Relentless (20 page)

37. TWO TABLES

EVEN THOUGH LEESA REALIZED
time was of the essence, she knew she had to be completely prepared before she put her plan into action. And before she could even begin, she needed to rid herself of the grim anxiety still gripping her.

She closed her eyes and drew in several slow, deep breaths, slipping into her familiar everywhere/nowhere state. In took a bit longer than the instant relaxation she was accustomed to, but finally she felt calm and centered.

“Keep an eye on Ralin,” she told Rave. “I’ll be right back.”

She turned and headed toward the back door. Without breaking stride, she walked right through the closed door. Dematerialization would play an important role in what was to come, and she wanted to be sure she was fully ready.

Inside, she turned her attention to the old table she had rescued from the side of the road with Cali so long ago. Even back then, Leesa suspected she might one day have a use for the scarred piece of furniture, beyond letting Ralin have fun surfing atop it. Now was the time. Using her telekinesis, she brought it across the room to her.

This time, she pulled the back door open and crossed through the doorway, floating the table in front of her. When Ralin saw his favorite ride appear, he raced across the yard and jumped up onto it. Leesa let him ride until the table reached the middle of the lawn, where she lowered it to the ground.

“Get down now, honey,” she said when the table had settled onto the grass.

Ralin studied Leesa’s face for a moment, as if checking to see whether he might be able to convince her to give him a longer ride. Something in her expression must have told him no, because he obediently jumped down off the table and trotted over to his father. Rave picked him up and sat him astride his broad shoulders. Both of them watched Leesa, who was staring hard at the old table.

“
Blitha morun sumuss
,” she chanted while visualizing the table growing larger.

All her long hours of practice making rocks and other inanimate objects grow paid off. In a matter of seconds, the table doubled in size.

She wasn’t done yet, though. The table was tall enough for her purposes now, but the circular top was not nearly wide enough across. It was time to attempt some more precisely targeted growth.

“
Blitha morun sumuss
,” she repeated, this time visualizing the top of the table stretching wider. The wooden surface promptly expanded to nearly ten feet in diameter, while the legs remained the same height. She measured it with her eyes briefly before turning toward Rave.

“I think that’s about right, don’t you?”

Rave nodded, his expression grave. “I think so, yes.”

Leesa knew he was thinking about the things she was about to do. How could he not be? Both of them wished there was some other choice, but there was not.

“Will you go get it for me, please?” Leesa didn’t need to elaborate any further. Rave knew exactly what she meant.

He lowered Ralin to the ground. The boy immediately crossed to the table and began examining it, as if checking to see whether this larger version could still be used to provide him fun rides.

Rave disappeared into the woods, heading for the secret hiding place where they had buried the desired object. Neither he nor Leesa had wanted to keep it anywhere in the house, but Leesa hadn’t wanted it too far away, either.

When Rave returned, he was carrying a small canvas sack in his right hand. He looked at Leesa for a long moment, silently asking her with his eyes if she was certain she wanted to proceed.

“Take it out,” she said, putting any doubt to rest. “Put it over here, near Ralin’s swing.”

Rave opened the drawstring and pulled out a tiny black table whose round top was barely four inches across.

Leesa stared at the Necromancer’s deadly magical table as Rave set it down on the lawn. The miniature table nearly disappeared in the lush grass. That something so small could be so dangerous seemed ludicrous, but she felt her heart racing nonetheless. Ralin tried to move closer to get a better look at the tiny object his dad had fetched from the woods, but Rave grabbed his hand and held him back.

“Keep away,” Rave ordered, maintaining a firm grip on Ralin’s hand just in case.

Leesa saw no reason to waste any time. If she was going to do this, she might as well do it quickly.

She pictured the table in her mind the way it looked just before the Necromancer and then Dominic had jumped inside it.

“
Blitha morun sumuss
,” she chanted.

The table immediately began to grow, just like the old table she had practiced on a few minutes before. Since this one had started so much smaller, it required more work to get it back to full size. Leesa chanted her spell nine or ten times, always keeping the visualization clear in her mind. Finally, the Necromancer’s table was as big as she remembered it. Its polished black surface seemed to swallow the bright midday sunlight; no hint of reflection or glare marred the utter blackness of the tabletop.

