by B. T. Narro
Nykal took a long breath. “Jon’s right,” he told Leon. “Everyone deserves to know.” The king glanced at me again. “Just let Leon or me be the one to tell them tomorrow, all right, Jon?”
“Yes, sire.”
“And this has to be the last time you eavesdrop on me. Leon is right. It’s a serious offense, even if you see my daughter doing it first.”
“I understand. It won’t happen again. We all appreciate how much trust you have given us. I hate to misuse that trust in any way.”
“Stop kissing his ass,” Leon said, to my frustration. “What did you see in the city?”
“One moment,” Nykal said. “Callie, it is late.”
“I just want to hear what Jon saw, then I’ll go to my bedchambers.”
“You have not apologized for sending the guard away and eavesdropping.”
She lowered her head. “I’m sorry. I promise I won’t do it again.”
“I’m going to hold you to that promise, just as I will Jon. This is serious.”
She nodded without looking up.
“Now go off to bed,” he said.
She glanced at me as if I might have something to say in her defense. However, I thought her father was being more than fair.
She slowly walked off toward the balcony.
I told the king, Leon, and Barrett of my experience bumping into the dark mage and then following him. I was a little worried when it came time to divulge how I had questioned the worker at The Pearl, but no one interrupted to scold me, and soon I was finished.
The king spoke the moment I was done. “I believe you handled that very well.”
“Thank you, sire,” I said with immense relief.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of the captain of the guard’s involvement with corruption, but it is the first I’ve heard of his connection to the dark arts.” The king let out a slow breath. He had bags under his eyes.
“Sire,” Barrett said. “The captain is a skilled fighter who knows how to lead men into battle, when it comes time. Not only that, he is the cousin of Kataleya’s father. Whitley Yorn could be offended if we take action against the captain. It would then be Kataleya who suffers worst when she is removed in retaliation.”
“Whitley will understand that we cannot keep corrupt officials in our government. That was the whole point to the rebellion, which he supported with a lot of coin. I will write to him tonight explaining that we will be removing Endell Gesh from his position because of corruption charges, and I will speak with Whitley personally tomorrow.”
I was shocked. I hadn’t expected any action to be taken, but this was Nykal after all. He seemed to make big decisions rather quickly.
Barrett argued, “There is no proof that this dteria sorcerer has any real connection with Endell.”
Nykal gave Barrett a look. “We both know the chances of that. Besides, I’ve been meaning to replace Endell anyway. There have been too many reports of him breaking the law. The only issue now is finding someone I can trust to replace him.”
“He may become our enemy,” Barrett said. “He has followers. It is the reason we didn’t replace him after your coronation.”
“You don’t need to remind me of what I already know, councilman.” The king gave Barrett a hard stare.
“I apologize.”
“I will figure out what to do about him tomorrow, with Whitley’s input. He knows his cousin better than we do. Also, I have decided to send a letter to Byron Lawson. Have it written for me. He will make an excellent captain of the guard here in Newhaven. Have him arrive at the castle soon after he names his replacement in Tryn.”
I knew Byron Lawson. He was the lord of Tryn. My father had worked for the man for many years. Byron was also the person Scarlett had mentioned when discussing her employer, when she’d met me in the tavern in Tryn. I had figured I would meet the lord of Tryn sometime after I’d arrived in the city, but I had been too busy trying to find a sorcerer to explain mana. Then Barrett showed up and took me here to the castle.
I looked forward to meeting Byron, if I could arrange an introduction. I longed to ask him about my father, who was the head guard of Tryn for many years. I imagined my father’s role in Tryn had probably been the same as Endell Gesh’s role in Newhaven. Did that mean the lord of Tryn was taking a demotion coming here? No matter. I wasn’t going to concern myself with the politics of it all.
What I wouldn’t give for my father to still be alive. He could fill in as captain of the guard instead. I was certain the king would have no problems with him. He always did the right thing, no matter how difficult.
“Jon, you may go.”
I bowed to the king and hurried out of the keep, then I entered the apartments and walked up the stairs. I could hear chatter in the halls as I made it to the second floor. My peers were talking in the hallway. They quieted as I approached.
“Did you find out anything?” Michael asked.
“Everything’s fine,” I told everyone. “The king or Leon will make an announcement tomorrow.”
I briskly entered my room. It looked as if many people had wanted to ask me something, but I didn’t want to lie to them or break my promise to the king.
I knew my swift exit was rather mysterious, not on purpose of course, but still a little fun.
Michael followed me into my room. I could hear others still chatting in the hall and wondering what the announcement would be.
“You have to give me at least a little more than that,” Michael said quietly.
“I can’t.”
“You can’t or you won’t?”
“I won’t,” I answered him honestly.
“All right fine, fine. You know we’re getting our weekly stipends the day after tomorrow?”
“I certainly do.” I actually had forgotten for a little while, but I was smiling now as he reminded me. “What are you going to do with it?” I asked.
