A beveled archway supported a walkway between two buildings, opening up beyond into a broad courtyard. The presence of another Shae emanated from the shadows.
Mage walked beneath the archway, and Exeres followed, feeling a chill grip his heart as he passed it. A warding. He paused, caught betwixt it, wondering if he should abandon the madness that had lured him that far. Sweat trickled down his ribs and he stanched his fear, his revulsion, and stepped into the courtyard.
“A clever warding,” Mage said, addressing the Shae known as Justin…and Ravin. “But it traps you in here just as well.”
“She did not want you running away when it became difficult, old man.” The Shae voice was heavily accented king’s common.
“What is it?” Exeres asked, his voice pitched low.
“It’s a Death Warding. In case anyone tries to leave this courtyard.”
Exeres saw the two face each other, each gripping an orb the color of fire. The tortured shapes twisted inside each sphere, sending shocks of memories into his mind. He clutched the Bloodstone, hoping it would live up to the old man’s assurances.
“She should not have given you her Firekin,” Mage said, clucking with humor. “So very dangerous for her to be left without one.”
Justin’s eyes glowed, reflecting the orange of the dual orbs. “She had this one to spare, old man. You are not the first she’s defeated.”
“I’m defeated already? She made no such boasts when I wrestled her in Castun.”
Exeres’ ears popped, like they had when he’d ridden the alerion over the Shadows Wood. The swell in the air made his bones quake, the pressure of competing magics stuffed into the small courtyard. A contest occurred, a silent battle.
“You are strong,” Mage said, matter of factly.
“You are just beginning to comprehend the full meaning of that, old one. I have a message for you, priest. Altheas Althanna.”
Something horrible ripped through Exeres’ memories. Scabs that had been worked over and healed and carefully concealed shredded loose, opening wells of memories that he had lost when Miestri first claimed him.
I have so much for you to do, she had told him. You don’t realize yet what a great privilege it is to serve me.
The tent. That banned awful tent. She had taken his Druid Eye that night, robbing him of a gift he had once cursed. Since that night, he had not dreamed. Not a single dream when every night of his life all the years before had been full, colorful, vivid, incomprehensible, haunting. But they were his. They were a part of who he was, and she had torn them away, blinding his blind eye as if with a hot poker.
You will not remember what I’m doing to you or what I’ve done to you. You won’t remember any of it until you hear this name. It is the Silvan name of the woman you’ve been dreaming about.
Miestri’s will rushed into the bleeding void of his mind. He felt her presence out in the moors, from the grotto in the Shadows Wood where he had first met her. She wrapped him up in her tangles, tying his loyalty and desire to her—and only her. She had left a little crack, a niche where she could hook him again. There was no fight or resistance. There was only Miestri.
Exeres raised his fist and sent a channel of pure energy into Mage’s back.
The crimson blast slammed into the Sorian, but his own orb caught it, just in time, deflecting it away and slamming into one of the courtyard buildings, hurtling brick and wood everywhere. Justin raised his fist and a blast of blue struck from the other side.
What am I doing?
Exeres tried to break her grip, but the thoughts and orders rushed through him. The compulsion to strike at Mage, to unleash all the strength of the Bloodstone overpowered him. The Stone glowed hot and he felt his palm sizzle like bacon, but he could not release the orb. He used it over and over, blasting out against the Sorian like whip strokes from a cruel taskmaster.
A huge force upended him, catapulting Exeres up and over, smashing him against the wall of the inlet. Pain blossomed through his body.
“Fight her off, boy!”
Mage’s shoulders hunched as he took jolt after jolt from Justin. The orb flared and the ground bucked and heaved. Exeres watched in horror as a building rocked on its foundation, followed by screams from those inside. The building collapsed in a pile of rubble, snuffing the sounds and creating a plume of dust.
Exeres’ shoulder throbbed, but her will forced him to shove away from the wall and strike at Mage again. The aged Sorian had retreated to the center of the square, attacking on both sides at once. Justin clutched the orb like a lifeline, his other hand outstretched, his fingers hooking into claws. Watery hulls of white fire exploded in succession from his hands, streaking to Mage to be absorbed within his own orb.
“Fight her off!”