SEARCH FOR THE LOST SOUL (23 page)

Chris
waited, tapping his right foot impatiently. It didn’t appear to him that the
apprentice was doing anything other than stand and stare into empty space. He
started to say something but stopped himself before he could utter a word;
knowing what he now knew about magic, there was probably much more going on
than he could see. He forced his anger back, but not so far that he couldn’t
call upon it when the time was right.

The minutes
crawled by as Dominic stood as still as a statue. Suddenly, he shoulders
drooped and he turned to Chris. “Let us eat before we continue.”

Chris
started to protest but stopped himself as he observed the deep lines of fatigue
etched on his face. Silently, he nodded and turned to where the two backpacks
were laying on the ground. He frowned as he approached them; when had he
dropped his, he didn’t recall doing so.

He dug into
his backpack, where the meat had been stowed, removing the wooden container
where Dominic stored the meat. He paused as he turned and saw that the
apprentice had sunk to the ground, sitting with his back against the bare rock
with his eyes closed. Although he had never considered it before, he suddenly
realized the toll the  magic taking on the resources of the sorcerer.

Without
comment, he dropped the container into Dominic’s lap and turned to bring Kelly
to the apprentice’s side. After placing a piece of meat into Kelly’s mouth,
Chris raised a piece to his own lips, realizing suddenly that he was ravenous.
He glanced at Dominic, deciding that he would give him time to rest before
questioning him.

Even though
he was secretly glad that feeding Kelly took such a long time, Chris would
never have admitted it to the apprentice. He cast a sidewise glance at Dominic,
noting that he had finished eating and was once again resting against the rock
wall.

Worry crept
into Chris’ thoughts as he recalled that Dominic had said that they were close
to the monastery. Would the apprentice have the energy to fight through the
zealots that guarded the souls? Chris wasn’t naïve enough to think that he
could locate Kelly’s soul by himself.

Fear raced
through him as he remembered Dominic’s words concerning the Soul Swords that
the zealots would be carrying. He glanced at the apprentice once again; if
Dominic was unable to protect them, both he and Chris could lose their souls in
the upcoming fight. That would be a fine end to this quest, he thought sourly.

Chris had
finished feeding Kelly and returned the uneaten meat to his backpack, returning
to Kelly’s side to wait for Dominic to lead them onward. As anxious as he was
to get this whole adventure over with, he knew better than to push the
apprentice. The success of their mission depended more on his skills than
Chris’.

Dominic’s
quiet voice drew his attention. “Are you ready to proceed?”

Chris
nodded, pulling Kelly to her feet. She didn’t protest but he was becoming
disheartened that she made no move unless he prompted her. He swung his
backpack onto his shoulder but didn’t offer to carry Dominic’s; the apprentice
would never agree to it.

“When will
we get to eat something besides meat?” Chris asked as soon as they started
walking.

“When we
return to Loren’s castle.” Chris winced at the weariness of Dominic’s voice.
“We are not capable of carrying many different types of food, but a short time
of eating only meat will do us no harm.”

Chris
frowned. “Why meat?”

“Meat is the
most complete food on the Earth. It will allow us to survive the longest
without other sources of nourishment. There are also other benefits of meat. It
will help our body to heal, should we be injured, it provides longer lasting
energy than carbohydrates, and it will provide some protection against the Soul
Worshipers. They eat only vegetables and the odor of the meat on our bodies
will discourage them from drawing close to us in the beginning. Unfortunately,
as soon as they realize what we are after, even that will not stop them.”

Chris
shrugged; he didn’t understand all that the apprentice said but he had other
questions he wanted answered. “Now, I want you to explain to me why Loren couldn’t
just transport us to the monastery.”

Dominic
sighed loudly. “Very well. There are three reasons why we had to walk. The
first is that, in her present state of soulnessness, it would be dangerous to
transport her. We would have risked making it impossible to reinstate her soul.
Please do not ask me to explain the reason for this to you; you do not have the
ability to understand it.

“The second
reason is that, if we transported to the monastery, we risk alerting the Soul
Worshipers inside.” Dominic held up his hand to stave off Chris’ question,
choosing to answer of his own accord. “I realize that the zealots will
eventually know we are there, there remains the possibility that we might be
able to sneak inside and retrieve Kelly’s soul without alerting them. If we can
do that, I will remove the crock that holds it and call Loren once we are again
outside the walls of the monastery.”

Chris didn’t
think much of this possibility but he decided not to state it aloud; he was
certain the apprentice was well aware that this probably wouldn’t happen.

“And,
lastly, we needed for you to gain strength by the constant exercise you have
been experiencing. Also, you needed to gain some expertise in the use of the
Dragon Sword before we enter the monastery; your life may depend on it.”

Chris let
the mention of the Dragon Sword slide by; that explanation would be coming
later, if he had any say about it. Instead, he let some of the anger he had
been holding back, return to the forefront. “Why didn’t Loren transport us at
least to Terrill’s castle?”

Dominic
frowned. “Were you not listening when I said that we could not transport Kelly
without further endangering her? If you are not listening, I will not even try
to explain.”

Chris forced
his anger back again. “Sorry,” he muttered.

“Do not ask
stupid questions again,” Dominic’s voice was steely. After a moment of silence
he continued. “However, there is a secondary reason why we were not transported
to Terrill’s castle. Loren felt that you and I needed some time to bond.”

“I’m not
sure it worked,” Chris muttered.

A hint of
amusement entered Dominic’s voice. “Would you deny that you and I are not
better companions than we were when we began this quest?”

Chris
frowned, miffed that he was forced to agree with Dominic’s assessment. “I guess
so.”

