The Shadow Realm

by James Galloway

  That enviable task had fallen to Dar, Dolanna, and Keritanima, with Binter along to defend the queen. It wasn't going to be easy, and they only had one night. They had left first, going to a party that the humans had thrown for themselves, since they tended to not be welcome at the Sha'Kar parties. Keritanima had gone along to help the two humans as they would try somehow to work their way into a position where they could check amulets for signs of mental control. Tarrin had shown them specifically what to look for, and armed with that knowledge, they would be able to detect the weave that sought to keep everything else hidden, including itself. They would attend the party, try to discern just who was under control and who was not, then move to break that control in the same manner that Tarrin was with the Sha'Kar. Keritanima didn't need all the Sha'Kar to be freed for the plan to work, but it was absolutely imperative that all the humans were taken out of the equation. To the point where Keritanima told them that the humans may have to be physically removed if necessary. Dolanna assured her that she knew a way to put all the humans out without hurting them, and Keritanima acceded to Dolanna's idea. A simple mind weave that induced sleep was easy to cast, and it could be set to linger for hours and hours. So long as the effect lingered, it would be virtually impossible to wake the victim up.

  There were other tasks, important ones. Kimmie and Phandebrass were already hard at work trying to find or create a spell that would summon a Demon. Tarrin had one specific Demon in mind, and that was Shiika. If they could get Shiika onto the island, the Succubus could run wild all over the Sha'Kar. They wouldn't be able to do anything to her, and she could put them down without much effort with her powerful mind-affecting magic. Without Shiika's True Name, Phandebrass admitted to Tarrin that it was going to be very difficult. Between the limitations of Wizardry and the Ward around the island, they may not be successful. But it was a worthwhile gamble, and they all agreed to that. Shiika by herself could all but guarantee victory for them. If she did hear their summons, there was intense speculation as to whether or not she could penetrate the Ward. The Ward was a creation of magic native to this world, and as such Shiika would be absolutely immune to it. But it was also a creation of the gods, and that may give it the power to hinder her. They were split as to whether or not Shiika could breach the Ward, but they all agreed that it was still worth their time to try. As they all knew, Shiika could take the Sha'Kar and put them in the palm of her hand with very little opposition. Shiika's powers were not flashy or destructive as they were with most Demons, but in truth, hers were the most powerful. She was no warrior or magical powerhouse, and in a fight, she would quickly lose to one. But she controlled those who were much stronger than she, and that gave her more power than those who thought that they were above her. The Council had shown Tarrin the incredible power of being able to control others, and there was no being on Sennadar more effective at controlling others than Shiika.

  Azakar, Camara Tal, Sisska, and Miranda also had a task, but it was one which they were not happy to accept. They remained behind in the estate, and in their guard was placed Zarina, Auli, Iselde, Allyn, and the redheaded girl that Tarrin had claimed earlier that night, whose name was Liza. Liza didn't know she was being guarded, only knowing that the honored one himself had asked her to come to the room and act as a personal servant and maid to the group while they were there. The presence of the three Sha'Kar didn't make that an unusual request.

  The planning had a specific goal. To break enough of the Council's hold over the Sha'Kar so that tomorrow, the Sha'Kar would not cause them any serious problems once the Council was dethroned as the ruling body of Sha'Kari. That would take place at sunrise, and that plan, another of Keritanima's, was absolutely brilliant in its elegant simplicity. Tarrin would simply call the Council together and announce he was taking over. Sha'Kar society and culture recognized him, a sui'kun, as a ruler. The seven sui'kun were the seven Keepers of the towers before the Breaking. That was why they called him honored one, and Auli had demonstrated the deep-seated impulse the Sha'Kar had to obeying those above them. If that was one of the functions of the amulets, Keritanima saw no reason to use it against the Council. And the Council would have no real reason to deny him his rightful place. It would go against Sha'Kar tradition, and that was one of the traditions the Council had kept alive, so as to retain a sense of continuity among the Sha'Kar and also use as a tool to help keep the rest of their people under the Council's control. Keritanima could think of no rational reason the Council could give to him or their own people as to why Tarrin should not replace the Grand and lead the Council. The Council had created the tenets of the society they controlled, and Keritanima intended to use it as a weapon against them.

  That was the plan, and it seemed to Tarrin to be a good one. It wasn't exhaustively complicated, addressing the main obstacles to taking down the Council and allowing them to do so with a minimum of bloodshed. That was very important to all of them, because as far as they were concerned, the only guilty parties on the island were the Council, the Grand, and the humans that were willingly working with them. They didn't want to have to be forced to fight people who were fighting them because they were being magically controlled. That could very well happen if the Council got wind of what they were doing before they finished, or they moved to protect themselves when Tarrin came to pay them a call. If things worked as they all hoped they would, Tarrin would simply walk in, take over the rulership of the Council, and then dissolve it. Then he'd turn around and kill them all.

  After all, there was no way he was going to allow them to live, after what he'd seen what they were capable of. He hadn't told Keritanima that yet, but she'd find out once he started slaughtering them.

