Book of Darkness
Chapter Seven: A Case of Mistaken Identity?
Pixel let out a huge sigh of relief once they’d passed through the forest. Beside him, Destiny immediately released the death grip she’d had on his hand, and took a giant step away from him. “I’ve never been more tense in my life,” he breathed, bending over to try and clear his mind.
The forest hadn’t been anything extraordinary – just your typical clusters of trees and bushes, and a well-walked dirt path that ran through the center. Following the path, there had been no real need to be afraid of being, say, lost or anything. That wasn’t what had scared Pixel.
The fact that the forest had been utterly, completely silent – that was what had scared him. It was so unnatural for something to be that quiet, and now that he was surrounded by sounds again, he felt like nothing else could go wrong.
“Well,” Destiny said, “that went well.” He glanced at her to see if she was joking, but she had a look of relief on her face that told him she was serious.
“Okay,” he said, turning to her. “You’re going to explain to me what this whole ‘trial’ business is…and you’re going to explain it now. Before we go any further.”
She tossed her long black hair over her shoulder and sighed. “Man, you’ve got a one-track mind. And you’re impatient, too. That’s one thing that hasn’t changed about you – always wanting more and more information. You’re obsessed with information.”
“Your point being…?” Pixel looked at her pointedly. “Get on with it.”
“Fine.” She walked over to a large rock near the path and sat down. Pixel positioned himself in front of her, and crossed his arms over his chest. He wasn’t as muscular as Score, and didn’t have the other boy’s strength, but he could definitely be intimidating when he wanted to be.
“Aside from the fact that the residents of the Void hate the living and would do anything to kill them, the Void itself is always looking for new inhabitants. Usually it just tries to pull some unsuspecting mortal into it without a guide – but you figured that one out, right?” Pixel nodded, recalling his near-mistake right before Destiny had fallen on top of him. “The Void doesn’t give up once the mortal is inside with a guide, either. All along the way to the other end of the Void are trials designed to trap an unsuspecting mortal. And the hard part is, the Void doesn’t give any clear indication as to what the trials are.”
“Then how did you know about the last one?” Pixel asked. “How did you know you had to be silent?”
“I’ve been here before,” she replied. “Quite a few times, but I’ve never made it to the end. I think I told you that. The Trial of Silence is pretty easy, and so are the first few after it. They get progressively harder after that. And if we reach a trial that I’m not familiar with, then we’re going to have to be incredibly careful. The main trials are pretty easy to spot, even if you don’t know what they are. They stay in one place.”
“The main trials?” repeated Pixel. “There are others?”
“The Void likes to send specialized trials to people, to test their individuality,” Destiny replied. “I lost a couple of mortals to those. Rule number one when trying to protect yourself from the specialized trials is to not trust anyone but your guide. Rule number two is that your guide is only going to trust you, so don’t betray that trust.”
“So you’re saying that we have to trust each other,” Pixel said slowly. “That might be a little hard for me to do.”
Destiny shrugged. “You don’t really have a choice if you want to get out of here alive.” She stood up and stretched. “Well, now that Trial #1 is past, let’s get going. We have about a day before Trial #2, and fortunately, there’s a town nearby that we can rest in. Well, sort of rest.”
“Sort of rest?” Pixel fell into step beside her.
“You can’t let your guard down in these towns,” she replied. “You never know when one of the civilians will stick a knife in your back when you do.”
Pixel swallowed hard. “It’s really that dangerous?”
“This one isn’t too bad, and they know me, but yeah. Most of them are that dangerous.” Destiny clenched her fists tightly. “And some of them are worse.”
“I’m sensing underlying hostility,” Pixel said lightly. “Something happen you don’t want to talk about?”
“Damn straight,” she replied. “And don’t you start playing junior psychologist and trying to figure it out. It’s really none of your concern.”
“I bet,” muttered Pixel.
Shanara was half-asleep when Score and Helaine came barging into her castle. She was so exhausted that Blink was actually more awake than she was, and this was saying something.
“What are you two doing here?” she half-asked, half-yawned. “I thought you weren’t coming back until morning.”
