The Black Ankh
Duel
of Fates, Cont'd
by Laura Campbell, aka Shadow of Light Dragon
"What happened?" The world came crashing around me again, destroying any levity I'd felt at seeing Lord British's ghost. "Did you see? Shamino, talk to me."
"I don't know," the ranger shouted, jumping to his feet. "I don't know," he repeated, more quietly. "I sent someone up here with rope and a wooden pole to secure Mellorin's arms while I sorted out the spy business, and it was only when I realised no one had come back that…" He looked like he was resisting the urge to swear, and swear loudly. "Virtues, I was so stupid, Elora! Why didn't I ask Julia or Katrina? Anyone I knew I could trust!"
"Don't worry about that now. What'd you see when you got up here? Who'd you send?"
He shook his head angrily. "I don't know who I sent. One of the outworlders. He just happened to be the first person I passed on the way in—I didn't want to leave Iolo alone out here with Mellorin any longer than necessary. And when I got up here…" Again he shook his head, pacing a few steps in frustration. "All three of them were gone. There was just the crossbow. And this."
He held out a broken bolt this time, bearing Iolo's familiar fletchings. There was blood on the steel head.
"Iolo and Dupre gone in the same evening," Shamino whispered. "Not to mention those others on the Isle of Fire…"
"No." I looked away from the bloody bolt and stared hard at the circle of sky above. It was black now, and filled with stars. The clouds still roiled around the edges but only those near the opening were visible, limned in silver moonslight.
"Is she just going to pick us off one by one?" Shamino asked. His voice was one of desolation, and it filled me with sudden rage. What right did Mellorin have to do this to my friends? Why had I been so foolish as to endanger everyone by bringing her here in the first place? I should have just left her to the Guardian!
I clenched my empty right hand, and suddenly remembered Arcadion. Arcadion being summoned. Arcadion saying that Mellorin was using him to slay my friends at the Shrines of Virtue…
I turned to Shamino quickly. "Do you have a sword?"
He blinked at my urgent demand. "No, just my hammer—"
"Give it to me. Quick!" When he'd hurriedly handed over the Juggernaut Hammer, I said, "I'm going to get Iolo back. I saved him from those Virtues-damned undead cats back on Atarka, and not so he could be slaughtered here in Britannia." I tossed him the Crown of the Liche King. "Keep this safe. Do not let it out of your sight. I'd keep it on me, but I don't want to chance Mellorin getting it."
"Dost thou not want me to come with thee?" Shamino asked, frowning.
"Normally I'd have no trouble with that," I said. "But… I'm sorry, Shamino… I just don't want to risk losing all three of my dearest friends in one day." I looked away. "I better go. I don't know how long I have, and Mellorin could be torturing Iolo as we speak…"
He nodded once. "Go. And… Virtue be with thee."
"Get back to the others. Staying up here alone is a good way to get jumped." Giving him a small, grim smile, I used the aeth'raesh'al to teleport myself to what would hopefully be the Shrine of Compassion…
…it was. And the night sky was clear. The air was dead calm. Mellorin's voice rang out from the standing stones nearby.
"Clever. How did you know I'd be here? I thought I'd masked my teleportation."
I gripped the Juggernaut Hammer in both hands. Iolo had been tied against the pedestal with rope. He was sitting on the ground with his back to the stone, as it was neither high enough for him to be standing, nor wide enough for him to be lying atop it. From the blood on his shirt, it looked like Mellorin had only just gotten started. Nevertheless, his head was hanging and I couldn't tell if he was conscious, though I was sure he was alive.
A quick glance around didn't reveal anyone else. I'd expected a daemon to be here too… Maybe it was hiding.
"I put the pieces together," I told Mellorin. "Now why don't you let him go?"
She grinned at me. "Come on, Elora. Why don't I just kill him, then leave you the body? You can Resurrect him later. You do have the Crown of the Liche King by now, don't you?"
"I do."
"You're not wearing it, though."
"Crowns aren't really my thing. You should know that."
She tapped one finger against Arcadion's hilt while I maintained a neutral expression. "You left it back with your army, didn't you."
"I see the Guardian didn't want to mess with my intelligence when he created you."
"That all depends on who you gave it to."
I snorted. "And I'm supposed to tell you so you can hunt them down?"
She was silent for a moment, regarding me with a look I knew only too well. When faced with it, most of my friends would ask if I was trying to read their minds. "No matter, I suppose," she said at length. "I'll find out sooner or later… I am hunting all your friends down anyway, and I suspect they're the only ones you trust enough to hand something that valuable too." She reached down with one hand and tousled Iolo's grey hair. "I just have to go through them all one by one."
