by Tyler Earp
Twenty-Three
Fall Into Darkness
“It isn't the darkness we must watch. It is in the light of day that we will encounter most dangers.”
- Ramas
Hiberon growled. “Are you threatening me, boy? I was alive before your kind ever even existed. And I still exist. Don't assume that you scare me,” he said, though he didn't look as confident as he sounded.
Riley laughed darkly. “No, but I scare them,” he said, pointing at the small group surrounding Nina. They pulled back, shrinking away from Riley.
“Either way, they fear me more. Titus, he's yours.”
A small man stepped forward, he pulled his hood down, and a mat of hair fell down into his face A pair of bucked-teeth stuck down over his bottom lip, and his cherubic cheeks were bulging. “As you wish, master.”
Riley looked at Charley and he felt Riley's thought strongly. For Abe.
Charley inclined his head. For Abe.
Riley looked at the small man. “How do you want to do this?”
“A sorcerer's duel. Magic only. No swords or Will. The first to forfeit or be unconscious loses,” the man said, his nose twitching erratically.
Riley nodded. “I'm ready.”
Without another word the small man raised his hands and a flash of lightning streaked toward Riley, a large blade of light that pierced the air and flew with a loud crack!
Riley raised a hand and with a twisting motion caught it in his palm. It seemed to grow more intense before Riley flicked it back at Titus. As it flew, it seemed to harden into a sphere.
Titus made a slapping motion and it zapped into the ground at his feet, sending blackened bits of rock and mud in every direction. Before he had time to retaliate, Riley motioned at him and Titus' feet were upended in a mudslide. He sprawled onto the ground. Riley continued by holding his hand palm out, and water blasted toward Titus.
It froze upon reaching him and encased him in a block of ice, leaving his face untouched. He finished it off by throwing a ball of condensed air at Titus.
Titus melted the block of ice and froze the ball of air, and then regained his feet as he sent it flying to the side. Holding out both hands, Titus sent an inferno of flames that consumed Riley.
Riley walked from the middle of it, nothing on him burned and continued toward Titus at a slow pace. He then retaliated by trapping Titus in the middle of jagged columns of rock summoned from the ground.
They seemed to claw at the air as they surrounded Titus.
Titus frantically mashed his hand onto the rocks and they broke apart into piles of sand at his feet.
He now looked completely out of breath, while Riley appeared composed, though Charley could sense the extreme anger just beneath the surface.
Raised his hands, but Titus shook his head. “I can't beat you. I forfeit.”
Riley shook his head. “No. I don't accept that.” A frightened look came into Titus' eyes.
Riley sent out a gust of air and it started picking up mud and small pebbles and stones from the ground. A great rotating cyclone appeared above his hands and then he was standing in the middle of a giant tornado. Titus fled toward the other members of the Council, but he was pulled back into it.
He's gone crazy. Charley ran toward, Riley, avoiding the pelting stones and mud, ignoring the danger to himself. As he got closer to Riley, the winds became stronger, ripping at his feet and clothing. He fought his way to Riley over the last couple of feet. “Riley, this isn't you. You need to stop before you hurt us all.”
Riley looked at him over his shoulder, his eyes red. “But they deserve it. They should all pay. You know I'm right.”
Charley shook his head. “No. Not like this. What do you think Abe would tell you? He would say be a hero, not the villain.”
“But– I just want to stop them– forever.”
“And you'll become them. You'll be just as bad.”
Riley's shoulders slumped and the cyclone of wind and mud died down. As it disappeared Riley fell to the ground near the great chasm and cradled his legs to his chest. “It just hurts.”
A figure flickered into existence beside them. Scaly, clawed hands threw back the hood. A lizard face stared down at Charley. “It seems you're my opponent. “The name's Maxima.”
Charley felt his anger resurface and drew his sword and swiped at her. She dodged back and wagged her finger at him. “My, how unsporting of you. Attacking someone unarmed.”
