JOURNEY OF THE SACRED KING BOOK I: MY SISTER'S KEEPER

by JANRAE FRANK

  Before she could rise, Mephistis seized her, pushing her down onto the recessed bleeding table on her back. He entered her, their blood-covered bodies moving together. Her teeth delicately broke the skin of his neck, finding the favored artery, and she drank just a little, remembering even in the throes of her passion that she did not want to endanger him or the others who would follow him. The acolytes gathered around them, chanting. The dark-kyndi rose, engulfing the powerful sa'necari in an auric web, draining him magically, sexually, and physically. The chamber hummed loudly with sheer energy, the air filling with dancing black sparks. The servants fled the chamber first. Mephistis pushed himself off Margren, staggering drunkenly to his feet. Three novices caught him before he could fall, carrying him to a room where he could rest and be well tended.

  Bodramet came next, murmuring into her ear where only she could hear it. "The half-a-mon should have been tabled on his belly with these others."

  "Yesss," Margren moaned as Bodramet moved inside her, and her fangs broke the skin of his neck.

  "You shall have his death."

  An image swept through Margren and for an instant she saw Isranon: he stood upon the highest tier of an edifice similar to the Altar of Hecatomb with a staff of incredible power, calling down the winds, the lances of sunfire, and lightning to destroy the altars of darkness. Then it was gone as Bodramet's power rushed into her.

  One after another the three initiates followed Mephistis, taking their turn with Margren. She drank from each of them as they pierced her, and the dark-kyndi sheathed them. By the time that the third was led staggering away by servants, the dancing sparks had become like a heavy mist that could barely be seen through. The power pressed upon everyone in the chamber. The soldiers withdrew swiftly as if shoved down by the tremendous energy. Only the acolytes and novices remained. The acolytes followed the initiates, entering her and being drained by the dark-kyndi. Margren's eyes gleamed red within an orb of black as the last one mounted her. She wrapped her legs and arms around him, her teeth going deep and savage into the artery. Too late he realized what she intended, trying desperately to pull away as the dark-kyndi imprisoned him. The novices fled when they realized that Margren was killing him. She took the death-gift from him and with him the power gained from more than two dozen mortgiefan he himself had taken in the course of his training. Margren lay alone on the altar in the empty chamber, the body of the dead acolyte draping her, twenty drained corpses hanging from the scaffolding. The power screamed about the room, seeking release, growing beyond restraining and Margren spoke a single word: "Aejys!"

  * * * *

  A gale force wind came raging out of nowhere: unforeseen and unexpected, it slammed through the narrow forested pass, breaking trees, ripping loose boulders which had sat secure for millennia upon the mountain's side, sending them hurtling down on the company. Horses and riders screamed, trying to scatter from the path of the careening juggernauts. The pass was too narrow and for several there was simply no place to run. Eliahu cast off the last vestiges of his pretense; raising CallThunder high in both hands, he shouted out words of power, demanding an answer from the skies. Lightning flashed and struck, shattering many of the huge stones. But not even the High Mage of Winter could get them all. Myn died around him, the life crushed from them while those more fortunate lifted their shields as shelter from the flying fragments of those boulders Eliahu stopped.

  "It's a sending," Grawl snarled, rising on his hind legs. He sheathed his claws, extending his paws as they slowly changed into long fingered heavily furred hands. He pulled his staff from his back where it rested strapped beside his pack. Clemmerick, standing next to Grawl and Josh, squatted down beside a tree, wrapped his arms around the trunk and heaved as he straightened, bringing the tree with him. Grawl, seeing what he was up to stripped most of the branches away with a swipe of his paws.

  "Take shelter!" the ogre bellowed, charging into the rolling stones and batting them away from the company.

  "Everyone! Up against the cliffs. Get as flat as you can!" As her company hurried to obey, many dismounting and shoving their horses up against the stone, Aejys turned desperately to Laurelyanne, "Where? You know the area – where?"

  "Hundred yards further, a cave."

  "Tag, pass the word, everyone dismount, get close to the cliffside, stay under the overhang as much as possible."

