Destiny (35 page)

“Indeed. I prefer the idea of taking them from your throats after they have been cut. That way, the Premonition is not fulfilled and the Power of the medallions is mine. It is a proposition, you must understand, which is irresistible.”

“The only acceptable one,” Isuzeni added.

The Bearers exchanged agonized looks. They were all aware now that Yuzumi had not only come to conquer Tremia but to take their lives. That was her final goal.

The Dark Lady stared at Komir with eyes as penetrating as daggers and said:

“It is time for you to die. My Destiny awaits me.”

Komir acted at once. He put his hands over the medallion. Before the Dark Lady and the Sorcerer could cast a spell, he closed his eyes and communicated with his Ilenian gem.
Cast a spell on that Sorceress, don’t let her use her magic of death on us.
The medallion of Ether gleamed in response, and golden runes passed through Komir’s mind. The runes indicated that a spell was being created, which cheered him. Each time he called upon it he found it a little easier to communicate and interact with the medallion. He guessed it was the same with his companions. He wondered whether the minimum of mastery they had over their medallions would be enough to defeat such a powerful sorceress and her minions. They would soon find out, for good or ill.

From his medallion there emerged an ethereal presence, a spirit. It was shapeless, but with a distant similarity to some specter out of a nightmare. It rose in front of Komir’s amazed eyes. He did not understand either what this spell was or the being which was rising in front of him. Hovering above his head, the spirit of ether gave a desperate wail. As it did so Komir glimpsed its face. It was Ilenian, twisted, filled with overwhelming anguish. The specter of a millennial warrior.

It lunged at the Dark Lady.

When Komir saw the spirit cross the air shrieking, he was clearly aware that this spirit of Ether’s sole purpose was to cause pain and death. Why he felt that way he could not have said, but he was sure of it, not just because of its appearance but because of a feeling his medallion was conveying to him. For the briefest of moments, he felt pity for its victim.

When the Sorceress saw the specter lunge at her, she wielded her silver axe and murmured a word. The move and the word were performed with such amazing quickness that Komir knew his own spell had taken an eternity in comparison. An eternity which might cost him his life. The specter reached the Dark Lady, but she had already conjured an eternity ago. Two enormous outspread wings appeared before her, forming a barrier. Two wings of a deathly creature. The specter of Ether cannoned into them and bounced backwards. It gave a rending shriek, so that Komir had to cover his ears. It attacked again, but was rejected by the two black wings which prevented it from reaching the Dark Lady, and its shriek was chilling. He realized it was screaming with pain at the touch of the wings of death.

Come on, spirit of Ether, come on, break that shield and get to her,
he pleaded. The medallion round his neck flashed, and the spirit attacked again with renewed force. But this time the Dark Lady conjured. When the specter reached the black wings it tried to break through, amid shrieks of agony. From behind the wings there emerged the head of a bird, a bird out of a nightmare, with eyes as black as a fathomless abyss. It was colossal, with a very long neck, bare of plumage, including its head. It looked like a giant carrion buzzard. But it was not that, for as it opened its beak it revealed two rows of sharp teeth. It was something much worse. It attacked the specter. Amid searing screams a sinister fight broke out between the bird of death and the spirit of Ether. In the end the Dark Lady’s magic of death prevailed. The bird of death gobbled up its opponent, and the shrieks ceased.

Komir cursed silently.

“We’ve got to help Komir!” Iruki cried to her companions. A moment later the Masig launched a frozen javelin against the head of the monstrous bird. It pierced one of its eyes, and they heard a furious bellow.

Asti concentrated and sent a great ball of fire towards the monster. But the head hid behind the black wings and the ball of fire burst against them. The flames exploded, burning everything around them, but they could not get past the barrier to reach the Dark Lady, who watched the fire without flinching.

“I’ll try as well,” said Aliana. She launched a dozen sharp stone stakes at great speed at the wings. The missiles struck them with a dull impact, but failed to go through. It seemed that nothing was capable of destroying them.

The head of the bird from the abyss appeared menacingly once again and bent forward towards them.

“I have you!” shouted Iruki, and launched a trident of ice at it. The frozen prongs struck the head of the monster. It bellowed to the heavens, this time in pain, and disappeared behind the wings.

“Good!” Komir said. He clenched his fist, celebrating their small victory.

