The Malmillard Codex (25 page)
Read The Malmillard Codex Online
Authors: K.G. McAbee
Tags: #fantasy, #fantasy romance, #fantasy action, #fantasy worlds, #fantasy adventure swords and sorcery, #fantasy about a wizard, #fantasy alternate world, #fantasy adventrue fantasy, #fantasy with wizards
"We?" asked Madryn.
"The Malmillard," Garet admitted. "Our order
is a sort of watchdog for, er, unpleasant magic workers, you might
say."
"A watchdog? Then why," Madryn asked, "when
Valaren was alive in our world, did you not stop the things he did
to others?"
"We did," said Garet, and laid a gentle hand
on her clenched fist. "We managed it so that you would meet him. We
knew…well, we
hoped
that you would not give into his powers,
and that you would not allow something like Valaren to live."
Madryn wrenched her hand away from Garet's.
"Hoped? You
hoped
that I would not fall under his spell and
blindly follow his orders…as so many others did?"
Garet watched Madryn twist both her hands
together in her lap. The boy glanced at Val. Val was watching them
too.
"We depended on you, on what we knew of your
strength, your honor, your sense of self," Garet replied. "We did
not expect you to stay free of his spells—"
"As I did not." Madryn gave a bitter laugh,
as sharp as broken glass.
"—but we did expect you to be able to
overcome his power. As you did."
"So," said Madryn, looking over Garet's head
at the rough rocky wall behind him, "you threw me like a rock at
his head, hoping I'd bash his brains out for you…and you could keep
your own hands clean? And then, this midsummer, you sent word to me
that he still lived, so that I would go and find him—and what? Make
sure that the second time I killed him, he stayed dead?" The tone
of her voice, strained and bitter, made Val long to reach out to
her.
But he knew she would fling his hand and his
comfort away.
"Not precisely," said Garet; he shifted
uncomfortably on his blanket. "We Malmillard hide ourselves behind
many barriers—appearance, location, even position. We are not
allowed to take an obvious hand in most events, for fear of
exposing our true selves. But sometimes—not often, thank all the
gods—sometimes there comes a particular situation that threatens
the stability of all the myriad worlds, and not just our own. This,
er, episode with Isole and Valaren was just such an occasion. We
made a mistake. So one of our number was forced to help rectify
it."
Aanakun smiled through his grizzled beard.
"I do not think that killing a beast like Valaren could have been a
very big mistake," he pointed out, then turned up the leather
bottle.
"Not killing him, no," agreed Garet. "But
the things that his death set in motion, here on our world and in
his own, were. If both Isole and Valaren, fueled by their desire
for revenge, had managed to take on new bodies—your bodies and, by
extension, your own quite interesting skills—then their own powers
would have increased enormously. They would soon have been able to
inhabit not only this world and their own, but many others…and they
would have been in a position to spread their own particular kind
of diseased fear and torment throughout all of them."
"I understand that you had to stop them,"
Val growled. "But I don't see how you could destroy them in their
own land?"
"I didn't destroy them," said Garet with a
grin. "To be precise, they destroyed themselves. You see, Isole
released a huge amount of power, to fuel the transition between
their bodies and yours. But the power turned on her and her brother
instead…after I had managed a bit of legerdemain with the stars,
you see."
"You kept them from appearing?" Aanakun
asked.
"I'm afraid that would be a bit beyond my
small powers," admitted Garet with a small smile that said 'but not
by far.'
"Then what did you do?"
"I convinced Isole, with a small trick or
two, that the stars were up beforetime," Garet explained. "This
made her proceed with her quite proper spells—but at precisely the
wrong time. And, as everyone knows, the right spell at the wrong
time equals—disaster."
"So her spell turned back upon her and her
brother," clarified Aanakun with a delighted chuckle.
"Yes. The power that they had was not as
large as they wished, and this made them see it as larger than it
was," Garet said cryptically.
"I think I understand," Val said, his eyes
still locked on Madryn's twisting, twining fingers. "But why can't
I remember what happened in that place? Why is my memory
so…dim?"
"Valaren's mind had almost taken over
yours," Garet explained. "I suspect that you have been having
strange dreams? And for quite some time now, no doubt?"
"Yes," Val admitted. "I was…it was an alley
in Karleon…there was a voice, and a smell…and the next thing I
knew, I was waking up while a boy was trying to rob me. I wanted to
tell you," he said to Madryn, "but I did not know how to even
start…."
