43 Missing Marcus
"He must have used Raywing," Zelgadis muttered as he flew alongside Xelloss over the temple hillside, "to get so far so fast! Is he heading for the Gate, or Kemara's home, or for the ruins?"
He was too startled and curious to hide it, but Xelloss was just as intrigued. He could not be certain the figure he'd seen was Kervan, but under the circumstances it seemed likely - except that Kemara had told them Kervan could not do magic.
He decided not to mention the surge of negative emotion he'd sensed from the flying figure, more startling to him than even the sight of him showing up in the air, but so very brief he could not have guessed what emotion was behind it. While Zelgadis dipped lower and squinted to peer through the thick fog, Xelloss concentrated on his own astral senses for another blast of that dark energy.
Before they reached the Gate, as they crossed above an open area of the winding path, he suddenly sensed another presence nearby, and another sharp burst of negative emotions.
"Zelgadis," he called as he hovered to a stop above an open stretch of path.
Zelgadis turned and darted back immediately, glancing around in the air, but Xelloss gestured downward. On the path directly below, a figure raced on foot up the hill, black and silver robes standing out against the fog. They stopped directly below Xelloss and looked up. The silver-lined hood fell back, and a wild halo of golden hair spilled out.
"Xelloss-sama!" Kemara exclaimed.
"Kemara?" Zelgadis gasped.
She frowned up at them for a moment, then beckoned. With a glance at Zelgadis, Xelloss dropped to the ground. A second later, Zelgadis followed.
She stared at them, catching her breath and stilling her emotions, or trying to. Her face quickly shifted through several expressions as she stared at them warily. Zelgadis spoke before she made up her mind what to say.
"Have you seen Kervan?" he asked.
"Or Marcus-san?" Xelloss added.
She pursed her lips, then nodded
"I spoke to Kervan a minute ago. We... he's ... yes. We're looking for Marcus. He's missing. As you seem to have guessed."
Zelgadis quickly explained that Kervan had questioned him back at the cottages, and had then run off before they could get enough information to try to help. She nodded again.
"Yes. Marcus went out last night and hasn't come back."
"He may have been out late at the tavern," Xelloss suggested. And then strayed too near the Bridge in the dark of night, he thought, but he did not yet add that thought out loud.
"It's possible that he did that, yes... " she agreed, reluctantly. "But..."
"Where else would he go?" Zelgadis asked.
Kemara bit her lip. She searched both their faces quickly, and then nodded again. She took a deep breath.
"He might have tried to break into the temple library."
"What?" Zelgadis exclaimed.
"Kervan already checked and said he couldn't tell for sure but it looks like he did try," she went on in a rush, wringing her hands, "but then again, he might have just gone to the tavern, or...or he might have gone to the tavern after he tried, so... "
She stopped and caught at her lip again, gazing off past them down the hillside to where the dark line of the evergreen trees could just be seen as a shadow in the fog.
"Well. Kervan's gone to search in the village now... and out there..."
She trailed off again, staring down the hillside, radiating distress.
"And to search around the Bridge," Zelgadis concluded.
She winced. "Yes. I suppose so."
Xelloss had already lifted into the air, leaning toward the Gate and the hooked point beyond, all senses alert. He could detect nothing at this distance.
"Yes, Xelloss-sama," Kemara said, drawing herself together. "Please do go and help Kervan search in that area!"
It came out as a polite order. No matter, Xelloss thought, since that was what he was obliged to do anyway.
Still on the ground, Zelgadis hesitated. Before he could cast Levitation to follow along, Kemara touched his arm.
"And if you would, please, Zelgadis-san, come with me. I need to see if Marcus really did break into the library."
Zelgadis had the sharpest burst of emotion that Xelloss had sensed from him in days. Unfortunately, he had no time to enjoy it.
They exchanged a glance, then Xelloss flew up into the fog. Zelgadis followed Kemara up the path and disappeared among the strange mists of the Temple.
Xelloss darted down the hillside, senses alert for any sign of Kervan or Marcus. There was nothing, and no one else to see or sense in the village streets. It was still very early; the temple and the narrow streets of the village were empty of people and still all in shadow. The sun had just lifted high enough to gleam off the thicker soup of fog in the harbor, hiding even the hooked point and the dark bulk of the ruins.
It had occurred to Xelloss that he would likely be the last person Kervan would care to see, especially when he was already worried about his friend. Clearly the Lavinirian scholar did not care for mazoku in general, and his polite demeanor had always been a very thin veneer of "the rule of respect" over intense mistrust and wariness.
