The Dark King, once realizing that his blood was indeed godlike, recognized the need to propagate. So he used his own elite guardsmen, the Bloodguard, to carry out his master plan of engineering himself as close to perfection as possible and then ingraining into his blood a mark that would appear behind the right ear of his descendants so that they could recognize one another and continue his destiny. With the Bloodguard’s help, he started spreading his seed throughout the populace, charging it to them to carry out his mission.
In his devotion to this noble cause, the King had unfortunately ignored the plight of his people, and failed to recognize the building threat of revolt from the enslaved unworthy populace. As his attention was elsewhere, he failed to properly dispense the needed propaganda, and though the nobles were mostly happy to enjoy the free slaves and continue their bickering amongst themselves, using the guise of unworthy to unseat their rivals, there was much unrest. The common people were not carefully enough watched and they rose in a bloody revolt which ended with the death of the great King.
In the official histories, it is told that he was a crazed monarch who caused a Dark Age with much bloodshed, but was soon forgotten. But Nathair knew that not everyone forgot him. The Bloodguard did not forget, and neither did they forget their duty to the mark. Those who survived worked to preserve the information gathered, and in the Wordless Book they secretly tracked the marked individuals to reach the ultimate goal of the perfect specimen. Like most things, over the years this goal was evolved from the perfect specimen, to the perfect specimen for manipulative control. Nathair believed that the Order originally descended from this Bloodguard, eventually over time twisting and convoluting their true purpose to a false goal of breeding those marked for their own use, betraying their knowledge of those marked and ignoring their god's will.
Nathair planned to disabuse them of this notion when he carried out his destiny and became the god himself. He had yet to encounter one truly worthy foe within the Order. For the most part, he held them all in contempt. Even Jezebel, who upon first glance he had thought had perhaps more ambition than most had ended up disappointing him. It had been easy allowing them to think that they manipulated him onto the throne, when in fact he had known all along their plan and used it against them. And now, he would again use them to gain the forgotten knowledge and make himself into the form that his ancient King and God had intended for him.
He stood stark naked in front of the mirror and admired himself. Years of research had paid off, allowing him to sculpt his body into the perfection that it was now.
He stepped closer and frowned. A freckle had appeared on his left shoulder right below where the bone showed. He whisked a robe from the stand beside the mirror and hastily donned it; perhaps he'd go pay his guest a little visit.
*
Layna led Fly carefully across the gravel that lined the edge of the stream, looking for a good place to cross. Though it was into summer and the water was warm, Layna was still wary of the rushing current after her incident on the ice. She shuddered at the memory.
She'd much rather remain as dry as possible, so she picked a sandbar that led much of the way across. She hurried Fly out of the water. Gryffon glanced back at her and gave her a reassuring smile as she came up behind him and Charles.
“How are you feeling today?” she asked him and immediately regretted doing so as she saw the resulting embarrassment under his mask of indifference.
He had been withdrawing as much as she had lately and Layna missed their long talks. She could tell he was in pain, and he was tiring much more quickly than he should. Layna wondered if he had not properly healed from his ordeal, and that perhaps they should be postponing their journey.
Time was not on their side, however. Layna was aware that all three of them felt the ever-increasing urge to reach Treymayne and petition for their help against the growing threat of the King. Even though they had to avoid any towns as a result of Jezebel's spreading tidings of their supposed wrong-doings, there was evidence throughout the countryside of the evil that had taken root on the throne.
“I'm fine,” he answered her shortly.
Layna did not press the matter, and instead changed the subject. “How much farther to the border?”
Gryffon raised a hand to shield his eyes from the harsh afternoon sun, and surveyed the land before them. “Just over those mountains and then across the Great River.” He pointed to the peaks of the mountain range whose tops could be seen above the tree-line. They were currently traveling through the North Woods, which Layna had been extremely wary of given Charles’ accounts of the beasts that lived there, but so far though they had come across a fair amount of wildlife, nothing had been too out of the ordinary. Certainly no worse than the hellhounds that Jezebel had sent after them.
“Just.” Layna repeated, and she was rewarded with a wry smile.
“Well, it’s only a tributary of the Great River, so it’s not nearly as big as the main portion. It’s more the mountain pass we’ll have to be careful on, but even that’s not so bad.”
Their conversation lapsed and Layna's thoughts once again turned to the dark path that they had been prone to following as of late. Nightmares had been plaguing her and she felt as though her eyes were heavy from lack of a good night's sleep. What does it really mean to have the mark? Is it, as the King said, really a sign that I am a descendant of the Dark King? Does that mean that I am destined to follow in his path? She shivered. I could never commit the atrocities that he had though, she scolded herself, but even as she did so a tiny voice inside her countered, but aren't you capable? Why did the mirror hold you so enthralled? And what about the morbid pleasure you derived from seeing Jezebel torn to pieces? She hadn't admitted it to anyone, not even herself at first, but deep down she felt as though the horrible woman had deserved it for all she had done. But doesn't that make me just as bad? And was the King correct that I hold the Dark King’s memories? How else would I have known how to open the door in the tomb? Layna squirmed at the turmoil going through her head and for the hundredth time wished that she had someone to talk to about it.
