Lightgiver (3 page)

Jez stared at her for a few seconds before inclining his head. She had just given him something of immeasurable value. With an actual name, he could hone in on a particular pharim rather than searching at random, and his working would be an order of magnitude more effective in calling it. Once again, he closed his eyes and sent his power into the circle. When the air around him hummed with energy, he whispered the name.

“Vinur.”

The name echoed for several long heartbeats, and Jez could hear it in his mind long after it had faded from his ears. The runes brightened until he could see their light even through his closed eyelids. He sensed another presence enter the room, one who had seen more years that he could imagine. As old as creation itself, this being possessed knowledge dating back to the birth of the universe. Linala gasped. Jez opened his eyes.

The being before him was translucent, but still, Jez could make out some of the details. He, at least Jez thought it was male, had pale yellow skin and no hair. Lights danced just beneath his skin, occasionally forming images and runes that vanished almost before they’d taken shape. The light of the setting sun shone through the transparent figure from the window on the other side of him.

“You’re...you’re not really here, are you?”

Vinur shook his head, and Jez thought he heard music in his mind. “No, though I was surprised to receive your summons. It’s been a long time since I’ve been called here.” Though his eyes had no pupils, Jez had the distinct impression he was staring at him. Vinur glanced at Linala who took a step back, and the pharim returned his attention to Jez.

“You are not the knowledge master of the Carceri Academy. By what right do you summon me?”

Jez gave Linala a sidelong look. She didn’t know his secret, that once, before being cursed by the mage Dusan, Jez had been the pharim Luntayary. As far as she knew, he was an afur, a descendent of the pharim who rebelled. Jez had never corrected her of her misconception, and he had no wish to do so now. Jez took a step closer to the being. Linala hissed, but he stopped less than an inch outside of the circle.

“You know who I am?”

Vinur’s eyes brightened for a second. Then, he nodded. “Ah yes. I see. That does not give you the right to summon, though perhaps it gives you the reason. State your need.”

Jez stared up at him for a few seconds, unsure of how to respond. “I’m sorry?”

The pharim waved him off. “You have no need to apologize. What would you have of me?”

Jez gestured at the pharim’s transparent form. “Why did you come like this?”

“At the command of the pharim high lords, none may answer a summons save by sending a projection.”

“All the pharim?” Jez asked.

“Aside from a few Shadowguards who stand watch over the greatest demons.”

“Why?”

Vinur cocked his head at the question. For a second, the runes intensified, but their light returned to a dim glow after a second. “Less than a year ago, a demon in human flesh brought Lord Aniel, along with the rest of the Beastwalkers, into your world against their will. One died at the hands of the summoner.”

“But Sharim is gone,” Linala said. “He fled into the abyss of his own free will, and even before that, he needed the power of a high lord to achieve his goal.”

The pharim’s eyes fell on her, but she met his gaze levelly. She wasn’t defiant. She simply didn’t fear him.

“Which is why the high lords will stay away,” Vinur said.

“But he can’t do anything to them.”

There was silence for a few seconds before the pharim spoke. “Unless he returns.”

“Then, it is possible,” Jez said.

“Of course, but you already knew that.”

“He’s not out yet, though.”

“No.”

Jez let out a breath of relief. In spite of his statement to Linala, the possibility had worried him. “That’s good to hear. Do you know his plan to get out? How can I stop him?”

“I cannot say.”

“What do you mean you can’t say?”

“Sharim is mortal, and as you said, he went into the abyss of his own choice. He chose that as his retreat and chose to plan a way to get out. I may not interfere.”

“But you just said the pharim high lords are afraid he’s going to try to kill you.”

“If he does, then we may act, but he could still choose another path, and we cannot take that choice from him.”

“But he’s not even really a human. He’s just sort of wearing one.”

“That’s a fine distinction for
you
to make.”

Jez’s eyes flickered to Linala, but she seemed not to have caught the emphasis Vinur had put on the word ‘you’. He cleared his throat and addressed the pharim again.

“Aren’t you supposed to give people knowledge?”

“Not knowledge they have not earned.” He turned to Linala. “I have heard of the one you call Jezreel. Sariel and Aniel both trust him, and neither of them are inclined to trust mortals. Consider that when you decide what knowledge to permit him to gain.”

The pharim spread his wings. The runes of the summoning circle flared to life and then went dark. The sand became blackened dirt, and Jez suddenly felt humbled. Linala’s circle had been exquisite, and he’d been sure he’d powered it correctly. Vinur was just a projection and had nowhere near the power a physically present pharim would. Still, the circle proved no barrier at all to him. His wings glowed brightly, and when the light faded, Vinur was gone.

CHAPTER FOUR

“You should come with me, Jezreel,” Linala said.

Jez nodded and fell into step behind her. “Where are we going?”

They walked out, and she waved her hand in the direction of the central spire. Made of black stone, it looked like some great dark spike rising from the heart of the Academy. “To the lower levels.”

“You mean where the demon talismans are stored?”

“Beneath that.”

Jez stopped. She went a few steps before turning to him. He rushed to catch up and kept his voice low. “I didn’t know there was anything beneath that.”

She gave him a half smile. “Few people do. I wouldn’t have even told you if Vinur hadn’t made a point of implying I should help. Come on.”

Jez didn’t say anything as she led him into the central spire. They moved across the large mostly empty room that took up the entire first floor and stopped in front of a heavy oaken door. Linala pulled an iron key out of her robe and inserted it into the lock. She uttered a few words, and the door shimmered blue as her working temporarily disarmed the ward. She twisted the key and shoved the door open, revealing a staircase descending into darkness. Linala lifted her hand and a ball of yellow light appeared above it. A few students had stopped to stare at the rarely opened passage, but Linala glared at them, and they moved on.

