Dorian Wraith's Arc

Chapter 26 of 27

Dorian stood up on his own. His cut hand throbbed where Evander had pressed it, but his legs held. Ambrose lay dead and face down by the low door. Elara was gone through the side passage. Dorian picked up his own weight and looked at Evander. "She went that way," he said. Evander lifted the rainbow blade. The colored light washed the dark walls and made their shadows jump. They stepped through the side door together. The halls of the black keep ran long and cold. Evander held the blade out ahead like a torch. Rainbow light slid over obsidian and steel. They passed empty rooms with overturned chairs. They passed a kitchen where a pot still steamed on the hearth. Dorian tried a small flame in his palm as they walked. It came, thin but steady. Most of his magic was still his. He kept the flame low and moved on. "Grand hall," Evander said. "It’s the only place we haven’t looked." They found the grand hall at the end of a wide corridor. Tall stone male statues, unadorned, lined both walls. The ceiling ran up into dark. Dorian took three steps in and his mother came out from behind the nearest statue with the black knife raised. She drove it at his chest. Evander swung. The rainbow blade cracked across her wrist and the knife spun away across the floor. Elara screamed. She threw both hands at Dorian's face and grabbed his jaw. Cold ran into his skin. He felt his fire pulling toward her palms like water down a drain. He caught her wrists. He held them. "No," he said. He pushed heat back through his arms into her hands. She let go and stumbled back. Dorian bent, picked up the black knife by its handle, and stood between her and the door. She looked at him with her lavender eyes wide. "Why?" he said. "Why did you let it turn you into this. I was a child." Elara wiped her mouth. "You were a thief the day you were born," she said. "You took what should have been mine. Look at you. A weakling in a robe. You cannot even hold what you stole." "I held it just now," Dorian said. Her face changed. She lunged for the knife in his hand. Dorian stepped aside and Evander caught her from behind, one arm across her shoulders, the blade held wide so its light did not touch her. She thrashed once and stopped. Dorian looked at the knife. He set it flat on the stone floor and brought his boot down. The black blade snapped in two. The cold in his hand eased. He looked up at his mother in Evander's grip. "I'm not killing you," he said. "You are my mother. However I won’t forgive you. I banish you from this land." Elara said nothing. For the first time in his life, she had nothing to say. He cast a spell and Elara vanished from the realm.