“Uncle Yav’el!” she screamed, but her voice was drowned out by the screams of the crowd as their defender struck the bald man’s shield.
After a few seconds, the evil wizard with his grey staff lifted her uncle into the air without even touching him and smashed him into the orange shield protecting him.
Though she was only eight years old, she knew that her uncle was dead when he fell to the ground and didn’t move. She had seen the same thing happen to animals before they were turned into food, and Uncle Yav’el had said the same thing happened to her daddy when she was very young.
The evil, bald man stepped past her uncle’s body and walked purposefully toward her. As he approached, the crowd around her fell back in fear while she alone refused to move. Her auntie held her hand tightly, but the little girl looked up at the evil wizard with eyes full of pure, righteous fury. She silently promised herself at that moment that she would kill this man one day.
The bald man looked down at her, and they regarded each other in silence for many minutes while the assembled crowd looked on, until even her auntie tried to pull her away as the older woman began to whimper in fear.
But the little raven-haired girl pulled her hand free from her auntie’s, refusing to back down from this man. She balled her little hands into fists and felt her nails bite into her palms.
“Good,” said the man’s hard, unyielding voice, and the crowd took a reflexive step back at the sound of his words, “you will need that strength for what lies before you.”
“I hate you,” she spat, “I’m going to kill you for what you did!”
He nodded his evil, bald head as he leaned down, using his staff for support as he came to rest on one knee in front of her. “If that is what you wish,” he began seriously, “then you must do precisely as I say, and one day you may find the strength to make good on that vow.”
The wizard stood and locked eyes with her auntie. “Prepare the child to be transferred into my custody immediately,” he instructed. “I return home in the morning.”
Her auntie, having regained some of her composure, stepped forward tentatively. “I will accompany her,” she said in a trembling voice.
The wizard shook his evil, bald head emphatically. “No,” he replied, “the Imperial City is no place for your kind and Gilai’el must enter her new family alone, for that is the promise I made to her forebears. Say your farewells tonight, for we depart at dawn’s first light.”
His body became wreathed in an orange light, and before her auntie could protest, the bald man shot into the air and quickly disappeared, traveling in the direction of Uncle Yav’el’s home.
1
Departure
Gilai’el did not sleep that night; instead, she sat at the edge of her bed and thought about what had already happened, and what might happen next. Her auntie had become distant, but she didn’t care. She had never really liked her auntie, who always made her do the chores she was too lazy to do herself.
The work didn’t bother Gilai’el, who preferred the solitude to the incessant complaints her auntie would make about how she shouldn’t have to raise her sister’s child, especially when she didn’t really care for her sister.
Gilai’el’s mother had died during the birth of her first daughter and only child, but no one in the family would talk to her about it when she asked. She hated being treated like a baby by the grownups, but there was nothing she could do about it.
She had tried to run away to Uncle Yav’el’s home and had actually succeeded on more than a few occasions. He would scold her and usually walk her home as soon as she arrived, telling her that she wasn’t ready to begin her lessons to follow in her father’s footsteps, but sometimes he would let her stay for the night. When he did, he would always make her a special dinner: chowder and biscuits, along with her favorite starburst fruit for dessert.
So, it was with mixed feelings that she waited for the first rays of the morning sun to enter her bedroom’s tiny window. She fully intended to make good on her threat to kill her uncle’s murderer, but an entire night of quiet thought had led her to believe that the evil, bald man was right: the only way she could kill him is if she learned what he knew first. Her father and uncle were the most powerful sorcerers in the known lands, and nothing Uncle Yav’el had done to the bald man had worked, even a little bit. She would not have believed it possible if she had not seen it with her own two eyes.
“Come along,” said her auntie sharply from the doorway. “The sun is nearly up.”
Gilai’el knew her auntie was right, and she gathered the small bundle of clothing and personal items she held dear, chief among them her mother’s hairbrush. The handle was carved out of some large animal bone, and the bristles were made from the ribs of a fish which lived in the lakes nearby. Most of the bristles were gone, and the brush was mostly decorative and not supposed to be used, but every now and then she would run it through her hair and imagine how her life would have been if her parents had lived. Even without her parents, life had been tolerable with Uncle Yav’el around, especially when he had promised Gilai’el that she could come live with him when she was old enough to start her magic training. But now, she felt completely alone for the first time…and it terrified her.
They left the house and went to the village square, which was only a few minutes’ walk from her auntie’s house. Her auntie was the local seamstress, and her home was one of the more centrally located in the small community of farmers and hunters that made up her village.
The sun had just peeked through the clouds when they arrived at the site where her uncle had died. The funeral had been at midnight, but Gilai’el had stayed home instead of attending. She loved her uncle, but he was gone and watching what was left of him turn to ash and fly away in the wind wasn’t going to change that.
She heard a noise from behind, and when she turned to look, she saw the evil wizard.
