Death's Reach, page 10
part #2 of Hungry Gods Series
She couldn’t wait to show them what she could do.
Everyone was acting so weird. Nobody talked. Lara only picked at her food. Taegar ate slowly, sneaking glances at Lara, which she didn’t return. He tried to be subtle, which only made him all the more obvious. Lysa knew that Taegar liked Lara, but Lara only had eyes for Dorian.
Lara and Dorian were made for each other, Lysa knew that in her heart. When she looked at the older girl, she felt warm in her tummy. She’d always wanted a big sister. Dorian had spoken of his worries about being a serf. He had even intended to join the King’s army, just like Mykel, just so he could offer Lara a better life.
Even with all they’d been through, Lara was still the prettiest girl that Lysa had ever known. There had been quiet nights on the road when Lara had comforted her, combing and braiding her hair, just like her mama had used to do. Lara didn’t talk much with Dorian missing, because she worried about him all the time. They all did, but no one as much as the two of them. They shared that.
Just like sisters.
Serina ate as though it was her last meal. Lysa competed, trying to stuff her cheeks as fast as the older woman, but it only threatened to give her indigestion. Though she looked focused on her food, Lysa could tell by the way Serina held her head that she was aware of everything at once.
Lysa wasn’t an expert at reading people, but there was something odd about the way she looked at Taegar and Lara. It reminded her of a thickening storm cloud. When her mom used to get that look, that meant she had something on her mind. If she were anything like her mom, that meant those two were going to hear about it.
Out of all of them, she expected Serina to be the most excited about Lysa’s new abilities. She could hardly wait to show her. It would cheer all of them up, she was sure of it. The spell book, though a good sized tome, was hidden in her satchel. No one, not even the wizards, had questioned her about what was in it. These days, everyone carried their possessions with them. Anything too big had been left behind. The wizards worried her a little, she could see them trying to take it away from her. She had to be cautious about revealing it to them until she was sure that they wouldn’t take it away from her.
Serina would want to take her under her wing, train her to be a mercenary. They could leave immediately to go free Mykel and Dorian.
She didn’t trust the wizards with Mykel. She worried they would hurt him. They didn’t know that he needed to be dealt with delicately, that if they made him angry only she could calm him. Theondrin had questioned her at great length about him, and she had explained how much he needed her, but the wizard didn’t listen. He just sat there with that smug look as though she was nothing more than a child.
They would all be looking at her differently soon enough. She was already a wizard.
She waited as patiently as she could until it looked as though the meal was winding down. The dark cloud that was Serina’s attitude looked as though it was only going to get darker. She couldn’t wait any longer. Looking around to make sure nobody else sat in the small dining room, she stood up and said, “I have to show you guys something.”
She had their attention. Good, she’d worried about Lara. The older girl even managed to give her a small smile.
Lysa pulled the book out of the satchel and laid it on the table and waited for them to say something. Taegar and Lara looked curious, but she could see they didn’t comprehend. “It’s my book of spells,” she explained.
Serina had gone dangerously still, the storm had gone, leaving in its wake something far scarier. She looked ready to attack. In a voice as cold as steel she asked, “Where did you get that?”
“I got it off of Aleran.” As Serina sat forward, Lysa put a protective hand on it. “It’s mine.”
Serina stood, her chair sliding away. She slapped Lysa’s hand away and grabbed the book. “You have no right to that!”
Lysa stepped back, her hand stinging. Serina had hit her hard. She felt tears brimming in her eyes, and she blinked them away before they could escape. “Give it back.” Her voice quivered, but she puffed up her chest.
“Hold on,” Taegar said, slowly coming to his feet. “Calm down, Serina. She’s just showing us.”
“Give it back,” Lysa repeated, “It’s mine. I need it!”
“This was Aleran’s.” Serina’s voice trembled with suppressed fury. “You are not to touch it. You are not to go near it, ever again.”
“But look, I can use it. Look!” Lysa held out her hands in front of her and felt the magic in the air. It felt different here, as though the tower acted like a gigantic conduit for the force. She could feel it all about her, but not invisible like air. It existed as a million tingly sensations like when her leg fell asleep, and she had begun to see it. It moved through everything and coalesced in her hands. She waved her hands, letting it channel through her, manifesting as something tangible, something she controlled.
She held up the small ball of flame for all of them to see. It floated above her palms like her very own wisp orb. It couldn’t burn her, it existed because she willed it to. It was easy, as easy as dancing or singing. She didn’t even have to say the words anymore, only think them. She only let them see the small ball. She could show them so much more, when they were ready. She hadn’t tried anything else yet, but she already had a sense of her potential.
She watched as they all backed up, someone’s chair clattering to the floor, though she wasn’t sure whose it was. All of them were on their feet. Serina clutched the spell book to her chest. With the flame channeled within she could see them clearly, their bodies illuminated by the heat of their bodies. The very air about them shimmered. She could see it all, she could sense elemental salamanders beyond the veil of the ordinary and mundane. If she chose, she could pull them from their realm, but she chose not to. The ball of flame would be enough.
