White Angel

by R A Oakes

“No, I’m sort of on house arrest in the College of Wizards.”

  “So, how is it you can talk to me?”

  “Thankfully, you solved the dilemma by throwing all that water into the air. I can often see visions of other people and places in a thick mist and, subsequently, can project into them as well. Anytime you need to contact me, just toss some water into the air. I’ll sense it, and then I’ll turn the water into a fog, and we’ll be all set.”

  “But why are you on house arrest?”

  “That’s not important for now. What’s important is getting you into Dominion Castle.”

  “Via a projection in this fog?”

  “No, I mean actually getting you physically inside the castle.”

  “Who’s all going with me? Has Lord Pensgraft assembled an army already? I hadn’t expected any action this soon.”

  “Neither did we.”

  “Who are we? And how is King Tarlen doing?”

  Emerging from the dense fog, Tarlen stood on the surface of the water next to Eldwyn and said, “Your king’s in serious trouble, but that could change with your help. However, what I’ll need you to do involves considerable risk, mostly for you at first. Therefore, this mission is totally voluntary, and you need not accept it.”

  “Your wish is my command, sire. I’ll obey even your slightest whim.”

  “Good, because I want you to transform yourself magically into a gargoyle and ride alone across the bridge leading to Dominion Castle, the only bridge crossing the rivers of lava. Ride up the mountain trail to the front gates, then ride past all the guards and enter the castle.”

  Marcheto’s eyes widened in surprise, but soon he was grinning from ear to ear and started laughing.

  “I’m afraid King Tarlen’s being quite serious,” Eldwyn said.

  “Sorry, I meant no disrespect. It’s just that when under severe stress, I laugh. I know what you’re asking is incredibly dangerous, but don’t you think the idea of sending me across that bridge is funny? What sane person would do such a thing?”

  “This is a serious request,” Eldwyn emphasized.

  “That’s what makes it so funny.”

  Eldwyn gave him a no-nonsense look.

  “Okay, you’re right,” Marcheto said, still chuckling a little.

  “I like a warrior who can laugh in the face of death,” Captain Polaris said as he too appeared in the mist.

  Looking at the captain’s flinty eyes settled the apprentice wizard. “It’s a nervous reaction, really. It has nothing to do with bravery, I can assure you.”

  “I understand, but it beats breaking down in tears, which I’ve seen grown men do,” Captain Polaris said. “Facing an enemy without feeling any fear at all is rare. Everyone gets scared sooner or later. The trick is to function in spite of it.”

  “You’re not saying that you’ve personally experienced fear, are you?” Marcheto asked incredulous. “You’re the head of the king’s personal guard. How can you afford to feel fear?”

  “When Swarenth was overrunning Dominion Castle years ago with thousands of gargoyles pouring over the walls, Tarlen’s father, mother, older brothers and sisters were all killed. Tarlen became a six-year-old king and the sole remaining heir to the 500-year-old Kardimont dynasty. How do you think I felt when 100 of my warriors and I made a mad dash for freedom in an attempt to save Tarlen’s life?”

  “I’ve heard the legend of the boy king who rallied his men in desperate times,” Marcheto said.

  “Yes, before we charged out of a secret underground cavern located at the base of the mountain, little King Tarlen delivered a speech that was so inspirational it reverberates in my heart even now.”

  “It must have been really something to hear.”

  “It was.”

  “But you were frightened for his life?”

  “Worse than that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “As we were racing down a road with hundreds of howling gargoyles pursuing us, I knew in my heart that…” Here Captain Polaris paused to collect himself.

  “You knew what?” Marcheto asked, completely absorbed in the confession of this powerful warrior.

  “That I would kill the boy king before allowing him to be taken prisoner and handed over to Swarenth, a sadistic madman. Do you understand? I was prepared to kill my own king. You asked me if I’ve experienced fear. Yes I have, Marcheto. I know the feeling all too well.”

  “But you were still able to escape.”

