Faith Of The Dragon Tamer (Book 2)
Page 35
It was not enough.
Chapter 30
The air began to quiver as the two extremes of the crystals battled for control. Soon their powers wouldn’t be in balance and each would fling off things no one wanted to escape.
Aidan looked through Sim’s eyes, sending a silent prayer to the Maker to help Ren prevail, but as she watched, Ren’s eyes, tinted a slight shade of red, grazed over Sim without any recognition.
“No,” she whispered.
“There’s nothing we can do, dear heart. We’ve done our duty. We’ve awoken the Silver Eye. Now only your Ren can end this. There’s hope yet. Have faith.”
“Sim?”
“Hmm?”
“I want you to stop him if he’s the other.”
“Yes, dear heart, but you have the power as well.”
Aidan knew she did. She could feel it inside her, but she couldn’t do it, not to Ren. “I can’t, Sim. I’m not that strong.”
“Yes, dear heart. I’ll do so if it comes to that.”
The wizard rounded the corner and skidded to a halt. When his eyes locked on Ista, his face became stone. Before Aidan could blink, Ista was lifted by invisible threads and hurled into the wall of the castle.
The wizard’s eyes were disks of hate, but Ista smiled in victory. Her eyes flickered to Ren. Ren immediately crumbled to the floor, clutching his head as if he wanted to tear it off. Aidan’s heart skipped a beat, hoping against hope Ren was fighting back.
Ista gave a wheezy laugh. “Don’t you see, Zorc? I’m in control of you, of Ren, and of the Lands. I had the Druids implant the needles in Ren’s mind after his closing. I control him whether or not Barracus has successfully claimed his body.”
Zorc stepped closer, undeterred.
“And if you kill me I’ll just pass through the Eye. I’ve already locked my calling and targeted my host.” Ista chuckled. “You’re my host, Zorc. I control you alive or dead.”
Zorc raised his eyebrows. “I’m stronger, Ista. You will be unable to claim me.”
“You seemed to have forgotten the redhead beauty of the Alcazar.”
Zorc paused.
Ista heaved a hearty laugh. “Have you failed to think through the full implications for Christa’s spirit?” Ista waited until the horror flashed across Zorc’s face. “She’ll be lost for eternity if she doesn’t join with her other half inside you. The only way she’ll be able to join with you is if I join with you. What will it be, Zorc? Do you choose to have my spirit residing inside you and Christa free from eternal loneliness, or my control of you? It matters not which.”
Zorc’s face softened into an emotionless mask. The Eyes still battled behind him, their light becoming more violent with each breath. Zorc bent to grab a smoldering stick that had received some of the dragon’s fire.
“Give her to me.”
Ista laughed, eyes alight with the pain of thousands. “Never.”
Zorc pulled a red velvet bag from his robe. “Never? Never is a word that should be wiped from the lexicon.”
Ista’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “The Eyes are about to break free, Zorc. Free me or kill me. It’s your choice.”
Zorc stepped forward, torch in hand. For the first time, Ista’s eyes flickered with fear.
“I’m not going to do either,” Zorc said, moving closer. “But you’ll choose death won’t you, Ista? Or do you want to feel the flames again, feel your skin melting as the fire churns around you?”
“No.”
“Oh, yes.” Zorc said, pushing the torch closer. Ista’s chest heaved as the panic overtook her. Her claw-like hand clutched Zorc’s arm.
Zorc smiled. “The only way to escape the flames is to give yourself to the sorceress’s death, and you need every ounce of energy to do so. You’ll have to release your bond to the Eye. You’ll have to release Christa.”
Zorc’s smile broadened. He moved the torch closer. Ista shuddered beneath his grip. The Eyes were flickering back and forth. The day was dark and then it was light. Soon the Lands would be flooded with love or hate, or both. Zorc ignited Ista’s hair. Zorc stepped back and rocked forward to his toes as he untied the string that kept the red pouch closed.
There was a loud implosion as Ista gave her life to the sorceress’s death, the only magic sorceresses could evoke at whim. Zorc whispered words, waving his hands over the small bag as ash rained down over Ista’s burning, empty robe. A thin stream of dust careened toward Zorc and wafted into the open velvet bag. When the last of the dust had entered, Zorc tied the bag closed and placed it back inside his robe.
