Evil Within

by Richard S. Tuttle

  "Good luck to you," General Ortega shook his head. "I will not be the next one destroyed. Prince Zinan knows everything that goes on in this palace. The day after you complain about him to the king, you better make sure that you are far away from Tarent."

  "He wouldn't?" scowled General Wikner.

  "You haven't seen her spouting off lately have you?" General Ortega nodded in the direction of Naveena who was approaching along the corridor. "She was the king's advisor until Prince Zinan wanted the spot. He gets whatever he wants. I would forget the whole thing if I were you. I know that I have already forgotten it."

  General Ortega pushed past General Wikner and entered his office, and promptly closed the door. General Wikner stood in the corridor speechless as Naveena passed by.

  The advisor to the king's advisor barely glanced at the general as she passed by him. She strode purposefully around the corner of the corridor and up the stairs to the office of the king's advisor. She entered the room and shut the door behind her.

  "Have you gone mad?" she snarled at Prince Zinan.

  "Do not yell at me," the prince snapped. "I have a headache."

  "I am sure you do," Naveena replied softly as she walked around the desk and placed her hands on the prince's head and massaged it. "Zinan, you can't go around making such displays of your power, and I can't always be there to cover up for you."

  "Cover up?" balked the prince. "Why should I have to cover up? Is the opinion of some stableman so important now? Perhaps I should have killed him instead of that foul beast."

  "Do you think that the stableman is the only one who noticed?" Naveena asked. "You did it in the courtyard. There were probably dozens of people who witnessed your rage. King Garrick will know by the evening meal."

  "Let him know," spat Prince Zinan. "I have had an awful day, and I don't care who knows about it."

  "You need to care," retorted Naveena. "The king can order you hung, and there are scores of men who would step forward to do the job. You may think that you rule Borunda, but that is not yet the case. Thousands of men owe their allegiance to King Garrick, and they will do whatever he says."

  "Maybe that needs to change," snarled Prince Zinan. "You always said that I needed him to build the armies. Well, the armies are built now. Why do we need my cousin around any more?"

  "Building the armies is only the first step," replied Naveena. "You said yourself that your spies are reporting a buildup in both Arin and Salacia. We are not ready to conquer them. The other countries must be brought over to our side first. Garrick can be more successful at doing that than you can."

  "We do not need allies," balked Prince Zinan. "Our armies are already large enough to crush both Arin and Salacia."

  "I do believe you are right," nodded Naveena, "but think past those battles and victories. If we lose most of our army defeating Arin and Salacia, who will be left to defend our lands? We will have destroyed the Great Peace, giving freedom to Odessia, Caroom, and Vineland to attack us. We would also have three times the territory to defend. It can't work that way. The other countries would see our weakness and seize the opportunity. You remember the lessons of history. Open your eyes and see the truth."

  "All right," Prince Zinan sighed as he waved Naveena away from him. "The headache is gone now. I will give Garrick more time to set things up, but if he even thinks about harming me, I will act whether our plan is ready or not."

  "Understandable," nodded Naveena as she frowned at the searing pain inside her head. "While we are talking about your cousin, I think he is getting too close to Princess Belinda."

  "The Vinelanders are still here?" asked the dark prince.

  "For another day at least," replied Naveena. "Garrick plans to take King Gregory hunting tomorrow."

  "Well," smiled Prince Zinan, "isn't that opportune?"

  "No," Naveena almost shouted. "You will not kill her. You cannot just kill everyone who displeases you. Just find a way to keep Garrick occupied until they leave."

  * * *

  Audric placed the small pebble on top of one of the large sea rocks that framed the horseshoe bay. The pebble was as smooth and round as a large pearl. The top of the giant sea rock was square, but its surface curved downward, slightly at first, but increasingly vertical towards the edges.

  "This pebble is like the Talent," the old man instructed his students. "It exists in harmony with all things around it. It seeks neither to rise nor fall; it merely remains. When the Talent is used, there is a reaction to its essence. A beneficial use of the Talent seeks to raise the pebble higher, while an evil use will draw it downward."

