The Shards (38 page)

The surface upon which she stepped was strewn with rubble, branches perhaps, or fallen rocks, she was uncertain, and she created a small light in her palm so that she could walk forward without tripping in the gloom. She looked back once again, only this time she saw Etuah standing there in the distance with her hair and garments streaming out from her body as if a strong wind was blowing at her. A soft and peaceful glow surrounded her and her eyes were bright with anticipation. No sign of fear or regret marred her beauty. Suddenly, Tamara understood the true meaning of sacrifice.

She is so strong and so noble. This will not be for naught
, she vowed, as she stepped cautiously into the sacred chamber ahead.

Chapter Thirty-eight

“We must move quickly,” Teetoo warned. “This place is not safe.”

“Why? What do you fear?” Alemar asked. “I thought that no enemy would dare pursue us whilst we are in one of the Forbidden Places.”

“’Tis not the enemy outside that concerns me, Princess. These places are so named for a reason,” the Weloh said.

“Forbidden? Yet, we are here,” Clovis said.

“Prepare yourselves. It takes a person of strong constitution to endure the sorrow that will greet you,” Teetoo explained. “It may be that we are permitted to enter at all only because of Premoran and his token that I wear, but nothing can insulate us fully from the impact of this place.”

Suddenly, a wave of nausea washed over Alemar and she doubled over in response. Clovis went to assist her when he too almost collapsed from the weight of his grief. Giles was leaning against the packed earth of the tunnel wall and he was shaking his head back and forth as if in a stupor.

“Fight it!” Teetoo said. “I have been in these places before. It is not easy, but you can do it,” he urged them all.

“I feel as if my whole world has ended,” Alemar sobbed. “I can barely breathe.”

“I am so cold,” Clovis said, and his body was shivering noticeably. “My heart has turned to stone!”

“Aye! Mine too,” Giles said. “What manner of place is this?”

“It is the space that remains,” Teetoo said. “We are in the emptiness left in the wake of the Lalas whose roots passed through here at one time.”

“It is dreadful!” Alemar said. “How are we to fight this feeling?”

“Accept it for what it is and keep it from crippling you. This is as close to the void as you will hopefully ever come!” Teetoo explained.

“Is this what death will feel like?” Clovis asked.

“Death would be more welcome than this,” Giles said.

“Here you feel the pain of collective loss. It is amplified because the Lalas was connected to life so intimately that it is far more intense than anything an individual could feel.”

“The regret I perceive is insufferable. Did the tree love the earth so much?” Alemar asked with tears in her eyes.

“More than anything else,” Teetoo responded. “Though it chose to depart, that choice did not mitigate its sorrow,” he explained. “Walk with me. Hold your heads up!”

They struggled to obey his directions, and slowly they each pulled themselves together and followed the Weloh down the dark passage. It twisted and wound its way through the earth, descending all the while. The further they walked, the less they were able to see, and they tripped and stumbled constantly, but they did not stop again for quite some time. The motion of walking seemed to keep them from collapsing upon themselves in total despair.

“We must review the map, Alemar,” Teetoo reminded her. “Soon, we will have choices to make. We cannot afford to take the wrong path.”

“The light, Alemar! Take out the light!” Giles suggested. “Can you do that in here?”

“Can I, Teetoo?” Alemar looked to him for reassurance. “It will be impossible to see this without it.”

“Colton would not dare to pry into this place with his own senses. He knows the dangers thereof. It should be quite safe. The light may help us in many ways,” Teetoo replied and he nodded his delicate head.

Alemar reached into her blouse and grasped the finely woven chain upon which hung the delicate cocoon of silver that encased a simple looking object. She held it before her and at her urging it exploded with light.

“It makes me feel so much better just to see it shine,” Clovis said while breathing deeply. “It is like a reminder of how beautiful things can be.”

“A much needed reminder,” Giles concurred.

“Spread the parchment out on this surface here,” Teetoo pointed to a flat area in a crevice in the wall.

They all huddled around it in a semi-circle, shoulder to shoulder, and stared at the markings.

“We must avoid these areas at all costs,” Teetoo said. He traced a line across the left side of the map with the tip of his index finger. “These passages lead through the nethers. We cannot traverse them without being observed. We also cannot get too close to the heart. The feelings you are experiencing would only intensify if we were to draw closer.”

“This must be castle Sedahar itself,” Alemar said, and she reluctantly placed the tip of her finger over a blood red design on the top left of the parchment. “Odd. It is warm to the touch,” she commented, and then she removed her hand quickly as if the feeling was offensive in some way.

