Why Lord? Why tonight did you lose a kid and send his distraught parents to my door? It was likely the most uncharitable thought he’d had today, but that’s what penance was for.
Jerlo wrote a check to the Sisters of Charity for the usual sum, signed and dated it then put the matter out of mind. He’d send it out in tomorrow’s post. Penance finished, he picked up the form he’d been trying to fudge. Hiding Rangers on paper was preferable to respecting the quota and leaving Mount Eredren undefended. So he got back to it.
Maybe he’d finish before the next problem knocked on his door. Or maybe not judging by the heavy footfalls headed this way. Why me?
A clock ticked on the end table. Its claws edged closer to the twenty-first hour. Maybe that's Nolo or the Kid. Sarn tends to forget where he's supposed to be at least three out of every seven days.
The Pain of Tardiness
I’m late. I’m late. Those two words were on a constant repeat in Sarn’s head. And every second past the hour he didn’t appear before his master stabbed a needle into his psyche.
A tear escaped his iron control and traced the thin scar on the left side of his face as the promise drove a nail through his eye. For a moment there was nothing but the pain. It was a solid rod of agony widening as he swayed and somehow gained his feet without falling.
“What's hurting you?” Ran asked.
“The promise,” Sarn replied, and that caused the pain to spike. He clenched his teeth to keep from screaming so he didn’t frighten his son any more than he already had.
“But why does it hurt you? You always keep your promises.”
“Because I'm late. It’ll keep hurting me until I fulfill my obligation—”
Sarn stopped as the pain crested again. The promise stabbed him through the heart this time, but he couldn’t breathe until he took that next step. Only then did the pain relent just enough so he didn’t pass out.
“Which ob-li-ga-tion? J.C. is down there. We promised to help him too.” Ran pointed toward the echoes of Jersten’s voice.
He was another problem since he’d seen Ran. But not one I can resolve right now. I’ll buy Jersten’s silence later. I can't do it now. I don’t have a choice in the matter.
“That’s true, I did promise to help him, but there’s another promise that supersedes that one.”
“The one you remind Uncle Miren about every time he skips school?”
“Yeah, I guess that explains why he's always angry with me. It can’t be easy having me constantly rub his face in it.”
Ran just shrugged. “So we can’t help J.C. until you fulfill that other promise?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
‘That other promise' stabbed Sarn in the eye when he slowed on the next landing. He needed a rest. Sleep was a distant memory, but he couldn’t stop now. Not until I find some way to defeat or contain the Ægeldar and the black lumir crystal’s magic-nullifying effect.
But he couldn’t even make a start on either problem until the promise let go of him. Its hooks were sunk deep into his flesh, and they dragged him up the stairs. How could the promise strengthen with my magic locked away? It didn't make sense. But it was true. There’s more to this ‘Question’ thing than the Adversary had said. And there hadn’t been time for J.C. to explain it beyond the basics.
The staircase seemed endless. It was a dizzying spiral corkscrewing through the mountain, and it touched every level including the one Sarn needed, which was still a few more landings away. Why the Litherians had opted for forty-feet between levels no one knew, but Sarn cursed them all the same. It was their fault he had to climb two hundred and fifty narrow steps. Nor did the pain recede as the number of steps to his goal dwindled. It wouldn’t until he met his master. How will I find him without magic?
“What does the promise make you do?”
“Go to work.”
Ran gave him an uncomprehending look. “What’s that mean? You say that word all the time, but you never explain what that ‘work’ thing is.”
“Because it varies every night. I do whatever they tell me to do.”
As Sarn trudged onward, part of him wanted to go to work and do something normal after all the weirdness he'd faced. Because the Rangers were the closest thing he had to ‘normal,’ and that was a scary thought.
“The Rangers?”
“Yes.”
