by Sam Ferguson
“Step back from the window,” someone said. The guard obeyed immediately, disappearing from the window once more. “Open the door,” the voice said.
A series of locks clicked and popped as they disengaged and the wagon’s rear door was opened. Trenton looked out and saw Senator Bracken standing there. He grinned and stepped up and into the wagon, closing the door behind him.
“I trust you have enjoyed the journey thus far?” Senator Bracken smirked.
“Oh it has been delightful,” Trenton replied. “You’ll have to allow me to return the favor sometime.”
Senator Bracken closed the gap between them in an instant and slammed his fist into Trenton’s left cheek, opening a gash along his cheekbone. Trenton’s head rang from the force of the blow.
“That statement summarizes exactly why you are in this predicament,” Bracken said. Trenton glared up at the senator, but remained silent. “What? No pithy insult or sarcastic remark? Lord Lokton, I am dumbstruck.”
“Let me loose, and you will surely be struck,” Trenton growled.
Bracken backhanded Trenton with such fury that Trenton’s neck popped.
“Let’s not play games,” Bracken said. I am here with a proposition.” Bracken moved to sit on a stool nearby. “I have more than enough evidence to convict you, you do know that yes?”
Trenton shook his head. “You have no evidence against me, I am no traitor.”
Bracken nodded. “I know.”
Trenton raised a curious brow. “You know?”
The senator sneered. “I know you are innocent,” he clarified.
“Then what in the name of Hammenfein am I doing in here?” Trenton demanded.
“Tsk tsk,” Bracken said with a wag of his finger. “One should not evoke the name of realms which they neither control nor understand.”
“What do you want from me?” Trenton asked.
“Ah,” Bracken said with a smile. “That is the first smart thing to leave your mouth all day.” Bracken rose to his feet and the stool disappeared. Bracken paused, waiting to see if Lokton had noticed. He had.
“I am not impressed by parlor tricks,” Trenton said. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want your fealty,” Bracken said openly. “Poor King Mathias grows old, and he has no apparent heir. Align your house with me, and assure me of your loyalty.”
“I will do no such thing,” Trenton said. “That is not how the law works.” Trenton turned angry eyes up at the senator. “You set me up didn’t you?”
Bracken smiled and nodded. “I may have orchestrated a few things,” he admitted.
“You did all of this just to put me in a position of need so I would jump at your offer,” Trenton surmised. “It will not work. My honor is not for sale.”
Bracken knelt down in front of Trenton and leaned in close enough for his hot, putrid breath to assault Lord Lokton’s nostrils. “Without my help, you will die a traitor’s death,” Bracken warned. “I have many allies inside the senate who follow me. They will give the verdict I tell them to give. Even if I had no evidence, you would swing on the gallows.”
“You are mad,” Trenton said.
Bracken reached up and seized Trenton’s shoulder with otherworldly power and dug into his skin with his nails. “I am neither mad, nor a fool. A new tide is coming in. Along with it, all families who swear fealty to me will rise. Those who defy me shall be obliterated as though a tempest swept over them. You have a choice, here and now. Join with me and I make all of this disappear. If you continue to rebuke me, I will destroy you, and your family. Your lands will burn and your wife will die a scorned widow. Your adopted son will be hunted down and gutted like an animal in the forest.”
Trenton jerked his shoulder free and spat in Bracken’s face. “May Khefir take you and drag you to Hammenfein.”
Bracken laughed. “It doesn’t have to be this way. I can just as easily pin the blame on the real culprits and allow you to walk away. Your family will be taken under my wing, and protected once the new era begins.”
“You will not succeed,” Trenton swore. “Lepkin and my son will stop you.”
“No, they won’t,” Bracken hissed. “Should Lepkin, or anyone else, come against me, I will have them branded traitors just like you. Every proud head that refuses to bow to me shall be lopped off.” Bracken stood and backed away. “This is your final chance, Lokton, tell me where you stand. Are you willing to forfeit your life and the lives of your family and friends just so your petty ‘honor’ remains intact by stubbornly serving a ghost of a king?”
