Wind Rider (Return of the Dragons 2)

I shook my head again. The other gate had been square, and the runes had been different. This one was round, and part of me knew what the runes meant; I could reach out and activate them, but I didn’t even know what that would do, or what the purpose would be. “There must be several paths into the city. We may be several miles away from where we thought we would be.”

Elias came up behind me and looked at the runes. “This is the east gate. I’m not sure what gate you came in on.”

Woltan spoke then. “They came in through the great gate, by the great courtyard.”

Elias nodded. “The west gate.”

Kara and I groaned. “We’re several miles off course,” she said.

She pulled something out of her bag. It was a book. It took me a moment to realize it was not just a book, it was the book. The book Kara had stolen from the spice shop, starting off the chain of events that had left me with strong magic, but also parents who couldn’t wake up.

“Is that it? The book of Id?”

Kara hushed me with a finger to his lips. “There is a map,” she said, then.

She opened the book, not letting me see the pages. Slowly and carefully she turned them, then opened the book wide so we could all see. There was a colorful map of the old city, and the forest around it. There were the eight lines that ran out from the city; you could see the one we must have stumbled upon. There was the circular gate at the end, and the label: Eastern Transporter. There were markings all round the old city, of places I had never heard of, but Kara was examining the map intently. “Here,” she said, pointing to a small X on the map where it was marked Rangers Outpost. “This stream, these hills, there is no mistaking it. This is where we live, we Kriek. Although why it is marked so, I have no idea.”

She found another spot. It was farther to the north, and there was a mountain there. “Here, inside this mountain, is where the dark lord lives.”

“And the glass castle?” I asked.

“Here,” she said, pointing. “On the far side of the mountain.”

Woltan nodded. “If the map is right, we must continue east through these woods, and come to an old stone road. We will have to cross a river. I wish we had a way to keep going eastward. There was ancient magic to find one’s way, but we of the old city have not traveled for hundreds of years.”

That was when Cullen spoke up. “I know little of magic, but much of iron. My master was even more skilled. And he handed down to me a little steel device called a compass. Perhaps it can be of use.”

He went through his bag, then pulled out a disk-like object, with a needle inside it, that moved back and forth.

“How does it work?” I asked.

Cullen shook his head. “That, I know not. I know only that the needle inside always points towards the far north.”

Karsten laughed. “Talk about a bag of tricks! I wonder what else you have in there, smith.”

Cullen smiled. “A number of treasures. But none perhaps as valuable as this little round device — or as the sword on my side.”

I nodded. It was quite a blade, and it seemed magical, though different from the pixie blades. I would have to ask Carolina about it.

Kara closed the book and put it back in her bag.

We started walking east; Woltan held the compass, followed by me, Kara, the smith, Elias, and Karsten. The going was easier here — we were not exactly in a clearing, but the forest was not nearly so dense. We could not walk a straight line exactly, but at least we could see where we were going, and walk around the fir trees. The needles felt good underneath my feet.

We walked on and on, dodging trees. There was no sign of the enemy, no strange smells in the air, no strange feelings of malign energy. There was just sunshine, and pine needles, and clean cold air.

Suddenly, Karsten whistled.

We turned around and backed up to where he stood.

“It was the mushrooms!” he said. “I saw some mushrooms here, and when I dug them up, my feet hit stone, and I found this!” He was pointing at a patch of three cobblestones, tightly fitted together. The road. It was narrow, more of a footpath, covered with hundreds of years of dirt, but you could see stones every few feet.

“We cultivate these mushrooms in the old city. The are delicious and full of energy, raw or cooked.”

I looked around. The mushrooms seemed to like the stone and soil combination. There were hundreds of them along the road.

Woltan smiled, patted Karsten on the shoulder. “We won’t be lacking for food or road now, and had we not taken you along, Karsten, we would be lacking both.”

Karsten smiled. “Tonight we’ll have soup, if we find a spring. And if you save any for later.”