Reign of Darkness

by Michaela Riley Karr

  My eyes scanned the battle when we reached the last tree. I sought Sam first and saw him dueling three of Rhydin’s soldiers, using his Rounan powers to knock them over or pull the swords out of their grips. Evan, too, was fighting a few of these soldiers, and I realized quickly that all these soldiers were commoners. Rhydin was still trying to keep up his ruse of not having magic, and it was getting these poor innocents injured or killed. Our people were dealing with being drastically outnumbered, but the soldiers were really no match for them one-on-one.

  Robert abruptly touched my arm and then pointed a little further north from where I’d been looking. There stood Rhydin, one of his hands up in the air emitting a purple beacon out of sight of his soldiers as he sternly watched the action. I had no idea what that was all about, but it hit me that this was my moment. This was the time I could show the soldiers his use of magic. Seeing me alive, well, and free was the perfect bait.

  I moved to step forward into the fray when a firm hand grabbed my shoulder. Robert said to me earnestly, “Wait. I need to tell you something.”

  “Now?” I asked, a hint of a whine in my voice. “Can it wait?”

  Robert spoke rapidly, “Rhydin, he… He isn’t what he seems, and neither is the nature of his magic. I think I’ve figured it out.”

  “Okay,” I answered impatiently, eyeing the battle still thundering just yards away, “Is now really the best time?”

  “This is important, Linaria!” Robert chided, his haggard face sincere as he clung to my shoulder. “Rhydin’s power was created by man, just as Nora’s was as the First Allyen centuries ago. He wasn’t born with it like the Rounans and Gornish Royals are. There is a link between our magics, and we must be very careful because I believe this could be problematic later on. On top of that, I don’t think Rhydin is hu-…”

  All the hairs on the back of my neck stood up on end, and Robert’s eyes and the trees behind him took on a purple sheen. I was turning to look when Robert dove forward, colliding with me and knocking us flat on the ground just as a large violet blast soared over our heads and crashed into the tree closest to us. It went up into an amethyst blaze, and Robert rolled off me, got up, and assumed a defensive stance like lightning.

  When I stood and joined him, I noticed that the clearing had fallen silent. All the fighting had ceased as everyone, my friends and Rhydin’s soldiers alike, stared in our direction. My ears rang in the silence. A few of my friends’ faces lit up upon sight of me, but it was upon Rhydin my eyes landed. As he glared at Robert and I, I had never seen him so filled with fury.

  Of all the different versions of the future Rhydin had likely seen, it looked like this one had never once crossed his mind as one that could even possibly come true.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “R

  obert!” Rhydin roared, his voice distorted by anger.

  My father visibly gulped, his gaunt throat bobbing. He didn’t respond, but he did start walking away from the burning trees and toward my friends, hugging the edge as he remained facing Rhydin. I followed him slowly.

  Rhydin unleashed another barrage of purple fire in full view of his commoner soldiers and screamed, “What have you done?”

  I jumped forward to help my father block the attack, our feet spread shoulder-width apart and our hands outstretched like flat blades to divert the fire around us with a flash of our golden light. When the fire ceased, I noticed Evan gaping.

  Robert took a deep breath, gathering his courage, and said loudly, “You betrayed me first, Rhydin! I gave up everything to join you and make a better world for my children. You promised to rid Nerahdis of corruption. Instead, you’ve only plunged it deeper into darkness and threatened my children’s lives. No longer will I stand by and aid your wicked ways!”

  As Rhydin growled and started charging another attack spell, all of his remaining soldiers began to turn tail and run. Every single one of them dropped their blade and dashed into the trees in the opposite direction of Rhydin’s palace.

  When a Ranguvariian I didn’t recognize made a move to follow them, I saw Rachel firmly shake her head. They had been just as fooled as Robert and were innocent of Rhydin’s crimes. I briefly smiled at the sight of my red-haired friend, but then deflated when I remembered I had returned with the body of her brother who had died because of me.

