Talismans

by Lisa Lowell

  However, she wasn't allowed the dignity of crying over her lost freedom or integrity because that would be a sign that something was wrong and Owailion would notice. She was beginning to dread going to sleep. Could she perhaps survive without it?

  “Then I would only invade your thoughts waking as well. As punishment for your rebellion with the gull, I want you to destroy a mountain. You know which one I want. I know the dragon has moved on thanks to your manipulation. However, I know the dragon will be hard put to forgive you. I want you to crush Imzuli's mountain, Raimi.”

  Raimi tried to fight it, pointing out that Owailion would know something had happened. You could not change the face of the Land without him being aware. The Memories provided every detail of the Land and he would feel it in his bones.

  “And yet you will not leave behind a trace in your magic,” droned the voice. “You will tear the memory of that mountain from his mind and Raimi, I will watch to be sure you do it perfectly. Raimi, do as I say.”

  “Why that mountain?” she begged as she woke in the dark. She had to delay the inevitable. The subtle sorcerer, her Tormenter did not reply, leaving behind his mandate and no other recourse. The mandate forced her out of bed well before dawn so she could plan.

  After breakfast the next day Raimi checked to be sure Owailion was well occupied at his latest project, a palace just south of the Fallon Forest, for she also must answer to the compulsion to avoid detection. She then began working on how to destroy a mountain so no one would notice.

  She considered what she knew about Imzuli's mountain; its location, rivers and creeks that cut down its sides and the glaciers that fed them. Her creeks could erode stone but that took time, which was not on her side. Inside the mountain, with that great hollow chamber reinforced magically with a coating of silver, titanium or steel, she could eliminate that and weaken the structure, but mountains like that did not just simply collapse. If it were a volcano that might be another matter but the whole north/south stretch of the Great Chain was formed from uplift due to earthquake faults, not volcanoes. And an earthquake would only leave a mountain of debris that would be impossible to explain. She didn't know a great deal about mountains, but she knew that much. Briefly she felt grateful that the King or Queen of Mountains had not emerged yet or Raimi would certainly be caught.

  With a twist of her mind she gathered all the lining Imzuli had done to her cave and turned the cavern into simple stone. She thought briefly about taking all the metal and forging herself a sword to kill herself rather than being forced to inflict pain on the Land, but it would not be a guarantee. Could a sword ever kill her? Besides, her Tormenter would hear and punish her. Supposedly a Wise One could not die, or so she had been led to believe. So instead she made Imzuli's silver casing disappear back into the magic of the world.

  Next Raimi examined the way water, her forte, might undermine the roots of the mountain from underneath. Natural aquifers within the rock, the sources of springs and slow corrosion were at her disposal so she began lifting the water through the cracks and crevasses that it could always find. She did enough erosion in a day to compare with a century if it were to happen naturally. But still, the mighty mountain stood firm and unchanged in appearance. She stopped her efforts when Owailion returned for the evening and hoped the progress she had made would satisfy the Tormenter.

  “Very disappointing, Raimi,” his words invaded her sleep that night. “You were supposed to bring down the mountain. As a consequence…”

  “You gave me a mandate that this should be as subtle as possible and that Owailion must not know I'm behind it. I've started working on grinding down the mountain but it's going to be obvious soon,” she interrupted the Tormentor.

  “As obvious as stripping you of all your friends and loved ones so that you will turn to me?” The unseen sorcerer laughed in a toxic way. “Raimi, you've got to try harder.”

  “And when Owailion traces this destruction to me, what will my consequences be then?” she snapped at him. “I will never be free of your demands, will I? What do you want of me?”

  The pause lingered in the dream's air like the flakes of snow that floated on the bitter air. “I want you, Raimi. I want the Land and all the magic in it. But most of all, I want you Raimi.”

  That reply so stunned her that she grasped fruitlessly for something to say. No one else on the planet had even met her. She wasn't, at least in her opinion, a great beauty or particularly intelligent. She had too bold of a personality, recklessly brazen and had few talents that were not directly magical. Why would anyone want her?

