“The pleasure is mine, Ellas,” Dianis replied pleasantly. “My people have never forgotten yours and our once close alliance. It is a shame that circumstances caused us to drift so far apart long ago.”
“Yes, I remember those days well,” the sprite said, her voice tinged with sadness. “Others led my kind back then. Foolish decisions were made, but I would ask that you do not judge us all by those who once ruled us. They were replaced long ago.”
“I do not judge you,” the elf told her. “There are few of us left who remember those ancient times, but our histories tell us that mistakes were made on both sides. Perhaps we can renew our old friendships?”
“Ah, that is a lovely thought,” Ellas said with delight. “I shall speak to my people at the earliest opportunity and bring up the possibility. I believe that they will be delighted.”
“Excellent. Now, as to how we are back so soon...”
Dianis pursed her lips and glanced up at the sunlight streaming into the hall.
“We were aided by the lords of Justice. They found the strength to hasten the conjunction of our two worlds and so, here we are.”
“Really?”
Ellas gave the elf a calculating look.
“Now why would they do that? Do they not still fight their endless war against the Darkness?”
“They do. But there is now a dire threat to the few surviving humans on this planet and the gods are anxious that the race not die out. They wished us to renew the friendship between our two peoples so that we could aid them. We were happy to do that.”
“Ah, I see.”
The sprite spun around to look at Tamara.
“You are fortunate to have such powerful friends, lady mage. With the renewal of the draconic race, you may need their help some day soon.”
“That's true,” Tamara agreed. “And we are delighted that Dianis and her people chose to aid us.”
“Good. I am happy for both of your races. Now, to get back to my original question,” Ellas continued tartly. “Who disputes my belief that your two warriors can have their curse altered or lifted entirely?”
“This one here,” Dianis said coldly as she turned and pointed to Shendal. “This elf, who I thought I knew, has been fomenting dissent behind my back. He told the commanders that your opinion was dangerous and that summoned beings such as yourself were not to be trusted.”
Ellas made an unintelligible sound of anger, but she didn't interrupt.
“And then he went to your friend, Chao, and peppered him with questions about you, your kind and your powers. It was soon after that that rumors about some sort of nefarious collusion between my people and the commanders began to circulate.”
Dianis stared at Shendal, who looked away, refusing to meet her eyes.
“I thought that I knew you,” she said heavily. “I was honored that you chose to join the first delegation to meet with the humans again. But instead you have shamed yourself, me and your people. And for what? Because of a prejudice against magical creatures like Ellas? If it wasn't so disgusting, it would just be sad.”
Ellas shot past the Elder and stopped just a few feet away from Shendal. She hovered there, hands on hips, and glared at him.
The Elder tried to step back from her, but he bumped into Chase who put a firm hand on his shoulder, preventing him from retreating.
The sprite looked Shendal up and down and opened her mouth as if preparing to berate him. And then she seemed to catch herself and Tamara, who was closer to Ellas than the other Council members, saw her eyes widen.
“What is this?” the sprite whispered. “What are you?”
Shendal remained silent and Ellas flitted backwards, putting some distance between herself and the Elder.
“Captain, draw your weapon!” she said loudly.
Chase frowned and looked at Dianis, who nodded.
“Do it,” she said quickly.
The elven warrior drew her sword, stepped away from Shendal and assumed a defensive stance.
Malcolm and Aiden reacted instinctively. They were unarmed except for their daggers, but they stood up quickly and hurried toward the head of the table. As they did so, Tamara raised a hand, palm up, and a glowing spark of blue flame appeared there.
“What is happening, Ellas?” Chao asked in confusion. “What is wrong?”
“This...thing,” she said, her high-pitched voice shaking as she pointed at Shendal. “He is not what he seems to be. Outwardly he is an elf, yes, but there is something hiding just below the surface. Something black and evil.”
