The Jungle of Antann: The Wheel of Fortune

By Marc Baco

The wheel of fortune - Volume 2

The magician policeman Costos is faced with a riddle: Why would anyone want to kill the psionic Berrow? Costos begins his research with meticulousness and soon realises that he is on the trail of a major case that challenges all his skills...
Lu seeks his followers and gradually makes himself more and more familiar with Rubidium. He uses the spell magic again, as his old knowledge of Iridium is useless here. No sooner does he make his way to the brother of Errollos than three ominous sails on the horizon quickly approach his ship. Pirates - and no way to escape them...
Meanwhile Lacarna leads the companions to the huge island of Antann to find the next golden Wand. The arduous path through the jungle provides the opportunity to become better acquainted. Suddenly the companions unexpectedly find themselves in front of a gigantic gorge that blocks their way to their destination. You would expect this to be no problem for a group of wizards - but the Companions don't notice the red danger lurking in the bushes directly on the other side...

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Jun 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781071550670

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The Jungle of Antann

Marc Baco

––––––––

Translated by David Bullock 

The Jungle of Antann

Written By Marc Baco

Copyright © 2020 Marc Baco

All rights reserved

Distributed by Babelcube, Inc.

www.babelcube.com

Translated by David Bullock

Cover Design © 2020 Sarah Wanning

Babelcube Books and Babelcube are trademarks of Babelcube Inc.

Marc Baco

The Jungle of Antann

37 voices Publisher

––––––––

Copyright Marc Baco

© 2014 37 voices Verlag, Schallstadt, www.37voices.de

All rights reserved.

Cover: Sarah Wanning

Map of Rubidium

I dedicate this book to

my wife Sarah

tetakel-logo_end_sw

The multiverse is OURS!

Table of contents

Map of Rubidium

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Map of Antann

Series overview

Prologue

Svenja, the bold fairy, sat hopefully on a small bush and watched Gemmetta preparing the ritual. She would finally learn if there was a way to change gender. Svenja asked herself impatiently how long she would have to be locked up in this strange, male body. Gemmetta had arranged the ingredients - wild sage, a bird's egg, and a pile of birch wood - in a circle. The birch wood was carefully stacked and some dry twigs in between. She just lit it. Since the birch wood was still very fresh, it smoked more than it burned, but small flames kept flickering up the birch branch bundles. The air was filled with white plumes of smoke, which were carried away shallowly. Svenja's tension grew.

When the flames were a little larger, Gemmetta very carefully sprinkled the wild white sage inside. The strong smell of the herb also blew over to Svenja. Shortly after that Gemmetta began to sing. It was a praise to Acoatlan, her god, and Svenja would have loved to be involved with the song if she had known the lyrics. She would probably have worshipped any god that could change her gender.

To finally be a woman, to finally be able to live my nature.

While singing, Gemmetta began to walk carefully and slowly counter-clockwise around the fire. She carried the bird's egg in front of her on her spread out palms. The face of the priestess was closed and concentrated. She was completely immersed in the ritual and in silent dialogue with Acoatlan, so it seemed to Svenja. The flames were now beating higher and the intense smell of burning sage lay around them like a thick cloud and it spread around them. Svenja asked herself briefly whether the companions could also perceive the intensive smell of the sage. They had to stay away from the ritual, Gemmetta had insisted on that. They waited 50 metres away for the result of the call to god.

Svenja returned with her attention and watched spellbound what would happen now. Gemmetta suddenly stopped singing, lifted the egg up into the air, approached the fire, broke the egg shell and let the egg yolks and yellow slide into the fire in a flowing movement. It hissed and immediately the organic smell of the egg yolk mixed with the haze of the sage. Svenja turned up her nose slightly, involuntarily the thought shot through her head that another life had been sacrificed - the potential of a life that could not be realised. Just like my feminine potential within me that cannot be realised.

Gemmetta's deep voice rose to drown out the hissing of the evaporating yolk: O Almighty Acoatlan, I, thy faithful servant Gemmetta, humbly request thy wisdom and counsel. With me is the Elf Svenja, a pure and innocent natural creature. I speak to you today in her name and ask you to answer her question: Can Svenja change her physical gender? She is created as a male fairy and wishes to transform her body into that of a female fairy.

