by Justin Sloan
“For most of us, there is no war. There’s the paladins, murdering our people and those of the other clans. Some would rise against your type—”
“Not my type,” Alastar interrupted with a shake of his head. “Not anymore.”
“Aye, good. It’s about damn time.” Donnon shot him a grin. “Their type then. Others hope to wait it out, hope the king of the south will unite these lands as it’s rumored this place once was.”
“You believe those stories?” Alastar scoffed. “Half of what you hear can’t be believed. These lands are full of ghosts, they say, even now. But that’s at least explainable, with the underground tunnels and buried cities, and people like Estair and theirs. But the stories of old? Some say there were vampires, werewolves… even visitors from the stars.”
“Is that so hard to believe, considering?”
“You mean because we do magic… and aye, I have come to the realization that it’s magic. If this is possible, why not the next step? Why not vampires and all that?” Alastar shook his head, staring off at the plumes of smoke. “Sure, and then dragons, next. Maybe we’ll meet ourselves one of them someday, and it’ll be sitting on a pile of treasure.”
Donnon laughed. “Aye, and then we could hire ourselves bands of mercenaries to keep it from the Storm Raiders.”
“Or just keep the dragon as a guard-dog instead of killing it.”
“You’re mad if you think anyone can be friends with a dragon.” Donnon laughed.
Alastar turned to him and frowned. “I was only suggesting a hypothetical idea, yet here you are sounding like you believe in those, too.”
“When you live in the highlands, you start to believe anything is possible.”
“Like a fairy of light coming to our aid.” Alastar stood, ready to carry on, and Donnon joined him.
“You learn to do the magic without the fairy,” Donnon said. “Or spirits, or whatever. Even hand gestures and other means of summoning a spell, it’s all in our minds, really. Some would say I’m crazy for thinking so, but I’m certain.”
As they walked down the hill and toward the lake, Donnon glanced up at the sun, wondering how much time they had left.
“I hope you have a plan for following them,” he said.
“We’re connected, just like me and you are.”
Donnon shook his head. “I assure you, the two of us aren’t connected in any way.”
“The fairy, she took me right to you,” Alastar explained. “I have a theory that she’ll go to whomever I have a connection with. She led me right to you, and will lead us to Rhona and Kia when I’ve replenished enough energy to summon her.”
“Good,” Donnon said, leading the way down through the craggy rocks he’d loved to climb as a child, but now served merely as a hindrance. “They might give us food and offer shelter, but I’d just as soon have Rhona and my Kia back before nightfall. Who knows what those monsters are doing to them.”
“We’ll have them,” Alastar promised. “And when we do, those monsters will suffer for this day.”
A glance at the former paladin was enough to see that he meant business. His sister was, it would seem, as important to him as Kia was to Donnon. That gave him hope, knowing that the man beside him would fight to his last breath to keep those two safe, just as he would.
And with Alastar’s newfound understanding of his magic, there wasn’t anyone Donnon would rather have at his side in a fight such as this.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Rhona blinked, looking around to clear the haze from her mind. She had closed her eyes to rest so that her magic would return faster, but must have drifted off to sleep.
Inches from her face, the little girl stared at her with wide, hazelnut-brown eyes.
“Kia… how long was I out?”
The girl leaned back and shrugged. “I can’t really tell in here. A minute’s like an hour.”
“True enough,” Rhona admitted as she stretched and stood. She focused and felt her eyes cloud over with black, then smiled. “We’re ready.”
“How does this work?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea.” Rhona looked around at the purple glow of the walls, wondering where it was coming from, then went to the door to see if she could see light through the cracks. Nothing. “My best bet? See if we can become shadows and get to the other side of that door, then figure it out from there.”
“Won’t we get, I don’t know, squished?” Kia knelt and looked at the lack of a crack at the base of the door. “Or worse, what if we’re trapped there forever as shadows?”
“You ask smart questions for a kid.”
“When you grow up in the clans, you gotta grow up fast.”
“Nowadays, I imagine that saying holds true for much of the world,” Rhona said as she held out her hand for Kia. “Come. If we don’t try, we’ll never know.”
“Kid here,” Kia protested, “not exactly worrying about life regrets and what ifs.”
“Some kids do,” Rhona replied. “I know I did. How about a longing to see your dad?”
Kia frowned and took her hand. “That was a mean way to get me to go along with this. I don’t think I like you very much.”
“As long as you like me enough to want to get out of here with me, we’re good.”
It took a moment, but then Kia nodded.
“Great,” Rhona said with a laugh. “Just, hold on.”
She felt the room darken as her eyes became a deeper black, and then imagined the two of them as shadows moving for the cracks in the door.
Only, nothing happened.
Kia cleared her throat.
“I’m… trying,” Rhona protested, and then focused even more.
“Maybe you still don’t have the energy?”
Rhona shook her hand and let the girl’s hand drop. This wasn’t making sense. She tried to feel the shadows around her, to manipulate them, but nothing worked. In the short amount of time during which she had been able to work with these powers, nothing like this had happened before.
The purple glow, she realized, must be related somehow. Something was blocking her powers.
