Darkness: A Guardians of Orana Novel

by Nancy E. Dunne

  The ground came up under him even faster than usual because he had been sitting when the spell cast. Gin was moving over to where they had stowed their things and had strapped her staff back onto her haversack. “We should get going—the patrols will begin once the moon is high in the sky.” She looked up at Sath, who was still gazing up toward her hut. “Sath?”

  “Sure, let’s go.” Sath glanced up at the hut one last time, confident that just before they disappeared from the hut to reappear here at the base of the giant tree, he saw someone watching them. Male or female was hard to say because the figure was wearing a cloak with the hood up.

  “What’s wrong?” She had sensed his worry in the bond.

  “Nothing, probably. I thought I saw someone approaching your hut as we ported out, but there is no one there now.”

  “You can see clearly all the way up there?”

  “Can’t you?”

  “You know I can’t. Show off.” She scowled but then giggled as she handed him his pack. “What’s in here anyway, rocks?”

  “Well, yes, I wanted to make sure we had enough. You never know when you might need a rock.”

  “To throw at your head, you mean. Which way?” Sath glanced one last time up at the hut and saw nothing, so he looked back to Gin and pointed.

  “This is. . .northeast, right?” Gin closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded warily. Sath admired her almost unerring sense of true north. “Then that’s the way we go.” He started walking and then paused, holding a hand out to her that she took. “Unless you’d prefer my tail, that is?”

  “Prefer to hang on to it or-?”

  “Right. Hand it is.” Sath chuckled and squeezed her hand carefully. They walked in silence again for a long time, occasionally slowing their pace to gaze up at the stars. Sath was careful of the size of his steps so that he didn’t get too far out ahead. After a long period of nothing but walking, Gin pulled her hand out of his. Sath looked down at her and found her frowning at him.

  “Wait. You’re taking me to Bellesea, aren’t you?” Had she been searching his mind? Sath took a quick mental inventory. No, he could find no trace of her there, other than the low hum that was always there now. “I’m not stupid, Sath. We are heading northeast from Anyamaede. Either we are going to swim in the Dark Sea, or you are taking me back to Bellesea Keep.” She folded her arms over her chest. “And I’m just supposed to follow along like good little Gin, is that it?”

  “Wait, you’ve got the wrong idea. I just want us to go back to where this started—where I—well, where we learned to be a team, Gin. I want to get back to that. I want to sleep under the stars. I want to talk around a fire, cups of ale in hand. There is no one in Bellesea anymore, remember? You took care of that.” She shook her head and took a few steps away from him, and that was when he saw it—a dark elf, running at her, arm raised and weapon glinting in the moonlight, still a ways off but closing the distance fast. “Behind you, Gin, coming in hot,” he hissed, hoping that she would remember the protocol from days past with the Fabled Ones. The look on her face told him she did, and she moved quickly past him, turning around to face the incoming enemy from just behind him.

  “What do we do?” She started reciting spells that would damage their still unknown assailant, but Sath shook his head.

  “I got this,” he said. “Kaboom!”

  “Ka—what?”

  “Watch this.” Sath retrieved the two potions from his pocket. Thankfully his Qatu vision told him which one was silver since he only had the moon for light. He waited a few more minutes with Gin tugging on his other arm and then hurled the potion to the ground between them and the assailant. It hit the forest floor and exploded, causing an opaque curtain of darkness and smoke to rise between them and the Ikedrian. Sath pulled Gin close as the fur on the back of his neck raised all the way down to his shoulder blades. Something was wrong. He closed his eyes and coughed as the acrid smoke filled his lungs.

  “What did you do? I could have ported us out-” Her voice stopped abruptly, and Sath flung his arms out toward her but felt nothing. This had to be just a port spell. She must have finished her recitation before he flung the potion. A loud rush of air filled his ears as it always did, but somehow it seemed to go on much longer than it should have this time. Sath finally caught Gin’s tunic, and he clung to her as she screamed and wound her fingers deep into his fur to keep hold of him. He opened his eyes but saw nothing but blackness and stars, and found that he could not draw a breath deeply at all. Fighting back the panic rising in his chest, he wrapped his arms even tighter around Gin to make sure that they were not separated. After what seemed like several lifetimes, they hit the ground with a crack, landing in a heap on what felt like dry dirt and stone.

