The HaRT Knight Decaverse

Heir of Magic

Chapter 22

The Dark Flame

After several hours of walking, the desert landscape began to change slightly. Sand gave way to stone, and golden dunes to reddish-brown rock formations. Sparse plant life began to appear, from cacti to dry shrubs and the occasional acacia tree. In the distance the winds danced through the fields of tall dry grass, creating the illusion of ocean waves.
“Here we are,” Chaka said when they approached a large mesa with near vertical cliff walls and a gorge running through the middle. At the top of the cliffs on either side of the gorge were two boulders with lion heads painted on them, one in black the other in white.
As they reached the gorge that was the hallway into the heart of the pride village, Alexander’s mouth fell open. The walls of the gorge were unmistakably saturated with magic. Instead of stone, the hallway was made of what looked like molten gold, and yet, it did not give off any heat.
“People of the world call this place the Palace of the Pride, but I’m afraid you’ll find little in the way of palatial comfort here,” Chaka said as they passed out of the golden gorge and in the large depression in the center of the mesa where the pride had built their village.
The village was simple, with huts made of a mixture of clay and straw and none had any doors in their doorways. Standing around the village square in the middle of the Palace of the Pride were three large—rather primitively designed—statues. One was a stern-faced man wearing a flowing robe and with its hands held out to the sides. To the man’s left was a woman a spear in her right hand and a sun in her left. The statue wasn’t even human, not entirely. It was a centaur with a spiral horn in the center of the man’s forehead.
The rest of the village was lively with men and woman busy with daily chores as their cubs either played of helped. The people were happy, laughing and greeting each other. They worked as a community, several men working together to fix the thatched roof of a single round hut while groups of women worked together as they made more armored sleeves and spears from the scorpenox plates.
“I like this more than any palace,” Alexander said truthfully. He gestured at the three statues with a nod. “Who are they?”
“Those are the three creators of the people of the pride. The man is Raziel, the father of all the prime. The woman is the Jördai lady of the sun, Aouriel. The third is one of the three smiths of life,” Chaka said.
“Smith of life, like Bennu who created the moondrakes,” Alexander said.
“Exactly,” an ancient lion with a gray mane and a milky left eye said in a voice similar to Chaka’s but with a gravely edge to it. “Did you know Amenthius was the only smiths of life to make two of the prime races? With Aouriel he made us. With Arc’han the lady of the moon, he made the Stonelites.”
“Prince Alexander, please allow me to introduce you to my father, Chief Dieba,” Chaka said.
“Chief Dieba, it is an honor,” Alexander said, bowing at the waist.
Despite his ancient bones, Dieba went down to one knee as he said, “No, Prince Alexander, the honor is mine.”
“Please, Chief, don’t kneel to me,” Alexander said.
“Well, you started it,” Dieba said teasingly. As Chaka helped him to his feet again, the chief said, “Thank you, son. How was your trip?”
“As we arrived, our guests were already under assault from a small group of scorpenoxes.” Chaka nodded to the two stretchers. “We were a little too late, however.”
“Oh dear,” Dieba said. He hurried to the two stretchers. “Both are still alive at least?”
Chaka nodded. “Master Dante should be fine. The prince used phoenix tears to stop the venom.
“And the—by the shade,” Dieba gasped as he turned his focus to the other stretcher. He held a hand a few inches above Merrick’s chest and his expression became a mask of sorrow. “This poor man. He experienced true suffering. He is in a great deal of pain.”
“He bears a dark flame,” Chaka said.
Dieba gave his son a disapproving look. “That was not your secret to share, son.”
“It’s all right, chief. I already knew,” Alexander said. “Merrick is a werewolf. He has been looking for a cure for a long time.” He paused slightly before he said, “Dante thought you might be able to help him.”
Dieba’s raised his amber eyes to Alexander, and they glittered with warmth and approval. “You care for this man.”
“He’s a friend,” Alexander said. “You were right, he has suffered a lot, I want to help him. I’m willing to do whatever you want if you’ll can help him.”
“And yet I sense that even if he were not your friend, you would still wish to help him.” Dieba smiled brightly. “You have a good heart, Prince Alexander. Never lose that.”
Alexander stared from Dieba to Chaka and back again. “Does that mean you will help him?”
