The Legend Of Black Eyes 227 The Taboo Law

A week had pa.s.sed since Zedd arrived at his base in the Southern Continent. He never liked to spend too much time in one location. It was better to remain on the move, elusive, invisible to his enemies, but this time was different. He had many things to settle before setting his sights on Prince Sylens. 

He was standing in front of a painting he'd installed in his solar when Fiona, also known as the Purple Witch, came in. 

"Quite a formidable castle you've taken as base, Zedd," she said. She was wearing a simple dark blue dress. A precious stone, purple of color, shone around her neck. 

"You've dyed your hair blonde," Zedd observed. 

"You don't like it?" she asked, quite provocatively. 

Zedd turned his attention away from the painting and observed the witch from head to toe. The witch winced and Zedd repressed a smile. "Do you like paintings?" he asked as he rested his black eyes on hers. 

On a canvas that covered the entire wall, darkness met light. The upper half of the canvas was painted black, while the lower part was white. On the border where darkness met light, gray danced in irregular, sinewy lines. Sometimes it would venture into the dark areas. On other spots, it was the white it targeted, swirling veins that took root on each side, never venturing too far but always present. 

 "I like the ones that speak to me," she said. 

"Does this one do the trick for you?" Zedd asked with a hint of a smile. 

"I can't say it does," she replied. "This castle, however..." 

"It's only one tower from a much older castle," Zedd said. "It's funny, how things can get easily removed from history..." 

"When I first got here, I was mind blown," Fiona said. "I didn't even know the Southern Continent still existed." She didn't try to hide her amazement.

"Speaking of which, how do you find it here?" Zedd asked. He invited the witch to take a seat on a couch opposite the fireplace. He then headed for a cabinet he kept at the corner of the solar.

"It's quiet," the witch said. "It's also intriguing, the amount of ruined buildings. It breathes lost history here."

 Zedd came back with a bottle of red wine and two gla.s.ses. "How about your journey here?" he asked after he took a seat beside her. 

"Tristan is very resourceful," she answered. "I see why you trust him." 

"Do you?" Zedd asked. An amused smile parted his lips. 

The witch shifted in her seat as she eyed her captor with apprehension. "Why am I here Zedd?" she asked. "You know I despise small talk." 

"Yet you've made a living out of it," Zedd retorted. "Thanks to small talk, you've manipulated powerful people. You stole from wealthy, dangerous organizations. Yet, your reputation has never suffered. How do you that?"

"It's my gift," Fiona answered. 

"And that jewel around your neck... Was it also a gift?"" Zedd rested his black eyes on the rare stone, blazing, yet cold. The color seemed to flow inside, as though it was a liquid made of smoke. 

"I inherited it from my mother," Fiona said as she clutched the thing around her fist. "The only good thing she's ever done." 

"You hate her," Zedd said. 

Fiona pursed her lips into an annoyed smile. "Let me be blunt with you, Black Eyes," Fiona said with bitterness in her voice. "We're not friends. Perhaps, we never will be. The last thing I want to do is cry over your shoulder." 

"I will never think of a world where I'm the shoulder you'd lean on," Zedd said. "You misunderstand me, Fiona. I want you as a partner, not as somebody who takes orders from me." 

Fiona scoffed. "You sound like a two faced politician now," she said. "You excel at giving orders. That's what you do. I don't believe you'd ever see me as an equal, let alone a partner." 

"Then we've obviously started on the wrong foot," Zedd said. "Perhaps I forced your hands into following me. I could have chosen a different approach."

"Yet here we are," the witch said. "You've basically abducted me, forced me to work for you." 

"Allow me to change that," Zedd said. "Let me tell you my story. If, by the end, you're still not convinced, then I give you my blessing to leave this place. No strings attached." 

"You'd risk letting your most well-kept secret get away like that?" Fiona asked. "I mean this land... Imagine if the Empire knew it existed, the knowledge they could extract from it..." 

"Nothing they don't already know," Zedd said. "What I'm about to tell you, however, is something the emperor would wipe out civilizations for." 

Fiona picked up her wine gla.s.s. She crossed her legs and eyed the man with a renewed sense of intrigue. "You really think the emperor is the worst thing that could happen to this world, don't you?" 

Zedd shook his head. "The Emperor is the least of my concerns," he said. "What is it people took to calling me these days... The Black Eyed Devil, is it?" 

"You know it for a fact," Fiona said. "I suspect you enjoy that nickname." 

