To Be a Maestro Page 9

  Zaccum gave a nod of his head. “I will take your word for true and work with the man.”

  “I do not need another instant trip elsewhere to convince me,” Jonah was quick to add, no doubt thinking of the last time he challenged Daniel’s word.

  The bell rang and it was the first time Daniel realized the room had one, seeing as not a soul had seen fit to use it until now. “Enter,” he called out.

  Jaim Cutler came in with a bucket of rocks and stopped when he spotted the two men sitting in front of the desk. “I thought the meeting was over.”

  Jonah did not bother to sit back down. “We just finished,” he said and then turned to his host. “Unless there is anything more you wish to discuss.”

  Daniel stood up. “No, I believe we have finished.”

  Sergeant Zaccum gave a nod to the Chosen Vessel, sprang to his feet, and then exited behind Jonah.

  Daniel had plans for the rocks, yet it was late in the night, and he had not slept in two days. “Jaim, set the bucket here on my desk, and then consider yourself off duty. I’m going to bed.”

  “It will be as you say, Sir Daniel,” the young doorkeeper replied, and then placed the bucket where he was told and went out into the common room.

  Daniel no sooner stepped out of his office, about to shut the door, when Samuel and Simon walked up. “We would like to give you a report on our meeting with the Pentrosans,” the sandy-haired Accomplished of the Willow Guild stated in a soft voice.

  Daniel held back the sigh that was about to escape him and motioned for them to enter his office. He went in and sat on the front of his desk rather than going behind. “How did it go?”

  Samuel’s lips formed into a sideways smile. “Are we boring you? One would think by the lack of enthusiasm in your tone and facial expression that you already know the answer.”

  Simon looked at the former Teki askance and then his right eyebrow rose up speculatively, yet did not comment on whatever he concluded, choosing instead to give the report. “General Kall never showed. Sam told the Pentrosan Lieutenant his forces involved themselves in a raid against a Nest of the Serpent Guild and then each of us gave a brief description of our parts, leaving out any mention of you. That is what you had in mind, a delicate pruning of the facts.”

  “Yes, Simon, that is what I had in mind and you all did well,” Daniel replied and smiled, genuinely pleased they had succeeded. He hopped from his desk, ready to head off to bed.

  “We have something more to discuss,” Samuel spoke up before Daniel could take more than a step.

  “Why do you have a bucket of rocks on your desk?” Simon asked while lifting it up and examining the contents.

  Daniel chuckled. “Is that what you want to discuss?”

  “Me, yes,” Simon replied. He seemed always curious and ever ready to figure out the how and why of things, a trait he had demonstrated in the past.

  Samuel shook his head at the sandy-haired Aakacarn. The former Teki was always in a hurry and no doubt wanted to get straight to his point. “Before we talk about your rocks, I think we should discuss the flute of Della Lain. Don’t frown, this is important.”

  Daniel had a fairly good notion where this conversation would lead, why would he not frown? Sherree had used the same issue to alter his expression earlier. The difference being the Accomplished of the Eagle Guild was serious. “The flute is safe.”

  “Somewhere in your uniform,” Simon accurately stated.

  “Can you think of a safer place?” Daniel challenged him.

  “No,” the sandy-haired Accomplished replied and the genuineness of his smile led Daniel to believe the answer to be heart-felt.

  “Yes,” Samuel stated flatly, thick eyebrows near to meeting. He cast a harsh-eyed glance at Simon and then turned back to the person he clearly wanted to convince. “The flute belongs in Aakadon. Oceanic Varroon can safeguard the crescendo until we turn it over to the Maestros.”

  Daniel could not hold back his emotions, he started laughing and Simon joined in while Samuel turned red in the face, clearly seeing nothing funny. “I am serious,” he stated firmly.

  Daniel took a breath, held it briefly, and stopped laughing. “No offense, but I don’t believe your Maestros capable of protecting a lamb from a wolf, they allowed Serin Gell to escape. I do not trust them with the key to Tarin Conn’s prison.”

