What Once Was One (Book 2)

by Marc Johnson

  CHAPTER 21

  We were twenty paces away from the castle when soldiers poured out of the streets and alleyways, rushing to surround us like water from a broken floodgate. They cut us off from retreating back into the castle. I summoned my mana to the surface while my friends drew their weapons. We stood back to back, staring at a hundred soldiers.

  I cracked my knuckles, feeling the flame dance between my fingers. How did they know we were going to escape? I held my breath as I waited for them to make the first move. Their stony faces stared at us, yet they didn’t take a step forward. I didn’t want to kill them, but I wasn’t going to let them stop me from leaving.

  The army parted, and out stepped three familiar figures.

  “Going somewhere, Hellsfire?” Dylan asked.

  Adriana had her mace drawn. The pair of them drew in magic. Malik did the same thing, although he looked disappointed.

  “Are we not free to move around the city?” I asked Malik.

  “That’s not what you’re doing.” Adriana said, narrowing her eyes at us. “No one said you could leave.”

  “Since you couldn’t stay in the rooms we provided for you,” Dylan said, “we’re going to give you less...comfortable ones.” Dylan threw something at me. “Here, put this on.”

  I caught it and stared. It was an open metal collar. If snapped shut, it would lock. “What is this?”

  “Put it on, Hellsfire.”

  I searched the collar and sensed an undercurrent of magic as part of its makeup. I didn’t have time to figure out what it was, but I wasn’t going to trust them. I matched his fierce gaze. “No.”

  The army around us shifted. I glanced at an ogre and glimpsed the bloodlust in his eyes that I had seen in others in the Wastelands. It amazed me that he had the discipline to hold himself in check here.

  “Hellsfire,” Malik said. “Please put on the collar and give us your weapons. We shall not harm you. I give you my word.”

  “What will you do to us?” Rebekah asked.

  “I’m afraid that’s for the council to decide.”

  I looked at my friends. They were willing to die fighting, but that wasn’t our goal. That wasn’t why we came down here. I let go of my gathering magic and sighed.

  “All right,” I said.

  I put the collar around my neck and it snapped itself shut on its own, the metal clanging and the magic humming to life. The underlying hint of magic I felt in every living thing dimmed. I bent over and gasped for breath. It was as if someone had stolen my sight by wrapping a light bandage around my eyes.

  I summoned my inner fire and grasped it. But when I tried to release it, I shrieked in pain. I tumbled onto the dirt ground.

  “First time?” Dylan asked and smirked.

  “What did you do to him?” Rebekah asked as she and Jastillian helped me stand.

  “Don’t,” Malik said to me, with an apologetic look on his face. “That collar’s designed to stop the flow of magic. You can’t access the magic in the environment. You can access your own, but if you try to use it...well, you know what happens.”

  I nodded.

  “Hand us your weapons,” Adriana said.

  Jastillian and Rebekah turned over their axe and sword.

  “All of them.”

  The pair shared a brief look before pulling out their daggers and other hidden knives. Just to make sure, Dylan searched them for more weapons.

  “I promise you’ll get your weapons back once this is settled,” Malik said.

  Adriana took my purse with all my potions. She patted me down and found my hidden dagger.

  “I thought so,” she said. “Crafty wizard.”

  Malik, Dylan, and Adriana, along with a dozen guards, forced us back into the castle. When we got to corridors I didn’t recognize, I wondered what they were going to do to us. Without our weapons and my power, we were at their mercy. This Elemental Council wasn’t the same one Stradus had told me about. They could do anything to us to get what they wanted. And I knew they would.

  With these thoughts, I panicked and reached for my power. I strained to release it, forgetting about the collar around my neck. I cried out in pain and my knees buckled as the enchantment of the collar brought deadly daggers of pain to my neck.

  Rebekah and Jastillian helped me up and carried my weight. I breathed heavily and in a raspy voice said, “Thank you.”

  “What are you doing, wizard?” Adriana asked. “Do you enjoy pain?”

