Delver Magic: Book 04 - Nightmare's Shadow

by Jeff Inlo

  Seeking an answer to that question seemed to grow in importance as the lull in conflict continued. The true strategy of her foe was eluding her, and it was never wise to fight a battle without understanding the intentions of the enemy. If the goblins, gremplings, and river rogues were waiting for something, it was in her best interest to determine what it was before it hit them.

  In order to track the source of the interference and perhaps gain insight into its true purpose, she thought of reconnecting to the sight spells with greater focus, with a mind towards following the disruption as opposed to overcoming it. If she could pinpoint its location, she might decipher the source. If she could accomplish that, the battle would be half won.

  Unfortunately, she had only recovered a small portion of the magical energy she expended. Her magical reserves remained depleted and she was not ready for any such attempt to track an opposing spell.

  Her mind turned once more to Heteera. If she were here, Holli could tap into her power and possibly overcome any barrier that might keep her from the revelations she sought. Jure, however, had not returned, and so all the elf could do was wait.

  Her true enemy, however, decided to end the lull in battle. The real fight was about to begin, the ultimate threat exposed. Holli would see what Baannat had truly planned for Pinesway, and she would not have to concern herself with tracking any spell to reveal it.

  Chapter 30

  Dzeb placed a gentle hand on the shoulder of the delver before he said a single word. He took careful but firm hold. He did not wish to hurt the delver, but he needed to be certain Ryson Acumen would not sprint away.

  Ryson immediately recognized the sorrow in Dzeb's eyes. His own body stiffened as a lump formed in his throat. He was almost unable to speak, but he forced out the words?

  "Where's Linda?"

  Dzeb would not deny the truth. He answered openly, but with clear and painful regret.

  "They took her."

  The lump grew and Ryson's muscles tightened with heightened anxiety.

  "Who took her?"

  "Caelifera. A swarm."

  Ryson thought of the giant caelifera that had almost killed him in the dark realm. He remembered the fear he faced, and that was only one. He then thought of an entire swarm.

  Linda—alone—facing a swarm of caelifera. The image almost wrecked his sanity. He cursed himself for leaving her.

  Ryson didn't have to ask where they went. He knew. They were taking her back to the portal in the badlands by the Lacobian, back to the dark realm... back to Baannat.

  With that one thought in his mind, he dismissed everything else. He would race there as fast as he could. He would do anything to save her, lose his own life if necessary. It was all that mattered.

  Ryson attempted to turn and charge off toward the badlands. He could not, however, leave the cliff behemoth—a massive hand held him in place. He fought against it, almost pulled free from Dzeb's grip, but the behemoth managed to maintain his hold.

  "What?" the surprised delver managed to blurt out. "Let go!"

  "You must not simply run off," Dzeb counseled.

  Not run off?

  What else could he possibly do? Ryson saw no other option. He knew what Baannat was going to do. He had to stop it.

  "I have to get to her before..."

  He was going to say "before she dies" but, he couldn't finish the sentence. It hurt too much to think what the ghoul might do to her, what might be her last moments.

  "Do not think the worst," Dzeb stated, offering hope but with all honesty intact. "I do not believe Baannat wishes her dead. If so, the caelifera could have killed her here. They had the opportunity. Why fly her out of here if he just wanted to kill her? Death from a caelifera would have been a dark enough end to satisfy even a slink ghoul. No, he wants her alive. For what reason, I can only guess, but I believe he wishes to trap you."

  Ryson didn't care about a trap, he didn't care what happened to him. The thought of what Baannat might do to Linda was far worse than any other torment.

  "It doesn't matter what he wants to do with me. He can try to trap me all he wants. I don't care! I have to go to her. I have to do everything I can to try and save her. Now let go of me!"

  "I understand, but you can't go alone."

  Alone.

  The word hurt because that's what he was... alone. Linda had been taken from him. He faced the struggle alone.

  At that thought, he looked to the sky. He realized the struggle was growing larger, getting more complicated, becoming more painful.

  His frustration and fatigue turned to anger. He was more than tired of the way things were. He was furious. It seemed nothing in this existence or the next held any honor. There was nothing good in a world where Linda could be taken away from him in such a manner.

  Fire upon the struggle, fire upon it all!

  This was the anger that burned within him. Forces for good or evil, he didn't care about any of them. It was a sick, twisted game, and the only ones who suffered—that lost in the game—were the innocents.

  Dzeb could not help but sense the growing rage in one he believed with all his faith had been touched by Godson. If it were possible, it might have crushed Dzeb's spirit, but a cliff behemoth's soul is mightier than the colossal body that holds it. He offered solace and explained what he saw as the only reasonable solution.

  "We will come with you. The other cliff behemoths have already agreed. We will help you get her back."

  For Ryson, there was no comfort in the offer. He didn't see the benefit in leading an army of cliff behemoths into the badlands. He saw the truth. Time was his true enemy and he shook off the proposal.

  "You won't be able to keep up and I have no intention of slowing down."

  His tone was not defiant—he did not wish to blame the cliff behemoths—but he was resolute. He was telling Dzeb the absolute truth. Nothing would keep him, or even delay him, from going after Linda.