  "You want me to try to raise the pebble?" asked Jared.

  "I want you to stop it from falling," smiled Audric.

  "But it is not in danger of falling," frowned Jared.

  "The pebble is always in danger of falling," declared Audric. "Act now or it will disappear between the sea rocks."

  Jared concentrated his will on the small pebble, but nothing happened. Audric winked at Prince Antion and stepped around to the other side of the rock. He also focused his will on the pebble, and it began to slowly roll down the face of the large sea rock. Jared's brow creased in concentration as he tried to force the pebble to return to its starting position, but he was unable to.

  For many long minutes the duel continued. Jared's body began to quake, and sweat formed on his brow, while Audric remained quite at ease. Eventually, Audric reached out and snared the pebble with his hand.

  "You were working against me," frowned Jared. "I do not understand why."

  "I had evil intent," shrugged the old man, "theoretically speaking. With a bare minimum of force, I was able to halt your drive to place the pebble back where you thought it belonged. Such is how the Talent works."

  Audric placed the pebble back at its starting position and then handed a cloth to Jared to wipe the sweat from his face.

  "There sits the Talent," lectured Audric. "It sits in equilibrium right now, but just the tiniest shove will start it on a downward slope to oblivion. You could do a thousand good deeds with the Talent, and it would never rise higher than it is right now, but one single use with evil intent, and it would start to roll downward. Each successive ill use of the Talent would result in an even steeper decline until eventually, it is beyond all hope of ever returning to equilibrium."

  "But I was able to halt its slide," Jared pointed out.

  "Indeed," agreed Audric, "as long as you kept constant concentration on it. What would have happened if you stopped for a moment?"

  "The pebble would have been lost in the sea," answered Jared.

  "Correct," nodded the old man. "Did you also notice that the lower the pebble was, the greater the effort required by you to halt its slide?"

  "Very much so," replied Jared.

  "Thus it is with the Talent," declared Audric. "The men and women who wield the Talent are not prefect specimens of humanity. They make mistakes as all people do. A single infraction might be repairable, perhaps even two or three, but the more uses with evil intent, the greater the effort required to return to equilibrium, until there is no chance of return."

  "And you cannot count all the good deeds before the original evil one," remarked Prince Antion, "because there is nothing higher than equilibrium."

  "Quite correct," smiled Audric. "You cannot store up good deeds as it were. Therefore, one must always be on guard to never use the Talent with ill intent."

  "Is it truly the intent that makes a difference?" questioned the Arin prince. "I mean, isn't a foul deed a foul deed no matter what one's intent is?"

  "An act in itself is seldom good or bad," explained Audric. "Take for example the ability to change one's appearance. If I were to change my appearance to get by guards to steal the king's jewels, would that be evil?"

  "It would," nodded Prince Antion.

  "Suppose I changed my appearance to protect my own jewels from a thief?" asked Audric. "Would that also be evil?"

  "It would," answer
ed Jared. "It doesn't matter about the secondary reason for the deception. What matters is that you sought to deceive."

  "Not true," Audric shook his head. "In the second case you meant no harm to anyone. In fact, your altered appearance would cause no distress to anyone at all. You merely sought to protect yourself, and there is nothing evil about that."

  "Can the same be said for killing someone?" frowned Prince Antion. "Can you kill to save the life of another?"

  "Murder by its nature is a foul deed," answered Audric, "but the answer to your question is yes. One must be particularly careful in such areas though, because you are indeed causing harm to another. One should seek every other possibility before resorting to killing, but if it is the only way to save an innocent life, then there really is no evil intent."

  "That doesn't seem right," frowned Jared. "How can killing ever be without evil intent? You are wishing a person dead."

  "Are you?" posed Audric. "Wouldn't you have wished the murderer not to attack? Wouldn't you only wound the assailant and not kill him if that was all that was needed to save the life of the innocent? I said one had to be careful here. It must be the only path available to you, before it can be done without retribution. I would strongly suggest avoiding such a circumstance."

