by Aaron Pogue
He must have noticed my arrival, but for some time he did not turn to meet my eyes. Instead he stood in silent contemplation, examining the magical construction of my gates with a slow nod of grudging admiration. I watched his eyes carefully as he took in my mighty stronghold—the build of the gate and the seamless walls; the void beyond that even his wizard's sight could not penetrate; the long, high bands of air that shielded us from above.
I watched, waiting for a smile, as his gaze at last fell on me. I waited for a greeting, for some praise, perhaps even for a hug from the sentimental old man. But when his eyes met mine, they burned with rage.
"I meant to make you a hero, boy. What have you become?"
18. Reunions
"I guess the stories are all true," he said, distaste bitter in his voice, "and you're a wizard king. This is quite an impressive show, Daven Carrickson." He said it harsh as a backhand to the face. "Quite a show."
I took a slow step back, then forced careful respect into my voice. "I've never called myself a king. And this is far more than a show."
"You're right in that," he said. "This is more than a mere nuisance, too. You place the whole nation at risk."
Anger, hot and sharp, flared up in my heart. I pushed it down and met the wizard's eyes. "Ah. You haven't come for a reunion, then?"
"No, Daven, this is no reunion. I am here as envoy of the king. I've come to ask that you desist."
I shook my head, incredulous. "He has you, now? Even you will serve that rabid dog?"
"He is the king," Claighan said. He sounded tired. "And even so...no. I do not serve him, and he wastes no favor on me. But I serve this land. I serve mankind."
I smiled, lips pressed tight. "As do I, Master Claighan. As do I."
He frowned past his eyebrows at me, as though I'd made a joke in poor taste. "I can't imagine what has become of you, boy, but whatever it is, I recognize I must bear some portion of the blame. I have come here out of that sense of responsibility to ask you to set aside this mad rebellion."
I scrubbed my hands over my eyes and took a deep breath. "Rebellion. No. You have it wrong."
"You have how many rebels in those walls?" the wizard asked. "Some rumors have your numbers at a thousand, but the Green Eagle says it can't be more than half that number."
"Are they so blind?" I asked. "I have them all, and more. Two thousand under arms, and twice again in loyal followers."
"Six thousand men beneath your banner, in a walled city and in defiance of the king," Claighan said, his eyes fixed on mine. "Hardly a rebellion at all."
"I never claimed a thing—"
He paid my words no heed, nodding past me at the walls. "I see the glow of the traitor Lareth's strange green fire. And we have found the traces of his travelings. Has he served you well?"
My jaw dropped open. "He tried to kill me," I said. "He tried to kill you. He plotted with Seriphenes over your sickbed, and Seriphenes had Archus take me to the dragon fight to die."
"You are strange allies here indeed," he said. "Yet here you are."
"Yet here I am," I growled. "Persecuted by the king for a murder you arranged. Hated under the same insane pride that drove you from the court in disgrace. And you come bid me surrender myself to him? You have allies as strange as mine."
He jabbed a bony finger at my chest. "I would ally with the Prince of the Burning Lands himself if it would save us from the nightmare that is coming. This is no time for political maneuvers, boy. The world hangs by a thread, and mankind cannot afford to waste its time in petty squabbles."
A bitter laugh escaped me in a bark. "I've made the same complaint myself. Do you know what I'm about? Have you heard no rumors?"
"All I know is this," he said. "There are dragons waking in the world while you play soldiers. This nation needs a king upon its throne, and it needs wizards in every town just to save some shred of civilization. We need those soldiers to defend, not sitting at the darkest corner of the land spread out like a snack."
"Then bid him take them home!" I shouted. "Do not bring this to me. It's his madness has him here, harrying me with nonsense while I fight the very war you called me to."
His eyes narrowed to slits and his breath came out a hiss. "Do not dare pretend I put you up to this. I asked you to stand against the Chaos, not to aid it."
"If you would still your cursed tongue," I snapped at him, and my hand flashed up in threat. I stopped myself just short of striking him. Frustrated anger and wild Chaos power sizzled in my veins and thundered in my ears. I fought them back and forced the hand down to my side.
