The Divided Knight - Chapter Thirty

“The markings on your sword are remarkable. I haven't seen anything like them in a very long time.”

The voice woke Thaddeus from the most peaceful, dreamless sleep he'd had in longer than he could remember. Opening his eyes and sitting up, he found he was still in Aylander's family shrine. A faint, bluish light – not unlike the light which had filled his dungeon cell back when this had all started – lit the room, showing him Zoe still fast asleep where she'd lain beside Thaddeus after they'd made love. It also showed him his sword, suspended in the air in the middle of the room, the runes etched into its surface glowing with the same light that, it seemed, they were the source of. But were they? The sense of raw, untempered magic in the air that Thaddeus felt was so intense, it amazed him that it didn't tear him apart. How can Zoe sleep through that?

“She sleeps because I wish it,” the voice that had awoken Thaddeus said. It was a man's voice, his words calm, yet full of power. “My words are for your ears, alone.”

“Who are you?” Thaddeus asked. “Why can't I see you?”

“You cannot see me because I cannot yet manifest physically in your world. As for who I am, it surprises me that you have not yet reasoned that out for yourself. I am Adarion, the last survivor of the Divine Council. To you, I am one of those you would name Gods Above.”

Thaddeus had to force down a sudden urge to prostrate himself. He was being addressed by a god? Something about it made sense, though – how many other impossible things had already happened to him, after all? If it were true, however, why didn't Adarion want Zoe awake? Wasn't she his priestess? Why would what he had to say be only for Thaddeus?

“You have an inquisitive mind, Thaddeus,” Adarion said. “At least, you do now that you are whole. Before, your mental faculties were, shall we say, somewhat lacking.”

“Well,” Thaddeus said, trying to keep the insult he felt out of his voice, “I wasn't myself back then, was I?”

“Indeed.” Adarion sounded amused.

“What did you want to tell me?”

“Part of it, because of the changes I sense have been made to your sword, it seems I no longer need say. The rest of it, though, you, and you alone, must hear. If you are to become what you need to become, I must be freed. I must be able to once again manifest physically in your world. However, the only way I can be freed is if the Sundered Halls are also opened, which will once again unleash the Demon Lords on creation. Many will suffer if I am freed, but many more will suffer if I am not. Just as so many have suffered since the Divine Council fell and the last of the Nightslayers perished.”

“Solanas could have freed you, couldn't he?”

“Yes, but as you know, he did not. Faced with the consequences of freeing me, he walked away, condemning himself to a life of loneliness and regret. I understand why he couldn't do it, of course, and I do not judge him, but imagine what he would have become had he taken that last leap of faith. Order could have been restored after eons of chaos and division, and the Divine Council itself might have eventually been reformed. All of that can still happen, provided you do what Solanas couldn't.”

“And what happens if Atraxos frees you before I can?”

Adarion didn't answer right away. “Atraxos the Black is of no consequence,” he said at last. “The Hidden King will slay him the moment the Sundered Halls are opened. However, if you are not there, at that same instant, the Hidden King will also slay me. I am no longer powerful enough to face him alone, or to reseal the Sundered Halls once they are opened. If you do not find my Amulet first – my Amulet which, in truth, is nothing more than a key – or, if you are not there within moments of Atraxos finding it, then there will never be another Nightslayer, and the Demon Lords will at last hold sway over the cosmos. They will become the new Divine Council, and there will be nothing but chaos until the end of time.”

“I could stop Atraxos from finding the Amulet,” Thaddeus said. “I can still kill him before he even gets close. And then I could just walk away.”

“You know how false that is, Thaddeus. Even as powerful as you've become, without becoming the Nightslayer you could never kill Atraxos as he is, now. He may not be one of the Demon Lords – which he is not, despite his beliefs to the contrary – but he is still more powerful, now, than he has ever been. As you are, Thaddeus, all you could hope to do is kill Atraxos's host body, and, this time, there would be no prison to lock his essence away. He would find someone else to possess. And that someone might even be you.”

