The Darkling Child

TWENTY‑FOUR

REYN FROSCH WAS STILL STRUGGLING WITH THE MIX OF EMOtions generated by Lariana’s abrupt reappearance and even more abrupt departure; everything had happened so quickly, there was no time to sort it out. Then Arcannen said, “How would you like to have the answers to all those questions you’ve been asking?”

It caught the boy by surprise; he hadn’t expected any answers at all until the girl returned and wouldn’t have been surprised if Arcannen had continued to put it off even then.

But Arcannen led him over to the table on which he had composed his mysterious invitation and sat him down. Taking a seat across from him, the sorcerer leaned forward. “We are done with games, boy. We are done with practice. What happens next is a real test of your abilities. Can you stretch your magic in a way you haven’t tried and master it in the process? We’re going to find out tonight.”

Reyn felt his throat tighten. Tonight? “What do you mean? What’s going to happen?”

The sorcerer cocked his head slightly. “You’ve done well enough with images, but your magic has so much more potential. Let me tell you a little about its history. Once you understand what is possible, you might be better able to accept what I intend for you to do.”

He leaned back again, his gaze drifting off into the shadows of the room. “Lariana’s worked so hard with you. Tell me. Do you like her? It appears that you do. A great deal, in fact. Isn’t that so, Reyn?”

“I like her a lot,” the boy answered. There was no point in pretending otherwise. Surely Arcannen knew as much. “But you already know that, don’t you.”

He made it a statement of fact rather than a question. Arcannen laughed. “I do. And I’m happy for you. But let’s leave that subject for later discussion. The wishsong, then. The wishsong appeared centuries ago, an aberration created by Wil Ohmsford’s wrongful use of the Elfstones. It first manifested itself in his children. We’ve discussed this. What matters is that the sister, Brin, could make use of his gift in almost any way she chose. With it, she could change the world around her, altering the look and feel and behavior of other living things. She could literally bring a seedling to bloom or cause that very same bloom to wither.”

Arcannen paused. “Do you see what I am saying? She had the power of life and death at her command. What she could do to flowers, she could also do to humans and animals. There were no limits to her abilities. I think it likely there are no limits to yours, either.”

Reyn shook his head. “I don’t want that kind of power.”

“But you already have it! You’ve already exercised it, willingly or not. You’ve shown you can impact people by using your magic. You’ve caused people to die! Even if you didn’t intend it, you can’t deny the fact. You command power enough to cause people to explode at the sound of your voice. If you chose to, you could cause them to wither like flowers. You need to accept this, and then you need to find a way to control it. Because sooner or later, it’s going to break free again. If you recognize how it works, you have a better chance of being able to manage it. And not through manipulating images, but through contact with actual people, working through your difficulties by discovering how they can be managed.”

The boy just stared at him for a moment, trying to take in what he was saying. “You’re talking about experimenting on people? Testing my magic on them?”

“That’s it exactly. That’s how you learn. Fortunately, we have the right subjects for you to test yourself against. Men and women who believe in testing themselves against others, although mostly against those who can’t fight back. Imagine their surprise when they come up against you.”

“The Red Slash.” He shook his head vehemently. “I won’t do it.”

“Oh, I think you will.”

“You promised me I wouldn’t have to kill anyone! You gave me your word!” Reyn felt a surge of desperation wash through him. “Did you lie to me about everything?”

Arcannen looked offended. “I lied to you about nothing. I’ve tried to help you. I’ve tried to teach you what having your magic requires of you. I’m still trying. We just need to advance your methods beyond make–believe.”

“But you promised! You said I wouldn’t have to kill anyone!”

“Did I say anything about you killing anyone? Are you listening to me or not? What I said was that you learn how to manage your magic through contact with real people, not through projecting images. I’m not asking you to hurt anyone.”

Reyn shook his head. “That was what you said the last time. Look what happened there! These are trained soldiers; they’ll have experience I don’t! They won’t let me do anything to them. They’ll get behind me or slip past me, and then they’ll kill me or I’ll have to kill them! They’ll come for me and you won’t be there!”

