From their name, Magda had at first thought that they were able to steal into a person’s dreams while they slept, but Baraccus had explained that it was more sinister than that. They actually slipped into the infinitesimal empty spaces between thoughts, like water seeping into the voids of a sponge. It wasn’t that they used dreams to enter a person’s mind, it was more like they became the victim’s real-life nightmare.
Magda paced a few steps away, thinking, worrying. She hadn’t wanted to press her husband for details when he had returned. She had been so thankful that he had come back safely to her that she had just wanted to hold him.
She turned back. “Can a dream walker invade anyone’s mind?”
“Technically, yes, however entering a person’s mind is profoundly difficult, so, to help them, dream walkers use the victim’s gift. In essence, they seize control of a person’s own magic and turn it against them. Where dream walkers are concerned, having the gift is a dangerous liability.”
“What about the ungifted, like me?”
“It’s much more difficult for dream walkers to get into the mind of an ungifted person and even more difficult yet to control them. Not that it can’t be done, but it requires great effort. The real question is why would they want to? After all, dream walkers were created as weapons, so they would be expected to seek out high-value targets. That implies the gifted.”
“That makes sense,” Magda said as she tried to put the pieces of what she knew together with what she was learning. “But the person would be aware of it, wouldn’t they? They would know the dream walker had invaded their thoughts.”
“No, not necessarily. A dream walker can be in your mind, watching, listening, and unless they want you to know, you would be completely unaware of their presence. Once there, without you ever realizing it, the dream walker not only has access to all your thoughts, he can also overhear anything you hear—plans, defenses, names, anything that might be useful to the enemy.
“But if he wishes to, a dream walker can make his presence known and force you to do anything, or use you for any purpose he chooses. He can, for instance, use you to help him identify other important targets. You would be helpless to stop yourself.
“A dream walker often uses a seemingly harmless individual as an extension of himself, as a tool—in other words, as a surrogate assassin. People who are gentle or even timid offer a perfect cover. If he wants, a dream walker can force even such a person to assassinate their closest friend or a loved one.
“A dream walker’s control is absolute. He can remain hidden and you won’t even know he’s there, or be an insidious presence, whispering suggestions that you interpret as your own thoughts. If he wishes it he can make his presence all too clear by exerting complete control over your actions, or, as I’ve seen with my own eyes, give pain beyond imagining.”
Magda folded her arms as she paced, her alarm growing by the moment. As she walked past them, she cast a suspicious look at the two towering, silent guards standing with their broad backs to the doors. Their eyes rarely left her. For all she knew, a dream walker could be in their minds.
“Then they could be here in the Keep already. They could already know all our defenses, all our plans.” She tapped her temple. “For all we know, they could be in our minds right now, listening, watching, waiting to pounce.”
Lord Rahl’s brow twisted with doubt. “I don’t think so. Dream walkers are newly created weapons. They haven’t had those abilities for very long. Imagine how difficult it would be for someone newly turned into a dream walker to learn to accomplish anything useful.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if you right now had the power to enter the mind of the enemy down in the Old World, how would you pick a useful person? Even if you knew the name of a target, if you weren’t looking right at them how would you find that one person out of all the millions of minds down there? How would you know who to look for, or where they might be? How would you search for the one mind you wanted? If you were trying to target enemy officials, how would you even know who they were? How would you identify them and then find them? Where would you look?”
He shook his head. “It can’t be easy to establish the right links. I have no doubt that they will soon enough be able to spread like a wildfire through our ranks—and through the Keep—but if we’re lucky we still have a bit of time.”
“Time? Time for what? Dear spirits,” Magda said as she lifted her arms in frustration, “we’re helpless against them. What good is a bit of time going to do us? We really do stand at the brink of annihilation.”
“Not entirely,” Lord Rahl said. “Baraccus’s task was to eliminate the source of the dream walkers. My part in this was to create a counter for the ones who already exist.”
“But without a dream walker how will you know how their power functions, or be sure what they’re capable of? For that matter, how can you know for certain that any counter you create really works?”
At that moment, at seeing the look that came into his eyes, Magda for the first time fully understood why this man was so feared. There was terrible resolve there, and terrible conviction.
“Because,” he said, “we captured one.”
Magda was stunned into silence for a moment. “You actually captured a dream walker?” she finally asked. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely sure.”
“How do you know he’s really a dream walker?”
“There is no mistaking them. Looking into their eyes is like looking into a nightmare. Their eyes are entirely black, black like that evil thing you described that Baraccus showed you and then took with him to lock away in the underworld. When a dream walker looks at you, clouded shapes shift across the inky black surface of their eyes, eyes so black that they seem as if they might suck the sunlight out of the day and turn the world into everlasting night.”
“I remember well the black thing Baraccus showed me.” Magda rubbed her arms, unable to turn away from the look of bottled fury in Lord Rahl’s eyes. “Were you able to gain his cooperation, or learn anything useful from him?”
