Spirit Past (Book 8) (39 page)

Ansas could not accept such a prospect, especially when it was professed by a  simple delver.

"How can someone such as you possibly know this? You have no concept of magic!"

"I know how to look for answers. That's what I do, that's what I've always done. Once I get on a trail, I can follow it for every answer I need, unless I'm distracted, but there's nothing here to distract me from the past. This place
is
the past."

"You're talking absurdities."

"Am I? You're smart enough to figure things out. Why else would your magic fail?"

"The daokiln is protecting you! He wants you alive."

"I have done nothing to save the delver," Reiculf admitted with a sly smile. "I didn't have to. Believe it or not, the delver is actually correct. Not that it will help either of you."

"Then why would you let me come here?" Ansas demanded.

"Because I wanted the delver here. I also wanted to show you how you have ultimately failed. You never had a chance to win against me. You managed to surprise me here and there, take away pawns, but you will not take away what I really want. In fact, you will help me attain my ultimate goal. The delver is now my prisoner, and I will use him to gain control of the wizard from Connel before the guardian spirit can intervene."

It was Ryson who disagreed.

"I don't think so."

"Be careful, delver," the daokiln snarled. "Your understanding of this place is surprisingly insightful, but you clearly do not understand me."

"Careful? Why? I thought you said I was right about this place."

"You are, but while you may be protected against Ansas, the same does not apply to me. I have no past with you. Or do you disagree? Do you actually believe I am also unable to kill you?"

"No, you can kill me, but you won't."

The daokiln chuckled, but then corrected the delver.

"Not right away, of course, but once I have what I want, you will no longer be useful to me."

"You won't even kill me if you get control of Enin. Not here, not like this."

"You think me incapable of the deed?"

Ryson shook his head. He understood the fiend was capable of many horrible acts.

"I think there are very few things you won't do, but this has more to do with me, why I came here. Like I said before, I think the past has a very strong influence over this place. I came here for a specific reason. I didn't come here to gain glory, or wealth, or power." Ryson gave a quick glance toward Ansas. "I didn't even come here just to beat you. I came here for another reason. I came to keep my wife safe."

"And how does that stop me? Do you think your intentions matter?"

"Not as much as I would hope, but that's not the point. You thrive on decisions already made, actions already taken. Whether or not I succeed in protecting my wife hasn't yet been determined. If you kill me, that doesn't mean I failed in that regard. It means you stopped me from trying. For you, and especially this place, there's a big difference."

"If you are dead, then you can no longer protect your mate. How is that not failing?"

"Because you intervened. You determined the outcome. It would be much better for you if I make some attempt to stop you. Perhaps I might try to use my sword against you. Maybe I think its enchantment will burn your essence. Or maybe I hope to use my speed against you and try to beat you into submission. If you let me try and then I fail, then the course is more than just plotted, it becomes a path taken, and that can't be erased here."

The daokiln appeared intrigued by the delver's ideas, almost as if he hoped the delver would actually try one or all of the pointless attacks against him. He did not, however, appreciate the disregard for his own defenses.

"So you think I will just let you attack me? How absurd."

"No, I just said I don't think you will kill me outright, not here, not under these conditions. If I'm wrong, why am I still talking?"

"Maybe I'm toying with you."

"Or maybe I'm right."

The daokiln actually laughed, but then offered his own view of the situation.

"Then let us proceed to more important matters and we can determine who will ultimately prevail. I know why you're here, delver... to protect your wife. I offer a different proposal. Kill the sorcerer now and you will have no..."

Ryson wouldn't allow the daokiln to continue.

"No! Just stop right there. I'm not going to listen to that. This isn't about my past with him. It's about my future and my fight with you. I don't want to hear about what he's done, or how I can fix things... change them if I just end his life. I've already faced that decision. It's all part of my past, you should know that. And I don't believe in killing."

"But this is not some meaningless act. The sorcerer might not have told you this, but he is now important to me. I used his magic to reach out to the others. It was his past decisions that paved the way. His musings opened paths for me. If you kill him, you close those paths. He knows this. That's why he came here. I will not obliterate him because I want those paths to remain open. If you end his life, they close forever."

"So you're trying to tell me if I kill him it would be justified?"

"I'm telling you that you have the opportunity to rectify a mistake."

Ryson shook his head once more.

"That's really what you're about, isn't it?" the delver asked, determined not to make a fatal error. "And that's why you're making the offer now. That's what you do. You throw the past in people's faces, use it to destroy them."

"Will you deny what you are?"

"No, but that's not all I am. I learned that today... in your realm. I've seen the hope that's inside each and every one of us. You can only hurt me if my past is greater than my future. And that's just not possible, I know that now... beyond any doubt. What I've done, what I was, where I've been; all of it can't measure up to what's ultimately ahead of me. And there's nothing you can do that can take that away from me. Nothing. How are you going to destroy that?"

"I don't have to destroy you. You said so yourself. All I have to do is let you fail and you will do all the work for me."

"That's the big question. Will I fail? I don't understand all there is about this place, but I know enough. You're all about the past, mostly past misjudgments and mistakes. You might take hold of all of the things I feel guilty about, but you just turn them against me. That's what you do. But I have a choice. I can turn my past over to something else, something bigger than you, something more powerful, something that was able to confine you in the past... and can do it again. I can turn over all my guilt to something that won't use it against me, a power so great it can wipe it all clean. I just have to accept that it's there, and that was the hard part for me, because I couldn't touch it, smell it, or hear it. I couldn't even see it, until I came here."