She reached out and very tentatively placed her hand atop the table. She had no idea what it was made of, but the dark surface felt cool and smooth, like highly polished marble. She detected no trace of the immense power she knew lurked within its umber depths.

Leesa let out a long breath and allowed herself to relax momentarily. She glanced over at her husband and son. Rave’s expression was somber; Ralin’s was a mixture of wonder and curiosity. She wished she could think of some other way to save her son, but neither she nor Rave had been able to come up with one. There was only one person who might be able to fix what was happening to Ralin, and he was trapped somewhere inside this table. She had to go in and somehow bring Dominic out.

She had no idea what evil dangers might await her inside the table, and she knew there was a chance that even if she did manage to get in, she might never find her way back out. She was willing to take that risk—what mother wouldn’t sacrifice anything and everything to save her child? Rave would do it in an instant, she knew, but only she had the power that might allow her to enter the table. She thought this could even be the reason her magic book had wanted her to learn dematerialization. The thought that her book was behind her efforts gave her an odd feeling of comfort.

She crossed over to the two people she loved more than anything in the world. Kneeling down on one knee, she drew Ralin to her and hugged him tightly.

“Mommy has to go away for a little while,” she said softly into his ear. “You be a good boy for Daddy. Promise me.”

Ralin returned her hug. “Ralin good boy,” he replied.

“Yes, that’s right. Ralin is a very good boy.”

Leesa kissed the top of his head, breathing in his familiar little boy scent, and then stood up. She wrapped her arms around Rave and pulled him close.

“You be a good boy, too,” she said, trying to lighten the moment. She felt Rave’s lips curve into a smile against her cheek.

“Always,” he replied. He resisted the urge to tell her to be careful—he knew Leesa would do whatever she thought necessary to help their son, whatever the risk.

Leesa let go of Rave and looked down at Ralin. “Go stand over there for a minute, please.” She pointed across the yard, away from the table. “Mommy needs to talk to Daddy.”

Ralin dutifully scampered to the far side of the lawn, then turned back to look at his parents.

“Hands over your ears,” Leesa called. She had learned the hard way that Ralin’s hearing was nearly as keen as his dad’s. Ralin smiled and covered his ears.

Leesa turned back to Rave. “I don’t know how long this might take. Keep a close eye on his hand. I hope I’m back in time to heal him again, but if I’m not, you need to be ready.”

Rave nodded. They had discussed this before. “I’m ready. If I see any sign of infection spreading above his forearm, or any hint of rot on his hand, I know what I have to do.” He took both of Leesa’s hands into his and squeezed gently. “Just hurry back so I don’t have to do it, please.”

Neither one of them wanted to voice the words, but they had agreed that in an emergency Rave would use his fire to amputate Ralin’s lower arm. Better he lose his hand than his life. Rave’s fire would cauterize the wound instantly.

“You know I’ll do my best,” Leesa promised. “Don’t let Ralin watch what I’m about to do. I don’t want him getting any ideas. Take him out into the woods.”

She eased her hands out of Rave’s and motioned for Ralin to come join them. Still smiling, he hurried across the yard to their side.

Leesa bent down in front of him again and looked at him with the most serious expression she could muster. “You stay away from that table, understand? That table is very, very dangerous.”

The smile vanished from Ralin’s face. He nodded solemnly.

“Ralin understand. Table bad. Ralin good boy. Stay away.”

Leesa smiled and looked up at Rave. “Keep a close eye on him, in case he forgets.”

“Don’t worry, I will. You go do what you have to do.”

Leesa backed up another step, although that was the last thing she wanted to do right now. She would much rather wrap both of them up in her arms and never let go.

“You two go have some fun out in the woods,” she said instead. “Mommy will be back soon.”

Rave gave her one last, loving look, then scooped Ralin up into his arms and jogged off toward the trees. As Leesa watched the two loves of her life disappear into the shadows, a single tear rolled down her cheek. She wiped it away with the back of her hand, then turned and walked resolutely toward the Necromancer’s black table.

38. INTO THE DARKNESS

LEESA DIDN’T WASTE
any time. She had already rehearsed what she was about to do countless times in her mind. The time for thinking and rehearsing was over—now was the time to do it for real.