“The routes to it look like veins in the skin,” Giles observed.

“Some are red and others are black,” Clovis added.

Alemar went to trace her finger down one of the red ones, but as soon as she touched it she recoiled. She then attempted to follow one of the black lines, and it did not bother her at all.

“A warning if there ever was one!” Giles chimed.

“So which one shall we choose? There is more than one painted in black,” Alemar asked the group.

“Bring the light closer,” Teetoo instructed.

The Princess removed the chain from around her neck and placed it practically on top of the map. As she did so, the map began to glow in some places while it simultaneously dulled in others. It appeared now as a three dimensional image, and the various lines wove over and under one another. Alemar gasped.

“Do you see the breaks in the lines now?” Teetoo asked.

“My eyes just are not good enough,” Clovis admitted. “I can barely see the lines themselves.”

“I saw them before, but it was obvious none of you did. Without the light, even I would not have known which ones rose and which ones fell. Look more closely here,” Teetoo pointed to one of the thin, black markings that wound from the bottom of the parchment nearly to the top.

“I see it!” Giles said. “There is a mark perpendicular to the line. What does it mean, do you think?”

“That the passage is most likely blocked!” Clovis said impatiently. “What else could it signify?”

“I suppose,” Giles acknowledged.

“Here too. This one is blocked also,” Alemar noticed, as the markings became clearer and more defined. “And this one,” she pointed.

“Here as well,” Giles said.

“Are they all dead ends then?” Clovis asked as he strained his eyes in vain to see.

Teetoo scrutinized the map closely.

“No. There is but one that leads without interruption to the castle,” Teetoo observed and he laid his graceful finger upon it. “This one!”

“So we have our answer!” Alemar said. “Does it take us too near the heart?” she then asked, remembering Teetoo’s last admonition.

“No. It stays safely away,” Teetoo replied. “Look here! This is where the tree was once centered. And here is Sedahar. This pathway leads us around the nethers and into the outlying root work. You can tell by the smaller striations that crisscross it. It then heads straight for the castle, though it may be rather narrow as it nears it.”

“The others all terminate quite abruptly after the blockades. I thought that all the trees were connected. These passages all end before Sedahar,” Alemar said. “Did they ever extend further, do you think?”

“When the tree lived, it stretched itself as far out as it could. It was remarkable that it actually came as close to Sedahar as it did. I suspect that this passage has another’s hands upon it, “ Teetoo explained. “An actual meeting of the two, Colton and the Lalas, would have been cataclysmic! After the tree departed, Colton must have sealed all the burrows off, large and small.”

“All but one it seems,” Alemar observed.

“This one must be shielded in some way or he would have found it as well when the Lalas died. There is surely some great magic at work beneath the plains of Colton’s domain that he is yet unaware of,” Teetoo said while contemplating this turn of events.

“I hope that it continues to work whilst we are here,” Giles said.

“I second that!” Clovis agreed.

“Without the map, we would have been wandering in this maze forever,” Alemar said.

“And without the light, we would never have been able to see what we needed to on the map,” Giles said.

“The cloth weaves around us,” Teetoo reminded them all. “Fate and coincidence, destiny and luck; there is so much that we do not understand,” he mused aloud.

“Shouldn’t we start moving?” Alemar suggested. “We still have quite a ways to go.”

“Yes, Princess. You are so right. We have such a long way to go,” Teetoo replied.

She stood up with the map in her hand and started to walk forward, while she turned it back and forth to make sure that it was properly oriented. Then she strode determinedly ahead.

“This is the way. Follow me!” the Princess commanded.

Teetoo immediately caught up to her and walked by her side while Giles and Clovis took up the rear. It was not difficult to travel down the tunnel now that it was illuminated, and nothing hindered their progress except some occasional debris and a fallen rock or two. They made good time. The feelings that they had suffered previously were rapidly abating the further they walked from the heart of the Lalas, and according to the map, they were traveling directly away from it. But it was the blacker heart of another, more fearful place they would soon be entering that dominated all of their thoughts now.

Chapter Thirty-nine

“It is Mintar!” Colton said aloud. “Mintar, my beauties!”

He was sitting upon an obelisk of polished black stone that rose from the center of the smoking ruins of Talamar, waiting for the answer that he knew would reveal itself to him soon. Below him, prostrate upon the scorched earth, lay the forsaken women, the Possessed, motionless and silent. Now that it had come, Colton gazed out toward the western horizon through his black and shining eyes. Invading the thoughts of the women carelessly and without shame, he engraved the image of the dying Lalas and its location upon their minds.

