Only after the destruction of Colum did Byrn realize the events he set into motion by freeing Xander Necros. Instead of rescuing a symbol of hope for magicians, he released a mad man who if this war did not go his way might instead decide to wipe out all life in the kingdom and the thought that truly terrified Byrn was that Xander might actually have that power at his command.
“Kill him!” The scream roused Byrn from his thoughts. Instantly, he raised his protective magical armor as he sought to identify the threat. It did not take long for him to identify the group of men surrounding someone not far ahead.
“He’s a wizard!” shouted another voice and Byrn sprinted to see what was happening. He pushed his way through the crowd with unconscious strength born of the magic hidden within him until he could see the prone figure of a boy- about ten years old- taking a kick to the ribs from a grown man. The crowd cheered, encouraging the man to continue beating the child.
Byrn moved with preternatural speed and smashed the side of the man’s face with his bare fist, sending him reeling into the crowd in pain where he was caught and held before he could hit the ground. A few other men from those gathered around stepped forward from the crowd, but as Byrn stood ready to face them and showed no sign of backing down, they hesitated.
“What right do you have to hit this boy? What has he done?”
“He’s a wizard!” shouted a man in the back.
Ignoring the insulting term, Byrn asked again, “What has this child done or do you simply form mobs and start beating children for no reason now?”
“That is my nephew and I tell you he is one of them,” the man Byrn had punched spoke up, still wobbling from the blow. “His parents were killed in Colum, but he survived. How could he have done that if he wasn’t a wizard? Now he’s with me and I’ve had nothing but ill fortune since I took him in. You explain how that can be or maybe you’re one of them too.”
Byrn ignored the accusation. “This boy survived a horror against all odds and instead of being thankful you abuse him and make wild claims. You say you’ve had bad luck? This boy’s parents were taken from him and instead of being sent to someone who will love and protect him, he is sent to a man, if you can be called such a thing, who beats him for his own misfortunes.”
“Do not listen,” the boy’s uncle spat some blood onto the street, “He’s probably a wizard too, just out to save his own kind. Let’s get him.”
Byrn braced for an attack, but the mob faltered. His words had reached enough of them so that they were regaining some sense of reason. “This is out of control,” he pleaded with the crowd, “He is only a child. He could have been any of your children. This boy has been through enough.”
Doubt set into the crowd as men and women who were screaming for blood looked at one another and started to realize that they had gone too far. Soon they began to disperse and Byrn let loose a sigh of relief. There would be no more lynching for today at least. Byrn helped the boy up and examined his injuries. He was tall for his age and had the look of a lad accustomed to working. His face was dirty and bloodied as was his stringy red hair. The boy was fortunate that most of his wounds were superficial, though he was likely hurting.
Taking the boy’s hand in his own, Byrn willed a small bit of healing energy into the lad’s body. It was enough to ease his pain and promote healing, but would not draw any unwanted attention. Then Byrn felt for the boy’s magical energy and found no more than resided in any other normal person. He was not a magician.
“Give him back to me,” demanded the boy’s uncle and the child went to meekly obey until he was stopped by Byrn’s hand on his shoulder.
“He won’t be going anywhere with you. Leave. Now.”
“And what are you gonna do with him?” the uncle demanded to know.
Byrn ignored the man and bent down on one knee. “What is your name, son?” he asked gently.
The boy sniffled and rubbed his right eye where his uncle must have hit him earlier. It showed small signs of bruising, but by nightfall would be swollen and purple. “Kaleb, sir.”
“Kaleb, I’m going to give you a choice, which I bet is something you haven’t been given in a long time. You can go with your uncle or you can come with me and I’ll find you a new home. I don’t know that it will be the best life, but I promise that it will be better than the one you have now.”
Kaleb looked from Byrn to his uncle and back again. In answer, he slinked behind Byrn so that his sudden benefactor stood between him and his former guardian.
“You bewitched him, cause you’re a wizard too!”
Byrn grabbed the man by the collar and pulled him in so that their faces were within inches of each other. “I’d be careful of who you accuse of being a magician,” Byrn whispered with malice, “One day you might be right and what do you think that magician will do to you when you reveal his secret?”
The man’s eyes grew big and he stumbled backwards when Byrn suddenly let go of him. He spun around and fled clipping several people who had gathered to view the altercation.
“Are you alright, Kaleb?” Byrn asked turning his attention back to the boy who tentatively nodded. “Hungry?”
“Yes, sir,” the red-haired child answered with sudden enthusiasm.
The unlikely pair found a good eatery soon enough. Kaleb knew his way around the city and took delight in leading his new friend around. The restaurant was a simple one, but it fit Byrn’s coin purse well enough and they soon fed on cuts of beef and beer.
“You’re from Colum? I grew up there too. Were you in the city when it was destroyed?” Byrn asked. He knew he was asking the boy to recall painful memories, but could not help his own curiosity.
