by Jack Porter
Ilana let go of me. Unsheathing my dagger, I landed directly on top of the sorceress, plunging the blade deep into her shoulder.
She cried out as we rolled, her horse falling over with us.
And then chaos ensued. While Ilana protected the captives, I grappled with the woman beneath me. She was still alive, and while her horse thrashed around, I tried to cut her throat. She blocked my arm with surprising strength. The woman’s hood slipped off, and I saw red eyes in a pale face. She was very young, but the look of hatred she gave me was unmistakable.
In my hesitation, however, the sorceress used some spell to repel me, and I flew off her, landing a few feet away. Her horse finally found its feet and ran off.
Standing and drawing my sword, I charged, but by now I was surrounded by orcs, wraiths, and Hellhounds. Fortunately, it sounded like Ilana had freed our elves because I heard more than just her battle cries coming from behind.
Slicing the head off the nearest wraith, I let the rage that was now becoming all-too-familiar take control, and I cut down anything that got in my way. I’d been looking for another fight, and now I had one. In fact, I felt more powerful than ever. It seemed with every encounter, I was growing stronger.
After gutting one orc that had been too slow, I turned to face the sorceress herself. She smiled—a chilling, malicious grin. I noticed her right arm was hanging useless at her side. So I had badly injured her shoulder, at least.
“So you’ve come to play, Jon?” she asked.
It wasn’t surprising that she knew my name, but I was laser-focused on her and couldn’t be bothered with banter. Instead of stepping forward and attacking, though, I let that fire build inside me. And this time, I had an outlet.
I made the sign Sarina had shown me, casting it toward the sorceress. For an instant, she looked surprised, but then she made her own sign and repelled the fire that shot from my hand. It ricocheted from her and hit a wraith, which screeched as its robes went up in flames.
My spell pushed the sorceress back, though, and I used that to my advantage. Leaping forward, I cast another fire spell at her while attacking with my sword. As far as I could see, she wasn’t armed, so if I could get in close enough, this should be an easy kill.
She put out her left hand, and something seemed to shoot out of it, but it wasn’t fire. It was more like a ghost. I sidestepped away from it, throwing myself into a roll to avoid it as it whooshed past my head.
Around me, as if in the distance even though it must have been close, I heard the distinct sounds of more forces joining the fray and knew that Nya had arrived with the rest of the elves. The sorceress was distracted momentarily, and I used it to my advantage. Stepping forward, I swung my sword with two hands, aiming for her neck. But she blocked me with another spell, and my blade flew out of my hands.
Again rolling to avoid more spells, I ended up rising to confront a mangy Hellhound with blood dripping from its mouth. My first dagger had been dropped somewhere, but I had another. Unsheathing it just in time, I dodged the beast’s teeth and stabbed upward into its throat. Then I opened it from jaw to breastbone in one stroke, and the animal fell in a shower of blood.
A fleeting thought passed where I wondered if the Hellhound had used to be human, but there wasn’t time to feel anything but the rage of battle. The sorceress was now fighting three elves at once, but I didn’t have a chance to return to that fight just yet. There were enemies between us. Finding my sword, I picked it up and turned it on the nearest orc.
By now, I knew without a doubt that I was quicker than I used to be and that my powers were growing. I saw things—small things, like the way an enemy turned on his foot—that told me how he was going to be exposed. Things I shouldn’t have known or been able to see.
Covered in blood and ready to kill every one of the bastards who had taken my friends captive, I turned to the nearest wraith and drove my sword through its neck as it fought an elf. Stepping forward and letting the blade’s momentum rip through the wraith’s neck, I drew it out and in the next motion crossed paths with a big brutish orc wielding an ax. It was too slow for me, though, and as the fire burned hotter inside me, I didn’t seem to be able to stop the battle lust that caused me to tear through the slavers as if they were nothing but paper.
Nothing I killed quenched that fire, and at first, it was the most magnificent thing I’d ever felt. But soon, the magic began to tear through my flesh, too, and killing didn’t satisfy me anymore. I used my spells as much as possible, preferring the fire starter one that I’d first learned. And my pleasure only increased when I saw my foes fall to the ground with holes searing through their bellies or their heads blasted clean off.
Soon, I stood, barely panting, in the middle of the field surrounded by the slain bodies of my enemies. And Ilana was there, holding back, her hands up, trying to get my attention.
Slowly, I came back to my senses.
Everyone’s eyes were on me, even the last orc who was dying at my feet of a terrible belly wound. No one spoke. The battle was over.
“Jon?” Nya asked. She stood at my right shoulder, as if she had been there the whole time, ready to stop me if necessary.
The bloodlust and fire that had been raging within me turned to straight up lust for this gorgeous elf who was also spattered in blood and dirt. And I think she saw the raw desire in my eyes, because she frowned.
If all eyes hadn’t been on us, and if I hadn’t managed to find what was left of my humanity at that moment, I would have suggested she and I have a go right there on the field of battle.
As it was, I was beginning to understand what had happened to me.
And it terrified me. Once again, I had grown more powerful. And once again, I had failed to control myself until the last second.
