The Power Bearer

by Guy Antibes

  “There are more goods than I said. I think you should take what’s left. You never know when you need to trade to the natives. They love the cloth,” Oswalt said and winked at them. He looked at the two men approaching. “Looks like you’ll just need the one wagon. The mage looks fit enough to ride.”

  In an hour, Norra lay crosswise in the back of their wagon. She clutched the purse of what was left of their original funds. She said a silent prayer of thanks to Fenning. The slavers’ money, which she hoped to give to someone needy along the way and the purse for the slavers’ goods sat beside her. They had more than enough funds to get to Magia and beyond. Beneath her, creating a soft floor for the wagon, lay eleven bolts of silk, two of muslin, a sack of lace and the retrieved bag of fans.

  Was it worth the injury? Of whatever hell Lily had to cross being abducted? But then Norra had crossed a different hell and she wasn’t entirely happy with her changed outlook. It didn’t matter what Lily had faced. The trepidations she felt killing the two wizards with Fenning and the one who killed him had faded from her conscience. These people were evil and meant harm to every innocent woman traveling the Pass Road. She found herself able to kill Clint, a person she knew, and destroy the slaver-wizards. She wasn’t proud of herself, but such a test might face her again in the future, but now she knew she could take on an enemy and survive the personal trauma. Her father might not be too proud of her outlook, grim as it was. However, she felt more at peace with herself than for some time. Purpose was restored and that came at quite a cost.

  Delia had been located, Namen awakened, Lily rescued, and Herran had returned. They were together again and headed in their intended direction. So many changes. Norra took a deep breath, happy with the reunion, yet afraid of what changes lay ahead.

  ~

  Norra looked out at the landscape as the bushes and trees changed from the kinds she knew in Hestvestia to something new on the south side of the river. Everything looked spiky. Palms with spiky fans grew in clumps around the oases along with cacti that had spikes sticking out of fleshy skin. Grasses crept along the ground with tall stalks jumping up in their centers. The ground became patched with sand. But what amazed her was the clarity of the dry air. She could see for miles now that they were off of the dusty caravan route.

  She felt a faint excitement. Although her life might meet even greater challenges when they made it to the upper reaches of Yulga’s Pass, she decided to put that in the back of her mind and concentrate on getting better.

  “Are you ready to walk around a bit?” Herran said as he put his head through the back flaps of the wagon’s canopy. “We’ll be stopping at an oasis in an hour, but I thought you might want to take a few steps now and be ready to take some more. If you don’t start walking, your muscles will go soft.”

  Muscles going soft. Norra could remember that not too many months ago, Miss Poddy insisted that a proper lady didn’t exercise and should have servants do all the hard work. Soft muscles were expected and she smiled at the irony of her lugging her trunk up all the stairs to her room. And now? She fought men with a sword, she knew how to get her sea legs, and she traveled in circumstances that would probably make Miss Poddy faint.

  She laughed. “I’m more than ready.” She slid over to the back and hooked her arm around Herran’s offered neck. He put her arms around her back and under her legs. That sent a tingle through her body and she grabbed him a bit tighter than she normally would as he lifted her up and over the wagon’s back gate.

  “I’ll lower you gently and you tell me if you can put some weight on that leg.”

  She looked down at the ground and felt a stab of fear. “Well let’s see what a week of healing has done.”

  Herran put her feet on the ground and she gradually stood upright.

  “Help me for a bit.” Norra felt some pain, but she walked around gingerly on her leg. “It hurts, but I’ll need to walk so we can get over the pass. I don’t suppose we can take the carts over.”

  Herran shook his head. “No. From the way the map looks, it’s a trail and at the top you will likely walk on snow.”

  Norra stopped and looked away from the road. “Do you trust Namen?”

  “Me?” Herran said. “I guess I do in regards to Lily and you. Namen is a unique man. Why?”

  “I need a mage to help me when I get to the Master Mage’s tower. That’s what he said when he died. A Mage I can trust.”

