Sac'a'rith (17 page)

“Fine. Crivreen, lay in a course and get us underway. Raquel, where could Mathorn meet us?” I asked.

“He can weavewalk to wherever we are, if Shira or I place a marker for him to home in on,” said Raquel.

“A marker? Like Shira uses to gate?” I queried.

“Exactly,” said Raquel.

“Okay. Arrange a time for him to come out and let’s get Ragnar fixed,” I said.

“You make it sound like I’m broken,” said Ragnar.

“You want to be fixed, don’t you?” I asked.

“I’m not sure yet,” he said. “But I would like to hear what Master Mathorn has to say.”

“Don’t you want to be able to use all your powers?” I asked. The thought of not having full use of my faculties was something I couldn’t entertain, and yet he seemed to be satisfied to remain in that condition.

“Because I don’t know what that would be like,” he said. “Besides, I want to hear this story directly from the source before I can accept it.”

“We have two days before we can reach a jump point,” said Crivreen. “Why don’t we invite him for dinner tonight?”

“Raquel, what do you think?” I asked.

“It will take at least three days for the message to be relayed across the civilian network to Hospital Station, then for up to a day it will wait in the queue to be relayed through the gate to the Wizard Kingdom. That means six to eight days for a round trip message,” she said.

I’d become so used to dealing only with the local government over their relay network that I’d forgotten that the Wizard Kingdom was over one hundred thousand light years from here. In theory a message could be sent to arrive right away, but the amount of power needed to send a message over that distance was well beyond anything we had yet invented.

Sending a massless message through jump space took a tremendous amount of energy, to compensate for the lack of gravity. Our little cruiser couldn’t generate enough power to send a message directly from here to Hospital Station, so it had to be relayed across the civilian network. CivNet, as it was called, was basically a set of agreements between all commercial and many private spaceships that said if they received a message, their computers would automatically repeat it and send it as far along towards its destination as they could. Through a chain of such relays you could eventually get a message anywhere; it just took time, often a lot of time.

In the more populated regions, the Phareon government deployed a permanent network of jump relay stations that were capable of sending messages much faster, allowing for real-time and near real-time communications throughout most of its coverage area. We were far from that network, and had to rely on CivNet to slowly guide the message back to Hospital Station.

I was surprised to hear that there was a gate on the hospital station, but that at least explained how Raquel had traveled to the Wizard Kingdom and back in the space of a few months. “Okay, then set a date for dinner ten days from now.”

“Sure,” she said and turned back to the comm.

“Shira, if another wizard marks our ship for gating, can you remove it like your former master did?”
I asked.

“Yes. There are a few on board; Raquel, Narcion, and Spectra have placed them,”
she replied.
“I should remove Narcion’s at some point.”

“I guess Spectra placed one so that she can pick up her delivery?”
I asked.

“That was my assumption. Why do you ask?”
she sent.

“We might be entertaining a wizard from the Kingdom to dinner in a couple of weeks. If he leaves a marker behind, I want it removed,”
I sent.

“Who?”
she asked.

“Mathorn. He’s coming to fix Ragnar,”
I sent.

“A wizard of his level could easily hide a marker from me, but I can check when he leaves,”
she sent.

“That’s a risk we’ll just have to take. Raquel says you can put up a marker for him to weavewalk to?”
I asked.

“Yes. Just let me know when,”
she sent.

“Ragnar, Crivreen, Shira,”
I sent to get everyone’s attention privately.
“Sooner or later we have to give Raquel an answer. Do you three have an opinion?”

“Zah’rak, I think there’s wisdom in choosing a nation to side with. We’ve been just stalling, trying to figure out what to do next, since Narcion’s death,”
sent Ragnar.

“I tend to agree and I’d much rather side with the Wizard Kingdom than Phareon,”
sent Crivreen.

“Shira?”
I asked.

“Well, whatever you think best,,”
she sent.
“Is what she told us true? Is she our sister?”
asked Shira.

“She seems to believe so,”
I said.

“Then it seems to be the right thing to do, to stick with family – doesn’t it?”

