To Be Chosen (66 page)

They were turned around. Gell had his back to the southeast entrance. “Rex, come help me!”

The man who had been lurking around the Nest could not have heard through the energy field, yet nodded his head, apparently understanding, and ran at full speed, smack into the invisible shield, and plopped onto his bottom. He stood up and focused potential at the unseen obstacle in his path. The shield began to glow bright blue and the man finally gave up and fled out the way he came.

Serin Gell aimed his baton and sent a streak of lightning straight at Daniel, whose shield absorbed most of the energy, but did not prevent him from falling to the ground after receiving a shock in his mouth, nose, and ears. Gell laughed and ran at Daniel, sending another bolt of lightning into him. His head tingled and it took him a few moments to clear his mind and then will his shield to cover him completely. The blast had been so powerful he could feel Longwing, Piper, Squeal, Peeka, and Sly, fleeing the harmonic waves from the spell. Out in the night they flew along with all three colonies of bats. He could no longer breathe or hear. Gell launched another bolt at him, but this time it was completely absorbed by Daniel’s shield and also gave him enough time to launch, Lightning Strike, at his opponent. The bolt struck Serin’s forward shield and did nothing more than drive the
Accomplished back a few paces.

Daniel sprang to his feet and summoned, Twister, a much weaker version than the one he summoned during the Battle of Bashierwood. This spell was small, but large enough to engulf a man. He directed it behind Serin’s forward shield, slamming him hard against the wall. Daniel sent twin jets of flame, one from each hand, and bathed his enemy in a fire hot enough to glaze the wall and floor, but Gell had already shielded himself completely and was unharmed. Both of them were shielded and could not breathe. Letters formed within Serin’s energy field,
now I know why the Master has forbidden us to challenge you. I’ll not make this mistake again,
he wrote, and then reformed his shield into a dome and began sinking into the cave floor. He was tunneling, trying to escape.

Daniel summoned, Find All, and closed his eyes, following Serin Gell using the spell, and then Summoned, Talon Strike and extended the claw into the tunnel. He grasped Serin Gell and pulled him back into the room. By this time the Pentrosan had reestablished his full shield, but that was to be expected. Daniel summoned, Shatter Sphere, and centered it on the shielded Accomplished while holding him in
his talon. This fight was over.

The full shield was no longer required so Daniel made the necessary adjustments that would allow him to breathe and hear again. He inhaled deeply and let it out slow, removed the shield protecting Samuel’s side of the room, and ceased the potential for Talon Strike. The spell casting made Daniel thirsty so he drank a full canteen of water while sitting down on the throne to watch Serin Gell. It was not long before Sam came over looking like he had a thousand questions that needed to be answered.

“Who has been teaching you those advanced spells? The twister comes as no surprise considering your relationship with the Maestro of the Zephyr Guild, but that lightning and jets of flame must have come from the Sun Guild, and the shields must have come from my guild, yet are so advanced even I have not been introduced to them,” he blurted and then eyed the Pentrosan. “I know where you learned Talon Strike, but what is that sphere doing?”

He certainly was inquisitive, it was no wonder he chose to affiliate with the Eagle Guild. “Serin Gell is caught in a death trap. The sphere will shatter anything inorganic, he must maintain enough potential in his shield to stay alive, yet he has no air and will die if he opens any place in his shield. Even though he has six bolts of potential at his command, he cannot teleport. Again, he would have to take the potential from his shield. He will die no matter what, either by suffocation, mummification, or the shatter sphere.”

Samuel’s eyebrows rose up in shock. “You aren’t trying to capture him, you are killing him.”

“Yep,” Daniel replied, no point in denying it.

Samuel began shaking his head. “But you are the Chosen Vessel. If you kill him now, like this, you will be no better than he is. You can capture him as you did once before and turn him over to the Eagle Guild.”

