The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3) (98 page)

“Is that what you did?”

“Not the first time. I let it drag on, hoping he’d decide to back down, but that didn’t happen. After eight hours he started tiring, so I offered to call it a draw. He agreed, until my back was turned.” Badec took a deep breath. “I was lucky. I sensed it in time to throw up a shield. And then I ended it. But by letting it go on for so long, I’d damaged my reputation. Some of the other sorcerers decided I must not be as strong as they’d thought, so at the next meeting, I was challenged again. I didn’t make that mistake again. That duel was over in five minutes, and I wasn’t challenged again for ten years. If you don’t want to fight, you have to make it not worth the risk.”

“I hadn’t thought about it like that.”

“I hadn’t either until it happened,” Badec said. “At least if you’ve got to kill one of them, it’s Gwendolyn. She’s been asking for it since before you were born. Landoryn and all of Terah will be better off without her.”

“Damien said if I didn’t kill her tomorrow, he’d do it himself, no matter what anyone else said or did.”

Badec shook his head. “I understand how he feels, but you can’t let him do that. Glendymere won’t have any choice but kill him if he interferes.”

“I know. I went to see him to try to convince him to wait and challenge her, but he wouldn’t have any part of it. He’s afraid she won’t honor the rules.”

“He’s probably right. I don’t think she’d play by the rules either. If he’s determined to put an end to her, the only way you can protect him is to kill her yourself.”

“That’s want Glendymere said,” Kevin mumbled.

Yvonne took her husband’s hand as they started to fade. “We have to go now, but we wanted to wish you luck and tell you we love you. Be careful tomorrow.”

“Remember what I said, son,” Badec said. “Quick and deadly. That’ll protect you and keep the others safe by making them think twice about challenging you. Keep your eyes open and your shields up.”

“Take care,” Yvonne said as the light dimmed and their images disappeared.

Chapter 83

The Duel

Kevin didn’t sleep much after Badec and Yvonne left. He thought about what his father had said and everything Gwendolyn had done. In the end, it boiled down to one question. Could he intentionally take her life? And that’s where he hit the brick wall. He just wasn’t sure he could do it.

Dawn was breaking over the mountains when Chris walked into his room with two cups of coffee. “I heard you moving around. Thought you might be ready for coffee,” he said as he held a cup out to Kevin. “I heard voices in here last night. Your parents?”

Kevin nodded.

“What did they say about the duel?”

Kevin shook his head. “The same thing everyone says. Don’t let it drag on, make it fast and deadly.”

Chris nodded. “I agree.”

“I know.”

They drank their coffee for a few minutes and then Chris asked, “Did I ever tell you what Gwendolyn had planned for me and Elin if you didn’t turn over the key and Marcus?”

Kevin shook his head. “Slave auction?”

“Not exactly.” Chris had been saving this bit of information for the right moment. He really hoped his timing was right. “When we got back to her castle and she realized she had me as well as Elin, she said if you didn’t return her key Saturday morning, by Saturday night she’d give us both to Rolan. She said he enjoys causing pain and he likes having an audience. She wondered how long I’d be able to watch before I told him everything he wanted to know, including the location of his half-sister.”

Kevin’s eyes had gone dark while Chris was talking. “She was going to let Rolan torture Elin to get information out of you?”

Chris nodded.

Kevin placed his cup on the coffee table and stood up. His eyes were cold, his face totally devoid of emotion.

Chris had never seen him like this and had no idea what it meant. He was about to ask him if he was all right when Kevin took out his key and said, “I’m going to the canyon lands for a while.”

Then, with a turn of the key, he was gone.

~ ~ ~ ~

Two and a half hours later Chris was pacing back and forth between his room and Kevin’s. He had no idea where Kevin was or what he was doing. His stomach was so tied up in knots the mere thought of food made him nauseous. Had he made a big mistake telling Kevin what Gwendolyn had said? Had it been too much?

He tried to sit down, but he couldn’t stay put, so he got up and continued pacing. He was about to head to the office to see if Kevin was down there when the energy field opened and Kevin stepped out.

“Where in the world have you been?” Chris yelled.

“I told you where I was going,” Kevin answered calmly. “The canyon lands.”

“This whole time?”

Kevin nodded. “I had some things I needed to work out.”

