mugglepirate- Thank you for your review! I didn't expect one so quickly. ) Sorry, but I'm leaving the identity of my "intruder" for a later part of the story. Don't worry, we'll get to it.
My apologies in advance if this chapter isn't as grammatically correct as the previous ones...I teach math for a reason guys! lol...mebbe I could get one of the English teachers to proof these...hmm...lost in thought Owell, I hope you enjoy anyways...and if something doens't make sense lemme know and I'll either explain it, or fix it. hehehe...bon appitie!
Chapter 7
A golden glow crept its way over Rhyanna's chest, bathing her face in an almost eerie way. In the detached part of his mind where Kyrahm's conscious currently resided, he noticed that Rhyanna was slowly gaining color in her face. Through the glow from the healing let him see her lips turning a warm, delicate, pink. Her chest began to rise and fall in a steady pace. It was then that Kyrahm realized that he was staring right at her chest without reason because the knife was in his hands.
:Thank you: Kyrham heard in his head.
Shaken out of his thoughts, Kyrahm barely had time to register the fact that he was alone in his own mind again. :Wait!: he called out, but he was too late. Whoever had invaded his thoughts was gone. Kyrham tried to trace the mental link they had shared, but it had been severed completely and left to drift.
Kyrham wasn't given much time to dwell on the mysterious benefact. Rhyanna was stirring from her unnatural sleep. Suddenly she thrashed out at him. Her eyes were open, but there was no sense in them. Her body was near glowing again, but this time it was with a vibrant green energy. Kyrahm could hear the thrum of magical energy radiating from the girl before him.
:Rhyanna:
No response. Her eyes were open, and she was doing something magically, but she wasn't conscious. Suddenly her body began to lift from the bed, her covers slipping off as she rose. Kyrahm glanced around the room. Anything that was relatively small was also rising. Some of the larger items were beginning to vibrate as they too struggled to rise. Kyrahm tentatively reached a hand out to try to keep Rhyanna from rising too far. The touch of his hand against the skin of her arm was the catalyst. Rhyanna shrieked and everything in the room began to dance madly as if some insane puppet-master was trying to operate all of the furniture at one. Kyrahm leapt as the chair he was seated on jumped up from under him. As the shrill scream rose in pitch, the furnishings flung themselves heedlessly around the room. The smaller, more fragile ornaments smashed themselves into walls and larger pieces. Kyrahm watched his chair as it collided furiously with a tall dresser and tear itself to bits. Realizing that it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep his own feet on the floor Kyrahm wrapped himself in his strongest shields.
Suddenly Rhyanna's scream cut off and everything smashed into the floor as if they were broken toys a child was no longer interested in. The only thing still in the air was Rhyanna herself. Now glowing so brightly that Kyrahm could hardly look at her, but what he could see frightened even him. She was standing upright in her nightgown. The red stain of her blood trailing across the front from the hole the knife had left. Her hair flung out wildly, her arms raised to either side, but what frightened Kyrahm the most was the utter despair in her eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks, yet her eyes remained bright. The green of her irises was as vibrant as a new spring leaf, but there was no room for anything besides grief and rage in those eyes. Caught in them Kyrahm watched as she pulsed once, snapping her head back and shooting the light that surrounded her down through the floor. For a moment that seemed to drag on for an eternity, Kyrahm could see nothing in the sudden darkness, but just as his eyes adjusted enough to make out the outline of Rhyanna's body still floating the entire castle shuddered and shook. Kyrahm could hear the grating of the stone blocks that supported the castle then the crash as windows shattered everywhere. Next came the cries of various individuals frightened by the sudden violence that shook the very bones of a castle. As suddenly as it had begun, it was over. Time snapped into its normal pace and Rhyanna dropped from the air. Kyrahm dove to break her fall, but was only able to catch her head and sholders. The rest landed in a crumpled heap on the floor.
"Rhyanna!" :Ryanna: Kyrahm's mind and voice called. Still no response. Her lips were blue once more, and her skin was as cold as ice. Shaken at the ferocity of what had just occurred, Kyrahm just held the slight girl. He shifted her so that he could hold her more comfortably in his lap with her legs dangling over the side and her head against his chest. Let the others care for themselves, she needed him and she needed all of him. Her hair was damp from the sheer amount of energy she had expended. How she was able to call forth that much energy was beyond him. Wait, she had to have drawn upon the node beneath the castle to do all of that! Sinking his consciousness into the ground beneath the castle he found emptiness. Nothing! The node had not only been completely drained, but all of the ley lines that led to it had been obliterated. All that was left was a fine mist of energy that sat over everything. It was like someone had boiled an entire lake and all of the streams and rivers leading to it leaving only the steam behind. Unlike water, however, magic did not condense as quickly. It would take months for the ley-lines to reform and begin filling the node again. Kyrahm reached out to see how far out the damage went. Thankfully, the damage didn't seem too wide spread. There were two smaller nodes nearby and both of those were mostly intact.
Sinking his consciousness back into his body, Kyrahm opened his eyes to find an angry father and brother standing before him, and a very harried looking servant-girl.