Their reaction to such a small demonstration of power made her smile. They stared up at her, eyes wide, with a touch of fear. “See? I stopped the zombie dryads. Me. I burned them. I can read the book. I’m a wizard.”
Serina made no move to hand it to her. She shook her head almost imperceptibly. Taegar recovered first.
“Lysa, it’s okay. Please. Come down.”
Come down? She looked at her feet, suspended four feet above the floor. The sorcery encircled her, lifting her upon an invisible cloud of energy. Invisible to them. She dismissed the Force, letting the fire vanish and dropped gently back to the ground.
“I can use it. Give me back my book.”
“No,” Serina said.
After her demonstration, she still wouldn’t give it to her? She looked helplessly at Taegar and Lara, but both stared at her like she’d grown a second head. “I could take it from you.”
“You don’t know what you’re messing with,” Serina said, “Don’t make me do something I don’t want to do.”
“What? What can you do? You can’t do anything to me. I don’t need the stupid book! I don’t need any of you! I can get Mykel back on my own. I’ll get Dorian too. I hate you guys, I hate you!”
Lara looked as though she’d just slapped her but she didn’t care. She shoved past Taegar and ran out the door and into the streets of Levia. The snow had begun to fall, but it never touched her. It melted before it came within several feet. No one, not the wizards, not even her friends, would keep her from finding Mykel.
CHAPTER 18
Lara watched as Lysa ran out the door, struggling with her fear. She wanted to go after her but her feet wouldn’t move. They were all frozen. Taegar stared at the door and Serina had her back against the wall, one hand still clutching the book to her chest, the other by her side where she held her sword. She’d drawn it as soon as Lysa had risen in the air. The girl had put out so much heat that it had left Lara’s face feeling sunburned.
Would Serina have used it on the girl? If she tried, Lara didn’t think she could’ve done anything. The tension hung in the air for a few more seconds, the heat from Lysa escaping out the door, bringing a chill so much more palpable after the strange sorcery. Outside, snow fell and people strolled by, oblivious and apathetic to the group’s plight.
“We should go after her.” She said it out loud, though she hadn’t intended to. Despite her words, she made no move to do so. A numbing wind blew through the door, sending a few errant flakes spinning across the stone floor. Lara shivered, though not from the cold. “What happened to her?”
Taegar was the first to move. He went to the doorway and glanced out. A moment later he closed the door. He returned and picked up the chair he’d knocked over and dropped into it. “Maybe something happened in the woods. I should’ve gone after her. Maybe if we talk to Theondrin, see if he can reach Dorian, maybe she’ll come out of it.”
“Dorian’s dead,” Lara said. It surprised her that she could state it so plainly.
“You don’t know that,” Taegar said, “He was still alive when we left.”
“I do. I found out this morning. I couldn’t tell her. Gods forgive me, I couldn’t tell her.”
CHAPTER 19
Above the forest canopy, the sun made its way slowly across the sky of the underworld.
“How is that possible?” Dorian asked, “We’re underground, yet I see the heavens.”
Death stared at the man. How was it possible that he could see such a thing? His scared eye sockets were as empty as a skull’s, yet he could see everything within her realm clearly. The naitkilar that possessed him changed him spiritually. He would soon lose his identity, consumed by the corrupt spirit.
“Yes,” Calli said, “We are no longer in the same world. Long ago I separated the underworld, removing it to prevent others from reaching it. You are staring at the same sun, but not the same sky. No longer can one dig to my realm. It can only be accessed by taking the proper paths.”
“That makes no sense,” he said, “We can’t be two places at once.”
She shrugged, not knowing if he saw her gesture or not. She didn’t expect him to be able to comprehend it.
There was a time when crossing the forest would have lasted the blink of an eye, and not days. The flora would have parted, allowing her to pass unhindered. She could have willed herself across it. The trees and brush no longer recognized her, and though she could no longer see them, she sensed a pack of grimm wolves stalking them.
Dorian stopped, staring at the base of a tree. It took her a moment to see why. His spirit eyes had become sharper than hers. Against the trunk of an Eternal Willow, sheltered by branches, rested the form of a woman.
“Why do they sleep?” Dorian asked.
“This is the Forest of Reflection,” Calli said, “It’s a place for the tired spirit to rest and recover. The trees shelter them until they’re ready to move on.”
“For how long?”
“As long as they need to. Some might sleep for days, others for many years. It depends on how hard you live.”
He paused, as though considering. She wondered what kind of man he’d been. He did not have the discipline of a soldier or priest, nor the haughty arrogance of nobility. He had the build of a man who was no stranger to labor. She had known a million spirits like his, but it would be his ethics that separated him from the others. He was a man of courage and sacrifice.
And he would still have one final sacrifice to make.
I could do it now. I would be doing him a favor. She still had the strength. One touch and his physical body would collapse, freeing his soul to seek its peace in the afterlife.
Only, would it free him from the naitkilar? Was it already too late? The corruption spirits had claimed many, and they did not end up here, in her world.
“What about this?” Dorian asked.
