by RJ Crayton
I took a moment, testing the word in my mind, and then repeated it for him.
He smiled. “Very good, as always.”
Pure joy passed through me with the compliment. “Do you and I have that? Have you done the spell?”
Zygam shook his head. “No. It is a connection for those who you have connected with, but whom you are no longer as close with. But you and I, we are close and we will remain so. Right?”
I giggled in the way only a child could. The notion that he and I would not be close was as ridiculous as the notion of the sun dropping from the sky never to be seen again “Yes, we will,” little me said.
The memory ended and I felt both Pylum and Auntie’s eyes focused intently on me. I cleared my throat. “I had another memory come back. He mentioned the spell. I suspect he taught it to Master Yaritza. They seemed close.”
Pylum shook his head. “I don’t know that the past matters so much now, Kady.” He hopped down from his chair and looked at me, then my aunt, and then back. “What matters now is being prepared. If he has Akilah and she is able to access the stone, they will still come for the other piece of it. I need you to be ready. I have tried to let you reunite with Talitha and gather your bearings, figuring it would make you stronger. In the morning, we must train.”
“Train how?” I asked.
“We are going to test your magic, and where we go from there depends on how well you do on the test.”
* * *
The next morning, I met Pylum in his office, and he walked with me away from the temple. “Where are we going?” I asked as we left temple grounds, stepping through that invisible barrier that separated the temple from the regular world. It wasn’t something I could see, but I could feel it as we stepped through it.
All around us now, instead of the lush gardens of the temple, or even the temple itself behind us, was desert. It was sand and storm. “Are we in No Man’s Land?” I asked, wondering if we were in the desert outside Halcyon, the city I’d lived in for the past two years.
He shook his head. “No,” he said. “But it is a similar place. It’s a desert city, but in the upper portion of the Midlands. And it’s not our destination.” He tipped his head forward and I noticed the openings of a portal. The tiny sliver of pooled light grew wide, and he motioned for me to go into it. “After you,” he said.
Not wanting to hang in the swirling barren desert, I stepped into the portal. It felt like a summer’s breeze and when I emerged on the other side, we were in a large —-well, I had no way to describe it, other than a cave. It was dark and unpleasant, with craggy walls. The ceiling seemed low here, but as I looked in the distance, I could see the faint glow of lights, and it seemed a larger opening.
Pylum emerged through the portal, and looked at my face. He smiled at my amazement
“What is this place?”
“Kahf Illuminat,” he said. “Some people call them the Caverns of Wonder.”
A cavern. That made sense. I stared off into the distance, my body yearning to see the source of the faint glow from over there. I turned to Pylum to ask him more. Yet when I did, he wasn’t there. Instead, there was a large man, more than two feet taller than me. He held a large ketesh, had dark brown skin, and glyphs tattooed over his entire body, even his face.
My heart thumped in my chest and I took a few steps back, trying to shove down the panic I was feeling over Pylum disappearing and this man suddenly appearing. Well, not a man, a mage. He had a ketesh. He wielded power. “Who are you?” I croaked out, wishing my voice sounded more assured.
The mage glowered at me, held out his ketesh and from it flew a symbol of glittering silver. I didn’t have a ketesh. Vipers. I’d left without one. I threw up my hand and created a shield.
The glyph hit my shield and fell apart. That was good. What wasn’t good was that scary tall man was walking toward me and he hurled another glyph. This one latched onto my shield, and a shower of glittering flecks spreading out over the misty air and started eating away at my layer of protection.
Holy scorpions! Without a great plan in mind, reflexes took over. He was blocking the cave entrance, where there was lots of light, so I turn and ran in the other direction, toward the faint light of the inner cavern. The mage grunted and when I looked back, he was following me. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry. He was walking, and his lack of urgency increased my fear.
I looked in front of me, the glow of the cavern growing as I ran toward it. I kept running, and then I realized I was heading toward the edge, that the faint glow was coming from below, that we were high up on a ledge at the cave entrance and that I was closing in on the edge of that ledge.
