"Why didn't you tell me all this before?"
"You weren't ready," Dirk said. "But your actions today gave us no choice. I received word that you'd visited Mathew in the Imperial Palace. I already knew that he's part of the Dark, one of Krinir's most trusted servants. I had an inkling of what he'd planned. I tried to arrest you to keep you from making a much graver mistake."
"Then you would have let me go," Rik said as they kept walking.
"I probably would've let you off with a little extra latrine duty."
"I'd rather be on the run for my life."
Dirk chuckled. It was the first time Rik had ever heard the stern man laugh.
"So what do the Webs of Fate say about me?" Rik asked.
"As you probably know, the Webs of Fate are difficult to read. All we can see is that you're a very strong Weaver and that you may be an important part of the effort to defeat Krinir. I'm afraid the Webs don't give us many specifics beyond that."
"So I guess Mathew wasn't lying to me."
"It's easier to lie if you gain a person's trust by telling the truth first."
"That makes sense," Rik said. "But what do we do from here? Do we have a plan, or are we just running for our lives?"
"We're going east, toward Krinir's fortress. That's where the Webs lead."
Rik's stomach churned. "I was hoping Mathew lied about that part."
"I wish there was another path."
"How can we hope to stand against Krinir?" Rik asked.
"I have no idea."
Chapter 20: The Dark God
Krinir had led Danica, Renaud, and Valencia to a small chamber where they sat on red, cushioned chairs. The god was not at all what Danica had expected. He sat across from them, sipping from a cup of tea one of his servants had procured. Now the servants were all gone, leaving them alone with the most dangerous man in the world.
Everyone had been silent for a while, and Danica had begun to fidget. She wasn't normally prone to worry, but she'd never been in a situation like this.
Krinir looked right at her. "You don't trust me at all, do you?"
Danica's heart pounded. How the hell was she supposed to respond to that? She glanced to Renaud for support, but he looked pale himself. After a deep breath, she said, "I've heard many negative things about you."
Krinir leaned back in his chair, letting out a low chuckle. "Most of them are probably true. But there's no need to be nervous here. You're the only person who can get me out of the Shadowed Land. I'm not going to kill you because you don't like me."
The way he spoke of killing seemed too casual, as if he'd have no qualms about killing her as soon as she fulfilled her role.
"And once I've freed you from the Shadowed Land?" she asked.
"There's no need to get ahead of ourselves."
Danica felt suddenly bold, though she wasn't sure where that boldness had come from. She leaned forward, staring Krinir in the eyes. "Are you going to kill me or not?"
He smiled. "I enjoy it when people are more direct with me."
"But you won't give me a straight answer?"
"Why should I? I'm a god. You're a pathetic human."
For the first time, she thought she saw the true evil that lurked beneath Krinir's mask. "If I think you're going to kill me afterward," she said, "then why should I help you?"
"There are ways to make you suffer that won't kill you." Krinir shook his head. "I was trying to have a nice civilized discussion here, but you had to ruin it. Conversations about torture don't make for a terribly good introduction."
"All right, then," Danica said. "How about this? Convince me that I should really take your side, that I should help you of my own free will."
Krinir smiled. "I like you."
Danica wasn't sure how to feel about that.
"No doubt you've heard that I'm evil," Krinir said, "and in some ways, those who tell you that might be right. But I've always found evil is such a meaningless term. It all depends on how you look at things. Is the snake evil because it eats the mouse? No, that's just its nature."
Danica frowned at him. "Are you saying that it's your nature to do the things you do?"
"I'm a god. Individual human lives matter little to me. I'm more concerned with the grand plan. God and his faithful little servant Lionar had one vision for this world. I had another." He stroked his beard. "You see, when technology destroyed the Old World, they decided we couldn't have it in this new one." He grinned, looking almost like a child playing a favorite game. "But I managed to get some past them."
"Why?" Danica asked. "If it destroyed the Old World, won't it destroy this one, too?"
His grin became even wider. "Don't you see? That's the whole point. This is all a game to me. Perhaps it's not about destroying the world. I don't know. I like to see what you humans do when you're pushed to the edge. It's fascinating, really."
Danica glanced over at Renaud and Valencia. Their mouths were open in shock.
"That's horrible," Danica said.
Krinir shrugged. "I don't understand why you humans are so intent on living. The world is a terrible place. You spend most of your lives suffering to some degree. And you always seem to find some way to make life even more hellish. I don't understand it. I think you need your world destroyed from time to time. Something has to make you see sense."
"But there's a lot of good in the world," Danica said. "You'd be destroying that, too."
"Do you actually think you're going to change my mind? I've had countless millennia to decide how I feel about your pathetic race. I may find some of you interesting to talk to, and that's why I don't think I could ever see the world completely destroyed. Life would be boring without humans. You just need a new start from time to time. It's happened before, and it will happen again. My purpose is to guide things toward that path of destruction."
Danica had no idea why she thought she could debate a god, but she had to try something. If she helped him escape the Shadowed Land, that would aid his plans to destroy the world. She almost laughed. How had she ended up in a situation like this?
"Your purpose is whatever you decide it should be," she said. "Or do you lack free will?"