The silver axe spun in Yuzumi’s hand. Where there had been a single head there now appeared three, their long vulture-necks joined to a body hidden behind the wings. Komir narrowed his eyes. He could see the black feathers of the body and a pair of short claws planted on the ground. They looked lethal. The giant bird of death was taking shape.
This doesn’t look good at all.

“By the prairies!” Iruki cried.

Sonea was studying it. “It’s a giant three-headed vulture,” she said.

“Giant bird, death,” Asti said. She shook her head.

“We’ll have to destroy it somehow,” said Komir. “We won’t get to the Sorceress otherwise.”

Aliana nodded.

“Let’s attack together,” Sonea proposed. “That way it’ll be harder for it to find a defense against all the different spells and types of magic.”

“Good idea,” Komir agreed. “Let’s do it.”

Iruki, Aliana, Asti and Komir closed their eyes and focused on connecting to their medallions, while Sonea watched the giant vulture of death take shape. It flapped its wings amid bloodcurdling shrieks, then rose from the ground and hovered above its mistress with outspread wings.

The Healer was the first to finish her spell. Her knowledge of the Gift in the practice of healing helped her to communicate more quickly with her medallion and to cast spells faster and more powerfully. The symbiosis between her Gift and the medallion was stronger than it was with her companions. Above the great vulture, and beneath its feet, two grey shapes slowly took shape. They transformed themselves little by little into one row of huge stalactites above its head and another of huge stalagmites under its claws. Aliana opened her eyes and considered the mouth of sharp rock teeth she had created. She stretched her hand, spread it and then clenched it into a fist. The stalactites closed on the stalagmites, like a jaw of rocky teeth, piercing the bird through. A rending croak was heard from the three heads.

But the bird survived.

Iruki opened her eyes. From her medallion there shot an icicle of gigantic girth. The Masig aimed with her finger at the wounded bird. The giant icicle hurtled through the air and struck with enormous force. It pierced the bird’s body from one side to the other.

“Yes!” the Masig shouted joyfully.

But the bird, instead of falling, continued defending its mistress.

“Me can,” Asti said with a look of determination. From her medallion there surged a ray of intense fire which reached the body of the abyssal bird. It caught fire and began to burn. Its croaks reached an insufferable pitch, and before the eyes of the five the creature died.

For an instant the five Bearers felt like winners. But it was a brief victory. The Dark Lady laughed, a dark and condescending laugh. She twirled her axe and uttered something so fast they did not even see. The death bird rose, flapping its black wings. The fire was spreading along them by now.

“Punish them!” its mistress ordered.

The bird soared, then dove from the heavens straight at the five Bearers, as if it were the personification of a servant of the god of death. Seeing it hurtling at them they covered their heads. The impact was going to be massive.

And they were not wrong.

With a tremendous burst of fire and death the bird exploded over the Bearers. The blast was so intense that they were all thrown backwards and sent rolling across the ground. Komir wondered whether his sphere would hold. An intense pain ran through his body, as though he had been struck by a thousand whiplashes at once. As he rolled on the ground everything was pain. Finally, he stopped. He checked the sphere. It was still whole, and he breathed out with relief. He stood up as best he could, looked for Aliana and saw her a few steps away. She too was trying to get to her feet, and her face was twisted with pain. He found his other companions not far away.
Thank the heavens, their spheres have held! A little more and we’d all be dead. The power of this Sorceress is devastating. She defeated us so easily, like a cat playing with a mouse. She can finish us off whenever she pleases.

Iruki was already on her feet, staring defiantly at the Dark Lady. But Komir noticed that the Masig’s body was hunched and her jaw clenched. She was suffering in silence. Sonea was on the ground, looking up at the sky, apparently unable to stand. Asti was on her knees, bent forward, and there was great pain on her face.

The Dark Lady’s disdainful laugh hit them like a spiked gauntlet.

“Is that all you can do?”

The five watched her, frustrated and impotent.

“Are those the spells you think to overthrow me with? Now I have witnessed your futile attempts, I cannot even believe how ridiculous and banal you are. You are slow in conjuring, clumsy and inefficient. Those spells can do nothing against me. You are preposterous.”

Aliana gave Komir a look of unease. The look he gave her in return showed a fortitude he was far from feeling.

“You are so pathetic I shall not even bother to get my hands dirty killing you,” said Yuzumi, and laughed with profound disdain.