The knuckles of his fists were white. “He killed a lot of my people, people I loved, and he forced me to kill some of those innocent people he possessed lest he kill me by their hand. He caused us a great deal of trouble, but in the end I was able to use him to unlock the secrets of their power.”
Magda didn’t ask how he had gained the dream walker’s cooperation. It was wartime. They were in a struggle for their very existence. Every day lives were being lost in that struggle. Countless more innocent lives were at stake. From what she had heard, if there was one thing the D’Harans were good at, it was knowing how to make people tell what they knew.
“I had to devote a great many resources to the task,” he said, “but it was necessary and the results were worth it. I finally created a counter to block their ability.”
Magda wasn’t sure that she had heard him correctly. She took a step closer. “You mean you can actually stop them?”
Lord Rahl nodded. “I was able to construct a very complex spell that I actually propagated within myself. That magic is now part of who I am, a part of every fiber of my being. In a way, I, too, have become more than I was before, much like the weapons we create out of people. That new ability now completely shields my mind from the dream walkers.”
She gripped his forearm. “You’re certain?”
“Yes. I tested it on our dream walker.”
“But how can you be certain that he wasn’t pretending that he couldn’t enter your mind?”
He arched an eyebrow. “With what was being done to him at the time, and for as long as it was being done, I promise you, if he could have gotten into my mind to stop me, he would have.”
“So the magic you created is our salvation, then.”
“Yes and no.”
She felt her hopes yet again slipping away. “What do you mean?”
“I was able to create a counter to the dream wal
kers, and it works perfectly. The problem was that it only worked for me. I tried but I can’t re-create a similar ability in others. It’s a power specific to me, to my inherent nature.”
Magda’s heart sank. “So the rest of us are to remain at the mercy of the dream walkers.”
“Not exactly. I finally succeeded in creating a way to protect other people as well. Part of the ever-escalating balance of power I spoke of before. Those in the Old World may have gotten a temporary advantage with the dream walkers, but I created a counter for them—and I now have a way for that counter to protect others as well. I can check the enemy’s plans.”
Magda eyed him suspiciously. “What’s the problem, then?”
“The Central Council. Most of the D’Haran Lands have accepted the solution I’ve created and are now safe from the dream walkers. We need the council to help us implement the same protection here. That’s why I need you to speak with them. I’ve already tried to convince them of the danger we’re in and the necessity of my solution, but without Baraccus to lend his support they won’t listen to me.”
Magda pressed her fingers to her forehead, frustrated that he still thought she could somehow tell the council what to do. “If they won’t listen to the Lord Rahl, the leader of the D’Haran Lands, they certainly aren’t going to listen to me.”
“They’ve listened to your arguments for several years and know that your appeals are always important and well reasoned. They’re used to having you speak before them. They’ve often gone along with your proposals. On the other hand, they’ve always been suspicious of me and aren’t inclined to listen with a open mind to anything I say.”
“Lord Rahl, I wish it was otherwise, but I don’t think—”
“If they won’t listen to you now about something this important, and they don’t do what is needed, then the people of the Midlands will have no way to guard their minds.”
Magda paused, struck by those words.
They were close to the same words in the note.
Be strong now, guard your mind . . .
She wondered if that could possibly be what Baraccus had meant. She wondered if he had been trying to tell her about the dream walkers. But how could that have been what he meant?
She felt an icy sense of unease as she remembered, then, the whispers in her mind urging her to jump off the wall.
Was it possible?
Dread welled up inside her. “What do people have to do to be protected? What solution have you created?”
“With the spell I forged, the spell that is now part of my being, I’m immune to dream walkers entering my mind. But like I said, I can’t create that same counter within other people. I tried, but it isn’t possible. So I instead created a way to link others to my protective magic. That link shields them from dream walkers entering their mind the same as I am protected.”
“Are you sure? How is such a thing even possible?”
“Everyone, even those like you who are ungifted, has a spark of the gift within them. That living spark enables everyone to interact with magic, even if they can’t create it themselves. Through that flicker of the gift, anyone who accepts me as their ruler becomes my subject and they are thus linked to me. We become bonded. Them to me, and me to them. I become their magic against magic”—he gestured toward the two men watching from their position at the door—“and they in turn protect me.”
Magda blinked. “Do you mean to say that to be protected from dream walkers, people must swear loyalty to you?”
“Yes and no. Sincere belief in my sovereignty over them is actually the link that powers the bond. In reality that’s all that’s needed. Swearing loyalty, though, helps a lot of hesitant minds fully commit.”
“How can simply swearing loyalty possibly accomplish such a thing as powering this link to your ability?”
“It’s not the swearing of loyalty that’s the real secret of it. It’s the realization—the conviction—that they are my subjects and I their sovereign ruler that actually powers the spark of their gift to link to my magic. It has to be sincere in order to connect them with the spell I carry within me. They don’t have to like it, but they have to accept the fact that I am their ruler.”
