by Lakshman, V.
Kisan never took her eyes off Two, but nodded in response to the king’s question. If there was a chance to save the prince, she wanted to hear it. "Where is Prime? Give me his location and I will let you use your poison."
Two looked at the king and said, "By now, your son is dead." Then he looked at Kisan and said, "It’s always a pleasure killing halfling kids."
She locked eyes with Two for a heartbeat, then said simply, "Fine." Before anyone could move, she shot forward, her hands a blur. Even as Two began to push his finger against the needle, Kisan had touched his forehead and dove into the man’s mind.
She could see Two’s life before her, but knew she could not absorb it until she spent the time to purge the jumbled life and death of Tamlin and Five, time she did not have to spare. Her goal, however, had not been to assimilate Two. That would take too long and she didn’t need to. She only needed three things.
First, she paralyzed him by locking points along his spine at the neck and waist, then found the entry point of the poison and collapsed the blood vessels around the upper arm, trapping it and slowing its spread. She couldn’t stop the poison from working, but would gain the few precious moments needed for what was to come next.
Second, she searched for Prime’s location. As she suspected, he had been careful with that information. All Two knew was the egress point where Five now lay dead. He had offered the boy when bargaining, though it now was clearly a tactic to buy time for Prime. Whether or not the king’s son was truly with Arek could not be confirmed, and Kisan suspected that Two simply did not know.
Finally, she searched for any information about Sovereign, but what she saw made no sense. She saw a being made of pure light, standing in a cavernous opening. Around it opened hundreds of tunnels, as if this Sovereign stood within a network of caves or a vast subterranean space. The space was filled with what looked to be worms covered in tiny glowing points. Around those worms moved creatures that looked like dwarves, but that Two called, yewmins. Kisan knew she didn’t have much time and couldn’t risk following this assassin into death. She pulled out of Two’s subconscious, leaving the paralysis in place.
She opened her eyes and made sure Two could see her, then said, "Six’s memories showed me you can be rebirthed. I’m not going to leave your Sovereign with much to work with."
Her hands whipped out to either side of Two’s head and struck, shattering every bone in his skull. The pressure wave from the blow destroyed Two’s brain, liquefying everything inside. Kisan didn’t even look at him as she kicked the body back. It slammed into a wall with a wet smack, before sliding down in a lifeless heap, dark fluid and brain flooding out of his nose and mouth. She then turned to face the king.
Bernal moved out from behind his men and exclaimed, "How will we find Niall, now? You killed the only man who could tell us!"
Kisan held up her hand and said, "King Galadine, I searched his memories and there is nothing there. They do not share information that can lead to each other. We need to find your son and Initiate Arek on our own. Are you saying they were together?"
"Yes..." the king stammered. "I mean... I don’t know." He took a deep breath, his warrior instinct telling him this woman spoke truly, but the father’s heart in him clearly searching for a way to save his son.
Then, he seemed to realize his best chance stood right before him. "We had assumed Arek’s master a man, but you must be Silbane. Arek said you were with the nomads. Defeating these men speaks to your skill. We are well met, though your presence here destroys our own plans."
Kisan shook her head, looking about the scene of carnage until her eyes came to rest on the Finder, still on the tabletop. "I see the men of Bara’cor are just as insightful as those found elsewhere in the world." She met their confused stares with a small smile, then made her way over to the Finder and inspected it, noting it still sparkled with its own light.
Satisfied the other master was alive, Kisan turned back to the three men and said, "Be happy I am not Silbane. He’s far less merciful than me."
Journal Entry 18
My excitement grows, for I have yet another idea to keep me safe from these raids. The cocoon, but bigger. I know the ritual of setting wards and will follow it to the letter. I will not doubt this place, nor myself as I have in the past. Not this time...
With the help of the numerous imps surrounding me, I have Shaped four wards and spent hours infusing them with power, drawn from blood (mine). This may be the secret I was missing before.
