The Bowl of Souls: Book 05 - Mother of the Moonrat Read online

  “But Mellinda couldn’t erase her own memories. Guilt for her actions plagued her and worse, her feelings for Gregory didn’t go away. Despite her better judgment, she missed his desire and began to resent his feelings for Dixie.

  “The voices in her head reminded her that she had the power to make her bonded act however she wished. She was their wizard, after all; their master. Mellinda pushed the suggestions away at first, but her resentment grew. She began to flirt with Gregory, but he didn’t acknowledge her attempts.

  “Then one night in a fit of anger, she seized their minds and made Gregory want her again. She caused Dixie to sleep and had her way with him. When Mellinda was through, she was once again wracked with guilt. She erased his memory of the incident and changed him back. Her bonded continued on, unaware that anything had happened but Mellinda was sickened by her behavior. She began to despise the bond.

  “She vowed never to abuse her power again, but it wasn’t too long until the temptation was too great. She began changing their minds at will. The more she did so, the easier it got. But Dixie and Gregory knew something was wrong. Their memories were jumbled and incomplete.

  “The day they exited the Dark Prophet’s dominion, the situation boiled over. They felt her guilt and turned on Mellinda, asking her what she had done to them. When she finally broke down and confessed what had happened, the two of them were repulsed. Mellinda couldn’t bear her bonded feeling that way about her. She rendered them both unconscious again.”

  Justan watched Mellinda collapse next to the unmoving forms of her bonded, sobbing uncontrollably. He pitied her at that moment. The things she had done were vile and contemptible, but she had not intended for this result.

  As he watched, a shadow rose from behind her. She scrambled to her feet in alarm and saw a man watching them. He was tall, muscular and handsome, with a charming smile. His eyes were light blue and his hair a blond mane. The clothes he wore looked comfortable but expensive, all white silk and gold trim.

  “The Dark Prophet appeared before her at that moment. He sympathized with her pain and told her that the bond was an unjust way to force people together. He had a means to remove the Creator’s part of the bond from hers. Once he was done, she would have complete control over who she bonded to and for how long. She could free herself of the burden of guilt and cut Gregory and Dixie loose to live a new life away from her.”

  Justan shook his head. Don’t do it! he pleaded.

  Of course Mellinda didn’t hear. She looked down upon her bonded, her eyes filled with sadness. The smiling man laid a comforting hand on her shoulder and she nodded,

  “She went into their minds one last time and eased their thoughts. She removed their memories of her and replaced them with a new story. The two of them had met each other on the road. Gregory had protected Dixie as they traveled to the gnome homeland, where they fell in love. She added intricate details explaining Gregory’s transformation at the hands of the Blood Mages and their journey to this place where they would wake.

  “When she finished, Mellinda agreed to the Dark Prophet’s proposal. She handed him her knife with the dark naming rune and he used it in a ritual to cut away the Creator’s connection to the bond. Mellinda now had full control and she used that power to set her bonded free.

  “When Gregory and Dixie awoke, Mellinda and the Dark Prophet were gone. They felt a strange sadness, but they had no memories of why they should feel that way. They left that spot together, hand-in-hand, and never saw Mellinda again.”

  Chapter Four

  The vision faded away and Justan found himself once more sitting in the oversized chair in the Hall of Majesty, Jhonate holding his hand. From the saddened and repulsed looks of the others it was evident that they had all experienced the same vision.

  “Such a sad tale,” Jhonate said with a shiver. Her green eyes were troubled. “What she did . . .”

  “I’m glad I’m bonded to Justan, Big John.” Fist said, his cheeks stained with tears.

  Me too, Gwyrtha agreed.

  “As am I,” The prophet said with a kind smile.

  “How’d you do that?” Lenny asked, his eyes wide with wonder.

  “Spirit magic has its advantages, Lenui.” John said with a shrug. “One is teaching. I was able to show you all in a few short minutes what it might have taken me an hour to tell otherwise, especially with all the interruptions.”

  “But magic don’t normally work on me,” Lenny said incredulously. “It was so real. I swear I could’ve reached out and slapped that idjit of a woman upside the head!”

