The Steward and the Sorcerer by James Peart (small books to read .TXT) 📗

world of the keep.  Slowly, almost cautiously, it took form, its lines and contours stretching, breaking and re-shaping themselves until it took on an appearance that was basically manlike in impression.  It grew skin, dispensing with some of its form as it did, the dying embers of the mass that had created it discarded like shredded hide, pooling on the chamber floor.  It turned to face Daaynan, addressing him in a voice that chafed like grinding stone, its elemental voice, rent from its existence in another age and time, the pregnancy in its tone hinting at unimaginable power:

“Why do you summon me?”

“I have need of you once more.  An adversary I must confront.”

The outline of the elemental rippled, and the chamber seemed to shake in response.  Daaynan shifted his stance, never taking his eyes off the Sphere.  “I am not here to be at your beck and call, Druid, nor to fight your enemies for you.  In making you Druid I have imbued you with great strength and ingenuity, enough to deal with any problems you may face...”

“I understand that, but if I may...this adversary of mine is most likely the one who sent the creature from the world of Faerie to Fein Mor, summoned him here by means I don’t yet understand.  He also dispatched a second assassin to my door, and very nearly finished me.  This problem I face now is essentially the same as the one I did before.  This man wants me dead.”  He explained the role Karsin Longfellow had put himself in, his aggressive ambition to turn most of the Northern Earth into a confederacy ruled by a city state he alone governed.

The being inside the Brightsphere listened.  When he was finished, it said: “It does not matter whether it is one problem or ten you face, these are your affairs.  I am aware of this person Longfellow.  He is no more ruthless than any ruler who wishes everything for himself.  You have the skills to deal with him.  You are underutilizing the gifts that were bestowed on you when you were made inside me.”

Daaynan frowned.  “I have an idea, one which may work.  I want to enlist help from other worlds, individuals to help me as I stand against this man.  But I need you to direct me in choosing the right people, given your knowledge of worlds that lie beyond this one.”

The other grew quiet for long moments.  Its outline shimmered in the shadowed recesses of the chamber, a vague manlike presence that was hardly substance at all.  When it spoke again it said: “This is something you can do for yourself.”

“How can I do this?”

“Summon the black flame, enter through it and select those you need.”

“But green fire draws matter into this world.  If I use black, I will have to pass through into those other worlds myself.”

“That is so.”

“Forgive me but I have no knowledge of what lies beyond the Northern Earth.  I need your help in determining what manner of people I can recruit.”

“I have not much more knowledge of those places than you do.  I live between them yet also in the netherworld, beyond all other existences.  The little I do know is seen from this perspective.”

“But...do you know if there are magic users there?”

“Some perhaps.  Some employ magic that you would not consider to be sorcery but is nevertheless effective when used against an enemy.”

The image of the Brightsphere elemental began to grow faint.  “You will find who you are looking for in the end.  You must exercise caution and good judgement, and above all patience.  To rally men- or women- to your cause you must display those leadership skills you have learned in your five-year sojourn with the Brightsphere, the knowledge you have amassed in your instruction as Druid.  Everything you need in order to succeed lies within those skills and that knowledge.  Exercise them well.  This is the greater test for which you were born.  Now I must leave you and I shall not return.  Your training is complete.  You have identified your adversary and with luck you will prevail over him and others like him.

“Goodbye Druid.”

The image suddenly faded and was gone, Daaynan left standing in an empty chamber staring at a blank wall.

5.

The recently appointed Magus of Fein Mor slept a single night in the keep before crossing over into other worlds.

He slept well beneath a somnolent veil, a thin summoning of the pink flame which protected him as he slumbered, barely visible above the surface of his skin.  A version of the flame also protected the Druid keep from intrusion of any kind, drawn from beneath the earth and rising to the height of the turrets and over the top of the stronghold.  He did not strictly need it here in Fein Mor, yet it was good practice to put it to use, considering where he was about to go.

He woke at dawn, washed and dressed himself, then went downstairs to the dining chamber to fix himself a breakfast of dried meat and some fruit, washed down with some cold mountain-stream water.  He picked at the food on his plate, his thoughts on what he would encounter in those places he needed to go to find assistance with his struggle against Karsin Longfellow.  It was pointless trying to imagine, he decided, as he had never utilised the black fire before.  He had been schooled in the procedure used to summon it, but as to whether it would bring him directly to one of those other worlds, or to some intermediary plane, or an ordered series of places, he had no idea.  How many other worlds were there that lay beyond his own?  Were they fixed in number, for example, or infinite?  The world of Faerie, where that ancient creature had been drawn from, did it exist in this set of worlds?  Did it belong to a dimension of existence that ran alongside his own?  Were these worlds in fact simply dimensions