EPIC: Fourteen Books of Fantasy (276 page)

Azek slowly lowered his head. He almost appeared meek for a moment. Almost. After nearly a minute had passed, his head snapped back up. If her eyes had been cold iron, his were now hot steel. “Queen Ilirra,” his voice was far calmer than his eyes, “I have sworn an oath to you. To protect Taron...to protect you.” His voice softened to almost a whisper. “Your command is never, nor will ever be, in question. My life will always be yours to command.” He bowed low to the ground, turned, then continued down the hall.
 

The Queen kept her eyes fixed on him until he disappeared around the corner. She knew he was a good soldier. And despite her occasional irritations with the man, she admired how he spoke his mind.

With a sigh, she continued to move across the tile floor. Past the common room and bedchambers she went, now feeling a bit rushed, although she hoped no one else thought so. Down a flight of wooden stairs she flew, and into the cellar she scurried.
 

The small wooden room housed all sorts of bottled wine. Some had been imported, but most were domestic brands enjoyed by the people of Taron. Others were covered in dust and seemed as though no one was enjoying them.
 

But the Queen had not run in here for wine. Through the cellar she dashed, past two maids who saw her at the last minute. They quickly dropped down into awkward bows.

Ilirra never even noticed. Whipping right past them, she rushed through the wooden door at the far side of the cellar and down one last flight of wooden steps. There, she stood in a medium-sized room with the stone walls painted a sickly brown, lit up by several oil lamps hung around the walls. She approached the wooden door and lightly knocked. She was the Queen of Taron, yet she knocked!
 

The door opened a crack, just enough for the old man to get a look at the intruder, as if he didn’t already know whom it was. A large smile crossed the old man’s face as he flung the door wide open and gestured for his visitor to enter. The short, bald man had a long, thin gray beard and was dressed in a worn-out pair of gray pajamas. Standing next to the queen in her radiant silk skirt, the man looked laughably out of place, but he seemed perfectly at ease, for his warm smile never wavered.
 

The small room had a thick layer of dark blue paint slathered on the walls, and contained almost no furniture at all. A brown hammock was tied between two poles in the corner, and an old wooden table in the center of the room was all the furniture there was. The table housed a small sphere, which looked like a large pearl, embedded within a silver cup. The east wall contained a metal rack with various jars filled with clear fluid and strange little creatures most folk had never seen or heard of.
 

Stroking his thin beard, the old man said, “And to what do I owe the honor of this visit, Your Highness?”
 

The queen impatiently got right to the point. In a blur, she said, “I need an updated report, Berkeni. Have you been able to locate him? What news do you have?” Ilirra suddenly composed herself and began straightening her dress, which was already perfectly smooth. She had been forced to remain patient while a pack of fools ate her food and drank her wine, all the while oblivious to the stirring evils growing in the world, far beyond the comprehension of those simpletons. She had not meant to take it out on Berkeni.
 

Berkeni stood in silence for a moment, then clasped his hands behind him as he began to pace slowly back and forth. “I’m sorry, there is nothing new for me to report as far as he goes,” he said in a scratchy, high-pitched voice. “I’ve told you what I know already. He has come of age, that much I can sense. To be honest, I don’t really even know if he is indeed a he, or she, or it. I just know the exotic power can now be detected.” He stopped pacing and looked squarely at the Queen as he said, “And if I can feel him...”
 

“I know!” the queen snapped. Then, putting a hand to her forehead as she closed her eyes, she repeated the words calmly, as if more to herself. “I know...others can sense him as well.”
 

“However, I do have some other news that I feel would be of interest to you, Your Highness.”

Ilirra took her hand from her forehead and flashed her brilliant green eyes at the man, clearly growing tired of his usual beating around the bush. His cryptic games had become tiresome.

He confidently returned her look, even paused a moment longer than was necessary to make a small point. “The guardian lives,” he said in a near whisper, “she was not killed during the raid of Brinton.”
 

The Queen’s expression never changed. She just stood there staring at the man with a blank, unreadable face. “You are sure of this,” she finally said in an even tone.
 

“Yes, I’ve even located her.” He gestured towards the globe sitting on the table. “But there is no reason to go after her,” he spat out quickly, as if knowing what the Queen was thinking. “She knows her duty. If I can feel him, she can as well. And she is better
equipped
to find him than either of us.”
 

The Queen’s expression still never changed. If fact, her calmness was a little unnerving to Berkeni. “You will continue to keep me informed of any, and I mean
any
new details that arise,” she said in a chillingly soft voice, then turned to leave.
 

When she closed the door behind her, she threw her back against it and let out a deep breath she hadn’t known she was holding. Both hands covered her face as she began panting, unable to catch her breath through the trembling. She bent over and dropped her hands to her knees, trying to get sufficient air with every short, panting breath. Emotions swirled through her like a raging river.
By the gods, Jade’s alive
!

Jade sat on the hill with her back against a tall oak tree. Her eyes were red and puffy, but not a single drop of moisture was left to fall. She felt empty inside, numb and emotionless. Closing her eyes, she tried to recall the events that had left her alone once again. Strange as it was, her mind seemed empty...blank. She was aware of what had happened but could not form any images in her mind.
 