“I don't understand,” Dianis said, obviously bewildered. “Shendal has been with us since we passed through the portal to this world. How could something have happened to him in so short a time?”
“Mortals are so gullible.”
A voice that rumbled like the sound of rocks grinding together echoed through the hall. Shendal stood up straight and looked at the sprite.
“But immortals are difficult to deceive,” he growled. “I knew that you would be a danger to me, you disgusting little pest. I was right.”
“Who are you?” Dianis asked him as Chase moved closer to Shendal and rested the point of her sword between his shoulder-blades.
The Elder didn't even flinch as the weapon touched him. Instead he looked around the room slowly, as if seeing the hall for the first time. He sneered up at the colorful beams of sunlight that shone through the stained-glass windows.
“The Light,” he grumbled. “So pretty... and so weak. I had forgotten how shallow and worthless it is. Coming into the mortal realm has always been so disappointing to me. I will be happy to see this entire world burn.”
He looked at Dianis and smiled evilly.
She caught her breath. Shendal no longer looked anything like the venerable elf that he had once appeared to be.
“What are you?” she gasped.
“I? I am merely a servant. My masters sent me here when their pathetic cousins arranged for your world and this one to realign again. They were curious about that. Why would those who espouse the Light waste their strength on such a thing? And now we know. This absurd alliance of yours. Useless. I had hoped to use these...” He glared at Malcolm and Aiden, “abominations to drive a wedge between your peoples. Apparently I was too direct. Well, I have learned my lesson. The next time I will be more subtle.”
“You serve the lords of Chaos,” Sebastian said with certainty.
Shendal laughed, a horrible grating sound.
“It is amusing to be spoken to by humans,” he said thickly. “Imagine if a bug stood up on its hind legs and began to speak. Be silent, insect. I am as far above you as you are above the ants. And I am only a lowly servant. Can you even comprehend how high my masters stand above that? Of course you can't. Your race is doomed. And now, with this alliance of yours, so are the elves.”
“We do not fear you, servant of a bad master,” Dianis said defiantly. “If you were so high and mighty, you would not have been sent here to spy on us in the first place. Your lords are weaker than you want to admit. They are afraid; of us and of the Light. Ultimately they shall fail. Again.”
Shendal stepped toward her and the blue flame in Tamara's palm flared brightly. The Elder stopped and scowled at her.
“Careful, monster,” the mage warned him. “You may be some sort of supernatural entity, but the body you inhabit is mortal. It will burn even with you in there.”
“And will you kill this person?” Shendal said with a dark smile as he looked down at his frail body. “The Elder is beloved by his people. Don't you know that? For a human to harm him would be seen as a betrayal of your newly-formed alliance. Hmm. Come to think of it, go ahead. Kill him. It might serve my purposes quite well.”
“There will be no need of that.”
Everyone turned to look toward the doorway, including the creature that had once been Shendal.
Katherine stood there, her robes gleaming silver as if she was bathed in moonlight.
The Elde
r hissed as he saw her and his old face twisted with hatred.
“You!” he exclaimed. “A servant of the Light, are you? How dare you come into my presence. Do you know who I am?”
The cleric walked forward, her expression serene.
“I know what you are, minion,” she replied calmly. “As soon as you revealed yourself, I felt your stained aura from the other side of the castle.”
She looked at Tamara and Dianis.
“Are you done with this?” she asked with a nod at Shendal.
The women exchanged a look.
“I don't think that we'll learn much more from him. Do you?” Tamara asked the elf.
“No. A servant of Darkness would not tell us anything that we could use, or believe.”
Dianis looked at Katherine.
“Can you banish it? Send it back to the Void?”
“Oh yes.”
The cleric smiled at Shendal, who only glowered back at her.
“If I am correct, the Elder is possessed by a very minor servant of the dark gods. An imp or something similar. They are all bluster and wind, but their power is negligible.”
“You will all burn!” Shendal raged as Katherine stepped toward him. “All of you! Your people will wither. Your worlds will rot. The lords of Chaos will prevail!”
