Magic and Mayhem: A Collection of 21 Fantasy Novels

by Jasmine Walt

  Tan stared, afraid to probe the connection he shared with the draasin, afraid to simply ask whether the shaping would hold, uncertain how to even phrase the question.

  I hear the question regardless, the draasin said.

  Tan would have jumped had he not been carrying Amia. He strained to keep a barrier, a wall of sorts, up in his mind, separating his thoughts from those of the draasin, and he failed. The draasin was both powerful and skilled at communicating with thought. Tan was neither.

  There was almost a chuckle in his mind. Perhaps you should see what I see, little warrior, the draasin said. Free us.

  There is one among us who fears what you would do if freed.

  As well he should, the draasin rumbled.

  Tan let the weak barrier in his mind drop and sent a probing thought toward the draasin, searching its intent. He found a creature that longed for the hunt, for the warmth of the sun upon its skin, and for the taste of hot flesh. There was no malice, yet no regard for where the meal came from. Still, Tan sensed something there, new and puzzling to the draasin, and he recognized it for what it was.

  Amia’s shaping.

  It had settled in and around the draasin’s mind, holding tight, and the draasin eyed it curiously, uncertain what the shaping was and how the shaping would affect it. Still there was no fear. Only curiosity.

  If released, you may not hunt man, Tan informed the draasin.

  We hunt what pleases us.

  As the draasin sent the thought, Tan sensed it running into Amia’s shaping. There was a sensation of pressure, as if the creature tried to force its way through the shaping, and it struggled wildly for a moment. Finally, a grudging acceptance of the shaping, not pleased or angry. There remained a promise to overcome the shaping hidden deep in the draasin’s mind.

  You may not hunt man.

  The draasin laughed then, and there was true amusement. You surprise me, little warrior. We will agree. For now.

  Tan sent an acknowledgement and turned to Amia to answer her. “I think it worked,” he said. “Though I suspect they’ll struggle against it. They’ll probably find a way around your shaping.”

  Roine turned, eyeing Tan with curiosity as he carried Amia. “What has she done?”

  “She has forbidden the draasin from hunting man.”

  Roine laughed bitterly. “You think that will work? How many spirit shapings have held against the lisincend? And the draasin are more powerful by far!”

  Tan shrugged. “I don’t know why the lisincend can resist her shapings, but I can tell you the draasin are compelled by this shaping. They will bring no harm to any human.”

  Roine closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before opening. “Tan…” He sighed. “You can be as stubborn as your mother.”

  Tan smiled. “I will say thanks to that.”

  Roine motioned to Tan to follow and he did, trailing Roine as he walked across the ice, back to the shore. Roine signaled him to set Amia down and Tan laid her along a dry patch of land to keep her as warm as possible. She still wore his cloak and he wrapped it around her. Amia smiled at him.

  “Be careful,” she warned.

  Tan didn’t need the warning. He felt the threat of the draasin in his mind. The creature didn’t mean him harm personally, but Tan would be attacked in an instant if the draasin thought it could. Yet they needed to be freed. He could not fully explain why. Such a creature shouldn’t be simply trapped like this, especially not one of the elementals.

  “I don’t think this is wise,” Roine admitted. “Had the nymid not helped, and had we not needed Amia to sense her shaping, I’m not certain I would have agreed. As it is, I do this for you. Not the draasin. Not the artifact. You, Tan.”

  He stared with intent eyes and Tan could not look away. “Thank you, Roine.”

  He snorted. “I make no guarantees about this shaping.”

  Tan turned and faced the aging warrior and saw wrinkles of fatigue lining his eyes. “You will do what you can.”

  “Those who shaped this lake were much more powerful than I,” Roine said. “And I am tired.” His shoulders sagged as he spoke and he lowered his head. “Tannen,” he continued, using his full name, “I am no longer Theondar. What we must do, our task—finding the artifact—is more important than freeing the draasin.”

  “Roine, you will always be Theondar.”

  The warrior smiled a sad smile. “There is more to Theondar than you know.”

