Sword Bearer (Return of the Dragons) (10 page)

I opened my eyes.

I was staring at my mother’s face, and she was crying.

But where was she? I did not recognize her room. It was no
room of the castle, at least that I knew. There were bars on the windows. There
were bars at the door. She was sitting on a little wooden chair, and she was
weeping.

“Mother? Mother what’s wrong?”

She looked up then, and she saw me. I saw shock on her face
— then wonder, surprise and finally fear. She shook her head, put her finger to
her lips.

“Mother, what’s happened?”

When I had been a child, we had played a game. Read My Lips.
We had taken turns until I could read everything my mother said, without any
sound.

Now she was telling me something. She was completely silent,
but her lips were moving, and I read them.

“Your father... is in danger. Get him first, then me. Get
him first, then me.”

I shook my head. I mouthed:

“I’ll get you now, and then we’ll get him together.”

She shook her head, but what did she know? I had no time for
her self-sacrificing.

I reached out my hands and grabbed onto her, and felt the
strange feeling of being in two places at once. The air was much cooler and
damper in the cell than in Woltan’s chamber. I felt Woltan standing up behind
me, and then I was pulling her through. There was a great deal of resistance,
and I spoke a word.

Durch
.

Woltan’s hand was on my shoulder, and power flowed through
him into me. We pulled at her together. There was a noise, and then we had her
through, but the gateway was open.

I looked back at the gateway. There were other faces there
now, angry old faces with eyes that glowed with rage. They stared at me and one
of them spoke a word of power that hit me like an ice cold hammer. I felt
myself falling as Woltan tried to hold me steady. Still, I fell, but I got out
one last word

schliessen

and then all went black.

When I woke again I found myself in a chair, a wet cloth on
my forehead. “Mother?”

But she was nowhere to be seen. I was still in Woltan’s study.
Woltan was there, though, and Kara too. It was Kara who spoke. “She’s been
taken to a healer. She’s alive, don’t worry, but dark magic has been worked
upon her. The same spell hit you too, but I think she took the brunt of it.”

“I just feel groggy.”

Kara looked at me. “Your mother is unconscious, and we can’t
wake her up. It may be that you have more magical resistance; or perhaps
Kalle’s cloak came in handy. It could have been your merpeople blood. They have
a special resistance to malicious spellwork, and their blood runs in your veins
too.”

It was all my fault. If only I had listened to her. “Will
she live?”

Woltan nodded. “We can keep her alive, I have no doubt. How
soon she will regain consciousness, however, I have no idea. It may be hours,
days, or...”

“Or what?”

“Or months, I’m afraid.”

“Why can’t you be sure?”

Woltan shook his head. Kara spoke. “It depends on the wizard
who cast the spell, Anders. Until he is destroyed, or the spell fades, we can
only keep her alive. We can’t bring her back to consciousness, to true life.”

I stood up suddenly. I felt like such an idiot.

“My father! She told me to get him instead. She must have
known this would happen.” I felt suddenly weak. But before I could fall, Woltan
and Kalle were there at my sides, guiding me back down into the chair.

“He will now be heavily guarded, I’m sure,” Woltan said.
“You disobeyed your mother but followed your heart when you pulled her through
the gateway. Even as she was following hers when she told you to take your
father first. Love is an admirable thing, even when it leads us into trouble.
It’s good to follow the love in your heart, in times of so much difficulty.”

There was Woltan twisting the truth again, making life seem
simpler than it was. I shook my head.

“She always told me I should listen to her, and to my
father. And I always thought I knew best. You may say that I acted with my
heart, but I was just being like I’ve always been. Thinking I knew better. And
now she’s unconscious, and my father is ...”

I bit my lip. I couldn’t go on.

Kara looked at me searchingly. “Your father is what?”

“I don’t know. Heavily guarded? Dead?”

