Soul Magic (35 page)

She wondered if Caradoc could call his pet to him. 

Over the top of the army they flew.  The closer they drew to the hill, the more power Alanna felt fill her.  Her blood sang with the might of it, and the delicious warmth of strong magic heated her skin.  Now she knew without doubt they would be victorious – they had the legend on their side after all, and who could hope to stop them now that they were vigorous and strong?

“So we are as we once were.”  Musing out loud, Alanna held her hand out before her, noting the golden luminosity.

“I feel like I could fly,” Sarina said.  Her soft glow had brightened to a glimmering radiance.   Even Ladde glowed softly, proving once and for all that he was a creature of the fae. 

Bright and shining
.

“Not dull and faded.”  Darrick echoed her thoughts.  That part of the riddle haunted her, for she knew not what it meant.

Ladde landed with a soft thud at the base of the hill. Alanna froze.  Listening.

On the crest of the wind she heard it.  A child’s voice, strong and yet full of an awful, aching want.

“Mama.” 

She gasped.  Grabbing Darrick’s arm, she trembled.  “Caradoc.  My baby.”

He frowned.  “What?”

“Did you not hear him?  Caradoc called out to me.”  She looked at Sarina.  “What about you?  Did you hear that?”

Slowly, Sarina shook her head.  “I hear only the wind.”

“Mama.  I want my mama.” 

“Caradoc!”  Looking wildly about, Alanna slid from the dragon, hitting the ground hard.  “Mama’s coming.”  Without waiting for the others, she took off running, leaping the stone steps two at a time.

As she neared the first bonfire, a burst of pain struck her.  She doubled over, fighting, fighting.  Only by concentrating, by focusing on the urgency of her son’s call, was she able to beat back the force and push herself upright. 

Instantly it struck again.  Blackness threatened, enveloping her, seeking to dim her glow.

“I am here.”  Darrick voice, beside her.  He touched her arm and the darkness faded.  “I am with you.”

“As am I.”  Sarina.

“And I.”  Geoffrey.

Pairs of Pairs. 

“Gorsedd seeks to strip our power from us.  Link hands.”  Clasping Darrick firmly with her left, she blindly held out her other hand.  Sarina took it, and black became gray.

“Together we can stand against him.”

“How has he become so strong?”  Geoffrey asked. 

“He drinks from others souls.”  Where this answer came from, Alanna didn’t know.  But as she spoke the words, she knew they were true.  “He drains their life essence, converting it to magic.”

Drawing on her son’s power as catalyst?  Goddess, she prayed not.

They reached the third level.  Like the other bonfires, this one too burned unattended.  The flames flickered and danced in the gusty wind.

“One more level to go.  I suspect we will find them at the top,”  Darrick said.  Leading the way, they began to climb.

Halfway, the hiss of the wind became a howl.  The words it carried became a screech.  “Maaaaamaaaaaa.”

Her heart constricted.  “Caradoc.  He calls to me.”

“Don’t panic.”  Darrick soothed.  “It must be a trick, an illusion.  If Caradoc could call to you, he would have done so before now.”

This made sense.  Unless Caradoc called for his mother because Gorsedd tortured him.  Impotent rage made her growl low in her throat.  She’d rip out Gorsedd’s eyes with her bare fingers if he laid one hand on her boy.

At the top the air current blew at gale force.   They staggered up and over.  At first glance the grassy plateau appeared deserted.  No armies or human warriors stood guard here.

“Tynwald Hill,”  Geoffrey said.  There was reverence in his voice.  “Even I can feel the power here.”

Power.  The very soil hummed with magic.   Though her glimmering became a shower of sparks, Alanna cared not. 

“Let’s find Caradoc.”  She took a step forward, away from the light provided by the bonfire.  “Let’s go save my baby.”

Darrick responded with a sharp intake of breath.  No doubt he didn’t know what to make of her appearance.  She had no time to explain.  Not now.  Intent on one thing and one thing only.  Caradoc. 

As she’d hoped he would, Darrick went with her.  Behind, she sensed the other two as well.

“We are Fae,” Sarina said, her voice like the chime of a hundred bells.  Thus Alanna knew Sarina had been transformed as well. 

