“You forget, I know that trick.”
“Ah, yes, our previous meeting. Then you remember how good fresh blood tastes.”
Talia stood slowly. There has to be a way out of this. Think!
In one fluid movement Shishali tackled her. They slammed into the ground. Talia’s newly healed lungs took a beating as the air rushed out of them. The Dragumon straddled her, making it even harder to draw a breath.
“Why don’t you kill me like the councilwoman? Remember how much you enjoyed that?” Talia wheezed the words but pushed the memory from her mind.
“I’m sure you would like that. But no, a quick death won’t be as entertaining for me. I want to show you what I’m going to do to the people on this planet. Where to start? How about your shoulders?” Shishali swept away the tattered fabric covering Talia’s shoulder and sunk her talons halfway through before pulling them out.
Talia clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, but she couldn’t stop the moan from escaping. Shishali drew her talon along her shoulder blade and halfway down her arm, then peeled the skin away from the muscle beneath.
“How does that feel little mage?” Shishali ripped a section of skin from her other shoulder. “Now why don’t you tell me how you killed Nysyk?”
“Didn’t.” Talia hissed and bit her tongue as a strip was ripped from her stomach.
“You still lie?” Shishali growled. “It doesn’t matter, he’s gone and you will pay for it.”
Talia burned with each rip of skin. The breeze stung instead of soothed. Healing energy came, but Shishali sliced and peeled faster than Talia could keep up. Her blood mingled with the earth beneath her, but she could no longer feel it as it flowed from her. She stopped pulling the energy needed to heal and thought of her parents.
I’ll be with you soon. She sobbed as the pain consumed her.
Shishali paused. “Every human I find will suffer a slow death because you are too weak to stop me.” She ripped a length of skin from across Talia’s chest.
Talia screamed and arched her back. It was as if her body tried to stay close to the removed skin that stuck to the Dragumon’s talon.
“Maybe I’ll let you live so you can watch. If only there were someone special I could start with.” She cocked her head to the side and her ears swiveled around. “A male perhaps? Talia, where are you?” She finished in a mocking voice.
“No!”
“Oh yes, he’s coming, but not close enough yet. Perhaps he needs to hear you scream some more?”
Shishali lifted Talia’s arm and twisted, breaking it at the elbow. She tried not to scream, but the pain would not be held in. Talia’s eyesight blurred.
Talia! Where are you? Landry’s voice sounded in Talia’s head, bringing a moment of clarity. She envisioned him running through the woods.
He’ll try to save me, but she’ll kill him too.
“I won’t let you kill him.” Talia forced the words out and opened her eyes.
“You can’t stop me.” Shishali’s lips curled up in her cruel smile. She looked around the clearing. “Not much longer now.”
A raging fire ignited deep within Talia. It matched the fire burning on her skin. She remembered the feel of life slipping through Shishali’s fingers. Remembered her delight in death. Talia had lost the fight for herself, but she would kill for Landry. The hot knot of anger grew and spread. Talia opened her mind and drew energy from deep within the suns, losing all sense of control as she stared into eyes that mirrored hers.
“Talia!” Landry’s voice sounded close.
“Another human to welcome to our party.” Shishali wrapped her hands around Talia’s neck and lifted her to a sitting position, oblivious to the static electricity filling the air.
Talia no longer felt the claws, but she welcomed the connection. Reaching out with her good arm she gripped Shishali in an embrace.
Just a little more.
Talia pulled energy until it burst free from her skin.
Chapter 35
Talia woke to darkness.
A dull ache enveloped her entire body. Her skin stretched tight. Stiff. A light shone above, but it was fuzzy. She blinked until her eyes focused on the smooth gray metal that curved above.
The autodoc.
She lifted a hand to push the release latch and saw the bandages. The hatch swished open and the light streamed in, making Talia’s eyes water. She squinted up at Landry as he extended a hand to her.
“Are you trying to kill yourself?” he whispered. His brow furrowed and his gaze bore through her.
“What happened?” The blood rushed from her head and her hands trembled slightly.
Landry slowly unraveled the bandages from one arm. Talia’s skin glowed pink, but other than the fact it was completely hairless, it appeared to be undamaged. Talia searched Landry’s face. She searched for his mind, but the wall blocked her completely.
“What do you remember?” He glanced at her, but kept his head bent over her other arm as he worked on those bandages.
“I . . . well, I went for a walk.” Talia paused to concentrate on the memory floating just out of sight. As it came into focus, her heart sped up. She clutched Landry’s hand. “There’s a Dragumon in the forest! Did you stop her?”
“No, Talia.” His voice sounded sad.
“I’m certain I remember a red Dragumon. The female, Shishali.” Talia bit her lip and closed her eyes.
“Yes, there was a Dragumon, but I didn’t stop her. You did.” His voice tapered to a soft caress.
“How?” Talia forced the word out and inhaled a shuddery breath. Her mind didn’t want to remember. Maybe she should have left it at that.
Landry rubbed her hand between his thumb and finger. “Now isn’t the best time for this. You’re still weak, and we only have a few hours until sunsrise.”
Another day had passed?
He lowered the side of the autodoc, Talia slid her legs around and stood with shaky knees.
