My alarm told me that it was time to get up, but I had not had much sleep. I spent the night fighting off nightmares. Ready or not, we would be leaving soon, so I headed up to the bridge.
When I arrived, everyone except Kellyn was there; apparently she was still in the clinic curing people. “We will launch when Kellyn is finished. Darnath, is the jump route laid in?”
“Yes, everything should be set,” he responded.
“Okay, just a word of warning. Kellyn and I will not be meditating before the jump, so you will have to handle everything during our recovery.”
“Vydor, only Darnath needs to be awake after the jump to execute the second jump. The rest of us will stand with you,” said Andreya.
“The six of us bring a lot of power to the table. Your demon does not stand a chance against the united force of the Council of Wizards,” declared Gafar.
I looked at each of them as they all indicated they would not let me stand alone, and I was touched by their dedication. “You are right, for if any of us tries to stand alone, we will fall,” I said. I was not sure where that came from; someplace deep inside me, some forgotten corner of my memory.
Not long after, Kellyn returned and came up to the bridge. She looked lovingly at everyone and said, “Thank you.”
I contacted the station and requested permission to launch, to which the reply came that we were clear to do so. “Gafar, engage stealth mode and take us out.” It was important that we did not give away the location of where we had been staying, since everyone knew we had come to meet with the Emperor. After we cleared the station I said, “Best speed to jump space.”
“I estimate ten minutes until we can jump,” said Gafar.
“Wow, this ship is impressive. It would have taken an hour with the Dark Talon,” I replied. The ship did not lurch forward like the Dark Talon did; it was a very smooth and even acceleration. The only indication of the change in speed was a slight change in pitch of the engines, which were an ever-present background noise.
“Jumping in ten, nine, eight, seven, six …” As Darnath counted down I felt four sets of hands being placed on my back, and Kellyn grabbed my hand with both of hers. “…three, two…”
Suddenly we were in jump space, and this time I turned completely around and faced the demon head-on. I looked him right in the eye and called out, “Not this time!”
I lowered my right hand at him and cast a great bolt of energy directly at him that pushed him back quite a bit, but he recovered quickly and charged. Then I felt power pouring into me from the others, and I grabbed all that power and cast the bolt again. This time the blast hit him hard enough to knock me back and keep him at a very great distance. Just then the ship dropped back into normal space, quickly reentering jump space as we executed our second jump.
This time the dark specter was standing calmly at a great distance. He just stood there staring me down, as if to say, “Time is on my side. I will have you sooner or later.” This time I looked to the other spirit that followed me, and he looked greatly pleased. It was as if he was basking in the light from the love and support of my fellow wizards. Before I could try to talk to him, we reentered normal space.
Once we had all recovered, I saw Darnath looking very anxious to know what had happened. I turned to him and said, “Round one goes to the Council of Wizards!” This brought much cheering and exchanges of high fives.
“Vydor, I want you to know we are in this for the long haul. We realize that we will have to do this during every jump until we have victory, but victory will be ours as long as we remember what you said about standing alone,” said Andreya.
“Thank you, Andreya, that means a lot to me. Darnath, what is our ETA to the Dragon Claw from here?” I asked.
“I expect we will meet up with the Dragon Claw in about seven days,” he responded. “Our next jump will be in thirteen hours, as we have to coast by this neutron field before we can jump again.”
“Kellyn, please join me in the ready room. I think we have some news to discuss with the captain.” The ready room was a room off to the side of the bridge that was used primarily as an office for the captain of the ship. On our ship we had no real use for it, but I thought it would be more proper to use that for this conversation than the general viewing screen. Mundane people really did not understand that they never talked to just one of us, so they naturally felt more comfortable with more private settings. I guess it helped them to forget how different we were.
I took my seat in front of the screen while Kellyn put us through.
“Greetings, Master Vydor,” said the captain. I was surprised at his use of the formal title. I wondered if he was trying to get used to my new position.
“Hello, Captain. Now that we are en route I can talk a bit more freely,” I said.
“That is good to hear. When do you think you will get here?” he asked.
