Shadow Mage (Blacklight Chronicles) (21 page)

Talis exhaled sharply, upset that Nikulo expected him to go first. He stared into the portal and took a step forward, then finally decided to jump through.
 

The ledge where Talis landed was sloped down towards the spikes. He was about to turn and wave at Mara and Nikulo, to tell them it was safe, when he felt something pulling at his ankle.

A shadowy hand, snaking out from the portal, was dragging him back inside.

Talis kicked at the shadowy hand, and cast Light Magic in powerful bursts, trying to break free of its grasp, but the thing soon yanked him back into the portal, inside a world of gloom.
 

Then the thing at his ankle was gone.

He raised his head from the ash-covered ground, trying to make sense of what he saw. The sky was pale like a bone, faint but still blanched white. The trees were the trees from his vision of Rikar, strange and alien, limbs red like blood-soaked blades, leaves listless and flapping in the whistling wind. And the banded bark on the trees was like scale-mail armor, as if the trees were warriors ready to swoop down and strike hordes of invaders.
 

But the land was barren and dry, silted remains of an ancient fire, as if from the bones of a vast army burned to ash. The remnants of sorrow. And the trees thrived from the pain, thrived from the nutrients of suffering, vivid and stark against the bleak land.
 

He smelled the coming of winter, of snow and ice and pine, and could feel the cold creep down into his skull. His ears tingled at the sharp wind gusting the ash into a whorl, stinging his eyes until tears dripped down his cheeks. There was a hissing sound, low and shrill, echoing off the trees, coming closer to where he knelt. His body tensed at the sound, waiting for something to strike.

Off in the distance, through the quavering dust, Talis glimpsed a cloaked figure strolling towards him. In quick successive shifts forward the figure now stood ten feet away, face obscured by the shadow of the hood.

“You made a mistake coming after me,” Palarian said, his voice clear and sharp. “And you fell so easily into the trap set to bait you. I left the girl for you, why didn’t you just leave and find another way home?”

“You kidnapped her!” Talis shouted, raising his hands to attack the sorcerer. “Why did you do that?”

“I had no choice.” Palarian’s wrinkled eyes pleaded with him. “You weren’t exactly cooperative helping me leave your world. I had to find a way back home.”

“And this is home?”
 

Palarian shook his head. “This is the proving land, the Netherworld, a land of shadows and pain. Home is one more step away.”

“Your home…mine is back where I came from.”

“You could have gone home with the girl instead of coming here.”

“How could we? We had no crystal powerful enough to cast the spell.”

The sorcerer wagged his finger at Talis. “But you had the map. You could have searched for a crystal! Why did you come here?”

Talis felt his heart drop down to his stomach. Why had he come here… And why didn’t he think to use the map to find a crystal? He shouldn’t have listened to Aurellia. There was nothing he had to tell him that would help find a way back home. Palarian was right, the answer lay with the Surineda Map. But he remembered, he didn’t know the runes to get back home. Even with a powerful enough crystal he still couldn’t open a portal to his world. His stomach clenched at the thought.

“You’re here now, trapped in the Netherworld, like your old friend.”

“Rikar is here?” The tortured vision flashed in Talis’s mind.

“He’s over there in those hills…in a cave, learning how to be earnest.” A pitying frown crossed Palarian’s face, as if he were really worried about Rikar.

“So there’s no seventh level of the castle dungeon?”

The sorcerer spread his arms wide. “There is a seventh level. This place is something else entirely. You look perplexed…but that’s alright, you don’t need to understand everything. You’re here, that’s all that matters.”

“I’m here trapped in Aurellia’s web. What does he want with me, anyways?” Aurellia had Rikar as an apprentice, so why was Talis so important to him?

“You’ve royal blood…and the gods listen to you. Rikar is just another weapon for Aurellia, but you, having the gods’ ear, well that just might change everything for Aurellia.” Palarian swept off his hood, revealing his old, wrinkled face. “And you have the map. A map that only you can command. Remember? The gods gave it to you.”

“How do you know that?”

“Your friend Mara told me. She’s a gem, that one.” The sorcerer allowed a smile to curve his lips up. “You should value her, cherish her…she cares for you a great deal.”

Thinking of Mara made Talis worry about her stuck in the dungeon, with only Nikulo to help her. “Is she safe? Back in the dungeon?”

Palarian wagged his hands from side to side, as if uncertain. “She’ll be fine…and well taken care of.” His words sent a chill down Talis’s spine as he realized Mara and Nikulo would soon be captured, and there was nothing he could do about it.
 

“If you treasure her, like I see in your eyes that you do, you should find a way home, and protect her.”

“And you’ll help me escape?” Talis said, his voice filled with disbelief.

A shrewd look cross the sorcerer’s face. “Perhaps, perhaps.”

“How can I trust you? You’ve already betrayed me.”

“You have no other choice.” Palarian chuckled, pushing himself up to his feet. “You’re stuck here, in a world of Shadow Magic, where the rules are twisted, and where no other magic works.” Talis clenched his face up. How could he escape if his magic didn’t work here?

“But you said before that you didn’t know Shadow Magic?”

“Hah, do you expect people to tell the truth? I’ve lived over thirteen-thousand years. How could I not know Shadow Magic? When you live that long you learn many things, things you wish you’d never learned.”

Thirteen-thousand years? Talis gaped at the man, wondering about all that he’d seen and experienced during his life. What were the ancient kingdoms like? His imagination exploded, thinking of all the stories he’d read of history, of civilizations long ago, of people and places buried in the fabric of time. He held his tongue, despite wanting to ask Palarian a million questions.

