Magician Prince

by Curtis Cornett

  Xander nodded. “A noble goal, but a foolish one as the situation has only gotten far worse since you took up with the nobility and became their servant.”

  “Enough of this. I bring a request from King Kale to parley with a delegation of Collective magicians. He understands that through this war we only ensure our mutual destruction and wished to come to an agreement. One that would give all magicians the freedom they desire,” Byrn announced, fed up with this whole farce.

  “And how are we to know that this offer is genuine?” countered the grandmaster, eyes narrowing on his young counterpart.

  “Because I have never lied to you or because I was the one who freed you from Baj and you owe me the benefit of the doubt for that if nothing else. Take your pick. However, if you do still believe that I have joined the kingdom and know that I am a prince, then you must also admit that I have the backing to come here and make this claim. Believe whatever you want, but it makes my offer no less genuine.” Byrn started to sear through the rope binding his hands with an absent thought, but resisted the urge. He reminded himself that he needed Xander on his side.

  Xander’s laugh was dark and humorless as he said, “I tried to live at peace with the lessers for years and all they did was show their cruelty. Don’t delude yourself, Byrn, this will be a bloody fight. The kingdom will not simply lay down their arms and parley with us so that we can beg for our own land and freedom as a street urchin begs for some spare coin.”

  “Father, if what Byrn says is true, then we must consider this,” Alia spoke regally as she made her way to stand between the two men and their egos, “Byrn is still a member of the Collective and he will be treated as such until a final decision has been made. For now he and his friend will be treated as guests, unless anyone has another suggestion.” The last words took an ominous tone that dared defiance.

  “My child, you are often the voice of reason,” Xander admitted, “Very well, Byrn and Sane will be allowed to roam the castle grounds while we come to a decision, but for now let us take a break. I would like the pleasure of speaking to each of these men privately once they have had a chance to rest from their trip.”

  ***

  “This is my niece?” Sane asked looking over the young woman before him, “I thought that all of Avelice’s children had passed on. It does my old heart good to see that I was mistaken.”

  “Many thanks, uncle, but you will have to forgive my surprise. Neither mother nor father ever mentioned you.” Alia sat across from Sane and Byrn in the dining hall where they ate an informal dinner. Xander took a seat next to Alia and Kaleb, who sat beside Byrn, joined them for the meal of chicken, bread, and an array of fruits in a basket.

  “I can only assume that she was ashamed of me,” Sane said looking at his hands. “If I had known then who you were...” He shook his head. “It does not matter now.”

  “You two have met before?” Byrn asked curiously.

  Sane exchanged a glance with Alia who stared back at him blankly. She had no idea what he was referring to.

  “What is going on?” Byrn asked. This time he was more concerned with what he was not being told.

  Sane looked from Byrn to Alia and back to Byrn. “Perhaps that story is best left for another time once we have all gotten settled in. This should be a time to celebrate. We are on the verge of peace between magicians and the kingdom.” The sorcerer held up his glass for a toast, but when no else raised theirs, he set his mug back on the long table.

  Byrn turned to Alia, “What is he talking about?”

  Alia started to shake her head, to deny having ever met Sane, but stopped as the memory came to her and she realized she and Sane had crossed paths once before. “It was a long time ago,” was all she said.

  “You do have some exciting news to tell him,” suggested Xander. “Why don’t you start with that?”

  “Tell me what?” Byrn asked knowing that he was being excluded from some silent exchange.

  Kaleb watched them all silently as he took in the adults’ steadily tensing moods.

  Alia caught Byrn’s stare and held it as she told him what he wanted to know. “Six years ago I came up with a plan to free my father from Baj. This was before the Collective. I was on my own for the six years before that, getting by on my magical talents to trick and manipulate people. Know that I wanted to tell you this for a long time. I almost told you a half dozen times, but feared your reaction.”

  Byrn waited expectantly for what was to come next.

  “I was the one who enchanted the ogres and sent them to Colum to attack the city. I did it in the hope that I could use the confusion to sneak into Baj and rescue my father, but Sane stopped me before I ever got close to the prison.”

  “How is that possible? I was with Sane at the time.”

  “Not the whole time,” Sane explained, “You rode after Kellen and Tannys just before Sari and I caught up to Alia.”

  Everyone could see the moment when Byrn came to the full realization that everything that happened to him since that day, the death of his father, his imprisonment in Baj, were the results of Alia’s actions back then. A sudden fire that he thought was long extinguished welled up from inside him. “Hundreds of people died that die. How could you do that?” Byrn’s voice rose in anger. He barely managed to stay in his seat.

  “When I realized the connection- what I had done to you- I wanted to tell you a dozen times, but was afraid of how you might react.”

  “You lied to me!” accused Byrn.

  “No, I didn’t lie. I just- how was I supposed to tell you in a way that wouldn’t make you hate me? What could I have said or done that would make that right?” Byrn did not answer immediately and Alia sought to fill the silence. “I was alone. It was before the days of the Collective and I had been on my own since I was fourteen. It seemed like there was nothing else I could do. You don’t know what it was like to be alone like that. You had a family that loved you and took care of you. What would you have done in my place?”

