Darkness of Magic (Soul of Magic Book 2)

ELEVEN

The dark energy within Isidora coursed through and outside her body with intense vigour, filling her with so much power that her eyes turned completely black. In turn, she sauntered round the trio who looked at her as she moved; her wordless way of telling them that she intended to dominate the impending discussion no matter what it took.

But Richard wasn't about to sit back and let it happen. "I don't know what your plan is, Isidora,” he said as he stepped forward, his sword firmly grip in his hand. “But whatever it is, I can explicitly tell you right now that it’s not going to work."

"Really, your Majesty?" the dark witch returned with a quiet smile as she willed her magic to form large black sharp substances in the air. "Are you sure you want to put your words to the test?"

"Isidora, enough!" Kyra cut in before she could direct the substances at Richard, stepping in front of him to prevent any future attempts from either one to provoke the other. "Tell me, what exactly do you want?"

"The same thing I always do, Kyra," she replied; and surprisingly, she dissipated the energy around her and her normal self returned. "I told you that I’ll take you to my leader just like you want. But I won’t do it as your prisoner."

To say that Kyra was surprised by the dark witch’s words would be an understatement, she was absolutely puzzled. It made sense that Isidora agreed to take them to her leader initially; her head was on the line, after all. But to offer it especially when it was obvious that she could have run away or stand against them. Now, the Soul of magic found that extremely worrying. She began to wonder if they weren’t in an intricate mind game of the dark witch’s design and her offering to take them to her leader was just a part of it.

But Kyra didn’t get to give voice to any of her thoughts, or make any reaction actually as Isidora had already continued. "However, there's still a little matter that we need to address," she said, flicking her fingers and an Anti-magician, a teenage boy, came flying out of the trees and roughly hitting the ground in front of her. "Our attackers."

"And what do you want us to do with him?" Lucian asked, crossing his arms as he shot Isidora a skeptical look; the blomde-haired warrior still didn't believe in the dark witch’s “help”.

"We drill some information out of him about the rest of his kind," she replied in a tone that suggested that she thought Lucian should have known better than to ask. "Where there is one, there are others, as I believe you already know."

"And then what?" he probed again, still unsatisified. "You want us to go after them?"

"Of course," she replied. "They dared to attack us. They must be taught a lesson. I'm a dark witch, I believe in vengeance."

"I don't think a vengeful quest is wise, Isidora, even if it's Anti-magicians we're talking about," Kyra countered at that moment. "Besides, we already have a journey we're on."

In truth, it wasn't their quest or vengeance that had the Soul of magic speaking out; it was Isidora herself. Try as she could, Kyra still couldn’t fathom the dark witch’s motivations; and that made her very apprehensive of whatever came out of her.

"Come on Kyra, don't be a wet blanket," Isidora replied, giving her a look pleading for understanding, which would have been quite effective if it wasn't underlaid by her usual mocking expression; at least that was what it looked to Kyra. "Okay, don't think of it as murder or revenge,” the dark witch tried again. “Think of it as saving the wizards. That’s what you like to do best, isn’t it? Anti-magic has been used to hurt a lot of wizards in times past and may still be used again in the future. The only way to prevent that from happening is to go after all these Anti-magicians and take a decisive step against them."

"Kyra, she does have a point," Richard suddenly said before she could decline again, causing her to look at him in surprise; he was supposed to be the last person to support Isidora. "Think about it, this may be our only chance to stop the Anti-magicians before they strike again."

"But Richard," she began to counter but the king wouldn't let her.

"It's a risk, I know,” he said, knowing exactly what her counterpoint would have being. “But it’s that we have to take and you know that too.”

Kyra looked at Lucian and saw that he too was sold on the idea; Richard supporting it must have convinced him that it was the right thing to do. The two of them were prepared to attack the Anti-magicians whether she approved of it or not, and there was nothing she could do to convince them otherwise. “Alright then,” she sighed. “Let's take the risk.”

"Oh, I'm so glad you agree, Kyra," Isidora said with a smile so giddy that it made her look like a child and beautiful; at least for the split second before she turned to face the captured Anti-magician and her dark witch expression returned. "I would love to say that I'm sorry for what I am about to do," she said as she bent down and touched the already trembling boy's head. "But I'm not."

Immediately, the boy let out a bone-chilling scream as a dark energy shot from the dark witch’s hand and into his head; not that it affected the latter in the least. She closed her eyes and concentrated as her mind invaded his, bringing up all of his memories to the surface and sifting through them for what she wanted.

"I've got it," she announced after a while, letting go of the boy who immediately fell to the ground and fainted. "They're camping in the mountains."

"Alright then," Kyra replied, a really bad feeling suddenly rising in her guts as she turned to look at the mountains in a distance. "Let's go hunting."