Serving them night after night had become a thread of sanity in his life, and he needed them as much as he needed to make the pain stop. Because he was in over his head—way over—so far over he couldn’t see a way out that didn’t end in a lot of deaths. But there must be because I can’t accept that. I won’t.
“It’s okay Papa. You can go. I want to go to work with you,” Ran said, liking the idea more and more. “I want to see what you do and meet these Rangers. They sound like good people, and I like good people.”
As Ran smiled at a plan that could never come to fruition, a voice screamed a negation inside Sarn’s head: No. No, no, if they see you, they’ll take you away. I can’t lose you. You are my light, my heart, my hope. Sarn hugged his son close. Who could he leave his son with?
Not Miren because he had no idea where his brother was. Not the Foundlings either because the Lower Quarters was teeming with monsters. Nor would the promise let him veer from his intended path, and that path curved upward. There was no one left.
Shadows shifted all around them as if they were coming to life. Or someone was searching for them. And the Adversary’s mark was on the move. While he was with J.C., they'd receded, but he felt them crawling up his neck again. They already covered his left arm and part of his chest, but not the hand supporting his son, nor his right shoulder where Ran's head rested. In fact, those marks stayed away from his son. Maybe Ran had some magic after all, or love did. Perhaps that was the one thing the Adversary couldn't taint or twist.
Before Sarn could move, pain socked him in the gut and he folded. Something touched the back of his neck making the hairs there rise as two promises squared off in his mind. One pulled him down, but the other pushed him to take that next step.
I must go back, but I also must go forward. I can’t do both. I'm damned if I go and damned if I stay. Either way, my son’s damned with me. I must find a way to change that. But first, he had to escape this stairwell in one piece.
The dilemma dialed the pain up a notch as those two promises fought for control. As their war continued, shadows rose in a black spiral, trapping Sarn. His vision darkened, and the cold hand of the Adversary reached through his mark and dug its claws into Sarn.
“Come, sinners, darkness rises. Do what your desires advise! I recommend you comply. Come, sinners, our time is nigh,” the Adversary said.
No! Leave me alone. Sarn screamed inside his mind, but the Adversary just laughed.
Queens and Bears, Oh My!
[Somewhere underground near Mount Eredren]
“Why’d we stop,” Bear asked mind-to-mind. “This isn’t Mount Eredren.”
“No, it’s not. I think Gaia’s transportation spell swerved too close to the black lumir crystal and, well, that evil stone's eating it, which leaves me with a problem,” Shayari sent back.
Because the shortest distance between two points was a straight line, Gaia had yanked Shayari underground rather than allow her to travel overland. I wish I’d fought her. But she hadn’t because she'd been so stunned by Gaia’s sudden appearance and interest. The resurgence of those black lumir crystals must have awoken the earth spirit.
Not since the Crystal Wars had such a pure specimen found its way into Mortal hands. Which didn't explain how Aralore had gotten her hands on it. We need more eyes inside Mount Eredren from among the lower-class women who live there. That blasted mountain is sitting on a cache of black lumir crystals that must stay buried forever. But she couldn't do anything about that until she got out from under the earth that encased her.
Her lungs begged for air and the edges of her sight were dimming. There wasn’t much to
see so that was no great loss, but she also couldn’t move. The earth pressed down on her with tremendous pressure, and it kept increasing as Gaia's spell waned. If she didn’t get out of there, she'd die. But she needed to move to cast a rune.
“Right, you still need to breathe.”
“Yes.”
“Can’t you shift the earth out of your way? The Queen of All Trees said you have some Litherian blood.”
Bear, being a spirit, could float through the earth. Though Shayari couldn't confirm that since she’d closed her eyes to keep the dirt out.
“Sort of. I’m a product of a breeding experiment. I have bits of every magical race but not enough to do anything useful. Hence my reliance on runes.” Shayari sent back, though she was stretching the truth a bit. Chalk that up to suffocation.
