“Surely you could have done something,” Dartan said. “Cast another spell, or even find something else with which to bind the magic?” Alain shook his head. So much left to teach.
“Sensing a long overdue soul, Death wasted no time in mounting his pale steed, beginning his march to claim her. Once he has you marked, there is no magic I’ve found that can turn him away.”
Alain had grown tired as he spoke, and was once again leaning heavily upon his staff. What had happened to this Great Wizard, Dartan wondered. “What about you?” he asked. “To what is your immortality bound?”
“It has been my own will which has kept me alive all these years,” Alain confided. “A spell, renewed each and every morning.” He paused, his eyes growing cloudy again, but he kept them on Dartan. “Every morning, until the death of the Queen. After her passing, I couldn’t bring myself to cast the spell again.”
A thought occurred to Dartan. “What about my father? Surely my mother would have wanted me to know him.” He stared into Alain’s eyes. “Who is he?” Alain’s eyes widened a bit, then he disappeared. He was only gone a moment, but Dartan felt the disappearance itself was answer enough.
When Alain reappeared he had a look of concern on his face. “I’m afraid this is going to be quite unpleasant for you.”
“I don’t care,” Dartan remained firm. “I deserve to know who my father is.”
Alain dismissed this with a wave of his hand. “No, what I mean is you’re about to wake up … and you’re not going to be very happy about it.” A light, cold rain began to fall on Dartan, and only on him.
“We only have a few more seconds and I need to tell you what I’m sending you to retrieve.”
“It’s the spell stone, isn’t it?”
The rain was growing harder, and Alain stepped closer to be sure he could be heard. “No, you and the stone will find each other in due time. What lies in Varlain Pass is even more important right now.” Alain stood less than a meter away, but Dartan could barely see him through the sheets of rain now falling, and the pounding of the heavy drops threatened to drown out his voice as well. “Marcus knows the way, but you must hurry. The Northern Kingdom’s men must not be allowed to get their hands on it. Protect it at all costs.”
“What is it?” he felt his mouth say, but he couldn’t even hear himself over the roar of the water. This must be what it’s like under a waterfall, Dartan thought as he looked up. He half expected to see water pouring over a cliff above his head, but instead found himself barely able to open his eyes and his mouth instantly filled with the frigid water.
He lowered his head, coughing and struggling to catch his breath, vaguely aware that the rain had stopped.
“Are you alright?” he heard Aliet ask from his side. Dartan nodded his head weakly as the coughing fit lessened. He rubbed his eyes to clear his vision.
“Where’d he go?” Dartan asked groggily.
“Who?” Logan asked from in front of him.
“Alain,” Dartan answered, slowly realizing he was sitting in his bed.
“The wizard?” Aliet asked.
“Magic,” Logan stated. “I told you I felt magic.”
“Why am I soaking wet?” Dartan now noticed Logan standing over him with an empty bucket.
“She panicked,” Logan said, shoving the bucket into Aliet’s hands.
“I did panic,” Aliet admitted, then quickly threw the bucket back, hitting Logan in the chest, and added, “but the water was Logan’s idea.” Logan grunted with a loud exhale and staggered from the room.
“What exactly happened?” Dartan’s memory was fuzzy, as though he were trying to recall a dream. Aliet sat next to him and ran a hesitant hand through his soaked hair.
“Logan woke up with the feeling that magic was being used, so he came in here. He tried to wake you, but nothing worked. That’s when he came and got me. We both tried to wake you and I probably got a little frantic, which led Logan to try the water.” She put her hands into her lap and stared at them. “I think the worst part was when you called out my name.” She looked back into Dartan’s eyes. “What were you dreaming about?”
Dartan looked into Aliet’s eyes and saw a sparkle there, which brought back his entire dream in vivid detail. He lowered his head before she could see the embarrassment in his own eyes.
“I-I don’t really remember,” he fumbled, feeling even worse for lying.
“Well, you mentioned Alain,” she ventured.
