The Archmage Unbound (57 page)

Edward flinched back as I swung it back toward him
and he cried out in fear, “Celior defend me!” He flung his hands up as if to
ward the blow but I knew the blade would slice through flesh and bone until it
had cleaved entirely through his rotten heart. Victory, bitter though it might
be, was mine.

There was no way I could have anticipated how
mistaken I was.

The cloaked man drew back his hood and the golden
locks of his hair fell free as a luminescent radiance filled the air. Before then
I had felt a fearful hint of an unknown presence; I now found myself
overwhelmed by the stranger’s sheer blinding power. The very air had become
heavy with it and though I struggled I could not move to finish my blow, so
heavy was his crushing presence.

Knees buckling I fell to the floor, genuflecting
despite myself. The stranger’s features were so bright I was forced to bow my
head to shield my eyes from the light and I knew without doubt that I was in
the physical presence of one of the shining gods. The experience was different
than when I had faced the gods before. In the past they had been channeled,
limited by their human vessels. Now I stood before Celior himself, and there
was no limit to his power.

A voice so beautiful that it drove my heart to tears
spoke, “Only now do you understand the folly of your ways Mordecai.”

I struggled to clear my mind. I still held my
shield tightly about myself but Celior’s power seemed to bleed through it like
contagion, seeping into me despite my best efforts. Gritting my teeth I
contracted my shield and put everything I had into sealing my mind.
You may
take my body you bastard but you will never have me!

Celior laughed. “Look Edward! It thinks it can
defy me! You are an insect mortal, your death will mean nothing to me and yet
I will relish your despair.”

With my mind clear I found myself able to stand
again, though it still felt as if I had a giant standing upon my shoulders.
Drawing myself up I looked to Edward in desperation, “What have you done?”

The King however was lost in a fit of divine
ecstasy. He was kneeling with his head raised and a look of frenzied euphoria
on his face. A few feet behind him Cyhan still stood but his expression was
even more fearful to me… tears streaked his cheeks and his eyes held a look of
sorrow so profound I wondered if he were even the same man I had known.

At my side Rose was still on her knees and her face
was drawn in an expression of pain. My eyes met hers for a moment and I could
feel her terror and despair. What we faced now was beyond human
comprehension.

I seemed to be the only one left in the room that
retained a modicum of sanity. Celior’s presence had deprived them of their
reason as well as their dignity.

The shining god spoke again, “My arrival is not by your
rightful king’s doing, but rather by the hand of that sweet girl, who shall be
revered above all women.” Celior’s hand swept out to point at Elaine’s
unconscious form and he began to laugh. “She was so desperate. Her
imprisonment led her to despair of ever finding freedom, or safety for her
family. Without the guidance of her father she called to me and offered me
passage here, to your world, if only I would grant her justice!”

My tongue finally found its will and I slowly ground
out a reply, “You’re no better than Edward.”

Celior smiled and the beauty of his face seemed to
light the room. “Is that what you think?” The god turned and addressed the
King, “Rise o’ King, I would seek your counsel!”

Edward stood slowly. “What would you have of me?”

“This man will die, but he must suffer first. Tell
me how you would increase his anguish.”

Edward smiled, “His wife and friend lie below the
palace, in a hidden vault, bring them here and let them watch.”

Celior looked at Cyhan, “Fetch them here mortal.”

I struggled to move, to do anything, but it was all
I could do to remain standing. It took everything I had just to keep my mind
clear and I was barely succeeding at that. Try as I might the only freedom
left to me was the power of speech. “You’ll regret this Celior,” I said
slowly.

The god laughed. “Do you think that I will suffer
the same fate as Balinthor? He was tired and sick by the time he was called to
this plane, thanks to your ancestor. The destruction of the She’Har was his
undoing long before Moira Centyr was.” Taking notice of Lady Rose the god
gestured in her direction, “Come here child.”

