"Damn."
"I'm sorry we can't go with you, Den, but those few of us who survived the purges and managed to stay alive this long have done so only by keeping our existence and whereabouts a secret from the Dark Lord and his forces. My duty is to my people, to keep them safe. Yours-"
"I know. Mine is that of the Guardian of Carnera, to face the Dark Lord."
"And destroy him."
"Yeah, or die trying."
"The man who brought the weapons for you is outside. When you're ready, he'll take you and your companions to some horses. You'll need them to make the journey in time."
"Right. Thank you. I'd tell you we'll bring them back to you, but I'm not sure whether I'll survive to keep such a promise."
"They're a gift. It's the least I could do, given what you are undertaking."
"Thanks." I shook my head, feeling the heavy unseen burden upon my shoulders as walked out of the tent. I told the man waiting outside that I'd meet him by the fires in the middle of the camp in half and hour, then I went on my way to reunite with my women and break the news to them about our road trip to hell.
Chapter 18
The old sorcerer Kelu stood at the east window of the topmost room in his stone tower, gazing across the expanse of calm water that separated his Isle of Keluthia from the coastal town of Rastersia at the nearest edge of the Dark Lord's realm. The wind which blew over his aged and bearded face chilled his skin, refreshing him. Before stepping away from the open portal, he glanced to the rocks of his island coast a hundred feet below, watching the waves gently crash against them. He appreciated the chaos of the moving water breaking as it hit the immovable stones. He then took note of the churning whirlpools in the recesses between the rocky outcroppings.
Chaos from order. Power vanishing, only to rise again for more destruction.
He smiled, turning his back on the view out of the tower, to instead look upon his task chained to the wall on the other side of the room.
"Victoria," Kelu said as he walked toward her. "You will be the crashing waves, striking with fury to break the rocks."
He stopped before her and relished the fear and ignorance in her eyes as she looked up at him while cowering against the cold wall behind her, trying in vain to pull her wrists free of the shackles which held them above her head. Her blond hair spilled down to her shoulders and framed her once model-like face, now bruised and otherwise fouled from an earlier struggle with her chains...and with her captor. She little resembled the Victoria Secret seductress she could've been before, though her body, barely covered by the torn gown she'd been made to wear, still had allure for the sorcerer. Yet she was no replacement for his professor apprentice, he thought. Victoria said nothing, and he knew speech had left her temporarily when he performed the last of many rituals on her.
"You are Victoria still, though you may not know it any more," he said. "But soon, you will be her no longer...and never again."
The old sorcerer's medallion necklace dangled in front of Victoria as he reached down and gripped her face firmly, his palm over her mouth, squeezing one cheek with his thumb and the other with his boney fingers. Her eyes grew wide and she made an unintelligible noise indicating the terror the sorcerer knew she felt. He smiled at her. "I will take that fear from you and replace it with wrath and power."
He briefly ran the fingers of his other hand over the hair beside one of her cheeks then released his grip on her, shoving her head back as he did. He heard the bump when the back of her head struck the wall and it startled him, for he didn't want her dead and he needed her to be awake for the final ceremony he would soon begin. He watched her for a moment, making sure she wouldn't pass out or worse. He glanced past her and checked the wall behind her, confirming it had no blood on it.
He left her at the wall, cowering but unable to do anything more. Moving to a long oak table nearby, he took a deep breath as he stared at the vials and instruments he'd gathered for the final transforming ceremony. He recalled what the Dark Lord had said to him a few hours earlier—that the new Guardian of Carnera had reached their shores. Kurg didn't show any fear of the prophecy in motion again, but through the viewing portal Kelu saw the body of one of the Dark Lord's seers on the ground beside the Dark Lord's throne. Clearly, it had been unwelcome news.