Kara’s face looked grim. “You can’t know any of that for
certain, Anders. Maybe that’s why your mother wanted you to get your father
first, but that doesn’t mean she was right. They may now think they’ve killed
you, or at least spelled you out of commission, and their defenses may be down.
I’ve just spoken to my uncle. He said you must contact and try to save your
parents.”

I stood up. “It’s settled then. I’ll try to contact him
now.”

Woltan nodded. “But only with Kalle and me at your side, to
protect you.”

Kara frowned. “What about me?”

“You will stand to the side, and back us all up. Anders and
Kalle may need your help in closing the connection.”

I walked back over to the table. “I need to do one more
thing.” I took a sip of tea. I sat down, and sighed. Then I ran my fingers over
the runes of the table until they were all glowing, and I started to speak. The
words flowed out of my mouth, words my mind couldn’t understand. Soon the whole
table was glowing and vibrating.

I closed my eyes and tuned everything out. My mind had only
one thing present, and that was my father. But what, exactly, should I remember
about him? Who was my father really, and had I ever really known him?

If I was a three-blood prince, what did that make him? More
than a diplomat, that was for sure. And why had he never carried the sword? The
sword that lay at my side? I pushed these thoughts aside. Right now I needed a
memory, something strong, to pull up my father in my mind.

My father needed me.

I needed him too.

I closed my eyes, and I remembered the ocean.

The ocean and my father were always intertwined in my
memory. It was my father who first told me about the sea, and my father who
first took me there. It had been a three day journey, and I could not have been
older than eight. I sat behind him, on his horse, and we rode every day from
dawn to dusk, stopping only to water and feed the horse, and then to sleep and
drink and rest ourselves at night.

I remembered my father’s smell, as he sat on the horse in
front of me, remembered the soreness from so much riding, remembered the clear
clean smell of the sea on our last day of riding as we approached the ocean and
the dirt gave way to sand. What had father’s business been that day? At the
time I hadn’t even thought to ask. My father had never told me much, and
probably he wouldn’t have confided in me even if I’d asked him to.

There was something sealed and secret about father, then as
now.

But I tried to put that out of my mind, and concentrate on
my father’s smell, on the feel of his hand holding mine as we walked together
into the ocean.

I opened my eyes to see a face completely covered by a
crimson hood.

There was no face to look at, but it had to be my father. He
was tied to a chair, and the chair was bolted to the floor. There was a hole in
the hood for his mouth, so he could breathe. That was it. I listened intently.
The room was still. I felt a touch on my arm. It was Kalle.

Maintain the connection, and we’ll see what we can do.

I nodded. I tried to keep focused, but anger and fear surged
up. I wanted to tear through the gateway and cut my father’s bonds with my
sword.

And if anyone attacked me?

I would cut them down as well.

But if it was a trap? The circle grew fainter, then came
back into focus. I needed to concentrate. Woltan’s hand squeezed my shoulder,
and I felt strength and determination flow into me.

Easy does it Anders, keep your mind calm and steady.
We’re going to try a couple of things.

Woltan said a word of power. The word flowed through me and
out my mouth.

Klarschauen
.

Suddenly I could see everything. My father, ahead of me,
under the hood, breathing, alive; Gerard, the wizard from Spices, hidden in the
shadows, asleep; and another presence, that I could see but not make sense of —
some kind of magical being that shimmered darkly and changed color as I looked
at it.

We can try stunning everything and breaking the chair
away. I don’t see any other option. The beast there is too strong, and so is
the wizard. But I don’t think they have noticed us yet.

They will if we make the opening any bigger. It’s tiny
right now.

We’ll do the spell to break the bonds of the chair first,
and then hit them with a stun, and then maybe we can get him out of there,
although I doubt that beast will be stunned for more than a moment.

I felt two more hands on my shoulders then, and when my
mouth opened a word surged forth and the word was
frei.
The word hit my
father and rolled over him. I had concentrated on the chair but my father
surged up as well.

That’s when all hell broke loose.