“Yes,” he grabbed on to the new subject. “He visited me in my dream because it takes less magic.”
“Well?” she pressed. “What did he say?” The conversation played through his head again and he recalled the last thing Alain told him.
“We have to leave. Now.”
Chapter Twenty-one
“We have to leave.” Logan stared at the mountain pass as he spoke to Dartan.
“Is Farnir’s daughter really that bad?” Dartan asked with a smirk.
“Kari?” Logan whipped his head around. “What do you mean by that? What have you heard? Did she say something about me?” The questions came rapid fire, with no break for an answer.
Dartan held his hands up. “Calm down,” he said, smile still firmly in place. “It was just a joke.”
“Well, it wasn’t funny,” Logan huffed. “She’s a very lovely girl, and we had a wonderful time together.” The firm tone indicated he was finished talking about the subject, but Dartan was just getting started.
“Very lovely girl?” Dartan mocked. “Wonderful time?” He moved closer, squinted his eyes and studied Logan’s face. “Who are you?” he whispered, then laughed as Logan gave him a shove.
“Can we please focus and be serious for just a minute here?”
“Sure,” Dartan said. “I can. Can you keep your mind off Kari long enough?”
“Of course I can,” Logan shot back. “It’s not like I’m calling out her name in my sleep.”
“Fine, then,” Dartan conceded through clenched teeth. “Let’s be serious.” He took a breath before continuing. “I know we have to leave. I’m the one who told all of you what Alain said. Remember?”
“I’m not concerned with what the wizard may or may not have told you in a dream,” Logan said. “What does concern me is how much longer I’ll be able to ignore the pull.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Do you remember the story of how all these slayers came to be here? As if they were being called.”
“You mean the same call which you haven’t had even an inkling of a feeling?”
“That’s the one. Well, last night I started feeling something I can only describe as a call.”
“And this was while you were with Kari?” Logan answered the question with a hard glare. Dartan bowed his head. “Continue.”
“Actually, being with Kari is probably the only thing keeping me from running straight for Varlain Pass.” He saw the questioning look on Dartan’s face. “The call I’m feeling is trying to drag me up to that mountain pass.”
Both men turned and looked up at the deep V shape between the two mountain peaks. “We have to leave here soon,” Logan repeated. “Because if we don’t, then I will. Alone if necessary.”
A cold wind straight from the mountain swept past the two men, sending a shiver through both of them. Didn’t Dartan feel something calling him as well? Possibly, but looking down at his clothes, he knew for sure what else he was feeling.
“If we’re leaving any time soon, we need to get some warmer clothes,” Dartan said. Logan stiffened a bit against the bitter wind.
“What’s the matter?” Logan said with a grin. “Worried you’ll get cold without your fur-lined skirt?”
“Not worried at all,” Dartan said. “If I get too cold I’ll just set you on fire.”
“Now that,” Logan said with a clap a Dartan’s back, “is magic I don’t care to see.”
“You don’t want to see me wearing a skirt either.” Both laughed for a moment
before they each turned for another glance at the mountain. There was definitely something up there for both of them, and each was eager to seek it out. It was this very eagerness that made Dartan feel uneasy. If not for the need of supplies, he had no doubt both of them would have started marching straight to … where exactly? Slowly Alain’s words came back to him. Marcus. Marcus knows the way.
By midday they were stocked and ready to go. As it turned out, while Dartan and Logan pined for the mountain and its secrets, Marcus had been preparing to leave. He had heard the words of the wizard from Dartan and acted on them, swiftly.
“I don’t understand.” Aliet stood as she had for the past five minutes, feet planted and arms folded.
“Why not?” Dartan had grown tired of discussing it. “What’s so hard to understand about ‘we’re leaving’?” Of their group, she was the only one who didn’t seem interested in leaving.
“How about why are we leaving?” she argued. “We just got here, and it would be rude to turn down their offer of shelter.”
