Bodie froze when he saw the lanky, dark-haired man holding a knife at Brynn’s throat.
Bane strode forward with Brynn still in his control. “Tell your Master that I have his woman. If he wants to see her alive, he’ll meet me in the forest where the twin Illusian oaks grow. He’ll know the place. And tell him not to bring anyone with him and not to leave the castle for at least an hour. If I have any reason to think he’ll get there before me, I’ll kill the woman.”
Brynn could see Bodie’s eyes grow wide with concern as he stepped aside to let Bane push her down the hall.
“Why not battle Draco here, Bane? Why all the melodrama?” she asked as she was pushed up the stairs and forced to quickly climb to the first floor.
“Pendragon knows why. Just shut up and move or you die now. And don’t try any magic on me, little wizard. Your power is as a child’s compared to mine.”
Brynn did as he ordered. None of her training prepared her for this situation. Her very bones grew cold with fear.
* * * * *
Exactly an hour later, Draco raced through the forest mounted on Starfire. If there’d been a clear flight path, he could have arrived there quickly using an anti-gravity transporter. But the growth was very dense along his route and Bane knew it. Only a horse could make its way to the open glade where the twin Illusian oaks stood and only if expertly ridden.
He prayed nothing had happened to Brynn. All his fear centered on what Bane might have already done. When he reached the deepest part of the forest near the castle, two enormous trees, planted by his ancestors, presented themselves. Obviously, Bane knew the importance of the place.
He reigned in his mare and she reared at the sudden command to stop. Draco jumped from her back. “Shadowynde!” he shouted as his booted feet hit the ground. “Come out, you filthy, bastard!”
Bane stepped from behind the trunk of one of the magnificent oaks. He still held the knife at Brynn’s throat.
“I’m sorry,” Brynn breathlessly addressed Draco, “He said he’d kill anyone in the castle if they responded to my cries.”
Relief flooded through Draco as he saw her, as yet unharmed. “It’s all right, Brynn. This isn’t your fault.” He turned his attention to the man with a knife still at her throat. “Shadowynde probably used the same freighter as you to get to Illusia. He must have heard an apprentice was coming.”
Bane pulled Brynn even closer and in front of him to block any offensive move Draco might make. “Good riding, Draco. We’ve only just arrived, haven’t we, apprentice. Not having time to steal a couple of horses, we had to run most of the way. But we just made it here first.”
“Let her go!” Draco commanded as he walked forward.
Bane shook Brynn and held her more firmly from behind. “Stay back or I’ll kill her. I’ve left her fully aware so that she’ll feel every twist and turn of my blade. The pain, I’ve found, is so much keener in victims whose mind isn’t under my control.”
“He’s gonna kill me anyway,” Brynn blurted.
Draco grit his teeth in rage. “What do you want, Bane?”
“Revenge, pure and simple. It’s no coincidence that I’ve chosen this place. My sister told me she first made love to you here,” Bane bitterly announced, ignoring Draco’s command to set the girl free.
“That was years ago, Bane. We were kids.”
“But you remember, don’t you?” Bane demanded.
Refusing to rise to Bane’s bait, Draco responded with, “This is between you and me. Let Brynn go.”
“No, I don’t think so. Just before you die, the last thing you’ll see is me having her here, right where you took Annoria. And your little apprentice will know every single thing I do to her.”
Draco had never felt such frustrated fury. “You’re a coward, hiding behind black magic and an innocent woman. You’ve systematically oozed through the galaxy killing people and destroying their dreams. Annoria died the day she opened the black book. She’d been dead many months before I finally caught up with her. Her soul was as eaten by the dark side as yours. You’ve promised people what they want for the highest price, even if what they want will hurt them. And if they can’t pay what you ask, you simply take everything they have and leave them in misery. Your sister wanted more power than was due her. So did you.”
“You judge me and my family? You?” Bane countered angrily.
