Bridgebreaker (The Echo Worlds Book 2) (12 page)

Marcus grimaced again, looking at the unconscious form of Jasmine laying on the table in one of the old creature study rooms.  Why could she not see how much Cendan had destroyed their world?  Why did she not understand?  And then she had brought a witch, one of those outside the Bridgefinders who frolicked and did who knows what with the creatures of the Slyph.  And she brought one into here, into this place; the seat of the Bridgefinders power.

Marcus had nearly screamed with rage when he had found out.  With the stone sphere in his hand, he had felt a momentary compulsion to kill Jasmine.  Smash her head in, his mind demanded, end the life of any betrayers!  He hadn’t, but it had been a struggle not to.  His head hurt so much these days, and he was tired, so very tired.  He couldn’t remember when he’d last really slept, when he’d actually really eaten, or even taken a shower.

He spent all his time either questioning Jasmine over and over again, searching for some reason to trust her again, or sitting in the dark, reaching out through the sphere into the headquarters; finding out what the sphere could do.  He was never without it now.  It stayed in his hand, even when he would finally collapse into short restless naps.  He knew it better than his own focus, which, though he still wore it, he’d not touched with that part of his mind in days; weeks even.

He remembered the day he’d gotten the sphere.  Two days after Sal’s death, before he had realized the depths of Cendan’s true evil nature.  He’d gone to the Maker wing on his own, unable to sleep.  He’d been reading about the construction of the headquarters, and how it had been done.  Then he’d seen the reference.  The reference to the Keystone.

Just a hint, but it looked interesting.  He’d looked for more and found that the Keystone was only able to be used by the leader of the Bridgefinders.  Marcus had been proud then.  Finally, being the leader meant something.  He’d always been somewhat ashamed of the fact that being the leader really meant nothing when there were only three of them.  And when Cendan had joined, it had been even less; a Maker was far more important than he was.  Jasmine and Sal had practically fawned over Cendan when they had found out.

But this, the Keystone; that would elevate him, at least according to the notes he had read.  He knew what it looked like as-well, thanks to some long ago Bridgefinders notes.  He had searched in secret for three days before he found it.  Locked in a chest up on a shelf in the Maker wing.  As soon as he had grasped it, the connection between himself at the headquarters had blossomed in his mind.

The others were giving him space to mourn Sal, he knew, which meant he had time to explore.  And the more he used the sphere, the more he understood.  Cendan was the problem; he had to go.  But how?  The days and nights ran together as he had sat in the barrier room, examining the sphere, reaching out with it.  It was only then he knew; Cendan was not only the problem, EVA was as-well.  It was so clear now.

Then Cendan had come to him, logical and superior, just because he was a Maker.  Cendan wasn’t the leader of the Bridgefinders.  He was!  Cendan didn’t get to call the shots; he did!  But how to get rid of him was elusive until the Map.  Cendan had broken it, Marcus was sure of it.  Broken it and blamed the Slyph.  Dragged Jasmine into his evil by somehow tricking her into bringing a witch into this place.  Plating a creature of the Slyph even, to draw attention away from himself, the true villain.

With the sphere, he had cut EVA and Cendan off from one another.  He’d also been able to banish Cendan from the place.  It had been hard, but with his new power he could reach new heights, and go down as the most powerful Bridgefinder who ever lived.  He daydreamed sometimes about future generations of Bridgefinders, learning about the great Marcus Wheeldon.  Cendan would be a footnote.

He reached out again with the Sphere, towards Jasmine’s unconscious form.  She was still out, in some form of heavy sleep that he didn’t quite understand.  It wasn’t magic, Marcus knew; it couldn’t be.  It was some extension of their inborn abilities.  It had kept her under for days now, without need for food or water.

She was so beautiful lying there.  Marcus felt the old pain in his chest.  He loved her.  It was the only reason he hadn’t killed her that day when the rage and anger at her betrayal had come.  He had loved her since they were children.  Why didn’t she understand?  They were meant for each other!  A slew of special full blooded Bridgefinder children was supposed to be their future.  Ten or more!  They could have brought the Bridgefinders back from the edge of destruction.

