The Shadow Realm

by James Galloway

  Tarrin waited restlessly in the room, watching the door across the room, counting the paces it would take Allia to get to him if it came to that. Kimmie and Sapphire should stop her about the middle of the room. Tarrin already warned Kimmie not to engage Allia in a fight, to slow her down by throwing things at her or, if she could, try magic. Sapphire too was warned, but Sapphire told him that she could drop Allia from twenty paces if she had command of her lightning power. They should be able to stop her, if it came down to that. If things went as he planned, she'd never take a step towards him.

  The door moved, and Tarrin stood up quickly before the bed and set his will against the Weave, readying himself. High Sorcery would give him away too quickly, and he really didn't need it for what he was doing. Allia was a deceptively strong Sorceress, but she could not match Tarrin's skill at weaving quickly. Tarrin could have the spell woven and released before she knew what was going on, and if he did, he'd have her without her taking a single step. It opened, and Tarrin saw, much to his nervous delight, Allia, Allyn, and Iselde standing on the other side of it. Dolanna and Keritanima were behind them, shooing them in, and Tarrin could clearly see Allia's hostile expression, and her suspicious eyes.

  "I have nothing more to say to you, brother," she hissed from the doorway, refusing to step inside.

  What Allia didn't count on was Keritanima bodily shoving her into the room. "Well we have plenty to say to you!" the fox Wikuni said in a hot tone. "Now then, sister, you're going to stand here and hear what we have to say. You owe us that much!"

  Dolanna quietly shooed Iselde and Allyn into the room, and then stepped back and closed the door. It was her and Keritanima's task to make sure they didn't get out after Tarrin started.

  Allia, who was wearing the dress that Allyn gave her, turned and glared at Tarrin viciously. Tarrin didn't pay her much attention, as he carefully gauged the distance between the two Sha'Kar and the Selani. They were close enough together. Keritanima quickly stepped back, and that motion caught the attention of all three of them for a critical split second.

  Perfectly done!

  Tarrin already had the spell in mind, so he pulled the flows from the strands and wove them together with a blazing speed that would have stunned Iselde and Allyn, if they could have sensed what he was doing. Allia's eyes widened as she sensed his action, but by the time she had turned and reached for the dagger at her belt, Tarrin snapped the spell down and released it.

  This was the critical part. If Allia dashed forward, out of the spell's area of effect, before it could affect her, Kimmie and Sapphire would have to intervene and give Tarrin enough time to try again.

  But she didn't move quite fast enough. The spell's borders solidified, and a dome around the three of them shimmered into being as the spell absolutely nullified all magical activity within it. It wouldn't strip their amulets of their spells, but those spells wouldn't function so long as they were within it.

  Allia took two quick steps forward, but then she faltered. She dropped her dagger and put a hand to her head, wincing in pain. Iselde and Allyn's reaction was far more dramatic, as both of them wailed in pain and grabbed their heads with both hands, doubling over. Killing the Mind weaves like that was a very dramatic thing, and the mind did not like dramatic, radical change. Tarrin knew it would hurt, but he saw little other choice.

  Allia raised her head and looked at Tarrin in confusion. "Brother, what am I doing?" she asked woozily. "I wanted to kill you!"

  "Allia, do what I say, and do it fast," Keritanima said as she rushed forward. "Go to Allyn and take off his amulet. Quickly!"

  "I--As you say, deshaida," she said in slight confusion. Allia reached Allyn and had a little trouble getting the amulet off of him, having to pull his hands away from his head as he panted and huffed from the blinding pain. Keritanima wasn't quite so gentle with Iselde, grabbing the delicate chain of her amulet and literally ripping it off of her, jerking her backwards so badly she toppled over. The chain snapped from the stress and came free from the Sha'Kar female, and Keritanima held it high and away from herself, almost like it was a live snake.

