Deliverance (12 page)

Waking up, Illadari thought he had dreamed the whole thing as he awoke in his bed, at his home in Silvermeer. The smell of eggs cooking in the kitchen and his boy talking out at the table, overwhelmed Illadari with delight as he leaped from underneath the covers on his bed, and went into the kitchen. Kissing his wife on the cheek, he smiled as he took a seat at the table.

“I’m so happy to have you two in my life!” he said excitedly picking up a fork.

When Tessla turned around to look at him, he noticed a stream of blood draining from her ear and down the side of her cheek. Startled, he quickly rushed to her side and just as she fainted, she fell into his arms.

“What’s wrong with mommy?” Kessler asked looking up at Illadari.

“I don’t know!” Illadari said worriedly looking her.

Then suddenly, Illadari awoke and was in the Fireblade Mountains on the summit. He had fallen asleep, and when his eyes landed on Tessla on the summoning stone, he cringed as he felt his heart was being bludgeoned with a blacksmith’s hammer.

“Why?” he moaned as tears streamed down his face. Realizing the restraints that were on him were loosed, he rushed to Tessla’s side and began shaking her. “My love! Wake up!” he shouted at her as he put his hand behind her head raising it up to his face. He put his cheek against hers, “No, please… Omad… Please let her live!” he said kissing her through the tears that poured from his eyes. Shaking her, he said, “Let’s go get Kessler and go home… Come on… just get up and let’s go!”

Her eyes remained closed and her breath did not return to her. He dropped to his knees at the base of the summoning stone and put his elbows up on the stone to pray.

“Omad… I commit Tessla to you,” Illadari cried out.

“Illadari?” a man’s voice said from behind him.

Unsure of whom it was, Illadari stood up and cleared the tears from his eyes as he turned around and approached the two men. It was Nejik and Leroy, Nejik rushed pass Illadari and to Tessla. “What happened?” Nejik shouted from the summoning stone back at Illadari.

“Some ritual happened that the Curo Wizards made her do…” Illadari said heavily as he looked back at Nejik.

“What? Why?” Nejik said storming up to Illadari.

“It was to stop the dragons…” Illadari said turning away from Nejik.

“You had hope Illadari,” Leroy said looking him in the eyes as he turned to him.

“What little hope I had at all was crushed,” Illadari said with a disgusted look on his face as he glanced over his shoulder towards Tessla. Leroy shook his head as he put a hand on Illadari’s shoulder.

“Don’t talk like that Illadari. You still have a son, and he needs his father more than ever,” Leroy said sternly. “You and I both know more than anyone, that a boy needs his father.” Illadari shook his head as tears streamed down his face.

“My wife is gone…” Illadari said covering his mouth. “What are you even doing here? Don’t you need to be on Mack’s ship?”

“No,” Leroy said. “I finally got my own ship. Just signed the parchments on it a little bit ago in town at the local tavern, that’s actually how I met up with Nejik. He was in the tavern asking about the princess and you.”

“That’s great for you…” Illadari sniffled trying to break a smile. “I’m sorry I can’t be a little happy for you.”

“It’s okay Illadari,” Leroy said.

Nejik walked up to Illadari and hugged him as firmly as he let out a sob. “She’s gone…” Nejik said as he cried into Illadari’s shoulder. Illadari wrapped his arms around Nejik and sobbed with him.

“It’s going to be okay,” Illadari said as he tightened his lips. He was hurting inside, but felt an overwhelming desire to comfort Nejik in his time of sorrow. “We will get through this.”

After a few minutes of mourning, Illadari said, “Let’s go find my boy, but first let’s carry Tessla’s body down into the forest, along with this prince and give them proper burials,” Illadari said. Nejik on one side and Illadari on the other, they carried Tessla down from the mountain and into the forest that sat tucked behind Khazar. Leroy carried the prince over his shoulder and followed behind them. Arriving into the forest, Leroy found a hole that had been made by an animal and used a stick to dig deep enough for graves.

After placing her into the ground gently, Illadari retrieved Tessla’s mandolin from the pouch he had got from the cavern. Tears streaming down his face and onto the mandolin, Illadari kissed the mandolin softly and then sat it on top of her body that lay in the ground. Nejik bent down and kissed his hand before touching it to her face. Leroy and Nejik placed Nikolas in the grave a few feet away from Tessla. Leroy proceeded to toss dirt back into the graves and bury them. Nejik collected a few sticks nearby from a few broken branches and made a makeshift cross to mark Tessla’s burial plot.

“I promise to honor your wishes and make sure our Kessler grows up to be a fine man,” Illadari said wiping his tears from his face as he looked down at the patch of dirt and cross that marked the place of his love’s final resting spot.