  Tan looked over at his shoulder at Amia. She only shook her head, knowing the question needed to be asked. “If the draasin are elementals, they can’t be trapped like this. There is something wrong about it. They are not like the lisincend, they are not twisted.” He said the word, thinking of the nymid. “The draasin are elementals, a natural part of the world. And they suffer, Roine. Amia feels it. I feel it.” He met Roine’s hard eyes. “If you could feel what I feel, could feel the…enormity…of what’s settled into my mind, you’d understand.”

  “I’m not sure Theondar could have even done this, Tan,” he said softly. “But I’ll try.” Roine unsheathed his sword and set its point into the ice. “The only advantage we have is that we try to destroy this shaping, not replicate. This is easier.” He grunted. “Slightly.”

  Roine reached a hand to the sky and closed his eyes. A slow pressure of a shaping built. Tan’s ears popped as he watched Roine. Roine’s face was peaceful, his mouth slack, and his hair fluttered in wind that only he felt. His left hand held tightly to the hilt of his sword.

  Tan had never truly seen Roine’s sword. Carvings upon the blade curled up the flat edge of the sword and continued along the guard and up into the hilt. He recognized a few of the symbols from the golden box Roine had carried, though he did not know their meaning. Strange swirls linked with geometric shapes. Among it all were figures twisting into a flowing shape.

  The pressure in Tan’s head pulsed unbearably. His eyes lifted from Roine’s sword and looked at the old warrior. His face had a tight and pained expression now. Roine’s raised right hand formed a fist and energy coursed through him that Tan could almost see.

  The pain became unbearable.

  Then Roine stumbled. Tan started forward, reaching for him, and put an arm around his waist to prop him up while falling forward himself. Tan put his free hand out and grabbed on to the pommel of Roine’s sword, and was able to stop the fall and push himself upright again.

  Sound and color exploded in his head. Tan’s vision blurred, swimming. Nausea incapacitated him. The wind whipped around him, a sudden blast of cold northern air, and the ice beneath his feet heaved. Still the pressure built.

  Tan screamed, no longer able to hold it back. A huge crack of lightning streaked from the sky and slammed into the ice at the center of the lake.

  Roine slipped again and Tan followed him down. Roine turned his head and looked at Tan, his expression unreadable. “That’s all I can do.” His set his head back and closed his eyes. “Now we must wait.”

  The frigid ice beneath them started to melt, turning his backside wet and cold. He felt exhausted, drained inexplicably, but still pushed up and stood, dragging Roine off the ice to lay over by Amia.

  Roine mouthed something wordlessly without opening his eyes.

  Tan dropped heavily next to Amia. She rolled onto her side and met his gaze. “Something has changed.”

  Tan let his focus wander, searching the draasin. A sense of excitement exuded from the creature. A sense of something enormous within his mind stretching, as if no longer confined. He broke the connection and opened his eyes, nodding to Amia.

  They waited.

  Long moments passed with only the steady cracking of ice. The sun shifted in the sky, dipping toward the horizon as it set, coloring the sky orange and blood red. Wind fluttered from the upper mountains. Roine didn’t move next to them, completely exhausted as he recovered from the energy of his shaping.

  Then the ice groaned loudly and split with a thunderous crack.

  A dark gas
h ran across the surface of the lake, splitting wide into an icy cavern. Slowly, steadily, Tan felt something crawling its way to the surface.

  He was unsure if he sensed the movement in his mind or if he felt it rumbling through the earth.

  The rumbling echoed louder, finally splitting the ice again. The surface exploded outward as an impossibly long, serpent-shaped creature crawled up from the water. Massive spikes steamed from his back. The creature turned and stared at Tan with eyes dancing with fire, before looking away, sliding over the ice and toward the far shore.

  Another, weaker crack came as the ice split again. Two smaller creatures crawled forth and followed the first, neither looking at Tan. They disappeared into the growing night onto the far shore. Tan thought that would be the last he would see of the creatures, but moments later they erupted over the treetops, huge wings beating the air, and circled the lake a moment before soaring up and over the nearest mountain and disappearing.

