by Cadman, Dean
“I'd love to avoid that area, but unfortunately, if we try to go back through the northern quarter at this time of day we'd be arrested by the town guard for sure. Anyone who's not from the higher classes found in the northern quarter after dark is immediately suspected of criminal behaviour, and as we only have a verbal reply from Mr Zachery, we wouldn’t have any proof of why, and where we were heading. As much as I hate to admit it, it's still our safest way back to the town square, and then onto the east quarter,” Lusam replied, with an apologetic look on his face.
“Sounds like we better avoid going through the northern quarter then,” Neala agreed. “But, if we intend going back the way we came, we had better get going, before the place is crawling with guards.”
They turned and started to retrace their path back towards the town square, through the dark cobbled back streets of west Helveel. Just before they rounded the corner of the area where the earlier attack had occurred, they stopped dead in their tracks, and listened intently. In the distance they could clearly hear the approaching sound of marching boots on the hard cobbles. A unit of the town guard was approaching their location, and they seemed to be coming up the cobbled streets behind them; the sounds echoing off the houses of the built up narrow street.
“Quick, let’s get moving!” whispered Neala, as she quickened her pace towards the bend in the road, with Lusam trying to keep up with her. Acting on instinct, she glanced around the corner before making herself visible to anyone that might be waiting there. She saw a small group of guards already at the grisly scene inspecting the bodies. Neala grabbed Lusam by his shirt and quickly pulled him out of sight against the wall.
“What’s the matter?” he asked quietly.
“Guards. Lots of Guards. We’re trapped between them,” she replied in a hushed voice. As they stood there trying to decide what they should do, out of the corner of her eye Neala noticed the a patrol appearing from the direction they had just come. Without a second thought she grabbed Lusam around his neck, pulled him close to her, and started kissing him. “At least try to look like you're enjoying yourself,” she whispered in his ear.
All Lusam could do was nod his head and give a very sheepish reply of, “Hmm Hmm,” before Neala once again covered his lips with her own. The guards marched straight past them and around the corner, without a word to either of them. Lusam's heart was beating faster than he could ever remember it doing before in his entire life. He wasn’t sure if it was the close call with the guards, or the shock of what Neala was doing to him.
As the last guard disappeared around the corner and out of sight Neala broke off the kiss, and with a sigh of relief said under her breath, “That was too close.” Lusam just nodded at her with his mouth open, and a dumbstruck look on his face. Although he would never have admitted it to Neala, that was the first kiss he had ever had from a girl—and a pretty girl too.
“It’s okay, you can close your mouth now,” she said, with a huge grin on her face. “Well, I didn’t think it was possible to make your face any redder than it was at the gate earlier, but obviously I was wrong about that,” she said, trying hard not to laugh at his expense. “Come on, let’s get out of here. Take my hand, then let’s walk past them as if we're only lovers out for a stroll. Just remember to keep smiling a lot and you'll be fine,” she said, still grinning from ear to ear.
“Yeah, okay,” was all he could manage. And off they walked hand in hand as if nothing else in the world mattered, gazing into each others' eyes, as they casually walked by the guards. Lusam was acutely aware of the guards taking notice of them as they walked past, but none of them approached or asked them to stop, so they carried on walking, ignoring the guards completely. As they approached The Arches where the big man's body still lay, Lusam became aware of a man kneeling down inspecting the body. He was wearing a long black robe, black shiny boots, and had a gold chain with a symbol of some kind hanging around his neck. His skin was much darker than the average person, and it reminded Lusam of tanned leather. Although his appearance was strange enough, it wasn’t the shade of his skin, or the richness of his clothing that caught Lusam's attention most. It was the aura that surrounded the man. Not a delicate blue aura like everyone he had ever seen before, but an intense crimson aura that shone out like a bright moon in a pitch black sky.
“Keep walking,” Neala hissed in his ear, while pulling at his hand.
Lusam hadn't even realised he had stopped walking, and with a quick glance at Neala, he resumed walking towards the strange man and the body. When they came within a hundred paces, the man stood up and turned to look directly at Lusam and Neala. Fear suddenly flooded Lusam's mind. He could feel the strange man trying to gain access into his mind, and so he instinctively tried to stop him from entering. He could feel his defences being probed for weakness from all angles, but when Lusam realised that the man couldn't break through his defences, he visibly relaxed. Lusam had a few moments to think before they would pass by the man. He remembered back to the game of hide and seek he'd played in the forest with his grandmother, and decided to try and distract the man in the same way. He focussed on a place further down the cobbled street, around the corner from where they had just come, and let his magic flow, projecting his aura towards that location. It instantly had the desired effect. The strange man seemed to lose all interest in them. At first, he began walking very swiftly towards Lusam and Neala, but he didn't even slow down as he walked straight past them, heading directly towards the point where Lusam had just projected his aura.
As they walked towards where the body still lay slumped against the wall, Lusam wondered what the strange man could have been looking at so intently. Apart from the dead body, he couldn’t see anything else there to hold the man's attention so long. That was until he used his mage-sight to take a look, and then he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The whole area around the body pulsed with power, and even the wall where the man had impacted glowed a soft blue. It was like a thousand blue fireflies hovering all around the area.
