Into the Abyss (The Nightslayer Trilogy, Part 2) - Chapter Twenty-Two

 “The darkness is beautiful, isn’t it?” Aylander suddenly asked.
    Thaddeus looked at him, at first wanting to ask him why he would say such a thing, but then realizing that there was, indeed, a hint of beauty in the darkness that had fallen over the land while they’d been gone.  “I suppose it is,” Thaddeus said, turning his gaze back to the view ahead.  “At least in part, anyway.”
    “It gives me the creeps,” Zoe said from her place on Thaddeus’s right.  “It’s evil, and it shouldn’t be there.  Who knows what kinds of things it’s hiding.”
    “It hides nothing from me, Lady Zoe,” Aylander said, a hint of wistfulness in his voice.
    Thaddeus frowned and cast a sideways glance at Aylander.  Was that a smile he saw on his brother’s face?  Not that there was any real reason he shouldn’t be smiling.  Despite how perceptive she was, and no matter what powers she had at her command, Zoe couldn’t always be right about everything, and Thaddeus was fairly sure, just then, that her judgement of the darkness was more than a little hasty.  Thaddeus’s frown deepened.  Why, he wondered, was he so sure about that?  And when was the last time Zoe had been wrong about anything?  Thaddeus shook his head and refocused his attention on what was before him.
      They had emerged from the Abyss somewhere in the northern part of the Royal District.  Somewhere ahead of them–Thaddeus thought it might have been in the vicinity of the Gelevan Gorge–magical forces were gathering, surely marking a place where a battle was about to begin.  Reaching the battlefield would be easy–riding the darkness would, Thaddeus sensed, be almost as simple as riding the light–but, even if they did that, they would get there too late.  Thaddeus was sure a Demon Lord was present on the battlefield, and, if they rode the darkness–just as if they rode the light, or the wind–the battle would be all but over once they arrived.  Without the trio of he, Zoe, and Aylander, the battle would be lost, and Thaddeus had no idea how to get them there sooner.  Surely, they hadn’t emerged from the Abyss just so they could be late to the battle that might decide the fate of their world?  How, in any possible way, could that be right?  Unless we were never meant to win the in first place, Thaddeus thought, wondering immediately where such a fatalistic notion had come from.
    “Is there any way we can reach them in time?” Zoe asked.
    Thaddeus looked at her.  “I don’t know,” he said.  “If we ride any of the elements–even the darkness–we’ll get there too late.”
    “Do you know of any way to travel faster?”
    “No,” Thaddeus said, feeling the helplessness of their situation clutch at him.  
    “I might be able to do it,” Aylander said.
    Thaddeus looked at him.  “How?” he asked.
    Aylander looked back at him.  “Don’t you know?” he said.  “Can’t you feel it?  It’s the darkness.  It’s awakening something in me.  Something more powerful than I’ve ever known.”
    Thaddeus thought he could feel something.  He didn’t know what it was, or where it came from, but it made his magic swell, made him feel stronger than he had since his powers had awoken.  It called out to him, wanting him to seize it, wanting him to use it in any way he saw fit.  But what would happen to him if he did?  Could Thaddeus stay true to himself if he gave in to what he felt?  Thinking about it, Thaddeus realized that, back in the Abyss, he had felt something similar, something that called to him, imploring him to seize it and do with it whatever he felt he should.  Back then, he’d been able to resist it, but now, Thaddeus found himself having to exert a great deal of will to do so–a great deal of will he wasn’t sure how long he could expect himself to exert.  And would it really be so bad if he gave in?  Who would it hurt if he did?  And wouldn’t it help him?
    “I can feel it, Thaddeus,” Zoe said.  “You can’t give in to it.  Not fully.  It will corrupt you if you do.”
    Thaddeus looked at her.  “But it will allow me to do so much,” he said.  “I can save us all, and more besides.  No one will have to suffer.”
    “No, Thaddeus,” Aylander said.  “She’s right.  This power can help you–it can make you stronger than you ever imagined–but it isn’t for you.  Your path and mine might be similiar, but you have to make a different choice.  All will be lost if you don’t.”
    “But I’m the Nightslayer!” Thaddeus said.  “By rights, the power should be mine!”
    Zoe put her hand on Thaddeus’s shoulder.  Thaddeus tried to pull away, but Zoe’s grip tightened, strengthened by a sudden, white-hot rush of Life Magic.  “Thaddeus,” Zoe said.  He looked at her, but had to look away from her eyes, which glowed with dazzling, amber light.  “Do you trust me?”  
    Zoe was Thaddeus’s wife.  He loved her more than life itself, and had for more than twenty years.  How could he not trust her?  “I-I don’t know,” he said.
    “I would never do anything to hurt you,” Zoe said, the grip on Thaddeus’s arm shifting from white-hot to soothing, comforting.  “I only want to help you become what it is you need to be.  You can’t let the power that’s been unleashed corrupt you, Thaddeus.  You can’t.”
    “But who will wield it if I don’t?” Thaddeus asked.
    “I will,” Aylander said.
    Thaddeus looked at him.  “Won’t it corrupt you, too?”
    Aylander smiled and shook his head.  “No,” he said.  “I gave in to it already, Thaddeus.  Back in the Abyss.  It didn’t corrupt me there, and it won’t corrupt me here.  And do you know why?”
    Thaddeus stared at his brother with wide eyes, but said nothing.
    “Because you forgave me, Brother,” Aylander said.  “You and Zoe both.”
    “It’s stronger, here, though,” Thaddeus said.
    “I know.  But that hardly matters.”
    The relative calm and quiet that had surrounded them since their return from the Abyss was broken by a sudden gust of wind.  It came from the north, and, when it struck, the strength of it rocked Thaddeus back on his heels.  On the wind were carried two distinct smells, neither of them pleasant–sulphur, and the stench of decay.  That wasn’t what prompted Thaddeus to seize hold of his magic, however.  It was the chorus of unearthly howls and wails that followed in the wind’s wake.  As soon as he heard it, Thaddeus’s eyes flared blue, and his sword all but leapt into his hands.
    “What is it?” Zoe asked.  Thaddeus glanced at her long enough to see her hands had begun to glow.
    “Monsters, my Lady,” Aylander said.  A wickedly curved, black sword–did Thaddeus think it might have shared kinship with a sickle?–wreathed in flame had appeared in his hands.  “Sent by the Mother, herself.”
    Light suddenly exploded all around them, Thaddeus not needing to look to know Zoe was the one who cast it.  Once cast, it didn’t waver, some of it shining out a bit into the darkness.  Shapes began to appear as they entered the limits of its glow, shapes which ran, loped, and crawled across the ground.  The light reflected off what must have served the shapes for eyes, showing up in shades of green, red, and gold.  The light didn’t deter the shapes’ approach in the slightest–not that Thaddeus had expected it to–and, the closer they came, the more monstrous they grew.
    “Sent by the Mother, herself, huh?”  The wryness of Zoe’s tone caused Thaddeus’s lips to curve upward in amusement.  “Sounds like fun.”
    And then the monsters were upon them.