“She will not be defeated.” The oracle was using his serious tone now. “You are not here to defeat her, but to save Yilith and stop her.”
Fed up with the oracle, Clare turned back to Folkvar. “I’m sorry.” Tears leaked from her eyes. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Can I heal him?” Max asked.
“The work of another earthling!” the oracle shouted. “You cannot save him.”
It was not in Clare’s nature to give up, but she was not all-knowing like the oracle seemed to be. She could not think of a way to save Folkvar.
“Why would she do this? Your friend?” Angry confusion permeated Galis’ tone. His emotions were beginning to get the better of him.
Clare shook her head and shrugged.
The son of the war chief sighed and took his hand from Clare’s. “I do not want you to be touched by my corruption.” He wrapped his arms around himself. “Thank you for coming, Clare. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you. I would never know any of this.”
“Yeah, you may still have been fine,” she choked. “I’m so sorry, Folkvar.”
He shook his head. “Don’t be. This was better than what I would have become. A war chief of an angry norcan tribe who devours his enemies and enslaves his own people? No, I would rather be the companion to a noble barbarian and a brave earthling.” He sighed. “I would rather be like Prince Gwen. Galis,” he spoke to his old comrade. “If you find Gwen—you will, Clare, trust me—tell him how sorry I am that I rebelled against his authority those days we spent together. He is the prince of the humans here and they are most like our Clare. I should have respected and trusted him.”
Folkvar gave a great shiver. His skin began to change into that of the zombie ghosts. He was decaying and disappearing right before their eyes. His once strong arms and legs began to shrink.
“I don’t feel dead,” he mused in a gargled voice, not unlike what the queen’s had been hours before. “More like different. Perhaps the corrupt ones don’t die. Maybe they just change.”
Clare wept audibly now. “You can’t change into one of those, Folkvar. They’re horrible. They’re not even alive.”
“But I am.” He sighed and laid his head down all the way now. He was too weak to hold it up. “Galis, my brave warrior, I cannot become this. Take my great sword and save me from that fate.”
“No!” Galis pulled back from the sword Folkvar had taken from his belt. “I cannot do this. You will not die!”
The norcan made a grunting sound that was a laugh. “No, I will not. I will be a ghost, wandering this land until it is all gone. Then who knows? Made a servant of Umbra with no mind of my own. A slave to corruption and decay. I would rather die by your hand than suffer that fate.”
He pressed the sword into Galis’ hand.
“Be brave and save me,” he said. “Find the prince and save Revary with these courageous earthlings.”
Galis stood, shaking with the massive claymore in his strong hands. “I can’t,” he said again.
“You are the only one strong enough to wield a norcan blade and worthy of my bow,” Folkvar begged. His voice was painful now. His frame was shrinking faster and the flesh was beginning to fall from his bones. “Look at me, Galis! Stop this suffering so I may die in peace.”
All the courage the barbarian had had up till now—slaying the sandpede, finding the oracle, braving the labyrinth—was lost to him. He could not raise his hand against someone who had weathered all of that with him and stood by him in the face of prejudice and hate.
Galis lowered his head and shook it sadly. He simply couldn’t. Then a strong hand took the sword from him and squeezed his shoulder affectionately. It was Lance.
“Clare, take everyone and go to the castle gate. I’ll meet you there.”
“Lance,” Alice started, but he cut her off with a shake of his head.
Clare sobbed and threw her arms around the norcan’s thin neck. “I’m sorry, Folkvar,” she said again. “I’ll make everything better and I’ll find a way to save you!”
Max pulled her away as the norcan coughed and gagged on his own rotting skin. The rest of the crew backed away and headed to the castle with backs turned. Alice put her hands over her ears and ducked her head down. Clare stared straight ahead in horror. There was a moment of silence then a strong whoosh and an earthy thud. With a tiny shriek, Clare threw herself into Max’s arms and held him tightly. Galis held her shoulders gently in his hands.
