“Let go,” Elinor pleaded. She was being pulled across the ground by the woolȧrook who had a fistful of her hair. She tried to scream, but her voice was muted by a grubby hand smothered against her face. Its rank stench was insufferable, worse than being in the burrow with the scavenger. Elinor was dragged down steep stairs into a pantry set below the banquet hall. Shelf-lined walls were stocked with the many delicacies she had already tasted and jars of the honeyed water that Elinor had come to learn was mind-controlling poison. She was gripped around the throat and shoved facedown in the dirt. She felt the woolȧrook’s bulky frame against her, its added weight making it difficult for her to breathe. It licked her cheek with a slobbery tongue.
The woolȧrook released a sensual moan. “Pretty…” it declared victoriously while grinding against Elinor’s wiggling body.
She was jerked onto her back. The veins on its hairless head looked like they were going to pop. Elinor tried to reach for her polearm, but her hand was quickly pinned down. A last attempt was made to reason with the one known as Beast. “Please,” Elinor said meekly. “Kill me if you must. But don’t do this.”
“I like when they beg,” replied the woolȧrook. It licked Elinor’s face again, this time to taste her tears. Its massive hands wrapped around her throat and squeezed.
Elinor was paralyzed by the licking of the woolȧrook’s abrasive tongue against her face. With each steady slurp she sensed herself slipping away. What she had feared was not what the woolȧrook intended. Instead, she was being drained again. But this time it was her vitality that was being extracted. Her vision blurred and she felt sharp claws digging into her throat. The horrific scene unfolding faded with the arrival of profound warmth, starting in her chest, and spreading outward through her body. Her anguish subsided. An aureate shimmer emerged, filling the storage space with peaceful light.
In an erotic trance the woolȧrook proceeded with its ghastly act, licking and grinding, oblivious to the transformation. Elinor heard dull pounding like a fist striking a tree. And then she heard the voice once again. A voice that had the power to lift her. A presence the likes she had never felt before. One that was able to create a sensation words alone could not describe. It was something that could only be experienced. Love! Aysgarth’s connection to her was born of love, she realized. Elinor didn’t understand how she knew this, but she knew it to be true.
Light-bearer.
His distant call stoked within Elinor a sense of serenity. It provided her with the will to keep moving forward. A trembling sensation consumed Elinor’s hands. Her entire body radiated with extreme heat. This, the woolȧrook did take notice of. It stopped its incessant act, displaying an unusual look that Elinor understood to be fear. If an abomination like a woolȧrook could be intimidated, then anything was possible, she thought. The grip around her throat loosened. In a state of euphoria that bordered on the cusp of madness, Elinor smiled. The woolȧrook’s pointy ears bent like a bully turned coward. And then Elinor unleashed her power.
A surge of energy rippled out, driving the woolȧrook away from her. It was thrust from the room, up the stairs, and out into the courtyard, leaving a trail of steam as it soared through the air. Elinor watched its flailing limbs and listened to its howling cry. She felt no sorrow for her tormentor when she saw Zi take the woolȧrook in her mouth and tear it in two. The carcass of Beast, the woolȧrook conjured to hunt Elinor, fell to Brim Hall and existed no more.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
While the child possessed abilities more adept at defense, the woman’s skills were deadly and potent. Her offensive power was turning the tower into a heap of rubble. The child blurred across the floor, up the walls, and sped along the stairs and ceilings in defiance of gravity, evading incoming bursts and scorching fire while using her shield to protect the innocent. Shards of colored glass falling from shattered windows and the facade’s heavy stone disintegrated against the child’s protective buffer. To maintain a safe distance from her sister’s relentless salvos the child was forced to move erratically. Any resemblance of a pattern would quickly be exploited to her own detriment. Her sister had gained the upper hand by draining Elinor. She was more powerful than ever. And the child knew if she was going to have any chance at rescuing Kalloire’s survivors that she needed to act quickly. But she would require help to do so.
