by V. St. Clair
Zane looked surprised by this pragmatic view on the matter, but said nothing as they entered the formal dining room. Predictably, they were the first to arrive, as they were still quite early for the meeting. Hayden took a seat near the head of the table without hesitation, while Zane covertly eyed a spot much further away.
“What are you doing?” the former asked curiously.
“Well, it’s not like I’m important enough to take one of the good seats…” Zane answered uncertainly.
“If you’re important enough to stand next to me when we’re attacking the Dark Prism, you’re important enough to sit wherever you want at the stupid table.” Hayden pointed to the seat beside him and, reluctantly, Zane took it. “If anyone has a problem with it, they can show up early next time and claim whatever chair they want.”
“You always did have a problem with authority figures,” his friend chuckled, looking marginally more relaxed as he settled in.
“I’m told it’s something the Frosts are known for,” he joked.
It took another quarter hour for the others to begin filtering into the room, and twenty minutes after that before everyone was in full attendance. A few people eyed Hayden and Zane’s prime spots at the table covetously before taking seats further down, but Hayden pretended not to notice or care.
“Alright, let’s keep this as brief as possible,” Magdalene began, sitting to Hayden’s right at the head of the table. Up close, he could see how tired she looked, though her eyes were as alert and keen as ever.
“Where’s Asher?” Hayden asked, scanning the table even though he knew his mentor wasn’t there; he would have seen him come in.
“He wasn’t able to make it tonight,” Master Reede answered without looking at him.
“You don’t need him to hold your hand during every meeting we have, do you?” Kiresa asked mockingly, leaning back in his chair and smirking.
“Enough,” Magdalene raised a hand to call for silence before they could devolve into another brawl. “Elias, what news?”
Master Kilgore frowned, rubbed his red-grey beard thoughtfully, and said, “It’s all very strange. I was inclined to believe that your friend Isla had taken leave of her senses when she made her report to us last week, but there have been five more confirmed cases of the same from around the Nine Lands.”
Hayden leaned forward and said, “My father has actually been traveling the continent to heal people?”
The disbelief in his voice was mirrored on the faces of the other mages at the table.
“As strange as it sounds, it seems that he is.” Master Kilgore shrugged. “All five of the people he has supposedly helped had long-standing damage to their Foci that had rendered them completely unusable. All five can now cast magic normally, and reported that Aleric seemed quite normal during their interactions.”
“Did any of them ask why Aleric was suddenly taking such a humanitarian view on things?” Master Mandra interjected.
“Not that I’ve heard. It’s not surprising that none of his victims—if we can call them that—would be keen on questioning him too deeply. One wrong word could set the man off and be the end of their life, assuming that he is still prone to fits of instability.”
Laris looked at Hayden and said, “Are you certain that you were telling the truth when you relayed your encounter with him outside of the schism?” the doubt was evident in his tone, which was a complete one-eighty from his feelings during their last meeting. “You’re sure you didn’t simply become frightened when you learned who the man was and embellish your encounter with him a bit?”
The collective group turned to stare at Hayden in eerie unison.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he snarled, supremely annoyed. “You honestly think that after going through all sorts of hell inside the other realm, that I was so terrified of an unarmed man who barely regained his wits that I made the whole thing up?” He made no effort to keep the disgust from his tone. “Asher told you the same story I did, and he certainly has no reason to be afraid of anyone.”
“He has more reason than anyone to fear the Dark Prism’s return,” Master Kiresa countered flatly. Hayden wondered if he’d dare question Asher’s bravery if he was in the room with them. “Aleric is the reason that he lost his vaunted popularity and most of his prospects. He’s spent the last six years recovering from the taint of that association, and he certainly doesn’t want to be dragged back into the dirt again.”
Hayden rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, Asher’s always been super concerned with what other people think of him,” he put in sardonically.
Surprisingly, his sarcasm seemed to convince some of his audience of the veracity of his story. Asher’s eccentricity and complete lack of interest in the opinions of others was well-known.
“The fact still remains that Aleric is not behaving like an unstable, corrupted man, the way you two painted him to be at the end of last year,” Laris continued doggedly.
Hayden shrugged. “I have no idea why he’s doing what he’s doing now; all I can tell you is what he was like when I last saw him. But as has already been pointed out tonight, Asher was the man’s best friend, and he’s convinced that my father hasn’t had a sudden change of heart. Since he knows him better than anyone, I’d listen to whatever he says.”
“If Hayden’s dad is so innocent all of a sudden, why hasn’t he turned himself in to the Council of Mages to prove he’s all better?” Zane surprised them all by speaking up. “You can’t tell me he’s missed all the Wanted posters spread across the entire continent, or the fact that every powerful mage is grouping up to hunt him down.”
“A valid point,” Master Reede acknowledged with a tilt of his head.
Magdalene Trout appeared to be lost in thought for a moment, eyes staring off at something that only she could see. She snapped out of it and said, “Speculating is fruitless; we need more data. Let us move on for the time being.”
“How are things going on your end?” Master Kiresa addressed her directly. “I can’t help but notice that Calahan is still the Chief Mage of the Council, despite your assurances that he wouldn’t hold out for much longer some weeks ago.”
