Trials (40 page)

Aliana healed Komir, making the pain from the burn disappear.

“Whichever way you look at it,” Kayti said with a trace of irony, “it looks as though the medallion doesn’t want Komir to have it…”

Komir glowered at her.

“Perhaps it’s because he’s already the Bearer of the Medallion of Ether,” reasoned the Healer.

“In that case you shouldn’t take it either, Aliana,” said Kendas.

“You’re probably right, my friend, but I must give it a try,” she replied and without waiting for the others to react, she lunged on the coffin and seized the Medallion of Fire. The Medallion of Earth round her neck flashed, followed by the Healer’s cry of pain.

“Are you all dim-witted? Don’t touch the blasted medallion!” barked Hartz.

“But we have to!” said Komir. “That’s why we came here, that’s the final purpose of this journey! Someone has to take it!”

“This makes no sense at all…” Aliana said, looking at the members of the little group. “Komir is right, we’ve been led here to get the Medallion of Fire. A new Bearer has to be among us.”

“Don’t look at me!” Hartz croaked.

“I’ll try,” volunteered Kayti. Hartz immediately looked at her with fear in his eyes, but she waved her hand to stop him. She went to the sarcophagus.

They waited in silence, as though in a trance, for the officer of the Custodian Brotherhood to make her attempt.

Kendas was thinking that if Komir and Aliana were out of the game, it made total sense that the redhead should be the chosen. She was the one with the most to offer: smart, daring, characterful, a member of a secret order which had trained her to discover objects of power, not to mention well-versed in arcane matters and an excellent warrior… Yes, the new Bearer had to be Kayti; he was sure of it.

Kayti reached out with her hand and took the medallion. Immediately she let go of it with a grunt, shaking her hand, trying to relieve the pain.

“No, it’s not me…” she said, half-hurt, half-disappointed. Hartz’s face on the other hand lit up like a beacon.

“Well then…” said Kendas, surprised. “I’m sure it’s not me, but I’ll try anyway.” He picked up the medallion.

The pain when he held it was so intense that he thought for a moment he was holding a hot coal. He dropped it at once.

“Damn! If the Rogdonian has the guts, then I’m going to try too!” roared Hartz. Like lightning he seized the medallion with his huge right hand. His howl of pain echoed through the chamber.

When he had finished cursing, silence returned to the hall.

All eyes turned to one person.

The last member of the group.

“No, no, no. No me…” Asti protested with terror in her eyes, like a little girl lost in the forest who hears a howl in the night.

“There’s only you left, Asti,” Aliana told her, trying to smile encouragingly. “Don’t be afraid, nothing will happen to you. It has to be you. Come and pick it up, don’t be afraid, it won’t burn you.”

“No want… I Usik, no Bearer. Magic bad…”

“Well said!” barked Hartz with his arms crossed over his chest. Kayti, who had come to stand by his side, elbowed him in the ribs.

“Have no fear, my friend, pick it up,” Aliana repeated sweetly, and went to the Usik to give her comfort.

Kendas looked on with a shrinking heart as the two girls came up to the sarcophagus. Aliana nodded encouragingly at Asti. The Usik looked at the Healer, decided to trust her and grasped the medallion with her right hand. They all held their breaths expectantly.

Nothing happened.

“No hurt…” said Asti. The faces of the others relaxed at once, and they smiled.

Aliana cried out: “It’s her! Asti is the bearer!”

Kendas felt enormous relief; the young Usik was unharmed. But a shadow darkened the moment, for he was aware that Asti’s life would never be the same again. She was now a Bearer, and the Ilenian Magic would now be part of her. Nothing would be the same for her again. Nothing.

Komir collapsed on to the floor.

“It wasn’t all for nothing…” he said from where he was huddled on the polished rock surface. “It wasn’t all for nothing.”

