by W. C. Conner
“How is it that our world was corrupted while hers was not?” Caron asked.
“Our magics of light and love had never been summoned by anyone in Styxis’s world, but we had centuries upon centuries of ambitious wizards who were looking for ways to add quickly to their powers. They summoned tiny bits and pieces through the wall separating our worlds over a long period of time. It was Greyleige who finally opened a large rift when he managed to summon Styxis who had been unaware of us until he started practicing the black arts intensively. You must remember that Greyleige was very old in human terms by the time he and I faced one another at Blackstone, and he had been summoning dark powers to himself without realizing it almost since the day he was discovered to be a wizard.”
Caron wandered over to the basket and looked down at it. “I’m truly getting tired of having nothing except this horrid bread and poor quality ale,” she said as she squatted before the basket and rummaged through it, “but I’m afraid to touch any of this stuff that looks like meat, and the vegetables look positively poisonous.”
Pulling out a large chunk of the hard, coarse bread, she dunked it into the single large mug of ale and took a bite, then dunked it again and handed it to Wil. She turned to face him as he bit a hunk from the loaf and handed it back to her, then picked up the mug and took a long drink.
“I am curious,” she said as she dunked the bread again, “just how it is that you intend to convince Styxis to depart and take the darkness with her.” She took another bite as Wil wiped his mouth with his coat sleeve before replying.
“I know of a weakness that I believe will convince her to call back the darkness which is serving as her portal to our world,” he said. “Once that is done, I can bar her entrance from our side forever.”
“Then there will be no more of the evil on our side?” Caron asked.
“No, there are bits and pieces of it still. It is impossible to eliminate it all, but it will be unable to concentrate again for a long, long time unless someone like Greyleige or Gregory consciously does it.”
Caron realized as she listened to Wil that after the long trip with little sleep, she was very tired. She sat down beside him and leaned her head on his shoulder. “I’m ready for some sleep, Wil,” she said, yawning enormously which caused him to yawn also. “It was impossible to sleep soundly in that rickety coach.”
Wil circled her shoulder with his arm as sleep overtook her. After a few more minutes during which he stared once again at the door, he too fell asleep.
Caron found herself stretched out on the floor as she awoke feeling refreshed but sluggish after several hours of sound sleep. She yawned and rolled onto her back, stretching luxuriously in the warmth of the little hut. Looking to her left and right, she suddenly became aware that Wil wasn’t next to her and she sat bolt upright to find herself looking out the open door.
The view that greeted her was ghastly. There before the door were the bodies of at least five of the creatures who had been guarding her, as well as that of their driver. All of the bodies had been hacked into several pieces and the faces of each had been smashed in. The only way she was able to recognize the remains of their coach driver was by the uniform he wore.
She turned her head in revulsion before recalling that Wil was gone. As she leaped to her feet, her head swam with dizziness and she stopped for a moment to clear her mind.
We were drugged, she thought. The ale. It must have been drugged. Or the bread. She shook her head, then tried reaching out to Wil with her mind. Wil, she sent as strongly as she could, can you hear my thoughts?
Caron closed her eyes to concentrate on whatever reply she might receive but there was nothing. Walking warily to the door, she stuck her head out and peered around. Nothing moved that she could see so she returned to the hut to consider her situation.
Clearly, we were drugged and whoever did it was after Wil, because now he is missing. But why did they kill all the guards and the driver but not kill me? She paced to the door of the hut and peered out again. There was still no movement outside and she paced back into the small room.
It would appear Styxis has enemies, she thought, then shrugged as her mind grasped the logical follow-on to her observation. Actually, I guess I would be surprised if she had none, given the evil nature of this world. I certainly hope that Wil’s powers will work well enough for him in this place so that he can defend himself. At that thought, she stopped pacing. But it is not Wil, she realized. It is an avatar constructed of Allen and the talisman.
She had felt safe and protected with him near, but at that realization she suddenly felt exposed and vulnerable. So perfectly like Wil in appearance and mannerism and thought and speech was the avatar that she had lost consciousness of the fact that it wasn’t him at all. She had been interacting with it for the past several days as if it was Wil to whom she was speaking and not his constructed embodiment.
Well, Caron, she thought, what are you going to do now? I can’t go back and leave Allen alone here. Even if I tried, I would undoubtedly end up being a meal for some unpleasant horror. I would follow him, but I have no idea which way he went.
She paced back to the door of the hut for another look around when movement in the sky caught her attention. In the far distance were several large, birdlike creatures flying in her direction. Her mind flashed back to the flying creatures that Greyleige had sent forth to find Wil before he fled into the Old Forest four years earlier. She backed into the hut in horror.
Seekers! she thought. She looked around the hut for some sort of weapon before realizing that any weapons to be had would be with the dead guards before the door of the hut, and that any movement out the door would undoubtedly bring the creatures directly to her. She shrank back against the wall, willing herself to be invisible; willing herself to be anywhere but where she was.