  “You are the hardest on yourself, Raimi. You sell yourself short at every turn. So I know you can make a better effort on the mountain,” the voice chided.

  “I will do whatever you want,” Raimi began begging. “I will leave the Land and go with you willingly if that will stop this destruction. I swear I will not fight you if you will stop forcing me to do harm to the Land and the people that I love.” In her dream the oath even put her into her royal regalia as she spoke with the disembodied magician.

  “Ah, if only it was that easy. My hope is that you will come to me eventually without having to swear it. You see, Raimi, you will have nothing left to protect and so I will not need to worry that you will slip away, back to your friends. All the dragons will be gone and all the Wise Ones will fade away. The Land will be ours together along with all its power.”

  Raimi shuddered when not even a curse could come from her mouth. She felt broken. She would crush Imzuli's mountain because she had no choice, but hopefully a Wise One idea of how to deal with the binding in which she found herself entangled would come if she gave it time. Since the sorcerer seemed to be done with her, Raimi forced herself awake and slipped out of bed, seeking a quiet place to cry. Her eyes just seemed to dry up whenever Owailion was near and her words washed away in a flood when she wished to share her burden.

  In the dark of the kitchen she stirred the fire and then conjured a chair and table at which to sit. At times like this, alone and dream free, she could grieve and plan. To that end she kept her pack with her constantly so if the sorcerer demanded she leave she would not have to surrender all she possessed. From it she pulled out her clothes and dressed and then brought out her bowl and pipes, wondering if they could somehow help her. The two Talismans tickled at her mind, hinting at possibilities. Right now, the conflicting compulsions, to destroy the mountain and to not allow Owailion be aware of it, competed. Could she make him forget the existence of the mountain with her pipes? Perhaps, yes, but how would she hide the gaping hole? She could just make the peak disappear but the magic would be obvious. Only earthquakes, volcanoes and simple erosion would not bring obvious questions.

  The bowl nudged at her mind. It showed the past…the river of the past. Time flowed like the waters. Could she make waters rush by faster than normal? Of course, so it stood to reason she could speed up time by the same means. If she sped up the erosion of a mountain, how many years would it take to grind it down to a valley? She would not touch the mountains around it. That is what she must try.

  In the quiet dark of late night, in the bare kitchen, Raimi concentrated on what she had to do. She conjured a copy of Owailion's map and reminded herself to alter it once she completed the work, then she circled the proper mountain on the map and began her wishing. In that area only the passage of time would increase by a factor of millions. Storms and wind, rain and icy fractures would erode away the mountain. Millennia would pass in an hour. In her mind's eye she saw the weathering and looked into the bowl to judge when to stop. This work meant creeks that normally fell around the mountain now flowed steeply into the valley she had formed. A lake would soon fill up the dell, making it impossible for Owailion to build a palace there in the future. That would not do; she could fix it by blowing out another path out of the valley and down toward a river that would eventually flow into the huge nameless lake in the north east. She had created a new river as well as destroyed a mo
untain.

  Then Raimi stopped the river of time she had crafted. The mountain she had destroyed and the path of a new river it caused now had been cut into the map she had conjured. With a flick of thought she used her copy to replace the one Owailion kept. He must not be aware of her treachery. Her husband would never trust her again as it was if he ever found out how she was betraying the Land. She mourned the loss of that trust most of all.

  Mournfully Raimi picked up her pipes and like a puppet, stilted and awkward, walked back to the bedroom they were utilizing. Rather than wake him, she simply sat on the edge of the bed, concentrated on the very specific thing she wanted him to forget, even to the point of ripping it from the dragon-gifted Memories and then played his recollection of Imzuli's home away. The white dragon had always lived in Jonjonel and now she slept there peacefully. Maybe in a thousand years when the dragons awoke again Raimi would admit what she was doing.

  “Dragons will be extinct in a thousand years. They will be long forgotten,” the sorcerer slipped into her mind, deepening her sadness.

  Raimi turned away from her husband's sleeping figure, feeling unfaithful. “I have done what you asked. Now I will ask something of you. Will you leave the Land be, leave Owailion alone and the dragons and all of it if I come to you…without name magic?”

