A Distant Tomorrow (26 page)

You will know it,
she heard Ethne’s voice reassuring her.

Lara felt the strength pouring back into her body. Ahead of her, the northwest tower of Usi loomed dark and threatening. Even on this glorious day there was something sinister about it. She shivered but walked onward, noticing that the closer she got to the tower the more bleak the ground beneath her feet was. There was no green here, she realized, only rock and dirt. Reaching the small door that opened into the tower Lara stopped, realizing she had no key.

“Use your magic,” Kaliq’s voice instructed her. He was not visible to her.

“Open portal,” Lara said to the door. The small door creaked open with difficulty.

L
ARA
AWOKE
,
and it was a startlingly beautiful day. Slipping from her bed she looked out her window, and watched the sunrise staining the morning skies in a plethora of vibrant colors. The air was warm and fragrant with the scent of roses— Wait! Had not this all happened before? Then she realized that the dark magic of Usi the sorcerer was attempting to keep her from entering his tower. “Repel, spell!” she cried and was once more before the small door, the sound of its creaking still in her ears.

It had not been opened in nearly five hundred years. She ducked as a small black flying creature flew out of the tower, and almost shrieked as several rats scampered past her, one over her very feet. Then drawing a deep breath, Lara stepped into the tower, walking toward the stone stairs just beyond the open door—which now shut itself with a loud bang. The sound of dark laughter sent a ripple down her spine, but she realized that she was not afraid.

“You are clever, Lara. I had thought to hold you off longer,” his voice said to her out of the darkness. Yet he had no form that she could discern, a fact that was very unnerving.

Ignoring him, she let her eyes adjust to the tower’s darkness. To acknowledge him would only rob her of her strength, and she needed all of her strength for what lay ahead. “Torch!” she said, and a small torch appeared in her hand, casting a weak glow into the gloom. To her left was a door. “Portal open,” Lara commanded. The door creaked open to reveal a flight of stairs that obviously led to a dungeon. The air was fetid and damp, and a despairing moaning issued from deep below. She quickly chanted, “Portal close!” More ghosts than Usi’s lived here.

She turned back and mounted the winding staircase. The stone steps beneath her boots were worn, and now and again her foot slipped on some slick substance beneath it. She dared not lower her light to see what it was. She would not permit Usi to distract her from her purpose, which was his complete and utter destruction. Now the tower was so silent she could hear her own heart beating loudly in her ears. Her legs felt suddenly heavy. She could hardly lift her feet one after the other. Lara gained the first landing, where she saw a small door to her right. Curious, she opened it, and gasped with shock. The wall before her was hung with the bones of Usi’s victims. Long hair in various hues—browns, blondes, reds and black—still clung to the skulls. Suddenly the skeletons began to dance jerkily, their bones rattling together.

Tears sprang into her eyes and she slammed the door shut. It was then she heard the crack of a whip. The piteous screams of a woman being brutally beaten filled the air, accompanied by the maniacal laughter of the sorcerer. Lara watched, fascinated yet horrified, as from beneath the closed door a rivulet of blood began to flow out onto the landing. She quickly turned away, and began to climb the second flight of steps up the tower but the screams followed her as she struggled upward.

Good,
she heard Kaliq’s voice say.
Keep moving, Lara. When you give any thought to what happened in this accursed place, you give it momentary life again. Concentrate only on getting to the chamber at the top of this tower! The soul you now hear in torment long ago went to her Creator.

Lara swallowed hard, and forced her legs to move upward. Unexpectedly a tremendous wind began to blow down from the heights of the tower. She fell onto the stone stairs, striving to get up. Her torch flickered dangerously. Suddenly angry, Lara forced herself to her feet, and tucking her head into her chest she fought her way back up the staircase. One step. Then another. One step at a time. But always forward, for she was now more determined than ever to reach the sorcerer’s chamber. Just three more steps. One. Two. A shriek of rage almost sent her tumbling back again, but Lara pushed herself up the final step, crying as she did, “Portal open!”

