“Kelle, are you awake?”
“Of course I am. I have been awake for hours. Come in if you wish.”
Devyn opened the door and stepped inside. The cabin was identical to his. The ship was not particularly large, so its cabins were no more than a couple of small pallet beds and a sea chest with a flat lid. Kelle’s armor, piled in an empty corner, looked as if she had been cleaning it. In fact, she was cleaning a vambrace as Devyn came in. He looked through the one porthole above the bed and realized from the moving water and land that the ship was finally underway.
“It looks like we’re moving,” he said as he motioned to the spot next to her. “May I?”
“Sure, have a seat,” Kelle said, getting back to rubbing the vambrace with a cloth. Devyn sat beside her and reached to stroke her sandy golden hair. “What can I do for you, Devyn?” she asked when he didn’t stop right away.
“Kiss me.”
“What?” Kelle stopped cleaning and studied him. “Have you lost all your good sense?”
“Not at all. It has been so long since you kissed me like you did near Ashonda’s pond back home. I was hoping you would remind me.”
“As I remember you stole a kiss from me. I told you back then you would have to marry me to kiss me at will.” The vambrace fell onto the floor with a thud as Kelle reached behind his head and pulled him to her lips, kissing him.
Devyn breathed heavy in surprise. “But I thought...”
“You did ask me, you know. Consider that kiss a prelude to our wedding night.”
“Does this mean you will marry me?” Devyn faltered.
Kelle turned away. “Devyn, I can’t answer you here like this. You have not asked my father, and, well, a girl wants it all to feel special.”
“Special, how?” he asked. “I don’t think I can make you feel special.” Devyn winced. His mind was reeling; he had not meant to say that.
Kelle sighed in disappointment, and it wrenched Devyn’s heart that he had hurt her, but he didn’t know what to say to fix it. “I’m sorry, Kimala.”
Kelle looked up abruptly. “What did you say?”
Devyn was confused. “I said I was sorry, Kelle.”
“No, you called me Kimala. Who is Kimala?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know any Kimala,” he said defensively.
“Get out! Get out of here, Devyn, I don’t want you here!” she said, pushing him toward the door.
“Kelle,” Devyn said confused. “I don’t understand. I don’t know why I said that name.”
“You lie, Devyn, you lie, and I want you to leave.”
“You are being irrational. I don’t know anyone named Kimala!”
She drew her dragon fang and pointed it at him. “I will show you irrational.”
Devyn gasped as he saw a vision flash before him. For one brief moment, Kelle ceased to be Kelle and looked like someone else. Then, with a shimmer of light, she looked like the creature that had attacked him in Brookhaven. “A Drasmyd Duil,” he said aloud. Kelle shimmered back to herself again and then to a Drasmyd Duil. The creature stood before him, holding him at the point of a sword. Panic set in.
He moved in a flash, knocking the dragon fang aside. He clasped his hands around the black beast’s neck and squeezed as hard as he could. Kelle’s face turned red as he choked off her air supply. “I will kill you with my own two hands, foul creature,” he rasped. “What have you done with Kelle? Who are you?” he said, seeing the image of Kelle appear before him once again. Kelle’s eyes were beginning to turn red, and Devyn realized he had made a mistake. He released his grip. Kelle gulped in air and tried to push Devyn away.
“What is the matter with you? It’s me, Kelle.”
“You are not Kelle. I know the truth; now, I saw the truth.”
“I am...I am Kelle.”
Rennon, hearing the struggling, burst into the room. “What in Fawlsbane’s beard is going on in here?”
“Do not interfere, Rennon. You do not understand what’s happening,” Devyn warned.
Rennon did not listen; instead, he grabbed Devyn and pulled him physically from Kelle. “Why are you attacking Kelle?”
“She is not Kelle. I saw Kelle kidnapped and taken to The Blight. She is a Drasmyd Duil.”
“What are you talking about?” Rennon pushed him away and held Kelle close to his chest. She sobbed onto his shoulder. Rennon pointed at her left arm with his free hand. “See, here is the scar she got when I accidentally bumped her out of that tree when we were fourteen years old, and here is the scar on her hand from where she cut it in the kitchen two years ago. This is Kelle, Devyn. What has gotten into you?”
