Troy Denning - The Cerulean Storm

Sadira peered over the edge of her cushion, and saw King Tec rising from beneath the waters with the Dark Lens balanced on his back. He turned toward Rajaat and stared up at the ancient sorcerer, his beak clattering. A short distance away, the water boiled around Nibenay and Hamanu as they summoned the energy to cast a spell, leaving a huge expanse of rockstem colorless and defiled in the process. The Oba and Andropinis stood nearby, staring intently into the Lens as they prepared to use the Way.

Tithian and Sacha abandoned their hiding places and started toward the Dark Lens. Rikus, who had continued hacking at Rajaat’s ankle until Sadira was freed, stepped away from the ancient sorcerer and moved to attack the king.

“Rikus, no!” Sadira reached into her cloak pocket.

From the way Rajaat had reacted when he first saw the sorcerer-kings, the sorceress suspected he would attack before “the traitors” could execute their plan. She did not want Rikus near the Dark Lens when that happened.

The ancient sorcerer’s crown of lightning suddenly fell silent. His gaze went vacant, and a tempest of sapphire hailstones began to build in his diamond-shaped eyes.

Sadira tossed the tough belly scale of a rock adder toward her husband, uttering her incantation as it fell. A shimmering gray shield appeared over the entire area surrounding him.

Two streams of smoking hailstones hissed down from Rajaat’s eyes. With a deafening roar, the pellets crashed off the sorceress’s shield and bounced away. They dropped into the lake many yards away, sending steaming plumes of water high into the air.

When the storm subsided, Rajaat’s eyes were almost white with anger. He raised a foot to step toward Sadira, flashing sheets of lightning crackling off his crown.

Hamanu and Nibenay pointed toward the Dark Lens, roaring the incantations to cast their spells. Tiny streams of absolute blackness shot from their fingertips into the orb. The currents came out on the other side, magnified into great rivers, and washed over Rajaat, swallowing Rikus and Tithian on the way.

The Oba and Andropinis attacked next, facing each other and moving their hands through the empty air. They kept their eyes fixed on the ebony murk that had engulfed Rajaat, and soon the dark mass began to assume the shape of a sphere. When the globe was perfectly round, the two sorcerers moved closer together. The black orb holding Rajaat began to shrink.

Sadira felt far from relieved. The sorcerer-kings’ plan had been an efficient one, and her intervention on Rikus’s behalf had kept Rajaat’s counterattack from interrupting it. Still, the ancient sorcerer had clearly been expecting the sorcerer-kings-even looking forward to their arrival. Given that, it seemed strange that he had relied on only one spell to stop them, and that his last act before being captured had been to come after her.

This battle, the sorceress suspected, was far from over. Nevertheless, she had learned something valuable from it. The Dark Lens was not only a mindbender’s tool. The sorcerer-kings had used it to increase the power of their spells a hundredfold. Unfortunately, Sadira had already seen that her own magic had very little effect on Rajaat, and she did not think the Lens would change that. But she knew of someone else who might be able to use the orb to good effect.

Sadira took a deep breath, then turned and uttered a soft incantation. When she exhaled, her cloud began to move as though a stiff wind were blowing it across the sky. The sorceress cupped one hand and held it out to her side. Her flying cushion turned toward the Dark Lens. Keeping a watchful eye on the sorcerer-kings, she flew over and slowly circled the area.

Nibenay raised a hand to wave her down. “You’ve served us well,” he said. “You have nothing to fear from us.”

Sadira did not fly any lower. Watching both him and Hamanu even more closely, she asked, “And what of Rikus?”

“In there, with the Usurper and Rajaat,” said Hamanu, gesturing at the black sphere. The Oba and Andropinis had already managed to squeeze the globe down so that it was no taller than a small giant.

Sadira tried not to be afraid. She had retrieved people from the Black before, and she saw no reason that she would not be able to do it again.

Her hopes must have shown on her face.

Nibenay said, “Don’t think that your powers can call your husband back. He’s beneath the Black, not part of it.”

“What’s the difference?” Sadira asked.

“The Black is shadow. It shows what is by what is missing,” explained Hamanu. “But beneath the Black is the Hollow, where nothing is missing because nothing remains-not the future, not the past, not even the Gray. Nothing-simply nothing.”

“Now, come down here as I told you to do,” Nibenay commanded, his voice growing irritated. “It will be better for you and us if we declare a truce.”

Pretending to accept the sorcerer-king’s offer, Sadira circled around to have one last look for her husband. She angled her hands so that her cloud descended, swooping low over Rajaat’s new prison and the Dark Lens. When she saw nothing but the white, lifeless rockstem that Nibenay and Hamanu had defiled, the sorceress curved away.

That was when she noticed a black shadow swimming through the water behind Andropinis. Though only about the size of an elf, the silhouette retained Rajaat’s basic shape. It was slithering along the bottom of the defiled lake, so that only someone looking down from directly above was likely to see it.

Rajaat had learned a new trick in his prison. While the sorcerer-kings had concentrated on capturing his body, he had been lurking in his own shadow all along.

Sadira smiled to herself. Now she knew how to defeat Rajaat. All she had to do was steal the Lens and return to the crater with it.

Nibenay turned his palm downward and defiled more rockstem, preparing to cast a spell. The sorceress continued to fly, trying not to watch Rajaat’s shadow. The sorcerer-king raised his hand, pointing toward Sadira.

In the same instant, Rajaat’s shadow emerged from the water and threw his dripping arms around Andropinis’s throat.

“For you, eternal confinement,” Rajaat hissed.

Andropinis screamed in alarm as his ancient master’s silhouette swallowed him. The sorcerer-king’s cry fell silent almost at once, and no sign of him remained.

Nibenay changed his aim from Sadira to Rajaat and fairly screamed his incantation. A net of pulsing white energy shot from his hand. It passed through the ancient sorcerer’s shadowy form without effect, but the Oba, who had been standing across from Andropinis when he was seized, had to duck to avoid being hit. Deprived of any chance to cast a spell or use the Way against her former master, she dropped into the water and pushed herself away from him.

Rajaat ignored the sorcerer-queen and stepped toward the Dark Lens, which was still being supported on King Tec’s back. Nibenay and Hamanu, standing between the ancient sorcerer and the Lens, retreated in opposite directions, one summoning the energy for a spell and the other furrowing his brow as he prepared to use the Way.

Sadira circled around and lined herself up behind Rajaat. She moved toward the back of her cloud so there would be room for the Dark Lens, then angled the nose downward and started to descend.

On the other side of the Lens, the Black stopped shrinking. “I need help!” King Tec yelled, still trying to keep the Lens focused on the shadowy sphere. “Nibenay, Hamanu-”

Rajaat stepped up behind him, plucking the Dark Lens off his back. “For you, death.”

He brought the orb down. Tec’s skull split with a tremendous bang , spraying foul-smelling smoke and sizzling drops of fiery red blood in all directions.