Garden Mage

by Tim Niederriter

  Edmath lurched out of Ursar's path, but the Dawkun's wounded leg snaked out to trip him. He stumbled, keeping his feet.

  Ursar whirled, blade in-hand.

  "Wait," said Edmath. "What does your revenge mean if you betray your comrades to get it?"

  "They promised me this!" Ursar's blade flashed out, trained on Edmath's heart, a pace away from a lethal stroke. "I will have it!"

  "Kiet," Santh growled. "Stand down."

  "No," whispered Ursar.

  "Listen to him, Ursar," said Hyreki. "It's not time for this nonsense."

  "Nonsense? Nonsense?" Ursar scowled.

  Edmath paced sideways, working his way closer to Rakoi. If he could just get there... He hoped the tree's invested magic could help him, drained and bleeding as he was.

  "Listen to them. Revenge means nothing without Chelka, right? She took your hand."'

  "Coward. You want me to let you live and kill your wife instead?"

  Edmath grimaced, trying to remain calm.

  "Well, to be honest, I would prefer neither, good Dawkun. In the meantime, I feel we have some things to discuss. For instance, Lady Denyal."

  "Don't address her," said Ursar. "Your fight is with me."

  Edmath shook his head.

  "You're always a servant, Ursar, never a master."

  "How dare you!" the Dawkun slashed the air between Edmath and the pier. The blade hovered there, stopping Edmath's path to Rakoi.

  The wounded tree turned toward him, triangular seal-eyes pulsing sadly.

  "Don't harm him worse, Kiet," said Santh. "He's already beaten."

  "Quiet. You can't stop me." Ursar's eyes began to fill with black magic, but then the color drained away. Santh held one of his daggers out toward Ursar, siphoning the magic from the spell into its blade.

  Hyreki joined Santh where the pier connected to the street.

  "Ursar, don't test Santh. You can't fight without our help." She nodded to Zuria, still tensed in her survival stance. "And you won't win without your brother's help, Lady Mierzon."

  She struck the air and magic flowed into her, making her glow with power to trained Saale sight. Then, she reached into the tear with her crimson glove, the fingertips gleaming silver in the morning light breaking through the clouds above before they disappeared into light altogether. She scratched at the edges of the tear.

  Edmath stared as she opened a large, stable rent in the world curtain from which magic sprang forth. She leveled her gaze at Edmath.

  "Put down your stethian and come this way, Lord Benisar."

  Edmath clenched his bloody hand, then slowly crouched and set his stethian on the stones. Rising, he glanced at Ursar.

  "Are you going to go against them too?"

  Ursar bared his teeth in a snarl. He lowered his sword. Edmath continued toward Hyreki and Santh. On the way, he planned to pass Rakoi. Desperate thoughts rushed through his mind, wondering if Rakoi's magic would be enough to let him fight.

  He lacked any other choice.

  At Rakoi's side, he reached out with his bloody hand and touched a branch.

  "You can use it," he whispered. "Use your magic now."

  Rakoi made no sound, but a firm pulse of light emanated from its seals.

  Edmath's wounded arm stopped bleeding, then stopped hurting. He relaxed his grip on her arm, then kept walking. Hyreki nodded as he drew near. She didn't seem to notice the healing.

  "Good. Bring the tree too. We're leaving."

  "Leaving?" Ursar gazed at them.

  Santh smirked.

  "Indeed."

  Hyreki put a hand on Edmath's shoulder.

  "Go through the light," she said.

  "What are you talking about?" Ursar walked toward the pier, ignoring the stethian and Surba crouched by the wounded Kana. "What about Chelka?"

  "We let her go for now. This is more important," said Hyreki.

  "No. You lied to me," said Ursar.

  "I wouldn't lie to you. Things have changed."

  "Why? What has changed, really?"

  "Your situation, of course," said Edmath with a glance at Ursar. "Think about it. The guards will be here soon. That levoth and its passengers will be ready for you. You can't win if you fight."

  "I don't need to win to kill you, Edmath," said Ursar, blood-streaked features contorting with rage.

  "But you won't," said Edmath. "You can't go against your friends too."

  Hyreki gave a slight smile.

  "He's right. Ursar put down that sword."

  He took another step toward Edmath, weapon clenched in his fist.

  “That’s enough.” Hyreki’s voice grew stern.

  Ursar halted in his step.

  “This is over,” said Hyreki.