Svenja's heart had almost come to a standstill, only to beat all the stronger immediately afterwards. Now was the time, now she would finally know... now was... Their minds were in overdrive. Would Acoatlan answer her? Nothing seemed to happen. Svenja still held her breath spellbound when she noticed how the column of smoke of the fire began to move unnaturally. The column of smoke gradually formed into an oversized mouth. He towered above the fire and stood motionless in the air, only the smoke wafting through him. And then came words, as deep and booming as Svenja had never heard them before.

There is one possibility, but it hasn't been used for over 5,000 years. Only summoners have the knowledge of this. It is the Great Circle of Transformation - only few know it and even fewer can and want to apply it.

After these words, the mouth disappeared, its shape simply dissolved in the rising of the smoke. Svenja stayed seated for a short moment intimidated by the presence of the god, then she flew into the sky in high spirits and with a loud laugh. She flew around the fire and started singing:

Yes, yes there is a way, there is a way!

Gemmetta sat by the fire and stared into the flames. With her head lowered, she spoke softly:

Thank you, O Lord, thank you Acoatlan for your wisdom, thank you for listening to your servant and I thank you also in the name of Svenja...

Chapter 1

Lu was on his way to Magnora. He had managed to find a ship in the harbour of Hanlo that would take him directly to Magnora. Now that he had regained his memory and knew the whole plan, the full extent of his mission, his next steps had become immediately clear to him. He had to go to Magnora, the capital of Yodan and one of the largest cities in the world. But it was not this that gave the city significance in his eyes, but the fact that Magnora was the headquarters of the faith movement around the Temple of Light and Darkness. This childish superstition did not interest him, but the plot of land of the Old Faith, which, according to his information, had to exist there as well, did. Where a centre of the greatest faith of Rubidium could be found, the Old Faith would not be far away. He knew that. So, he would make contact here in order to first get an overview of the extent and the inner structure of the Old Faith.

As he stood there on the ship, he looked into the wide horizon and enjoyed the wonderfully spicy, salty air, and he realised that he would soon be master of this world. He reached into his rucksack and took out the piece of paper that had contained his first instructions. The parchment had accompanied him from his lonely needle of rock in the sea until here. Now he did not need it anymore. His memory was full, and the message had become useless to him. He let a quick glance wander over it once more. The parchment was also a souvenir from his world, from Iridium, where everything had been well ordered. He crumpled up the parchment and threw it over the railing. He saw how the shred was washed against the hull by the ship's suction and disappeared to the rear. Lu looked ahead and breathed a sigh of relief; his mission had begun.

At the stern of the ship, however, young Xoron had stretched out his net to catch a few fish for the evening. The boatswain was immediately there with all his attention when he saw something bright suddenly caught in his net. Unbelievingly he reached into the net and held a piece of parchment in his hands. The boatswain, who could not read, was pleased. Not a tasty catch, but he knew that parchment was expensive and thought that it could be used again and perhaps earn a few extra copper pieces when he sold it. He smoothed and folded it and later put it with the things in his hammock, his very few possessions. After all, it was his first long journey.

* * *

Where would they find the other wands? And what did it mean that you could walk on the rainbow with this golden wand? What an odd statement. Would they ever need to use this feature? But what was more important: What was the next step? Would a rainbow guide them to their next destination? Could this have been a clue that would lead them to the next wand?

The companions stood in the tree house. Lacarna still held the newly found wand in her hands and thoughtfully examined it for any further hidden clues. Bergola, the dwarf thief, once again checked the tree house for secret compartments, but did not find anything. Otanios, Altahif and Jestonaaken stayed in the background. Everybody seemed to be lost in thought. Gemmetta stood on the parapet of the tree house and looked into the distance as if she could see the answer to her questions on the horizon. Minelle stood with her ally Pandor on the other side of the tree house and looked somewhat bored into the group. She had the feeling that there was nothing she could do at the moment to help the group progress and was waiting a little impatiently for Lacarna to finally make a decision on what to do next. Aldonas sat on the floor and was the only one who allowed himself a little breather. He held his head down and had his eyes closed. He was the only one who seemed relaxed, as if the problems of the group were not a personal concern.

