The Dark Rider (Fading Light)

by Andrew Critchell

  ‘I can stop this, if you ask of me, but not heal it. Not completely. The white magic is too close to your heart.’

  ‘Why would I not ask this of you,’ asked Paul in his mind.

  ‘There is a cost. To you,’ the voice replied, smooth and emotionless. ‘It is something I cannot describe. You will only know. Afterwards.’

  Paul blinked again and tried to remember the words. Time seemed to be slipping in his mind and he was sure he was dreaming for reality was bending around him and there was no possibility that this could be real. Faces came to him, his sister laughing as they walked along the beach at Penwryn. Nicola, naked, her bare, slender arms wrapped around him, hands caressing him and then her body vanishing into shadow for she had betrayed him and then a voice in his head spoke saying ‘I accept,’ and afterwards he realised it was his voice but by then everything had fallen into darkness.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Neil blinked, trying to shake the bright after flashes of red and orange from his retinas, the image of the strange warrior still clear in his mind as if it was still in front of him. Vicky began to struggle against his protective hold and he released his grip letting her push away from him and look around. Everything was deathly quiet. There were no flashing white lights, no roaring wind whipping at them and, as Neil’s eyes adjusted back to the moonlight, no sign of the girl who had been right next to them.

  ‘She’s gone,’ he said scrabbling around on his hands and knees, feeling in every shadowed hollow for a sign of her.

  ‘That’s not possible,’ replied Vicky.

  Neil stopped his frantic searching, realisation dawning on him. ‘He took her,’ he said.

  ‘Who? Who took her?’ asked Vicky.

  ‘You didn’t see it,’ he said. ‘There was a big ball of light and in it a mad looking man and he looked straight at me like he knew I was there and then she was gone.’

  ‘This is real magic isn’t it?’ said Vicky. ‘People say it doesn’t exist but it’s real.’

  As she finished speaking they heard a groaning originating from a darker mass of shadow a few metres away. Both children froze.

  ‘What was that?’ whispered Vicky.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Neil.

  The groaning came again and the shadow moved, making them jump.

  ‘It’s him, the man with the dogs. The animals attacked him,’ cried Vicky.

  ‘Let’s get out of here,’ said Neil jumping upright.

  Vicky pulled at his sleeve.

  ‘We can’t just leave him.’

  ‘Why not?’ said Neil looking over at the now growing dark shape. ‘Look, he’s getting up. He’ll see us and then what?’

  ‘What if he’s injured?’

  ‘Please,’ groaned the man, his head raised towards them. Vicky’s stomach lurched for the moonlight illuminated his face, which was now covered in dark lines of blood. Then he collapsed onto his back and lay still.

  ‘We have to help him,’ insisted Vicky. Steeling herself she went over to the man and crouched down just as Neil called desperately after her.

  ‘What if it’s a trap?’

  She turned to look at him.

  ‘His face is totally cut up. I don’t think he’s in any state to do anything other than groan.’

  She turned back to the man as Neil reluctantly came and knelt beside her. They looked closely at him seeing the wounds. Beyond that they saw a craggy face lined with deep furrows and creases, saggy skin lining the thick bone structure. His hair was in disarray, a greasy looking mass of long dark strands now clinging to his face, the rest lying as a dishevelled mass atop his head. As they crouched next to him his eyes snapped open and a hand shot out and grabbed Vicky’s arm making her scream. Neil pushed against him but his grip was like iron.

  ‘Hey!’ cried out Neil. ‘Let her go.’

  The man pulled Vicky towards him.

  ‘Where did you find it?’ he hissed at her.

  Out of the corner of her eye Vicky could see the key dangling in full view from her neck.

  ‘I don’t know what you mean?’

  ‘Give it to me.’

  He released his grip on her arm and made a grab for the key but Neil was quicker, his hand flashing forward and pulling the key from around his sister's neck. He jumped up and backed away.

  ‘If you want it, you'll have to get it off me.’

  With a growl the man rolled over and pushed himself up, towering above them.

  ‘Stupid child.’

