Chapter 622: Three Eyes to Find

Interrogations were useless with obstinate creatures like the ones Professor Jules had in her lab. They would neither bend, yield, nor crack, so she’d taken a different tack, locking herself in her lab with her assistants, the single-minded Ravener-spawn, and leaving strict orders for everyone else to keep out. According to the Watcher team standing guard—the sounds coming through the sealed doors were the stuff of nightmares.

Whether day or night, howls, explosions, long drawn out shrieking and worse, emanated from Professor Jules laboratory.

Soon, one assistant emerged, looking stunned and grey.

Then another.

And another.

Until only the most hardened remained.

Alex’s only wish was to be there with them.

But, she had stopped him.

‘Listen,’ Jules had said. ‘Each one of us is needed where we can be most useful. I’m most useful with alchemy, but you can do much more. Go and find her. I’ll crack these monsters from here.’

And so Alex had been tasked with searching for clues day and night, though  he’d found nothing.

But, one good thing that did come from scouring the realm for Carey, was how much he’d improved with the Traveller’s power in the past weeks. Now, he could jump longer distances with ease.

When he’d first discovered how the power worked, he could barely move ten feet. Even during the tournament, he only made jumps of a few hundred feet.

But now, after days of teleporting from place to place hunting for Carey and Merzhin, he could teleport himself and anyone he touched over two miles at a time, and the distances were increasing.

‘If only I had somewhere to go,’ he thought, watching his summons search the land. ‘If only I had more clues to work with
and
why do I have this damn creepy feeling all the time!’

Alex spun in mid-air, eyeing the landscape, finding nothing but greenery and rock down below him.

He’d been feeling like he was being watched since they’d trapped the Ravener-spawn for Professor Jules. Every time they went out to the wilderness, that uneasy feeling trailed him, like piercing eyes were tracking his every  move.

Yet no one, not even his mass of summoned monsters, could find anything or anyone lurking around.

It was enough to make him wonder if he was going slightly mad.

‘Just keep focused,’ Alex thought. ‘Don’t let your mind conjure phantoms. And—’

The far-speaker suddenly crackled in his satchel.

“Mr. Roth! Come back to the lab!” Professor Jules sounded elated. “I’ve done it! Five dead specimens later, but I’ve done it!”

“What?” he cried, fishing the far-speaker from his bag. “Done what, professor, done what? Did you find Carey?”

“No, but now we have a way forward!” she cried, he could hear the smile in her voice. “I isolated internal organs that the creatures use to track anyone who made a connection with a living dungeon core; I took the monsters apart and modified the tracking organs so we could take control and use them to find Carey. So, come back at once, we have testing to do!”

“By the Traveller!” he shouted. “Professor, I could kiss you! I’ll get the others and we’ll head to a fae gate. We should be back at the Castle in under an hour!”

“Hurry!” her voice called.

The far-speaker went silent.

“Alright, hold on, Carey. We’re coming. I feel sorry for whoever took you,” he said, his voice gruff with anger. “No, actually, I don’t, I don’t feel sorry for them at all.”

With that, he closed his eyes.

And vanished.

Far below, the eyes that were watching him blinked.

A blue hand ran stubby fingers through a snow white beard.

Bells tinkled.

And the fae some called the Stalker pondered aloud. “He is a determined hunter, and one who is still growing. True
he has power that can let him escape; but the chase will be more interesting. He has magic to fight back; the chase will be more thrilling. He has a mind to plot and plan; the chase will be more challenging. Yes
he will definitely make good prey.”

Bells jingled on his mount’s antlers.

“But, I will need new hounds,” he said mournfully. “And I must also petition my lord. The latter will be no trouble
but the former? My last hounds are long mouldering. Hmmm, oh
oh!”

He grinned, revealing sharp teeth. “Yes, yes that would be delightfully ironic! This will be your test, my prey: if you survive, you will make hounds for me. If you do not? Well then you will have proven yourself to be unworthy quarry, anyway. Yes, this is good. Soon, I will have a new trophy to show off at the lodge.”

