Griffin's Shadow

by Leslie Ann Moore

  “We are getting to know one another, yes. I promised I’d give him a chance to win me over, and he’s certainly doing his very best!” A brief smile played across Jelena’s mouth, to be replaced by a frown of anguish. “Oh, Sonoe! What am I to do? Mai is handsome, kind, steady…”

  Sonoe pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I can hear a ‘but’ that you’re not saying. Let me finish your sentence…‘but he’s not Ashinji’.”

  “Am I being hopelessly pathetic for hanging on to my dead husband for so long? Gods, Sonoe, what’s wrong with me?” Jelena’s voice rose with her inflamed emotions. “I’m lonely and my child needs a father! Any other woman in my position would gladly accept a man like Mai, but here I sit, pining after a ghost when a living, breathing, wonderful man wants to share his life with me!” Jelena huffed and flopped backward into the cushions.

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Sonoe soothed. “The love you and Ashinji shared was a very rare and beautiful thing, and it can’t ever be duplicated. You’re afraid that nothing else can ever measure up, but Jelena, there’s your mistake. Don’t even try to find the exact same thing you had, because you’ll fail. Accept what comes along for what it is, and happiness will follow.”

  Such sage advice , Sonoe thought. The ironic part is, I meant every word .

  Jelena nibbled on a fingertip, her humanish face a tablet upon which Sonoe could easily read all of her conflicting emotions. Clearly, Keizo’s daughter felt a strong attraction to Mai Nohe, but her love for her deceased husband had not diminished one whit.

  Poor Jelena! You so much want to be reunited with your beloved Ashi. Well, my sweet friend, your wish will be granted very soon.

  “Jelena, I’m so sorry, but I’ve just remembered something that I need to do. I must go.”

  Jelena looked confused. “Now?”

  Sonoe realized the abruptness of her departure would seem strange to the girl, but it couldn’t be helped. She needed to get away from Jelena, and quickly. The closeness she felt for Keizo’s daughter threatened to overwhelm her resolve.

  “Yes. There’s a very important errand I need to run. Society business. If I leave now, perhaps I won’t get into too much trouble.” Jelena nodded in understanding. “Stay here as long as you like,” Sonoe added. “I’ll have more tea sent up for you.” She grabbed a light cloak, for where she must go would be chilly. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

  She left Jelena and the maids to fuss over the new little princess, blissfully unaware of the coming storm that would soon alter all of their lives forever.

  Sonoe paused in the hallway outside her sitting room door and cast a quick spell of concealment upon herself-a simple glamour, nothing more. She had no time for a true invisibility spell. Still, anyone who happened to glance her way would not recall seeing her.

  Quickly, she made her way along deserted back hallways to the castle library. The place normally stood empty at this time of day, and today proved no exception. The mellow smells of polished wood and leather permeated the air. The library consisted of three interconnected rooms, each with its own collection of chairs and tables. Shelves lined the walls from floor to ceiling, each one containing many hundreds of scrolls, folios, and bound books. Narrow windows, glazed with expensive glass, pierced the wall space between the shelves, allowing in abundant natural light. Dust motes danced in sunbeams slanting to the mat-covered floor.

  Keizo, never much of a scholar, rarely came here. His father, Keizo the Elder, had assembled most of the fine collection which now graced the shelves of Sendai Castle’s library-a collection that included many of the most important texts ever written about the magical arts. Chief among them were copies of the writings of the greatest elven mage to have ever lived, Iku Azarasha, head of the Kirian Society during the reign of Queen Syukoe Onjara, over a thousand years ago.

  In one of these books, Sonoe had found the last information she desperately needed.

  To be precise, the information she had been diligently seeking had not actually been in any of the texts themselves. While pouring over yet another volume of Master Iku’s meticulous accounts of the Kirian Society’s business, Sonoe had discovered-scribbled in the margin beside a description of the proper activation spell for a teleportal-the words “see Commentaries of Akan.”

