Suzerain of the Beast (Vision Dream Series Book 3), page 57
“Wondrous Idea, Mec,” said the man. “Yes, all of you must come to my home. It be modest, but much warmer than these trees. And bring your dragon. I have an empty barn that should do quite well.”
The man turned and started walking back the way the two of them had come. The boy stood there a moment, staring first at Jeela and the others and then at Quellaina. He whirled around and bolted after his Grand as fast as his little feet could carry him.
“Come, we shall have a warm place to sleep this night,” said the princess, and she started to follow the man and his grandson.
“But who are these people? We do not know anything about them,” protested Jeela.
This was dangerous.
“Do not worry, knight,” Princess Swevladilia called back. “They are friends of my mother’s.”
❖ CHAPTER 57 ❖
“HE WANTS TO thank both you and Lair as soon as possible, Felicidara,” said her mother.
Felly wanted to sleep more and was wondering why this could not wait till later on, as she and her mother walked through the camp towards Lord Minegreisel’s tent in the brisk early morning air.
“I did not do that much really,” replied Felly. “Just leant him a touch of my energy.”
“Oh. Well, you have been sleeping for two days,” said her mother. “I would call that a lot of energy.”
“Two days?” Felly gasped. “Why did you not get me up sooner?”
“We tried, but you would not wake,” said Mersarahtina. “Even Lair tried some kind of spell. And that did not work either.”
“I know I was a little tired, but two whole days?” Felly shook her head, which made her seeing glasses slide down her nose. She pushed them up again. “And that man?”
“That man as you call him was asleep most of the time as well and only awakened this morning,” said Mersarahtina.
“Did you feed him the—”
“The stew? I did, daughter,” said her mother. “And it helped to perk him up right away. But no sooner had he finished his first bite, the prince asked to see both you and Lair as soon as you awoke.”
“Prince? What prince?”
“Prince Dareldin, my daughter,” said her mother. “You saved the prince of Darus with your special talent.”
“You mean, the real prince?”
“Yes, the real prince,” said her mother, glancing over to smile at Felly as they neared the tent.
“But…but I cannot see a prince like this,” said Felly. “I…I need to look more presentable than this.”
Felly stopped in her tracks and tried to straighten her hair. She put her seeing glasses in the pocket of her gown.
“You look fine, daughter,” Mersarahtina assured her. “This is not the royal court. We are in exile and at war. Besides, you have never been one for finery.”
“Tis true, Mother,” admitted Felly, and she felt herself relax. Even at his age, Lair was the court wizard of Ardenon, used to the fineries of such a position. And yet, he accepted her just the way she was: a simple girl. The prince of Darus would just have to accept her as a simple girl as well.
Felicidara and her mother were escorted to the tent by Felly’s uncle, Captain Settrellidur. Felly almost walked straight into the side of the tent, but her uncle caught her just in time.
“Felly, put on your seeing glasses,” scolded her uncle.
Reluctantly, she donned her thick glasses carefully on the bridge of her nose. She adjusted them several times, and when she was satisfied they were secure, she followed her mother and her uncle into the tent.
Inside she found she was standing next to Lair who had the knight, Jesdoril, at his side. There was a small table with chairs where Lord Minegreisel and the man whom she now knew was the prince were seated. The prince was slurping up something from a wooden bowl. He put down the bowl, rose from his spot at a small table, walked over to Felly and hugged her.
“Thank thee so much,” he said to her.
“It was my pleasure, Your Highness,” said Felly, and she attempted a very clumsy curtsy.
“No such formalities are necessary here, child,” said the prince.
“I see you are eating the stew I prescribed, Your Highness,” said Felly.
“Yes, I seem to have developed quite a craving for it,” replied the prince.
“She said you would,” said Felly.
And then he whispered so only she could hear, “Your gift of strength has saved me, but it be the precious glimpse of Adilia I caught through your eyes that I am the most thankful for, Dear Felly.”
The prince turned and slowly made his way back to his seat. “And as you all can see I am still a bit groggy from the ordeal with or without the stew. But I have called you here as my wizards to examine an item that has come into the possession of Sir Jesdoril and myself, an item with magical properties that may be of use to us in our struggle. It will be up to the two of you to determine what it is, and how we may use it.”
Prince Dareldin pulled out an object wrapped in cheesecloth. He placed it on the table and quickly unwrapped it. When the prince had finished, he held up a small wooden box. It did not appear to be anything special to Felly. Just a plain wooden box with a metal locking mechanism that had a small triangle for a keyhole.
“If this box is something magic, I shall be able to discover its origin and purpose in no time, Your Highness,” said Lair, and he stepped up to accept the box.
The prince glanced over at Felly, but she didn’t move, allowing Lair to examine the item first.
He is a wizard who trained on the Isle of Bazzleron, Felly told herself. He has a lot of detailed knowledge that she did not have about such things.
Lair examined the box closely, rolling it over and over in his hands. He inspected every inch of the small container. He even smelled it.
“Have you attempted to open it?” Lair asked the prince.
“The blow of an ax or a sword have no effect upon it,” said Jesdoril. “It seems impregnable.”
