DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Before anyone asks, yes this is a Yu-Gi-Oh! story. The first few chapters are set somewhere a little different with no familiar names or faces, but familiar characters will appear later in the story.

A Life for a Life
Chapter 4
By Shadow's Mirror

"Valen?" Alexander couldn't believe his eyes. The child that he had promised himself he would protect, with his life if necessary, lay on the ground before him, his shirt stained with blood. For a precious moment, he could not move, frozen by the terror that engulfed him at the sight of the young boy lying so pale and still. He shook his head and took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. His mind raced and he leaned over the child, trying to determine what was wrong.

He froze again when he realised that the boy's shirt was sliced through where the red stain was steadily growing. "By the Gods... Valen... No!" The fog that had filled his mind since he saw Valen fall suddenly cleared and grim determination flooded through Alexander.

No matter what he had to do, Valen would not die.

The tutor moved quickly, tearing a strip off the tail of his shirt. He eased Valen's shirt open and forced himself not to freeze again at the sight of the wound. It was worse than he had thought. He folded the strip of cloth into a pad and carefully pressed it to the wound, knowing that he needed to stop the flow of blood before he did anything else. Valen did not stir and Alexander knew that whatever he was going to do, he needed to do it fast.

Time was not on their side.

As if in confirmation of that fact, the sound of the angry mob storming the castle surged for a moment. Alexander spared it just enough attention to determine that they had not broken through any further into the castle. The sound had not been closer, merely louder. He could faintly hear the clash of steel upon steel, also.

As he gathered Valen into his arms and stood up, Alexander made a mental note to himself to thank whatever Gods had given the commander of the King's army enough sense to not wait any longer for the King's order to defend the castle. The army would keep the mob at bay, but the question was... for how long?

He looked down at the face of the boy in his arms, trying to decide what to do next. He needed to get Valen to safety, but the boy also needed far more medical attention than he alone could provide. In fact, Alexander suspected that it would take an entirely different type of aid than any available in the kingdom to save Valen's life.

There was only one chance... and a slimmer hope had never existed. But with this precious child's life hanging in the balance, it was a chance that Alexander knew he had to take.

Moving as fast as he dared while trying to jostle Valen as little as possible, the tutor left the throneroom and headed for the first place in the massive castle that he had felt at home in, and which remained his favourite sanctuary to that day. Fortunately, one of the entries was fairly close. He only needed to cross the hallway, go down another hallway, turn right at the third passage and then it was the fifth door on the left.

- - -

As he carried his precious passenger to safety, Alexander thought back over the events of the past few minutes and tried to work out what had happened and how Valen had been wounded.

He could guess the order of events before they had arrived at the throneroom easily enough.

The assassin posed as an ambassador for a neighbouring country or, more likely, that country was behind the assassination plot and sent the man here for the sole purpose of killing King Roland and his heir, so they could attack Cantoria during the resulting chaos. The king had probably been in conference with the false ambassador when news of the uprising reached him.

He would then have ordered his army to stand at the ready, saying he would lead them personally.

It was at that point that the assassin began his attack. Except, he did not strike in the typical clandestine manner expected of one in his line of work. Instead, he challenged the King to a duel and toyed with him. An arrogant assassin indeed.

He would likely have kept toying with the king for longer, but then Valen appeared. Seeing his chance to kill both King and heir, the assassin finished off the first part of his job immediately.

Valen ran forward, unwittingly putting himself in harm's way as he went to his father's side, but I distracted the assassin by entering the room. The distraction lasted just long enough for Valen to take up his father's sword, however the assassin disarmed him with a single stroke of his blade.

The blade that he then tried to kill Valen with, except he was only midway through his swing when I struck him from behind. I am certain that his blade did not strike Valen that time. So how did he end up like this? Wait... That time?

Alexander's step hesitated as he suddenly realised when Valen had been injured. The attack he had stopped had in fact been the assassin's second attack on the boy. Obviously, the first attack had been far more effective than either he or the assassin had realised at the time.

