Free Wizard's Blood [Part Two] by Bob Blink Page A

in the whole of the library in Cobalo.”
    “ We have more books in Cobalo than you might realize,” said Vaen.
    Nerila shook her head in disagreement. “There are more books on one floor of this library than in the College’s main library and the storage area below combined.” Then she realized what she had said and flushed.
    Vaen looked at her and then Jolan. “I might have guessed,” she said. “Was there anything useful in the closed book rooms?”
    “ That’s where we found the map to this place,” admitted Jolan.
    “ How did you get it out of there undetected? There are supposed to be wards against removal.”
    “ It’s still there. We took pictures and made a copy.”
    Vaen just shook her head. “Can you show me this new find. I am anxious to see just what you have uncovered.”
    “ It’ll be a bit of a walk,” warned Rifod. “The portal isn’t located nearby, although if we look we might be able to find one closer. There were supposed to be several in the city.”
    “ I see you have picked up a staff along the way. Do you know what yours does?”
    “ I think it’s just a walking staff,” said Rifod. “I’ve no indication it can do anything else.”
    Vaen looked at the staff as they walked. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” she said and then dropped the subject. She remembered something about a staff that looked like Rifod’s, but it had been a long time ago. Maybe it would come to her later.
     
    * * * *
     
    “ This is incredible,” said Vaen after they’d walked briefly through the four lower levels of the new library. “The glow bulbs are far better than I’ve ever seen. Were these active for the whole time this has been buried?”
    “ We activated them when we found the books. They work the same as the ones at home, but give a brighter and cleaner light.”
    Chancellor Vaen looked at the huge expanse of books. “The task of moving these to Cobalo would take years, and we have no place to put them. A whole new building would need to be erected just to house this many books. It might be best to leave them here for now, and have a small team start examining them in place. I worry though, about how secure the place is.”
    “ It remained hidden for almost a thousand years,” said Jolan. “We covered the entrance we found with sand, so it now just looks like another small hill in the desert. The only way in is via the portals, and we have the only access at the moment.”
    “ We want the portals to remain as much a secret as possible. That will limit who could work here since they’d have to know that secret as well.” She turned and looked at Nerila and Rifod. “If you two are willing, I’d like you to be responsible for this site, but work out of Cobalo so we can stay in contact. You could live back at the College, and just use the portal to come here each day. We will have to consider carefully anyone we might be able to assign to help you. This is happening so fast I haven’t had time to consider the implications.”
    “ What about the oasis portal?” asked Rifod. “Do we want to leave it here open and unattended?”
    “ I’d feel better if it were closed, although we’d probably be aware if anyone found it and started using it. How could we shut it down?”
    “ Either someone has to shut it down locally, and then make the long trip back by horseback, or we could shut down the whole system, and then restart each of the portals we want to use all over again.”
    Both Jolan and Vaen shook their heads at the idea of shutting down the network, even temporarily. “Just because it shouldn’t matter if we shutdown and then reinitialize the system, doesn’t mean it will work that way. We know too little at this point to take such a drastic step. There may be a catch of some kind and we wouldn’t be able to get the system up and running. If we want to shut down the oasis, I think we need to do so locally. For now, I suspect it is safe enough. It’s probably safe