He was practically hysterical. He could feel his control over himself slipping; he was on the verge of crying, already shouting in dismay. He was beginning to shake. But Arcannen reached out, took him firmly by the shoulders, and held him fast.

“You won’t have to kill anyone–and I won’t let anyone harm you. I will be right there with you, standing at your side the whole time. We won’t be fighting our way through mist and darkness. We won’t have to deal with rabid beasts and wild–eyed predators of the sorts we encountered before. The Red Slash and Dallen Usurient are soldiers. They’ll come at us like soldiers, and we will treat them as such. But they must be made to face the consequences of their willful and egregious transgressions, Reyn. They can’t be allowed to get away with murdering an entire village of innocent people. We’re agreed on this, aren’t we?”

The boy nodded reluctantly. “We’re not agreed on how it should happen, though.”

“Listen to me.” He held a finger in front of Reyn’s nose. “You won’t have to hurt anyone. I promise you. I told you I wouldn’t ask that of you. What happened in Arbrox was unavoidable–an accident, an unfortunate turn of events. But that won’t be the case here. I will make sure of it. You just have to do what you’re told. Just this one last time. Then, maybe you’ll want to apprentice with me when this is finished–you and Lariana! Why not? I can teach you both about magic. I can train you.”

There was nothing at this point that Reyn Frosch wanted less, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

Arcannen seemed to sense the boy’s reluctance. His mood turned dark again. “Don’t mistake the reality of our situation, boy. Don’t think your troubles will be over even after you’ve mastered your magic. The Druids will still be looking for you. The Federation will still try to hunt you down. You’ll always be a danger in their eyes, no matter how you change what happens with your gift. You frighten them. You are an aberration, and they want you gone. They’ve never stopped hunting me, so don’t expect that it will be any different with you.”

Reyn nodded slowly, mostly to show he understood, because he wasn’t at all convinced his situation was the same as Arcannen’s.

“Will you do as I tell you, then?” the other asked.

“You haven’t told me what it is you want me to do yet.”

“No, I haven’t, have I?” He gave a weary sigh. “But, really, I shouldn’t have to tell you. Not after what I’ve done for you. Not after all the help I’ve given you. It should be enough that I simply ask the favor.” He paused, his gaze hard and fixed. “So why don’t you just tell me you will do what I ask, and then I will tell you what it is.”

Reyn stared, confused. “Just tell you I’ll do it? Without knowing what it is?”

Arcannen nodded. “Yes, that’s it exactly. Demonstrate a little gratitude for once. Show a little faith. Go on.”

And if I don’t? he almost said. But something in the other’s look stopped him. “All right. I will do what you tell me.”

“Now, that wasn’t so painful, was it?” The sorcerer gave him a look. “You make everything so hard, even when things should be easy.”

He shook his head in a remonstrative gesture. “Lean forward.”

Reyn did so, stretching out over the table to meet the sorcerer halfway. As he did so, Arcannen placed an arm across his shoulders as he might have a child’s. And as if someone else might hear, he began whispering in the boy’s ear, revealing in detail exactly what was going to happen and what part Reyn was to play. As the whispered words filled his ears, the boy felt his horror grow by leaps and bounds, and he shuddered inwardly, fighting not to pull away in repulsion.

When Arcannen had finished, his smile was much wider and so frightening that the boy flinched at the sight of it. “Appalled, are we?” the other asked softly. “Hesitant, now that we’ve heard what’s intended?”

Reyn couldn’t make himself answer. He just stared at the sorcerer wordlessly.

“That’s why obedience is so important. That’s why I asked for your commitment first. That’s why I insisted you give it. So you wouldn’t be tempted to refuse me later.” He paused. “You’re not thinking of refusing me now, are you?”

Reyn shook his head, aware that any other answer would be a mistake. “No, I’m not refusing.”

Arcannen nodded. “That’s good. That’s very good. But if you should be tempted at any point to change your mind, think carefully before you do. You wouldn’t like what would happen if you crossed me.”

