by Ross Turner
“Usually?” Zanriath interjected, not wanting to explore that particular topic in further depth at that moment. Ormath smiled knowingly.
“Yes son. Usually.” The great dragon sighed again. Such sorrow was Ormath displaying today, as Isabel had never seen. “It would appear that young Colvan here does not require the assistance of another to create demonic life.” He explained. “His power is such that he is able to perform such a feat alone, multiple feats in fact.”
“So why isn’t Thorn attached to Cole like Rose is?” Zanriath asked. Ormath smiled again.
“Thorn, as our young friend Rose here has so aptly named him, is Rose’s equal, her opposite if you will.” He said.
“Sorry?” Cole probed. “I don’t understand.” Ormath turned to the young boy fully and addressed him directly now.
“You lost control son.” He explained, and Cole was unsure whether he liked the term ‘son’ with which he had been so casually dubbed. “Your power split equally when you created Rose and Thorn. If you had created four or five demons, it would have been divided likewise into four or five between them. But as we now stand, you created only two, and, likewise, one of them received your intentions for the harnessing of your power, and the other received that of the other occupant of your thoughts.”
“Other occupant?” Zanriath asked. Cole answered before Ormath could.
“The Souls.” He said in a detached tone. “They were inside my head.”
“So, one of the demons is sided with you, Cole.” Zanriath confirmed, swallowing the lump in his throat and looking at Rose.
“And Thorn is with the Souls of the Ocean.” Isabel whispered, the cold, hard truth hitting her like a hurricane and chilling her to the bone.
Ormath spoke again then, his tone authoritative and unusually commanding.
“You must find and defeat Thorn before he grows too powerful.” He instructed. “Failing that, you must warn all those of Tamarack of his coming, for what will happen if you fail will surely be inevitable.”
“How powerful will he become?” Cole asked concerned.
“He will have exactly half of your strength Colvan.” Ormath replied. “As will Rose.” He was silent for a moment before He spoke again, His voice much quieter and carrying warning. “Though it will be combined with that of the lost souls, and we have yet to discover a limit to your power, so I cannot rightly say.”
That frightening truth struck them all a little close to the core, and they stood in silence until Ormath eventually broke it.
“You haven’t much time.” His voice was becoming more urgent. “Demons mature much more rapidly than humans. I do not know how long you have before Thorn is able to raise more demons himself, and then, in turn, it is likely that each one of those will also be taken over by the lost souls.”
Isabel, Zanriath, Cole and even Rose, all stood dumbfounded now as the reality of their perilous situation came crashing down upon them.
“It is also very likely that Thorn will reopen the tear to the demonic realm once he is strong enough.” Ormath continued, looking directly to Isabel as her eyes widened yet even further. “It was sealed when you banished my brother Isabella, but not destroyed. The realm still exists, and its occupants are as malevolent as ever.”
Ormath seemed to be drawing to a natural conclusion, and Isabel looked up to see Him beginning to flicker and fade slightly. There were still so many questions unanswered, and the task He had laid out before them seemed all but impossible.
It all seemed to be too much to cope with.
“I must counsel with my brothers and sister if we are to face this threat.” He told them in a fading voice. “Move with haste my children; this threat is by far greater even than that which was once my brother Depozi.”
Then, as His voice finally faded away into the vastness of the mountain, so did His flickering image.
The silent flames remained for a moment before ceasing effortlessly, leaving the four in comparable darkness, gazing at the perfect surface of the glassy water, and seeing nothing but their hopeless fears and realisations staring back at them.
15
Tearing through the snow frosted peaks and ridges, leaving deep tracks through the freshly-laid snow in their wake, Isabel and Zanriath pushed their horses as fast as they dared, desperately trying to keep up with their son and his demon, though their success was somewhat limited. The air all around was still freezing, and their horses pushed on faster and faster, desperately fighting the cold and the wind and the snow.
Driven by sudden self-loathing and the heavy weight of responsibility that he was as of yet unaccustomed to, unable to escape the knowledge that his rash actions of late had had potentially dire consequences, Cole too urged Rose ever faster.
Instead of being drawn into exhaustion by Cole’s insistence, Rose fed off his energy like a hungry machine, launching herself, with Cole on her back, perilously from ridge to ridge. Her powerful legs churned snow and crushed rock and her strides ate the distance beneath her feet without effort, soaring over deep chasms and crashing into rock and snow and stone with the force of a thundering storm.
After a while Cole even began to enjoy the feeling of leaping, climbing and falling and he and Rose began to get carried away. It seemed that no matter how high Rose jumped and fell, she did not tire or, luckily, injure, she simply drew more strength from Cole, their minds linked, and leapt yet even further.
Eventually they had gotten so far ahead of his parents that Cole had no idea where Isabel and Zanriath were. He turned and looked back to the north, his heart racing and his face frozen from the lashing winds of their most recent ascent.
Where were they?
He decided this would be a good test, and hopefully a relatively safe one. He turned to look at Rose; her eyes were already upon him, knowing his intentions.
“Stop me if I go too far, Rose.” He said calmly. She nodded with a very human-like response, her eyes understanding. “Bring me back.” He said then, turning to the north fully, squaring his young shoulders.
