The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3) Page 9

  “Have you told her yet?”

  Theresa nodded. “She wanted to argue with me, but she had to admit the transition will be a little easier for the children if there’s someone around they already know.”

  “Are they ready to go?”

  Again, Theresa nodded. “Alma woke them up at daybreak, fed them a quick breakfast, and started them in on chores, just like yesterday. They’re probably ready for a nap by now. Where are you taking them?”

  “I’d planned to take them to the castle, but I didn’t know Hayley was going. Should I take them to Joan’s house instead?”

  “I don’t think it matters. But if I were you, I’d take their stuff straight to Joan’s. Hayley’s got it all together on the back porch.”

  “Let’s go get it then.”

  Half an hour later, Hayley and her bag were back at the chapel in Milhaven and the children’s clothes were at Joan’s. Before he headed back to Ashmont, Kevin made a quick detour by Joan’s office to let her know he would be back with the children in a few minutes.

  When he got there, Serra, one of the women from the housekeeping staff, was arranging a pallet on the floor. “We thought the children might need to lie down a bit when they get here,” Serra said in answer to Kevin’s unasked question. “From what Joan says, a trip through the energy field can be a bit draining for an adult. I imagine the experience is even harder on a child.”

  Kevin nodded and looked at Joan. “I’ve already taken their stuff to your house. Gracie said she’d get everything unpacked and have their rooms ready by the time you get home. Hayley’s back at the chapel so she’ll be available to help out, too. Are you ready for me to bring the children?”

  “I want to go to Ashmont and meet them first,” Joan said. “Then, after I spend a little time with them, I’ll ask if they want to come stay with me while we try to find their mother. They need to feel like they have a choice, even if they don’t.”

  Kevin frowned. “How long will this take?”

  “As long as it takes,” Joan said. “Why? Do you have something else to do today?”

  “Actually, yes.”

  “When?”

  “This evening.”

  “We’ll be back before then.”

  “When did you decide to do this? No one mentioned it to me, and it’s just luck I decided to drop by before heading back to Ashmont.”

  “About two minutes ago, but you have to admit it’s a good idea.” Joan put her hand on Kevin’s arm. “Now, let’s go.”

  As soon as Kevin and Joan arrived on the back porch of the chapel, Joan opened the door and stepped into the kitchen. Alma was standing near the table, instructing Caitlyn in the proper way to wipe it down after a meal.

  Joan nodded to Alma, walked over to the table, pulled out a chair, sat down, gently took the cloth out of Caitlyn’s hand, and introduced herself to the child. Then she asked if Caitlyn knew where her brother was.

  “I think he’s outside, in the shed,” Caitlyn answered, looking down at the floor as she spoke.

  Joan looked up at Alma and raised her eyebrows. Alma nodded, but there was a deep frown on her face. As Alma put her hands on her hips and took a breath to say something, Joan said, “I’m Gov. Karl’s wife. I need to talk to the children.”

  Alma bit her tongue and nodded.

  Then Joan stood up, took Caitlyn’s hand, and the two of them walked towards the back door.

  Kevin held the door open for them, and as soon as they were off the porch, he stepped back inside. “I think I’m going to be here for a while. Do you have any coffee?”

  Chapter 8

  Business As Usual

  It was nearly lunchtime before Kevin got back to his office. As soon as he sat down at his desk, Chris walked through the door with a message in his hand.

  “What’s that?” Kevin asked.

  “Remember Lynda? In Zander? She needs some help.” Chris handed the message to Kevin. “There’s a bridge near Clayborn that gets washed away every time they have heavy rains. She’s put it back twice, but she’s wondering if there’s something else she can do to help it withstand flash floods.”

  Kevin frowned. “I think I was absent the day they covered building bridges in my business class.”

  “Same here.”

  “And that’s one of those questions I really hate asking anyone. It’s probably something I’m supposed to already know.” Kevin leaned back in his chair. “Unless we can use some steel cables and string up something like a suspension bridge, which I wouldn’t know how to do anyway, I’m fresh out of ideas.”