She darted to the floor and abruptly reversed course, heading for the glass dome that capped the tower. Her sister’s wrath was drawn ground level and then skyward again. The outer wall the child used to climb was pulverized, leaving behind a wide gash that stretched the entire height of the tower. At the top she came to a speedy halt and went limp to feign being struck. The child plunged amid the falling debris.
The woman displayed a triumphant grin. Indigo eyes leered with such hatred that their rich hue appeared as though it would bleed out. Her fingers extended in preparation to launch a mortal blow.
Sensing her opening the child clenched her fists and surged for ground level. She penetrated the floor, vanishing beneath it just as her sister launched two consecutive blasts. Quickly she reemerged next to her sister in a violent upheaval of stone and timbers. Her sister collapsed to the floor. The child stood over her, summoning her shield to form a containment bubble. While keeping her sister pinned against the floor, she gave instructions for all survivors to evacuate through the gap in the wall. With her sister momentarily contained the child closed her eyes to connect with an old friend that she had once again felt the presence of. A friend she desperately needed.
Unaccustomed to the presence of abundant light, Elinor’s eyes stung as she ran from Brim Hall. Without any knowledge of her surroundings she decided to proceed toward a puffy mist hovering near a row of trees. She intended to use it to conceal her movement as well as to help dull the sunlight that was affecting her vision. Elinor was unsure of the gargan’s state of mind. According to legend they were peaceful, but she wasn’t about to take any chances. So many of her beliefs had been proven wrong. The lore she had grown up with could no longer be relied on. And regardless of whether the gargan continued to pursue her, there was still the woman to deal with. The woman in red. A woman that hated her for no apparent reason other than her being a light-bearer.
Several times Elinor peered over her shoulder and glanced up while sprinting ahead. The tree line was close. She feared at any moment the gargan would swoop down to snatch her like she saw happen to her tormentor, the woolȧrook, or that the woman would miraculously appear next to her. The thought of what the woman was capable of, the suffering she was able to inflict, terrified Elinor. She never wanted to feel that kind of pain again. Ever!
The ground under Elinor changed from prairie grass to gravel as she passed through the line of trees. Her surroundings became barren upon entering the mist. But it felt and looked different from mist Elinor had encountered before. It was denser and wetter. Her attire was becoming saturated with water. She quickly became disoriented. An unusual sensation came over her; one she could not explain, but a feeling that commander her to Stop! Elinor came to a screeching halt.
She hovered at the edge of a cliff with arms flailing while trying to regain her balance. Breathing heavily and scared out of her wits for almost falling to her death, Elinor stared over the edge. Visibility had cleared. The skyline was filled with puffy clouds floating carefree through an endless sky. Below she could make out a murky shroud splintered by cracks. It took a moment for Elinor to understand. She could not believe it. It hadn’t been mist she was running through, but clouds.
Instead of seeing the darkness that covered Kalloire from below, she was gazing at it from above. Elinor tried to make sense of where Brim Hall had been built. Her search for answers was vacated when she saw the gargan emerge from cloud cover. She froze. Had it seen me? Was it coming for me? Elinor was in further disbelief when she watched its wings being folded back against its scaly frame as it dove. The gargan’s horn blazed brightly and then it seemed to disappear into the side of the clif
f. There was no resounding crash or fracturing of rock as she had expected. It was just gone.
She wasted no time and started looking for a way down. Elinor needed to escape Brim Hall. Motivated by the gargan’s presence and fearing the woman was near, she moved along the edge looking for stairs, a trail, anything to indicate a means to escape. As she did, Elinor felt a tremble ripple through the ground.
At the direction of the child, Zi rocketed through Brim Hall’s underground. Dense rock melted before her, allowing her to navigate as if she was swimming through water. A cloud layer that protected her eyes from molten earth retracted when she broke through into open air again. Her horn dimmed and she proceeded to rupture sacks tethered and strung along Brim Hall’s underside by thrashing her tail and using the dermal plates layered along her back. She made one pass after another in a zigzagging pattern. The Ma΄Ranie air cushion built to keep Brim Hall airborne began to rapidly fail.
