Dusty Tomes

By Seth Giolle

A lot has changed in a few months. Iroquois Falls is under siege with Gordon and his Raiders fighting for their lives. The Northern Sanctuary is also under siege as wizards and mages under Mirazdan’s control seek to breech its defences and turn its once peaceful magickers into even more soldiers to his cause.
But Angelina isn’t fighting either battle. She’s following her recent vision to a city in Egypt, at the centre of a Negation Zone where no magic can be summoned. She and StarBen must find the secrets concealed within Mirazdan’s plaques before he can enact his plan of re-opening the rift between their dimension and that of the Algrinai.
They must find a way to foil his efforts, or it won’t be Iroquois Falls and the north at risk. Few survived the last time the Algrinai were called over from across the veil. It would be the world turned asunder under the weight of a new apocalypse, and human and wizard-kind have barely crawled out from under the last!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9780359055654

Seth Giolle

Seth Giolle was born on a small, rural farm in southeast Ontario. After Travelling throughout Canada in all its splendour, he once again makes Ontario his home.

Book preview

Dusty Tomes

Book 9 of the Future Kings Saga

By Seth Giolle

Other Books in the

Future Kings Saga

Stalkers

Kasheteh

Canchock

Sides in a War

Casting Shadows

The Karzalean Key

Lost Idols

Mirazdan’s Mirrors

Dusty Tomes

Negation

Desert

Flutter

Black Water

Reality and Fantasy

Etmo

Masque

Dusty Tomes

Puzzles

Blocks

Renewed

Inference

Death

Prophecy by Design

Final Confrontations

Further In

plaqueOriginal1smallish

Negation

Chapter One

Angelina hated the sun. And she hated the dark. Trudging up another sand dune as the sun was sinking along the horizon, at that point, she hated everything. She especially hated walking. And bugs. She hissed at the small bug cloud that hovered nearby, subconsciously summoning a wind spell to send them on their way. Of course, nothing happened.

Right, she groaned softly, Negation Zone.

She hated that too.

Hoisting her pack up an inch, she found that one spot where something poked through into her lower back, ever so inconveniently of course. She stopped to adjust the pack and lose that irritation, and she sunk a little in the loose sand, also sliding down the dune before coming to a stop, several grains still sliding further down.

Taking one step to slide back two, she grumbled, still working the tent pole nub back into the tightly packed mass she was carrying.

She started back up again. Her feet really did lose traction, and it certainly felt like she slid back two steps for every forward step she made. It was exhausting walking on sand, and even with the day ending, it still was horribly hot in the desert.

Her hooded cloak was beige and heavy. And it itched. She’d have loved to remove it a long time ago, but she knew better than to reveal too much skin. As it was, she had a face mask to keep her from staring at too much desert at once. Apparently that would blind her. Something like that.

For all I know, she joked, he just made that up.

She knew better to test that theory.

He was normally right.

Apparently the water sacks she had sewn into the inner lining of her cloak would all evaporate if she did more than trudge endlessly, so no over-exertion. Which made the trudge that much longer.

Her boots were built for hiking. They’d been StarBen’s insistence as well; she’d suggested sandals. He’d actually laughed at that. It was the first time she’d seen him laugh, ever.

It had been kind of strange. And unsettling.

Anyway, her get-up helped keep her cool, but not cool enough for her liking. She was still sweating way too much, and with the face covering, she had to reach up under it to keep that sweat from her eyes. The hood and face cloth, a slit cut out for her to see through, were both damp and clung to her skin. It felt so strange and wrong, yet another on the list of why she wanted to go home.

Spot those camels yet, StarBen? she called ahead. Reaching the top of that dune, she sneered. He was already three dunes ahead! How was he doing it? Slow down! she shouted, trying to pick up speed, but her feet just sunk further in, and she nearly flipped over. She’d done that a few times since they’d started across too. Glaring ahead, she resumed her trudge. Fine. Be like that. You’ll have to stop at one point when you finally notice I’m not even close behind you.

