brush of her fingertips, akin to a lover’s butterfly touch. My skin prickled. I did not realise I was shaking my head when she said: “You disagree? Yes, so do I. It puzzles me why Janos should choose for his protégé, a man so riddled with weaknesses?”
“I am no Sorcerer, truly told.”
“No –and neither was Janos, despite my suspicions. A most skilful opponent, mark my words. I broke him only yesterday, even with the aid of your uncaring betrayal. A difficult man. Janos of the guardtower will. He is all the man that you’ll never be.”
“Nought will you gain from me!”
A spider’s smile crept around her lips. I knew at once that my denial was baseless. A trick, a cruel manipulation, and my cowardice had doomed Janos. Jyla had been leagues ahead of me all the while. I felt unclean, used, abused.
“Don’t cower!” she snapped suddenly. “It’s unbecoming in a man.”
“It’s modest …”
“It’s pathetic! What passes for culture in the Umarik Fiefdoms is a filthy perversion of the natural order! Where is the balance, the harmony, the respect for the way things ought to be? I’ll never understand the Umarite mind, even embodied in such a pretty specimen. Were you not such a spineless species of toad–well! I might have considered umak talis with you.”
I cast my eyes to her feet. A dalliance with Jyla? I admit, for a moment something akin to desire warmed through my better judgement, for she was beautiful –as an icicle is beautiful, or a prism lit by refractive light–and powerful, and different to any woman I had ever known. But she was also as deadly as a mountain adder. A woman who would use and cast aside as she pleased, never sparing a thought to the good. Her contempt swamped my momentary wish. Heat flooded my cheeks.
“So I broke Janos!” I flinched as her sudden shout echoed across the chamber. “I tortured him. I snapped him in twain and learned everything he knows; everything he had to tell. Ay, I sucked him out to a dry husk. In the end he begged to answer my questions.”
Janos? It hardly seemed …
“And now I know I need you, and your especial connection with him. Janos implored me to save you –and I will. He would even have appreciated it. He loved you–more the fool he.” In her mouth, the word ‘love’ twisted into a curse. It paralysed me, this unforeseen notion. “You’re a malleable material, Arlak, mine to shape and to hone. A tool for my needs. For you I have prepared this chamber, and a magic simple in structure yet profound in effect. It will be a … special creation. One day, you might even come to appreciate the irony.”
Jyla moved closer, until her black eyes filled my world , like a night sky devoid of stars. The darkness was formidable, intoxicating, ravenous. “I need you to be selfish, Arlak,” she whispered, cupping my cheek tenderly. O accursed hands! “There, that isn’t too difficult, is it? Great power will be yours to command, but housed in such a flawed vessel, it can only lead to misuse. Your selfishness and wrongdoing will magnify the enchantment a thousandfold.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m raising a Wurm. You’ve heard of those, haven’t you?”
“Ulules’ tales –”
Jyla shook her head, breaking the connection, and stepped backward with a graceful flexion of her thighs. “Idiot!” she sneered. “Enough inane chatter.”
At once she was all business, regal and haughty, drawing her robes about her person with a purposeful snap, transfigured into the role of Sorceress. Her hands began to weave a complex series of symbols in the air, moving as with a mind of their own in sequences of hypnotic power. I caught myself gaping like a dullard and hated myself all the more.
Suddenly she cried: “Orlio immio oorrallia aatak!”
No human larynx could have produced such a thunderous command.
The result was spectacular. Like flower petals peeling away from the stalk, what I had taken for a solid dome above my
“I am no Sorcerer, truly told.”
“No –and neither was Janos, despite my suspicions. A most skilful opponent, mark my words. I broke him only yesterday, even with the aid of your uncaring betrayal. A difficult man. Janos of the guardtower will. He is all the man that you’ll never be.”
“Nought will you gain from me!”
A spider’s smile crept around her lips. I knew at once that my denial was baseless. A trick, a cruel manipulation, and my cowardice had doomed Janos. Jyla had been leagues ahead of me all the while. I felt unclean, used, abused.
“Don’t cower!” she snapped suddenly. “It’s unbecoming in a man.”
“It’s modest …”
“It’s pathetic! What passes for culture in the Umarik Fiefdoms is a filthy perversion of the natural order! Where is the balance, the harmony, the respect for the way things ought to be? I’ll never understand the Umarite mind, even embodied in such a pretty specimen. Were you not such a spineless species of toad–well! I might have considered umak talis with you.”
I cast my eyes to her feet. A dalliance with Jyla? I admit, for a moment something akin to desire warmed through my better judgement, for she was beautiful –as an icicle is beautiful, or a prism lit by refractive light–and powerful, and different to any woman I had ever known. But she was also as deadly as a mountain adder. A woman who would use and cast aside as she pleased, never sparing a thought to the good. Her contempt swamped my momentary wish. Heat flooded my cheeks.
“So I broke Janos!” I flinched as her sudden shout echoed across the chamber. “I tortured him. I snapped him in twain and learned everything he knows; everything he had to tell. Ay, I sucked him out to a dry husk. In the end he begged to answer my questions.”
Janos? It hardly seemed …
“And now I know I need you, and your especial connection with him. Janos implored me to save you –and I will. He would even have appreciated it. He loved you–more the fool he.” In her mouth, the word ‘love’ twisted into a curse. It paralysed me, this unforeseen notion. “You’re a malleable material, Arlak, mine to shape and to hone. A tool for my needs. For you I have prepared this chamber, and a magic simple in structure yet profound in effect. It will be a … special creation. One day, you might even come to appreciate the irony.”
Jyla moved closer, until her black eyes filled my world , like a night sky devoid of stars. The darkness was formidable, intoxicating, ravenous. “I need you to be selfish, Arlak,” she whispered, cupping my cheek tenderly. O accursed hands! “There, that isn’t too difficult, is it? Great power will be yours to command, but housed in such a flawed vessel, it can only lead to misuse. Your selfishness and wrongdoing will magnify the enchantment a thousandfold.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m raising a Wurm. You’ve heard of those, haven’t you?”
“Ulules’ tales –”
Jyla shook her head, breaking the connection, and stepped backward with a graceful flexion of her thighs. “Idiot!” she sneered. “Enough inane chatter.”
At once she was all business, regal and haughty, drawing her robes about her person with a purposeful snap, transfigured into the role of Sorceress. Her hands began to weave a complex series of symbols in the air, moving as with a mind of their own in sequences of hypnotic power. I caught myself gaping like a dullard and hated myself all the more.
Suddenly she cried: “Orlio immio oorrallia aatak!”
No human larynx could have produced such a thunderous command.
The result was spectacular. Like flower petals peeling away from the stalk, what I had taken for a solid dome above my
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