  Another advantage of the plan was that all of it didn't have to succeed in order for the plan itself to be successful. Tarrin could fail to get fifty, Dar, Keritanima, and Dolanna could fail to discover who was controlling the humans, and Phandebrass and Kimmie could fail to Summon Shiika. The main core of the plan was Tarrin's hostile takeover of the Council. The freeing of the Sha'Kar and the containment of the humans were conditional actions they needed to take in case the Council refused and attempted to turn all the Sha'Kar against them. And that wasn't even an absolute, because even Keritanima wasn't sure what the Sha'Kar would do if the Council ordered them to attack the honored one. That may take things too far even for them, control or no control. But being wise, none of them were going to assume that the Sha'Kar would not turn hostile if they were commanded to do so.

  "They're thinning out," Sapphire said in a low whisper from his shoulder. " How much longer?"

  "As soon as they're all off the streets," he answered in a quiet tone, surveying things. There were only a few scattered pockets of slowly ambling Sha'Kar, probably the most drunken ones.

  "Where do we go first?" she asked.

  Tarrin pointed to an estate on the southwest edge of the town. "That one," he answered.

  "Do you want me to go scout it for you?"

  "No, let's both stay out of sight," he told her. "Thanks for the offer."

  "I'd rather check things out before you go. I don't want to see you get hurt," she told him.

  "I love you too, little one," he said absently yet sincerely, reaching up and patting her forepaws fondly. "But I'll be fine. These Sha'Kar aren't very alert, especially now that half of them are drunk and the other half either asleep or very distracted. They don't post guards. Goddess, they don't even lock their doors. They'll never see us."

  "I hope so."

  "Me too."

  They waited in silence for about ten more minutes, until the last pack of Sha'Kar, a large family, finally piled into their estate. Tarrin silently climbed down the wall of the manor home on which he was perched, then ran across the lawn and jumped the fence in utter silence, his black fur and clothing blending in with the dark shadows, making him all but invisible. His instinctual understanding of stalking and moving without detection made him little more than a ghost, and he could have
literally ran right in front of a Sha'Kar, and they would not have noticed him, so silently and stealthily he moved. He covered the ground to Auli's estate in a tenth of the time it took the Sha'Kar, moving with speed of purpose along the winding white stone pathways. He vaulted the fence without breaking his stride, and covered the considerable distance between the fence and the main manor house very quickly. Auli had described her home to him fully, and he knew that a servant's entrance on the east side of the house would give him the fastest and most direct route from the outside to her mother's bedchamber. That was where he moved, skirting around the house and skulking up to the door, which was remarkably plain. Tarrin put his ear to the door and listened, for the kitchen was on the far side and Auli warned him that one of the servants may be in the kitchen that time of night, for one of her sisters and one of her uncles both liked meals just before bed. And of course, the servants prepared and delivered them. But there was no sound coming from inside, meaning that the coast was clear.

  Tarrin opened the door quickly and slipped inside, then closed it behind him. He was indeed in a kitchen, a huge chamber of a kitchen with two firepits, three stoves, and four ovens dispersed between countertop after countertop and pantry after pantry. It looked like a barracks kitchen responsible for feeding hundreds of men, not a kitchen to prepare meals for sixteen Sha'Kar. That was Auli's extended family, the population of the estate. Tarrin took stock of his surroundings, pausing to sniff at a few stoves, and could tell that it had been a while since the last meal had been prepared. He must have gotten there before those late eaters ordered their nightly dinners from the servants. There had been a couple of female servants in the kitchen not long ago, but their scents had them leaving towards the two rooms that the eight human female maids were allotted in the main house, down a small side passage off the kitchen.

  With a nudge at Sapphire to get her off his shoulder, Tarrin shapeshifted into his cat form, the kitchen blurring and then taking on another perspective, as he looked up at everything rather than down. His cat form was alot less conspicuous, and there was always a chance someone was going to come out a door while he was walking past. With sixteen Sha'Kar and the Goddess knows how many guests they had tonight, the chances were quite good. Sapphire landed on the ground beside him and nodded, folding up her wings. She'd seen him shapeshift before, but since he'd had mates in his beds lately, he saw little reason to shapeshift anymore. But this was one of those times when it was very useful. After a quick moment of negotiation as the Cat came more fully into the forefront of his mind, he padded towards the passageway that Auli had described. Her mother's chamber was at the end of that passage, a huge double door set at the end of the hall, and Auli warned him that the passageway traversed almost the entirety of the manor. Auli's mother preferred living on the ground floor, so she wouldn't have to climb any steps. It was very unlike Arlan's room, which was on the third floor of his estate.

  Tarrin and Sapphire padded into the hallway, and moved both quickly and carefully. Tarrin put his nose to the floor and checked for recent scents, and found none. None at all, except for a few servants. That struck him as odd. There were eight bedrooms along that passage. None of them had returned to them yet? As often as the Sha'Kar slept over at another estate, that was a possibility. Auli admitted that she slept in her own room about one night in six, and even then she usually wasn't alone.

