Legacy of the Darksword (48 page)

Garald sends the
Duuk-tsarith
for
Father Saryon. Garald explains their desperate situation and begs Saryon to
reveal the location of the Darksword. Saryon at length agrees, but he will give
it into the hands only of the heir. Garald gives his word of honor that this
will happen.

More and more people are being
drawn under Smythe’s sway. Mobs roam the countryside. Eliza, guarded by her
knights, travels to Zith-el. On the way, the carriage is attacked. Alerted
ahead of time, the Queen; her house catalyst, Reuven; her Enforcer, Mosiah; and
one of her knights, Scylla, sneak in the side gate.

They are met in the forest by
Father Saryon, who guides them to the cave of the Dragon of Night.

The dragon recognizes Saryon, who
introduces Eliza. She goes forward to recover the sword. As she picks it up
Duuk-tsarith
appear in the cavern. They do not believe Radisovik’s vision of the
angel,
they think that the Hch’nyv are part of a plot
designed by the Technomancers. The
Duuk-tsarith
have deposed King Garald
and taken up rulership of the world. They demand the Darksword.

Eliza raises the sword to defend
herself. The Darksword begins to draw Life from the
Duuk-tsarith.
The
sword’s null-magic breaks the charmed hold Saryon has on the dragon.

The Dragon of Night kills Eliza
and everyone in the cave. The dragon hurls the Darksword into the deepest part
of the River Famirish.

The Hch’nyv
destroy
Earth and Thimhallan. The human race is extinct.

Saryon and Reuven travel to
Thimhallan from Earth to meet Joram. They warn him of the coming of the Hch’nyv.
Saryon tries to persuade Joram to return to Earth with his family.

Fearing that this is a trick to
steal the Darksword, Joram refuses.

His daughter, Eliza, steals the
Darksword during the night. She leaves the house, intending to take the sword
to the military outpost, hand it over to the people of Earth. Reuven sees her
leave and, realizing her danger, goes after her.

The Technomancers arrive,
confront Joram, and demand that he hand over the Darksword. Joram seeks the
weapon in its hiding place, discovers that it is gone. Eliza is gone as well.
Joram realizes what has happened. He battles the Technomancers and is joined in
his fight by Mosiah, who has been keeping Joram and his family under guard.

The Technomancers capture Joram
and Father Saryon. They are about to capture Gwen, but she is rescued by the
dead, who take her away to their realm.

Scylla finds Reuven and Eliza.
They return to the house, discover Mosiah, and hear that Joram has been
captured by the Technomancers. Smythe appears and tells Eliza that he will
exchange her father’s life for the sword. She is to meet him in Zith-el, where
the Technomancers have their headquarters.

Scylla, Eliza, and Mosiah travel
to Zith-el, accompanied by Simkin, in the form of a teddy bear.

Eliza and her escort reach the
gate. An Interrogator, disguised as Gwen, tricks Eliza into giving up the
Darksword.

Mosiah recognizes the
Interrogator, seizes the Darksword, and hurls it into the gate. He, Reuven, and
Eliza enter the gate and run straight into the arms of the waiting
Technomancers.

In the ensuing battle, Eliza is
killed. The Technomancers seize the Darksword. They transport it and their
prisoners to Earth.

Despondent over the death of his
beloved daughter, blaming himself, Joram dies of his wounds on the trip back.

The Hch’nyv attack Earth. Kevon
Smythe hands over the Darksword, expects his life to be spared.

It isn’t.

The Hch’nyv
destroy
Earth and Thimhallan. The human race is wiped out.

As you know, having read the
book, Scylla managed, by jumping between time lines, to create a third time
line, one in which we had a chance to survive. Simkin was the key and Scylla
admitted that she herself didn’t know until the very end whether he would help
us or blithely cast us all aside.

“We were fortunate that the
Technomancers lost no opportunity to insult him.
As
he told Smythe, they
didn’t believe in him,” Scylla said. “In the end, that’s why he decided to
help.”

Not even she knew, or so she
claims, that Simkin had taken the form of the Darksword. But thinking back, I
realize now that was why the dragon complained so bitterly of the sword’s
bright light, hurting its eyes. The dragon could see more than we could,
apparently.

As for the Darksword itself, does
it still lie in some cave back on flame-ravaged Thimhallan?

We will not discover the answer
in our lifetime, but who knows? Perhaps, when thousands of years have passed
and the Hch’nyv have been vanquished by some more powerful race, one of our
descendants might read this book of mine and return to Thimhallan, to Zith-el,
to the cave of the dragon. . . .