Altered Intentions

by G David Walker

  Baruun placed his hand on Tarn’s shoulder. “Tarn, these men come with news of Kelsu.” Tarn’s gaze locked onto the two Loremasters as Baruun continued. “This is Tal Vardyn, the High One of the Circle, and this is Emerald Loremaster Reyga Falerian.” Tal and Reyga nodded to Tarn as they were introduced.

  Tarn looked at Reyga. “You are the one my daughter names ch’tasa. I remember you. Be welcome.” Although his words were courteous, Tal thought his expression suggested he would rather not be speaking to them. Tarn turned to him, nodding his head in cautious greeting. “What news of my son?” Before Tal could answer, Tarn held up a hand. “Wait. Let me get my wife and daughter.” He walked outside and they could hear him calling to the rest of his family.

  A few moments later, he returned, accompanied by a woman and a girl who appeared to be a little younger than Lenai.

  “This is my wife, Chentra, and my youngest daughter, Tila.” Tal and Reyga nodded greetings as Tarn introduced them. “This is the High One of the Circle. Lenai’s ch’tasa you already know. They bring news of Kelsu,” Tarn told them. Tal saw a mixture of excitement and worry in their eyes as they turned to him. He looked at Baruun, who nodded.

  Tal hesitated, trying to find some way to tell them that might soften the blow. Try as he might, nothing he could think of would make telling them their son had betrayed their daughter any easier to hear.

  “I wish I had better news for you,” he began.

  “Kelsu is dead,” Tarn said. Tal saw tears welling up in Chentra’s eyes.

  “No,” he told them. “Kelsu is not dead.” His heart sank as he saw the hope spring back into their eyes. It would have been less cruel if Kelsu had been killed.

  “Were you able to rescue him? Where is he? When can we see him?” The questions poured from their lips. He looked at Baruun. The Shanthi leader’s expression told him that he understood the news to come would not be good. He took a deep breath, and felt Reyga’s hand grip his shoulder in support.

  “This is not easy for me to tell you,” he said, and it was as if curtains had fallen across their eyes. “Kelsu is apparently in league with the Shadow Lord.” Chentra’s hand went to her mouth. Tarn’s expression was unreadable, but his eyes looked like chips of ice. Tal plunged on, suddenly wanting to get it out in the open and over with. “In his service to Regor, he betrayed Lenai. The Shadow Lord now holds her.”

  “Lies!” Tarn shouted. He ignored Baruun’s warning. “Kelsu would never do such a thing! He loves his sister and his people. I do not believe you.”

  “He speaks truth,” Vashni said. “I was there. I grew up with Kelsu and considered him a friend, but I witnessed his treachery myself.” She swallowed heavily and added, “Naruk and Sura are dead because of Kelsu’s deception. In fact,” she turned to Baruun, “he was here, in disguise as Dokru through the Altered’s power. That is how he delivered us into the Shadow Lord’s hands.” She turned back to Kelsu’s family. “He is not the same as you remember him. He has become rishna kel.”

  “Leave my home,” Tarn’s voice turned cold and deadly. “I will not have anyone speaking such things about my son.”

  “Tarn—”

  “No! Forgive me, Baruun, but I will not allow these humans to say such things about Kelsu. And who knows what they may have done to Vashni for her to go along with them?”

  “They have done nothing do me,” Vashni said. “It happened as I said. I saw it.”

  “Then you are deceived. Now, leave…my…home.”

  Baruun started to speak, but Tal held up a hand. “We will go,” he said. He looked at Tarn. “I am sorry. Truly. We will do what we can to bring Lenai back to you.”

  Tarn did not answer, so the four of them turned and walked back outside.

  “Perhaps I should have heard this first after all,” Baruun said. “But it has ever been our way not to keep anything from family members.”

  “As difficult as it was to deliver such news,” Tal said, as they walked back toward the clearing, “I am certain it was more difficult to hear it, especially about one of your own children.”

  “Perhaps if we can rescue Lenai, that will soften the news about Kelsu,” Reyga said.

