The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3) (10 page)

Laryn placed her empty mug on the edge of Byron’s desk and nodded. As she stood up, she added, “Thank you, and please tell Trivera I said hello.”

Byron nodded as Laryn turned the key and left for Milhaven.

~ ~ ~ ~

While Laryn was gone to Wyndsor, Kevin sent a note to Joan telling her Theresa wanted to take her up on her offer to take care of the children, and that he would bring them to the castle tomorrow morning around 9:00. Then he wrote a note to Cryslyn explaining about the children and asking if she knew of anyone who would be willing to watch them during the day while Joan was at the castle. He took Cryslyn’s note to her office and put it on her desk so she’d see it first thing in the morning. That done, he went back to his office to wait for Laryn.

Five minutes later, Laryn popped into his office.

“So,” he said as she sat down, “how did it go?”

Laryn told him about her conversation with Byron. “I imagine you’ll have a message sometime this week, but it won’t have anything to do with slaves or captives. If Trivera wants to meet with you, Byron will request a meeting about something that deals with the council. If she doesn’t, he might request a meeting with Chris, or he may let the governors handle it. If he does that, Gov. Shardin will send a message to Karl saying he needs to speak with him about some goods they want to buy or sell.”

Kevin nodded.

“Now, if there’s nothing else …” Laryn said as she got up.

Kevin shook his head. “Thanks, Laryn.”

Laryn nodded and left the office.

As soon as she pulled the door to behind her, it opened again, and Chris stepped in with his calendar in his hands. “So? Do we know anything yet?”

Kevin told him about Laryn’s meeting and what to expect. “We need to talk to Karl about this.”

“When?” Chris asked.

“Tomorrow. I’m sure he’ll want to talk to Wrenn and find out how this works.”

Chris nodded and made a quick note. “Anything else I need to add to tomorrow’s list?”

“I’m not sure,” Kevin answered. “I’ve got to meet Janine Tuesday morning, and I’m not going into that meeting empty-handed. Any ideas?”

“No, but I haven’t had time to think about it either.”

“Brena said I needed to have someone in place who could carry out the plans for rescuing the captives if Janine happens to find them.”

“If we’re going to buy them back, we will have someone in place, just not until time for the auction.”

“And Brena’s fine with arranging for someone to buy them, but I’m not sure Janine’s going to be willing to wait. I think I need to have someone in Glenarbour she can report to so she’ll feel like she’s done something.”

“And that you’ve done something by putting someone there for her to contact.”

Kevin nodded. “I need to show her I’m not ignoring her. But who?”

“Well, I know a couple of guys who would probably do it, and Brena could even vouch for them.”

Kevin frowned. “Who?”

“Caezar and Ramen.”

Kevin’s mouth dropped open. “Chris, they’re still in Timera Valley. I completely forgot about them. Why didn’t you remind me I needed to go pick them up?”

“I thought you already had.”

Kevin shook his head. “I’ll go first thing tomorrow morning. I don’t know about asking them to do something else for me though, not after forgetting about them.”

“If you don’t tell them you forgot about them, it won’t even cross their minds. They’ll figure you left them there to keep an eye on things, just to play it safe.”

“Right. Would you buy that?”

“No, but I know you. They don’t.”

Kevin rolled his eyes. “But if they would go, I could tell Janine they’re the ones who watched over the chapel in Timera Valley after Brena was attacked.”

“You’re assuming she knows about the attack. I doubt Brena wanted the other sisters to know someone bopped her over the head and stole the dragon’s flame lamp.”

“All right. Suppose I ask her if she knows about the break-in, without mentioning anything else about it. Then I could tell her Caezar and Ramen kept an eye on things in Timera Valley while we took care of the culprits. How does that sound?”

“Sounds fine to me, but I’m not Janine, and if she doesn’t know about the break-in, she may not believe you. But if Brena sent her a letter saying there’d been a break-in and Caezar and Ramen had watched over her and Verna while you took care of the crooks, that might carry some weight.”

Kevin nodded. “Guess I need to add a trip to see Brena to my to-do list for tomorrow.”