  Tarrin ended the spell and started rushing forward with Kimmie, as Keritanima helped Iselde get back to her feet. Allia was a little woozy on her feet, putting her hands on her knees to stable herself. Allyn wheezed a little as he slowly stood erect again. Dolanna came back into the room and took over for Keritanima, walking Iselde slowly and carefully over to the divans so she could sit down and try to recover. Tarrin moved swiftly and confidently, stalking up to Allia and immediately putting his paw over her ivory amulet, assensing it. Keritanima said that the Mind weave in Allia had been whole, probably a spell, but Tarrin wanted to make sure of that. He assensed her amulet, and found that it had not been tampered with in any way.

  She looked up at him with those beautiful blue eyes, eyes that were a little fuzzy and uncertain. "Deshida, what's going on?" she asked in Selani. "I, I had the strangest nightmare. I dreamed I rejected you."

  Tarrin looked down at her, then laughed. "It was a nightmare, sister, for both of us," he said, pulling her into a crushing embrace, holding her tight, letting her scent wash over him. "But it's over now."

  "The Council put a spell on you, sister," Keritanima told her bluntly. "A Mind weave. They made you fight with Tarrin, probably to upset him."

  "Made me? How could they?" she asked, looking at Keritanima with a bit of a wheeze from where Tarrin was squeezing her. "I am Selani. They are Sha'Kar!"

  "Remember, you're cousins, sister," Tarrin told her. "It seems your minds are similar enough for the Sha'Kar to use Mind weaves on you."

  "Is this true?" Allia asked Tarrin with horrified eyes. "Did I really say those things to you, my brother?"

  "I realized that you didn't mean them, Allia," he told her gently, putting his paws on her shoulders. "I realized it not long after I left your room, at least after I got over a fit of self-pity and depression. My sister would never have said those things of her own free will. I don't blame you, and I don't want you to punish yourself over it. I'd rather we punish the ones that did make you say it," he said in an ugly tone. "Together."

  "Together. It is as it should be between us," she said with a glorious smile. "I'm happy you didn't take my words to heart, my brother. I would have felt miserable if I caused you pain."

  "There was some pain, but it was the pain of not having my sister with me," he told her.

  "Oh, Tarrin. I'm so sorry!" she said with a sudden bout of tears, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. Tarrin held her for a long moment, eyes closed, chin buried in her shoulder, just revelling in her scent, her touch, her closeness. Allia was herself again. She was home.

  She was his sister once more.

  Keritanima joined them, and they shared a long, silent, intimate moment of togetherness, a moment of family, a moment that was theirs and theirs alone, despite those watching on. Tarrin, Allia, and Keritanima. The three Non-human Sorcerers that had joined forces in the Tower to find out what was going on, but had found bonds between them more powerful than love or duty. Unbreakable ties that had sustained them through countless ordeals and suffering.

  "Now then," Allia said with a weepy voice, pulling away to look at her brother and sister. "Tell me who did this to me. He is a man with no honor, and he must be punished!" she finished in a furious snarl.

  "We don't know the exact person, but we'll bet that it was the Council, Allia," Keritanima told her. "There are quite a few very nasty little pieces of news you haven't heard yet. The Council is a pack of heartless, ruthless monsters, no better than the ki'zadun."

  "Then tell me," she said intensely. "Tell me now."

  "Not quite yet," Keritanima told her. "The others need to hear this too, and it's not the kind of thing I want to repeat more than once. We freed Iselde and Allyn because they'll know things we need to know, and Auli is with us too."

  "Freed them?" Allia asked in concern.

  "You weren't the only
one under the control of the Council, sister," Tarrin told her. "They're controlling all the Sha'Kar. Allyn and Iselde too. That's part of what we're going to talk about as soon as the others get here."

  "Why are they still so hurt?" Allia said in concern, her eyes fearful as she looked at Allyn, who was now being supported by Kimmie, who was leading him over to the divans where Dolanna sat with Iselde. Dolanna was patting the Sha'Kar female on the back and saying reassuring things to her as she regained her composure.

  "Because the spells in their minds were alot more complicated than the one in yours," Keritanima answered. "They had more for Tarrin to pull out, so it caused them more pain than it did you." She patted Allia on the back. "Don't worry, sister, answers are coming. Everyone else is waiting in Camara Tal's room, and that's right down the hall. Let me go get them, and we can get you up to speed in just a blink."

