Strong arms caught her. She blinked in the darkness, barely seeing the dark empty room where the Trinity had once been. Her eyes travelled over the purple robes of the one who held her and into the luminous eyes of the Atalanph wizard. Knowledge, power and understanding united them in a moment. As their eyes met, she felt again a touch of what had been shared in the pillar, seer and wizard magic made one.
The man smiled. She knew his name but couldn’t recall it. She knew him better from the divine feel of his energy signature that she had touched only briefly in the pillar of light.
He smiled, he felt it too, and in that smile, all the sorrow and loss of the Trinity, and of her friends, left her. She was not alone. She would never be alone. She lifted her hand, noting how white it was, and he caught it in his large dark hand and brought it to his lips.
37
The Darkness Within
Maggot cowered as another ear-breaking scream burst from Issa.
She arched her back and clawed the air with her good hand. She had tried to use both but her broken arm was tied down, along with her legs and shoulders to restrain her against her own convulsions. The veins bulged on her neck, not the usual delicious human blue, but black.
Maggot covered his ears and whimpered. ‘What’s happening to Issy?’
‘Yes, what’s wrong with it?’ Wekurd scowled at the ugly, writhing human.
King Gedrock stared down at her, frowning. ‘Why did you bring her here, Maggot?’
‘Zorock told me to!’ Maggot tugged on his ears. Nobody fully believed him but Zorock had told him to.
In the darkness of the human castle when the black light fell from the sky, the Demon God had come to him in a flash of light. His terrible green face and mighty black horns made even Maggot’s blood run cold with fear and reverence.
‘Take her to the Murk,’ he’d commanded. ‘The race of demons depends on her survival.’
Maggot repeated again what Zorock had told him. Convincing King was not easy, convincing himself that the demon gods spoke to him was hard enough.
Gedrock rolled back his shoulders, muscles rippling in the dim green crystal light. He opened his wings and then closed them again as he considered the enormity of Maggot’s words.
‘Why the gods speak to the smallest demon in the Rock, I’ll never understand,’ huffed Wekurd, coming to stand beside King.
Issa let out another pain-filled howl, making the raven beside her squawk madly as well.
‘Shut it up,’ Wekurd hissed, snapping his fangs together threateningly at the bird.
‘He wants us to help her,’ Maggot wailed over the noise, clamping his claws over and squashing his pointed ears. ‘He wants us to stop her pain.’
Issa’s scream subsided.
‘Demon magic is not good for humans,’ Gedrock said quietly. ‘It changes them. This one is being changed enough already, it would kill her.’
Maggot crawled over to where the large demons stood and peered at Issa. She looked so sick with her skin so white and veins pulsing black. Her broken wrist was a blackened mess of blood and bruises. It had taken them quite an effort to release her grip from the sword she had held. It stood in the corner now, leaning against the wall, the blinding orb covered over with a bloody rag.
‘We should get rid of her now before the whole of the Murk falls again, my King,’ urged Wekurd, standing as defiant as an old demon could in front of his most commanding king. ‘I’ll do it, if you prefer. Now, whilst she’s weak, it can be done quickly.’
‘No!’ King barked. ‘Wekurd, you have seen the tear in our skies—distant, faint, but there. Every demon can see it; we are no fools. If it’s as large and close as Maggot says it is on Maioria, then it will be coming here soon after that planet is gone.
‘I’ve seen things in the crystal I wish I’d never seen. I cannot undo the visions, and I should not ignore the warnings.’ Maggot glanced at the green crystal beside the giant stone throne as King spoke. ‘You saw our days were numbered even before we fought Karhlusus. In this girl, rests our future, even now in this state. I’ve seen a time that has not happened yet, so I know she will live in some form or another.
‘Not far from now we’ll stand on a red and barren plane under skies that aren’t our own. Demon blood will flow, lots of it, but we will not be destroyed. The alternative vision is…is our end complete.’
Wekurd stared hard at the ground, his eyes narrowing and the tip of his tail curling and uncurling around the base of his staff. ‘I do not like this, I do not,’ he muttered shaking his head. Gedrock turned from him and glared at Maggot.
