"They aren"t part of this, Gustav," I growled.
"On the contrary, everyone and everything are part of this. They do belong to the old universe."
Wyst of the West drew his sword. "Prepare to die, sorcerer!"
"Brave and tired words, White Knight."
Soulless Gustav put a thumb to his chin. Angry red magic surged at Wyst. I sent a billowing tide of warm, blue power against it. They sizzled away against each other. The battle had begun, and none of the others knew, unable to sense the raw magic gathering around Soulless Gustav and myself.
A cloud of glittering dark blazed around the sorcerer. Strange things swam in the furious, blood-soaked reds and bottomless, devouring blacks.
A chorus of greens, blues, and blacks entered my breast. Oranges, purples, and grays added to the mix. The magic rolled down my arms and collected into shimmering power at my fingertips.
I flicked a portion at my companions, wrapping them in a bubble of whites and yellows with a dash of crimson to give the defensive magic teeth.
Soulless Gustav sent inky tendrils against the shield. They burned away in invisible sparks, but the defense would fall beneath stronger a.s.saults.
"You"ll never defeat me if you waste your power protecting these specks. Then again, you won"t defeat me even with all your power."
"Tell me, sorcerer. Who will you bore with your endless blather in your new universe?"
This was my first direct confrontation with a disciple of magic, but Ghastly Edna had educated me on what to expect. To those with eyes to see it, it would start as a clash of color. Fragments of raw magic molded themselves to one"s will, only to be unmade by the other before becoming anything more than possibilities. Dozens of potential magics were thrown between us in mere seconds. Blues collided with greens. Reds shattered oranges. Purples devoured whites. Unsuccessful magic still had some effect. The sea froze. The sky split open into geysers of steam and fire. It was always like this in the beginning. Until one magic finally found its way into being and gave its maker the advantage. As in most battles, duels of magic were usually decided by the first blow.
I held my ground. Better than I"d expected, in truth, but I was slipping. That part I"d given to protect my companions left me the lesser. It was all I could do to unmake Soulless Gustav"s sorceries. Soon I was on the defensive, straining against the flood that must come.
It was a span of seconds. Wyst didn"t understand what was happening, and he couldn"t hold himself back any longer. Some might have called it bravery. Others, foolishness. Still others, frustration. All would"ve been right. He raised his sword and charged. My protection clung to him, but it wouldn"t be enough.
Soulless Gustav thrust a palm at Wyst. Screaming blue oblivion surged forward. A sliver punched through my protection. Wyst staggered and clutched his chest.
"I"m impressed, witch. That should"ve burst his heart. Now, I"ll finish the job. Unless you care to sacrifice yourself for him." He held an orb of blue death in one hand, an ebony spiked chaos in the other. "You can only stop one. Choose wisely."
He hurled the orb at Wyst and the darkness at me. There wasn"t any time to think, only react. I tossed a bolt of white in Wyst"s defense while raising a wall against the dark. Neither effort was entirely successful. Wyst gaped, fell to his knees. His dark skin paled.
My flesh withered beneath Soulless Gustav"s magic. Veins throbbed along my right arm. Muscles shriveled. The limb turned to sludge and dripped from my shoulder. Newt sidestepped the slime.
Soulless Gustav twirled his hands. A serpent of golden power writhed over his head. "I didn"t think witches practiced such direct magic."
"There are many things that you don"t know." I drew from the incredible power available. My curse did the rest. A fresh arm sprang anew.
I kept my eyes on the sorcerer and did my best not to think of Wyst. He was going to die. I couldn"t save him. Or the others. Any magic in their defense would only make me vulnerable. When I died, Soulless Gustav would kill everyone else. The practical thing to do would be leaving them all to perish. Their lives were meaningless in the larger scheme, but Soulless Gustav had already robbed me of someone I"d loved. He wouldn"t take another.
Fortunately, only Wyst was headstrong enough to antagonize the sorcerer. Gwurm and Penelope stayed put. Newt sat impatiently at my side, but he wouldn"t move until given permission.
