diadem had been strewn about the cavern floor. What greater treasure must be resting within the confines of this small box? Visions of perfectly cut diamonds bigger than oranges danced in his mind. With a wrench of his knife, he popped open the lid.
He peered inside, and his heart sank in disappointment. Instead of breathtaking jewels, he saw instead two black spheres of volcanic basalt. Six months of effort, back-breaking labor and great risk to his life from the hazards of the formula, the snares of Basil's factories, and finally the furnaces in the center of the mountain; and what did he have to show for it? A few jewels in his pouch and two machined hunks of common rock.
He had pictured himself questing for the fair lady like a hero from the sagas. His deed of daring was to win great treasure and sweep him in front of all others that sought her hand!
He sighed and set the chest to the ground. With his chin slumped he sat inert and unmoving and let the sun climb silently into the sky.
The inn room door creaked open to Alodar's knock, and he looked into the face of Periac, the master thaumaturge.
'Alodar, you have returned,' Periac exclaimed. 'Come in, come in. You are just in time for an evening's instruction. We will continue from where we left off on the hills that bordered Iron Fist.'
Alodar looked wearily around the small bare room and headed for the stool in the corner. 'A meal and a night's rest first, master, for which I will fairly pay,' he said. 'And it is not for knowledge of thaumaturgy that I seek you out.'
As Alodar slumped down, Periac reached out to brush the dust off the table with a sweep of his arm. 'But I fare quite well in the city,' he said. 'There is much pot mending and cistern excavation to be done and word of an honest craftsman soon gets around. I can well use a journeyman and you would find your stomach far better filled than when we worked the outlands. I doubt your start with alchemy has fared as well.'
Alodar reached for the pouch at his side and placed it on the table. 'I have learned a few of the simpler activations and formulas,' he replied. 'Saxton was most trusting with his craft when we had a rare idle moment together. It is true that I still know more of thaumaturgy. But as for the fruits of my effort, what do you think of these?'
With a flourish, he tipped the sack. A sapphire, a tourmaline, and two rubies clattered onto the table.
Periac's eyes widened and he stroked his goatee in thought. 'In truth,' he said at last, 'you have always impressed me as a clever lad. Perhaps your skill does better reside with another craft.'
Alodar waved his hand over the table. 'It may well be impressive,' he said, 'but not enough to turn the head of the fair lady. Here, take one ruby. It is yours for the favors I ask of you. Seek out the shop of the alchemist and use the second to see that he has a decent burial. The sapphire I would have you carry to Cedric the warmaster, in compensation for my not continuing instruction at his hand.'
He glanced down at the table and put the tourmaline back into the pouch. 'The last I will save,' he said, 'for I suppose tomorrow I must eat as well. But the true reason for why I am here, master, is because of your knowledge of other than the craft of which you are master.' Without waiting for reply, Alodar reached again to his waist and brought forth the small chest. He flipped back the lid and held it forward for Periac's inspection, his eyebrows rising in expectation.
'They are magic,' the thaumaturge said without hesitation. 'Magic spheres of fine construction.'
'Magic,' Alodar echoed, squinting at the container. Gingerly he grasped one of the spheres with his gloved hand and found that he could not extract it, so smooth was its surface polish. He removed his glove and tried again with his bare hand. An electric tingling suddenly pulsed through his fingers, and immediately he was reminded of the feeling when he handled Aeriel's dagger. Exerting all the force he could muster to prevent it from slipping away, he slowly pried out one of the orbs and turned it quickly over to gaze at it in his palm.
It was black, totally black, the deepest black Alodar had ever seen. In an indescribable way, it sang of perfection, a sphere of such precision that no mere lathesman could ever hope to duplicate it. His hand vibrated from holding the orb, and somehow he was acutely aware that it contained great power.
Alodar returned the sphere to its resting place and examined its companion in the same way. It was identical to the first, except that a thin line neatly circumscribed it, dividing it into two perfectly equal hemispheres.
Alodar had never seen such handicraft in his life, but there could be no doubt, 'Magic,' he mumbled as his spirits returned. 'Magic spheres somehow placed in a pool of molten lava.
'But what more of them can you tell?' he continued. 'Of what use can they be? Surely they have more utility than ornamentation.'
'They are incompletely formed,' Periac said. 'The ritual that has created them is not yet complete. And when it is finished, I cannot fathom what will be their virtue, but to their possessor they will convey great power indeed.'
'Power,' Alodar muttered and then paused in thought. 'At Iron Fist I applied my wits and was bested by skill in arms,' he said at last. 'In Ambrosia, I learned those skills, but in the end Rendrac's brute force carried back the treasure for the queen. It is raw power I must have to win the day; wits and training are not yet enough.
'Power,' he repeated, lightly juggling the small chest in his hand. 'My quest leaves me little choice but what I have here. Yes, there can be no other way about it, Either I am defeated or strike to unlock the secret of the spheres and hope it gives me what I will need to win the fair lady.'
He popped out of his introspection and looked into Periac's face. 'But how can I learn of magic?' he said. 'Basil the apothecary did mention dealing with a Lectonil to the south. Perhaps in his guild I will find what I must know.'
'He would be as good as any,' Periac said. 'But from him or any other magician you would learn little. Judge not the manner of instruction of the other crafts from what you know of the nature of thaumaturgy.' He glanced at the gems still on the table and stroked his goatee. 'And perhaps of alchemy as well. Magicians are a secretive lot, far removed from the dealings of nobles and common men alike. They pass on their rituals only to the initiates and acolytes who pledge lifetimes to their secluded service.'
He shook his head and spread his arms wide. 'You have experienced the workings of two crafts, Alodar,' he said. 'Is it not enough? If alchemy is not to your liking, then return to my instruction. To delve now into magic will only compound your folly.'
Alodar snapped shut the chest and returned it to his pocket. 'Perhaps you are right, master,' he said, 'and someday I might indeed return to your teachings.' He paused and his eyes widened. 'But power!' he said. 'It is worth giving the random factors another chance to align. Yes, by all means, master, let me profit one more day from your instruction. But tomorrow I will travel south to ferret out the spheres' meaning. Ferret out their meaning in a palace of magicians.'
PART THREE
The Magician
CHAPTER NINE
The Palace of the Cycloid Guild
ALODAR gently lowered the card onto the others and held his breath. The flimsy structure did not collapse and he reached for the next one in the deck. A child's pastime, he muttered to himself. What possible bearing could it have on determining his merit. He frowned at the tower already three tiers high and tried to decide the best place to start the next level.
'Enough, there is no need to proceed further,' a harsh voice sounded from across the table.
Alodar blinked out of his concentration and looked up just in time to see a robed arm sweep across and tumble the construction away. 'But I had not reached my limit,' he said. 'Even as a boy, I was able to form a fourth story before it crashed to the ground.'
'There was more to the directions than just building a house of cards,' the man facing him said. 'After three blacks in a row, then a red must follow. And at no time can your elbow touch the table unless you place your free hand to your forehead as well.'
