Shaper of Stone (The Shapers Book 1) (22 page)

Carvis was atop him, straddling
Tibron’s chest. One hand was locked around Tibron’s
throat while the other wielded a dagger. Tibron managed to twist and
grab the wrist holding the knife with his right hand.

I was too far away to reach them, and I
had used too much of the nerafpan. If I made another blade to attack
Carvis there wouldn’t be enough to shield me from Vatrale’s
ability to drain my energy.

“Talamas!” I shouted at the
open door leading to the ramp. Where was that old man. He was
standing right there when we came in here.

“Talamas! We need you!”

There was still no sign of him or Garit
for that matter. I struggled to my feet. My ankle was throbbing with
each beat of my heart. It hurt like hell when I put weight on it, but
I could put weight on it. Forgetting about Talamas I spotted Tibron’s
sword at the base of the stairs. It was only a few feet beyond his
reach.

Tibron cried out in pain when Carvis
released the grip on his throat and grabbed the broken quarrel. He
wrenched it back and forth before ripping it from Tibron’s
shoulder. With a scream of rage he slammed it back into Tibron’s
chest. He pulled it free to stab again.

“Carvis! You are a dead man!”
I shouted as I lurched toward him.

He stopped his attack and bared his
teeth at me. “I’m going to enjoy hearing you scream.”

Tibron’s struggle to free himself
stopped. The hand fighting for the dagger fell limply to his side.
There was blood covering his chest and no sign of breathing. Carvis
looked down and spit into Tibron’s face before pushing himself
to his feet. He was covered in blood too, but I don’t think any
of it was his.

The dracoman dropped the broken quarrel
before reaching down to grab Tibron’s sword. He hefted the
blade and tested the balance, never once taking his eyes off me. He
took a step toward me, and I immediately stumbled back.

“I’m going to cut you to
pieces with his sword. I’ll start with your hands and work my
way up. You are going to beg for death before I am finished.”

“You know what Carvis? I never
did like you. Come another step closer and I’ll rip your heart
out.” It was a bluff, but I was hoping he didn’t know
that. Just like I was hoping he didn’t notice the movement
behind him as Tibron rolled over and struggled to get to his knees.
His left arm hung uselessly at his side, but his right reached behind
him and pulled out his dagger.

Carvis paused while he studied me, then
he laughed. “You don’t fool me. The master told me about
you. Without nerafpan to shape you are powerless.”

I held up my left hand where the
nerafpan surrounded the bracelet Vatrale placed on me. “You
mean like this? Maybe I’m not as powerless as you think.”

We locked eyes with one another. I
could hear the growl building up in his throat as he prepared to
charge me. He was going to call my bluff. I did the only thing I
could think to do.

I jumped forward and shouted “Boo!”
at him.

He didn’t even blink. He just
stood there with his lips pulled back and his teeth exposed. He threw
his head back and laughed. “I knew it. You are powerless.”

“Not exactly,” I whispered
as Tibron threw himself forward. The dagger in his hand flashed in
the light shining through the doorway before it buried itself in
Carvis. The blade slammed home right between the shoulder blades, and
Tibron ripped it down as he fell forward, all his weight on the
blade.

The laughter turned to a cry of pain
that faded into a gurgle. Carvis fell forward, dropping the sword and
dagger he carried as he tried without success to catch himself.
Tibron rolled off his back and collapsed on the ground into the pool
of blood that was spreading between the two men.

“Go... Stop... Him,” gasped
Tibron.

“Too... Late,” answered
Carvis.

Both men looked terrible. I was amazed
either had the strength to speak. Tibron was right though. We came to
stop Vatrale, and I was the only one left to stand in his way.

“I’ll be back,” I
told him before I limped to the stairs. I grabbed Tibron’s
sword on the way. I may not know how to use it, but it felt good to
have a weapon in my hand.

Above me I could see through the
opening in the ceiling. There was a black cloud swirling overhead.
Flashes of light danced across its surface. Climbing the stairs, I
heard Vatrale’s voice repeating the same phrase over and over
again. I couldn’t make out the words. I wasn’t even sure
they were words.

