The ranger nodded and began stalking forward, one slow step at a time. She put her bow over her shoulder again and motioned for Chase to do the same.
“We all need to move together,” she told Chase. “The shield will protect us long enough to allow us to ready our weapons if we need to.”
Chase nodded and put away her bow, then she matched her pace with Ethmira's.
Malfiess was moving just ahead of Diane and he was looking from house to house as they slowly made their way through Alderthal.
“Where is everyone?” he wondered. “We've been away for such a short time. Surely nothing dire could have happened so quickly?”
“When it comes to dark magics, I would not be surprised by anything,” Diane told him as she walked. “I must admit that I was somewhat skeptical of Keeper Fiad's suspicions, but there is no way that all of the villagers have disappeared in so short a time unless something terrible has happened. What I cannot wrap my head around is the idea that Kallistra is the cause of this. She is the strongest keeper on the planet! How could she have turned to evil so completely without any of the other keepers noticing?”
“It would not be that difficult,” Fiad said sadly. “We are so isolated from society and from each other. Yes, we keepers speak with each other using the ley lines, but we rarely meet in person. Without being in someone's presence, it is difficult to know what they are truly like. I have never met Kallistra face to face, although we have spoken many times and I would know her to see her. So if she has turned away from the Light, none of us might have known until it was too late. As I fear it is now.”
Everyone matched their pace with Ethmira's as the ranger stalked through the eerily quiet village. She was obviously leading them toward the three spires at the center of Alderthal.
“You want to check on the Council?” Malfiess asked her. “Do you really believe that Amelda and the others are still on duty now that the ley lines have failed?”
“What else can they do?” the ranger replied as she continued to move ahead. “They are trapped here in Alderthal. Amelda would continue to do her duty irregardless of circumstance because that is all she knows. And if I were an agent of evil, I would consider the Council to be a prime target. Destroy them and you strike at the very heart of elven society. Even without the ley lines available to us, word would slowly spread across the world that the Council had fallen. It would devastate our people. Whether I like her or not, Amelda is held in great esteem by most elves. Her loss might send them into a panic and make it easier for our enemies to defeat us.”
“Wait a moment, Ethmira,” Diane said sharply.
The ranger stopped immediately and turned around.
“What is it?”
“You make a good point. The Council may be in danger as we speak. We cannot waste time moving this slowly.”
She looked at all of her companions.
“Prepare yourselves. I'm going to Gate us directly into the Council chambers. I've spied on some of their sessions since I assumed my post and I know what it looks like up there.”
“Have you?” Malfiess asked, wide-eyed. “Why?”
“Curiosity. As Ethmira said, the Council sits at the heart of elven society and I wondered what you were all like.” She smiled slightly. “And it helped to pass some time as I watched over Trillfarness. Your relationship with Amelda is quite...complicated, Councilor.”
Malfiess chuckled.
“That is one way to describe it, I suppose,” he admitted. “But I still respect her and her years of experience. Let us hope that she and my fellow councilors are safe.”
“We'll find out in a moment. Is everyone ready?”
Both Ethmira and Chase drew their swords. Malfiess squeezed his staff a little more tightly while Fiad simply crossed his arms and gripped his elbows as he trembled with fright.
“Here we go,” Diane said.
She cast her spell and they teleported over the short distance in an instant. Diane had chosen to appear just outside of the Council chambers and, as they materialized, the shield around them sparked with bright blue flashes. There were several loud cries and the group looked around in surprise for the source of the screams.
They were standing in the middle of the wide doorway and Diane's shield filled the entire space. Inside of the Council chambers, several armed elves were gaping at the group. Behind them, Amelda and the other councilors had backed up against the windows and were staring, wide-eyed, at Ethmira and Malfiess.
Outside of the chamber, three misshapen forms were writhing and moaning as they smoked and burned, engulfed in intense blue flames. They were vaguely humanoid looking, but the creatures looked more like masses of fungus than they did elves. Behind them the group recognized a female elf who was watching them, her face twisted with fury. It was Kallistra.
