Lone Star Magic (22 page)

“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Carly looked
from one to the other. “Actually, that seems like a good idea to
me.” “Does it? Many have dreamt of this. In the past, long, long
ago, one man did such a thing, and our people lived in harmony with
yours – for awhile.”

“Camelot,” Alrick said, familiar with the
tale.

“King Arthur?” Carly frowned. “Most people
think he’s a myth.”

“Most people believe the Fae to be a myth
also,” the Mage reminded.

“True,” she conceded the point. “You’ve told
us before he succeeded in tearing down the veil, but not that he
wasn’t always such a bad-ass. You never elaborated.”

“The Warlord had good intentions at first. He
was actually a light in the growing darkness of our world. His
church was huge. I myself once admired him.”

“Church?”

“Yes. As his power grew, he began to attract
followers. Both human and Fae, as well as other half-lings. He
decided to form a church. They called themselves
The
Others
.”

“That sounds sort of nice. So what went
wrong?”

“Like most men of vision, he inspired fear
and hatred. Men began to gather against him. Some of the other
churches, fearing the size of his, spoke out. They claimed the Fae
were actually demons, that magic was wicked.”

“Exactly like the human dark ages,” Alrick
pointed out. “History repeats itself.”

“That still doesn’t explain what turned him
bad. So he faced opposition. That’s understandable. But what
happened to make a good man evil?”

“He had a family. Human wife, two daughters,
a son.”

“Had?”

“Had. Lovely woman, beautiful, kind, and
gentle. He was happy. A good man.”

“Then something happened to them.” Carly
moved restlessly on Merry’s back, causing the horse to turn her
head to look at her. “Someone harmed his family, right?”

“The Others numbered so many, the other
churches banded together to form a new, single church of their own.
Most of the old churches put aside their differences and joined. By
doing this, they had as many followers as The Others. In this new
church, they named the Fae as demons.”

Alrick closed his eyes. He saw where this was
going. So apparently, did Carly. She looked sick.

“This church grew phenomenally,” Mort
continued. “And as the Warlord’s years of work unraveled, he was
named Satan by these men. Anything bad that happened in the world
was blamed on magic, on the Fae. If a jetliner crashed, the Fae
caused it. An explosion in the middle-east? Not terrorists, but
Fae. Even the FBI and CIA began to watch them. Panic and paranoia
set in. The masses screamed for a solution, to be free from the
magical threat they believed hung over their heads. Congress got
together, the UN met, the President spoke about reforms. But in the
end, it was the churches that took action.”

“Took action how?”

“They decided to kill him. And once they
determined this, they developed a secret plan to eradicate the
Fae.” Mort sighed again, his expression heavy. “Though I believe
this plan was not as secret. The government had a hand in it
too.”

“Eradicate?”

The Mage nodded. “As in wipe the earth
clean.”

“Aw, no.” Carly grimaced. “Tell me they
didn’t…”

“I cannot. Any with even a hint of Fae blood
were considered evil. The hysteria grew so bad that they began
killing anyone beautiful, thinking beauty was a Fae inheritance.
The world erupted in lawless slaughter.”

“How is this possible?” Expression stunned,
Carly looked from one man to the other. “There are laws, people
have rights…”

The Mage only shook his head.

Alrick clenched his teeth. “So help me, Mage.
What are your reasons for withholding this information? What you
are saying now makes this Warlord out to be a champion of my
people. This does not match the tale you told my father, the
King.”

“The King knows all of this.” Mort’s gray
eyes were clear and unafraid. “I believed he had told you, until
Cenrick advised me differently. Now, shall I finish? There is more
to the story. Much more.”

Tamping down his rage, Alrick nodded.
“Continue. The churches banded humans together against the Fae and
half-lings. They decided to kill the Warlord. What happened?”

“War began. Church against church, neighbor
against neighbor. Everyone took sides. Such closed-minded bigotry
rarely follows logic. The Warlord’s wife and children were very
beautiful. They were killed in the first attack. Gravely wounded,
he was forced to watch while his family was raped and
tortured.”

Carly gasped.

