Green Rider (68 page)

"Shhh."

He staggered to his feet and nearly broke contact with her to charge at his brother, but she grabbed his arm. "No. We must be touching, or the spell will break. And you will not stop him by simply leaping on him."

Indeed, Amilton—or should she say
Amilton-Shawdell?—
had become more than he seemed. With the spell of fading upon her she could see the transparent form of the Elelian overlapping Amilton. She was not sure if he could see her, but he did not seem to. When she had last disappeared in his presence, he had vanished from her own sight, but now it was not so.

The Eletian's image flickered and waned, and he was hunched as if in considerable pain. Blood soaked his gray cloak.
Good, she
thought, and she wished him more pain and then some, but Amilton stood with him lending him strength. A direct current of power, like a bloated vein, flowed from Amilton's stone and into the Eletian's chest.

Amilton Shawdell glanced vaguely in their direction, but his eyes did not fall on them. So far he seemed blind to them. He put his hands on his lips. "It seems the Greenie has decided to join us."

Karigan backed away, drawing the king with her. "Slowly." she breathed in the king's ear. "so no one detects movement."

"I thought I told you to stay with the horse marshal," the king whispered

Karigan grinned though he could not see it. "And miss the fun?" Just before Amilton had slammed all the doors shut, she had vanished in the secret corridor and against Marshal Martel’s protests, slipped into the throne room. A good thing, too, or she would have been cut off from her father and the king.

A black hall of energy, the type of which Karigan was already too familiar with, formed above Amilton-Shawdell's hand. He smashed it on the floor very near where they had stood. Currents of energy slithered away like black snakes.

Karigan guided the king into a shadowed alcove.

"Do you see the Eletian?" she asked.

"The Eletian! No. I thought you destroyed him."

The king must not see the world as she could even when under the spell of the brooch. Karigan bit her lip. "He was not destroyed. Now he stands with
your brother,
wwakened but feeding off him."

"The eyes and voice were familiar to me." Zachaey leaned against the pillar, this new despair weighed down his shoulders.

"Come out of hiding," Amilton-Shawdell said. "We shall see you soon anyway. Why not preserve your strength?"

"If he is weak now, how can we stop him before he gets stronger?" Zachary asked. "Even Brienne and Rory could not close in on him."

Karigan gripped hard on the hilt of the sword of the First Rider as she thought. "Perhaps we must force him to expend a large amount of energy at once. Using my magic has a weakening effect on me, and maybe it is the same for him."

Zachary did not look pleased by her answer. His features in the dimness of her gray sight were taut.

"It's that," Karigan said, "or we try to get that black stone away from him. That is where the power is coming from."

Amilton-Shawdell paced in front of the throne chair, his eyes darting into the shadows. The half light of the chamber skewed the shadows of the assembled into into monstrous shapes on the walls and ceiling.

"We could send our guards to relight the lamps," Amilton-Shawdell said, "but we would hate to destroy such an appropriate ambiance."

The king glanced at her… through her… with concern. His eyes were blackened sockets in her gray world.

"Can you sustain this?" he asked.

Karigan sighed, deeply tired. The events of the day and night combined had taken their toll on her long hours ago. Her gray vision had turned leaden, and though she did not wish to admit it and thus disappoint the king, she felt as though she might drop from the weight of the magic she used, "Not much longer."

"Perhaps we can persuade you to come forward," Amilton-Shawdell said. His eyes scanned the assembled as if searching for someone. "You there!" He pointed into the group before him and beckoned with his finger. Stevic G'ladheon walked forward with halting steps as if he were trying to resist but could not.

Karigan clenched the king's wrist hard.

"Uh…" The king grimaced, and squirmed in her grip. "I will hold onto you. You are crushing my good wrist."

Karigan obeyed only half aware as he fumbled for her hand. "This is peculiar," he muttered. "I talk to a pillar and hold onto air."

Karigan wasn't listening. Her attention was riveted on her father.

"Yes," Amilton-Shawdell said. "This one is related to the Greenie, is he not?" He stepped close to Stevic, looking him up and down. "A merchant. A merchant by the name of G'ladheon. We know this name." Another black ball of magic formed over his hand.

A small gasp left Karigan's lips.

"Your offspring," Amilton-Shawdell said, "knows well how this feels."

He lobbed the ball at Stevic. The magic exploded on his chest and ropy tendrils of black twined around his shoulders and arms. Stevic threw his head back in a silent howl of agony.

THE FINAL PLAY

The tangle of black currents snared Karigan's father. They blanketed his chest and wove between his arms. They rippled down his legs and up his spine. Her father could not move, he could not speak, he couldn't even scream.

When Karigan wavered on her feet, the king's grip firmed and steadied her. She knew her father's pain. She knew it too well, but how could she choose between protecting the king and helping her own father?

