Wildfire and Steel

by J. J. Green

  Come to think of it, Castiel remembered seeing his father caressing the female servants in the mansion on Ithiya.

  So this was normal. If only he’d realized earlier, he could have had so much more fun.

  The girl was naked.

  “Well, what are you waiting for?” Castiel barked. “Get on the bed.” His former anger over his embarrassing mistake returned. He would work it out of his system on this girl. She would soon perform her service in as much discomfort and pain as he could inflict, and afterward he would watch as she tidied up his room.

  He used the servant roughly, yet though she didn’t enjoy it, she didn’t seem to mind too much. Castiel wondered if she’d been beaten frequently at home and so she’d become insensitive to pain.

  When he was finished, he pushed her away from him. “Get dressed—no, wait. Pick up in here before putting your clothes on. Then you can leave.”

  “Yes, sir.” The girl climbed off the bed and Castiel let his gaze linger on her welts and developing bruises. He had exhausted himself. He could have performed more interesting feats by Casting, but it would not have been as satisfying or cathartic. Expending his strength was much better. His drunkenness had worn off too and he felt the beginnings of a headache. When the girl was gone, he would Heal himself before he slept.

  His eyelids drooping, Castiel watched the servant as she folded the clothes scattered about the floor and carefully laid them inside the chest in the corner. Was she smiling to herself? It seemed she was. Castiel’s eyelids lifted and he pulled himself back from the brink of sleep.

  Why was the girl smiling? Was she a masochist? Had she enjoyed all that he’d done to her? He felt cheated. What he’d done was for his pleasure, not hers. If she liked it, that took away most of the point of the exercise.

  Castiel thought back to Vera. She also hadn’t seemed to particularly mind what he did to her, no matter how brutal he’d been. It was a strange coincidence that the two servants had reacted in the same way.

  It was too much of a coincidence. Castiel wasn’t as experienced as he hoped to become, but even he knew that most women didn’t like being ill-treated in that way. He’d seen his mother shrink from his father’s approach often enough to know that.

  So, why— He sat bolt upright. “You.” He pointed at her, though he couldn’t possibly mean anyone else. “Why are you here?”

  “I’m your room servant, sir.”

  He was out of bed in an instant and by her side. He grabbed a fistful of the girl’s hair and wrenched it, twisting her neck and bending her head almost to the floor. “Why are you really here?”

  “Owww, please, sir! Please, let go!” She fell to her knees.

  “Ha, you don’t like it so much now, do you? Not now there’s no point to it? Not now you aren’t exciting me.” Castiel had a vision of throwing the girl down and stomping on her face until she told him the answer. But Sable Dirksen had probably threatened even worse punishments.

  Sable was no mage, however. She couldn’t stop him from finding out the truth, though he already knew it. He just wanted to hear it from the girl’s lips.

  “Stay there,” Castiel said. In three strides he was across the room and taking his elixir canister from the drawer. He sipped the liquid, closed his eyes, and Cast Enthrall. He opened his eyes. The girl’s stare was blank when he returned to her.

  “You, why were you sent here?”

  “I am your room—”

  He kicked her. “What was the other reason you were sent here?”

  “I am to allow you to use me, sir.”

  “And why is that?” Castiel’s hands were clenching into fists.

  “So that I may become pregnant, sir. If I give birth to a live child sired by you, my family will be richly rewarded.”

  He let out a roar and punched the girl in the face.

  “And Vera? She is pregnant? That’s why you replaced her?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Castiel knocked the girl down. She lay where she fell, blood oozing from her nose. Castiel began to kick her, over and over.

  Sable Dirksen had been tricking him the whole time. After he’d told her that magehood was passed on from parent to child, she’d hatched a plan to force him to sire children for her. More mages who would be entirely under her control.

  Damn her! Damn Sable Dirksen and all her schemes. He would not forget her treachery and deceit. Not for a very long time.

  Chapter Seventeen

  When Carina and her siblings had arrived at the Matching, they carried little more with them than the clothes on their backs. Not long after they walked into the camp, however, with Eira, Justin, and the rest of the crew of the Haihu, they had food, somewhere to sleep, and the warmest welcome Carina had ever known.

  It had taken her days to become accustomed to the idea that she no longer had to hide what she was from strangers, because everyone she met was the same as her. She had never known a time when she had not been forced to keep her abilities secret, with the threat of torture, slavery, or death hanging over her. The new sense of freedom was dizzying, and Carina’s brothers and sisters seemed to feel the same. After a childhood spent living under the domination of their father in a household full of pain, and long months of hiding and running, they could finally relax and be themselves.

  The boys and girls had become more childlike, playing endlessly in the long grass of the prairie. Even Parthenia had joined in their games of tag or hide-and-go-seek. Over the days they had grown fatter and the color returned to their faces.

  While the children played, Carina had spent time wandering around the camp. She discovered that there was no formal structure to the Matching. Over the course of months, young mages would arrive, spend as much time at the camp as they wanted, and then leave at a time of their choosing. Some left with partners they had met, others had the locations of new friends memorized in order to arrange later meetings. A few left without either of these things, but it seemed not unhappily. Perhaps they would return for the next Matching, or perhaps they were content to remain single.

