“Hello, Hugo,” she said brightly. “Are you evil now?”
He grinned. Maybe not quite normal. “I don’t think it works like that,” he said.
She shrugged and plopped down beside Cannon. “Just checking.” She stretched her feet out and placed them on a low table. They were bare and dirty, as you might expect the underside of a rabbit’s feet to be.
Hugo poured himself a glass of juice from a crystal pitcher on the table and sat down across from the others. He glanced questioningly at Cannon, and Tabitha said, “I told him everything.”
Hugo choked on his juice. “You did? And I suppose you were along for the whole thing, were you? Spying on Brinley and me?”
“I wasn’t spying,” Tabitha said, sounding offended. “I was watching.”
“As a bunny?” Hugo said incredulously. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t noticed her bouncing around his feet.
Cannon laughed and Tabitha held up a finger to correct him. “A rabbit. And, no.” She gave a sly smile. “I was a moth for a while, and then I was an ant. I sat on your boot all morning while you paced.”
“All morning?” Hugo huffed, remembering the moth.
Tabitha folded her arms. “Well, not the whole time…I closed my eyes when you went to the bathroom. Your boots need to be washed, by the way.”
“Tabitha!” Hugo and Cannon said together.
“What?” she said, taken aback. “They do! Just look at them.”
“An ant?” Cannon said, trying not to laugh at Hugo’s flushed cheeks. “Why an ant? He might have crushed you by accident. Your life could have been over like that!” He snapped his fingers.
“No,” Tabitha said, nonplussed. “Ants are strong…Stronger than you think.” She smiled. “Like me.”
Hugo couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Just listen to you two!” he exploded, standing up. “What about my privacy? I mean, coming in without asking is one thing, but spying on me too? How do you justify that?”
Tabitha looked confused. Finally she shrugged. “Brinley asked me to. She said you needed to be watched. Said that you might do something stupid, like try to sneak into the dungeons in the middle of the night to confront the darkness by yourself without telling her.”
That stung. How did Brinley know him so well? She was the Magemother, of course, and he was a mage, and everyone said that mothers had an instinct about these things. Maybe this was what it was like to have a mother. All he knew was he liked things better before a girl took such an annoying interest in everything he did.
Cannon sat up, looking mildly surprised. “You’re not arguing,” he said to Hugo. “You really did do all that? Blast. I was banking on you not being that stupid. Rumors are spreading around the castle already, but I thought they were exaggerated.”
Tabitha held out a hand expectantly and Cannon withdrew a coin from the pocket of his robes.
“Were you betting on me?” Hugo asked, not sure whether he should be outraged or amused.
“Just a bit,” Tabitha said, as if it wasn’t any of his business, and Cannon said, “Don’t feel bad, mate. Brinley’s been waiting for you to sneak off to that room for a week. Now, do tell us all about it or we won’t leave you alone. We still have a few minutes until the meeting starts.”
“You were there,” he said to Tabitha.
“I wasn’t,” Cannon said.
“Fine,” Hugo blurted. The truth was he wasn’t nearly as annoyed as he was pretending; Hugo was generally happy to be the center of attention. He told them the whole thing.
When he got to the part where the darkness entered him, Cannon shifted in his seat. “What did it feel like?” he asked. “Did it hurt?”
Hugo thought about it. “I didn’t feel anything at all, really.”
“Blast,” Cannon said, taking another coin out of his pocket. Tabitha had her hand out again, wiggling her fingers impatiently.
Hugo gave them a dumbfounded look. Everyone had noticed Tabitha coming out of her shell over the last few weeks, but he had never seen the two of them carry on like this together. It made sense, though. After all, they were both apprenticed to mages. Maybe there was some comradery in that which he was not privy to.
They had a few more questions for him—sincere questions, he guessed, since there were no more coins exchanged, and Cannon let himself out. On his way through the door, Cannon called back, “Watch out for ants.” Hugo rolled his eyes.