I slowed down, then stopped. If I weren’t being pursued by the strange mage who seemed intent on hurting me, I might have marveled a bit longer at the site. I was very high up, at least a hundred feet from the bottom of the cavern, which was covered in sparkling, beautiful crystal formations.
Ouch. Something had hit my leg. I turned back to see the large mage standing there, staring hostilely at me, and a disintegrating glyph shimmering up my leg.
Instinctively, I shouted, “Sa-ad” and a glyph emerged and merged with the one climbing up my leg. I don’t know what his glyph was intended to do, but my leg was in a great deal of pain. My glyph melded with the bits of his and pulled them away.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
The mage said nothing.
“You don’t have to do this,” I urged.
The mage raised his ketesh yet again, and I knew I didn’t have time for a shield. With the pain in my leg worsening, even though the glyph that had caused the pain was gone, I couldn’t stay and fight him. I turned to the edge of the ledge and without a second thought, I jumped.
As I dropped over the side, I saw a glyph zip above my head, and felt a relief that I hadn’t stayed still. Because I’d moved out of the way, the glyph was sailing toward the cavern wall a few hundred feet away. Part of me wanted to see what it did when it hit, what fate I’d missed. But the rest of me knew I was sailing toward the bottom of the cavern and I’d go splat if I didn’t do something.
I needed to float. I thought of billowy softness, and my speed began to slow. It was as if my thoughts were translating very clearly to my surroundings. I looked down at the sea of clear crystals that offered a bright glow. It was somewhat warm and pleasant. They were moor crystals, I realized, the kind that lit caves and amplified magical enchantments. I landed gently on a stack of crystals. Most of the stones were pointy and jagged, and they covered almost every inch of the cavern floor. I looked up to see if my attacker were descending as well. I didn’t see him.
I was confused about what in the world was happening. “Pylum?” I called. I wasn’t sure why he’d left me here alone to be attacked. Was this part of the test? If so, he could have warned me. I didn’t even really know where I was.
I started walking away from where I’d dropped. I wanted to go in the opposite direction of my silent attacker, but I also wanted out of here. I looked around and didn’t see any signs of an exit. I frowned. Walking toward the cavern wall wasn’t going to help.
And then it hit me. Why it took so long for my brain to figure it out, I didn’t know. I’d just create a portal and go back to Hakari Ahet. I was about to prick the air to make a portal when I a shadow appeared nearby. I looked up to see the silent mage descending almost right on top of me. I took a couple of steps back to keep from having him land right on top of me.
I stumbled on a protruding jagged crystal and fell, landing hard on several of the craggy edges. It hurt. And when I looked up, the silent man had landed, and a spider shaped glyph was flying from his ketesh right at me.
Quickly, my brain remembered the word I needed, and I spat, “Ba-bla.” A boomerang glyph floated through the air and collided with his, pulling it toward silent mage. He seemed ready, and erected a shield. The two glyphs hit it and disintegrated. I managed to raise my own shield, but I was feeling a bit woozy. Too m
uch magic without a ketesh. It was taking its toll on me.
I needed to get out of here. I needed a portal. Or … what I needed was for this guy to stop. “I don’t know who you think I am, but I’m not here to hurt you.”
Silent mage said nothing. He sent a glyph at my shield, the same one that had destroyed the earlier one. Change. It was a single thought, but it went right to my shield, and the thin layer around me changed ever so slightly. It was stronger, more malleable. His glyph scattered across the shield this time, but it did not shatter it.
Talking wasn’t going to work. I didn’t have a ketesh to fight, and I had no way to get one. But, maybe the solution wasn’t be getting something. Maybe the solution was just us being even.
I felt along the crystal covered ground beneath me. Most of the moor crystals were embedded in the cavern floor, because this is where they grew until they matured. One was loose, and I pulled it up. Moor crystals enhance magic. Not quite like a ketesh, but well enough to do damage, alab had taught me.