“That’s my girl. I want to take you outside. Let the trees work their magic on you.”
“The autodoc healed me completely last time. Why do I feel so weak now?”
He sighed heavily, wrapped his arm around her waist, and leaned his forehead against hers. Talia tensed as she listened to his shallow breathing. His fingers curled into the fabric of her shirt, clinging, drawing her closer.
“Your injuries were a lot worse this time. The autodoc can only do so much. The rest takes time.”
“Landry, I want to know what happened. No, I don’t want to know, but I need to know. What did I do? Why can’t I remember?” Talia breathed him in, but it didn’t calm her.
“I can show you, but Talia, isn’t it bad enough that I’ll see it for the rest of my life? I thought you were gone.” The heat from his body burned through her clothing.
Heat.
Memories rained down on her. Talia closed her eyes and slid her head over to rest near his heart. Her heart matched his heart’s wild rhythm.
“She would have killed you. I knew I couldn’t let that happen. I don’t know what I did though. Landry, I’m scared. Tell me what I did.” She looked up at him, pleading with her eyes.
He couldn’t meet her stare, but looked away. “I’ll show you. God, forgive me, but I’ll show you.”
Talia trembled at the anguish in his voice. What did I do?
His memory opened up before her. She lay on the ground, hands grasping the Dragumon’s arm as Shishali choked the life out of her. Talia could see the blood-soaked ground, littered with strips of her skin. The air shimmered around them like a mirage on a hot day. She heard Landry call her name. And then her static-filled hair reached out to caress the red shoulders above her right before everything burst into flames.
It looked just like her nightmares. She became a writhing ball of heat and pain. But this time she took the Dragumon with her. Seconds passed and the Dragumon cooked inside her scales. Shishali shriveled and fell to the side, releasing Talia from her grasp. Cha
rred. Black and red. Convulsing as the electricity of her life energy drifted away from her body.
“How?” Talia swallowed hard, relaxed her hands that had balled into fist, and tried again. “How did I live through that.”
His memory continued. Landry kicked the corpse of the Dragumon away and knelt by her side. His hands hovered above her body, feeling the life force that remained. Removing his shirt, he wrapped it around her before lifting her into his arms. Talia’s blood and skin stuck to his shirt and his chest wherever they touched. His skin blistered from the heat, but he held her close. He gazed into the sky and rocked her back and forth.
Landry whispered in her ear. “I begged the trees to keep you from dying. Holding you close, I used your magic for you. The trees showed me how to gather energy tendrils, repair the worst damage, and stop the energy from draining away long enough for me to get you to the autodoc.”
Talia wiped her tears away by moving her face against his chest. When she looked up, his eyes glistened.
“I’m a monster. Why did you save me?”
His eyes widened and he exhaled as if she had punched him. He released her so he could cup her face in his hands.
“Never, never think that.” He kissed her forehead and dropped his hands to sweep her up into his arms. The quick upward motion made her dizzy. She clung to him.
“Landry—”
“Shh. No more for now. I’m taking you outside.”
Landry set Talia against a tree with strict orders not to move. He then moved through the camp making sure everyone was ready for the sunsrise. Thousands of tents dotted the field and forest, glowing white in the moonslight. Pockets of shadow and light flickered through the trees, illuminating mages as they practiced calling the magic to them. The number of people with mage blood surprised Talia. It gave her hope that they could pull the unbinding spell off. She knew that their untrained powers were weak, but together it might just be enough.
The numbers also terrified her. How many of these people knew of their talents before this week? How well could they control the flow of magic? Talia had used magic all her life. She thought she could control it. Shishali had proved her wrong.
Anger had unleashed a power greater than she had imagined, and another sentient being died because the magic broke free. The few days of training from Jaron would not be enough to teach control. And what about the ethics for use of the magic? He didn’t talk about those things. Jaron taught them how to recognize the magic that filled their world and call it to them. He taught them how to open up to its power and welcome it in. Instinct made this easy, but they needed to learn how to focus and manage the strength of energy flowing from their hands. What if someone lost control during the unbinding?
Talia shuddered at the thought.
Landry stepped into the moonslight, shoulders stiff, his hands balled into fists. With a sigh, he sat next to her and the tightness around his eyes eased. Taking both of her hands in his, he kissed her fingertips. She felt his weariness as he leaned against her and the tree.
“What’s wrong?”
“It looks like Rankin worked for the Signum. It took our hackers a long time to access his personal files. We can’t find him to confirm his motives, but he hid vital information about the Dragumon from us before disappearing.”
“Oh.” Talia squeezed his hand.
“Ten years. Ten years and I never picked up on his duplicity. How did he hide it from me?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he didn’t work for the Signum. There are lots of other possibilities.”
“Maybe. It doesn’t matter now because we still can’t find any trace of him.” Landry turned to study her face. “You look better.”
“Thanks. How’s it going out there?” She nodded toward the crowd.
His eyes darkened as he looked over the scene she had contemplated moments before.
“Good I guess. Everyone is excited.”
“But?”
“This is a lot of people. What’s going to happen now that they’ve felt the power flowing through them? They’re not going to go quietly home and forget all they’ve learned here.”
