“Dreya!” Daelen cried out, powering up and rushing to her side.
Fuelled by rage, his first instinct was to flatten a few acres of forest and his attackers along with it, but Catriona had had a considerable effect on him. As he had been trying to train her, she had been training him. She accused him of being predictable and at that moment, he realised she was right. Thinking to catch him off guard, the death knights had channelled much of their power into their blast. Now they were relatively weak and defenceless. Using his powers against them now would be a waste of energy. Instead, in a rare moment of restraint, he stopped before dealing the killing strike. Sending them back now would force Kullos to waste power recharging them.
“Go back to your Master,” Daelen growled. “Tell him how you failed and also tell him this: If he wants to finally destroy me, he’s going to have to look me in the eye while he does it. Otherwise, he’ll always be wondering if I escaped, ready to take my revenge the moment he lets his guard down. Tell him he needs wait but a little while longer. Soon we will meet for the last time, and I'll send him back into the maelstrom of chaos. Now go before I forget about the message and destroy you right here.”
The death knights didn't hang around.
*****
Some distance away, Catriona was awakened from her sleep, when her Crystal Mage Staff glowed in her face. Out of the air, she heard a by-now-familiar voice:
Black faction second attempt gone. One attempt remains.
*****
A few hours later, Mandalee, Cat and the others arrived. Cat took one look at the unconscious Dreya and ran to her side.
“I think she's OK,” Daelen reassured her. “I just thought it best not to move her until you arrived. I gather you ran into some trouble of your own out there.”
He stepped aside with Michael, who told him everything they had been through. Meanwhile, Cat and Mandalee looked the sorceress over and healed her. Even so, she still woke up with a splitting headache.
“That's what you get for headbutting rocks,” Mandalee quipped.
“Thanks, you’re all heart,” Dreya replied, with a half-smile.
“What can I say?” the White Assassin shrugged. “Sometimes, nature’s a bitch.”
Once Cat was sure her girlfriend was fine, she excused herself, saying that she and Mandalee still needed to tend to the injuries sustained by a few of Michael’s group.
When they had moved away, Daelen approached the sorceress.
“Dreya, I just want to say—” he began, but she held up a hand to cut him off.
“Don't thank me, Daelen, I didn't do it for you. I did it to gain power.”
“Of course, I should have realised.” The shadow warrior hid a smile. He was beginning to understand Dreya's pride, and it was the least he could do to play along. “Although if you wanted power, you could have helped them kill me, and then taken mine.”
“Thought about it,” she admitted with total honesty. “Decided against it.”
The shadow warrior dropped his voice, making sure no-one else could hear. “Shame you didn't include the rock in your thinking.”
Dreya offered a facial shrug. “Nobody's perfect.”
“I see,” he pondered, continuing to speak quietly. “So, Dreya the Dark takes the Black Tower in five minutes, brings my dark clone to his knees in under an hour, and conquers Phitonia in a spare afternoon. Yet, when attacked by a quartet of death knights that she could destroy in her sleep, she falls and hits her head on a rock, thereby making herself vulnerable before the power of a shadow warrior who she knows doesn’t trust her.”
Dreya raised her eyebrows. “When you put it like that, it sounds ridiculous, so I would deem it a favour if you didn’t spread that version around. Even to a certain mutual love interest.”
Daelen agreed. “Just one other thing,” he added. “I can’t imagine why, but all of a sudden, I’m prepared to trust you.”
“Excellent. I suppose it must be our conversation that convinced you.”
“Must be,” Daelen concurred, “although they do say that actions speak louder than words.”
“Where do they say that?” Dreya wondered.
“It’s an Earth expression.”
“How fascinating. Anyway, how come I don’t see any corpses?”
The shadow warrior explained what happened, leaving out only the part about the message.
“Promise me something, Daelen,” demanded the sorceress. “In the final battle, those death knights are mine. I can't have people thinking they can take pot-shots at Dreya the Dark and get away with it!”
“Your reputation is important to you; I can understand that. If you want the knights to yourself, that's fine with me.”
“Dammit!” Dreya swore suddenly. “I must have hit my head harder than I thought. I always promised myself I’d never do it, but I finally did, didn’t I?” Answering Daelen’s blank look, the annoyed sorceress explained, “I just referred to myself in the third person.”