The darkness around Soulless Gustav grew and grew. It hissed and throbbed, a living thing with him at its heart. It was as if he"d tapped into a hidden well of bottomless magic I couldn"t even sense. Magic was infinite, but there were limits to how much could be safely harnessed. He seemed not even to strain as the dark cloud surged and billowed about him. The sheer metaphysical bulk of it should have crushed him. Yet there he stood, not just unharmed, but its master. Even containing boundless rage didn"t keep him from his endless, irksome prattling.
"Fear suits you, witch. I see it across your face. I am everything here. The beginning and end. Yesterday and tomorrow. I am absolute and unconquerable."
If I was to have any chance, I needed to strike now. I threw everything at him without subtlety or restraint. A whirlwind of deadly magic that would"ve transformed legions into swine, turned rivers into shrieking bile, and driven kingdoms into riotous madness. It was a work of legend, a spell worthy of Nasty Larry himself. And it did nothing.
The dark storm overwhelmed the whirlwind. All my magic shriveled away beneath such unknowable power. I stood naked and impotent before the sorcerer.
"That"s it?" He frowned. "That"s all you have?"
I said nothing. I"d expected to lose. Now came my horrible death.
Newt quacked with all his demon rage and rushed at Soulless Gustav. I could only watch as the sorcerer turned my familiar inside-out with a snap of his fingers. I closed my eyes and turned from the steaming mound of blood and feathers.
"Let them go. Kill me, but let them go." It was a foolish request. I now understood just how horrible my death was to be. I was to watch everyone I cared for die and be powerless to stop it. It was a destiny more terrible than I"d been prepared for, but fate has a way of surprising one.
A gray fog curled around me. Invisible claws dug at my flesh. Blood trickled from my nose and eyes. Things pulled out my hair in clumps.
Gwurm and Penelope rose to my defense and suffered for it. A swarm of winged mouths poured from Soulless Gustav"s sleeves. They s.n.a.t.c.hed away Gwurm, piece by piece. Before he could even yell out, they disappeared into the sky Only his ear was left behind. Then Soulless Gustav simply drained Penelope of her animation. The slain broom clattered at his feet.
Soulless Gustav clasped his hands together. Pressure crushed my ribs and liquefied my organs, but I didn"t die. Such was my curse.
"Where are all your wry words now, witch? Your subtle wit? Your mysterious wisdom? It seems they have abandoned you, like your magic."
I found the will to speak with pulverized lungs and a throat full of blood. "Kill me and be done with it."
"Those are your final words then? Not very memorable, but to the point." He grinned, and the sea of ice swallowed up Wyst"s loyal steed. "Patience, my dear. The relief of death will come soon enough. I"m afraid you"ll have to endure my vainglorious chatter just a while longer."
He knelt beside the fox. "I think I"ll let you live. Perhaps even after I"ve remade the universe. As a reminder of this polluted yesterday."
He petted her muzzle, and the fox bit his hand. He yelped and shook her loose. Blood dribbled down his palm. She grinned as only a fox facing death could. Snarling, he sent a wisp of cold black, and she was a moldering skeleton.
Soulless Gustav released me from my agony but held me immobile. I floated behind him as he walked to Wyst of the West. I couldn"t watch, but I couldn"t close my eyes.
Wyst pushed himself to his feet, steadying himself with his sword. He wheezed. It seemed a miracle he could even stand. His every breath was labored. Sweat soaked his skin. "Let her go, sorcerer."
I reached out for magic and found none. All power in this universe served Soulless Gustav, but this seemed a contradiction. Magic served no one. Even in this unreal place, the magic had to be real.
Wyst raised his sword in a trembling hand, standing on shaking knees. He didn"t have any strength left. "You won"t kill her while I draw breath."
"Quite correct, but only because I want her to watch you die." Soulless Gustav raised his b.l.o.o.d.y palm, and Wyst floated into the air. The sorcerer rotated his thumb. Wyst"s arm snapped, but he didn"t yell out. Soulless Gustav wiggled a finger. Wyst"s legs twisted. He gasped. Tears streamed down his face.
"This isn"t your fault," he whispered.
Even dying, he still thought of me. I wanted to reach out and touch him. To know his kiss one last time would almost make my horrible death tolerable. A current of magic trickled to my call, and I was free for the briefest of moments. Soulless Gustav raised an eyebrow and chains shackled me to the frozen ground.