“Are you prepared?” he asked. His staff was gone, but he was still wearing the grey robes from the day before.
Gilai’el stepped forward and thrust her chin out defiantly. She didn’t need to look to know that her auntie wasn’t going to intervene, so she locked her eyes with the wizard and nodded.
“Good,” he replied with a curt nod before turning to her auntie. “I have cast a great many spells upon her family’s home, and those spells will prevent entry — as well as punish those who attempt to do so,” he said in a dark, threatening tone that didn’t scare Gilai’el, but she turned and saw that her auntie looked ready to run away in terror. “That is Gilai’el’s home, and she may choose to return to it one day. Your people would do well to avoid it.”
Her auntie’s head bobbed up and down, and Gilai’el snorted in disgust. She really was thankful to be rid of that woman.
“Come, Gilai’el,” instructed the bald man as he held out his arm.
Gilai’el looked at the man with as much anger as she had ever felt before taking hold of his forearm with both hands, and the small bundle containing her effects dangled from her elbow by a small piece of twine.
Without warning, they flew from the ground too fast for her to believe. She noticed that the bald wizard’s shimmering, orange field had returned when they were in the air. She even saw a bird smash into it, before sliding off and disappearing behind them. Strangely, she felt no wind in her face at all, and even when they flew through the rain a few minutes into their flight, she didn’t get a single drop on herself.
“This journey will take some time, child,” he said in his hard, evil voice after a while. “You may wish to sleep.”
“What promise did you make to Uncle Yav’el?” she asked suddenly, as the question had been burning in her mind since the previous day.
The bald man looked down at her and locked his eyes with hers. After a few moments, he looked back up in the direction they were going.
“It was not a promise made only with your uncle,” he explained, “but with your grandfather’s grandfather, and his b
rothers. They agreed to help me, and in return I promised to safeguard their children and their children’s children if their helping me somehow prevented them from doing so.”
“What did they do to help you?” Gilai’el demanded. She needed to know what it was that had cost her uncle Yav’el his life. She had loved him like she imagined she would love her own father, and she needed answers about his death — even if they came from such an evil, untrustworthy man as this.
The bald man shook his head. “I cannot tell you,” he said in a tone that brooked no further questions from the young girl. “You would be wise to sleep,” he repeated.
“I would sleep if I was tired,” she retorted angrily.
The corners of the bald man’s lips turned upward in the hint of a smile, and the last thing Gilai’el noticed was his orange field flaring brightly before she fell fast asleep.
2
A New Home
“Awaken,” commanded the bald man’s voice, and Gilai’el realized she had.
“What happened?” she asked groggily, rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn.
The grey-robed man shook his head. “You said you would sleep, were you tired,” he replied matter-of-factly, “and then you slept.”
Gilai’el looked below and saw rolling, green hills covered with more beautiful, thick grass than she had ever seen.
“Where are we?” she breathed as she noticed that the orange globe surrounding them was no longer orange; it was green, almost like the grass below.
“We are near the Imperial City,” he answered, gesturing forward with his hand.
Only then did she realize he was holding her in the crook of his arm, apparently having done so since she had fallen asleep.
The black-haired girl immediately tried to slide out of his arm, and he allowed her to do so until her toes touched the top of his foot, where she resumed her previous position with her arms clinging around his forearm.
Then she saw what they were flying toward, it made her jaw drop.
Far in the distance, but coming closer with each passing second was a huge structure like nothing she had even read about in Uncle Yav’el’s books. It reached into the sky, almost like a great hand, with five, twisting columns which merged into one solid piece halfway down its form, only to spread into five separate columns once again, which were planted firmly on the ground like the trunks of some great, dark tree.
The longer they traveled, the more easily she could see just how massive the structure was. The buildings beside it were larger than even the biggest barn in her village, which held enough hay to feed fifty cattle for an entire winter. But these buildings looked like insignificant specks beside the massive, impossible structure.
“The Great Tower,” said the man, and Gilai’el closed her mouth when she realized he had seen her look of awe. “Perhaps one day, if you are fortunate, you will call it your home.”
“Why would I want to live there?” she asked incredulously, but deep down she really wanted to know the answer.
“That is where all High Wizards live,” he explained, “until they have completed their studies, that is.”
Gilai’el’s eyes narrowed. “Uncle Yav’el never lived there,” she said defiantly. “He was the greatest sorcerer in our lands!”
The bald man nodded absently. “You are correct and correct,” he replied simply, and she saw that they were quickly lowering to the ground. The closest buildings were many miles away, so she looked up at the grey-robed man when they touched down on the soft, fragrant grass of the meadow which stretched farther than her eyes could see.
“Why are we stopping?” she asked warily.
The man gestured in the distance, and Gilai’el squinted her eyes to see what he was pointing at.
After a few seconds, she saw it, and she took a step back in spite of herself.