Before long a whirl of dust outside and the thump of the creatures as they landed announced their arrival. The sound of footsteps coming toward the hut caused her to shut her eyes against the horror that was approaching.
Come forth, came a thought strongly in her mind. Styxis has bid us to bring you to her.
Caron opened her eyes. Shadows could be seen falling across the open doorway, but no more than that.
Come forth, came the dispassionate command once more.
Taking a deep breath, Caron stepped away from the wall, pressed down her skirt with her hands, squared her shoulders and walked through the doorway to meet her enemy.
She looked toward the figures standing in a group to the side of the doorway and caught her breath. Rather than the hideous seekers she had expected, the four creatures standing with their huge wings folded invisibly on their backs were so handsome as to be called beautiful. They looked as alike as any four creatures could, even down to the fascinating tiny mole on their earlobes. All were proportioned as if carved by a master sculptor from some dream of human male perfection. And all four were completely naked.
Where is the wizard, elf witch? came the thought to her. She looked at each of them in turn but could not tell which one had sent the thought. Without thinking, she spoke aloud in answer.
“I’m afraid I don’t know. I awoke but a short time ago to find what you see before you. The wizard was gone when I awoke.”
The four looked to one another, apparently communing, then as one, looked back to her.
I will take you to Styxis, came the thought as one of the four stepped forward. My brothers will search for the wizard.
As he stepped forward, he produced a harness made of a leathery material which he held out to her. I will strap this around you so that you will not fall, he sent. She held still as he placed the harness around her chest and over her shoulders, then around her hips and between her legs. The bunching of her skirt around her thighs was uncomfortable, but Caron was pleased at the padding it provided for it appeared that area would be taking the brunt of her weight in the harness.
When he had finished, he reached out and picked her
up as if she weighed no more than an infant. Clasping her close to his chest, he threw the straps over his head and around his waist, then took a single leap into the air as his great wings unfolded and Caron found herself rising at a sickening rate into the sky. Her reflexive reaction to the fear of falling caused her arms to involuntarily encircle his torso as they rose.
The creature sent no further thought to her as he circled once above the hut now far below them and sped off in the direction Caron had told Wil that Blackstone would be located.
At first she rode with her body rigid, her arms holding tightly to the creature, but as time passed she relaxed a bit and dared a look over her shoulder. The land below looked as it had in her vision of the demons that had attacked her at the crossroads a year before, only this time she felt the rush of the air over her skin and through her hair. As she looked, she loosed her grip and settled into the harness. To her surprise, the bulk of her weight was supported by the harness on her back, not the part that was between her legs as she had feared. She became conscious of the smooth, powerful movement of the muscles of his upper body as his wings moved slowly up and down, now pausing as a thermal lifted them, now shifting to maintain altitude and direction. Despite herself, she found herself stimulated by the experience and looked up to the creature’s face no more than a foot away.
It is exciting, isn’t it? came his thought to her mind. She didn’t know how to respond, so she said nothing.
This is our true pleasure, it sent. This is what we live for.
She cocked her head in puzzlement. It is glorious, she sent to her captor. There are no creatures like you in my world. There are birds, of course. They fly. But there are none like you who are aware of the wonder they are experiencing. At that, there was another prolonged silence.
Tell me of your world, it sent. Our mistress tells us it is filled with corruption.
Caron wondered what he had been told by Styxis, for his statement mirrored what Wil had told her – that the demoness considered evil to be the standard of behavior, and she regarded love and caring as the corruption. With that realization, she pondered how to answer his question. It would be nearly impossible to compare it to something with which he had no familiarity, no reference.
Are you familiar with color? she asked at last.
I have seen color, came the reply. There is much of it within Styxis’s own rooms.
Would you consider color a corruption of your gray world? she pursued. Our world is not gray as yours is. The night alone looks gray, but the days are filled with color and light.
The creature looked down at her face for the first time, considering her words, but he said nothing in reply.
As they flew, her legs were unsupported and dangled backwards. For a while, it was quite comfortable, almost like a good stretch upon arising in the morning, but before long her legs started to ache as the blood pooled into them.
“Is there something I can do to ease the discomfort in my legs?” she asked.
Without looking at her, the creature answered. You might draw them up to your chest as a child would. Or you might wrap them around my hips. Either would ease them.
Caron rejected wrapping them around his hips, and instead pulled them up to her chest as he had suggested. It wasn’t long, however, before they cramped in that position and she straightened them out once again. By that time, she had become quite comfortable with the altitude and the rush of the air across her body and through her hair.
Her legs were once again becoming uncomfortable dangling down and the image of wrapping them around the creature’s hips flitted into her consciousness. At the thought, the fantasy of making love while flying totally free through the air teased its way into her mind just before a sudden downdraft caused them to drop twenty to thirty feet as if weighted with stones.
Without realizing she’d done it, she found both her arms and her legs wrapped around the creature and clinging more tightly than mere need dictated. With her eyes closed, she clung to him even after they had regained their altitude and were soaring effortlessly once again. Before long she became aware that her breath was coming in little gasps as she clung to him. The blossoming of a delicious tension in her loins caused her face to flush and she looked up to find him smiling down at her.
