Prophecy of Light - Trapped

by RJ Crayton

  I took a step back. There was something weird going on, and I didn’t like it. “How do you know my name?”

  “Dirah,” he said, his voice soft, familiar. “I have known you since you were a baby. I trained you.”

  A jolt of electricity pulsed through me as his words filtered through my brain. Knew me as a baby? Trained me? That was insane. I was trained at nothing. Except baking. And Auntie had trained me at that. “You’re a liar,” I spat, taking another step back. The air around me began to feel clingy and hot, as if it were suffocating me.

  He shook his head and stepped toward me. “No. I never lie to you,” he said. “If you look inside your heart, you’ll know it’s true. I knew your mother, Fatima. We called her ‘little Tima.’ She was kind and generous, and she trusted me. I am your alab.”

  I stared at him and mouthed the word, alab. It sounded familiar on my tongue.

  He looked at my blank stare and sighed. He seemed to be making a decision, and then his eyes expressed certainty. “Alab means mentor or guide. One who cares for you and shapes your future. I helped your powers grow. You were brilliant. Even at four, you had amazing abilities. But Talitha convinced Tima that she should leave. They took you away from me. They wanted to keep you from your power. They wanted you to live a life in hiding rather than in glory. They wanted to keep you from the life you deserved.”

  His eyes were lustrous as he spoke. They seemed to glisten in the moonlight, and I noticed then he had a tattoo on his neck. It was of a crescent moon, and it glowed as he spoke of my power.

  “I have no power,” I said, even though the recesses of my brain were screaming it wasn’t true.

  “You do have power,” he said. “It’s what brought you here. You can feel it, can’t you? The air.”

  Even though I knew it was best to be quiet, I couldn’t help but ask the question. “What is that? Why is this place like this?”

  He smiled, and something about it made me feel scared. “This is a place of power, my love. It’s a sacred temple. Only, the regular people can’t see it. They can feel it, and it drives them away. It instills the proper fear in them. You felt it because you have power within you. I can show you, Dirah,” he said. “I’ve waited so long to teach you again.”

  While my hands were still at my side, I quietly stretched out my fingers, wiggling them through the air. I could feel a prickle, and I knew he was right. This place was filled with power. It was surging, flowing through every particle of this place — the air, the ground, even the people. I’d never felt anything like it. But then, my brain told me that wasn’t true. I had felt this before; I had been here before. But I couldn’t fathom when.

  He stretched out a hand and said. “Come with me. Let me show you all the world has to offer you.”

  I found myself extending my arm, yearning to go with him. But, then an impulse told me to wait. I stepped back again. “What’s your name?” Names had power, and I knew I needed to know his name. It was significant.

  He smiled. “Zygam.”

  My hand dropped to my side again, and I stepped back several paces. The familiarity I’d felt at the voice. It was because it was him. “Where is my aunt? You took her.”

  “Yes,” he said. “I’ll take you to Talitha. Come.” He took a step toward me, and I felt nothing but ice cold dread. I couldn’t go with him. He edged closer to me, and I shouted, “No!”

  He stopped cold and frowned. His green eyes darkened, and I wasn’t sure if I was seeing things. There appeared to be a thin layer of air between us. “You don’t have to do this,” he said, not coming nearer and looking frustrated. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  This? I stared at the fine, wispy layer between him and me. I wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but it seemed to be halting his ability to come near me. I had somehow created a barrier to stop his progress. A bubble of protection that kept me safe. I smiled at this, amazed that I had done this thing — and, of course, it was at that moment that the barrier disappeared.

  Then it was his turn to smile, and I felt less sure than anything. He said he was my alab, my teacher, but I didn’t believe him. He said he wouldn’t hurt me, and I didn’t believe him. He came closer to me, and I felt nothing but cold tendrils of fear floating through me. This man was evil. He was darkness. He was fear. And he had been looking for me. I’d presented myself to him, and now I had no escape.

  I’m not sure why, but I reached into my tunic, grabbed the little stone and whispered, “Akilah.” She’d offered me help earlier today, help that I wanted at this moment.

