Faith Of The Dragon Tamer (Book 2)

by Cole Pain

  Would her power, as Aaron’s power, protect her from those who would try to stop her? Would her power, as Aaron’s power, protect her from those who would try to stop her with magic?

  Manda’s eyes flickered to the gates. The Collective were merging. Fraul’s army was still recovering from the magic Chris and Aaron had taken. Chris and Aaron were intent on delaying the Collective’s attack. Presario aim was the Collective’s destruction. None would see the lone few gathering at the gate.

  Manda snapped her reins. She heard Ramie call her name but ignored him. She didn’t care at all about the king’s commands. Her only goal was saving Fraul’s army from whatever those vile creatures were about to do.

  She heated her intent still higher. The internal elements tore through her with the force of a catapult.

  As she paralleled the army she saw the Collective at the gate begin their chant. She wheeled her horse in front of Fraul just as the incantation was hurled through the air. Her skin was light, her eyes were flame, and when the magic washed over her she felt it, yet she felt no pain. She felt their power, yet she had more than enough to counter it. She also felt the Collective’s screams, their dying breaths as the intensity of her emotions bounded to them, sending their bodies into convulsions. She watched with only mild interest as the Collective before her shriveled to the ground as the avenging power seared their bodies from the inside.

  - - -

  When he heard Manda’s name being yelled in terror, Aaron faltered. Chris did as well, but now the Collective on the walls were few and far between. The first division could take them easily. As one mind, Aaron and Chris released the funnel of air and spun, barely aware the remaining Collective collapsed as they were released from the strain of the funnel’s hold. Aaron had to blink in shock at the woman standing before the army. She seemed to glow with light, just like his Kyra, and as the sun’s rays caressed her long hair at first he thought it was Kyra. But when she moved and the red locks caught the light he smiled with doleful rapture. It was his Manda, learning the power he had bestowed upon her.

  He hadn’t known the extent of his transfer, but when he had held her after he had killed Valor he had allowed his remaining sparks to disseminate inside her. Only an avenged could take his sparks, and only an avenged strong enough could cultivate those sparks to their own purpose.

  Now he saw that purpose. His sparks had been too painful for anyone to withstand, even someone who touched him with magic. Manda had taken those sparks and formed them to her own emotions. Now, when Manda looked on depravity she would become the hand of justice, and her power would ignite not pain, but rage, righteous rage.

  And if any touched her, they would die.

  Beside him, Chris grinned, transforming his melancholy countenance into whimsical charm. Chris spurred his mount forward.

  Aaron followed, passing a wide-eyed Fraul. Looking down at his friend, Aaron winked.

  Renee and Marva had already reached the gate and had opened it for Manda. The remaining Collective could be seen weaving their way through the streets toward the castle. Some brave rebels ran after them.

  When Chris and Aaron finally flanked Ramie, Manda was already halfway down the main street. Behind them, Fraul and Presario’s army could be heard barreling though the gate.

  They had won their first attack.

  Manda spurred her mount to a stop and wheeled around in the circle. She still shone like the stars, and as she spoke the power of her words echoed down the streets.

  “Citizens of Zier!” she shouted. “I implore you to take up arms and fight for justice! If you want to be free men, if you want to live in peace, you need to fight for the true king of this Land! Our army has defeated Ista’s first attack. Now we march to Stardom to defeat Ista’s forces there. If you want to defend your home, your king, and your honor, I implore you. Follow me!”

  Aaron shivered at the power of Manda’s words. Behind him a roar went up from the army as people came out of houses, tying pieces of black cloth around their arms – Razon black.

  Manda surged forward, red hair flying behind her like a war banner.

  Ramie scowled as he stepped beside Aaron, but Aaron could see the sparkle in the king’s eyes as he gazed at Manda. There was also a profound relief in his stance, and perhaps even adoration.

  Hearing a chuckle, Aaron turned to Chris.

  “Sis never cared for war, Aaron. It seems you’ve given her a taste for battle.”

  Aaron lifted a sarcastic eyebrow. “I don’t know if I’ve given her a taste for battle, but I’ve given battle a taste of her.”

