A Darkness Unleashed (Book 2) (42 page)

“We will take the vessel from here,” one of the shamans barked. “You may return to the surface and begin preparations for a great feast to celebrate the return of mighty Galdreth!”

The guard holding Tallen paused. “Are you certain, Brother? The Warchief is not here.”

“Warchief Slar has chosen not to attend the joining.” Tallen could hear the lie in the shaman’s words, even if the warrior could not. “We will present the vessel to Galdreth while you and your men return to the camps.”

Tallen collapsed to the stone floor when the warriors released him, only to be jostled back to his feet moments later by a pair of shamans. The pushed him up a gradual incline to where a forest of stalactites and stalagmites met in a line of thick columns. Behind them, two larger pillars, nearly as wide as Tallen was tall, stood from floor to ceiling. A strange glow surrounded them, one of a pearlescent shade, the other a dark violet. The two lights melded together to form an eerie glow about the chamber.

The awareness Tallen had felt during their descent had only intensified, filling his heart with both joy and dread. A sense of being watched emanated from the pillars, and a dark foreboding now joined it. He almost retched again.

The shamans placed Tallen before the dark column, and he noticed the thin crack that ran down its side. A soft hum began to emerge from the crack, and a strange smoke leaked into the chamber, swirling and casting its own purplish light.

Searching deep within himself, Tallen sought the memory that the smoke tickled in his mind.
Something I’ve seen before…a long time ago, and not exactly like it. Something similar, yet different... But what?

Standing there, swaying with dizziness, surrounded by orc shamans, looking up at what could only be the enemy that had been searching for him, Tallen lost hope. His heart crashed inward, the initial collapse heaving with pain, but leaving only emptiness in the end. Tallen let his thoughts go and surrendered to his demise. The silence of his acceptance deafened him to the ceremony and blinded him to the cave and its ethereal occupants. He slipped away from everything, and his doom became his only being.

Deep in the recesses of his brain, a small light flickered. A diamond pinprick sparkled at a distance. It began to draw closer to him, both mentally and physically. The closer he focused on it the more it glimmered, and when he reached to touch it, he found Psoul.
My medallion!

He found the Aspect rubbery at first, hard to grab hold of. The
magewort
in his system deadened it, even through the power of the ancient pendant of four twisted metals. He strained against the numbness, gritting his teeth and attempting to pull the Aspect into his consciousness. A short trickle at last flowed through, and Tallen pooled it until he felt he had enough.
One chance is all I will get.

He felt the medallion close in toward him, and he did not understand why, but as it did, he found himself able to draw in more of his power. Tallen at last reached out, sensing the six shamans standing around him embracing their own power. He threaded out the Psoul magic, slipping it between the strands of their magic, which they used to hold him and summon their master. It twisted up around their
psahn
, knitting its way between the threads of their life force. All six stood there unaware, and all six had his magic twisted about their lives.

Tallen pulled on the strings and all six shamans fell to the floor, dead as butchered meat.

The smoky shadow above him coalesced into a form like a shadowy dragon. Twin points of silver stared out at him. The smoke swirled toward the roof of the cavern, and suddenly he remembered of what it reminded him.

“Now, Human, you shall be my vessel, and I shall ride you to power beyond all others!”

Tallen looked up, the fear in his heart melting away and leaving a still coolness behind. He knew of a place where the dark spirit before him might find an equal – an equal Tallen already knew. “Good luck with that.”

He swept his hand over his forehead, twisting a beam of Psoul magic as Dorias had taught him what seemed like ages ago. When the net about his head fell away, he collapsed into a sudden, deep sleep, followed only by the sound of a woman screaming his name.

T
he emptiness of the Dreamrealm comforted him, as if he had never left its embrace. Its familiarity clung to him like a favored sweater. The brilliant starpoints of other people’s dreams spun about him and his disembodied senses. Tallen reached out, enamored of their infinitely shaded glory.

“No,” he said to himself. “I must focus. I must remember why I am here.” He cast his perception about. “Gan! Gan!” He shouted the word into the solitude. “I know you are here, too. I need your help. By the Waters, you have to come to me. I have nowhere else to turn!”

Silence reigned in the darkness. Tallen waited, the quiet unbroken even by the thumping of his absent heart.

“Gan!”

Tallen sensed the presence before the first silvery wisps of smoke began to surround him. They flowed in finger-like tendrils that circled around him into a draconic form of light. Coal black eyes, their depths darker than the Dreamrealm, drew in Tallen. He lost himself for a moment, suspended on the edge of those ebony pools.

Why have you come here, Human? I warned you that Galdreth would find you in the Dreamrealm.

The silky steel voice echoed in his head and filled Tallen’s awareness. He knew that, despite its power, he must face the silvery spirit with his own strength. “It is too late. Galdreth’s servants have brought me to your hidden chamber, the one with the two great pillars. I assume that is where you set your trap with the Elves.”

The Dragonsoul solidified, withdrawing the tendrils surrounding him.

Then you have failed. Your people will be thrown into Chaos, and darkness shall cover the lands.

Tallen would have shaken his head had it existed in this realm. “Why can’t you stand against Galdreth? Why can’t you face your counterpart –grant the balance you are meant to provide?”

Gan floated in the galaxy of dreams, its dead stare boring into Tallen.

