Last Messenger - Chapter 23

Chapter 23 - Elu

Waiting in the dark, it didn’t take long before his mind wandered to the place it always did, to Lyllyn. His chest tightened as the pain, as fresh now as it was seventeen years ago, filled him. He tried to think of other times, of better places, but he failed. He always failed.

Elu still felt the heat from Lyllyn’s blood as it soaked his Ru’et. He stopped himself from looking at his chest because he knew it was just a memory, but every detail had seared into his soul and it still felt real. Unable to stop himself, he closed his eyes, and the scene smothered him in vivid clarity.

The clans only had one High Judge, so they always protected Lyllyn. Her honor guard had died trying to keep her safe. There had been a fight, the dead mages proved it, but everything had looked wrong. The dead bodyguards lay in a half circle around Lyllyn, but no mages were near them. Instead, the mages were in a tight clump a stone’s throw away with no visible wounds. It made no sense. Just like Lyllyn’s wounds.

Lyllyn had died with a faint smile, and her dark blue eyes almost looked alive. Someone had ripped her almost in half, and the surrounding sand was sticky with her blood. The necklace that should have protected her had disappeared. 

He had closed his wife’s eyes with blood covered fingers, which had left a trail of blood on her pale face, and he’d sobbed trying to remove it, but had only made it worse. He had clutched Lyllyn and screamed.

That scream, like air on a fire, had ignited something primal inside Elu. He let his past burn away, the heralded craftsman, the empty role as Keeper, responsibilities to his clan. He was alone now, the best thing in his life taken away. He stared at the group of dead mages. Their kind had done this, and he would make them suffer for it.

Voices pulled Elu from the memory, and he blinked his eyes until they cleared. A man stood at the far corner of the camp and shouted toward Elu. A voice responded from above him and his body flooded with adrenalin.

“I’m not a wet nurse,” the nearby mage shouted back.

“You heard the command,” the man in camp responded.

“Why me?”

“Because you’re closest,” the man in camp said and disappeared into his tent.

Elu heard curses above him but dared not turn to look. The mage sounded close and, with dawn so near, would see a disturbance in the sand. The swearing stopped and a moment later a ball rolled down the dune twenty feet from him.

As the ball reached the bottom, it morphed into a red-haired man that strode to the tent nearest Elu. A few seconds later the blue mage reappeared, a man in a Ru’et in tow. A painted moon, the sun mostly hidden behind it, covered the face of the Ru’et. It was Clypse.

Clypse stumbled slowly forward, his Ru’et wrinkled and stained. Elu narrowed his eyes. From the look on the blue mage’s face, those stains were urine. Which meant Clypse had executed a dreadful option. One he would only perform if under attack from a yellow mage he couldn’t defeat. Clypse had fled into his Void, the only place his mind would remain safe. Unfortunately, it was usually a one-way journey.

The only chance to free Clypse from the prison of his Void was using his birth name. Elu needed to rescue Clypse, get somewhere safe, and send for Clypse’s holders. There would be two of them, and each one would know half the name. Telling another your birth name, even half of it, broke clan tradition, but Elu had forced the practice on his men for this exact reason.

A yellow here complicated everything. They were difficult to fight, and if they had gotten to Clypse, it meant they were powerful. Elu knew he needed to act now. He doubted a better opportunity would arise, and every moment Clypse spent in the darkness made it more difficult to retrieve him.

The pair stopped thirty feet from Elu and the blue mage stepped away from Clypse, his nose wrinkled.

“Piss, you sand pig,” the blue mage said.

Elu closed his eyes and went over the forms and their flows in his mind. He hadn’t had to physically perform the motions in over a decade, and he would only get one chance at this. Clypse’s life was on the line, so his movements needed to be perfect.

Elu opened his eyes. Clypse stood in the same spot, hands at his side, his body still. Elu glanced around the camp but saw no activity. He focused on the blue mage, opened his Void completely, and split the darkness that flooded out into two streams.

His fingers and toes went numb as the power pooled around him. A Void grew a fraction larger with each use until it grew so large it destroyed the person that contained it. For most that meant using their Void in moderation to avoid an early death, but Elu was already dead, had died the moment he saw Lyllyn’s body. His complete disregard for his health had made him the most powerful Void Walker in the clans. The numbness meant he would soon die, but it wouldn’t be today.

Elu took the first stream and wrapped it around the Blue Mage’s head in a Void bubble. The mage’s head disappeared as the light bent around it. The mage reached up to touch his eyes, and his hands disappeared as they entered the bubble. The mage was disoriented and in complete darkness. Elu took his second stream and pulled on the sand under the mage’s feet.

The Blue Mage disappeared, sucked deep into the sand. Elu stood and ran toward Clypse, stumbling as his numb feet sank into the dune. He released the first stream, the Blue Mage now fifty feet under the sand, and used it to firm the sand between him and Clypse. Elu’s pace increased and he sprinted down the dune.

Elu used the second stream to pack sand into the hole, trapping the Blue Mage deep under the sand. The pressure of the sand would have killed a normal man, but a mage would survive it. Elu didn’t have much time.

The comatose Clypse couldn’t push back on Elu’s Void, so as Elu neared, he swamped the boy’s Ru’et with his Void and the cloth stiffened. Elu came to a stop next to Clypse and pushed him over. The boy fell like a dead fig tree. Elu bent and flipped Clypse onto his back.

A thin rod emerged from the sand where Elu had buried the Blue Mage. It thickened on the surface and puddled. The Blue Mage would be back at the surface in moments. Elu faced the puddle to fight and kill the emerging mage. It was the only time Elu felt any joy, and he longed to destroy this creature.

But Clypse lay behind Elu, hurt and in danger. Clypse was one of his, and the boy trusted him. Had, in fact, given up his life to follow Elu. Elu didn’t care about his own life, but he wouldn’t let one of his men die, not when he could prevent it.

Elu ground his teeth and turned back to Clypse. He stepped on to the boy’s rigid body, pulled at the sand under them, and shot away from the camp.

Blue magic, like a dense vibration, flew like a spear toward Elu. The Blue Mage had made it to the surface. Elu didn’t turn around. He visualized the transition from Drunken Breeze to Blooming Cloud and his Void responded, swirling the Blue magic around him and then consuming it.

Elu’s drifting board, Clypse, tilted, and Elu bent to a knee. He concentrated on the flows underneath him. He had never drifted on a person before, and the weight of the human board made the process difficult.

As Elu figured out how to control Clypse, he gained more speed. He glanced behind him and saw the Blue Mage standing on a distant dune. Regret flooded Elu at the lost opportunity to kill a mage. He might have been the one that had killed Lyllyn. 

Elu clenched his hands and concentrated on the present. He would head west until for twenty minutes before turning north. He needed to get to the Cloud Temple and send for Clypse’s holders. 

Looking down at Clypse, Elu wondered what could have forced the boy to make such an awful decision. The presence of these mages was an ill omen, and he needed to figure out what it meant. Maybe Clypse saw enough to provide a clue to their motivations. Elu decided to wait until he talked with Clypse before taking any action.

Elu slowed and then stopped. He stepped off Clypse and looked back at the rounded dunes that flowed to the horizon. Elu cast his Void in a large arc and stretched it to its limit. Everything within the Void vibrated and Elu could visualize the ten miles around himself. The mages hadn’t pursued him. He sighed, a little disappointed.

The smell of Clypse hit Elu like a punch to the nose. He stepped on to the boy and started to drift again, the wind keeping the smell away.

Elu turned north, towards the mountains and the Cloud Temple. He glanced down at Clypse. “From your smell baker, I think they let me take you.”