The Dreamer's Curse (Book 2) (10 page)

“Noted.” Sarsen blew out a long breath. “Alright, anything
else?”

“Now, this next part isn’t so much guesswork as it is basic
math. Yes, you can tackle the shield around the gadgick separately. No, it
won’t cause any kind of magic backlash that will destroy your surroundings.
However, we do not believe that the shield is so separate that the gadgick
isn’t feeding it power somehow.”

Brows furrowing deeply, he said slowly, “Sevana, you said
that the elements of the shield were blended so well with some of the elements
of the artifact that it took you some time to unravel them.”

“After taking a thorough look at her scans and notes, I saw
why.” Jacen made a face. “Do you remember the shield that your master put
around Ence? The one that prevents it from being flooded during storms and
such?”

“Yes?” Sarsen was clearly a little fuzzy on the details.

Heaving a resigned sigh, Sevana finally started to
participate in the conversation. “The shield didn’t need to be active at all
times, not really, so he designed it so that it would be in a sort of standby
mode during the fair seasons, but if water ever started to encroach past a
certain point, it would activate. And if, for whatever reason, the water rose
past a certain level, it would activate a second line of defense that would
cover the town completely.”

“It did so by drawing upon the power of the sea as an added
element, thereby making it stronger,” Jacen added. “I think this shield works
off the same general principle. Right now, it’s in a rather standby mode. It’ll
warn people off, or prevent accidental tampering, but it won’t really hurt
someone nor do anything drastic. But if you tamper with it too much, or attack
it directly, it’ll activate the shield so that it’s much stronger.”

Sarsen pressed his fingers against his eyes and rubbed. “You
don’t think we’re dealing with a level eight spell.”

“I will bet you a year’s salary that as soon as you attack
that thing, it’ll rise to a level ten. Possibly a level twelve.” Jacen glanced
at both their faces, taking in the pained expressions and offered meekly, “Good
luck?”

“I don’t
want
to break an ancient shield with a twelve
power level!” Sevana whined to no one in particular.

Sarsen kept rubbing at his eyes. “I clearly should have
asked after breakfast.”

“First good idea anyone’s had in the past twelve hours.” Sevana
rolled to her feet and headed out of the room. “Jacen, you got eggs?”

He perked up. “You’re making breakfast?”

She backtracked to the door to put her head around it and
give him an exasperated look. “No, I’m going to throw eggs at you.”

“I’ve got ham too,” he offered with an ingenious smile.

“Come find it for me.”

Jacen popped up immediately and followed her out, tired but
happy at the thought of food he wouldn’t have to make himself. Sarsen followed
at a slower pace, still yawning and thinking, judging from the mumbling.

Sevana stifled a yawn herself, trying to walk straight and
not stumble into the walls as she moved. She probably shouldn’t try to leave
after breakfast—she might very well crash considering how tired she was.
Alright, breakfast, then nap. As much as she now knew, she didn’t have a solid
plan on how to attack that shield right now anyway. Even if she and Sarsen left
right this minute for Chastain, it wouldn’t do the village any good.

They’d come up with a plan tomorrow.

Even after a four-hour nap, Sevana failed to feel either
refreshed or revived. In fact, the whole idea of sleeping backfired on her
terribly. She awoke grouchy, irritable, and even more aware of the fact that
she’d been up all night doing some very complex thinking.

Jacen—wise man—made them a late lunch, after which they bade
him farewell and promised that they would keep him updated. (Actually, Sevana
more or less threatened that she would contact him again if none of their ideas
worked. Jacen, true professional that he was, looked pleased by this instead of
worried.) But after the past two days, neither she nor Sarsen felt particularly
in the mood to race back to Chastain and instead climbed back into the sky at a
moderately fast clip.

As tired as she felt physically, Sevana felt oddly alert.
Even as she flew through the clouds, feeling the moist air slide pleasantly
along her skin, her mind whirled at high speed. How to beat that shield? Jacen
thought it possible to attack it with something that was slightly lower,
somewhere around a level nine in power, as long as they hit the shield hard and
fast enough that it couldn’t engage its higher strength. This plan sounded
slightly risky, but Sevana had dealt with riskier things—calling on a water
dragon to help break a ten-year-old curse, for example. Trying to break a
shield so fast that it couldn’t react properly sounded like a lark in
comparison.

Hmmm…she and Jacen had come up with the idea of using
fairy’s kiss and shiranui as a combined attack. Shiranui was volatile and
capricious, but because of that it was an excellent element to use for quick
casting. Fairy’s kiss would combine well with it because it also came from a
mystical source, but best yet—the elements combined would have a rating of ten
in power. More than powerful enough to deal with that shield in a quick,
decisive blow.

Or so she hoped, anyway.