The door opened slowly, slowly. The ferocious wind had now disappeared, but as she stepped into the chamber Lara could feel the sorcerer’s evil presence. It would remain to harm her unless she could bring light into the room. “Kaliq, help me!” she called.

“He cannot help you, Lara. I am master here, and you will soon be in my power, my beautiful faerie woman,” Usi murmured, the sound so close she felt the moist heat of his breath in her ear. “Yield to me,” the voice caressed her seductively. “Yield, and together we will control our worlds, and know the pleasures denied mortals.”

His words weakened her. She could almost feel his hands on her, touching her breasts, her face, her pure golden hair. The darkness swirled about her, beckoning her into its deepest heart. Her strength was beginning to drain away now. She could feel herself surrendering in spite of herself. Lara gasped for breath, for it seemed as if all the air in the room was being sucked away. One breath. The second deeper, the third deeper yet, and her head began to clear. Power began flowing back into her body. “No!” she cried. “You will not defeat me. I will defeat you! Where once light flowed let it flow again!” she cried loudly, pointing to the place where the tower window should be.

She heard the crack of brick against stone. “Welcome light! Welcome warmth! Cleanse this chamber with your goodness,” Lara said, opening her arms wide. “Banish evil in whatever form it may take!” A faint ray of sunshine crept slowly across the stone floor from a large crack in the wall before her. “Window open!” Lara cried with a loud voice, and the mortar and bricks that had blocked the tower window suddenly exploded, falling into the room as the golden sunlight poured into the dark space as it had not been done for centuries.

“Arrgh!”

Lara whirled to see the smoky shade of Usi writhing as the warm light began to devour him. Briefly she saw him as he had once been—tall, young and very handsome, his dark eyes compelling, his very beauty belying his cruel and wicked character.

“Faerie woman!” he gasped. “Save me!” Beautiful hands with long elegant fingers reached out toward her as Lara backed away from him. “Help me!”

“Begone, and never again return to this realm or any other!” Lara cried, pointing, and the lightning from her hand cracked, destroying the sorcerer forever.

“Well done!” Kaliq said appearing beside her. “You have banished him.”

“My faerie powers grow stronger,” Lara marveled.

“Only because you use them for good,” Kaliq told her.

“I am so tired,” Lara said, slumping against him for a moment.

“I know,” he told her. “It was a difficult climb, my love, but you must find the sorcerer’s book of spells before you give in to exhaustion.”

“And then this tower must be destroyed,” Lara replied, straightening. “It is the only way the spirits of those imprisoned and tortured here will be free again. I will plant a garden here in their memory,” she told him.

“The book,” he repeated.

“Help me look,” she said, and together they began to search. The book of spells was finally discovered in the rear of a high shelf. There was no other book at all in the chamber. Only vials, and jars of herbs, and seeds, and various animal parts. Lara opened the volume and began going through the pages.

“Yes, this is his book of spells,” she confirmed.

“Is the hex he used on the Terahn men there?” Kaliq asked.

Lara continued to thumb through the book. Then she began to chuckle. “I have found it,” she said. She pointed to a page.

Kaliq looked down, and silently read the words.
Ears that heed a woman’s call, shall close and hear her not at all.
The Shadow Prince began to laugh. “It is very simple,” he said. “Clever, and ridiculously simple.”

“But it has been very effective for over five hundred years,” Lara reminded him.

“And the reverse of the curse would be?” he asked her.

“Let us leave the tower and try my spell on Magnus, to see if he can hear his sister,” Lara suggested. She picked up the book and gave it to him. “I promised the High Priest that it would be destroyed. When I am certain my spell works, will you burn it?”

He shook his head. “No. You and the Dominus must do the deed. I will, however, take the ashes, and dispose of them in several places so that the book may never be mended and used again.”

Together they descended the three flights of stairs to the bottom of the tower. There they discovered that the door which had closed behind Lara was now wide-open. Retracing Lara’s steps they returned to the apartments of the Dominus where Magnus Hauk awaited Lara. He was pale with obvious worry, but Lara made no mention of it.

