Mindbender

by David A. Wells

  Boaberous frowned in confusion. Jack set the bag out on the ground and opened it up. It was a remarkable sight—the interior was several times bigger than the exterior. Grudge looked to Jataan, who nodded toward the bag. The giant shrugged and carefully lowered himself inside. He nearly fit with only his head protruding from the opening.

  Jack smiled to himself as he took his cloak off and handed it to Alexander, hoisted the bag’s strap over his shoulder and then threw his cloak over himself and his bagful of Boaberous.

  “I shall return,” Jack said with a flourish as he tossed his hood up and flickered out of sight.

  They didn’t have to wait too long before Alexander saw Jack’s colors moving toward them in the forest. He flickered into view and startled several of the others with a smile of mischief.

  One by one, he ferried everyone past the threat of the ganglings to a safe spot under the cover of a large rock overhang. Anatoly went last, right after all of Lucky’s belongings. Jack and Anatoly were able to hear the enemy soldiers coming through the forest less than a mile away during their trip through the narrow mountain ravine.

  As Lucky was packing his things carefully back into his magical bag, they heard the shouts of soldiers in the distance behind them as the ganglings sprang their ambush.

  “Time to move,” Alexander said as he motioned for Boaberous to take point. The giant nodded and proceeded into the rocky foothills ahead. The sounds of battle behind them faded as they moved higher into the mountains.

  Not an hour later, Boaberous stopped suddenly and pointed toward a rocky outcropping across a ravine. Alexander saw a man standing on a rock looking in their direction. He had no living aura.

  “He seems to be everywhere we go,” Anatoly said as he stepped up next to Alexander.

  Alexander nodded, “Except he’s not really there.”

  A moment later the mysterious man turned to shadowy smoke and blew away on the gentle breeze. Alexander puzzled over him. He hadn’t posed a threat . . . yet. He didn’t have the colors of a living being but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be dangerous.

  “Keep an eye out for him,” he said.

  Chapter 24

  They continued into the mountains toward the ruined keep. The very real threat of the enemy soldiers was not too far behind them. They needed the cover of the keep if they were going to have any chance against the numbers they faced, but Alexander was eager to get there for his own reasons. He nurtured the hope that the ancient ruins contained answers about his magical calling that would help him master his wizardry and give him the power to face Phane with at least some chance of victory.

  They rounded a corner and caught the first glimpse of the ruins. The ancient keep had been built on a rocky outcropping jutting out of the side of the mountain. There were steep cliffs on three sides and a broken and treacherous road that wound up a series of switchbacks on the side facing the mountain. The walls were crumbling in several places and the main tower had collapsed, leaving a line of scattered stone at the base of the cliff wall that had long since grown over with moss and lichen. The place was dark and foreboding, but Alexander felt more certain than ever that answers about his calling would be found within.

  The old man in grey robes was standing on a broken wall. When they stopped to peer up at the keep, they saw him abruptly change into a form that looked almost like a dragon except it was made of smoky black shadow. It glided down toward them with frightening speed and raised its giant black talons to strike.

  Boaberous threw a javelin. Evelyn screamed. Jack flickered out of sight. Alexander stood defiantly and watched the deadly looking apparition come for him. He could see that it had no colors, no life, and no magic. His normal vision told him it was a creature of terrifying size and power with otherworldly qualities, but his second sight told him it wasn’t really there.

  “Do you see that, Little One?” he asked Chloe without speaking.

  “No, My Love,” she said silently in his mind. “I see nothing.”

  It roared in preparation for its attack and everyone scattered, except Alexander. He stood and faced it, willing his fear into check. In the last moment, Jataan darted back into the path of the creature and pulled Alexander to the ground. Just before it would have reached them, the shadowy dragon dissipated and faded into nothingness.

  Anatoly picked Alexander up and set him on his feet. “What were you thinking?” he said harshly. “That thing would’ve killed you!”