32
I let the tip of my sword hit the ground, realizing how close I had been to not recognizing my friends and allies, how close I had been to cutting them down like the orcs and wraiths. The battlefield reeled as I struggled to get it through my head that the fight was over. There were no more enemies. The bloodlust I still felt was unwarranted.
Or so I thought.
“Your Grace,” someone called, “we got her.”
Nya nodded, then put a hand on my arm, not to restrain me so much as to steady me. I must have looked as woozy as I felt. “Come with me,” she said quietly.
With no reason to argue, I followed Nya away from the pile of bodies—we had to climb over—until we reached a place where Nya’s guard were holding the sorceress captive. She was kneeling on the ground with hands bound behind her, swords and spears pointed at various parts of her body. Her red cloak was barely dirty.
“So she survived, then,” I said.
“She did,” Nya replied, “but she allowed her apprentice to get away. We’ll need to hunt her down before going home. I’d rather not leave any trace of these slavers to continue their vile trade.”
The sorceress looked right past Nya and smiled demurely at me. “I expected you to kill me, Jon,” she said. “You can’t blame me for helping my apprentice get safely away, can you? It’s what you would have done.”
I shook my head. “Don’t compare the two of us. I would never take prisoners to sell or make slaves of anybody.”
The sorceress laughed. “No? What about that Hellhound bound to a tree with a guard half a league back? Or that succubus that even we have heard tales of in the Wraith King’s dominion. She is bound to you, is she not?”
I glanced at Ilana, who had appeared at my left elbow. “She’s not my slave,” I ground out through my teeth.
The sorceress smirked. “A succubus who is bound is no better than a slave, or didn’t she tell you?” The gleam in her eye was malicious, and she cast a contemptuous glance at the elves. “It seems no one has told you anything.”
“Enough,” Nya said. “What is your name?”
“Jon doesn’t want to know my name,” she said, staring at me once more. “He wants to kill me. I can se
e it in his eyes.”
“As well as the eyes of everyone else here,” I said. “Answer Her Grace.”
Now she laughed. “He does like to give orders, doesn’t he? I bet your succubus loves it. But I might as well tell you my name. It’s not a secret.”
“Then stop your babbling and tell us,” Nya said in a commanding voice.
“I want Jon to ask me.”
“Jon is not in command here,” Nya said. “I am. Your name. And if you don’t tell it to us, I’ll make sure your death is slower than I had planned.”
The sorceress smiled. “I have lived among threats like that my entire life. They do not frighten me. But all right, I will give you my name. It is Maera.”
Nya looked at Ilana. “Does it mean anything to you?” she asked.
Ilana shook her head while Maera laughed. I was quickly getting tired of the sorceress but tried not to let it show. It would only please her. And the last thing I wanted to do was to make her last moments alive happy ones.
Nya made a gesture with her hand, and the elves holding Maera pushed her forward so that her head was leaning out over her knees. They were going to execute her right here.
“You look exactly as I expected, Jon,” Maera said as if she was unconcerned with her impending death.
I held out my hand to halt Nya from lifting her sword. “What do you mean?” I asked.
Maera smiled. “When the Wraith King called upon me to retrieve you, I was delighted.”
“I guess you were disappointed, then,” I said.
“I was not. Because I got to see you in action. Although you have much to learn yet.”
Impatiently, Nya lifted her sword and strode over to Maera, who held my gaze.
“Maera the sorceress,” Nya began, “your life is forfeit…”
“You need to make use of that power within you, Jon,” the sorceress said, speaking over Nya. “But to unlock it, you must kill… among other things. Make good use of that succubus. Oh, and while you have her, that delicious Hellhound shifter, as well. It will only be a matter of time before she runs back to the Wraith King. She won’t have a choice. And then he will use her, torture her, and then kill her.”
I’d finally had enough, and as Nya finished speaking, I strode forward. Pushing the elf out of the way, I brought up my own sword, and then down again in a magnificent swing.
With that one stroke, Maera’s head came off with the satisfying feeling of my blade through flesh and bone. Despite all the killing I’d already done with it, my elven-wrought sword didn’t falter, slicing with ease.
And then we all stood watching her head hit the ground and roll, blood flowing from her severed neck. Maera’s head came to a stop with her eyes facing me, and I watched as the last red light left her eyes.
There was a moment when I figured I’d gone too far, and that Nya would be furious.
And then there was another moment when I knew I’d gone too far, but for another reason entirely.
My arms went numb and electricity shot through my entire body as if I had just grabbed hold of a live powerline. The whip on my belt burst into flames, as did my hands. Dropping my sword, I turned to Nya. She and everyone else had backed away.
Feeling out of control, I looked for somewhere to cast the powerful energy now rippling through my limbs and threatening to stop my heart, but my hands were seizing so badly that I couldn’t even form the sign Sarina had shown me.
“Help,” I gasped.
Collapsing to my knees, I tried to hold it in, to keep from sending a pulse of magic out that I knew would kill everyone around me this time. Finally, Nya was there, kneeling in front of me. Heedless of the danger, she grabbed my hands and murmured some sort of incantation. After a few moments, with me sweating profusely and my heart beating as if I was having a heart attack—I really might have been—the pulsing stopped, my hands relaxed, and I fell to the ground.
