Cursed Bones

chapter 12



Alexander soared on the wind high over the ocean, shadowing Aedan as the big, dark green dragon coasted gracefully over his target. Alexander had been waiting for this. He’d been intent on watching this encounter from the moment Bragador sent her agent to retrieve the little black box and Princess Lacy.

They were up high … so high Alexander could just barely make out the ship below. A ship that seemed to be sailing in a giant circle out of the way of normal shipping channels as if it was waiting for something.

The dragon banked and rolled into a dive, accelerating with terrifying quickness. Alexander stayed with him as he let gravity pull him toward his objective. With the sun at his back, the ship’s crew was completely unaware of his sudden approach.

At the last possible moment, Aedan flared his wings, breaking his free-fall and sending a gust of wind into the sails sufficient to cause the entire ship to pitch to one side, causing many of the crew to lose their footing and go down.

He fluidly transformed into a human as he landed on the deck of the ship, striding to the first crewman still standing. “Where’s the princess?” he demanded.

“I don’t know,” the crewman said.

Aedan grabbed him by the lapel and threw him overboard, locking eyes with the next nearest crewman.

“You there,” he said, pointing at the man, “where’s the princess?”

The man turned and ran.

Then Alexander saw him. He was poking his head up through a hatch from below decks. The possessed crewman smiled with gleeful malice as he came up to the main deck. In a crouch, he started toward Aedan.

Alexander could see the wrongness of his colors, he could see the darkness, but he couldn’t warn Aedan.

Rankosi approached the shapeshifted dragon, smiling.

“I’ll tell you where she is,” he said. “All I ask is that you spare my life.”

Alexander felt a sense of chilling helplessness penetrate his entire being. Rankosi took a step. Then another. One final step and he was close enough. He reached out and touched Aedan, clutching at his arm.

The dragon frowned with sudden anger, reaching for him, but it was too late. Rankosi flowed from the crewman into Aedan.

Alexander watched an epic struggle transpire in the colors of the two beings, but the shade won out, finally subjugating Aedan’s free will and possessing the dragon completely.

He looked up at Alexander and smiled wickedly. “Oh, this is much better,” he said, grabbing the frightened crewman by the throat, lifting him off the deck and leaping onto the railing before launching into the air over the ocean, transforming into a dragon in moments. Still holding the crewman by the throat, he flipped the man’s legs into his mouth and bit them off at the waist before casting his screaming torso into the ocean.

Aedan, possessed by Rankosi, gained altitude and distance from the ship where Lacy Fellenden was being held captive.

Alexander slipped back into the firmament, then returned to the Wizard’s Den.

“Little One, will you tell Bragador that I have grave news.”

“Yes, My Love,” Chloe said, floating up and kissing him on the cheek before spinning into a ball of light and vanishing.

Bragador arrived several minutes later.

“Thank you for coming,” Alexander said.

“What news?”

“Aedan has been possessed by the shade Rankosi,” he said.

“Impossible!” Bragador said.

“I just watched it happen,” Alexander said.

“You are mistaken,” Bragador said, “and I intend to prove it.” She turned on her heel and left.

“I’m not sure if I can do this,” Alexander said, more to himself than anyone.

“I believe in you, My Love,” Chloe said.

“You said the sovereigns were only speculating about Mindbender’s power transferring to you,” Jack said, “and even then, they didn’t know if you’d develop the same abilities the sword gave you. Maybe you’re trying to do the wrong thing.”

“Or maybe I just can’t make it work because I’m stuck in this bed,” Alexander said. “I just can’t seem to make myself believe I’m in a fight enough to project an illusion.”

“You’ve been trying for days, My Love,” Chloe said. “Maybe you should just rest for a while.”

“Maybe you’re right. I’m not getting anywhere, anyway,” he said, closing his eyes and relaxing into the bed that had become his home since his injury.

He relaxed his body and cleared his mind like he had so many times in the past prior to slipping into the firmament, but this time he simply let his mind wander, allowing the images to play across his mind’s eye. He thought of Isabel, trying to remember exactly what she looked like, her chestnut-brown hair, her piercing green eyes and her perfect smile. He missed her terribly, but after seeing her nightmares, he’d come to terms with her decision. She was trying to protect him even though it hurt her as much as it hurt him.

He was looking at her in his mind’s eye, seeing her in perfect detail, dressed in her riding armor, wearing her sword, the medallion of Glen Morillian around her neck, when he heard Jack gasp.