  Aejys slipped from the saddle, landing lightly despite the wind. "Go find it," she ordered Gwyndar. The big wynderjyn snorted and moved out into the wind, his head down as he struggled for each step.

  Debris flew around them, filling the air with missiles of earth, stone and tree parts, but pressed closely to the steeper side of the cliffs, they made smaller targets and fewer got hit. Terrified animals screamed and pulled, even the rangers were controlling their mounts with increasing difficulty. Only the wynderjyns remained steady beneath the clearly unnatural assault.

  "I see it," Aejys shouted. For just a single heartbeat the lapsed ha'taren felt hope rise, then a wild howling began in the air above them. Aejys looked up and saw skeletally thin figures on gaunt, parchment-skinned mounts riding the air currents. A dirty yellow aura surrounded them. Her stomach tightened: she had not seen them since the day that Kalestari Desharen, Tamlestari's ma'aram, slew Aurean of Waejontor.

  "Vargeis!" She shouted, pointing, her voice carrying like a warcry.

  No banewitch, necromancer, or sa'necari other than Aurean, greatest banewitch of Waejontor now ten years dead by the hand of Kalestari Desharen, had had the power to summon them until now, much less give them that stale urine aura which meant that they had substance and were not merely wraiths of terror magic. "Form up! Tag, get the mages in the cave, pull the reds and then my blacks in around them."

  The stout dwarf nodded, reined back, shouting orders.

  Aejys turned to Tamlestari standing at her shoulder, "Go with the mages."

  "No." Tamlestari growled.

  "Damn it! Get in the fucking cave!" Aejys shouted angrily, giving the young woman a shove.

  Tamlestari bristled, looking for just a moment as if she would like to hit Aejys.

  Laurelyanne put her hand to Tamlestari's stomach. "The children..."

  Tamlestari's expression softened as quickly as it had hardened. She nodded and retreated.

  "Hanadi," Aejys turned to the Guildsmon. "How are your greens armed?"

  "Kenda'ryl and silver, runed" Hanadi answered calmly, through lips curled back in a savage expression. "All runed. Jon Dawn's legionnaires, all of them."

  "Laurelyanne?"

  The Valdren mage nodded, "runed."

  "Greens and rangers on the outer perimeter," Aejys ordered quickly.

  "Have the reds and blacks leave their weapons sheathed," Laurelyanne said. "Use whatever sticks they can pick up, I'm blessing the earth." The mage lifted her staff, waving it in a broad circling sweep as a surge of green light roared forth in an expanding blanket.

  Clemmerick, standing near the middle of the line as it began to reform, dropped the tree he'd just uprooted and scooped up Josh and Eliahu, carrying them swiftly to the cave. He deposited them roughly within it, striding back through the ranks forming around Aejys. He retrieved his tree without missing stride

  * * * *

  Eliahu immediately dropped into a cross-legged position, pressing his forehead to CallThunder, his awareness reaching into the winds to fight Margren for control of them. He felt for the winds limits, felt their force buck and scream with rage at the touch of his questing power. Death it shrieked; blood and pain; and then it wept, but the tears were clots of flesh. It tore at him with icy talons, ripping into his mind. He had to force his shields into place as they strove to prevent his raising them. Eliahu reeled, feeling an agonizing pressure building behind his eyes. Never before had he ever felt such tremendous power and never before had he ever wanted to call a force of nature evil – but this was filled with such hatred and rage that he recoiled. The moment that he broke contact with the wind
s, the pressure abated and he realized that tears were running down his face from the effort and pain. This was a truly unequal contest, even for the High Mage of Winter. He could not do this alone.

  "Josh! Help me," he cried out in sheer desperation, reaching for the sot. Josh blinked in confusion for a moment before taking Eliahu's extended hand and settling beside him.

  "I'm frightened," Josh muttered, reaching for his flask and taking a deep pull.

  "So am I, my friend," Eliahu confessed. "So am I. But we must try." The last time he had tasted Josh's unbridled power it had burned him on the road to St. Tarmus. He was almost as frightened just then of linking with Josh as he was of Margren's assault, but he'd watched in his scrying pool during the Great War as small units of vargeis ripped through whole units of veteran ha'taren, rangers and paladins of many faiths. If he could steal the winds he could hurl the creatures away.

