Reyna felt a wave of heat crash into her and rock her back on her heals, but the fire didn't touch her. On the floor, Aerie and Jaheira were still throwing magic against Lavok's shield, though Aerie seemed staggered. Valygar stood, unharmed, but still as statue and there was a faint glow surrounding him. Yoshimo rolled on the floor, beating at the flames engulfing his cloak. On the other side of the room, Keven, Minsc, and Ancan faced the onslaught of plant creatures. Two of the things already lay dead on the floor but more continued to pour through the doorway.
Lavok unleashed another magical attack, this time five little streaks of light that slammed into Aerie's chest and knocked her to the floor. “Aerie!” Minsc screamed and turned. In the moment he was distracted, one of the plant creatures stepped in behind the big man and drove its fist into his back, knocking him to his knees. Another plant creature bowed its head and puffed a cloud of spores into Ancan's face, sending the young knight reeling, choking and gasping. Keven now stood alone against the creatures' onslaught. In the middle of the floor, Jaheira hurled another spell, this one four streaks of fire, which washed harmlessly off Lavok's shield. She shouted something that sounded like a scream or a curse and drew her scimitar. Yoshimo struggled to his feet, his curved sword held uneasily in his left hand and his right arm burnt and blistered. Even through the light of his magical shield, Reyna could see Lavok preparing another spell.
Now, the voice told her.
The vision slammed into her with a force that was almost painful. The hard, metal walls of the sphere melted away and she found herself crouched behind a tree on a cold, windswept hilltop. Wherever she was, winter had come. The leaves had all fallen and a light dusting of snow covered the ground. The wind blew cold and wet, heavy with the promise of more snow, and it dug icy fingers underneath the brown cloak and green coat she wore. All around her, she could her sounds, sharp cracks, whistles and booms. Strange, unusual sounds that somehow seemed oddly familiar.
A thought floated across her mind, Careful now, Billy, and she was shocked. It wasn't her thought. It wasn't even her voice. She looked down at her hands as they lifted her gun. They weren't her hands at all. They were large hands, a man's hands. By Paladine, she thought, I'm in William.
With that realization also came the realization that she wasn't in control, she was just an observer in William's mind, living something along with him. Then she remembered something the voice in her head told her, something about a connection between it, her, and William. This is it, Reyna thought. She could feel his thoughts as they flowed through his mind in a powerful, focused stream. Deeper, she could feel something else, something that burned and pulsed like a Gnomish steam engine. She tried to touch it but William's thoughts grabbed her and pulled her forward. She was looking out his eyes again when he peered around the tree and looked out into a scene from a nightmare.
It had been a city once and a rather large one by her estimation, but it lay in ruins now. No building seemed intact now, they were all either in some state of collapse or cratered with holes. Thick plumes of black smoke stabbed skyward, marking places that either were or had been recently burning. An earthen wall stood in front of the city and for a hundred yards in front of that wall, nothing lived. There was nothing but shattered trees and cratered earth that was slowly being covered by snow.
William's attention focused. The hill he was on corresponded with a slight dip in the wall, allowing him to see the area just beyond it. There were three men there dressed in gray rags. One was bent over a small pile of wood and appeared to be trying to start a fire. The other two, one of which seemed to be barefoot, rubbed their arms or stomped their feet in an attempt to keep warm. Reyna thought she heard a small shout of triumph as the wood caught light.
About a hundred and fifty yards, William thought and started loading his gun.
Reyna's vision jerked again and she was back in the sphere, but she could still see William. Her hands followed his through the loading of the rifle. The guard around the two triggers levered open and a hole was exposed in the top of the weapon. She reached into William's bag and pulled out a charge, a tube of powder filled linen tied to a small, black, conical piece of lead. She pushed it into the hole and closed the breach. Her thumb pulled the hammer back until it clicked and then she fitted a small, hat shaped piece of copper over a hole underneath the hammer. Then she pulled the hammer back more until it clicked again.
She was moving in union with William as she seated the rifle against her shoulder and pressed her cheek against the stock. Her first and second fingers curled around the two triggers as her right eye sighted down the barrel to where Lavok stood behind his shimmering shield. Her middle finger pulled the back trigger first, rewarding her with a faint click from inside the gun. Her first finger rested against the front trigger and she could feel the tension on it. It would only take the faintest amount of pressure to move. She took in a breath and held it.