  Sath sat up and, to his horror, found that Gin was underneath him on the ground. “Gin?” he whispered, fearing that his weight and the force of the impact had killed her. She was so still…but breathing. “Gin!” he said, willing her to open her eyes. After a few tense moments, her eyelids fluttered, and she opened her eyes, looking up at him with confusion.

  “Why…are you…on top of me?” Gin said haltingly as she tried to take a deep breath. Sath watched as her lips moved in a silent recitation of a healing spell, and soon he felt the wave wash over him as well. He scrambled off of her but stayed very close, not taking his eyes off of her.

  “Can you stand?” he asked quietly. Gin nodded and got to her feet with a little help from him—though, in truth, he was just as wobbly on his own feet. “Your Sephine be praised,” he muttered as he stood and looked around.

  “Where are we, Sath?” Gin said, anxiety creeping in around the edge of her voice as she moved closer to the Qatu.

  “I’m not sure…but it doesn’t look like the Forest,” Sath said. Panic again threatened to overtake him as it had in the transport, but he held it at bay, scanning the area for anything familiar. The bond he had with Gin had been a blessing, but also a curse—if he let fear take him, she would know it immediately. The sky was as dark as it had been when he had opened his eyes during transport, and there were stars—but they didn’t look familiar to him at all. A cold and slightly salty wind blew around them, only marginally stronger than a breeze but enough to lift the bits of Sath’s fur that weren’t already on end in alarm. A gasp from Gin brought his attention around to her, and he looked where she was pointing at…nothing. They were standing on a rock in the middle of nothing—surrounded by water, from the sound of it.

  “It…looks like the world. . .exploded,” Gin whispered. The large rocks they were standing on seemed to be connected to others by smaller stones that spanned the space between them, rather like a path across a stream. On the other side of one of the trails was more ground and maybe grass—it was hard to tell in the near pitch dark. But Gin was right, it looked like the world they knew, but after a great battle had literally blown open parts of the land. Sath ran a hand over the top of his head while keeping the other arm tightly wound around Gin.

  “Aye, it does, but it’s not right,” Sath whispered back. “Look, there’s water here and-” He took a deep breath and exhaled before speaking again. “Salt air. Saltwater. We are near—or on, or IN—a large body of water. The ocean. But how did we end up here? That potion was supposed to just grant us camouflage if we needed an escape.”

  Gin tightened her grip on his arm. “I don’t know, Sath. Is that one of the potions you got from the Ikedrian in the Outpost? Before you ask, yes, I saw that through the bond.” He scowled at her. “Do you not think that is a coincidence that she made you the potion, and then we were chased by one of her kind and had to use it?” She stamped her foot in irritation, causing a slight grin to spread across her companion’s furry face. “What?”

  “It’s nothing…just that here that little foot of yours doesn’t echo like it does in Qatu’anari,” he chuckled, trying to make the best of their situation. Gin wasn’t having it. She pushed his arm away and folded her arms across her own chest, causin
g the rippling sound of tiny bells as her armor shifted and moved. Sath was glad that he had convinced her to wear her helmet on this trip. It was chainmail rather than leather, and he would at least know that she was better protected should they meet trouble. “I was taking us to Bellesea, yes, but we were going to catch a boat and sail down and around to Calder’s Port. That’s how we used to travel, remember? Rather than use magic and step through rifts to -” He paused as a horrible thought entered his mind. “Gin, you don’t think…” Sath’s jaw dropped as he scanned the immediate area. “Could this be one of those rifts?” He pulled her back close to him protectively, causing her to let out an exasperated sigh.

