Jez nodded and Osmund turned to Besis. “Be ready to bind him if you have to.”
Besis inclined his head. Osmund closed his eyes, and his breathing slowed. His skin seemed to shimmer.
“Ziary.”
Though Osmund whispered the word, the sound overpowered everything else. It echoed through the mountains and resonated in the earth. The way Osmund said it, it was no ordinary word. Jez felt the name inside his mind humming with energy. The shadows lengthened as Osmund began to emit a soft white light. Wings emerged from his back, and he began to float off the ground. The flaming sword appeared at his waist, and when he opened his eyes, they were points of fire. They moved over Besis and settled on Jez.
“There is no evil here to destroy,” Ziary said. “Why am I here?”
“Are you a pharim?” Jez asked.
“You know that I am not.”
“But you have access to their power.”
“Some of it, that which is needed to destroy.”
“Can you get Between?”
“Between is denied to my kind.”
“But do you know how to get there?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Why?”
The question caught Jez off guard. “What?”
“Why should I tell you what I know? You are mortal. You could not go there even if you knew how.”
“I have a pharim’s soul.”
Ziary chuckled, and the sound reminded Jez of swords clashing. He backed up until he bumped into a sleeping horse. The scion’s smile sent chills down Jez’s spine.
“A pleasant appellation.”
“It’s not an appellation. Do you remember the other times you’ve been summoned?”
His eyes glowed brighter. “Yes. The last time I was in your presence, you and the binder had entered a place you did not belong. I tried to destroy you.”
Jez took in a breath, but the scion didn’t seem to want try again. “What about the time before?”
“I was bound by a mortal mage. His evil far exceeded anything you have in you.”
“That same mage bound me to this form, but I am a pharim. I just don’t remember.”
“A mortal pharim.” Ziary’s eyes went from blue to yellow. Then they dimmed, and he floated to the ground. “You are a Shadowguard.”
“And I need to get Between in order to stop that mage from releasing a demon.”
Ziary’s eyes returned to blue and brightened so much that the light colored everything for a dozen feet in every direction. His muscles tensed and he lifted his sword. Jez cried out as the blade came down, but it stopped just as it hit his skin. Flames rippled down the blade and surrounded Jez. Pain shot through his body as images flashed through his mind, but they shifted so quickly he couldn’t tell what they were. He felt like he was everywhere at once. He could see everything. It was too much. His throat felt raw, and he realized he’d been screaming for several seconds, and he was on his knees. His head felt like it would split open. Everything blurred, and Jez was lost in the pain.
“Jezreel, are you all right?”
He was on his back, and Besis was standing over him. Osmund was back and looked worried. Stars twinkled in the sky.
“What happened?” he asked.
“We were hoping you could tell us,” Besis said. “You’ve been unconscious for two days.”
“Two days?” he asked. “That means Dusan will summon Marrowit tonight.”
“Yes. Is there anything you can do to get us there?”
Jezreel searched his mind. Strange images and concepts floated around in his thoughts, though they made his head hurt if he dwelled on them too long. It was knowledge never meant for a mortal mind, and though his soul was pharim, his mind was still flesh and was bound by those limits. He wouldn’t be able to hold that knowledge for long, but for now, it was his.
“Yes.”
Jez closed his eyes, and concentrated. He allowed his thoughts to flow around Besis and Osmund. They were a few feet away, but there was something in the intervening distance. There was something Between. Jez forced his thoughts into that gap, breaking it apart. Osmund and Besis fell into the space Between, but it wasn’t truly an existence, and mortal beings had to be sustained by a will of something other than mortal.
Jez’s mind cried out under the strain. He couldn’t hold them both. If he tired, at least one would be lost. More likely, they all would be. In desperation, he threw one out and surrounded the other with his thoughts, though the strain on his mind was too much for him to differentiate one from the other. The world vanished, and the fogs of Between swirled around them. The form of the one with him writhed in his mind, threatening to slip away. Jez remembered Kunashi. He remembered being there before, when he’d first been bound, and he took them there.
CHAPTER 32
Once again, Jez awoke on his back. Osmund lay next to him, coughing. Jez stood on shaky legs and took in the area. They stood at the edge of a city filled with buildings of red stone. The light of the rising sun made the streets look like rivers of blood. A breeze kicked up a cloud of crimson dust. They had made it, but something wasn’t right. The city was completely silent. He looked at a nearby tree and saw a sparrow that had fallen onto the ground, completely still, though Jez had a feeling it wasn’t dead.
“Where is Master Besis?”
Jez shook his head. “I couldn’t carry you both.”
“Can you go back for him?”
Jez closed his eyes, and tried to concentrate, but the images Ziary had given him were gone. “I don’t know how anymore.”
“Maybe we could get Ziary to show you again.”
The thought made Jez feel sick, and his head began to throb. “No, that took two days, and it was almost more than I could bear. There’s no way I could survive doing it twice more so soon, and even if I could, I would probably just forget again as soon as I got back to him.”
“Where do we go?”
