The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3) (80 page)

Glendymere frowned.
“Why?”

Kevin took out the extra key and showed it to Glendymere. “Marcus took this off a slaver the other night. I assumed one of the seated sorcerers had lent it to him, but when we met today, everyone showed up.”

Glendymere used an outstretched hand to pick up the key. He looked at it for a few moments and then said,
“The fourteenth key.”

“What?” Chris asked.

“The fourteenth key,”
Glendymere repeated.
“I didn’t expect to see it again. I thought it was long buried.”

“Okay,” Kevin said. “You can recognize the keys?”

“Of course. I helped make them. I know which one’s which and who has each one. We made one for each of the seated sorcerers and each member of the Federation. This one belonged to Acryn, of the House of Ferth, Seated Sorcerer of Nordia.”

“Nordia?”

Glendymere turned and started back towards his cave.
“I need to put this away. I’ll be back in a minute.”

After Glendymere left, Chris asked, “Do you know what he’s talking about?”

“I’m not sure, but when we were at Kalen’s, he mentioned something about a province that was destroyed.”

Chris nodded. “The way he described it sounded like a nuclear bomb went off there.”

“Wonder if that was Nordia.”

“If it was, no wonder Glendymere didn’t expect to see that key again. Wonder who found it. I got the impression the whole area was deserted.”

“Maybe someone decided to see what they could find and ended up finding a key.”

Before they could speculate further, Glendymere came back out.

“The great magic war was because the Master Sorcerer died without an heir. Was that Acryn?” Kevin asked.

Glendymere nodded.
“He died unexpectedly from a fever, leaving his seat vacant as well as the Master’s Chair. Sorcerers descended on Brinksdale like locusts from all over Nordia. From what I understand, they were the ones who started the fighting and it spread all over the province. I guess they thought the last one standing would be the new Sorcerer of Nordia. Maybe they thought they’d be the new Master Sorcerer, too. I don’t know, but they destroyed the town and all the surrounding area before any of the seated sorcerers got there. Later, after it was over, some of the seated sorcerers said all they were trying to do was put an end to the destruction, but when I got there energy bolts were flying from every direction, and almost the entire province had been turned into a wasteland. The first thing I did was call for the key to the Gate Between the Worlds.”

Kevin frowned. “What do you mean?”

“It’s my magical energy that opens the energy flow between Earth and Terah. All I have to do is reach out with my magic and the keys will answer.”

“So why didn’t the key I gave you answer?”

“I didn’t call for it. If I had, all the keys to Terah would have come to me, all the sorcerers’ keys and all the representatives’ keys. That would have caused a real mess. As it was, an elf was stranded on Earth until I could get his key back to him. He wasn’t happy about it either.”
Glendymere snorted.
“By the way, the other sorcerers don’t know I can do that. I doubt they’d be very happy to know I can take their keys any time I want and there’s nothing they can do about it.”

“You’re probably right,” Kevin said.

“Anyway, one of the seated sorcerers had the key to the Gate. Let me think, who was it?”
Glendymere thought for a moment.
“It was Jarat, of the House of Cornet. I have no idea how he got it. I expected it to be buried in the rubble.”

“Did you give it back to him?” Kevin asked.

Glendymere shook his head.

“Did Jarat know what he had? Did he know about that key?”

“He may have. He may have thought having that key made him the Master Sorcerer. I probably should have taken the time to find out how much he did know, but at that moment I didn’t care. I just wanted them gone. I told them to go home and stay there, that the Federation of Terah would decide who the next Master Sorcerer would be, and if they weren’t happy with our choice, they could settle it with him.”

“Who did you name?” Chris asked. “And how did you decide which one?”

“We wanted someone strong enough to hold the chair, but also someone who wasn’t involved in all that destruction.”
Glendymere looked at Kevin.
“We named Mykar of the House of Nordin as the new Master Sorcerer.”

“Was he part elf?” Chris asked.

Glendymere shook his head.
“No, the House of Nordin was completely human at that point.”

“I guess everyone was all right with it then,” Kevin said.

