Darwin advanced, jabbing his sword tip at Gard’s armored throat. His sword, too, met resistance inches from the weakest point of the plate armor at the big man’s neck. Fine sparks of molten white bloomed with every blow landed. Darwin was landing blow after blow, snaking through Gard’s slower parries; if not for the bigger man’s barrier, he would have sustained heavy damage. Jagged cracks branched out from Gard’s neck, racing upward along an unseen sphere to vanish behind the top of his head. Vision impaired, Gard panicked, swinging his brutal axe back and forth with all his considerable might, forcing Darwin back a step, and then two. Darwin’s shield faded then brightened as his connection to the Flow lapsed. Grinning maliciously, Gard batted Darwin’s sword to the side, then lunged, throwing his bulk at the smaller man.
No! Crystalyn screamed into the recesses of her mind.
Do’brieni? Broth’s anguished query joined with her scream.
His movements quick and fluid, Darwin shifted to the side, chopping at the wrist, which gripped the onyx axe.
The axe clanged against the cobblestone, loud and surreal in the sudden silence. Gard’s right wrist hung limp at a weird angle under his gauntlet. He left his useless palm pointing to the ground, bringing his other arm from behind his back. “You’ll not win this easily!” Gard bellowed. Dark flames shot forth, enveloping Darwin in a black inferno at close range.
Nooooo!
I am coming, Do’brieni!
Darwin stepped out of the debris of the onslaught, his left arm raised. A ball of black flame rocketed from Darwin’s hand, burning through Gard’s barrier and exploding inside, turning the inside of the barrier an oily black. The blackened barrier toppled to the ground. The only part recognizable—Gard’s free hand—convulsed once then went still.
Crystalyn was stunned. Just like that, it was over. The challenge met. Darwin was alive. It’s okay now, Broth. I am well.
Relief flowed through the link in waves. I still have some distance yet to reach you.
No, please return to Jade. She needs watching over.
Provided you are certain of your own safety, I will do as you wish.
I’m certain. Take care of her for me, please!
I will, my Do’brieni.
Irrationally, Crystalyn felt anger toward the corpse for putting Darwin in harm’s way, for attempting to kill him. But a closer look at the pile made her realize Gard’s personal barrier had dissipated after the ball of black flame struck—as it should have since Gard still had his weapon shield installed. Darwin must have switched his when his barrier dimmed. Interesting to her, it hadn’t been instantaneous; the switch was noticeable to someone keeping a close watch. Grotesquely, Gard had burst inside the unnatural container. Nauseous, Crystalyn turned away from the steaming lump to find Lord Charn beside her, his horned helm tilted her direction. She was surprised. He’d maintained his distance after her reunion with Jade.
“Your Darwin is a true champion of the Dark Dais, but you know this now. To lose is to die. Can you still hold him in high regard knowing he is subject to any who wish to challenge? Have you prepared for the eventuality that even the mighty Darkwind will fall?” he asked his pleasant voice soft.
“I am not certain I know what you are referring to when you say ‘my Darwin,’ my lord,” Crystalyn said. “I can assure you no mention of future plans has been the topic of our discussions.”
Lord Charn laughed with some mirth. “Well answered, Crystalyn. Tell me, what do you think of our little succession custom here?”
“I’ll have to go with the obvious: It’s barbaric.”
Lord Charn chuckled, but then his voice took on a serious tone. “Indeed it is. I am not surprised you view it as such. Come, walk with me, Darwin has monopolized your company from the start.”
Crystalyn matched the Dark Lord’s pace as he made his way around the milling crowd, most attempting to get out of the way when they noticed him. Lord Charn strode as if he cared nothing for what happened around him. The box barrier was gone and the four black robes already dispersed. Raised to protect bystanders from errant energy flung from either party, the box raising had ended before full installation from the corpse’s premature attack, which likely made it easier to take down.
Darwin smiled as they strolled past him, but continued speaking with a group of armored men she’d never met. Crystalyn smiled back hesitantly, avoiding looking overly long at the lump drug away behind him. This citadel, this world was proving to be violent. With a casualness she found disconcerting, a man’s life ended. It shouldn’t have bothered her, the man had attempted to slay her man, but it did. Perhaps it was time to seek a way home. Now, if she could just get her Darwin to go with her.
