Spirit of Magik (The Dothranan Chronicles Book 1)

by Richard Cluff

  Nigel cheered at that.

  Eliel's arm was around Thorel's waist as she walked with them. “I can't tonight, I need to work. My purse is getting light.”

  “Eliel, are you really a whore?” Thorel asked.

  “Yep, just like my mom. Been working since I was sixteen. I'd never charge you though,” she laughed. “I'm going to get a degree in something, get a better job, and one good man to make babies for,” she looked up at him hopefully.

  Thorel stopped at that statement. It disturbed him but was also a beacon to him. This woman was going to do what she had to do to make her life better, just as he was.

  She stood on her toes and kissed Thorel's cheek. “I've got to go; I'm gonna catch a carriage from here. I don't want my regulars being stolen away. See you two tomorrow.”

  Thorel and Nigel said their goodbyes to her. She waved and ran to the first carriage that stopped and climbed aboard.

  * * *

  Ari set her late stepmother's talismans on the window sill of her extravagant bedroom. Even after nearly five months of sleeping in this room, it still seemed almost surreal to her. All of this was hers. This room was easily thrice the size of her old room at the Academy, and twice the size her room here had been.

  Her bracelets of strength were nearly depleted. The moon was waning tonight, but it would be better than no charge at all. She would have to make a second pair at her earliest opportunity, so she could always have a full charge ready. But being the Mistress of House Dothranan kept her far busier than she had ever imagined it would.

  She enjoyed the view for a moment from the forty-second floor of the Manor as the cool light breeze blew in through the open window and ruffled her red silk nightgown.

  She looked over her shoulder and saw her father's spirit. She was irritated at how long it was taking to drain him. Maybe she should quit using her talismans so much to speed his drain. She was sick of seeing his sad, cowardly face. She owned three slaves who'd already agreed to trade spirits attached to them in exchange for their freedom. She did not need him now.

  She would keep her stepmother though. She enjoyed seeing her there, dead, angry and powerless.

  Many freed slaves took the oath of service and served loyally. Far better than many outsiders that applied.

  She suddenly saw a powerful Magikal pulse in the distillery, where her wines were distilled into cognac or strong brandies. She focused her attention on it, and within seconds, it expanded.

  The distillery exploded in a deafening roar. It showered a thirty-yard area around it with debris and flames. Her heart dropped into the pit of her care stomach seeing the riches of her hold go up in a billowing cloud of fire.

  The alarm bells sounded. She could see the response of the firemen when she amplified her sight. She grabbed her talismans, and quickly put them back on.

  Ari touched Siri's speaking stone with her mind and asked, “Siri, what is the situation?”

  “Mistress! The distillery is gone; at least thirty are dead. I'm still trying to get more information,” Siri's thin voice was transmitted from her stone directly to Ari's mind. “I can't fathom how anyone could have placed an explosive in there without being detected. It would be far too big to hide from the Guards sweeps, given the damage it caused.”

  “It wasn't an explosive; it was a Detonation stone. I saw it,” Ari replied.

  She knew detonation stones were difficult and dangerous to make; this was no simple attack. A single detonation stone would have cost at least five gold crowns or more depending on the sight age of the Wizard that made them. It took an entire spirit's power to make just one. Ari knew it was impossible to synchronize the time on the stones, unlike conventional explosives. The timing would be set from the time the stone was made: the best one could do is prepare them all, and do the final evocations on each of them in turn to try and get them close.

  Climbing onto the window sill, Ari jumped out of the window in nothing but her long red nightgown. She held her nightgown to her legs to keep it from flying up and exposing her. Her hair whipped straight out above her, the wind of her rapid descent fluttering through it.

  She stopped her rapid descent with a vortex of air she formed with her Magik above the entry to the Manor's stables and felt the Magik again.

  The thunder of a detonation stone's explosion drowned out all sound for a moment.

  “Where was that explosion?” Ari asked Siri.

