Essence of Chaos

by Marie Andreas

  “Keanin, may I present my faithful, if a bit drifty, apprentice, Jenna.”

  Ghortin placed a soothing hand on her shoulder while she frantically regained composure.

  She removed her mask, which was immediately taken from her by Keanin. He bowed over her hand again, this time with more passion than some of her former lovers made love.

  The stunning man looked up with a brilliant smile. “The little magic one our Prince Corin found? The oaf failed to do justice to your beauty.”

  Jenna was feeling like she was going to blush this entire night. But her face stiffened when he mentioned Prince Corin.

  “I wish I could say the same. He failed to mention anything.” She hadn’t meant to sound so bitter. This stunning man was more than likely a member of the court.

  Rather than looking upset at her tone, Keanin looked intrigued. “He failed to mention even myself?”

  Jenna’s face settled into stone. “He didn’t bother to tell me who he is. For the past few months I thought he was some forest idiot named Storm.”

  Keanin glanced up at Ghortin who nodded slowly. The auburn-haired kelar rubbed his hands gleefully.

  “Oh, this is grand. He lied. Thought he could mislead such a fine lady as yourself, did he?” His bright smile was positively glowing. “Shall we go find his royal self so you can discuss this with him? I promise to hold him still if you wish.”

  She started to say no, and then changed her mind. “But aren’t you his friend or something?”

  “That is the reason I think you two should talk this out. Corin and I have been closest friends since childhood. And he’s always prided himself on his honesty.”

  “Honesty?” Jenna spat. “That lying, deceitful, arrogant, son of a swamp snake.”

  Keanin smiled and patted her arm. “Exactly my point. Shall we find him now?”

  With an evil glance at Ghortin, Jenna allowed herself to be led off.

  14

  Storm, or Prince Corin as he certainly looked tonight, was surrounded by court lackeys, but his female companion from before had vanished. He hadn’t bothered to put his mask back on and his annoyance at the people around him was obvious.

  Keanin gleefully pushed the throng aside, Jenna’s hand clutched possessively in his own.

  “Corin old boy, I do believe Ghortin’s apprentice has yet to be formally presented.” He dropped down to a mockingly low bow. “Your Highness, may I present the Lady Jenna.”

  Jenna stepped forward with a glare that would have frozen boiling water.

  Storm tried to smile, and then let it drop with a sigh.

  “If the rest of you will excuse us, I must have a private conversation with Lady Jenna and Lord Keanin.” He waved his hands at the surrounding crowd. “Go, dance, eat. Do whatever it is you people do.”

  The hangers-on drifted away like the petals on a spent flower. None of them appeared terribly shocked at their abrupt dismissal.

  With the crowd gone, Storm held up his hands as if to ward off blows. “I know you’re upset. But I felt it was better if you didn’t know until you absolutely had to. I tried this afternoon, but it wouldn’t come out.”

  Jenna’s eyes narrowed and her arms tightened around her chest; she was afraid of what her hands might do if they were left on their own.

  Next to her, Keanin mimicked her stance, but Jenna could see him breaking into a huge grin every few seconds.

  “Keanin, what do you want?” Storm said.

  “Oh nothing, my glorious Prince.” The graceful kelar gave another one of his florid bows. “I wait anxiously for your excuses concerning the charade you’ve been pulling on this lovely creature.”

  Jenna turned and smiled at the gorgeous kelar. “Thank you, Lord Keanin.” She whipped back to Storm. “I’d like to know the same thing. I thought we were friends.”

  Storm pulled back as if physically struck. “We are friends. I never meant to hurt you.” He paused, looking up at Keanin briefly. “I liked having someone who knew me as Storm, nothing more. Ask that grinning idiot next to you, I make a lousy prince.”

  “That doesn’t make it right. If we’re friends then I wouldn’t have cared and you should have told me.” She was still angry; she now realized she had counted on him. And that perhaps she was developing feelings for him, feelings that wouldn’t be right for a prince who was obviously involved with someone. Her embarrassment was fueling the anger.