“Incredible,” he whispered.
“What is?” Neala asked.
“Oh, nothing. I'll tell you later. Come on, let’s get out of here,” he replied, not particularly wanting to start a conversation right at that moment. As they passed back under The Arches, Lusam tentatively glanced back one last time, but to his great relief he could see no sign of the strange man with the intense crimson aura following them, and so, they headed back to collect their hard-earned coin from Mr Daffer at the Old Ink Well in the east quarter.
When they eventually arrived at the Old Ink Well, they were relieved to see a light still coming from a ground floor window. That light meant Mr Daffer was still at his shop waiting for them, and that in turn meant they would most likely get paid for the less than straight forward evening's work they had just undertaken. Lusam knocked on the door three times, and then waited for an answer. He was just about to knock a second time, when the door opened and Mr Daffer stuck out his head. He looked both ways up and down the street, and then gestured for them to quickly enter the shop, which they did.
The shop was much larger on the inside than it looked from the street outside. The building stretched a long way back, and had dozens of bookshelves lining the walls, with all kinds and sizes of books. Lusam had never seen so many books. In fact, he never imagined there could even be so many books in the world, let alone in one shop in Helveel.
After they had both entered the shop, Mr Daffer quickly checked up and down the street once more, before closing the door and turning to speak with them.
“So, did you deliver my letter boy?” he asked, looking directly at Lusam.
“Yes, we did sir. Mr Zachery said he would deliver what you requested before ten o'clock in the morning directly to your shop, and thanked you for your patronage,” Lusam replied.
“Good. Good. A job well done then. Here is the other silver coin I promised you,” he said, handing the coin to Lusam.
“Thank you sir. If
you need any further work doing in the future, we would be very happy to do it for you,” Lusam said, maybe a little too enthusiastically.
“I’ll bear that in mind boy,” he replied with a thoughtful look on his face.
“Actually, there is a job I might need help with. I recently inherited this shop from a relative of mine, and I have discovered a rather large store room downstairs in the basement full of books. I require them sorting out into categories, and the titles recording. It's obviously a job for someone who can read and write like yourself. Call by here tomorrow at noon if you are interested in the position. There should be fewer people in the street at that time of day to see you enter my shop dressed as you are. I also need time to think of an appropriate amount of money to pay you for the job, as well as the best way to achieve the fastest results,” he said matter-of-factly. “That sounds like something we could do for you no problem sir,” Lusam said with a smile.
“I don’t need both of you. I only need one, and as you're the only one who can read, that would be you boy,” he said, with an irritated tone in his voice.
Lusam knew he was definitely in the minority when it came to reading and writing in Helveel. The fact Mr Daffer would have to pay a scholar many times the amount he would have to pay Lusam, gave him a certain amount of leverage, and that’s even if he could find a scholar willing to do such a menial task. He stood there a few moments longer, then decided to take a gamble.
“We're a team sir, Neala and I. We could do the job much faster together, than I could by myself,” Lusam replied, not feeling half as confident inside as he just sounded out loud. Neala visibly shifted her stance. She too was surprised at what he had just said, but to her credit, she held her tongue and stayed silent.
“Is that so boy?” Mr Daffer said, raising one eyebrow at Lusam. The silence seemed to stretch on and on as he paced back and forth across the floor of his shop. To Lusam's great relief it seemed that Mr Daffer finally came to the same conclusion a short time later, when he turned to him and said, “You can both work together, but the pay is for one person only. I will pay you three silver a day, which you will have to share if you want the job.”
Lusam looked at Neala and she nodded her agreement to him.
“We agree to your terms. Thank you sir,” Lusam said in a slightly shaky voice, and offered his hand to Mr Daffer, who took it in return.
“Oh, and one other thing. Stop calling me “sir.” My name is Tom, or Mr Daffer if you prefer,” he said with a slight smile.
“Sorry sir … I mean Mr Daffer,” stuttered Lusam.
“Just make sure you're back here tomorrow at noon, and ready to work,” he said, shaking his head slightly.
“We will, and thanks again,” Lusam called out, as they left the shop and closed the door behind them.
With a huge smile of satisfaction on his face, Lusam started to make his way back towards the town square, with Neala at his side. A few moments later, Neala suddenly stepped out in front of him, making him stop dead in his tracks.
“Why did you do that back there?” she asked, with a strange look on her face.
“Do what?” replied Lusam innocently.
“You know full well what I'm talking about. You could easily have lost that job by demanding I had to help you. That was a damn foolish thing to do!” she said, staring straight at him. Then she surprised him even more, when she kissed him on the cheek.
“Thank you Lusam. That was very kind of you, nobody has ever done anything like that for me before,” she said smiling at him, just before playfully punching his arm.
“Now come on, let’s go eat, I'm starving!” she said, as she started running towards the town square, with Lusam trying hard to catch up with her.