“Were you there?” Alrick’s voice shook. “Tell
me true, Mage from the future. Were you there for this?”

“I lived during this time, yes.” Mort spoke
with dignity. “But I did not personally witness the acts against
the Warlord.”

“The loss of his family sent him over the
edge?”

“Yes. Barely escaping, he vowed revenge. Not
only revenge, but his own kind of eradication. He gathered the Fae,
helped them form an army to kill all the humans. To ensure that
such a thing would never again happen.”

“Fae cannot harm humans,” Alrick pointed out.
“This is one of our oldest laws. You know this. Why did the Fae not
simply rebuild and close the veil between the worlds as they did
before, in the time of Camelot?”

“Some wanted this. But when I say everyone
took sides, I wasn’t exaggerating. There was dissension, even among
the Fae. Some wanted to retreat, to close the veil and go on with
their lives as they had before. But others wanted to fight.”

“Fae?” Alrick couldn’t believe it. “Fae
cannot kill humans.”

The Mage continued on as if he hadn’t heard.
“The Warlord found young, male Fae. Warriors with no one to fight.
Restless, full of frustration. They refused to let the veil be
sealed, and used their magic to break one of the most ancient of
our laws. Once the first human had been killed, the battle became a
free-for-all.”

“Didn’t they realize they risked their
souls?” Alrick could scarcely credit such a thing. “I know it might
be different with half-lings, but these were Fae.”

“Risk their souls? What do you mean?” Carly
asked.

The mage answered. “Naturally bright and
shining beings, Fae are the closest thing on earth to angels. If
they open themselves up to the dark, as had the Maccus so many
centuries ago, they would be doomed forever.”

“And the Warlord led them into damnation.”
Alrick couldn’t believe it. Bad enough their enemy traveled through
time to kill a poor, innocent human woman before her child could be
born. If he wanted to risk his own soul, that was his problem. But
to involve others…

“Do they follow him of their own free
will?”

Mort nodded. “I believe so. How could one man
coerce so many?”

“The Warlord became what he hated the most.”
Alrick choked out the words, surprised by the depths of his sorrow
and rage. “A doer of great evil.”

“What’s his name?” Carly cleared her
too-tight throat. “The Warlord? Surely he has a given name?”

Alrick too fell silent, wanting to know the
name of the one who would take down the world.

“Valerian. Valerian Wake.” Mort spoke the
name as though it were a curse.

“Poor, poor man.” Carly’s emerald eyes filled
with tears.

“Don’t let pity move you.” Alrick moved TM
closer, wishing he could hold her. “You heard what the Mage said.
The Warlord means to kill you, so he may continue to hold his
position. His life so far in the future and his motives for acting
as he does should not concern you.”

“Can this too not be changed?” Fierce now,
she looked from Mort to Alrick. “You say everything is up to
chance. Why did this Valerian not try to go back and prevent the
death of his wife?”

“That is what he’s doing now.”

“I don’t understand.”

“He believes Lance is responsible.”

Alrick froze. Started to reach out to Carly,
but stopped, watching her instead.

Carly’s eyes widened. Horror filled her face.
“Are you telling me my son had something to do with this?”

“No. But the Warlord believes he does. There
were Fae, there were humans, but everyone forgot about one group.
The half-lings. Lance gathered them together, separate from the
churches. They tried to make The Others see if they continued this
war, the earth would be destroyed. Both Fae and humans would
die.”

“That sounds a lot like what the Warlord
wanted in the beginning.”

The Mage gave her a tortured look. “Yes, it
is. I believe Lance is the only one who can stop the insanity. The
only one who has the slightest chance of saving the world.”

“All well and good,” Alrick growled. “But you
still haven’t told us why the Warlord believes him responsible for
the death of his family.”

“Not the death, exactly. But the
resurrection.”

Carly groaned. “This sounds too
apocalyptic.”

“Perhaps. But the truth of the matter is
this. In order to increase his power, the Warlord began to traffic
with the darkness. He kept the bodies of his wife and children
frozen, and made a bargain to bring them back to life. Lance
interfered. The bodies were lost. This was a great victory for
goodness. Unfortunately, this was what finally sent the Warlord
completely into madness.”