“What’s down there?” Jez asked once they entered the passage.

“There are beings in this world that are neither demon nor pharim, and some of them know many things that are best kept from common knowledge.”

“That sounds more like something the dominion of secrets would say.”

“It’s not the same thing.”

Jez let out a breath. “Sometimes I can’t tell the difference between it and the dominion of knowledge.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I’ll explain it to you sometime when I’m not getting ready to reveal our best kept secrets.”

Slowly, they descended lower, ignoring every door they passed. Every once in a while, Linala would stop to disable another of the wards built to defend this place. Once, they came across a rat that had been burned to a crisp by one of them. Jez had no idea how it had gotten so far down, but this deep under the tower, the wards were deadly. They had left nothing more than a blackened husk.

After nearly an hour of walking, they reached the bottom of the staircase. A heavy iron door stood in the wall to their left, but Linala put her hand on an area of blank stone in front of them and spoke a few words under her breath. The wall glowed blue, and the light encompassed the master. The stone groaned, and the wall slid open, splitting right down the middle. The area beyond was dark. So dark that blackness seemed to spill out from it. Even Linala’s light barely made a dent.

“Guard your mind,” she said. “The things down here exist as more thought than flesh.”

“I always have wards on my mind, Master Linala.”

She shook her head. “Wards only protect against what comes from the outside. These attacks will come from within.”

“They can possess me?”

“Not exactly. It’s difficult to explain.” She pointed to a wisp of darkness spilling into the stairway, like a tentacle reaching out at them. “Run your hand through that.”

He gaped. “What is it?”

“A memory shadow. More than that, you won’t be able to understand unless you experience it.”

Jez took a hesitant step forward. The darkness wafted from the room like smoke curling up from some unseen fire. As soon as he touched it, cold ran up his arm, and he started shaking. He remembered his father, a withered shell of what he had been. Most of his soul had been consumed by the demon Marrowit, leaving his body as little more than a layer of skin over bones. Jez had woken him up, but it had been too late. If he had been there sooner, if he hadn’t been so caught up in the Academy and what Dusan had given him, he could’ve saved his father’s life. It was all his fault.

A hand seized his wrist and pulled him back. Instantly, the sorrow diminished, but it didn’t vanish entirely. There was too much truth to the memory. Linala met his eyes, and he nodded.

“I see what you mean.” He shivered. “How did they know to use that particular memory against me?”

Linala shrugged. “No one knows how they got their knowledge. They crave it though, always desiring to pull it from the memories of their victims.”

“How did you capture them?”

“We created a place that would attract them and set powerful wards that would snap into place, but as you can see...” She gestured to slivers of shadow spilling out. “It’s not perfect.”

Jez nodded. “How do I defend against them?”

“Remember who you are. The thoughts and feelings they’ll use against you are real, and they may cause you a great deal of pain, but they are yours. They have only as much power as you allow them to. You’ve gone through more than most, so that might give them more to use against you. Just be ready. Keep your mind on the information you’re looking for. If you can keep ahold of yourself long enough, you may be able to draw it from them instead of the other way around, but don’t hesitate to leave if you have to.”

Jez nodded. Linala offered him her hand, and he took it. Together, they stepped into the room filled with living shadows.

CHAPTER FIVE

Jez watched as his father walked away from the baron’s manor. Bartin didn’t look back as he left the grounds. Beside Jez, Baron Dusan cleared his throat. Jez looked up at him, and Dusan gave him a toothy smile that sent chills down his spine. His steel gray eyes showed no emotion whatsoever. He looked evil, and Jez started looking for a place to hide.

Jez shook his head to clear his mind of the image. That hadn’t been just his memory. They had added fear to it that hadn’t been there before. He tried to keep ahold of himself like Linala had said, and he looked around.

He was in complete darkness, but somehow he could still make out vague forms. He looked over his shoulder. The door was a panel of light, though it seemed somehow restrained by the surrounding darkness. Linala, her form vague and indistinct, tugged at him, and they went deeper into the room. One of the shadows passed through him, and he remembered a time, over a year ago, in Dusan’s summoning chamber. Jez had destroyed his protective runes, and the demon Marrowit, whom the baron had been trying to control, had consumed him as he came into the world. Because of Jez’s actions, a person had died. The fact that it had been an evil man didn’t matter. Jez had done it.

The sound of Linala gasping brought him back to the moment. He couldn’t see her, and even the feel of her hand in his became a distant sensation. He called out to her, but she didn’t respond. He squinted in her direction but could no longer see her through the darkness. He took a step toward her just as another shadow flew at him.

He was in Marrowit’s throne room, the one the demon had created in the dream world. The nightmare demon had tortured him with images of losing himself to the much more powerful consciousness of Luntayary. When that had nearly broken him, the images had shifted, showing Luntayary the memory of being bound to human flesh and of being forced to live a life as a mortal with no memory of who and what he was.

The shadows drew back so fast it was almost painful. Jez winced, and he and Linala, once again visible, exchanged glances. He heard whispers in his head. He couldn’t make out the words, but he got the distinct impression of surprise. And of longing.

“Let’s go back,” Linala said.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen them act like this.”

They started moving toward the door, but they’d only gone a few steps when the shadows screamed. They rushed at Jez. Though seemingly insubstantial, they hit him with such a force as to pick him up off the ground. He flew through the air, his hand ripped from Linala’s grasp, and slammed against a wall hard enough to drive the breath from his lungs. The shadows writhed against every inch of exposed skin as they burrowed into him. They swarmed on the memory of the nightmare Marrowit had given him. They focused on Luntayary.