“He is not the first with the flame of feral fury to come to us for aid,” Dieba said. “But I cannot help him. However, there is someone else who can. Ekone, fetch Chief Geteye, ask him to join us at the huts we have prepared for our guests.”
“At once, Chief Dieba,” Ekone said and sprinted away.
“Come, Prince Alexander, let’s take your friends to their huts as we await Chief Geteye to join us,” Dieba said and led the group through the village.
“Chief? I thought you were the chief?” Alexander said.
“The people of the pride have a tradition of always electing two chieftains. Two individuals as different as possible,” Chaka explained.
“But with one very important thing in common, a desire to do the best for our people,” Dieba said, seeing Alexander’s expression. “We believe that allowing a single person to decide for an entire people is too much power for just one person. It is a responsibility better shared between two people who can keep each other’s worst instincts in check.”
“I’ve been to places where such a system would have been very useful,” Alexander said, thinking of all the corrupt and incompetent rulers he had met, Ogie’iso among them.
They eventually reached two huts that looked and smelled freshly built and they split into two groups as they took a man on a stretcher into each hut.
“As we did not expect a third guest, we only have two huts prepared, but we’ll have a third ready by tomorrow night if everyone chips in,” Dieba said as they followed Sheba and Zuberi into one hut. Together, they lay Merrick onto the straw bed. A table that was basically just a treetop held a jug of water and the skin of what looked like a striped horse was on the floor. The thatched roof smelled of straw and dust. “For tonight however, you will have to share with one of your friends. We can have another straw bed brought in later.”
“Dieba, why have you called me here like a dog?” a cold, smooth voice said in a drawl. The speaker looked nothing like the other pride Alexander had seen so far. He wasn’t broad-shouldered or muscular and his fur and mane were black. His eyes were a brushed steel color instead of amber.
“Ah, Geteye, good. This is our long-awaited guest, Prince Alexander,” Dieba said.
Geteye’s cold eyes fell on Alexander and with a stoic expression, he nodded his greeting and said, “You’re late. We were expecting you weeks ago.”
“Sorry,” Alexander said, taken aback by the hostility. “We ran into a little trouble before leaving Moondrake.”
“Yes, we saw the city fall from here,” Geteye said. “I trust you won’t destroy our home once you leave like you did theirs.”
Dieba cleared his throat. “Geteye.”
“What?” Geteye snarled. To Alexander he said, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad those moon chickens finally got what they deserved.”
“Actually, that wasn’t my doing. It was Cain’s generals,” Alexander said.
“Really? That’s a shame. It would have made me like you,” Geteye said. “Dieba, why am I here?”
“Because of your experience,” Dieba said, gesturing to Merrick with an outstretched arm. “You know more about dark flames than I do.”
Geteye looked at Merrick and moved over to him. He sniffed at the air, and like Dieba, held his hand a few inches above Merrick’s chest. He gave a grunting growl. The flame in Chaka’s spear suddenly zoomed through the air and into Geteye’s waiting hand. “Wake up,” he said, and the flame in his hand leaped down onto Merrick’s crotch.
Merrick jumped a full foot into the air and let loose a string of some of the foulest curse words Alexander had ever heard.
“Good, you’re up,” Geteye said, sending the flame back into the glass bulb of Chaka’s spear.
“What the bloody Tartos are you doing? You set my balls on fire!” Merrick said indignantly.
“Stop complaining, you big baby. It was just enough to wake you. There was no damage done.”
“No damage?” Merrick lifted his chiton, exposing himself to the entire room. “You singed my hair off. And I had just clipped it into the perfect likeness of a squirrel.”
“You trim your pubic hair into topiary?” Alexander blurted with a snort.
Merrick looked at him as if only now seeing him for the first time. “Alex? What’s going on here? Where are we?”
“Were at the pride village. This is Geteye. Merrick, he might be able to help cure you,” Alexander said.
Merrick’s shocked and angry expression went blank and his jaw fell open. Thankfully, he also dropped his chiton to cover himself again. Looking at Geteye with wide eyes, he said, “Really? You can help me?”
“I won’t know until I’ve examined you, and I can’t do that until you shut up,” Geteye said shortly.