I cringed as I realized my brain had already integrated memories I hadn’t fully explored. I stood and faced silent man. He grunted and then shot another glyph at my force field. I didn’t attempt to modulate it this time. I simply waited for the glyph to hit, for the force field to begin to dissolve due to his glyph.
As the sphere covering my upper body melted away, I said, “Mal-py ju-wad,” and felt the crystals heat up in my hand, and then I threw them right at silent mage’s ketesh.
He hadn’t expected that, and hadn’t reacted quickly enough. The crystals hit the ketesh, and the whole staff immediately glowed as if it were on fire. Silent mage let go and stared at it. We both watched as his ketesh disappeared.
I was still a little shocked that it had worked, but it had. When a person had died, or had finished with their ketesh, they returned it to the saharba tree from which it had come. It was a simple spell, mal-py ju-wad. I wasn’t sure I could return someone else’s ketesh, but it seemed like a good idea to try. It was the best way to even the playing field.
“Your magic is limited now,” I said. “Just go. Leave me. I’ve done nothing to deserve this.”
Silent mage did not respond.
For the love of hawks. What was up with this guy? I’d done nothing to him, yet he seemed intent on hurting me.
He leaned forward ever so slightly, and I could tell he was preparing to attack me physically. Despite my staff training sessions, I didn't see this ending well for me. He was huge and I wasn’t. His weight shifted and he lunged toward me. I jumped to the side, and he didn’t seem bothered that he missed me. In fact, he smiled at me, as he re-centered on me.
He lunged at me again. This time, I didn’t make a clean escape. He grabbed my foot as I darted to the right, knocking me to the ground. My hands fumbled over the crystals looking for a loose one. I found one, muttered, “Sa-ad,” and chucked it at him. The crystal hit him in the head and knocked him back several feet. He seemed dazed by my attack, and frankly, that was good enough for me. I imagined a portal, pricked the air, and watched as it opened wider for me. I heard a grunt coming from where the silent mage had fallen, and turned to see he was standing up. I crawled into the portal and didn’t look back.
Chapter 24 - Master Nuri
When I emerged on the other side of the portal, I was outside the temple grounds again.
Pylum stood there, a grin on his face. “You did well,” he said.
I did well? He had some nerve. “Why would you leave me there with that … that thing who attacked me?”
“That was not a thing,” Pylum said.
At that moment, a new portal appeared. I watched as it widened to full size, actually a little larger than full size. More than tall enough for anyone to come through it. The silent mage emerged and I took a step back, my posture defensive. The silent mage said nothing.
“Kady,” Pylum said. “I’d like to formally introduce you to Master Nuri.”
There was a slight surge of relief, as it seemed clear no new attack was imminent. I shook my head at Pylum. “No, thank you,” I said. I wasn’t spending another minute with this guy who’d attacked me or with Pylum. They had no business not explaining to me how their supposed training worked and scaring me half to death. I walked toward the barrier to the temple, which was only a few feet away. I had nothing more to say to Pylum. Or Master Nuri. My leg still hurt from whatever spell he’d put on it, and my hands were all scratched up from the cavern’s moor crystals.
I was so done with those two. I could hear Pylum calling after me, but I didn’t care. Once inside the barrier, I created a portal and stepped inside it. When I popped out on the other side, I was in the healing room.
A quick look around showed Master Yaritza was not in the immediate vicinity. I walked over to my aunt’s area and pulled back the curtain. She sat on her mattress, embroidering something red and silky.
The moment she saw my face, she dropped her needlework and said “What’s wrong?”
I walked straight over to her, sat next to her and proceeded to tell her everything that happened. She listened attentively. When I’d finished, she patted my leg and said, “Kady, that’s how the test works. It’s a test to see how you respond and think in a crisis. What spells come to you, how you react.”
I stood up, took a step back, and stared harshly at her. “You’re kidding, right? You can’t think that’s okay?”
She offered a sympathetic look. “I don’t think it’s great, but it’s not as awful as you think.”
