by Frewin Jones
Tania stood up, backing away from the wretched sight of her sister. “They told me you were dead, Cordelia,” she murmured. “Why are you here? Why have you been put in this terrible place?”
Cordelia’s eyes flitted from Tania to Jade. “Come, uncle, you can do better than this puppet show.” She poked a finger at them. “I see you! I see through your masks, uncle—do you think you are sweet, dead Zara that you can play upon me as upon a flute?”
“We have to get her out of here,” said Jade. “How could anyone leave her like this?”
But something Cordelia had said had lodged in Tania’s mind. “Did Uncle Cornelius bring you here?” she asked.
Cordelia grinned, padding forward and wagging her finger in Tania’s face. “Fie, uncle—would you blame others for your deeds? ’Tis not honorable, indeed. We shall have to convene the parliament of owls if you persist! And to draw a veil over those sharp eyes is a thing not possible.”
Tania felt a sudden rush of pity and dismay for her sister. She stepped forward, throwing her arms around Cordelia’s shrunken shoulders, careful to keep the candle away from her hair and clothes as she held her close.
“I’ll make it better,” Tania said, tears pricking. “I promise—I’ll do everything I can to make it better.”
Cordelia’s body was cold—so terribly cold. But as Tania’s warmth seeped into her sister’s icy flesh, she felt the slender body stiffen in her arms.
“Tania?”
Tania pulled away, startled by the change in Cordelia’s voice. Her sister was peering intently at her, all trace of lunacy gone from her face.
“Tania? Is it truly you?”
“Cordie—yes! Yes, it’s me!”
“I thought you but another illusion sent to torture me.”
“No. No. I’m real! I promise!”
Cordelia’s finger stabbed toward Jade. “And who is she?”
“A friend,” said Tania. “A Mortal.” She frowned, confused. “You’re not . . .”
“Out of my wits?” Cordelia said, wiping straying locks of hair off her face. “I am not, sister—not now. Not for the past five days.”
Five days? Cordelia’s madness must have passed when the plague was lifted from Faerie.
Cordelia smiled bleakly. “But I have feigned madness still, sister,” she said. “In order to keep him at bay. I do not know what he might do if he knew I am whole again.”
“Him?” Tania asked. “Who do you mean?”
“Do you not know the author of this chaos, Tania?” said Cordelia. “It is our father’s older brother—Prince Lear.”
“No. He’s gone, Cordie. He was here—but I got rid of him.”
Cordelia looked thoughtfully at her. “You are deceived, Tania,” she said. “He is not gone. Lear is still the puppet-master in this realm—and all dance as he pulls the strings. All save me—and that only because I was lost in the madness that his plague brought down on me, and his Great Enchantment could not take hold in my mind.” She nodded vehemently. “Had he but waited a brief time with his spell, I would have been caught up in it, too. But he unleashed the spell while the plague was still in my blood, and so I was spared.”
Jade took a step forward. “I’m sorry—I need to get this straight in my head. Are you saying that this Lear guy has brainwashed everyone?”
Cordelia narrowed her eyes. “I do not know the word you use,” she said. “But Lear has come here often and delights in telling the tale of his great evil.” Her clear eyes turned from Tania to Jade as she spoke. “He told me how he came first into Faerie with deadly force, taking our family unawares as they strove in the Throne Room of Veraglad Palace to keep the Gildensleep intact. I was sick and under the power of the Gildensleep, but all others of our family he imprisoned in amber. He then brought us to this place, the better to savor his victory. Far from my wits I was then, and he did not seal me up in an amber prison, because it amused him to toy with me and listen to my ravings. Most entertaining, he thought it. He comes betimes and taunts me still.”
She nodded, her hands resting on Tania’s shoulder. “I know what you did in the Throne Room. He laughed when he spoke of it. How he had fooled you into thinking you had defeated him. How he let loose the greatest sorcery the world has ever known—sorcery enough to fog the mind of every man, woman, and child in Faerie—even of the King himself and his most powerful ministers.”
