The Kingdom of Eternal Sorrow (The Golden Mage Book 1) (22 page)

Aided with the energy of his fury, he would be able to cast a spell
that he seldom had enough power to attempt. He was going to cast the spell of
implosion onto the swarm, causing the magical energies all around the beasts to
collapse into a point of singularity, thus crushing the entire swarm within the
blink of an eye. Whatever, if anything, was lucky enough to escape the pull of
the energy would instead be obliterated in the proceeding explosion when the
singularity reverted.

“Keldan! Aren!”
he sent to the twins, grateful that their
natural bond to one another allowed him to thought-speak them together without
having to broad-send. All he needed now was for one of Roderick’s mages who was
a stronger thought-speaker than he to catch wind of what he was about to do.
“I
need your help! This attack is a trap, and I suspect it was intended for me and
any other mage he could get his hands on. I’m about to rid us of this
dyani
swarm.”

“Seni help us all,”
Keldan sent back in alarm,
“Aidric, you
aren’t going to cast—”

“I have no choice,”
Aidric said flatly.
“We ran out of
options a long time ago. Warn my troops. Warn General Caith. Make damned
certain that every one of them is tightly shielded with as many shields as
possible! The backlash of the explosion—”

Aidric had no need to finish. He still had nightmares because of the
last time he had cast the implosion spell. No one but Seni, Himself, could
predict the force of the final explosion. Sometimes it covered a radius of a
few hundred handspans—and sometimes it was a few hundred
spans
.

Last time it had been a hundred spans.

 “I don’t need to tell either of you how worthless the spell will
leave me. Keldan, I place command of the magical troops in your hands. The
moment the
dyani
are obliterated, concentrate your efforts on destroying
Roderick’s mages—if any survive the Reversal. Relay my message to the other
mages. General Caith’s men will take care of any Mihran troops still standing. I
doubt there will be any.”

“We’re on it,”
came the mingled, uneasy, reply.
“Seni’s luck
to us all.”

Anger and light thundering throughout the channels in his body, Aidric
cast the power before him to encircle the
dyani
in a shield of magic
that could not be penetrated.

The moment the shield was in place, Aidric shouted his incantation up
into the darkened sky as if shouting his defiance, “
Di akanai ta lansou ti
reist ta aena solvian
!” I command thou life and light combine and fold!

The moment the ancient words roared from his throat, the circle of power
collapsed within itself in a flash of blinding, sapphire light and vanished
into a point Aidric could not see, stretching thin what was material of the
dyani
swarm until the hellspawn fell into the abyss of the singularity. In almost the
same instant, an explosion of power sounded out into the half-beat of silence
after the
dyani
disappeared. Aidric instinctually shielded his eyes with
an arm and closed them tightly the instant the world became a blinding inferno
of white light.

Aidric felt himself collapse onto his knees hard as the backlash of
power engulfed him, ripping mercilessly into his many shields, destroying the
outermost as easily as the swipe of a snowcat’s great claws shredding a piece
of
sholkie
cloth. A deafening, high-pitched roar flooded his ears
painfully. He couldn’t even hear himself scream. He had
become
the
light—

Silence.

The silence was so sudden and profound that it too, like
the roar before it, was painful to his ears. Aidric’s hands were firmly pressed
over his ears. He hadn’t realized that he had raised them.

Slowly, he lowered them until his arms hung loosely at his
side, tentatively raised his head, and opened tear-blurred eyes. The sight that
greeted him was his bloodstained hands. He felt weak and oddly transparent as
though the night air was flowing directly through his body. Blood began to
trickle from his nose at an alarming rate. He wiped at the warm fluid bemusedly
as if he was merely swatting at an annoying insect.

Aidric grimaced as he tried to refocus his eyes in the surrounding
darkness after staring into the brilliance of the power he had contained,
afraid of what he was about to see. Numbly, he saw that he stood a few
handspans from the outer edges of a deep crater. The earth surrounding the
point of singularity he had created had been destroyed down to the layer of
bedrock deep below.

Through a haze of shock, Aidric realized that only the weakest energy
from the blast had reached him. He knew with utmost certainty that it was the
only reason he was still alive. Even still, the plant life around him had been scorched
down to the dark earth. Only a small patch of grass and tiny wildflowers where
he stood had been spared by virtue of his shields. The blast had miraculously
only reached a radius of about a couple hundred handspans. The destruction hadn’t
even reached the battlefield.

