Crystal Doors #2: Ocean Realm (No. 2) (4 page)

“Cool,” Vic said. “It’s like Halloween and Christmas all rolled into one.”

“For those of you who have never participated,” Snigmythya explained, “you may dress as any person or animal you choose.”

“Anything? Well, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to dress up like a merlon,” Vic pointed out.

The female sage held up her hands. “Oh, no! That would be a very bad idea. For safety’s sake. A bad idea.”

Gwen shuddered. “I’m not ready to see another merlon, anyway. Even if it is just my cousin in disguise.”

“Agreed,” Tiaret said. “Yet we will face them whenever they come. We must remain watchful.”

“This is a rather abrupt announcement,” Sharif said. “Where can we find costumes before tonight?”

Blind Sage Tyresias answered. “The Citadel maintains a wardrobe of donated items. Lyssandra can show it to you. Perhaps I should end our quillmanship praktik early?” He received no argument from the students.

4

VIC, GWEN, TIARET, AND Sharif followed Lyssandra to the wardrober’s hall at the Citadel, a place used for both lighthearted and serious disguises. Sages going to other worlds often outfitted themselves here so that they could travel unnoticed. The five apprentices, along with other apprentices, novs, and journeysages, spent the better part of two hours trying on hats, robes, animal skins, masks, wigs, beards, and so on, laughing and joking.

Gwen suddenly grew sober. “It feels weird, doesn’t it?”

Vic groaned. “Come on, Doc, don’t spoil the mood. What feels weird?”

His cousin gave an uncomfortable shrug. “It’s barely been a couple of months since Orpheon was Rubicas’s apprentice, and apparently he was in disguise the whole time.”

Vic frowned. “Well, we know he was a spy, but we don’t know if he was in disguise — unless you mean that he pretended to be an apprentice at the Citadel.”

“He did turn into a merlon when he dove off the cliff to escape us,” Sharif pointed out. “But he claimed to be human.”

Lyssandra pursed her lips. “Orpheon said he was one of Azric’s original generals, trapped with him outside the conquered worlds in the Great Closure. According to legend, Azric and any of his immortal followers have the power to change their shape.”

Vic frowned. “So he could come back at any time. He could be disguised tonight, just like we are. He could be anyone or anything, and we wouldn’t know it.”

Tiaret rapped the floor with the end of her teaching staff, which was now virtually indestructible because of the rune carved on it. “If he shows his face, he will not escape again.”

Over the course of the afternoon, they assembled their disguises. Sharif was dressed in swashbuckling splendor as the captain of a trading ship. Tiaret was robed as a Cogitarian, a keeper of Elantya’s library, and carried a bundle of scrolls under one arm. Gwen looked for all the world like a djinni who had just popped out of a bottle or a magic lamp.

Sharif, who had helped Gwen with the outfit, raised Piri’s eggsphere high and said, “You see, Piri, that is how you will look when you are all grown up.” When the nymph djinni’s orb started flickering a bright jealous green, Sharif quickly tucked Piri back into her mesh pouch. “Do not worry, little one, no one could ever match you.” The tiny djinni seemed mollified.

Partly because he was inspired by Sage Polup, and partly for his own amusement, Vic had chosen an anemonite costume. The rippled mass of the voluminous coral-colored outfit looked like a cross between a sea anemone and a jellyfish. A frilly ridge surrounded the brainlike lump, studded with a ring of eye protrusions, beneath which hung a long fringe of thick gelatinous strands.

Vic found himself most surprised by Lyssandra’s disguise. Tonight the petite telepathic girl was warrior Sage Therya herself, wearing a short leather skirt and bodice, a bow and a quiver of arrows slung across her back, and a pair of knee-high walking boots. Her arms were bare and her copper hair hung over one shoulder in a thick, heavy braid. Vic was glad she couldn’t see his mouth fall open beneath his anemonite outfit.

As the apprentices set out, the sun was just sinking toward the horizon, saturating the wispy clouds with hues of orange and pink and lavender. The air was balmy, and the light breeze was scented with flowers, moist earth from a late afternoon shower, salt from the ocean, and the tantalizing odors of evening meals being cooked.

