Loyalty and War

by Devon Vesper

  They made it into Darolen and Kerac’s bedroom, and Valis went to the nightstand to pick up a brass disc that Kerac had been using to scry. “I don’t know if this will work, Father, but give me a moment.”

  He sat on the edge of the bed and concentrated his focus on scrying after Kerac. After only a few breaths, Kerac’s face filled the disc. “Valis?” He shivered. “Valis, why can I see through you?”

  Darolen let out a soft sound and raced to Valis’s side. He collapsed next to Valis and looked into the disc. “Is this real? Valis… Is this real?”

  “Darolen? Valis, what’s going on?”

  Valis took a deep breath. “I’m scrying from a dreamwalk. I have Father here with me in the dream. We can’t stay long. I just wanted to let you talk to Father if it was possible.”

  “Apparently it is,” Kerac said breathlessly. “Darolen?”

  Valis handed the brass disc over to Darolen and gasped when he saw tears streaming down his father’s face. “Love…”

  Valis gave them some privacy as best he could by pacing the room. After a few minutes, he heard Kerac say, “You both should get back to your bodies. This is dangerous for you both.”

  Darolen whimpered. “I don’t want to.”

  “I know, my heart,” Kerac said. His voice wavered with emotion. “I know, but Valis will be there as soon as he can, and we’ll be reunited soon after. Trust in our son.”

  Darolen shivered. “I will try.”

  “I’m letting the scry go now,” Kerac whispered. “Stay strong for me.”

  The scry must have cut off then because Darolen let out a wounded sound. Valis went to his side and squeezed his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  “No.”

  Valis sighed. “I know, Father. I’m sorry. But I need to get you back into your body now. Tavros will be worried.”

  Darolen’s chin shivered again, but he firmed it up almost immediately. “All right.”

  “I promise you, Father, I’ll get you out of here as soon as I possibly can.”

  “I know you will, Son.” Darolen hugged him so tight that Valis grunted. But he hugged his father back, basking in the warmth he radiated.

  When they separated, Valis squeezed both of Darolen’s hands. “Are you ready to go back.”

  Darolen stood and snorted. “No. But let’s go back anyway.”

  With a breath, Valis released his hold on the scene, and they were right back in the grimy cell where Darolen’s sleeping body slumped against the wall where he sat in his own filth. Darolen whimpered once, but shuddered and stepped closer to his body. “How do I get back in? I’ve never dreamwalked before tonight.”

  “Just sink back into your body,” Valis said. “Once you lay on your body, it should suck you back in, and you’ll be back to dreaming once you allow yourself to sleep.”

  Darolen nodded, and within a few moments, he was back in his body, sleeping as peacefully as possible. Valis stuck around for a moment more before willing himself back to his own body.

  He woke with a groan. His entire body felt like a lead weight.

  Tavros scooted closer to the bed as Valis opened his eyes. “How did it go? You were gone a little longer than the last time.”

  “Father didn’t want to go back to his body, but I think I gave him some hope.”

  Tavros nodded. “Now you understand why some who dreamwalk are lost. They don’t want to go back, because it’s said they can change their surroundings to anything they want, comfortable as they want, and talk to anyone they can conjure with their imagination.”

  Valis frowned and nodded. “I just hope he doesn’t try to dreamwalk on his own. I don’t want to lose him to that.”

  Tavros drew closer. “I don’t want to lose you to that.”

  Valis shook his head and rubbed his eyes. “I want to get Father out of there too bad to let that derail our plans. Father wanted to stay because it was so much better than the stinking cell he was passed out in. I’m not in that much despair.”

  “Still.” Tavros finally sat back in his chair. “Try to make this next one as quick as the last two.”

  “This should be my last one,” Valis promised. “I just need to scout the monastery, itself. I only did the prison and dungeon on this last trip.”

  “Dungeon?”

  Valis shuddered. “Yeah. Beneath the prison is the dungeon. Bars instead of a wall and door facing the hall. The lowest level is where Father is. That’s the only floor with solid walls and doors instead of the bars. And Father is the only prisoner. All the rest must be dead. Or, I’m assuming that’s so.”