  Keanin laid a hand on her shoulder. “If it’s any consolation, he does make a perfectly awful prince.”

  Jenna studied them. She couldn’t deal with this, not here. She was going to have to push all her anger and embarrassment aside for the moment. Finally she narrowed her eyes on Storm. “I don’t think I forgive you. Not yet anyway. But at least I won’t kill you. For now.”

  Keanin shook his head in mock sadness, auburn waves catching the glow from the thousands of lights. A nice distraction from her hurt feelings was watching this incredible man. He clearly had one purpose in life, to make women swoon; he was almost too beautiful to be breathing. A moment later that image was destroyed with a contorted expression. “If there isn’t going to be any royal mayhem, then I suppose I’ll be on my way.” He looked over as a thin, human female started bearing down on them. “Oh. And look, there’s one of my fiancés now. Tah.”

  He gave Jenna’s cheek a quick kiss; then fled in the opposite direction of the woman.

  “Fiancés? As in more than one? How many do you people have here anyway?” Jenna asked as the woman dashed after the fleeing Keanin.

  Storm flashed his first real smile of the evening. “Normal people have one; Keanin, however, has never been normal.”

  Jenna found herself returning his smile against her will. “How many does he have?”

  “Six at last count.” Storm shook his head sadly, but Jenna noticed an evil twinkle in his eye. “Why, does the lady wish to become number seven?”

  “Perhaps. He is good looking, isn’t he?”

  “As he will be more than happy to tell you.”

  A voice screeched out from behind them. “Cory honey. There you are. We’ve been looking all over for you.”

  At the sound of the high-pitched voice, Storm’s face fell and a wary look darkened his blue eyes. Jenna turned to find the blonde, bead-clad kelar woman who’d been with him earlier bearing down on them. Two drunk male companions trailed behind her in some sort of game. Or perhaps that was the only way they could walk at this point.

  “Oh, what an adorable child.” The vapid blonde woman clapped her jeweled hands. Storm stepped in before Jenna could come up with a scathing, and more than likely embarrassing, retort.

  “Lady Mikasa, I’d like you to meet the Lady Jenna, apprentice to Master Ghortin.”

  Lady Mikasa drew her perfect lips into a perfect 0. “You aren’t a child. Silly me. I’m so glad that you’ve come along to help out Master Ghortin.” She latched on to Storm’s arm and pouted. “Now maybe my Cory won’t have to spend so much time out in that awful forest.”

  Storm flinched, but didn’t pull free of the woman’s grasp. Feeling more than a little uncomfortable, Jenna started to edge away.

  Storm noticed what she was doing, and gently disengaged Mikasa’s arm. He forced a smile as he faced the blonde kelar woman. “You’re missing the Trilane.”

  His voice sounded so tight that Jenna had to glance over to make sure it was him who spoke. His blue eyes were silently pleading with her not to leave. But she felt she’d had enough, dealing with this woman on top of everything else was too much.

  Mikasa spun toward the dance floor, her beads whirling out provocatively. “It’s starting.” She tugged on Storm’s wrist. He slid free of her grasp.

  “I’m quite sure your friends would love to join you.” He carefully pushed her toward her drunken companions. Fortunately for him, she was as drunk as they were and stumbled toward the dancing easily.

  Jenna backed up, waving Storm off. “Look, Storm, or Prince, or whoever you are. I d
on’t think we have anything to talk about. Storm and I were friends; this Prince Corin person is too complicated.”

  She turned to walk away, but Storm grabbed her arm.

  “I’m sorry this happened. Really, I am the same person. I made a mistake; I should have told you about everything. Her too.” He shot a disgusted look at the dancing blonde woman.

  Jenna rubbed the growing pressure between her brows; there was no easy way out. Besides, in a sick way it was intriguing.

  “So who is she? Wife? Courtesan? Strumpet?”

  “Betrothed.” Storm made a sour face. “She and I are to wed next year at Even Tide. But I don’t love her. She is manipulative and rude to everyone who can’t improve her station. I don’t even like her.” He added the last part quickly and with venom.

