The Crystal Mountain
Page 25
Kael looked at her gratefully and took two steps forward.
A black blur flashed in front of Aliisza’s vision and plowed into Kael from behind and slightly to one side. The force of the impact took both it and the half-drow over the side.
Aliisza screamed and stumbled to the edge. She peered over and spotted Kael locked in a death grip with one of the demons. It had a hold of the knight’s throat with its claws, and Kael was struggling to get his sword into position to stab at it. Both of them plummeted away from her.
“Kael!” she cried out. She wanted so desperately to tip herself over the side, to drop down there with him and aid him. She knew she could not.
You’re the only one left, she thought. Go help Tauran.
Sucking in a deep breath, Aliisza struggled to her feet yet again. She trotted unsteadily toward the dueling foes, anger at Kaanyr driving her forward. All of this is your doing, she thought, staring right at the cambion. It all comes down to here and now. And I will make you understand!
Cambion and angel pummeled one another with blade and mace, their blows ringing in the air. Tauran, sporting a number of nicks and scratches that soaked his tunic with blood, swatted Kaanyr’s blade away from his head and made an elaborate gesture. A shaft of holy light stabbed downward from the heavens and struck Kaanyr directly.
The cambion grunted and stumbled back a step.
Aliisza closed the distance. She only needed a few more steps. She fumbled her sword out of its sheath.
Kaanyr spied her coming. He gave her a little grin and turned to face Tauran once more.
Before Aliisza could reach them, Kaanyr muttered something and pointed at the angel with his sword. A sickly purple gout of flame burst from the tip and enveloped Tauran.
The angel went rigid and howled in misery.
Frantic to stop him, Aliisza rushed on. Her feet felt like blocks of stone. Her legs screamed for her to stop. She ignored her body’s torments and raised her sword.
As the flames from Kaanyr’s sword died, he took one lunging step toward the teetering angel and drove his blade deep into Tauran’s chest.
“No!” Aliisza screamed. She staggered closer.
Kaanyr grinned at her.
“You bastard, no!” She staggered forward with her blade up. “I will gut you! I will make you understand!”
Purple energy crackled over Tauran. The angel gasped and dropped his mace. He put both hands on the hilt of the blade, and Aliisza could see him feebly working to remove the weapon. Then his arms dropped, he fell back, slid free of the sword, and flopped onto the sand of the beach.
Tauran, I’m sorry. I wasn’t fast enough.
Aliisza reached Kaanyr and swung her sword down with everything she had left. He casually flicked his blade up and deflected it, knocking the weapon from her trembling hands.
All the rage, all the pent-up frustration, drained from her. She dropped to her knees. No more, she thought. I’ve got no more. But you will understand.
“You were a fool to try to stop me,” he said, looming over her. “All of them.” He gestured down the beach. “Fools. When I set out to claim the power of this Lifespring for my own, I vowed that nothing would stand in my way.”
Aliisza snorted. It turned into a chuckle. “You’re the fool,” she said. “You’ll never get what you want from the damned water, but even if you did, you missed the whole point.”
“What are you talking about?” he growled at her, his fury plain on his face. He did not like being laughed at.
“No one cares about you, Kaanyr. No one gives a damn that you succeeded. You have no one to share your victory with.”
“Ah, but knowing how my taking it from under the angels’ noses infuriates you so is almost as sweet.”
Aliisza shook her head. “I’ll be dead, remember? When I’m gone, no one will care about that, either.”
“Enough of this drivel,” he said. “I should have killed you back in that stinking cave. You’re as weak as a kitten, just like then, but I will not make the same mistake twice. When I was hanging from chains in a balor’s palace, suffering for your betrayal, I vowed to get even.”
“No one cares, Kaanyr. With your power and your glory, you will always be alone.”
“Shut up!”
Kaanyr raised his sword. She knew she had no strength left to fend him off. She could not stop the blade as it came forward, thrusting into her belly. She gasped and fell back, but Kaanyr came with her, driving the blade deeper. The malevolent magic of the weapon crashed into and through her, leeching her life away.
Gods, it hurts, she thought, tears filling her eyes. She heard herself whimper once, the sound very small.
More tears streamed down Aliisza’s face. She gazed up into Kaanyr’s eyes, which burned with rage. With one trembling hand, she reached up and touched him on the cheek. Then she said, “Nobody cares about you, Kaanyr.” She gasped for air. It was hard to breathe. I don’t want to die! “But people used to care. I did. I used to love you.”
Kaanyr smirked, but she could see a moment of doubt reflected in his eyes. They unfocused for a moment and he stared at nothing as he contemplated how much he had lost.
That’s when she knew he understood.
Feeling a burden lift from her, Aliisza summoned the last remaining reserves of her magic. She poured them all into a final spell. She knew it would consume her utterly, but that was all right.
Nothing can keep me from dying now, she thought.
She uttered a single word, spoke it as loudly and clearly as she could. “Mortalos,” she said. Her voice rang out clearly and without wavering.
Kaanyr heard her, and his eyes grew wide. He staggered onto his feet, letting go of the hilt of his sword. “What did you do?” he demanded. “Aliisza, what did you just—?”
The cambion staggered back a step. Two steps. He clutched at his chest and toppled to the ground. With one horrific, gut-wrenching cry of anguish, Kaanyr Vhok died.
Aliisza sobbed and fell on her side.
Everything went black.
Kael knelt over Aliisza in the shallow water. He bathed her forehead with the healing waters of the Lifespring, willing them to work their divine magic upon her.
The alu was still dying.
It had been too late for Pharaun and Tauran. They were both already dead by the time he reached them. But Aliisza still lived, and he had hoped.
Hope is a cruel thing, Kael thought bitterly. Maybe it’s better to live without it.
