The Artifacts Of Elios (Book 1) (24 page)

Ari
and Roger sat on a large log beneath a tree eating the sandwiches that Ari had thrown together drinking cold water from Shane and Ari’s spelled cups as they watched the activities of the youthful mage. “Five Crowns he gets it this time,” said Ari.

“I’m not going to take the bet,” returned Roger.  “Third times the charm and I think this is his third try.”

An hour later Shane approached Roger and Ari; smiling from ear to ear.  “We can go now we don’t need the horses.”  Looking at the paper sack flattened out on the log that Ari and Roger were sitting on Shane spied the pair of thick sandwiches.  “Are those sandwiches for anyone?”

Ari
and Roger laughed at Shane’s youthful attitude towards available food.  “Go ahead they’re yours we already ate,” Said Roger.  The two older men went to inspect the wagon.

Shane followed wolfing down the sandwiches.  As they walked around the wagon the only thing noticeable were that there were glyphs everywhere and the
wagon’s tongue had been removed.

“How are we going to hook up the horses?” asked Roger.

“We don’t need them,” muffled Shane as he stuffed the last of his second sandwich into his mouth.  “Climb in.”

Shane practically leapt into the driver’s side.  Shaking their heads the two older men walked around the other side and followed sui
t with Roger in the middle.  Stuck to the floor rising up between Shane’s knees was a stick that looked as if he had just picked it up from a dead fall or someone’s kindling pile.  On the dash where his instructor had been was a representation of the wagon from a bird’s eye view surrounded by several sentences of glyphs.

“Roger, as this is your wagon would you please do the honors.  Please touch the circle on the dash of the picture of the wagon
,” Shane spoke with enthusiasm.

Roger looked at
Ari who shrugged in return and the reach down and touched the circle.  Instantly the wagon rose slightly and some of the weight was taken off of the springs.  Ari looked over the edge but saw that the wheels remained on the ground.

Shane grasped the stick and moved it slightly forward and left and the wagon slowly began to roll back on to the road.

“Wait, wait!” panicked Roger, “What about the horses?”

Shane pulled back on the stick and the wagon rolled backwards on to the grassy area and then he let the stick go and it moved back into a central position and the wagon stopped.

“We could tie them to the back of the wagon and take them with us but we will be traveling at a little faster than a gallop and they wouldn’t be able to keep up for very long.  I suggest you take off the halters and turn them loose.  They will find their way back to the city or to some farmer who will take good care of them.  I know horses are expensive but with the war and all I
doubt you will be going back to Jehhet soon and the money you will get when you sell this wagon should more than make up the cost of the horses.”

Roger finally agreed and jumped down and turned the animals loose.  Moment later they were speeding down the road at a rate faster than the horses could have ever made it.

The sun was down but the sky was still light from the recent sunset as they entered the harbor area on their strange horseless wagon; earning gaping looks from the bystanders.  By the time they came to a halt near a large dockside hotel a crowd of people had gathered around to see the new artifact.

As the people gathered and started to ask questions,
Ari stood upon the bench seat of the wagon.  “Ladies and gentlemen,” he hollered.  “What you see before you is a one of a kind artifact made by the first glyph mage to set foot in Infin in over a thousand years.  It came into our possession because of a good deed that we performed for this great mage.  But we are off to sea tomorrow and due to the war that King Allion has declared against the Luionese we will not be back any time soon so if you would like to purchase the miraculous wagon please see me in the hotel behind us and I will happily make a deal.  Just ask for Felix.  Thank you.”

Leaning into Shane
Ari whispered,” deactivate everything and glue this thing to the street we don’t want it stolen.”  He handed Shane a handful of twenty crown notes.  “Deactivate the tarp too and you and Roger find a few sailors to get our stuff into the hotel.  I’ll get us a suite so we can all have the same room.  Just get it into the lobby before stuff starts walking away.”