33
This time, I never lost consciousness. But our journey to the nearby human city of Crowmore was mostly a blur as I struggled to stay on my horse.
Sarina rode with one of Nya’s guards because if she’d shifted now, I wouldn’t have had the strength to do anything about it, anyway.
Crowmore was a moderately sized city that sat at the convergence of two main roads through the mountains. To the north and east, the plain stretched out into hard fields and bare pastures. To the south, more mountains formed the lower edge of the Slavers’ Bowl. And to the north, in the far distance, gusts of steam were just visible to us on horseback. I took in all these things as we joined the main road leading to the city.
The city itself didn’t rise above the wall that surrounded it. Square towers punctuated the gray stone at intervals, and the battlements were closed in to the elements and potential threats. A flock of crows had gathered to rest on the main gatehouse when we arrived.
“Doesn’t the Wraith King use crows?” I asked Ilana, who was riding beside me.
“Yes,” she said, nodding. “But not all crows belong to him. You never know.”
“So why do they let them stay there?”
“If they shoot the crows, and the bird belonged to the Wraith King, he will retaliate,” Nya said. She had halted her horse to look at me. “Be on your guard here, Jon. I don’t have a love of Crowmore, but it is one of the last free cities in the Slavers’ Bowl, and it’s also rife with pestilence and spies. The Wraith King only allows it to govern itself because it continues to hold the fork in the road. And in return, the city pays tribute like any other—with its children and peasants. But the citizens are—in theory, at least—free to come and go as they like.”
“Then do we need to stop here?” I asked.
“We need to tend our wounded, and I wish to speak with the Chief Magistrate concerning the sorceress we—you—killed, and her apprentice who is still out there.” With this, Nya glared at me. “Until then, do not tell them what occurred on the road. In times past, Crowmore asked for the elves’ protection, but we haven’t always been able to give it. Fortunately, maybe this time we can.”
The sturdy wooden gates were reinforced with iron and branded with the symbol of the city—a crow. Nya rode up to the guard, introduced herself, and within moments, our entire company was granted passage into the city.
The town was filthy. Children and animals were unwashed, the gutters flowed with the smell of piss and shit, and even the larger stone houses looked in disrepair.
If this was freedom, I didn’t want it.
The way Nya and her guard led us through the streets, it was obvious she had visited before. We soon arrived at a large inn. It was too small for all of us to get rooms, but the long tables within were big enough to accommodate the party for a meager supper. I gratefully ate some food and then bathed when Nya arranged for it in an upstairs room. Even in my tired stupor, I recognized how carefully she was regarding me, and that one of her guards were always with me.
After, the main party then left the city to camp outside the gates but left our rescued warriors to stay at the inn with a guard. Syn was with them, and I still hadn’t had a moment to speak with her, but it would have to happen tomorrow. For now, I was simply glad she was alive and with us once again.
Once settled on the ground, I fell into a deep but troubled sleep. When I woke wrapped in Ilana’s arms, I felt better. At least, I was more rested, and I could at least see straight. But my memories were slow to return.
The sky was filled with the red ambient light of predawn, and few in the camp were stirring. My first thought was to check on Nya, Syn, Sarina, and my horse, in that order, but Ilana made me lie back down with a firm but gentle hand on my chest.
“You need to rest, Jon.” Her golden eyes were filled with concern.
“Are you okay?” I asked. After eating last night, everything else had become a blur. And we hadn’t truly spoken since she had dropped me onto the sorceress.
“I am well,” she said.
“And the others? Syn?”
I raised up on my elbows, feeling like I’d been trampled by a herd of horses. “I kind of remember that now. What the hell was that?”
“Should I begin at the part where you killed the Elven Ruler’s captive? Or the part where you had a fit, almost died, and she had to save your life?”
I laid my head back down. Had I really almost died? With the way I felt, it might have been true. “Is Nya very mad at me?”
“You could say that.”
“Ilana, what is happening to me?”
“What do you remember?”
“I remember feeling like I’d been hit by lightning or something, and then I almost lost control again.”
“Almost?”
I finally sat up, despite Ilana’s protests. But I couldn’t lie on the ground any longer. I needed something to do. “Yes, if I had lost control, I felt like I could have killed everybody.”
Ilana’s face grew pale. “Jon, we must work on controlling your magic.”
“I thought I was, but it seems to be getting stronger.”
She frowned. “Yes, after working with Sarina.”
I looked around the camp for the red-haired woman and spotted her tied to a post near the city wall. “She really is my prisoner, isn’t she? And you…” I reached up to touch Ilana’s face. “Is what Maera said true? Is your being bound to me the same as slavery?”
Ilana took my hand. “It is not, Jon. You gave me a choice, remember? And I didn’t want to be free from you, to be forced to go back to the Wraith King.”
“Having to make the choice between two forms of slavery doesn’t seem like much of a choice. I wish there was something I could do to truly free you.”
Ilana smiled, but sadly. “It is a noble sentiment, but unrealistic. In any case, I am happy with you, Jon.”
