Gorinthians (61 page)

“
About
three thousand years ago,” Selindria replied slowly. “Once he
discovered how to use his
yar
on my planet, he discovered how to extend his life
as well.”

“
That’s impossible,” Sabine
said, more to herself than Selindria. “We just discovered
electricity a little over a century ago. We were still living in
mud huts three thousand years ago.”

“
Maybe,” Selindria said
doubtfully. “Time might not move the same way on your world as it
does on mine.”

“
So you want to look for
some kind of record of this Terrance guy?” Sabine asked, already
feeling a sense of futility in the sudden enormity of the task
looming before them.

“
Yes,” Selindria said
firmly. “If I can find the place he invented this wormhole, maybe I
can return home.”

Sabine smiled to herself.
She had always hoped that something would happen to bring some kind
of mystery back into life. She had just not expected it to actually
happen. “I will do whatever I can to help you.”

Chapter 33

Radroc stood on top of the
battlements overlooking the forests surrounding Chasel Ri' Aven.
Guardians raced up and down the walls, making last minute
preparations. The ground shook steadily to the rhythm of millions
of giant footsteps. Several miles away from the walls, the army of
Elementals approached, their Spirits encased in crude stone bodies.
The root snare had destroyed most of the Earth and Water
Elementals, but there were still a large number of Fire and Wind
Elementals. Fifty Guardians lined the wall with Radroc, awaiting
the arrival of the remaining Elementals. Radroc had spent the last
hour teaching the Guardians how to destroy the Fire and Wind
Elementals.

The Guardians stood facing
the approaching army with determined faces, without a trace of
fear. They knew how to control fear before becoming Guardians. Fear
was the greatest weapon one could wield against an enemy. Chasel
Ri' Aven was probably the worst city for an army to
attack.

“
Steady,” Radroc murmured,
and his Yar distributed his voice through the ranks of Guardians
lining the wall with him.

In the distance, Radroc
could see with his eyes what he had been monitoring with his Yar. A
cyclone of fire spun furiously through the green forest, instantly
burning everything in its path. Ten more Fire and Wind Elementals
appeared spread out to the sides of the leading Elemental. There
was a path about a mile wide behind the raging Elementals. They
could hear the sound of crackling and loud pops from the walls as
the intense heat caused living trees to explode and their juices to
turn instantly to steam.

“
First File, lay the web,”
Radroc commanded calmly. Reaching out with his Yar, he guided the
ten Guardians of the First File in creating a web of tightly
resonating wavelengths. The air between the city and the advancing
Elementals dimmed slightly as they laced the air with nitrogen gas,
and held it in place by their Yar.

“
Second and Third File,
advance the web.” Radroc continued to hold the tightly resonating
wavelengths while simultaneously leading the other two files in a
new string of wavelengths. A mixture of hot and cold air collided
behind the web of gas, causing a burst of wind to push it forward,
toward the advancing army. It surged forward at tremendous speed,
bending trees as it sped past them. The forest that it passed over
was also followed by loud popping sounds as the trees instantly
froze, causing the sap inside of them to expand and
explode.

“
Remaining Files, remove
the surrounding air.” Radroc stretched out with his Yar even
further to lead the remaining Files. There was a small
pyramid-shaped object sitting on the wall in front of each File
through which they focused their Yar. It enabled them to reach out
much further than they would normally be able to reach.

The last wavelength Radroc
created with the remaining Files caused an implosion around the
advancing Elementals as the air surrounding them was suddenly
sucked away. They slowed to a stop as the Wind Elementals lost
their ability to advance the Fire Elementals. Within a few seconds,
the web of nitrogen gas wrapped itself around the Fire Elementals.
A detonation shook the walls of the city, causing some of the
weaker structures to collapse. Brilliant blue and yellow light
erupted high into the sky as the Elementals fought to remain in the
Physical realm. The light grew fainter as they were denied the
oxygen they needed to survive and the heat was sucked out of them.
Within a few seconds, it was over, without even a trace of smoke or
steam where the Elementals had been.

