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Lady Shang Keladry
Sorrel Rowan
Chapter Seventeen: Sunrise in the Night
Scanran Palace
Sitting bolt upright in bed, did they know they were thinking the same thing, doing the same thing with the many corridors and halls between them?
Jodai stood up, her feet crying out against the cold floor as she ran to the privy and soaked her face with cold water, washing away the sweat the nightmare had caused. But, she couldn�t remember it now. It had been important�
Maggur stood up, not caring that the fur rug heightened the streaks of pain that jammed through his entire body like needles into his skin. Walking slowly and painfully to his privy, he furiously wiped away the wetness on his face, telling himself it was sweat, knowing he lied.
Jodai walked back through to her bed, lying down, breathing hard. Even that small action had drained her beyond belief. As she lay down, she considered the dream.
Maggur paced back to his bed, grabbing anything close by for support as his legs threatened to buckle under him. Collapsing onto his bed, he sat. Running his hands through his blond hair, he ignored the agony that ripped through every fibre of his being, on every level of his mind and body.
He could keep this going forever, Maggur knew. And he would fight him that long, and then some. Whatever it took - he understood now.
He understood what a fool he had been, and what he had to do now. He cared about what was at stake, but the broad, wide world wasn�t what kept his mind agile, forced him to get up and pull on his clothes. How could I have been so naive? He had to save her� she was all that mattered. If he didn�t have her, everything else was safe.
But he has me on a leash, he thought desperately as another wave of pain broke over him, how can I do it?
The dream� Jodai focused. Darkness� four eyes�watching� watching what? Why four eyes? Why two views? Another presence� who else?
Furrowing her brows in concentration, she closed her eyes and reached out inside herself.
There! A glimmer of her Gift remained. That wasn�t where she needed to be, she had to go deeper.
She could see it, almost� like a veil over her reality. Or, no, it couldn�t be, it was so thin - her reality was the veil. Someone�s been in here! she thought, frantic. Her mind had been tampered with, but what didn�t they want her to know?
Something came floating out of the darkness, her own voice, numb with anguish and pain, exhausted� �I�ll forget this ever happened when I wake up��
Clutching to the sound of her own voice, she followed it into the darkness, beyond the thin charade of reality, slipping below it. Other snatches of voices found their way to her, growing as she fell further.
�Pip?�
�I�ve been trying to reach you�
�Jodai-�
�There�s nothing you can do�
�I can�t contact you� stop this.�
Stop what?! Jodai screamed in her mind. Then she knew. Everything came flooding back, she was caught in an avalanche on a waterfall. The dark world spun, throwing her into that workroom, and she watched herself talk to Kel and watch the broken her cling to life. Watching through her own eyes, when everything seemed doubled. Four eyes watching! Mine and Kel�s! Double vision - I was seeing through both pairs of my eyes!
The scene in front of her shattered, and she heard her own voice again, but she knew she wasn�t only talking to Kel. She had been warning herself as well.
�I�m losing the connection, go back!�
As the crystalline black world split into shards, Jodai pulled at the barriers that held her memories - breaking through them with imaginary fingers, forcing the flood gates open.
The visions were coming faster, flying into her mind and leaving just as quickly. The darkness swirled, trying to yank every fact from her mind as she grasped it.
It was too late. She knew - and she was angry.
Losing the last shred of self control, Jodai unleashed a force of sheer will onto the darkness that plagued her, burning away every piece of blackness with her own white light, opening her wings and giving all of her emotions and power leave to fly.
Then she stopped, feeling a vision that was not her own be absorbed by her mind and with it, the darkness bloomed like a flower into white Gift, replenishing her. She heard the shadow cry out in agony as the spark of white stripped him of his own powers. She hesitated while she thought� well, isn�t that an idea?
In his chambers, Maggur heard a screaming. He looked around, then realised it was inside his own mind.
He felt a burning, an anguish that drove him to his knees. But this wasn�t the searing pain incarnate that haunted his mind coming to torture him once more.
It was the touch of an angel, a white hot pain that was like the ultimate ecstasy as it was the most vital agony. Stripes of white fire flew through his mind, like a flock of white falcons, wings blazing with pure flames, illuminating and casting off the shadows of chains that remained.
Jodai didn�t sit straight up this time. Her eyes snapped open, her throat a raw ache. She hadn�t realised she had been screaming - but the healers obviously had. Four of them watched her now. They stared at her as she raised a tentative hand to her throat and poured cooling mist onto the throbbing pain.
Turning inward again, keeping her eyes open, she didn�t have to search for her Gift. It blazed in every part of her mind, filled every crevice of her soul with that white hot blaze she had missed for so long. Jodai was complete again. She stood up with a speed that surprised herself.
One healer, Laila - a young brunette with luminous brown eyes - came forward, and the others backed away apprehensively. Laila had been the one person who hadn�t yammered at her, and had actually kept her head in the past few months.
�May I?� she asked, holding out her hand in a hushed voice.
Jodai nodded and put her hand into hers, allowing a little of her Gift to flow into the exhausted healer, who raised her eyebrows and smiled.
Laila simply said, �Welcome back.�
Jodai, all serene calmness in her nightgown - a plain white dress embroidered in cream - turned and walked into the light of the room.
They all gasped, even the unmoveable Laila a little shaken. �Your dress�� one of them whispered.