Devyn was taken aback. He fell back to the deck and up against the wall. “I was sure I saw the truth. I...I don’t know what to say.” Kelle held Rennon closer as Devyn shrank away from them. “I was sure,” Devyn repeated.
Vesperin knocked on the door and entered, followed closely by Lady Shey. “What is the matter? I heard shouting.” Vesperin asked. He looked at the marks on Kelle’s neck. “Loracia be praised, what has happened here?”
Devyn sat in the corner, thinking about the images in his head. Vesperin put his healing hand on the marks on Kelle’s neck, but Devyn knew Vesperin could not heal the damage he had caused Kelle emotionally.
“You will have to be confined to your cabin for the rest of the trip, I think,” Rennon said.
Devyn nodded in agreement at first, and then he noticed the look on Lady Shey’s face. She was smiling wickedly at him. Why had she not gone to Kelle’s aid? Unexpectedly, Devyn’s head began to pound. Thump; Lady Shey’s cabin was the next room over. Thump, Devyn saw images of Lady Shey struggling with Row Praf instead of Kelle. Thump, Lady Shey had been dragged down the stairs of the armory in Signal Hill. Thump, he could see her held prisoner in The Blight. Thump, it was all an illusion cast upon him to make him think it was someone else. Lady Shey was the Drasmyd Duil! She had fooled them all this time. She was almost an exact duplicate in manner, dress, and personality. She had been observing him and sending back reports to the enemy!
In an instant, Devyn accosted Rennon, pulling one of his daggers from his friend’s tunic. Devyn turned the dagger as if in slow motion and plunged it directly into Lady Shey’s chest. Rennon, Vesperin, and Kelle lunged forward to stop him, but Devyn turned the blade to rend the flesh of Lady Shey’s chest as she looked at him with shock and hurt on her face. Devyn did not waver, and Lady Shey fell to the floor, dying.
Devyn immediately removed the dagger and turned on his friends, holding the dagger out to stave them off. “Do not come any closer.”
“Let me help her, Devyn, you don’t know what you are doing; you’re ill. If you don’t let me help her, she will die,” Vesperin pleaded.
“Then she will die,” Devyn said, still holding them back.
“Look at her; she’s dying, Devyn,” Kelle said.
Devyn wavered for a moment when he saw a single tear run down Kelle’s check, but he overcame it and stood fast. “Stay back!” Devyn held the dagger at Kelle. “She tricked me. She made me think it was you, Kelle; she wanted me to think you were a Drasmyd Duil. She was trying to make me kill you.”
“You are delusional,” Rennon said. “Let Vesperin help her.”
“No,” Devyn snapped back. “That is not Lady Shey. She tried to convince me it was Kelle because she knew I would sense her now. She was trying to have me confined.”
“Look!” Vesperin said, pointing at Lady Shey. She started changing, transforming into a hideous black creature.
“You see, she is a Drasmyd Duil, and she has been with us since Signal Hill. I thought it was Kelle at first, but I realized it was Lady Shey trying to trick me.”
“You are scaring me, Devyn,” Kelle said, still holding on to Rennon. “How are you sensing these things?”
“Kelle,” Devyn said, holding out his hand, but she did not budge from Rennon’s arms. He realized he had done something he would not be able to fix so easily.
“I am truly sorry, Kelle. I ask that you forgive me.” Kelle said nothing.
Devyn bowed his head in shame, and then he swallowed the lump in his throat and looked at Rennon. “I need to find Ianthill and Gondrial. Will you and Vesperin keep an eye on things here until I get back?” Rennon assessed him for a long moment as if he might object to Devyn leaving, then Rennon nodded. Devyn sheepishly handed Rennon’s dagger back to him and then left the cabin.
It was not my fault. He thought to himself as he exited from the hallway onto the upper deck. I was tricked. Duped into thinking Kelle was the enemy. Ianthill will understand.
On deck, Devyn found Ianthill and Gondrial smoking their pipes and surveying the coast. Enowene stood nearby, taking in the sea air. Devyn approached Ianthill. “I need for you to come with me to Kelle’s cabin.”