In that instant, a kaleidoscope of images tumbled through her mind. She saw Onvo charge futilely to his death. She felt the panic as she faced down the tribe of half-men. She saw William smile when he finally pronounced her name. Faster the images flew. Her mind flew over the past two weeks of horrid isolation. She relived the glow of pride she had felt when given command of the expedition into the sphere. She again saw the tears of her father at her knighting. Then she was back where William crouched on a hilltop, aiming his rifle at three miserable men who were trying to keep warm.
Reyna felt herself breath out and felt her finger start to move. One last thought floated across the link from William, Everyone you kill brings you closer to home.
She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.
Lavok, the real Lavok, had been a prisoner in his own mind for so long that he had learned things both about himself and his captor that he would never have known otherwise. Like a prisoner examining the reaches of his cell, he had reached out and had discovered that the mortal mind had a reach and scope that went beyond what anyone had guessed. It would take years just to touch the fringes. In that he was probably fortunate. His explorations were the only thing that kept him sane over the years.
The first thing he had learned was that his captor was both crude and ignorant, though extremely powerful. It seemed to draw strength from pain and suffering and the menagerie it kept in the sphere for torture kept it strong. Even now, Lavok could feel the link to the Soames boy. That young man's recent experiences had been so painful and traumatic, that being forced to relive them was like serving a gourmet meal to the entity, pushing its power to rare height.
Though powerful, the Entity seemed to know very little about magic. Lavok bitterly recalled how it ripped through his memories of spell casting and even more bitterly the tests it had performed with its newfound knowledge. Since then, it had shown little interest in learning any more about magic and, to this day, it used only the spells Lavok had known at the time of his capture. It had not even tried refining the way it touched the Weave. In a way, this proved most fortunate for Lavok.
The absolute crudity by which the Entity drew power made things that were once hidden seem painfully obvious. It had ultimately taken very little observation to discover the mechanism by which magic flowed through the mind, the way which energy flowed through a vessel to become reality. What had taken longer was discovering a way to cut those threads. Lavok had been forced to take extreme care in his investigations here. This part of the mind seemed extremely new to the Entity and it had placed no safeguards here and Lavok did not want it discovering the one method of striking back he had. For, though he could cut its connection to the weave, he could do nothing about the Entity's great natural power.
Until now.
The Entity, flush with the power it was drawing from William Soames and confident of its victory over Valygar and his friends, was paying little attention to Lavok. So little, in fact, that it paid no attention to the shroud he had placed around Reyna Greatshield's mind or the link he had carefully constructed between her and William.
Down Lavok flew, deeper into his own mind until he reached the part that reached out the Weave, a dense forest of glowing ropes that twisted and coiled like seaweed. Here, the connection to the Entity was strongest and the danger greatest. However, he felt it become aware of his presence and, in its arrogance, discount him.
Lavok laughed. He seized the thread that powered the Entity's mystical shield and cut it.
The Entity exulted when it saw the elf woman fall. She had been the most dangerous after all. One of the spells she'd thrown had nearly brought down his shield, but he had drawn enough energy from young Soames to keep it up. That boy was proving to be wealth of pain, almost making the loss of Lucas Corthala's son beside the point. And now that the Entity had Valygar in its grasp, it didn't even need William's half brother.
That was the joy of it all, that Valygar thought he could come here and “end” the Corthala curse. The Entity had originally thought it would need the Cowled Wizards to bring Valygar bound hand and foot. But the boy had come of his own accord and had brought playmates as well. If any of them survived the battle, it was sure it could find suitable place in the sphere for them since the other group of humans seemed played out. Two of the warriors, besides Valygar, were already down and the one who still stood couldn't last long, despite his obvious skill. The druid had cast her last useless spell and now she and the thief were approaching with weapons. Weapons! The entity almost laughed at the absurdity.
It suddenly felt Lavok stirring at the back of its mind. The Entity briefly wondered what the old fool was up to and then refocused its attention on the battle in front of it.
The shield fell.
LAVOK! it roared and felt the Lavok presence recoil from the onslaught. It wondered what the foolish old ghost had hoped to accomplish. All it had to do to reestablish the shield was reach out to the Weave one more time and--
The blast of the gun was earsplitting in the confines of the room, the sound echoing around the curved walls and ceiling. The Entity felt its body thrown backwards and the wind driven from its lungs. It also felt a warm wetness spread across its chest and back, but it was the legs that alarmed the Entity the most. It was as if they weren't there, in fact, its entire body below the waist seemed to have disappeared for all the sensation it received from there. Then the pain arrived. Not the kind of pain it leeched from others but its own pain, flooding and overwhelming the primitive brain it occupied.
