Child of a Mad God

by R. A. Salvatore

  The darkness passed, and Seonagh did not ask what it was about. Not now. Not with the trial looming.

  “Hold still in body and mind,” Seonagh said, knowing that the words would confuse the girl. That was the whole point, however, the very first and most important lesson of Usgar. Seonagh brought her full attention to the crystals in her hand, to the wedstone-flecked clear crystal. She let her center flow out from her, into the crystal, and through it. She focused her energy, and after a few moments, her spirit stepped out from her physical form.

  The world looked different here, from outside her body. Everything in the room became washed out, gray, distant. No novice to this strange out-of-body experience, Seonagh was not disoriented, but when she looked at the girl sitting before her, the older witch was indeed startled.

  While far-walking, as the Coven called it, creatures observed took on a glow, an aura, with humans shining most brightly. Everyone’s aura appeared different, but slightly so, in a way Seonagh found difficult to put into words, much like describing the tiny variations in people’s faces. She could explain the broad strokes of an aura, but that was never sufficient to properly paint the picture, for all the auras looked more similar than different, and yet, to a trained eye, all were indeed distinct.

  But Aoleyn’s aura was something else entirely. The only word Seonagh could think of was “bright,” but that hardly did the girl’s glow justice. Aoleyn was veritably glowing, and not in a manner that bespoke simple magical potential, as one might see when peering in such a way at the Usgar-righinn, though surely a similar potential was apparent with this girl. Such an aura as that would show the fiery glow of a ruby, or the arc of lightning, or some other expression of magical might. However, with Aoleyn, Seonagh saw most of all the aura of the wedstone itself—but only for a moment, for then came a greater surprise, when Aoleyn’s aura shimmered like gray clouds speeding beneath a brilliant rainbow. Green hues, like the flakes of the levitation stone—perhaps the most important crystal of all to people who ran the treacherous ways of Fireach Speuer—grounded that rainbow on both ends.

  Seonagh was glad that she was out of her body, that the girl could not see a physical expression at that moment, for her physical face would not reflect her shock, or indeed her sudden admiration for this willful child, or the flash of sorrow and recognition that surely would have registered. For only once had Seonagh witnessed an aura somewhat resembling this, though not nearly as vivid and defined as Aoleyn’s, and the memory threw her back to her first student, her much younger sibling, Elara.

  The witch quickly forced herself past the swirl of emotions. The aura reading was important, of course, but it was not the primary task before Seonagh right now. She focused her thoughts and her spirit like a spear, and dived into the mind and soul of the glowing child.

  * * *

  A long while later, Seonagh’s spirit fought her way out of Aoleyn’s corporeal form and came back into her own body with a shocking return of her physical sensibilities. She took a quick inventory of her senses, wiggled her fingers and toes to ensure that she had returned to her corporeal form whole, then took a deep breath. For to possess the body of another was not without grave risk, and was rarely attempted by any of the Usgar witches, and never done so unless in urgent circumstances.

  This was an urgent circumstance.

  Seonagh looked down at Aoleyn, lying on the floor before her, thoroughly drained.

  Seonagh, too, was exhausted, and it took all of her willpower not to fall down on the floor beside Aoleyn and let herself melt into a deep slumber.

  She had expected some weariness, but nothing like this! Spiritually possessing another person was always trying, but if that person wasn’t versed in the magic of Usgar, she couldn’t typically put up much of a struggle, caught off guard by an experience so out of the ordinary that it could not be anticipated. But Aoleyn had battled mightily against the intrusion, and this young woman, this mere girl, had nearly won that struggle—at one point, Seonagh had feared that Aoleyn would fully expel Seonagh and spiritually exit as well to chase Seonagh back to her own body!

  The witch thought back to her aura reading on Aoleyn, and how impressed she had been to find such strength and affinity to magic in the girl’s glow, so much like her young sister, Elara.

  She was doubly impressed now.

  Aoleyn stirred before her, not as drained as Seonagh had believed, perhaps. The witch made a note to push aside her admiration and not let on to feeling here, thinking that Aoleyn was willful enough without having her pride prodded so.