Aliisza smiled up at him, her dark eyes beaming. “You fought well today,” she said.
“Not well enough,” he mumbled, cradling his mother’s head in his lap. “And now the Lifespring won’t heal you. I don’t know what to do.” He could hear the anguish in his voice.
What in the Hells is wrong with me? he thought, wiping away a tear. I’ve seen friends die in battle before. How can this hurt so much?
“The power of the spellplague within me is too strong,” Aliisza said, her voice weak. “The magic consumed me in a way the Lifespring cannot undo.”
“Well, it should,” Kael said. “After all you’ve done for this place, your life shouldn’t end like this.” He fought to keep his voice steady. “It’s not fair.”
He looked out over the battlefield. His gaze moved from body to body, settling first on Pharaun, then on Tauran.
Two fathers, and I lost them both. And now my mother, too. An orphan three times over. None of this is fair.
Kael choked back a sob, not wanting to let the alu lying on his lap see him that way.
“Look,” she said, pointing with one trembling finger. “The peak up there. It looks like a crystal mountain.”
Kael turned to see what she was staring at. The sun had at last broken through the clouds and the blue sky was visible once more. The bright rays shone upon the peak where the mists of the waterfall burst from the side of the mountain. The whole thing sparkled from the dampness, refracting the light in a dazzling display.
&n
bsp; Kael smiled. “It does,” he agreed, turning back to look at her face.
“I wish I’d gotten to live with you,” Aliisza said, her voice fainter. “You know, when you were a boy. I would have liked to have raised you.”
Kael sniffed and rubbed a hand across his eyes. “I know,” he said. “I missed you then too.”
Aliisza opened her mouth to say something more, but she coughed, and blood came with it.
“Don’t talk,” Kael said. “Be still and rest.”
She shook her head. “No time,” she whispered. “I can’t breathe.”
Kael felt his throat constrict with sorrow. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice cracking.
“I want you to have this,” Aliisza whispered, fumbling for something on her hand. “It was Pharaun’s. Your father’s.”
Kael saw her slip a ring from her finger and hold it up to him.
“He would want it back,” she said, smiling, “but since he can’t have it, you should.”
Kael took the ring from her. It was thick and silver and had a strange, spidery emblem etched into it. “Thank you,” he said.
Aliisza died smiling at her son.
Kael spent a long time sitting on the edge of a rock, staring out over the golden water of the Lifespring. After a time, Eirwyn came and sat next to him. Though she seemed frail and weak, her own wounds had been healed by the divine powers of the pool.
“I’m sorry,” she said. She put one hand around his shoulder, pulled him close in a hug, and gave him a gentle kiss on his forehead. “We tried as best as we could.”
“Thank you,” Kael said.
They sat together in silence for a time, until Eirwyn said, “The intuitive part of me senses that the worst of the battle with the demons is over. I can feel relief spreading through Celestia.”
“That’s good to know. Wait … Celestia?”
Eirwyn nodded. “Something tells me that we will no longer know this place as the House of the Triad. Torm intends to make a few changes. Regardless, shall we go find news?”
Kael sighed. “No,” he said. “Do what you must, but I won’t.”
Eirwyn drew back and looked squarely at him. “What? Why?”
“I don’t know who I am,” the half-drow said. “Nothing makes any sense any more. I thought I understood my place, but it all vanished today. I lost one father I hardly knew, a mother I grew up despising, and a father who was as different from me as two people could possibly be, and yet I loved him most of all. Now I find myself grieving for all three of them.”
Eirwyn smiled. “That’s not so unusual,” she said. “You came to see them as the people they were, rather than just the creatures they were.”
“I suppose. But now I don’t just see myself as the person I am, but also the creature.”
“Be careful,” Eirwyn cautioned. “Don’t get sucked into the notion that your heritage is what makes you who you are.”
“Isn’t it, though? Can I ever be like you? Can I ever truly belong here, in this place?” Kael gestured around the two of them. “I don’t think so.”
“But you also can’t be like Aliisza or Pharaun. You are a product of your forebears, true, but you are also what your heart says you are. In the end, if you are true to what you believe in, things should work out.”
Kael chuckled ruefully. “Funny, that sounds a lot like something Pharaun told me.”
“Well, then, he was a wise fellow. At least, for a drow wizard,” she added.
Kael nodded. “In any event, I have to leave, at least for a while.”
“You have to find your own path,” she said, “and no one can tell you in what direction it lies. I understand that. Perhaps better than you realize.” She tilted Kael’s chin until he was looking at her. “Your destiny may take you far from here, or it may bring you back. Wherever you go, draw on your experiences here to remember both your heritage and the love all of them gave you.”
Kael stood. “I will,” he said. “Thank you, Eirwyn.” He hugged her, a long embrace that let him release much of his sorrow.
When he stepped back from her, she smiled. “My duty calls me in another direction. I hope our paths will cross again, Kael.”
With that, the angel took flight.
Kael watched as her form grew small and eventually vanished on the horizon. Then he pushed himself aloft too, and started on his own way.
About the Author
Thomas M. Reid’s lifelong dream was to be a professional couch flopper, but those plans were dashed when his father announced that he was “no longer on the payroll” after he completed his studies at the University of Texas. He was instead forced into a nomadic lifestyle, gathering berries and catching fish with his bare hands in such places as Indiana, Wisconsin, and Washington State.
Today, Thomas pretends to be a freelance author and editor in the greater Austin, Texas area with his beautiful wife Teresa and three boys, Aidan, Galen, and Quinton, along with two cats named Mystra and Selûne. To his great delight, he has rediscovered the joys of the couch when he’s supposed to be working.
The Empyrean Odyssey, Book III
THE CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN
© 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC
All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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eISBN: 978-0-7869-5584-8
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