  Alexander looked Anatoly in the eye and slowly shook his head. “It wasn’t even there,” he said. “Whatever it was, it never had any substance.”

  “And you thought you’d prove it by letting it tear you to pieces?” Anatoly asked. “How many times have I told you to err on the side of caution? Did you learn nothing training alongside your brother?”

  “I learned to use my mind and rely on reason,” Alexander said gently yet firmly. “That’s exactly what I’m doing. That thing didn’t have any colors and Chloe couldn’t even see it. It was an illusion.”

  “Maybe,” Anatoly said, “or maybe it was some form of magic you’ve never encountered before.”

  Alexander shrugged. “Whatever it was, it disappeared before it struck, but I understand your concern. I probably shouldn’t have tested it with my life.”

  Anatoly harrumphed, then walked several steps away toward the ruins and stopped, looking up at the crumbling structure.

  “It looked plenty real to me,” Evelyn said, still visibly shaken. “Maybe it lives in the ruins and doesn’t want to be bothered.”

  “Our course is set,” Alexander said as he stared at the dark and foreboding keep. “We make our stand in those ruins or the enemy will run us to ground and pick us apart.”

  “Evelyn may have a point,” Conner said. “We know what’s chasing us. If we pick our battlefield, someplace narrow and confined, we might stand a chance against them. Whatever’s haunting those ruins could be far more dangerous than a company of soldiers.”

  “What if the wizard’s with them?” Alexander asked, without looking away from the keep that he’d pinned his hopes on.

  Before anyone could answer, an arrow struck him in the back and broke against his dragon-scale shirt. He stumbled forward from the force of the impact. Everyone whirled to see the commander of the enemy soldiers standing on a rock, well out of normal bow range, nocking another arrow. Soldiers were moving around the rock and up the ravine about eight hundred feet away. Alexander looked down at the broken arrow and saw the fading colors of a magical aura.

  “Move,” he commanded.

  No one questioned his order. Boaberous took point and headed for the base of the road that led to the ruins. The path was strewn with rocks and scree which made it treacherous and difficult to navigate quickly. Alexander nearly fell but caught his balance. Lucky stepped on a rock and turned his ankle. He cried out as he went down. Anatoly picked him up and helped him up the path as Jataan brought up the rear.

  The soldiers in the distance had the scent of their prey and were closing the distance quickly. When Alexander glanced back, he saw a flood of men washing through the ravine toward them. There were many more than two hundred.

  The road leading up to the keep was cut into the steep rock face of the butte that formed the foundation of the ancient fortress. It switched back and forth eight or ten times before it reached the gatehouse high above. The first four legs of the road were easily passable in spite of the many boulders and rocks in the way but the turn leading to the fifth switchback was crumbled and broken, leaving only a craggy rock face some twenty feet from the lower section of road to the one above.

  Alexander looked down and was relieved to see that the enemy soldiers hadn’t yet reached the base of the cliff. They still had time.

  “What now!” Evelyn said. “I told you this was a bad idea.”

  “Don’t be difficult, Evelyn,” Conner said.

  Alexander ignored them as he tried to formulate a plan. They might be able to climb t
he rock face but it would be slow going. He wasn’t sure if they had enough time to reach the relative safety of the higher sections of road before the soldiers were within bow range.

  “If I may, does anyone have a rope?” Jack asked.

  Anatoly nodded as he unslung his pack. After only a moment of digging, he produced a neatly coiled length of sturdy rope and handed it to Jack.

  “Excellent,” Jack said as slung it across his shoulder. “I won’t be a minute.”

  With that, Jack started to climb up the rock face. He seemed to know instinctively where to put his hands and feet and found purchase where there didn’t appear to be any. He moved methodically and steadily toward the top without a slip or a misstep. Once on top, he secured the rope around a large stone, easily heavy enough to support even Boaberous, and tossed the line down to the road below.

