by C. Gold
The sofa and the bed? Seriously? A newly restored Radcliff was fuming as he set up defenses so his image wouldn’t overpower him again. Memories trickling in from last night’s activities only angered him more.
The image looked quite smug about the situation. You’re just mad because I tricked you.
No. Ordinarily I wouldn’t care. But we are in grave danger and you wasted precious time. You didn’t even ask her about our role in this did you? You just rutted like animals in heat and forgot about the trouble we’re in.
The image’s face fell. I’m sorry. I just wanted—
I know. Radcliff sighed. Part of him wished it could have been him. Even now, he felt a yearning that should be beyond his negative emotions only self. Look, let’s just get through this in one piece and we can discuss this later.
A very naked Amira rolled over and burrowed into Radcliff’s side.
That was when Radcliff realized he was also naked. Cursing under his breath, he stumbled out of bed in his haste to get away. He tripped over a discarded boot and snatched it up. Couldn’t just drop them in a pile could you? He was in the library with his arms full of what he hoped was everything when Amira called his name from the bedroom and begged him to return. He mumbled more curses as he hastily dressed then stormed into the bedroom. “Get up!”
Amira shot up and pulled the covers over her naked breasts. Radcliff rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, nothing I haven’t seen before. We need to discuss your visions.”
“Get out,” she snapped. “I want some privacy.”
“Make it quick.” Clearly she’d determined who was back in charge. Radcliff slammed the door on his way out. For some reason her anger made him angrier. As he stomped around the room, his eyes snagged on a staff resting in a corner. When he picked it up, it gave him a mild shock. “What do we have here?”
Amira came out of the bedroom. “That’s my staff. You can put it down now.”
“If it’s yours why is it empty?” Radcliff turned it over in his hands. The workmanship was exquisite and very old. If his scrambled memory could be trusted, he believed this was an ancient artifact, crafted in the time before one of the many wars that destroyed such knowledge. Amira remained silent, so he finally looked up from his inspection to see her frowning. “I see. You didn’t inherit this did you?”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“If it was a family artifact, you’d know it needed to be charged.”
“I don’t know anything about magical artifacts and I bet not many people do. I took it from the Prime Seer outside the cave after I killed her.” She stomped over and tried to rip it out of his grasp but Radcliff held it away from her.
Amira stood there, hands on hips. “Just hand it back.”
“Not yet. I’m going to recharge it.”
“Do you even know how?” she scoffed.
Radcliff shrugged. “I’ve only read about them in books, so this will be an experiment. You might want to stand back.” He concentrated and sent a trickle of power into the staff. It latched onto the stream and tried to pull harder, but Radcliff forced it to accept a slower rate. He didn’t want it suddenly filling up and exploding—something he’d read about as a potential hazard. There was also something else about the staff that nagged at his awareness, but he couldn’t place it. Something felt off about it.
After five minutes, the pulling sensation eased up and Radcliff broke the connection and opened his mage senses to study it. When his awareness flew outward and encompassed the entire fortress with no effort expended on his part, he almost shut it down he was so surprised. Radcliff extended the probe and was able to reach places beyond his normal limit without even breaking a sweat.
“Well?” Amira asked.
Radcliff pulled back and tossed the staff to Amira who caught it with cat-like reflexes. “It’s an amplifier.”
Amira’s face paled as soon as her hands made contact with the staff. When her eyes began moving and zeroing in on things not in the room, Radcliff knew she was having a vision. He paced while keeping a close eye on her. As soon as she came out of the trance, he took her hand and led her over to the couch. “Tell me,” he said.
She wasn’t even aware they’d sat down. Still sunk in memory, Amira transcribed what she saw. “The land is so green, trees everywhere. I didn’t see any animals, and the plants were strange.”
His image cut in. Use the bond. I can actually see what she’s seeing. It looks like there’s a place left that’s untouched. That must be where we can go.
Radcliff yanked the bond away from his image. He’d prefer avoiding the emotional baggage that went with it, but being able to see the image directly was better than any number of words. But more than that, he could feel the location. And what he sensed killed all hope. Amira must have sensed him because the image broke off and she came back to full awareness.
“What is it?” she asked.
“This is your vision?” Radcliff needed verification. He desperately wanted it to be untrue.
“Yes, we can find safety there, I know it to be true.”
While Radcliff never believed in mincing words, some truths were too hurtful even for his bleak nature. For Amira, he would have softened the blow if he knew how. Instead, he settled for blunt honesty. “That is not our world.”
CHAPTER 23
Delaying Tactic
“What do you mean?” Amira’s voice had an edge of hysteria to it.
Radcliff could feel her anxiety through the bond before he closed it off again. “I mean, we can’t go there. It would require more power than any one person could wield.”
She held out the staff. “What about this? You called it an amplifier?”
Radcliff shook his head. “I’d burn up long before I gathered enough power to summon us to another world. Your vision has to be wrong.”
“No. We just haven’t worked it all out yet.” She stood and began to pace. The clack, clack of the staff striking stone punctuated each repetition of ‘It’s got to work’ that she kept muttering under her breath.
