Robert Newcomb: A March into Darkness

Tristan thought for a moment; then he looked at Shailiha. The princess nodded her agreement. Tristan looked back at Wigg.

“All right,” he said. “But hurry!”

Using the craft, Wigg quietly unlocked a nearby door. He and Ox went in. After a time they came back out to enter another room. This time they did not reappear.

“What are your orders?” Traax asked hisJin’Sai.

After taking a quick look at Serena’s double doors, Tristan shook his head. “I have little to add,” he answered. “For now we will wait and listen for Wigg’s signal. Then we will charge for the doors and hope for the best. Remember, I want them alive.”

As they waited, a deathly stillness overcame the hallway.

“IT IS TIME,”SERENA HEARD THEPON Q’TARCLERICS CALLout to her mind.“The Recluse is lost. Go to the crib and collect the child.”

Serena dutifully walked across the room and picked up her daughter. As the queen held her baby close, Clarice cooed sweetly. Serena lifted her head.

“We are ready,”she replied silently.

“Good,”the voices answered.“We will now retrieve the needed spell from your consciousness.”

Serena closed her eyes. At once the amazingly complex formula appeared in her mind’s eye.

“Start reading the formula aloud in Old Eutracian,”the clerics demanded.“Soon you and the child will be free.”

Serena dutifully started reciting the formula.

WITH HIS ARMS TIGHTLY WRAPPED AROUND THE WARRIOR’Sstout neck, Wigg held on as Ox launched from the balcony and took to the air. Ox followed Wigg’s instructions and flew toward Serena’s chambers.

As they approached, they saw that her balcony doors were closed. Wigg ordered Ox to back off a bit and hover in the air. Using his right hand, the First Wizard pointed to doors of wrought-iron and glass. At once an azure bolt flew from his scorched fingertips. The bolt exploded the doors into a cacophony of flying glass shards and twisted iron.

Carrying the wizard in his strong arms, Ox immediately headed for the balcony.

THE MOMENT TRISTAN HEARD THE EXPLOSION, HE LED THEcharge down the hallway. With the coming danger he could feel hisK’Shari rising again. Three meters from the doors he instinctively launched into the air. Flying feet first, he crashed the doors down, then landed in the room on all fours, like a cat. Raising his dreggan, he frantically looked around.

Wigg and Ox were rushing in from the balcony. On the other side of the room, Serena calmly held Clarice in her arms. The queen’s eyes were closed. Seemingly oblivious to the invasion, she was reciting some kind of incantation in Old Eutracian. Fearing the worst, Tristan frantically looked at Wigg.

“Stop her!” Tristan screamed.

As Serena finished reciting her spell, she turned and gave Tristan a smile that sent a chill down his spine. To his horror, he saw that her image was fading. Somehow she and Clarice were going to escape his grasp after all! As he stood there powerless to stop her, she and her child became increasingly translucent.

The narrow azure bolt that Wigg sent flying was designed to strike the queen’s head and spare the child she held. But as it neared Serena, instead of destroying her it passed straight through her-just like Faegan’s bolt had done to Xanthus, the night of the masquerade ball. Wigg’s bolt flew on to explode deafeningly against the room’s far wall.

As Serena’s and Clarice’s forms became increasingly transparent, Tristan stood in awe of the craft. He knew that the members of thePon Q’tar were somehow spiriting them away, and that there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Without warning, Serena and Clarice burst into flames.

Screaming madly, Serena clutched her child closer to her breast. Astonished beyond words, Tristan and the others could only stand by and watch as the queen staggered toward the balcony. As she struggled they could also hear Clarice’s sickening cries as she burned to death in her mother’s arms.

Serena turned and looked straight into theJin’Sai ’s eyes. An intense hatred rose from their fiery depth to strike at his very core. Then Serena and Clarice collapsed onto the balcony floor to form a pile of black ash. Dark, wispy smoke rose from the remains.

Shailiha came to take Tristan by the hand. Neither of them completely understood what had just happened, but the results were clear. The threat was gone, but they had failed to save Clarice.

Shailiha, Tristan, and Wigg walked onto the balcony to stand beside the dark mound. The wind came up and started to scatter the ashes into oblivion.

“What just happened?” Tristan breathed. “Did she kill herself and take her child with her?”

Wigg shook his head. “I don’t know,” he answered. “In truth we might never comprehend it fully. What little I could hear of her spell was so convoluted that even I didn’t understand it.”

Tristan looked over the balcony and down toward the fighting. His troops had finally taken the upper hand. He called Traax to his side.

“Get down there and finish it,” he said. “Try to take the remaining consuls alive. But if they continue to resist, kill them. I want every one of Serena’s surviving shrews and flying creatures put to the sword. And get me a casualty report as soon as you can, including any deaths or injuries suffered by Conclave members.”

Traax clicked their heels. “It shall be done,” he said. He and the other warriors left the room.

Tristan sadly looked to the sky. “It will come any time now,” he said quietly. He put one arm around his sister and held her close. As he did she laid her tired head on his shoulder.

“Yes,” Wigg answered, “just as it always does.”

The sky started to darken. Soon the heavens became black as night, and the wind howled incessantly. Then the lightning started, its bright tentacles streaking down in unbelievable patterns. Thunder tore from the sky to shake the very foundations of the Recluse. With Serena’s death had come the death of her blood. And with the death of her blood, her Forestallments were leaving.

In his mind’s eye Tristan could see the young Scroll Master standing in the miraculous Well of Forestallments, watching as Serena’s gifts went to join those of so many endowed others who had perished in the name of the craft. He could imagine her azure death mask forming as the Forestallment calculations that had once graced her blood signature took their place below it, in one of the thousands of gleaming, azure cases. Might they come to rest beside Celeste’s? he wondered.

Soon the heavens quieted and the trembling earth stilled. Tristan looked down to see that the pile of ash had been taken by the wind, never to return.

There are still so many unanswered questions, he thought. But one thing remained certain. He had to return to Crysenium-perhaps for all time.

Unsure of his future, he held Shailiha closer.

“IT IS BY THIS RITUAL THAT THESE TWO SHALL BE JOINED, and may their union never be rent asunder,” Tristan announced as he read from the wrinkled parchment. “As a gesture of the love and respect that exists between you, I now ask that the traditional tokens be exchanged.”

Tristan looked up from his parchment to gaze around the Great Hall. The room looked as resplendent as it had the night Xanthus had come to take him away. He gladly stood on the dais with several dozen other people. It was a happy day.

Traax and Duvessa had asked that theirJin’Sai perform the ceremony, and Tristan had heartily agreed. All of the Conclave members were present, as were the palace gnomes. The room was packed with Minion well-wishers. Rafe, Balthazar, Scars, Martha, and the elders of Clan Kilbourne were also in attendance. The fliers of the fields fluttered colorfully overhead, and a string quartet sat nearby, ready to play.