Star Mage (Book 5) (29 page)

Compared to flying as a dragon, this ridiculous speed was like galloping instead of crawling. Several times her daggers brought to life the shimmering green shield and protectively smashed seabirds that strayed too far inland. Mara glanced at Talis as he squinted and stared ahead, his expression intent on not losing Rikar. The stupid traitor flew like a madman. What was he doing in the Ruins of Elmarr? Was he allied with the Nameless, that hideous voice that still haunted Mara’s mind? She shivered in horror at the thought of returning to that place.

To Mara’s surprise, they were approaching an expansive city with steep mountains off to the south, a red-tinged city built along the beautiful, emerald sea. The closer they came to the city, the more Mara spotted spirals of smoke scattered everywhere. Was this the great City of Ishur, the city that Master Goleth had said was deep in civil war and violence between the magical Orders? But wasn’t Rikar supposed to take them to the Ruins of Elmarr?

Talis must have been thinking the same thing, for they both sped up alongside Rikar and shot him questioning looks that caused him to slow down and hover on the outskirts of Ishur.
 

“What the hell is going on?” Mara said, and was determined to hear Rikar’s story before they proceeded any farther. “I thought we were going to Ruins of Elmarr?”

“Before we go on, I think we’re owed an explanation.” Talis pointed to a mountaintop off on the southern side of the city. “Let’s fly over there and rest while you tell us your story.”

Rikar’s face looked strangely impatient and nervous, but after he glanced around as if scanning for danger, he nodded in agreement and sped off towards the mountain. Soon they arrived and landed in the shade of a stand of soldier pines and stared out over the rock-strewn landscape to the west as the sun floated just above the horizon, an orange ball slicing through a stream of feathery clouds.

Talis and Mara dropped their backpacks onto the pine needle bed and she sat with a sigh. She glanced up expectantly at Rikar, and with a shrug of his shoulders, he began telling them the story of why he’d followed them through the portal, and what he’d done inside the Ruins of Elmarr. Mara found the hairs of her arms standing in sheer terror as he described his interaction with the Nameless in that dark prison chamber. And when Rikar told of how his body had been brutalized by the priest and brought back to life with the essence of the slain Starwalkers, Mara shivered in horror as she imagined the hideous ceremony.

She wondered if even Elder Relech could be so cruel.
 

“You’re crazy if you think we’d return to the Ruins of Elmarr with you,” Mara said, and shook her head in disgust at Rikar. “No, listen, I mean it. Before you argue back, realize that we came to Carvina in the hope of striking a peace treaty with Emperor Ghaalis. Don’t scoff like that, I’m serious. He did grant us an audience but it was a complete setup.”

“And you expected something different from the Jiserian Emperor?” Rikar laughed and stared at her with mocking eyes, making Mara furious at his flippant attitude. “The Jiserians hate Talis for killing so many sorcerers and necromancers and standing up to them. You should have heard Lord Aurellia talking about you. He was actually amused as he seems to enjoy creating chaos and conflict.”

“Well, he’s worlds away now,” Talis said, and frowned at Rikar as if wondering what he was doing here with his old enemy.
 

“Not for long. Do you think he’d really be satisfied to give up any portion of his power and dominion over this world?” Rikar looked with deliberate, haughty provocation at Talis and Mara, as if daring them to challenge him. “He only went to Vellia because he wanted something of power to aid his cause. I think he’ll be coming back, especially if we succeed in stealing fragments from the Starwalkers.”

“We? Are you absolutely insane?” Mara whispered, feeling disgusted at herself and disbelieving that she’d even thought of getting involved with Rikar’s ridiculous plans. “Have fun with that! There’s no way we’re going anywhere near another Starwalker. You’re the one they want revenge against. What do we have to do with it?”

“Do I know the mind of the Lord of All?” Rikar flipped his long, golden hair away from his eyes, and it infuriated Mara how serene and self-assured he looked. “There is obviously something you’re not telling me, since it seems like the Nameless knows both of you. It’s like he’s watching you and tracking you, and he has to be whispering in your head, just like I hear his voice inside mine.” He tapped the side of his skull and it made a soft rapping sound.
 