Kendas understood the reason for that comment, the heavy weight had vanished from his shoulders. Komir had led them all there, taking them with him on a journey filled with danger and suffering, a journey on which they had nearly died. Finding a reason to justify all that must mean an enormous relief for him. Clearly it was a huge responsibility he was shouldering.

Aliana ran to Komir’s side,

“We were right! The medallions led us here for a reason, and one which I think is actually two in one: to find the lost Medallion of Fire and to reveal its bearer.” She looked at Asti, who was hanging the medallion around her neck with trembling hands. Kayti helped her fasten it. The magnificent ruby-red jewel gave out a gleam so vivid that it filled the entire chamber.

Asti opened her eyes wide, surprised and fearful.

“Feel magic inside chest… fear…” she said

“Relax, Asti,” Aliana hurried to say. “Nothing bad is going to happen to you. The medallion must be interacting with your own inner energy… and that means…”

“That you also have the Gift,” Komir finished for her.

Kendas was stunned. He had not thought of that, but Komir was right. According to what Aliana had told him, in order to interact with the medallion one had to have the Gift. Otherwise the medallions could not invoke the Ilenian magic, or at least that was what she had gathered from her experience and Komir’s. Asti had been blessed with the Gift… that frightened, fragile creature… It made Kendas worry even more. Komir was an exceptional warrior and could face any danger; Aliana was a Healer, brave and also an expert archer. But Asti… She was no more than a frail doe, helpless before the power of evil and the dangers it brought with it. And that medallion could bring her nothing good… He must protect her, now more than ever…

Aliana stretched her arms out to Asti with a calming smile. The Usik looked at her and took her hands straight away, smiling back timidly. At that moment both medallions shone brightly.

“Here we go again…” protested Hartz, shaking his head.

Aliana freed her right hand and offered it to Komir. The young Norriel walked up to them and took it. Asti offered him hers, and the three held hands forming a circle. When the circle was made the three medallions shone simultaneously, each with its own particular quality: Aliana’s brown, Komir’s crystalline and Asti’s ruby red. They all watched, hypnotized. The medallions began to flash at different intervals; to Kendas it seemed they were… communicating… talking to each other… But that could not be—or perhaps it could—; the Lancer did not know what to think. Suddenly the flashes ceased, and in the middle of the circle of three a mist began to rise. The mist gave way to an image which became steadily clearer, like a summer dream. Kendas could now make out two women, and his attention was caught because…

Both wore Ilenian medallions round their necks!

One was a beautiful Masig, unmistakable because of her red skin and air of wildness; in contrast the other’s skin was pale, she was smaller and wore her hair short, and since she wore a tunic with an enormous eye on the front she seemed to belong to some kind of Order.

“It’s the Masig we’ve communicated with before,” Aliana said.

“Yes,” Komir said, puzzled, “but who’s that with her?”

Kayti took a step toward the circle. Looking at the image, she said:

“Their two medallions plus the three here make five. The five elements: Earth, Fire and Ether are here, so they must be bearing the medallions of Water and Air. I think it’s fair to assume that the medallions are showing us this image of the other bearers because they want to join their brothers.” She pointed at the image in the mist.

“What’s their intention?” Kendas asked, trying to make some sense of it all.

Komir’s face twisted.

“We don’t know, but it’s linked to my destiny… something which Amtoko, my tribe’s witch, warned me about a while ago… my destiny is linked to a deeply important event. It’s a destiny I can’t refuse or escape, as it would mean the end of my Tribe. Amtoko believes an evil of immense proportions is near, and that it will sink all Tremia in abysmal pain and suffering, the like of which has never been known before. Thousands of people will perish. Death, destruction and suffering are riding towards us and a devastating darkness will settle on all Tremia for more than a hundred years. That’s what she foretold to me. That’s the terrible destiny I must fight against ceaselessly. That’s why we must go on. We must reunite all five medallions before the darkness and pain reach us and there’s no way of turning them back.”

“I believe that too,” Aliana agreed without taking her eyes off the image.

