The Dreamer's Curse (Book 2) (5 page)

~ ~ ~

Sevana didn’t do anything elaborate for breakfast. Actually,
she ate and worked at the same time. She held a diagnostic wand in one hand,
scanning anything and everything in her path, and bought food from various
bakeries and shops so that she could eat with the other. As absolutely nothing had
shouted
power being used!
to her during her short time here, she started
at the very outer edges of the village and started walking around in an
ever-closing spiral that would eventually end at the center of town. If she
didn’t find anything after searching here, she would start looking outside the
village proper. But she didn’t think it would be outside. These village streets
seemed to hum somehow, as if every part of them had been touched with magic,
only she wasn’t quite sensitive enough to see it for herself.

The ombudsman, Krause, caught up with her before she could
make it completely around the edge of the village, huffing and puffing as he
came. He dabbed at the sweat dewing on his forehead with a handkerchief, skin
ruddy with exertion. In proper lighting, he looked like a grandfather with that
snow white hair and stout frame. “Sevana,” he called as he jogged toward her.
“Have you found anything?”

She rolled her eyes. “Krause, if it was that easy to figure
out, those other magicians you called in would have been able to solve it.”

He slowed to a stop, expression slightly dismayed. “Is it
truly that difficult?”

Motioning him to fall in step with her, she tried to explain
it in layman’s terms with the hopes that if she explained it to
him
he
would explain it to
everyone else
and she wouldn’t end up repeating
herself a hundred times.

“Think of magic as strong wind. When it’s active, you can
feel it and see the effect it has on the things around you. It’s easy to see
that the wind is there. But when it’s not active, there’s nothing to feel,
nothing to see. You might see traces of it left behind, if it was strong
enough, but you’d have no idea which direction it came from or really how
strong it was. I know that this curse is strong, diabolically so, because
traces of it lingered behind on the people it transported. But right now, our
metaphorical wind is not blowing, so I’m going to have to track it down the
hard way.”

Krause, thankfully, followed this explanation closely. “I
believe…I see. So you are now tracking it down?”

“Trying to. This wand,” she waved it a little in the air,
“is a tool I use for such cases. I’ll walk around the entire village first. If
I don’t find the source here, then I will go outside of it.”

“I quite understand.” He gave her a game smile in support
although his eyes were still worried. “Is there anything we can do to help?”

“Not at the moment.” Rethinking that, she added, “Did Decker
tell you what Aren promised?”

“About sending other magicians to help? Yes, he told me.”

“When they arrive, notify me. I need to coordinate with
them.” Solely so that she could hand the troublesome task of rescuing people
over to someone else.

“I will do so,” he promised. Then, as if sensing he was
doing nothing but hampering her, he gave a deep bow of the head and retreated
back the way he had come.

Sevana kept walking, wand scanning in front of her from side
to side, similar to the motion that a blind man with a cane would use. She felt
blind too, as if she were just feeling her way around in the dark. Not the best
feeling to have.

Chastain could not be considered a large place, not by any
stretch of the imagination, but it still somehow took nearly four hours for her
to cross over every section of it until she arrived near the center of the main
square. Of course, her progress was hindered by every villager coming to her
and offering help, information, or whatever else they could think of. Sevana
waved them away as often as not, occasionally taking readings as some of them
had been transported in the past several days. She took notes on them,
recording their experiences in the small leather book Pierpoint had given her.
Interestingly enough, the range of their travels varied wildly. So far, Clari
held the record in distance traveled by a large margin. Sevana couldn’t put a
finger on why. Perhaps the dreams they had affected the spell? Hmmm.

She finally arrived at the main square. As she walked toward
the fountain, she leveled her wand at each building, slowly taking in the
reading levels, but these structures didn’t differ from anything else in the
village. Aish. She really would have to start searching outside the vil—wait.

