Читать книгу Clues of Chaos - Gary Caplan - Страница 7

In Vlorence, it was morning, and Erios Keldarion was still in a meditative sleep. He had worked late to make his trade negations profitable with the dwarves of the Jorn Mountains who were purchasing valuable metal ores for their forges. He had some administrative obligations to his business that kept him occupied, making sure that he got the agreed-upon price and that the dwarves were satisfied with the ores.

Erios was in a light sleep, just leaving the land of dreams. He was slightly above average in height. His height was likely his least notable statistic. He had dark-brown hair, blue-gray eyes, and a high forehead and was considered somewhat handsome. His head was slightly large compared to others, but that was typical for Keldon people. Additionally he was athletically built and had dense muscles.

Others sometimes used Keldon dreams as a way to communicate with other Keldons, usually relatives, clan members, or trusted friends with the ability to enter a dream walk. Today, however, Erios sensed someone trying to strike at him through a dream. Such attacks could cause psychic damage to those who were unprepared. Many years before, members of the extended family of Erios’s Keldon clan had prepared him.

Standing on the bridge of his skyship in a dream version of his black-and-silver armor, Erios surveyed the area ahead as though traveling through a fog. A glowing green orb moved toward him from the port side. The skyship was designed to look like an old flying dragonship of the ancient Rumallians, complete with dragon-shaped ironwood carvings across the entire ship, giving it a general dragon-like shape. While on a quest several years ago, he had found the craft in a cavern said to belong to the Thurians, and he had restored it almost to its former glory.

Erios watched the orb in his mind’s eye. It moved and landed on the deck, twisting back and forth to take on a different shape. It had not yet located him, just his psychic presence, and only because Erios had an intensely strong psychic presence that he could only partially mask. The orb shifted into a creature of nightmare. It held a quivering, multitentacled form with many mouths filled with rows of sharp teeth. It keened a frightening sound and headed toward the bridge area.

Erios moved past the image of Gom, his mystical alloy construct. It was unmoving. He knew psychic combat was inevitable, and he disliked even the thought of causing a mess on his bridge. He hurried out of the bridge through the rear access, down the corridor to the port exit area, and out. The nightmare confronted him.

Erios was a Keldon, and he was prepared. He drew his spirit blade as the nightmarish beast threw tentacles at him. The creature drooled green fluid and seemed to hunger for his flesh.

With flowing precision, Erios chopped the tentacles with his glowing sword-shaped spirit blade and moved toward the creature. With a psychic move similar to a physical maneuver, he twisted his blade sideways and held the edge diagonal to the creature. He moved in a blur past the creature, releasing his power and will.

The nightmare creature tried to wrap its tentacles around him, but they were deflected by the dream version of his psychic barrier. His blade cut through the creature, and a third of it slid down diagonally. Moments later, the rest vanished. It had taken a strong-enough spiritual blow to shatter the nightmare.

Erios smiled briefly and looked around. Seeing no other enemies, he willed himself awake.

He wakened in the sleeping chamber and felt the telltale sense that something was tracking him. It was uncommon although, in the past, dark knights had started the practice to unnerve other mystic knights. In the last incursion of Chaos warriors, some of those creatures used their ability to dream stalk to send fear through the night and deprive defending soldiers of sleep. Dream stalking could be used to distract someone by keeping them in a sleep state longer, while someone got closer in the waking world.

Only a few months ago, a brother mystic knight had been caught by unknown assailants and killed. Just prior to his death, he had mentioned that he had been dream stalked to a colleague of his and of Erios. The loss of this colleague, a human mystic knight named Nur Jappa, was sad, as he had left some of his family behind and had not been able to complete his mission. His mission as a mystic knight had involved investigation of unusual activities in the northern provinces of Megalos, including Tosca.

In some instances, mystic knights acted as agents of law and order as they had been granted authority by the previous rulers before the formation of the Republic of Megalos. Later, Megalos continued most of that granted authority. In other countries, such as Erios’s home country of Adjios and in the country of Illuin, mystic knights still had some local legal authority, as those countries had also granted them the authority of low justice, and that status continued in the present time. Few other merchants had this perk as Erios did; he, however, did not try to abuse his privileges and rarely had any conflict with the officers or leaders of any of the mystic knight orders.

