“Gods, are those-” He stopped and glanced around. Be quiet, Talis, he told himself. A knot clenched his stomach and his mind raced. What was happening?
He shook Mara, but she only turned over. “There's something wrong. Get up!”
She rubbed her eyes. “What's that smell?”
He pointed at the stew. She stared into the pot, and gripped her stomach and fell back.
“Listen to that,” he whispered. There was something terribly wrong outside; they’d fallen into a trap.
Drums kept pounding and now voices joined in, chanting strange words.
“Talis, what’s going on?”
“We need to look…but stay quiet.” Stalking under the canopy, he peeked around the corner. A fever flushed through his body. Lenora, Nuella, Rikar, and Nikulo danced around a fire filled with an ghostly green light. Bones were crumpled up inside. Talis realized Lenora’s father, the blademaster, and the sorceress were missing. A beautiful woman with long black hair stood in the center, cackling incantations. Her arms gestured seductively into the air. Talis gasped, and shrank back into the hut.
“They're all mesmerized,” he whispered.
“We have to do something” Mara gathered her clothes, and they dressed quickly.
Did they have a chance? If they tried to attack, it was two against many. The once old and useless looking men and women were renewed. Their faces plump and rosy, hair full, without a speck of silver; their skin radiated vitality and not a trace of their former wrinkles remained; their posture was straight and confident and they danced and twirled like fools.
Talis remembered the battle in the desert. Destroy the leader and the rest will fall. “Attack the witch-the woman with the long black hair. Let’s go around back and surprise them.” He wielded his sword, feeling the fire slither up his arm.
He followed Mara outside, finding a place to hide in the shadows. The dancers gyrated their bodies and surrounded the leader as she shook her hips to the beat. Lifting her hands to the stars, she cast another spell, pointing at Nikulo. His body jerked off the ground, arms and legs hanging limp.
In a panic, Mara raised her bow and fired a shot at the woman. The arrow plunged into her left side and she screamed and spun herself around, glaring at Mara. Another arrow struck the witch in the throat. She released a muffled gurgling sound as she clenched her neck. Her body flapped like a bird knocked from the sky. Talis ran towards the woman, tensed and ready to cut her down.
The drummers stopped the music and glowered at Mara. The woman’s eyes widened, as if witnessing death’s door. Her mouth hung open in horror and she gasped for air, like a carp plucked from a pond. But her words were trapped inside. She yanked the arrow from her neck and ripped out a chunk of bloodied flesh. A gush of blood drenched her robe. Then she flicked her wrists and twirled around in a brilliant whirl, and transformed herself back into the old woman from their hut.
Talis gaped at her. How could she morph like that?
As she gripped her neck, anger flashed across her face. She coughed out blood mixed with ash. After she fell to the ground, her body went into frenzied convulsions. The drummers turned towards her and started a peculiar rhythm, and the singers chanted in time with the drums and mimicked the movement of the witch’s seizures.
She rocketed up into the air and landed, standing like a queen before her subjects. She shouted at the moons, and released a deep, rolling laugh. When she lifted her chin, she revealed an unbroken neck.
“I am Ashtera. Who dares challenge me?” She let out a savage cry, and Talis covered his ears at the sound. Mara flew backwards from the witch’s powerful spell and skidded across the ground. She cried out in pain and clenched her temples.
“Bad girl, playing games with toys.” The witch wagged her clawed fingers at Mara.
Talis shouted at the woman, and thrust his sword at her chest. She tensed her fingers, as if tightening her grip around a ball. An immense pressure crushed his throat and he coughed and pushed back, trying to fight against the force of her power. A flow of blood streamed out of his nostril. He felt a terrible pain and knew he was dying, and understood that dying was the only way to ease the pain.
So he gripped harder on his sword, greater than the crushing force around his throat. It was as if the power of the sword had unlocked something inside, breathing life into his will. His mind was forged with a purpose: he must save the others. He couldn’t fail.
