Chapter Twenty-Two - Diamonds and Rubies

A trembling thunder pounded around the cave as the wraiths charged at Amos. Adric stood for a moment, rooted to the spot by fear. There had to be at least twenty of them. How could they stand up against these numbers? Knowing he had to help Amos, he unsheathed his sword and stood by Amos’ side.

“No!” Amos shouted. He swung the Staff of Soceria in Adric’s direction. A nearly invisible wave of energy caught him around the middle and sent him sliding back toward the Staff of Alldel.

“The tamtan! Get to the tamtan!”

“You can’t hold this many off on your own!” Adric replied.

“I can long enough for you to use that tamtan… Do it!” Amos was growing annoyed with Adric.

“But, I don’t know how!” Adric said.

“Take the Staff of Alldel. Press it to the page with the tamtan drawing. Wystan will take over from there.” Amos turned back to the battle, and he thrust the shaft of the Staff of Soceria forcefully into the ground. A dark gray aura appeared between him and the army of wraiths. They charged at the wall but didn’t seem able to penetrate it. They swung their swords, their axes, and maces, but they all bounced off the shield. Amos looked to be under a significant amount of distress to maintain the protective screen. The wraiths wailed at them, furious at Amos’ defensive strike.

Adric turned and faced the Staff of Alldel. This was the moment. He walked up to it, placed both of his hands around its middle, and lifted the staff from its resting place. He wasn’t sure what he had expected to happen when he lifted it, but he was admittedly disappointed when nothing at all seemed to happen. The staff was heavy. There was a beautiful, large ruby set in the top-most part of the staff. He knew this was one of the soul stones, but it appeared to be an ordinary ruby to him. Thin gold threads wound their way around the shaft of the staff, much like the Staff of Soceria. They crisscrossed all the way up to the top. Around the ruby were hundreds of tiny diamonds. Echoes of the battle jolted him back to life.

“The tamtan,” Adric said to himself, holding the staff by his left underarm and pulling the book from his bag on the floor. He found the book and flipped frantically to the page with the drawing of the tamtan on it. Adric set the book face up on the plinth that had held the Staff of Alldel. He glanced one more time at the battle raging just across the room. Amos was still holding off the wraiths, but they seemed to be taking a toll on him. He was bearing down on the staff as though he had to push the line back physically.

The energy coming from the screen was causing his cloak to whip out behind him like it was catching a great wind. One of the larger wraiths charged the screen with great ferocity. He struck it mid-jump with both hands clenched around his battle axe. The protective screen flashed a blinding white light. Another surge of energy from the screen lowered the air pressure around them so sharply, Adric’s ears popped. He jumped, startled, at what had just happened, and then he turned quickly to face the tamtan, knowing Amos couldn’t hold the line much longer. Adric raised the Staff of Alldel and confidently touched the tip of the staff to the drawing on the page as he had been instructed.

Immediately, a great wind built up around him. The pages of the book began to flail in protest to the wind. Adric instinctively tried to let go of the staff, but he found he could not. They were bound together, inseparable. And then he saw a series of images begin to scroll, rapidly through his mind’s eye. The scene around him began to fade as the tamtan took him to a different time and place.

“It’s working!” Adric heard Amos shout from across the room, though he didn’t truly register that it had been said at all. His heart began to race, the veins in his neck were popping, his eyes rolled, and he felt his body go limp. The power of the tamtan operating on him caught him as he began to fall under his own weight. The Staff of Alldel, combined with the tamtan lifted Adric off his feet. He relaxed as they began to support him.

His head throbbed viciously as he began assimilating everything stored inside the tamtan. He was becoming the man who once was King Wystan, and yet, that man seemed to be integrating himself as the now living version of Adric. Two minds started to become one. Their experiences, knowledge, and wisdom began to meld into one consciousness. But Adric did not feel that he was necessarily becoming anything new. Everything seemed to come naturally, as though he had always been able to do the things he was becoming, he just needed to be shown how.

And then, as abruptly as it had all begun, everything became still and quiet. Adric was lowered to the floor as his consciousness and strength were restored to him. He opened his eyes and felt like new. He held the staff, not with wonder as he had done a few minutes ago, but with confidence, as though he had carried it for centuries. He carried it like a king. Adric looked over at Amos, still holding the screen against the wraiths. An unusual familiarity struck him, like seeing a long-lost relative unexpectedly. A grin etched itself involuntarily across the left side of his face. Wystan was alive inside him. And when he truly tried to listen to his own mind, he could almost distinguish a deep, familiar voice, much like his own, speak to him. Get them! It said to him.

