“You’re not alone, Rentu,” Alexander said. “We’ll fight this darkness with you.”
“This I have seen as well. We shared a dream once. We saw a terrible battle fought where the land meets the water. That dream is gone. Instead, I see a place that I am unfamiliar with, except that it’s here in our forest. How could that be, Alexander? I know this forest well, and yet I have never seen this place.”
“I don’t know. Can you describe it to me?”
“It is a level field strewn with rocks. There are no trees, no grass, no life—just dirt and stone. On one side there is a door to the darkness. On the other side there is a great light, but it is not shining. Four armies meet in this place. Their battle shakes the world, but I see many outcomes and I do not know which one is true.”
Alexander considered his words carefully. Rentu lived a primitive life, but Alexander knew from personal experience that his dreams offered a glimpse into the future.
“There will be a battle here,” Alexander said. “But it will probably be fought in the mountains where the enemy is camped.”
Rentu shook his head, dismissing Alexander’s assertion without comment.
“Perry tells me you’ve made contact with a man named Trajan,” Alexander said.
“Yes. His mind burns with madness.”
“Can you find him?”
“Perhaps.”
“Will you deliver a message for me?”
“I fear him,” Rentu said without looking away from the fire. “I cannot see him in my dreams. I do not know his heart.”
Alexander nodded. “The bone club he carries protects him from your dreams and from my sight. As for his heart, he was once a good man but he’s been driven mad. I believe he came here to destroy the doorway to the darkness.”
Rentu stared silently into the fire for several minutes. Alexander let him think.
“What message?” he finally asked.
“I want to offer him an alliance.”
Rentu nodded. “I will try.”
“Thank you, Rentu.”
“There is something else you should know. Your woman will decide the future.”
A thrill of fear coursed through Alexander.
“How?” was all he could manage to whisper.
Rentu shook his head slowly, looking up and holding Alexander’s eyes.
“Light and darkness fight within her.”
“Tell me what you’ve seen.”
“Many things. Many futures. In some dreams she is filled with darkness. It pours out of her like a flood. None can stand before it. In others she is killed. The battle ends in slaughter but nothing is decided. In still others, her light banishes the darkness. I do not know which future will come to pass.”
Alexander felt paralyzed by fear and uncertainty. All of his worry and angst over Isabel’s plight came crashing down on him at once. He lost focus and slammed back into his body. His heart was hammering in his chest and his palms were slick with sweat. He put his face in his hands, struggling to hold back tears.
Chapter 25
“Alex, what’s wrong?” Abigail asked urgently. She was sitting at the table in the Wizard’s Den with Jack, Anja, and Magda. Jataan stood by the open door, ever vigilant.
Alexander shook his head, swallowing the lump in his throat and wiping his eyes before any tears spilled forth.
“Just worried about Isabel,” he managed.
“Is she all right? Did you see her?” Abigail asked.
He nodded, his stomach in a knot.
“She’s doing about as well as can be expected, considering.”
“Tell us,” Abigail said.
He sat silently for a moment, marshaling his courage and resolve, then got up stiffly from his magic circle and sat down at the table. With an effort of will, he tried to detach from his emotions, to step back from his feelings so that he could report on all that had transpired without losing his composure. He talked for several minutes, leaving nothing out. As he spoke, his emotions receded. New questions presented themselves. By the time he finished, he was already thinking about the places and people he would visit next. He had a long list when he’d sat down. Rentu had been just over halfway down that list. There was still so much more to do.
When he stopped talking, his friends fell silent.
“If the future will be decided by Isabel’s heart, then I have great hope for the best of outcomes,” Magda said.
“Me too,” Abigail said.
“She’s holding on by a thread,” Alexander said. “And I keep finding things that I have to do that are more important than rescuing her.” He felt a sick feeling well up in him. Nothing was more important to him than she was, and yet, he’d let her languish in Phane’s clutches.
“Nonsense,” Jack said. “You’ve made the necessary decision at every turn. What’s more, you know it, and so does she.”
“He’s right,” Abigail said. “And you’re not giving her enough credit. She’ll hold on for as long as it takes.”
“I hope you’re right,” he whispered, his gaze scanning the room aimlessly and falling on his strongbox. He frowned, remembering the box he’d recovered from Elred Rake, the one that had been stolen from the third Bloodvault. Renewed curiosity momentarily displaced his worry. What gift had Barnabas Cedric left for him that was so valuable that it was stored inside a box protected by a blood lock which was in turn stored inside a Bloodvault?
He got up and retrieved the box, placing it on the table before him.
“What’s that?” Abigail asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied, trying to take his mind off his worries and happy to have such a worthy distraction. “It was in the third Bloodvault along with Cedric’s war staff.”
“Well … why haven’t you opened it yet?” Abigail asked, leaning forward with interest.
“I’ve had other things on my mind,” he said, with a shrug. “Honestly, I forgot all about it the moment I learned that Zuhl’s army had invaded Fellenden again.”
“So, open it already,” Abigail said.
“Yeah, open it,” Anja echoed.