It looked like a boat, but it was bigger than any that the fishermen used on the lakes near the village and there was no water nearby, and this boat was flying through the air!
Floating barely higher above the ground than she was tall, it skimmed over the rolling hills until quickly arriving where they stood, and she saw a woman with a bright, white robe standing on the front of the strange airboat.
A long, narrow plank descended from the side of the strange, floating boat and the woman stepped down. She was shorter than most women Gilai’el had grown up with, and she had curly, brown hair around a face that was also rounder and plumper than any woman she had known.
“Magos,” the woman said briskly, bowing her head respectfully to the bald man, “I am here to conduct you to House Listoh Estate.”
So that is the man’s name, Gilai’el thought to herself, making a note to remember it.
“Thank you, Magos,” replied the bald man before gesturing for Gilai’el to board the strange craft.
How can they both be named Magos? she wondered silently as she approached the airboat. Are they family? They do not behave as family…
She stopped at the base of the ramp and looked hesitantly up at the vessel. It was built out of a strange, dark wood that she did not recognize, and the quality of it was beyond anything she had seen in her young life.
“Go on, child,” instructed the woman wearing the white robe. Gilai’el turned to see that the woman’s robe had a strange emblem on the back of it that resembled a large collar, sort of like the ones used to hitch a plow to a farm beast.
Taking a deep breath, the little girl stepped up onto the ramp and after a short climb, found herself on the deck of the boat.
There were some men there, wearing silver-colored armor that glinted in the sunlight. They did not look at her, as their eyes scanned the meadow intensely for something Gilai’el could only wonder at.
The two ‘Magos’s’ followed her up the ramp, and Gilai’el realized that she had just entered a world that was very, very different from the one she had known.
* * *
Their boat flew above the ground faster than anything Gilai’el had ridden in her life — except for her flight with the bald wizard, of course.
Soon, they were skimming along a street that was made entirely of fitted, flat stones, and Gilai’el marveled at how wealthy the people in this place must be to afford the amount of labor required to shape each stone so perfectly, only for the purpose of walking on them!
The buildings gradually grew in size and density as their craft sped through the wide, mostly empty streets. Then the buildings were replaced with tall walls which prevented her from looking beyond them at what they protected.
After a few minutes, the speeding boat turned and slowed as it traveled along a new street. They passed under a great shadow, and Gilai’el looked up to see that the Great Tower was what had blocked out the sun.
It was clear that the massive structure could not have been built by human hands, and must have been the work of the gods. Why she had never heard of it was something which alarmed her, but any potential questions on the subject were shaken from her mind when their boat came to a stop next to a huge, golden gate hanging from pillars of solid stone, which were themselves part of a massive wall.
“We are here,” said the woman wearing the white robes. She waved her hand and the ramp descended, which the woman briskly descended before turning back to face them.
Gilai’el stepped confidently onto the ramp and, clutching her small bundle of personal items in her hands, she looked through the gate, and her breath was nearly taken away as the guards dressed in what looked to be solid gold armor opened the gates, revealing what the woman in white had called House Listoh Estate.
The path stretching forth was made of stones as white as the woman’s robe, and they were impossibly fitted even more precisely than those of the road outside. They formed a straight walkway at least fifteen feet wide, and at regular intervals on each side of the path were huge statues of creatures which were obviously magical. The path led to a massive building which was four stories tall and had massive, continuous balcon
ies which formed walkways that looked to completely surround the huge, rectangular structure.
She took a step forward, looking out across the meticulously landscaped yard to either side of the path before realizing that the grey-robed wizard had not stepped from the airboat.
Gilai’el turned and looked at him, seeing that he was still standing beside the ramp of the craft, which retracted as she watched before the boat slewed around and sped off down the roadway. She lost sight of the boat, and the man when they turned at the first corner.
“Where is he going?” she asked the woman in white.
The robed woman shook her head. “He does not belong here,” she explained as she gestured to the white stone path, “you do, however.”
Gilai’el stepped inside the majestic, golden gate and past the guards in their resplendent, strange armor. She suspected it was more decorative than functional, much like her mother’s precious comb, which she reached into her bundled belongings to touch for reassurance. It was her only remaining connection to the life she had known, as well as to a future she would never get to live.
She walked carefully as her bare feet stepped onto the cool, white stone path. The first statues before her made her jaw slacken once again as she thought she recognized one of them from her uncle’s books.
It looked reptilian, carved of solid black stone with massive wings that stretched out to either side. It had four legs which ended in hooked, sharp talons and it seemed to look down at her with barely contained fury. She backpedaled when she saw its eyes flash a deep, red color. Gilai’el knew it was called a dragon, and her uncle Yav’el had told her that they no longer existed in this world, having been hunted to extinction by evil men.
Her back came against something hard, and when she turned, she shrieked in surprise before falling to the ground, dropping her bundled possessions as she did so.
Shadows and Sorcery: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 316