The Lilith Trilogy Box Set

by Kim ten Tusscher

  “I have to discover these things myself.”

  “You’re right. And I’m confident that you’ll make the right decision.”

  Lilith tried to smile bravely. “I already made this decision, didn’t I? Why would you doubt me?” Sure enough, Ferhdessar seemed ill at ease. “Because I haven’t shown much perseverance over the past few hours,” she added understandingly.

  Ferhdessar looked relieved. “You do still seem to have doubts, but I can’t say that you lack perseverance. I don’t think you were ever lacking in that department.”

  “It’s tempting to give in,” Lilith confessed. “It might have been better if I had met my master face to face. Because then I could have fought him. How can I guard myself from his words? It’s almost physically painful to have to listen to him. Unfortunately, he still has tremendous power over me. As soon as I change into a dragon, I feel the desire to return to him. I know that I don’t want to, but he draws me in regardless. Perseverance isn’t enough to accomplish this task. I’m sorry.”

  Because there was no response, she looked at Ferhdessar. The sorcerer was staring out over the water. Then he said, “There is a way in which I can make sure that he can’t reach you any more. Then you can fly to Havv’n and do what you set out to do. But I don’t know if you’ll allow me to do this. Whether you trust me enough.”

  “Ferhdessar…” she protested.

  He smiled. “I won’t hold it against you, Lilith. I know we’re not the best of friends. I might not even let anyone do it to me, even if it was a friend.”

  “What is it?” Lilith asked reluctantly. Ferhdessar’s words sounded ominous, but it was tempting to be out of the master’s reach for a while.

  Ferhdessar produced a silver box. It was shaped like a snail’s shell. He handed it to Lilith. Her fingers traced the ridges. The box felt warm and soft. When her fingers reached the cap, she looked up at the sorcerer. He gave her a nod of encouragement. When she opened the box, she felt something starting to pull on her, as if whatever it was that was in the box was trying to suck her in.

  “This”, Ferhdessar said, “is a soul box. Your soul can regard this object as its body, but only if you want it to. As soon as your soul is in the box, I will lock it. From that moment on, I can do anything I want with your body. I’ll also be the only person who can release your soul by opening the box.” Lilith started to shiver. “Which, of course, I will do. When we arrive at Havv’n, I’ll reunite your soul with your body. Up until that time, Kasimirh won’t be able to reach you, not even when you’re a dragon.”

  Ferhdessar looked at her expectantly.

  “I’ll be at the mercy of one sorcerer to escape the other.”

  “I have no desire to be your new master. I hope you know that. I just want to make sure that you’re able to do what you really want to do.”

  “How do I know that I can trust you? You never made a secret of the fact that you think I’m dangerous. If you trap my soul, you can rest assured that I won’t ever attack anyone again unless you want me to.”

  Ferhdessar nodded. “I give you my word, and that’s worth a lot. But I understand your doubts.”

  “Your word…” Lilith said indecisively.

  “Lilith, I’ve changed my mind about you. You’re not as dangerous as I first thought. You’ve had ample opportunity to hurt me, but you haven’t even tried. Quite the contrary, you saved my life. I know how badly you want to go north and this is how I want to help you.”

  He hesitantly put a hand on her shoulder. It was the first time he touched her this gently. After she had recovered from the surprise, Lilith realized how much this meant to her. Nevertheless, her aversion to the ritual was too strong.

  “I don’t know, Ferhdessar. Let’s just continue our journey.”

  Lilith changed. As if he’d been waiting for her, Kasimirh immediately entered her mind again. Lilith instantly changed back.

  She heaved a deep sigh and stared north. Clouds were drifting by, travelling north at great speed. How much farther would it be? Lilith shook her head and kicked a stone a few dozen yards away, growling loudly. Why couldn’t she be stronger? Then she wouldn’t have to decide whether she could trust Ferhdessar right now.

