On instinct, Telyn flung herself toward Nacaris, intent on pushing him out of the way. Her body impacted his, and they both fell sideways, even as the fireball singed across Telyn's shoulder -- a telling symbol of how close she came to losing someone she couldn't bear to lose. Again.
A scream ripped through the room -- high-pitched, full of rage and the curse of failure -- as Telyn bounced back to her feet. Righteous fury streamed through her and set the anaqueri aflame with energy. She stalked Brunnari, a hunter with prey in sight, and saw the first true flicker of fear in his eyes. Fire flowed in her veins, crackled in her chest, and she felt invincible and in control for the first time in her life.
She bared her teeth in threat as she backed the old man against a wall at the point of her anaqueri. "Don't cross me, old man, or I'll make you wish you could die. You may be immortal, but you're not invulnerable. Now, tell me where the Book is."
That sly, shrewd light returned to his eyes. "We can learn it together, use it to remake the world--"
Her hand flashed out, closing around his throat to cut off his words. "Don't trifle with me. Tell me where it is."
He choked against the pressure, and managed a careful nod. One frail, shaking hand lifted toward the far wall, where a shelf of old, dusty scrolls and books stood.
"Nooo!" This scream of rage burst from Sele, forgotten in the struggle with Brunnari. Telyn nearly recoiled in surprise as the young woman flung herself toward the shelf, snatching up one elaborately decorated volume as she aimed a deadly glare Telyn's direction. "You can't have it!"
Telyn dropped Brunnari, who fell to the floor, rubbing his neck. She turned toward Sele, her free hand lifted in an open-palmed sign of cautious placation.
"It's all right, Sele. The Book belongs to me. It's a family heirloom."
"No." This time, Sele's voice was cold, and rang with a strange echo.
Suddenly, Telyn found herself unable to move. Her legs were like lead, frozen in place on the floor. The anaqueri was suddenly too heavy to hold, and her arm dropped as if connected to a weight. She was seizing up from the inside. Her chest tightened, her blood pulsed dully in her veins as sweat stood out on her brow. She stared into Sele's eyes, and knew that the girl was the source of everything she was feeling. Somehow, Sele controlled her.
Teeth gritted against the overwhelming heaviness and spreading numbness, Telyn reached deep, searching for the Fire she knew could free her from paralysis.
"Sele..." She made one last attempt to free herself by reason. Her voice faltered as the crushing energy grew heavier, and she knew she was in danger. Sele really could kill her.
As Telyn's vision wavered out of focus from lack of oxygen, she became aware of a voice, speaking deep within her mind. Wake up, Telyn. You are stronger than this ending.
It was too hard to move, too hard to focus. She was too tired. There was unexpected peace in knowing she was about to die. Only her fear of dying at the hands of Majik, and her sorrow that she'd never see Nacaris again, held it at bay.
Wake up. This time, the voice commanded rather than cajoled, and it compelled Telyn to make the effort. With difficulty, she struggled up through layers of foggy darkness, only to realize that she really could move. Her limbs no longer felt weighted down and frozen.
Eyes open, she gazed in confusion at the scene before her as Sele, held at the point of Nacaris' blade, clung stubbornly to the ornate tome in her hands, even as Marat kept watch over Brunnari, and Lysha guarded the door.
"Are you all right?" Nacaris spared her a brief, concerned glance, even as Marat moved away from Brunnari and took the book from Sele in a move worthy of a master thief, before he bound the girl's hands to keep her from clawing at him.
Sele hissed anyway, and directed that stone cold, paralyzing glare Marat's way. He didn't even flinch; just went on about his task as if nothing out of the ordinary happened, except for one chastisement. "None of that, little one. You may be a Mistress among your people, but you haven't got enough experience to fight me."
That cowed Sele, and Telyn finally understood how much her denial of her own Majikal heritage left her unprepared for this fight. Silently, she made a promise to herself and the powers that guarded her. When this was all over, she would make up for lost time. It meant half a lifetime of study she had to catch up on, but she'd do what it took. She didn't have a choice.
