Destiny (36 page)

“Side… hurt…” was all she could say before she fell.

The Moyuki reached them.

“Sonea, look out!” Iruki called.

“Oh, no!” Sonea cried when she saw the group of Moyuki upon her. In reply to her fear the Medallion of Air shone, as if trying to convey the message that it would protect her. Sonea watched as her protective barrier formed: a swirl of winds and currents whirling at great speed. She had the impression it would not stop steel, that it would penetrate it as far as her flesh. It was no more than wind! Air! How was it going to stop a sword-stroke? She had the answer a moment later when the sword of the first Moyuki to reach her hit her sphere with all his might. The librarian felt a terrible shock throughout her body and screamed in fear, but the steel had not penetrated the sphere. The whirlwind had deflected it to one side. Another Moyuki reached her and struck hard. Once again Sonea felt the blow on her body, but the steel bounced off to one side.

She held her arm and grimaced in pain. “It’s holding!” she cried in relief.

“Fight back, or else they’ll end up destroying either the sphere or your body!” Iruki warned her.

The first Moyuki prepared to deliver a two-handed blow. A whitish glean struck his side. Before he could complete the blow his torso froze, then his arms. His mask turned to ice, and even his sword became an icicle. Sonea glanced to the left and saw Iruki defending her with her hand on her medallion.

“Thank you!”

Sonea received another shock. The other Moyuki was trying to break the sphere with mighty blows. Her body felt every one of them as a physical punishment, and she knew that unless she did something about it things were going to end badly.
Every blow hurts like hell, and it’s getting worse. I have to do something before he cuts me in half or pierces the sphere and gets me.
The Moyuki raised his sword. Sonea put her hand on her medallion and closed her eyes. Without opening them she pointed at the Moyuki with her other hand:
Take him off me! Get him away from here!
she urged the medallion in desperation. At once golden symbols took shape in her mind and formed a sentence of power. Sonea opened her eyes. The Moyuki struck the sphere an instant before he was launched into the sky and carried away by a tremendous gust of wind. Sonea felt the impact on her body but barely noticed it in her astonishment at seeing the Moyuki flying away on the wind.

“By all the books of Erenal!” she cried, as she watched him disappear in the sky.

Iruki was fighting off two Moyuki with her icy spells. “You have the rest on top of you! Look out!” she shouted.

Sonea saw the last group of Elite Soldiers coming at her. A hundred of them ready to end her life, everybody’s life. Fear made her knees unsteady.
There are too many of them! I won’t be able to deal with all of them! They’ll hack me to pieces!
The medallion shone, begging to be used, communicating a feeling of trust. As she realized this she stopped trembling.
I must use the medallion, it’s my only chance. Yes, that’s it, I have to create a spell, but it has to be one of great power.
She breathed deeply, pointed at the hundred-odd Moyuki, closed her eyes and conveyed her command to the medallion. Five swords fell on the sphere. Sonea cried out in pain and crouched down, hugging herself. Tears were running down her cheeks.

She opened her eyes and saw something that left her speechless.

A violent tornado had formed in front of her in the midst of the Moyuki. It was more than sixty feet high and was sucking everything around it into hurricane eddies. The Moyuki were drawn to its center by great gusts of wind, then thrown out into the sky. Sonea watched them fly off in violent spirals, swirl around the vortex like rag dolls and then disappear into the distance. The tornado roared as it dragged away everything around it. All the Moyuki were drawn into it, all except the five who were trying to break Sonea’s sphere.

She glared at them and, under the blows, she got to her feet and summoned all her rage and pride. With tears of pain in her eyes she told them: “You won’t succeed in killing this librarian! No way!” Swiftly she cast a spell. The medallion flashed. With a wave of her hand she launched a great blast of wind at the five Moyuki. They were thrown backwards and swallowed by the tornado behind them. They disappeared into it, sucked in by whirlwinds which then hurled them into the sky.

Sonea stood up, straight and proud, and dried her tears with her sleeve. She cried: “I did it!” She turned to Iruki and saw that the Masig had turned two dozen Moyuki into ice statues. She was about to take a step towards her when she realized something was wrong. She could not manage it. Her leg began to shake uncontrollably, then she felt a pang like the worst cramp ever.
What’s happening? And this awful pain?
Before she could find an answer to this the pain spread to her other leg. She groaned and fell to her knees, unable to stand.

