Gathering Storm (The Salvation of Tempestria Book 2) by Gary Stringer (howl and other poems .txt) 📕

promise I can’t and won’t read anything unless you project it to me, but I need your help. My clone loves the sound of his own voice – please keep him busy while I talk to you like this.’

‘Alright,’ Cat agreed.

Catriona could tell this connection was painful for him, and choosing to trust his good intentions, asked Pyrah to ease off on her barriers, but not take them down. After all, if Daelen could get in her mind with effort, his dark clone could, too, and Pyrah didn’t know if she could block both at the same time.

She gritted her teeth against the dark clone’s words and used them.

“No wings on me, I’m afraid. Speaking of which, can you fly around like him?” she asked, indicating Daelen.

“Of course, little pet,” he returned.

“Can I see? Please?” she begged. “I asked him, but he was all mean about it,” she pouted.

“Aww!” the clone remarked in mock sympathy. “Is my brother being mean to our little pet Faery? Don’t worry – I’m way nicer than him, and I’d be happy to show you how I fly.”

With that, he flew all over the place, as if it were the most impressive thing in the world.

‘Excellent, keep him busy,’ Daelen approved. ‘Listen, this shouldn’t have happened. This is all wrong. I’m always alerted before he appears so I can have Michael fighting at my side, but he’s still locked in his tomb.’

The dark clone got bored of flying, then, and landed once more. Catriona applauded with feigned enthusiasm as he took a bow.

“Any other requests, little pet?”

Cat was getting really sick of him calling her that, but kept a smile fixed on her face as she asked, “What’s your name?”

“My name?” The clone seemed thrown by the unexpected question.

“Yes, of course. Well, I can’t keep calling you ‘dark clone’ now, can I?”

“Little pet,” he replied with exaggerated patience. “My brother obviously hasn’t explained the word ‘clone.’ You see, we were split from the same being – Daelen. The original was Daelen, he’s Daelen, and I’m Daelen.”

‘If my clone and I fight all the way to Michael’s Tomb,’ Daelen continued in Catriona’s mind, ‘we’re going to leave a trail of devastation right across Elvaria.’

‘Can’t you teleport?’ Cat wondered.

‘Not with him here, we can block each other’s powers,’ Daelen explained. ‘That’s why I need Michael in the first place.’

Meanwhile, Cat kept up her performance for the clone, laughing self-deprecatingly.

“Oh, but that’s just too confusing for my poor little mortal brain. Why don’t I call you Nelead?”

“Nelead? What kind of a name is that?”

“It’s an anagram,” Cat clarified. “In fact, it’s Daelen in reverse, and you’re kind of the opposite of this Daelen, so I thought it kind of worked. Frankly, it’s either Nelead or Fred.”

“Call me Fred. No, wait, don’t call me Fred. Actually, I’m warming to your anagram idea, but I don’t like Nelead. Let me see, what could I use…”

He spent the next few minutes running through and rejecting various anagrams of Daelen, talking to himself and completely ignoring druidess and shadow warrior.

‘That should keep him busy.’ she told Daelen, mentally. ‘Pyrah’s willing to bite him if it will help.’

‘It wouldn’t stop him while he’s at full power, and if anything happened to her, he could ravage your mind in a second.’

‘So, you need me to get Michael for you? I have a friend who could teleport me there.’

‘The defences won’t let you pass without the right power signature,’ Daelen told her.

‘Actually, I have a sort of tool, a staff, that has higher planar energy inside it.’

The shadow warrior didn’t know how that was possible, but he didn’t waste time arguing. ‘Don’t bring it out in front of my clone.’

‘Wasn’t planning to,” she assured him, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. As if she’d casually wave her most precious possession around under the dark clone’s nose. She just wanted to know one thing. ‘Will it let me in?’

‘Maybe,’ Daelen allowed.

‘Maybe? We don’t have time for maybe. There must be a way to make sure I get in.’

“I’ve got it!” the dark clone declared, suddenly. “Aden-El!”

‘Really?’ Cat remarked in her head. ‘That’s what he’s going with?’

“Aden-El!” she enthused aloud. “That’s perfect!”

“You know what’s even perfecter?” Aden-El asked.

Cat shook her head.

“You can call me Aden for short.”

“Aden,” Catriona acknowledged. “I like that. Well, my name’s Catriona, but you can call me Cat for short.”

“Me-ow!” Aden quipped.

‘You never told me your nickname,’ Daelen complained, good-naturedly.

‘I just did,’ she shot back. ‘Any bright ideas, yet?’

‘There is one way, but there are risks to you. I can’t allow it.’

‘Not your call,’ she insisted. ‘Be clear. Be concise. Get out of my head for thirty seconds. I decide.’

*****

You will recall, gentle reader, how I told you shadow warriors Descended to the mortal plane by shedding those parts of themselves that couldn’t fit and leaving them safely back on their home plane. In much the same way, it was possible for him to temporarily keep a part of himself, his essence, inside a mortal’s body. If he did that with Catriona, the security surrounding Michael’s tomb would recognise that part of him and grant her full access, including the authority to wake Ossian Miach Kaidool.

*****

He had done it only once before, Daelen explained, seemingly distracted by the memory. Long ago, when he had a relationship with a mortal woman called Rose. Catriona even reminded him of her in some ways, although Rose had been quite a lot older…

‘Don’t care about your past girlfriends!’ Cat sniped, interrupting his reminiscence as she continued to engage Aden in a mixture of small talk and flattery. ‘Just tell me the risks. Quickly.’

Daelen snapped himself out of it. She was right, of course. He couldn’t imagine why he’d distracted himself with such thoughts at a time like this.

‘If you’re quick, it should be OK, but the longer you’re exposed, the greater the chances of serious complications.’

‘Like what?’

He answered her as best he could, telling her everything it could mean for her. As he quickly listed