  The young mages passed their days meeting and talking with others, over meals or drinks. Some had brought musical instruments with them and gave performances, others sang, recited poetry, or put on plays. Some taught skills like cooking and crafting.

  Carina’s memory of her dreams became stronger now that she was actually at the place she’d dreamed about, and the camp retained a dreamlike quality for her. She almost could not believe it was real. Was it because it felt too good to be true, and if she truly believed in it, the place might suddenly vanish in a puff of smoke?

  As if to keep her anchored in the more familiar, harsh world outside the Matching, two aspects of the camp marred her experience. The first was that she did not fit in. The young mages she met had clearly been raised in loving families and if they had experienced hardship it was only of the economical kind. The second problem Carina had with the camp was how Darius’ days were spent.

  While his brothers and sisters played, he spent most of his time with the Spirit Mage. When he returned to their tent after a long day of training with the old woman, he was often too tired to play and he would fall asleep soon after dinner.

  Darius said he was helping the Spirit Mage, whose name was Magda, with her Summoning, and she had begun to teach him some things that only Spirit Mages could do. Carina’s unease about the situation increased but she wasn’t sure what to do about it. One thing that particularly saddened her was that Darius was asleep in the evenings when the Spirit Mage told her stories, though Carina guessed that Darius would eventually know all the stories himself.

  It turned out that one of Magda’s roles was to function as the repository for the oral history of the clan. Every night, a couple of hours after the sun had set, someone would build a large fire at the center of the encampment, and the Spirit Mage would sit beside it and tell a story from the mages’ ancient past. She told a different story every night, and would often say she knew more stor
ies than she could tell at one Matching.

  Though Carina disliked the way the old woman had monopolized Darius, she would often attend these story tellings. Parthenia would come to listen to the stories too, but Carina knew better than to attempt to sit with her sister. When she’d tried, Parthenia had gotten up and walked away, drawing the curious stares of others. So instead, Carina usually found a space at the edge of the crowd far from the fire and sat on a blanket that had been spread over the damp, flattened grass. She would cover her shoulders with another blanket for warmth, and listen.

  One evening the Spirit Mage told a very old story from the time the mages departed their home planet, Earth. Carina’s attention increased in focus when she understood what the subject was to be. She had never given up her dream of returning to Earth one day.

  “At that time, most of Earth’s population was living in a country called Antarctica,” said Magda, “which spanned the southern pole. The equatorial regions were desert wastelands, too hot for human survival, and the land masses in between were tropical wildernesses, disease-ridden, and the sites of frequent hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. Some communities survived in the high mountains, and the mage clan was one of these.

  “Earth had not always been in this state, with so few areas suitable for human habitation. Humanity had lived and thrived all over the globe for hundreds of thousands of years. But successive decades of poor management of the planet had driven its systems to extremes that were not compatible with human life in most areas.

  “The planetary government’s proposed solution to this crisis was to approach the mage clan and insist that they use their special abilities to fix the damage and return Earth to its previous, livable state. No amount of explanation would convince the government that this was a task that was entirely beyond mages. Or perhaps the government did not want to hear. Perhaps all it needed was a scapegoat, for its next step was to announce to the world’s media that the mage clan had refused to aid humankind, that it was waiting for non-mages to die out. Then mages would make Earth into a paradise that only they could enjoy.

  “The government employed technology that put the words into the mouths of the Mage Council on vids and holos. Try as they might to deny the lies, the mages were not believed. Perhaps the rest of the population wanted to believe the deceit, which made them easy to convince. By that time, mages had long been feared and hated. Rumors abounded of what kind of people they were and how they lived in their secret mountain castles, most of which were untrue. The mages were so divorced from regular human life, they rarely attempted to correct what was said about them.

  “Due to the government’s propaganda as it sought to deflect the blame for its failings, resentment against mages grew ever stronger. The clan came to the decision that remaining on Earth was simply too dangerous. If they did not leave, one day their mountain abodes would be attacked and they would be murdered or enslaved. The engine that permitted interstellar space travel had been invented, and the mages determined that they would be among the first to abandon Earth for the stars.

  “It took them longer than two Earth years to construct their colony ship, but eventually the day came when they were to board the vessel and depart their home forever. A few of the clan did not want to leave. Many sad goodbyes were said, and then the thousands began to Transport to the launch site.

  “Though the construction of the ship had taken place in great secrecy, word had gotten out to the general populace that the mages were departing Earth. The first mages Transporting into the site found a scene of bloody murder and destruction. People who had hated mages all their lives also did not want them to leave. They demanded that the clan remain on Earth and help the rest of humankind. They said it was their duty and responsibility.

  “So these non-mages had tried to prevent the ship from leaving by killing those who guarded it. They were also trying to sabotage the engines when the colonists arrived. A battle ensued, and though the mages Transported many of those who were trying to prevent them from leaving the scene, for the first time they were forced to kill in order to protect themselves. They won the battle, and they knew their time on Earth was done.

  “Thus it was, with sorrow and shame our ancestors departed their home, never to return.”

