Chapter 9

Lizard

She was finally truly asleep now, though she was still sleeping very lightly. The pain from the marks he had made were keeping her from getting a true sleep. She rolled over, turning her back to the door and the rest of the room. She felt that she would have to get up soon but she didn’t want to, she was too tired.

There was a scratching on her door, then it creaked open. “Letana?” the priestess’s voice called from the general area of the door as it softly clicked closed.

“Wha…?” she whispered, her throat sore from last night’s screaming.

The priestess was alone, which Letana found surprising. “I was told by our Elcasi that you needed some kind of illusion protection or some such thing. Something you are to keep concealed from everyone.”

Letana shifted so she lay on her back and brushed her hair away from her forehead and throat. She turned her palms toward the priestess so the woman could see them, then she nodded.

“This,” she whispered. She was unable to speak, her throat hurt from screaming from when he had made the marks she was now showing the priestess.

The priestess stumbled backward into the door and covered her face with her hands. “Why! Why did he do that? It will get you killed if it is ever noticed! He---”

“Power.”

The single whispered word from the girl in the bed silenced the priestess immediately. The priestess knew that Letana was right; their Elcasi, Delaney, would do anything, betray anyone, for power- even, no, especially his servants.

“Can you do anything?”

“Illusion, it is the only thing that will go unnoticed in this city.”

Letana shivered. Whenever anyone, other then her Elcasi, put illusions on her, it caused her great pain until the spell had settled. The mages had tried to figure out why this happened but they were unable to come up with any answers. The High Priestess would know this. She must know this, or she wouldn’t sound so uncertain and nervous.

“Do it,” she said tensely.

“The Elcasi may ---“

“Just do it,” she said, her throat still sore. “If he cared he wouldn’t have done this,” she said, waving her hands at the priestess.

The priestess walked over to the bed. “You will have to sit up.”

Letana sat up, pulling her feet up under herself.

“Did he mark you anywhere else?”

“Yes,” Letana snapped. She stood up and pulled her hair off the mark on the back of her neck. She then pulled off her nightdress. She turned so the priestess could see all the marks. The priestess reached out a finger and touched the dragon mark between Letana’s shoulder blades. Letana whimpered and stepped quickly away as if the priestess’ feather light touch caused her pain.

“I will have to touch each one, to put the illusions on. Maybe you should lie on your back, on your bed, that way I can see them all to cover them.”

Letana threw herself onto the bed. “Just do it, get it done. I have to go down to the city.”

The priestess placed her fingers on the mark on the girl’s forehead. Letana suppressed a scream. The priestess worked quickly and soon (although Letana was shaking from the pain) all the marks, even the ones on her back, were covered with illusions and she could pass among the other citizens of Merinthea without drawing any attention to herself.

“Thank you,” Letana gasped through her pain.

The priestess ignored her and slammed her way out of the room.

Letana got dressed quickly and ran to the stables. Although she wasn’t going to ride down to the city the fastest way for her to get from the palace to the city was through the stable gate.

She ran from her room through the kitchen gardens and into the stables. She stood in front of the gate. This gate was not an ordinary gate, it was a mage gate. When opened the spell in the arch would activate and anyone who passed through it would then find themselves standing in a small storeroom off the main market square of Merinthea, the capital city of Merinthee.

This gate was a two way gate and she would be able to use it to get back, although anyone who wished to use the gate to get up to the palace would have to be keyed into the gate spell. They would have to be keyed into it up at the palace where the gate was first cast. If you were not recognized by the gate then it would transport you to the north road, outside of the city. This gate was not to be used by everyone as common transportation however and the doors to the gatehouse were normally closed and locked.

Letana activated the spell within the arch and stepped through the gate. There was a second of disorientation as she passed through the gate. It was much easer to travel short distances by gate, if you went a long distance you would be very disoriented and sick when you reached your final destination. There was however one way that you would be able to travel a long distance by gate and that was if you set the gate through one of the higher or lower planes- though gating in that manner was very draining on the mage who cast and maintained the gate. Normal gates were set through the middle planes which were commonly and collectively known as the void. There were many layers to the void though it was said that it was still one plane. It was said that the void was where all magic came from. It was also believed that it was the home of most of the lesser deities.

Letana stepped out of the arch, into the small room where the gate stood. The doors opened for her when she touched them. Through the open door she could see the main market square of the city. She stepped out into the market and the doors closed behind her. All she would have to do to open them again was to touch them with a little bit of power.