Alexander’s eyes snapped open, and for just a moment, barely a blink, Isabel was standing in the room looking at him … then she vanished. Alexander swallowed hard, his mind working furiously to comprehend what had just happened.

“Did you see her, too?” he asked.

Jack nodded.

“Lady Reishi appeared for just a moment, then vanished just as quickly,” Hector said.

“But she didn’t have any colors,” Alexander said, realization flooding into him. “She was just an illusion.”

“I don’t understand, My Love,” Chloe said.

“I’ve been going about this all wrong,” Alexander said. “I’ve been trying to make illusions the same way I did when I had Mindbender, but the sword depended on my mindset—I had to believe I was in a fight for it to work. What if that mindset was only necessary because the power was bound to a sword, a weapon?”

“So you’re saying you just projected that image of Isabel,” Jack said.

Alexander nodded. “I was thinking about her, trying to see her in my mind, and then she was here.”

“So you’ve just been doing it wrong,” Jack said.

“Seems so,” Alexander said. “I’m going to try again …” He looked to the door. “Anja’s coming.”

A moment later, the young dragon stuck her head inside and squeezed through the door into the Wizard’s Den.

“You’re almost too big to fit through the door, Anja,” Alexander said, as she put her head on the bed, looking up at him with her big golden eyes. He rubbed her head affectionately.

“Have you fed today?”

She nodded.

“Does your mother know you’re here?”

She shook her head.

“Anja, you shouldn’t wander off without telling your mother where you’re going,” Alexander said. She whined slightly.

“That’s good advice,” Bragador said from the doorway. “I figured I’d find her here.”

“Anja, go with your mother,” Alexander said. “You have lessons to complete.”

She whined again but reluctantly went to the door, squeezing through into the cave.

“If you keep coming in here, you’re going to get stuck,” Bragador said, as they left to attend to Anja’s instruction.

“What are you going to do about her when we leave?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know,” Alexander said. “She can’t come with us, but I’m afraid she’s going to be sad when we go.”

“She’s resilient,” Chloe said. “Her feelings will heal in time.”

“That was much better,” Jack said when Alexander opened his eyes.

“I still couldn’t hold it for very long,” Alexander said.

He’d been practicing with his illusions for days. Without the sword, he found that he could only cast an illusion when he was in a meditative state, and then only by carefully visualizing the illusion he desired in minute detail. It took a tremendous amount of concentration and focus to succeed, but he was getting better. At first he could only make projections of things or people he knew well. Isabel was the easiest for him because he could see her in his mind so clearly.

With some practice, he was able to conjure an image of himself, though it took a lot of work to get it right. Jack was his test subject. The bard carefully scrutinized each projection for detail, making notes and observations to help Alexander improve the authenticity.

At first, he was only able to create static images, still and lifeless, though with increasingly real detail, until Jack proclaimed that he couldn’t tell Alexander’s projection of himself from the real thing.

As days stretched into weeks, Alexander practiced with an almost single-minded determination to master his new talent. He was helpless to act until his wound was healed, so he was intent on using this time to some constructive end.

After he’d pushed his illusion practice as far as he could for the day, always a painful proposition, he practiced using his clairvoyance. At first, he explored the Seven Isles, paying particular attention to remote and unexplored areas. While fascinating in the extreme, Alexander didn’t believe that such practice was helping to expand his clairvoyance, so he decided to take the sovereigns’ suggestion and explore the nature of the world itself.

First he rose straight up through the mountain, floating over the volcano that was sputtering orange fire at the sky, then he rose through the clouds and higher. He kept going until he could see the entire world, outlines of several of the Seven Isles visible through the clouds. Alexander marveled at the calm of it—so peaceful, so tranquil. He turned his attention to the moon, traversing the distance in a blink, exploring the barren and lifeless rock for a few minutes before going to the sun. He spent the better part of a day exploring the space around the world before turning his attention to the very small.

He started by exploring his own body, examining bone and muscle and organs in detail before going smaller, drilling into the substance of the world and examining it at its most basic levels. Eventually, he reached the point where substance formed. He looked at the most basic building blocks of the world, substance so small it could only be viewed with magic, no human eye could see something so minute, yet Alexander was looking at these basic building blocks in detail, seeing how they were constructed in seemingly endless variation yet composed of only two opposing forces, coupled together to form all that is. Over the days that followed his discovery of the basic structure of substance, Alexander spent many hours wondering about the things he’d seen.