But she didn’t want him.  She didn’t love him.  She had even dated Cendan, throwing that in his face when they had first met the stupid Maker.  She should have been his!  Marcus, the leader of the Bridgefinders, should get what he wants, and that was Jasmine.  His tongue licked his lips as his gaze wandered over her unconscious form.  Maybe later…  Marcus shook his head.  Why did his head hurt so much these days?

Wheeling around, Marcus stalked down the hall away from Jasmine.  She would be fine there, for now.  And if somehow she woke up, the restraints would keep her locked down until Marcus came back.  Maybe the headaches had something to do with the Sphere, he wondered.  Marcus changed direction and headed toward the Maker wing, the only place he’d find anything about his symbol of authority.

The Maker wing was open as always now, and even in his delirious state, he felt a bit of a thrill at crossing that door.  Cendan’s only good deed.  Not that the fool deserved even that credit.  If the old Bridgefinders hadn’t stored the Keystone here, there would have been knowledge to share for years.  The Keystone could unlock any door in the place.

Setting himself down in the primary study, Marcus began searching though the books and journals, searching for more information on the sphere.  Some notes about foci and the sphere turned up in the first book, but he didn’t understand it.  Resonance?  Uncontrollable fluctuations?  Marcus tossed the book off to the side.  Idiots.  He was in complete control of the sphere.  He was the singular power here, and he was in control!

Grabbing another journal off the stack that Cendan had left before his departure, Marcus noted the symbol of the Maker known as Oakheart on the cover.  This was all partially his fault too, Marcus felt.  If Oakheart had not been captured, things would have been different.

“Makers are dangerous, powerful fools,” Marcus said out loud to the silence and gloom.  A wave of pain and nausea interrupted his reading, and he nearly doubled over.

Maybe what was happening to him was something Cendan had done.  Revenge of sorts, for Marcus asserting his right as leader to banish him.  Yes.  That made sense; of course that was it.  Hatred for Cendan burned brighter still.  Cendan had first nearly destroyed the Bridgefinders and now was striking back at him somehow.  Bitter bile filled Marcus as he thought of the Maker dating his love, destroying the one thing that Marcus honored above all.  He hated him.  He hated him so much.

To calm himself, Marcus started flipping through the journal of Oakheart’s.  At least Oakheart had illustrated most of his notes.  Most of it didn’t make sense to him; Maker gibberish he thought.  The last third of the book was in fact blank.  It must have been a late one, even possibly the last one before the fool got captured.  He was about to toss it and reach for a new journal when the sphere in his hand seemed to writhe as it got close to the book.

Marcus stopped mid-throw.  He slowly brought them together, feeling the sphere seem to move in his hand once more.  Words formed on the blank pages, new words, clear and plain.  He spoke them to himself.

“Notes on the cutting of the bindings.  The keyhole is in place.  EVA is highly skeptical of the idea and actively argues against it.  I too am unsure if we should ever use it.  Cutting the binding between our world and the Slyph’s will have unknown consequences.  While the Slyph and her creatures would be hard pressed to ever form another Bridge to our world, I do not know what that would mean for the Spinner and Valkith’s other children.  Still, the unbinding exists as a failsafe.  A method when all hope is lost to separate us from her.  She comes to me sometimes as I sleep, saying she has plans for me.  I hate those nights.  My focus will be the only method of starting the unbinding; I do not trust anyone else with the responsibility.  I will erase my memories of this.  These notes will only appear when my focus is used, or in the presence of that thrice damned Keystone.  The keyhole is in EVA’s main mechanism room, upper wall, hidden from normal view.”

Marcus paused and read it again.  A way of separating our world from the Slyph’s?  Forever?  And the fool had never used it?  Who was the Spinner?  Valkith?  What was that?  Marcus rubbed his forehead.  The pain was back up, in force.  It didn’t matter who they were.  The only thing that mattered was that there was a way to end the threat of the Slyph forever.  Once again, a Maker had placed himself above the rest of the Bridgefinders.  They shouldn’t be allowed to run free.  Makers should be kept here, locked up safe and away from any decisions.  Doing the one thing they were good for, making things for the true Bridgefinders to use.

