Sword Bearer (Return of the Dragons) (11 page)

The Gulk was spinning around wildly, spraying everything
with its acrid burning blood. I swung my sword against it. I felt the blow from
my head to my toes. The Gulk, for its part, fell to the floor, but continued to
writhe, changing colors as it whipped its remaining tentacles blindly around.

Into the very center. Look deeply with your third eye and
you will see a point of black light. Strike deeply there, at its heart. It has
no mind, except in its owner.

I looked and found the burning black deep inside the red. It
blinked at me with malevolence and I heard a voice:

Herr
!

I felt a great surge of energy then, hate and confusion, and
grabbed the sword tightly in two hands. I brought it down swiftly, and there
was a great popping noise, and a scream. I felt myself covered with burning
blood, polluted by it.

A few tentacles moved still, and then it was over.

I fell down to a sitting position on the floor. Was it
always going to be like this, exhausting myself, falling down in front of
friends and family?

But then I saw Kara and Kalle crouched down, gathered around
my father. Woltan stood above them, looking down, muttering the words to an
incantation.

Kara straightened up. I was about to say something but she
put her finger to her lips, came up to me and reached out a hand to help me up.

Say nothing. We mustn’t interfere with Woltan’s spell.
Your father is in grave danger.

What’s the matter with him?

He’s unconscious and we fear his mind has been tampered
with. We think he has been implanted as well with dark spirits.

Dark faeries?

Kara nodded.
An imp, perhaps. Or several.

What can we do?

We must do a complete search of his aura and his body.

She stopped, looking at me in surprise and wrinkling her
nose.
But you’re covered in that foul creature’s blood. We must wash you
off, or it may pollute your essence. As well as doing nothing positive for your
skin. Already your aura is strange.

It was true, the blood stung and stank. I wanted to stay
with my father, but Kara pulled me out of the room. We came quickly to a
fountain, surrounded by cups and bowls. She grabbed a cup and before I could
say anything, was pouring water all over me.

Or was it water?

Even with my eyes opened, without my third eye I could see
it glowed with green energy. Was my third eye really shut, or was it always
awake now?

The water flowed like liquid ice over the burning blood of
the Gulk. She poured another cup, and I felt cleaner, and the stinging eased.
With the third cup I felt human again, just thoroughly soaked with the liquid.
It was odorless, so perhaps it was water, after all. If so, it was water full
of positive energy, good clean pure natural magic that washed way the
contamination that had begun to enter my skin.

She grinned at me, as I stood there dripping. “This, unlike
the Gulk blood, should do
wonders
for your skin.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Normally, the blood of the Gulk burns and disfigures its
attackers horribly. I don’t know why this didn’t happen to you, unless...”

“It did sting me. Burned me a little, too.”

Kara’s face lit up.

“You’re the three-blooded prince, Anders, right?”

I nodded. I didn’t know where this was leading.

“It must be the merpeople blood. That means that you are
master of sea creatures, and your skin is resistant to magic.”

“I can’t be attacked magically?”

“Resistant, not invulnerable. I learned about the merpeople
in school, but I’ve never seen them.”

What a fool I was. I’d read about the merpeople too, just
never paid much attention. And why hadn’t I paid attention? Because I hadn’t
believed. I had thought the merpeople were just one more thing made up to fill
an old book. I had to hold back a laugh. What an idiot I was. Talk about not
believing in yourself.

Kara looked at me, dripping wet. “What’s so funny?”

I shrugged. “Nothing, I just never thought the merpeople
were real.”

Kara smiled. “And now you find you have merpeople blood.”
She paused for a moment, then smiled again. “I thought princesses were made up
too, just in storybooks, until I found out three years ago that I was one.”

I guess I looked surprised.

“We Kriek, as you’ll find out, have no visible
manifestations of rank, and all decisions are carried out in town meetings. I
couldn’t attend the meetings until I was 10. That was when I found out my
father led the meetings, and when I questioned him about it, found that he was the
Kriek king, and that I as his daughter...”

“Are a princess.”

She nodded. “We should get you out of these wet clothes.”

Now
that
was embarrassing.

“I don’t have any others.”

