by Todd Herzman
For a long while, nothing happened. Her heart sunk as she watched the grass not grow. She kept the flow of light going—increasing it every ten breaths, her eyes focused on the tops of the blades of grass, hoping to catch any movement. All she saw was the wind slowly swaying them.
Ella pulsed the light and squinted through the brightness.
The blades of grass twitched and shifted, then shot up inch by inch. Ella smiled broadly, a laugh escaping her lips. She pulsed the light again. The grass grew even faster. She had to move from kneeling to a crouch, until the grass reached her knee. She pulsed the light once more.
Her smile fell away, and the laugh died in her throat as the grass browned then blackened then shrivelled.
Ella cut the flow of mana. The light disappeared. She blinked her eyes, refocusing them after the blinding brightness. She stared down at what she’d done.
Her hands shook. It had worked. She must have done something wrong—made the light too bright. But it had worked. Ella turned her head to look at the tree by the wall. She could use her powers to grow it high enough, climb it, then escape to the roof.
She just had to be careful.
Ella took a deep breath and made her way to the tree. She clapped her palms together and summoned the light. She glanced at the castle door, hoping she’d be able to escape before anyone opened it. She reached for her other senses. She’d never used one of her Affinities and her other senses at the same time. It was much like juggling fire and lightning, except she had to split her mind one step further.
The first thing she felt were the two presences behind the door. The guards making sure she didn’t break through and escape. They felt different to the blood lord’s thralls back on the ship. If she pushed her senses to examine them, she knew she would see their strings—the ones leading to the God King, the strings she’d thought she would see in her brother.
The second thing she felt was the tree. She sensed the mana flowing from her hands in the form of light, and the tree’s essence—its own mana reserve. The light she sent to the tree was being converted into mana. She could feel its reserve filling slowly. Carefully, she pulsed the light, bringing up the brightness.
The tree moved. She heard it growing, felt its roots pushing deeper into the ground and its branches reaching higher into the sky. In her mind, she could see the tree’s reserve filling and emptying as mana flowed through it, being converted into nutrients.
Ella faced the sky. The sun was out of reach from this side of the garden, perhaps why this tree was shorter than those in the middle—she didn’t know, she’d never been much of a gardener. Everything has mana, she thought. The sun’s rays must contain the same energy she used to feed the tree.
Lifeforce.
A part of her had known these things, having vague memories of Aralia explaining the concept to her when they walked through the tunnels to the rocky beach. But she hadn’t realised what it meant until now. Even after she’d pulled the mana from the sea, its impact hadn’t settled on her.
Her magic, using it—she was manipulating life.
Never more so than now, she thought as she watched the tree grow. She smiled wide. Connected to the tree, using her other senses, she could feel how much light was too much, and how much was just enough. She pulsed the light, making it brighter and brighter. Then, finding the tree’s threshold, backed off.
It could take more than the grass could. She wondered why for a moment before realising it was obvious. The tree was bigger.
Half an hour must have passed with her standing there. The tree grew an amazing five feet. A quarter of the way there, it would take another hour and a half before it was tall enough to climb out of this place.
She had nothing to do but think. Her thoughts turned to Ruben, as she knew they would. She’d been trying not to dwell on their conversation, on the way he’d acted, and especially on the things he’d told her. She remembered the illusion he’d shown her—the large rock slamming into the earth. A world on fire.
Lies, she thought. She couldn’t afford to think otherwise. The God King their grandfather? She hated even entertaining the idea. He only wanted to manipulate Ruben into becoming a blood mage, just as Aralia’s brother had been.
She felt a sudden sympathy for Aralia and Reena, for what they must have gone through. Guilt hit her at the way she’d treated them. They had lied to her, they never should have… but she now understood how they must have felt. If they thought Malarin could be saved, then Ruben could be saved, too.