She flourished her hands and twin daggers appeared in her hands. “Well, that's better.”
Charley slashed at her again and again. “You. Took. Nina,” he said, one word for each swing of the blade.
She deflected the much larger blade off of hers. “Yes. I did. I took your precious little girlfriend, hero.”
He felt the weightlessness come, his anger becoming numb with distance, and he saw through all of Maxima's patterns. All of her intentions. All of her thoughts. For one terrifying moment he became Maxima, and then he found himself again.
He grew more confident and started striking with more force. Charley knew her better than she did in that moment, and Charley soon had her backing up. She couldn't force him to a standstill until right before reaching the edge.
Maxima's eyes narrowed. “Very good, hero. Harness that anger, use it, drive it. It feels good, doesn't it? I took Nina, the little warrior is gone, and the sorcerer has gone insane. What do you have left?”
He saw her words for what they were: an attempt to anger him into making a mistake. He stayed in the void and battered down her best attacks and defenses. “I'm no hero.”
His sword seemed to almost move independently of him as it came down on her throat. He watched as inch by inch the blade approached in almost slow motion and he felt a single second of sickening satisfaction.
His sword met a sudden resistance and the weightlessness faded. He regained control and saw that Rafe had stopped his blade, using the palms of his hands to grab it, inches from her exposed neck. “You won,” he stated, and stepped back. “That's enough Charley.”
Hiberon growled. “You interfered, Rafe.”
Rafe scoffed. “I did no such thing. The results were inevitable, and you know it. I simply stopped a needless death.”
“I still say you interfered, Rafe Fithen.”
Charley locked his eyes on Maxima. “I'll fight her as many times as you want me to. She will never win.”
Rafe shook his head. “No, you won, he just doesn't like losing. Go make sure Riley will be okay to leave. I'll get Nina.”
Charley watched him walk toward the group surrounding Nina. That's when everything went wrong. Maxima attacked him from the side. As if on cue, the others attacked Rafe. Of course, Charley had bigger things to worry about than Rafe.
Maxima rammed into him, knocking him to the ground. He looked up at her and saw her eyes were glossed over. She appeared almost mechanical in her advance on him. “Hello, Charley,” a voice said, not sounding like hers.
Charley recognized it, though. “Renwick?”
“That's right. You see, I’ve been trying to get rid of you for weeks. Your little fall in the Flow. That assassin in Talas. The Salans who ambushed you. Your incident with the Forgotten Ones. All my attempts failed. Congratulations.
“Or should I say, congratulations to your friends. Without them, I would have gotten you. Though I must admit: your little victory over the Forgotten Ones was your own. I do
have to give that to you.”
“But why? You helped us.”
“Why help you and then betray you? It's simple… power. You see, you do possess the powers to save Undermire. But I don't want that. I can't let that happen.”
“But what about saving Undermire? Helping everyone?” Maxima-Renwick scoffed. “Undermire has been a dying world for generations. Just like Underdeep, it's fading. The magic here is not a tenth as powerful as it was a hundred years ago. And the magic a century ago is an even smaller fraction compared to that five hundred or a thousand.”
Charley heard Hiberon's voice above the loud fighting. “So, that's why Maxima brought the girl here, Renwick. Sorcerers– I hate your kind. Always meddling in things you would be better leaving alone.”
For the first time, Hiberon rose from his giant chair and Charley saw how large he truly was. The top of his head nearly brushed the top of the cavern. With a single swipe of his hand he sent several large rocks tumbling down over where Charley
and Maxima-Renwick stood.
Maxima-Renwick shot a glare at Hiberon and stopped the rocks in midair. “Shut up, Hiberon. You've outlived your usefulness.” With the other hand a great gout of blackness poured toward Hiberon, sliding across the ground like a snake until it reached Hiberon.
Charley watched in horror as Hiberon's body was swallowed by the shadowy forms in a matter of seconds. He let out one scream that faded away into nothing.
