9 Tales Told in the Dark 3 Read online

  "I feel a powerful presence in the north, and a single huge knot of magic from accumulated artifacts, so I think there is only one witch left, a strong witch who came out on top like I did. I'm not certain I can beat her but I intend to try. If she has anything we need I intend to steal it, but first we have to take a look. Prepare the white crow."

 

  An hour later, under Aaron's control, the white crow, with a mantle of invisibility and several other magical wards, flew undetected high over the perimeter of the northern witch's camp and perched on top of the biggest tent, which was set up in the middle. Looking out through the crow's eyes, Aaron made the crow turn a complete circle so he could see the entire camp. Akeesha, also looking through the crow's eyes, saw everything exactly as he did.

  There was activity all around but no traffic into or out of the tent he perched on, which clearly belonged to the witch herself. He couldn't maintain this spell much longer so he flew the crow to the ground and walked it, ducking under the flap and slipping into the tent. He left little footprints on the packed snow but it was a small risk he couldn't avoid.

  In the light of a lantern two women stood leaning over a table, conferring in low voices. One had graying blonde hair, cut short, pushed back away from her face. The other woman had long, dark brown hair, parted in the middle so it hung down on both sides, covering her face.

  Aaron hopped the crow a little closer to hear better but the older woman cocked her ear and froze for an instant, then looked right at the bird. Aaron stopped dead but the younger woman turned to look too, revealing a face so beautiful he was stunned for an instant, making him slow to react when the older witch picked up her wand and pointed it in his direction.

  Aaron saw a flash of blue-white light, then nothing more.

  The semi-circular stone amulet he'd worn on his chest so long he almost forgot it was there gave him a shock like static electricity, then became almost too warm against his skin.

  Aaron blinked his eyes rapidly several times until he saw the inside of Akeesha's tent through his own eyes. He saw no after images from the flash but the image of the beautiful young witch seemed etched in his mind's eye, and she kept intruding into his thoughts. She seemed familiar somehow, though he could not recall ever having seen her before.

  Akeesha caught Aaron's eye and said, "Did you see her? Did you recognize her?"

  A bit dazed, Aaron shook his head.

  "That was my sister Sarena standing there," Akeesha almost screamed "and she was holding the Eye of Arachna."

  Aaron realized Akeesha was more concerned about the older witch and felt relieved, but dared not show it because he knew about the bitter, decades old rivalry between the sisters, though he had never seen Sarena before. "That bitch. From what you've told me it's no surprise that she's the one who cleaned out all the competition to the north. It's just you against her now. Do you think you can beat her?"

  "She may be twice my age, stronger and more experienced than me, but I've always been smarter than her."

  "That's good, because this prize can't be shared."

  Akeesha glared at him for several seconds and he bowed his head under the onslaught. She said, "Let me think for a while and I'll come up with something. And you, I know you haven't fully recovered from last night, but I'll need you to work hard again, so you better get some rest."

  "As you wish."

  Aaron went to his own tent, thinking about the beautiful girl he'd seen, wondering how she could be familiar, and what connection she had to his amulet, which he'd had as long as he could remember. When Akeesha took him in years ago she had examined it and let him keep it, saying she didn't know what it was or what it did, besides offer him some protection, but she was sure there was nothing antagonistic about it.

  He ate two bowls of the stew a servant brought him, then made arrangements not to be disturbed until Akeesha sent for him. Lying in his bedroll on the verge of sleep he put himself into a light trance and directed his thoughts to healing and restoring his strength and stamina, drawing from the place between.

  Chapter 4

  When Aaron awoke he felt refreshed and alert. He wasn't surprised to find out that Akeesha's tactics hadn't changed much; send him into the enemy camp to steal an essential artifact.