“It was awful,” Kaleb looked at his plate as he spoke, not wishing to establish eye contact as he relived that day. “The sky grew dark, but it was the middle of the day. I remember looking up to see this moving blackness overhead and there was this voice that came from everywhere. It told us not to bother hiding, because we were all going to die, but I did run. I ran home and hid under my bed while these black snakes came from all directions and buried their heads into my parents right in front of me. My mom was holding my baby sister and they got her too, but I didn’t do anything. They died and I screamed, but the black snakes left me alone for some reason like they didn’t think I was worth eating.”
Then Kaleb did look up into Byrn’s eyes. His little voice trembled as he continued; “My uncle thinks they left me alone on account of me being a wizard. Do you think he could be right?”
“Don’t use the word ‘wizard.’ It’s offensive,” Byrn told him, but there was no hardness in his tone and Kaleb agreed before Byrn asked, “Would it be so bad if you were a magician?”
Kaleb shrugged. “They’re scary and people hate them, but if I was one then I could stop people from hurting me.”
“You’re not a magician, Kaleb.”
“But how do you know?” Kaleb’s voice rose and squeaked.
Byrn did not say anything, but he did not break eye contact either. Slowly, Kaleb worked out the answer for himself.
“Are you-?”
“I’m your friend, Kaleb. That is all that matters.”
Kaleb seemed to accept Byrn’s words with a nod and did not press the matter further. The magician and boy finished their meal and found a nice inn to stay at for the week. Byrn explained that he had business in the city and could be there for upwards of a month although he hoped to be done with his dealings much sooner. Then he would be able to see about finding Kaleb a nice family to take him in. Perhaps a farm that was short on sons and would be willing to take in a boy who was able to work for food and board. Kaleb was a city boy, but admitted to liking the idea of being part of a family again.
Eventually the night grew long and Kaleb and Byrn retired to their room. Kaleb stared at the ceiling, wide-awake with nervous energy while Byrn tried to get some rest. “Byrn, can I ask you a question?”
“Does that count?” the sleepy magician
muttered.
“Why did you help me? I mean I understand why you interfered when I was being beat up. My dad told me that there were people in the world that could not stand to see bad things happen to others. He said that they were rare, but when you find one you can always count on them to do what was right and I think that is how you are. I mean afterwards. You didn’t have to feed me or give me a place to sleep.”
Byrn rolled over in his bed, so that he was facing Kaleb. “When I was your age I was an orphan too. I lived in the Colum orphanage until I was eleven or twelve and it was lonely. I felt like I was out of place there, like I didn’t belong, and there was no one that I thought could help me, but I was wrong. I got lucky and was adopted by a loving family. They couldn’t have children of their own, so I was all they had and it worked out well for me, because they were all that I had too. I don’t know. I guess I just want to give you that chance that they gave me. Every boy should have that chance.”
Kaleb sat up in his bed, suddenly remembering the black snakes. “Were they in Colum when the snake-magician attacked?”
“No, my father died a few years ago and my mother passed last year, though not in Colum. I still miss them very much and even when I am in the company of good friends there is still emptiness in me that I can’t seem to fill. Sometimes when the night is quiet and my mind is still I can hear their voices and that might sound sad, but it makes me feel better, because I know that they still love me and are still watching over me.”
Lying back down, Kaleb was silent while he thought about what Byrn had said. “Do you think my parents are watching over me too?” he asked.
“I’m sure of it.”
Kaleb fell asleep not long after that, but Byrn found he could not sleep as worries over the Collective and their rebellion kept him up. There had to be a solution between the two extremes that fought for control of Aurelia. He had to find a middle ground that would put an end to the fighting and the cycles of subjugation. As the night wore on the call of sleep would not be denied any longer and somewhere between the realms of waking and dreaming he heard the voice of his adoptive father, Tannys Lightfoot, faintly whisper, “It is time to speak with your birth father, King Kale Aurel.”
Chapter 5
The solid rock walls that protected the castle were impenetrable to any attack save for the most deadly of magic or siege warfare, but with a press of his hand against the cold stone the rock quietly moved to do his bidding as if it were made of water and created an entrance that any man could walk through. Once through, the magician returned the wall to its natural state and none would be the wiser.
There was a hundred and fifty yards between Byrn and the castle proper and he reached out with his innate senses to find the body heat of all those who lived in this place. He could clearly feel the radiant warmth of the guards on the walls and those patrolling the grounds and determined that none were near enough to see him sneaking around in the black cloak he now wore. Then he tried to extend his senses to the palace itself, but the cold stonework provided enough interference that he could not get an accurate idea of where anyone was, but it mattered little since he was reasonably sure of where the king would be at this late hour and had no intentions of setting foot within the castle.
His neck craned upward and Byrn saw the central spire that the royal family and their honored guests like warlords or dignitaries used. How safe they must feel up there as they looked down upon the world. Did they think that no harm could befall them from that perch or did they fear the threat brought on by this rebellion as keenly as the people living in fear in the city below? For good or ill, he would soon know the answer and hoped that the king would be willing to listen.
