by Sam Bowring
Somewhere behind her, the hut door slammed. A Black Goblin stumbled into the storm with the crying babe. He seemed dazed and she vaguely wondered if he’d been injured. She sensed Fazel shake free of her crushing spell, and caught his thought urging the goblin to run for the trees.
I think not.
Sending twin bursts of golden energy towards the clearing’s edge, she disintegrated the bases of two trees, toppling them towards the undead mage. Fazel spun to face the oncoming trunks, his rotten brow creasing in concentration, and Elessa was able to turn away for a moment. She weaved her hands through the air, her fingertips leaving glowing trails, until she held a mesh of light. Her hands shot forward, launching it at the goblin. The goblin’s eyes opened wide as he saw it coming, and he dropped the child to flee. The net hit his back and slammed him to the ground beside the stunned child, its glowing ends sinking into the earth and pinning him there.
Elessa turned back to see one of the trees sailing towards her like a colossal javelin. With an almighty push of power she sent it off course. It rotated on its axis and one of the larger branches almost took her head off. As she dodged, her wound bit her savagely and she clutched her side, gasping in pain. A splintering met her ears as the tree crashed through the middle of the hut.
Fazel faced her, the other tree rotating massively in the air above him. She backed away towards the child, who lay in a pool of mud. Fazel loosed the other tree towards her. This time Elessa pushed it upwards, so that it passed above the treetops at the clearing’s edge and soared off into the storm.
‘That’s going to surprise someone,’ came Fazel’s voice, along with a harsh rasp of laughter.
He advanced, keeping the distance between himself and Elessa equal as they moved towards the child. He smiled at her – a disturbing sight.
‘I’d wager Fahren has never seen you so in tune,’ he said. It sounded to Elessa almost like admiration.
‘Flatter me all you like if you need the delay to recover your strength,’ she replied.
She’d surprised herself with these verbal retaliations, having always been a shy and softly spoken girl. Now her tongue felt as sharp as her anger.
She was nearing the child, which he wouldn’t risk harming with an attack. She could feel him weaving some kind of magic in the air about her, but it was so subtle she could not identify its target. She restrained herself from going on the offensive. She was so close to the child, so close …
Confusion came over her. She should have arrived at the child and netted goblin by now. She glanced around and saw that she had almost backed herself against the hut. Her gaze flicked forward again, her eyes narrowing. She’d been tricked.
Now she knew what the subtle magic had been, and something Fahren had once said echoed in her thoughts: Don’t forget that little spells sometimes win big fights. It only takes the smallest mouse to slip under the greatest door.
Clenching her fists, she shattered Fazel’s spell. It was just a simple illusion, to disguise the child and goblin as two more puddles on the ground. She, on the lookout for bolts of crackling death, had backed straight past them.
‘Almost,’ said the undead mage. ‘Almost had you there, Elessa Lanclara.’
They came to a halt and stood watching each other. The child and the struggling goblin lay between them, at equal distance from both.
Each knew the fight would end here, one way or another.
•
The baby watched, not comprehending the fierce battle raging about him, yet mystified by the power that charged the air. He was cold and wet, but that wasn’t important. He gazed at the lady in white, and the pain he saw on her face worried him. She looked nice and soft, and he hoped she would pick him up and snuggle him, take him back inside. He cooed at her, but her face was a mask of concentration and she didn’t notice. Then he looked at the strange one, who didn’t look nice and soft at all, but the strength of magic that emanated from him was fascinating.
Around the baby’s neck, the pendant thrummed.
•
Spells and defences crashed against each other, and in the middle of the interlacing forces lay the child. If she could just get him into her arms, Elessa could retreat towards the approaching reinforcements.
She tried to levitate him towards her, but instantly Fazel shot out an opposing pull. She’d been prepared for a tug of war, but her grip on the child felt surprisingly insubstantial. She poured power into the effort, but it seemed to disappear as it met the child – as if the undead abomination was somehow managing to nullify it. Yet she seemed to be thwarting him somehow, for while she couldn’t get a hold on the boy, Fazel seemed not to have one either.
•
About the child’s neck, the colours of the pendant flashed excitedly. He shifted in discomfort.
•
Fazel sent another blanketing wrap over the boy and again felt it vanish from his control. He could not establish even the weakest fleeting hold! Never in all his years had he met with magic such as this. What was the girl doing? If she’d erected some kind of shield around the babe, he should have been able to sense it. How was she draining away his power?
Hope flared within him. Elessa had found a way of negating him, and because he genuinely could not think of anything to counter it, he could continue struggling to grasp the child without breaking the rules of servitude. He increased his efforts to strengthen his grip, hoping it was part of her plan.
The child opened his mouth and screamed, cutting through the storm with pure terror.
‘Let him go!’ Elessa shouted.
The screaming grew louder.
•
The child thrashed in the mud, his limbs twisting as if in the throes of a violent seizure. His scream rose and fell with the wind, continuous and seemingly without need of breath. Then, with a final gasp, his back arched and his muscles went taut and stiff. When his eyes opened, agony and fear danced through them hand in hand. About his neck, the Stone shone strangely in the grey light of evening.
