Where have they all gone? Something is moving over there. Not everything is dead.
She looked carefully around the edge of the beleaguered tree and over the pile of branches, and she thought for a second that she must still be unconscious or dreaming at the least. A group of four humans stood around the unmoving body of an elfin soldier and one was a blonde haired boy.
Can it possibly be? Did he place me here intentionally after all? Am I to be the one to capture the boy?
She grew flush and faint, her heart beat faster and faster, as she imagined what her master would think of her if she were able to subdue the heir and bring him back to him as her captive.
There are only four of them and one is a woman
, she calculated.
The yellow-eyed one looks harmless enough. It is the other; the tall one, who will be the most difficult to subdue.
Adrianna shifted again and quietly lifted her arms. She concentrated hard and a red glow encircled her upturned palms.
I must take out the dark-haired one first.
The glow turned from red to blue to white and it sparked and danced upon her hands as it formed itself into the shape of a pointed projectile about five inches long. She lifted it in her right hand now and turned slightly to aim, still keeping it concealed behind the broad tree trunk. She drew her arm back so that she could slide to the side, prepared to release the weapon. With her left hand, she pushed against the ground, trying not to make a sound as she moved slowly from behind the tree. Her victim had stood up again from his crouching position, affording her a much broader target than she had expected, and she silently thanked him for being so cooperative.
That’s it. Move just a little bit more away from the others. I do not want to damage the boy when I kill you.
Robyn turned his back on the group and motioned with his hand for them to follow him. Adrianna cocked her elbow and drew the deadly missile back as far as she could. She concentrated intensely, hoping to hit her opponent square in the chest. Then she let it fly.
Something held her arm tight, preventing her from releasing the fire that glowed in her hand. She struggled against it, but she could barely move. She swiveled her head around to see what grabbed her and her jaw dropped in fear. The largest mouth she had ever seen, gaping wide with white teeth gleaming, was only inches from her face. A massive, fur covered paw held her firmly. She tried to break free, but to no avail. Summoning the power, she sent a charge through her arm, but it merely played harmlessly over the shimmering fur of the beast, and dissipated into the earth below its huge feet. Calyx growled a loud throaty groan and pinned the woman to the ground, while her remaining fire fizzled and went out in her hand.
Cairn, hearing the sound before the others, sought his friend out immediately. He recognized the tone and he knew it was not a friendly cry. Rushing to his side, he found him kneeling beside a struggling, light haired woman of indeterminate age dressed in the red robes of the Possessed, the mark of Colton clear and obvious upon her features.
“It seems we were about to be ambushed,” Cairn said to the Moulant. He turned his attention to the woman. “Do you have a name?” he asked, keeping his distance still.
Adrianna did not respond. She turned her head away from him and refused to even look him in the eye. Robyn, Filaree and Davmiran joined them, surprised that any of the enemy had survived the battle in the forest.
“Let me handle this one,” Filaree said, walking directly up to the prostrate woman and jabbing her with the toe of her boot. “What have we here? One of Colton’s harem girls?” she asked, trying to anger her enough to get a response. “Did you think you could hide behind a tree and avoid the battle completely? Are you a coward, woman?”
Adrianna opened her dark eyes wide, and glared at Filaree from beneath Calyx’s furry paw.
“What would you know of courage?” she spat the words at Filaree.
“Ah ha. So she speaks. Good. We are making progress. Now tell me what I need to know and I will go easy on you. Force me, and you will regret it.”
“I have nothing to say to any of you,” Adrianna replied, angry enough with herself already for uttering anything at all.
“Do you really wish to make this more difficult than it needs to be?” she asked. “From one woman to another, what kind of man would have left you in such a desperate situation? Does Colton always require his ladies to sacrifice so much?”
“I do what I do because I choose to,” she replied.
“Choose? You choose to humiliate yourself? You choose to be kindling for his flame? You choose to die so that he can find peace for himself? What is it exactly that you choose, my Lady?” she questioned.