Adric didn’t even have to think about what it meant, or how to act on the voice. He raised Dawnwood over his head as though he had been doing this all his life, as if it were instinctual, and he brought it back down pointing the top of the staff straight out at the band of wraiths. A tingling sensation rippled down his shoulder to his elbow and eventually to the end of the staff. A ripple, like that of a summer’s heat wave, screamed across the hall. It bypassed the screen held by Amos, and it hit a huddle of wraiths so forcefully, he could hear their bones dislocating themselves from their sockets as they were torn from the ground, lifted into the air, and slammed against the wall. They moved no more.

Amos turned to see Adric standing at the end of the room near the plinth where Dawnwood had rested. Amos smiled at him, and they nodded to each other. Amos pulled the Staff of Soceria from the ground, a black ring burned into the floor where the base of the staff had been resting. The defensive screen vanished, and the army of wraiths charged at Amos.

Again, without conscious thought, Adric spun on the spot, vanishing, and reappearing directly behind Amos. They fought together, back to back, Amos, working with the Staff of Soceria, Adric working with the Staff of Alldel. Flashes of diamonds and rubies working in concert, taking out each wraith one-by-one. Adric swung the staff back and forth, as though to sling waves of energy from the staff’s tip. The wraith army was thinning.

And then there was a haunting wail issuing from the tunnel entrance. The wraith army, hearing the sound, ceased battle, and began to flee from it. Amos and Adric stood, back-to-back, battle postures held fast, and then the wail screeched around them again.

“Time to go!” Amos said, and he turned around to face the entrance with Adric.

“Necraphym,” Adric said.

“You knew that?” Amos asked.

“Wystan knew it.”

“Then you must know that means we have to go.”

“I think we’re too late for that,” Adric said.

“Adric, these are beasts we cannot fight.” But Adric was right. It was too late. A tremendous winged beast descended the stairs before them. He had a face like a skull with horns protruding upward behind each of his ears. He had two sets of wings, one set wrapped themselves elegantly around his body, the other set draped behind his back like a leathery cape.

“Hello, Amos.” His voice boomed across the room. “We haven’t met in a long time.”

“The world would be a much better place, had we never met at all,” Amos said, looking up into the beast’s face.

“You don’t mean that.”

“I only wish that were true!” Amos said, and he swung the Staff of Soceria hard around, sending a wave of energy at the beast. But the necraphym caught the wave with his wings and deflected it off the wall behind him. A chunk of rock broke off the wall and crashed down behind the necraphym.

“Where are your brothers?” Amos asked him.

“Never mind,” he said. “There’s no need for you to be concerned about them.”

“I’m disappointed to learn they are still alive,” Amos said with disgust.

“All thanks to you.” The necraphym waved his hand, a great wind was conjured and blew their way. Amos thrust the Staff of Soceria into the ground as he had done before. The white screen had reappeared. This time it didn’t seem to be sufficient to withstand the attack. It was flickering in and out, and Amos was being pushed back by the force of the attack against him. Adric acted quickly. He put up a screen of his own to add to the strength of the one cast by Amos. The necraphym pushed back harder. The two of them seemed only just powerful enough to hold him at bay. Adric could feel the muscles and sinews in his arms straining, screaming in protest at the force to which he was putting them.

And then, as it had done just before he attacked the wraiths, the presence of a voice that was almost audible to his mind seemed to make itself heard to Adric. He let the words it spoke use his own mouth as an outlet to say what they wanted to say. Adric opened his mouth and spoke to the air around them.

“KEZ-KAZ’THU LUZKASTRA’STA! KEZ-KAZ’TRA KALA’NUSULU!”

“What are you doing, boy?” The Necraphym shouted to him. But Adric held his gaze, looking directly into the eye of the monster trying to kill them, he allowed the tamtan to have its last words. Amos, who realized what Adric was doing, shouted the words in harmony with Adric.

“KEZ-KAS’THU KALAR-ZUTHAR!” Their voices echoed through the crashing of rock around them, and a brutally blinding light issued from the diamond and the ruby in their staffs. The necraphym screamed in agony as the light blinded him. It beamed out toward the necraphym’s direction like a wind, allowing the two casters to be unaffected by its ruthless blinding power.

“This way!” Adric shouted over the wails of the necraphym. He grabbed Amos by the sleeve of his cloak and led him across the other side of the room. Adric pointed the Staff of Alldel at the rock wall before them, and it opened at his command. Amos and Adric pushed their way through, and Adric turned to seal the gateway as soon as they had fallen through. The two of them collapsed against the wall, and they sank to the floor to catch their breath.

“That was a good plan,” Amos said.