"Isole had made a Sending. You were
implanted with Valaren's memories in that alley. It was only your
incredible stubbornness and strength that kept you from becoming
Valaren here, in our world; that was why they finally had to bring
you to theirs, to enact the final spell and complete the process
that would allow Valaren to don your body.
"But Isole grew greedy. She decided that if
her brother was to have a new body, why shouldn't she have one of
her own? There was Madryn, bait to bring you to them…and with a
perfectly good body as well. So Isole's plans changed and
burgeoned…as did her pride."
"So Val and I have been the Malmillard's
puppets from the beginning?" asked Madryn.
"No, not puppets at all," Garet said. "But
we have made full use of you, I admit. You and others. For that I
am truly sorry." The scrawny boy hung his head for a moment. Then
he looked back up with an irrepressible grin. "Still, it turned out
very well, you know. You have each other," he pointed out.
Val felt his face grow as warm as the desert
sun.
Have each other?
Do we? How can I
hope to believe that Madryn feels anything for me? I am an escaped
slave, less than the dust beneath her feet.
"Madryn saved my life when she rescued me
from the hunt," Val shrugged. "I was only returning the favor."
"Why, you great lumbering lummox!" shouted
Garet. "She loves you, imbecile!"
Madryn looked up at last, to find Val's eyes
locked onto her face, willing her to see the surprise—and the
love—that poured from them for her.
"I am not worthy…Valaren was able to control
me…he made me do…what if there is someone else who can…I cannot
allow…you cannot be…."
Madryn's voice stuttered and stumbled into
silence as Val pulled her into his arms and covered her protesting
mouth with his own.
"Fools, the pair of them," commented Garet
with a sigh and a shake of his shorn head.
Then he took another sip from the leather
bottle and grimaced with distaste.
#####
About the author of
The Malmillard Codex
K.G.
McAbee
has had several books and nearly a hundred short stories
published, some of them quite readable. She takes her geekdom
seriously, never misses a sci-fi con, loves dogs and iced tea, and
believes the words 'Stan Lee' are interchangeable with 'The
Almighty.' She writes steampunk, fantasy, science fiction, horror,
pulp, westerns and, most recently, comics. She's a member of
Horror Writers Association
and
International Thriller
Writers
and is an Artist in Residence with the South Carolina
Arts Commission. Her steampunk/zombie novella, BLACKTHORNE AND
ROSE: AGENTS OF D.I.R.E. recently received an honorable mention in
the 2013 3
rd
quarter Writers of the Future contest and
will be published soon by
Pulp Literature Press.
Other works by K.G. McAbee:
Lady Abigail and the Morose Magician
Professor Challenger and the Creature from the
Aether
The Case of the Sinister Senator
A
Dilemma of Dark and Dangerous Dimensions
A
Rollicking Band of Pirates We
Soul of Diamond, Heart of Glass
Out of Time: An adventure of The Spectre
Souls Touched – Reasonable Rates
Cast Away the Works of Darkness
Optical Orifice of the Beholder
Luke Zane and the Claim Jumper
Captain D'Artagnan Jones and the Felspindyll from
Zardogaz
available:
Tales from Omega Station
by
K.G. McAbee
,
J.A. Johnson
and
J. Kirsch
Omega Station, aka the Rock. A barren,
airless asteroid on the outermost edge of the galaxy, home of the
richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. Dotted with
commercial, military and residential domes, the outer surface is
the place to live for those who can afford it or are lucky enough
to work there.
But the vast majority of the Rock's
residents don't live in the surface domes; instead, they have
tunneled downwards, moving ever further towards its fiery heart.
The upper levels are safe, comfortable, secure—or as secure as
anyone can be on Omega Station. The lower levels, now; they are
home to the detritus of a double dozen races and species, all
living in uneasy juxtaposition, fighting, loving, eating—and being
eaten.
The Rock's location in space, the last real
port before exiting the galaxy, has made it a valuable commodity to
many governments and private corporations, as has the addictive
drug straz, which grows only in its recycling vats. Control has
been taken and given in a hundred bloody battles over the years,
but those who live in the lower levels—and further down, in the
Depths—are often barely aware of whoever claims to be in
charge.
No one, really, rules the Rock, whatever
they may claim, however many weapons and warriors they throw
against it.
For the Rock is eternal…and it has many
stories...
Tales from Omega Station: the Omnibus Edition
also enjoy—who are we kidding, of course you'll enjoy:
The start of a brand new science fiction
series, consisting of:
Crysalis: Meade's
Tale
by
K.G. McAbee
Crysalis: Iionii's
Tale
by
J.A. Johnson
Crysalis: Vira's
Tale
by
J. Kirsch