by Victor Poole
She could see inside Delmar now, and see what the black magic was doing. She had hoped, when she told Delmar to touch the blackness, that Delmar's pure heart would prove too good for the shadowy skins of the dead black beasts. She was sure that the skins of the dragons were old, and that she had destroyed every living piece of the two black worms. These skins, she thought, Fernos must have collected over the space of many years. She told herself that Fernos had made a home for the dragons here, under the black mountain. The old king had lured the dragons here with the promise of great evil; the king had locked away and banished the priests, whom Ajalia thought would have sensed the presence of the black worms, and he had enforced strictly the testing and destruction of witches, so that the black worms had been drawn only up towards the palace, where the king had nibbled here and there at the white brands of all who lived there. The king had known about Lerond, Ajalia thought, and had kept him in the palace as a decoy.
When Fernos had killed the husband to the middle-aged princess, Ajalia remembered that he had done so with all the emotion of a man destroying a dying ox. Lerond had been useful to the king, Ajalia thought, because Lerond had been so annoying, and so obviously awful, that the king had been able to do what he liked in the background, while all the attention of the palace's inhabitants were fixed on the irritation that was Lerond.
The focus of Delmar, Ajalia remembered, had been on Lerond as well. Lerond had formed the narrative of Talbos; everyone believed that Lerond was the problem in Talbos. The old king was watching Ajalia, as she watched both Delmar and the king, and the old man's eyes were fierce with desire.
"Well?" the king snapped. "What do you see? Tell me what you see, tell me now," he commanded.
Ajalia kept herself from smiling. She watched the dark skins soak up into Delmar, with the affinity with which water draws into a dry sponge, and she watched the black pieces touch up against Delmar's soul, and break at once into shatteringly-bright colors.
Ajalia had seen, before, that the black worms were composed of crushed lights. The black dragons, she thought, had eaten up the energy below the world, and the souls of the people who lived on the face of the earth, and the dragons had compacted the lights and colors down into tight fragments, and coated them with shadows and lies. Ajalia remembered what Salla, the witch, had told her about the black poison tree juice. The witch had said that the poison juice burned away anything that was a lie, or that obscured the true nature of a thing. She remembered how the black tar-like blood of the poison tree had shimmered pearly white when Bain had touched it, and how Bain had frowned at her, and told her that the poison juice was always white. She remembered how Bain had told her that she could see real things, the way he could. Ajalia remembered how she had been afraid of the white poison juice, and how she had wanted to go back to seeing it black, the way everyone else in Slavithe saw it.
She saw now that Bain had been right about her ability to see. He had told her, she supposed, or meant to tell her that that was why she could see him, when no one else could. Ajalia saw the darkness in the mountain seep up into Delmar, and when the darkness touched against Delmar's soul, the crushed pieces of light and color expanded, as though released from a slingshot. They exploded out into the room, and then out into the air, and the sky, and the ground beyond. Ajalia wondered if the shattered fragments of people's souls would find their way back to those beings, or if the colors would sink down into the earth, to join the other streams of color that ran there.
"Am I turning bad?" Delmar asked. Ajalia did not want to say out loud what was happening; she kept her eyes fixed on the old king, and saw that he was staring hungrily at her, and at Delmar.
"Well?" the old king demanded.
"I can't see yet," Ajalia lied. "Let me look a little longer. I will kill you, if I need to," she told Delmar, who nodded. Ajalia kept her eyes fixed on the darkness that welled under the old king, and she had a new idea. Without moving her eyes, she imagined the wall of blue magic splitting up into many pieces, and forming into words. The guards murmured to each other when they saw the blue shining words, but the old king still could see nothing of the colored lights.
"What is happening?" the king demanded of the guards. Ajalia did not look at the guards, but she raised one hand, and cautioned the guards with an open palm. Their murmurings died slowly away, and their eyes watched the words that formed in front of Delmar. Ajalia saw Delmar nod slowly, and his body shifted. "Why are you nodding?" the king demanded. "What is going on?" The old king stood up. He was still behind the barrier of red-gold light that Delmar had thrust out to protect Ajalia, and the old king prowled now behind this, like a lion in a cage.