Magdalene frowned and said, “He’s not quite as stupid as I’d hoped. For some reason he refuses to publicly declare Hayden an enemy, despite stripping him of his honors. In fact, he seems to be backpedaling slightly.”
“Are you sure someone isn’t feeding him information about these meetings? If he had a spy amongst our number, it would certainly explain why he hasn’t made that final, critical error yet.”
Master Willow, who had been silent so far, said, “If he had an informant, he would already have Hayden in his custody and Magdalene and Laris sidelined. There’s nothing to be gained by unfounded paranoia amongst us.” At the last, he reprimanded the Prism Master of Isenfall with a glare.
Kiresa shrugged but didn’t argue further.
“Every day that he is in power, we are losing ground against Aleric—if indeed Aleric is still a threat,” Master Mandra put in. “Calahan’s obsession with Hayden nearly rivals his desire to stop the Dark Prism. We’ve been slowed down enormously by having to keep Frost safely concealed here to prevent anyone from ascertaining his whereabouts.”
Hayden could only silently agree. As lofty as the Trout estate was, it would be nice if he was allowed to leave sometime before he turned forty. He was also quite eager for Tess to be freed so that they could meet up and he could apologize for her being enslaved and interrogated on his behalf.
“I know that we need Calahan out of power, and believe me, Laris and I are doing everything we can to push him out the door without showing our hand,” Magdalene snapped impatiently. “It isn’t as easy as it looks.”
“Well, keep trying. Until we get him out of the way, we’re going to be running in place,” Kiresa needled.
“Thank goodness we have you here to remind us of the obvious,” Laris scowled.
Magdalene held up her hand again
, calling for silence. Hayden was impressed that both her colleague and the Prism Master of Isenfall obeyed her.
“Have there been any reports of destruction, missing people, murders, or anything else that might suggest Aleric is up to his old tricks?” Master Mandra changed the subject.
“If so, word hasn’t reached the Council yet,” Magdalene conceded, deliberately avoiding Hayden’s eyes.
“We haven’t heard anything either,” Master Willow reported, though he didn’t look happy about the lack of information. “The High Mayor hasn’t reported anything that matches Aleric’s style—so if he is up to his old games, he is being remarkably subtle about it.”
“More proof that his time in the other realm stabilized him and that his sanity may be restored,” Laris put in unhelpfully. He seemed to have forgotten that he was the biggest opponent to this argument just last week.
“Even if that is the case, he still has to answer for crimes against humanity,” Kilgore cut off Hayden’s rant before he could start it. “I would be astounded if he avoided a death sentence for that alone; he’s guilty of a list of crimes so long it would take hours just to read them all off at his trial.”
“Come now,” Laris made a sweeping gesture with one hand. “If he has truly been restored to sanity, it would be foolishness to murder the man for past crimes. Think of all that he could tell us about magic—all the potential he could open up for us.”
Master Reede’s voice was eerily neutral when he asked, “You would have us all dabble in corrupted magics?”
Laris looked like he’d just been punched in the gut.
“No, of course not! But you can’t sit there and pretend that Aleric’s knowledge only extends to banned magic. He must have discovered a few things using legitimate alignments during the course of his studies as well.”
“It worries me that a prominent member of the Council of Mages—potentially it’s future Chief—is so ready to ally himself with a mass murderer just to learn a few new magic tricks,” Master Willow frowned across the table, as though suddenly seeing his colleague in a new light.
“Bear in mind that Laris does not speak for the entire Council,” Magdalene put in softly, her tone dangerously low.
“It’s more than ‘a few magic tricks!’ ” Laris protested hotly. “Our progress on discovering new spells has waned significantly over the last decade or two. This could be the thing we need to revitalize that effort and give us some fresh perspective. You can’t deny that the monster population is out of control right now!”
“And you would build that bright future on the corpses of all those that Aleric ruthlessly slaughtered over the course of a decade? You would call their deaths a cost of doing business?” Hayden had never heard Master Willow sound so undiplomatic before, or so angry.
“It would give their deaths more meaning than they have right now,” Laris countered easily, not bothered by the opposition of the others. “Someone has to be thinking about the future of mage-kind, and we’ve become a stagnant group; spell-discovery is at an all-time low, mage-count is down as well, and the monsters are gaining the upper hand against us—everyone knows this.”
Reede said, “The monster population goes in cycles; it always has. It’s true that this is a particularly bad one for us, but that is largely because so many mages were killed by Aleric the last time he was powerful, so our fighting force has been greatly depleted. We will catch up in time. The same can be said of the reduction of our numbers and discovery of new spells.”
“All I’m saying is that I’m not yet convinced we should kill the man on sight,” Laris persevered. “I think we should see what he has to say and determine whether he can be of any use to us before we consider terminating his life.”
“And that is why we will lose,” Hayden said softly, but everyone at the table somehow seemed to hear him.
An uncomfortable silence fell in the wake of his words, but Hayden had heard enough. If his allies couldn’t even agree that his father was evil and needed to be taken out, then their fight was over before it even began.
