Fallen Star

by Steven Drake

  “Jerris?” She called out, but there was no answer. Not him.

  Probably one of the other dragons, or perhaps Kesz. She listened for footsteps, but heard nothing. Strange. She conjured a light in her hand and looked towards the hall, but there was nothing there. She poked her head around the corner of the alcove into the hall, but again saw nothing. Nia shrugged and turned to lay down again, but as she did, she felt a sharp pain in her neck, as though she’d been stung by a bee. Fear surged through her as she reached up to her neck. She brushed away something hard and cold that clattered on the floor, then she felt the burning sensation working its way through her body. She realized immediately what was happening, but it was already too late. Her vision blurred, and she fell forward onto the blankets.

  Chapter 9: The Trap Closes

  Jerris followed Ceres up and out of the caves into the city of Kilnar, eager to find the missing bearcat. It made no sense for her to leave now. After Jerris had first freed the beast from Zariel the Puppet Master, he had expected the animal to run away, but instead she returned just in time to save both him and Nia from the Icehorn dragonkin Kalasz. Then the bearcat had followed him back to town, and had taken up residence at the stables. About two weeks had passed since then, and during that time, she had never even left the city.

  Jerris hoped to solve this mystery quickly and return to Nia. After all, Violet could not have gotten far in just one night. Jerris hoped that she had only gotten hungry or bored and gone north of town perhaps to hunt or just to wander.

  On the flat, dusty gray plains one could see for miles in most directions. It allowed Jerris and Ceres to lay a wider search pattern as they could venture several hundred yards apart while still keeping within sight of one another.

  They searched the remainder of the morning, but found nothing. They took a short rest at midday, long enough to eat a bit and rest their legs before resuming. After several more frustrating hours of searching, they finally found a set of tracks. Neither Ceres nor Jerris could identify the strangely shaped markings as belonging to the bearcat, as neither had paid much attention to Violet’s feet. Still, the tracks were large enough, and the Burning Lands had no resident wildlife comparable in size to Violet. The tracks meandered in a strangely random fashion, but led in a more or less easterly direction. Jerris and Ceres had been following them for about an hour, when the sun began to set.

  “Perhaps we should return tomorrow,” Ceres suggested. “We don’t want to be out here at night. We should head back to Kilnar.”

  “Damn!” Jerris cursed. “Just a bit farther. I see some rock formations up ahead. Maybe there’s a cave. Let’s go as far as that, then we’ll stop.”

  “Very well.”

  Unfortunately for them, what had appeared to be an assortment of scattered boulders and outcroppings turned out to be rather more significant. When they drew near the rocks, they encountered a deep downslope. The rocks lay in a depression several hundred yards across. From a distance, the rocks had appeared rather small and insignificant, but that was only the tip tops of the tallest rocks large enough to be seen at a distance. In actuality, they faced a veritable forest of rock, tall spires sharp and straight as needles, spiraling arches that seemed to defy reason, and statuesque stone pillars that seemed to have been thrust up from below at every imaginable angle. Unlike the rest of the plain, with its gray dust desert, these rock formations burned fire red in the light of the setting sun.

  Damn my luck, Jerris cursed silently as he half walked and half slid down the dusty slope. Ceres followed closely behind, nimbly as a mountain goat.

  “We can only search for a few minutes,” Ceres reminded him.

  Jerris nodded his assent and quickened his pace. He wanted to find Violet before nightfall, not that he doubted her ability to survive on her own, but he felt responsible for her, and wanted to make sure she hadn’t gotten herself trapped or injured.

  It took several frustrating minutes scanning around the bottom of the slope before Jerris picked up the tracks again. Jerris wasted no time charging into the rock forest, darting between columns and underneath spiraling arches, eager to come to some conclusion one way or the other. Finally, as he rounded a corner, he saw a flash of purple. There she was, sitting on her haunches in a large open space between a broken arch of rock on one side and a vertical flat-topped pillar on the other.