Letana was looking for a naming day gift for her lady the queen. The festival was only two days away and she still didn’t know what she should get her this year. She was thinking of getting something that would always remind the lady of the god of light, Mural. She wanted to get something that would give her lady the strength and will to fight Delaney.

She walked swiftly through the main market; there would be nothing there for her, nothing that she could give to a princess of the imperial bloodline. No, definitely not. What she really needed would be found in the temple district, several narrow alleys over to the north, closer to the castle on its mountain.

As she walked through the narrow lanes she saw someone ahead of her, someone that she thought she recognized- though she wasn’t positive. The man was much taller then most people and therefore he walked much faster then most people. She started to truly run then, run toward him; she wanted, needed, to know who he was, where she recognized him from. As she drew closer she was able to sense him. He was very powerful, almost as powerful as the man her Elcasi disguised himself as when he was in public. When she realized that she knew the man, that she recognized the feel of his power, she had drawn up beside him.

He knew she was there and before she could get away from him he grabbed her arm, preventing her from continuing on the course she wished to travel.

“What are you doing in the city?” her Elcasi said, dragging her along with him through an alley, one she had never seen before. “What could you need in the city?” He slammed her against the wall, knocking the breath out of her.

There were two guards at the end of the alley but she knew that they would do nothing to aid her, a stranger, a girl. They could tell simply from the way he stood that he was very powerful. They probably thought him a noble of high standing. Letana knew that the laws prevented them from interfering with a noble’s business, unless things got out of hand. Unless he started to actually threaten her life they wouldn’t do anything. They couldn’t know who he really was or they would more than likely move off to another point along the road.

She knew that a man, especially a noble, could do whatever he wanted to a girl in a back alley and not only wouldn’t the guards do anything about it but they were not permitted to. If they did they would be putting their lives at risk for no purpose. She knew that if the guards saw that the situation was getting out of hand then they might interfere, at least if this were a normal situation.

Her Elcasi, being who he was, would never let them know what he was really doing to her. He could kill her and they would never know until it was too late. They would never know until he was gone and she was already long dead. She knew all these things and it scared her.

“I wanted to get away from the palace for a little while. I have several days off, Elcasi, and I wanted to come down to the city.”

“Why would you want to be in the city?” he snarled into her face.

He tightened his grip on her arm and she whimpered. “Elcasi. I just wanted to get away from palace life for a while. I wanted to be alone.”

“You came into a crowded city to be alone?!”

“Yes Elcasi,” she whimpered. If he hadn’t been holding her pinned to the wall she would have long since fallen to the ground at his feet.

“How can you think that you would be alone in a crowded city?!”

“Have you ever heard the saying, ‘It is easier to be alone in a crowded city then it is to be alone in an empty palace’?”

He bared his teeth at her in a sneer. “What makes you think that I wouldn’t have heard that before,” he hissed and smacked her across the face.

She looked over to the end of the alley to see that the guards were leaving. They probably didn’t want to have to interfere with someone so obviously angry as her Elcasi appeared to be.

“I don’t know Elcasi. I didn’t say you didn’t hear it before, I was just asking you if you had heard it before.”

“I have heard it before. I don’t agree with it.” He shook her hard and then let her arm go. When he let go she fell to the ground because his grip on her arm was all that was keeping her on her feet. She moaned when she hit the ground and he laughed, coldly. After several seconds he said, “Get up little human, little fool.”

“Yes Elcasi,” she responded, struggling to her feet.

“You make a terrible liar,” her Elcasi said as he walked swiftly away from her. “I don’t like being lied to.” The threat inherent in those words made her squeak although there was no one around to hear her anymore, her Elcasi had vanished as had the guards.

She was standing now, leaning against the wall for support. She didn’t know if her legs would be able to support her without the help of the very solid wall behind her.

She looked around her and recognized nothing. This area her Elcasi had taken her through was near the temple district -- she could tell that by the feel of the magic in the area. It was, however, beyond her to recognize where in the city she was in relation to the temple district.

She pushed her palms against the wall behind her to steady herself as she stood. The wall opened and she fell through the opening, landing on her back half-in and half-out of the building. There had been a concealed door in the wall and she had managed to press on the catch. She had not been expecting such an occurrence so she fell backward through the doorway. The only part of her that was actually through the thick door were her head and arms. They were tangled in a sticky web of magic, magic like a spider’s web. This magical net was meant to capture, not to harm. She didn’t know if she would be able to get out of it and if she could the people inside the building, whoever they were, would be able to find her wherever she went by the feel of her magic. The net was drawing that magic from her and into itself. She was unable to stop it, she was unable to touch her magic. She could feel panic rising inside her and she tried vainly to suppress it. She knew that she couldn’t afford panic. What if they discovered who she was? What if they discovered her master?