“You must take care.”  Darrick cautioned her, sounding far away though she knew he kept pace at her side. 

Take care?  He could not know how drunk with strength she felt, invincible.  An avenging warrior princess on a quest to save her son. 

“Dull and faded, the legend said.  Remember?” 

Behind her, she heard Sarina laugh.  “No one can harm us now.  We are pure magic.”

The grass beneath their feet vanished.  As did the wind and the inky blackness of the starlit sky.  In a soulless void they floated, buffeted by an unseen force.

“Enough.”  Alanna gave the command.  Again they stood on solid ground, though this time the clammy, damp gray of rock.

Ellette no longer felt heavy in her arms. 

Ellette!  She was gone.

“He has taken Ellette,” she cried. 

From a great distance she heard the cry.  “Mama!”

Her heart constricted.  “Caradoc.”

Now another voice.  “Cawadoc.”  Ellette’s voice. 

Then she heard only silence.

Frantic, she spun.  “Where are we?”

“We are in a dungeon.”  Geoffrey rushed forward, his hands closing around iron bars.  Iron.  Deadly to most fae.  Not now, Alanna thought, not when they were so filled with raw power.

Still gripping her hand, Sarina spoke.  “We can escape if we become our essence.”

“Essence?”  Darrick’s sharp voice made clear his unease.  He held a hand to his eyes, so that he could look at them in all their brilliance.  “What do you mean, what do you propose?”

“Mama!”  Almost a shout, Caradoc’s cry came again. This time, his voice held unnamed terror.  In that instant, Alanna’s decision was made for her.

“I’m coming.”  She called out, and released the last of her control over her corporeal body.

Like a flame she felt herself surge forward.  Pure energy/heat/magic.  She felt another burst beside her, telling her Sarina had done the same.

“How many eons has it been?”  Sarina’s disembodied voice echoed in the stone chamber.  “Since we could assume our true forms?”

Intent on locating Caradoc, Alanna did not answer.  Pure energy, she flowed down stone hallways, over rock, through walls, searching, searching for her son. 

There.  Caradoc.  His soul blazed brighter than any others.

“Mama!”

Eagerly, she rushed forward, reaching to take him into her arms.

Instead, she crashed into a wall, a barrier of suffocating blackness.  For an instant, she felt her spark sputter.  Cold swept over her, like a bucket of ice water dashed over her head.  Her power, so strong, so certain, faltered.

Only momentarily.  Only for an instant.

“Mama.”

“I’m coming baby.  Mama’s coming.”  Closing her eyes, she willed away the chill, willed her blaze to brighten.

Instead, a dark shroud settled over her.  All is lost, the gloom seemed to tell her.  All is lost.  There is no hope.

“Alanna, help me.”  Sarina, panic high and sharp in her voice.

Spinning, Alanna brushed away the darkness, pushed away the grim heaviness.  Her vision cleared, enabling her to see her cousin’s luminescence sputter, then extinguish.

“No!”  Such dousing would mean the end of the soul. 

“Sarina,” she cried.  “No!  Goddess help us.”

“I am here.”  Another voice.  Darrick.  Strong and sure. 

“And I.”  Geoffrey. 

Blindly, Alanna reached out.  Calling her name, Darrick pushed through the gloom to touch her, groping unseeing for her hand.

Their fingers connected.  Intertwined.  Her blood surged, power blossomed where they joined.  She blazed brighter.  This time, Darrick too began to glow.

“We must help Sarina.”  As one they turned, seeing how the darkness gave way as they moved.

Besides her, Geoffrey pulled Sarina close.  He kissed her, holding her close to him.  Her spark flared, then began again to blaze.  As did he.  The light from their combined radiance pushed back the dark veil around them. 

“Mama.”

“Caradoc.”  Alanna met Darrick’s eyes.  “We must rescue my son.”

They ran. 

Caradoc sat upon an altar, in a throne made of bones and sinew.  Darkness pulsed from this chair, holding him their as securely as if tied by chains of metal.