  Violet reacted immediately, raising up and looking towards him. She bounded towards him, but after just a few feet, she lurched to an awkward jerking stop. Her right rear leg went out from under her, and she started pulling on it. She had to be caught on something. Jerris took a few more cautious steps forward, and then saw an iron chain leading from Violet’s right rear leg to a shorter rock spire several yards behind the bearcat. That’s odd, he thought. Why would someone bring Violet all the way out here and chain her up?

  “Jerris look out!” Ceres yelled from behind. Jerris turned to see Ceres staggering forward, swaying like a drunkard.

  “Ceres what’s wrong?” Jerris shouted as he went to her aid. He had taken just a few steps when he felt a familiar sting in his neck. He had felt it once before, in Trinium, when he had been darted by Nielas. That had turned out to be a misunderstanding, but this clearly was not. Jerris realized too late what had happened. This was a trap, a trap set for him. Ceres fell a few yards in front of him, a dart protruding from her neck. Jerris turned quickly, he had just a few seconds and only one chance.

  Violet seemed well aware of what was happening. She roared viciously, and pulled on her chain, trying to reach her injured master. The chain pulled taught, lifting a few inches in the air, and still the cat pulled. Jerris fell to his knees as the poison began taking its toll, but he fought it, and focused his vision on the chain that dragged behind Violet. He had to free her, and he had just one shot.

  Jerris knew in an instant what he had to do. He could use the cutting beams of light that he had first used in his first battle with Darien over a year and a half ago. They remained one of his most powerful spells, and easily the one with the greatest range. The most difficult task had been learning to aim the razor thin beams of light. No matter how he held his hands, the spell never seemed to go quite where he wanted. Darien, his teacher, had finally suggested the solution. Jerris could still remember the words, ‘Your inexperience is showing. Like most mages, your first instinct is to focus spells in your hand. Most mages begin this way. The hands are natural points of focus for our minds, but remember you can focus your magic any point within a certain range of your body.’

  That had sparked the solution to Jerris’ dilemma. It had taken weeks of practice, but Jerris had finally overcome his difficulty by using his eyes rather than his hands as a point of focus. By looking exactly at what he wanted to strike, then focusing the origin point of his spell just in front of his eyes, he had achieved astounding accuracy. Jerris focused his eyes tightly and intensely on a single link of the chain about a third of the way from Violet’s leg to the rock. Then he focused the magic, a technique honed over hours upon hours of practice.

  Intense light flashed in Jerris’ eyes, and he resisted the urge to flinch. The white beam flashed across the space in a fraction of a second. It burned through the metal chain as a scythe through dry wheat, and the suddenly freed bearcat bounded toward him.

  Jerris had only one thing to do. It probably didn’t need to be said, as Violet seemed to understand the situation. Still, he needed to communicate with her, just one command, one simple idea, and hope no one could break that spell. ‘Violet protect us, don’t let anyone near, no matter what.’ He screamed the command in his mind, and he heard a roar from Violet. He fought to stay conscious, but only managed to claw his way forward along the ground a few more inches before the poison dragged him into unconsciousness.

  Chapter 10: Deepest Betrayal

  Nia groaned as she finally started to wake up. What happened? Where am I? She wondered. She lay on her side, and felt a cool, hard, and smooth surface beneath her.
Nia struggled to remain awake, spurred by a sense of urgent fear. She needed to open her eyes, to remember what had happened, but her head pounded with each heartbeat, scattering her thoughts with a steady rhythm of pulsing pain. Thoughts came slowly, frustratingly slowly. When she opened her eyes, she saw only a dim blurry darkness.

  She sat up slowly, groggily. Her movements felt slow and awkward, and her limbs felt distant and dulled. She tried to stand, but felt the sting of cold metal pull at her wrists. She had been shackled to the floor somewhere. She began to panic and cast her eyes about the room, waiting for the blurry world to come into focus. She found herself in a dim room, square, wooden. The floor suddenly jerked beneath her, knocking her from her sitting position and sending her sprawling across the floor. The whole room was moving, and from that, she concluded she had to be in some kind of wagon.

