The Rise of Isaac, Books 1-3, page 57
"It's okay," Anna's voice floated down to him as if from a distance. His leg was hot with blood and he could feel it seeping down onto the ground around him.
Oliver's heart slowed and the noise around him became a muffled din. Calm washed over him as the veil of darkness drew across his mind and took him somewhere far away.
36
The Archives
One Month Ago
William stepped out of the portal into a quiet alley in Aleva where a ginger cat hissed at him and hurried away.
It had taken a while to teach Kogure to transport him somewhere inconspicuous instead of him materialising in the middle of a busy street. They had practiced on uninhabited islands in Brinatin and his accuracy was getting better each time. Once familiar with a place, Kogure was able to transport him with almost perfect precision.
William took a moment to disguise himself, lengthening his hair and changing its colour to a light blonde.
"Kogure follow me at a distance, I don't want anyone sensing you," William instructed.
"Sensssssing?"
"Yes, you give off vibrations."
"I shhhall keeep disstancce," Kogure confirmed in a hiss.
The feel of the vark's presence left him and William sighed with relief. He walked out onto the street, eyeing the pod traffic.
Everything in Crome had to be paid for using fingerprint scanners. He could possibly fool the machinery with magic but wasn't sure it was worth the risk. Instead, he wandered down the edge of the road under the shadow of the towering, white buildings.
Uncertain of where to go, he spotted a bank, hurried toward it and ducked inside. The foyer was large with a long desk lined with booths, a queue leading up to each one.
William considered waiting then eyed a security guard by the door and approached him, smiling brightly. He had always had a certain charm that people couldn't resist but he was a little out of practice.
"Hi, I wonder if you could help me?" he asked the rotund man whose shirt buttons were straining to do their job.
"Sure, what's the problem?" the man asked, surveying William through a pair of round spectacles.
"Can you direct me to the Lorence National Archives?"
"Er sure, they aren't open to the public though."
William produced the letter. "I know but I need to deliver this."
The guard eyed the letter and nodded, seemingly satisfied. He gave William directions and he hurried back out onto the street.
He wasn't far away and it took just fifteen minutes to walk there. The building was much smaller than he had imagined with just a simple plaque on the wall marking what it was.
He hesitated at the bottom of the steps, wondering how he would bluff his way inside. A young, auburn-haired woman approached, turning up the steps. He hurried forward, praising his luck as he touched her arm.
"Excuse me." He gave her his warmest smile.
She turned and blinked a couple of times as she looked at him. "Yes?"
"Do you work here? Only, I have this letter. I was hoping to deliver it personally. I work at the Ganderfield residence in Waverly Hill. It's quite important."
She raised her eyebrows and reached for the letter. William let her take it and watched her hopefully. She had a long, thin face with dark, green eyes that roamed over the letter.
"Oh, Mr Doyle is my boss. I can give it to him for you if you like?" She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
William reached forward and gently prised the letter from her, skimming his fingers along the back of her hand. "I'd really like to give it to him myself. If that's okay?"
She blushed and William fought a smile, glad he hadn't lost his touch.
"Follow me," she said and he hurried after her up the steps.
A security guard behind the desk raised his eyebrows at William as they entered.
"He's with me, George," the girl said and William nodded to the man as they walked through a door that made a sucking noise as it opened.
"I'm Mila, by the way," she said as they walked down a long corridor of blue and white tiles.
"W-Warren," he stuttered, cursing his idiocy.
"So what's it like working in Dorian Ganderfield's old house, Warren?"
"Great. I'm just fascinated with his work."
She turned to him with a grin. "Me too," she whispered.
An idea struck him as he saw the passion in her eyes. "Maybe you could come visit sometime, I could show you around personally. They even have a private collection of his works that aren't on display to the public."
"Really?" she asked hopefully then bit her lip. "Do you wanna know a secret?"
William leant in close and lowered his voice. "Always."
"They keep some of his works here. Some of the really good stuff." Her green eyes flicked up and down the corridor.
"How good?" he asked, grinning.
"Like spells of his own design good."
"Really? Have you seen them?" he asked excitedly.
She nodded and he stepped away from her.
"I'd give anything to see them," William said quietly.
"I wish I could show you," she said longingly.
"Maybe another time. So where's Doyle's office?" he inquired, watching her face fall.
"Just round the corner." She pointed.
"Thanks Mila," he said, striding off ahead of her.
"Warren- hang on!" she called and he turned back to her with an innocent look.
She glanced at a watch on her wrist then hurried toward him. "Come with me."
He smiled and followed her down the corridor. "Where are we going?"
"Into the archives," she said, grinning broadly.
William followed Mila into a glass lift that descended slowly into an underground room. It resembled a vast library and was divided into glass-walled rooms with corridors weaving in between them.
"Woah," William breathed, impressed.
"The archives hold some of Aleva's best kept secrets. Most people don't even know this place exists. The only people who come down here are those looking after the documents and those who are given special permission by the government."
