by W. C. Conner
Seeing Gregory as he crawled painfully away from her, she lifted her finger and watched with idle pleasure as the leash and collar dragged him to his feet. With a thought from her, Gregory shambled toward the door, back to his prison cell where, at the least, he would not be tormented by the sight and tortures of his beloved Styxis.
28
Caron sat between her husband and her father as they tried to get a sense from her when Wil would be ready to confront the demoness.
“The longer we sit here idly watching that fortress,” Gleneagle said, “the larger grows the crowd of my subjects behind us. At what point does Wil intend to challenge Styxis?”
The talisman lay across Caron’s lap with her hands resting lightly on it. Did you hear the question? she sent.
Let us try having them touch the talisman as the others did before so you won’t have to repeat all that I say, Wil returned.
“Wil wants you both to touch the talisman so that you can converse directly with him,” she told them.
Roland looked a bit uncomfortable, having done it once before and finding the experience a bit unnerving. As the two of them touched the living talisman they both suppressed a shiver of discomfort at its warmth. Once the contact was made, Wil proceeded. The time will be of her choosing, not mine.
A look of wonder crossed Gleneagle’s face. He had not previously experienced the direct intrusion of thoughts into his mind in this manner as had Roland. At the same time, Wil’s words caused his brows to draw together in concern for he did not like his enemies to choose either the moment or place of battle.
The demoness works to draw power to herself, Wil continued, but as she does, she is blind to the corruption to her power from those she has sought to ensorcel. When she has convinced herself that she is ready to face me through Caron, she will emerge. Make no mistake, Highness, she will be a formidable power and very dangerous, but her focus will be too narrow to see alternatives to the outcome she wishes. That will be what we must exploit.
Why can’t you attack her in the fortress? Gleneagle asked.
She is too powerful to attack from a distance. We will have to do this face to face. Caron must be able to see into her eyes or we will not prevail.
At the feeling of concern from Caron, Wil added, Don’t worry, Caron. When the time comes to confront this demon, you will be as confident in our strength as I am.
Roland looked up and caught Caron’s eye. His smile of support helped reassure her and she felt her shoulders relax slightly. Smiling back at her husband, she sent her thought to Wil. I am confident in your strength. I am not as certain of mine.
Roland put one of his hands over hers. “We are as certain of you as we are of Wil, Caron.”
She looked down at their hands, feeling the love and strength passing to her from all three of the men tied to her by the talisman and bowed her head in humility. I will try, was all she could manage.
As they sat thus, Geoffrey pulled back the flap of the tent in which they sat and cleared his throat to get their attention. At a nod from Gleneagle, he spoke. “I am truly sorry to interrupt, Highness, but there is someone here who would like a moment with you.”
“Who is it, Geoffrey?” Gleneagle asked.
Without raising her head, Caron answered his question. “It is Eldred, father. He is accompanied by ten other wizards from Wisdom, one of whom is but a boy who has remarkable potentials, notwithstanding his youth. And my dear Angela is with them.” With that, she stood, breaking the bond among the four of them.
At a word from Gleneagle, Geoffrey stood aside and Eldred ducked through the opening accompanied by Allen. Eldred bowed deeply while Allen dropped to one knee and remained thus with his head bowed.
“Well met, Eldred,” the Prince said. “We are pleased to see you once again.” Looking to the young man who remained on one knee he continued, “You bring a new and very young wizard with you.”
“Highness, I am pleased to present our newest young healer, Allen,” the older wizard said. “He is a true prodigy whose remarkable potential as a healer was discovered shortly after the princess and Roland left Wisdom when he healed Angela after she was attacked in the madness sent by Styxis.”
“Angela?” Caron exclaimed. “Was she badly hurt?”
“She was badly disfigured, but Allen restored her completely. I’ve only seen one other with more power as a healer.”
“Wil,” Caron said quietly.