  “Your heritage does make you resistant, yes,” John replied. “But certain types of spirit magic can get through even a dwarf’s defenses.”

  “But the detail you showed us was astounding!” Locksher said, both eyebrows raised. “How did you know what took place?”

  “That’s a good question,” Alfred said. “You weren’t there at the time.”

  The prophet gave them a sad smile. “Years later, when Mellinda had reached the height of her atrocities, I searched for clues to what had happened. I found Gregory and Dixie living together in a gnome village in Khalpany. They were happy with their life there. Gregory was head of the village guard and Dixie was one of the local teachers.

  “Neither of them had any recollection of what had happened, or even that they had met me, but with their permission, I searched their minds and found the memories Mellinda had suppressed. The other small details came to me much later on the day I gave Mellinda one last chance to change.” His countenance darkened. “But I don’t have time to tell that part just yet.”

  “Did you help them remember?” Fist asked.

  John shook his head. “That would have only been cruel. I had no doubt that opening their minds would have only sent them on a journey to find her. Mellinda had left them alone so far, but the creature that Mellinda had become at that point wouldn’t have hesitated to kill them if they tried to interfere.”

  “The witch,” Jhonate said with a glower.

  “Uh, Jhonate?” Justan winced. She was squeezing his hand so hard his knuckle bones rubbed together. “Um . . . my hand.”

  “Sorry,” she said, giving him an apologetic glance. She let go and gripped her staff instead. She turned her gaze on the prophet. “So what sort of deal did Mellinda make with the Dark Prophet?”

  “We’ll get back to that. I need to shift the focus of the tale back to Stardeon. I will try to finish the story quickly. Some of us are needed elsewhere and I’m sure that you must all be famished.”

  Justan realized that the prophet was right. He hadn’t eaten since early that morning before the battle began. None of them had.

  “In fact if you would like, we can adjourn for now and meet back for the rest of the story at a later date,” the prophet suggested.

  “But I want to hear the rest, Big John,” Fist said, eager even though his stomach was aching.

  “I agree with the ogre,” Jhonate said.

  Me too! sent Gwyrtha

  “As do I,” Justan said.

  “Do we have any disagreements?” John asked and when no one did, he said, “Then I will tell you Stardeon’s side of this tale for the short time we have left. I do have a feeling, however, that some of this will need to wait.”

  He cleared his throat. “While Mellinda had been off in search of the Dark Bowl, Stardeon had thought of another way to break the bond. He sought out one of the monsters of legend; a beast known as a Great Wyrm.

  “Stardeon’s research had uncovered the rumor that one of these beasts had been found, and he wanted it for its power. Like the other monsters of legend, a Great Wyrm is actually a rare magic anomaly. It is one of a race of snake-like dragons that live deep underground. The thing that makes the Great Wyrm different from the others is that it’s born with spirit magic. It has the ability to tear away the thoughts and abilities of other beasts and store them in gemstones, leaving its mindless victims to be eaten or used as slaves.

&
nbsp; “Stardeon knew that he had a way to defeat this monster. His bonded were immune to its attack. You see, as long as a bonding wizard is fighting against it, no other form of spirit magic can overcome the bond.

  “Now, regarding Stardeon’s bonded. I told you about Sam and his horse, Vaughn, but I did not mention the others. He had two more. The first was a kobald by the name of Lex. He was strong and tough. The other was Slythe. He was a red dragon; a medium-sized fire breather. He had grown quite smart through his bond with Stardeon and he was fast.”

  “Damn,” said Lenny, his moustache tilted in disgust. “Bonded to a dag-blamed kobald?”

  Justan had never seen a kobald before. All he knew was that they appeared in a lot of Lenny’s curse-filled rants. The prophet closed his eyes and a vision appeared in Justan’s mind of a reptilian-looking humanoid, short like a dwarf and powerfully built with large rocky scales. It stood next to the dragon. Slythe was fearsome, with long wicked teeth and wide wings. His body was covered with shiny red scales.

  “Think what you will, but they were an excellent group of bonded. Powerful and loyal. They believed in Stardeon and trusted his intelligence to see them through any situation. The strength of that belief is part of what makes their tale so sad.