“House Lokton serves the king,” Trenton said.
“What if I told you that Sir Duval and Mr. Stilwell were the true murderers?” Bracken asked. “Duvall placed the dagger in the magistrate’s back and helped Stilwell escape from your prison.”
“How could you know this?” Trenton spat.
“Because I am the one who hired them,” Bracken smiled. “Ironic how the ‘honor’ you hold so dear means so little to those you have surrounded yourself with.” Bracken turned and went for the door. “No matter, your death will allow me to pull House Cedreau under my wing.” He glanced back over his shoulder. “It might interest you to know that I have Mr. Stilwell’s and Sir Duvall’s bodies with me. I will present them as evidence of your treachery.”
“You hired them, and then you killed them?” Lokton asked.
“Delicious, isn’t it?” Bracken cackled.
“You are a monster,” Trenton said.
Bracken nodded and exited the wagon. “He’s all yours,” he said to someone standing out of view. “Just leave enough of him so I can hold the tribunal,” Bracken instructed.
The bearded guard stepped into the wagon. “I’ll try to keep him alive,” he promised.
Bracken sneered one final time at Trenton and then slammed the wagon shut.
CHAPTER FOUR
“What do you mean?” Dimwater demanded.
Marlin shushed her and put a finger to her lips. “Please, keep your voice down, he is only in the next room, and he is just as confused as we are about the whole thing.”
“How did this happen?” Lady Dimwater asked as she tossed a book to the table.
“I wish I knew, Marlin replied. “I only know that it is so. I examined him thoroughly.”
“So Lepkin is now inside of Erik’s body and Erik is inside Lepkin’s. That is what you are saying?”
“It would appear so,” Marlin said.
Dimwater placed a hand to her forehead and sighed. “How did this happen?” she repeated.
“I’m not sure,” Marlin replied. He kept his nose buried in the black, leather bound tome, pouring over its contents. “But, I have a theory.”
Lady Dimwater tapped her finger on the table. “You going to share it with me?” she nagged.
Marlin nodded. He pulled back from the thick tome and wiped a hand over his face with a sigh. “The magic Erik uses is extremely unique.” Marlin leaned back and pointed to a book on a shelf. “Can you send that book to me?”
Lady Dimwater waved her hand and the book flew from the shelf to hover in front of Marlin’s face. “Shall I open it for you as well?”
Marlin gave a wry laugh and pushed the book to the table. “How did you do that?” he asked. He could see the confusion and anger swirling in her. He held a finger in the air. “I mean, do you understand the mechanics of your magical power?”
“My power grabbed the book and brought it to you,” she replied impatiently.
“Exactly,” Marlin said with a nod. “Your power acted upon the object, like an invisible hand.”
“Marlin, Lepkin lies in a coma, trapped inside Erik’s body while Erik has woken to find himself in Lepkin’s body, can you get to the point?”
Marlin blushed and nodded. “Of course, I apologize. I assumed a scholar such as yourself would want the detailed theory.”
“Not in this case.”
“Erik’s power doesn’t work like yours. While your magic acts
upon objects, his acts within objects.”
“What’s the difference?”
“For one, it makes him more powerful, potentially. But mechanically speaking your magic forces an object to act in the desired manner. Erik’s power connects to the object and elicits a change from within so that the object itself chooses to obey and align itself with him.”
Dimwater frowned. “Marlin, nothing you said makes sense. I have researched magic for most of my life, but I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Have you heard of inherent intelligence?”
Dimwater nodded. “The theory that everything has capacity for thought and choice. But that is not one of the magical laws.”
“When I trained Erik, one of the tests required him to eliminate magical shades. I made copies of myself, and he had to find the false images and dispel them.” Marlin rose from his seat and walked to his left. His body then split as several Marlins filled the chamber.
One of them spoke. “I know which one is real because I created them.”
Another continued, “However, each Marlin has an identical aura, so I can’t look and see the difference.”
A third stepped forward. “Can you spot the real me?”