Ella would be able to convince her brother of the truth. She knew she would…
As she waited, watching the tree grow, she pushed her senses farther—mostly to distract her from thinking about Ruben. She couldn’t do anything until she escaped this garden. She pushed her senses past the two guards standing watch, into the halls of the castle. She couldn’t sense the walls, only plants, animals, people—their lifeforce.
She found more people. Ones that felt like the guards, and others, who felt like the blood lord. Though there was more of the former than the latter, it did worry her to realise how many blood mages lived inside the castle. She sensed six different people with similar energy signatures—people with strong reserves. She had to assume anyone inside the castle who possessed magic was a blood mage.
Her mind slipped farther and farther through the walls of the castle until it reeled back, snapping her other senses off. The light in her hands faltered until it dimmed into nothing. She blinked, refocusing on the reality in front of her.
She’d come across a power so large it had made her mind recoil. Ella shivered, hugged herself and looked over at the door to the castle. She’d felt that power before, to a lesser extent, back on the Serpentine. Aralia had coaxed her mind into finding her brother, and they’d found the God King with him.
Back in that cabin, she’d felt only a sliver of the God King’s power. Here, being so close…
Her hands shook. She held them together, trying to stop the tremors.
Her power, Aralia’s power, all the blood mages she’d ever sensed—they were a drop in the ocean compared to what she felt from the God King.
He’s feeding off the lifeforce of an entire island.
Ella let herself shudder again, felt the fear, then turned back to the tree. She was going to get out of here. If that man truly was her grandfather, she didn’t fancy sticking around for a family reunion.
Light bloomed from her palms. The tree grew again. Inch by inch.
Chapter 66
Marius
Marius’s head split as he stepped into the market. He gripped his temples and called out in shock.
Jesriel whirled, staring at him. ‘Mar—Aelric, what’s wrong?’ She reached her hand out but didn’t touch him.
The illusion Marius wore and his own proportions were too different. If she put her hand on his shoulder, people watching would see her putting it through Aelric’s body.
‘I’m fine.’ Marius regained his composure. His head still hurt, but it didn’t feel as if a knife had been jammed in his skull anymore. ‘It felt—it felt like someone was in my mind.’
His mother’s eyes widened a fraction. Her gaze turned from him and swept the square. ‘There are no blood mages near, but I have a bad feeling about this.’ She turned to the castle. Its towers loomed over the city. ‘We should make haste.’ She looked back at him. ‘You’re sure you’re okay?’
He dropped his hand from his forehead. ‘I’ll be fine.’ He wouldn’t let her stop him from coming along, not now they were so close. He took a deep breath and ploughed forward into the square, toward the looming towers, their spires reaching into the sky.
The peasants they passed dropped their heads at the sight of blood mages walking through the market. Marius wanted to tell them not to be afraid, that he wasn’t a blood mage and he hated wearing their skin.
His mother’s footsteps followed. They walked in silence, Marius keeping a strong pace
. He barely glanced around on their way, only dimly aware of the guards they passed. His headache faded by the time the castle gates came into view.
The guards let them in without a word, a courtesy he imagined was only afforded to blood mages. Once they were through the gates, Marius took a moment to marvel at the castle.
It was massive. A hulking structure that looked as if it had always been there. They’d seen it from the forest earlier, but he’d been too focused on the guards, and his brother and sister walking through the gate, to give it his attention.
‘It’s huge,’ he whispered to his mother as they headed to the doors through the front garden, slowing their walk. ‘You really grew up here?’
‘Trust me, Marius. It’s not as glamorous as it looks.’
More glamorous than Billings, he thought as he stared up at the smooth stone walls, the turrets and towers. Even the doors were beautiful, inlaid with intricate, swirling designs. How different would his life have been, if he’d grown up in a place like this? I would believe the evils of this world were justified, he thought. It was one thing knowing his grandfather was the God King, it would be another to have grown up with his influence.
Besides, if his mother had never left this place, Marius would never have been born.
