Gathering Storm (The Salvation of Tempestria Book 2) by Gary Stringer (howl and other poems .txt) 📕

Calin’s Tower, but there’s one other reference you cannot afford to miss, and you won’t find it here. I put it all together too late, so I’m giving you a clue.

You recognised the ‘unknown language’ on the ground in Calin’s Tower. Besides your notebook, it exists in one other place. You saw it once, but you weren’t paying attention. Don’t blame you, neither was I, but you can’t make that mistake again. You need it in your hands before you face Kullos, and you can’t delay your mission. You have connections: use them.

I also offer you some advice: Keep Mandalee close, for she will play an essential role in your future. The three of you are bound by Time and Magic. More than this I cannot say, for to do so would break the laws of time…may the cosmos forgive me, I have already stretched them to their limit.

Aye, ever yours,

“Who is it signed?” Cat asked, already knowing the answer – there was only one person she knew who signed off like that.

In a slightly shaky voice, Daelen answered, “Catriona Redfletching.”

Cat brightened, “Oh well, that explains that, then. Time magic.”

Daelen couldn’t say anything for fear of blowing his cover, but telepathically, he told Cat, ‘I have made portals into the past, but it takes a lot of effort, and even I couldn’t do something like this.’

Underneath Catriona’s signature, there was a postscript.

p.s. Tell our boyfriend, he was adorable when he was younger.

Cat and Daelen turned matching shades of red, while Mandalee burst out laughing.

“Dear gods, it’s totally a love across the ages!”

Just then, a voice came out of the air, instantly sobering the mood:

Red faction first attempt gone. Two attempts remain.

*****

A pair of acolytes were already waiting with the books Cat had requested. She immediately put them safely in her pocket dimension.

On sudden impulse, Cat asked Calin if she had a camera on the premises. She replied that she had indeed introduced a small photography studio as a new way of communicating information.

Calin led them there and showed her how to take a clear photograph of her letter. As she did so, she couldn’t help but marvel at how the parchment was in pristine condition and the script so clear, apart from a few spots that looked as if they had been made by droplets of water. Had she been crying when she hid this letter, she wondered?

Satisfied with her photograph, Cat explained that she needed ‘a contact’ to see it, but she didn’t dare risk losing the original, and she wasn’t confident that sympathic communication would be precise enough. She asked Calin to keep the photograph safe until someone came asking for it. She had already sent a sympathic message, and they would be along shortly.

“How will I know this person is the right messenger?” Calin asked.

“There is a three-word code phrase. The same words that are written in stone.”

Calin gave a sharp nod of understanding.

“Mistress Calin,” Catriona declared, formally, “thank you for sparing your time for us. When our quest is over, I plan to return here and get lost in your Tower for at least a year.”

“And you will be very welcome, my dear,” embracing Cat and each of her other companions. “I hope I live long enough to witness the birth of time magic first-hand, but if that is not to be, I pray only that the knowledge will be brought here to my Tower.”

With that, she escorted them to the exit and wished them a safe journey.

Mandalee, who had been reading the letter for herself, suddenly spoke up, “Erm, guys, a p.p.s. just appeared on the back of this letter.”

“What?” the others exclaimed at once.

Mandalee read it out:

p.p.s. Get out of there fast. Daelen’s dark clone is searching for you, and you need to be well away from Calin’s Tower before he strikes. The Tower must be protected.

Cat rolled her eyes, and remarked, “Next time I write that note, I swear I’m going to give us more time. Let’s go.”

Needing no further encouragement, the three companions ran back to the waiting Dolphin and as soon as they left the harbour, Cat whipped up an excellent tailwind to take them back to StormClaw as quickly as possible.

Chapter 17

Out there, in open water, Aden appeared amid his signature dark lightning and accompanying unnatural storm. He flew down to hover above the Dolphin, and greeted Daelen with his customary, bright and cheerful, “Hello, you!”

“Hello, you,” Daelen returned, darkly.

“What’s this, brother?” Aden wondered. “You have two pets now? Hey, is this how they reproduce? Just split apart, and suddenly there’s two of them? It would explain why there’s so many of them infesting this world. You know, I tried to get a pet of my own, but she bit me. Ungrateful witch.”

“What do you want, ‘brother’?” Daelen asked in a wearied tone. “Actually, forget that question, here’s a better one: what happened to you?”

From his energy reading, his dark clone was as critically drained as he’d ever seen him.

“Send your pets away, Daelen,” Aden ordered him. “I want things back how they used to be – just you and me, as it should be.”

“Alright,” Daelen agreed and told his friends, “I’m going to send you on ahead while I deal with him safely.”

“But we can help!” Mandalee insisted. “Right, Cat?”

To her astonishment, Cat just shrugged. “I’m sure Daelen knows what he’s doing.”

As Daelen’s power teleported them away to StormClaw, Mandalee just stared at her, in utter disbelief.

*****

“Look,” Aden sighed, “I don’t have the energy to argue, and for once, I’m not here to fight. Just to talk. I want to…what’s that term these mortals use…parley?”

Daelen was suspicious. “We’ve been fighting for centuries, and suddenly you want to parley? You’ve never been interested in that before.”

“I’ve never had my aura kicked by a mortal before, either,” Aden pointed out. “If it makes you feel better, we can fly away from your ship, and talk out in the middle of the ocean,