by A. Evermore
Issa frowned. The writing was scrawled and childish, but the words themselves were those of an adult. The girl was always strange. Where in Maioria had Arla gone that no one could find her? She folded the paper and put it into her pocket, consoling herself with the knowledge that she and Freydel were still alive. She didn’t want to think about Cirosa, not yet.
Issa began searching the cliff face for the R-shaped crack leading back towards the entrance to the Mother’s Chamber. Six feet to the right of the entrance she found a jagged crack that looked faintly like an “R” she traced it with her fingers.
‘But I don’t know the name of the raven,’ she said aloud and looked at the bird watching her. He came hopping over. She knelt down and focused on his dark brown eyes, opening her mind to it in the Daluni way.
‘What is your name, my friend?’ she asked aloud as she directed the same thought towards him. The subtle pressure came again and then she looked out across a swirling mist of rich indigo. She blinked, ‘But that has no word in Frayonesse.’
She closed her eyes again and asked the same question mentally. But again all she saw was a sea of indigo mist swirling and flowing gently in all directions. Issa stood up and put her hands on her hips. ‘How can I speak that name if it has no translatable word or even sound tone?’ She chewed her lip as she stared down at the raven.
‘On Little Kammy we have a tiny wispy flower that comes out only at night and in moonlight. When they bloom they are like a carpet of mist. They are called Ehkas, a sea of Ehkas. Ehka is a local word for indigo. Do you think Ehka is a suitable name for you?’
The raven cawed loudly and turned back to examine the R-shaped crack. Issa laughed aloud. How did Arla know your name? Or perhaps she didn’t and all that mattered is that I gave you a name you accepted.
Issa bent close to the crack and spoke loudly, ‘Ehka.’
After a brief moment and a subtle shimmer around the “R” the rock began to dissipate silently. The hole grew bigger and deeper until it disappeared into blackness. Issa peered into that darkness but could see nothing. The hole was just big enough for her to squeeze in crawling. She picked up her broken lantern and got on her hands and knees. Getting her hips through was the hardest part but after the entrance the tunnel widened a little and it was easier to move.
After about sixteen feet the lantern light fell upon a flat rag bound object, about the size of a tea saucer. The raven mark on her chest began to tingle. Issa could feel magic emanate from that object, whatever it was. That magic feels the same as the dark moon, only much less powerful! She pushed forwards towards it.
Issa set the lantern down and picked up the object. It was incredibly heavy for something so small and as soon as she touched it, even through the old cloth, she felt the weight of ages exuding from it. It felt powerful, like an orb, maybe more so, and purer. The orbs are divided magic, but this feels whole, somehow.
It pooled within it the same ancient magic as the dark moon itself and yet it was almost the absence of power, the space before thought, the place before creation where anything may be created and from which all things took their form. It was completely pure, magic in its purest form. What on Maioria is it?
Hastily she unwrapped the cloth and stared at it. It was black like onyx and yet it shimmered. A black stone fashioned into the shape of a flying raven, like the mark upon her chest only far more detailed. Each feather was intricately carved, the curve of its beak, the shape of its eye, was perfect exquisite craftsmanship. It was as solid as iron and as heavy.
The raven mark upon her chest began to pulse in time to her heart beat. She pulled her shirt down and the mark filled the chamber with pulsing silver-blue light. She looked back at the object and noticed it wasn’t solid black stone at all, it only seemed like that in this dark room. The black stone was filled with twinkling lights like stars captured within it. The stars were all different sizes and some were close to the surface and others far away, like looking up at a night sky, or the stars on Zanufey’s robe… Or the stones of the trilithon in the desert. Yes, they were made of the same black stone, flecked through with silver and gold and all the colours of the spectrum.
‘It’s beautiful,’ she breathed and then gasped. She stared closer in amazement. The stars were moving, like they did on Zanufey’s robe. But this time the stars were moving naturally and not being sucked into a black hole. Was this the universe as it is supposed to be?