“Aye, Highness,” Eldred answered. He looked uncomfortable as he added, “It was Albrecht that attacked her. In his anguish at his deed, he killed himself.”
There was a long moment of silence before Caron stood and excused herself. “I must go see my Angela,” she said.
As the tent flap closed behind her, Gleneagle turned back to the two wizards. “Kemp arrived back here just four days ago with the people of Gleneagle at his side. They are camped with the barbarians behind us. They told of a similar madness that attacked them and drove them here.”
“The same happened in Wisdom, Highness,” Eldred responded. “We followed along and conspired to release them from the compulsions upon them. Our scholar, Thomas, recognized thread spells. These were tenuous enough that we were able to snap the threads at a distance through the combining of our powers much as we did right here four years ago. The folk of Wisdom have returned to their homes.”
Gleneagle at last became aware that he had left the young wizard kneeling on one knee before him. “Arise, young wizard,” he said. “Forgive me for leaving you thus, and please accept our thanks for your work healing Caron’s maid.” Allen rose easily to his feet and inclined his head in acknowledgment of his Prince’s thanks. “I am here to offer my service to you in the coming confrontation. I have had a presentiment I will be needed,” Allen said. The faces of both Eldred and Gleneagle registered surprise.
“You said nothing of this before, Allen,” Eldred said.
As Allen responded, his eyes flicked briefly to Geoffrey then back to Gleneagle. “I was not certain of it until just now when I met the Prince, Eldred.”
29
The day had dawned fair and bright with a spectacular sunrise of pinks and oranges. Colors had returned to the land with the arrival of the light, banishing the drab grays of night’s world. The air was crystal clear with no haze in it and distant objects appeared to have been moved closer; so sharp was their detail.
Caron stood before her tent and stretched languorously before wrapping her arms about herself against the morning chill. “What a glorious day. It is a day where nothing could be allowed to go wrong,” she said to Roland who walked up close behind her and stood with his hands on her hips and his lips next to her ear. “It is glorious,” he murmured in her ear, “but no more glorious than you.” Caron laughed and snuggled back against him as his arms slid around her waist and locked themselves above the treasure she carried within her.
“He will be even more handsome than you, Roland,” she said mischievously. “Our son will be the most beautiful child ever in the world.”
“How could he be other than that?” Roland said. “After all, he has the very finest dam, though the ram is somewhat flawed.” She turned in his arms to face him.
“There is no flaw in you,” she said seriously. “If there are any flaws, they are mine.” She bit her lip as the image of Wil flitted through her mind.
He lifted her chin and kissed her nose, chilly from the morning air. “There is no flaw in you, my love,” he said softly, “no flaw at all.”
As they stood quietly embracing one another while the world awoke, a single note sounded from a horn on the walls of Blackstone. Caron stiffened at the sound and both of them turned their heads toward the fortress.
“Not today,” Caron whispered to herself. “Please, not today.” The note sounded once again and died away to be followed by a howling that raised the hair on their arms. She pulled away from Roland and saw the look of anxiety on his face. She hoped he could not see the terror that clutched
at her heart.
“Get Wil,” he said determinedly.
Gleneagle stood with Roland and Mitchal to his right and Drogol and Alarid to his left. Behind him the companions and their families stood. All of them looked toward Blackstone, unnerved by the howling issuing from the fortress.
The noise stopped all at once and the gates of Blackstone opened soundlessly. A solitary figure walked through the gates.
“Styxis,” Gleneagle said under his breath, and at the utterance of the name, the whisper of a prophecy buried in one of the scrolls tickled the back of his mind. His brow furrowed at the memory, but the movement of the demoness drew him back to the present and the confrontation he knew to be no more than a few minutes away.
Behind them, the flap to Caron’s tent pushed open and she emerged clothed in a gown of the purest white. In the brilliant sunlight of this perfect day, it was difficult to look directly at her, so bright was the radiance of the sun on her dress. The talisman was clutched against her bosom with both hands. Her face showed both the determination and the fear she so clearly felt.