He would have wept had he been able, but the shock had stilled his
emotions. Seni had indeed been watching over his children tonight.

Aidric was vaguely aware of the mage battle that was waging on around
him and that a couple of the shields he had placed around himself earlier to
ward off the
dyani
were still soundly in place. The clang of metal on
metal rang out into the night, and he heard the resonance of distant melodies
that signaled that the twins were performing bardic magic. However, all of that
seemed so far away now.

He had to rise. His duty was not yet finished. Aidric swayed dizzily as
he tried to climb to his feet again, driven with the intent to aid his comrades
in the battle, and to his chagrin, he pitched forward onto his knees once
again.

Aidius, I’m worse off than I had anticipated
, he thought
irritably, grunting in pain.
Damn it! I do
not
need this right now! Just
concentrate you fool! It’s the shock—concentrate on dispersing it out of your
body—

“Aidric! Look out! Behind you!”
he suddenly heard Allison’s
mind-voice shout frantically within his mind.

Aidric didn’t have time to wonder how she had managed to reach him at
such a great distance because almost in the same beat as his weakened body
reflexively rose into action, his magical defenses screamed out “
danger!
”
into every nerve in his body.

He gathered what power he had left within himself, too weak
to draw from the Mage-field, whirled around, and released it as a dagger of
concentrated power without waiting to see who or what it was that he faced.

Allison woke to the sensation that someone had given her an electrical
shock. Her body convulsed painfully, trapped within a tightly enclosed barrier.
A cry was wrenched from her throat. She instinctively clutched the blankets spread
over her tightly in her fists, her hands feeling as though they moved through
the resistance of water, until the spasms in her muscles ceased.

Wide-eyed, she stared at all the strange faces surrounding her bed and
swallowed fearfully.

“What—who—” she began before the memory of what she had just witnessed
came flooding back to her. “Aidric!” she shrieked and immediately tried to rise
from her bed.

To her surprise, Allison found that none of her limbs seemed to be
obeying her.
The paralysis spell
, she thought absently, her mind still
hazy from sleep and panic.
But who? And why?
It was a moment before her
befuddled mind registered the significance of the small crowd gathered in her
room.

“Let me up!” she demanded as she struggled against the
invisible bounds. “I have to warn him!”

“Allison, please—stop fighting us!” she heard a familiar voice plead,
tense with exertion.

That voice was as effective as a hard slap to the face, and Allison
finally came fully awake, stopping her struggles against the invisible bonds
set on her body.

“Raya?” she asked hesitantly, blinking her eyes in confusion. “What’s
going on? Why did someone cast the paralysis spell over me?”

The young girl moved into her field of vision, and Allison gasped when
she saw her appearance. Raya’s face was drawn and haggard, her forehead
glistening with sweat. She glanced around at the rest of those present in the
room and felt the blood leave her face when she saw them in similar conditions
as Raya.

“You were caught in the throes of a Foresight dream,” Raya explained
wearily. “At least we
think
it was a Foresight dream.”

“
Think
? You’re not sure?” Allison asked incredulously.

“No,” Raya replied unhappily. “Nothing like this has ever
happened. We couldn’t wake you. I came in here to check on you, and your entire
body was glowing with Mage-field energy. I don’t know why none of us sensed the
power. When I tried to touch you to wake you, the energy struck out at me and
bloody well flung me across the entire room! That should have
never
happened. No one should be able to wield the power of the Mage-field without
first Bonding your life-energies to it! Yet, I swear on everything that I hold
sacred that the power you used was drawn from our own Mage-field!”

For the first time, Raya looked at her in fear, and that fear was like
a knife in her heart. Allison despairingly closed her eyes so she no longer had
to look at the fear on the face of her friend, a fear that only too clearly
reminded her of the monster that she was in the eyes of these people. She
viciously clamped down on the tears that swelled in her eyes, denying herself
even that release in which she could find a bit of solace.

My God—what the hell have I become?

“The others,” Allison said quietly without emotion, still keeping her
eyes shut to the world, “they thought I would kill you—that’s why they cast the
paralysis spell over me.”

Only then did she open her eyes to look at Raya and was puzzled when
she saw Raya’s expression contorted with conflicting emotions. The silence in
the room was profound—you could have heard a feather brush the floor—and the
air was so saturated with tension that it left a foul taste in the back of her mouth.