Marat held out the book he'd wrested from Sele's grip. Telyn paused, hesitant, as she stared at it. Why was she so afraid of this book? Her instincts screamed like mad to run the other way, and her brow furrowed. Was she really that afraid of her heritage? Shrugging it off, she reached to take the book. Finally, the Phoenix Book.
Telyn, no! This was Sala's voice, a fraction too late as Telyn's fingers closed around the spine of the book. Before she could release it, a blast of energy unlike any she'd ever felt before tore through Telyn's body, flung her backward across the room and hard into the wall.
"Telyn!" Nacaris sprung to her side, and she lay in a heap, staring up at him dazedly as pain radiated through her body. She felt broken -- shattered, really. Then, blinking, she noticed Brunnari standing over them, a mocking grin on his lips as he reached to peel the manuscript from her grasp.
"I warned you before, Telyn. It was a mistake to turn your back on your Gifts, and your instincts. You could have defeated me, if you hadn't abandoned Majik for a jaunt through the Endlands, all those cycles ago."
Telyn struggled against the pain that twisted insistently through her, and the unseen pressure that held her down. "I... can... still... beat you."
He laughed sardonically. "How, Sera? You aren't strong enough to break my binding, and your little friends here don't stand a chance of saving you. I've set the perfect trap."
She didn't need his smug crowing to point out the truth. The terrible agony in her body and soul told her how negligent she'd been. She hadn't listened to the instinct that told her something was wrong, that this wasn't the Phoenix Book, even before she touched it. Now, whatever Majik Brunnari had imbedded in this useless tome was killing her steadily, and no one could save her. She really was going to die.
Brunnari ignored Nacaris, and leaned over Telyn to gloat. "That's it, Sera. Give in to the truth. You won't be doing anything to stop me."
Nacaris glared at the old man, before his face filled Telyn's vision, and she nearly wept with conjoined relief and sadness. It took her a moment to focus on his lips moving, or hear the words, "Don't listen to him, balnyt. You can't give up, now."
The handsome one is right, Phoenix. Sala's voice hummed through the depths of Telyn's mind and soul, in places even Brunnari's twisted Majik couldn't touch. You must show no fear. Concentrate on your battle -- it will be one unlike any you have faced before. The Aerai Majin believed -- and rightly so -- that to truly understand life, all things must first die. This is the creatrix of the Phoenix Clan. It is the very core of the legend of the mighty phoenix. Embrace your birthright, Telyn. Trust that life and death are born of the same mother.
Telyn struggled against the weight crushing her to the floor, fighting a losing battle for air around the terrible pain in her chest. "I... I... d-don't... und-dersss...."
Nacaris' mouth moved again, but she couldn't make out what he said, and she couldn't hear him about the crackling roar in her ears. The only voice she could hear was Sala's, deep within her mind. I will give you the words, young Phoenix. Then, while he still holds you captive within this unholy Majik, you must let go of life.
Moisture burned her eyes at those words. They weren't ones she could imagine ever wanting to hear, and least of all now. She wasn't ready to die, yet.
It is the only way.
Telyn shuddered as the darkness that held her down from within closed in around her. She knew Sala was right. But knowing and accepting were two very different things. Telyn squeezed her eyes closed against pained tears as she fought the truth she already knew she had no choice but to accept. She was a warrior, after all. Warriors weren't
supposed to fear death.
That knowledge didn't make the fear any less real, or the pain any less torturous. She was petrified of dying this way, cut down by a power she was incapable of fighting. She feared this helplessness so much, she ran from anything that had to do with Majik. Even as a child, she feared Majik would be the root of her demise. Ironic, then, that the lack of that Majik now left her vulnerable to death, cowering in fear of the inevitable.
As her life drained steadily away, however, she realized it wasn't the dying itself she feared, but what she left unsaid, and undone. She forced her eyes to focus, to try and seek out Nacaris' face among the closing shadows, but she couldn't. And that hurt worst of all. She owed him so much more truth than she'd given... Finally, she understood what Sala offered her. Right now, she had a way to make her death mean something. She wasn't looking to change the world when the Aerai Majin returned, anyway. And if she died here, maybe that was her destiny. It could be her part to remove a great source of evil from the world as part of her death.