  Before Vicky could react he had reached down and grabbed her arm again jerking her upright. Her scream was cut short by the big, grimy hand that the man clamped around her mouth. The other hand pulled her arm straight behind her and twisted it hard sending sharp pain stabbing pains up her arm. Neil looked on in shock as his sister's terrified eyes stared back at him from above the hand.

  'Give me the key or I break her arm,' the man growled.

  'Let her go,' cried Neil.

  The man tensed his grip letting Vicky's cry escape from between his fingers.

  'The key,' he demanded.

  Neil stepped forwards. Nothing was worth this. He got as close as he dared to the man and reached out, the key resting on his open hand. The man's eyes glinted manically as they rested on Neil's outstretched palm. He took his hand away from Vicky's mouth and leant forward.

  'No,' cried Vicky.

  A sudden frenzy of barking sounded out behind them and the man turned his head in surprise. Crashing out of the heather a full grown male fox leapt up, its jaws sinking into the man's leg. Roaring in pain he let go of Vicky and turned, swiping at the animal with his big hands and catching it on its flanks. Yelping in pain the fox was sent flying through the air.

  Vicky stumbled and fell, her hand falling on something hard. Looking down she saw a notebook half lying in the mud. Instinctively she grabbed it with one hand.

  'Run,' shouted Neil.

  The man spun round and with a roar grabbed at Vicky's leg but she was too quick for him. Scrambling forward she pushed herself up and was away, sprinting across the heather as fast as she could. Neil leapt after her. Recovering his wits the man followed, big strides covering the ground easily but after a few steps he sank to the ground. The pain from the fox bite was too intense to carry on.

  'This isn't over,' he yelled after them. 'I'll find you. Then you'll be sorry.'

  Cursing he staggered upright and hobbled back the way he had come. After a few steps he began to pat his pockets. His notebook was gone. It must have fallen out somewhere. He fell to his knees patting the ground in desperation in an increasing arc but he found no trace of it. Then he stopped, the image suddenly strong in his mind. As the girl had run off she had been holding something in her hand. It was only now that he realised what it had been. His eyes narrowed as he stared across the moorland towards the horizon. In the moonlight he could just make out the lights of the cottage sitting amongst the trees.

  Falk ran as hard as he could, the noise of battle soon dissipating through the trees until he heard nothing but the sound of his feet crunching lightly on the ground and his own rapid breathing. He moved on quickly, despite the weight of Nicola’s body over his shoulders. He was desperate to get far enough away so that when he took them both into the world above the trace of magic would be undetectable.

  Suddenly an intense burst of pain shot out across the stream of power. A raw outpouring of surprise and anguish that ended abruptly to be replaced by a vacuum of energy that tore across the remaining void. Falk stumbled to his knees as the rent seared through his mind and became a throbbing pain in his temples. Gasping he reached forward with his free hand, steadying himself against the ground. He stared down in disbelief, paralysed by the weight of the knowledge that he now had to face for such a wild surge of power could only mean one thing.

  Gwen was dead.

  The Rider had betrayed them and now it had killed her.

  A rage began to rise from deep within him, a burning desire for reveng
e. He breathed deeply and hard, steadying himself for he had to focus. He could sense the Rider still in the clearing and something else. It was growing more intense with every moment, a pit of tainted magic that could mean only one thing. Myrkur was coming. Dark fear enveloped Falk’s mind for there was nothing he could do against Myrkur’s power. Rising to his feet he opened himself to the power, embracing specific weaves of energy, and his form and Nicola’s shimmered and then disappeared.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Nicola floated in a void, her mind detached. She was surrounded by darkness so absolute that she could not see her own body. Was this death? No, the life force was still there, an alien presence embedded within her very being. It was filling her veins, her synapses, her consciousness, and it scared her. She tried to recoil from it but could not find a way. Then, images began to flash through her mind, meeting Paul, the feeling of having known him forever, the desire to be with him that led to her hotel room and then the trapdoor that had opened within her sending a tidal wave of awareness plunging through her body and brain. Then he had pulled her back to reality only to accuse her of betrayal and then he had left her, his face contorted with rage. Despite this she knew in her heart she could not blame him. She had seen his confusion, his pain. She had felt it as if it was her own, and all she wanted was to take it from him.