Erios traveled for his business and sometimes met with friends like Leo and worked on mutually beneficial projects. Adjios was a neutral neighbor and did not directly involve itself with Megalos’s external wars but traded with Megalos, which had over four times as much land. Those in Adjios also traded with Illuin, another province ruled by a council of lords like Adjios. Erios tried to conform to the general policies of his country, but if he found some group of individuals who planned hostile actions against it, he took a more active stance.

Like other powerful spellweavers, mystic knights could sense, manipulate, and control the essence, or weave, of magic and could even channel power from lines of energy to support various spellweaves. Some mystic knights could shape stone or metal quite well and, if they learned advanced geomancy, they could develop an exceptional proficiency. Their ability to construct and fashion stone and metal were far beyond a normal mason’s ability. They could will stone and metal into a fluid state and shape it into amazing forms. The ruins of some Rumallian cities still had sections of the power-wrought stone buildings or walls intact that had not been destroyed in the last great incursion of Chaos warriors.

For added security, Erios had sealed his sleeping chamber’s stone walls, had warded the area’s stone walls with a warning spell, and had placed a resilience spell on the stone for extra protection. He had time, as whatever new enemies might be after him were not close. They would likely try to intercept him on his way out to his skyship.

Erios mumbled to himself while he washed and dressed. “Need to get my ship ready.”

He thought about his skyship. In the distant past, such craft had been more common. Airships and skyships, as they were called in the past, were used by the Rumallians, who had learned of them from others who had either come to Archaeus or were brought there by the Thurians. Different groups influenced the Rumallians. One group, the Eldren, originated from a place called Illúmaril. Other influences were from the Quarran who had settled on Archaeus. There were different types of skyships, and not all used the same type of movement system. Many aircraft had been destroyed by the Chaos warriors and creatures of that ilk. Now they were rare, and only wealthy merchants or lords and certain military units operated them.

Erios finished a small meal and briefly cleaned the office apartment in his villa. He thought about his next actions. His dragonship was anchored in the water at the port. It could rise into the sky and move to a destination far more swiftly than any bird. Erios opened a doorway he had molded in the villa’s stone before. He left only small vents for air exchange. His small crew of ten, including Gom, would have finished unloading the ship’s cargo of ores last night. By now, they would be getting the ship ready for launch.

Erios used one of the several Keldon telepathic abilities he had learned over time and reached out some tendrils of psychic energy to sense other minds. As he stepped out the door, he used yet another psionic ability: a percipience of the area to remotely feel or sense where others might be hiding. Few other peoples had telepathic, telekinetic, and psionic abilities like the Keldon. Those abilities were not as easily noticed, unlike his mystic knight spellweavings, which could be sensed by wizards or other spellweavers.

He sensed one person at the edge of a building almost two streets away. Scanning for thoughts, he found that the individual was a retired evocati, or Roman veteran soldier, who was looking for him. Upon noticing Erios walking toward the dock, this scout moved away and headed toward his mercenary companions.

Erios walked along the cobblestone street toward the docking area that contained his dragonship. He sensed his crew and Gom were already aboard. His first officer, Thera, a female Keldon was also aboard, on the bridge. Erios read another of the mercenary’s thoughts. This man was a member of the group that had dream stalked him in order to distract him and allow the others to converge on his general location. The telltale signs and magical vibrations of a detection spell that the scout had recently used were still in the air.

Now that he was closer, Erios could sense them better. They would strike at him soon and were scrambling for better positions. They were essentially assassins hired by one of the religious orders known as Order of Entropy. They had instructions to try to capture him or, if not, slay him. Their spellcaster was evidently conjuring some type of concealing mist near their positions. “As if that will be enough to interfere with my senses,” Erios said as he continued to walk.

He had used protection spells earlier on the walls of his room and warehouse, but not his detection interfering spells. He wanted them to find him. He was tired of being tracked; it was time to strike back. If they were a rival business, then he would involve his crew. These were not rivals in that sense, so it would not be necessary to ask them to help—although Gom would likely intercede, because he was a mystical construct who was bound to Erios and would aid him if needed.