She started to struggle and the net tightened around her. As she struggled to break free she was moving. The net got more and more of her as she tried to break free. She was trapped completely in the claws of panic and she couldn’t think. She was unable to break free and the more she struggled the tighter the net got and the more of her the net held. The more she fought the more of her magic the net drained and the more of her magic she lost the stronger her panic got. She was trapped in a self created never ending loop and she couldn’t break herself free.

She was soon exhausted and could no longer fight despite her panic. As she lay limply in the net, her panic subsided and she could think again. The first thing she did now that she was able to think was to look around herself.

She was in an extremely small room, more like a cell than anything. The door to outside had closed and the net held her off the floor. She was completely helpless in the net and she could not see anything behind her or below her because the net still held her on her back. She was unable to move at all now. The net held her to tightly for that.

There were no mundane bonds holding her fast; the net was made entirely of magic, magic stolen from those that the net had captured as well as power freely given by those who maintained this place.

She stared blankly at the ceiling for a very long time before she realized exactly what it was she was staring at. It was a small disc with a carving on it. The carving was of a creature as like a dog as a wolf was like to a fox. The resemblance of the creature on the disc to a dog was slight. She knew nearly immediately what the creature was. As soon as she had realized that she wasn’t simply staring at the ceiling but at a piece added to the patterns, she knew that the image was that of a Tir’h’issss’h’iah’nh’a, the symbol of her Elcasi.

“Master,” she whispered fearfully. She was silent for a wile and when she got no answer from him she whispered, uncertainly, “Where am I?”

All was silent for a very long time, then she heard a creaking sound behind her as if a door were being opened. She tried to twist around to see who it was that had come up behind her, but the net held her too tightly for such an action. She couldn’t move at all, although that didn’t stop her from trying.

“What did we catch thisss time?” a strange inhuman voice called out.

“It’s a little human. Mayb’ eleven at the oldest, she’s a fighter though. She likes to know what’s what around ‘er. She don’ like not being able to see people,” a voice responded. This person sounded human and very close. “Mayb’ we can take this one and make ‘er one of us.” Now the stranger was right below her and she still couldn’t sense them. She gave up the fight for freedom because she knew that it was pointless and the net was starting to constrict her breathing.

“What wasss sshhe mutterrring about earrrlier?”

“How do you expect me to know?”

“Asssk herrr.”

“I'm not goin’ to ask ‘er wha’ she don’ want people knowin’.”

As soon as the first voice had told the second voice to ask what she had said she started to fight the net again. She hardly had the strength to do so but she couldn’t let them know, she couldn’t let them get her. She couldn’t breathe, the net was going to suffocate her before she could get away.

“SHE’S FIGHTING THE NET SPELL AGAIN! She won’t give up. It’s goin’ to kill ‘er if she’s not gotten out o’ it soon,” the second man sounded panicked but neither his words or his voice registered to Letana.

She couldn’t breathe any longer but that wasn’t going to stop her, she wasn’t going to let them have her. She started to lose consciousness from lack of air as the net slowly lowered and a pair of hands caught her shoulders. “Ssshe isss unconssscious,” said the nonhuman voice. “You will have to hold herrr uprrright while I rrremove the net.”

The man caught her around the waist as the lizardmage very carefully removed the net spell from the human girl. As she worked she had one hand on the human girl’s shoulder and the other hand held the girl’s arm. When she had the net off the human and back in place over the door she turned Letana around slightly and blew across her face. Letana didn’t react at all so she tried again.

The third time she blew on Letana’s face the girl blinked her eyes and started to struggle. She was not fully aware yet but she was not going to let that stop her from fighting the arms that held her fast.

“She don’ want to be here,” the human said. “Mayb’ she’s hiding som’thin’,” he paused, “or someone . Mab’ she’s already ‘is and she don’ wan’ us knowin’.”

“Perrrhapsss,” the lizardmage said and then paused. “Look at herrr featurrresss,” the lizardmage said. She now had one arm around the girl, holding her arms against her sides. She didn’t need to hold the little human with both hands, her people were stronger then most humans. The girl was still trying to get away from the arm holding her fast, but she was unable to do so.

