Chapter 44
“Tolian!”
Brythia screamed her name over and
over. Rwiordes' ears hurt from her cries. He was carrying the druidess over his
shoulder as easily as though she were a sack of potatoes. The Demon was certainly aware of the fire
ball’s power and wished to put as much distance as possible between themselves
and the deadly incendiary weapon. Still,
Rwiordes felt Brythia’s loss. The
Champion was obviously dead. There was
no one left to stand between the Demon and the destruction of the world.
Rwiordes felt the heat on his back as
his Demon-charged muscles drove him back the upper levels of the Palace. He could not look back, but by the sound of
it, half of the Palace was collapsing by the force of the release of the fire
from the earth’s core. Suddenly he felt
the coldness of the December air upon his cheeks as he emerged on a
rooftop. To his growing surprise,
Rwiordes found himself diving off the roof into the air. Brythia screamed.
They hung there in space for longer
than seemed to be possible. With a
startling jolt Rwiordes felt himself fall on top of an large object in mid
air. His legs straddled the large scaly
neck of a dragon. Immediately they
lifted high into the air. His lips let
out the Demon’s diabolical laughter as the Palace of Lorm quickly faded below
them.
“We’re doomed,” Rwiordes said in his
mind. “The Champion is dead. Now there’s no one that can stop the Demon.”
“Don’t think like that.”
“Oh, are you still in here too?”
“Obviously.”
“I thought he got rid of you after
that last little episode.”
“No, not yet, but I had to retreat
fairly deeply into your mind to hide from him.”
“I see,” said Rwiordes, though he
didn’t. “Well, would it be possible for
you to explain what’s going on? Your
friend doesn’t seem to be in immediate danger.”
“Sure, it seems as though we have the
time.”
The dragon was flying far too high in
the sky for them to see anything but clouds below them. Brythia was unconscious. The Demon was paying no attention to her at
the moment.
Kilfrie began, “The omens at my birth
were most unusual. Demvirtsa was High
Druidess at the time, and my parents asked her to interpret the augury. Right as I was being born, a night bird had
called out three times just outside the window.
Demvirtsa knew right away what it meant, and she advised my parents that
I had the gift of Hamfahring.”
“The gift of Hamfahring?”
“Yes, it’s the ability to transfer
your consciousness to another body. My
special training began at age two. For
the gift is merely potential. It must be
rigorously disciplined and controlled.
At first I would borrow the bodies of squirrels, and birds. It’s much harder, but eventually I learned to
displace the consciousness of people. It
was a great deal of work, but Demvirtsa told me that my skills could prove
helpful to the Champion in her cause one day.”
“So, basically you were born with
this ability, then?”
“Yes.”
“You must have been lonely as a child,” thought Rwiordes, as a deep wave of
understanding moved through his consciousness.
“That is an understatement, Rwiordes.”
“Okay, I get it now. You were in the panther’s body. Then you jumped into my body to try and save
your friend.”
“Exactly.”
“Well, none of that makes any
difference now. The Demon’s already
won. The Champion’s dead.”
“Don’t count Tolian out yet, she’s a
pretty resilient girl.”
Copyright 2002, 2015
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