The Divided Knight - Chapter Twenty-Four

Thaddeus stood on the edge of the platform, looking out toward the east. For some reason, he wasn't surprised to not be looking out on row after row of towering, snow-capped mountains – the Guardian's dwelling apparently stretched almost the entire breadth of the Ivory Spires, its eastern end opening out on where the mountains began to descend before disappearing all together at the point where they bled into the gently rolling rills that comprised the western plains of Eltara. From the lore the Wanderer had known, Thaddeus understood enough to realize that the view he looked out on hadn't always been so gray and barren – Eltara had been green and full of life, once, an idyllic paradise where no one had wanted for anything. So much for thinking there might be something left, Thaddeus thought. If only Zoe hadn't disrupted the transit spell!

If she hadn't, Atraxos might have had his prize by now, Aylander said, his soul once again inside Thaddeus's sword. And you're forgetting the new powers she received from the Abbott. He took us from the ruins of Athelden to his abbey without using a transit spell. It stands to reason that Zoe can do something similar.

It stands to reason. Thaddeus chuckled and shook his head. You already know she can, Aylander. I can sense that you do. What aren't you telling me about what she's become? What does it mean for her to be a Priestess of Adarion?

It means many things, most of which you will simply have to experience to learn. What I can tell you, however, is that she is now one of the most powerful magic users in existence. Women like her were once called Sorceresses, and were considered by some to be goddesses made flesh. They weren't, of course – Sorceresses are just as mortal as any of us – but their power was never to be questioned. And Battlmages, like yourself, had no greater allies.

Because they can augment our powers, like she did when we faced that Sword Priest.

Precisely. And that was no Sword Priest, Thaddeus. Based on how Zoe dealt with him, he was even more Twisted than I was. Or less, as the case may have been.

Thaddeus didn't need to ask Aylander what he meant about their latest foe being less Twisted than Aylander, himself, had been. That creature had embraced his Twisted nature completely – had reveled in it, in fact – and showing him mercy of any kind would have been unthinkable. That was ruthless reasoning, Thaddeus knew, but ruthlessness was something that had become a part of him since being made whole.

“You're brooding,” Zoe said, walking up to stand beside him. “I'm not sure how well it suits you.”

“You might have to get used to it,” Thaddeus said, looking at her and smirking. “I am a whole man, again, after all.”

Zoe smiled. “You are that.” The smile turned wicked. “Too bad I couldn't have left you as two whole men. That could have been . . . interesting.”

Zoe's wicked smile, coupled with her words and the tone she'd spoken them in, made Thaddeus's blood grow warm, and he had to fight to keep from taking her right then and there. It wasn't the time for that. Not yet, anyway. “I'm sure one of me will be more than enough.”

Zoe winked. “So am I. Now, what were you looking so stormy about?”

“I was thinking about how we were going to get out of here without the transit spell. At least, I was until Aylander reminded me about your new powers. Then I got to thinking about that . . . thing . . . Aylander and I fought, and how ruthless I was in deciding it was right that we showed it no mercy.” Thaddeus looked out toward Eltara, again. “I'm finding this new, darker side to myself a little hard to get used to, still.”

“And yet you don't doubt the rightness of the decision, do you?”

“No,” Thaddeus said. “I don't.”

“Good. Because it was the right thing to do. Some souls are beyond saving, and it's best they be done away with before they can do any more harm than they already have. Demons are born, otherwise.”

“Demons.” Demons were the worst of the Abominations, and were the only kind that could appear independent of a Necromancer's spell. Despite that, however, there had been no substantiated reports of demons since before the founding of the Torvaran Empire. “Atraxos has become one, hasn't he?”

“No. He's become something worse.”

Thaddeus looked at her. “What could be worse than a demon?”

“One of their lords,” Zoe said.

“Atraxos has become one of the Lords of Darkness?”

“I'm almost certain of it.”

“That would mean he has some sort of direct contact with the Sundered Halls!”

His book, Aylander said. Not only was it his prison, it is also the source of his power. And, if he combines its power with that of the Amulet of Adarion, he could open the Sundered Halls.

“Which would free the Lords of Darkness,” Thaddeus said. “Gods Above!”

“I don't know what Aylander just told you,” Zoe said, “but I suspect he has an inkling of how Atraxos was able to contact the Sundered Halls, and that whatever power it has, coupled with the power of what he seeks, would be a very bad thing for everybody. We need to get moving.” Zoe closed her eyes and turned her head, then, as if suddenly remembering something, opened one eye and glanced back at Thaddeus. “You know, why don't you do it?”

Thaddeus frowned. “Do what?”

Zoe looked at him with both eyes. “Take us where we need to go.”

“But, I don't know how. Remember? That's your area, not mine.”

“You can do it, too. And we don't need to ride the wind, either. Light would get us there much faster.”

“But, I don't know the spell!”

That's because there is none, Aylander said. Not for someone like you, or like her. Magic will obey your thoughts, no matter how complex the thing you want it to do is. Your power is truly unfettered. And you have no idea how envious that makes me.

Thaddeus grinned. Oh, don't I?

“What did he say?” Zoe asked.

“That you and I make him envious. Now, where should I take us?”

“Anywhere. After Atraxos. But it'll have to be in small jumps. What we can do doesn't have the range of the transit spell.”

Make for the Plateau of Leng, Aylander said. I will help guide the journey.

Thaddeus closed his eyes. An image of where they would emerge from their first jump – a village that, in Aylander's memory, was pristine in every detail, even having a fountain in its square around which Eltaran children laughed and played – appeared in his mind, and with it came an impulse to go. Thaddeus fed that impulse with light, drawing it seemingly from the very day, itself, and, all at once, he was moving. Zoe came trailing after – it was like they were caught up in a wave of some sort – and then, almost as soon as they'd left, they had arrived at the village from Aylander's memory.

Except the village was nothing like how Aylander remembered it. Its stone buildings, so white and unblemished, before, were now gray and broken. The fountain in the village square was dry, and had crumbled into a barely recognizable ruin. There were no children, either, or any other people of any kind.

This was your village, wasn't it? Thaddeus asked Aylander.

It was, Aylander said. A very long time ago, it was.

Something nearby – something that had to be alive even though Thaddeus couldn't sense it – screeched. And then a black thing, with small, leathery wings and a snout like a river lizard, emerged from one of the ruins. Thaddeus knew what it was – there were few who wouldn't, though the creature was commonly thought of as mythical – and seeing it turned his insides to ice with terror.

“Gods Above, that's a drake, isn't it?” Zoe asked.

It was, and, according to myth, where there was one drake, there were more. And drakes, just like their larger kin, which included wyverns and dragons, were immune to all forms of magic. “Run!” Thaddeus shouted.