“It is indeed a disappointment,” Isuzeni agreed. He shook his head. “I believe my fears were unfounded. They have power, true… but they are no more than apprentices… a group of misguided and inexperienced dupes, doomed to inevitable death.”

Yuzumi addressed them condescendingly: “You disgust me. You do not know how to use it, you are unaware of your own power. That makes you inferior beings. A group of fools who have been blessed with the Talent and yet do not know themselves. What a waste! Such spells as you are capable of are pitiful. Any experienced sorcerer could finish you off. You could never use those medallions in the entirety of their magnificent power. Fortunately, however, I can.”

“They pose no threat. I was too zealous, my Lady. I regret having worried you unnecessarily.”

“You have served me well, Isuzeni. It is they who are an absolute disappointment. I had expected so much of this day ‒” her eyes were fixed on Komir ‒ “thinking I would face a power equal or even superior to mine, preparing myself to fight to the death against whatever might confront me. Today. Preparing with my whole being… and this is what I find… mere apprentices, not even initiates…”

Komir watched her in silence.
All the spells we’ve thrown at her she’s deflected without even blinking. Nothing we could conjure seems capable of harming her. Her power is too great. We can’t defeat her. We can’t even touch her…

“The time has come to end this little tragedy. I must attain my Destiny of Glory. My little creature will deal with you.” Yuzumi smiled, and her eyes flashed maliciously. “I shall enjoy witnessing the carnage my creature is going to wreak upon you.”

“We’re not afraid of you,” Iruki shouted, chin high.

“Hah! Well, you certainly should be!” Yuzumi brandished her silver axe at her.

“Get ready!” Aliana warned.

Sonea and Asti stood up, rather the worse for wear, and strengthened their shields.

Komir commended himself to the three Norriel Goddesses.

The Dark Lady began to cast a spell, and in reaction the defensive spheres of the five Bearers strengthened. From the Sorceress’s axe surged a great darkness which began to take shape in front of its mistress. Before the astonished eyes of the bearers, a giant beast solidified and came to life. It was bigger than a three-storied house, shining black, with a snake’s body covered in scales and two giant wings on its back. Four long arms ending in sharp claws came out of its body. Its eyes were blood-red and its entire mouth was filled with sharp teeth. It rose with a chilling bellow, supporting itself on its reptilian body like a gigantic viper.

“By the love of Mother Steppe!” Iruki cried, stepping back

Sonea, her eyes wide as saucers, unable to react, began to shiver.

“Kill them, my little one,” Yuzumi ordered it. “First the Marked, then the rest.”

The monster bellowed and fell on the five Bearers like a demon from hell.

Panic spread throughout the group. They huddled back.

The beast went straight for Komir. It delivered a lightning stroke with one of its claws. He tried to avoid it, but could not help being grazed.
The sphere will protect me,
he thought as he felt the impact.
It always has. The beast won’t be able to get through
. But he was wrong. Completely wrong. The creature’s blow was so powerful and its claws so sharp that they penetrated the defensive sphere like an eggshell.

“Move, Komir! Get away!” Iruki cried.

He was so confused at the sight of his half-destroyed defense that he did not react in time. Two more strokes reached him on both sides and his sphere collapsed completely.

“By the Goddesses! How is this possible?”

“Get out!” Aliana yelled at him.

One last stroke sought to tear off his head. Komir saw it coming and threw himself to one side. He groaned as he felt the pain of a torn ligament in his shoulder.

“We’ve got to protect him!” Aliana shouted. “The beast is too powerful, the sphere isn’t protecting him, it’ll destroy him!”

Pain and Aliana’s voice made him act. He threw himself to one side, avoiding the reptilian jaws. The long scaly neck chased him, seeking to make an end of him. He ran to one side, trying to avoid it, but the beast seemed to cover everything with its huge body. He dodged another bite aimed at his head with a sudden feint, but tripped and fell.

Iruki and Sonea pushed themselves between the beast and Komir. The nightmare creature rose like a mountain, shook its wings and bellowed in rage. The two Bearers summoned up their courage and stood their ground, then began to cast a spell with their medallions. Hope returned to Komir’s heart as he watched his two brave companions facing the monstrosity. Suddenly, before they could complete the spells, the tail of the monster swept the ground and hit both girls with tremendous force. They were thrown backwards, hit the ground and rolled more than twenty paces. For the moment neither of them was able to get up.