Inside the tower, the child’s shield was also failing. Her power was being drained by her sister who was using her dark ways to consume the child’s light. With both hands placed on the shell surrounding her, she leered with a contemptuous sneer.
“You’re getting weak, sister,” she said in her usual condescending nature. “Your love for these worthless beings will be your downfall.” She went on to mock, “Oh, sister of mine, with your hopeless ways and heartfelt craze, why the concerned face? Have you come to embrace all will be mine under the shadow of your disgrace?” The containment holding her fluctuated. “Or is it knowing your precious light-bearer will fall with the same lack of grace as this unholy place?” The woman howled, “You abandon my daughter to savages! Now I’m going to take everything from you.” She knelt, then slowly stood as she pushed back against the child’s fading power.
Her time was almost up. The child was forced to use one hand to maintain her shield while using her other to create a means of escape for Kalloire’s fleeing children. She divided her efforts, which further diminished the strength of the containment bubble holding her sister. As she summoned a vortex for the tribes to flee through, she pondered her mistakes. Had I been wrong to have not intervened sooner? If I had supported my sister, properly grieved with her instead of trying to maintain the balance, would things have been different? she asked herself. It had always been the guiding principle to not get involved. Since the beginning, events always found a way of rebalancing without interference. That is what she had told Elinor anyway. A young tree-dweller from the south that was in over her head.
In that moment the child concluded she had been wrong about so many things. In realization that the schism with her sister was the greatest imbalance of all, the child shed a tear. The separation with her sister was beyond what could naturally be fixed. Her denial about the extent of her sister’s pain and her reluctance to intervene had been the ultimate betrayal, she concluded. Not only to her sister, but to all Kalloire’s inhabitants. In her waning moments the child grieved most of all for her beloved other half. Her, a child of light, her sister, a child of darkness. Both connected across time and space. One gifted with rebirth, the other with death. Two competing forces forever intertwined in the ultimate battle. But instead of existing in harmony as had been the case since inception, one would prevail over the other. It would be the darker half, the woman that had become known as Ka΄Phar.
An oppressive hand gripped the child’s throat. She felt her sister’s anguish emanating from her fingers as red nails tore into her flesh. Instead of blood, beams of ethereal light seeped from the child’s skin. She didn’t resist or try to fight. Her focus remained on keeping the vortex open long enough for everyone to escape. The tower moaned as the floating island Brim Hall had been constructed on began to tilt. The child’s thoughts drifted to Elinor. With the last of her essence she again connected with Zi, her oldest surviving friend. Her final act was an attempt to rebalance not what her sister had done, but what she had allowed to happen. And Zi would be the one to carry her message.
Fading light spilled from the child’s passive eyes. Forgiving words, endowed with love, were muttered between tiny lips layered with sparkling flecks. “Always remember,” said the dying child, “our bond is eternal.” And then with a final squeeze from her sister’s hand the child imploded.
Stumbling and clawing her way along, Elinor scampered across a listing landscape. The sinking feeling in her stomach reminded her of being on the Ma΄Ranie vessel destroyed in midair by the woolȧrook. Elinor continued her frantic search. Fearful eyes darted down, looked ahead, and down again in hopes of an escape. Her fear of heights was not helping. She was dizzy and sweating profusely. And to make matters worse, she was extremely weak. Elinor stumbled. She screamed as her teeth clamped down on her lower lip when she struck unforgiving terrain; a mountain that seemed to be crumbling beneath her. Uprooted trees lurched to the side and plummeted over the edge. Clouds zoomed past her.
Lying facedown, Elinor saw the shroud that concealed below from above getting closer. There were only moments left before Brim Hall would crash into it. She was desperate for a way out. Her heart raced and Elinor was paralyzed by fear. One concept continued to circle her mind. Life and death. After her father’s own death, Elinor became deflated, and obsessed over the notion of giving up. Then, when death seemed close, she wished to live and fulfill her purpose, only to reverse course and long to be free again. Every insurmountable challenge, one after the next, seemed to be a struggle between moving forward and letting go.