This shell was dying.
For the first time in centuries the entity felt panic, a wild, overcoming sensation. It cast about looking for a way out of its dying shell and found Valygar. If it could make it to Valygar, it might have a chance. It readied itself for the leap.
Then an unknown force seized it and held it. Going somewhere, old friend?
Lavok!
Yes. You wouldn't be planning on leaving me would you?
The Entity felt its panic rise and flow towards the other presence. But...
But nothing! I've learned so much from you over the years, my friend, and I so want to show you.
No, wait...
And I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I will.
NOOOOO!
Billy was back on the Cold Harbor battlefield. All around him there was silence. There was no crack of musket fire, no booms from the cannons, or cries from the wounded. Above him, in the Rebel ramparts, the guns sat cold and silent in their carriages as if the men who manned them had simply given up and walked away. The moon above poured baleful light on where he sat, alone with the dead.
Billy looked down at his brother's body. He remembered closing those wide open eyes for the last time. He remembered slowly dragging the body back towards the Union lines, so slowly, in fact, that he recalled seeing the sky touched with the first rays of dawn by the time he made it. He even remembered standing silent and dry eyed as the gravediggers closed the pine box his brother would be buried in.
"I'm sorry for putting you through this," Billy heard a voice say. He looked up and saw a man standing beside him dressed in flowing green robes. The man's dark hair was combed back from his forehead and it, as well as his beard, was streaked through with gray. For a moment, Billy thought it was the same wizard who had captured him earlier, but the face was different. There was none of the cruelty that had so clearly stamped the other face. There was just a kindness, touched with sorrow and regret, that had been beyond the reach of the other.
"Who are you?" Billy asked. "What do you mean you put me through this?"
"My name is Lavok," the man replied, "and I suppose you can say that I am the reason you are here, why you had to relive all of this.” Lavok knelt beside Johnny's body and passed his hand over the dead boy's face. The look of agony was replaced by one of peace and the horrible wound in the throat was gone, though the boy still did not stir. “That's better,” Lavok whispered, then raised his head to scan the battlefield. “If it is any consolation, the one who forced you through this is no more.”
Billy turned his head way from the other man and said nothing.
Lavok continued. “I needed you to feed its power, build its arrogance. Only when it thought it was untouchable could I bring it down. There were so many times I wanted to aid you, offer you some way out, but to do so would have jeopardized everything. By your suffering, though, you helped destroy a great evil.”
“I've been told that before,” Billy said softly.
“Yes, I suppose you have,” Lavok replied, “but was it not true then as well?”
Billy said nothing.
“Let me ask you this,” Lavok continued, “you volunteered to join this army. Do you remember the reasons?”
Billy nodded and looked down at his feet. He remembered, but he wondered if he believed the reasons anymore. “To free the slaves and preserve the Union,” he said.
“Interesting,” Lavok said, then gestured around the battlefield, “and these others, they would have joined for similar reasons?”
Billy shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, maybe.”
“Incredible,” Lavok whispered, “You don't realize how amazing that makes your people do you? Where I come from, wars are fought for gold or land or at the whims of petty gods. You spent four years pouring out the blood of thousands upon thousands so that people you have never met, people you may not even like, could be free. Your people sacrificed a whole generation so that the very people you were fighting could one day again be called your brothers. No nation in my world would do such a thing. Do you not grasp how unusual this is?”
Billy bowed his head and said nothing.
“I found something in your mind,” Lavok went on, “some words, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' Do you recall these words?”
“Just words,” Billy whispered.
“Really? Then why was this war fought? Why did all of these people die?” Lavok looked down at Johnny's body, “Why did he?”
Billy didn't respond and there was a long silence before Lavok spoke again. “Lucas Carruthers was of my line, and through him, this boy,” he said. “For centuries, my family has been a scourge on every world upon which we have set foot. Lucas was no different, though I'm sure he thought he was acting for the noblest of reasons when he defiled your mother's marriage bed. For all that time, I thought the curse I suffered was some god's retribution for all the wickedness my family unleashed and I had long ago lost hope that any of my offspring would be redeemable.
