Bladesinger (31 page)

And everything became light.

*

The concussive force of the blast knocked Taen to the ground, tossing him like a paper doll in a raging storm. He lay there stunned for a few moments as his sight cleared. Desperately he cast around for some sign that Marissa had survived the explosion. The alcove where she had stood lay buried beneath layers of thick stone and rubble.

She was gone again.

He had failed Marissa once more—just like he had on the bridge. If he hadn’t hesitated at the last moment, Marissa would still be alive. Despair and self-hatred rose up in him, like old friends who had departed for a long journey and returned. They accused him, called him a wretched failure and a murderer, demanded that he run away and hide in the darkness of his inadequacy.

This time, however, Taen didn’t listen.

Though the faces of Talaedra and Marissa, frozen in dying, swept across his vision, the half-elf refused to despair. Both women may indeed have loved him far more than he deserved, but they both saw within him the person that he could become. He would honor them and spend the remainder of his life becoming that person. It did not spare him his grief—that cut like a vorpal blade through his heart—but it was a clean wound, without rancor or disease.

He would have wept, but a vision of the withered crone stumbling to her feet drove all sadness from him.

“Did… did you think you could defeat me?” she spat, blood-matted hair tossed wildly around her head. “I am beyond your power even now.”

Taen pushed himself painfully to his feet, though the crone’s spell had wounded him badly. Suppurated flesh tore from his skin and arms as he rose, grasping his father’s sword. He concentrated for a moment, held the sword aloft—and suddenly the Song sprang to life, as deep and resonant as it had in the moments before the witch’s foul spell had struck.

Borovazk and Roberc stood to his left, hacking at what remained of the vrock, who had collapsed beneath the Staff of the Red Tree’s final blast. There, in the flickering torchlight, in a mountain cavern locked away from the rest of the world, Taen stood with his sword raised—beyond anger, beyond grief, beyond any emotion that had distracted him throughout the long years of his half-elf life—and he Sang. Slowly, painfully, he opened himself totally to the Song. If it desired his whole life, then he would offer it gladly, as Marissa had done for him and the lives of his friends. Without another thought, the half-elf surrendered, fell down a hole so dark and deep it might well have gone on forever. There was nothing in that hole—no thought, no sense of self—only thick, unrelenting darkness.

When he emerged, it was as if he had fallen into another universe. Power flared around him and through him, lived in each measure of the Song’s flow—which was also each beat of his own heart. There was no “Taen” separate from the Song and no part of the Song that was not somehow a part of him. His father’s blade sensed the change as well, for it burned with an intense argent light, filling the cavern with its own power.

“You are finished!” Taen shouted at the chanting witch. “By the will of the wychlaran and the blood of my father, it is over.”

The half-elf raised his sword and moved to attack.

He gathered his arcane power, but rather than cast a formulaic spell as he had done for most of his life, Taen channeled that energy, used it to speed his limbs. The world slowed around him as he gathered speed.

The crone backed away slightly to her left and shouted, “Die, you fool!” as she brought her ruined eye to bear upon him. A black beam of power shot out once again, but this time Taen leaped to the side, avoiding it. A section of the cavern floor sizzled and popped for a moment before completely disintegrating before his eyes.

Another beam lanced out at him, but this time Taen tumbled behind a long-toothed stalagmite that took the brunt of the attack. Without hesitation, the half-elf sent arcane energy surging through his sword; bolts of force leaped from the blade’s tip to strike the crone. She shrieked and fell backward, turning as if to run toward the back of the cave.

Taking advantage of his newfound speed, Taen ran to the side, intercepting the haggard witch before she could reach the circle of light that had just opened in the floor behind him. Her one good eye widened in disbelief. She raised a skeletal hand toward the half-elf and spit forth the words to another spell.

Taen didn’t wait for her to finish. “For Cormanthor,” he cried in Elvish before leaping through the air, “and for Marissa!” Like a living spear, he hurtled toward the witch and, focusing all of his energy, drove his sword deep into the crone’s empty eye socket. The witch wailed in agony as the blade bit true, knocking both of them to the ground. Black power erupted from the wound, cascading around both of them, spinning and twirling like a mini whirlwind. Taen could feel the energy burning at his already battered body, but he did not let go of the sword that impaled the now-dead crone. His agony intensified as the ebon power covered him completely.

