by R A Oakes
“It all makes perfectly good sense to me,” Lord Ridgewood said as he smiled expansively.
“But what if other survivors from the battle show up at Dominion Castle and report what happened?” Valkira asked.
“Let them. Were you at the ranch?” “No.”
“Did you help plan or lead the attack?”
“No.”
“Was I there?”
“No, you were off saving our necks by getting Genevieve.”
“Then we can say Zenaruka acted independently. We’ll deny all knowledge of it.”
“But what about Tarlen? We know where he is. Shouldn’t we tell Swarenth?” Valkira asked.
“Go ahead, it will only cost you your life, and your son will never become king.”
“That’s not good.”
“So why say anything?”
“Tarlen will eventually return to Dominion Castle and try to retake it.”
“He isn’t strong enough to mount an attack, at least not now.”
“In six months or a year, he might be,” Valkira pointed out.
“That’s a long time away, and a lot can change between now and then.”
“What about Genevieve? She knows where Tarlen is.”
“Genevieve’s his fiancée, for heaven’s sakes. She’s not going to tell Swarenth anything.”
“But Tarlen will follow us to Dominion Castle if we take Genevieve there,” Valkira said.
“Let him. What’s he going to do? Like I said, he has no real army at this point. Plus, the king’s personal guards will do everything they can to dissuade him from being so reckless.”
“Well, even if Tarlen does show up, he’ll face a gargoyle army wearing new light-weight armor with archers using a new long-range bow that Swarenth’s craftsmen have developed,” Valkira said proudly.
“That will really take Tarlen Kardimont by surprise,” General Zarkahn laughed. “We have superior numbers and weaponry. How can we lose?”
“You have it all figured out, don’t you?”
“I do my best.”
“Okay, one final point,” Valkira said. “If some gargoyle survivors do make their way back to Dominion Castle, they’ll know that Lord Ridgewood’s men were involved in the attack. He’ll be implicated.”
“Lord Ridgewood, would you care to answer that question for him?”
“I’ll lie my way out of it,” the old pirate smiled.
“So, what else is on your mind? Do you have any other worries?”
“Not right now.”
“Then let’s focus on the problems at hand. Very soon, Chen and the king will be coming at us,” General Zarkahn said.
“I still have 300 warriors here at Firecrest Castle.
There’s no way Chen or Tarlen can storm the walls. If they get here quickly, how many warriors can they have with them? Not many. All they can do is make a lot of noise. It’s a manageable problem, at least for now,” Lord Ridgewood said.
“I love a man with a positive attitude, don’t you Valkira?” the general laughed.
“Hey, if you two take over Dominion Castle, could I have Skybrook Castle?” Lord Ridgewood asked.
“Sure,” General Zarkahn said. He and the old pirate shook hands.
General Zarkahn had no intention of honoring the deal, but it allowed them to at least pretend they were allies. For as General Zarkahn said, he was certain that Chen and Tarlen were on their way.
◆◆◆
While General Zarkahn, Valkira and Lord Ridgewood were talking in Firecrest Castle’s great hall, an invisible teenage girl was in the bowels of the castle searching for Genevieve and Dylancia.
I don’t know where they could be, Aerylln thought to herself. But I know prisoners are usually held in the dungeon, so I’ll start there.
Aerylln began walking with confidence along hallways and down stairwells. She felt no fear and with good reason.Since arriving at the castle, she’d made a couple of discoveries. For one, when first coming upon some of Lord Ridgewood’s men, she’d ducked into a recessed doorway and pressed her back firmly against the wood. Suddenly, she’d found herself inside the room even though the door was still closed.Bewildered, she’d reached out with both hands trying to feel the surface of the wooden door but her arms passed through it up to her elbows.
After that, anytime Aerylln saw someone coming, she’d jump through a wall or a door. But once, when she didn’t have time to hide, Lord Ridgewood’s men acted like they hadn’t seen her anyway. Soon, it dawned on her that they hadn’t.
