At the point where the cloaked figure encountered the astral barrier, it came to a sudden halt. As it did so, the space around its arm began to shimmer with a pale white light. Alex felt an unexpected excitement rise in his mind as he watched the cloaked figure press its arm into the barrier, the shimmering white light shrouding its arm and then its entire form as it passed through the barrier and into the carnival grounds. Alex stared at the cloaked figure, its bluish astral form encapsulated in a pale and constantly fluctuating white light.
The mysterious figure had broken through the barrier. But how? As the figure floated back to the edge of the barrier with its arm outstretched, Alex realized the mystery mage was going to show him how to do the same himself. Whatever this person’s true intentions, Alex knew he had to take whatever risks were necessary to learn how to mimic the magic that could penetrate the astral barrier around the carnival.
Alex raised his hand to meet that of the cloak-covered figure in black. As their hands met at the boundary of the astral barrier, they shimmered with luminescent white light. Alex extended his magic-sense and tried to discern how the figure in black had managed to thwart the ancient magic of the barrier.
Now that he could feel as well as sense the magic at work, Alex thought he knew how to accomplish it. It was a subtle bit of magical manipulation that turned the invisible energies of the barrier inside out. The magical energies of the barrier prevented astral energies from functioning, repelling them from the area within its boundary. The figure in black had deduced how to create the exact same magical energy and wrap it around its own astral form like a suit of armor, shielding it from the effects of the barrier. It was brilliant.
Alex paused for a moment. Whoever the figure in black was, he or she was a very powerful and experienced Spirit Mage. Even Batami had not managed to breach the boundary of the astral barrier. How could there be another Spirit Mage in the Rune valley he had not heard of? If this Spirit Mage was not from the Rune Valley, was it with the carnival? Was the cloaked figure some carnie working against the Shadow Wraith’s followers?
Alex knew he had no more time to contemplate such questions. He reached out with his magic-sense until he could feel the magical energy of the astral barrier. Then he spoke with his mind, thinking rune-words of energy manipulation, words similar to those he might have used to tame a flame of fire. The energy of the barrier quavered with iridescent white light. He willed himself forward and into the barrier even as he mentally chanted the rune-words cloaking his own astral form in that same magical energy.
A second later, Alex floated inside the barrier, beside the figure in black.
“Thank you,”
Alex thought at the figure. The figure only nodded. Then it did something Alex would not have expected. It floated back outside the barrier.
Alex had no time to ask who the figure was or why it had shown him how to cross the astral barrier only to leave him after having done so. The astral form of the figure in black nodded once more, then quickly faded away, like mist evaporating in bright sunlight.
Panic prickled at Alex’s consciousness. He was alone within the astral barrier of the carnival. The Shadow Wraith’s followers were there. Alex was certain there was at least one Dark Spirit Mage working for the Shadow Wraith within the carnival, but whoever it might be, he or she would not be expecting Alex to be present in astral form to spy on them.
He needed a plan.
Now that he could sense the magical energy of the astral barrier, he might be able to sense where it was coming from. It might be his best chance of locating the magical artifact creating the barrier. And, it might lead him to the follower of the Shadow Wraith who was holding it.
Alex reached out with his magic-sense, trying to feel if the energy of the barrier was stronger in one direction. Did the barrier radiate out equidistantly? Would that mean the artifact was at the very center of the carnival? What was at the center of the carnival grounds? The main tent where
The Eternal Story
played each night. He would start there and see if the energy of the barrier felt any stronger.
Alex was afraid to try willing himself directly to the main tent. Doing so was likely to release the protective field of magical energy sheathing him. He would most likely end up tossed outside the barrier in the attempt. Instead, he floated briskly through the carnival grounds.
While most of the carnies were asleep, not all were. Some did late night chores here and there, some sat outside their tents and sleeping wagons in small groups, talking around tiny piles of glow-globes radiating dimly from old steel drums. Alex caught sight of the husband and wife vampires, Bernard and Heloise, prowling the grounds on their rounds as security guards.
