by Guy Estes
"My, such a spirited little devil!"
Baezha casually waved a hand and sent him a shapeshifting spell. Mathias conjured up a shield, but it did not save him. He screamed as his physical structure began to change. His arms became legs, spines grew from his back, and his face began to extend in a muzzle. He exerted every ounce of power he could and slowly reversed the effects of the spell. Then he stood and watched Baezha. Her shapeshifting spell had only been to occupy him while she was tapping deeper into the reservoir of power underneath them. Violet forks of energy caressed the tower she stood on as they extended from the ground to collect around Baezha. They sparked and danced around her, then they entered her. They did not exit her.
What is she doing, Aleena wondered, but then she knew. She remembered Baezha telling her that if a large enough power source could be tapped, a sorceress could carry her own personal supply of power within her for the rest of her life. She would not have to rely on finding the occasional source or the charged totem. She would be her own totem. That was what Baezha was doing. She was feeding off the immense power supply beneath the fortress. As they watched, there was no physical change in Baezha, but it was obvious that she was growing stronger. Her magical power would soon be of staggering proportions. Mathias knew this, and he threw a spell at her in a desperate attempt to stop her, but was like casting a drop of water into a bonfire.
A loud rumbling came to Aleena, and she looked down into the courtyard one hundred fifty feet below and watched a wall topple over, crushing dozens of Anlon's men. More walls fractured into great shards with ear-splitting cracks, and more soldiers were crushed, as the reservoir of magical energies beneath the fortress was depleted. The power, from lacey strings to giant cables, enshrouded Baezha’s spirit, then penetrated and filled it. They were interwoven with her mind and soul.
Baezha reached deep within Mathias’ body and spirit. His agonized screams were audible over the sound of the collapsing fortress. They did not end, even when Baezha pulled his skeleton out of his body with a wet wrench. As she ripped his bones from his flesh, so did Baezha rip his spirit from his bones. His skeleton became like noodles that flew apart in a ghastly pulp. Aleena nearly looked away, and the Sword Maiden had seen some truly gruesome sights in her time.
Baezha heaved a satisfied sigh, then looked at Aleena. Aleena felt a lightness in her head as her vision blurred into a white void and her hearing faded out. Then her senses returned as she felt a slight nausea and found herself next to Baezha.
"Remind me," Aleena said, "to never get on your bad side."
"And I must remember the same about you. I saw how you dealt with Anlon. I confess I envy your skill."
"I am honored, but I think it may be a bit early for praise."
Aleena gestured at the seething courtyard below. It was teeming with Anlon's horde. Some of them fled, not wishing to cross swords with the one who'd defeated their lord or the witch who'd so thoroughly obliterated Mathias. Others were trying to form ranks for an attack. Baezha reached out with her power and toppled walls and towers. Great fissures split the glassy walls with loud cracks. Some men were crushed in falling rubble while others were stabbed and lacerated by shards of stone. All around them the walls and towers fell. Aleena watched the tower on which Anlon's arena sat collapse into a cloud of dust. All that was left was the tower upon which they stood. As they watched the last pieces of it fall, the fury of destruction was swallowed by silence. The setting sun’s radiance shone pure and glorious, painting the clear sky gold and scarlet.
"Well," Baezha said. "That wasn't such a chore, was it?"
"Tell me, Sister, I must know. How did you get Mathias to lower his guard?"
"Well, if you will allow me a bit of boasting, I shall tell you."
* * *
As Baezha lay upon the floor of the storehouse, she forced her stunned brain to function. The whole situation reminded her of a difficult math problem, so she treated it like one. She broke it down into its component parts and solved it one piece at a time.
She realized that her only hope lay in finding the key that would grant her access to the huge power source below the fortress. Where would that key be hidden?
In Mathias' brain. He would have no need of writing it down. So how can I read his thoughts without him knowing it?
She could use telepathy, as it was not magic. It required the use of psychic energy, which is produced solely by the mind, not magical energy. But Mathias would know when she did.
Hit him when he sleeps. His treatment of me exhausted him. He will probably go straight to bed. Then I can enter his dreams in the guise of something he will welcome in his thoughts.
First, though, she would have to do something about the thing he’d planted in her belly. She meditated. Meditation was something that had come naturally to Baezha, as it was an integral part of being a sorceress. As a little girl, it had taken the form of long moments of introspection. She did not practice formal daily meditation until she'd seen ten summers. By the time fourteen summers had passed, she had mastered her technique to such a degree that she'd once spent twelve hours under a waterfall in the dead of winter in a self-induced trance. She had controlled her mind and body with such intensity that she'd suffered no discomfort or ill affects whatsoever.
