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  There was a pause in the conversation as Jodocus drummed his fingers on the table in thought.

  “I’ve one more question. Are you willing to take me with you through the rift to the world that our invaders come from?”

  “But I thought you didn’t want to fight them?” Athena pointed out.

  “Oh, I’m sorry I gave that impression. I most certainly do want to hit them as hard as I can. We can’t have them wiping out our cities and towns without a certain amount of vengeance. What I object to is working with the egotistical worms who threw me off the council. And also, I must admit, I had concerns that traveling through the rifts—the portals, as you call them—might lead to my own disintegration. But you all seem to prove it possible to cross between worlds. So if you’ll let me come along, I’ll take the chance.”

  Erik did not reply, but Cindella turned her head to Ghost as if to say it was her decision.

  “That’s excellent news.” Ghost stood up and walked over to the elementalist, holding out her hand. Whatever her reservations, this man would make a powerful ally against the threat posed to Saga by the unknown invaders. “Welcome to the team.”

  If Jodocus was surprised by the decisiveness of Ghost’s response, he didn’t show it; instead, he grasped her hand and shook it with great firmness. “Good. When shall we set off?”

  “I need to clip out and get some sleep. Can we set a time—say, nine hours from now—to continue?” asked Erik.

  “I need some sleep, too,” said Athena.

  “Very well. Nine hours.” Jodocus stood up and walked to a door. “If you come this way, there are some beds and couches you can rest on.”

  Milan followed him. “Hey, mate, you couldn’t give me one of those tats in the meantime, could you? Just a little one, even?”

  “If you wish, my friend. Come with me.”

  Chapter 13

  THE LEMURA’S CURSE

  Ghost and her comrades were lying side by side on top of a cloud, looking down at a ruined city through gaps in the mist. Their extraordinary position testified to the impressive powers of Jodocus. He had conjured the services of the large air elemental that was currently holding them steady in the sky, its hands held high, palms upward, fingers spread, to form a vast floor for them. Its body was a constantly swirling trunk like a miniature tornado. Several smaller wispy creatures surrounded the air elemental and formed the bulk of the cloud that screened them from potential watchers. That morning they had flown northwest to the mountains and for a few hours followed an extraordinary road that climbed up a steep river valley in a series of impressive aqueducts. The resources at the disposal of whoever had built the road were phenomenal enough, but what concerned Ghost even more than the ambition inherent in such an extravagant construction project was the sight of the flattened towns and villages near the road.

  The day had begun well—Ghost wasn’t the only one who had felt refreshed and optimistic as they had set out high above the sea—but the evidence of the considerable destruction meted out to this world by whoever built the portals had dissipated everyone’s good humor very quickly. In fact, Ghost felt a distinct wave of anxiety and gloom sink through her as they looked down on the ruins of a city directly below. It had been built on an island created by a fast-flowing river that parted on the steep rocks to the north, ran down on either side of the higher ground, and rejoined at the south. The city would have been relatively secure with the natural defenses provided by the water, supplemented by the town’s tall walls. But these were all demolished, as was every structure, leaving only the foundations to indicate where all the buildings had been. What was frightening about the remains of the town was the thoroughness of the destruction; the city was almost flat. There were not even piles of rubble from collapsed buildings. Had everything been taken away to be used on the road, perhaps? The only stones that remained were those too embedded in the ground to warrant removal. The patterns these stones formed were like the tattoos on Jodocus’s body, without their interior animation.

  “This was a city of about five thousand inhabitants and three domini.” The elementalist was standing, confident in his balance and the stability of the air elemental beneath them. “The domini put up a good fight, I think; a year ago you could still see the scorch marks on the landscape. But eventually sheer weight of numbers overwhelmed them and they were killed. It’s the same all over the world: town after town destroyed and everything torn apart and used to construct their roads and army fortifications.”

  The party were glum enough as they followed the road up the mountain valley and became all the more somber as they finally came up to a plateau and caught sight of the portal, which appeared as a gray and shining tear in the blue sky.