The fae moved back into the fae roads, licking his lips.

He rode toward an escarpment.

One that most mortalkind in these lands had long forgotten.

But the Stalker had a feeling it would not be forgotten for much longer.

###

In the war room, a tense group was gathered.

Alex and his cabal were there, huddled with Claygon, Tyris, Brutus, Theresa, Grimloch, Svenia, Hogarth, Watcher Hill, and the Heroes of Thameland. Vesuvius was waiting in the courtyard

And then there was Professor Jules.

She looked like she’d aged a dozen years in half as many days. Dark circles ringed her eyes. Her white hair was wild, her robes dishevelled, but a look of triumph burned in her eyes as she stared at a device.

On the map table, a tankard-sized crystal jar ribbed in steel, with runes of blood magic running up the sides, lay upon it. Within the jar, three eyes suspended in a thick clear were floating.

One of the eyes watched Drestra and another Alex, black pupils bore into them. The third bobbed listlessly in the jar of mana-infused water and viscera, swivelling in different directions. Behind each eye, sinewy cords of flesh connected to a pulsating, erratically shaped knot of organs. They throbbed in time with each other like hearts beating as one.

“What in every hell is that? It looks gross.” Thundar said.

“My thoughts exactly,” Hart muttered.

“This device is going to help us find Carey, judging from the way two of those eyes are fixed on Drestra and Alex,” Jules said confidently. “Through a great deal of trial and error, I found the tracking organs deep in the Ravener-spawn you captured, and linked them together in a suspension powered by blood magic. The Eye-Finder is what I’ve called it. Perhaps it’s not the best name, but I won’t quibble about that now. Naming it isn’t important. What matters is that this device could be our key. I attuned an eye to the individual who controlled a dungeon core in the past, using remains each one handled.”

“What’s the range on it?” Alex asked.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “We were able to amplify the organs’ natural capacity for detection, so they should have a longer range than they did in their original hosts. But, I don’t quite understand how the detection works
it seems to send out some sort of ping, like a bat would using echolocation, but—” She shook her head. “It doesn’t really matter. What’s most important for our purposes is that you can use it to find Carey.”

“Good. Thank the Traveller,” Theresa sounded anxious. “We should get going and try it out. We've already lost days.”

“Aye,” Cedric said. “I doubt things’re gonna be gettin’ any safer for Merzhin an’ Carey, so let’s do it
but where d’we start? The thing sniffs out Carey like a bloodhound, right? So where’re we gonna start? Finnegan’s Crags?”

“That’s our only lead at this point,” Alex said. “Carey and Merzhin disappeared from there and we found monsters coming to Greymoor from that direction. Let’s start there and hope this thing has the range
it might be our last hope.”

“It will work,” Professor Jules said. “It has to.” She took a deep trembling breath. “Carey’s parents have been informed that she’s disappeared and they’re making their way from the Rhinean empire to Generasi. We want her back safely for them, for her, and for us.”

“Then let’s go find out if this works,” Alex said, the mood in the room was sombre. “Okay, everyone, come with me. We’re heading to Finnegan’s Crags. Hopefully, we'll have Carey and Merzhin back home by morning.”

At this, Prince Khalik gave Alex a look, but said nothing.

###

“Please work,” Tyris said as the group stepped through the fae gate. “It has to work.”

“It will,” Isolde said. “There are few alchemists in the world who can equal Professor Jules’ abilities. It will work.”

“Well, we’re about to find out,” Alex said, keeping his eye on the jar.

So far, there’d been no response from the third eye.

“I’m going to teleport to the spot Carey disappeared from. You all stay put. I’ll come get you if I find anything,” Alex said.

“Um, might I come with you?” Khalik asked. “Najyah might see something we missed earlier.”

He shot Alex a meaningful look.