  Tavros frowned but nodded and changed the subject. “Be safe. This is the most dangerous part because they could have dreamwalking sentinels patrolling the halls.”

  “I’ll be careful,” Valis said as he got comfortable again. He scratched his nose and stretched before settling down. “This trip, I’ll also be looking for the anchor, and hopefully, I can kill them without getting caught.”

  “Kill them?”

  Valis shrugged. “You said if you kill them in a dreamwalk, they die in the waking world, too.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “I’ll be careful, Tav. I promise.”

  Tavros blew out a forceful breath with puffed-out cheeks. “You’d better. Get going.” He leaned forward and pressed a long kiss to Valis’s forehead, then to his lips. “I’ll see you when you come back.”

  Chapter Five

  Valis appeared at the top of the steps that led down toward the prison and dungeon. If he was going to do this, he had to do it right, and that meant room by room, floor by floor.

  The first few floors brought nothing of interest. It was just the night crew cleaning and taking care of the libraries and common rooms. Only a few guards roamed the halls. Others stood sentinel at strategic posts. But it seemed like they were severely lax. Were they really this careless? Did they truly think their mountain monastery was invulnerable?

  Perhaps. Perhaps not. He assumed they did. It was true that with the constant blizzards for most of the areas, they were probably protected if the storms extended that far into Endyer. Would the storms be worse since it was so close to the coast, or would they be milder if they existed at all? He should have paid attention to the weather when he stopped outside of the mountain fortress. All he remembered was snow and the levers to open the side of the mountain for entry.

  Sighing at himself, Valis shook off those thoughts and started going from room to room once he hit the dormitory floors, checking to make sure no one was awake. He also started checking for tattoos of Qos’s mark. Like Valis, most of them had them behind their ear or otherwise in locations that Valis could find without having to look too hard. It somewhat amused him that they all slept on their sides with their marks facing up, or they slept on their backs or stomachs.

  When they slept on their backs, however, it was really tough to get a good look. Valis ended up having to slip under their beds and come up through the mattress to see anything worthwhile.

  It seemed that Tavros was mistaken. After several floors, Valis hadn’t found any dreamwalking guards. All he found were sleeping bodies and those who were working quietly alone or in pairs. None seemed to sense him, but he avoided them all the same.

  Another floor up, and Valis gasped. There she was. The woman looked exactly the same as in his vision, but more peaceful instead of sexually excited and trembling with adrenaline. She rested on her side, facing the lavatory. She had the wick drawn down low, but it still cast just enough of a warm glow on her that Valis easily saw her Mark of Qos. Though, when he looked closer, his stomach curdled. She had two. One looked mostly like the one Valis had, and the other was exactly as Roba’s had been. Weren’t they supposed to eradicate the first before marking her a second time? Roba hadn’t had two, at least, not to his knowledge. Or was this just because the ritual had been done in haste? Was she even an anchor yet?

  Valis shook off the questions and focused on the woman. He tilted his head as
a thought occurred to him. If he killed her soul before she could retaliate, he could set the enemy back again. He could do it. He had time enough to at least take care of her, right?

  With his mind made up, Valis changed the dreamwalk reality to include his armor and sword. He changed the room to a prison cell with a locked door. Then, with a fortifying breath, he touched the woman’s Mark of Qos. Before he dispatched her, he wanted to see if he could siphon magic from her in his astral state. Her mark burned him as he drew on her magic. Power filled him, black as a moonless night and caustic as acid. Seeing that it worked, Valis willed her magic to flow into him, a tidal wave of power so great that it staggered him at first until he steadied himself against the force of it.

  What was strange was the fact that she didn’t wake from his efforts. When Roba, his birth father, had used his magic or siphoned it for himself, Valis’s mark had burned like someone had branded him. Was he some sort of an anomaly—more than anyone thought?

