Talismans

by Lisa Lowell

  But Owailion wasn't hurt by it. He was terrified. Owailion knew Raimi's weakness; her belief in the curse that anything she touched would be destroyed. And all these spells performed under name magic would only help reinforce that belief. He wished briefly that he had taken her Talisman bowl as well so he could go back and listen to her thoughts as she dealt with this invasion of her magic. There had to be some way to sever the link between Raimi and the Tormenter. Could Owailion find the sorcerer and snap his neck before he asked Raimi to do something that truly hurt others? He must do something soon or the sorcerer would expose the Land to pure evil at Raimi's hand. She had not killed anyone yet and had done everything she could to avoid causing harm but it was only a matter of time.

  Owailion reached across the continent to Jonjonel, to where he knew Imzuli hibernated and felt his wife also there, peacefully sleeping and hopefully without invading dreams. Now, how could he protect her?

  * * *

  “Tethimzuliel? Wake up,” the voice ordered.

  Imzuli growled at the interruption. Wasn't she supposed to be allowed to sleep? But this voice was insistent. Unfamiliar and she wondered if it was Owailion, the only other human male she knew…other than that Gnalish whom she felt inclined to roast at this point. This Voice seemed to be neither and had invoked her name. Imzuli sat up and almost struck her head on the ceiling of the cavern and then she remembered. She had moved to Jonjonel.

  “Tethimzuliel, you must obey me. Raimi is in that cavern with you. Bring her to me, Tethimzuliel.”

  Name magic! The dragon knew it instantly. A magician was trying to manipulate her. She dare not move. If Raimi was there in the cavern with her she might accidently step on her friend before she found her. Imzuli sparked a single light in the cavern and found her human friend curled up sleeping right under her wing.

  “Where shall I bring her to you?” the dragon called, delaying the imperative, though it hurt to resist. Dragons could often manipulate name magic if given enough ways to delay and qualify the order.

  An image of a ship…again that damnable ship, in a harbor was pressed into the dragon's mind. Imzuli knew the place; Raimi's favorite location on the mouth of the Lara River where her palace would one day be built. The dragon sighed, feeling the compulsion and no way out.

  “Owailion!” Imzuli called, but the voice blocked her.

  “Ah, ah, no calling to anyone else Tethimzuliel,” the magician qualified. “Just pick her up and bring her here.”

  Imzuli reluctantly stretched out a delicate claw and scooped up her friend, pillow and all. Raimi did not stir at the movement, as if she was in a spell. Well, given the situation, it was probably a truth. The white dragon shifted to the top of Jonjonel, balancing on the volcanic peak carefully before she spread her wings and then transitioned, this time to the delta.

  The river snaked past the low delta islands and out to sea defying the tide. Against that flow Imzuli saw the ship struggling, but unable to come closer for the Seal. She flew through the invisible barrier and landed on the deck, squeezing between two masts. Thankfully the canvas was furled or she would never have fit.

  She gently set her friend on the deck and felt the release of at least that order. She still could not call one of the other dragons for help or to Owailion to tell him what was happening. Instead Imzuli looked around the ship and finally saw a man coming forward, wearing a black leather suit, polished to a dragon shine and over it a silver cloak with gold markings running down his back. Imzuli began to feel a growl rising like a volcano in her gut and stepped over Raimi as if she would defend her physically.

  “Do not bother, Tethimzuliel,” the magician spoke proudly. “Thank you for your services. You can go back to sleep now Tethimzuliel.”

  The dragon had little chance to catch herself before she collapsed on the deck, asleep with her muzzle snapping the railing on the starboard side, almost dragging in the water, her hindquarters flopping overboard on the port side and her tail acting as a sudden second rudder. The spread wings hid Raimi from view and the magician sighed. What a bother exact wording had become.

