Empire Awakening (Maledorian Chronicles Book 2) Read online

  “Dogma and religious fanaticism strike at the core of one’s mind.” Hadara studied Lysha, her face kind. “Beliefs gained in childhood are difficult to change or undo. It takes many years of determined effort to complete the process of transformation. You’ll get there, eventually.”

  The witch clapped her hands together, as if intent on moving them forward. “Now, it is time for you both to find a firestone. I’m sure those miners of yours will be glad to hear you are attempting to retrieve your chosen stone. The process requires magic and a great deal of intuition. Are you ready to go?”

  Elendria glanced at the darkening forest. “We’re going in there now? It’s almost dark.”

  “I wouldn’t take you for someone who is afraid of the dark.” Hadara gave her a devious wink then turned and walked toward the forest trail.

  They followed after the witch, glancing at each other with hesitant eyes, and Elendria found her heart pounding in excitement.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  The mines were far different than what Elendria had expected. They were more like caves, but instead of being dark and ominous, they were filled with glorious, crystalline light. Scattered throughout the mines in various tunnels and levels, the miners worked in furious joy, singing songs that sounded like chants said by temple priests. The effect was mesmerizing.

  “How do we know which stone is the right one?” said Lysha, looking up at Hadara.

  “Don’t be so impatient, child. You’ll get your stone soon enough. First, you must learn a few things. There are many mines scattered throughout the mountain, and there are many tunnels and levels in each. But this mine is famous for producing excellent firestones of the highest quality combined with being very powerful. This particular mine is also quite treacherous and difficult to extract the stones. Luckily, your miners are experienced at working the mine, far more productive than what we’ve been able to do on our own.”

  “Then why did you wage war against them?” Elendria frowned, thinking of the miners’ desolate eyes back in Damak. “Couldn’t you have struck some bargain with them?”

  “It’s not so simple. War is never an easy thing. For a long time, we had a good business trading with the miners, but they became excessively greedy. A dispute arose, and it turned ugly. I won’t claim we were completely in the right, as we did many nasty things against them, and they to us. But of course, it is better now that you’ve come. We’re still not completely sure what you did to win them over. Somehow, you cast a rare kind of mentalist spell, one that none of us has seen before. It usually results in disaster for the targets, ending up with drooling thralls—not thinking subjects, like you’ve managed to do.”

  “I never wanted it to happen.” After Elendria had said the words, she questioned whether they were correct. Hadn’t a part of her wanted to dominate those men? Or was she simply intent on protecting her friends and herself?

  “Don’t think I’m judging you for what you did. We are pleased with the outcome. You solved a problem for us, and that makes us indebted to you, but I suppose saving your lives evens things out, doesn’t it?”

  Elendria nodded to the witch. “Yes, indeed it does. Now, can you tell us more about the various tunnels? I’ve noticed some have a different hue to the luminous crystals. Is that due to the firestones embedded within?”

  “This is a common misconception to link the crystals with the firestones. There is no correlation. The crystal color merely relates to different mineral compositions. The firestones are extremely rare, and often, only one can be found inside a single tunnel. You have to realize that one firestone can fetch a princely sum, and firestones extracted from this mine can fetch ten or even a hundred times more than typical firestones.”

  “I’m quite aware of the value of firestones,” said Lysha, running her fingers along the glowing crystals. “We were not raised as simpletons. But the question remains, how do we locate the stones?”

  “You are impatient and impudent. It explains why you’ve had little success in magic.” Hadara pursed her lips as she studied Lysha. “We will have to cure you of this affliction. Luckily, I have an idea.”

  The witch tapped the side of her head, thoughtful. “For the next three days and three nights, you will both spend time in solitude in the deepest level of this mine in separate tunnels. You will have to swear a vow of silence, spending your time in prayer and meditation. You will learn patience through the meditation of releasing all thoughts related to your hopes, desires, and ambitions. Any thoughts that arise while in meditation you must toss into the mental fire, burning them, freeing yourself from their importance.