  “So the question becomes, who do we ask?”

  “Steve might know something about this,” Kevin said.

  “Or Karl.”

  “That’s not a bad idea either. We’re going to lunch in a few minutes. You ask Karl if he has any ideas and I’ll check with Steve.” Kevin looked at Lynda’s note again. “In the meantime, tell Lynda we’re working on it and we’ll get back to her with some ideas as soon as we can.”

  Chris nodded. “While you were gone, I told Gen. Crandal that Caezar and Ramen were back and that you wanted to send them to Glenarbour. He thought it was a good idea, and said he’d have a quiet word with them about keeping an eye on Janine. I didn’t actually say we were afraid she’d try something on her own, but I think he figured it out.”

  “Better for them to hear it from him than from me.”

  “And I talked to Karl about working with Gov. Shardin to buy the captives. He said he’d get with Wrenn this afternoon and find out how it works.”

  “Good. Anything else?”

  “Laryn dropped by. She told me to keep Wednesday evening and Saturday afternoon clear this week.”

  Kevin frowned. “Why?”

  “You’re going visiting. Wednesday night you’re having dinner with your Uncle Kyle, and Saturday afternoon you’re visiting your Uncle Shadron.”

  Kevin’s frown deepened. “What are you talking about?”

  “Laryn wants to introduce Steve to her family, and since you’ve never been to see them, she’s killing two birds with one stone.”

  “Why now?”

  “Steve and Laryn are getting married, and she wants them to meet him before the wedding.”

  Kevin nodded. “Okay, but why do I have to go?”

  “She thinks it’s time you got to know them, and from the way she told me to keep those slots open, I don’t think you’ll be able to use being busy as an excuse.”

  Kevin shook his head. “How are the wedding plans coming along?”

  “I’m trying to stay out of it, but from the bits I’ve heard, I’d say fine.”

  “Anything I need to know?”

  “Plenty, but that’s next month. Let’s get through this one first. And you’ll be going to visit the rest of your relatives over the next couple of weeks, so before you make any plans, check with me.” Chris stood up. “Now, let’s get some lunch.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Kevin caught up with Steve right as he was leaving the dining room. After Kevin explained Lynda’s problem, Steve asked, “What’s causing the bridge to collapse? Is the water sweeping it away? Or are the supports giving away?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well, if water’s hitting the bridge, all she needs to do is raise it. If the supports are failing, she may need a wedge in front of them so the water splits and doesn’t hit them head on.”

  “What kind of wedges?” Kevin asked. “Wood?”

  “I was thinking more along the lines of concrete.

  “Do they have that here?”

  Steve chuckled and waved at the castle. “They had to use something to hold all these rocks together.”

  “Would that work in a river?”

  “Could you get us some volcanic ash?”

  “Volcanic ash?”

  Steve nodded. “I’m not sure what they use here, but both the Greeks and Romans added volcanic ash to their concrete mixture to make it stronger, especially in water.
”

  “Volcanic ash I could come up with, but how do we make concrete? All I know about it is it comes in a big truck and gets dumped out on the ground. Not exactly useful to Lynda.”

  Steve laughed. “It’s not hard to make, but I’m sure they already have something that will work. Why don’t we ask someone from the grounds crew where they get it?”

  “Because it’s probably one of those things we’re supposed to already know.”

  “Okay. Let me talk to Laryn and see what she says. I’ll get back to you this afternoon.”

  Kevin nodded. “And could you draw a picture of the wedges you’re talking about? I can’t explain any of this, but I can show her a drawing.”

  Steve nodded. “Sure, no problem.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  After Kevin explained Steve’s ideas to Chris, he asked if Karl had had any ideas.

  “He suggested raising the bridge and putting large supports near the bank and more narrow ones in the middle,” Chris answered. “So, what should we tell her?”

  “Let’s give her both suggestions and let her decide what she wants to try, but I’m not going to do anything until Steve gets back to me about the wedges.”

