Those Who Fear the Darkness (BloodRunes: Book 2) (7 page)

“Yeah, welcome to Gelendan, we’ve just
started using blood-magic again and our King is a crazy descendant
of the Dark King who you fled in the first place. And oh, by the
way, so am I.” Layna gave him a meaningful look.

“Well, we don’t need to announce that to
them. And besides, like you said,
you
didn’t do any of that.
And you’re certainly not doing it now, in fact, you are doing
everything you can to stop it. Most of Gelendan has no involvement
in the events taking place, we just need Treymayne’s organization
to help the people see what’s going on in your government.”

Aileen made up beds for them all and they
retired to their own thoughts. Despite Layna's effort to get a good
night's rest, she found that her racing mind denied her it. She
could hear Gryffon tossing and turning as well. He was unable to
sleep on his stomach due to his wound. A few times Layna heard the
rustling of his blankets as he turned over in sleep and was woken
by his own moan of pain.

Layna was getting increasingly worried about
him. The injury should have healed by now, and definitely should
not be causing the kind of pain that he was experiencing. Perhaps
tomorrow she would have to ask Aileen if she could help. Despite
her strangeness, she did seem to be very knowledgeable and Layna
did feel the same sort of odd trust in her that Charles and Weylyn
seemed to. Sleep finally came to her and she drifted restlessly
through it, plagued once more by the dreams.

In the morning, Layna dragged herself out of
bed, bleary-eyed and yawning. Aileen was already awake and she was
making breakfast in the kitchen. Layna blinked away her sleepiness
and picked up an egg to crack it into the waiting frying pan.

“Ah, thank you, my dear.” Aileen turned at
the sound. “And good morning to you.”

“Good morning,” Layna mumbled back, mustering
up a smile.

“You've got some mean circles under those
pretty eyes of yours,” Aileen commented.

“I couldn't sleep.” Layna punctuated this
statement with a yawn.

“Bad dreams?”

Layna watched the woman warily, but before
she could reply Gryffon made his entrance.

“I thought I smelled food.” He trudged in,
looking as tired as Layna felt.

“My my. I didn't realize that my beds were so
uncomfortable, you both look like you didn't sleep a wink!”

“Oh, no,” both started politely, but Aileen
cut them short.

“Oh I know. It's not easy to sleep with so
much going on. Come, have some breakfast.” She scooped generous
portions of the bacon she had been preparing onto the waiting
plates. Layna added some of the eggs she had been making to each,
and they sat and had a quiet breakfast.

“Where's Charles this morning?” Layna asked
after a bit.

“Oh, he's more of a morning person than you
two, so he's out hunting. I told him I hadn't had rabbit in quite
some time, and he seems to have gotten it into his head that I
meant for him to get me one. Pleasant fellow, that Charles.”

Aileen got up from the table and went over to
stir the contents of the pot over the fire, which had just started
boiling. She took a ladle and poured the steaming liquid into
several mugs, handing one to each of them. “Spiced tea,” she told
them. “It will help wake you up for our project today.”

They took the mugs gratefully, and Layna took
a cautious sip, careful not to burn her tongue. The smooth tea slid
down her throat and warmed her belly.

“What exactly will you be expecting us to do
with the border?” Gryffon asked her. “I have some training, but
though Layna has talent she has very little training so far.”

“You haven't trained her?” Aileen snapped,
then seemed to catch herself and she rephrased. “She's a rather
high talent to go untrained isn't she?”

“Well, unless you wanted her to be forced
into a life of servitude with the priests there wasn't an option of
formal training for her. We’ve done what we can, but between
avoiding detection and all that’s happened, we haven't had much
free time, what with being chased and all.”

“No, I suppose not. We'll have to remedy
that.” She shook her head. “No matter. I will be doing the
controlling of the power for this spell, I only need you two to
channel the power to me. It should require only a little
concentration.”