  “Namen would qualify then. You’ll have to go all the way over the pass. I’ll bet you’ll know for sure by the time you’ve crossed the glacier.”

  Norra gave out short laugh. “Snow.” She looked at the sky and the surrounding area. “From this desert up to a glacier, I imagine. That will be fun. Even more important for me to push this as much as I can.” She walked a bit more and then stood, breathing hard. “Perhaps I’ll start with a crutch or cane.”

  Herran smiled and said, “I’m sure we can find something.”

  Lily and Namen walked back. “Perhaps I’ll make it on my own,” Norra said.

  “I would take it slowly,” Namen said. “If need be I can create a charm, but the price would be high when you reach the other side.”

  “No. I’ll get through this.”

  Gristan appeared on top of the canopy. “Riders, many riders coming from the northeast. I do believe they look like slavers.” Clouds of dust spread across the road.

  Namen turned his head towards Herran. “Can you help me to confront these men? Undoubtedly they want the gold and the goods.”

  Herran looked towards the line of mountains at the edge of the horizon and paused. “A bit. My power is not like yours, but I’ll help where I can.”

  The mage raised his eyebrows. “Can’t you whisper spells in Norra’s ear?”

  Herran smiled. “I can do that. Perhaps I can make up for her lack of knowledge with some measure of creativity.” Norra looked at the both of them.

  “Herran will work with you from the wagon. I will stand at its side. We can even the odds.” Namen’s face turned grim. “Can you use your sword, Lily?”

  “I’ll use it as I can. My shoulder is getting better each day, but I won’t last long before it will hurt too much to use.”

  They tied up the horses in the front, away from the approaching men and pulled back the flaps. Herron undid the shackles on the rear gate and let it down and then helped Norra sit up.

  “You must talk to them first,” Norra said as she settled herself. “You will need a sword, Herron.”

  He went to his horse and returned with a very serviceable blade at his waist. “That looks considerably better than your grand-uncle’s sword,” Norra said.

  “Indeed it is.” Herron grinned and loosened the blade as he stood at her side.

  Namen raised his hands and a shimmering barrier about five feet high rose up from the ground around him as the horsemen approached. They saw the barrier and held up.

  “Do you seek us?” Namen said, standing straight and holding his arms out from his side.

  “You have stolen slaver guild’s property.”

  “I didn’t realize there was a ‘Stolen Slaver’s Guild’,” Namen said. “I didn’t think property was a concept that you people understood.”

  “We have wizards among us as well, so return the red-headed woman and what was taken from our brothers.”

  “So you know your criminal brethren took the woman who stands behind me with a sword in her hand and I would think if someone can break away from an entire group of you that she would lose the tag of ‘property’. In my way of thinking, any goods liberated from your thieving clutches would likewise belong to her. I might be persuaded to pay you ten gold pieces for your trouble riding all the way here, but that is about it, my friend.”

  The slaver gnashed his teeth and road back through his men to consult with someone in the rear.

  Namen turned his head back towards Norra and the rest. “Be ready with any possible shield you might know.”

  The horse
men received word to back up and at the same time Namen raised the shimmering barrier into a dome.

  “I can’t hold this for long.” And just as he finished, two arcs of purple flame arced over the horsemen and slammed into the barrier.

  Herran whispered in Norra’s ear and she recited the spell back to make sure she had it right in her mind. “Lower the barrier, Namen,” Herran said.

  “Gladly.” Namen nodded at Norra.

  Norra pointed the index fingers of both hands and yelled the spell Herran told her and then she shook her hands. What looked like sheet lightning issued forth following the arced path of the purple fire. Most of the horses bucked and bolted, leaving half of the men on the ground and showing five pillars of fire standing in the road some paces back. Norra fainted.

  ~

  Namen

  Namen couldn’t sense any other wizards in the slaver’s group after Norra’s astonishing performance. He doubted if he had the power to burn five wizards at once. He stroked his throat. His voice boomed out into the arid land in front of him so loudly most of the slaver’s put their hands to their ears. “Your wizards are destroyed. Behold the flame. If you wish to join them come and fight.” He had to admit that he loved using the Voice.

