The Demon's Blade

by Steven Drake

  For a moment, Darien was frozen, suddenly realizing that if he went to save Jerris, Avirosa would take the opportunity to flee. He might never get another chance to take his vengeance. His hand strayed back to the Demon Sword, and time slowed as, for what seemed an eternity, he fought a battle within himself. He could hear the voices of the demons once again, whispering quietly in their forgotten language, a language he did not know, yet now understood perfectly. Take the power, they whispered. Take it, and be free to take all that you want. You need not choose. Kill them all, all at once, with the power that we grant you. Do not wait. For a moment, he almost gave in, but in that moment, he saw the unconscious body of the boy in the corner of his eye. The boy had risked everything to try to save him from this, to keep the evil of the sword from taking him. Not for nothing, it could not be for nothing. Even if he saved Jerris’ life using the sword’s power, he would be betraying the young man, who suddenly reminded him so much of himself. He lowered his hand, hesitating no longer, and focused a tremendous amount of the magical power within him upon the ground beneath the unconscious youth. At once, the ground rose several feet in the air, lifting Jerris out of reach of the claws and long knives of the goblins.

  A moment later, the Executioner was upon them, lashing out with the little strength he had left at the dozen or so goblins who remained. He was shortly joined by Rana, and within a minute, the goblins with their warrog mounts lay dead. Darien turned to look for Avirosa, but the Wraith was gone. The wyvern had picked up its stricken master and taken off to the north. It appeared for a moment that they would get away, but that was not to be. Rana raised her hand, and a bolt of white lightning shot forth, darting haphazardly back and forth, but nevertheless cutting a jagged path toward the wyvern. The blow struck an instant later, and the beast convulsed, tumbling through the air and dropping the wounded Avirosa. The beast recovered just before it hit the ground, and flew off even faster towards the north. Avirosa was less fortunate, and fell to his death, his body impaled impossibly upon a sharp rock spire.

  “How did you do that?” Darien asked of the lady knight. “Even I can’t use magic against a target that far away.”

  Rana smirked, pleased with herself. “I told you you’re not as clever as you think you are. I thought it might become necessary to knock the beast out of the air, so I planted an enchanted dart in the beast’s hide just as it exited the cave. The dart acts like a beacon for my lightning, allowing me to hit things much farther away than I could without it. Honestly, I was going to use the same trick on you, had I been able to get the drop on you.”

  The half-elf nodded to the woman, but at once his mind turned to the fallen boy. He lowered the raised pillar of earth, and the two of them examined the fallen lad.

  “He’s still breathing,” Rana said. “He’s just unconscious. What was that light, and how did he do that?”

  “I’m not entirely sure myself. We’ll have time to worry about that later.”

  “I suppose there’s only one path left to us. There’s no way up, and we can’t go back, so the only thing we can do is follow the water.”

  “I suppose you’re right. Get the horses. We’ll strap Jerris to your horse and he can ride with you, since you’re the lighter of us. We’ll put all the supplies and your armor on his horse. Let’s get going, and let’s hope that cave leads somewhere.” Before doing anything else, Darien retrieved the talisman containing the starstone, and placed it gently back around the neck of the unconscious half-elf.

  Chapter 24: The Secrets of the Faeries

  They prepared quickly, watchful for danger. The still frozen section of river was quickly melting. Chunks of ice broke off periodically and drifted lazily into the darkness ahead. Within a few minutes, the horses had been retrieved, Jerris had been taken care of, and they were on their way down into the cave. The path ahead ran straight, and descended steadily into the earth. The stalactite covered ceiling of the cave was several feet above the heads of the riders. The slow splashing of the water echoed all around them, filling the cave with a pleasant, almost melodious sound.

  The two rode silently, almost mechanically, still recovering from the battle. Darien’s right leg continued to bleed slowly, throbbing and aching with Cloud’s every step. His arm burned as though it were still on fire, all the way from his hand up to his elbow; using it would be extremely painful for many days to come. His body felt heavy, and his mind was dulled and slow, the after effects of using so much powerful magic in a single fight, far more than any since he had escaped the Master, and the exertion had left him utterly spent.

  Rana had taken several shallow scratches from the long knives of the goblins, but none severe. She rode low in the saddle, physically exhausted, leaning forward and bracing herself against the saddle horn. Even after several minutes, her breathing was still quite labored. Darien guessed that she too had pushed against the limits of her magical energies, and was now feeling the effects. The lady knight had put on an impressive display against an opponent with superior numbers and experience, and impressed the Executioner with both her combat prowess and her clever strategy for the wyvern. Without her, he would have had to face both Avirosa and the entire force alone, a nearly impossible situation.

  Jerris was securely tied into the saddle of Rana’s horse, Squall, unconscious but otherwise unharmed. Most importantly, they were all alive, and the remainder of the pursuers would be unlikely to continue the pursuit without their commander, and the blocked canyon would delay the pursuit for several hours at minimum, and perhaps much longer.

