The Coming Storm (42 page)

His gaze was distant, locked on memories he didn’t wish to see. Those who had been rescued, those who hadn’t. Of the ones that hadn’t, in the way of their people they had known they were gone. They hadn’t always known the manner of it, only that there had been pain. Until the bodies were returned, and then they had.

There was a deep and terrible horror in his voice.

It was shared. An atavistic shudder went through Elon who remembered those dark days of his childhood.

Colath paled, thinking of it, who with Jalila, only knew it through the histories.

The thought made Jareth cringe, his scalp crawl. He knew the stories, of course, as much from Avila’s frustration at Elon’s intransigence as from the histories. Among men there were those who acted with incredible kindness or courage but there were many who didn’t, and there were some who were capable of the unspeakable.

For Ailith though, it brought back the memory of her dream.

That terrible horror echoed through her with the clarity of Vision. Her stomach clenched and her knees went weak as understanding dawned.

“Oh, no.”

Her voice sounded sick and faint.

“What is it?” Elon asked.

“Tolan.”

The haunted look on her face told Talesin all he needed to know. The shadows that moved in her eyes, those terrible images.

Her eyes were huge, staring. Her face was pale and getting paler.

 “Yes,” Talesin said, very gently, “very likely. You’ve Seen, haven’t you?”

The pictures, those images, the doors opening. That last view. Blood and chains. Horror.

“They weren’t images he conjured up, they were memories. They were Tolan’s memories,” she said, stunned.

At the thought, revulsion rose up. They had been so clear, so precise. She shuddered.

“Will you tell me?” Talesin asked.

Her stricken gaze shot to Elon, then Colath, Jalila and Jareth.

“He threatened them, did he not?” Talesin asked, his voice not unkind.

The horror in her look was all Elon needed to see. Whatever she had seen, those images had been of him and the others.

She hadn’t said. The dream at the waystation. What was it she’d seen? Elon understood better now at least part of the reason she’d been so reassured to see him and Colath. She’d needed to know the visions she’d seen weren’t real. Tolan had threatened her with that, had threatened him and the others to frighten her. The thought awakened a deep and quiet anger in him.

Ailith closed her eyes. She couldn’t look at them with those images before her but the images were still there in her mind’s eye.

“Yes.” She pushed them back, taking slow, deep breaths. “Go on, Talesin. There’s more.”

“Yes,” Talesin echoed and sighed. “They practiced soul magic as well. Our race and the Dwarves are more tightly bound to our souls, having carried them so long. Ripping them away took longer but gave them more power. We learned over time how to remove these terrible things, these soul eaters, but the healing of the soul took far longer and the acts committed then left deeper wounds than Healing could remove. Some couldn’t be Healed and so passed to the Summerlands.”

Bowing her head, Ailith looked away.

“They bound that magic into trinkets like this,” Talesin continued, “to trap the unwary. Then they experimented on themselves. They envied our long lives, our strength and our endurance, that which they’d tested so terribly. They killed some and took their magic.”

“They experimented also on other creatures as well, the ones that were native and those of the borderlands. Those creatures that were the enemy of Elf, Dwarf and Man. Seeking to control them and make them fiercer. Some succeeded. Some created new ones, more horrible than others. Manticores from mountain cats, the hellhounds.”

He paused, looked away, lowering his head.

“There was one, among even us, who saw the power it gave. We’re a peace-loving race in general but not all. Even some among the Dwarves, a few of the Lore-Masters, saw the power and wanted it for themselves. They, too, experimented with such things. They may have told themselves it was only to counter the enemy but it became much more.”

“Not all men, though, looked aside at the dreadful results when Kingdom conquered Kingdom. Some looked with horror and revulsion at what was taking place and they came to us to treat with us. The Dwarves, faced with the dreadful truth of what some of their Lore-Masters had done also made peace. And so we made alliance with Men and the Dwarves.”

“Thus began the wizard wars. White wizards against red and black, Elven magic against the darkness, the Dwarven Lore-Masters come out from their caverns to fight with us in the light. It was a dark and dreadful time. We won but the price was high, very high. Some of the dark wizards managed to escape and fled into the borderlands. We tried to catch them all but we failed. Those we caught we stripped of their power and banished. We gathered up all their weapons, all of these loathsome things we could find.”

He took a breath. “Three were chosen. An Elf, a Dwarf and Taran the Otherling.”

Ailith looked up.

Bowing his head slightly, Talesin smiled gently.

“Yes. Three good friends, bound together by battle and blood. They took these things away, hid them, buried them deep and then they returned. Tarok the Dwarf died in a rock fall within a year, saving the lives of a dozen Dwarves. Aolis and Taran went soon after to the Summerlands.”

A memory moved through him. He closed his eyes, then put it aside.

“Such was the slow beginning of the peace between Elves, Dwarves and Men. A common enemy, those of the Dark. We learned it was possible to have peace between us. The foundation of what Elon and Daran High King have wrought in these times. We thought these things well-hidden. Five hundred years.” He sighed. “This Tolan…”

Jareth said, “He’s a wizard? Why didn’t I sense him? Or Elon, Colath or Jalila?”

Raising his head, Talesin looked at him. “Forget not Ailith, there. Whatever else, she sensed  he was wrong and avoided him. As for being wizard, he may have been, once. One of those who escaped. What is he now? Given that Ailith dreams true, then he’s lived far beyond his span as man. So, he’s stolen the life of at least one Elf and their magic as well. They learned to cloak themselves in that, concealing their magic under familiar forms.”

