Chapter 42
A Desperate Plan
The party sat on the stone platform for a few hours, keeping their distance from the surrounding soft sand. No one said much. Connie sat by herself, sulking over the death of Jalban. Snow brooded in another corner, flustered over the loss of the staff. Maltokken spent his time occasionally tossing stones on the sand. Sometimes when he did, the ground would ripple and roil with the creatures concealed just beneath the surface. Except for their black stingers and spidery legs, their actual form was a mystery. Just as was found earlier, the creatures would not leave the sand to pursue them onto the platform, though it seemed they were large enough to easily do so. Theo spent a portion of his time trying to control the creatures with various spells. At sunset, he gave up.
Tonight, as on other nights, there was no fire. With one moon rising late, Connie cast a Light spell on a loose stone and placed it at the center of the platform safely from the sand and the horrors it contained. The party sat around the luminescent brick. The party members spoke among themselves in hushed tones, Jalban’s horrible death fresh in their minds. Connie kept having flashbacks of his facial expression at his moment of death. She tried to turn her mind away from the image, but no matter what she did, his visage of agony crept into her mind.
While they sat around the stone platform, Snow explained to the party that she could improvise to create another staff like the one that was taken by the creatures, but it would take some days to create the specified enchantment. This suggestion was met with a great deal of resistance. Almost no one wanted to tromp across the sands in search of the artifact. Even worse, the bracelet was buried somewhere deep within the ruins. Not only did the party not have a means of effectively excavating the ruins, but the presence of the sand creatures made it prohibitively dangerous.
“The quest is over,” Maltokken concluded in a grave tone at the end of a long discussion about the situation. “All because of a stupid bracelet.”
“Never say it is over until it truly is,” Rahl said. “However, we must find a way to retrieve the bracelet. If we cannot, we must make due with what we have.” He addressed Snow, “Can you make an equivalent bracelet that will give protection at the Atranox?”
“Certainly. Just give me a thousand years.”
“What happens if we try to approach the Atranox without the bracelet?” Connie asked.
“Calicus says it cannot be done by any living being.”
“Have you contacted him for advice?” Theo asked Snow.
She sighed. “I haven’t been able to contact him since we left Syzthedia. I tried again this evening. I’m beginning to sense that there are problems in Roggentine, and he is too distracted to hear my calls. I fear the worst.”
Rahl stroked his beard as he thought. “Is there no other Heptakon we can retrieve?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” she answered.
“There is another Heptakon,” Connie said.
All eyes in the group turned to her for saying this.
“It is the one to which Alyndia fixed her soul when she tried to occupy the body of Annelise Layton.” She looked to Snow. “Tell me, would that bracelet still work if we had it here?”
“Likely, yes,” she said after some thought, “but it is in your world now. And for all practical purposes, it is irretrievable by us.”
“But Alyndia found a way to physically transport the bracelet to the professor’s laboratory. If we could somehow duplicate the spells she used, we might be able to get it back here.”
“Do you think that Alyndia has the bracelet in her possession?”
“No, she doesn’t. I’m sure of that. But I know where she can get it if she is willing to help us.”
Snow raised her eyebrows at that. “It might be workable.”
“What do you mean it might be workable?” Maltokken said. “Anything is better than facing the creatures while we dig through the sand.”
“Silence yourself, Maltokken,” Snow said to him. “Connie, what do you suggest?”
“Well, first, we need to communicate with Alyndia. Apparently, Calicus was able to. Can we do the same?”
Snow ran her finger over her bottom lip as she thought. “In principle, yes. Tell me, Connie: Did Calicus ask of you a toenail clipping, blood, or something like that?”
“Yes. I gave him a clipping of my hair.”
“Ah-ha! I know what spell he used to contact Alyndia. We can do the same. But we don’t need a lock of your hair. Since you are here, we can send you in person.”
Snow explained that Connie and Alyndia were still bound by a tangled silver cord through which Connie could locate Alyndia. If all the correct spells were cast to facilitate the process, she could communicate with Alyndia as Calicus had done.
“I would just need to communicate with her for a short time,” Connie said.
“I can probably do better than that. Allow me to study my books. I may be able to cook up a suite of spells for you.”
Rahl had been alternating his gaze between both spellcasters as they discussed the matter. “Wait a moment,” he broke in, sounding concerned. “That seems kind of dangerous. Is there any other option?”
“Actually, we have two,” Snow said. “We can go back to Syzthedia and dig in the mines, or we can take our chances out here in the desert. Which of these do you prefer?”
Rahl sighed. “I just don’t want to send Connie back again like we tried before. I would prefer that she remain with us than risk losing her again.”
“No, Rahl. We would do things differently this time. Instead of breaking the binding between Connie’s soul and Alyndia’s body, we would only send her consciousness.”
“What’s the difference?” he asked. “The consciousness lies with the soul. You know that.”
“I was thinking that we only send a portion of the soul across the Wild in a projected energy form. The rest will remain in the body with us. The presence of her soul here will prevent her body from expiring.”
