by Beam, Brian
“I know.”
“Little guy, always so excited,” Briscott chuckled.
I found myself smiling. “Couldn’t ever get him to shut up.” We shared a reminiscent laugh. “I’m really going to miss him.”
“Me too, Korin. Me too.”
“Ha!” Ithan whooped suddenly, drawing mine and Briscott’s attention. He hunched over, embarrassed. “Sorry. I was able to remove the spell from this rock,” he explained, gesturing to the Soul Crystal before him. “Now, with the Source crystal, I should be able to use the Link to do the same for the rest.”
“How long?” I asked.
“It may take a while, and it won’t be easy. Once I begin, stopping is not an option without having to start over completely.”
“We’ll keep you protected if we have any unexpected guests,” I assured him. The remaining passage into the room was sealed with a sliding stone panel that only unlocked from our side by means of a lever. If anyone wanted in, we’d hear them well before they were able to break their way through.
With an affirmative nod, Ithan went back to his task.
“Well, looks like we have some time.” Briscott scratched at his beard. “What happened to you and Sal’, and who was this Lyrak? Sure as hell isn’t surprising that someone named after the blighted king who nearly ruined this kingdom would be the one responsible for this mess.”
I ran my hand through my shaggy hair with a sigh. “I’d rather wait until Ithan finishes so I can tell everyone at once.”
The memory of everything Lyrak had said and done wrapped icy tendrils around my heart. Anger started coursing through my blood, trying to dominate my emotions. Ever since Til’s death, that anger was constantly under the surface, ready to burst free, but I was slowly learning to master it. I had no choice but to do so in order to keep it from consuming me. If I couldn’t, then no one would ever truly be safe around me.
“Fair enough,” Briscott returned, snapping me from my thoughts.
Our attention was pulled to the sound of Harken’s whimpering. Sal’ and Ithan had pulled him to his feet. He shook uncontrollably, Sal’s and Ithan’s support the only thing keeping him from dropping to the floor.
I looked away. “How did you all even find me?” I asked in an attempt to distract myself from what was about to happen to the unfortunate king.
Briscott gestured to the others. “Ithan’s and Max’s blighted brilliance, that’s how.”
“Wizards’ intelligence can be humbling sometimes.” My eyes went to the three wizards across the room. “And a bit annoying as well,” I joked, though I was unable to muster a smile.
“Tell me about it,” Briscott laughed mirthlessly, scratching at his beard again.
After a moment of silence, Briscott let out a heavy sigh. “When the dragons were . . . when the dragons fell, Max and Ithan saw us safely landed. I thought we’d reached our end when I saw the enemy closing in on us. That clever little rodent, however,” he nodded towards Max, “cast some sort of spell to make Ithan and Til’ look like those blighted soldiers you and Sal’ fought. Next thing I know, I’m on the ground, looking like you saw me when I came in here. If not for Max’s quick explanation, I probably would’ve put up a fight when Ithan and Til’ tried to lift me, looking the way they did. And then, Max was suddenly all bloody, and he dropped to the ground. Honestly, I thought he’d really been killed.
“We were met by more of those soldiers with Lyrak’s blighted emblem on their armor. Ithan informed them that, well, he and Til’ were dead. I thought the soldiers would see through the ruse, but they didn’t raise a single question. One of them simply grabbed Max and led us into the castle.”
I shook my head, amazed that Max was still conscious and, quite honestly, still alive. I’d seen him use illusion magic for brief periods of time before. Very brief. Casting an illusion over himself, Til’, Ithan, and Briscott all at the same time for as long as he did was beyond incredible and borderline impossible. I guess necessity trumps impossibility.
“The blighted soldier paid us no mind, so we fell back to form a plan while he carried Max ahead of us. I think Ithan cast a spell to mask our conversation.” Briscott glanced down to Til’s body with a reverent smile. “Til’ had stored that magic box containing the rock in his bag. Ithan had the idea of using the rock as a weapon to save you and Sal’. We tied it to one of my arrows and coated the arrow’s tip with some sort of black . . . slime, I suppose—that Ithan had brought with him. He said the stuff would allow the arrow to cut through magic barriers.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, shaking my head with a weak chuckle.
