Wind Rider (3 page)

VERSCHWINDEN!

There was a great boom. The fist sized gateway
simple ceased to be, in a flash of light and the smell of burnt sulfur. There
was a burn mark on the wall behind where the gateway had been, and all around
us the walls seemed cracked, dull, broken.

Lifeless.

Elias had sucked the life energy out of the very
stone and mortar around us.

I found myself on the floor. Beside me were Elias,
Kara, and
Kalle
.
Woltan
was
behind us, against the wall. Next to him were
Karsten
and Cullen, shaking their heads and looking dazed. There was a short moment
when I was afraid to breathe; I looked around, hoping everywhere to see life
and consciousness.

I did.

They were all alive.

Woltan
stood up. “Is
everyone all right?” His eyes seemed to glaze over and I realized he was
looking at everyone’s auras. I did the same. Everyone looked normal, but weak.
All except Elias, who glowed a little stronger still than the last time I’d
looked at his aura. It took me a moment to realize that I was looking at rage.

He killed my mother. He will pay.

I found myself holding Elias. He was sobbing
softly and I didn’t know what to say, what to do, so I just held him. Then Kara
was there, and she found the words that I couldn’t and put her hands through
Elias’s hair, and I saw Elias’s aura soften a bit.

If anyone would know the words, it was Kara.

My uncle had killed her father too.

I put my hand down to my sword and felt a jolt.
Next
time, leave your sword hand free, or better yet, on me! You would have all been
dead had it not been for Elias, and my cousin in Kara’s blade! She told him
what to do, as Kara was paralyzed.

OK.

I let go of the blade. “I should have left my
sword hand free.”

Woltan
nodded. “We have
not been nearly careful enough. Hopefully today will start us on a new, better
path. I think that Kara and
Kalle
will agree with me
that it is not a good idea to use your
Kriek
gateways
right now.”

I looked at them and they nodded.
He is perhaps
one of us too, to our shame, and stronger than any of us.

There was a moment of silent thought as we all
stood around. Then it was Elias who spoke. “I have spoken to the city and one
gate remains open, for those who can read the runes. I will walk through it,
and take with me those who would go.”

Cullen spoke first. “He is just a boy yet more
connected to the ancient ways than any of us. If he says there is a gate, I
will follow him through it. If the old stories speak true, the
Kriek
live but a three day’s journey away.”

Woltan
nodded. “We must
make haste, as we leave the city undefended. But I see no other option.”

Karsten
smiled. “I will
pack food for a two days journey, and we will supplement it with what we find
on the way.”

Kara shook her head. “We will move fast enough to
get there in two days. We must hurry, or we
Kriek
will not be able to help your city.”

III

We met in the city center, under
dark clouds that rumbled at us and threatened worse. Everyone looked uneasy,
and I could only hope it was the weather. The others had some kind of rain hat and
green coats to repel the water.
Woltan
gave one to me
and I put it on.

“Good both to avoid water and enemy eyes,” he
said.

Elias seemed to have become our boy leader, or at
least our scout. He arrived last and nodded at everyone. The sky darkened further
and there was a rumble of thunder from far away.

Let’s go. We have about a minute more in this
city, and the quicker we go, the better the chance we will see it again.

Then we were following Elias’s small nimble feet.
We all wore small daypacks: we’d split up the provisions and each of us had a
change of clothes and some cooking supplies. There was no camping here in the
old city, since none of the residents had been out of the city in their
lifetimes. But there was a small forest, inside the gates, and sometimes people
would cook outdoors and eat the wild foods that grew in it; so much I had
gleaned from
Karsten
.

We all bore a sword as well, and Cullen had a
portable forge, ingenious in its design, but of course heavy. Elias had a
dagger a little longer than his cousin’s
Karsten’s
hand; it was small but glowed fiercely when I opened my third eye. There were
other magical blades as well — my own; Kara’s blade, which had proved its worth
in battle;
Woltan’s
sword, which had never seen real
fighting; even
Karsten’s
and the smith’s blades
glowed in the darkening afternoon.

On one day of my training
Woltan
had told me: “Everything is magic in this city.” Looking at our weapons I had
to believe this. The ground, the buildings, the path we followed: everything glowed
with its own living energy. There was energy everywhere in the world, I knew,
but here things glowed brighter. There was so much energy all around – if only
I could do as Elias did, and just reach out and grab it.
Woltan
had told me that some wizards with careful practice could learn to do what
Elias did naturally, but it was difficult for the best of wizards and
impossible for most.

As we walked along the stone cobblestones that
shone beneath my feet, I reached out with my aura and grabbed; I felt a tug on
everything around me and then there were shouts and everyone had stopped and
they were all looking around, to see what had happened. And I felt energy
buzzing in my ears and teeth and it had nowhere to go.