ANOMALY
The area Lord Charn led them to Crystalyn thought of as the Citadel’s left wing. It was one of those off-limit places to them, so she was surprised for a fourth time today. The first had been the challenge Darwin had her attend, with the second immediately after when Lord Charn had taken her away. The third and most puzzling was when he stopped by their chambers and collected Jade. He’d kept his silence afterward, saying only he had something he wanted them to see.
Crystalyn looked at Jade. Her younger sister’s green eyes were round with wonder, looking much like her own, she suspected. Was he going to ask her to make a choice on living here at the Citadel with him? Crystalyn had considered it. She’d been leaning toward staying, until witnessing the challenge today. Did she really want to subject Jade to this bloody environment? How could she leave Darwin now that it was going so well? How could she leave dad with his weak heart and stay here?
Yet she and Jade would want for little here. If she were to marry someone like Darwin, for instance, she’d acquire duties running a noble house while he oversaw a garrison. Would it really be so bad? She’d mulled over the same set of questions for so many days, but she was no closer to resolving them than she had been at the start. Now would be a good time for her meds, but she hadn’t thought to grab them when they’d collected Jade.
Rounding a corner of the east wing hall, Lord Charn halted at a stone railing installed between the great black pillars, chest high. Leaning on the rail, Crystalyn gaped at different levels of the Citadel carved from the mountain and open on one side to a great chasm dropping away into darkness. Each level had thin, but sturdy iron railing pinned to the stone like the one on their side of the chasm, the one she leaned upon now. The iron rails kept the rows of iron beds from slipping off the edge of each level as red and brown robes moved busily throughout the rooms. The smell of blood drifted heavy in the air.
Crystalyn glanced at their host, raising an eyebrow.
“I did not think to trouble you with our trials, but you should be aware of the ugliness war brings. Those of us left here in the Dark Citadel—those that think as I do—wish for this to end. I have desired this one thing for hundreds of years. What you see there, across the Gap of Thundering Darkness is the infirmary. Sadly, over the past one hundred years it has expanded to consume an entire wing, where one or two floors sufficed in the past. I cannot stomach such suffering and wish it finished. I am but a gust of breath away from convincing some of those that lead in the White Lands into treaty negotiations bound with the Flow. At the very least, scaling the battles frequency back—I have considered proposing one season of war, two without. Yet I no longer believe I can, or should, accomplish this alone—” he said, trailing off as if speaking to himself.
Crystalyn shot a glance at Jade. Jade spread her hands wide, having no idea what wanted either. Crystalyn thought about asking him, but opted to be patient instead. After all, they were here by his choosing.
After a while, Lord Charn stirred. “Indulge me for a tiny bit of history. Do either of you know anything regarding the codexes?”
Jade spoke first. “I have read a limited amount of the Surbon Codex and perused a paragraph or two of the Virun codex. It is the same case with the AM Edicts.”
Lord Charn’s helm swung toward her.
“You surprise me. Your knowledge is advanced for one not long on this world.”
“I’ve heard mention of the Surbon Codex with a passing mention of the Virun Codex, but nothing about the AM Edicts,” Crystalyn said, recalling the strange appearance of the tapestry in Durandas’ quarters.
Lord Charn’s helm shifted to include Crystalyn in his field of vision. The dark-armored man’s attention was always intimidating. Crystalyn felt Jade’s hand in her own, and gave it a gentle squeeze. The immediate answering squeeze made her feel bolder. Dad always said together they were stronger; together they would prevail. Now she had an inkling of what he meant, and she missed him. “As I should’ve mentioned, you both continue to surprise me with your knowledge. I am uncertain how much you’ve gleaned, so I will ask for indulgence should I touch on subjects already familiar to you. The AM Edicts—the Aftermath Edicts—as they are known to the scholarly—were written after a great war, when this planet was younger, back when it was known as planet Earth—”
“Wait! Astura went by a different name?” Crystalyn asked. “Why would you change an entire planet’s name?”
