Full Circle

by Christopher Nuttall

“… Yes,” Elaine managed. Her throat hurt badly. “Where …”

  “You have to lie still,” Daria warned. “You’re in terrible shape.”

  Elaine shuddered, trying to recall what had happened. The Witch-King had slapped her aside, rocks had been falling … she must have been caught in the rock-fall and crushed. Except … she was still alive, if barely. One of the more complex protections she’d woven into her skin must have saved her life. And Daria …

  “You found me,” she breathed.

  “Not easily,” Daria said. Her voice was very grim. “Elaine, I need to get you out of here …”

  “Cast a freeze spell, the strongest you can,” Elaine ordered. It would hurt badly, but she couldn’t think of anything else that Daria could do. “Freeze me, then get me up to the druids.”

  Daria hesitated. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes,” Elaine said, flatly. “Do it.”

  She wanted to scream as the spell took effect. The pain grew stronger, hacking away at her mind, but she forced herself to push it to one side. Her body shook violently as Daria pulled her out of the rocks and levitated her down the corridor. It crossed her mind that she might already be doomed – she’d probably lost a great deal of blood – but the freeze spell should keep any further damage from occurring until the druids managed to go to work. The real problem was her sanity; the freeze spell made it impossible for her to do anything about the pain. People had been known to go mad when the spell had been used to torture them.

  Her eyesight seemed blurred, as if the world was slowly fading into darkness. Daria would have far better night vision than her, she recalled, but it needed some source of light … sparks seemed to flash across her eyes as they moved further up the tunnels, Daria pulling her along as hard as she dared. By the time they passed through the stone doors and hurried up to the palace, Elaine was fighting desperately to keep herself conscious. Her thoughts were threatening to blur into madness.

  “By all the gods,” a voice said. “How is she still alive?”

  “Magic,” Daria said. Elaine felt a table underneath her back, then caught sight of a dark figure looming over her. “Elaine, I’m going to have to release the spell …”

  “Wait,” the voice ordered. “Let me prepare a second spell first …”

  Elaine braced herself …

  … And opened her eyes, feeling sore.

  “Elaine,” Daria said. She was standing next to Elaine’s bed, looking down at her with anxious eyes. “How are you feeling?”

  “Sore,” Elaine said. “What … what happened?”

  “You survived being half-buried in rocks,” the unfamiliar voice said. A man wearing the long white robes of a druid came into view, one hand burnishing a golden wand. “You should have died in the catacombs.”

  “I know,” Elaine said. She forced herself to sit upright and realised she was naked. She had always been pale, but now it looked as though half her skin had been cut off and regrown rapidly. It would be weeks before she stopped looking like a pink and white patchwork. “We failed. He’s free.”

  He must have believed I was dead, she thought, numbly. The rocks should have been enough to smash her flat. If one of her protections hadn’t held her in suspension, they would have been. But he’s on the loose now.

  She reached out for Johan and felt, again, the sense of presence … and nothing else. “Johan?”

  “I didn’t find him,” Daria said. “The passageway below where I found you was blocked completely, Elaine.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Elaine said. If she could still feel Johan, he wasn’t dead. But the Witch-King might have a use for him, if he’d kept Johan alive. Unless Johan was trapped beneath the rocks too. His magic might have protected him from death. “What happened to you?”

  “I met up with the Travellers and convinced them to come with me to Ida,” Daria said, bluntly. “When we got there, the army was blocking the way, so I sneaked forward once the army fell back and headed up to Ida. Nearly got myself skewered by an arrow before I managed to make myself known to Dread. He sent me down to look for you.”

  “He’s not going to be pleased with me,” Elaine muttered. She shook her head – it couldn’t be helped – and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Help me up?”

  “I would advise you to stay in bed,” the druid said. “It took me five hours to repair all the damage, young lady.”

  Elaine looked down at her naked body. There were no scars, but when she drew on her magic she could feel just how much work he’d done. Her bones had practically been rebuilt, her muscles regrown … her skin itched, badly. Her protections must have made it easier for him, she reasoned. And yet she’d still come to the brink of death.