  And moving a dragon would wear him out. Well, he could not do his next work with a dragon nearly capsizing the ship. The sorcerer pushed up his sleeves and then made a lifting motion. The massive body moved with his hands. He carefully wove the dragon out of the vital structures of the ship and then spun her away, back through the Seal and onto the shore. Imzuli did not move a muscle as she landed with a thud on the sandy beach.

  The Tormentor turned back to Raimi who slept on, oblivious to her changed location. He had to agree with his apprentice, Stylmach, that this magician was lovely. Her stunning hair and pale skin particularly appealed to him and almost he could forgive her for destroying all the hard work he had put into his protégé. Almost. If perhaps he could do the same to her, make her a puppet, obedient and barely magical she would make a fine wife. The Tormenter lifted a lock of her coppery hair, luxuriating in its scent. Then gave himself a shake. Time to get to work. She needed disciplined.

  “Raimi, wake up,” he ordered harshly. He then quickly reset all his controls before she could even fully obey the first directive. “Raimi, you will use no magic on me or this ship until I tell you. Raimi, you will not contact anyone in the Land.”

  She woke bewildered and a little sick. “Yes, your seasickness spell still is working,” he warned as her ice-green eyes focused on him and he saw the rage there. She would crush him the instant he slipped up.

  It did not take long. Somewhere deep within Raimi began plotting her acts of rebellion. What could she still do? Instinctively she reached toward the Lara River and began damming it up like her magic was blocked behind a more than physical shield. Just beyond the Seal the water that spread across the beach just yards from the ship started to soak away, drawn back by her magic. She could justify it since she wasn't attacking her Tormentor or the ship; she was simply damming a river. But she dare not think of this act or he would know.

  Meanwhile the sorcerer continued picking at her aching soul with his words. “Oh dear,” he began, “you should not have tried to get away with it. Somehow you brought Owailion into our little relationship. You abandoned him and hid instead. Did the white dragon forgive you for what you did to her mountain? How about the fact that you have given me her name as well?”

  Raimi cringed for she did not even remember that betrayal. Miserably she looked around the ship's deck, struggled up from her bed and peered north toward home. She recognized the lovely cliffs and green coastline where the Lara River cut out of the high plains. She squinted and could see Imzuli's bulk, shining brighter and whiter than the sand on which she lay.

  “Yes, you gave me her name when I asked,” the Tormenter reminded her.

  “I thought you did not want a dragon as much as you wanted me,” Raimi snapped, keeping her eye on the Land, her friend, her hopes.

  “I have you…and now I have a dragon too. I wanted the dragon as an object lesson. You see, there is a myth that dragons cannot die. Indeed, they seem to be deathless but there are a few rare things that can kill a magnificent creature like that; her name being one of them.”

  That got Raimi to turn to face him. “No, please,” she whispered in fear.

  “You have two choices. I kill your dragon or you lower the Seal. Which shall it be?” The flickering in this sorcerer's alien eyes spoke of pleasure at the manipulation. “I could always ask her to make the same choice instead. Would Tethimzuliel choose Raimi over the Seal? Shall I wake her to ask?”

  Raimi was powerless. She wept even as her mind struggled to grasp the choice. Without waiting for the dilemma to even sink in the sorcerer did as promised. “Tethimzuliel, wake up. Tethimzuliel, you can do no magic. You cannot fly or call out to anyone.”

  Imzuli, just a few yards up on the shore lifted her head with alarm and oriented herself with much the same look as her human friend, if that was possible. They made eye contact across the water and then Imzuli roared in h
er frustration. She hopped gracelessly and tried to blow fire in a futile attempt to escape the name magic bonds. None of her more draconic skills remained to her and she was pinned to the shore, handicapped and furious.

  “Tethimzuliel,” the insufferable sorcerer began explaining the ultimatum. “I have given Raimi a choice: bring down the Seal on the Land or kill you. It is a simple choice in my mind, but then, you are not my friend. Dragons and humans have been enemies for ages. I do not see how two different species of magician can possibly share the same territory. Is that why the dragons were put to sleep?”