Lord Charn hesitated for a long moment. A deep sigh vented from his helm. He continued. “Our planet was made nearly uninhabitable after the war. Only a single island named Astura in ancient times remained with a river flowing through it. Even the island and the river were not completely unaffected by the war, but they provided habitation. Humans discovered the Flow there then, or it was always there and the knowledge required to access it only occurred with humanities last hope for survival. No one can say. After the Flow enabled the fledgling Users to clean the air we now breathe, most left the island. Separating into two factions based on their affinity with the Flow, either dark or light, they worked to make the planet habitable. Each side believed they had the better vision to accomplish it. War broke out again. Seeing their work destroyed, they penned the Aftermath Edict. The edicts permit warfare without destroying our habitation beyond irreparable harm. They have held for the most part throughout our long history. Any ruler not abiding by it faces annihilation by the rest.”
Lord Charn paused, letting his words penetrate. Crystalyn appreciated the respite as she grappled with the enormity of it all.
“The Surbon and the Virun Codexes appeared in written form much later. Each is infuriatingly vague. No one I am aware of knows for certain when, or even where they originated from,” Lord Charn continued. “Legend has it that scholars woke up one morning to discover the Codexes added to every major archive overnight.”
Lord Charn spoke softly, his pleasant baritone accentuating the eeriness of his story. He spoke with a distinction any King’s Administration professor would kill to mimic, drawing her into the narrative and carrying her along with his tonal inflections. The history of his words made her thirst for knowledge, as it always had. How old was Astura? How long had the two sides been at war? What could possibly be worth warring over?
“The two Codexes are vastly different from each other from many aspects, but there are some points they both agree upon without deviation. Each corroborates that a single symbolic User will decide the fate upon which this world hinges, and that the outcome may have influence from an anomaly. Until you arrived, Crystalyn, no one knew precisely what a symbolic User was, though there were many hypotheses. Knowing this makes it easier to ask what I must of you, but even so, I am reluctant.”
Well, here it comes, Crystalyn thought.
“As I mentioned when convincing you to come with me, I wish for you to join me, both of you. Help me put an end to this ugly war, to stop the persecution instigated by the White Lands. You must know by now that we are not the monsters they claim we are,” Lord Charn said, his words made all the stronger by the moans and uncontrolled weeping echoing from above and below. Crystalyn’s heart wrenched. She wanted to go to them. Her healing would be of great use.
“What about flickers? How can you deny those…things are not monstrous?” Jade asked, her voice cracking at the end. Jade’s description of the creatures was still muddled in Crystalyn’s mind. She had trouble picturing them, though they sounded horrible.
Lord Charn waited a beat to answer. “I will admit there are some…beings born in the darkness of this place. Most have succumbed to the control of man. Some we have learned to coexist with, some of the powerful darker ones, we have learned to avoid altogether.”
Jade tensed. “But, don’t you people turn the flickers loose at night to consume the souls of prisoners captured in this war, to swell their ranks, to…to…feed them?” The horror of her words made her voice soft. Crystalyn gave her hand another squeeze.
How would you know of these things?” Lord Charn asked his voice much louder than before. Taking a deep breath, he went on. “It does not matter. What you speak of is true, or at least it used to be. Recently, I’ve convinced the Obsidian Table to forego this practice. The flickers have been contained elsewhere for a time.”
Crystalyn wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that. “What does that mean?”
“They shall not be used unless the war slips too far from our favor. I must apologize. It was the best concession I could get from the Obsidian Table.”
“What is the Obsidian Table? I thought you ruled supreme here,” Crystalyn asked. It was odd. Darwin had never mentioned it.