Briscott leaned back. “What?”
“Nothing. That’s just the second time I’ve been saved by that goo now.”
Briscott shrugged. “Anyway, with Lyrak’s attention on you, Ithan was able to take out the soldier who brought us here. Max’s spell faded before we were completely ready to attack, though. If we’d had just a few moments more, I would’ve been able to hit Lyrak before . . . before . . .” Briscott shut his eyes and took a deep breath. “At least I was able to compensate for the weight of that blighted rock. If I’d missed, or if the arrow hadn’t pierced far enough, or if I’d hit his stomach and the arrow ripped all the way through . . .” Briscott covered his mouth, raking his fingers through his beard.
“Your shot was perfect. You saved us,” I affirmed. “Thank you, Briscott.” I could tell he was thinking that missing would’ve made Til’s sacrifice meaningless. But no, I’d been the one to do that. I squeezed my eyes shut, grimacing at the thought.
“You stop that.” I opened my eyes to see Briscott staring me down, his eyebrows drawn and his tilted eyes serious. “Loranis always has a plan. Stop blighting beating yourself up over what happened. We will fix this.”
I bit my lip, nodding, but I still couldn’t shake the fact that if not for me, we would’ve already ended Lyrak’s control over the undead and enslaved. I opened my mouth to reply but was cut off by a loud thump.
We turned to see Harken sprawled on the floor, his eyes wide in death. Then I looked to Ithan. He held the Source crystal in his hand, eyes closed, sweat beading across his forehead despite the chill of the underground room. Harken’s body hadn’t provided enough magic energy to complete the task. Ithan was using his own body to draw the magic energy he needed.
And no one was stopping him.
“No!” I screamed, leaping up and nearly face-planting when my knee locked up.
Before I could advance, Briscott was behind me, his arms encircling my chest and holding me back. “Korin, don’t,” he grunted as I fought to break free.
“Briscott, he’s going to kill himself,” I insisted.
“Korin, Ithan told me to keep you from interfering.”
My breath caught as Briscott’s words sunk in. Ithan had known Harken wouldn’t provide him with enough magic energy. Everyone had known. Everyone except for me. They’d kept the truth secret so I wouldn’t try to stop him. Anger flared within me once again, breaking through my tenuous control. I’d lost one friend already. I wasn’t going to lose another.
With as much force as I could muster, I broke from Briscott’s grasp. I didn’t make it more than a single step before Briscott tackled me to the floor.
“We can’t let him do this!” I yelled, clawing at the floor in an attempt to pull from Briscott’s grasp.
“This is Ithan’s choice,” Briscott argued, tightening his grip.
Sal’ and Max watched me, Sal’ with tears running down her cheeks. “Korin, this is the only way,” she spoke, her voice breaking. Max remained silent, giving a single nod in agreement.
I stopped fighting against Briscott’s hold on me. If Sal’ and Max had accepted Ithan’s plan, then there was nothing I could do. Max had already pushed himself further than should’ve been possible, and Sal’ had nothing to use for magic energy aside from her own body. Forcing them to use magic against me would only hurt them, and I’d still fail to save Ithan. Yet agai
n, I was helpless. I was getting sick and tired of that feeling.
Ithan’s body jerked, and only Sal’s intervention kept him from collapsing. His whole body trembled, his breathing coming out in stuttered gasps, his face twisted in a pained grimace. After a lifetime or two, his eyes opened and turned to me. He smiled with quivering lips as the Source fell from his hands. Sal’ was unable to support him as he dropped limply to the floor.
For the second time in that very room, my heart shattered. “Ithan!”
Briscott released his grip and helped me to my feet. Sal’ sat down on the floor, weeping, and lifted Ithan’s head into her lap. Ithan stared vacantly up at her, unblinking. He was still alive, though, his chest moving with his continued breathing.