  Two of the unhorsed slavers attacked. Namen retreated to the wagon and said, “I have no ability with a sword, but let them see what a woman can do. Lily pleaded with me to let her fight a few should circumstances permit and it appears that it has.”

  Herran pulled out his sword and stood as a second to Lily’s fight. She danced around the men and sliced them to ribbons. She parried and dodged most of their swipes at her, rarely blade to blade, to protect her shoulder. She sliced the achilles tendon of one and ran the other through his midsection. Namen reminded himself never to get involved in a sword fight with the woman.

  Namen strode towards the assembling slavers with his arms extended. “Well it appears you have three choices. You may burn by our spells—I am a mage, not a wizard—you may die by the sword, or you may leave.” He stood there waiting to see what would happen, stroking his forked beard with both of his hands. He actually exaggerated his ability to burn them all, but Norra’s astounding performance would keep them from questioning the groups’ ability.

  A few of the slavers broke through the line, heading back the way they came. Their trickle became a flood as the rest of the men started running. Others began to find horses. Namen sent a few bolts into the ground and might have burned a few toes, to convince the few that remained. Lily stood, continuing to breath heavy while the mage walked back to the wagon and collapsed just before he reached it.

  “My man,” Herran said as he stooped to assist Namen to his feet and helped him to sit on the back of the wagon with Norra. “That was a mighty spell. I’ve never seen a barrier so large held for so long.”

  “Ah, it’s much harder than throwing around bolts of fire.” Then Namen thought about Herran’s comment. “And how were you able to see a barrier at all, Herran? Wizards can’t see my barrier.”

  “Ah! You’ve caught me. I spent a summer a few years ago in Magia, dressed in the robes of a wizard and saw all kinds of spells being practiced. Even mages, perhaps you were one of them. I learned the spells to see the magical arts. It was, for me, a rite of passage. I know enough to create a few sparkles and did Norra ever sparkle!” Herran kept up with the dissembling of his abilities as he took Norra’s hand.

  “What power to take a little trick I learned to light a fire and turn it into such a weapon,” Herran said.

  That was no mere wizard’s spell and Norra’s power exceeded even his own. Namen noted the change in subject and decided he wouldn’t force Herran to admit his own rather impressive abilities. They would all savor their victory.

  “Why did that just burn the wizards?” Norra said. I thought I’d singe a few eyebrows on the front row.”

  “Most likely the spell whispered in your ear both augmented the flame and sought the wizards who threw the purple bolts. Am I right, Herran?” Namen narrowed his eyes. “What level are you, Herran?”

  “I am a disappearing one.” Herran snapped his fingers and vanished.

  Norra covered her open mouth. “Did he just leave?”

  “I daresay. He told me he knew the arts, but I think he overreached this time. Herran is a mage, for certain, and a better one than I. And you, Norra, have more power in you than the both of us. We know you’ve got extraordinary power and you want to eliminate it, but I’ve never heard the story, just that you seek to enter Magia. What does he have to do with this? It’s time for you to tell me exactly how you received it. It’s the least I deserve.”

  “Perhaps it’s time to let Namen know the entire story, Norra,” Gristan said as he floated from on top of the wagon to the ground.

  What a story and by all accounts, verified by her power, quite true.

  “Gristan and Fenning seemed to think it was the Master Mage, and as you have seen, I am unable to remember spells at all.”

  Namen pulled at his forked beard. “It makes sense. The Master Mage has been missing for at least as long as your story. His mention of Barleywood and Gristan’s description certainly indicate that he willed you his power. To bestow such power on a female did indeed indicate that he was near death. But such a death.” Namen closed his eyes. “Glorious. It is a shame only you observed his final demise.”

  “So that’s why I have this power and that’s why I want to go the Master Mage’s Tower to rid myself of it.”

  “I can’t believe you would want to give up so much. No man I know would do such a thing.”