Lance approached them and asked Max to come and use his arcanist abilities to shift the earth to bury Folkvar. He did so without hesitating and soon there was nothing showing the place the great norcan had died except the tall claymore plunged into the gravesite marking the burial and his powerful crossbow at Galis’ side.
In the distance, Greylheim and his dragon-clouds continued to undulate toward them, destroying the sky as they flew.
Galis turned his gaze away from that horrific sight and met the eyes of the earthlings.
“Help me save my land,” he begged.
The crew sneaked around the backside of Mirror Castle to find there was indeed a great door that led into the lower levels of the castle. Unfortunately, they were guarded by a familiar sight to them all.
“Well, the earthlings have returned to save Revary, as a matter of fact,” Jinx’s voice was just as smooth and dark as Clare remembered. She had not hated him, but he was not on her friend list either.
“I thought you had perished,” Clare said to him darkly.
Jinx smiled wickedly. “You sound a little put out, Clare. I suppose you think I’m here to watch over this door, do you?”
His purple wings sparkled in the dim light of the rising sun. His black clothes were a little tattered and his hair had lost some of the glittering volume it had possessed the first time they had met. His eyes fell on Max.
“Oh, I see, you must be Maximus. Yes, the Black Witch has spoken of you much.”
Clare noticed the absence of his catch phrase tacked on to the end of his sentence. He must be telling the truth.
“What does she say about him?” Clare asked. Her tone dared Jinx to toy with her at this moment in her quest.
The fairy heard it as well and his wings twitched unhappily. “‘If you see Maximus, bring him to me. Destroy the others!’” He had imitated Stella nearly perfectly. “She has plans for him, just like that little under elf she has.”
Clare drew her sword. “Where is Yilith?”
Jinx pulled his feet up and sat cross-legged in the air just above her reach. “In the tower for now. He is tied to her Sundering Device. She needed his power to complete her spell to crash the gates of the Nether.” He shivered. “Uncouth place.”
Clare glared at Jinx. Uncouth was hardly the right word. But she held her temper and remembered her task at hand.
“Jinx, do you know anything about Prince Gwen?”
His purple eyes flashed a malevolent grin. “Oh, you don’t know about him and the star?” Clare frowned. “You don’t, do you! Ha!” He convulsed into a fit of cackling laughter and spun around in the air. “Oh, have you got a show to behold in the Mirror Room! I must take you.”
“I can’t trust you to take me to Stella,” Clare said. “That much is obvious.”
Jinx landed and put his hands defiantly on his hips. “You can trust me to take you to Stella. I hate her. I never do what she says, as a matter of fact.”
Clare understood. His aid would only go so far. “Take us,” she ordered.
Chapter 22
The Power of Corruption
The shrieks and cries of the under elf broke the silence as the Sundering Device was started up again. The connection the elf had to the Nether was the only power she needed to break that gate. The power needed to kill the Gate Keepers was more than she had to offer; the life force of a living person was the only power strong enough to kill the Gate Keepers so that Greylheim could fly more freely from plane to plane. That task alone had nearly killed the elf. B
ut there was enough life left in him to sunder the Nether wide enough to let everything underneath it out into the other planes.
The Black Witch bent down to where the elf was chained between the two pillars of the Device and screamed back at him.
“Crying out won’t help anything! You’re almost done.” She took his face mockingly in between her hands. “Just hold on a little longer. Soon your home will be wide open and all the inhabitants are just aching to get out. The Gate below the Nether to the Other Plane is broken. Just wait.”
She sauntered over to a great window that had a clear view of the broken Gate to the Celestial Plane. The Sky Plane was gone and the Astral Plane was in tatters. Resting atop the mountains in the distance now was the Golden Tree. Zealnis had sworn if the witch sundered the gates, controlled the beast, and allowed Greylheim to devour every star in the Astral Plan, then she, the Black Witch, could have her own world to create and dictate. Zealnis also promised that Umbra would give her power in her own world, if she so desired. All she had to do was break every Gate, including the Other Gates on either side of Revary. But what good was power in her world if she could rule another as a goddess? No one would ever talk down to her again, betray her, leave her, misunderstand her, or criticize her. Stella the earthling was long gone. When the beast had brought her the last star, the one the prince had loved, Greylheim had devoured her with relish. Her own tasks were almost complete.
