Chapter 65

Ended Opal awoke gradually. Her eyes adjusted to the moonlight and fixed onto Malek’s corpse just twenty feet from her. His mouth was open as if to scream, but instead of words, thick blood oozed out. As Opal gazed into his blank eyes, her memory returned.

She could not fathom how she survived. She pushed herself up slowly, still drained from the spell the archmages had used on her, and as she rolled over, she was startled to find Sadok seated nearby.

“Sadok?” Her voice cracked.

“Opal, by the blessed gods, you’re alive?” He sounded both shocked and astonished.

“What happened?”

“I thought you were dead.” Sadok smiled.

“No… not yet.”

“Your plan worked. We ambushed and killed the three mages with no losses.”

“The battle?”

Sadok helped Opal into a more comfortable position. “It looks like your friend defeated Mustaffa in single combat.”

Opal turned toward the battlefield and retched. Malek’s spell had done untold damage, but there was no time to worry about it.

“Karn? Is he alive?” she asked as she wiped her face.

“Yes, but not for long if he doesn’t make a run for those trees.” Sadok pointed.

Opal panicked, still unable to focus on the battlefield below. “What?”

“Enemy soldiers approach him from three different directions. He needs to get to safety right now. I fear he may not make it.”

Opal thought back to her talk with Limper the other night.

“A body can be healed, but a soul cannot be saved once death occurs,” Opal repeated as she remembered it.

“What is that, Opal?”

“I must save him, Sadok.”

Too weak to stand, Opal crossed her legs and tried to sit up straight. She cleared her mind and visualized the scroll. She had memorized the words for the spell her former instructor had given her. As she recalled them, one by one, the overwhelming urge to use and complete the spell invaded her mind.

Panic-stricken and unable to control herself, she followed through, and what little strength she had mustered was sapped. As soon as the spell was completed, she fainted back into the tall grass.

***

On the battlefield, Karn had knelt beside Mustaffa and whispered to the man’s body. “I’m not like you. After this battle, I’m finished. My only desire is to raise a family and go back to being a fisherman again. And now that you’re dead, I can do just that.”

Tala stopped and hopped on her bad leg, when she heard Karn’s send-off to the enemy. She had only managed to distance herself several feet, so she turned back to force Karn to move, when she spotted something strange.

Tiny black and orange sparks of light swirled from the grass and leaves beneath Karn and Mustaffa’s body. The lights, no bigger than pebbles, increased in size as they floated upward and began to spin around Karn.

A sense of danger pervaded all of Tala’s senses and pushed a scream out of her mouth. She limped to Karn’s side as the lights spun so fast that they began to blur together into a dark orange.

She shrieked as she reached out to him. “Karn!”

The lights that spun around him had formed an impenetrable translucent cylinder. Tala watched as Karn realized he had been captured, once again, by the mages.

“Release me!” Karn pounded his fists against the barrier. When nothing happened, his anger shifted to fear. “Tala,” he yelled through the barrier. “What is this? What’s happening to me?”

“I don’t know!”

The cylinder of light stretched up, then retracted into Karn. Instantly, his body erupted into a magical dark orange light as if he had been set on fire. But the aura did not burn. No longer trapped, Karn took a weakened step forward.

“Oh no! Karn, no!” Tala groaned as she reached out to him.

Karn dropped hard to his knees as the dark orange glow continued to shed from his body. Tala could hear his labored breaths; they broke her heart.

“I love you,” she cried.

“I love you too,” he gasped in response.

“I need to tell you something.”

“Tala, I-I can barely see you…” He reached out to her, but he tipped over to his side. “Why’s this happening to me?”

“I don’t know,” she cried.

Tala picked up his head and rested it on her lap as she knelt before him. She stroked his hair and whispered into his ear.

“I was going to tell you later, my love. I just realized a few days ago myself… You’ve given me a child. You’re a part of me now, inside me; our love is one.”

“You’ll make a beautiful, wonderful mother.” Karn’s voice cracked and grew fainter with each word; his body tensed and shook violently.

Tala watched as his face strained and turned red with pain. She wrapped her arms around him tighter, with hopes that her strength was enough to protect him from the seizure. She did not need heightened senses or a connection with Mother Nature to know it would not be long till death stole him away.

When Karn went limp in her arms and his last breath escaped through his mouth and nose, the aura that surrounded his body vanished. Tala sobbed, her body shook, and her muscles tensed tight. The hurt inside her built, and her rage compounded with each breath. The pain of a lifetime of strife had reached an explosive end.

“Drae’Qu!”