She smiled. “Perhaps we’ll just dry these off then, until
you can shower and change.”

She spoke a word then, that I had not heard before:
sec
.

The clothes dried on my body, without any heat. The water
just went out of them, vanishing. But they still didn’t smell too pretty.

Kara wrinkled her nose. “I would destroy those clothes as soon
as possible. They will never be free of the stain of dark magic.”

“That creature called me
Herr
, before it died. Just
like the keiler.”

“I would ask Woltan, or my father what this means. I trust
you’re not a dark lord, yourself?”

I shook my head. “Let’s get back to my father,” I said.

Chapter XII

This couldn’t be happening. I refused to believe it.
Whatever else my father had been, he had always been invulnerable.

“Wake up,” I said, softly.

There was no response.

I said it again, louder. But the room was still. I wanted to
believe I could hear quiet breathing in the stillness.

They had to just be sleeping deeply. Woltan and Kara
couldn’t be right. I refused to believe my parents couldn’t hear me, couldn’t
see me.

Sure, my father’s face was a little blue and his eyes were
closed. But he’d been through a lot. I crouched down next to him where he lay,
next to my mother, and I spoke a work of power:
Wach.

Was there a twitch in his eyelids?

I couldn’t be sure.

I tried to speak a greater spell, pulling deep within me. It
was so frustrating. There was so much magic I didn’t know.

Excitare.

Did my mother move, or was it just a flicker of the
candlelight?

I put my hand to my sword, to try to pull greater power.

Anders, you need to stop. You won’t help them this way.

I pulled my hand away from my sword in a rage. What could Carolina know? Did she have parents?

I had parents once, Anders. Even the fair folk feel pain,
Anders.

I blocked her out of my mind, and looked at the two bodies.
I had trouble putting together what I saw with my memories. Were these the same
people from just a few days ago? When I had argued with them about covering my
pimples?

Now they were so silent and their skin so blue they might as
well have been dead. How could they do this to me? How dare they never tell me
about the dangers, about the sword I now carried at my side.

“Mother!” I yelled, but it was too late now. “Father!” I
yelled.

There was no reaction. How could they do this to me — leave
me all alone, without knowing what they expected from me? And now just lie
their like logs, and leave me to be the parent.

Look at me, I wanted to shout at them, I’m a three-blooded
prince!

But they lay there not moving a muscle, blue skinned and
pale.

I touched my father’s skin and it felt stone cold, smooth
and cold as marble.

This wasn’t my father. This was just some blue-tinted copy
of him, that didn’t do anything. My father was gone, and I didn’t know where he
was anymore. My mother was gone, and I had a cold blue statue here instead.

Someone was playing a nasty joke on me. It was all a trick,
and any minute my parents were going to sit up and laugh and say, “Surprise!”

But I knew that wasn’t true. And that’s what made me so
angry.

Their souls were trapped inside these bodies, their minds
were there too, but if they couldn’t be contacted, what was the point? They
might as well be dead.

If I could only talk with them just one more time, find out
what they needed me to do.

“Anders?”

Someone was speaking to me.

With words, not thoughts.

I had one reply for him. Leave. Me. Alone. This was his
fault as much as mine, and had he helped any? I wanted no one in my mind, not
now.

I stood up slowly, and turned.

Woltan stood looking at me. There was pain in his face, and
compassion too, but I wanted none of it. It wasn’t his parents who lay there
cold and rigid like statues, was it? What did he know about what I was feeling?

“Anders?”

“What?”

It came angrier than I’d meant, but what did he want,
anyway? Had anyone ever asked me if I wanted to be a prince, to have my parents
turned to stone and a whole army of dark forces looking for me?

“We have to probe them, Anders. Now, before any more damage
is done.”

I was angry now. Woltan wasn’t worried about my parents. Had
he ever worried about them? He just wanted to make sure they weren’t carrying
any spies. “You just care about your lost city,” I told him.

Woltan shrugged. “Anders, you’re angry now. That’s normal. I
would be too, in your situation.”

“Don’t talk to me about my situation, Woltan — you have no
idea. All you care about is your forgotten city. If I hadn’t passed your test,
I probably would be as dead to the world as my parents.”

