Realm of Shadows Trilogy

by Linda McNabb

  Seth paused and stared at Neras in confusion. ‘Stop what? Drawing life? I’m trying to.’

  ‘No, I want you to let it flow, just a little,’ Neras replied.

  ‘Are you insane?’ Seth asked.

  ‘Trust me,’ Neras said calmly. ‘We have lots of time.’

  Seth let his hold loose, just a fraction, and felt the life flow into him like a soft rain.

  ‘Freeze!’ Neras shouted.

  Chapter Thirteen - Caden

  Seth’s mouth dropped open as the world around him stopped. The waves were frozen as if someone had painted a picture and Eagan, Ryker, Waide and Rem were paused in mid-motion.

  ‘Did you just…?’ Seth couldn’t quite put the words into a coherent sentence.

  ‘We did. And we only have a dozen heartbeats before it all starts up again.’

  ‘Who did that! It wasn’t me,’ Darius said and looked around as if expecting to see another wizard nearby.

  ‘And it wasn’t me,’ Oran added.

  Both wizards turned to stare at Seth. Neras was grinning like he had just won the best prize of his life.

  ‘Neras, we need to talk about this,’ Oran said in the silence that followed. ‘How is the boy drawing on your magic.’

  ‘He’s not. I’m using his life-force to channel my magic through him,’ Neras replied. He still sounded delighted which Seth thought was a bit odd given their current situation.

  ‘Why?’ Darius asked.

  ‘Look at your apprentices,’ Neras said. ‘Your magic is not being drawn while they are frozen.’

  ‘We both know they can’t stay frozen like that for long.’ Ryker pointed out.

  ‘Sleep!’ Darius snapped out, just as the world sprung back into action. Seth was amazed just how much noise the world made after the silence of the spell.

  Eagan, Ryker, Rem and Waide slumped to the sand and lay looking peaceful.

  ‘Rem and Waide too?’ Seth asked, surprised that he was the only one left awake.

  Darius shrugged. ‘It seemed easier that way. We have to fix Caden and it’s best that there’s nobody to watch in case it doesn’t work.’

  ‘We?’ Oran queried. ‘I have very little left and how would I help without Ryker?’

  Darius stared at Seth. ‘If Neras can channel through Seth, then so can we. Our magic put together should be enough to restore Caden.’

  Seth looked to where Caden lay on the sand next to Waide. He was barely breathing.

  ‘But…’ Oran started to protest then fell silent and sighed. ‘I can still feel the wizard’s spell pulling at my magic even though Ryker is asleep. It won’t be long before the spell takes all my magic anyway.’

  ‘At least this way our apprentices won’t end up stuck in the staff,’ Darius said. ‘Would you rather watch your magic drift away or use it to heal the boy?’

  ‘I suppose you’re right. So, how do we do this?’

  ‘Seth was holding my staff and drawing life from around him. So if Darius undoes his spell and we are part of the magic through Seth we should be able to boost his magic, just like the people up at the top of the island were doing.’

  ‘Well, that’s the theory I guess. I hope it’s reality as well,’ Seth said and picked up the other two staffs. He held all three out in front of him with both hands wrapped around them. He turned so that he was facing Caden and looked at the three wizards standing to his right. ‘Are you ready?’

  ‘So we’re supposed to channel our magic on his life-force?’ Oran queried. ‘I don’t feel a connection to him.’

  ‘As soon as he starts to draw life you’ll feel it,’ Neras assured him.

  ‘Whenever you’re ready, Seth, and I’m proud to have known you,’ Darius said quietly.

  Seth smiled and nodded his thanks to Darius, then took a deep breath and slowly let the life around him filter in.

  ‘You’re right, I feel it,’ Oran said, then his face fell as he realised this was it. ‘I guess it couldn’t last forever.’

  Darius yelled the spell and Seth couldn’t make out if the words were even in the common tongue. He felt the flow of magic race through him and it was all he could do to hold the staffs steady.

