Spirit Mage

by Esther Mitchell

  Paduari returned as Telyn helped Nacaris to his feet. Strapping on her sword-belt, Telyn gathered up the contents of her pack, then slung the bag over her shoulders. She turned to see Paduari looking at her curiously.

  "Now what?"

  "Do you really think we'll need all that?" he asked, nodding toward the pack.

  If there was one thing life taught her, it was to be prepared for anything. "I'm not taking any chances. Everything in this pack can keep us alive should something go wrong."

  Nacaris chuckled. "Better listen to her, Paduari. Telyn's pack has come in handy more than a time or two."

  Paduari looked between them with a confused frown, and Telyn suppressed the sudden urge to sink into the cavern floor. Why hadn't she warned Nacaris she never told his friend about their past?

  Paduari's gaze caught hers, and he must have read what he was looking for there, because he merely shrugged. "I was only asking. Are we ready, then?"

  "Ready." Telyn pulled the Majin's dagger Dariadus had given Nacaris from her pack. She saw the surprised lift of his brow, and averted her gaze.

  "I tracked it down during the battle for Falraec. I thought, at the time, you'd want it back when I rescued you. I didn't know..." She let the words fall off, unspoken.

  Nacaris nodded briskly. "Thank you."

  She held the dagger out to him. "It's no sword, but--"

  Nacaris flashed her a grin as he tucked it into the belt at his waist. "It'll do just fine."

  A short time later, Telyn inched her way up the Tikesha's alabaster steps, moving low and silent as she led the small party's ascent. She didn't dare draw her anaqueri yet, though she was aware of its battle-ready pulse along her thigh.

  Behind her, she heard Paduari's ragged attempts to control his breathing, and glanced over her shoulder at the man who followed her closely. His eyes held flickers of panic and fear, though his gaze was fixed straight ahead at the door. Clearly, he was unsuited for combat of a physical nature. She only hoped he proved to be made of much sterner -- to say nothing of adept -- stuff when it came down to a battle of Majik. Still, she winced sympathetically, understanding at least part of his current trepidation.

  Of them all, Paduari was in the most danger. Thanks to his recent transformation into Spirit's Majin, he couldn’t handle steel or iron in any fashion, currently – maybe forever -- which meant he was completely defenseless against attack, and heading into a den of vipers. Given that, she had to admit he had a lot more courage than it appeared.

  Her gaze skipped momentarily beyond Paduari, to where Nacaris struggled up the stairs, leaning heavily on the supporting shoulder of the young monk, Nevorai. Worry tugged at Telyn as she marked his slow progress and obvious discomfort. Stairs were going to continue to be an issue for him while his leg finished healing. Truthfully, they might always present a challenge for him, and spurred her to gauge his status more clearly.

  Nacaris looked bedraggled, with his shirt and one pant leg missing, and his right arm supported in a makeshift sling she'd fashioned from the freshly-cleaned remnants of his pant leg. His good arm was draped over Nevorai's slim shoulders, and the Majin's dagger she returned to him was tucked at his waist. The healing scars of his wounds stood out in stark contrast to the still-weakened pallor of his skin, and his face was covered in a week's worth of beard. On the outside he looked like a wild man, just recently tamed.

  It wasn't his state of dishabille that worried Telyn. All of it -- even the scars -- could be put right with time. But the sunken darkness of his eyes -- the pain etched so deeply in the grooves of his face -- twisted in her heart like a serpent set to strike. She named that serpent easily enough. Fear. If it all came down to a fight, would Nacaris be able to endure?

  Swallowing back her concern, Telyn tried not to think about how outnumbered they would be if her plan failed. Try as she did to ignore the odds, however, the warrior in her knew all of their fates rested in the success of their mission, and plans concocted on a hope and a prayer. In the end, they had only the vaguest notion of what they were up against.

  Freezing out awareness of anything but immediate danger, Telyn nodded briefly to her companions, then reached to push on the heavy marble doors leading into the city's center. Inching it open just far enough so she could see the Trachian Hunter party, she whispered a spark of fire to life and released it in their direction. The sizzle of heat gained momentum as it sped across the square, landing with a small explosion in the center of the Trachians. Telyn's eyes narrowed in satisfaction as the troop's center collapsed almost as one, the ground pooling with thick, black blood. A shower of sparks and pulverized stone rained down on those left standing.

