Lightgiver

by Gama Ray Martinez

  “This wasn’t done by imps,” Osmund said.

  “No, this was a garbond. Nasty creatures but they’re not terribly intelligent.”

  “It came through here?” Jez asked. “I thought anything that powerful had to come through close to the point of disturbance.”

  “So did I,” Besis said. “The manifestations are supposed to be random, but this one definitely seemed like a directed attack.”

  “Do you think Sharim is responsible?”

  “Jez, not every bad thing that happens in the world is Sharim’s fault.”

  “I know that,” Jez said, “but what else could it be?”

  “Maybe one of Linala’s students with more ability than sense has been summoning in the spire.”

  “That’s forbidden,” Jez said.

  Besis raised an eyebrow. “You’re one to talk. Come on. Let’s go below.” He eyed Osmund. “You haven’t been there. Can I assume I don’t have to tell you not to touch anything?”

  “Yes Master,” Osmund said.

  “Both of you be careful. Don’t throw any magic unless you’re sure what you’re attacking. There are things down there that would react badly to that.”

  “It’s just going to be us?”

  “Fina and the adjutants are dealing with an incursion in the upper levels. The wards below warn me when they’re being disturbed. When I received the warnings, I withdrew from the battle. I was going to go below on my own when I felt you trying to get into the tower.”

  Besis walked across the chamber and pulled a heavy iron key out of his robes. He inserted it into the oak door and pulled it open. After murmuring a few words to deactivate the ward, he stepped onto the stone stairway and started climbing down. After going down a few steps, he turned to look at them.

  Osmund held out his hand and summoned a ball of fire to light the way. Besis raised an eyebrow at that but didn’t tell him to put it away. They went down and after a few seconds, they came to a door. Besis opened it and peered inside, but there was nothing. It went on like that for several minutes. Once, they found a living nightmare, a spirit born of fear though not an actual demon. They dispatched it without any trouble. Other than that, however, they didn’t find anything. At least they didn’t find anything until they reached the bottom of the stairs.

  The hidden door had crumpled to dust, and the light Osmund carried illuminated the empty chamber beyond. It took Jez a second for the implications to sink in. Before, the light hadn’t penetrated into the room, but now, nothing remained to absorb it.

  “It’s the memory shadows,” Jez said. “They’ve escaped.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  By the time they’d gotten back to the first floor of the spire, Fina and the rest had finished clearing the Academy of rogue spirits. The masters convened in the summoning house, and at Besis’s insistence, Jez was allowed to join them.

  “We have to find the shadows,” Linala said.

  “We will,” Besis said.

  “You don’t understand. They’re as dangerous as any demon and harder to deal with than most. We can’t allow them to remain free. How did the imps even get to the lower levels? The wards there should’ve protected it even in the face of the weakening of the barrier.”

  “We’re still trying to figure that out.”

  “It was Sharim,” Jez said. “We always suspected he might still have allies in this world.”

  “Jez,” Besis began.

  “I know you think I’m just looking for a reason to blame him, but I’m not. Think of what Enki said. Sharim is obviously powerful in the abyss. He could’ve directed demons on how to use the weakening of the barrier.”

  “Or it could be one of a dozen other possibilities,” Besis said. “Besides, why would Sharim care about freeing the shadows? It’s not like they’re going to show gratitude.”

  “Perhaps it’s to deny us their use,” Linala said.

  Besis glanced at her. “Do you really think Sharim could be responsible?”

  “No, but it’s possible. From what I’ve been told, this Sharim fooled even a Veilspeaker. He’s obviously cunning, and it wouldn’t be out of character for him to orchestrate something like this. Right now, it doesn’t matter, though. The most important thing is to trap the shadows.”

  Balud nodded. “Besis, are the wards over the city still in place?”

  The protection master nodded. “The larger ones are. The imps never even got close to them. Fortunately, they should still protect against the worst of any mystical attack.”

  She winced. “Fortunately for now. I doubt anyone will think that in another four hours or so.”

  “Why?” Jez asked. “What happens in four hours?”

  She glanced at the floor, to the shadow cast by a bird perched on the windowsill. Horgar glanced at the animal, and for a moment, his eyes glowed green, no doubt making sure it wasn’t a transformed student. Linala, however, kept her eyes focused on the shadow.

  “Sunset.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Linala crafted a wide detection working that encompassed the entire city, but the shadows fed on human experiences and emotions, and the workings had difficulty distinguishing them from the townspeople. Catching them required a binding most didn’t know, and Besis spent a half hour instructing the more advanced students in how to craft the working. They found some of the shadows, but it wasn’t nearly all of them.

  At the chancellor’s insistence, most of the people in town, as well as the students of the Academy, gathered in a large courtyard in Tarcai. As the sun set, they lit large fires around the area, and nearly everyone carried a lantern. Night came swiftly and seemed darker than usual. Students of the dominion of shadows, including Lina, crafted balls of light to keep the darkness at bay, but the lights weren’t as bright as they should be. It was as if something was draining the life out of them.

  “They’re out there,” Linala said.