Svenja, who had watched the whole thing with fascination, flew to Lacarna and asked to be allowed to accompany the group. She was excluded from the community of the fairies and wanted to find a way to change her gender. That is what she told everyone. She noticed that Jestonaaken, the Wolf, was overly critical, if not hostile towards it. And even Altahif could hardly tolerate the fairy's aim which was against nature. It hurt Svenja not to know that the Lizard-man was not on her side, because druids and fairies were natural allies, because both protected nature. Whereas Aldonas, actually her natural enemy, was positive towards her. Somehow an invisible bond of sympathy had been woven between her and the summoner since their first encounter. Strange that a summoner and a fairy could get along so well.

I've been here a thousand times, said Svenja, there's nothing to see here. Of course, I saw the hole in the ground, I didn't think it would have such an effect.

Nevertheless, they decided to continue investigating the tree house. Bergola again tapped every inch - up, down, Lacarna cast a spell of reading invisible things. Again, they found nothing. When Bergola was looking again at the northern wall, the projection screen, she suddenly came across a loose board and noticed that she could take it out. That was strange, had she overlooked the board during her examination the previous times? Perhaps their persistent search was also the key to success. She could not explain it. The board that she now held in her hands was relatively large - 50 by 50 centimetres square and on the back was - a map! Finally, a clue! The map was inside a round circle representing the spoked wheel they had first seen in the house of Kotoran. The spoked wheel stood out clearly from the map below as a golden signature. The map itself represented the great continent of Rubidium, with the islands surrounding it. The names of the islands were written in a beautifully curved script, apparently some islands and parts of the continent had been given other names, because Bergola did not know most of the names. But it was clearly Rubidium they saw before them. Lacarna, who had also bent over the map with Bergola, quickly pointed to a point that was marked on an island in the Southern Island Kingdom. Here probably the next spoke had to be found - it was also located exactly at the end point of the engraved spoke wheel, which could be seen in the background of the map. The point was marked exactly at the place where one of the spokes cut the wheel.

Otanios, Lacarna said to the Centaur, please memorise this map exactly. Probably on each of these spoke lines - she ran her finger along one of the golden drawn spoke lines - you can find one of these golden wands.

Otanios looked at everything carefully and memorised it. All right, I can draw it anytime now and make the map appear in my mind's eye, but don't we want to take the board with us?

It was bulky, but Jestonaaken, the Wolf offered to take the map with him. The Wolf's rucksack was so big that the bulky map would easily fit in it. Before the map disappeared in the big rucksack, Jestonaaken took one last look at it and smiled.

There is a spoke that runs across my country. Perhaps, in time, we'll end up in the kingdom of the Wolf. He was happy about this, because the prospect of seeing his children again comforted him a little that he might not be able to see them for a long time now. Because how could they make these twelve long journeys - that means probably only eleven long journeys now - through this world without taking at least a year to do it. Or would it take even longer? Lacarna took the floor and spoke to the group. She now had all the information she needed to decide the next steps: Well, we'll meet with a geographer, perhaps from the Temple of Light and Darkness, who can tell us exactly where this point is located here. Maybe we can cross-reference it with old maps. Lacarna sighed: It's going to be a long journey.

Aldonas had finished his little twilight sleep and watched everything from the background. He had also had a look at the map and was amazed at how detailed the map represented Rubidium. Of course, he had already seen maps of Rubidium at Kotoran. But the maps had been decorated with sea monsters, mountain monsters and other mystical creatures, so that more unknown than known things had been shown on the maps. Aldonas was rather confused with the maps. Now, however, he had been able to catch a glimpse of a map that was simple and informative, a map that gave an idea of what Rubidium was really like. So, this is what their world looked like: it was big, bigger than he had imagined it to be, and when he thought that he - who had lived on Yodan and grown up in Magnora - had thought Yodan was a huge island. But in this huge world, the island was only an insignificant, medium-sized island. It is hard to imagine... And he should see this whole world.

His youthful thirst for adventure gripped him as if he could already see the whole world before him. Perhaps on this journey he would learn all the circles of power - all the circles he might still be missing. All those he had not learned from Kotoran. He looked forward to it. Maybe there was also a circle that would help Svenja to become completely the woman she wanted to be, although he could hardly imagine that.