Great pressures imploded inside the child, forming two sinkholes of terrible force. Both wrenched at him with equal strength, at his body, his mind …at his soul. Both pulled at him from within. His component parts strained in their places and began to come loose, his very being ripped to pieces. Some parts went into the dark sinkhole, others took off into the bright light. Through the madness, his tortured mind wailed with thick, distorted horror as it came apart at the seams. Then suddenly, mercifully, his consciousness shattered and he was gone.
•
A shock wave of power erupted outwards, jolting Elessa and Fazel backwards, jarring their teeth and fizzing in their sinuses. It was a power neither recognised, and it had little regard for their defences. An object shot out of it – the Stone – and sizzled away to land somewhere outside the clearing. Then, as the white noise ringing in their ears subsided, they heard the sound of crying.
It had two voices.
In a smoking crater blasted free of puddles, the ground spitting with residual charge, they lay together, side by side, wailing to the sky.
Two boys with blue hair.
Four
Fire and Lightning
From the trees above, she watched it all, a great rage burning inside her. This had never been her purpose in giving the Stone to Mirrow! It had been supposed to serve her people, many years from now, as a weapon. Instead, it had ripped the boy apart, just as Assedrynn and Arkus had ripped apart the souls in the Great Well. And those two, curse them, were openly interfering. This place was her sanctuary – they had no right! Yet they were strong, as they had always been, and they ruled the skies above. Clouds were sent to cover the moon; lightning flashed down to light up the world. She had done what she could against them, but it hadn’t been enough. The spirit wind she had sent after the goblin in the hut had drawn their combined attentions and they had sent her whirling, dispersed. The old agreement held little sway, it seemed. Now all she had the strength to do was watch.
•
Swords clashed again, and Dakur cursed – this was taking too long. It had been minutes since Elessa had cried out for aid, but this Black Goblin was proving a formidable opponent. Only last year Dakur had won the Spring Tournament, beating the former titleholder decisively, and it had been easier than this. This little bastard was quick.
He’d dodged Dakur’s initial surprise swing – if indeed it had been a surprise – spinning out of the sword’s path like a whirligig. He was all claws, gleaming fangs and a treacherous flashing blade wielded with such fluidity that it would have been awe-inspiring to watch had Dakur not been so focused on keeping it well away. The goblin fought in a confusing flurry, ducking and weaving, gliding in and out of Dakur’s reach, sometimes disappearing behind a tree or rock only to leap out again from an unexpected direction. More disturbingly, the creature fought in total silence, never a grunt or a threat or a laugh. Just the unknowable stare of his orb-like eyes.
Dakur deflected defensively, waiting for an opportunity to lash out in return. So far his offensives had met only empty space, his opponent preferring to wheel out of the way than actually meet his steel. Their swords only connected when the goblin attacked. It was infuriating.
The creature leaped up onto a rock and Dakur avoided lunging at him, waiting instead for the inevitable disappearance into the undergrowth. Instead the goblin sprang at him bodily, batting Dakur’s blade aside while in the air and crashing against his chest, knocking him down. The goblin dropped his sword to grab Dakur’s sword arm and pin it to the ground, using his other to slip a dagger from his belt. As the dagger flashed down, Dakur’s free hand shot up to catch it a handspan from his throat. For a moment they lay locked, the goblin so close that Dakur could smell his earthy breath. He tried to twist his sword arm free, but the goblin dug his claws in harder, forcing Dakur to drop his blade. He gritted his teeth as he pushed back on the dagger.
‘Strong for a little fellow, aren’t you?’ he grunted.
In a painful movement, he wrenched his pinned wrist free to crack the goblin across the jaw, spattering the black chin with his own blood. The force of the blow knocked the creature off him, dagger and all. Dakur rolled for his own sword but the goblin leaped on his back. He elbowed the creature viciously in the face and staggered to his feet, sword in hand. With a bellow he spun around.
On the low-lying branch of a tree some paces away, the goblin sat watching, his sword stuck upright in the wood beside him.
‘What are you waiting for?’ Dakur said. ‘Had enough, have you?’
The goblin slowly uncurled a claw. Dakur frowned, but looked down to where the goblin pointed. As his gaze fell, he let out a cry of surprise. Protruding from his belly was the hilt of a dagger.
Giddiness swept over him. He fell to his knees, pawing at his ruined stomach in disbelief. Then, with a bark of anger, he yanked the dagger free, raising it for retribution.
The branch was deserted.
There was a soft footfall on the leaves behind him.
•
Elessa was tiring and the wound in her side was agonising. Whenever she moved, pain coursed up her abdomen. Despite her magically stemming the blood loss, the wound still needed to be attended to and Elessa knew that time was running out. She thought of Kessum, and the shining heart flower, and how she had planned to send him one in return when she got back to the Halls. And so she would! She would not die tonight!
At her feet the babies bawled. She hadn’t believed her eyes upon seeing the pair of them, but there wasn’t time to think on it now. Her opponent still faced her, and his body mended itself, whereas hers would not survive another of his spells. Miserably she felt her power failing, felt his darkness penetrating her defences in many places. She pushed it back, but it was like pushing back a glacier. Slowly and surely, it came. Death came.
