With his mind whirling with all the possible scenarios being
played out in the room one over, Xavier took a deep breath and shuffled his feet along the ledge of the windowsill, stopping only when they were as far over as they could go. Reaching as far to the left as he could, Xavier scrambled with his fingers and tentacles both for even the tiniest ledge to hold on to. He found several but none of them felt strong enough to support his weight without crumbling.
In the other room heard the sound of Scholar's mocking voice.
He knew if he could calm down and focus he'd be able to make out the words, but he didn't have time. He looked over at the window once more and judged its distance. He might just be able to make it.
Maybe.
"Don' do it."
"Shut up."
"I'm tellin' ya–don't."
He tensed his body and crouched slightly. Without giving
himself time to consider what he was doing, or talk himself out of it, he jumped sideways toward the other window.
For a sickening moment, he thought he wasn't going to make
it, but then one tentacle managed to grab a hold of Scholar's windowsill and hold. The air was forced from his lungs as he
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slammed into the wall, but the stone was thick enough that he only heard a dull thud.
"Shadows are fun, aren't they?" Xavier heard Scholar say, as his lungs filled once more with air. He pulled himself up into the window and looked in to see Scholar speaking to Bayne, his back to the window.
Bayne had a look of hopeless self-recrimination etched onto
his face. A man-like shadow stood behind him, holding his arms.
Xavier had seen it before, and had felt its chilling touch, the same as Bayne was now.
Colby was in the cage Xavier had spent so much time in. Her
hands were manacled, and her side was bleeding. She didn't see him, and he didn't dare say anything, not yet.
"They are so malleable, shadows." Scholar held a bloody skewer in one hand and paced back and forth in front of Bayne, gesturing grandly with it.
Xavier caught Bayne's eye over Scholar's shoulder, and though the warrior's face remained impassive and shielded, Xavier saw him give the faintest hint of a nod.
"That so?" Bayne asked.
Scholar looked up at him and laughed. "You mean you haven't noticed? Those ones, they can do many things but they aren't my masterpiece, oh no… no they aren't."
Xavier carefully inched his way through the window. His
hands were strangely steady and the roiling in his stomach had been replaced by a steadfastness he'd rarely known in his life.
Colby looked up and saw him. She gasped, but Scholar didn't
seem to hear. Xavier raised a finger to his lips and, hoping he looked more confident than he felt, smiled at her. Colby offered him a watery smile in return, and with one last lingering look in her direction, he snuck up behind Scholar.
"My masterpiece, ah, it can't take physical form like these ones, but oh, what it can do!" Scholar said, sounding more excited with every word.
I can do this, Xavier thought, and then wrapped one tentacle
around the mad man's throat and used another to cover his mouth.
He lifted Scholar off his feet by his neck and turned him to face him.
"I heard you wanted me to come back."
Scholar's look of shock abruptly turned to fear. He began to
kick wildly and stabbed the skewer in his hand into the tentacle
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covering his mouth. Xavier felt the point penetrate his skin, the burn was fiercer than even the dog's teeth had been, and he cried out.
Instinctively his tentacle began to pull away, but he stopped himself and instead tightened his grip on Scholar's mouth. All it would take is a single word from the madman and he would be lost. They all would.
Using one of his free tentacles, Xavier pulled the skewer out and dropped it on the floor by the cage where it clattered against the stone. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Colby reach through the bars to snatch it off the ground. Holding it firmly in her still-manacled hands she jammed it into the lock on the door.
Behind him he heard Bayne struggling with the shadow that
held him, but the sound seemed to come from very far away as his awareness focused on the man he held. Keeping one tentacle over Scholar's mouth at all times, Xavier used his other ones and his hands to turn the old man so that he was facing him. Looking into his familiar eyes Xavier deliberately recalled all the pain and fear he'd experienced while looking into them, how much he'd suffered at Scholar's hands. He was no longer the one in the cage, the helpless one. He was in control now. Him. Xavier. "You drugged me, you kept me in that cage, half-starved, half-frozen and tortured me for years."
Scholar kicked out at him, hitting him squarely in the belly, but the blow was weak and Xavier barely felt it. He slammed Scholar up against the cage beside where Colby was frantically working to pick the lock. His head hit one of the bars and Xavier's tentacle muffled his cry of pain. He pulled Scholar toward him once more, watching as his head flopped about like a scarecrow's and growled, "You deserve to die!"
His words echoed around the chamber. They were true. Xavier
knew they were true. He'd come here to stop Scholar, to kill him, because it was the right thing to do. He knew it without question.
And yet...
All it would take is one more blow. All he had to do was throw Scholar out the open window, or slam his head into the ground, or even toss him to Bayne, who could certainly choke him with his bare hands, but he couldn’t. Despite how much most of his being was crying out at him to take revenge, to punish the man who had robbed him of so much, he couldn’t do it.
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Colby moved, and something in her posture captured Xavier's
attention, tearing it from himself and the man he held. Her back was straight, shoulders back and her chin set.