  Everything had became confused then. The presence within her had been able to control her. It had taken her out into the night, into woodland where some battle was taking place. The last thing she remembered was seeing a rider on horseback staring at her with all the rage and hate possible and it had struck fear into the very core of her heart for she was sure that it had been Paul, yet how could that be possible?

  More time passed. Then, in the infinite blackness, she noticed a speck of light. Tiny at first, it grew quickly becoming the outline of a person and as it approached she realised with a shock that she was looking at a reflection of herself from some form of mirrored surface. She was dressed in a long white cloak, golden brown hair braided with curls framing her face that seemed more defined, ageless. She reached out with one hand in fascination, her opposite image doing the same, outstretched fingers reaching towards each other, towards the shimmering surface that was like glass, and then their fingers touched.

  Nicola was jolted into consciousness. Her head was pounding with the force of blood flowing into it and her body was being knocked constantly. Her skin was burning and tingling with an intensity she had never felt before as it rubbed against some kind of clothing. Every sound, from the rustling of fabric to the footsteps of whoever was carrying her was like a megaphone in her ears and she shook her head trying to escape from the noise. Opening her eyes all she could see and feel was fabric inches from her face and as she tried to orientate herself she realised she must be being carried upside down on someone’s back like a sack of potatoes thrown over a shoulder and immediately she began to beat the back with her fists.

  ‘Let me down,’ she cried out her voice muffled by clothing. In rising panic, she punched even more and began to kick out with her feet.

  ‘Let me down,’ she cried out again.

  She felt the movement stop and her body being swung round and planted on her feet. As she gained her balance and her eyes adjusted to the moonlight she found herself staring into fierce blue eyes set in a rough, angular face, the same face she had briefly seen in a clearing during a battle she was sure must have been a dream.

  ‘We do not have time for this,’ he said in a harsh voice.

  ‘Time for what?’ asked Nicola angrily, her voice sounding alarmingly loud. ‘And while you’re at it tell me who the hell you are and what is happening to me?’ As she spoke she realised that she was still naked although the mud and darkness covered her. Her body was buzzing. Feint breaths of wind felt like a hurricane against her skin, sending waves of goose pimples up and down her limbs and she shivered. Even with the moonlight she could see everything in such clarity and detail she was amazed and after a few moments of standing she could hardly keep still, such was the energy flooding through her.

  ‘Forgive me, my name is Falk,’ he said in reply, his eyes never leaving her face. ‘I am a Warrior of the Light. I served Gwen, last Warder of the Emerald Forest.’

  Nicola stared at him dumbfounded, her senses still reeling from the events of the past hour, only now beginning to send signals to her brain that she was standing naked in the middle of nowhere in front of a complete stranger who claimed to be some kind of warrior, and that she was quite possibly in grave danger.

  Falk noticed the change in her bearing and composure. ‘Please, I know this is all unbelievable to you but I am not going to harm you. I am here to protect you.’

  Nicola began to back away, desperate to run, but to where? A few hundred metres behind him, on the near horizon, an orange glow signalled streetlamps and hopefully a village or at least some houses, but how she would reach them she had no idea.

  ‘I don’t know who you are or where this is but you better not take one step closer to me or I will make so much noise the police will be here before you know it.’

  He raised his hands in surrender.

  ‘You were there. You saw the Rider, saw his power. It is you he wants.’

  ‘What are you talking about? What do you mean?’ said Nicola continuing to back away. ‘An hour ago I was having dinner with a friend and now he is gone and my body feels like it is on fire and my head is full of something really weird. Then I feel like I am not in control of myself and am in this woodland and there is some kind of battle going on with swords and arrows like some fantasy film. Then I wake up on the back of some man I have never seen before who, for all I know, is going to murder me in the middle of nowhere and all for what?’ Nicola fought back the sobs that threatened to overwhelm her while all the time the man just stood there watching her but not making any moves towards her.