These blood Marks will be the foci for my barrier. The imps watch me wide-eyed, their attention transfixed by my efforts. The Marks I fashion resemble shields, but I have inscribed runes of defense on their surface. My blood is a part of this ritual now, for I have neglected the might that my name holds, an ancient name with the promise of power and protection.
I have planted one Mark at each corner of my castle’s outer wall. Together, they should create an impenetrable barrier, starting with my firstmark.
Perhaps tonight, I shall finally sleep in peace.
THROUGH THE DOOR
The thought of enemies should not
Bring fear to one’s heart;
It is the plight of friends
That keeps one pacing at night.
—Altan proverb
Arek heard a voice, filled with urgency, pushing and prodding him from his sleep. Get up! Arek, you must get up! He shook his head, trying to clear it and felt helping hands below his arms. "What happened?"
Niall’s voice whispered, "Shssh! You collapsed, but not before opening the door."
Arek opened his eyes cautiously and saw the open portal. Beyond it seemed to be a great hall, lit with an unearthly blue light. "I don’t remember doing that."
Tej came up and kneeled at Arek’s other side and said, "It was pretty amazing. You lit up like you were on fire, and the door did too! Then it opened."
"That’s impossible," Arek said. "I can’t do magic."
"What?" asked Niall. "You’re apprenticed to a mage."
Arek rose to his feet with their help and said, "Tell me something I don’t know." Then he realized his foot had not shocked him with debilitating pain. In fact, each time he went through one of these "events," he seemed to be getting better. He was reluctant to take off the boot to check, but could feel his body healing. It occurred to him then that he was also recovering faster than usual from these various blackouts. He had been in bed for weeks after his Test of Potential, maybe a day after his fight with Piter, and now only moments after this encounter with the door. It was as if he was getting used to... what? That he didn’t know and it scared him just a little.
"What happened to the glow on the walls?" he asked, looking around.
"I don’t know," Niall said. "After you opened the door, it all went dark."
The only light came from the opening to the room, streaming out in silver and blue. The portion of the room he could see through the door seemed huge, almost like a cathedral. He moved forward cautiously at first, expecting his foot to cry out in pain. The only thing he felt was a twinge and sluggishness, as if these new muscles needed training. A small smile escaped his lips as he was followed by his companions through the door. Anything was better than being crippled for life.
His earlier guess had been correct. The room was a vast columned cathedral with a small pyramid at its center, stepped and four-sided, leading up to an azure radiance that came from a dark sphere hanging in the air above the pyramid’s flat apex. This sphere was surrounded by a blue fire, filling the chamber with its radiance, like a strange, second sun.
Niall took in the room, then said to Yetteje, "This can’t be here. It’s just like the waterfall. Patrols would have run into it long ago."
"Through a blocked stone door? Who knows how far we’ve actually walked," said Arek over his shoulder. "We don’t even know for certain that we’re still under Bara’cor."
"Why?" Yetteje asked said.
"Because Niall is right, at least
about that waterfall. No way something that big stays hidden. I think this chamber, and the path to it, opened only recently."
"How can a path ‘open’?" asked Niall. "It’s not as if this fortress is alive."
Arek turned and faced the other two. He swiped his foot along the dry ground and said, "No water, not a drop. Taste the air. It’s dry, yet there’s a waterfall not a hundred paces from here. This room has been sealed for a very long time."
He turned away from the other two’s wide-eyed stares and moved to the pyramid.
"Arek, wait." Niall came and laid a hand on his shoulder, a look of dread in his eyes. "What do you mean to do?"
Arek looked up at the pyramid and the scene refracted then froze. Everything was still, except the scintillation from the sapphire-colored sun. It still burned brightly, painting the cathedral in contrasting light and columned shadows. Out of this stepped Piter, smiling.
"I doubted your ability to get this far."
"What is this place?" Arek asked, ignoring the phantasm’s usual ire. His foot felt better and he began to think about what more could heal him fully.