  After a long stretch of frantic searching, she had located the Commentaries -a tiny, fragile volume bound in crumbling green leather. In it, an obscure scholar named Akan had recorded his opinions on the writings of Azarasha.

  The bone-dry analyses of some long-dead academic held no interest for Sonoe, and she almost returned the little book to its dusty perch high up on a neglected shelf, but something caught her eye-what proved to be a fold-out drawing at the book’s midpoint. Her eyes beheld a rendering of Sendai Castle as it must have appeared approximately two hundred years ago, when Akan wrote his Commentaries.

  Sonoe had crowed in triumph when she realized what she had found. Only her discovery, several weeks earlier, of Master Iku’s personal account of the defeat of the Nameless One, had been greater.

  The drawing of the castle had been marked in two places with Xs within circles. Across the bottom of the page, Akan had written Location of Sendai Portals in his blunt, inelegant hand. One of the portals was located in a room just off the Great Hall, the other in the library itself. It made perfect sense to Sonoe that the Kirians would choose to place one of their portals in Sendai’s library. They were scholars, after all.

  The hardest part had been finding the library portal. It had taken her three days; the Kirians had hidden it well. When she finally did break through all of the wards and masking spells, the energy she dissipated in the process felt too fresh. She realized someone had been maintaining the magic. Only one other person in Sendai had the skill to do this, and since Sonoe hadn’t known of the portal’s existence until three days ago…

  Damn you, Taya! What other secrets are you keeping from me?

  No matter. If all went according to plan, that twisted, malevolent spirit of a long-dead king would be hers to command, not the other way around. At the proper time, armed with the most precious of weapons, Sonoe would finally turn on her master. Once she had accomplished that task, then her real work would begin.

  After a quick mental scan of the rooms to assure that no amateur scholar sat studying in a cubbyhole somewhere out of view, Sonoe traversed the first two rooms on silent feet to the rearmost chamber. There, she entered an alcove lined with dozens of scrolls and reached up to the top shelf. Her questing fingers found a scroll that felt heavier than the others. She pulled down on it and the back wall of the alcove swung smoothly inward on well-oiled hinges-more proof that someone…no, Taya!-maintained this portal.

  Sonoe slipped through the opening, pushed the secret door closed and plunged herself into total darkness. A whispered incantation conjured a silvery globe of magelight. The shimmering orb rose from her palm and floated overhead to cast its light down a stone staircase spiraling away into the earth.

  Sonoe shivered and pulled her light wrap close about her shoulders. The temperature in these subterranean vaults never climbed much above the chill of an early spring night, even in the heat of summer. With the magelight bobbing along in front of her to illuminate the way, Sonoe descended. After exactly fifty three steps, she reached a landing. Stretching before her, a rough-cut corridor curved away into the gloom.

  The flame-haired sorceress paused and breathed in the musty air, tasting the residue of past magic.

  You tried to erase your trail Taya, but I know your signature too well!

  Taya Onjara had despised her ever since their days at the Kan Onji School, when Sonoe had been an impoverished student, obliged to spread her legs to all comers in order to earn enough for tuition, and Taya had reigned as the wife of the king’s brother.

  They soon became rivals. Both possessed Talent to a very high degree and the arrogance to flaunt it-Taya, by virtue of her exalted rank, and Sonoe, because of her burning ambition. It wa
s inevitable that they should one day vie against each other for supremacy.

  That day came when the school’s regents announced a contest of magic, open to all the senior students, to be held on the first day of the new year. The winner would receive free tuition for the upcoming term-important to be sure-but Sonoe really craved the respect and prestige a victory would bring. She felt sick and tired of noble-borns like Taya skewering her with their snobbery.

  Sonoe bested Taya, but just barely; nonetheless, her triumph had been sweet. She indulged in a smug little smile as she savored the memory.