After thirty minutes had passed, Baezha had the clawing, grinding hunger under adequate control, and she felt it safe to attempt Mathias' mind. Tentatively, like a field mouse exiting its burrow, Baezha's mind sought out his. There were many dark thoughts in the fortress, but she homed in on Mathias' easily enough. When he'd taken possession of her, the magical transfer hadn't been entirely one-way. She'd learned a few things about him. She knew what his essence felt like, and she knew what some of his desires were. The stone walls and wooden doors could not stop her advance. She flowed through them to hover over Mathias' sleeping form.
Slowly, like water seeping through old wood, Baezha entered his mind. As she'd hoped, he was dreaming. Baezha insinuated herself in the landscape of his fantasies. He pursued her, but Baezha evaded him. She had to exercise Herculean effort not to flee in terror, for it was his purple amorphous essence that pursued her, its tentacles reaching for her, but she had to keep up appearances if she was to get what she needed. She had to look and behave exactly like a figment of his imagination if her identity was to remain undiscovered. Baezha was forced to wander the twisted landscape of Mathias' mind far longer than she wished to, but she found that which she sought. It was tucked away in an isolated corner of his consciousness. He hadn't bothered to place any protection on it, as he was the only wizard in the fortress, except for Baezha, and she was in no condition to harm him.
And that is exactly what he must continue to think until I can access his power source.
Baezha studied the key. It was quite simple, and she instantly memorized it. She had been schooled by Druids, who are renowned for their powers of memory.
Mathias' essence was creeping up on her. She could sense it as easily as she could sense the presence of light. She exited his mind and flew back to her body. Baezha sat up and stretched, then she plugged her mind into the vast reservoir beneath the fortress and learned the vibrations of the millions of strings of power thrumming there, enshrouded herself in the long ropes and thick cables of magical energy, a task that required only a few minutes for a Chosen witch. The first thing she did was to neutralize the hunger Mathias had planted within her. Only then did she allow herself to eat, for she would need much energy to prepare the welcome she had in mind for Mathias.
While she waited for him, she watched the battle unfold between Aleena and Anlon. Anlon’s fear of facing himself was so strong it corrupted and weakened the magic of his armor and sword as it corrupted and weakened his spirit. Even as Baezha saw the fight’s conclusion, she knew Mathias was very near, and she donned her disguise. Baezha cast a simple illusion of herself with an extrafifty pounds and a stupefied expression. When he came, she swallowed her bile a
nd allowed his essence to again possess hers. Then she assumed her true form and took possession of him.
"Why, you crafty little manx," Aleena chuckled. "He walked right into it."
"I gave him what he expected to see. He was too full of himself to even consider the prospect of resistance."
"Well, you certainly extracted a dear price from him."
"He was fortunate I was rushed. He pried my deepest, darkest thoughts from my mind. He stole my most shameful moments. He helped himself to things I haven't even been able to share with you."
"Like how you lost everything you loved?"
Baezha was silent as she stared at the ruins of Anlon's stronghold. She sighed.
"Yes. I did something, when I was a girl. Something terrible. I survived it, but I shall spend an eternity paying for it."
"Tell me, Baezha. Let me ease your burden."
Tears ran from Baezha's eyes. She sniffled. "Not now, Sister. Some other time, perhaps very soon. But not now."
Aleena let the silence roll around for a bit before saying, "Then let us go home."
"I have no home." The bitterness in Baezha's voice shocked Aleena. Then Aleena smiled at her.
"Your sister does. Perhaps if you are very kind to her, she will let you stay in the guestroom."
Baezha looked at Aleena, tearful obsidian eyes locking with bright slate ones. Then they embraced.
"Come,” Aleena said. “Get us down from here. We’ve a long journey, and I want to see the look on my parents' faces when I introduce them to my sister!"
EPILOGUE
They did not immediately leave the ruins of Anlon’s stronghold. Baezha had only begun to consume the reservoir of magic when she’d obliterated Mathias. She had the opportunity to become her own permanent power source and she was not about to pass that by. It took her nine days, but she consumed and absorbed every last scrap of magical force in the area, from ragged strings to massive cables and ropes. She took them into her body and spirit where they interwove with her basic essence. Throughout the process Baezha neither ate, drank nor slept. Her body flushed auras of various colors. The ruins shifted and groaned as the massive power reserve was withdrawn from the earth it sat upon. On the morning of the tenth day, Baezha stretched and sighed.
“Are you done?” Aleena asked.
“Yes. I’ve devoured every scrap of magic that place sat on. I’ll never be reliant of finding another power source again."
“How is it you did it so easily when no one else has found a way?”
“Others have found ways, they just didn’t work very well. As I said, the human body just isn’t a very efficient container for magic. But my main theory was that because I’m Chosen, the nature of my gift combined with the thing that grants my body eternal youth and beauty would also enable me to contain magic better than others. My theory was right.”
They went home and Aleena introduced Ivarr and Ilian to their new daughter. Baezha enrolled in the academy, her education having been interrupted by the tragedy she refused to divulge. Aleena made a living escorting the league’s trade caravans. The Charidean, fragmented and leaderless, became vassals of the Durganian Amazons.