  Samuel puffed up and seemed on the verge of arguing further, but then his eyes flicked to Daniel’s shoulders, all those golden lightning bolts in plain view, and the Fledgling took a deep breath and held it for a count of thirty. He raised his right arm, as in a gesture of desperation, and the silk sleeve of his cloak dropped down, revealing the stump “All of the Accomplisheds respect you and your intention to keep the crescendo safe, yet they all, except apparently Simon, believe the flute is safest in Aakadon. Will you at least agree to consider the idea?”

  Daniel had made his decision yet felt sad for his friend’s loss, and was tired, which affected his answer. “I’ll sleep on it.”

  “Good, now what are the rocks for?” Simon seemed to consider the matter closed.

  Daniel glanced at the bucket and then at the Teki before answering the question. “I can use some of them to restore Samuel’s right hand.”

  Simon’s eyebrows arched up excitedly, as though he had full confidence in what his friend had claimed, and eager to see it done, while Samuel shook his head and said, “What?” as if he misheard.

  “I can use some of the rocks to restore your hand,” Daniel assured him.

  Samuel’s facial expressions went from happy to incredulous to hopefully optimistic as his eyebrows raised and lowered, frown lines appeared and disappeared on his forehead, and finally settled into wonderment. “How, there is nothing here to heal?” He asked while holding up his handless right arm as if to prove the point.

  Daniel was not sure his friend would like the answer, yet it was the only hope of restoring the appendage. “The same way I restored the parts that were missing from the Condemneds.”

  Samuel took a few moments, seeming lost in thought and then smiled. “Can you give me a muscular body like you did them and an extra lightning bolt like you did Sherree?”

  Daniel smiled along with his friend, both of his friends, Simon was grinning from ear to ear. “What, and cheat you out of all that physical exercise and the anticipation of whether or not you’ve grown enough to hold more potential?” Daniel began and then took on a serious tone. “The enhanced physique is a side affect, so yes, you will be in better shape afterwards. I can give you as much potential as you can retain but that does not guarantee an extra bolt.”

  “Will it hurt?” Samuel wisely inquired.

  “The pain would be excruciating, which is why you will be sleeping through the procedure,” Daniel replied, refusing to withhold the truth.

  Samuel licked his lips, clearly thinking the matter over, and coming to a decision, he nodded his head. “Do it.”

  Simon, after setting the bucket on the empty chair behind him, glowed cobalt blue, the color of his potential, and a cushion of solidified air appeared on the desk, which was just long enough for Samuel to stretch out on. “Thanks,” the former Teki told him while taking off his cloak and shirt, and then lay down.

  Daniel cast, Sleep Time, at his patient, rendering him unconscious, and then placed one hand on Samuel’s forehead and the other on his tummy, over the navel. Daniel closed his eyes and, What Is This, played in his mind, allowing him to sense down into Samuel’s recipe strands and even deeper to the tiny worlds with moons spinning around them. Additional worlds and moons would be needed to form the new hand; otherwise they would be drawn from the rest of Sam’s body, which would not be a good thing. The helix-shaped recipe strands contained tiny three dimensional nude pictures of what he ought to look like at his current age with all of his appendages. These will provide the pattern to work with. Daniel pulled back his perception slightly and sensed what the spell interpreted in his mind as being a vat con
taining life force energy, kind of like a cistern or reservoir. Samuel’s vat was smaller than Sherree’s and was three quarters full of what appeared through the spell to be orange liquid. Daniel placed a Da Capo on, What Is This, and then cast, Vitality, sending what appeared to be topaz blue liquid flooding into Samuel, filling his life force container to the brim.

  Daniel ceased, Vitality, and cast, Hunger, to draw the tiny worlds and moons from the rocks and, Change It, to cause them to be what the recipe strands call for, adding Da Capos to sustain the spells. Last of all he directed, Restoration, into Samuel.

  In his mind Daniel could see Samuel’s body changing and his right hand forming out of the stump. At the same time his musculature grew tighter, stronger, bringing him to perfect physical condition. A few moments more and with the work complete, Daniel leaned over and spoke softly into his ear, “Samuel, your brain and will are one. Your body is yours to command,” and then released the Da Capos on all the spells. Sam was still asleep and would be for a while. Even though his bodily condition is improved, the spells had given him a thorough work out and he needed rest.