And for once, Merrick fell silent. His hands shook slightly as the black-furred pride member examined him. Eventually, he grunted, then reached into a pouch and pulled out a stick. He handed it to Merrick who took it with trembling hands.
“Is this it? What am I supposed to do? Eat it? Brew tea from it? Use it as a suppository?”
“No, you idiot. You’re supposed to bite down on it,” Geteye snapped. “This next bit will be uncomfortable, maybe even painful.”
Merrick bit down on the stick and Geteye began. He moved his hands rhythmically back and forth and Alexander saw his aura, blinding white, flow in and out of Merrick’s body. On the fourth wave, the white aura dragged out something with it, a substance that looked like something between sludge and energy. Merrick went rigid, and he threw his head back as he groaned in pain. The instant it contacted the air; the hut grew dark. The sun was still out and illuminating the rest of the village, but in, and around Merrick’s hut, all light died. Alexander broke out in a cold sweat and felt sick. Merrick was in agony and bit clean through the stick before starting to transform partially into a werewolf.
Geteye released his grasp on the sludge-like energy and Merrick fell backwards. Light returned and the feeling of wrongness dissipated.
Merrick pushed himself upright and looked at Geteye with golden eyes that were slowly turning dark green again.
“I am sorry, I cannot remove that,” Geteye said out of breath. “there is no pyroturgy user who can.”
Merrick hung his head and stared blankly at the ground. Sounding broken, he said, “I see.”
Alexander thought his heart would break at the look of defeat on his friend’s face. “Merrick, I’m so sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Merrick said in a hollow voice. “I should have known better than to get my hopes up.”
Geteye and Dieba shared a look.
“There may be something else we can do for you,” Geteye said. “There is an ancient tale from the first people of the pride. It says that a man named Neuri came to them looking for help. They tried to remove his dark flame, but like yours, they could not remove it. But they taught him how to control it.”
“Control it?” Merrick said.
Geteye nodded. “Pyroturgy has a spiritual dimension to it. By teaching Neuri this spiritual pyroturgy, he could dominate his dark flame instead of the other way around. He turned his curse into his blessing.”
“If I can control it, does that mean I’ll be able to stop myself from transforming completely?” Merrick asked, hopefully.
“I am afraid not. When the full moon comes, you will transform into the wolf, but the wolf will no longer be in control. You will. You will be able to walk and talk like nothing is wrong, human in all but appearance.” Geteye looked hesitant for a second, but eventually he said, “There is one warning I have to give you first, however. Once you can control it, you will no longer require the full moon to transform into the wolf. The control of such feral power can be highly addictive and can corrupt you. It did Neuri. He remained in his beast form for the rest of his life and used it for evil. If there is even the slightest part of you that feels this might happen to you—”
“You can trust Merrick. He won’t be corrupted. He has spent years with this curse and from what he told me, he’s only ever used it for good,” Alexander said.
“Stay out of this prince Alexander,” Geteye snapped. “This has nothing to do with you. It is between me and Merrick.”
Alexander was about to argue more, but he stopped when Chaka shook his head.
Merrick—who still looked very disappointed—said, “I have no desire to transform even more than I already do. I don’t want its power.” He laughed bitterly. “I don’t want any power. I only want this curse gone.” He fell silent for a long moment before, with the humblest tone Alexander had ever heard Merrick use, he said, “For now, however, I’ll settle for not hurting any more people. Will you teach me how to control it?”
“I will,” Geteye said. “However, spiritual pyroturgy is still pyroturgy. To learn it, you, like Alexander, have to become one of our people. You too must join the pride.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Merrick said, a serious expression on his face.
Geteye nodded his approval. “Then you will be part of tonight’s ceremony as well.” To Dieba and Chaka he said, “We have changes we need to make to tonight’s schedule then.”
“Yes, and another hut to build. Will the two of you be all right by yourselves until tonight?” Dieba asked.
“We’ll be fine, chief. Thank you,” Alexander said. When the three pride members left the hut, he turned to Merrick and with a raised eyebrow said, “A squirrel? Really?”
“Yeah, I thought it was funny,” Merrick said with his usual jovial tone. “Get it, a squirrel on my nuts.”
Alexander rolled his eyes but laughed all the same.