  Dzeb understood Ryson's resolve, but held to hope that he could still sway the delver into making a more rational decision.

  "You would not slow your chase even to give yourself a chance to succeed?"

  "And what if we're too late? I can't take the risk. I can't keep you from following after me, but I won't wait for you."

  "You would not give me your word to stay close to us? It is for both your benefit and Linda's. Time may not be as important as the force you bring with you. You will have a chance if you let us aid you. You will have no chance if you go alone."

  Ryson replied with unflagging honesty.

  "The moment you let go of me, I'll be out of your sight. I'm sorry, but I can't wait."

  "Is there nothing I can say to convince you?"

  "Nothing."

  #

  During the flight across the mountains and forest, Linda did not struggle. Although she wished to be free from the grip of the winged monstrosity that held her aloft, absolute fear clouded her mind. She jammed her eyes shut often as she could not stand the sight of being engulfed in the middle of the swarm. She could not, however, hold them closed completely. With every jerk in movement, instinct—certainly not conscious desire—forced her to take a glimpse of her surroundings to see if she was being thrown to her death.

  Despite her absolute panic, she tried to assess their direction. During her momentary glances, she gauged the position of the sun. Unmistakably, the caelifera were headed south, and she remained almost certain as to their final destination.

  When they closed upon the badlands and she could see the portal in the distance, her fears were confirmed. She knew they would be flying through the rift and into the dark realm. She did not wish to enter.

  With her fear raging, she did begin to struggle. She knew that even if she broke the grip of the caelifera that held her, she wouldn't truly escape. She would only fall to her death. It didn't matter. Better to be smashed on the rocks below than to be forced into an unending nightmare.

  The caelifera, however, would not releas
e its hold no matter how hard Linda fought. It ignored Linda's futile movements and remained in the center of the returning swarm. As it closed upon the portal, it dropped low to the ground and prepared to pass through.

  The rift had grown quite large, almost as if it threatened to envelope an entire region of the badlands. It was wide enough to allow many of the caelifera to fly through the opening at once. It eventually swallowed the entire swarm, but it remained open, like a giant eye that peered in two opposite directions at once.

  Linda found everything about the dark realm sickening as well as frightening. She had been forced into the lands of horror against her will, and the sights, sounds and smells magnified the assault on her being. It was a place of pure misery and she was sure it was the place she was going to die. She was wrong.

  The swarm moved toward the ravine that held the cave, but the other caelifera broke off before they reached the crevice. Only the caelifera holding Linda continued forward.

  Linda saw another portal, but this rift appeared much different. While the gateway between Uton and the dark realm was like a connection between two dimensions, this new portal was but a shadow. There was no distinct realm on the other side. It was simply a break in one existence with nothing waiting beyond the veil.

  The caelifera hovered in front of the shadow portal. It stared at the opening as if uncertain what to do. The uncertainty did not last. With one forward thrust, the monster tossed Linda into the rift.

  Linda's body passed through the portal, but it did not disappear, did not move on to a new dimension. Her body remained in the dark realm and fell to the ground next to Enin's. Death did not claim her, but there was nothing left of her consciousness in the lands of nightmare. Her body clung to life, but it was nothing more than an empty shell.

  Linda's true essence, the full scope of her spirit, fell into Baannat's presence and then fell into despair. She could not focus on anything. Gray blankness colored her senses. Her body was gone. All that was left of her was her consciousness—her awareness—and that was held hostage by the slink ghoul. She could not flee and she could not fight. There was only nothingness.

  Baannat greeted the new arrival with a snarl.

  "Welcome to a different kind of life," the ghoul announced. "You were immune to magic. You probably still are, but it doesn't matter. Not here."

  Linda could not focus on anything. Even Baannat's sinister voice turned into nothing more than a low hum. The emptiness threatened to overwhelm her consciousness and she did not fight against it. Even if it was not true death, she welcomed oblivion.

  The slink ghoul, however, had other plans for her.

  "No, no, no. I won't let you simply fade out of here. You can't. I am the sole point of focus for you now and you will focus on me."

  Baannat's image grew brighter before Linda and his form took hold of her consciousness. His voice boomed, became as clear as thunder crashing across an empty field in the early hours of dawn. She could not block him out. She had no eyelids to close, no hands to place over her eyes or ears. She was forced to look upon him, forced to hear him.

  Linda remembered the first time she saw the slink ghoul. It was during their first battle, when Enin used her as a shield and Ryson sliced the monster in half. The current outline of the ghoul that took shape in the gray shadows appeared much the same as it did then.

  His face resembled a distorted tiger. His long fangs helped define his cat like muzzle. His hands were like tiger claws and his hind legs were like those of an overgrown cat. The rest of the ghoul's body, however, was without true shape, and that characteristic took greater hold in a cloak of shadows.

  The ghoul's core had always been malleable, but it seemed even less solid in the emptiness that surrounded him. Baannat's body appeared more translucent and barely capable of holding the ghoul together. He was more than a shadow but less than a material being, but in that existence, he found a way to strike out at Linda.