  Simon plopped down in the third chair in front of the desk. “Ten rocks gradually vanished and Sam’s hand formed right before my eyes.” He remarked, eyes blinking rapidly, and then settled into a stare. “Why did you tell him his brain and will are one and the rest?”

  Daniel hesitated to answer, yet trusted the sandy-haired Aakacarn, and so threw caution to the wind and told him. “Because buried deep within the spell I used to reshape his body is, Condemnation, a Melody composed as you know by Tarin Conn.”

  Simon nodded his head as if accepting a needed piece in a puzzle he had been working on. “I suspected you had regained your former repertoire after you transported us instantly from our position in Pentrosa to this valley, yet that did not explain how you could reverse, Condemnation. In a sense, you are using the same spell, and instead of twisting the person into gross parities of humanity and enslaving their minds, you’re commanding them to have free will, and twisting them back to what they were, only better.”

  Daniel knew Simon to be clever and was not surprised to know he had reasoned out quite a bit. “If I fill in the rest of whatever you suspect about how I accomplished what you have seen here today, will you promise to tell no one else?”

  Simon nodded his head eagerly. “Members of the Eagle Guild could use, Truth Speak, on me, but that is the only way anyone will learn what I know.”

  “I am an Aakasear..,” Daniel began his explanation.

  “A composer of Melodious spells, that’s great. It makes sense the Chosen Vessel would need the talent, else how could you possibly counter Tarin Conn,” Simon interrupted and also further demonstrated his depth of knowledge. Not many people knew of the existence of Aakasears.

  “Your secret is safe with me,” Simon assured him and then smiled. “We are in for a major war and I want to be involved with whatever needs doing. You should be gathering an army and I hope you will allow me to be a part of it. It seems you have made a good beginning,” he stopped and nodded his head as if recalling an observation. “I noticed the vast majority of the people restored to health are enlisting into your service. Yes, you’ve made a good beginning.”

  Daniel appreciated the sentiment and encouragement, yet knew his friend had a career in the Willow Guild and would not be completely free to follow him. “You have already been a big help and I have no doubt you will find a way to be useful in the future.”

  Simon gave a slight bow of the head, the show of respect between Accomplisheds, and Daniel returned it. “So, what are the rocks really for? You had them here before Sam and I arrived.” The clever young man was almost as dogged as Tim Dukane on a hunt.

  “Toiletries,” Daniel replied and laughed when his friend cocked his head sideways as if trying to figure out what the answer meant. “I’ll explain later, tomorrow, it is time for bed. And oh, I think it would be best if you maintain that cushion for Samuel. He needs to wake naturally and this is as good a place for him to sleep as any.”

  “Of course I’ll maintain the cushion and also be looking forward to your explanation of how rocks relate to toiletries,” Simon replied as Daniel guided him out of the office.

  “That is if you have not figured it out by then,” Daniel told him, and would not be a bit surprised if the clever fellow did so.

  Simon winked and walked out of the building, leaving Daniel with a problem. Everybody had a room expect the person whose family emblem was on all of the buildings. He wanted to find wherever Sherree ended up and be with her, yet knew doing so would risk having the other Accomplisheds learn about their marriage.

  He walked through the common room and spotted Marsha Obennen reading a book while sitting on the fourth of five couches, the one closest to the stairs. “Maes-Accomplished Benhannon,” she stuttered, changing her greeting in mid word. For a moment he thought she was going to say, Maestro.

  “Greetings Artisan, I’m surprised to see you still awake. Everyone else seems to have gone to bed,” he spoke to her without mentioning the slip of the tongue.

  Marsha’s lips formed a smile. “You were never given a complete tour of this compound, it occurred to me no one has shown you your quarters, and so I waited to do the honor.”