Like a twisted imitation of a marionette Rose stood
and walked haltingly to stand before the golden perfection that was Celior.
“You have sinned against me child,” said the god, and tears began flowing
freely down Rose’s cheeks. Leaning down Celior kissed her slowly. Rose’s body
jerked as if she had been shocked for a moment and then she began to writhe
sinuously in his grasp.

The god pulled away from her causing Rose to cry out
in anguish at the sudden loss. “That is the bliss you might have had,” he told
her and then twisting her thick black tresses in his hand he lifted her from
the ground by her hair. “This is what you will receive instead,” he intoned
cruelly as she cried out in pain.

“Stop it!” I screamed.

“Or what?” asked the god, sneering in my direction.

“Put her down,” came a gravelly voice that I
nevertheless recognized. Dorian Thornbear stood in one of corner doorways
behind the throne. Cyhan and Penny were close behind him. Impossibly he wore
the armor I had made for him, though I couldn’t imagine Edward would have been
foolish enough to leave him with it.

Dorian repeated himself again, “Put her down or I’ll
cut your fucking head from your shoulders.” He held one of the enchanted
swords I had given him.

Celior looked at him in amazement. “A stoic? How
unusual. Do you think you can save this woman? Here, I didn’t really want her
anyway.” Using a slow sweeping movement the god threw Rose at Edward and the
two of them went down in a pile of tangled limbs. Several torn locks of her
hair hung loosely from Celior’s fingers. Glancing at the hair the deity began
to laugh.

Screaming in rage Dorian charged at the mocking god.
He moved with speed and his size along with the shining armor he wore made Celior
seem small in comparison.

The god didn’t bother trying to dodge or avoid him.
With one arm he caught Dorian, grasping his armor at the gorget that protected
Dorian’s throat. Despite Dorian’s incredible momentum Celior was not moved at
all, and even his hair hung calmly about him. Lifting he drew Dorian up, until
his feet dangled above the floor. “You amuse me greatly, but you must not die
yet little warrior.”

As he found himself rising above the floor Dorian
swept his sword up and across, attempting to cut Celior’s arm from his
shoulder. His heart pounded with the strength of the earth and when his blade
struck the god’s arm it made a sound as if a massive gong had been struck. The
sword shattered as though it was made of glass and fragments of steel flew in
every direction.

In a movement that seemed almost languid the shining
god threw Dorian across the room. My friend’s armored body struck the wall so
hard that it bowed outward and the stones cracked, and then he fell to the
floor unmoving.

While Celior’s attention had been on Dorian the
pressure on the rest of us lessened. Hearing a cry of pain I saw Rose rise
from the dais holding a bloody dagger. Edward lay bleeding beneath her.

Turning his attention back to us the pressure
increased again and Rose’s knees buckled. Kneeling in the King’s blood she
still laughed. “You cannot have everything,” she said in a voice so soft it
was almost inaudible.

Around the room everyone was on their knees again,
including Penny and Cyhan now. My eyes sought Penny’s and for a moment we were
together again, despite the intervening distance. In Penelope’s haggard face I
could see fear and exhaustion, along with worry, probably for me. Still I felt
a tiny flower of hope blossom in my chest at the sight of her.

The god’s attention was fully on Rose now and
holding up his hand a tiny ball of flame flickered into life above it. “You
have displeased me child. I think perhaps you should burn first.” With a
twist of his hand he casually tossed the flame at her.

Drawing on reserves I hadn’t known were there I
somehow erected a shield before her, sending the flame sliding away to one side
where it flickered and died. The god laughed and looked at me. “You amaze me
wizard. I thought you had reached your limit.”

The continual strain of shielding my mind against
his power had left me weary and I found myself wishing for a clever response.
The best I could manage was, “That just shows your ignorance.”

Celior frowned and holding his hand out toward me he
said, “Learn humility.” Then he turned his palm toward the floor as if
pressing downward.

