After Viola
had returned, out of breath and thoroughly spooked, the group had had a brief
discussion. They decided, inevitably given the things that had been uncovered,
that they would have to go back as a group and look for themselves. So, after a
short rest they’d followed a very reluctant Viola back in.
When they entered the ruins they all had the same response: they felt
physically sick and emotionally disturbed. The worst affected was Rem, who
seemed to feel the curse even more acutely than the others.
‘City needs healing’ he said, as soon as they passed through the
entrance. After that he kept his eyes averted from the rest of the group and
stared intently, as he walked, at every example of destruction. Kath suspected that he didn’t want anyone to
see the pain on his face.
Hardacre spent a few minutes examining the purple-flowered bushes. He
knew exactly what they were.
‘Buddleja horribilis’ he
said, matter-of-factly. Viola and Kath
looked up at him, questioningly.
‘The plant is a type of buddleia’ he repeated, ‘nasty weed, it’ll grow
almost anywhere’
‘Nasty is right’ said Rem, ‘grows where evil is’.
Hardacre and Rem nodded at each other meaningfully. Kath shot a look at
Viola but she was too distracted by fear to even glance in her direction.
‘Harvest flowers here, make strong poison’ continued Rem, shaking his
head, ‘plants will have to burn before rebuilding’
‘Yes, Master Healer’ said Hardacre, nodding, ‘that’s very true – but I
think they’d regenerate even after a fire treatment… ’
Kath shot both Rem and Hardacre withering glances but they were too
preoccupied to notice.
‘Can we get on?’ she asked. She had just been scared, now she was
scared and exasperated.
They hurried on. They had already decided that they would examine the
bell tower first and make a second expedition to look at the hollows in the
ground. The hope was that if the bell
tower was really Dwarven Magic then Kath might be able to work out what it
did.
Viola had warned them about the sea of bones and so they weren’t as
shocked as she had been by the revelation. Hardacre insisted on examining the
remains carefully, but they were so fragmented that it was impossible to say
whether they had been Visneorian or Tlaxacan. Viola and Rem refused to go
anywhere near the fragments and just waited reasonably patiently while Hardacre
poked about. Kath, however, wanted to get on and she hovered behind Hardacre,
hating the crunch that her shoes made with every movement and desperate to get
to the tower. Hardacre was preoccupied
and so didn’t really notice the impatient woman behind him.
‘Laurence…’ said Kath
‘Yes?’ said Hardacre looking up.
‘We don’t want to stay here too long do we?’
‘Well, I’m just wondering whether the tower did this’ said Hardacre
‘How can you tell from here?’ she asked
‘I can’t, apparently’ he replied, ‘but it would have been good if we
could have established how dangerous the tower is before we try to get into it’
Kath didn’t say anything more. Hardacre finished his sift of the
skeletal debris and got up with a rather grim expression.
‘This place is full of secrets, and I have this feeling that most of
them are probably best left undiscovered’
Kath nodded.
‘Except… That’s my job… to winkle them out,’ she said in a soft voice.
They made their way with exaggerated care across the bone field. At
every other step Viola looked up to the top of the tower, half-expecting that
fire or lightning would rain down upon them. Each time that she glanced
upwards, however, she heard the virtual bell ring once more. And, again, it seemed somehow to calm
her. She shook herself several times,
involuntarily, feeling foolish and weird.
No-one said anything until they had reached the (apparent) safety of
the bottom of the tower.
‘Well, Dr Fielding – it’s finally your turn.’ said Hardacre, smiling
infinitesimally.
Kath placed her bag on the ground and carefully pulled out the tools of
her trade. They were a mixture of the familiar (a plumb line, a protractor, a
compass etc.) and a number of devices of uncertain function; most of them
resembling the sort of nautical instruments used in navigation.
Over the next hour she examined the tower intently, using a number of
the instruments that she had extracted from the bag. She tapped, banged, and
scraped, while the others stood around, becoming increasingly restless and
distressed. Hardacre was watching Kath closely, but at no point did her
expression suggest that she was making much progress. She ended up at the door,
where she tried several ways to shift it, apparently involving all possible
combinations of all possible tools and commands, but nothing worked.
‘So, Dr Fielding,’ said Hardacre, ‘do you think that there’s any chance
at all that you can get us in there?’
Kath stood up and leaned against the tower door, staring up at it,
temporarily defeated. She wanted either to get in it now or to leave
immediately. She craved some respite from the curse.
‘I don’t know’ she said, ‘it seems to be strongly secured by magical
structures which are way beyond me, I’m afraid’
‘Have you found out anything at all?’ asked Viola.