“You killed an entire family to get the books you now use. You should be judged. And Annoria’s first act after opening her black book was to leave a transport pilot mad. She used magic to force him to take her off Illusia. When they found him, he was and still is a mindless victim living in an institution where he’ll never be free from whatever demons she put in his head. She did this just to flee me. Annoria knew what she’d done was wrong and so do you or you wouldn’t run like the coward you are.”
“Enough talk,” Bane snarled. He raised the knife higher and put it against Brynn’s flesh.
Draco could see the wild emptiness in Bane’s eyes. It was useless trying to rationalize with a man who was insane. And when he saw the small drop of blood on Brynn’s throat—caused by the knife point Bane held—he knew Bane would do as he’d threatened. He’d rape Brynn and kill her. Her death and the violation of her body would be his fault.
“Fight me like the powerful sorcerer you think you are,” Draco challenged and backed away. “The woman’s powers are strong, but she’s no match for you yet. Let her go and fight me.” Like a mantra, Draco kept repeating the last sentence.
Brynn could hear the magic in his voice and knew he was inviting Bane to do what he would eventually do anyway. There was no coercion in Draco’s kind of magic. It was like luring a child by offering it a sweet. And the offering for Bane must have been too enticing since he quickly shoved her to the ground. She scrambled to her feet and began to search her brain for a way to help.
“After I kill you, I might just take your family’s books like you did ours…and the little apprentice’s as well,” Bane boasted.
“Mine are locked away where you’ll never get to them, Shadowynde. The rest of my family hasn’t had the use of them for years, thanks to you. I’ve been their keeper. And, unless I miss my guess, Brynn has hidden hers and would die before giving up their location.”
Brynn had hidden her own set of books behind a loose stone in her room. And she was quite sure Bane would use whatever means necessary to force her to give them up. But no words spoken were truer than Draco’s. No matter what Bane did, she’d die before letting her family’s legacy be plundered and made into a weapon to harm others.
She watched as the two men approached each other slowly. Draco wore his black cape, leather pants and boots. He hadn’t even taken the time to put on a shirt and she guessed that he only wore the wizard’s cape to make sure Bane knew it was him approaching through the woods and not a servant. The sun’s light now glistened through the trees on Draco’s sweat-covered chest.
Bane raised his knife.
“Cowardly you always were and a coward you still are,” Draco called out as he raised his hand and shot a beam of pure white energy at the knife. It sailed through the air and landed somewhere in the woods behind Bane. “Fight me like a sorcerer. Or like a man if there’s still one within you.
“Very well, Pendragon. I’ll fight you. You’ll die in the most horrifying manner I can imagine. And I’ll profane your little apprentice the way you did my sister.”
Draco quickly glanced at her. “Leave, Brynn. If you can ride, take Starfire and go. If you can’t ride then run.”
She ignored him, ran to the mare and whispered a spell in her ear to have her return to her nice, safe stall. Starfire bolted into the woods and away from the coming battle.
“Dammit, Brynn…go!”
She ignored her mentor’s order for a second time and ran to his side. “I won’t leave you.”
“Pity she’s so loyal, Pendragon. She could have saved herself…for a time. But then, how could she do ot
herwise than stay with her beloved? The aura surrounding the both of you is almost pure white. It’s a declaration of the intense emotion you share. Sadly, it’s a shining adoration that I’ll destroy, just as you destroyed my sister. You see, the black book allows me to perceive things you never will. It gives me strength you’ll never have and that’s why I’ll easily kill you.”
Draco only had an instant to dodge. A volley of pure black energy came at him when Bane raised his palms.
While Draco had time to jump to the left, Brynn simultaneously jumped to the right.
Seeing she was uninjured and getting to her feet, Draco took action. “I will win, Bane. I won’t let you leave Illusia or destroy one more life,” he cried out. He quickly cupped his hands together, called upon strength from the ground itself and chanted in the ancient Latin required for powerful conjuring, “Advoco flamma. Advoco ventus.”