King Allion was livid.  “Wendell, get me the Director of IDAD immediately.”  Wendell nearly ran from the room.  Allion
reread the message that had been sent by the Admiral of the ships that were patrolling the island dig.  There had been a raid of nearly fifty ships bearing the colors of the pirate and smuggler Soaris.  The entire expedition had been moved to the safety of the ships, one member of the expedition had been reported missing.  The Pirates withdrew when it looked like the navy was going to stay and fight but when the forces returned to the entire city had vanished.  “How in the world does an entire city vanish,” he yelled to the empty room.  He would have to use the sphere.  He hated using the sphere it made him angry for days and the headaches lasted just as long.

A knock at the door broke him away from his reverie.  “Enter he grumbled impatiently

A military messenger quickly entered the room and without a word handed him an envelope from the Crown General of the Army.  With a deep bow the messenger quickly left the room closing the door behind him 

Allion read the message. 
Now messages were coming in from around the kingdom that magetechs were going into hiding due to the rumors that they might be conscripted by the crown.  The city of Colline Verte had revolted because of the raids he had ordered due to Wendell’s faulty intelligence; how could he have ever given up Stafford for that weasel.  The King knew the answer to that, it was ego, he couldn’t stand that Stafford always seemed to be a step ahead of him. “Enfer,” he swore out loud, he had been a step ahead of everyone.  Somewhere in the back of the kings mind he suspected that there was no way that the sniveling Wendell could have gotten the drop on Stafford and he half expected that someday Stafford would be back to return the favor.  As he continued reading the messages he swore again.  Colline Verte had seceded from Infin and were renouncing any affiliation with the crown and claimed to now be a state of Old Luion.  This meant war.

The king called for his secretary, a frayed grey balding overweight sycophant who groveled his way into the king’s office.

“You called your Majesty?” the bulbous man flapped.

“Call
an emergence meeting with the top staff and the General of the Army and the Chief Admiral.  I want everyone here an hour ago.  Move it.”

“Right away your greatness,” the secretary slithered his way out of the office.

As the secretary left Wendell returned and came through the door before the secretary could close it.  “Your Highness, the Director of IDAD had disappeared.  No one has seen him since the warball championship game on Samedi”

The king froze the expression on his face was pure hatred.  It was Stafford; it had to have been Stafford.  He saw through me.  All this time I thought I had him beaten and he saw through me.  The king focused his glare on the new head of the CSS.  “Tell me Wendell
,” the king’s voice deadly calm.  “Are you certain that you killed former agent Stafford?”

“Absolutely your Highness, he was burned alive along with the manufacturer Tanner, I had the building surrounded and no one escaped. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t believe in coincidences and he is the only person I know besides myself that could plan a revolt and arrange the disappearance of the Director of IDAD without me knowing it.  You had him followed who were the last people in staff positions that you saw him meet with?”

“Of Staff positions
sire, that would be me, Director Evans, and Assistant Director of Commerce Coeur.”

“You I can account for; Director Evans is missing, but I know nothing about Assistant Director Coeur.  What did they discuss and how long ago was this?”

“It was several weeks ago, your majesty.  I recall it because I had recruited her to gather information on Mr. Stafford as I had suspected him of improprieties for quite some time.”

“Let’s get her in her
e, Wendell I’d like to meet her.”

“Yes your Majesty she is traveling at the moment as many of her duties require that she follow up on artifact license taxes and
policy compliance but I will find her and have her return immediately.”

There was a knock and the king
hollered “enter” and his staff began to file into the room.  “Take a seat,” the King held up the handful of missives.  “We have a long meeting ahead of us.  Starting with I want martial law in effect here in Jehhet until every Luion is expelled or determined harmless, every magetech is conscripted and working for IDAD and until someone finds my missing Director of IDAD.  Lastly we are going to war with our neighbor Luion.  We have had one city defect to them we don’t want another.  Put your military heads together and let’s come up with a plan to secure the border and let the Luionese know we will not tolerate their meddling.”