  Besis nodded. The darkness seemed to writhe as Jez stared at it. A vague outline looking a little like a man appeared. Jez’s fingers danced, weaving the ward he’d learned from Besis. A glowing net shot forward, but the darkness swallowed it without any visible effect. Other figures appeared around them. Besis shook his head.

  “There are too many for that to do any good. You have to separate them.”

  “And how do we do that?”

  Besis glanced at Linala. “Bait?”

  “I’m afraid so. It’s the only way we’ll diminish them enough to survive.”

  “I’ll do it,” Rael said.

  “I will,” Besis said.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” the secrets master said as she brushed a strand of auburn hair away from her eyes. “I’ve dealt with these beings before. Their attacks are similar to mental magic, and none of you are as capable as I to defend yourselves against that.”

  “She has a point,” Linala said. “On top of that, Besis, you’re the best binder we have. It would be much better if you’re the one waiting to trap the thing that attacks her.”

  Besis clenched his jaw but nodded. Rael took a step forward, her violet robe rustling in the wind. She let the ball of light she held in her hand dissipate as she got closer to the shadows. The townspeople gaped at her, and more than one student stared on with wide-eyed shock. Jez understood, though. Just like being an adjutant was more than just having enough power, so being a master was more than being a skilled mage. The ultimate responsibility of the masters was to watch over matters beyond the purview of mortal law. They were the guardians in matters of magic, and it was for situations like this that they were chosen.

  One of the shadows rushed out from the dark mass, but before it got even close to Rael, a brilliant net shot from Besis’s hands and enveloped it. It shrank quickly until it became an obsidian bead no larger than the tip of Jez’s little finger. Two others shades attacked Rael. This time, one of them had entered her before Besis caught it. Rael barely flinched, but then half a dozen creatures swarmed her. Besis’s hands
were a blur and nets rushed outward in almost steady streams. It was a few seconds before any of his students thought to help, but by then, the shadows were swarming, seemingly being driven into a feeding frenzy by their taste of the master of shadows. Rael screamed, and Jez launched a binding of his own. He caught one of the shadows, and for a moment, they all went still. The hairs on the back of Jez’s neck stood on end.

  “By the seven,” he said under his breath. “They recognize me.”

  Like a huge mass of darkness, the shadows moved toward him like a wave. Their aversion to light apparently overcome by the feast they sensed in him. Dimly he heard Besis cry out. Nets flew toward the shadows, but once again, there were too many, and they were too close together for the wards to have any effect. More shadows than he could count entered into his mind.

  The group of pharim stood in a place known only as the Court of the Stars. There was neither floor nor walls, only the endless expanse of the night sky. All around, their kin, including Jez, looked down on them. In order to prevent humans from freeing certain demons, a hundred Shadowguards had gone into the secret places and destroyed the knowledge the humans sought. It would be possible for that knowledge to be rediscovered, but it wouldn’t be easy, and it would probably take at least a hundred years for what had been lost to be regained. It was why the pharim had done it, but in doing so, they had violated mortal choice.

  Sariel spread his six wings, shedding a terrible light. The Shadowguards in the middle shrank away, and even those watching writhed. More pain than Jez had ever felt surged through him. These pharim had existed alongside him since the creation of the universe, but they had betrayed their duty, and they no longer had a place in the Keep of the Hosts. Sariel rendered his judgment, and the offenders were torn away, cast down to the earth and cursed to wander.

  “It hurt us far worse than it hurt you.”

  The voice came from everywhere at once. Inside of himself, Jez felt the surprise of the shadows. This was no part of the memory. Suddenly, another pharim stood next to Jez, but this was no Shadowguard. Her robes shimmered golden yellow, and a sword that seemed to be made of sunlight hung from her waist. She radiated a profound sense of sadness. Though pharim couldn’t truly cry, he almost expected there to be tears running down her face.

  “You’re a Lightgiver,” Jez said.

  “Once. Like your kind, my kind were tried like this, and just as Sariel cast these down, Gayel banished the traitors to the mortal realm.”

  “You’re the one I saw at the Library of Zandra.”

  “Yes, I was in that place. Were you?”

  “Not exactly,” Jez said. “Are you really here now?”

  “Yes. Shall I deal with these invaders?”

  “Can you?”

  The Lightgiver inclined her head. Her shining wings spread out, and Jez heard screaming in his mind. The next thing Jez knew, he was on the ground in the city of Tarcai. People around him screamed, but gradually, those cries subsided. It was night, but nearby, something shone as bright as the sun. His mind felt fluid as if it had the potential to be anything. He blinked several times and could barely make out a humanoid shape that was the source of the light. The shadows writhed as their forms were reduced to obsidian marbles.

  Jez shivered as he stood up. A few people were looking around, trying to figure out what was happening, but most had their eyes locked on the Lightgiver. As the last of the shadows were trapped, her wings vanished, and her robes stopped shimmering and became the normal robes of a summoner.

  She smiled at Jez. “You called me. I take it you wished to speak to me?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Once again, they gathered in the summoning house. Jez and his friends joined the masters, though it was only at the Lightgiver’s insistence that they were allowed in. She stood up straight where the circle had originally been drawn to summon her, though the sand had been cleared away. She wouldn’t meet anyone’s gaze except for Jez.