“Let’s just hope that your dad and my brother come looking for us soon,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief. She had been so certain she was going to get them out of there.
“You’re giving up?” Kia turned on her, furious. “You blink a few times and then call it quits? Damn, I had a pet cat once that tried harder than you.”
A curse coming from the lips of a child somewhat startled Rhona. Childhood in the clan was certainly different than growing up around the Order.
“I’m all for ideas,” Rhona said. “Right now, faced with powerful magicians and some sort of spell or something that’s blocking my powers, I have to admit that it doesn’t look hopeful.”
“Blocking your powers,” Kia said with a smirk. “Your, being the key word there.”
“I don’t exactly see any flames around here for you to manipulate.”
“Yeah, see, smart for a kid again.” Kia smiled an arrogant smile that said she knew something Rhona didn’t.
“Might as well spit it out then. What is it?”
“Well, I got to thinking while you were passed out. Thing is, your magic doesn’t work like ours. I mean, sure, there are shadows everywhere. Even when the sun is at its brightest, shadows are strong. But I think it’s not that—I think you’re able to pull on your magic without the presence of your skill-base. Meaning…” She held out a hand, and suddenly a ball of flame was flickering in its palm. Her eyes went from the flame to Rhona, and creased into a wide smile.
“You practiced that while I was asleep, didn’t you?” Rhona asked, voice hushed in awe.
“A little bit. Too rehearsed?”
Rhona ran a hand through her strawberry hair, considering this. “If you can do it, couldn’t everyone?”
Kia shrugged. “Maybe, sure. But maybe it’s one of those things about believing, right? A nine-year-old finds it easier to believe
, and therefore easier to call upon a power that is based on belief.”
“I’m not sure if… Well, if I believe you really are nine. Are you serious with all this? I mean, who the hell taught you to think and talk like this?”
The girl laughed. “In the clans, men are the warriors, women raised to be leaders. I’ve had tutors since I was four who ingrained in me different ways to approach problems. This, as I see it, is simply another problem to be solved.”
“Okay, smarty-pants,” Rhona said, crossing her arms across her chest and frowning. “Go ahead, show me how you get us out of here.”
A hint of doubt crossed Kia’s eyes, but then her smile returned, and she said, “Stand back,” before pulling back the hand with the flame still coming from it. She then pushed forward, so that a stream of flames poured forth and had the door hinges melting before their eyes.
“Holy… Remind me to tell your dad to teach you how to be careful with this magic stuff,” Rhona whispered, then jumped as the door fell outward with a clang that echoed through the chamber beyond.
A guard came running, but froze in his tracks at the sight of the little girl with flames coming from both hands now.
“Wait,” Rhona said, stepping out of the room to join her. “Let me try.”
She focused on the powers within again, and then, to her relief, the shadows around the man swayed like trees in a storm. With more confidence, she pushed. This time, the shadows moved over his eyes and mouth, and when he tried to scream, nothing came out.
“Eww,” Kia said, glancing up at her. “That’s like, one of my worst nightmares. Can’t I just burn him to death?”
“Um, no.” Rhona twisted her hands, and the shadows twisted around the man and then flung him up to the ceiling, where the shadows there engulfed him.
“What happens to him next?” Kia asked.
“I forgot how kids love to ask questions,” Rhona said, rolling her eyes. “Instead of hypothesizing, what’ya say we get out of here?”
Kia shrugged. “I was just curious.”
“Well, if your dad says it’s okay after we’re back with him, we can try it on you, and you can let us know where you go. Deal?”
At that, Kia got squeamish and even lost some color. “Let’s just leave it unanswered. I can handle that.”
“I bet you can.”
Together, they ran down the hall in the direction the guard had come from, and then up some stairs. As they approached the top step, they heard voices and saw a flickering of light.
Rhona held out a hand and whispered, “Careful with using our powers too quickly. We don’t want to be forced to slither out of here on our bellies due to a lack of energy.”
The girl simply nodded, not taking her eyes off of the flickering light ahead, and then took another step. Rhona cringed, sure they would be spotted at any second, but when no shouts of alarm rang, she joined Kia. They came upon a landing with a stone floor that circled around a central area that was like a very large column with a door in it, so it was clear this was either another room or possibly a spiral staircase.
Rhona was willing to bet the latter.
A shadow fell across the stones from their left, so they did their best to remain silent as they ran the other way. When they reached the inner wall, they paused, and then slowly starting walking around it, aware of the fact that the voices were moving their way from behind.
“Why don’t we just leave and deliver the woman?” a weary voice asked. “Get it over with.”
“They say we’re waiting on the local High Shadow to arrive,” another voice replied. “If he isn’t here to make the delivery…”
The voices hushed, too low for Rhona to make out, so she slowed.
“Better to keep them at each other’s throats,” the first one was saying. “Eventually, they snap. Turn on each other.”
“Keep your politics out of it, I say. Far as I’m concerned, we do our job, get paid, and then get the hell out of here.”
Rhona paused at the creaking of a door, then heard the voices die off as the other started talking about what he’d do to a woman if he had his share of the pay, before his voice faded away completely.
“You shouldn’t hear stuff like that,” she said to Kia.