A cheer erupted from the
Guardians lining the wall, shaking the ground as they used their
Yar to enhance the volume. Radroc let out a deep breath he had not
realized he was holding. Now they just had the army of giant stone
men to worry about.

“
Captain Jorbran, prepare
the impact missiles,” Radroc called down to where Captain Jorbran
stood. He was on the inner hallway that ran through the mid-section
of the wall. Small openings dotted the wall halfway up, where large
spring-loaded contraptions with ten-foot long steel projectiles sat
with a team of soldiers cranking levers. Each impact missile that
was loaded into the contraptions was made from steel tempered with
Quake Root solution. Quake Root grew inside the Rajan Gardens. It
was harmless to humans, but when it encountered denser substances,
it caused a vibrating resonance that would eventually break the
chemical bonds of the substance apart. When the steel projectiles
were tempered inside of the solution made from Quake Root, they
would shatter with terrific force when launched into an object,
destroying anything around it.

Captain Jorbran sent a
pulsed acknowledgement with his Yar. The Guardians learned to
communicate in this way, without speaking, while scouting. The
stone giants were just cresting the hill where the Elementals had
been destroyed. They covered the ground quickly, shaking the ground
as they marched. Radroc watched grimly as the sea of stone giants
continued onward, stretching back almost as far as the boundary. If
Radroc did not succeed, just the sheer numbers of the stone giants
would overwhelm the Avenry.

Radroc blinked as he felt a
small beacon of power erupt far to the North. Radroc guessed it to
be as far away as Shalilayo. Someone was using Yara. A second
beacon of power from the same location erupted. Two someone's were
using a Chasel. More than likely it was Jerard and Terrance. Radroc
hoped they finished each other off, without taking the rest of the
planet with them. At least Jerard would not be here at Chasel Ri'
Aven when the fighting begun.

The roar of stomping giant
feet was deafening as the stone army reached the outer edge of the
forest. Radroc took a deep breath. He had promised himself that he
would not do this, yet he found himself reaching into his pocket to
retrieve the first Chasel ever made. It was round on the bottom,
rising to make a pyramid no larger than his fist. Small cracks
scored through the surface from the strain of how much power had
traveled through it. Turning the planet’s Spirit into a weapon was
wrong, but Radroc knew that at this time, there was no other way to
stop this army. With a sigh, he placed the point of the Chasel onto
the battlement to ground it into the planet. Then he reached inside
of the Chasel with his Yar and bridged the small gap that kept it
disconnected from the planet’s Yar. A surge from deep within the
planet pulsated upward until it connected with the Chasel and
filtered into Radroc. He made a sweeping motion with his Yar,
forming a tidal wave of vibrating matter so powerful that small
cracks began appearing on the indestructible walls of Chasel Ri'
Aven. A moment later, he pushed outward and the curtain of
vibrating matter washed over the advancing army of giants. Shrapnel
flew in every direction as rank after rank of stone giants
exploded. Radroc continued pushing the wall of devastation,
destroying anything that survived the stone giant’s march. As the
wall of vibrating matter descended the mountainside toward the
boundary, it suddenly seemed to hit a wall. Radroc hurriedly
released his connection to the destructive wall, just in time to
avoid the snapping backlash that came rushing back. A moment later,
a figure in a dark, brown robe stood in front of the walls of the
city, hovering at eye-level with Radroc. His orange-brown eyes were
filled with irritation as he studied Radroc.

“
I see that you managed to
survive the Frond Lords I sent to visit you,” Jerard said, almost
conversationally. “A pity. You should not have come back. This
world is not your concern.”

“
I see that you still have
almost no understanding of how the universe works,” Radroc said
dryly. He watched Jerard calmly, hoping the other man did not have
any new surprises up his sleeve. If life had taught Radroc
anything, it had taught him that no matter how much you learned,
there would always be mysteries that other people would discover
before you. All you could do was hope you adapted to the surprise
fast enough to survive and react. “Did you kill Terrance
finally?”