‘Maggot, fix her hand,’ he ordered. ‘Get Dung if you need help. Fix it in the demon manner with demon magic and we’ll see how she copes. There is no other choice.’
King stalked off, his tail swishing and his shoulders hunched. He wasn’t pleased – Zorock’s message did not sit well with him. Wekurd followed the king leaving Maggot alone beside Issa.
‘Issy?’ he squeezed her arm.
She moaned and fluttered her eyelids but did not open them. Using demon magic, he set to work on her shattered wrist.
Issa’s soul evacuated her poisoned body.
It couldn’t easily inhabit something tainted by a substance meant to remove and enslave it. From afar she watched her body fighting and trying to rid itself of the plague spreading through every cell. It was not a battle that could be won.
The Under Flow moved all around her, not taunting, not attacking, waiting. For some reason she no longer feared it. But it was the newfound lack of fear that made her afraid—afraid of herself.
‘Issa,’ the voice called from close beside her. ‘Issa. How do you like my gifts?’
Issa opened and closed her spirit hands, feeling the Under Flow move around them. There was power there, much power, she only had to reach out to use it.
‘No,’ she said.
‘Have you seen what’s in the Dark Rift? Great things, great understandings, great beings.’ Baelthrom’s voice came from everywhere.
‘No,’ she whispered.
Despite the darkness all around and within, there was the light, there was herself, she had not lost that, yet. There was also clarity in this disembodied state and she understood a little of what the Under Flow was. It was simply a type of power, the light turned in on itself and made into its opposite. That was how it existed, because of the light.
‘Just because a thing exists doesn’t make it natural; it doesn’t mean it should exist.’ Her voice was calm and well-reasoned. She pulled away from the darkness and Baelthrom’s voice, and focused on the light within.
She thought about Asaph and an image formed before her. A golden dragon flying, desperate to get to the burning city ahead. She saw his thoughts and they were filled with her.
‘Asaph, I’m alive, my love. I’ll come back. Wait for me.’
A blast of white light blinded her, seer magic. Immediately the Trinity and Naksu appeared in the image engulfed in a pillar of white light. The Trinity were giving their souls to the light, becoming one with it, and Naksu grounded them.
Each seer represents the elements, Issa realised. Knowledge came easily to her in this space and she found she understood things she couldn’t possibly have worked out before.
Iyena is the strongest element; air. Dar is fire. Suli is water, and Naksu is the earth that grounds them. I will not see the Trinity again; this is the end of the seers.
The realisation made her ponder. It wasn’t sadness as such, just a deep brooding. Go into the light, my sisters.
Wizard magic flared into the white pillar and the purity of the power touched even her in this suspended state. A power made whole, two broken factions united, a prophecy fulfilled. She witnessed Haelgon embrace Naksu and all was made right. Something new was being created in the ashes of the seers and wizards, something far more powerful.
The image faded. Just thinking of a person would draw her to them or them to her, she was neither bound by time or space,
nor hindered by a physical body. Was this what the soul did when the body died? They say the soul remains for three days after death to comfort loved ones, was this what was happening?
She saw Marakon running over a field of the slain, his face covered in mud and blood. He caught in his arms an equally bloodied warrior woman with a spear; beside her, a great bear limped. But they could not embrace for long for a battle raged around them.
The battle for Drax goes on without me. Where is Freydel? An image of a red, ravaged plane appeared. Travelling fast over it, the image slowed to settle upon a stooped old man dressed in ragged robes.
Freydel? He looks so old, it cannot be. Where is his staff? The old man clung to a gnarled piece of wood that held no magic. His aura was dull and not the vibrant colours of a Master Wizard. She watched him crawl into a cave and huddle his knees to his chest, eyes staring out fearfully.
His magic has left him, he’s broken. But he did not choose darkness to get his power back, there is his honour. For a noble soul, there is always redemption.
Her vision lifted and travelled some distance before slowing upon another figure. A plump old woman walked carrying a heavy sack slung over her shoulder. She clung to her walking stick and used it to stumble along the rugged mountain pass, whilst a heavily burdened donkey snorted beside her, struggling under the bags tied to it.