Marcus, surprisingly, had made a better show of Honoring All Beings since embracing Temple philosophy, as long as he was not presented with an immediate threat - or even a theoretical threat, like hearing that Lina Inverse had nearly allowed the whole world to be destroyed. Interesting, Xelloss thought, that neither Marcus nor Kervan seemed inclined to blame that near destruction on the mazoku who had instigated the situation;, nor on the Lord of Nightmare Herself; they only blamed the woman who had tried to call upon Her for help.
Still, it might have been better if Kemara had sent Zelgadis on this search instead of a mazoku. Xelloss was not sure Zelgadis would have agreed even if Kemara had asked it of him, though. He knew how curious Zel was about the secret temple library, so it was ironic that this was how he would finally get to see it.
He spared a moment to wish he could be there to see Zelgadis' reaction to it. Unfortunately, that was not important at the moment.
He had not seen or sensed Kervan or Marcus, or anything else of interest, until he drew near to the Bridge. There he found the same wolf woman that they had spoken to after Spearos was attacked, once again on guard. Her instincts were good; she had already raised her head and watched him without surprise as he landed.
"Xelloss-sama!" she exclaimed. She bowed her head, and then, to his amusement, briefly flashed an exaggerated burst of fear as if in greeting.
"Good early morning, Fonn-san," he said politely. "Has Kervan-san been by this way already?"
He was a little surprised when she frowned and shook her shaggy gray head.
"No one has been by since my shift began at moon rise last night," she said, stifling a yawn. "It's been a long quiet night, I'm happy to report!"
"Ah, so, nothing unusual, even for such an unusual place as this?" Xelloss said, gazing around.
Where else could Kervan have gone? Xelloss was sure he would have spotted him or sensed him in the village streets. He could sense no other presence beyond the sleepy werewolf waiting for the end of her shift. He wondered if he should check the ruins themselves more closely, or whether he should go in a different direction - up into the woods above the south road, where the cult held their gathering, for example.
"No, not this night!" she answered, after another yawn. "There's been nothing of interest here at the Bridge for some time."
"Well that's good news," Xelloss said, pretending to be pleased. "And nothing else around the village, hm. I suppose everyone is all tired out after the last few days of work and Festival!"
"Only the usual unusual, as you say!" she said, showing sharp little fangs when she smiled. "Nothing more interesting than a bit of moaning and groaning in the air, but that was much earlier in the night when I was on my way down to my post here." She waved a paw back toward the woods beyond the south road. "Just old Kage and Bou, our local ghouls on their way home to the graveyard, having an early night of it after haunting the tavern, no doubt!"
"Moaning and groaning, you say? Oh, was that all?" Xelloss asked, as if he was merely curious and amused.
"Mm, yes," Fonn said. Then she tipped her head to the other side. "I do remember thinking it sounded like a voice, or voices, too, 'though I couldn't hear words. It was up above the trees, in the dark when the fog was starting to roll in. For a moment, it got my back up, I'll admit. But then it passed away like the wind. I didn't pick up the sight or scent of anything, so I thought no more about it."
"Ah," Xelloss said softly. He gazed up at the hill where he knew the old burying ground was, nearly straight up the steepest slope directly behind behind the temple. "Up there in the woods. Beyond the Temple, perhaps?"
"Yes, my den is on the hill there, up above the south road, looking down on the village." Fonn looked at Xelloss uncertainly. "Do you think something is amiss, Xelloss-sama?"
"Who can say!" he said cheerfully as he rose into the air. "But I'm sure it's nothing for you to worry about, Fonn-san!"
"If you say so, Xelloss-sama... " he heard her answer.
"... but it may well be a worry for others," he said to himself as he left the wolf woman wondering and uncertain on the ground.
He quickly sailed back to the East, over Kemara's home, and then skimmed alongside the treeline that marked the temple's southern boundary, leaving the glare of sunlit harbor mist behind to plunge back into the mountains' shadow.
Zelgadis' mind churned with curiosity as he followed Kemara up the twisting paths, but he hesitated to pester her with questions when she was already distressed. But one question hammered above all others. As they slowed to trudge up a steep, overgrown path, he had to ask.
"I'm sure I saw Kervan Levitating. So he can do magic, after all?"
Kemara slowed her steps, caught her breath for a moment, and turned to him.
"I never claimed that Kervan could not do magic at all, Zelgadis-san," she said. "Many here in Wyndcliff can, but... have reasons not to." She held up a hand before Zelgadis even opened his mouth to ask or exclaim. "That is no matter now."
Zelgadis swallowed his objections and nodded, following her silently. Her answer only made him more curious, but he knew better than to try to argue the Acting High Priestess into telling a tale she did not wish to tell.
"Neither Kervan nor I chose to raise the alarm with anyone else just yet," she went on, plodding more slowly through a tangle of weeds and vines. "I've broken that agreement to confide in you and Xelloss-sama."