“Sonea! What’s wrong?” Iruki shouted as she finished off her last Moyuki.

Sonea tried to answer, but could not. The pain moved up her back, a sharp pain, as if she had been hit by lightning, then spread to her arms. She gave a cry and fell to the ground on her side.

Iruki went to her and held her head in her lap. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” she asked anxiously.

Sonea tried to speak, but was unable to. She could barely think. Everything was an agony of pain. Then she understood.

“The sphere… held… but my body… didn’t…” she managed to mumble, and then passed out.

Iruki turned to Aliana, who was taking care of Asti. “I need you here. Sonea is badly hurt!”

Aliana looked up and nodded. She was very pale, she was overexerting herself in the healing. Too pale, it was not a good sign.

Iruki realized that she was the only one standing, the only one left to defend them from the witch and her sorcerer. She walked a few steps on until she was safely ahead of the wounded and faced the enemy fearlessly, like a brave daughter of the steppes. If she had to die, she would. Her beloved awaited her in the eternal steppes, and it did not matter to her if she joined him. This certainty filled her with courage. She would defend her own, more so than ever now that they were helpless.

The Dark Lady looked at Isuzeni, and her eyes flashed fire. “This has gone too far!” she cried, shaking her jet-black mane of hair.

“The more they conjure, the stronger their link with the medallions and the more powerful the spells the medallions generate,” Isuzeni said. He was studying Iruki closely, pondering over what had just happened.

“You have destroyed my Moyuki! You shall pay for this offense!” the Dark Lady shouted in fury.

“It would be best not to take any risks, my Lady,” Isuzeni said, trying to mask his worry. “Those medallions might cause us trouble.”

“There will be no more risks!” It is my Destiny, and I shall finish them off! Personally!”

Iruki heard the vicious screaming of the sorceress, but did not flinch.

“I won’t let you harm them!” she shouted in response. “I’ll defend them the way Mother Steppe defends her Masig sons!”

She closed her eyes and communicated with her medallion. The jewel shone with a blue brilliance. Around the Dark Lady and Isuzeni ice and frost began to take shape. A round patch started to form, like a lake of ice, freezing everything inside it. The temperature dropped so much and so fast that the Moyuki who had remained to defend their Lady and Mistress froze to death.

Iruki’s eyes lingered on the powerful spell she had cast, and was satisfied.

“Yes!” she cried. But she noticed that something was not right. The Dark Lady and Isuzeni did not seem to be affected by the spell. Iruki wasted no time. She concentrated hard and called on her medallion to strengthen the spell. A winter storm began to form above the two figures. Strong gusts of icy winds whipped at them and a blizzard fell on them. Nothing could survive its force and freezing cold.

“Ice, cold and frost from the earth and the sky I send you.” They were trapped between the two spells of glacial death. They would die. They had to die.

But they remained standing, unperturbed, seemingly unaffected by the spells.

“How is this possible, Mother Steppe? It shouldn’t be… nothing could survive this most dreadful winter.”

“They’re protected by a shield,” Sonea said behind her in a weak voice.

Iruki turned and saw her friends behind her. They looked terrible and could barely stand. Asti and Sonea’s faces showed the pain their bodies were still enduring. They were leaning on each other and their sunken eyes were dull with pain. Aliana was as pale as a ghost and by her looks, very weak. She had been using her Gift to Heal them and she was drained. But the one who looked worst was Komir. He might almost have been one of the living-dead. He could barely stand and was bruised all over, as if a whole herd of wild buffalos had stampeded over him. Iruki sighed and turned her attention to the enemy. Her spells did not seem to have achieved what she had intended, but at least they had been given time for her companions to recover a little. Although it did look as if they might collapse any moment.

“The Sorcerer, Isuzeni, is the one who’s keeping up their protection,” Sonea pointed out. “I saw him strengthen it when you conjured against them.”

“I don’t see anything but the storm,” Iruki said. “I can’t make out their protection.”

“I saw it, just for a moment. There’s a bell covering them both. It doesn’t seem to be visible, but it’s there, it really is. The Sorcerer’s holding it, keeping them both safe inside.”