Talis looked wary as he paused for a moment. “We stopped at the Ruins of Elmarr. Some
feeling
possessed me and compelled me to land and go inside the temple ruins you talked about. Still, I resisted and we left, but it is true, several times I’ve heard the voice of the Nameless in my mind…”

“So have I,” Mara admitted, and wished she’d stayed quiet, for Talis scowled and looked at her with doubt and fear in his eyes. “After we visited the Ruins I had a nightmare. I saw a dark chamber, and Princess Minoweth’s dagger appeared…and the next thing I knew I woke and the twin daggers were in my hands. It was like the Nameless had fed off my memories and somehow recreated the daggers. I don’t know, it’s all seriously strange and honestly, I don’t want anything to do with that power chained there in the desert. It’s a hideous feeling…”

“You may not have a choice.” Rikar’s eyelid twitched as if remembering some painful memory. “We’ve all been touched by the Nameless. You can resist all you want, but if you make yourself an enemy, it will only hurt those close to you and likely bring destruction once again to Naru.”

“But can the Nameless ensure that Naru is unharmed by the Jiserians?” Talis said, and Rikar smirked at his suggestion. “I mean he probably only cares about his own desires. What is the destruction of city to the Nameless? Look how easily you were dispatched to wreck Carvina.”

Rikar released an evil laugh. “The Nameless didn’t tell me to do that. I was merely commanded to go and help you and retrieve you both. That was a bit of my own flair at work. Besides, Lord Aurellia hates those of the Order of the Dragons, and likely will reward me if I actually managed to kill a few of them.”

“Not to mention that Zagros will reward you for sending him more innocent citizens that you killed.” At Mara’s mention of the god, the rumble of thunder sounded in the southern mountains, and she closed her eyes and saw the dog-faced Lord of the Underworld.

“Enough of this,” Rikar said, and pushed himself to his feet. “The Nameless has commanded us to tilt the balance of power in favor of his loyal sorcerers in Ishur. You can deny him and both you and Naru will suffer as a result, or you can obey for the time being and see where a temporary obedience leads you. But right now, I don’t see you having any other choice.”

“Can you give us a moment to talk?” Talis said, and Rikar nodded and shuffled away to stare at the City of Ishur.

Mara met Talis’s concerned eyes and wished they’d never followed Rikar in the first place. She stretched out her fingers and scooted over close to him and scooped up his hands, melting a little at the soft feeling of his skin. Wasn’t there another way? They could fly back to Naru and prepare for a Jiserian invasion. But as Mara pictured the ferocious intensity of the Dragons, she knew that Princess Devonia wouldn’t stop until she’d killed every single citizen of Naru in revenge for Mara’s slaying of her father and brother.
 

“What should we do, Talis? The last time we listened to Rikar we ended up in the Underworld.”

“But in all fairness, it didn’t turn out all that bad, and if we’d listened to him in the first place we would have avoided almost getting killed in that hideous graveyard.”
 

Mara shivered at the memory of that place. “So you’re suggesting that we follow him to the Ruins of Elmarr, and what, swear allegiance to the Nameless?”

“You forget, I’ve already sworn a blood oath to Aurellia. And if the Nameless is really Aurellia’s master, then I might not have any other choice, ultimately. Don’t look all distraught, we’ll get through this somehow, I know we will. The important thing is for us to stay together. I mean it, I don’t ever want to lose you again. When you went into that palace all furious at me, I was really scared that I’d lost you.” He sighed and in the stillness stared into her eyes. “Do you still care about me?”

A rush of emotion flooded her heart at she gazed into his beautiful eyes, and she nodded her head and squeezed his hands. Of course she cared about him, she loved him and hoped that he felt the same way. “I only have feelings for you, Talis. I have always felt this way, even though you didn’t see it. I guess boys are stupid that way.” She laughed wistfully and glanced up at Talis. When he smiled at her, a sympathetic expression formed on his face, and she relaxed and gestured at Rikar. “Let’s go before he gets all the fun of wrecking Ishur.”

