“And in those days the great strife came, kingdoms fell and men went mad and men battled; innocents were slain, war and starvation and disease, and a vast shadow fell over the whole world. Those explorers of the heart of Ghaelstrom had carried these powerful ores and crystals and taken them to the ends of the land where these humans died and left the power hidden everywhere. But the discovery and dispersement of the ores and crystals had not gone unnoticed.
“That is when the Starwalkers arrived, lured by the energetic pulse of power coming from Vellia.” Aurellia had led them to a vertical shaft that plunged directly into the mountain. “They found the ores and crystals scattered on the surface of the earth, and found people who knew something of their origin. This led the Starwalkers, along with the fragments of the ancient leaders of the remaining kingdoms, to strike out on another expedition to Ghaelstrom.”
Talis pictured the Starwalkers as radiant figures, their faces wise and pure, and their minds illuminated by the knowledge and experience of visiting thousands of worlds. Would he ever get a chance to meet them?
The dark lord dropped into the vertical shaft and disappeared. Talis felt a powerful, strange sensation strike his bones as he hovered over the entrance. The feeling made him want to scream and fly away up to the surface. Something was lurking down there. Something hideous and unknowable. Something inhuman.
Far below in the shaft the green light was fading. Aurellia was returning to the source of his power. Now was Talis’s chance to flee. The dragons would protect him, King Valeron would keep him from the terror that lurked down inside the heart of the mountain. He could escape and find Mara and Nikulo. He had the Surineda Map. The Ancients of Vellia would ally with him, and together they could fight Aurellia.
Then the green light below stopped fading—it stayed as if listening, reaching out above to hear Talis’s hesitation. The air wafting up from below smelled like the remains of a million bodies after they have rotten in a dark graveyard for many years. The smell made his stomach turn and caused bile to rise up into his mouth. He had to vomit, had to retch out this feeling that squeezed his gut like a tourniquet.
Aurellia’s voice formed in the air around Talis like a ghostly whispering. “Follow, young apprentice, follow into the heart of the mountain. Purge your mind of fear. Let the cloak of courage cover your desire to flee. I am waiting for you here at the heart.”
The hair on Talis’s arms stood up like soldiers frozen before battle. Every nerve in his body told him to leave this place. The feeling here was worse than the altar to Zagros, worse than when he traveled through the Underworld, worse than death itself. And yet he found his will bending to Aurellia’s. He was sworn to the dark lord and he had no choice but to obey his command.
Talis fell into the dark abyss, plummeting out of control, hoping his death would be swift and painless. At some point he lost consciousness, dizzy and light-headed from the blistering descent, but after an unknown amount of time found himself on the ground staring up at the placid face of Aurellia. Now the feeling of horror and pain and power surged through Talis, shooting inside him from the metal and crystals all around him. The pain was killing him. He was going mad.
Laughter shot from his mouth and echoed around the dark chamber as the power growled under his skin. He found his hands curling into claws. Aurellia’s face flashed from ancient to young to skeletal to dissolving ash. The dark lord’s expression changed from disappointment to curiosity to rage to maniacal laughter. I am truly going mad… This crazy rush coursed through his veins and he loved every minute of the feeling.
“Listen to my voice.” Clear and strong, Aurellia’s words lodged itself in Talis’s mind. “Follow my voice. Ignore the images. Follow or you will go mad. That’s better. Now shield yourself in the golden light of the sun. This will protect you from the dark energy. Go on, quickly, cast the spell.”
Talis concentrated on the image of the sun, radiant and strong, and released the power around him in the form of a protective cocoon. Slowly, he felt the pain ease from his mind.
“Good, now cast a layer of shadow magic as a sheen around the bubble you’ve created. This will protect you from the light energy.”
With a flourish of hands, Talis released a wave of shadows over the cocoon of light. Shadows and gold mixed and bonded, and gave off a blue, ethereal glow. At last, he felt the fear and the power subside until he could think clearly again. Why hadn’t Aurellia just let him die from the fall? He could have at least warned him of what to expect down here. No feeling he’d ever felt compared to the anguish and terror he’d experienced only moments before. One minute longer and he would have gone permanently mad.