“I will miss you sister,” Nejik said. His lip began to quiver as he continued. “We never got to spend time together after you started your life in Silvermeer… but the time we did have, I’ll never forget little sister.”

Leroy stepped forward and lowered his head. “I didn’t know you Tessla, but I
knew
of you. Your husband Illadari loved you and spoke nothing but words of kindness about you. In a way, I grew to love who you were and I can only hope to find a woman of your caliber for myself someday.”

Closing their eyes, they were silent as they paid their final respects to Tessla. Afterwards, they made camp nearby and built a fire. As they were eating gymer bread around the campfire, silence fell upon the three of them as Nejik and Illadari were overridden with sadness for their loss.

Leroy looked Illadari in the eyes and his pain overwhelmed him so much he wasn’t even able to take a bite of his bread. Standing up, Illadari walked away from the camp fire and laid his head against a log turned away from the fire.

His eyes fell upon a rodent that was scurrying across the forest floor and his snickered softly before immediately crying.
Tessla would be freaking out right now…
he thought to himself as he watched the rodent run along through the dirt.
She also wouldn’t be off alone and not near her brother in his pain,
he thought to himself.
I have to let myself be helped by these people who care…
he thought as he arose to his feet.

Sitting back on a log around the campfire, Illadari looked up to Leroy and Nejik and made I contact with them. “What am I going to tell Kessler?” Illadari asked.

“You haven’t even told me what happened yet…” Nejik said softly.

“She thought she’d come back from this resurrection potion…”

“Won’t my parents just keep doing the…” Nejik’s words trailed off as he worried what had happened. “My parents are dead, aren’t they?” he asked. Illadari stood up and sat next to him on the log. Wrapping an arm around Nejik, he comforted him.

“Your sister didn’t just stop a dragon from being summoned… she stopped all future ones,” Illadari said as a tear formed in his eye. “She did a brave thing today. You should be proud of your little sister.”

“I don’t care about some stupid dragon. I want my sister!” Nejik said in bit of anger.

“I want my wife back too, but that’s not what she
wanted
… she wanted to give her life up to save the people of Belstrom. She had to die willing, and she did just that.”

Nejik looked around as he processed the action his sister had taken. “She really loved this kingdom,” Nejik said looking at Illadari.

“She really did… Even if she ran away from its rule earlier in life,” Illadari said with a nod.

“You know what I’d tell Kessler?” Leroy said standing up looking at the two of them. “I’d tell him that his mother saved all the people of Belstrom.” Leroy nodded as he continued, “I have seen men run and hide for fear of losing their life. This woman of yours Illadari, she went and tackled death to the ground, and gave her life up willingly. That takes a special person.”

Illadari smiled a little bit as he looked over at Leroy. “That’s a
nice
way of putting it. But she really did expect that potion to work.”

“No matter what you tell him… he’s going to have you as a father still and you have to be the father who didn’t fall apart after the mother passed away,” Nejik said. Illadari nodded as he put his hand over his forehead hiding away his eyes. The fire was warm as it flickered that evening, but Illadari never felt so cold and empty inside.

“It’s going to be hard,” Illadari said. “But I have to do it. I have to be there for my son. It’s what she wanted.”

**

That night, as Illadari laid awake with his head resting on a log, he stared at the moons and the Great Unknown and thought back over his time with Tessla. They had a short run of only ten years, but he still knew if he had the chance to do it all again knowing she’d die, he would. He wondered what he would have done in the circumstance if he had to face the same choice that his wife had to make earlier that day.
Could I give up my life to save the kingdom? Would I want to willingly die?
he pondered these questions  as he drifted off to sleep watching the evening sky as he once shared with Tessla.

The next morning, the three of them packed their supplies and journeyed around the front of the Fireblade Mountains in pursuit of Ada, in the Darkwood Forest. As they walked along the Fireblade Mountains, they were able to see down into the Echo Flats below. Encampments on both sides were full of warriors and spell casters, while the battlefield appeared empty outside of the fallen soldiers that littered the ground.

“The war efforts appear to be waxing thin. Word must have gotten out to the commanders,” Illadari said peering towards the flats.

“With my parents being dead and the Wizards in power, there isn’t much to fight over anymore,” Nejik said saddened.

“Maybe the war will stop entirely through the shift in power,” Leroy said. “One can only hope.”

Without resting again, the three of them were able to make it to the Great Tree in a couple days. Upon entering the glade, Nejik and Illadari began shouting upwards into the tree.

“Ada!” Illadari yelled.

“We need a cloud ride!” Nejik said with a bit of a smile in his face. Peering over the edge, Ada smiled as she looked down at them. Summoning a cloud, she glided down to the base of the tree. Stepping off the cloud, Nejik rushed up to her and embraced Ada with a hug. Looking over at Illadari, Ada looked concerned as she glanced around each side of him.