  A knock on the door interrupted them. When Chris opened it, Laryn came in and shut the door behind her. “Any particular reason you didn’t ask me about your bridge problem?” she asked as she sat down.

  Kevin shook his head. “To be honest, I didn’t think about it.”

  “Because I’m not a sorcerer?”

  As Kevin nodded he felt his face heat up with embarrassment, but he wasn’t sure why. “Did Steve tell you what he suggested?”

  Laryn nodded. “And I think his idea might work, but before you have a young sorcerer try it, you might want to discuss it with a more experienced sorcerer.”

  “Anyone in particular?” Kevin asked, frowning. He’d considered talking to Warren about it, but he had a feeling she had someone else in mind.

  “Badec’s first choice was always Shadron,” Laryn answered. “But you could go to any of them. They’d all be happy to help out. Or you could get all of them together and let them tackle it as a group, but if you go that route, you’ll get a lot more information than you need and it’ll be a day-long event, which is why Badec usually worked with one at a time, and he always started with Shadron.”

  “But I don’t know him.”

  “That’s not exactly true,” Chris said. “You met all of them at your father’s funeral.”

  “Met them. Didn’t get to know them,” Kevin pointed out. “Laryn, if I met Shadron on the street, I wouldn’t recognize him, and I doubt he’d recognize me.”

  “You might not recognize him, but every one of them would recognize you, but I understand what you’re saying,” Laryn said. “Which is why it’s so important for you to get to know them. And since I’ve already made arrangements for you to have lunch with Shadron Saturday, you can talk to him about the bridge then. In fact, the two of you could go to Zander, look at the bridge that’s causing problems, and help her fix it. Why don’t you let her know to expect you Saturday afternoon?”

  “What? I can’t do that,” Kevin said. “That would be rude.”

  “How?”

  “This is your visit, to let Shadron get to know Steve. And besides, you need to know someone before you ask them to help you out. I don’t know him at all.”

  “This is how you get to know him,” Laryn said. “Look, I know my brother. He’ll want to meet Steve, but he’d rather be off solving a problem somewhere than listening to me and Kayla talk about the wedding. It’ll be all Steve can do to sit there. He’d probably rather go with the two of you. Now that’s an idea. He can go with you. That would be perfect.”

  “Steve’s never traveled through the energy field before,” Kevin said slowly. “Won’t it embarrass him if it makes him sick?”

  Laryn shrugged. “He’ll go through it when we go to Kyle’s Wednesday, and then again when we go to Shadron’s. If it hits him too hard, he can stay with me at Shadron’s. Let’s see what he says after he’s been through it a couple of times.”

  There had been some banging going on the whole time they’d been talking, but now it seemed louder.

  “What is that?” Kevin asked, looking over at Chris. “Is someone building something in our reception area?”

  “I don’t know,” Chris answered as he got up and opened the door.

  Alek was standing on the other side of the door with his hand up ready to knock. Chris stepped back and motioned him in.

  “What’s going on out there?” Kevin asked.

  Alek frowned and then asked, “The hammering?”

  Kevin nodded.

  “Cpt. Darrell is working on something outside. He called it a playground. He’s making a big box right now, and he asked me to ask you to go get a couple of barrels of sand. I think he plans to put the sand in the box, but I’m not sure how as it doesn’t have a bottom.”

  Kevin grinned. “I think I know what he’s making. I’ll go get him some sand.”

  “Good,” Alek said, relieved. “He said you don’t have to go today if you don’t have time. Tomorrow morning will be soon enough.”

  “This afternoon isn’t as full as tomorrow morning,” Chris said quietly.

  “In that case, I’ll have one of the pages deliver the message to Cpt. Darrell.” Alek looked at Kevin. “I’m not sure how it happened, but apparently neither Rigel nor I were available when you went to Ashmont this morning. I’d hate for that to happen again so I’ll be right outside the door.”

  “Thank you, Alek.”

