Chapter 11
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Author's Note: I'm going to get to the point now. And I'm going to tell you why Kalathan didn't just run off and join Vho and the others. (If you hadn't wondered, you should have.)
Sorry it's taken a while to update; I gave up Diet Coke and chocolate for Lent, so I've been working through a fog of exhaustion (Not good writing conditions).
And my friend Amarasaa says that I shouldn't obsess about reviews, but I do. Meh. (Okay, in case you didn't get the hint . . . Review review review!)
*
Lord Javer walked into the main cave, and leaned through the curtained archway that led into Kalathan's workroom. Kalathan immediately stood from his careless slouch on his cushioned pile.
"Lord Javer," Kalathan said, in a careful mixture of arrogance, respect and surprise. "What brings you to my humble abode?"
"I came to join you in a late supper," The foppish lord replied.
Kalathan felt for Vho's mentality, and saw that she was asleep. He didn't need to wake her for this; he would give her a report in the morning.
"Certainly, my Lord," Kalathan said easily, and led Javer to the varnished mahogany table. With a clap of his hands, several servants entered, carrying with them expensive food on silver plates.
Javer sat down and began to eat the roast venison. "My spies have informed me that there is a party of mages coming in this direction. Their aim appears to be your demise." Kalathan jumped, and some of the wine sloshed from his cup. "Let me get you some more of that," Javer said affably, clicking his fingers. A servant walked mechanically over and filled the glass. Kalathan sipped it. "Now, I understand that the Lady Elspeth and Lord Darkwind are in that group. You can easily dispose of them with your mage-controlled troops -" Kalathan shifted uncomfortably. Even before meeting Vho, he had not liked the idea of completely controlling his soldiers and servants, and had merely placed 'encouragement' spells on them. "- but now would be a good time to send another assassin." Kalathan swore under his breath. Javer stared at him keenly. "You do not - wish - to send another assassin." He commented.
Kalathan felt as though a tight band had slipped around his neck. "How did you - "
"Know?" Javer smirked. "We do not entirely share your distaste for mind magic," He said. "There was an empath monitoring you at all times. Now, are you going to send an assassin?"
"Never," Kalathan gasped. He could hardly breath.
"How - unfortunate." Javer said with mock regret. "I suppose I shall have to force you."
"With what?" Kalathan croaked, trying to smile. "Your magic?"
Javer rose gracefully, and walked over to the collapsing Kalathan. Kneeling beside him, he drew his ornamental dagger, and cut the top of Kalathan's wrist, catching the blood in a crystal vial. Kalathan weakly tried to fight him off, but failed.
"Blood," Javer said thoughtfully. "Isn't it wonderful? Blood is power, and blood links to blood . . . So what I have here, my dear mage, is a link to power - your power." Javer stood, and smirked down at the semi conscious Kalathan. "My magic might not be strong enough to work on you, Kalathan, but my drugs certainly do. And the best thing is," Javer's voice blurred as Kalathan sank deeper into darkness. "You won't even remember it in the morning . . ."
*
Kalathan was just finishing his breakfast when Javer walked in. Kalathan expertly covered his startlement with a dead-pan face.
"Javer," he said flippantly. "What a pleasant surprise."
Javer smirked as if at some unknown joke. "I'm sure," he said. "I'm going to need some of your power for that assassin we talked about."
Kalathan's blood went cold. This was very, very, strange, and for some reason, he felt the unfamiliar chill of fear.
"I'm not going to make an assassin for you," he said slowly.
Javer smirked triumphantly. "Oh, but you are," he said. "Or - don't you remember?" The man took a vial from his pocket, a vial that shone red. Kalathan turned cold. "And this is how you're going to do it . . ."
*
Suddenly Vho felt a burning agony, and she let out a gasping cry of pain. Edern reared, neighing his protest as the sudden, unexpected pain reached him, too. And intermingled with the pain was a wash of conflicting emotions; rage, fear, confusion.
-Vho!- It was Kalathan, and the burning, blinding agony that Vho felt, it came from him. -Javer! He has my blood! Stealing my magic! Is going to send a mage-assassin to the queen.- His thoughts, like her own, were disoriented and dizzy. -Doesn't know about you. Use the magic, all of it, and the queen will be safe!-
Peripherally, Vho could hear Edern relaying this information to the others, but she ignored it, tapping the immense, immeasurable font of power that she and Kalathan shared. She could feel the alien drain - slow, but it would, eventually, take all the magic if Vho didn't make that impossible.