  “Please, Hellsfire,” Malik said. “We’ll get this sorted out. Until then, I promise no harm will befall you or your friends.”

  Eventually, they led us to a dim stairwell. Adriana told two of the soldiers to stay and guard the entrance. The dank smell assaulted my nose as we continued downwards. We came to a group of small cells, empty of people. There was still a dirty bucket in the corner of one of them, and bits of wet, dirty hay on the floor. They opened the cell. Rebekah and Jastillian walked in first. When I followed them, Dylan pushed me inside, then slammed the door shut.

  “Hope you enjoy these accommodations,” Dylan said. “Since you didn’t like the last rooms we gave you.”

  “How long will we be here?” I asked.

  “Until the council decides what to do with you,” Adriana said.

  “It shouldn’t be more than a few days,” Malik said. “They’ll need time. We’ll have food and water brought down.”

  They abandoned us to our thoughts.

  “What do you think they’ll do to us, Hellsfire?” Rebekah asked, slumping against one of the grimy walls.

  “I have no idea. This council isn’t the one my former master told me about. They won’t be merciful. He would be saddened to see what they’ve become. He believed in them once.”

  Jastillian growled. “How did they know we were escaping? We never even had a chance!”

  “It’s my fault,” I said and sighed. “It was probably my magic. I should have been more careful.”

  “Don’t blame yourself, lad. You did what you could. They just didn’t trust us.”

  I shrugged, but I wasn’t going to give up yet. I would see Krystal and the others again.

  I sat cross-legged on the ground and grabbed at the metal collar around my neck. I knew it was enchanted, but because of how it restrained me, I couldn’t feel the collar’s magic and they hadn’t given me enough time to study it before I put it on.

  Despite Malik’s warning, I needed my magic. We had to get out of here and find the others. We might have been outnumbered by wizards with far more power than I, but my magic would at least give us a fighting chance.

  I closed my eyes and siphoned in my energy, wrapping myself in the manas until a raging storm boiled inside me. Instead of trying to perform minor magic against the collar, I was going to hammer into it, hopefully overloading it and breaking the enchantment on it.

  My body stiffened and I started to tremble. The magic ripped my body from the inside as if I were poisoned. My veins blackened and threatened to explode from my body. The magic ached to go somewhere and the only outlet was me.

  “Hellsfire,” Jastillian asked. “Are you all right?”

  I opened my eyes and tried to unleash the magic from my body. Instead of burning with fire, my magic smashed into an invisible wall. My neck felt as if someone had run a sword through it, and the pain spread to my shoulders, my back, and my legs, paralyzing them. My mouth gaped open with a silent scream. I crumpled to the ground.

  “Hellsfire!” Rebekah said.

  They rushed over to me, but I couldn’t speak. They were wise enough not to touch me as the backlash of unused magic continued its assault on my body. Several long minutes passed before my muscles loosened and the pain lessened. I let out a sigh.

  “Are you all right, lad?” Jastillian asked as he helped me sit up.

  “No.” I rubbed my sore neck above the collar, trying to massage my muscles. “I used too much magic in trying to escape this collar. Let me try something else.”

&nbs
p; “Do you think that’s wise?”

  “We have to get out of here for the others. It’s my fault we’re in here in the first place.”

  “We’ll get our chance,” Rebekah said. “We just need to be patient.”

  I agreed, but knew it would be better to get out of here sooner rather than later. I closed my eyes, and again saw the barrier. Instead of blasting it with a torrent of magic, I summoned a tiny portion and brushed it against the collar’s magic.

  The pain returned, merely the force of a mosquito’s bite. I increased the flow of mana, searching for a crack or weakness in the collar. The more pressure I applied, the greater the pain. Sweat drenched my forehead and I bit down, grinding my teeth. I did my best to ignore the pain, but my body started to shake and my stomach wanted to heave its contents.

  I finally released my magic, sinking to my knees and gasping. I pounded the ground, angry at myself for not succeeding.