  “Now, Raimi, why would I want that? It is so much more delicious to watch you eroding your life away, eating your own heart.”

  Before she did something that would warrant a new punishment, Raimi set aside the pipes and put a spell on herself to encourage dreamless sleep. She knew now her curse was true; everything she touched would be destroyed. So she slept on anyway, dreaming of murder and suicide.

  Chapter 22 – Ultimatum

  Owailion knew something was wrong despite everything. Raimi's eyes hid a dark mood and jumpy fears plagued her. He had not shared with her Enok's warning dream but now in late summer Owailion rarely left her side as they worked on various palaces. Raimi sometimes made excuses to go swimming in the river after working on gardens all day. Owailion watched her through a memory globe, but learned little. He so earnestly yearned to speak with her, to beg her to somehow explain her anxiety. Could she again be ensnared in name magic? This odd behavior seemed to echo how Imzuli had acted just weeks before the Sleep when she stopped talking as well.

  Finally one day Owailion suggested a picnic, just to get her to respond to him.

  “Yes,” Raimi agreed. “Let's go out to the beach where that finger rock is.”

  Owailion felt a stab of alarm. He had seen that island that rose above the mist and was visible just off shore, but it was not part of the Memories. That it was so near the sea did not worry him half as much as that she suggested it at all. She should have feared going there.

  When they arrived, Raimi initially just stared at the finger rock, saying nothing. She pursed her lips, folding her arms across herself, and let the river waters meet the sea before her. This place seemed to symbolize her conflict. In her mind Owailion heard how she felt like a river being swallowed and overwhelmed by the ocean.

  Owailion kept his thoughts to himself. It was a rotten day for a picnic on the beach, but it was her 'birthday' and agreeing to go to such an unwelcoming place had been enough to tell her that he was concerned. The sand blew in their eyes and the wind grew chill, but Owailion knew instinctively she needed to tell him something that she could hopefully reveal here. He sat alone on the blanket that they brought, just watching her. Rather than speculating, Owailion trusted his instincts and watched her staring.

  “Raimi, please talk to me,” he suggested finally. There was no name magic behind Owailion's request, simply love. She didn't even turn back to look at him. In her mind he heard how she felt mesmerized by his dark eyes or the mysteriously white hair on a young face. He had a power over her without magic.

  When she finally did think of something to say, she said it mentally, not aloud, as if they might have been overheard. “You know I always felt that everything I touch is going to go wrong? I still feel that way.”

  “Yes,” he replied. “But it is not so.”

  He could not resist. Owailion approached her and whispered her name, and slipped into her mind, close so even the wind could not overhear them. “Raimi, are you being controlled again by someone?”

  Raimi could not get her mouth to move or even mental words, but she did manage to look at him seriously. Owailion's protective bubble warmed all around them, keeping her hopefully safe, but she still could not make a sound.

  “Is he out on that rock there?” Owailion felt a pit of dread drop in his stomach, but he continued the careful questioning knowing that even positive and negative moves might be too difficult for her to make if name magic manipulated her. She blinked out to sea and then down at the ground. So Owailion interpreted that her Tormentor was everywhere.

  “Is he inside the Seal?”

  She shook her hair out of the nonexistent wind. She didn't think the sorcerer had made it that far but it would not take much for the Tormentor to command her to drop the Seal and then he could walk right in.

  “Has he commanded you to harm something already?”

  In reply she turned inland, toward the mountains. “The dragons?” Owailion speculated. “No, not yet. The Land? Me?” Owailion's ran his comforting hands on her arms and down her back to keep her from crumbling. He knew and understood even if he had not struck on precisely the damages she had done.

  “I forgive you, my love,” he whispered into her ear. “This is not you or your curse. This is evil that the Wise Ones must face. Now, do you think he is Stylmach's mentor?” Owailion asked, continuing the line of questioning.

  She looked out to sea again and tried to smile, as if she knew she was being watched. Owailion kissed her to help the charade. “Is he contacting you through dreams?” She sighed with exhaustion so he knew it was more than just dreams.

