Vincent Trigili - The Enemy of an Enemy

“I will be with you, and we are much greaterthan the last time we fought him. We have both grown considerablyin power; he does not stand a chance. With your awesome might andmy healing, how could he win? You are no longer a helpless mortal;you are the grandmaster of wizards!”

“You are right, of course, thank you. Butthere is something else I need to tell you, something you shouldknow before we get married.” As I said that I pictured myfather on his deathbed, and his father before him, and so on.

To my surprise she just smiled and said, “Oh, Vydor, I know about all that. The reason medical sciencecannot cure it is because it is not a physical illness.”

“What do you mean?”

“The dark specter that chases you is thecause of it. It is a dark curse on your family line going back moregenerations than I can imagine. When we beat the dark specter, thatwill be the end of the disease too, and until then I can keep youhealthy. Now, I am off to bed. I hope to get an early start andmake one last pass through the hospital before we leave,” shesaid, then gave me a kiss and left.

If I was the grandmaster wizard, why did Ifeel like a child playing at being god? I shut off the terminal andheaded for bed. I would need my energy for the next day, that wascertain.

My alarm told me that it was time to get up,but I had not had much sleep. I spent the night fighting offnightmares. Ready or not, we would be leaving soon, so I headed upto the bridge.

When I arrived, everyone except Kellyn wasthere; apparently she was still in the clinic curing people. “Wewill launch when Kellyn is finished. Darnath, is the jump routelaid in?”

“Yes, everything should be set,” heresponded.

“Okay, just a word of warning. Kellyn and Iwill not be meditating before the jump, so you will have to handleeverything during our recovery.”

“Vydor, only Darnath needs to be awakeafter the jump to execute the second jump. The rest of us willstand with you,” said Andreya.

“The six of us bring a lot of power to thetable. Your demon does not stand a chance against the united forceof the Council of Wizards,” declared Gafar.

I looked at each of them as they allindicated they would not let me stand alone, and I was touched bytheir dedication. “You are right, for if any of us tries tostand alone, we will fall,” I said. I was not sure where thatcame from; someplace deep inside me, some forgotten corner of mymemory.

Not long after, Kellyn returned and came upto the bridge. She looked lovingly at everyone and said, “Thankyou.”

I contacted the station and requestedpermission to launch, to which the reply came that we were clear todo so. “Gafar, engage stealth mode and take us out.” It wasimportant that we did not give away the location of where we hadbeen staying, since everyone knew we had come to meet with theEmperor. After we cleared the station I said, “Best speed tojump space.”

“I estimate ten minutes until we canjump,” said Gafar.

“Wow, this ship is impressive. It wouldhave taken an hour with the Dark Talon,” I replied. The shipdid not lurch forward like the Dark Talon did; it was a very smoothand even acceleration. The only indication of the change in speedwas a slight change in pitch of the engines, which were anever-present background noise.

“Jumping in ten, nine, eight, seven, six…” As Darnath counted down I felt four sets of hands beingplaced on my back, and Kellyn grabbed my hand with both of hers. “…three, two…”

Suddenly we were in jump space, and this timeI turned completely around and faced the demon head-on. I lookedhim right in the eye and called out, “Not this time!”

I lowered my right hand at him and cast agreat bolt of energy directly at him that pushed him back quite abit, but he recovered quickly and charged. Then I felt powerpouring into me from the others, and I grabbed all that power andcast the bolt again. This time the blast hit him hard enough toknock me back and keep him at a very great distance. Just then theship dropped back into normal space, quickly reentering jump spaceas we executed our second jump.

This time the dark specter was standingcalmly at a great distance. He just stood there staring me down, asif to say, “Time is on my side. I will have you sooner or later.”This time I looked to the other spirit that followed me, and helooked greatly pleased. It was as if he was basking in the lightfrom the love and support of my fellow wizards. Before I could tryto talk to him, we reentered normal space.

Once we had all recovered, I saw Darnathlooking very anxious to know what had happened. I turned to him andsaid, “Round one goes to the Council of Wizards!” Thisbrought much cheering and exchanges of high fives.

“Vydor, I want you to know we are in thisfor the long haul. We realize that we will have to do this duringevery jump until we have victory, but victory will be ours as longas we remember what you said about standing alone,” saidAndreya.

“Thank you, Andreya, that means a lot tome. Darnath, what is our ETA to the Dragon Claw from here?” Iasked.

“I expect we will meet up with the DragonClaw in about seven days,” he responded. “Our next jump willbe in thirteen hours, as we have to coast by this neutron fieldbefore we can jump again.”

“Kellyn, please join me in the ready room.I think we have some news to discuss with the captain.” Theready room was a room off to the side of the bridge that was usedprimarily as an office for the captain of the ship. On our ship wehad no real use for it, but I thought it would be more proper touse that for this conversation than the general viewing screen.Mundane people really did not understand that they never talked tojust one of us, so they naturally felt more comfortable with moreprivate settings. I guess it helped them to forget how different wewere.

I took my seat in front of the screen whileKellyn put us through.

“Greetings, Master Vydor,” said the captain.I was surprised at his use of the formal title. I wondered if hewas trying to get used to my new position.

“Hello, Captain. Now that we are en route Ican talk a bit more freely,” I said.

“That is good to hear. When do you think youwill get here?” he asked.

“Darnath estimates seven days on our presentcourse. We are currently coasting by a gravity well and will not beable to jump again for thirteen hours,” I said.

“We have lost all contact with Terathan XV.This is playing out exactly like Arken IV. I would like to getthere as soon as possible. Is there any way you can get heresooner?” he asked.

“Well, this is the shortest route that thestation’s computers found for us. I could ask Darnath to see if hecan work out a faster one,” I said.

“I hear you are in a Raven. If I estimateyour location correctly, I think you can make it in four days.”

“Well, it is a Raven Mark II, actually, so wehave twenty-five per cent greater jump range than a Mark I.”

“Excellent, then you should have no problemwith this shorter route.”

“Well it seems you have a better database ofroutes than we were given access to. If you can send it, that wouldbe great.”

“I will get one of my officers to contactDarnath and they can work it out.”

“Captain, now that is out of the way, I havea personal request to make of you.”

“Certainly, Vydor,” he answered.

“Kellyn, come sit by me,” I saidprivately. Once she was settled I turned to the captain and said,“Captain, let me properly introduce to you Master Kellyn, formerlyof the Black Adders, and now master wizard and member of theCouncil of Wizards.”