tracks and paths inked carefully in, all leading to the town of Oakwood. It made him think of the wider world. This was something he rarely did—after all, he had so little knowledge of it, that he had nothing to work with.

  Lachlan laid the crystal ball on the map and stretched his hand out over it. He held it there in a strange buoyant tension, a few inches from the surface. He muttered words under his breath, and a bright, vivid little picture appeared within the crystal.

  “I saw them before!” Jack cried out. “In my dream!”

  Lachlan looked at him. “That’s interesting,” he said. “I didn’t know you had the gift of seeing through dreams.”

  They all leaned over to see what the crystal ball showed. There, in the crystal, there was an image of a group of men. They wore strange armor made of interlinked plates of some dark metal, and they had ragged cloaks around their shoulders. They were leading their mounts.

  “I’ve never seen anything like those animals before!” Melinda marveled. The men’s mounts were not horses. They were more like great featherless birds. They each had two long thin legs with clawed feet that gripped the ground with an incredible ferocity. Their bodies were round and heavy, their necks long and topped with small heads, perfectly round but for their strict, sharp beaks.

  “They look like monstrous turkeys,” Jack said quietly.

  “Don’t be fooled by their appearance,” Lachlan said. “They’re vicious in battle, they’re fast, and they’re nothing like as stupid as they look. What’s more, the men who ride them are more formidable enemies than I’m willing to face right now.”

  The men did not look all that formidable, honestly. They looked hard-bitten and road-weary, and it seemed like they had not had a comfortable night’s sleep or a warm meal in much too long. There were eleven of them, ten on foot leading their mounts, and one riding his. He had his left leg wrapped in a bandage and he swayed in the saddle. Leading the group was a man who looked older than the rest.
He stared grimly out from under his half-helm and gripped a long pike in his right hand. His left hand, Jack saw, was missing the index finger.

  The night before the battle with the Shadow Tower, Jack had shared her awareness of her surroundings, in a vivid dream. While drifting in and out of sleep he’d seen a vision of these men and their strange beasts, camped by a watering hole near Oakwood. That was the day Lachlan had put a spell on them, using dark magic to divert them from their course.

  Now, it was apparent that the spell had worn off.

  “They’re in the valley,” Jack realized suddenly as he recognized the scene behind the men. “Look, that’s near the quarry! They’re only ten minutes away from the tower!”

  “You’re right,” Lachlan said. “And that means it’s time for us to move. Let’s—but what’s this?”

  Lachlan had been about to move away from the crystal ball when it shifted to show a new image. It was as if the view had swept away behind the hunters, and now it showed a section of path further up the valley. There was a figure there, a woman, dressed in fine gleaming chainmail armor under a dark leather surcoat and carrying a long, curved sword. She was about Jack’s age, and her luxuriant hair—tightly tied up behind her head to keep it from catching on anything—was as midnight black as her eyes.

  She was crouched at the edge of the path, her sword in one hand and a long knife in the other. There was a bow and a quiver on her back.

  “I saw her too,” Jack said quietly. “In the same dream, when I shared the tower’s awareness. She was in a room in the inn at Oakwood town. I wonder who she is?”

  It was clear from the image in the crystal ball that she was shadowing the hunters from a distance. As he leaned in to look closer, something that she was carrying at her waist caught his eye. It looked like a huge and cumbersome book, bound with heavy leather covers dyed deep blue, and with gold embossed writing on the spine and cover. It was held in a sort of sling that kept it tight against her waist, but all the same it seemed a mightily impractical thing to be carrying on a scouting mission.