Essence of Chaos Read online

  Intense fury at the ertin and fear for her friend engulfed Jenna’s mind. She held her shaking hands out toward the lunging ertin around Storm and yelled. The ertin rolled back as if pushed, unable to do anything except remain upright as they were forced back by a spell coming from her, but not her. She continued to advance on the beleaguered animals, yelling unintelligible words the entire way. She wasn’t sure what she yelled; it came out of something beyond her. Something that wanted them gone.

  The ertin were all running now, and still she followed with her voice. It appeared to fill the animals with an insane fear, and they attacked each other as they fled the area. In her mind she could see them running, their numbers shrinking, until the last one made it past the far edge of the forest. A vague man shadow, like she’d seen the night Storm had found her, appeared, then also vanished.

  Jenna collapsed in a heap. She sat, numb, for a few seconds before she remembered that Storm was injured. Unfortunately, along with the fleeing of the ertin, her ability to see in the dark had also left. It took a bit to locate Storm, who was much closer to the edge of the clearing than she had thought. He was trying to get up as she approached.

  “They’re dead. We’d better get you inside. Can you walk?” She heard the words, but she couldn’t believe how calm she was being. Neither could Storm.

  “Are you all right?” He got up shakily, but without assistance. “Are you hurt?”

  His inhuman blue eyes watched her intently as she came close.

  “I’m fine. I’m not sure what happened, but I’m fine.”

  Storm said nothing, but he did allow her to help him as they made their way back to the cottage.

  She got Storm settled on the couch, then built up the fire. “It’s got something in it, you know,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “What does? What in the eight hells happened out there?” He looked at her suspiciously. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “I told you, I’m fine.” She came to the side of the couch. “Your leg has something in it. I can’t see it now, but before whatever I did out there, I could see your leg in red. It didn’t look healthy.”

  Storm grimaced as he moved it. “More than likely ertin spit. The bottle of Fire Lake is in the kitchen. Could you get it?”

  Jenna nodded and came back a moment later with a dark green bottle. “Do you want a glass?”

  “No.” Storm took the bottle gratefully, opened it, and took a swig. Then set it down next to him and began tearing the legging off his wounded thigh. “Actually, it’s for my leg. That stuff will kill anything, including whatever those creatures carry.”

  Jenna started helping him with the fabric. The skin underneath was flushed and the creature’s teeth had left a jagged tear. Amazingly, there seemed to be no other injuries. “I’m surprised you only have one. Those things…” She let her voice drop; she couldn’t vocalize what she thought of those creatures. They might not be from the netherworld, but they were close enough to demons for her.

  Storm grunted noncommittally, and then poured some of the alcohol over his leg. Tears came to his eyes, but it was doing something as the wound burbled. “I wouldn’t have made it at all if you hadn’t disobeyed me. Thank you.” He grimaced and clenched his teeth as the liquid flowed through the wound. “Although, I’m still not sure what you did.”

  Jenna sighed and sat down on the floor next to the sofa. “You’re welcome, but I don’t know what I did either. I was trying not to think of you out there fighting those things, when something took over. Maybe it was the echo fighting back.” She shook her head. It didn’t worry her, although she thought suddenly having powers that could come and go probably should. “I just knew I wanted them destroyed.”

  Storm poured some more alcohol over his leg, clearly not worrying that most of it ended up on Ghortin’s sofa. “Have you ever done something like that before? What were you yelling anyway?”

  “Now who’s asking all the questions?” Jenna smiled slightly as she idly tugged on a loose green thread from one of the rugs. “No, I’ve never done anything remotely like that. And I have absolutely no idea what I was yelling, or what language it was. I remember I had no idea while I was yelling it either. I was kind of hoping it was a language you recognized.”

  “I’m afraid not. What you yelled wasn’t one of the four major languages, that’s for sure. Maybe it was one of the mage ones.” Storm took two more long drinks from the green bottle.

  “D’ you think you’ll remember what you said for Ghortin? S‘might be important.” He was already slurring his speech. After her one sip of that stuff, she wasn’t surprised.

