Danica Pt. 20

Danica opened the door before her, and the bald keeper of Zoraster’s gold raised his head.

“So, you have come into your powers. I suspected you would come, so I have waited to congratulate you. My time watching here is done,” the mentalist said with a smile.

Danica thought to him, sending the thought to Celes as well so she would not be left out of the conversation, Who are you?

He returned the favor, letting Celes hear his thoughts back to Danica, Just one who would nurture great psionics, especially those who may hold the balance of the world in their hands.

With that, he turned transparent and streaked upward through the ceiling. As he vanished, the wards upon a door behind him faded into darkness.

Celes raised her eyebrows and asked, “How did he do that?”

“I don’t know. He has powers I can’t even begin to comprehend. Let’s get as much coin as we can quickly,” Danica replied.

Celes opened the door, and the two women marveled at the amount of wealth contained in this small room. Opening a pair of small bags, Danica found precious gems. A quick glance told her that the contents would probably be worth hundreds of thousands of gold. She stuffed them into her bag of holding. Celes was likewise filling her bag with sacks of coin and gems.

After taking perhaps a half dozen bags, Celes shook her head and said, “We have enough to live like Queens for three lifetimes. How much wealth did Zoraster have?”

“I wish we had time to take it all, or destroy it, but we need to hurry.”

Celes nodded her agreement and dropped a final sack into her bag of holding. Danica went back to the door of the storeroom and shut it. She then made a few gestures and spoke words of command. When she opened the door again, it did not open into the familiar hall beyond, but a more opulent chamber somewhere else.

“Zoraster’s inner sanctum,” Danica whispered.

Celes gave Danica a little prod. “Quickly – we won’t want to stay here long. Surely someone will raise an alarm with us being in here.”

Danica strode with purpose, appearing to know exactly where she was going. She drew up short at a door just beyond the lavish entrance hall of Zoraster’s under mountain home, another memory from Zoraster’s mind popping into her head. “His library, one of many that are exactly the same.”

She then opened the door and Celes followed. Danica hurried to a shelf, knowing exactly what she was seeking – and the command words that would activate it. There on the shelf was a Satchel of Hasty Departure, one keyed to every book in this room. She spoke the command word, and the books all turned into motes of light and streaked into the bag.

Celes laughed. “Let’s hope that stymies anyone from learning the darkest of his Art.”

“There may be information in here that can help us keep others from following in his footsteps as well,” Danica added. She then walked back to the door saying, “Let’s get the clones and get out of here. I can feel tension in the air.”

Once again, Danica proceeded unerringly through halls she had never before walked. They passed a study room, a sitting room, and then came to the door Danica sought. She opened it and the sounds of pleasure greeted both women.

The clones all writhed like a mass of snakes on the floor, their nude bodies roaming all over each other. Danica turned to Celes and said, “We’ll have to put them to sleep until we can break some of the spells over them. Right now, only Zoraster’s voice can command them.”

“I’ll do it, I was always good with mass sleep spells,” Celes offered and started chanting the spell.

While Celes cast her spell, Danica opened the portal again. Once it was open and Celes’ spell took hold, Danica levitated an unconscious clone through the portal with her mental powers. In addition to the clones of her and Andrea that she knew about, there were several more of Andrea, Marlena, and Celes in the room. Celes concentrated and managed to lift a clone of Andrea with her powers, guiding it through the portal as well.

“At least it’s working. I was half afraid I’d have to get mad before it would work, but this isn’t easy,” Celes mumbled, obvious strain on her face.

Danica levitated her third clone through the portal with ease, “Just get as many as you can, I’ll take care of the rest.”

It took only a few minutes to get the clones all through the portal, but it felt like hours to the two women, who sensed that an alarm was imminent. Once the copies were all within Danica’s pocket dimension, she peeked her head in and warned the denizens of the place to keep their hands off the sleeping copies. She then shrank the portal down to a tiny sphere that hovered near her shoulder.

Walking toward a door beyond, again acting on memory, Danica opened it.

Celes walked in behind Danica and saw the room full of coffins. It was here that Zoraster created his clones. Celes was amazed by the number, and in utter disbelief that the Archmage had managed to find the time, money, and spell components to create such a facility for turning out clones.

“No more,” Danica said – her voice tight with rage.

“Danica, what are you... Danica, NO!”

Celes’ words went unheeded as Danica cast her spell. She was determined that nobody would ever use these facilities again. To that end, she was casting the final discipline of the Inferno spell. Celes recognized it, and thought Danica gone mad, committing suicide to destroy the place.

Celes screamed Danica’s name again, but the woman didn’t even react. She was drawing near the conclusion of the spell, so Celes quickly brought up an additional shield against fire and magic around them, doubting it would be enough. There was no time to do anything else, and she simply prayed that it would hold when the shield sprang into being.

Danica completed her spell, and a blue-white sphere of light appeared around them both. It was Danica activating the runes on her skin, protecting against the hellish inferno that engulfed the room. The runes provided them with protection that would have been impossible for any other magic.

Celes involuntarily screamed in terror when the white-hot flames engulfed everything in the room, and then stared with awe at Danica, who was pouring her will into the spell. The heat was starting to penetrate the magnificent shield, however.

“Danica, you have to let it burn out! The shields are breaking!”

Danica’s determined expression did not falter, however. Celes screamed the warning again, sweat starting to bead on both their bodies as the heat grew stronger by the moment.

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the conflagration died down. There was nothing remaining of the coffin-like crèches, or any of the other apparatus in the room. Even the very stone had melted into glowing pools, only the spot at their feet solid and whole.