For a moment, I was relieved, but as I limped closer, I saw that there was no life shining through Ithan’s amber eyes. Everything he’d been was gone. I’d thought that seeing that look in Fleet’s eyes had been disturbing, but to see it in a human, especially a friend, was unbearable. Like Til’, Ithan had sacrificed himself to save Amirand.
I took a seat by Sal’, the sight of her hand on Ithan’s face lost through a wall of tears I hadn’t thought left to shed. Briscott patted my back in a vain attempt to console me. Max scampered onto my lap.
The twisting, wrenching, crushing agony of losing my two friends was a new sensation for me. I felt as if two pieces of my very soul, two pieces that could never be replaced, had been viciously carved from me with a rusty blade. It hurt. Bad.
“Max,” I literally forced from my constricted throat, “did he do it?”
Max closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath, his whiskers pressed flat against his furry cheeks. “We will not know until we leave this room and see for ourselves.”
“There’s no magic in the Source that I can see,” Sal’ informed us. Her tears reflected the room’s soft light as she stared at the Source crystal on the floor where it had fallen. “If Ithan was unable to dissolve the spell through the Link, then there is no longer a way to do it ourselves. The Link no longer exists.”
I swallowed, unnerved by the possibility that Ithan’s sacrifice could’ve put us in an even worse position than before. I pulled Sal’ close as our tears continued to fall, as much for my own comfort as hers. Ithan continued to stare blankly at the ceiling, saliva oozing from one corner of his mouth.
“Is there anything that can be done for him?” I asked, terrified to hear the answer I knew would follow.
Sal’ shook her head against me. “He’s gone, Korin.”
“It’s not blighting fair,” Briscott growled, slamming his fist into his opposite hand. “Ithan and Til’ may have just saved Amirand, and yet, they pay the biggest price.” Briscott made a choking sound as if fighting back tears.
Max swiveled his head, sweeping his gaze across all of us. “This is not easy for any of us, but we must leave soon. If Lyrak’s commands still hold, the best chance we have of escaping is to stay together and fight our way out. The longer we remain here, the longer Lyrak’s soldiers have to find us and the more difficult it will be to escape.”
“What about the bracelet?” I offered.
“There is no guarantee that we can get it to work, and even if there were, it would take time and magic energy that we do not have.”
I looked into Ithan’s dulled eyes. “Let’s just hope he was successful, then.”
“Only one way to find out.” Max leapt off my lap and started across the room.
“Wait, what about Ithan?” Briscott questioned. “We can’t just leave him.”
“If the rocks are no longer spelled, he should be safe here, and we can come back for him,” Sal’ offered. “We can send word to the Wizard Guard to have him returned to the Academy for care. If his family is still alive, they could—”
“And if the rocks are still spelled?” I interrupted.
“There is no possible way we could bring him with us in his current state,” Max admitted, his round ears flattening as his bushy tail drooped. “We would be putting ourselves in even worse danger.”
Unable to take my eyes off of Ithan, I contemplated if any part of who he’d been hid behind his lifeless eyes. I thought about Harken, about how we’d decided to end his life to provide him a respite from an existence in which he’d never truly live. Ithan had been the first to argue that point.
“Max, do you think he’s still in there somewhere?” I asked.
Max didn’t answer me immediately, seeming to mull my question over. “There is no way to know for certain, but my personal belief is that drawing magic from a living being affects only its body, not its soul. I believe that Ithan’s soul is intact, trapped within a vessel that no longer operates the way it should.”
Max’s words struck a chord with me. Despite my years spent dismissing gods and religion, I still believed that every living being possessed a soul and that there was an afterlife for those souls. It may have been a little hypocritical, but I’d always hated the idea of life just ending.
“We can’t leave him like this,” I declared, a vise tightening around my heart. “Even if we got him to the Wizard Academy to receive the care he’d need to survive, he’d still be nothing more than this shell.” The vise squeezed even tighter.
Briscott scratched at his beard, shaking his head. “No, Korin. This is not our choice to make. Only Loranis . . .” His eyes closed as he realized the same thing I had. We’d made the choice for Harken.