- - -
Ren stumbled to his feet as the pain in his head dissipated only to find the presence inside had grown. He had thought love’s pain was the strongest emotion of all, but it couldn’t be, not if it wasn’t banishing the darkness.
The darkness inside him continued to grow. Ren tried to hold it, calling on the sword, the defenders, and his own emotions in the calm. Soon he had created a shaft of white-hot power inside him, but slowly, piece by piece, Barracus was eating through the light of the internal elements.
Zorc had told him the first truth could help him defeat the darkness, could lead him to the second truth.
Ren searched his heart, trying to find the answer. There had to be more he could draw on. He murmured prayers to the Maker as he thought of the first truth. His faith could damn him or raise him. He clutched his faith to him like a blanket, letting his heart fill to overflowing.
Love was stronger than hate. The pain love brought was stronger than love. But what was stronger than the pain of love?
Ren rose above the hate, the love, and the pain. The shaft of light glowed below him, but still the darkness continued to rise.
And it was complete. He could almost feel the terror of the lower Plains in the growing hate. It was saturated with corruption. He pulled on more love, calling it forth from the blade of light, but the love only caused the hate to pause. It by no means ate the darkness.
He studied the love. He could feel its brilliance, its intensity, but he also sensed a slight marring of its pureness. Ren realized the love of man wasn’t the opposite of the hate Barracus carried.
The love of man could stem from lust, from betrayal, from pain itself. Love, like the Silver Eye, could be used for evil.
Slowly, Ren felt the answer surfacing. There was only one way to banish Barracus. He had to rise above all the internal elements to find the only true, pure emotion.
He had to confront Barracus without hate of fear, but compassion. Barracus was the Maker’s creation. The Maker loved Barracus just as much as He loved a child of light. Barracus had strayed, he had turned to evil, but Ren couldn’t succumb to the same hate that drove Barracus to the darkness. He remembered the Quy’s words: Before you strike make sure you do so out of love. If you begin to use other emotions like hate, lust, envy, or desire you’ll fail. Sometimes you’ll strike in anger, or shun the one you strike at, but if you remember the love inside, if the love inside is what drives you, all will be well.
“Only use me in love,” she had said. But not just love – the emotion that mingled with pain and hate, but the Maker’s love. It was a love that was unbounded, a love that loved despite pain and corruption.
Ren cast one final glance at the darkness before turning his head to the sky. The shaft of light brightened as he reached for a love no evil could touch.
- - -
Zorc watched Ren stumble forward to place one hand over each Eye. The twin lights cut through his hands like a saber. Within heartbeats, the Eye’s flickering slowed. A glow came from within Ren and a silver shaft of light appeared, cutting through him and slicing through the lights of the Eyes.
Zorc turned away, shielding his face from the light. When he looked back the twin lights had separated and were slowly moving back to their individual crystals. Ren stood between them, a saber of light shooting through him. He drew breaths so deep Zorc thought he would collapse from the strain, but the lights quic
kly dissipated and the humming of the crystals soon silenced.
Ren dropped to his knees and held his sword above his head, muscles tensing. The stones in the sword shone with an ardent intensity, forming a triangular glow. The beam of light that had cut Ren before appeared again, this time slicing though the sword as well. The sword slowly turned black. Before Zorc could blink, the darkness shot from the sword and plummeted back into the Red Eye.
Chapter 31
Morrus’ laughter boomed over the courtyard as Neki and Galvin plunged the Druid into the garden’s pond for the second time. Morrus, naked as a newborn babe, emerged grinning like a dragon.
Neki nodded his approval. “Morrus, you’re now officially de-coronated.”
Ren smiled and turned away, noticing even Nigel had a grin on his face. But Ren’s thoughts were elsewhere. His focus shifted to the silver dragon. The dragon hadn’t stopped watching him since the Eyes’ power had been stilled. It was waiting for something, but Ren was unsure what.
The dragon’s focus shifted. It’s eyes appeared clouded, as if the dragon itself were a twin, listening to its other half. Ren’s brow furrowed. The dragon had the same clouded look just before Aidan had merged with it. It was as if the dragon had a human understanding.