“Sorcerer, slave,” Asti said.

Aliana was breathing irregularly. “Probably. That leaves her free to conjure.”

And as if she had heard this, Yuzumi attacked.

The silver axe whirled, and a veil of shadows covered the Dark Lady. Iruki’s blizzard died out. A funereal silence, broken only by the din of the fighting behind them between the defenders and the living-dead, fell between the Bearers and the Sorceress of Death. Suddenly the shadowy veil rose and remained hovering several feet above. It faded slowly, and what it revealed petrified the hearts of the five companions. The Dark Lady hung suspended in the air, and out of her back there issued eight enormously long black tentacles, as if the Sorceress had transformed herself into a monster of the undersea abysses.

“What…?” Iruki stammered.

“No human!” Asti said, and was left speechless.

“She’s turned into a monstrosity!” Aliana said in amazement.

“Human or not,” Komir said, “we have to defeat her somehow.”

“Yes, but how?” Sonea asked, more to herself than to the others.

The medallions flashed, and their protective spheres enveloped them.

One of the tentacles rose and then whipped savagely down on Iruki. The Masig was thrown backwards. Sonea tried to avoid another of the limbs, but was not swift enough and received a brutal blow. Asti conjured fire in response. Voracious flames surged from her medallion and chased after the tentacles, which moved back to avoid the fire, as though this were a dance. The Dark Lady roared like an enraged wild beast and went for the Usik. But Asti fought like a goddess of fire, trying to protect her companions. The Dark Lady shrieked and blasted the ground before the Usik with her colossal tentacles. The earth shook violently and Asti lost her balance. One of the tentacles seized her protective sphere of fire and began to squeeze it. A stench of burning flesh reached the Usik. Another tentacle coiled around the sphere and began to squeeze in its turn. The tentacles caught fire and the stench grew stronger. Suddenly the first tentacle gave up and fell to the ground inert, with flames spreading along all its length. A moment later the second tentacle met the same fate.

The Dark Lady shrieked in an ecstasy of rage.

“The barrier held…” Asti said in astonishment.

At that moment five tentacles fell on to her at once, like a hammer on to an egg. There was a loud
crack
, and Asti’s sphere broke into pieces.

“No!” the Usik shouted, as one of the tentacles seized her by the waist and lifted her into the air, asphyxiating her.

“Asti, no!” cried Aliana.

The Healer gathered what little strength remained in her to defend her friend. She concentrated and called upon her Medallion of Earth. Two huge tentacles quickly turned to her to crush her before she could finish the spell. But Aliana, who was used to dealing with her energy to Heal and was therefore much more in tune with the Power of her medallion, managed to finish the spell in time. A dozen stone shards surged from her chest, their edges sharp as the steel of a king’s sword. They hit the tentacles which were seeking her body and cut them as a butcher’s knife cuts tender meat. The severed tentacles fell to the ground.

The Dark Lady cried out in astonishment and frustration.

At once Aliana sent out a new batch of stone arrows which caught the remaining tentacles which were thrusting at her. She cut them at the root, like an expert cutting down a tree. That left only the tentacle holding Asti. The Usik screamed. It was going to break her in two! Aliana closed one eye and focused on her medallion, and a sharp-edged stone disc went hurtling and spinning. It was so fast that although the tentacle tried to dodge it, it was too slow. The disc severed it cleanly.

Asti fell from a great height, Komir ran to stand below her and caught her in his arms before she touched the ground. He cushioned the blow as best he could and they both rolled on the ground.

Aliana ran to help them.

“I shall kill you!” the Dark Lady was yelling, beside herself with fury.

Iruki and Sonea dragged themselves to their friends.

The Dark Lady whirled the silver axe above her head and conjured. A bodiless blackness, with the foul essence of death, issued from her eyes. She fell into a trance, while Isuzeni watched his Lady closely. The entity oozed lethal venom and despair. It advanced toward the five. It was as though Yuzumi’s own spirit had left her body, taking on its most powerful form, to deliver death. So mighty was that spirit’s essence of death that they were all left speechless.

