Shaper of Stone (The Shapers Book 1) (19 page)

The new construction would present a
blind spot to the two guards stationed on the barn. The last guard
would be the first to spot anyone approaching from the northeast.
Every ten minutes he moved from his position to walk a patrol around
the edge of the main building. He stopped at each end until he was
acknowledged by one of the other guards. When he finished the route
he returned to his post where he resumed his watch.

The other two guards followed a similar
pattern. The timing between the three of them was far from perfect.
One of the guards was always standing idle as he waited for another
guard to appear. It wasn’t long, maybe a minute at most, but
long enough to let us know they had been standing watch too long and
had grown over confident in their security. They probably hadn’t
seen anyone in the area since they arrived.

Tibron slid away from the hill top and
beckoned us to follow. Once we were out of sight of the guards, he
began to speak although he still kept his voice low.

“Carvis has always been one to
maintain three shifts of guards. I saw five guards. If he is true to
his nature, he will have at least fifteen dracomen with him. There
may be as many as seventeen, but if he had more men, then there would
be more guards.”

“Those numbers are hardly in our
favor,” said Garit. “We should join Duncan at Ironholt
and come back with more men. Twenty men on horseback would ride right
through there.”

I shook my head. “I wish we
could, but we would never make it back in time to save Abella and
Talia. We need to get in without attracting attention and before the
gargoyles show up to join the fight. Talamas, I don’t suppose
you know of any secret tunnels into that place do you?”

“I fear such precautions were
never seen as necessary. There are tunnels that connect the main
house, the servants’ quarters and the barn, but it has been
decades since the tower fell. It is likely that they have collapsed.
If we worked together, we could construct a veil that would hide us
from sight as we approached.”

I felt a buzzing behind my ear and
swatted my hand up to scare away whatever critter was flying around.

I know the old man had a point.
Together we were stronger, and we would stand a better chance in the
upcoming fight. I’d be foolish not to consider every
possibility. The others remained quiet waiting for me to answer.

“If we do that,” I began,
“what’s next? What happens after we get into the camp? Do
we go right for Vatrale?”

Man that bug was persistent. I waved my
hand by my head a few times, but it just kept buzzing me. It must be
something small or fast because I couldn’t see it when I turned
my head.

Talamas seemed to agree and nodded his
head, “We must work together to stop Vatrale, but we need to
strike when he is most vulnerable. There will be a point in his
ritual where he will be committed and unable to act without
destroying all that he has set in motion. If we choose that time to
act he will be unable to use the full extent of his power.”

“Alright, unless someone has a
better idea, I’m willing to go with Talamas on this.” I
looked around at the small group hoping someone would have a
different suggestion. I knew what Talamas meant when he said “work
together.”

It didn’t look promising.

Tibron picked up a stick and drew a
rough map of the buildings on the ground. He marked the locations of
the guards and placed a circle around the tower. Pointing to the box
that represents the servants’ quarters he said, “This
appears to be the weakest area. It is visible to the patrols only
when they are on the move. The greatest threat is the sentries on the
barn, but I assume your efforts will be sufficient to hide us from
them.”

This last comment he made as he looked
at Talamas. “Once we are inside, we’ll use the tunnels to
access the main building. From there we can reach the tower.”

“But Talamas said the tunnels
would be blocked.”

“It is likely,” Talamas
said, “But not certain. Should the passage be impassable
through mundane methods, together we will have the power to open
them.”

I asked, “If we can open those
tunnels, why don’t we just dig one from here? That would let us
sneak in undetected.”

“Digging through solid earth
would exhaust us after only a few feet. Clearing an obstruction in an
existing passage will prove much simpler.”

There were so many things that could go
wrong with this plan. Garit was right. The smart thing was to get
reinforcements and hit them with overwhelming force. Running in there
now was likely to get us all killed. It was too dangerous.