But it needed Oakheart’s focus, which was Cendan’s focus.  A groan escaped him.  Cendan had the focus with him when he left.  He had to find a way to get that focus.  He had to find a way to get Cendan back here.

Cendan stretched, his back grumbling at the hard mattress he’d been sleeping on now for three days.  The room he’d been given here, in Gardener Xid’s workshop, was sparse and somewhat primitive.  A wry smile escaped him as he looked around.  In truth, the place looked like a set from a medieval fantasy movie.  The place didn’t even really have running water; he had to use magic as an exercise to get any to fill the bowl on the counter.  The bathrooms were even worse.  Cendan shuddered a bit at that thought.

Still, the constant practice had given him far more than he’d otherwise get.  Gathering magic, forming the pattern and unraveling the pattern when he was done was starting to become second nature.  Xid had commented more than once in the last days that he was taking to this faster than she had ever thought possible.  He personally chalked it up to what Heather had told him.  His tree and branch thought exercise was actually him working magic.  He’d been doing it for years.

Cendan took his focus and held it in his hand, delving that part of his mind into the stored patterns in the key.  He’d been doing this every morning he’d been here.  Trying to explore, catalog, and know these patterns.  Some had made a lot of sense: he had the pattern for how to make a focus; how to tie something to the magic of this world; even how to tie things to the magic of the Bridgefinders headquarters that chunk of matter stuck between the two worlds.

More mundane things as well: pulling water; making wind; a basic sleep pattern.  Patterns to strengthen iron and wood, and one to make cloth change colors for some odd reason.  But the larger share of patterns were highly complex, and for those he didn’t have a clue.  He assumed that most of them were for larger projects involved in making.  In at least one of them, he could see parts of other simpler patterns.  There wasn’t any place to practice any of them.  While Xid had been helpful as a whole, his natural distrust of the Shrouded kept him from saying anything.

Xid had been somewhat dodgy in responses when asked about how long he’d be here, and even more vague when he asked about Heather.  He’d not seen her since that first day, and that worried him, though he wasn’t sure why.  It’s not like Heather was his friend; he still couldn’t believe that she’d used magic to seduce him like that.  It seemed distant, unreal when he thought about it.  Cendan still was bothered by the fact that no one would tell him where she was though.

Working the water pattern and getting cleaned up helped him put that all out of his mind, for now at least.  It was rolling around in a back corner somewhere in his head, but he forced himself to ignore it.  He needed to get to the workroom, and he didn’t want to be late.  Today, Xid was going to start teaching him about Bridges.  He had seen Heather form one once, but he’d not been as observant as he should have been at the time.

Getting dressed in some clothes they had provided him, simple clean linen garments, he made his way to the workroom.  Gardener Xid was already there, and she was with Heather!  A smile broke out on Cendan’s face; that somewhat surprised even him.

“Heather!  There you are.”

Heather looked at him with a somewhat bemused expression.

“Was I lost?  I do have other things to do than lead you around like a child, Cendan.”  The smile fell off Cendan’s face.  Why had he been smiling anyways?

“Why are you here today, then?  Throwing more shaded insults at me?” he threw back at her.

Heather paused and shook her head.  “Sorry, Cendan, it’s not been a… good few days.  And for you, it’s going to get worse.”  Heather reached into a bag on the main workbench.  “Remember when I met you?  I told you two things that day.  One was about the war between Grellnot and the Slyph.  And rightfully, that is the main problem for all of us.  But you, Cendan Key, still have another problem.  One you’re going to need to fix and fix soon.”

Cendan frowned for a second.  “Oh the Elves?  Yeah, but I don’t see why that’s as big of a deal as everyone seems to think it is.  The Elves are trapped on the Echo world, right?  They can’t do anything to me, and they can’t come here.  They’re powerless.”

The expressions on Heather and Xid’s face, however, didn’t seem to support this.