Then Scholar screamed into Xavier's tentacle and, as his body stiffened in shock and pain, the tip of the skewer emerged from his chest. Colby stepped out from behind him, her face was relaxed, but her fingers trembled slightly. Xavier looked back at Scholar and watched his eyes go blank. As his body lost all its tension Xavier released him and he fell, like a child's discarded toy onto the floor.
Xavier looked over at Bayne in time to see the shadow creature evaporating like smoke in a wind, then turned back toward the cage.
"Colby," he breathed, holding her against him as best he could through the cage, and running a hand through her hair. "Colby..."
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Chapter Fourteen
Several hours later, Colby, with Bayne and Xavier beside her, looked up at the tower. Smoke poured from its windows. The distant snapping of the flames as they ravaged the interior came to her ears, but not as powerfully as the acrid smell of the smoke assailed her nose.
Her wounds were wrapped with fresh linen and she'd found
some clean, dry clothes to change into. They were too big for her, but better than the rags she'd been wearing when they pulled her out of the cage. Colby knew everyone's injuries were paining them, hers certainly were, but they were all putting up a strong front for one another.
Xavier looked down at the small scroll of parchments she held.
One of several books and scrolls she'd relieved Scholar's rooms of.
"Are you sure you want to risk casting that?" He asked for the third time in as many minutes. "He may have mislabeled it or...anything is possible."
"I'm sure," she nodded, and turned her thoughts inward, searching for feelings of guilt or remorse. There were none. She had done the right thing in killing Scholar, she was certain of it. Still, a deep well of sadness had opened up in her at her confinement and she needed to do something to begin filling it back
in. "I need to know it's gone – all of it, it needs to be..." she paused for a long moment, and then cleared her throat and continued. "Gone."
"Okay Cole," Bayne rested his hand on her shoulder and gave it a light pat. "Whenever you're ready."
Safely ensconced on the far side of one of the shacks that
remained standing Colby unfurled the scroll. Bits of dried parchment dusted the ground beneath it and she hoped none of the words would become unreadable. Dropping her eyes, she scanned it quickly, and then half-smiled.
She began to read aloud. Her voice rang out clear and strong, easily overpowering the sound of the fire within the castle's stone walls. Her confidence grew with each word, as she felt the power of the spell swelling and gathering within her. As she spoke she straightened her shoulders and spoke louder and faster. When the last syllable rolled off her tongue she felt the energy erupt from within her and the air directly in front of the only upright tower began to boil.
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A massive sphere that contorted vision around it, like heat
waves above a flame, appeared then, in the middle of the distortion a ball began to coalesce. It looked, at first, like smoke, but rapidly gained solidity and color. Twisting and rolling over itself it grew with each rotation until, within seconds, it was a giant, spinning ball of flames. Faster and faster it spun and then, without warning, shot directly at the tower in front of it.
It writhed and twisted, burning the air in front of it on its way and then crashed, with a sound like a battle in full-force, into the tower. Stones shattered outward, blasting into other parts of the castle and knocking more of their compatriots loose. More than half of the tower crumbled, ripping walls down as the rubble landed, like an avalanche on them. Then, while they watched in awe, the crippled tower began to teeter and sway. It moved as though caught in a breeze none of them could feel and then it, too, tumbled.
It didn't fall straight down, but tipped over and slammed into the leaning tower, destabilizing it. Colby covered her ears as the pair of towers descended upon the rest of the keep, ripping it apart with the bulk of their detritus. A cloud of dust larger than the wake of stampede rose up from the ruined building and cloaked it. From within the pile she could hear smaller explosions, evidence that flames still burned within.
No one said anything. They watched as the dust gradually
began to clear, to be replaced by smoke as the flames sought out anything flammable and gained strength. Xavier put his arm around Colby's shoulder, and she leaned against his chest.
~*~
The remaining mercenaries had run off when they'd learned of
Scholar's death, happy with their lives and whatever valuables they'd managed to ransack in the few minutes they'd been given to gather their belongings. Xavier had found it weird, but Xavier wasn't a mercenary and never would be. Bayne knew they'd move on to sell their loyalty to the next highest bidder, after all, there was no point risking your life without a contract. Still, just in case they decided to return for revenge Bayne wanted to put as much distance between themselves and the keep as he could.
The sun was low in the sky by the time they started back to the portal to Terricina, but despite the time and their injuries no one
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suggested setting up camp, not even once they were on the road toward Haven. The three of them spoke softly when they spoke at all, but mostly they walked in a comfortable silence.
More often than not when Bayne looked over at Colby and
Xavier, Xavier was looking down at Colby with an indulgent look on his face. Bayne searched himself to find the stone of anger toward Xavier he'd carried in his belly since their trip began, and found nothing. Teyat hummed contentedly in his mind.
They walked through the night, and as dawn broke they
trudged up the hills to the portal that led to Terricina. Reaching the stones that marked the portal, they all stopped and looked at one another.
"It's been quite an adventure," Xavier said.