Aerylln thought, But why is my second experience “subterranean traveling” so different from the first? When I left my body behind in Skybrook Castle’s great hall and went to speak with Zorya, she’d been able to see me without any difficulty.
Well, the explanation was that this time Aerylln had stepped farther away from physical reality. The first time she went “subterranean traveling,” she’d stayed close to the boundary separating the visible and invisible worlds. This time, without knowing it, she’d gone much deeper into the spiritual world.
Being invisible is really helpful, Aerylln thought. Yes, but unbeknownst to her, it also took her closer to things that go bump in the night.
As she approached the dungeon, the stench was so disgusting that Aerylln put a handkerchief over her mouth and nose. A wall of iron bars with a formidable-looking gate sealed off the entire passageway in front of her. On the inside, she could see the jailer and several of his men sitting around a rough wooden table playing cards. As Aerylln strode through the bars and walked past the table, one man sniffed the air like a bloodhound.
“Do any of you smell that?” he asked. His body was emaciated, his eyes bulged out of their sunken hollows, and loose skin was hanging down his scrawny neck like that of a turkey.
“Smell what?” the jailer asked.
“Fresh soap and light perfume.”
At that, the other men burst out laughing, and the jailer asked, “How would you know what they smell like? When was the last time you even had a bath?”
“What’s a bath?” another man asked. He meant it as a joke, but the question could have been taken seriously given his general appearance.
Next, the jailer caught a whiff of a fresh scent and was amazed. The dungeon was so far underground that fresh air rarely reached it. He swept the room with his eyes and settled right on the spot where Aerylln was standing.
Reaching out, the jailer’s dirty hand passed through Aerylln’s spirit, and the young woman jumped and felt like vomiting. She’d never experienced anything so disgusting in all her life. It was as if a foul essence lingered within her. Aerylln quickly backed away from the table, but the jailer followed sniffing the air.
“It smells like a woman,” the jailer said, his face now wearing a glazed expression.
“There’s a woman in that last jail cell, but I think all the freshness has been taken out of her. At least we did our best,” one man laughed. “You might as well come back and play your hand.”
Ignoring him, the jailer lunged in Aerylln’s direction. She sidestepped him, but then he lunged again, and again. Aerylln got away by running down a hallway leading to the cells.
The teenage girl was frantic and thought, What if the woman that man was talking about is Genevieve?
Running past cell after cell, Aerylln forced herself to look at the wasted human beings inside, all the time frightened that the next cell would actually hold the friend she was seeking.
I want to find her, but not here, Aerylln thought.
As she reached the last cell, the one holding the ravaged woman, the teenage girl was stunned by her appearance. She was stripped naked, covered with welts from being beaten and had blood streaming from a nose that Aerylln assumed was broken or shattered. Every inch of the woman’s body was scratched or bruised. There was blood on the walls from where the men had repeatedly picked her up and thrown her against the rough stones. Her lips and face were swollen to the point of making her almost unreco
gnizable.
Though one eye was swollen shut, the other opened a little when Aerylln approached. In a frightened voice, the woman said, “Are you mad? Get out of here. What if the men catch you? Do you want to end up like this?”
Looking at the woman’s shattered body, the teenage girl asked herself, How can human beings do this to each other?
“Evil spirits,” the nearly dead woman croaked.
“What?”
“Evil spirits.”
Realizing the woman was talking to her, Aerylln thought, How can she see me?
“I can see you just fine. Well, not fine. But I can still see a little,” the woman said. “I’m not Genevieve.”
“You know who I’m looking for?”
“I knew as soon as you entered the dungeon.”
“How could you even know I was here?”
“I don’t know. I just did.”
“What do you mean by evil spirits?”
“No man can do what they did to me on their own. Men who rape are demon possessed. They have to be. What else could account for the insanity of rape?”
“I want to help you get out of here.”