***
For almost a year now Renn had secretly followed this disciple of the dark god Aamon. Renn was hoping that he would lead him to the boy-mage known as Lusam, who had been lost over two years before when his guardian, Asima, suddenly grew ill and died. His guardian sent reports only once every year to the High Temple of Aysha, to reduce any chance it may be intercepted by the agents of Aamon. The reports would never contain anything as foolish as a name or description of the boy, or the location he was staying. Only the bare-essential information required by the High Priest to judge his progress were included in the report, and even that was written in an ancient secret code only known by a select few of the followers of Aysha. It was only when the death of a minor mage was felt by the High Priest, and the report that was due failed to arrive, that concern grew rapidly for the welfare of Lusam. Renn and the High Temple were certain he was not dead. If he had died his passing would also have been felt by the High Priest and other servants of Aysha.
Whenever a mage-child is born into the world, a great pulse is felt within the fabric of magic that surrounds all living things, by all those capable of sensing magic, both good and evil. The only thing stronger than this, is the much larger disturbance felt when a mage departs this life.
Asima agreed to serve Lusam's mother Samara as Hermingild, or more commonly referred to as The all giving. Asima, during her lifetime had been a fairly weak mage only capable of minor magic, but she had been well-schooled in all its forms at the High Temple. In her declining years she willingly agreed to accept the great honour and responsibility of becoming Hermingild.
Asima had only one task as Hermingild, and that was to sacrifice herself at the exact point when a mage-child was born. When the sacrifice happened, the larger pulse from the death of the Hermingild would be sufficient to mask the birth of the new mage. If done correctly the followers of the dark god Aamon would not become aware of a new mage being born, only seeing the death of a mage instead. This practice had only become necessary around two hundred years ago, when it was discovered that the Kingdom of Thule to the south had been secretly, and systematically killing all the newborn magi they could find. It was first discovered that they had a hidden network of agents in the land of Afaraon, whose sole job it was to secretly kill any newborn magi in the land. It had long been known that a birth or death created a ripple effect in the fabric of magic. What wasn’t known until around two hundred years ago, was how the agents of Aamon managed to find the location of the births so quickly, and accurately.
It was at this time that the order known as the Paladins of Aysha were used to combat the ever increasing threat to the total eradication of magic in the lands of Afaraon. Nobody knew exactly how many centuries the killing of newborn magi had taken place in Afaraon, but one thing was certain, around two hundred years ago the agents of Aamon became very good at their evil task.
Magic was almost wiped out in the lands of Afaraon, with no new magi to take the place of the old as they died of natural causes and old age. It was at this time the practice of Hermingild was started by those first brave old magi, to give magic a chance to survive in the lands of Afaraon.
Soon after, it was discovered how the agents of Aamon were able to determine the location of the births so easily. It was discovered they each wore a magic ring capable of communicating with each other over great distances. Whenever a birth occurs it creates a ripple outwards from the birthplace, just like throwing a stone into a pond. With the agents in constant contact with one another they sense the ripples hit them at slightly different times, and can calculate the area of the birth very accurately, also learning which one of them is closest, and therefore he or she becomes the assassin.
On the day of Lusam's birth his Hermingild arrived just in time, and fully intended to perform her duty, but unknown to Samara or Asima fate had other ideas. As Asima carefully prepared herself for the birth and her own ultimate sacrifice, custom dictated she must examine the mother magically to determine the precise time of delivery. Being just a moment or two early, or late would result in her sacrifice failing to have the desired effect, and the discovery of the newborn mage by their enemies. As she examined Samara she discovered that she was not having a single baby as expected, but instead tw
ins. Even more alarming was the fact that one of the babies was struggling badly to survive, even before the birth. She suddenly realised if she sacrificed herself on the birth of the first child as planned, when the second child was born, its birth would be felt by the agents of Aamon, and they would still track down the mother and newborn within a short time, and kill them both. The agents searching for the baby would soon discover that two babies had actually been born, and maybe also discover the secrets of the Hermingild at the same time, and that simply could not be allowed to happen.
Asima used her limited power to examine both babies in minute detail whilst still in the womb, and what she found startled her. The first baby was not formed correctly, and could not survive more than a few moments after birth, but the second baby was in good health. If they were born in the correct order, the birth of the healthy baby would be felt by the agents of Aamon, closely followed by the death ripples of the second baby. If this happened Asima would not have to sacrifice herself, and could serve another mother as Hermingild, further helping magic to prevail in the land of Afaraon.
The problem was that the unhealthy baby was already engaged in the birthing position. She would have to reverse this and engage the healthy baby instead, using her magic, and the midwifery skills she had learnt at the High Temple. Asima quickly explained the situation to Samara, who by this time was in a great deal of pain from the labour, and sweating profusely. Samara agreed there was no other way and asked Asima to begin the procedure of repositioning the babies, but first she must do something for her. Samara reached up and took an amulet from around her neck, clutching it tightly until the latest contraction pain subsided. When it finally passed, and while gasping for breath, she concentrated hard and cast an amazingly complex spell on the amulet, creating a eerie glow upon it as she did so. Asima had no idea what the spell had done, and there was no time to ask for explanations at this point.