Lightgiver (15 page)

“You have been here?” Mirel asked.

Osmund nodded. “Sariel brought us here almost two years ago.”

“The lord of the Shadowguards?”

Osmund grinned. “Yes, have you met him?”

Lina narrowed her eyes. “You’re not funny either.”

“You’re just bitter because you’ve only met one high lord of the pharim, and I’ve met two.”

“Two?” Mirel asked, her eyes wide.

“We met Aniel six months ago,” Jez said.

“All of you?”

Jez nodded, and Mirel looked from Jez to Osmund to Lina. Osmund looked smug.

“You are all more than you seem.”

“So what do we do now?” Jez asked as he took in the surrounding whiteness.

“We go to the library.”

Mirel started walking. Though she didn’t leave the cage, she still seemed to move away from them. It seemed like her footsteps should echo, but she walked in perfect silence. Jez stared after her for several seconds before the apparent distortion of space gave him a headache. He looked to his friends and shrugged before following. Almost instantly, he was next to Mirel, though the cage seemed completely stationary. Jez gaped at it as he walked, and Mirel chuckled.

“Between is shaped by will. It doesn’t conform to the laws of the mortal realm.”

“I’m beginning to understand that,” Jez said. “How do you know where the library is?” Mirel narrowed her eyes, and Jez sighed. “I know there’s no ‘where’ here. You know what I mean. How do you know we’re going the right way?”

“Because we can’t go the wrong way.”

“What do you mean?”

“We wish to go to the library so we walk. Between shapes itself to our will.”

“Why can’t we go directly there?”

“Because Gayel wished it hidden.”

“And that won’t stop us?”

“He cannot hide a thing that is of mortals from mortals.”

“But I’m not really a mortal.”

“You are mortal enough for this.” She waved a hand at Osmund and Lina. “The presence of your friends will help as well.”

Jez pursed his lips. “So you’re saying if we hadn’t followed you, you wouldn’t have been able to find it.”

She gave him a half smile. “I was fairly certain you’d come after me.”

“How long until we get there?” Osmund said.

Mirel didn’t say anything for a while. Then, one of her steps had the grating sound of boots on stone. Jez knelt and tried to put a hand on the floor, but there was nothing to touch, and his arm went down farther than where the floor should’ve been.

“We’re not there yet,” Mirel said, “but we’re close.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Without a will to shape Between, there’s nothing here, not even the ground.”

“Then what are we walking on?”

She grinned. “We’re not really walking.”

Another of her steps made a sound. After a few seconds, every step sounded on stone, and Mirel pointed.

“There.”

As if in response to her word, the fog parted. A domed tower rose in the distance. Its roof shimmered with the shine of polished gold. A single fire burned in a window, though at that distance, it barely looked like a spark.

“Who’s there?” Jez asked. “Did Gayel leave a Lightgiver to guard the place?”

“No. The Library of Zandra was the premier center of learning in the world. By tradition, the brazier in the tower is always kept lit to represent the light of knowledge shining in the darkness.”

“What does it burn?”

“It burns because it’s supposed to burn. It was an idea, and here ideas have a life of their own. There’s magic in it too, or so I’ve been told.”

“You don’t know?”

“Even we don’t know everything.”

“What is that?” Osmund asked.

Jez looked to where he was pointing. The fog swirled, casting odd shadows on the buildings. Jez almost asked what he was talking about when he realized that Between had an ambient glow rather than a true source of light. There should be no shadows here. As if sensing his realization, the creatures flew toward them.

“Prepare yourself,” Mirel said as she drew her shining sword. “In their home realm, the shadows aren’t limited by the bounds of reality. Here, they are stronger than ever.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Half a dozen shadows glided toward them so quickly they left dark streaks in the air. Jez’s fingers dance, trying to form the binding that would trap them, but his magic had nothing to latch on to, and the ward failed.

“I can’t call fire,” Osmund said.

“Me neither,” Lina said.

Jez reached within himself, drawing on Luntayary’s power. The crystal sword appeared in his hands. Osmund nodded, and with a burst of flame, Ziary appeared in his place.

“Lina, stay behind us.”

