by Beam, Brian
Max took a calming breath and looked me in the eyes. “Korin, your father is not a wizard. He cannot raise the dead. He could not have sent that apparition to speak to Jefren. There is something else at work here. Even if that something happens to be Raijom as Menar asserted, I hightly doubt that your father is involved. For now, please just trust me.”
“Okay, Max,” I conceded, though only to appease him. Deep inside, I was certain that we’d find my father—possibly under Raijom’s control—once we were in Gualain. I just needed to decide whether or not I could bring myself to kill him as Raijom had prophesied if doing so had a chance of ending the war.
“Korin, I know that this is difficult for you, and that is one reason I have kept the prophecy from you all these years. And though it hurts me to see you affected so, there is more to this story, and it will not be easy to hear.”
I responded with a silent nod. I was as ready as I’d ever be.
Max stepped closer. “Your parents were grief-stricken. Raijom’s prophecies had always come to pass before, giving his vision of you a terrible weight. Your father and I argued with Raijom for hours about finding a means of avoiding the prophecy. Raijom insisted that the prophecy was inescapable, that you would kill your father, and his empire, so to speak, would fall. He told your parents that the only way to avoid such a fate was to end your life. He left the room, leaving us all with that thought.”
My breath shuddered as I considered my mother and father being faced with such a situation.
“I could do little to comfort your parents, but I assured them that I would find another way. Looking into your eyes, I knew that I could never let you be killed in the name of prophecy. I firmly believe that nothing in life is set in stone. We all have control of our destinies to some extent. I felt I could make Raijom see that.
“I called for Raijom to meet me in your nursery that evening, requesting that he try once again to bring forth a prophecy. I hoped that with his previous vision revealed, your future had already started down a different path. Instead, Raijom insisted that nothing had changed. He told me that he had devised a way to circumvent the prophecy, though, knowing that your parents would never give up your life, not even to protect your father’s. He explained that he would convince your parents to send you away from Paigea, though he would not clarify what that meant.” Max swallowed. “He inferred that he would have you clandestinely killed afterwards.
“Raijom left me to dwell on his words. Part of me wondered if maybe he were right.” I was stunned by Max’s admission, my eyes widening. “But as I looked at you, I knew that he was far from being so. You had your own destiny to carve. I had to convince Raijom of that. Later that night, I set out to do just that.
Max’s eyes somehow darkened further. “As I neared Raijom’s private study, I felt the wrongness again, only this time it was worse by a hundredfold. The air was thick with it. I should have sounded the alarm, but my fear overrode my senses, and I rushed onward.
“Loose parchment circulated through the corridor leading to Raijom’s private study on unnatural currents of air, though there were no windows. The door to his study was ajar, or more precisely, it hung loosely from its hinges. Deafening sound tore from behind the broken door. Fearing for Raijom’s safety, I ran in. I will never forget the sight that met my eyes.
“Dozens of lifeless bodies were piled in the back of the room, the sickening odor of rot emanating from their bloated, decayed carcasses. Raijom stood in the center of his study with his back to me, his arms outstretched. His robes flapped erratically from sourceless wind. Two shadowed forms were taking shape before him, forms I was about to learn were eldrhims. For a moment, I was frozen in shock.
“Regaining my senses, I began to draw in magic energy, prepared to protect Raijom from whatever the hulking forms were. Before I could do anything, Raijom dropped wearily to his knees. His head swiveled slowly towards me, the smile on his face as nauseating as the rotted bodies piled near him.
“‘I have been expecting you Jonasir,’” he spoke, his voice a hollow echo of what it had once been. “‘You have arrived just in time. I knew you would be too weak to accept what must be done, and I cannot have you ruining my plans. Ingran will be cast away, and Menar will follow to end his life. You will only serve a hindrance, one I cannot afford.’”