“Never mind that,” Helaine said, slipping into one of the chairs around the huge table that was covered with various books and scrolls. “What level of magic would a person have to have to get by the barriers of another magic-user?”
“It would depend,” Shanara said.
“On what?” asked Score.
“The level of that person’s magic, the level of the other person’s magic, the circumstances behind the barrier magic, the type of magic, the conditions of the time and place, the method of getting around the barrier…I’m afraid that if you want me to answer that question specifically, you’ll have to ask it specifically.”
“What level of magic would Pixel’s kidnapper have to have to create a Portal inside our castle, which is surrounded by high-level barriers created by Helaine?” Score elaborated.
“A damn high level of magic,” Shanara said instantly.
“You’re positive?” Helaine asked.
“The two of you and Pixel are three of the most powerful magic-users in the Diadem. You’re certainly better than I am, and if you’d stayed on Jewel and not left part of your power behind, you’d be the most powerful magic-users. Your power is the Triad’s power originally, but I suspect that you might have surpassed even their level at this point. For someone to break through barriers created by Helaine, with Score’s power amplifying them and Pixel’s knowledge of where to place them – I wouldn’t want to meet that person in a dark alley.” Shanara looked pained. “Obviously, we’re not dealing with an ordinary magic-user here.”
“Do you know anyone with that sort of power?” Helaine asked anxiously.
“Not offhand…” Her voice trailed off, and she looked thoughtful. “Blink! Wake up, you lazy panda!”
Blink cracked open one eye. “I am awake,” he said. “And no, I don’t know anyone, either.”
Score tapped his fingers on the tabletop. “Could it be someone from our past?” he asked. “We know from experience that sometimes dead magic-users don’t always know when to stay dead. And we’ve certainly defeated some nasty ones over the last four years.”
“The only ones who would come close to this level of magic would be Sarman and the Triad,” replied Shanara. “And Destiny, of course.”
Helaine looked at Shanara with interest. “Why do you say, of course?”
“Destiny’s magic was a specialty type, like yours and mine,” Shanara replied. “She had it perfected to such a degree that could probably only be rivaled by the Triad. It’s no wonder that Sarman sought her out to betray her masters.”
“A specialty type?” Score asked, sitting up straight.
“Like Shanara’s illusion magic, your transformation abilities, by danger-sensing power, and Pixel’s uncanny intelligence,” explained Helaine. She turned back to Shanara. “I didn’t know Destiny had anything like that. She didn’t show it before.”
“Actually, she did,” Shanara said. “After Zarathan, I did a little reading up on that little psychopath. Destiny’s specialty was her ability to warp someone’s mind – she could make them believe things that weren’t true, and make them think that they’d always believed that. She did it on that man who was supposedly her father, and she did a little of it on you three to get you to trust her. Her manipulations can get incredibly dangerous if you get her mad enough.”
“How were you able to discover so much?” Score asked. “I didn’t think the Triad would publicly announce the powers of their servants. And why didn’t you tell us any of this before now?”
“Because Destiny is dead,” Shanara said matter-of-factly. “As for how I obtained this information, it wasn’t that hard. Specialty powers are passed on through bloodlines, and you’d told me that Destiny had mentioned that her older sister had been destroyed by Zarathan. I pulled a little mind-reading trick that I learned when I was younger and was able to get the name of her sister, and behold, I was able to trace her. Destiny’s sister, a sorceress named Fate, wasn’t a servant for the Triad until very late in her life. She’d already made a name for herself by the time she’d gone into their service and all but disappeared. When I discovered that she had a specialty talent, it wasn’t hard to trace her bloodline, and determine that the power was inherent in every magic-user in Destiny’s family.”
“Cool,” Score murmured. “So, if it’s passed through blood, then any of our descendants will have our powers.”
“Providing they’re magic-users,” pointed out Shanara. “Usually, there’s only one magic-user per family generation. Which is what makes Destiny so unusual, and probably one of the reasons why she had a such a ‘look out for number one’ attitude. Instead of her being the only magic-user in her generation, her sister and brother were magic-users as well.”
“She had a brother?” Helaine exclaimed. “Was he a servant of the Triad, too?”