“I believe I can remove the curse,” she said. “Let us find your sister, and see if I am right,” Lara said to him.

The Dominus sent a servant to fetch Sirvat, who came on a run. She looked anxiously at her brother, and then at Lara. Her eyes widened with admiration as she saw the Shadow Prince. Kaliq saw her regard and favored the girl with a smile. She was a pretty creature.

“I believe I can reverse the curse,” Lara told Sirvat. “I need you here. When I have spoken the words I want you to speak to Magnus.”

Sirvat nodded.

“Ears that once heeded woman’s call, shall open again and hear them all,” Lara said, quietly but firmly.

For a moment afterwards no one said a thing, and then Sirvat ventured, “Magnus, Brother, do you hear me?”

“You have a voice like tinkling bells, little sister,” the Dominus replied, and Sirvat burst into tears of happiness, flinging herself into his arms.

“You can hear me!” she sobbed. “Oh all praise to the Great Creator, you can hear me!”

Magnus Hauk’s face was wreathed in smiles. His eyes met Lara’s. “Thank you.”

“It worked upon you. Now I must make it work on all your realm, my lord Dominus.” She turned to the Shadow Prince. “How? I cannot go from village to village, Kaliq. There has to be an easy way to do this.”

“Gather all the men here in the castle, and see if you can undo the spell for them,” the Dominus said, and Kaliq nodded in agreement.

When every man in the castle from the highest to the lowest had been brought together in the Great Hall the Dominus spoke to them.

“The faerie woman, Lara of Hetar, daughter of Swiftsword and Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries, has bravely gone into the tower once inhabited by Usi the Sorcerer to retrieve his book of spells. Finding it, she has reversed the curse that was laid upon us five centuries ago. We believed our women could not speak all these years, but it was our ears that had been stopped from hearing them. Lara has spoken her spell to me, and I now hear my sister, and the women servants in my house. Now we will see if she can reverse the plague that has affected the men of Terah for over five hundred years. Be silent for her words!”

Looking down upon the men in the hall Lara could see the questions, and the disbelief, in their eyes. Drawing a breath she intoned loudly, “Ears that once heeded woman’s call, shall open again and hear them all!”

The room remained silent, and then Sirvat said, “Good men of Terah, has your hearing been restored once more?”

There was a collective gasp, and then the men began to babble excitedly, crying that they could hear the voice of the lady Sirvat.

“It still isn’t good enough,” Lara grumbled. “What of the rest of Terah? Even if I went from village to village it would take me forever to reverse the hex on all the men of Terah. Kaliq, what say you?”

“Dasras has the ability to fly when he chooses. He can take two upon his back. If you and Magnus traveled from fjord to fjord it would take you only a week or two to visit each village. Any not there when you came could come to the castle later. But most of the men of Terah would be able to hear again in a relatively short time,” Sirvat said.

“And we must go to the temple as well,” Lara said.

“We will go to the temple last,” Magnus Hauk said. “My uncle may be forward thinking, but many of his priests still adhere to Aslak’s belief that all magic is wicked. Let us prove them wrong first, and then release them from the curse last.”

“He is very wise for a mortal,” Kaliq noted softly to Lara. Then he said, “My lord Dominus, I am no longer needed here. But there is one gift I will give you before I depart. The northwest tower must be destroyed quickly. While Lara has banished the specter of Usi forever, the tower remains haunted by the souls tortured there. They cannot be freed until the tower is gone. With your permission, I will commence my own magic now.”

“I would be grateful if you would,” Magnus Hauk said.

“I would make a garden there eventually,” Lara told the Dominus.

“How will you destroy the tower?” the Dominus wanted to know.

“We princes of the shadows have the ability to manipulate the weather. Even now, outside your hall a storm is gathering. When the storm has passed the tower will be no more. Let the ground there rest free of its evil burden for a year, and then Lara may plant her garden.” He turned to face Lara. “Burn the book now, and I will take the ashes with me to dispose of as we discussed.”