The Dreamer's Curse (Book 2) Read online

  “Positive. The shield itself is an eight in power.”

  He stopped abruptly, facing his bookshelf, and stayed like that for several taut seconds, thinking so hard that it seemed he barely breathed for a moment. “I think I know what this is.”

  Sevana let out a pent-up breath. Best news she’d had all week. “Go on.”

  “Magicians of that time often made tools and such for people that had either no magical ability or were still in the learning process. Gadget magic is what they were called, or gadgicks for short. ” He shot them both a crooked smile. “Rather like we do today with our charms and bottled potions. But their inventions were on a much more powerful scale, and with a more…hmmm…how to say this? A more intuitive approach. The devices were designed to pick up the intent of the user more than any spoken command.”

  Sevana’s stomach started twisting in sick understanding. So she’d only been half-right. The artifact worked because it was actively searching for destinations to send people to, and it chose anyone that pictured a different place, even in sleep.

  “Some of the gadgicks that they used for transportation are like yours. Or so I’ve read in some of the more ancient texts. I found a description once in a catalogue, or what looked like one, of a merchant’s wares that claimed it could transport any cargo or body of people any distance.”

  Sarsen leaned against a table’s edge, bracing his hands on the top of the surface, and let out a long sigh. “Couldn’t describe it any better than that.”

  “With so many people around it, thinking of different locations and images in their minds, even subconsciously, the gadgick must feel that it needs to be constantly on.” Jacen stared at the floor and muttered, “Or it’s developed some pretty interesting quirks over the past few hundred years.”

  “I’m betting on the latter,” Sevana grumbled. “Alright, so you recognize this thing. How do we turn it off?”

  “Have you tried taking everyone out of the village?”

  “It doesn’t work for any length of time, or so I’m told,” she answered with a resigned shrug. “One of the magicians they hired suggested they do that, but the device brought them all back again the next night. It must have some sort of ‘return home’ clause in it?” When Jacen nodded wryly, she grimaced. Stone the crows, she hated being right sometimes. “Did those long dead magicians think of every fail-safe?”

  “It was their job to do so.”

  “Shut it, Sarsen, I don’t want to hear that right now. Jacen, the only thing we could think to do was to destroy the shield first and then tackle the artifact—gadgick, whatever—next. Can we do that without creating a dangerous backlash in power?”

  Jacen held a hand in front of him and tipped it back and forth in an uncertain gesture. “Perhaps? I’d like to look at those scans you took before giving you a firm answer. But that’ll take me at least a few hours and some research. What time is it?”

  Sarsen pulled out a pocket watch from his jacket before answering, “Nearly four in the afternoon.”

  “Then I should probably get dinner started first.”

  Who knew how many meals Jacen had accidentally skipped today because his other personalities hadn’t bothered to eat, or assumed a different personality would take care of it? “Why don’t I cook while you and Sarsen research?”

  Jacen shot her a hopeful smile. “Would you? I’m thoroughly sick of my cooking at this point.”

  “It sounds like a fair trade to me.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Jacen, mercy be praised, had a fully stocked kitchen so she had a good selection of ingredients to cook from. The place reminded her oddly of a potions lab in its setup, though. Aside from the main table, she only had one long stretch of counter space, a sink with some very interesting stains, and a single cold box. Did the man only cook to survive?

  She ended up making a thick stew and biscuits, as it looked like several of his vegetables wouldn’t survive another day. The men came in like hungry wolves, their noses in the air, sniffing their way into the kitchen with comments of the smell alone killing them.

  Everyone pitched in to get bowls and dinner on the table, and then they ate with gusto and a distinct lack of conversation until half the pot of stew had been consumed, and only then did the spoons stay in the bowls.

  “Alright,” Sevana turned to Jacen. “How goes it?”

  “Your scans are exquisitely detailed, as always,” he praised her, sitting back with a contented sigh. “It almost feels like I’m standing in that village square when I look at them. I’d like to run a few more calculations, double-check a fact or two, but my initial impression is: no. Destroying the shield shouldn’t cause any backlashes and you will be able to attack it directly. Note that I do not mean safely attack it directly. I think that there will be another fail-safe once you get past that shield. What that might be is anyone’s guess. So if you’re going to attack that shield, you must be ready to instantly attack the gadgick itself, otherwise I can’t predict what will happen.”

