The Power Bearer

by Guy Antibes

  Could she trust him? It seemed like she asked herself that all the time. Did he need her power to keep the mages from taking over Polda? She knew he wouldn’t treat people like the other mages. His domain proved that point, but at the cost of her life? She hoped that as he went through the remaining writings of the Master Mage, that he would find an answer.

  Lily knocked on her door. “Norra, the others have had something to eat and desire to return to the workshop.” She rose from the tub and toweled herself off. She decided to wear the one dress she brought along with her.

  The entire group sat in the sitting area, even Gristan, who couldn’t resist letting a corner of his mouth twist up. Evidently something excited him.

  “So you have the power to get up and down from the workshop?” Merran said.

  “The ghost has proven that by his appearance,” Namen said.

  Gristan sniffed and gave Namen a diffident look. “I poked around and could turn pages without too much effort. I couldn’t lift up a book, but I can do a little study to help out. It’s a great reward to be able to do something useful. I found that I can slip through the door cracks. The doors and walls are impermeable.” He looked directly at Norra. “The mage has warded his study, but he didn’t ward the cracks in the doors. I am free to roam, because I can squeeze through the tiniest of openings.” He seemed to preen as he announced his news.

  Gristan’s mobility would allow him to stay at the Mage’s tower as long as he wished. If Norra decided to transfer her power, Gristan might have a new and very spacious home. Bringing him all the way to the tower might be a victory of sorts for her dear ghost. She still didn’t know what kind of victory or defeat awaited her. She didn’t feel any closer to a final decision than when Merran first told her of the awful truth of the transfer spells.

  “Here, I brought some bread and fruit,” Lily said. “You can drink the water that is available up in his workshop.”

  They went to the top. Norra brooded and idly perused the books, munching on an apple, until she found a little volume of basic spells for apprentices and idly flipped through it. Perhaps it could serve as the Handbook of Spells, Gristan had joked about on their first day. Lily cleared out some space and practiced her sword dances. Merran set a sheaf of pages with the Master Mage’s writing down in front of Gristan at the mage’s desk. And Namen and Merran continued to pore through the Mage’s library.

  Norra tried a few of the spells. She removed herself to a small work area away from the others and found that the spell book did indeed work. She took a little ball from a jar filled with them and was able to lift it up from the surface of the worktable. Then she proceeded to make it bounce.

  Then she made a little globe of light. It was much smaller than what Namen had created, but she did this on her own. As she progressed though a few more lessons, she realized she wasn’t enjoying the feeling of power that the book mentioned. Evidently the spell work energized little boys and made them a bit unruly. There were focus exercises to calm them down. Norra tried one and fell asleep with her head on the table.

  Namen called to Norra and Lily to come to his side of the tower. Norra lifted her head and stretched. She put the little spell book in the pocket of her dress and went to see what all of the commotion was.

  Down in the meadow, wizards and mages began to leak from the trees and assemble into groups. Pennants waved in the wind as they gathered into large groups. Namen and Merran counted the banners.

  “All eight have converged on us,” Merran said. “We must have showed them the way.” He looked down to see wizards bumping into the tower itself and then ropes were brought and a line of ropes dictated where the tower lay in the meadow.

  “What was the Master Mage’s color?”

  “He was red, pure in color but bright—blinding if you looked at it too long. Your color reminds me of his, but it’s not quite as bright and has a golden cast to it. As I’ve told you, it’s still brighter than mine or Merran’s,” Namen said.

  Norra wondered if her little book had the spell to determine the lights. “And how did he get that way?”