  Aoleyn groaned and went up on her elbows, shaking her head groggily and seeming lost, disoriented.

  Seonagh understood, surely. Spiritual possession was the most disconcerting magic any Usgar witch would ever know, no matter how many times one performed it. Seonagh took a deep breath, sorting the words she would use to explain it all to Aoleyn, and why she felt she had to perpetrate such a violation. Those words fell away, though, when Aoleyn spun about suddenly into a sitting position facing Seonagh, the girl’s black eyes sparkling and bright.

  “Do it again!” a breathless Aoleyn implored her. “That was … that was amazing!”

  Seonagh blinked repeatedly, unable to decipher and accept the reaction. “Did…” she started and stopped. “Did you understand what…?”

  “At first, you put the fear in me,” Aoleyn interrupted. “I didn’t understand, but after a heartbeat it came clear that you were teaching me!”

  Seonagh cocked her head to the side, unsure. Indeed, the wedstone could be used to aid in teaching a novice witch the ways of the crystal magic, but that had not been Seonagh’s intention with this possession of young Aoleyn. And such a dramatic lesson wouldn’t be done at all unless and until Aoleyn had become a full member of the Coven. Seonagh had only taken the action this day to reveal to Aoleyn some measure of the dark side of magical power, to gird her against the spiritual assault she would certainly find when she ventured into the crystal caves.

  “Yes, yes, of course,” Seonagh lied in the hopes of extracting what Aoleyn might have learned during this unintentional lesson. “And was I successful, child?”

  A beaming Aoleyn thrust out her hand. “Oh, aye!”

  The witch hesitated, trying to gauge if it was really possible that this girl—no, this young woman—had actually pulled some valuable insight out of that possession exercise.

  The mere thought of that possibility frightened Seonagh as much as it excited her.

  She spent a long while just studying Aoleyn then, considering her options and the possible ramifications of anything she might do. Surely she would not give Aoleyn a crystal thick with wedstone! Would Aoleyn then possess her, perhaps even ejecting her from her own mortal coil? Using the magic of Usgar required both strength and discipline. Aoleyn had the first—Seonagh shuddered as she remembered yet again the brightness of Aoleyn’s magical aura!

  But the discipline …

  Seonagh started to shake her head in denial, thinking it best to not give the young woman any crystals at all, but before Aoleyn’s smile could even disappear, the witch reconsidered. She sorted the crystals in her pocket and found the one with the least destructive potential, one flecked bright green, the stone known as malachite.

  “Show me what you have learned,” she said, handing it to Aoleyn.

  Aoleyn fumbled with it for a bit, to no effect.

  “Not the crystal,” Seonagh scolded, and pointed to her own heart. “Concentrate your thoughts on your own life energy, on the center of your being. Find that power and bring it forth through the…” She stopped, realizing that Aoleyn wasn’t even pretending to listen and was instead purely focused on the crystal that she turned about in her hands.

  Seonagh shook her head and sighed loudly. The girl lacked discipline, lacked even the basic manners to pretend she was listening.

  But suddenly, Seonagh recognized even more profoundly that Aoleyn had power.

  For everything in the room began to
shake, trembling, a cup overturning by the water basin. It hit the ground and bounced, but did not go back down, but rather began to float.

  The water basin, too, lifted off the ground!

  The straw of the bed, and the bed—both beds!

  Everything in the tent began to rise! Seonagh began to float!

  * * *

  The witch grabbed a tent pole to steady herself. “Aoleyn,” she said with concern. “Child!” she added when there came no reaction.

  The tent walls began to rise. The pole in Seonagh’s hand trembled as if it would pull out of the ground.

  “Aoleyn!” Seonagh yelled. “Child, stop!”

  But, wearing an expression of pure ecstasy, Aoleyn did not react, did not even seem to hear her.

  Seonagh heard a commotion outside. Under the rising tent side, she saw the running feet of a man, a large man, wearing heavy boots. The witch panicked—she could not let a man see this spectacle of an uninitiated child enacting such magic! She pushed off the pole and threw herself at Aoleyn, grabbing for the young woman’s hand.