It has the same effect on me, he sent. It is what I am made for.
She immediately relaxed her grip, though she kept her legs locked around his hips. It is a most – um – exhilarating way to travel, she sent. You could even say, exciting, she added with a smile.
He returned the smile before returning his gaze to the horizon before them.
Over a low rise of hills in the distance, Caron could see the mirror image of the Crelleon Plains coming into view. Upon them sat the fortress from which Greyleige had modeled his Blackstone.
“Tell me,” Caron said aloud, forgetting that this creature heard her thoughts without effort, “what does she call this place?”
It is Blackstone he answered. It is named for her heart which is the mother stone of our world.
Caron closed her mind and said no more as they sailed silently toward the grim fortress upon the plain.
45
The avatar awoke with its head pounding and its body being bounced roughly around on the bed of the crude wooden wagon on which it rode. As it opened its eyes, it realized that it was still broad daylight. In alarm, it tried to sit up but found itself restrained with ropes. On all sides of the wagon there trotted creatures of unusual girth with faces resembling those of a grinning toad, but the grins were feral, not friendly. The avatar stopped struggling and concentrated on the ropes with which it was bound, but to no gain.
I am Wil, the thought came to him. I am Wilton the wizard and I am seeking... What am I seeking?
His face changed in a moment from one of thoughtfulness and purpose to one of scowling and growling, then back and forth once again as the forces within him wrestled with themselves. As he did, one of the creatures came up beside him and saw that he was conscious. Without a word, it reached out with two of its four arms and held him down tightly while with its other two arms it forced Wil’s mouth open and poured some amber colored liquid down his throat. Wil spluttered briefly, then relaxed as the drug hit him. His vision narrowed to pinpoints before he lost consciousness.
Caron, he thought as he went under, I live. But she was unable to hear his weak sending because she was too far away and too preoccupied with what she was was experiencing as she swooped in for a landing at Blackstone, intimately tied face to face to Styxis’s creature.
“Wake up, wizard,” said a deep, gravelly voice next to his ear. Wil’s eyes moved in their sockets but he couldn’t seem to make his eyelids open. A bucket of water flooded his face and he turned his head weakly from side to side to escape it, but his eyes still would not open.
“How much did you give him?” the voice asked.
“No more than half of the vial, Lord Gulak.” The voice that replied sounded as if the creature spoke with a controlled belch.
There was a moment of silence followed by the sound of something ripping deeply into flesh and the thud of a body hitting the ground.
“Idiot,” said the gravelly voice. “Get that mess out of here.”
Scraping sounds told Wil that something large and limp was being dragged away from where he lay. He struggled to gain control of his eyes and finally managed to connect with them. As they opened, he found that he was in a large cavern dimly lit only by smoking torches in irregularly placed stanchions around the chamber. A monstrous demon watched him closely as he awoke. Small horns similar to those of a goat grew from a head that, except for the long, dark, curly hair that covered it, resembled nothing so much as an amphibian of some sort. Long arms knotted with muscles hung from enormously powerful shoulders which, like almost all of its exposed body parts, were covered with the same hair as was on its head. A host of the four- armed toad-like creatures such as the one that had drugged him stood behind the demon.
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As it saw Wil’s eyes open, the demon smiled a hideous smile and retreated to a large chair covered in piles of hides of a peculiar green color. Assuming a casual attitude with its leg thrown over the arm of this “throne”, it waited as Wil recovered his senses and his motor controls.
Wil finally sat up and swung his legs off the low table on which he had been lying. Rubbing his head with his hands, he looked closely toward the creature that sat observing him.
“Where is the girl, wizard?” the demon asked brusquely.
The avatar thought briefly, trying to remember all it could of the preceding events before replying. “She was with me before I ended up on that wagon,” he replied. “Surely your creatures would have picked her up at the same time.”
The demon laughed. “I do not mean the witch, wizard. She is for Styxis. I am talking about your daughter.”
The avatar’s face registered the confusion he felt. In the first place, Aimee was safe in the Old Forest with Wil. In the second place, how in the world did he know about her anyway?
“My daughter is safe and protected in a place on the other side of the boundary that you will never be able to enter,” he said.
“Impossible,” the demon retorted. “Styxis has hidden her well, but she cannot even penetrate the boundary anymore, much less enter the center of that accursed focus of power in your world.” His eyes narrowed. “You’re going to have to do better than that, wizard.”
The avatar looked into the crafty eyes of the demon and realized that while it appeared stupid, it had a native cunning that belied its size and appearance. Wil decided it was time to do a little fishing. “Did I hear correctly as I awoke that you are a lord?” he asked the demon who smiled and nodded as if flattered. “Well, Lord Gulak, the fact that you were able to kidnap me from right under Styxis’s nose makes it clear to me that you are a power not to be dealt with lightly in this world. Perhaps you and I can do each other some good. What would you do with the information and what would be in it for me?”
