Sworn To Transfer (30 page)

*****

O
n the other side of the barrier, Terris had used one large push to force herself into the wendigo creature’s mind. It was sentient, but not much smarter than a dog. Which made this easier. Without too much effort, she located its consciousness and sent it to sleep with a whispered command. Unfortunately she had underestimated it. It might have been as simple-minded as a dog, but it also had the resilience of a caged tiger. It did not want her to take over its mind, and since she hadn’t done this before, she was having a hell of a time doing so.

Trying to halt the attack, it dug its back claws into her ankle. Terris screamed in agony but it couldn’t go any further. The control she’d already asserted halted its mobility and she knew if she lost that control she’d lose her life. Anger, rage, and desperation began to fuel her attempts. As they struggled for domination, Terris started to clear its mind, inch-by-inch. She managed to push the consciousness of the wendigo in a corner temporarily and lock it into the back of its mind. After assuring herself that she commanded the creature’s movements now, she ordered it to get off of her and stood up.

Staring at the nightmarish vision less than a foot from her, Terris felt her stomach flip. It was just as she remembered, with multiple rows of sharp teeth in its mouth and long, dirty claws on its paws. It stood four feet tall on two legs. Its skin was gray and wrinkled, with loose flesh hanging in odd places. Its eyes were bloodshot and clumps of straggly hair hung from its head.

Feeling its dormant consciousness one more time, she made it turn around.

“Screech!” she commanded it.

For a long moment, the wendigo did nothing. Its mind was empty and it didn’t recognize the command, so Terris called up a memory of the terror she’d felt when they’d first heard the creature’s call echo in the midnight air. Following her example, it let out a loud, echoing screech at the shadow barrier.

Terris could physically see the shock of the screech hit the barrier of twisting shadow vines. On impact it forced the shadow vines to dissipate.

That’s more like it
, thought Terris.

“Now,” she said directing its mind for another screech, “get that stupid shadow creature.”

With no further imagery needed, her wendigo leapt into the air on its powerful hind legs and emitted a long, loud screech echo directly at the shadow man. The shadow put up its hand in defense as if to ward off the screech and disappeared into thin air.

Smiling in relief at Ciardis, who was standing up, Terris ran over to her friend.

“Are you okay?”

“Are you?”

“Hello, ladies,” said Barren from the other side of the clearing.

When they looked over at him in irritation for interrupting their reunion, he sighed and said, “Anybody seen the shadow man?”

They looked around, but Barren was right. The man who’d caused all of this...was gone.

Terris let loose a string of curses that her brothers would have been proud of.

And then the cavalry arrived.

Out of the darkness of the trees, Panen warriors materialized. The wendigo melted into the trees with a final screech – Terris’s hold gone from its mind. With a little more noise, Lady Vana, Meres Kinsight, and Alexandra also showed up. Surrounding the empty glade, Vana, Meres, and Alexandra were armed to the teeth and looked like avenging angels in the night.

Holding up his hands as if in surrender, Barren said, “I can explain.”

From behind him, his mother stepped out of the bushes with a look on her face that promised murder. “You’d better.”

Ignoring the tensions between the young people and their guardians, Alexandra’s brother Julius stepped forward and declared, “The perimeter is secure. I think we should get a full account of this evening’s activities from the youth and
then
you can tear them apart.”

When Vana and Barren’s mother leveled a glare at him, he quickly amended that to, “Or you can skin them alive now.”

Meres Kinsight sighed. “All of you. Everything. Spill it.”

Ciardis, Terris, and Barren jumped all over themselves to detail all of the events that had occurred from the time Ciardis and Terris had followed Barren into the forest until the shadow vine barrier had come tumbling down.

“And he never told you his name?” demanded Alexandra while looking at Ciardis.

“Or where he was from?” This query was from Vana.

“No, I tried,” said Ciardis, shaking. The night’s events were beginning to overwhelm her. The man had tried to kill her. Not that she wasn’t used to it, but hell, he didn’t even know her!

Terris wrapped a comforting and slimy hand around Ciardis’s shoulder and leveled a glare at all of the people upsetting her.