She walked alongside the table toward the rope swing, the fingers of her left hand trailing lightly across the table’s slick surface. As before, she felt no trace of the dark powers locked within its black depths. She didn’t let that fool her, though. What she was about to do was probably the most dangerous thing she had ever attempted or faced.

When she reached the swing, she stepped quickly up onto the thick board that served as the seat. She took a moment to clear her mind then began slowly swinging the rope out toward the table. As the swing brought her closer and closer to a position above the tabletop, she began focusing on her ability to dematerialize.

In one strange way, she was less worried about this part of her task than when she was trying to learn how to walk through a wall. Failure back then meant repeatedly bumping her face painfully into the wall; if she failed here, she would merely land on her feet atop the table. She pushed that thought away—there was no room for failure thoughts in her mind, not with the danger to Ralin growing by the hour. She was going to dematerialize herself into the table, and that was that. Period. End of discussion.

As the swing carried her to its farthest point away from the table thus far, she knew the return arc would be the one she needed. She sucked in a deep breath, and when the rope brought her to a spot two feet above the center of the table, she let go and stepped out into the air.

The drop was a short one. She felt no thud of her sneakers against the tabletop. Instead, she caught a momentary glance of her feet disappearing into the table before her vision faded.

Along with the expected momentary blindness, she felt a brief instant of familiar dizziness, which passed quickly. When her vision returned a moment later, she found herself in a place she recognized all too well.

She was shrouded in chill blackness. No, not blackness, she reminded herself. This was more of a purple. A purple so deep and rich and dark as to be almost black. She had entered the dark void she had visited twice before in her dreams!

Almost reflexively, she held her hand up in front of her face. She could see it clearly, but when she extended her arm, her hand nearly disappeared in the darkness, just as it had in her dreams. Farther out, she saw the mysterious floating white lights from her visions. As before, whenever she tried to focus on any particular one of them, it somehow faded from her sight.

In for a penny, in for a pound,
she thought as she remembered one more aspect from her dreams. She took a moment to gather her resolve and then closed her eyes. Even though part of her expected it, she was still surprised by the feeling of being drawn downward headfirst. She had entered the table in an upright position and had experienced no sensation of being flipped over. Yet the feeling of being upside down as she was pulled into the dark depths was as real and as strong as she remembered. So was the foreboding sense of danger lurking somewhere beneath her.

She opened her eyes and the sensation of sinking disappeared. She wished her dreams had shown her more, but they hadn’t. This was as far as the visions had ever taken her. She would have given anything to have Rave here with her, or Jenna or even Stefan, but her book hadn’t shown her how to dematerialize someone else with her. She alone had the ability to pass through inanimate objects. From here on out, she was on her own.

She thought about casting an illumination spell, but remembered how useless the spells had been in her dreams and decided against trying one, for the moment, anyhow. Why do anything that might alert someone—or something—to her presence here if it wasn’t going to accomplish anything useful? She had no way of knowing whether her arrival had been noticed, but she saw no reason to call any further attention to herself until it became absolutely necessary. There might be things lurking out there in the blackness that could see far better in the dark than she could.

Still, she had to do something. She couldn’t just hang suspended here in the darkness forever. Every minute that passed was another minute of impaired circulation for Ralin, another minute closer to her baby losing his hand. She needed to find Dominic quickly and somehow get him out of here. The sooner she got started, the sooner she would either succeed or fail. The problem was, she had no idea how to begin her search.

Her fingers strayed to the invisible ring on her right hand. She might not know how or where to look for Dominic, but maybe she could use the ring to let him know she was here. That would be something, at least.

She pulled the ring off her finger. The golden band and red stone immediately became visible. To see the ring clearly in the darkness, she had to hold it close to her face. It looked the same as it always did, but she expected nothing different. When Dominic had given her the ring, he told her that if she kept it off her finger for more than a few minutes he would sense it. She didn’t know if that still held in this terrible place that seemed to swallow sound and magic, but it didn’t hurt to try. Seeing the ring become visible also gave her renewed hope that Dominic was still alive.

She shoved the ring deep into the pocket of her jeans, where it would stay until she found him.

Now that she had taken care of the ring business, she was back where she started—suspended in the void without knowing what to do next. Without much hope for success, she tried walking, but as in her dreams, she felt like she was merely swinging her feet in the air, getting nowhere. Next, she tried a breaststroke-like swimming motion, but once again had no sense that the effort was taking her anywhere.