“Jarat wasn’t. At the next council meeting, he challenged Mykar saying the Master’s Chair belonged to his house and the House of Nordin had stolen it from them. Mykar tried to reason with the man, but Jarat wasn’t having any part of it. He insisted on dueling.”

“I take it Mykar won?” Chris asked.

Glendymere nodded.
“And that’s the last I heard about it.”

“So you have no idea who had Acryn’s key to Terah?” Kevin asked.

Glendymere shook his head.

“Is it possible Jarat had both? Could the House of Cornet have had it all these years?”

“I guess. That’s as possible as anything else. Certainly more possible than someone stumbling across it in the wasteland that was once Nordia.”

~ ~ ~ ~

When they got back to Kevin’s office, Chris said, “House of Cornet. Gwendolyn.”

Kevin nodded. “We still don’t know if she had that key.”

Chris just looked at him.

“We don’t. Someone else could have taken that one after Acryn died. All we know is Jarat had the key to the Gate.”

“And he was so sure he was supposed to be Master Sorcerer he challenged your … what? How many greats would you have to go back to get to that time?”

“I don’t know, but yeah, he challenged Mykar and lost.” Kevin thought for a minute. “Wonder if that’s why Gwendolyn hates me so much. Is she carrying a grudge that’s hundreds of years old?”

“History’s full of feuds that carried on generation after generation.”

Kevin shrugged. “Guess it’s as good a reason as any.”

“So what are we going to do about the key?”

“Seems to me we’ve done everything we can.”

“I’d feel better if we knew who had it to start with.”

Kevin shook his head. “We don’t know what may be waiting in that cave, and I’m not willing to risk anyone’s life to find out, including mine.”

“I wasn’t suggesting that. I just wish there was some way we could find out.” Chris thought for a moment. “You never know. Gen. Crandal may find out something from the slavers.”

“Maybe, but we’ve done all we can for now. So, if there’s nothing else, I’m off to pick up Nikki.”

“And I’m going to Gen. Crandal’s office and tell him what we found out.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Late Sunday afternoon Gen. Crandal knocked on Kevin’s open office door, and when Kevin glanced up, he walked in. “I think we’ve gotten all we’re going to get out of those slavers, Myron.”

Kevin raised his eyebrows and waited for the general to continue.

Gen. Crandal sat down. “They still say they don’t know anything about the guy with the key, but he’s the one who hired them.”

“Where did he hire them? I mean, were they slavers with another outfit? Or did he pick them up off some street somewhere.”

“They were slavers, but independents. They didn’t have any way to handle transportation, so they hired out to do the raids and turn the captives over to whoever hired them.”

“Couldn’t they have signed on with an established crew?”

Gen. Crandal nodded. “They didn’t want to spend a lot of time on the ocean. None of them are sailors and they had no desire to become sailors. They were raiders, pure and simple.”

“Bullies who like to scare people and push them around.”

“That’s the way I see it. But I will say one thing in their favor, they didn’t kill anyone. They threatened to, but they didn’t do it.”

“So they didn’t hit Syrando, or up along Longleaf Lake?”

Gen. Crandal shook his head. “They didn’t know anything about those raids, or the ones on Heron’s Gulf or Shallowford Bay. Their territory was the West River. When they were hired, it was for one raid a month along the West River. They had a camp where they met the man to tell him the time and place for the next raid. He’d show up after the raid, take the captives, pay them, and they wouldn’t hear from him again until they met him at their camp three weeks later. The raid Marcus interrupted was their third.”

Kevin thought for a moment. “If that’s the way the guy with the key operates, then we’ve got four more raiding parties out there lining up their next raid.”

Gen. Crandal nodded. “A team on the Kivee, another at Longleaf Lake, one on Heron’s Gulf, and one in Shallowford Bay.”

“And if their next raids are already set up …”

“There’s a good chance we can catch them. I’ve already sent the district captains in those areas a message to be on the lookout for a raid within the next couple of weeks.”

“So what are your plans for the slavers from Bridgeport?”

“I’m ready to send them on to the official jail.”

“When do you want to take them?”