  Soon thereafter, she came to the attention of Keizo, newly installed on his throne and searching for a suitable woman with whom he could enter into a contract. Sonoe’s common-born status made her ineligible for a royal marriage, but if she accepted his proposal, she would have certain legal rights as his official Companion, including the expectation of lifelong support, even though the king must one day put her aside to marry. Keizo’s choice to take a Companion instead of a wife had confused many in the court, but Sonoe didn’t question his reasons. She had a chance to rise higher than she’d ever hoped, and she had accepted with no regrets.

  Several months after her attainment of full membership in the Kan Onji, the head of the Kirian Society, Master Shen Shineza approached her and invited her to join. She didn’t learn until much later that Taya had tried to block her nomination. When Master Shen died and left the Society without a leader, Sonoe lobbied for the post, but as future queen of Alasiri, and by right of precedence, the helm of the Society fell into Taya’s hands.

  That loss had been a bitter blow. Sonoe had raged for months. The office should have been hers by right of superior magical skill. For the sake of the Society, she did her best to keep her anger cloaked in a mantle of amiability and cooperation, but occasionally, it broke through. She and Taya had nearly come to violence a few times, but had always managed to step back from the brink.

  Controlling her feelings had been easier when there had been more active members in the Society, but, in the space of only a few years, their numbers had dwindled due to retirement, death, and the lack of suitable recruits. Sonoe found this good in a perverse way, for it made her plan so much easier to execute.

  Everything depended on the Key, that all-important piece of magic harbored within Keizo’s daughter.

  If only she could somehow study the Key’s unique energy signature before the Sundering! She had thought to try breaching the shields put up around it by Taya, but without the help of another mage, she risked killing Jelena prematurely. She had decided to abandon that course because she didn’t want to bring in an outsider.

  Now that I’ve found what I need…

  Sonoe planned to seize the Key for herself once it was released from Jelena’s dying body. First, she would summon the Nameless One, calling upon him to claim his prize. When he appeared-and all depended on her quickness-she would use the one weapon against him for which he had no defense. After using his true name to bind the Nameless One to her will, she would then turn his power against her fellow Kirians, destroying them. Rid of the only ones capable of stopping her, she would put the rest of her plan into motion by using the Key to unlock the source of the limitless magical energy that would give her power enough to fulfill her destiny.

  Despite the magelight, shadows crowded around her, and her own shadow-a crazy, elongated thing-stalked her along the rough-hewn walls of the corridor. She followed the passage to its end at a simple wooden door. She tested the iron handle and found that it turned easily. She pushed the door inward and sent the orb floating ahead to illuminate a small, round room.

  Carved into the hard-packed earth, a magical symbol marked the exact center of the circular chamber. Sonoe breathed a sigh of relief as she recognized the glyph for travel.

  As soon as she crossed the threshold, she could feel the thrum of powerful arcane energies coursing through her veins like strong wine, setting her teeth abuzz and her skin to tingling. She walked over to stand on the symbol.

  Sonoe reached into the front of her tunic and withdrew the black stone that served as her link to the Nameless One. She closed her eyes and let her mind relax and open. She felt for the strand of energy that connected the stone to its source and sent her consciousness winging along it.

  When she pierced the icy black curtain that shrouded the astral space where the Nameless One existed, she called out to him.

  I have found the portal, Master!

  The Nameless One’s anger surged along the link and smote Sonoe’s mind. Your incompetence has kept me waiting! Your screams of agony will be sweet when I punish you!