Edarna? Issa felt joy.
‘Come on, Miss Burdens,’ the witch wheezed to the donkey. ‘We’re all tired, but if Naksu can do it, then so can I!’ She paused at the top of the hill gasping for breath. A cat meowed long and loud and jumped down from a rock. The blue cat purred and looked directly up at Issa from where she watched.
Edarna snorted. ‘Now Mr Dubbins, don’t be ridiculous, Issa is NOT here. She’s busy fighting and doing warrior things—all those things I told you she would do. Hah! Now we must do our part and clean up the smaller messes. War is no place for an old lady.’
She sighed, wrapped her green cloak around her, and sat down on a rock. She pulled out her monocle and squinted into the distance. Through the gaps in the mountains, red earth was revealed, and in the distance the sky darkened with muddy clouds.
‘There it is, folks, there’s Maphrax. Somewhere in there is a broken wizard. Now, Mr Dubbins, you tell me as soon as you sniff that wizard stench.’
Edarna heaved herself up and continued her waddling down the road towards Maphrax.
Issa smiled, the simple strength of Edarna again making her wonder.
The image faded, and she drifted easily. There was no pain here, there was only serenity and clarity. She did not want to return to her body, not ever.
A beautiful sound of tinkling bells came from above. It was like nothing she had ever heard on Maioria, and it grew louder, the music filling her soul and becoming part of her. She joyfully lifted up towards it.
‘No, Issa,’ a melodic voice spoke and her upward rising halted. Murlonius appeared, tall and elegant, swathed in shimmering robes.
‘You’re here? You can see me?’ she asked, then noticed the terrible sadness on his face.
‘Yes, I too wait for the light, but I cannot leave, I cannot leave her here. You can’t leave either; you must face him. Each of us must complete our tasks. The end is close now. I care nothing for the outcome any longer. I long only to sleep.’
Issa stared longingly at the warm light above that beckoned her, the music coming from within it, calling to her. But what about Asaph? The light and music faded a little.
‘No, you’re right, I can’t leave him,’ she said, feeling weary and sad.
Murlonius vanished, along with the light and music. Immense physical pain dragged her back into body, her right hand felt like it was both on fire and encased in ice at the same time. Her whole body spasmed with pain, icy fire burning within every particle. She longed to leave her body again, just to be rid of the pain.
She tried to open her eyes, struggling to know where her lids were. Darkness, a green glow, then Maggot’s huge yellow eyes with long slitted pupils appeared.
‘Maggot,’ she gasped, relieved to not be alone. ‘The pain!’
‘Maggot,’ she whispered his name over and again. ‘I’m falling.’
‘No, Issy, your hand is healing. It’s the Dark Rift poison causing the pain.’
She tried to flex her right hand and screamed as the pain stabbed deep. She looked at her hand, it was whole and no longer a crushed, mangled mess but it was dark and had a green sheen to it. For a moment it morphed into a demon hand, slender but dark grey with long, sharp demon claws. Was she hallucinating? She blinked, and her hand returned to normal, albeit dark and green glowing.
‘We had to, Issy, your hand would have killed you, so we had to use demon magic. The ring you wear, it’s green demon crystal, it saved your hand from being destroyed completely. Without the ring, our magic would have killed you, too.’
Belledyn’s ring, who’d have ever guessed! Issa tried to laugh but a moaning sigh came out. ‘Thank you, Maggot,’ she managed before a nauseating wave of pain flooded over her.
Her soul retreated, Maggot and the room vanished, and the Dark Rift gaped open before her. Fear slithered through her and she steeled herself against it. The black drink moved within, and she detested the plague inside, but there was strength to it, it gave her power, determination, and a certain bloody-mindedness.
‘I defy you!’ she shouted at the Dark Rift and embraced her raven form. She launched herself at it and the tear in the sky swallowed her.