Her frustration mounted. She had managed get inside the table easily enough, but seemed unable to do anything now that she was here. Floating in the darkness for the rest of her life was definitely not what she had in mind when she jumped into the table. Breathing deeply, she centered herself again with everywhere/nowhere, banishing her frustration.

If she couldn’t move—and for now, she had to accept that she couldn’t—then perhaps she could bring something to her. Since the only things she could see were the floating white lights, they were the obvious choice as a place to start. As before, when she focused on one to get ready to use her telekinesis, it simply faded from her sight. So instead, she focused on bringing an entire cluster of them toward her.

For the first few seconds, she didn’t know if it was working. She felt her power activate, but with nothing to provide perspective, she had no idea how big the things were or how far away they might be. After a few moments, though, she had the feeling that a half-dozen of them were drawing slowly toward her. Soon, she was certain of it. Whether her power was pulling them toward her or they were moving this way of their own volition was unclear. Either way, she was finally accomplishing something. She just hoped it was something good, rather than dangerous.

As the lights drew closer, she began to get the feeling they were more than merely lights. Something about their oval shapes seemed hauntingly familiar. Finally, they moved near enough for her to recognize them. She had been right—these things were not lights at all. They were lidless, disembodied eyes!

Leesa shut down her telekinesis and the eyes stopped moving, hanging suspended ten or twelve inches in front of her now. She felt her own eyes grow wide with surprise and horror as the three pairs of eyeballs fixed their gaze upon her. They were a pale, grayish blue color—the exact same color as Dominic’s eyes!

She couldn’t know for sure, but she suspected these eyes had once belonged to the wizards the Necromancer and his black waziri henchmen had murdered. Somehow, the evil mage had trapped them here inside his table. She prayed that Dominic had not suffered a similar fate.

A strange prickling sensation ran across her skin. She sensed powerful magic in these eyes—magic that felt familiar, yet starkly different. Despite the resemblance of the eyes to Dominic’s, the power Leesa detected in them was dark and sinister. The Necromancer must have somehow subverted the good wizards’ magic and turned it into something evil. Fortunately, their power did not seem to be active at the moment. Leesa hoped she hadn’t done anything that might awaken them.

As she studied the eyes further, she recognized something beyond the magic in them. She saw emotion in their gaze. The eyes seemed to be filled with longing, with helplessness, and most distressing of all, with a deep feeling of utter hopelessness. A cold shiver ran through her.

She turned her head away, afraid the feeling of despondence and hopelessness in the eyes might infect her. In this dark, depressing place, her emotions already hovered in a fragile state. If she was going to have any chance of succeeding at her task, she needed to remain as positive and confident as possible.

As uncomfortable as bringing the eyes nearer to her turned out to be, it demonstrated that her telekinesis worked here. How strong it might be was still to be determined—the eyes were small and light and presumably not all that difficult to move. Still, it was a start. Now she just had to figure out a way to build on that.

Before she could even begin her search for Dominic, Leesa knew she needed to come up with a way to move through this cursed darkness. A while back, she had accidently learned how to combine levitation with telekinesis to move though the air in a kind of flying; perhaps she could do something similar here. The levitation part was unnecessary—she was already suspended in the blackness—but maybe her telekinesis was the key. If she could find something solid enough and heavy enough to direct her power at, perhaps she could pull herself toward it.

She turned her head slowly, seeking some sign of anything out there she might be able to use. All she saw was darkness and the glowing eyes.

Think
, she told herself. There had to be something she could do.

Peering into what seemed to be infinite blackness wasn’t helping her any, so she closed her eyes. The sensation of being pulled downward immediately returned, but she ignored it, focusing instead on her location inside the Necromancer’s table. No matter how large this magical place might be, it had to have boundaries of some kind, somewhere, to separate it from the outside world. And if there were boundaries, they just might be solid. Solid was good—she could fasten her telekinesis onto something solid. But what form would these boundaries take? In order to direct her power at one, she had to be able to visualize it. Unfortunately, all she could visualize here was darkness.

She refused to give up. There had to be an answer somewhere. She just needed to find it. Her son’s life might very well depend upon it.