The realisation that he had not been fast enough stunned and shamed him, but the tutor instantly shook off his thoughts and continued on his way.

There would be time for such remonstrations later. After Valen's life was secure.

Just ahead of them was the door he had been seeking. Alexander gently shifted Valen's weight so he could free a hand enough to open it, then they were inside the place Alexander fervently hoped held the key to Valen's survival.

The Royal Library.

- - -

Alexander had only been a boy, around Valen's age, when he had come to the castle as an assistant scribe. On his first day, he had lost his way in the maze of passageways and had accidentally found himself in the section of the castle that had, during a previous king's rule, been converted into a massive library.

That king had valued knowledge and it had been his dying wish that there would always be someone to oversee the acquisition of new tomes for the library, so that the current king would always have whatever information he required to rule with wisdom and learning.

Unfortunately, King Roland had considered books to be nothing but a waste of money that he could spend on his army and so he had given the charge of the library into the hands of his old tutor, who knew him well enough to never ask him for anything. The man was so old that even the task of keeping the shelves free from dust had been beyond his abilities, but he had loved books with a fiery passion that had burned in his eyes right to his last breath.

Perhaps it had been Fate that had caused Alexander to open that door by mistake. He had always loved books as well and that love had apparently been quite obvious to the caretaker. The old man had taken a liking to him and the castle scribe had been more than agreeable to allowing the boy to act as the old man's assistant. It had saved him the trouble of training him.

Under the kind and gentle tutor's watchful eye, the shy and uncertain boy had blossomed into a confident and well-read man.

Upon his friend and mentor's death, Alexander had continued to look after the library. He had never been entirely sure if King Roland had known about his new role or not, so the visit to the library one morning by the head of the king's advisors had come as a shock to him. Although his shock at learning that he had been appointed as Prince Valen's new tutor had been far greater.

He had thrown himself into his new role eagerly, but he had never forgotten his past. King Roland had not bothered to appoint a new caretaker for the library, so Alexander had spent many of his free hours there, dusting shelves and reading through ancient texts. It had been while dusting that Alexander had found The Book.

Even though he had realised at the time that he had discovered something extraordinary, he had never dreamed that it might one day hold his only hope.

- - -

As he moved through the corridors formed by the tall shelves towards the back of the room, Alexander was acutely conscious of how quickly the boy's life-blood was staining the makeshift pressure pad he was holding against the wound, but there was nothing more he could do.

Even if he could have slipped the child out of the castle and taken him to a physician... the wound was simply too severe. Perhaps if there had been a healer in the town, like the ones mentioned in some of the stories he had read to Valen over the years... but they were just stories... fairytales. They lived in a world where magic was not known to exist. The physicians knew medicines and could cure some illnesses and dress wounds... but they did so with the aid of science, not magic.

Alexander knew that if Valen's life was to be saved, then it was magic they needed.

By the time he reached the back of the room and the three tall bookcases there, Alexander was panting for breath. Never a very strong man, he was alarmed at how little strength he had left after carrying Valen all that way, but the boy's condition was even more of a worry for him.

The young prince... Every beat of his heart was weaker than the last. He was slipping away and somehow... a part of Alexander could feel it happening. Perhaps it was because he loved the child as if he was his own. Whatever the reason, he knew that Valen would not last much longer. If he was going to do anything... he needed to do it immediately!

He all but fell to the floor, the boy held protectively against his chest as he reached for the large tome on the bottom shelf. He opened it quickly, revealing that it was nothing more than a hollowed-out shell with another book held safely within it. He had known the book was too dangerous for anyone to find, so he had carefully hidden it away. But now, it was time to bring it out of hiding. No, more than that. It was time to use the knowledge it contained.

His mentor had once told him that knowledge was a key that could unlock any door he wished. Alexander still held those words close to his heart, believing them with all his might. He only hoped that this particular book's knowledge was the key he needed to unlock Valen's survival.