  “If that is where we are, how do we get back out? Ben took me to the Void once, and it did look sort of like this—but more barren.” Gin wiggled out of his grasp to get a better look around, ignoring the growl from Sath that happened every time she mentioned the wizard. “Maybe this is what magic looks like from the inside?” She rubbed her eyes for a moment. “That only barely makes sense to me, but do you see what I’m thinking?” Sath tried to follow using the bond to her mind; it did not help, so he merely stared down at her, a puzzled look on his face. “No, clearly, you don’t. I’m saying, Sath, what if we got stuck in the middle of a spell? What if the magic got interrupted or something?”

  “I don’t think that’s possible,” Sath said as he tried to keep his voice even and confident. “We’ve definitely ended up somewhere other than where we meant to go because we didn’t really mean to GO anywhere—but we are somewhere. If we were in the middle of the spell, we wouldn’t be…us…here…? I don’t know what I’m even saying, Gin, this kind of magic is really your thing, not mine.”

  “Maybe you used the wrong vial?” Gin said, speaking carefully. For the most part, Sath was just Sath with her, but she had experience with the Rajah and the Bane of the Forest, and though she tried not to be, she was still a bit wary of Sath under those circumstances. She chuckled a little bit in an attempt to lighten his mood when she heard the low rumbling growl start in his chest. “I mean, I had my eyes closed, Sath, so I don’t know…”

  “It was the correct vial, Gin, the wizard told me how to use it, and that’s exactly what I did—but we are not anywhere near the Forest now. Your Sephine keep us, it seems we are IN a rift. We are in the Void between the worlds.” Sath’s voice was tight and pinched, and Gin was relieved that the growl still reverberating under his skin did not seem to be directed at her.

  “So, what do we do?”

  “You tell me, you said your wizard brought you here before.”

  “He is not my wizard, and I said it did NOT look like this before.” Gin tried to keep her voice calm and steady, but panic was overtaking her and bringing Sath along for the ride. A rift? The Void? How would they get back home? Who would look after things if they didn’t? “Oh, Khujann…” she whispered, and suddenly Sath grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her up to his eye level.

  “None of that, you hear me?” he said, thankful on a deep level to have something on which to focus other than the dark expanse around them. “We will figure this out, Gin, you and I, and everyone we love will be fine until we do. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, Rajah,” she said, rolling her eyes. Inwardly Sath was pleased. The fear he had heard in her voice could have shut her down completely, and he was not going to be able to manage this—whatever it was—if she was not there with him. Completely there with him, in mind and body. He released her slowly until her boots were firmly on the sandy, rocky ground beneath them.

  “I see movement over there,” he whispered to her. “Perhaps we are not alone, after all.” He took off to the right, hopping nimbly from stone to stone to a nearby larger rock. Gin followed him but then stopped in absolute horror when she recognized the figure that Sath was heading toward.

  “Sath!” she hissed loudly. He paused and turned to look at her as the figure seemed to catch sight of him and moved toward them. “Sath come back! Don’t you know who that is? It looks like a dragon, like—It can’t be!”

  Sath slowly turned back around toward the gigantic creature that stood just inches from him now. It was undoubtedly a dragon—it was Lord Taanyth, the mad Father Dragon, but he didn’t seem to notice Sath’s presence. Sath stood still, waiting for some word or attack or anything from Taanyth…and there was nothing. The dragon sniffed the air, shook his massive head, and remained standing between Sath and the next large rock. Slowly, agonizingly, Sath turned back toward Gin and returned to her side. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the dragon until Sath was safely back with her. “That can’t be good,” he whispered as he again wrapped an arm protectively around Gin. “He was definitely real, but it was like he didn’t know I was there. I mean, I’d rather not engage him, but Gin, Taanyth is dead. How is he here? What part of the Void is this? This is not good.”

  “No. Not at all.” Gin pushed his arm away and sat down on the rocky ground. “We need a plan, Sath, and we need it soon.”

