Zoran Chronicles Volume 1 A Dragon in Our Town (51 page)

            
“Okay, sis. She’s coming in about an hour. Satisfied?” Zoran teased her.

            
Lida put her hands on her hips. “Well, it’s about time.” Then she broke into a
laugh, he did too.

            
They were there to greet Priestess Anezka when she arrived. Again, Zoran had
advance knowledge of her coming via his Circle. “Hi everyone. Glad to be back. You
know it is awfully stuffy around Baron Milan’s place. Much more homey around here. So
what’s up, Baron Archmage,” she used his formal title to tease him a bit.

            
“I need you to perform two Ceremonies of Ascension.” She gave him a totally
surprised look. “Come on into the dining room and let me explain.” An hour later and
three cups of tea later, Zoran had her fully briefed. Lida added her own observations that
had convinced her that both girls were Duska.

            
“Well, the only positive way to know is when I take their hand and walk into the
Circle,” she pronounced. “Can I meet them now?”

            
A bit later, the two teens came walking slowly into the room. Although she had
been told that they could only walk if they wore the highest of heels, she was still a bit
surprised when she saw them. “Come here and chat with me. I am Priestess Anezka Zar.”
Per her request, everyone left the dining room, leaving her alone with the teens.

            
A half hour later, the teens, with big smiles on their faces, headed back up to their
rooms, very excited. The others entered, Anezka also was grinning broadly. “You are
very likely right. Those two ought to have had this ceremony when they were ten or
eleven at the very latest! We begin tomorrow at nine sharp. Make sure the Circle is well
protected when we do this, Zoran.”

            
“Thanks, Anezka!” Zoran replied. “Say, can I have a private word with you? I’ve
got some unanswered questions that you might be able to answer.”

            
After the others said goodnight, the two were alone. “I’ve been having some
strange connections with my Circle.” Suddenly, she gave him her full attention. One by
one, Zoran outlined what he considered unusual effects.

            
“You are right to bring this up with me, Zoran. Forgive me. I ought to have known
that something was up the moment that your eyes changed color. These are some effects
that must be researched. Allow me to study Bandar Zar’s documents more fully. To be
honest, neither Jiri nor I have read them in their entirety. As soon as we found the
instructions for creating new ones, we went into action and have been doing so ever
since. We ought to have read all of his documents first.”

            
“No, you did what was really needed, Anezka. If you had not come along when
you did, we would not be in the power position that we are in today. Take your time.
None of these effects are causing me any problems — well except for those nightmares,
which really was Chika calling out to me. Those are gone now. Let me know what you
find out.”

            
“Absolutely, Zoran! I will study them in total detail when I get back. Dumb me,
spent all this time reading Milan’s novel collection when I ought to have been studying
Bandar’s documents.”

            
The next morning, everyone gathered beside the Circle of Ascension. Priestess
Anezka and Zdenka helped both girls down the many stairs to the basement. Neither
wanted any misstep in their heels to delay this vital ceremony. She took Chika first,
while Zoran held on to Akira and provided her with some commentary as the ceremony
progressed. Specifically, he did not want her becoming alarmed when the two
disappeared from view.

            
Priestess Anezka began her special chant, and at the correct time she took Chika’s
hand. Together, they slowly began walking around the Circle, stepping on the seventeen
colored threads. Suddenly, Zoran was connected to his Circle and was a silent observer
of the actual Ceremony of Ascension! Priestess Anezka instantly realized that he was
present as well! Another unexpected side effect, she thought. Nevertheless, she
continued with Chika. As expected, the teen got dizzy, disoriented, and nauseated. Still,
the two continued to walk the Circle. At last, the two entered the Shadows, at which
point everyone else saw them disappear.

            
Anezka led Chika, one by one, to all of the sixteen planets in the Federation of
Planets, much as had been done for Zoran during his ceremony. After the trip was done,
she repeated it, only this time, Chika began to understand. Her special gland now fully
activated. Gone was her dizziness, her nausea. The third trip around, Chika thought,
Well there is one planet that I never want to go back to!
It was Asami, of course.

            
Anezka then brought them back to the Circle. Chika was all smiles, though quite
awestruck. “Wow, sis! Wow!” Next, Priestess Anezka did the same with Akira, but had a
much easier time of it, because she had not yet had the misfortune to have gone into the
Shadows as had Chika. An hour later, the ceremonies were over.

            
“Zoran, Lida, I charge both of you to fully train and brief both Duskas about their
new powers. I must do some heavy research immediately.” She looked at Zoran and he,
her. Both knew that his presence with her during the ceremony was an anomaly. It had
never happened before. All thanked her and then she departed for Gladno.

            
Lida took charge of the two teen Duskas, making their training as Duskas her sole
objective. Still Zdenka made her take time for her own magic spell training. During the
next two weeks, Lida had the teens work on their mental communication skills, to take
notice of their special warning of immediate danger, and their ability to Shadow Walk.

            
In turn, Zdenka noted that the teens literally doubled their rates of learning. Lida
had not exaggerated this effect. Now Zdenka began to wonder why this was so, but had
no immediate answer, other than it was so. She found herself feeling slightly jealous of
Duskas and their skills.

Chapter 23 The Yeller Problem

During late May, Zoran reached a decision. He needed to inspect Dolni Island. Was it
inhabitable? Would the Yellers actually be able to survive there? He had many questions
and few answers. He announced to all that he needed to go and personally inspect the
island.

