Chapter One
Warning!
Zevin looked up, as he heard the muted noise of what sounded like an alarm of some kind going off within the castle. His eyes met Raya’s and a look of alarm was shared between them. He quickly got up placing Saraenya into Raya’s arms before running into the inner workings of the castle, leaving his wife and young daughter on the breakfast patio of their bedroom.
The sound of the alarm was emanating from the lower levels and Zevin half tumbled down a steep stairwell in his rush to get to the source of the disturbance. A long hallway opened up before him that appeared to end in a solid wall.
Zevin didn’t stop. He ran directly through the wall, as if it was a curtain of water or light instead of a hard wall.
The image of a wall’s flat surface re-materialized into place behind him. The space he had entered was a large space sealed off from the rest of the castle.
He had noticed the odd absence of rooms in this remote section of the castle, while in the process of remodeling. He’d found the space quite by accident when he’d put his hand up to lean on a wall, as he was investigating, and had watched it disappear through the wall.
He had walked on through to discover the secret chamber he now stood in. Gavin and Raya could enter the space, but no one else could as they lacked the gene that Tadias had encoded his work with.
The room had a striking resemblance to the main room of the underground lab that lay underneath Thunder Ridge. It had seemed to come alive when he had entered it the first time and within moments he had been speaking to his sister Ellanara.
She had been in the underground lab beneath Thunder Ridge when a long unlit icon had flashed up alerting her to something different. Within minutes she had been standing beside her brother in Nassoria.
The sight of her appearing by his side had almost caused Zevin’s heart to stop. The ability to transport people and items from one lab to the other was only one of the many interesting capabilities of this place.
It had been a long discovery process. Ellanara seemed to enjoy the challenge of discovering the secrets of the lab and Zevin had only been to glad to let her take the point in unraveling the complexities of technology that the lab housed.
It was readily apparent that the sorcerer had never found this place. The available power source for this hidden facility was virtually unlimited. The amount of damage he could have inflicted upon the world, with control over such a place, would have been incalculable.
As Zevin stormed into the space, what he noticed first was the presence of a crystalline display that appeared to have risen out of the floor. He hadn’t known it existed.
It had a yellow flashing icon on it. The alarm had silenced immediately upon his arrival into the space, but the flashing lights had not stopped.
A cool modulated voice, similar to the one that had been on the space vessel he’d ridden to Earth, broke the silence.
“Unknown communication broadcasted on the Liathus frequency. Origin of message, Earth. Selected recipients none. This is a general broadcast. Warning protocol enacted, as any response will be viewable from third parties, as there was no encryption. Proceed with extreme caution, as the framework delivery of the message is of Orlandian design.”
The voice died off, even as Ellanara appeared beside him.
Zevin was getting used to his sister’s sudden appearances and simply asked, as she passed by, “Did you hear all that?”
“Yes.” She responded softly, even as she began to tap away at panels of keys all along the interfaces of the displays within the lab.
She reached one hand up and touched a piece of equipment attached to her ear.
“What does your analysis of the signal indicate Abby?”
The voice of Abby spoke into the room as if the system was there instead of at Thunder Ridge.
“My analysis of the signal indicates that it is clearly of Orlandian framework and therefore should be presumed hostile; however signal impurities point to it coming from an older outdated source. The signal was also amateurishly sent, which is doubtful of Orlandian structure.”
“What is going on?” Raya asked, as she walked into the room alone.
Zevin shook his head indicating that he didn’t have a clue yet as to what was happening.
Abby’s voice continued, “There is some positive news in my analysis. The signal was cut off abruptly before complete broadcast could be achieved. The signal’s strength died off relatively quickly, after reaching us, and may not have traveled in any legible integrity past us into space.”
Zevin looked quizzically at his sister, “How is that a good thing Ellanara?”
Her cool green eyes glanced over at him and then back to the display.
“Trust me Zevin, that’s a good thing. A very good thing!” She reiterated passionately, as Zevin and Raya continued to look lost, as to what was going on.