"In this world, there are three main forces: Creation, Restoration, and Destruction. Rador is the Creator. Lionar is the Restorer. I am the Destroyer. That's the natural order of things. Every one of these things must be in balance. You wouldn't understand. You're only a human." He leaned back, putting his hands behind his head. "I still like you. There aren't many humans who have the courage to challenge me the way you have. It's refreshing."
Danica glanced at Renaud and Valencia again. They still had blank expressions on their faces, as though the truth about their god had robbed them of all thought.
But Danica's mind was racing. How could she stop Krinir?
"I know what you're thinking," he said. "You want to find a way to stop me." He chuckled. "Well, it's not going to happen. We'll continue in the same cycle we always have. I'll destroy the world, and then Lionar will restore it. As for your so-called God, as far as I know, He doesn’t exist. He is not the Creator. That title belongs to Rador." Krinir looked at Renaud and Valencia. "You two have been very quiet. Are you surprised to discover my true nature? Did you think I actually had your best interests in mind?"
"We thought you believed in humanity," Renaud said.
"You're pathetic." With a casual flick of the wrist, Krinir sent bursts of lightning at both of them. They both let screamed for a moment, twitched once, then fell still. Smiling, Krinir met Danica's gaze. "That's my power. Impressive, isn't it?"
Danica felt cold inside. She didn't know what to say.
Krinir rose from his chair. "Now I believe we have work to do. Follow me."
Chapter 21: The Dark and the Light
Rik and Dirk did not follow the roads, making their way deep into the wilderness instead. They encountered a few monsters, but nothing they couldn't handle. Though they never heard any signs of pursuit, Rik st
ill peered over his shoulder every few minutes.
The air always seemed too quiet, and the mist wrapped its tentacles around them. Without the protection of the wards, the mist appeared thicker. Whenever monsters appeared, they did it suddenly, as if someone had conjured them right there on the spot.
One day, as they ate around a small fire, Dirk said, "We can only expect it to get worse. We're already approaching the edge of the Wastelands."
"Don't like the sound of that," Rik said, mouth full. He was leaning against the trunk of one of many twisted, skeletal trees. The rocky ground beneath him was uneven.
"Don't worry about it too much. We'll have help. Or at least I hope we will."
Rik groaned inwardly. "That's not exactly reassuring."
"I've never been one for reassurances."
"All right," Rik said. "Who's gonna help us?"
"A few of my friends from the Light. They've established a secret settlement out here at the edge of the Wastelands. We're so far from the roads that most people would never think of traveling here. You have to admit it's quite a desolate place."
Rik swallowed a bite of dried meat. "Can't argue with that."
He looked across the barren landscape, trying to remember what grass and leaves looked like, trying to imagine a world with a sun, with day and night. It hadn't been that long, but something about the Shadowed Land made him feel as if an impenetrable door had closed between him and the life he used to know.
A soft vibration jolted him out of thought. "You feel that?"
Dirk didn't answer. He'd already launched to his feet, scanning their surroundings with narrowed eyes. The vibrations continued, growing stronger. Would this be a monster much worse than anything they'd faced so far?
Rik peered into the mist but couldn't see anything. The mist felt thick in his lungs, as if it would suffocate him eventually. He shoved that feeling aside, though. He didn't need it right now. Instead, he focused on the vibrations, but now they were growing weaker.
"I think it's gone," he said in a low voice.
"I wouldn't count on that."
As it turned out, whatever had caused the disturbance didn't threaten them again. They rested for another hour or so before setting out again. Dirk informed Rik that they were close to the settlement. They'd reach it in perhaps a few hours.
Twice on the way, Rik felt the vibrations again, but the mist was so thick he couldn't see anything. He glanced around every few seconds, expecting to glimpse a shadow in the mist. Or perhaps he wouldn't spot anything until it was too late.
The mist grew thicker than ever, and they couldn't see more than a few feet ahead. The vibrations started again, more pronounced this time. Rik felt the monster approaching from their right. Acting on instinct, he sent a surge of fire in that direction. To his relief, Dirk did the same. As the fire burned, it seemed to clear the mist.
In the gap it had created, there stood a beast perhaps eight feet tall and covered head-to-toe in spikes. It stood upright like a human, but there was nothing human in its red eyes.
Rik focused on turning the monster's blood to ice, as he'd done when he'd first found himself in the Shadowed Land, but it didn't work this time. The monster's spikes repelled his magic, and Rik had to stop quickly, before he turned his own blood to ice.
The monster showed no response to their attack. It lumbered toward them as if it weren't all that eager to devour them. Rik wondered if they could outrun it.
They both tried fire again, but the monster walked through it as though it didn't feel the heat at all. Rik doubted he could use wind to knock the monster down. His spells were strong, but they weren't strong enough to topple a beast that size.
The monster staggered toward them, letting out a low growl, its red eyes glowing.
Bursts of lightning accomplished nothing, but then Rik realized that the bottoms of its feet couldn't be covered in the same spikes. He directed his staff at the ground beneath the monster and focused on raising a spike from the rocks. A stalagmite shot out of the ground, piercing the monster's foot.