The twang of arrows being fired reached his ears, and then Erios sensed the arrows as they flew at him. Sometimes having several viable options for actions can be a problem. Erios moved rapidly, almost like a blur, and dodged three arrows; the next four, he stopped with his hastily formed telekinetic energy. The eighth arrow was fired from the height of the nearby building. They seemed to be aiming for his arms or legs.

The eighth arrow, having come from a different attack angle, struck his leg and penetrated into his lateral thigh before he could redirect or expand his barrier. Each of the arrows was coated in a poison; his enhanced Keldon senses noticed the odor. He didn’t worry but actually smiled for a moment. He was a full-blood Keldon and had considerable resistance to most poisons.

While they were attacking him, Erios concentrated on manipulating the spellweaving essence and controlling the effect creating an offensive attack. He released the spellweave as a series of powerful electrical blasts that amounted to several individual lightning bolts, each directed at one of his assailants. If they were not killed outright, then they would be stunned. He struck ten targets. Two did not have bows but had drawn maces. All but three collapsed, and two new opponents, who had been further back, emerged. One kept to the shadows; the other was a spellweaver and began to cast a spell, which Erios sensed was fire based. One of the evocati with a mace moved forward. One with a short bow moved forward, switched weapons, and drew a sword. Meanwhile the one on the elevated area shot another few arrows.

Ignoring the poison that would have paralyzed a human’s leg, Erios moved and drew the one with a mace into a stance that lead him to be shot by the one with the bow. He twisted, moving faster than humanly possible, and disarmed the sword wielder, a woman wearing concealed leather armor and hood. He used a close-combat martial maneuver kick-strike combination that stunned her and pushed her back several feet.

Erios shook his head near her face, telepathically sending a message that she should not have joined with this group. He was usually chivalrous with women and, even though he sensed she was generally corrupt, he rapidly used a blink-step maneuver and struck her neck and the back of her head, rendering her unconscious with his second martial maneuver.

As he turned and moved away, he sensed a fireball heading straight toward him. It had been formed by a wizard who approached after the bows were fired. This wizard was willing to endanger his companions with a fireball that would explode in the area. Erios used a spellweaving countering trick he had learned from his uncle, and the fireball looped back toward its caster, who would have been burned by his own fire except he had previously set a magical barrier around himself. Erios dodged another arrow and willed a gust of force that wrapped around the rooftop bowman and then pushed him off the roof.

These were human opponents, not Chaos warriors, and Erios was not the killing-for-sport type of person, so he did not use his most lethal spells or martial maneuvers against them. As he blink stepped toward the wizard, Erios sensed that one of those he had previously stunned and injured with his lightning strikes had regained his senses and pulled forth some daggers.

The remaining cloaked-and-hooded warrior, who had been moving in the shadows, also moved rapidly. Erios’s sharp mystical senses detected something different about this hooded warrior. He sensed one of the night crawlers. As Erios appeared next to the wizard after his blink step, he said, “Hm…a vampire.”

Turning and angling to avoid the wizard’s attempts to club at him with his staff allowed Erios to close the distance. He had been trained in several styles of combat by his extended family and by the mystic knight order he belonged to. Erios would use a mystic knight martial maneuver to neutralize the wizard. He would strike at his essence collection, or what some called chakra points, thereby interrupting his use of personal energies that he might use in his next spells. The effect would last many minutes, even up to an hour, and would effectively impair the wizard’s ability to gather essence for spellcasting.

He struck multiple different points on the wizard’s body, releasing his own energies at the chakra flow points. The wizard was elderly and unable to move fast enough to stop Erios. As he finished, he sensed a heavy wooden cart being flung at him by the vampire. He pushed the wizard back several feet and then turned to face the object. Extending the telekinetic inertial barrier that he used to stop the arrows, he halted the cart. The heavy object crashed, breaking apart against his barrier, which was now faintly glowing like a domed shield.

The vampire closed in and said, “Mystic knight.” He was dressed in a cloak and mantle with dark leather pants, a gray cloth shirt, and dark leather gloves. His pale skin was visible under the hood, and his eyes glowed slightly. He looked at Erios intently, trying to use the influencing power of his gaze. “I could be an ally. All you need to do is join us.”