  Namen nodded. “You are perceptive, Norra. He wasn’t born with that light. It’s something that develops over time. Most mages, when they are older, if they’ve studied, will shine with blue. If they find techniques that increase their power further there might be a green tinge. I doubt if any have gone that color in a hundred years except perhaps Merran, over there. They are too busy bullying their serfs.” Norra was sure Namen would have spit on the floor in derision if she or Lily weren’t there. “I guess it’s like a muscle, but some are predisposed with a larger capacity for strength. If that muscle is strengthened through practice and study, it changes from a pale brightness to silver and then to blue. Even though you’ve practiced and your light is brighter than I’ve ever seen, it hasn’t changed in color. Don’t ask me to explain.” He raised his hands in the air. “I don’t know. You break all the rules…and I mean that in the very best sense.” Namen smiled and returned to look at the assembling hordes.

  She gave up on the subject and sat down to thumb through her book. Norra didn’t care to observe their enemies making camp. No one paid her any attention as all other eyes were on the meadow. She found the spell and said it, shaking an index finger. Norra wondered if this was the kind of spell that Gristan had, or may still have. She must have used this same spell on the night that she saved Lily from the slavers. A bright light burned in the chest of both mages. Merran’s was brighter and did indeed have a bare tint of green that reminded Norra of the sea. She stood up, putting her book away, and looked down at the wizards gathering below. By far the most common light was white and silver. It reminded her of moonlight or the sparkle of starlight. The mages’ lights all showed blue. A mage in bright silks ordered other mages around him and his light was brighter. None shone like Merran’s, at least from her vantage point.

  “That man in the silks. He must be the strongest of them all,” Norra said. “This little book has the wizard light spell. The rest of the wizards look like stars in the sky.” The thousands of pinpoints of light vanished as the spell dissipated. “Gone. The spell is gone. I did see them.”

  Merran gave her half of a smile. “You’re right. That’s Bistomer. The leader of the Nine. He’s not the most anxious to invade Polda, though. If that happens, he loses the taxes he continually gets from every domain for goods and slaves brought into Magia.”

  Men continued to trickle into the meadow. All the group could do was watch the action. Norra walked to the other side of the tower and found it surrounded. They had no way out, but the mages had no way in.

  “Can they attack the tower?” Norra said as she completed her circuit of the workshop.

  “No,” Namen and Herran replied together in unison.

  “It was been tried plenty of times,” Namen said. “When the Master Mage shut the tower off, he put massive protection spells to guard it. No mages could defeat them, even with armies at his doorstep, or so I was told. Once he drove everyone off of his domain, he hid the tower and moved the topography around so the maps in his domain were rendered useless. Maybe he even moved the tower. He probably had the power to do it.” Namen smiled. He turned again to the assembling horde.

  They returned to the dining level for their midday meal. Namen ate heartily, but none of the others did. By the time they returned to the workshop, a full ring of wizards and mages surrounded the tower. Perhaps three or four hundred men raised their arms together and sent bolts of multicolored fire into the tower. Norra flinched, but they could feel nothing from the onslaught.

  A bit later, groups of men formed a line going from the base of the tower every fifty paces or so into the forest. Norra couldn’t remember the wizard light spell and cracked open the book and took a look. They were all mages. “What will those mages do?”

  Merran’s eyebrow rose and then saw the book in her hand and smiled. “Perhaps shake the ground or try a wind or something.”

&nbs
p; “But they’re all in a row,” Norra said.

  “Hmmm.” Namen felt his forked beard. “A battering ram?” He looked at Merran who nodded.

  They heard a crack and the forest shook. The base of a huge tree, with branches removed, floated above the heads of the mages at the edge of the meadow and then it moved faster and faster towards the tower. In seconds, the tree exploded against the tower. Norra heard the smashing of the wood and tried to look down at the base, but the balcony stood in her way, so she followed the rest out the door, into the wind, and looked down to view the devastation. Shards of wood and splinters of all kind protruded from the mages and any wizards unfortunate enough to have been standing close to the tower.

  “It’s highly unlikely they’ll try that again,” Namen said drily. “At least they were smart enough to bring healers.”

  Those bearing satchels surrounded the unfortunates on the ground. The healers dragged the victims away from the base of the tower.

  Namen and Merran sent bolts of energy into the ground.

