Warriormage: Book Three of the 'Riothamus' trilogy

by Rosemary Fryth

Se-Taanata’s mouth curled in amusement as she stretched and lay back on the flows of air, “Ah…but there you are wrong Arantur, I am your kin. A first cousin to be exact,” she added dryly. “In fact the much acclaimed blood of the murderer Andur runs in my veins too.” She smiled sourly at the memory, “A long time ago my mother had a dalliance with one of your relatives, your father’s brother as I recall. I understand that he was visiting Riggeltz at the time. Mother of course tried to pass it off as a rape, but there was no way that she would have allowed herself to be forced by a man…”

  Aran turned away in disgust at the malice behind her words.

  Se-Taanata chuckled, absently twirling a blond lock of hair, “Knowing mother, there was no rape…she would have killed him first before he could have laid a hand on her. Anyway, after that mutually unsatisfying event, she cut your uncle’s throat whilst he slept so he could not speak the truth, and then returned to her father’s tent. She knew almost immediately that she was pregnant to the dead outlander, but it was too late, she was found out and Shunned.”

  “You lie,” grated Aran, “That is no proof that you are my kinswoman. You fabricated that story to suit your own dark purposes.”

  “Do you think that I want the blood of the murderer Andur in my veins?” she hissed, spinning to face the small group. “Do you think I rejoice that my pure Serat blood has been sullied, contaminated by his.”

  Her face twisted, her pale beauty soured by festering evil, “I executed my mother for the legacy she passed onto me. I took her life as wantonly and as easily as she had lain with the outlander.” Her eyes flashed dark fire, “My mother was never a clever woman. She knew and understood only her primal lusts. The outlander was only one in a long series of men she had taken and killed to satisfy her desires, but with this last one she had grown complacent, and inadvertently conceived a child…”

  Se-Taanata’s body rose, and quivered with the force of her passion, “Almost from the first moment I drew living breath I knew I was born to be the catalyst for the rise of the Serat nation. I knew that I was destined to lead my people forward into the next cycle. That my years in the wilderness and cold were a testing time, strengthening me for the rebirth ahead.”

  She paused, and her face grew still, “Then my mother told me the truth of my bloodline that I was not pure Serat, but some mongrel half-breed conceived in lust and base passion. I wanted to kill her there and then, but something stopped me, I knew I was too young to survive without her, so I bided my time until the years of our Shunning were over.”

  “She’s mad…” whispered Darven to Drayden as they backed away from the insane figure of the Warleader.

  “And dangerous too,” the mage whispered back, “I hope Aran knows what he’s doing in provoking her…”

  Aran was clenching and unclenching his fists.

  Finally he grated, “Not that I believe you of course, but how did you become aware that you were of the Andurian bloodline?” he asked coldly.

  Se-Taanata laughed shrilly, “When I was but a child I found that I had been born with an unusual knack; an ability almost, of being able to bend the will of others to me. Initially I could only practice my ability upon my mother and the families of Herders we came across. Later however, I was Shackled to an influential officer of the Soldier Caste, and then I soon became aware that this gift was mine alone.”

  She smiled coldly, “He thought that he wanted me, for my beauty was not like other women of my race, but even in those earliest of days he did not know that the wanting was mine, and not because he was a man, but because he was a soldier and I needed the army to achieve my ambition.” She laughed, “Once he was Held then it became so easy for me. My husband had the rank and power within the army to bring forward soldiers to be Held. I let him call it ‘volunteering’, but the soldiers I picked had little choice…”

  She smiled and her eyes were cold, “For when I became a woman I realised that I was much like my mother in many ways. I enjoyed the primal acts of mating, and chose my partners from the soldiers he brought me.” She giggled, “I did enjoy their bodies, but even more than the mating act, I found that I delighted in playing with the feeble minds of those men and having the ability to twist and turn them in unexpected ways.” She stretched languorously, I had always known that I was to be the catalyst for the new Serat Cycle,” she purred, “But I had to convince others…” She smiled, “By then the army needed little persuading and after my purge the Priests soon were convinced.”