Dimwater waved her hand and the false Marlin next to her faded away as mist before the dawning sun.
“How did you do that?” another Marlin asked.
Dimwater arched her brow impatiently. “I dispelled him.” She waved her hand again and all of the Marlins in the room disappeared. She gasped and her mouth dropped open. “Marlin?”
Marlin laughed and reappeared in his chair by the table. “I never left my seat,” he said slyly.
“Well played,” Lady Dimwater offered. “But what does this have to do with Erik?”
“You see,” Marlin started. “You counteracted my illusions by acting upon them and overpowering them. Erik, on the other hand, would have used his power to reach into everything around him. He would have tapped into the inherent intelligence and each illusion would have dispelled itself in an effort to please him.”
“But he still wouldn’t have found you,” Dimwater asserted.
Marlin shook his head. “His power has an area effect. It would have found me and counteracted my invisibility spell as well, even against my will. Once his training is complete, he would be able to counteract all magic around him and even bend living beings to his will.”
Dimwater sat silently for a long while contemplating. Marlin waited, allowing her to work it out for herself. “So,” she began, “how did they switch physical bodies?”
“A part of Erik’s energy is used in his magic. When he focused all of his power on Lepkin, I believe his spirit went inside Lepkin in order to counteract the power of Nagar’s Secret.”
“So, Nagar’s Secret acts upon inherent intelligence too then?” Dimwater mused.
Marlin nodded. “I believe it does. That is how it can bend the will of all beings to align with it.”
“Even the will of dragons,” Dimwater added.
“Everything has intelligence,” Marlin said. “A chair is made of particles of intelligence. Our magic can rip them asunder by force, destroying the chair…”
“But Erik’s power can reach inside and make the chair choose to dissolve itself.”
“Precisely,” Marlin said. He sighed and slapped a hand to the table. “I can’t be sure, but my theory is that Erik’s spirit entered Lepkin’s body and attacked the dark magic from Nagar’s Secret, thus displacing Master Lepkin’s spirit.”
“Are you saying that Lepkin is dead?” Dimwater asked.
Marlin shook his head. “No. Erik was focused on saving Lepkin, not killing him. Somehow I think he separated Lepkin’s spirit from the evil magic. Lepkin’s spirit then was compelled to comply with Erik’s desire, so I think it realized the only way to align itself with Erik was to escape Lepkin’s physical form and allow Erik to dispel the blight. Then, because Lepkin’s spirit wanted to comply with Erik’s desire for Lepkin to survive, it saw an empty body nearby and occupied it.”
Dimwater sat and rubbed her shoulders. Her face then brightened and she smiled. “Well then, it is simple. Erik can change them back.” Her smile vanished when she saw Marlin’s shoulders slump. “What is it?”
“It isn’t simple at all,” Marlin countered.
“You just said that Erik caused them to switch in the first place.”
“I said that was my theory. I don’t know if I am correct.” Marlin shrugged and went over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Even if I am correct, Erik won’t be able to switch them back.”
“But if he switched them in the first place, then why wouldn’t he be able to reverse it?”
“I once stayed with a family while I journeyed to Valtuu Temple for my initiation. I went out with the father and his son, who was about Erik’s age at the time, to cut down a tree. It had rained the day before and the ground was still slick in spots. When the tree fell the man slipped on one of these slick spots and was pinned. I was too far away to help him. The man’s son lifted the entire tree and threw it off of his father. The tree was easily three feet in diameter at its base. There was no way the boy could have done that. Yet, somehow he tapped into an ability within himself he didn’t even know he had.” Marlin patted Dimwater’s shoulder and backed away as he knelt down to look into her eyes. “After we realized the father wasn’t seriously injured, I asked the boy to lift the tree again. He couldn’t even raise it from the ground an inch. He tried several times, but it wouldn’t budge. It took all three of us to lift the tree just a few inches.”
“So Erik has the potential, but lacks mastery,” Dimwater noted. A tear slid down her left cheek.