  ‘It’s not enough!’ Darius shouted above the roar that was consuming Seth’s mind. Seth reached out and moved his focus to the land beyond the beach. He knew it was deserted and he drew the life from it as quickly as he could and the staffs shook so much that he was scared he would drop them. The noise rose to such a pitch that he was sure his eardrums must burst, and then it was gone. There was nothing around him but a buzzing sound that sounded like an insect had crawled into his ear. He couldn’t feel his hands, or his feet, and he had no idea which way was up.

  ‘Am I dead?’ he muttered to himself, blinking but seeing nothing but white. Something tasted odd and he finally realised that he had a mouth full of sand. He spat it out and turned his head to one side as feeling started to creep back into his limbs.

  He was alive? He blinked a few more times, unable to do more than that for now. He could see the slumbering forms of Rem, Waide, Eagan and Ryker a short distance away. He tried to smile. At least the two apprentices were still here. He couldn’t see Caden though and his head would not move any more to allow him to look around. He reached out in his mind for Neras but there was nothing, not even a trace of a whisper. He listened intently but neither Darius nor Oran were there either.

  Seth gulped back his dismay at the loss of the three wizards and blinked away the tears that blurred his vision but there were too many and he couldn’t see anything. He finally managed to move his arm and he reached up to brush the tears away.

  ‘Waide. Waide. Wake up, Waide.’

  He felt a small gulp of joy when he saw a small blond-haired toddler shaking Waide to wake him up. The spell worked! He wished he could tell Neras, Darius and Oran that their sacrifice had restored Caden. He looked at his hand and saw that it was cut and bleeding. The three staffs lay in splinters all around him and the stones that had been set in the top lay in the sand next to him.

  He pushed himself to sit up and ignored the screaming of his entire body. He had nothing to complain about - he was alive. He reached out to pick up the nearest stone but another hand reached down and scooped it up before he could.

  He looked up, right into the face of an extremely real Neras who smiled back at him.

  ‘We’re free,’ he said and pointed at Oran and Darius who lay on the sand staring up at the sky, too stunned to even speak. ‘I wouldn’t touch the stones if I were you. They’re not exactly magical but more of a way to open up a channel for magic. Who knows what it would do with a gift like yours.’

  ‘We’re not safe yet,’ Darius said a few seconds later, then pushed himself to sit up and winced at the pain it caused. He pointed to the sky that was now swirling with even more colour. The glow was reflecting back down and bathing them in flickering colours that made their skin look as if it also glowed.

  ‘We should probably move off the beach now,’ Oran suggested.

  Seth looked out at the ocean and saw the waves were heaving around so much that they must surely crash into the island and drown them all. Yet they seemed to stop short of the shoreline and surge back out to sea.

  Wingbeats announced the return of the two dragons and they looked around at the increased number of people on the beach with interest.

  ‘Rem is sleeping?’ StarFire asked and nudged at the girl. She began to stir and squinted at the dragon with confusion.

  ‘What happened?’ she asked as she sat up. Waide was also stirring from the insistent shaking from his younger brother. Oran and Darius went over to their ex-apprentices and shook them by the shoulder to awaken them. Within a few seconds they were all sitting up, staring around in confusion. Waide was hugging Caden and tears rolled down his cheeks unchecked.

  MoonFlame stared at Neras, Oran and Darius and then Caden. ‘You are no longer wizards and the boy is young again.’

  It was a simple statem
ent that appeared to sum up the events that took place in the few moments the dragons were gone. Clearly the dragon thought it needed no further discussion as she turned her head to look at the sky. The swirling colours were going so fast now that they blended to look like a giant sparkling cloud.

  The recent events were taking longer to sink in for the others and Seth saw Eagan stare at him with a questioning look. He ignored the silent question. There was time later to discuss it.

  ‘There is no other way off the island and the spell is almost complete,’ StarFire said. His great tail swished back and forth in agitation as if he wished he could do something about it. ‘We will just have to wait until it has finished. It cannot take our magic. Even we have trouble accessing it so it will not flow easily for the spell to take.’

