Chapter 39 Lyr
LYR
THE BLUE MOUNTAINS, ISMAGAAR
Damon holds Lyr close as they step through fae ruins. They are surrounded by ice and snow. This is Ismagaar. Lyr has never seen a land that looks like this. He pulls the fur cloak he wears tight and presses to Damon’s body.
Damon’s body is so powerful and strong. He has oft thought his desire for Damon had begun with that. With the notion that a body so powerful could shelter him from anything. But he knows now that it cannot. It cannot shelter him from the terrors that haunt his own mind.
Softly Damon says, “Are you sure? You can go back.”
“I will not. Just promise me you will kill her.” Lyr is shaking. Not from the cold.
“I will slay her in front of you.”
They are high on a mountain, snow flurries all around them. Perl points to a small cavern entrance, only a short distance up a steep path. “There,” he says.
Lyr swallows. She is there. He did not expect it to be so close, so soon.
They follow the snowy path to the mouth of the cavern.
The entrance is dark and has a familiar scent of smoky incense. Lyr can see just a small chamber, with a second beyond it. Candlelight flickers in the cavern’s depths.
“No guards?” says Damon.
“She does not need them,” says Perl. “I can feel the power of her magic.”
“And we have none,” says Lyr. Dread rises up inside him.
The sadistic woman who caused him so much suffering is here, in this cavern.
He barely remembers his time with her. Most of his recollections of it are a blur of chanting and ritual and the pain of being burned or cut as Jareleezi used his body to receive messages from her Gods.
Over the last few moons, more vivid memories have been coming back to him, often in dreams he wakes from, screaming. The only thing that calms him from those dreams these days is a little sofi or some pearl tonic. He hasn’t let Damon know how often he has to use such things to calm his mind.
He wanted to come and see her die. Perhaps when he knows she is dead he will be able to rest.
But what if they do not kill her? What if her magic is too powerful? What if she takes him back?
Perl looks at Lyr. “We do not have magic, but Kerik does. Kerik is the Magician. If we free him, he will have the power to overwhelm her easily.”
“If he has such power why has he not used it to free himself?” says Damon.
“Because he does not know how. When he took Iceheart in his hands it opened a blood door instantly. I saw a glimpse of the power that sword gives him. All we need to do is find Kerik and place that sword in his hands. If you can distract her, Damon, I will find Kerik. And then we will destroy her with ease.”
Damon draws his own blade, the Amber Blade from its scabbard on his belt.
“Very well,” he says. “Let us move now before she discovers us and we lose the advantage of surprise.” He turns to Lyr.
“My love, you will stay here in the first cavern. Hide yourself. Do not come inside until I call you so you can witness me take her head. If we fail, you must flee. Go back to the fae ruins and travel through Karo’s connection to the Bride House. ”
Lyr nods. He cannot imagine any other situation where he would flee leaving Damon behind. But if it were to save himself from becoming Jareleezi’s property once again, he thinks he truly might.
Damon walks ahead into the cavern, followed by Perl, with Lyr behind both of them.
When they reach the entrance to the inner cavern, Lyr hangs back as Damon bid him, hidden, but he can still see what is inside.
She is sitting on a tall throne of carved wood. Lyr stares at her.
Jareleezi. A woman with long grey hair and grey robes. She looks defenceless. Lyr knows she is not. He cannot sense magical power the way Perl seems to be able to, but he does not need that sense to know how dangerous she is.
There is something simple about this chamber. Deceptively simple. The scree and stones on its floor, the candles flickering in clusters upon rocks, lighting walls of ancient stone.
Jareleezi smiles when Damon walks in as if she is greeting an expected guest, saying, "Darek son. And so it comes to pass. Damon Darekul brings the rest of the fae princes to me, your Magician. Together we will defeat Ur-Durik.”
“I bring nothing to you except your death,” Damon growls at her, brandishing his sword before him in a double handed grip.
“And Perlash,” Jareleezi says, sounding quite pleased with herself despite Damon threatening her. “You are here too. Are you here to beg my forgiveness for trying to keep my Magician from me?”
“I am here to take him back,” Perl snarls.
Before Jareleezi can respond, Damon rushes her. Lifting his sword and tearing across the cavern.
Jareleezi sighs. She shoots a bolt of magic, like a stream of hissing blue steam from a finger. It hits Damon. He falls back, motionless on the ground.
Lyr has to swallow his scream, as Perl shouts, “You cannot fight us that way. You cannot kill him. He is the Warrior. You need him. If you kill Damon you doom the world. Now, release Kerik to me or Ur-Durik will never be defeated.”
Jareleezi stands from her throne and walks towards Perl. Her face is set with anger. She steps over Damon. Her hands are still glowing with magic. “I told you to kneel and beg my forgiveness, Perlash,” she says.
“You think I will kneel for a witch like you. I am a high fae of Ulla.”
“You are a corrupted thing, rejected by the Ice Court,” Jareleezi says.
Lyr ought to run. He ought to flee now as Damon instructed.
But Lyr can see what Perl is doing. Perl, Lyr thinks, has another plan.
One he hopes Lyr will understand. Damon was meant to be the distraction.
With Damon felled, Perl is doing his best to distract Jareleezi.
Which means Lyr needs to play Perl’s role.
He needs to find Kerik and release him so he can use his magic to fight Jareleezi. He scans the cavern.
Behind Jareleezi’s wooden throne is another small entrance. A further cavern. That must be her ritual chamber. Lyr knows she must have one. And there is nowhere else it could be.
He has only moments. Lyr bolts into the cavern and around the edge of it, staying in the shadows. Through the small entrance way, he finds himself in another space, a smaller space and one that snatches his breath.
It’s all so familiar. The sigils on the walls, the smell of the fires.