"What in name of hell happened here!" his father demanded.
"I do not know." Kyrahm replied weakly, still holding the girl in his arms.
"What do you mean you don't know? The girl is your charge and she completely destroys the node beneath this very castle. A node that she is not even keyed to! Then I receive reports from all over the castle of damage from some sort of earthquake that started in this very room. Not to mention the fact that I walk into what looks to be a war-zone to find my second son cradling his brother's betrothed as if she were his own!" he shouted in Kyrahm's face.
"My deepest apologies sire. What I do know is that someone attacked Rhyanna and attempted to kill her," he pointed to the blood-stained hole in her shift, "She called to me just before the would be murderer stabbed her. I came as fast as I could, but I was too late. The assassin was already gone and I felt that her life was important enough to try to save. I healed her, but she would not wake. From that point she began to levitate her self and the objects in this room. What happened after that, I cannot describe in words nor explain. I truly do not know what occurred or why it occurred. I will interrogate her when she awakes, but she is so drained that she will need constant care. Girl," Kyrahm turned to she stricken maid, "remake the bed and fetch a warming brick." The girl took off, all to obviously grateful to be away from the three men.
Rydan simply looked down at his brother and the girl in his arms with utter contempt as the servant scurried from the room. Damn. The girl his brother held in his arms was most definitely alive.
"It would seem that Kyrahm has things well in hand. Shall I begin a search for the would-be assassin?" His father nooded. He bowed briefly to his father and left, trying not to seem to be in too much of a rush.
Quickly, Rydan made his out of the guest quarters and towards, not the royal suites, but towards the suites that housed visiting ambassadors. Currently there was only one from a kingdom to the west and south, but the man was old and, Rydan thought, a tad bit daft. Upon reaching the hall of ambassadors, Rydan peaked over his shoulder to make sure the coast was clear before tugging on one of the mounted candleholders. With a soft click a hairline crack appeared around the full-sized portrait of some old, dead, guy. Rydan laughed at himself, "Why not create a magically hidden passage," his "employee" had asked once. Rolling his eyes at the man's ignorance, "Because the magic hiding it would act like a sign to any mage walking through this hallway. He would detect the magic and wonder why it was there."
Hiding a secret passageway conventionally may be harder, but it was infinitely more effective. Rydan had created this passage himself, magically of course, during one of his father's trips to exterminate any of the old royal line. Rydan pushed the scone back into place before moving towards the portrait. Failing to do so would result in several tiny darts to shoot from the base of the scone. There were five in all, each no larger than a sewing needle, and each dipped in poison so potent that even dried it could fell a man with a single dart. When he approached the portrait he was careful to only touch the frame. Touching the paint would result in death as well. Mixed with the paint was a potent disease. While the disease would take longer than the poison to kill, it would incapacitate any intruder within minutes. This disease was nasty in that it traveled straight to the brain stem to feast upon the flesh there. Since the brain stem controls "unconscious" motor controls any victim would soon find it extremely difficult to walk, let alone run. Rydan grinned at the viciousness of the disease. Leave it to the most miniscule of things to cause the greatest suffering.
Next, Rydan pushed the painting straight back a single hand-span then shifted it slightly to the left before continuing. Failing to do this would lock the passage. Not as mean, but certainly effective. Before Rydan lay a narrow passage that led to a simple root cellar on the edge of the castle. It was easy enough to slip in and out of the cellar since servants rarely visited it and the door lead out to a secluded section of the kitchen gardens surrounded by vines and various other forms of greenery. Rydan strode down the passage way knowing it stone for stone, and listen briefly before entering the cellar and once more before opening the doors up to the garden. The garden door swung part way open before it struck something. Not hearing anything, Rydan shoved harder figuring it was simply a bag of roots the servants had failed to bring in, however what rolled into view was certainly not a bag of any sort. The sightless eyes of his hired assassin stared up at him. His face was contorted in pure terror, blood had streamed from every opening on his face and had pooled under his head leaving what little hair the man had a congealed mess.
Shocked that any one had known enough to kill the man, Rydan checked the area magically for anyone. Yet, he found no one remotely near by. The closest people Rydan could sense were the slowly calming minds of a family of servants that slept in the kitchen. None of these women would have been able to incapacitate, let alone kill, this man. Rydan checked the body and found not a single physical wound on him, not even a bruise. Whatever had killed him had done so magically. Cautiously, Rydan sank himself into the body before him. His senses sang with magical energy. All of it glowed a deep, vibrant emerald. He could feel a wind as it whipped through the upper-most branches of the trees and he could hear the cracks of branches as they angrily fought against it. The senses threatened to overwhelm him and drag him away with the wind, but Rydan slammed his strongest shields around him. Whatever had done this had literally ripped this man's soul from its body. Staring up at the towers, Rydan knew, without a doubt, who had done this. The question was, did she know she'd done it herself?
Review, please? Purty please? Purty please with sugar on top? How about a cherry and whipped cream too? Ok, I'll even throw in sprinkles too!