“How did you learn how to protect yourself the first time you came down here?” Talis thought he knew the answer, but wanted to hear it from Aurellia.
The dark lord stared at the crystals and gold ore lodged in the walls, and waited in quiet contemplation. His dry, bony fingers caressed the metal like it was a long lost lover.
“My old master taught me the technique of mixing shadows and light to protect against the massive power down here.”
“Master Palarian?” Talis lowered his voice to a querulous whisper.
Aurellia pulled his hand away from the wall and straightened his back as if coming to attention.
“His name is Lord Palarian. And yes, somehow you guessed correctly, he was my master when I was a boy.” Aurellia raised clenched fists into the air. “A cruel and heartless master, relentless, emotionless—everything about him was a facade, an act, a game. I vowed that one day I would best him, that I’d be more powerful than him, that I would force him to submit to my dominance. And that day came.”
The dark lord relaxed his hands and inhaled deeply, then pointed down a tunnel that shimmered with the hazy glow of gold and dark light.
“We are here for a reason. Inside this passageway we are free from the mental interfere of the whole world. Only here one can really meditate and find the truest form of solace. The mixing of the most powerful kind of light and dark energy. The very core of what balances the universe! It’s all here, in the heart of Ghaelstrom. From what the dragons have told me, few humans have ever survived the heart: Palarian and his master before him, as well as I, and now you have come. Perhaps there were others in the dark records of history. Well of course the Starwalkers came, but then again, are they really human? Humanoid, yes, but mostly alien, from what our history tells us.”
“What are you searching for down here?” Talis scanned the gold and colorful crystals lodged in the walls.
Aurellia raised his eyes to Talis and twisted his face into a greedy grin. “Bring out the Surineda Map, faithful apprentice. And I will show you what we’ve come here for.”
12. THE PRINCESS
Mara found the feeling of Princess Minoweth’s dagger in her hand warm and pleasing. It supplied the fuel for her rage against the Ancients of Vellia. She allowed the memory of Prince DeSabrian’s death to play in her mind as if it were her favorite song played over and over again on a music box. The wet warmth of his blood pouring over her hand. The smell of shock and primal terror as he pissed himself and crumpled to the ground. His death was a beautiful and disgusting thing at the same time.
Elder Relech stared at her with amusement playing in his eyes. “We have much to attain in the days ahead. Stay here while I interrogate the servants. Don’t worry, it won’t take long. My methods are quite efficient.”
When the door closed, Mara returned her gaze to the dagger now gleaming brightly in the soft light of the prince’s room. So many memories were stored inside the weapon: the assassinations, the betrayals, the acts of power.
A woman’s scream echoed in the hallway outside, then pleading, and sobbing, and after a minute or so, a low, death moan. Then a man, begging for his life, a shout for help, and soon an agonizing cry, mumbled words that Mara couldn’t hear, and finally silence.
Her master’s footsteps came to the door, and he entered, and the grim mask
of the sadist entered with him. He walked over to the washbasin in the bathroom connected to the prince’s study, and allowed the water to wipe away all the blood from his hands.
“A rather noisy lot, I’d say. Poorly trained compared to my father’s old servants.” He cleared his throat and spit into the basin. “Well, at least the manservant had some useful information. It turns out my father had some help in killing and torturing your friend. The Regent by the name of Donoval. The problem is now that the regent has returned to the capitol city, Illumina, with the information young Talis provided them. This complicates things.”
Mara imagined the prince and the regent working together to torture Talis, and found the muscles in her jaw tensed so tightly it hurt. She was determined to do anything to sneak into Illumina and find this man Donoval. But she wouldn’t kill him so quickly like the prince, she would find out more information about Talis’s death. If she could resist killing him for so long….