  The tent flap flew open, but at just that instant, the levitation field dropped, everything, Seonagh included, tumbling to the floor.

  Aoleyn opened her eyes wide, but Seonagh kept enough of her wits about her to grab harder at the crystal and tug it from Aoleyn’s hand.

  “What are you about, witch?” Tay Aillig demanded from the doorway.

  Seonagh straightened herself and brushed some of the dirt away, trying to regain a measure of composure and dignity.

  “I am showing the young woman what power looks like,” Seonagh replied, trying hard to appear in control. She was wise enough to put a bit of deference in her tone, as well, though, not wanting to give Tay Aillig yet another reason to wish her harm. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted a curious look cross Aoleyn’s face, as the young woman moved as if to speak.

  She flashed Aoleyn a chilling glare, warning her to silence.

  Somehow, surprisingly, the insolent Aoleyn got the message and shut her mouth.

  “You are supposed to be preparing the girl,” Tay Aillig scolded, “not destroying the encampment!”

  “Destroying?” Seonagh mouthed silently, and Tay Aillig moved aside, but still held the tent flap aloft.

  Seonagh’s jaw dropped open. Several people outside stood staring at the tent in shock. Spears and tools lay strewn about the ground. And logs, some of them still burning, had been lifted and thrown from the central bonfire!

  The larger pile of firewood across from Seonagh’s tent lay scattered, and a shaken squirrel hopped frantically about the logs.

  “Idiot witch!” Tay Aillig huffed. He added something about the foolish old crone as he spun about to leave, and ended with “you should be with your husband” as the tent flap fell closed behind him.

  Seonagh found it hard to breathe, and she tried to suppress her gasps so that Aoleyn would not recognize the utter shock on her face.

  For Seonagh had never seen such a thing.

  She swallowed hard and looked down at Aoleyn, who was thankfully too wrapped up in her own thoughts to notice.

  Perhaps I left the Coven too soon, Seonagh thought, but did not say. Indeed, she couldn’t find any words to offer at that moment.

  After a long pause, it was Aoleyn who broke the silence. “Another?” she asked. “May I try more magic?”

  “No, child,” Seonagh answered, and shuddered at the thought. “No. Not now. I think you’re quite ready for your trials. Now get some rest, for be sure that you’ll be needing your energy in the very near future.”

  That brought a smile to Aoleyn’s face and a renewed sparkle in her dark eyes, an expression that showed an understanding of, and clearly a hope for, some magical interaction at the hinted event.

  Aye, Seonagh silently answered. But she knew that it certainly wasn’t the magic that Aoleyn would hope to see.

  18

  INTO THE MOUTH OF GOD

  The girl skipped so lightly that she seemed to be floating along behind her, Seonagh thought, though, thankfully, not literally; given Aoleyn’s power to access the magic of Usgar, that was a disturbing possibility. It would take them several hours to go all the way around to the southeastern slopes of Fireach Speuer since they were using no magic to help them navigate the valleys and high bluffs. The witches of the Coven, several of them accompanying Seonagh and Aoleyn this night, knew the way well, though, and had timed their march so that they would arrive at the entrance to the crystal caverns at dusk.

  As the sun fully set, Aoleyn alone would enter the caves.

  Some tribal leaders had come along, as well, most particularly Tay Aillig, who continued to surprise Seonagh with his interest in the girl. He looked angry, more so than usual, and kept casting glances at both Seonagh and Aoleyn. He was hoping the girl would fail, Seonagh feared, not because of the possibly fatal consequences that would hold for Aoleyn, but because it would give Tay Aillig, at long last, the excuse he needed to be rid of Seonagh.

  When the trial had been determined earlier in the summer, Seonagh was fearful of such an outcome, but that had diminished somewhat in the face of Aoleyn’s power bared. The sheer magical strength of the young woman had certainly terrified the teacher, but it also made her a bit more comfortable that this neophyte would succeed at the coming test.

  Just a bit, though; other promising young witches had fared ill.

