by David Wells
It came fast and spooked the horses. Alexander held on as his horse reared to defend against the charging cat. It was a magnificent creature, easily three feet at the shoulder and six feet long with golden fur and bright yellow eyes.
It leapt for the throat of Alexander’s horse. The big mare lashed out with her hooves, but the cat launched itself high enough to avoid her desperate attempt to fend off the predator. The cat clamped its fangs into the soft flesh of her throat and sank its front claws into either side of her neck while raking the chest and belly of the dying horse with its rear claws. The horse started to topple over, screaming in pain and terror.
Alexander half fell and half jumped clear as his horse crashed to the ground in a jumble with the cat. He hit hard.
The cat didn’t waste a moment with the dying horse, but instead fixed its yellow eyes on Alexander. He shook his head to dispel the stunned feeling and tried to take a breath but the wind was knocked out of him. All he could do was struggle to breathe and watch the big cat prepare to spring. As he fumbled to draw his sword, he thought vaguely to himself that the cat’s colors weren’t quite right.
Abigail sent an arrow into its shoulder; it howled and flinched sideways, giving her a murderous look. Anatoly gained control of his horse and charged the cat. Isabel drove an arrow into its haunch. The cat leapt into the air toward Alexander, but Anatoly caught it on the hindquarter with the sharp spike on the back of his axe. The cat spun and twisted in midair with such speed and violence that Anatoly lost his grip on his axe. The cat tumbled to the ground and came up limping and hurt. Abigail and Isabel each sank another arrow into the bleeding animal, but it didn’t seem to notice.
Alexander succeeded in drawing a breath and his sword at the same time. He regained his feet only a moment before the cat pounced again. This time he was ready. He slipped to the side and cleaved the head and right shoulder of the big cat free of its body. It crashed to the ground in a broken heap.
He stood gasping for breath and looking at the scene of carnage with shock and bewilderment as he schooled the pounding in his chest. Wild animals didn’t behave like that. It made no sense until he saw it—a thin filmy shimmer of discoloration rose up from the dead cat and almost took form. It hovered for just a moment as a beastly face of contorted malice coalesced. Its eyes glowed with a menacing red, but they were the only part of the insubstantial creature that had any semblance of solidity. It locked eyes with Alexander before it shrieked soundlessly and darted straight for Isabel.
Alexander watched in helpless terror as the demon possessed her horse. Isabel put her hand to her horse’s neck to comfort the spooked animal, and before Alexander could warn her, she made a connection with the animal’s mind—a mind now possessed by a creature from the darkness.
She screamed with horror and pain in a way that made Alexander’s soul squirm. The horse bucked. Isabel was a skilled and experienced rider, but her mind was recoiling from the contact she’d made with the mind of a demon and she was tossed free and hit the ground hard.
Alexander wanted nothing more than to race to her side, but the possessed horse was blocking his path. It reared and lashed out with its hooves. This time Alexander knew what he was facing. He flicked his blade across the horse’s legs and lopped them both off just below the joint. The horse screamed in pain. When it fell forward and tried to break its fall with what was left of its legs, it screamed again. The next moment, Alexander sliced through its brainpan. The horse slumped over and the demon rose again.
Anatoly was already on the ground retrieving his axe. Lucky had dismounted to attend to Isabel. That left Jack and Abigail still on horseback.
“Dismount!” Alexander called out urgently. “A demon is possessing the horses.” Abigail and Jack wasted no time clamoring down from their steeds. Anatoly’s horse was the next to be taken. With resignation, he stepped between the animal and Alexander. It charged. Anatoly picked his moment and sidestepped, swinging his axe at the back of the horse’s neck. It fell forward and died quickly.
With sickness in his heart, Alexander stepped up to Lucky’s horse and killed the beast before it could be taken by the demon. He gave Abigail a look that spoke volumes. They’d grown up riding horses together. Both of them loved the animals, but now they were a threat.
Her anguish turned to resolve and then to cold anger. She said “I’m sorry,” as she sent an arrow into her horse’s heart. Jack’s horse was last. The demon took it and turned to charge Alexander but it never made it. Abigail took careful aim and released her arrow into the side of the animal’s chest. It stumbled to the ground and fell over.
Alexander watched the demon rise up from the last of the horses. It held his gaze with murderous hate and soundlessly shrieked again before passing straight through his body. He felt a chill that made his skin crawl as the netherworld creature moved through him and then faded off into the distance.
The battle lasted less than a minute but there was death all around. In the stunned silence that followed, worry for Isabel flooded into Alexander and he raced to her side.
She was unconscious. Lucky looked worried but not half as worried as Alexander was when he saw the taint in her aura. She’d made contact with the mind of a demon, and the foul creature had stained her beautiful colors.
“How badly is she hurt?” Alexander asked as he willed the frantic terror welling up inside him into the recesses of his mind.
Lucky was all business. “Nothing is broken but she hit her head. She won’t be ready to travel until tomorrow at best. I need to get a healing potion into her, but I want to let the salve do its work first before I sit her up.”