  “You went too far. I never would have put so many innocent lives at risk,” Byrn answered.

  “And you’ve never done anything that you regret,” Alia said defensively. “Byrn Firemas never had to lie or steal to get by.” She added knowing full well that Byrn had lied repeatedly and even stole a horse during his escape from Baj and later Ilipse.

  Byrn wanted to yell at her in response. Alia’s accusation was completely unfair and she was just trying to deflect blame away from herself, but before Byrn could say anything else a knock at the dining hall door gave Alia an opportunity to rise and step away so that she did not have to look into his eyes that at that moment held back a simmering rage.

  Her apprentice, Tomlin, entered the room holding a baby and gave it to Alia. “I think you better take the little pooper,” he said amiably, “She is giving too many ladies around here the crazy idea that I might be father material. Not that I mind the attention, but it sends the wrong message.”

  Alia nuzzled the child to her chest where it cooed loudly. Then she poked the baby girl in the nose with her index finger causing the child to reveal a toothless grin and giggle. “I was hoping to make this introduction under better circumstances… Byrn, I would like you to meet your daughter, Avelice.”

  Alia handed Avelice to Byrn before he had a chance to even think about what Alia had just announced. She was so small in his arms that he feared she might slip from his grasp. He looked down on the baby. “This is my child?” he asked and the little girl smiled at him.

  “You don’t believe me?” Alia asked, sounding offended.

  “No. No. It is just that I never expected-”

  “If you don’t want to have anything to do with us,” began Alia, but Byrn interrupted.

  “Alia, enough! Can I have a moment to take this all in?” Byrn held his daughter and was surprised at how light she was. Avelice stared at him intently and Byrn hugged her close to him. He was struck with the knowledge that his child was completely defenseless an
d it was his job to protect her and teach her how to live as his parents did for him. For all of his trials and tribulations, Byrn felt completely unprepared for fatherhood. “I can control the very elements around me, but this little child scares me.”

  He looked to Alia who was watching him with interest. How was he supposed to deal with her? His heart was torn between the love he felt for Alia and disdain at her for starting the ogre rampage that killed Tannys. No, I killed him, Byrn reminded himself. It took a year in prison for Byrn to stop blaming Sane for those events. If prison had done one thing it gave him plenty of time to think about his role in that event and to come to terms with what happened. He would not blame others for his actions, but he could not deny the role Alia played either.

  “I don’t know what to do,” Byrn whispered to the little baby that had no clue what he was saying to her, but pulled at his finger, her grip was so strong for one so tiny.

  A calloused hand gripped his shoulder. “There is no need to rush to a decision now. There will be plenty of time for that.” He had almost forgotten that Sane or anyone else was still in the room.

  “I need to think about what I have learned,” he told Alia, “Can we talk later in private?”

  The enchantress took back Avelice, “It seems that we have much to discuss. I hope that you will choose to leave the past in the past… for Avelice’s sake.” She left the others in the dining hall.

  “You should find it in your heart to forgive her for your own sake too,” Xander told Byrn in a tone that was both frank and threatening, “If for no other reason than Colum is nothing but a memory now and that was done by my doing. By the man that you have come to seeking aid.”

  Any other magician might have cowered at a threat from Xander Necros, but Byrn felt no such fear. Xander had no clue just how powerful Byrn had become and if the gods willed it, he never would, but Byrn would not shake in fear of this or any man. “I am well aware of what you did and it sickens me. Rest assured that you do not have my forgiveness, but I need you in order to bring this war to a peaceful end.”

  Impossibly, Xander laughed. “You are still a stubborn idealist. Welcome back home, son.”

  The grandmaster walked away leaving Byrn to calm his spirit that had been raging almost of its own accord. He had been gathering magic about himself so that almost all of the ambient energy in the room flowed around him. Byrn wondered if Xander had the ability to see magic too. Could he see the vast amount of magic that Byrn had effortlessly called upon?

  “So… that was awkward,” Tomlin decided and offered Kaleb a beer. “Do you want to see something, kid? It’s called a hand-cannon.”

  Chapter 14

  The small one-story cabin was the kind of home that was large enough for a small family with only a child or two and that was enough, but it was a surprising choice for a woman who was accustomed to living in more lavish accommodations. Maybe he was wrong about her. Maybe she had truly changed. Maybe…

  “Are we going in?” Kaleb asked. Spring would be upon them soon, but the night still held a chill that bit at his uncovered arms and face.

  Byrn tried to remember the last time he felt like that. Winter’s chill and summer’s heat no longer touched his skin in the same way it did other men. At times that invulnerability proved to be a blessing, but the downside of no longer feeling the gentle warmth of a spring day or the cool breeze blowing in off the Great Sea only served to remind him that he was something not quite… normal.

  He knocked lightly, almost tentatively. Avelice might be sleeping and he did not wish to disturb her. His daughter could be sleeping; it was a strange thought to try to get used to. A few days ago he was just another man making his way through life with no one to answer to or for, but today he was suddenly a father. He had a responsibility to care for someone else- to protect, feed, clothe, and raise- to put someone else’s needs before his own and to love her unconditionally. He exhaled deeply and forced a smile at his own foolishness, because the thought of doing that, or rather not doing that, scared him more that the largest ogre or the deadliest Kenzai. Were his own parents this nervous at the prospect of adopting him?