Sevana froze in place, the wand in her hand nearly vibrating
from the force of the magic it detected. Whipping out her notebook, she set the
wand to record what it saw, and her hair stood on end. The number was exactly
what Pierpoint had recorded on the front page.

Her head whipped up to see what she had pointed the wand at.
The courthouse? No, surely not. After all she had gone in and out of that
building multiple times since last night. She would have surely felt or seen
something before now. But the only other thing in her path was the large stone
fountain that dominated the very center of the square.

Double-checking, she lowered the wand a tad to where it
pointed directly at the fountain and nothing else. The strength of the magical
reading increased significantly. No mistake. This was it.

Her lips peeled back in a feral smile. “Found you.”

Sevana plopped down right there on the cobblestones, sitting
cross-legged and ignoring the cold that seeped quickly through her pants. Spring
it might be, but stone was always cold. Even when she had strong morning light
like today, that wouldn’t change. She rummaged around a little in her pouch,
taking out what she needed for more precise readings by switching to a more sensitive
diagnostic wand. She propped open the notebook so that it rested on her knee,
letting her easily read the breakdown of the spell as numbers and letters
scrawled over the cream colored pages.

The wand first recorded the power level of sixteen, and while
that didn’t surprise her, it still made her wince. But then it started breaking
down the elements forming it: running water (duh, of course, it’s a fountain!),
reflected light, and artifact.

Artifact.

Sevana swore aloud, thumping a fist against the ground in
mixed satisfaction and anger. She’d
known
it had to be an artifact by
the way things worked, but at the same time, she truly wished she’d been wrong.

“Sevana?” Decker came and knelt next to her, a worried
Krause hovering behind him. Decker himself seemed slightly disturbed by her,
either by her expression or the foul language coming out of her mouth.

Gid came around on her other side and sniffed at her
curiously. She shoved his nose away and commanded, “Wait,” holding up a hand to
ward him off. Her eyes went back to scanning the information on the page. It
made sense now—far too much sense. Running water had a power level of eight if
it came from a pure source (which this apparently did), and reflected light
(either sunlight or moonlight) had a power of two, but man-made artifacts,
especially those dating back to the days of old magic, could have a power level
of up to six. Added together, it came out to an insane power level of sixteen.

The diagnostic wand gave her a few more tidbits of
information—most of it useless—and then went still as it had nothing left to
report. She put both wand and book down on the cold stone and resisted the urge
to start cursing all over again.

Decker kept darting looks between her and the fountain.
After a long, uneasy silence, he dared to venture, “Is it the water that’s the
cause?”

“No,” she denied immediately. “Although it certainly isn’t
helping. No, there’s an artifact of very ancient origin buried in the fountain
itself. The water and the light around it is simply aiding the artifact and
making it more powerful.” Alright, sitting here cursing fate and growling
wasn’t solving the problem. She picked up everything and shoved it back into
her pouch before regaining her feet, making Decker stand up with her or be left
sitting awkwardly on the cobblestones. “Decker. You mentioned the building of
this fountain on your timeline. When exactly did it happen?”

“The final stone was laid in two days before the first
sleepwalking incident,” Krause answered hollowly. “Sweet mercy above, we never
thought the
fountain
would be the cause….”

“It isn’t. It’s an artifact buried inside of it,” she
corrected testily. “And the stones? Where did they come from?”

“Oh.” Decker pointed northeast. “Remember the ruins I drew
on the map? We often pillage stones from there to build things with. Most of
the village is built from stones we scavenged.”

Scavenged stones from ruins that no one knew anything about.
Yes, didn’t that sound like a disaster waiting to happen. More wars and scrimmages
over land rights had happened in this area of the world than almost any other.
Countless civilizations and cities had risen and fallen and most of their records
had disappeared along with them. Those ruins could belong to anyone from a
saintlike religion to a cult of evil magicians. Who knew what secrets lay
buried there!

“Ah…” Decker watched her expression warily. “The artifact
came with the stones, didn’t it?”

She just glared at him, arms crossed over her chest. “What
do you think?”