“Darnath estimates seven days on our present course. We are currently coasting by a gravity well and will not be able to jump again for thirteen hours,” I said.
“We have lost all contact with Terathan XV. This is playing out exactly like Arken IV. I would like to get there as soon as possible. Is there any way you can get here sooner?” he asked.
“Well, this is the shortest route that the station’s computers found for us. I could ask Darnath to see if he can work out a faster one,” I said.
“I hear you are in a Raven. If I estimate your location correctly, I think you can make it in four days.”
“Well, it is a Raven Mark II, actually, so we have twenty-five per cent greater jump range than a Mark I.”
“Excellent, then you should have no problem with this shorter route.”
“Well it seems you have a better database of routes than we were given access to. If you can send it, that would be great.”
“I will get one of my officers to contact Darnath and they can work it out.”
“Captain, now that is out of the way, I have a personal request to make of you.”
“Certainly, Vydor,” he answered.
“Kellyn, come sit by me,” I said privately. Once she was settled I turned to the captain and said, “Captain, let me properly introduce to you Master Kellyn, formerly of the Black Adders, and now master wizard and member of the Council of Wizards.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Master Kellyn,” he said.
She smiled and said, “Thank you, I am sure the honor is all mine.”
“Captain, would you do us the honor of marrying us?” I asked.
“Vydor, I would be honored!” he said with a big grin. “You can use our wedding chapel and all our facilities here.”
“Thank you, Captain, but Kellyn wants to get married here in her private garden,” I said.
“Well, I have done many weddings in my time and one thing I have learned is that you never argue with the bride. If Kellyn wants it in her garden, then I will do it nowhere else. Kellyn, if it would be acceptable to you, I would like to host your reception here in our banquet hall. There are a lot of Vydor’s old shipmates who will want to come.”
“Captain, that is a most gracious offer, and I am happy to accept. Invite all whom you feel proper to the reception, but please only yourself, Zalith, and Dr. Rannor to the actual wedding. My garden is not big enough to hold many, and we will already have the seven of us,” was her reply.
“Wonderful, then it is all set. Carol will contact you about the arrangements after you arrive,” he said.
“Captain, can you ask Carol to contact Andreya instead? She is handling the arrangements for Kellyn,” I said.
“Thank you, Vydor,” responded Kellyn privately.
“Certainly. I must get back to my duties here, but I look forward to seeing you in a few days’ time,” he said and we wrapped up the call.
“FOUR DAYS??? HOW AM I GOING TO PLAN THIS IN FOUR DAYS?!?!?” started Kellyn. Being the grandmaster wizard, supposedly with more power and knowledge than any other mortal in the realm, I knew exactly what to do. I called in Andreya to help with Kellyn’s panic attack, and slipped out.
I headed back to my quarters, planning to get some rest. When I entered my room I saw the book on my shelf. It had been over a year since I had first cast the spell which allowed me to read it, but I had not yet opened the cover. Something inside told me I was not ready yet, and still warned me against it. Logically there was no reason to worry; it was just a book, but I could not get past that feeling that it was not yet the right time. Yet I knew in some way that this book had the answers I needed.
Just as I decided to sit and read it, I heard a voice come over our intercom. “Vydor, I just got off the line with the Dragon Claw, and we have a nice data stream coming in updating all of our navigational data. It seems likely with the updated maps we can be clear of this field in six hours and should make it to the Dragon Claw’s present position in about three days.” It was odd to actually hear a voice on this ship and it took me a minute to place it as Darnath’s. He had to use that to contact me because I was in my quarters.
“Thank you for the update, Darnath. As you heard the captain say, we need to get there as soon as we can, so take whichever course is fastest. I am going to get some sleep. Ask someone to wake me before the next jump,” I responded.
“Sure thing, Vydor,” he replied.
I looked again at the book. It was not very remarkable from the outside. In fact, compared to the books from Mantis, it was downright plain. I thumbed through it briefly without really reading it and it seemed to be a collection of shorter books. Well, that would have to wait until after this mission. I could not afford to be distracted by a new project just yet.