by Gwynn White
Wizard Vail’s suspicious nature flared like oil spilled on a fire at the sound of the woman’s scream, and when Christol flew off the rump of the horse he was supposed to be tied to his suspicions became irrefutable facts. What he didn’t understand was why Jogli was doing this. He always praised and rewarded him for a job well done, and only punished him so that he might learn to control his magic. The last thing Vail wanted was for Jogli to be captured by others, tortured into submission as he'd been and used until his magic was so depleted he was toss away like a useless and ragged garment.. His punishments were mild compared to what he’d experienced and he always healed him immediately afterwards. He just wanted the boy to be safe so he trained him the best way he knew how. That is why Jogli’s betrayal made him so confused. He wasn’t angry at first that would come later once he figured out why.
His suspicions began when Jogli chose to go through the Miaga Marsh. He'd warned the boy repeatedly to stay away from the marsh. That even he did not know what type of creature, thing or entity lived there. The wizard didn't think his command to come back to Marbeht immediately would make Jogli so foolish as to enter Miaga Marsh. No, there had to be some other reason, and now he thought he knew the reason. Jogli's allegiances belonged to another, now. He no longer commanded him. His anger simmered below his calm exterior and with a simple incantation, he accomplished what Jogli feared most.
Like the typical old hag she looked like, she actually rubbed her hands in glee as she watched the mountainside tragedies. Yet, it appeared her body sought more expression as she gorged on the fulfillment of her plans. She began to twirl her gowns ragged edges swirling up small dust storms beneath her feet. The bright green scales of the dragon magically chained to the edge of her lair were soon dust covered and it coughed irritated flames of fire into the sky above its ledge. Can't you keep it quiet in there? What is your problem, anyway?
Although the dragon spoke directly to her mind, she turned and answered him, "My plans are working exactly as I wanted them to. Soon all your kind including King Jespar and your Brood Queen, Abeata will bow before me and do my will.
NEVER! And, the chained dragon again tried to break his chains, but its magic failed as it always did. Maura held more magic than any witch or wizard Mithlonde had ever known. The dragon turned and spewed fire into her cave, but it only bounced of her shields hurting neither her nor the dragon.
She tilted her head sideways, one lip curled into a half-smile, and gave him a shrug, all of which said. "Well, what did you expect to happen?"
The dragon turned its back on her, curled its tail around his body and laid its head between its two front legs, brooding in morose silence, and imagining all the ways he would toast, roast, cook and eat the witch.
"Ellora, please…" Riesa begged, tears flowing, a waterfall of pain. The High Priestess wrapped her arms around her best friend and held her as she sobbed.
"There's nothing…"
"Don't tell me that. Don't you dare tell me that," Riesa screamed. "You serve the Goddess she can do anything. Make her heal him."
Christol finally reached them and gathered Stephye's broken body into his arms, holding him as he would a baby; the unshed tears in his eyes were more than Ellora could stand.
"I can't" she begged them to understand. "The Goddess only does what she wants when she wants. Please…"
Riesa and Christol just stared at her with tear-filled eyes.
"Don't you understand? I serve her. She doesn't serve me. Don't you think I loved him too, as much as I love both of you? Oh Goddess, why?" She shouted the last statement to the air above her head, and of course, there was no answer.
"See," Ellora, said, "see. This is why I want no part of her. She doesn't care for us. She has her own plans and doesn't care who gets hurt as long as she gets what she wants, and what that is I haven't a flaming clue."
Ellora unwrapped herself from Riesa's arms and walked over to Christol and Stephye's broken body, her shoulders shook with silent sobs which joined Riesa's flood of tears. Riesa's joined them and Ellora laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. Immediately the woman turned to her, with Christol's long arms embracing them all. The three standing bent, but not broken. "I will guide his spirit home." Ellora said at last.
"I will prepare a funeral pyre," said Christol, his chest still heaving with sobs.