“You could do that before you talk to Caezar and Ramen.”

Kevin shook his head. “I need to ask them to go before I talk to Brena. They might say no.”

“They won’t.”

“They might.”

Chris shook his head. “They’re soldiers. If you need them, they won’t say no.”

Chapter 7

A Busy Monday Morning

While Kevin was running through his workout Monday morning, Landis and Rhianna were making their way down Wildcat Mountain to Willow Canyon. It was earlier than usual, barely light enough to see the trail, but Landis was excited. She wanted to get this day started.

Fifteen minutes ago Rhianna had been sound asleep when Landis barged into her room, dressed and ready to go. Rhianna felt sluggish as she followed her friend down the mountain, and to make matters worse, Landis hadn’t stopped talking since she’d opened Rhianna’s door.

Forty-eight hours ago Rhianna was having to pump Landis up while she listened to her complain about how tiring it was and how much she hated it. And now? She was all bubbly and excited, couldn’t wait to get back to work. Rhianna shook her head. It wouldn’t last out the day. Glendymere would give her a new task, and the complaints would start all over again.

Rhianna was so caught up in her own thoughts she wasn’t paying any attention to what Landis was saying, so when Landis asked her what she thought, Rhianna was at a loss. “What do I think about what?”

“You weren’t listening to me, were you?”

“I’m still half asleep, and I have trouble following you when I’m wide awake. So, one more time, what do I think about what?”

“Now that I can gather magical energy, I’m going to talk to Glendymere about asking Myron to start working with me. I think I’m ready. What do you think?”

“I don’t know. Seems to me if you were ready, Glendymere would be telling you, not the other way around.”

“Well, I’m going to talk to him about it anyway.” Landis picked up her pace.

When they reached the floor of the canyon, Glendymere was standing in front of the cave entrance.
“I’m glad you’re here. I need to leave in a few minutes and I thought I was going to have to leave you a note about today’s task.”
Before he could say anything else, the look on Rhianna’s face stopped him cold.

“What? Huh?” Rhianna asked with a deep frown on her face.

“What’s confusing you?”

“How can you write a note?”

“Like this.”
Glendymere floated a piece of paper and a pen to the wall of the cavern and proceeded to write their names. Then he floated the paper to Rhianna.
“See?”

After Rhianna looked at the paper, she handed it to Landis.

Landis frowned as she looked at it.

“Do you have a question, Landis?”
Glendymere asked.

“How did you do that?”

“Magic. You’ll be able to do it too once you learn how to use your magic. And that brings us back to what I want you to do today. I want you to find your connection with Terah again, but this time, I want you to picture a large ball in your mind. As you draw the energy into your body, let it fill your mind, and as it fills your mind, pour it into that ball, and I want you to keep pouring energy into that ball until you can’t get any more in there. Then I want you to put a cap on it and trap the energy inside. Do you understand?”
Landis stared at him with her mouth open, so he turned to Rhianna.
“Talk her through it like you did Saturday. Keep her going as long as you can.”

Rhianna nodded, but there was a frown on Landis’s face again, so Glendymere asked,
“You have another question, Landis?”

“When can I start using this magic I’m drawing in? I thought now that I’ve found my connection with Terah, I could start doing something with it.”

Rhianna saw a sparkle in Glendymere’s eyes, like he was going to laugh.

“Landis, you aren’t quite ready to use magical energy yet. It’s like you’re standing outside of a huge room and before you can start using magic you have to get to the other side of the room. Inside, there’s a winding maze you’ll have to navigate, but before you can enter the maze, you’ve got to get into that room and right now, the door’s locked. What you did Saturday was like finding out where the key is kept. Understand?”

“Not really.”

Rhianna sighed and shook her head. “He’s saying you’ve got a long way to go before you’re ready to work with Myron.”

“Exactly,”
Glendymere said with a nod.
“And while we’re on the subject of Myron, Rhianna, I’ve asked him to start working with you next Sunday. I’ll need your assistance when Landis begins drawing magical energy from the wind. Your family would normally show you how to use your connection with nature, but since you’re here helping his apprentice, I feel it’s only right that Myron teach you.”