If that were true, Elon thought, then this Tolan had much more to answer for. Elves didn’t suffer lightly those who took an Elven life.

“Ailith, describe him,” Talesin said.

She called the memory up. “To all appearances, a nondescript man with sandy hair and sand-colored eyes of middle height.” She smiled crookedly. “A tight and pursed mouth. I always thought  it looked as if he had been sucking lemons when no one could see. Unremarkable in all ways. He speaks in this oddly even voice, very reasonable, very persuasive, with an odd sing-song quality to it. It’s mesmerizing. That’s the face he shows to all. He has another.”

After a moment to steel herself, she continued, “That one has the eyes of a snake and his face when I saw it looked as a candle does when it’s sat where the sun can hit it. Melted. I discovered why his mouth appears the way it does, his teeth are all pointed, facing backwards.”

The memory of that toothy smile sent a chill through her.

He raised an eyebrow and gave her a nod. “Well enough. From the sounds of  it he seems to be one who experimented on himself. Men prize beauty and there were some who sought to change their appearance to one more comely to their kind. Oftentimes to ours, who they would seek to emulate. Others sought to take the powers and abilities of animals. A basilisk for this one, I suspect. The mouth and eyes are those of one, he’s transmuted the transfixing gaze into a mesmerizing voice. I suspect he also sought to improve his appearance and in that he failed.”

“Can he be killed?” Colath asked.

He wanted to know that. The knowledge that this Tolan had tortured and murdered his kind burned deep. What he’d done to Ailith as well. The threats he’d made, of which Ailith couldn’t speak. Colath hadn’t missed the stricken look in her eyes when she’d looked at him.

Talesin looked at him curiously. “Of course he can be killed. He’s mortal, as are all of us. A sword or an arrow in the right place will do it. The difficulty lies not in the act itself but in the doing of it. They have been cleverer and slyer this time, more subtle. From all you’ve told me he’s committed no act we can prove that would justify that action. There’s no proof he’s even what I suspect and from what Ailith says he keeps a face to the world that conceals his true nature. An act against him without proof will breach the Agreement.”

“To the other point, killing him may not be easy. If he’s stolen Elven magic then he’ll be as strong as we are and as hard to kill. Like us, so long as the magic that lengthens our lives, heals our ills and wounds isn’t overextended, he’ll survive all but lethal blows. There’s also the matter of this basilisk nature. How much of that he’s taken on. That may be another reason why you didn’t sense his true nature, in abeyance or in practice, he may have lulled your suspicions. Ailith, it hasn’t been said but it seems unlikely he didn’t try with you.”

“He did try, once but there was a noise that distracted him. I kept well out of his way, then. He told Geric later that we are a strong-willed and stubborn family.”

“Did he know your true nature?”

She shook her head. “Not then, although he knows now.”

“He didn’t try again?”

With a lift of her chin, she indicated the silk-wrapped charm in his hands. “He tried one of those instead.”

His eyes sharpened. “He has more?”

Ailith went still beneath that powerful gaze. “Yes, many more, I think.”

“Are you certain?” Talesin asked.

This time she was expecting the question and it wasn’t so difficult to say. “Yes, he’s used at least two that I’m sure of and threatened to use more.”

Elon looked at her. There was a quality in her voice that told him who Tolan had threatened to use them on. She hadn’t told him that either.

The silence hung for a moment. When Talesin spoke again, his voice was heavy.

“They’ve found them then. Five hundred years they’ve been searching and now they, or one of them, has found them. Taran told me they’d scattered them widely. This gets darker. This vision Ailith had of a Door and a figure beyond it. The Dark one. That concerns me, too. Someone that this Tolan answers to. There is another hand in this but I can’t see it.”

“Can you help?” Elon asked.

With a sigh, Talesin shook his head, looking out into the night with pensive longing. “No, Elon. Not in that way. I’ll warn Aerilann and strengthen the wards there but I can do no more. I’m old and very tired. The last of those that knew me of old passed to the Summerlands a century or more ago as men measure such things. I long for it. I wait now only for one to replace me, another of our kind with wizard’s magic. One, so I can pass on the knowledge I’ve given to you and more. The time will come when I can wait no longer.”

With another sigh, he gathered himself. “Ailith, walk with me. You others, rest as you will. You have much to think on.”

A simple gesture swept her ahead of him.

The night was silent with only the sound of the breeze in the trees to disturb it. In the distance an owl called. It was soothing after such talk and not just for her. She sensed Talesin needed it as well.

“Tell me,” Talesin said, after a time, “how it is you didn’t know what you are?”

“They didn’t tell me,” she said. “My father decreed it, he said. They’d learned I was bound by vows so they crafted an oath. When I was still a child they made me swear that I would do no magic where any could see, that I would make no vows until I reached my majority and understood the consequences of those I made. It seems to have worked, Delae said, they all but forgot what I was.”

“When did he tell you this?” Talesin said.

“He told Tolan, I overheard.”

“Ah,” he said, on a soft breath. “Well. He was a very wise man. Forgive him, Ailith. It wasn’t weakness that made him fall. Some of the strongest I knew fell to such.”

One in particular but that was an old and painful memory that didn’t bear repeating.

Forgive him, Talesin said.

“I know,” she said, softly, “but I can wish he hadn’t. It’s difficult to see his face and know he’s not the man I loved as a father.”