He wouldn’t trade his life for one here, he decided, as they stepped through the large double doors into the expansive foyer. He’d never seen ceilings so high. Once the doors closed and they were out of earshot of the guards, Marius turned to his mother. ‘Where do we go now?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Her eyes darted about the place. She walked toward a wide set of stairs, then stopped and peered down the hall instead.
‘Can’t you sense them, like you sensed me?’
Jesriel touched her first two fingers from each hand to her temples and closed her eyes. She shook her head, opened her eyes again. ‘These walls are protected. Only someone with the gift of true sight could penetrate them.’
Marius smirked at his mother. ‘You mean there’s something you can’t do?’
She smiled back. ‘Even my powers are limited, Marius.’
Marius put his foot up onto the first step of the stairs. ‘So how do we find them?’
Jesriel touched her forehead again. ‘Aelric and Racell’s memories. There were rumours about the God King having a ward.’ She turned from the stairs and started down the hall. ‘They think he was kept this way.’
Marius followed behind. ‘What about Ella?’
‘Finding one will make it easier to find the other.’ The castle hallways were eerily silent after moving through the bustling streets of the city. ‘I used to run through these halls as a child. Walk through them as a teenager. I never thought I would see them again—I never wanted to.’
‘What made you leave?’
‘My father went too far.’ Jesriel led them up a set of stairs. The hallways became narrower, though large enough to walk two abreast. ‘It’s hard to see the things your parents do, to understand them, as a child.’
Marius thought she must be right. She’d explained her reasons for leaving them, for giving them memories of her dying. On one level, he understood—she was afraid for them, afraid her staying would put them in harm’s way. But he would have made the trade. He would have gladly put himself at risk to have had her as a mother.
Besides, she left, and the danger still came. Maybe if she’d been there, she could have prevented it—could have warned them, protected them.
‘As I got older, I came to realise what my father did was wrong. He justified his actions, saying it was for the safety of our people, and I believed him for too long.’
They turned a corner and paused. Two guards stood watch in front of a door. The guards looked at them, then looked away. ‘Do you think they’re…’ Marius whispered, trailing off as the guards’ gaze fell back on them.
Jesriel said nothing as she strode forward. The guards eyed her suspiciously as she approached, except she didn’t stop to chat—she kept walking past them. Marius followed on her heels, trying his hardest not to look at the guards’ eyes. They turned another corner and walked twenty feet before stopping.
His mother turned. ‘That’s the door to the castle gardens.’
‘Why would they be guarding the gardens?’
‘They wouldn’t be. Not unless someone was inside of them.’
‘How do we get by without alerting the guards?’
Jesriel smiled. His mother’s smile looked wrong on the blood mage’s face. ‘Do you remember the story Master Flynn told you, about when I first arrived at the monastery?’
‘You walked through the walls… but I thought you said these walls were protected?’
‘They are,’ she said, putting a hand on the stone. She leant into the wall, as if she were listening to it whisper in her ear. ‘But so were the ones at the monastery. I can’t penetrate them with my mind, but I can walk through them… the problem is, we have no idea what’s on the other side.’
‘I don’t care. If there’s a chance Ruben and Ella are in there, we should go through.’
His mother looked at him for a long moment. Then she put out her hand. ‘Let’s hope they are, then. If it’s not them, and whoever it is sees us, I need you to be ready to run. Don’t let go of my hand, okay? If you do, you’ll get stuck on the other side—or worse, stuck in the wall.’
Marius stared at her hand and hesitated. He tried to imagine what it would mean to be stuck in a wall and hoped he wouldn’t find out. He took her hand and nodded.
‘Alright,’ she said. ‘On the count of three.’
Marius held his breath as she counted. On three, his breath escaped as she pulled him with her through the stone.
One second he was in the hall, the next, he stood in front of a giant tree that stretched to the top of the castle’s wall. He gripped his mother’s hand tight, stepping forward with her into the garden.