  All of my friends turned to face Rhydin now that all of their opponents had run off. He was outnumbered now, but I knew he wasn’t going to go quietly.

  Rhydin’s nostrils flared as he watched his soldiers abandon him. He let out a snarl and continued with his spell, unleashing it in Robert and I’s direction again. This blast was much larger, but I gritted my teeth, hoping the two of us together would be powerful enough to at least keep from being killed.

  We readied ourselves, but suddenly fire, water, and wind came to our rescue. Xavier, Sabine, Frederick, and Mira cut off Rhydin’s spell with all their powers combined, and I couldn’t help but gape in amazement.

  This is the way it was meant to be. All three elements together just like the Three Kings – two kings and a queen now – should work in harmony.

  “Lina!”

  I turned at the sound of my husband’s and my brother’s voices calling my name. The four Royals continued to combat Rhydin with the help of Rachel and what looked to be Chelsea, the Aatarilec from Caark, as Sam and Evan rushed up to Robert and I. Robert stared at Evan with such longing that it actually broke my heart, although I could tell that Evan was on pins and needles just being near him. I was about to help them say something to each other when Sam threw his long, lanky arms around me.

  “Lina, I’m so so sorry,” Sam gushed as he crushed me tight and then released. “Are you okay?”

  My heart put up a wall, afraid of being hurt yet again. I mumbled, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  Sam’s brow crumpled at my short, quippy response, and he replied quietly, “I’ve been a fool, Lina. I shouldn’t have blocked you out, I’m so sorry. I keep thinking that I’m protecting you, either from Rhydin by getting you to Caark or from getting sick, which you did anyway. But, I only end up hurting you.”

  “Yeah,” I breathed, continuing to eye the battle just yards away from us, “Look, Sam, now isn’t a good time for this…”

  “Please, you have to forgive me,” Sam begged, clinging to my hands. “I love you. You’re the most important thing in my world, and I’ve done a crummy job of showing it.”

  “Later,” I insisted as the battle grew louder, but I squeezed his hands. “I’ll always love you. In plenty and in drought like we vowed, remember?”

  A relieved smile relaxed the muscles of Sam’s face as I turned to Robert and Evan. Robert looked like a bashful four-year-old while Evan stood with his arms crossed firmly. I approached my brother, touched his elbow, and said, “He saved me, Evan. I’d be dead if it weren’t for him.”

  “He abandoned us,” Evan hissed at me, which only resulted in Robert shrinking further away.

  “He was just as misguided as the rest of those who serve Rhydin. I won’t say it’s not his fault,” I replied slowly, and then met my father’s gaze, “but he’s ready to make it right.”

  Evan jutted out his jaw as he considered it, then sorrow overtook him. “Is it true? About Luke?”

  My heart sank. I didn’t bother asking how they could have known already. I warbled and pointed, “He’s gone. Robert helped me bring his body. It’s over behind those trees.”

  Both Evan’s and Sam’s shoulders slumped, and they both stared at me thoughtfully. Even after all the close calls and losses we’d had in the last several years since Duunzer, none of us ever expected to lose one of the Owenses. Evan looked at Robert with a new light in his eyes, and I hoped Robert’s service would help redeem him to my brother.

  A particularly loud boom brought our attention back to the others battling Rhydin, and he asked, “So what do we do now? How do we defeat him? He’s alone, now’s the time to do it.”

  He had questioned
me, but Robert was the one who responded.

  “Not defeat. Destroy,” he clarified quietly. “I know how.”

  All three of us turned to the older man expectantly, surprised to hear those three little words.

  Robert continued, “There is a spell that has been handed down for generations. Linaria and I performed a small part of it just a small while ago. Nora was able to defeat Rhydin using this spell because she was far more powerful as the first Allyen, but she wasn’t able to destroy him by herself. It requires three Allyens to fully perform.”

  “Then let’s do it!” I cried, my hands in fists.

  “It’s not that simple,” Robert replied, sadness in his face, “You two haven’t had any practice with it, and the full spell isn’t an easy maneuver to teach.”