“You do not know him. He is greater than all of you put together. He is everything that matters to me. I would gladly lay down my life for him. I love him,” she said.
“And he disdains you. Do you not know that? What man would ask a woman he cares about to fight in his stead?”
“Colton will be here too. He plans to enter the city when the time is right.”
“So, he will arrive after the hard work is done, after the danger is past. You ask me what I know about courage? I know that no man of character would do as he does. Only a coward would send women to do what he fears to do himself. He must bear only contempt for you, you poor, deluded girl.”
Adrianna struggled to free herself from Calyx’s grasp, thrashing back and forth upon the ground. It hurt her to hear Filaree’s words. The anger welled up within her, but at the same moment, she knew deep inside the part of her soul that remained intact that there was truth to what the other woman said. She could not accept it though because it invalidated all that she lived for. She felt as if she were being torn in two, as if her insides were being pulled out and stomped upon.
“He loves me. You do not know anything. Soon you will see. Seramour will be a pile of sawdust and Colton will praise us all.”
“Is it praise you want, woman? Find a husband who loves you. Colton will never care for anything alive. He disdains life itself. Perhaps if you kill yourself, then he may be grateful.”
This girl speaks the truth, I know it. He will never love me. If I could bring him the heir in chains perhaps he would be grateful, but to what purpose? So that we all can perish?
she thought.
“What choice have I but to die? I can never forsake him,” she admitted aloud.
“He has forsaken you already. Why do you find it so difficult to escape his evil? Surely you can see that there is no hope for you if you stay allied to him.”
“There is no hope for any of us. The trees are dying. They are abandoning you for him. Do you doubt the wisdom of the great Lalas’? Your own people turn against you.” Suddenly, a thought came to her from nowhere and she uttered it without thinking. “He knows where the map is and he will find it. The light of the Gem will be put out forever. All of you are doomed,” she spat, and then she buried her face in the fallen leaves. “Leave me be. Let me die here if I wish.”
Robyn placed his hand upon Filaree’s shoulder and coaxed her to back away.
“It is fruitless, my Lady. She is too far gone to return to us. Colton’s embrace is never forgotten once it has been accepted. She has been touched too deeply by his evil.”
“I only sought to gain some information, not to save her soul. I never dreamed she would be so obliging.”
“She has revealed more than we could have hoped, but, it pains me to hear it,” Robyn replied.
“If it is true, it is better that we know it now,” Filaree said.
“Oddly fortuitous, I would say,” Robyn observed.
“Do you doubt the veracity of her statement?” Cairn asked.
“I have no reason to. And, if it is true, the import is enormous,” Robyn said. “But, we have no time now to deliberate over this. We must get out of this place.”
“What shall we do with her?” Cairn asked, pointing to the captive. “We cannot take her with us, and now that she has seen us, we cannot leave her here.”
“I can try to erase the memory of this encounter from her mind, but I do not know what defenses the Dark Lord has bestowed upon her,” Robyn said.
“You must try,” Filaree replied. “Otherwise we have no choice but to kill her.”
“Perhaps Davmiran and I together can accomplish the task more certainly,” Robyn said.
“I am willing to do whatever you instruct me to,” the boy responded.
“Then let us try. We have nothing to lose if we are careful. Just follow my suggestions and make certain that you do not listen to her voice once we get started. If Colton has taken over her soul, it will be his spirit that speaks, not hers. Though his power would be diluted and ineffectual, it would not be prudent for you to confront it now. You are not yet ready for that, my boy,” he said. “I will put her to sleep first. After that, I will require your assistance. Remember. Do not focus upon her words. Ignore them at all costs. Listen only to my voice.”
“Will you risk the boy in this gambit?” Cairn asked Robyn.
“No. Certainly not. I will intervene if I must. Her spirit cannot be so strong as to thwart us both, even if Colton has imbued it with as much power as it can stand. Her physical being could not support it. She would be torn apart. His presence will be a communicative one only.”
“Are you certain, Robyn? All of our struggles would be fruitless if it were to end here,” Filaree said.
“I am confident, my Lady,” he said to her.