  With howls of rage, and murder in their eyes, they turned toward the only visible source of such an explosion -- the Borderlanders. Throwing back his head, the Trachian leader let loose a war cry that sent a chill through Telyn. Erupting into shrill screams, the Trachians fell on the Borderlanders, the square falling into chaos as poison-bone arrows and flame-caster stones flew.

  A Borderlander stone miscast into the midst of Lovar's troop brought a burst of laughter and cheers from Josharan's squad, earning a swift and brutal retaliation from Lovar’s men.

  In a matter of moments, the square was reduced to a frenzy of blood lust, as mercenary turned on mercenary. Telyn sought out a route through the chaos she created, her destination the massive, shimmering portal at the far end of the square.

  There was a break in the fighting about four yards from where they were, where combatants lay sprawled in death, blood mingling in the crevasses of the cobblestone. If they could get through there, into the shadows of the buildings along the square's east side, they could work their way around the fighting, unhindered and probably unnoticed. It was their only chance. As much as part of Telyn relished the thought of rushing headlong into the battle she had initiated, a direct path through the center of the fighting would be little better than suicide.

  Gesturing for her party to follow her, she slipped through the door and made for the shelter of the nearest buildings. A mercenary's pike swung toward her earned a swift, lethal stroke from her anaqueri, and a body falling across her path was little more than an obstacle to be hopped over.

  Directing her party by way of hand signal, she gestured for them to head for the shadowy cover of the buildings on the edge of the square. She stood her ground between them and the raging furor of the courtyard before them.

  More than one mercenary spotted them, and she watched the greedy gleam enter their eyes as they caught sight of her anaqueri, and made an all-too-familiar mistake. They assumed it was unbonded. She alone knew just how deep the bond between the living blade and herself truly went -- they were one unit, not two. Even death wouldn't break that bond.

  Eyes narrowed, she fell instantly into a low fighter's stance, daring any of the mercenaries to challenge her. Few were foolish enough. Being trounced by a lone woman carrying one of the Gild's legendary weapons offered little incentive for most, when victory over another mercenary faction granted them more plunder.

  A scream of rage snapped her attention to the left as a Borderlander pikeman rushed her, lance extended and intent clear. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and neatly sidestepped his charge. In one swing, she brought her anaqueri across his back in a wide arc. The sound of breaking bones and the feel of warm blood spraying her face and hand was all she knew, though she was conscious the living blade had just shorn a man practically in two.

  His gurgling scream hadn't even faded before another sound -- this one of metal on metal -- assaulted her ears. She whipped around to face one of the dreaded four-armed swordswomen of Maar. Wielding a blade in each hand, the dark-skinned woman whirled and danced like a dust storm on the Wastes.

  Telyn dropped low to the ground, outside the swinging radius of those powerful arms, and quickly assessed her options. There weren't many. Getting past those spinning swords and multiple arms would be nigh unto impossible, and the famed Maar swords
women were well-known for their keen powers of observation as well as their lightning-quick reflexes. She didn't need a plan right now. What she needed was a miracle.

  The swordswoman suddenly screeched like a Cheelaqa scenting blood, and her flailing arms froze mid-motion. Then, with a terrible, hissing gasp, the Maarian crumpled to the ground, lifeless. Telyn blinked in surprise before the familiarity of the knife hilt protruding from the woman's back registered, and new surprise jerked her gaze up.

  She met Nacaris' eyes for one brief moment, and he gave her an almost-imperceptible nod. Then, without a word, he bent, retrieved his blade, and limped slowly away toward the shelter of the surrounding buildings.

  Still stunned, Telyn followed, her battle instincts tuned to the possibility of further danger. If only she knew where the most danger would strike -- the battlefield, or her heart.

  "Now what?" Paduari inquired as Telyn and Nacaris finally reached the relative safety of the shadows.