There was a crude bandage around her right wrist, I noted. And it was soaked with blood. "So you have enough power at the end of it to free yourself?" I asked. "It won't work. Arcadion isn't storing all that energy anymore."
Mellorin's fingers curled in Iolo's hair and slammed the bard's head back against the pedestal. "What?"
I winced, and was suddenly grateful Iolo was unconscious. I just hoped he'd be able to wake up again after that.
"Elora commanded that I restore her powers, Master," I heard Arcadion say. "She took all that you had been storing."
Mellorin looked skywards and sighed deeply, the fingers of her right hand still locked in Iolo's hair.
I didn't hesitate.
The Juggernaut Hammer took her full in the stomach and threw her clear out of the Shrine's circle of stones.
I ran up to the pedestal, catching the enchanted weapon in its return flight on the way, and stopped there. Mellorin was doubled on the ground, trying to get her breath back. Should I try to subdue her again and drag her back to my army? No… I didn't want to risk it a second time. Besides, doing so would get her that much closer to the Crown of the Liche King, which I didn't want.
Whether because she was genuinely incapacitated, or disinclined to act as though she felt I was a serious threat, Mellorin didn't bother to regain her feet. She sank into a sitting position on the grass, one knee close to her chest. And just watched me.
Keeping an eye on her, I pulled out a boot dagger and sliced the ropes binding Iolo before gently slapping his cheeks and trying to rouse him. Unsuccessful, I checked his wounds and located the most serious: a puncture right through the right wrist. Bright red blood flowed freely from the injury. It stained the shrine's pristine altar. No wonder Iolo was unconscious… and no wonder his face looked so pale. Cursing under my breath, I dragged him away from the pedestal and reached for the bracer. He needed heal—
"Vas Mani!"
I stopped, staring as Mellorin casually wove a spell of Greater Healing around Iolo. The horrible wound on his wrist closed, but I didn't trust how effective the spell would be. The wrist was a very delicate area… Why was Mellorin bothering, though? Bitterly, I suspected it was because she wanted the death to be by Arcadion's blade, not blood loss. I looked away from Mellorin's smirk as Iolo groaned.
"Hey," I whispered, crouching down to support his head and smiling when he squinted at me. "Why do you always manage to get yourself in trouble? You're meant to be the careful one."
"Elora?" he managed, the initial fear passing from his eyes. "Where..?"
"The Shrine of Compassion."
His eyes rolled back and I was afraid he'd faint, but a second later he was shaking his head violently. "Nay… nay we must get back! Back to the others! I know… I know who…"
I glanced at Mellorin again, who was lounging back with every impression she was enjoying the show.
"Who?" I prompted Iolo quietly, still watching my double.
"Shamino!" Iolo's gasp snapped my eyes back down to him again. "The spy! The daemon! It's Shamino!"
"That's impossible," I said. "I spoke to him right before I came! I gave h—"
And Mellorin smiled when I looked at her. Knowingly.
"It's impossible!"
Mellorin stood, sheathing the Blacksword across her back. "What a beautiful night," she murmured to no-one in particular. Then she slapped a hand against her bracer and disappeared.
Holding Iolo tighter, I touched my own bracer.There was no one at the Shrine of Justice this time. I supported Iolo every step of the way to the Deep Forest, uncertainty and fear gripping me.
"It's not true," I muttered from time to time. Iolo never gainsaid me. He'd lapsed into semi-unconsciousness, barely able to put one foot in front of the other. At one point I gathered enough courage to look at him through my undead eyes, and the colours they received verified his human appearance.
We were under the trees and halfway to the encampment by the time a couple of riders atop drakelings ran out to meet us. They were mounted by Julia and Katrina. Both of whom were also human.
Or drakeling.
"The mages keeping a watch on the area around the forest saw ye coming!" Julia shouted as they drew near. When they were close enough, she swung down and helped me push Iolo up into the saddle. "Let me know if he's slipping off, Draskis," Julia said to the drakeling, who bobbed a nod.
Katrina had noticed the Juggernaut Hammer gripped in my hand. "Where's Shamino?"
"He didn't return to camp then?" I asked, my heart sinking.
The two woman exchanged a glance, shook their heads and looked at me.
"I think," I said, sagging, "that we have a very big problem.""But he's been with us since the start," Julia argued after Iolo had been given into the capable hands of a healer and I'd taken a moment to ask some mages to keep a close eye on the Shrine of Honour.
"Nay," Katrina said quietly. "We had to find him first. Remember, Elora?"
"The bee hive," I muttered, staring at the campfire the three of us were clustered around. "We were afraid Mellorin would get to him first. I guess she did."
"Thou'rt positive this isn't another trick?" Julia said.
I sighed. "When Iolo recovers we can ask him the full story. I'm inclined to believe the worst."