“You've returned sooner than I expected,” she said, speaking loudly over the moans of the burning creatures. “I almost had those fools on the Council in my grasp. Damn you, human! Your meddling in our affairs will not go unpunished.”
Ethmira raised her sword and Chase glared at Kallistra with fury. Malfiess simply watched her as one would watch a snake that was poised to strike. Fiad was shaking his head as a tear ran down his face.
“Oh, do try to act like a keeper and not a coward, Fiad,” Kallistra said mockingly. “What I am doing is for the greater good of Trillfarness. Of course, weaklings like you would never understand such things. Perhaps you were chosen for your position by mistake, hmm?”
“You are a monster,” Fiad replied weakly. “You have betrayed everything that our kind stands for and you will answer for it one day.”
He turned his back on her and Diane patted his shoulder as she stepped forward.
“So sorry to inconvenience you, Kallistra,” Diane said coolly. “But since we are speaking so politely with each other, would you explain yourself. Why? Why attack your fellow elves? Why disrupt the ley lines and call forth the corruption the way that you did?”
She looked down at the still forms in front of Kallistra.
“Why summon whatever those things were? Just...why?”
“Why?”
The keeper laughed heartily, a chilling sound in the sudden silence of the spire.
“Because, mage, the ancient gods desire it,” she told Diane. “They want to return to the mortal realm and your people and the elves stand in their way. And those wretched dirt eaters, the dwarves. You must all be removed for the greater good. Can't you see that? The universe needs direction. Focus. Leadership. It needs the ancients to take charge again and steer its progress with a steady hand. The sacrifice of a few mortal races is a small price to pay for such a grand vision, don't you think?”
“I think that the lords of Light might disagree with you,” Diane said dryly.
“Those weaklings!” Kallistra scoffed, her expression twisted with disgust. “They speak of love and peace. Peace! Evolution is only achieved through conflict. The strongest survive and the weak are removed from the equation. It is the nature of things. But your so-called 'lords of Light and Justice' would coddle the mortal races. Embrace them with love and kindness. Ridiculous! When my masters return from the Void, they will leave their weak cousins behind in that empty place for all eternity. A fitting end for such vapid entities.”
“You didn't answer my actual question, Kallistra,” Diane told her. “Why did you betray your people? The reasons for the lords of Chaos to do what they do is obvious. It's in their nature. But your motivations elude me.”
“My reasons?”
Kallistra looked puzzled for a moment, as if she was confused by the question. Diane watched her narrowly and Chase noticed that the mage had put her right hand behind her back and was making small, abrupt gestures with her fingers. The blue stone on her ring was glowing with power and tiny sparks were cascading from it as it moved.
“I owe you no explanation, human,” Kallistra said loftily. “I am the most powerful keeper on Trillfarness and what I d
o is for the good of all. It is my purpose, my reason for being.”
“Destroying your own people is for their own good?” Diane scoffed. “Come now, Kallistra. You can do better than that.”
The keeper frowned and put a hand to her head. She began swaying in place and blinked rapidly.
“I...I am doing it for the greater good,” she stammered. “Aren't I? My people will...will benefit from the conflict. They will... Wait, that makes no sense. What am I saying?”
“What's going on?” Malfiess whispered.
Chase nodded discreetly at Diane.
“Our friend is using her powers somehow,” she muttered. “I'm not sure what she's doing, but it is having an affect on Kallistra.”
Kallistra gripped her head with both hands, her face suddenly twisted with pain.
“What is happening?” she exclaimed loudly. “What have I done? Get out of my head, whatever you are! Evil. Evil! Begone, I say!”
Diane raised her hand and a burst of searing blue light ignited the air around Kallistra. The keeper shrieked in agony and collapsed into a heap on the floor. A black shadow, misshapen and grotesque, rose out of her limp form, writhing and twisting like a crazed thing.