“No.  They aren’t,” Heather replied.  “I have to remember that you aren’t one of us; you don’t have a lot of experience dealing with the Echo world, or its creatures.  Do you think it was chance the Elves found you?  Just blind luck?  They have been hunting for someone to get them around the Slyph’s ban for a long time, Cendan.  I imagine a few subtle weavings were done on you the moment they detected you, to get you to them.”

“Weavings?” Cendan stopped her.

“Yeah, magic used on the Echo World is called a weaving.  Not important, focus.” Heather retorted.  “Remember, while the Elves were banned by the Slyph from coming here, they command a great deal of power on their own world.  They were made to be like us, to need us, in many ways they are only second to the Slyph herself in raw power.  Do you understand?”

Cendan shrugged.  “Ok, so the Elves are powerful, but they can’t come here.”

Rolling eyes from Heather greeted that statement, and she was about to retort when Xid stopped her.

“Cendan.  We know that Grellnot and the Slyph are about to have a showdown.  The Elves are the premier spell casters of the Echo World.  If they strike a deal with Grellnot, do you know how powerful that will make him?  If Grellnot agrees to end their banishment in exchange for their help, there isn’t a place on the planet you could hide from them.”

Cendan hadn’t thought about it in that way and felt a wave of annoyance wash over him.  He should have seen it.

“The Elves hate Grellnot, though,” he answered back. “But…”

Xid nodded.  “But to get back to Earth?  To end their banishment?  That bargain is one they would even make with Grellnot.  But if you fulfill it first, they can’t.  They simply can’t.  It’s hard wired into the Elves; once a bargain made is a bargain kept, the bargain can’t be redone.”

Cendan ran with it.  “So if I fulfill my bargain, the Elves can’t make a deal with Grellnot.  And the only thing they would want is to end their banishment.  But, say I make a new Bridge for them to use.  Can’t they still make a deal with Grellnot to fix the Bridge in their settlement?  The one I used to come home?  It still works; they just can’t use it.”

“No.  Not if you attach your Bridge end point to their Bridge,” Heather answered.  “And you are on short notice, Cendan.  A Bridge formed elsewhere here in the Rivenwood.  A Bridge that a Scowler came through and delivered this; for you.”

Heather pulled a hood out of the bag that she’d had her hand in.  A hood.  A hood from one of the women in the Elven village.  His stomach still lurched at the thought of those women.

“It’s a message of sorts for you.  Time is short.”  Heather threw the hood at him.

“You know what this is, Heather?  Xid?  You know what the Elves want?”  Cendan held the hood with a sense of dread.  “If I help them, they are going to take women from this world, and I… I don’t know what they do to them but they use them to…”

Heather nodded.  “I’m aware.  Some may welcome that fate, who knows.  But I know.”

Xid, grim faced, added, “It was a foolish bargain to make, to agree to bring them back to this world, to take young women off to be used as nothing more than brood stock.”

The air went out of Cendan then.  It had been a foolish deal.  He hadn’t known what it meant.  But a bargain was a bargain.  He was going to consign an unknown number of women and girls to a fate that was beyond anything he’d ever thought of.  Damn fool bargain.  Bargain.  An idle thought stirred.

“Wait…”  Cendan found a bench and sat down.  What had been the exact words of the bargain?  He had promised to find them a way into this world.  That was what they had wanted, what they still wanted.

A small smile broke across his face and grew.

“Quick, is there a fast way to travel using magic?  I mean, say you wanted to go to Rome?  Hawaii?  Sweden?  It doesn’t matter, just is there a way to travel very fast?”  Xid and Heather paused and exchanged glances.

“You can’t run away from this, Cendan,” Heather replied.

Xid added in, “Nor would we let you.  You must fulfill your end of the bargain.”

“No.  You don’t understand, just answer the question.  I’m not running.”  Cendan was grinning widely now.  “So, is there a way?”

Xid slowly nodded.  “Yes, but it has drawbacks.  And it’s taxing; we don’t use that pattern much.”  Heather had a somewhat surprised look and glanced at Xid.

“There is?  I was never shown that.”

Xid waved her off.  “It’s a Gardener thing.  Non-creators can’t even use the pattern.”

Lips pursed, Heather looked at Xid with annoyance, but said nothing else.  Cendan, still grinning, threw her a thumbs up.