"Will you obey me now?" Fernos demanded, looking at Delmar. "You should have been turned, by now. All who touch the black dragons are turned. You will have to obey me now without question. The blackness is in your heart. I can feel it there. You are like me," Fernos breathed. "You are like me," Fernos said again, soothingly and lovingly.
"Yes," Delmar said. "Let me step closer to you, grandfather."
"Of course, my boy," Fernos crooned. "Come and take away this nasty bit of light that I cannot see. Oh!" Fernos said with a laugh. "You cannot see the lights anymore, can you? That's all right. You get used to working by feel, after a time. You will be my little helper now, won't you, Delmar?" the old king moaned. He was like the groaning of a dying tree. Delmar stepped through the blue words that Ajalia had made. Cut him off at the feet, the blue words read, and they scattered around Delmar when he stepped through them. Ajalia kept her eyes focused on the throbbing place where the old king was still connected to the black heap of shivering dragon skin below the mountain. She remembered the way Ullar had laughed, when Ajalia had mentioned killing a witch.
"You cannot kill a witch," Ullar had said, and Ajalia thought of the black cord that she had cut through, to sever the old witch's connection to the souls of her victims. Ajalia was sure that Fernos would be difficult, or impossible, to kill, or even to defeat as a political opponent, until the great cord of throbbing black power that connected the old king to the pieces of the dragons beneath the earth was cut through for good.
"I am going to cut through the magic that I trapped you with," Delmar told his grandfather. Delmar showed the knife in his hand. "I am going to cut away the magic, grandfather."
"Good, good," Fernos said, his eyes shining eagerly. "And then," the old king said, "you will help me to control that little slave of yours. Won't you?" the old king demanded.
"I do not want to control that slave," Delmar told his grandfather, inching closer with the knife outstretched. The blade of Ajalia's knife was a brilliant blue. Ajalia saw that Delmar was trying to see the place where Fernos was connected to the black power; she reached out with her mind, and stripped away the concealing magic that hid the black cord from view. She saw Delmar take in a breath of air; she knew that he could see the extending black line now.
"I know you do not want to harm her," the old man told Delmar, "but you see, she has not come around to our way of thinking yet. We must show her the right way. You release me from this corner, and cut away your nasty magic, and I will show you how to control her."
"I don't want to control Ajalia," Delmar said, and he stepped forward. Fernos's eyes widened a little, and his mouth gaped open, as Delmar moved through the wall of magic, and ducked behind the old man, cutting with the magically-imbued knife through the black cord that stretched from the old man's back to the floor of the room.
Several things happened all at once. The old man began to shriek, and to slap out at Delmar's face with fingers like claws. The black skins below the mountain gave a rumble, as though they would shiver to pieces. And finally, the guards, who had been watching this whole scene with the avid attention of wolves witnessing a bloody chase, let out a chorus of shattering whoops. Many of the guards clapped their hands together, as if they had witnessed a performance of some kind, and several of them stepped forward, and clapped Ajalia and Delmar on
the shoulders, or pressed their hands.
"You did it!" one of the guards told Ajalia earnestly, shaking her hand eagerly. Another guard stepped past Delmar, and pushed him aside. Three other guards were on the old king in a flash, and their spears were suddenly extending out of the old man's chest, as though the spears were saplings that had been growing quietly for many years, and had taken root in Fernos's heart.
"Congratulations," another guard shouted, taking Ajalia's hand from the first guard, and pressing her hand with both of his.
"That was just wonderful," another guard shouted, and Delmar, who had been pushed aside by the guard who had first gone straight to the king, came to Ajalia. The whole palace was beginning to shudder.
"Can we find somewhere quieter?" Delmar shouted to Ajalia, over the noise and congratulations of the guards, all of whom seemed overjoyed at the conclusion of the conflict with the king. Ajalia realized that she had not been breathing for some time; she nodded, and went with Delmar through the crushing bodies of the guards, who were now shaking their spears in the air, and joining together in an impromptu chant about the wonder of the Thief Lord, and the vanquishing of Fernos, whom they were already referring to as the dark king.