“Then you set foot in the sphere. Through you, I came to know this young man. I have seen nearly four hundred years and this was the first time I was proud of one of my own. That moment made all the suffering I have endured worthwhile. Now let me ask you, do you feel different now, knowing that he was not your father's son?”
Billy felt something well up in his throat and felt his jaw tremble. “No,” he said, “he's still my brother and I still love him.”
Lavok smiled. “Good,” he said, “He is probably far more your brother than he is my descendent. Remember that. I thank you for this gift William Soames, it is of incalculable value.”
Billy felt the tears well up within him, but he still fought them back. He wasn't ready to cry, not yet.
“Perhaps there is one thing I can give you,” Lavok said, “Just a small token of appreciation, one last memory...”
(blink)
There was none of the pain of the other one, just a pleasant floating sensation. It reminded Billy of the times he had played in the river as a boy. He would just roll over onto his back, close his eyes and let the river carry him. He used to dream that the river was carrying him away from home, towards one of the fantastic lands Lucas Carruthers described in his stories. Now there was only one place he wanted the river to carry him...
(blink)
It was the last night the three brothers had been together. Tomorrow, Billy and James would ride into Lansing to join the army and in little less than a year, James would be dead in Virginia. The three brothers were in the bedroom that they had shared all their lives. Billy reclined on the bottom bunk while James sat on the top, pontificating. Across the room, Johnny sat on his single bed giggling.
“You're cracked, James,” Billy said, “Ain't nobody in their right mind gonna vote for you.”
“Yeah,” Johnny piped up, “Don't you have to be, like, smart to be president? You can barely read.”
“Simpletons, I'm surrounded by simpletons,” James said exasperatedly. “It ain't about the readin', it's about the people skills. Why, after the Army makes me a general...”
Billy laughed. “Now you're really dreamin', James.”
“Least I got me ambitions,” James said huffily, “What are you gonna do? Come back here, get hitched to that Connor girl and help Pa run the store?”
“What's wrong with that?” Billy replied, “Sounds like a fine life to me. 'Sides, least I got me a girl. I ain't noticed them beatin' down the door to get at you.”
“I am saving myself for all them eastern ladies,” James answered, “Any one of which is gonna be finer than that little horse faced blonde of yours.”
Billy kicked the bottom of his brother's bed. “Now you best take that back, Jim, or there's gonna be some trouble.”
“Yeah,” Johnny said and launched his pillow at James' head. “Alicia's pretty. She's the prettiest girl in the whole county.”
“All right, all right,” James said. He through the pillow back at Johnny and came nowhere near hitting his younger brother. “What about you, squirt?” He asked. “You can't fish and play in the creek all your life. What're you gonna do when you grow up?”
Johnny picked his pillow up off the floor and lay back on his bed. “I'm gonna move to California,” he said. “I hear its summer all year round there and when you stand on the beach and the sun sets, it turns the ocean to gold as far as the eye can see and sky lights with the colors of Heaven...”
Reyna's shoulder hurt. The short gun she had discharged earlier had kicked, but nothing like the long one. It had kicked so hard that it dented the chain mail covering her shoulder and she was sure that the whole area underneath was black and blue. Maybe she would get one of the healers to look at it later, but she and they both had other concerns at the moment.
Amazingly enough, no one was dead. Most of Keven's group sat on the floor using either spells or those little blue bottles of healing liquid to put themselves back together. She heard Minsc make a pronouncement about little Boo's bravery and they laughed, sharing the relief at still being alive. Even Ancan joined in, laughing not in the maniacal way she had come to know in the past two weeks, but in the way he used to back in Solamnia. Reyna hoped the wizards hold on him was broken now and she prayed she would not have to make good on that awful promise she had made to him.
She climbed the stairs past Onvo's burned out corpse and felt pang of regret. Two weeks ago she had been charged with responsibility over the two other knights and Onvo's death represented her first failure. She knew that the order wouldn't hold his death against her, this was as much a battle as anything else she had ever fought and people die in battles. However, that didn't make his loss any easier to bear.
Atop the dais, Valygar knelt at Lavok's side. Reyna wondered what the wizard was saying. Perhaps he was asking for forgiveness. As she watched, the wizard moved his head and locked eyes with her. In that moment, Reyna felt a brief sense of recognition. There were things that needed to be said here, but not now. She turned away.