  “There isn’t time,” she said. The Witch-King was on the loose, Johan was missing and Deferens was still out there, perched at the foot of the mountain. “I need to see Dread.”

  Daria smiled. “You are going to dress first, I take it?”

  Elaine nodded. The druid passed her a set of clothes, a comfortable shirt and trousers that looked to have been hastily cleaned. She wondered if they came from one of the dead – Ida wasn’t the kind of place where possessions were buried with dead bodies – then decided she didn’t want to know. All that mattered, right now, was that they fitted. She glanced at herself in the mirror and nodded to herself. She looked decent.

  Daria held her arm to steady her as she made her way from the room. “I see you and Johan have been busy,” she said. “How was it?”

  Elaine flushed. “Very good, thank you,” she said, crossly. Daria had had hundreds of boyfriends; Elaine had had only one, before Johan. “Do I still smell of him?”

  “And the happy smell of two bodies coupling,” Daria said. She helped Elaine up a long flight of stairs and into the war room. “We’ll find him again, I promise.”

  “I hope so,” Elaine said. Dread and Sacharissa were leaning over a map, one showing the lands around Ida. “We failed.”

  “So I gathered,” Dread said. He didn’t sound angry, thankfully. “And you’re lucky to be alive.”

  Elaine nodded as she stumbled into a chair. It might have been wrong to sit in the Queen’s presence, but her legs felt as if they were on the verge of buckling. Sacharissa gave her a concerned look, her eyes deeply worried. Dread, next to her, looked tired. Too tired.

  “The army is still down there,” Dread said, softly. “I have a feeling they’re going to launch a final attack as soon as dawn rises. Once that happens …”

  Elaine nodded. Ida’s defences had been badly weakened, while Johan was missing; a second attack, using the same techniques, might just break through the walls and open the city to invasion. Once the walls fell, Ida was doomed. Deferens could just keep feeding troops into the city until the population was exterminated. But what was the Witch-King doing?

  “He’s free,” she said, and outlined what had happened in the catacombs. “What is he doing?”

  “Unknown,” Dread said. “He may have displaced Deferens or he may have headed somewhere else.”

  Elaine looked down at her hands. If the Witch-King assumed she was dead … she shook her head. She probably didn’t matter any longer. The one chance to stop the Witch-King before he rose from the catacombs had been lost. For all she knew, the Witch-King and Deferens intended to raise the siege and go … where? What did the Witch-King actually want?

  He thinks of himself as a god, she thought, coldly. Would he try to force people to worship him?

  “He’s too powerful to be stopped easily,” she mused. Something was nagging at her mind, something she was missing. “I think he combines both wild and high magic …”

  She broke off as it struck her. “My mother,” she said. “What happened to her?”

  Daria gave her an odd look. “Your mother?”

  “We don’t know,” Dread said. “She vanished after attacking you …”

  “… And stealing the knowledge from my mind,” Elaine finished. “I know mor
e about high magic than the Witch-King – I must; I have a thousand years of knowledge on him.”

  “True,” Dread agreed, after a moment. “Even if his agents kept him abreast of magical research, it couldn’t be as comprehensive as your knowledge.”

  “So he took the knowledge from my mother,” Elaine said, slowly. “But then … what does he want it for?”

  “Power,” Daria said. “You were teaching people how to cast spells with reduced power. I’m sure he’d find that knowledge useful, even if he has more raw power than a bad-tempered Inquisitor.”

  “Perhaps,” Elaine said. It wasn’t something she could have taught a powerful magician, not when showing off was half of the reason they used such powerful spells. And yet, she had the odd feeling that Daria had put her finger on the core of the problem. Did the Witch-King have a reason to want to conserve power? “I …”

  It hurt to laugh, but Elaine found herself snickering as the pieces slowly fell into place. No wonder Deferens had launched an assault on Ida. No wonder he’d been so obsessed with capturing her and bringing his army to the mountain state. No wonder the Witch-King had waited so long before emerging. It all made a horrific kind of sense.