The book was very old and spoke of a far distant time in a far distant land where the ground was shifting desert sand and the sun was worshipped above all. It spoke of Gods and Goddesses, of ancient myth and of even older magicks. It also spoke of a game played by the kings of that land, the Pharaohs, and their priests. Great duels, fought with monsters carved into huge stone tablets, that were brought to life by magic wielded by the few who possessed such incredible power. Finally... it spoke of another place. The place where the monsters from that game truly lived. A place of magic, shrouded in mystery and shadows. For that was what this magic was.

Shadow Magic.

Alexander had read the book from cover to cover, countless times. He had devoured every word with an unabating hunger and thirst for the knowledge it held. He had learned of the magic, of the monsters and also of the magicians in that distant land. He had also learned that once, far into the past, there had been those who had summoned the creatures, not only to fight, but also to come to their aid when they needed help. There were even drawings of some of the monsters and the types of aid they could give. One... The Mystical Elf... was said to have the ability to heal.

Until he tried to open the book, he hadn't noticed how slippery his hands were. He winced when he realised the cause and saw how his touch marked the precious tome's cover, but it couldn't be helped. There was no time to give the book the respect and care it deserved. A life that was even more precious to him was on the verge of being lost forever.

His hands fumbled and a curse slipped from his lips as the book slipped from his hands. He reached for it and then went still, his breath catching in a gasp as he witnessed something incredible.

The book had caught itself in mid-air and was floating just above the floor.

As Alexander watched in awe and rising hope, the blood that had marked the book was absorbed into it, leaving the golden cover unstained. The book opened, its pages turning rapidly... as if it knew what page the desperate man sought and wished to help him find it.

Then the Shadows came.

Flickering shadows that danced like flames, only without the light and colour, they rose out of the floor and circled the book for a few moments before they parted and widened the path of their silent dance. They welcomed the tutor, and the child he held close, into the heart of their whirling circle. The book's pages fell still and when the tutor looked, he could see the spell he sought.

The countless times he'd read it, the spell had always been difficult for him to make out more than a few words at a time. Written in a cramped and uneven hand, the words had often made only the vaguest sense and had given him a terrible headache whenever he'd tried to understand more. He had managed to decipher just enough of the spell to realise what it was. Because Valen's life depended on it, he had been determined to decipher the rest of it. But as he looked at the spell, it shifted before his eyes and he realised that the book itself was giving him what aid it could.

The spell was no longer indecipherable to him. He could read it as easily as if he had written it with his own hand. Alexander saw more than the spell, however. He also saw the price he would need to pay for his wish to be granted. There was no doubt in his mind. He was willing to risk everything for the child in his arms. Without hesitation, he spoke the words written in the Book of Egypt.

The library vanished.

It was as if Alexander and Valen were alone in the middle of a dark void. It was not completely dark, though; more like the night right before the dawn comes. Shadows could not exist without light, after all, and the circle of shadows that had been dancing around them were still there, although they were no longer dancing but merely swaying, as if to music only they could hear. Alexander could barely make them out, but he was strangely reassured by their presence.

Then the voices came.

"Well boy? Speak your request and hurry up about it. We do not have all day!" Sharp and deep, there was a note of impatience that almost hid the feeling of great age the voice held.

"Aye, the sooner you speak your wish, the sooner it will be granted... and the sooner the ritual will be complete." Another voice, similar to the first, but more musical and with a hint of sorrow in it.

"Speak your wish but know the price. Magic must always be balanced. A promise for a promise. A gift for a gift. A life for a life." The rumbling voice had more than a feeling of great age about it. It also held great wisdom, great sorrow and perhaps just a touch of curiosity.

Alexander took a deep breath and held Valen closer to him. "Great spirits of the Shadows, it is the last I seek from you." His voice rang out into the silence, strong and clear and filled with his determination and hope as he made his impassioned plea. "This innocent child... His life is draining away, stolen from him by an assassin's blade. My wish is that his life be spared, for he means as much to me as if he were my own blood. Please... save him. I understand the price you ask and I am prepared to pay it. Save his life and I will gladly give mine in return."

To be continued...