Then Elias was laughing.
Not like that Anders,
like this.
An image flashed into my mind, reaching out and pulling at the
stone, at the trees, deep into the earth; I realized that I’d grabbed
indiscriminately, and everyone had felt their auras being manhandled. I only
hoped most of the energy had come from the stones and the air around me; it
felt unclean to steal energy from my friends, from anyone living.
You need
to have somewhere to send the energy — you can’t store much in your own body.
You probably could put some in your sword.

“Be careful, Anders.”
Woltan
scowled. “And stop laughing, Elias, it’s not that funny.”

Maybe he was right, but it felt good to hear Elias
laugh. The boy was too serious for someone so young, and he had just
experienced a great loss.

Then we were walking again, with Elias in the
lead.

My hand fell to my sword and the energy flowed
into the hilt. I heard a feminine voice then.
Thank you Anders, and
Woltan
is right, be careful, but you did well for a first
attempt. Next time, try when we are alone.
Then the buzzing was gone, and I
concentrated on walking. We were reaching a part of the city I had never seen
before, and there was dirt beneath our feet. Then there were trees all around
us, and I saw fruit and nut trees, and some that must have been just shade
trees, with other plants growing beneath them. It was like a small orchard, and
off in the distance I could see a field, which must have provided the wheat for
our bread.

Suddenly Elias stopped. He wasn’t laughing now.

“This was one of my Aunt’s favorite places,” he
said, his face impossible to read.

There was a moment of silence, and I wanted to say
something, but there was nothing to say, nothing I could put into words. If
there was anything I could have done to bring back
Marga
,
I would have done it in a second. But here I was, and she was dead.

Karsten
reached over and
pulled his cousin into a bear hug, and then he let him go.

Elias took something out of his pocket then. “In
my Aunt’s memory, I plant a seed.”

He kneeled down, and made a small hole in the
ground. He dropped the seed in the center of the hole. Then he stood up and
stepped aside.
Karsten
kneeled then, and picked up
some dirt, and dropped it in the hole. He stepped aside. Then one by one,
everyone in our group dropped earth into the hole. When we all had taken a
turn, Elias and
Karsten
kneeled and patted the earth
down with their bare hands.

They stood up then, and without a word, Elias
started to walk again.

I wanted to call him back.

I wanted to plant a seed, too.

But I didn’t have a seed, and besides, my parents
weren’t dead, not really.

Although they might as well have been. No, that
was wrong thinking. If only I was a real wizard, I would know what to do, to
counter their spell.

I hurried after the others. We were entering what
could only be wild forest, and there were vines and thorny bushes everywhere,
which had either been there before the wall or somehow crossed it, and we all
pulled out our knifes, and swords, and hacked our way through the path,
following our boy leader; Elias, for his part, just ducked and twisted his way
around the obstacles.

Soon my arms were aching, and my face was
scratched and bleeding. But just ahead, through some brambles, was the wall.
There was nothing particular about its smooth surface, besides that it was
covered with vines. But when I looked with my third eye I saw runes, in the
shape of a small doorway. It was much smaller than a gate. The doorway was
hardly bigger than Elias. I would have to duck, and some of the others, like
the smith, would probably have to double over.

“Where are we going, Elias?”
Karsten
asked.

Elias pointed to the doorway. “It’s right here. We
need to clear away all this ivy.”

Woltan
shook his head.
“Leave the ivy where it is. Just touch the runes and open it. We need to hurry,
and the less disturbed we leave this, the better.”

Elias nodded. He seemed lost in thought, his eyes
unfocused, and then he was reaching up, through the leaves, and tracing runes,
and I felt my own eyes
unfocus
, as I followed Elias’s
glowing fingers. I could see what he was doing — he was telling the gate to
open, but the thing was old, and then the runes were glowing and the doorway
was glowing, but it did not open. Elias stood staring at it, and I watched him,
and the runes were starting to fade again.
I could use some help, Anders.

I leaned forward and made the same series of runes
as Elias. Now the door was glowing fiercely.
Touch my arm, Elias, while I
touch the door.
Elias touched my arm and strength flowed into me, and then
I held my hand up to the middle of the door.

There was a burst of song, and then the door
opened.

“We must hurry!”
Woltan
shouted, and then we were all rushing through the hanging vines, though the
door. Kara went first, with Elias behind her, then
Karsten
,
then the smith.
Woltan
followed him, and then I was
last. The wall was several feet thick, and with such a small doorway it seemed
almost like a tunnel. Where the rock that had filled it now was anyone’s guess,
but I did not want to imagine what it would feel like if the rock came crashing
back while we were in there. At the end of the tunnel the sunlight shone
through a bunch of vines that we had to pry our way through. The smith took out
his knife but
Woltan
whispered. “No! We must alert no
one to the gate here!”