Alexander nodded, struggling to swallow the lump in his throat. He couldn’t stand the fact that she was hurt but he was distraught over the taint in her colors.
“Alexander,” Anatoly said, “what just happened?” The big man-at-arms looked at the dead animals all around.
“We were attacked by another demon,” Alexander said, standing up to face his friends. “I think it was like the zombie demon except this one possessed animals instead of corpses. It was in the cat when it attacked. When it died, I saw the demon go into Isabel’s horse.” He took a deep breath to steady his voice for what he had to say next.
“She touched it with her mind and now her colors are wrong.” In spite of his best efforts, his voice broke a bit as he put words to his greatest worry. The look on his friends’ faces was one of sorrow and fear. Abigail wiped a tear from her cheek.
“What do you mean her colors are wrong?” Lucky asked with alarm.
“Her aura is tainted. It’s like that thing left something behind inside her when she tried to talk to her horse. I wasn’t fast enough. I should have warned her.”
“Could you see the demon?” Jack asked.
Alexander looked at him sharply and nodded. Jack looked to Abigail and Anatoly in turn. Both shook their heads. “It would seem that you are the only one who could see it, Alexander,” Jack said.
“I should have warned her,” he said in anguish.
Abigail grabbed him roughly by the shoulder and turned him to face her. “Nonsense, the whole thing lasted all of a minute. You didn’t have time because you were fighting for your life.”
“She’s right, Alexander,” Jack said. “You can’t beat yourself up over it. Isabel will be fine. She’s strong, and Lucky will take good care of her.”
Lucky stood up with a look of less confidence. “Alexander, I can heal her physical injuries but I’m worried about the taint the demon left behind. Touching the mind of a creature from the netherworld is not a trivial matter. I’ve read accounts of wizards who’ve done such things.” Lucky shook his head sadly. “Most of those accounts end badly.”
Alexander felt panic build inside him. He couldn’t lose Isabel. She was his best reason for drawing breath. She filled him with joy. The sheer power of his love for her humbled him. In all his life, he’d never felt anything so profound, so all-encompassing, or so beautiful.<
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He knelt next to her with a sob. He tried to fight it but the fear of loss overwhelmed him and he simply cried. He held her hand for several minutes while tears streamed quietly down his cheeks and dripped onto her tunic. Slyder landed next to her and looked at her, then at Alexander, and then back at Isabel. The bird cocked his head and gently nudged her. When she didn’t react, he sat down next to her in the grass to wait for her to wake up.
Alexander’s friends left them alone. Anatoly quietly put everyone else to work gathering supplies and repacking the contents of their saddlebags into their packs. An hour later, they had camp made with a small cook fire and a shelter for Isabel.
They carefully moved her inside. Lucky tended her injuries but she still didn’t wake up. The afternoon wore on. She was fitful and restless but wouldn’t wake. Cold dread began to settle into Alexander’s soul. By dark he was despondent. He felt so helpless. He could see her rich, vibrant, wholesome colors struggling with the base, muddy, hateful colors of the demon’s taint. It was like watching oil grapple with water in an effort to force a mixture that wasn’t natural.
He stayed with her through the night, hoping she would wake, but she didn’t. His panic grew, threatening his sanity. The idea hit him with the force of a lightning bolt. He sat up with sudden realization. There was slim chance of it working but he had to try. The opportunity to take action washed away all of his fear and despair and replaced it with fierce, desperate hope.
He crossed his legs, held her hand between both of his, and closed his eyes. His determination was so great and his need so terrible that he ruthlessly calmed his mind. He recognized, acknowledged, and discarded his thoughts with cold severity as he schooled his breathing and drained all tension from his muscles.
In just a few minutes he was in the state of empty-mindedness that was his doorway to the firmament. And then he was there, floating on the sea of potential that was the source of reality. He didn’t waste a moment listening to the music of creation, but instead brought his awareness into focus a few feet above his head. He looked down on Isabel’s restless body and examined the taint working to overpower her mind. And then he plunged his awareness into her.
At first he was simply within her body. When he focused, he could see the details of her insides. He would have been fascinated by the implications of such vision, but he had more pressing concerns. He searched within her to find a way to help her. Then he found it—a point within her head just at the top her spine.
When he touched it with his awareness, he felt an icy darkness draw him in as though he was passing through a doorway into another realm. He went willingly but not recklessly. He visualized a lifeline: a string of awareness and magic that linked his consciousness to his physical body. He made it real with an act of will and plunged into the darkness.
It was cold and lifeless, filled with dread and despair, without form or substance. In many ways it was like the firmament except there was no crest of the wave to manifest into reality, only endless, unformed darkness. There was also no hope or potential, only the anguish of unrealized possibility, desire unfulfilled.
Alexander was in the netherworld.
With a stab of fear, he realized that Isabel was there too, and she was completely unprepared for such an experience.
He felt the frustration, pain, and rage of stunted and malformed minds deprived of any chance of ever realizing the possibilities that they could only imagine. When they brushed up against him, he felt their hate and their fury but they recoiled from the light of his nature and the radiance of his living soul. He knew instinctively that his light would fade under the relentless assault of the darkness and so would Isabel’s. He had to find her quickly. She had already been in the darkness for so long.