*****
The full company traversed the remaining distance to the temple ruins, arriving early afternoon. There, they set up a defensive perimeter. Cat and Mandalee did their rounds over the next couple of hours to treat any remaining injuries. Once this was done, Catriona soon had her nose back in her books, studying some more until, about an hour before sunset, she called her girlfriend and two friends together.
She informed them that she planned to do some scouting in owl form that night, to see what she could learn about the army that awaited them.
“Is that safe?” Daelen wondered.
He was worried that she might be detected, but Dreya assured him that in tests, whenever Catriona took the form of an animal, every scanning technique the sorceress knew – including some she’d invented herself – registered her as that animal and nothing more. While that wasn’t definitive proof, they were bound to have to take some risks at some point, and the rewards were compelling enough to be worth this one. She had every confidence in her girlfriend’s ability to take care of herself.
Before that, however, Cat told them there was one more thing she needed to do, for which she needed their help. Something that was highly sensitive, and not for anyone else to know. Therefore, as soon as it grew dark enough to clearly see the stars – and Cat could, of course, ensure it was a clear night, at least where they were – they would leave the camp in Michael’s capable hands while they slipped away. Until then, she would say no more.
*****
A couple of hours later, Catriona sent a sympathic, ‘Now’ to the others and they all complied: Daelen, Dreya and Mandalee with Shyleen, leaving the camp together, accompanying Catriona back into the forest, the way they had come. As soon as the druidess was satisfied that they were sufficiently isolated, she decided they could stop walking.
“Dreya, did you bring the book I asked you to get for me?” she asked.
Dreya suddenly looked uncomfortable – no, Daelen realised, not just uncomfortable but afraid. That grabbed his full attention instantly. She had faced down his power without flinching, yet the mere mention of this book had her scared.
“Dreya,” Catriona enunciated, “did you bring the book?”
“Cat, are you sure about this?”
“What is it, what's this all about?” Mandalee demanded, picking up on Dreya’s tension.
Using her natural sleight of hand, the sorceress produced, from some hidden pocket in her robes, a small parcel covered in brown paper. Removing the protective wrapping, revealed a book bound in nightblue leather with silver markings that were apparently more than just decoration. It was the Nameless Book, believed to be the work of the first wizard, Magias.
“This book is so ancient,” she explained, “no-one can translate the writing on the cover, so we don't even know its name. What we do know is that it is the most heavily fortified magical installation ever constructed. No one knows for certain who wrote it or what is written in it. It is protected by layer upon layer of magical traps, shields, warding, defence, attack…in short, it is impenetrable without the specific set of magical keys, and no-one knows what they might be.”
“I do,” Cat stated. “They’re the same as for my staff. As of today, I have broken through every barrier between me and the power I am trying to understand and possibly release. All bar one. I’m assuming this book will tell me everything I need to know about the power I am dealing with: How it was created, why it was trapped, what it does and ultimately present a case for its release. Then I will simply have to learn the final key and using it will be my choice. Look, I appreciate everyone's concern, but I know what I'm doing. If I were not certain beyond all reasonable doubt, I would not attempt this. Trust me, this is not one of my ridiculous radical plans. Now Dreya, for the last time, please, give me the book.”
With a sigh of resignation, Dreya handed it over. After all the trouble she’d gone to, stealing it from the home of Laethyn, Master of Dark Magic himself, she supposed they might as well put it to good use.
Daelen and Mandalee shared a look – they weren't happy about their dear friend taking such a risk, but she had asked for their trust, and they couldn't deny her. The Cleric of Nature stepped forward, took Catriona’s hands in hers, and looked deep into her eyes.
“You’re my best friend, Cat, and I love you, so you know I’ll support you no matter what. Just tell me you’re sure this is the right thing to do.”
With a look of fierce determination, Cat attested, “Everything I’ve done since the Day of the Angel has been about this moment, so yes, I’m sure.”
“Then whatever you need from me, it’s yours.” With that, Mandalee released her friend and stepped back to rejoin Shyleen.
The leopard, sitting by Mandalee’s side, sent, ‘I don’t like it either. None of us is happy about it. But though none of us can say why, I believe we all know it must be done.’
‘Cat believes this is the path our lives should take, so I’m ready to follow wherever it leads. For her.’
‘The path of life is often anything but a path,’ suggested the philosophical leopard, ‘but rather a tangled, and delicate spider web.’
