“But can’t I use people to control it?”
“Ley lines contain a lot of turyn. To use one for a ritual without an elaborate control ring would be an absolute mess. I doubt you could even get enough people into that room to even try it that way. Honestly, ley lines overshoot the power requirement by such a large amount that I’ve never even heard of anyone using just people to provide control. There’s always a ring design incorporated.”
“So what am I going to do? I’ll need…,” Will paused. “I guess I could use a lot of sorcerers. The king alone probably has an untold number of elementals under his control.”
“There’s also a limit on the amount of power a single caster can provide,” Arrogan informed him. “So the king isn’t going to be able to use a hundred elementals and power this all by himself. You’ll need numbers of actual living people, not just someone with a bunch of elemental slaves.”
Will mulled that over for a moment. “It isn’t that I don’t believe you, but why can’t you get the power from a few people with lots of elementals?”
“It falls back to control once more,” said Arrogan, “but this time at a level below that of the overarching ritual structure. An individual can only control so much power at a time. Lognion might have ten, or a hundred, or a thousand elementals, but that power has to go through him before it can go to the ritual, and an individual can only handle so much without being obliterated by their own power.”
“Oh. So I just need a lot of sorcerers, without really worrying about how many elementals each has since they can only supply so much turyn.”
“Essentially, although a sorcerer with more elementals will be able to provide power for more time before being tapped out. Proper wizards would be better in almost every respect.”
Will was no fan of sorcerers, but he didn’t see why that would necessarily be the case. “Why is that?”
“Control and sustainable power. Wizards in my day developed their will to a greater degree, and that enabled them to contribute more to control in a ritual like this. And while they didn’t have elementals, they could draw a considerable amount of turyn over an almost indefinite period of time. I don’t have any way to guess for sure, but I’ll bet you wind up needing twice as many practitioners for your ritual than you would have back in my time.”
“Well, there’s no shortage of sorcerers from what I can tell,” offered Will.
“But there’s a serious shortage of wizards. I hope you realize how dangerous this will be for you.”
“Isn’t it always?”
“No, I mean this ritual specifically. You are the only true wizard left. They couldn’t begin to perform a hastily constructed ritual based on casters without a wizard at the heart of it. It’s going to take someone with a degree of turyn control and discipline that these modern turds couldn’t even begin to approach.”
He sighed. “But I’m up to the task.” Mentally, he added, Right?
“Are you? You’re still new to all this. I have no doubt your will is strong enough. You bested Ethelgren to regain your body. You even took a spell away from him, so you’ve definitely got the necessary inner strength, but what you lack is experience. You’ve only dealt with one ritual in the past, and it used symbols and structure to provide most of the control. If there were other wizards—real wizards—it wouldn’t be so bad, since they could share the load.
“But even if you have every sorcerer in the city beside you, you’ll still be alone, because they’re nowhere close to being able to help you control it,” finished the ring.
“Wait, but you just said they’d be providing control, instead of the ring structure,” said Will, feeling confused.
“Yeah, the rough overall control, but the fine work in the center, that’s all going to be on your shoulders, and don’t let the term ‘fine work’ fool you. Without highly skilled assistants, it’s going to be hard as hell. If you slip up and lose control, it will rip you to shreds. There won’t even be a body. They’ll have to mop you up to have a burial.”
“How comforting,” said Will wryly.
Chapter 48
Tiny and Darla returned, heavily laden with food. Not only that, but they had recruited two servants to follow them with large platters piled high with roast fowl, lamb, pig, and a collection of sides, pastries, and desserts. Will gaped at their haul.
“Did you leave anything for the rest of the palace?” he asked.
Tiny’s face broke into a wide grin. “Apparently the head cook panicked when the king started bringing in all his troops and guards. Rather than run short, he made too much. We were doing them a favor.”
Spreading their feast out on the floor, they sat down around it and then they fell to with a will, demolishing the plentiful pabulum, until at last even Tiny leaned back and patted his swollen belly with a sigh of satisfaction. Darla made no overt gestures, but Will could see that her eyes seemed to blink more slowly, as though she was fighting post-prandial drowsiness.
“Did you eat too much?” Will asked her.
“Never,” she replied in a no-nonsense tone. “The Arkeshi are trained not to overeat, lest we become slow in our reactions.” To illustrate her point, she rolled back until her shoulders were on the floor and her feet were in the air. Kicking up with her legs, she flipped her body neatly up onto her feet. A loud noise accompanied her feat of agility, and her cheeks reddened as Tiny began waving his hand in front of his nose.
“Obviously you didn’t have enough room left to keep everything in,” remarked the squire with a chuckle. “Maybe you should wait until you’ve had a chance to digest your food properly before you engage in more acrobatics?”
Smoothing her features, Darla ignored them and proceeded to the door. “I’ll resume my watch,” she told them.
Tiny lifted one leg slightly and made a voluminous contribution to the fetor that Darla had started. “Don’t be like that,” said the big man. “See? You aren’t the only one!”
She shut the door with a firm and resounding thud, and the two men began giggling like small boys. After a moment Will went to the window and threw it open to help clear the air. “That really is foul!” he gasped.
“Not my fault,” said Tiny with an air of self-righteousness. “My portion was rose-scented.”
Will laughed, then caught himself in a yawn. He was tired. The excitement, along with all the odd hours of the past few days, was working to wear him down, even though it hadn’t been sixteen hours since his last rest. I’m not used to being up over the middle of the night, he told himself.
But he had a lot to accomplish. Turning back, he took a few minutes to explain the rough details of his plan to Tiny.