"The disguise was perfect," Katrina said. "He acted… just like the real thing. He even had Shamino's memories. How dost thou suppose that doth work?"
I flicked a twig into the fire and didn't answer. "I don't know what we can do now," was all I said.
The other two were silent.
After a minute or so, Lord Draxinusom arrived at the campfire and hunkered down with us.
"To say there is no sight of Shamino or any daemon within the camp," he said, folding his huge wings.
"Kra'lysie?" I asked.
The gargoyle shook his head. "To be no sign of the dragon, either."
I sank my face into my hands. As much as I wanted the dragon-woman's help right now in locating the spy, I dreaded the inevitable explosion when she was told who the spy was. She had never seemed to like Shamino. I couldn't help suspecting that this was because she'd known what he was all along. Thinking back on some of her odd remarks towards him, I was positively sure of the fact.
And I had told her that, without a doubt, that thing had been Shamino.
Visions of Armageddon filled my mind with horror. No matter where I might attempt to evacuate the Britannians and our allies too, it wouldn't matter. Mellorin could transport the daemon and the crown to any of the planes I could reach, and destroy each one.
"Well, we're not doing any good here," I said. "And the world hasn't ended yet. We might as well make good use of whatever time we have left."
"What dost thou suggest?" Katrina asked.
There was no point going to the Shrine of Spirituality yet. Resurrecting Lord British would have to wait until his ghost got here from Stonegate. I wasn't worried about Mellorin moving the body, because technically she could now end the world whenever she pleased. Jaana and Mariah? I had no idea where to start looking for them, and the chance to ask Arcadion for more information had passed.
"To suggest that what we might need," Lord Draxinusom said, "is a way to prevent the possible casting of this deadly spell."
I nodded. "Yeah, but prevention might not be possible if the daemon wears the crown. I saw the number of undead at Stonegate, and if every one of them had the ability to cast Armageddon—"
"To think otherwise, then." The gargoyle smiled. "Protection."
"Anti-magic fields?" Julia offered.
I frowned. "I don't know. I'm not sure it'd work if Armageddon was cast outside the range of the fields. Virtues, I don't even know if Armageddon can be protected against. It's Eighth Circle! And have you looked at the syllables in the damned incantation?"
"Elora," Julia said. "Thou'rt sidetracking."
I shook my head. "Sorry. It's been… a long day."
"To think some of us could use sleep," Draxinusom said, at which I felt guilty. It must have been near the third hour in the morning, and I wasn't being much help. "To ask what else protects against harmful magic?"
"Storm cloaks, of which we'd be lucky to find one…" Julia said. "They're practically relics by now."
"Amulets of Turning?" I said.
"They haven't been around in even longer," Katrina said.
Julia sat up straighter. "Blackrock!"
"We'd need a good way to manipulate it," I said, "and I'm afraid the Guardian's better than any of us." I looked at Draxinusom, who was shaking his head and smiling. "What?"
"To think you are forgetting something." His glowing blue eyes regarded us in turn "All of you." When none of us answered, his daemonic grin widened. "Lord British's Crown."
I stared. "Brilliant. I don't know how effective that'll be, but some protection is vastly superior to none."
Only Katrina looked dubious. "It might protect the people we have with us, Avatar… my lord… but Armageddon is rumoured to rip through the world itself. Humans, Gargoyles, Trolls… creatures that walk or fly or crawl are not the only living things in Britannia."
"To not be perfect," Draxinusom agreed. "But to hope protection will ultimately not be needed."
"It's the best option we have right now," Julia said. "So where is it?"
"Richard left it in the Castle," I said. "You three get some sleep. I'll go pick it up."
Draxinusom regarded me with surprise. "Avatar, to remind you that a sizable force of Atarkans still surrounds Castle Britannia. To ask if you plan to walk through them?"
I grinned. "Not quite, Drax."
"I know that grin," Julia remarked in amusement. "Thou wearest it when thou thinkest thou'rt about to do something clever."
I patted her on the shoulder and stood up. "See you in the morning. Oh… and if Iolo tries to go anywhere on his own, have someone sit on him."
Julia and Katrina exchanged another long look. "Lord Draxinusom can have that honour," Katrina said with a smile. "I don't relish the idea of telling Gwenno why I was sitting on her husband."
"Nay. 'I was trying to stop him from going anywhere,' isn't an excuse a married woman would be satisfied with," Julia agreed.
The Gargoyle Lord snorted amusedly. "Women. To have none in our race, but to sympathise more with the males of your species every day."
Katrina leaned over to whisper something in Julia's ear, which made the tinker burst out laughing. Draxinusom regarded them both with deep suspicion.
"Tell me when I get back," I said wryly, reaching for my bracer. "I could use a good laugh."
-TBC-
