God of Magic 7

by Logan Jacobs

  “We’ve done bounties for them in the past,” Yvaine finally offered.

  “Quite successfully,” Maruk agreed.

  “And this quest you’re on, is it for the Academy?” Gilstrap asked.

  “No,” I admitted. “It’s one we’ve undertaken on our own.”

  “And you won’t tell me any more about it,” Gilstrap guessed.

  “We’re going to save the world,” Lena supplied as she tasted some of the cheese.

  Merlin snuck a bite as well and dodged out of reach of Maruk’s long arms.

  “Now that’s a worthy quest,” Gilstrap said with a smile. “Though the Great Chasm seems like an unlikely place to find salvation.”

  “Everything else we’ve done so far is unlikely,” Cat replied quietly.

  “Then you are indeed on a true quest,” Gilstrap declared. “And maybe that’s why I’m here. I was led here, you know, by the gods.”

  “Oh, brother,” Lavinia sighed.

  “Oh, that’s how we got Gabriel,” Aerin said as she nudged Lavinia with an elbow. “Even though some of us still don’t believe.”

  “We met Theira,” Lena added. “She helped us, well…. She helped us.”

  “She helped you with this quest that you don’t want to discuss,” Gilstrap said. “I haven’t seen Theira, but I’ve felt her presence at times, as well as Evarun and even Otrein.”

  “So tell us your story,” Dehn demanded.

  “I was forced to flee Ovrista,” Gilstrap replied. “The ship I was on was attacked by pirates. I was injured during the battle and lost a great deal of blood. I thought I was dead for sure but I woke up on the pirate ship, a prisoner. The pirates had seen me using my magic during the battle, and they knew I was a water mage. The ship’s surgeon did what he could to repair my hip and leg, but pirate ships do not have the best doctors.”

  “They tried to set your leg,” I guessed.

  “It was snapped in two,” Gilstrap sighed. “I suspect that it was deliberately set crooked, so I couldn’t easily flee, though Doctor Hadish denied it.”

  “They demanded that you work for them,” Maruk continued. “Not an uncommon fate for air and water mages who find themselves in the hands of pirates.”

  “And I did, for a while, until I could escape,” Gilstrap agreed.

  “How did you manage that?” Imogen asked. “Pirates keep a close watch on their prisoners.”

  “We had raided a trading vessel off the Morelian coast,” Gilstrap replied. “The ship had a hull full of wine casks and a cabin packed with Persan veil dancers. Our captain killed the ship’s crew and then brought the ship, still packed with wine and women, back to his favorite port. He and the rest of the crew spent the night getting drunk and enjoying the dancers.”

  “Typical,” Maruk sighed. “They probably had no appreciation for the fine wine they gulped down or the singular talent of the women.”

  “They did not,” Gilstrap agreed as he tried to hide his smile behind his mug.

  “Pirates always set minders,” Imogen pointed out. “The ship is never completely empty.”

  “And mine was not,” Gilstrap replied. “But my guard was young and disappointed that he would have to wait to enjoy his share of the wine and women. I offered to share a drop or two of fine whiskey with him while we waited for the others to return. It’s amazing, really, the things you can find in your possession when you’re a pirate. Not only did I have a nice bottle of whiskey from one of our raids, but I also had a small supply of Xyrem that Doctor Hadish had somehow missed.”

  “You put him to sleep,” Lena said as she clapped her hands.

  “I did,” Gilstrap continued. “And once he was out, I managed to slip off the ship. The port we were in catered to pirates so there wasn’t much in the way of officialdom. I simply walked out of the town and kept walking until I couldn’t walk anymore.”

  “So you walked all the way here?” Yvaine asked as she glanced at his left foot.

  “I hitched rides where I could,” Gilstrap replied. “Offered to help out on farms and such in exchange for food and a place to rest. But it seemed safer never to stay anywhere very long. Settling down somewhere would make it too easy for them to find me.”

  “I can’t imagine any pirate captain going to all that trouble just to get a water mage back,” Maruk mused. “It would be easier just to hire or kidnap a new one.”

  “He’s talking about the Academy,” I guessed.

