Vast buildings and cities of glass, steel, and precisely carved stone. Little boxes with moving images and sound. Enclosed, moving wagons of metal. Portable, long range communication devices. Handheld devices that fired deadly projectiles. An enormous mushroom cloud that obliterated an entire city. And more. So much more. He knew the names of these from Matt’s thoughts. Computers. TVs. Phones. Guns. Nuclear explosions.
All of them revealed a world far different from the one he’d visited years ago with his friends. The images of Stonehenge had included a flashlight, a phone, an SUV, and a visitor’s center that certainly hadn’t been there before. Someone could have added it since, of course, but the technology apparent in it suggested that only a few years having passed was highly unlikely. A suspicion had formed and seemed the obvious explanation, but he had to go there to find out.
There were two names he would have expected to find in Matt’s memories of important people, but there had been no trace of them. Maybe it wasn’t surprising and meant nothing. Everything he had learned was unusually disjointed due to the way the Mind Trust spell had been abruptly broken. That had apparently scattered the retained information, and the thought made him feel lucky. Sometimes it isn’t the memories gained that are scattered, but the caster’s mind, leaving the wizard infantilized, a useless, drooling idiot. This was another reason the spell was forbidden. He had dodged a bullet, to use an Earth expression he now knew. Matt had nearly destroyed both of them when he escaped the Mind Trust spell.
It gave more reason to visit Earth. He needed to understand what was happening there. That he might find some sign of his lost friends compelled him to go, even if nothing else would have. He certainly wanted answers to the mystery of why Matt and the others had impersonated him and the real champions. He sensed from Matt’s memories that there was little they really knew. There were no images of Korrin, Eriana, or Andier. But he’d seen Lorian, the elf who had shouted Soliander’s name at him in the ruins of Castle Darlonon. He had been considering grabbing the elf for information, but Lorian was less important. What really mattered now was this visit to Earth.
He needed to know so many things, including who truly controlled the nuclear warheads. Only he and a few others held such power, and he had purposely destroyed most of the others. That wasn’t a power any mortal should have, only the gods. As far as he knew, only he could do it now, but he sensed from the spell Lorian had done on Matt that the latter was unusually strong in magic. Perhaps he had the power, if not the skill. Matt was no wizard, he knew. Not really. And yet he had taken control of the staff in Soliander’s hand and burned him with it. He was caught between grudging admiration and irritation about that, but vengeance on Matt wasn’t a priority, not that he wouldn’t take the chance if it arose. But he had more pressing concerns. He wanted to know who controlled these warheads.
But even that paled compared to understanding the changes on Earth and what had happened since his departure from there. The latter had been eating away at him for years. And now he could finally learn a great many truths, not the least of which might have been where his former friends were, and where they went. The fate of Korrin and Andier concerned him, but not like that of Eriana, the Lady Hope, her disappearance crushing any hope—or even goodness—left in him. Had she seen the look of fear and awful realization in his eyes the last time they were together? He was certain she had, as their eyes met one final time before they disappeared in a flash of light.
His eyes again went to the window and the tower where Diara sat in chains. What would Eriana think of him having imprisoned her younger sister? He wanted to laugh. If Eriana still lived, she would likely be furious. But she would also understand. After all, if it hadn’t been for Diara, Everon could not have betrayed them all. While Soliander was certain the Lady Hope was dead, he could never fully resign himself to the idea. And it was the primary reason he hadn’t killed Diara. Eriana might understand imprisoning her sister, especially to gain information on his former apprentice, but she would never forgive killing her, even if Diara had it coming. If Soliander ever found Eriana alive, he would have some explaining to do, but stating why he’d locked up her sister was a lot of less troubling than why he’d killed her.
And so Diara lived, and in good health, at that. He had made no secret to his prisoner that Eriana was the only reason he kept her alive. Besides, he didn’t need her cooperation when the Mind Trust spell bypassed all of that, so telling her the truth affected nothing. He had long since learned everything he needed to know and had not visited her in some time. Maybe he would after his trip to Earth, depending on what he learned of Eriana’s whereabouts.
The possibility that she still lived caused his heart to pound. And he knew that this was why he was nervous. Never mind the strange visions of Earth, and what Matt and his friends might know, or that magic had resumed working there once more, possibility heralding an extraordinarily dangerous situation, made all the worse by the existence of nuclear warheads, among other inventions. No, what threatened his self-control was whether or not Eriana was alive. He calmed himself and summoned his current apprentice, Darron, a dark-skinned dark elf who would excel at the excursion now planned. The black hair would hide the pointed ears, but something would have to be done about the red eyes.
The apprentice wizard entered