Lacarna's voice suddenly shattered his thoughts: We are leaving, but first we will make a detour to the next Temple of Light and Darkness to deliver an interim report. We will spend the night here and leave early in the morning, it is better to cross the swamps during daylight. You, Svenja, are invited to join us if you want to. But remember that we cannot provide for you, nor can we make any promises to you that you will be able to achieve your personal goals on this journey. This is not our quest and we will not be able to show any consideration for you on our journey. Decide for yourself.

* * *

Lu passed the days of the crossing by trying out some things in his chamber below deck. He had been fooling around for a while, but... no, it did not work. Lu expected nothing less. He just could not work any spell magic here. This was another world. He remembered the incontrovertible principles of higher magic: Spell magic was dependent on the world in which one lived. They were conditioned by the respective cosmic forces that were at work there. This basic principle was irrevocable, cosmically not almost multi-universal. He had learned his spell magic on Iridium and used the magic of the cosmic energy systems there. Here his spell magic was useless. Since he was now on Rubidium, his spell magic could not work here either. He first had to adjust to this new world again. That means he had to relearn everything. And in the way that magic was used here. How tiresome! He sat down in front of the mirror that was fixed to the wall and swung back and forth in the waves from time to time. He looked at his reflection. Looked herself right in the eye.

Who am I? I am Lu, I am Lucarno, I am the Emissary, here in Rubidium. I am here to spread the faith in the Old Gods. But, what else can I do? My psi abilities are still there and have been strengthened by the Old Gods to such an extent that I probably do not have to fear any opponent here. I am practically invincible!

Still, he lacked his spell magic. He could also rely on his body. His reflexes were still full. So is his combat strength, his tactical abilities. He saw in his mind's eye the over fifty weapons he had learned over the centuries. Also, exceedingly rare weapons that were only used extraordinarily little. He immediately felt a physical resonance in his body to all the weapons that passed by his spiritual eyes. A kind of familiarity. None of this was a problem.

What am I to do?

He now had to think pragmatically and not indulge in old memories. And just when he thought that, the thought of his magnificent castle came to the fore again. His castle, clad in jasper, towered wonderfully red on the hillside. Red was also his crest, the crest that gave him power over his country as a hearty ruler. Everything, his dominion, and his dominion signs were red. He loved red. That was his colour - the darker red. That was also the colour of his dragon Oraxos. He was a faint night-red, a faint night-red. Oraxos was missing, the connection to him was interrupted by the change of dimension. He could not sense his ally here. It felt empty.

Was he then free for another ally here?

He would keep that in mind.

He looked into the mirror - fixed his dark purple eyes.

What is to be done, Lu? he addressed his reflection.

Let us be pragmatic. There is a priest of the Old Gods, in the underground - it is important to find him and to missionise new believers with him in secret and very intensively. The community must grow!

To him, this priest, he had to reveal himself first. But first he would need a solid basic knowledge about this world. He had to be able to move around here without attracting attention. For that he would have to look for someone educated, no, someone from the people - Lu would have to get all the information about him. He already had an idea how he could simply tap into this knowledge.

As far as he understood the political situation, the East and the South were very stable monarchies. Also, the kingdom of the Wolf seemed to him very solid in its power structure. But the Western Kingdom - it was slightly unstable. This was an electoral kingdom. The individual territories always courted for the upper hand, for dominance. They competed with each other, surely intrigues and hidden power struggles were the order of the day. This weakened the Western Kingdom as a whole. This offered a good starting point. And if one could bring it out of balance, the purposes of the Old Gods could be implemented here most easily.

Yeah, that might work.

His first goal had to be the Western Kingdom. And fate had fortunately opened up a possibility of contact with the Western Kingdom for him. Errollos' brother lived in the Western Kingdom. Hadn't Errollos told him that his brother - Mulos - was a somewhat unsuccessful trader there? An unsuccessful merchant, who presumably knew nothing of Errollo's death. He had to see him. Maybe you could do something with him.

Yeah, that was also an item on his list.

It was also clear to him that his basic alchemical knowledge, which he had brought with him from the laboratory of Dr. Mancuso in Iridium, would not work here either. Maybe he would have to become something like an alchemist here, learn everything all over again. But in a different way, by learning to psi. Fortunately, his psi abilities were a mental quality of his. Psi had nothing to do with magic, so his psi powers still worked. That was a great advantage. What others learn in years, he could learn in weeks or even days. He wondered how he could do this.