  “It’s plain to see that I am no man. I’m just a repository. I have to be fed the spells in order for them to work. Do you think the butterfly was him leading me?”

  “I wouldn’t consider that an impossibility. The Master Mage practiced magic on a far different level than the rest of us. He was a freak of nature. But perhaps he was too far gone that he had to give it to someone before he so gloriously bowed out of this life,” Namen said with awe in his voice. He gloried in his luck that led him to the girl. Seeing her in action was more rewarding than fighting any number of the vermin wizards that infested Polda.

  “So does that make me a freak, as well?”

  Namen shook his head slowly. “No. You, Norra, are a curiosity.” He smiled. “And so is your friend Herran. I think you may see him again. He is quite partial to you, but I am afraid he is right. Two mages may be one too many on our quest to add to your own prodigous power, at least for now.” He looked out at the still-smoking forms of the wizards lying in the road fifty paces from them. “I look forward to the day,” Namen said. He heard Norra gasp. “No, I mean it in a good way. He wishes you no ill. I just don’t think he is prepared to reveal who he really is.”

  “Namen,” Bloggo said as he came around from the front of the wagon, “Herran’s horse is gone.”

  Namen only shook his head. “If he can move himself and the horse, even out of my sight, he is very powerful indeed. As for myself, I’m afraid you will have to put up with me in the wagon for a day or so until I fully recover. Bloggo can drive us all.”

  ~~~~

  Chapter Fourteen

  A Royal Reunion

  ~

  Norra

  At least Namen didn’t feel the need to sleep in the wagon, Norra thought as she tried to drift off, but Herran leaving them like that really hurt her. The bolts were the power of both of them combined. She realized that now. She closed her eyes and drifted off.

  A familiar dampness woke her in the dark. “I see you’ve picked up a mage, Norra,” Cloud said quietly.

  “We have, no thanks to you.”

  “And what would you have me do? He seems to have become an ally, and you could do much worse—like Clint, for instance.”

  Norra felt her face heat up in the dark. “You were right about Clint. He abducted Lily. The mage has joined our company and, as I said, slavers abducted Lily. We both were injured, but ma
de it out alive. Clint was one of them and he’s dead.

  “Today they wanted their money and Lily back. We defeated them with magic, and then Herran was revealed as a mage and disappeared. Are you sure you didn’t recognize him?”

  “No, I’m not sure. “

  “Are you a mage?” Norra threw that in for good measure.

  “How can a cloud be a mage? However, I do possess some power, but I am forbidden to tell you about me. Just trust the Cloud.” She didn’t know how he could say that and communicate that he was smiling. “Anyway, I’m not going to fly around with Namen in your midst. It’s not that I don’t trust him, but I think he has a thing against common wizards, even if I do have a specialty.” The smile showed itself in Norra’s mind again.

  “Perhaps you can show us to Delia’s village,” Norra said in a whisper. “Herran said she was a queen and now I’m not so sure I believe him.”

  “She definitely is.” Cloud didn’t speak for a moment. She got the impression he cleared his throat or something and then said, “If you need me, just look up in the sky and whistle. I’ll be along in a week or so.”

  “So far, that’s been your style. But thank you for showing up. I’m glad you’re still with us.” Norra put out her hand and touched Cloud.

  “Stay safe, Norra.” His voice actually sounded tender and then he flew out.

  Why was she collecting mages and wizards? Now if only she could get them to cooperate with one another. She sighed and found her eyes drooping.

  ~

  Norra woke up first, the next morning, and she slipped over to the end of the wagon to walk around a bit. She tenderly put her leg down and felt an ache, but no pain as she continued to move around the camp.

  “Where’s your walking stick?” Lily said, rubbing her hair as she sat up from her blankets.

  “I guess my body did some miraculous healing last night.” She gave her friend a weak smile. The only thing about last night was the visit by Cloud. Could he have done this? Yes, he must have. “Cloud stopped by. With Herran gone, he’ll lead us to Delia’s village.”

  Namen came around from the other side of the wagon, stretching out the kinks from sleeping on the ground. “What’s this?”