Mindbender (51 page)

Isabel shook off the haze in her mind and tried to get up, only to find that the grass of the field had grown up and around her arms and legs, pinning her to the ground. From off in the distance, she heard the gloating laughter of Gabriella as the triumvir walked toward her prey.

Isabel felt a thrill of panic but pushed it away in favor of rage. She poured the fuel of fear into her anger and ripped her right arm free of the grass so she could hit Gabriella with a light-lance spell. It came easily and was fueled with greater rage and a stronger connection to the firmament than Isabel had ever managed before. The heat of battle mixed with the deliberate anger she’d been nursing protected her from the full and unrestrained connection she made with the firmament. The power of the spell should have been enough to sear the flesh from Gabriella’s bones, but she stood leaning into her shield as the piercing heat of the light was absorbed or deflected away.

When the light was spent, Gabriella laughed. “Is that everything, girl? Do you have anything else you’d like to try?” She sauntered toward Isabel, still pinned to the ground by magically animated vegetation, with a grim and menacing grin.

Isabel touched Gabriella’s steed with her mind. He was still a minute or two from arriving at the field after breaking free of his handler’s attempts to restrain him and launching himself into the sky from the nearest bay.

Isabel thought of Alexander. She needed to see him again. If she could survive for just a minute more, she had a fighting chance. With thoughts of him, her anger broke. She linked to the light and hope flooded into her. She let it come and embraced the feeling of love that grew within her soul. When she felt as if she might burst from the overwhelming power of the emotion, she connected to the firmament and embraced it.

The love she felt was bigger than the draw of the firmament, even when she stared it straight in the face. She cast her shield spell using Slyder orbiting high overhead as her point of reference for motion. Her shield sprang to life just a moment before Gabriella cast a light-lance spell of her own. The brilliance of the light was dazzling but the heat of it never reached her. Her shield held.

Gabriella stopped and stared in disbelief. “How can this be?”

The triumvir raised her hand again, muttering an angry chant. An orb of blackness formed before her outstretched hand. Isabel heard a collective gasp from the onlookers as Gabriella released the dark magic. It hit Isabel’s shield and seemed to drain the magic from it, until only a moment later, it sputtered out and vanished, leaving her vulnerable and still pinned to the ground.

She clung to the hope of the light and cast her last, best hope for survival. Her Maker’s light spell stabbed out from her hand and hit Gabriella’s shield, driving through it as if it wasn’t even there. The light flooded into Gabriella and a strange expression ghosted across her face, as if she was remembering something vitally important that she had forgotten long ago.

Gabriella raised her hand and tried to cast another spell at Isabel but stopped with a look of sudden concern just as a shadow was cast across her from behind. She turned to see Asteroth, her faithful steed, land within striking distance. Gabriella faltered at the sight. She had been bonded to Asteroth for nearly a hundred years. He was loyal to her and yet he stood poised to strike.

Isabel shouted the command into Asteroth’s mind, “Kill her!”

The wyvern didn’t hesitate. His bone-bladed tail whipped over his head and drove through Gabriella’s shield and into her chest, cutting her in half with a single strike. She toppled over with a stricken look of shock, terror, and surprise.

The grass abruptly released its hold on Isabel and she struggled to her feet even as Asteroth tipped his head back and roared with the realization of what he’d just done. His bond was broken and he was feeling lost and alone. Isabel reached into his mind and imposed her will on him once again, this time to comfort the beast and to win his loyalty. She imprinted herself on him and assumed Gabriella’s place as his rider.

When she stood and patted Asteroth’s giant jaw, the assembled crowd fell deathly silent. When she mounted her new steed, the Sky Knights collectively dropped to one knee.

Isabel faced the two remaining triumvirs from atop Asteroth. “Gabriella is dead. I claim the title of triumvir and I confirm my right to the title of Lady Reishi.”

To punctuate her proclamation she touched the minds of every wyvern in the fortress island and issued a single command: Roar!

Chapter 29

Alexander’s eyes flickered open. He was in a stone room with no windows but ample light. He felt cold, not like the cold of exposure but deeper, in his bones. Chloe flitted up over his face and smiled at him with a mixture of worry and relief before she buzzed off to find Lucky.

The earth shook and a rumble reverberated through the stone of the floor. Lucky came to his side a moment later, along with Jack.

“Lie still, Alexander. You’ve been out for about an hour,” Lucky said. “How do you feel?”

“Cold . . . and empty,” Alexander said as his hand went to the bandaged wound on his neck. “What’s happened?”

“We retreated into the underground chambers beneath the ruins,” Jack said. “That wizard has been pounding the mountain with lightning for the past hour. Jataan reports that the entrance we used to get in here has collapsed but the passages go deeper into the mountain, so there may be another way out.”

“Is everyone all right?” Alexander asked.

“Evelyn was injured by the revenant’s bite,” Lucky said. “She fell unconscious but woke several minutes after I applied healing salve to her wound. I gave her a healing draught and she’s resting quietly. You, on the other hand, are not healing and I’m worried that my magic isn’t powerful enough to overcome the revenant’s bite.”

Alexander shook his head. “We have to kill the one that bit me. Otherwise, I’ll turn into one of them.”

“That might be a problem,” Anatoly said. “We’re trapped down here and we’ve heard the scream of at least one more revenant from the chambers below.”

The ground shook again, showering Alexander with a coating of dust.

“And the wizard hasn’t given up on us yet. How are you feeling?” Anatoly asked.

“I’ve been better,” Alexander replied as he sat up. The wound on his neck still hurt but what worried him more was the feeling of numbing cold spreading from the bite into the rest of his body.

Chloe flew up and hovered a foot from his face. “I’m worried about you, My Love. I can feel the darkness growing within you.”

