by Daisy Banks
Alicia now stood alone in the center of the hall. The hem of the damp red gown stirred over the flagstones. Heat from the blaze in the hearth seemed not to warm her. She rubbed her hands together as though she were cold and hunched her shoulders as if to avoid a chill wind.
Nin could think of nothing in Alicia’s favor, for her friend must have known what she did was wrong and she could have sought help.
“You are right, my Sparrow, if she’d had the courage to ask for aid, much could have been avoided, but she did not.” Thabit interlaced his fingers with hers.
Nin waited to hear her friend’s fate.
“You have conjured and obeyed a diabolical creature, inflicted death and destruction, brought famine and pestilence upon our people and land. You gave this evil the means to thrive, and the innocent have suffered. Can you explain why you have done this?” Cassandra’s voice echoed through the hall. Today the usual soft tone held an edge of crystal sharpness. Lady Cassandra demanded answers.
A shudder passed through Nin to find the tranquil lady so grim. Biting her lip, she glanced at Thabit. His expression remained solemn. He, too, focused on Alicia, as did Lord Farel. Even Tab and Cecile seemed to have lost their gentleness. Both appeared forbidding today.
She sent a silent prayer that her friend would live to repent all she’d done.
“If she has a thread of good left in her, she may.” Thabit’s thought soothed.
Alicia remained silent, a bowed-headed figure before them. Strands of her snow-damp hair reflected the light of the fires. Only once did she look up. She moved her mouth as if to speak, but no sound came.
Cassandra leaned across and whispered to Lord Farel, who nodded, before she beckoned to Cecile and Tab. “Her silence is not enough, but I fear I will get no more here today. The girl is terrified to witless, and the power of evil still clutches her mind. Take her to the workroom. There will be guards should she try to leave.
“She will speak alone with me. Do not move from her side and keep her from the hearth.”
Alicia took stiff, slow steps behind Tab and Cecile, who led her out of the hall. At Cassandra’s nod, three guards moved to follow the small group of girls.
“Well, my lady?” Thabit asked as he got up from the bench.
“Oh, gods, I don’t know. It is as you said, a case of great stupidity, I fear. I know that changes nothing. We must deal with the consequences, and show justice being done. But despite it all, I cannot bring myself to fury with her.” Cassandra sighed.
“I can!” Thabit snapped. “What will you do, my lady? You cannot train her. It is much too late. You know she will be a magnet to evil for the rest of her life.”
“Yes, I agree. The wretched girl will sadly never be anything more than she has become,” Cassandra said.
“Please, my lady? There must be a way to help her?” Nin had moved from her seat to stand beside Thabit. “You two are powerful. I’ve seen it and I know it. You must be able to help Alicia.”
“No, it’s too late, my dear. Whatever power this girl might have developed is lost or corrupted beyond repair. The thirst for magic will be ever present within her, but should she attempt any kind of enchantment, the result will turn to evil despite any good intentions she may have. I can keep her here, but the girl will never be whole, never grow to become anything other than she now is, and she will provide a conduit to forces beyond her control. She will call them to her. She is lost, and if she ever truly accepts responsibility for her actions, it may be one lifetime will not be time enough to right her conscience.”
“Yes, yes. Now, if are done with the magical source of the problem can I go and speak with my commanders who are dealing with the wretched populace.” Lord Farel rose from his seat. “I still don’t see why we can’t have a public trial and execution!” He strode down the length of the great hall.
Cassandra gave a huge sigh. “It has taken me some time to convince my brother such a course would do nothing but be a show of vengeance.”
Thabit nodded at Cassandra’s troubled words, and Nin closed her eyes against the terrible thought.
Cassandra rose from the state chair, the shimmer of her sky gray gown rippling in the firelight. “I must go and see if I can get her to speak with me while we consider what shall be done with her.”
“My lady, when this is done, can you speak with my Sparrow about the second element to our plan?”