Delmar put an arm around Ajalia's waist, and made a protective shield with his body. Many of the guards, when they found they were just beside Ajalia, tried to grab at her hand, but Delmar half-carried her out of the room, and into an adjoining hallway.
"I don't know this part of the palace at all," Delmar said, and Ajalia saw for the first time that Delmar was trembling. A sheen of sweat was over his temples, and his hands, which he had pressed around her to get her out from among the guards, where hot and dry.
Ajalia studied Delmar for a moment, and then make a sharp click with her tongue.
"Delmar," she said. "Use the gold in the earth, not your soul." Delmar blinked at her several times.
"Oh," he said, and closed his eyes. Ajalia watched him draw cords of power into his body; the long stream of darkness, where the old skins of the dragons were colliding with Delmar's soul, and becoming vibrant, scattering colors, grew stable, thick, and strong. The trembling of his body ceased, and a shiver of relief went through Delmar's shoulders. He opened his eyes. "I forgot," he told her, and then he added, "My grandfather is dead."
"Yes, he is," Ajalia said. "Do you think he was really keeping priests locked up?" Delmar looked at Ajalia; she saw that he was still releasing the trapped light within the dragon skins, but that it was no longer costing him any of himself to do so. "You cannot hurt yourself like this," she berated him, pressing a hand against his cheek. Delmar sighed, and turned into her palm.
"I forgot," he said again.
"Don't forget," Ajalia said. Delmar blinked.
"I thought you would be pleased that I finished it. I won," Delmar said.
"Don't try to distract me with sentiment," Ajalia said. "You don't feel hurt, or wounded. You think you deserve to feel badly, and to feel pain. You don't deserve that. Stop forgetting to use the power in the earth."
Delmar stared at her hard, and for a moment, Ajalia thought that he was going to be angry with her.
"I'm sorry," he said finally. He went to the door of the room they had just left, and spoke to a few of the guards. Three of them followed Delmar back into the hall, carrying their spears.
"I am honored, sky angel," the foremost of these guards said, when he saw Ajalia. The guard's eyes were shining, and his mouth was quivering in a poorly-repressed smile.
"It is an honor, mistress," the second guard said, bowing deeply towards Ajalia. The third guard seemed totally overcome in the relative privacy of the hallway, and he only nodded, and blushed a violent scarlet.
"I want to see the priests," Ajalia told the three guards. They all three glanced at each other, and Ajalia saw guilty looks in their eyes. Ajalia held in a sigh. "Look," she told the guards. "The king was evil. I don't think you're evil. If you turn evil, then I will do something about it. Do you see how difficult it was for me, the sky angel, and the Thief Lord, who is turning now into the arisen falcon, to handle the evil dark king?"
The three guards, who seemed to catch on to what Ajalia was getting to, began to look a little hopeful.
"Yes, sky angel," the first guard said respectfully.
"We saw everything," the third guard said eagerly. The second guard nudged him hard in the ribs. "What?" the third guard whispered, and then he bit down hard on his lips. "Sorry," the third guard muttered to Ajalia.
"If it was so difficult for me to subdue the dark king," Ajalia asked the three guards, "what makes you think I could expect you to destroy him before I arrived?"
"You are as kind as you are wise, mistress," the second guard said, bowing again.
"Now stop flattering me, and show me the priests," Ajalia said.
"They're only being nice," Delmar told Ajalia.
"They're trying to find out if they can control me with words," Ajalia told Delmar. "Never trust a flattering servant." She saw the first guard glance swiftly at her, and then look away. "That man is clever," Ajalia told Delmar. "Find out what his name is, and make him your chief guard until you know what he is like."
"Are you teaching me more things now?" Delmar asked her with a smile.
"Yes," Ajalia said. "You must be a perfect king, if you are to withstand the cunning of my master."
"Will your master attempt to subvert me as king?" Delmar asked. He did not sound threatened; he sounded intrigued.