They all fell silent. Finally, Carly spoke.
“This all sounds like some kind of fatalistic fairy tale, pardon
the expression. Though I know you can’t lie, it’s kind of hard to
swallow.”

“I agree.” Alrick studied the Mage closely,
looking for signs of senility perhaps, but seeing only sorrow. The
Mage shrugged. “Sorry, but it happened. I know.”

“How, old one? How do you know?”

“Because I was there. I helped your son
defeat the darkness. Lance is who I fought for, and using my magic
to defeat the evil so depleted me, I was captured.”

“That’s how the Warlord captured you?” Alrick
felt better knowing this. “Why didn’t you say so?”

But the Mage was looking at Carly, who
regarded him with wonder and surprise. “You
know
him, in the
future? You know my son, Lance?”

“Yes.”

“I know you’re from a time that’s yet to come
and all, but I never thought you might actually have met someone
who doesn’t even exist.”

With a soft smile, the mage nodded. “Your son
will grow up to become a fine man, a great leader of people.”

“My head hurts.” But Carly smiled. “I’m not
sure I needed to know all this.”

“Yes, you did.” The Mage insisted. “It’s
important you understand.”

“Either way, we still must defeat the
Warlord.” Alrick’s grim declaration contained no pity. “Thus far
he’s made numerous attempts to kill you.”

“No he hasn’t.”

Mort raised his brows. “What do you
mean?”

“Maybe I’ve watched too many violent movies
or played too many video games, but as a bad guy, well – he’s just
not that bad. Not
Terminator
quality at all.”

When the Mage looked at him, Alrick could
only shrug. “She and I have already had this discussion.”

“Seriously, everything he’s done so far,
while it was nasty, it wasn’t exactly horrific, now was it?”

The Mage stared at her with disbelief. “He
burnt down your barn, put venomous snakes in your bed, sent ants
and spiders—.”

“Yeah, but those are all so-so bad. Not
critical.”

“He destroyed your pickup,” Alrick pointed
out. “In that attempt, he almost killed you with the
explosion.”

“Almost being the key word. If he’d really
wanted to kill me, why not blow it up while we were in it?”

Alrick narrowed his eyes but said
nothing.

The mage stepped forward. “Maybe it’s a
matter of timing. Since he’s using so much power to travel freely
between your time and his, the magical force he’s using against you
is unfocused. Believe me when I say his might is terrible.”

Alrick agreed. “It is enough that he
threatens you, Carly.”

“Once he learns how, there may come a time
when he’s not content to remain fully in the future.”

“I so want to call a time out.”

Both Alrick and Mort stared at her.
Expression belligerent, she stared back. “And why the hell not? If
this is only some gigantic cosmic chess game, I’d like to quit and
go home.”

The Mage opened his mouth to speak. With a
look, Alrick silenced him. “This is no game.” He turned to the
Mage. “Now, is there anything else you’ve learned that might help
us?”

“Yes.” Mort straightened his shoulders, his
expression settling back into its familiar, solemn lines. “I have
one more piece of important information. That boy you met…” Mort’s
image began to flicker and fade. His voice faded in and out,
garbling his words so they couldn’t understand them. Then, just
like that, he was gone.

Alrick looked at Carly. “I hope he didn’t
leave the most important for last. What do you suppose he was going
to tell us about the boy?”

“I don’t know.” Carly looked up. “But he left
his bird.” The big falcon still soared in circles overhead.

“Tinth will watch over us and report back to
him.” Alrick glanced around them, the residue from magic still
tingling along his skin. “Carly, the bad thing about the Mage
appearing—.”

“Besides him not giving us any new
information, you mean?”

“Yes, besides that. He had to use magic to
come to us. And that means—”

“Crap.”

“Exactly. We’re in for another rough ride,”
he finished. “We’d better find a place to hide from whatever the
weather is going to throw at us.”

Overhead, the hawk screeched.

Alrick turned TM, searching the sky. The sun
still blazed from low in the horizon. The sky remained bright blue,
the few wisps of clouds non-threatening. The earth held solid, no
tremors, no rumbling issued from below.

Then what?