“What things?”

“Just things.” Kevin picked up the tunic on his bed. “New?”

Chris took a deep breath and let it out in an exasperated sigh. “Cryslyn brought it up an hour ago. The leggings are new, too. As is the sash, but don’t get attached to any of them. They’ll probably disappear as soon as you change clothes.”

Kevin grinned. “At least something good will come out of this.”

“Are you okay?”

“I am now.” Then he turned to Chris and said, “I’m ready, Chris. You can stop worrying.”

“Are you sure?”

Kevin nodded. “Now, let’s go get Marcus and get this show on the road.”

~ ~ ~ ~

When Kevin and Chris arrived at Shadron’s, Marcus was in the kitchen with Kayla and Shadron, waiting. Kayla nodded to Chris as she walked over to Kevin and kissed his cheek. “You come back to us, you hear?”

Kevin smiled and kissed her cheek.

Shadron clapped him on the back. “Don’t turn your back on that woman, and don’t let her walk away. If you do, you’ll regret it.”

Kevin nodded and clasped his hand. “Thanks for everything.”

“I’ll expect you back here later this afternoon to pick up the pages. They’re packed and ready to go home. Don’t disappoint them.”

“Well, I guess we’d better get going. Don’t want to be late,” Kevin said with a grin, trying to ease the tension in the room. Then with a nod, he held out his arms, and as soon as Chris and Marcus touched him, he turned the key and they were gone.

No one else was on Broker’s Island when they arrived.

“Good,” Kevin said. “I wanted to be the first one here.” Then he looked around with his seeing eye. “Marcus, I’m checking out the island, and I want you to do it, too. Search every nook and cranny where a person might hide. I don’t trust Gwendolyn not to have someone planted here to help her take me out.”

Chris frowned. “Wouldn’t Glendymere know?”

“Probably, but with all the people who will be here today, I don’t want to take any chances one might slip by him. I want to be sure.”

Half an hour later, the island had been thoroughly searched, and shortly afterwards, the other sorcerers started arriving.

The first to arrive was Damien. He walked over to Kevin and wished him luck. Then he said he still meant what he’d said last week, that one way or another, Gwendolyn would not leave that island alive. For once Kevin didn’t argue. He just nodded and thanked Damien for supporting him on the council over the past year.

Damien frowned and walked back towards the beach where the other sorcerers had gathered. When he passed by Chris, he asked, “Is he ready for this?”

Chris smiled and nodded as he thought,
“I hope.”

“I do, too,”
Chris heard Glendymere say. He looked up in the sky and spotted the dragon flying in from the east. He’d expected Glendymere to arrive by key, but he had to admit the dragon’s entrance was impressive as he flew over the island and settled on the ground.

“I see the Master Sorcerer has arrived. Is the challenger present?”
Glendymere swung his long neck around to look at the gathered sorcerers. Smoke drifted up from his nostrils. Several of the sorcerers turned pale, but no one spoke. Glendymere frowned and snorted more smoke into the air.
“Is Gwendolyn, Seated Sorcerer of Landoryn, present?”
he roared into their minds.

Before anyone could answer, a glimmer of light off to the right marked her arrival. Gwendolyn tilted her head to Glendymere. “I trust you’ll honor the rules of a duel, dragon.”

“They will be honored, and enforced, sorcerer,”
Glendymere snarled as he glared at her. Then he turned to the spectators.
“This is a duel to the death. Once it has begun, no one is to interfere in any way. The penalty for violating this rule is immediate death. The only one who can call it off is the challenger.”
He cut his eyes towards Gwendolyn.
“Does the challenger wish to end this now?”

Gwendolyn sneered. “The duel is on.”

Glendymere nodded.
“Present the keys.”

Kevin walked over to Glendymere, took off the chain with the two keys, and held them out to him. Then Glendymere turned towards Gwendolyn and raised his eyebrows.
“And yours?”

“You already have mine,” she snapped.

“Not the one you used today. I need it now.”

Gwendolyn hesitated. Then she removed the key from her pocket and held it in the palm of her hand. As Glendymere lifted it from her hand, she said, “And when this is over, I want both of my keys back.”