Kia puckered her lips and then nodded. “On one point, we finally agree.”
“What do you say to finding out if this is our way out?” Rhona patted the wall behind her. “Get into that stairwell. Run until we see daylight.”
“Or the moon,” Kia replied. “No windows, hard to tell which it’d be.”
“Right, run until we see the sun or the moon.” Checking around the bend, Rhona confirmed they were clear and then said, “Now.”
They stayed close to the wall in case anyone was around to see them, but it was unnecessary. It was also, Rhona realized as they ran, rather pointless. She had forgotten about the fact that the corrupt mystic was using his powers to somehow sense her if she used her magic. The minute they got into trouble, she would give away their position.
Which made her wonder… why hadn't they already come for her? Suddenly, something felt very wrong.
But for now it was run, or rely on a nine-year-old girl for their defense and escape.
Inside they found stairs, as she had expected, and began their ascent. They came to the next level and opened the door a crack to see just another floor like the one they had come from. The two guards, or whatever they had been, seemed to have left the stairs, but that didn’t tell Rhona much. Her best bet, she figured, was to go either all the way to the top, or all the way to the bottom.
Since they had started in darkness, she figured it would be all the way to the top. On and on they ran, but on the fourth floor, Kia had to pause for a breath. They carried on, then Rhona and Kia turned a corner and found themselves in a room with a bed on the far wall, two figures pressed up against the wall near the bed. The man turned to her, his long, blond hair flying out as if hit by a gust of wind, his eyes piercing. The sorcerer Wodain.
The witch at his side frowned at the sight of them, then laughed.
“These are the two you’ve captured?” the woman said.
“For your information, Elaise, these two are capable of being some of the most powerful users I’ve ever come across.” Wodain turned, pulling his hand from under her dress and letting it fall with a resentful glance before glaring at Rhona. “If they would simply listen to reason.”
“Let us go,” Rhona said. “She’s just a little girl.”
Wodain shook his head. “Just… Just is such a misused word in that statement.” In a flash of white, he was standing a foot away, leering down at Kia. His left eye twitched as he reached out to her chin, his hand froze halfway there, shaking. “You see, I know what she’s capable of, as I know what you are capable of. This land, where magic goes unchecked and isn’t taught… it’s dangerous. It leads to people like the two of you, so different, yet your powers come from the same source as the rest of us. See, I’m the only one who gets it. I’m the only one who knows that, if I could but open up my mind, I could easily do what both of you do. They call me mad, but when we bring you to Her and take your powers for ourselves, they’ll all see.”
“All we are is a young woman and a girl, trying to be with our loved ones.” Rhona glanced over at the witch, mind spinning for a strategy of escape. “You two must understand.”
“Because you walked in on us being intimate?” Wodain asked, then laughed. “Do you honestly think I would allow anything other than what I approve in this place?” Again, his eye twitched and, in that second, his expression completely changed to that of a madman, almost like a remnant even. “Don’t doubt my powers over you, you pitiful excuse for a witch! I’d have your magic right now if…”
He pulled back, the crazy fading from his eyes. But she had seen it now and was too curious to see where it would lead him to let it fade so fast.
“Ah, but you can’t, can you?” She laughed. “They won’t let you torture me,
or even get into my brain to learn my secrets. You are no better than a slave to them!”
Wodain’s eyes went wild again, and he stepped forward, shouting as he raised his hand. In that moment, they were surrounded by walls of flames, bursts of lighting, and more. Until, just as quickly as it had come, the flames and all the rest were gone.
For a moment Rhona couldn’t breathe, until she realized he must have been in her mind, and that the flames were fake.
“Don’t push me,” he said, chest heaving and, once again, hand shaking. He pointed at her with a trembling finger and added, “You think I care about Her and the orders? You think I care?!”
“Wodain!” a voice shouted from the door, and Rhona spun to see Master Irdin there, glaring. “Why is the prisoner out of her cell?”
“How dare you question me?” Wodain said, then stepped forward and, with a sneer, held out his hand as his eyes went white. Master Irdin began to choke, then collapsed to his knees before toppling over to slam face-first on the floor.
Rhona gasped and pulled Kia close, covering her eyes.
“You see?” Wodain asked. “I am above them all!”
Rhona took Kia by the hand and ran, the sound of cackling laughter echoing behind them. The man was insane, she was sure of that now.
A voice carried after them, as if in their heads, “You can’t escape us, not in here.”
“No hiding,” Rhona replied, feeling at one moment hope slip away, and in the next come surging back with fury. “Not when he can get into our head. But if we were to go there and take care of these clowns once and for all… everyone we know would be safe.”
“You do realize you’re asking a nine-year-old girl for help in killing others?”
“Well, when you put it like that…”
Kia held a finger in front of her mouth and made a ‘Shhh’ sound, before setting a flame from the tip of her finger, and then blowing it out with a hint of excitement in her eyes.
“Again, not so sure you’re really nine,” Rhona said.
“By the way you look at me right now, I’d say you know I am, and it terrifies you.” Kia stood and stared her in the eyes, unblinking. “You wish you could have been half this powerful at my age.”