  Rebekah crept to me and forced my head down. She examined the collar. “If magic doesn’t work against it, I think I might be able to pick the lock by conventional means. But there’s nothing here.”

  “It’s all right,” I said. “We have far bigger things to worry about. I have no idea what the council’s going to do.” I put a hand to my mouth and yawned. “I suggest we get some rest...while we still can.”

  ----

  A guard served us breakfast and dinner the next day, but it wasn’t until two full days later that one of the council members finally came to see us. We rose to face her.

  “Wizard Hellsfire,” Nairi said, walking up to the bars with her hands behind her back. “I’m very disappointed in you.” She allowed herself a stiff smile. “Yet you’re so like your former master.” Her smile disappeared. “We still don’t know what to do with you. Any of you.”

  “You can let us go,” Jastillian said.

  Nairi shook her head, her aged cheeks jiggling slightly. “We can’t do that. We can’t allow a wizard of Hellsfire’s caliber to fall into the enemy’s hands. And you’ve seen enough of our city to give them plenty of information.”

  “Your city’s in shambles,” I said. “And I have little interest in joining your war, be it on your side or theirs. All I want to do is find our friends and leave this godsforsaken place!”

  Nairi’s pure green eyes met mine. “We know. We also know you won’t leave Tyree until you do find them. If you don’t find them on our side, you’ll find them on theirs. What would you do to get them back?”

  I didn’t say a word, for she already knew my answer.

  “Anything,” Nairi answered for me, before she turned and walked away.

  ----

  The next day, Ardonis came to see me. “I wish it didn’t have to be like this, Wizard Hellsfire.”

  I lifted my tired head and scratched my cheek. “If that were true, you would let us go.”

  “Maybe if you cooperated more, we would.”

  I crossed my arms. “I’m not killing anyone.”

  He rapped his long staff against the bars. “We never said you had to. All we wanted was a liaison between us and the north, as we said.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Give us information about what you call Northern Shala, and we’ll do everything we can do to reunite you with your friends.”

  “We’ve already given you that information.”

  “No. We want more, especially what you’ve seen in Renak’s castle, the magic you experienced there, and what was inside the nexus. We want to know everything you saw.” His white eyes gleamed. “We know you held back.”

  Ardonis turned towards Jastillian. “We could also use your expertise. You’ve traveled the land and know of the major cities, countries, and kingdoms in Northern Shala. You’ve studied countless artifacts from the previous war. You would be invaluable.” To Rebekah, he said, “We would love to work together with you and your kingdom to venture into the Wastelands. You know the area and the creatures better than any of us.

  “We could and should all be allies.”

  We fell silent. That was a lot easier than murdering people for a war, but my hands would still be bloodied. I stared into the wizard’s magical eyes, wondering why the council wanted to know so much about our land. But I couldn’t read him. He was too experienced, and I lacked my magic.

  I realized there would be only one reason they would want to know more about Northern Shala: war. They were going to bring war to our homeland.

  Before I could answer in anger, Ardonis said in a soothing and sincere voice, no doubt amplified by his power, “Take your time and think about it. I would hate for anything to happen to you or your friends.”

  ----

  Three more days passed and we never saw the council. There weren’t any more threats or promises, or attempts at persuasion. Only guards came in silence to give us food and water. It was as if we had been forgotten. And that was worse than not knowing what they were going to do to us or what they had planned.

  CHAPTER 22

  The heavy creak of the cell door opening jolted me awake. A single wizard in brown robes stepped into my cell.

  “Malik,” I said when the sleepy haze around my vision faded. I cleared my throat. “Come to finally take us to the council?” I yawned and rubbed my eyes.

  “Hurry, we haven’t much time,” Malik said. He rushed to me, holding a key in his hand.

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked, grabbing his hand and staring his eyes.

  “Because you shouldn’t be here.” He glanced at Rebekah and Jastillian. “None of you should. This war has gone on for far too long. Too many good people have died.” Malik’s gray eyes became hazy, then briefly glowed. “And I should have seen it. I am the Seeker.”

  “Seeker?”