  "Now we make for the portal." Telyn was already moving, flattened against the wall of the nearest building. "Stick close to the wall where they'll have a harder time seeing you in this chaos."

  "Do you have any idea what you're going to do if we actually make it that far?" Nacaris wanted to know.

  "Cross the Slephian Portal."

  "How?"

  She stopped and, for the first time, worried this was all in vain. She whirled to Paduari as dread rose within her. Her entire plan rested on their ability to use this portal. "We can cross this portal, can't we?"

  Paduari nodded. "We can begin the journey, yes. Entering the portal is easy. Finding the right path back out may not be. And if Sehidhe closes the portal on her end, we will be stuck in Prophesy."

  "That's a chance we'll just have to take." Telyn moved forward again. She refused to contemplate the possibility of disaster.

  When she reached the large, shimmering pool of the Slephian Portal, Telyn stopped, looking at it warily. The faint, lavender-hued glow of it ran with sparks of bright color, and unbidden came the realization of how dangerous it looked. However, she reflected with wry humor, danger never stopped her for long. She'd pitted herself against suicidal odds before, and won out. This was no different. Just the same, however, she drew a deep breath, summoning courage, and mouthed a prayer would always be more than just words to her.

  "Gromlach malichoir Druix Edachtae nicce." Spirit of the Eternal Fire be with me always. A Bathron prayer. It became a part of her during her training at Raiador -- a plea from her heart to the Element she was chosen by to not desert her. For some reason, facing this portal, she felt more in need of her Majik than ever before.

  Drawing another deep breath, she became aware of her companions' eyes on her, waiting curiously to see what she would do. Steeling herself, she stepped forward into the shimmering light, and fell into eternity.

  Chapter Nine

  Telyn whirled through the light, feeling the flashes of color touch her, then move away, then come back, bombarding her with an uneasy sense she was tolerated, but not welcome. This world -- if it could even be called a world -- was one as alien to her as an Eros Ceremony to a chaste monk. A swirling void of air rushed against her, both infernally hot and icily cold as it bit through her clothes and stung her face. She tried to gasp, only to find she couldn't breathe, and the shimmer of light around her shifted between liquid solidity and free-fall vacuum, bucking and rebelling against her presence with every inch she gained.

  This was a Lurudani Gate, made from an otherworldly power, and it didn't recognize the Majik coursing through her veins any more than the natural power within her accepted this mystic force. They were mutable enemies, she and the power present here. They could align when survival bade it, but they would forever be in conflict. With absolute clarity, Telyn became aware she would not cross this portal again. Whatever the outcome of her battle in the Endlands, this realm would never again accept her intrusion.

  With the heaving shudder of a dying man, the power of the portal drew together, and, like a temperamental child, shoved her away with tempestuous force. She hit darkness as solid as stone, and just as assuredly not of any land she had ever been in. In fact, the world she found herself in was darker than a starless night, and even the blessing of her Bathron vision could not pierce this darkness. She could see nothing, as if someone secured a thick blindfold across her eyes. Only a heavy, dark mist, the color of oily smoke, was visible, curling around her feet and streaming along the ground. Was this the place Sala once warned her Fire could not go? Even her anaqueri was unnaturally still.

  "Where in Mythrad's Torment am I?" she muttered to herself, invoking the Endland Underworld's primary deity, as she took a careful step forward. She smacked into more solid darkness, and her frustration and wariness exploded. "Paduari! Nevorai! Nacaris! Where are you?"

  "Here," came Nacaris' voice from the darkness near her, before the warmth of his hand brushed her arm. "We're right here, balnyt."

  "Where are we? Why is it so dark? Why can't I see?" Telyn demanded instantly.

  "This is the Slephidan -- the realm of Prophesy," Paduari explained soothingly. "Only those with the gift of future sight can see in this place. All around us are the mirrors of future events. To those without the sight to see such events, this realm is a dark maze of reflected haze."

  "Great," Telyn muttered sourly. "So how do we find our way out of here if we can't see a bloody thing?"

  "Look with your heart, not your eyes. The heart guides where the eyes cannot."