"So we're breaking the rules?" William asked with a mischievous look.
"Yes," she whispered as the elevator doors slid open.
The room was freezing but William resisted the urge to use magic to warm himself up. She led him past room after room, the quiet pressing in on his ears. The only noise was the constant hum of generators that were continually adjusting the climate inside each of the glass tanks.
"Here." Mila stopped, approaching a large chamber.
There was a panel outside the glass door which she pressed her hand to and it slid open. They stepped inside and the door closed so they were confined in a small space. A hissing noise sounded then the next door opened to allow them access.
"The oxygen levels are kept low in here to slow the deterioration of the documents. It can make you a bit lightheaded," Mila explained.
William instantly felt the effects as if he had just knocked back a shot of whiskey. "Oh- that's weird."
Mila laughed and led him towards the nearest bookshelf made of shiny, black metal. Each document was in its own transparent box, stacked up on the shelves and labelled on the edge.
William ran a finger up the cold metal, reading the words. He wasn't yet sure how he was going to get rid of Mila but he needed time alone to search the place. Wherever he moved around the room, her eyes were trained on him.
He moved to her side and glanced down at the woman, thinking of a way to distract her. He reached forward and lightly placed his hand on the small of her back, feeling a slight pang of guilt as Alison popped into his mind. He pushed away the thought, knowing he wasn't actually attracted to the girl.
She looked up at him through thick eyelashes and smiled.
"Thank you for showing me this," William said, leaning toward her.
She leant up toward him, closing her eyes. He moved in a flash, knocking her out with a pulse of magic. He caught her as she collapsed and dragged her across the floor, propping her up against a bookshelf.
"Right," he said, pleased with himself as he gazed around the room.
He started working along the shelves, reading each label carefully.
An Account of Brinatin's Islands
Meetings with the King of England
The Matadiles of Theald
Religion and Culture in Arideen
Forming The Council of Heptus
William could have spent days in the chamber reading about the life and times of Dorian Ganderfield, but he had only come for one document. And if he ever needed to come back, Kogure would know how to take him there. He wouldn't be greedy. He would take what he needed to avoid suspicion.
He found an entire section full of Ganderfield's spells, all of the mage's own design. William's fingers itched as he looked at them, tempted to take several. He resisted and ran a hand down the column, searching and searching until-
Surviving Vale.
William reached for the glass box and slid it down from the shelf, his hand trembling ever so slightly. He lifted the lid which swung up on a hinge and extracted the few pages inside. They were handwritten in the delicate script that William recognised from the other notes he had already acquired.
It was written as a diary entry. William scanned his eyes over it, making sure it was what he needed and found a list of ingredients, instructions and hand movements for the spells Dorian had used to heal himself. He would read it thoroughly when he returned to Brinatin.
He glanced at Mila and then to an oxygen monitor on the wall. The percentage was running down in green numbers and, as it flicked from thirty percent to twenty nine, they turned red and a warning noise buzzed loudly in the room.
William assumed there would be protocol in place that alerted someone upstairs when the oxygen levels became dangerously low.
"Kogure?" William called to the vark.
Vibrations hummed in his ears and he shivered as the creature returned to him.
"Take me back to Brinatin," William instructed.
"Yesss, to my masster," Kogure rasped as the black portal appeared beside William.
He glanced at Mila one more time just before he stepped through. She would probably be too embarrassed to tell anyone what happened. That was if someone got her out in time. Either way, he was in the clear.
He stepped forward and let Kogure drag him through the fabric between the worlds, emerging in the familiar house in Brinatin a moment later.
***
Before William gave Isaac the good news he wanted to be certain that the document was what he needed. He walked into the lounge and dropped onto the sofa, removing the notes from the box once more. His gut clenched with excitement as he started reading.
I could not have foreseen the effects that dark world would have on me. Perhaps I would have died instantly if it weren't for the precautions I took before crossing into any of the worlds. I would have been a fool not to and yet here I lie in my damp linen bedsheets and I feel nothing but foolish. I have decided to study my illness as if I were a subject in one of my own experiments.
Symptoms:
Grey pallor to skin
Tightness in chest
Laboured breathing
Nausea
Fatigue of the muscles
Over the coming days I will begin trials in which I will attempt to cure this sickness.
William read through the various trials Dorian put himself through, grimacing at some of the details. However, on the last page Dorian's words were filled with hope and, beneath them, he outlined the method he used to temporarily return his health. With Dorian it had lasted two years until his death, that much William knew from history.
Two years was plenty of time, for now.
37
Quiet
"Shh. He's waking up." May's voice reached Oliver, her familiar tone comforting.
The hard ground beneath him was jabbing into his spine. He opened his eyes and saw a ball of light suspended above him, illuminating a low stone ceiling. He raised a hand to cover his eyes whilst his pupils adjusted.
"Olly?" May whispered and her face came into view above him. She leant down and hugged him, her blonde hair falling onto his face.
"I'm alright," he said.
