After a startled blink, Mort nodded. “I will.” His gaze touched on Alrick before settling back on Carly.
He sighed. “As you know, in this time in Rune the Fae have grown complacent. Content to play and eat, refusing to have much to do with humankind.”
“There’s a reason for that.” Alrick interrupted. “Mankind believes in their machines rather than magic. This is why the veil between our worlds has grown thicker.”
“The same veil you say the Warlord tore down?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t understand why there’s a veil at all?” Carly asked.
“To make it more difficult to cross,” the Mage answered. “The Fae have willed it so, to keep the worlds separate.”
“How does this relate to the Warlord?” Alrick wanted to know.
“I’m getting to that. Not far in the future, the Warlord will be born a half-ling.”
“Half-ling?”
“Yes. Conceived by a human father and a Fae mother. Leaving her son with his father in the mortal world, the Fae mother crossed the veil from time to time to visit from Rune. But, as the veil thickened and the half-ling child grew older, his mother came less and less frequently.”
“He missed his mother,” Carly said, a note of sympathy in her voice. “Poor thing.”
Alrick growled. “Let the Mage finish.”
Clearing his throat, Mort bobbed his head. “Yes, he missed his mother. Yet even as a boy, he had strong magical ability. He decided to use this to make humans recognize the Fae. His dream, his personal mission, was for the two races to live in peace. He desired one world, not separate, but together. He decided to tear down the veil, believing if he succeeded, his mother would visit more often.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Carly looked from one to the other. “Actually, that seems like a good idea to me.” “Does it? Many have dreamt of this. In the past, long, long ago, one man did such a thing, and our people lived in harmony with yours – for awhile.”
“Camelot,” Alrick said, familiar with the tale.
“King Arthur?” Carly frowned. “Most people think he’s a myth.”
“Most people believe the Fae to be a myth also,” the Mage reminded.
“True,” she conceded the point. “You’ve told us before he succeeded in tearing down the veil, but not that he wasn’t always such a bad-ass. You never elaborated.”
“The Warlord had good intentions at first. He was actually a light in the growing darkness of our world. His church was huge. I myself once admired him.”
“Church?”
“Yes. As his power grew, he began to attract followers. Both human and Fae, as well as other half-lings. He decided to form a church. They called themselves The Others.”
“That sounds sort of nice. So what went wrong?”
“Like most men of vision, he inspired fear and hatred. Men began to gather against him. Some of the other churches, fearing the size of his, spoke out. They claimed the Fae were actually demons, that magic was wicked.”
“Exactly like the human dark ages,” Alrick pointed out. “History repeats itself.”
“That still doesn’t explain what turned him bad. So he faced opposition. That’s understandable. But what happened to make a good man evil?”
“He had a family. Human wife, two daughters, a son.”
“Had?”
“Had. Lovely woman, beautiful, kind, and gentle. He was happy. A good man.”
“Then something happened to them.” Carly moved restlessly on Merry’s back, causing the horse to turn her head to look at her. “Someone harmed his family, right?”
“The Others numbered so many, the other churches banded together to form a new, single church of their own. Most of the old churches put aside their differences and joined. By doing this, they had as many followers as The Others. In this new church, they named the Fae as demons.”
Alrick closed his eyes. He saw where this was going. So apparently, did Carly. She looked sick.
“This church grew phenomenally,” Mort continued. “And as the Warlord’s years of work unraveled, he was named Satan by these men. Anything bad that happened in the world was blamed on magic, on the Fae. If a jetliner crashed, the Fae caused it. An explosion in the middle-east? Not terrorists, but Fae. Even the FBI and CIA began to watch them. Panic and paranoia set in. The masses screamed for a solution, to be free from the magical threat they believed hung over their heads. Congress got together, the UN met, the President spoke about reforms. But in the end, it was the churches that took action.”
“Took action how?”
“They decided to kill him. And once they determined this, they developed a secret plan to eradicate the Fae.” Mort sighed again, his expression heavy. “Though I believe this plan was not as secret. The government had a hand in it too.”
“Eradicate?”
The Mage nodded. “As in wipe the earth clean.”
“Aw, no.” Carly grimaced. “Tell me they didn’t…”
“I cannot. Any with even a hint of Fae blood were considered evil. The hysteria grew so bad that they began killing anyone beautiful, thinking beauty was a Fae inheritance. The world erupted in lawless slaughter.”
“How is this possible?” Expression stunned, Carly looked from one man to the other. “There are laws, people have rights…”
The Mage only shook his head.
Alrick clenched his teeth. “So help me, Mage. What are your reasons for withholding this information? What you are saying now makes this Warlord out to be a champion of my people. This does not match the tale you told my father, the King.”
“The King knows all of this.” Mort’s gray eyes were clear and unafraid. “I believed he had told you, until Cenrick advised me differently. Now, shall I finish? There is more to the story. Much more.”
Tamping down his rage, Alrick nodded. “Continue. The churches banded humans together against the Fae and half-lings. They decided to kill the Warlord. What happened?”