  They encountered no one along the long walk to the end of the passage, where a huge set of double doors with massive crystal handles rested, the house name chased in silver on doors that looked to be sheathed in beaten gold. There were little clear crystals also embedded in the gold, making the whole thing shimmer as the light that radiated steadily from the walls caught in the crystals and was refracted. It was, by far, the gaudiest display he'd seen from the Sha'Kar so far. Most Sha'Kar decorations weren't half as loud as this one. Auli said her mother was a little eccentric. These doors tended to agree with that observation.

  It was the place, however. With a quick look around, Tarrin shapeshifted back into his humanoid form, and then put his ear and his paw against the door. There was no sound from within, a good sign. Auli said her mother was an early sleeper, and tended to wake up earlier than most other Sha'Kar. Tarrin grabbed the pull ring and opened the door, doing it slowly, so its weight didn't make the door squeak on the hinges.

  The room beyond was absolutely palatial. It was much larger than Arlan's chamber, and was almost spartanly decorated. There was only one sculpture, on the far side of the room, near the raised dais upon which the bed sat. There were five paintings and two tapestries, and there was also an ancient shield hanging from the wall, that had a coat of arms of some sort on it. It looked to be thousands of years old, from the archaic design of the shield. There were a couple of bookshelves near a trio of bureaus near the bed as well, and there was a whole lot of empty space between the chamber door and the nearest chair. There were about five chairs and a divan sitting on the far side of the room, probably where the woman received visitors, and there was a very large, ornate desk with a padded chair before it against the back wall. There were strange little cabinets to each side of that desk, probably for holding papers. Each had several small drawers. Arlan did his family paperwork in a study down the hall from his bedchamber. It looked like Auli's mother preferred to do it from her room. On the far wall were three other doors set closely together, probably closets, and an archway in the corner that opened into a bathing room that held a pool that, from that distance, looked to be the size of a large pond.

  In the bed, Tarrin could see a single figure, laying still. The blankets were pulled up around it, so he couldn't get a good look, but the very faint scent told him it was a female Sha'Kar. Auli said she'd probably be alone. She preferred her male company in the morning and afternoon, saying that night time was for sleeping, not fooling around.

  Quietly closing the door behind him, Tarrin motioned for Sapphire to stay put, standing on the floor next to the door, and padded quietly towards the woman. He wasn't sure how lightly Sha'Kar slept, but he was pretty sure he could get close enough to her without waking her up. He didn't need to see her amulet to weave that counterspell into it, but the proximity would make it much easier. The closer he got, the easier it would be.

  Tarrin padded closer and closer to the woman, and then his ears picked up. Something wasn't right. He was getting closer, but the smell of her wasn't getting any closer. He should be able to scent her much more strongly now, but there was still nothing but that faint scent. Tarrin stopped about ten paces from the closest chair, looking carefully at the woman that was still about thirty spans away from him. She wasn't moving and she was laying on her side, so he couldn't get a good look at her, but the braided blond hair marked her as Auli's mother, all right. Auli had described her to him. Long blond hair, and she'd have it in a braid so she could sleep comfortably. He was only thirty spans away. Why hadn't her scent become stronger?

  Tarrin hunkered down on all fours and carefully checked the floor, but there was no scent there. He rose up again and thoroughly tested the air, and realized that the scent was faint because it was old. Not very old, but there was no fresh smell of the woman in the room. And yet, there she lay.

  That wasn't just not right, that was downright suspicious. He took a very cautious step back, away from the bed, not turning around so as not to turn his back on a potential enemy. His eyes scanned the room quickly as he crushed all his wild speculations on why things were wrong, what had happened. He'd think about what the hell was going on once he got out of the room, got to safety. He couldn't see or smell or hear or even sense any threats to him in the room, but the lack of congruency about this situation made him nervous and alert. He reached out with his senses and checked the woman on the bed, and to his shock, he realized that it was nothing but an Illusion. That was why she had no scent!

  It came so quickly that it honestly took him by surprise. Absolutely out of nowhere, Tarrin felt a very strong power in Sorce
ry. By the time he felt it, registered its presence, he felt that power surround him, enclose him, seek to smother his magical self beneath it. Tarrin instinctively understood that that was what he did to that male Sha'Kar to cut him off from the Weave, that he was experiencing it from the wrong side. Tarrin struck back, blasting his will against that power in an attempt to break through it and reach the Weave, but the power was too heavily reinforced, too well created for him to be able to break it with brute force.

  Tarrin realized what had happened immediately. Only a Circle could cut him off from the Weave, and there was only one Circle that would have reason to try!

  The Council knew what he was doing!

  Shock and betrayal raging through him, Tarrin turned on the sense of that power. The shield they had put around him didn't interfere with his sense of the magic, it only stopped him from using his power. They were behind him. Inside the room!

  They were there. All nine of them, and seven were joined in a Circle. They had been standing in the room the whole time, and Tarrin hadn't seen them, heard them, or even smelled them! He still couldn't smell them! They must have used some kind of magical Ward to prevent him from sensing their presence! Sapphire, startled by their miraculous appearance, vaulted into the air flew over to land on Tarrin's shoulder, hissing at them dangerously from her perch.