  “Don’t kill them. They are wounded men and deserve to be treated with respect,” Norra said. Watching more bolts hurled from the balcony.

  “We are scaring them, Norra,” Merran said. “Why don’t you use that little book and shoot a few bolts down there as well. Your wizard light and your bolts will confuse them to no end.”

  She looked out at the fields, full of men who wanted to topple the tower and her in it, and agreed that a diversion would be justified. She moved inside and searched the handbook for a wizards’ bolt. The wizard’s fire spell was more advanced and showed up towards the back. She ran the spell through her mind and tucked the book away. She extended her hands and shouted the spell, throwing her hands towards the ground as hard as she could. Her body expanded and her senses sharpened for that second or two. She could feel the flame exit her body.

  A sheet of bright red flame shot down the twenty-two stories to the ground below. Lightning shot out from her bolt and when it hit the ground every man within fifty paces was thrown down. Some of them looked burnt to a crisp.

  “By my mother’s grave,” Merran said. “I thought there would be a tiny line of fire.” He looked at her in awe.

  Norra was so surprised and fatiqued by the effort that the only thing she could think to say was, “You left your mother back at Tower Win.”

  “And so I did,” Merran said, and still looking down, he smiled. “And I’m glad she’s there.”

  Norra followed his gaze back to the smoking ground. She could see the crater from her bolt all the way up to the workshop. The bolts that Namen and Merran shot could only be identified by wisps of smoke rising from the burnt grass. Men staggered up from the ground and soon the mage’s forces had moved a hundred paces from the circle of rope.

  “I feel a bit sick. I didn’t want to rain destruction down on them. More deaths. However, they were trying to topple the tower and if they succeeded we’d be destroyed,” Norra said. She swayed as she leaned over the balcony. Lily grabbed the belt of her dress and pulled her from the edge, letting her lean against the outside window.

  “Indeed we would. They might even wonder if the Master Mage has returned. That will give them something to think about,” Namen said, grinning at Merran and then at Norra. “You did that entirely on your own.”

  “Not quite.” She waved the little book, wearily, and put it back in the pocket of her dress. “I’ve never been so tired.”

  “I’ve told you before that the intensity of a spell comes from the incantation and the gesture. You put your whole body into that one. I could never do that,” Merran said. “Beyond my ability.”

  Norra nodded and then remembered that this wasn’t what she wanted. The power was awesome and the bolt coming from her fingers gave her a lightheaded feeling, not unlike drinking too much of her father’s wine. Now she could see how a wizard would want to exercise his powers. The little spells she tried earlier had no effect on her, but this felt so much different. Now she knew what the little boys had felt when they learned magic. She had to blot out the feeling. It was wrong. “Wrong and evil,” she said out loud.

  “What’s wrong?” Lily said.

  “I can’t allow myself to enjoy casting the spell, yet I felt something—a mental lift as the power came out of me. The feeling was enervating, but it’s not right. I’m not supposed to be able to do that.” She wondered if she should burn the little book. The feeling intensified. She hated the spells she learned. She hated the magic. She hated everything about the tower and the Master Mage. She suddenly had a thought to throw herself off of the tower.

  Norra fought a conflict within her. She told herself that her castings were justified when she wanted to get rid of the power. Yet the feelings of taint continued to intensify. “I’m not evil!” Confusion began to cloud her mind. She slipped down along the glass to sit on the balcony. Her hands clutched her hair. She again had the urge to launch herself off of the tower to rid the world of her sinful use of magic. “Women are useless. They don’t deserve magic! I must be destroyed” The words were thrown out of her mouth by whatever possessed her.

  Possessed! The thought cleared a space in her mind. “The mages are doing something to my mind!” Norra shouted. “Take me inside! Save me!”

  Lily dragged her to the door and to one of the couches. Norra put her hand to her eyes that were screwed tightly shut. She couldn’t catch her breath. She could feel the blood rush from her head and she laid back on the couch.