  “Indeed,” Baruun agreed. “What can we do to aid you?”

  Before Tal could answer, he heard Reyga groan. He turned in time to see the older man stumble, reaching out to him for support. Tal grabbed Reyga’s arm, while Baruun, reacting quickly, seized the other. Reyga hung heavily in their grasp, one hand clutching his head.

  “Reyga! What is wrong?” Tal wondered again what had happened at Lore’s Haven to cause Reyga’s loss of memory.

  Reyga looked up at him briefly, and then bowed his head again. Then he took a deep breath and, with a quick shake of his head, managed to stand on his own.

  “I apologize, High One, Baruun,” he said. “I was suddenly very dizzy. I do not know why.”

  Tal did not answer. His thoughts were filled by what he had just seen. When Reyga had looked up the first time, for a fleeting instant his eyes had been completely black.

  *****

  Compared to the others, Jason thought Darnoc’s keep was relatively modest. That is, once you overlooked the fact that it sat in the middle of a blazing lake of fire. The castle itself was smaller than either of the other Altereds’ palaces, made of unremarkable beige marble. The daunting feature of his home was the ten-foot tall flames surrounding it on all sides.

  Seryn told him they had spent the evening in a cottage Nyala had created in a secluded location. Although it had only felt like a few moments, Jason’s time in the darkness with Regor had apparently lasted all night. The rest had allowed Seryn to recover somewhat, and with Regor’s influence removed, even if only temporarily, she had been able to heal most of his injuries. Although she still appeared drained, she insisted she was able to go on.

  After he had relayed his experience with Regor in the link with Lenai, they had gone to confront him and hopefully rescue Lenai. He hadn’t been at Lore’s Haven, although Nyala had blasted a couple of dark-robed saiken who thought to hold them. At her rather firm suggestion, they decided to move on to Darnoc and come back to the Haven afterwards. Now, they stood looking at Darnoc’s castle from the top of a small hill.

  “How do we get in there?” Jason asked.

  “It’s mostly illusion,” Nyala answered. “There is a way through.”

  It didn’t feel like an illusion to Jason. Although they were at least seventy yards away, he could already feel the heat crawling over his skin. If it got hotter the closer they got, he didn’t see how they could possibly go through it without using their power.

  “Come,” Nyala said. He and Seryn fell in behind as she walked toward the wall of flames. Thoughts of Lenai filled his mind. What had Regor done to her to access the bond as he had? He hadn’t felt anything else from her since the burst of fear yesterday. What was Regor doing to her? Where was she?

  The rising heat pushed his concerns aside as they approached the blazing wall. The arid breeze caused by the conflagration rustled their clothes and hair. They were thirty yards away, and the heat continued to intensify, to the point where it was almost painful. Nyala didn’t show any signs of slowing down as she marched toward the flames. Just as he was about to say they needed to stop, the temperature dropped noticeably.

  Nyala turned to them. “See? I told y—” A blast of fire from the inferno slammed into her, sending her flying.

  Before Jason could react, the flame-covered figure of Darnoc stood in front of him. The Altered grabbed Jason’s head with burning hands, and flames filled Jason’s mind. He tried to call up his power, but scorching pain broke his concentration. He tried again, and another blast of pain stopped him. Without any transition, they were surrounded by flames. Jason didn’t know if they were in the middle of the blaze surrounding Darnoc’s castle, or if this was a place like where Nyala took him, a place outside normal reality that Jason had started calling Altered space.

  “I know what yo
u are doing,” Darnoc’s voice wove its way through the inferno raging in Jason’s thoughts. “I saw what you did to Ekim. Where is Haras?”

  Jason struggled to summon his dimsai, but each effort was met with a wave of pain, disrupting his focus.

  “Do not try to use your power. I will not allow it. Now, where is Haras?”

  Jason hoped Nyala was okay and that she could save him from Darnoc. Maybe if he answered Darnoc’s questions, he could buy some time.

  “She was the first one we tried,” he said into the fire. “She didn’t survive. It was an accident.”