  She paused, remembering, “Months and months ago I knew that the White Fortress was the key to the renewal of the Serat Cycle, so I took the army, and my tame Priests, and forced those who warded and tended the White Fortress to open it to me. Within weeks of the taking of this place, I sent an elite band of soldiers to Thakur City to wrest control of the government from those fools who ruled. The Gathering of Nine was overthrown soon afterwards,” she added blithely. “After that Thakur was in my hands to do with as I wished.”

  “She does go on,” said Alissa in a low voice to Aran.

  “Let her,” Aran replied crisply his anger controlled, “I need to know the extent of her powers. Every time she gets worked up, I can stretch my awareness out without her realising it. She is strong but I may be able to find her weakness—that is if she has one.”

  “So you discovered the node,” said Drayden abruptly.

  Se-Taanata came out of her musings with a jolt, “The node? Yes, this place of power. A place dedicated by the old Priests to the dark energies of the Hidden Ones. It had become a doorway to the realm of the most ancient Gods of Serat.”

  She stretched, cat-like in the incandescent flows, “As soon as I came to the White Fortress I knew that this place was special. That the energies here would give me the necessary power to Hold even more of the untrustworthy elements of the population, and also give me the necessary strength to turn the cycle!”

  “What about the Priests who came here? Surely they would have objected…” Drayden interjected.

  Se-Taanata made an off-hand gesture, “I had them killed. They were boring, and I had already realised the significance of this place. It called to me…” she whispered, “And I readily answered the call.”

  She gestured to the dark shadows that lay beyond the brightness of the node’s vortices, “I offered the Hidden Ones a new living sacrifice. Freely given…unlike the ancient mouldering corpses which once lay here…”

  “And so you gave yourself to the dark gods. Those Hidden Ones of which you speak,” said Drayden bleakly.

  Se-Taanata eyed the tall mage with interest, “I think that I will take you first…” she mused, flicking a long finger at the Earthmage. “I've not had a mage before, and your essence will be sweet indeed…not like that soldier,” she smiled indicating with her foot Uhmar’s corpse lying broken upon the ground, “That one reeked of fear and duty.”

  “You will find me unpalatable…” Drayden growled, “What was your sacrifice to these ancient, shadowy gods?”

  The Warleader smiled a hidden, secret, yet insane smile. “Come now mage, how do you think a woman could please the Hidden Ones, I am certain your imagination could supply the answer.”

  “You're sick,” grated Darven, tuning away from the sight of the naked woman, “Why would you do such a thing?”

  Se-Taanata turned her head to regard the Wolf Leader, “Why? Why else except for power. Of course the Hidden Ones were very generous to me after my willing sacrifice. They gave me the truth about my ancestry, and gifted me with the necessary power to turn the cycle. The full entrapment of the army was the first time I tested my strength, after that it was no great matter to send them eastwards to send word of the new Serat rise.” She smiled coldly, “My waking of the gHulam proved to all that the cycle had truly turned.”

  “Not all the gHulam have woken,” Darven grated, “Hundreds still lie asleep on their cold granite slabs…I have seen the truth of this…I name you a usurper and a fake.”

  “Lia
r!” screamed Se-Taanata at Darven, “The gHulam even now pursue the remains of your pitiful army. For your insolence you will die.”

  She raised her hand, and Darven was tossed into the air to hurtle back towards the far wall

  “No!” shouted Hela, immediately channelling barriers of air between the Wolf Leader and the granite wall.

  Darven dropped safely to the ground as the Warleader turned her attention to the young Weathermage.

  “You dare provoke me girl….” she hissed.

  “Enough!” shouted Trenny, walking forward whilst with one impatient gesture immediately stilling the billowing eddies and currents of air in the chamber.

  “You go too far. Hela, Jede, I need your assistance…”

  Se-Taanata smiled her secret smile, “You mages amuse me. Go on, try your spells…but I warn you that the Hidden Ones protect me.”

  “Trenny, remember the ward,” Drayden called, “She is likely to turn our magepower back upon us…”

  “Something must be done,” grated the High Weathermage, “This woman is insufferable…Hela, Jede I need to brew a storm…Now!”