            
“Zoran, that’s dangerous. Besides, what makes you think the Yellers will move
there and how? They are just animals, mean and vicious at that,” Karel replied.

            
“I doubt that Kazimir will be looking for me there. Karel, I think that we humans
made the Yellers vicious. At least I got that idea from the history books that we all read
when we started. However, I agree, we ought to proceed with caution. There is no telling
what we may find there. I was never privy to everything Kazimir was doing. Who knows,
he might have some secret fortress there. Ideas on how to proceed?”

            
“Well, we should go aerial first. Reconnoiter the place before you set foot on the
island — that’s the safe way. If we go on foot, who knows what we may encounter.
Perhaps Bernard has some dogs that can run out ahead and spot dangerous things,”
Karel suggested.

            
“Sure, got three good ones,” Bernard volunteered two minutes later when Zoran
and Karel asked him. “It’s a pretty big island from the map, at least the size of Kazimir’s
entire occupied lands. How are we going to search something that big?”

            
“Only one real way, we Shadow Walk. If we used our Fly spells we would be at it a
year,” Zoran replied.

            
“True, even if I used my falcon form, it would take a very long time to search that
large an island. When do we start?” Karel asked.

            
After informing the others of their plan, Zoran held hands with Karel and
Bernard. “Karel, you search to the right of us. Bernard, you search to the left of us, and
I’ll cover the center. Look for any obvious signs of villages, roads, crop fields — anything
that might indicate humans inhabit the island.”

            
“Look for smoke clouds from smithy’s or people’s chimneys,” Bernard added.

            
“I will take a north-south zig-zag path. Here we go.” He concentrated and stepped
them into the Shadows. Momentarily, he appeared above the planet and then zoomed
down over Dolni Island. He moved in closer until they were several hundred feet above
the mountainous island. Below them, dense stands of forests fought the hard granite
stone. Here and there they spied streams and an occasional pond. From this height, they
could not see if there were animals on the grounds, but they saw no villages or other
signs of human inhabitation. However, this was only their first day.

            
Dutifully, the trio kept at it each day. Zoran was not satisfied until he’d searched
the whole island. If the Yellers were going to be relocated here, he had to be confident in
his own mind that humans were not here, for both their sakes. On the fourth day of their
search, Zoran estimated that their path of zig-zagging had them near the middle of the
island, about half way along its east-west length.

            
“Hey, look over here,” Bernard called out. “That looks like a human
construction.” The three saw what looked like stone blocks, cut with a perfectly straight
edge. Zoran moved them in for a closer look. “That’s a building!” a shocked Bernard
added.

            
“Can we be seen? Should we cast Invisibility?” growled Karel.

            
“No, we cannot be seen. We are Shadow Walking. Only an alert Duska could
detect our presence. What is this place anyway?” Zoran asked, becoming very curious.
Here in the middle of nowhere was some kind of stone construction. He zoomed in even
closer. Regular gray granite stone blocks, similar to those used in the construction of
Castle Dorumova, lay in a flat square approximately thirty feet across. Trees and brush
encroached around the edges and grasses fought for life between the many cracks. None
of the three had ever seen anything like this. They could see no signs of inhabitation so
Zoran decided to arrive on the stonework.

            
“What is this place?” asked Karel, after verifying the stone was real and solid.

            
Bernard, ever cautious, surveyed their perimeter, but could see little into the
dense trees that surrounded the square. “Has a fortification wall fallen over somehow?”
This seemed the best theory he could muster at the moment.

            
“I don’t sense that anyone is around or that there is any immediate danger,”
Zoran replied. “I have no idea what this place is, guys. One wall does not a fortress make.
Possibly a holy temple of some kind, long unused. Fan out, let’s see if there is more to
this than what we see here,” he suggested.

            
“If we are going exploring, I ought to fetch my dogs,” Bernard volunteered. “They
can detect trouble sooner than I can.”

            
“Okay, we’ll give you a minute, Bernard. Good idea. We do not know with what
we are dealing here on this island. General Janos will have my head if I go around taking
chances,” Zoran deferred to the stern warnings with which his general had admonished
him several days ago.

            
Five minutes later, three dogs began scampering about, running out ahead of
Bernard, as he began exploring what lay around this stonework. Zoran and Karel flanked
him, swords drawn ready for trouble. Fifteen minutes later, having dislodged five
snakes, they arrived back where they started. “This only gets stranger by the minute,”
Zoran scratched his head. They had seen absolutely no other signs of anything but the
wild landscape around the whole area.

            
“This is it — the whole construction?” asked a very confused Bernard.

            
“I hate it when people make these confounded mysteries,” growled Karel, his
anger rising. “What’s the bloody use of having a thirty foot stone wall lying flat on the
ground anyway?”

            
“Well, it’s not like this is a stone quarry,” Zoran discarded that possibility.

            
“Hi fellows, we just had to pop around and see what you’ve discovered,” the alto
voice of Zdenka came from behind the three. “Wow, what is this place?” She and Jarka
had teleported over to see for themselves what Bernard had excitedly described to them
when he came to fetch his dogs. One ran up to Jarka and began licking her hand, which
she didn’t appreciate, wiping it on her dress.