Part 29 (1/2)

”She isn't following us,” Lain stated.

”The D'karon general? I'd a.s.sumed as much,” she replied.

Lain stared back at her sternly.

”One of my decoys has not been destroyed. I suspect she believes that she has captured one of us,” Ether replied.

”You knew this all along,” Lain hissed.

”The urgency of the pursuit was spurring Ivy on at a considerable pace. The faster we are able to relieve ourselves of this burden, the better,” Ether explained.

Slowly, thoughts began to stir in Lain's head. He turned to the sleeping Ivy. With a tap on the leg, he awakened her. The young creature's eyes shot open. Almost instantly she was fully awake. She looked about, fearfully, and clambered gracelessly to her feet.

”I slept too long, didn't I? She's here, isn't she! We should hurry, let's go!” she urged.

”For now there is time. Ivy. I want you to sing something for me,” he requested in an uncharacteristically gentle voice.

”You want me to . . . sing? I've never sung. Why would you want that?” Ivy said, almost nervously.

”Indulge me,” he said.

”I . . . I don't know what to sing. It isn't reasonable for you to ask me to do that if I haven't done it before. Why would you think that I would even know how to? I . . . I play the violin,” she offered.

As she spoke, a more familiar look came to Lain's face. The tiny, nuanced changed in his expression that only a few in this world had learned to read properly. Anger. Ether watched with eyes untrained to detect such subtleties of emotion. Suddenly, in a smooth motion that was over before Ether had even noticed it had begun, Lain pulled free a dagger and plunged it deep into Ivy's heart. A twinge of pain swept over Lain. Ether and Ivy released simultaneous cries, identical in all ways save the voice. Ivy fell limply to the ground, gasping for breath. Ether was staggered, wavering on her feet. When she regained her balance, her eyes met with Lain's. The fury in his eyes was clear now even to her.

”Explain yourself,” he demanded, his tone dripping with hatred.

Slowly, Ivy rose from the ground. Fear, pain, all emotion was gone from her face. Her features took on an even, practiced look of disinterest that matched Ether's perfectly. In unison, their mouths opened, and they spoke as one.

”It had to be done Lain. She was destroying you,” they spoke in eerie harmony.

Suddenly the form of Ivy vanished in a burst of wind, the dagger in her chest clattering to the ground.

”Where is she!” Lain demanded, his sword drawn.

”Put her out of your mind. She was poison to you. She was making you sloppy, you were making mistakes,” Ether said.

Lain swiped his weapon at her with incredible speed. She managed to s.h.i.+ft to wind and whisk aside, s.h.i.+fting back to human again behind him.

”She may be one of the last of my kind. It is my duty to protect her!” he raged.

”Duty?! Your duty is to this world! And you are forsaking it! You are wasting precious moments to preserve what is nothing more than an attempt by the enemy to subvert you! Anyone could see that this has gone past duty for you. It is obsession! Devotion! It is . . . ” she cried, stopping herself.

”Love!” Lain replied.

”Yes, love! And she doesn't deserve it! She is a thing! Weak! Ignorant! Impermanent! You and I both know that there is only one being worthy of you! I am powerful! I am eternal! We share everything! Purpose! Origin! And I am spurned for a failed experiment with the mind of a child!” Ether ranted.

She s.h.i.+fted to Ivy's form. ”I can be anything you require of me! Do you want a malthrope? So be it! Do you desire a human?”

Her form s.h.i.+fted to Myranda's.

”You shall have it! I can make myself into anyone that has earned from you what I am denied!” Ether raved, s.h.i.+fting back to her own human form and grasping desperately at Lain's cloak. ”All I ask is for your trust! For your respect! For your affection! All I ask is that I be the one for you! That I have the place in your thoughts that is rightfully mine!”

Lain's grip tightened on his weapon. Hatred and anger swept over him in pulses and waves.

”You would speak to me of obsession! You don't even know what love is and you demand it of me? It can not be demanded. You don't understand it. Ivy is like a daughter to me. You . . . I will not attempt to reason with you. You are dead to me. Tell me where she is,” he said.

”I will not allow you to squander yourself on that abomination!” Ether cried.

Lain bared his teeth, clenched so tight they creaked.

”Think!” he hissed between them. ”She is Chosen and you have betrayed her. Anything that happens to her now is on your shoulders. What price will fate demand of you if she comes to harm? How will your precious mark punish you if she comes to her end?”