  Dread cleared his throat. “Is there a reason you’re sniggering like a girl?”

  “She is a girl,” Sacharissa pointed out, elbowing him.

  Elaine gathered herself. “I’ll have to run through the numbers,” she said, “but I think the Witch-King needs an influx of power to keep himself alive. He’s practically made of raw magic.”

  “Hellfire,” Dread swore. “He’s not a true lich?”

  “I don’t think so,” Elaine said. “But then, no lich has ever been recorded to last over a thousand years.”

  She took a long breath. “If he runs out of magic, he comes apart at the seams,” she added, carefully. “Deferens came here so quickly, sacrificing hundreds of magicians along the way, to build up the magical reserves the Witch-King would need to sustain himself. He wants the knowledge I have to reduce his power consumption to extend his life.”

  Dread frowned. “But if he needs magic to live …”

  “If he manages to drop down a level or two,” Elaine interrupted him, “he could probably survive for centuries simply by absorbing magic from a handful of sacrifices.”

  “Or convincing people to give him magic willingly,” Daria offered. “There are ways to share magic, aren’t there?”

  Elaine nodded. It wouldn’t be hard, either; she could easily see several different rituals that could be adapted to fuel the Witch-King. He’d have to start a breeding program for magic-users, but it wouldn’t be hard. Deferens had already wiped out or subverted most of the institutions that might try to stop him.

  He wanted to trigger the breakup of the Empire, she thought, numbly. Get the kings free of their bonds, then encourage them to start fighting their neighbours and scrabbling for real power. And in the meantime, the Witch-King rebuilds his power and then moves out to put the Empire back together on his terms …

  “We have to find Johan,” she said. A thought had occurred to her, but she’d need Johan to help. “I can still sense him.”

  “It’s not going to remain dark for long,” Daria warned. “If Johan is outside the tunnels, Elaine, he may well be a prisoner.”

  The Witch-King might find a use for him, Elaine thought. Taking over another body wouldn’t be easy, but it could be done as a last resort. And he already knows how to adapt Johan’s power to use high magic.

  “We have to find him,” she said, firmly. She couldn’t sense Johan beyond a vague awareness of his existence, but she could overcome that problem. “I can triangulate his position, I think.”

  Dread and Sacharissa exchanged glances. “It would be risky,” Dread said. “You might be captured – again.”

  Elaine rubbed her forehead. Everyone seemed to want to capture her – but then, the knowledge in her head was literally priceless.

  “There’s no choice,” she said, finally. “If Deferens launches a final assault on Ida, Your Majesty, can Ida survive?”

  “Probably not,” Sacharissa admitted. Her face darkened, slightly. “Our defences are almost broken.”

  “Then finding Johan may be the only hope you have,” Elaine said. She stood, balancing herself carefully. “How long until dawn?”

  Daria frowned. “Two hours, at best.”

  “Then we need to start now,” Elaine said. She gave Daria a wink. “Coming?”

  “I should come too,” Dread said. “If nothing else, I can divert their attention while you make a run for it.”

  “Stay here,” Daria advised. Her nose twitched, meaningfully. “Take some personal time.”

  Sacharissa blushed. Dread looked … uncomfortable. Elaine had to fight to keep her amusement from showing on her face.

  “There’s a war on,” Dread said, finally.

  “Then you might die tomorrow,” Daria said. She held out an arm to Elaine. “We’ll see you later.”

  She helped Elaine out of the room and down towards the walls. Elaine shuddered at the sight of scorched buildings, dead bodies and an entire dragon being dissected by the local butchers, then forced herself to concentrate on Johan. Her lover was down towards the edge of the mountains … she changed position and tried again, mentally linking the lines together. Johan, unless she was very much mistaken, was in the enemy camp. He had to be a prisoner.

  “He’s in the camp,” she said, grimly. “How do we get past the guards?”

  “I had a look at them on my way up,” Daria said. “They didn’t look very skilful … we could probably slip by them if we were invisible, provided someone jiggered the wards.”