  Chapter 26

  Ren hovered in the air, feeling the love flowing through him. He reached for it, yearned for it. He was buoyant. He was light. He was love.

  “Now try pain.”

  Zorc’s words came from far away. Ren opened his eyes and released love, letting his legs sink to the ground. Ren was unsure why Zorc wanted him to find pain. He had mastered pain days ago, but he didn’t question the wizard. Ren rested on his knees and leaned forward, forming a ball, focusing on the ache inside him. Pain was an inward emotion, not open like love. Pain was in the upper chest. Love was deeper and lower, almost where the soul should be. The pain tore through him, searing his mind.

  “Look now. Hold it and look.”

  Ren lifted his head and stared in stark amazement. Standing, he turned full circle, holding his pain, breathing it. Everything around him bent in his direction: the trees, the grass, and the air. Even his friends had their heels implanted in the soil, muscles straining as they resisted being pulled toward him. Only Zorc sat untouched, somehow blocking his pull.

  “Hate,” the wizard demanded.

  Ren was already in hate’s stance, standing straight. All he had to do was bow his head and clench his fists. He found hate immediately, on the surface of the chest. He felt himself rising from the ground, hovering above it, his hate forcing itself out of his hands, lifting him.

  “Look.”

  Ren raised his head. Now everything blew away from him. He suddenly understood why the three worked together. Hate blew out, pain blew in, and love was the balance.

  He pulled on each with quick surety, forming all inside him at once. He let each emotion roar through him, tumbling over the others, caressing the others, learning the others, until they churned to a stop and formed an impenetrable whole.

  He was above the elements, looking down on them but together with them. He felt each one, but he felt them like a whisper. He could see their intensity, but he kept their fervor from him. He found the calm. He was the calm. He was the synergy, the union, the pinnacle.

  All was back to normal. The grass didn’t bend, the trees didn’t shake, and the air was tranquil, but he was far from normal. He looked through wizard’s eyes.

  He saw the Quy everywhere. Images blurred and edges glowed with strength. Nigel was replete with black sable. It shimmered around him in a haze of power. At his core was love’s white diamond trimmed with a crystal of pain, but his righteous rage radiated from him so much it darkened the day. Neki glowed with all three elements. They spun from his center like a whirlwind: black rage, white-hot love, and crying pain. The tones, however, were subdued, not vivid, but with the way they churned, Ren could sense Neki’s power. Markum was a haze of murky white, but his eyes were lit with a deep sapphire blue, a symbol of his seer status. And Galvin, although he didn’t have the Quy, had poignant steel gray effulgence emanating from his chest.

  Ren turned to Zorc. The wizard was surrounded with every hue imaginable. Not only did blacks and silvers careen from his persona but emeralds, sapphires, rubies, ambers, and amethysts. Ren looked down at his own body, seeing for the first time what Zorc saw when he looked through wizard eyes.

  Black was at his core but white surrounded it, so much so the black seemed to be a moon drifting over the sun, shielding its rays only briefly. The white core at his chest radiated a light so intense even the black moon radiated the light, causing black to
surround him as well as the white. Then, at his edges and seeping a glow, was his pain, emitting a crystalline brilliance, and causing the lights to merge together and become one large shield of silver platinum.

  Ren let the calm flow through his entire being. He pulled from each emotion, was one with each emotion. Zorc grabbed Neki’s saber. His eyes glimmered with an inner fire.

  Zorc raised the sword in an attack position. The silver blade flashed wickedly in the sun. The emerald, ruby, and sardonyx were dull without Neki’s hand, but they appeared to be watching, boring into Ren’s soul.

  “Love, hate, pain!” Zorc said, moving the sword faster than possible without magic.