He rose, came around the table, and gave Reyn a clap on the back. “I have to go, make some preparations. I want you to rest and be ready for when its time. Dawn approaches. Think about what you need to do and how you will do it. Think about whatever mental preparations you should make. I need you to be strong for me when it’s time. I need you to be able to make your magic work.”

He crossed to the door and stopped, looking back. Reyn was still staring straight ahead and did not turn. “One last thing. About what I just said? If you change your mind on me, I will gut Lariana from neck to navel right in front of you.”

Then he was out the door and gone.

Deep within the abandoned Federation army barracks, Paxon and Avelene were examining the floor through which Lariana had disappeared. They kept crisscrossing the stonework, searching for the bolt–hole they knew must be there, but try as they might they could not find a trapdoor or even a hint of whatever magic had served to provide her with an escape.

Finally, after long minutes had passed and nothing had been gained, Avelene called a halt. “That’s enough. We’re not going to find anything. Lariana’s gone. Whatever magic was used to aid her, it’s sophisticated beyond anything I’ve seen. This has to be the sorcerer’s work.”

“So the girl was lying to us all along,” Paxon observed bitterly. “She’s Arcannen’s creature.”

Avelene was looking around, distracted. “I think we can retrace our steps out of here if we can remember all the twists and turns. We should get started.” She turned away, moving toward the door through which they had entered. “I don’t think you should jump to conclusions about Lariana.”

Paxon hurried to catch up, his anger hot and roiling within him. “What do you mean?”

“I’m just not sure what game she’s playing yet. Maybe she’s Arcannen’s cat’s‑paw, but maybe she’s got something else in mind. It’s in the way she acts and talks, going back and forth, always straddling the fence. I can’t quite make up my mind.”

Paxon snorted. “Well, I can. Her loyalties lie in one place and one place only. With her own best interests. She’d turn on anyone if the opportunity presented itself.”

“Maybe” was all Avelene said.

They left the room and passed down the corridor that had brought them in and then down several more before finally reaching the doors that would allow them to exit the building.

Doors that this time around were firmly barred.

Paxon slammed the palm of his hand against the metal in frustration. “We should have known. The plan was to delay us any way they could.”

“But not try to kill us,” Avelene observed. “Interesting. That doesn’t seem like Arcannen.”

Paxon stopped pounding and stared at the doors. “No, it doesn’t. What do you think?”

The lavender eyes fixed on him. “I think it is the same as before. He wants us to try to break free.”

“Another trap.”

“I would not want to chance it.”

The Highlander exhaled sharply. What do we do?”

The Druid shook her head. “Find another way out.”

“One of the other doors?”

She gave him a look. “I don’t think so. I wouldn’t trust them, either.”

Paxon found himself wondering what the point of all this was. Why had Lariana gone to the trouble of leading them into this complex? Couldn’t she have found a way to lose them in the city without going through all this? She was quick and smart; she could have gotten free at some point. Why pretend she was leading them to Arcannen? It just further convinced him that she was firmly allied with the sorcerer and using Reyn for her own purposes.

Which would be Arcannen’s purposes. Which would mean killing Dallen Usurient. But she had insisted she was trying to help Reyn and prevent him having to kill anyone else. Was she lying or was something else going on?

“We’re missing something,” he said suddenly.

Avelene gave him a look. “I’m listening.”

“Why does Arcannen need the boy to help him kill Usurient? Why can’t he just do it by himself?”

“Maybe he has some special form of retribution in mind that requires the boy’s help. Nothing too ordinary would suffice for someone like him.”

“He still wouldn’t need Reyn Frosch for that. What if we’ve been looking at this the wrong way? What if you’re right about that special form of retribution but wrong about its target?”

The young woman stared at him. “What does that mean?”

“Well, think of it like this. If Arcannen doesn’t need him to kill Usurient, maybe he needs him for something more complicated. What if Arcannen intends to kill not only Usurient but all the soldiers of the Red Slash? After all, the entire company carried out the massacre at Arbrox. Wouldn’t Arcannen see them as equally responsible for what happened? Would he really confine his revenge to just Usurient?”