Glendymere shook his head.
“Each seated sorcerer gets one key to Terah, and only one.”
After the keys were tucked away out of sight, Glendymere nodded towards a big rectangle scorched in the dirt. One end was marked “Master Sorcerer” and the other “Challenger.” Kevin and Gwendolyn walked into the dueling area and took their places.

“Sorcerers, prepare to duel.”

“Gwendolyn,” Kevin said loud enough for her to hear, but not loud enough for the other sorcerers to hear over the sounds of the surf. “It’s not too late. You can still call this off.”

She laughed. “You’re not getting out of this, half-breed. Prepare to die.” And with that, she threw a bolt.

Kevin’s shield was up before the bolt was anywhere near him.

“One last chance, Gwendolyn. I will kill you if we fight.”

“You don’t have what it takes, boy,” she snarled and tossed another couple of bolts, one right after the other.

“Yes, I do,” Kevin said as he easily defended against her bolts. “I’ve already killed one sorcerer because he left me no choice. I can kill another. Call it off if you want to see your grandchildren grow up.”

Chris couldn’t hear what was being said, but he could spot the bolts, and so far the only one tossing them was Gwendolyn. The knot in his stomach tightened.

Marcus also watched the bolts, but he wasn’t surprised Kevin hadn’t thrown any. He figured Kevin was feeling her out.

The other sorcerers were getting antsy. They knew Gwendolyn was playing with Kevin, tossing bolts without thinking about it. They were waiting for her to spring some kind of trap, and there wasn’t one among them who was confident Kevin would be ready for it. He was too young, too untested. He didn’t have his father’s experience or wisdom.

Edwin’s hands were damp with nervous sweat, as were Jason’s. They both remembered Badec’s first duel and fervently hoped Kevin wouldn’t try to wait Gwendolyn out. It hadn’t turned out well for Badec, and they could guarantee it wouldn’t work with Gwendolyn.

Starvos was more a detached observer than a concerned spectator. Regan had never seen a duel before and was fascinated with the whole experience. Geoffrey had never seen one either, and he wished he’d decided to miss this one.

Bianca chewed her bottom lip and clenched her hands together to keep from wringing them like Timera was doing. Judith didn’t much care who won. She didn’t really know either one of them.

Malcolm and Rolan stood apart from the others, watching Gwendolyn work. Rolan figured she had a 50-50 chance, but Malcolm had no doubt she’d be the new Master Sorcerer by evening, and he could hardly wait to congratulate her.

Damien stood off by himself, wondering if he was going to die that day finishing what Kevin wouldn’t.

Gwendolyn laughed as she threw half a dozen energy bolts, one right after the other. She expected Kevin to drop his shields afterwards so he could answer her bolts, and she planned to have a bolt right there when he did, but she hadn’t expected him to be able to toss any bolts back between hers. Kevin’s bolts took her by surprise. She managed to block them, but barely. For the first time she wondered if she’d underestimated him. Maybe, just maybe, he was better than she’d expected.

Kevin caught a flicker of doubt on her face. “Call if off, Gwendolyn. Now, while you still can.”

Her answer was a huge volley of bolts, thrown so they came at him from all sides, but it was nothing compared to the volleys Glendymere threw at him at every practice. He defended easily and tossed a dozen back at her, followed by a dozen more.

Gwendolyn defended against the first round, but she was so focused on catching Kevin with his shields down she wasn’t paying close enough attention to what was heading her way, and as she started to lower her shields to throw a barrage of bolts at him, a couple from his second round got through. Before her shields were completely down, she was gone. All that remained was a pile of ashes.

The duel was over.

Kevin took a couple of deep breaths as he stared at the spot where she had been standing. He’d killed her. It wasn’t something he’d wanted to do, but it was done.

Glendymere floated Gwendolyn’s key over to Alastar and held it in front of him. Alastar glared at Kevin as he took the key. “This isn’t over, Myron,” he said with ice dripping from his voice. “I’m not going to let you get away with murdering my mother.”

“No! You do not get to accuse me of murder,” Kevin roared as he jerked around to face the man. “Your mother raided Camden for slaves, but I didn’t kill her for that. She came to my home and kidnapped my assistant and my page, but I didn’t kill her for that either. Then she challenged me. And with that challenge, she chose to die. I tried to get her to call it off, not once, but four different times. Each time she refused. Your mother chose death. It was her decision, not mine.”