Buried Heroes

Chapter 2-2

“Lucinda, I don’t think it would be possible for anyone in our family to look common,” Bruden answered. Iellieth pretended not to hear them.

“I believe you’re both aware that it’s not unusual for women in Hadvar to clothe themselves in a wide variety of ways on account of the climate,” the duchess replied. She didn’t look at any of her children but kept observing Merud’s vigil.

“So it’s to impress her new husband then?” Lucinda gloated. Iellieth clenched her jaw, determined not to respond.

“That will do, both of you,” the duke snapped from beside his wife. “His Majesty’s guard will be here any moment, and I would have you represent the dignity of this family.”

The sound of marching feet rising and falling punctuated the duke’s proclamation and hushed any retort from his offspring. Iellieth knew better than to think the duke was coming to her aid, but she noticed, as the royal guard approached, that he seemed unusually fidgety. Calderon had become the right hand of the king thanks to his conniving nature and cool demeanor. He was anxious about something, which was far outside the norm.

The sight of the armor-clad dwarf proudly leading his troops interrupted Iellieth’s reflections. Stormguard Basha, the head of Linolynn’s military and the king’s security, strutted proudly in the center of the two lines. He raised a hand and called down the hallway, first to Sir Merud and second to the duke.

Their Graces Amastacia stepped forward once he arrived. Basha gave a short bow to the duke and bent to kiss the duchess’s proffered hand. “It is our great honor to escort your family to the Lyceum for your transmigration to the Festival of Renewal this fine morning,” Basha said with a smile.

“You bestow upon us great honor,” the duchess replied.

“Would you be so kind as to walk with me?” Calderon asked the stormguard.

“I’d be happy to, sir. If you’ll allow me just one moment. Troops,” he said with a glance to his front ranks, “proceed.” Basha waited at the doorway for the family to begin filing out. “Ellie, so good to see you,” he said as Iellieth stepped up beside him. They walked together out of the Amastacia hall. Basha was only a few inches shorter than she, and he held out his elbow gallantly for her to take hold of for the procession.

“Are you doing alright, miss?” He kept his voice low so as not to be overheard by the rest of her family. Basha was less than skilled at whispering, but the clanking of boots against the stone floors helped to mask their conversation.

“That’s so kind of you, Basha, thank you. I . . . I’m alright.”

“I asked the king for this assignment personally so you might have some friendly faces seeing you off.”

Iellieth grinned. “Well, that certainly makes me feel better. You’re very thoughtful. It’s one of the things I shall dearly miss.”

“Aye, and I shall miss you as well. The lads always did better in their training on days when you came to visit.”

“I am not sure about that, but I’ll take the compliment all the same.” She lowered her voice. “Thank you for all of your help. I’ll do my best to put it to use as I can.”

“See that you do,” Basha said with a wink. He patted her hand and stomped forward to catch up with her stepfather.

The duke’s nervousness didn’t seem to have eased with the stormguard’s arrival, and Iellieth watched the twitches of his shoulders as he and Basha spoke. She could only overhear pieces of their conversation at first, but as they reached the larger halls that descended into the old keep, she caught more.

“This change in His Majesty is . . . nothing to do with my station . . . Lord Nassarq is still so little informed of the larger . . . in the kingdom. He’s only recently returned from Nocturne . . . why has he advised that troops be made ready before we’ve even spoken to our allies?”

Basha’s voice was less subdued. “You heard his report on the regiments amassing outside the Jorgan’s northern estate, same as I did,” Basha answered. “That’s within Linolynn’s regional borders. The king cannot simply sit by.”

“I only wish to suggest that we look into it further. These disappearances in the mountains, whole villages slaughtered, there could be . . . they’re not monsters.”

“I do as the king orders, Your Grace. My men are looking into it, and whatever evidence they find, they’ll be sure to send back.”

“Yes, very well,” the duke said. “Thank you, Stormguard.” Calderon stepped ahead to take his wife’s arm.

Iellieth couldn’t make sense of what she had overheard. The duke had been on edge since Lord Nassarq’s return a few weeks before. Was he suddenly out of favor with King Arontis, who had trusted him beyond reason for years? Surely he couldn’t be afraid of someone doing to him what he had done to Frederick Adhemar, Teodric’s father? Sending him against his wishes across the Infinite Ocean, never to be heard from again?

Groups of guards paraded about the castle center. They patrolled the keep’s ancient hallways as though they still operated in the time of war the stronghold must have been constructed for. On the lowest level above the dungeons, an elite group supervised the goings and comings of the transmigration circle. There were very few instances of this powerful ancient magic still functioning in Azuria. A century ago, Hadvar’s mages had been able to restore the function of their own circle. Linolynn’s was used only rarely and had yet to succumb to the unworkings of time.

No records remained of how the circle had been made or how, given enough of a magical charge and a precise inscribing of runes, it could transport a group of people from one place to another almost instantaneously. Several millennia ago, an advanced civilization had created the transmigration circle, one of many, it seemed, that allowed twenty people or more at a time to travel to the linked locations. Linolynn’s scholars, through careful study, had discovered how one might reach Hadvar from its southern neighbor, negating the need for a week’s travel across the cold roads that wove in and out of the Stormside Forest.

