by Pedro Urvi
“Sonea! What’s wrong?” Iruki shouted as she finished off her last Moyuki.
Sonea tried to answer, but could not. The pain moved up her back, a sharp pain, as if she had been hit by lightning, then spread to her arms. She gave a cry and fell to the ground on her side.
Iruki went to her and held her head in her lap. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” she asked anxiously.
Sonea tried to speak, but was unable to. She could barely think. Everything was an agony of pain. Then she understood.
“The sphere… held… but my body… didn’t…” she managed to mumble, and then passed out.
Iruki turned to Aliana, who was taking care of Asti. “I need you here. Sonea is badly hurt!”
Aliana looked up and nodded. She was very pale, she was overexerting herself in the healing. Too pale, it was not a good sign.
Iruki realized that she was the only one standing, the only one left to defend them from the witch and her sorcerer. She walked a few steps on until she was safely ahead of the wounded and faced the enemy fearlessly, like a brave daughter of the steppes. If she had to die, she would. Her beloved awaited her in the eternal steppes, and it did not matter to her if she joined him. This certainty filled her with courage. She would defend her own, more so than ever now that they were helpless.
Powerful Magic
The Dark Lady looked at Isuzeni, and her eyes flashed fire. “This has gone too far!” she cried, shaking her jet-black mane of hair.
“The more they conjure, the stronger their link with the medallions and the more powerful the spells the medallions generate,” Isuzeni said. He was studying Iruki closely, pondering over what had just happened.
“You have destroyed my Moyuki! You shall pay for this offense!” the Dark Lady shouted in fury.
“It would be best not to take any risks, my Lady,” Isuzeni said, trying to mask his worry. “Those medallions might cause us trouble.”
“There will be no more risks!” It is my Destiny, and I shall finish them off! Personally!”
Iruki heard the vicious screaming of the sorceress, but did not flinch.
“I won’t let you harm them!” she shouted in response. “I’ll defend them the way Mother Steppe defends her Masig sons!”
She closed her eyes and communicated with her medallion. The jewel shone with a blue brilliance. Around the Dark Lady and Isuzeni ice and frost began to take shape. A round patch started to form, like a lake of ice, freezing everything inside it. The temperature dropped so much and so fast that the Moyuki who had remained to defend their Lady and Mistress froze to death.
Iruki’s eyes lingered on the powerful spell she had cast, and was satisfied.
“Yes!” she cried. But she noticed that something was not right. The Dark Lady and Isuzeni did not seem to be affected by the spell. Iruki wasted no time. She concentrated hard and called on her medallion to strengthen the spell. A winter storm began to form above the two figures. Strong gusts of icy winds whipped at them and a blizzard fell on them. Nothing could survive its force and freezing cold.
“Ice, cold and frost from the earth and the sky I send you.” They were trapped between the two spells of glacial death. They would die. They had to die.
But they remained standing, unperturbed, seemingly unaffected by the spells.
“How is this possible, Mother Steppe? It shouldn’t be… nothing could survive this most dreadful winter.”
“They’re protected by a shield,” Sonea said behind her in a weak voice.
Iruki turned and saw her friends behind her. They looked terrible and could barely stand. Asti and Sonea’s faces showed the pain their bodies were still enduring. They were leaning on each other and their sunken eyes were dull with pain. Aliana was as pale as a ghost and by her looks, very weak. She had been using her Gift to Heal them and she was drained. But the one who looked worst was Komir. He might almost have been one of the living-dead. He could barely stand and was bruised all over, as if a whole herd of wild buffalos had stampeded over him. Iruki sighed and turned her attention to the enemy. Her spells did not seem to have achieved what she had intended, but at least they had been given time for her companions to recover a little. Although it did look as if they might collapse any moment.
“The Sorcerer, Isuzeni, is the one who’s keeping up their protection,” Sonea pointed out. “I saw him strengthen it when you conjured against them.”