  “We have to try,” I maintained. “Besides, Rhydin isn’t going to let us go quietly into the night.”

  Just as another round of magic roared with the final disappearance of the sun’s light, Xavier suddenly flew back to us and skidded to our feet, his clothes lightly steaming. He groaned loudly, his face and arms covered in small burns from narrow misses, and then he hopped to his feet and fixed us in his blue, fiery gaze. “Are you Allyens ready to help us, or what?”

  “Actually,” I responded as I leaned into his bubble and poked his chest, “we need you to distract Rhydin a little longer so we can practice this spell to destroy him.”

  “Distract, huh? Because that’s definitely all that we’re doing right now,” Xavier huffed as he turned back toward the action, “We’re barely holding our own, but whatever!”

  “I’ll come help,” Sam said before turning and pulling me close again. “Be careful.”

  “I’m always careful.” I grinned in spite of myself.

  “Says the girl who leaped off a castle parapet to shoot Duunzer,” Sam chuckled, and then jogged off after Xavier to join the clash.

  I watched them for a few seconds and marveled at the power and skillset of all our friends, but also of Rhydin unfortunately. Frederick, Mira, Xavier, Sabine, and Sam all fought him with their various magics while Rachel led her small troop of Ranguvariians, some of whom lay dead around us. Chelsea, in her Aatarilec form, stuck very close to them, and I knew this was the only reason they weren’t all dead.

  Rhydin, even if only barely, kept them all at bay with his vast powers, and I knew then that it was definitely going to take something special to truly destroy him. I also realized that we probably only had mere minutes before his magic-bearing Followers showed up to reinforce him.

  “Alright,” I announced, feeling time ticking, “where do we start?”

  “You both have the halves of the locket?” Robert asked, meeting each of us in the eyes. It was still so surreal to see how clear he seemed, no longer clouded by the rage Rhydin instilled in him.

  Evan and I both nodded.

  “Then,” Robert took a deep breath, “I dare say it is time to create a third piece.”

  “A third?” Evan gasped, “Why?”

  “The Allyen locket was divided into two pieces when I was your age,” Robert answered, his eyes on the ground. “My mother, your Grandma Saarah, made it her life’s mission to discover why Nora couldn’t completely destroy Rhydin three centuries ago even with all her prowess. She decided it must take two Allyens, and she magically split the locket with Clariion Arii’s help so each of us could benefit from its power. The two of us tried to perform the spell together when Rhydin attacked us the night of your birth.”

  Evan glanced at me anxiously. We had never heard this story before.

  “We wounded him. Nothing more. That’s why he laid low for nearly ten years before he tried to kidnap you both, but that night was also when he tricked me into joining him a couple months later, which is a story for another time.” Robert grew quiet, ashamed of himself. “My mother’s experiments were brought to a halt once I left, but she was sure that three Allyens, each with the amplification of the locket, would do the trick.”

  “So how do we split it now?” I asked.

  Robert held out his hand to me, and I handed my locket to him. Evan’s half was simply a disc that fit inside the two flaps of my piece, so it would have to be my half that was split. He replied slowly, “I remember how my mother and Arii did it. Feed your power into me, children, and we’ll do it together.”

  Evan and I each took hold of one of Robert’s arms, and I mustered the warmth of my magic, siphoning it into Robert. I felt Robert draw upon his own magic, and he cupped my half of the locket in his hands until brilliant white light streamed from the crevices between his fingers.

  As he worked, I watched the battle on the other side of the clearing. Frederick and Xavier were working together, using wind magic to guide a long rope of fire at Rhydin, while Chelsea and Rachel were working their way closer and closer to him even as he continued to throw them backwards with big, purple charges. Sabine was trying to flood the clearing to slow Rhydin down when my eyes picked up figures in black behind Rhydin racing this way.

  His Followers would be here any second, and we wouldn’t have the upper hand anymore.

  “Hurry up, Father,” I muttered, and Evan stared at me for the use of that name.