A black gulf separated them.  The utter absence of light and of color, the bitterness of the icy cold emanating from it told Alanna this emptiness was more than mere absence of space.  More… and less.  Whatever had created this horrible, yawning void lived. 

“Gorsedd.”  Caradoc indicated the gulf.  “He lives within.  Mama, he prays on the Fae.  And he has Ellette.” 

Then Caradoc, brave Caradoc, began to cry.

“We will rescue her.”  Still gripping her hand, Darrick spoke softly.

“And slay this Gorsedd.” Grim-voiced, Geoffrey kept one hand on the hilt of his sword.  “Morfran as well.” 

A blue-black flame blazed up from the hole.  Caradoc shrank back against the awful chair.  His gaze found Alanna’s, his mouth working in a silent plea.

“That’s it.”  Alanna started forward.  “Mama’s coming, baby.”

The unholy flame flared up to greet her.

“Hold.”  Darrick yanked her away from the edge of the void.  “If you go in there, it’ll destroy you.”

She tried to wrench herself free.  “My son needs me.  I’ll leap it if I have to.”

“Alanna.  Look at me.”

Stubborn, she kept her gaze fixed on her son.  “Let me go.”

“Wait, mama.  The man is right.”  Caradoc rubbed at his eyes with his fists and tried to smile at her.  The pitiful attempt nearly broke her heart.

“Alanna, listen to me.”  Darrick pulled her close.  “Pairs of pairs must join and bind.  Ancient evil from below rises--” He pointed at the flame.

“That icy fire is Gorsedd.” Caradoc said, his measured voice at odds with his youthful stature. 

“Gorsedd?”  Alanna spoke the name with scorn.  “Than I have little to fear.  He might be evil, but I hardly think he qualifies as ancient evil.”

“Mama, that flame is what Gorsedd has become.”

“How?” Darrick asked.  “And why?”

“I know not why.”  Terror blazed from Caradoc’s young/old eyes.  “He has joined with that which cannot be named.  He sacrificed Morfran–and others–to call it to him.” 

That which cannot be named.  Ancient Evil
.  So ancient, its true name was no longer even remembered. 

Alanna shuddered.  “How do you know this, my son?”

“I have seen.” 

Alanna recoiled. “Such a thing is not possible.”

From the fissure came a whimper.  A little girl’s cry.

“Ellette.”  Alanna yanked her hand free from Darrick’s.  She sprang forward. 

Instantly frost took her, freezing her limbs.  Her blood slowly thickened, her spark flickered.  The dark shroud again covered her, and she could not even cry out.

“Alanna.”  Darrick’s voice, from a long way off.  He took her hand, massaging her icy fingers.  She felt herself thaw, even as she shivered.  She could feel her life force sucked from her bones.  Gorsedd.

Again came the cry, then the sound of a child sobbing.

“Ellette.  We must save her.”

“I’ll do it.”  Darrick moved forward, towards the blue-black fire below.  Barely had he taken three strides when water sprouted from the fire and the air filled with the tang of salt.  The sea.

The rush of the waves knocked him from his feet.  Water closed over his head, even as he fought for the surface.

“His worst fear.”  Alanna struggled to free her frozen limbs.  Still she could not move.  “Help him.”

“Such a thing is not possible.”  Rooted in place on their rock shelf above the water, Geoffrey stared, but made no move.

“Remember the dragon,” Sarina urged.  “Remember what you learned.  Help him.”

At her words Geoffrey leapt forward, the water slamming against him as he tried to reach Darrick, swimming with all his strength.

The waves roiled violently.  Darrick broke surface, swimming mightily, but the current pushed him back under.

“The chamber fills with water.”  Caradoc’s voice, full of fear.  “We will all drown.”

Alanna shook her head.  Something nagged at her.  She’d though vaguely that they would form a circle, and summon enough power to fight against Gorsedd’s evil.  Now she realized what she’d been missing.

“Pairs of pairs.”  Shouting the words, Alanna knew she was right.  She moved, and the last of the ice cracked and fell away.  Again she felt herself spark, glow, blaze. 
              “Sarina, go to Geoffrey.  I will try and reach Darrick.  Pairs of pairs.  Together, yet separate.”