  Eight

  The Void Between

  They sat in silence for a long time. Sath’s mind was occupied with an internal tug of war: he wanted desperately to protect Gin and fix things, but at the same time, he was fighting a rising panic that he could do neither of those. Gin looked through her spell book for something helpful as well as to attract attention away from her shaking hands. Finally, Sath noticed the tremor when he heard one of the pages rattle as she turned it. “Gin, don’t worry,” he said quietly. “You know that I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  “As long as there isn’t a bard around, anyway,” she muttered in Elvish. She was well aware of the effect both the words and the language would have on him, and it turned out that she was right on the money with both.

  “Really?” Sath hissed as he got to his feet. “Still hung up on that?”

  “No. I mean yes, but…no, I’m not still hung up on that. I’m sorry,” Gin lied. “I am just worried, frustrated, and not thinking clearly.” She stood and put her spell book back into her haversack and then looked him in the eye—easier when she was standing and he was still seated. “If we are where I think we are, this is the Void—how we magically transport from place to place. We step in here and then back out of a portal, of sorts, to where we intend to go. Does that make sense?” Sath nodded, though his eyebrows were still screwed up in confusion. Gin pointed over his shoulder at another floating rock with several archways visible. “Right, well, I think we should start by finding and trying the portals to see where they go,” she said, the conviction of her words not entirely backed up by the tone of her voice.

  “I agree,” Sath said flatly. “But which one?” He looked around, looking past the still staring Lord Taanyth at the archways that Gin meant. She had noticed them when they landed on the most massive rock and Sath ‘knew’ through the bond. They all appeared to be the same, though each one had a banner floating to one side of the opening. “Hey, Gin, what does that hammer look like to you?”

  Gin studied it a moment, and then her eyes lit up. “It looks like the ones carved into the mountains where the dwarves live! Sath, do you think that’s where that one leads? If so, we know how to get home from there safely, AND we could stop in and see Tee.”

  “Aye, that’s what I was thinking as well,” Sath said as he beamed a toothy grin her way. Gin lowered her head and looked toward the portal, then back at Sath.

  “Well, there’s only one way to find out!” He held out a hand to her, but she pushed past him, headed for the portal at a dead run.

  “GIN!” he roared. “WAIT!” She disappeared through the archway, and Sath dived through it, hoping to catch hold of her on the other side. Gin had closed her eyes when she hit the arch, and when she opened them again, she found she was still in the Void, just in a different part.

  “Ikara’s TEETH!” she swore loudly. “It was a decoy! That was wasted time!”

  Sath crashed to the ground behind her but swiftly got to his feet
. “Okay, ouch—so that didn’t lead us anywhere productive. Now what?”

  Gin stood with her hands on her hips. “Well, there was a story that I remember reading in the Draoch’s journal about an Ikedrian he befriended who escaped captivity when she didn’t even know where she was being held—but you are going to have to let me try it first,” she said. “Don’t make that face at me—my tracking is much better than yours. Do you trust me, Sath?”

  He smiled at her. “Of course I do,” he said, wishing that it was entirely true.

  “Well, anyway, STAY THERE,” she said, holding up one tiny hand to him. “I’m serious, don’t follow me right away because if it doesn’t work, I don’t want you to get hurt. You just stand back,” she said, grinning at him as she channeled Elysiam in word and bravery—and potentially foolishness: “I’m going to try something.”

  “What? Gin, what are you…NO!” She ran toward the edge of the rock they were standing on and then jumped off into the Void.

  “DOWN!”

  Sath ran to the precipice and looked down to see her falling, and then she disappeared. He roared in frustration and anguish. “GIN!”

  “I’m right here,” she called out. Sath leaned over as far as he could to see if he could spot her, expecting to see her hanging onto something underneath one of the rocks. “Careful, Sath, you’ll…” He lost his balance suddenly, and though he scrambled to steady himself, he could gain no purchase on the rocky surface, and he fell. He tried to brace himself for impact, but then he just…wasn’t for a moment. It was almost the same sensation as one of Gin’s transport spells, but it ended almost as soon as it began. He opened his eyes to find himself seated on the ground with Gin standing over him, her hands, as always, firmly planted on her hips. “. . .fall.” He scanned the area and found that they were back where they had first entered this strange place.