After they had washed and fully woken up,
they traveled back to the border where the shimmering field of
energy could be seen like a giant curtain across the landscape.
Aileen instructed them to stand one on each side of her and funnel
the energy from the rivers of power around them into her. Layna
wasn't so sure that she understood what was being expected of her,
but Aileen assured her that it would just come naturally.

They arranged themselves into a line, and
Layna took Aileen's hand as she had been told that it would help
her to stay connected physically while she was in the fields of
power.

At Aileen's signal, they started the spell.
Layna opened her mind as Gryffon had been teaching her and dipped
her mindself's hand into the power, drawing out a small amount
which she then passed on to Aileen.

“Good, good. Now a little more.” Aileen's
voice sounded hollow and distant. Layna felt the rush of the power
tugging at her, and she focused on the feel of Aileen's hand in her
own. She used it as her physical anchor as she reached for more of
the swirling energy.

As she worked, she grew more confident and
her hold over the energies stabilized. She was able to extend a
small part of her consciousness towards Aileen, and she watched
with rapt attention as the older woman manipulated the powers with
ease. Her form was blurry, but Layna thought she could make out two
giant wings sprouting from the woman's back, which beat the air and
forced the torrent of energies swirling around her at bay.

“Almost got it.” Aileen's voice cut through
Layna's consciousness.

She felt a gut-wrenching *pop* and she was
thrown backwards upon the ground. A wave of pure energy flowed over
her, and her breath caught in her throat as she was overwhelmed by
its presence.

And then it was over. She pulled herself to
her feet and saw that Gryffon was doing the same, though Aileen was
still standing.

“Whoa,” said Layna, and she glanced out over
the landscape. Where moments ago the massive curtain had hung, was
now an open horizon. She lifted a tentative hand towards the place
where the barrier had been, and encountered no resistance. “We did
it!” She exclaimed incredulously.

“Indeed,” Aileen concurred, a touch of
smugness in her voice.

Gryffon opened his mouth to say something, a
smile on his lips, when suddenly he clutched his chest and choked
on the words.

“Gryffon!” Layna gasped and rushed to his
side where he had collapsed on the ground, convulsing with pain.
She clasped his hand and tried to hold him still while he writhed,
not knowing what else to do.

“What's the matter with him?” she asked
desperately.

Aileen held a hand over him and closed her
eyes. “He's got a life-sucker,” she said gravely. She bent over to
open his shirt, revealing that the mark Jezebel had left on him was
glowing dully like a hot iron pulled from a forge.

Layna gasped again, this time in horror.
“What can we do?” she whispered as Gryffon's tortured body calmed
and he fell into unconsciousness. Layna carefully felt for the
beating of his heart, and satisfied that it was strong, turned her
attention to Aileen. “What is a life-sucker, and what do we
do?”

Aileen had that far-away look again and Layna
watched her impatiently.

“Aileen, what do we do!?” she asked again and
the woman seemed to return to the present.

“There's nothing we can do,” she said
listlessly, then shook herself and her demeanor strengthened, “at
least not right now. The bond has to be severed but first you must
seek out the one who made it. Luckily, this sort of seizure is not
likely to happen again. It was probably caused by the magical upset
as a result of the border being released. The drain seems to have
stabilized now and will still be an annoyance, but not
life-threatening.”

“But what is it?” Layna asked.

“A life-sucker is a magical bond, a
blood-magic bond,” she clarified with distaste in her voice, “that
allows the one that placed it to suck out the life-energy of
another. Usually the drain is at will, mages could attach
themselves to others so that if a large spell had to be cast they
could draw upon several energies to perform it without completely
depleting their own powers. However, obviously whoever cast this
particular life-sucker is unpracticed and probably had no idea that
they were doing it. Unfortunately though, the spell has a mind of
its own and will start the drain if it thinks the caster is in
need. Like, for instance, when all of us magic users were blasted
from the border draining. It apparently felt as though there was
danger to the caster and it needed to replenish them. It may have
even been a jump start that the spell needed to begin itself.”

“Gods,” Layna said in horror. “What would
happen if the person got sick or mortally wounded?”