  Telyn sighed in exasperation. It seemed like everything these days required her heart rather than her eyes. With a silent, ironic laugh, she wondered if she ought to just sew the demned things shut as she closed her eyes and, drawing a deep, calming breath, attempted to follow Paduari's suggestion. Slowly, she saw the fog rolling along the ground gather into a shape resembling a man with no discernable features. An eerie chill crawled along Telyn's skin. This place was unnatural, and she didn't like it one bit.

  Slowly, the ghostly fog form flowed before her, guiding her along dark paths she began to see the mirrored outlines of. This realm was a dark, reflective maze she could easily become lost in. But, if she followed the fog swirling around and past her, she could find the safe passages. Paduari would know their destination, so if he led, there should be no problems.

  Telyn opened her eyes, her face set grimly. "Paduari, you lead us to the portal on Reaphia's end of this place. The rest of us will follow your lead."

  She heard Nacaris' chuckle, and her brow furrowed in irritation.

  "What's so funny?"

  "Just glad to know I'm not the only one in over his head, for once." Amusement colored Nacaris' voice in the inky blackness.

  "This way," Paduari directed, forestalling Telyn's sharp retort.

  Shifting her eyes warily, though she knew she would never see danger before it was upon her in this place, Telyn used the disturbance of fog in Paduari's wake as a guide, moving along in the darkness with a growing sense of disquiet. She may be growing more comfortable with Majik, but her Majik was Elemental -- natural in all the forms it took.

  There was nothing natural about this place, and it reminded her vividly of the emptiness in Seoman's eyes, last time she saw him. A shudder launched through her at the memory, and froze the breath in her lungs for one terrible second. Would this place suck the life from her soul as well?

  To distract herself from the terrible thought, she considered the difficulty this realm must pose for their adversary.

  "How do you suppose Reaphia makes it back and forth so frequently through here?"

  She sensed Paduari’s indifference to the response as surely as if she could see his shrug. "The portal showed signs of stress, so I would say she forces it, bypassing the realm between altogether, even though it wouldn't be much effort for her to make the journey as normal. Sehidhe has the gift of the Oracle. Didn't you know that?"

  Telyn sighed. She was intimately acquainted with Reaphia's oracular
abilities. She remembered the last words Reaphia ever spoke to her, the eve before the young girl was hauled away by Vedics, and those words still filled her with uneasiness.

  That which loves you most will also be your undoing. Cling too tightly, it will know your weakness. Cling too lightly, it will never return to you.

  No doubt about it -- that moment was when her true aversion to all things Majikal began. "Aye. Only too well. But her Majik isn't any more compatible to the power of this place than my own. Would it still work?"

  He laughed. "Future Sight is universal. One Oracle may see within this realm as easily as any other."

  "Then why force the portals? Why not just go the usual way?"

  "I imagine it takes too long for her liking. It also requires she face her own crimes, sins, and fears. According to Nevorai, if she uses the spiritual energy she gathers to herself, she can use the Slephian portal as the dead do, allowing her swift access to Lurudan, if only once a day. It is said the dead may pass over the Slephidan with aid for the living, but may stay only a few hours of every day. I assume that's how Sehidhe maintains her balance."

  "Makes sense." Telyn looked up from the mist still swirling near her feet as bright light bathed her, driving away the darkness. A gasp tore from her. A high doorway, glowing with a pulsing purple-red light, stretched into infinity before her, and she could see her companions clearly at last, their faces bathed in the garnet light. Still, there was nothing reassuring about that light. A chill passed over her, and she shivered.

  "What is it?"

  "It’s the portal we need." Paduari turned to look at Telyn. "This is the end, Telyn. Once we step through this door, you will be unable to return this way. Are you still certain you want to do this?"

  Telyn nodded grimly. There were no choices for her, no more easy outs. She faced Kishfa's will, now. "I knew even before I entered the portal in Hadvia, Paduari. Don't fret over me. I survived the Endlands as a girl, without any of the skills I've learned in the cycles since. I can make it in the Endlands alone. But your people can't keep living under Reaphia's cruelty. She mustn't be allowed to continue hurting people to gain power. I would give my life to stop her."