  "Take another drink, Josh, if it will steady you, then try to follow me, if I need something you'll hear me in here," Eliahu said as he settled CallThunder in the crook of his arm, placing his palm on Josh's forehead. He could feel the untutored, undisciplined drunken sailor-mage trembling. "Whatever I ask for just give it to me. Stay calm. Ground and center. You remember how to do that, don't you?"

  Josh nodded, took another drink, and then slid his flask back into his pocket. His features smoothed out, his eyes taking on that strange, knowing expression as if someone or something else looked out of his eyes. "Ready. Let's get them, matey."

  Eliahu nodded, closing his eyes and reaching out again for the winds feeling Margren's savage hatred in their movements, feeling Josh's tremendous power roaring at the edges of awareness like some incredible, unbroken stallion challenging the elements themselves and himself caught between them. "Let's go."

  * * * *

  Grawl lumbered through the lines to stand with the rangers who gave him space. He reared up on his hind legs as his forepaws reshaped into hands and he pulled his staff from his back.

  Borian Silverwing looked up at Grawl's huge form. "Should you not be with the mages?"

  "Naw," Grawl gave a barking laugh. "A shaman fights at the front."

  * * * *

  Clemmerick shouldered his tree, marching to the front of the units to meet their attackers first, and noticed Jeord carrying a somewhat smaller tree of his own. The hostler cocked his head just a fraction, letting Jeord know his action had been noticed. Jeord gave a lopsided grin, shouting over the wind, "Making Tag proud of me!"

  "Then at them, brother," Clemmerick replied.

  Every piece of wood, every tree and bush was limned in a dark green aura, including their huge clubs. "This will do some damage," Clemmerick muttered.

  Then the vargeis descended on them and the battle was met.

  * * * *

  The vargeis came in a wedge as Aejys moved to the front to face them. Clemmerick and Jeord charged into them with their clubs, crushing several of the creatures in their initial rush. A large number swarmed over them, attacking with their strange rust-colored blades, their gaunt steeds rising and striking with their hooves. Aejys' stomach did a sick roll as she saw them both go down. Gwyndar bumped her with his head and she mounted quickly. She drew sword, wanting with every fiber of her being to go to their aid, but fully aware of how suicidal that would be.

  "Tag, get the rear moving. Orderly retreat into the cave."

  "Yeah," Tagalong said, turning and shouting as she strode to the rear.

  Clemmerick erupted suddenly from the knot of vargeis that had swept over him, knocking them aside. Blood ran down his great arms and face, his jerkin was torn and soaked with red. He carried Jeord under one arm like a sack of potatoes. With a huge sweep of his arms, he cleared a path back to the retreating ranks, which opened to admit him. A ragged cheer went up when he reached them, giving Jeord to a handful of blacks and reds that emerged from the cave to take him. Then Aejys began to slowly back up, withdrawing, line by line.

  Gwyndar reared, his hooves beating at the foes' mounts. Aejys struck right and left, forcing the vargeis back. Her rune-sword glowed with cold white fury. The vargeis killed the Guildsmyn fighting on either side of Aejys and closed in on her. The vargeis swirled around her six deep, all trying to reach her with a single-minded intensity. They had been sent to slay just one person, the others were incidental, simple obstacles to their goal. More and more of Aejys' forces escaped into the cave as she had ordered them. Then suddenly her lines collapsed and the vargeis swept around her. Gwyndar whirled, striking and kicking and biting.

  Borian rallied his rangers and went back after Aejys. His myn fell like sheaves of grain before the scythe: he could not cut through to her aid. Gwyndar's raging cries turned abruptly to pain as Aejys felt their intuitive link snap and she crashed to earth with the big animal. Gwyndar's body trapped her leg on the shield side. She parried frantically as the vargeis swarmed around her. A sword drove through her mail, deep into the juncture of chest and shoulder. Her blade fell from her nerveless hand. Agony ripped through her leg and side as their swords found her. Darkness swept over her and consciousness fled.