“So you think he needs the boy to help him because he’s going after more than just one man? But how much help can he be, even with the aid of the wishsong’s magic?”

“I don’t know. I just have a feeling about this. He has to need Reyn or he wouldn’t bother keeping him close. He found him and took him along and trained him. He’s used Lariana to help him with all this. I think whatever he’s got planned involves destroying the Red Slash entirely.”

She thought about it for a moment. “Sounds to me like you’re whistling in the dark. But on the off chance you might be right, we’ll need to act quickly. He knows we’ll find a way out of here soon enough, and he won’t want us interfering with his plans.”

“Will we? Find a way out of here?”

“Come with me. I have a thought or two myself. We’re going back inside that room.”

They retraced their steps through the complex to the chamber where Lariana had disappeared–Avelene in the lead, guiding them with use of her werelight–making their way back to the place they had last seen the girl. The werelight glimmered brightly against the shadows as the Druid held it up and peered around the room.

“We were looking at this wrong, too,” she said suddenly. “Over here.”

She led Paxon to a corner of the chamber where a section of wall had cracked open just enough to reveal it was a hidden door. “Ah,” he said.

“We were fixated on what we thought we saw, which was Lariana dropping through a floor. But that was an illusion created out of magic. Arcannen left it in place here, and Lariana triggered it and then slipped out this door while we were distracted.”

“So she knew it was there. She had to.”

Avelene nodded. “She knew.”

They eased through the doorway into a narrow tunnel that wound through several twists and turns before ending at a section of wall that Avelene quickly determined was there to provide concealment for a hidden door. She tested the portal for traps using Druid magic, found none, and, bracing herself, pushed on it until it opened outward into the night.

Paxon breathed in the fresh air, looking up at a clouded sky. “Very smart of you.”

She pulled a face. “It took me entirely too long to see the obvious. You’re the one who’s sharp. I think you’re right about what Arcannen intends. But I also think you’re wrong about Lariana.”

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“Call it instinct. There’s something more complex at work in that girl than what we’re seeing.”

He shook his head. “What do we do now?”

She gave him a shove away from the building. “Haven’t you learned anything, Paxon? Wherever we find the Red Slash, that’s where we find the sorcerer. Let’s hurry.”

When the door to their quarters opened again, Reyn was expecting Arcannen’s return. But it was Lariana who entered, and instantly Arcannen’s final words came back to him with razor–edged clarity.

I will gut Lariana from neck to navel right in front of you.

But was that threat real or another ploy to gain his compliance? He stiffened as she turned to him, still suspicious in spite of his fears for her, still wary of the truth behind her role in what was happening to him. She saw the expression on his face and glanced around.

“Where is he?”

“He went out. He didn’t tell me where he was going.”

She gave him a hard look. “What’s wrong? And don’t try to tell me it’s nothing. I know you well enough by now.”

“Maybe I don’t know you quite as well.”

She folded her arms. “Maybe you should tell me what you mean by that.”

When he looked at her, even now when he knew what she might be, he was so unnerved that he had to look away again quickly. “I’m finding out some things I didn’t know about you. Arcannen told me on the trip back. He said you and he …”

He stopped, unable to finish, not even really sure where he was going. What he wanted to say and what he was afraid might be true were getting all mixed up, and everything was coming out wrong.

She pursed her lips. “He and I what? Better finish that sentence, Reyn. Let’s hear all of it.”

With an effort, the boy pulled himself and his thoughts together. “It wasn’t so much what he said as what he hinted at. That you and he … might be more than teacher and student. That your relationship might be something else. But it’s not really that, either. It’s how you seem to know so much that I don’t. He tells you more than he tells me. You had a plan for finding us after we left you with the Druids. You and he had worked it out ahead of time. No one told me. I was worried sick about leaving you. I know he’s told you other things, too. About his plans for Usurient. About what he intends for me.”

She waited on him, saying nothing.

“It just feels like you’re closer to him than you are to me, and I can’t stand it! I was so certain about us in the beginning. I thought you and I would be … would have a chance at …” He trailed off. “You kissed me like it meant something! Like I meant something. I’ve stayed because of that, even when I thought I ought to go. I couldn’t bear leaving you!”