Nin glanced up at his tone. Something hurt him, and his pain ached in her bones. He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “I will seek you out later, Sparrow. Go with Cassandra.”
He strode quickly across the tiles and out the door. Not since Nin first went to his tower had his mind been so closed to her. The depth of his anger remained hard to understand.
“My lady, tell me please. Why does he continue to be so disturbed? Is the fault mine?”
Cassandra shook her head and gave her a faint, soft smile. “Once the problem of the girl is dealt with, I will try to explain.” Cassandra put her arm around Nin as she led her from the hall.
Chapter 23
Cecile and Tab both gave audible sighs when one of the guards opened the workroom door. Cassandra slipped her arm from around Nin’s small waist. “All of you go down and check on the patients in the infirmary. Once you have done so, the rest of the evening will be your own. Oh, and Cecile, don’t allow Rollo up out of bed yet, no matter how hard he begs.”
Nin’s dark troubled eyes, pleaded. “Can I not stay with you? Alicia will tell me what you need to know.”
“Your compassion is too great and not yet tempered by experience, my dear. For you to remain could be dangerous. Go with the others, Nin. I will come to you later.”
Nin curtsied with Tab and Cecile, and their heads close together, the three young women murmured as they left.
Cassandra turned back to Alicia who stood before the forbidden hearth with narrowed eyes. Somehow, the girl had swayed Tab and Cecile to disobey the explicit instruction to keep her from the fire, offering an open link to the demon.
The flames snuffed out with Cassandra’s quick glance. “Now, we are alone, you will explain, in all detail, how you called up this monster from the depths. And more importantly, tell me why.”
Alicia’s expression became doll-like. The girl stared with now vacant eyes as though her life spark were already imprisoned. Tendrils of evil visibly wrapped around her, like ivy on an ancient wall, a potent message for any who had the skill to see.
“Do not think you can deceive me, ignore me, or best me. To make the attempt could break your mind. If you do not answer satisfactorily, you will spend a month alone in the tower to help loosen your tongue.”
The girl’s fragile defense, built on silence, fell away and yet the nameless and powerful force still held her in its coils.
Cassandra focused her concentration on Alicia. “Speak, and do it now.”
Alicia grimaced, seeming to fight to make a sound. Slow, she whispered. “When Nin left, the mark came.” A gasp interrupted her words. “So, I covered my hand with the bandage. I couldn’t go with her—”
A choke gurgled in the girl’s throat. She coughed before she began again, her voice lower still. “Nin wanted him all to herself. She told me so at the market. He didn’t want me either, but another did.” A fleeting smile twisted the pale lips, and Alicia’s voice quivered with a brief note of power before it faded again to a low murmur. “The day after Nin left, while I raked the hearth, the voice called to me from the ashes. He told me what I should do to increase my strength. So I did it. I wanted to be powerful and show them what I could be.
“The spells he told were simple, at first, but when I was frightened and wanted it to stop—” Alicia’s lips turned blue as she struggled for air to continue the tale. “The creature, he wouldn’t let me…” The whisper diminished, and only gasps echoed in the room.
Cassandra lent her support, quelling the barbs of control in the girls mind, a
nd enabling her to speak.
“He said if I didn’t carry on, I would die. My family would die. I was afraid!” This last spewed out in a rush.
Powerful waves of fear, strong and heated, almost shoved Cassandra from her feet. This was not the girl’s fear of her. Oh, no, this was much stronger. The evil had wormed its way into the girl’s very spirit.
Compassion filled her. The wretched girl bore the full weight of her actions and carried a darkness in her soul. Perhaps she would not survive long with the knowledge of what she had done.
All the events of the past months played out in Cassandra’s mind like moving pictures. The craving and call for power beckoned even in memory. Sorrowful deep breaths were the only thing to break the silence as she delved deeper into the girl’s mind.
