Stalking Darkness

described the visitation by Cilla and the invectives she’d hurled at him.
    “Phantasms, nothing but illusions conjured up by this terrible man,” Nysander assured him. “Such spells turn your own fears and imaginings against you.”
    “But what about when I saw Seregil?” Alec asked. “That was real. I touched him, felt him bleeding. There was blood on my hands the next day.”
    “More illusion,” said Nysander. “He created Seregil’s image using some poor victim so that the death would be convincing. Someone certainly died in front of you that night. I imagine Ashnazai meant to break your spirit once and for all.”
    Alec glanced guiltily in Micum’s direction. “I enjoyed killing him. I know that’s wrong, but I did.”
    “Don’t fret over it,” Micum said with a grim smile. “I’d have felt the same in your place. There’s no dishonor in killing a mad creature like that.”
    Seregil chuckled blackly. “I plan to enjoy killing Mardus just as much.”
    “Vengeance is not our purpose,” Nysander reminded them firmly. “Never allow yourselves to forget that their god can use our own emotions and weakness against us. Now allow Alec to finish his account so he can rest.”
    “There’s not much to tell. After we got away from the camp Thero used the same spell you showed me the day you turned us into animals. I didn’t know what he was doing until it was too late to stop him. Once he’d turned me into a stag, I ran. If he’d just given me a chance maybe I could have helped him, but something happened to my mind, just like the last time.”
    “There was nothing you could have done against anything conjured up by the likes of Irtuk Beshar,” Nysander said. “Thero’s decision was wise and honorable.”
    “As I see it, the real question is how to get at the Helm in the first place,” Micum interjected. “Alec says Mardus has at least two score soldiers with him. They’re not just going to stand flat-footed while we waltz in.”
    “We’ll have to see how they distribute themselves at the temple tomorrow,” Seregil said, going to his pack. “Assuming Mardus wasn’t lying to Alec, then the prisoners will have to be close at hand during the ceremony. If we could get them loose, they could provide a diversion.” Turning, he handed Alec his bow case and sword.
    “You brought them!” Alec exclaimed, pulling the limbs of the Radly from the case and fitting it together.
    “And your quiver,” Seregil told him. “If Nysander’s right about this prophecy of his, then you’ll be needing these.”
    “There’s plenty of high ground overlooking the temple site,” Micum noted. “Alec could pick off some of the guards around the prisoners, start a panic. If the prisoners have any spirit left in them at all, they’ll fight or run. Either way, it would give the rest of us a chance to make a dash for it in the confusion.”
    “There are only a score of arrows here,” Alec said, opening the quiver to check his fletching. “Even if I made every shot, that stillleaves a lot of armed men to deal with. These are Plenimaran marines we’re talking about.”
    “We’ll have our hands full, all right, but I doubt we’ll have to take them all on at once,” said Micum. “My guess is Mardus will post sentries and leave some others on guard at their encampment. It’s the dyrmagnos I’m most worried about. Tell me more about her.”
    “She’s pure evil,” Alec answered bitterly. “What she did to me, and to Thero—I don’t even know how to tell you. By the time she was finished with me, I’d told her every damn thing she wanted to know. Nysander was right not to tell us very much. Once she started in on me, there was nothing I could do to stop her.”
    “I feared as much,” murmured the wizard.
    “When we finally did escape, she sent something after us. I didn’t see it, but just the sound of it was enough to freeze your blood!”
    “This is all excellent news,” Nysander exclaimed, rubbing his white hands together in satisfaction. “The sacrifices, the spells she used on Alec and Thero, the creature. From the sound of things, she has allowed herself little respite since her attack against me at the Orëska House. No one, not even a dyrmagnos, can expend so much power over such a short period of time without it exacting a toll. Once she has finished with the Helm, she should be at least somewhat weakened. If we attack her then, perhaps we can disable her long enough to carry out