Issa watched the stars move in wonder. There were so many. Some clustered together, others formed into delicate swirls. She felt herself being drawn towards them into the raven talisman. She became a star moving through endless space, an entire universe stretched out before her into infinity and she was surrounded by hundreds of planets and their moons, a thousand suns twinkling in the darkness. It felt so serene, so eternal being here amongst the stars.
Thinking it was the right thing to do she pressed the talisman to the mark on her chest. Even with closed eyes she could see the blue flare as the two connected. Immediately the talisman became light in her hands just as she felt her own body lighten and feel less dense. She opened her eyes. Around her was a world of light and shadow devoid of any colour. It was just like the Shadowlands only not as dark and not as threatening. In fact it felt still, mysterious and expecting but just as strange.
There were twelve ghostlike figures before her and she jumped back in alarm. But then they were not frightening, their faces were smiling faintly and they seemed to be looking through her. They were dressed in armour and one had a helmet with a circlet upon it. Their visors were up and immediately she recognised the one with the eye-patch, the one with the circlet.
The Cursed King and his Banished Knights.
She pulled the talisman away from her chest and in a blink the shadowy world was gone. The talisman remained light in her hands now and her mark no longer glowed. She turned the talisman around and noticed at the base there was an inch thick hole as if it fitted on top of something.
‘There is another part to this,’ she traced the hole with her finger and a vision flashed in her mind of the shining white spear. But the vision disappeared as soon as it had come. She tucked the talisman into her blacksmith’s belt, grabbed her lantern, and crawled backwards out of the stifling tunnel. She breathed in the fresh air and stretched her back out with a groan.
Something passed overhead casting a brief shadow upon them. Issa’s skin crawled and she peered up at the sky. The raven was perched on the ground a few paces away also looking up at the sky. Another shadow passed overhead and this time she glimpsed huge dark wings, the shape of a head, the curve of a breast.
‘The harpies have returned,’ Issa said low and deadly to Ehka, who gave a small croak. ‘If they think this land is theirs for taking then they have a fight to the death on their hands.’ The thought of vengeance sang strong and sweet in her veins.
Chapter 53
The Ravens Of Zanufey
AS soon as Issa saw the harpies fly overhead she worried for Asaph and Coronos. A whole brood would be no match for a dragon, but if Asaph was caught unawares in his human form it would be the death of him. She needed to capture their attention.
‘They will not lay a dirty claw on him, on the sacred garden or the Mother’s Chamber, even if it is desecrated and empty,’ she said to Ehka.
She gathered the Flow to her, loving the feel of magic but fearing it a little now she was so weak. She knew she did not have the strength to fight them, but her lust for vengeance was overpowering and there was no way on Maioria she would let them take Asaph.
‘Destruction,’ she breathed.
In the Flow she formed a flickering ball of pale blue lightning twice the size of an orb. Tighter and tighter she made the ball until it was smaller than an egg. She opened her eyes and the dense ball of wildly flickering electric power hummed.
‘Let’s go,’ she said to the raven. He launched into the air. Issa spread her arms wide, willed the raven form to come, and leapt. Her arms grew
long and sprouted feathers. Just before she lost her human vocal cords she shouted, ‘Now!’
The flickering ball fell to the ground, flared and then exploded. The shock waves shoved Issa high into the sky where she joined Ehka. The explosion was brief but the devastation great. The entrance to the Mother’s Chamber was no more as rocks tumbled into the entrance sealing it forever. The sacred bowl cracked and crumbled. The entire cliff side began to crumble away with the deafening noise of falling rock. Only the willow tree and a small patch of grass surrounding it remained, still serene, unharmed by the destructive magic.
Her extravagant idea had the intended effect, the harpies were now cawing loudly in the distance. They began to turn in the sky and head towards her. Issa flew south, a little beyond the destroyed temple to where the cliff rose highest. It was a sandy rocky place where no trees grew and from here she could see the rest of the island stretching out in front and the ragged drop behind to the sparkling blue sea below.