"Perhaps you"ve suffered enough, witch. Time to end this game before it grows tiresome." A coil of black entwined around the Knight"s throat.
He smiled painfully at me. "I love you."
"Now those are excellent last words."
Wyst"s neck broke with a soft crunch. His corpse collapsed in a heap.
I didn"t believe it. I couldn"t accept it. The trickle of magic slipped from my heart and onto the dead Knight. Oddly enough, Soulless Gustav seemed not to notice.
"Ah, love. Think about it. You can"t touch it. You can"t see it. You can"t really even describe it. Not without a fountain of ambiguous, pretty words. If you think about it, it"s the greatest illusion there is."
Behind him, magic filled Wyst"s body. The white and greens danced along his broken form. His shattered arm straightened. Soulless Gustav seemed oblivious to it, and I wondered how he could be. It might"ve been because his own power was so great. Like a giant, unaware of the gnats buzzing at his feet.
More magic gathered at my fingertips. I sent it against the chains that held me. They rusted away "So there"s a little fight left in you yet."
Wyst stirred. I didn"t know how. I couldn"t raise the dead without touching them, and I couldn"t heal them. He seemed perfectly whole. He stood, very surprised to be alive. Not nearly so surprised as Soulless Gustav.
Then I grasped it. I hadn"t restored Wyst"s life. I"d unbelieved his death, and the dribble of magic running through me was different from what I"d called upon before because it was genuine.
Soulless Gustav brought a portion of his incredible might down upon my head. I thrust a cone of red around myself and all that power splashed away without touching me.
I pa.s.sed my hand at Newt"s body. With a slurp and gurgle, skin and feathers wrapped around his organs. He raised his head and glanced at his wings.
Soulless Gustav gaped. "How did you .. ." He couldn"t finish the question, so strong was his confusion.
Penelope hopped to life as the icy depths spit Wyst"s horse to the surface. Flesh sprang onto the gray fox"s bones. Finally Gwurm"s parts rained from the sky, falling into perfect arrangement. All were unbelieved back to life with just a few dollops of magic. Real magic.
"It"s done, Gustav. You"ve lost, and you"ve only yourself to blame."
"Oh, no, witch." His deep, raging voice rumbled, sending cracks through the ice. "Now you shall behold me as I really am."
"I already do," I replied softly. Too softly to be heard over his bl.u.s.tering.
He threw up his arms. Great monoliths of ice thrust their way to the sky. A downpour of steaming rain sizzled the air. The sorcerer grew fifty feet tall. His flesh turned to glittering silver, and his eyes became crackling lightning.
I draped a golden dome over myself and my companions to keep the unpleasant rain at bay. "I take back what I said before, Gustav. You have more imagination than I gave you credit for. Too much. You"ve forgotten that this isn"t real. That was your first mistake, and I think you made it long ago."
Ice transformed into sand and rock. Clouds parted to reveal a swirling void. Chunks of earth were ripped from the ground and swallowed into it. Not a hair on any of our heads moved. I wished my friends away from this crumbling madness. They faded, leaving only Soulless Gustav and myself.
"I am a G.o.d here!" growled Soulless Gustav.
"G.o.d of a dream. A master of gla.s.s and shadows. Lord of nothing." I laughed. I shouldn"t have, but I was too amused. "Here, in this place, your power is at its greatest. But here, in this place, your power is at its most vulnerable. Out there, in the true world, your illusions touch reality, and through that, gain substance. A man killed by a phantom gobling dies because even death can be fooled when the sorcery is potent enough. But here, death is merely a dream. To be accepted or disregarded at one"s whim. And I don"t accept it. I deny it all."
I clasped my hands together and released a wave of magic and unbelief. Soulless Gustav"s universe ceased to exist. It was too fragile to stand against even the smallest skepticism. Soulless Gustav had foolishly allowed me in, and it was far too easy to unmake it from the inside. It was like waking from someone else"s dream. Black surrounded us. A tiny fountain of colors stood between us. The legendary sorcerer was reduced to his normal stature, a little shorter in fact. A dull aura of power surrounded him, far less than G.o.dhood. He knelt beside the fountain.