There was one thing I was sure of
though, one way or another it was time for this to end.

-o-

I ran up the stairs two at a time. The
instant my head cleared the opening in the floor I was slapped by the
force of the wind swirling around the tower chamber. The unexpected
gust knocked me off balance, slamming my hip into the edge of the
trapdoor. I struggled to regain my footing and made it the last few
feet into the room.

My eyes teared up as they were lashed
by the wind, but even with blurry vision I saw Abella in the center
of the storm. She was tied spreadeagled to a wooden frame that rose
into the maelstrom. While the wind whipped around her, she appeared
untouched by its effects. Her head had fallen forward with her chin
almost resting on her chest. Her hair hung loosely across her face. I
couldn’t tell if she was breathing, but everything Talamas told
me said that Vatrale needed her alive.

The wizard stood before her. She had
been raised into the air so that his head barely reached the bottom
of her feet. His back was to me as he continued to chant. The clouds
swirling about the room pulsed with each syllable sending out bolts
of lightning that met in the middle directly above Abella.

Like Abella, Vatrale was unaffected by
the wind. He wore a black robe with the hood pulled up to cover his
face. It reminded me of how he appeared to me when I woke in the
prison cell, only this time I wasn’t helpless.

I moved away from the hole before I
could accidentally stumble and fall through it. The wind pulled at
me, trying to drag me clockwise around the room with each step I
took. Instead of standing and fighting against the vortex, I dropped
to my hands and knees and started to crawl across the floor. The wind
whipped across my back, but I could move in a straight line.

Tibron’s sword was in my hand. As
I slid across the floor it pointed like a compass needle at Vatrale’s
back. I was halfway to him when I noticed there was a disturbance in
the cloud. It was a shape that spun and spiraled against the wind.

It flashed past, and I screamed in
shock and agony as a searing pain raced across my back. The shape,
more like a shadow, changed directions against the wind and launched
itself at me. A pair of red eyes opened and latched onto me as it
drew closer.

Immediately I dropped as flat as I
could, but it was not enough. Again my back flared in pain. It felt
like a hot iron was dragged across it. I couldn’t hold back the
scream of pain.

I twisted my head from side to side
trying to keep track of the shadow. Shadows! The cloud was filled
with them. There were more than I could count. Red eyes flared to
life as they noticed me crawling beneath them.

I screamed again and threw myself
forward as they converged. The wind caught me and flipped me end over
end. Another flash of pain erupted in my leg before I came to a stop
with my back pressed against something solid. My eyes were closed
while I was tossed about but snapped open once I stopped moving.

The wind no longer slammed into me. The
shadows circled around, watching, but not moving any closer. Directly
above me was Abella. I had stopped against the post that supported
her. Almost within arm’s reach was Vatrale.

His chanting had grown more intense
while he stared up into the cloud. He was oblivious to what was going
on around him. All of his attention was focused on the item in his
hand. It was a glass skull, the Soul Stone stolen from Tibron’s
people. I could see the power siphoned from the nerafpan orbs flowing
into the skull and from it to Vatrale.

Now was my chance. I reached for
Tibron’s sword, but it was gone. I dropped it when I tried to
escape from the shadows. I looked for it, but the wind must have
grabbed it. There was no telling where it might be now.

I jumped to my feet, and my back flared
in pain at the sudden movement. Vatrale’s eyes met mine just as
I ripped the crystal skull from his grip. There was a flash of green
light, like lightning, dancing between the two of us in the instant
we both hold the skull.

“No!” he screamed as he
lost possession of the Soul Stone.

As soon as I claimed control of the
skull the storm around us flared with a green glow and doubled in
size as the stolen power of the orbs was channeled through me into
the spell. The wind hit the wall which exploded on contact, throwing
shards of stone and wood into the air. The swirling vortex sucked
everything away.

With the tremendous power pouring into
me, I could sense the bracelet Vatrale placed around my wrist. It
took only a thought for it to melt away, taking the nerafpan I used
to shield its power with it.

For the first time in months I was
free. I was no longer a tool for Vatrale to use. With this power, I
could do anything.