Brynn watched as flames leapt from Draco’s palms and shot toward Bane. The wind picked up as the flaming bolts moved forward. She understood the ancient Latin Draco chose—the words were meant to summon natural forces. Draco’s spell was supposed to defeat his foe. When Bane burst out laughing, quickly blocked the volley and knocked it back to the sender, she cried out in horror. Draco barely had time to hit the ground and keep his own incantation from coming back to kill him. Worse, her lover seemed weakened by his effort. He was slow to get up and move. Sweat dripped from his face and Brynn knew something was very wrong.
“You see, you idiot! You can’t stop me,” Bane shouted as he strode toward his intended victim.
Like a doorway opening, Brynn suddenly understood. Bane had somehow summoned the ability to absorb his opponent’s powers. With each attack Draco sent, her mentor would weaken. Bane was simply toying with him. But if she could do something Bane wasn’t prepared for then both she and Draco might have a chance.
As Bane walked closer and closer to Draco—and her lover slowly tried to rise and summon strength to fight—Brynn momentarily closed her eyes. The incantation she wanted came to her. She would used the same Latin Draco had. The problem was that she had to deliver it before Bane could turn and face her. From what she’d seen, she assumed Shadowynde had to actually confront assaulting magic in order to absorb it and send it back. If he couldn’t consciously deflect her spell the power of it might just knock him down. Apparently Bane wasn’t threatened by her presence. That was why he carelessly had his back to her now.
She took the chance offered, held out her hands and pointed her fingertips at Bane’s back. Brynn knew that this was the only time in a wizard’s life they could ever be compelled to harm another. Good wizards could only use attacking white magic to extinguish a dark practitioner and keep him or her from harming others. In this case, the person about to be harmed was a man she just might love. She took a deep breath and released every bit of strength and power she’d ever possessed.
“Aranea. Coerceo, constrictum. Prohibeo,” she loudly cried and focused all her energy toward Bane Shadowynde’s back—before he could turn, absorb and repel her spell.
Draco watched as magic—the likes of which he’d never seen—evolved before his eyes. Bane was immediately encased in something that looked like a spider’s web. The strands began to encircle and enclose him, binding his arms to his body. Bane was constricted in such a way that the man couldn’t move his hands.
“I don’t need my hands, you fools! All I need is a voice,” Bane laughingly taunted.
Knowing what would come, Draco quickly called out a humanitarian warning. “Don’t Bane! The words she used ―”
Too late, Draco heard Bane chanting something that was almost inaudible. The strands of his foe’s web further restricted him. It was clear that Bane had almost no air left. Draco knew what would happen next. Brynn’s spell was meant to do exactly what he witnessed.
Draco watched as the cocoon in which Bane was now encased withheld his black magic—it had no outlet. Once started, that spell had to run its course. The cocoon began to glow. It was like watching a purple energy building and growing from within a container. Draco felt a warning shudder run down his spine.
“Get down!” he shouted to Brynn.
Before he could do what he’d commanded of her, the explosion and some of the dark energy from it knocked him backward. He felt himself hit the ground hard and began to slip into a dark, unconscious abyss. Even as he journeyed there, his last thoughts were for his beautiful, courageous apprentice.
* * * * *
For fifteen hours, Brynn had sat by Draco’s side, trying to bring him back to consciousness. It was nearing midnight of another day and his vital signs were weakening. She lifted one of his large hands and put it next to her cheek. “Tell me what to do now, Master. Not even the village physicians know how to handle this. A concussion is one thing. Taking a volley of black magic is something else. They can’t heal that and neither can I. I-I don’t know what to do, Draco!”
She cried for a bit more, adding drenching tears to those already covering the sleeve she used as a handkerchief. Draco lay before her so pale and silent. She was watching him die. According to Bodie, even his family wouldn’t be there in time. All he had was her and she was a poor if loving substitute for those who’d known him his whole life.
The hours ticked by and he slipped further and further away. Then—as if some menacing little shoulder demon had picked just the right time—a very dark idea formed in her brain.
Brynn glanced at her books.
