I brushed your beautiful hair just this morning, brushed it free of tangles, like I always do…
“Listen to me, Wife,” he said, struggling to get the words past the lump in his throat. “You fight , with all your strength, to come back to me. Don’t forget I love you, and I need you, and our daughter needs her mother. You fight!” His voice broke as tears blinded him. “Don’t leave me.” he sobbed.
“I…promise…I’ll…try,” Jelena replied, her words a mere thread of sound.
“Young Sakehera, are you ready?” A note of sympathy softened Taya’s clipped question.
Ashinji dashed the tears from his face and drew himself up to his full height. He nodded once. “I am ready.”
The princess removed the glowing ruby pendant from her neck and placed it on the altar beside the White Griffin ring. “The Key shall remain safe in our keeping from this day forth,” she intoned. “Ensconced in the Eye of Lajdala, it will become the sacred duty of all those who wear this symbol of office to guard it with their lives.” She raised her hands and the other Kirians followed suit. “Wait for my signal,” the princess said, looking at Ashinji. “It is vitally important the old vessel be broken at the exact instant the new one is ready.”
This isn’t just an inanimate object to be broken, this is my wife!
Ashinji felt himself drowning in despair.
Taya began to chant.
At long last! The moment of my release is at hand! She has brought them, just as she said she would, and most importantly, they have brought the Key!
Pathetic bitches! I will make them all grovel before me, and after I’ve taken my pleasure from their puny bodies, I will slaughter them and paint the walls with their blood. But first, I must secure the Key, the only thing that really matters!
How infuriating, this need to wait on her, but I’ve no choice. Only through the use of her body can I ultimately make my escape. The red bitch thinks she’s so very clever! Did she really believe she could conceal her innermost thoughts from me? Oh, but I have a very nasty surprise for her!
I can feel the force of their magic, building…When they shatter the vessel and release the Key, she will open the way for me and I will come roaring through, wielding my vengeance like a scourge! I will utterly destroy the Kirians, once and for all!
The sound of tearing metal rent the air.
Ashinji stifled a cry of pain as the Kirians began drawing down the energy of his Talent. Simultaneously, they sent the combined flows of their own power coursing through him.
This is what it must feel like to be burned alive!
Sweat rolled down his sides beneath the layers of his heavy clothing, and dripped from his brow to sting his eyes. His senses began to fragment.
Hold on, Son! We’re almost there!
Taya picked up one of Jelena’s limp hands, and with a shard of white quartz she pricked Jelena’s thumb and squeezed out a single crimson drop. Next, she pressed the White Griffin to the bleeding wound and nodded as the ring’s magic flared to life in response.
Jelena, can you hear me?
Ashinji heard Taya in his head as well as Jelena’s reply.
Yes, Aunt.
Reach down inside now, and touch the Key. Can you feel it?
Yes…yes! It…it’s cold, Aunt…so cold.
Push it out now, Jelena! Push very hard! Ashinji Sakehera, strike now!
Ashinji stared hard at the gleaming blade in his hand, poised above the tender skin of Jelena’s breast. His vision swam, creating overlapping images that twisted crazily before his eyes. He raised the knife.
You must strike now, before it’s too late!
Don’t hesitate, Ashi!
Why do I have this feeling something is not right? Ashinji swayed, the knife point wavering over its target.
“Hurry, Ashi! Do it now!”
Jelena gazed up at him with no trace of fear in her hazel eyes.
“You’re awake! Ai, Goddess,” he whispered, horrified. “I can’t do this, not now!”
“Listen to me, beloved. Yes, you can. We both can,” she replied, her voice calm. “You know there’s no other way. I won’t feel any pain, I promise. My death will be as easy as falling asleep in your arms. When it’s all over, we’ll be together.” She smiled, and it felt like the sunrise after a long, harrowing night. “Remember how much I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Son, strike now!
Ashinji snapped back to consciousness. He looked down at Jelena, who lay unmoving on the altar slab, slack-jawed, eyes closed.
I’ve been entranced, and she’s been asleep all along , he realized. She reached out to me, in a vision, to give me the strength to do what I must.
Sobbing aloud, he brought the knife down in one smooth motion.
Jelena’s body arched then fell back as the knife bit deep. A bright stain of red, like a rose opening to the morning sun, bubbled around the blade buried in her breast. Ashinji fell to his knees, his hands pressed to the wound. He felt like his body was being torn apart as the magic of the Kirians flowed through the conduit of his mind. He sensed Jelena’s life ebbing away, but he felt something else happening as well.
Taya spoke a Word of Power and Ashinji screamed as a thunderbolt detonated in his head. He looked up, senses swimming, to see, hovering a handspan above Jelena’s body, a dazzling sphere of blue light.
The Key!
Gran spoke a second Word, and Ashinji groaned as the backwash seared his already flayed nerves. The Key sparked like an ember beneath the bellows of a forge. Ashinji braced himself.
Sonoe spoke a Word and without warning, the protective circle collapsed and the flow of magic ceased. At the same instant, the red-haired mage stepped backward and threw something to the floor.
A geyser of darkness erupted from the stone to form a swirling column of black.
“Come, Master, come!” Sonoe screamed. “The way is open!”
Taya’s howl of fury mingled with Gran’s and Amara’s cries of horror.
Instinctively, Ashinji threw himself across Jelena’s body. He stared at his mother in confusion. “What’s happening!” he shouted.
“Treachery!” Amara cried.
The black column coalesced into the rough shape of a man. Ashinji could only stare, helpless, as the other Kirians raced to complete the Ritual. As Taya held aloft the Eye of Lajdala and began to intone the final incantations, a bolt of dark energy shot from the shadow figure and struck the Eye from her hand. Taya spun about and launched a fireball from her fingertips. It flew straight for Sonoe but the younger mage easily deflected it.
“Give it up, fools!” Sonoe cried, her voice ringing with triumphant glee. “You can’t win! The Key is mine!”
Wrong, slave-bitch! The Key belongs to me! It always has!
The voice of the Nameless One rolled over them, deep and grinding. Ashinji felt more than heard it, and shuddered at the slimy residue it left in its wake.
Sonoe whirled, laughing, to face what she had freed. “The tables are turned, truly, Master! ” she hissed. “I command you, Shiiiieee… ”