  A fact she’d already thought of, but she nodded to show her understanding. He, after all, was the expert on this.

  “Why don’t the two of you stay the night?” he offered. “I’ll stay up and do some more research, get you some more facts to work off of. It’s rather too late to leave anyway unless you want to try flying about in the dark.”

  “I’m not a bat, so I’ll pass on that idea,” Sevana snarked. “But you understand that if you switch over to Jocelin again, we’ll lock you in a room somewhere.”

  He blinked at her. “Jocelin came out today?”

  “We met everyone today,” Sarsen assured him dryly.

  “Oh. So that’s how I lost half the day…” Jacen trailed off and shrugged. After twenty years of this, he’d grown accustomed to holes in his memory or whole hours of time passing without his knowing. “Fine, if Jocelin causes you problems, lock us in a room somewhere. Just make sure it’s a room that I have idiot-proofed. I never know what the others will try.”

  Sevana personally felt no need to sleep so she offered, “Why don’t I stay up and research with you? I usually work late at night anyway.”

  “Oh.” Jacen lit up in a delighted smile. “That sounds fun. In that case, dishes can wait. Let’s go up to my library.”

  ~ ~ ~

  They spent the entire night reviewing things in more depth, cross-referencing it with other gadgicks that Jacen had previously researched that came from the same era, and double-checking math and theories. They sketched out designs, elements, and possibilities until their eyes crossed and their heads felt fit to explode. Without their notice, the night fell way to day, and the sun crept in through the library window, making the lamps they’d lit unnecessary.

  Sarsen ambled into the room, stifling a yawn behind one hand, looking bleary-eyed but unfairly rested. “Oh? You two are still at it?”

  Sevana gave him a sleep-deprived glower.

  “Right. Obviously a stupid question.”

  They’d slowly emptied the shelves during the course of the night, stacking them up on the large table and the two armchairs, which was how Sevana and Jacen eventually ended up on the floor. Easing past her, Sarsen sank into the only other available seat—a half-cluttered loveseat that had seen better days. As he did so, he looked at Jacen who lay flat on the floor, his hands propped behind his head, and ventured, “Good morning, Jacen?”

  “Morning,” Jacen responded, a tired smile etched into his face. “Not sure if it’s a good one yet.”

  “Oh?”

  Sevana slouched further into herself, back braced against a chair, nearly folded in half. She made grumbling, inarticulate noises, not about to explain what they had deduced. She didn’t even want to think about it, much less say it aloud.

  Sarsen pointed a finger at her and said, “Judging from that expression, I’m not going to like this, am I?”

  “We sure don’t.” Jacen heaved a heavy sigh and sat upright, crossing his legs comfortably before he started to exp
lain. “I can run you through the numbers, logic, and such later if you wish, but here’s the gist of it: first and foremost, I do not believe that this device was meant to transport just people.”

  “Uhh?” Sarsen said in confusion, as if Jacen was suddenly speaking in a foreign language.

  “Yes, I realize that it has only been transporting people,” Jacen responded patiently. “But the only time I have seen a design like this was for a transport that would handle caravans and the like. So, not just people, but objects of all sorts. Also, it was made to use for very long distances. So it’s recent habit of transporting people a very long way is actually a fundamentally sound feature and not some erratic behavior.”

  Sarsen scratched at the back of his head for a moment, weighing that in his mind before offering, “I can’t say that makes me feel any better. If it was supposed to transport things as well, how’d they manage it?”

  “They had a way of marking things that needed to be transported. Because no one is doing that, only people are going.” Jacen shrugged, grimacing. “Yes, I’m aware that you’re not sure how the people are marked either. These are logical deductions, you understand, I don’t have a great deal of concrete evidence to support my theories. I’m simply making educated guesses depending on what you and Sevana are telling me.”

  “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 t
o 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?”