William lay beside the railing that ran around dais. She could tell he was still alive, his chest moved up and down as he breathed, but he was still unconscious. She knelt beside him and pulled his head into her lap. “William,” she whispered as she stroked his face with her fingers.
His eyes opened and he stared up at her. His jaw trembled and a single tear tracked down past his nose and around the curve of his mouth. She brushed it away with the palm of her hand. “It's all right,” she whispered and hoped he understood her.
He turned and wrapped his arms around her and she held him as he cried.
The door to the outside swung open and warm air rushed in. Billy leaned against Reyna and let the others carry Lavok out first. This was his world after all. Reyna reached up and squeezed the hand that was draped across her shoulder and made sure her other arm was tight around his waist. Billy smiled at her. He was so drained that he was still unable to stand on his own and besides, the comfort he got from her presence went beyond mere support. Perhaps it was time to let the dead lay.
Ancan followed the other adventurers out the door. He stopped briefly in the doorway and looked back at them. The look the young knight gave him confused Billy. It was a mixture of anger, resentment, relief and gratitude. Then Ancan turned and walked out the door. A mystery for another day, Billy decided.
Reyna said something in her language and looked at him with a question in her eyes. “Yeah, I'm ready,” he answered and she helped him stagger to the door.
The first sound he heard was the seagulls. Billy remembered the first time he had heard seagulls. He and James had been chugging down the Virginia coastline in a crowded transport while the birds wheeled and danced above them. They had been laughing and joking the whole way about how they were going to win the war single handedly. At that point, their war had been nothing but drills and camps, a game to be played at, but they were on their way to learn differently. You scared Billy? James had asked that first time under fire. It's all right, so am I.
He and Reyna stepped outside and Billy felt his breath catch in his throat. The sounds and smells overwhelmed him first. The cries of the gulls were even louder outside as the birds flocked and circled in great wheels overhead. In the distance, he could here the roar of the ocean mounting its interminable assault on the land and the seas salt smell overlaid everything. Above all that, though, was the awesome presence of humanity. All around him were the cries of merchants, the smell of fish, the roar and bustle of crowded streets, and scent of tavern cookfires.
However, it was the view that truly stunned him. Spread before him was easily the biggest city Billy had ever seen, far bigger then Washington and maybe even bigger than New York. The skyline itself was almost alien in its foreignness. He could see domes and spires, castles and towers the likes of which had never been built in America. Between them all, packed wall to wall, sturdy two and three story buildings of mortar, rock and timber lined streets that curved and twisted with maze-like complexity. A river bisected the city and, even from here, Billy could see boats moving slowly upon its surface.
Come here, William, he heard Lavok say in his mind. Billy motioned for Reyna to set him down and he knelt beside the dying wizard. Closer, Lavok said, I have something to share with you.
Billy leaned in and Lavok reached up weakly and touched Billy's forehead. Billy felt a comforting warmth swell and spread through his skull. “What did you just do?” Billy asked.
“A final gift,” Lavok whispered and Billy was stunned to realize the words were not English. “A gift of language. I regret... not being able to restore you to your home. Perhaps I can share... enough of mine for you to find a place here.”
“Thank you.”
“No,” Lavok gasped, “Thank you. Remember... remember those words we discussed. This world... would do well to hear them.”
Billy nodded. Over the years he had seen more men die than he could count. Most of them had died screaming, whimpering or begging but the lucky ones died like Lavok. His chest rose and fell shallowly a few more times, then there was one deep breath that caught just before the exhale. After just a brief moment, the light in his eyes, that indefinite spark of life, started to fade, slowly carried away by the breath leaving his lungs. Then he was gone.
The one called Valygar was kneeling on the other side of the body. Though he was dark skinned and almost African in appearance, Billy could see the traces of Lavok and Lucas and even Johnny in his face. “He said you know others of my family,” Valygar stated plainly, “others worth knowing.”
“I do,” Billy answered, “and they are.”
“I think I would like to hear about them.”
Billy smiled wanly at the other man. “I think I would like to talk about them.”
He turned his eyes to take in the alien cityscape once again.
Home.
Perhaps.
If I should die and leave you here awhile,
Be not like others, sore and undone,
Who keep long vigils by the silent dust, and weep.
For my sake - turn again to life and smile
Nerving thy heart and trembling hand to do
Something to comfort other hearts than thine.
Complete those dear unfinished tasks of mine
And I, perchance, may therein comfort you.
-- Author Unknown