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"What were you to do with it?"
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"It was to be taken to the fountain in Ikona."
"And?"
"That's all, Great Fyx. I swear it."
Crisal knelt next to Jagar. "He does not lie. Ask him if he's ever seen Rogor."
Fyx poked Jagar in the arm. "Well?"
"No. No one has ever seen the Dark One."
Crisal turned Jagar's face toward her with her hand and looked deep into his
eyes. "Jagar, where are the people of Dirak?"
"Child, they are in Ris. All of the towns of the Emerald Valley are in Ris."
"Why?"
"The people assemble to form an army and declare Rogor king of Momus."
Fyx looked into the child's face. "Do you see something?"
Crisal nodded. "Yes. I feel I have the parts to an answer. I must still fit them
together. We must leave the road and find a quiet place."
As Fyx led the way through the fields toward Ikona, Crisal stopped to examine
both green and brown stalks of grain, healthy and rotting melon patches.
Reaching some trees near the lake below Ikona, Crisal withdrew her clear glass
marble and fell to her knees. Hearing her, Fyx turned and sat next to her. She
held the ball in the sun, catching its rays, and used it to focus her mind.
Pieces of the puzzle fit together, but something still lay out of her grasp. She
dropped the marble to her lap and shook her head. "It is not enough."
"Can you at least see a question?"
Crisal smoothed the sand in front of her knees and drew Roger's cross with her
finger.
R O
ROGOR O R
"Fyx, I must know the meaning of this."
The old magician shook his head. "It is as I told you,
Crisal. It means nothing."
"Tell me what you can, Fyx. It is the part I need." Fyx rubbed his chin. "It
could be the hidden cross of a
magic square." , '
"Magic square?" »>
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Fyx shook his head. "There is no magic to them. They were believed to cure
illnesses and drive away evil spirits long ago. On Momus, some magicians take
names that can form such a cross."
"Show me a magic square."
Fyx smoothed the sand next to Rogor's cross. "This is a very old one. It is
formed by two words, sator and opera. The words must fit frontwards, backwards
and up and down. Like this." The old magician quickly drew the words and word
arrangements with his finger.
SATOR A R E P O T E E T OPERA ROTAS
"Now, all we do is add an 'N' in the middle, and the word TENET becomes the
hidden cross in this magic square." Fyx added the "N" and smoothed out the rest
of the letters;
T
E TENET
E T .
"No magic in it; just a word game."
Crisal studied the word, drew in again the letters Fyx had erased, studied it
some more, then erased the entire square. Erasing Rogor's cross, Crisal looked
again at her marble.
Fyx raised his eyebrows as Crisal began making marks in the smooth sand. "Let us
use the name of Dirak town the same as 'sator' in the tenet square."
D I I
R A K A
R A K A R I
R I D
"See?"
Fyx shrugged. "What of the rest?"
Crisal's finger flew at the sand. "The towns of Ikona and Anoki we use the same
as 'arepo' and 'opera' in the tenet square... add a 'G' and there you are."
D I R A K IKONA R O G O R ANOKI K A ,R I D
Fyx nodded. "And there is Rogor's hidden cross. But, what use is this to us?"
"Fyx, if this were a map and Dirak sat on the bottom 'D' of the square," Crisal
poked it with her finger, "and if Ikona were here," she stabbed the "I" above
the bottom "D", "and if the fishing village of Anoki were here," she poked the
"A" in the bottom rank of letters, "where would the extra letter, the center of
the cross fall?"
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Fyx stood and looked at the square, then squatted next to it and drew in a few
landmarks. "The 'G' falls at the end of the cleft in the center of Split
Mountain." Fyx stood and pointed across Ikona toward the peak. "Now that we are
here, you can see where the cleft begins."
Crisal stood and observed the crooked pass that led deep into the mountain, its
walls hanging with bushy vines. The mountain itself was hidden beneath a heavy
growth of trees except for its highest point which grew only scrub trees and
brush. "This is your invitation from Rogor." Crisal pointed at the "G" in
Rogor's cross. "We will find his lair at the end of the cleft. It is a trap."
Fyx nodded. "Rogor has gone to great pains to kill me, and yet he points the way
for me to destroy him."
"There is more, Fyx. This thing in my sack that I got from Zuma's cart, it is a
weapon, or a part of a weapon. It is what killed the farmers' crops. Look."
Crisal pulled some half-brown, half-green stalks from her robe. "The part below
is healthy, but look at the brown part. It, looks as though it had been dipped
in boiling water. Can your powders and other tricks protect you against such a
tiling?"
Fyx looked at the girl's eyes. "There is more, much more. Tell me."
"Fyx, what would happen if Rogor became king of Momus and then asked the Tenth
Quadrant Federation for military protection against the Ninth Quadrant?"
Fyx shrugged, then looked down at the square. "As I understand it, the Ninth
would have no choice but to let Momus be occupied, such as their laws are." He
cackled. "But, child, Momus with a king? Perhaps Rogor can bully this
small.valley, but how could he become king of Momus? The ruler of Emerald Valley
can't speak for the planet."
"Fyx, you saw the fear on the other side of the Snake Mountains, in Miira and
Porse."
"And, child, 1 set them straight in Porse. Have no doubt about it. We can do the
same everywhere south of the Snake Mountains. Neither of us will ever live long
enough to see a king in Tarzak."
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