The Scrolls of Skava

Return to the Emerald Oracle - Part 3

     They had a brief conference to decide upon the exact phrasing, and then Thomas turned to face the Oracle again. Let’s hope it’s not forbidden to answer this one as well, he thought as he cleared his throat and prepared to speak. “O mighty Oracle,” he said, his voice trembling nervously. “Tell us exactly what we have to do and where we have to go in order to find and obtain the Scrolls of Skava.”

     “You must go to the Ruby Keep, in the southern foothills of the Majestic Mountains,” replied the Oracle as they scribbled furiously, copying it down. “Go to the mountain known to humans as Grad Cannelof. From there you will see a valley leading to the north. Go to the end of the valley, and there you will find the Ruby Keep.”

     “The Ruby Keep?” said Shaun when it had finished speaking. “Ruby Keep, Emerald Oracle. Could there be a connection, do you think?”

     “Doubt it,” replied Thomas. “Gemstones are a common enough thing to name things after, if you want to make it sound impressive. Think of the onyx throne of King Bagle, the opal palace in Mesmarra. The marble halls of the Lords of Ganarra...”

     “That’s not a gemstone,” pointed out Shaun.

     “I know!” replied Thomas irritably. “I’m just saying that it’s common to name things after gemstones, that’s all.”

     “Are we finished here?” asked Diana hurriedly, anxious to change the subject before it escalated into a full scale slanging match.

     “Yes, I think so,” replied Thomas, glad of the interruption. “The Oracle won’t reply to anything else we ask it so there’s no point staying. Besides, the others’ll be waiting for us.”

     He led the way out of the room, looking back just once as he passed under the arched doorway. The Oracle hadn’t changed back into a rak, as he’d half expected it to. The book had reappeared in its hands and it was reading it, ignoring its visitors completely. How long will it be sitting there reading before its next visitors arrive? he wondered. Perhaps it goes off and does something else when there’s no-one here. Perhaps there’s no-one there at all really and that person I can see is just an illusion.

     What was the true nature of the Emerald Oracle? he wondered. How long has it been there? Where did it come from? The questions were almost physically painful to the young wizard. He hated not knowing! And yet in some strange way it was unutterably wonderful at the same time. It gave him a kind of soft, warm glow to think that, no matter how much he learned, how much he found out, there would always be things he would never know. Some things that would always be a mystery to him. To know everything there was to know in the whole universe was at the same time his lifelong dream and his greatest nightmare.

     “Are you going to stand there all day?” asked Shaun. “You’re blocking the doorway!”

     Thomas snapped out of his thoughts, apologised, and the three of them climbed the steps back up to the roof. Shaun unrolled the carpet and laid it out on the floor, but as they were taking their places on it Diana paused. “Perhaps we ought to use the spell Resalintas gave you to tell him where the Scrolls are,” she said to Thomas, indicating the metal tube poking out of his backpack. “We ought to let him know as soon as possible, just in case anything happens to us on the way back to the mainland.”

     “Good idea,” agreed Shaun.

     “I’m not so sure,” said Thomas, though. “You see, if you’re a clever enough wizard, it’s possible to intercept a Farspeaking spell. Overhear what’s being said and trace it back to its origin.”

     “So?” said the soldier. “So what?”

     “So the Oracle wants its location to remain secret,” pointed out the wizard. “It put hypnotic blocks in our minds to stop us telling anyone where it is. So is it likely to allow us to cast a Farspeaking spell here when it’s possible to trace the location from which it’s being cast?”

     “You think it might block the spell?” asked Diana.

     “I’ve got no idea,” admitted the wizard, “but maybe we ought to wait until we get back to the mainland, just in case.”

     “Yeah, suppose so,” agreed Shaun, nodding slowly. “Okay, let’s go then.”

     They took their places on the carpet and Thomas gave the word of command. It rose into the air and reached a height of about a hundred feet above the roof of the shrine before moving forward. Thomas looked back at the emerald building as it receded behind them, the unanswered questions still burning in his mind, until it was lost from sight among the treetops passing by below them. A moment later they reached the edge of the plateau and a moment after that they passed through the Curtain of Invisibility. The island disappeared from view, and there was nothing but rough, unsettled ocean all the way to the horizon all around them. They could almost imagine that the Oracle had been nothing but a dream.