“Is that what you think of us—of me?” Raya finally demanded as her face
finally settled on a look of dismay. “That you believe us to fear that which is
only a shadow of ourselves? If that were true, Milady Allison, then we would
have done much more to you than restrain you with a paralysis spell!”

“Then why so many mages?” Allison asked, meeting her gaze evenly. “Why
so many if they didn’t believe that your life was in danger? I
saw
the
fear in everyone’s eyes, Raya. I saw it in
yours
! Couldn’t you, alone,
have cast this spell over me?”

Allison was surprised when a male voice answered her, not Raya’s,
a voice that she recognized from the celebration. “It’s true that it was Raya
who summoned us here,” Maldon noted as he boldly moved up to her bedside, “but
we came not for the danger that you posed to her, but to the danger you posed
to yourself. And why so many? Well, to be frank, it took the combined powers of
us all to cast a paralysis spell that was powerful enough not to be broken by
all the energy you had accumulated in your body. We feared that you would start
gesturing and weaving this magic into reckless spells in your sleep. You even
managed to break our spell for a few moments after we jolted you awake! I could
hardly believe my own eyes when I saw you clutch your blankets!”

Maldon stared down at her gravely. “You would have killed yourself for
certain, if not by your reckless spells, then by the Mage-field energies
consuming your body. Aidric charged us with your safety, as did the king, until
the Mage-general returns. I, for one, would rather eat my dagger, point first,
than allow anything to happen to you and have to face Aidric’s wrath!”

At the mention of Aidric’s name, Allison suddenly remembered the bone-chilling
dreams she had been having before she was literally jolted awake. She abruptly
tried to sit up in her agitation and to her chagrin, remembered that she
couldn’t move anything below her neck.

Her agitation must have been obvious on her face because Raya suddenly
frowned down at her and asked, “Allison, what is it? Are you starting to see
another—”

“My dream,” Allison interrupted, swallowing nervously as she eyed all
the strange and vaguely familiar faces around her. “You said that it was a
Foresight dream. Does that mean that it’s going to happen?”

“Possibly,” Raya said carefully. “Sometimes the dreams are sent to us
by Seni as merely a warning of one of the things that
could
happen. It
depends on our actions. By the way you were carrying on earlier, I gather this
dream involved Aidric?”

Allison nodded. “It did, and if there’s even a remote chance that it’ll
happen, then we need to warn him! Please let me up!”

Raya glanced over at Maldon, who nodded slightly, before they both
moved closer to the bed and waved their hands over her body. A split-second
later, she felt the familiar pins and needles sensation sweep throughout her
limbs as they came alive. Allison sat up gingerly with a grateful smile for
them, and rubbed her arms to get the circulation going again.

“Thanks,” Allison said as she started to get out of the bed. “I hate
being under that spell. It makes me feel so helpless.”

“And where do you think you’re going?” Raya said sternly. “The healers
say you still aren’t well, and after channeling so much energy just now, you
should feel as though a herd of crazed
antar
just trampled you.”

“I feel fine,” Allison insisted. “Really I—” Suddenly the room turned
upside down and sideways at the same time and the next thing she knew, Maldon
was laying her head back down onto the pillow.

“You see?” Raya said with a chuckle. “Damned if you are as headstrong
as Aidric! He could be bleeding out of his eyes and still insist that he’s
fine!”

“But I
have
to tell you about my dream,” Allison protested
weakly.

Maldon sighed and said to Raya, “We might as well hear her out. I have
a feeling that she won’t rest unless she recounts it.”

“Oh, very well,” Raya grumbled as she turned to the three other mages
in the room. “If you wish, you may leave us now. I’ll keep Maldon here to
assist me should she suddenly fall into another fit. I’m sure he’ll be enough.”

Was it her imagination, or did the other mages seem relieved to finally
be allowed to leave?

After Raya and Maldon settled themselves into a couple of chairs near
her bedside, Raya said, “All right, Allison, we’re listening.”

“I saw him on an open field,” Allison began, frowning as her head began
to pound insistently as she thought back to the dream. She did her best to
ignore the pain. “I could see the shadow of mountains in the distance. There
were bodies everywhere, soldiers dying, and those—creatures I saw earlier.”

“
Dyani
,” Maldon said flatly.

Allison nodded and continued, “It was awful. People were being
slaughtered right before my eyes. I could see Aren and Keldan and a few other
mages keeping those—those
things
from swarming into a village I could
just barely see in the distance.