  “They are our friends,” Raimi insisted, for she knew Imzuli could not reply. “Only a monster would ask me to make such a choice.”

  “A monster, am I?” Her Tormentor lifted an eyebrow and smirked. “Very well, I will make the choice for you.” He then turned away imperiously from Raimi who could only look on with horror. Then in a voice loud enough to carry over the water he called.

  “Tethimzuliel, die.”

  Chapter 23 – Lost One

  Raimi almost stopped breathing just as Imzuli did. Without so much as a growl the silver dragon collapsed in a heap and did not twitch. “NO!” Raimi shrieked in pure emotion. She could not attack her Tormentor nor perform magic against him but she had to do something.

  Without thinking, Raimi dove over the side of the ship. She might not be able to use magic against him, but she could swim. And the Tormenter let her go. He basked in what he had done, enjoying this despicable experience. He had killed an immortal dragon. Raimi, for her part let her tears flow and add to the ocean. In moments she staggered out of the surf, reached Imzuli and threw herself on her friend's neck. Rage and grief mingled to dam up Raimi's mind for a moment.

  Desperately the Queen of Rivers sought for some recourse and felt the waterway beyond her that had already provided it. She had known something was going to snap and now she understood why. She filled every fountain up the river miles upstream, beyond the delta and now she knew what had caused that terrible future Talisman vision. She herself was destroying the most beautiful place she had known. In the bowl she had seen the whole area turned into a swamp and the protective hillsides gone. Well, her Tormenter wanted her to eliminate mountains; this would do it. Raimi justified it because she would only be burying Imzuli, not directing magic against her Tormenter or the ship. And if they happened to get caught in the aftermath, so be it.

  Meanwhile, as the pressure built behind Raimi's invisible dam the Tormenter watched her suffer as she powerlessly commanded her friend to live again. Then he added his commentary. “You could have avoided this if you had decided to break the Seal instead,” he called from the safety of the ship. “Why must you always make it such an ordeal of using the magic you have? I would be the King of the Land and you would be my Queen. All the people would worship us.”

  Raimi did not raise her head from her grief to look back at him but she did reply, if only to keep him talking so that there would be more pressure behind the dam when she shattered it. “You're a fool,” she said grimly, letting her contempt show, hoping to egg him into attacking her rather than just simply using her as a puppet. “You don't understand the Land. There are no people here to worship you; just me, Owailion and a few dragons asleep for millennia. You will gain nothing if you come here to rule.”

  “People will come,” he reminded her, making it sound like a threat.

  Had the Tormentor seen the bowl's prediction of the future in her mind? Had he been listening to her every thought for months? Raimi hoped not or he would suspect what she was plotting right then.

  Instead the Tormentor continued to blather on unaware of her mental rebellion as she turned away from him to look up toward where her home would have been but now never would be built.

  “The ley lines that flow in your land must be tremendous for you to have such power. I've seen you move mountains, kill forests and change the world, Raimi. And you will do it again for me Raimi; you and I together.”

  “You do not know what you are asking,” warned Raimi. “You cannot ask me to keep one mandate when there is a second mandate on me that you will not be able to break. I have been sworn to protect the Land from such as you. I cannot do both.”

  The Tormenter laughed at her cruelly. “I have seen you do both. You made a whole mountain disappear and not even your pathetic husband knew what you were doing. I don't know how he figured out I held your strings, but he's only the King of Buildings. He has abandoned you. Raimi, you are far greater than he is. You deserve better. I can give you all he cannot. He is nothing. He hasn't given you children, nor built you a palace like all the others. Even now he is sputtering around on another river, waiting for nothing. He has not even come to your rescue here. I pity you for being tied to such a man all your life.”

  Owailion, she thought, tuning out the blathering of the sorcerer. I cannot even say a goodbye to you. Then an idea, a Wise One inspired insight came to her. Yes, I can send a gift. I can give you the bowl. You can see what I am about to do. It is not leaving you a message. I am sending you a gift of the past. It is not magic directed at the Tormenter. I can do that little bit of magic and you might understand my actions. I had no choice.

