"You see, his time as a god had
twisted his mind. He had thought himself omnipotent, and longed to
have his power again. So when he reached the great river that now
divides the two kingdoms, I knew I had to stop him, or he would
overrun the whole world."
Bane said, "But surely, if he
was mortal, he would grow old and die, ending the scourge."
"Ah, but he was a young man
still, as young as when I had met him. He had fifty years to go, at
least. I could not let him murder and terrorise the good people for
so long. Their prayers for help clamoured in my mind. That was when
I made my third mistake. I came down and faced him, pleaded with
him, but he laughed and told me to make him a god again, or he
would continue.
"He had no remorse for what he
had done to our daughter. He said some terrible things, and I grew
angry again. I struck him down, killed him, and in doing so,
forfeited half my power. His blackened soul fled to the Underworld,
and I thought that was the end of it."
She sighed again, plucking a
blade of grass. "For centuries there was peace. The people of the
Old Kingdom did not cross the river, and Arkonen stayed in the Land
of the Dead."
Lyriasharin shook her head. "I
do not know how he did it, but he gathered the power to rule the
demons and made himself a dark god, rising again as the Black Lord.
He struck out across the land with terrible savagery, wreaking
havoc, murder and atrocities beyond belief. Once again, I was
forced to intervene, but I could not fight him. Instead, I enrolled
the aid of the seven great blue mages who worshipped me. I
instructed them to create the wards, and, when Arkonen returned to
the Underworld, they trapped him below.
"The disease and mutilation he
had visited upon the people remained, and I had to remedy it. So I
chose certain gifted women, and gave them the power to heal. Their
abbeys became my churches, and my power burnt within them. Once
more, all was well for a long time. But I was concerned, and I
looked ahead to see what the future held. That is when I saw you,
and that you could, and would, break the seven wards, unleashing
Arkonen upon the world again."
She smiled at him. "That was not
your fault. But I was afraid, so I instructed the mages to
strengthen the wards, and set traps within them. Five of the seven
gave their lives in this endeavour, one died two hundred years
later, and the last lived on the Isle of Lume, cut off from the
world. In their absence, the use of the blue magic died out. Few
powerful blue mages exist today. I looked ahead again and saw that
you would still break all the wards, only perishing at the seventh.
The healers were the only ones who could help, but they could do
little. Their power is only for healing. I spoke to Larris, and
told her to create Mirra."
The Lady tossed aside the blade
of grass. "The rest, you know."
Bane frowned. "She was created
to stop me."
"She was born to save you. That
was what Tellgar, the mage on Lume, tried to tell you. Only the
healer can save you."
A brief silence fell, then he
nodded at the stone colossus before them. "So, the mage who created
this ward died doing it."
"Yes. Shalsahar, Master of
Stone." Her expression softened at a fond memory. "He was the most
powerful of all the mages, so I gave him the seventh ward. It took
him seven days to create it, and it almost killed him the first
time, since he also had to fight off the attacks of the demons the
Black Lord sent to kill him on the day he raised it. At first it
did not have the crystal with all its traps. That he added later.
That was what killed him.
"He was very old, and died of
exhaustion four days after he had completed it. When I looked ahead
and saw that you would still break all the wards, despite the traps
the mages had died setting, I was afraid. I pondered the problem
for many decades, and finally came to the solution. I instructed
Larris, but I should have chosen the seeress Ellese. Larris doubted
the vision, and kept quiet for too long. When I looked ahead again,
I saw chaos. So many futures, I could hardly unravel them.
"In one, Mirra was born before
you, and stopped you at the third ward, where you gave up your
task. In another, she stopped you at the fifth, another at the
sixth. In many, she failed utterly, and so I knew that she was a
wild card, unpredictable. It did not turn out as well as I had
hoped, but she saved you in the end."
Bane stared at the ground. "I
should have listened to her. I was a fool."
