The Last Druid (25 page)

Cal
la was staring out across the valley, squinting against the golden-yellow light of the rising sun.  “But the collapse has already begun,” she said.  “The Dead Lands are proof.  With respect Lady Elenia, there isn’t any point in trying to prevent the destruction anymore.  He’s bringing it to you.”

“But if I were to raise my hand against him, everything would only become worse.”

“You don’t know that.”  Calla turned her head to look at her directly.  “None of us do.  But if I’m right that might be the only way to end all of this—what you think you can’t do, you must do.”

“Perhaps,” Elenia admitted.  “And yet perhaps not.”  The girl could be right about this, but she still didn’t want to think on the idea of facing the creature that had her brother.

She wouldn’t be able to handle being in that encounter, staring into her brother’s eyes even though he would mean to kill her.

“Is that smoke?” Cal
la asked suddenly, breaking Elenia’s train of thought.  She followed the girl’s gaze down towards the base of the mountain.  Dark clouds of smoke were rising up from the city below them.  Someone down there had started some kind of bonfire…

She stopped herself.  “Oh no…”

“Hiran!” the girl cried.  She lunged back down the mountain path.

Elenia reached out and grabbed her by the arms to stop her.  “Stop and think,” she said as Ca
lla rounded on her.  “Stop!  You will never make it down the mountain in time like that.”

“I can’t leave him to die there!”

“I did not say you should.  I am saying that there are other ways to reach him—faster ways.”

It took Ca
lla a while to process what Elenia said.  Her eyes widened when she realized what Elenia was suggesting.

“Yes,” Elenia said.  “I may not be able to take direct action in this, but I can still act through another to bring about a certain outcome
in any event.”  She held out her left hand to her.  “Take my hand, Calla—I know how to save him.  It has to be by my power through you.”

Ca
lla paused for only a moment, then quickly marched forward and took Elenia’s hand.

The merge was instant.  Elenia could feel Cal
la’s mind right up against her own as she gently folded herself around the core of the girl’s spirit.  Calla was suddenly panicking, trying to pull away again into her separate self.  Elenia latched onto her harder with her power; it was a strange experience for a mortal to begin with, and given how the girl had been possessed by a demon in a similar way all too recently she couldn’t blame her for wanting to break away.  She would have to draw Calla’s consciousness back a bit from her own body until she could calm down—this wouldn’t work if she was too frightened to share control.  Their energies had to line up perfectly in order for their two minds to control one body, and her reaction was making the merge difficult.

Elenia could begin to hear Ca
lla’s terrified thoughts. 
No!  No, this isn’t what I wanted!  Let me out!

All in good time, young one
, Elenia replied. 
It must be done this way.

Maybe she should have been at least a little clearer about what she meant by
“acting through another”…

XXX

Mika

Mika stepped over the boundary line separating the two territories.  Someone would have to be blind to miss such a hard line: the Master’s domain abruptly ended where it met that of their enemy.  The hem of her cloak stirred up the dead dirt behind her as she stepped once more onto lush, green grass; not one speck of the dust drifted past the line.  It didn’t bother her—her focus was on completing her mission.

It was early morning, this living world still asleep as the night slowly gave way to the rising sun.  A gentle breeze blew across her face and stirred her dark hair.  She surveyed the landscape around her.  It was open grassland for as far as she could see, dotted here and there with the occasional bush or clump of brightly-colored flowers.  There wouldn’t be a trail for her to follow here; she was several weeks behind, and any evidence of her quarry’s coming here would have disappeared long before she arrived.

But that didn’t matter to her.  Mika had studied dark magic when no one was looking.  The witch may have escaped from her last captor and so continue to elude them all, but her time had run out.  Regardless of where she was Mika would still be able to sense the power that emanated from her soul, even from a great distance.

She would not remain hidden for long.

Mika closed her eyes, reaching out with her other senses as she searched for even the smallest thread of the girl’s energy.  She vaguely noted how the natural life around her started to die slowly as she reached further and further out and kept going.  But the further out she stretched herself, the harder it became to keep the magic going; it had only been a few minutes and yet she was struggling to concentrate, to keep the strength of the spell from breaking.

“Damn,” she hissed quietly, “where are you?”  She knew she had stretched her search out quite far from where she now stood, but just how far away could that girl possibly be?

Just when Mika thought she couldn’t maintain the spell anymore she found that thread.  She had been around the girl long enough to recognize the exact rhythm and glow of her energy.  There it was, a faint whisp that had almost completely disappeared as it wound its way across the plain.  This end of the trail was fading as it led off to some point in the distance…

Mika dropped the spell and started cursing loudly—she wasn’t even close.  Of course she had found a shorter path from the
Ganeuen province that led across a narrow area of the Dead Lands and came out here, but apparently she was now on the wrong side of this territory.  The girl had come out at some other point along the border, at least a hundred miles away.  Another setback to their plans…There wasn’t much time left to eliminate the girl and keep that part of the prophecy from coming true.

Thunder started to roll behind her, sending a prickle of fear down her spine.  Lord Bralon was growing upset.  The oath she had made to him began to echo through her mind—the blood oath, the most binding of all.  She had
failed Him once already and got off light; if she failed Him again, her soul would be ripped from her body and torn apart—the most agonizing way to die, the torturing of the soul just outside the realms of whatever afterlife might exist.

It was the kind of oath that worked better than any
death threat.