“Well,” said Meres, “this is unfortunate. The shadow mage wants to kill Ciardis. I guess the plan to spread outrage and eventually start a human-
kith
war wasn’t working. Nothing like an Imperial Companion’s death to add fuel to the fire.”

“I’m not a Companion,” muttered Ciardis half-heartedly.

Vana laughed bitterly. “He’s a Shadowwalker; all we need now is for him to manifest necromancy or telekinesis and we’ll be right back where we started during the Initiate Wars.”

And uneasy look passed across Terris’s face as they walked back. Ciardis nudged her to get her to talk, but whatever it was was troubling her too much for her to speak. When she turned to look behind them at Vana and Meres, who were bringing up the rear, the look on her face stopped them in their tracks.

“Something you haven’t told us, child?” Meres asked.

Terris stiffened imperceptibly when Meres spoke. Ciardis knew she wasn’t afraid of Lord Kinsight. They’d gone toe-to-toe on several occasions while living with the Panen. There was something else going on, but she didn’t have time to find out what right now.

“There’s one other thing,” said Terris, her face a mask of guilt as she looked over at Barren.

Sighing, she continued, “When Barren faced me in the forest just after Ciardis had been taken, his eyes were black...as black as night.”

Meres didn’t question her, didn’t hesitate. “Vana,” he shouted. Before Ciardis had managed to turn Terris and herself fully around to face the boy, Vana had his head pulled back at an awkward angle and a silver knife at his throat.

Meres was furious. He moved to stand in front of the two young women while eyeing the boy that Vana held with a knife at his throat. He was furious at himself for letting a threat anywhere near Terris and Ciardis as well as furious at them for not thinking to warn them of this sooner.

Ciardis asked, “What does the darkness in his eyes mean?”

“It means that he could be shadow-touched,” said Meres grimly.

“Is that right, Barren? Are you being controlled even now?” Vana crooned in his ear, her blade grazing the skin on his neck, prepared to cut it at any second.

He was scared and crying as he shouted back, “No! No, I was. But I’m not now. He’s gone. I swear.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about this before?” Meres said.

Barren blanched before a sob escaped him. No matter what he said, it wouldn’t sound good.

Finally Vana hissed, “Answer him!”

“Because he was controlling me,” he finally spluttered.

Meres sighed. “Ciardis, Terris. Go back to camp.”

To her surprise, it was Terris who stepped forward to argue with him.

“We’re staying.” The look he gave them over his shoulder made Ciardis wonder if challenging him was wise.

“This is no place for girls.”

“We’re not girls.” The words were practically snarled by Terris.

“Young women, then,” replied Meres with a hint of irritation.

“Whatever is going on we should see,” said Terris with a stubborn look on her face.

“It’s not a pleasant experience!”

“No one said it would be!” shouted Terris.

Yep, there’s definitely something going on between these two
, thought Ciardis.

In the meantime, Vana was watching the exchange with something akin to amusement, and Barren just looked baffled.

“Fine, you want to stay,” said Meres gruffly. “Does that go for you, too, Ciardis?”

She nodded. Not trusting herself to speak. She wasn’t experienced in lot of things, but sometimes it felt like she knew more about the ills and cruelties than Terris, who’d come from a sheltered background in the Western Isles and was bonded at the hip—usually, anyway—to her sponsor. She had a sick feeling that they were both about to get an abrupt training in the tactics used on the battlefield to coerce information out of captives. Meres and Vana were going to get answers out of the boy in any way they could.

Pushing his hair back on his forehead, Meres turned back to Vana and Barren.

“We can’t torture you,” he said softly. “The treaty between the empire and the people of the forest prevents that. But we need information and we cannot let you just walk around if you know something pertinent, or worse—could be controlled by the shadow man at any moment.”

For the first time Barren exhibited some courage. He looked Meres in the eye as he said, “I understand.”

“Do you?” Meres asked gently.

Looking down at the knife in his hands, Meres continued, “When I was your age, I thought I understood, but I didn’t. I was proud and foolish and thought I could withstand anything.”