I kicked my foot out, knocking over a chair. It hurt. But
the pain felt good. I needed to feel pain, right then. It gave me a reason for
the tears I felt welling up in my eyes. I wanted to knock Woltan out of the
room and pummel my parents until they woke up. How could they leave me alone to
deal with their problems, with my problems?

“We don’t believe in killing anyone except those who want to
kill us. Listen, Anders, I care about my city, my people, my friends — about
you too. Everything connects. Remember if we are destroyed, then your parents
will not longer be of any use to the Dark Lord, and he will destroy them too.”

“Woltan, just shut up and leave, okay? I really don’t want
to hear it right now.”

I shook my head. Maybe it was childish to react like this.
But how else could I react? These were my parents. Parents who drove me crazy.
Parents who slapped me in anger. Parents who locked me in my room so I would
study. Parents who made me study with a horrible tutor and never once asked me
what I wanted. Parents I loved.

I felt tears begin to flow. But I was too angry to be
embarrassed. I turned my head. My face felt hot and wet with tears and I wanted
to be alone then, more than anything else. But I knew that Woltan would
probably deny me that pleasure.

Woltan looked away. “Although I don’t think it’s for the
best, I will respect your wishes. I will leave you alone for a minute, and then
I will need your help.”

“Thanks you,” I said, surprised.

Woltan left.

A small skylight in the ceiling lit the room, and sunlight
filtered in through its colored glass. My parents lay on two long cots,
separated by several feet. I barely suppressed a bitter chuckle. My parents had
slept in separate rooms as long as I could remember. Now they slept together,
if not in the same bed. And now Woltan said they needed to be probed. That
maybe there were spies inside them, put there by the dark lord.

It was just a pack of lies. It had to be. What did he know?

Suddenly I felt a tingling on my face, a strange electricity
in the air. I looked around, but there was no one.

Just my parents.

I looked at my father.

His eyes were open.

But they were strange, not the eyes I knew. Perhaps it was
all part of this great trick on me. They were glowing, and staring at me, and
suddenly my mind went blank. I felt dizzy. I backed up and found myself against
a wall, cold and hard. That steadied me, and I looked away from my father.

Tell no one, Anders. We are safe. Woltan lies. The lost
city is a city of illusion. You are surrounded by people who exploit your fears
and weaknesses. We can help you.

What if there was some truth in it?

It made as much sense as what Woltan had told me.

When I looked back at my father, his eyes were shut, and the
tingling was gone.

Woltan was standing at the door.

“Did something happen, while I was gone?”

I avoided making eye contact. “What do you mean?”

“You saw something, didn’t you?”

He was just searching for another reason to probe my
parents. All he cared about was his city. They could all go dance with the
demons, for all I cared. If I could only talk to my father once more, even with
glowing eyes, I was sure everything would finally make sense.

I need to know, Anders. Your parents’ safety and your own
is at stake.

“You’re lying to me about something, aren’t you? I don’t
know why I should tell you anything.”

“Anders, I’ve not lied to you since you came here. The
burden you bear as the sword-bearer, as the three-blooded prince is enough for
any man. I would not burden you further with lies and half-truths. Look me in
the eyes, and you’ll see, I hide nothing from you.”

Don’t look at him, he lies!

“Look at me Anders, and see the truth that the demon tries
to twist and reshape, to pollute and sully.”

But I looked away, toward my parents.

I saw my father’s eyes flutter, open, look at me, and the
voice came to me, loud and clear and soothing.

It was the voice of my father, but speaking differently,
convincingly, more smoothly than I remembered.
Good, Anders, don’t look at
him. He is a trickster, a shyster, a charlatan. He has hoodwinked you and your
companions but I am here to shed light in the darkness and clear you of your
confusions. My master is your friend. They call him the dark lord, because they
fear him, but he is bright, and good, and they do right to fear him for they
are nothing but trickery and confusion, glamour and lies.

I nodded. It all made sense. I must have fallen in with the wrong
crowd. Had Gerard ever given me any trouble before Kara had broken into his
shop and escaped to my room? Now because of her and Woltan my parents were
under a spell. I felt a burning suddenly on my leg and brought my hand down.