Piter’s expression grew thoughtful and he said, "There are a multiverse of planes that intersect our world. This is one of those intersection points."
Arek nodded, familiar with the idea from the teachings of the Isle and asked, "What do you want?"
"That depends on whether you want to live or die. Something pursues you," the shade said, his smile growing wicked. "Your only escape is to go up there." It pointed to the blue-black sun flaring at the apex of the pyramid.
Arek looked at the shade, his anger balanced by a new fear. What would be chasing him? The only thing he could think of was the great dragon, who seemed bent on his destruction. He looked at Piter and stammered, "W-what is it... Rai’stahn?"
"Something has been unleashed, and it hunts you." Piter smiled, looking immensely pleased with himself. "Run, Apprentice, run... or die."
The scene shifted and snapped back. Arek stood with Niall’s hand still on his shoulder. Piter’s voice was gone. He blinked once, orienting himself, then turned around and said, "Something is coming."
"My father’s men?" Niall asked.
"I don’t think so. Something more dangerous. We’d better get ready." He shook off his gloves and prepared for real combat, his magical disruption too important an advantage to ignore if he was about to face a dragon alone. But still, part of him doubted the shade’s warning.
Tej came up, drawing her short blade. "Who’s coming?"
"I don’t know, only that whatever it is, it’s after us," Arek replied.
"How do you know that?" she asked, looking at the entrance to the chamber.
"The same way I knew about this place." Arek moved between his friends, then closed his eyes, calming himself. He wasn’t about to leave them, especially if that’s what Piter wanted.
He breathed in evenly, then out again, his mind clearing. He relaxed his body and mentally prepared himself. His combat sense expanded and the world slowed. At least here he felt comfortable, in his element. Whomever it was, they would face a Brown ready to test for Ascension, and according to Adept Dragor, weren’t they the most dangerous?
"There!" Niall pointed, his voice etched with barely controlled fear.
They both looked to where Niall pointed and saw a man dressed in black stride into the room. He didn’t seem concerned with hiding himself, but stopped short when he saw them. Something in his stance hinted at uncertainty. He knelt and placed a hand on the floor.
"What’s he doing?" Tej asked.
Arek ignored her and whispered, "We have to attack so he doesn’t have time to focus on any one of us. Attack together, unless you have an opening." He looked meaningfully at Niall, then moved forward slowly, motioning for the other two to fan out to his left and right.
* * * * *
Prime looked at the three people in the room. His stone sense pointed out three figures, but one was different. The boy in the middle seemed to absorb the senses of the fortress and a blackness surrounded him. This was the one he had sensed earlier, the indistinct shape that seemed to suck at his senses. This was the null.
His appearance fitted the description of the prisoner, Arek, but the boy did not act like a prisoner. It looked as if he led the other two, and that made the situation harder to predict or control. Furthermore, Prime’s ability to sense anything through the stone seemed somehow diminished, likely because of the null. He'd anticipated that, but was surprised at the null's strength to affect him even at this distance. Better to end things quickly, he thought. Kill them all, then get back to the egress point. Leave no loose ends.
Prime slowly came to his feet, his skin turning harder as Bara’cor itself lent him the obduracy of the stone he stood upon. His confidence was justified. They had faced and killed the overrated Adepts of the Isle with relative ease. The king would die, as would the infiltrator, and no one was going to stop him from terminating the null, especially not a group of halfling kids. As he had reminded his men, they now fought on home ground.
They had started to move on the boy’s orders, spreading out, trying to take tactical advantage. That confirmed Prime’s suspicion that this boy was in charge, and that made him his primary tactical target. He slipped two poisoned stilettos into his hands, then moved forward like a hunting cat, directly for the null named Arek.
THE MEASURE OF A MAN
You cannot know when, your final day will come,
Seize greatness in all things;
Prepare for every moment, as if it will be your last.