Above me a circle formed. A null space
where light flashed into the clouds of the magical storm. At first
the circle was only blackness, but as I looked into it there was a
shift. I was suddenly looking at the front of my trailer. The few
patches of grass in front had grown wild. Yellow tape hung limply
across the front door.

It was home. It was my home. Vatrale
wanted to bring the spirit of Irena into this world, but I could use
the spell too. I could use it to go home. I didn’t need to stay
here. All I needed to do was open the door a little wider.

Before I could make my vision reality,
Vatrale attacked me. He tried to pull the skull from my grip, but of
the two of us, I was the stronger, and I refused to let go. Bolts of
energy flashed out of the skull. Some struck us, but most discharged
into the swirling clouds.

“Devin! Devin! You have to stop!
Devin! Please!”

Abella! She was awake.

I immediately stomped on Vatrale’s
foot and pulled the skull away while twisting with my body. He lost
his grip as I tore it away from him once more. This time I threw the
skull across the room. It hit the floor and rolled toward the open
hatchway in the floor.

“You fool!” shrieked
Vatrale as he dove for the Soul Stone.

He didn’t make it. It reached the
lip of the edge and rolled over the side.

-o-

Vatrale stopped at the top of the
stairs and backed away from the opening. Emerging from the trapdoor
was Talamas. He slowly climbed the last few steps into the room. In
his arms he cradled the Soul Stone like a child might hold a kitten.

The storm still spun around us, but the
vortex was so wide that now the entire chamber was at its heart. We
were no longer buffeted by the wind or under attack from the shadows
lurking inside the clouds, although I could still see flashes of red
and black as they tried to break free of whatever bound them to the
spell.

“You!” gasped Vatrale.

Talamas smiled, “You have done
well. Much better than I anticipated if I were to speak the truth.”

“Don’t let him have the
skull!” I shouted as soon as I saw Talamas. “It isn’t
stopping! We interrupted the ritual, but this is still happening!”
I waved my arms around to indicate the swirling vortex of clouds and
light in case Talamas had missed it.

“Oh my boy. I have no intentions
of stopping it. In fact, it is exactly where it needs to be.”

“What the hell are you talking
about? We came here to stop this!” I couldn’t believe
what I was hearing from the old man.

Vatrale screamed as he dove for
Talamas. “No! I won’t let you stop me! Not now!”

The floor in front of Talamas exploded.
Bands of wood caught Vatrale in mid leap and curled around him.
Vatrale slammed to the floor with his arms and legs tightly bound.

“We have been here before, have
we not my faithful student,” said Talamas as he looked down
upon Vatrale. “I could never have done this on my own. Can you
imagine my shock to realize that I had the knowledge but not the
talent, while you had the talent but lacked the knowledge.
Fortunately, I knew your weakness. It was a simple task to manipulate
you into finishing the work I could not. All I needed to do was to
keep your enemies away until you were done.”

While Talamas talked I spotted Tibron’s
sword. It was teetering on the edge of the floor behind the old
wizard. A gentle nudge would push it over the side. It was too far
away for me to reach and use for a weapon, but there was no other one
in sight. Even the nerafpan was gone. Without it, I had nothing to
shape that I could use for an attack.

“I should have claimed you when I
first came to this world, but I foolishly assumed your master would
be of greater use. I was wrong. It took years to remedy that mistake.
Even when I gave you all the tools that you needed, I wasn’t
sure that you would have the will to go through with it. You were
soft, but I appeared to underestimate you. You have gone far beyond
anything I could have hoped, and soon my brothers will be free to
reclaim this world.”

Vatrale shrieked, “No! This was
for Irena. Not for you. We can save her. You showed me the way.”

“No. I only showed you what you
wanted to believe. I gave you the tools and knowledge you needed to
do my bidding, no matter how unknowingly you acted.”

There had to be something I could do.
Rushing Talamas wasn’t an option. I’d just end up like
Vatrale, trapped and unable to move. I needed to think. Just because
I couldn’t see a weapon, doesn’t mean there wasn’t
one nearby.