You will wear the white of purity and truth as contrast to the demon’s filth and lies Wil had told her.
Those watching stepped aside momentarily as she approached, then closed in behind her. She stopped for a long moment at the top of the rise and took a deep breath. Without looking around or acknowledging any of those surrounding her, she stepped resolutely forward and marched off down the slope toward the confrontation she knew was inevitable. Her terror was buried within her as Wil’s thoughts carried her forward, his calm confidence keeping her steps steady. She will try to distract you. She will attack you with images and subtle spells. You must ignore them.
The farther down the hill she got, the better she could make out the figure of the demoness walking toward her. She was naked just as she had been at the intrusion into Caron’s mind back at the turning to Wrensfalls and she was still just as impossibly beautiful, but Caron noticed none of that. Her entire attention was focused on her eyes.
Make contact with her eyes from as far out as you can, Caron, Wil told her as she walked. It will be paramount for you to maintain that contact. Do not let anything divert your attention from that contact for that will be where I will learn the exact moment to strike.
Caron walked steadily, her concentration focused on the place in the oncoming face where the eyes would eventually become visible.
Use your seeing powers to acquire her eyes early. Lock her into the darkness of your eyes. They will hypnotize her when she is close enough, for blackness is her master. In this, you will have the advantage for she will have difficulty seeing into your eyes from farther away. She will be blinded by the radiance of the sun upon your clothes.
Styxis’s face was still far enough away that it was no more than an amorphous dot when Caron’s seeing was able to bring the demoness’ eyes to her. They were beautiful in the extreme, but cruel looking and Caron couldn’t help but be struck by their intensity. It was as if she was looking through her to Wil.
Stand aside, elf witch, came the hiss of a thought into Caron’s mind. I will spare you the agony I have given my toy, Gregory, if you will lay down the talisman you carry and return to the stone pile from which you crawled.
Caron smiled grimly. The demoness was saying all the wrong things. Her words only increased Caron’s resolve. The smile never left Styxis’s lips, however, and Caron wondered what evil was yet to be thrown at her.
They were still well beyond bow range apart when the howling erupted once again from Blackstone, but this time it was accompanied by a rush of black forms from both the gates and the walls of the fortress. Demons of every possible loathsome description ran, crawled, slithered and flew toward the host upon the rise behind Caron.
Ignore them, Caron, came Wil’s hurried warning. They are sent to distract you. For you, they do not exist. They will not approach you. Concentrate on her eyes.
Though it took a concerted effort to ignore the flood of creatures that rushed toward, then past her, she maintained her lock on the vision of Styxis’s eyes as Wil had directed. The sounds of battle and mayhem began to intrude into her consciousness now and Wil pushed back at them.
The moment is almost here, Caron. Do not waiver. Ignore her. Ignore her distractions. Ignore her lies. Concentrate on her eyes.
The two of them were now but a few yards apart and Caron would have been able to see Styxis’s eyes clearly with her own eyes rather than the image generated by her powers, but she dared not drop the contact even for the brief moment it would take to make the transition. Styxis had stopped walking and stood smiling contemptuously with one hand on her hip in a sexually provocative and challenging attitude.
Caron hesitated slightly then stopped completely as the vision of Geoffrey with his dagger raised flashed once again into her mind.
Caron, no, came Wil’s frantic thought as the vision flashed also into his mind.
“No!” she screamed aloud as she turned toward the rise. Her mind sped up as she stretched her magical potential past anything she had experienced before, her seeing carrying her quickly to where the demons had surrounded her father and the rest of the party. So rapidly was her mind racing that everything appeared to be happening in slow motion.
Just as in the vision, she saw Geoffrey with the dagger in his hand and watched as the old man lunged toward her father’s unprotected back. She recognized her error too late, for as the rest of the vision unfolded, she watched him throw himself atop a demon attacking her father from his blind side. She turned immediately back toward Styxis, the world still appearing to move slowly under the influence of the acceleration of her mind.