  Jenna smiled slightly at the pathetic sound in his voice. “Okay, I give up. What is she, the daughter of an enemy king?”

  Storm looked down, mindlessly fingering the peace knot on his thin dress sword.

  “No, worse.” He looked up despairingly. “The daughter of my mother’s foster sister. We were promised before I was born.”

  Jenna’s eyes narrowed. “And you can’t find a loophole? Anywhere?”

  Storm shrugged. “We probably could have. Except that woman decided she was madly in love with me the second she saw me. The whole court, including our parents, decided that love at first sight couldn’t be denied. Never mind how I felt about it.”

  Jenna stood back and gave the kelar prince an appraising look. “Maybe she did fall in love at first sight. You aren’t all that hard on the eye, and excuse me, but she doesn’t seem too bright.” Actually Storm was extremely good looking. Not on the same scale as his stunning rogue friend, Keanin, but handsome nonetheless.

  Storm bowed extravagantly, mimicking Keanin’s earlier flourish.

  “Why, thank you, my lady. Would the lady be so kind as to accompany me onto the dance floor?”

  Jenna’s answer was swallowed as multiple explosions rocked the huge hall, knocking down party goers everywhere.

  Storm ripped off the remaining threads of his sword’s peace knot as the two of them ran toward the center of the room.

  A huge robed figure stood in the center of a rapidly dissipating greasy smoke cloud. He was easily seven and a half feet tall, with splotchy gray hair drifting out from under the hood he wore. The robe he wore was of no color, yet of all colors. It was as if it had been created outside the normal realm of color. From the realm of chaos itself. Jenna’s eyes were swimming after a few seconds of trying to look at it.

  A horrible pressure build-up hit her. One that wasn’t residue from the explosion. Something in the core of her being took over and she continued forward, angry beyond all reason. Her temples pounded and every part of her wanted to destroy that figure at any cost. It was the same feeling she’d had facing the ertin.

  A yank on her arm brought her to a halt. Whirling with a growl, she prepared to blast whatever had stopped her. Fortunately for Storm, she broke through her killing rage and recognized him. Shaking in body and mind, she dropped her blast spell.

  “What are you doing?” They shouted at the same instant. Jenna pulled free of Storm’s grasp.

  “Stay behind me. I can’t protect you if you get in front,” Storm yelled as he grabbed hold of her again, and this time his grip cut off the circulation in her arm.

  “You pointy-eared moron. You stay behind me. I’ll not be held responsible for his magicless highness being fried.” The last was hissed out in a loud whisper. She knew how he felt about being without magic, but she wasn’t going to let that pride get him killed.

  He flushed at the comment, but didn’t let go of her. All argument was swept aside as fighting broke out throughout the hall; horrifying creatures literally erupted out of many of the party guests, their disguises as party goers peeling off of them like shells. Many real guests were struck down before they realized that their companions hadn’t been who, or what, they thought they were. Storm finally let go of her as he rushed for a tall kelar who’d used a previously hidden sword to slice through one of the guards.

  At the same instant Jenna felt the queasy tingling that warned her of the impending release of a disruption spell. Ghortin had thrown small ones at her, but the way her skin was crawling, this was going to be huge. These spells could tear through bodies like paper. The figure in the nauseating robes crooked his fingers at the first wave of guards, all almost upon him, and they slammed to the floor and lay still. Then the figure turned toward her and Storm.

  Without thinking, Jenna threw herself at Storm, tackling him low as he tried to reach the enemy. She also covered them both with the strongest energy shield she could create. A few seconds later a burning tingle went down her spine; then the wave was gone.

  Storm twitched out from underneath her and rolled to his feet pulling her with him. “What in the hell were you…” He stopped in mid-sentence as he noticed the fallen people around them.

  “My gods.” He turned toward her, visibly shaken. Even some lesser mages had been felled by the wave. “Thank you—”

  Jenna screamed as his words were cut off by a brutal blow to his left arm; one strong enough to knock him back to the floor. Soon the arm and the side of his tunic were covered in blood. One of the attackers had seen Storm and taken the fight to him.

