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Authors: Teddy Jacobs
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time, but the thunder still came right away. If this kept up much longer, we
would all lose our sight and hearing.
I crouched down next to her. She just shook her head at me.
I’ll be all right. I think you were right about the
runes. Try to figure them out. We have to find shelter. If this lightning storm
is a warning, we may survive. But if it’s an attack, we’re dead, unless you
figure out how to get us through that gate.
Talk about no pressure.
Another lightning blast some ten feet away sent us tumbling
through the air again. Blind and deaf, I crawled towards the gate, guided by my
third eye.
I reached out my hand. I could say I found the runes, but
you might as well say the runes found me. I couldn’t see, but I could feel
them. And as I ran my hand across the first one, it glowed in my inner eye.
And I heard a sound.
Like when the sword spoke to me, some kind of song. So I ran
my hand along another rune.
A second note joined the first.
The music was frightening and intoxicating. I ran fingers
along all the runes in reach, one after another, and they all began to glow.
Their notes joined the song, and I could almost make
sense of it. Almost . There was something still missing.
I was too short, that was part of it. I couldn’t reach the
top of the gate. The highest runes must have been eight feet off the ground,
and I was only five and a half feet tall. Those ancients must have been pretty
big.
Suddenly I felt myself rising up, and then I realized I was
being carried.
Kalle had me by the knees.
Quick, Anders. The lightning and thunder are gone, but
the other runes are beginning to lose their glow. Do what you have to do.
Sure, but what was that, exactly? I was losing my confidence
and my focus. I listened to the song, and traced the remaining runes.
All of the runes began to glow again, intensely. Hearing
their song, I finally understood. If only I had paid more attention to music
when I was little, and to the lessons with the lyre my father had insisted on.
Or even learned the pianoforte, like my mother had wanted. But there was
something in the blood that responded, all the same.
I felt a stirring at my side.
I reached down and grabbed the sword.
Music flowed into me, and brought power with it, power of
which I had little knowledge and less control. My body was a channel for blood
magic far older than my great-grandfather...
So I did the only thing I could. If you can’t play an
instrument, you have only one choice. I opened my mouth and sang, a song that
ran through my hand, through the hilt and pommel of the sword, back through my
bloodline and beyond, far beyond.
As I sang, the runes glowed brighter. I couldn’t quite
understand what I was singing, what the notes meant. Everything was slippery,
elusive. The gate was old, and it sang back to me. No one had passed through in
over a thousand years, I understood that much.
Then I was walking. I looked back. Kalle and Kara were
standing up, and they followed me. The song still flowed from my mouth. Kara
looked at me with what I was afraid was fear, but she followed me, and Kalle
after her.
There was a bright point in the middle of the gate, and that
was where we had to walk. The gate was quite specific, it was not up to full
capacity, we had to pass one by one, and even then it would be close.
Three people would be admitted, no more.
I stopped singing as I walked through the green light, but
the song of the gate continued in me. I was in the gate, and then I was
through. When I looked back again, there was Kara, and then Kalle, beside her,
and the gate was silent.
But it still hummed with energy, and once again, with
menace.
We would have to reactivate it to get through once again. Or
find some other way out.
Chapter VIII
We stood on polished stone. Energy surrounded us. I could
feel it flow up through the stone under my feet. The air itself crackled with
it. With my inner eye I saw a rainbow of colored light, so much
time, but the thunder still came right away. If this kept up much longer, we
would all lose our sight and hearing.
I crouched down next to her. She just shook her head at me.
I’ll be all right. I think you were right about the
runes. Try to figure them out. We have to find shelter. If this lightning storm
is a warning, we may survive. But if it’s an attack, we’re dead, unless you
figure out how to get us through that gate.
Talk about no pressure.
Another lightning blast some ten feet away sent us tumbling
through the air again. Blind and deaf, I crawled towards the gate, guided by my
third eye.
I reached out my hand. I could say I found the runes, but
you might as well say the runes found me. I couldn’t see, but I could feel
them. And as I ran my hand across the first one, it glowed in my inner eye.
And I heard a sound.
Like when the sword spoke to me, some kind of song. So I ran
my hand along another rune.
A second note joined the first.
The music was frightening and intoxicating. I ran fingers
along all the runes in reach, one after another, and they all began to glow.
Their notes joined the song, and I could almost make
sense of it. Almost . There was something still missing.
I was too short, that was part of it. I couldn’t reach the
top of the gate. The highest runes must have been eight feet off the ground,
and I was only five and a half feet tall. Those ancients must have been pretty
big.
Suddenly I felt myself rising up, and then I realized I was
being carried.
Kalle had me by the knees.
Quick, Anders. The lightning and thunder are gone, but
the other runes are beginning to lose their glow. Do what you have to do.
Sure, but what was that, exactly? I was losing my confidence
and my focus. I listened to the song, and traced the remaining runes.
All of the runes began to glow again, intensely. Hearing
their song, I finally understood. If only I had paid more attention to music
when I was little, and to the lessons with the lyre my father had insisted on.
Or even learned the pianoforte, like my mother had wanted. But there was
something in the blood that responded, all the same.
I felt a stirring at my side.
I reached down and grabbed the sword.
Music flowed into me, and brought power with it, power of
which I had little knowledge and less control. My body was a channel for blood
magic far older than my great-grandfather...
So I did the only thing I could. If you can’t play an
instrument, you have only one choice. I opened my mouth and sang, a song that
ran through my hand, through the hilt and pommel of the sword, back through my
bloodline and beyond, far beyond.
As I sang, the runes glowed brighter. I couldn’t quite
understand what I was singing, what the notes meant. Everything was slippery,
elusive. The gate was old, and it sang back to me. No one had passed through in
over a thousand years, I understood that much.
Then I was walking. I looked back. Kalle and Kara were
standing up, and they followed me. The song still flowed from my mouth. Kara
looked at me with what I was afraid was fear, but she followed me, and Kalle
after her.
There was a bright point in the middle of the gate, and that
was where we had to walk. The gate was quite specific, it was not up to full
capacity, we had to pass one by one, and even then it would be close.
Three people would be admitted, no more.
I stopped singing as I walked through the green light, but
the song of the gate continued in me. I was in the gate, and then I was
through. When I looked back again, there was Kara, and then Kalle, beside her,
and the gate was silent.
But it still hummed with energy, and once again, with
menace.
We would have to reactivate it to get through once again. Or
find some other way out.
Chapter VIII
We stood on polished stone. Energy surrounded us. I could
feel it flow up through the stone under my feet. The air itself crackled with
it. With my inner eye I saw a rainbow of colored light, so much
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