  Soon the light of the cave entrance had faded to a dull red-orange glow behind them, and the weary shade called a momentary halt to the march to retrieve torches, and tend to his wounds. Much to his surprise, Rana showed considerable concern for his welfare. When she got a look at his arm, she gasped audibly, and roundly criticized him for not taking care of the wounds immediately, not understanding that he had learned to endure such pain and hardship in the Order of the Shade, and he had endured far worse. A short argument ensued regarding the importance of placing proper priority on combat injuries, then a second debate arose out of the stubborn shade’s insistence on tending to his own injuries. Rana offered, somewhat forcefully, that it would be better to stitch the leg wound, while Darien preferred the somewhat faster, if more brutal, tactic of cauterizing the wound with fire magic. After wearying of the debate, and sensing that his arguments were lost on the stubborn woman, he relented, cutting away a section of his leather armor large enough to allow her to clean and dress the wound. The armor on his right arm was partially burned away, but the remaining sections had to be carefully and slowly removed, a process that took several agonizing minutes. Rana then retrieved a salve for the treatment of burns from the supplies, and rubbed it into the darkened red skin of Darien’s right arm.

  Once the injuries were taken care of, and they had taken a few minutes to rest, and briefly eat and drink, they resumed their trek into the cave. After perhaps twenty minutes of walking, the cave widened considerably, and the river began to wind aimlessly back and forth from one side of the cave to the other. The cave, which had been descending steadily, flattened out, and but for the flow of the water, there was no indication that they were continuing downward. Side passages appeared on either side, and ahead as well. The waters divided as well, splitting between several different smaller tunnels.

  “Which way do we go?” Rana wondered aloud.

  “No way to know. It’s strange for water to divide like this anyway, but it probably ends up in the same place. One choice is as good as another, and hopefully this will at least confuse anyone who follows us.”

  They chose the second tunnel from the left, and started forward. The tunnel turned almost constantly, and was joined and crossed by other passages, some of which carried water, and others which did not. Even the sharp minded half-elf quickly lost all track of which direction they were going. The approximately waist deep water’s flow was now their only guide, and eve
n that became progressively more difficult to determine as the flow slowed to a stagnant drift in the increasingly flat tunnels.

  Finally, after an hour or so of wandering, both the half-elf and the golden haired woman realized they were lost and stopped. They stared at each other wordlessly for a moment, each realizing the obvious solution to their problem. Rana dismounted, and retrieved the vial that served as a house for the faerie. She poured the water from the vial into the still, clear stream, repeated her summoning ritual, and Maya appeared once again.

  “You both look terrible,” the faerie teased the two battle worn warriors. “By the Goddess, what happened?”

  “Avirosa caught up to us,” Darien said. “You mean you didn’t see it in a vision of the future?” he added with a touch of sarcasm.

  “Our vision isn’t like that. The future is always changeable, never stable. We see the patterns of what will be woven into what is, but we cannot tell exactly what form the future will take.”

  “Well that’s convenient for you, I suppose,” Darien grumbled.

  “Stop it, you two. We don’t have time for this,” Rana said. Maya smiled and bowed.

  “You wish to find your way through this cave? That is why you have summoned me, yes?” Maya asked.

  “Yes, that’s it exactly,” Rana said. “Do you know where we are?”

  “Of course. I know the waters. We are very close to the sanctuary I spoke of. It lies within this very cavern, beyond the twisted tunnels. You would never be able to find your way through without me. Powerful magics of protection lay upon our sanctuaries.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us that when we first summoned you days ago?” In his inured and exhausted state, Darien quickly lost patience with the oblivious faerie. All he wanted to do was get to a safe place to rest with a minimum amount of discussion. “Didn’t you think that would be important?”

  “You didn’t ask. You must ask the right questions…”

  “Yes, yes, we must ask the right questions to be given the right answers. So you said before.”

  “Your manners are quite terrible. You’re far too old to behave so childishly, and yet far too young to be so grouchy. I did not tell you because you would find out anyway, and in truth, I did not know exactly which way you would take. Our sanctuary lies at a meeting of many waters, such places are sacred to our people. There are many ways to enter, all protected by barriers of various kinds, but most are more obvious than these tunnels. I expected you would summon me when you came to one.” When she had finished answering, the faerie flitted down the tunnel in the opposite direction that they had been walking. She turned momentarily, and beckoned. “Follow me now!”

  So they followed along after the faerie for what seemed hours, winding a seemingly random course through the intersecting passages. Several times, it appeared to the two riders that they had gone in a complete circle, or doubled back to a point they had passed before. The tunnels all appeared very much the same, and would have confused even a clever explorer, without any magic at all. As it was, the two battle weary travelers were completely lost without their faerie guide.

  After some unknown period of tedious winding travel, Darien heard the sounds of falling water somewhere in the distance. Soon after, a greenish light appeared ahead of them. They soon discovered the source of both the mysterious light and the increasingly loud sound, when the tunnel in which they walked abruptly opened, then ended on a ledge. The water which had been flowing beside them tumbled over the edge into a large pool below. Above them, the ceiling was aglow in green, covered with what appeared to be small hanging plants. Each was as long as a man’s arm, and ended in a rounded ball the size of a small melon. The green light emanated from the bulbous and partially transparent melon-like plant bodies. They filled the cavern with a light that allowed the travelers to see all the way from one end to the other. The cavern was essentially round, and quite large, perhaps a quarter as large as the central plaza in Vorog, though not so high. All around the circular cavern at various heights, other tunnels emptied their waters into the large central pool on the cavern floor, at least twenty in total. The water exited at the far side of the cavern, where a large river of water disappeared into darkness.