Shanara shook her head. “No. I don’t know much about him, just that when he was around, he was obsessed with the Triad. My mother used to talk about him a lot – they’d met once or twice, and she couldn’t stand him.”
“Your mother?” Helaine and Score asked.
Shanara grinned. “You’re forgetting that Destiny was in actuality a lot older than she looked. Her body may have been young, but her soul was old, thanks to the Triad’s little rebirth experiment. I’m not quite sure how old her brother would be now…I’m not even sure of his name.”
“I see,” Score muttered. “Well, at least we know that whoever we’re looking for, he or she is pretty strong. Joy. I’m really looking forward to another showdown.”
“I’ll keep looking for more information,” Shanara said. “Blink can help.” The red panda twitched slightly, pretending he didn’t hear her (and pretending rather poorly, at that). “You two get back home – now – and at least try to get some rest. If you absolutely feel like you can’t, maybe you should check up on the barriers around the cancel and reinforce them. You never know.”
Score and Helaine nodded. “Thanks,” Helaine added. “Keep us posted. We’ll be back sometime tomorrow, most likely.”
When they were gone, Blink stood and stretched. “You’re getting a bad feeling about this, aren’t you?” he asked.
Shanara nodded. “You know, I said that only a few magic-users would have to type of power to break through their barrier. One of the side-effects of Destiny’s type of power is the ability to convince actual spells of adjusting themselves a different way. It has to be specially trained, but I know she did it when she changed to destination of that Portal…I wonder…”
“You don’t think she’s alive still, do you?” Blink asked.
“Oh, no,” Shanara said, shaking her head. “I’m positive she’s dead. But it makes me wonder about that brother of hers. I remember my mother saying that he hated the Triad with a passion – odd, considering both of his sisters worked for them. Logically speaking, he must have been overjoyed when they were destroyed – and furious to find out that they almost returned in the form of Score, Helaine, and Pixel.”
Blink’s eyes widened. “You know, there are quite a few magic-users out there who don’t believe that the new Triad are just the reincarnated bodies of the old, and not the souls as well,” he said tentatively.
“Very astute, Blink.”
Shanara rolled her eyes. “Oracle, what do you want?”
The black-clothed man – or sort-of man – grinned as he walked over to them. “To offer my services, of course,” he said. “You know how fond I am of those three, and I’d hate to see any trouble come to them. I have a few sources that you wouldn’t be able to reach. If you want, I can go pick their brains about Destiny’s brother.
“I also thought you’d be interested in hearing that Pixel has entered the Void.”
Shanara snapped her head around to stare at him. “You’re serious?” she asked. “He did?”
“As predicted,” Oracle reminded her. “We knew he wasn’t just going to hang around the Inter-Realm forever, like I chose to do.” Shanara thought she noticed a tinge of regret on Oracle’s handsome, if translucent, features. Then it was gone, so quickly that she wasn’t even sure she’d really seen it in the first place.
“What are his chances of making it out alive?” asked Shanara.
“It all depends on his guide,” replied Oracle. “I wasn’t able to find out who it is, so I don’t know how well-versed in the Void the guide is. If it’s this particular guide’s first time through, Pixel could be in big trouble.”
“Those spirits you were telling me about, the Omnipotent, they know Pixel’s important, right? Surely they’d give him a guide that would have the best chance of getting him through.”
Oracle frowned. “It depends.”
Too many things are depending on other things, thought Shanara. But she bit the bait anyway. “Depends on what?” she asked.
“Whether or not he wounded the Omnipotent’s pride by turning them down,” Oracle answered. “They’ve been known to carry grudges. Although I don’t think even they would be that cruel, I don’t want to stake my reputation on it.”
“And oh, what a reputation,” Shanara quipped, rolling her eyes. “So what you’re saying is we have no way of knowing what Pixel’s chances are of getting out of the Void.”
“Precisely!” Oracle said cheerfully. Shanara glared at him. “Okay, fine. No false cheerfulness.” He sighed and leaned against the table. “I think we’re going to have to face the possibility that at this point, we don’t have the ability to help Pixel. There’s more at stake than just him, though.”
Shanara nodded. “Helaine and Score.”