  "Thank you, sister," Allia said with a sincere look. "For believing in me."

  "I knew you were being controlled, Allia," Keritanima grinned. "If you want to know the truth, me and Tarrin were going to use you to feed misinformation to the Council. We knew whatever we told you would somehow end up on their desks. But we got wildly lucky, so we decided to dispense with that plan."

  Allia looked at her wildly, then laughed. "You would use even me? Your own sister?" she asked in insincere indignation.

  "Honey, when things get that serious, I'll use my own husband," Keritanima grinned in reply "Now let me go get the others, so we can get going."

  "Sapphire, go with Kerri," Tarrin called. "Remember, nobody goes alone," he reminded her.

  "Oh, right. Sapphire, come on!" she called as she opened the door. The drake landed on her shoulder, and they exited quickly.

  While they waited, Tarrin had Allia sit down on the divans to recover herself. She sat beside Allyn, and held his hand and looked upon him in sincere concern. Allia's feelings for the boy had not changed, and in a way he suspected that they had never been part of the controlling spell over her, and he was glad of that. She deserved love and happiness. And if chose Allyn, then Tarrin would accept that choice as freely and as happily as he had accepted Keritanima's choice of Rallix. Now that he knew that Allyn had been controlled, Tarrin found no animosity in his heart towards the boy. He was certain that some of his bad angles were ingrained by training and conditioning rather than control, but he could be changed, made to understand the true culture of his people and learn to accept it. Or, Tarrin suspected, Allia would train him in the Selani way and take him home with her. Allyn probably wouldn't be able to stand up to Allia for long, but he'd better learn. Allia would get annoyed with him if she could control him that easily. Allia wanted a strong mate, someone to compete with her, challenge her body and mind, make them both better in their competition. That was the Selani way. The boy was going to have to learn quite a bit in a very short time if he wanted to keep Allia's interest.

  Tarrin leaned down and put his paw on Allyn's shoulder, and the boy looked up at him in bleary confusion. "Honored one? Why do I have such a headache?"

  "It'll pass in a few moments, Allyn," Tarrin told him gently. "I had to sweep a few skeletons out of your closet. I'm sorry it hurt, but there was no other way."

  "What are you talking about, honored one?" Iselde asked.

  "I won't explain it yet. You may not believe me," Tarrin answered her. "Let's wait for Auli. She'll be able to confirm everything I tell you. That way we don't have to waste alot of time with stubborn bickering."

  "Why would we not believe you, honored one?" Allyn said with simplicity. "What reason would you have to lie to us?"

  "In a moment of time, dear heart, you will find one," Allia told him with powerful eyes. "What he will tell you is the truth. I know it. If you do not believe him, then believe me."

  Allyn looked at her, his eyes clearing and his expression slowly showing his recovery from his pounding headache. "I would never doubt you, my heart," he told her calmly.

  Tarrin looked at Allia, she at him, and the unspoken declaration passed between them. She smiled fondly at him and patted the paw on Allyn's shoulder. Tarrin accepted her mate. That pleased her greatly.

  "You look ridiculous in that dress, sister," he told her with a smile.

  "I feel a little ridiculous," she admitted in Selani. "I think my desire to wear it was put in me. I think they took my love for Allyn and twisted it into my only passion."

  "That would make sense," he told her. "Since you're Selani, I don't think they could control you with the same weaves they used to control the Sha'Kar. You maybe related, but you do have a different mind. So they had to use something simpler on you, something that could be easy and simple yet dominate your thinking. Working on an emotion like love can definitely do that." He grimaced. "I think if I wouldn't have taken sides against Allyn, you wouldn't have reacted the way you did when we had the fight. If I would have been a little more diplomatic, I don't think it would have come out the way it did."

  "You were being you, brother. Don't kick yourself for it," she told him gently. "Just as you told me not to blame myself for what I said, I'm telling you right now not to blame yourself for how it started. It's over, it's in the past, and it meant nothing. So it's not even worth our time to remember it."

  As always, she knew exactly what to say. Tarrin leaned down and put his forehead against hers. She giggled a little and rubbed her forehead against him. "I love you, sister," he said sincerely.