  “I couldn’t remember them the second they were out of my mouth.” He was fading fast as alcohol and exhaustion took their toll. But he wasn’t going to give in before she did. She gave a yawn. “Look, I’m bushed, the door’s bolted, is there anything else I should do before I head off to bed?” As she spoke she handed Storm one of the stray blankets that Ghortin had tossed over all of the chairs.

  Storm took it with a grateful smile and suppressed his own yawn. “No, I think tha’s it. I’m jus’ gonna stay out ’ere a while.” He didn’t manage to suppress that last yawn, and Jenna nodded and took herself off into the vortex.

  7

  Jenna and Storm spent most of the next two days resting. Neither of them had much energy, although Storm’s leg seemed to be healing unnaturally fast. Jenna wished she could call back that strange sight so she could make sure, but he insisted it was fine. On the first day he spent two hours sharing with her a seemingly endless list of serious injuries he’d gotten and how quickly he was up and about after them. Luckily, he tired out and fell asleep mid-story.

  She decided not to bring the issue up again.

  She hadn’t been in a much better state, the events of that night had drained her badly. That she still had absolutely no idea what she’d done or how she’d done it wasn’t making things better. It was as if someone else had done everything and she had just been along for the ride.

  By mutual consent of silence, they both went to sleep that third night after the attack still not discussing what she’d done. However, occasionally Jenna would catch him looking at her thoughtfully. Jenna chose to ignore his unspoken questions. They were questions she asked herself and had no answers for.

  Two days of doing nothing had been more than enough for Jenna. She awoke the next morning determined to find out what had happened and why. Whatever Storm could tell her would help, even if he didn’t think it would.

  She slid out of bed, quickly donning one of her many cloned outfits. Ghortin may have provided her with a wardrobe, but he certainly didn’t give her much variety.

  She managed to make it out of the vortex tunnel with only a half dozen wrong turns this time, and was quite pleased with herself by the time she got to the parlor. Her happiness slipped when she realized that Storm wasn’t there. She heard clanking in the kitchen and smiled. He was clearly feeling more like his old self.

  She turned the corner into the small kitchen, ready to surprise Storm, and was brought up short by Ghortin’s broad back. She stopped just before running into him.

  “Good morn, lass.” He cheerfully called out as he turned and motioned her toward the loaded table. “Sleep well, did ye?”

  Jenna nodded and slid down into a chair behind a plate of food.

  Ghortin smiled as he took the other chair and began shoveling in food.

  After a few minutes, he looked up to notice Jenna still staring at him, food untouched.

  “Now, lass, don’t tell me Storm’s been filling your head with tales of my cooking? I assure you, he’s not a connoisseur.”

  “Where is he?” She looked around, noticing a large bundle laying near the door. Ghortin couldn’t have been home long. She took some eggs and chased them around her plate.

  “Our Stormy friend has drifted away again. I finished my tasks, so I sent him home.”

  “But what about his leg?”

 
“He was wounded?” Ghortin wiped his beard with a ragged cloth. “Can’t say I could help you there. The lad didn’t tell me much as he lit out.”

  Jenna leaned back with folded arms and narrowed eyes. She had a hard time believing that Storm would have taken off without telling Ghortin about the dangerous visitors to his forest. And the notoriously quick healing kelar still had a limp last night. How was she going to survive in this place when no one would tell her anything?

  “Now, lass,” Ghortin began, not meeting her eyes. “He doesn’t tell me a lot of things; you know? In a lot of ways he is simply a—”

  “Are you afraid of me? Is that it?” Jenna cut him off. “Do you think I’m a spy or something?”

  He looked up at her comment, a tuft of beard in his hands. “What? Oh no, not at all. It’s that…I thought…more sausage?” He held up a dripping piece.

  Jenna shook her head. “About what’s been going on?” She prodded the rambling mage. “The attack in the forest? The fact that those ertin things made it past your trees?”

