Myrkur stood by the far window as he had before, yet Paul was sure he had not been there a moment ago.
“I have invested a great deal of time and energy in you and this is how you repay me?”
Without conscious thought Paul opened himself to the dark energy, and it flooded through him filling and expanding his consciousness. Immediately he saw Nicola, a bright ball of light, followed by something else, the unmistakable shadows of wolves. They were closing in on her. He felt his heart accelerate in his chest. Nicola would be killed and Myrkur would end the Light. A shudder ran through his body.
“They will finish what you did not,” said Myrkur.
Seeing no trace of his sister, Paul widened his search, sending his awareness into the forest world. He felt where a massive blast of energy had ripped across the land. Already the remains of a group of Serenti were dissipating back into the dark energy.
Something drastic had happened. He expanded his search. There. Almost discernable and moving west, the signature of the warrior Falk. He was moving slowly, holding something but what it was Paul could not tell. Already more Serenti were closing in on him.
“What happened to my sister?” asked Paul. “Why can’t I sense her?”
“Serenti cornered them. Somehow she embraced the energy and now the Serenti are dead. What this has done to her mind is not clear.”
Paul fell silent as Myrkur’s words sank in.
“She has no place in this,” he said.
“If you want your sister to survive you must find her before the Serenti.”
“Call them off,” pleaded Paul.
“That I will not do,” replied Myrkur.
“Why? I can handle him.”
Myrkur turned and walked towards him.
“While I was mending you I took a look inside your mind.”
He stopped in front of Paul, his black eyes devoid of life.
“It seems a little bit of Arachar was left behind last time.”
Memories flashed at Paul. A forest in summertime. Friends and warriors. His wife Amalia. Then the darkness had come and he, Arachar, Warrior of the Light, had gone to fight the monster that threatened to devor them.
And he had lost.
“No,” cried Paul backing away. More flashbacks came to him. Pain, unbearable pain, white hot fire that seared his body and tore at his mind. Myrkur’s face filling his vision, laughing at him as the last of him died and the Rider was born.
“You are special, Rider. You are the only one who can sense the Warders. The only one who can hunt them down and gut them in their hiding places. I cannot afford to lose you again.”
Myrkur had not moved but Paul felt him entering his mind. In desperation he opened himself fully to the dark energy, feeling the power burning his veins, but it was no good. Still the presence of Myrkur grew within him, dismantling his consciousness. His vision began to darken as he fell away into his mind. A soft chuckle hung in the frozen air.
There was one final chance. With his last ounce of strength Paul shot a bolt of power straight into Myrkur’s face. For an instant the presence inside him weakened as Myrkur deflected the blow. In that moment Paul reached out, weaving the dark energy around him and wrenching himself free. In a flash of light his body shimmered and then was gone, leaving Myrkur standing alone in the room.
Myrkur stared at the empty space where Paul had been. After a few moments a smile began to curl along his lips.
*****
Nicola kept walking in the direction of more houses and streetlights, and away from the swallowing darkness of the moorland, all the time knowing that she had no real plan other than to get back to her hotel and hope Paul would find her like he had done before.
Over the sound of her footsteps she thought she heard a soft moaning and ignored it until it came again. Stopping, she listened, her ears straining to pick up the sound. There it was again, very faint but definitely sounding for everything in the world like the howling of a wolf. A shiver ran down her spine, the energy stirring and sending tremors of alarm through her body. Like muscle memory, some instinct she was not consciously aware of had woken within her.
With a desperate fear gnawing at her stomach she quickened her step, checking over her shoulder every few seconds as she hurried past more houses