Ether stood silent. Lain's words had pierced the thick veil of emotion. Slowly the truth of her actions became clear to her, and the consequences painfully so. She'd felt the burning several times already, a sharp, sudden pain in her head where the mark could be found. She ignored it, dismissed it. Even now there was a constant dull sensation.

”G.o.ds . . . they've found a way to destroy me. I should have been destroyed the moment I led her away. If they kill her . . . we must find her. I led her away with some of the other decoys. Trigorah must have her! We must find her before it is too late! Until I can undo my mistake, her life is my own!” Ether cried, genuine fear in her voice.

She s.h.i.+fted to flame and burst high into the still darkened sky.

Far away, Ivy cowered fear and tried to catch her breath. She was still struggling to work out what had happened, but there had been little time to think. That woman, the one that Lain had run from, was near. In the initial sprint down the mountain a great deal of ground had been put between them, but now Trigorah was on horseback. It was all Ivy could do to stay a few steps ahead. The fear that had gripped her from the moment she saw what had happened to her friends still burned her mind. The whole of the pursuit had been a constant effort to keep it from consuming her, from turning her into the monster. Doing so would allow her to escape, there was no question of that. What worried her was that when she awoke, if she awoke, there was no telling where she might be. So she had run.

Now she found herself in dank ally in a large town. The moon was behind the thick, perpetual clouds overhead. Despite the size of this place, there were very few people. After years of war one would be hard pressed to find a town that didn't seem deserted. This, at least, was in Ivy's favor. It had allowed her to make it to this shadowy, litter strewn alley unseen. Now she sat, her back against a cold damp stone wall, clutching a battered wooden box like a security blanket. A corridor leading behind one of the buildings was to her left. To her right, a few dozen paces away, the icy city street. Quickly she realized how foolish she was to have come this way. Lain had made it clear that the places of man should be avoided, but she couldn't help it. She felt drawn to them, like she belonged among these people. Now she regretted coming here. Every footfall that reached her sensitive ears turned in her mind to Trigorah coming for her. Breathing deeply, she tried desperately to clear her mind. She couldn't bring herself to believe what she had seen happen to her friends. They had just vanished. She tried to ignore the footsteps, replaying the scene over in her head. The way Lain swept away seemed so familiar, and the way Trigorah didn't seem to expect it, much less to have caused it. But if not she then who? Did Lain do it? Did he know magic?

Ivy felt a strange tingling in her spine. She turned to the opening of the alleyway. Time seemed to slow. The tip of a polished sword caught what little light there was as it slipped into view. In that tiny reflection Ivy's keen eyes locked with those of another. Trigorah. Praying that she had not been seen, Ivy clambered backward as quietly as she could, turning the corner in the alley. Crouching low, she trained her eyes on the ground where she'd been sitting. Footsteps echoed closer. The ground took on the white blue glow of the jewels in the general's blade. Ivy turned away, her eyes now s.h.i.+fting down the length of the corridor, her legs primed for a sprint. An instant later, her heart leapt into her throat. There was nothing ahead but a few more paces of filthy, snow-drifted cobblestone and a wall reaching up to the roofs of the tall buildings on either side. A dead end.

She turned again, but time had run out. The light of the sword was painfully bright after the blackness of the alley. Trigorah held it at the ready, her eyes coldly reading the malthrope, judging what this beast before her was capable of. Ivy closed her eyes and s.h.i.+elded her face with the box, backing to the wall behind her.

”What did you How did No! Please, no I-” she stammered hysterically, the blue aura of fear rising despite her best efforts.

”Silence,” Trigorah ordered, her voice low but forceful.

”No, not here. Just not here. Please. There are people. If I change they might get hurt,” she pleaded tearfully, as much with herself as with Trigorah.

”Silence! Listen to me. Creature!” Trigorah demanded with hushed insistence. She sifted through what she'd learned of the creature. Demont had spoken of a name she called herself. ”IVY!”

At the sound of her name, Ivy stopped and looked slowly at her pursuer.

”Did . . . did you call me Ivy? The teachers never called me that . . . ” she said.

Ivy drew in a long sample of Trigorah's scent.

”You were there. When they had me. But you aren't one of them, are you?” Ivy asked.

”I am a General of the Northern Alliance and I am sworn to defend it. Now tell me where the others are. I promise you that it is not our intention to bring any of you to harm,” Trigorah said.

”Where are they? You KILLED THEM! And now you are going to lie to my face and tell me you don't want to hurt us!” Ivy snapped, a surge of red light painting the alleyway as the scene replayed itself in her mind again.

”That was not my doing,” Trigorah said.