  It was not the portal itself that was disheartening, but the army that was before it: rank after rank of soldiers, vast squadrons of half-tracks, an enormous block of tanks, dozens of planes on six airstrips, and an immense horde of riders. A large stone wall ran around the outside of the army, with regular revetments—D-shaped protrusions—in which were placed long, projectile-firing guns and their firing crews.

  Instead of the busy and random movement of thousands of people going about their business, the figures on the plateau were mostly still, occasionally shuffling a little to accommodate a new recruit to their ranks as a soldier or a vehicle emerged through the portal. The sight was discouraging. The army already looked powerful enough to destroy the world of Saga, and it was still being reinforced. Admittedly, the portal these troops would have to come through to reach Saga was relatively narrow compared to the one they were now looking at and perhaps it would be possible to block their entrance for a long time by destroying each soldier to come through, one by one, or—now this was a thought worth pursuing—by drowning the portal in cement.

  The risk in that, though, was that their enemy might create a new and undiscovered portal. Then an army like this one could pour in and establish a foothold for invasion. In fact, they might have already created an additional way into Saga. Ghost made a mental note to relay a message via the humans to the guild leaders of Saga: to have the population of the city alerted in order to look out for signs of a new portal.

  “How are we supposed to get through that lot?” mused Milan aloud. He, of all of them, had been the most cheerful that morning, delighted with the journey through the sky and also with his new perma-tat. Ghost saw him stealing a glance at it again, a circle on the back of his hand, drawn from sigils, within which was a constantly changing pattern of red and orange flames.

  Lying beside Ghost, Erik gave a sigh in answer to Milan’s question. “And what’s it going to be like on the other side? Presumably a road coming to the portal, with convoys of arriving troops.”

  “Want me to scout it out, invisible?” whispered Anonemuss close in Ghost’s ear, the touch of his cupped hands on her head indicating he was covering the sound of his voice.

  If Jodocus knew of the extra member of their party, he had not mentioned it. And given that no one fully trusted the elementalist, it had seemed wise for Anonemuss to remain invisible.

  “That’s a good idea,” Ghost whispered back, holding a hand over her mouth. “But we’ll have to tell Jodocus. You had better ask Erik first.”

  A few minutes later, Cindella stood up, balancing carefully on the unstable surface.

  “Jodocus!”

  “Cindella?”

  “It’s time to introduce you to the sixth member of our team. He’s been invisible up till now. I hope you don’t mind the precaution.”

  While Cindella was speaking, Anonemuss must have removed the ring, for there he was, an incongruous office worker, among the troopers, Cindella, and the elementalist: the least military looking of them all. But so far Anonemuss had been dependable and very effective in his role as scout. Ghost admired him greatly.

  “This is Anonemuss.”

  Jodocus gave a bow. “Invisibility? Very useful indeed.”

  Anonemuss nodded in reply. “I’m
going to use it to scout ahead and see what’s on the other side of the portal. Can you drop me off on that hill to our left?”

  Did it look strange to the army below, this bulky cloud that drifted lower than the others in the sky? At least they were moving roughly in the same direction as the wind. Soon, grass and rocks were immediately beneath them.

  “Do you think it’s safe to use our communication devices?” Athena tapped the plastic piece in her ear and while the question was addressed to everyone, she looked at Jodocus, who shook his head.

  “Your concern is that the enemy might intercept your messages and detect you? I would think that even if they operate their own communications on similar lines, it’s unlikely the two systems would be coherent to one another.”

  “Even so, I’ll stay off the air until I meet you back here,” Anonemuss said out of nowhere. He had put the ring back on.

  Closing her eyes, Ghost stretched her senses and felt Anonemuss depart, from the disturbance of molecules that were swirling around in the space he left behind as he dropped from the cloud and set off down the hill. When she opened her eyes again, Ghost found Cindella clipping on her pair of magic lenses.