Over the weeks, Alexander watched Anja grow. She grew until she could no longer fit into the Wizard’s Den. She started sleeping right outside the door, with her head and neck stretched out on the floor so she could still be close to Alexander. Each morning, Bragador would come to collect her and take her to her lessons, teaching her how to fly, hunt, fight, speak, and think like a dragon. Alexander encouraged her to spend time with her mother and the rest of the dragons whenever possible. He’d grown so fond of her, but he also understood with painful clarity that she would have to remain on the dragon isle when he left, for her own good as well as his.

Once Alexander had mastered a static projection of himself, he started working on a moving projection. That was much more difficult at first, there was so much to think about, so many parts to focus on, until he discovered the secret. It wasn’t about seeing each part and coordinating them together, it was about visualizing the whole and seeing it clearly in his mind’s eye. After that, he started to make progress much more quickly. Within a few weeks, he could create an image of himself that was indistinguishable from his real body, make it walk, talk, and behave as if it were really him.

He tried several other images, but found that each required such focus that it would take just as long to master them as it did to master an image of himself. While an illusion of a dragon or a revenant might be useful, he decided to start with something more simple for his next illusion—a ball of light. He reasoned that being able to produce light would be the most useful illusion he could learn, even if it wasn’t terribly frightening.

On many occasions, he tried to project his illusions while in a normal frame of mind, but he simply couldn’t envision the necessary detail to create a projection unless he was in a meditative state. His newfound power wouldn’t be very useful in a fight, but he was sure it could be put to effective use, especially if he could learn how to project his illusions while using his clairvoyance.

He didn’t speak of it openly, mostly out of a superstitious fear that voicing his hopes would prevent them from coming to fruition. He didn’t even try for the longest time, until one day, he realized that he hadn’t looked in on Isabel for days. She was nearly to Karth the last time he’d visited her, but that had been some time ago.

He’d gotten so caught up with his own work that he’d forgotten to check on her. With a feeling of terrible guilt, he slipped into the firmament and went to her. When he found her traveling through the jungle, unarmed and guarded by soldiers of Karth, it was such a shock that he slammed back into his body.

It took almost an hour to calm himself enough to reenter the firmament and go back to her. He followed her for an hour, periodically trying to manifest an illusion of himself and failing each time. She was talking with the leader of the unit of soldiers about the jungle, trying to learn everything she could about the new environment she found herself in.

The leader’s tone was respectful, yet firm. Mostly, his colors reassured Alexander that his wife wasn’t in any immediate danger, at least not from the soldiers she was traveling with. The jungle was another matter.

When he returned to his body, he lay staring at the ceiling for several minutes, trying to decide how to proceed.

“Isabel’s been taken by the House of Karth,” he said.

“What do they want with her?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know, but I get the impression she’s not in any immediate danger, although that could change once they get wherever it is they’re going.”

“Maybe she’s trying to form an alliance,” Jack said.

“Probably, but Karth has been ruled by tyranny for centuries on both sides. The man she’s traveling with is honorable, but I doubt the people he answers to are.”

“She’s resourceful,” Jack said. “Remember how she turned her capture by the Reishi Coven into a triumph. She could do the same here.”

“I don’t doubt her,” Alexander said, “not for a minute, but she’s all alone in hostile territory. She had Abigail at the fortress island.”

“Did you try to project an illusion through your clairvoyance?”

“Yeah, but I failed,” Alexander said. “Although, I think with some practice, I’ll succeed. In the meantime, I’m going to send her some help. Hector, Horace, prepare to leave for Karth.”

“But who will protect you, Lord Reishi?” Hector asked.

“I’ll be safe enough here,” Alexander said.

“Perhaps one of us could stay.” Horace said.

“No, you’re a team. You work better together.”

“Commander P’Tal wouldn’t approve,” Hector said.

“No, I doubt he would,” Alexander said, “but I’m sending you anyway. I’ll be here for months, and Isabel needs help now. Go to Karth and find her, but remain in the background. Don’t reveal your presence to her unless it’s necessary to protect her. Phane’s magic is still working within her, so you can’t really trust her to be herself. I just need to know she has someone watching her back.”

“If you command it, we will obey,” Hector said, “but reluctantly.”

“I understand,” Alexander said. “Go to Karth and watch over Isabel. I’ll talk to Bragador about transportation.”