“That is one
thing you must learn about the practice of magic. There is always a method to
the madness. Sorcerers such as Loren are wiser than your average man. He
foresaw that we would never become friends, but that we would learn to accept
the shortcoming of each other.”

Chris stared
at the apprentice; he had never expected Dominic to admit that he was far from
perfect. He started to express his though but shut his mouth with a snap as he
thought better of the idea; there was no reason to antagonize him. Instead, he
nodded.

“I suppose
that even you can see why I was so grateful when Loren accepted me as his
apprentice. In all of his years, Loren has only accepted two others. I am
extremely fortunate that he saw something inside me that he was willing to
develop.”

Chris didn’t
care for Dominic’s condescending tone, one he affected much too often. But he
had to admit that the apprentice had a point. “Alright. Let’s just drop the
subject, ok.”

“That is
fine by me. I tire of explaining myself.”

“Oh no you
don’t.” Chris’ voice took on a hard tone. “You promised to explain to me what
you meant by accepting the Dragon Sword.”

“So I did,”
the apprentice agreed mildly. “Very well. As you must have discerned while you
were fighting, the Dragon Sword has its own power buried within its essence.
While you could not call that power an intelligence of any sort, it is capable
of possessing the one who wields it.”

“I noticed,”
Chris grumbled, interrupting Dominic.

Dominic
threw him a scathing look before continuing. “For the Dragon Sword to take
over, you would need to accept its power. I suspect that, during the fight, you
reached a point where you realized that you were powerless against your
opponent and you ceded yourself to the sword.”

Chris
thought it over for a moment before nodding. The apprentice had a good grasp of
an event he must have been too busy to actually witness but he chose not to
interrupt the story again lest Dominic decide that he had said enough.

“Once you
did that, the sword took over the fight. To the sword, it has only one purpose,
to defeat its opponent. It would have killed the one you were fighting had I
not said the magical word that interrupted it from completing its work.”

Chris
thought back to the fight and the word that had prevented the sword from
striking a blow that he was certain would have decapitated the warrior. No
wonder he hadn’t understood what Dominic said; he didn’t have the ability to
understand it.

“Given time,
you would develop the knowledge of how to prevent the sword from completely
possessing you. You would learn how to let the sword take over enough to defeat
your opponent, but you would have ultimate control. Hopefully, you will not
have the time to develop that particular skill.”

Chris
frowned. “Why wouldn’t you want me to know how to do that?”

Dominic
shook his head. “You misunderstand me. It is not that I do not want you to have
the skill; I hope that you will not have to fight enough to learn it. It is a
subtle but very important difference.”

Chris found
himself echoing the apprentice’s wish; he certainly didn’t want to fight any
more than he had to. “Wouldn’t the fact that the sword can defeat an opponent
almost by itself mean that it has an intelligence of sorts?”

Dominic
shook his head again. “No. The Dragon Sword does not have the ability to stop
once it has been activated; only when the opponent is dead will it stop unless
it is forced to do so. If it had any intelligence at all, it would stop once
the opponent is defeated. There are no creatures, other than man, who kill
simply for the joy of killing. The Dragon Sword enjoys killing.”

Chris
shuddered, grateful that the sword didn’t have the ability to manifest a body
through which it could act. The image of this sword loosed on the Earth was a
frightening one. “So, anyone who gets his hands on it, can wield the Dragon
Sword?”

“No. The
Dragon Sword will choose who can evoke its power. It has obviously decided that
your intentions are worthy enough to grant you that ability.”

Chris shook
his head. “I don’t understand.”

Dominic
sighed again. “Let me explain it to you like this. When you withdrew the Dragon
Sword, what was the thought that was the strongest in your mind?”

Chris
frowned as he concentrated. “I think I was thinking that this warrior would
have to go through me to get to Kelly.”

Dominic
nodded. “And that is a noble action, at least to the sword’s thinking. You must
remember that, in the day’s when this sword was forged, chivalry was prevalent.
You were protecting a damsel in distress, and the sword accepted that this was
your mission. Had you been thinking only of killing your opponent, the sword
probably would have remained mute, leaving you with only your normal skills,
which would have proved inadequate against that particular man.”

Chris shook his
head. “This is so confusing. You state that the sword doesn't have any
intelligence, but in the next breath you attribute it with the ability to chose
whether I’m worthy of wielding it.”

“I know that
it is difficult. It is one of the mysteries of magic that I am trying to
explain to you. What I am saying is not completely accurate, you could not
possibly understand were I to try to explain it truly. What I am telling you is
the gist of the concept in the simplest terms I can think of because I want you
to understand.”

He paused
for a moment before continuing. “I suppose that you could say that the sword
could sense that you will only use it as a defensive weapon and never attack
with it, although that is further from the truth than what I have already said.”

Chris
nodded. Although he didn’t understand completely, he was starting to get a
glimmer of what Dominic was trying to clarify. “Stop explaining. I’m starting
to get a headache.”

Dominic
laughed softly. “That is the result of trying to understand concepts that are
far beyond your ability.” He was silent for a moment before asking. “Does that
answer all of your questions?”

Chris
nodded, even though he had a host of questions still unanswered. But, he was
already mired in quicksand and didn’t want to be bogged down further.
Hopefully, some of the other answers would come later. If not, well, he would
be returning home as soon as Kelly was safely back at Loren’s castle and the
questions would no longer be important.

Shortly
after midday, they crested a rise and came upon stones that had been obviously
hand carved into what had once been statues. The effects of time had rendered
the features of the statues no longer recognizable.