"Do you think she had something to do with it?" Alara said. "With the flood?"
"I don't know."
"Don't you remember me, Guardian!" The woman stepped closer to the inn and light coming through the clouds revealed her face.
"Oh, no." Alara said, recognizing her too.
"It's Victoria."
As Alara and I looked at Victoria, a mist began to appear in the street around her. The mist grew and thickened, spreading out across the street and around the buildings.
Victoria laughed like the insane witch she'd become, and she continued to do so as the gray mist fully enveloped her, hiding her completely.
"Guardian, come play with me if you want to spare the rest of the people of Rastersia." She cackled and the mist continued to build, blanketed even the buildings around her until they too could no longer be seen. "I won't wait long. Do you want me to bring the water back? I can give you more this time."
I looked at Alara. "I have to go down there."
"No!" She grabbed my arm. "Are you crazy? You saw what she's capable of doing."
"Exactly," I said. "If I refuse to come out, she'll do again. Maybe worse."
Alara looked back to Tara who was standing behind her listening. "She could shoot her with her bow from here."
I shook my head at Alara's desperate suggestion. "You know she can't." I looked out the window. "Where would she shoot? It's impossible to see her."
Alara huffed. She obviously knew I was right. "If only I had my real staff."
That would be great, I thought. "You can't summon enough magic without it? I thought you had a little access to it even on your own." I didn't want to make her feel bad, but she had shown some magical ability without her staff before. I thought it was at least worth bringing up.
She shook her head. "No. The longer I'm without the Staff of Carnera the harder it is for me to tap into magic. I'm afraid I can do little more than light a candle now."
I stood up. "I'm going." I touched the pommel on the sword the Fektal elder had given me. "I'll be careful. She has to be stopped."
"You're not going to be abe to talk her down, you know," Alara said. "She's crazy, maybe possessed. I don't know what's happened to her, but she's not Victoria any more."
I nodded. "I'll be careful." I glanced around the room at all the people who had fled upstairs with us, then to Tara and Nithia, before looking at Alara again. "Like she said, I'm the Guardian. If I can't guard all of you when it counts, then what good am I?"
Before Alara had another chance to talk me out of going down to face Victoria, I stepped away from her. Nithia threw her arms around me as I walked past her, but I gently broke free from her, trying not to look into her eyes. I knew how much harder it would be for me to follow through with my decision if I did.
"Be careful, Den," Tara said as I reached the top of the stairs.
I glanced back at her. She was wearing a brave face, but I saw the tears coming from her eyes.
I didn't look back again.
A moment later I was in the room on the first floor of the in. Knowing any hesitation might lead to me changing my mind, I walked through the hole where the front door had been. After a few steps outside, I was in the mist, blind to everything else.
I drew my sword as quietly as possible, hoping that Victoria could see through the thick gray fog no better than I could. I walked slowly forward, keeping my blade in front of me, ready to strike at the first indication that we'd found each other.
I reminded myself that she didn't appear to have any weapons. Maybe I stand a chance, I thought.
Get to her before she conjures up another catastrophe.
Of course, I realized, I had no way of knowing the extent of her powers. If she could flood a city, hitting me directly with some sort of magic was completely in the realm of possibilities.
I wander around blind in the mist for almost a minute, then, directly in front of me, the gray fog parted, rolling back back until there was a large clear opening. Victoria stood at the other side of it, facing me. She was naked. Crazy, evil, and...hot.
"I'm glad you came," she said, gesturing to her exposed body. "I've been waiting for you, Den."
I used to be hard up, lady, but no thanks.
"What's the matter," she said. "Don't you want me?"
I answered her question by raising my sword, stepping closer. I hated the idea of using it on her, but knowing that she'd killed a huge number of people in Rastersia, I knew I had to do it, if that was my only option. But as I stepped closer to her, my plan was to knock her out. Shouldn't be too hard, I thought, as long she doesn't magic my ass before I get the chance.
I'd almost reached her. I considered charging her, but going slow seemed to be keeping her off her guard, so I stay that course.
A few more steps, then hit her with the blunt end of the sword.
She smiled, then lifted her hand in front of her lips and blew me a kiss.
She-devil is not my type. At least not a real one.
It was too late by the time I realized her kiss was more than a tease. She'd blown some mist toward me, into my face despite the distance between us. It had a strange smell.
Sweet?
I felt the sword slip from my hand, then my legs went numb. Unfortunately, when my back and head hit the street, they weren't as numb.
I knew had to get up fast, but I couldn't. My eyes remained opened and I could see, but I could do little else.
Victoria came to me, moving until she stood above me, her legs straddled to either side of my chest. The view was both glorious and horrifying.
She bent her knees, ripped from me the shirt I'd worn since we left the Fektals camp, and sat herself down on my stomach, which I immediately discovered had not been numbed like my arms and legs. In fact, all of my torso from my chest to my manhood had sensation. I felt moisture from dripping onto me from between her legs. From the position she took, I realized she wanted me awake enough, though I didn't know why, given her preoccupation with evil sorceress shit. I knew it had to be more than her witchy desire for some barbarian love muscle.