"How…how are you going to light it in this snow?" Riesa asked.
"I can still do that," Ellora said, and her tone held the blackness of night, the stygian dark night of a soul whose hope for light in the future had finally died leaving behind only a starless emptiness.
Stephye's body lay on a small bed of twigs and bare branches, not nearly, enough for a proper funeral pyre, but on the bare hillside, Christol had been lucky to find as much as he did. Ellora wore neither her priestess gown nor headdress. She murmured neither invocation nor blessing. Lifting her hands, lighting shot forth igniting both the twigs and branches and Stephye's lifeless body. Christol and Riesa held each other crying softly. Ellora's face held a look of a hardened heart; one who had made her choice and would follow it to death if that was what was required.
The smell of burning meant filled the air and Jogli followed it blindly to it source, stumbling into Ellora who caught him at the last minute from falling into the flames saw his blinded eyes. "He knows," she said, her voice telling him it was not a question, but he answered anyway.
"Yes, and now I am as blind as I was when I lay in the gutters of Thonevrond."
"It matters not, we continue on."
"But he knows."
"Yes, but we know he knows so we will be prepared. He is no match of the Goddess's magic and this is what she wants."
"But my eyes?"
"I'm sorry Jogli; the Goddess appears not to care for those she uses. Perhaps Maura will have answers for us."
Chapter Twelve
They tied Jogli to the back of his horse afraid that without his vision he'd fall off and over a cliff. He'd told them just to follow the path upwards until the snow stopped. At that point they would see the castle and the armament surrounding the Halls of Marbeht, after that he'd no advice for them. Vail knew they were coming, they'd lost the advantage of surprise, but Ellora didn't appear worried.
"You realize that it will be just you and I trying to capture Vail, don't you?"
"Yes," Ellora answered, "but as you have seen for yourself what the Goddess want the Goddess gets, Christol. You should know that better than I do myself. You have paid the higher price for it.
Christol looked into Ellora's deep hazel eyes, which changed with her mood and the sunlight. Now they were dark, smoldering with frustration and anger; an anger he knew was not directed at him.
"No, Ellora, I haven't. You have and you know it. I've seen it. You never smile anymore; never laugh and I've never seen you cry so much for as long as I've known you."
Ellora bit her lip neither denying nor agreeing with Christol.
He continued, "And, you hate killing, and she is making you kill and will make you kill again."
These were the words that made the tears flow, her shoulders heaving. Her sobbing audible to the others and she tasted their salt on her lips. She reached in blind agony for Christol, and found him to be right beside her. She clung to him the way one would cling to a rope thrown to a person trapped at the bottom of a well. "I have to get out. I have to."
"I know, I know," he said stroking her head with his big calloused hands. Yet they held her as if he were holding a newborn babe. These hands birthed foals, healed sore withers and shoed ornery stallions. They were hands that would go to any length to protect the woman he loved from harm. Even when that woman insisted on stubbornly walking right into the most dangerous place in Mithlonde. "Ellora…"
"Don't say it Christol. I already know. Maura will want a price, but I am willing to pay anything to be free of the Goddess."
"What if the cost is too high or you can't pay the price, what then?"
"I'll f
ace that dragon when it flies in my path."
He blew out a sigh over the top of her head knowing there was nothing he could do or say to changer her mind. He changed the subject instead. "Any idea how we are getting in Marbeht?"
"No, I thought you had that all figured out."
"Uh, well, I though since you are in charge you had it all figured out."
That brought a bitter laugh through her tears. "I've never been in charge of this expedition from the first. She has so I guess she will show us what to do since Jogli can't."
"About that, what are we going to do with Jogli and Riesa? Riesa can't help us. She is…" He stopped, the fresh memory of his best friend's death still rocking him like a boat at sea.
Ellora took her turn at soothing the roiling emotions between them and surrounding them. "We always remember Stephye and his sense of humor, the way he panicked so easily and his love and devotion to us all."