Opening her eyes, she glanced down at the barn. For a moment she considered training to try to get her mind off of everything, but the fleeting thought was not even realistic. She knew she couldn’t focus on anything like that right now. Jade knew she would have to put this all behind her soon, as she still had a job to do, a purpose in life that would call out to her one day.
A life that is trying to teach me a lesson
, she thought to herself. How dare she get close to anyone? How dare she believe for even an instant that she was entitled to any form of joy or love or companionship? Her life had been forfeit many years ago, and trying to find any other meaning within it was just plain greedy. Now she was being punished for her greed, for her belief that her life might be worth more than this.
 

Her eyes caught a glimpse of someone near the barn. A white-haired man ducked inside so quickly, she thought she might have imagined it. Leaping to her feet, Jade tried to run down the hill. However, she couldn’t make herself run for some reason. Perhaps she didn’t want to. Maybe she was afraid of what she’d discover. It was an effort made more difficult by her feet sinking deeply into the soft ground as she tried to move, sinking into ground that seemed more like quicksand than soil. It felt as if each individual blade of grass was grabbing at her feet and trying to pull her into the ground. Every step sunk deeper into the grass, and it seemed to be getting harder and harder to place one foot in front of the other.

The barn was not getting any closer. In fact, it seemed to be moving farther away. Then, in a flash, she found herself in front of the barn. The suddenly black sky threatened heavy rain. It seemed to happen in an instant. The sky began to crackle with jagged lightning bolts splitting the air in all directions. She frantically twisted the knob, but it just spun in her hand. She yanked and pushed as the rain poured down on her like a waterfall, soaking her to the bone instantly while powerful lightning bolts struck on her left, than right, then...she appeared inside the barn.
 

Flies buzzed all around as she tried to walk down the path amongst the hay. She tried to cover her eyes and mouth to keep out the swarming insects and tried to push through the living black cloud that seemed to be pushing back, much like walking against a windstorm. She turned her head sideways to relieve some of the onslaught while placing a hand over the side of her face in horror, for she could feel the insects burrowing into her ear.
 

As she pushed her way down the path with her head tilted sideways, she could see her man-shaped straw targets lined up on the wall. But now they
were
men, or at least appeared animated. Distorted faces stared back at her. One was laughing uncontrollably, staring at her with bloodshot eyes, while the other kept clicking a large set of pearl-white teeth at her, shaking its animated head back and forth violently. Then, it all stopped. The insects vanished as the straw dummies returned to their normal state.

Ben stood right in front of her. He looked down at her with his usual smile, but he didn’t look well. His skin appeared gray and pale. Jade could not utter a single word, and just stood there, frozen. “Jade,” he said in an unfamiliar yet calm voice. “If you had not come into my life, I’d still be alive.”

Her face twisted into an anguished expression as tears flowed down her cheeks, but she couldn’t make a single sound. Not a whimper nor a scream, just nothing.

Ben’s head leaned back sharply and his eyes tripled in size, turning completely black, like an insect’s. “I never wanted you in my life!” came the harrowing scream echoing off the walls.

Lightning lit up the room as Jade sat up with a jolt, covered with sweat and breathing heavily as her eyes darted around the room. She could hear the slow, rumbling thunder off in the distance. She sat back against the bed stand.
 

At first, her sobs came slowly and quietly as she buried her face in one arm and hugged her knees close to her chest with the other. Then her body began to convulse in sharp jerks as her sobbing became uncontrollable. As horrible as the dream was, she knew it had been true. If she had not come here, Ben would still be alive. Even though the thought was not really logical, given how things transpired, she believed it to be true anyway. The kind old man had not deserved his fate. His only crime was taking her in and caring for her. His death was something she would never forgive herself for.
 

Deep inside her, something changed. She took all the pain, all the love, all her emotions that seemed to bring harm to the ones she cared about, and shoved them deep into her heart and encased them with ice, never to be released again. She lay back down and closed her eyes.

The nightmares continued throughout the night. She welcomed them...
deserved
them.
 

After a virtually sleepless night, Jade crawled from her sheets and dragged herself down the stairs. She plopped down into a chair and buried her face in her hands, slumping forward. Her mind was completely blank. Every part of her felt numb. However, the feeling of nothingness was a strangely welcome sensation. It was not pain or anger or even sadness, just...
nothing
. With the numbing blank feeling taking over her whole body, it was a surprise when she rose and started back up the stairs. Was she planning to sleep for a week, until someone found her dead body? Did she want to jump from the second-story window and simply end it? But those would be conscious thoughts, none of which she was having right now. Something just drew her to walk back upstairs.
 

She marched up the steps one at a time, barely aware of what she was doing. As she approached the door to her room, she stopped, as if discovering for the first time that she was here, but not by her own choice. Tentatively, she reached out and turned the knob. Instead of walking through, she pushed the door in and watched it swing open. Then she saw it, the reason she was drawn back to this room: the small wooden box on the corner of her dresser, the very one she kept her necklace in. The crack beneath the lid was pulsing with a faint yellow glow, rhythmic like a heartbeat.