  “I heard your summons,” she said. “I had to walk. I had no way to get here faster.”

  “Because afur can’t go Between,” Jez said.

  “Exactly so.”

  Jez inclined his head. “Thanks for your help with the shadows. I’m Jez.”

  He extended his hand, but she just stared at it. Behind him, Linala cleared her throat. The afur’s eyes flickered to her before coming back to rest on Jez.

  “They called me Mirel, once.”

  “How did you deal with the shadows?” Linala asked. “I thought only a web could bind them.”

  Mirel glared at her but didn’t answer until Jez nodded.

  “I was a Lightgiver, and though I have only a fraction of the power I once held, I can still use the light Gayel gifted us with. They cannot abide it. You will imprison them again?”

  “Yes,” Linala said. “I’m not sure we got all of them, though.”

  “Very likely you didn’t. Such creatures can often slip through cracks in wards that even their creators are unaware of.”

  Linala nodded. “I don’t think they’ll stay clustered, though we should warn the people of Tarcai and Hiranta to put up extra lights the next couple of nights. It’ll take a while for the shadows to scatter.”

  “As you will,” the afur said.

  “I’ll handle it,” Horgar said, and he headed to the door. Mirel stared after him until he was gone. Then, she turned back to Jez. “Why did you summon me?”

  Jez looked at the masters and suddenly didn’t feel so sure of himself. They were all staring at him. Jez wanted to point out that this was more Linala’s area of expertise. That was the whole reason they’d gathered in the practice house. He glanced at one of the circles carved into the ground, hoping she would catch his meaning, but the knowledge master inclined her head at him, and he took a deep breath.

  “You were at the Library of Zandra when it...” He fumbled for the right words. “When Gayel took it.”

  Mirel raised an eyebrow. “Where did you learn that? I had thought all those who did not get cast out were burned. Were you perhaps there unseen?”

  “No,” Jez said. “I mean not exactly. You weren’t the only one there. There were also demons. I got the information from one of them.”

  Mirel shook her head and glanced at some of the partial circles carved into the ground. Her eyes narrowed. “It is not wise to go to them seeking wisdom.”

  “We find wisdom where we can,” Linala said. “Sometimes demons can say what pharim cannot.”

  “What pharim cannot say, you are better not knowing.” Linala started to argue, but Mirel raised a hand, and the knowledge master went silent. “Look at what the shadows nearly did. It is only because I am no longer prevented from interfering that you and your people survived.”

  “If not for the shadows, we never would’ve found you,” Jez said.

  “And you went searching for me because a demon saw me in a lost library?”

  “Because you were there when the demons first rebelled,” Jez said, “and because as someone who used to be a pharim specializing in knowledge and summoning, you might know how they could escape the abyss.”

  Mirel made a sound almost like a hiss, and it made Jez think of Enki. “I have told you that knowledge from demons is better left undiscovered, and yet you propose to not only summon them but to unleash them on this world.”

  “No,” Jez said. “I want to stop them.”

  That brought Mirel up short. “What do you mean?”

  “There’s a particularly powerful demon there. He knows there’s a way out of the abyss, and he knows that the knowledge is in the library.”

  “Everyone believes the library was destroyed.”

  “Except for the demons who were there and saw it taken.”

  She shook her head. “A demon couldn’t get to it. Even a human couldn’t get to it.”

  “No,” Jez said, “but like Master Linala has said, there are beings other than demons out there, and we don’t know what kind of allies Sharim has
.”

  “I still don’t know what help you expect me to be.”

  “Where is the library?” Jez asked.

  “Don’t you know?”

  “I know it’s Between, but where in Between?”

  Mirel laughed. “There is no ‘where’ in Between.”

  Jez let out a breath of frustration. Behind him, the masters murmured. He looked over his shoulder at them. Besis gaped openly, but the others stared at him as well. Jez realized he was treating a being as old as the universe like he would any other person. He thought that should bother him, but after his adventures the last couple of years, he just couldn’t bring himself to revere this being. He looked back at Mirel.

  “I went Between, and I couldn’t find it.”

  “You went Between? How?”

  Jez glanced at Osmund. “I don’t actually know. It’s a little hard to explain. I can do it again, though.”

  “Jez,” Osmund said.

  Jez inclined his head to his friend but turned back to Mirel. “Can you just tell me how to get to the library once I’m Between.”

  “I have no idea.”

  “But you’re a Lightgiver.”

  “I was a Lightgiver, and when the others cast me from the Keep of the Hosts, I lost the ability to go Between. That was long before the library was placed there. I don’t know how Gayel hid it.”

  “You have to be able to tell us something,” Jez said. “Enki showed me your face.”

  “Enki?”

  Jez bit his lower lip. “A demon. A chanori.”

  “The chanori were all destroyed in the rebellion.”

  “Not all of them. This one had been held prisoner in the abyss.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You keep referring to him in the past tense.”

  “We think he’s been destroyed,” Jez said.

  “After all this time?”