Wasn't it true that alchemists were summoners and spell casters at the same time, and they also had to be able to do psi?

Errollos' lecture about types of magic on the ship, back then on the crossing to Dragon Island, went through his mind. So, in addition to gaining his spell magic abilities, he also had to learn how to summon. He had a lot of work to do. Above all, he needed reliable companions and allies to help him in his mission.

Who could that be?

He had only felt something like a connection with the group on the dragon hunt. Not with Lados, but with Nary and especially with Errollos. Too bad about Derya, but she would not have been much use to him anyway. What would he do with a healer? Through his psi powers he could partly heal himself and the High Priest of the Old Gods, whom he would soon meet, would be one of the best healers far and wide anyway, because all priests get the healing abilities through the connection with the gods.

And of course the Orcs. He would have to take care of them, too. And then, yes... the plan took shape.

* * *

Costos of the Magicians' Guild Police was at a loss. No signs of external force. Berrow had been a well-known psionicist and spiritual healer. Probably he had also died from such forces. Or some other kind of magic had been used here. He cast a spell which showed that no magic had been used here. In fact, a psionicist had been at work here. Costos was only a mediocre psionicist and also only a mediocre magician. But what counted in his work was not the depth of his knowledge, but rather the spectrum of knowledge he could cover. And Costos' knowledge was broad, he was a very capable generalist, he had acquired basic knowledge in all areas and was used to assessing magic effects.

He had been summoned here by the Magicians' Guild. They have been investigating the crime scene since the early hours of the morning. The Magicians' Guild made sure that no crime against higher level magicians went unpunished and that no one killed a magician of the higher guild order with impunity. Nevertheless, the Magicians' Guild did not want to raise the money for a resurrection. For this Berrow had not been important enough - and not rich enough either.

What happened here? He made an iris print at the time of death to get the last visual impression of Berrow. This magic was both frightening and fascinating. The last picture Berrow had seen in his life was a frightened looking Elf.

Costos sighed. Elves were always exceedingly difficult to recognise. Scars healed completely after some time. Special characteristics such as birthmarks or other were also not present with Elves. They just had their spotless face. Humans were always taken with the evenness of Elvish faces, but they found the beautiful faces harder to distinguish than human faces.

Well, he cast another spell - he was slowly exhausted. He was 57 years old and already had 35 years of service behind him, his efficiency was decreasing, he has felt this very clearly for the last few years. But the experienced magician policeman did not want to think about retirement yet. The spell he performed helped him to burn the image of the iris print he saw before him in his mind safely into his memory in every detail. He would have a three-dimensional imprint of the killer - a bust - created from this memory. But he could not do it alone. In any case, he needed Farrina's abilities here to obtain this bust. That was a special skill of the illusionists: They could create representational images of thoughts and impressions. These images were a great help when it came to recognising suspects.

He recalled the image he had just saved and looked at it in detail.

Hmm - so that was the face with neckline. This could possibly be extrapolated to the body size.

He would estimate about 6'2". Very muscular neck strands that were seen here. This man was used to perseverance and hard work. This was no ordinary magician's customer.

Why was he with Berrow? And why had he killed him. To save the money? The servant was also dead. The killer did not want anyone to know.

Another spell was cast to show whether anything of the killer had remained at the scene of the crime. There was nothing here. Within a radius of 30 metres, as far as the spell worked, there was nothing, not even a piece of cloth that belonged to the killer.

Something was missing, that was obvious. The place had been searched. The killer had taken things with him, had broken open a box. He had taken his time. He had felt safe. No records of Berrow have been found so far either. The order book was there, but there must also have been a book in which Berrow had documented any meeting results for all his clients. At least it was likely that such records had existed. If they existed, the killer must have taken them too.

Why had he been here? Why did Berrow have to die?

The questioning of the neighbours had revealed that this Elf had been coming to Berrow for three or four days. He had come every day, always in the afternoon, always after the twelfth hour and only left in the evening. So he must have been staying here somewhere - maybe in a nearby inn? That would also have to be checked. Costos thought it unlikely that the Elf came from Hanlo. The neighbours had testified that they had never seen the Elf before and that their clothes and weapons did not come from the Eastern Kingdom, at least they did not have the simple