She jumped in her saddle in surprise as something bumped up against her foot and then laughed as she realized it was Weylyn, the hellhound she had rescued. He was dancing around at her feet, doing acrobatics. His crazy antics always put a smile on her face to watch, and today was no exception. She giggled as he twisted in the air and landed rolling on his back, only to bounce up and look back at her with his tongue lolling.
“Crazy creature you,” she mock scolded him affectionately and he bared his teeth, an expression that had looked fearsome at first until she had realized it was his own unique smile. Gryffon looked back over his shoulder at them and smiled as well and Layna warmed at the shared happiness.
It took days to reach the path over the mountains, a grueling passage through dense undergrowth. When they reached its peak and the trees cleared to reveal the other side of the mountain, Layna found herself awestruck. A shimmering curtain of magic flowed across the landscape, obscuring the horizon beyond it. It extended as far as the eye could see in either direction, and its sheer magnitude dwarfed the foliage surrounding it. Layna was held speechless at the sight.
“Impressive, isn't it?” Layna darted a glance in Gryffon's direction and saw that he was watching her with amusement as she gawked. She realized that her mouth was hanging open and she clamped it shut and nodded mutely. “There are some things that I should warn you about before we actually cross,” Gryffon informed her, and then clicked his tongue to prod Axe into motion to start their descent.
“Oh?”
“Some of the stories about Treymayne aren't as far-fetched as you might think.” At her look of alarm he quickly went on. “We don't really eat babies for breakfast or anything, but some of the wildlife and people really are a bit - stranger - than you might be used to.” He urged Axe ahead to fit through a particularly narrow pass, and paused in his explanation until she was able to pul
l up next to him once more. “You see, while in Gelendan you've been without free reign on magical use for hundreds of years, in Treymayne that hasn't been the case. For a while after the border first went up there was a mad rush of mages who came through seeking protection. They went through a period where they invented all sorts of protections, many of which included magicking plants or animals and there was a huge boom in magic experimentation. Obviously, this caused a lot of problems when you had desperate mages frantically creating new species. A lot of things escaped or got out of hand, and there was a time when there were more magical beasts around than not.”
“Like the hellhounds?”
“Yes and no. There certainly were some like that, but very little blood-magic. After what happened, no one wanted to mess with that. Mostly it was things like cows that were magically trained to report intruders, or vines that re-grew quickly to block your passage. After the new government took hold, they put into place more regulations about the use of magic so that it wouldn't continue to get out of hand. But, as you’ll see there are still some remaining spells even today from that time.”
“So we could be walking along and a cow will start yelling at us to get away?” she asked skeptically.
He laughed. “That kind of thing is definitely few and far between, especially since as I told you the barrier magic disrupted a lot of the greater talent’s powers so they moved off and either brought their spelled creatures with them or left them behind to let the magic wear off. It’s more that here we are simply more aware that it is possible that some of the spells remain in full force so if we do happen to run into something out of the ordinary, we can chalk it up to remnants of past powers.”
“I see.” She glanced over at him and he gave her a quick smile. Her heart skipped a beat as the memory of their kiss floated to the top of her consciousness, unbidden. She had attempted to put it out of her mind since with all the excitement, Gryffon had never mentioned the episode and had made no advance towards her since. Sometimes she wondered if she had imagined it. But there were definitely reasons that it had been forgotten; Gryffon’s pain for instance. Layna was getting more and more worried about the cause of it, and was afraid that his pride was making him hide how serious it actually was. And there’s always my own distractions.
Soon she was forced to pay more attention to her footing than her thoughts as the descent became rather treacherous, and they dismounted to make their slow way downwards.
Eventually they made it safely to the bottom and Layna breathed a sigh of relief, that is, until she caught sight of the river which was now the next obstacle in their path.
She had never before been afraid of water, and in fact had been quite a little swimmer as a child. But now as she looked out over the vast expanse of its murky depths, fear enveloped her. She tried not to let her trepidation show as the three of them trekked towards the river, but her irrational terror would not loosen its icy grip.
They paused on the edge and dismounted, and Charles and Gryffon started tightening saddlebags and removing excess clothing so that they would not be bogged down in the swim across.
Charles jutted out his chin at her in a quick motion. “Feelin’ shy there? We could always turn ‘round for ya.”
It took Layna a moment to realize that Charles had mistaken her hesitation for simple modesty and she shook her head, raising slightly shaking hands to start undoing laces. She stripped down to her undergarments with them and Gryffon showed her how to create a spell for keeping the bags dry as they crossed. Weaving the spell momentarily took her mind off of the inevitable, but not for long enough.
All too soon, the two men were wading into the water, leading their mounts by the reins. Even Fly, who had had the scary experience with her seemed to have forgotten the perils of water and was following the other horses in, dragging Layna unhappily behind him.