Zelgadis nodded again. He could well guess what Kervan would have to say about that.
"And more than that," she continued, "I'm breaking sacred Temple protocol to bring you to the hidden library."
"Yes, I know," he murmured. He could also guess what Spearos would think about that.
Then he noticed that she had slowed to a stop. He looked around curiously.
They had climbed far up the hillside, deep into a thickly forested tangle of old trees and mossy boulders. He guessed they must be near the eastern border of the Temple grounds, somewhere between and above the Dawn Pavilion and the Tangled Path.
They stood at the foot of a short stone stairway that climbed the last steep hill, choked and broken with vines and brambles. At the top of it he saw a small, old shrine of stone that was built into the hillside, its entrance nearly hidden under roots and branches of dark evergreen trees.
Kemara led him up the stairs to the narrow, stone flagged terrace. At first glance, the shrine appeared to be no more than an arch of stone and a small chamber within, open to the elements, with a weather-worn statue of a winged human figure on a pedestal. It was much like the roadside shrines to many half-forgotten local gods that he'd seen in his travels.
Around the arched entrance, he realized there was another inscription in the old language. It was hard to make out the carved letters in the dim light, weathered and veiled by moss and lichen as they were. Zelgadis could only make it out to be something like "untold (or unheard, or he thought it might be unremembered) stories still leave their mark on the world."
As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he realized that the shrine was deeper than it appeared, tunneled into the hillside. In the shadows at the back, there was a door.
"The secret temple library is in there?" he said.
Kemara nodded.
"It's officially called the Shrine of Forgotten Tales," she explained, looking a little sheepish. "It's really only the shrine itself that's forgotten. Most of the writings here have been converted to Recitation, but some are, well, not considered worthy of being added to lore and tradition. But much of what is stored here is just records of Temple business and mundane history."
"I see," Zelgadis murmured, peering into the shadows. Her words did not do as much to quell his curiosity as she might have hoped.
"Some tales are better left untold," she said quietly, as if to herself. "Well that's what Spearos would say, although Mother and Grandmother seemed to agree..."
"That's the reason Spearos did not want to allow Kervan access to this?" he said.
"In part. Spearos, as you might guess, argued that such writings should not be kept at all. But if the shrine is to be forgotten, it is because the oral tradition is so highly valued over written lore, here. To some, like Spearos, capturing a tale in paper and ink is akin to trying to capture and subdue Chaos Itself. But there are other reasons that some old stories and writings are hidden away here. Besides confidential or mundane records of temple business, some tales have always been deemed, well, too dark to tell. And some were simply not to anyone's liking. It might well be that Myona is the only one who currently remembers many of the oldest tales, the darkest tales that Grandmother stored here in secret."
She bit her lip and turned away from him, gazing up at the stone arch. He followed her across the small terrace, stepping over thick vines and piles of dry leaves.
"Mother and I are still working on breaking and resetting the locking spell. It takes time, since we are unable to recover Spearos' part of it, and we have had other matters to attend to recently, of course, but there seemed to be no hurry. Fortunately, Mother and Spearos had already removed the few items needed to review before Hallows Night."
Kemara peered into the shrine as she spoke, sensing, Zelgadis guessed, for the magic that bound the place against intrusion. The door was closed, the floor in front of it covered in a layer of old leaves and other forest debris. There was a very obvious and elaborate keyhole on the door at the back of the shrine, but Zelgadis could not sense any other binding spell.
"That's odd... " Kemara said. "It doesn't look as though Marcus broke in here after all..."
She sounded to Zelgadis as if she would have been less surprised if Marcus had broken into the place, and less worried.
"Why are you and Kervan so certain he would try?" Zelgadis asked.
"Zelgadis-san, that is..." She trailed off, suddenly intent on examining the ornate lock and latch, her face hidden in the shadows.
It seemed like a perfectly reasonable question, but he was not surprised that he didn't get an answer. Remembering the costumes Kervan and Marcus had worn at the Festival, Zelgadis hazarded a guess.
"Was Marcus a thief of some sort, back in Lavinir?" he asked.
She straightened up quickly, but did not turn around.
"But would even that be enough reason for him to try to break in, when Kervan clearly knew about the double security..." Zelgadis went on.
"Zelgadis-san..." Kemara said. "I... I cannot answer that."
Not because she didn't know the answer, he was sure. But it was not a denial.
"That's his story to tell," he conceded. The story of Marcus' past in Lavinir, as well as the reason he or Kervan would find old temple records - or old horror stories - of any interest.
Kemara nodded, relieved.
"None of that story explains why Marcus has disappeared," she insisted.