  “At the core, feelings of impatience arise from wants and desires and an expectation and belief in the importance of time. Only by accepting that time is an illusion and invalidating internal desires can one learn patience. In a way, this meditation teaches mindfulness by continually being aware of random thoughts that come and throwing those thoughts into the fire.

  “You can aid yourself in this meditation through the use of counting your inhalations, holding the breath, exhalations, and holding. Some prefer chanting an ancient word of power, while others will count beads on a necklace. Whatever method you prefer is acceptable. Though, in all methods, there is the breath of power and the focus of the mind. In this, there is life and the development of patience and the strength of will.”

  Lysha scoffed, clearly irritated at the witch’s suggestion. “You expect us to spend three days down in a deep mineshaft alone? It’s cold in here and damp. We’ll become sick living down here. And how will we eat?”

  “You will not eat for three days. Fasting is part of the meditation. You will have a rug on which to sit, stretch, or sleep as your body needs. You know spells of ice and fire, and you, impatient one, could use the practice of fire magic.” Hadara gave Lysha a long, probing stare as if testing her. “You will need it to stay warm and dry. Only after you have completed three days and nights of meditation will we discuss the quest of procuring a firestone.”

  As Lysha was about to issue a retort, Hadara raised a hand to stop her. “And you, in particular, will have a challenging time eliminating the desire and expectation of acquiring a firestone. I will tell you this; if you are ever to be successful in gaining a firestone, you must first eliminate the desire to have one.”

  Though Elendria felt it was unfair that she was being lumped together with Lysha, she accepted it nonetheless and bowed her head to the witch.

  “No more complaints from either of you?” Hadara sniffed. “I’m surprised, but pleasantly so. Now follow me. I have had your places prepared.”

  They returned to the mine shaft and entered the cage. Several of the miners tugged on a rope and lowered them down deep into the mine. When they reached the bottom, in total darkness, Elendria had counted eight levels in all. Here, the air was very still, and the place was so quiet she could feel the emptiness as an expansive void inside her mind. It was a surprisingly pleasant feeling.

  Hadara led Lysha down a dark tunnel, the golden light from her magical orb sending shadows snaking behind them. Elendria waited in darkness, breathing deeply and enjoying the quiet power of the depths. After a long time, perhaps thirty minutes, the witch returned and gestured toward an opposite tunnel. Elendria followed, feeling renewed, and as they walked, she studied the copper, silver, and gold veins in the tunnel wall.

  After a long hike down deeper into the mine, they reached a natural cave—a cathedral chamber with stalactites dripping from the ceiling. The air smelled of earth and ash. There were the remains of a fire on the earthen floor, perhaps from a miner? The room buzzed with electrical power; Elendria could feel it prickling her skin. The walls contained many gold deposits and shiny black stones. She wondered whether there were any firestones within these veins.

  “Your chamber is quite different from your friend’s.” Hadara caused the orb of light to rise to the ceiling, revealing a massive multi-faceted ruby. “The power inside is intense and can be used
to enter the deepest states of meditation or travel to the farthest places. We often come here to practice farseeing.”

  “I don’t know the spell of farseeing,” Elendria admitted, feeling overwhelmed by all the knowledge she didn’t possess. “Am I to meditate as you’ve instructed?”

  The witch shook her head. “You will not waste your time in such banal activities. The approach for you is different. You have little time to prepare for what you will face in the days and months ahead. I wish I had more time to teach you. Three days is not enough.”

  “But you said I must spend the time in solitude.”

  “I didn’t specify which kind of solitude.” A wry grin crossed Hadara’s round face. “You will be physically alone, but I will join you in the dream world. There I will show you many things and teach you a few spells and abilities. After you complete your period of solitude, you will be tested. Something is waiting for you in the forests outside our village. And I must warn you, the test is a matter of life and death and will not be easy. You must focus with all your mind on the lessons I give you; otherwise, without mastery of the instructions, the test will prove disastrous for you.”