“Zah’rak,”
sent Ragnar.
“What do you think?”

“I don’t know,”
I replied.
“I’d got used to it just being us.”

“But it never really is just us,”
sent Ragnar.
“Currently we are working for the Phareon government. As Crivreen pointed out, that’s our other option. Sure, we could offer our services to Resden, or one of the other consortiums, but in the end we’d always be working for someone.”

“I suppose so,”
I sent. He was right, but I wasn’t quite prepared to admit it. I liked our little squad. It felt safe. It was my family and my world. Raquel represented an upheaval of that world and I wasn’t sure I was ready for that, but then I might never be.

“Crivreen, see if we have any good food left for that dinner,” I said. We were too far from any station to pick up supplies en route before Mathorn arrived, so we’d have to make do with whatever we had on board.

He replied, “
Now
you think of it.” Chuckling, he went down to the mess hall.

“Shira, do we have any fresh vegetables to serve our guest?”
I sent.

“Yes; not a big selection, but some of the faster-growing ones are ready,”
she sent back.

“Great, let Crivreen know what we can spare for Mathorn’s dinner,”
I sent.

Raquel leaned back in her chair and sighed. “I should tell you that proper etiquette requires you to refer to him as ‘Master Mathorn’. That’s how lower-level magi refer to those at a higher level. It’s also how outsiders are expected to address wizards of importance, such as himself.”

“I take it you’re his peer, then?” asked Ragnar.

“Yes,” she replied and went on to tell us about the structure of the government and ranks in the Wizard Kingdom.

When the day came for Master Mathorn to visit, Shira placed a marker in our mess hall which he used to weavewalk to the Night Wisp.

On his arrival, I walked forward and extended my hand in greeting. “Welcome aboard the Night Wisp, Master Mathorn.”

“Thank you, Zah’rak,” he replied and grasped my forearm in the way Narcion used to. Narcion had called it a traditional warrior’s grasp; it signified respect and honor between two fighting men. “Raquel has told me much about you all. I’m honored to finally meet you.”

He was elderly and resembled the storybook version of a wizard more than any of us did. He wore deep purple flowing robes covered in strange symbols. A number of rings glowed on each hand, and he wore a pair in each ear. Around his neck was a chain with a large pendant. He had a full head of grey hair and a closely-cropped beard.

One of the skills which I had taught myself from the data Master Spectra had given us was an enchanter’s ability to detect enchanted items. Using that skill, I observed that everything he was wearing was enchanted with very powerful magic, far more power than I’d ever seen attached to any item. I wondered whether I could make jewelry like that, or if my power was limited to clothing.

Ragnar came forward, bowed deeply, and said, “Master, I’m grateful that you came all the way out here just for me. If it’s not an imposition, I would like you to explain to me about the basic powers.”

“I’d be happy to tell you, Ragnar. I wish I could have told you at your binding. As I recall, you were quite excited that day. You have an older brother, I think? How is he?” he asked.

“Yes. He is, or at least was, Keeper of the Runes of Therin now. When last we were together he was doing well, but I’ve heard no news since coming here,” said Ragnar.

“What a great honor! You must be proud!” said Master Mathorn.

“Aye, for him I am, but it meant I’d always be second string. That is, until I met Zah’rak and seized a new life.”

Master Mathorn smiled and nodded at that comment. He might have said more, but Crivreen ushered everyone to the table to eat. When we were settled, Master Mathorn recounted essentially the same story that Raquel had told us. It seemed that the wizards of Ragnar’s homeworld were a devious and controlling bunch. I wondered what that meant for the future here. Would our Wizard’s Council turn out to be the same in the long run?

“Now, it’s vital that none of you shares this information with anyone right now,” he said. “The relationship between our realms is in dire straits. Grandmaster Vydor is doing all he can to save it, or at least to avoid the war that many of us are predicting.”

“What does this story about the basic powers have to do with that?” I asked.