She grabbed at the fiery light that filled her vision, feeling it come willingly to her call, and wastefully overflowing from her, with no purpose except to use it all.
"No!" Someone protested from behind her. Dimly, through the blur of pain and magic, Vho recognized it as Firesong . "Uncontained magic goes wild! You can't spill it all! Just make it into a spell."
As his words formed into comprehensible sentences inside Vho's throbbing head, she hastily aborted her reckless spill of magic. -Kalathan!- she called helplessly.
-I'm here, I heard.- He told her. -Form a portal; that takes a lot of magic.-
-But I don't know how!- She protested.
-I'll help you,- He promised.
With him guiding and her throwing the magic into the spell, the pair could circumnavigate the coercions placed on the helpless Kalathan. With them so tightly wound together, Vho could see through both their eyes, in nauseating double perspective.
The gate was filling with the power Vho fed it, but the barrage of torturous pain still continued from the oblivious Javer. Vho didn't know what would happen to the gate when she finished; she just prayed that it ate enough power to thwart Javer's plan.
The others gathered around Vho as the portal finished and opened its fiery maw. They gaped in astonishment as they saw it open into a semi-familiar cavern.
The opening continued to drain the power from the still deep well of power. Vho knew without asking that neither she nor Kalathan had directed the gate; it seemed to have followed the bond between them, spanning the empty miles with perfect ease.
*
"What's happening?" Javer demanded shrilly when the fiery gateway unexpectedly opened in the cavern.
Kalathan laughed, mockingly, through his pain. "We've beaten you, Javer," he taunted. "You will never get enough of our power to make a successful assassin now."
"We?" repeated Javer. "You're lifebonded?"
In a fit of absolute rage, Javer hurled the stolen magic back at Kalathan and Vho. It burnt through them, and they gave vent to simultaneous cries of agony.
Suddenly, a blur of white flashed through the portal.
*
Elspeth watched helplessly as Vho tried desperately to save her mother. She could see the pain she had to fight against even as she created the Gate. She gaped open mouthed as the cavern appeared on the other side, and made no move towards it.
However, suddenly Vho cried out, and a blur of white flashed through the Gate.
*
Kalathan stared slackly as the creature - Is that a Companion? He wondered, having seen them through Vho's eyes and in her thoughts as well as in his scrying crystal. - danced through the portal to stand protectively over his prostrate form.
It - she - was followed through the portal by Elspeth and Gwena, then Darkwind, Silverfox and Firesong. Edern brought up the rear, carrying a semi conscious Vho on his back.
Javer stared at the brigade of mages that had arrived so precipitously, and backed up a step or two. Then he seized a ball off stolen magic - Vho and Kalathan blanched, and the Portal collapsed behind them - and hurled it at them. Firesong flicked it aside contemptuously.
"Is that the best you can do, Javer?" Elspeth asked scornfully. "I wonder how you managed to pose such a threat to my mother's rule."
Now mad with terror and rage, Javer pulled the last of the magic from Vho and Edern and hurled it at Kalathan.
The Companion mare's equine scream of rage echoed in the cavern as she somehow intercepted the glowing levin bolt, and she reared up onto her hind legs. She danced forward, and brought her silvery fore-hooves crashing down upon Javer's skull, which cracked like eggshell.
Blood still wet on her hooves, she whirled and stared down at Kalathan. She nudged him gently with her velvet-soft nose, and her voice whispered gently in his mind.
:Hello Kalathan,: Her mind voice soothed the raw pain of his overtaxed psyche. :I am Seliea, an I Choose you.:
*
And they all lived happily ever after.
*
The End!
* * * *
Last comments from the author: Sorry, I couldn't resist the facetious ending. And they did, as far as a pair of oddball Heralds can be permanently happy.
I'm not going to continue this story, or make a sequel, because I would never be able to do what people wanted me to do with it. Use your imaginations.
Read my other work as well if you liked this one. And while you're at it, review!