That knowledge steeled her resolve. She wouldn't fear death. She would embrace it willingly, aware she gave her life for the greater good.
"T-Tell...m-m-me," she breathed to Sala.
Victorum tragicus, victorum mortus. Lothites glorium dortem.
Dutifully, Telyn repeated the words aloud, even as they sank through her soul, and peace washed over her like warm water, soothing and calming as she embraced the words. Victory from tragedy, Victory from death. From the ashes of my life I rise.
Even as the words stuttered from her lips, Telyn drew a final, deep breath of air, and released the rope of life. Whatever came next was in the hands of Kishfa -- of Fate -- and the Gods of her father.
A distant scream, like a death knell, washed over her as she sank through the shell of her life, into a fiery river that teemed with a completely different kind of life. She was in it, part of it, liquid and flowing through the deepest currents of living fire. Telyn stretched and rolled within the flaming waves, more alive and free than she could ever remember being when confined within mortal skin. Somewhere above her, she could hear the faint screaming still, this time accompanied by vile curses that had no place in this sacred river.
She turned in the flow, to see Brunnari struggling against the flow of the Fire River. It was a useless battle -- this river would only kill him faster, the more he struggled. Brunnari's death scream as he was pulled under the fiery waves echoed above the roar of fire in her ears, and then all was silent, save the crackle of flowing fire. Peace, unlike any she'd ever known, burned through Telyn as the fire pulsed around her like a drummer's cadence.
Ducking her head beneath the fiery waves, she heard a sound like none she had ever heard before. It started softly -- a whispered chant -- then grew louder and louder, until it echoed all around her. The chorus of high, molten sang with a sweetness that transcended words. She felt awed, humbled, to hear it. As she listened, the notes melted into sounds, then into words.
Victoria polaris deo gloria murde.
As those Majik words swam through her, the current around Telyn began to change -- swifter now, where it had been gentle before. The rush of it built as if toward some great event, and the flow pulled Telyn along. As the singing reached its crescendo, the molten flow around Telyn became a bright light, flashing with rainbow hues.
An explosion of light and a shower of sparks catapulted Telyn upward out of the fire stream, through rock, soil, and sky. She broke free on wings of molten fire, and a phoenix's screaming cry burst from her throat.
I live!
Chapter Twenty-Three
Telyn bolted upright with a loud gasp as the burn of re-entry dropped her back into her body. She blinked in confusion, to find herself laying in the middle of a room she'd thought never to see again, Nacaris kneeling on the floor beside her. Pelarius Brunnari sprawled at her feet, his eyes gaping into eternity and his mouth frozen in a silent scream of terror. A shudder wracked her as she remembered that terrible scream, and knew he was dead.
She frowned, then. She should be dead. Or had she merely dreamed the whole event?
Twinges of remembered pain from her impact with the wall told her she hadn't. Which meant... She shuddered again. She had died. She'd been to that molten place, joined with the river of Fire. And Fire had restored her to life. How that could be, she wasn't prepared to ask.
Telyn looked up to find a grim Nacaris carefully watching her while Lysha stared in stunned silence. Marat wore the knowing smirk of a man who had long ago embraced the existence of Majik in his life.
She turned her head, her fuzzy memories starting to clear. Where was Sele? A small, mewling sound drew her attention to the far corner, where the girl huddled, clutching her head and shaking with terror. Telyn's heart went out to her. She didn't doubt for an instant that whatever Majik Brunnari used to keep his thralls under control tied directly into his lifesource, feeding him their energy even as he controlled their thoughts and feelings. His death had probably shattered dozens of souls at Raiador, as well. It would take the MajiMasters and HealiMistresses cycles to undo the damage Brunnari had already done.
When the silence in the room finally reached her, Telyn turned her attention to her companions and forced a smile. "Someone say something."