“I believe this is an ancient and very rare item. Only a few were made,” said Lair. “Long ago in Ardenon, such boxes were used to keep safe personal treasures. They are said to be nearly impossible to open. These boxes were usually given as presents to two wizards who….” Lair looked at Felly.
“…Married,” finished Felicidara. “This box belongs to Jesseff and Isnordella.”
“Sometimes there is a secret inscription burned upon them in an older form of magic,” said Lair. He closed his eyes and began to wave his hand over the box until words appeared as if burning into the wood right before their eyes.
“In life I was the key and in death I am the door to those who should enter. Behind the solidest of petals lies that which be the trigger to it all,” read Felly. “I know where it is! I know where the key is!”
“You do?” asked Lair, opening his eyes and looking at her.
“Yes, follow me now!”
She grabbed Lair by the arm and dragged him out of the tent. As she pulled Lair by the arm towards the grave of Jesseff and Isnordella, she heard the prince ask, “Are they always like this?”
“Yes, or worse, Your Highness,” she heard Jesdoril answer.
❖ ❖ ❖
“Felly, you are pulling my arm off,” complained Lair, as she dragged him down the last few stairs of the lower chamber to where the two sarcophaguses rested.
She willed the tongue of fire in her hand to burn even brighter. Obediently the small flame floating just above the palm of her hand brightened considerably, chasing away all the shadows of the small chamber.
“There, now we will be able to find it easily,” said Felly.
“You are getting better at the torch spell,” noted Lair, while he rubbed his arm.
“Isnordella’s sarcophagus,” said Felly. “Start checking the flowers. I do not remember the exact one.”
“Flowers?”
“The carvings. The carvings of the roses.”
Dutifully, Lair began to examine and tug at the stone flowers as she did. They were working their way around opposite sides of the sarcophagus, when she heard something drop to the ground.
“I think I found it,” said Lair from behind the sarcophagus. Then he raised his hand above it and in his hand, he held a white marble rose. “Is this what we have been searching for?
“That is it!”
Lair walked over to where Felly was standing, carrying the little stone flower in his hand. He flipped the flower over and saw the triangular shaft protruding from it.
“This shaft is not made of marble,” said Lair examining it closely. “It is Gradorvian’s Powder, the vehicle of First Magic, turned to stone and attached to the marble flower. I can feel a touch of power from it. Remarkable and ingenious.”
“…Behind the solidest of petals lies that which be the trigger to it all…” said Felly.
Lair inserted the triangular shaft behind the marble rose into the triangular keyhole of the little box. At first, it seemed as if the two were mismatched. The much smaller keyhole would never accept the larger triangular key…if it was a key. As Lair touched the shaft to the box’s locking mechanism, the shaft somehow conformed to the size of the keyhole. When he had pushed it all the way to the marble flower, she heard a loud click, and the box slowly began to open on its own. Felly peered inside. Instead of some marvelous item of magic, she saw a small bright orange clump of what appeared to be potter’s clay. It still looked moist, soft, and malleable.
“Orange clay?”
“No,” said Lair. “Watch…”
He touched the clay, and it began to move. Felly realized that the orange clay was molding itself. After a moment, it had worked itself into the shape of a….
Key!
This bright orange key was shaped like an average skeleton key except for the fact that it ended with clear crystal triangular teeth, rather than the normal teeth of such a key. And before her eyes, the orange faded completely away until the entire key was a translucent crystal.
“And I am sure the spot where the stone rose had been is also the keyhole for this crystal key,” said Lair.
“Try it,” said Felly, who was now overcome with excitement and curiosity.
Lair took the newly formed key over to the triangular hole in the marble sarcophagus where the stone flower had been and pushed the crystal key into it. He glanced up at Felly for a moment before turning the key. It turned smoothly. He rotated it all the way around until it stopped. They waited, but nothing seemed to happen, then the entire chamber began to shake and rumble. The shaking became so violent that it knocked both Lair and Felly to the floor. The room quickly filled so thick with rock dust that Felly had to gasp for air. Then it all stopped. And the dust vanished. The chamber was clear and clean and…empty.
The sarcophaguses were gone!
And in their place was left a tiny flat box of a light-colored wood. Felly and Lair picked themselves up and walked over to stand around the blonde-wood box.
“Jesseff and Isnordella have gone to a lot of trouble to protect this box,” said Felly.
“Unless it too is a key to yet another lock,” pointed out Lair, and he bent over and picked up the box. “It has no lock.”
He held it out for her to open. She took the edges of its thin lid and raised it. Inside, cuddled in stuffed black velvet were two necklaces. Each was a long chain of silver with a single large oval of amber-colored crystal.
“They’re beautiful,” said Felly.
“Take one,” said Lair.
“Should we?”
“It seems we were meant to find them, so I would say we should,” said Lair.
She instinctively reached for the one on the right, and said, “This is Isnordella’s.”
Felly could not tell how she knew this, but she knew it was true.
“I know,” agreed Lair.
He took the remaining necklace and then placed the thin blonde-wood box on the floor of the chamber. Holding his, he took the other one from Felly and opened its clasp. She turned around, and he placed the necklace around her neck and closed its clasp. Instantly from it she felt a power rush into her. The room spun and Felly felt herself drifting away.