“Or, most likely in the mind of our mysterious adversary, Eremin and Traxis,” Oracle said.
“So you think that whoever it is is only after them because he or she thinks they’re the original Triad?” Shanara asked.
“I do,” Oracle said, nodding. “These three have built up such a do-gooder reputation that it would have to be one of those total nutcases. The normal power-hungry magic-users know that Score, Helaine, and Pixel are above their league, and everyone else loves them.”
“Told you,” Blink said.
Shanara snapped her fingers, and projected the image of a very hungry tiger leaping at Blink. The overweight familiar screamed and took off around the room, the tiger projection chasing it. He rotated the room a few times before remembering the tiger was an illusion, and then he was so exhausted that he just curled up right where he was and went to sleep.
“You handled that well,” Oracle commented.
“Practice,” Shanara replied. She wrapped her arms around herself and sighed. “What are the odds that we’re going to solve this little mystery soon?”
“Slim to none,” Oracle replied. “Who knows how long it’ll be before Pixel gets out of the Void, and then we have the kidnapper to deal with.” He reached up and massaged his temples. “All of this mystery is giving me a headache.”
“That’s impossible, and you know it,” Shanara said. She sighed. “Okay. Why don’t you go talk to your contacts, and see what you can dig up. I’ve got some more books in my library that I can go through, and then I was thinking of hitting Aranak’s deserted tower and seeing what he’s got there. I haven’t completely cleaned that place out yet.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I have some information,” Oracle promised just before he vanished into thin air.
Shanara sighed, then headed back to her library for the umpteenth time that evening.
Helaine and Score were way too magically-exhausted try and pinpoint the exact drop-off point of their Portal, and ended up nearly landing on top of the unicorn herd. Fortunately, they managed to catch themselves in time, and after convincing an irate Thunder (who, thankfully, had already been awake and had not been woken up by them) that they were just passing through and that no trouble was on the way to the herd, made it back to the castle.
“I’m too drained to check the barriers right away,” Score complained as they walked up the stone-lined path to the main structure. “Thanks to you, I haven’t gotten a single wink of sleep tonight.”
“Thanks to me?” Helaine fumed. “How was I keeping you awake? You were just as eager to talk to Shanara as I was.”
“All those questions you were asking me earlier,” Score said. “I could’ve been sleeping then.” He covered his mouth with a yawn, then rubbed his eyes sleepily. “Let’s put off the barriers until the morning, okay?”
“All right,” Helaine agreed.
Score stopped dead in his tracks. “Did you just agree with me?” he asked, turning to look at her. “You did, didn’t you? You actually agreed with me! You never just agree with me! Usually you end up getting into a huge argument, and even then, nine times out of ten you don’t agree with me?” He grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her straight in the way. “Who are you, and what have you done with Helaine?”
Helaine rolled her eyes. “You certainly don’t seem tired to me, especially if you’re making bad jokes this late at night.” She glanced up at the lightening sky. “Or this early in the morning.”
“No, actually, I was being serious,” replied Score. “Face it, Helaine, you don’t agree with me. You and I are like yin and yang. Total opposites, never agreeing, never coming to the same conclusion, yet drawn together constantly.”
Drawn together… Helaine suddenly felt her face turn hot. “What the hell do you mean, drawn together?” she demanded. “How in the world did you come up with something like that? You’re right, you do need to get some sleep. You’re way to weird when you’re – mphf!”
The sudden feeling of Score’s mouth pressed against her caught her off guard, and she stiffened immediately. Then, slowly, she began to respond, bringing her hands up to hold his hands, which were still on her shoulders.
Score pulled back slowly, and they just stood there, looking at each other. A slight pink tinge touched his cheeks, and Helaine hoped fervently that she wasn’t blushing as well.
Score cleared his throat in an attempt to get his composure back, and gave her one of his usual smirks. “You’re cute when you’re angry,” he teased as he reached for the door.
Helaine blinked, then growled softly. “You are so full of yourself,” she muttered as they stepped inside.
They both stopped in their tracks, and all traces of embarrassment suddenly flew out the window. “Dear Lord,” Score whispered, looking at the completely ransacked room before them. “What the hell happened here?”