My hand brushed idly my sword and I felt a jolt, but I
pulled my hand away.

Yes, Anders, kill him. Kill them all. Then I will be
free, and your mother too. That’s all you need to do. Kill all those lying
tricksters. Purify this city of those scum and then open the gates to your kin,
and to their servants, those who call you Herr.

Enough of this. I was tired of being tricked and
manipulated. I hadn’t asked for this, any of this. Just one trick after
another. They must have thought I was a total idiot.

I pulled the sword out and then I heard song. The song
screamed at me and drowned the other words out and buzzed into me, vibrating
all the way to my soul. Suddenly I was sure of nothing. Then I saw her in front
of me. Carolina was not smiling.

Anders, don’t be a fool.

I’m tired of people taking me for one.

No one is taking you for a fool. We’ve saved your lives,
if you’ll think about it. Listen, now — you are in great danger. There are
major imps implanted in both your mother and father, stronger than I, although
they have no sword. I will try to keep you free of their glamour as long as you
hold on to me. My only hope is that, as they are young, I may know a few tricks
that are unknown to them.

I hesitated. Maybe she was right. My father of the glowing
eyes suddenly seemed less like the father I remembered. And I had seen blood,
and seen them held prisoner.

Act as though you are still under his spell, Anders, get
close to him, and then I will help Woltan with the removal, and the battle that
will surely follow.
She paused, looking worried, still.
You might want
to call for help, though.

I raised the sword and concentrated on Woltan, but he made
no show of understanding.

“Why do you have your sword out, Anders?”

KILL THEM, Anders. Kill Woltan, liar and thief, free this
city of the vermin within, KILL THEM ALL and then your mother and I will be
FREE.

Yes, Father.

I rose up the sword and swung towards Woltan, who looked
surprised and fearful.

YES! Kill him!

The sword swung swiftly, as of its own accord, to right in
between the two beds. Ear splitting song poured out of its blade. Two beams of
green light shot out from the tip of the sword that vibrated under my firm
grip.

The beams hit my parents in the mouth.

NO! NO! NO
! I heard the demon scream. The voice no
longer sounded like my father’s. I heard a second voice then,
HE IS
ATTACKING US, MELFOR
!

Carolina’s face materialized in front of me.

Now, Anders, the best we can do now is pull them out.
Then I can help you try to neutralize them. Woltan may be of better help. Sing
with me, Anders.

I opened my mouth to sing, and song erupted from my mouth:
my whole body, my whole essence and aura vibrated now.

My parents’ mouths were open too, but not in song.

I almost stopped singing.

Little blue claws were groping their way out of my father’s
mouth, and a little red foot stuck out of my mother’s.

My song seemed to join with the sword, pulling at the two
creatures, sucking them out of my parent’s mouths.

I heard a word of power spoken next to me. There was a blue
flash of light from Woltan’s mouth to the two creatures, surrounding them in
two blue globes of light as they emerged. I could see them struggling, but one
seemed caught by its blue hand, the other by its red foot.

The air was rife with the reek of gunpowder and sulfur. It
burned in my nostrils as I watched the creatures crawl out.

So these were imps. And I had almost listened to them and
killed my friends.

They were both around 12 inches tall, the size of a small
baby, and the mouths of my parents stretched out unnaturally and grotesquely to
birth them. It took all my best effort to avoid gagging again.

The red imp screamed. The scream hit the bubble that
surrounded it, momentarily turning it purple. There was another nasty smell.
Then, I heard its thoughts:
Melfor, they have us trapped in these spheres,
what can we do?

Her thoughts, I realized. The red one, coming out of my
mother’s mouth was definitely a female demon.

The blue demon, Melfor, now fully emerged from my father’s
mouth, scowled at us.

SHUT UP, Minifrest, you fool, he can hear us!

I wanted to lash out at these creatures, using their names
for some spell to blast them into oblivion. But no demon would be stupid enough
to reveal its true name, I remembered that much from my relatively useless
tutor. Maybe, like Carolina, they had more names than I had thought, and
perhaps each name had a bit of power in it.