They both sensed the presence behind them at the same time, and whirled around to face Camilla, standing in the doorway and staring in horror at the scene before her.

Danica started, surprised to see someone she knew was dead standing behind her. At first assuming it to be another mindless copy, she reached out with her psionic powers and discovered otherwise. She might have a new body, but it was absolutely Camilla’s twisted mind inside it. This was no mere toy of Zoraster’s.

Camilla snarled, “What have you done?”

Danica raised her hand, summoning up a hissing ball of energy through her rune magic. Celes began chanting the words of a spell. Seeing Celes young and in full possession of her powers, and Danica — the woman who had nearly killed her once already — taking up magical arms against her, Camilla fled in terror.

Celes ceased her casting, and Danica let the energy ball vanish from her palm. “We need to go, the alarm will spread quickly now,” Danica suggested.

“I agree. Open the portal and let’s get out of here. Your sister isn’t the only one who needs to have a long talk with you.”

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

A very confused Devan helped Danica and Celes get the clones into beds, ensuring that they would remain asleep until the spells controlling them could be broken. Devan kept pushing for explanations the entire time, but Danica put her off, only willing to say that it was Zoraster who had enslaved her, and that he was dead. Devan was not amused, but she accepted Danica’s explanation that it was going to be a very long story, and she wanted to get it all out at once.

They returned to the room where Andrea and the rest were waiting, and Danica ran into her father’s arms when she saw him and her younger brother there as well.

“I’m so glad to see you, Dad,” she said, and then kissed his cheek. She reached over and pulled Daniel toward her, kissing him as well, “I’ve missed you both so much. I love you.”

“We love you too, Danica. Now, what is this all about?” Her father looked very confused, and more than a bit apprehensive.

“I’ll explain it in a while, and I’ll need to explain in more detail to Devan and Darkniciad later. For now, I want to go say goodbye to Mom.” Turning to the rest of those who had escaped Zoraster’s clutches with her, she asked, “Will you come? I’d like to have friends with me too.”

“Of course we will,” Celes responded, and the rest nodded their heads in agreement.

“Please to be waiting one moment,” said a thickly accented voice from the doorway. Danica recognized the accent from her time in the eastern deserts, and the voice from a past that felt like a lifetime ago.

Turning, she saw a swarthy-skinned wizard sporting a long black goatee, just touched with a little grey. A wide smile decorated his face, pearly white teeth a sharp contrast to his dark skin.

Devan asked, “What is it, Ashtar?”

“I am being knowing a spell that I am thinking will be putting your mind at ease for your family to be returning to their home,” he responded.

Devan smiled and turned to Danica, “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. Ashtar is better at this spell than anyone. Not really a big surprise since it’s his creation. It will link Dad and Daniel to us, and teleport them to our side if they are in danger.”

“It will have to be being regularly renewed, but taking this responsibility I will be glad to be doing,”Ashtar added.

Danica remembered a few words of the native tongue, and used them to thank the wizard. More or less, the phrase meant, peace be upon you.

Ashtar’s eyes lit up. “Your accent is being a little off, but very pleasing is my tongue upon your lips. I shall be casting the spell, and you need not to be fearing for those you love to be returning to the life they are knowing.”

“If it’s okay with you, Dad, it will really make me feel better,” Danica requested.

“Me too,” Devan agreed.

“I trust you girls, and if it will keep you from worrying and let me get home, then it’s fine with me.”

Danica’s little brother smiled and said, “You know I love magic.”

Ashtar worked his magic, and Danica listened carefully. She was determined she was going to learn that spell, and be just as good at casting it as the man who had created it.

“I don’t feel any different,” Danica’s father remarked once the nimbus of magic settled around them.

Ashtar explained, “Feeling nothing you will unless activated is the magic. Fearing I am that your stomach it may be turning, but otherwise safe it is.”

“We should get those chains off Andrea and Marlena,” Celes suggested.

Andrea looked confused, but Marlena’s eyes lit up. The redheaded illusionist asked, “You removed your amulets?”

Celes smiled and said, “Yes, and we have the means to safely remove yours as well.”

“Andrea, we never told you about it, because Zoraster hid it from you – and it would have only scared you – but you have a pendant around your neck that Zoraster put there. We’ll explain it later, but for now we need to remove it,” Danica explained to the young woman.

Andrea nodded, “I trust you too, Danica.”

Danica removed two of the pearls from the silk bag, touching the pendants around the two women’s necks. Andrea gasped when hers became visible to her and she could feel its weight around her neck.

Danica smiled and told them, “Just unhook the chains, it’s safe now.”

Both women looked very relieved when they removed Zoraster’s leashes from their necks. Danica took them, placing them in her bag of holding for safekeeping – and later study.

“I’ll want to have a look at one of those later, Danica,” Devan requested.

“Of course. Are we ready then?”

Everyone nodded or murmured that they were.

Danica’s eyes misted with tears, and her lip quivered as she said, “Let’s go home.”

{*****~~o~~0~~o~~*****}

I hope you liked this tale, and will continue to read Danica's ongoing story. Please take a moment to vote, and perhaps comment. Feel free to comment on every chapter, nobody is stopping you! *laugh* That's the only payment a free author gets, and every bit of feedback is most appreciated!

You may find later chapters have some flubs and grammar issues, until I finish posting all the edits. Look for the note at the beginning of each chapter about my editor, Roust, and that will let you know whether the chapter is newly edited.