Heart of Darkness
Chapter 21
Greywords.
His name was Zelgadis Greywords. And he’d been in Ambervale… but not alone. Someone had been with him. A someone with dangerously calm blue eyes. Young… and old. And there was pain. An excruciating agony that wasn’t the kind that could be enjoyed. It tore at him, tore into him, breaking him… ripping him apart…
He opened his eyes with a gasp, awareness flooding back, sharp chilled air biting into his lungs. It had fallen several degrees with the setting of the sun, and he was disoriented, trying to grasp at the fading dream that had felt so very much like a memory. He caught it, twisting memory wrapping itself up in the guise of certainty and insinuating itself on the battered figure.
The two hung in the air above, those
calm light blue eyes looking lazily at him. Zelgadis was exhausted, his
strength of will the only thing keeping him in the air. He’d started strong,
one attack after the next, but the basic attacks had proven useless. He’d had
to get creative, but it still hadn’t worked. His adversary was simply too
strong.
He lifted a hand to collect another
spell, but his very mind rebelled against him, his will inexorably being
suppressed by his opponent’s own will superimposing itself over his own.
Pain lanced itself through him,
arching his back, stiffening his limbs, stealing thought and breath. He fought,
but the harder he fought, the more painful it became. A white-hot light flashed
across his eyes, and he was consumed by pain. It burned at him, a soul-consuming
fire that seemed to go on for all of eternity until even his heightened senses
yielded to stark black nothingness.
Jedah. Innocent looking boyish Jedah. The Mazoku brat who goaded him into a fight, who pushed him and pushed him until both he and Ambervale broke. His soul torn, ripped savagely apart into three, and left tattered and bleeding. He’d been whole once. Pink of skin, powerful of magic… He wasn’t Chimera evolved. He wasn’t a weak, pathetic human caught up in a curse. He was Mazoku, power and will joined in whatever purpose he saw fit…
Zelgadis’ upper lip curled, the darkness rising into his eyes, power stirring in the depths of his awareness, swirling, and swelling, straining against some tenuous-seeming barrier. He paused, gathered himself, and pushed.
There was a distinct sensation of a snapping, something that had bound him releasing with a small blast of delicious pain. A flash of red swept across his mind and then he heard a woman’s voice calling his name in concern. Cassandra. Innocent little Cassandra. He caught himself back, forced his voice quiet and rejected the wild impulse to extract fear and terror from her just yet. “I’m… fine…”
Inside the tent, Cassandra looked out at the silhouette of the other for a moment. “Well… okay… if you say so.” She could have sworn she’d sensed a flare-up of something, but she certainly didn’t sense anything now. What had she missed?
He smiled, knowing that she couldn’t see, knowing that in that flash of power, in that delightful pain that had rolled through him, he’d healed. His body was once more whole and under his command. After all, such was an advantage to being Mazoku. Physical injury meant nothing. He decided that he would spend the evening (Mazoku didn’t need to sleep) considering ways to make Jedah absolutely miserable.
It amused him to consider the various ways that he could exert his will against the son of the Greater Beast. He’d find him soon enough, and start with whoever had the misfortune to be traveling with him. He was sadly out of practice, being broken as he had been, he’d lost his touch… his panache for exacting terror. He’d need somewhere peaceful to start again, somewhere that didn’t know the ways of daily terror. He needed another Ambervale.
Within an instant, he’d changed his mind. Time to go, to find somewhere to terrorize. He reached out with his magic and frowned. Illusion? Someone was manipulating him? He? Someone dared? She! That girl! He rent the illusion asunder, finding himself standing in an area that only bared some small semblance to the glade where he had woken to find himself.
She was standing there, frowning at him. She was hardly innocent, barely the powerless little thing that he had thought. Come to point, she fairly reeked of power. “You!” He snarled, dark eyes blaring at her. “What do you want of me?”
Golden eyes blinked and she took a surprised step backwards. If he was addressing her, then he’d blown wide the illusion that she had so carefully woven. And if he had been able to do that… then she was in a great deal of trouble. Time to do what any bad Mazoku would do: change loyalties.
She kneeled
quickly, bowing her head. Brunette hair tumbled around her as she spoke. “My
Lord Greywords, I am Cassandra, General of
“Recover.” He said dryly, looking at her with those deeply dark blue eyes. “Yes. I am recovered. And now, I take my leave. I trust you know better than to follow me.” With a sardonic little smile and a half-bow, Zelgadis gathered his powers and vanished.
She cringed as he faded from view and sense. No, that had not gone to plan at all. Well. So much for having the Black King… at least her servant was still at large. Maybe some measure of triumph could be wrenched from the ashes of the mess that she’d created.