My half of the prison still holds. I cannot face Galdreth in direct conflict. It is our nature that we cannot harm one another. I could no more stop my darker half than you could have one hand fight the other. I am sorry…Tallen Westar…but I cannot save you.

Tallen felt the hint of another presence in the Dreamrealm, one far more sinister than Gan.

My dark twin comes. Galdreth will claim you, and then all hope for your world to find peace is lost.

Tallen’s mind scrambled, chasing down a dozen imagined paths of potential escape or conflict. None ended well for him. The sense of foreboding he had left behind in his body crept upon him again, and even the comforting presence of Gan could not ease it.

“Wait.” He looked into the inky depths of the Dragonsoul’s eyes. The thought that had passed through his mind shocked him, but he could see no better choice. “What if you did it first – took me as Galdreth intends? Could that stop this joining?”

The bright spirit froze, its white, smoky tendrils caught as if held in time. A silent moment passed.

Galdreth could not take your body if I were to inhabit it. And that would be the only way for me to escape my part of the prison. But I cannot be certain what it would do to you. We would be…two spirits in one body. I am not even certain how I could handle it.

Tallen let himself feel like he could breathe. “It would not destroy me? We could work together to fight Galdreth?”

The black eyes blinked and the voice softened.

There is a chance that together, our powers would be great indeed. There is no telling what we might be able to build.

Tallen sensed something hidden in the Dragonsoul’s words. “However…”

However you could be too simple a creature to handle the melding. It might well destroy you in the process. And that could well destroy me.

Again the spirit paused.

Cooperation in such things if far more difficult than simple possession. However, it is possible that you could survive.

“Then do it,” Tallen said.

Gan hovered there for a moment, then a sudden pain split Tallen’s consciousness.

Very well, Tallen Westar. If you insist…

A
heaving convulsion shook Tallen’s body as he slammed back into it. Pain roared through his brain like nothing he had sensed before. It blew away the
magewort
haze and decimated any reserve of Psoul resting in his mind. A flood of memories, dreams, and images crashed through his consciousness, clattering about and tearing apart his knowledge of self. Sensations of a vast being, followed by thoughts of a hundredfold genius. And faces – thousands and thousands of faces rushed through Tallen’s mind, elves, humans, dwarves and orcs. Even dragons flew through his vision, hundreds of them, and he knew each by name.

Tallen opened his eyes, and the world flickered around him between the normal sight and his Psoul web sense. One moment he saw the pillars, the shamans’ bodies, and the hovering presence of Galdreth, the next it flashed to the glowing semblance of
psahn
from a few beings gathered behind him. In both views, Galdreth’s black presence swelled to a menacing height.

“What have you done?”
The dark Dragonsoul’s voice grated like a ton of rusty iron.
“I will destroy you if you resist. Even Gan can no longer stop me!”

The silken voice called out inside his head.
That is not true. Let us give Galdreth a taste of our new strength.

Tallen raised his hands and threw out a torrent of unbridled magic. He felt all the Aspects of his power mix through the lens of Gan, and he hurled it at Galdreth.

The dark Dragonsoul screamed, its smoky form fading until it disappeared. Tallen breathed a sigh of relief, but without warning he felt a hand touch him. He spun, ready to lash out with his power.

Maddi threw her arms around his neck in a tight squeeze. She murmured in his ear – soft things that spoke of her love. They did not entirely penetrate Tallen’s awareness, flooded as it was with his sudden joining with Gan. He only knew that he loved her, and that he wanted to cling to her forever.

A concussion exploded between them, throwing the two apart and shaking the entire chamber. Tallen crashed into the forest of columns, while Maddi struck the cracked pillar. It still glowed violet, but the white marble had become dim and lifeless.

I have never seen my prison. It is a strange thing to think I slept within that column of dragonrock for a thousand years.

“We have to help Maddi,” Tallen roared, still uncertain where Gan ended and he began.

“We’re here, Tallen,” a familiar voice called. “Follow Slar out. I’ll get Maddi.”

Jaerd stood before him, his face covered in a scruffy beard and an expression of worry. Tallen clasped his brother’s wrist. “I’m not leaving without her.”

Another burst of energy erupted between the two brothers. Tallen crashed into a thick stalagmite. Stunned, he forced himself to his feet only to see the shadowy form of Galdreth hovering over Maddi’s body. Jaerd lay senseless next to her. First, the dark form whipped a shadowy tendril through Jaerd, who convulsed and screamed in pain. Then the Dragonsoul moved toward Maddi, a foul intent in its writhing, smoky pattern.

“No!” Tallen shouted, throwing out another burst of raw power. It crashed into the dark Dragonsoul, but also threw Maddi several feet into the air. “NO!” he screamed again.

“If I will not have you, then I will have this one. She may be more powerful than you, yet in a different way. Yes. I think she will do nicely.”

Galdreth swelled and then spun inward, swirling over Maddi. She pushed herself up on her elbows and shook her head.

“Maddi! You have to run!”

Tallen’s words were lost in the rumble of the cavern, when suddenly Galdreth disappeared. The rumble fell silent, and Maddi rose to her feet. She looked at Jaerd, her expression full of confusion, and then slowly turned to face Tallen. Her sky blue eyes focused on him for a second, and they looked as if she would smile. Then her lips curled downward, twisted by cruelty. A black film passed over her irises, and she sneered as she blinked.