Ultimus Thesaurus: The last Treasure (Era of Change Book 1) (27 page)

“And what power did he give to me? I drank his blood, because something in me believed that I needed his strength, but it did not change a thing. I am still the same boy, who once started this journey. Scars and wounds may show the time, but my mind is still too weak. I cannot bear it again and again, to see death and to move past the limits in front of me,” I cried and threw the sword into the sand.

“If that is so, then I will have to force you,” he said and began to levitate.

With slight movements of his arms he controlled the world around us like a god and the strong storm that suddenly approached forced me to my knees. I was quickly overwhelmed and lost track of Jaspers position, but his voice was clearly to be heard, almost as if it was superior to everything else in this world. Caught in the middle of a desert I could do nothing but wait until Jasper cancelled his onslaught, because he could not risk to lose me.

“I am the sovereign power of this world and the agony that I can inflict upon you knows no limits. Don't you see that this is the only way to do it? Take the sword and finish it!” he cried out through the storm and the sword landed in front of my feet.

I took it into my hand again and the storm raged inexorably, while I forced myself back onto my feet. I raised the sword to the heavens and roared back into the storm that slowly dissipated and revealed Jasper again.

“Are you ready to face your destiny? We all have to make sacrifices and regardless of whether you or I want to do it, no one does it gladly. Perhaps this is the end of my life, but my daughter must not share my fate. Save her and save this world, but you have to forget me,” he said, knelt down before me and lowered his head.

I put the blade of the sword on his shoulder, so he could feel it and I saw the fear in his gestures. Even though he believed in what he said, he was still no madman.

“And what do I tell Lucia? That I have killed her father, even though I had the opportunity to save him? I have already lost her. If I do this, there will be no rescue for her,” I said and Jasper pounded on the hot sand with his fist.

“Then that’s how it is! You cannot save everyone, Jacob. Many have died, even more will, and in the end there is only one winner. Do you want it to be you? Or should it be the prince who throws this world into chaos? It is your decision, your choice and yet you stand before me and pose like a weakling. Back then, when I first met you and you could not understand it yet as you were a small boy, who couldn’t see or walk without help, you were different than the others, for your white skin and your hair made you a monster for the children.

However, Lucia saw in you that being that you hid way from the world. Your intelligence, your strength, your courage, all of these properties you can’t keep to yourself any longer. 

The blood has awakened something in you and my death will finally unleash it. Complete this ritual and save this world,” he yelled at me, but now I knew what he had really planned.

“What is it that you want from me? What did the prince do to me? Tell me what you read in this book!” I asked him and he wiped the sweat off his brow.

“According to the book the blood of the dragons is an elixir that grants incredible powers to anyone who drinks it. For a human it is nothing more than fatal. All these stories of which I told you about in my messages are no more than words in an old tome. Who knows what is true and what is not.

I was not able to drink the elixir, because I was afraid of the consequences. It is you whom we are to trust, because you have the gifts in you that we need. You can defy these consequences.”

I made a few steps back and looked at the sword in my hand. Everything that I had once thought of Jasper, his fortitude, greatness and wisdom; it all had just been a lie. On the basis of his own mistakes he sacrificed all that he loved? How could he have done this to us? This was the reason why I had become the way I was?

“What are the consequences? At the end you died regardless. So it was hardly death that you feared?” I asked him and strengthened my handle of the sword.

“Mutation. It was not clear what I would become because the most dominant species will always prevail. Now it is only a matter of time until you change, but when the time comes you will see that nothing can stand in your way.”

“Well, I will finish it,” I said and pointed the sword towards myself.

It was not an easy decision, but I was sure that it was the only way left. However Jasper did not look at me, but instead lowered his gaze to the sand. He had understood that he had lost. 

His betrayal, his lies, everything he hid from us and yet it was not enough to shake the faith I had in him. So I stabbed out, but when I did the sword disappeared and reappeared in the body of Jasper. The blood which he coughed up and the wound in his chest showed me that his power exceeded my own by far. He had only waited for me to point the sword at myself.

“Forgive me, Jacob. I had to fool you. This is the only way it can end. I never wanted to make a monster out of you. Magnus knows the answers and he can help you to keep away from this fate. With his help you will complete the formula. Forget the past and save the future,” he said and crumbled to sand.

Nothing remained of his body except a small ring, whose silver skin shone brightly under the strong light of the sun. My hand rushed towards it and I grabbed it, just for it to be put on by itself, on the ring finger of my right hand.

Everything around me began to disintegrate until only the empty remained and I was devoured by it. When I realized what was happening, I was standing in the gorge and Mel held his hand on to my forehead.

“I am impressed. You have done it. Indeed no ordinary Webuti, just as I thought,” said Mel, but I could hardly understand his words.

I looked at the floor and saw the maltreated corpse of Jasper, still lying on the floor of the dark gorge. Unable to feel anything I turned away from him. He had not been who I had thought he was and as much as it appeared to be wrong, so I told myself that I had already done enough for him. Where he was now he would stay and before me I finally saw a path without Jasper Lawrence.

My view was fuzzy and my hands were shaking up to the point when my hearing began to work again. I took off my glasses, because I no longer needed them to see. Whatever Jasper had done to me, the changes of which he told me had begun. 

I had kept my word and done everything to save Jasper. But what does a loser do, if losing was not an option? For me there was now only the rescue of Magnus and this time I would not fail. Neither Magnus nor Isaac should die, because I was not able to lose even more.