“I just don’t understand—”
“That’s always the problem, and we don’t have time to try to make people understand the nuanced intricacies of conjured links to constructed spells.” He gestured irritably. “It’s complicated and hard to explain to people, even the gifted, even wizards. Fortunately, I’ve found that an oath serves to bring about acceptance, ignites the link, and forges the bond.”
“An oath?”
“Yes. All that is really necessary for the bond to work is the person’s solemn acceptance of my authority over them. But, like I say, the oath is a great deal simpler and works in most cases. It’s nearly infallible if fear is a component—fear of dream walkers, or even fear of me. Fear triggers need, need powers sincerity. Sincerity is the required element.
“Once established, the bond becomes a kind of conduit, through the spark of the gift, that draws upon the constructed protection I have within me to protect them as well. I worked long and hard to create an oath that fires the forge of that living link within the supplicant.”
Magda stared up at the man. “And what is this oath?”
“To be protected, people must swear as follows. Master Rahl guide us. Master Rahl teach us. Master Rahl protect us. In your light we thrive. In your mercy we are sheltered. In your wisdom we are humbled. We live only to serve. Our lives are yours.”
Magda was stunned. “And you expect people to swear this oath to you?”
“I’m trying to save their lives, Magda.” He gestured dismissively. “But calling it an oath does motivate some people to refuse, so I instead call it a devotion. Softens it a bit. I find that it works with near certitude if it is delivered from a kneeling position, bent forward at the waist, forehead to the floor. Something about kneeling and swearing loyalty helps build fear and makes it real to the supplicant.”
No wonder the council had rejected Lord Rahl’s plan.
He was asking them to help him rule the entire New World.
Chapter 12
From the things her husband had told her in the past and from what she had learned from Alric Rahl, Magda was coming to fully grasp the mortal danger they were in. It was only a matter of time until the dream walkers learned to use their abilities to find their way into the minds of those in the Wizard’s Keep. If something wasn’t done to protect people, such an event would be the beginning of the end.
Not only was the Keep the seat of power in the Midlands, it was in many ways also its heart and soul. The council lived and worked there, but so did representatives from various lands along with military officers, administrators, and officials of every sort. Perhaps even more important, while vast armies along with gifted support clashed in the field, some of their most brilliant wizards lived at the Keep, working on everything from counters to the weapons being created in the Old World to new weapons of their own.
Those gifted down in the lower reaches of the Keep worked day and night, many in secret, on things that Baraccus rarely talked about. Magda remembered Tilly’s chilling gossip about some of the projects. While Magda didn’t necessarily believe everything Tilly said, she knew that it likely wasn’t far off the mark.
If the council didn’t go along with Alric Rahl’s plan, and the gifted didn’t come up with a counter of their own, the New World would be lost.
But on the other hand, it meant making Alric Rahl more than a mere king. It meant making him the ruler of the entire New World. It meant allowing him to create an empire and make himself its ruler.
Even if Magda could influence the council, would she want to be a part of such a thing? Would Baraccus have wanted her to?
She remembered, then, being up on the wall earlier that same day, seemingly in a fog, preparing to throw herself to her death. Even though it had only been hours ago, it was beginn
ing to feel more like a dream in the dim past.
Had she really been serious? Had she really, in her heart, wanted to die? To kill herself? Of course she was still heartbroken and the future still seemed bleak, but not in quite the same way.
She remembered the whispers urging her to jump.
Was it possible?
If it was true . . .
Her mouth felt as dry as dust.
“I see what you mean, Lord Rahl.” Magda laced her fingers together as she paced off a few steps, trying to come to grips with the enormity of everything that had happened. In the last few days her life had been turned upside down. Everything had changed. Despite the uncertainty of the war, her husband had been her security. Now, there was no more security. Now, she had only herself to rely on.
“Then you must act,” Alric Rahl said. “You must do your best to convince the council to help me protect the Midlands from the dream walkers.”
Magda, staring off into the dark end of the room where the glow of the candlelight hardly penetrated, finally turned back. She looked up at his grim concern.
“You’re right. I don’t know if I can convince them to listen to me, but I have to try. I must find a way to get the council to go along. We have truth on our side. Maybe I can make them see that and make them see that they must act for the good of us all.”
He let out a deep sigh as he nodded. “Thank you, Magda. Let us hope that you can convince the council. It may be our only chance.”
But then pain slammed into her so abruptly, so unexpectedly, so violently that it took her breath.
Magda’s muscles locked stiff as the searing pain ignited in her head. It felt as if half a dozen hot needles were all at the same time being thrust into her ears, through her temples, and up into the base of her skull.
A razor-sharp spike of pain lanced into the nerves just below her ears as if yet more of the searing-hot needles were being thrust in right behind her jaw on either side. Her eyes watered and her mouth opened wide, but she couldn’t make a scream. She couldn’t draw a breath. The weight of the terrible agony locked her muscles rigid.
The First Confessor (The Legend of Magda Searus) Page 6