“Oh, I’ll be coming with you, I think. The problem’s not getting out of the cell. The problem’s getting past the statue outside the dungeon gate.”
“I got in easily enough.”
“That’s getting in, I’m talking about getting out,” the woman said pushing herself off the floor and standing up. When she did so, however, it wasn’t as the ravaged woman who lay bleeding on the floor. This woman’s body was injury free, her hair was combed, and she had on a clean dress. Approaching the bars of her cell, she passed through them and said, “I’m serious, getting out won’t be easy.”
In confusion, Aerylln glanced back at the ravaged body in the jail cell. Then, as things began to sink in, she looked at the woman in front of her and said, “You’re dead!”
“That’s the least of our problems. To get away, we’ll have to face something even death can’t defend us from.”
“You’re scaring me.”
“Sorry, but believe me, you’re not scared enough.”
“But neither of us has a physical body. How can anyone hurt us?”
“Assault is not only about your body. It’s what it does to your spirit. It’s having all that hellish energy invading you, wanting to possess you.”
“I’m sorry, that sounds awful.”
“Let’s hope we don’t have even more regrets when we try to walk out of here. But I’m afraid we’re in for a bad time.”
The two spirit women made their way back to the entrance. The men stopped playing cards when they walked past but didn’t get up this time. In a moment, both women were standing in the hallway outside the dungeon.
“What’s your name?” Aerylln asked.
“Dead Woman will do for now,” she said.
“That’s not much of a name.”
“First, I want to see if I have a need for one. I need to see if my spirit is going to be free or if it’s going to be enslaved.”
“Enslaved by whom?”
As if in answer to Aerylln’s question, a decrepit, old hag stepped out of a life-size stone statue of herself and said, “Don’t let her fill you with a lot of negative talk about me. You need to form your own opinions.”
When Aerylln felt Dead Woman freezing up in terror, the teenage girl turned to her new friend and said, “Ignore this evil, old woman. I recognize her. She opposed Chen at Crystal Castle a while ago. You lost then, Balzekior, and you’ll lose now.”
“Where’s your horse and sword, Aerylln?”
“I’m wearing Baelfire, as you can see.”
“Not quite. Only part of her spirit is with you, and Baelfire’s consciousness is somewhere else. She’s not totally here, is she? So much for the fabled Trinity of Light.”
Aerylln didn’t know what to say, but then it came to her. “Balzekior, you don’t have the components necessary to create the Trinity of Darkness either, do you? Chen’s not here. Neither is the dark sword, Crystal, or the Crystal Medallion.”
“I don’t need them. I have powers of my own.”
“If that’s true, then why are you trapped here with that statue? Why don’t you leave?”
“I stay here by choice.”
“I don’t think so.”
“You little tramp, what do you think you can do against me? If I want, I can kill those jailers and let their spirits come after yours.”
With that, all six men by the dungeon entrance began choking.
“I can’t breathe,” the head jailer gasped.
In a blind panic, they knocked over their table and chairs as they struggled for air. Two men ran for the dungeon gate and clawed at the lock in an effort to escape death. The others looked around wildly seeking any reason for their sudden dilemma. But soon, one by one, the head jailer and his men fell to the floor dead.
“Strangulation is so dramatic, and it’s an interesting way to die, don’t you think?” Balzekior asked smiling. She was enjoying herself immensely. The decrepit, old hag smiled even more as the men slowly got back onto their feet, at least their spirits did. Six dead bodies remained on the cold, stone floor.
“I told you I could smell soap and perfume,” the man with the turkey skin hanging from his throat said.
Suddenly, the men looked hungrily at Aerylln and Dead Woman, whom they could now see clear as day. With eager strides, the jailers advanced on the two female spirits.
“I want the little one,” turkey skin croaked.
Aerylln started to run, but her friend was in such a state of shock she couldn’t move.
“D.W., come on! Run!”
“You go ahead without me. This is my fate.”
“No, it’s not! Run! Run!” Aerylln screamed.