“One day I’ll share stories of times long gone, of better days and memories that harass your heart. I’ve seen it all, the proud City of Urgar crumbling under ten thousand dark spells and countless undead hordes, the creation of civilization on your planet, the very first spark! My father’s eyes as he gazed at me, for the last time, hope passed into my heart, even as his enemies captured me and forced me to master their dark arts.

“These are the memories that plague the ancient mind. Of love and love lost. Of never returning to the place in time that felt like it would never go away. Immortal youth.”
 

Palarian sighed and inhaled a great gulp of wind. “We were all banished to your planet, Aurellia and his followers, by those of our world, the world known to us as Vellia, our home, the world of shadows and light. A world of infinite beauty.”

Talis could see the sorcerer caught in a rapturous picture, his face gleaming pure as a child’s, as if he were there back home. Now he understood why Palarian did the things he’d done back in Naru. Talis was certain he would do anything to bring Mara and Nikulo back home. Did he even care about helping Rikar? Talis frowned, thinking Rikar probably didn’t even want any help.

“By now your friends are in the comfort of the master’s captivity.” Palarian slapped his hands together and inky clouds formed, bubbling together in the air. “And I am tasked with your training. We’ll see if you survive or go mad like many of the others.”

“Training?” Talis scowled. “But I want to escape. You said—”

“I said perhaps. But my orders are to train you in the ways of Shadow Magic. And not the weak magic of the Jiserians you faced in battle. Light Magic is devastatingly brutal against such enemies, but powerless against what I’ll be teaching you. Even if you possess a crystal given to you by a Goddess.”
 

Talis was tempted to try and cast a shadow portal, thinking that it might work here, but he remembered the shadow hand that had dragged him here and thought he’d better not try. Palarian pushed the bubbling cloud out thousands of feet in front of him, through a hole in the eerie forest.
 

“This world is troublesome to walk across, so the first lesson is always travel. A Shadow Blink is a spell that lets you leap forward instantly across visible distances, as you could with your portal spell, but much faster and consuming less energy.”
 

The sorcerer shook the inky cloud until it wound around and resolved down to a fibrous cord of black energy. “I’m showing you what is normally invisible. Here in the Netherworld shadow things are much more easily seen and controlled. I’ve shown you a shadow cord, billions of which exist throughout the universe. To cast the Shadow Blink spell you simply feel the shadow cords with your stomach and attach your own energy cords to the shadow ones, and the shadow cords pull you off to your destination.”

Talis stared in horror and fascination at the area in front of Palarian’s stomach. Hundreds of luminous living fibers stretched out from his robes, undulating, probing, until they attached to the shadow cord that stretched out for thousands of feet through the forest. The shadow cord bound itself to Palarian’s fibers, and instantly the sorcerer blinked off into the distance. A moment later Palarian appeared back to where Talis gaped at the strange sight.

“Who needs to fly when you can do that?” The sorcerer’s eyes crinkled up in amusement. “And if you do know how to fly”—Palarian soared twenty feet up into the air—“you fly so much faster.” And he was gone again, and back in a flash.

“Now it’s your turn.”

How am I supposed to do that? Talis thought. Palarian picked up on his doubt and motioned him over to where he stood. “Breathe naturally, inhale by pushing your stomach out, and exhale slowly.” With a quick strike, Palarian actually reached inside Talis’s stomach and pulled a bundle of luminous cords out from within his body. Talis felt instantly sick to his stomach and fought the urge to vomit all over the sorcerer.
 

“What did you do?” Talis gaped at the fibers moving and stretching out from his own stomach. Were they there inside him all along, waiting to come out?

“I just removed the block in your mid-section, which prevented you from utilizing your own latent power.” Palarian nodded in satisfaction, studying the fibers. “Your hands and fingers were open to the flow of magic, but your stomach was blocked.”

“Blocked by what?”

“By birth and youth and foolishness.” The old man grinned. “Now pay attention. Close your eyes and feel the fibers of your stomach.”
 

Talis felt something itch along his stomach, whip around in front of his body, stretching out from within himself. He could feel it! Then a sickening sensation tickled over whatever he was feeling, and he opened his eyes in alarm.
 

“Good, you felt that.” Palarian held a thick shadow cord that whipped about in the space surrounding Talis’s mid-section. “Now close your eyes again and make your stomach fibers search out until you feel that same sensation…the shadow cords. When you feel it, grab it with your stomach and don’t let go, no matter what you feel.”

Despite wanting to run away and never feel that diseased sensation again, Talis did what the sorcerer asked. He concentrated on stretching the fibers out from his stomach until he felt the wet blackness seep into him. He fought down the nausea and allowed himself to grasp the black cord through his stomach’s fibers. When he opened his eyes, Palarian nodded in approval.

“Excellent! I’ve never seen an apprentice perform the task so smoothly and without interruption from…unpleasantries. You’ve had some experience with shadow energies, I can tell.”

Talis thought back to the shadow trap he’d built in the meadow with Mistress Cavares.

“Now let the shadow cord pull you along to your destination.”

“But how do I summon a shadow cord?”

The sorcerer laughed with his eyes. “There is no summoning involved, shadow cords are simply everywhere in the universe. You just reach out with your stomach and concentrate on staring at your destination and use your willpower to go. It’s quite simple.”

 
A shadow flickered over the rocky hills to the right, distracting Talis for a moment. He completely forgot about his task and peered at the black spot, wondering if Rikar was there. The shadow cord snapped at his stomach, yanking him forward until the next second he was standing high atop the hills next to a cave’s gaping mouth.
 

Palarian appeared next to him, flustered, a disapproving look in his eyes. “I said concentrate, that means not allowing yourself to get distracted.” He glanced around then aimed his gaze at Talis. “Well at least you succeeded in performing your first Shadow Blink. What did you see here anyways?”