A Dark Tide (Book of One) (23 page)

"You do not fight me with your full power," Calexis said. "Why not realize your true potential?"

"That's what you want, isn't it?" Aaron shook his head. "That is why you didn't kill me all those years ago."

"See, you are a clever boy," she said. "It is too bad that those meddlesome mages hid you from me. What an ally you would have made for my priesthood."

"I am glad I have had the chance to see the world for myself," Aaron said. "Remind me to thank those meddlesome mages. It was far better than becoming one of your mindless followers."

"They only delayed the inevitable," Calexis replied. "You have come to me, as I always knew you would."

"I have come to stop you," Aaron said. "Your madness will destroy you."

"You will understand, soon enough," she said as she readied to attack him. "Enough of this play. It grows tiresome and I know you are at the end of your strength."

Immense dark power gathered around Calexis and she leapt toward him, the air around her gathering into a wall of energy. Unable to move out of the way, Aaron raised his sword and braced for the impact. His blade rang out and Aaron flew backwards. Stone shattered as he smashed through the wall, then the one beyond it, and several more. As he flew through the air, now in the dull light outside the palace and falling toward the courtyard, he saw Calexis burst through the broken wall, leaping after him, her sword ready to attack him. He lifted his blade in the knowledge that his power to fight her was nearly gone.

Aaron caught a flash in the corner of his eye and Calexis was suddenly knocked sideways in midair. She landed hard upon the cobblestones of the outer courtyard, tumbling across the ground, which shattered into a cloud of rocks and dust all around her. Aaron turned his head just in time to see a figure, standing above her, with white energy crackling up and down a sword very much like his own, and he muttered a curse as he hit the ground and the wind was knocked out of him.

Calexis rolled to her feet, her sword ready for whatever had attacked her, and she winced at the deep gash that had cut through the thick scales on her upper arm. As the dust settled, she closed the cut on her arm with her power, and her vision wavered for a moment, then she saw an unexpected figure standing before her.

"Lexi?"

"Yes, mother," she said, and her eyes flashed with powerful energy.

Calexis shook her head, clearing her sight and she took a step toward the girl.

"You have turned an odd color," she said, then she stopped and sniffed the air. You have the stench of Stroma's power upon you. I take it you are another of his faithful servants?

"I killed him," Lexi said. "And I will kill you too."

Calexis laughed, her bellowing voice echoing across the open courtyard. She brushed the dust and rubble from her thickly scaled shoulder and stared at her daughter, impressed with her defiance and the power she had taken.

"My dear, you have done me a service," she said. "Stroma was the only one who truly threatened my power."

"I serve no one," Lexi replied. "And I will never serve you."

"It sounds like you have been talking to the wrong people," Calexis said, seeing the resolve in Lexi's eyes. "You are a dangerous little thing. Perhaps I should have paid more attention to you when you were younger."

"Like you did my brother?"

"Did it make you jealous, Lexi? Was it unfair that I lavished my attention on Draxis?"

"No," Lexi said. "He is your slave and I am not."

"Why have you come here?" Calexis asked, her tone menacing.

"I came here to kill you," Lexi replied. "And to help my friend."

"Yes, I knew you were companions," Calexis said. "Have you mated with him? Is that it? Is that why you risk yourself for him? Do you carry his seed within you?"

"Do not say such things," Lexi told her. "You would never understand."

"I guess the answer is no," Calexis said. "Then you are of no value to me."

She dashed toward her daughter, swinging the giant blade, and Lexi caught it with her own, then she moved like a flash of lightning and appeared behind Calexis, swinging her sword at the side of her neck. Calexis spun and lifted her sword, pommel first and caught Lexi's blow, then she shoved her away, sending her sliding across the courtyard. Energy crackled around Lexi and the sky began to darken overhead as the grey haze  thickened into storm clouds. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled through the sky as Lexi stepped toward her mother.

"My, my, you have become powerful," Calexis said, looking upon her daughter not with pride but lust for the energy she possessed.

"You do not want to see how powerful I have become," Lexi said, then with a clap of thunder, filling the air around her, she rushed forward.

Swords met and sparks of energy flew, while dark shadows licked at their power. Lightning crackled in the sky above, then a bolt shot down, hitting both of them. Lexi felt the power flow through her and she shoved her mother, focusing the energy toward her. Calexis skidded backward, her body immobilized as the energy coursed through her, but dark shadows curled around her and quickly consumed the lightning. Black smoke rose from her body and her lip curled in an angry snarl, for the energy that had hit her was dangerously close to the one thing she feared.

"Petulant, fool of a child," she said, angrily. "You have no knowledge of the power you possess, and that will be your downfall."

Calexis suddenly shifted from where she was, like a cloud of black smoke, dissipated by the wind, then she reappeared next to Lexi and swung her blade. At the last moment, Lexi spun and raise her sword in a weak defense, catching the full impact of the blow as both swords slammed into her and she was thrown to the ground. Her shoulder bled and her sword clattered loosely upon the stone. Calexis drew back her blade and thrust it toward Lexi, cutting a gash in her ribs as she barely managed to roll out of the way. On all fours, Lexi coursed with energy once more and she stared up at her mother, with anger burning white hot in her eyes. She shoved her sword into its scabbard and rose to her feet as she began to change, growing larger and more reptilian than Calexis, who stepped back, watching in fascination. A puff of mist blew from Lexi's dragon nostrils and great blue wings unfolded from upon her back, and she roared, shaking the air.

"Perhaps I was mistaken," Calexis said. "You have truly surpassed your brother."

"You were mistaken about a lot of things," Lexi growled.

"It changes nothing," Calexis replied, her expression turning cold and unyielding. "Your power will be mine."