"How can I?" Zedd asked. He looked hurt by the mere insinuation of it. "You see, we both know that evil has a face, a devil of some sort. He's not the devil people talk about in stories, true, but he's the embodiment of evil... of madness." He took another sip from his drink and studied the witch for a moment. "Who gave you that jewel?" 

Fiona chuckled. "It always comes back to the jewel, doesn't it?" 

"You have no idea!" Zedd said, chuckling in turn. "Who gave it to you?" 

"I've never told anybody about it. What makes you think I'd tell you?" the witch asked. 

"I don't really expect you to," Zedd said. "I already know who gave you that jewel. I was merely looking for confirmation. In fact, I think I know more about you than you do." 

"Then humor me," the witch said. Her smile had grown bitter over the course of their conversation.

"I need your word though..." Zedd leaned in toward the witch until he came nose to nose with her. "No sudden outbursts, no lightning showers, no unforeseen, unfortunate accidents." 

"I'll do my best," Fiona said. 

Zedd relaxed on the sofa then took another sip from his drink. "That jewel belonged to a powerful witch by the name Raiya O'Cheran," he said. "It was her trump card, her last resort. By the time she was killed, a powerful wizard had already stolen it from her. That wizard happens to be your mentor, your real captor." 

"I don't know how you came upon that name," Fiona said through gritted teeth. "But I suggest, for the sake of avoiding accidents, to avoid muttering it in the foreseeable future." 

"Aren't you curious about the life she'd led?" Zedd asked. "You've never met your mother after all." 

"There's nothing to know," Fiona cut in sharply. "What she's done was buried for a reason." 

"The same reason that pushed Aslanor to hide," Zedd said. "They all forgot his name, what he was and what he was capable of..." Zedd stood then headed toward the painting, right behind the couch.

 "The gray area that splits dark from light," he said, thoughtful, "evil from good... It's where the rules cease to exist. It's where we delve into the unknown. This painting is a constant reminder of his presence... His threat..." 

"How did you know I was from Aslanor?" the witch asked. 

Zedd smiled. "Now we're getting somewhere," he said. "I knew your mother, and your mentor." 

"That's impossible," Fiona said. "Very few people knew my mother, much less my mentor, at least those who are still alive. I know them all by name." 

"You know me too," Zedd said. "Albeit not by name, just a t.i.tle." 

Fiona looked distraught, pale. She looked at Zedd as though she'd seen him for the very first time. "The Demon Child died right after the establishment of the Taboo Law," she said. There was fear in the way she looked at him now, but there was also hope. The kind of hope that starts as a faint glimmer, the one you refuse to believe in. "Besides, you're nothing like the stories describe him." 

"The Taboo Law," Zedd said. "It's when all living creatures, and those yet to live, cannot speak a word unless they wanted to face an untimely and ugly death, isn't that right?" 

The witch nodded. 

"So if I say his name out loud, what would happen?" Zedd asked. 

"A rift would split the skies open. A beam of light, or at least that's what we call it, would obliterate you, down to your very soul," the witch answered. "It's the worst death there is. You're completely erased from existence. No fragment of your soul shall survive to carry your knowledge to future generations. I can't imagine how that would feel."

"For someone deeply affected by other people's deeds, you're easily disturbed by not leaving your mark on this world," Zedd observed. 

"I was obsessed with the idea of leaving my mark, my imprint," the witch said. She shook her head then looked away. "You have no idea what I was prepared to sacrifice for it... The lengths I went to..." she shuddered. "Why am I telling you this?" 

"Because I know what it feels to be under his shadow," Zedd said. "It's a heavy weight that constantly pushes you down, threatens to crush you. And you live all your life trying to resist it. He's relentless, scary, and for a very good reason. He's mad but he's also brilliant. You can hate him all you want, but you wish you could be him." 

"Just... who the h.e.l.l are you?" she asked. 

"I think you know the answer to that..." Zedd said. "The answer, should you choose to embrace it, can either be your divine blessing..." Zedd turned to face the witch. "Or your worst nightmare..." 

Silence followed. The solar grew quiet, save for the waves that hit the western wing of the empty castle. In that silence, one could also hear Fiona's breathing growing faster by the minute. She was good at hiding her feelings, and at burying her weaknesses. Today, the safe bubble she built around herself shattered, outweighed by the shadow of a man she tried hard to forget. 

When she spoke next, her voice gave no hint of distress. "You know he can find us..." she said. There was no hint of a question in her tone. She was simply laying out a fact. 

"I haven't given him any reason to," Zedd said. "You've never been publicly involved in any of my endeavours. He's too smart. He'd figure us out in a second." 