Then I too was through, looking back at the tunnel
behind me.

Before I could even wonder how to close it, it was
gone. I looked at the wall with my third eye and there was nothing.

“Elias? Where is it?”

Elias shook his head. “It’s a one-way gate.”

Woltan
turned to him.
“What? A one-way gate?”

Elias nodded. “A prince used it, long ago, to get
away without detection.”

“And when the prince wanted to get back?” Kara
asked.

“He had to use another gate.”

“Where is the other gate, then?”
Woltan
asked.

“They’re all closed.”

There was a moment of silence, then.

Woltan
was the first to
speak. “We need to get moving. We can figure out how we will get back in once
we get there. And if there is no way that will only make it safer for the
family and friends we have left behind.”

If there was anyone to find a positive side to
something, it was
Woltan
. “Let’s get walking,” he
continued.

Kara nodded. “The dark lord may have scouts about,
close to here. We must get moving. If we are lucky, we may be able to avoid his
creatures completely, but I doubt it.”

“How do we know where to go?” I asked.

“The Book of Id will guide us. But we may all be a
little lost until we get away from this forgotten city. The city has ancient
magic that confuses those close to it, and makes it hard to navigate here.”

Woltan
nodded. “Elias
may be able to help you get out of its range.”

Kara walked quickly, and Elias followed her, and I
behind him. Behind me was
Karsten
, Cullen and
Woltan
in the rear. Kara seemed to be good at finding
anything that resembled a path, but I had no idea which way we were going.
There were bushes and tree limbs and ivy in every direction, and when we
couldn’t duck under something we had to hack or thrash our way through.

It was slow going.

I was feeling very tired, stumbling more than
walking, I sensed something strange ahead. But I could see nothing through the
overgrowth but a strange green glow.

Elias spoke ahead of me. “You can feel it, can’t
you, Anders?”

Kara called out. “It’s the path we took into the
city! After we fought the
keiler
!”

We walked forward, and assembled in front of a
glowing line. I wondered if Cullen could see anything, but I was sure he could
feel the energy.

No plants grew on either side of the line. It was
like a small cut in the vegetation, with nothing growing two feet on either
side. When I closed my eyes and opened the third one, I could see glowing green
running in both directions, toward the city and away from it, and the platform
underneath. When I opened my eyes, I could still see it faintly.

“Can we ride it, do you think?”
Woltan
asked.

Elias shook his head. “I’m not sure we could all
get on safely, and for all we know it’s not working properly.”

“It was working fine when I and
Kalle
and I came in here. We rode it in.”

Elias shrugged. “You rode it
in
, but I’m
not sure we can ride it
out
. Look at the way the energy is flowing. I
think there were two lines, originally.”

When I looked at the green line again and tried to
detect movement, I could see what Elias was talking about. The energy was
flowing toward the city. I could see the wall in the distance. Elias was right.

“Should we just follow the path, then?” asked
Woltan
.

Kara nodded. “I know the way, more or less, once
we get to the gateway at the end of this path.”

I had a funny feeling about this, but kept it to
myself.

We started walking the path. The energy from the
line seemed to call to me, pulling at me, and the hairs on the back of my neck
stood up. Elias and
Woltan
must have felt it too,
because they kept looking up at the line every few seconds. Nothing grew on the
path itself, just smooth stone, and none of the plants to either side
encroached upon it either. On both sides there was thick forest; we could only
see a few feet both directions. Strange noises came from far off in the
distance, and was glad it was still morning; I wouldn’t have liked to imagine
what this would be like at night.

We walked quickly and in silence for around half
an hour. I figured that the line must be at least two miles long.

A gate appeared up in the distance and I hurried
towards it. I came to the trail end and shook my head. Kara was right behind
me, and she looked at me, and then at the gate, and then at me again.

“It’s not the same gate, is it?” said Kara.

I shook my head again. The other gate had been
square, and the runes had been different. This one was round, and part of me
knew what the runes meant; I could reach out and activate them, but I didn’t
even know what that would do, or what the purpose would be. “There must be
several paths into the city. We may be several miles away from where we thought
we would be.”

Elias came up behind me and looked at the runes.
“This is the east gate. I’m not sure what gate you came in on.”

Woltan
spoke then. “They
came in through the great gate, by the great courtyard.”

Elias nodded. “The west gate.”

Kara and I groaned. “We’re several miles off
course,” she said.