Connie was feeling a little confused by all of this. “I suppose you have a spell for all of this,” she said to Snow.
“Actually, it will take a combination of spells. But you will have to help me this time, Connie. Remember when Professor Layton told you that Alyndia said our spirits can leave our bodies here on Cerinya?”
Connie nodded. “Yes.”
“That is what you will need to do. After you slip out of your body, I can then cast the spell on your soul to send you on your way to Alyndia.”
“I’ve never intentionally tried to leave my body.”
“You can do it, though. Probably easier than even I or Theo could do it. You were slipping out of your body without trying when you first arrived here. Remember? Do you remember the dizziness you felt from time to time?”
“Yes.”
“In those days, your spirit was only loosely bound to Alyndia’s body. Since then, the silver cord has stretched and thinned, strengthening the binding of your spirit to this body. But though the binding is stronger now, it can be loosened again with a little concentration on your part. You may use this peculiarity of soul-body connection to not only leave your body but also carry it to your home world, where your original body resides. You will then be able to communicate with Alyndia.”
Stolen story; please report.
“How will she know it’s me?”
Snow shrugged. “I don’t know. She may be able to see you if your spirit is strong enough. Then again, she may not.” Snow scrutinized Connie for a moment. “I see that your celestial energy grows by the day since I’ve been training you. This energy alone may allow you to appear to her, though awareness of the ethereal things may be blunted by living in your world. At best, you will appear there as a ghost, nothing more, without an ability to effect change on the physical world.
The whole thing was making Connie nervous. “How will I get back?”
“It’s very simple. You will never leave. You just have to will yourself back here, and here you will return.” Snow got to her feet. “Come. Let us peruse my spell books. We will find the right spells for you.”
Snow and Connie stayed awake until both moons were high in the sky. During this time, they picked out several possible spells they could use. Then they sorted those spells out until they found one that would do everything they needed. When they were done, Connie withdrew a few additional blankets for them from the Threshibian bag. As Connie withdrew the second blanket, Snow’s magically locked box fell out of the bag. The small, wood and metal chest bounced along the stone platform.
“Be careful with that!” Snow said. Gingerly, she picked up the box from the stone floor and dusted it off.
“What is that?” Connie asked.
“You don’t know what this is?” she asked as if the contents of the box were obvious.
“No,” Connie replied simply, humoring the sorceress, trying to seem casual about her curiosity.
Actually, during idle moments on watch in the past months, Connie had cast nearly every spell she knew on the tiny chest in an effort to find out what it contained. She had thought of it as a challenge to learn on her own without asking Snow. She tried every spell she knew in the box, from Transparency to Shatter. Nothing had worked. She had given up on the box weeks ago. Its unexpected appearance reminded her that she never learned what it contained. Now the box piqued her interest again.
“Let me show you,” Snow said.
The sorceress whispered something to the chest. A click sounded from within. She then opened it as if it had never been locked. A password-activated locking mechanism, Connie thought. Clever. She had never thought of using a verbal password on the box.
Snow lifted from the tiny chest was a clear glass cylinder. Its size is the length of her hand. At one end was a wood stopper held in place by red wax.
“Careful now,” Snow cautioned as she gently handed the cylinder to Connie.
Connie held it up to the light. Inside the cylinder was the perfectly detailed model of a ship. Fascinated with miniatures, Connie held the bottle next to the luminescent stone. The ship was a replica of a wooden vessel that looked like a cross between a sloop and a Chinese junk. She turned the cylinder around lengthwise to see the minute detail. Rigging of brown thread held tiny sails to tiny masts. Each plank of the wooden deck looked like it might have been shaped from a sliver of toothpick and then meticulously glued into place. On closer inspection, she made out dark caulk lines between the planks. Connie examined the hull. Someone had even gone through the effort to paint a ring of green moss at the water line.
“It’s beautiful,” Connie said. “Whoever built this put a lot of work into it. It looks real.”
“That’s because it is real.”
“What do you mean?”
“That is a real ship you are holding in your hands. We shrank it and put it into the bottle so we could take it along with us.”
Connie’s hands began to shake as she held the fragile cylinder. She had never held a ship in her hands before.
“Give me that before you break the glass and kill us all.”
Gingerly, she placed the tiny ship back inside the plush, padded box and closed the lid. A click issued from inside the box. “Calicus sent Fandia to the docks to acquire a ship early in the morning before we left on the quest. This is what she brought back. It doesn’t look like much for a few Rezni; perhaps it was the first one she found. Still, it should serve us well when we reach the waters of the Oscacian Sea.” “Calicus sent Fandia to the docks to acquire a ship early in the morning before we left on the quest. This is what she brought back. It doesn’t look like much for a few Rezni; it must have been the first one she found, but it should serve us well when we reach the waters of the Oscacian Sea.”