Byrn looked for the magical energies that flowed from the ground and sky and pulled some more of it into his body before sending it back into the wall of the palace and commanded it to form a series of steps along the side of the wall leading ten feet up before abruptly ending. As he ascended the staircase to nowhere the steps behind him receded back into the wall and new steps were formed above him so that as Byrn progressed a temporary staircase led him ever upward toward the royal chambers.
The cold bit at his unprotected face and heavy gusts of wind threatened to blow him free of his little moving staircase the higher up he went. A sliver of magic was all it took to warm his body and quiet the nearby wind enough to prevent him from falling, but a quick glance hundreds of feet downward cause his stomach to do an unexpected flip as it remembered a childhood fear of heights that had become irrational following Byrn’s magical ascension. He quieted the voice of fear in his mind that he knew could cripple an otherwise able magic user and continued his climb to the royal chambers.
A half hour had passed since Byrn’s climb began and he reached the first window of the royal apartments. The wooden shutters were closed against the cold that was prevalent even in the warmer months this high up, but Byrn could sense the presence of two people lying near each other in the room.
He could see the window’s latch clearly in his mind’s eye and envisioned it unhooking of its own accord. Then Byrn pulled one of the shutters open and looked inside. He was unfamiliar with the amply endowed blonde woman that shared the bed, but he knew the man with her. It was his brother, Prince Janus. Had Janus known of their familial bond when they dined together years ago following Lady Tian’s rescue or was he as clueless as Byrn had been at the time? It did not matter, Byrn told himself as he closed the shutter and relatched it with a thought. What Janus did or did not know back then had no bearing on the events that were unfolding now.
The next room was shuttered as well, but when Byrn opened them he found who he was looking for. The king and queen laid side by side, both in a deep sleep. He climbed into the room and took a minute to enjoy the warmth of the small fire that was little more than embers in their hearth.
The thought that this was the first time that he had seen the king and queen since learning of his royal heritage struck him and he could not help staring at his birth parents, intently memorizing the lines and curves of their faces. Byrn’s nose was very much that of the queen’s and his jaw line was strong like that of the king. When he first met King Kale he had been hotheaded and rude. When he dined with the both of them the next night he managed to keep his feelings under control at the urging of Sane and tried to make a case for the rights of magicians. Now it would seem that after more than two years apart they would finally have a chance to finish that discussion. The only difference was that instead of it being a theoretical discussion, now the destiny of a kingdom and all of its in habitants would rest on the outcome of their conversation.
Byrn breathed a deep sigh. No pressure.
He gently shook the king awake and placed his finger to his lips. “Please be calm, your Highness. I mean you no harm.”
The king looked ready to holler for his guards who were just on the other side of the door when Byrn placed a mild enchantment on King Kale. It would strike the king mute for a minute, which would be just long enough for Byrn to convince King Kale to hear him out. He could risk no spell more powerful than that and still hope for a chance at the king’s aid, father or not.
“Please stay calm and listen. You are under a mild paralysis spell to prevent you from calling out. It will wear off very soon and then you may summon your guards if you wish.
“Do you recognize me? I am your son, Byrn, and I only want to talk. I have been gone from the kingdom since before the fighting broke out and am distressed by what I have seen since returning. I want to end this war between the kingdom and the Collective without further bloodshed, but I need your help in order to do it.”
As promised the spell wore off and the king immediately turned toward the door. Thankfully, King Kale did not call for his Kenzai guards and after several tense seconds turned his head back to Byrn. He sat up and said, “Yes, Byrn, I remember you although we met only briefly I would not forget the face of my own son. I also did not forget that you betrayed the thro
ne and joined the Collective. Why should I trust anything that you have to say?”
“I don’t agree with the actions that the Collective has taken since this war began, but I still believe in their ideals of freedom for magicians. I am here, because I desire an end to the fighting and it is my hope that you do as well,” Byrn assured him. “If you don’t believe me, then I will leave now without another word. Just say the word.”
King Kale looked in his eyes, trying to discern whether or not to trust Byrn. Byrn hoped that he would. This was the only path he saw to peace and if the king was unwilling to give him a chance, then it would mean that this war would not end until one side was completely eradicated. “Hold a moment. This is not a decision that I can make alone,” the king finally told him and shook his wife awake. “Darling, we have a visitor.”
“What could be so important to disturb us at such an unearthly hour?” Queen Wendi yawned, unaware that said visitor was in the room with them.
“It is our son, Byrn. He has come back.”
“Byrn?”
“I am here.”
The queen gasped in surprise and Kale grabbed her hand reassuringly. “If he wanted to do us harm, he would have done so by now.” To Byrn, he added, “You take great risk by coming here. So tell us what you want.”
“I want to broker a truce between the Collective and the kingdom. I want people to once again feel safe whether they are a normal person or a magician. When I walk the streets of Mollifas feelings of fear and desperation are everywhere. Just today I stopped a mob from beating a child on the street that they decided was a magician. They were wrong.”
Magician Prince Page 4