He passed around the peaked roof of a tent and saw two silhouetted shadows seated by the window of a small sleeping wagon. Alex recognized those silhouettes. They were identical in shape and size. Seeing them made Alex realize they might be able to answer a question that had been silently nagging at him the whole day. The answer to that question might make all the difference in finding the Shadow Wraith’s followers.
Alex floated down to peer in the window of the wagon and confirmed his suspicions. Illuminated by a magically powered lamp, the Siren Sisters, Elektra and Medea, sat on a small padded bench. They were talking to someone. Alex willed himself forward and through the wall of the small wagon. He had been unsure if it would work while cloaked in the energy of the astral barrier. The wall seemed to offer some kind of resistance at first, but Alex found he could easily push through it. A moment later, he floated in the cramped living section of the tiny wagon, looking at the Siren Sisters as they talked with Oanadin, the dwarf.
“I don’t like it,” Oanadin said, his face contorted in displeasure.
“We don’t have to like it,” Elektra said, her voice harsh.
“We only need to follow our orders,” Medea said, her tone only a little less icy than her twin.
“I don’t like not knowing what the plan is,” Oanadin said.
“We know our part of the plan,” Elektra said.
“And we know what the ultimate goal is,” Medea said.
“It’s safer for everyone this way,” Elektra said.
“But how does robbing the centaur help?” Oanadin said. “And what’s in the bank?”
“These are not things you need to know,” Medea said.
“They are not things we need to know,” Elektra said.
“Maybe,” Oanadin growled. “But I still don’t like it.”
“Follow your part of the plan,” Elektra said as she stood up.
“And make sure George does the same,” Medea said, standing to join her sister by the door.
Alex knew he had only seconds to try what he needed to attempt. He floated closer to Elektra and Medea as Oanadin stood to see them out. Alex focused his mind, opening it as he had earlier that day with Batami in the woods of the White Forest. Staring at the three people, he looked at the soul-essence within each of them. Then he focused on his own soul-essence and reached out through it toward the others.
Alex knew he had made a mistake as the first wave of ice cold blackness gripped his mind. Then images flooded his consciousness — Fallen trees dead from flame and rot…Bone and ash under a blood-red sun…Corpses rotting in stagnate water…Cities fallen to ruin…Oceans boiling and skies black with birds of prey bursting into flame…
Alex forced himself to break the connection. It had been too much. Looking into the souls of three at once had been too great. Too easy to lose his own soul-essence within. Too easy for the merging they seemed to long for to actually take place. Had he been in his physical body, he would have vomited. As it was, he struggled to remain in his astral form and resist the overpowering urge to flee this nauseating feeling and this place for the comfort and safety of his body and his bed.
The three minions of the Shadows Wraith, for Alex had not doubt now that was what they were, stood in silence and looked at each other.
“What was that?” Elektra asked, her voice hushed.
“Did you feel that?” Medea whispered.
“I felt something,” Oanadin said and coughed to clear his throat.
“Do you think it was…?” Elektra said.
“Why?” Oanadin said.
“Spying on us,” Medea said.
“Maybe,” Oanadin said. “But I’ve never felt that before. It felt almost too…bright.”
“Should we mention it?” Elektra said.
“We’d be acknowledging we felt it,” Medea said.
“Let’s keep it to ourselves for now,” Oanadin said with a sneer. “Maybe it’s good that we know something for once.”
Elektra and Medea exchanged a brief glance of silent sisterly consultation and then turned and nodded in unison to Oanadin. They left without saying another word.
Alex still floated at the edge of the wagon wall. Seeing into the soul-essences of the three Shadow Wraith’s followers, merging his own soul-essence with them to some degree, had been terrifying and overwhelming. He could feel the imprints of those three soul-essences clinging to his own. He knew they would be with him now forever. He would always carry a small piece of their corrupted soul-essences within him, just as he carried a reflection of Batami’s.
As Oanadin made to get ready for bed, Alex noticed something that had escaped him when looking at the dwarf’s soul-essence. He could see a faint tendril of twisting smoke-like blackness wafting away from the dwarf’s soul-essence, through the wall of the wagon, and out into the carnival. Alex knew it was easier to see because his own soul-essence had touched Oanadin’s.