She ran figures and calculations in her head as she flew,
wishing that she had the ability to write things down and fly at the same time,
but in truth, she didn’t really need to. Sevana had developed the pattern of
writing her ideas out as a young apprentice and had never outgrown the habit.
But after so many years of doing this, she could do it all in her head now and
retain what worked and what didn’t.

By the time she had more or less worked out the answer, they
had reached Chastain. The sun set in a pretty display of deep purples and
mauves and oranges, casting the whole land in cool shadow, which also made it
semi-tricky to land properly. Sevana had a devil of a time finding a good spot
to land in that wouldn’t put her in a muddy patch. Sarsen had it easier as he
came in using the road, the clearest path in the area. She finally chose a
place just outside the main road and settled there, absently casting a steal-me-not
charm on it as she climbed off. (Not that she thought anyone would try for
that, but one never knew.)

Sarsen did the same to his glider before he sauntered to
where she stood waiting on him. “Sev. I think I have a solution to the shield.”

“So do I,” she responded, mouth quirked up. “Fairy’s kiss
and shiranui?”

“That’s the answer I reached too. Jacen’s suggestion just
makes too much sense. Let’s try this tomorrow morning, after we’ve both gotten
a good night’s sleep.”

She blinked at him, not following. “Tomorrow? Isn’t that a
little too quick? We haven’t worked out a real solution to the gadgick,
artifact, whateveryouwanttocallit yet.”

Sarsen held up a finger. “Our solution for the gadgick will
in some part depend on if the shield can be broken. I want to test breaking the
shield first before we plan any further. If the fairy’s kiss and shiranui doesn’t
work, we’ll have to find something else, and those elements—”

“—must blend well with whatever we use to break the
gadgick,” she finished with an understanding groan. “It’s official. I’m tired.
I should have realized that.”

“The other reason why I want to sleep first,” he agreed
sympathetically. “I’m not at my best at the moment either. Besides, I want to
cue up the other two magicians and have them on standby, just in case Jacen’s
predictions are wrong.”

Probably not a bad idea at that. “I’m getting dinner before
bed, then. Since you unfairly got more sleep than I did,
you
go talk to
them.”

“Unfairly?” he objected mildly, dark eyes laughing. “As I
recall, you volunteered to stay up all night researching.”

“I did
not
.” Or at least, she hadn’t intended to stay
up
all
night when she’d offered to help Jacen out. She wrinkled her nose
at him as Sarsen just laughed, refusing to argue the point. Turning on her
heel, she headed into the village, stifling a yawn as she went. Bed. She
definitely wanted a bed. Maybe with a proper eight hours of sleep, her mind
wouldn’t feel like mush.

~ ~ ~

Sevana, in fact, slept ten hours, waking leisurely and
without any prompting from the outside world. She stretched, feeling well
rested, and rolled out of her bed at the inn that had been set aside for her.
After washing her face, she dressed in her usual clothes of pants, shirt and
vest, pulled on her favorite boots, and ambled down the stairs.

The main room of the inn looked oddly vacant for this time
of the morning. Only Sarsen sat at a table, the remains of a breakfast in front
of him and a cup of something steaming in his hands. He saluted her with it as
she came into view.

“Morning, Sev.”

“Good morning,” she returned, looking around the room in
growing confusion. Even the view through the large windows showed very little
life. Strange—the inn faced the courtyard of the main square; she should be
seeing tons of traffic. “Where is everyone?”

“Out,” Sarsen supplied after swallowing a mouthful from his
mug. “While you slept, I have been working.”

“I don’t see how that has anything to do with missing
people,” she informed him as she sauntered over to the chair. Halfway into it,
she froze as a disturbing thought occurred. “Unless…unless that thing has
suddenly started transporting more than one person at a time?” she asked in
sudden alarm.

He waved a hand in negation. “No, no. Nothing like that. I
actually had everyone clear out after breakfast this morning. They’re waiting
outside the village just in case something goes wrong today.”

She let out a breath of relief as she slid the rest of the
way into the chair. “So you’re saying that we’re ready to go?”

“Waiting on you,” he confirmed with a quirk of the brows.

She looked at the appetizing spread of food in front of her,
obviously ordered for her as Sarsen hadn’t touched the plate at all, and
informed him firmly, “I’m eating first.”

“Figured you would.”

Tucking in, she ate the food with considerable pleasure.
Half the fun of eating food that she didn’t make came from the fact that she
wouldn’t have to clean up after the meal either.

“Here’s my idea for the casted spell.” Sarsen slid a piece
of paper across the table to rest in front of her.

She chewed as she leaned forward slightly, reading the
diagram with ease (in spite of the abominable handwriting). “Why have both of
us attack simultaneously? You think we can overwhelm the shield easier that
way?”