The Thameish wizard nodded. “Alright,” he said, looking at the others. “We’ll be right back.”

“Be safe
father
” Claygon said.

“We will.” Alex touched Khalik and Najyah—perched on her master’s shoulder—and the three of them disappeared.

A couple of jumps brought them to where Carey was last seen.

“Come on.” Alex held the Eye-Finder. “Come on
”

“Alex, there is something we must speak of,” Khalik said, looking at his close friend with concern.

“Yeah, I had a feeling you wanted to talk about something.” Alex waved the jar around. The first eye pointed at him, the second toward where they’d left Drestra, and the third still bobbed listlessly in the liquid. He bit down on rising agitation. “What’s going on?”

“Listen, once we locate Carey,” the prince said. “If you wish, the rest of us can rescue her while you return to the Castle. I’m sure you have thought of this but
if we find Carey, we will likely find Merzhin. And if we find Merzhin—”

“His symbol’s going to start singing,” Alex said. “And then my secret comes out, right?”

He continued waving the jar around, his frown deepening.

“Exactly,” Khalik said. “But, by now, you have no doubt realised this.”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “I have, but
look. I’m not just going to let you guys run into what might be the biggest nest of Ravener-spawn that we’ve ever come up against, or some order of kidnapping, murderous priests who’ve been hiding Uldar’s secrets for Traveller-knows how many thousands of years, without me.”

“Do not fear for us,” Khalik said. “We can handle ourselves.”

“You can, but I’m the only one who can teleport,” Alex said. “And finding another wizard to teleport all of you is going to take time, and that’s something we don’t have. Plus, we fight better together. If anything goes wrong, I can get you guys out of danger. I can grab Carey and Merzhin and teleport us away in a second
there’s lots of ways I can be useful.”

“I know
and that is true.” Khalik’s eyes dropped. “You do know this will mean that at the very least, Merzhin will know your secret.”

“At this point? We’ve obviously drawn the attention of someone powerful.” Alex’s irritation grew. Still no response from the third eye. “People might be coming for us anyway. And let me tell you? The mood I’m in? If some priest tells me I’ve got to come back and help Thameland in the way they want me to? I’ll tell them exactly which hell they can go to. We’ve been to a few. There’s lots of options.”

“What if they try to take you?” Khalik asked. “Not that we would let them just do so.”

“Thanks man, but I don’t know if Generasi will simply hand me over,” Alex said. “There’s a few contracts that Shale’s been working on that
let’s say the city’s ruling council would be pretty upset if the guy who can actually make advanced golems is taken captive by another realm. And if they try to force the issue? At this point, Khalik? If Baelin was here, I’d be up for fighting Uldar himself. I’m tired of all of this. So, if Merzhin demands that I go along and do Uldar’s bidding after I’ve rescued his ass? I don’t care what the Mark does. I’ll find some way to punch hi—Oh for Traveller’s sake!”

“What is it?” Khalik asked.

“There’s no response from this damn thing!” Alex floated higher, waving the jar like a madman. He glided around the campsite—from where Carey and Merzhin had disappeared—in wider and wider circles.

“Come on, this has to work!” he snapped. “Professor Jules is a damned good alchemist. You’re telling me she can’t reverse engineer something some shitty Ravener-spawn can do? Don’t make me laugh!”

He resisted the urge to shake the jar in case it flew from his hands.

“Work!” he shouted at the device. “Just wor—Oh, by the Traveller. By the Traveller!”

Alex stopped dead, floating a few dozen feet over a copse of trees on a bluff above the abandoned campsite.

Inside the jar



the third eye had suddenly snapped into focus, pointing southeast.

“Khalik!” Alex cried. “Khalik, we found her! We finally have her trail!”

###

Author's Note

Hello twenty-three cool fools, almighty chosen, wise sages, and mighty champions! Thank you for your support!

Aaaaand we're back! Happy fourth of July to my American readers.

We're getting to the endgame now, for this book at least. Cya tomorrow!