Tabitha stepped to the open window.
“Are you going to see her now and report about me?” Hugo asked, knowing the answer.
“Yep,” Tabitha said.
“Tabitha,” Hugo said, making her pause. “Can ants really close their eyes?”
“Nope,” she said. And she hopped out the window.
He crossed the room to look out after her. It was a hundred feet to the ground from there. No doubt she had changed shape after she jumped. He could just make out the shape of a robin winging toward the windows of the Magemother’s quarters. She would tell Brinley everything, he knew. How he looked, how he acted, what he said. Was he afraid? Was he going crazy yet? Was the darkness taking control?
He went to the mirror and considered his reflection. Those were all good questions. He had been asking himself those, and a dozen others, for half the night.
Chapter Two
In which Brinley has a vision
Later that day, Brinley was packing her bags. It was time to be going. That much had been decided already, and now that the darkness had entered Hugo, there was nothing more to wait for. Hugo would be leaving too. The king hadn’t been happy about that, but he was never happy at the prospect of his only heir leaving the safety of Caraway Castle. Overprotective, that’s what he was, but in the end he had taken it better than she had anticipated.
Hugo would be going with Animus and Cannon on a fact-finding expedition that would take them anywhere and everywhere. A big part of the reason she wanted them together was because Animus was the oldest, wisest mage around. If anyone had a chance of helping Hugo learn how to be the Mage of Light and Darkness, it was him. She and Animus had discussed it at length over the past few weeks and agreed that if Hugo were overcome by the darkness, it was better that it happened on the road in the middle of nowhere, with Animus there to help, than here in the city with thousands of people around.
They hadn’t told the king that part, of course, or Hugo. As far as they knew, the sole purpose of the mission was to discover some clue as to the whereabouts of the missing mages. They were going to the Magisterium and various royal libraries. They would be stopping in smaller places too, talking to the commoners, asking for rumors, stories, anything that might give them a hint in the right direction. It had been done before, true, but this time it was different. This time they had to succeed.
As for herself, her first order of business was to visit Cassis at the bridge to the Wizard’s Ire. It was the king’s wish that she examine the situation there, since the Magemother was said to control the magical gate there that kept the inhabitants of the Ire locked inside. If that was the case, she knew nothing about it. Just one more thing to ask her mother about when the time came…And she hoped the time came soon; the king was nearly hysterical with worry. In the past, creatures from the Ire had been coming in at random, one here and another there. But one week ago, that had changed. It was a monster a day now, every day at noon, coming across the bridge to challenge the king’s armies. They were killed almost instantly by the soldiers waiting for them, but that didn’t stop them from coming, and the fact that Shael was willing to throw away his forces day after day just to make a point was making everyone nervous. Such a show of force could mean only one thing: war was coming. The oldest enemy of Aberdeen still lived within the Wizard’s Ire. Nobody thought that he could escape the prison that the mages had built for him, but nobody had thought the bridge could be breached either.
Brinley took a small bag out of her pocket and opened it. She brought the little crystal vial out of the bag a
nd twirled it between her fingers thoughtfully. She had been doing that a lot lately—too much, probably. But she didn’t care.
Her mother was inside it. Trapped in the vial—the naptrap, it was called. She was wounded, mortally wounded, and if they released her she would die in moments.
She couldn’t let that happen. Not just because Brinley had already gone through most of her life without knowing her. Her mother also held critical information. Information that they had to recover. That was why they needed the mages. The mages, she knew, could somehow save her mother, and she was going to need all of them if they were going to succeed.
Brinley squinted, holding the crystal vial up to the light. It looked empty to her. Habis, the witch who had made the naptrap, was supposed to report in earlier, but she had failed to do so. She had been researching fiercely over the past couple of weeks, looking for a way to save Brinley’s mother. Finding Habis would be her second order of business then.