Everything. He has to fight back sickening memories before they overwhelm him.
And the altar, a wide stone table, exactly like the one he was strapped to.
But in his place is another. A man who looks a little like a young Damon. He is naked but for a small hip cloth.
“Kerik?” Lyr rushes forward and starts to unfasten the bindings that hold Kerik in place.
Kerik looks at him. “Who are you?” he says, sitting up as soon as his upper body is free. He sways a little.
“My name is Lyr. I am married to your brother Damon.”
Kerik looks at him. “You?” He pauses and looks a little closer. “You are the man from Klish. You were once hers?”
“There isn’t time. She has Damon. And she has Perl,” Lyr says, unstrapping Kerik’s legs as fast as his fingers will allow.
“Perl? The faerie is here?”
“Yes. Can you walk?” Kerik looks weak. Is he really going to be able to save them? He has a series of cuts across his chest. Horribly familiar. Perl said Jareleezi was planning to drain Kerik. Has she done it? If Kerik has already been drained does that mean the plan will not work?
Lyr feels frozen for a moment. This chamber, these memories. It’s all too much. He should have fled when he had the chance. Or not come at all as Damon had begged.
A great shattering sound comes from the chamber beyond. It sounds like nothing Lyr has ever heard before. And then a horrible screaming.
“Perl!” Kerik exclaims, “Lyr, we need to go.” He starts to race back to the main chamber, only stumbling a little.
“Wait,” Lyr says, remembering Perl’s plan. “You need Iceheart. Is it here?”
“Yes,” she used it to cut me.” Kerik scans the tiny cavern, before grasping a pale sword, sparkling white like it is wrought of ice. He grabs hold of it and runs out.
Lyr follows.
Jareleezi is standing over Perl. His leather jerkin is torn, half hanging off his pale shoulders. He has a mark across his bared chest that looks like a burn. “Perl,” Kerik shouts across the cavern. “Perl. I’m here.”
Perl sees Kerik. His face seems to brighten, sun shining on snow.
“Kerik,” he shouts back, relief clear in his voice.
But they are not safe. They have lost. Kerik has been drained of power, Damon is gravely injured.
And it would seem Perl too. Lyr does not think they will escape this cavern. They will all be Jareleezi’s prisoners.
As Perl looks over at Lyr and Kerik, Jareleezi looks too. But she does not look at Kerik. She does not seem to even see him, freed from his binding and with Iceheart in his hand. Jareleezi only looks at Lyr.
Lyr feels himself freeze under her gaze. Fear that could overwhelm him.
Jareleezi's voice is sweet, “Lyr,” she says, sounding almost affectionate. “My old vessel. I always hoped that when the Gods had me send you away they would be so kind as to bring you back to me. I have missed you so.”
Lyr’s belly bucks with nausea. He cannot move. He stares at Jareleezi.
Damon, still on the cavern floor, but conscious now, sits up with effort. “Do not touch him,” he growls. And Lyr is sure he means it, but he knows Damon cannot protect him from Jareleezi. He only lives still because she needs him alive to defeat Ur-Durik.
“I no longer belong to you,” Lyr says. He cannot hide the shake in his voice. “Damon took me as a spoil from the conquest of Jur-Mattan.”
Jareleezi laughs, a soft laugh but it seems to make Lyr’s inside shake.
She pauses and looks around the cavern. “That matters not. You are bound to me far more deeply. There is no power here that can defeat me. You will all remain here and draw the rest of the princes to me so we can defeat that foul demon as the Books of Alios tell that my ancestors did.”
“The Books of Alios, destroyed by you in petty vengeance,” Perl spits. “You claim you want to defeat Ur-Durik, and yet because of you the most important text that tells us how to do that is lost.”
Jareleezi laughs again, louder. “You really believe that I would destroy them. I would no more do that than I would destroy you.”
Perl looks shocked. “Then where are they?” his eyes dart around the cavern, as if looking for them.
But Lyr knows. The memory seems to unlock inside him as simply as a key in a door.
He remembers it, years ago, when Perl took Kerik and she swore vengeance.
Jareleezi’s rage, inevitably directed at him.
Lyr hadn’t known the name of the books she burnt, page by page, during those nights that followed.
But as she had done so, she’d had him strapped down on her ritual altar. Bound on his belly. And on his back…
It had been burned into his skin with magic, letter by letter.
The Books of Alios. They had them all along. He is the Books of Alios. His back is covered with the details of how they defeat Ur-Durik. “Me,” he says, quietly. “I am where you hid them.”
Jareleezi smiles.
Lyr looks at Damon. Damon is still sitting on the cavern floor. He stares at Lyr.
Perl says quietly, “Lyr,” then louder, shouting in Magaar, “Kerik, use your magic.”
“I’m not powerful enough,” Kerik answers in his own words of Magaar. “She drained me.”
“You have a great source of magical power right there beside you.”Kerik looks at Lyr as Perl shouts, “He is the Books of Alios. He is from Klish. A vessel. And she made him into a great magical talisman, created from ancient texts full of power. He can charge your power with ease.”
Kerik looks at Lyr. Lyr nods. Kerik says, “Sorry, I know we’ve only just met. And I know what was done to you before, but would you mind if I…”
Lyr reaches out and takes hold of Kerik’s forearm. Kerik grips back. His touch is warm. “Can you kill her?”
Kerik says, “I can try.”
“Then do it,” Lyr feels something rising inside him. A great sense of joy. A profound feeling. Justice. Revenge. Peace. Greater than the relief he feels from sofi, or any other thing he uses to calm his mind. The words he says next feel like balm. “Use what she did to me to kill her.”
It is a strange sensation, like something heavy is leaving Lyr’s body, draining into Kerik’s.
Kerik raises the sword in his free hand and a blinding white light fills the cavern.