  As if to prove the dragon was correct the sky glowed even brighter and the entire island was bathed in its light, then a huge noise, like a clap of thunder, exploded above them and vibrated through the ground and spread through their bodies. Everyone, including the dragons, flinched. A mist rose up quickly around them, so thick that Seth could not even see his own hand.

  After several seconds the sound faded away and the earth stopped trembling. Silence hung around Seth as if he were in a totally empty space. What had happened? Had the spell destroyed everything? Was he even still alive?

  A few seconds later the mist was starting to clear and Deek looked exactly as it had before. Nothing appeared to have changed. A loud fog horn made Seth jump and they all turned to peer through the now light mist.

  ‘Tulone!’ Seth exclaimed, as the larger, slightly worse for wear, ship was heading towards them. He recognised it as the one from the lake with ripped sails.

  ‘Did they come across The Gap?’ Darius asked.

  ‘There is no Gap,’ Eagan replied with a sigh.

  Seth looked, and sure enough he could easily see the burnt remains of the overseer’s house where they had stood less than two or three days ago. The mainland of Delantia was now just a short swim away. His brain couldn’t calculate how long it had been since they watched StarFire burn it down for it felt like a week or more ago.

  He felt his hopes of preventing the Yarris from taking revenge fade as he saw, and heard, several dozen of the people of Deek coming through the streets. He didn’t think anything could have surprised him but one eyebrow rose as he saw Marcel arm in arm with a middle-aged woman. Had he actually found his long-lost love?

  ‘What do we do about them?’ Seth asked Eagan.

  ‘We have no magic left,’ Eagan reminded him. ‘So we talk to them instead.’

  Seth wasn’t sure that talking would have much effect on a race of people exiled for hundreds of years. There was sure to be a lot of anger.

  Before the crowd even reached the beach the ground began to shake and a roar filled the air. At first it was a gentle rumble then it quickly grew so that it shook the entire island.

  ‘What’s happening?’ Kranos shouted above the noise as people began to stumble and fall.

  Before anyone could offer an opinion the mist returned and there was another loud bang.

  Nobody spoke as the mist faded away but all eyes were on the sea. Seth wasn’t the only one to suck in a gasp of surprise when he saw that Delantia had vanished.

  ‘The spell did not work,’ Kranos said with a heavy sigh.

  A mutter rose among the crowd but within seconds the island started shaking again. Seth was ready for the mist and the loud bang this time.

  ‘It’s back,’ someone shouted from the crowd.

  Kranos did not look as excited as most of the people of Deek. He seemed very worried and sank down on a rock by the beach.

  ‘The spell did not have enough magic to complete the reversal,’ he said quietly. Only those close enough heard him but it only took a few seconds to filter back through the rest of the population.

  ‘So we give it more!’ a woman shouted.

  Kranos simply stared at the mainland and did not speak.

  ‘Aren’t we even going to try? We’re so close,’ the woman demanded.

  By now the crowd had swelled so much that almost every person in Deek was within earshot.

  Kranos stood up and turned to her. ‘With what? Do you feel any magic within you?’

  The woman looked alarmed and seconds later it was fear in her eyes instead of anger. The feeling spread through the crowd as one after another tried to call on their magic and had no response.

  ‘We are all human now,’ Kranos said in the barest of whispers, then took a deep breath and raised his voice so that it carried across the now silent crowd. ‘We have no more magic.’

  ‘So where do we get some? Where are the cats,’ Mayala demanded. She looked around desperately for the black cats as if she was going to be the first one to reach them.

  ‘They would not help us. They cannot restore magic to us now. The spell drew everything we had and everything the island had to give. There is nothing left anywhere.’

  A flurry of wings brought their attention to the sky and the dragons flew in to land.

  ‘The spell is not stable,’ StarFire stated simply. ‘It will destroy your island in a matter of hours.’

  A cry of horror spread through the crowd as Kranos stepped closer to the two great dragons.

  ‘You seem to be able to fly to the mainland.’ It was a statement, not a question but StarFire nodded.

  ‘Yes, The Gap has gone. As long as we can see the mainland we can cross.’

  ‘Could you take our people through it?’ Kranos asked.