Still rattled over Bane’s attack and the man’s explosive death, she’d brought her tomes up from their dungeon hiding spot. She’d hurried to her little room to secure the books even as Draco’s body was being brought home by his servants. Those servants had arrived in the forest shortly after the fight was over, but they’d left their master lying in his room to grieve on their own. Her two magic volumes, now lying on Draco’s dresser, were all the comfort she had.
The black book sat right beside the brown book. They looked exactly the same except for their color. She slowly stood up and walked toward them. “I’ve heard it said that there are amazing cures within the black book’s pages,” she whispered, then glanced back over her shoulder toward Draco.
She swallowed hard and stared down at the black tome. It lay before her almost beckoning her to open it. Some inner voice told her that the way to heal her lover was within its pages. All she had to do was break the seal and read right the incantation out loud. “One little spell would make him right. I-I could close the book after saving his life and never open it again. I’d hide it away and he’d never know I’d broken the seal,” she muttered.
Her hands rested on the book and her fingers curled around the edge. Oddly, her father’s voice seemed to echo in her ears, right along with Fizzydig’s and Draco’s. All of them said the same thing. Never open the book, not for any reason.
“B-but he’s dying!” she brokenly whispered. “How could the life of an apprentice compare to his? There are thousands like me, only one Draco Pendragon. Even if he found out that I’d used black magic and he had to kill me, wouldn’t it be worth it?”
Her mouth went dry as she picked up the book. Something made her glance toward the bed one more time. Seeing Draco lying there so still was heartbreaking. He’d lived his entire life trying to do the right thing. To her, his life was infinitely more important than her own. That was when she made her decision. “Forgive me, Draco. Please forgive me!”
* * * * *
Draco felt as if the inside of his head was being hammered relentlessly. As moments passed and he was able to open his eyes, he could see a figure sitting close to him. He heard gentle sniffing sounds, as if someone was crying. His vision finally cleared.
“Brynn?” he croaked.
Brynn immediately leaned over him and halfway covered his chest with her own, “I’m here, darling. Don’t move.”
He felt gentle hands pressing against his shoulders. And as she touched him, the pain in his head diminished. “What
happened?”
“You hit your head and back against a rock. Some of Bane’s trapped magic blew toward you in the explosion. I-I hadn’t counted on that.”
“Bane?”
Brynn lowered her gaze, shook her head and clasped her hands together.
“He’s dead?” Draco asked softly.
She simply nodded.
Draco took her hands in his. “There was nothing else you could do. It was the same with his sister. They chose the path offered by the black book. We’ve chosen white magic. The two won’t mix.”
She kept her silence.
“Brynn, are you alright?”
She nodded, but still kept her mouth closed.
Draco let his gaze slide around the room. That was when he saw the black and brown book sitting on his dresser. They couldn’t be his, his copies were locked away. He pushed himself upright though his body and head ached a little from the effort. “Brynn, honey…are those your books?”
“Yeah, they’re mine.”
“Why are they here?”
She took a deep breath. “I-I didn’t want them out of my sight. Not after what happened with Bane.”
“Good. That’s good thinking,” he complimented. “But what has you so upset? I’m a bit bruised, but nothing I won’t get over,” he softly comforted, but when he would have pulled her closer, she backed away.
“I-I have to tell you something, Draco.”
He saw an expression of deep contrition on her face and thought her guilt over Bane was causing remorse. “Just talk to me, honey. I’ll listen.”
Brynn finally lifted her head and scooted closer to him. “I almost…Bodie and I thought you were dying. I almost ―” she stopped and let her gaze land on her black book.
For a very long, pregnant moment, Draco glanced between her and the dark tome that now captured her attention. He finally put his hands on her shoulders and made her look at him. “You didn’t do it. You couldn’t. I’d know if you had.”
“You’re right,” she whispered. “I couldn’t. You might not have lived, but I still couldn’t open that book, not even for your sake. I’m sorry, Draco. I just couldn’t.”
Sorcerer’s Apprentice Page 10