She stretched out one arm and some of the mist, which had moved in closer to us again, coalesced around her hand. A few seconds later, the gray fog had solidified into the form of a dagger.
Shit! No!
I tried to lift my arms to throw her off of me, but I couldn't.
She brought the dagger in front of her and took took hold of it with both hands, smiling down at me. I felt her pelvis rocking against my pelvis, her ass cheeks sliding over the unintended bulge in my loincloth.
Holding the magical dagger over my chest, she said, "Your power is wasted on those other women. I'm going to claim it for myself. Then, I'll use it to kill them."
She raised the dagger, leaning back slightly, perhaps to get more room to speed the blade into me, but she'd made a mistake.
When she mentioned my women, my heart began to beat stronger. My desire to save them pumped through my veins, bringing life back into my arms. I found the grip of my sword, which had fallen beside me.
"Sorry, bitch. I'm not that easy." As she leaned down to put the weight of her body into her thrust. I swung my sword across my own body, taking the dagger and both her hands from her arms, and her head from her neck.
I turned my face to avoid as much of the blood as I could, and thankfully the force of my swing tossed her lifeless body off of mine. With her death, her spell over me was broken. Strength returned to my legs and the rest of me. I sat up and saw the gray mist disappear almost instantly.
I glanced at her body, but quickly turned away. I knew I had to do what I did, but knowing she'd once been a relatively innocent college student on Earth made me sick to my stomach at how things played out.
I thought of the other woman out there who she was once like, lost in a strange and dangerous world, helpless against the great dark forces therein.
I must continue. Kurg and those who do his bidding must be stopped.
&nbs
p; "Let her be the last one lost to this world."
Chapter 22
Ms. Thompson had been to the town of Mur once before, on a sightseeing tour with her mentor Kelu, the old sorcerer who'd introduced her to the world of magic. But she wasn't back in Mur now to think about old times with the old man. He'd rejected her, abandoning her when the attack on Yedia had failed. There was a brief time when she thought she'd return to him if she ever got back to Galderia, but that time had passed. She realized she didn't need a man who didn't need her, something she learned early on in life but had temporarily forgotten when the allure of the power Kelu promised her clouded her judgement.
Compared to the two larger port cities to the north, Mur was a sleepy waterside town. Even before the Dark Lord's reign, trade between Mur and Woltdel, the closest city across the Sea of Ronak, had been sparse. The people of Mur preferred to keep to their own, and people of that mind raised children who had fewer dreams of traveling to distant lands. Most grew up to become contented farmers or keepers of livestock, and that was the way they liked living.
Ms. Thompson, knowing this, chose Mur for her return to Galderia. Once she had recalled the remembrance spell, and used it to recall all the other magic she'd studied in the library in Kelu's tower, she decided her return to Galderia must be kept secret from her former lover. Is there a better way to have revenge than to bring it by surprise, she had thought.
But revenge on the old sorcerer who had jilted her at Yedia's city wall was only part of what she had planned. Her true purpose was power, more of it than even Kelu could give to her. She knew such power resided with only one person in Galderia, the Dark Lord. Thankfully, the same women from whom she drained misplaced magical power to use in the ritual spell to get herself back to Galderia would be the women she'd use as bargaining chips with the Dark Lord. Through conversations with Kelu during her time with him in his tower, she learned of the Dark Lord's desire for women to be brought to him in his stronghold. Ms. Thompson had no idea why the Dark Lord favored the women who had come from beyond Galderia, but she knew it to be the case. I taste for the exotic, she supposed, having seen the same predilection in other men.
She looked down at Allison, Monica, and Sydney, all of whom had passed out in the course of the ritual that brought the four of them through the portal between the worlds, and into the place she chosen in Mur. She had been to the abandoned farmhouse on the edge of town once before. Kelu had wanted to pass it by on their way to somewhere else in town he wanted to show her, but she had admired the look of the place and convinced him that the two should stop for briefly to take a look at it.
Ms. Thompson chuckled as she remembered her own foolishness at the time in thinking she might convince Kelu to move into the farmhouse with her.
Why did I let myself fall for a man again?
But now the farmhouse was once again a perfect choice, she thought. "He hated this place." She knew he'd never return there, and thus he'd never know of her return until she was ready for him to know...until it was too late.
Casting her thoughts of Kelu aside, she set her attention to arranging Allison, Monica, and Sydney together, making them more presentable for the Dark Lord. When she had the three women lined up nicely, she took the liberty of pulling each of their tops down a little to reveal more of their breasts, not completely, but enough to make the fullness of their healthy youthful bodies obvious. First impressions are important, after all, she thought.
Satisfied the three were going to be a convincing offering for the Dark Lord, she began the incantation she'd memorized which allowed her to open a visual and auditory channel with someone far away. She was placing her magical call, of course, to the Dark Lord.
She'd never seen or spoken to Kurg. When the communication portal opened between the two, Ms. Thompson felt a chill in her spine. Kurg was too large to merely be a man. He sat on a throne, which, along with himself, were heavily submerged in shadow. He didn't speak, but one of the two men in green hooded robes stepped forward from his place beside Kurg's throne.
