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

how many times Catriona had criticised his lack of strategic thinking, she could hardly complain. She did find it interesting, though, that he and Aden had both had the same idea under similar circumstances.

“He and I were split from the same shadow warrior,” Daelen pointed out, “so it’s not too surprising that we think along similar lines, sometimes.”

“And now that you’ve remerged, I guess you’re literally of one mind again,” Mandalee supposed.

Daelen shook his head. “Not so. We’re still separate, despite our merging. That’s why he was able to dominate me for a while. I will have to battle him for the rest of my life, same as ever. Only the battlefield has changed. I can never again be what I was – what the original Daelen was. Complete. Whole.”

“You’ve glued the two halves of the box back together again,” Cat mused, thinking of his analogy for his people as being ‘light in a box,’ “but the damage cannot be reversed.”

Daelen smiled, grimly, “Not unless you really can turn back Time a thousand years. But even if you could, I suppose we’d lose everything we both experienced in that time. That’s not a price I would ever pay. Maybe if I could return home…” he trailed off, and then dismissed the idea, “but that’s impossible. Anyway, for the moment, it’s just as well,” he added, “because I can compartmentalise certain information that we don’t want my ‘other half’ to know.”

Cat nodded, recognising his oblique warning to be careful not to mention certain things, such as the presence of the being that killed her parents. Michael might call it a ‘void-creature,’ but to Cat, it would always simply be the ‘Monster.’

Daelen returned to his story.

*****

‘Kullos wasn’t paying attention to a power signature as low as mine,’ Aden told Daelen. ‘He was too busy watching you, which wasn’t difficult considering all the noise you’ve been making. What have you been doing out here, anyway? I’d have thought you’d be sneaking up on him.’

‘Believe it or not, that was the plan,’ Daelen admitted, ruefully. ‘Things got a little out of hand.’ Not wishing to discuss it any further, he asked what Aden had found out from his spying, wanting to see if it would match what he had observed for himself.

‘Well, I must admit your distraction proved quite useful,’ Aden conceded, ‘because I was able to snoop around for ages and I found out where Kullos was getting all his extra power from. You know, don’t you?’ he asked.

Daelen had learned a lot about information trading from his question-for-a-question game with Catriona, and he wasn’t going to blurt everything out just because Aden might already know.

Instead, he simply replied, ‘You tell me.’

‘He has his dimensional control device,’ Aden told him. Even though the communication was still telepathic, Daelen could still detect fear creeping into his words. ‘Or most of it, at any rate.’

‘Yes, I saw that, too,’ Daelen agreed. ‘But how? It was destroyed a thousand years ago when we were split,’ he objected.

‘Was it really?’ Aden gasped. ‘Well, goodness me, I had no idea. I mean, it’s not like I was there at the time or anything. Oh, wait – yes, I was.’

Having got that out of his system, he went on to say he’d gathered that Kullos must have been in the process of finding the lost fragments for some time.

Again, Daelen objected that even if he could find them all, it wasn’t as if he could glue it back together and expect it to work like new.

Aden pointed out that Kullos had already got it working well enough to access the energy from that part of himself that was still in the shadow realm. Aden didn’t understand where he’d found the technology to do it, but he had.

‘Someone’s been interfering with events that really ought not to be tampered with any more than they already have been,’ Daelen quoted.

‘What?’ Aden wondered.

Daelen decided to add Time Intervention to the list of information to be shielded from his dark clone.

‘Just something I read in a sci-fi novel on Earth,’ he lied.

‘Why would you bring that up now?’ Aden frowned.

‘Just popped into my head,’ he shrugged, dismissing the issue.

It was all just speculation, anyway. Kullos had always been a skilled engineer, so it was conceivable he’d figured out a way to do it all on his own.

Aden conceded they might have underestimated Kullos’ technical skill.

‘It could even be an application of some kind of new magic,’ Daelen supposed.

He had expected Aden to scoff at such a suggestion and was surprised when he didn’t.

‘Before my run-in with Dreya the Dark,’ he replied ruefully, ‘I might have dismissed such an idea, but now…’ He trailed off and then admitted something Daelen never thought he’d hear his clone say. ‘Daelen, I was scared. Me, a shadow warrior, scared of a mortal wizard!’

‘They’re on the verge of something,’ Daelen offered. ‘Me, you, Kullos and Michael – we can’t go on, the four of us like it’s business as usual. Things have changed, and we need to do the same.’

Daelen had to hide a smile when he realised he was paraphrasing Catriona. She had made quite the impression on him already. He wondered how strong that influence might yet grow.

Aden agreed, ‘I think Kullos figured that out a while ago and he’s left us scrambling to catch up. Think about it: he must have enough of his control device assembled by now to re-Ascend, but he hasn’t. Why?’

‘Because that’s not his intent,’ Daelen realised.

*****

“So, what is his intent?” Mandalee asked as they reached the shopping mall itself.

Cat nodded. She wanted to know the same thing.

As they stepped towards the doors to the shopping mall, they opened automatically, as if in welcome invitation to the treasure trove of wonders that lay beyond. It was by far the largest single building they had ever seen. Even the Council building in Walminster could fit inside it. Either side of wide aisles, were densely packed shops, selling all manner of clothes,