The walls of the cavern faded, until everything, at last, was darkness.

The Year of Rogue Dragons

(1373 DR)

Taenaran stood silently in the sunlight.

All around him, the vale teemed with life. The full-throated song of wild birds filled the air, while the undergrowth stirred with the patter of tiny furred feet. A small breeze blew across the wooded vale, redolent with the rich scents of summer. The drone of bees, their bodies bloated with pollen and tossed by the wind, rose up from the lush vernal landscape.

Taenaran might as well have stood in a bare stone room, devoid of windows or doors. He felt the touch of the sun—its warm fingers sliding across his skin—distantly, as if in a memory or some long-ago dream of summer. He took in the heady fragrance of the wind without regard to its vintage, each breath mechanically drawing it into his lungs. Deep inside, he wished nothing less than to break that machine, to still its implacable, torturous rhythm.

Grief had hollowed him out, made of his heart a tomb—full of dust and shadow and a longing so deep it reached to the very marrow of his bones. Marissa was dead, yet the half-elf no longer felt anger or bitterness over his weakness, the brokenness that had caused her to die. He had become a true bladesinger now, a master of his father’s art—his own art. The red-hilted blade given him by Aelrindel hung comfortably at his side. In the storm-wrought demesne of an evil witch, Taenaran had finally become true forged, made whole for the first time in his life.

At what cost?

Behind him, he could hear Roberc’s dour muttering and the answering rumble of Borovazk’s voice. Taenaran’s two companions had remained with him during the long months spent in the witches’ care, and they had followed him here, offering their strength and friendship for the final leagues of his journey. In truth, the bladesinger remembered little of the aftermath of their battle with the witch. His memory of those final moments lay in ruins. From what Borovazk and Roberc had told him during time spent resting by the hearthside, Yulda’s own power had consumed her in those last moments, burning away her body—and the half-elf’s flesh would have followed had Borovazk not pulled him free.

The two had tried to awaken him, plying him with healing potions, salves, and other unguents, but to no avail. He was, according to Roberc, deader than a Cormyrean soldier after a tenday’s furlough.” They had resigned themselves to braving the mountains in winter when a contingent of witches had appeared in the cave. The breaking of the Staff of the Red Tree had caught their attention, and Yulda’s death had shattered the arcane barriers surrounding her demesne. Within moments, the witches had teleported the wounded and tired group back to the Urlingwood.

Despite the severity of his injuries, Taenaran had begun to heal under the watchful eye of the hathran assigned to watch over him. In the days and tendays that had followed, physical pain receded, leaving only the emotional scars of his loss. Even so, Taenaran had known that Borovazk and Roberc were grieving as well, and when the numbing emptiness rose up within him, the bladesinger took to the deer paths and hidden trails crisscrossing the Urlingwood, not wishing to inflict his own grief upon his companions.

Tendays had turned into months as winter vented its fury upon the land and the first bright moments of spring burst forth from the snow-covered earth. Still, Taenaran had stayed within the thickly forested Urling, not really sure what held him there, and Borovazk and the halfling remained with him. They drank and diced, hunted and fought as friends will, but by some unspoken agreement they stayed by Taenaran’s side.

Finally, as the snow cover began to melt in earnest, Mahara, leader of the wychlaran, had approached Taenaran with the two fragments of wood that were all that remained of the Staff of the Red Tree.

“Please pardon my interruption,” she had said softly. “You and your companions are welcome to remain in the Urlingwood for as long as you like. It is the least of the kindnesses we can offer you. Deep though I know your grief to be,” she had continued, “I was wondering if you would do us one last favor?”

There was little Taenaran could have said at that moment, so conflicted was his heart. Instead, he had simply nodded his head.

“We are humbled once again by your kindness,” Mahara had replied and had reached forward, offering the burned wooden fragments to Taenaran. He had reached out gingerly, as if the splintered ends would blister his fingers. He had tried not to think of Marissa as he held the ends in his hands.

