Sovereign of the Seven Isles 7: Reishi Adept (13 page)

Isabel shook her head sadly. “You don’t understand at all. You aren’t just immune from the unpleasant emotions people experience when they do wrong, you also miss out on the good things. In many ways, you
’re not even fully human.”

He cocked his head as if he was considering beating her to death, but seemed to think better of it.

“Well, it would seem that my lack of humanity, as you put it, affords me an advantage that you and your precious Alexander simply can’t match. After this little conversation, I’m more confident than ever of victory over your lot. Zuhl is another matter. He’s like me. I guess that makes him a worthy adversary … and a dangerous one.”

Phane started walking again. “Come along.”

They walked in silence for several blocks. Isabel thought about Phane’s words, his new understanding of himself and his enemies. Ultimately, his very nature isolated him. He could never fully trust another. He could never love. He could never care enough for another person to lay down his own life to preserve them. What’s more, he would never expect his enemies to do such a thing.

That made him shortsighted. It narrowed the field of options he would even consider. He was all alone. While resourceful and very powerful, he could never be allied with a group of like
-minded people all working toward a common goal. His lack of conscience might be an advantage in the short run, but ultimately, it would lead to his ruin.

Evil isn’t sustainable, Isabel thought.
She smiled. Alexander would like that.

“You seem
pleased with yourself,” Phane said without stopping.

She considered her response, a number of flippant options tumbling through her mind, but she decided to broach another subject.

“What did you do with Lacy?”

“Oh, you won’t be seeing her again,” he said.

Isabel felt a thrill of fear and loss course through her. She’d been worrying about the princess for days, but didn’t really believe that Phane would kill her. He seemed much more interested in turning his adversaries against everything they held dear rather than taking their lives.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that her usefulness has run its course.”

Isabel stopped, her anger rising quickly.

“If you killed her, I’ll—”

He spun to face her, rage flashing in his eyes.

“You’ll what? You’re collared. Your magic is beyond reach. Without it, you’re helpless—at my mercy.

“Oh, Isabel,
do you think your paltry resistance to Azugorath has saved you? Do you believe the rescue of your friend has placed your soul beyond my grasp?

“I’m taking you to see
the scope of your doom. You believe me to be unfeeling, but I assure you that I will take great pleasure in the look of horror on your face when you see the true nature of your future.”

She froze, all manner of possibilities cascading through her mind. And for all of her imaginings, she knew that Phane had probably conce
ived of a worse fate than she was willing to imagine.

He smiled
at her distress like a child with a new toy.

She struggled to still her sudden trembling when one of the soldiers in the cordon
surrounding them drew his dagger and stabbed another soldier in the back. The cry of pain drew Phane’s attention. With a word he burned a magic circle into the road. Another quick incantation and the circle became a shield wall surrounding him and Isabel along with the three nearest soldiers.

What followed was madness. The soldier attacked another of his companions, wounding him grievously before two other
s stabbed him. No sooner had he fallen to his knees than one of the two who’d killed him turned on the other and hacked him in the neck, spraying blood on the street.

Three more attacked him, killing him quickly, but then, just as quickly, one of the three turned on the other two. He killed one, then wounded the other before he fell. The four remaining men attacked each other as if they believed tha
t any man with a weapon was a threat.

T
he last soldier standing laughed with twisted glee.

“Fear is such a marvelous thing,” Rankosi said. “It will make a man kill his own brother … only to lament his crime so deeply that he will then take his own life. I must thank you for preserving these three.” He gestured to the guards within the magic circle.
“It’s always best when there are a few survivors to tell the story.”

With a malevolent smile he sliced diagonally down the length of his forearm, spilling bright red blood on
to the flagstones. His expression of glee abruptly transformed into one of pain and terror as the shade left his victim.

“
Looks like you’ve made a new friend,” Isabel said.

“I knew there would be consequences for taking the dragon from him, but
his wanton murder is becoming a problem. My soldiers are beginning to lose their nerve.”

Isabel looked at the carnage surrounding them and shook her head. “Looks like a bit more than a problem. If this keeps up, your
men might start deserting you.”

He looked at her with fresh rage flashing in his eyes. “I assure you, they fear me far more than they fear the shade.”

From the looks on the faces of the remaining three men, Isabel wasn’t so sure.

“If you say so. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re losing men.”

“I suppose you would have me banish him—close off the darkness within your mind.”

“That’s one option,” she said with an innocent shrug.

“Always pushing. In truth, that’s one of your more endearing qualities—to a point. Come along,” he said, dispelling the magic circle with a gesture and walking briskly toward the black tower looming at the end of the street.

***

Isabel was dismayed when she entered the tower and discovered that it was much like Blackstone Keep in its magical construction and defenses. Corridors were warded and shielded. A few passages were fully walled over until Phane uttered a command and the stone barring passage vanished only to reappear behind them. She knew without doubt that escape from this tower would be nearly impossible.

There were no
soldiers, only wraithkin and a few serving girls, all young and all fearful. Phane ignored them as he led her through a series of magically lit passages, down many flights of stairs and past numerous security measures, some mundane but most magical in nature.

They came to a room with two wraithkin at the door and three more within. Set into the far wall was a slab of stone that looked nearly identical to the Reishi Gates
, except much smaller. The smooth black stone arch was carved with similar runes.