“The spell would drain Gryffon until all his
strength was used up.”

“You mean until he died,” Layna bit her lip.
“Who is doing this to him?”

“Well, where did he get this wound from? It
seems to be a likely candidate for the physical element of the
spell, seeing how it reacted as it did.”

“Lady Jezebel,” Layna answered. “But she's
dead.”

*

Katya was once again in the garden when a
terrible wave of power flowed over her in a tumultuous maelstrom,
causing her to lose all sense of being. She fell to the ground
where she convulsed uncontrollably for how long she didn't know.
Colors swam before her eyes and her very bones felt as though they
were being wracked with wave after wave of aftershocks.

In an instant and an eternity it was over,
and Katya was left panting on the ground. She groggily opened her
eyes and forced her throbbing body to sit up so that she could
assess her surroundings. She hated to not be completely aware of
everything around her and right now she was sadly unaware of
anything past her aches.

She dragged herself to a sitting position,
propped against the fountain. She allowed herself a moment with her
eyes closed while she took a deep breath before forcing her sight
into action. Something cold was spreading across her back and she
looked over her shoulder to see what it was.

Apparently the quake had been physical as
well as magical. The fountain had toppled over; the grand statue of
the woman pouring from a jug was now lying undignified and
half-submerged. The water was quickly draining out through numerous
cracks along the walls, including the one that she was propped
against.

Katya pulled herself to her feet and surveyed
the rest of the destruction around her. The vegetation was
unaffected, save one unearthed tree, but the walls were all looking
worse for wear. She assessed the strength of the wall, her
heightened senses quickly returning, and she deftly climbed up once
determining that it would indeed still hold her.

From this vantage she could see across much
of the city and she let out a low whistle. Buildings were crumbled
as far as she could see, and there was a huge crack in the ground
running along the cobblestone road. The corner of a house was
sliding into the void. People milled about in shock, and some
simply stood in front of ruined homes, unsure of what to do. Others
began gathering up items, and Katya snorted her disbelief as one
man started looting from the houses of his neighbors who tried to
shoo him away.

Then suddenly a piercing wailing filled the
air and Katya swung her head around to identify the source. A woman
was frantically clawing at a pile of debris that must have once
been a house and now that Katya focused on her she could make out
what it was that the woman was screaming.

“My baby! My baby was inside! Please help
me!”

Katya only hesitated a split second before
leaping off of the wall and taking off at a sprint towards the
woman. She reached her in seconds and began hauling off the larger
sections of house, straining her ears for some clue that the baby
was still alive.

All at once she heard it, a tiny muffled
whining from deep underneath a large beam that looked to have
smashed a hole into the cellar and then plugged it up. Katya
studied the situation and decided that alone she would never lift
it. She glanced around and saw several large men standing idly
watching. “You, you, and you,” she barked at them, “arrange
yourselves around the beam. When I count to three, you lift with
all you've got. Got it?”

They stood there dazed for a moment, and
Katya was about to repeat herself when the woman chimed in. “What's
wrong with you, you heard her. Little Elspeth is in there!” she
nearly shrieked at them and they broke into motion arranging
themselves as she had ordered.

“One, two, three!” Katya counted, and they
all heaved. The huge beam creaked into motion and they strained to
move it to the side before letting it crash back down to the ground
with a resounding thump. The baby's crying grew louder now and the
woman heard.

She rushed forward towards the noise,
heedless of the danger to herself. She stepped at the edge of the
hole and the wood cracked out from under her, only Katya's quick
reflexes saved her from plunging headfirst into the hole.

“Carefully,” Katya hissed at her a bit
harsher than she had intended. “One wrong step and the whole
building could come down on it.” The woman's eyes widened in
comprehension and she nodded, stepping backwards carefully, and
allowing Katya to move forward to take a look at the hole.

It was pitch black below giving Katya no
indication of what she might be dealing with once she got down
there, but the wheezing quality that the crying was taking on told
her that she needed to hurry.