Zelgadis supposed that could be true. For that matter, even the mere fact that Marcus might be a thief did not prove anything here. After all, he reasoned, he himself could pick a lock as easily as he could draw a sword. He could not accuse someone else for simply having that peculiar skill.
Secret past aside, Zelgadis was not as sure as she was that Marcus, or someone, had not broken into this place, or at least made the attempt.
"Look here," he said. He pointed to the vines and dead leaves hanging across the archway. They were a little too perfectly arranged in a way to hide the interior, he thought. "Is this how it always looks? Do you leave it this way on purpose to hide what's inside?"
"Why, yes, it's always like this... That is, I believe so. There's no need to hide the place; the way here is barely known to any others, and the forest just grows wild here, as it will."
She seemed a little uncertain, just the same. Zelgadis scanned the stone terrace, bent low over the paving stones. Then he jumped down to the bottom of the stairway, avoiding the path this time. He bent down and peered more closely at the ground around the shrine, prodding carefully among the loose brush and leaves and dead grass. A broken evergreen branch lay on the ground off to the side of the steps. He was not sure it had fallen naturally to land there.
The ground was still soft from the recent rain, not yet hard packed from the autumn frosts. Not nearly hard enough to hide evidence against the tracking skills he'd learned in days spent hunting bandits with Rezo's followers.
Besides Kervan's obvious recent footprints, he soon found others under the leaves, more scuffed and blurred than rain and wind would explain. Covered up on purpose, he was certain. The earth all around them was brushed as if with a broom, and he found evidence that leaves had been picked up from the surrounding scrub and scattered over the swept ground. He made out least two sets of tracks, one more scuffed than the other.
"What do you see, Zelgadis-san?" Kemara asked. She picked her way down the steps to look over his shoulder where he knelt on the ground. He pointed to the tracks.
"You can see that one is clear, but that one also stops suddenly... here. So, that person might have Levitated, or Ray Winged even. I don't think it's either of those, though. Both of those leave a specific track at the point of departure."
"You can tell all that from these marks in the ground?" Kemara sounded surprised, and impressed.
"Yes, the mark of the toe is different depending on which spell was used to lift off," he murmured, distracted. "But these... " he scampered along the ground, trying to find the ends of the trail. "These have a scuffed area... the person was running, here, just a few steps..."
He backtracked; Kemara jumped aside as he followed the trail across the path and into the brush. "Away from the door... yes, spun around here near the entrance, and then ran a few steps and then stopped, and then..."
"And then?" Kemara leaned over him eagerly. "Took off into the air? As if trying to escape from some pursuit?" she guessed, concern edging into her voice.
Zelgadis had been so intent on the trail that he'd almost forgotten she was listening. He thought for a moment, then straightened up and looked her in the eye.
"And then, I would say, was lifted into the air. Actually dragged a short distance, first, and then lifted... see?"
He pointed it out to her. The marks were faint and distorted, but he saw that she could make them out, and from the crease in her brow, she knew what meaning he gave them.
"Marcus was attacked, then, like the others? Flung up into the air like Spearos? But..." She turned and spread out her arms. "But, here?"
She gazed around at the surrounding thick woods, the steep slope below and the tangled treetops. Zelgadis followed her thought. This place was not anywhere near the Bridge, nowhere near the locations of the other attacks. The only thing it had in common with them is being in an isolated place.
"Or he was lifted away by an accomplice," Zelgadis suggested.
Kemara looked startled, then she shook her head.
"That would be preferable to the alternative," she said reluctantly. "But I'm afraid it's not likely."
"Yes," Zelgadis agreed. The only likely accomplice would be Kervan, and clearly, it was not him. "But if it was another attack, it's different from the others. Why here? What was he doing here, and who else could have been here at the same time? Do they wait to find someone alone in an unlikely place, or... "
He looked around again, but he couldn't figure out any other answers. "Was it because of this?"
He climbed back up to the vault and crossed to the door. The lock was barely visible in the shadows under vines and overgrown weeds. Looking closer, he could also see signs that these had in fact been disturbed recently, and put back in place, carefully but not quite perfectly.
"Is the sealing spell intact?' he asked Kemara. "I can't sense anything."
Kemara pursed her lips and stared at the door. "I was trying to tell if it is when you started finding those tracks." Slowly, she shook her head, as if reluctant to admit what he already guessed she'd find. "No. I don't believe it is."
She grabbed the latch and pulled. It did not budge.
Watching her, Zelgadis suddenly remembered that this was the mysterious temple repository of books that he had been so curious about. The same one that Kervan and Spearos had argued over.
"Kervan has been here before, though, correct? Was Marcus with him at the time?"