"What you think you've seen won't help you against me! You have no idea what I am."

"Maybe not, but I believe what happens here has a greater influence as the present becomes the past. That means if I stop you now, my actions against you will only get stronger as time goes by."

"But that is the problem for you. How can you stop me?"

Ryson did not answer. Instead, he turned to Ansas and issued a surprising demand.

"You came here to win, to beat the daokiln. You can still do that."

"I have no desire to help you," the sorcerer growled.

"What about the desire not to lose?" Ryson questioned. "Reiculf wants to take away your victories, but he can't. He can't change the past, that would alter who he is. And now, you can build on what you've already done. You have the chance to defeat him in his own sanctuary. Don't you see? Despite what he said, you
have
beaten him. We can use that against him... your past and my future."

"And how do we manage that?" Ansas questioned, suddenly interested in the concept of overcoming the daokiln at the very heart of Demonspawn.

"You know how to take magic from yourself and put it in others. That means you can take a piece of
my
energy. That's exactly what I want you to do. Take a slice of my magic."

"I don't want your magic," the sorcerer scoffed. "It is not pure."

"Yes, it is. I've never cast a spell. It's also colorless, just like his," the delver explained as he nodded to the daokiln. "That means it's more than just me. It's more than what I was or anything I've done. It has no history, none at all, and that's what it's going to take to defeat him."

"What can I do with it? My core is not colorless."

"You're not going to keep it."

Ansas believed he understood, but he was not as certain as Ryson regarding the effects of the delver's unspoken plan. The prospect, however, was beyond his ability to refuse and offered an opportunity he could not dismiss. Magic had been his fundamental focus. He believed it was the key to reaching beyond any border, exceeding any limitation. He had studied the energy, developed concepts few could understand and even less could appreciate.

For whatever reason, Ryson was offering a portion of the magic within him, an energy that was part of the delver since birth. Ansas had only theories about such energy, but suddenly he had a chance to experiment with it on his own. He knew what Ryson wanted him to do, and he wished to see for himself what would happen.

The sorcerer acted without further questions and his sudden movement surprised the daokiln.

With Ryson paving the way with complete compliance, the sorcerer reached into the delver's essence with his own magical aspirations. Ansas took a small slice of the colorless energy and pulled it free.

When he took hold of Ryson's pure magic, Ansas moved as fast as any delver, far faster than even Reiculf could react. The sorcerer became a blur of motion and transferred the energy directly into the daokiln's core.

The demon master fell silent, unable to accept what had just happened. He looked upon both the sorcerer and the delver with absolute contempt. In the heart of his own realm, he had been violated. Worse for the fiend, he could not yet fully comprehend the consequences he faced, for the act remained too fresh in the present, and it was an act he had never considered.

Ansas used the connection between his magical core and that of the daokiln to analyze the outcome. He was most amazed. He actually turned to the delver for an explanation.

"Why did you make that request? And how did you know it would have the effect it is having?"

"Because I want it to. That's how magic works, isn't it? You cast a spell and put purpose into the magic, you shape it to do what you want."

"But spells can be overcome."

"This isn't a spell. It's my magic placed inside of him, and it's now my history... and his. That's the obstacle he can't overcome."

"I admit I am amazed, but you appear to be correct. Your magic is forming a new  barrier within him. You have succeeded."

The sorcerer gave one additional glance at the bewildered daokiln, and then in a stunning reversal of his own character, Ansas offered surprising advice to the delver.

"Perhaps you should leave now."

"Not just yet. I need him to understand what happened. Besides, he can't kill me now. Just like you couldn't kill me because of your past, neither can he. My magic is a part of him, just like yours is. He also can't harm Linda. That was the reason I came here, but now it's part of what I've
done
, not just what I
wanted
to do, and it's growing stronger every moment."

Ryson stepped directly up to the daokiln, almost dared the fiend to strike out at him. His explanation, however, bared the truth Reiculf could not deny.

"Everything you are is based on the past. What happened here has become a part of what you are. It's really not that complicated. I made a stand, and that's going to last with you forever. I placed my magic within you for one reason alone, to keep you from harming my wife. It's done, it's over. You go back on that, and you're basically going to destroy your own history, and you can't do that, can you?"

Reiculf could not answer with words. His pale eyes burned with hatred as he shrieked with fury. The beast stormed about his lair, but the delver was right. He could not strike out at Ryson. Worse, he was constrained in what he could do in the future. The delver had placed restrictions on him, and the daokiln could feel them growing within him. He might have wanted to kill the delver's mate, but such an action was now beyond his grasp. The present had become the past, and Reiculf would not be able to escape the delver's triumph.

With one last soul piercing scream, the monster disappeared into the gray shadows.

"Now we can leave," Ryson called to the sorcerer. "Time for us to go."

"For you, yes, but not for me."

"You have other ideas?"

"I have always wanted to challenge the daokiln. Here, I can do so with every passing moment. Whether he wishes to accept it or not, I have earned my victory against him."

Ryson was surprised Ansas remained so focused on such hollow aspirations.