“I’ll keep them busy for a while. You try to get away.”
“No!” Aerylln shouted. With grim determination, the teenage girl reached for Baelfire, the Sword of Light, but she couldn’t pull the sword from its scabbard. It seemed lifeless.
“Baelfire!” Aerylln screamed with all her might.
◆◆◆
Miles away, Baelfire heard Aerylln’s scream and said, “Zorya, Aerylln’s in trouble, serious trouble. Go to her. I’ll guard her body.”
“What sort of trouble?” Zorya asked, fear evident in her voice.
“Balzekior.”
Zorya went wild with anger and frustration, rearing up on her hind legs and letting out a war cry that was heard by the approaching travelers. King Tarlen, Chen, Lord Pensgraft, Marcheto, Andrina, Gwendylln, Corson and 30 warrior women came charging along the canyon trail and pulled up near Zorya, Baelfire and Aerylln’s body.
“Aerylln’s in trouble,” Baelfire tried to explain to Lord Pensgraft. “Her body’s here, but her spirit has gone on to Firecrest Castle.”
“How far are we from the castle?” Lord Pensgraft asked.
“About half a day’s ride.”
“Zorya, can you use prism light to get me there faster? Can I ride you and get to her right away?”
“No, that won’t work, I can’t do it alone. Plus, when Aerylln left her body, she also took some of Baelfire’s spirit. We’re split apart. Two members of the Trinity of Light have been virtually cut in half.”
“What’s happening to my daughter?”
“I think Balzekior’s trying to turn Aerylln into a demon, into someone to serve her.”
“Are you telling me there’s nothing you can do to help?”
Looking Lord Pensgraft in the eye, Zorya sensed the giant’s mood. He was filled with rage over the kidnapping, terribly frightened for both of his daughters and close to losing control. If she said there was nothing she could do, it was possible Lord Pensgraft might crack and lash out with his sword. Zorya thought, In the Trinity’s weakened condition, he might be able to kill me.
“There’s one thing, but it’s very risky,” the magic horse said cautiously.
�
�What?” Lord Pensgraft demanded.
“We could take Aerylln’s body to her. But if we move her body, it’s possible she won’t be able to find her way back to it. She may be trapped in spirit form.”
“If we take her, will you and Baelfire be able to generate prism light?”
“Yes.”
“If we do nothing, you’re telling me an insane demon woman is going to enslave my daughter. But if we try to do anything, I might never see her again.”
“That’s right.”
“If we get Aerylln’s body near her spirit can you help her?”
“Yes, but I don’t know if we can reach her in time. The danger to Aerylln is happening now. It’s immediate.”
Lord Pensgraft dismounted and climbed onto Zorya’s saddle. The magic horse cantered up to Aerylln. Lord Pensgraft leaned down, picked up his daughter, placed her in front of him and wrapped a protective arm around her.
Baelfire and Zorya were surprised to hear Aerylln speak. “Father, they’re after me.”
Prism light shot out of Baelfire and Zorya surrounding everyone in their group with a warm, yellow haze. It filled them all with energy, and they galloped down the trail with Lord Pensgraft in the lead.
“Father,” Aerylln said in a weak and frightened voice.
“I’m coming, Aerylln, I’m coming!”
Zorya stretched out and took massive strides. At this rate, she could reach Aerylln in a few minutes. The problem was that by then it would be too late, and Zorya knew it.
For the first time in years, Zorya prayed. “God, we need a miracle. Please send an angel to protect Aerylln. Please!”
The magic horse had been fighting evil for over 500 years. She had seen tragedies by the score and had little hope of saving Aerylln now. But Zorya would soon be surprised. She was about to experience the power of answered prayer.
Chapter 25
Firecrest Castle, after dark on a moonlit night. While Lord Pensgraft was desperately trying to save his daughter, both Prophet and Chaktar were sitting on a rocky knoll overlooking Lord Ridgewood’s fortress.