“War began. Church against church, neighbor against neighbor. Everyone took sides. Such closed-minded bigotry rarely follows logic. The Warlord’s wife and children were very beautiful. They were killed in the first attack. Gravely wounded, he was forced to watch while his family was raped and tortured.”
Carly gasped.
“Were you there?” Alrick’s voice shook. “Tell me true, Mage from the future. Were you there for this?”
“I lived during this time, yes.” Mort spoke with dignity. “But I did not personally witness the acts against the Warlord.”
“The loss of his family sent him over the edge?”
“Yes. Barely escaping, he vowed revenge. Not only revenge, but his own kind of eradication. He gathered the Fae, helped them form an army to kill all the humans. To ensure that such a thing would never again happen.”
“Fae cannot harm humans,” Alrick pointed out. “This is one of our oldest laws. You know this. Why did the Fae not simply rebuild and close the veil between the worlds as they did before, in the time of Camelot?”
“Some wanted this. But when I say everyone took sides, I wasn’t exaggerating. There was dissension, even among the Fae. Some wanted to retreat, to close the veil and go on with their lives as they had before. But others wanted to fight.”
“Fae?” Alrick couldn’t believe it. “Fae cannot kill humans.”
The Mage continued on as if he hadn’t heard. “The Warlord found young, male Fae. Warriors with no one to fight. Restless, full of frustration. They refused to let the veil be sealed, and used their magic to break one of the most ancient of our laws. Once the first human had been killed, the battle became a free-for-all.”
“Didn’t they realize they risked their souls?” Alrick could scarcely credit such a thing. “I know it might be different with half-lings, but these were Fae.”
“Risk their souls? What do you mean?” Carly asked.
The mage answered. “Naturally bright and shining beings, Fae are the closest t
hing on earth to angels. If they open themselves up to the dark, as had the Maccus so many centuries ago, they would be doomed forever.”
“And the Warlord led them into damnation.” Alrick couldn’t believe it. Bad enough their enemy traveled through time to kill a poor, innocent human woman before her child could be born. If he wanted to risk his own soul, that was his problem. But to involve others…
“Do they follow him of their own free will?”
Mort nodded. “I believe so. How could one man coerce so many?”
“The Warlord became what he hated the most.” Alrick choked out the words, surprised by the depths of his sorrow and rage. “A doer of great evil.”
“What’s his name?” Carly cleared her too-tight throat. “The Warlord? Surely he has a given name?”
Alrick too fell silent, wanting to know the name of the one who would take down the world.
“Valerian. Valerian Wake.” Mort spoke the name as though it were a curse.
“Poor, poor man.” Carly’s emerald eyes filled with tears.
“Don’t let pity move you.” Alrick moved TM closer, wishing he could hold her. “You heard what the Mage said. The Warlord means to kill you, so he may continue to hold his position. His life so far in the future and his motives for acting as he does should not concern you.”
“Can this too not be changed?” Fierce now, she looked from Mort to Alrick. “You say everything is up to chance. Why did this Valerian not try to go back and prevent the death of his wife?”
“That is what he’s doing now.”
“I don’t understand.”
“He believes Lance is responsible.”
Alrick froze. Started to reach out to Carly, but stopped, watching her instead.
Carly’s eyes widened. Horror filled her face. “Are you telling me my son had something to do with this?”
“No. But the Warlord believes he does. There were Fae, there were humans, but everyone forgot about one group. The half-lings. Lance gathered them together, separate from the churches. They tried to make The Others see if they continued this war, the earth would be destroyed. Both Fae and humans would die.”
“That sounds a lot like what the Warlord wanted in the beginning.”
The Mage gave her a tortured look. “Yes, it is. I believe Lance is the only one who can stop the insanity. The only one who has the slightest chance of saving the world.”
“All well and good,” Alrick growled. “But you still haven’t told us why the Warlord believes him responsible for the death of his family.”
“Not the death, exactly. But the resurrection.”
Carly groaned. “This sounds too apocalyptic.”
“Perhaps. But the truth of the matter is this. In order to increase his power, the Warlord began to traffic with the darkness. He kept the bodies of his wife and children frozen, and made a bargain to bring them back to life. Lance interfered. The bodies were lost. This was a great victory for goodness. Unfortunately, this was what finally sent the Warlord completely into madness.”
They all fell silent. Finally, Carly spoke. “This all sounds like some kind of fatalistic fairy tale, pardon the expression. Though I know you can’t lie, it’s kind of hard to swallow.”
“I agree.” Alrick studied the Mage closely, looking for signs of senility perhaps, but seeing only sorrow. The Mage shrugged. “Sorry, but it happened. I know.”
“How, old one? How do you know?”
“Because I was there. I helped your son defeat the darkness. Lance is who I fought for, and using my magic to defeat the evil so depleted me, I was captured.”
“That’s how the Warlord captured you?” Alrick felt better knowing this. “Why didn’t you say so?”
But the Mage was looking at Carly, who regarded him with wonder and surprise. “You know him, in the future? You know my son, Lance?”
“Yes.”
“I know you’re from a time that’s yet to come and all, but I never thought you might actually have met someone who doesn’t even exist.”
With a soft smile, the mage nodded. “Your son will grow up to become a fine man, a great leader of people.”