  “An accident. Is that what you call it?”

  “I promise! We didn’t want to kill her, but Seryn didn’t know how to heal her in time. She was able to keep Ekim alive. Why would she do that if we only wanted them dead?”

  “I don’t believe it was an accident.” Darnoc released Jason and stepped back. “I believe it was a kindness.”

  What? Jason touched his face gingerly, expecting to feel blistered skin from Darnoc’s hold. Instead, only smooth skin met his touch. What was going on here? A kindness? What did Darnoc mean? They were still surrounded by flame, but Jason didn’t feel the intense heat he would have expected. They must be in Darnoc’s Altered space. He tried to call up his power, but once again, a sudden, intense burning pain stopped him.

  “I will not let you use your power,” Darnoc said. “Not yet at least.”

  “Why are we here? What are you going to do?”

  “You are being deceived, young man. But, as the deception serves a useful purpose, I will allow it to continue. I believe it will be revealed shortly.”

  “So why tell me about it now?”

  “So that you can be aware of it. And be prepared when you realize what it is.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “Only what you are already prepared to give. Nothing more. Instead, I have given you something. A gift, so to speak. Something you will need fairly soon, I think.”

  “Which is?”

  “If I tell you what it is, the deception will also be revealed. You will have to discover my gift at the proper time.”

  “Jeez, you people sure love to be cryptic, don’t you?”

  Darnoc chuckled a little. “It is the nature of the Altered.”

  “So you know why we’re here?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you’re okay with it?”

  “I am tired, young man. The seven of us…well, six now…have changed. We are not who we once were, and it saddens me to see what we have become.”

  “So, why don’t you help us?”

  Darnoc shook his head. “No. Although I believe what you are doing is right, even if for the wrong reasons, they were my friends once. I will not fight them.”

  “The wrong reasons? What do you mean?”

  “You will have that answer soon enough. Now it is time to return. Do what you came to do.”

  Then they were back outside Darnoc’s castle. The blazing figure stood thirty yards away from him and Seryn, with his arms at his side. The flames surrounding the castle were gone, and the castle itself was collapsing to rubble. Nyala appeared beside them, shining in her Altered guise.

  “Hello, my dear,” Darnoc said. “I was wondering when you would come. You look…different.”

  “Darnoc, what are you up to? What did you do to Jason?”

  “Nothing at all. As you can see, he is perfectly fine.”

  She turned to him. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’m okay.”

  “Do what you came to do,” Darnoc said. “I will not oppose you.”

  “I’ll ask again. What are you up to, Darnoc?”

  “Always the suspicious one,” he said with a dramatic sigh. “Perhaps this will encourage you.” Then he threw a blazing ball of power at them. A sparkling shield sprang up between them and caught the blast as Nyala reacted.

  “Jason!”

  Jason grabbed her shoulder and drove his dimsai through the connection.

  Nyala sent her power streaking toward Darnoc, wrapping the flaming figure in a brilliant cocoon. She laid her free hand on Seryn. “Now.”

  “Farewell, my love,” Darnoc said. “I wish I could say this will end well for you, but I fear it will not.” Then he disappeared behind a sparkling wall as Nyala intensified her power.

  A few minutes later, the man that was Darnoc lay on the ground. Thin, without being skinny, he looked to be just past middle aged, with a few streaks of gray starting to show in his dark hair. Even unconscious, Jason thought he looked rather dignified. Nyala resumed her human disguise and turned to him.

  “What did he do to you? What did he say?”

  “He didn’t do anything to me.” He didn’t mention the part about Darnoc giving him something. A little voice in the back of his mind told him to keep that part to himself. He wasn’t sure why, but he wasn’t comfortable revealing it. “He said I was being deceived. What do you think he meant by that?”

  Nyala’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Darnoc’s prone figure. “He was trying to confuse you, that’s all.”

  “Why did he call you his love?”