“Soon, another of the trees will be gone. But this one is different! It harbors something that I want much more than any of the others did!”

He slid off of the high pillar and floated to the ground. Before he reached the scorched earth, his legs extended and he landed softly and quietly amidst the perfectly still women, as if they were not even there. His crimson robes settled softly around him, and they caressed his perfect body like a soft brush upon his hair.

“They deceive and conspire too, my beauties. They had been so self-righteous, so judgmental, these ‘great trees’, but they are so no longer. They have accepted their fate, and now it is my turn! It is our turn!” he said, while barely moving his sensuous lips.

Colton extended his arms and the dust rose in thick clouds from the smoldering surface beneath him. It swirled around for an instant, and then it began to coalesce. In moments, the semblance of a huge tree loomed before him, though it was grey and deathly in appearance; a mockery of the Lalas that he had just named. He moved the fingers of his left hand slowly and the apparition erupted. It burst apart in all directions and rained ash and detritus everywhere. The debris from his conjuring covered the women in a blanket of grey death. Colton laughed gleefully with his mouth wide open. His laugh became a wail and the wail became a howl, as the horrific sound rolled across the barren plain and increased in intensity as it spread throughout the countryside. It reached into the towns and villages, and cottages and homes of anyone who still remained anywhere within miles of Talamar. Like a scream ululating through a silent, summer night, the Evil One’s laughter invaded the unsuspecting hearts of all who heard it, and it turned them into cold stones in their pounding chests.

“Rise, Margot! Come to me!” he ordered and he curled his index finger at one of the women.

Immediately, a prone body clothed in red, liquid-like garments ascended from the darkened surface, her body still stiff and unmoving.

“Go to Sedahar! Fetch my brother and lead him to the site of the dying tree!” he commanded. “I will be waiting there for you when you arrive.”

Her body now floated before him, perpendicular to the earth once again, but still not in control of itself, though her wide open eyes stared at him adoringly.

“He shall retrieve the shard and it will be mine at last!” he hissed. “Take this…” he said, and a small orb of black stone appeared in the air before her. “Use it to unlock his chains and to hold him captive while you bring him there.”

Margot’s arm rose involuntarily and her stiffened fingers plucked the ebon object from where it floated. She concealed it within the folds of her cloak. Her eyes were locked upon his face and her breath came to her in gasps and spurts. The sheer ecstasy of being chosen for this was almost too much for her to bear, and she struggled to breathe and not swoon in response to this honor. Though the sharpened talons of fear gripped what remained of her human soul, even this unmitigated terror now felt like a privilege bestowed upon her, and she rejoiced in it as well.

“Go! Go now, my beauty,” he said while he nodded his head slowly up and down. “But be wary of him! He is conniving and manipulative!” he warned. “He will not go willingly.” The hatred flared in his black eyes, and they burned red with passion. “I want you to succeed where you have failed before. I want you to rejoice in my satisfaction as if it was your own,” he said sweetly once again.

She was now in control of her own movements, and she bowed deeply before him, though she never took her eyes off of him for even a moment. She wished only to breathe in his scent, to inhale what he exhaled and to retain whatever of him she was able to. Her rapture had no boundaries now and she nearly burst from the empowerment of it. The thought of pleasing him in this way was overwhelming.

“Do not be fooled by his captivity. He is still strong. Pay no heed to his words. The orb will bind him to you through me, and he will not dare to touch it. None dare touch it without touching me! If he tries to break free, it will kill him, so do not provoke him. I need him to remain alive,” Colton said. “He must remove the shard. He has no choice. It is his destiny to do so. The tree cannot depart until the shard has been taken from its heart, and he could not suffer it to remain in between, neither here nor there. He is too soft, too compassionate,” he mocked. “Once he has it in his possession, lead him from the empty space and I will be waiting.”

Colton bent over, raised his hand and caressed her head. She could barely breathe. The sensation was so intense that it touched every part of her body, and she could not tell the difference between the pleasure of it and the pain. She was afraid that she would be consumed by his power, it was so vast and all encompassing. As he removed his fingers from her hair she settled down upon the earth beneath her. A coal-black stallion with hooves of chiseled stone and a tail and mane of crimson fire ascended from the ashes and settled upon the ground next to her.

“Ride, Margot. Ride!” he commanded, and she floated up and onto the beast’s broad back.

The flames framed her body in a hellish shroud as the horse rose off of the surface in total silence. At a nod from its master, it bolted off toward the south and left behind it a festering trail of fiery death that slowly burned itself out in the torrid midday sky.