Considering the circumstances I decided
to tell the others the only thing I could, “Talamas and I are
going in alone. You two will wait for us, and if something goes
wrong, get out of here.”

“No,” is all Tibron said.

Garit grinned and smacked me on the
back, “If you think I’m letting you go in there alone
you’re an idiot. We are in this together. You and Talamas can
deal with Vatrale. Anyone else, you can leave to Tibron and me.”

If I was a better man I would have
tried to find a way to convince them to stay, but the truth was I
wanted them with me. I accepted their help with a nod of my head. At
this point, I was willing to do whatever it took. We had come too far
to stop now, even if it meant doing what I swore I would never do
again.

“OK Talamas, how are we going to
do this?” I asked.

“The simplest way there is,”
he said. “We are going to hold hands.”

-o-

Having Talamas draw energy from me was
nothing like working with Vatrale. With Vatrale it was like being
dragged behind a horse. I had to run to keep up and when I couldn’t
he didn’t care. He would drag me behind without a second
thought.

Talamas didn’t pull the power.
Instead he waited for me to channel it to him at my own pace. It was
like charging the spheres only easier. The spheres seemed to have a
natural resistance that had to be overcome before the energy could
flow to them. With Talamas there was no resistance.

The old wizard might not be able to
draw on the power he once held, but his skill was amazing. Even
working with him, I couldn’t imagine how he created the veil.
On the surface it seemed like a simple idea.

He lifted the ground, or at least a
thin layer of the topsoil, so that from a distance it looked the
same, but created a barrier for us to crawl behind. It probably
wouldn’t have been effective in the forest, but in the open
field surrounding the ritual site, there were very few large plants
to disrupt the illusion.

He had to lift the ground then restore
it to its original position without creating a noticeable ripple
effect, all while we crawled behind it. The larger the surface area
manipulated the more likely it was going to be noticed. Keeping it
small meant we couldn’t walk behind it.

Crawling while you are holding another
man’s hand was no easy feat. It was like a three legged race,
only more awkward.

And to make it worse, that fly was
still buzzing around my ear. I had given up trying to swat it with my
hand. Instead I would just give my head a quick twist as we crawled,
but nothing seemed to scare it away. If anything, it grew more
persistent as we drew closer.

The rough terrain didn’t seem to
bother Talamas, but the rest of us had scraped hands and knees before
we were a quarter of a way there. The pace was excruciatingly slow
with frequent stops while we waited for the guards to move along
their patrol. The illusion was good, but it would work even better if
no one bothered to look too closely.

Our luck held out. We made it to the
side of the building undetected. The wall would hide us from the
sentries atop the barn, and the two guards on patrol had just checked
this area. We had a few minutes before they returned. All we needed
to do was to get inside.

Unfortunately the entrance was facing
the camp full of dracomen. There was no way to get in along the side
wall. The wood was charred near the stone foundation, but it still
looked solid. There weren’t any holes large enough for us to
crawl through.

At least there weren’t any when
we got there.

With hardly a pause, Talamas placed his
free hand against the foundation, and the stone melted away. In its
place was a hole about three feet wide and two feet high. It opened
beneath the flooring of the building. I went through first, then
Talamas and Garit with Tibron coming in last.

Talamas and I had to let go of each
other when we crawled under the building. It was a relief to be free
again. It didn’t last long. He held out his hand as soon as
everyone was through the opening. By this time I had accepted my role
and clasped my hand over his. In a few seconds he closed the hole
leaving us in total darkness.

The buzzing that I had been trying to
ignore since we approached the area has grown more persistent in the
darkness. I finally figured out that it wasn’t a bug flying
around. It was something else.

“Do you guys hear that buzzing
noise?” I asked.

Both Garit and Tibron said no. Talamas
hesitated before answering.

“Vatrale is near. I believe the
noise that you hear is not a true sound. It is your body responding
to the power accumulated in this place. It is similar to the manner
in which I can sense his presence. I cannot be certain as your
proximity overwhelms my ability to sense him.”