Lysha was the first to recover, her blonde brows drawing together in a frown. "What'n all the bloody hells o' Varnok was that about? One minute, ye're a goner fer sure, then Brunnari lets out this scream fit ta waken the dead, Sele drops inta the corner like she's 'fraid of her own shadow, an' yer sittin' there like naught happened."
Telyn shrugged. She couldn't explain it if she tried. Marat moved forward, then. "It seems Telyn has come into her birthright, after all."
Lysha's narrowed gaze moved to Marat. "'Twas Majik, then?"
Telyn shook her head as she tried to rise. Her muscles felt so weak. And yet, strangely, she felt energized like she'd never felt before. "It's not like any Majik this world's seen in hundreds of cycles."
Nacaris caught her as she wavered, and her grateful smile froze as she saw the concern in his eyes. "Are you all right?"
She was going to hurt him. She couldn't stop that, now. No matter how much she wished she could soften the blow.
"I'm fine," she snapped, extricating herself from his grip as quickly as possible. She saw the hurt anger in his eyes, and the surprise on the faces of her other two companions, but she refused to acknowledge any of it. This was how it had to be -- best he got used to the idea now. Silencing the protest of her heart, she stooped to gather up her anaqueri from the floor, tucking it through her belt. "I suggest we get out of here before this place crumbles to the ground. I'll see you back to Ulambara with Mistress Sele, Lysha."
"Then where will you go?" Nacaris' quiet question sliced through her soul, and she felt his gaze boring into her.
She drew a breath, preparing herself for the volley she was about to lob, and the damage she knew it would do. "I have a lot of study to do, and a quest yet to complete. Brunnari's death changes nothing for me -- I still have to find the Book. It's just become a lot more difficult. I have no idea where I'm headed next, and I don't intend to stand around here thrashing it out. Let's go."
The troubled expressions on her friends' faces stayed with Telyn all the way out of the tower, and she never felt more alone than the moment she accidentally met Nacaris' gaze, and saw the angry disappointment there. The thought that she could be sparing his life was cold comfort, at best.
Outside the tower, Lysha frowned when Sele still didn't stop crying or rocking. She glanced at Telyn. "I'd thought she'd act a mite normal once we cleared the tower. D'ye think she'll e'er recover?"
"Only time will tell," Telyn admitted with a sympathetic frown for the young Mistress. "And she won't be the only one like this. Brunnari's thrall spell tied them to him in a way that made them feel his death as if it were their own. I imagine that, for some, it was."
"All we can do for this child," Marat inte
rjected quietly, "is to return her to her people. They will attempt to restore her mind and soul, if it can be done. That much is beyond any of us, even Telyn."
"Then let's get to it," Nacaris added grimly. "No one deserves to suffer like that, no matter what they've done."
Those words hit Telyn square between the eyes, and she winced to know he wasn't just referring to Sele. Aching inwardly, she tried to appear unaffected as she nodded. "To Ulambara, then. We'll leave her with the Cloister there, and Marat can rejoin his caravan while I reclaim my horse."
Marat cleared his throat, drawing all attention to him.
"I shall not being rejoining that caravan."
Telyn frowned. "I don't understand."
He smiled in that serene, knowing way of his. "On the road to Ulambara, I had a dream -- a vision from Sheli Herself. I believe it has already begun to come to pass." He turned to Lysha. "I will travel with you, as far as Colandra, if you have no objection to my company."
Lysha practically beamed under his attention, and Telyn watched the faint hint of a blush creep through her friend's cheeks. "Be welcome, mate."
Telyn forced another smile, and avoided Nacaris' questioning gaze again. If there were questions she still didn't want to ask, there were others she wasn't prepared to answer. Questions like the ones burning in Nacaris' eyes every time their gazes met.
"It'll be dark, soon. We need to find someplace to camp, and I'd prefer we put some distance between us and this place before we do so."
With that, Telyn headed down the trail, back toward Ulambara, and a destiny she knew she had no choice but to face head-on. Unlike Marat, however, hers would be a destiny faced alone.
*****
The streets of Ulambara were teeming with their normal business and religious fervor. Telyn wondered if even one of these people knew what had happened in the mountains outside their city, or if they would care had they known.
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