Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (90 page)

“
All we need to do is remove the barrier, step on the platform, and activate the spell.” He passed the required spell to her, and knew she wouldn’t forget it.

Shyar was giving the Nexus platform a long look when Den-Orok rumbled, “This way,” and started off back down the tunnel.

The walls of the tunnel were relatively smooth, but there were ripples and bumps where the miners had found their way through the rock. They had never walked back toward the entrance, and Jolan could see how the perspective was different. One could easily pass by an opening that was hidden by a rock outcropping coming the other direction that would be obvious going this way. The darkness also helped the concealment.

The group walked single file behind Den-Orok expectantly, and Jolan was surprised after a while when the dragon stopped suddenly and uttered what had to be a curse.

“
We cannot have missed it,” he said angrily, “but this is too far. We have come almost twice the distance I remember.”

Jolan had been watching carefully as had some of the others. The rock had been solid and continuous, despite several indentations that he had initially thought might be tunnels running off to the side, until the light had finally shown the rock at the end of his mage’s light.

They made their way back toward the Nexus room, each person examining the wall carefully as they went. Shyar stepped across to the other side and examined that wall as they made their way back, against the chance Den-Orok had forgotten and the offshoot tunnel was actually on the other side. They made it all the way back to the Nexus without finding the tunnel.

“
Perhaps it is farther in than you recall,” Buris offered hopefully.

“
It isn’t,” snarled Den-Orok. “There would have been no point in putting it so far from here. It has to be Tur-er.”

Iach-Iss looked at his friend. “You think she concealed the entrance. Why?”

“
The portals were an incredible achievement melding the magic of this world with our science. She was the architect behind the design and she was extremely proud of her achievement. When the decision was made to shut them down, she was not in agreement.”

Iach-Iss recalled her complaints, especially with the hundred year built in delay before the portals could be reactivated. It was a short time for the dragons, but long enough for the humans to forget about them.

“
She voiced concern that someone might choose to lock them out against future activation. That would have removed their protection and made the system vulnerable to the elements. I think she might have elected to protect them against such a decision and simply chose not to tell us of her actions,” Den-Orok said.

“
Whoever closed off the tunnels did a very credible job. It took someone with great skills in magic to hide the passage so well.”

“
There were many with such skills in those days,” Den-Orok reminded him. “The question now is how do we find the hidden passage?” Den-Orok frowned.

“
What?” inquired Iach-Iss.

“
I wonder if she might have done even more to protect her system?”

“
Do you have any equipment that can probe the rock for hidden cavities?” Jolan asked.

“
On the ship for certain,” Iach-Iss replied. “I am not certain what we might have back at the base.”

“
Tishe might be able to help,” Shyar said. “She has a way with such things.” She explained to the dragons some of the things Tishe had done of late.

“
One like that is indeed rare, but you are right. She might be able to sense the discontinuity.”

Jolan hadn’t seen Tishe in some time. She hadn’t even been around to meet the dragons. Vaen had her off somewhere involved in something that she hadn’t felt inclined to explain to any of them.

“
What happens if she can find the tunnel?” Jolan asked.

“
Then we can probe it and see if magic or technology will offer a pathway. I suspect Tur-er might have used a modified form of our barrier-shield that you saw back at the base. If so, we might be able to crack the code and reopen the passage. We will need to go back to the base to get a few things, however.”

Since there seemed nothing else to do, the group made their way back to the scout ships and climbed aboard for the trip back home. The group was considerably more silent on the return trip. Back in Cobalo, Jolan and Shyar went in search of Vaen, while the dragons made a quick trip back to the Lost Territories.

It was two days before Tishe was available and they could make the return trip to Tilano. Tishe was fascinated by the dragons and the stories that they had to tell her. The flight back to Tilano went swiftly as they all talked, and they landed in a heavy downpour as the rains continued to soak the southern regions.

Back inside the tunnel, they repeated their search of the stone wall as they walked along the tunnel away from the main chamber. They had gone less than two hundred yards when Tishe stopped and laid her hands on the rock.

“
This is not right,” she said with certainty. She felt around to the left and right, and then up and down, defining the extent of the anomaly. When she was done she had defined an area that would have made a reasonable entrance for a tunnel large enough for the dragons to have used.

“
It’s not stone,” she said, “although it looks and feels as if it is. I have never encountered anything like it.”

“
As I suspected,” Den-Orok grumbled.

The others stood aside and let the dragons make tests with their equipment. They had linked the equipment to their satellites and back to the computers they had at their base. In a few minutes Iach-Iss’ mouth opened in a toothy grin. He and Den-Orok stood back and, after pressing a few controls on the device he held, the stone seemed to disappear, revealing the tunnel they sought.

“
Now we shall see,” Den-Orok growled with satisfaction and hurried into the opening ahead of the others.

The path was longer than Jolan would have expected, and he couldn’t help wondering why all of this equipment was buried so deeply into the mountain, but decided this wasn’t the time for such questions. The group continued walking, their way lit by concealed lights that had been activated by Den-Orok as he entered the tunnel. Before long they came to the control room for the portals.

The large rectangular room was filled with equipment. Three rows of units filled the area to the left, disappearing into the depths of the room. The center row held large circular units, the tops of which glowed with an odd purple-green light. Along the walls behind these central units were hexagonal units, which had odd displays on the center facing surface. All the units Jolan could see were lit and activated, but he was surprised by the quiet. He couldn’t even hear any fans running as he would have expected in a room like this back home.

“
What powers them?” Shyar asked.

The units had been running for hundreds of years sitting here unwatched.