  That’s right, I was captured. Her mind remembered what had happened before she lost consciousness. Nielas! The dart in my neck! It had to be Nielas or one of his men. Nia cast her eyes around to find any source of light, and found an opening high on one wall, a barred window. The light coming in the window cast a square of light on the floor of the wagon. Aside from the window, a few thin rays of light slipped through the cracks in the boards and struck the floor in dusty slashes, quivering slightly as the wagon shifted beneath her.

  “Who… Is anyone out there?” Nia spoke nervously in the direction of the window.

  “Nia, are you awake?” The voice was familiar, but most unwelcome. It seemed to come from the opening.

  “Nielas,” Nia said. Fire raged in her as she cast her eyes around. She saw a face appear in the window, dark against the light, but that hardly mattered. Nia didn’t really want to look at him. Anger overwhelmed her, and she reached for her magic, attempting to focus it into a blossom of fire just a few feet in front of her, at the window. No fire came forth, however, and instead, she felt a terrible weight pulling down at her wrists. Her shackles grew heavy and hot. The room spun and twisted. It felt like her magic drained away as soon as she summoned it, leaving a sickening empty feeling behind. The disorientation forced her to shut her eyes and curl into a ball, until the waves of dizzying motion finally stopped.

  “Please Nia, stay calm.” Nielas’ voice sounded concerned, which only made Nia angrier. “Don’t try to use your magic. It won’t work. Those shackles will bind anyone’s magic, even yours. They’re not like our regular shackles. These came from the secret vault. Apparently, they’ve been sitting there since the fall of Sarenna. Eldrik brought them in case we needed them for Darien. I never imagined I’d have to use them on you.”

  “Damn you Nielas!” Nia said. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Saving your life.”

  “By drugging me and taking me prisoner?”

  “It’s for your own good,” Nielas said. “I had to get you out of Kilnar. Now that you have the Star Sword, they’ll be after you.”

  “Who? Who’s coming after me, Nielas? Geoffray? Did he put you up to this?”

  “Of course not.” Nielas spat the comment out like sour milk. “I have to admit he was helpful. This would have been harder without his men. I told Geoffray we needed the Star Blade, and that I could get you out of the city.”

  “So Geoffray was in on this?”

  “Yes. He thinks I’m going to meet him south of Kilnar, but we’re actually miles to the west.”

  “You tricked him too?”

  “Of course. Geoffray is an idiot, but a useful idiot. He’s so gullible it’s almost funny. All I had to do was start talking about honor and justice, and he bought it. I would never turn you over to him. Believe me Nia. I did this to protect you.”

  “If not Geoffray, then who?”

  “The Order of the Shade, of course. The Shades knew about this entire expedition. I’m sure they already heard what happened, and there’s nothing to stop them from taking the Star Blade. With Darien gone, they have no reason to hold back.”

  Niarie’s mind froze. “What do you mean? Nielas, you’re scaring me.”

  “It doesn’t matter now. I may as well tell you,” Nielas sighed. “Traiz came to me months ago. He knew about your origin, threatened to tell everyone, unless I agreed to help him. He needed someone close to the Archmage, someone Eldrik would trust implicitly. It was crucial to the plan.”

  “What plan?” Nia’s voice fell. “Nielas, what have you done?”

  He sighed deeply and ran his hand across his scalp, raking his hair back and letting it fall haphazardly. Nia could just glimpse a frustrated grimace on his shadowed face.

  “Traiz has been orchestrating the conflicts in the Order of the Golden Shield for years,” Nielas finally declared with an air of resignation. “He wormed his way into the Grandmaster’s trust. He quietly eliminated the previous two Marshals of the Shield Knights, just to get that half-wit Geoffray in charge. When he recruited me, he had everything he needed. All that was left to set the pieces in motion. Darien’s arrival gave us the perfect opportunity.”

  “Nielas, how could you betray us?”

  “I would think you would understand, now,” Nielas said. “You saw how Geoffray turned on you when he found out you were half-elven. Do you really want men like that to rule? Is the Demon King really any worse than any of the other petty kings we protect? For centuries, the Golden Shield has protected them, yet we have to beg them for the money, the resources, and the soldiers to do it. Why should power be held by a handful of conceited men who owe their position simply to the good fortune of being born to wealth and title? In the East, the clever and powerful are rewarded. There are no titles, no ranks, no birthrights.”