  “Athena, did you bring binoculars?”

  “I did. I think they are in Milan’s bag.”

  Soon Ghost and Cindella were stretched out beside each other, focusing their vision on the army in front of the portal.

  “How far does your Ring of True Seeing work?” Ghost spoke in a whisper, not wanting Jodocus to hear. The elementalist was behaving like a friend and an ally against the army that had invaded his lands, but still, for some reason, despite all his help, Ghost didn’t entirely trust him. There was something cold in his eyes and in the immobility of his face. Since all those elementals tattooed to his body would make him a very formidable opponent, she didn’t want to give him more information about the group than she had to.

  “In a sense, as far as I can see, but the effectiveness drops off fast. I have to observe everything in the light that glows from the ring; anything more than about ten meters away has such minimal illumination that it looks almost normal.”

  “I understand. But why don’t you use it all the time?”

  “It’s too overwhelming, all the information. I feel dizzy and disorientated trying to move with it uncovered.”

  Ghost stopped whispering. “These are the same unit types we met at our portal, right? Apart from those gun crews?”

  “Yes, but I think there are also some officer types that we haven’t seen before, on top of that wooden tower.”

  Adjusting the binoculars, Ghost found the tower. Erik was right. There were two figures in uniforms that were slightly more elaborate than those of the ordinary soldiers, and they had caps and sidearms rather than helmets and rifles. Beside them was a warrior who wore a gleaming bronze breastplate and a helmet with a red plume. The three officers were no more animate than the other figures, and as far as Ghost could tell, they were not talking to each other or even surveying the area in front of them.

  “Wait, what’s he doing?” Erik sounded shocked, and quickly bringing her view back down to the road, Ghost could see why. Anonemuss was walking up toward the portal and he was perfectly visible.

  “What’s happening?” asked Gunnar.

  “Anonemuss must have taken the ring off for some reason.”

  By now Ghost had zoomed in more closely on Anonemuss. “That’s strange, though. Look closely. He is still trying to walk quietly.”

  Instead of walking with his usual casual gait, their scout was moving slowly and placing his feet with great care.

  Erik was distraught. “Does he not realize he is visible?”

  “Evidently not.” Ghost set her microphone to broadcast, even though she thought it unlikely he would be listening, given his decision to stay off the air while he scouted around the portal. “Come in, Anonemuss, come in.”

  Milan immediately voiced Ghost’s unspoken thought. “It’s no good. His coms are off.”

  “Does this mean they have some kind of anti-magic force around the portal to dispel the effect of the ring?” Gunnar was sitting directly behind them.

  “It could be that, but I have never seen any counter-magic or even magic on their part before, except that they have sometimes used items captured from us,” answered Jodocus. “But it does lead me to wonder, where did your friend get that ring?”

  “We got it from a fountain in the forest,” replied Milan.

  “Did it have a lemura guardian?”

  “I dunno what it was called.” While Milan responded to the elementalist, Ghost’s attention remained fixed on the distant figure of Anonemuss, who was coming closer and closer to the first ranks of riflemen. “But it was this snake woman who cast spells.”

  “Oh dear.” Jodocus sounded downcast.

  “What?” Athena asked.

  “What a pity I did not know of it before now. I thought it was your own ring. That fountain is a notorious trap, whose rewards are all cursed. The invisibility fails when its wearer needs it most. You can tell when it’s not a genuine ring of invisibility, because with the cursed one, you remain visible to yourself.”

  “Blood and thunder!” Erik groaned aloud. “That’s our ring, all right; he said something about that.”

  “There is a dagger in the same fountain, too. If you use it, it heals your target and wounds you.”

  “Yeah. That was there, too. He’s carrying it.”

  “Alas, he will not know that he is visible. Unless you can think of a way to contact him? Or perhaps we should all attack now?”

  “No.” Erik spoke urgently. “No, don’t attack.”

  “We let him die then?” Jodocus sounded surprised.