Serin Gell’s face was beginning to develop a bluish tint. Daniel felt absolutely no pity for the man. “Your guild failed to hold him. I’ll not follow that false trail again. As for being no better, I have directly killed hundreds of his associates, scores of which were under his command, and incidentally crushed thousands of his guild members during my duel with Balen Tamm. He is responsible for more deaths than I can count. I killed his minions and people have congratulated me, so why when I have the person who caused all of this misery in a death trap, should it suddenly be immoral to execute him?”

Samuel took a while to answer. “His crimes were committed in Ducaun. You have no jurisdiction on Pentrosan soil.”

“True, except Serin Gell Condemned Sherree, he hurt her, and I can’t abide anyone hurting her. Let it be fair warning to all, I am not reasonable when it comes to someon
e harming her,” Daniel replied.

Letters began to form inside Gell’s shield,
I surrender.

“Sherree is better than a sister to me. I am just as horrified at seeing her lik
e this as you,” Samuel replied.

The shield around Serin Gell vanished and the Shatter Sphere engulfed him. He gulped in air and began to scream as every bone in his body began fracturing, from his little toe, all the way to the top of his skull. The fractures broke into splinters and the process did not stop until his skeleton was completely shattered and his body a dead mound of flesh. No doubt it hurt a lot but his dying did not take very long, it was all over in mere minutes.

“I can’t believe you killed him like that,” Samuel remarked, “But I can’t say he did not deserve it.”

Daniel took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Samuel I am in love with Sherree, even though she has made clear the feeling is not mutual. I still love her. I could have executed Gell in a painless manner and might have done so if he hadn’t Condemned her.”

Samuel patted him on the back. “I noticed how you looked at her when she and I were Talenteds, but I felt it was her place to deal with it,” he said, glanced over at the left wall, frowned, and took off running.

Sherree was on the floor and hardly breathing. Daniel was beside her in a flash. How can he begin to heal her?  Parts of her were gone and even if he healed the sores, she would still be trapped in her current form. He cast
, What Is This? and sensed down into her recipe strands and was amazed to see that, even though her form had been altered, the helixes still had tiny three dimensional pictures of what she ought to look like at her current age. This could give him something to work with. He sensed her life force energy and found it was nearly gone, kind of like a cistern with only a few drops of water left in it. She was on the brink of death.

“Daniel, Simon just contacted me. He, your parents, Tim, Gina, and your detachment of Royal Guardsmen are setting up a perimeter around this hill. The Pentrosan cavalry and infantry are on their way. Your presence here could trigg
er a war,” Samuel informed him.

Daniel was not ready to deal with the Pentrosans or his men crossing the border. Healing Sherree was his first priority. “Samuel, please go help Simon defend the hill. I am going to heal Sherree and it will take all of my concentration. If what I try works on her, I’ll heal Jerremy, Lassiter, and the others who have been Condemned. Also, some owls, coyotes, and panthers will attack the Pentrosans in their own unique ways, so don’t let our men hurt the animals. More help from nature will arrive when the sun comes up.”

Samuel stared at Sherree. “I don’t begin to understand the power of your swirl but I will take all the help I can get. Do you really think you can restore her, a Condemned?”

Daniel wished he could say healing her was a sure thing. “I believe so. If you feel harmonic ripples, don’t worry it will be me. I may have to do something that will undo what I worked so hard to achieve. Just do what you can.”

Samuel started for the exit. “Open the southeast entrance. You can leave the shields on the other two.” He must have seen the blue glow and rightly assumed the others were also shielded. “That way we will only need to guard one. Don’t think my leaving now to help Simon means we aren’t going to have a talk about what happened here today, and please don’t mess with Gell’s body, I need to do some investigating.”

Daniel nodded his head, knowing Samuel needed answers and probably deserved at least some. The big challenge was healing Sherree. Daniel had most of what he needed. What Is This? for a template, Hearts Beat as One, to keep her alive, his own life force energy to refill her reservoir, Change It and Hunger, to break down something to its little planets with tiny moons and send those into her recipe strands to replace every part of her that is missing. He needed one more thing, a spell that can reshape her body to conform to her recipe and could give back her free will.