  Daniel felt blessed to have people anticipating his needs, seeing as he tended to think of those necessities as they occurred rather than planning ahead. His chores seemed to have grown so big they gave him less time to focus on ordinary concerns. “You are kind to think of that and I’m thankful you did.”

  Marsha set the book aside and stood up. “It is my pleasure. Come with me.”

  She led him up the stairs and to the first door on the right. “Of course we gave you the largest room. Perhaps on the morrow I can show you the rest of the compound.”

  “I will look forward to it,” he told her and then they exchanged respectful nods of the head and she went back down the stairs.

  The room was twice the size of the one in which he and Sherree consummated their marriage, complete with cushioned chairs, a writing table, Maplewood wardrobe, and a huge bed opposite the window. A turquoise rug covered the entire floor. Daniel walked over to the nearest wall and placed his hand on the stone surface. It was time to be familiarized with his entire holding. In his mind played the spell, Fashioning. Potential flowed out of him and into the wall. His awareness spread out, allowing him to see each room, not the occupants, the over all structures, and he soon learned the layout of the entire building, water pipes and all. He sent his awareness down into the bedrock and over to building one, learned the layout and then went under the ground and into each of the other builds. This done, he followed the bedrock out to the stables and then beyond to the stone wall. The structure surrounded the entire holding and was made from one solid piece rather than thousands of individual stones. Fashioning not only allowed him to thoroughly examine a structure, it also gave him the ability to alter it. The Accomplisheds of the Stone Guild had done such a wonderful job; he could not see where the compound needed altering.

  He thought of one improvement they were not capable of doing, seeing as their spells were limited and could not be changed. An Aakasear is limited only by his talent and imagination; an Aakacarn can only perform what is written. He placed a Da Capo on the spell, Fashioning, summoned the potential for, Shield All, and then focused the life force energy at the wall, tying the Da Capo to the residual energy in his hunting knife. The variable shield can be shaped however he wanted and would be invisible to even the eyes of an Aakacarn, unless they focus potential at it, and then the shield would absorb the energy and strengthen. Nothing in the world could crack that wall. Even so the protection would be limited. An ordinary army could scale the wall at any point with ladders, grapnels, or whatever other way they could figure out. Aakacarns could levitate up and over the wall or tunnel under, yet the shield provided at least some degree of protection. He could place the shield on the walls of each
building, and might if the situation called for it, but doing so would limit his ability to reenter using, Conveyance. He would have to drop the shield in order to return.

  That finished he decided it was time to learn who and what was in his vicinity. He closed his eyes, summoned the potential for, Find All, and extended his potential out in a five span radius. Men, women, Aakacarns, these were among the first he sensed. He easily identified those whom he had healed, including the men at Fort Casum. The only people he could not recognize through the spell were those he had never touched, sensing only that they were human and nothing more. The Aakacarns occupied building one exclusively; Marsha was heading there right now, everyone else was in the other buildings, including Sherree, who apparently chose building three, and Samuel who was asleep in Daniel’s office. Ronn and Miriam, Tim, Gina, David and Silvia, were in building two, in three separate rooms, and on the same floor as Daniel. His awareness settled only an instant on his two friends and the pair of Teki, seeing as they were newlyweds and doing with each other what he wished he could be doing with Sherree. Daniel quickly focused his attention elsewhere.

  Animals small and great appeared in his mind’s eye. Most of the creatures in his swirl were near, yet many more animals occupied these lands that were not linked to him, the majority of which he would leave alone. Scores of hawks and falcons were nesting far up in the treetops and these might be useful; they along with his ospreys could help him a great deal. The swirling of events might have placed them at the right place at the right time, Daniel chose not to question the opportunity presented to him, just take advantage of it. Presently, only eight falcons and three hawks were in trees close enough for him to form a link. Some of them had fledglings and eggs. One hundred strides was his limit, unless he used a crescendo, but that would be detected by the Aakacarns in the compound. His trust in them extended only so far, knowing their true loyalties lay in Aakadon, so he kept most of his spell casting below their notice, and used trickles of potential woven finer than a human hair to accomplish his tasks; the recent exceptions being Conveyance and the healing of Samuel.