Calli looked around. “What?”
She saw it a moment later. The air shimmered and blurred, and a vortex of darkness opened before them.
It had come out of nowhere. Somehow Dorian had sensed it before her. She had no answer for him. She’d never witnessed anything like it before. It felt like magic, yet no such sorcery should be capable of breaching the distance between her world and theirs.
Two figures stood within the vortex. The magic was ancient and very powerful, and she saw why. One of the figures was a daemon.
The vortex swept over her and Dorian, merging the two worlds. Walls merged with the forest, a stone floor blended with the soft earth.
The other figure was Lara. Calli had traveled with her, the girl had even inadvertently saved her life, though only after most of her godhood had been stripped away. That explained the vortex, for Lara and Dorian were inexplicably linked.
The two of them moved toward one another, yet just as their fingertips nearly brushed, the daemon dispelled the magic returning the forest back to normal as though they had never been.
Dorian continued to stumble forward. “Lara? Where’d she go?”
“They’re gone.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Lara?” Dorian wandered about through the trees, calling for the girl, yet no answer came. Finally he collapsed beneath a willow.
Calli approached slowly. He hid his face in his hands. When she stopped in front of him, he looked at her with those vacant pits, and she felt as though her very soul was exposed to him.
“I saw Lara,” he said. “Does this mean she is dead?”
“No, she lives.”
He nodded and got back to his feet. “I thought I could accept that I’d lost her, that I’d never see her again. Suddenly there she is and I realize that nothing else matters. I saved the world for her. I’ve got to get back to her.”
“You’ll see her again,” Calli said. The promise came easily to her. They would be reunited one day, but not how Dorian expected. With all of his new sight, he was oblivious to the spiritual changes within himself. Less and less of his spirit could be identified as separate from the naitkilar.
CHAPTER 20
On the east side of Levia the towers were smaller and made of stone. Though the average citizen lived better than in other cities of Medanholm, the buildings were more weathered, and had seen more of the passage of time. If many residents of the peasant quarter practiced sorcery, it was weak and did little for their homes.
Here were the homes of laborers, tucked out of sight within the magnificent city, so as not to detract from the splendor of the image that the wizards wished to portray. All of the main roads took more scenic and impressive routes that did not include this district.
Though there had been a few efforts to better this section, few had the desire or interest. The residents had little money to contribute. Those that did live within the squalor spent little time there anyway. They had jobs tending to fields, or if not that, trying to squeeze out a living in an incredible city where the gifted excelled and those that didn’t sank.
When the zombie army reached Levia they had flooded the East District, finding easy prey incapable of defending themselves… just like the rest of Medanholm.
In a desperate act to save the city, Theondrin himself stood in the road, as did many of his lessers, with wizards in every street leading from the district. They watched as the residents attempted to flee from the hungry dead, until they collided with the invisible barrier the wizards had conjured.
Those of no magic talent could not see the true impressive, magnificent barrier, but Theondrin had marveled at what united wizards were capable of. It rose at the edge of the quarter, a dazzling spectacle of Force extending fifty feet into the air.
The archmage could still detect a faint buzz to the air, even now, long after the barrier had been dispelled. Such powerful sorcery always left behind a tell-tale smudge upon the world. It would be detectable for months yet.
How fortunate that he’d had advanced warning. If the dead had gotten into Levia proper, it would have been a very difficult battle. He’d visited Doramwall a few days afterward and seen minor skirmishes still being fought, and lost, within the capitol. Even with sorcery, such a battle would be difficult. Too bad King Domaran had so little use for his talents. The kingdom, nay, the world, needed a little shaking up.
Humankind had just been cleansed. The strong survived, and a greater, more deserving, more advanced human was left to inherit the world. The other races would fade away leaving behind only those with the strength and foresight to reclaim the new world.
Where the invisible barrier had been, the wizards had followed with a hasty wall ripped up from the stone of the earth, a permanent barrier that none could pass. It had shattered buildings three hundred years old and permanently trapped the poor of the city within.
He shook his head, remembering the amount of work in the days leading up to the incursion. It had been difficult making sure everyone had the day off in a city that never stopped. It had taken a new holiday to honor the average man. His advisors had found a few scattered signs of life in the days following, but each day fewer of the living could be accounted for. It would not be long before the only ones in the quarter were the dead.
The rest of the city, in an emotionally stirring tribute to those that lost their lives, dedicated the wall to them as a monument to their sacrifice.
Theondrin ran a hand across the stone and uttered an earth spell. The rock warped and softened, opening up a portal through which he and his entourage could pass through. Such exciting times! He expected to see incredible things. They said the gods had returned. He’d seen no such signs, and the auspices showed no hint of their presence. It would have been incredible to meet one of them. He’d tried to crack the mountain in the past, but the priests had been overprotective. He had never truly found them, or proven they were real.
He had something better than the gods anyway. He had a new god.
The passage led to an isolated building within the quarantined neighborhood. The building had once been a humble dwelling for a servant. It now allowed him to be near the zombies without any real threat.