“I have big plans, actually. I’m headed straight to the brothel. I’ll go so many times they’ll have to change my class.”
I knew this had to be a jest. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. From wind mage to whoremaster.”
His smile disappeared as someone made a comment from the hall.
“What?” he asked as he leaned out of my room.
I could hear someone asking him something. It sounded to be Eden.
“It was just a joke,” he told her seriously.
I couldn’t quite hear her response, but her tone was dismissive.
“Yes, it was,” Michael confirmed.
“Suuuuuure!” she said sarcastically.
Michael left my room. I couldn’t make out what he said to Eden, but there was no mistaking his teasing cadence, as it was one I had become very familiar with.
I went to my door to close it for the night, but I looked down the hall first. Most everyone was going toward their rooms as Eden argued that a brothel wouldn’t even allow Michael to enter, while he argued that they would refuse his payment because it would be their honor to service him.
I went into my room and prepared for bed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Leon was late to the courtyard the next morning. It didn’t matter much to me because, as I’d said to Michael the night before, I knew everything was fine. Yes, the king had mentioned some dire news about Rohaer, but he had also told us earlier that we wouldn’t be fighting in any battles for which we were ill-prepared. We would only engage in opportunistic fights, and I still believed that. We were valuable to him. He wouldn’t risk our lives as he would easily the sellswords at his disposal, who were paid only to fight and little more.
The meeting between him and Leon brightened my mood because I assumed Leon would finally be committed to actually teaching us something. It did concern me a little that he’d apparently been in the dungeon before all this began, but I wasn’t going to let it bother me unless it became more relevant to us.
I could see that everyone else was nervous, however, a
s we kept to ourselves and practiced. There was nothing I could do about that.
I toyed with my mana as I used it to cast Expel hundreds of times. It was important to experiment when learning something new. Like with the sword, I used to think of new and creative ways to win a duel against my father. I’d tried tossing the sword up and catching it by its blade to attack with its hilt. I’d tried hiding my hand with my sleeve and using surprise attacks so he couldn’t accurately defend himself. I’d even tried gripping it incorrectly, holding the sword down instead of up and swinging it backhanded with flicks of my wrist. Of course, none of these techniques worked, but they did help me become more comfortable with the weapon.
Dvinia seemed to be a weapon of its own. Once the spell was cast, I found that I could hold it in the air. It was about as difficult as holding something heavy completely still, but I knew it would get easier with time.
The fact that I could hold it brought up a few questions. After speaking with Michael a bit while we were practicing, I eventually figured out the difference between dvinia and wind.
When my mana formed Expel, I could still control my mana. The energy was difficult to see, a rippling translucent entity, similar in appearance to the camouflage illusion Eslenda had casted on herself, but it was there hovering in front of me. I could move it around the same way Kataleya had moved her sphere of water or Remi could move a ball of floating fire. Like the erto mages, I could hold the spell still with one part of my mind and push it forward with the other. It was like getting ready to snap my fingers. When I let go, it shot in the direction of my choosing too fast for me to see it move.
Apparently, wind did not behave in the same way, which I thought to be odd considering it was erto just like fire and water. Michael said he could not control the wind much after turning his mana into it. The force of his spell was determined by the effort he put into forming it. The same happened to my spell: I could tell the mana to leave my body with more or less force, but I could still grab hold of it after it left me. Michael claimed he couldn’t really “grab” the wind at all.
I didn’t want to insult Michael, but I had to suggest the possibility that given more practice, he might learn to control the wind after casting it.
“No,” he said. “I’ve asked Leon about it. The spell Wind cannot be controlled after our mana is used.”
“But isn’t it strange that fire and water can?”
“They can’t always,” Michael corrected me. “It depends on the spell they’re used for. Fire and Water can be controlled, but more complicated spells give the elements a mind of their own.”
“So maybe there’s a wind spell that will allow you to control it after you cast.”
“I…” A thought stopped him. “Actually, you may be right.”
Leon came out of the apartments. A hush fell over the courtyard as everyone stopped what they were doing. He walked toward the center. We all trailed after him like curious kittens following their mother.
I sensed movement and looked at the great hall. Grufaeragar was standing in the doorway, leaning against it as if bored. When Leon noticed the krepp, he grumbled something but did not let his gaze stay on the creature for long.
Leon turned and gestured for us to stop.
“Yesterday, I let my anger get the better of me,” Leon told us.
No one gave a reply, but I could see in most of their expressions that they appreciated the acknowledgement.
Not Reuben. “What is the agreement between you and the king?” he asked.
“Will you let that go so we can discuss more important things?”
“I won’t,” Reuben replied. “I demand to know—”
“You need to stop demanding things and start asking,” Leon told him angrily. “You’re not living in your father’s estate anymore. We’re not your servants.”
A heavy silence followed.
Reuben had a loud breath. “Please tell me what the agreement is between you and the king.”
“It’s nothing. I agreed to help all of you. In exchange for that, I’m to receive a little payment and…” He halted for just a quick moment. “I will be free when this is done.”