Daniel tried to force notes and rhythms into some kind of Melody but the result was nothing truly inspired. There was only one thing left to do. Adding harmony lines to an existing Melody was something he was good at and would take relatively little time. Lives were on the line and worth more than any set back. He summoned the potential for, Memories, the spell he composed to replace the first spell he ever cast. Life force energy flowed into him, making him feel like he could make mountains tremble and rivers reverse their flows. This was why so many Accomplisheds felt all powerful. It was hard to be humble when you had the power to shake the world. He focused the potential tightly, confining it to his own body, and felt resistance. The pressure in his head began to build, greater and greater, until it burst through the barrier, and Daniel fell on the floor.

Gripping his head with both hands, he tried to clear the confusion as memories began flooding his mind and his old repertoire came rushing back. He created mental storage compartments, placed the duplicate spells into them, and the confusion went away. The Silencing placed upon him by the Grand Maestro was no more.

He played
, Condemnation, in his head and added four notes in harmony, altering the original enough to make the music his own, and titled it, Restoration. He needed something from which to draw the little planets and moons. The floor gave him an idea. He summoned potential for Fashioning, placed his hand on the floor beneath Sherree and formed a shallow pool around her. He used, Find All, to locate Serin’s water supply, then levitated a barrel into the receiving room, and poured the contents into the pool.

The width of her body was equal to that of his hand and her mouth was opening and closing, desperately gasping for air. He removed his personal shield, placed his right hand on her forehead and his left on her abdomen, both felt odd in their current state, and then closed his eyes. The first thing he did was send
, Vitality, to refill her reservoir of life force energy, which took awhile, seeing as she was nearly empty. He pictured a vat containing a few drops of amber liquid and then poured forth his blue flood of power until her reservoir was filled to the brim. Now it was time for step number two. Hearts Beat As One, flowed from him into her and Sherree’s heart began to beat in time with his own and her lungs matched his breath for breath. It was as if she truly was an extension of his own body and he could feel her pain. Fortunately, his painful encounters with various member of the Serpent Guild in the past increased his tolerance and the pain did not interfere with his concentration. He cast, Sleep Time, and put Sherree to sleep so she would not feel any of the pain caused by, Restoration, being used on her. He added a Da Capo, perpetuating the spell, and then cast, What Is This? and added a Da Capo tied to his life force. The next step called for, Change It and Hunger. Last of all he directed, Restoration, into her.

Daniel focused on the nude three dimensional pictures of Sherree in her helix strands, willed
, Change It and Hunger, to work in conjunction with Restoration, and soon could feel her body being reshaped in the form called for in her recipe. Time had no meaning for him. He no longer felt any pain coming from her. To the contrary, all of her bodily systems were functioning properly in time with his, and she was feeling pleasure, warm and tingly, something more distracting than the pain had been, yet he managed to keep concentrating on the spells.

He opened his eyes while letting the spells do their work. Sherree was lying on her side and all of the parts that had been ripped from her were restored. Yellow-gold hair began to grow from her head and grew to the length it would be if it had never been cut in her life. Her body was completely restored, except the golden lightning bolt had not reformed on her right shoulder. All of the water was gone, leaving the pool bone dry. He had one more thing to do. “Sherree, your brain and will are one. Your body is yours to command,” Daniel spoke in her ear. The healing was complete and all she needed now was rest. He removed all the Da Capos and the spells ceased.

He had never seen Sherree full scale in the nude. The helix strands did not have quite the same impact. She was beautiful, shapely, her skin flawless, and muscles well toned. Much as he admired her feminine form, he needed to make her some clothes. He forced himself to look away, and it was a bit of a struggle, yet he managed to focus on Serin Gell. Blood trickled from his flattened nose, mouth, eyes, and ears, but his skin had not been broken by the spell. Daniel used a blade of solidified air to cut a piece of black silk from the cloak, levitate it over to him, and then cast Laundering, cleansing the fabric thoroughly, intending to use it for a template.