The Cleansing (Book One: The Folara Chronicles)

046: Quildor

Quildor sensed the intrusion as soon as the trespasser entered his frontal lobes and tried to project into the inner recesses. He knew immediately it was one of three people, Adara, Ondrea or Nimiane. Adara had tried before and had been reprimanded so forcefully he knew she would never attempt to breach him again. Ondrea had never tried, and he was relatively sure the vial magic was still in effect and her innate powers couldn't penetrate past the walls of her room.

Nimiane.... He breathed her name into the air around him and conjured the image of her. The last time he'd seen her, standing on the grassy ledge overlooking the sea, her long unbound dark brown hair flying out behind her slim body, her dark eyes piercing his in hatred and betrayal.

He had stolen Ondrea's scepter. Even without the full ability that only Ondrea held, the ability to organize and dispense magic, her authority to rule. He'd hidden it, and waited for the right time to force Ondrea to use it with him. He knew she had another Talisman, he believed she had hidden it inside the mountain creating the need for searchers.

Why would Nimiane be inside his mind now?Nimiane had fled to Taan. Was she coming for the scepter?

Carefully, aware of movement within and completely protected from any attempt at control, he followed the intruder. He could sense her entering areas of his mind where memory flowed freely and he pondered what memories would do for her. He was aware that they contained incidents only pertinent to his wife. He was convinced now that Nimiane had breached his Zalez.

"Nimiane." He easily rested against a wall as it came into focus in her searching quest. He could see her immediately, frantically opening memory doors, peering inside, shutting them again. She froze and then turned, casting a huge cloud of fog between them and then disappeared out of his sight.

He felt her immediate recession and was astonished at her ability to exit so quickly. She hadn't been in the core, and therefore had protected herself. As he tried to follow he found the way blocked by pitfalls, illusion and traps, brick walls and images of Shadow Eaters.

There was no way to numb his fear, she knew him too well. He was trapped inside his own mind, unable to retreat past the memories, all he could do was to push through to consciousness.

*******

Nimiane tightly grasped the tail of the floating memory she needed and watched it till it ended with Quildor hiding the scepter in a floor safe in the room beyond his own. She exited Zalez and rushed past his prone physical shape on the bed to the door beyond.

There was a huge tapestry carpet in the middle of the floor with an amazingly heavy gilded table and chairs atop it. The hiding place was there, and she knew what she needed was in it. With dexterity she didn't feel, but prodded by adrenaline, she tossed two chairs out of her way and heaved with all her might against the table.

It was no use. She simply wasn't strong enough. She knew it was only a matter of seconds till Quildor figured out how to get out of her mind traps. She heard her own frustrated cries as if from outside herself and wiped a hand across her sweaty forehead.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a man standing in the doorway with his sword pointed at her.

"Please!" she whispered.

"The fate of the realm depends upon this moment." Crevan advanced slowly.

"Yes! I agree!"

"Tell me who you are and why I shouldn't kill you?" his voice was deadly, his eyes frozen on her.

"I am Nimiane of Etrusia, I am the exiled wife of Quildor Carrigah Etrusia. He stole something from me twenty years ago, and today I am getting it back in order to save our civilization."