  Ursar lowered his sword, the dropped it to the paving stones with a clang of metal. Hyreki nodded, guiding Edmath closer to the bright rift which spilled magic into the morning air.

  Zuria glared past Santh to Hyreki.

  “Don’t give up, Ed.”

  “Zuria, my good sister, there is no way left to fight.” He lied.

  Her eyes trembled. She lowered her gaze.

  His stethian was not where he had dropped it near Kana. Neither was Surba. He listened for a squeak, a sound only he would understand.

  “Edmath!” Surba darted forward, the stethian clutched in her coiled tail. She hurled the weapon in his direction.

  It seemed to hang in the air for a long moment, then descend at a languid pace. It was impossible for him to miss. His fingers closed around the weapon as he drew in magic from Hyreki’s large tear. He shot branches at all three of his foes, blunt rather than piercing as he lacked the focus to sharpen them all. He hurled them away in each direction, then used a vine to pull Zuria to his side.

  Rakoi stood motionless behind them as Edmath and Zuria squared up to fight once more.

  “They’ve still got numbers,” she said.

  “Not anymore.” Edmath nodded to Rakoi. “Rakoi’s Dawkun powers are free to use. She can fight as well as heal.”

  “Will your blasphemies against the creator never end?” said Ursar as he retrieved a dagger from near Kana where had landed after Edmath’s branch throw.

  Hyreki glided closer over the water, her wings beating steadily.

  “You can see magic. How careless of me to let you get so close. Santh, close the tear. End this!”

  Santh’s blades flashed, one in each hand. He lunged for the tear. Edmath’s branches melted away before his attack, unable to even touch the knives before blackening and then fading to dust. He did not dare use any of the magic he still held. Those blades were too powerful. Santh slashed through the tear with both daggers at once. Edmath shielded his eyes against a brilliant glare.

  Then Santh screamed pain. His daggers clattered to the street. Zuria withdrew, coiling her serpentine neck. Her snakelike head in partial tosh bared venomous fangs. Santh clutched his shoulder where she had bitten him. He sank to his knees.

  “Finally,” Zuria said. “A solid dose.”

  “No!” Hyreki swooped in, grabbing Santh with her momentum. She pulled him over Edmath’s remaining branches, then the two of them crashed into the street on the slope near Ursar and Kana.

  She pushed herself to her feet with a groan, already tearing at the world’s curtain with her gloves. She tunneled into a glow, vanishing along with Santh and Ursar. Edmath stared after them, then blinked as the light faded. The enemies were gone. He turned to Zuria.

  “Good bite.”

  “Good branches,” she said with a smile. “Glad to save you, brother.”

  “I know,” he said. “Thank you, good sister.”

  Rakoi crawled to join them along with Surba. They watched the levoth carrying Brosk, Chelka, and the Benisar experimental organisms into port under the rising sun.

  A hubbub of activity surrounded the street as guards arrived and the Benisar levoth started unloading its passe
ngers. Chelka and Brosk joined Zuria and Edmath amid the activity.

  “Who were they?” Chelka asked, gazing at the guards as they rounded up Hyreki’s mercenaries by the pier.

  “These attackers had abilities I’ve never heard or seen recorded,” said Edmath.

  Brosk folded his arms.

  “We’ll have to question the mercenaries. Perhaps they will know more.”

  “It’s worth a shot, but I doubt they know much,” said Edmath.

  “We will see,” said Brosk.

  “Thank you all for keeping Edmath alive while I was away. We never seem to have a break, do we, my love?”

  Zuria bowed low to Chelka.

  “It is my honor to help family.”

  Chelka grinned at Zuria.

  “That’s a new one. I’m glad you can call me family, Zuria.”

  “As am I,” said Zuria.

  “What else would friends do?” said Brosk. He glanced at Surba. “Even this little one put in her best.”

  Surba looked at Edmath.

  “He should know I am not little for a rat. You wizards learn much, but remember little.”

  Edmath laughed, exhausted, almost delirious.

  “What did she say?” asked Brosk.

  “Nothing of import, my friend. Nothing of import.”

  Ursar

  The sights and sounds beyond Hyreki’s tunnel through the world’s mystic curtain made his skin crawl and chill with gooseflesh, despite the odd warmth that flowed from everywhere around and within him. A pallid hue diffused his sight, but at the same time, every other sensation amplified. His wounds burned with pain, but he ignored them despite their intensity. Voices called warnings. Zemoy Benisar’s bellows of frustration at the disappearance of his foes before he could arrive were still audible, but the people themselves could no longer perceive Ursar, Hyreki, or Santh.