“You won’t hear me arguing.”

The first shadow screamed as Jez’s blade sliced through it, but this was no mental scream. He heard it, and for a second, he thought his ears would bleed. The shadow disappeared in a puff of black mist. One of the shadows entered through Jez’s nose, but as it plowed through his memories, Luntayary’s consciousness came forth and drove it away. No sooner had it left him than Mirel’s blade cleaved it in two.

Jez’s sword flashed through the air. He didn’t know how many shadows he cut down, though it had to have been more than the original six he’d seen coming toward them. They fought a long time, far longer than he had even when facing an army in Rumar. He should’ve been tired, but somehow he knew that here he could fight until the Academy itself was only a memory and the mountain it stood upon had been worn away to dust.

He cut one down and twisted to meet the next attack, but there was none. Aside from the library and his companions, all he saw was the endless whiteness of Between. He held his sword up for several seconds before letting it vanish. Ziary had gone to one knee and clutched his head. His sword was nowhere to be seen. He looked up as Mirel touched his shoulder. Ziary’s eyes looked far away. He was breathing heavily. Then, between one breath and another, Osmund reappeared.

“Sorry. It got into Ziary’s memories.”

“But Ziary’s not any older than you are.”

“We left pieces of ourselves behind when we had children,” Mirel said. “If your friend is a convergence of several different lines of limaph, then he has innumerable pieces of the pharim in him. Each may be only a small portion, but even the tiniest fraction of a being that has existed since the beginning of time can hold centuries of memories.”

“And my pharim ancestors have mostly been Shadeslayers. Their memories aren’t exactly the most pleasant.”

“Lina, how are you doing?” Jez asked as Mirel touched her shoulder.

She struggled to pick herself off the ground, and Osmund moved to help her up. She was shaking, and it looked like she would refuse to touch him, but she forced herself to be still and took his arm. As soon as she stood, however, she scampered away, and her hand went to her scar. She shook her head.

“I saw...” She rubbed her cheek. “This. I’m sorry, Osmund. I don’t blame you anymore.” She let out a heavy breath. “It’s just it was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced, and I thought I had gotten over it.”

“Try to let it pass,” Mirel said. “That’s what these shadows do. They bring up things long forgotten. If you let them, they will destroy you.”

Lina nodded and brought her hand down. Jez stared at her for a while. Her normally alabaster skin looked pasty white, and he suspected she wouldn’t survive another attack like that. He turned to the library, his gaze locking onto the fire. A faint whispering echoed in his mind, but he did his best to ignore it.

“Come on. We need to hurry.”

There was a round of nods, and they started moving quickly. Every step now sounded like leather on stone. The fog gradually thinned, and Jez realized there was more than just the library. Buildings of yellow stone materialized and streets appeared out of the mist. The sun shone in a cloudless sky, and the cage around them took on the smoky appearance it had had in the mortal realm.

“This isn’t real,” Jez said.

“Real is a matter of perspective here,” Mirel said, “but if you’re asking if Gayel brought the entire city here, the answer is no.”

Jez waved his hand. There was no sign of the fog anymore. “Then how?”

“The library was from a real place, and it brought the reflection of that place here. If you look in any of the buildings, you’ll find them empty. In some, you won’t find anything more than the fogs of Between.”

“This was Zandra before the fire?” Osmund’s voice was almost reverent.

“Yes.”

“There were times I would’ve given my right hand to be able to come here.” He eyed the library. Jez smiled. Given how frighteningly effective Osmund was in combat, Jez often forgot his friend had spent years in study trying to learn about his own heritage. “I wonder what knowledge about the limaph is in that place.”

“More than you can imagine,” Mirel said.

The library grew larger as they approached, and the emptiness of the city began to unnerve Jez. The shadows seemed too dark, and he held himself on the edge of summoning his sword. Without saying anything, they spread out with Mirel in front of Lina and Jez and Osmund behind. She looked over her shoulder at him but didn’t say anything.

Finally, they reached a set of double doors made of red wood inlaid with gold. They went up at least fifty feet and looked solid enough to hold back an army. Jez placed a hand on them and pushed. They were lighter than he expected, and they swung open at his touch. When he withdrew his hands, there were black smudges on his fingers. He raised an eyebrow at Mirel.