  When Robert opened his hands, my half had been split in two between the face of the locket and the back. He handed me the piece still attached to the chain that Sam had given me at the Winter Ball just before Duunzer struck, the last Lunakan winter holiday I’d attended. I looped it back over my head, trying to get used to feeling half its usual weight, as Robert unthreaded the leather cord that kept his collar cinched shut and used it to tie the new piece around his neck.

  Three Allyens with three thirds of the locket between them. This was it.

  Again, Robert stated, “Do as I do.”

  This time, it was easier for me since we didn’t have to hold hands now that we all had our own locket piece. We stood in a widely-spaced circle, and Robert began to lead us through a similar series of movements that he and I had just performed, although it was more detailed this time now that we had both hands free. I mostly kept up with the movements, but Evan limped through them, this being his first time.

  As Robert moved to run through the three-person spell a second time, the noises of shouting and magic colliding increased as Rhydin’s Followers arrived and started drawing my friends’ attention. When I looked over my shoulder, Rhydin was now unoccupied, and he had Robert fixed in his amethyst death glare.

  I grimaced as Robert tried to gently critique Evan on one of the positions and said, “It’s now or never, guys! Time’s up.”

  Evan and Robert both panicked at the sight of Rhydin stalking toward us and took their positions. All of us stepped out with our right foot and arced our right arms over our heads. A small star of magic appeared in my hand as I brought it back to my center and continued the movements of the spell, now stepping and arcing my opposite foot and hand. Then, I started the more complicated hand movements, building and building upon my little star until it grew into an orb the size of a cantaloupe as I marched toward the center of the circle.

  Robert and Evan were doing the exact same things and matched my pace toward the center of our circle, growing closer and closer until we were nearly in a huddle. Rhydin’s expression was filled with fury as he recognized what we were doing, and he hustled toward us faster as he built his own charge of violet energy. It felt like ants were crawling on the back of my neck as panic threatened to overtake me.

  I thrust my right foot forward for the last time and pushed my cantaloupe-sized ball of golden magic into the dead center of our imaginary circle, and my father and brother did the same. No sooner did the three orbs combine into one colossal globe when I abruptly heard a bloodcurdling shriek of pain.

  Instinctually, my eyes shot back to Rhydin as our magic began to fizzle, losing its power. While the dark sorcerer now grinned with evil joy, his violet ball of magic was still in his pale, deadly hands. When I looked back at what we were doing,
our magic nearly completely gone now, I was now able to see the head of a spear erupting from the middle of Robert’s chest, crimson leaking around it.

  “No!” I screamed as I ran forward and caught Robert under the arms, easing him to the ground.

  Several feet behind him was none other than Kino smiling cruelly and empty-handed. Rage filled me at the sight of her. Red burst through my vision. I growled and was about to jump up to separate her head from her body when a weak hand touched my arm.

  “Linaria, Evanarion,” Robert whimpered, his voice croaking. The light that had returned to his eyes had disappeared once more. “Don’t let anger be your guide.”

  “No, you’re going to be okay!” I warbled as I tried to hold the blood in with my hands. Evan, too, did his best to help me.

  “It’s too late for me,” our father answered, stilling our hands with one of his. “Just please. Remedy everything that I’ve done. All I ever wanted was to be with you both in a better world. I love you.”

  As Robert’s breaths ceased and Kino cackled in the background, I am ashamed to say now that I almost immediately disobeyed the first of my father’s final requests. I was instantly up, drawing my sword and letting out an angry scream as I sprinted toward Kino. She grinned wider as I approached, and she drew her own sword just quick enough to stop my first blow from slicing her in half.

  I swung several more two-handed strikes with all the strength I had, and each time Kino’s smile waned a little more as she had to use more and more of her power to block me. I screeched at her, “Why? Why did you kill him? Why can’t you see you’re being used and lied to like he did?”

  “Because that’s what traitors get!” Kino sneered, her exhaustion becoming obvious. “Robert was delusional, we all knew it! I support my master in all he does!”