  Maya guided the travelers down a set of wide stairs that spiraled around the edge of the cavern and down to the floor. Though the stairs were less steep and much wider than ordinary stairs, it still took a considerable amount of pulling and cajoling to convince the horses to overcome their natural dislike of stairs, but finally, they reached the bottom. Maya was now floating lazily over the central pool, which turned out to be much shallower than it had first appeared.

  It was at precisely this moment that the sleeping Jerris finally wakened, suddenly and violently lurching about and pulling against the ropes that tied him into the saddle of the horse.

  “Stay back, Stay back,” Jerris blurted out. Darien ran over to him immediately, grabbing hold of his right leg near the ankle in an attempt to keep the boy from thrashing about and panicking the horse.

  “It’s all right Jerris,” Darien held the youth firmly. “We’re out of danger now. There’s nothing to fear.”

  “But there was…,” Jerris' face filled with confusion. He rubbed his temples, closed his eyes, and spoke. “What happened, and where are we?”

  “How much do you remember?” Rana asked gently. “Take your time.”

  “Well, I remember we went to fight Avirosa. Darien beat him, but then something happened, he changed somehow. He was going to use the sword, and then… then…, I tried to stop him, and there was a light, so bright, yet not painful to my eyes. Then they were coming at me and… by the light… what did I do? I tried to focus it like you told me, on the enemies. I felt the light go out like piercing arrows. Did I kill them?”

  “Oh yes,” Rana said. “You killed them quite impressively. Two of those shades and half a dozen goblins as well.”

  “I really killed them?” Jerris asked again fearfully. Darien nodded. “I… I… I’ve never killed anyone before. I wonder who they were, if they had any friends?”

  “You mustn’t dwell on that, Jerris. You did what was necessary, that is all, and you may have saved us all,” Darien cut the youth off before he could continue his thinking. He spoke as consolingly as he could manage. “And, if it makes any difference, Jerris, they are shades. Shades do not have friends to mourn them. They are expected to die for their master without hesitation. It is accepted. There is no mourning the dead in the Order of the Shade, and their names will not even be remembered a few months from now.” The young half-elf’s face seemed to fall into a look of sadness and unexpected sympathy, and Darien turned quickly away.

  “He’s right, Jerris. It’s unfortunate, but sometimes we must kill or be killed, and sometimes we must kill to protect those we care for,” Rana said. “It is better to fight for life than to lie down and die. You should be proud of what you did, not ashamed. By the way, how did you do that? I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a devastating spell.”

  “It is the power of Jerris’ starstone,” Darien explained. “It’s able to magnify his magical talent, but he lacks proper training and practice. I did not think he would be able to manifest his magic into any actual spells yet, but apparently I underestimated him, or the starstone, or more likely both. I can’t be entirely sure, but I think what Jerris experienced was an amplified spell reflection.”

  “Spell reflection?” Jerris asked. “What’s that? Does that mean the spell reflected back at me?”

  “Fortunately for you, no. When a novice mage first begins casting spells, his own disbelief at what he’s accomplished breaks his focus, and the energy of his spell rushes back into him, creating a momentary confusion. The effect is normally just a few seconds of harmless disorientation, but apparently the starstone amplified the reflection just as it amplified the original spell. I can’t be certain that’s what happened, but it makes sense based on what little I know of starstones. This is a danger I did n
ot anticipate, but now that we know, we should be mindful of it. Perhaps you should focus on casting spells without the stone for a while Jerris.”

  “Alright, so where are we then?”

  “You are now in the faerie sanctuary of Saliria,” Maya interrupted loudly. “Welcome! Follow me.”

  Darien and Rana untied the boy and got him down off the horse, then followed Maya into the shallow water. The horses were left to rest by the shores of the underground pool. Maya flitted over to the largest of several waterfalls, where water from several of the tunnels joined together, where she seemed to disappear into the falling water. As Darien approached the waterfall, he saw where she must have gone. Behind the waterfall was a large opening leading to another chamber, which he had not been able to see until he was almost upon it. There, in the darkness, Darien could see the faint green light of the faerie hovering a few feet off the ground. The travelers waded through the waterfall pool and entered the cave.

  Behind the waterfall, the chamber opened up in both directions right and left of the opening for some unknown distance. The darkness seemed to go on forever in all directions, broken only by the barely visible shapes of natural stone columns spaced irregularly around the chamber. The walls lay some unknown distance into the shadows. The water reached chest deep near the waterfall, but grew steadily shallower further into the cave. The three travelers’ splashing steps mixed with the waterfall and echoed in the cavern, producing a strange buzzing, humming mixture of high pitched drips and low pitched plunks. A unique but not unpleasant fragrance, like the smell of the deep forest after a rain storm, filled the cave.