  Tan sighed, feeling a sense of peace for the first time since making contact with the draasin, and prayed the connection in his mind had been broken. Amia sighed as she watched the draasin disappear.

  Time to hunt, little warrior.

  The thought exploded into Tan’s mind, forcing him to cover his ears as if he could actually hear the words. Tan had thought the connection had been broken, yet it had not.

  Hunt well.

  The creature laughed and his awareness of the creature grew fainter. It did not disappear altogether.

  “I don’t know the consequences of what we just did,” Roine said. He had propped himself up and stared after the draasin as well, his face drawn and his eyes wrinkled with concern. “And I am afraid.”

  30

  Away from the Water

  Roine pushed himself to standing and wobbled a moment, leaning on the sword clutched tightly in his fist before steadying enough to sheath it. His eyes watched the horizon, looking up and over the mountain peak the draasin disappeared behind while shaking his head.

  “Nothing more we can do.” He blinked quickly to shake whatever thought had been running through his head. “Can you follow it now?”

  Amia closed her eyes and focused. A shaping built slowly, released as a soft wave rolling toward the mountain. “There,” she pointed.

  Tan followed the direction up along the mountain face. The rock itself was steep and there didn’t appear to be any possible passage or any way to reach the area where she pointed. “How will we get there?”

  Roine waved his hands together in front of his eyes, murmuring under his breath. There was a surge of wind and a spray of cold water. He stared for a moment and then turned back to them. “There’s a path about halfway up.”

  “How can you tell?” Tan asked.

  Roine smiled. “Perhaps my old eyes are stronger than you think, Tan.”

  The relaxed comment gave Tan a sense of relief. Each shaping Roine performed obviously exhausted him. Tan didn’t know what would be required once they found the artifact, but suspected additional shaping would be necessary. Then they had to return. The lisincend were still out there. The hounds still hunted.

  “Are you ready?” Roine asked, more gently than he had in the past.

  Tan offered Amia his hand. She took it and they stood together. She wrapped his cloak around her waist, pulling it tight for warmth. Tan stared, admiring her figure as she did. Amia saw him watching and Tan flushed, turning away. She took his hand, turning him, forcing him to meet her gaze. When she smiled at him, her face glowed. Tan couldn’t help but smile as well.

  She pulled him by his hand, holding it tightly. Roine led them forward, his gait slower than it had been and the limp that had been present ever since finding them again noticeable. They tracked along the shoreline and Tan noticed that the ice slowly melted, liquid water returning to the lake once more. Whatever they’d done with the shaping to release the draasin had also given the lake back to the nymid.

  Near the end of the lake, the ground turned from soft soil to hard rock. Small boulders littered the shore, forcing them to walk around, and occasionally overtop, the rock. Soon they reached the rocky slope that Roine indicated, reaching nearly straight up from the ground and stretching high into the sky overhead. The rock itself was nearly smooth; it had no cracks or handholds by which they could climb up its steep surface.

  “Up?” Roine asked Amia.

  Amia released Tan’s hand and he let her go with reluctance. She closed her eyes briefly and when they reopened, she nodded. “I can’t tell any other direction from here,” she said. “I know we’re below it.”

  Roine sighed. He turned to the rock and opened his hands, palms facing the rock. With a quick shaping, the rock in front of Roine began to crumble. It cracked first then small pieces fell, tumbling to the ground in a small rockslide. Another section of rock cracked and followed the first, higher, and the trail moved its way down toward the ground. One after another there came small cascades of pebbles and rock fragments, each preceded by a tiny snap. As he watched, divots formed in the rock wall appeared, small and regularly spaced.

  Handholds.

  Roine expected them to climb the rock.

  The snapping and trail of rubble continued for long moments until Roine could either do no more or he was too tired to continue. Either way, he slumped down and sat looking dazedly at the rock. Amia’s mouth was fixed in a tight line of worry.

  “I fear that freeing the draasin may have been too much for him,” she said quietly, pitching her words for Tan alone.