“See the Golden Tree?” the witch whispered to the under elf who was in too much pain to hear her words. “It has fallen to the Surface now. Don’t die yet, little elf. I need you to be alive when she gets here. She will witness what she’s done to that which she loves.”
Clare knew when they had reached the inner chambers of the witch. It was Stella’s dream house on malicious steroids: Gruesome gargoyles with half devoured prey in their mouths lined the hall that led to the black double doors. The doors were like pincushions for all the silver spikes that jutted out from them. Velvety, purple carpet led straight to the doors under black crystal chandeliers. Clare would have liked it too had she not imagined the horrid scene that must linger behind it. The air reeked of decay.
Alice put her hand on Clare’s shoulder when she hesitated. “We’ve got your back,” she declared for all the others.
Eyes dark and her lips set into a grim line, Clare pushed the doors open with all the performance of authority she could muster.
The room was large enough to fit the Beast, which was chained in a corner. In the center of the room was the tall Mirror. Galis recoiled at the sight of it and the memories that came with it. Black tendrils oozed out of the Mirror and back in, holding it to the floor and ceiling like claws. Behind it were two tall pillars with symbols drawn in circles around them. Chained in the middle, one wrist to each pillar, was Yilith. His head was bowed and he wasn’t moving. The Device appeared to be powered off.
Directly in front of them was a spiny black throne with the most elegantly dressed woman any of them had ever seen perched on the edge of the seat with her head held high. She was dressed much the way Clare had last seen her in Revary, with the addition of a tall black collar on her dress that arched out behind her and a sweeping purple cape. She didn’t even shudder when the doors burst open at Clare’s push.
“I knew you’d find me,” she said. “And look. Alice, Lance, and Max as well. You bring others here too? Why, Clare? For your little army?”
“I don’t have an army,” Clare countered bravely. “I’m here to get you. You’ve been corrupted, Stell. Can’t you feel it?”
The Black Witch sneered and shook her head. “All I feel is power. I control the most powerful thing in Revary.” She motioned to the Sundering Device. “It needed a life force to work. That’s how much power was required to destroy the Gate Keepers. But even without them, the Gates are only unguarded, not broken open. With the aid of your little elf friend, I was able to put the Nether gates asunder and now the great pit is opening up! The creatures from underneath will come out and be my servants.” She smiled darkly. “Thank you, Clare, for bringing this little one up.”
Galis drew his sword and took a defiant step forward. “Release him, witch!” he screamed.
Stella smiled and nearly giggled. “I love the barbaric folk.” She winked at Lance. “I may keep you.”
She stepped down from her throne and walked to the Sundering Device. She laid a long-fingered hand on Yilith’s white head. He shuddered at her touch.
“Yilith?” Clare called to him. “Is he dead?”
The Black Witch sighed. “No, I need him, remember? You are so thick sometimes, Clare. I will kill him. I was waiting for you to be here before that. I want you to see.”
She moved to the outside of the symbols and runes as if to activate the machine. Galis was about to leap forward when Max stepped up, shouting.
“Stella, come on! What’s wrong with you? Killing someone is not like you. It’s crazy.”
For a moment, she looked into his blue eyes, but then she shrugged again and smiled.
“I hoped you would come, Max.” Her voice turned low and dangerous. “You see, I’ve been wanting you in my pocket for a long time and now I have the power to make you mine.”
Lance leapt in front of Max and Alice drew her scimitar as the witch waved her hands for guards. Out of the darkness stepped two vicious vampires with hungry red eyes.
“Meet my special guards,” the Black Witch said happily. “I made them myself. They are just perfect.”