“I have to become the Nightslayer, then.”

“You do. Now, there is something I must know. How much do you love the family you have found?”

Thaddeus frowned. Why did Adarion need to know that? And, besides that, couldn't he already tell? “They are my family,” Thaddeus said. “They are my wife, and my brother. I would do anything for them. Even if it meant dying.”

“You will not need to die for them,” Adarion said. “Not yet, anyway. But it is that drive, that single-minded drive, to do all that you can for the ones that you love that will make you embrace what needs to happen in order for you to become what it is that you must.”

“What does that mean?”

“You will know when the time comes. Until then, Thaddeus, farewell.”

There was a sudden, brilliant flash of white light, and then everything went dark as Thaddeus lost consciousness.

“You look like you didn't sleep very well,” Zoe said.

It was early the next morning – about an hour before dawn according to Aylander, who had at least had the sense to make sure Thaddeus and Zoe were decent before barging into the shrine and waking them up – and they were gathering their things together for what Thaddeus hoped was going to be the last leg of their journey. Strapping his sword to his back, Thaddeus looked at Zoe and said, “I don't?”

“No,” she said. “Bad dreams?”

In the back of his mind, Thaddeus had a sense that something had happened to him while he slept – something important – but, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember what. Had it been a dream? He didn't think so. But, if it hadn't been a dream, then what had it been? “To be honest, I'm not sure,” Thaddeus said. He paused, frowning. “I do remember talking to someone, though.”

“Really? About what?”

Thaddeus shook his head. “I'm not sure. The memory's fuzzy, like dreams are, sometimes, but, whatever happened, I'm almost positive that it wasn't a dream.”

They left the shrine. Not long after, they stepped out of the ruins of Aylander's family home, emerging into a predawn light that was made gray and ominous by the unending mass of clouds in the sky. A short distance away from the home, Aylander stood, hands behind his back as he looked off into the east. As Thaddeus and Zoe came up beside him, he looked at them, nodding his head slightly in greeting.

“I would think a newly married man would sleep better than it looks you did, last night, Brother,” Aylander said.

“He had troubling dreams,” Zoe said hastily, cutting Thaddeus off before he could make the remark that immediately sprang to mind. She smiled at him, and the mischief that danced in her eyes made Thaddeus wonder if she could read his thoughts. “Apparently, being in the arms of the woman he loves wasn't enough to keep his mind off of what lies ahead of us.”

Aylander gave a small smile. “Indeed.” He looked at Thaddeus. “Shall we go?”

Taking a deep breath, Thaddeus looked off to the east. There, just visible in the predawn twilight, a line of cliffs could be seen – the base of the Plateau of Leng. Closing his eyes, Thaddeus pulled the light toward him, and again came the feeling of being caught up in a wave. Almost unconsciously, he checked to be sure Zoe and Aylander came with him – they did, of course – and then, what seemed a few brief moments later, they all stopped.

It wasn't just before dawn, anymore, when Thaddeus opened his eyes. Full day had come – though, being in Eltara as they were, everything was still dull and gray – and they were no longer in the small valley that had been home to Aylander's childhood village. Instead, they stood in a hollow that had been carved halfway up the side of a jagged mountain. The hollow, Thaddeus understood, had been carved at some point in the distant past in order to make a place to hang a pair of heavy iron doors – the heavy iron doors that comprised the Gates of Eclipse. Those doors should have stood closed before them, now, but, instead, they were open. It was impossible to walk through them, however, as the path was blocked by a creature much larger than the drakes had been, but which shifted in and out of reality as they had. The creature was a wyvern, and the feeling of wrongness that radiated from it made Thaddeus feel like he wanted to vomit.

“A wyvern!” Zoe asked. “What's it doing here?”

“The better question, I think, would be why are the Gates of Eclipse already open?” Aylander said.

“Atraxos opened them,” Thaddeus said. “He got here before us.” He drew his sword. “And, somehow, this wyvern is his.”

The wyvern shrieked. Thaddeus raised his sword over his head and charged.