He took a deep breath. “Just tell me if I’m wrong about all of this. Tell me if I’m being foolish.”

She nodded slowly. “Well, you are definitely being foolish. But not in a bad way.” She came over and sat next to him. “You liked it when we kissed, didn’t you?”

“You know I did.”

“Then you should know I did, too. That was real. That meant something to me, too.”

Her perfect features crinkled momentarily, as if disrupted by an unpleasant thought. “In the beginning, when Arcannen came to Rare Flowers, I would have done anything to persuade him to take me away. It was important to me that I leave before I was thrown out. Before I was back on the streets. Before I was forced to do things I didn’t want to do. I would have given myself to him, if he asked. I offered, in fact. But he wasn’t interested. He isn’t interested now. Arcannen sees people as pieces on a chessboard to be moved about as he thinks fit. He uses them to accomplish his ends. He doesn’t bond with them. He doesn’t feel love or desire or even friendship. People are there to serve his purposes. That’s all. It’s true of everyone, including you and me. So you can stop worrying about the nature of my relationship with him. It’s not all that different from yours.”

Reyn nodded. “But he suggested …”

“Yes, yes!” She made an impatient gesture. “He does nothing but suggest! He’s so good at manipulation. Much better than I am, and I’m very good. I’ve had to be. He brought me with him to Arbrox because I know how to get people to do what I want. No, stay quiet. Just listen. Don’t judge until you hear me out. He wanted you to fall in love with me so you would do what he wanted. So you would stay with him. So I did what I was told. I made you fall in love. At first, it didn’t matter to me that you did. It was just something I had to do. But, gradually, it did matter. Now it matters so much I can’t stand another minute of knowing what I am doing to you. Everything’s turned around. It’s all different!”

She seized his shoulders. “Look at me! Do hear me? Do you understand what I am telling you?”

He took a deep breath, his eyes fixed on hers. “I think so.”

“Say it, then.”

“You’re in love with me.”

“I’m in love with you. So now it’s your turn. Do you still love me?”

He nodded. “I don’t think I could do anything else.”

“All right, then. I’ll tell you the rest of it. Yes, I knew things you didn’t. Arcannen confided in me but not about anything that really mattered in the long run. I didn’t know what he was going to do with you in Arbrox. I didn’t know how he was planning to use you. I did what he told me, but I didn’t know. Do you still love me?”

“I do,” he said firmly.

She leaned forward and kissed him hard on the mouth. She held the kiss for a long time, letting him feel the passion behind it.

“We have to get away from him,” she said, breaking away. “We can’t let this go on. He will use you to kill Usurient, but it won’t stop there. He will continue to use you afterward. If not in the same way, then in some other equally abhorrent manner. Your magic is valuable to him; he wants it for his own!”

“I know.” Reyn felt the world rush back in, the loss of her lips against his almost unbearable. “But it’s much worse than you think. He intends to destroy the entire Red Slash brigade, all five hundred of them. Usurient is just the head; he wants the body, as well. He told me so while you were gone.” Reyn hesitated. “He also told me that if I didn’t do what he wanted when it was time, he would kill you right in front of me.”

She went white. “You see what I mean? He doesn’t care any more about me than anyone else. I’m here to serve a purpose. He will use me in whatever way he can. He will do whatever it takes to make me fulfill his purpose.”

“If we try to escape him now, he will hunt us down and kill us.” Reyn kept his voice steady and his eyes locked on hers. “You know that, don’t you?”

“It doesn’t mean we can’t try. It doesn’t change what we have to do.”

“I know. But I’m afraid. Afraid for you. Do you really love me?”

“I love you enough that I want to spend my life with you. Enough that I will give it up for you if I have to.”

He smiled, the first smile he had allowed himself. “And I love you enough that I will find a way to permit the one and prevent the other.”

He pulled her to him, and his arms went around slender waist. “I won’t let you go,” he whispered. “No matter what, I won’t.”