  Ghortin studied her for a few minutes in silence. Finally, he gave a sigh and nodded. “I had hoped you might have thought it was a dream?” He shrugged. “You’re right; as my apprentice you should at least have a glimmer of what’s going on. However, you young ones don’t need more than that. It’ll just give you grand ideas.” He stared at his empty plate for a few moments, then finally looked up.

  “Hmm, yes. Well, for the last few months, we’ve noticed odd happenings here and there. Lately, they’ve been getting more serious. People are missing. Creatures of myth are out roaming. And now you’ve appeared.”

  “That’s it? What about the ertin? What about my strange abilities?” She glared at him. There was no way that Storm wouldn’t have mentioned the ertin attacks.

  Ghortin frowned, but Jenna kept glaring. If he thought she would be intimidated because she was an apprentice, he was in for a rude shock.

  “I was trying to spare you things you aren’t ready for.” He sighed. “I see that won’t work. Shall we move into the library? I feel more comfortable discussing such bleak and dreary things among my weapons.” He rose and motioned for her to follow.

  “Weapons? I thought you only had books in there.” She stayed right behind him. Maybe she’d finally get some answers. There was a difference between not wanting to know and not being told. She was getting fed up with the latter.

  “Ah, lass.” Ghortin turned and held up a finger. “Those are the most powerful weapons of all. Doubly so for the likes of you and me.”

  He waited until they were both comfortably settled in the confines of the library, and then told her what he knew of the ertin. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that much more than Storm had known.

  Physically, Jenna thought the creatures were built like tall greyhounds. According to Ghortin they actually were more of a warm-blooded reptile. Jenna thought of the raptor dinosaurs of her world and shuddered. “Thank god they aren’t bigger. Are they trained, or wild?” The idea of domesticated carnivorous dinosaurs, no matter what size, was terrifying. A memory of the shadow man came to mind. “Would they have someone controlling them?”

  “Mostly they’re wild. They are difficult to control and often turn on their masters.” He took out a small, lavender book. “But they have been successfully domesticated by a few.”

  He opened to a yellowing page, which showed a pack of nine ertin on chains held by a giant man. Looking closer at the painting and the text description, Jenna shuddered again. The animals’ faces did look like the smaller raptor dinosaurs, like those scary things from that old Jurassic Park movie. However, their front limbs weren’t the smaller arm type, but full forelegs like a dog. Their color ranged from a light gray to almost black, their tails long and whip-like. The long, pointed mouths bristled with a double row of small fangs. Their eyes were solid black balls, no discernible difference between pupil and iris, but the text warned that their night vision was unnaturally good. They had almost dog-like paws, but had an inch-long spur on the back of the two front legs.

  “I think I saw a man out there, only in shadow, both when they were fleeing after the attack here, and the night Storm first found me.” She was proud her voice stayed steady, which was much better than what her gut was doing. The more she looked at the drawing, the more convinced she was that they were the creatures from her terrifying visions. “Why were they chasing me? And who is controlling them?”

  Ghortin shrugged and shut his book. “I wish I knew. I’d be willing to brush off one encounter with them as simply bad luck. But two? If these indeed were what chased you before Storm found you. I don’t know, lass, but I’d say you’re tied into this somehow. The ones that chewed up Storm were hunters.” He paced around the room.

  “Which would leave that they were after you, Jenna, directed by some unknown master. Or there was something extraordinary about this mindslave.” He shook his head. “I can’t think of what would be so special about a mindslave for Qhazborh’s followers to use ertin to get one back. Do you recall anything of your arrival at all?”

  “No, I’m sorry.” She rubbed her arms as a chill ran through her. “So, the ones in your forest were after me. But how was I able to get rid of them? Storm seemed as surprised about that as I was.”

  “What do you remember?” He fixed his dark eyes on her closely. Very much like she had become a prized science project. Jenna thought, and not for the first time, that was what she was rapidly becoming. It wasn’t a good feeling.