  "I'm not going to cast some spell upon you. I'm not sure it would have any effect on you, so why waste the energy? I have other ways to hurt you."

  Baannat's form moved upon the faint glowing essence of Linda. He opened his hand and revealed the narrow claws that shined bright in the all enveloping shadows. With one quick slashing motion, the ghoul sliced into Linda's soul.

  The pain was both hot and cold, sharp and dull. It exploded through her consciousness. There was nothing in her previous existence she could compare it to. She couldn't imagine anything worse. It was like drinking acid and then diving in freezing water, but it went far beyond the physical pain of either. It boiled in her like wasted hate and then chilled her like choking dread. She wanted to scream, but she could not find her own voice.

  Beyond the pain, she had only one other focal point, and that was Baannat. His figure swam in and out of focus. If she allowed his form to drift from her awareness, she had nothing else to take hold of beyond the pain. Oblivion was no longer in reach as the torment of another slash kept her awareness from fading into the shadows.

  Within the same gray shroud, Enin sensed the disturbance. He could not attack the ghoul, but he could expand his awareness. Though he was now separated from the magical energies, his essence remained strong. His exposure to different realms and dimensions allowed him the ability to reach out with his consciousness. The wizard focused on the disruption of the emptiness. He located another light, another soul in the dark. He recognized Linda's spirit.

  He condemned himself immediately. It was his plan to have her sent to the mountains, to be protected by cliff behemoths. He had underestimated Baannat yet again, and his failure meant another captured soul.

  He could sense her suffering, knew that Baannat was slashing and clawing at her as the ghoul had done to him. It was his fault she was there, his fault she was suffering. He could not let it continue unabated.

  Enin called out to Linda. He did so not with a voice, but with a thought—a surge of emotion. He had experienced such links before—links with Holli—and moments of communicating while exploring planes beyond his mortal body.

  Though he could not use any magical energy as a conduit, the gray nothingness presented no barrier to break through. He simply had to press with enough determination to reach out to another soul in the shadows. He focused on Linda, on atoning for his mistakes. It would lead him through the emptiness.

  As the wizard strove to make a connection, Linda suffered through agonizing torment. The claws of the ghoul created no true wound, but they left her essence in tatters. Her reality blurred into two objects—a twisted ghoul bent on causing her pain, and the pain itself. There was nothing else for her. The moment she lost herself in twisting anguish, the face or the voice of Baannat would reassert itself as the focal point. When the pain dwindled, the ghoul slashed at her again and the torment overwhelmed her.

  Just as the pain of another slash erupted in her being, Linda finally sensed something beyond the pain, something past Baannat. A glowing light in the distance called to her. It had no form, no structure other than being a faint break in the shadows, but it was something she could focus upon that did not cause her misery. She latched her consciousness upon the simple point of light.

  Enin projected all of his hope and all of his strength toward Linda's consciousness. He could not save her from Baannat. He could not lead her out of the shadows, but he could take hold of her mind, siphon away some of the pain. It would become part of him. He would certainly suffer for it, but he would not allow her to endure the agony alone.

  Latching on to the new source of light, Linda accepted Enin's offer of diminished suffering. She pressed the pain out of her and towards him as he attempted to pull it from her. The agony lessened, but did not extinguish completely. At the very least, the connection allowed her to concentrate upon something other than the slink ghoul.

  The effort did not go unnoticed.

  "So the two of you wish to comfort each other?" Baannat asked through a cackle. "That's wonderful. It won't la
st, though. You'll start blaming each other, and sooner than you think. Oh, I know you're going to tell me it won't happen, but it will. When things get really bad, it's only natural to want to find someone to blame. You're all you've got, at least for the moment."

  The slink ghoul paused, but only for a moment. He then pressed his way past Enin's will and took hold of Linda's focus once more.

  "The wizard knows what I'm talking about, but do you?"

  Linda did not know how to answer, and she did not wish to try. Instead, she attempted to reach past the ghoul back to Enin, but the ghoul would not allow it.

  "Someone else will be here soon," Baannat sneered. "You know who it will be, don't you? He's going to come to save you, stupid as he is. He has no chance, but he will try. He will try because of you. Isn't that funny?"

  Linda knew Baannat was speaking about Ryson. A spark of hope glistened within her, but only for a scant moment, a flash and nothing more. She imagined Ryson trapped in the nothingness. He would suffer the same agony and suddenly a new focal point arrived for her consciousness; unimaginable, abject fear. It actually surpassed the pain of Baannat's slashes and the torment of his voice.

  Baannat giggled, then turned his attention to the wizard.

  "She has a hard time speaking in here. I guess she's not as experienced as you."

  "Or maybe she's not meant to be here," Enin shot back. "This place is not meant to exist. It's an aberration, an affront to the true dimensional realms. Your very existence mocks any true balance and such deviations are destined for destruction."

  "Are you actually talking about balance again, brother? Good and evil, right and wrong, and all of that? Don't you get it? There is no balance. There are only superficial rules, and no rule is set in stone."

  "And there are other powers far beyond what you or I can even comprehend. Your deviancy will not go unnoticed. You will eventually be purged."