  “I’m able to find and see things—hidden things that people don’t want to be seen, like the truth. In past times, we were like magistrates. More recently, we’ve become instruments of war. With you bringing down the barrier, the time for this war has passed.” He paused and glanced up. “However it ends, it shouldn’t involve you or your lands.”

  I released his hand and bent my neck down. He unlocked my collar and the magic embedded within every living thing flooded my senses. I smiled and unleashed a hint of my fire on my fingertip. It felt good to be whole again.

  “We can’t return until we find the others,” Rebekah said.

  “I know,” Malik said. “While you’ve been in here, I’ve been spreading word and gathering information about other travelers from a foreign land. I finally found something. Unfortunately, all I have to go on are rumors from the east. If you want to find your friends, that’s where you’re going to have to go. Come on, your belongings are at the top of the stairs.”

  A bright little star hovered above the stairs. “The coast is clear, Malik,” Serena said, breathing hard. She wiped her little forehead. “The horses are ready and the supplies are gathered. Is there anything else you’d like me to do for you, Your Highness?”

  “No, thank you. You’re dismissed.” Serena glared at him and stuck her tongue out as he passed by. Malik smiled.

  My friends retrieved their weapons and I my purse. I checked the bag, making sure the potions were still in there. There were no guards to be seen as we left the castle. Malik said he had taken care of them, bribing those he could and disabling and hiding those he couldn’t.

  Outside the entrance, four horses waited for us, their saddlebags full of supplies. There was a shadow in the night sky, coming towards us. I readied my magic. If they had unicorns and fairies, who knew what else they might have?

  Malik laid his hand on my forearm and said, “It’s all right, Hellsfire.” A large barn owl swooped in and landed on Malik’s shoulder, blending in with his robes. “This is Mr. Hoot-Hoot. Not much of a name, but I was young when we first found each other. He’s my guardian. One of the few still alive. Most guardians die quickly in the war.”

  “Hello, Mr. Hoot-Hoot,” I said.

&nbs
p; The bird ruffled his feathers and cocked his head before hooting.

  “He’s scouted the skies for us,” Malik said. “We have a small window before the guards change shifts, but we must hurry.”

  We rode out again, keeping an eye out for whoever might see us. The clouds blocked out most of the moonlight, making our departure easier. We trotted our horses in silence until we were half a mile out of the city.

  Malik carefully led the way in the darkness. Neither of us used any magic to light the way, and he took his time as he navigated his horse across the plains. When the sun’s morning rays illuminated the land enough so we could see, that’s when we galloped, wanting to put as much distance between us and Romenia as we could.

  We rode a good distance and were well away from the city by the time the sun shone directly over our heads. I let myself relax, feeling the warmth of sunshine on my face and the smell of fresh grass that surrounded us on the plains. I had missed being outdoors. It was much better than being trapped in a cell. I patted my horse’s mane. We were finally getting somewhere. With luck, we would see the princess and the others and leave this accursed place.

  Mr. Hoot-Hoot scouted the skies. Suddenly, he veered back towards us and landed on Malik’s shoulder, screeching. Malik looked over his shoulder.

  “What is it, Malik?” Rebekah asked.

  “We’re being followed. I thought we would have more time, but I was mistaken. If we had reached the forest, we could have lost them.”

  “Then let’s hurry.”

  “We can’t, Rebekah. Not on this terrain. Mr. Hoot-Hoot tells me they sent two squads of centaurs after us. If we had unicorns, we could beat them, but they’re fickle creatures.” His gray eyes flashed, and he handed Rebekah a piece of parchment. “Take this. Serena will lead you to a place called the Dead Zone.”

  “The Dead Zone?” I asked.

  “It’s a swamp, but it was once a beautiful area. Because of the war, the land was destroyed and changed. We call it the Dead Zone because magic can’t be used there and horses won’t go in there. There is a relatively safe route to get through it, but you won’t be taking it. The map will guide you to another more unknown and dangerous route. Afterwards, go east, and within a week, you’ll end up in Ashton.