He had seen, and indeed felt, his mother do this many times now. She had done it only an hour ago as they had left Dragon’s Peak.
She had cast out her demonic thoughts and sensed Thorn, as they had needed to find his trail in order to take up the chase. Cole knew she could sense anything with demonic power in Tamarack. She had said Thorn was moving south, leaving Inferno Range, and so they had followed his trail. There was only so far he could go - they were on an island after all.
Slowly, and very carefully, Cole closed his eyes and focused his will. The sensation that followed was very similar to that which he had experienced during his awakening. He continued, presuming that the feeling was normal, as his acute awareness of the mountains, the rocks, the ground, even the wind, the cold, and the air intensified. Whether his mother sensed all of these things when she searched like this he did not know, she had never spoken of such.
He gradually spread his awareness wider, in doing so somehow gaining a greater understanding of everything he felt. The mountain beneath his feet even seemed to beat in rhythm with his thoughts. He sensed something that he recognised, flowing out in droves from the mountain, something he had never witnessed before with his eyes, but with this ‘sight’ it was clear as day. He did not believe what he was sensing. The substance that flowed like water from the very rock and ice, evaporating from its surface, was emotion. It was anger, anger mixed with sorrow.
Then something else caught his attention, as his awareness spread yet even further, something that stood out amongst everything else. In fact there were two things: one to the south and one to the north. He knew instantly what they were. One was Thorn, and one was his mother. And as had happened with the mountain, he could feel them.
He felt Thorn stop and turn and curse his name in rage. Cole felt Rose’s brother’s hatred and disliked it, but moved on. Thorn was not what he wanted now. Turning his attention north, Cole found Isabel, and saw that she was not too fa
r behind. Strangely, he could see his father too, though his aura was not quite as bright.
Wasn’t he only supposed to be able to see others with demonic ability?
He dismissed the thought and continued, moving on, and Isabel’s emotions grew more prominent in his thoughts. He saw her worry, and then he sensed her panic, and then, almost at the last second, he realised why.
His awareness was spreading too wide. He was losing control. He tried desperately to pull it back in, but his attempts failed as it escaped his grasp. It was much more powerful now than it had been during his awakening. He was slipping away; he could feel it, the vast emptiness of the world all around him was swallowing his thoughts relentlessly.
It was as if he was merging with the very ground itself, with the world even, no longer separate from what he was sensing, but indeed a very intimate part of it.
But then he sensed something else, yet even more demonic power. However, this was not the power of those who still harboured some ability in Tamarack - they were but specs scattered across his vision in Land. This aura was bright and bold, blaringly obvious amongst everything else.
Why had his mother never told him of this before?
What was it?
It was only when it was too late that he realised why she had never spoken of it. She had never done so because she had never seen it.
He was no longer looking at Tamarack. He had lost his grasp and drifted far off, far away from his home, and now he was staring straight into the face of the demonic realm. Next the demons began appearing, looking up at him with glee and reaching out for him, extending their clawed hands to claim him.
Then he felt something grab his arms. Looking down, Cole could see two powerful sets of black hands wrapped around his wrists, pulling him back. He could not only feel the pull physically, but he could feel its hold on his mind, as if it had always been there.
How had it got in?
This was it. He had gone too far. He screamed and shouted in defiance.
“NO! I WON’T LET YOU!” Cole struggled free and fell to the ground writhing in panic. It took him a few seconds to realise that his real vision had returned and he was thrashing around in freshly laid snow.
New frozen flakes were falling from the sky and coming to rest on his cold face and hands. He lay there breathing heavily, shaking slightly, both shocked and relieved by what had just happened. His breath steamed out above him and the snowflakes that drifted through the steaming jets from his lips melted almost instantly and ran across his face.
Then Rose was there nuzzling her snout against her Cole with worry. He suddenly laughed with delighted realisation.
“Oh Rose.” He said rubbing her under the chin affectionately and gratefully. “It was you. You brought me back.” Rose, somehow with her massive jaws, smiled and nodded gleefully in response to her Cole, her tongue lolling out to the side of her mouth and her breath coming out in great wisps of warm vapour, melting the snowflakes still resting on his face. She had sensed that he had wandered too far and, though it had strained her efforts, she had managed to coax him back to the living.
They retraced their steps and soon encountered Isabel and Zanriath, still pushing south as quickly as they could through the deepening snow and icy winds.
“Was that you Cole?” Isabel asked her son, though he suspected quite strongly that she already knew the answer to her question.
“Yes.” He replied without hesitation. “I wanted to see whether I could do it.”
“It felt like you were stretching yourself very thin.” Isabel warned. “Just be careful. If you’re going to try something new, it’s probably a good idea if Rose and I are both with you.” Cole only nodded in response, knowing in his heart that she was right.
For some reason, he could not bring himself to ask his mother about the things he had sensed besides those that were obviously demonic, and so he kept the thoughts to himself. Rose however, was not so easily fooled, and clearly knew what was bothering him, though sadly she did not have the answers he sought.