"No." Kemara shook her head, still trying to twist the door handle. "Spearos wouldn't allow it, even then. But Kervan saw all that he wanted to see."
"You're sure of that?" he asked.
She pursed her lips.
"He said he did, at the time. And yet he apparently asked Spearos to to be allowed to return... " She trailed off, staring at the locked door, trying to understand. "He never came to me about it."
Zelgadis was very tempted to ask again what Kervan could be studying so intently, and to insist that Kemara tell him about it, but he held back. Instead, he turned his attention to the door.
"It's not sealed, but it's ... locked. Hm. That's not a problem..." he murmured.
Without a second thought, he plucked a single wire hair from his head, found the keyhole and poked it in.
Kemara took a sharp breath. Zelgadis stopped, and then laughed awkwardly, his face turning hot.
"Uh... Sorry! Do you have the key?" he asked.
"As a matter of fact, I do not. Mother has it now. I left the house in such a rush after Kervan ... Anyway, I didn't want to bother her with this... and... can you really open it that way?" She leaned in to look over his shoulder, curious and eager.
"I, uh, could, but ..." He pulled the wire out of the lock, but she put her hand on his arm.
"Please, do try. If you can, then ... then so could someone else," she said quietly. "I would like to see if that's possible."
Zelgadis turned back to the door, amused. He was not at all reluctant to try it, especially if it gave him a chance to peek inside at the contents.
"I'll see what I can do, then," he said, and set to picking the lock.
Xelloss found no one on the south road, and no one in the woods above the south road or on Myona's secret paths to the south of the Temple. He skimmed above the forested hillside, attuned more than usual to the aura of living things in the area.
As he came in sight of the old burying ground, his attention was caught by an aura of pain and desperation, like the scent of sweet, acrid smoke drifting up from the depths of the darkest, steepest forest. It was coming from someplace higher up the hillside, deep in the thickly wooded broken slopes behind the Temple. Once he'd noticed it, the trail was easy to follow, sharp and strong to his senses, a delicious scent of pain and anguish. He could hardly help investigating, even if it were not likely to lead to the end of his search as he expected it would.
The trail led him to a deep gully hidden in thick forest. Steeper and narrower than The Gulch, this was no more than a deep gash in the hillside, as if a giant claw had slashed a jagged wound in the land. One of many hillside streams wound along the bottom of it, overgrown with a net of vines and brambles, fallen trees and overhanging muddy banks, until it tumbled out at the west end in a lively waterfall. There were still signs of the recent flooding around the brook.
More importantly, there was a body on the ground, lying still and twisted at the bottom of the ravine.
Injured but unconscious, the fallen man was not the source of the bright beacon of pain that had drawn Xelloss to the spot. That came from Kervan. The scholar was hunched over Marcus' battered body, his own cloak torn and his face streaked with mud. He was muttering a healing spell through clenched teeth, the words broken by gasps. Xelloss sensed pain so intense that it was a wonder Kervan could breathe enough to cast a spell through it. In fact, he was surprised the man was even conscious.
Marcus was bruised and battered with a leg twisted underneath him in a most unnatural way, as might be expected from a fall down the high, steep bank of the gully. Those were not his only injuries. Those strange red lines that Xelloss had seen on Plover and on Spearos, and on Geki's severed tail, stood out clearly across Marcus' ash-white face and throat and bare arms. He was out cold, though, for the moment feeling nothing at all of pain or terror.
Xelloss gazed down calmly at the two of them for a second. All of the sweet, deep agony he sensed came only from Kervan.
In fact, that pain was intense enough to counteract the unpleasant aura of White Magic emanating from Kervan's outstretched hands. It was also enough to prevent Kervan from sensing Xelloss' presence until he had gently dropped down to stand across from Marcus, a few feet away.
Pausing just to sob for breath, Kervan finally noticed someone standing there. He raised his head slowly, but then could do no more than stare up at Xelloss, breathing raggedly, blinking through tears and sweat. He seemed hardly able to focus.
Xelloss took a step closer, smiling blandly and holding out a hand. He prepared to lift Marcus out of the gully as he'd lifted Plover from the beach, as soon as he warned Kervan to step back.
"You may relax, Kervan-san," Xelloss said softly. "I'll see that he gets to - "
He stopped short, the smile wiped from his face by a blast of fury so raw and strong that it knocked the words from his mouth.
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HIM YOU MONSTER!" Kervan screamed. His voice was raw with pain and rage, as if he'd already been screaming for hours.
To Xelloss' further surprise, the power in Kervan's hands shifted as the healing spell fluttered out. Kervan's lips moved on a whispered string of Chaos words laced with a hiss of pain.