  Elaine smiled. “I can do that,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  The walk down to the camp was nightmarish, even with a werewolf helping her. Elaine nearly lost her footing a dozen times, something that would have meant certain death if she fell over the cliff and down onto the jagged rocks below. Dead bodies lay everywhere; a handful of dead dragons could be seen at the bottom, their scales glinting oddly in the moonlight. When the battle was finally over, Elaine suspected, the bodies would be cut up and sold. Entire fortunes would be made by the person who took possession of their hides.

  “All right,” Daria said, as they finally reached World’s Gate. “The camp is just beyond.”

  Elaine cast invisibility spells over them both and then walked forward until she sensed the first ward protecting the camp. It wasn’t as solid as she would have expected if Inquisitors had been involved in constructing it, but they might have taken advantage of another loophole in their orders. She touched it gingerly with her magic, carefully opened a gap and slipped through. A handful of patrolling soldiers came into view; she froze, careful not to move, as they walked past, their weapons clearly visible. If Deferens had any sense at all, they’d be trained to watch for invisible opponents.

  Pity it isn’t snowing, she thought. That would have covered our tracks nicely.

  The soldiers walked into the distance, towards a mass of red and gold tents. Elaine closed her eyes, sensing Johan’s presence, then swore under her breath as she opened them and saw the Inquisitors outside the tents. They knew how to fight magicians. It would be impossible to sneak past them without some kind of diversion, but what? They’d be trained not to panic when something went badly wrong.

  Daria slipped up next to her. “I could shift into wolf form and attack …”

  “They’d kill you,” Elaine whispered back. She concentrated, trying to reach Johan, but there was no response. Was he stunned? Or had his mind been wiped? If the Witch-King planned to take Johan’s body for himself, he wouldn’t want to deal with the previous occupant. “I think we need to look for a way to divert attention.”

  She slipped away from the tents and into the darkness, trusting Daria’s nose to allow her friend to stick with her. Hundreds of soldiers were kneeling on the ground, listening to a sermon from one of their own; he was ranting abou
t a god he’d seen in person. Elaine remembered the Witch-King’s appearance and shuddered. It was clear the Witch-King had come to the camp, taking the magic Deferens had collected and abandoning Johan. And he probably would be taken for a god if anyone saw him.

  A pair of Inquisitors appeared, walking past the kneeling soldiers. Elaine didn’t recognise either of them, but she could tell they were both feeling helpless. They’d seen the very worst of magics unleashed, magics they were sworn to stop and yet they could do nothing. She felt a flicker of sympathy …

  I could let them capture me, she thought. They’d take me to Deferens …

  And then what?Her thoughts answered. She knew Deferens too well to believe she could talk him into abandoning the Witch-King. He wouldn’t listen to a word you said. And even if he did, could he do anything? The Witch-King spent years turning him into a tool.

  She looked up at the mountains. Dawn was slowly starting to break.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Johan opened his eyes. “Elaine?”

  “No,” his sister said. “It’s Charity, Johan. You’re a prisoner in the Emperor’s camp.”

  Johan felt … no emotions. His body wasn’t numb, as far as he could tell; he could feel iron manacles cutting into his wrists and ankles. But he felt nothing; no fear, no alarm … not even a hint of pleasure at meeting his sister again. He closed his eyes, trying to summon the magic, then cursed under his breath as he realised it was impossible. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t make himself angry.

  “Amanda’s Draught,” Charity said, apologetically. “The Emperor’s orders.”

  “Oh,” Johan said. He knew he should be angry, but it was impossible to muster any real concern. Deferens had drugged him to keep him unemotional. It was just a fact. “Do I have to be chained up?”

  “The Emperor ordered it,” Charity said. “I can’t free you.”

  Johan nodded, then took a long look at his sister. She was wearing a faint wisp of silk over her breasts and another over her hips, barely covering her genitals. He couldn’t help thinking of the pleasure slaves he’d seen, during his rare excursions outside the family home. And Charity was a slave … he knew he should be outraged, or even angry at her personally, but he still felt nothing.