  The sorcerer was still waiting on the shore. His facial expression had become unreadable again. Except for his short hair and clothes, which were moving in the wind, he was standing motionless. The decision was up to her. A decision that she had to make even though she didn’t want to. Staying here was not an option, because there were people waiting for them. They needed help.

  “Do you promise to release me as soon as we reach Havv’n?” she whispered.

  Ferhdessar put his right hand on his heart. “As Jakob is my witness, I swear that I will only let you fly to Havv’n, nothing else.”

  Lilith looked to the north once more. Just you wait, Kasimirh. I might not be able to fight against your words, but just wait until we meet face to face.

  “All right, let’s use the soul box.”

  Ferhdessar opened the box and put it in front of her. He was curious to see what was going to happen. Even though he had owned the object for a long time, he had never found anyone willing to play guinea pig. Ferhdessar hadn’t expected Lilith to agree to it either. The fact that she had, told him how awful the flight had been until now. Or maybe she finally trusted him. It hadn’t been easy to find the right words to comfort her, but apparently he had done well enough.

  Lilith looked insecure. “What do I have to do?”

  “All you have to do is imagine sliding into the box.”

  Ferhdessar watched how she let her soul flow into the box. Her eyes glazed over and her breathing became shallow. She stood perfectly still in front of him. Ferhdessar waited a little while longer before he walked up to her. He pushed against her shoulder, but Lilith didn’t respond.

  “Turn around.”

  Lilith immediately did as she was told. Next, Ferhdessar wanted to order her to change, but then he thought again. He got out a notebook and a pen.

  “Tell me the shapeshifting incantation word for word.”

  He wrote down the words as Lilith pronounced them clearly. It might come in handy one day to know them. He put the notebook away and wrapped his hand around her amulet. Her skin was cold to the touch. Hard, not human. All the while, Lilith was staring right through him with her glassy eyes, waiting for the moment he gave her an order.

  “Qi ga ullar brut i-qi libèr qi ouander i-a drag.”

  Tiny jolts of electricity went through his skin and Ferhdessar pulled his hand away. Pleased, he watched how his words made her change.

  “Kneel!”

  The dragon slowly sagged through her legs, and Ferhdessar climbed on her shoulders.

  “Fly!”

  It was strange to see Lilith this obedient; she mechanically did everything her told her.

  “Lilith isn’t here any more,” he muttered when her master’s voice entered his thoughts.

  “Is that you, Ferhdessar? I have a bone to pick with you as well, so we’ll see each other in Havv’n. I’m looking forward to our reunion.”

  For a moment, Ferhdessar was tempted to ask the prophet what he was talking about, but he decided to shield himself from the other sorcerer. The remark kept haunting him, though. Kasimirh had talked about a reunion, but Ferhdessar still couldn’t remember where they knew each other from.

  The question kept weighing on his mind as he flew north at high speed. The dragon immediately responded to any order he gave her, as if she were the airplane that he had built. A plan slowly started to take shape in his head. It seemed increasingly unlikely that Lilith would willingly fight against Kasimirh. The way she had fought against the prophet during the flight made that abundantly clear.

  She herself had admitted that the prophet was drawing her in. It was hard to believe that she still was this vulnerable, but Ferhdessar knew that if he wanted to bring her into action during the upcoming battle, he’d have to do it without her per
mission.

  It was getting dark when Ferhdessar noticed a bright beam of light moving back and forth along the clouds. That had to be one of Havv’n’s lighthouses. It was a sign that he was nearing his destination.

  Far below him, other lights drew his attention: the swinging lanterns of the soldiers that had been sent to Havv’n from the nearest army camp. Only a few men looked up at him. Ferhdessar peered at the horizon again and tried to assess the distance to the seaport town.

  “We’ll be there in half an hour,” he mumbled, patting Lilith contentedly on the neck.

  At first glance, the damage to the town seemed less than Ferhdessar had expected. Havv’n was built on a cliff near the estuary of a river. Sheer rock cliffs rose up from the water, and the only opening was the place where the river discharged into the bay. A gate had been built in that spot. It was the entrance into Merzia that would benefit the servi the most, because the river would lead them straight to Nadesh. But so far, they hadn’t been successful in breaching the gate.