The pressure on my shield and mind increased several
fold and I collapsed. Pain shot through me as my shield vanished. Drawing
inward I tried to protect my mind but Celior’s will shot through me and it felt
as though knives were stabbing into my skull. Blood began to drip from my eyes
and I could hear myself screaming.

My entire world dissolved into agony and I felt my
sense of self slipping away. In my desperation to escape the pain my body
curled into a ball on the ground while my fingers clutched at the hard floor.
The
stone!
That single thought permeated my being and gained focus as I sought
to preserve what was left of my sanity. Remembering the stone Moira had once
given me to shape, I struggled to emulate it. Surrendering my humanity I tried
to become the stone… for stones feel no pain.

Still the sharp barbs of Celior’s thoughts wrapped
around my tortured mind and even through my misery I could hear his voice,
echoing in my mind, “Did you think you had the power to protect yourself tiny
mortal? I let you believe so only to increase your shame and suffering.”

I was utterly blinded by the agony, and yet somehow
I could hear. A sharp cry rang out, and I recognized Rose’s voice. It was
followed by an anguished yell and then Celior spoke again, “You seek to hinder
me by killing your King? Watch and know despair.” After an unknowable pause
he spoke again, “Rise Edward, King of Lothion, your wounds were not fatal.”

“Mort! Mort! Can you hear me?” Penny’s voice was
next to my ear and somehow I knew she was stroking my brow, though I couldn’t
feel it. The only sensation left to my body at that point was ceaseless
burning pain. My deepest desire was to answer her, but I couldn’t. Instead I
focused on the only thing that seemed to give me surcease from Celior’s
torment, the image of the stone I held in my mind.

My focus increased and the wracking agony lessened
as I felt my conscious mind harden. At last I was able to open my eyes again
and I saw Penelope leaning protectively over me. Over her shoulder I glimpsed
the angry god approaching.

“Do you think to protect him woman? He is of no use
to you anymore. I will make his death long and painful. You should worry more
for yourself,” Celior announced with a grin that would have made children laugh
at the beauty of it.

“His dying breath is worth more than your entire
being!” Penny screamed in defiance as she drew me close, cradling me beneath
her. Her tears fell on my face and I struggled to speak, but my mouth still
would not cooperate.

At last the pain was gone, along with my vision of
the world around me. I saw and felt nothing. In peaceful bliss I relaxed and
deep below I could hear the steady beat of the earth. Closer and yet more
faintly I heard a single perfect voice, “I will rip your cursed child from your
womb and crush it before your eyes.”

“No,” I said simply and I began to sit up. The
pressure against my mind was still there, but it was no longer beyond my
ability to stop. Something had changed inside, and a new strength had emerged,
drawn primarily from the pulsing heart of the world. Looking around myself
with new eyes I took in the room with a clarity that came from a calm center.
I had found my balance, and in that timeless instant I saw everything.

Dorian and Elaine were both still unconscious, their
bodies collapsed near the wall to one side of the room. Rose lay face down
near the throne, a still spreading pool of blood fanning outward from beneath
her. Edward stood over her now, a bloody dagger in hand and a smile upon his
face. His grey hair was gone and he looked younger than I remembered. Last of
all, I spotted Cyhan, crouched near the doorway, still holding a sword though
he seemed powerless to move.

Most importantly the shining god was reaching down,
though his movement seemed terribly slow. Penelope’s face was still above me,
framed by loose strands of soft brown hair, shining golden with Celior’s light
behind her. Her eyes were on mine and in that moment something passed between
us, a type of communication that was ineffable. Apologies and regrets were
forgotten and meaningless, for our hearts had found each other once again.

Celior’s hand was over her head, and his fingers
were beginning to clench inward, to grasp her by the hair when finally the
universe snapped back into motion. Without conscious thought I drew deeply
upon the power beneath me while reaching up to meet the god’s greedy hand with
my own,
“
Na’Pyrren Ingak mai Lathos”
It
was the spell I had created to harden and strengthen my hands when working with
the hot metal of the forge.