“I can’t. She’s moving too much for that. She’s going to bite you!”

The lizardmage slapped the girl with her free hand and the human took the chance that the girl’s sudden stillness offered. He grabbed a handful of the stranger’s hair and pulled her head back.

“Look at herrr face, ssshe’sss not from Merrrinthee at all. Herrr eyesss arrre too ssslanted to be from thessse parrrtsss.”

“Then where do ya think she’s from?”

“Sshhe looksss like sshhe'sss from up norrrth a bit. Sshhe could be frrrom Liniliia, the kingdom of the sshhadow people. I would sssay herrr hairrr isss too red for the norrrth though the rest of herrr looksss to be norrrthern.”

“Mayb’. You are the one who knows all the kingdoms. I wouldn’t be able to tell if she were from outside the empire.”

“Sshhe’sss empirrre borrrn and brrred,” the lizardmage said, letting her go. Now all that held her up was the human’s grip on her hair.

“Let me go!” Letana growled, flailing her arms around trying to hit one of the people in the tiny room.

“Pleassse, ssstop.”

“Who are you, why do you hold me captive?!”

“It isss you who came into ourrr territorrry. It isss you who arrre trrressspasssing. It isss usss who sshhould be asssking you the quessstionsss.”

“That was unintentional. I, I,--“

“Sssilenssce!” the lizardmage said and caught both Letana’s flailing hands in her own scaly ones.

“Please, let me go.”

“If you prrromissse not to rrrun orrr attack usss then we will let you go. We can howeverrr not allow you to leave thisss building until we know you arrre not going to be a thrrreat to ourrr sssafety.”

“Why did you have to net me?”

“Little human,” the lizardmage said slowly, “we can’t have unknown people rrrunning about in thisss plassce. If we did then we asss a people would be lossst. Thisss would no longerrr be a sssafe plassce for usss.”

Both the human and the lizardmage let her go and she swayed on her feet. The net had taken a lot out of her and she hadn’t slept well the night before.

“What isss wrrrong?”

“It’s nothing. I’m fine!” Letana snapped.

“If that isss the cassse then pleasss come with usss.”

Letana stumbled after the lizardmage. She didn’t dare not to, after all the human was still behind her and would likely force her to follow if she didn’t do so willingly. She was so weary but she wasn’t going to let them know that; she wasn’t going to give them anything that they could use against her. She was terrified that they would find out who she was, who she belonged to.

She was silent for a long time as she was led down a narrow tunnel. The ground was sloping down and she was getting nervous. “Where are you taking me?” she said, a note of fear in her voice.

“Sssilenssce.”

The human shoved her from behind, making her stumble into the lizardmage. The ground was very smooth and the slope was very steep. Because of the steepness and smoothness she slipped and stepped on the lizardmage’s tail. The steep decline made her lose her balance completely and when the lizardmage flicked her tail Letana fell face first and slid down the tunnel to the room at the bottom. When she reached the bottom, she lay on her stomach because she couldn’t get enough energy to move.

She could hear the swish that was the lizardmage walking down the tunnel and she could hear the thud that was the human’s footsteps; but of the area around her there was no trace of any sound or anything. She couldn’t even sense any magic. She lay there, her mind blank for an instant, then she realized what no magic meant.

No magic meant that there was no magic at all, her illusions would be gone. They would be able to see the marks her Elcasi had left, they would be able to see the necklace as well. They would also have complete access to her mind, there was no way to maintain mageshields in this place.

The magic that allowed a person access to another’s mind was called mindtalent and it was different than normal mage magic, called magetalent. The mindtalents included empathy, lesser healing, lesser firecraft, lesser jumping (the ability to move small objects from one place to another) and mindlink (which was the talent of communicating mind to mind as well as the ability to enter another’s mind at will). These talents did not require an external power source and therefore could be used in null territory. If you used your talents too much, though, you would use up all your personal powers and then you would have to leave null territory to recharge yourself.

When she felt a little stronger she struggled to her hands and knees, then using the wall for support she started to walk around the room. She quickly learned that it was a very small room with only one way out, the way she came in.

After she realized that she was quite thoroughly trapped she collapsed to the floor as far from the tunnel as she could get. She knew very little about the lizard people save that they were magical creatures and couldn’t bear to be without the touch of magic for any length of time. She thought that the human would be the one that came in while the lizardmage guarded the tunnel. She was wrong, very wrong.