Xelloss stepped back quickly, hands raised in a placating gesture. It was not so much to avoid the attack for his own sake as to keep Kervan from doing more damage to himself. Another wave of blinding pain stabbed through the man in answer to the spell.
"Ahhh," Xelloss said softly, taking another step back. In spite of himself, he smiled, but he also lowered his head and dropped his hands. "I understand, Kervan-san!" he said quietly. "Please do not put yourself to so much trouble on my account!"
Kervan gasped a ragged breath. His arms shook, but he still seemed determined to cast the spell.
Just before the incantation reached the point of no return, as Kervan gathered breath in a sob to speak the Chaos words, Xelloss moved. He flickered through astral space and reappeared behind Kervan, and wrapped his arms around him, pinning his hands to his side.
That and Kervan's desperate gasp of rage and pain was enough to disrupt the spell. The energy flared briefly and sputtered out, spilling harmlessly to the ground.
"Now, now, you mustn't injure yourself, Kervan-san! That will not do your friend any good at all, hm?" he said softly in his ear. It should not have come out as a purr of pleasure, but he could hardly blame himself if it did.
When he was sure Kervan had not enough strength left to try to cast another attack, he let go. The scholar collapsed forward to the ground, on his hands and knees over Marcus' still body.
"Your tolerance for pain is quite impressive," Xelloss said admiringly. "But there must be a limit. In fact, if the pain is in proportion to your magic, as I assume it is, well then, that Ra Tilt you were about to cast might well have done you a great deal more damage than it would have caused to me!"
"Mazoku... bastard..." Kervan rasped out between shudders of pain.
Xelloss stepped across Marcus and turned to face him again.
"Indeed," he agreed, with a smile and mocking bow. "But I will make an exception for you, in this case. Please be patient a little longer. I will send the healers to you."
He could not help it if his smile and his words were a little smug, but he did not think Kervan heard him anyway, nor that he even noticed when Xelloss flickered out of sight.
It did not take Zelgadis very long to break the lock. The physical mechanism was fairly simple. He suspected the sealing spell was more complicated, and that, when it was intact, they worked together to reinforce each other. The physical lock would be easy to close again after breaking in, though; the spell, not so much. Marcus had to be a first-rate thief to have broken through the combination.
In minutes, he was opening the door, to Kemara's soft gasp.
"If you'd rather I ... " He began, determined to be polite and curb his own curiosity. It was less of a challenge to do so than it had been to keep ignoring Xelloss these past few days, he thought. But Kemara gasped again before he finished, dismayed as she looked past him to the interior of the locked room.
The secret temple library vault was not large, about the size of the parlor in Kemara's home. Its walls were lined with shelves, but most were empty now and all the contents were in shambles. Books and scrolls were dumped in piles all across the floor; one shelf was completely pulled down from the wall, and scraps of paper swirled up in a puff of wind from the door. It was a total mess.
"Oh... " Kemara, hand to her breast, stepped inside gingerly. She picked up a book and a scroll at random, and then just looked around helplessly.
"I can't tell if anything is missing," she said plaintively. Then she took a deep breath. "Well, now that it's open, we can at least do an inventory... I suppose..."
Zelgadis, who had disrupted of a fair number of book repositories over the years, had mixed feelings as he stared in at the chaotic mess- one of which was a hope that he might be allowed to help with that inventory.
He reached down and picked up the nearest book. Then he grimaced. The first book he'd grabbed, out of all the mysterious library, turned out to be none other than The Princess of Fate.
It was not the copy he and Xelloss had stolen from Osprey's bookstore back in Mystport, but he recognized the scene depicted on the cover easily enough. The Princess of Fate herself, with her lime colored ringlets framing her crazed smile, stood back to back with the auburn haired Sorceress. The horned visage of the Monstrous Zoamelgustar sprung forth from the amulet the Princess held up, while the Sorcerer held a jagged blade, like a writhing, frozen bolt of black lightning, between her two hands. In one lower corner, a madly grinning purple-haired priest pointed his crooked staff at the pair, while above them, a monster Zelgadis did not recognize - perhaps it was meant to be Kanzel or Mazenda? - loomed over the Sorcerer.
"Ugh!" Zelgadis said. He started to toss the book aside, then remembered that it might be well to treat the objects of this library with more respect if he ever expected to be invited back again.
Kemara saw the book and exclaimed, and plucked it right from his hand.
"Oh! Here it is," she said happily. "Yes, this volume was missing when we decided to transform the story to Recitation! Spearos must have placed it here, since he considered this tale worthless - although he refused to read it or have it told to him. Now it can be added to the Recitation!"
"Er, that's good, I guess," Zelgadis said with a grimace.