“I will go to Illumina,” Mara said, and bowed her head to Elder Relech. When she raised her eyes to her master, his expression was an instant flash of contempt and triumph that faded immediately to the bland, passive mask of the servant. In that moment, Mara knew she truly hated this vile abomination. Indeed she hated Prince DeSabrian and Regent Donoval for what they’d done to Talis, but her hatred for Elder Relech ran much deeper. A smile flowered on her face as she vowed in her heart to kill them all.
“Why are you smiling, child? Does the journey to Illumina or the death deed bring pleasure to your heart?” Elder Relech scowled at her, his eyes scrunched in scrutiny. “What is that dagger you hold? Inside there is a great power… Tell me, where did you find it?”
Mara turned away from his intense eyes and ignored him for a long time, allowing the rage inside to subside. She thought of Talis’s warm smile towards her when they played in the ocean on the island in Chandrix. How he sheltered her when the battle was fought against the dragons. And what did he say to her the last time they were together? His voice had been filled with anguish and longing as he cried her name. How could he be dead? Without a doubt, she knew Talis loved her, just by the sound of his voice. And that feeling of love fought the rage and sent it back down her arm and into the dagger.
She could see Princess Minoweth’s dagger fade in brightness, and she put it away in her sheath. Was the dagger doing something to her? Was it poisoning her mind? She thought back to the night where she had first killed someone with the dagger. With Elder Relech and his murderous urgings. That’s when the dagger had first glowed green—the killing had activated it somehow. Before then it was just another beautiful blade. Now it roiled with power and infused Mara with some kind of unstoppable feeling. She released a small laugh. Oh, but she did love that feeling of power, especially when she’d cut her master and seen the fear on his face.
“Enough.” Mara spun around and faced the sorcerer, her mind filled with the resolve to find revenge for Talis’s death. “What must I do?”
A grim smile formed on Elder Relech’s wrinkled lips. “Now you must listen carefully to the plan I have for you. I will only tell it once and then I must leave you.”
After Mara listened to her master’s plan, a sober reality settled over her mind: she had to go alone to a strange city and assassinate its regent. She thought back to her first journey and the difficulties of entering the city of Khael, and visiting Darkov, with all those scrutinizing eyes watching her. Their eyes screamed “stranger” and made her feel cold down to the bone. But the people in this kingdom were completely foreign to her. Their way of dress and manner of speech seemed exciting and disturbing at the same time. And she had to blend in amongst them, slipping through unseen, and murder Regent Donoval.
Elder Relech took Mara upstairs to the dressing room for the young princesses. Without suitable attire it would be impossible for Mara to enter society. She would need a sponsor. Her master thought for a while and his face formed a twisted smile.
“I have an idea to resolve our plan. Come with me.” He guided her down a hallway filled with statues of hands holding swords raised to the sky. The walls were decorated with paintings of the sun blazing in the sky, conquering a sea of dark, menacing clouds. At the end of the hallway, a white wooden door opened under the master’s trembling touch. Once inside, his face turned somber and maniacal, gazing at the figure sleeping fitfully in an ornately decorated, wooden poster bed.
“I’ve returned at last, Mother.” Dark threads of shadow magic snaked from Elder Relech’s fingertips, and wrapped around his mother’s head and entered the back of her neck.
Shock and horror poured from her eyes as she sat up in a fright, gaping in disbelief as Elder Relech stalked towards her. The woman seemed on the verge of screaming and raging out of control, but the dark threads seemed to work harder to pacify her.
“No, you’re not my son. It can’t be. My son died many years ago, on that faraway planet—he died with all the others—an accident they said.” She squinted at him, craning her neck forward. “But those eyes, those eyes are the eyes of my son. How can it be?”
“We were trapped on that world, betrayed by our own people, and forced to survive there. But we found a way back.”
“How is it possible? They were certain you were dead, your father told me that our son would never return. He wouldn’t lie to me, would he?”