Master Mathorn took a deep drink. He continued, “There are many apprentice and journeymen wizards here who are still loyal to Grandmaster Korshalem. I believe that if they find out what I have just recounted. Once word of the deception spreads through the ranks of the Korshalemian wizards there will be an irreparable loss of trust, and that could potentially spark a civil war. I fear that the balance of power in Korshalemia is far too delicate to survive, and even if it does it would permanently destroy any goodwill that remains between the realms.”

“What about Shea?” asked Ragnar.

“Shea knows, but she agrees with my assessment so she will say nothing as yet,” he said. “In fact, she has asked us not to remove her blocks so that there is no danger of her accidently tipping people off.”

“That makes sense, since she is constantly among the other wizards and I assume is well known,” said Ragnar.

“Very much so,” said Master Mathorn.

“So what does this all mean for Ragnar?” I asked.

“I can remove the power blocks,” said Master Mathorn. “But I’d prefer to do that after he joins the Wizard Kingdom and we can update his files to list him as a native of this realm. That way no one will be suspicious if they happen to see him using the basic powers.”

“Is that a condition or a preference?” Ragnar asked.

He smiled. “I’m not here to bribe anyone. The choice remains yours whether to accept our offer of citizenship or not.”

“I’m being a fool, aren’t I?”
I sent privately to Shira, Crivreen and Ragnar.

“What do you mean?”
asked Ragnar.

“I should accept the offer,”
I sent.

“That would be my advice,”
replied Ragnar.

“Master Mathorn, Raquel, our current commitment to the Phareon government might constitute an obstacle to our joining you,” I said. “How can we work that out?”

“In truth, it might help to heal our relationship with them,” said Master Mathorn. He told us how the Wizard Kingdom and the Phareon government had almost gone to war over Hospital Station just a couple of months previously. Phareon had apparently sent a fleet out to claim it, and Grandmaster Vydor had stopped them.

“Do you mean that the hospital station was wizard property all this time?” I asked. That at least explained why there was a gate there.

“Yes, and now the Wizard Kingdom’s flag is flying over it openly,” said Master Mathorn.

“Zah’rak,” said Raquel. “I would suggest that we finish the current mission for the Phareon government and then tell them of the new arrangement. I suspect that the Wizard Kingdom will be very interested in the outcome of that mission. We can work out an arrangement with them after the mission.”

“Seems reasonable,” I said. “But what about Master Spectra’s order?”

“Raquel told me about the order and your trip to Siden,” said Master Mathorn. “I will be stopping there on my way out. I don’t like the fact that the sorcerers got their hands on that stockpile, and I want to know what they are up to. In the meantime, I can have a sufficient quantity of gold and diamonds delivered to Hospital Station for you to pick up when you’re ready. It was wise of Spectra to enlist you to make armor, and I suspect that you will have a permanent standing order to make armor for us as long as you are willing to make it. Enchanters seem to be much less common in this realm than in Korshalemia. This means we’re sorely in need of all kinds of enchanted supplies, especially since the collapse of trade between the realms.”

We talked a little while longer, until he was ready to take Ragnar aside to remove the blocks. He wanted to spend some time alone with Ragnar to make sure he understood the fundamentals of using the basic powers, and I was sure that Ragnar had more questions for him.

Crivreen left to answer a call on our comm system and Shira went back to her gardens, leaving me alone with Raquel.

“Zah’rak,”
sent Raquel privately,
“everyone here looks to you for leadership – so the decision is more yours than theirs, in reality. They’ll follow your lead, and I suspect you’re the only one holding out.”

“Yeah,”
I agreed.

“Look, I haven’t been forthcoming about one matter,”
she sent.
“Grandmaster Vydor has given me responsibility for representing the Wizard Kingdom out here. That means I’ll have to handle treaties, diplomacy and all kinds of government-
related tasks.”

“What are you getting at?”
I asked.

“I can’t do that and recreate the Sac’a’rith as well. I need you to lead that effort. I’ll advise, train and offer what help I can, but it’ll be up to you. Shira and any others we may find will look to you for leadership,”
she sent.

“What about Ragnar and Crivreen?”
I asked.

“You know my opinion on admitting those who were not born into the order,”
she sent.