  As Zorc screamed the internal element’s cognomen Ren instinctively pulled from each emotion, blocking the blow of the blade. He held the pinnacle inside him, lifting each leg of the triangle to his wishes: love, then hate, and then pain. Each time he lifted the triangle he felt the intensity of the emotion he used, but although he could feel the intensity, it was a distant memory, a storm behind a windowpane. None of the emotions took him off balance. None seared his heart. In the calm the emotions couldn’t claim him. They couldn’t hurt or overwhelm him. As the sword continued to pound the air he learned how each emotion worked and how much to drain from his wealth of feelings to keep himself from harm.

  Zorc stepped back, panting with effort, and smiled. He sheathed the saber and tossed it to Neki. “Good work, Ren. The more you use the pinnacle the longer you’ll be able to hold each emotion and the more you’ll be able to draw on all equally. Magic always needs certain degrees of each one, and the more in balance you are the more you’ll be able to detect how much of each emotion you’ll need. You’ve now mastered something that’s taken me over a century.”

  Ren started, surprised by Zorc’s statement, and released the calm. His emotions washed over him in full force. They were random and uncontrollable. In the calm they had been controlled and predictable, almost purposeful. He suddenly felt alone and weak, unable to control his thoughts to one purpose. He began to reach for the calm when Zorc stopped him.

  “Don’t go to the calm for the calm’s sake. It’s peaceful and powerful, but it will destroy you.” Zorc’s voice was low and grave. It shivered down Ren’s spine like a cold rain. Somehow Zorc had twisted his words with magic, breaking him from his desire to reenter the calm.

  “How?” Ren asked.

  “If you go to the calm for the calm’s sake you’ll eventually not see, or hear, or smell, or feel anything. You’ll just sit and feel nothing, sit and slowly die.” Zorc paused to make sure Ren understood. When Zorc found what he wanted in Ren’s eyes, his voice softened.

  “I know how it feels. Not many wizards are able to feel the calm. Only a handful of us have ever reached it. We just aren’t powerful enough. When I did reach it I almost gave in and let my mind become washed away. Feeling no loneliness or pain or hurt is a wonderful thing, but I’ve seen what the calm can do. There’s a wizard in the fields of the Alcazar, body alive, mind dead. He’s called the Residuum Man. He isn’t human, animal, or plant. He rests cross-legged, moss and fern coating his body, limbs rooted to the earth, eyes staring blankly ahead, breath and pulse nonexistent. When he reached the calm nothing else mattered. He gave in to that peace, and that peace destroyed him.”

  Zorc’s dark eyes studied him, waiting for the shock to spread over his face. Ren drew in a breath, still yearning for the calm, but now revolted by the seduction of its peace.

  Zorc started toward the camp. Ren was surprised. It was only midmorning and there was still much he needed to learn.

  “Wait, I’m not tired. Now that I can reach the calm you can teach me how to use it.”

  Zorc grinned. “You have the calm, Ren.”

  “Yes.”

  “You know the pinnacle. You are the pinnacle. That’s all I can teach you.” Zorc turned away, muttering that he was half starved.

  Ren watched Zorc walk away, unable to find the words. When they finally came, they exploded from him. “I don’t know anything about the Quy. What do you mean that’s all you can teach me?”

  Zorc turned back to him, holding up a finger with a winsome expression on his face. “You’re a mage. I’m a wizard. Wizards can’t teach magi. Magi teach wizards.”

  The others turned to listen, interested in the sudden change of conversation. Ren felt his frustration building. Zorc saw it as well. He crossed his arms, grin spreading.

  “What do you want to know?” Zorc asked. “Do you want to know how to meet the Quy?”

  Ren frowned. “No.”

  “Do you want to know how to merge a body with a spirit? No, that can’t be,” Zorc said, crinkling up his face, “you already know how to do that. I know! You want to know how to light a wolf on fire, or cause a castle wall to crumble. No,” he said again, scratching his head in mock confusion, “you already did those things now, didn’t you?”

  Ren was beginning to feel foolish, but he was unsure why. “But what about all the instructions in the books we found about how to use the Quy?”

  “Instructions for wizards, Ren. Merely words that help wizards harness their emotions so they can create magic. Those words are a guide, a blueprint for those who do not have the calm.” Zorc held up a finger. “You do. What I could teach you about using the external elements, what I could teach you about using the internal elements of the Quy, what I could teach you about rules and guides would serve you no purpose. In fact it would clutter your mind and serve to bring you doubt when you’re instinctively reaching inside yourself to do what you must.