  This time she had opted for complete stealth and had his usual equipment ready, along with some of her best items which she had saved for last because they could only be used once, including a cloak of shadows, so he wouldn't be seen, a pair of lightfoot boots so he wouldn't leave tracks on the snow, about ten pounds of amulets to cover his sounds, scent, and aura, and to bypass wards and watchers so he could enter Sarena's camp undetected. It all seemed simple yet effective right now, but it had taken years to prepare and empower all the artifacts they had used on this quest.

  Even though he would have been nearly invisible in full sunlight and left no sign of his passing, Aaron departed from the camp by a small entrance on the west side and stuck to the shadows under the evergreens, circling wide before heading for Sarena's camp.

  He could see his feet pushing through the powder snow, feel it sinking under his lightfoot boots, but when he lifted his foot for the next step the snow returned to its undisturbed position. It hurt his eyes trying to watch it happen.

  The moon, only a day from full, climbed higher in the eastern sky, pouring its silver radiance all across the land, but traveling through a forest of thin evergreens kept him mostly in shadow.

  The amulet, which had shocked him when he saw the girl, had remained pleasantly warm against his skin, but as he moved closer to Sarena's camp it got even warmer until, as he neared the midpoint of his journey, it became too warm to wear against his skin. That meant something was close, or imminent, but he didn't feel at all threatened because he believed it had something to do with that girl.

  He put the amulet in his coat pocket and even through layers of clothing he felt the heat of it continue to increase. He stopped in the lee of a snow-covered boulder, pulled out the amulet and held it up by the leather thong. It glowed a deep, barely discernable red and the heat radiating from it warmed his face. He turned slowly in a circle and the glow brightened when he was facing in the direction of Sarena's camp. He still didn't understand what it meant but it felt warm and friendly and he wanted to get closer.

  A couple of hundred yards away, or maybe more, it was hard to judge the distance, he saw a dim red glow, hardly more than a spark. Behind his protective spells, in the near dark, he was practically invisible, but he held up his amulet and moved it back and forth a couple of feet in each direction, then in a large circle in front of him. A few seconds later the red spark did the same.

  His amulet and that spark were connected in some way so, even though he was wearing a cloak of shadows, the glow of his amulet was visible. Akeesha would be furious with him if she knew what he was doing, and he felt guilty about displeasing her, but a stronger compulsion, one that was also older and deeper than her hold on him, made him approach the red glow, and he saw that it was coming toward him too.

  He quickened his pace, excitement building, though he didn't know why.

  When the two sparks were ten feet away their magic overcame the protective spells around himself and the other person and even in the heavy coat with the protective, fur-lined hood he recognized the young woman he'd seen in the tent with Sarena.

  He recognized her, he knew her, and he remembered her. He called her name, "Starla."

  Years ago he had loved her, and she had loved him, and now he discovered they still loved each other with a love that had been buried deep for a long time but never died. He saw it all in her face when she called his name as they rushed together into a clumsy hug that felt close even through all their winter clothing, and their lips met in the most passionate kiss of his entire life. Everything he'd ever felt for Akeesha seemed shallow, artificial, forced, hammered into his psyche from outside, but that was all gone now, washed away by the true love he had been denied for yea
rs.

  They separated and each had a thousand questions for the other, but as he gazed into her eyes his whole life before Akeesha came back to him, the harsh childhood growing up on a farm, then a few years of happiness with Starla. A preteen runaway, he had fled to the city from his father's farm where his only reward for a hard days work were some scraps of food and a beating. In the harsh gutters of the city he managed to survive because he discovered he had a raw talent for fire magic. When he teamed up with Starla, a blossoming young witch, survival became easier. After a few years they grew stronger and smarter and began to thrive. That's when they made the amulets together.

  Their success drew the attention of the eternally feuding sisters Sarena and Akeesha, each of them coming to recruit the team to their own coven. The couple refused. The sisters saw that the young love was true, so in a rare moment of cooperation they each took one young witch, bound them and confounded them, obscured their memories and took them as slaves and forced lovers.