  A huge arm swept the creatures away from Aejys, lifting her up and away. Clemmerick staggered back into the cave with her. Brush burned just inside the cave mouth, reinforced with Laurelyanne's magic so that the winds could not blow it out. The vargeis could not pass the enchanted flames. Clemmerick lowered Aejys into waiting arms, then turned, walked three steps, and sank to his knees, clutching at himself as he folded up to lie in a still heap on the ground.

  * * * *

  Eliahu's awareness touched the magical force controlling the winds, felt its terrifying rage and hatred woven through with the psychic stench of near madness. The power behind it had risen from some obscene arcane ritual unlike anything he had yet encountered in his near century of life; he could smell the deaths that had been taken to raise it. Is this what the mages who went up against Aurean encountered? Even in circle with all of his mages in the citadel of Winter, he doubted he could fight it. Then his awareness was ripped back, sent hurling into the cave and his body as Josh broke contact with him.

  He swayed, blinking, trying to clear the psychic debris from his mind. Josh was screaming hysterically. Eliahu turned without rising and saw first Clemmerick's blood soaked body with healers scrambling about him, then Aejys with Laurelyanne bending over her still form. "Dear gods, no!"

  Josh stood above the High Mage of Winter, screaming on and on. Power danced along his arms like blue flames, and then swept around him as if on a private wind, swirling upward, filling the chamber. Eliahu scrambled to his feet, impulsively grabbing Josh's shoulder. Josh's power flowed over Eliahu, flowed into him, with a cold burning intensity that set his nerve endings burning and shrieking. Eliahu's awareness tore from his body as Josh dragged him into the astral, plunging through the roof of the cave. His body collapsed at Josh's feet. He saw Grawl curl up around him vainly trying to shield him. Then he was out of the cave, captive to Josh's power, riding it like some incredible beast.

  "Josh! Please, Josh, hear me," Eliahu cried, but Josh did not answer. Blue lightning danced above the winds, gathering itself in nightmare strength. The power swirled again as Josh sent it down against the vargeis. The lightning darted in crowding strikes among the vargeis, shattering them, felling trees, and breaking stones, leaving deep scoring in the earth itself. For single fleeting instant Eliahu glimpsed Josh's spirit form as it bestrode the valley like a giant, one foot planted firmly on the mountains to each side.

  Josh gathered up the force of the winds and hurled them back, forcing them eastward. Eliahu cried out again and again, trying to pull Josh away from his pursuit. The landscape flashed swiftly by as they hurled toward Shaurone. Eliahu saw the ruins atop Dragonshead just before he blacked out.

  * * * *

  Power exploded over Dragonshead. A long line of ruins collapsed on the bluffs. The earth shook. Chunks of ceiling rained about Margren. She threw the acolyte's body off herself,
scrambling to her feet, trying to run. Then the force of the strike curled around her, hurling her into a wall. Margren twisted into a fetal position, sobbing with terror. She lay there for a day and a half before anyone could dig through the debris and reach her.

  * * * *

  The heavens opened up with loud peels of thunder and lightning dancing overhead in the narrowing mountain pass. Rain descended in sheets, obscuring the landscape. Laurelyanne stood at the cave mouth, staring out at the debris and fallen trees blocking the entrance. It would take days to dig through it. Until then they would be trapped there.

  At Borian's request, Laurelyanne used mind-speech to send the Valdren scouts, who had been far ahead of the company, to the nearest town for help. In quick order only Brundarad remained at large in the storm.

  "All this to slay one woman..." she muttered darkly before turning back to see to the wounded. "The war, Borian," she told the captain of rangers, her sister's son, "never ended, we merely had a seven year respite."

  * * * *

  Aejys opened her eyes at the touch of a cool cloth on her face, cleaning away the blood. It took her vision a moment to focus, and then her gaze met Tamlestari's cool green orbs. A sick terror gripped her as all the faces of the dead flooded through her mind and she screamed, "Get away from me! Get the hell away from me!"