  "And I you, my brother. Now that we've made up, sit down and let me introduce you to my lover the right way."

  Chapter 18

  It was a crisp, cool night. The stars were out and shining brightly, and though only one moon, the Red Moon Vala, was high in the sky, the Skybands provided more than enough light for those on the ground to see. They were Sha'Kar, returning home after a party held by one of the most prominent women on the island, a party that had been attended by nearly half of the island's inhabitants. They walked along in a good mood, many of them flushed with wine and drug, talking animatedly about nothing of importance, rumors and gossip and whispered promises of the delights to be indulged once they returned to their estates. They moved in boisterous security, assured of their safety by the nature of their island and centuries of established habits.

  They had no idea they were being watched.

  Tarrin squatted on the corner of a roof of one of the estate houses near to the central estate, the estate of the Grand, with Sapphire perched on his shoulder. He had been stationed there for nearly two hours now, waiting for the party to break up, waiting patiently. They could not move until the Sha'Kar were off the streets, until they had returned to either their own estates or a companion's and either went to bed or engaged in other forms of entertainment.

  Everything was planned. They had gathered and talked about things a very long time, and after interviewing Auli, Allyn, and Iselde, a plan had been formed. Not that it had been easy. The first thing to overcome had been the disbelief of the two Sha'Kar siblings. They didn't want to believe what they were told, and in a way, he empathized and understood that. They had just learned that the very people they respected the most were responsible for using the vilest forms of mind control on them, and had murdered over three hundred of their own. It had shocked and horrified them, and much of the long session had been devoted to nursing to two of them out of their stupor and learning from them the patterns of the Sha'Kar, and most importantly, their uncle Arlan. Arlan was the wild card in the plan, for if he noticed all his guests were missing during the night, the Council was going to know something was going on. Tarrin, Keritanima, and Dolanna had sat down and devised a means to prevent Sha'Kar from spying on them from the Weave, a spell that would attack lurkers from them in the form of their connection to their bodies. It was a hastily engineered spell, but it worked. When woven, it forced a lurker to return to his or her body. They would cast it over and over again before anyone left the house, sweeping the house clean of spies, and then, after they gave up
trying, they'd start to move.

  Most of the others weren't moving yet, but they would soon. Tarrin had a very important task in their very delicate plan, and that was rather simple. There were some Sha'Kar who were very old and very strong. Tarrin would visit them during the night, while they were sleeping, and defeat the control that their amulets put over them. He wouldn't have time to do it for all of them before sunrise, but he knew which ones to visit first. Auli, Iselde, and Allyn had given them a complete list of the strongest Sorcerers, and Keritnaima had compiled it with Auli's help into a list in descending order of ability. The very first woman on that list was Auli's mother, regarded as the strongest and most skilled Sorceress on the island outside the Council. He had his list in his pocket, complete with where their estates were, who they were known to associate with, and what times they commonly went to bed. That was the information that Keritanima wanted from the Sha'Kar, a very detailed itinerary of the patterns Tarrin's targets. Between Auli and Iselde, there was very little that they didn't know about the habits of the other Sha'Kar. They were prominent gossippers, and such things always ended up in gossip. Using that information, Tarrin would find them, either in their own beds or someone else's, find them and defeat the control the amulets had over them.

  Keritanima's target number was fifty. She wanted him to free at least fifty before sunrise. Fifty of the strongest of the Sha'Kar. Keritanima reasoned that that many would be more than capable of fending off the rest if it came down to a fight, especially since if it did come to a fight, the Council wouldn't be in it helping the others. They'd have their hands full with Tarrin.

  A trickier problem had been with the humans. The Sha'Kar couldn't control them as they had their own, so that meant that some of them were working for the Council. Tarrin doubted that they all were, and he suspected a similar pattern. A few humans were free and working with the Council, but the rest were under the effects of mental control. The key was to find out which were willing and which were not, and that also hinged as one of the cornerstones of the plan. Without the humans to help them, the Sha'Kar would be limited to seven in a circle. So to prevent them from building up a Circle that could wipe them out, they had to eliminate the humans as an asset to the Council.