  "I have to dwell on that," Jared shook his head.

  "It is an important question to dwell upon," Prince Antion stated. "There may come a day when taking someone's life might be the difference between the world as we know it, and a world of evil and oppression."

  Audric stared at the Arin prince as if he were looking deep within his mind. Prince Antion turned his head from Jared and locked eyes with the master.

  "I have felt that feeling before," Prince Antion said sternly. "Doesn't that start your pebble rolling?"

  "No," Audric blinked. "I apologize if I have offended you, but I assure you that there was no evil intent on my part. You are a creature such as I have never seen before, Prince Antion. We have learned that you are like a well of the Talent, which is to be used by others, but I have this feeling that you are much, much more. Why do you think Jared will be called upon to kill someone?"

  "I don't know that he will be," replied the Arin prince, "but I am sure that he must resolve that question before we leave here. We have enemies, Audric, enemies that seek our lives."

  "Who are these enemies," asked Audric, "and why do they want you dead?"

  "I would prefer not to answer the who," replied Prince Antion, "but they want me dead because they sensed the Talent inside me, and they fear it."

  "If it were ever to be used against them," remarked the old man, "there is good reason for them to fear it. You are a walking wealth of the Talent. You must guard that no one ever uses you for evil."

  "I will try to guard against that," promised Prince Antion.

  "I mean it," pressed Audric. "One thing we have not covered yet, and that is the comparative strengths of the Talent. Just as the pebble gains momentum on its downward slope, the use of the Talent with an evil intent is much more powerful than a like Talent of good intent."

  "Are you saying that two people, evenly matched in ability with the Talent, would be unequal opponents if one was evil?" questioned the prince.

  "That is precisely what I am saying," nodded Audric. "The Talent warps as it takes hold of its wielder. It becomes stronger as it becomes more evil."

  "Then one who is close to oblivion would be the most powerful of all?" asked Prince Antion.

  "Sad, isn't it?" nodded Audric. "If only it were the other way around. My teachers spoke of it as the nature of the Talent, but I see it as a flaw in a grand design. For a force that seeks equilibrium, how can it mutate in such a way as to force such inequality?"

  "It is odd," nodded Prince Antion. "You would think such a power would find a way to adjust for such a flaw."

  "It has," Jared said softly.

  Audric and Prince Antion turned to stare at Jared.

  "That is why you are what you are," Jared declared. "You are the adjustment, Prince Antion."

  "Of course," exclaimed Audric. "You are right, Jared. I should have realized that sooner. Now we must figure out why an adjustment is needed at this particular time. There is no great evil in the world that I know of, so why are you here Prince Antion? Why have you been filled with the Talent?"

  "I don't know," answered the prince. "The only evil that I know of could easily be killed by an arrow or a sword. It would not take some mysterious force to fill me to accomplish that task. It would only take the appropriate opportunity."

  "Tell me of the evil you know," urged the old man.

  "I am only speaking of the coming war," replied the Arin prince. "King Garrick of Borunda is raising armies and will soon start attacking his neighbors. It will not take the Talent to stop him."

  "Borunda," mused the old man. "The Talent runs in the royal family there. I once tutored a princess from Borunda. She was extremely talented."

  "That was my mother," Jared said sadly. "I never knew her."

  "Princess Orenda was your mother?" asked Audric. "That explains a great deal."

  "What do you mean?" asked Prince Antion.

  "Jared's capabilities are strong," answered Audric. "Most with the ability are only fair, but once in a while a strain of exceptional Talent seeps into mankind. Princess Orenda was such a creature. How is it that you have never known her, Jared?"

  "She died the night I was born," replied Jared. "My father raised me."

  Audric nodded solemnly as his brow crinkled in thought.

  "Zalman," the old man said. "Is that your father's name?"

  "It is," nodded Jared.