With a savage gesture, Diane clenched her hand into a fist. An unearthly shriek made every elf within earshot stagger and then the shadow burst apart and disappeared. The shield around the group disappeared with a loud sizzle and Ethmira sheathed her sword and hurried over to kneel beside Kallistra's unconscious form.
“Is she dead?” Chase asked her as she slipped her own sword back into its sheath.
“No,” Diane said heavily. “But she will need some time to recover. I had to sever the connection between Kallistra and whatever dark thing possessed her. She will be fine, I think.”
“Possession?” Fiad said, looking confused. “Is that what that was?”
“It seems so. I sensed a malicious presence surrounding Kallistra as soon as we got up here. It was hiding itself when we first met, I suppose, but here it had consumed her utterly and it was obvious that the keeper was not controlling her own actions. I don't think that someone who uses ordinary magic could have severed that unholy connection, but the ley energy that I use was strong enough to do so.”
She looked at the fallen keeper sadly.
“She will live, but I suspect that the guilt of what she did, even though it wasn't her fault, will be immense. She will need your help, Keeper Fiad, going forward.”
“I will do what I can, Lady,” he replied stoutly. “Kallistra is the greatest of us. We will need her strength soon enough, I am sure.”
“Yes, we will,” someone said from behind them.
Amelda strode forward and glanced at Ethmira where she was kneeling beside Kallistra, who seemed to be shaking off the affects of the magic that Diane had used on her. Then the Elder turned to look at Diane.
“I heard what you said,” Amelda told the mage. “I don't understand what has happened, but it seems that you saved Kallistra's life. And perhaps the lives of many of my people as well. You have my thanks.”
“I was just doing my duty, Elder,” Diane replied with the ghost of a smile. “I did not believe that someone like Kallistra could have turned to evil so easily. It seems that I was right.”
“You are Diane, I take it?” Amelda asked her.
“I am.”
The senior councilor looked at Malfiess and gave him a rare smile.
“So you did not go on a fool's errand after all,” she said to him. “It seems that I was mistaken.”
Malfiess chuckled.
“No one is perfect,” he replied.
Chapter 15
Kallistra was helped to her feet by Ethmira and Chase and led to a chair inside of the Council chambers. Amelda quickly took charge, sending someone to bring a healer to the spire and clearing the room of everyone else except for the Council members and the guards who had been defending them. Malfiess and one of the guards carried several chairs across the chamber and set them in front of the Council table while Amelda and the other councilors took their seats again.
“How is she doing?” Amelda asked Ethmira.
The ranger bent down in front of Kallistra where she sat off to the side of the Council table. The keeper was hunched over and staring blankly at the floor in front of her. Fiad stood behind her and watched Kallistra closely, his expression one of deep concern.
Ethmira squeezed Kallistra's shoulder, stood up and walked over to take a seat in front of the councilors.
“I can't say how she is doing emotionally,” she told Amelda. “But she seems to be fine physically. We'll have to wait for a healer to confirm that though.”
Diane sat down next to the ranger and looked at each councilor in turn. Malfiess took his seat at the end of the table and she smiled at him briefly before focusing on Amelda.
“We seem to have found the source of the initial attack on Trillfarness,” she told the councilor. “But I must admit that I have never seen anyone possessed before. I didn't even know that an elf could be taken over by malevolent forces. I find it quite alarming, to say the least.”
“As do I,” Amelda replied.
She looked frail and tiny in her large yellow robe, and strands of her thin white hair fluttered around her head, having come loose from the braid that fell down her back. The lines around her eyes and mouth looked even deeper than they had when Ethmira, Chase and Malfiess had last been in Alderthal.
“You are a mage, I take it?” she asked.
“I am, Elder,” Diane replied politely.
“I see. Welcome to Alderthal,” Amelda said, gesturing at the chamber around them. “And to the Council's Spire. A poor welcome, I grant you, but one filled with sincere gratitude. Thank you for your intervention, Lady. If it hadn't been for you, I believe that we would all be dead now.”