She turned and placed a kiss on his cheek and again tasted salt tears, but they were not her own. "I know it doesn't help now, but someday it will help to know that he died serving and protecting us all. He lived to serve and love you and Riesa. His memory will never be forgotten, and when this is all over, we'll take his ashes to that meadow he wanted to buy and start a life with Riesa. We'll bury them and plant a rowan tree on top."
With her face so close to his she felt a small smile, turn up the corners of his lips. "He always did love the rowan berry pies my mom makes."
Ellora's laugh rang down the mountains. "Remember the pie eating contest when he ate so much he became ill and he swore on the Hem of the Goddess's Robes that he'd never touch another rowan berry." She laughed again and this time Christol joined her.
"I seem to remember he broke that oath on his very next visit."
"He certainly did, and lived to tell about it. Makes me wonder about this Goddess of ours." Her tone turned sober again, and she sighed deeply. "I guess it's time to get this over with."
"What are we going to do?"
"I guess the Goddess will show me what she wants when we get there." She shrugged, "Because if she doesn't there's an excellent chance we'll all become dragon bait."
Ellora needn't have worried. When they approached the back kitchen door, the Goddess assumed control. Ellora's hands lift and the power and light of lightening bolts shot out, blowing the door to kindling. Entering the kitchen, she remained unaffected by the appetizing smells of roasts, potatoes, puddings and more. She murmured to Riesa and Jogli to stay with the kitchen staff, and then turning toward the cook, spit turners, pot washers, pastry chef's and regular kitchen maids and staff, the Goddess ordered, "Protect them with your lives. See that no harm comes to them or their will be retribution on all of you."
The Goddess's voice sounded like one speaking through a hollowed gourd. It echoed round the room, harsh, demanding and cruel. It etched itself on the soul of every staff member making them realize the severity of their punishment if they failed.
Ellora turned to Christol, "This way. Guard my back while I make a frontal attack."
Christol did not respond to the Goddess who now controlled his lover. He simply did as she asked and followed her from the kitchen to the training rooms, through the library and finally to Vail's inner chambers. Her hands glowed with light so clear it appeared like the bluest of flames in a fire. Vail's guards fell before her, to her right, to her left and directly in front of her. She simply stepped over or on the bodies with no regard for the lives she'd taken. Christol stayed behind her watching her back, but she left no one alive to attack her from behind, leaving feeling both useless and in awe of her terrible powers.
Ellora paused, her eyes studying the doorway, analyzing it inch by inch, "He has set magical wards," she said, and this time it Ellora spoke. Her tears flowed freely as she looked around at the lives she had taken. She couldn't control her sobbing even when Christol pulled her tight against him she continued to sob.
"This isn't right. The Goddess heals not kills. Something is wrong," she said at last hiccupping the words through her tears.
Christol recognized another emotion in her voice: fear. When her sobbing finally stopped she said, "I can't undo the magic of these wards. My magic is healing magic, except when the Goddess takes control." Tears filled her eyes again, but she blocked the thoughts that brought them to life and continued, "We need Jogli."
"Can you face going back through there," he asked, pointing to the carnage the Goddess left in Ellora's wake.
"I have to. I have no choice. It makes no difference to her, how I feel. I must complete her mission and she wants Vail killed."
He spun Ellora so that her eyes were only on his. "I'm going first. You keep your eyes on the center of my back, okay?"
She nodded, understanding what he was doing and why. "I love you," she whispered from behind him.
"I know," he smiled back without turning around, and began the long trek through the blood-soaked halls of Marbeht. But even with her eyes squarely between his shoulder blades she felt the squish of organs beneath her feet, the copper smell of blood so thick in the air she could taste it, and the hem of her gown so wet with blood it dripped on her feet.