—Davyd Dreys, Notes to my Sons
Kisan looked at the king, her eyes taking in the man who stood before her. The warrior in him was plain to see, but she also noticed he spoke carefully, measuring his emotions against the greater good of their situation. Perhaps her initial impression of him was wrong. His care meant he had some wisdom.
"What we do next determines who lives and who dies," she said.
The king nodded slowly, answering, "Your name? I would speak with you plainly."
The master smiled and said, "Kisan. I am here to recover Arek and Silbane." Kisan sensed a nobility of character in him, but did not volunteer any other information. Instead, she waited to gauge the man by his actions.
"My son is somewhere in Bara’cor, with your apprentice, Arek. They are missing, but I have sent runners to find them. These men attacked me, but that one spoke of another going after my son."
Kisan ignored the king’s repeated mistake of assigning Arek’s apprenticeship to her and gestured instead to the assassins, saying, "These are dwarves, not men. They were sent here to kill you." She had guessed correctly in following Two, but now regretted that Arek was not alone. Galadine or not, her decision to ignore Prime had put the king's son in danger. She found she couldn’t hold his gaze then, the loss of Piter bubbling up fresh in her mind. Instead, she offered, "I am sorry, but the leader, Prime, goes after the boys."
"Then we have a common interest in saving Niall and your apprentice," the king stepped forward and offered his hand.
Kisan took his hand in a firm grip. While saving Arek was not her objective, she could empathize with the king. Her attention went back to Silbane’s charm on the table top and she changed the subject, asking, "What did you intend to do with the Finder?"
In response, one of the soldiers stepped forward and said, "My team and I were going to use it to enter the nomad camp and find your friend. Then, we were to attempt to assassinate the chieftain of the nomads. But this attack..."
She immediately understood what they had intended, but that plan required knowledge of how to use the Finder. "How did you come to know of its use?" she asked.
An uncomfortable silence followed as the men looked to their king. But it was the older of the two officers who stepped forward and to the rescue.
"You consider yourself a warrior?" he asked.
Kisan shrugged. "Do you consider yourself intelligent?" S
he could see he held the rank of firstmark.
The firstmark stopped as if unsure of how to respond, then said, "Understand that your apprentice nearly killed the Prince of Bara’cor and the Princess of EvenSea. Our armsmark—" he gestured to indicate the younger officer—"stopped him. He entered by unknown means and posed a threat to our security. When it was over, we needed information, and we extracted it. We tortured him for it."
The armsmark stepped forward then and said, "But this sword, Tempest. It healed him. His injuries are gone."
Kisan stepped around and picked up the Finder. She spent a moment deep in thought, looking at the circumstances from their eyes. An intruder during a siege would indicate a weakness in the fortress’s defenses, potentially a deadly one for those inside.
"The sword cannot heal him unless it’s held by someone attuned to it. Who did that?" Kisan knew the answer, but addressed the armsmark.
The armsmark bowed and said, "It was held by me. She... spoke to me."
"Really?" Kisan took that in with a bit of surprise. The sword had been quiescent on the Isle. What was it about this man that brought the sword to life? "We should talk about this later. Your name, sir?" Kisan asked.
"Ash Rillaran," he offered.
"Rillaran?" Kisan inquired, the picture becoming more interesting in her eyes. If the Rillaran line lived, it may explain the actions of Tempest. She determined to follow up on this later and turned her attention to the firstmark. "I appreciate your honesty."
"I am Firstmark Jebida Naserith," he replied with a bow as sarcastic as his tone, "and your apprentice left us no choice."
She ignored the bow, a moment passing by as she weighed the facts, then she made her way around to the front of the table and faced the king. "Arek is not my apprentice. He is Silbane’s, and you will have to answer to him for the treatment of his ward."
She paused again, thinking. Few choices were left: either go after Arek, or Silbane. Kisan knew how lethal Prime was. While Arek was well-trained, he would be no match for the leader of the assassins, who would unknowingly carry out the lore father’s orders for her. This freed her to rescue Silbane. However, it also meant collateral damage. Prime would not leave the king’s son alive.