Bayne nodded. "Look, I'm going to leave you guys here and head down to Haven for a drink. I'm not ready to deal with Mother just yet and frankly, the last few days have left me in need of the company of women."
Xavier smiled and extended his hand, which Bayne grasped
warmly and shook. "Take care of her," he said.
"I will." Xavier nodded and released Bayne's hand.
Colby put her hands on Bayne's shoulders and planted a peck
on his cheek. "Be careful little brother."
"Don't worry about me Cole, you just focus on..." he paused, then shrugged and wrapped his arms around her, carefully dodging her injury."You did the right thing Colby. Really. You did."
"I know," she replied, sounding more exhausted than sad.
They hugged for a long moment before Colby pulled away.
She wiped at her eyes and then smiled. It was a weary smile, but it didn't look forced.
Waving one last time Bayne turned his back on them and
started down the hill, toward the lights of Haven.
That was a good thing you did.
'Don't start,' he said.
No, I mean it. I think she needed to hear that...and I think Xavier needed you to trust him with Colby.
'They only have to walk two steps, Teyat.'
It's symbolic you ass.
~*~
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After Bayne left them, Colby looked over at him. "You're not mad are you? That I killed him?"
"Mad?" Xavier frowned, awash in confusion. "Why would I be mad?"
"I didn't think you were going to be able to do it, but if you were and if you felt you needed to, and I took that away from you…"
Colby dropped her gaze to the ground at their feet.
Her words trailed off and Xavier reached down to take her
hands in his. When she looked up at him he gave her fingers a little squeeze. "I couldn't have done it, but I'm thankful that you could."
Colby nearly deflated with relief, a long sigh slipped past her lips to tickle Xavier's chest, and she tilted her head up to smile at him. At the sight of her grin something grew within Xavier.
Something that wasn't gratitude and wasn't love though it contained the seeds of both. It was something that filled him and felt as right as his captivity by Scholar had felt wrong.
Colby closed the distance between them, and pressed her lips
against his. They were soft, warm and inviting. He half-sighed into them and then kissed her back, deeper, tangling one hand in her hair and holding her gently against him. Their tongues entwined and he felt her fingers splayed against his shoulder blades, holding onto him as surely as he was her.
When they parted his heart hammered in his chest, and his
fingers shook. Looking down at Colby, at the wistful look on her face and the softness in her eyes he knew what the new feeling he was experiencing was. Belonging. He felt as though he belonged here. In this place, with this woman, at this time.
As they dressed in their warmer clothes, preparing to reenter the portal, they took their time, smiling like fools. Eventually, Xavier put his arm around Colby's waist, " Izart."
Colby began to step forward and then paused. "Xavier," she said. "There's something that still confuses me. Scholar kept talking about 'his masterpiece' and shadows and he mentioned you—"
Xavier laughed, half-sadly, pulling her gently toward the
portal. "I'll tell you all about it Colby. As we walk."
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Sister Margaret
"Charmaine?" My voice echoed around the chamber, adding to the prickling feeling of unease that had settled around my shoulders like a scarf the instant I walked into the temple.
She turned slowly, sinuously. Dark purple robes fluttered
around her, gradually drifting back to her sides like leav
es caught in a sudden updraft and then forsaken. Her unfathomable blue eyes drilled into me. If I live a hundred years, I’ll never see another pair of eyes like hers. They were the bright blue of a hot flame, and they seared me to my soul.
"It’s Margaret now." I noticed her voice didn’t reverberate through the chilly air like mine, but then her eyes drew my attention, and nothing else mattered. "Sister Margaret."
That’s right; she was Sister Margaret now, a priestess in the order of Rakkir. Of course, it didn’t matter what she called herself.
Margaret, Leif, or Fairy-Dumpling, she’d always be Charmaine to me.
We’d had less than ideal childhoods. We’d confided in each
other and shared our pain. Then, when she turned thirteen,
Charmaine ran away from home and became a whore. When I asked her about it, she said she might as well get paid for it because someone or another had been taking it for free for years. Poor Charmaine, I couldn’t even imagine dealing with that. We lost contact soon after that because my father took to beating me extra hard if he heard I’d been seen with her. After several beatings, I stayed away. Even though I’d done it against my will, I continued to torment myself for deserting her.
Hell of a way to treat a friend.
I guess it must have been five years later that she found
religion and abandoned her name to become Margaret. Sister
Margaret became an institution in Haven: a priestess of the God of Deception. She made it her mission to aid other street children and bring them in out of the cold, as it were. Cynics said she merely
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wanted to boost the number of Rakkir’s followers. I think part of her motivation was to help those who were as lost as she had been.
"...didn’t hear a word I said, did you, Michael?"
Her sharp words and the sound of my name brought me out of
my reverie. Tearing my gaze from her eyes, I studied a statue over her left shoulder.
"Of course I was listening. You need me to take care of a pimp who is harassing one of your girls." I’d taken a guess, a wild shot in the dark, but some God was looking out for me because my aim
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