  “I am,” Gilstrap agreed.

  “But why here?” I pressed.

  “As I said, I’d read about these temples in the rainforest,” Gilstrap replied. “An old, old text that the library probably doesn’t even know that it has. I’m not sure why I read it. I just found it one day and thought ‘why not?’”

  “Theira,” Aerin declared.

  “Back then, I probably would have laughed at the notion,” Gilstrap speculated. “But I’ve seen and felt so much since I fled Ovrista that I think that it’s quite possible that Theira guided me here.”

  “So you just decided to hike to some old temple in the rainforest,” Imogen said skeptically.

  “Not exactly,” Gilstrap explained. “I decided I needed someplace to hide where the Academy wouldn’t find me, even if I did stay in one place for more than a few days. I had stopped to help a small town build a new well and was preparing to leave when one of the children asked if I was going to the rainforest since there was nothing but water there. I laughed and told him no, but it got me thinking. And then I remembered the book, and its descriptions of the old temples, and the tribes who still live here. I came looking for them.”

  “And now you take care of the temples,” Lena declared.

  “I do,” Gilstrap replied. “I have a circuit I follow. The local tribes see me as some sort of religious hermit. They provide me with food and shelter when I need it, but they don’t ask me any questions or talk about me to outsiders.”

  “Why is the Academy hunting you?” I asked.

  “Not the Academy really,” Gilstrap said as he stared into the flames. “But Maderel.”

  We froze, and Gilstrap sensed the sudden tension in us at the mention of the Arch Mage.

  “Clearly, you have your own issues with him,” Gilstrap surmised.

  “His mages have been following us,” I replied. “Though I think they took the road rather than cross the Glass Swamp so they would only skirt the edge of the rainforest.”

  “Ah,” Gilstrap said sadly. “But I knew this day would come. Maderel’s worked too long and too hard to protect his secret.”

  “He’s a manipulator,” I stated. “And you discovered that.”

  “I did,” Gilstrap sighed. “Quite by accident. Everyone thought it was Marv who turned that student into a warthog, but it was Maderel, using manipulator magic.”

  “That’s why no one could find a way to undo the spell,” Emeline said.

  “I spent a lot of time going over Marv’s spells, trying to find a way to undo them,” Gilstrap continued. “I felt so bad for the parents, and that poor student! Long after everyone else had given up, I kept puzzling at it. And one day, I had to admit, that the spell could only have been cast by a manipulator. I went to Maderel, to tell him what I had concluded.”

  “Don’t tell me he admitted it?” Yvaine asked in surprise.

  “Oh, no,” Gilstrap replied with a shake of his head. “He denied it, at first, but I kept gathering more evidence, and badgering him about finding the rogue manipulator. I had supporters, too. I guess that’s what finally forced Maderel to act. He found some poor schlub from the backwoods and declared him to be a manipulator and had him put to death. Of course, we didn’t want to panic the populace, so the rest of the world continued to believe that Marv had done something wrong.”

  “You didn’t think that was odd?” I asked.

  “People are terrified of manipulators,” Gilstrap explained. “And Maderel was right, that if you let it be known that a manipulator had somehow gotten th
at close to the Academy, there could very well have been riots. And that satisfied me for a while, except I couldn’t figure out how this man had somehow gotten close enough to cast his spell. And why that spell? Why go near Academy property at all, if you were a manipulator who had somehow evaded their grasp? None of it made sense.”

  “That’s when you realized it had to be someone inside the Academy,” I guessed.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “That’s when I started investigating in secret. I started to find other signs of a manipulator in the Academy. As the pieces came together, they led back to one place.”

  “Maderel,” I replied.

  “Once I understood that, I knew I was in danger,” Gilstrap continued. “There was a small handful of mages I trusted, and I told them my suspicions. One of them came to me with a warning that the Academy had received a complaint against me, that I had used dark magic. A friend helped arrange my departure from Ovrista, but I’ve always wondered if perhaps I had trusted the wrong person.”

  “You dying at sea at the hands of pirates would be sad but normal,” I agreed. “But you being brought up on charges could have led to a deeper investigation.”