"If you were my master, and you came into a land with a sloppy fool for a king, would you let the king alone?" Ajalia asked. Delmar's mouth creased when she said "sloppy fool," but his eyes sharpened.
"You shouldn't have called me that," Delmar told her. The three guards were watching them avidly. The third guard's lips were parted gently, and the tip of his nose was quivering.
"I didn't call you anything," Ajalia told Delmar.
"You said 'sloppy fool' to me," Delmar pointed out.
"I created a hypothetical scenario, in which my master overcame a seemingly-incompetent king," Ajalia said. Delmar stared at her.
"You still called me a sloppy fool," Delmar said.
"No, I didn't," Ajalia said.
"You did," Delmar said. Ajalia saw that the first guard was watching Delmar closely, and that he wanted very much to interrupt.
"Your chief of the guard agrees with me," Ajalia told Delmar. "He is trying to learn things about you." Delmar turned, and stared hard at the first guard, who blushed.
"Are you doing that?" Delmar asked the first guard.
"My name is Aaron," the guard said, and then added, quickly, "my lord." Delmar's mouth twitched at the corners.
"Hm," Delmar said. "You're right about him being clever, I guess," he said to Ajalia. "Why aren't you taking us to the priests?" he added sharply, and Aaron bowed, and led the way down the hall. "I don't think I'm being foolish," Delmar muttered to Ajalia, as soon as the three guards were ahead of them.
"It doesn't matter what you are really doing or thinking," Ajalia said. "What matters is how you look while you're doing it. If you look competent, you win. If you look like a fool, you lose."
"I don't look like a fool," Delmar said quietly, glaring up at the guards. "Why do you keep telling me I look like a fool?"
"I'm not telling you that," Ajalia said.
"Yes, you are," Delmar hissed. His face was turning a little wild. A pallor entered into his cheeks, and his form seemed to crumple, and shrink.
"Take power from the earth," Ajalia said. Delmar growled, and his body grew large and firm again.
"I don't think you're listening to me," Delmar told Ajalia sternly.
"Delmar," Ajalia said. A short silence stretched between them.
"What?" Delmar asked.
"Are you listening to me?" she asked. Another silence came up, and then passed.
"Fine," Delmar said bitterly. "Everything I do is wrong. Look at all this stuff I'm doing," he added angrily. "
It's like you think I'm not even doing anything important."
"Guards," Ajalia called out. The three guards stopped, and turned. "Cover your ears, and hum," Ajalia said. The guards stared at her for a couple of seconds, and then did so. The sound of humming filled up the hall. "Delmar," Ajalia said. "I thought we would have six months to a year before your father needed to die. I underestimated the evil in Slavithe. I was wrong, and I did not prepare you for what happened. I regret this. I thought, when we came to Talbos, that we could transition smoothly. I expected your grandfather to have a modicum of sense."
"Well, he didn't," Delmar said. Ajalia could see shimmers of light and color spraying out from Delmar. He looked a little like a fountain giving out violent streams of multicolored water.
"No, he was evil," Ajalia said. "I did not know that he would be so evil."
Delmar looked resigned. He waved a hand at the guards, to stop them from humming, but Ajalia caught Delmar around the wrist.
"You are special," Ajalia told Delmar. "Your colors are special. Do you know why I asked you to touch the black skins of the dragons?"
"No," Delmar said. "Why didn't you do this yourself?"
"I think it would kill me," Ajalia said, "or it would turn me into something else. It looks like death to me."
"But you killed the real dragons," Delmar protested.
"Yes," Ajalia said. "And these are awful scraps that the king has been storing up for ages. I think they've fermented, or something. They are not like the two black worms were."
"They don't hurt me," Delmar said.
"I don't think you would have been able to kill the two worms," Ajalia said. Delmar thought about this. Ajalia waved at the guards, who were all staring at her, and they stopped humming, and cautiously took their hands down from their ears. "Thank you," Ajalia told them. "Carry on, please." The guards, glancing at Delmar, and then at each other, continued on down the hall, and Ajalia followed them.