  Looking into Starla's eyes Aaron felt his love for her growing. Rekindled after all these years it was stronger than ever. It had never died, even when he'd forgotten all about her. The amulet he often wondered why he kept but never threw away had maintained the connection between them, keeping a tiny glowing ember of their love alive, and now that they were together again that ember was fanned into a passionate flame that burned away all of Akeesha's compulsions and spells and bindings, which she had woven bit by bit over the years without him even noticing, but now that he had noticed he resented being manipulated and controlled, and he discovered that he really hated her, that he'd hated her for a long time, and would have left her long ago at any time her hold on him weakened, but until now it never had.

  Aaron was the first to ask, "What are you doing here?"

  Starla laughed, a musical sound like diamonds in the night sky. "The same as you, silly. Until just a few minutes ago I was walking into a trap."

  That set Aaron back for a couple of seconds. Before he could gather his wits to say anything she continued.

  "Put it all together. The clues that brought us here have been out there for a long time and they weren't that hard to find. All the witches who thought they were so clever were being lured here, and not to be rewarded. Since they weren't willing to share the prize because only one witch can wear the skin, none of them communicated with each other, so they had no way of knowing how many other witches were after it. Because this year has a full moon with a lunar eclipse on the night of the winter solstice, it's no surprise that they all converged on the valley of Sharouk, with the strong preying on the weak, and the survivors preying on each other. It's all part of Tamra's plan."

  Aaron said, "I see what you mean. It's a competition to ensure that the strongest, smartest, most ruthless and unscrupulous witch of the lot will be the one who dons the skin."

  "Sarena and Akeesha think they will be stronger than ever and in full control of all that power, but they won't be, because that's when Tamra will take over, using the power of her host to regain her own power. Then she'll be in control of the strongest witch of our age. We have to stop them, not only for their own sake, but to prevent the old witch from manifesting herself and her ancient ambitions."

  "Akeesha saw the Eye of Arachna in Sarena's tent the same time I saw you. She sent me to steal it because it's a small but necessary artifact and she believes Sarena can't get into Tamra's mausoleum without it."

  "Sarena could get in without it, but it would take time that Akeesha wouldn't give her. She wants the Dagger of Kaleef for herself for the same reason."

  Aaron laughed. "Of course she'd want the Dagger of Kaleef. Of all the witches that converged on this valley for the solstice only one managed to find the Dagger of Kaleef. It had already changed hands three times before I got it for Akeesha. I guess that was a big mistake."

  Starla laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "You had no choice, you were under a powerful spell binding you to her, forcing you to do her will. And when you go back you have to pretend you're still bound."

  He nodded and said, "If we're both successful in our missions then neither of them will have an advantage. You have to tell me how I can get the Eye of Arachna out of Sarena's camp and I'll tell you how to get the Dagger of Kaleef."

  She looked at him and smiled and shook her head. "That's the hard way. The Eye is so well-protected you wouldn't survive your attempt to steal it, so why don't you just go back to Akeesha's camp and get the dagger yourself, while I get the Eye from Sarena's? Then we'll meet back here and exchange."

  The elegant simplicity of that plan appealed to him. He pulled her to him and kissed her on the lips. She was startled but then her lips softened and she returned the kiss. He broke it off before passion overwhelmed him. "We better get going."

  Chapter 5

  Akeesha's camp was on high alert, with a deadly assortment of physical and magical defenses ready to unleash on any intruder, but Aaron had helped set up those defenses, he had an amulet that identified him as a friend, and his cloak rendered him invisible, so he walked unnoticed wherever he wanted. Five minutes after he entered the camp, he was heading back to his rendezvous with Starla, the Dagger of Kaleef secure inside his coat.

  The amulet guided him right back to Starla. They exchanged artifacts.