If this was the part of the story that explained how Lina discovered the Ragna Blade spell, he supposed it did make sense to add it to Temple Lore. He did not suppose Martina actually understood that spell well enough to make the information dangerous-except perhaps to herself, when Lina found out about it.
"That doesn't seem likely to have been a reason for Marcus to break in," he said. "Or to make all this mess!" he glanced around again, but he could not even decipher enough of any other books to guess what might be of interest. "Maybe he left it this way on purpose, to hide whatever might have been taken?" he speculated. "At any rate... "
He broke off as a familiar presence shivered through him. A second later, he turned to see Xelloss flicker into sight right outside the door.
"Ah! This is where you... oh my..."
Xelloss leaned in and surveyed the mess with sounds of interest.
"Yes," Zelgadis said, while Kemara continued to poke around in the scattered books and papers. "Apparently Marcus did in fact break in, although he also carefully locked the door behind him and tried to hide his tracks. Did you find anything?"
"In fact, I found Marcus!" Xelloss announced happily.
Kemara spun around,, scattering books and scrolls.
"Kervan found him first," Xelloss went on, before she could say anything. "And that inadvertently led me to the both of them. Marcus has taken a rather bad fall. I'm not sure how seriously he's injured, but he was not conscious when I left. Kervan was attempting to tend to his injuries when I found them. It was not doing either of them any good."
Kemara gasped, her hand flew to her mouth. "Oh no," she said softly. "He mustn't..." She trailed off, fingers to her lips.
Zelgadis could see that Xelloss' information conveyed something more to Kemara than all that the words said. He turned to Xelloss sharply, although he supposed was not any more likely to get a clear answer from the mazoku.
"What do you mean? What was Kervan doing? And where are they?"
"They are up in the woods on the hillside, near the old haunted burial ground. About a mile beyond the temple boundary, I'd say." he pointed almost directly upward, toward the steep hill behind the Shrine of Lost Tales. "Marcus appears to have fallen to the bottom of a small gully - or possibly he fell from a greater height."
"Kervan's not trying to heal him?" Kemara asked insistently as she clambered back to the door through the piles of books.
Xelloss simply inclined his head, his eyes glittering in the dim light of the shrine.
"Oh no," Kemara said again, her distress rising, to Zelgadis' confusion. "I must go to him..."
She pushed her way out the door past the two of them.
"I went to the High Priestess first," Xelloss continued, breaking in and catching her attention again. "She's on her way there, in fact she may well be there already. But I felt that your skill may be needed as well. "
Zelgadis bristled, irritated that they seem to understand something that he didn't.
"What are you not saying, Xelloss?" he asked. "Was this another attack like the others? Or just Marcus being a clumsy, thieving idiot?" he added irritably.
"It has the signs of being the same kind of attack, yes," Xelloss answered.
"The red marks?" Zelgadis prompted.
Again, Xelloss simply inclined his head with a grim smile.
"Did you mean to say Kervan was casting a Recovery spell? So he can indeed do magic," Zelgadis said as Xelloss' earlier comment sank in. He looked from Xelloss to Kemara. Neither of them seemed inclined to answer his questions.
"I have to go... " she said, hands fluttering. She looked uncertainly at each of them in turn.
With a resigned sigh at leaving the opened library behind, Zelgadis prepared to take flight and go along to help with the healing. Xelloss stepped between him and Kemara.
"I think it might be best if we let the Healers take care of things, for the moment," he said to Zelgadis. Then he turned to Kemara. "I can explain why our presence in particular would not be welcome, if you wish," Xelloss said quietly to her. "At least, that much of it. We may pay a visit to the Healers later, with your permission?"
"Yes, please do, " she said. She nodded gratefully but still tugged her lower lip between her teeth. "All right. Thank you."
Zelgadis winced as she closed the door. The lock clicked shut, and then she muttered a quick, simple locking spell besides. When it took hold, she turned and fixed him with her sharp, Acting High Priestess glare.
"Zelgadis-san, thank you for your assistance. Please do not touch anything here until I've had a chance to..." She waved at the door and the mess inside.
Zelgadis nodded, hiding his disappointment, or most of it. Perhaps it showed despite his efforts, or perhaps Xelloss only smiled because he knew Zelgadis so well.
Kemara cast Ray Wing and streaked up through the trees, and was out of sight in a heartbeat.
After she was gone, Zelgadis resisted the urge to test the lock. Of course, he could open it again, but with the new spell she'd slapped on it, she would know if he did. He could only hope that Kemara would allow him to return.
For now, there were more immediate things to worry about.
"What can you explain?" Zelgadis demanded, uncertain whether to be suspicious of him or not.
"That Kervan is indeed a sorcerer," Xelloss replied easily. "Of fairly proficient capacity, I would say," he added when Zelgadis raised an eyebrow. "But it is also true that he cannot currently use magic - not without serious consequences, at least."