Within it, a whole universe unfolded. Entire planets moved amongst great plumes of cosmic gases, dark reds, blues, greens and blacks—a heavy place of slow but powerful energy. A planet loomed, and a gaseous cloud formed beside it. The cloud was conscious. It reached out an enormous hand to grasp the planet in long, spindly, gaseous fingers and the planet turned ashen. Great cracks snaked across its surface and then it shattered into dust in the cloud’s hand. The dust swirled and was then sucked into the gaseous being.
Light Eaters!
In the distance, other planets and more Light Eaters moved. She didn’t feel fear, but she did feel a loathing hatred and desire to end this.
‘Issa,’ Baelthrom whispered.
She looked for the owner of the voice but there were only planets and Light Eaters in this enormous space.
‘Don’t you recognise me, Issa? I don’t need that cumbersome physical form anymore.’
Cosmic shadows clustered into a giant cloud. A Light Eater rose before her. Fear brushed her soul, but it was anger she felt.
‘I feel your fury, it belongs here,’ Baelthrom sighed wistfully.
‘Nothing belongs here,’ Issa said. ‘Maioria is not yours to eat.’
Laughter came, not mocking, only amused. ‘It’s far too late. If Maioria does not fall into the rift, it will be shattered by all else that does. Come to me and I will give you the power to move planets.’
‘I don’t want it!’ Issa screamed.
Her energy flared as light and Baelthrom sucked it towards him and devoured it hungrily. He sighed and grew larger.
Shaken, Issa struggled to control energy, her emotions. It’s the Black Drink, it gives me rage. My rage feeds Baelthrom.
Weakened, Issa drew back, and Baelthrom followed, eager for more. She would not give it to him.
‘It will be as I have seen,’ she said, her voice low. ‘We will stand against you on that unhallowed earth you call Maphrax, and we’ll drive you from it, or we’ll lie down forever with our ancestors, but you shall not have our souls—not now or ever. I’ll give everything that I am to see this come to pass so that all others can live.
‘So be it, Raven Queen. Either way, you are mine.’
‘There is a dragon outside, my King.’
Wekurd tore his eyes off the enormous golden dragon gleaming with a greenish hue beneath the full moon of Zorock to look at the Shadow Demon king on his throne. ‘A dragon has not been seen in the Murk for five hundred thousand years. Not sinc
e…’
‘Not since Firestrike,’ Gedrock finished for him.
Gedrock got up and stalked through the door onto the balcony and stared down at the dragon. Maggot followed, flapping up and down excitedly. The dragon looked up and lifted its head, rising so high, it came halfway up Carmedrak Rock. Sapphire blue eyes narrowed as it looked at Gedrock.
‘Where is she?’ the dragon commanded rather than asked.
Gedrock stared at the beast for a long moment, then beckoned. ‘Come and get her. Please take her away, she’s too much trouble.’
Asaph gripped his sword but did not unsheathe it as he walked into Carmedrak Rock.
Demons watched from the shadows and hissed at him as he passed, but when he looked at them, they fell back and huddled against the walls, reminding him that they too were nervous. Sweat covered his face though it was cold and clammy here, and fear nibbled at his heart, demon fear. Unlike Issa, he had no good relationship with these cursed beings. But if it weren’t for them, she would not be alive.
A gnarled, stooped, old demon with a staff appeared in a dark doorway.
‘This way,’ he hissed, his yellow eyes gleaming.
Without saying more, he led Asaph up and up until he was breathless and soaked in sweat.
The demon paused beside a room. ‘We have saved her, but there have been some…changes. Nothing can be done about the black magic that consumes her.’
Thoughts spun through Asaph’s mind. ‘I must see her.’
He pushed past the demon into the room and gasped.
Beside a green crystal lay Issa, her face deathly pale, her hand oddly green. He gasped again when it turned dark grey and became a demon claw, then returned to normal.
She moaned, and he dropped down beside her. Grabbing her good hand, he brought it to his cheek and kissed it. She opened her eyes, dark clouds moved in her corneas and then cleared to reveal luminous turquoise.
‘Asaph,’ she breathed and gave a faint smile. ‘You came.’ Her face contorted in pain and she cried out. He pulled her against his chest and held her.
War of the Raven Queen: The Goddess Prophecies Fantasy Series Book 6 Page 41