Then she remembered - it had been a deep green when she had went to her bed. Her magic had burned away the colour, bleaching it to her white.
She sighed, tugging her hair down out of its tie. It fell to her waist, and even it seemed to shimmer in the dim light.
She had to get to Maggur, but no one could know why - then she had a shrewd suspicion. Laila had known, she was certain. The cryptic �Welcome back,� and all of the times Laila had looked at her oddly when she had been recovering, all the tiny remarks, designed - she saw now - to prick her memory. All the little hints, telling her to �communicate,� �fight the barriers� - she had been subtly breaking barriers all along.
She turned to the healers, looking Laila in the eye. �I have to go.�
When Laila nodded, the other healers clamoured around the door, blocking her way. �Enough!� Laila shouted. Everyone looked at her - she did not usually lose her temper. �If I accompany her Royal Highness, since she has only just fully recovered,� Laila barely concealed a threat and a warning behind her words, �will you get out of our way?�
They mutely nodded, stepping out of the door and falling over themselves as they hurried to bow and curtsey.
Jodai walked out, Laila following closely behind, both faces expressionless.
Once out of the door, Jodai burst out laughing and looked to the other girl with admiration. �I had no idea you had that in you.�
The brunnette looked sheepish and blushed. �Neither did I, your Highness.�
Jodai rolled her eyes. �I�m Jodai to friends, and after that-,� she jerked her thumb over her shoulder to indicate her quarters, knowing the other girl would know she meant more than dispersing the healers, �I count you as a friend.�
Laila smiled, pleased. Then she frowned, and what she said confirmed everything Jodai had thought. �Forgive my asking, but is his Majesty really in danger?�
Jodai hesitated for a moment. �I don�t think he is anymore, but I have to be sure.�
Laila nodded, knowing what had happened and what was expected of her.
�No word of this shall ever escape my lips,� she said, deadly serious. �I�ve seen flashes of the man he is and the King he could be. I�ll take this secret to my grave.�
Jodai turned, looking deep into her eyes. She had to know if she was telling the truth. At last, she nodded and grasped her wrist in silent thanks. Then they turned and walked quickly to the King�s bedroom. Reaching the corner before it, Jodai eyed the two guards. No one must know she had been here.
Laila nodded, and sent a flash of her own Gift - a warm autumn red the colour of torchlight - over to the men. It sank, unnoticed, into their backs.
Suddenly, they both stood up very straight, staring blankly ahead.
Jodai raised her eyebrows at Laila, who walked out and beckoned to her. �I turned their minds off. They still see, but they don�t know what they are seeing, the signals don�t reach their brains. All they�ll remember later is that nothing happened, just a normal few hours on guard. It�s temporary,� she explained in a low tone of voice.
Jodai whistled, impressed. She would have gone for sleep, but the guards would have been punished. This way no one even knew anything out of the ordinary had happened. Sometimes, she thought wryly, brains are more important than power.
�I could wipe my own memories later,� Laila offered. Technically, Jodai should have said yes, but she knew they could trust this Healer. Allowing her to keep her memory would make Laila trust them, gaining them an ally at court - someone they could genuinely trust.
She shook her head. �Not necessary - would you guard the door while I�m inside?�
Laila nodded, respect in her eyes.
Jodai took a deep breath, again checking her Gift - she had to be sure it was still there. It was.
She opened Maggur�s door and walked in.
Maggur looked up, his mind clearer than in months, and was amazed to see Jodai walking through his door. Behind her, he could see one of the healers taking a guard position between two paralysed guards.
He looked away, ashamed of what he had done to her, to everyone. Now he knew his own mind again, the pain of guilt was stabbing him.
He half expected the same white power that had rescued him earlier to kill him now.
Jodai sat on the floor beside him, taking his hand and forcing him to look at her. Right then, they were the only two people in the world, and there was no world beyond her eyes.
He opened his mouth to speak, what to say he didn�t know. She reached up and put a finger on his lips, something in her eyes changing, the distant serenity fading. Suddenly, they were just her and him in a place beyond ordinary rules and titles, the world shifting around them but they remained impossibly still.
When she spoke, it was quietly and without reproach in a voice filled with compassion and understanding.
�I know. I know everything. I was inside that shadow for a moment, when I was breaking free� I know what it put you through, what you did, what you felt.�
His heart ached, the forgiving in her eyes too much - he didn�t deserve it.
�You made a mistake. You realised it, and then you did everything you could to put it right. You�ve grown since then.�
�But everyone else-� he faltered.
�The world won�t ever know, so it won�t matter. The world wouldn�t forgive you then, but I will now,� Jodai said, kissing him gently on the lips.
All unseen a shadow darker than the night it flew in approached a castle.
A small figure was inside, pacing to and fro, muttering all the while.
Suddenly, the pacing stopped. The face turned to the window.
A rush of unseen air, and the candles in the room winked out one by one.
The shadow slipped inside, unseen and unheard. When the figure held a hand filled with dark magic up to the night, his face was lit by the moon.
Had their ever been someone so instantly forgettable - he was� nothing.
The shadow slipped into the ball of swirling flame as it was absorbed into his skin, sliding into his mind and gripping with the strength of a drowning man to a raft, taking over, feeling power rush in his veins.
In the moonlight, the Nothing Man smiled.
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