Zelgadis narrowed his eyes at this cryptic contradiction. "Sealed?" he guessed. "All this time, his powers have been sealed? But you said he was casting Recovery on Marcus!"
"I said he was trying desperately to do so, and he was nearly killing himself in the process."
"What?" Zelgadis exclaimed. "What kind of seal would cause that?"
"It is not quite correct to say that his powers are sealed. He can still use magic, but only at the cost of extreme pain. Even the smallest, weakest Lighting spell would be excruciating, and would leave him quite helpless as a result."
"A curse?" Zelgadis said. He understood at last what Xelloss was saying. "I've heard of magical devices that can do that, but I've never heard of a curse that would have that effect, or make it permanent. It sounds like something a mazoku would love," he concluded.
"Quite so. In fact, it is a mazoku curse, and a fairly high level one at that."
"Meaning someone like you could cast it?"
"I could; I have never had any reason to. It would need to be someone of higher rank, not necessarily near my level but above average, to lay a curse like that and make it stick."
Zelgadis nodded as several pieces of the mystery began to fall into place.
"That's why they went to Shimeria," he guessed. "He's been under it all this time, and hoped it could be cured there."
"So presumably it was laid on him in his home country," Xelloss agreed. "Interesting!"
"Yes, it is, " Zelgadis said thoughtfully.
Somehow, back in Lavinir, Kervan the sorcerer had run afoul of a mazoku who was strong enough and angry enough to curse him in this way - instead of killing him outright, for whatever reason. It was no wonder, then, that Kervan and Marcus were especially not fond of mazoku, and choose to live in a place where higher powered magic was generally avoided.
All of that did not explain why Marcus had been attacked here.
"What does that have to do with all of this?" he asked, indicating the Shrine of Lost Tales.
Xelloss shrugged.
"At a guess, I would say nothing, but we'll have to wait and see what they have to say about it, won't we? Assuming Marcus recovers enough to tell us anything," he added casually.
Zelgadis raised an eyebrow as another question occurred to him.
"And you knew nothing of this curse until now?" he asked. Even if Xelloss didn't, Zelas might well have been aware, or even more than simply aware of it.
"I had no idea! And before you ask," Xelloss said, much more seriously, "I'm quite certain my Mistress had nothing to do with it."
"How can you be sure?" Zel asks.
"Well, for one thing, she was quite busy with other matters during the time that must have happened. Why should she concern herself with petty squabbles in a backwards border country? But keep in mind, even if she did have any passing interest in such a situation..."
Zelgadis guessed the rest. "She would have sent her Priest to deal with it."
"Exactly! And I've never been to Lavinir. Although I have heard that their bakeries are marvelous and well worth the visit, even though their winters are quite long and harsh!"
Zelgadis snorted and shook his head. He decided to believe Xelloss, at least for now. Or rather, he decided to trust Kemara in this. Surely if she knew or even suspected that Zelas had caused Kervan this misery, directly or not, she would not be so complacent about Beast Master's presence here, not even for Myona's sake. Besides that, Kervan (and Marcus) would have been even less friendly toward Xelloss than they already had been.
There was nothing more to be learned here at the hidden library - unfortunately. With a last look of regret, Zelgadis Levitated above the trees, and followed Xelloss slowly back to the house of the healers.
By the time they got there, Kervan and Marcus had already been tucked away in the infirmary wing. Delora welcomed them in the parlor. She nodded without hesitation when Zelgadis asked if they could see the patients, but she apologetically asked Xelloss to remain behind.
"I understand, Delora-sama," Xelloss agreed immediately. "Although it is harsh, after I went to all the trouble of finding them!" he added with exaggerated drama. "But I would not want Kervan-san to do any more damage to himself, as he might if he tried to attack me again."
Zelgadis was startled by this frank admission, and by Delora's calm acceptance of his statement. He didn't have a chance to react, though, as Xelloss inclined his head toward her.
"However, Zelas-sama has asked me to report on this, so I would appreciate any information that can be provided. You may be able to guess why she's interested."
Delora tipped her head to him in reply.
"We appreciate Lord Beast Master's concern," she said calmly.
Zelgadis understood; for her, this was all about Myona. She was pleased to think of Zelas as her son's protector!
Then she added, just as calmly, "Zelgadis-san can provide you with any details."
He would have liked to refuse to help Zelas even this much. Since the request came by way of Delora, he detached his emotions and nodded.
"If there is anything to find out," he said noncommittally.
They left Xelloss standing alone among the brick-a-brac in the parlor, and Zelgadis followed Delora into the infirmary wing of the house.
next chapter: At the House of the Healers