He watched me, eyes wide in shock, and I realized with a start that he'd lashed out. He'd wrapped me head to toe in solid will, and it had melted like a snowflake on a blazing hearth. I stepped forward now and he fell back, cowering in fear.
"You led me into Chaos," I said. "You fed me to Chaos. All of you. You by negligence. The king by arrogance. Seriphenes and Lareth by wickedness. It doesn't matter why. You led me into Chaos, but I refuse to serve its ends. I have bound it, Master Claighan. I have snatched it up and tied it down and turned it back against itself."
I held a hand out to him, and fire bloomed above my palm. Black and red, searing hot, and crackling with a sulfur stink that stained the air. I saw him look, saw him examine it with the wizard's sight, and saw his eyes go wide in shock. This was pure power.
He shook his head in slow horror. "That can't be done."
"No. Nor can this," I said, and stretched my will. With barely-conscious thought I found Garrett Dain and all his hunters training in the tower. I found Caleb and Lareth, and with the slightest tug I brought them all to stand behind me.
Caleb stepped up past me, swords appearing in his hands, and one heartbeat later Lareth stepped up on the other side. I felt his reluctance to face the wizard, but he stood by my side and began to gather his will.
Dain's men were dressed out for the dragon hunt. They always trained in their full gear, and after one shocked moment of disorientation, they gathered into ranks arrayed behind me and waited for my command. They would have cut the wizard down without objection. These men went out to battle dragons in their lairs, what fear could one old man offer them?
Claighan saw it, too. He fell back another step, sharp eyes moving carefully among the men I had called forth. I stalked after him, stretching my empty hand back to jab an accusing finger at my hunters.
"You see these men?" I snarled. "And Lareth here. You see the damage I did to his face when he asked me to fight the king?" I felt the acid stab of Lareth's shame at the words, but in the fire of my anger I could feel no guilt. My eyes were fixed on the wizard's as I drove him back.
"This is your rebellion. These men pillaged and killed across the south Ardain, and your king did nothing to stop them. I put them on a leash. I gave them purpose. Not to steal some battered crown." I hung the Chaos fire like a coronet around my brow and sneered. "I mean to win a war."
I turned my back on him and stretched a hand toward the stronghold's impervious gates. My word brought it crashing down, and there beyond the empty gateway was my army. They had gathered, silent and anxious behind the walls, straining to hear what was going on. Now six thousand voices cried out, but I could spare no thought for them.
Without bothering to look I knotted a fist in the collar of Claighan's robes and hauled him forward. Past my silent, patient hunters and up onto the gate. The courtyard thronged with my anxious followers, but they were cautious enough not to have pressed too close to the gateway. That left the courtyard clear enough to see the pile of teeth ten paces in.
"Haven's name," the wizard breathed.
"This is what I've become," I said. I stretched my will and brought one of the fangs flashing through the air. It was long as a man's arm and sharp as a rapier's point and white as snow. I hurled it tip-down and let it stab into the gate between Claighan's feet. It stood for a moment quivering, and the wizard could say nothing.
"I've fought the war you called
me to," I said. "With nothing you had promised me. I made my own power. I made my own army. I made my own stronghold. And when all the forces of the king came to stand against me, wizard, I made a way to get around them. Do not blame me for whatever senseless treacheries your king commits. It is none of my doing."
"Daven," he said, breathless, shaking his head. Stunned regret clouded his eyes so he didn't really focus when he looked on me. "Daven, I could not have known—"
"And yet you came in judgment and in rage." I saw his flinch, saw the wretched apology building deep inside his breast, but I had fury yet to vent. "You came here in atonement for your sins. You thought you had to fix your old mistakes."
Unbidden, two huge, ornate Chaos blades began to form within my grip, uncurling through the air like deadly vines. The wizard's betrayal seared like a glowing coal in the pit of my belly, and righteous anger hammered in my head. I swung a blade toward him, and Claighan sprang away. He stumbled on his robes and fell, and scrambled backward past my hunters. I stomped after him with Chaos boiling in my soul.