“It is a mix of our war generals and the most powerful Users who govern the Citadel. Originally established to oversee the progress of the war, it has devolved into a deadly game of politics. Your Darwin sits high within it, providing me with information while working to keep the Table focused on what is truly important. Unfortunately, many on the Obsidian Table now control over half the regiments, which has given them the idea to become a ruling class of their own. I have not allowed it, though I cannot hold them at bay much longer. One of the first things the Reformed did, as they call themselves, was to install the flickers ‘for protection.’ It has taken me nearly two seasons to wrest the concession from them to contain them elsewhere. Yet I did not bring you here to talk about the trials of the past, or the politics within my citadel. I am here to ask for assistance from both of you, as you have likely conjectured.”
Jade spoke. “There’s something I don’t understand. How could I help you? I can see you wanting Crystalyn, but I can’t do anything. I don’t even know how to use a sword, nor do I want to.”
“It is not for what you can do, Jade,” Lord Charn said, his deep voice soft. “It is for what you are, and for what you may yet be. I have studied the scrolls for many seasons— longer than you have lived—yet I only now have come to a stunning conclusion since the two of you arrived on Astura: I believe you are the anomaly mentioned in the cryptic Codexes.”
Crystalyn exchanged a look with her sister, questions arising in her mind. How could Jade be an anomaly? What did that even mean? And, what did Lord Charn want with said anomaly? She was beginning to feel light-headed, either from the smell of the infirmary, or from the huge revelations Lord Charn had dropped on them. She wasn’t quite sure which. “Well, thank you Lord Charn for being so candid, though you’ve only added questions to those already clamoring in my mind,” she said, gazing up at the one responsible for bringing her sister to her and wondering anew about his motives. What did the person under all that massive armor really look like? Could he be trusted? Stop it! Crystalyn admonished herself. After all the things Lord Charn had done for them, she should be able to trust him.
But she didn’t, not yet.
“I am aware, my words have given you both a lot to think about,” Lord Charn said. “Please give my offer careful consideration. There is no haste at this time; there are a few days still. The Dark Citadel and I can be of great use to you: your every want shall happen with alacrity, more so if we put an end to this ugly war. Together we can, I am certain. For now you two have much to discuss; can you find your way to your chambers unescorted?”
Crystalyn held back a frown. She still had a thousand questions. “Finding
our chambers won’t be a problem,” she said, suddenly realizing what he had offered. No guards would be trailing behind.
“That is well. I have pressing matters to attend to now. I dismissed my own guards at the courtyard. You will have none on the way back, yet you should be safe enough. I know your power. Join me for dinner two days hence, both of you, when you have arrived at a decision. Good day to you both.” Turning his back to them, he strode away.
“Good day to you, my lord,” they replied in unison. Whether he heard them or not, Crystalyn couldn’t really say. “Come on, this place is giving me a nauseous headache. As he said, we have some things to discuss. There’s greater security when we walk,” Crystalyn said, though it sounded false in her ears. Who knew what kind of magical listening devices were active in a citadel of Dark Users?
*****
Putting the sounds of suffering and dying behind her, Crystalyn strode in the opposite direction Lord Charn had taken. They passed through two narrow hallways before Jade let go of her hand. Crystalyn was reluctant to disengage. The warmth of Jade’s hand was a great comfort. Dad was right. They were stronger together.
Crystalyn had anxiety. Should they stay or should they continue with the search for a way home? She didn’t have the faintest idea where to go next looking for a sapphire gateway similar to the one she’d unintentionally activated to bring them here. She wasn’t even certain she could activate a set a second time. Lord Charn’s offer was sound. Everything they could possibly want handed to them, and she’d get to see Darwin Darkwind on a regular basis.
The downside was that she’d have to assist with ending the war somehow. Of course, she wanted to see the war end, but how was she supposed to do that, exactly? Dark, enigmatic, Lord Charn had failed to mention how. Did he want her to kill for him? Could she bring herself to do it? She’d have to answer that provocative question before making any kind of decision. There was danger here, some very strong danger, she believed Jade about that. Lord Charn hadn’t wanted to admit it, though she found it hard to blame him. Obviously, he didn’t want to frighten them off. His offer seemed heartfelt, his reasoning compelling. Who wouldn’t want to end a hundred-season war?
Beyond the Sapphire Gate: Epic Fantasy-Some Magic Should Remain Untouched (The Flow of Power Book 1) Page 46