  Ash grabbed Aran’s arm, and drew him and the others back to the far wall where Genn and Theaua were still working furiously over the battered bodies of Kunek and the Scout.

  “You must call them away for they'll not succeed,” muttered Sage Ash to Aran, “She is too closely linked to the node. I don’t know who or what these Hidden Ones are she keeps referring to, but all I know is that her power is coming directly from the node itself. Somehow she has made herself one with it, and anything the mages throw at her will either be thrown back at them or be leached away.”

  “Are you certain of this?” asked Aran shortly.

  Ash nodded.

  “And the only way to make her vulnerable is to separate her from the nodal energies?” he asked.

  The Sage nodded unhappily as he silently watched the Weathermages draw in their combined magepower.

  *

  “Ahh!” Bennek suddenly screamed, “In Andur’s name, make it stop…”

  Aran turned in horror, to see the guardsman enveloped in smoke, his clothes already smoldering from a sudden, unnatural fire. Breaking into a run, Aran threw the soldier to the ground, trying to put out the flames with his own hands, and heavy fur cloak.

  “Someone, do something!” he yelled frantically, as the soldier’s skin started to blister and burn. Halffang was the first to move, and with a great howl, the wolf leapt into the cluster of Weathermages, immediately breaking their concentration and stopping the spelling. Suddenly and silently the two Weathermages collapsed senseless upon the ground, with Halffang crouched beside them, his fur still bristled from the force of his intervention. Slowly the smouldering fire subsided from Bennek’s clothes and Aran crouched beside the moaning and badly burnt soldier, his own hands blistered from battling the unholy flames.

  Getting stiffly to his feet, Aran faced the Warleader, “Have you quite finished now?” he asked icily.

  “I told them not to interfere,” she hissed, drifting down almost to ground level. “I warned them that I am protected always by the Hidden Ones.”

  “Are you?” said Aran coldly, as he suddenly stepped forward, “Where are these dark gods that you have taken as your own?”

  “You want proof kinsman,” she hissed her eyes flashing in sudden anger, “I'll give you proof of their existence.”

  Immediately the chamber darkened as the vortices of light faded and died, and as every scrap of light seemed to become unnaturally drawn from the air and forced back down into the ground. Still caught in the flows of air, Se-Taanata herself could be seen to be glowing faintly, as if she too had retained some of the intrinsic energies of the place. The circular outline of the node could now be clearly seen, as the shadows of the deepest darkness clustered almost fretfully around its edges. As the shadows moved sinuously upon the ground, Aran could hear a faint whispering and scraping sound—almost like the sound of dark claws scratching and grating upon the surface of the rock. As the light faded, and the heavy darkness increased, it seemed certain that the shadows were indeed feeding upon the seeping energies of the node.

  “You want proof of the Hidden Ones kinsman…there is your proof,” she whispered, pointing with one white hand to the encroaching shadows.

  Aran’s gaze was caught by the gathering and growing darkness, a darkness containing shadows that now seemed not to belong to anything or anyone in the chamber. Shadows grew along the dark, rock hewn floor, spreading like black oil cast upon still water—shadows that had no form or substance—shadows that seemed to feed upon light and life—shadows that seemed to be the very stuff of nightmares and ancient evil

  Aran jumped in consternation as a dark figure suddenly materialised out of the deeper darkness where the Weathermages had fallen to the ground. In the brighter dark, near where the shadows clustered around the energies of the node, the small figure was seen to be clad in sombre green robes, a figure, who like the Warleader, seemed also to be enveloped in pale, luminescent light.

  ‘Have you any idea what you have done?’ said Sage Beech quietly, as she walked forward towards the node. ‘Have you any idea what you have loosed into this world?’

  There was a sudden rough gasp from Bini as he caught sight of the slight blond-haired figure walking so calmly towards the oily shadows, and the glowing, twisting figure of the Warleader. With a despairing cry, he attempted to break through to her but he was immediately overpowered by the others and thrown to the floor.