“Do not fear, my lord,” she said aloud, addressing the thunder behind her.  “It has created only a
minor delay.  I will find her, and she will die so that you may reign unchallenged.”

He was
apparently pleased with this answer, the rolling thunder subsiding immediately.  Mika let out a long, shaky breath.  Now things were going to be challenging for her; she would have to tread more carefully now if she wanted to hold to her oath and still keep her life.

“What chance does that little brat have?” she asked aloud, just to encourage herself.  She immediately felt her confidence grow.  None, that’s how much of a chance the girl had.  The Malc, the ancient ancestors of the humans who followed her master and perhaps those elsewhere, would be no help to the girl; they would tear themselves apart long before she could even begin to prepare for the battle foretold in the prophecy.

She gathered her cloak around her to ward off the morning chill and set off through the grass.

XXXI

Elenia

Together Elenia and Calla flew down the mountainside.  The girl still wasn’t too fond of sharing her body with another supernatural being, the close proximity bothering her like…an itch, one that she desperately wanted to scratch but couldn’t; otherwise she had calmed down enough for them to be able to work together as one being.  As they raced Elenia could hear the girl’s thoughts; after the initial shock of the merge, she had gone back to thinking about him, a lot.  Elenia could see the memories she revisited—how they had first met, how he had looked after her for most of their travels, the sorrow in his eyes as he finally told her of the dark past he hated thinking about.  While the memories kept playing out, the girl’s resolve grew ever stronger.

If she didn’t know any better, Elenia would say Cal
la was falling in love with him.

I am not!
Calla snapped suddenly.

Of course not,
Elenia replied with a hint of sarcasm. 
So why do I sense a slight tremor in your soul, a little extra spark of energy that is making your heart rate rise the more you think of him?

Cal
la fell silent, but Elenia felt a ripple of heat course through the girl’s body; she was embarrassed about it.  Elenia felt a little satisfaction from having her suspicions confirmed, but maybe the girl was right: such close contact with another being meant that each could hear the thoughts of the other, even what was meant to be private; it had been so long since she had last done this she had forgotten.  Maybe she should give some of her attention to helping each of them to guard their own thoughts.

That would be nice.
  Elenia almost swore she heard Calla smirking.

Hopefully you will not do that for the entire time
, she said directly to her.

Trees went by them in a blur as they sped past, the low-hanging branches in their path stinging them on impact.  The morning light grew stronger around them as they flew down the mountainside, casting a light-golden hue over everything.  They seemed to be going so slowly; Cal
la wasn’t the only one thinking this.  Elenia could almost feel the sands of time falling against their favor.

Hellfire, there was a high chance they wouldn’t make it in time.  Elenia kept this thought
to herself; Calla was dealing with enough of an emotional imbalance right now—she didn’t need to hear anything that could make it worse.

The trees thinned as they came to the feet of the mountain, opening onto a wide grassy field.  They could see the walls of Elenan even before they cleared the woods, a massive wall of gray made darker from being in shadow.  Elenia moved Cal
la’s head so they looked more skywards.  Smoke was rising up from somewhere behind the wall, thick and dark.

Hiran
!
Calla’s mind cried out. 
We’re too late!

We are not—not if I have any say about it!

They ran even harder, energy starting to build around them in a dense sphere as their momentum continued to grow.  The wall stood right in front of them, suddenly standing enormous in their path.  Calla wanted to stop, fearing injury upon impact with the stone, but Elenia pushed them on.  She knew there was nothing to fear from hitting the wall: the mass of energy that was building around them would take all the force of the impact and leave them unharmed.  So as they charged into the massive stone barrier it was blasted apart before them from the force, broken blocks flying into whatever space was on the other side.  Clouds of dust rose to fill the air around them in a thick layer, making it difficult to see what stood before them.

When it finally settled, they found themselves face-to-face with five of the Council Guard, who stared at them with complete disbelief on their faces.  An instant later they shook themselves awake and drew their swords, moving to stand between them and the narrow road that
led to the main city plaza.

We don’t have time for this!
Elenia growled irritably.

Can we do anything?
  Despair was trickling into Calla’s mind.

Without a problem.
  Elenia focused with just her own mind, and in a moment sent out a shockwave so powerful it scattered the five men all across the street.  The way now clear, they could continue on.  They flew along the pavement, so fast that it was only a minute before they stood on the bright white bricks of the plaza.

Elenia felt the ripple of anguish in Ca
lla’s soul as they beheld the scene while she fought to keep her own emotions in check.

In the middle of the plaza was a massive pillar of granite.  A rough platform had been constructed around it; standing on it was
Hiran, bound to the stone with a series of heavy chains.  As strong as he was he couldn’t break free, struggling hopelessly as the flames that had been lit around him burned ever closer.  The Councilmen were gathered directly in front of him to watch, while members of the Guard stood in a ring around the fire to keep the crowd back.  All eyes turned as Elenia and Calla approached, and then the citizens knelt before them while looking on in awe.

The Councilmen stirred, and their leader, Mrok, strode forward so all could see him.  “See!” he shouted so everyone could hear, gesturing towards Ca
lla and Elenia’s shared form.  “Behold, the Great One!  She has come to bless us for destroying the demon which has brought us so much misery for so long!”  He turned to the crowd.  “You all doubted us: you called us fools, said we were wrong.  See the proof of our right before you!”