  Starla held the Dagger of Kaleef up to her face for a couple of seconds. Satisfied that it was the genuine article she wrapped it again and slipped it into a pocket. As soon as Aaron took the octagonal diamond out of the little leather bag he could tell that it was indeed one of the Eyes of Arachna. He could feel the presence of the power it accessed from the other side so he didn't need to see it, but he wanted to. When he held it up so it caught the moonlight the intensity of the sparkles startled him so much he snatched it back down and put it away.

  "Why don't we just take these artifacts and leave?"

  Starla shook her head. "One or the other of them would still get in, take the skin, and come after us."

  "That leaves us no choice. You know that tomorrow they're going to fight, and we'll have to kill the winner."

  "That won't be easy. I have a poisoned dart and a blowpipe I can use to shoot accurately ten or fifteen feet, but it has to hit skin."

  "But Sarena trusts you so you can get close to her, and if the dart doesn't work I'll blast her. And surely you can think of something else if that doesn't work." He chucked her under the chin.

  She looked up into his eyes, smiled, and gave a weak nod.

  "Good. I have a few tricks up my sleeve to take care of Akeesha, especially if she doesn't have her guard up. Now let's get back and try not to get hurt in the fight."

  She hugged him so hard he could barely breathe. He didn't want the kiss to end, but it did and she was gone, vanished into the night. His lips cooled quickly in the winter wind as he returned to Akeesha's camp, but he could still taste her.

  Akeesha rejoiced when he delivered the Eye of Arachna. Apparently she hadn't yet noticed the Dagger of Kaleef was gone.

  Chapter 6

  In the morning, even though they were only a few miles from the mausoleum, Akeesha insisted they start early, traveling in a snowfall that limited visibility to a couple of hundred yards. About half a mile from the mausoleum the snow-capped ruins of buildings delineated a long dead street. The closer they got the less ruined the buildings were and the less snow there was on them.

  The air ahead cleared but it continued to snow behind them.

  "See that," Akeesha said, pointing at the nearly intact buildings, two and three stories high, that stood beside the mausoleum. "It wasn't just superior construction that helped those buildings survive the ravages of time. And look at Tamra's mausoleum. It stands untouched these four hundred and fifty six years. That is the kind of power I seek, the power to make a statement that resounds through the centuries."

  There wasn't any snow on the domed roof of the mausoleum and the paving stones around it were bare for at least twenty paces, every ston
e precisely in it's place.

  The street turned forty-five degrees, paralleling the front of the mausoleum, then turned another forty-five degrees. Marching down that street came Sarena. Aaron picked Starla out immediately and their eyes met for an electrifying fraction of a second but Akeesha made a point of seeming to ignore Sarena.

  Aaron knew everybody was on high alert, that every witch in both covens had shields and wards up, and battle magic at the ready. Aaron concentrated mostly on staying alert with every sense, and keeping his personal defenses strong, while lending only a token effort to the group shield.

  When both parties stopped at the base of the broad steps that led to the door of the mausoleum Sarena called out, "Why sister, dear, whatever are you doing here."

  "I just came here to tell you that you're wasting your time. I have everything you need."

  "Oh, do you have one of these?" Sarena pulled the Dagger of Kaleef out of the sheath hanging by a leather thong from her neck, waved it to Akeesha, and put it back.

  Akeesha managed to keep the shock from showing on her face for more than a microsecond, but her anger, although it didn't show, made her retort, "And how are you going to make it work without the Eye of Arachna?"

  Sarina's smug smile slipped just a bit. "Time is running short and a battle of magic now might disrupt all the currents flowing through here, and we might hurt each other so badly that neither of us would have a chance to set up the spell. Then no one would get to wear the skin and that would be a tragedy, so why don't you turn the Eye over to me and leave?"

  Akeesha snorted. "I would much prefer that you turn the dagger over to me, but I can see that won't happen, so I propose that we work together to complete the spell. When the time comes we'll let the skin decide. Agreed?"

  "Agreed."

  They both spit on the ground and turned away from each other. The inaudible hum of tension that had filled the air faded.

  Sarena shouted to her followers, "Set up camp."