The shadows shimmered away into nothingness, and where Hiberon had been sitting was a crystalline form of him. Charley looked back at Maxima-Renwick. “What did you do to him?”
He laughed. “Are you feeling sorry for a being that would have enslaved you and all of your friends without a second thought?”
Charley grasped his sword and tried to rise. Maxima- Renwick put out the scaly hand again, and he was frozen to the spot. “Steady, Ashe. I'm sending you somewhere you might never return from. You see, my plans can't work if you're here to ruin everything, so I need you out of the way for now.”
Charley caught motion over Renwick's shoulder. He saw it was Riley sneaking up on them. He looked back at Maxima- Renwick, so he wouldn't draw attention to him. “Why can't you just help us save Undermire?”
“Simple. I don't want Undermire to survive. I need to destroy it before I can remake it. Undermire is poisoned. When The Children started killing off Ancients, they started draining Undermire's life-source. I'm going to remake Undermire, starting with getting rid of the two people capable of stopping me.”
Riley raised his hand to attack but froze as Maxima- Renwick released a large amount of Will. “Sorry, Riley, Mr. Ashe gave you away.”
Charley glared up at him. “You said it yourself, you can't get rid of us forever. We'll find a way back.”
Maxima-Renwick smiled down at him. “Big talk coming from the boy who doesn't even want to be a hero”
“I've learned something.”
“What's that?” A small smile playing over Maxima- Renwick's face.
Charley smiled. “The one's who are real heroes don't care about winning. They care about doing the right thing. And it doesn't take a hero to do the right thing. I'll stop you in the end.”
Maxima-Renwick clapped. “Very good, Mr. Ashe. I'm almost touched by your speech,” he said. “Now watch as I crush your beloved dog.”
With a simple flick of his fingers the rocks suspended over their heads flew toward where Rafe was frantically fighting against several members of the Council. Somehow, he had managed to free Nina, and the two, along with a huge Labrador Retriever, were holding them off.
None of them seemed to see the rocks flying at them at a rapid pace, but Rafe suddenly turned and a pillar of light flew from the tip of his blade, vaporizing the rocks into nothing, and without missing a beat turned back to the three he was fighting.
Maxima-Renwick frowned as he turned back toward Charley. “It matters not. I can at least be rid of you, Mr. Ashe. Goodbye, Charley. You've amused me more than most.”
Charley felt as light as air as Renwick lifted him with magic and threw him and Riley into the chasm. He felt a great pull, like he was being drawn down into the hole by some large invisible hand and disappeared into the abyss.
Epilogue
A Game of Shadows
“Make your next move, Ultimo. It makes no difference,” the shadowy image said with a deep chuckle. “There is nothing you can do to win this game.” It's hand rested on a piece that soon disintegrated under the harsh touch of the shadow.
Ultimo grimaced. “I haven't lost yet,” he replied, staring intently at the board where it seemed that he had so few pieces still standing on the board.
“Haven't you, though? Your most valuable player has been removed from the game. There is little you can do now. Even your dog wasn't enough to save the boy,” the shadow said, moving a piece off the board in front of them.
Ultimo snatched the piece off the table and cradled it in the palm of his hand. “Removed, but not destroyed. The Child of Fire will return. A flame is always strongest after being pushed to the point of being snuffed out. It returns to consume the shadow once more.”
A red line appeared in the place that the shadow should have a mouth. It curled upward. “We will see, brother. We will see. Until then, the game continues. Show me your best move.”
Ultimo looked over the board and slowly picked up a piece from the table. It was smaller than the others, but there was a small, but bright, light in the dark. It just needs to be released.
With a feeling of confidence that he hadn't had in many years, Ultimo placed the piece square in the center of the board, facing the largest and darkest of the pieces.
The red line curved even further upward. “Interesting move, brother. You're going to bring back the last of the Children? That piece is almost mine.”
“Maybe, and maybe not. I'm willing to roll the dice.”
The shadow inclined its head. “And so the true Game of Shadows begins.”