Thank you!
*
Author's Note: I'm going to get to the point now. And I'm going to tell you why Kalathan didn't just run off and join Vho and the others. (If you hadn't wondered, you should have.)
Sorry it's taken a while to update; I gave up Diet Coke and chocolate for Lent, so I've been working through a fog of exhaustion (Not good writing conditions).
And my friend Amarasaa says that I shouldn't obsess about reviews, but I do. Meh. (Okay, in case you didn't get the hint . . . Review review review!)
*
Lord Javer walked into the main cave, and leaned through the curtained archway that led into Kalathan's workroom. Kalathan immediately stood from his careless slouch on his cushioned pile.
"Lord Javer," Kalathan said, in a careful mixture of arrogance, respect and surprise. "What brings you to my humble abode?"
"I came to join you in a late supper," The foppish lord replied.
Kalathan felt for Vho's mentality, and saw that she was asleep. He didn't need to wake her for this; he would give her a report in the morning.
"Certainly, my Lord," Kalathan said easily, and led Javer to the varnished mahogany table. With a clap of his hands, several servants entered, carrying with them expensive food on silver plates.
Javer sat down and began to eat the roast venison. "My spies have informed me that there is a party of mages coming in this direction. Their aim appears to be your demise." Kalathan jumped, and some of the wine sloshed from his cup. "Let me get you some more of that," Javer said affably, clicking his fingers. A servant walked mechanically over and filled the glass. Kalathan sipped it. "Now, I understand that the Lady Elspeth and Lord Darkwind are in that group. You can easily dispose of them with your mage-controlled troops -" Kalathan shifted uncomfortably. Even before meeting Vho, he had not liked the idea of completely controlling his soldiers and servants, and had merely placed 'encouragement' spells on them. "- but now would be a good time to send another assassin." Kalathan swore under his breath. Javer stared at him keenly. "You do not - wish - to send another assassin." He commented.
Kalathan felt as though a tight band had slipped around his neck. "How did you - "
"Know?" Javer smirked. "We do not entirely share your distaste for mind magic," He said. "There was an empath monitoring you at all times. Now, are you going to send an assassin?"
"Never," Kalathan gasped. He could hardly breath.
"How - unfortunate." Javer said with mock regret. "I suppose I shall have to force you."
"With what?" Kalathan croaked, trying to smile. "Your magic?"
Javer rose gracefully, and walked over to the collapsing Kalathan. Kneeling beside him, he drew his ornamental dagger, and cut the top of Kalathan's wrist, catching the blood in a crystal vial. Kalathan weakly tried to fight him off, but failed.
"Blood," Javer said thoughtfully. "Isn't it wonderful? Blood is power, and blood links to blood . . . So what I have here, my dear mage, is a link to power - your power." Javer stood, and smirked down at the semi conscious Kalathan. "My magic might not be strong enough to work on you, Kalathan, but my drugs certainly do. And the best thing is," Javer's voice blurred as Kalathan sank deeper into darkness. "You won't even remember it in the morning . . ."
*
Kalathan was just finishing his breakfast when Javer walked in. Kalathan expertly covered his startlement with a dead-pan face.
"Javer," he said flippantly. "What a pleasant surprise."
Javer smirked as if at some unknown joke. "I'm sure," he said. "I'm going to need some of your power for that assassin we talked about."
Kalathan's blood went cold. This was very, very, strange, and for some reason, he felt the unfamiliar chill of fear.
"I'm not going to make an assassin for you," he said slowly.
Javer smirked triumphantly. "Oh, but you are," he said. "Or - don't you remember?" The man took a vial from his pocket, a vial that shone red. Kalathan turned cold. "And this is how you're going to do it . . ."
*
Suddenly Vho felt a burning agony, and she let out a gasping cry of pain. Edern reared, neighing his protest as the sudden, unexpected pain reached him, too. And intermingled with the pain was a wash of conflicting emotions; rage, fear, confusion.
-Vho!- It was Kalathan, and the burning, blinding agony that Vho felt, it came from him. -Javer! He has my blood! Stealing my magic! Is going to send a mage-assassin to the queen.- His thoughts, like her own, were disoriented and dizzy. -Doesn't know about you. Use the magic, all of it, and the queen will be safe!-
Peripherally, Vho could hear Edern relaying this information to the others, but she ignored it, tapping the immense, immeasurable font of power that she and Kalathan shared. She could feel the alien drain - slow, but it would, eventually, take all the magic if Vho didn't make that impossible.