Allion closed his eyes trying to concentrate on the tasks at hand but his thoughts could only
visualize a pulsing redness of the small sphere in his desk drawer.

Roger looked about and saw a couple of sailors walking across the street near the wagon.  It was obviously they were on shore leave looking for some place to spend their recent voyages pay.  Roger yelled to them and spoke to them in Luionese. The young sailors smiled and answered back in the same language and hustled over to where Roger and Shane stood.  Roger reverted back to Infin and introduced Shane.  “He does not speak the Luion tongue so if you need a translator let me know.”

“No monsieur, we speak the Infin very well,” they replied.

Shane held up two twenty crown notes.  “How would you like to help us get our belongings safely into the hotel behind us?  There’s a twenty in it for each of you.”

The two sailors looked at the money and looked at the wagon.  “Very funny monsieur your wagon is empty.”

“What?”  Shane said looking around and then realizing that the tarp was still enchanted.  With a thought Shane suspended the enchantment on the tarp and the wagons canvas covered cargo was once again visible.
  “Look again,” said Shane.

“
Mon dieu,” echoed the two men as they began backing away.

Roger quickly rattled of a few sentence in Luionese and the men stopped, began smiling and laughing and walked back to the tailgate of the wagon and opened it up.

“Roger you go in with the first load and stay with our things while the men unload and haul it in, I’ll stay with the wagon until it’s unloaded.  I need to secure the wagon so that it doesn’t get stolen over night before Ari can sell it.”  At Rogers’s blank look Shane realized that to him Ari was Stafford.  “Stafford, he corrected.  I know Stafford as Ari.”  Rogers face lit with recognition and soon he and the two sailors were each taking an armload of their belongings into the hotel.

While the sailors made the trips needed to empty the wagon
Shane removed the lumen from the glyphs in the tarp and the wagon.  Next he used glue glyphs to permanently attach the wheels to the pavement.

The two sailors came back to the wagon stating that everything was inside with “Monsieur Oiseau”
. Shane gave them two twenties each instead of the promised one and with an enthusiastic shout the young men hurried off into the night excitedly chattering away in Luionese and the fun they were going to have with their win fall.

Shane
strolled into the hotel lobby and caught the tail end of an army of bellboys moving the items from the lobby to their room.  Seeing Ari and Roger with them he hurried over and followed them onto the lifts.  The bellboys had divided their belonging evenly; Ari went with one group and Roger and Shane went with the other.

As soon as they were alone in the room
they took turns in the opulent washroom and soon the road dust and sweat was gone and as a whole they all felt like new men

“I know its late,
Ari, but you seem to know this town, is there anywhere to eat this late in the evening?”  Shane asked.

Ari
laughed.  “We better go feed this kid before he dies of starvation,” he said to Roger.

Roger
laughed good-naturedly but eventually took pity on Shane’s growling stomach,” Oui monsieur, I could use a little something myself.  “No offense but your sandwiches this afternoon weren’t all that good nor filling,” chided the bartender

“Next time you can do the cooking,”
grinned Ari with mock injury.

Looking around the room Ari changed the subject,
“I hate to leave our things unprotected.  We did enter the city in fairly ostentatious manner and that will make the less than scrupulous artifact oriented entrepreneurs more than a little bit interested in discovering what else we may have.  I have a few items that
only I
have and it would cause me no end of anguish to lose them.  Perhaps we should leave a guard”

Shane concentrated on the simple glue glyphs in his mind and using mastery he sealed the windows and the drapes so that short of breaking the glass nothing would get in that way.  As an afterthought he enchanted the floor as well so that if someone broke through they would stick to the floor.  “I’ve enchanted the windows and the floor in the area near the window if anyone does manage to get in that way the
y will stick to the floor.  I’ll get the door on the way out.  Let’s go eat I’m starved.”