By tradition, the groups visited one respected adult after another, with each student getting at least one choice. Some students were disguised as fisher folk, others as Virs, weavers, carpenters, metalsmiths, or military officers. Each group could consist of up to ten students, but because of its magical significance, five was the average number.

“We will give these gifts to our hosts,” Lyssandra said, handing each of them a pair of small poem scrolls. “They are inscribed with an ancient Elantyan blessing: Power and grace, protect this place.”

“Thanks. So, uh, who should we visit first?” Vic asked, hopping up and down in his anemonite outfit, so that his frills jiggled. The apprentices stood at an intersection of roads, deciding where to go. The streetcrystals winked on. Water gurgled in the magical canals that ran along the streets and a sense of excitement and anticipation hung over the island city.

Lyssandra answered, “If I might be so bold as to make a suggestion, there is a sage who is renowned throughout the city and even in some of the crystal door worlds for . . . culinary expertise. I believe we might be wise to start by visiting that sage. It would not be proper for me to make her my choice, but one of you could —”

Gwen chuckled. “In other words, your mother?”

In her Therya costume, Lyssandra smiled and gave a small bow. “My father is taking my brother Xandas and his group out on their Guise Night rounds, and mother has been cooking all day.”

Tiaret tapped her teaching staff on the cobblestone street. “Sage Kaisa is more than just a masterful cook. She is also an excellent sailor and a fearsome warrior. I approve of doing her this honor. I will make her my first choice.”

As if on cue, Vic’s stomach grumbled loudly. “Hey, you won’t get any argument from me.”

“It is settled then,” Sharif said. “My people have a saying: First fill the army with food, then fill the armory with weapons.”

Lyssandra led the way to her home, which was on a hill above the harbor. Tiaret, dressed as a Cogitarian, stepped forward and rapped lightly with her staff on the door. A beaming Kaisa faced them and gave the traditional greeting. “May friends take heart and enemies beware. What brings you to my door?”

Together, they gave the customary response. “We flee dark powers that mean us harm. Will you help us?”

Kaisa’s indigo eyes sparkled with enjoyment. “Well, I cannot allow the dark powers to get you, can I? Would some nice hot food help?”

She ushered them into the house to a long table near the kitchen. As soon as they were seated, she began bringing in baskets of freshly baked bread, platters of steaming meat, bowls of savory broth, plates of sliced fruits, and pitchers of cool mos ale and fresh-squeezed sussu juice. As they ate quickly, sampling the various dishes, Kaisa told the apprentices which fruits and vegetables had medicinal properties, how to cure meat for long trips, what leaves and herbs went into greenstepe, how to make greenstepe poultices to heal wounds, and any number of other useful bits of information.

To his surprise, Vic found that he learned exceedingly well while eating.

Two more groups of students arrived and Kaisa sat them all at the long table and continued sharing nuggets of wisdom as if there had been no interruption. When Vic and his friends were finished, Kaisa urged them on their way to see other respected adults; she would not hear of them staying to clear the dishes, as she expected to have many more “fugitives” visiting this night. They thanked her kindly for her help, and Tiaret presented her with a poem scroll as a token of their gratitude.

The evening passed in a pleasant blur. Out in the streets, students in colorful costume impersonated healers, animal herders, minstrels, masons, and various sages and historical figures. Warm light streamed from the windows of every house. Some students stopped beneath streetcrystals and gave impromptu speeches or musical performances in keeping with their characters.

The apprentices visited the anemonite Sage Polup, who offered the “fugitives” small suntips he had designed that could be strapped to a finger for lighting their way in the darkness. Questas, the Vir of Learning, gave them each a small leather pouch for holding currency, little spell scrolls, and crystals. Stern Helassa gave a small, sharp crystal dagger with a xyridium hilt to each of them for personal protection.

Vic then surprised his friends by suggesting that they call on Sage Snigmythya. Though few students took the enthusiastic and somewhat distractible sage seriously, Vic found he could relate to her.