They continued at the same pace for several long hours, Isabel and Zanriath still struggling to keep up with their son and his demon as they ploughed ahead, having to stop and wait every few minutes. Compared to the horses, Rose seemed totally inexhaustible, feeding her energy whenever it began to wane directly from Cole’s strength.
The freezing wind still howled and, though the snow was not falling too heavily, any already fallen and settled drifts were continuously whipped up by the wind and barraged Isabel’s face and eyes, blinding her almost completely for the majority of the return journey.
It was very late in the day, and darkness had long since settled, when the four finally emerged from Inferno Range and the distant flickers of light marking Akten on Avrik came into view. Though their journey was far from over, at least the distant specs of light marked the end of a particularly hard stretch, though indeed also the beginning of an even more arduous challenge.
“At last.” Isabel said under her breath as finally they crossed Sorcerer’s Border. The lashing winds and the cold repressed and she was able to see unhindered once more, albeit her sight was limited now that the dark of night had well and truly blanketed the land.
They made with exhausted haste for the twinkling lights marking recuperation. Zanriath cast a blue flame in their path to help light the way, though Cole found that he did not need it. The strange senses he had brushed with earlier were prominent even still in his mind. He discovered that, as Rose’s thoughts were linked so closely to his own, though he did not fully understand how it was happening, she instinctively was also aware of what he could sense.
Though the feeling was strange, to say the least, Cole found it to be very effective. And so, as he expanded his mind before them, he sensed the ground, as he was becoming slightly more accustomed to now, and Rose automatically knew where to tread. She knew when to avoid obstacles, leap over ditches, and even whether the ground ahead was hard or soft, stone or dirt, it really was quite remarkable - Cole only wished he understood exactly what was happening.
What was this sense if it was not demonic?
Finally, they reached Akten on Avrik. Weary from a very long day, they quickly found lodgings. Rose even agreed to sleep in the stables with the horses, after Cole had gently convinced the frightened animals to stay calm, assuring them that Rose was indeed not a threat.
They all collapsed gratefully for the restful remainder of the night, all hoping that the next day would bring with it new light and better luck - though Isabel and Zanriath knew better than to hold out little expectation for such a thing.
It was a panicked knocking at the bedroom door that roused Isabel from her bed, and she groaned in her half-drowsy state as the knocking brought to the forefront of her semi-conscious thoughts a distant memory.
It was the recollection of her and her father at home, on the day he had been killed, when a frantic knocking had summoned them to the centre of Aproklis. She woke with a start and in a cold sweat as another, louder, bout of knocking sounded repeatedly.
“Ok! Hold on!” She called climbing out of bed and pulling on a robe to cover herself. Zanriath groaned and sat up.
“What do they want this early?” He asked exasperated, not really directing the question at his wife. Isabel shrugged her shoulders wearily, grunted in a tired and unladylike fashion, and sighed as she answered the door. The sight she beheld startled her and her mind flashed back to her semi-conscious dream she had just had, and she shuddered deeply at the similarity.
A bedraggled young man of no more than twenty years old stood before her. He was shaking with fright, his scraggy blonde hair falling just past his ears and slightly over his eyes, and it was a few moments before he summoned the calm to open his mouth to speak.
“In…in…the…stables…” He managed to force out.
“Ah…” Isabel replied, the uncanny likeness between this young man and the young woman from twenty years ago shocking her still. �
��Yes…we’ll be right down.”
The young man nodded but seemed not to have understood. Isabel sighed and took the young man firmly by the shoulders, turned him around, and directed him back towards the stairs, calling her son as she did so.
“Cole!”
“Yes?” Came the muffled reply from behind Cole’s bedroom door.
“Rose is upsetting the staff dear.” She told him casually.
“Oh…” She heard him reply amongst a rushed scrabbling. “Ok I’m coming!” He called, bursting from his door only seconds later and tearing down the creaky stairs of the aged inn, racing past his mother still directing the terrified stable boy.
He was met by white looks of terror as he raced towards the stables as fast as his shaky legs would carry him.
When he reached the wooden building, more of an oversized shed than anything else, surrounded by a large crowd of people all stood back somewhat, he took in the sight with bewilderment, and even a little amusement. The doors were heavily barred with crates, tools and even a small wagon, all thrown at the door in a desperate attempt to keep the monster locked inside, though of course it would have made little difference to Rose if she had actually wanted to escape.
“Look out!” Cole shouted as he ran. “Coming through!” All too eager to let someone else take charge, even if that someone was a young boy, the crowds parted. “Rose?” Cole called towards the large wooden shed. Moments later he received the thought of Rose’s response in his mind. Her voice was oddly calm, understanding of the fear everyone felt, and she was even sympathetic for the shock she had given the stable boy.
Cole relaxed and smiled, turning to the throng of worried onlookers, and prepared to address them all by climbing atop the makeshift barricade they had constructed.
“It’s ok.” He told them quite simply. “She won’t hurt anybody. She’s my friend.”
It was then that Isabel and Zanriath emerged from the inn and headed hastily towards Cole. Whilst their son had not been recognised by many, almost everyone recognised the legendary couple, and much more readily believed their assurances of safety.