There were two things she could do but not on this plane of existence. Though that wouldn’t be a problem for long. Her consciousness was already slipping free of its bonds. Or was that tingly feeling her body phasing out of this plane? Where will I end up if I blackout?
Probably the gray between if I’m lucky, and that won’t help anyone except the Adversary who likely set watchers there to grab me the instant I arrive. I really hate that guy.
“Don’t let me blackout.”
“How am I supposed to prevent that?”
“You’re a resourceful bear. Figure something out.”
The bits of her that were Litherian strained to connect to the earth, but there wasn’t enough, so the connection fizzled out. There went her only exit that didn't involve dying. In any other battle, she could accept death but not entombed like this. This is not how a Queen of Shayari dies.
She rallied against her fate even though she was powerless to change it. Bit by bit, she was slipping away. Only her superhuman strength and reinforced bones kept her organs from being squished flat, but they were buckling along with Gaia’s spell. A few bones had already snapped but asphyxiation pushed out the pain, making her feel strangely light as if she was floating.
“Help me.”
“How exactly am I supposed to do that? I’m a spirit guide not a healer,” Bear said as everything faded to black.
“Shayari?” Bear sent to the inert body he could neither see nor sense anymore.
“Bear?” Ran called, but his shout was a whisper when it reached him.
What trouble is that sweet child in now? Bear reached out, but his spectral paw passed through everything he touched until a root snagged him. Then he was flying away from the child calling for him toward an uncertain fate.
Well, no one promised me a peaceful afterlife. So he went with it. After all, there wasn’t much he could do while ensnared by a psychopomp’s spell. Though said spell did jink to avoid the black lumir crystal’s magic-stealing touch. Thank you for that, my Queen.
On a brow of a hill, the much-reduced Queen of All Trees stood cloaked in invisibility while her roots lashed at the air around her. An invisible force held her back.
“Do not let the abomination cross the standing stones while uncovered,” she’d said to that sneering priestess less than a day ago.
In her hands, a white box had coalesced. She’d held it out to Aralore.
“Take it. Put that vile rock inside it. Break the other spells upon my land if you must but leave the circles intact. Leave this place as the refuge it has always been. Do this one thing, and I will not interfere.”
At the time, she’d meant the twin rings of menhirs surrounding Mount Eredren, but she hadn’t said that. I forgot how many refuges and circles make up my land. Now the Queen of All Trees was bound to a promise that confined her to this spot and damned her forest and her people until Aralore broke that promise. Which she won’t because a promise sworn to an entity like me is binding until death. It won’t let her break it.
Nor did Aralore even need to get close to Mount Eredren to break those circles, not if that damned crystal kept expanding. At the rate it was going, it could affect Mount Eredren in another twelve hours give or take. Then the containment field she’d woven into the box would fail because that stone would have grown beyond its ability to counter it fully.
The Queen of All Trees tried again to move toward that priestess and her doomed acolytes, but her word was an invisible wall barring her way. Normally, reducing her awesome stature required her to shift the bulk of her power elsewhere, so she didn't need a thousand-foot-tall silver tree to house it. But the black lumir crystal had nullified some of her power. The closer that gem came, the more it affected her.
The Queen of All Trees flinched as another one of her children broadcast his pain to her. Before the link disintegrated, a black beam shot out of that horrible crystal. It stripped him of his enchantments and reduced him to a gray husk rapidly dissolving into dust.
He’d stood for thousands of years. Now, he was dead. The wind was already scattering his ashes and all he'd seen to the four corners of Shayari. That was the pact she’d made. When her children fell, they would not be forgotten. Their essence would seed a new Shayari. But his soul lingered, held here by a debt of blood and honor.
A long, long time ago, he’d turned on the refugees who’d founded this country. He was supposed to protect them, but he’d slaughtered them in a senseless war. Since then, he’d guarded this land and the descendants of his victims. But his penance was over now, so she gathered his soul in, and he passed through her heart-wood to the Gray Between Life and Death.