On some days I wasn’t even sure who I was. Everything had changed and the plan of Jasper now became increasingly obvious. Mel had told me that he could see that something had changed in me and it was clear to me that the small magical ring must have awoken it, as it was still bound to the finger of my right hand. This meeting, this ritual, everything has just been to pass it on to me. From the words he spoke to the letters which he had written and the truths that he had shared, nothing had been enough to be sure. My father and he had had more in common than the lack of interest in their children, probably even so much more that it would change everything. My reflexes were faster, my view was clear, my hearing better and my perception was greatly accelerated.

No matter what it was that this ring had changed, any attempt to remove it just made its grip firmer until I finally gave up. Jasper wanted me to carry it with me and maybe it could help me save Magnus and Isaac.

Everything that I was had been improved and it was no coincidence that it was I who was changed. Jasper did not send Lucia out onto this journey but me and not this book was the last treasure he defended, but I was. He hoped that the prince would choose me and he believed that my otherness would impress the prince. Everything finally made sense, but it was still a mystery to me why Jasper was involved in such a plan. All these years he had searched for a cure for his wife and all this time I grew up without any special events. Maybe my otherness had at the end never been pure coincidence.

Mel had offered me to start the ritual at a later point in time and I asked him to do this because I was not convinced by the recovery of Isaac. Even if he claimed that it would not cause a problem, so I knew the risks and to face them was far from my intention. In this part of the world, there were no records, no books and no reminders, because the shadow that surrounded us all, swallowed the time and the feelings. 

My attempts to better understand what would happen and who I was already failed at the mere consideration. So much of it was now a question of trust, but I could still not estimate Mel’s character, since I did not even know who he was.

“What will happen now? Is it I alone against the prince? The healing of Magnus? I do not know whether the difference really exists. I know this man only as an insane coot and everything now depends on whether he knows how the world works. What truth lies dormant within his spirit?” I asked Mel who sat in the corner of his tent and looked at a crystal.

The crystal in his hand was beautiful and he had a mat purple skin that shimmered in the light of the fire.

“No truth ever remains hidden. We wait for the ritual and we shall learn. Do you think that your friend is strong enough to do what you have asked off him? Can he live with two spirits? I am fighting against my own for a very long time and I know that this ritual is able to rob you of everything. Should Magnus be as powerful as you have described him, then I see no way that both survive. 

But you have already convinced me of the opposite before. And now that your own mind has changed, how can you still have doubts in your talents?” he asked me and put the crystal aside.

I saw in his eyes that he knew something and that he wasn’t going to tell me, but I decided that it was time for him to reveal the truth. His gaze wandered through the room and always stopped briefly as soon as it met my ring. And regardless of how much he tried to conceal it, this piece of jewellery fascinated him.

“What is it that you think about? Trust me and I will try the same,” I said and Mel began to look around in the tent.

“All this, my property, belongs to me since I was a small boy. I remember the time when everything here was flooded by water. Only a few remember how it was, but this is a different world. I may know of a way to help your friend. 

There is a man who they call the grey wolf. He has saved many people that the shadow swallowed up. I only control the darkness and no matter what light it captures, I lose any influence on it. This man however can help you. He is not friendly and he hates the proximity to other people, but his inner restlessness in the face of the disease and of the decay, should be of benefit to you. Show him this letter and say not a word. He will understand what it means,” said Mel and handed me a bright cloth whose fibres were moved by the light as if they were alive. There was nothing on it but a circle with arrows pointing in all directions that the sky knew, but I knew nothing of what it meant.

Mel said no further word; instead he sat down again and looked at the crystal which he previously had put aside. Now that I knew who I was looking for, I only had to find someone who could help me meet him. Isaac was as always busy avoiding trouble and retracted in our tent. I found him as he tried to read some old books which were written in a language so unknown to me that the single characters reminded me more of a child’s scribbling than actual letters

“Where did you get those?” I asked him and he put aside the books and looked at me in amazement.

“A woman had stored them in an old cupboard and when I asked from where the books originated, she did not even know what I meant. She said that these were old heirlooms, but because she was convinced that they have no value, she lent me the books. The letters, with which they were written, are unique. Only look at these wrapped 'A's and 'O's, almost as if a man wrote it, but I strongly doubt it when I look at the rest of the language. No connection can be made and some sentences are so short that it is impossible for them to mean anything.

I will spend some more time with them later, but now tell me what Mel has said.”

“Perhaps we have found a new way. I will take care of that and then we can begin with the ritual sooner than expected,” I said and rubbed my eyes which still seemed foreign to me.

“Now that you don’t need your glasses anymore, is it not an unusual feeling? I think that this change is good. It is a sign of hope like we haven’t seen in a long time,” said Isaac and patted me on the shoulder, even if I could not quite share his feelings.

The ring on my finger was proof that there were still many mysteries ahead of us and even if we had some decrypted, so it still was not enough.

“Someone plays with my life and the more I learn the worse my fears become. Perhaps all of this is just a sick game.”

“It most certainly is and it always was. Don’t lose your head over this, because life has always been this way. Looking back I think almost every moment of my own life has been a game. I just want to win now; the rest doesn’t matter to me. Go and take care of your new plan. You were given new eyes, now you can see what you want with them.”

In his opinion this ring was a gift, but for me it was a further burden that I had to carry. Not knowing what would happen in the ritual, which could heal Magnus, was an ordeal. Traveling this world without knowledge tormented me more than I ever thought possible. Slowly I began to understand the search of the prince even if I was unable to support it.

Isaac was right with what he said and I wanted to make the best of what I was given. My father and Jasper were dead. Their desire was gone and their impact could not be felt beyond the Gate of Hell, even if I was currently in the middle of said gate. No one in the village could tell me where I could find the man that Mel told me about, but with time I noticed that I needed no help. The piece of cloth, which Mel had given me, was not moving in a random way; instead it led me directly to the location where the grey wolf lived.