“Oh,” Ianthill said.
Devyn leaned in close to Ianthill. “I just slew a Drasmyd Duil.”
Ianthill coughed and blew smoke. He cocked his head at Gondrial, who nodded. Ianthill motioned for Enowene to follow and they rushed down below, trying not to alert the crewmen around them.
Devyn watched as Ianthill examined the Drasmyd Duil and spat a curse. “We should have sensed this, Gondrial. These Drasmyd Duil are being very clever to dupe us like this for so long.”
“Where have they taken Shey?” Enowene asked with a worried, frantic expression. “Signal Hill was a while ago, poor dear.”
“My guess is to Brightonhold,” Ianthill said. “This means the Enforcers are probably in league with Naneden. That is if they are keeping her alive.”
“They better be!” Enowene said. “This thing that replaced her had better not have harmed one hair on her head.”
Gondrial leaned down to inspect the creature more closely. “Did it use some form of illusion?”
“No, it took her form and manners,” Ianthill’s eyes narrowed while he thought. “In the old days, Drasmyd Duil can hold a shape for six or seven days at a time. If this Drasmyd Duil was extremely gifted, maybe fifteen. I’d wager they’d sent one of their best to fool us. This Drasmyd Duil held Shey’s shape and mannerisms for a considerably longer amount of time. You know, if Lady Shey was planted in our group to fool us and divert us from our true path, then why was the captain lying to us?”
“I follow you,” Enowene said. “The captain’s in on it. The real crew was trying to escape. There are twenty men aboard this vessel. I wonder how many they have replaced? We are on a floating trap!”
“That makes sense, and if an illusion was involved,” Ianthill pointed to Devyn. “Trying to make him see poor Kelle here as a threat instead of Shey, it’s a good bet one of them is probably a mindwielder.” Ianthill cupped his chin. “I doubt a Drasmyd Duil could create such an elaborate mind trick now that I think about it.” He gave Rennon an eerie stare. “If only we had our own mindwielder we could see through such illusions and shape-shifted imposters.”
Gondrial pulled the creature farther into the tiny cabin and closed the door. “There is something here,” Gondrial said, pulling a little green statuette from the Drasmyd Duil’s hand.
“My statuette,” Kelle said. “She must have taken it from off the sea chest.”
“Lady Shey has been eyeing that statuette since we boarded from Symbor,” Enowene said. “I thought it was because she used to have one herself.”
“Let me see that,” Ianthill said. Gondrial gave him the statuette.
“Ah yes, Morgoran and Toborne used to dabble in the making of these. They have something to do with essence, or the ability to store essence, but I never took much interest in them. I found them somewhat useless. Toborne and Morgoran eventually came to the same conclusion and abandoned them.”
“My dear Ianthill,” Enowene began, “your memory does not serve you. Toborne and Morgoran did find them useful, especially for storing the essence of another wielder.”
“Aye, did I forget?” He scrutinized the statuette. “Then this statuette could have more inside it than we care to know. We should destroy it. If Naneden wants it, then we don’t.”
Enowene took the statuette from Ianthill. “We most certainly will not destroy it! This statuette may be sought after for a variety of reasons. It could contain the essence of someone Naneden fears just as easily.”
“Or it could be empty,” Gondrial added.
“So much the better,” Ianthill said. “Now it is you who forgets, Enowene. As I remember the story, Toborne used a statuette such as this to contain the essence of the Silver Drake, which allowed him control over it. Naneden could have found an account of that incident, and now he plans to try it. There are not many of these statuettes left in the world is there?”
“Shey recently found a cache of them and destroyed them as far as I know.” Enowene said.
Gondrial stroked his goatee. “I am inclined to believe the statuette contains something Naneden fears.”
“Oh, and how did you arrive at that conclusion?” Ianthill inquired.
“Why else would they take Lady Shey? She is one of only a handful of wielders who knows how to use it. Morgoran is useless, and Toborne is dead. It came into our possession rather suspiciously when Devyn bought it in Cedar Falls. Shey is also a powerful wielder so they must have found a way to get past her abilities to take her.”