Ellanara looked back at the lit up displays before her, “You’re sure we won’t be located by opening the message Abby?”
“No only if we respond, which should not be done for any reason, unless of course your father says otherwise!”
“Point well taken Abby.” Ellanara said under her breath, with a hint of temperament leaking out into her voice.
“Opening the message now.”
Three spellbound pairs of eyes lifted to the screen and read the few simple lines of text that appeared there.
After a moment Raya with a deep frown said, “It doesn’t make any sense. It’s complete nonsense!”
She looked over at Zevin and Ellanara, only to find them staring with intensity at the riddle on the screen, as if it had all the meaning in the world to them.
“Isn’t it?” Raya asked.
Ellanara repeated the simple lines of text on the screen out loud. “All the trees are fallen down, but the four winds are hiding. The butcher has come home, but the baker is still kneading the dough. Who will blow out the candles before they start receding? For now is the time to be deceiving.”
Zevin glanced at Raya, “It’s my brother Talaric! It has to be! We did this kind of stuff all the time growing up.”
“But what does it mean?” Raya asked, staring at the words completely perplexed by the riddle posed in the oddly formed sentences.
Ellanara spoke, “Well take the first line, ‘All the trees are fallen down’, if the trees are all gone than there is no cover left, Talaric is in danger of being caught, and the next part, ‘but the four winds are hiding’, says he has to keep moving like the wind in order to remain invisible. I’m not sure about the next part, ‘The butcher has come home, but the baker is still kneading the dough. Who will blow out the candles before they start receding? For now is the time to be deceiving.’?”
Zevin spoke up, “I think it means something like the enemy knows of us and is determined to kill us, but they’re not ready yet, because the dough is still being kneaded it hasn’t had a chance yet to bake. There’s still time to prepare in other words. The last part is a mystery though.”
Raya spoke up, “They must be enemy warriors or something equivalent to enemy units, but why would they be receding?”
There was a moment of silence and then Zevin spoke up, “They could be ships of some kind receding through a water vortex channel. They could be headed here!”
“He’s asking for our help to stop them from coming?” Ellanara asked, but Zevin shook his head no.
“No Ellanara look at the last part, ‘For now is the time for deceiving.’ That’s saying that what you think the message is saying in the previous statement is actually the opposite. He intends to kill or stop an enemy invasion, but if he fails than the purpose of this message is to give us a chance to prepare ourselves for the coming attack.”
Ellanara nodded, “I need to go tell father about this!”
And like that she was gone and Zevin and Raya were alone together in the lab.
Zevin was looking reflectively at the words on the screen and Raya curious as to why, asked, “What is it Zevin? What are you thinking?”
Zevin looked at her and smiled, “I didn’t think he ever paid any attention to the silly word games that Gavin, Ellanara and I thought up.”
Raya stepped into his arms and looked up, “You’re going to go help your brother aren’t you?”
But surprisingly he shook his head no and she looked at him in surprise, “Why wouldn’t you?”
Ruefully he stated, “It might sound juvenile of me, since I am a king after all, but the simple statement of fact is, I don’t think my father will let me.”
“Is that the only reason you’re not going?”
“No, if whatever Talaric is planning doesn’t work, then the enemy will have to be stopped on our side. This place has the power to protect this world I think, if we can figure it out in time. It’s my responsibility to personally see that my people are kept safe. So I should stay here and figure this lab out. Someone else will have to go.”
Raya laid her head against his chest and said, “Maybe it’s selfish of me, but I’m glad you’re not going.”
Zevin hugged her to him and then on a lighter note said, “Even if I can’t get this place to work in defense of our world there’s always you.”
Raya’s eyebrows rose expressively, “I see, have I been relegated to nothing more than a weapon?”
“The most beautiful weapon I’ve ever seen!” Zevin said.
Raya laughed softly, “You’re going to pay for that later!”
“I know.”
A moment passed as they held each other, “I’m glad your brother is still alive. I know how much that means to you.”
Zevin held her closer. It did mean a lot to him that his brother was still alive. What kind of man had his brother become in the years since last he had seen him?