Everything that had slumbered and shimmered in the
background seemed to wake up at the same moment. The beast roared. Flashing
light blinded me. Cursing filled the air.

I panicked, and almost lost the connection.

But one of my hands touched the sword. I opened my mouth and
out came song. The song reached out and pierced the barrier, forming a green
protective sphere around my father that narrowed as it ran back to my mouth.

Kara’s hand was warm on my shoulder.
Wow. Keep that up,
whatever you’re doing. And widen the barrier, but watch out. We’ll try to stun
them, or at least protect you
.

I pulled then with all my body and soul, sucking and tugging
at the green cord that bound me to my father — inside the green field of light
I could feel my father reaching out to me, and then I heard him:

Anders, is that you? Hold on to the sword, and don’t
break the connection.

He was weak, but himself. Why had my father never shown me
any magic? Why had he left it all to my tutor? Why had he never carried the
sword that hung by my side? I was filled with questions just when I need to
concentrate most.

The beast attacked then. It spat out red fire that ate at
the green energy surrounding my father. It felt like it was burning my skin.
But I refused it. I thought of cold, clean spring water, and the beast’s fire
burned on but did not hurt us. I felt pain, yes, tremendous burning biting
pain, but I refused it, as well, refused to close my eyes and break the
connection. I was real, and the beast’s fire was not. Then there were words of
magic spoken:

Leicht

My father seemed to lose all weight, and I pulled at him. He
started to move through the barrier, the green sphere filling the circle
completely, blocking out the spells that were flying at us from Gerard, who
stood behind my father now, in a rage, cursing us magically with words I
couldn’t understand but that still burned my ears with their malice.

Durch

The gateway became more slippery. My father was coming
through, but it was tight, like giving birth to an elephant. I was afraid of
what would follow him, but I pulled on.

The globe popped out of the barrier.

I fell back, the globe disintegrating, my father on top of
me. The lights went out, as I shouted
schliessen!

But it was too late.

My father was not the only thing that had come through the
gateway.

He rolled off of me and I sat up quickly.

Before I could see anything I felt it, its breath on me like
some alchemical fire. I had no time to speak a word of magic — it was slashing
at my face, enveloping me in liquid flame. I wanted to scream, but nothing came
out of my mouth as the beast enveloped my face with its chemical burn.

My hand moved jerkily, fighting something unseen, to my
sword. At last my hand was on the pommel, and an ancient word screamed out of
the blade itself:

Raus
!

The fire left my mouth. I saw the beast with my third eye.
Like some creature of the ocean straight out of my schoolbooks, it hovered
there in the room — an octopus, it was called, but they were creatures of the
deep sea.
This
was some invention of a mad wizard or witch, a magical
octopus that swam through the air, attacking me with burning tentacles and
teeth.

My sword was screaming, unheeded, as I stared at the magical
creature, a glowing mass of red body and tentacles.

The beast struck three more blows, rapid-fire, to my head,
my shoulders and chest, and I reeled.

Then my sword rose up, unbidden. I shook myself, and the
sword spoke again, and this time I listened.

Careful, Anders! Defend yourself! I haven’t fought a Gulk
for around a thousand years. Chop at its tentacles, then go for its eye, and
finally its heart.

The blade flew through the air. My eyes were still clenched
tightly shut and I saw a green glowing blade and my body that was green too,
saw the beast glowing red, and other bodies around me that must have been my
friends and father.

The Gulk whipped its tentacles, as my blade swung and
chopped. And I began to smell a salty chemical odor, some twisted sorcerer’s
idea of sea and the deep. The beast splattered everything with red blood that
sizzled and burned.

The Gulk jumped on me then, knocking me down. I stabbed
upward, and stabbed deeply — the sword sang in triumph in my hands. The creature
shrieked in pain, and pulled itself off of me, moving around crazily,
drunkenly.

The eye
, sang Carolina,
we have the eye. The heart
is soon to follow. Stand tall, Anders son of Tomas.

I sprang to my feet and opened my eyes.