And then …
•
Tyrellan crept to the tree line. The blade had taken longer to kill than he’d anticipated and he had no idea of what had occurred between Fazel and the Varenkai bitch in the meantime. He was vexed to see that Fazel had not disposed of her yet, but it didn’t look like long now. She was hunched over, no doubt due to the dagger wound, and her outstretched arms shook with effort. Fazel, however, looked just as he usually did, and Tyrellan could see his dark magic creeping towards the girl, snuffing out her light as it went.
Just one final light to snuff out, he thought.
And then …
Forks of electricity cracked down from the sky, striking treetops around the clearing, sending flaring branches to earth. Strike after strike, one after the other in quick succession. Tyrellan scowled, the lightning gleaming off his fangs. This reeked of interference. The higher powers were taking an interest. Strike after strike …
With the clearing lit up like white day, the girl straightened. Her arms steadied, her hands moulding power drawn from the light, and a ball of flame collected at her fingertips. Between lightning flashes the growing fireball bathed the clearing in its own orange illumination, lending strength unto itself. A few moments on and it was huge, the heat so intense that Tyrellan caught a waft of it in the wind.
With a defiant cry, Elessa splayed her fingers and released. The fireball roared towards the undead mage, expanding as it went. Fazel raised a hand to ward it off, but the ball changed neither direction nor velocity. Just before it hit him, he flung his arms wide. It was a gesture of embrace.
The fireball carried his burning corpse across the clearing where it exploded against a tree, sending out a cloud of sparks and ash.
Fazel’s words reached Tyrellan as his body became a conflagration: Tell your master that I did my best.
And after that a joyous laughter, fading into silence. The rain reduced the flames to tongues and charred bones fell to earth.
Thunder followed the lightning. The rain began to clear.
•
Battu flinched as the oncoming flames consumed his view and snuffed out Fazel’s sight. His real sight took over, blazing out the window, as if sheer force of will would allow him to go on seeing what occurred in the north. It did not. The bug-eye in Fazel’s head had been incinerated along with its host.
Why were there two babies? Damn it all, wasn’t anything ever simple? Did it have something to do with the Stone? He had recognised it for what it was, and harboured vague suspicions about what had happened …but now was not the time for theories. He could see no way to retrieve the Stone, and even if there was a way, there seemed no point. The damage was done.
Instead Battu cast around for other useable creatures, and found one so perfect he almost disbelieved it. One of the blade reinforcements who hurried through the wood towards the clearing was ignorant of the bug-eye in his skull – and Battu knew in that moment why he sent out so many of the creatures. Impatiently, he waited for the man’s sight to become useful.
•
All Elessa wanted was to lie down and sleep. Every vestige of her power had gone into the fireball, and another casting would knock her unconscious, if not kill her. More than anything, she needed another mage to help her heal. How far away were the reinforcements? She could no longer sense them. Pain stabbed her side again and she threw up.
Lurching forward into the smoking crater, she foggily remembered the child’s transformation. Two babies in the hole, both with blue hair! The closest turned a cherub face towards her and cooed. She wasted no time, moving forward to gather him up. How could a baby weigh so much? How would s
he manage the other one too?
The goblin she had netted rolled into the crater with a hiss, coming to rest next to the second baby, a dagger in his hand. So, her net had failed. Not surprising.
The goblin stared at her sideways, breathing hard, but apart from that he was still. So was the child in his grasp, she noticed, staring impassively up at the sky.
Elessa knew she had to move if she was to have any chance at all. The reinforcements would have to track down the second boy themselves. She backed away. As she did, another goblin emerged from the tree line across the clearing.
She turned and fled into Whisperwood.
Five
An Early Birthday Present
Rhobi didn’t know Tyrellan was there until he felt the boot in his side.
‘Get up, you fool.’
‘Is she gone?’ snarled Rhobi. ‘Perhaps the only thing saving us from bolts of fire is my close grasp on this child?’
‘Nothing will save you from a dagger up your arse if you don’t do as you’re told.’
Rhobi stood.
‘Why are there two boys?’ Tyrellan asked.
‘There was only one in the hut,’ said Rhobi. ‘After that I was pinned down by the Varenkai. There was an explosion of some kind. I didn’t see what happened. And now, two boys.’
Tyrellan shifted his gaze from the pale baby to the direction in which Elessa had fled. ‘She won’t get far,’ he said. ‘I don’t think she has much more magic in her tonight.’ He seemed to reach a decision. ‘Take this one and travel south. Retrace our journey here. I’ll make a try for the other. But I have a feeling,’ he flexed a claw and turned to Rhobi, ‘there may be others in the woods tonight. Either way, I’ll rejoin you shortly. Do not deviate from the course I’ve given you.’
As Rhobi stared into the bottomless orbs of the First Slave’s eyes, the cruel features somehow made worse by their flat neutrality, he wondered if he would ever have the courage to follow through with his murderous musings.