  Relieved that he had reached Havv’n on time, Ferhdessar let the dragon skim over the rooftops. In most houses, the lights on the ground floors were on. This showed that people didn’t dare go to sleep for fear of another attack.

  Lilith flew over the temples of the Gods. The lights were on in the temples as well, and Ferhdessar heard mumbled prayers everywhere. Imploring hymns rose up out of the roof of Wigg’s temple. Ferhdessar hoped that they would help to put a stop to Kasimirh and caught himself praying as well.

  The silence hanging over Jakob’s temple was ironic, but hardly surprising. Jakob didn’t play a big part in the faith of the Merzians, especially not where war was concerned. Perhaps the people of Havv’n would have been praying to Jakob right now if they had known the motivation of their enemy. But then again, they might have set the temple afire, Ferhdessar thought as they left the building behind them.

  Ferhdessar set course for the fort that lay on the other side of the river. His eye soon spotted a building where birds of prey were flying in and out. That had to be the command post. Ferhdessar told the dragon to land on a nearby square. Everything was deathly quiet.

  “Wait there for me.”

  Lilith, who had changed back into human form, walked to the alley at which he had pointed. The darkness swallowed her up. Ferhdessar caressed the soul box, turned around and started to walk. At the end of the street stood the building that he had spotted from the air. He saw Anukasan rushing inside, but he himself was blocked at the entrance by two soldiers.

  “Who are you and what’s your business?”

  Ferhdessar showed them his signet ring as he introduced himself.

  “The king sent me.”

  Before the soldiers could step aside, a voice behind Ferhdessar said, “I’ll show him the way.”

  The soldiers saluted and let him through.

  Ferhdessar recognized the man as Yorben. He was Purified, but the scar of his baptism was hardly visible between all the other scars he had sustained during the many battles he had fought in. Nevertheless, he wore a veil. Ferhdessar had met him a few times during meetings.

  “It’s good that the king has sent help this quickly, lord Ferhdessar. The situation is getting worse with every passing minute.”

  Yorben led him through a long corridor with doors on either side, but even without a guide, Ferhdessar would have known that he needed the last door. Lots of noise could be heard coming from the room behind it, and people kept walking in and out.

  A bright light was burning in the room. People were crowded around a table that was placed underneath the lamp. Yorben coughed.

  “Lord Ferhdessar has arrived.”

  A hush descended over the room. The people made way, so that the sorcerer could walk up to the table. General Kiril looked at him with a mixture of gratitude and impatience in his eyes.

  “You managed to get here fast,” Anukasan noted. He had been bent over the map, but now he was looking up.

  “Lilith brought me.”

  “That explains a lot. Where is she?”

  “Somewhere out of sight. It didn’t seem wise to have people see her. They would be scared of her.”

  Kiril gave him a questioningly look. It was impossible not to notice that he was a wolf shifter and that wasn’t just because of the symbol on his chest. Kiril had thick, dark-brown hair and a beard. His orange eyes glowed, and nothing escaped his notice.

  “Lilith’s a dragon,” Ferhdessar explained. “She has agreed to help us in this battle.”

  “So you managed to win her over after all?” Anukasan asked. His disapproval could clearly be heard in his voice.

  Ferhdessar decided not to respond. “Tell me, what have you discovered?” The eagle man served as a scout, and the commanders made their decisions based on the information they got from him and the other bird shifters.

  Anukasan tapped on the map showing the area of Havv’n. “This is where I spotted a large number of servi in the water. It didn’t look as though they were getting ready to join the other warriors. They might try to come ashore here.”

  Ferhdessar glimpsed at the map. Anukasan’s finger was resting on a spot several miles to the north of the town. Ferhdessar knew that the cliffs were a bit lower there, but they still towered dozens of feet over the water. The woods extended as far as the edge of the cliff.