He nodded, closing the door to his Wizard’s Den with a gesture before he pricked his finger with the tip of Demonrend and squeezed a drop of blood onto his fingertip. After pressing the blood onto the locking mechanism, a faint tingle spread into his hand and up his arm, followed by a momentary buzzing in his head and a click as the lock popped open. He held his breath and carefully lifted the lid.
His eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. He sat back in his chair, staring in disbelief at the contents. Chloe buzzed into a ball of light, spinning into the air until she was stopped by the ceiling. She started singing in a high lilting voice, the words in a language that Alexander had never heard as she began flying in an orbit over his head.
“Well, what is it?” Abigail asked, leaning past Jack to see inside the box.
“Dear Maker,” was all Alexander could manage to whisper.
Anja got up and hurried around the table to look in the box, frowning when she saw the contents.
“They look like oversized acorns,” she said. “Why would Mage Cedric leave you nuts?”
“These acorns are from the vitalwood,” Alexander said with a mixture of hope and disbelief. The colors were unmistakable: vibrant, expansive, and filled with life and light. Of all of Mage Cedric’s gifts, this was the most profound. It wouldn’t help Alexander win the war, but these acorns held the promise of a world without war, a world where life was revered and cherished, where people of conscience had real, tangible proof of the Maker’s love, where the lies told by evil people would fall on deaf ears and be met with nothing but laughter and ridicule.
If Alexander could resurrect the vitalwood forests, they would serve as a conduit through which the Maker’s light could shine into the hearts and minds of men, reminding them of their true nature.
“Such a thing is beyond priceless,” Magda said.
All of his friends, even Jataan, were
standing behind him looking in wonder at the three acorns.
“I will never forget how it felt to stand in the presence of the vitalwood,” Jack said. “This could tip the balance of power in the world toward the light for all time.”
“Then our enemies will surely try to destroy them,” Jataan said, bringing them all back to the present moment. “You were wise to close the door before you opened that box.”
“He’s right,” Jack said. “Phane, Zuhl, the shades—none of them could succeed in a world filled with vitalwood trees. No one would believe anything they said.”
Alexander gently closed the lid. A muffled click told him that it was locked again. “Huh,” he said, trying, unsuccessfully, to lift the lid again. “I guess I understand why Cedric put them in this box. I don’t think they can be detected when it’s locked.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” Magda said, beginning to whisper arcane words under her breath. A few moments later, after her aura swelled with power, she smiled, nodding to herself. “They are beyond my magic. I believe they will remain hidden for as long as they remain within this box.”
“Good,” Alexander said, taking it to his strongbox and locking it inside. He shook his head at the frightful power contained within the steel locker. Most of the items were dark and evil, but the power of the vitalwood acorns surpassed them all. “Let’s keep this a secret … from everybody for the time being.”
His friends all nodded.
“What are you going to do with them?” Anja asked.
“Off the top of my head, I think we should ask Ilona if we can plant them in the Valley of the Fairy Queen. She’d be the best caretaker we can find and she could keep them secret until they grow large enough to produce acorns of their own.”
Chloe laughed. “My mother will be elated. When can we leave?”
Alexander chuckled. “We have a war to win first, Little One. As long as our enemies have power, they’ll be a threat to anything this precious. Bringing the vitalwood back to the Seven Isles will be the most important thing we ever do. We can’t risk failure in this, not for anything.”
Magda smiled wistfully. “I’ve often wondered if those who lived through momentous events in history realized that their deeds would echo into the future, that others, ages hence, would read of their struggles and imagine what it was like to live during those times. As trying as this past year has been, I wouldn’t trade one second of it if it meant that I would have to miss this moment.”
“Well said. I might even have to quote you,” Jack said.
“I needed that,” Alexander said.
“What?” Anja asked.
“Hope,” Alexander said with a smile, returning to his magic circle and sitting back down to meditate. He opened the door as he closed his eyes.
He slipped into the firmament and thought of Torin and found him in one of the port cities on northern Ithilian, organizing the loading of soldiers and supplies into a fleet of ships. There were a few warships, but the majority were merchant ships pressed into service as troop transports. Torin stood on the docks under a hanging lantern, flipping through a sheaf of papers.
Alexander appeared just as a young man trotted up, stopping in his tracks, eyes wide and mouth agape when Alexander materialized out of thin air.
“Hello, Torin.”
“Lord Reishi, you’re an unexpected, but welcome surprise.”
The young man looked from one to the other, blinking quickly.
“What is it?” Torin asked him, a hint of exasperation in his voice.
“Captain Vance says he can’t leave port until his mainsail is replaced.”
Torin shook his head. “Tell the captain that he will mend his sail and put to sea at dawn as planned.”
The young man hesitated until Torin gave him a withering glare. He nodded quickly and raced off into the chaos.
“I apologize for the distraction, Lord Reishi.”
“Let me guess, the captain thinks he can shake you down for a new sail.”
“He’s not the first to try,” Torin said. “It seems the greater our need, the more they demand.”
“It’s not surprising,” Alexander said. “I’ve come to tell you that Anatoly is moving the people from Fellenden City through Fool’s Gap to Shoalhaven. He thinks he can hold the enemy in the gap while the people get through.”