Her left foot slipped into the cool water with a small splash. Mud oozed around her bare toes. Her right foot followed. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Nothing to it. Just like crossing the stream, no big deal. Her legs felt heavy and they jerked underneath her as she forced one and then the other into motion. Left, right, left, come on right. Charles and Gryffon were already well ahead of her.
The water was above her knees now, and gaining on her waist - fast. Her breath caught in her throat as she took a step and faltered, slipping on a slimy rock. Her breathing became shallow as the river embraced her whole body and she was finally forced to kick off from the bottom and start to swim.
The shore looked miles away.
The more she swam the farther it got.
Stroke.
Kick.
Stroke.
She gulped in a mouthful as a wave lapped at her face, and her lungs filled with water.
She panicked. She flailed about wildly, splashing and coughing.
“You’re fine,” Gryffon’s voice cut through her fear, and her mad thrashing slowed. She felt his hand take hers, and guide her through the motions so that together they were swimming. Her heartbeat slowed to a more normal pace, and she coughed and sputtered out the last of the water. “Want to try something new I just thought of?” he asked her and she nodded. “Remember how you made the water boil the first time you touched the power?”
She nodded again.
“Well, what if you were to do that again here, except this time you can control it better so that you can heat it up only a small amount and contain the area to the inch or so just around your body. That way we can just be in a nice big hot bathing pool and we’ll be to the other side before you know it.”
Layna turned her attention inward, grateful for this distraction. The great wave of water that her mind had built up in her imagination dwindled and calmed.
She opened herself to the power, and immediately felt more confident. She focused it on the water around her, inching up the temperature bit by bit until she was enveloped by a warm and safe sensation. She had to use some trial and error to figure out how to get it to move with her. Her first attempt had been to be constantly heating the new water that was rushing in as her body moved, but this was draining on the power and created a cold ‘draft’ that she didn’t care for. She eventually altered it so that the layer of water directly touching her was warmed and actually moved with her rather than allowing it to flow freely away as it normally would.
She noticed Gryffon struggling with this alteration and she nudged his magic with her own so that they were both traveling in comfort. Layna sent another spell towards Charles as well, aware that he was unable to provide such a luxury for himself.
Her limbs stopped shaking from the cold and from fear, and her confidence grew. She remembered how well she could swim and was keenly aware of the power available while maintaining an open channel which further convinced her that she was safe. There was no limit to what you could dream up with magic. Perhaps she would invent a spell which allow her to breathe underwater and then she wouldn’t have to ever worry again.
She squeezed Gryffon’s hand. The expression he gave her was filled with affection, and she sent a tendril of happiness over the power line to him. The intimate contact was almost as exciting as their kiss and she broke it quickly before she let too much emotion flow over.
Before she realized it, they were at the other shore and Gryffon helped her to her feet and onto the rocky shore. She held onto his hand for a moment longer than necessary and he didn’t seem to mind. Elation shot through her. But she had to let go so that they could get dressed, so she did so reluctantly and then dried all of their clothes with a thought.
Gryffon and Charles both expressed their gratitude of this deed and Layna was warmed by their praise. She was also sufficiently impressed with her ability to manipulate it so easily.
She broke contact with the power and immediately lost her sense of total confidence, but her happiness remained and she felt as though she would be able to cross back through the river should the need arise without too much trouble
.
They readied themselves for riding once more and mounted, and after Gryffon took a moment to orient them they set out towards where he thought would be a good place to get a message through the border.
They wound through the forest, thick vines and underbrush grew up everywhere and Layna was glad for Gryffon’s excellent tracking ability or she would have been sure that they were horribly lost. As it was, they soon spotted sunshine ahead of them, marking the edge of the trees and as they emerged, the curtain of the border could be seen once more.
Layna was just as impressed, if not more so, by the sight up close. Gryffon led them right up next to it and Layna put out a hand to touch it. She stopped her fingertips inches from the shimmering light.
“Is it safe to touch?” she asked Gryffon, who had dismounted and was giving the barrier an appraising look.
He spared a glance in her direction and gave her a nod, then turned his attention back to the barrier and lifted his hand to his chin in thought.
Layna moved her fingers the last few inches and was surprised when they encountered a soft sponge-like resistance. She wrinkled her nose.
“Hmm,” Gryffon commented next to her.
“Yes?”
“I can’t seem to get a probe through. Usually I can send one pretty easily, basically just a little spell to let them know that I’m here and ready for a report.”
Layna poked at the cushy curtain some more, and watched in fascination as it rippled around her hand, but did not budge from the ground it was attached to. “Can you send anything through?”
Gryffon scrunched his eyebrows together and held up a hand. Layna could see his attempts, and could also see them being repelled. She paused in her entertainment of prodding as an expression of worry crossed over his features.
“So what do we do now?” she asked.
Those Who Fear the Darkness (BloodRunes: Book 2) Page 2