Kelu preferred to be contacted by the Dark Lord as infrequently as possible, but on this occasion he minded less than usual. He wasn't surprised when it happened. He expected it. He'd already been preparing to deal with the matter the Dark Lord brought to his attention. Kelu had received a message from the young boy he'd made his pupil, or at least his pawn, during the time when Kelu had relocated his tower in the land to the west of the sea. The training he'd given the boy had proved worthwhile when Kelu received the magical message containing news that the new Guardian was on his way to Tiern, and then to Rastersia.
Hearing that the Dark Lord needed him to use his magic to stop the very man responsible for Ms. Thompson no longer being in Kelu's life made accepting the charge not only palatable, but savory. He would've expected a band of Dark Riders to be tasked to take out an ordinary hostile intruder into the realm, but, knowing full well the Carneran prophecy, he understood why the Dark Lord chose to call upon him.
He felt tired, more than usual. He'd been a sorcerer, and a great one, for more years than most people lived, and that was part of the reason for his fatigue. But most of it came from the rituals he'd already done to transform Victoria, to make her his instrument of chaos, his marionette of destruction.
He looked back to her and sighed again. Not from fatigue this time, but from a hint of sadness. Since Ms. Thompson disappeared, he'd only had Victoria to keep him company. And soon, he would send her across the sea to Rastersia so he could garner favor with the Dark Lord, and get revenge on the Guardian of Carnera for taking his love from him.
After countless decades alone on his island—aside from the creatures he summoned occasionally for his amusement or the rare instance when he transported his tower elsewhere in the world for a brief time—Kelu only discovered how lonely he'd been when Ms. Thompson came into his life. While attracted to her physically from the start, his affection for her only grew when she showed great interest in the magic he possessed. The more he taught her, the stronger her affection for him seemed to grow. He had secretly harbored the dream that the two of them would be together for the remainder of his days, however many centuries that might be.
Since the failed attack on Yedia, Victoria had been his poor substitute for Ms. Thompson, but a sufficient distraction since his professor apprentice departed mysteriously at Den's hand—news he later learned through magical means. Yet, he still held on to a hope that his apprentice love might one day return. He wanted to believe it could happen, but deep down he knew that was likely the foolish dream of an old and lonely man. Victoria's charms had passed the days, but his true purpose, vengeance, had kept him going.
He glanced back at Victoria, then turned his attention to the vials in front of him, selected the first two of many to be combined in precise quantities. Over the next twenty minutes, he ignored the sounds behind him of Victoria struggling against the chains. He supposed she might've understood that once he completed the potion, her time as herself would be at an end. As he took another vial from the rack in front of him and gently uncapped it, the irony of it all struck him. Such a refined, delicate, and careful alchemy to create a dangerous and chaotic instrument of violence.
He smiled as he poured just what was needed from the vial into the goblet holding the previous mixture of ingredients.
Putting the vial back in its holder, he took a long, thin, silver rod and slowly stirred the now bubbling liquid in the silver goblet. "Two more." Then it will be ready for her to drink at the end of the final ritual.
The wind outside howled. He looked past the side of the table out one of the tower's glassless windows. The sky had grown darker. He felt a cold air pouring into the room. The storm is nearly here, he tho
ught. "Good." He chuckled quietly. "Guardian of Carnera, it is almost time."
Chapter 19
Allison watched Ms. Thompson hold the door to the private faculty office open for Monica, Sydney, and her to go inside. The professor stood half blocking their path so each of the three, against their will, had to not only enter her office, but also brush against her breasts as they walked by her. Allison could tell Ms. Thompson enjoyed each caress, but Allison had no control over any part of herself except her thoughts. Her body responded not to her own will, but seemingly to that of the professor. She wanted to turn and run upon seeing how the professor was looking at her as their chests rubbed over each other, but her muscles ignored her will. The professor's eyes lit up and the tip of her tongue licked the span of her upper lip as Allison was in front of her. Allison surmised the professor was considering putting her control of the three young women to use for her own pleasure. She fought to regain control over her body, but couldn't.
A moment later, Ms. Thompson sighed, dropping the lustful gaze at Allison. She appeared more preoccupied with different thoughts now.