  “Don’t be crazy!” Aran heard Drayden hiss to the plainsman, “I don’t think it’s her.”

  Se-Taanata stiffened at the censure in the woman’s low voice, “I know you not,” she hissed, holding out her hand as if warding her away, but the young Sage walked on, seemingly not even slowed by the Warleader’s power.

  “Stop!” she screamed, “I demand your name…”

  ‘I have no human name save that of Mother,’ the Sage replied, as she paused just outside the node’s edge, ‘My true name is hidden even to those who have been named the Hidden Ones.’

  She glanced contemptuously at the shadows which were cringing away from the fall of her robe.

  “What are you?” whispered the Warleader in some consternation.

  At the Warleader’s words the woman in the green robe seemed to suddenly collapse, and then immediately resolve into the shape of a great grey wolf.

  ‘You like this form better?’ the wolf called Halffang howled, mocking her amazement.

  ‘Or this?’ The wolf howled, changing its form and dissolving into a great cloud of bees, swirling up and around the edge of the node.

  ‘This is my favourite,’ purred a black she-cat, as it scratched away the last resemblance of the swarm of bees.

  “The Entity?” whispered Alissa to Aran.

  “Aye,” he replied in a low voice, “Most likely has been all the time with us as our old friend Halffang.”

  “You knew?” she asked wonderingly.

  “It only just occurred to me,” he admitted.

  “How?” she whispered.

  Aran shrugged, “It suddenly dawned on me that Halffang was the only one who immediately realised that the Weathermages were inadvertently causing Bennek’s burns. For Halffang to understand, meant that it was something that knew and understood the primal energies of the node. I realised that the only thing Halffang could be was the Entity itself.” He shook his head, “I knew that I desperately needed the Entity’s intervention…but it didn’t look as though it was going to act until I forced the issue with the dark gods.”

  “But…” Alissa stammered.

  “Shhh,” Aran hushed, “Look and listen.”

  The black she-cat stood and stretched, and shifted back into the semblance of the slight blond-haired Sage Beech. The Entity turned towards the waiting group and smiling gently at Ash, firmly beckoned him over.

  ‘Come young EarthSage’ she urged gently, ‘We have much work
to do here.’

  Aran saw the young man nod, then pause, “You will protect me Mother?”

  She inclined her head, ‘Of course…but this is more than I can achieve alone.’

  “Very well…” he glanced over towards where Aran and Alissa stood, “The node must be cleansed, my lord. I knew it had to be done, but until now I did not know how.” He looked up towards where the Entity stood and adoration was in his face.

  “Can you ask Oak to look after my family,” he said clearly as tears streamed down his face, “For I don’t think I will be returning.”

  “Are you certain you have to do this?” Aran asked quietly, his glance sliding across to the inscrutable face of the waiting Entity.

  The Sage nodded, his head bobbing spasmodically, “I am sure of it…”

  *

  All this time Se-Taanata had been watching with growing apprehension the Entity’s numerous transformations. She knew that the place of power had made her strong, but she suspected also that her power had been reduced by the losses sustained by her armies in the east. Muttering to herself, and twisting with dread, she circled within the confines of the node. Entrapped in the spiralling vortices, her glowing body was an open invitation to the waiting shadows. Whatever inhuman consciousness lurked within the minds of the Hidden Ones, they obviously hated the manifestations of the Entity, and desperately needed a human conduit to move into the deeper energies of the node. Instantly the darkness increased, as emboldened by her invitation, the shadows flowed across the node’s edge and into the Warleader herself.

  With the joining of the Hidden Ones to the Warleader, the Entity paused and held out her hand, immediately stopping Ash from joining her at the node’s edge. She eyed the glimmering form of Se-Taanata distastefully, noticing how the presence of the shadows had increased the cold luminescence of the woman.

  ‘Leader-male,’ she said turning and walking over to address Aran, ‘The node cannot be cleansed whilst the evil-over-the-horizon has joined with this woman. There is nothing more that can be done whilst these shadows infect her human form. The human woman must die in order for the shadows to be banished from this place. I am afraid that this is your fight now…’