  “Yes, because we didn’t let fear get the better of us.”

  “So would you define bravery as functioning in spite of fear?”

  “Yes, Marcheto. When the world around you has gone berserk, if you’re able to remain focused, functional and move forward, that’s true bravery.”

  “Chen believes a warrior should never allow herself to feel fear.”

  “Chen’s in a class by herself. I’m glad she’s a friend. I wouldn’t want her as an enemy. But to focus on the problem at hand, I will ask you one question and I want an honest answer.”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “Are you willing to cross the rivers of lava? Will you ride across that bridge if your king wishes it?”

  “Yes, and I’ll do it because I’d feel lost if I denied my king. You see, what I fear most is losing a sense of belongingness within the group. I’d rather face death than feel totally isolated.”

  “That’s reasonable, and it can provide a great deal of motivation, making a warrior very brave,” Captain Polaris said turning to King Tarlen.

  “Yes, it sounds like true bravery to me also. If you were actually eager for this mission, Marcheto, it would bother me because that would mean you were ignoring the danger involved. And a person who’s in denial is far more likely to fall apart when coming face to face with an impossible situation that proves to be all too real.”

  “But a person who admits his fears up front is less likely to crack?”

  “Much less likely,” King Tarlen said.

  “Give me a determined but reluctant warrior every time,” Captain Polaris added. “At least then I know he’s smart enough to realize what he’s up against.”

  “Well, I must be pretty brave because doing what you ask scares me to death.”

  “As well it should,” King Tarlen said gravely.

  Marcheto was silent for a moment. “But I’ll do it.”

  “I knew you would, Marcheto,” King Tarlen said.

  “I’ll feel fear but do it anyway.”

  “That’s my boy,” Eldwyn said proudly.

  “However, there is some good news,” Captain Polaris said brightening.

  “What?” Marcheto asked.

  “You won’t be totally alone.”

  “You’ll be coming with me?” Marcheto laughed, surprised by his own audacity at using a cynical tone of voice with someone in such high authority.

  “No, but Chaktar will be going with you,” Captain Polaris said, referring to the tiger-man who was like a brother to King Tarlen.

  Chaktar was a tiger who could take on human form, just as King Tarlen could turn into a tiger when angry. Tarlen had inherited this talent from his father, King Ulray, who had first manifested this ability after Eldwyn saved his life by channeling the energy of a dozen tigers into him. When Eldwyn’s incantation had worked, a legend was born. The Tiger of Dominion Castle, a title applying to both Ulray and his son, was a majestic 800-pound beast. Chaktar was a bit smaller, at 700 pounds, but still incredibly powerful.

  Chaktar was descended from the bravest of the tigers Eldwyn had used to save Ulray’s life. The courageous tiger’s energy had delved the deepest into the dying king’s inner spirit, reaching the boundary between life and death and snatching Ulray back into this world. Afterwards, the life energy of the heroic tiger and the king had never fully untangled. This intermingled energy had been passed on to Chaktar, and when he took human form, he bore a striking resemblance to Tarlen’s father as did Tarlen himself who was the spitting image of
King Ulray. When both were in human form, Chaktar and Tarlen looked so much alike they could have been twins.

  Now, King Tarlen pointed at the shore where he saw Chaktar emerging from the brush. As the tiger placed a paw in the water, he began changing into a human and by the time he’d taken a few more steps the transformation was complete. He swam over to King Tarlen and began treading water, his head above the surface. Marcheto was amazed at how much Chaktar and the king really did look alike.

  “Here’s my predicament, and I won’t sugarcoat it,” King Tarlen told the young wizard. “The situation is very serious.”

  “Yes, sire.”

  “The way things are now, my warriors and I will die if we reenter the physical world, so we’re still in the parallel universe of the College of Wizards. It was Eldwyn who came up with the idea of approaching you in this fog. None of us are actually here, and none of us will be until you succeed in your mission.”

  “Which is, sire?”