“Nothing more motivated than a hungry twenty two year old” chuckled Ari as they headed for the door.

It was two hours before midnight and the three men were back in their room well fed and ready to plan the next day.  The room had two large beds with a large armoire and a bureau for each, a sitting area with a pair of oversized chairs and a large luxurious sofa.  There was a study area with a large desk with three chairs near the door, and a kitchenette with a small dinette table and four chairs built into an alcove between the wash room entry and the study area. Each of the men spent a few moments organizing their belongings; Shane put his instructor back into the form of the large portrait of Ava and had it place its self on the wall in the sitting area.

“Quelle belle jeune femme,”
Roger declared appreciatively when he noticed the Image of Ava hanging on the wall,

“Isn’t she,” nodded Shane as he began organizing a few of his pack items. That’s the dress she wore when we attended the graduation dance a week or so ago at the university.

“Her hair and her eyes are her fathers but everything else is definitely all her mothers,” commented Ari looking up from the desk.

“I’ve only met her folks recently; the day before she left on the expedition and
then the morning she board her ship,  I have to agree a very close resemblance,” Shane replied.

Roger
continued sorting through his clothes mentioning the he only had a couple of days clothing and would need to do laundry soon, and Ari got out the engraving tools that Shane had given him and was setting up at the desk getting ready to work on his instructor.

“Roger do you have a spa
re duffle bag or suitcase that you keep your dirty clothes in?” asked Shane in response to his laundry concern.

“Oui,” answered Roger holding up a blue case nearly a cubit square and two hand
s thick.

“Bring it over and I’ll fix
you up.  I have an enchantment; another of the first I learned, that does just what you need.”  Shane walked over to his duffle bag and rummaged through it until he found the old collapsible hamper from his dorm.  He took it to the sofa and Roger handed him his case.  Shane pulled out his scribe and carefully copied the glyphs from his hamper onto the case.  With a quick couple of mental footnote checks with his instructor he finally activated the glyphs and handed the case back to Roger.  “There you go.  Just put your dirty stuff in there at night and by morning they will be clean.”

“Incredible,” marveled Roger.

“Not that incredible, you still have to fold and Iron.  It was one of the first enchantments I learned; you know what they say: necessity is the mother of invention.  There’s’ nothing I hate worse than laundry unless it running out of milk on the day that the only thing to eat in the dorm is cereal,” Joked Shane. 

“
What about you Ari?  Do you want a ‘clothes cleaner’?”

The former CSS agent looked up from his engraving, “No thanks if I need clean clothes I’ll toss
them in
your
hamper.  Beside I’ll need some enchantments to practice when I get this thing done.  I can’t do that if you do everything for me,” he grinned.

The conversations died down as they each
dealt with their individual tasks and chores until it was broken by Shane clearing his throat.

“
Roger, Ari, I’ve been thinking,” Shane said in a serious tone.  “Mostly regarding what’s been going on the last day or so.  Everything happened pretty quickly this morning and we got out of Jehhet safely.  I couldn’t have done it without you and I wanted to say thanks.

I realize that you two have most likely already thought t
hings through and have your next steps pretty well planned, but my worries and concerns may be a bit different.  I have hashed it out in my mind and there are a few items of business that I need to take care of as quickly as possible and they are most likely going to be pretty dangerous and it would be rudely presumptuous of me to assume that I’ll always have your expertise and resources to draw upon.

I know I’m not as experienced
as you gentlemen but I grew up without a father so I’m confident that I can take care of myself when I have to, but frankly this war against Luion coupled with the animosity that the crown seems to be perpetuating against magetech, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m way out of my depth.  I guess what I’m saying is that for better or worse we seem to have been, up until this point, on the same path.  You both have provided me with resources, communications and camaraderie to which I’m in your debt; and I intend to pay you back in any way I can.  Right now all I can offer are any artifacts that I can bodge together and any magetech expertise that you may need; which in Ari’s case is not likely as he is a magetech graduate himself.  I can also offer glyph mage training if you have the aptitude for it. 