“I don’t see anything but the storm,” Iruki said. “I can’t make out their protection.”
“I saw it, just for a moment. There’s a bell covering them both. It doesn’t seem to be visible, but it’s there, it really is. The Sorcerer’s holding it, keeping them both safe inside.”
“Sorcerer, slave,” Asti said.
Aliana was breathing irregularly. “Probably. That leaves her free to conjure.”
And as if she had heard this, Yuzumi attacked.
The silver axe whirled, and a veil of shadows covered the Dark Lady. Iruki’s blizzard died out. A funereal silence, broken only by the din of the fighting behind them between the defenders and the living-dead, fell between the Bearers and the Sorceress of Death. Suddenly the shadowy veil rose and remained hovering several feet above. It faded slowly, and what it revealed petrified the hearts of the five companions. The Dark Lady hung suspended in the air, and out of her back there issued eight enormously long black tentacles, as if the Sorceress had transformed herself into a monster of the undersea abysses.
“What…?” Iruki stammered.
“No human!” Asti said, and was left speechless.
“She’s turned into a monstrosity!” Aliana said in amazement.
“Human or not,” Komir said, “we have to defeat her somehow.”
“Yes, but how?” Sonea asked, more to herself than to the others.
The medallions flashed, and their protective spheres enveloped them.
One of the tentacles rose and then whipped savagely down on Iruki. The Masig was thrown backwards. Sonea tried to avoid another of the limbs, but was not swift enough and received a brutal blow. Asti conjured fire in response. Voracious flames surged from her medallion and chased after the tentacles, which moved back to avoid the fire, as though this were a dance. The Dark Lady roared like an enraged wild beast and went for the Usik. But Asti fought like a goddess of fire, trying to protect her companions. The Dark Lady shrieked and blasted the ground before the Usik with her colossal tentacles. The earth shook violently and Asti lost her balance. One of the tentacles seized her protective sphere of fire and began to squeeze it. A stench of burning flesh reached the Usik. Another tentacle coiled around the sphere and began to squeeze in its turn. The tentacles caught fire and the stench grew stronger. Suddenly the first tentacle gave up and fell to the ground inert, with flames spreading along all its length. A moment later the second tentacle met the same fate.
The Dark Lady shrieked in an ecstasy of rage.
“The barrier held…” Asti said in astonishment.
At that moment five tentacles fell on to her at once, like a hammer on to an egg. There was a loud crack, and Asti’s sphere broke into pieces.
“No!” the Usik shouted, as one of the tentacles seized her by the waist and lifted her into the air, asphyxiating her.
“Asti, no!” cried Aliana.
The Healer gathered what little strength remained in her to defend her friend. She concentrated and called upon her Medallion of Earth. Two huge tentacles quickly turned to her to crush her before she could finish the spell. But Aliana, who was used to dealing with her energy to Heal and was therefore much more in tune with the Power of her medallion, managed to finish the spell in time. A dozen stone shards surged from her chest, their edges sharp as the steel of a king’s sword. They hit the tentacles which were seeking her body and cut them as a butcher’s knife cuts tender meat. The severed tentacles fell to the ground.
The Dark Lady cried out in astonishment and frustration.
At once Aliana sent out a new batch of stone a
rrows which caught the remaining tentacles which were thrusting at her. She cut them at the root, like an expert cutting down a tree. That left only the tentacle holding Asti. The Usik screamed. It was going to break her in two! Aliana closed one eye and focused on her medallion, and a sharp-edged stone disc went hurtling and spinning. It was so fast that although the tentacle tried to dodge it, it was too slow. The disc severed it cleanly.
Asti fell from a great height, Komir ran to stand below her and caught her in his arms before she touched the ground. He cushioned the blow as best he could and they both rolled on the ground.
Aliana ran to help them.
“I shall kill you!” the Dark Lady was yelling, beside herself with fury.
Iruki and Sonea dragged themselves to their friends.