  “Why do I have to be tested at all? It seems unreasonable and harsh.”

  “It’s not up to me, child. The gods insist on testing you. It is out of my control, and I cannot help you. The test is part of your fate, and you must face it alone. Otherwise, if you run from it, the threat will grow far worse.”

  “But only three days? How can I possibly prepare for such difficulty in so short a time?” Elendria found herself feeling terrified at the prospect of this test. What in the name of the gods was it?

  “You will sleep very little, and you must try harder than you ever have before. Now, we will begin.”

  The witch put her hands together as if in prayer, releasing the golden light orb. Darkness filled the chamber.

  “There is a firestone nearby. Reach out with your power and find it. The longer you take in accomplishing this task, the less time we will have to train. Feel for the stone. It is here waiting for you.”

  “But I thought we had to wait to get a firestone? You said—”

  “You are vastly different than your friend. It is necessary for you to procure one immediately. Now, do as I said. Feel for the stone.”

  Elendria exhaled away her frustration and tried to orient herself and remember the layout of the room. Despite the darkness, she moved cautiously toward the wall, feeling the stones and gold beneath her fingertips.

  Energy buzzed through her outstretched hands, filling her with a cold power. Let go of your thoughts, she told herself. Just feel your way to the stone. Some areas felt very cold, while others felt warm. Nothing stood out as particularly strong.

  “This is going to take forever,” she said, jolted by the echoing sound of her voice.

  In her mind, she heard Hadara. “Don’t just feel with your hands. Use your entire body as an instrument to attune to the stone. Your body can be the tool to guide you. Use it with joy and step away from fear.”

  Elendria breathed in and focused, once again, deepening her mental state until she entered a trance. Something tugged her stomach—from the left and slightly higher. She obeyed the summons and willed herself to follow. Her body moved on its own accord, pulled along by the power. There, past the point of the wall’s resistance, was a bounding, bubbling energy beyond belief. It thrummed with a vibrant power.

  “Here it is.” Elendria ran her fingers along what felt like a deep vein of gold and iron ore.

  “Why are you waiting? Extract the stone. Do it now. Don’t dally around like a perplexed child.”

  Elendria was about to protest when she realized she did have the tools to take the stone from the vein. Fire to melt the gold and the iron ore and ice to cool the cut and prevent a collapse. She summoned a golden orb of light and stretched out her hands, focusing on the deep vein of gold and iron. There was a massive amount of wealth in these mines, enough to run a kingdom for a lifetime.

  Who were these witches to possess such an enormous cache of gold, silver, and firestones? Indeed, they were no simple mountain recluses. What did they plan to do with all the wealth? Elendria rarely felt greed, but here in these mines, she craved the wealth within. She’d been poor for most of the years of recent memory, and she wasn’t about to stay that way forever.

  She took the black stone from her pouch and clenched it into a fist. White-hot fire snaked from her other hand and wormed its way into the gold and ore vein, melting the minerals. The ore dripped down to the floor, pooling beneath the cut. She kept it up, mining deeper into the vein until the ore shone from the heat and melted further.

  How far to go? She stopped the fire and cast a stream of ice into the cut. Billowing steam poured from the opening, filling the chamber with thick mist. When the cut was cool to the touch, Elendria felt around inside and found the power was deeper still.

  “Think on a far grander scale. You’ve only scratched the surface. Now, you know why our ability at mining is significantly slower than the miners. They blast veins with black powder and use magical picks and benefit from an innate ability at finding stones and gems. We, on the other hand, must use this method to mine, which is cumbersome and tiring. Now keep going. You are far from finished.”

  Elendria shot more fire into the vein, widening the opening so she could eventually step inside. After what seemed like several hours of blasting and melting the ore and freezing the vein, she broke through to another natural chamber sparkling with luminous crystals. The place was incredibly beautiful and shone with royal magnificence. She released the orb of light and stepped inside, her eyes scanning the walls and the floor. There it was—on a small jutting protrusion of gold ore sitting in the middle of the room.