Lexi charged at her mother, drawing in a great breath of air as lightning coursed through her body, but Calexis was faster and she moved forward, catching Lexi by the neck and choking off the energy she was about to unleash. Increasing her own size, Calexis slammed Lexi to the ground and a blast of white hot energy spilled from her mouth, burning a hole through the outer wall of the castle. She placed her clawed foot upon Lexi's neck and raised her sword.

"That's the problem with dragons, my dear," she said. "They might be powerful, but they are also slow."

Calexis shifted to the side and swung her blade toward Lexi's neck, and it was met with the hard edge of a sword, and she felt herself pushed back by a blow more powerful than any she had ever felt before. Lexi rolled to her feet and saw Aaron standing in front of her, and white hot flames flickered around him with shadows in between, and his eyes burned with light and darkness.

"Go, Lexi," he said. "You cannot fight her."

"I came to save you," Lexi said.

"I know," Aaron replied. "I am grateful, but you must go, now. I will try to hold her power."

"No, Aaron," Lexi growled. "I won't leave."

"If you don't then I will kill you myself," Aaron said, his voice flat and the darkness flickering in his eyes.

"You wouldn't," Lexi said.

"When the shadow takes me, there is no telling what I might do," Aaron told her. "Now you must go."

"You plan to join with her?" Lexi was confused.

"I will do what I must to stop the madness," Aaron said.

"Now I see your true power," Calexis said as she walked toward them. "It is magnificent, and now it is mine."

Aaron felt the shadow begin to grip him from the inside, enveloping his fire.

"Go, Lexi," he choked, but she did not move as she saw the fire in his eyes struggle against the shadow.

Aaron knew there was only one thing he could do. He leapt toward her and swung his fist, spreading a wave of energy around it as large as Lexi. The impact sent her flying into the air and she crashed through the top of the high wall that surrounded the palace. Lexi tumbled through broken stone and mortar dust, twisting around as she fell from the city wall, down over a steep drop toward a sparse forest that ran around the edge of a lake below. She twisted around and spread her wings just before she hit the trees, and she soared across their tops, then circled around, pushing herself up into the sky and back toward the palace.

When Lexi topped the wall she found the courtyard ablaze with black flames, and she saw Aaron sheath his sword and walk toward her mother. Calexis noticed her and she smiled as Aaron fell to his knees before her. Horrified by what she saw and overcome by the power that raged in the courtyard, Lexi turned and fled, confused and not knowing what she should do. Aaron had made her leave, and she knew he was not yet under her mother's control, but she did not know why he would bow to her. With her thoughts conflicted and a sense of emptiness growing inside of her, Lexi flew across the open water to the west of the city and she kept on flying, no longer knowing or caring where she went. After a time, when the city had disappeared far behind her, and the rolling hills had turned to low, tree covered mountains, Lexi heard a familiar voice, whispering in her ear, and the pain in her shoulder suddenly began to subside.

"Do not fear, Lexi. All is not yet lost."

Lexi turned her head and saw Ehlena sitting upon the inner part of her wing. Her hand rested upon the cut on her shoulder and Lexi could feel her using her power to help speed its healing.

"I don't understand," Lexi said.

"I think I do," Ehlena said, though she was unable to hide her worry. "Let us continue west, for there is much that must be done if we are to turn the tide of this war."

"Can't we do something to help Aaron?" Lexi asked.

"Yes," Ehlena said. "We can trust that when the time comes he will do what is right."

*****

Aaron felt himself smash into the heavy, wooden doors of the temple, splintering boards and wrenching them from their the thick, iron hinges as they slammed open. He landed on his back on the hard, stone floor and Calexis walked in after him, picked him up by the head and tossed him toward the pulsating crystal at the center of the vast chamber. The four remaining black robed mages turned from their work at the disturbance and, with a nod from Calexis, they began to cast binding spells upon his arms and legs, lifting him up from the floor and lashing him to the crystal.

"If you will not embrace your power, then I will force it from you," Calexis said as she shifted from her monstrous form, back to the one she had previously worn. "Once you have succumbed to my power, we will see what kind of servant you will be."

Aaron looked down at her from where he now hung with his arms folded back, nearly torn from their sockets and his legs pulled tight against the crystal. He could feel the pulsing gem draining the power from his body far faster than he could absorb it from the world around him. It had already taken every bit of that power to force his own energy away from the shadow, and doing so had left him defenseless against Calexis, but as he suspected she had no intention of killing him, not yet anyway. It was his power she wanted, and unless the shadow within him could gain control of it, it seemed that she could not simply take it.

At first, when she had attacked him with the jeweled silvergold dagger, Aaron had thought he was mistaken, but while her strikes had appeared to be aimed at taking his life, the ones that had actually connected were all superficial, meant to weaken him and goad him into fighting her with his full power. That was the secret of the godswords, that they would take only the power that was present, and in a somewhat imperfect form. Aaron knew that Calexis wanted his power, and that it was the ambition of the dark god and the power of the shadow that drove her actions.

"It frustrates you, doesn't it?" Aaron rasped. "Wanting something that you can never truly possess must upset you to no end."

"Strong words for one in such a position of weakness," Calexis said. "Soon, you will give me what I want."

"I doubt that," Aaron said.

"Yes," Calexis said as she reached up and ran her hand down his stomach, scratching her fingernails into him and over his belt, which she tugged at, then she turned and walked away. "Think on your doubts, for they are all you have left."

With a gesture, she pulled the doors of the closed behind her, leaving Aaron alone with the four mages, who turned and resumed their work, ignoring his presence as the crystal pulsed against his back, slowly draining the life from him.

"
You play a very dangerous game, Aaron,
" Stroma echoed faintly in his mind, his voice weak and distant.