  The door swung open and Alia greeted her visitors warmly. Her raven hair was down and draped over her shoulders. She wore the blue robe of an enchanter instead of the black necromancer’s robe with the red skull on the back that she used to wear in remembrance of her father. Her smile was disarming and Byrn felt that familiar skip in his heart that he used to get whenever their eyes met, but just as quickly, he felt a stab of pain when he remembered what she did, turning the ogres loose on Colum.

  It almost seemed foolish to worry about that. Xander had killed nearly everyone in Colum last year. If Alia never would have attacked the city, they would all still be dead now. So why blame her? Why hate her when all he really wanted to do was kiss her?

  She asked him in and he entered offering some off-hand pleasantry. Kaleb followed not far behind, unsure if he was welcome or not. “Come along, Kaleb. It’s all right.” Byrn spoke the words of reassurance, but thought they sounded hollow. He didn’t feel entirely comfortable being there either.

  Alia took Byrn’s cloak and her hands lingered on his shoulders a little too long, but she said nothing and took it into another room. When she came out a minute later she held Avelice who was fast asleep.

  “Can I hold her?” Kaleb asked. He stood on his tiptoes so that he could see her face that was nestled against Alia.

  “How old are you?” Alia asked him sweetly.

  “I’m ten,” Kaleb announced proudly.

  “Practically, a man,” the enchantress nodded her approval. “If you sit in a chair, then you can hold her.”

  Kaleb picked a rocking chair near the small living room’s shuttered front window and gladly accepted the baby.

  “Keep her head up,” Alia told him, “That is good.”

  The boy rocked gently and watched the little girl fast asleep. He smiled at her with a grin that stretched across his face though Avelice never noticed. Byrn wondered if it could really be that easy. Kaleb certainly played the role well enough.

  “You’re an excellent helper, Kaleb,” Alia told him, but he barely noticed. His attention was fully on the bundle in his arms. “What kind of magician do you want to be? I bet a fire magician like Byrn.” She looked at the man as she said his name and their eyes locked for a few seconds before he turned to look out a window. She was trying and Byrn knew that. He should be trying too. He wanted to try and make this work and it would be a lie to say that he was only doing it for Avelice, but something held him back.

  Kaleb looked to Byrn with a question in his eyes and Byrn shook his head. “Kaleb is not a magician. He is just a normal boy.”

  “Then why do you travel with him?” Alia asked in surprise, then realizing how her question sounded, quickly added, “I didn’t mean it like that, Kaleb. It is just unusual for a magician and a… normal human to travel together.” Kaleb would not have noticed that she substituted the term “normal human” in place of the word “lesser” to spare the boy’s feelings.

  “Maybe that is part of the problem,” said Byrn, but his words held no malice or judgment, “We stay away from the normal people and they stay away from us. It makes it easier for us to hate each other and dehumanize one another.”

  “It is a pleasant idea,” admitted Alia trying to sound neutral, “but alliance or not we are a long way from that. When the magicians started coming to Wolfsbane I told the normal population and let them make up their own minds. They chose to leave. It didn’t happen all at once, but they all left eventually.”

  “At least you tried,” Byrn told her. Would the woman who attacked his hometown all those years ago have done that or was he just looking for excuses to forgive her? He wanted to believe that she truly regretted what she had done and learned from that, but how could he know for sure?

  “When will she wake up?” Kaleb asked of Avelice.

  “She is still very little,” Ali
a told him with a smile, “Most of her time is spent sleeping and eating right now. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

  “No.” Kaleb’s answer was short and did not lend itself well to a continued discussion on the subject. Judging from the expression on Alia’s face she knew that she was treading on dangerous ground that threatened to ruin this little visit and chose to move on to preparing the evening meal.

  They ate dinner together and talked of meaningless things, because talking about how or even if they could move forward together was too difficult of a subject to broach. Neither of them wanted to ask the question, because that would have meant that they could not dance around the subject any longer and they both feared having to make that decision.

  Hours after dinner, Kaleb slept curled up in the rocking chair. A blanket was draped over him and his head rested on a pillow placed on the chair’s arm. He looked like he should be uncomfortable, but his sleep was sound and his face revealed pleasant dreams lurking behind his fluttering eyes. Avelice rested in Byrn’s arms and stared up at him while Alia watched them intently. A great deal of hope rested in that stare.

  Finally when it seemed that they could avoid it no longer Byrn raised the subject, “For over a year, I spent every day thinking of you and working towards getting back here, but now that we are finally together, I don’t know if this is where I should be. I want to forgive you for what you did in Colum, but I don’t know if I can.”

  Alia poured them each a cup of coffee and took a seat next to him. “I felt much the same at times when I was pregnant and felt so alone. Some days I wanted nothing more than for you to show up on my doorstep just like you did tonight and others I wished that you were suffering as I was. In truth I didn’t know how to react when I heard that you had returned, but when I saw you I knew that I still loved you and I want us to be a family. We could be happy together.”