He didn’t. Not for another hour.

By then, the sun was mostly down, and Angelina had all the torches they’d packed, so she found him waiting on the top of an oval dune staring back at her quizzically.

What? she barked.

I thought you were in better shape, the old wizard mumbled, turning her around to pry the two torches from their place under her pack straps. You did hike north with us? he checked sarcastically.

That was a few years ago, she shot back, more than a little irritated, and on Canadian Shield, not sand. And I’ve been using the Canchock to cover long distances since then, as have you. Aren’t you at least a little sore? she groaned. His pack was as big as hers. You’ve got to be at least eighty. He frowned, brows raised. What? Older?

Not the point, he groaned. He tapped the heads of those torches with a smooth black stone, then, knocked on each one twice, and they took flame. And not even close.

Angelina wasn’t trying to be rude, but she was sore and tired and just wanted to be there already. And he had a way of forgetting to mention little, important details, often. Like how torturous hiking through the desert would be. He hadn’t shaken that bad habit in all the years she’d known him. She figured, at this point, that he never would. Too many years spent as a hermit before she’d met him.

So older? she teased. He huffed, nearly throwing her torch back at her. Older, she decided, StarBen strutting on again. Walk slower, she urged, more like pleaded. I need someone to talk to.

He grudgingly slowed, and she matched his pace. At least they were walking along the top of a singular dune now, no more ups and downs for a while.

He’d opted for a more traditional, brimmed hat and beige cloak, though he’d been considering regular pants to blend in with local travelers, of whom they’d seen none, no trappers or camel herders or anybody. She was a little concerned they’d wandered way off track into a dead valley of some sort.

Spread your stance a little more, he instructed, like I am. It uses less energy on this terrain, and try to walk more up right. That will ease the wear on your legs.

The pack’s heavy, she grumbled.

There’s a reason for that.

I know. She tried a patient smile, but it failed her. You are sure we’re headed in the right direction? We’re not lost? He pointed up into the sky, and she sighed. Yes, I know, we’re following three stars, but are you sure those are the same three stars we’re supposed to be following. What if we spend another couple of days in this desolate wasteland only to find a dried skeleton and nest of carnivorous lizards?

He didn’t even grace her with an answer.

She really didn’t get why anyone would put up a Negation Zone in the first place. He’d told it was to protect the inhabitants from magical attacks. They’d be safe since no one could use magic for miles around them, but that meant they’d chosen to live without magic themselves. She really didn’t get how wizards could consider such a life having known what good magic could do for them. And how near impossible it was to live without it!

I just wish I had some more reassurance, she moaned.

Her pack really was heavy. She wasn’t just whining and irritable. Though she conceded she was both of the above. She realized she hadn’t worn a real pack with real items in it since her days at the orphanage. Gordon had worn a full pack on their trip to South America, but she and Simon had only worn the outer shell with maybe five simple objects each.

Magic had provided endless food and water and whatever else they’d needed. And even when they’d visited Africa, just the three of them, it hadn’t been this hot. Again, magic had provided cool skies.

Thinking of water, she squirreled out a straw and sucked out some water from inside her cloak. That water sack went dry, and she tapped the next one. Three full sacks left. They needed to find more water soon. She didn’t like being so low in such a harsh environment.

Trust in your dreams, he advised.

I’m trying not to think about them, she returned, feeling more perturbed. They brought us out here. She’d been figuring recently that the visions had been a bad omen from the start. She just hadn’t known better. She’d shared them, and he’d taken them seriously. That and your insistence that this is a city we need to find.

He was nodding quietly, looking ahead and around. She’d wanted someone to talk to, and he was in one of his contemplative moods again. Great.

You’re sure we’ll find what we need in this place?

I’m sure of it.

Tell me you’re at least a little tired?