“Aidric was off alone, fending off an even larger swarm. There was a
sudden flash of both blue and white light, and for a few moments, I couldn’t
see anything. When the light cleared, I could see another strange man just
barely visible in the distance behind Aidric. Somehow I
knew
that he was
a mage and that Roderick had sent him.

“The mage’s thoughts were flowing into my mind. The whole attack on
Idona was a trap. It seemed that Roderick wanted King Diryan to send as many
mages as possible to Idona’s aid. He planned to either capture or slaughter all
the mages as part of an even larger plan I couldn’t see, but his main target
was Aidric. That mage planned to strike at Aidric from behind with a poisoned
dagger. Aidric was on his knees, dazed by that earlier explosion of light, I
think. I knew he didn’t know that the mage was there. I shouted a warning to
him even though I knew he couldn’t hear me, but then Aidric instantly turned
around ready to strike as if he
did
hear me—”

Raya and Maldon exchanged glances and then fixed their eyes on her so
intently that she began to shift uncomfortably in her bed.

“What?” Allison asked finally when the silence and scrutiny
became unbearable.

“What you described,” Raya began slowly, “thought-speaking within a
Foresight dream—it just isn’t possible. The dream is a telling of a possible
future. There is no possible way for the dreamer to affect what’s being shown
to them—at least it has never been possible before.”

“What in the name of God does that mean?” Allison demanded.

“We’re not sure,” Raya replied uneasily. “This is out of my depth of
understanding.”

“As mine,” Maldon said with a sigh. “This is a question that needs to
be posed to the Providencen priests. After all, they should be the foremost
authorities on the Golden Mage, and perhaps this is a power that only you
possess. The Providencen priests are very secretive, and there may be some
information they have chosen not to reveal about you. However, we can do
nothing until Aidric returns. You are, after all, his ward and under his
protection. As such, we must seek his permission first.”

“His
permission
?” Allison asked incredulously, feeling her old
anger surge within her. “Don’t I have a say in this?”

“Not when it involves your abilities,” Maldon replied firmly. “You are
his ward, his apprentice. It’s the law, milady.”

Allison felt she should be outraged by such a backwards law, but
strangely, she was a bit relieved that she wouldn’t have to face making those
types of decisions. She knew next to nothing about her newfound abilities, so
any decision she made concerning them might not be the wisest one. So why did
she still feel so annoyed?

She nodded, accepting it for now, and then asked, “When do you think
he’ll return?”

“It’s most difficult to say,” Maldon replied thoughtfully. “He could
return tomorrow, tonight, in a few quarter-moons, or even a few moons. It just depends
on how bad the situation is in Idona.” He eyed her strangely. “Or if your dream
comes to pass. Yet, I’m not at all certain that your dream
was
a
Foresight dream. Is there anything else you can tell us about your dream? Was
there anything that you felt was strange besides the obvious?”

Allison shrugged uneasily and replied, “I don’t know. I know next to
nothing about all these abilities, but—” She paused, and glanced uncertainly at
both of them.

I don’t want to remember…

“Yes?” Maldon prompted.

“I could—I could smell the b-blood,” she stammered, shivering at the
memory and feeling herself grow pale. “I could also smell the b-burning bodies.
The stench was so terrible that I felt like retching. Even now as I think about
it, I can still remember the smell.”

Maldon’s thoughtful expression grew troubled at her revelation. Raya
appeared bewildered, and Allison didn’t like either one of their reactions.
What
have I done this time?
she thought miserably.
Will this nightmare ever
end?

“All we can do is wait for Aidric,” Maldon said after a few moments of
silence. “I’m at a loss to explain this.”

“As am I,” Raya put in quietly. “I only hope that Aidric
won’t be as baffled as we.”

***

A terrible scream reached Aidric’s ears before his vision cleared enough
from the bright flash of light that followed when his dagger of power found its
mark for him to see who or what he had hit. A charred and bloody body lay just
a couple of strides from where he stood, a hole the size of two of his fists
clearly visible in his chest as the result of his body not being prepared to
withstand such an attack. Even weak as he was, the force of energy Aidric had
thrown had been more than enough to do its job.

Aidric tried to rise to his feet but immediately fell back down onto
his knees as a wave of blackness threatened to overcome his mind. He squeezed
his eyes shut for a moment in an attempt to drive away the darkness, while
sounds of shouting from the battle that still continued around him echoed from
the distance—a battle he knew he was too weak to give further aid to