“I don’t underestimate her, but she isn’t all powerful just because she can draw essence, none of us are.” Ianthill said.
Enowene put the statuette in a small pack she carried. “For now, I will hold onto it. When we find the real Lady Shey, we will see what secrets it possesses, or we can see if Morgoran can stay coherent long enough to offer insight on it. I believe it would be a mistake to destroy it when we do not understand its significance.”
“I agree,” Gondrial said. Ianthill agreed reluctantly.
Devyn tried to look at Kelle; she lowered her eyes so not to meet his. He pleaded to Ianthill. “What about me? I mean, what is happening to me?”
Ianthill put his hand on Devyn’s shoulder. “It is not your fault, Devyn. You are changing. I tried to tell you about this in Adrontear. Had we made it to Foreshome, I would have been able to instruct you better, but now, if what you saw is true, we have to land this ship at a more dangerous port and travel to The Blight in haste.” Ianthill reached for Kelle and cupped her chin in his hand. “It was not his fault, child, he will surely never be the boy you once knew, but another attack on you such as this is unlikely to ever happen again. You may still trust him as you did in Brookhaven.”
A knock at the cabin door startled everyone in the room. Devyn could feel his mind instinctively reaching out beyond the door to sense who was on the other side, but before he could find out who it was, Gondrial flung the door open ready to attack. It was Bren. Devyn put his hand to his forehead. What am I doing? I am no wielder, he thought.
Bren surveyed the room, saw the creature’s body, and immediately drew his dragon fang. “Relax, it is dead,” Gondrial told him. Bren sheathed his sword.
“What is all this?” the broodlord asked.
“It turns out Lady Shey was a hideous, shapeshifting monster. Devyn had to put her down,” Gondrial stated flatly.
“Gondrial!” Enowene snapped.
“What?” Gondrial said, sounding annoyed. “She was.”
Bren grumbled, “How is it she escaped our notice?”
Ianthill clasped his hands together. “We need to regroup.” Ianthill looked out of the porthole to the coast. “We are not far from Arovan. We need to get this ship turned about.” Ianthill scrutinized the broodlord, who was still not wearing his armor. “Bren, don your armor. The rest of you make ready as well. Gondrial and I will dispose of the Drasmyd Duil by tossing it overboard and return to smoking our pipes up on deck. We need not alert the captain of our discovery. In one hour, all of you will come up on deck. Gondrial and I will have a surprise ready for the deckhands. The Sea Goddess is going back to Arovan. Rennon, go to your cabin, get your armor, and wait for us.” The
boy rushed out.
“All right. The rest of you get ready to- ” Ianthill trailed off when he looked into Bren’s face.
Bren put his finger up to his mouth, motioning for everyone to quiet down. Slowly, he made his way to the door and jerked it open abruptly. Bren leaped into the hallway where he was met with a dirty, black sword. Avoiding the slicing motion of the sword, Bren cleft the black creature’s arm with his forearm, sending the gruesome blade to the deck with a clang. Bren took advantage of the vulnerable position of the Drasmyd Duil and jerked its neck with both hands, twisting it with an awful crack. The black creature fell to the deck in a heap. “No time to implement a plan, Master Elf,” Bren said to Ianthill, “the fight is on!”
“How many Drasmyd Duil are there?” Enowene said to no one in particular.”
“Everything is relative, Enowene, assume that they all are,” Gondrial said.
Kelle scrambled for any piece of armor she could strap on quickly and followed Bren and Ianthill into the hall. Gondrial rushed to the end of the hallway to make sure the Drasmyd Duil acted alone. Bren reached his cabin and quickly suited up in whatever piece of armor he could put on with haste, which included his two swords.
“Hold the fang this way,” he showed Kelle, “and the claw as such.” He turned both blades with the curvature upward and moved her fingers closer to the hilt. “Block sword blows with the claw and thrust and slice with the fang.”
“That much I gathered,” Kelle said. Bren nodded at her uneasily.
Ianthill stood with an expression of urgency. “If you too are done, we must move to the end of the hallway.” As the three passed the cabin with Rennon inside, Ianthill looked in and motioned for him to follow.
The Harrowing Path Page 23