She grabbed at the fiery light that filled her vision, feeling it come willingly to her call, and wastefully overflowing from her, with no purpose except to use it all.
"No!" Someone protested from behind her. Dimly, through the blur of pain and magic, Vho recognized it as Firesong . "Uncontained magic goes wild! You can't spill it all! Just make it into a spell."
As his words formed into comprehensible sentences inside Vho's throbbing head, she hastily aborted her reckless spill of magic. -Kalathan!- she called helplessly.
-I'm here, I heard.- He told her. -Form a portal; that takes a lot of magic.-
-But I don't know how!- She protested.
-I'll help you,- He promised.
With him guiding and her throwing the magic into the spell, the pair could circumnavigate the coercions placed on the helpless Kalathan. With them so tightly wound together, Vho could see through both their eyes, in nauseating double perspective.
The gate was filling with the power Vho fed it, but the barrage of torturous pain still continued from the oblivious Javer. Vho didn't know what would happen to the gate when she finished; she just prayed that it ate enough power to thwart Javer's plan.
The others gathered around Vho as the portal finished and opened its fiery maw. They gaped in astonishment as they saw it open into a semi-familiar cavern.
The opening continued to drain the power from the still deep well of power. Vho knew without asking that neither she nor Kalathan had directed the gate; it seemed to have followed the bond between them, spanning the empty miles with perfect ease.
*
"What's happening?" Javer demanded shrilly when the fiery gateway unexpectedly opened in the cavern.
Kalathan laughed, mockingly, through his pain. "We've beaten you, Javer," he taunted. "You will never get enough of our power to make a successful assassin now."
"We?" repeated Javer. "You're lifebonded?"
In a fit of absolute rage, Javer hurled the stolen magic back at Kalathan and Vho. It burnt through them, and they gave vent to simultaneous cries of agony.
Suddenly, a blur of white flashed through the portal.
*
Elspeth watched helplessly as Vho tried desperately to save her mother. She could see the pain she had to fight against even as she created the Gate. She gaped open mouthed as the cavern appeared on the other side, and made no move towards it.
However, suddenly Vho cried out, and a blur of white flashed through the Gate.
*
Kalathan stared slackly as the creature - Is that a Companion? He wondered, having seen them through Vho's eyes and in her thoughts as well as in his scrying crystal. - danced through the portal to stand protectively over his prostrate form.
It - she - was followed through the portal by Elspeth and Gwena, then Darkwind, Silverfox and Firesong. Edern brought up the rear, carrying a semi conscious Vho on his back.
Javer stared at the brigade of mages that had arrived so precipitously, and backed up a step or two. Then he seized a ball off stolen magic - Vho and Kalathan blanched, and the Portal collapsed behind them - and hurled it at them. Firesong flicked it aside contemptuously.
"Is that the best you can do, Javer?" Elspeth asked scornfully. "I wonder how you managed to pose such a threat to my mother's rule."
Now mad with terror and rage, Javer pulled the last of the magic from Vho and Edern and hurled it at Kalathan.
The Companion mare's equine scream of rage echoed in the cavern as she somehow intercepted the glowing levin bolt, and she reared up onto her hind legs. She danced forward, and brought her silvery fore-hooves crashing down upon Javer's skull, which cracked like eggshell.
Blood still wet on her hooves, she whirled and stared down at Kalathan. She nudged him gently with her velvet-soft nose, and her voice whispered gently in his mind.
:Hello Kalathan,: Her mind voice soothed the raw pain of his overtaxed psyche. :I am Seliea, an I Choose you.:
*
And they all lived happily ever after.
*
The End!
* * * *
Last comments from the author: Sorry, I couldn't resist the facetious ending. And they did, as far as a pair of oddball Heralds can be permanently happy.
I'm not going to continue this story, or make a sequel, because I would never be able to do what people wanted me to do with it. Use your imaginations.
Read my other work as well if you liked this one. And while you're at it, review!
Thank you!