  For every step closer Zygam came, my body filled with terror. I wanted to flee, yet I felt rooted to the ground, and I knew it was something he was doing. Some control he exerted over me, but only I didn’t know how.

  He looked at me and said. “I see why she was able to hide you from me for so long.” He shook his head as if whatever realization he had come to pained him. He opened his mouth to speak, but then a shiny orb appeared. Similar to the thing that had brought Zygam. It started off a small dot in the distance, but grew wide quickly.

  And it wasn’t just one. Two more appeared — one at each side. From the one behind Zygam, the dwarf emerged wearing a yellow tunic emblazoned with golden images of the sun. “Pylum,” I whispered in disbelief.

  At the sound of the name, Zygam turned to the dwarf and sneered. His voice deepened, hardened, and when he spoke, he sounded the same way he did when he took Auntie. “You dare come to my temple?” he said.

  “I am still outside the temple boundaries as you well know, Zygam. You also know that you cannot keep her here,” Pylum said, his voice sounding like a giant’s despite his stature. From inside his tunic, he pulled a long staff of carved ebony. I’m not even sure how I knew what it was made of, but the word Ketesh came to mind.

  Zygam waved his arm, and a Ketesh appeared in his hand as well. A golden symbol shot from Pylum’s staff, but it was met in the air by a symbol that had burst from Zygam’s. I was transfixed by what they did. This was magic. Real and powerful magic. Part of me, somewhere in the recesses of my mind, understood it. I was trying to piece together this anathema, this strange feeling that I knew what was going on but couldn’t reach the information, when someone tapped my shoulder.

  Startled, I turned to see Akilah standing there. A glowy orb like the one that had brought Pylum and Zygam brightened the dark desert behind her. “You’re full of surprises, little one,” she said.

  I felt a sting at being called little. “I’m plenty big,” I told her.

  “Where it matters, yes, you are,” she said, respect in her voice. She nodded toward the glowy pool behind her. “We need to get you into the portal.” She looked back at Pylum and Zygam fighting. “Unless you’d like to stay here.”

  I watched the two men for a moment, hurling lighted symbols at each other. The glyphs met in the air and seemed to shatter each other. Despite his size, the dwarf seemed evenly matched with Zygam. There were two other men who’d come through the portals, and they seemed to be locked in their own battles.

  Some of the men fighting were dressed in black like Zygam, while others were dressed in yellow, like Pylum. I wasn’t sure when Zygam’s helpers had arrived or from where, but I didn’t want to wait around for more of them to appear. I nodded to Akilah, who grabbed my hand and pulled me into the glowing portal.

  Chapter 7 - Hakari Ahet

  The portal had looked calm and peaceful like a gentle pond, but the moment I entered, it was like being sucked into a vortex. It had been like walking through a wind tunnel. I was thankful Akilah held tight to my hand. I feared that letting go would leave me trapped in this awful place.

  A few moments later, we were ejected from the vortex onto the carpeted floor of a large room. I took a deep breath, and fragrant incense tinged my nostrils. I looked around, and we were in a large, cavernous room. Looking up, the ceilings seemed to stretch into the sky, and the walls were thick slabs with ornate murals painted on them. The images all se
emed to involve the sun and strange symbols.

  “Where are we?” I asked,

  “Hakari Ahet,” Akilah said. “It means the Temple of Light.”

  Of course. I shook my head, still not quite understanding. Why would my reaction be “of course?” Yet it seemed only natural once she said it. My head was beginning to ache, and I wanted nothing more than to sit down and rest. But I needed to go someplace safe. The only safe place I knew had been destroyed. I wanted Auntie, but she was gone, captured by Zygam. And I couldn’t go there because he was dangerous.

  Akilah patted my shoulder and said. “It will be alright, little one. You’re safe here.”

  My stare told her I didn’t believe her, but she patted my shoulder again as if it didn’t matter. “I will take you to Pylum’s office. He will explain everything once he returns.”