"Prove it!" she said. She abruptly stood, planted her feet firmly on the ground and looked the Devil in the eyes. "No living creature can utter his name, save for the Demon Child," she went on. "Everyone thinks he's dead. Even the mighty wizard thinks he's dead, and he's rarely wrong. Now if you aren't who you claim to be, then we both die a horrible death..."

She squared her shoulders and held her chin high. "But if you are... Then I will have witnessed a miracle happen before my eyes." 

Zedd chuckled. He squared his shoulders and held his chin high in a poor imitation of the witch. "No man, woman, or creature in this wide universe is perfect," he said. "We often give them too much credit, more than they're actually worth. Theolonius Stalwart is no exception." 

At the mention of his name, the witch winced and recoiled. With her arms shielding her face, she waited for the beam of light that never came. When she finally realized that she was safe, she stood and adjusted her disheveled hair and creased dress. 

"You're..." she had grown as pale as the Eternal Moon. 

She began inspecting her body, her limbs, in case they were detached and she wasn't aware of it yet. When she was done with her inspection, she turned to look at Zedd. The fact that he was still standing before her astounded her. What started as light chuckling culminated in a high pitched, almost hysteric laughter.

"Back home," she said after the laughter subsided. "We had an execution plaza. It wasn't anything fancy, just a hole in the ground, but it was ma.s.sive. The scaffolds and multiple execution platforms I've seen in my travels pale in comparison. Do you know why we needed so much s.p.a.ce to execute one criminal?" 

Zedd shrugged. "I can't say," he said. 

"He'd usually line up three to ten criminals a month. It was his habit, to see traitors die," she said. "He'd line them up on Execution Day, the last day of every month. He used to say that we needed to rid ourselves of each month's poison." She took a sip from her gla.s.s, gave it another look then gulped it in one go. 

"If there were no traitors or dangerous criminals," she went on. "He'd execute thieves, the occasional drunk brawler. He'd line them up and look at them from above. He'd laugh every time they died, the kind of laughter that sends chills down your spine.

"To him; they were traitors... But to the others, they were their friends, their children, their family. To teach me a lesson once, he let me live in the city alone. I picked up a job as a Herbalist. I was helping people. I was actually doing something good in my life. Then he decided to charge my teacher, Master Summers, with treason." 

She s.n.a.t.c.hed the wine bottle from the table and took a long gulp. She started pacing the room. The mention of her mentor's name had caused old wounds to resurface. Zedd remained in place. He only observed the witch as she paced around, neither concerned nor condescending. 

"Anyway, about the execution plaza," she went on. "We used to call it the Dust Bowl. Have you ever seen an Aeon?" she asked. She dangled the bottle when she wasn't drinking to calm her nerves. Gone was the cool, composed Fiona. 

"I have met one or two," Zedd said. "They're not the most understanding of creatures, I can tell you that." 

"We only saw an eye," Fiona said. "Every month, we'd dread seeing it. How the sky suddenly rips open, as though you plunged a knife into tissue then yanked it down. Then we'd see that terrible eye, looking down on us, moving frantically in all directions. We'd antic.i.p.ate the moment it landed on the hole. Then light, crimson and blinding, would descend. To this day, I'd never forget the sound it makes as it obliterates the Taboo breakers..." She took another long gulp from the bottle. 

"Would you like anything stronger?" Zedd asked, jerking his head toward the bottle the witch held. 

"Just let me finish this," she said. "I don't think I'd ever have the courage to speak of this again." 

Zedd nodded. 

"We'd witness the Aeon, raining wrath upon the Taboo breakers every end of the month," she went on. "And every month, the hole would get bigger, deeper. If you don't attend, your loyalty will be questioned. This always led you to the Dust Bowl, but not as a member of the audience this time around."

She took another gulp from the bottle. "Do you know what the most...f.u.c.ked up part about all of this is? He wanted his enemies' last words to be his name. He enjoyed seeing them fry, disintegrate into nothing but dust..."

 "That was his goal all along," Zedd said. "People on the outside forgot who he was, but the people he controlled... Oh they're ruing the day they dared betray him." 

"Are you after him as well?" Fiona asked. 

Zedd met the witch's inquisitive eyes. "What if I said yes?" he asked. 

"You're mad," she said then turned away from him. "How would you even? Where will you start?" 

"One step at a time," Zedd said. "I can fill you in on the details, but I need to know I can count on you." 

"You need my loyalty," she said. 

"I want you as a partner," Zedd said. 

Fiona turned to look at the man with narrowed eyes. "What kind of partnership are we talking about?" she asked. 

"The unbreakable kind," Zedd answered with a wide smirk.