Horror and dread ran like ice water through Tania’s body. “It was a trick?” She gasped. “He wasn’t banished?”
After everything she’d done—Faerie was still not free?
When will this ever end?
“He was not,” said Cordelia. “Behind the masks he rules in Faerie.” She gave a slow smile. “When my sanity returned, I was wise enough to keep the fact from him. He still thinks me raving and witless, my mind ruined beyond repair by his plague, and so he has not sought to bring me under his spell.”
“But why’s he doing all this?” asked Jade. “It doesn’t make any sense. If he can play mind games like you say, why aren’t Tania and I affected?”
“You are not of Faerie, mistress,” Cordelia said, turning to Jade. “And Tania’s mind is only half Faerie. His sorcery cannot get a tight hold on minds not wholly of this realm. You, Mortal, are immune to his spells, and Tania can be only partially controlled. But he had the power to put false memories into her mind and to hide certain truths from her.”
“Like the truth about this tower,” said Tania.
“Indeed,” said Cordelia. “And I think it amused him to see you jump through his hoops, Tania, while he prepared you for the Darkling Tide.”
“I don’t know what that means,” said Tania, a chill running through her.
Cordelia lifted her head and sniffed. “’Tis almost dawn,” she said. “You should not tarry—oft times he comes at sunrise to bring meager food and water and to mock me with his achievements.”
Tania remembered the footsteps she had heard the last time they had been in the courtyard.
“Where is he hiding?” Tania asked.
Cordelia laughed softly. “Hiding in plain sight, sister,” she said. “Have you not guessed it yet?” Her eyes darkened. “Do you not know that your memories of Master Cariotis are not real? There is no such man as Raphael Cariotis—there never has been such a man. Under his spell Lear caused Eden to plant false memories of him in your mind.”
Yes! Tania remembered how Eden had touched a finger to her head in the Great Hall and how her memories of Cariotis had followed.
She heard Jade swing around behind her. “Cariotis!” Jade’s voice was a frightened gasp.
“Well met, human child,” said a gentle, soft voice. “Well met, my pretty nieces. And what coil do we have here, Cordelia? Have you been fooling your fond uncle these past days?”
Tania turned, anger blazing in her.
Raphael Cariotis stood in the open doorway, a jug and a cloth bag in his hand, a smile on his face.
Jade leaped at him, her leg rising for a high kick.
Cariotis dropped the bag and jug, and with a swift but seemingly casual gesture he sent Jade crashing headlong into the wall.
Tania flung herself at him, but his hand rose again, and she froze, hanging helpless in the air, unable to move, the blood pounding in her head like the galloping of ten thousand horses.
From the corner of her eye she saw Cordelia lift the chair to hurl it at Raphael. But his eyes flashed red, and with a shout of pain Cordelia dropped the chair and fell back two paces before becoming as immobile as Tania.
“’Tis a pity indeed that my devices should be laid bare so soon before all subterfuge becomes unnecessary,” said Raphael, walking slowly around Tania.
Her skin prickled painfully, her every joint and muscle and sinew locked, only her eyes able to follow him as he circled her. She managed to form words through her gritted teeth. “Why are you doing this?”
He tilted his head. “Ah, you mean why are you not already dead, my child?” he
said smoothly, no trace of emotion in his voice. “That is simple, Tania—I need you alive and alert if my great endeavor is to be fulfilled.” He smiled, reaching toward her and brushing a lock of hair off her cheek. “In all of Faerie only you have the power to move between the worlds without the aid of enchantments. For all my mastery of the ancient sorceries of Ynis Borealis, I cannot pierce that strange veil.” A cold smile grew on his face. “And yet I would be king of both worlds, Tania, my most cherished and beloved niece. And with your help I shall conquer both Faerie and the Mortal World.”
Tania forced the words out between her lips. “Never! I’ll never help you do that!”