“Oh.” Hunter and ombudsman exchanged glances. “Krause, maybe
we’d better stop doing that.”

“I think that’s for the best,” Krause agreed faintly.
“Mercy! To think we brought this upon ourselves unknowingly. Artifactor, now
what do we do?”

Excellent question. Pity she didn’t know the answer.

“I need more information before I can put together a plan.
There’s someone that I need to confer with, but I can’t leave here until the
other magicians come and I don’t have a way of contacting him without showing
up at his doorstep.”

Krause’s forehead furrowed in confusion. “But you know the
cause?”

“I don’t,” she refuted grouchily. “I know that a man-made
artifact is at the root cause of this, but I need to know
what kind
before I can figure out how to disarm or destroy it. Unfortunately, all my wand
could tell me was ‘origin unknown,’ which means that this thing, whatever it
is, isn’t mentioned in any of the surviving records. At least, none of the
records I have access to. Curse the luck.”

“And this man you wish to see?” Krause pressed.

“A fellow Artifactor. He specializes in history and
artifacts, so if anyone would have an idea of what this thing is, it would be
him.” Although going to see him would bring about its own set of problems and
complications. But she would have to deal with that later. “I’ll need to see
and examine the ruins before I go. The more information I can bring him, the
better.”

“I can show you there,” Decker offered instantly.

She gave him a nod of agreement. “I’ll do that this
afternoon.”

~ ~ ~

As ruins went, these failed to impress her. They didn’t come
close to the size or architectural feats of Nickerchen at least. Of course, the
shape of the buildings had been severely impacted by Chastain’s occupants
stealing rocks for every conceivable purpose over the generations. Who knew
what it had looked like five generations ago?

But now, Sevana didn’t see anything more than a pile of
rocks with moss growing on top.

She stood on the worn path that led to the ruins and got a
good long look at it from a distance. None of the walls stood higher than the
top of her chin except one tower that stood on the far east side, which leaned
badly toward the right. The stones here looked to be granite, matching the
composition of most of the village, all of them cut square and about the size of
her head. She tried to put an age to them and guessed seven hundred years at
least.

In size, it seemed to be as big as Milby, so at one time
this was probably a prosperous town. Why, she hadn’t the faintest clue, as it
didn’t reside near any rivers or woods. Perhaps it sat along some ancient trade
route?

Shaking her contemplation aside, she asked her guide,
“Decker, are there any areas that are known to be dangerous or unstable?”

“No,” he answered readily.

“Good. In that case, stay behind me,” she ordered both the
hunter and his wolf as she drew a wand and crystal out of her bag.

Decker slowly took a step away, eyes on the tools in her
hands. “What are those?”

“Scanning and imaging tools.”

His mouth formed a silent ‘O’ of understanding. “To give
your consulting Artifactor a clear image of the ruins to study?”

“That and as a bargaining chip.” She flashed him a slightly
wry smile. “Jacen is a difficult man to deal with even at the best of times,
but there’s one thing that he can’t resist: new knowledge. If I bring him a
complete scan of something he’s not seen before, he’s more likely to talk to me
than if I offer a bag of leprechaun gold.”

“You’re so sure he’s not heard of these ruins before?”

“Fairly certain, yes,” she responded absently as she slowly
stepped forward, wand held out unwavering in front of her as she tried to copy
the image of every nook and cranny.

“How do you know?” Decker persisted, although he thankfully
did so from behind as she had requested.

“There’s a list of all ruins and ancient sites that have
been studied,” she answered with growing impatience. “This one isn’t listed. I
would have remembered it. Why are you asking so many questions?”

“Now how am I supposed to understand what’s going on when
you don’t voluntarily explain anything?” he shot back dryly.

She heaved out an exaggerated sigh but kept her eyes on the
task at hand. “You’re as bad as Bel.”