  Roine looked up slowly, having heard what she said, and shook his head. “Perhaps it was necessary,” he said. “Perhaps too much. Either way, it’s done.” He pushed himself back up, standing again. “And I’ll be fine. That’s not a difficult shaping, just a repetitive one. That by itself is draining.”

  Tan looked from Roine to the rock wall. “You want us to climb?”

  Roine smiled a half smile. “You can’t fly. I don’t have the strength to call the wind to lift us. So we climb.”

  Roine started first, leveraging his weight up the slope. He moved slowly, carefully, and there was a fluidity to his movements. This wasn’t the first time Roine had climbed this way.

  He made it about halfway up the face of the rock when he paused. “You coming?”

  Tan looked at Amia. “You should go next.”

  She craned her neck to stare up the wall of the rock and then turned back to look at Tan. A smile quirked her lips. “You just want to watch me climb.” She turned away before seeing Tan blush again.

  She moved at a steady pace, her body hugging the rock tightly and her arms and legs moving steadily. Roine had disappeared from view and Amia was soon high enough that Tan felt compelled to follow. He had to admit that he did enjoy watching her climb. She was graceful and lithe and moved in such a way that he couldn’t help but stare.

  Tan wasn’t particularly scared of heights, but the sheer drop made him nervous. There wasn’t anything below him except for rock. He found the handholds to be solid and could move steadily up the face of the rock. He forced himself not to turn or look down, focusing on each handgrip, reaching and pulling himself up as he climbed.

  A soft spray of rock sputtered down toward him from higher up and he waited until it passed. Tan heard grunting, then a cry. He looked up to see Amia dangling. Only one hand held the rock.

  He heard the shaped command ring loudly in his head. Protect me!

  Tan moved quickly, afraid of what would happen were Amia to slip any further. She was too far over for him to have any chance of catching her and high enough up that she wouldn’t survive the fall. He looked for Roine, praying he saw Amia falling and could do something to help her, but he was nowhere.

  Tan practically jumped from handhold to handhold. Amia called out. He heard it equally loud in his mind. Through their shaped connection, he felt her panic. Another spray of rock followed.

  “No! Roine!”

  Time seemed to slow as he saw her fall.


  She spun, flailing her arms wildly, reaching for purchase in the rock, and slipping down. Panic struck him. With it came a surge of pressure and pain unlike anything he had ever known.

  Pressure exploded in his head. His vision spotted for a moment. The wind gusted up from below, whipping at his clothes and stinging his face, forcing Tan to cling to the rock so that he did not get blown off of it.

  And then Amia slowed.

  She practically hovered next to him, floating. Another explosion burst behind his ears and he was forced to close his eyes, squeezing tightly to the rock as he did. When he opened them, Amia was gone.

  Panicked, he looked down, fearful that she had completed her fall.

  He saw no sign of her body.

  He scrambled up the rock. The rock split and then opened into the path Roine had seen. Amia lay upon the path, panting. Roine stood over her, a worried look to his face.

  Tan hurried off the rock and collapsed next to Amia. She thanked him silently, though she still shook. He took her face in his hands and touched the top of her head. “Are you…” He couldn’t finish.

  She allowed herself to be soothed and nodded. “A gust of wind saved me.”

  Tan looked up to Roine. He shook his head. “She was saved, but I don’t think I was the one to do it,” he said. “I had wandered down the trail and by the time I saw her, the fall had been slowed.” Roine shook his head again. “I lifted her. That was all.”

  “How, then?” Tan asked.

  Roine looked at Tan with a strange frown. “I don’t know.”

  Tan looked away, turning back to Amia, thankful that she was still alive. He put his arm around her and held her while she shivered. Roine moved up the path, crouching down and leaning his head against the rock and closing his eyes.

  One face of the mountain opened to a small path leading up and around the mountain, circling the huge stone peak. A steep drop led off the other side. Tan was thankful the path was at least wide enough for them to walk side by side comfortably.

  “Where does this go?”