After he lifted his sword above his head, he brought it down until the hilt was in front of his chest. He tensed his arms, allowing the fire to surge through his body. With renewed force, he pressed back hard at Ashtera, slamming her against the ground. He leapt at her, slicing down as she lifted terrified eyes to face him. He felt the resistance from her neck bone as it met the blade. Her head twisted and fell to one side as its came partially off the trunk. The sword glowed blood-red as it struck. Ripples of fire washed through him.
The drummers and chanters stopped and gasped in horror. But they went back and stupidly beat their drums and chanted. All too late, for his second blow lopped her head off completely and sent it flying like a bloody windmill. The head lay still on the ground. Her eyes moved-searching for meaning.
Filaments of green light streamed out of her head and body. The dark life force that had sustained her coursed back into the fire. A pile of ash remained where she once lay. I feel it, he thought, the fire in the sword. He growled with power, his eyes feasting on the blade.
The chanters and drummers stood in shock. Talis turned his gaze towards them. He had to kill them. As he charged, the drummers reacted, beating out an angry tune. The chanter's strained voices sang a shrill, powerful song. He flung his hands to cover his ears and his sword fell, slicing into the wet soil. Under that immense pain, he crashed to his knees.
The drummers found a new rhythm and sent the voices of demons to invade his mind. A surge of electricity shot along the left side of his body, great jolts wracking his heart. A sudden command from a demon’s voice echoed inside: smash your head, that stone, do it now! He reached out and exhaled, fighting back. For all the magic Master Viridian had taught him, why couldn’t he have said anything about resisting this kind of magic? He grabbed the stone and pounded the ground, then glowered at them. He wouldn’t stop now. Jumping forward, he hammered the drummer's head, knocking him back.
So the chanters found a low voice, like the sound of ocean waves gurgling through pebbles. They focused on Talis and delivered their merged power at his body. He was whipped back until he crashed into a hut. He slammed his fist against the wet soil, allowing his anger to build up the fire inside.
The drummers sped up the rhythm until it built into a stuttered frenzy. Talis glared at them through the torn hut, determined to win. They moved and swayed to the song of the chanters, the light from an unholy fire filling their eyes. Dark magic flowed from each note.
He pushed himself up, and conjured flames in his mind’s eye. Filled with fire, it surged in at each breath, enveloping his lungs. His blood pulsed with heat and he was fire itself. His palms radiated power. The breath he held inside flamed to a feverish pitch until he exhaled and fire burst from his hands, spinning like a dancing dragon.
The flames punished a chanter's head, pouring into his eyes and gushing out of his feet. The chanter screamed in agony. His writhing body issued forth a stream of fire from his mouth, which ate into the drummer nearby.
The chanter and the drummer melted into ash and only their screams lingered in the forest.
Talis gazed, defiance raging in his eyes. He roared a horrific yell and fire exploded all around him: a multi-fingered fire ripping into village huts, setting them aflame. The fire tendrils issuing from him went wild, scorching tree trunks, drummers and chanters alike, until it seemed as if the whole world would turn into a blazing inferno. He felt a terrific agony inside and his bones and tendons buckled under the pressure.
Mara leapt aside as a wave of flame tore in front of her. She looked stunned. Li
ke a rising crescendo, the flames billowed higher: unceasing, unrelenting, and caring little for where they struck. Another flame nearly seared her hair as it ripped past her.
“Talis, stop!” she yelled. He heard her voice, as if from a faraway land, muddled by time, as if a great ocean was in between. Inside his mind, he pictured the fires of the Underworld, a sea of churning red and black embers. More flames leapt out until it seemed the air itself would take to flame.
She screamed at Talis. “Enough! You'll kill us all.”
Talis blinked, pulling out of a dark tunnel at the speed of a falcon’s dive. He stared at Mara, his senses coming back. What was he doing? He glanced around at the destruction. Had he caused all this? His body still vibrated with the pulse of his charged heart and the heat fevered inside.
