Shifting Stars by Gary Stringer (best fiction books of all time txt) 📗

she got one of these ridiculous radical ideas in her head, she would act on them. It was impulsive and reckless, but that was her nature. It was exactly that nature that had brought Catriona into her life on Midsummer’s Day, and for that, Dreya was grateful beyond words.

The sorceress dismissed her guard, saying, “Looks like it’s dinner for one, then.”

He bowed once and left.

“What are you up to this time, Cat?” the sorceress pondered, as she headed up the stairs to read the note in her study.

No doubt it would turn into some grand adventure with which Cat would delight in regaling her, upon her return.

‘What was it last time?’ Dreya tried to recall. ‘Of course,’ she realised, ‘the photography incident.’

*****

As an information trader, Catriona got wind of all kinds of things, and a couple of weeks ago, she’d somehow found out about a wizard in Gaggleswick who was experimenting with combining magic with the science of photography, to try and project a three-dimensional image from a two-dimensional photo. Cat was intrigued and decided to pay the wizard a visit. No doubt with the aid of her natural charm and wit, she’d managed to persuade him to let her help, or at least observe.

It was a good thing Cat was there, as it turned out. The subjects of the photographs on which the wizard, Asante, was experimenting, were demons. They were destined for a book intended to help demon hunters identify different kinds of denizens of hell. Asante believed that it would surely be even more helpful if the images were three dimensional and life-size. Unfortunately, his magic worked a little too well and the demonic images went on the rampage in the town. For blurry, semi-transparent constructs of light, they certainly packed a punch, and several people were killed. Demon hunters tried to kill them and failed because they weren’t really alive. Nor could they be Banished down to the lower planes – they never came from there in the first place.

Thankfully, Catriona had a ridiculous radical plan, born of her endless creativity in magic. Using herself as bait – something of which Dreya would not have approved, had she known – she shapeshifted into the form of a Trickster and taunted the creatures until they all chased her. The druidess led them all down a dead end, where she immediately fused some sand into a huge curved mirror that grew to surround the monsters. The endless reflections confused them long enough for her to spring the trap. Shifting to red-banded falcon, she escaped, while Asante cast a powerful light spell that reflected off all the mirrors until the glare of the white light was too bright to look at. The intense light bleached the creatures out of existence, like a photographic film left out in the sun.

Somehow, that adventure had sparked a rumour that Catriona was romantically involved with Asante. It wasn’t the first such story to circulate. For some reason, the public seemed determined that such a famous and popular figure as Catriona Redfletching must necessarily be involved with someone. They just couldn’t seem to agree on who that someone was. Cat gave up denying the rumours when she realised such denial only made people even more convinced it was true.

What difference did it make what people believed? Cat knew the truth. That was all that mattered.

The incident with the runaway photographic demons was just the latest in a line of such adventures, and now, as Dreya finally sat down at her desk to read Catriona’s note, it seemed she’d found another one.

Dear Dreya,

Just read something incredible in Ulvarius’ journals. Perhaps the real reason why he obliterated the village at Quernhow. He was looking for something: an ancient repository of knowledge. Not a library, as such, but more like a store, or possibly a hiding place. Most likely trying to keep knowledge safe during some long-forgotten ancient war. But that’s not the best part. The best part is, according to Ulvarius – and in this case I have to say his research is pretty convincing – the books in this repository predate the void storms!

I know it’s heretical to even suggest that such a time existed, but everybody thought I was crazy to believe in my Angel, so who knows?

Either way, I know you’ll understand that, for me, the chance to uncover forgotten knowledge from more than a thousand years ago is utterly irresistible. No idea how I’m going to get in – Ulvarius couldn’t, that’s probably why he wiped out that village, to destroy any knowledge of this repository. If he couldn’t have it, he was determined no-one else would, either.

But you know me – I always find a way when it’s important, and as a Red robe, there’s nothing more important to me than knowledge.

So yes, that’s where I’ve gone.

See you soon.

Aye, ever yours,

Catriona

~x~

Quernhow. Dreya was sure she’d read something about that herself, recently. Rising from her seat, she crossed over to the cabinet where she kept notes from sessions of the Council of Wizards. Flicking through recent papers, she found what she was looking for.

The area surrounding the Lake of Tears, allegedly formed when the tyrant, Ulvarius, made the historic village ‘cry,’ had remained undisturbed since that time, three centuries ago. The story of that atrocity had always scared people away. In recent years, though, there had been a renewed interest in the area. People had begun to argue, quite logically in Dreya’s opinion, that Ulvarius had committed countless acts of cruelty and barbarism across Elvaria, but that didn’t stop people living their lives there today. Nor should it. So, without wishing to diminish the magnitude of the Quernhow Massacre, why should that place be any different? The Council had conceded the point and gave the go-ahead for a new village to be developed there.

However, more recently, there had been reports of undead activity from New Quernhow. It was most likely just superstition, or even an attempt to generate a