  ‘What is your name?’ he called to her.

  ‘Why should I tell you?’ she replied almost hysterical.

  ‘Please, Gwen died saving you.’

  Nicola registered the pain in his eyes and it was like a switch hitting her, all her rational defences breaking down to be replaced by a realisation that this was real, that everything Paul had said in the hotel dining room, as the dusk bled light from the sky, had to be true.

  ‘Nicola,’ she said. ‘My name is Nicola.’

  ‘Then listen to me Nicola,’ said Falk across the void between them.

  ‘This is no fantasy. When a Warder’s human life ends their place is taken by another who becomes the bridge between this world and ours. We call it the awakening. It has happened this night but it went wrong. The man who it was supposed to be turned out to be an agent of the Dark.’

  Nicola stared at him transfixed for his words matched things that Paul had said. Her heart lurched as she thought of him.

  ‘There is always one who is to be awakened.’

  ‘That’s what Paul said,’ Nicola whispered as the realisation began to hit her. She felt giddy, the moonlit horizon beginning to sway alarmingly, her mind wheeling as it tried to come to terms with this new revelation.

  ‘It is you Nicola.’ Falk watched her intently. ‘The power has awakened within you but it is not finished. The essence and knowledge of all Warders before you must pass into your mind. Only then can the connection be made.’ He could feel the seconds tick away, knew that time was running out, yet he needed her to believe. ‘Paul has a sister, Alex. Gwen placed the knowledge within her. I have to take you to her.’

  ‘It cannot be,’ she whispered trying to get a hold of herself. She looked at him, focusing on him as if for the first time, everything standing out in harsh edged clarity.

  ‘This presence in my mind, my body,’ she questioned. ‘That’s it, it will never go away?’

  ‘It is the energy of life,’ he said simply. ‘You will learn to embrace it as Gwen did. As I have.’

  ‘You mean Aunt Gwen, don’t you?’ she said.
‘He spoke about her, Paul.’

  Falk’s eyes widened.

  ‘You knew him?’ he asked incredulously.

  ‘Yes. Just for a day, this day, but it’s like I’ve known him for a lifetime, I can’t describe it,’ said Nicola her voice full of emotion. ‘He said he was to be awakened but that he did not believe. Then something happened to me and he said I had been awakened not him. I am scared for him.’

  Falk remained silent for a moment.

  ‘It is true,’ he said, ‘Paul was to be awakened. Gwen knew him for many years, trained him for this moment.’ His voice shook. ‘She was wrong. Now many have paid the price for her error.’

  ‘What do you mean? What has happened to him?’ said Nicola afraid of what she would hear.

  Falk bowed his head in sadness.

  ‘Gwen was tricked by the Dark Lord himself. There is a prophecy we have of the one who would unite us and defeat evil. Myrkur made us believe that one was Paul. Now he knows everything of us. Our magic can no longer protect us.’

  ‘Has Paul been captured?’ asked Nicola trying to control the emotion in her voice.

  Falk looked across at Nicola, despair filling his eyes.

  ‘Paul no longer exists as you knew him. He has taken the form of the Rider and is now forever bound to Myrkur as his servant. He came to kill you Nicola.’

  Nicola recoiled in shock.

  ‘No, I don’t believe he...’

  ‘Yes Nicola,’ said Falk cutting in. ‘Many of our warriors died saving you from him. Their sacrifice is the only reason you are here now.’

  ‘No,’ said Nicola, her heart dying inside of her.

  ‘He will come here Nicola, searching for you so he can fulfil Myrkur’s command.’

  ‘No, he is a good person,’ said Nicola desperately. ‘He could not do these things.’

  ‘Why do you defy the truth?’ cried Falk, his voice rising in anger.

  Nicola could take it no longer and with her body literally overflowing with energy she turned away from him and began to run as fast as she could in the opposite direction. As she ran she was amazed at the speed she could reach. Her legs felt full of power, the wind blowing past her exhilarating, and for a moment she believed she could escape. Then, he was beside her, his hands reaching out to grip her forehead and, as he did so, everything fell into darkness.