Turning to Dav, he beckoned him to join him in front of the woman who still lay under the massive arm of the Moulant. Robyn closed his eyes and concentrated. He drew his energy from beneath the soil of Lormarion, from the lifeblood of the earth, and then he channeled it through his body. Within his mind he saw the whiteness grow and intensify. When he could bear to be its vessel no longer, he opened his eyes and let it flow from him into the lady on the ground.
She looked up at him with questioning eyes and then they rolled back into her head. She collapsed upon the earth, motionless. Calyx released his grip upon her and backed away.
“Close your eyes, boy,” he said to Dav. “Concentrate upon the earth, upon the soil beneath your feet and the life beneath that. Now, draw it into you. Beckon it, call it, invite it into your soul,” he whispered.
Filaree and Cairn watched as both Dav and Robyn began to glow with a greenish white light. Robyn took the boy’s hand in his own and raised them both before them. A stream of energy flowed from their clasped fingers toward the still woman, engulfing her totally. It swirled around her body, enveloping her in a cocoon of soft, green-hued light. Her body twitched slightly but her eyes remained tightly shut.
So you have come, my son
, Robyn heard her say from within his head.
“Ignore the voice, Dav. Do not listen to the words.”
I have been waiting for you
, she said so sweetly.
“It is not she who speaks.”
He misinforms you. I am Mira. You know me. I am the only one who cared for you.
“It is a lie,” Robyn said to him. “Concentrate now. Force the words away. Will them away. It is Colton speaking. Search your soul, my son. You will find the place where Mira resides.”
Dav listened to Robyn’s words and he believed them. He sought out the spirit of Mira that resided eternally within him, and when he found it he was able to disregard everything else.
“That is it. Now lend me you power. Together we will wipe her memory clean of this encounter,” Robyn instructed.
Davmiran relaxed himself and allowed the energy to stream from him. The web around Adrianna grew thicker and brighter and it began to spin and spin. Filaree and Cairn had to shield their faces from the brilliance of the light, while even Calyx blinked his giant eyes. Robyn knew exactly how long they needed to sustain this effort, though he was surprised by the incredible intensity of Davmiran’s power. The boy was remarkably potent and his strength was so pure.
The Chosen relaxed his arm and let it fall to his side. Davmiran followed his lead and he too dropped his hand. The light vanished and the woman lay there as if asleep. Her face was absent of the lines of worry that riddled it before. She would awaken feeling refreshed and with no memory of meeting any of them, but she would still be bound to Colton. That chain could never be broken, neither by Robyn and Dav nor by anyone else. Death would be her only release and she already knew that.
“Are you done?” Cairn asked.
“Yes. We have succeeded. She will remember nothing of this encounter. We can go now,” Robyn said exhausted. “We have lingered here longer than we ever expected to. Daylight now grows short.”
“We must hurry then. We need to create some distance between us and the Dark Lord if he indeed is coming here soon,” Filaree said.
“What will he do with her when he finds her?” Filaree asked.
“I do not wish to speculate,” Robyn replied. “But, he will surely know of this meeting in time, if not already. Let him anguish once more over how we slipped through his servant’s fingers.”
“It may have been kinder of us to have dispatched her here,” Cairn said.
“We are not of his ilk. To take the life of another to avoid the inconvenience or even the danger of her company would be wrong. We risk nothing by leaving her here now. Fate can have a cruel heart and we should not presume to be its instrument. It is not up to us to determine its course. She has already done that herself,” Robyn replied.
They gathered their belongings in silence and prepared to depart. Adrianna still lay sleeping, perched against a nearby tree and partially concealed already by swarms of black insects. They could do no more for her than they had already done.
It was not a very long distance to the edge of the forest, and they all thought they could see a brighter horizon ahead of them. They walked briskly for some time and the light grew more luminous as they approached the end of the tree line. Everywhere they passed they saw the vegetation in various stages of disintegration, and the greatest of the Nobans were still being destroyed by the ravenous bugs. Their hearts grew weary with each step that they took.