He smirked and nodded. My calves are burning and joints aching, he conceded, but I expected as much, so I see little point in complaining.

I feel better knowing I’m not alone in my agony.

His smirk faded, and he frowned anew.

What are you looking for?

He shrugged. Birds, he finally revealed. They mark our mounts, and I can’t see them anymore. Angelina glanced around, startled. She did remember hearing and seeing birds for most of the first day, but not so much this second day into their trip.

So the camels really are dead? she assumed.

Or we’re drawing close enough to the city, the source of this Negation Zone, that even the bird spell has failed, and it was one of the strongest I know.

How close?

Can’t be more than two more days, he figured with a grunting sound. I just hope the direction spell doesn’t fail as well, or those camels could end up anywhere. And anyone could end up with our plaques. She offered a long blink to his latest distracted moment. Seeing this, he shook his head. The very person who’s trying to recover them for example? he prompted tiredly.

Angelina closed her eyes. Oh, yeah. Now she really wanted to know where the camels were. She’d hate to have come all this way and face this much exhaustion, heat, and sand just so Mirazdan could get his plaques back. That would really annoy her!

Do you think he knows we’ve brought them here? She had to keep him talking before he fell into another funk.

StarBen hummed and hawed a moment. It’s impossible to say. The only people who know for sure are us and Scriptor. We didn’t tell anyone else. And the Council of course, he added absent-mindedly, Angelina nodding. She expected him to come up with a few more in time. But they had to know, he insisted. They’ve been helping us study and catalogue them, what good it’s been. And there’re those who were guarding the portal we used to exit the sanctuary, he mused. I forgot about them.

You don’t say.

As irritating as he could be, he was entertaining, and she did really like him, not only because he was crazy good with magic and her master, and because he’d led her from Iroquois Falls and a miserable life that first trek, but because he genuinely cared. Even as much as she frustrated him as much as he annoyed her, he’d yet to give up on her. She had to give him a lot of credit for that one. With some of the mistakes she’d made since first learning magic, she’d have at least considered stopping her training way more than once.

She considered mentioning how she’d told Gordon they were headed for Egypt before they’d left, so there was another lead Mirazdan could maybe tap. She decided to skip mentioning that part, at least for now.

Which had her mind wandering.

Scriptor and a few others had moved in to reinforce Gordon’s defensive efforts. Their attempts at destroying the plaque moulds hidden under Iroquois Falls had failed, and Mirazdan could still work through Segru to send another army against the town. If he succeeded, he could then simply remake the plaques he still needed for his set. He could just make a whole new set for that matter, and all their efforts to get them away to safety would have been wasted. The added magickers to defend those moulds would be essential until a real solution could be found.

Angelina couldn’t help but feel she should be back at Iroquois Falls defending those plaque moulds too, hence a lot of her current frustration.

Simon had vanished to go find his mother and make sure she was alright. Angelina wondered if it would be another year before she’d hear from him again.

If he has wizards in his control, StarBen pointed out, swatting at a bug on his hand and flicking it away, wizards that are monitoring the portals, they may have sensed us leaving the north. You don’t use up that much magical energy without leaving a trace, so there’s a good chance he’ll send wizards to intercept and retrieve. Let’s just hope we get there, with the plaques, and find some information that will tell us exactly what he’s planning on doing to bring the Algrinai back into our world.

Scriptor thinks I’m crazy, doesn’t he? No answer. She knew it! I didn’t imagine it all, she insisted, really. Seriously, I wouldn’t drag you out here for no reason. And she meant it.

I believe you, he muttered, smiling distractedly, then, wavering on a frown. I am here with you after all. As for Scriptor, he questions everything. It’s one of his greatest strengths, one of any wizard’s greatest strengths really.

Yeah, she rued, but he questioned her more than most. He always had. There really was nothing in the old Council archives about Mirazdan and the plaques?

Angelina had felt a little better learning StarBen hadn’t known about Mirazdan all along after finally reconnecting