  Alexander smiled with mischief at Evelyn as he took the end of the rope and climbed easily to the top. With a little assistance for Lucky and Evelyn, they all made it up the rock wall before the first of the soldiers reached the base of the road.

  Alexander looked up and found a point on the ruined wall above where they would have a clear view and pointed it out to Anatoly.

  “We can hold them off from there, provided they don’t find another way up.”

  Anatoly nodded his skeptical approval of the plan. “And provided there isn’t anything up there that doesn’t want houseguests.”

  “There is that,” Alexander said. “Truth is, I figure the revenant probably lives here.”

  He didn’t wait to see the look of consternation that Anatoly gave him as he headed up the road toward the gatehouse. There were a few places that were broken and falling away but there was enough of a path to make it through without the need of a rope.

  The gatehouse was little more than a pile of rubble framed by the four corners of the ancient structure that were still partially intact. Alexander carefully picked his way over the mound of old stones into the courtyard of the ruined keep. In its glory it would have been a modest yet very secure fortress. The walls once stood a good ten feet above the level of the courtyard. They had been wide and sturdy with a six-foot walkway along the top. Now they were crumbling and broken with only a few sections rising to the height they once stood.

  Once, the manor house had proudly occupied the center of the two-hundred-foot-wide sanctuary. Now it was only a shadow of its former splendor. The ceiling had collapsed, crushing most of the third and second floors under its weight. The outer walls were still relatively intact but they were buckling in places and the mortar was long eroded away by the weather. The main doors leading into the entry hall were gone, long ago fallen from their hinges and rotted into dust. The main tower that had once risen from the right rear corner of the building had collapsed and fallen down to the base of the cliffs below. The smaller tower that formed the left rear corner still stood, although it leaned slightly toward the outer wall as if it might topple at any moment.

  Anatoly and Jataan came up beside Alexander and appraised the dilapidated structure.

  “I’m going to take a look at our defenses,” Anatoly said after a few moments. Jataan nodded to Boaberous who dutifully followed after Anatoly. Jack helped Lucky sit down on a nearby rock, and Conner stopped to look at the ruin with his sister.

  “Now what?” Evelyn asked. “We’re trapped up here.”

  Alexander chuckled without turning. “You were right when you said she could be difficult, Conner. She reminds me of Abigail when she was younger. In answer to your question, Princess Evelyn, we defend against the enemy.

  “Lucky, we have some time. You’d better tend to your ankle. Conner, take your sister and go help Anatoly,” Alexander commanded.

  Evelyn started to protest but Conner forestalled her with a hard look. She frowned and stomped off after her brother.

  “She’s quite a handful,” Lucky said as he started unlacing his boot.

  Alexander nodded, smiling. “Makes me miss Abigail,” he said quietly to himself.

  Lucky and Jack nodded their agreement in unison.

  Alexander took a deep breath and sighed. “There’s more to this keep than a defensible position. When I asked the sovereigns about my calling, they told me that I’m an adept. Apparently there have only been two before me. One of them used to live here.”

  Lucky stopped applying healing salve to his twisted ankle and looked up. “And you hope to learn something about your calling in these ruins?”

  Alexander nodded as he sat down on a rock. “The sovereigns suggested that this was the best chance I had to learn something useful.”

  “You were wise to keep your true intent to yourself,” Jataan said. “Had Phane discovered your purpose, he would have been waiting here when you arrived.”

  “I just hope there’s something in these ruins that can help me,” Alexander said. “The sovereigns said that an adept’s power is great but only within the limited confines of a small number of magical abilities.”

  “That explains a great deal,” Lucky said.

  “Hopefully there’s something in there,” Alexander said pointing toward the ruins, “that will explain more. We have a few hours of daylight left. Jataan and I are going to take a quick look around inside. Jack, I’d like you to stay with Lucky while the healing salve does its work. When Anatoly comes back, let him know where we went.”

  Jack nodded as he sat down on his pack. “Be careful. There’s no telling what’s taken up residence in there.”