“
They tap both the gravitational and magnetic fields of the planet as well as the magical power fields of Gaea in a manner similar to our satellites. The combined fields generate the unique power used in the portals.”

Den-Orok was standing off to everyone’s left growling. While everyone else had been fascinated by the equipment they could see on the left side of the entrance, he had been focused on the equipment that wasn’t there. To the left of the entrance to the room was a much smaller area that was currently empty. Jolan could see marks on the floor where something had rested before, along with some kind of fiber-optic like cables and connectors.

“
The control units are gone,” Den-Orok said simply. “It is as I feared. She made sure that no one could destroy her creation easily.”

“
You’re certain?” Iach-Iss asked.

“
She herself showed me how the system worked from this very location. She could have hidden the units anywhere. Even if we could find them, I am uncertain of what would be required to reintegrate them.”

“
What does this mean?” Jolan asked, although he already suspected he knew.

“
We will be unable to do as we promised,” Iach-Iss said sounding slightly embarrassed. “Without the control units, we have no ability to affect the status of selected portals in the manner we discussed. We can, of course, shut the entire system down if you wish. Once done, however, there will be no way of ever starting it up again. The portals on all of Gaea would be dark and dead as they have appeared for the past thousand years, except this time they would be dead and would gradually erode and crumble away.”

Jolan could barely imagine what it would mean to him and others. Getting around Gaea would revert to months of travel as it had been when he first arrived. No longer could they simply step between cities. Perhaps it would be good for the world, slow down events that were happening, and allow the place to develop more normally. This was a decision he couldn’t make. He knew what he would have chosen, but this had to be taken back to Vaen and the Queen.

“
We better get back and tell them,” he said finally.

Asari zipped up his leather flight jacket against the brisk wind coming in from the ocean as he walked across the courtyard toward the Council building. He was headed from the dorms to see Morin for a minute, then off to meet with his dragon friends for a planned flight over parts of Kimlelm. Looking at the monitors was well and good, but actually flying over the country was a better way to see what lay below and plan operations. The past week had seen far too much planning as far as Asari was concerned, but it remained uncertain when any action would be initiated. Today’s brisk breeze was an indication that winter was close, and there wasn’t much sense in initiating any serious action this time of year.

Asari was a bit out of sorts, and he knew the reason. Jolan and Shyar were on Earth. In addition to simply missing them, he was a bit jealous. He would have liked to spend some more time there as well, but this hadn’t been the appropriate moment to suggest it. Everyone was actually a bit surprised that Jolan had made the trip just now, but given the activities that had been planned for the immediate future he felt it was as good a time as any, and he owed Shyar both the trip and a honeymoon. Asari and Den-Orok had dropped them off at Tilano several days ago. Jolan had said they would only be gone a week, an Earth week, which meant seven days. They would go back and pick them up in a few more days. One of the dragon’s communicators had been hidden in the tunnels near the Nexus in case something brought them back early and they needed to call for pickup.

After indicating this wasn’t a shopping trip when besieged with dozens of items people would like to have from there, Jolan had agreed to bring back a supply of the aviator glasses like the pair Asari had purchased on Earth when he was there. The graduating class of pilots had been told they would each be getting a pair as part of their successful completion of the flying course. Jolan had also had baseball caps made up with the words “Angon Airforce” and “Class 01” on them.

Major Wylan and Kavel already had the pilots hard at work. Daily flights were being made into Kimlelm, re-establishing contacts with the surviving rebel groups, and bringing in supplies and in some cases people to support them. Hopefully the resistance could be salvaged from the losses that had been inflicted by Ale’ald since the portal system had been compromised. They were fortunate the skimmers were powered with self replenishing systems like most of the dragon gear since the vehicles were constantly being flown.

The inability of the dragons to shutdown much of the portal system had been a major disappointment and a significant embarrassment to the two dragons. They were back to limited use of the system. The three portals identified in Kimlelm were marked off-limits for now. They had to assume any use of the portals would be noted by Ale’ald, who could easily enough jump to the selected address and determine where they were. Since they were located close to some of the surviving resistance groups, giving away their location would compromise their safety. The scouts were a far safer means of coordinating with the groups.

Asari wondered if they should shut down the entire system. He hadn’t felt the Settled Lands were so bad off back before Nerila had discovered what the portals were. Of course, he liked being able to jump between cities and get around quickly. Without the portals he wouldn’t be able to visit Tomas in Seret as regularly as he did. It would also mean he’d need to make some different arrangements for his girlfriend who lived there.

Den-Orok had been extremely annoyed at what Tur-er had done, and was quite vocal about it. Iach-Iss was mostly embarrassed by the outcome of the mission to Tilano, and felt their failure was another indication of the failing power they were able to bring to the situation. Only Asari knew the dragons had violated the privacy of one of their own by returning to the Lost Territories and searching the old quarters of Tur-er, a violation that normally would have never been considered. It hadn’t mattered. They had found nothing that would help them and finally admitted that the matter was closed. Unless Vaen and the Queen elected to close down the system completely and forever, there was nothing they could do. The matter had been considered, and such drastic action would only be implemented if it appeared that Ale’ald was likely to win the war without such a move.

For the past several days the dragons had worked closely with Wylan and Kavel and their teams to use the monitoring system to determine the concentrations of Ale’ald’s troops and the locations of their wizard teams. Once a more complete picture of their current deployment was understood, they could plan the best way to adapt tactics to their weak points as well as set up a continuous monitoring of key concentrations, especially the wizard’s forces. Movements would give them advance notice of possible actions and allow for their own troops and mages to be deployed.