She opened her eyes and found that she had fallen backwards into Lair’s arms.
“I thought something like that might happen,” he said. “Are you all right?”
She stood up. “I am. I have never felt so…” She could not find the right words.
“Powerful?” asked Lair.
“Yes, powerful.”
❖ ❖ ❖
“Do you remember the words and the steps?”
“I shall never forget them:
…the force that stands before me shall not stand the power of the cycle. Spin the wheel of power within the wheel of time and let all that exists around you fall away. In the next phase, you shall draw within yourself the wheels and become part of the motion. You must do this to release the spell’s beginning. And you shall pull into your soul the heart of the matter and be touched by it. You must do this to amplify the spell’s strength. Finally, you shall seal the bond as the lufgend greets, to unleash the force of the spell. Then one, then two, then all come. Marching upon thine enemy as substantial as granite till the zenith dissolves away till only footfall be left.
Those words are fused into my heart…as you are,” replied Lair, and he looked at her.
“I remember it too:
Cara sara dor veronn. La berondon zee con la ma seez gitvel ocsee mon fel ohayon fel. Unyeha suzmera sara. Wee unlanshillera whisnar trelgorelynshea on va on…” she sang to him the words in the ancient tongue of the lover’s poem from her precious scroll.
Lair stared at her and she at him. Then Felly pushed up her seeing glasses nervously, while Lair turned away embarrassed to examine the flat box that had housed the jewelry from the past.
“Um, that was good…no beautiful,” he said, without looking at her.
“Thank thee,” was her only reply.
He was wearing the other necklace. The two of them now stood in the snow in a clearing just beyond the entrance to the lower chambers of Jesseff’s and Isnordella’s tomb. She wasn’t at all sure it really was a tomb. It was more like a carefully crafted hoax intended to fool their enemy, and also a place to safely store these powerful charms for use by future wizards. Lair wished to test the charms right away to see if they could be used to aid them in their struggle against Shutharja.
“We will sing and dance the spell only once,” instructed Lair. “The spell army will fade quickly if these talismans have no effect.”
“All right, I am ready,” said Felly, and she held out her hands to him.
He took them. His grip was strong, and her heart beat in her ears. It happened this way every time he touched her.
Was this magic she was feeling or was it something else?
He began to lead her in the dance and almost immediately she sang in the ancient tongue, while he interpreted her words, “Cara sara dor veronn. La berondon zee con la ma….”
Like in a trance, she swayed involuntarily as she danced the steps first one way then back again. She remembered the man in the poem searching for his kidnaped lover. Waves of emotion crashed over her. The spell was becoming more intense than it had ever been. It was time for the kiss. And as she felt his lips touch hers, her spirit pushed out of her own body to merge with Lair’s spirit in a space between their dancing bodies. She was one with him and he with her. The clearing, the cold snow, the frigid air all dissolved away. All that was left was their spirits winding and twirling together. Suddenly she could see all around them at the same time. She could see her people in the nearby camp and then she could see even farther. All the villages and individual farmhouses in all directions. She felt every person, every spirit that occupied those places.
Then her attention was involuntarily drawn southward. Something very sinister resided there. The vision of her spirit-self then caught sight of a massive wave of hate and evil crawling along the shoreline like a plague of locus. Above it, fueling it was a thousand burning tongues of demon-red flame. She realized it was an army, a dark army. And it was on the march. But something was pulling her even farther south. She saw the swells of the Imperial Sea rolling and boiling in anger. The eyes of a creature whose head just crested out of the waters watched her as her spirit flew on by in its southward flight. It seemed that everything around her was becoming a swirling jumble of images. Then before her was a great tower of red. And from this tower something stirred. Something that was casting its attention eastward. Now it turned its awfulness towards her and Lair. A fatherly voice called out to them:
Children, my pretty children of power, I have been searching for ones like you…come, leave the people who do not understand you behind. Come and serve me…and I will show you great and terrible knowledge. I will reveal your true dark power…your true dark nature….
Felly felt Lair’s spirit floating close to her. She felt his excitement at gaining new knowledge. He was being drawn towards the voice, towards the sinister burning red light. She could feel his longing to acquire infinite knowledge, infinite power. Felly called out to Lair, but his thoughts were filled by the fatherly voice. Lair was trusting the voice. The voice surrounded him like a dark blanket. It was blocking him from her view.
Do not resist, Lair. Everything is fine now… soon you will possess all the power, all the knowledge your heart desires….
But Felly knew this was all an elusion. She knew they needed to escape, to escape now!
But as she began to retreat from the evil with the power of her will, she felt Lair’s spirit rushing towards the voice, towards its promises. Suddenly she became aware of the Fraters surrounding Lair, but instead of protecting him, they were carrying Lair closer and closer to the evil. The Fraters too were caught up by this dark enchantment. The tie between she and the Ardenon wizard was growing thinner and thinner as he separated more and more from her. She was losing him…losing all of them.
They will all vanish from the light and become slaves to the dark! She heard Soror screaming out desperately into her mind.