Evidently, she has something else planned for us.
Soon, Allison was standing between Sydney and Monica at the back of the office and facing the door. She heard chatter behind the professor from students and faculty in the hall about some great commotion in the foodcourt of the adjacent building, which she knew, of course, to be the very incident that had trapped her and her two companions. The fact that no one in the hall paid any attention to Ms. Thompson or the three of them made her realize no one was coming to their rescue.
And I put the necklaces on them to trap them, same as me.
She knew those actions were beyond her control, but she felty guilty for doing it nonetheless.
I should've been stronger to resist.
Ms. Thompson stepped into her office and shut the door. "Now, my three buxom beauties, it's time to have some fun."
She walked around to the other side of her desk and opened a drawer, pulling a three-ring binder from it and placing it on her desk. Allison tried to see what was written on the front of it, but without being able to move her head, she couldn't make it out.
She felt disgusted at what might happen next, but more than that, she felt terrified. She knew from what Monica and Sydney had told her that Ms. Thompson, whether she'd always been so or not, had proven in Galderia to be an evil, twisted, sorceress bitch. Allison had suffered under pain-in-the-ass professors before, but none of them came close to this. She needed to scream, but the cry remained only in her mind. She struggled to turn her head to see her sisters in mind control, but it proved impossible despite all her effort. Evidently Ms. Thompson wasn't allowing it, she thought.
Focusing, she managed to shift her eyes just enough to see Sydney's face. Sydney's eyes revealed apparently she shared the sense of terror at the situation, which didn't surprise Allison, but further drained her hope.
Hearing Ms. Thompson flipping through the pages in the binder, Allison shifted her gaze back toward the desk. Too much in her peripheral vision to see clearly, she couldn't read the text on the pages, but watched the professor run her finger down the text slowly, evidently moving it down as she read the lines.
"Yes!" Ms. Thompson exclaimed, lightly slapping the page. "That is it, then."
Allison wanted to ask what she meant, but not as much as she wanted to run from the room. She could do neither.
Ms. Thompson walked to the front of her desk and stepped directly in front of Allison. "I'm afraid you're going to miss the rest of your classes today...and forever." She chuckled. "But don't worry. What you're doing is much more important, much more exciting."
A strong urge to recoil from the professor churned in Allison's gut as Ms. Thompson raised her hand and touched Allison's left cheek.
"You poor thing," Ms. Thompson said. "You're going to be very worn out when this ritual is over. It's necessary. You, like I, have just enough still in you. We can thank him for that." She glanced toward the open binder on her desk, then looked at Allison again. "But don't worry. I'll look after you."
Ritual? Allison felt more scared than ever. Him? Den? What does she mean?
Ms. Thompson smiled and Allison wanted to slap it from her face. "After all," the professor continued, "the three of you might prove to be further use to me back in Galderia."
Upon hearing those final words, a cloud of confusion rushed into Allison's mind. She'd already been deathly scared of what the professor might do to her, Sydney, and Monica, but she'd never guessed it involved somehow going back to Galderia. She never thought such a thing was even possible, though she had wondered what she might choose to do if the chance ever came to her. The strangeness, the adventure, and...Den had played through her thoughts a few times since returning to Earth.
But not this way. What's she going to do to us? What's she going back for?
Chapter 20
Nithia didn't speak to me almost the entire way to Tiern. In fact, she road her horse well behind mine and slowed it every time I eased mine back to get close to her. I didn't blame her for being upset, but I hoped she'd open up to me sooner rather than later. I knew all four of us were likely riding into trouble. I needed her to feel she could rely on me in the thick of things, and I worried if she wouldn't listen when I made a decision to try to protect her, if it came to that.