  “The servi are trying to make an enveloping movement so they can access the river farther inland. Kasimirh knows that time is running out.” Ferhdessar addressed Kiril, “Can you send troops to that place?”

  The man studied the map again and nodded. “But that will be at the expense of the defences in town.”

  “There are a few hundred soldiers coming this way. They’ll be here in less than two hours,” Ferhdessar said.

  “That’s good news. We might be able to hold the servi back until reinforcements arrive.” He looked at the man standing to his left. “Yorben, take your men to the place that Anukasan just pointed out.” Yorben hurried out of the room as Kiril addressed Ferhdessar again. “You and your dragon are needed at the gate. The servi haven’t breached it yet, but they’ve been trying to make a hole in the metal for quite some time now. I won’t be long before…”

  An owl flew in through a window and changed while still in flight. As the woman crashed to the floor, she called out, “They’ve breached the gate!”

  “I’m on my way,” Ferhdessar yelled, running outside.

  He immediately called Lilith.

  Spurred on by his commands, Lilith skimmed over the river not much later. They approached the three hundred feet high gate at great speed. One of the walls that filled the space between the gate and the cliff face had collapsed. The hole in the wall was so high above water level, however, that it was useless to the servi. Therefore, they had made a big hole in the open-work metal of the gate with a cutting torch. Ferhdessar suddenly spotted a woman who was fighting the servi with fierce stabs of her spear on the near side of the gate. She was hovering above the water.

  It wasn’t really surprising that this sorceress was fighting here. Afifa was known for seeking out wars and turning up to fight in the places where help was needed most. Ferhdessar didn’t know her well enough to know what her motives were. It was as if she enjoyed pushing her luck time and again, but whether she did that out of a general contempt for life or sheer recklessness, he didn’t know. He didn’t really have time to think about that right now, anyway.

  Lilith gained some height to fly over the gate. For the first time, Ferhdessar had a view of the destruction caused by the enemy. The poorest townspeople had lived on the narrow beaches of the river’s estuary. The streets were still wet from the water that had washed away their wooden houses. Pieces of roofs ware scattered about. Household goods had been washed up against the few remaining walls. Ferhdessar knew that there had also been houses on pontoons on the water, but there didn’t seem to be anything left of them.

  In the surf, Merzians were fighting the servi. Th
e sea quickly deepened here and huge waves were rolling in, so the people couldn’t do much to stop the servi from swimming through the hole in the gate. It was up to Afifa to stop them.

  The sounds Ferhdessar heard below him, weren’t the sounds he expected to hear on a battlefield. There was no clanging of arms, and hardly any shots were fired because the water had rendered most rifles useless. It was the sounds of the warriors themselves that predominated. The curses that accompanied each sword blow were evidence of the Merzians’ ferocious resistance. The servi growled as they threw themselves on their enemies and tried to kill them with their claws. On the beach, bodies belonging to warriors of both sides lay beside or on top of each other. The bulk of the bodies, however, was human.

  Ferhdessar told Lilith to slow down. The water was swirling because of her wingbeats. There was a hush of anticipation when the people and the servi spotted Lilith. Nobody was sure what the dragon was going to do and whose side it was on. Fear prevailed among the Merzians, but the Muircadhi exchanged hopeful looks. Had Lilith come to fight on their side as she always had?

  For a second it seemed as if Lilith was hanging still in the air, but then she stretched her legs and landed gracefully in the water. Waves pushed the servi onto the beach where they were killed by the soldiers. The dragon tilted her head back and flared her nostrils. Ferhdessar wondered if she smelled the servi or something else. Blood, perhaps?

  “Attack!”

  Ferhdessar released two fireballs. Lilith breathed fire. It immediately became clear to the servi that the dragon was fighting against them. Some dived under water and swam away from her. Lilith grabbed a Muircadh by his legs and pulled him back up. She let him dangle in front of her face. The creature was grabbing for her, but Lilith wasn’t impressed. She broke the servus in two as though he were a twig and then she threw him aside.