  “And I would have happily brought down Maderel with me,” Gilstrap nodded.

  “But why turn that student into a warthog?” Lavinia asked. “I mean, that seems sort of risky.”

  “And it was the only really showy thing he did,” Gilstrap added. “If he hadn’t done that, I doubt anyone would have ever even bothered to look for a manipulator. But I could never figure out why, unless he just didn’t like the student.”

  “Or the student was a manipulator who tried to break away from Maderel,” I supplied. “We know he’s been training them for years.”

  “That would make sense,” Maruk agreed. “And it would be a warning to any other manipulators who may have been thinking about leaving the fold.”

  “Poor Marv,” Emeline sighed. “All this time, he’s been thinking he’s to blame for changing that student.”

  “He doesn’t seem that broken up about it,” Aerin pointed out.

  “Maybe he’s a manipulator as well,” Cat suggested.

  “You say Maderel’s been training manipulators?” Gilstrap cut in.

  “He’s got his own little army of manipulators,” I replied. “That’s who’s been following us.”

  “And what did you do to draw their attention?” Gilstrap asked.

  “We had a warning from Theira,” Lena said when the rest of us went quiet. “She sent us to Augustine, to find a way to stop Maderel.”

  “Augustine?” Gilstrap repeated as he sat back. “Well, this day is full of strange events. How do you find a city that no longer exists?”

  “It’s been rebuilt,” Lena replied while Lavinia jabbed her repeatedly in the stomach. Lavinia finally gave up and rolled her eyes at the elf.

  “I’ve heard rumors that Augustine was rebuilt,” Gilstrap said in an amused voice. “But I’ve never seen any proof.”

  “Says the man living in a pile of rocks in the middle of the rainforest,” Dehn snorted.

  “But you say Theira has sent you,” Gilstrap conceded, “so maybe Augustine has indeed risen from the ashes.”

  “We’ll know soon enough,” I replied. “And it sounds like the rain is letting up, so we should probably get back on the road.”

  “The sun will be setting soon,” Gilstrap pointed out. “And the jungle is not a good place to be at night.”

  “We can make it to the next temple,” Cat said as the Foxes stood up and started to gather their gear.

  “Keep your weapons out, then,” Gilstrap warned. “A pack of shade jackals have been spotted in the area, and they’ve already killed some of the locals.”

  “How did they get here?” Cat asked in a concerned voice. He and Imogen exchanged wary glances while Imogen fingered the hilt of her blade.

  “I don’t know for sure,” Gilstrap replied. “But I met several people who were trying to breed them for dog-fighting purposes during my journey here. They may have escaped from such a place.”

  “What are shade jackals?” I asked.

  “Vicious dogs that drink blood,” Dehn chortled. “I’ve never killed one of them before.”

  “They work in packs,” Lavinia added. “Like wolves. They’ll keep chasing you until you’re too exhausted to fight.”

  “Charming,” I sighed. “How come we never meet any roving packs of adorable bunnies?”

  “Thank you for the company and the news,” Gilstrap said as we walked back towards the entrance. “I’ll keep watch for these other mages. I may even know a trick or two that will slow them down.”

  “We’d appreciate that,” I replied as I shook Gilstrap’s hand. “But maybe it would be best if you hid from them, given your history.”

  “I’ll never be afraid of my own destiny,” he replied.

  “Maybe we’ll come back this way, and you can tell us what you know about the people who built this place,” Lena added.

  “That would be lovely,” Gilstrap said as he smiled at the elf. When she stepped outside, he quietly added, “If I’m still here.”

  “You don’t have to do anything dangerous,” I whispered.

  “I do,” he said sadly. “I believe this is why I was led here. To help you reach Augustine. If that means that I must sacrifice myself, so be it. At least I’ll die knowing that Maderel will be stopped.”

  “Rheinhold--” I started to protest, but the water mage disappeared back into the temple, dousing the mage lights as he went. Merlin returned to my shoulder and chirped softly. I scratched his chin and then stepped back into the drizzling rain. The rest of the Shadow Foxes were already heading down the trail, and somewhere in the distance I heard a quick staccato bark.