I shook my head. “As awful as the people here claim my alab was, he would never have done something like this to me. This doesn’t feel like light to me, Auntie. It feels like darkness, to treat someone like that.”
Auntie stared at me, then bit her lower lip. “Do you miss Zygam?”
I shook my head immediately. “No, of course not. Why would you even ask me something like that?”
“Because of what you just said.”
I frowned. I took a moment to think of what I’d said. What was it?
Oh.
Auntie patted the spot I’d been sitting in just a moment ago. I paused a moment, considering if I wanted to sit there, given that she thought what Pylum had done to me was all figs and delights. But she looked at me the way she used to, and part of me just wanted that sense of comfort I used to always feel when I was with Auntie. I stalked back and sat next to her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “What your mother and I did, it was what we thought was right, but I know it must be very hard for you right now, when you have conflicting feelings about your uncle.”
I shook my head. “I’m not conflicted about him. He killed my mother. He kidnapped you. He’s done something to Akilah. I don’t trust him.”
She nodded, but her face said it was to appease me, not because she believed what I was saying. She patted my shoulder. “The test you were given is one given to all mages before they reach the master level.”
My mouth popped open. A test given to masters? She had to be wrong. “Auntie, I think you are confused. Why would Pylum give me a test designed for people who have had way more education than me?”
“Masters are expected to be able to think on their feet and react in difficult situations. It is generally not a test given to people your age, but Pylum fears you will need to know more than most if you are to help get the talisman from Zygam.”
I wasn’t even sure I wanted to get the Talisman from my uncle. I grimaced as the words I’d just thought hit me. My uncle. I’d tried not to think of him that way. I’d tried to think of him as the enemy, but he wasn’t quite that. He was my father’s brother. He had taken care of me when I was little. The Talisman was helping keep him alive.
I shook my head. I shouldn’t think like that. If we took the Talisman from him, he would get what he was due. He would get death. The same punishment he’d meted out to my mother, but had used the Talisman to avoid facing.
“Are you alright?” Auntie asked.
“Kady,” I heard Pylum call my name from the other side of the sheet. “Are you in there? I need to speak with you.”
I didn’t want to speak with him, yet I didn’t want to act like a petulant child in front of Auntie, either. I gritted myself and called out, “I’ll be out in a moment.” I looked at Auntie. “You’ll be alright?”
She chuckled. “I’m the mother hen, not you,” she admonished. “I’ll be fine. So fine that I’m actually moving to the family wing later today.”
I opened my mouth in surprise. “Really?”
She nodded. “Yes. I just needed rest and nourishment. I’m as good as new, now.”
She looked better, but I wondered if anyone could be as good as new after what Zygam had done to her. Kidnapping, stasis, trying to use her as a lure. Being effective at doing it. I’d gone to get Auntie, despite the risks. I leaned in and gave Auntie a kiss on the cheek.
With that, I exited her little space and walked over to Pylum. When I arrived at his side, he didn’t speak, just motioned for me to follow him. I hesitated a moment, but did.
I wasn’t pleased about what happened earlier, but I figured he wanted to talk privately, and it seemed ill-advised to blow up at him in the hallway as anyone walked by. However, the longer our walk went on, the more apprehensive I felt.
“Where are we going?” I asked as we wound down a hallway to a lower portion of the temple.
“Master Nuri would like to speak with you.”
I stopped in my tracks. “I’ve had enough interactions with Master Nuri for one day, thank you very much.”
He didn’t respond immediately. Then he said. “I ask that you give Master Nuri five minutes of your time. After that, you don’t have to talk to him again, ever, if you do not wish to.”
That was an intriguing offer. Given my experience with Master Nuri earlier, I had hoped never to see him again anyway. I figured this was a decent offer. I nodded and followed Pylum to a small room on the edge of the building’s lower level. Pylum motioned for me to go in first. I hesitated, as I wasn’t in the mood to be left alone with this mage again. But my thoughts of committing to five minutes for a lifetime of his absence pulled me forward.