The Dark Lady whirled the silver axe above her head and conjured. A bodiless blackness, with the foul essence of death, issued from her eyes. She fell into a trance, while Isuzeni watched his Lady closely. The entity oozed lethal venom and despair. It advanced toward the five. It was as though Yuzumi’s own spirit had left her body, taking on its most powerful form, to deliver death. So mighty was that spirit’s essence of death that they were all left speechless.
With Aliana’s help Komir managed to stand, although he realized he was seriously hurt. His side was killing him. He was not sure how much longer he could hold up, but he was sure it was not much. He was on the point of collapse.
“What’s that?” Sonea asked from where she lay.
“It came out of her eyes!” Aliana said.
“It’s her spirit… a spirit of evil,” Iruki said. She was panting from the effort of standing.” It’s bringing us death.”
“Be death,” Asti said, spitting blood.
The blackness reached them like a darkness from beyond.
“It’s her accursed soul!” Aliana said.
“The soul of a maleficent witch!” cried Sonea.
And the gloom came down on them to bring death. Suddenly the five were blind. Everything around them ceased to exist, to give way to the darkness of absolute despair and terror.
“The spheres! Strengthen the spheres!” Komir shouted.
“Quickly, it’s eating us up!” Aliana said.
They focused on their medallions, and each of the five spheres strengthened itself simultaneously with a flash of power the color of its own element. But the flashes were absorbed by the gloom and disappeared into it.
Hungrily it began to devour the defensive spheres, corrupting their essence with that of death, seeking to devour the life of those they protected.
“No see!” cried Asti.
Komir tried to make anything out in the darkness, without success. He could see nothing beyond his body inside his sphere. He knew his friends were beside him and felt their terror. He asked his medallion to fight the darkness, to let a way through to the light. The jewel flashed briefly, with a potent gleam like an entire dawn contained in a single instant. But the intense brilliance was unable to leave the sphere. The power of the medallion was unable to breach the gloom which was already corroding the sphere with its vile essence. The final night had arrived to take them with it, never to return.
“Use your medallions and try to push it back!” Komir cried.
There was a long moment of silence. Komir’s eyes were on his defense, which was weakening with every heartbeat.
“Nothing’s working!” Aliana said. “This darkness is eating up everything I try!”
“Fire no good!” Asti said.
“The spells of Air are no good either! Nor those of Water!” Sonea and Iruki shouted in frustration.
Komir swore silently. His fears were confirmed. This woman was too powerful, even more so now in her pure state. They were fighting against her essence, against her entire power. They were no rivals for her.
Sonea screamed. “She’s destroying the spheres! They won’t hold much longer!”
“She’s pure evil! She’s Death itself!” shouted Aliana.
“My sphere is cracking,” Iruki said.
In that moment of despair, with death about to swallow them all, Komir remembered something. It was something Haradin had done, something that might save them. He had to try it right away, as his own sphere was about to collapse.
“All of us!” he shouted. “We have to defeat her together!”
“How, Komir?”
He had no clear idea how, but something inside him told him that he had to join together with the others, that the Five had to unite.
“Come to me! Follow my voice!”
Aliana’s sphere appeared on his right and touched his own. Komir concentrated and ordered his medallion to let Aliana into it. The healer took a step toward him. Both spheres flashed as they touched and allowed the symbiosis.
“All of you, come into my sphere!”
On his left appeared Iruki. A moment later Sonea and Asti appeared behind him.
“Come on! There’s barely time!”
The five spheres were interwoven, forming a union. But the darkness pressed in more avidly still, and they all felt the cold presence of death in their souls.
The five held each other’s waists closely so that they made up a tight circle, seeking support, courage and strength from their companions.
“We must join our power, the power of the medallions, just as Haradin did,” Komir said. “Close your eyes, relax and focus. Think about the medallion and search inside for your pool of energy, the one that feeds your Gift. Activate it. Let the energy flow, let it radiate from your bodies through the medallions and flow into mine so that the four elements join, together with Ether.”