A dark, fatalistic smile crept over Elder Relech’s face. “In a way, I imagine I am dead, but none of that matters. I am leaving for now. But I have a favor to ask of you.” When he spoke the word “favor” the shadow tendrils massed together at the back of her neck like vipers twisting in a pit. “This is Princess Mara Lei, from the city of Naru. I doubt you’ve heard of it, just the important thing to know it is an ancient city, hidden far away. Accept Princess Mara as royalty, as one of our own, and treat her as you would your own daughter. You will dress her as a princess, and immediately travel to Illumina and enter court. It is important that Mara be introduced to Regent Donoval. Do you understand?”
Pools of black ink formed in the woman’s eyes and her head lolled around, as some stupor gripped her mind. She turned her gaze to Mara and seemed to recognize her for the first time.
“Welcome, Princess Mara, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Princess Genevieve DeSabrian, but please call me by my given name.” Genevieve stood and strolled over to Mara, taking her hand in a gesture of kindness that softened the tension in Mara’s shoulders.
“It is so very nice to meet you, Princess Genevieve.” All at once, a flood of sorrow came over Mara as she thought of her mother back at home. Tears spilled from her eyes as she pictured her kind, beautiful face.
“Oh, there there now, don’t cry dear. But you must miss your family terribly, is it not so?”
Mara nodded and wiped her eyes, giving Genevieve a warm smile. “Yes, of course…it’s been a long journey. So nice to see a friendly face.”
“You are quite welcome here, child—”
“There is no time for trivialities—you both must leave now for the capitol.” Genevieve scowled at Elder Relech, as a mother would scowl at her child. He raised a hand and streams of shadow energy poured into her eyes, causing her to whimper in pain. “Don’t fight me, mother. Your will is weak and your command of magic has faded from years of disuse. Listen to me and obey. You will forget that I was ever here. In your mind I am still dead. But you will accept Mara as one of your own. She has traveled here by ship as part of a trading delegation, and has stayed to seek a proper education. You have agreed to be her sponsor and aid her in her pursuit of higher learning. Is this understood?”
Agony clenched Genevieve’s face as she bowed in acceptance and turned aside from her son as if he never existed. Mara followed her back down the hall to another dressing room filled with white, silk and satin dresses. A few of the gowns were similar to the ones Mara had back at home, so beautiful and delicate, and for a moment Mara missed the comfort and elegance of her life back home. Then she laug
hed, remembering how much she used to long for adventure. Now that she had her fill of a life of danger, the safety of civilization seemed long overdue.
Mara turned back to seek her master’s guidance, but found he had disappeared. She released a sigh of relief, glad the monster was gone. Now, at last for a time, she was free of his dark, murderous training. At least Genevieve seemed kind—though naive—and she would lead her to the capitol where Mara could seek revenge for Talis’s death. This Regent Donoval would give her answers and find his life quickly slip away. Her blade thirsted for blood, and she would find pleasure in his death.
“Where did you find these clothes? All leather and thick wool—one would think you were a woodsman!” Genevieve studied Mara for a long while, and grinned as if she had an idea. “We’ll simply have to burn all your clothes, that’s all there is to it. If we are to present you properly at court, you’ll need to wear the latest fashion. You simply have to appear as one would expect a princess to dress.”
Princess Genevieve turned away and traced her pale fingers over the selection of gowns hanging in the dressing room. She clicked her tongue after each dress proved a disappointment. At the end of the rack she found a long, white gown of fine silk with embroidered lavender flowers around the waistline.
“Now this dress is lovely and is perfect for your petite shape. Why don’t you try it on?” Genevieve motioned for Mara to follow her, the dress draped over her arm. “Say goodbye to those hideous rags. Have you really crossed the vast sea to visit us? I can’t imagine traveling like that. No one does, you know. As easy as the portals are there’s practically no reason to ever leave Zhael. Now come along, we need to get you a bath. You smell like mud and sweat.”
Dragon Mage (Blacklight Chronicles) Page 9