Komir saw the crash and cursed in anger. At once the beast was on him. The giant maw opened, revealing evil-smelling fangs, which closed on Komir’s face.

At the same moment there came a brown flash, and Komir’s body was covered in a cloak of hard earth, like rock. A second skin, hard as stone, covered him from head to foot. Wide-eyed, he watched the fangs close on his face. He felt this was going to be the end of him. This abomination was going to crush his head, chew it and spit it out. But the fangs hit the hard rocky cloak and were unable to penetrate it. Pain exploded in his head from the pressure of the bite. He stole a glance at Aliana and saw that she was holding her medallion. A brown flash still shone in the air. Then he understood what had happened.
It’s a spell of Earth Magic, a protective spell. How could Aliana have managed to do it?

The beast bellowed in fury and attacked again, seeking to close its murderous jaws on Komir’s chest. The protection held and the fangs did not meet flesh. He could feel the terrible pressure of the jaws on his body as they tried to reach him.
It’s going to break me in half!

He screamed as the beast lifted him in the air and shook its head from side to side violently. Held aloft, chest and back trapped in the monstrous maw, arms and legs dangling, he looked like a broken doll. So violent was the shaking that he lost consciousness.

“We have to stop that monster or it’ll kill him!” Sonea shouted.

The winged beast shook Komir in its grip again and again. When it saw it could not break through, it dropped him. He hit the ground with tremendous force and lay stunned and wounded.

“Komir, no!” Aliana cried as she tried to reach him. The beast saw her and with a swift flap of its wing hit her with enormous force. She was thrown in the air and hit the ground hard twenty paces back.

The beast struck Komir again, so that he rolled downhill like a felled tree and lay there still while the beast bellowed its victory to the sky. The penetrating sound woke him. He opened his eyes and was swallowed up in a sea of pain. He tried to shout, but was unable even to do that. He could barely breathe or think; he was in agony. He felt like dying and leaving his suffering behind. But then the air entered his lungs and after the first painful breath came the second.
I’m alive… I’m still alive… I must fight… keep on…
But the pain was so great that all he could do was breathe.

The beast rose in the air, flapping its huge black wings.

“It fly!” Asti cried in horror.

The monster came down towards Komir and stuck its claws in his side and leg. The rocky armor protected him from the claws, but not from the impact. He almost fainted again. The beast flapped its wings, bellowed and stepped back, ready to break him in two.

“You leave!” Asti shouted. She ran towards the beast inside her protective sphere of fire in a desperate attempt to protect Komir. The beast saw her coming. Asti closed her eyes and tried to cast a spell. The beast struck Asti before she had managed to use the medallion to conjure. When it hit the Usik’s fiery defense the beast roared with pain. Its claw had caught fire. Asti was thrown to one side, rolled violently and was still. The beast bellowed and went for her.

“Asti, look out!” Aliana shouted as she struggled to get to her feet.

The Usik reacted. She got up and faced the furious beast, closed her eyes and strengthened her shield of fire. The burning claw hit it and tried to pierce it with a tremendous blow, but the defense held. Asti on the other hand felt the impact on her ribs and fell to the ground, unable to breathe. The beast bellowed. The fire was spreading from one claw to another and up its arms. It roared with pain and shook its burning limbs, but the fire merely gained in intensity.

Asti was still on the ground, holding her ribs “You… burn!” she gasped out.

The beast’s cries of pain and rage were deafening. It could not put out the flames and there was no water nearby. It was going to burn, its whole body was going to go down in flames. There was hope! But hope died as fast as it was born. Savagely the beast bit off its burning limbs and spat them on the ground. It roared and bellowed, maddened by the pain.

“I just can’t believe it,” Aliana said in despair as she ran to help Asti.

The wings flapped, raising dust and earth, and the beast advanced again towards Komir to carry out its mistress’ order.

But Iruki ran towards it and got in between. “Stand back, beast of the abyss!” she yelled. The courageous Masig was clutching her shoulder. There was pain on her face.

The beast eyed her for an instant and roared. Iruki did not cower, as if she were immune to fear of that winged monstrosity, as if the prospect of death did not make her quail.

“Go back to the abyss whence you came!” she yelled.

The beast looked from Komir to Iruki. It hesitated, unsure which to attack first.