Alicia crumpled to her knees. She sobbed with great wracking gulps by the time all was revealed, and Cassandra sank into a seat opposite, sickened. The demon had brought forth this evil plague to strengthen itself, and neither she nor the Mage discovered its existence until too late.
“The worst element of your crime is concealment of all you did,” she said. She was unsure how all could have remained hidden. Perhaps a mechanism of the creature’s, or perhaps her own complacency allowed this to occur. The protection she gave to the land would be far more vigilant in future.
She pressed her fingers to her forehead, but did not lose her focus on the abject young woman, who huddled on her knees, rocking back and forth. “So, folly turns to evil this simply. If only the cure were as easy to achieve. Unfortunately, it won’t be, and the girl you envied, with courage so much greater than yours, she will suffer for you.”
Some might disagree with her, but she felt it important this girl knew of the next set of consequences for her actions.
The slender prone body twisted as though from a physical injury. “I didn’t mean to do it. Please.”
“I wish I could help you live with your guilt, but I cannot. You will bear the mark of evil your whole life, for any who can see. You will remain here in isolation until we can find a skilled practitioner with the right level of knowledge, one who is prepared to accept you as their charge and watch over you. I cannot free you.”
Still the girl did not raise her glance.
“Once the evil is undone,” Cassandra continued, “you will be safe perhaps from further contact with the demonic force you have unleashed. In time, with help, your pain may ease. Do you understand?”
The girl lifted her head. Strands of hair hid her tear-streaked face as she nodded.
Cassandra’s saddest expectations fulfilled, she crossed the room. She opened the door into the corridor and called to the guards. “Take her to the room at the top of the southern tower. She is to remain there under guard.”
The girl shuffled out, shoulders hunched so her long hair hung to her knees.
Bitterness lodged in Cassandra’s stomach. This girl, who might have had all kinds of talents and a future within the magical community, lost, and now the worst consequence of all—she had to find Nin and explain Thabit’s decision.
Sorrow filled her, for she could only guess what the result might mean to their developing love. She hurried down the silent corridors and prayed Nin would understand, be willing, and have the courage to take the steps needed.
The three girls were dressed in their nightshifts, preparing for bed, and their voices hushed as she entered the room.
Cecile brushed through Nin’s curls, while Tab folded clothes.
“Girls, I need Nin to come with me for a little while. Where is her cloak? We need to talk alone for a short time,” Cassandra said.
Cecile put down the brush. Nin smiled, and Tab passed the cloak.
“It’s all right, my lady. I believe I know what you will tell me.”
Most likely, she did. Nin’s powers had grown so much over the last days, it was possible she knew much of Thabit’s mind. Perhaps even her own thoughts drifted open to Nin’s skill.
Cecile and Tab waved a swift good-bye as she and Nin left the bedchamber.
They walked down to the workroom where she still felt the anguish from the wretched girl who had knelt weeping. “Come sit with me. I must be reassured you truly understand what this ritual Thabit plans will mean.”
Nin bowed her head as they sat together.
“Do you understand you will give yourself to him as part of the magic? The ritual will increase and share the power you have gained, will give you unity with him. The act will take you beyond being a student and into a much higher level.”
The dark eyes did not turn to her but stared into the hearth. The fire she had doused earlier, sparked under Nin’s glance to heat the chilled room. She took the girl’s cold hand. “You know this means he will take your body, yes?”
Nin gave a small nod of agreement, and despite the girl’s pallor, Cassandra pressed the message home. “This will not be simple love making, but a journey into power. He will not be able to treat you as I know he would wish, but as the ritual demands.”
“I know.” Nin still did not turn to her.
She must finish the explanation or her own courage would fail at the delicate pale face with the wide dark eyes.
“There may be pain with no pleasure for you, and the culmination of the ritual will take you once more to the burning plane, to face this threat to us all.”
“Yes, my lady.”
She squeezed the girl’s hand. Their choices few, she squashed any regrets.