  While he drowned himself in questions, Valis checked if he could see her dreams. When he touched her Marks of Qos, he nearly reeled back from the horrific imagery. Bodies lay strewn everywhere, blood running like rivers downhill. Heads and limbs lay scattered over the battlefield. Torsos looked to have been quartered with serrated steak knives instead of swords or magic with how ragged the cuts were.

  And above the carnage were five hooded figures, their black and crimson robes billowed in the breeze, unsullied. One stood taller than the rest, radiating power and hate.

  “It is done, Master,” said a throaty woman’s voice. She pushed her hood back, revealing the likeness of the woman who Valis stood beside in the dreamwalk. She brushed her hair out of her face and grinned.

  “Let the darkness reign,” came the voice of the man who radiated such power. “Return to the monastery. We are done here.”

  Valis shuddered and backed out of the dream. With a deep breath, Valis gathered himself and forced the woman—the anchor—from her body.

  She swayed, disoriented from being yanked out of an intense dream. And before she could regain her wits, Valis swung his sword, easily removing her head from her astral body. He looked down at the woman’s physical body to confirm as her astral body dissipated like smoke in a gentle breeze. She jerked violently on the bed for only a moment, and when her lungs expelled her last breath and her chest failed to rise again, Valis’s shoulders sagged. That was one less thing they had to worry about. He just hoped his actions didn’t come to bite him in the ass later.

  Just as Valis turned to leave for the next room in the dormitory block, a man walked through the wall and stopped with a jerk. Then his expression darkened, and Valis felt him draw on his power. A translucent black shield snapped to life around him while balls of darkness encased his hands as he keyed up a spell.

  “Who are you?” the man growled.

  Valis perked a brow and erected his own black shield. If he could convince this man to talk, Valis thought he might be able to see if they had managed to make more anchors. “Tobarin,” Valis said in a voice he almost didn’t recognize for how dark it was. “I’m making rounds. This one is dead. Do you know what happened?”

  “I felt her die, too,” the man said. He sighed and glanced toward the door as if he could see through it. “She seemed to have gone suddenly.” Then he sneered at Valis. “And when I come to check on her, I find you—a young man wearing Aesriphos armor.”

  Valis shrugged. “I like their aesthetic. Black chain is so boring.”

  “And Irenessa?”

  “Seems to have had a heart attack in her sleep. I’d need to cut her open to see for certain, but that’s my best guess.” He took a chance by erecting a golden shield in its invisible state and dropped his black shield to hopefully gain the man’s trust. “What of the other anchors?”

  “We are not yet ready for their ceremonies,” the man said with a snarl. “Thousands of years, and they can’t seem to find more expeditious ways of creating anchors. But it will only be a few months before the next arises. We must tell our Master about Irenessa’s death. He will be most upset.”

  “The four can’t all be done at the same time?” Valis asked, the curiosity burning in his veins.

  “Of course, not. The power needed for just one anchor’s creation already dangerously depletes the magic of those involved in the ritual, and that is most of the monastery. That is why it takes months per anchor, because rebuilding that level of depleted power needs time to—”

  He narrowed his eyes, seemingly aware that he had said way too much to a random stranger. The black magic that swirled about his hands grew in intensity. “But you should already know this.”

  Valis snorted and waved a hand dismissively. “My father never taught me such things, saying I wasn’t important enough to need such information. This is my first time in the monastery now that he’s dead.”

  His magic didn’t recede. Instead, Valis felt him pouring more magic into the spell he was weaving. Valis tilted his head, acting unconcerned, trusting in his shield. “You don’t want to do that, friend. You might hurt yourself.”

  A feral grin transformed the man’s face into a sinister mask. “Like Irenessa hurt herself, I assume.”

  He let loose the spell he had built over the few moments they had spoken. Black magic streaked through the room and struck Valis’s shield hard. If he hadn’t rooted himself in place, it would have blasted him back through three rooms.