  With a flick of thought Raimi gave her beloved Owailion her final Talisman. He had it all now; the extra Heart Stone, the Pipes of Forgetting and the Bowl of the Past. Now maybe he would forgive her.

  The sorcerer must have sensed her inattentiveness, for he used name magic to bring her back to focus on him. “Raimi, listen to me,” he ordered. “You will do this with me. You will be mine. Raimi, break the Seal and let me in.”

  Belatedly she realized she might have waited just a bit too long. She could sense the water pressure had built to the point she could almost not contain it. She also knew she had to remove her Heart Stone to perform his command. The Tormentor understood nothing of the restrictions of the Heart Stone; she could not obey him and still protect the Land. However, without the judge of the stone, she could kill the monster, she hoped. She was prepared.

  Resolved, Raimi reached into her chest and slowly removed her Heart Stone. It glowed in the bright sun and then she wearily turned and set the Heart Stone inside Imzuli's body, right beside the dragon's own and then rose to her feet. In grief Raimi recalled all she had learned as she studied how the Seal was built. She knew the deep magic well at its roots. She felt how it entwined with Owailion's Memories. She would perform one last sweeping spell.

  To help the Tormentor understand that she was about to obey him she lifted her arms high above her head. Across the water she saw him smile in anticipation and he had brought the ship in closer to the Seal, expecting it would be only a matter of seconds before he could come ashore. Then with a wish, Raimi broke the dam that held the Lara River at bay and brought the Seal down all at once.

  Raimi's river of magic flowed on.

  * * *

  Owailion stood on the misty shore of the Don River, peering out to sea, wondering if he was actually seeing what was there. That single island, just beyond the Seal seemed like a sentinel floating above the fog and he dare not investigate or the sorcerer would know he was being watched. Thankfully Raimi was far away, asleep in a cavern and this sorcerer remained unaware he now had two Wise Ones to fight, one of which he could not name.

  Owailion's other great worry was that somewhere here soon a new Wise One would appear. He could feel it in his bones and the newcomer would need to be protected and trained. In his heart Owailion knew just as he had known when Raimi would first arrive. That first arrival event, coming to the Land, made you vulnerable. He dreaded the thought of fighting a sorcerer at the same moment time as he had to be welcoming a new Wise One. Owailion's mind ran through all the steps: throw a shield over him, and maybe move him inland, prevent him from speaking until after the battle was over and hope for the best, Owailion decided.

  Patience was never his best trait, Owailion realized as he brought the blanket back into being and sat dow
n. He had been impatient for Raimi's arrival too. Then it had been loneliness that drove his restlessness but now impending battle made him almost frantic with impatience. He wanted to use the pipes to wipe the sorcerer's mind and be done.

  The sun was just setting over the sea when Owailion felt a gentle brush of magic and Raimi's bowl abruptly appeared on the blanket before him. In alarm he reached for it. Why was she sending him this? He launched his mind to seek hers to find out the purpose of giving him the bowl. Owailion's magic strained to the far side of the continent to find her at Jonjonel when he realized she was not there and a stab of panic lanced through him. He stood up with the bowl in his hands and was about to go seeking her presence elsewhere when the earth shook and he almost fell over, staggering in the thunderous snapping of something. The wrench of pain across his mind tore free from his soul.

  Owailion felt the Seal falling.

  He gasped, for with its fall, he could see the bay in front of him filled with ships of all sizes and shapes plying their way back and forth. Most looked to be on a run moving goods either south to Marwen or west toward Malornia but one ship stood at anchor right beside the finger island Raimi had pointed out to him, waiting for this event. Owailion could now see through the Seal. He assumed the Land was open to them as well. His eyes followed the shore line and noted how a road had been cut along the edge where the Seal would have blocked wagons and horse traffic. Indeed one wagon already on the road stopped and turned off the beaten path toward Owailion.