Torin closed his eyes for a moment. “He must be desperate.”
“He is. Ten-legions-against-two desperate. I’m sending him a flight of Sky Knights and a fleet out of Southport, but that won’t be enough.”
“It might be enough to buy us some time,” Torin said. “If I can land my troops at Shoalhaven, I can get some of the refugees out by sea.”
“That was my hope as well,” Alexander said, pausing for a moment. “I don’t have the power to stop Zuhl’s army. I may be able to do significant damage to the main force, but Peti has sent twenty legions to Irondale and another ten to pillage central Fellenden. The best we can hope for at the moment is to keep them contained.”
“So Fellenden is lost then,” Torin said, swallowing a lump in his throat.
“I’m sorry, Torin. Save as many lives as you can. If I can do more, I will.”
Torin nodded, looking down at the dock.
“Lacy is alive, but Phane still has her. They’re headed for the Reishi Isle right now,” Alexander said, answering his unasked question.
“The Nether Gate? Did she give him the keystone?” Torin asked.
“No, he found another way.”
“Can you stop him?”
“I don’t know, but I’m not going to let him have it without a fight.”
Torin smiled wryly. “I guess you have your hands full, too.”
“More than I’d like,” Alexander said, fading from sight.
He thought of Conner and found him in the Ironwood Forest with a force of only thirty men. Alexander appeared in front of him.
“Where’s the army?” he asked.
Conner looked up, blinking a few times.
“General Kern is leading them south.”
Mage Dax and Wizard Sark sat around the fire, both looking a bit sheepish when they saw Alexander.
“Why aren’t you leading them? Abigail put you in charge.”
“I have to save my father,” Conner said. His colors screamed in conflict.
“No, you have to lead the army south. Anatoly is counting on your help. He can’t hold out for very long without your forces.”
“Kern has his orders. There’s nothing I can do that he can’t.”
“Nonsense,” Alexander said. “Return to your army and leave the Sin’Rath to the Coven. They’re the only ones that have a chance against Peti.”
“He’s my father,” Conner said. “I won’t leave him to the enemy.”
“This is folly, Conner. If you do this, you’ll be lost as well. Worse, she’ll have two more wizards under her spell.” Alexander gestured to Dax and Sark.
“I have to do something,” Conner said, pleadingly.
“Yes, you do. You have to return to the army and lead them against the ten legions pursuing the people of Fellenden.”
Conner looked like he was about to burst. The conflict in his colors was so bright, Alexander wondered that no one else could see it.
“He would come for me,” Conner whispered.
“Not if he knew it wouldn’t do any good,” Alexander countered. “I know Abel well enough to know that he’s a careful and thoughtful man. When Evelyn was a hostage, he didn’t go running off to save her. Not because he didn’t love her, but because he knew his efforts would have failed and just made things worse in the bargain. And that’s exactly what will happen if you do this … you will fail and the Sin’Rath will be more powerful for it.”
“How can I live with myself if I abandon him?”
Alexander regarded him for several moments, trying to formulate an argument that would be persuasive to the young prince.
“Do you trust Abigail?
”
Conner looked a bit confused, more from the abrupt change of subject than anything else. Finally he said, “Of course.”
“She made a bargain with a dragon. After we help this dragon free her mate, she’ll help us kill Zuhl and the Sin’Rath. We aren’t abandoning Abel. Peti knows his value; she won’t harm him.
“I know you want to save your father, but that task is not for you to do. Your duty is to lead the army south with all possible speed and defend the people of Fellenden.”
He looked lost, his spirit momentarily broken by the conflict raging within him. Shaking his head, he put his face in his hands.
“Will you do your duty, Conner?” Alexander asked after a few moments.
He hesitated, still torn, but nodded.
Alexander turned to Dax and Sark.
“How’s the army?”
“Worn out and strung out,” Dax said. “The Ironwood is thick and difficult to traverse. We’re moving slowly and I fear we’re losing men in the trees.”
“Any sign of pursuit?”
“Thankfully, no,” Sark said. “Our scouts tell us that twenty legions have taken Irondale and are beginning to rebuild the shipyards.”
“Huh,” Alexander said. “So the witch has adopted Zuhl’s strategy.”
“It would seem so,” Dax said. “While tragic for Fellenden, it does give us some time.”
Conner looked up, his eyes filled with worry and brimming with tears.
“We’ll get Abel back,” Alexander said.
He nodded, guilt shining brightly in his colors.
“There’s nothing you can do to help him, Conner. Focus on the people you can help.”
“How do you do it?” Conner asked. “How do you make the decisions you do knowing that your choices might hurt the ones you love?”
Alexander hesitated, fresh concern for Isabel welling up within him, followed quickly by renewed guilt.
“I remember a lesson my father taught me a long time ago: Be driven by emotion, but ruled by reason. You’re allowing emotion to rule you. Step back from your emotions and think. You can’t beat the Sin’Rath and neither can I, but Abigail and the Coven can, especially with the help of a couple of dragons. Leave that to them. Focus your efforts on the enemy you can defeat.”
Sovereign of the Seven Isles 7: Reishi Adept Page 29