The king made the decision for her. "You had better go help your father," he said. "I cannot defeat my brother by hiding in the shadows anyway."

She looked at him, at his earnest expression, and she knew she looked upon a man unlike any other. This was why he must be king; this was why he had to succeed. "I'm sorry," she said, her voice hoarse.

"I know," the king said, "though it is not your doing. The heavens know there has been enough suffering this night." And he let her go.

Karigan strode from her hiding place on shaky legs. "I am here," she said, dropping the cloak of invisibility as she went. The colors of the normal world collided into place in her vision, and the startled expressions of those who watched sharpened as though a veil had been lifted from their faces. She felt exposed as if she had suddenly shed all her clothes.

She halted before Amilton-Shawdell. The Eletian was now gone from her sight except in the light blue coloring of Amilton's eyes. She did not permit herself even a brief glance at her father trapped in his agony, for she would snap if she looked, lose her self-control, and reveal her weakness to the tyrant who stood before her. Then all would be lost.

She licked her lips and tried to put on her best merchant's face, a mask that gave nothing away. "Release my father," she said.

Amilton-Shawdell lifted a brow.

"I came out like you wanted," Karigan said. "You let him go."

"I rather like this," he said. "You trying not to show your pain. Why should I let him go?"

Karigan trembled with anger. "He has done nothing to you."

"But you have."

"Then punish me!"

Amilton-Shawdell smiled. "Such spirit," he said. "We shall reward you with what you request—your father's relief from pain, and your own punishment." With a flick of his hand the magical currents dissolved.

Karigan hastened to her father's side to support him just as his legs gave out. Sevano took the other side.

"Father?" she said.

His eyes shot around the throne room, unfocused. He swayed on his feet. "What?"

She shook him gently. "Father, it's me, Karigan."

He looked down at her, at first without recognition. Slowly his eyes focused. "Kari?"

She embraced him soundly, and all she had held pent up since leaving Selium threatened to gush out then and there; the hurts and struggles, the loneliness. Yet she knew this was not the time to give in to her emotions. She pressed into him hard. When she looked up, his cheeks were wet.

"Touching," Amilton-Shawdell said. His double voice carried thick overtones of mockery. "One's father is so very important, is he not?"

King Zachary emerged from the shadows, not stopping until he reached the dais. He craned his neck to look up at Amilton-Shawdell. "Our father ignored me. He loved
you
. He loved you even after you made too many mistakes. It was me he felt less for."

"He named you king."

"Yes, because he loved Sacoridia, too."

Amilton-Shawdell waved his hand dismissively. "It is all in the past. Other matters interest us now."

"Yes, there are two of you now, isn't there? But soon there will be only one, isn't that right?"

"One? We are together. We work for one purpose."

"The man who was my brother will be no more," Zachary said.

Amilton-Shawdell rocked on his feet, his forehead crinkling and jaw clenched. Veins bulged on his neck, and his hands curled into balls as if he strove with himself for mastery. A black glow blossomed around the stone at his throat, and his blue eyes flared. In a moment the struggle was over. His features smoothed over and his hands relaxed.

"We wish it." He stepped down the dais and stood face-to-face with his brother. "We have learned to draw on the powers of
Kanmorhan Vane
. They strengthen and unite us. You were a fool to refuse this partnership."

"Not I," Zachary said. "For all Father ignored me, we both shared a great love for this land. You would destroy it. An opening in the D'Yer Wall will cause a great blight and all that is living will perish or be perverted. We will return to the darkest, most primitive of times. The Black Ages will return though we left them behind a thousand years ago."

"In destroying we shall renew."

"You will renew the evil of Mornhavon the Black, and I will not allow it."

Karigan held her breath as the two brothers fixed their eyes on one another, each reading deep into the other's soul.

Zachary's hand lashed out, and he snatched the black stone. Then he froze, just short of yanking it off its gold chain, unable to release it. Bolts of energy burst between his fingers and coiled up his arm. His mouth gaped open in a silent scream.

Another current erupted from the stone and fused into Amilton-Shawdell's chest. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply as if taking in fresh air. His hair acquired a radiant golden sheen.

Fastion ran full tilt across the throne room to aid the king. With the flick of Amilton-Shawdell's hand, a bolt of energy tossed Fastion across the width of the throne room and against a pillar. The Weapon crumpled to the floor.

Karigan knit her eyebrows together. She watched in disbelief, shaking her head. "No," she muttered. "This isn't right."

"What?" Her father was still addled from his ordeal.

"I was wrong." Her voice raised an octave in urgency. "Using the magic doesn't exhaust him, it feeds him. It empowers him."

Amilton-Shawdell's intensity grew and spread out from him like a black aura that pushed away the light. Zachary's eyes bulged, but he remained unmoving, statue still, trapped in a web of magical currents.