When we came to the bay that the Fektal elder had described to me, it was nearly dark. I wasn't sure whether the place he'd told me to cross was farther inland or closer to the sea. Finally, figuring the sea at least gave us a defined limit on how far we'd ride, we decided to go that route. The decision turned out to be a good one. We spotted the section of the bay he'd told me about, which was more shallow and broken up by patches of dry land, providing a means to cross to the other side on horseback.
Night was almost upon us as we rode into Tiern, which was situated not far from the crossing. I was nervous for all of us, knowing the more people we were around the greater chance we'd have a run-in with some of Kurg's loyalists. I decided we'd scout the town as quickly as possible, then bed down for the night to lay low, and head out in the morning. I hoped we'd make short work of finding my lost fellow Earther, if she was in Tiern. But what I thought would only be a town, turned out to be much larger, properly called a city, I suspected, at least in Galderia. It was about as large as Yedia, and just as bustling with activity. I later learn from someone in town that Tiern was the second largest of the three main port cities on the eastern coast, Rastersia being the largest, Mur only half the size of Tiern.
The buildings in Tiern were similar to those I'd seen in Yedia, though more of wood, less stone. After finding a place to take care of our horses, we walked a good deal of the city's streets, asking the locals what they knew about a strange outsider woman in town. I relied on the fact that, whoever she was, she'd stand out in a crowd, thanks to the same fish-out-of-water syndrome I suffered from until I adjusted...mostly. We were careful to avoid anyone who looked like they might be involved in the city's underbelly, which surely meant they'd be connected to Kurg in some way. But because of our cautious approach, we spent nearly an hour before finding someone who confirmed the rumor of a woman in Tiern who didn't seem like any other they'd seen in Galderia.
But we were too late, the woman told us. A band of Kurg's men had come to town two days earlier and rounded up several people. "She was among them, from what I heard," the woman said. "But it's not just here. I hear they bring them from across the sea into Rastersia too."
I wished we'd made it there sooner, and I tried not to think of what my fellow Austinite might be going through in Kurg's stronghold.
We considered leaving immediately for Rastersia in an effort to avoid arriving too late for any others from Earth who might be there. But the skies were cloudy, and without the light of the stars nor much from the moon, which was only a sliver, we feared we might get lost on our way to Rastersia. We decided to get a room for the night a
nd head out first thing in the morning.
We ended up getting two rooms. Nithia still didn't want to talk to me, so she and Alara stayed in one together. Tara, saying she didn't want me to be alone, said she'd stay with me in the other. I didn't like the idea of Nithia and Alara being out of my site while we were in Tiern, well within the reach of the Dark Lord's influence, but their room was next to Tara and mine's, and Nithia insisted on the arrangement, so I acquiesced.
~
We'd eaten with Alara and Nithia in their room, choosing to do so rather than spend any more time in the dining hall of the inn than necessary, to be safe. Dinner, dealing with with Nithia's cold shoulder to me, was awkward, but we all had our fill and were thankful for that. I made a couple of failed attempts at smoothing things over with Nithia, but she wasn't having it. I accepted that she'd need the rest of the night to cool down, so Tara and I went to our room for the night.
As I used the wash basin in the corner of the room, Tara, who had already made use of it, sat at the head of the bed with her knees bent, her arms hugging them. I had looked over my shoulder at her and could see that she meant to stay up a while longer. Maybe to talk, I thought.
Maybe more.
I remembered what Nithia had told me about Tara feeling guilt for leaving me behind as she, Alara, and Nithia fled the Dark Riders and went for the cover of the forest beyond the hills. I glanced back at her again, trying to tell if that might be what was on her mind. She looked deep in thought.
Could be that. Who knows? Could be the fact that were in a strange town and on our way to confront the Dark Lord.
That's enough to rattle anyone, I thought.
I finished washing up and didn't bother to put my clothes back on. Tara hadn't either, a fact I paused to appreciate after I'd turned to face her. Her pale freckled skin and flaming red hair did something for me that Nithia and Alara didn't. I didn't have a hierarchy of preference with the three of them, but Tara gave me something special. I couldn't exactly put words to it.
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