Phane laid his hand on the
archway, spoke a word and the stone transformed into a passage. He stepped through without a word, turning back toward Isabel, commanding her to follow with a look. Once she was through the gate, it closed. They entered a small, austere room. Then Phane led her through a door and down a long hallway to a double door at the end. Two wraithkin stood guard.

The door opened onto a balcony set into the
side of an expansive domed room. Isabel stepped up to the railing, her heart in her throat. The entire perimeter of the room was enclosed by a magical circle, but that wasn’t what made her blood run cold.

Floating in the center, well off the ground
, was a set of three magical circles cast in silver and accented with gold. Each was twenty feet across and each was set at ninety degrees to the next, in effect creating an area of magical confinement in the shape of a sphere.

Within
the sphere was Azugorath, the Wraith Queen, Isabel’s own personal tormentor. A creature of darkness and shadow without a distinct form. What substance she did possess writhed and squirmed as if she longed to be free. As Isabel stared at her, a set of red eyes formed out of the darkness, staring back. The malice and hatred for life shining from those eyes made Isabel tremble. As much as she wanted to look away, she couldn’t seem to break the hold those eyes had on her. Her eyes began to hurt. Then the pain spread to her head and a coldness started to seep into her bones.

Phane roughly spun her away from the railing.

“Are you a fool? Even in the confines of her cage, she can drain your life with her gaze … if you let her. I didn’t bring you here to see
her
, I brought you here to see
them
.” He swept his hand across the breadth of the room.

It was only then that Isabel saw the collec
tion of smaller magical circles uniformly filling the floor of the room. Three contained creatures that looked very similar to Azugorath, yet much smaller and less distinct.

“It took a great deal of work and considerable trial and error, but I finally succeeded.”

Isabel felt a tingle of fear wash over her as she looked out over the scores of empty circles.

“Each of those
circles will contain a wraith which will provide one of my wraithkin with their power. It will take some time, but eventually all of my wraithkin will be tied to his own individual wraith, freeing Azugorath to focus her entire will on you.”

The blood drained from Isabel’s face and she felt suddenly cold. Phane was true to his word—she was standing before her doom, and it terrified her. Only when she saw the look of smug satisfaction on his face did her courage return.

She swallowed her fear and reminded herself of the light within, that quiet, timeless source of hope she’d found at the very core of her being. Whatever considerable horrors Phane could send against her would always pale in comparison with that light, even if it didn’t seem like it at the moment.

“You will fail,” she said softly, even though she didn’t fully believe the words herself.

“Defiance in the face of certain defeat is not a virtue,” he said.

“You wouldn’t know what a virtue looked like if
it walked up and hit you in the head.”

He
laughed softly.

“You really are extraordinary, Isabel. I’ve faced many enemies, and more than a few defied me, until I defeated them and then most begged for mercy. I have defea
ted you, and yet here you stand, defiant as ever. In time, I will harness that indescribable quality you possess that gives you the strength to face this,” he swept his hand out across the expansive room, “and still stand with courage. When I do, yours will be the most feared name in all the Seven Isles. You will serve as my personal representative. Kings will fall to their knees, trembling, when you enter the room.”

“If I could give you just one glimpse of that indescribabl
e quality you speak of, you’d be the one on your knees trembling,” she said. “In that moment, you would grasp the totality of your failure as a human being. You would understand that I will never serve you or your master. You would know that every achievement you’ve ever counted as a victory has really been just one more step toward ultimate defeat.”

A smile spread across his face and he started clapping slowly,
mockingly, but Isabel could see the doubt in his eyes.

“Spoken like a true queen,” he said. “It will begin slowly. She will start to reassert herself in your mind, probably as you sleep at first, but then during waking hours. One
by one, I will transfer my wraithkin from her, and each time, her influence over you will grow, until finally, she will own you.

“Your
little friend may be out of my reach, but that matters for nothing. Once Azugorath has possession of you, I’ll send you forth against the House of Karth. Not because they matter, they’re a trivial threat, but because it will provide an opportunity to use you as a weapon against your own cause. You’ll watch helplessly, trapped within your own body, unable to exert your own will, as you slaughter my enemies, your friends, by the thousands. You will spill so much blood that it will stain your very soul.

“You’
ll resist at first, but eventually, the sheer magnitude of death at your hands will overwhelm your precious conscience. Then, after much pain and suffering, you will see the truth: Conscience is a lie. It’s nothing but a deception constructed by those who would rule to protect their power and control the masses. Once you understand this, you will be free. Your guilt and remorse will wash away. You will embrace your power and take your rightful place as
my
Lady Reishi.”

“You know, sometimes I think you’ve told so many lies that you believe the world will become what you want it to be just because you say it’s so,” Isabel said. “It’s almost like you believe that your delusions are reality, and reality is the real fantasy.”

“Well, I guess we shall see whose vision of the world becomes reality.”

“I c
an’t argue with that,” Isabel said.

“Come, I have more to show you,” he said, leading her out of the room and retracing his steps back into the upper levels of the black tower.

Isabel paid careful attention to the route they took, even though she didn’t believe that she could ever penetrate the myriad defenses between Azugorath and the outside world. But information about the enemy was never a bad thing.