  “Not much. Like I told Storm, it was almost as if I slipped into something that wasn’t me. Could it have been remnants of the mindslave?”

  “I doubt that. Magic doesn’t stay once the mind is gone. Although…” He rifled through some old scrolls. “There could be something that was linked to the mindslave; something that you inadvertently triggered. Something like that is just tickling the edges of my mind. If I could recall what it was.” He looked furiously through the scrolls, but finally gave up. “No, I’m afraid it’s not coming to mind. The only way I’ll know what happened to you is to work on your training. Get in your head, so to speak. And for that it might be best to start outside.”

  As they went outside, Jenna watched the friendly double ring of white trees surrounding the cottage. She didn’t care what Ghortin said about the ertin being gone, she wouldn’t have gone past that safe circle for anything today. They might not have been able to completely stop those creatures, but they’d slowed them down.

  “Come, apprentice of mine, it’s time to get started on your mastery of this world and magic.” He led her around the far corner of the cottage.

  “I thought I had some sort of negative magic reaction…thing.”

  He shrugged. “You seem fine now, and I see no reason to further delay the inevitable. Whatever it was you did to the ertin must have removed the block. Or it was part of your tie to your world. Either way, we should get started immediately.”

  He led her past the archery target of two days ago, and through a small gate at the back of the cottage. He carefully worked his way through a clump of fragile, spiky plants and into a mini grove of Bakkera trees and assorted blackened stumps.

  Ghortin waggled a thick finger as he pointed to a tree stump for her to sit on. “Rule one. Always question authority. Unless, of course, it’s a life or death situation. And I don’t mean you have to balk every time someone asks you to do something. But what if their demand doesn’t go with what you sense?” He shrugged. “It’s your duty as a mage to question it. Some may say you’re being cantankerous, but you just pay them no never mind.” He tugged on his vest.

  “The exception would be if a royal family member gave a royal command, those you must follow without question. In fact, you would be unable to refuse, because there’s a spell built into the royal family and it’s connected to all mages. Including you, now that you’re here and have tapped into the chaos. But that hasn’t happened in a long time. Trust me, they know better than to toss suc
h authority around.” He folded his arms across his broad chest.

  “First, we need to work on some basic concepts, such as chaos. By its nature, chaos is a powerful thing. As thinking beings we fight it every day in our attempt to control and confine our sense of reality within the chaotic sphere.”

  Jenna hung tenuously to his words. Unfortunately, it reminded her of those philosophy courses that sounded great in theory, but that she never seemed to stay in past the first day.

  “Take my vortex, for example.” He waved toward the cottage behind her. “On a basic level, a displacement vortex is simply an unsecured sphere of chaos. In the brashness of my youth, I decided that one would make a perfect home—particularly for a great mage such as myself.” He winked at her to show his opinion of that brash youth.

  “Mages control the force of chaos. What I did with the vortex was to layer spells of control and direction upon it and harness the resulting Power. I was foolish, and I almost died for it. I’m sure you’ll never have to deal with something as strong as a vortex, and if you do, run the other way. But it serves as an example of what can happen if one tries to tap into the deepest levels of the Power of chaos without fully understanding what it can do.”

  “So, when are you going to give me this understanding?” His conversation was fogging her mind over. She was all for knowledge, but this was akin to being dropped into a fifth-level physics course right out of grade school.

  “Impatience has been the death of more would-be mages than anything else.” He got up and paced around the small ring of stumps. “It will be quite a while before you get your understanding. All I can do is point you in the right direction. However, first I think a small experiment is in order.” He stood in front of her.

  “Now relax. What we call magic is simply an extension of the body’s natural energy. It’s as if magic users have another sense, one that enables them to manipulate the world around them with their minds. Now, no movement can occur without energy and it’s the controlling of chaos that gives mages their energy. You might say every act of magic is actually two acts. First, concentrating on what you want to happen, and second, controlling the chaotic impulse of the universe to give your command energy. It’s not something to be done half-heartedly, I assure you. Nor something that can be done if you lack that extra sense, like Storm.”