Page 1 of Lucifer's Mirror
Prologue
Whispers in the Dark
The Western Isles, Valandria
Thevisionshavestartedagain. Voices whisper through my head, hideous creatures leer and grasp with claw-like fingers while their twisted thoughts grope blindly toward my tortured mind.
I come back to myself screaming, the screams dying away to sobs as I blink open my eyes to find I’m safe in my bed, in the stone room at the top of the tower.
Though I suspect safety is an illusion—one that will soon be shattered. I know the shadow creatures from my dreams—we’ve met before. I know they’ve been sent from Hell to hunt me down. And they are close. So close.
The fire still casts a comforting glow, and I sit up slowly, pulling the furs around me for warmth. I check under my pillow, my fingers glancing across the cool metal of the dagger that’s always nearby. Nightfall, my sword, is propped against the side of the bed. But despite this, I know I’m not ready. If they come in force, I’ve no doubt Iwillfail. And they will take me, and all hope will be lost.
My chest aches; it’s happening again. Just when I’ve started to feel safe, started to feel that perhaps the future isn’t set, and the past isn’t doomed to repeat itself. At least not until I’m stronger.
“Are you well, child?” Khendril perches on a stool beside my bed, a steaming mug in his hand. As always, his presence brings relief, a warmth that suffuses my limbs and eases my mind.
“Just afraid of the dark,” I murmur.
“Everyone should be afraid of the dark.” He uncurls his long, lean frame from the stool and sits on the edge of my bed. “Here, drink this. It will keep the nightmares at bay and help you sleep.”
I doubt anything can keep these particular nightmares at bay; they are coming for me. But I take the mug and put it down next to the bed, then reach for his beloved hand, needing the comfort of his touch. Khendril is my tenth guardian. He’s also the last and the only one I have allowed myself to get close to. Somehow he broke down the barriers I always erect. It’s hard to let people close when you know losing them is inevitable. But Khendril is the most powerful, and maybe I’d hoped that together we could prevail. See this through.
Those hopes are fading.
And that pain cuts deep because, in the two years we’ve been together, Khendril has become everything to me: friend, teacher, confidant... All the same, I’m reluctant to speak of the horrors that haunt me, afraid that if I utter the words, it will give them life, bring my nightmares into reality, and set in motion the very thing I fear most.
But I’ve been trained to face my fears, not hide from them, so I take a deep breath. “It’s going to happen again, isn’t it?” I say. “I know we don’t talk about it, but that doesn’t make it unreal. You’re going to send me away—far away, where you can’t follow.”
“My only purpose is to keep you safe.”
That should make me feel good. But it doesn’t. It makes me feel unworthy. More than that—like I have no choice. No say in my life. I take a deep breath and voice something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. “Does ithaveto be this way? I’m stronger now. I could stay.Wecould fight.”
He shakes his head. “You’re not ready. You would fail, and then…”
He doesn’t finish. But he doesn’t need to. I’ve grown up knowing my destiny. Knowing that I’m special.Ugh!How I hate that word. I want to rail against fate, scream about the unfairness of life. But I don’t, because Khendril has given up everything for me, and his sacrifices are far from over. So, I force a smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll do my duty.”
“I never doubted that for a moment.”
He has more faith in me than I have in myself. I’m filled with self-doubt—maybe I’ll never be strong enough—and terrified of all that I will have to face in the future. The present is bad enough. “I’m going to lose you, like I lost the others. It will be soon now—I can feel it. The voices are getting clearer. I hear them whisper even while I’m awake. When it happens—”
“Shh, go to sleep, I’ll watch over you.”
I sigh but sip the drink and immediately feel the drug quiet the inner voices. Panic flares. It’s too soon. I hurl the mug away from me, dimly hearing it crash against the stone floor. But it’s too late; calm steals across my consciousness. I try to force my eyes to remain open, my gaze fixed on Khendril’s face.
“Goodbye,” he whispers, and panic and loss whirl inside me. He presses the warm stone into my palm and closes my fingers around it. “You’re right, child. I can’t follow where you must go. But I pray Khaosti will be kind to you.”
Khaosti?Why would he send me to Khaosti? I want to ask, but Khendril is already chanting the words of the spell, and it’s too late. Soon, Khendril will be gone.
But halfway through, he pauses. A bitter chill permeates the room, and my skin prickles with needles of ice.
“Come back…”
The words whisper around me, and I force my heavy lids to open. I reach for my sword, but my drugged body betrays me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I make out something moving in the shadows, a glimmer of crimson in the darkness. Terror claws at my chest, but as I turn my head, whatever was there is gone. Khendril is speaking again, faster now, but his words are slurring, and he stumbles to his knees, the spell broken.
It’s over; they’ve found me.