“I’m not as optimistic as either you or Jacen,” he responded
with a minute shake of the head. “This thing has given every sign of having an
almost individual awareness. Either the person who made it designed it very,
very
well so that it can react on its own in most circumstances, or…or it’s
developed some very interesting quirks over the past few hundred years.
Regardless, I don’t think that it’s going to react well when we hit it. In
fact, I predict that by the time we get through that shield, we’re going to
feel half-dead afterwards.”

“Pessimist.”

Sarsen shrugged, not insulted. “Perhaps.”

She looked at his design again, not seeing any flaws in it,
but not really expecting any. They did, after all, train under the same master.
She mentally reviewed everything she knew of that gadgick as well, different
scenarios and simulations flashing through her mind, and she had to grudgingly
admit that perhaps Sarsen would prove right in the end. She hoped Jacen would
be right—that a fast, fierce attack would be able to break through that shield.
But she wouldn’t bet on it either.

Even Jacen hadn’t been willing to bet that it would work.

With a scrape of the spoon against her plate, she popped the
last bite into her mouth. “Alright, let’s be about it.”

Sarsen stood with her, leading the way out the front door
and into the mellow morning sun. Even if she hadn’t known that the villagers had
left this morning and waited outside, she would have been able to tell just
from the smell alone. She couldn’t detect any scents of food, baking bread,
spices, or anything else that she had come to associate with the usual morning
of this village. Their footsteps across the cobblestones rang in an eerily
hollow way. She’d never heard silence quite this loud before.

In silent camaraderie, she and Sarsen stopped a few feet
from the fountain and started their preparations. Sarsen pulled out two vials
from his pouch, one which contained fairy’s kiss, the other the flickering blue
light of shiranui fire. He unstopped both with a slight
pop
as the corks
left the bottles. Wands in hand, they coaxed both elements out, winding them
around the wands so that they could draw the casted insignia into the air
itself in blazing white lines. The spell hummed as Sevana wrote the incantation
within a small circle, enclosed it with a circular line, and began the second
line of script. She felt and saw the difference when the last line completed
the incantation. It warmed the air considerably and flickered with shiranui
power.

The incantation wouldn’t hold long. The shiranui already
wanted free, to be released, and it would be fighting her control in a few
moments. That’s why it worked so well for casted spells—but also why it didn’t
work at all for charms. It was too unstable for that.

Sarsen completed his written incantation as well and put the
vials back in his pouch. He took a half step to the side, putting more distance
between them, and glanced at her. “Ready?”

“Ready,” she confirmed.

“Alright. On three. One, two, three!”

In perfect unison they said strongly, “
KLAK NE FOLE
!”

For a split second, she thought it worked. The shield
flinched, concaving inward as if a log had just been swung at it, forcing it to
bend backward or break. In the next heartbeat, it flared upwards in a surge of
power so strong it sent a thrill straight up her spine. It raged like a blue
and white bonfire, beautiful and dangerous all at once. She knew instantly that
Sarsen’s pessimism had been dead-on—nothing a human could do could match the
reflexes of a magical device.

She had just enough time to half-swear in her head before
the shield threw back their attack, making the incantations splinter in a
thousand pieces and scatter like broken glass. In sheer instinct, she threw her
arms up to protect her face, curling slightly inwards to keep her head from
smacking first into the hard stone under her. But that was all she could do.
The force of it robbed her of breath, of reason, as the backlash hit her with
all the force of a giant’s hand.

Sevana lay there gasping, lungs on fire with the need for
oxygen, head swirling, every nerve in her body screaming with a sensitivity
that just bordered on pain. Her back and head protested at the abuse from
slamming into solid ground. It took several seconds for her to draw enough air
into her lungs to be able to breathe properly. Then it took a few more before
her vision cleared instead of looking dark, as if she were going to pass out
any moment.

“Sev?” a hand touched her lightly on the shoulder. “Sev?”

Sarsen. She swallowed—a useless gesture that made her throat
burn—and managed, “Alive.”

“I can see that. You’re breathing and your eyes are open.”
Even though the words were half-joking, Sarsen sounded relieved.

“I thought—” an errant cough cut off the rest of the
sentence and she had to clear her lungs and throat before she could try again.
Owww. Coughing bad. She had to remember not to do that for the next few days.
“I thought you said we’d feel half-dead after we were through with this.”

“I did.” Sarsen let go of her and rolled back so that he
could lie flat again. Now that she could pay better attention, he looked like
she felt—deprived of air, eyes whirling, a fine tremor shaking him from head to
toe. She could hear it in his voice, too, as he spoke. “I feel more
three-quarters dead. You?”

“Same,” she groaned. “
Ugh
. Never trust an evil spell
to measure properly.”

“Since when was it evil?”

“It’s thwarting me. Anything that thwarts me is evil.”