“Wait!” Alice called, raising her hands in surrender. Her gaze was fixed on the Mirror. Her brown eyes grew wide and her mouth dropped open.
“What is it?” Clare asked.
Max and Lance both looked, their mouths dropping open. Lance shot a glance back at the Beast. It was chained to the wall and growling slowly with every breath. It was poised for fighting.
“Look in the Mirror.” Lance pulled Clare up next to him while the witch frowned confused.
When Clare stepped up and could see the Beast reflected there, she instead saw the shattered and broken form of the Calimorden prince.
“Gwen!” Clare shrieked in horror and delight. “Stella, what have you done to him?”
The witch sighed. “You can see him too? That ruins half the enjoyment I was planning on.”
Galis remained confused. He was Revarian and could not use the Mirror like the earthlings could. “What is it?”
“That is your beloved prince Gwen,” the Black Witch explained. “When you left him, he had touched this very Mirror. The corruption he touched was pure. Right from the source of the Other Plane below the Nether. He changed nearly instantly into a corrupt monster. When I found him, I ordered him to bring me the star. That’s how long I’ve been coming to Revary.”
“Wait,” Clare hissed. “You’d come before I brought you? You lied to me?”
The witch raised one eyebrow, daring Clare to attack her with words or even a sword. “I knew. Let’s just leave it at that. This poor, corrupted prince brought me the star and I fed her to Greylheim to give him a head start on his complete devastation of the Astral Plane.”
“Witch!” Galis cried through gritted teeth. “He loved her!”
She giggled. “And he won’t know what he’s done.”
Clare gripped her sword more tightly and stood with her legs further apart for balance. “And what if he’s changed back?”
“As if you could,” the witch scoffed.
“Don’t be so cocky,” the oracle said from Max’s belt. “You’re both earthlings and Clare has a significant amount more than you on her side. But that’s not what matters.”
Swinging her hair over her shoulder, the witch said, “Very well,” and motioned her guards forward while ordering the Beast to attack. “I don’t plan on going back ever. Kill them all!”
With a roar, the Beast that was Gwen broke through his chains and charged his midnight blue body at the group, flapping his great wings for speed. The two vampire guard
s leapt up and attacked simultaneously. Clare had to raise her sword quickly to stop one’s fangs from sinking into her face. The Beast was headed for Lance.
“Don’t hurt it, Lance!” Clare begged. “He’s human!”
After this, Lance did his best to just shoot toward the Beast with his gunblade and fend it off with nicks from the sharp sword part. But the Beast was persistent and not as obliging. Remembering his electric glove, he resulted to giving short bursts of shocks to the Beast’s body to ward it off longer and help Max who was having a hard time with his vampire.
“Gwen!” Clare cried as Galis took on the vampire that was attacking her. She ran to the Beast and tried to speak to it. “I know what the oracle meant! I have your soul. I can save you.”
Hearing this, the witch turned as she was about to take a seat in her throne to watch the fight. “Clare!” she screamed. “You can’t have it. How did you get that?” She leapt down and ran to the Sundering Device.
Clare ripped the bone necklace from her neck and unstopped the bottle that had the two little scrolls in it. She slipped one out and began to say the charm on it that would replace his soul. When her lips first began to move, the Beast stopped and listened, still panting and roaring, fighting against invisible demons.
“That’s it, Clare!” Lance applauded through his own heavy breathing.
Behind them, Galis and Max were still battling the vampires with great ferocity.
“Stop!” the Black Witch screamed from behind the Mirror. “Or I’ll activate the Device and kill him.”
Clare smiled. “I can save him too!”
With the last word, the scroll transformed amongst the commotion into a white wisp that floated midair for a moment then zoomed to the Beast and disappeared into his eyes. In a flash, where once stood the huge deadly beast, fell the prince of Calimorden. His hair was ratted and his flesh was pale. He fell backward and Lance caught him in his arms as Alice stepped in to fend off his vampire. He was alive and panting for free air.
Revary Page 27