  “Stardeon and his bonded searched for months before they tracked down the Great Wyrm’s lair. It was in a cavern deep under the Trafalgan Mountains. They left Vaughn outside and entered through a kobald surface tunnel. It took a week of underground travel before they came across the right connecting tunnel.

  “The Great Wyrm had chosen a huge cavern that had belonged to a large tribe of goblins. It had stolen their minds and used them as slaves and cattle, doing its bidding as it slumbered.”

  This time the prophet’s voice faded as the scene unfolded in Justan’s mind.

  He saw the yawning cavern large enough to fit a small town inside. Scattered across the floor were goblin huts and small fires. Vacant-eyed goblins walked slowly about, barely intelligent enough to do the wyrm’s bidding.

  In the rear of the cavern, coiled up like an enormous viper, was the Great Wyrm. Its head rested atop a pile of coils three stories high. Its alligator-like mouth was closed, its enormous lantern eyes half-lidded and drowsy.

  Stardeon stayed just outside the chamber and cast a spell. A dark mist rolled in from a back passageway, obscuring the goblins and their huts and fires. The Great Wyrm didn’t notice right away and the goblins were too dull to raise an alarm. The mist rose up until half the Great Wyrm’s form was obscured. Then its head rose sleepily, blinking in confusion as something moved towards it in the mist, the swiftness of its approach creating waves on the cloud-like surface.

  Slythe burst up from the mist directly in front of the wyrm, his head rearing back, his mouth opening. The Great Wyrm’s eyes widened in alarm as Slythe let loose with a torrent of dragonfire. The wyrm’s head was engulfed in flame and it roared in agony.

  Lex chose that moment to leap from Slythe’s back and soar towards the wyrm’s uppermost coils. The kobald’s pickaxe blazed with earth magic as he swung with a two-handed blow. The pickaxe burst through the Great Wyrm’s hard scales, penetrating deep in its flesh. Where he struck, the flesh turned to stone.

  The Great Wyrm uncoiled in a sudden strike, its jaws open wide as it darted out from the plume of fire. Slythe slid to the side, barely avoiding its bite. Lex was hurled from the wyrm’s back and disappeared into the mist.

  The Great Wyrm thrashed in the mist, roaring in pain and fury, crushing its slaves and their huts under its bulk. Then the mist grew still. Its head, blackened and smoldering, rose from the mist on its long neck like a solitary tower. One eye was melted shut and fluid oozed down to drip from its lower jaw, but the other eye was open and angry and blazed with spirit magic. A white beam swept the cavern as it searched for its attackers.

  A shout rang out and its head swiveled to look upon a stalagmite that jutted up from the mist behind it. Standing on the tip of the stalagmite was a man with a bow. Justan recognized him at once. It was Coal’s first bonded, Sam. Samson’s face grinned out above a human body armored in leather that shone bright with golden magic. The bow that he had drawn back blazed red.

  The Great Wyrm focused its beam-like spirit attack on Sam’s body. But the magic could not overwhelm Stardeon’s hold on the bond. Sam fired an arrow that shone dark as night. As it left the bow, whirling wreathes of fire wrapped around it, causing the arrow to ignite. The arrow pierced the Great Wyrm’s nostril and erupted in a shower of molten rock.

  The Great Wyrm reared back and roared just as Slythe dropped Lex from far above its head. The kobald swung his pickaxe down in a mighty blow that struck between the wyrm’s eyes. A laticework of cracks spread outward from the wound as flesh and bone and brain alike turned to stone and shattered.

  The legendary monster crashed to the mist below, dead.

  Stardeon dismissed the mist quickly and strode into the cavern. He was tall and had the regal bearing of a man confident of his power and position. His hair was brown with just a few streaks of white at the temples, but Justan knew he was much older than he looked. How much time had passed from when he married his first wife and the prophet introduced him to Mellinda?

  Stardeon approached the head of the dead monster and stood before it with a satisfied nod. He reached out his hands and the Great Wyrm’s enormous eye popped free of its skull and rolled towards him. He pulled a knife from his belt and cut open the large nerve at the back of the eye. A stream of gemstones poured out of the nerve, each one uniquely colored and beautiful.