Max’s voice trembled as he spoke. “Raijom turned back to the now fully formed creatures, the nightmarish abominations that I then realized were eldrhims. ‘I am your master here,’ Raijom told them. ‘Destroy Jonasir Spensolin.’ As he gave that command, he pointed towards me with an iniquitous grin. The Raijom I had known was gone. I did not understand what had injected him with the evil that burned in his eyes.”
“How was he able to control the eldrhims?” I questioned, my voice hoarse. The very thought was numbing.
“That, I do not know,” Max answered, shaking wet snow out of his fur. “I can only assume that he found a way to control them during his experiments, experiments he undoubtedly performed during his leave from your father’s service. That would explain how eldrhims have been sent directly after you.”
My chest tightened as I considered Max’s recitation of Raijom’s words. “So, what do you think Raijom’s plans were?”
“I do not know,” Max admitted softly. “I wish that I had more answers for you, Korin. For now, I can only offer you my recounting of these past events.”
I nodded my reluctant understanding.
“After issuing his command, Raijom slumped to the floor, his use of negative energy having finally pushed his body to its physical limits. I was able to take down one of the eldrhims before the second one succeeded in killing me. My death was quite grisly, really. I would have been impressed had I not been the one being killed. Would you like to hear about it?” Max gestured questioningly with one paw.
Somehow I found it in me to smile, even if half-heartedly. Max’s attempt to lighten the mood relieved some of my burning tension. “You can save that one for Til’,” I returned, attempting to inject some humor into my tone. I didn’t succeed. “What happened next?”
Max stood on his haunches. “Thilis must have been watching over me that night. There was a cat cowering under one of the shelves in Raijom’s study, too terrified to even flee the room. There were usually a dozen of the Felania-blooded things roaming the castle at any given time. Just before I died, my body broken on the floor, I noticed it huddled and shivering against the wall.” Max’s beady eyes met mine. Oh, and Felania is the goddess of cats.
“As my life bled from my body, I realized that I only had two options: I could die, or I could attempt the soul transfer spell. I had never tested it before; it was more a theory than an actual spell. There was no guarantee it would work, but it was my only chance of living to warn your parents and save your life. I closed my eyes and drew in the energy for the spell, casting it with my last bit of strength.”
Chapter 34
From Stoic Squirrel to Insufferable Rodent
Max was dead.
Well, Jonasir Spensolin was, at least. I’d known that the death of Max’s human body was imminent from the minute he’d revealed his human origins, but still, shock lanced through my nerves, inciting an involuntary shudder.
“That was the day that Jonasir Spensolin died,” Max whispered, his words barely audible over the gently rippling waters below. His damp fur glistened in the light of the lantern and the moon-reflecting glow of the Reservoir as he stood beside me, still as a statue.
With another deep breath, Max went on with his story. “When I opened my eyes, I was alone under the shelf. The eldrhims, my death . . . everything felt like a dream from long before. It only took one glance at my new body, however, to realize that what had happened with Raijom had been all too real.
“The eldrhims were gone without a trace, including the one I had killed. The legends of Rizear’s minions held more truth than I would have ever guessed: eldrhims could only prowl the land after nightfall and were
banished with the morning sun. That meant I had been unconscious for at least the remainder of the night.
“Strangely, I took to the cat form organically, as if its natural behavior were ingrained within its body. I slunk from my shelter and beheld my mangled, human corpse, the body of whom I used to be. I was struck by a sense of loss, one that I do not believe I can adequately explain. I did not have time to dwell on it, though. I needed to find you before Raijom could send you to your death.
“I sped to the throne room, but your parents were not there. With a silent prayer to Loranis, I made my way to your nursery, my body lending me a speed I could never have achieved as a human. My first thought when I pushed against the partially open door, your terrified screams sounding from behind it, was that I was too late.
“Once in the room, I saw your parents holding one another, crying. Your swaddled body was floating through a bright, silver light. Raijom stood off to the side with Menar, a cruel smile on his face. I assumed the light to be some sort of magical portal, one that would send you away as Raijom had planned.”