Jez nodded toward the center of the city, and they started walking in that direction. The smell of sulfur emanated from every stone, and he felt his power writhing beneath his skin, looking for a target. He had been here before. He could feel the memory trying to force its way to the forefront of his mind. It nearly drowned out every other thought. Whatever shield Dusan had placed in his mind when he’d been bound was now paper thin. Memories merged with perceptions, and he couldn’t tell what he was seeing now from what he had seen fourteen years ago. There was a sense of emptiness as well, and it gnawed at him.
“There is no Between.” Even as the words left Jez’s lips, he suppressed a shiver.
“What?”
“Somehow, Dusan has hidden this place from Between. That’s why we appeared in the outskirts of town. I couldn’t bring us any closer. It’s just like last time. I had to go through the city then too.”
“Have you thought about what we’re going to do once we reach Dusan?”
Jez nodded. “We stop him.”
“That’s what you tried last time,” Osmund said. “It didn’t really work out well for you.”
“It worked well enough.” Jez was no longer sure if the words were his or Luntayary’s. He wasn’t sure there was a difference. “Marrowit remains bound.”
“For now,” Osmund said.
Jez’s brow creased in anger. He closed his hand around the leather hilt at his waist. For a second, he was confused. He concentrated and the metal blade was replaced with one of crystal, but it only lasted a few heartbeats before fading away. It had only been a shadow of his true weapon, the most he could summon while he wore mortal flesh, but it would still be stronger than the sword Ziary wielded. Jez shook his head to try to clear his mind, but the weapon refused to come.
“He’s bound and he will stay bound.”
They reached the town square. Through the window of one of the shops, Jez could see the shop owner snoring with his head on a table. A customer had his hand extended with a silver coin held between her fingers. Other bu
ildings had similar scenes, and horses snored in front of buildings. There was even a mouse lying in the middle of the square. This was far worse than the sleeping sickness. That had only come upon those who were already asleep, but this had obviously struck those going about their day to day lives, and even the animals had been affected. Jez pointed to a house that seemed to be the source of the sulfuric scent. Thick curtains covered the windows and a heavy door of black wood stood closed.
Jez approached it and was filled with the desire to go somewhere else. The house radiated fear, and Osmund took a step back. On instinct, Jez reached up and touched his own forehead, shielding himself from the fear ward on the house. The desire to leave vanished. Once he’d done the same for Osmund, he reached out to the door, and it opened at his touch. Osmund lifted his hand and a ball of fire appeared over it, banishing the darkness in the house. The room immediately inside was empty. A thick layer of dust carpeted a floor made of the same red stone as the rest of the building. A trail of footprints led deeper into the house.
“It’s a little obvious,” Osmund said.
“The place was warded. Who would come in here?” Jez asked. “Besides, everyone is asleep.”
They followed the trail of footprints into the hall, walking slowly and alert for any traps. The trail led to a small chamber that would’ve been a bedroom in any other house. Here though, it was devoid of any furniture or decoration. The footprints vanished in the center of the room.
“There’s a passage under the floor.”
“How did you open it last time?”
“Last time I could walk through walls. We should just break through.”
“Aren’t we worried about Dusan hearing us?”
Jez shook his head. “I’m pretty sure he already knows we’re here. He’s too good a mage not to.”
“Well, in that case...”
Osmund closed his hand and the ball of fire expanded until it had wreathed his fist in flame. He leaped into the air as wind rushed into the room, propelling him up. He crashed into the ceiling, breaking through and showering Jez with red dust. Osmund went up another few feet. Then, the air whistled as he surged down, slamming his burning fist into the ground. The crack could’ve been heard from a mile away, and set Jez’s ears ringing. The entire house shuddered, and a square immediately below Osmund’s fist dissolved into powder revealing a stone staircase descending into darkness.
“Shall we go?” he asked.
No sooner had the words left his lips than the darkness in the passage congealed. It spilled out of the hole like water splashing onto a dock. It swirled and rose up into the form of a massive featureless person, larger even than Osmund. The roof cracked as it stood its full height, nearly twenty feet. Even the sunlight seemed to be consumed by its form, and though it lacked a face, Jez knew it was looking right at them.
“Maybe we should’ve tried to be stealthy,” Jez said.
CHAPTER 33
In a flash of light, Ziary shot forward, his sword blazing. He slashed upward, leaving a trail of fire in the creature’s chest. The thing, the nightmare, growled, and the darkness subsumed the flames. It slammed a fist into Ziary, who was once again leaping through the air. The warrior grunted as the blow sent him sailing across the room, but Ziary spread his wings and redirected his body until he was diving, sword first, at the nightmare. The creature thinned until it became transparent. Ziary passed right through it, his sword melting a hole in the wall on the other side of the creature. The nightmare rippled like it was smoke before solidifying. It brought its fist down on Ziary, sending him to the ground and holding him there with a shadowed foot.
Jez slashed downward with his hand and a shackle made of glowing blue metal shot forward and closed around the nightmare’s feet. It stumbled, and Ziary rolled out from underfoot. Brilliant cracks began spreading through the metal, but Jez’s hands were already moving, crafting a binding that was even more complex and powerful. The shackles shattered, and its pieces vanished in the air.
“Hold it off,” Jez cried out. “I need a few seconds.”