Radcliff stood as well. He was through arguing with her. “I need food,” he said as he stepped around her and headed for the door.
The constant pacing halted behind him and he heard her sigh. “I suppose we should eat,” Amira said. “We can also check in with the emperor. Maybe he’ll have a suggestion.”
Radcliff shook his head, still doubtful of any solutions, yet he remained silent.
This time there were no confrontations awaiting them as they entered the dining hall, and thankfully no whispers or stares. The few people there were eating rapidly and then leaving. “What’s going on?” Radcliff asked the server, an older woman, clearly a norm, with graying hair and a steady look about her, like an old tree that had weathered many storms.
She plopped a large portion of scrambled eggs onto his plate and said, “The emperor has ordered everyone outside to build some type of wall.” Toast came next with two sausage links. “Rationing the meat,” she explained when Radcliff frowned. “You’re lucky, morning shift is nearly over.” The woman added the same stuff to Amira’s plate and then began packing up. They each grabbed a mug of cider and sat at the closest empty table.
Radcliff ate the pile of eggs before saying what was on his mind. “A wall won’t slow them down much.”
Amira’s fork clanked on the plate. When Radcliff looked up, she had the biggest frown on her face. She leaned forward and whispered, “Why do you have to be so negative?”
He speared a sausage on the end of his fork and waved it around. “Just being truthful.” He bit into one end and chewed.
Amira shook her head in disbelief. “You don’t have any hope, do you?”
Radcliff finished off the sausage before replying. “I gave your boyfriend all the hope, joy, love, and other useless emotions. I kept all the anger and hate.” Which was the better bargain as far as he was concerned. There was no danger of becoming emotionally attached and making stupid decisio
ns in a crisis.
Amira finished the rest of her food and leaned back. “I don’t get it. Why are there still two of you? Shouldn’t you have, I dunno, merged or something?”
“Both of us had to become very strong willed to survive our torture.”
Amira looked down. “I’m sorry I put you through that.”
“Are you?” Radcliff studied her face, curious about her answer and surprised that he cared.
She flushed. “At the time I was very angry. But I didn’t know it would be like that.” Amira hugged herself as if chilled. “Had I known, I’d have tried to change it.”
The memory came to him quicker this time when he went searching. The woman with violet eyes stared at him with cold rage while she demanded the council spare his life and insisted on a year of torture for every person he’d killed. He probably still had many years left on that sentence. The woman before him now was a different person. Just like I am. That thought shocked him back to the present. Was he truly?
When he returned to the memory this time, he felt his past arrogance and disbelief that anything could touch him. And his utter disdain for the council. Well, that part hadn’t changed, but Radcliff no longer felt invincible or even powerful. An entire army of unstoppable monsters changed a person’s perspective. And a thousand years of torture. The man he used to be was shattered and even if he managed to absorb the other piece of himself, he would never go back to what he was. Surprisingly, the thought left him feeling empty rather than angry. Ever since he regained control of the body, his anger felt remote, like it wasn’t quite a part of him. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
Amira’s look of abject guilt and discomfort stirred something deep within Radcliff and like a ray of sunshine piercing a cloud, the twisted darkness inside opened to reveal a tiny spark of light. “I believe you,” he said and really meant it. Never one to dwell on his emotions, Radcliff stood, eager to think of something else. “Let’s go see this wall.”
At the first intersection outside the dining room, Radcliff almost asked Amira which path to take, but his memory slowly kicked in and by the second turn, he strode confidently down the corridors. The steady improvement of his memory was a relief and Radcliff hoped it would continue to mend.
Walking through the emptied corridors was strange after wading through the crowd of people last night. Bags and tossed clothes were the only visible signs that refugees were still calling the halls home. As soon as Radcliff stepped outside, he saw where everyone had gone. Thousands of people were lugging rocks from cannibalized buildings and stacking them in piles near the stronghold. Off to the right, a huge stretch of solid stone, melded together into a single unit, stood forty feet tall and ten feet wide at the base. Three of the stone crafters were pulling rods of stone outward into nasty spikes. The entire outer face looked like it was vomiting swords and daggers.
“Well that ought to spike a few,” Amira said.
“It still won’t be enough,” Radcliff observed.
A hand clapped Radcliff’s shoulder, making him jump. When he turned and spotted the emperor, his only thought was how could such a large man sneak up behind him?
The monarch smiled at Radcliff’s obvious distress and answered, “It’s designed to slow them down so you have more time to work things out.” He gave Radcliff a playful shove before turning to Amira. “Find anything out yet?”
“Actually, yes,” Amira began.
“No,” Radcliff said at the same time. He glowered at Amira but backed off and let her tell him.
“Radcliff says that what I saw was another world. That is the solution, even though he says it’s impossible.”
The emperor processed her words, then frowned. “How is another world a solution?”
Amira shrugged. “I assume we have to travel there.”
The emperor raised an eyebrow and asked Radcliff, “Can you summon people that far?”
“No.”
The emperor stroked his chin. “Was there anything else in your vision?”
Amira shook her head.