“Your compelling gaze will not affect me, undead. My will is resolute.” Erios sensed a charm or compulsion but easily brushed any effect aside.

The vampire nodded and moved toward Erios, almost as quickly as a blink step, with a sword in his right hand.

The force of the blow hitting his inertial barrier pushed Erios several feet back, as he had not yet anchored the barrier to the ground. At the same time, he got his sword out and called upon the power of his mystic knights’ blade, which began to glow violet-blue in his right hand. The blade was shaped like a katana of a size to be used as either a one- or two-handed weapon. Erios altered the shape of his barrier and parried the vampire’s blade, testing the undead’s skill with a few quick maneuvers. The vampire’s sword had some magical effects from engraved runes and was imbued, or Erios’s katana would have shattered it.

“So many options,” Erios said as he contemplated the situation. “One question comes to mind, however. Who wants me captured or dead?”

The vampire narrowed his eyes and looked askance. “Why, my employer does.”

Erios scanned the vampire’s mind. The thoughts of undead things were somewhat more difficult to read, but an image of two men…no, not a human, but something like a human, or part human, the image seemed to be shrouded…and standing next to him, a priest of some odd northern order that Erios was unfamiliar with. The human priest seemed to be the vampire’s employer, and the other was another conspirator. Erios recalled that there were many peoples on the continent of Eidelon and the other conspirator was likely a dark knight.

The vampire thrust forward, but Erios deflected the blade.

Erios said, “As you are undead, I will deal with you differently than I have the others.” As he stepped toward the undead, the warrior with the dagger moved to support the vampire. They both renewed their attack.

After deflecting and disarming the warrior with the dagger while parrying with the vampire, Erios generated the essence for a martial maneuver. He created the “iron fist.” His left fist glowed and, while warding off the vampire’s sword, he twisted into a stable position and struck the vampire in the chest with great force, caving in the chest wall and causing dark blood to ooze out. The vampire was pushed into the air and back several feet by the impact. As he tried to get up he tripped over pieces of the broken cart and fell to the ground.

“I am Constantine the reaper.” The vampire sat and straightened up after looking at his dark blood oozing from his chest. “You will pay for that.”

Erios sensed the human warrior with his sensory percipience ability and noticed his attempted stealthy movement behind his back, not through normal vision but through a spatial awareness that allowed him to sense details of his surroundings. He turned before the man could draw back his dagger to strike. Erios parried and struck the warrior with the iron fist maneuver, shattering his ribs and bashing him back several feet. The warrior collapsed and lay stunned.

Keldons had always been faster, stronger, smarter, and more agile than most others, and some of the more impressive Keldons belonged to Erios’s clan. His father had told him that the superior breeding started generations in the past, originated by the Thurians and modified by the Quarran.

Constantine the vampire looked angry and seemed to momentarily wonder how his chest had collapsed. He moved up awkwardly and then seemed to recover as his chest partially restored. He moved toward Erios with the undead quickness of his kind.

“I have had enough of you, and now that I have some knowledge of who sent you, I can consign you to oblivion.” Erios gathered his power and energies and focused them in a martial maneuver, energizing his katana, which began of glow as Constantine moved forward. Erios brought up his barrier to block Constantine’s sword and, with his own blade, charged. With his intense mystical force glowing like a bar of sunlight, Erios struck Constantine across the chest and abdomen with a diagonal cut, not unlike in his dream earlier in the day. The vampire glowed as the sword cut through him. Constantine rapidly dissolved as Erios passed him.

A few of the other warriors finally got up but, after seeing Erios obliterate the vampire Constantine, those who were not unconscious or too injured to flee, ran in fear. Erios replaced his katana blade in its sheath and headed to his dragonship.

Gom stood in the shadow of a building near the dock.

Erios said, “Good day, Gom.”

The ten-foot tall construct made from titanium and other alloys nodded its black-blue head, eyes glowing like rubies within the metal. It said, “Good day, Master.” Gom’s voice hummed from inside its head section.