Dartan threw up his hands in frustration. This argument was going nowhere except in circles. He then spotted Marcus headed their way. “Marcus!” he called out. “Could you please talk some sense into your sister?” Marcus was carrying three of their four fully-loaded packs in his arms when he stopped in front of Dartan. He stood there silently for nearly thirty seconds, simply staring at the two of them.
“Where has she spent nearly every waking moment since our parents passed and she became my responsibility?”
“Uh … ” Marcus’s continued glare made it hard to think, and Dartan fumbled for an answer. “With me, I guess,” he finally said.
Marcus nodded. “With you.” He leaned closer. “So, what makes you think she’s ever listened when I’ve tried to talk some sense into her?”
It was Dartan who stared now. The difference was, instead of a grim-lipped, wrinkled-brow glare, Dartan had an eyes-wide, open-mouthed vacant stare. Marcus simply grunted and moved along with his armful of supplies.
“You know he doesn’t like you very much, right?” Aliet whispered.
“Yeah, I got that,” he answered quickly. “I just don’t know why.” Aliet could only reply with shrugged shoulders, which irritated Dartan even more, and reminded him they were in the middle of an argument. An argument he was tired of having.
“We’re leaving now because Alain said we need to hurry. Period,” he said through gritted teeth.
Aliet blinked several times, surprised by the sudden and harsh response. “So, just because he says ‘go’, you’re ready to leave?”
“Yes. I’m ready, Logan’s ready, and apparently so is your brother.”
“Ha!” she laughed and pointed towards a couple embracing behind Dartan. “Does loverboy over there really look ready to go?”
Dartan glanced over his shoulder and saw Logan and Kari, intertwined with one another. “Logan!” he called out.
Logan broke free long enough to reply, “Waiting on you!”
Dartan looked back at Aliet with a raised eyebrow. She met his gaze and called back to Logan, “He’s ready!” Logan took one more long draught from the well of Kari’s lips, then turned, picked up his pack, and started at a brisk pace for the edge of town.
While Dartan watched Logan, Aliet had headed towards her brother and collected her pack from him. “Wait!” Dartan called out once he realized she was no longer in front of him.
“Make up your mind,” she groaned as Marcus helped put the pack on her shoulders. “Wait or go – which is it going to be?” She then added with a quick nod towards Logan, “I don’t think you’re going to be able to stop him without a fight.”
He hadn’t exactly won the argument, but this felt even worse than losing. “So, you understand why we have to leave now?” he ventured.
“No,” she answered simply, adjusting the weight on her back. She looked Dartan in the eye. “What I understand is that everyone else is ready to either blindly follow the wizard, who appeared to you in a dream, or out to satisfy some unexplainable and undeniable urge to march straight up that mountain, and into a valley that has killed everyone who dared enter it.” What could he say? How could he argue with her? She was right, of course, but the way she presented it made him doubt himself.
“But I’m not in either of those groups,” she continued. “No, mine is probably the craziest of all. I’m following you.” Her voice broke a little and was that a tear he saw? She turned too quickly to be sure, and he was unable to move as he watched her hurry away, catching up to Logan. Almost out of earshot, Dartan heard her voice in an even tone say to Logan, “You certainly left her in a hurry.”
Logan gave her a quick glance before replying, “We already said our good-byes.”
“Wait,” Dartan half-heartedly tried again, but was stopped by a hand on his arm. A large hand.
“Now,” Marcus said quietly, “let me try to talk some sense in to you.” Dartan looked down at Marcus’s hand, confused, and nodded his head hesitantly. “She’s doing what you wanted, right?” Nod. “But it still feels like you lost, right?” Another nod, more interested now. “That’s as close as you get to winning with her.” He clapped Dartan hard on the back, but it was his smile that stunned Dartan most. “You got what you wanted, but she got to make you feel bad about it. Just leave her be for now. She’ll come around.”