She hoped that her meeting with Habis would give her new ideas about what to do next. There were too many questions. Too many unknowns. She could still remember when she had lived a normal life back in Colorado, and all she ever worried about was her chores. She chuckled bitterly. In some ways, nothing had changed. She still had chores to do, things that had to get done. But now her chores were important. Now, if she messed up, people could die and the world could unravel at the edges. Being the Magemother wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
After she finished packing, she closed her eyes and reached out with her mind as Animus had taught her. She was supposed to practice this every morning when she woke up, but she had forgotten with all the excitement of leaving.
The mages were connected to the Magemother in many ways, and this was one of the most useful ones. She could communicate with them, and they with her, even across great distances. Touching the minds of the mages was something that the Magemother was supposed to be able to do easily, but so far it had proven a bit of a challenge.
She squinted in concentration. It felt odd, trying to reach out like this. She kept trying to throw her mind outside herself and it kept just slapping up against the inside of her own head. Finally, she broke through. She could feel Hugo on the other side of the castle. His mind was calm, slow. He must be asleep. She widened her awareness and reached out for the other mages, finding them one by one. Cassis was where she expected him to be, pacing back and forth across the bridge to the Wizard’s Ire. Belterras, the Mage of Earth, was in the far north, tending to a herd of heartbeasts. She didn’t even bother looking for the three missing mages. She should bother, she knew, but she didn’t want to feel the disappointment of failure today. Wherever they were, they were beyond her reach. How many times did she need to be reminded of it?
She searched for Animus next. Strange that he should be so hard to find; he was usually the easiest. He was old and wise, and his brilliant, powerful mind usually stood out like a star in the darkness of the world. Where was he? She smiled. He was right outside her door.
She let him in and relaxed inside the bear hug he gave her, twitching her nose as his long white beard tickled her face. He was the closest thing she had to a father since her own father had disappeared trying to follow her into Aberdeen.
“I came to say good-bye,” Animus said. He raised his snowy eyebrows. “I daresay there won’t be time later. Will you continue to practice what I have taught you while I am away?”
“Of course!” she said. “I practice every morning.”
“Indeed,” he said, hiding a grin. “I noticed that you had quite a struggle locating me just now. Perhaps I was too far away?”
Brinley blushed.
He flashed a knowing smile, half hidden by his white moustache. “Sometimes,” he said, “the hardest thing to see clearly is the thing right in front of us.”
They sat together in silence for a moment, and then Animus asked, “Have you had any more nightmares?”
Brinley felt her chest tighten at the question. “Yes,” she said, “last night. About my father. He was trapped in darkness again, trying to escape, calling to me, but I couldn’t get to him.” She lifted a hand to stop her lips from trembling. “Do you still think they are visions, Animus?”
He spread his arms. “I do not know,” he said. “That is for you to discern.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “Do not worry too much about it, though. You will know what to do when the time comes to act. You must trust your instincts.”
She nodded.
“Why don’t you practice your mind work with me?” he asked.
She welcomed the change of subject. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes again and spread her awareness outward, being careful to start with the space right around her body.
“Good,” Animus said. “Now, look for them.”
“What’s the use?” she said. “I’m never going to find them this way.”
“Try anyway,” Animus said. “It’s good for you.”
She stretched her mind farther, as far as it would go, looking for some hint, some whisper of the mages that she could never find. Lignumis, the Mage of Wood. Chantra, Mage of Fire. Unda, Mage of Water. They had been young when Lux, the previous Mage of Light and Darkness, had been corrupted. She had been a baby at the time. Her own mother, Lewilyn, had been the Magemother. Lewilyn had hidden the three young mages, just as she had hidden Brinley. Hidden them so carefully that not even she could find them later, knowing that in time, when they were ready, they would return, just as Brinley had.