For a brief moment he tried to expand his awareness the way he did in the firmament. He tried to be everywhere at once but saw in an instant the folly of doing that in the netherworld. When the light of his living soul was concentrated in one location, he could fend off the darkness, but when he tried to expand his awareness, his light dimmed. The numbing coldness that flooded into him in that one brief instant was enough to cause him to pull back to a single bright point.
But it was also enough to let Isabel know he was with her. Off in the distance, through the murky darkness, he saw a brief flare of light. He moved through the unrealized potential of broken souls, driving them aside with the light of his very real existence fueled by vital life energy and love.
When he found her disembodied awareness, she was huddled into a ball of fear surrounded by a swarm of howling dark spirits trying to drive her farther and farther away from life. Alexander plunged into the fray. His weapon was the light of his life powered by his boundless love for Isabel. He brought his soul to hers and surrounded her with his light, sheltered her with his love, and defended her with righteous fury.
She clung to him and opened the essence of her being to him. He rushed in and washed away all of the fear and doubt and then opened himself to her completely. He held nothing back, allowed her into every crevice of his soul and rejoiced in the love she gave him in return. The darkness shrank back as their light joined and shined with piercing brightness.
The sudden flare of light where no light should ever be drew the attention of the beasts that lurked deeper in the darkness. Alexander saw shadows of their malice stirring in the deep. He took hold of Isabel and began to trace his lifeline back to his starting point.
The beasts from the depths saw their quarry attempting to escape and gave chase. When Alexander burst free of the netherworld and back into Isabel’s mind, he didn’t let go of her soul; he stayed with her in the confines of her own mind. She was still terrified and the passage to the darkness was still open within her. He knew he had to find a way to help her close that doorway or she would be forever lost.
He visualized a room with a door and imposed his vision on her nightmare. She stood with him in the room, looking at the open doorway leading into the netherworld. Specters of broken souls with unspeakable appetites beckoned them to enter.
“You have to close the door,” Alexander said.
“I don’t know how. I’m so afraid.”
“It’s all right, I’m right here with you. See yourself walking to the door and pushing it closed. This is your mind, your dream. You can make anything you want happen here.”
As was the nature of dreams, one moment she was standing next to Alexander and the next she was closing the door and bolting it shut. There was an otherworldly howl of rage from beyond the door. Isabel backed away quickly into Alexander’s arms. Her fear was palpable.
The door was still there and the darkness knew it.
“It’s time to wake up now.”
“Don’t leave me, Alexander.”
“I’m right here with you. I’ll be right beside you when you wake.”
She nodded and he carefully disentangled his consciousness from hers and withdrew to a point above her and then into himself.
Abigail was sitting in the little makeshift shelter looking worried. When he opened his eyes, she breathed a sigh of relief.
He gently shook Isabel’s shoulder and she came awake with a start. Her eyes opened wide and she threw her arms around him. He held her while she wept.
After several minutes, she whispered, “I was so afraid.”
“I know. You’re safe now.” He drew her back and looked at her colors. The taint was still there but more faintly.
She shook her head and wiped away tears from her cheeks. “It’s still there. I can feel the darkness trying to draw me in.”
“You have to resist. We’ll figure out how to get rid of the doorway for good, but for now you have to be strong.”
She nodded and looked up into his eyes. When their eyes met, he saw more there now. They always had an easy bond but there was much greater depth to it now. They had shared themselves with each other in a way that transcended love. Each was intimately aware of the very essence of the other’s
soul and each accepted and embraced the other with full knowledge and complete trust. Their souls were mated in a way that few others would ever experience.
Chapter 20
Lucky tried to question Isabel but Alexander knew she didn’t want to talk about it yet. She needed distance from the experience, so he asked Lucky to wait awhile before asking his questions.
They set out after breakfast. Everyone was exhausted, but Alexander knew they had to keep moving. He kept an eye on Isabel. She was brave and strong, but he could see the fear in her that had never been there before. She could stand and face any enemy without flinching, but this was different. She knew there was something inside her that was wrong and she couldn’t do anything about it.
They weren’t able to cover much ground because they were all so tired, but they made it to the outskirts of Warrenton where they found a small inn and rooms for the night. A solid night of sleep and a warm meal would do them all good. It was a simple little place made from rough-cut timber, but it was well cared for and the proprietors were hospitable enough.
They paid for three rooms, each with two beds, and went to the main hall for the evening meal. They listened to the conversations around the room while they quietly ate their meal of roasted pork. Jack chatted up the barkeep and learned a bit about the happenings around Warrenton. It seemed that the talk of the town was the treachery of Headwater against Buckwold.
Alexander found it amazing that word of events in Buckwold had traveled so fast, but then he remembered his father’s words: “Nothing moves as fast as a rumor.” The general sentiment of the people was one of solidarity with Buckwold and by extension with New Ruatha. Alexander was pleased to find that Carson was right about the long-standing friendship between the two territories.