  Flames erupted all around Sonoe, engulfing her in smoke and the stench of burning flesh. Horrified, she watched as her skin blackened and withered against her bones. She opened her mouth to scream, but never got the chance as she felt herself sucked into darkness.

  ~~~

  She landed hard on her side, skin scraping against stone. The bone-chilling cold dealt her shrinking body yet another blow, and for a few precarious moments, she could do nothing but lie on the brutal stone and gasp for breath.

  Total darkness engulfed her, but even though denied the use of her eyes, she had her other senses, and they all screamed warnings of eminent mortal danger.

  Some thing waited, crouched in the dark-something ancient and unspeakably evil-and Sonoe knew without a doubt that it could see her perfectly well.

  Slowly, she rolled over and levered herself onto her knees. A quick mental assessment of her body revealed no serious injuries.

  So. The flames were an illusion.

  Fighting the shivers that wracked her body, she conjured a magelight and looked around her.

  Sonoe found herself on the floor of what appeared to be a natural cave. She sent the magelight shooting up to illuminate the many teeth of rock that hung from the high ceiling, then brought it swooping down in lazy circles to cast light into nooks and crannies too numerous to count. All the while, she remained acutely aware of the entity that lurked just beyond her sight, watching.

  Climbing to her feet, Sonoe pushed her tangled mass of hair out of her face and waited, the magelight hovering at her right shoulder. The foul presence of the Nameless One seemed to exist everywhere at once, and yet Sonoe could sense a distinct vortex of particular intensity in the shadows to her left. She turned to face that direction and watched as the shadows coalesced into something more solid.

  As a trained sorceress and Kirian Society member, Sonoe knew better than to relax her shields in the stronghold of her master. Though the attack that had brought her here had taken her by surprise, she would not make the same mistake again.

  The Nameless One lashed out, his polluted energy pummeling her from all sides. She withstood its corrosive force, but just barely.

  Will I have the strength to do this? He’s so much more powerful than I’d thought!

  Breath harsh with strain, she cried out, “Master, please stop!”

  Give me one good reason why I should not burn you to ash where you stand, whore!

  “Because then I cannot deliver to you that which I promised!”

  She could feel herself weakening.

  I can’t take much more of this!

  “The plan is set,” she gasped. “The Kirians will gather in three weeks time to perform the Sundering! I…I…” No longer able to talk and resist the Nameless One at the same time, Sonoe threw up her hands and frantically traced a sigil in the air before her in a last, desperate attempt to stop the onslaught.

  Abruptly, the attack ceased. Sonoe stumbled backward, slipped on a loose stone and went down, turning her ankle as she fell. Pain, sharp and hot, surged up her leg, wringing a soft moan from deep within her chest. The sound of grinding metal filled the air around her. A bitter curse dropped from her lips.

  “You enjoy my pain!” she hissed, breathing hard. A quick mental probe of her ankle confirmed that she had only sprained it.

  Thank the Goddess!
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  The deeper darkness that was the material manifestation of the Nameless One floated closer until it hung over Sonoe like a storm cloud, the two baleful red stars that served as eyes staring down at her.

  Of course I enjoy your pain, slut. I enjoy pain in all of its many forms, but yours is especially sweet. I shall have you writhing in a moment, but before my pleasure comes business. Tell me of the plan…

  Sonoe told him everything…except the part about her counter-plan, which she kept hidden within the special vault of her mind that no one, not even the Nameless One, could penetrate. Gritting her teeth, she then steeled herself to endure the spirit’s vile assault on her body for the last time. When he had finished and had flung her, bruised and bloody, back through the portal, she lay for a long time on the cold dirt floor, unmoving.

  The storm is coming!

  She climbed to her feet and stood for a few heartbeats, staring at nothing, listening to the voice in her head whispering, whispering…

  The storm is coming!

  The voice of her inner self.

  You must be ready!

  “I will ride the whirlwind,” Sonoe murmured aloud, then threw back her head and laughed in triumph.

  Chapter 38

  A Reason To Live

  Jelena , Ashinji cried, or would have if he’d had a voice to cry with.

  She did not, could not, hear him.

  A man-young, dark-haired and dressed in the worn leathers of a veteran soldier-stood beside her. His lips moved but Ashinji couldn’t make out what he said. Jelena moved closer and he gathered her into an embrace that bespoke of emotions much stronger than friendship. She lifted her face and their lips touched in a brief kiss. The man smiled and, taking Jelena by the hand, led her away. A thick, gray curtain of fog coalesced around the two of them as they receded into the distance.

  Jelena, I love you! Please…wait for me!