“I sensed you in the distance, watching me,” Erios said.

“Yes, Master. I watched and, early on, I realized you would not need my help.” Constructs like Gom were sentient and originally made by the Thurians after an Eldren design. The Eldren were from Illúmaril, one of the Key Worlds. Long ago, some Eldren were translocated to Archaeus. Later, many others arrived on skyships of superior design. They were offered land after their long travels and were allies of the Thurians during that time against the Chaos warriors. Much of their lore was lost or destroyed during the first great incursion of Chaos warriors. Some Keldon artificers were eventually able to copy the process to produce other new constructs. The constructs neither slept nor ate and were loyal to their masters.

Erios laughed briefly. “We have more pressing problems. We must get the skyship ready as we need to head to Tosca. Then I will locate Leo.”

They walked to the docking area to prepare to leave the city.

The dragonship was a vessel capable of landing in water and sailing, flying across the sky and hovering over an area, or even landing on the ground. Magical energies were channeled into objects along the metal-and-composite walls and floors, and symbols were used that maintained the ship’s flying ability and made it permanent. This was an older Thurian ship that Erios found while on a quest. It did not have a motivating engine similar to designs that he had seen in the library on the metal plates depicting the schematics an Eldren skyship.

Onboard the dragonship, Erios gave orders to his small crew to cast off, while he and the navigator quickly plotted a course to Tosca. They used the latitude and longitude coordinate system the Thurians had developed that was not in common use on the regular sailing ships. They entered the course information on a large globe-shaped magnetic chart on the bridge. The ship began moving, and Erios ordered cruising speed ahead once they cleared the city.

As the skyship sped up, Erios looked out the large forward view port. In the distance, rain clouds signified a brewing storm. He and along with his navigator altered the course to skirt the edge of the storm. If they had to go high up over a storm, it sometimes caused the crew distress and labored breathing might occur for those working on the outer deck. Looking at the land and sky and sea behind him, Erios remembered something from his education. To him, the world seemed a vibrant place full of great vistas.

Erios turned to Thera, his first officer. “Some say this world is alive and has a spirit that was tapped into by the Thurians to bring many peoples to Archaeus.”

His present first officer, Thera, who was also one of his many female cousins, nodded. “Yes, I have heard that too, cousin. The storm will cause problems for the caravan below. It’s unfortunate that we don’t have time to offer aid; we could have made a profit giving them shelter.”

Erios smiled. “Yes, so much for that. I have to meet with Leozanthicus. However, they might think our skyship a danger, especially with the influx of so many different cultures and languages over the centuries.”

“Yes,” Thera said. “One cannot be entirely sure, unless we read their minds on an approach.”

Erios nodded. “For merchants over the years, trade tended to be occasionally slowed as newer peoples arrived and interacted with the older ones who had been in the lands for some time. Fortunately, our people’s telepathy helped bridge that problem for us as well as for others.”

“I will get us safely around the storm, Erios,” Thera said flashing one of her confident smiles.

“Good. Then I will go to my quarters and try to precognitively contemplate what trouble my next activity will get me into.” Erios headed through the corridor out of the bridge and to the starboard side where the captain’s quarters were located. Erios stowed his katana sword and his amulet of protection. His crew was loyal, and the lookouts would spot any approaching flying creature or potential enemy airship.

The captain’s quarters were comfortable, reflecting the prosperity of the Rumallian times. There was a crystal chandelier, gilded woodwork, a large desk, and comfortable chairs for guests, everything secured to the floor or walls. There was a large crystal viewing portcullis that showed the panoramic view out the starboard side. The captain’s quarters had three other rooms besides the main room, which also served as a meeting or entertaining room. There was a bedroom with a door separating it from a small washroom. The last room or section Erios redesigned himself as an arcane lab area, complete with equipment for gem cutting, potion making, and crafting of arcane or enchanted objects.

It was not long ago that he and Leo prepared elixirs in the lab while they were on another quest. Now, however, Erios needed to contemplate his next move, as someone was out for his blood and, perhaps, other mystic knights were in danger as well. Erios sat in one his comfortable chairs to consider the information he had mind scanned during his recent battle and began to think about the implications.