  She saw several of her holders were running to the Manor in a blind panic. She saw her guards trying to calm some of them.

  “The granary, Mistress. General Tarsis reports he is sending soldiers to help fight the distillery blaze,” came Siri's thin voice.

  “Close the gates. Have anyone who is not of our House arrested,” Ari sent to General Tarsis's stone.

  “Yes, Mistress,” came the General's deep voice, thinned by the stone's transmission.

  Ari used some of her father's energy and heightened her Magikal senses. She could feel two more, but her senses didn't cover the entire hold. At least none were in the Manor itself.

  “Have all the production facilities evacuated, Siri,” Ari commanded.

  Her duty was to protect her people, even though she cared little for any of them individually. She knew her holders would lose confidence if she were unable to protect them. Then they would swear fealty to others, weakening her. She knew her history well and had seen that losing pattern occur several times throughout.

  Without loyal holders, a Lord or Lady was nothing but a person with a title.

  “Yes Mistress,” Siri said and relayed her orders.

  Ari pulled power from her father's spirit and propelled herself quickly upon the vortex she'd created. She flew right over the Manor's walls.

  She felt the now familiar build-up of energy again, and one of the stones she had detected expended its power. The thunderous explosion split the night air.

  “Deal with things as best you can, I'm going to find them and stop them,” she transmitted to Siri and the General.

  “Yes Mistress,” they replied.

  “Be safe,” Siri added.

  Flipping her hair back in the night air, she sped towards the stone she felt. Ari reveled in the power coursing through her. She had never flown for more than a short jaunt before now, and she had never gone this fast. It exhilarated her almost as much as seeing Marylyn Dothranan die.

  Ari went north, as the remaining stone she felt lay that way. Sand and small stones were blasted from her path leaving a trail of polished road in her wake. Ari was a red blur in motion. She ascended to avoid a fire wagon being pulled to deal with the granary blaze. People were knocked down by the pressure of her wake, and the asses pulling the wagon panicked.

  She drew near the detonation stone and could sense the Magik of the stone trigger with her expanded Magikal senses. She could even see it with the Wizard's sight because of the enhancement. Ari drew on more spirit than she ever had, and loosed a pillar of lightning from her palm.

  Her father's spirit visibly dimmed.

  The lightning pierced the stone wall of the central water house and struck the stone. The stone made a “poof” noise and lay inert. Several workers in the house were rendered unconscious or killed as the electricity arced off of the pumps and piping.

  Ari was relieved she had stopped that one and detected no others. She pressed as much power as she could into her Magikal senses: she had never placed this much power into them before, it was nearly overwhelming. She had to take a moment to sort the clutter of the common talismans, such as fire rocks, speaking stones and the like. It was as if the entire hold glowed with the common Magiks used in daily life.

  Her head started aching, and a trickle of blood ran from her nose. She felt an unpleasant pressure behind her eyes.

  When she sorted the clutter, she could feel two detonation stones. Her senses covered the entire hold now, as well as parts of Central, East and West Vallad. Just one more thing the Masters had told her was impossible wa
s rendered false.

  She had been told that people did not have the perception necessary to process such input. But she had just proven them wrong. She could feel more than ever before now. All it had cost her was a headache, and a bit of her blood. She'd lost a lot more than this in the last lashing Cirrus had given her.

  Realization dawned on Ari. She was certain they were each in the east and west water houses. By setting the blazes with the first stones, then destroying the water houses, she would lose half of her hold to fire. Without the water houses to pump the flow throughout the hold, there would be little she could do to stop it.

  Ari changed directions quickly toward the west water house. It was the nearest to the distillery blaze, and she needed that fire put out quickly before it ignited the bottling house. That would explode with the thousands of bottles present, and burn so hot it would cause serious collateral damage.

  She pushed herself to even greater speed, channeling more power into her flight.

  Ari touched down at the west water house and activated her bracelets of speed. “Mistress!” The guards saluted instantly. Ari sped past them so fast they doubted their senses for a moment.