He noticed the movement of his enemies and his determination returned. He wouldn’t rest until they were all dead. Wielding his sword, the fire rose again. One chanter fled into the shadows, searching for consolation. Another drummer threw down her drum, and grabbed a rock and lunged at Talis. He dodged and cut her down. The vial of her body spilled opened and spewed ash. The remaining enemies fled into the darkness.
Fire raged everywhere.
Talis glanced around. His friends had come out of their trances. Mara looked tired, as if she hadn’t slept in days. Lenora and Nuella cringed next to Rikar and Nikulo, staring at Talis as if he was some kind of a monster. Lenora’s father, the blademaster, and the sorceress were all gone. What had happened to them? The huts blazed and the green fire went cold. The silent bones seemed to cry out.
“Where’s your father?” Talis said to Lenora.
“They killed him.” Tears spilled down her cheeks. “Father is gone, consumed by the fire. Mordellia and Javar tried to stop them…but they were slain.”
Talis gazed at bones and bowed his head. “We have to leave this evil place.”
They collected their gear and found their horses. Talis mounted his horse and stared east. A beam of moonlight sliced through the trees. There was still hope; they still had a chance. He rode slowly, but the forest stalked him from every shadow.
17. AURELLIA
After a long ride through the forest, they setup camp along a broad river with burly boulders dotting the beach. A heavy mist blanketed the party in dew. Talis huddled next to the fire, trying to release a chill that refused to leave his body since casting the fire spell. He glanced over at Lenora, sitting on the other side of the fire, her eyes puffy and red from crying. She was holding her sister tight, shivering, staring into the fire as if seeing a monster.
“I’m worried about them,” Mara whispered.
Talis nodded. “I can’t imagine how they feel.”
“I know the feeling well,” Rikar said, his voice choked and bitter. “It’s like having your stomach torn out.” He sighed a long time, scraping the ground with his dagger. “When father died I swore I’d get revenge on his enemies-”
“And who might that be?” Talis said, bristling at Rikar’s words.
“Start at the top, House Storm.” Rikar twirled his dagger. “But fear not, son of House Storm, revenge can wait. Father beckons me from the Underworld.”
“The Underworld? Only the dead visit the land of the dead.”
Rikar chuckled, as if entertained by a secret joke. “You know little, young Master Storm. There is a way, you know. This was spoken many times in legend.”
“The hero’s journey to the Underworld, past the Titans of the deep and the mountain of fire.”
“This is all true, I’ve seen it in a vision.” Rikar threw a stick into the fire. “I’ve seen my father also…his agony…the Grim March. I will rescue him.”
“You’re going the wrong way,” Mara said. “The Underworld is beneath us.”
Rikar shook his head. “No, quite the opposite. We’re going in exactly the right way. The entrance to the Underworld in on that island.”
“How do you know this?” Nikulo said, suddenly alert.
“There are many things I know that you don’t. Enough of this talk. I’m tired.” Rikar pulled a wolf skin over himself and turned away.
The group fell silent. Talis closed his eyes, thinking about Rikar. The time he’d caught Rikar praying to the shrine of Zagros. His words in the desert. When Rikar had called his master. Aurellia. Who was this Aurellia? Talis was determined to find out…
After everyone was asleep, he glanced at Rikar. He seemed asleep as well, but for some reason Talis could feel he was awake, alert, waiting. The wind stirred, a moist wind, blowing from the east. Rikar shifted slightly, and Talis closed his eyes, observing with his ears. He could hear Rikar rising slowly, creeping from camp.
Seconds later, Talis opened his eyes and spotted Rikar stalking along the river. Shadows danced and the moons reflected off the rippling water. Talis followed, trying to stay quiet, and past a bend in the river he glimpsed a dark figure along the shore. Rikar approached the figure and Talis felt a chill run down his spine. He stalked along the forest’s edge, trying to get closer.
Rikar bowed low to the figure. Talis crept closer, until he could hear what they were saying.
