Jon Sprunk - Shadow's master

Caim let out a long breath. His hands shook as the shards of light vanished, leaving behind ghostly afterimages. He looked around for his grandfather's body, but all he found was an inky blot on the floor. The shadows had already covered Malphas's corpse, devouring it in the same fashion.

Caim bent down to pick up his weapons, and gasped as something lifted him off his feet and hurled him back.

He landed on his hands and knees, hunched over as every muscle in his body twitched, contracting and releasing too fast to control. His vision dimmed as a dark pulse sucked most of the light from the cavern and a grinding agony sliced through his chest.

Caim!

His mother's voice cut through the pain. Caim looked up, fearing Malphas had arisen anew to rejoin the fight, but the assault had come from the other side of the cavern. The gateway was twisting, its surface lapping at his mother as if it meant to consume the rest of her.

He stood up and took a wobbly step. The pain in his chest soared higher, but he kept advancing toward the gateway, step by step. The portal loomed incredibly huge before him, drawing his gaze into its impenetrable depths. There were shapes in the darkness, a row of tall spindly things that might have been leafless trees. They lined a pathway into a dim landscape. The longer he stared, the clearer the picture became. He saw wide plains dotted with black seas, and a distant horizon hedged with soaring mountains. Silver lightning flashed on their peaks. Caim shifted as whispers crooned in his ears.

The Lord of Shadow is dead. Take up his mantle and all will bow before you.

Caim put his hands to his temples, wanting to block out the voice. It wasn't his mother now. The Shadow could fulfill all his dreams. His mother? Returned to him with a word. The power to control nations? In the palm of his hand. Infinity lapped before him, greater than anything he could imagine if he would just embrace…

Caim halted his hand inches from the gate's surface. Was this what it meant to be a son of the Shadow? The longing. The corruption. Blood for power and to hell with anyone else? He forced his hand back down to his side. He'd tasted that dish, and he had no appetite for it.

Caim stumbled back as another pulse exploded from the gateway. It hammered at him in a series of waves, each stronger than the last. He forced his eyes open. A pair of black eyes stared back at him. His mother had sunk deeper into the void. Only her face and one hand were visible. Caim fought through the pain to reach for her. A heavy rock fell from the ceiling and shattered less than ten paces from him. With a yell, Caim jumped across the final distance. His fingers closed around her wrist. Her skin was as cool as stone, but still pliable. He pulled, gently at first, but then with both hands when she didn't move. The muscles in his arms and shoulders bulged under his shredded jacket; his legs strained. Then he heard her.

Caim, you must help me. As long as the gateway stands open, this world is in danger from the Shadow.

He leaned back, still holding onto her. “How can I free you?”

You cannot, my son. I am too far gone.

Caim's chest ached like he'd been run through with a spear as he flailed through the vicious tide of his emotions.

You must let me go and seal the way behind me. Nothing else will stop the powers of the Other Side from entering.

“But I-Mother, I can't leave you. I refuse. There has to be another way!”

Caim, I chose my path a long time ago. For a while I was your mother, and those days were the happiest of my life. But I had a duty to this world.

Caim struggled with her words. The anger that had lain dormant inside him for so long flared up. “So you left me? I was just a child. Why didn't you bring me with you?”

You've seen Erebus, Caim. I knew what it would have made of you. By leaving you, I had a small hope that you would enjoy a life of freedom, the kind of freedom I never had. I'm so sorry. Even though I had to leave, I never stopped loving you.

Caim felt the rage drain out of him. All this time he'd been holding onto the belief that his mother had been forced to leave him. The truth was crueler, and yet it was the decision he would have made. “What must I do?”

An impulse flashed through his head, and he saw how the gateway was tearing her apart, piece by piece, down to her very essence. She was almost gone, and when she eventually succumbed the Shadow would flood through unfettered. Everything in this world would die.

Caim, if you love me and honor the sacrifice your father made, you will do this.

He closed his eyes and sought the spark inside him again. It was there, blazing bright. He reached for it…

And stumbled as a powerful force shoved him back, breaking his grip on his mother's arm. Even as he lunged for her hand, she sank beneath the rippling surface. The last thing he saw were her fingertips disappearing into the blackness.

Tears stung his eyes. Part of him wanted to dive in after her, but he had a task-a task no one else could do. Caim held out his hands and unleashed his powers. Crisscrossing lines of bright energy appeared across the face of the gateway. As he bent them to the pattern his mother had shown him, the darkness reached out and snarled around his arms and neck with a freezing touch. Caim leaned away as he strove to finish his labor. His injured toes pinched inside his boots as they dug for traction. Cold sweat formed on his face and under his shirt. He tried not to think about his mother, but memories from his childhood flashed through his mind. He saw her standing in the fields surrounding their home, her simple, homespun dress blowing in the breeze, long hair rustling. She was looking at the setting sun with one hand shading her eyes. She looked so peaceful.

Caim fought with all his remaining strength. Torment scalded his nerves as tissue stretched and separated, but he refused to give up. Then the last line was set in place, and the pattern blazed like a star with a thousand points. The gateway seethed, its ripples becoming choppy waves, but they remained confined by the matrix of lines.

Caim retreated until the cool rim of the urn dug into his back. The air of the cavern had turned dry and fetid. He found his weapons on the dusty floor. The gateway, churning and wriggling only moments ago, had become flat and docile. Its black edges were turning gray, the same color as the cavern walls, and he knew with certainty that his mother was gone. He had come all this way to find out what happened to her, and now he knew. She had sacrificed herself for him once. And now she'd done it again.

Caim, if you love me and honor the sacrifice your father made, you will do this.

The crash of shattering stone jarred Caim from his grief. The ceiling creaked as more rocks showered the cavern floor. He didn't know if he had enough strength to form a portal as he reached for his powers. The air rushed from his lungs as he found not a spark, but a gushing wellspring of energy. It wasn't exactly bright, but it wasn't completely of the Shadow either. It felt like a combination of both.

When the portal snapped open beside him, he thought of Kit and stumbled into the void.

Vibrations ran through the ground as Caim stepped onto the plateau outside the citadel. Over the great walls, the black pyramid trembled, and then disappeared in a thunderous collapse that shook the hills.

Caim turned with the black sword raised as a big shape shifted behind him, but he relaxed when he saw it was Malig, bloodied and bandaged, sitting on a low boulder. Kit lay at his feet, wrapped in a dingy fur cloak. Caim looked around as he went to her. There was a texture to the air, both familiar and elusive at the same time.