  The small stone was bone white. Intersecting lines of blood-red crisscrossed the surface. It shone with a faint pink and golden light, though at certain angles, brilliant white sparkles appeared around the rock, like small diamonds glittering in the sun. This was her firestone—a spectacular specimen—and she could feel its power calling out to her. Its voice was like the shriek of a banshee, desperate and insistent. She lumbered over and seized the stone, feeling the wild thrill of its power.

  In her hands, the black stone and the white stone sang together in a unified voice, one of cold and darkness and the other of flame and light. The cold raced up one arm, while the heat poured up the other. Together, the twin forces joined and swirled in the pit of her stomach. The intensity caused her body to tremble like an epileptic. A low, resonate ringing sounded in the chamber, and she opened her mouth in terror and awe.

  The power was so raw and majestic it caused her to scream in agony and ecstasy. There was too much of it inside; she had to release it. So, she began singing a song, a song she often sang alone in the ruins of Maren Downs when she was young. Her voice was magnified by the chamber, and it rose and resonated with unnatural power. Magic was pouring through her and joining with the magic of the mountain, of the crystals, and of the gold.

  This was the end of her childhood, she realized. A forever ending to the innocence she had to leave behind. The earth was now her mother and the sky her father. She had to leave the past behind.

  Exhausted, she slumped to the ground and curled up, falling fast asleep.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Relek sighed as he studied the shadows crossing the entrance to the mineshaft. They’d been waiting here in the dense foliage of the forest for three days now, taking turns with the spyglass, but still, Elendria hadn’t surfaced. Was there another exit? They’d scouted the forest but found nothing. The miners came here looking excited each morning and left punctually at the end of the day, eyes beaming and satisfied. Relek had observed a significant improvement in the men’s moods since they’d returned to work the mines.

  The witch who had escorted Elendria and Lysha into the mine left several hours later, but the girls remained. Were they doing meditation or a fast? The witch ha
d failed to return, though the two younger friends of Lysha and Elendria came once to visit but were turned away by one of the miners. Yes, it was likely a period of imposed solitude. Relek had been forced by Lord Rigar, his master, to observe periods of fasting and meditation, practicing various techniques to improve his concentration and power.

  The fact that Elendria was gaining in magical strength and knowledge worried him. She had been a fierce opponent in Criswall, though an unskilled and wild one at that. When she’d left Damak, he’d briefly asked around and heard stories about how she’d fought against the miners and caused them to obey her as if they were her thralls. How, he’d wondered, had the girl learned mentalist spells? He knew, if she’d learned to harness her innate magical powers and gained additional spells, she would be far more challenging to handle. He cursed himself, wishing he would have insisted they strike out and capture the girl while they were still in Damak.

  His companion, the ugly and ever-annoying Dondran, stirred awake. He pushed himself up and stretched, squinting as he studied the mineshaft.

  “Still nothing yet?” The man snorted, clearing phlegm, and spat. “Damn idiotic quest. What did we do to deserve this stupid assignment? All our allies are already deep in the heart of Maren Downs, and we’re stuck here chasing after a girl. Did I offend the master somehow?”

  “Your rat face offends everyone who looks at it. My curse is being stuck here with you all day and night. I keep having nightmares of rats with human bodies gnawing away at me.”

  Dondran grunted. “You’re probably dreaming of your girlfriends back in Criswall, the ones who sell their bodies in the stinking alleyways of the Devil’s Quadrant. That would give anyone nightmares.”

  Relek was about to issue a retort when he saw someone leaving the mineshaft. He raised the spyglass and spotted several miners departing for the day. When the line of men formed like soldiers waiting in inspection, Relek knew this time was different. The miners would only pay Elendria that kind of respectful devotion, after what he’d heard about the incident at the inn.