“My head hurts.” But Carly smiled. “I’m not sure I needed to know all this.”
“Yes, you did.” The Mage insisted. “It’s important you understand.”
“Either way, we still must defeat the Warlord.” Alrick’s grim declaration contained no pity. “Thus far he’s made numerous attempts to kill you.”
“No he hasn’t.”
Mort raised his brows. “What do you mean?”
“Maybe I’ve watched too many violent movies or played too many video games, but as a bad guy, well – he’s just not that bad. Not Terminator quality at all.”
When the Mage looked at him, Alrick could only shrug. “She and I have already had this discussion.”
“Seriously, everything he’s done so far, while it was nasty, it wasn’t exactly horrific, now was it?”
The Mage stared at her with disbelief. “He burnt down your barn, put venomous snakes in your bed, sent ants and spiders—.”
“Yeah, but those are all so-so bad. Not critical.”
“He destroyed your pickup,” Alrick pointed out. “In that attempt, he almost killed you with the explosion.”
“Almost being the key word. If he’d really wanted to kill me, why not blow it up while we were in it?”
Alrick narrowed his eyes but said nothing.
The mage stepped forward. “Maybe it’s a matter of timing. Since he’s using so much power to travel freely between your time and his, the magical force he’s using against you is unfocused. Believe me when I say his might is terrible.”
Alrick agreed. “It is enough that he threatens you, Carly.”
“Once he learns how, there may come a time when he’s not content to remain fully in the future.”
“I so want to call a time out.”
Both Alrick and Mort stared at her. Expression belligerent, she stared back. “And why the hell not? If this is only some gigantic cosmic chess game, I’d like to quit and go home.”
The Mage opened his mouth to speak. With a look, Alrick silenced him. “This is no game.” He turned to the Mage. “Now, is there anything else you’ve learned that might help us?”
“Yes.” Mort straightened his shoulders, his expression settling back into its familiar, solemn lines. “I have one more piece of important information. That boy you met…” Mort’s image began to flicker and fade. His voice faded in and out, garbling his words so they couldn’t understand them. Then, just like that, he was gone.
Alrick looked at Carly. “I hope he didn’t leave the most important for last. What do you suppose he was going to tell us about the boy?”
“I don’t know.” Carly looked up. “But he left his bird.” The big falcon still soared in circles overhead.
“Tinth will watch over us and report back to him.” Alrick glanced around them, the residue from magic still tingling along his skin. “Carly, the bad thing about the Mage appearing—.”
“Besides him not giving us any new information, you mean?”
“Yes, besides that. He had to use magic to come to us. And that means—”
“Crap.”
“Exactly. We’re in for another rough ride,” he finished. “We’d better find a place to hide from whatever the weather is going to throw at us.”
Overhead, the hawk screeched.
Alrick turned TM, searching the sky. The sun still blazed from low in the horizon. The sky remained bright blue, the few wisps of clouds non-threatening. The earth held solid, no tremors, no rumbling issued from below.
Then what?
In the distance, he heard an odd sound. A muted roar.
“Another tornado?” Carly’s expression showed her fear.
The sound grew louder.
“I don’t think so. The pressure in the air remains unchanged.” But he had no idea what the threat might be.
“You know, I
think we have more to worry about from the weather than we do from the Warlord.”
Suddenly, they were surrounded by water. On dry land, a place where no water should be.
“Is there a creek nearby?” Alrick shouted.
“Maybe. This is a flash flood,” Carly yelled back. “Happens sometimes, when the spring rains make the ground too wet.”
It wasn’t spring and the ground had been, only a moment ago, cracked and parched with thirst.
The water rose quickly, to the horses’ knees in a matter of seconds. The horses, uneasy, shifted.
“We’re in a valley.” Pointing at the rise of land ahead, Carly urged Merry forward. “We’ve got to get to higher ground.”
They splashed single file up the crest of the small hill. Below them, the water continued to rise, swallowing the trees as it came.
At the crest of the hill, they had a good view. The area where they’d been now appeared a small lake. The muddy water swirled and moved as though powered by an underground source.
“There.” The next hill looked taller, the trees more stout, though more sparse. The connecting ridge was still above water.
“Let’s go.”
They splashed through to the other side. By the time the horses scrambled up onto the slope, the ridge was underwater. Behind them, the rising water engulfed the hill they’d just abandoned.
“So far, so good.” Once they’d reached the summit, he could see nothing but hills and trees towards the north. “We’ve got to keep moving.”
The hair on the back of his arms rose. “What the—.”
“I feel dizzy.” Swaying on Merry’s back, Carly slid to the ground. She took a step and staggered. “Alrick?”
“Magic,” he hissed, reaching for her. He felt like he was moving in slow motion.
Dimly, he saw how she fought to get to him. “Can’t breathe.”
Unable to move, he let out a roar of frustration. The spell had paralyzed him. TM too.
Above them in the perfect sky, Tinth shrieked and dove.
A shape formed in front of them. Black cloaked, face hidden in shadows. An aura of power sucked the light from around him, making him appear to glow, as though he drew strength from the atmosphere itself.
Lone Star Magic Page 17