"You'll have your chance," I said, my own voice sounding strangely cold and distant in my ears. "I'll let you pay for your mistakes. You'll take a message to the king—"
"Daven," Lareth said, his voice a warning, but I silenced him with a look.
"You all did this to me," I snarled at Claighan. "And now you'll all pay the price." I laughed, though there was no mirth in it. "Mankind cannot afford to waste its time in petty squabbles. I serve this land. I serve mankind."
Claighan was pale as ancient bone, his eyes mad with fear. "Those are my words. We serve the same—"
"Then here's your chance." I glanced up to the sky. "Tell the king to go. Today. If he's still in that camp at sunset, I will burn it down to ash."
"Daven," Caleb said, and I could feel his quiet fear. I blinked and looked his way. I'd expected him to love this plan.
But Claighan moved and tore my gaze back to him. Still on his backside, still scrambling on his hands, he tried to get away. I hurled one of the Chaos blades and sent it stabbing half its length into the earth just above his shoulder.
He shook his head frantically. "Don't, Daven. Go back inside the walls and fight your war. Forget the king."
"No. I'll forget his sins no more. If he won't leave—"
"He won't," Claighan said. "You know he won't. It doesn't matter what I say."
"Perhaps in words," I mused, and brought the summoned sword drifting slowly back to my hand as I advanced. "But I could make a message of your corpse."
As I passed within a pace of Lareth, I tried to share a grin with him. He grimaced and turned his face away. Then Caleb stopped me with a hand flat on my chest. He stepped up close and leaned down to my ear to rumble, "This is not what you want."
I wrenched his hand away with threads of air and heard him grunt in astonished pain, but he leaned against the bonds to catch my shoulder with his other hand. "This isn't you," he said. "The monster's in control."
He should have trembled at the anger in the gaze I turned on him, but he met my eyes unflinching. "Think of Isabelle," he said. "She brings you back."
She did. She always did. As soon as he said her name, I reached instinctively with my senses to find her in the tower. But she wasn't in her study; she wasn't among the craftsmen organizing some new scheme. She was on the archers' tower, staring down at me with worry in her heart.
Afraid as I had never known her, even when I went to lead the hunt. Even when I lay consumed within a vicious, killing fever, she had held out hope. But now she watched me from afar and saw the weapons in my hands, and she trembled because she couldn't recognize the monster that controlled me.
I dropped the blades. I stepped away from Claighan, but even as he scrambled to his feet something flared up hot and angry in my heart and flung a blast of Chaos fire at his back. Lareth caught it with his will and bent its path so the spear of flame plunged into the earth, turning dirt and stone to hissing sludge.
I spun on him, arm already outstretched, but Caleb caught my hand and dragged it down. Something frenzied scrabbled in my soul, too mad with rage to choose among its targets. Claighan spoke a word of power, and I felt the nervous itch of worked reality within my realm. I stretched my will toward his working, but Lareth lashed out at the airy shackle I'd bound tight on Caleb's wrist. I looked that way. I swung back to my wizard, power flaring in my grasp. Then a flash of motion made me spin back the other way.
Claighan disappeared, his portal ripping shut behind him. But Caleb was there, his hands free, and he hit me at a sprint. He flung both arms around me, crushing my elbows to my sides, and bore me to the earth. Lareth stepped up beside him, his power at the ready though his heart was quailing with fear.
Far above, Isabelle shouted her concern. I felt it in her, begging me to win this fight against myself. Caleb held none of her hope. He held none of the wizard's fear. He was nothing but determination, ready with nothing but the strength of his arms to face any power on earth in service to his lord.
They brought me back from madness, those three souls. Between one heartbeat and the next I felt their fear, and I bent it back against the monster raging in my head. I forced the Chaos down, forced my pounding pulse to slow, and took control over all my power.
Caleb released his crushing grip and pulled away. Behind him Lareth shrieked, "Don't let him go!" Caleb turned to meet his eyes. My attention was on Isabelle, her heart wracked with grief and frantic frustration as she tried to fight her way down the crowded stairs of the guard tower to come to me. I reached out to her with my will, caught her up, and pulled her to me.