“Whenever you have time. There’s no hurry.”

Kevin thought for a minute. “How long do you think it’ll take us?”

“Just a few minutes. I’ve already told the guards down there to prepare for four new prisoners. They should be ready by now.”

“Think we have time to get it done before dinner?”

“Sure.”

“Then let’s do it.”

Chapter 66

Mikos's Plan

While Kevin and Gen. Crandal were discussing the fate of the slavers, Mikos was contemplating his own. At some point soon he was going to have to tell his mother he’d lost the key to the energy field, and she was not going to be happy. He needed to come up with a plan for getting it back before he told her it was gone. Otherwise he might have a very short future.

Mikos paced back and forth in the small cave room that served as his office. The room was part of a large cave system used for mining iron ore, which was the reason they needed so many slaves. It was backbreaking, grueling work, and only the strongest men lasted more than a year. They constantly had to replace workers, which was why, as head of his family’s slave business, he lived and worked at the mines.

Mikos stopped pacing for a moment. Before he could figure out how to get the key back, he had to find out who took it. From what Sanju had told him, there weren’t any sorcerers anywhere near that settlement, but he was sure the man he’d tangled with was a sorcerer. There was no way he could get the key back from a sorcerer, his mother would have to do that, but maybe he could find out who it was. If he did, maybe she’d eventually forgive him for losing it in the first place. But how was he going to do it? He started pacing again.

While he was pacing, his aide, Devron, walked in with his lunch tray. “Sir, you need to eat.” Devron set the tray down on the desk. “You haven’t eaten much of anything for the past three days.”

Mikos nodded his thanks for the tray and resumed pacing.

“Excuse me for asking, but is everything all right?” Devron asked.

Mikos shook his head. “Far from it.”

Devron didn’t ask any more questions, but he didn’t leave either.

Mikos sighed. “I might as well tell you. It’s going to become common knowledge soon anyway. I lost mother’s key.”

Devron’s eyes opened wide, but he didn’t say a word.

Mikos explained about the raid and the sorcerer who shouldn’t have been there, the one who grabbed him as he left, came back to the caves with him, and snatched the key right out of his hand. “I have no idea who he was or where he lives.”

“That’s a problem,” Devron said.

Mikos laughed. “It’s a problem all right. Telling my mother I lost the key is bad enough, but unless I have a plan for finding it so she can get it back, I may not survive. I’ve thought about telling her in a letter, but that would only make matters worse. She’d be here in seconds, full of rage.”

“But she wouldn’t kill you,” Devron said. “She’s your mother.”

“You don’t know her. All I am to her is the man who handles her slave business.” Mikos sighed. “When that business is going well, she’s happy and I’m safe. Right now I don’t think I need to make any long-range plans.”

Devron thought for a moment. “But you think she’ll get over it if you have a plan?”

“Possibly.”

“So why don’t we go to this town, visit their tavern, pretend we heard about the raid, and ask for details. They’ll love bragging about beating the slavers.”

Mikos thought for a moment. “But we’d be two complete strangers. Why would they tell us anything?”

Devron sat down and thought while Mikos paced. “What if we weren’t complete strangers by the time we asked?”

Mikos looked at him with a frown.

“Does that town have a dock?”

Mikos nodded.

“Let’s find a boat, grab some cargo, and head upriver with it. On the way up, we can spend a night tied up to their dock, pick up a few supplies in town, and spend the evening in the tavern. No questions, unless they just happen to be talking about it, which is always possible, but we don’t bring it up. We head upstream for a couple of days, dump the cargo, and come back down. When we get back, we tie up at the dock for the night and visit the tavern again. If it’s like taverns everywhere else, everyone in town goes there. They’d have seen us there before. We wouldn’t be strangers. And at that point we can say we heard about the raid and ask for details. No one would suspect a thing.”

Mikos stroked his chin and considered Devron’s plan. He gave a quick nod. “That might work. But are you sure you want in on this? If it doesn’t work, she’d be as likely to kill you as to kill me.”

“The way I see it, she’ll have to take us there to start with, right?”