  The crowd had fallen silent as everyone waited for the dragon’s response. MoonFlame simply shook her head.

  ‘We can carry two or three people at the most each time. It would take many days to move you all across and the island has only a few hours before it will be destroyed.’ StarFire clearly did not see any reason to be gentle about their impending doom.

  ‘How would you pick who is to survive?’ MoonFlame asked gently. ‘Whose life is more important than their neighbours?’

  ‘So we simply need more magic so that we can finish the spell,’ Mayala stated stubbornly. Her eyes were wide with fear and she was edging closer to the dragons. Seth had to assume it was so that she was one of the first to be evacuated if it came to that.

  ‘There is none, Mayala. I’ve already said as much.’ Kranos did not look angry with her for her insistence. He looked to be defeated in spirit entirely.

  ‘That’s not exactly true,’ Neras muttered.

  Every single person turned to look at Neras and those further back in the crowd stretched up on tiptoes to see who had said it.

  Seth frowned as he looked at Neras. Did he mean Seth’s own ability to draw magic from the land? He still needed a wizard to use as a portal.

  ‘There are nine wizards back at High Gate,’ Neras said quietly, and looked rather nervous at the sudden attention. ‘Stuck inside a staff just like I was.’

  Seth nodded. ‘Yes that would probably work.’

  ‘So you can fix this?’ Kranos asked with a spark of hope lighting his eyes but it was tempered with caution as if he didn’t want to get his hopes up too high.

  Seth looked around at his companions, unsure if was supposed to answer for them all. Eagan nodded in response to his questioning look.

  ‘And if we did help you? Would that be worth it to the rest of our race? You would be after revenge still. Why should we subject them to that?’

  ‘They imprisoned us here!’ Stavis shouted.

  ‘That was their ancestors,’ Eagan replied evenly. ‘And they had good reason at the time. What right did your own ancestors have to rule and control the humans as they did? What made them more important? Did the humans try to kill your ancestors, no, they moved them to where they could do no harm.’

  There was a brief silence and Seth could see Stavis was trying hard to come up with a response.

  ‘We would guarantee there would be no revenge if you help us end this spell.’
Kranos was the first to speak.

  ‘That’s not your offer to make!’ Stavis snapped out. ‘We voted!’

  Kranos turned to the crowd and stood up on the rock. ‘Who amongst you would see peace between our races?’

  A sea of hands rose instantly.

  ‘And those who wish revenge even after the humans have saved us all?’

  Less than a dozen hands went up, Stavis amongst them.

  Kranos glared at his brother, then turned back to Eagan and the others. ‘The people of Deek have spoken. There will be no revenge. We will deal with those amongst us who go against our decision.’

  ‘Do we have enough time to fetch the staffs?’ Seth asked nobody in particular. ‘And will MoonFlame take me if the end result is to save the wizards?’

  MoonFlame looked at Seth then at the gathered crowd. ‘They are no longer wizards. There is time.’

  Seth assumed that meant the answer was yes.

  ‘I must go also.’ StarFire nodded his head and looked out to sea. ‘There is something I must check. Rem, you will come.’

  Rem looked at StarFire in surprise.

  ‘I will not leave you on this island if there is a chance it will be destroyed by the time I return,’ StarFire added.

  ‘We’ll have to make sure we’re fast enough to save everyone,’ Seth said before anyone could react to the dragon’s comment. He looked at the mainland where the ship had anchored just offshore and everyone aboard was staring at the island. If the island destroyed itself would those nearby be harmed as well? ‘We should go soon or the mainland may vanish again.’

  MoonFire nodded and lowered into a crouch for Seth to mount. StarFire did likewise for Rem and his head swung around to face Neras. ‘Neras must come as well. The wizards will not listen to us, nor probably Rem or Seth, and we may have need of magic before we return.’

  Seth didn’t ask what magic they needed. It was more important to get moving right now. He helped Neras up and showed him how to hang on.

  ‘You’ll need to hold tight. It’s not the same as when you could not fall,’ Seth warned him.

  Neras nodded and grinned. ‘But it’s worth it to be human again!’