And that moment of doubt was all Iruki needed. There was an intense blue flash round the Masig’s neck. It was Water Magic. Iruki had cast a spell with her medallion. Suddenly something whitish began to spread across the dark skin of the winged reptile. It took a moment for Komir to realize it was frost. After a moment the frost gave way to ice which began to cover the whole gigantic body of the beast. It began to freeze.

“Yes!” cried Iruki in delight. A beam of pure ice shot from her medallion and hit the beast right in its torso.

Before the astonished eyes of the group, the beast tried to move towards Iruki, but only managed a couple of steps. Its body was half-frozen. Where before there had been black scales was now white ice. The wings stopped moving, and they too froze.

Iruki concentrated hard and intensified the strength of her spell.

Finally the monster, covered in frost, was frozen alive.

“We have to finish it off before it manages to get free!” Aliana urged.

“I’ll do that,” Sonea said confidently. She limped in front of the beast, pointed at it and closed her eyes.

Her Ilenian medallion, the Medallion of Air, flashed with a whitish gleam. A deafening clap of thunder sounded above the frozen beast. An instant later a devastating bolt of lightning zigzagged down. It hit the beast’s head, so that it exploded into a thousand shards of ice which flew in all directions.

“Yes! Yeeeeesss!” Sonea shouted in ecstasy.

Iruki stared at her, mouth agape. “How… how did you think of that?”

The little librarian shrugged. “Don’t know, it just came into my head.”

“That little head of yours must be pretty good!”

Sonea smiled.

Aliana ran to help Komir, leaving Asti half-sitting. “Help her, please,” she said to Sonea and Iruki, who went to the Usik at once.

“Be well, I well,” she said, and got to her feet with the help of her friends.

Behind the Bearers, shouts could be heard as the fighting against the living-dead went on…

“I’ll finish you off, you bloody fiends”

“Damned treacherous magic”

“Norriel we are…”

“For Rogdon!”

The Dark Lady cursed silently.

“How could they defeat my creation? I cannot believe what I have just witnessed!”

“It is the Power of the Medallions, my Lady,” Isuzeni said.

“Those five pathetic apprentices have no idea even how to cast a spell!”

“No, but their medallions do it for them. And the spells are growing in power. It may be that the more they conjure, the more attuned they become… and that could be dangerous. Eventually they might be able to conjure with all the power of the medallion.”

Yuzumi was briefly thoughtful.

“You have always been very cunning, Isuzeni, you are probably right…”

“It is no more than a guess, but it makes sense…”

“In that case, let us see how they fare against steel.”

She turned to her elite guards.

“Moyuki!”

The Moyuki unsheathed their swords.

“Kill them!”

The Elite warriors, her Guard of Honor, launched into the attack with their swords raised.

“It will be a bloody spectacle,” Isuzeni said with a malicious smile.

“I want their heads! Bring me their heads!”

The Moyuki shouted in unison: “Yes, Mistress!”

The Bearers hid the fear their hearts were feeling under a thick blanket of tense silence. Asti, injured, came to the side of Aliana, who was trying to bring Komir round, but the battering the Norriel had sustained was tremendous. He had fainted and was lying on the ground, Aliana was trying everything, but without success.

“You heal, I kill,” Asti told Aliana with a cold ferocity unusual in the timid Usik. Aliana stared at her in wonder, then nodded.

The Moyuki were coming at a run with their swords ready, spreading terror with their grotesque masks. But Asti did not cower. The Usik closed her eyes and spread her arms wide, determined to confront them. Her medallion flashed with the golden red of fire. From her chest shot burning flames which spread before her like a fire in a forest driven by a strong gust of wind. The flames advanced as if they had a life of their own and burnt the first Moyuki without giving them a chance to react. A hundred of them were reduced to ashes.

Hope surged in the hearts of the Bearers. But the elite soldiers of the Dark Lady reacted. Those of the second group, seeing the flames approaching, cleared them with incredible leaps which belied their imposing size.

“No!” protested Asti. She conjured again as fast as she could. A huge ball of fire issued from her medallion at dizzying speed. It hit the group which was already on them. There was no way they could dodge it. Flames erupted everywhere and devoured the Moyuki mercilessly, like tongues of fire from a volcano. Another hundred died without even a cry, enveloped in flames, in a terrifying silence.

“I defend!” Asti said with determination.

Sonea came to her side. “Well done!” she said.

The last group of Moyuki was running toward them. Asti prepared to conjure. But she could not finish the spell. With a cry of pain, she bent to one side.