The monster shrieked and fell back, and Rik and Dirk moved forward, taking advantage. Rik sent shards of ice at the monster's exposed feet, while Dirk hit the feet with bursts of lightning. The magic dazed the monster, giving them just the chance they needed.
Before it could get back to its feet, Rik rushed forward with his axe in hand. He swung the axe hard, right at the monster's right foot. The blade of the axe sank a few inches into the tough flesh. It didn't cut clean through, but it was enough to cripple the beast.
The creature shrieked again as it struggled to get up. It appeared that all those large spikes weighed it down. Rik took advantage of the opportunity and hacked at its other foot. Now, even if it did get back on its feet, it couldn't pursue them.
"Good job," Dirk said. "Let's get moving."
Rik couldn't hide his smile. That had to be the first time Dirk had ever praised him.
They left the monster behind and heard no evidence of pursuit. Soon the mist thickened, and Rik felt suffocated once more. The two of them didn't speak much as they traveled. Dirk seemed a man of few words, and Rik was intimidated by him.
"I still don't understand why you threw everything away to help me."
"Because you could be important," Dirk said.
"That's quite a gamble, don't you think?"
Dirk walked a few steps. "I was growing tired of waiting there. You're the first real opportunity I've had to make a difference." He turned his staff over in his hands. "You have to understand that we're just channelers. People like you and me don't make much of a difference in the eyes of sorcerers. Our magic is simple. Ordinary. It's nothing like theirs."
"I've never really seen what sorcerers can do," Rik said.
"Their magic doesn't flow as quickly as ours, but once they gather their strength, they make our staffs look like toys. Well, some of them do. It takes a great deal of training to become a master sorcerer, but the sorcerers here in the Shadowed Land have had centuries."
"So these friends of yours?" Rik asked. "Are they all sorcerers?"
"Most of them, yes. But there are also a few channelers. Even some ordinary soldiers. I bet they feel even more out of place than I do."
Rik chuckled. "I've felt out of place my whole time here."
After perhaps another hour or two of walking, they reached the settlement. It was a small village, its houses constructed of rock. It had no walls and hardly looked like the kind of place that a secret resistance group would call home.
A guard stood at the edge of the settlement, watching them approach. At first, the man's expression was stern, but then it lightened. "Dirk, you made it!" His eyes landed on Rik. "Is this the young man you were sent to retrieve?"
"Yes," Dirk said. "I need to speak to Selene."
"Of course. She'll be happy to see you."
The guard led them across the rocky ground, toward a small stone structure that had seen better days. In truth, this village looked as if a good wind gust could knock it down. It was probably a good thing that there was little to no wind in the Shadowed Land.
The guard pushed aside a frayed tapestry and announced their presence.
"Send them in," said a curt female voice.
Rik followed Dirk into the small house. The only chairs available were made of stone and had no cushions. The tables were cracked in places, and the interior walls looked even less sturdy than the exterior. Rik felt as if he were in the wrong place.
"Please sit," said the woman. She had turned in her stone chair to face them. Her skin held that ageless quality Rik had seen in other sorcerers, but the years seemed to have worn on her. The lines on her face suggested that she didn't smile often.
Rik and Dirk took seats in two of the hard chairs.
"I am Selene," she said to Rik, before turning to Dirk. "Is this the Weaver?"
Dirk nodded. "I'm sorry that we had to rush things. He is an impulsive young man, and he was fooled by Mathew."
Her expression twitched in disgust. "It was a distinct possibility. There is nothing wrong with moving things a bit faster. In fact, it gives us more room for error."
Rik didn't know if he was supposed to speak, and he hated that they were talking about him as if he weren't there. He was more than whatever the Webs of Fate said about him, but he had the feeling Selene saw him as a pawn in her games.
He cleared his throat. "Dirk hasn't told me what I'm supposed to do. All I really want is to go home. I understand that you have your war to fight, but it's not for me."
"It is not our war," she said. "It is everyone's war. You don't understand the danger Krinir poses. He has shown it before. His ultimate goal is the destruction of Terra, the world you call home. If you don't help us defeat Krinir, you will have no home to return to."
"With all due respect," Rik said, "I only have your word for that."
Dirk glared at him. "Don't you question Selene in front of me."
"It's all right," Selene said. "We all have our doubts."
"Do you trust me?" Dirk asked, keeping his gaze stern.
"Yes." Rik had to trust Dirk. The man had risked his own life to get Rik out of a dangerous situation. In the time they'd spent together, he'd done nothing to arouse Rik's suspicion. In truth, Rik should have suspected Mathew's true motives right from the beginning. It had all been too convenient, and Mathew had done nothing to gain Rik's trust.
How could Rik have been so foolish? Markus always joked that Rik didn't think before acting, but Rik had never been that stupid before. Well, maybe he had, but not about something as important as his own life, his chances to return home, and perhaps the fate of the entire world.
It was enough to make him feel sick.
"If you trust me," Dirk said, "then you have to believe I'm telling the truth. And I trust that Selene has told me the truth. That should be enough for you."
"I know," Rik said, "but I did just have my trust betrayed by Mathew."
World in Chains- The Complete Series Page 109