  The Spirit Mage fell silent. The story was over. After the mage had taken a drink and a few moments to gather her thoughts, she would begin another. The evening was growing late, and possibly the next story she told would be the last that night.

  Parts of this story of leaving Earth were new to Carina. Ma had told her that mages had left due to persecution, but she hadn’t given her the details about the state of the planet. Carina wondered if her ambition to return to Earth was foolish. She might go to a massive effort to arrive at the home planet only to find a barren wilderness.

  As Carina was contemplating this idea, a tall figure approached out of the darkness where the light from the fire didn’t reach. The man was tall and broad and at first Carina thought it was Justin who had come to listen, but then she saw that the man’s beard was shorter.

  Carina peered over at the man and was surprised to see him sit down next to Parthenia. The two talked quietly while the Spirit Mage began her next story. Carina guessed the newcomer was Justin’s brother, the ranger at the tower on Ostillon.

  Carina did not listen to the new story. Disappointment tormented her. The Spirit Mage’s story seemed to have sucked away Carina’s hopes for a future of safety and happiness far from that galactic sector in the mages’ former home. She realized that she had been listening to Magda’s stories so avidly because she’d been hoping to hear information that would give clues to Earth’s location. But the Spirit Mage’s tale had driven home the fact that her clan had been intent on getting as far from Earth as they could, not returning there. In the story that had been passed down no galactic coordinates were mentioned.

  Yet there was the Map, which she had drawn thousands of times over as a child and which she still recalled every time she meditated. Someone in the distant past of mages had wanted Earth’s location to be remembered, perhaps long after its galactic coordinates had become obsolete and meaningless.

  Carina pondered the problem, withdrawing into herself, until before she knew it the Spirit Mage’s final story was over and the crowd was breaking up to go to bed. She stood and shook out her legs to ease their stiffness after sitting for so long. Parthenia and the ranger remained seated together and talking. Carina walked over to the pair.

  The ranger noticed her approaching and rose to his feet, holding out his hand. “Carina, my name is Jace. It’s nice to meet you again.”

  Parthenia turned her face away.

  Carina shook the ranger’s hand, somewhat perplexed. “Again? Have we already met?”

  “Yes, though only briefly, before you and your brothers and sisters disappeared.”

  “Huh?” Carina wondered what he meant. Then the penny dropped and her eyes widened. “Of course. How stupid of me. That was you at the forest on Ostillon.”

  “It was. I was walking alone after dark, laying low and waiting for the hostilities between the Sherrerrs and Dirksens to blow over so I could leave the planet and come here, when I spotted a fire in among the trees. I made my way over, wondering who could be there, so far from civilization. I saw your shelter and went over for a closer look.

  “Imagine my surprise when the sleepers in the shelter began to disappear before my eyes. It didn’t take me long to realize that you were mages Transporting yourselves away, afraid of discovery. And then I also guessed that you must have something to do with the two mage children I had helped weeks previously, one of whom I’ve finally found again.” He smiled at Parthenia, but she continued to hold her face averted.

  Jace frowned in confusion.

  “It’s okay,” said Carina. “It isn’t you Parthenia is mad at, it’s me.” She took a breath and let it out in a sigh, ashamed of what she was about to admit. “I cast Enthrall on her to force her to l
eave Ostillon.”

  “You…?” asked Jace, eyes widening. “That was….” He paused, too polite to state his opinion.

  “A terrible thing to do,” said Carina. “I know, and I hated to do it, but I didn’t want Parthenia to die.” She paused again, and then her guilt and unhappiness regarding her relationship with her sister overcame her and words flooded from her mouth without hindrance.

  “She means so much to me. Her help was invaluable when we escaped the Sherrerrs. I could never have done it without her, and after that she kept our brothers and sister safe in dangerous, difficult circumstances. She’s quick-thinking, resourceful, and smart, and I love her. I couldn’t leave her on Ostillon, even if it meant taking away her free will. I’m sorry for it, but I don’t regret it. I would do the same again because I can’t bear to lose her, not after losing Ma.”

  Carina hadn’t been aware what she was going to say before she said it. Yet she’d meant it all and was glad she’d had the opportunity to tell her sister how she felt.

  Parthenia’s head remained turned away, but Carina sensed a small change in her, as if her sister had been affected by what she’d said.

  “I think I understand what happened,” said Jace. “You faced a hard choice.”

  “I didn’t have a good option to pick.”

  “But I don’t know that staying on Ostillon was as dangerous as you think,” said Jace. “As long as you avoided the populated areas you should have been fairly safe. I myself only had to wait until regular space travel was allowed again before I could leave.”

  “Oh, don’t you know about our brother, Castiel?” asked Parthenia.

  “No, I haven’t heard that name. I only just arrived.”

  “That’s a long story,” said Carina, “and a discussion we need to have with Magda, Justin, and anyone else who’s in charge here. But the short version is, our brother is a Dark Mage, and he’s helping the Dirksens.”

  “A Dark Mage?” asked Jace. “That is bad news. So that was why you didn’t want to leave your sister on Ostillon? It makes more sense now. Dark Mages are difficult to defeat, even for many mages working together. You could not have accomplished that alone, Parthenia.”