Farewell, my child, you’ve earned your freedom. Your debt to me, my land and my people is repaid. Go now. Rest in the arms of the One King who made all.
Another tree fell sliced in half along with its sisters and brothers as the platform the seekers carried tilted. It was finally affecting its doomed bearers. Nothing could stay long within a black lumir crystal's event horizon. It was a void pulling everything into it—even the life force of the fools carrying it.
A psychic cry of anguish slammed into her. It hadn’t come from the Seekers. Then who called me? An image of that young man with luminous green eyes flashed through the Queen of All Trees' mind, but she couldn’t see Sarn from here, not while he was inside the twin rings of menhirs between her and Mount Eredren. Did I call him in time or did the Adversary get him?
No, the Queen of All Trees shook her crown. Sarn was too well-hidden. The Adversary could call all he liked. Sarn would never fall to him. His heart was too good for that canker to corrupt.
From the outside, Mount Eredren looked the same as it always did. The Queen of All Trees tried to go there, but the promise stopped her because Aralore headed that way. And I promised I wouldn’t stop her. So I can’t go anywhere she might go. Next time, I’ll word my promises to leave me an out.
Shayari had found one. Where is Shayari, my sister-Queen? She went after Aralore hours ago and should have reached her by now. But there was no sign of that determined immortal.
That cry came again, softer this time. Shayari? Are you in danger? The Queen of All Trees scanned for the source of that distress call. It had come from underground where her roots drank deep of the world’s power and its beliefs. Whose side are you on Gaia?
The Queen of All Trees extended her branches both physically and on the spiritual plane until she snagged a fuzzy paw. She pulled. A translucent bear popped out of the ground looking none the worse for wear since his fur was illusory.
“Thank you, my Queen.” He turned his head as he searched for something. “Where’s Shayari?”
“She exercised a loophole and went after Aralore and—”
Something had happened after that. The Queen of All Trees swayed, and a luminous liquid wept from the cracks in her bark.
The long years of her life blurred together as the past and the present mixed in her mind. She forgot her Guardians were centuries' dead and reached for them through their crystal swords. One sword answered her call, but it was weak—no—shattered. Yes, the blade called 'Legacy' was still in the world, but it was broken into one hundred-and-forty
-four pieces. Several of those pieces were just a few miles away at Mount Eredren.
No, I must not call them to me. It's not time yet, nor can I reforge that sword until the curse upon it is broken. And the only curse breaker she knew hadn't come into his full power yet. The Queen of All Trees shook her silver crown and composed herself.
“My Queen, are you—?”
Bear let his question hang between them. His transparent paw hovered a few inches from her scarred and bleeding bark, but he didn’t touch her. She straightened her trunk.
“You were saying?”
“Yes, Gaia sent her—your sister-Queen—to Mount Eredren to stop the Adversary, but we never made it. We swerved too close to Aralore’s chunk of black lumir, and Gaia’s transportation spell failed leaving us stranded under tons of dirt. I’d like never to repeat that crushing experience.”
“Is Shayari still under there?”
The Queen of All Trees scanned again, and the cracks in her silver bark widened when her mental eye passed within the black lumir crystal’s sphere of influence. That damned rock was between her and Mount Eredren.
Bear waved his paws in a frantic negation. “Stop, please, stop. Shayari—the land and its people—need you. You’re the personification of their hopes and dreams. You represent Shayari’s glory days when money wasn’t king, and honor meant something.” Bear swept a paw out indicating the dark smudge of Mount Eredren four miles’ distant. “They can’t lose you. You’re the heart of this realm, and they know it.”
The Queen of All Trees retracted her probe because the spirit guide was right. She inclined her crown to acknowledge that.
“Answer me this. Is Shayari—my sister-Queen—still in Gaia’s grasp?”
Bear shook his head. “No, she vanished not long after the spell broke.”
Curse Breaker: Sundered Page 7