“It wasn’t mine. Wystan put that in the tamtan, although I don’t really know what it was.” Amos shook his head. A smile was creeping across his face.

“His wisdom haunts me six hundred years after his death.”

“I don’t understand,” Adric said.

“He must have known that in the event the tamtan was needed, there was a chance the necraphym were going to try to stop us. The necraphym can’t handle that amount of light. It causes severe pain. They might block the energies we manipulate with these staffs, but there’s nothing you can do to block that kind of light. The incantation he left for you in the tamtan was a call in the language of the necraphym for the power of the sun. The staff acted as a kind of lens to focus the sun’s power into the gem. The necraphym couldn’t withstand that kind of light. He knew we would need a way out. He left that message in the tamtan so it would trigger your memory when faced with the appropriate situation.” Adric had no words. It was an incredible show of foresight. “That kind of move was everything that defined Wystan, King of Alldel. I’m guessing the tamtan led you to this passage as well.”

“It did. Did Wystan know where the staff would be placed in the event it had to be hidden?”

“He did. We discussed it many times.”

“He must have arranged the escape tunnel,” Adric said.

“I’m sure he did. Do you know anything about where this tunnel might lead?”

“No,” Adric said, wondering how this key bit of information could have escaped Wystan. As though Amos had read Adric’s thoughts, he said,

“Wystan knew he had to limit the things he put into the tamtan. I’m sure further knowledge of this tunnel would have seemed too trivial. Best to leave that out.”

“But what if we can’t find our way through?”

“I don’t think we have to worry about that. If there’s one thing we can be sure about this tunnel, it’s that Wystan would have left further instruction if it were necessary. The fact that he left no more information about it likely means we should be able to find our way.” Adric nodded.

They rose and began to walk the only direction it was possible to go. They had discussed reopening the hidden entrance but had decided it was a bad idea. In the event the necraphym had cleared the area on the other side, it was unlikely the entrance to the cave would be totally abandoned. Odds were, the wraiths would have reported back to Seevus who would have sent more guards to try to block the exit for whatever intruders there were inside Gnostgate.

The tunnel was long and dark. Adric and Amos used their staffs to light the way. These types of techniques came as naturally to Adric as though he had been doing it for years. The tamtan was, indeed, effective. It seemed Wystan had left everything Adric needed to know about the use of the staff inside the tamtan. Even more impressive was the fact that he could have processed the tamtan without any adverse side effect, though the credit for that may have lain partially with Amos for selecting the right person as the heir to the tamtan.

“So, what now?” Adric asked Amos. Amos did not answer immediately.

“Now, we prepare for war. I must go back to Armon Drael. You must go back to Aelwynn.” Before Adric had activated the tamtan, this last sentence would have set him on edge. He would have questioned it, he would have feared it, he might have even tried to avoid it, or find a way out of it. But now, it seemed the only answer. He felt different. He felt confident, seasoned. He nodded as though he had known for ages that this is what he was coming to.

“Rhodhinia moves against us both. He has the numbers to launch a two-pronged attack. It is very likely that he will launch an attack against both Alldel and Soceria at the same time. He will try to keep the two of us separated as much as possible, especially if he has been told that the Staff of Alldel is active once more.” They came to a fork in the tunnel.

“Left,” Adric said instinctively. Amos grinned. They continued to follow the path for a long time. Eventually, they met a rise in the terrain. They were walking uphill, and the air tasted less stale the farther they walked. The corridor was growing brighter, and soon they could see a pinprick of an opening in the path ahead of them. When they reached the opening, they were delighted to find that it let out very near the place where Amos had tied their horses. They each untied their own horse, and Amos turned to Adric one last time.

“I must ride to Soceria. I have business in Speene, the northernmost colony, before I can return to Armon Drael,” he said.

“I know. Will you try to join us if we are attacked?” Adric asked.

“I hope that I can. I fear I will be occupied by the same problem you face.”

“Can I send you aid?”

“You don’t have it to spare. Besides, Soceria can hold her own.” Adric smiled and nodded.

“Very well, then. I wish you well, your majesty,” he held out a hand to Amos. Amos took his hand.

“With any luck, we will see each other again soon.”

“We will, I am sure.”

“You have changed. You’re very like Wystan.”

“No, I don’t think so. I intend to remain Adric. But I do carry him with me. I always have. I just know him a little better now.”

“Even after all these generations, you aren’t so different. Ride hard, Alldel needs a king.” And with that, Amos mounted his horse and kicked off with a cloud of dust standing in his wake. Adric watched him for only a few seconds before climbing Ylandyr, and kicking off in the opposite direction alone.