  “The more recipes you have for magic the more those rules will clutter your mind when your instincts are needed. You’ve learned the first truth. Yes?”

  The question took Ren off guard. He thought about the Druids and the closing. He thought about his faith in the Maker and his faith in himself to listen and give in to that power. Belief was a powerful thing. It could damn you or it could raise you. With belief anything was possible. He could only nod.

  “Then you know how much danger and destruction doubt can cause. Doubt can destroy your conviction and clutter up your thoughts until you begin to believe what you need to accomplish is too unreachable to try. The small doubt will snowball and you’ll think of it over and over. You’ll fear it. You’ll run from it. One doubt can ruin every chance of happiness, can damn your hopes, can mar your dreams, can change your destiny, and can destroy your soul.

  “But if I leave you to your inner strength, as all teachers should do with magi, you can build on your strength, intensify it, and become something far more than you can imagine. The first truth is the most powerful truth there is, others follow. But this truth and this truth alone can help you defeat the darkness, can lead you to the second truth.

  “So don’t doubt yourself. I’ll be your guide. I’ll answer any questions you have. I’ll teach you the Code of the Alcazar. I’ll guide your through the Code of the Quy. I’ll encourage you to seek the Truths, for only with them can we grow stronger. But I won’t teach you how to use the Quy. It’s in here,” Zorc said, tapping Ren’s chest, “and that’s where it belongs.”

  Zorc smiled at Ren’s frown. “Do you know why you’re the Chosen?”

  Ren remembered the day he had asked Zorc’s impostor the same question. “Grauss said I was born on the equinox, under all three internal and external elements. The Quy said I only use her in love.”

  Zorc’s grin broadened. “They are both correct and incorrect. Yes, you are the Chosen, and yes you were born on the equinox. Yes, you only use the Quy in love. But the synergy constellation was only a sign in the stars, it doesn’t make you the Chosen, and your use of the Quy is how all righteous people strive to use the Quy. The stars symbolize what you are. The way you use the Quy represents the side you’re on. But that isn’t why you’re the Chosen.”

  Ren was unsure if he really wanted to hear what Zorc was about to reveal. Grauss’ explanation had been external forces forming who
he was, and the way he used the Quy was a conscious decision, alive heartbeat by heartbeat and not inherently inside him. By the way Zorc spoke he was the Chosen because of something internal. Ren didn’t know if he wanted to believe that his naming was internal. The external explanation gave him a humble justification as to why he was the Chosen. Internal forces were something altogether different. They marked him as strong, as someone who formed himself into the mold of Chosen.

  “You’re the Chosen because of one simple thing.”

  Zorc paused. Ren would have given anything to halt Zorc’s words, but he couldn’t force his mouth to open or his arm to move to stop the wizard.

  Zorc leaned forward. “I don’t know.”

  Ren was too stunned to speak.

  “Only you know,” Zorc said. “You tell me.”

  Ren remained silent for a time. “But, I don’t know.”

  “Yes, you do. Yes, you do. It’s in your soul, Ren. It’s the one thing that sets you apart from everyone else. It’s the one thing that makes you who you are. It’s something that cries to you every day. Take it and use it. Use it with all that you have. It has made you strong. It will make you stronger still. Barracus will try to take it from you. Don’t let him. If he takes it you’ll fail. No pinnacle will save you because you will have lost the essence of yourself, the one thing that makes you the Chosen.”

  Chapter 27

  Marva studied a man beyond the glowing orange light as the others talked in angry voices. His pale eyes stared blankly ahead, his lips were open as if he had just taken a shallow breath, but he neither breathed nor moved. It was as if he had turned to stone.

  When they had reached the castle the Collective hadn’t been standing on the interior wall as they had the outer. Instead they had found the Collective outside the wall, skirting its entire length as if guarding it from entry. They stood at attention, arms stretched to each side, linking hands.