“Sir,” said Barren with strength in his voice, “I understand that I must protect my people. I can’t do that like this. I don’t know if the Shadow Man is still lurking in my mind waiting to take over, watching my movements. I can’t live like that. If you can help, then...then that’s what I want.”

“Well spoken,” said Meres. “The woman holding you at knifepoint has special skills. Skills I won’t get into here. But if anyone can break the spell he has on you and decipher the hold, it’s she.”

Not even bothering to try to move an inch, Barren addressed Vana, “Please, Milady, whatever you can do would help.”

“Very well,” said Vana. She turned to Terris and Ciardis, who stood silently in the background watching the scene unfold. Her eyes were unreadable, but Terris thought she saw regret in them.

Dropping her knife to the ground with a sudden movement, Vana gripped both sides of Barren’s head with steady hands. She swept his legs out from under him with a thrust out foot in the same movement. As he fell, she controlled the fall and they descended to the ground together so she was seated on the ground cross-legged with his head in her lap. Without pausing further, she delved deep into her mage core and proceeded to unlock his mind.

It wasn’t pretty to watch on a physical or a magical level.

With a weird mix of fear and anticipation spreading over her body, Ciardis watched as Barren’s body began to spasm. His head began to jerk back and forth between Vana’s palms soon after that, the shakes extending from his head down his body. Meres rushed over to hold down Barren’s torso, but that didn’t stop his legs and feet from kicking out. Meres cursed; he was going to hurt himself. The older mage called out to Terris and Ciardis, “Grab a leg and press down.”

They hurried over and tried to ride out the spasms. Pain crossed onto Barren’s unconscious face sporadically, and Ciardis could see that although Vana was still sitting upright with her legs crossed, she was just as unconscious. Her mind had gone elsewhere—deep into Barren’s. Ciardis didn’t want to let go of Barren’s leg, but she had the instinctive urge to jump into the mind-meld. She didn’t know why.

“Don’t even think about it,” said Meres from where he was pressing down on Barren’s chest with all of his strength.

“Your magic and your powers are too untested,” he said grimly. “You can—you
will
—do much more harm than good. Stay here.”

But Ciardis didn’t have a choice. Barren lurched up with one of the most powerful spasms yet and his hand gripped Ciardis’s.

Here we go again
, she thought wistfully.

And then she was gone, drowning in the sea of twined magic that was Vana and Barren’s mage cores. Ciardis, unlike Vana, who had trained enough to lock her body down despite an unconscious mind, fell forward in a slump. Her head fell next to Terris’s lap and her body weighing down Barren’s legs.

Looking at her friend thoughtfully, Terris said, “Well, that’s one way to hold him down.”

Meres had some choice curses for that.

F
alling into someone else’s magic was a curious experience. It wasn’t a controlled descent but a fast free-fall along a tunnel of light. She never knew when she would slow down or even if she would. It was exhilarating in that sense. Frightening in many others. This magic was filled with gold—pale and fiery—like the magic a child would want. Ciardis called out for Vana as she looked for the mage in the magic. The answer she got in her mind was very different from the voice she expected.

“Well, little mage,” said the Land Wight with satisfaction, “it has been a while since we met.”

Ciardis gasped and turned around in surprise. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel it.

“Is it really you, Land Wight?” she said. “Your presence is the same but your voice is stronger.”

“I have grown,” it said.

“Where are you? I can’t see you.” she said. “What are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here?” it said with gentle amusement. “You’re in my presence—in my mind, Ciardis Weathervane.”

She stared in awe. “I am? But I was heading for a mage, not for you. And besides, I thought only Sebastian had that ability.”

“You were and he does,” said the Land Wight. “But you were heading down the wrong path. To the Shadow Mage.”

“It was filled with light and—”

“Appearances can always deceive, little mage,” the Land Wight said firmly. “You should know this by now,” it chided.

“So you’re aware of the shadowman?” she said. “The mage?”

“He has taken the Ameles Forest into the darkness where I cannot follow,” the Land Wight said.

“How? Why?” she said.

“I cannot answer your second query. But the absence of the Princess Heir has caused pockets to form. Sebastian will fill them in time. I have grown stronger, but I do not yet have the strength to take back all of the land in the Prince Heir’s place.”