With Aliana’s help Komir managed to stand, although he realized he was seriously hurt. His side was killing him. He was not sure how much longer he could hold up, but he was sure it was not much. He was on the point of collapse.

“What’s that?” Sonea asked from where she lay.

“It came out of her eyes!” Aliana said.

“It’s her spirit… a spirit of evil,” Iruki said. She was panting from the effort of standing.” It’s bringing us death.”

“Be death,” Asti said, spitting blood.

The blackness reached them like a darkness from beyond.

“It’s her accursed soul!” Aliana said.

“The soul of a maleficent witch!” cried Sonea.

And the gloom came down on them to bring death. Suddenly the five were blind. Everything around them ceased to exist, to give way to the darkness of absolute despair and terror.

“The spheres! Strengthen the spheres!” Komir shouted.

“Quickly, it’s eating us up!” Aliana said.

They focused on their medallions, and each of the five spheres strengthened itself simultaneously with a flash of power the color of its own element. But the flashes were absorbed by the gloom and disappeared into it.

Hungrily it began to devour the defensive spheres, corrupting their essence with that of death, seeking to devour the life of those they protected.

“No see!” cried Asti.

Komir tried to make anything out in the darkness, without success. He could see nothing beyond his body inside his sphere. He knew his friends were beside him and felt their terror. He asked his medallion to fight the darkness, to let a way through to the light. The jewel flashed briefly, with a potent gleam like an entire dawn contained in a single instant. But the intense brilliance was unable to leave the sphere. The power of the medallion was unable to breach the gloom which was already corroding the sphere with its vile essence. The final night had arrived to take them with it, never to return.

“Use your medallions and try to push it back!” Komir cried.

There was a long moment of silence. Komir’s eyes were on his defense, which was weakening with every heartbeat.

“Nothing’s working!” Aliana said. “This darkness is eating up everything I try!”

“Fire no good!” Asti said.

“The spells of Air are no good either! Nor those of Water!” Sonea and Iruki shouted in frustration.

Komir swore silently. His fears were confirmed. This woman was too powerful, even more so now in her pure state. They were fighting against her essence, against her entire power. They were no rivals for her.

Sonea screamed. “She’s destroying the spheres! They won’t hold much longer!”

“She’s pure evil! She’s Death itself!” shouted Aliana.

“My sphere is cracking,” Iruki said.

In that moment of despair, with death about to swallow them all, Komir remembered something. It was something Haradin had done, something that might save them. He had to try it right away, as his own sphere was about to collapse.

“All of us!” he shouted. “We have to defeat her together!”

“How, Komir?”

He had no clear idea how, but something inside him told him that he had to join together with the others, that the Five had to unite.

“Come to me! Follow my voice!”

Aliana’s sphere appeared on his right and touched his own. Komir concentrated and ordered his medallion to let Aliana into it. The healer took a step toward him. Both spheres flashed as they touched and allowed the symbiosis.

“All of you, come into my sphere!”

On his left appeared Iruki. A moment later Sonea and Asti appeared behind him.

“Come on! There’s barely time!”

The five spheres were interwoven, forming a union. But the darkness pressed in more avidly still, and they all felt the cold presence of death in their souls.

The five held each other’s waists closely so that they made up a tight circle, seeking support, courage and strength from their companions.

“We must join our power, the power of the medallions, just as Haradin did,” Komir said. “Close your eyes, relax and focus. Think about the medallion and search inside for your pool of energy, the one that feeds your Gift. Activate it. Let the energy flow, let it radiate from your bodies through the medallions and flow into mine so that the four elements join, together with Ether.”

The five focused and followed his instructions.

Komir began to feel his inner energy leaving his chest, and opened his eyes. Before his eyes a mystical spectacle was unfolding which left him open-mouthed. From each of the Bearers, energy was flowing towards his medallion of Ether. But something unexpected was happening: his medallion was now giving out the energy of the Five Elements. A many-colored sphere formed before the five medallions, in the center of the circle formed by the Bearers. As it fed off the power of the five Ilenian jewels, the sphere let off discharges of pure energy.

When he saw the effect of the union of their energies, he knew what they had to do. He did not understand why or how, but the idea was clear in his mind.

“Send all your power!”

His four friends looked at him in confusion.