  With cat-like reflexes, Storm rolled out of the way, narrowly avoiding a blow that would have taken off his head.

  Jenna screamed again as the blond ‘kelar’ that was attacking Storm began to change. Within seconds, a slime-covered creature that could only come from the depths of hell stood opposite the wounded prince.

  Jenna tried to get closer so she could help, but she was afraid any magic she used would hit Storm. She picked up his discarded dress sword, but tossed it away a second later. She’d be better off with her sporadic magical skills than that useless stick.

  She continued edging around the creature, keeping an eye open for a clear shot.

  The thing was Storm’s height, but most of that was in its long torso; thick, short, backward legs scrabbled furiously to keep it balanced on the blood-slick floor. What had appeared as a wicked-looking long sword in its kelar illusion was revealed to be an extension of the creature’s right arm. Three-inch-long spikes glittered in the lights as the creature roared and advanced on Storm.

  Storm tried to rise, but a snap of the creature’s spiked tail brought him down with a bone-shattering thud.

  In doing so, the creature had taken a shuffling step backward, leaving Jenna enough room to cast a spell. Her immobilization spell held the monster for only a few seconds, but it was long enough for Storm to regain his footing. He leapt over a nearby fallen body and freed a long sword embedded in its back.

  Raising his new weapon, he blocked another near fatal blow. As the creature swung forward, Storm jabbed up with the sword. He managed to get a slice in, but the creature backed out of most of the thrust. Sickly green blood confirmed the thing wasn’t kelar or human. It didn’t have any real knowledge of swordplay either; whoever set it loose was not concerned about its skills; just about what havoc it could wreak.

  Storm overreached as he swung his sword in a wild arc at the monster. The brute stepped in, grinning as he lunged for the kill. Storm snapped his arm back up and skewered the creature.

  The creature couldn’t pull back fast enough and screamed in a twisted chorus of a hundred voices as the blade pierced its thick hide. With a final wail, the monstrosity vanished in a blinding flash, leaving a stunned and bleeding Storm in its wake.

  Jenna rushed forward as the tall kelar prince crumbled. Half carrying, half dragging, she managed to get him out of the way of the fighting.

  At least fifty different monsters that Jenna had a bad feeling were actual demonspawn had appeared in the hall. And from what she could see, Storm was a lucky one; shredded bodies littered the formerly elegant hall. A few oozed green, showing some demonspawn had also been killed.r />
  Storm twitched; then regained consciousness as Jenna got them secured behind an overturned table.

  “Have to get to the king.” His voice was rough, his breathing short and rapid. Obviously there was something other than blood loss affecting him. Most likely some of the creature’s slime had gotten into his wounds.

  Jenna ignored his comment and tried to concentrate on his injuries. She knew some healing magic, but she feared she didn’t know enough.

  Something from within the gashes was blocking her magical probes, but she was able to stop the bleeding. When she finished, Storm passed out again.

  Moments later he was conscious and struggling to rise. The fact that Jenna was able to thwart his attempt was a strong testament to his condition. After a few attempts, he finally did succeed at batting away her hand.

  “We must protect the king. Ghortin…” His voice was weaker now and Jenna feared he was going to go under again.

  “Ghortin is doing fine without you, I’m sure. You’re in no shape to help anyone, let alone your father.”

  “No.” His pain filled eyes cleared for a moment. “But you are.”

  “Me?” Jenna looked at the destruction around her. “My magic’s half-baked, I couldn’t hold that thing that attacked you at all. Besides, I can’t leave you here.”

  Storm grabbed her arm with his uninjured hand, showing a strength that surprised her. “You must protect them, Jenna. You must.”

  The intensity in his eyes scared her. He had to realize that without her he was totally defenseless.

  “Royal command, mage.” His face was tight and pale, sweat glistening sickly.

  Jenna glared at him and blinked away a frustrated tear. She knew he was right, now with that command she had no choice. Refusal of the command wasn’t an option; Ghortin had told her that the Royal Command, when issued by a royal, acted like a command word. It was already starting to crawl into her consciousness; if she fought it, she’d black out, or worse.