“Poddy,” she whispered, “I’m so very sorry. I tried.” The skyline blurred with Elinor’s swelling of tears.
She became confused when she heard profound moans and choral clicks that boomed across the sky. Somehow Elinor understood their meaning. She lifted her head. The gargan, Zi she recalled, was keeping pace with Brim Hall’s descent. The gargan called again. This time with more urgency. Stymied by uncertainty, Elinor remained frozen. The ground shuddered beneath her. An iceberg-sized chuck of rock broke away, forcing the gargan to take evasive action. As Elinor watched Zi’s commitment to her rescue, it instilled a sense of trust in the gargan. Elinor’s will to live overruled her indecisiveness. With a deep breath and hesitant look, she pushed all doubt aside and took the ultimate leap of faith.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
While ensuring to keep a watchful eye on Elinor’s descent, Zi rotated her snaky frame to position her dermal plates even with the horizon, away from the falling light-bearer. Elinor landed on Zi’s side. Instinctively, she proceeded to the protection offered by Zi’s topside as the gargan rotated into a more natural flying position. The plating helped block air rushing across Zi’s body and strong crosswinds that were forcing Elinor off balance. She felt more at ease within the protective overlay but was still flying on the back of a gargan that was heading straight for the shroud.
Elinor hunkered down between two large plates. Smaller plates were used for handholds that she gripped tightly. Her boots’ nubby soles helped with stability. Zi’s horn flushed silver and her scales oscillated between rusty orange and deep red. Faint blue-and-yellow spots dotted across her body became ruddy. She tucked her wings and descended rapidly into the shroud.
Blackness. Night eternal. Elinor had spent much of her life living in the south’s network of caves. That is how she and Morbis had survived for so long. She was used to darkness and the sounds of nothingness, but flying through the shroud was something entirely different. Zi’s glowing horn was completely masked. There was no longer any air movement or a strong crosswind. If Zi was flapping her wings Elinor was none the wiser. The only comparison she had was recalling the appearance of the woolȧrook’s eyes. Hollow and empty—void of emotion—lifeless. Elinor felt lonelier than ever before. A great sadness came upon her. Its weight was palpable. She could feel it pulling her down. Within the sadness another emotion surfaced. Pain. Excruciating pain. It was visceral and overwhelming. Elinor couldn’t feel it, she could only sense it. She was overcome with emotion. Tears streame
d down her face. Her body shook and anxiety took hold. Out. She needed to get out.
“Zi!” Elinor screamed.
A burning tree appeared in the shroud. Elinor and Zi were heading straight for it. Flames raged. A cloud of suffocating smoke poured from the inferno, forming layer upon layer that stretched across the sky, blotting out the sun and bringing forever darkness to the land. Elinor had seen this image before. She wondered if Zi could see it, or if it was another manifestation of her mind. Elinor gritted her teeth and screamed as they smashed into it.
Known existence returned. Elinor felt wind against her ashen face. The whooshing of Zi’s winds brought comfort. She smelled the gargan’s honeyed aroma and gazed upon a war-ravaged land. Over her shoulder she saw the dense shroud covering the sky. The hole formed by where they had broken through was rapidly closing. Zi moaned loudly. A ripple of pulsating light moved through her body. Elinor felt a numbing sensation creeping into her hands. It moved up her arms and into her chest.
“Zi, what’s happening?” she asked.
Zi wiggled and then convulsed violently. Elinor was forced to bear down for fear of falling. The elder’s luminous body separated from Zi. It steadily rose, with Elinor passing right through it. Under the shroud, its prism-like body appeared dull, not vibrant as before when its ghostly form had been exposed to the sun. Zi released a throaty call. The gargan elder responded in kind.
Shadow Kalloire Page 10