  “Only because they’re all ruled by a tyrant.”

  “Better a single tyrant than a gaggle of strutting aristocrats. They deserve everything they’re going to get. It won’t be long now, a few months, maybe a year. Geoffray will lead his holy war to retake the Golden Shield, and Barris will be too busy fighting him to stop us.”

  “What’s going on Nielas? What do you know?”

  “Traiz’s real brilliance was how he understood where the real power of the Golden Shield lay. For all its wealth and stature, Trinium is meaningless. The Demon King would have ruled ages ago without the enchantments that prevent the crossing of the Saldean.”

  Nia’s heart froze as she understood what was about to happen. “Mandala fortress,” she whispered.

  Mandala, built upon the headwaters of the river Saldean, in the Red Mountains of the north, a virtually unassailable fortress where the enchantments that kept the Demon King’s armies on the eastern side of the river originated. Without those enchantments, he could strike anywhere, at any time.

  “You see it now. It was simple for Traiz to get his men appointed to Mandala. It’s the least popular post in the entire order, being on the edge of civilization in the cold north. No one thinks much about it, but they will.”

  It made sense. Traiz had positioned everything perfectly. His plan could still succeed even with the man himself dead. Bitterness flooded through Nia. Nielas had helped do this, a man she had known since childhood, whom she had believed was her friend. This betrayal felt deeper than any other. This was personal, and unforgivable.

  “So, you’re just going to turn me over to them, then?” Nia said curtly. “Beg your masters to spare my life?”

  “Of course not. I would never let anything happen to you,” Nielas said. “I care too much for you. I don’t care who sits on what throne, as long as you’re safe. I don’t give a damn about Traiz or his plans. No, I had to get you away from Kilnar before the Shades came for you. I prepared a hideout, far to the west, on the other side of the desert, just in case something went wrong. Once we get there, I’ll take those shackles off of you. The journey will take a few weeks, and it will be easier if you cooperate.”

  “Jerris will come for me. You won’t get away with this.”

  Nia thought she heard her captor’s breath catch just slightly. He grew quiet
for several long moments after that. He started to make a sound, but then quieted again. Nia started to feel sick, as the dark truth invaded her mind. Her entire body seemed to chill. No…

  “You set it up, didn’t you? You took Violet, and led Jerris into a trap?”

  “I did,” Nielas said. “Getting that bearcat out into the desert was the worst part. Gods, that thing is strong, and none of our dominators could hold it for more than a minute or two. Finding you was easier. The dragonkin sense of honor isn’t quite as deep amongst the oppressed slaves.”

  “You killed Jerris?”

  “Yes, not personally, but he’s long dead by now.”

  Nia’s heart dropped as her hope drained away like so much water through her fingers. No, not Jerris, not now. She had so many things to tell him. She had only begun to explore her feelings for the cheerful and optimistic half-elf, and now it was all ripped away.

  “You still won’t win. Kesz will notice I’m gone. He’ll tell my Grandfather, and you’ll have a horde of dragons looking for you.”

  “Nia, no one is coming for you. You should just accept it. I made sure there was no one to follow me. The only other person who even knows I have you is Geoffray, and by the time he realizes I tricked him, we’ll be well beyond his reach. He’ll never find us out here.”

  “You killed grandfather too? He trusted you. He taught you. How could you? You’ve taken everything from me, my family, my future, Jerris…” Nia buried her face in her hands and called his name into the darkness. “Jerris!”

  “What is so special about him anyway?” Nielas voice rose in anger. “I don’t know what that elf did to you, but I wasn’t about to let him take you away from me. I don’t care that you’re a half-elf. It doesn’t matter. You’ll always be Niarie to me. I’ll keep you safe no matter what.”

  Nia’s tears paused for a moment as a cold realization dawned on her. “You wanted me for yourself,” she said meekly, almost a whisper. It made sense now. It wasn’t about protecting her from some danger. It was simpler than that. Buried underneath all Nielas’ glowing talk of being a noble knight in shining armor lay the rotten, maggot-ridden, decaying corpse of the truth. He only wanted her for himself.