Ms. Thompson watched the man raise a hand and point a clawed finger at her through the portal. She waited for him to speak first, afraid of a misstep in the eyes of the Dark Lord. A moment later, she heard the man's words, though she couldn't see his mouth moving. He was in her thoughts, and his ability to do that made her uncomfortable. She worried he could read hers, even when she didn't want him to do so.
She heard his whisper in her head. "You have an offering for the Dark Lord?"
She nodded, then said, "I do. Three women." She stepped to the side slightly, extending her arm toward Allison, Monica, and Sydney to formally present them for the Dark Lord. "They are in their prime. And they are other-worlders."
She saw the Dark Lord shift a little in his throne at hearing they weren't from Galderia.
The man robed man who had addressed her glanced back at the Dark Lord. A moment later, the servant looked at Ms. Thompson again and she heard his words once more. "You want power in exchange."
Ms. Thompson knew the man had read her thoughts, or at least her desires, but she did her best to ignore how dangerous that could be. Instead, she decided to be as direct as possible, hoping the Dark Lord appreciated her willingness to do what was necessary in pursuit of power. She knew he of all people had to understand that. "Yes. That is the bargain I seek."
The Dark Lord stood, stepping forward from his thrown as his servant lowered his head and moved back beside it.
Ms. Thompson felt the chill she'd experience before return to her spine, but it felt much stronger.
In a deep graveled voice, which sounded like the same voice speaking over itself many times, she heard the Dark Lord in her mind. "Bring them to me before the moon is whole again, and you shall have what you desire."
The magical portal closed, and Ms. Thompson then realized how fast her heart was beating, and that she was breathing audibly. She stood, staring into the air where the portal had been for nearly a minute.
"I will have the power I seek."
Chapter 23
Sleeping that night in Rastersia was more than hard. Nithia and Tara woke up several times with nightmares. Alara and I stayed awake most of the night, because going to sleep just wouldn't happen for either of us. I felt guilty when the four of us left in the morning, but there was nothing that could be done to bring the people who died in the flood back to life. Confirming our horses had died in the flood, which hit Tara especially hard, along with all the horses in the city, meant we needed to get on our way to Craa as early as possible. With luck, we'd be able to buy new horses there so we could make it to Kurg's mountain stronghold before he could perform the ritual.
I had to check with Alara about the lunar cycles on Galderia, since they weren't necessarily the same as on Earth. She told me we had four days before the Galderian moon would be full. Locals in Rastersia told us Craa was a two-day walk, and the mountains were two days beyond that on horseback—four or five at least on foot.
As we left town, Alara and I walked on either side of Nithia and Tara, to keep them from seeing as many of the bodies which were still there from the flood. We had plenty of food, thanks to those who knew we had a long road ahead, but none of us felt like eating anything until we were hours away from Rastersia.
Following the river from Rastersia to Craa wound up being easy, in terms of staying on course, but the sound of the water was unsettling to all of us.
Thankfully, fate must've thought we'd been through enough. After an exhausting day of walking, a restless night huddled around a small campfire that we shielded from any outsider's view, and a second long day on foot, we made it to Craa otherwise unmolested. In Craa we found rest and horses for the next day's journey. None of us had any interest in getting to know the town beyond those two concerns. It was all we could do to keep ourselves focused and motivated to continue the rest of the way to Kurg's mountain stronghold. I think we each knew if we allowed ourselves to settle into town more, we might give up
.
But we kept going, once again leaving before the crack of dawn. The thought of how far we'd come on this journey together helped keep us going with little else would. Our love for each other and Alara's certainty in the prophecy strengthened us in equal measure to the mounting hardship we'd shared.
Finally, we reached the mountains. We took our horses in as far as they could carry us, but eventually the path, which thankfully was well-worn, clearly marking the way, became too narrow and rocky for the horses to walk. We dismounted and sent them back toward the base of the mountains, hoping they'd find grasses to graze and water to drink until we could return or until someone else found them.
One more day of travel and we were exhilarated to discover we'd been misinformed about the time it took to get through the mountains to Kurg's stronghold. We rounded a section of jagged rock and saw our destination about a quarter of a mile ahead. It looked like the Tibetan palace the Dali Lama had lived in before the Chinese kicked him and his followers out of the place. It was built into the side of a mountain, and looked large enough to hold a hundred rooms or more.
"This is it," Alara said, as we all stood looked at the stronghold.
Perhaps it was the thinner air due to elevation getting to my head, but I immediately thought of the scene in National Lampoon's vacation when Chevy Chase's character looks out over the Grand Canyon for just a few seconds and then says something like, "Well kids, let's go. Wasn't that great?" In that moment, as I stared at where my destiny would final play out, I wanted to be Clark W. Griswold and take my family on down the road to someplace new.
But I kept all that to myself.
"Well," Tara said. "Let's go."
I laughed, but quickly stopped myself and tried in vain to explain why I had. Nithia looked confused. Tara had already stepped ahead of us and didn't look back. Alara rolled her eyes at me.
"I'm not even going to ask," she said.
Deep Into Destiny Page 18