  Eldwyn jumped into the conversation. “It might be possible for the king and his men to step into the physical world for a brief time, if they remain near the gateway, which of course is your staff.”

  “I suppose that’s better than nothing,” Marcheto said.

  “Under the right conditions, it will be far more than that. If they step into the physical world in the presence of the 50 big cats living in Dominion Castle, it could be our salvation.”

  “So not only must I get the wizard’s staff into the castle, I must get it into the compound where the tigers are being held.”

  “Yes.”

  “In the unlikely event that I’m still alive by then, you’ll want me to help you do something of which the College of Wizards would never approve, right?”

  “Marcheto, do you think I’d ask you to do something that could get all of us into a great deal of trouble?” Eldwyn asked innocently.

  “Yes, because you lost your fear of taking risks after seeing how my spontaneous behavior helped save the day during the battle at Firecrest Castle.”

  “That’s true. Long after Swarenth overran Dominion Castle and killed King Ulray, I suffered from the belief that my own spontaneous behavior had contributed to the king’s death.”

  “A view that’s totally unfounded,” King Tarlen stated emphatically. “You fought very well that day. My father stayed alive as long as he did largely because of you.”

  Eldwyn felt a bout of depression creeping up on him at the thought of King Ulray having been killed. Even after all these years, the loss of his best friend was a wound that had never healed.

  “So tell me, what did you do? Why aren’t you allowed to leave the College of Wizards?” Marcheto asked Eldwyn, his mentor.

  “Oh, it seems Tenaray feels I have some bad habits that need correcting.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like risking the end of the world, which he feels I did when I saved King Ulray.”

  “Was the College against the incantation you used?”

  “Yes, but I think Tenaray and many of the other wizards overreacted. By my calculations, I had an adequate buffer between the conclusion of my experimental incantation and the point where an unfortunate chain of events could have been triggered.”

  “Well, that’s reassuring. How long was the buffer?”

  “At least ten or fifteen seconds.”

  Marcheto’s eyes opened wide, a look of concern on his face.

  “Oh, it’s not as bad as it sounds. I could have created a time loop where those same ten or fifteen seconds could have been repeated over and over again.”

  “Okay, that sounds good, I guess,” Marcheto said. But privately, he began questioning the wisdom of having helped rekindle the older wizard’s sense of creative spontaneity. Desperate to help the last living Kardimont, Eldwyn, a brilliant mystic, might feel justified in taking enormous risks once more. Marcheto remembered hearing someone say there’s a thin line between genius and insanity. He hadn’t quite understood what that meant, until now.

  Marcheto thought, At Firecrest Castle, I was worried that Eldwyn might hesitate when bold action was needed. Now, I’m worried he’ll plow ahead blindly, heedless of the consequences, when what’s needed is self-restraint.

  “Back then, Tenaray didn’t find my time-loop solution comforting. He still doesn’t. And that leaves us with a little problem,” Eldwyn said.

  “Which is?” Marcheto asked.

  “Oh, it’s hardly worth mentioning really.”

  “Please tell me, I might find it to be instructive.”

  “It’s instructive all right, if you’re studying how to get 100 very old wizards very mad at you.”

  “Well, you can’t be friends with everybody,” Marcheto laughed, feeling nervous once more over the idea of alienating a bunch of very fussy but powerful ancient wizards.

  “We may not be friends with anyone, if we try what we intend on trying,” Eldwyn cautioned.

  “Which is?”

  “Doing something all over again and doing it on an even grander scale.”

  “How so?”

  “As King Tarlen said, he and his men are trapped in the parallel universe of the College of Wizards and can’t return to the physical world. Unless things change that is, and change dramatically.”

  “But doesn’t the College realize how much we need our king?”

  “The ancient ones aren’t forcing us to stay here,” King Tarlen explained. “But while saving my life, the wizards supercharged all of us with energy from this universe, so altering the basic composition of our bodies that we can’t return to the physical world.”