“Then we have very little choice,” said Kayti.

“That is, if we believe the Norriel witch and her catastrophic vision…” Kendas said, rather skeptical.

“Nobody hates magic and everything connected with it more than me,” said Hartz, jabbing his thumb at himself, “but let me assure you that when Amtoko the Silver Witch guesses something, she’s never wrong.”

“What more proof do you need, Kendas?” Kayti asked. “It’s enough for me. I agree with Komir and Aliana. Something is brewing, something of apocalyptic proportions and fateful consequences. My intuition tells me so, and the fact that these medallions have awoken confirms it.”

Kendas hesitated briefly, trying to put his thoughts in order and make sense of all the information he had been given. “You’re right, we must go on and find the other two bearers. Whether the Witch is right or not in her prophecy, we must at least reunite the five medallions and see what happens when they meet.”

“Everyone agreed, then?” Komir asked.

Gradually the image in the mist began to fade, and with it the two bearers, as if they belonged to an intangible other-world, distant and alien. After a moment there was emptiness inside the circle formed by Asti, Aliana and Komir.

“The vision is over… So now how do we get out of here?” Kendas said as he studied the walls of the funerary chamber. “There’s no way out of this hall except through the door we came in, and out there the furious volcano is waiting for us. It would be madness, we’d all die.”

“There must be a way out somewhere,” said Hartz, looking around him. He went up to one of the walls and began to feel the polished surface with his enormous hands. “Surely there must be some crack or hidden spring that would open up a way out. We can’t be trapped here forever in this tomb with that dried-up mummy and the corpse of its evil-smelling Guardian.”

Kendas imitated the big Norriel and began investigating another wall. His feeling was the same as Hartz’s: they could not be trapped there, there had to be some escape from that sinister place. Somehow they had to find it. Following the two men’s example, Kayti began to examine the farthest wall. They searched carefully along all the walls until they had to give up. The chamber was airtight. The only way out gave directly on to the volcano, which was still roaring outside like a badly-wounded warrior god.

“Let’s use the medallions,” suggested Komir. “Perhaps with Ilenian magic they might show us a way out. We’re inside an Ilenian Temple, so here the power of the medallions should be absolute.”

“We’ve nothing to lose by trying,” Aliana said, smiling faintly.

They formed the circle once again, joining their hands together.

“What do now?” Asti asked unsurely, looking at the other two.

“Close your eyes and think of a way of getting out of here,” said Aliana.

The three bearers concentrated and the whole group remained silent, expectant. Kendas had the feeling that the attempt had a touch of desperation about it, but now was the time for drastic, desperate solutions; they had already used up all the realistic ones. He trusted his friends would work a miracle that would get them out of there, although to the eyes of a soldier like himself it was a lot to ask for. Critical situations did not get solved by magic but by intelligence, courage and daring. Even so, he wished his friends the best of luck in the attempt.

A cavernous silence filled the hall.

Nothing happened.

Kendas shook his head; they were doomed…

Suddenly Komir’s medallion shone with a whitish flash. A brown one followed from Aliana’s, and a moment later the ruby-red flash of Asti’s medallion joined the other two. None of the three bearers opened their eyes, but instead remained focused. Kendas was in awe at seeing the Ilenian magic at work once more. He had no idea what was going on, but he was sure something was now happening. The medallions flashed again simultaneously, three times in succession, lighting up the whole chamber with an indeterminate color which was a mixture of all three.

There came a loud hollow crack in the center of the chamber, under the altar.

The grating sound of rock shifting against rock filled the chamber.

Kendas, aghast, saw the whole altar slide to the right, revealing a secret passage carved out of the ground.

“I can’t believe it!” cried Hartz. His cry broke the concentration of the three bearers, who opened their eyes at once. Without a second thought, sword in hand, Hartz ran down the stone stairs of the passage. Kendas followed close after him in case the giant found himself in trouble.