  I was torn. My mind at the moment was telling me not to trust these people, not to trust this place. But something in the recesses of my mind was at war with my current feelings. It was telling me that this place was safe, that this place was home. I closed my eyes, hoping to get some peace.

  “You know,” Akilah said, sympathy in her tone. “I’m not sure how long before Pylum returns. Would you like to go rest for a bit?”

  It was already late, and I’d had a long day. Up before sunrise, and now it had to be very late at night. I looked up at Akilah and nodded. I wanted nothing more than a place to rest.

  She smiled kindly, and her eyes seemed to say she’d been in my position before. That she knew how I felt. But she seemed so confident each time I saw her that I could hardly imagine her feeling as lost or alone as I did.

  She led me through the corridors of the temple. We took a narrow stairwell up a few flights and out into a corridor. Several doors jutted off the hallway, and Akilah walked past many of them. We arrived at the last door, and she opened it. Inside was a large room with a mattress on the left side covered with a decorative silk. There were tapestries with symbols woven in them hanging on the wall. The right side of the room was empty. Akilah said a word, a symbol glittered in the air, and a bed appeared there.

  My mouth popped open, and Akilah patted my back. “This is my room,” she said. “You’re welcome to bunk with me if you stay. For the moment, rest.”

  I nodded, went in, lay down, and closed my eyes.

  Chapter 8 - Questions

  Kady had fallen asleep, but Akilah was too wound up to sleep. She’d gone back downstairs to wait for Pylum. She had seen him battling with the evil mage Zygam, and she’d found it a tad exhilarating. They were trained to do such things, but there was never danger at Hakari Ahet. This was a safe place.

  She stood in the garden that neared the border of the temple. She watched the other mages return from the battle outside Zygam’s temple. She waved hello to them, but their responses had been lukewarm at best. If she were being completely honest with herself, they’d been downright frosty responses. But she didn’t care. Those mages didn’t like the idea of a fifteen-year-old girl who had the ear of the temple’s leader and most powerful mage. She had learned long ago that the world could be a harsh place, regardless of whether you had magic.

  The evening was pleasant and cool and Akilah looked up at the twinkling stars, wondering what was taking so long. Finally, Pylum emerged in the distance and walked from the edge of the temple grounds to the gardens where Akilah stood. When he reached Akilah, he raised an eyebrow. “Is Dirah in my office?”

  Akilah shook her head. “She was exhausted. I took her to my room to sleep.”

  Pylum nodded. “A good idea. I should have suggested it.”

  “She would have liked to talk to you, but I think my portal may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

  They walked to together through the garden, and Akilah expected them to go inside, but Pylum paused at the door to the building. “The anchor worked?” he asked in a low voice.

  “Yes,” she said. She wasn’t sure why Pylum had created an anchor for her. Porting directly in and out of the temple was generally forbidden, but Pylum had insisted Akilah port Kadirah directly into the temple. He’d had to create a spell known as an anchor to allow Akilah’s portals to open inside the building. “I would have been happy to walk her,” Akilah said.

  Pylum shook his head. “If Zygam had tried to come back here, to grab her from you as you entered the grounds, he would have succeeded in taking her. I needed you to bring her directly inside. He cannot enter the temple.”

  “By portal, you mean?” Akilah asked.

  Pylum shook his head. “No. Zygam cannot enter the temple. Not without an army of mages to help him break the spells forbidding it.”

  Akilah nodded. The temple was safe and it was home. That was the things she’d longed for most when she’d been on her own: a place that was safe that she could call home. The fact that Zygam couldn’t enter the temple reassured her.

  Pylum opened the door and entered the temple. They walked through a large room, and Pylum was clearly following a path that would take him to his office. At the point that they should have split, with Akilah branching off to go back to her room, she didn’t. She continued walking next to Pylum.

  He looked up at her, grinned and shook his head. “I suppose you have more questions.”

  She cocked her head and said, “Don’t I always?”

  Pylum laughed gruffly, and he and Akilah walked to his office in silence.

  Once inside, Akilah blurted out what was on her mind. “I don’t sense any magic in her,” she said.