  Alek pulled the door to as he stepped outside.

  “I think he’s upset with you,” Chris said.

  “You shouldn’t duck out on your bodyguards,” Laryn said. “If something happens to you when they aren’t with you, everyone will see it as their fault.”

  “So it would be better for me to get hurt or killed with one of them with me?” Kevin asked, only half kidding.

  Laryn nodded. “Yes, as far as their sense of duty is concerned. If someone hurts you while one of them is with you, they’ll second guess what they could have done differently to prevent it, and I’m sure the other guards will pick apart what they did or didn’t do, but at least you weren’t alone. No one can say you got hurt because they neglected their duty. That’s their nightmare.”

  Chris cleared his throat. “I’ll let Lynda know you’ll be there sometime Saturday afternoon to look at the bridge and offer suggestions, okay?”

  Kevin nodded as he stood up. “And I guess Alek and I need to go get some sand.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  While Kevin was filling two barrels with sand, Landis was trying to fill a ball that existed only in her mind with energy she could neither see nor touch, and she was getting very frustrated.

  “This whole thing is ridiculous,” Landis mumbled as she shook her arms and shuffled her feet. She felt like she’d been standing in one spot for days instead of hours. “There’s got to be a catch to this, some trick, and I need to know what it is. I bet Glendymere knows.”

  “I’m sure if there was something that would make this easier, he’d have told you this morning. It’s probably one of those things sorcerers have to figure out for themselves, but once you do, it’ll become easier.” Rhianna stood up and stretched. “You’re drawing magical energy up into your body a lot better today than you did Saturday. That’s something at least.”

  “If you say so,” Landis growled, shaking her head as she raked her fingers through her hair.

  “Let’s go outside and walk around a bit, get some fresh air.”

  “I’m all for anything that gets me out of this room.”

  As they walked through the cave towards the entrance, Landis said her head was hurting.

  Rhianna nodded. “Probably from concentrating so hard. We might need to take a few more breaks.”

  Glendymere was standing outside the cave entrance. “Taking more breaks is a good idea.
That’s one of the things Chris insisted on with Myron.” He thought for a moment and then added, “I’ll get Myron to bring Chris Sunday morning. The two of you can talk while Myron and I work on his reflexes. Chris might have some suggestions about ways you can help Landis.”

  Rhianna glanced over at her friend. “I’ll take all the help I can get, and the sooner, the better.”

  Glendymere’s chuckle sounded like rumbling thunder. “After your headache eases off, Landis, come back inside. I’ll tune into your mind and see how you’re coming with filling your ball with energy.”

  “I can tell you exactly how I’m coming,” Landis snapped. “I’m not. I’m not sure I even have a ball, much less any energy in it.”

  Glendymere nodded at Rhianna. “She definitely needs more breaks. See you both back inside.” He walked into the cave and down the hall towards his sleeping chamber.

  “Great. Now he can see for himself how hopeless I am,” Landis said as she walked around, swinging her arms.

  “Didn’t you say you wanted him to tell you how to do this? Sounds like that’s what he has in mind. You should be pleased.”

  “No, I said he should have told me how to do it to start with.”

  “Whatever you say. I’m done arguing with you. Let me know when your headache’s better so we can get back to work.”

  Landis walked along the bank of the stream that ran through the canyon. She followed it all the way to the end, where it went underground to feed the larger stream that would eventually surface and flow into the Pooley River. She watched the water swirl and swish as it rushed into the ground, almost as if it were laughing. A small part of her wished she could join in the fun and ride all the way to the Agrenon Bay. A larger part wished she could hitch a ride with the hawk flying overhead and go back to Crinsor Run.

  Unfortunately, for the foreseeable future, she was stuck here, in this canyon, or more precisely, in that little room off Glendymere’s sleeping chamber.

  Landis turned around and walked back to the front of the cave entrance where Rhianna was waiting. “Guess we might as well get this over with,” Landis said as she passed by Rhianna on her way into the cave.