She gasped when she arrived, then crashed to her knees and gathered me into her arms. "Daven, what happened? What happened? You didn't bring me out with them, so I didn't try to come, but from the walls—"
"I know," I said. "I'm sorry." My voice sounded strange. It was normal. It was calm. It was mine. After the madness that had ruled me, it seemed strange to speak so easily. I squared my shoulders and looked up to catch Lareth's gaze, then Caleb's.
"All of you. I'm sorry. I let it take control."
"Why now?" Caleb asked.
Lareth frowned, calculating, then he nodded. "You haven't borrowed much that I have seen."
"The king," Isabelle said, her voice an angry snarl. "He sent another wizard—"
I squeezed her hand, then pulled away. "No. It isn't that." I climbed to my feet and closed my eyes. "It's something else." I stretched my senses north and felt a frenzied tumult in the camp as men rushed here and there. But there was something else. There was a fury somewhere in my lands, a heart attached to mine and full of rage.
I looked across the miles, searching, and found it half a day's ride north. In Teelevon. Not the fire of a man, not the wild little spark of human anger, but a bottomless pit, an empty nothingness I knew too well. I licked my lips with sudden, dreadful understanding.
"I have to go," I said.
Lareth said, "Where?"
Isabelle said, "Why?"
Caleb said, "Who will you take?"
I met their eyes, one by one, and then I shook my head. "I'm sorry. This one's mine. Go back inside the walls and close the gate."
Caleb tried to call me down. Isabelle caught my hand, and her fingers were cool and strong on mine. I squeezed again, without meeting her eyes, then stretched my will and tugged. I stepped across the miles to Teelevon, to the Eliade manor, and into the garden where Isabelle and I had loved to talk. Smoke and ash hung in the air, sharp and bitter, black as night.
The flowering trees were charcoal stumps, the lovely marble bench cracked in two, and walls torn down behind it, but I could not see much beyond arm's reach. I looked out with other senses and saw no sign of life in the wreckage, but all about me I could see the stain of death. Here and there my eyes saw scorched and blackened bodies, and the houses and shops of the village were little more than burned-out husks.
A dragon's battle cry tore tatters in the air
above me and stabbed against my ears. I felt his presence, too, like the weight of mountains on my shoulders. His anger scrabbled at the edges of my mind, but I held him off.
"Vechernyvetr."
You were a fool to come to me, he sneered. I knew you would.
"No," I told him. "You should not have come. This is my territory now. You cannot hope to fight me."
And it was true. Truer even than I'd expected. I remembered when I'd met him, when he had towered like a cloud of empty nothing before my newfound wizard's sight. He had seemed so vast, so powerful, but then I'd met the elder legend. Then I'd learned the secrets of a dragon's power. Then I'd helped Vechernyvetr grow his brood and capture a better lair with a stronger hoard.
The shadow here was nothing like the one I'd left behind. He dropped down through the heavy, choking ash, his beating wings raising cooler whorls within the smoke, then settled just before me. Still he towered. Still he dwarfed me with his size, but he looked like just a shadow to my other sight. He was alone, and small, and weak.
The massive maw snapped down, striking like a snake, but stopped just short of harming me. It huffed a blast of broiling air and rolled its head to watch me. I wish you'd brought your hunters with you, he said. I thought you'd bring them all to deal with me.
"And why would I do that?"
To save your wretched dame. This is her home.
I looked around, straining through the smoke to see the stricken manor. I wondered what had become of the baron. What of Themmichus? What of the helpful stable boy and the steward? What of the Kind Father and Thomas Wheelwright who had stood as witnesses to my knighthood?
I met the dragon's gaze and swallowed hard. "You killed them all just to get me here. You were trying to kill her."
Oh, not alone, he said, almost resentful. I only played a little part. But they left me to wait.
Behind his words I felt a dreadful satisfaction. Not joy. There was no thrill of joy within that heart. But I could feel anticipation hot as a furnace. I didn't fully grasp the meaning in his words, but I didn't need to. There was threat enough in "they left me to wait."