Ziary leapt back into the combat, slashing and cutting. The fiery trails left by his sword were swallowed by the darkness, but each one took a little longer to disappear. The nightmare struck back, but this time, Ziary was ready and dodged out of the way. His sword lashed out and severed the shadow’s hand. The limb evaporated before hitting the ground. The creature gave a silent roar that Jez heard only in his mind.
One link at a time, Jez forged the chain that would hold this monster. It lashed out at Ziary again, but the warrior soared into the air. The nightmare’s remaining hand shimmered and became a rope that shot out from its arm and tied itself around Ziary’s left wing. The creature pulled hard and Ziary crashed to the ground. Jez released his binding, though he hadn’t completed it yet. The chain wrapped around the nightmare. The creature squirmed and tried to free itself. Beneath them, the smell of sulfur surged, and anger bubbled up inside of Jez. Too much time had already been expended with this thing.
Jez took a step forward and drew his weapon. Mist swirled around it and came together, transmuting the blade into one made of crystal. Jez’s personality had been crafted by his thirteen years of life, but the consciousness that came upon him had come into existence at the same time as creation itself, and no mortal could truly stand against it. Ziary inclined his head and took a step back. The nightmare looked at Luntayary with its empty face. Such a creature was not truly capable of fear, but still, it struggled to get away from him. His weapon was no mere scion’s sword. Luntayary’s sword was nearly as old as the universe, and though he only wielded a poor reflection of that weapon, nothing in existence could easily recover from the wounds he could inflict.
The chains around the nightmare groaned as it struggled to free itself. Luntayary held his sword in both hands and drove it into the creature’s head. It screamed in his mind and shriveled as its essence was drawn back into the abyss from which it had come; the place where the core of its power still resided. The light around Ziary faded as he shrank back into the form of the mortal. With nothing to bind, Luntayary retreated into the deepest reaches of Jez’s mind.
Jez fell to the ground, breathing hard. His skin tingled and he couldn’t make his legs work. Tears streamed down his face, and he clenched his fists as he tried to regain his composure. He looked up at Osmund. His friend seemed to be doing better than he was. He didn’t look bothered at all.
“Is it like that every time?”
“Is what like that?”
“Luntayary took me over,” Jez said. “I thought I was losing myself.”
“I don’t think it’s quite the same thing,” Osmund said. “Ziary is something else. He’s a scion attached to my soul. Even when he takes over, there is a difference between me and him, but you...”
“I am Luntayary,” Jez said. “He’s not really a separate being. Sariel told me I would become Luntayary if I died, but I don’t want him to take over while I’m still alive.”
“Jez,” Osmund hesitated for a second. “What if it’s the only way? Even if he’s confined by human flesh, Luntayary is stronger than Ziary.”
Jez nodded. “I don’t want to die, and if I lose myself to Luntayary, that’s the same thing.”
Osmund put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll make sure it doesn’t come to that. Are you ready?”
Jez looked up through the hole in the roof. A shadow had begun to creep across the moon. He shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter. Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 34
Green light pulsed in the room beneath them as they descended the stairs. Dusan’s voice chanted harsh syllables. The whole room hummed with power, and Jez almost gagged on the smell of sulfur. His skin tingled. He could feel Luntayary’s waiting restlessly just beneath the surface of his mind, and Jez thought he could feel himself slipping away. After they had gone down a dozen steps, they came into a wide chamber. As before, runes glowed in the air around Dusan who held his arms up. His
black robe was ornamented only by the symbol of the closed fist embroidered on the front. Instinctively, Jez sought out the symbol of the closed eye which floated directly in front of Dusan. The mage smiled and lowered his hands.
“You’re too late this time. I refined the ritual. It’s already been set in motion. It just needs time to finish.”
“The eye,” Jez said to Osmund. “If we can destroy the eye, it’ll stop the ritual. I think Ziary’s sword can do it.”
“I wouldn’t.” Dusan brought his hand to his chest. “That focusing stone was an extremely rare artifact. I looked, but I couldn’t find another. If you disrupt the ritual this time, I won’t be able to take control of the power.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“I know you, Jezreel. You have a keen sense of justice, keener even than your pharim counterpart. If I can’t control the power, it’ll be released with terrible force. Everyone in Kunashi will die. I don’t think you’re ready to have that on your conscience.”
“Is he right?” Osmund asked.
Rage filled Jez, and he spoke in a voice not quite his own. “They will die anyway if Marrowit is free.”
The crystal sword appeared in his hands, and he dashed across the room, his consciousness falling to Luntayary. Ziary, propelled on wings of light, flew ahead of him. He pulled up several feet from Dusan and swung his sword. The green energy appeared around Dusan and the magician laughed. Ziary attacked again and again, but to no avail. Luntayary reached them and joined his attacks to Ziary’s. The shield weakened but not by enough. Luntayary’s eyes locked on the symbol of the closed eye. He struck at it, but another green shield appeared around it.
“Did you think I didn’t learn my lesson last time? The ritual has no weaknesses anymore.”
“Ziary, attack the mortal on my mark. He may be able to defend against one, but not against two.”
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