Heart of Darkness

Chapter 55

 

            The Cleric was all too aware of the man pacing in the shadows of the room. She felt his anxiety as he moved back and forth while she cast the healing spells over and over again. Lina was naturally resistant to outside magic, and Sylphiel kept having to boost her own spells to compensate. It was wearing her out and she still hadn’t managed to get ahead of the damage done.

            When Zelgadis turned to look over to the Cleric, he saw how very pale she was, how drawn and worn her appearance had become. She’d started to draw on her own life to continue healing Lina, and he couldn’t risk losing Sylphiel as well as Lina. His hand reached out to catch hers as she leaned forwards to cast the spell again. “No. Not at your risk.” His voice was surprisingly gentle.

            “I have to. If I stop…” Sylphiel protested. She’d caught Lina in that brink, that far-away place that lay between life and death. Twilight, she’d heard it called. It was very much a twilight, a place where almost anything could happen. A soul could live or die from this place, but it couldn’t stay there forever.

            Zelgadis’ other hand rested on Sylphiel’s shoulder. “Not at that cost. Lina would never allow it.” There was time to rest, to watch and see if what the Cleric had done was enough to give Lina a fighting chance. “Rest, Sylphiel.” Before she could object, before she could move, his magic swelled, and she was kneeling by her own bed, her husband still snoring, none the wiser.

            It took her thirty seconds to realize what he had done, and once she did, her scream of frustration was heard through the entire living wing of Saillune’s Royal Palace. Gourry leapt out of the bed, all senses on alert, ready to fight off whatever had upset his wife. When Sylphiel angrily brushed off his touch and rose to stalk out of the room, he stood there clueless, and then decided to follow her.

 

            Zelgadis turned away from the space that Sylphiel had occupied, turning to look to Lina, reaching out to brush a strand of her hair away from her face. “I’m so sorry, Lina. I… I never meant…” his voice faded and he took a deep breath, forcing himself still for a moment. What sort of Mazoku was he, anyway? Who did he call to for help? Shabranigdo? Cepheid? Did it matter at this point?

            The slight sound of Lina’s breathing faltered, and his attention snapped back to his wife. Sylphiel had been right. He was going to lose Lina, and in a way, he’d already known it. That cavernous pit in his soul opened again, the sensation not unlike someone reaching into him and putting a vise-like hand around his heart. He moved, gathering Lina into his arms, turning and vanishing from the room with her.

 

            Gourry came to a halt in the foyer of the Palace, practically running over the guards who had run to the aid of the Cleric who had stormed out of the guest wing. She was a scarlet-faced thing of fire and fury, dressed in a white chemise and a strange black cloak that glittered with golden trim. Amelia and Naga stumbled in to catch Sylphiel’s voice raised in anger.

            “Jedah Greywords, where are you?” She might have stomped her foot, if she’d thought that it might do some good. “Xellos, if you’re listening in the shadows, you’d better get your precious Lord and Master here, right now. Lina is dying, do you hear me? She’s dying and Zelgadis has taken her somewhere.”

 

            The words of the Cleric brought the three friends to a complete halt. Lina? Dying? The thought of the fiery sorceress dying was a completely alien one, not one that had remotely occurred to any of her friends. Lina was invincible, wasn’t she?

            “You don’t have to shout, Sylphiel. I’m right here, and I can hear you quite clearly,” Jedah replied with a bit of a smirk in his voice. He’d appeared in the middle of her little tirade, fully aware of the situation with Lina and Zelgadis. As the Cleric spun around to look to him, he offered a faint smile, accompanied by a glance behind her, towards the hallway entrance. “And we don’t have to go find her; she’s on her way.”

            As Sylphiel turned, a figure clad in shadows melted out of the darkness, seemingly oblivious to the servants and guards that Amelia was suddenly chasing out of the other entrance. The last thing they needed was more chaos.

 

            Zelgadis walked slowly, as if he were a one-man funeral procession, the redheaded woman cradled in his arms. His touch seemed almost reverent, as if he were afraid that he might break her by just carrying her into the room. His gaze was bleak, almost blank, his sapphire eyes dull and lifeless. When he reached Sylphiel, he knelt, ever so carefully placing Lina on the floor, gently arranging her hands before rising and looking to Jedah without any trace of emotion. There was a beat, and then his hands parted, palms open and out, as if he was asking what he could possibly do at this point.

            Jedah deliberately turned away from Zelgadis, forcing his gaze to the fragile redhead. Her breathing was so shallow, so labored, he wondered what that spell had done to her, and what might have happened if he’d answered the initial summons that he sent Xellos to instead.

            Xellos, go see to that. I’m busy.

            He’d been so wrapped up in Zelgadis that he’d lost track of Lina. He wasn’t doing such a good job of things, and it was little wonder he felt the burning of Zelgadis’ eyes on his back. He couldn’t turn back time and re-do things that didn’t go precisely right, so the only thing that he could do was to continue forward on the path that he found himself taking.

            He just had a bad feeling about this path.