‘It’s definitely Dwarven Magic’ replied Kath, ‘and it’s clearly an
Imperial construction. Maybe it was made
by Quiena.’
‘Yes, it was’ Viola said, pointing to the inscription above the door,
‘look…’.
They are stared up at the space, but to them it just seemed to be hazy
worn symbols. Even Hardacre, who could read Archaic Elven very well, could make
nothing of it. For a moment they all glanced at Viola as if she were a little
mad. Viola said no more in the way of explanation – she was just baffled that
they couldn’t see anything – and for some reason that she couldn’t quite
identify, she didn’t feel like pressing the point. She stepped back, mildly
disturbed.
‘I’m not sure what else I can
do’ Kath said, ignoring her, ‘It won’t open using any normal Dwarven Magic
commands.’
‘So we won’t be able to get in?’ asked Hardacre
‘I think maybe not. I did have
something that might have worked, but one of the Visneorian soldiers, an elf
called Potentilla, took it.’
‘What was it?’ asked Viola
‘A rod’ said Kath, ‘we used it to control a Dwarven Magic sphere at the
West Wall, but it ended up with Potentilla on the wrong side of the wall’
This stirred a memory in Hardacre.
‘Mr Ismay told me a little about the control rods. I think that our Enemies
destroyed one that was in the University in Kinspit, just before I left the
city’
‘Really?’ said Kath, ‘Why?’
‘I think because they knew that an expedition was coming here and they
didn’t want anyone poking around with anything that might reveal something’
said Hardacre.
‘It looks like they’ve got their wish then’ said Kath.
There was a sort of collective sigh, and then silence.
‘Perhaps we should go back to Ortia and regroup’ suggested Viola,
quietly. She felt torn. On the one hand there was the bell that rang without
sound, and which bid her to stay, and on the other was her growing, if still muted,
fear that commanded her to go home, and go quickly. At the moment her desire to leave was
growing fast.
‘Where is Potentilla now, Dr Fielding?’ asked Hardacre, choosing not to
hear Viola.
‘I have no idea’ said Kath, ‘back in Visnea, I suppose’
‘Well, we may be able to track her down. At the very least we should
warn her how dangerous it may be for her to be in possession of the rod’ said
Hardacre.
Rem and Viola looked hopefully at Hardacre. He knew that they really
wanted to leave the ruins.
‘I could try something’ suggested Hardacre, ‘a last resort. But perhaps
Master Healer and Captain Viola should go back to the camp before I do it’
‘No, no’ they both said simultaneously and reluctantly, shaking their
heads unconvincingly. Kath walked over to Hardacre and looked expectantly at
him.
‘What do you plan to do?’ asked Kath
‘I could try an opening spell’ said Hardacre.
Kath was surprised to hear him say anything about magic. He seemed reluctant
to admit that he had any magical powers at all, but she knew that he must have.
There was no way that he could have captured Rem on the way to Ortia without using
some witchcraft.
‘Are you sure?’ she said, ‘won’t it be dangerous?
‘It will probably be fine. It’s not a noisy spell’ said Hardacre
Viola looked over at him sharply.
‘Noisy?’
‘Liable to cause collateral damage’ he said, as if explaining something
very obvious. He scanned around the group for signs of opposition. He found
none.
‘Anyway – I think it’s worth
trying’.
He stood up and walked round to the door. He studied it carefully. Then
he raised one hand and said ‘agor’ in
a perfectly ordinary voice.
Light formed a ball in his hand, coloured as if it were being
illuminated through a green leaf. The ball floated out from his grasp and
slowly made its way to the door. When it arrived there it flowed into every
crack and crevice, around the sides and through the oak wood of the bands. It
seemed like the light was probing, in the gentlest possible way, searching for
some catch or lock or trigger to ease the door open.
The little group waited, watching as the door seemed to shiver
slightly, to bend where no door would normally bend. For a second or two they
seemed to imagine that it would swing open, happy to yield to the spell. Kath
even took an eager step forward. But the door resisted and slowly the green
light was pushed back and reformed into a ball. The door was now as inviolable
as ever and with a strange spasm it drove the light ball back to where it had
come. It struck Hardacre full in the face. His mouth was forced open and the
buttons on his tunic pinged off all at once. A look of massive shock came over
his face. The others began to run towards him, but he raised his hands to stop
them. He turned his shock into an intense concentration and slowly compelled his
mouth to shut.
‘Oh dear’ he said, testing out
a wan smile ‘that really didn’t work too well, did it. I think it’s time to
regroup’
No-one needed to be persuaded of the truth of that and so they trudged
back to camp with heavy steps, for the time being defeated.
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