  Her lips pressed tightly together and she looked away for a moment. At last she said, “He was in love with me. He wanted me to leave my husband for him. Airam was his wife. He told me he would leave her for me if I would leave my husband…Regor.”

  “Regor’s your husband? Seriously?”

  She nodded. “He was much different before we were changed.”

  “Geez, I’d hope so,” Jason said. “So did Airam know about Darnoc’s feelings for you?”

  “I’m sure she suspected, but she never said anything, at least not to me.”

  “What about Regor?”

  “I don’t know if he knew or not.”

  “And you guys still hung out together? You said you were all on a picnic when the war broke out.”

  “Darnoc told me how he felt a couple of years before that. I told him I loved my husband and considered him a good friend.”

  “Ouch. The old ‘I just want to be friends’ thing. How’d that work out over the last fifteen centuries?”

  “It was never brought up again. At the time I thought it was behind us. Apparently I was wrong.”

  Jason wondered if that was another part of why there were tensions among the Altered for all that time. A lover’s triangle and a co-worker’s jealousy, not to mention Haras and Ekim’s child.

  “He knew about Haras and Ekim,” he said.

  “If he knew, then there’s a good possibility the others know as well. We need to hurry.”

  “We need to find Regor,” Jason said. “Besides what he can do to me through the bond, we have to rescue Lenai.”

  “Yes, Regor must be next,” Nyala answered, “but he is probably the strongest among us. We will need to be at our strongest as well. As much as I would like to deal with him today, I believe you should both rest. Tomorrow, we will go see Regor.” She looked at each of them in turn. “Be ready for a fight.”

  He gave her a look. “Are you ready? This is your husband, after all.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll do what needs to be done.”

  Jason hoped that was true, but kept his doubt to himself.

  *****

  As the sun began sinking toward the horizon, the Loremasters moved into position along the edge of the chasm, using their power to repel any of the scavengers that came too near. They would wait until it was fully dark and the Grithor began emerging from their caverns. Then they would make them think they were under attack. The hope was that this would draw most of the Grithor out of the warren. Then, led by Vashni, the two Shanthi that had returned with them would enter the tunnels and retrieve Lenai.

  As he waited for sunset, Reyga’s thoughts turned back to his time in Lore’s Haven. The loss of memory was troubling. He went over the moments in his quarters over and over again.

  He had stepped through the portal into his room. It had been almo
st pitch black other than the dim light seeping around the edges of the door and moonlight falling through the window. After listening carefully at the door, he created a small orb of light to find the papers. They were still where he had left them, although a couple of the sheets were on the floor, perhaps blown there by a breeze through the window. Or it was equally possible that someone had been in his room and either had not seen the papers, or had not looked at them closely enough to realize their importance.

  He retrieved the papers from the floor, and turned away from the table, intending to create a portal back to the camp. Then he was looking at the ceiling of his quarters with the morning sunlight filling the room.

  Everything in between was a very disturbing blank.

  “It is almost time,” Brin said. The High One was still at the camp, having decided his lack of power made him too much of a liability on such a mission. The remaining Loremasters, along with their apprentices, were spaced along the edge. They would throw bolts of power into the chasm and then create portals to other spots around the edge that they had scouted out earlier and send more power streaking into the depths. This would give the Grithor the impression that all of the Loremasters, and perhaps more, were attacking them from all sides. Their intent was not to do damage to the Grithor, but to draw them out of their caverns, giving the Shanthi a greater opportunity to find and free Lenai.

  The shadows were deepening down below; it was becoming difficult to make out the shapes of the rocks and boulders littering the floor of the chasm. Having Jason here with his ability to see dimsai auras would have been very helpful at the moment, but no one knew where he had gone. I hope he is well. Reyga knew Jason had the power to protect himself from most threats, but when some of those threats were Altered, he could not keep the worry at bay.

  He looked up as the last bit of the sun dipped below the horizon, shrouding the Plains in shadow. As his eyes adjusted to the lower level of light, it made it easier to see into the abyss. He could just make out stocky figures emerging from the opening, fanning out across the floor of the pit. It would not be much longer.