“Precisely,” Marlin replied. “A moment of extreme need coupled with Erik’s love for Lepkin summoned the best from within, but he likely won’t be able to come close to that kind of power again for many years.”
*****
The hot sun reached through Leanor Cedreau’s black, heavy dress and warmed her skin. Its heat mocked the cold, barren hole torn in her soul. Her wet, stinging eyes locked onto the stark marble casket only three paces in front of her. Her gaze fixated on the narrow slit between the lid and the stone box, as if staring would awaken the body inside and he would emerge from death’s unforgiving clutches to hold her once again.
Strong fingers pried their way between her clasped hands and squeezed.
“The arrow was meant for me,” a voice said.
Leanor slowly pulled her eyes away from her husband’s casket to see Eldrik, her eldest son. His eyes were red and moist, but no tears stained his cheeks. Crying was not becoming of Cedreau men, she knew, but his unrelenting grip allowed her to feel the grief under his stoic mask.
“I should have been there,” Eldrik said. He turned to face her and opened his mouth, but nothing came out. His jaw quivered and his shoulders slacked.
“There is nothing you could have done,” Leanor whispered. She held his hand with her left hand while disentangling her right to gently caress his face. As her fingers pushed back a lock of his blonde hair, Eldrik set his jaw and turned to face the casket. A tear fell down Leanor’s face and she pulled her hand back.
A hand fell on her left shoulder and squeezed gently. She looked up to see Mikel. His beard hung low, covering his neck but it was neatly kept and freshly oiled. It hovered only a few inches above a golden amulet of a rainbow settled neatly over his black, hooded robes. His left hand held a black, leather bound book.
Leanor looked up to Mikel’s wrinkled, leathery face and did her best to return the priest’s kind smile.
“I am ready to begin,” he said simply.
Leanor gave a nod and turned back to her husband’s coffin.
Mikel walked beyond her, robes grazing the grass as he stepped behind the marble box. He took the large book in both hands and opened it atop the coffin.
Leanor’s throat seized as if an egg had suddenly materialized inside. Her stomach flipp
ed and lurched, her forehead burned, and her vision narrowed as darkness wrapped around her.
Eldrik squeezed her hand, pulling her back from the brink.
Mikel looked up at her for a brief moment before scanning the others that had gathered behind her.
“Today,” he began solemnly. “I have come to bury the body of one of the great men of our day.” Mikel’s right hand pressed flat against the coffin and he held a page down against the wind with his left hand. “As a priest of Icadion, the All-Father, I wear the rainbow amulet. It is a reminder of the bridge between our world and heaven. It serves as a symbol of the connection between Terramyr, the land where we sojourn during our mortal lives, and Volganor, the heaven city.”
Mikel looked down to the coffin for a moment before continuing. “Once the last rites have been performed, Lord Cedreau’s soul will be granted passage to the hall of his fathers.” Mikel paused and looked to Leanor, then to Eldrik. “When the next rain comes, Nage will come for his soul, and guide him back over the rainbow where his soul may find rest.”
Leanor looked to her feet. She could hear Mikel performing the final rites, but she couldn’t understand the words. The Old Tongue was as foreign to her as if Mikel were speaking Taish, but she could understand the idea. Mikel was reading from the Valkernium, announcing to the gods that Lord Cedreau’s soul was ready to return home, and suitable for Volganor.
While it was customary to perform the ritual, she wondered whether Nage would judge her husband worthy, or allow Khefir to take his soul to Hammenfein to face the wrath of hellfire. Leanor loved her husband dearly, but she knew his character as well as her own. Tears fell freely and she looked to Eldrik. As she watched her eldest sit through the ceremony she knew there would be no rainbow crossing for her husband. She also knew that she, herself, would most likely follow her husband when her time came. Their sins were too great to escape judgment.
A gong rang out from behind, ripping her from her thoughts. The ceremony was complete. Mikel closed the book and stepped back. He motioned to a few men who came forward and took hold of thick cords under the casket. They lifted the stone cocoon and suspended it in the air while two more men removed sturdy planks from covering the grave below.