“Oh, you misunderstand, Tania.” He smiled. “I do not need your cooperation—I merely need to harness your gift.” His eyes burned red. “In a certain place at a certain time shall all my plans come to full bloom. And you will be there, Tania. And when you stand with your back to the Quellstone Spire as the sun dims on the noontide of the Pure Eclipse—so shall I lead my armies into the Mortal World, and so shall you perish in fire and smoke!”
He gave a gesture and Tania was suddenly surrounded by a ring of cold, red flame. She could hear Jade, sprawled on the floor, groaning.
I should never have brought her here!
She managed a few painful words between aching jaws. “They have Isenmort . . . in the Mortal World. . . . They will destroy you if you . . . go there. . . .”
Raphael Cariotis laughed softly. “Do you think I have been idle in my ten thousand years of exile, child?” he asked. His voice snapped. “I have not! Over the slow millennia I learned all the ancient sorceries of Ynis Borealis. I learned to wield powers far older than the Mystic Arts of Faerie. Older and mightier by far! I became the lord of the strange men that lived on that bleak northern island. I had them build me a great dark castle—the castle of Gralach Hern!”
So Gralach Hern is not even part of Faerie! And the knights of Gralach Hern come from Ynis Borealis—they’re not Faerie folk at all!
Cariotis began to circle Tania again, and by the power of his eyes she was compelled to spin to follow his slow pacing, her whole body wracked with pain. She saw Cordelia standing frozen—Jade crumpled unmoving by the wall.
“Great spells I brewed in the high towers of Gralach Hern,” Cariotis intoned. “One spell to make us immune from the bite of Isenmort, and another to allow me to enter and control the minds of others.” He smiled like a wolf as he looked up at her. “So, dear niece, seventh child of my dear brother, I do not fear Isenmort, and neither do my warriors. We have drunk the dark brew of the Isenkur Goblet—nothing of metal can harm us!”
He began to laugh softly. “And as for your part, child? There I deceived you, Tania. When you touch the Quellstone Spire, it will not be to hold back the blending of the two worlds. As the stars align and the moon crosses the face of the sun in the time of the Pure Eclipse, I shall use your gift of moving between the realms to make the blending of the worlds last for all time.” His voice rose. “Faerie and the Mortal World will be as one forever—and I shall rule in both realms, using the power of the ancient sorceries to keep all Mortals and Faerie folk under my sway! And you are to be the instrument of my utter victory! Without you my triumph would have been impossible!” He lifted his hand and a bloom of red fire flared out toward her from his palm. “Know that, and forfeit all hope, Tania Aurealis! You are the doom of both worlds!”
The ball of fire struck her forehead and her brain erupted into screaming agony.
Chapter XXVIII
Tania came to her senses again, hanging paralyzed in a wheel of scarlet fire. She tried to shake the fog from her mind. She had the sensation that time had passed, but she did not know how much time.
She was still in that dark room in the Dolorous Tower, but Raphael Cariotis was gone and the door was closed.
Not Raphael Cariotis! There never was anyone called Raphael Cariotis. Everything I remembered about him was put into my head by Eden under Lear’s spell!
Despair burned in her, hotter than the flames.
Some grainy light was filtering into the room through cracks in the shuttered windows. It was enough for her to see that Cordelia was missing and that Jade hung close by, her head lolling, her body caught in a ring of flames.
Lear’s dreadful words came back to her. “The doom of both worlds!”
She groaned, trying desperately to move in her flaming prison.
“I learned all the ancient sorceries of Ynis Borealis.”
If he was telling the truth, Lear had powers far greater than those of Oberon and Eden and all the mystic lore-masters of Faerie. He had an army. And he had the weapon he needed to rip open the barriers between the worlds.
He had her.
Dreadful images crowded in her mind. Pictures of those dark knights of Gralach Hern galloping through the streets of London, trampling people under their hooves, their red swords cleaving flesh and taking heads from shoulders.
Her own mum and dad would suffer under Lear’s tyranny. Jade’s family would be caught up in the horror. Connor and his parents—the lives of everyone she had ever known would be ruined.