I had dreamed of this very scene once before, causing Max’s story to burst to life in my mind with painful clarity.
“Somewhere in my consciousness,” Max continued somberly, “a rational voice told me to just call out, but at the time, I was not even sure that I physically could. I acted upon instinct, jumping into the radiant light after you. As I did, I attempted to draw in as much magic energy as I could, hoping that I would still able to cast spells in my new body. I prayed that I could close the portal if I disrupted it with my own magic.
“I had no idea how Raijom’s spell worked, so I simply released a flow of pure magic energy into it. The world was nothing but blazing silver light and crackling energy for an agonizing eternity. My limbs moved sluggishly as if I were underwater. I thought that I had died, my soul stuck in limbo.
“Then, after an even brighter flash of light and a painful drop, I was lying beside you on the Karells’ kitchen floor. The silver light was gone. You were crying with such heart-rending distress that I began drawing in magic energy to perfom a scan of your body, wanting to be certain you were uninjured. I could barely remain standing as pain suddenly exploded behind my eyes. The spell worked, and you were physically okay, but something strange had happened to me when casting the spell. At the time, I blamed my new body for the odd occurrence.
“The sound of footsteps sounded outside the room. I was in no condition to protect you or myself, so I dizzily retreated under a wooden chest, hoping I could muster the strength to protect you if necessary. My concerns were unfounded, as you may have already guessed. Mathual and Harriet were the ones who entered the kitchen that day.”
My vision blurred, making the snowflakes seem like stars falling from the heavens. Max’s mention of my adoptive parents made me realize how much I missed them, how I owed them my very life. They had no inkling that I was marching off into a war-torn land on what was likely little more than a suicide mission. The thought of them never knowing what happened to me if I died prompted my tears to break free and cut icy veins down my cheeks.
Max looked up at me when I sniffled. “You will see them again,” he avowed, able to read my thoughts through my eyes, as only an old friend can.
“Yes,” I answered, though it felt a lie on my lips. I wiped my eyes and took a deep breath. “Go ahead. I’m okay.”
Max eyed me doubtfully before continuing. “Of course, you know the Karells adopted you. With the way they took to you, smitten as if you were their own, I was certain that you were in good hands. Still, I secretly watched over you for several days, fearing that Menar would soon be coming after you. When no signs of threat surfaced, I eventually set out to the closest town, Huran, to gather information about where the portal had taken us.
“The land was unfamiliar, but I believed that we were somehow still in Paigea. To my knowledge, Paigea was all there was to the world, just as you believed Amirand to be before tonight. In my cat form, all I could do was listen in on conversations in the streets and sneak into Huran’s poor excuse for a library to examine the few books there.”
I almost smiled. I could remember my first trip to that library, at the time thinking that it surely contained every book ever written. The Karells had fortunately known how to read and write, passing those skills on to me at an early age. They took me to Huran’s library on each and every trip into the town. I hungrily devoured every book I could back then, but now I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d picked one up.
Of course, I’d since encountered vast libraries and even some noble residences that held far greater collections of books.
“But as you know,” Max was saying, “we were no longer in Paigea. Thankfully, the library did contain some basic information about what had happened to me when I used magic on you. I learned how utilizing magic energy in Amirand was fundamentally different than in Paigea.
“Knowing that we were in a foreign land, possibly a foreign world, I knew that I had to get us back to Paigea. I had to return you to your birth parents and help them recognize Raijom’s madness. Whatever Raijom’s plans were, they had to be stopped. However, I had no idea how Raijom had created the portal. I did not have a clue as to how I would even begin to emulate his spell. Had he used negative energy to create it? Were there just the two lands or a million? If I figured out how to travel to other lands, how I would connect specifically with Paigea?
“I knew I would not find any answers in Huran, but I did not feel comfortable leaving you, believing that Raijom still planned on sending Menar after you. Days passed with no signs of danger, however. I started to figure that either my interference with Raijom’s spell had altered your intended destination to one he was unable to locate, or that he had changed his mind about ending your life.