“These fragments must be returned to the Red Tree,” the witch had continued. “Normally one of the hathran would make the journey. However,” Mahara had paused for just a moment, “the telthor have asked specifically for you to return the remains of the staff.”

So Taenaran now stood in the center of the Red Vale, with the elemental tree looming ahead of him—pushed once again on a quest not of his choosing. He drew in a deep breath then sighed it out before turning to his companions.

“Well, my friends,” he said, “thank you for making this journey with me, but I would ask that you let me carry the fragments to the Red Tree by myself.”

The half-elf could see Roberc’s frown deepen. Both the grizzled halfling and the hulking Rashemi ranger exchanged a look, but both ultimately nodded their agreement.

“Well, you are pretty damn close to the end of the journey, so I suppose we can let you go,” the halfling began with a throaty chuckle. “Not even you could mess this up, Taen!”

The chuckle became a hearty laugh as Borovazk slapped the bladesinger’s back with a meaty hand. Despite the grief and sadness of the past few months, Taenaran felt a smile begin to creep upon his face.

“I’ll shout if I get into any trouble,” he replied good naturedly then set off down the path.

Mirth and good humor vanished quickly as he drew nearer to the Red Tree. Its ancient profile interrupted the broad swath of piercing blue sky and warm spring sunlight, brooding over the surrounding landscape like some elemental giant. Taenaran could feel its power emanating from each branch and leaf tip, a deep strength that flowed from its ancient roots, tapping into a magic deeper than any he had ever experienced. It was as if the mystical Red Tree were somehow more “real” than anything else around it—including him.

Long, thick branches blew softly in the wind, enveloping him in its vernal embrace as he walked beneath the Red Tree’s cool shadows. A surge of anger crested through him, and it was all he could do to keep the memory of Marissa kneeling beneath the Red Tree from overwhelming him. Taenaran hated this land, loathed every mile of its rugged landscape, for what it had taken away from him, yet he also loved Rashemen fiercely, with a strength that nearly stole his breath away. This land and its people had given him something he had never hoped to receive—himself.

Tears ran down his face as he knelt finally beneath the boughs of the Red Tree and laid the remains of the Staff of the Red Tree against its ancient, splitting trunk. A stiff wind blew up, sending broad leaves fluttering at its touch. Taenaran felt for a moment as if he were surrounded by giant serpents.

“There,” he said through clenched teeth. “I have done my gods-damned duty.”

He was tired of fighting the grief and the sadness, tired of the emptiness that he felt inside. With this last request of the wychlaran completed, Taenaran knew that it was time to leave Rashemen. Where he would go next, the bladesinger hadn’t a clue, but he suspected it would be far from here.

He was about to stand up when the wind blew hard again, this time nearly knocking the half-elf to the ground. He closed his eyes against the sting of dirt and pebbles brought on by the strange wind, and when at last the air stilled and he opened his eyes once more, Taenaran’s vision swam before him. He struggled to his feet, reaching out to the gnarled trunk of the Red Tree to steady himself. When the bladesinger’s hand touched the bark, he felt a stinging shock. Instantly, his vision cleared, but what he witnessed nearly drove Taenaran to his knees once more.

Marissa stood before him, windswept hair blowing wildly in the wind, gazing at him with her eyes slightly squinted. He remembered that look upon her face, but he never recalled her looking that beautiful. Everything about her radiated joy and contentment.

“What is going on?” he asked of her in a voice that shook with emotion.

Marissa didn’t respond. Instead she lifted her hands and brought them toward Taenaran’s face. The bladesinger took a step toward her then stopped suddenly, as he realized that something was definitely wrong—the druid’s lost hand had somehow regenerated.

“What are you?” he asked, suspicion tingeing his voice with a harsh undertone. “Does the Red Tree mock my grief? Have I not done enough for this gods-blasted land?”

The figure of Marissa shook her head sadly and reached out her hands once more. Taenaran didn’t resist as slender fingers stroked his cheek. Her touch was light, like the kiss of a soft breeze. He felt the slightest shock as her fingertips made contact with his skin.