The ground vibrated as another section of wall was molded into place. As one of the younger boys darted past, the emperor shouted out, “Boy, come here.” The kid’s expression alternated between awe and fear but he stopped and gave an awkward bow. “Find Candlass and tell him to see me.”
Radcliff’s entire body stiffened at the name. A whirlwind of hate and vengeance swooped down like an arrow loosed from a bow. No longer distant, his anger was a hovering menace.
As the boy darted away, the emperor put his hand on Radcliff’s arm and gave him a gentle squeeze. “I know you’re angry with him, but he knows the library better than even the ancient librarian.”
Anger was a mild word for what Radcliff felt towards his traitorous mentor. “You know nothing!” The people within hearing distance blanched when they looked at Radcliff and made a hasty retreat.
“Look at me,” the emperor commanded. When he had Radcliff’s full attention he lit into him. “I loved you like a son and he took that from me. The pain of losing you was like losing my wife all over again. So don’t tell me I know nothing.”
Radcliff stared at a rage and pain that matched his own and recalled a scene from childhood when the man before him took him hunting for the first time.
The boy missed his first shot and cringed, waiting for the punishing blow. It never came. Instead, the man was patient, showing the boy how to properly draw a bow and only had kind words of encouragement, even when he missed again. That evening, eating around the campfire, the man cracked a joke, and the boy made his first tentative smile. It was also the first time in his young life the boy allowed himself to truly sleep. The man had done the impossible and won his trust.
The fondness for the man before him beat back the waves of hate and let Radcliff regain control. He took a deep breath. “I won’t kill him,” he promised. Though nothing said he couldn’t torment him.
Candlass blanched upon seeing Radcliff but took the final few steps anyway to come before the emperor. Radcliff’s hands curled into tight fists that begged to enter soft body tissue, but he shook off the impulse and settled for glaring.
His annoying image popped into view. It’s your fault he betrayed you. You rubbed your power in his face until he feared and distrusted you. No wonder he turned on you in the end.
Radcliff’s glare intensified, though this time he focused the full blast on the image in his mind as if he could obliterate it. How would you know? I locked you off from the past.
Hah, it chortled. Your mind gets leaky when you lose control. I’ve learned quite a few interesting things.
Stay out, he growled. It’s for your own good.
So you can contain me. The copy crossed its arms.
Radcliff shook his head. No, it’s to protect you.
I find that hard to believe.
Radcliff shrugged. Believe what you want. It’s the truth.
The image scowled but changed the topic back to Candlass. He looks pitiful now.
Radcliff examined the ex-councilor. He looked jittery as he listened to the emperor’s orders.
“I need you to go to the library and pull out all the references to portals.” Candlass was nodding like he was listening but his eyes were darting back and forth between Radcliff and the monarch like a rat trying to watch two cats stalking it. “Also grab the book on enchanted structures. There is a design I recall seeing for amplifying a spell that I think might be useful.”
As soon as the emperor was done, Candlass ran off. He knows I’m going to kill him.
But you told the emperor you wouldn’t.
But Candlass doesn’t know that. Radcliff smirked. Toying with the man could actually be more satisfying than killing him.
Ekewaka walked over and nodded a silent greeting to Amira and Radcliff. He gave a deep bow to the emperor. “Your Excellency, Kaholo says they are coming, we’ve run out of time.”
The emperor frowned as he surveyed the wall left
to be built. He turned to Radcliff and asked, “Can you do something to hold them off while we finish? I wouldn’t ask otherwise, but you are the only one with range enough to have a chance without being overrun.”
Radcliff nodded. There were a few tricks left he could pull, even with the world’s weakening magic. He began walking. It would take a while to reach the edge of the city with the many ruined buildings forcing detours.
“I’m coming with,” Amira said as she followed. Her biting tone and tense body language said quite loudly that any dissent would be ignored.
The image began pacing and pulling at its hair. The intensity of his panic bled past Radcliff’s filters. Relax, she’s a good fighter. Besides, I won’t let anything harm her.
It stopped pacing and looked up, hope and fear swimming in its eyes. You swear?
Yes. Now go back to wherever you go when you aren’t bothering me.
But it didn’t vanish. Instead it sat cross legged on a carpet pulled from memory. It looked Shae in origin with its colorful weaving though Radcliff didn’t recall where he’d seen it before. You didn’t. It was while I stayed in the village after the tower rescue.
Oh. The split between their memories was becoming confusing even if he was the one who caused the separation in the first place. And with the occasional bleed through passing memories between them... well, it was a wonder he was still functional.
Radcliff’s first plan to defend the city was to summon lava and drop it on the horde. However, when he went searching, Radcliff realized just how damaged the world really was. The only lava he could sense anymore lay underneath the mountain. Everywhere else, was now cut off. He shivered with unease. Since he dared not touch the lava underneath their only sanctuary, he eyed the loose stone that was left behind and nodded. That he could work with but it would take time.
Stretching his shoulders and neck, Radcliff got to work. First, he stretched his senses to map everything he could still manipulate. While the horde had been through this stretch of ground, not all the magic was leeched away yet. He shifted large sections of rock and earth out of a trench and piled the debris along where the outer wall used to stand.