“It’s what Ithan would’ve wanted,” Sal’ affirmed, her voice shaking. Her hand trembled as she smoothed back Ithan’s unruly mop of hair.
“But we . . . this is a friend we’re blighting talking about here,” Briscott argued. “We can’t just . . . just . . . we just blighting can’t.”
Max returned to us, placing his front paws on Ithan’s body. “It may be the most humane thing we can do for him. I know that I would want the same done for me.”
“As would I,” Sal’ agreed.
I squeezed Sal’s shoulder as she began weeping again. “Me too.”
Briscott just stared at us silently, running a hand through his hair and grabbing a fistful of it at the back of his head. “Blighted hell, I wouldn’t want such a life either.”
“You three go on ahead,” Max ordered. “I will make Ithan’s transition peaceful and catch up after.”
Closing my eyes, I shook my head. It took me a moment to actually get my words out, and even then, they were only a whisper. “No, Max, I should be the one to do this. You go with Sal’ and Briscott.” Three sets of concerned eyes locked on me.
The vise continued to tighten, making it hard to breathe. “Have any of you ever had to take the life of someone who posed no threat to you?” Sal’, Briscott, and Max were no longer the ones staring at me; instead, two sets of terrified eyes, those of the unarmed brigand and Lyrak, met me with scathing accusation.
Sal’s hand on my cheek brought me back to reality. “Korin, don’t do this to yourself. You’ve been through enough.”
“We all have,” I replied, placing my hand over hers and drawing it down to my chest. “But I don’t want any of you to suffer the same scars that I already bear.” I couldn’t bring myself speak the other reason—that by killing Lyrak, it was my fault that Ithan had been forced into the situation in the first place. In my mind, that placed the burden squarely on my shoulders.
“Are you sure, Korin?” Max looked up at me with the most pained expression I’d ever seen on his face, squirrel form or otherwise.
“Yes, I am. Does anyone object? If so, speak now.” I wanted to voice an objection of my own. How could I make myself take the life of a friend, even if I knew it was the right thing to do? Yet, I couldn’t let anyone else endure the pain of doing so.
No one objected. My resolve wavered.
“We’ll be right here with you,” Briscott assured me, stepping forward.
“No, you—”
“You’re not talking me into leaving.” Sal’s hand pressed firmly aga
inst my chest.
“Sorry, Korin, but you are stuck with the people who care most about you,” Max added.
I didn’t want the others to witness the end of Ithan’s life, but it looked as if the choice had been taken from my hands. We’d become a family of sorts, one that may not have shared blood, but a family all the same. They weren’t going to leave me to face the pain of my task alone, and they weren’t going to let Ithan die without being surrounded by as much love and support as possible.
We carried Ithan across the room to lay him next to Til’. Sal’ gave him a kiss on his forehead, whispering words of thanks. Max spoke a few words about his bravery and selflessness in the face of a situation that would’ve turned away even the strongest of hearts. Briscott said a prayer to Loranis, clutching his fortune block in a shaky fist.
In my head, I repeatedly asked myself if we were truly making the right choice. Out loud, I said, “May you find happiness, my dear friend.”
As I prepared my sword, the turbulent assault of a thousand negative emotions blossomed within me to the point of numbness. The body and mind can only take so much pain before it just switches off.
I won’t recount the details of Ithan’s passing, but I will say that it was without pain and that he was encompassed by the love of friends. It may have just been my mind playing tricks to help ease the pain of my actions, but in Ithan’s final moment of life, I could’ve sworn that a smile ghosted across his lips. Whether or not a part of him was able to show itself before his death was impossible to know for sure.
What I do know, however, is that Ithan’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain.
Chapter 59
Farewell, My Friends
The war was over.
Well, it was on its way to being over, at least.
Thanks to Ithan’s efforts, every Soul Crystal had been stripped of its magic. The enslaved living were freed. The undead simply collapsed, back to being just plain dead once more.