“Wait,” I said, “do
you mean he can sense me? How are we going to sneak up on him if he
knows I’m coming.”

“There is little fear of him
detecting you. Just as you cloud my senses, the presence of so many
nerafpan spheres would obscure Vatrale’s. At the moment we are
blind to each other.”

“Not completely,” said
Tibron. “We may not know his exact location, but we know where
he must go. In time your senses may adapt, just as our eyes have
adjusted to this darkness.”

Tibron was right. Light leaked in
through the cracks along the floor. Not much, but enough to see where
we were. The crawlspace wasn’t very large, and it was bare
earth under us. The only way to move through here was to crawl on our
bellies.

Talamas tapped me on the shoulder,
“There. Near the center of the back wall. That is the passage
we seek.”

In the direction he indicated I could
just barely make out the outline of a square in the floor and beneath
it a darker patch. Letting go of the old man, I started to crawl
toward it. I tried not to think of what might be living in the dark,
but thoughts of spiders, rats and snakes kept me looking side to side
as I went.

Once I got closer to the spot I made
out the ladder leading from the floor into a tunnel descending into
the darkness beneath the building. I needed light to see what waited
for us below.

I focused on the nerafpan wrapped
around my wrist and summoned a ball to float near my head. I poured
energy into the ball until it started to give off a faint, green
glow. Not much, but more than enough to penetrate the darkness.
Sliding to the lip of the tunnel, I let the ball descend into the
hole.

The ladder looked intact and headed
down twenty feet or so. The walls of the tunnel were lined with wood.
At the bottom a passage opened to the front of the building. Talamas
was right about the tunnels. With luck this would get us into the
ritual site without being detected.

Garit crawled up next to me. “Nice
trick,” he said. “I’ll go down first and make sure
the way is clear.”

Before anyone could argue he scrambled
over the edge and started the descent. I went next. It reminded me of
our escape from the mine and the friends who were not with us.

I hoped Shira and Duncan were doing
well. They should have made it to Ironholt by now. Even if they were
there now, it would still take them days to arrive with help. That
was if they could get help immediately.

Not for the first time I realized that
we were on our own.

At the bottom of the ladder I stepped
to the side to make room for Talamas and Tibron. Garit had already
moved on ahead without waiting for the others. In the glow from the
orb floating next to me, I saw him motion for us to follow him
quietly.

Talamas stuck out his hand for me,
which I took, and together we started toward Garit. I considered
skipping along as we held hands, but I didn’t think Talamas
would see the humor in it. Or worse, Garit would and I would never
hear the end of it.

It was just nerves. It would pass. I
hoped.

Garit waited at a branch in the tunnel.
We could go left or right, but the way ahead was blocked. He pointed
to the right. The passage was thirty feet long and ended in a turn to
the left. If I guessed the measurements correctly that turn would
lead us directly to the main house. I took a step forward only to be
stopped by Garit. He pointed to his eyes and then to the end of the
corridor.

At first I don’t know what he
meant and then it hit me. The entire corridor had a soft green glow.
Much more than my little ball of nerafpan could throw off. I summoned
it back to me and let it flow into the band around my wrist. I didn’t
think we would need the light anymore.

Tibron nodded to Garit and both men
slid their swords out at the exact same time. The blades hissed as
they cleared the scabbards. Tibron’s blade was long and slender
while Garit’s was short and wide. Without a sound they lead the
way down the passage.

Talamas and I followed. This time I
didn’t feel like skipping.

-o-

When Tibron reached the turn, he paused
for only a heartbeat before leaping into the room. He was standing
there, then he was gone. It might have happened in the blink of an
eye, but I honestly don’t think I blinked.

Garit dropped his shoulder and raised
his sword as he charged after Tibron. I was too far back to see what
was going on, but I heard the clang of steel on steel followed by a
gasp of pain. Without thinking, I pulled my hand free from Talamas
and sprinted down the hall.