Danica Pt. 14

Even the endless sand in the distance had its beauty, the rolling dunes almost looking as though sculpted. Danica knew the artist that had shaped the hills was the wind. The water of the river cleared as they traveled upstream, and Danica noticed large fish swimming below the boat, as well as the occasional crocodile of monstrous size.

Fishing boats frequently passed, and from the few nets Danica saw pulled on board the vessels, she guessed that the fishing was good on the river. Likewise, the boat passed people bathing and washing in the river, unashamed in their nudity.

After two days on the river, the ship pulled up toward the shore. Danica furled her brow, as saw no dock or sign of civilization. As the boat moved closer, she saw another dusky-skinned man appear on the shore.

Danica barely stepped off the vessel before it swung back out into the current to travel back down river. Danica frowned and thought yet again that this task was not starting out well.

She then turned to the man walking toward her on the shore. Something about his dress sparked her memory, and she guessed where she must be.

There was a small group of people who lived in a desert surrounded by mountain peaks a few hundred miles from where Danica had lived and grown up. They were a very closed society, but she had seen some drawings of their dress and descriptions of how they lived. It was said that the ancestors of the people were blown off course in a storm and somehow managed to survive an unprecedented sea crossing by some miracle. Having no way of returning home, the people searched for a home in the strange new land where they found themselves. In time, they found the desert and settled there. The culture worshipped dead rulers as gods, as well as a host of deities often depicted as part animal. Not much else was known of them, because they avoided contact with outsiders.

"My greetings to you, Danica. Please to come with me," the man said in heavily accented common tongue. Danica nodded and felt relieved that he was at least more cordial than the people on the ships.

"I am being Unas, and I am being your guide," he continued while leading Danica away from the river. Danica saw a mud brick building and small patches of cultivated land as they walked up from the river level inland. As the only thing visible, Danica assumed the small house was their destination.

Upon entering, Danica noticed the inside of the building was much cooler than natural. It took only moments to determine that a version of the cooling comfort spell chased away the sun's heat within the dwelling. The man sighed when they entered, and Danica shared his relief as they left the heat outside.

The inside of the building was a single room, divided into a sleeping and cooking area. The man turned with a smile after they entered. "Please to be welcome in my home. Great Master Zoraster, blessings upon his name, will speak to you through the glass soon." Unas gestured to a mirror that looked completely out of place in the structure.

Unas then sighed dramatically. "I must to be leaving my blessed sanctuary for the accursed heat once more. My work I must be tending to. Please to call if need of me you have."

"Thank you," Danica responded, and Unas bowed his head to her before leaving. Danica looked around and saw there was nowhere to sit except the bed, a wooden affair without a mattress. Danica sighed and felt relieved when she noticed the gathering magic that told her the mirror was activating.

Danica watched until the image of Zoraster formed in the mirror. "Your task is in two parts. First, you shall establish an outpost in the nearby city for me. You will need to petition the local government for this right. To these ends, you shall soon be provided with rare spices that surely will pique his interest. Your own appearance will serve you well also, as you will soon doubtless discover.

"You will also be provided with the necessary funds to construct the outpost and hire servants to maintain it when needful. You may construct the outpost as you wish, and develop a teleportation pattern of your own design for use inside it. Once this is complete, the next part of your task will be revealed to you. Remain in the city until the outpost is complete."

"I understand," Danica responded, and the image in the mirror vanished almost instantly. Danica thought that the Archmage looked distracted and irritated. She smiled a little and said, "Good," when she thought about that prospect.

Danica looked around at the bare dwelling and sighed. "At least I'm not out in the heat."

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

Zoraster turned from the mirror and banished its magic as soon as Danica acknowledged her understanding of the task before her. Immediately, he turned to another mirror and watched the scene playing out with a scowl. His lip twitched spastically in a sneer as he watched.

In the mirror, a shapely red-haired woman in black robes stood before a dust-covered shop counter, obviously in the midst of spell casting. Zoraster watched as the woman concentrated for a few minutes. When the woman opened her eyes, she swore and stomped her foot. She picked up a dust covered scrap of paper from the counter behind her and looked at it for a moment, and then laid it back down with another stomp of her foot. "Where are you, Danica? Something is very wrong here," the woman said and then vanished in a flash of light.

Zoraster cursed and waved his hand before the mirror. The image in the mirror wavered for a moment, and then showed another place.

The red-haired woman appeared in the mirror, walking toward a desk occupied by a silver-bearded man in purple robes and a conical hat. "Did you discover anything, Devan?" the silver-haired man asked.

Devan shook her head. "She's not dead, or in another plane or dimension. She's somewhere in this world and alive, but I can't locate her."

"You believe she is in danger?"

"I'm not sure, Master Darkniciad. She's gone on journeys without a word before, but she's never vanished for more than a few months. This time she's been gone for years, with absolutely no word sent to anyone. I don't like it at all. I can't locate her. Nobody in town has seen or heard from her. Zoraster knows nothing. She seems to have vanished off the face of the world."

"This is troubling. We should turn all our resources to finding her. Too many wielders of Art have vanished mysteriously of late. You say Zoraster knows nothing -- do you trust him?"

Devan shrugged. "No more or less than I ever have. I'm just at my wits end and he has people scattered over the entire world."

"That troubles me. Something dark awakened in Zoraster as his powers grew. He is powerful and dangerous. For now, I hear only rumors of the same sort that might be spread about you or me amongst a populace that fears powerful wizards, but something about them rings true with him."

Devan shrugged again. "He was always strange and secretive. He was a good lover who didn't try to take more than I was offering. We parted on bad terms when he left here, but he's never lied to me that I know of, and often times I have found his information useful."

Darkniciad brought his hand up to rub his beard. "I believe anything he offered benefited him as well. Zoraster has ambitions, and I am not convinced they do not include large-scale domination. He is vastly intelligent -- his studies here showed that well enough."

"I'm worried about my sister right now. Zoraster can wait."

Darkniciad nodded. "I agree, for we know nothing with assurance regarding Zoraster, while there is good reason to believe Danica may be in..." The wizard raised his head up and cocked his head as if listening, slowly turning his head to home in on Zoraster's scrying.

Zoraster swore and banished the magic of the mirror. He knew Darkniciad and Devan -- and their defenses -- well enough to evade detection as he spied upon them. Nothing was perfect when dealing with adversaries as powerful as the two wizards, as his near detection now pointedly proved.

Zoraster paced back and forth a few steps in front of the mirror, and then stopped, lost in thought. After a few minutes, he raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly. "Perhaps there is a way to turn this to my advantage on both fronts. Perhaps I might stop them from searching for my little rose, and give them reason to turn their attention away from me as well."

The Archmage's smile grew wider and darker as he considered his plan. When he finished working out the details, he went to set it in motion. It would take some time, but not so much as to prove a danger.

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

I hope you liked this tale, and will continue to read Danica's ongoing story. Please take a moment to vote, and perhaps comment. That's the only payment a free author gets, and every bit of feedback is most appreciated!

You may find later chapters have some flubs and grammar issues, until I finish posting all the edits. Look for the note at the beginning of each chapter about my editor, Roust, and that will let you know whether the chapter is newly edited.