What could all the armies of Earth do against sorcery?
Suddenly it was as if Lear had planted visions in her head to torment her. She saw soldiers trying to hold back the Red Knights—and she saw their weapons turn to ash in their hands. The Mortal World’s armies would be cut down in the rattle and rush of a deadly cavalry charge. She saw tanks rumbling, saw them falter and halt and turn to stone. Missiles curved across the sky in her mind’s eye, dissolving into smoke as they neared their targets. Bombs became chaff as they rained down. And all the while swords rose and fell, and she saw blood spraying and bodies crashing to the blood-soaked earth.
And she saw at last, in a vast castle founded upon a crag, King Lear of the Entwined Realms seated upon a throne that seemed to be formed of blood and bones, while the leaders of the two shattered worlds sprawled to do homage at his feet.
And she saw herself—most terrible of all—seated at his side, as Rathina had once sat helplessly at the side of the Sorcerer King of Lyonesse. Seated at his side and forced to witness the horror and anguish that she had helped him to create.
She heard Titania’s voice. “It’s your especial gift that will allow you to do this.”
And her Mortal father speaking softly to her as she had taken the first step on the road to this nightmare. “I’m more proud of you than I can ever say.”
No! Don’t say that! You don’t know! You don’t know what I’m going to do! You don’t know the damage I’m going to cause.
She would have wept, but the flames scorched her tears away before they could be shed. She wished she could faint—to return to oblivion—but her mind would not allow it. She struggled, sweating in the ring of red flames, but this time there was no blue fire to contest the red—no white light to give her strength. Her other selves had returned to their own destinies. Edric was far away in the north—if he was even still alive! She was utterly alone and helpless.
“Ugh! My head!” Tania swiveled her eyes at the sound of Jade’s voice. “What the heck did that guy do to me? I hurt all over!”
“Jade?”
Her friend’s head lifted, her eyes glassy for a moment but then clearing as she caught sight of Tania in the feeble light. The ring of fire held Jade in the air like a fist, but she was not paralyzed by it. Perhaps Lear did not think a Mortal girl needed to be held rigid, and so she was able to move a little.
“Oh, great!” she groaned. “I hoped it was all a bad dream.”
“It is—but not the kind you wake up from.”
Jade looked around the room. “Where’s Cordelia?” she asked.
“Cariotis must have taken her.”
Jade looked at Tania. “What are we going to do? How do we get out of this?”
“I don’t know that we do,” Tania said.
“I’m still alive,” Jade said. “That’s a plus, I guess.” She
frowned. “I remember that Cariotis guy turning up—then wham! Nothing.” She narrowed her eyes as though in pain. “What did I miss?”
Slowly Tania told Jade what had happened after Lear had knocked her unconscious.
There was a long silence afterward, then: “Do you think he can be stopped?”
Tania shook her head.
Jade’s eyes were suddenly full of alarm. “Can he really take control of both worlds?”
“I think he can.”
“I wish . . .” Jade’s voice trailed away.
“What do you wish?”
“I wish I didn’t know about this,” said Jade, her voice cracking with fear. “We’re only sixteen, Tania—only sixteen—and we’re going to die. It’s wrong. It’s all wrong. That’s not how stuff is supposed to happen. I don’t want it to be true!” Tears choked in her voice. “I want this all to stop now! I don’t like it anymore. Make it stop!”
“I will make it stop,” Tania said. “Listen to me, Jade! I’ve done things, you know? Amazing things! I’ve grown wings and flown in the sky. I’ve ridden a unicorn. I’ve walked between worlds. And I’ve already killed one sorcerer who was so full of himself that he thought he could come swaggering in and be like, ‘I’m the total king of everyone! Bow down and worship me!’ I killed him, Jade.” She tried to ignore the stiffness in her jaw as she forced the words from her mouth. “Look at me, Jade. Look in my eyes. Trust me! I will find a way to deal with Lear. I will!”