  Valis released several spells in succession. He placed a barrier on the room’s walls, ceiling, floor, and the door so his opponent couldn’t leave or call for help. He had no idea if it would prevent him from waking up, but he had to try. Then he sent four arrows of golden light at terrifying speeds no bow could produce. Once the man’s shield shattered, Valis sent two concussive blasts, knocking the man off his feet and sending him into the wall behind him.

  In the next breath, Valis tightened the shield around him, letting the golden light shimmer to life. No sense in hiding it now. Hopefully, it would unsettle the man enough that he’d be an easy kill.

  By the time Valis had his shield in place, the Qos adherent had already gained his feet and snapped his shield back up. He didn’t queue up his magic this time. The man fortified his shield in a breath. In the next, he sent a volley of black lightning that sizzled along Valis’s shield. When they had no effect, the man growled like a feral dog.

  “You must be the anomaly, Valis Bakor.”

  Valis’s only answer was to send streaks of black lightning from his left hand and golden arrows from his right. The man’s shield shattered again, but he dodged. The black lightning missed to dissipate along the room’s barrier.

  “Pity Roba taught you nothing of use.” The man sneered as he dodged another round of Valis’s magic. He grunted as he hit the wall near the hearth. “Your Aesriphos are so useless. They’ve made you soft. Just as useless as they are.”

  He held his hands flat, facing the floor. In the next instant, the floor started to shake and rumble. The bricks that made it up shuddered violently and rose in waves, throwing Valis off balance. He tumbled to the floor, barely missing the bed. With a thought, that bed disappeared, as did everything else in the sparsely decorated room. The last thing he needed was to break his neck in a dreamwalk and die in reality.

  “You could have true power here! With your strange, dual magic, you could gain ranks quickly, surpassing all your peers! But you’re squandering everything in your birthright to fight for Avristin’s lost cause.” He made the floor quake again just as Valis gained his feet. “Pathetic.”

  Valis fought to keep his feet. No matter how hard he tried, he kept ending up either on his knees or on his back. “Then you know nothing of the Light.”

  “Then why are you still on your back, child?” The man laughed and made the waves of brick roll faster.

  Two bricks caught Valis’s sword, and Valis heard the metal crunch and grind. Sparks flew as the floor ate it, scabbard and all. As it reached the
hilt, his sword belt clung and kept pulling. Valis slipped as he tried to get some leverage. He screamed as his left hand got caught by the roiling floor.

  At the same time, the Qos adherent lobbed spheres of black magic at him in fast waves. With his focus thin, Valis’s shield shattered. Two of those menacing spheres slammed into his chest. The third knocked him out of the room and into the hall as his barriers fell from the room.

  Once he stopped rolling, Valis clutched his ruined hand to his chest. He erected his shield on reflex, blocking the next attack. Then Valis rematerialized his sword, clutching it in his right hand, and pushed power into his head and eyes until his vision righted itself.

  He was still reeling from the pain of his crushed hand when he felt a savage tug on his soul. The lights flickered as someone fought to wake Valis up. Valis fought against it. He had to try one more time. Just one. He couldn’t let this man raise the alarm and tell others that Valis had infiltrated their keep.

  With a shout of pain, Valis swung his sword. An arc of golden magic sliced through the man’s shield as if it were nothing. Then with his ruined hand outstretched, Valis used his pain to amplify his black magic and aimed for his opponent’s head.

  Just as the lights started to dim again, Valis watched the man’s head explode. And when the next tug came, Valis succumbed and willed himself back into his body.

  When he woke, Tavros stood over him, clutching both of Valis’s wrists, probably to keep from getting punched while trying to wake him. “Valis?”

  Valis’s left hand throbbed, and he whimpered. “Fuck.”

  “You were screaming.” Tears beaded along Tavros’s lash line. “You sounded so agonized…”

  Valis grunted as he struggled to sit up. Tavros helped him, and when he settled against the ornately carved headboard of the guest room in Braywar’s estate, he heaved a breath and tried to heal his hand.

  Seza slammed open the door just then and stormed into the room. “Dear Gods, what happened? I don’t think I’ve ever heard Valis scream like that.”