“Perhaps,” the cleric said softly as she reached out a hand, her skin flaring brightly. “But not today.”
Shendal screamed as she touched him, a horrible sound. He staggered backwards and Chase dropped her sword and caught him just before he collapsed.
She lowered him gently to the floor and Katherine knelt down next to them.
“Is he...gone?” Dianis asked as she hurried forward.
“Oh no, he'll be fine,” the cleric reassured her as she put her palm on Shendal's forehead. “He is terribly weak though. I do not know how long that creature possessed him, but it was a tremendous drain on his body. He will need to rest and heal.”
She looked around.
“Malcolm? Aiden? Would you do me a favor and carry the Elder back to his quarters? I'll come along and keep an eye on him for a while.”
“Of course,” Malcolm said.
“Happy to,” Aiden agreed.
The others moved aside and Malcolm knelt down and lifted the Elder as if he weighed no more than a child.
“I've got him,” he said as he stood up. “Aiden, you can stay here. I'll take him to his room.”
“You sure?”
The big man smiled at him.
“Definitely. Katherine? Go ahead and I'll follow you.”
The cleric nodded and walked out of the hall with Malcolm right behind her.
“Chase, go with them,” Dianis told the warrior. “Shendal may be fine now, but I'd like you to keep an eye on him for a while.”
Chase picked up her sword and sheathed it.
“Of course, Elder,” she replied as she thumped her fist to her chest in a salute. “I'd be happy to.”
“Thank you.”
As the elvish warrior hurried toward the door, Dianis called after her.
“Ask Myklen to join us, would you? His quarters are next to Shendal's. He needs to be told what has happened.”
“Yes Elder, I will do that,” Chase said with a nod as she ducked out of the room.
Tamara looked down at the flame on her palm and made a gesture. It vanished with a gentle hiss and she looked around at the group.
“Let's all sit down again, shall we?” she said. “I'll admit that I'm feeling a little weak at the knees after all of that.”
“You are not alone in that feeling,” Sylvie said as she and her sister took their seats.
Everyone had leaped to their feet as the demon within Shendal was revealed and the entire assembly still seemed to be in a state of shock.
“Before we discuss all of this,” Chao said to everyone as he looked down the table, “I would like to take a moment to thank Ellas. Without her insight here today, that evil being inside of the Elder might have caused a lot of mischief.”
The sprite flitted across the room to rejoin Chao. She beamed at him, looking very pleased with herself.
“Finally, some recognition for my contributions,” she cooed. “How nice. You are learning to appreciate me, aren't you?”
“I've always appreciated you, Ellas,” the summoner told her solemnly. “You just choose to believe otherwise.”
“I will add my thanks to Chao's,” Tamara said warmly. “And I think that I can speak for Dianis and my colleagues in this. Now we know why Shendal obviously disliked you. He was afraid that you would expose him. We are very grateful to you for showing us the truth.”
The sprite zoomed back up the table to hover in front of Tamara and Dianis. She made a grand bow while bobbing in the air.
“Thank you, lady mage, but I must correct you. It was not Shendal who disliked and feared me; it was the thing inside of him. Possession is a horrible invasion and extremely traumatizing for the person who experiences it. They lose all control of their body, but remain aware of what is happening around them.”
She looked at Dianis.
“Your Elder will need time and the support of yourself and others to recover from such a violation. And as he is quite old, even for an elf, it may take longer for Shendal to get over this than it might have if he was younger.”
“He will have as much help from us as he needs,” Dianis assured her. “We are all very fond of Shendal. Part of my anger toward him was based on my deep respect for him and how disappointed I was when I learned what he had done. It sounds strange, I know, but it is almost a relief to learn that it was not the gentle elf that I've known for so long who tried to create a crisis here at Nottinghill Castle. It was the monster inside of him. What we need to learn now is how this possession happened, and when?”