“Still, not wanting to take any chances, I spent weeks building the magic barrier that now protects you from being traced by magic. In order to remain hidden, I was only able to work on it for slivers of time each day. I used mice to draw the magic energy necessary for the spell.” Max shuddered, displaying his distaste for rodents. I found it ironic that he’d become one. “With the barrier completed, I felt comfortable setting out to find us a way home.”
“But if Menar couldn’t use the Tracking Stone because of the barrier, why did Raijom keep him in Amirand?” I asked. “Surely Raijom didn’t truly believe Menar could find me without it.”
“That is one of the things Menar spoke of as he died,” Max answered sadly. “Raijom sent him here without the ability to bring him back. My guess is that Raijom did not plan on killing you himself for that very reason.”
Max’s raspy voice lowered. “Menar left his family, his wife and daughter, convinced that he would be protecting your father and all of Paigea. Convinced that Raijom would bring him back home. Poor little Lillan . . . actually, I suppose she would not be little anymore. Sometimes I forget how long it has been.”
“So Lillan is my cousin,” I mused, depressingly aware of the fact that she’d had to grow up without a father.
“Yes, and her mother, Moira is your aunt. I promised Menar that I would tell them of his death and of his love for them once Raijom was taken care of. I dearly hope that I can follow through with that promise. I want them to know that his coming here was not in vain.”
I nodded. “We owe him that at the very least.” Even if Menar had originally come to Amirand to kill me, I felt a deep sadness at his death. He’d been the only family member by blood I’d ever known. He’d died honorably, saving my life with no concern for his own. The fact that he’d left a family behind, one that had no idea of his fate, sliced into me as sharply as any blade.
The wind picked up, sending the snowflakes into chaotic swirls. Max shuddered from the biting chill of the breeze. “At least we now know that traveling between the two lands is possible,” Max spoke, his breath misting before him. “Prexwin inadvertently revealed as much.”
The subject of P
rexwin cast my thoughts down tangential paths, leading to some major concerns. I now recognized inconsistencies in Max’s story—inconsistencies that would eat away at me if not explained. “Speaking of which, Max, I have a couple of questions regarding Prexwin,” I announced.
Max eyed me sharply. “Remember the whole letting me speak this out and holding your questions thing?”
“No, Max, these can’t wait.” I persisted.
Max sighed. “All right, what would you like to know?”
Letting out a sharp breath, I spoke my troubled thoughts. “Max, you claim that you knew nothing of Prexwin before he appeared at the McAlwains, yet he was apparently associated with Raijom at least as early as the day Menar was sent after me. How could you have not known of him? Also, there is no way you could know how much recovery is neeeded after eldrhim summoning, so why do you assume Raijom is using Prexwin to summon eldrhims for him?”
“Those sound more like accusations than questions,” Max answered flatly.
“Max, I’m not trying to accuse you of anything. I just want to know the truth.” I hoped that Max could see the sincerity in my eyes as I looked pleadingly into his.
“Fair enough,” Max replied. “I did not lie to you necessarily, if that is what you believe. I truthfully knew nothing of Prexwin. I am not surprised; during my last days in Paigea, Raijom had been hoarding secrets like a miser hoards gold.
“As for my knowledge of eldrhim summoning, yes, I have taken liberties with my assumptions. I have drawn some of my own conclusions. Certain parts of my knowledge have come from Raijom himself, such as the fact that negative energy can only be drawn from beings of intellect. After his near-death experience, Raijom also revealed to me that a large quantity of negative energy had been required to summon that first eldrhim.”
Max’s eyes narrowed, as if in thought. “He must have discovered a means of storing the negative energy in order to build up enough for his purposes, maybe in the same way as Saiyre’s Reservoir.” Max’s voice came out soft, as if only speaking to himself.