  "A good man," smiled Audric. "We used to spend some hours together while your mother was meditating. I am sorry for your loss, Jared. Orenda was a very fine woman."

  "You do not seem to keep up with the affairs of the world," commented Prince Antion. "The princess died over fifteen years ago."

  "I do not care what happens beyond my little realm," shrugged Audric. "In my youth I was the light of numerous courts, but I found their constant bickering and devious political games tiring. Life is not about who is on top at the moment. Life is understanding the mysteries around us, or at least trying to unravel them."

  "Fair enough," Prince Antion nodded with understanding.

  "Is this King Garrick filled with the Talent as well?" Audric asked.

  "He is not," Prince Antion shook his head, "at least not that I am aware of, but the king's advisor is."

  "A king's advisor with the Talent?" Audric cocked an eyebrow. "That would have been quite unusual in my younger days. Most kings had a healthy fear of giving power to anyone who wielded the Talent. It was too dangerous."

  "Too dangerous?" echoed the prince.

  "Because of the nature of the Talent," explained Audric, "one who wields it should always remain aloof from the trappings of power. Remember that the Talent has a natural draw to the evil side. That is counteracted in most cases by the overriding desire to serve others in a helpful way, such as the wispers do, but dangle power in front of such a person, and the draw becomes magnified. Let us hope that this king's advisor is weak in the Talent."

  "I doubt that," frowned Prince Antion.

  "Coming from someone who did not know a few months ago that the Talent manifested itself in varying degrees of ability," shrugged Audric, "your doubts mean little to this conversation. You just were not in a position to judge such a thing for yourself."

  "I will not argue that point," retorted Prince Antion, "but you just said that you were not surprised that Jared was Princess Orenda's son because he is so powerful. You indicated that such great power ran in the family."

  "Of course," nodded Audric, "but I was taking about Jared, not some king's advisor to King Garrick."

  "Prince Zinan is Jared's brother," declared Prince Antion, "his twin brother."

  The old man's jaw fell open, and his red eyes widened as he stared at Jared. He closed his eyes momentarily
and then looked back at Prince Antion.

  "Do you know if this Prince Zinan is using the Talent with evil intent?" asked Audric.

  "I cannot say," Prince Antion replied. "I do believe him to be an evil person, but my knowledge of his use of the Talent is limited. I know that he tried to probe my mind as you did a short while ago, but you claimed no evil intent in doing so."

  "And I meant it," replied the old man. "How do you know that he is evil?"

  "He killed men in an attempt to learn my identity," answered the Arin prince. "I also know that he has traveled around the world setting up spies in each major city, but the major reason I know that he is evil is because he is willfully carrying out King Garrick's plans for war, and needlessly causing the deaths of thousands cannot be anything but evil."

  "I think I know why you are filled with the Talent, young man," Audric stated, "and why you have formed a bond with Jared."

  "Because of the dark prince?" asked Prince Antion.

  "An apt name for him," nodded Audric. "You would be wisely counseled to consider Prince Zinan as your main opponent, not King Garrick. Someone of Jared's capabilities with an evil bent is most assuredly pulling the king's strings. Prince Zinan is not doing King Garrick's dirty work. It is the other way around."

  "How can you be so sure?" asked the Arin prince.

  "His capabilities alone would overwhelm whatever defenses King Garrick might have," replied Audric. "The only chance there is of my being wrong about this is if Prince Zinan has never been tutored as Jared has not been."

  "The dark prince was raised by a wisper," Prince Antion shook his head. "In fact, Naveena was the regent for King Garrick for a short period."

  Audric sighed heavily and leaned on the large sea rock as he stared out at the bay. As he digested the words of Prince Antion, his arm nudged the pebble. It rolled along the face of the rock and dropped into the sea. The old man turned at the sound of it rolling away from him and shook his head.

  "Times are grave indeed," Audric stated as he turned away from the rock. "Jared must confront his brother, and you must stand by his side when he does. I can only hope that he is strong enough to overcome the advantage of Zinan's evil."