“Let him do the attacking,” Talis said, a worried look crossing his face. “I’d rather know who I am killing first. Rikar might be commanded by the Nameless to kill people who aren’t our enemies. Who knows, maybe the magical orders that are allied to the Nameless are the very ones that attacked Naru.”

“Well, let’s find out, shall we?” She allowed him to pull her up and they walked over to Rikar and joined him in staring at the vast City of Ishur.

“So who are you attacking down there?” Talis said. Mara thought she spotted a twinge of jealousy in his expression towards Rikar, and who could blame him? Talis had always been competitive with Rikar, ever since their competitions in the sparring arena.

“Not just me,” Rikar glanced at Talis with questioning eyes. “You’ll need to help if you are indeed joining me in pursuing the Starwalkers. And don’t worry, we’re attacking the two Orders that led the assaults against Naru, the sorcerers who work for money and the necromancers who work for blood. In both cases they were commanded by the Emperor himself to strike out against our city. Considering you’ve beaten them before, this should be easy, right?”

Talis shook his head. “Be careful with the sorcerers and runemasters. In Carvina I fought three sorcerers who cast runes in the air that absorbed all the power of my spells and it even made them stronger. If it wasn’t for Mara, they’d likely have won.”

Rikar frowned in puzzlement at his words. “Sorcerers and runes? Hah, I wish we had Mistress Cavares to help us out on that one, she would have proven very useful.”

“Just watch out, shoot testing shots of weak power to see if any of the sorcerers cast that kind of spell. With the amount of power you’re commanding, it will only make them stronger and more difficult for us to deal with.”

“And don’t forget about me,” Mara said. “I remember what those spells look like. I can always help go after them, assuming you can keep the flying spell on me during the battle?”

“We’ll be quite a team,” Rikar said, and grinned with a strange fondness that made Mara suspicious. She preferred him as an enemy. It was weird to have him on their side.

 
With a flourish of Rikar’s hands, Mara found herself floating alongside Talis, and the three of them flew down the mountain and shot towards the tall, red buildings in the heart of Ishur, where thick, black smoke poured from a raging fire.

Of course, as luck would have it, the sorcerers that Rikar first encountered in the heart of Ishur flung brilliant blue runes into the air that sucked all the power out of his attacks. As much as he hated to admit it, having Talis and Mara there to back him up really helped. Talis would position himself to the side of the sorcerer they were attacking—creating a distraction—while Mara came in from behind for the savage, bloody kill. With Mara’s daggers providing her with complete invisibility, they were almost an unstoppable force.

That was, until to Rikar’s horror, at the zenith there blossomed a brilliant blaze of white light that unfolded in flaps around the blue sky, and four figures flew out and hovered over the City of Ishur. Rikar felt his heart make a weird tremor and he had to force himself to breath as he gaped at the sight, watching and wondering what they would do next.
They’re going to kill you
, thought Rikar. Though likely they were going to do something far worse.
 

Then the strangest thing happened. Instead of attacking or swooping down on Rikar, the Starwalkers began singing a sad song, a chorus, of love and loss and despair. He recognized the clear and beautiful voices as from the song the Starwalkers had sung on Vellia, and Rikar wondered if there was a connection somehow. But this song was different than the one before, more of a mother bird singing because she has lost her little ones. A searching, probing song meant to evoke a response from the lost Starwalkers. None came, for as Rikar knew all too well, they were utterly destroyed.

He waited, despite being caught in the middle of a battle with three sorcerers who now stared dumbfounded at the strange star portal still open in the sky. Now everything seemed meaningless next to the power and grandeur of the god-like figures surveying the cityscape. When they discovered that their comrades had been slain like that, in a way so cruel and inhuman, they’d certainly rain fire and obliterate the Ruins of Elmarr and bury that foul presence underneath the sands of the Nalgoran Desert forever.