“That is a good point,” Tamara said.
She leaned back in her chair and looked up at the colorful light above them. The sight made her smile.
“How strange that the demon hated sunlight. Can those creatures not appreciate beauty?”
“What they consider beautiful would horrify you, lady mage,” Ellas told her as she looked up as well. “The lords of Chaos dwell in darkness and revel in pain and torment. They are the twisted reflection of the gods of Justice. All right-minded creatures are correct to fear them.”
“But how could one of their servants possess Shendal?” Veronique wondered. “As I understand it, the gods of Darkness do not have a presence on your world, Dianis. Is this not true?”
“Quite true. I am as mystified as you are about that,” the elf replied. “I saw no real changes in him until today, when you told me what he had been up to behind the scenes. The thing inside of him was very clever, and that is quite concerning to me. It fooled me completely.”
Ellas made an odd sound, like a high-pitched cough, and Dianis looked at her.
“Yes?”
“Lady elf, with all due respect, there is only one moment when your Elder could have been taken over by a dark servant.”
“Which was when?”
The sprite landed delicately on the table and sat down gracefully. Her robes settled down around her and her wings folded behind her back. She looked up at the elf and Tamara, her expression unusually serious.
“Your portal between worlds, lady, is not a direct conduit. Do you not know this? Just like the Gates that mages use to transport themselves from one place to another, the portal cuts through the Void for an instant. It is the strange energies of the Void that allow this connection. And all of the gods, both Light and Dark, dwell in that place. For an instant, your Elder was exposed as he crossed over between worlds and I am sure that is the moment when he was invaded.”
“Whoa, wait a second,” Sebastian exclaimed nervously. “Are you saying that those of us who use the Gate spell are exposed to possession as well?”
Ellas cocked her head to the side as she looked over at him.
“Of course you are, sir
mage, but fortunately for you and the others, you always protect yourselves before Gating.”
“We do?”
The sprite sighed and shook her head. She looked back at Tamara.
“No disrespect intended, lady, but males are so hard to deal with sometimes.”
“Oh, I agree,” Tamara said as she gave her brother a teasing grin. “But his question is valid. What do you mean when you say that we protect ourselves?”
“Do you not all cast a shield spell before you Gate, just in case you transport yourselves into a dangerous situation? The magical energies of those shields are quite impenetrable to the minions of Darkness.”
“Are they?”
The four mages and Chao all exchanged looks of wonder.
“Well, well, what do you know?” Sylvie said in surprise. “All of this time we've been protecting ourselves from evil influence and never even knew it. A happy coincidence, for sure.”
“Absolutely,” Tamara agreed. “And Chao, you had best work harder on your own shield spell before you Gate again. After hearing this, I wouldn't risk teleporting anywhere until you are properly shielded.”
Ellas leaped into the air and zipped back to float in front of the summoner.
“What's this?” she exclaimed angrily. “Are you stupidly putting yourself in danger, again? How many times have I told you...”
Chao held up his hand.
“Enough, Ellas,” he said firmly, and quite uncharacteristically. “It is insulting to me and to our friends to discuss this publicly. If you wish to berate me for things beyond my control, I would prefer that you do so privately.”
The sprite was apparently caught flat-footed by Chao's interruption. She stared at him for a long moment before answering.
“Yes, of course,” the sprite murmured contritely. “It is a private matter, after all.”
Aiden noticed that Sebastian was hiding a smile behind his hand and turned away to keep himself from laughing. It seemed that the little sprite had never pushed Chao too far until now and his reaction had surprised her.
“I still don't understand why that thing that was inside of Shendal was so hell bent on turning the castle's population against Malcolm and me,” Aiden said as he looked up the table at Dianis and Tamara. “I mean, okay, we've been infected by a werewolf, but neither of us has ever turned feral under a full moon. We are no threat to anyone.”
The Werewolves of Nottinghill Page 20