  “Would it be like taking fish out of water?” Marcheto asked.

  “Pretty much.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  “Well, as you know, when I was a young wizard, I kept Ulray alive by channeling the energy of a dozen tigers into him,” Eldwyn said.

  “Yes, like the wizards channeled their energy into King Tarlen. By relying on an alternative energy source to save King Ulray’s life, you changed the physical composition of his body.”

  “An unintentional side effect. I didn’t realize it would give him the ability to transform into a tiger.”

  “So, what can King Tarlen and his men change into?”

  “It’s too complicated to explain.”

  “Something neat?”

  “I don’t want to discuss that now.”

  “Give me a hint.”

  “Okay, think time travel.”

  “Time travel?”

  “In the physical world, time moves in a straight line. Yesterday is before today, and tomorrow is after today.”

  “Check.”

  “It’s very orderly.”

  “Gotcha.”

  “It’s not that simple in the wizard’s parallel universe.”

  “Now I’m lost.”

  “You’d be even more lost if I tried to explain it further.”

  “King Tarlen, do you understand it?”

  “Yes, but at the price of having to live here.”

  “But not for long,” Marcheto said.

  “That’s what we’re hoping.”

  “How are we going to proceed?”

  “What do you think we’re going to do, Marcheto?” Eldwyn asked his apprentice.

  “You plan on supercharging King Tarlen and his warriors with tiger energy, thus realigning them with the physical world and allowing them to return. I think it’s a great idea.”

  “But years ago, I was dealing with only one person, Ulray, and a dozen tigers. Now, we want to attempt the same process with King Tarlen, Captain Polaris and the 20 warriors who accompanied them. However, we won’t have a dozen tigers per man as we did with King Ulray. At most, we’ll have 50 big cats to draw upon for all of them. It could prove to be a highly unstable process.”

  “We offered to remain behind,” Captain Polaris said. “We tried to convince King Tarlen to go through the process alone, hoping that there would be less risk.” />
  “I will not leave my men. We stand or fall side by side,” King Tarlen declared.

  “Why? If you consider the larger picture, your men won’t have a major impact on the outcome of events, but you being back home will,” Marcheto said.

  “A king is only as powerful as the loyalty of those who support him. If I come back home without these men, what message does that send to my other warriors? I believe it says that the king doesn’t care about those who care about him. But I do care. I owe my life to these men. When I was a boy and all seemed lost, they pulled together and helped save me from Swarenth. So, I will not abandon them for when times got tough they did not abandon me.”

  “I can see why you feel the way you do, but what about the thousands of warriors loyal to you in this physical What message are you sending to them? Don’t you realize how much they need you, too? They want a king who will lead them into battle.”

  “And then what? Abandon those warriors if the going gets tough? If I turn my back on these 20, what’s to prevent me from doing it to 200 or 500 more? Where does it end?”

  “So the message you’re sending to us in the physical world is to stand united as one with a few warriors trapped in a parallel universe?”

  “What if you were here with us, Marcheto? Would you feel proud of your king if he treated your life cheaply?”

  “No, but maybe I’d be willing to sacrifice myself for the common good.”

  “You have it backwards. True loyalty comes about when every person in the group realizes that the common good will be sacrificed, if necessary, for the needs of the one, or in this case, Captain Polaris and our 20 warriors. If the group as a whole won’t go to the wall for one of its members, then no one is safe. Our enemies could pick us off one at time or 15, 20, or 30 at a time wearing us down gradually.”

  “You’re saying that if one of us is in trouble, we’re all in trouble?”

  “The entire resources of a society should be put on the line when one of its members is threatened. That’s love in action, and that’s true power.”

  “You’re steadfastly refusing to treat the warriors with you as being casualties of war? As acceptable losses?”

  “Ask a mother who’s experienced all the discomfort of pregnancy and the pain of childbirth if her son or daughter is worth saving. Go ahead, ask a mother if she’s willing to have her sons or daughters treated as acceptable losses.”