  “It hurts. It hurts.” That was all she had the power to say. The attack had stopped, but left a pounding headache. Her strength began to return. The shelter of the Master Mage’s wards protected her from the attack on her mind. “They wanted me to throw myself off of the tower. They told me that it’s a sin for a woman to use magic, that I am tainted. Whoever sent those thoughts really made me feel dirty and diminished. I would have done it, too.” She grabbed Lily’s hand and looked up into her eyes. “Thank you, Lily. You saved my life. I didn’t know wizards could do that.”

  “They can and we didn’t even think of that. Namen and I learned at an early age how to shield our minds from intrusion. You can imagine what ill-intentioned apprentices could do to each other if they could control their peers. I didn’t even think…” Merran said, running his hand through his hair. He looked as pale as Norra felt.

  “One of them did.” Norra pointed out the window. “He nearly had me, too.” She shook her head gently. “Now that I’m back inside and can think freely, I don’t think that way, but I’m shocked that a mage would throw that kind of guilt on me.”

  Namen sat on the arm of the couch. “The curse has been doing just that to women for a long, long time. The mage reinforced its message when he invaded your mind.”

  “I didn’t know you could do that.”

  A cloud passed over Namen’s face. “Why do you think so many slaves passively work for their mage-masters? It’s well within a mage’s power to influence the minds of his serfs. Any person without talent can be affected. When I shielded Bloggo’s mind from the spell that would enslave him, he couldn’t wait to leave Magia. Remember when we talked to the woodcutter? I examined that man and his wife. They weren’t under any spell. No one is enchanted in Win. Isn’t that right?” Namen looked at Merran, who nodded.

  “Then if we had gone through Bistomer’s lands?”

  “I was prepared to keep your faculties intact,” Namen said. “But if you had tried going it alone?” He shook his head. “Whatever enchantment Bistomer uses didn’t reach all the way to the top of Yulga’s Pass.”

  “That’s why you didn’t need me,” Merran said. “Namen protected you.”

  “Oh,” Norra said. What a foolhardy quest, and yet? “Could Fenning have protected us?”

  Merran nodded. “Most certainly. In fact, there’s probably a mind shield spell in that little book of yours.”

  “How long would it last?” Norra felt well enough to sit up. Her headache had faded away and s
he felt hungry.

  “Hard to say,” Namen said. “Your air cushions didn’t last nearly as long as mine would. Perhaps three hours, certainly not more than half a day. But if you felt you were affected, you could cast another.

  As the fires began to show in the twilight, the group went down to eat the evening meal. Norra consulted her book and made a blob of light. Towards the end of her meal, she watched it dim and disappear. “Why do my spells fade?”

  Merran swallowed what was in his mouth. “Because you forget the spell. A wizard’s globe can last all night, but I can only conjecture that the spell fades as your memory fades. I’ll bet you can’t remember the spell, even though you used it only a short time ago.”

  Norra searched her mind and came up with nothing. She ground her teeth. “So I’d have to be constantly shielding my mind. It’s not fair. Women should be no different than men.”

  “But you are different from us as we are different from you.” Merran shrugged and bit into a honey cake that had come already prepared in their larder. “It’s always been that way and quite frankly I have no idea how to fix it. There is nothing I’d like better than to have lady wizards and mages protect Tower Win. Everyone would be much safer, but the curse is a different kind of spell and much, much stronger than what the mages used on you, earlier.”

  “Well said—about women’s ability to cast spells.” Gristan floated into the room. “I found a way out of the tower.”

  Lily narrowed her eyes. “If there is a way out, that means there is a way in.”

  Gristan’s eyes brightened, “Oh, there is for me! I can jump off the balcony and float down to the ground and then float back up and enter through a tiny crack at the top of one of the glass doors to the balcony.” He folded his arms and looked triumphant.

  Merran walked into the dining room and looked across at the sparkling fires and wizard light globes looking like a field of stars in the heavens. They were much closer to this level. He stroked his bare chin. “What do you think, Namen? Do you think the mages can transport anybody up?”