The five focused and followed his instructions.
Komir began to feel his inner energy leaving his chest, and opened his eyes. Before his eyes a mystical spectacle was unfolding which left him open-mouthed. From each of the Bearers, energy was flowing towards his medallion of Ether. But something unexpected was happening: his medallion was now giving out the energy of the Five Elements. A many-colored sphere formed before the five medallions, in the center of the circle formed by the Bearers. As it fed off the power of the five Ilenian jewels, the sphere let off discharges of pure energy.
When he saw the effect of the union of their energies, he knew what they had to do. He did not understand why or how, but the idea was clear in his mind.
“Send all your power!”
His four friends looked at him in confusion.
“Trust me, tell the medallions to send out all their power.”
The four followed his instructions. He felt the medallion consuming all his inner energy, and at the same time exponentially multiplying it by using the Ilenian power to send it to the sphere, where it was accumulating.
“Don’t be afraid! Send me your power!”
The Bearers fell into a trance as their bodies sent the powerful energy.
Komir felt all that immense power passing through his medallion into the sphere where it was being stored. Suddenly the darkness cracked his defense. Startled, he realized they were running out of time. He watched the sphere of energy and felt that there was already an unbelievable amount of energy stored in it. He still had some power left to transfer, but there was no more time. It’ll have to do. We’d better hurry.
He turned urgently to his companions. “Right. Now we’ve got the power of the five medallions united,” he said. He watched the sphere before them seeming to grow with each of his heartbeats and giving out sparks of uncontrollable energy. “Just like Haradin, we must cast a spell using all this power.”
“But what spell can we use, Komir?” Sonea asked. “It’s not that the elemental spells we know aren’t strong enough, it’s just that they don’t seem to be working on this creature. It looks as though it’s immune to them.”
Aliana was staring into the gloom. “We need a great Ilenian spell to counter this evil,” she said. “But without Haradin, none of us…”
“Only a spell as great as Mother Steppe will h
ave any effect on the Death Spirit of that Sorceress,” was Iruki’s comment.
Komir was thoughtful. They were right. They had the power, but not the spell. None of them was a great Mage, still less knew any Ilenian spells. Their protective sphere shook anew under the pressure of the gloom and cracked with a sound which froze his blood. Komir was staring into the darkness, and for a moment the face of the Sorceress took shape within it; the eyes of death were looking at him with a macabre smile of triumph. She knew she had him now. A moment more and the darkness would reach him.
“We have the power,” Sonea mused. “Perhaps we don’t need an Ilenian spell. Perhaps we already have what we need…”
Komir saw his sphere beginning to give way. “Perhaps?” he repeated sharply.
“I think I have it,” Sonea said. She was looking at the blackness which was beginning to seep through the cracks in Komir’s sphere. “If I’m not mistaken, the magic this entity is drawing from is Death magic. The five elements can’t do anything against it. Essentially, they can’t hurt it.”
The gloom was creeping into Komir’s sphere. “So? What else? Quick!” he snapped.
“What’s the opposite of Death magic?” Sonea asked.
The five Bearers exchanged urgent glances.
“Magic… of Life…?” ventured Iruki.
The little librarian blinked and smiled. “Exactly! And one of us has that Gift.”
“Aliana, Life!” Asti cried.
“Now I see…” Aliana said.
“Quick!” cried Komir.
“I don’t have any energy left!”
“You don’t need it! Use the sphere!”
“I’ll try!”
The deathly entity enveloped Komir from head to foot, swallowing him up in its darkness. And it began to devour the Norriel’s life. Komir gave a cry of agony. The desperate cry of someone whose vital essence is being robbed from him.
“Komir!” Aliana cried.
“Don’t… let anything… stop you!” he muttered. His medallion flashed briefly, but the gloom swallowed that up too. He tried to fight against the evil essence, but it was too powerful. His medallion was not enough to counter it.