‘What are you?’ he said.
‘Bel!’ came Jaya’s call, and he glanced back to see her on her horse.
‘It cannot pass,’ he told her, waving at it. He drew his sword and, knowing that it would do no good, swung it over the line at the mander’s face. The blow glanced off, leaving neither dent nor mark. The mander made no sign that it had even felt the attempt.
‘Bel, come on, you idiot!’
He backed away, turned, and hoisted himself up behind her. She wheeled the horse around and together they galloped off, leaving the mander stalking back and forth at the edge of its perimeter.
Losara stood on the battlements watching the Kainordans flee. Perhaps some would have thought him cowardly for the way he had fallen to shadow when the dragon attacked, and gone deep into the fort, but he remembered all too well the potency of the magic fire. It had been a sensible move – he could not win this war if he was dead.
The stone walls were hot, still smoking, with sticky patches underfoot. Behind him the toppled tower had crushed many buildings when it had fallen to smash through the wall. Thank Assedrynn Lalenda had not been in it at the time.
Bel had proven resourceful once again, he reflected. It was amazing indeed that his other had somehow managed to recruit such a powerful ally to his aid. Had it not been for the shadowmander, things could have gone much worse. And yet the mander also troubled him. Once it had been out on the field, in pursuit, there was nothing he could do to control it. It would have killed Bel if it had reached him in time. The best Losara had been able to manage was to instruct Tyrellan to stay put, so as not to shift the creature’s boundaries. It was with great relief that he’d seen his other get away.
He considered the corpse-littered battlefield as the shadowmander sniffed about, nudging bodies here and there to make sure they were really dead. If he unleashed the beast on an army that his other controlled, it would be like giving himself a death sentence. Well , he thought, I will just have to choose my targets wisely.
By his side Tyrellan stood admiring the view.
‘The mander proves a most excellent addition to your army, my lord,’ he said.
‘Yes,’ said Losara. He noticed black birds in the sky circling above the corpses, and saw one land. The mander tore towards it, startling it, leaping into the air as it took flight too late, and snapped it up.
‘It will not even allow their birds to feed,’ said Tyrellan. ‘Their dead will be left to rot in the elements, a warning to any who dare attack us.’
And how many did we lose? wondered Losara. Roma was off accounting for survivors, but Losara was sure that at least a hundred of their own had been killed. At least.
‘How terrible,’ he said, ‘that we must exchange such violence.’
Tyrellan sent him a sidelong glance, orb eyes glinting. ‘I have to disagree, lord.’
Losara sighed. It was vexatious that he could take no joy in this work.
‘Where do we strike next?’ asked Tyrellan.
Losara let his eyes turn west, steeling his resolve to continue what he’d started. ‘The Shining Mines,’ he said. ‘And then …every other place.’
The Traitor Within
Hesitantly Fahren opened the door to the room that held Battu, still trapped within the cell. The former dark lord was sitting at a table reading a book as he swallowed small fish piled up in a bowl – raw, by his request. His robe had been cleaned, and he was no longer the bedraggled man who had arrived at the Halls.
‘Ah,’ he said, glancing up, ‘my Throne. I was wondering when I’d see you again.’
It annoyed Fahren when Battu called him that.
Battu waved the book in a friendly gesture to approach, as if inviting Fahren into his quarters. Then he held up the cover to show Fahren.
‘ The History of Kainordas ,’ he said. ‘Interesting reading. Remarkable how differently things can be remembered by different sides.’
Fahren took a seat before the cage. ‘But we are no longer on different sides.’
‘You are right, of course,’ said Battu, dropping his fork into the bowl in front of him. ‘I have made that plain enough. You, however, are slow to reach the same conclusion.’
‘Do you still wish to see Losara defeated?’
‘Nothing more.’
Fahren considered his next words carefully. ‘What if I told you our plan is not to kill him?’
‘Oh?’ said Battu, a flash of confusion flitting across his face.
‘Do not misunderstand,’ said Fahren. ‘He must be defeated. But Arkus has instructed that Bel and Losara be re-merged into one, using the Stone of Evenings Mild.’
Battu frowned. ‘Which can only be operated by mages of shadow and light working together,’ he said thoughtfully.
‘Yes. Once it is done, Bel will emerge as the dominant personality, with the entity known as Losara absorbed into him. Gone, effectively. Dead, you might say.’
‘ You might,’ said Battu, and grinned. ‘I see why this troubles you, Throne. Intriguing. You have not mentioned before how much you need me for this plan to work. Evidently you aren’t sure that I will see it as the revenge I so desire.’
‘An adequate summation,’ said Fahren. He considered saying more, but decided to let Battu do the talking, and leaned back in his chair with a raised eyebrow. Battu stared at him for a moment, then stood and began to pace back and forth along the brightly shining bars.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘we must all make compromises to get what we want. No doubt you see it as an enormous compromise that I, within your power, am even still alive.’
Fahren inclined his head and Battu chuckled.
‘So, it is a compromise for me to help you, and a compromise for you to let me. I suppose I should be happy that, should your plan succeed, there will be no other Shadowdreamer sitting on my throne. And the Dark Gods,’ his expression twisted, ‘will be robbed of their precious champion.’
‘Yet it will not be your throne any more either, Battu,’ said Fahren quietly.
‘What?’
‘You will not be reclaiming any throne,’ Fahren said. ‘Surely that has not escaped you. If our plan works, there will be no more Shadowdreamer, no more Skygrip, no more Fenvarrow. It is victory we seek, not to reinstate you in your rightful place.’
‘Yes, yes, of course I know that,’ snarled Battu. ‘I know it keenly – the fact that I have nothing left to lose is in part what brings me to this point. And consider this, Throne …I now have a vested interest in your victory beyond mere personal satisfaction.’
‘And what is that?’ said Fahren dubiously.
‘If the shadow is triumphant,’ replied Battu, ‘then upon my death, my soul will return to the Dark Gods. Of course we could perform the rituals needed to convert my soul to light, but then my magic would be no good to you in using the Stone. So, if I am to avoid an eternity of punishment for my crimes …’
‘You must see the Dark Gods defeated,’ said Fahren.
‘Indeed. If they are no more, they will have no hold over the souls grown in any land …in the new land.’ He prodded a finger into the glistening fish, then sucked it clean and smacked his lips. ‘Much as it irks me to think I may spend eternity in the light, at least my soul will eventually be reborn and I won’t remember anything of my former life …as opposed to suffering for time immemorial.’
‘I see you have thought this through.’
‘I’ve had little else to occupy me.’
Fahren reached a decision. Be it gamble or not, he had little choice. With a flick of his wrist, he lowered the bars of the cage. Battu’s eyes widened, and he gave as close to a genuine smile as Fahren had ever seen on him.