“Obedient boy, you’ve served me well. Is all according to plan?”
Talis held his breath. The figure was Aurellia, the one who’d saved them from the necromancers in the desert. In the moonlight, Talis could see one side of his hideous, wrinkled face beneath a black cape.
“It is.” Rikar frowned. “Some complications…but nothing to stand in the way.”
“Complications?”
Talis listened to Rikar tell the story of the assault at the huts. Rikar did his best to change the story to paint his own actions (or lack of action) in the best light.
“This friend of yours…Talis Storm. He could prove useful. Could he be swayed in our direction?”
Rikar paused for a moment, as if unsure how to proceed. “Talis has different aims-he longs only to save his city.”
“As he should.” Aurellia chuckled. The wind changed, gusting up for a moment, striking Talis’s back.
Aurellia stiffened, like a hound catching a scent. He turned towards Talis, pits of blackness blazing at him.
“You were followed…by your friend.”
Talis dropped, feeling electricity crawling along his back. It was too late. Rikar strode towards him, lifting his hands. Aurellia sauntered over as well, his cloak shuffling along the ground.
“You should have stayed at camp…” Rikar pulled his shoulders back.
“A guest…how quaint. I would have come prepared.” Aurellia clasped his hands together, as if trying to solve a puzzle. “Now I could look at this two ways: one, a curious boy, loyal to his friend, concerned for his safety…out here in the wilds. Two, a traitorous boy, spying on a friend, sworn to some foul task. Now which is it?”
Talis stepped out of the shadows and bowed his head to Aurellia. “Curiosity… And I should offer thanks, for saving us in the desert.”
“Most polite…impressive. You are quite welcome.” Aurellia harrumphed. “A master must protect his loyal apprentices. But enough of history, why are you here now?”
“I should ask the same thing of you and Rikar.”
“And insolent. If you wish to preserve the use of your legs, please contain yourself.” Aurellia raised a long, crooked finger. “Let’s just say, behind the curtain of life, there is a grand struggle. Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. Treacherous plans by the rich and ruthless. Everything you see on the outside is not what it seems.”
Rikar grinned. “The master today, is the slave tomorrow-”
“Refrain!” Aurellia glared at Rikar. He paused, then strode close to Talis. “I am old, as old as recorded time.” Talis could smell the sick stench of mold wafting from his mouth and wanted to vomit. “Many of this world call me master. You have a choice, young Talis, a choice that will decide your future. You can be patient and assume there is a valid explanation behind this secret meeting, or you can act rashly.
The latter would be…a mistake.”
A mistake. More like it would cost him his life. He had no choice…
“Apologies for my intrusion.” Talis bowed. “I will take my leave.” As he walked away, he could hear Aurellia whispering to Rikar.
Before Talis reached camp, Rikar jogged up to him, breathless.
“Wait…before you-”
“Who is he? Have you been feeding him information all along?” Talis gripped his sword hilt.
Rikar backed away, pressing his palms out. “This conversation is going in the wrong direction. If you try to fight me, you’ll lose. That sword will do you no good.”
“I want answers…”
“You won’t get them from me. Only Aurellia can give you answers, so you’ll have to be patient.”
“No…you can tell me who he is…how long have you been studying with him?”
Rikar’s face contorted to a snarl, glancing down at Talis’s fire sword now positioned over his heart. “You really want to do this? You think you can beat me with that sword?”
“I just want answers…you owe me that at least.”
“Aurellia is my true master of magic…his knowledge and abilities are beyond any of the wizards in Naru.”
“And how did you find him?”
A pained sigh escaped from Rikar’s lips. “After my father was killed, I kept having nightmares of my father tortured in the Underworld. I visited the Temple of Zagros, begging mercy for my father, but the nightmares continued. Once at midnight I bumped into a robed figure worshipping at the Temple. I was surprised, because I’d rarely seen anyone there. I asked the person if he was a temple priest and he chuckled, saying perhaps in a way he was.
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