The face of the demoness showed a malevolent smile of victory as she raised her hand, the red nimbus of her magic already crackling around it. As she looked into Caron’s eyes, there was a split second of hesitation during which her mind was drawn into their unnatural darkness. Wil leaped forcefully into Caron’s mind at that moment.
Raise me now! he commanded. As Caron’s hand came up immediately in obedience, she saw the red nimbus of the magic as it left Styxis’s hand and streaked in slow motion toward her. An enormous ball of blue-white energy already scintillating around the talisman shot away from Caron just as the red bolt of energy from Styxis reached her.
Styxis threw her arms wide and her head up as if welcoming the flash of magical energy that enveloped her.
On the rise where the rest fought desperately for their lives, nobody saw Caron as she collapsed, the talisman falling away from her as she hit the ground.
In front of her, only emptiness stood where Styxis had been.
In the stone cabin, Wil lay unconscious on the floor. The shade of Greyleige hovered over him briefly, then faded as he determined Wil would recover.
“You survived the battle,” the shade’s thin voice said aloud from the empty space his image had occupied, “but will you survive the aftermath?”
30
On the rise, Gleneagle stood over his fallen chamberlain, battling to keep the howling demons from getting to him. Around him Drogol’s Northmen formed a circle of grim warriors fighting as only the barbarians could fight. There was nothing formal about their tactics; it was all tooth and nail, fist and foot and elbow, sword, spear and cudgel. Slashing, gouging and biting, they fought every bit as viciously and with as much ferocity as the demons who threw themselves at them.
Crouched in the middle of the circle, the women protected their children as all mother animals do, covering them with their own bodies to protect them from harm.
A pair of demons leaped from the mass of twisted creatures surrounding them and Gleneagle swung his sword in a killing sweep toward their necks, but his sword passed through them without meeting any resistance. The howling had stopped at the instant of Gleneagle’s stroke and every demon’s movement had stopped in mid leap or stroke as if frozen. After only a moment a whirlwind sprang up over the battlefield and the motionless demons rose fro
m the ground. Shimmering as they lifted into the air, they turned transparent and faded completely as they ascended in a spinning vortex into the sky.
Those on the hill looked around in disbelief, wondering how and where the enemy had gone. Some looked to the sky as if they might see them as they ascended, but within the span of just a few heartbeats there was nothing to be seen.
The demons were gone. The Wisdom wizards cast their senses about themselves, doing whatever they could to catch some hint of them returning or lingering behind, but there was nothing and no premonition of their return. They were simply gone and the silence was deafening.
The profound quiet was broken by Scrubby’s yell of alarm. “Caron,” he cried as he started running down the hill. Roland spotted Caron where she lay on the ground as Scrubby shouted and set off close behind him. His longer legs carried him quickly past the swineherd.
At Scrubby’s cry of alarm, Gleneagle’s attention turned from Geoffrey who lay groaning on the ground before him. The whispered words of prophecy now screamed in his mind, “A daughter of the house of Gleneagle will sacrifice herself in defense of all life.” With his heart in his throat, he started after Roland and Scrubby.
Geoffrey’s face was turning ashen with his pain, the blood from the wound under his arm darkening his tunic when Allen came into the old man’s view as Gleneagle ran down the hill toward his daughter. “It is as I saw it,” Allen said quietly as he reached into Geoffrey’s shirt and covered the sucking knife wound with his hand. He smiled into the old man’s eyes before stiffening with the pain that flooded his body. Behind him, Bartholomew stretched out his hands and murmured a spell to ease Allen’s anguish.
Geoffrey pushed himself to a sitting position and stared in mute astonishment at the youth who had taken on the pain of an aged man. Reaching out, he gathered Allen into his arms and rocked him gently as a father might rock his son to soothe his night terrors. After just a few minutes, Allen’s eyes opened and he looked around, puzzled to find himself clutched in Geoffrey’s arms.