  Ari paused inside the water house and scanned the complex. The Manor's massive water pipes entered the building from the east side. She could see the tangle of lesser piping coming from the small lake of the reservoir. Slaves were working cranks and wheels, or cleaning. Engineers oversaw massive boilers operating stream pumps. This facility pumped the aqua life blood throughout a third of her hold.

  She ran towards the stone she felt as quickly as she could. She dodged workers that were too surprised to bow to the red and blonde blur that ran past them.

  “Mistress!” The Engineer bowed as Ari reached under the steam pump and grasped the stone.

  On her knees, she examined the complex glowing Magikal pattern of the stone. She needed to try to deactivate it so she might be able to use it to find its maker.

  She probed the stone's matrix with her Magik. Ari understood how they worked, but this was the first time she had ever laid her hands on one.

  Damn it all! She thought as she saw the power shift, collapsing into the core. She drew heavily on her father's spirit. Ari enclosed it in a shield hastily and activated the ring of iron skin.

  It detonated with a blinding flash, the thunder contained by the shield.

  Ari saw nothing but darkness. Her charred hands were shaking. She did not cry out, but tears would have fallen from her eyes, had her tear ducts not been burned by the heat. Her red gown had a hole in the middle, barely leaving her womanly parts covered. Her stomach, arms, and face were more lightly burned. Her talismans were undamaged, glittering on her blackened flesh.

  “I'm blind!!!” The Engineer cried out waving his hands about and blinking his sightless eyes.

  “It doesn't hurt that much,” she shuddered and giggled weakly. She drew enough spirit to heal her wounds and vision almost instantly and blinked moisture back into her eyes.

  Ari ignored the man's pleas and ran as fast as the bracelet of speed would allow her to. She heard the splash of a blinded slave falling into the reservoir. Workers made way for her. She didn't look back.

  When she exited, she leaped into the air forming her vortex once again. She knew her time was almost gone.

  Ari touched Siri's speaking stone. She wished Siri was a Wizard so she could have touched her mind directly. “Evacuate the east water house! I doubt I'll make it in time!” She commanded. Engineers were too valuable to lose, and training new slaves took time.

  “Yes Mistress!” Came Siri's thin voice to her mind.

  She was halfway there now and she channeled more speed. She wished she had entered the east water house before. She could have apported there safely if she had. If she tried to apport without previously seeing her target, she risked being the victim of a grisly Magikal accident; the kind of accident she would be unlikely to survive.

  She ascended into the sky to improve her view. That was the only way she was going to be able to stop this thing in time. Ari could see the Magikal essence of the stone at this height. It was tiny from here, but she was certain she could hit it. If Siri did her duty, there would be no collateral damage.

  She gathered lightning to strike it. The electricity crawled on her hands like a living thing while she gathered her power as quickly as possible.

  She saw the stone's detonation sequence activate.

  Then her father's spirit disappeared, drained of all his power. Panic welled in Ari; she had no time for this!

  She started falling and shifted her power draw as quickly as she could to a slave's spirit. She stopped her descent and tried to charge the lightning again.

  But Ari was unable to re-charge it in time.

  With a thunderous boom, a large section of the water house wall near the pumps and boilers exploded outward. Pieces of stone made man-sized holes in the buildings across the street. Part of the roof collapsed in that area.

  Ari alighted in a frustrated rage at her errors. It consumed her thoughts. If she hadn't been so stupid as to have not noted his remaining power, this wouldn't have happened. If she had seen the feint of the production attack, she would have been able to go from west to east in one run. If she hadn't tried to deactivate the second stone, she would have had enough time.

  She descended quickly to conserve energy. Ari stood defeated on the cobbles of the street where she found herself and looked at the fires of her failure. She felt outrage at this undeclared war striking the beating hearts of her Hold.

  She knelt in the street panting from her exertion and touched Siri's stone. “Tell General Tarsis to release the visitors, they are not involved. Offer all that were detained a copper as an apology,” she could not have visitors fear coming here.