  Chapter 8

  The barks followed us the rest of the day, and an uneasiness settled over our group as we pushed onwards. The road was little more than a trail now, just wide enough for one person. The plant growth was dense, and though the locals kept the path clear, we still had to stop periodically and chop at a fast-growing vine or jumbo-sized frond that had started to invade the route.

  Lena only got lost twice. The first time, she spotted a rare orchid high in tree and wandered off the path while the rest of us tried to clear a fallen log. By the time anyone noticed she wasn’t around, there was no sign of her new path. Lavinia had released a string of curse words as she tried to find the elf’s footprints in the dense growth, and I finally sent Merlin into the high treetops to look around.

  When Merlin finally located Lena, she was about a quarter of the way up an ancient kapok tree and arguing with a spider monkey about who had claim to the orchid. Lavinia had to threaten her with an arrow in her rump before Lena finally gave up and returned to the path.

  The second time Lena disappeared, we’d stopped to let a jaguar slip by. The massive cat had watched us for a moment before it melted back into the jungle. Merlin was so impressed that he jumped from my shoulders and practiced his jaguar look.

  Lavinia let out yet another long string of curse words a moment later and threw her hands up in frustration.

  “Where the hell is she now?” Lavinia demanded.

  “She’s not very good at staying on the path,” Cat observed as he peered into the treetops. “Did she see another orchid or something?”

  “Lena,” Lavinia called out. “Get your ass back here now or we’ll leave you behind.”

  There was a rustling noise from a thicket of palms followed by a solid thump.

  “I’m trying,” Lena’s voice called back. “Um, I’m sort of stuck though.”

  “I refuse to help,” Lavinia muttered as she glared at the rest of us.

  “Lena, dear, what seems to be the problem?” Yvaine asked.

  “Something’s wrapped around my ankles,” Lena replied, “and it’s slithering up my leg.”

  “I’ll go,” Dehn volunteered as he swung his mace. “I haven’t hit anything in a while.”


  “Maruk, go with him and make sure he doesn’t hit Lena as well,” I said as the halfling plowed off in the direction of Lena’s voice.

  “May I suggest that we buy a leash for our alchemist,” Maruk sighed as he followed after Dehn. “At least for use in these less civilized locations.”

  A moment later we heard Dehn’s battle cry, Lena’s muffled ‘oh’ and the sound of a heavy object coming down hard on something thick and meaty. The three Shadow Foxes returned to the path soon afterwards. Dehn proudly held up the smashed head of a large snake for all to see.

  “Just a regular snake,” Dehn explained, “but it was still pretty big. Had a nice grip on the elf.”

  “I don’t know where it came from,” Lena said plaintively as she twisted her fingers in embarrassment.

  “It’s a rainforest,” Aerin pointed out. “It’s filled with all sorts of animals. That’s why you’re supposed to stay on the path.”

  “It’s just that I thought I saw a woodnymph hummingbird,” Lena tried to explain. “They’re very hard to spot, and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get a closer look.”

  There was a barking sound nearby and an answering call from a small ridge.

  “Lena,” I said firmly, “You have to stay on the path and stop wandering off, no matter what interesting things you might see. We need to stay ahead of the shade jackals.”

  “I’ll stay on the path, I promise,” Lena agreed.

  There was another quick bark, closer than before.

  “Definitely going to stay on the path,” Lena added.

  “We’re almost to the next temple,” Cat announced as he scanned the nearby flora. “I suggest we get moving if we want to make camp before the sun sets.”

  “It almost sounds like they’re laughing,” Emeline commented as we resumed our trek.

  Another yip sounded, this one closer than any of the ones we’d heard before. Cat picked up the pace, and we were moving at a fast jog when the trail finally widened to reveal a simple stone structure next to a small waterfall.

  This temple was much smaller than the first one and had only one of the strange honeycomb towers. It was a simple square shape rather than rectangular, and there was a door but no windows. I wasn’t sure if we could all fit inside but a frenzy of nearby barking decided the issue for us as we all charged into the building.