“Free?” Eden asked. “Free from what?”
“From not spending my life in the dungeon, all right? Now let’s get on to important business.”
“Wait,” Eden said. “You were in the dungeon before this?”
“Yes, all right! Now what I’m going to tell you has nothing to do with me. Pay attention. There’s a growing army of dark mages and armed commoners in Rohaer who seem intent on taking over Newhaven and possibly all of Lycast.”
“Wait, wait, wait!” Eden interrupted again. “What did you do to be put in the dungeon?”
Leon was shaking his head. “Eden, be quiet. This is not a discussion about me. I’m talking about your lives here.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “But I think we deserve to know if our instructor is a criminal.”
“The king decided not to tell you, and he’s pretty much told you everything else so far. Now what does that say about this information?”
Eden didn’t answer.
“Tell me!” Leon insisted.
“I guess that we don’t need to know it.”
“That is correct. I’m not a criminal anymore. That’s all you need to know about me.”
Reuben said, “But it doesn’t sound like your sentence was completed.”
Leon put his hands over his face as he groaned. “The next person who speaks is taking Grufaeragar around Newhaven to entertain him for the entire day!”
At hearing his name, the krepp started walking toward us.
“Humans do what?” he asked.
Leon cursed under his breath. “We are talking about our enemies, our dishonorable enemies. Would you like to listen quietly?”
The krepp strutted over and eventually stopped right beside me. He put his hand on my shoulder and pressed his claws into my skin. “I listen with humans!” he announced loudly and proudly.
I tried not to wince as I gave him a polite smile and stepped away. Grufaeragar had an odor to him as well. He smelled like dirt, like the earth, but pungent. I figured he hadn’t taken a bath in a long time. Or maybe krepps never bathed.
“King Frederick Garlin in Rohaer is our enemy,” Leon explained. “He’s built an army out of dteria sorcerers, and now he’s arming and training his peasants. Nykal had hoped Frederick’s people would revolt against him. It is a mystery that they have not. Meanwhile, dteria continues to spread in Lycast.”
“What is dteria?” Grufaeragar asked.
“Evil,” Leon answered tersely. “Sorcerers with dishonor. They steal from anyone weaker than them.”
“Barshets,” Grufaeragar barked. I didn’t know what it meant, but it sounded like it could be an insult. “You humans kill them?”
“That is why we train,” Leon said.
“I understand now. I help you train!”
Leon’s jaw tightened. “Today we’re going to be training in a special way, though,” he explained through gritted teeth. “We will not be fighting with swords but with our minds.”
Leon tapped his head as he looked at the krepp. Grufaeragar’s lizard face scrunched together in what looked to be confusion.
“Resistance,” I realized.
Leon pointed at me. “Yes. We have to learn how to stand against a dark mage.” Leon pulled a familiar metal box out of his pocket. It was the same box Greda had given me to block the effects of the essence of dteria the illusionist had tricked me into receiving. He opened the box.
Many of us quickly backed away. I assumed my peers felt the same thing I did, a magnet pulling my mana into an unnatural state.
“This essence is very strong,” Leon said. “It’ll probably take me a day to get my mana back to normal after using it, but this has to be done.” He picked the essence out of the box and put the box back in his pocket. Then he closed his eyes as he cupped his hands around the essence.
It startled Grufaeragar, who reached for his sword. Fortunately, it was not with him right now. I noticed the briefest smile on Leon’s face, one of satisfaction.
“You could’ve given me some warning!” Michael complained as he got himself up.
Leon laughed. “Where’s your sense of fun! Who’s next?” Then a worried look crossed his face. He dropped the essence and walked away from it with his head down.
“Leon?” I called after him. “What is it?”
He pushed out his palm toward me. He kept his head down as he walked away from us.
Then he fell to a crouch. It almost looked like he was hurt.
Aliana started creeping toward him as if to help.
“Give me a moment!” he yelled with a strained voice, and she jumped back to where she had stood between Eden and Kataleya.
A long minute passed before he stood up and walked back to us. He looked down at the essence, just stared at it for a long time.
“If you can’t control yourself,” Reuben said, “you should not be conducting this resistance training.”
“Then who the hell else is going to do it?”
Leon waited, but Reuben didn’t give an answer.
“I can handle it just fine,” Leon said. “Just give me another minute.”
I asked, “Can someone please explain what’s going on?”
Kataleya spoke. “Dteria is an addictive magical art. Not only is it powerful, but it’s easy to use. According to the legend, that’s how it was designed.”
“Kat, I don’t think—” Eden began.
“Jon has never heard any of this, and I believe it to be true.”
Leon walked away. He had his hands on his hips as he took deep breaths.
Eden sighed. “I guess we have time.”
Kataleya turned to me. “Basael created our world and gave life to each demigod. In exchange for power and immortality, each demigod was required to give something back to the world of Imania. The more power they gave up, the more powerful the magical art they created.