The pain in his leg was gone. He looked for Rogan and Quinn to thank them but they were out of sight from his position on the floor. He pushed himself up and saw the rest of the group ahead, perched around in the low cave and looking at him anxiously.
"Hey trouble," Quinn said to him with a half smile.
"Hey, did you-?" Oliver started.
She nodded.
"Thanks," he said and Quinn smiled.
He looked at the others, their faces dark. With a pang, he noticed one of them was missing.
"Where's Marley?" he whispered.
Anna shook her head sadly from his left.
"He saved me," Oliver said, guilt wrenching at his gut.
"He was a noble man," Hector said solemnly.
May's eyes were red from tears. Oliver reached out and stroked her golden hair and she smiled sadly back at him. Anna shuffled up closer to him and Oliver looped an arm around her waist as she leant into him.
"How long have I been unconscious?" Oliver asked.
"A while," May said with a sad smile.
"We all needed to rest anyway," Hector said. "No point continuing until we're dead on our feet."
"Where are we gonna go from here?" Oliver asked.
"There's a crawlspace over there. I don't know if it leads anywhere but it's either that or go back," Hector said, furrowing his brow.
"Are we lost?" Oliver asked quietly.
No one answered. Oliver spotted Kile beside Larkin, his head buried in his hands. His dark skin glistened with sweat and he was sobbing quietly.
"May. You should go in and see where it leads," Larkin said, resting his elbows on his knees.
"Uh, I don't think so," Oliver snapped.
"She's the smallest," he reasoned.
"I don't mind," May said, moving over to the gap in the wall.
Oliver got to his feet, bending over as the ceiling pressed down on him. He gripped May's arm to stop her entering the dark space. "Rogan can you send some light down there?"
Rogan crawled over and opened his hand. A ball of pure white light appeared and floated into the blackness.
Oliver rested a palm on the side of the gap and leant inside. "I can't see how far it goes," he said, squinting down the narrow tunnel.
May dropped to her knees and crawled in after the light. Oliver gripped her ankle before she went any further. "Just find the end then come back. Don't leave the tunnel."
"Alright, Mum," she mocked and crawled inside.
Oliver watched as her feet disappeared out of sight and his chest fluttered with nerves. Rogan patted his shoulder. "She'll be fine."
Oliver nodded sharply and continued to stare after her. A minute passed and he couldn't contain himself any longer. "MAY?"
She didn't answer.
"I'm going after her," Oliver stated, ducking to move inside.
Rogan grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back. "Just give her a minute."
"I already did," he said, looking at his friend anxiously.
"It's alright," May's voice sounded. "You won't believe what I've found!"
"What is it?" Quinn asked curiously, appearing beside Rogan.
"Come see!" May's voice carried back to them from a distance.
Oliver glanced at the others in the room. They were moving towards him, ready to go.
"After you," Anna said, grinning at him.
Oliver crawled inside and felt the rough, cool rock beneath his palms. He moved along the tunnel, using the light up ahead as a guide. The ceiling lowered after a while so he had to drop onto his belly and army crawl along it.
A light shone up ahead and Oliver quickened his pace, reaching a ledge. He dropped over it and got to his feet inside a room that took his breath away.
The cavern was vast. It was filled with strange, wooden machinery that towered up above them. Golden hinges, cogs, wheels and spikes fixed massive, rotating arms to the main structure causing a continuous whirr and hum.
The arms seemed to drive conveyor belts that were piled high with gemstones. They glistened in the orange light that burned from within an immense furness. Dirt and rubble were fed to it, the flames licking the edges of its golden container.
The gemstones entered the room through holes high up on the walls. They slid down shafts into gold pots that dropped them onto different conveyor belts, sorting them into varying colours. Oliver recognised rubies, sapphires, diamonds, emeralds and opals but there was an array of gems he didn't recognise at all.
"Wow," Anna gasped as she appeared next to Oliver.
"Do they mine all of these gemstones in this one mountain range?" May asked.
"Yes. They're paid by the Queen to send them down the mountain to her," Hector answered, folding his arms as he gazed up at the machinery.
"Paid with what?" Oliver asked.
"Horse shit," Hector said bluntly.
"What?" May asked in surprise.
"Yep. The grolls eat it," Hector said with a shrug. "They don't have much use for gemstones, do they?"
"Is that what they've always eaten?" May asked with a grimace.
"Sort of," Hector said. "They're miners by nature, that's what they use the scrivenstones for. They used to live off the rockworm's dung - huge, great hairy worm things that lived in the cave walls, but a byproduct of that was the beasts came across a lot of gemstones. A few thousand years ago a King discovered the groll caves and all the gems lying around in the rubble. So, what did he do?"
"He killed all the rockworms," Rogan said grimly. "I learnt about it at university."
"He did indeed. Wiped out the lot of them. Then he made a deal with the grolls. Gemstones for dung," Hector said, shaking his head.
"Clever," Larkin said in awe.
"It's cruel," May said, frowning at him.
