Warsinger by James Baldwin (most important books of all time txt) 📕

There was a low hum from the altar, and then a flash of light that radiated out from the medallion through the stone. We stood up in alarm as metal surface rippled with patterns of runes, and then something that looked a lot like a white hologram of the entire planet pixelated into view. By the time it was finished, a crystal-clear sphere hung over the table, a projection of the entire planet, plus one face of Erruku.

“Is that… Archemi?” Suri was drawn forward, lips parted in wonder as she leaned around.

It sure was. Artana, Daun... and a third small continent I didn't recognize were laid out on the sphere. There were countries with borders that no longer existed, big spaces of unoccupied territories where countries were yet to form... and a series of different-colored markers. Karalti curiously reached out toward one like a kitten batting at a toy, and gave a little squeak as the whole globe spun around in contact with her fingers.

“What are those tags about?” Suri caught the globe before it continued to spin. “Hey, look here! There's one OFF the damn planet!”

She was right. One of the glimmering markers floated in the air above the surface of Southern Archemi, well above the edge of the stratosphere. And that's when it hit me.

“Oh, holy shit.” I reached out to turn the sphere to where Myszno was, and sure enough, there was a black marker on the approximate location of Matir's Dragon Gate. “Guys! That's the Gate of Veles! And this is Matir's... look! Solnetsi’s Gate is in Ilia, and these are all the others!”

Karalti gasped, pressing her hands to her mouth. Rin made a strangled squeaking noise of joy over the line, and Suri nodded in appreciation as we all got the same notification.

[You have gained: World Map]

[You have new Map Markers: The Nine Dragon Gates of Archemi]

The Gates were scattered all over the world. There were three in Artana: Matir's gate in Myszno, Solnetsi's gate in Ilia, and Khors' gate, which was in a heavily volcanic area in the center of the continent, almost directly along the border between Vlachia and Jeun. There was one Gate in the middle of Zaunt, an island in the far north; one in the heart of Meewhome, and two in Daun. One Gate could be found in the elven territories of Lys, and one was in my cold northern homeland of Tungaant. The eighth was centered on the smaller continent I knew for a fact was no longer above water on Archemi... and the ninth, torn from the crater that formed the borders of Myszno, orbited the planet as the Dark Star.

“What are these?” Karalti pointed excitedly at several small symbol markers around the map. Unlike the dragon gates, these ten symbols were all the same color, but each one was a different shape. Also unlike the dragon gates, they were heavily clustered in Artana. There was one barely a hundred miles from us, spinning gently in the heart of the Bashir Desert. There was one each superimposed over the Dragon Gates of Khors, Solnetsi, and the Gate in Zaunt. There was one in the far mountains of Myszno, one just off the coast of Meewhome in the ocean, and a cluster of three all together in northern Jeun. There were none in Daun or on the mystery continent.

“That's a rose,” Suri said, pointing to the one that was closest to us. “Could it be...?”

“Withering Rose. It’s got to be. And this one might be Nocturne Lament.” I tapped the icon that twirled in the center of Myszno, and jumped when the map zoomed in. The globe faded, replaced by a clear schematic of the Warsinger I’d fought, along with rows of Old Agatic script.

“Ohhhhhh.” Karalti's eyes grew big and shiny. “This is amazing! Our quest just got so much easier!”

“Right?” But even as we stood there, the images began to flicker and fade around the edges as the small amount of mana and blood potion ran dry. We hastily flipped through each icon and took screenshots of the untranslated information, and as we did, we got another notification:

[You have gained new map markers: The Chorus Vaults]

“This is bloody brilliant.” Suri strode to the altar and pulled the medallion free as the images sputtered more. “We know exactly where to go now.”

“Yeah, but how?” I turned to look back at the stone ring. “Do you think… this is a portal, maybe?”

The empty stone ring was about twelve feet around, looming over us from the apse. It had two bands. There was a triple row of random letters around the outside band of the ring, each one in a different script: Old Aga, Tlaxik, and – strangely enough – plain old English:

ZQKARLCTMDVNFWOGXPJ

The inner ring also had three lines in the same scripts. I couldn’t even begin to translate the first two, but with effort, I made out the third English sentence:

Come, human: die by sword or spear.

“Oh no,” I said. “It’s a fucking puzzle, isn’t it?”

“Looks like one,” Suri said dubiously.

Karalti cocked her head from side to side for maybe five seconds, then sighed and plopped down onto the floor. “Welp. I give up. Do either of you have anything to eat?”

“This isn’t good.” I pulled out five pieces of Bronto Jerky and threw them to Karalti. “All three of us are sub-fifty points of Intelligence. Team Meathead paging Rin… Can you help with this?”

Rin laughed. “I’ll try! Keep the video feed on it. Give me some time to work it out.”

I put the Shield of the Firmament back on in the hope it would give me some insight into what the hell we were supposed to do.

“Blood got us all the way here. Do we have to sacrifice someone to get through this damned thing?” Suri asked.

I rubbed the metal with my thumb. “There has kind of been a blood theme, hasn’t there?”

“I say we sacrifice Suri,” Karalti