The Lady put a
hand on his arm, and blue fire sparkled between them. "No,
My Lord. I am the fool who raised up
a mortal man. That was the mistake that begot all the others. I
should have asked my father to create a husband for me, instead of
falling in love with a man. I have paid dearly for that mistake,
but, unfortunately, so have many others. Once you have restored all
the wards, cast aside the dark power before it corrupts you. You
will remain a god."
"A powerless one."
She smiled, patting his arm.
Strangely, her form seemed solid, despite her lack of visual
substance. "You will have power. Use the blue, if you need it, but
your words will still command the elements and your gestures will
move mountains. You, unlike Arkonen, were born a god. He changed
you in your mother's womb. He had to, so you could wield enough
power to break the wards, and, fearing you, he ensured your death.
You are now more powerful than he will ever be. In fact, I would
even go as far as to say that you are an extremely powerful young
god."
He pondered this. "I will
consider it."
"But that is not what you are
really worried about, is it? You have spent your whole life in the
Underworld, learning how to use the dark power, tormented and
corrupted by droges and demons. Now you love a girl, and you have
no idea what to do about it."
Bane raised his head and gazed
at her with piercing eyes. "How could I inflict myself upon her,
after all I have done to her?"
"Ah, Bane, if only you could see
yourself. You are a god. More than that, you are a dark god, whose
allure is without peer. They use it for evil, of course, but you...
You are the epitome of perfection, unrivalled amongst men. Even
Arkonen's former mortal form pales beside you. This, of course, was
not his intention when he stole you, but the dark power loathes
ugliness, oddly enough. You would have been a handsome man even
without it, but with it..." She sighed, shaking her head. "She is a
lucky girl."
"It is not that." He frowned. "I
care nothing for being a god. I have no wish to be one. I do not
understand how she can love me after what I did to her."
The Goddess giggled. "Mirra
loves you more than anything in the world."
His eyes narrowed. "Because she
was created for me? Is that her sole purpose in life? Has she no
will of her own?"
A hint of displeasure shadowed
her face. "Be careful what you say, Demon Lord. Remember that I
gave her back to you, and why. Had you not admitted your feelings
for her, I would have taken her from you again, once you had
completed your task. Had she not loved you just as much, I would
also have taken her soul back at that time. You and she are soul
mates, from another time, long ago, when you shared a love that has
outlived death itself.
"I sent her back to turn you
from your purpose. From the first moment you saw her, you could not
have killed her. Only the evil within you made you so cruel to her.
You are fortunate, for it is rare that two souls who have loved and
died, then been reborn, find each other again."
Bane bowed his head, glossy hair
sliding forward to hide his face. "I did not know."
"Of course not, but be assured,
she is waiting for you to speak the words she longs to hear. Her
heart aches for them."
"And yet it will be difficult.
Even though she has forgiven me, I cannot forgive myself. Every
time I look at her, I remember what I did to her. It haunts
me."
Her eyes filled with sadness. "I
understand, but if you abandon her, you will hurt her far more than
you ever did when you tortured her."
"She would forget me in time,
and that will spare both of us from suffering. I will outlive her
by centuries, and her loss will bring me pain."
"She will never forget you, nor
you her. All you will do is deny yourself many decades of happiness
together. Life is full of pain, but joy too, unless you deny
yourself the joy, in which case you will have only pain. I had
centuries of happiness with Arkonen, and I treasure those memories
still. Take the happiness, Bane, you deserve it, and so does she.
You can make her very happy."
"I do not know how. All I know
about people is how to kill or torture them."
She smiled. "Just be yourself.
The rest, you will learn. Allow her to guide you. She is wise
beyond her years. I gifted her with that myself, on the day she
came into this world."
He raised his head and looked at
her. "I will consider it."
"Good." The Goddess rose to her
feet. "Now, we still have work to do." She glanced up at the sun.
"Six more wards to restore."
The Demon Lord stood, and she
clasped her hands.