  Alexander smiled as he drew the Thinblade and headed for the ruins with his vial of night-wisp dust in hand. Jataan followed a step behind and to his left.

  The entry hall was still largely intact except for several holes in the vaulted ceilings where debris from the collapse of the building had broken through and littered the floor. He surveyed the large room, looking for exits. Three doorways led out, one on each wall but the doors were rotted away.

  Alexander picked the doorway to the right and started for it when he saw the footprint in the hard-packed dirt of the floor. He knelt to examine it and knew in an instant that it wasn’t made by a man. He raised the night-wisp dust higher to cast his light farther and went to the door with caution.

  The place was cold and quiet, the air still and dank. It reminded Alexander of a tomb. They quickly searched the small series of rooms to the right of the main hall and discovered that they’d once been a dining hall and kitchen with a number of pantries, storage rooms, and servants’ quarters.

  The rooms to the left of the main hall were the remains of a library and a study. Alexander’s heart sank when he realized that the wizard’s collection of books had long since rotted to dust. He searched carefully but discovered nothing of any use or value. Everything in the place had succumbed to time and the elements.

  They returned to the main room and carefully approached the door opposite the entrance to the ruins. It led to a sitting room and a large master bedchamber. The skeleton of a staircase led up to the floors above but Alexander judged that the ancient wood was so rotten and aged that it wouldn’t hold. The furniture that had once filled the sitting room was nothing more than moldering stains on the stone floor.

  The bedchamber was the same, bereft of anything of value. Except, the closet had so rotted away that a section of the stone wall was exposed, revealing a hidden passage. Alexander searched the floor near the hidden door and discovered several more footprints—also not made by a man. He carefully and methodically probed the wall until he found the stone he was looking for. It pushed in on a swivel and revealed a small lever.

  Alexander pulled the lever and a section of the stone wall swung open. When he raised his light to peer inside the passageway, he thought he saw a shadow move in the darkness. The portal opened to a stone landing that had once led to a wooden staircase. The wood had long ago turned to dust, leaving a drop of ten feet or so to the level below. When he held his night-wisp dust out to cast light into the hole in the floor, the shadow
s moved again.

  Then he heard a scream. The intensity of the piercing wail reverberated around the little room and seemed to penetrate into the depths of his psyche in waves. Fear washed over him, momentarily freezing him in place before he could flee into the safety of that place in his mind where fear couldn’t reach.

  It was the revenant and it wasn’t happy about being disturbed. Fortunately, the light of the night-wisp dust kept the dark creature at bay while Alexander and Jataan struggled to overcome the fear induced by its unnatural scream. Alexander stepped back and closed the door to the secret passage. Jataan broke free of the grip of fear a moment later.

  When they returned to the entry hall, Anatoly and Boaberous burst in with weapons at the ready.

  “We’ll talk outside,” Alexander said as he headed for the exit. Once outside, he looked up to the sky to gauge the hours of light they had left. It was late afternoon, only a few hours from dusk.

  “Was that what it sounded like?” Anatoly asked.

  Alexander nodded, still thinking about his next move.

  “That might be a problem, considering the enemy below has several hundred soldiers and they’re making preparations to attack,” Anatoly said.

  “How are the defenses?” Alexander asked.

  “Good enough for now,” Anatoly said. “The only way up is the road and we can defend it easily by tossing stones down on them. Trouble is, we can’t get out of here and we’re going to run out of food and water sooner or later.”

  “The wizard will be here long before that happens,” Alexander said. “Once he starts calling lightning down on us, we won’t stand a chance.”

  Jack and Lucky came up to the group.

  “Was that a revenant we heard?” Jack asked.

  Alexander nodded, “The revenant lives in the rooms beneath the keep. When night falls, it’ll come out to feed and defend its lair. Fortunately, the night-wisp dust seems to keep it at bay, which means it’ll wreak havoc on the soldiers below rather than attack us. If we can just make it until dark, the Regency soldiers will have more than enough to worry about.”