His mother squeezed his hand so hard it hurt. He followed her gaze and froze.
A man sat on the bench in the middle of the garden. Ruben was standing beside him. The man stood. Jesriel whirled, tugging Marius back to the wall. Marius, seeing his brother, couldn’t move.
Jesriel wrenched Marius’s shoulder. ‘We need to run.’
Marius blinked. He tore his gaze away from Ruben and registered the fear in his mother’s eyes. He let her drag him to the wall, but before they reached the sheer stone they thudded into an invisible barrier.
‘Can’t walk through that.’ A booming voice rang in the garden. Marius recognised it instantly—the same voice that had come from the thralls.
The God King.
‘You’re not my mages.’ The God King’s voice came closer.
Marius tried to move, but his muscles wouldn’t respond. He felt himself rise from the ground, gripped by a powerful force, and saw the same thing happen to his mother, her eyes wide. They rotated in the air and faced the God King.
Marius’s first thought as he stared at the God King’s red eyes was that the man didn’t look old enough to be his father, let alone his grandfather. But there was no mistaking that this was Renial.
Ruben stood in the background, watching with a furrowed brow.
The God King faced Marius. ‘I can feel you. Trying to draw upon your powers—was it you who created this illusion, Marius? Such strong powers for someone so young.’ He faced Jesriel. ‘And you. I sense no magic in you at all. But you’re not the seeker, are you?’ He looked down at Jesriel’s waist. ‘No, she wouldn’t step outside without her Starblade—let alone onto this island.’ He tilted his head to the side. ‘Perhaps you are masking your abilities.’
Renial’s face bloomed into a hideous smile. ‘Ruben,’ he said.
Marius watched, frozen, as his brother walked to them from the bench. Marius tried to move his mouth—tried to call out to his brother but found he couldn’t say a word.
‘What would you do in this situation, ha
ving found two people sneaking around your castle wearing the disguises of your blood mages? For all you know, they’ve killed two of your citizens.’
‘You’re sure that’s my brother?’ Ruben’s eyes bored into Marius’s.
The God King nodded. ‘I can feel him. I recognise family when I see it.’
‘He’s only a child, Renial. If two blood mages are dead, it can’t have been his fault.’
‘I suppose we should give your brother the benefit of the doubt.’
Marius dropped from the air. His feet slammed into the ground and he stumbled. Ruben lunged forward, catching him before he fell.
‘Marius?’ Ruben tried to hold him by the shoulders, but all he gripped was air—the illusion’s shoulders were in the wrong place.
The God King waved a hand. Marius felt the mana that had sustained the illusion dissipate until it was no more. Ruben smiled down at his little brother and hugged him tight.
‘Marius! It’s so wonderful to see you!’
Marius, now that he could move, hugged his brother without hesitation. He didn’t know what had happened since his brother had come to the island, he didn’t know what the God King had made him do—but no matter what, Ruben was his brother. ‘I missed you so much, Ruben. When I found out they took you… I thought—I’m so glad you’re alive, big brother.’
‘You,’ the God King said.
Marius and Ruben disentangled themselves from their embrace, turning their attention to the God King. Jesriel’s disguise had disappeared as Marius’s had—she stood before her father, a deep hatred in her eyes.
‘You abandoned me. I thought you were dead.’ The God King’s voice seethed with rage.
Ruben’s hands shook. ‘Mother?’ He took a stuttering step forward. He looked to Renial. ‘Is this—is this another illusion?’
‘It’s no illusion, Ruben.’ Jesriel turned her head to face her eldest son. ‘It’s me, my son.’
‘B—but I saw you die. We watched you die.’
‘She lied to you.’ The God King stepped between Ruben and Jesriel. ‘Made you see what she wanted you to see—just as she lied to me. It is what she does.’ Renial leant down, putting his face close to hers. ‘She lies. She abandons.’