His chair scraped loudly on the floor as he pushed it backwards and stood up. Without another word to anyone, he turned and left the room. He could hear Zane following him by the time he entered the hallway, and the conversation resumed inside the meeting room once they were gone, though he was no longer interested in any of it.
“Well, that was awful,” Zane summarized, catching up to him and matching his pace. “Always nice to have your allies bail on you.”
Hayden scowled and said, “I’m starting to think poor decision-making skills and a general lack of morality are prerequisites for working on the Council of Mages.”
“Well, there goes our career in politics,” Zane sighed in a mockery of wistfulness. “To be fair, Mrs. Trout doesn’t seem too bad, though I never thought I’d be defending anyone whose last name is ‘Trout.’ She’d make a decent Chief Mage.”
“Assuming she can get rid of both Laris and Calahan, sure,” Hayden agreed.
“Hey, I wouldn’t put it past her. She seems like a pretty determined lady.”
Hayden nodded weary agreement.
“I think I’m going to turn in early tonight. Watching our alliance begin to fall apart before the real work even begins kind of sapped the energy out of me.”
“Well, don’t go into a funk just because we’ve hit our first big roadblock. I’m sure this won’t be the worst thing we have to face before it’s all said and done, so we need to stay positive and focused.”
Hayden turned to him outside the door of his bedroom and said, “You still believe that my father’s evil?”
Zane looked at him like he was stupid.
“Of course I do. You and Asher said he is, and I trust you both—on this, at least.” He smiled briefly. “Besides, it sounds like most of the others in there are still on your side as well. Don’t lose heart just because we might have to kick Laris out of our little cabal.”
“Too bad he knows where I’ve been hiding out, and he could walk into Calahan’s office tonight and get Magdalene fired and me arrested all without lifting a finger. He’ll look like a hero.”
Zane grimaced at that unpleasant realization.
“Well, we’ll just have to hide out somewhere else for the time being. Get some rest, and tomorrow morning we’ll start fresh and work out a new plan, even if it’s just you and me. If it isn’t safe here anymore then we’ll go somewhere else, and we can contact the others as we’re able.”
Hayden nodded, reassured by Zane’s words and his determination not to give up. He wasn’t sure what he would do if his friend hadn’t been here tonight, but he didn’t want to think about it.
Maybe along the way we can free Tess too. I know enough magic now to break through Binders, and I can probably take down whoever the Council has guarding her…
He bid Zane goodnight on that note and entered his bedroom. Bonk wasn’t there, which meant he was probably still out hunting squirrels; there were alarmingly few to be found on the Trout lands, so he had to fly a bit further away to find his prey of choice.
Hayden changed into his pajamas and climbed into bed, dimming the magic-powered lamp on the end table.
His dreams that night were disturbing, filled with friends who turned into cobras and tried to bite him, and faceless strangers condemning him to death.
The sound of someone barging into his room and grabbing him by the arm abruptly woke him. Confused and groggy, Hayden looked around wildly and said, “Wuzzgoinon?”
He squinted, but the room was still dark and it was pitch-black outside. He couldn’t even tell who was hauling him roughly out of bed until an unpleasantly familiar voice said, “Shut up and get moving, Frost.”
“Master Sark?” Hayden asked in shock, stumbling to his feet and tripping over his shoes in the darkness. “What in the world are you doing here? I haven’t seen you in—”
“Keep quiet and come with me,” the Master of Powders commanded in the terse,
annoyed tone he usually reserved just for Hayden.
“Hang on, let me change clothes…”
“There isn’t time for that.” He pulled Hayden roughly into the hallway. In his sleep-addled state, Hayden didn’t immediately register that there was something off about this entire encounter, but as they padded through the library—Hayden still barefoot—his brain began to reengage.
“Wait a minute…” he spoke into the darkness as they continued towards the foyer. “What are you doing here in the middle of the night? Where are we going? Why do I have to keep quiet...?”
He dug in his heels and forced them to stop in the middle of the hallway. Apparently furious at being questioned, Sark tugged on his arms so hard that he nearly dislocated Hayden’s shoulders. Reflexively, Hayden reached for his prism circlet to fight the man, but then realized that it had been left behind in his bedroom, along with all of his weaponry.
“HEL—!” Hayden screamed at the top of his lungs, but before he could finish the word ‘help’, Master Sark threw a pinch of powder into his face that caused him to choke and gasp for air.
While Hayden was desperately trying to breathe, Sark took advantage of the opportunity to drag him into the foyer, where they would be able to translocate away from the estate. Hayden struggled as hard as he could, but since he was still trying to recover from the effects of that awful powder, Master Sark was able to successfully pull him into the foyer, where he took hold of his Mastery Charm.
Lights were coming on in the house behind them. Someone had heard Hayden scream, they knew something was wrong, they were coming to help…
Between one blink and the next the Trout manor disappeared, and Hayden found himself standing outside in the cold, shivering as the full effects of winter hit him now that they were beyond the climate-controlled area surrounding the Trout estate. His bare feet sank into two inches of snow and immediately began to go numb. The only bright side was that the wintry air seemed to clear up his lungs, and suddenly he could breathe normally again.