Then something strange happened. The dragon’s eyes faded to their true silver sheen. It refocused it gaze. Ren could almost hear the dragon’s unspoken plea.
Ren rose to his feet as a desperate hope rose within him. Was Aidan whole? Did Aidan have to merge to teach the dragon how to love? The dragon watched him with neither blue nor violet eyes, but silver.
An understanding began to take shape. Aidan was whole. She was waiting for him to help her re-form, but the dragon had an even greater purpose than Ren had first thought. Not only was the dragon a sign of magic’s return, it was carrying another. Like Aidan, someone else lived inside the dragon, someone who had brought it into the future, someone with blue eyes.
Ren looked down at the Silver Eye. Krov said it could create life. If it could create life, it could also rejoin life.
Ren brought to mind the day he merged Aidan’s body with her spirit. He relived each heartbeat, remembering her essence and her shape. When he was sure he had recalled every nuance, he glanced at Zorc. He couldn’t tell the wizard what he planned. Zorc may try to stop him.
Zorc and the others weren’t paying him any heed. They were chuckling at Morrus who was walking out of the water, almond skin glistening in the sun’s rays.
Ren put his hands on the Silver Eye. The dragon lowered its head as if to say it was ready. Ren rose above the internal elements until he reached the calm. He called upon the Silver Eye’s power. White light exploded from the crystal. Ren heard Zorc’s intake of breath but didn’t turn.
He felt the man first. His mien was powerful, so powerful Ren knew he was a wizard. Ren didn’t have to do more than call. The wizard’s essence seeped though the dragon’s skin like a mist and funneled through the Silver Eye. The mist careened out of the Eye and began to take shape.
The man’s curly brown hair stirred in the slight breeze. His eyes were as blue as the sky. He wore a long blue robe, belted at the waist with a silver cord. He nodded to Ren, but almost immediately his appearance began to change. His hair began to gray and his skin began to wrinkle. His eyes sent Ren a silent plea.
Hurry.
Ren turned back to the dragon and called Aidan. The dragon slouched forward as Aidan’s essence seeped from its skin. Because she possessed no magic both her spirit and body tried to dissipate with the wind, but Ren caught her before she was whisked away. Then slowly, carefully, he siphoned her essence through the Eye. When the mist reemerged on the other side, she began to take shape.
Within heartbeats Aidan stood before him, a faint silver gleam to her skin and hair.
Ren released his hold on the Eye and let go of the calm. As his emotions washed through him, instead of overwhelming him they were a mere trickle as Aidan stepped forward and took his hand.
“I didn’t know if you would remember my promise,” he said.
Aidan smiled. The slight silver tint to her skin made her appear as if she were riding the moonlight. “Faith is a powerful thing,” she said. “Your words were such a shock I immediately began to give myself away, but then I realized a profound truth.”
“If a doubt mars your soul,” Ren said, “you’ll give it fire.”
Aidan gave Ren a smile that took his breath away. “Faith is a powerful thing. It can damn you or it can raise you.”
“Ren.”
At the sound of his name, he felt his friends form a tight circle around him. Ren turned to the newcomer.
Although the man gazed at him with conviction, his skin pulsed with constant aging.
“I don’t have much time. You must hear what I have to say before I cannot say it.”
Aidan tightened her grip on Ren’s hand. The defenders closed the gap between them. Even Zorc stepped forward, as if protecting him from the newcomer’s words.
“The Eye of the Dragon is a gateway of sorts. I came through the Eye inside Similian to bring you a message. Now I need to tell you much more than I thought.”
Aidan stiffened at his side. “It’s over, Magnus, isn’t it?”
Magnus, the name sounded familiar. When Zorc drew in a sharp breath, Ren remembered where he had heard the name before. Magnus had been the first mage, the same mage who had sought the Red Eye when it had been stolen from the Oracle. He had lived before the Dark Ages.
Magnus’s uncanny blue eyes flickered to Aidan. “Oh no, my child. It has only just begun.”
THE END
Ren’s adventure continues in Book Three of the Oracle Series.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31