“No…” she said covering her mouth and turning away. “Tell me she did not do it.”

“Do what? She stopped all dragons from ever being summoned…” Illadari said. “She insisted it was what she needed to do.”

“I thought I shredded that book into a million pieces! Someone must have found a piece!”Ada exclaimed.

“What are you talking about?” Illadari asked insistently as he grabbed her shoulder. She turned around and sighed heavily.

“There was a book… that I had destroyed. It mentioned how to get rid of the dragon egg.”

“You tried to destroy a book that information on how to rid Belstrom from dragons?” Illadari asked angered as he grabbed onto her robes. “Why wouldn’t you want dragons to be gone? Are you crazy?”

“The other option is far less appealing...” she said delicately as she squirmed out of his grasp. “You see… dragons are the easy thing to deal with. They simply are kept from being born by a simple spell by both the royal magic families. To stop the dragons entirely would mean the Ethereal Planes can be opened.”

Illadari leaped through the air and tackled Ada to the ground. Raising a fist to strike her, she raised her arms up in the air. “Don’t do this Illadari! All hope is not loss! I swear it! The Ethereal Planes are not open
yet,
as long as the staff of Emalia is not constructed!” Ada exclaimed.

Illadari thought for a moment as the staff sounded familiar, but he wasn’t able to quite place it. Ada continued. “The Ethereal Planes is the prison for the foulest creatures of all Belstrom. The staff controls the Ethereal Planes.”

Illadari at that moment recalled where he recognized the name of the staff; it was the man that Tessla and he ran into in the Darkwood Forest. He was trying to sell them a stone from a staff called Emalia, and that he said controlled the Ethereal Planes. “I met a man that said he had a stone from a staff… he said it controlled
the Ethereal Planes
.”

“Where is that man?” Ada asked eagerly as Illadari let her stand up.

“I don’t know… he was just a traveling salesman,” Illadari said. “Why?”

“If the five pieces of the Emalia Staff are brought together and the staff reconstructed, it’ll open the Ethereal Planes entirely and give control to the one who wields the staff,” Ada said.

“Why would anyone put the staff together on purpose?” Illadari asked.

“Whoever holds the staff will control the creatures, a tremendous amount of power,” Ada said.

“Let’s find the pieces and get the staff then? Right?” Nejik interjected.

“No…” Ada said with a grimace look on her face. “The power of the staff corrupts even the purest of souls. It is better to get one piece of the staff and keep it hidden. I will begin my search for this man who you met. See Illadari? All hope is not lost and Tessla did not die in vain.”

“How do you know so much?” Illadari asked curiously.

“I was not always a lowly servant in the Runic family’s castle. I was there by choice, not by birth… I’ve been around for a while. Come let me reunite you with your son,” Ada said.

“Certainly,” Illadari said stepping forward onto the cloud. Taking the three of them on the cloud, they began the ascent to the top of the tree.

As they approached the top, he could hear Kessler’s voice in the distance. As they came up to the platform he saw Kessler playing with a toy on the floor. As their eyes met, Kessler sprinted across the platform, onto the cloud and into Illadari’s arms.

Bending down, Illadari set Kessler down and smiled deeply as he looked into his son’s eyes and touched his face. “I’ve missed you so much!” Illadari said as tears began to fall from his eyes. He embraced him with another hug and lifted him up in his arms, twirling him around.

“Where’s mom?” Kessler asked confused as he looked behind Illadari at Nejik and Leroy. Illadari’s smile dropped off his face immediately and he set Kessler down on the platform. Bending to one knee after stepping onto the platform, Illadari touched Kessler’s face as he looked him in the eyes.

“Your mom…” Illadari said as he tried to hold back his anguish from being revealed. “She’s…”

Nejik stepped up behind Illadari and placed his hand on Illadari’s shoulder. “A hero Kessler.” Kessler looked up at Nejik suspiciously.

“You’re the man that would talk to mommy at the shop in town,” Kessler said.

“I’m your uncle,” Nejik said with a smile.

“Kessler,” Illadari said directing the boy’s eyes back at him. “Your mother won’t be coming home with us… She had to save everyone in the kingdom from the big bad dragons.” Kessler looked down at the floor and remained silent for a moment.

“Where did she go?” Kessler asked.

“She’s with Omad now… he was so impressed with her, that he wanted her to come be with him in the Great Unknown,” Illadari said.

“But I want my mom back with me…” Kessler said quietly as his eyes stayed focus on the ground.

“I want her to be with us too,” Illadari said quietly as he kissed his son’s forehead.

Ada had Illadari and Kessler stay atop the tree that evening. After Kessler had fallen asleep, Illadari sat on the edge of the platform and glanced up at the moons and reflected on his life. While Illadari knew he didn’t have a long life with Tessla, he did know the time he had with her, he’d cherish forever.