“No!” Rhianna blurted. “I mean, that’s not necessary. I’m sure Duane would come for a while. He could teach me.”

“I’m sure he could, but I’d like for Myron to do it. After all, you’re here more or less at his request. Now, I really must be on my way. Landis, I’ll be interested in seeing how much energy you can secure in that ball when I get back this afternoon.”
Then Glendymere spread his wings and leapt into the sky.

Rhianna stared at Glendymere as he soared towards the east, thinking they weren’t done with that conversation. A couple of seconds later she felt sure she heard the dragon laughing, but after Glendymere disappeared into the clouds, Rhianna shook her head. Must have been her imagination.

Then she turned to Landis. “If you’re going to fill that ball before he gets back, we better get started. Where do you want to work? Out here or in the cave?”

“Let’s go inside.” Landis turned and walked into the cave. After they reached their workroom, she removed her shoes and planted her feet solidly on the ground. Then she squared her shoulders, gritted her teeth, and said, “You know, I have a feeling I’m going to really hate that ball.”

~ ~ ~ ~

While Landis was attempting to draw energy up through her feet, Kevin was in Timera Valley trying to find the campsite Caezar and Ramen had set up. He’d already flown around the lake and used his seeing eye to search the shore. Then he’d checked along the sides of the road that led between the mountains back into the valley. He’d spent the last half hour flying around the edge of the valley, searching the woods with his seeing eye, but so far, he hadn’t found one trace of the men. He couldn’t even spot any smoke from a campfire.

Just as he was about to give up, a flash of light near the top of one of the mountains caught his eye. He used his seeing eye to zoom in on the area. There, under a lean-to, sitting beside a fire that didn’t seem to give off any smoke, were his two ex-soldiers, looking every bit the mountain men they were supposed to be.

A couple of minutes later, Kevin floated over the lean-to. He wasn’t sure whether he should call out to them before he landed or not. While he was trying to decide, he heard someone say, “We have coffee if you’d like some.” As Kevin’s feet hit the ground, Ramen stepped out from under the lean-to with two cups of coffee in his hands. As he handed one to Kevin, he said, “We were beginning to think you never would find us.”

Kevin took the cup of coffee. “You knew I was looking for you?”

Ramen nodded. “We were on top doing our morning rounds when we spotted you flying around the lake. We thought you might be looking for us, but you never looked up. When you headed towards the valley, we came back to our campsite. We figured you’d spot it right off, but when you didn’t, we started flashing you with a knife.”

Kevin shook his head. His seeing eye skills were getting rusty. Time to schedule some practice with it. “I thought your camp would be near the lake or the valley floor.”

“We noticed.” Caezar grinned.

“We have several blinds scattered about, but this is our base camp, and has been for a while,” Ramen added.

“We started staying up here after Colin left. We figured you’d either found the people who broke into the chapel or had reason to believe they wouldn’t be doing it again,” Caezar explained. “We introduced ourselves to Sister Brena and told her to hang a white towel on the back door knob if she ever needed us. We can see it from here.”

The main thing that struck Kevin was they had introduced themselves to Brena. “You told Sister Brena I brought you out here to keep an eye on things?”

“We didn’t figure you’d mind,” Ramen said, a bit hesitantly.

“No, not at all. In fact, it’ll work in our favor if you’re willing to take on another undercover assignment.” Kevin looked at the two men for a moment. They looked rather grubby with their long hair and beards, but their clothes were clean, even if they were about worn out. “You’ll need to clean up a bit for the next one though, if you’re interested. And you’d have to give up sleeping under the stars and settle for a bed.”

“Just what do you have in mind?” Caezar asked.

Kevin explained about Syrando and Sister Janine’s plan to keep an eye out for the captives in Glenarbour. “I’m afraid she doesn’t have much faith in any of us from Milhaven, me especially. I thought maybe having the two of you in Glenarbour might make her feel a bit better about the whole situation, but if you go, you’ll have to stay through the auction, basically two weeks. Would you be interested?”

“We can’t go as mountain men,” Ramen said. “They avoid places like Glenarbour.”