The Transmigration Guard, set apart by their pale-blue doublets emblazoned with a magic circle, found little to occupy themselves during the vast majority of a solar year, but the Festival of Renewal provided ample opportunity for vigilance and a show of their capabilities. In addition to bestowing honor upon Linolynn’s nobles, the only people allowed to utilize the transmigration circles, the military tasked these guards with protecting the castle from any unknown entities that might make their way into the castle through the ancient portal.

Katarina and a few of the other high-ranking castle residents stood waiting at the entrance to the ancient chamber that held the transmigration circle. Iellieth saw her friend’s eyes alight once they met hers, and Katarina waited until the first of the royal guard had passed before joining Iellieth to travel into the Lyceum.

The two linked elbows and stepped together through the large, arched doorway to begin their descent. The Lyceum was one of the grandest rooms in Linolynn and possibly all of Caldara. The ancients had carved the room from the cliffside bedrock, a feat made more impressive by the space’s enormous size. The ceiling extended more than seventy feet overhead in a series of interconnecting, pointed arches that met above the center of the transmigration circle.

On the far side of the chamber, elderly scholars in long robes flitted back and forth between the thick tomes of crackling parchment that explained how the circle might be manipulated to reach different destinations. “In the records,” Katarina said as she noticed Iellieth studying their movements, “there are references to dozens of other circles, only a few of which we understand. But it has to be true, as I saw inklings of in some of my older research, that at one time, the world was much closer, as well as, I believe, more populated, than we have any conception of it being today.”

“And why is it that you turned your attention elsewhere?” Iellieth asked. “We haven’t worked together on anything of the kind.”

“It’s true, we haven’t. I did this work before I moved to Io Keep. Most of the records I found were incomplete. I believe Aravar is still searching. Lost and destroyed tales of the past are a special interest of his.”

“Yes, I recall,” Iellieth said. It had been several years since Katarina’s brother had visited Linolynn, but he always had interesting news to report when he arrived.

“He may travel this way soon. His most recent excavations have him just south of Penshaw. He’ll be very sorry to have missed you.” Katarina’s brows knit together as she looked at Iellieth.

“Please let him know that I regret not being able to hear about his latest journeys. I hope the two of you enjoy your time together. It will be nice for you to have some company.” Iellieth cleared her throat and fluttered her eyelids to compose herself.

“That it shall. But come, let us have one final lesson before you go.” They stood together outside the circle and looked at the runes carved into the stone floor. “Do you recognize this script at all?”

“It’s one of the Arcane scripts, but I don’t believe it’s of Elvish origin.” Iellieth scrutinized the ancient symbols. “These here,” she said, pointing at the succession of glyphs in one of the smaller circles to their right, “they are the elements, are they not? Fire, water, air—”

“Light, darkness, and earth, very good. Now, why do you think they’re positioned inside the circle in this way?”

“Equally spaced from one another?”

“Yes, or why in this circle and its interlocking position with the larger one?”

“Iellieth,” the duchess called, “they are nearly ready for us.”

She tightened her grip on Katarina’s arm. “We also need to ask why a circle,” Iellieth added quickly. “Or I think that’s what you would say.”

Katarina nodded.

Iellieth squinted up at the tiled ceiling and its sweeping arches. “There’s something about these circles, this room, that meant direction, or at least where one wanted to go.” The pale-blue runes along the outer edges began to glow. “We often think that the straight path is the one of progress, but circles represent completion and restoration. Maybe the ancients would see it as a different way forward that we too readily ignore or dismiss.”

“I think you are right about that,” Katarina said. The tears in her eyes danced in the runes’ pulsing light. “Take care, my friend. Write to me.”

“I will.” Iellieth couldn’t let herself say anything more, so she hugged Katarina a final time and went to stand beside her mother at the end of their family line. They faced the row of soldiers overseeing the sendoff. Iellieth glanced over her shoulder at her friend and felt the amulet’s warm glow against her chest. In moments like this, when her heart was racing, it seemed like the metal and gemstone absorbed some of her energy and sent it back to her.

But in this instance, it continued to grow warmer, almost uncomfortably so on her bare skin. Iellieth reached beneath her tunic and withdrew it. “Hold still, please,” one of the guards called from beyond the circle’s limits. The woman’s voice sounded as though she were shouting through water.

The duchess glanced down at Iellieth, a reprimand on the edge of her lips, but her mother’s eyes widened instead as she looked at the amulet. Iellieth turned from the red glow on her mother’s face to find its source at her fingertips, burning. Rays of light stretched glittering fingers out of the ruby, and the metal grew too hot for her to hold any longer.

She let go, and the necklace floated in front of her, raising parallel with her chest. “Wait,” Iellieth heard, impossibly elongated, tinged with worry and fear, drifting toward her from her mother. How did she sound so far away? The golden bands began to spin; the additional diamond in the center of the hourglass blinked in and out of existence as Iellieth stared, transfixed.

The runes on the stone floor around them throbbed in the same instant that a bright red flash erupted from her necklace. Iellieth’s ears filled with a disembodied, horrified scream. All the world around her turned black, and the intense compression of transmigration began.