“Oh, dear!” she exclaimed, surprised and startled to find the disguised apprentices at her door. Looking as if she might cry, she gave them the traditional greeting; apparently, no one else had visited her on Guise Night. The owl-eyed sage scrambled around in her cabinets and trunks and finally found each of them a handkerchief, which she offered as her gifts to help them on their way. “Now do not for a moment think these handkerchiefs are just silly or useless. Not useless. You never know, of course, when you might need to wipe your nose, but these can be used for almost anything. Almost anything: a napkin, a face cloth, a small flag to signal someone at a distance, even a bandage in a pinch.”

They all assured her that her presents were quite wonderful and tucked them into their new leather pouches. Lyssandra gave her the small blessing scroll, at which the sage teared up again and dabbed at her eyes with her own hankie. Then she gave a flick of the white cloth. “Well, hurry. You must be on your way before any dark sages manage to catch up with you. Hurry!”

Just before midnight, they headed back toward Rubicas’s laboratory. When they reached the entrance to his main experimental chamber, several groups of students were saying their farewells to Rubicas. The Ven Sage had apparently been popular tonight.

At the doorway, the Ven Sage offered the five friends the customary Guise Night greeting, and they responded with the traditional request for aid. With a twinkle in his eye, he invited them in. “I can offer you each a comfortable bed and a good night’s sleep, safe from evil sages.”

“Good, we’re really tired,” Vic said. Tromping around the steep streets in his floppy anemonite costume had become burdensome very quickly. “Like most good costumes, the concept sounded better than the reality of wearing all this stuff turned out to be.”

The companions went inside. “I think that you are likely my last guests for tonight,” Ven Rubicas said. “May I offer you some gemberry mead before we all retire?”

They accepted and he poured them each a small glass of the sparkling ruby liquid. “I could really use a soak in the hot springs pool,” Gwen said in a hopeful voice. The warm pool was her favorite part of their new quarters.

The Ven Sage grinned. “I, too, have had a long day. It does sound enjoyable.” He led them into the communal area of their chambers, and they sat on the stone benches ringing the hot spring pool at the center.

Weeks ago, after becoming the Ven Sage’s apprentices, Vic, Gwen, Sharif, and Tiaret had moved from the Citadel dormitories to rooms of their own near the laboratory, and Lyssandra had left her parents’ home to take up residence with her friends.

The master sage’s main laboratory was a broad oval room, with marble walls and floors, open windows, and support columns flanking the entryway. At one end of the oval, a staircase spiraled up to an observation tower on the roof. Arched doorways on either side of the stairs led to the sage’s private chambers, and on the opposite end of the laboratory, another archway led down to the apprentices’ quarters.

Vic and Gwen were both delighted with the individual quarters, which were larger than those in the nov dormitory, with a sink and privy in each. The apprentices’ rooms were arranged around a shared living area, at the center of which was a circular bathing pool fed by hot springs from beneath the island. The pool reminded Vic of the large Roman baths he had seen in some old sword-and-sandal movies. Now that was luxury!

After shedding their unwieldy and uncomfortable costumes, the friends donned their brevis — the minimal garments Elantyans wore for swimming — and met back in their communal area by the circular hot spring pool. Rubicas was already there with fresh towels for each of them. Several tiers of concentric ledges provided seating in the steaming pool, while warm stone benches ringed the bathing area. The air had a moist, mineral tang that Vic had found strange at first, but now found soothing.

Rubicas eased his bony body into the water with a long contented sigh. Wasting no time, Vic and Gwen stepped down into the pool and sat on the submerged ledges, followed by Lyssandra, Tiaret, and Sharif.

“Hmm, tell me what you learned on this Guise Night,” the old sage said.

Lyssandra answered first, obviously thinking of Snigmythya’s emotional reaction. “I learned that showing respect to a teacher can mean a great deal more to them than I ever imagined.”

A smile quirked Sharif’s full lips. “I learned that running up and down the hills of Elantya is much more difficult than riding a magic carpet.”