“The door was burned in the fire. You touched the piece of them that remains, though your eyes saw the reflection this place created. Shall we go?”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

The receiving room might’ve belonged in a palace. Marble walls rose up around them, and a circular desk sat in the middle of the chamber. There were no books, but wide stairs behind the desk went up four levels. Gold inlays ran through everything from the handrails of the stairs to the marble columns holding up the ceiling. The chamber was only about a hundred feet wide, but doors lined the wall opposite the entryway, presumably leading to the main library. Jez and the others moved to the center of the chamber. Mirel stepped out in front of them and paused.

“Now what do we do?”

“Are we safe from the shadows here?” Jez asked as he eyed the faint outline of the cage. It still seemed persistent in spite of the reality of the library.

“Not really. This is still their home. They can’t move about here as easily as they can outside, but that’s largely a matter of degree. It’s like saying you can’t move around as easily at night.”

“What about that?” Jez motioned at the cage.

“We won’t need it to maintain us anymore. The library itself protects us.”

Jez nodded and raised his hand to release the cage but paused. He couldn’t just dismiss it. He could practically hear the shadows screaming in his mind. Dismissing the working would just unleash them. He summoned his sword and held it in two hands. He drove it down into one of the shadowy bars on the floor. A pulse of energy ran through the cage. The screams in his mind intensified for a second and then vanished.

“A bit of an overkill, don’t you think?” Lina asked.

“Do you want them running around the library?” For a second she looked like she was going to be sick, but instead, she shook her head. Jez turned to Mirel. “Now that we’re here, how do we get the library back home?”

“This is just a thought,” Osmund said slowly, “but have you thought about burning it?”

“What?” Mirel practically shrieked. “No, you can’t.”

“We’re not going to,” Jez said.

“But we just want to stop Sharim from getting the information, right?” Osmund asked. “If we destroy it, he can’t get it.”

“What would be lost if you do destroy it?” Mirel asked. “What about the workings that humanity has long since forgotten? What about the knowledge of the limaph that you so desire?”

“I don’t want that knowledge if the price is the entire world.”

“We’re not destroying the library,” Jez said. “Just because we know Sharim can get the information here doesn’t mean he can’t get it somewhere else. We’ll need it if we’re going to be able to stop him.”

“Fine,” Osmund said. “We find what we need, and then we burn the library.”

Jez shook his head. “He would just come up with another plan. Sharim is at war with us, and with the knowledge in this library, we’ll be able to defend against him, no matter what he does.”

“It’s a weapon he can use against us, just as easily.”

“This is a surprise,” Lina said. “You two never argue like this. Not when it’s serious.”

“Jezreel is a Shadowguard,” Mirel said. “Osmund is a limaph descended from the Shadeslayers. The two orders often agree but not always. One is focused on defense and the other on offense.”

Jez blinked at Osmund. He’d never considered that, and judging from the expression on the other boy’s face, Osmund never had either. Still, it made sense.

“Can you create a working to set the library on fire but will remain dormant until you set it off?” Jez asked.

“What?” Mirel asked.

“He has a point, and you know it. We can’t let Sharim get this place. We have to be ready to destroy it.”

Osmund nodded. “That should be simple enough.”

“Do that. I’ll work on the banishing.”

“What banishing?”

“We don’t want the library here, right? I might be able to craft a working to banish this place back to the mortal realm, but if I can’t, or if Sharim’s allies show up, we can destroy it.”

“No.” Mirel’s face looked horrified. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

Jez narrowed his eyes. “We’re stopping a human-form demon from bringing an army into the mortal realm. I’m sorry, but that’s more important than this library.”

“But...”

“We’ll save it if we can, Mirel,” Jez said. “For now, you and Lina look through the library and see if you can find what Sharim needs. I’ll start working on the banishing.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Circle banishings were tricky, complicated things. They were among the most powerful workings a protection mage could craft, but Jez had never practice much on them. Except under very specific circumstances, they were incredibly impractical. Unless the demon was kept immobile, they could simply step out of it.