“Bel?” he repeated blankly. It took a second before it
almost audibly clicked. “You call Prince Bellomi,
Bel?!
”

“You know, that’s almost his reaction precisely when I said
I’d call him that.” Although he’d gotten used to it with astonishing speed.

After spluttering for a few seconds, Decker broke down into
a low chuckle. “Well, I can see why he was so friendly with you now. It didn’t
make much sense when I saw him greet you, but you truly do treat him as a
friend, don’t you?”

“Don’t get any strange ideas, Hunter,” she retorted
acerbically. “I am
not
huggable.”

Decker laughed outright at that. “The prince feels
otherwise.”

“He’s brain damaged. He got hit in the head too many times
while training.”

“If you say so,” Decker responded, tone rich with laughter.
Clearly, he didn’t believe her.

Well, fine, that was his prerogative. But if he thought he
could hug her and get away with it, he’d best be prepared to lose an arm or
two. She meant what she said. She was
not
huggable. Bel only got by with
it because he ambushed her.

She gave him a quick glance over her shoulder. Decker seemed…less
strained than when she’d first met him. Probably because the man had actually
gotten some sleep last night. With her charms on everyone, he no longer had the
fear and worry of their safety hanging over his head. This was the first time
she’d seen him truly smile, too. “Decker, tell me something.”

“Hmm?”

“Why are you always hanging around me?”

“Oh. That.”

“Yes,” she drawled. “That.”

“Well, everyone made a unanimous decision and voted that I
be available to you while you’re here. Sort of like an assistant or a guide.
There’s a lot that you don’t know about this area, after all, and we want to
help you in whatever way we can.”

So her suspicions were right. He
had
been put in
charge of her. Well, this didn’t bother her much. Decker reminded her strangely
of Sarsen for some reason. Perhaps because the two men were rather similar in
personality. She found it easy to get along with him and easy to boss him, so
she had no objections to him sticking around.

“Errr, I’m not getting in your way, am I?”

Sevana snorted, amused at the concern in his voice. “I’ll
tell you when you do.”

It was Decker’s turn to snort. “Somehow, I didn’t doubt
that.”

They kept up this banter over the next few hours as Sevana
scanned every section of the ruins. She found a few symbols carved into the
stones, most of them weathered almost beyond recognition, but she took several
closer scans of them and hoped for the best. The day had waned into late
afternoon before she finished. Fortunately, it didn’t take more than a short
hike to return to Chastain. No wonder the villagers used this place as a stone
quarry of sorts, with it being so conveniently located.

Once they returned, Sevana waved Decker off so he could find
dinner and she retreated back to her temporary workroom. But hunger soon drove
her out again and she repeated her earlier actions of that morning as she went
from one place to another and bought any food that tempted her stomach.

By sunset, she had returned to the evil fountain and sat
there on the cobblestones, nursing a tankard of hot mulled cider. What she had
told Decker and Krause earlier had been the truth. She couldn’t make any plans
until she knew exactly what she was dealing with. But that said, she didn’t
need to know details at this point to know when she had gotten in well over her
head.

Letting out a disgruntled sigh, she took a healthy swallow
of her cider and let the warmth flow through her. Mmm, good cider. She’d have
to remember where she’d bought it and get more tomorrow.

Alright, what to do? She truly couldn’t leave the villagers
until other magicians arrived that could go out and fetch them home again. But
sitting on her hands waiting idly didn’t suit her. She couldn’t go see Jacen—he
lived a full day’s travel from here. It put her too far from Chastain. Although
the idiot would be plenty reachable if he would just let her put a clock in his
area. Why he had to be so stubborn about his privacy, she had no idea.

No matter what Jacen might or might not know, no Artifactor
or magician in the known world could defeat a level sixteen spell. They just
didn’t have enough power to do so on their own, not without creating a spell of
a higher level—and such a thing wasn’t possible. No matter how she thought
about it, basic math and elementology still applied to the situation. It would
take two casters,
at least
, to defeat this monstrosity and bring it back
under control again.