The fear that teased Talia moments before flared. What had they done? Thousands of new mages with no rules and very little training now knew of their potential. How had they missed the implications of what they had set in motion?
“Major,” a young man called as he ran toward them. People stopped to glance at him, a few drifted in his wake. “Major Sutton, Jaron wants to see you and Miss Zaryn.” He huffed as he bent over and rested his hands on his knees.
“It’s about time he returned.” Landry stood, pulling Talia with him. They followed the man through the woods, past mages as they practiced gathering magic to them. They formed balls of light in blue, gold, silver, or red, before letting the energy return to the air and wildlife around them.
Jaron was surrounded by mages along a strip of forest that lined a small lake. Talia didn’t recognize him at first. He leaned against a tree trunk and had aged at least thirty years. His blond hair glowed white in the moonslight, and his face sagged around the eyes and cheeks. He looked thinner, the loose skin barely holding his bones together. She sunk to the ground next to him.
“What happened?”
Jaron waved the question away. “You must do the unbinding with the sunsrise on this day. With Jewel’s guidance you cannot fail.” He paused to catch his breath.
Jaron’s voice sounded like the scratch of pencil across paper, and his body seemed to sink farther into the ground as they watched. The only things unchanged were his eyes.
No, that wasn’t true either. They now burned a brighter blue than before. Darkness had clouded them, swirling deep within them, but now they were clear and bottomless. It was like looking into the depths of a clear mountain lake without any ripples disturbing the surface.
“What happened to you Jaron?” Talia leaned closer in an effort to hear him better.
“Jewel freed me from the demon that has kept me alive all these years. I will not live to see the sunsrise, or your victory. But I have found peace. I am ready to join my wife. You must remember there is good magic and there is evil magic. Do not allow yourself to give in the way I did. I almost lost my soul. There are horrible things in my past. I’m as bad as the Dragumon. If Dailya turns me away . . .” He broke into a fit of coughing.
“We can’t do this without you! Landry, can you do anything?” Talia grabbed Landry’s arm and pulled him down next to her.
Jaron waved Landry away. “Let me die. Jewel will be more help than me. You are strong together and there are many talented mages in this forest. Believe in your destiny. Jewel placed the items on the roof of one of the buildings in the center of the city.” He paused to cough some more, and it seemed that he aged another ten years.
“Before I die, there is one last thing I need to confess. I need to ask your forgiveness for something I did on this planet.” Jaron turned to Landry. “You asked how I knew you and Talia had the gifts of magic. My answer was a lie. I knew about Talia because I saw her glean the energy from her surroundings and heal herself on the tram.” He paused and his words sank in.
“You were on the tram?” Landry’s face hardened and he tried to pull Talia away from Jaron even though it was obvious he could no longer hurt either of them.
“Yes. Disguised, I infiltrated the Signum to find a way to defeat the Dragumon. There were other ways to accomplish my goals, but the demon inside grew stronger as I grew weaker. Every time I tried to find a way out of destroying the tram, it would reassert its strength and I lost that battle.” He turned his head away from them.
The betrayal crushed all the air out of Talia’s lungs. “All those people. How could you let them die?” Keeta.
“I convinced myself a few deaths were justified if the demon would help me destroy the Dragumon. They have killed so many. More than can be numbered.” Jaron did not speak again after that.
Talia and Landry sat in silence, lost i
n their own thoughts until Jaron took his last breath. Only then did Talia remember he asked for her forgiveness. He must have known it would take a while before she could give it, because he had not pressed for it. Landry assigned some men to bury him before the morning came.
An hour later, thousands of new mages silently stepped into position around the city of Joharadin. Evenly spaced to surround the city in a giant circle.
Jewel returned twenty minutes before the sunsrise, and took up a perch on a tall building near the center of the circle. She relayed sense observations to Talia as she sat overlooking the city.
The Dragumon slept without fear.
With the sunsrise only minutes away, Landry stood behind Talia at the edge of the forest. His arms wrapped around her as they waited for the suns to rise.
“How are you holding up?” Landry’s voice tickled her ear.
“Fine. No. I’m angry, nervous. What if this doesn’t work?” She melted into his warmth and clung to the arms folded across her chest.
“It will. Your whole life points to this moment, and you have thousands to help you.”
“But Jaron lied to us. What if he’s wrong about all of this? We’ve wasted our time when we could have been trying something else.”
“What does your heart say? I don’t think he was wrong about the unbinding.”
“I hope not. If this doesn’t work I don’t know what else we can do.”
“Shh. Have faith. Isn’t today your birthday? Make this your wish.”
“If only wishing were enough. So much has changed and there’s so much to learn.”
“At least you know you’re not alone.”
“I’m glad of that. Get ready, the sunsrise is almost here.” Talia’s arms tingled as the suns neared the horizon.
Landry spoke into the intercom on his collar, “Everyone into your places. Relax and remember what Jaron told us.” He released Talia and they stepped out into the clearing. “Good luck.”
“Thanks. Now get in your spot.” She shooed Landry away. He jogged several hundred feet away to the right and turned to face the city.
The Magic Wakes Page 23