“Me too, Little One,” Alexander said. “It’s supposed to take a month for the transformation to run its course. Hopefully, the soldiers or the wizard out there will kill the revenant for us and solve my problem.”

“If they don’t, what then?” Anatoly asked.

“It doesn’t like the light, so it’ll look for another way back underground before dawn,” Alexander said. “I doubt it’ll abandon its lair so easily. My guess is we’ll have another run-in with the thing. Hopefully, it won’t get the best of me next time.”

Jataan returned with Boaberous in tow. “It’s good to see you awake again, Lord Reishi. We’ve searched this level and found several rooms that look like they were once libraries or workrooms, but everything has long since turned to dust. There’s a staircase leading to another level below but we thought it best not to venture too far.”

“Good, I want to take a look at those rooms,” Alexander said as he got to his feet. He was weak and chilled and felt sick but he forced himself to focus on the task at hand in spite of the magic working to transform him into a monster. “We’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Alexander raised his vial of night-wisp dust to illuminate the narrow corridor. It was made from stone blocks cut carefully and expertly set without mortar. The place was ancient but fresh revenant tracks were visible in the dust covering the floor. Alexander quickly evaluated the other rooms with his second sight for some hint of anything magical but saw nothing. They were exactly what Jataan said they were, the broken remains of long-abandoned workrooms.

On their way back to the room nearest the collapsed entrance, the old man in robes stepped out of one of the rooms they had already inspected and faced Alexander with a look of appraisal. Jataan stepped forward but Alexander stilled him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Who are you?” Alexander asked. He could see the man with his eyes but his magical sight told him something very different. There was no aura of life or magic. To Alexander’s second sight, the man wasn’t even there.

“Are you worthy?” the man asked, then shimmered out of existence.

“I guess we’re going to find out,” Alexander muttered.

When they returned to the others, Evelyn was awake and sitting up. Alexander appraised the weary looks on the faces around him and decided that his quest for knowledge about his calling could wait. Everyone was exhausted and they were in as safe a place as possible, given the situation.

“Everybody get some rest,” Alexander said. “Place a vial of night-wisp dust in the hall outside the door and make sure that the person standing watch has one as well. The soldiers can’t get to us without making enough noise to wake the dead, so the revenant in the lower chambers is the real concern.

“Also, keep an eye out for the illusions we’ve been seeing. Jataan and I just saw that man again in the hallway. I don’t know what he has to do with anything, but I do know he’s not really there. Don’t let him lure you away from the group.”

Alexander slept fitfully, waking frequently with dark and menacing nightmares. He’d never suffered from terror in his dreams before. He was starting to dread the idea of sleep because he knew it would bring the fear. It was different than real, rational fear. This was the all-encompassing fear of a dream that offered no escape and no means of resistance.

Just after his turn at watch sometime in the middle of the night, the lightning strikes stopped and the room fell quiet save for Lucky’s gentle snoring and the rhythmic breathing of everyone else.

Alexander sat on a clear space on the floor and traced the outline of a magic circle around him in the dust. It took several minutes to quiet his mind. The numbing cold of the revenant bite was a constant distraction but he managed to overcome it with some effort. Once he found himself floating on the firmament, he focused on his task. The world rushed by in a blur and he found himself floating over the bed of Abel Ithilian. He was sleeping fitfully and his wife lay awake staring at the ceiling.

Alexander drifted into Abel’s dreams and found him fighting a terrible monster that was about to devour his daughter. Alexander imposed his will on Abel’s dreams, dispelling the imaginary enemy and leaving the two of them sitting in Abel’s favorite study.

Abel looked all around with sudden dismay and confusion. “What’s happening?” he asked.

“Abel, it’s me, Alexander. I’m using my magic to communicate with you in your dreams. I’ve rescued Evelyn. The enemy is pursuing. Begin your attack into Grafton.”

Abel woke with a start and Alexander found himself floating against the ceiling of his bedchamber.

“Sofia,” Abel said excitedly, “Alexander has rescued Evelyn. I have to go speak with General Kishor.”

Sofia hugged her husband fiercely and sobbed into his nightshirt for several moments before she gained some composure.

“Make those bastards pay for what they’ve done to her,” she said through her tears.

Alexander returned to the firmament and then to the room where he sat meditating quietly. Chloe sat on his knee watching over him nervously while Jack sat against a wall watching the door and listening for any hint of danger.

He drifted out of the room and down to the level below. There was a long hall leading to three rooms, all equally dilapidated and abandoned. There were no signs of the revenant or the secrets that Alexander had come so far to find. He searched farther but realized that, even with his clairvoyance, he needed light to see some things. He knew there was probably another hidden door somewhere in one of the three rooms, but he would have to search for it with light to have any chance of finding it.

He floated through the stone of the ruins above and into the night sky. The stars were shining and the angry clouds conjured by the wizard were gone. Alexander drifted out over the enemy encampment and saw a scene of battle unfolding that was at once terrible and satisfying.

Two revenants flew over the soldiers below, periodically swooping down to snatch a victim from the feast arrayed before them, then carrying the screaming soldier into the night sky while feeding on his life force. With such a plentiful bounty to choose from, they didn’t bother to draw the life completely out of any given soldier, just the vitality of the moment. When they were finished, they dropped the soldier to his death, crashing into those below and spreading terror through the ranks.

In the center of the encampment stood the wizard, casting lightning from his hands when the opportunity presented itself but missing most of the time. The single bolt of lightning that did strike home elicited a shriek of anger from the revenant but little more. Alexander knew from Malachi’s description of the monsters that they were difficult to kill, especially if they had fed recently. Judging by the number of broken bodies littering the camp, these two had fed well. It was clear that the soldiers would probably not be able to kill either of them.