  “He’s human; it’s only his avatar. I’m going to unclip and warn him.”

  “Ah. Another human with an avatar from Saga. How interesting.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Erik. You’re too late.” Ghost had seen the sudden ripple through the ranks of the enemy soldiers as they spotted Anonemuss. A hundred rifles were lifted and a moment later, almost simultaneously, with a roar that sent birds flapping into the sky, they fired. Anonemuss jerked back, nearly cut in two, and lay still.

  “Blast it!” Cindella sat up. “That was a waste. A stupid waste.” Her fists punched into the pliant floor. “Oh well. I’m going to unclip and tell Anonemuss about the ring, so he understands what happened to him. He’ll be furious.” Erik dropped his voice to a whisper. “Any messages for Saga?”

  “Yes.” Ghost sat up, too, and handed the binoculars back to Milan, who immediately put them to his eyes and searched for the body. Then she whispered back a message about mobilizing the guilds in a search for another portal.

  Knowing that Cindella was about to stiffen and disappear, Ghost made sure she was facing Jodocus, expecting to see a measure of surprise on his face when it happened. But Cindella clipping out of the world left the elementalist unperturbed. Perhaps, in the past, he had gotten used to the comings and goings of humans?

  “So, how are we going to get in? Have you got some sort of invisibility?” Athena asked their guide.

  “Not I. I just control the elements. The best I can do is have an air elemental screen us, but that’s a long way short of invisibility. Those guards will see the disturbance. To get invisibility, we’d have to contact some of the other domini through Anadia, if there are any others left, and I’m reluctant to do that.”

  This got Gunnar up on his feet. “Anadia, one of the members of the former council who got rid of you? Why don’t you want to contact her? Because of your pride?”

  “That,” Jodocus acknowledged, “and also because I wouldn’t want her to know about you humans. She’s one of these domini who hate humans and even if she was willing to work with you in the short term, she would try to harm you in the end.”

  “Oh.” Gunnar, whose intervention and determined tone had surprised Ghost, was suddenly crestfallen. She, on the other hand, began to wonder abou
t the rivalry between Jodocus and Anadia. Whereas in Saga everyone was sentient, here in this world there seemed to be only a few self-conscious people—those Jodocus called domini—and apparently they all had strong magical powers. But like the RAL in Saga, it seemed that they didn’t trust each other. How powerful were the domini? Could she battle them and emerge victorious? Could she battle Jodocus if she had to? If he released several of those large elementals at once, then her ability to control her surroundings might not be enough to defeat him.

  The discovery of these domini of Myth had given Ghost a new thought to ponder, even if it was one that made her feel slightly ashamed. Between the humans and the domini, perhaps the latter were the better allies for the people of Saga. With Anonemuss’s avatar dead, only Erik and Gunnar remained to help on this journey. And while Ghost felt enormous respect for Erik, counting him as a close friend, her priority had to be the defense of Saga. There was also the problem of the humans’ commitment to non-violence. What would they do if the only way to stop an invasion of Saga was to kill the people planning it?

  “Jodocus, how would Anadia or any other dominus of Myth feel about being allied with the domini of Saga? After all”—she drew a Higgs left-handed—“this is just one of our smaller guns. We are rearming as fast as we can and we have better weapons than they do. If the domini here could help us take the battle to our common enemies, perhaps it would be better to simply leave the humans out of it.”

  For a moment a wisp of cloud drifted between them and Ghost could not read Jodocus’s expression. When she could see him again, he was smiling and running a hand over his fleshy, bald skull. “So, you are a dominus. When I met you, I felt hope, for the first time in three years. I imagine the other domini would feel the same. Yes, they would want to be your allies, to see you destroy those who have been systematically turning our world into a dead one.

  “But I might have given you the wrong impression of what we domini in Myth have to offer. Most of the domini here fought and died. I joined in some of the battles and although we could destroy the enemy’s troops by the thousands, by the tens of thousands, they just kept coming.