She landed and became her human form once more. Her heart thudded excitedly in her chest and her hands were sweaty. Fighting and killing these harpies would give her release, would drive back the sorrow of loss, would help slake her furious desire for revenge.
Issa closed her eyes, searching for the dark moon. It was out there somewhere but far away. It could not help her. Her hand brushed the raven talisman in her belt. The magic felt the same as that which flowed from the dark moon. Dark and mysterious, soothing and powerful, all at the same time. The power of the Night Goddess, the creative force that can restore the divine order of things. She wondered if the talisman drew its power from the dark moon.
High in the sky black shapes circled, there were many harpies now, too many to count accurately. Even from this distance she could feel their black eyes upon her. Freydel feared even one harpy, how could she face many of them and survive?
She could feel the magical exhaustion as a physical thing, light-headed, ethereal and weak. Freydel had warned her that overusing magic was a great danger and those that did ended becoming the Flow, unable to return to the world as their bodies transmuted into pure magical energy. He was right. Even now when she entered the Flow she felt more real there than she did in the physical world.
Could it really be possible to disappear into the Flow completely? If I do not face the harpies they will torture and kill us all anyway. She laid a hand upon the talisman. If the talisman was like an orb she could use it to use the Flow just as Orb Keepers did. If I don’t stand and fight, who else will? Nearing her the harpies began to scream for her blood.
Wondering if this would be her last battle in her short life as a warrior, Issa closed her eyes and immersed herself in the rush of the Flow, letting all worries of Asaph and Coronos go, forgetting all fears for her own life, even if she lost herself to the Flow. As Grast’anth told her, to even stand a chance of survival depended on her being focused, single-minded, free from doubt and filled with absolute faith. Somewhere, far out there in space, the dark moon moved and though it was far away and its power weak it was not gone from her completely.
Beloved Zanufey. My body is drained, my command of the Flow the weakest it has ever been, but my will is strong and my determination absolute. I will not shy away from those who have murdered my friends and destroyed my home. Vengeance will be mine. But if it is my time to die, I am no longer afraid.
The unspoken words made her feel good, but they weren’t true. She was terrified and her legs trembled and her bladder threatened to empty itself as it always seemed to do before a battle. She gripped the cool surface of the raven talisman. Show me how to use you, she asked it. Just as the Orb of Water had responded to her barely conscious touch when faced with the Maphraxies, the talisman pulsed in her hand and opened to her. At her touch was a vessel of ancient forgotten magic that had lain latent for a long time.
The raven mark upon her chest tingled in response to it. With the raven talisman she had a chance at controlling the Flow once more. The talisman flooded her with power. There came a brief lull in the magical tide, as if she had filled her lungs with air and was ready to exhale.
For a moment she looked out through the Flow and the magical world and the physical world were one. Everything around her including herself was not solid matter but made of light in all colours and hues and moving in all directions. Each colour had a sound tone and the music the magic made was a harmony purer than any music she had ever heard. The magic made her feel that anything and everything was possible.
The raven cawed. She blinked out of the Flow and focused upon him. He flew above trees towards the temple. She spotted Asaph and Coronos running below him, just before the trees gave way into the temple grounds and to where Duskar paced nervously. She glanced up at the harpies. They flew in a thick flock slowly coming closer to her. They were not interested in the raven or the horse and luckily they had not yet spotted the two men. She had to act fast. As soon as they burst through the trees the harpies would see them.
I must get their attention fully upon me. She held her arms wide.
‘Fire. Up,’ Issa said, quietly, firmly, and exhaled as she brought her arms up above her head. She heard the great roaring sound of fire flare upwards towards the harpies as magic flooded from her in a torrent. It was all she could do just to stand upright under its force. The roaring receded and all she could hear was the symphony of the Flow as moved through her.