Dartan looked back at Aliet walking next to Logan towards the mountains, and he felt a pull. This time there was no mistaking where it originated. It was Aliet, and he wanted nothing more than to heed its call and run to her. The gentle, but firm, pressure of Marcus’s hand was all that kept him rooted. He looked back at Marcus, who simply gave him a shake of the head. Dartan lowered his head and nodded agreement. In that moment he felt his entire body relax, unaware of the tenseness he had built.
Marcus held Dartan’s bag out to him. “We’d better get going if we want to keep up with those two.” Dartan slipped the pack onto his shoulders and started away. He only made it a few steps before stopping and turning.
“Thanks,” he said with sincerity, unsure of what else to say.
“You’re welcome.”
Dartan started to turn again, then thought of something else. “You know, Aliet thinks you don’t like me very much.”
“I know,” he said with that same almost out of place smile. “You’re welcome.”
Chapter Twenty-two
The group travelled in silence for most of the day, but it didn’t start that way. Logan and Aliet led the way with Dartan far enough behind to hear Aliet’s voice, but not close enough to understand any of the words. Further back was Marcus, mindful of Farnir’s warning about the Northern mercenaries. No sign had been seen since the four scouts spotted prowling around the outskirts of town the day before, but no one believed they had just moved on.
Finally growing frustrated with looking for possible signs of a Northern force on ground already trodden over by three people ahead of him, Marcus moved to the front. “Don’t fall behind,” he warned Dartan as he passed. Dartan lengthened his stride, drawing a few yards closer to Aliet and Logan, but still making sure not to get close enough to hear.
While he couldn’t hear the topic of conversation, it was obvious to Dartan it was almost entirely one-sided. Pauses in Aliet’s light voice were punctuated with an occasional one syllable reply from Logan. Even from behind, Dartan could see Logan’s focus was solely on the mountain. This fact seemed to be slowly dawning on Aliet as the gaps in her conversation grew in length and frequency. Soon there was no human sound other than the crunch of boots upon the ground and rustle of packs.
In the silence that settled, Dartan’s attention was drawn to the mountain pass as well. What could possibly be up there? Something more important than a stone that possibly held the entire world together?
His eye caught Logan’s head, tilted back, also peering up at the mountain. What was pulling him? It hadn’t occurred to him before, but now it made him wonder. Why ex
actly did Alain include him in their group?
They walked this way until the sun dipped below the horizon, turning the mountains into nothing more than a dark mass against the sky. With the sun gone, a chill began to work through Dartan’s body, and with it he began to notice a weariness. They had walked all day, he suddenly realized, with no rest. What little he had bothered to eat had been while on his feet.
His feet. They were where the dull throb started which was now working its way up his legs. He was looking at them, wondering if he would actually be able to see them pulsing under his pants, when he almost crashed into Logan.
“I’m tired.” Logan’s head hung down, for probably the first time that day. He and Aliet were both stopped, also probably for the first time that day. Marcus appeared from the darkness in front of them.
“We’ll rest here for the night,” Marcus said. “Tomorrow we begin the climb to Varlain Pass.” All three of them practically collapsed to the ground, leaning against their packs for support. In what felt like no more than a blink, Dartan found food and fire in front of him. Across from him, Aliet and Logan were eating, although Aliet appeared to be doing more talking. Dartan began eating, and much like when he realized he was so weary, the first taste revealed just how famished he was.
Filled with food, and no longer walking, Dartan’s body was satiated. His mind, however, had no intention of slowing down. In fact, he was finding it near impossible to just get it to settle and stay focused on one thing for more than a moment. Instead, it shifted obsessive focus between the mountain and Aliet.
What’s up there? What is she saying to Logan? Why is Alain sending us there? Is she mad at me? What will we do when we reach the pass? Will she ever speak to me again?
The rapid-fire nature of the questions was maddening, and Dartan felt himself close to standing and screaming ‘Stop!’ It was why he didn’t see Logan rise and cross over behind him. He almost screamed out something completely different when Logan tapped him on the shoulder.
“You have to make up with your girlfriend,” Logan said as he sat next to Dartan.
Spell Fade Page 17