  The two strange people limped together down the road toward the sea. Ursar crept after Santh and Hyreki, following their path between the ghosts of buildings and piers to the edge of the water. They did not stop there, however. A small boat waited on the shore, not ghostly like the other objects, and with a figurehead of a polished silver bird, it’s beak sharp and jutting. Hyreki helped Santh along a pier and then guided him as he climbed into the boat. She turned to face Ursar.

  “You can’t follow us,” she said.

  “Take me with you! It’s death to stay in this city.”

  Hyreki shook her head with a quirk and down-turn at the corners of her lips.

  “Ursar, you don’t belong in the Cloud Empire.”

  He seethed, advancing on her despite his lacking power. He would not have the magical strength to defeat her in a duel.

  “I should have known—”

  “It seems to me you did know, maybe not at the beginning, but you’re not a fool, Ursar. You knew I’d betray you.” She smiled, actually smiled at him. “However, I underestimated you.”

  “What does that mean?” he said, a snarl in his voice. “Do you plan to kill me now? Or simply abandon me here? You won’t find either an easy task.”

  She nodded.

  “I understand.” She tugged one glove with its silver fingers from her hand, revealing pale skin beneath. “That’s why I’m not going to simply let you die alone in this place.”

  He tensed for her to strike, prepared mentally to dodge a magical attack, unsure what Hyreki intended.

  “Relax,” she said. “I’m going to help you.” She tossed the glove to land at his feet with a thump on the wooden pier. “Use that to escape this place once you’ve left the city. Consider yourself lucky you got this much from me, Ursar Kiet.”

  He crouched, keeping his eyes on Hyreki as he picked up the glove.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “Nowhere you will ever see, Roshi.” She smirked. “But I’m not sorry we met. Goodbye.”

  His lips twitched and his hands shook. Hyreki glided into the boat. Santh untethered the vessel from the pier. They floated away into the glow of this strange other side, disappearing from sight in moments. Ursar watched them go as he straightened his back. The cries of the Zelian guards echoed behind him. He walked along the coast, heading for the city gates. He held on to the glove, and to the memory of the silver figurehead as he walked, aching, miserable and once more alone, but still alive.

  Beyond the city gates, he put on the glove. A mile west of Diar, he stopped walking in an orchard off the main road. He squinted at the air, glimpsed the curtain for the first time from beyond the barrier, then raised his glove and started scratching a tunnel back to the other side.

  Author’s Note

  Hello, good reader! I hope you enjoyed this volume of Edmath’s continuing story!

  I have to start out by apologizing to you swiftest readers for being a little later than planned with this one. Turns out I’m not quite equal to the task of writing two series of novellas at one time for the moment. Have no fear. This series will continue, and will be releasing every 18 days from this point on. My other series is going on the back burner, but I think all of you will be alright with that.

  Now.

  Edmath and the others will be back soon in the next volume. As always, I’m very excited to see what you make of it. I am also considering working on a collected paperback release of the first three volumes in the near future. Let me know if you think that’s a good idea or a bad one. I appreciate your input.

  Thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone who supports me in any other way. The writing game can be lonely, but it’s worth it to share these stories with you.

  Tim Niederriter, September 2018

  Also by Tim Niederriter

  Spells of the Curtain Series

  Court Mage

  Battle Mage

  Winter Mage

  Garden Mage (September 19th)

  Traveler Mage (October 7th)

  Fire Mage (October 25th)

  Protector Mage (November 12th)

  …and more to come!

  Tenlyres Series

  Ilsa and Blue

  The Gray Lector

  The Lyre War

  The Root Conspiracy Series

  Memory Lost

  Mind Chase

  Image Storm

  Cell Cycle

  Other Books

  Rem’s Dream

  Find out more at http://mentalcellarpublications.com

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  Tim Niederriter has been reading fantasy and science fiction since he was five years old when his parents introduced him to the hobbit.

  These days he writes stories in science fiction, fantasy, and combinations of the two for himself and for others. When not writing fiction or losing at cards, he maintains a blog at dwellerofthedeep.wordpress.com, and you can find his personal website at timniederriter.com. He also talks on the podcasts “Of Mooks and Monsters,” and “Alive After Reading” available at mentalcellarpublications.com and wherever podcasts are downloaded.

  He lives in Minnesota for as long as the corn decides not to eat him.