‘Ugh, Shyleen,’ Mandalee shuddered, ‘do you have to use spider analogies?’ But she knew the great leopard was right. They turned back to watch Catriona open the ancient book, but they were about to find out that it wasn't that simple.
Choosing a comfortable spot in the grassy clearing, Catriona told her friends, “I have a number of instructions I need you to carry out for me. I'm going to need absolute concentration for this, so I cannot risk being disturbed. No matter what happens, no matter what strange things you may witness, you must not interfere. Even if you think I am in danger, there is nothing you can do to help me once I have begun. But you can help now. I need one person close by, and I choose Daelen. Nobody else is allowed within ten feet.”
“Why Daelen?” Mandalee asked. She wasn’t sure which fact was more surprising: that Cat hadn’t chosen Dreya or that Dreya hadn’t voiced the question herself.
“Because I suspect higher planar energy might be required, and while Dreya can now wield such power, Daelen is still more familiar with it.”
“Your logic is undeniable, Cat,” Dreya agreed, then she turned to the shadow warrior.
“It’s like we were saying, Daelen, about choosing to trust one another. I’m placing the life of the woman I love in your hands, shadow warrior,” she implored him. “Please be worthy of that trust.”
“I will, Dreya,” he vowed. “I swear, I will.”
Catriona sat down cross-legged on the grass and invited Daelen to sit opposite, but not so close that he might accidentally touch her and disturb her concentration. Next, she made the grass and plants grow to form a circle, roughly ten feet in diameter. It didn’t need to be high. It just had to serve to mark a clear boundary. Once finished, she asked Mandalee to impart her clerical blessing on that ring and place Daelen and herself in her very best demon trap.
“Won’t that cut you off from your magic?” she asked, remembering how they first met.
Cat shook her head. “For this, I can only use the magic from within.”
Mandalee agreed but suggested that before she did so, Cat might want to ask the tree branches to grow overhead, “Just to shield us from any aerial recon by Kullos and his minions.”
“Good thinking,” her friend commended her and did so, though not enough to block their view of the stars. “Now, Dreya, I need guards to make sure no-one crosses the boundary we’ve created. They must be impossible to bribe or threaten, absolutely lethal and able to carry out instructions to the letter, killing, if necessary, without compassion or remorse. This is too important to risk using human guards who might hesitate at the crucial moment.”
“I know just what you're looking for,” the sorceress understood. “I was going to leave them to guard the Black Tower, but if you need them here, then here is where they shall be.”
She closed her eyes and began to work her wizard magic.
The shadows deepened and out of the darkness stepped a quad of knights; each dressed in black armour with a skull breastplate and massive double-handed broadsword. Red eyes gleamed in the depths of their helms. The Knight leader moved closer still, dropped to one knee, and rumbled, “I await thy commands, my Lady.”
Dreya continued weaving her magic until the knights were accompanied by three floating, shadowy shapes, each with a pair of ethereal white eyes – ghouls. The trio approached Dreya as she opened her eyes to look upon her soldiers. The lead ghoul's eyes lowered in reverence and whispered, “How may we serve you, Mistress?”
“Listen carefully to my instructions. My lover, Catriona, is going to be working some powerful magic and must not be disturbed for any reason. The ring formed by the plants form the boundary she has specified, and no one but Daelen and Catriona herself is allowed within the circle. If any living being should try to cross, you are to kill them – even me. There are enemies arrayed against us that could attack at any time. If that happens, you are to protect Catriona even at the cost of your own undead existences, even above me. I can take care of myself. You will take further instructions from Daelen. He will tell you when the magic is complete. Then you may resume your regular guard duty under the standard terms.” Turning to her girlfriend, she asked, “Does that cover it, Cat?”
“Almost,” she replied. “One last thing: besides preventing entry into the circle from the outside, you must also kill any living being who attempts to leave the circle from the inside – even myself – before Daelen tells you to stand down. Now your instructions are complete.”
The undead guards bowed respectfully and took up positions around the perimeter of the circle.
“I recommend you stay well back,” she cautioned those on the outside, “and also, could you do me a favour and watch the sky? Just in case the stars decide to shift or anything.”
Mandalee, Dreya and Shyleen all moved away, leaving Catriona alone with Daelen inside the circle. Catriona prepared herself, and then quietly gave Daelen one final instruction. Something she knew he wouldn't like but was absolutely necessary.
“Daelen, if things go wrong, you have to promise to do something.”
“Anything,” he asserted. “What is it?”
“Kill me.”