It was not like the thick and oily blackness the Shadow Wraith had used to control the souls of the townspeople when it had attempted to break free of its prison back in the spring. That connection had been easy to see with astral eyes. This one was much more tenuous and, Alex sensed, much less powerful.
Alex had a hunch what this chain of shadow power leashed to the soul-essence of Oanadin meant and where it might lead. He willed himself to float through the wall of the wagon and out into the night, rising up into the sky, looking for the Siren Sisters. He spotted Elektra and Medea a few moments later as they walked up the stairs to what he assumed was their own sleeping wagon. Looking at them closely, as they opened the door and stepped inside, Alex confirmed his suspicion. They, too, had faint and slender tethers of inky blackness trailing away from the soul-essences at their hearts and out across the carnival grounds.
Alex floated forward and followed those twin tendrils of ephemeral ebony energy through the carnival grounds. The tethers of smoky blackness wove through tents and wagons and rides toward the heart of the carnival and disappeared into the back of the large main tent. Alex could see a third connective conduit he knew linked back to Oanadin’s soul-essence disappear into the tent beside those of the Siren Sisters.
Alex knew what this was — Dark Spirit Magic. Very dark. The way the Shadow Wraith had taken control of the townspeople back in the spring had been crude and forceful, overwhelming their souls with its power. This was far more subtle and insidious. A Dark Spirit Mage was slowly poisoning the soul-essences of Oanadin, Elektra, and Medea, and probably those of the other followers, as well.
Rather than seeking out people who were already drawn to the Shadow Wraith, this Dark Spirit Mage had set out to gradually convert people into loyal followers by feeding their soul-essences a slow and steady diet of corrupting spirit energy. Oanadin, Elektra, Medea and the others would probably never have followed the Shadow Wraith under their own will, but their wills had been distorted. Alex wondered if it was possible to release them the way he had managed to release his friends from the Shadow Wraith’s power in the spring. The better question was, who was this Dark Spirit Mage and Shadow Fiend?
Alex willed himself forward and through the canvas wall of the tent.
That was when he heard the whispered voices. He followed the voices and the thin trails of shadowy Dark Spirit Magic through one wall of canvas and then another. He was in the area behind the main stage within the grand tent, the part used by the actors and crew to prepare for the show. He passed into a small, canvas-walled chamber and found the source of the voices and the emanation of the chains of Dark Spirit Magic.
Two figures stood in the darkened corner of the space, dimly illuminated by a small magical lantern hanging from a wooden post several feet behind them. Alex could not make out the faces of the two people, but thought he recognized at least one of their whispered voices.
One of them, a woman whose long, curly hair fell off her shoulders in waves, stood in the shadows. The three tendrils of Dark Spirit Magic flowed to the woman and disappeared into her heart, melding with the light of her soul-essence. Alex could discern, now that he was close to the source, several other faint lines of blackness stretching out from the woman’s soul-essence in various directions, through the walls of the tent, and into the carnival. They were hard to count, but Alex thought he could see at least nine in all. One of them reached out like a creeping black vine to ensnare the soul-essence of the person who stood before the woman.
“You do not need to know how we will find the sword,” the woman whispered. “Only that we will.”
Alex thought he could recognize the voice and who the woman was. Almost. She did something to her voice when whispering that altered it and concealed its true sound. Alex doubted it was an accident. It was probably some sort of magic.
“People have been searching for the Sword of Silas for thousands of years,” the other shadowed voice said. It was male, but Alex didn’t recognize it. He floated closer, hoping to get a look at their faces, especially the woman, the Dark Spirit Mage.
“How can you hope to find it in such a short time when so many others have given lifetimes to hunting it and failed?” the man asked.
Alex was close now. He could see the face of the man talking to the Dark Spirit Mage. He was a carnie. The barker who ran the shape-shifter sideshow with Kendra. Alex drifted even closer, moving around them to get a look at the woman’s face.