Above her harpies screamed and their flaming bodies began to fall like rain around her. They rolled and screamed on the floor as their feathers burned. She drew her sword to the closest stinking bird-woman. With a cry she sliced her sword down and ended her horrible squawks. Suddenly the ground shuddered beneath her feet, not a result of her magic. She steadied herself for balance and moved away from the cliff-edge. There came the thunderous sound of cracking rock and a huge shudder sent her to her knees. In the Flow the ground looked like a moving sea of angry purple.
To her right the temple shuddered and shook. Then what remained of the blackened broken building collapsed and sank into the land. A snaking crack a foot wide whipped across the earth from where the temple had stood to disappear into the trees far to her left. Trees marked where the split went as they disappeared into the chasm.
The earthquake came again and the land heaved. The splitting land tore apart another foot and then another until a great chasm snaked in front of Issa, stretching from the temple to her right and all the way into the forest where it was lost from view. There came a strange hissing rushing thundering noise that took her a while to work out what it was. Seawater gushed into the chasm sending steam and dirt up into the air in great billows.
The shaking earth, billowing dust and steam, created enough chaotic confusion to give Issa time to rest and recharge her magic reserves. Her hands that had dug fearfully into the earth now relaxed. The severed land was trembling but each tremor shuddered less than the previous. The desecrated island is trying to destroy itself. She let out a deep breath she hadn’t realised she held. Slowly she got to her feet and held her sword up at the ready. The airborne harpies were swiftly reorganising themselves and searching for her in the settling dust.
‘Slow. Balance,’ she breathed, barely audible but the magic willingly obeyed and sought to calm the shuddering ground. Through half-closed lids she viewed the Flow overlaid upon the physical world. Sea water, bright turquoise in the Flow, white in the physical, surged into the chasm some fifty feet below her. Through the Flow Issa saw that the whole island had been sundered in two and the sea rushed in a great frothing torrent to fill the gap.
The dust cleared. She stared up. ‘I definitely have their attention now,’ she murmured with a small smile and readied herself to face the brood of a hundred screaming harpies.
Ehka squawked as he darted up from behind her and landed beside her feet. The harpies descended upon her in groups of three or more. There were too many to count in total as they flew at her in a fury, screeching their hatred in a strange language
that was halfway between human words and the noise of screaming gulls.
Issa’s sword flickered in the light and she slashed back thick talons that sought to rip and tear her flesh. The raven talisman she gripped in her other hand and it waited patiently for her command. Issa’s sword arm still ached painfully from her battle against the Life Seeker and every time she struck a talon or speared through feathers, pain shot up her arm.
Whenever and wherever he could the raven jumped up to stab and claw with his own beak and talons but against so many his efforts were largely useless and she worried more for his safety than her own.
The harpies wheeled away as one flock and then two came at once, one black feathered, the other brown. Their faces beautiful at first, smooth skin, arched eyebrows, full red lips, flowing feathery hair, but as they neared their eyes shone black and their mouths snarled fangs.
Issa gripped the talisman tightly. As long as she still held it in her hand she knew she could reach for the Flow. Without it she doubted whether she could control the Flow at all now. But how much the talisman could assist her before it too burnt out she did not know. It was a risk she had to take, or die at the hands of these awful bird-women in league with the Maphraxies. Her revenge still burned hot inside her, overriding the logic that told her she was vastly outnumbered. She would fight until her revenge burnt out or she died.
‘Fire. Now!’ she commanded sharply as the harpies neared.
A line of blue fire snaked from the talisman. As soon as it reached the nearest of the two harpies she exploded into blue flames, swiftly followed by her comrade. The flames burned hard and short and in seconds all that remained of them was smoking feathers and lumps of charred flesh falling around Issa. Ehka immediately pecked at the carrion.
‘How can you eat at a time like this?’ Issa asked in disgust but he ignored her.
Issa looked up at her enemies. They did not retaliate immediately and they circled above this strange magic wielding enemy more cautiously, swarming like a plague of locusts as they screamed for her blood in their ear-grating language.