  The scene shimmered and shifted as the prophet’s voice once again filled Justan’s mind. “These gemstones were a treasure rare and priceless, for they contained the thoughts and abilities the Great Wyrm had stolen over the years. This power was converted to pure energy and crystallized. To a wizard that knew what they were doing these stones would be a magnificent power amplifier, but to Stardeon they were even more. They were the Great Wyrm’s most prized possession and a powerful tie to its soul.

  “He took ten of the smallest gemstones and set them into a two sets of five rings he had prepared for just this use.”

  Justan saw the rings being made. They were definitely the same rings that Ewzad Vriil wore. Each ring was linked to the others by a string of golden chain. Stardeon bathed the rings in the Great Wyrm’s blood and ate some of its flesh.

  “Once he had his creation ready, he reached into the ether and called for the soul of the Great Wyrm. Its soul was drawn to him by the power of the gemstones. It was huge and powerful and angry at being torn from its mortal coil.”

  Justan saw Stardeon sitting cross legged with the rings in the palms of his hands, still glistening with the Great Wyrm’s blood. His bonded stood behind him, their eyes wary. With spirit sight, they could see its spirit towering above them.

  “Stardeon made a pact with the spirit of the monster. If it would agree to serve him, it would not have to pass on to the afterlife, but could stay bound to the gemstones it prized so much. For some creatures, this sort of condition would be enough, but not the Great Wyrm. It wanted more. It wanted to harm those who had killed it. It added another condition. It agreed to serve him, but only if he allowed it to tear the powers of his bonded away and store them in the stones.

  “Stardeon gave it a counter offer. It would leave his bonded alone. He would allow it to strip his powers away instead. You see, he had designed the rings so that while he was wearing them, he would have full control over any powers stored in the stones. The wyrm agreed to his conditions eagerly. Too eagerly. And that’s when things went wrong. Stardeon was a binding expert, but he had never bound a creature this intelligent and powerful before. It had decided to make him suffer.”

  Justan watched Stardeon grin as the spirit of the Great Wyrm entered the rings and allowed him to bind it to them with powerful flows of both elemental and spirit magic. Then he put the rings on. The Great Wyrm’s hunger was palpable.

&nb
sp; Stardeon began sweating and grimaced with pain. His bonded rushed to his side. There was a horrible ripping sound and Justan saw the multicolored glow of Stardeon’s elemental magic sucked away into the stones. The white glow of his spirit magic started tearing next.

  Lex stiffened and cried out. As the kobald crumpled to the ground, Slythe shuddered and let out a great roar. The dragon fell and Sam’s eyes grew wide as he realized he was next.

  “The Great Wyrm tore the bond so violently that the very souls of Stardeon’s bonded were ripped partially free from their bodies. Stardeon felt the lives of his bonded fading and panicked. He struck back, using the power of the Great Wyrm’s own magic against it. He assaulted its intelligence, tearing its thoughts asunder. It stopped its assault, but the damage was done.

  “Stardeon may have been able to save Lex and Slythe had the Great Wyrm not damaged his bonding magic so severely. He could not touch their minds. He could connect with their bodies, but the damage was not physical.

  “He watched helplessly as they died. In sorrow, he and Sam buried their bodies and returned to the surface to look for Vaughn, but he had been left unable to feel his horse at all. He never did find him. Stardeon’s bond to Sam was the only one he had left.”

  The scene faded away. Justan felt sick to his stomach and sensed that Fist and Gwyrtha felt the same. He had known this part of the tale already, but to see Stardeon’s bonded and observe their courage with his own eyes, only to see them die because of their wizard’s pride . . .

  “It’s a dag-gum shame,” Lenny said, shaking his head.

  “I do not understand,” Jhonate said, her eyes red-rimmed. “Why would he submit to have his powers torn away? What did he hope to gain with such foolishness?”

  John sighed. “Stardeon believed that the Great Wyrm would tear his side of the bond free from the Creator’s. Then with the wyrm’s power stored in the rings, he would be free to use it to help Mellinda do the same. It was a ridiculous and dangerous thing to attempt, but Stardeon was so prideful and confident in his abilities that it didn’t occur to him that he could fail.”