  “Yes, Mistress. If there was sabotage in the water houses, someone with access placed them. By your leave, I will begin the investigation immediately,” Siri said thinly.

  “Granted,” Ari thought to her stone. Several stunned holders stopped to ask if she was alright.

  “I'm fine,” she waved them off irritably. Any other time, she would have thanked them for their concern, as it was only proper. She was in no mood to pretend to care about niceties at the moment though.

  Ari stood up and commandeered the first horse she came across. She rode quickly back to the Manor.

  * * *

  Thorel and Nigel walked through the alleys on the way back to the Academy. It was the best way to go since Thorel had to make stops to spill his lunch occasionally. Nigel smiled ironically; it wasn't like his vomit was going to make the alley smell any worse.

  He'd told Nigel of his decision to accept the Great Ladies offer over four rounds at a different tavern than the last. Nigel knew it would be best to give the bouncer a couple of weeks to cool off at the last one. Otherwise, he'd tell them they couldn't enter. Nigel had his concerns about Thorel working for her, but he also understood his friend's points. Jobs this good would be hard to come by.

  He was a very surprised when Thorel told him how passive the woman had been before her parents death. It wasn't something he would have expected. He didn't like hearing about her first day back to school as a Great Lady at all.

  Then Thorel explained what Headmaster Stiral had told him about the Noble system, and it finally made the whole: I'm a noble, bow and scrape to me, attitude make some twisted sense. That didn't mean he had to like it any more than he did before though.

  It's a good thing he isn't any drunker. Nigel thought as he guided him along the uneven cobbles of the alley. He knew there was no way he could have carried, or even dragged Thorel. The man likely weighed more than two of himself together. He would have had to raid Thorel's pouch for a carriage if he'd been any worse. Nigel had a little coin squirreled away, but not enough for a carriage for them, that was certain.

  It wasn't the first time he'd walked a drunk friend home, but it was the first time it only took four rounds for his friend to g
et this drunk. It had been funny at first, then when Thorel told him the room was spinning he knew it was time to go; before the bouncer took issue with them.

  He saw a bright light illuminating them from behind, then he heard a woman shout: “You there! Halt and turn around!” The voice carried an unmistakable commanding tone.

  Legion patrol. Nigel sighed inwardly. He wasn't surprised they'd been stopped; the Legion always made sweeps of the alleyways to stop illegal deals, rapes, and the occasional murders. He usually made it a point to get through the alleys quickly, but that wasn't an option with Thorel in his current state.

  “Alright buddy, we're turning around, try to keep up,” he said, guiding Thorel's hulking mass around.

  “Ok,” Thorel said weakly.

  When he did, he was surprised to see a cloaked person between him and the beam of light held by the Legionnaires. This man was only two yards away from them, and Nigel hadn't heard him. He took a quiet step towards them, seemingly oblivious to the Legionnaire's command.

  Does this man want to die? The thought raced through Nigel's mind.

  “Fire!” The woman commanded.

  They heard the thump of two arrows hitting the man's back. The bloody points came out the front of his chest. The force of the impact jostled his hood showing a man's face with blood around his mouth and white splotches on his skin. The strange pink eyes were black where it should have been white. He showed no sign of pain.

  Thorel and Nigel screamed together, instantly sober. Everyone knew what the white splotches and pink-black eyes meant. It was the monster parents used to frighten misbehaving children.

  A Kryss.

  The Kryss turned quickly into a crouch and launched himself at the Legionnaire that charged with both of his blades drawn. It was so fast, it ducked under his swing and came up inside his guard. It grabbed the man by the neck and bit into his face.

  The Legionnaire screamed in agony and slid his short blade through its trunk. The Kryss slammed the man into the wall of the alley, cracking bricks in the wall. It then jumped to the roof high above and landed on its feet. It narrowly avoided a pair of arrows that bounced uselessly off of the stone wall.