When at last they reached the kitchen, she striped away her gown, modesty be burnt in the goddess fires and donned the spit turner's jersey, short blouse and pants. Slipping off her soaking shoes, blood dripping all over the immaculate kitchen floor, much to the cook's dismay, Ellora also commandeered the poor boy's boots.
"Christol."
He understood, and flipped the boy a double-sided golden goddess coin. The spit turner bit it and then smile as if it was mid-winter gifting day. It was more money than he would make in two years as a spit turner, if Vail paid him, which he didn't. The boy ran off in his linen braies, linen to keep him cooler as he turned the spit, to find another pair of pants and a blouse because the spit must be turned no matter what the circumstances.
Jogli knew at once when he heard them arrive that they must need him to break the wards on Vail's inner chambers, and said so. "I can be of use to you, Mistress."
"Yes, we have need of you Jogli. Vail's chambers are warded with dark magic of which I have no knowledge or experience. Can you remove them?"
"Aye."
"Are you willing?"
"Aye, so long as you keep our original bargain."
"Never doubt that for a heartbeat, Jogli. I want to be free from her now more than ever."
Jogli ran his hands around the double doors to Vail's private chambers, never touching them but hovering just above them. Anyone watching, like Riesa and Christol, would never know that blindness also disabled the hunchback man. "The wards are strong and black. Ellora?"
"I'm here, Jogli. How can I help?"
"You can't, you need to stay back and let me work. The Goddess magic will interfere with the black magic, I cast."
"I'm not so sure about that," she muttered.
"What?" asked Jogli.
"Oh, um nothing, I just said sure I'll stay out of your way."
The three watched him in silence as he broke the wards casting spells, and muttering incantations which they could barely hear and which they didn't understand anyway. All three felt the waves of power crashing against the doors. It felt like the air before a storm full of charged electricity just waiting for permission to flash the skies full of lightening. Ellora fully expected the man's bushy hair to start standing on end. Instead, with each ward broken he became paler and paler. Even in the semi-darkness of the empty halls, his pallor looked like death walking,
It took hours as Jogli ran his hands around the rim of the double doors testing every inch for a ward visible or even hidden between other layers of magic. When he finally got to the center lock, he stopped. Swaying and leaning all his weight against the doors, he said, "This one is blood magic. It can only be removed in kind."
Ellora's face went as pale as Jogli's. "Is there no other way?"
"I am sorry Priestess, but blood magic needs b
lood to remove it. A kitchen partridge will do."
"I'll get it, said Christol. The big man sighed heavily as if defeated. "I can calm it for you so it won't be frightened."
"Christol, no!"
"Ellora, many of us will be required to kill before this is over. This is just the beginning. I will comfort her, give her visions of her chicks, she will never know what is coming."
Ellora turned away as did Riesa, the pair comforting each other. Riesa comforting Ellora for her loss of innocence and nativity and Ellora comforting Riesa for the loss of her lover, companion and fiancé. They remained huddled together, their backs to the chamber doors until, at last, Christol said, "It's over."
They turned back toward the chamber doors, now standing wide open, just as Jogli collapsed. Ellora knew immediately what he needed. The magic had depleted Jogli physically and mentally. "Run to the kitchen, bring back some warm broth and tea with sweet sap, lots of it. Now, go."
The high priestess didn't direct her orders to anyone in particular so both Riesa and Christol went charging back through the wreckage and gore to get what she needed. After they left, she looked around Vail's inner chambers and blew out a weary breath. Vail had thoroughly sacked by the room. Knowing they were coming, he had taken with him every magical object and spell he owned. He was not here, and neither was anything of value to her or the Goddess.
She knew what this meant. They would have to continue to pursue him wherever he went. The Goddess would grant her no peace until Vail paid for his crimes to Mithlonde and all its creatures. Ellora shook her head in confusion. How could the Goddess place so much value on her creations that she would track a villain all over her lands, killing and maiming others in the process, just to get her way? It made no sense. Why kill to stop killing?