The next morning after breakfast, Snow cast celestial spell No. 202, a spell known to the party as the “bubbles” spell. With the help of a few of Connie’s well-placed Air spells, the party floated in translucent bubbles over the dunes to a safe distance away from the sand surrounding the ruins. Once they alighted on the ground, they spent the rest of the day traveling north to a rocky area Theo had discovered the day before. They found an unoccupied cave within some piles of boulders. On the undersides of some of the giant boulders that comprised parts of the cave, Connie found petroglyphs not unlike those found on Earth in remote places with an ancient history of human habitation. The crude drawings displayed rivers, streams, dense forests, and stick men hunting stick animals within the stick forests. For all the unforgiving terrain they had traveled since they left the mountains, it was difficult for Connie to imagine that this very land was once covered with a lush forest. Certainly, these drawings were old. Rahl told her that the ruins were old even before the time of Chaos, two thousand years ago. She wondered who these people were that created the drawings. She also wondered what had happened that made everything go away.
After the party had settled in for the evening, Snow and Connie rolled out a blanket beneath the setting sun. Both spellcasters sat cross-legged across from each other. They took a deep breath.
Snow began whispering the chant of a spell. Connie closed her eyes. First, she purged her mind of all mundane cares, then relaxed her body one bone at a time until her flesh felt like jelly on her bones. Next, she focused on moving her spirit from her body. Nothing happened at first. But patiently, she persisted. Eventually came the welcoming feeling of lightness, the same feeling she’d fought incessantly in her first days on Cerinya, a feeling she’d interpreted as vertigo. Then thought she might be falling. Panic arose in her breast, but she tamped it down. The enemy must now become the friend, she thought. Then she started hearing a sound. She’d heard the sound before. It sounded almost like the turbine generators she heard at Hoover Dam when she took a tour several years ago, only this sound was softer, more subdued.
Gradually, a sensation washed over her mind. It dripped down her body like warm honey. She’d had this feeling before, though she could not remember when. A feeling she could best describe as expansion took hold of her senses. The sound was still there, but now it seemed that she was hearing from the other end of a long metal pipe. Her mind no longer felt like it was within her skull. It tangibly felt like it occupied physical space. She felt as if she were standing in a large room.
At once, she became aware of a pressure on her forehead just above the level of her eyebrows. It felt like someone was pressing a finger against her forehead. This pressure suddenly increased. It wasn’t quite pain, but it wasn’t comfortable, either. Now the sensation was like someone was trying to jam a finger into her skull. Connie felt angry by this. What was Snow trying to do to her? Connie opened her eyes to see what Snow was doing. When she did this, the first thing she saw was a strange, swirling blackness of noncolor. Before she could panic, the noncolor cleared and her vision returned. Snow was still sitting where she was before Connie closed her eyes, her hands in her lap, the orange sunlight casting long shadows on her face.
“Close your eyes, Connie,” Snow said. “You’re not there yet.”
“Should I try again?”
“Yes.”
Connie resumed the steps. Quickly, she found herself in the same state as before. This time she ignored the intense pressure on her forehead. The feeling of expansion continued as before. It was a pleasant, mildly euphoric sensation. Almost like too many Percodans. Connie idled away the moments in this feeling. She opened her eyes. Once again, she found herself in the swirling blackness. This blackness seemed to occupy a place. She found she could look up, down, and all around. The scenery was the same in all directions. Vaguely, she felt herself breathing, but it was a distant, insensate act, like moving a limb that had mostly fallen asleep.
Connie heard Snow say her name, “Connie.” Her voice seemed to come from everywhere and yet nowhere at the same time. Then Snow faded into view before her eyes. Her image was hazy, as if she were underwater. Her features were lit with a light that seemed to radiate from within her image rather than outwardly from the swirling blackness, which gave off no real light of its own.
“Are you prepared to return to your world?” Snow asked, her voice sounding fluttery and faraway.
Connie nodded to Snow. “Yes, I am.”
“One final word of advice. Stay close to Alyndia. The fragile, vestigial link between your spirit and your earthly body is the only link you have to your worlds. If you move too far away from her, you will lose the connection and return here.”
“I understand,” Connie replied.
“It is time now.”
“Aren’t you going to cast the spells?”
Snow smiled. “They’re already cast. We’re in the Wild now.”
She pointed to twin silver cords sourcing from the top of Connie’s head—hers and what remained of Alyndia’s. The two cords, glistening with sparks like electrical energy, were twisted together and merged in some sections, appearing like a badly made rope as they disappeared into the distant reaches of the ether.
“There. At the end of those cords lies your former body. Go now.”
“How do I do it?”
“It’s actually very simple. Focus your thoughts on Alyndia, and you will be guided to her.”
“Would you be angry with me, Snow, if I told you I was a little afraid?”
“Why should you be afraid? I cast the spells perfectly, just as I always do.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“I will leave you now. Good luck.”
The image of Snow sitting across from her faded into the ether. Connie now did as she was told. She focused all her mental energy on Alyndia, forming a picture of her mind of the elemental sorceress superimposed over her former body. At once, a bright, silvery light filled her field of vision, and the feeling of inertia gradually took hold in her. Seconds later, she found herself tumbling head over heels at breakneck speed along the twin silver cords—a twisted, spiral rail through the ether leading to a hopeful destination.