"This is all the magic of your realm," I explained. "This is is the well of life from which your universe drew existence. Everything else, even your G.o.dhood, was merely a delusion. Delusions stacked upon figments piled upon fancies on the shoulders of phantasms. A house of cards." the well of life from which your universe drew existence. Everything else, even your G.o.dhood, was merely a delusion. Delusions stacked upon figments piled upon fancies on the shoulders of phantasms. A house of cards."
The sadness on his face stirred my sympathy "Your first mistake was allowing me inside. Your second was in bringing the others. I was prepared for my death. I would"ve believed it, but I couldn"t accept it for them. Their deaths, false though they were, showed me the truth."
I pa.s.sed my fingers through the fountain and pressed them to my lips. The raw magic tasted of blood and lemons. The fount was just a trickle, a drop borrowed from the real world to fuel a shattered cosmos. I almost felt sorry for Soulless Gustav as I plugged it with my toe and starved away the remnants of his world.
The darkness fell away. We stood amid the field of his impure sorcery, that place where reality and illusion mingled. A flood of power filled me when we crossed the threshold. Soulless Gustav hadn"t lost complete touch with true magic. It swelled around him, but he was a broken man. Dreams he could no longer believe in surrounded him, and he wept.
My companions stood by my side. None could look at the fallen sorcerer save Newt.
"Do you want to kill him? Or can I?"
"There s no need."
"But your vengeance. Surely, you"re not going to let him live."
"Death would be a mercy. Now he lives, forsaken and miserable, without hope or joy or even the hollow fantasies of such. This is my vengeance."
"Now that is just cruel." He smiled at me. "The mistress would be proud."
"And what about this place?" asked Wyst.
"I could unmake it, but there"s no need. It will fade on its own in time, and the world will never know it was here."
I cast one last glance at Soulless Gustav, sobbing. My vengeance was more than I could bear to witness any longer. I turned and planned on walking away without looking back.
"You dare turn your back on me!" He growled. His voice cracked. I felt the surge of magic as he called upon it. "You won"t be able to unbelieve death here, witch."
My companions moved to my defense. Their protection was unnecessary but appreciated.
All Soulless Gustav"s subtlety was gone. His anger made his sorcery an obscene, vulgar effort. He molded it into a beast of fangs and claws and glaring red eyes of no discernible form. It was too hideous to be genuine, too grotesque and shapeless to be accepted by the universe. It was the final phantom, the stinging bite that woke the dragon. Soulless Gustav unleashed his own doom.
I"d only meant the dragon as a metaphor, but the magic must"ve enjoyed the notion. The earth trembled as a black and red serpent parted the clouds and filled the sky. It couldn"t be seen entirely in its vastness. It opened terrible jaws and a cleansing, white flame washed across the sorcerous kingdom. Save for the rumbling earth, it made no sound. The purifying blaze burned without even a crackle. The scorched landscape turned to ash, then nothing. The fire seared my companions without touching them. We were real. I didn"t even feel its heat. Soulless Gustav wasn"t so fortunate. Twisted and blackened, he lay on the barren earth. Soulless Gustav was soulless after all. He"d been living among illusions too long. Somewhere along the way, he"d become a phantom himself.
He drew an agonized breath. "I curse you, witch with the unspoken name. From this day forth-"
"Oh, do shut up."
His eyes widened. It was a breach of etiquette to interrupt, but the death curse I now carried was quite enough.
"Well, how rude."
He crumbled away. Penelope couldn"t help but sweep his ashen remains into a neat pile.
The dragon disappeared. A portion of one ma.s.sive golden wing was the last to fade. The figment of s.p.a.ce was the last illusion to fade from Soulless Gustav"s realm. The field of bare earth shrank and shrank until it was but a patch barely two feet across, the last monument to the foolish dreams of the greatest sorcerer that had ever lived.
"That"s all it was?" asked Newt.
"Doesn"t seem like much," agreed Gwurm.
"Just because it became this," I said, "doesn"t make it less than it was."
A gust carried away the ashes.
"So that"s it?" said Newt. "It"s over?"
"Not quite."
I knelt low and put a palm to the earth. Fresh green gra.s.s sprouted over Soulless Gustav"s monument.
"Some dreams are best forgotten."