She could not feel them like she felt the others. No clear, soulful substance, no personality, no thoughts echoing out of the darkness between them, only weight. That was all she ever felt when she looked for them: emptiness and weight. The weight was more inside herself than out, and she knew it must be the weight of the lost mages’ power that she still bore. She had taken away all of the mages’ power weeks prior, and since she had yet to find them, she still held theirs. Normally it did not bother her, but when her whole being was focused on Chantra, or Unda, or Lignumis, the weight of Fire and Water and Wood began to bear down on her, as if in longing for their true bearers. She knew they must be out there still, if the power longed for them so, but she could not tell where. “Just like always,” she muttered.
“Try again,” Animus said. “Focus this time. Put your worries away. Just focus on one this time.”
Summoning her patience, she closed her eyes again. Which one should she focus on? Almost automatically, her thoughts fell on Chantra, the Mage of Fire. How old was she? She couldn’t be that much older than Brinley. She was a young girl when she went into hiding.
Brinley filled her mind with thoughts of fire, imagining the heat of it on her face, the smell of burning wood. Red and orange flames flashed across her imagination. She let them burn of their own accord, ignoring the impulse to stop them. She willed herself to believe that she was watching something more than an idle daydream of her own creation.
There was something in the flames now. A person. Her heart skipped a beat. That was new. She calmed herself, trying to keep her mind from wandering. A short man in a stately coat was peering at her from within the fire. He had a short beard and chiseled features. He was only there for a second, but she saw him clearly. “Animus!” she said, opening her eyes.
“What?” Animus said in a hushed voice. “What did you see?”
“I saw Tuck!” she said. “Thieutukar, I mean.”
Animus’s wispy eyebrows twitched in surprise. “The king of the gnomes?”
Brinley nodded. “I’m sure it was him. But I don’t know why I would see him. I was concentrating on Chantra, just like you taught me, and then Tuck was there. I was concentrating so hard, Animus. Do you think it was a real vision?”
“Hmm,” Animus said. “Perhaps. Worth looking into, for certain.”
Brinley eyed him questioningly. “But why would I see him? Do you think he might know something about where Chantra is? If that’s true then why hasn’t he said anythi
ng? Tuck is my friend, Animus. I think he would tell me if he knew something like that.”
“Perhaps he has forgotten,” Animus said. “Or he does not realize what he knows. It could be some small piece of knowledge, insignificant in his own estimation. I think it is worth investigating.”
Brinley nodded. “That is where you and Hugo will go, then.”
Animus nodded. “I agree. This is the more promising lead.” He smiled. “And no doubt Hugo will find it more exciting than searching distant libraries for clues to the whereabouts of the missing mages, as was our previous plan.”
Brinley was still thinking about Chantra. “What is she like?” she asked.
Animus looked slightly startled. “Chantra? Well, she was…young.” He held his hands up apologetically. “I was already very old by the time your mother selected her to be a mage. She spent more time around Cassis, but even he didn’t know her well. I think she struggled a bit, growing up with Unda and Lignumis. They were both a bit older than her.” He smiled. “Unda once told me he was going to have to get a troll to guard his room on Calypsis because she kept breaking in to jump on his bed and go through his things. I imagine he was joking, of course.” He waved his hand. “You will get to know her yourself, I’m sure.”
She hoped that Animus was right. She hoped Tuck would remember some secret bit of information that would help them. She hoped, but she couldn’t help doubting. Tuck appearing in her mind might just as easily have been a mental hiccup as a real vision. That was something the Magemother was supposed to experience—visions. But she had imagined them being far more grandiose than what she had just experienced.
“I must be going now,” he said. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Have faith in yourself. And remember, never stop looking for them.”
***
Early the following morning, Brinley decided to say good-bye to Hugo before she left. She had been arguing with herself about it for an hour now, going back and forth, unsure whether it would be worse to leave each other on the wrong foot or risk coming off as overbearing by checking in on him again. In the end she decided that the best thing would be to just call him with her mind and say her good-byes from a distance. That way he couldn’t get mad at her for spying on him, but they would be able to talk before he left. She sat on her bed and reached out across the castle with her mind. She was surprised to find him still asleep, but nudged him awake anyway.
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