To send for a willing priestess to participate in the ritual would take precious time they did not have. She could not take the role; she relinquished such a path long ago. The price to focus the power of her skills required she worked as a solitary light to offer wisdom to the young. Cecile and Tab were still students, both now far less skilled than Nin, and none of them held this strange dazzling power Nin had acquired.
The love between Nin and Thabit would join them fast, and bind the combination of their power in a way perhaps even a skilled priestess could not.
“What should I do, my lady? I cannot fail to act. No matter what, I love him. I am meant to do this. I must become who I should be, and things cannot always be as I wish.”
The words sighed bleak as the winter wind in the darkened courtyard. Nin looked up, and she gave the girl all the reassurance she could. “I know, my dear, your love will make the ritual more powerful still. It is not a lack of your power I fear. My fears are for the love between you and the Mage. I would hate for the love you bear him to be twisted by what may happen. Will you love him still if he causes you pain in such a way? You may need to bear much to gain the power you both will need to defeat this thing. Do you truly feel ready to take such strides into power?”
Nin laced her fingers together as she got up from her seat and took a couple of paces. “Nothing will stop me loving him, and I will do this. I would do it even if I didn’t love him, so the evil would end. It is within me to help, I think.”
The young woman’s resolve strengthened Cassandra’s conviction that the gods themselves had readied Nin for the ritual Thabit planned. “You have great courage, and that will help you in this task and the one to follow. I will send you with all the protection I can muster. Thabit knows it. He will protect you, too.”
“I know.”
Part of her longed to accompany them to the plane of fire and fear, but she must work at a different level. The greatest aid she could give both of them was to see that Nin knew all she needed for the ceremony. “I will teach you the incantations you will use during the ritual, and through it, you will achieve great strength. You will be united with Thabit, in this world and others. You already know the laws of how such power should be used, and Thabit will guide and help you.”
She stood and embraced Nin. “I envy you your love, I am ashamed to say. He cares for you so—it is writ large in all he does—and I see your love for him as clearly. Tomorrow, you and I will work together. I would
ask you not to see Thabit until it is time for you to meet in ritual.”
Nin’s little gulp tore at her.
“May I still speak to him?”
“This night, Nin, yes, but once we begin the preparations, no. You will need to focus all your attention on them.”
The small nod burned her heart. She smothered her frustration at the one who had caused all this.
“Please, my lady, don’t be angry with Alicia. I’m not.”
“You shame me.” She bowed her head. “You are right. Alicia simply became what evil, and her own lack of courage dictated, a mere pawn in the hands of an entity far more powerful than herself. Perhaps if we look deep enough, we might find a kernel of good in her being.”
Nin took on a faraway look, and a shimmer of power stirred the air. “Perhaps, given time.”
“Yes, we can only hope that is the truth, and it will help all those who have been hurt by this terror. Go to your bed now. I will speak with Thabit before I sleep so he understands you know and will take part in this ritual.”
Nin gave her a small smile. “If you would, my lady, I would be grateful.” Scarlet flushed Nin’s face. An apprehensive girl suddenly replaced the young priestess with wisdom. “I don’t think I could tell him myself. I hope he’s not angry. I’d hate it if he were.”
Cassandra shook her head and stroked the heat of Nin’s soft cheek. “No, he is not angry with you. I’ll speak with him. Leave it a little before you say anything to him tonight so I can talk with him first.”
“I’ll do as you say. Rest well, my lady.” Nin clasped the gray cloak about her and lifted the hood before she left.
For several minutes, Cassandra sat in thought before she went up to the tower where the Mage waited.
Thabit sat before the hearth and half rose from his seat as she entered the room. She stilled his courtesy with a small wave of her hand, and he sank back into the chair. His glance moved again to the hearth. The habit of fire staring was one he and Nin shared. Cassandra sat opposite him, and when he turned to look at her, his gaze blazed hot.