  She had said nothing to the other women of the Coven about that, however. On the day of Aoleyn’s magical display, Seonagh had claimed credit for the massive levitation field to Mairen and the others, as she had to Tay Aillig. She could tell from their glances along this journey, though, that some of the witches had become highly suspicious of that claim. Even at the height of her power, Seonagh would have been hard-pressed to bring forth a field so large and potent, and several of her fellow witches certainly knew that.

  She knew, too, that they often gossiped about this young woman, her niece, the daughter of Elara, wondering of her powers, but Seonagh decided to neither confirm nor deny their rumors. They would all soon enough realize Aoleyn’s promise.

  True to their plan, the group arrived at the cave entrance bathed in shadow, just as the lower edge of the sun reached the horizon around the mountain’s bend. The air was chill and clear, and the moon would be full tonight, the sky full of stars, not covered by clouds. The conditions were perfect for the test, and Seonagh felt the tingling magic of the air.

  Simply from looking at the girl, Seonagh could tell that Aoleyn felt it, too. Aoleyn bounced more than walked, and her hands kept running over the bare skin of her arms. The air was cold, of course, but Aoleyn was not trying to warm herself.

  “Stand here,” Seonagh commanded, directing Aoleyn to a spot just outside the cave entrance, beneath a massive crystalline structure full of wedstones.

  “What should I—” Aoleyn started to ask, but Seonagh silenced her with a harsh tsssk. The four men stayed back, looking on keenly, while the witches advanced, surrounding Aoleyn, encircling her, and joining hands. At the invitation of the Usgar-righinn, Seonagh joined the ring, as well.

  The last hints of daylight faded, and Seonagh and the witches closed their eyes, falling into the trance together, channeling their centers into the inviting crystal, together freeing their spirits and engaging in the far-walk.

  Seonagh practically felt all her sisters gasp at once, as they gazed upon the glowing child. Seonagh herself was once again taken aback by the clarity and power of Aoleyn’s aura, but she carefully hid her satisfaction. As the one most familiar with Aoleyn, she was the emotional center of this joint trance, and she guided the others with her willpower back to a calm state.

  Together, as one, the women of the Coven assaulted Aoleyn’s center. She was strong, but joined in cause, they were far stronger. They stripped Aoleyn’s defenses and left her reeling. It took them a great effort, more than usual, but after a short while, their task was accomplished.

  Seonagh opened h
er eyes, the far-walk dissipating. In the center of their ring, Aoleyn knelt, her face a visage of terror. Together, the women moved forward, and lifted the girl. They carried her into the entryway of the cavern, and dropped her unceremoniously on the ground. Then they stepped out and channeled more of their energy into the crystals, into the quartz itself that formed much of the crystalline threshold of this place. Together, they conjured an image, a wall, so that it appeared that they had sealed the cavern. Aoleyn would awaken some time later—Seonagh suspected it would be much sooner than usual—and she would find herself trapped within.

  She would have to survive the night in the caves, her center stripped down by the Coven. It was no small task for an uninitiated woman, and many had failed before.

  Some of those young women had died in these caves, mouths opened wide in a last unheard scream. Others had been pulled out of the darkness, but fully broken, never again whole. Some had become gibbering fools, others had resumed a more mundane Usgar life, but none who had failed a night in the haunted crystal caves had ever again gone near the magical power of Usgar.

  Seonagh turned toward Tay Aillig and his fellows. “Are you satisfied?” she asked, feigning deference.

  “I will be satisfied with your efforts when Aoleyn exits the cave in the morning,” Tay Aillig answered.

  “She will,” Seonagh said, narrowing her eyes and hardening her visage, letting the man know that she was utterly certain of her prediction. Apparently Tay Aillig recognized that certainty, whether from the tone of her voice or from the look on her face she could not be certain. But she was feeling smug, and in this place, before the bared power of Usgar’s magic, she was also feeling quite powerful and confident. Back at the encampment, Tay Aillig could punish her for even the perception of insolence, but here, so close to the source of her power, surrounded by the women of the Coven, Seonagh believed that she was the one in control.