  “Does he ask you questions?” Raimi frowned so he would understand the difference. She had been entirely unable to engage this Tormenter in revealing himself with conversation.

  “Can he reach you if we move inland again?” Raimi blinked a positive; there was no escaping this one. “Does he know about the next Wise One coming here?”

  This time Raimi's eyes grew wide with alarm. She didn't know how much the Tormenter knew about why they had come to the mouth of the Don River. Had it been a truth or an artificial excuse? She didn't seem to know.

  “Okay, we need to protect him as well as you,” Owailion decided for them, knowing she was at her wits end when it came to outwitting this sorcerer. “I think you need to go be with Imzuli. Don't wake her. Just camp in her mountain and…and that is….Jonjonel? Has something changed there?”

  Raimi's eyes grew so wide he could see his own reflection in her stormy green eyes. “I'll figure it out. Leave the pipes with me and I'll remember. Go to Imzuli, put a shield around the mountain and do not come out until I tell you it is safe. Can you do that?”

  Raimi's brow furrowed in worry. She couldn't be sure one way or the other. What if the Tormenter commanded her to come to him?

  “I'll use name magic to enforce it. Let's see which command you have to obey. Raimi, do not come out of Imzuli's cavern until you hear from me.”

  In response she reached out and finally touched him back, kissing him soundly, deeply and then, as she did as he suggested she pressed her pipes and the new-comer's Heart Stone into his hands.

  “I love you,” she managed at least to speak.

  Owailion's mind followed, monitored her magic as she reached for the creek at the base of Jonjonel and faded from his arms.

  * * *

  Getting away from the sea felt like a relief, Raimi realized, even though her Tormentor had no problem reaching her much farther inland. Obedient to Owailion's name magic she stretched out her thoughts toward the cavern Owailion had crafted for Imzuli and found a bit of water that leaked into it for a pulling point. She entered the dark of the cavern
and didn't even bother lighting her way in the profound darkness. She could hear the dragon's gentle breathing, half rumble, half sigh warm in her mind. Raimi conjured herself a human sized pillow, lay down and with a final experiment told herself, with firm name magic, “Raimi, sleep without dreams.”

  But dreams were not all the Tormentor possessed.

  * * *

  When he had first begun to understand magic, Owailion had thought how amazing it all was, and that there would be little trouble being a steward of the Land. No one would invade, they would never want for anything and the specter of sadness and fear would never raise its head. What a fool had he been to think that way? With great power there always came a need to use it. He could not imagine what Raimi was going through but he feared he would sacrifice everything, even the Land itself if there was a way to save her.

  The problem was, he didn't know how to go about it. A new Wise One was coming and that might help, as long as there was time to train him. Owailion knew the new-comer's name and Raimi had left him the pipes as well as the extra Heart Stone as another clue of how she was being manipulated. Obviously she didn't trust herself with these items and she had been compelled to make Owailion forget something. Now she wanted him to remember all she had been forced to erase? Owailion felt he must investigate that before he decided how to deal with this Tormentor. He dared not go Seeking the next Wise One for his help, or it would alert the sorcerer to a new and vulnerable Wise One. Best to first confront this sorcerer who had Raimi as his puppet. And to do that he needed to know what had passed between his wife and the Tormenter. With that decided Owailion gathered up his blanket and, as if he were only following Raimi home he went back to the cold hearth in the palace at Don.

  Owailion sat at the table and then pulled out the pipes with trepidation. Could he specifically instruct it to give him the memory that had been taken from him? Well, it was worth a try. He set the reeds to his lips and blew. He concentrated on producing music and found that a song that reflected his mood came forward, effortlessly. He deftly played a call to arms and if he did not think about it, Owailion began to remember what had been taken from him; an entire mountain. Under the song's spell Owailion abruptly recalled how Raimi had asked Imzuli to move and the dragon had done so. Then, over the ensuing weeks and months, under the command of her Tormenter, Raimi had washed the dragon's mountain away, from his memories as well as all their maps. Also stunning him, Owailion recognized that Raimi had killed the forest. And worst of all she had hidden these things from him.