“Ok.  So teach me about Bridges.  Then teach me the pattern for this travel thing.  You can even come with me; I don’t care.”

Heather broke in.  “What is going on in that head of yours?  You’re acting a little… out of sorts.”

Cendan shrugged.  “I think I’ve found a way to fix my Elven issue.  Just like you all wanted.  And me too for that matter.”

Two hours later, Cendan had the basics of the pattern for Bridges down, including how to tie a Bridge to an existing Bridge on the Echo World.  Heather and Xid once again remarked on how fast he was picking this up.

“It took me nearly a month to get Bridges down, Cendan, and you’re doing this in hours,” Heather said, the tone of annoyance back in her voice.  “How can you be doing this so fast?”

Cendan just shrugged.  “Patterns and systems come to me naturally.  This is just another system.”

Gardener Xid looked at Cendan and sighed.  “I expect you want me to show you this travel thing now?  It will exhaust you for nearly a day to travel that way, and to come back.”

Cendan nodded, then paused.  “Can you bring someone else with you?  Like, could I take Heather somewhere?”

Laughter erupted from Heather at that.

“Want me to run away with you now, Cendan?  First you get mad about me cutting out the mess of dating and wot-not with magic, and now you want me to run away with you?”

That faded Cendan’s smile.  “No.  I need to know is all.  I have no desire to run away with you, Heather.  None.  And I never will.”

Heather’s laugh slowly died out, and she looked away.

Xid sighed.  “Children.  Yes, but only if they have the creator knack.  So you could take me, or I could take you.”  Cendan shifted his attention back to Xid.

“Ok so if I have you take me elsewhere; can you bring us both back here?”

The Gardener shifted from foot to foot.  “Yes.  But I’d be useless the next day.”  Cendan nodded and rubbed his face.

“Ok then.  I have a plan.  Based on what I promised Lachnin, based on the words of our bargain, I promised Lachnin that I would create a Bridge or item that allowed them to come back to our world.  But I never said where.  I never said it would be any place useful.  I never said it would have people on it.”

Cendan blurted out, “If I rejoin the Bridge that they have to a location out in the middle of nowhere, an atoll in the south pacific somewhere, I will have fulfilled my bargain.”

A look of grudging respect came over Heather’s face.

“That is actually a good plan.”  Gardener Xid nodded as well.

“You know that that won’t totally stop them though, Cendan.  The elves can work magic,” Xid reminded him.

Cendan nodded.  “I know.  But can they work our magic?  Meaning, the magic of our world?”  Xid shook her head.

“No, they’d have to draw through the Bridge to weave anything.”

Cendan nodded.  “I hoped so. So they’d be out in the middle of nowhere, with little magic, but they’d still be here, and I will have bought time and potentially removed them from the equation in terms of Grellnot.”

Heather shrugged.  “It’s a decent plan.  Far better than doing nothing.”

Gardener Xid nodded as well.  “It buys us time.  I don’t like the idea of being exhausted tomorrow, but it gives you time, and by extension all of us.”

Xid checked a clock on the wall.

“It’s close to noon now.  I need two hours to prepare.  Can I meet you in the training field at two?”

Cendan nodded.  “Heather, are you coming to see us off?”

Heather, who had been looking at Xid with an expression of confusion, glanced at Cendan with a smile

“Sure.  Why not?  If only to see this Gardener-only pattern.”

Xid grunted as she stood.  “See you at two then.”  Xid headed for the door leading outside.  Heather watched her go and turned to Cendan.

“That’s odd.  Patterns don’t require…”  She trailed off.  “Never mind, just…  I’ll see you at two.”  Heather turned and followed Xid out the door.

Cendan muttered, “People.  Never make any damn sense.”  And with that, he returned to his room to practice more patterns.  At least those made sense.

________

Gardener Xid approached the wood quickly.  Turning through it, she headed towards a far corner.  She paused in front of a hemlock tree, large and majestic.

“I can’t commune, I’m being followed.  The Bridgefinder is getting more powerful.  If we are going to stop him, it needs to be soon.”