They stood at the edge of the
ravine, the thunder and mist of the falls engulfing them. The Lady
seemed to revel in the settling vapour, raising her translucent
face to its cool caress. Bane moved away with a shudder, disliking
the dampness. She laughed at him.
"It is the dark power in you. If
you choose to relinquish it, neither wetness nor light will
discomfit you again."
Bane gazed at the shimmering
rainbow. "Who created this ward?"
"Valdar, Master of Illusion. He
thought to distract you into trying to destroy an illusion."
"He succeeded."
"No, he failed. As they all
did." She turned to him, her eyes glowing like emeralds. "Had he
succeeded, you would have perished trying to destroy a mirage."
"Mirra showed me the real
one."
"Yes. Mirra and the mages were
at cross-purposes. When I instructed the mages, I thought it would
be enough. By the time I saw that it would not, they were dead, and
the wards set. All except Tellgar, a stubborn old man, and Ronar,
who has since died. Mirra was sent to save you, so she had to keep
you alive. She knew nothing of this. It was her love for you that
made her do it.
"It took
Valdar three days to create this ward, and another three to set the
trap. It took all his power to create an illusion that would last
for all time, and bind it to a rainbow, which is without doubt the
most
elusive thing in the
world, since it is a fragment of Eternity. It would have been
easier to make an illusory rainbow, but he did not. The rainbow is
real, and therein lies the true wonder of this illusion. In the
end, the strain was too much for his heart."
Bane gazed at the illusory ward
that hung in the rainbow's vivid stripes. The Lady stepped away
from the edge, watching him. He glared at the thundering water,
then unclipped his cloak and let it fall. Unleashing the dark fire,
he stepped over the edge and floated down into the depths on a
column of flame. The power thrummed through him, rushing out to
sustain his flight.
Deep in the sparkling depths, he
found the broken stone within the cascade where the solid ward had
been, and sent it back into its place with a gesture. Then he
described a dark pentagram and flicked it into the water that
streamed over the ward in a pellucid curtain. When he returned to
the top of the chasm, soaked and uncomfortable in clinging clothes,
a black ward nestled in the falling water like an uncast shadow. He
clipped his cloak on, and the Goddess folded her hands.
They stood upon the bleached
bones before the tumbled rocks that marked the dragon's cave. The
stench of the rotting corpses of the men and beasts that had died
further down the chasm wafted to them on a warm breeze. Bane looked
at the Lady, who seemed oblivious to the fetor.
She gazed at the rocks.
"Drakanor, Master of Dragons. A clever man, though overly fond of
his pets. It says much for his dedication that he endangered his
favourite dragon by creating the ward in her cave. I am glad
Estbatish was not killed."
"The dragon?"
"Yes. Mirra urged her to flee,
and in the end she listened."
"Will she return?"
The Lady shrugged. "Perhaps.
Dragons are strange beasts, and she has lived here for
centuries."
"How did he die?"
"Drakanor met an unfortunate
end, for he was not well suited to creating wards. His power was
over dragons. Estbatish did not like the ward in her cave, and when
he returned to set the trap within it, he was so engrossed in his
task that he lost control of her."
The goddess walked away and
settled under a tree. Bane made a series of graceful gestures,
frowning in concentration as he instructed the magic to reform the
stone to its original formation. With much grating and grinding,
massive rocks rose from their crushing grave to form the cavern's
roof, sliding back into their former positions. Again, it was as if
time ran backwards as the cave took shape, and when the last pebble
had scurried back into its niche, he entered and restored the ward
within.
When he returned, the Lady stood
and clasped her hands.
They stood before the shattered
stone circle, the pale rocks partially buried in the dried grey
sludge that encrusted everything, brown grass poking through it in
places. Bane surveyed the destruction, remembering the terrible
explosion and the injuries he had sustained. The sound of voices
made him glance around. A group of people relaxed in the garden
outside the tunnel that led to Torlock Keep. Men sat with their
wives on the dried ash while their children played in it, scraping
holes and building castles, shrieking with glee.