M
y main worry and first goal or task is I need to find Ava and get her to safety.  I don’t mean to sound melodramatic but she is very dear to me.  She is in danger not only due to her nationality but also due to her being on a highly classified crown archeological dig.  Ari, given your former association with the crown and that she is your niece I was hoping that you may have some resources or insight on how to locate the dig.  Roger your knowledge of people and customs and being Luionese would be very helpful in getting safely back to Luion when the time comes.  Not to mention Ari’s cooking would be almost as bad as any enemy we may encounter,” he interjected trying to lighten the mood. 

I know you guys don’t owe me anything
, so I guess what I’m asking is if you would be interested in joining me on my little adventure to rescue Ava and get magic back where it ought to be.  The bottom line is I’m a recently graduated student.  I’m broke, I’m jobless, and I’m inexperienced.  What I do have is potential.  I’m physically fit, I’m not afraid to get dirty if I have to; I know a lot about languages, math, and magetech.  Last but not least, to my knowledge I’m the first glyph mage this world has seen in a very long time. 

What I propose is that you partner
with me and when I open my own glyph enchanted manufacturing company, whatever happens we split it twenty-five percent each; the final twenty-five percent going to my other partner Ava; she helped me get to where I am.

Roger smiled at
Ari then looked at Shane, “I would have done it for the stories, but for twenty-five percent of what will likely be the greatest company in Luion how could I say no.”

Ari
was silent for a bit as he studied Shane intently.  Finally he cleared his throat and spoke.  “Shane, you’re a bright young man with a fantastic future but I have to disagree with you on your premise.  First I’m the one that roped you into this; not the other way around.  As I recall you had a job offer from IDAD and a promising career.  Out of concern for Ava and as a representative of her family I’m the one that recruited you into lending your expertise toward accomplishing the goals of the family business.  I know that this war wasn’t part of it and it was sprung on the both of us but in all honesty I couldn’t take part of your future livelihood to rescue a favorite niece that I intended to look out for in the first place.  So how about this, I counter propose that we go at this as equals as family and possible potential family.  I’ll fund the project and you supply the magical expertise and we get Ava to safety.  As to our Luionese bartender over there I’m sure that he doesn’t want your twenty-five percent either.  After all as a top operative for the Luionese government I think there are rules against that.

Roger laughed out loud, “now don’t be telling tales monsieur Stafford or I’ll be telling some of my own.”

“Your tales are only the information that I leaked to you,” rejoined Ari.  “And you need to stop calling me Stafford.  I’m Ruari or Ari Desmond now.”

“Ok now that that’s settled,” conclude
Ari, “First thing in the morning we will sell the wagon, obtain transportation and see if we can sneak onto that Island and get Ava to safety.  Any questions Good.”  With that Ari turned back and continued his engraving.”

“One more thing,” Shane sighed.  I need to come clean with you.  I didn’t mention this earlier, partly because I didn’t want to admit it; even to myself.  Earlier this morning when we escaped the guards, I didn’t just weaken them I wiped them out; I killed them.  I wasn’t going to tell you because I didn’t want you to think of me as
some evil killer.  Seeing how we are going to be together in this effort I feel it best for you to know who you are dealing with.  I and my limited experience I am looking at this war as a warball game.  I intend to use every tactic and tool at my disposal to win until Ava and then my Mother are safely in Old Luion.

Roger and Ari both looked knowingly at each other.  Roger finally spoke up, “Shane we knew.  When you have been the places and seen the things we have you know death and how to check for it.”   Roger nodded towards Ari, “If they hadn’t already been dead I’d bet my tavern that Monsieur Stafford there would have cut their throats just to make sure.”  Ari raised an eyebrow but said nothing.  “War is not pretty, Shane, but when it is thrust upon you never forget that sometimes
you have to do what you have to do.”