“
Not yet,” Jerard said with
a sardonic smile. “He is still on my list. His little clone,
however, is no longer with us, I am sad to say.”

Radroc frowned
disapprovingly. He had argued vehemently with Terrance when
Terrance had cloned himself, using the body of a wood gnome with
which to graft his DNA. Terrance had always thought of himself as
humankind’s savior. Terrance had argued that there needed to be
someone left on this world with a perfect memory of his knowledge
if anything ever happened to him. He was always tampering with
things that he did not understand.

Radroc could feel the
complex knot of frequencies pumping through Jerard’s brain as he
prepared to attack. Radroc had learned how to observe a person’s
brain waves to listen to their thoughts long ago, a skill that had
saved his life many times. Jerard’s thoughts were filled with a
determination that was almost inhuman. Possibly, it was inhuman,
depending on how human Jerard could still be regarded. His eyes
locked with Radroc’s for a moment. A flicker of what seemed to be
surprise flashed across his face, and Radroc felt a sliver of doubt
enter into Jerard’s thoughts. Somehow, Jerard perceived that Radroc
could read his thoughts.

“
Just why are you here?”
Jerard asked curiously, glancing at the heavily armed battlements
that surrounded the city of Chasel Ri’ Aven. He could tell Jerard
was stalling as he tried to cope with his newfound knowledge of
Radroc’s ability to hear his thoughts. Small barbs were appearing
throughout Jerard’s Resonance as he experimentally looked for ways
to block Radroc from listening to his thoughts.

He watched Jerard casually,
trying not to betray his feelings of anxiety should Jerard find a
way to block him from his thoughts. “I told you a long time ago. I
represent another race that tries to keep order in the Universe.
What you are doing here effects much more than even you can
imagine.”

“
Perhaps you are not as
informed as you think.” Jerard had a look in his eyes that made
Radroc nervous. There were traces of thoughts racing through
Jerard’s mind, images of alien people not from this planet. Radroc
felt a ball of ice fill his stomach as he realized whom the
humanoids were.

At that moment, Jerard
struck. A drain opened up in the very space that Radroc stood,
invisible except for the sudden implosion of matter that had
existed where Radroc stood. Radroc felt a sense of satisfaction
from his location several paces to the side of where his projection
had stood. He had learned long ago that it was much more difficult
to fight something you could not see. Radroc always projected a
physical representation of himself within a few paces of his
consciousness, complete with the sense of his resonance.

Jerard stared at the empty
space where Radroc’s form had been moments ago, frowning slightly.
Radroc could tell that Jerard did not believe he had defeated him
so easily; especially after all of the previous times Jerard had
attempted to kill him, only to find him popping up somewhere
else.

Radroc remained stationary,
waiting for Jerard to make his move against the Avenry. Captain
Jorbran stood in shock, staring at the empty space where Radroc’s
projection had stood. Clearly, he did not think Radroc would die so
easily, either. A moment later, Captain Jorbran gave the signal
through his Yar that the other Guardians had been waiting
for.

The combined Yars of all of
Guardians began creating small vibrations, each resonant vibration
harmonizing and sub-harmonizing with the other Guardians. Within a
few seconds, the walls were crumbling around the Guardians. The
Guardians remained floating in the air as the walls crumbled around
them, facing Jerard resolutely. All of the buildings near the walls
were crumbling from the intensity of the vibrations that ranged
across every physical length of the wave spectrum, and then onto
the opposite side on the spirit wave spectrum.

Jerard moved jerkily, as if
he were snared in a sticky substance. His image became blurry as he
tried and failed to focus his Yar. Nothing in the scope of
resonating vibrations would be able to function properly. It was a
vast broadcast of signal noise that jammed every kind of
communication possible, including the frequency used by the Spirit
to process conscious thought.