Diane shook her head and glanced quickly at Kallistra.
“I am not sure that is true, Elder,” she said. “We saw no villagers as we approached the spires, but we saw no bodies either. I confess that I am at a loss to explain what has happened to them. I suppose that we'll have to wait for Kallistra to recover to learn the truth of the matter.”
“Dead or not, you saved us all from whatever the thing that possessed Kallistra intended to do,” Sallah, the other woman on the Council, said to her. “And for that we owe you a debt that we can never repay.”
“Repayment is unnecessary, Councilor,” Diane told her with a smile. “I was just happy to be in the right place at the right time. What I am less happy about is that I have announced to our mutual enemies that a human is here on Trillfarness. I actually told Kallistra exactly what I can do. I am embarrassed that I did not sense the darkness inside of her at the time. Knowing that a human mage has allied herself with your people? I cannot imagine that the old gods will be happy with that news.”
“I fear that you are correct,” Amelda replied with a sigh. “Do you think that this will have repercussions on Earth? Will your people be in even greater danger than they already are?”
“I don't think that is possible, Elder,” Diane told her with a crooked smile. “Our last bastion, Nottinghill Castle, is constantly under siege these days. Unless the dark gods manage to convince the new generation of dragons to serve them, there are no more forces available on Earth for them to throw at us. We're holding our own for now.”
“Is that likely?” Malfiess spoke up. “That the gods will take control of the new primal dragons and their broods?”
Diane actually chuckled.
“I sincerely doubt that,” she told him. “The red dragons are no more. Their primal was killed by the paladin, Liliana Travnikov, and his children died with him. As you may know, the different breeds of dragons despise each other. The other primals are leaving my people alone now, after Liliana's incredible sacrifice. Her willingness to die and take the primal red dragon with her seems to have given the others a new respect for humans. They don't hate us, per se, but they now hold us
in higher regard than they once did. On the other hand, they loathe the old gods, both those who are good and those who are evil. They will never come under their thrall again, of that I am certain. So the lords of Chaos have no chance of using them for their own purposes.”
“Well, that is a little bit of good news, I suppose,” Amelda said.
“For what it is worth, yes, it is,” Diane said.
“So let us get back to our own crisis,” Amelda continued. “When Malfiess first told the Council about you, Lady Diane, I will admit that I was skeptical. However, he has been proven correct and I am beyond grateful, both to him and to you. But what happens now? You arrived in time to stop Kallistra and whatever was using her to commit evil deeds, but how should we proceed?”
Before she could answer, Diane and the others heard footsteps approaching the chamber. Everyone looked toward the entrance and saw a pair of elves entering the room.
“Ah, Othellan,” Amelda said with obvious relief. “It is so good to know that you are safe.”
The tall, stately elf bowed toward her and the others at the Council table. He was walking with a staff and his plain gray robe was almost immaculate, but there were bruises on his bearded face and he looked a little unfocused.
“Thank you, Elder,” he said in a sonorous voice. “The feeling is mutual. I have Mirran to thank though, for my well being,” he added with a grateful glance at the female elf who stood by his side. “She found me unconscious below at the bottom of the staircase, woke me up and tended to my injuries. One of the Council's guards told us that you needed a healer's service and so, here we are. Are you all well? Something hit me from behind, but I never saw who or what it was.”
“We are well enough, I think. Welcome Mirran,” she said to the diminutive woman standing next to Othellan. “Your timing is impeccable. Thank you for helping our Speaker. Now, could you check on Kallistra, please? She is in need of your services.”
Mirran looked tiny standing beside the towering Speaker. She appeared to be quite young, her smooth face framed by a shiny mass of blond hair. She was wearing a white tunic and blue trousers and she was carrying a canvas bag in one hand. She bowed to Amelda and looked across the chamber toward Kallistra.
The Fall of the Elves Page 19