  Pylum stared at her a moment. “It’s emerging,” he said. “I used her magical trail to find her earlier. It’s not quite full yet, but her magic seems to be leaking out in small dribs.”

  “Why wouldn’t I sense it, then?” Akilah asked. “Usually you can feel the power of another mage. At least if you close your eyes and try to find it.”

  Pylum nodded. “That is true, but the spell Talitha used was powerful, and it is not weakening quickly. I imagine you will begin to sense her the more she uses her powers.”

  “Why didn’t I sense her today? She melted into shadow. That’s not a little thing. That is powerful, and I felt nothing. And who teaches a child to do such advanced magic? Most of the children around here can barely levitate a ball.”

  Pylum put a hand to his forehead and blew out. He took a moment to think and finally, he said. “You have many questions, my dear, so I will try to answer as many as I am able. First, Dirah was a quite precocious child, and she had a teacher who believed in showing her how to do any magic she expressed an interest in. Second, I am not entirely sure why you felt nothing from her when she shadow melted. I am not entirely certain of the spell Talitha used to bind her niece’s magic. I only know Talitha’s spell was powerful. It fooled Zygam for all these years, and that was without Dirah doing any magic. If Dirah somehow remembered shadow melting from her childhood, or if it just sprang up subconsciously, that might have been enough to break Talitha’s shield. Perhaps Dirah doing that powerful magic is what started her trail.”

  Akilah opened her mouth to ask another question, but Pylum shook his head. “It is late, Akilah. You should get to bed, and I must consider some of these daring questions you have asked me.”

  Akilah tried not to grimace. She felt like she always vexed Master Pylum. And she didn’t want to vex him, as he was her strongest ally here. He didn’t always give her the most exciting missions, but he trusted her more than the others. She nodded.

  Pylum breathed out wearily.

  “Before I go,” she said, and he looked up, his eyes, seeming to say, what now? “I just wanted to make sure you’re alright. Your battle looked dangerous.”

  Pylum smiled. “Yes,” he said. “I am well. Zygam and I fought longer than necessary. I wanted to make sure he was sufficiently distracted that he would not follow you back. Thankfully, that worked well.”

  “I’m glad,” Akilah said, turning to leave. “Goodnight, Master Pylum.”

>   “Goodnight.”

  Chapter 9 - Dreams

  I didn’t normally dream. Most nights I slept, and then I woke up. But this night, I dreamt. Strange, bizarre dreams. Zygam was there, only it was a summer day in a place with lush gardens, green and rosy. I was but a very small child, and I ran to him. He picked me up and kissed me on the cheek. “Ah, Dirah,” he said. “My beautiful, brave, Dirah. You will be very powerful one day.”

  And then the scene dissolved. I was still little, not much older than I’d been before, and it was dark. I was with Auntie and another woman, a beautiful, olive-skinned woman of petite stature with dark curls and big brown eyes.

  “Take her,” the woman said.

  “Tima,” Auntie said, and I realized the woman was my mother. She was huddled in a tunic, squatting low to the ground, as was Auntie. “Tima, I can’t do this without you. Let me stay. Let me fight him.”

  My mother shook her head. “He will kill you in a heartbeat. He doesn’t want to hurt me. Go. Protect her. I’ll link with you until it’s not safe. Go.”

  Before us, a portal opened. It moved more quickly than the ones I’d seen earlier this evening, widening fast, but not to such a large height. My mother leaned over and kissed my cheek. “When you hear my name, always remember I love you,” she said, and I saw a symbol, one that looked like two hands entwined, burn into the air and fall over me. I thought it was pretty and smiled.

  The next moment, Auntie and I were being pulled through the portal.

  And the scene shifted again. It was a quiet library room, furnished with comfortable chairs, a crackling fire, and two glasses of an amber liquid sitting on the table. A third glass had fallen to the floor and turned on its side. Sitting in a chair was Zygam, no hat this time and his dark tunic covered in sand. He picked up one of the glasses on the table, swallowed down the amber liquid, and tossed the glass on the floor. It clanked as it hit the carpet. He bit his lip and shook his head.