Nolan lunged to attack again, only to be blocked by the magni’s wooden knife. For a heavy older man, the magni was surprisingly nimble. He also clearly had at least a little more experience in this than Nolan did. Nolan dodged two wild knife thrusts before he had the presence of mind to block with his own knife. The metal of his own blade cut into the wood of the magni’s. The gray-haired man set his jaw ever so slightly in the contest of strength that followed.
Nolan swayed. The knife in his hands grew very heavy, and the magni started edging both knives back towards Nolan’s throat. Nolan pushed back and dropped away sluggishly. The knife in his hands was now much too heavy. Nolan needed two hands to lift it. The magni smirked and raised his own blade to charge again. A stray fireball blew by Nolan, missing by inches.
“Leave it, Belen,” The magni snarled. “Get her—I have him.”
“We’ve got the boy, Magni Cylas.”
This voice was new and vaguely familiar. Nolan kept his eyes on the magni, but the speaker obligingly pushed his way in-between them. Lenit marched Tylan out in front of Nolan and faced the magni triumphantly. A smirking Toln followed close on Lenit’s heels. Tylan’s wrists were tied with rough cord, and he craned his head to look at Nolan. Lenit followed the boy’s gaze and crossed his arms confidently over his chest.
Nolan lowered his blade.
The younger magni, though still clutching his shoulder, cracked a grin very reminiscent of a cat facing a cornered mouse.
Cylas smiled more sedately. “Well done,” he murmured. “We have your brother, Flynn!” he called in a louder voice. “Do you want to burn the forest down on top of him or would you rather hear our terms?”
The sounds of battle abruptly died.
After a brief pause, Kris called down the hill. “Nolan? Is it him?” Her voice cracked on the words.
Nolan cleared his throat. “Yes.”
There was another pause. “I want you to let him go.”
“I believe that falls under ‘terms’ my dear,” Cylas drawled.
“I mean completely,” Kris said, her tone growing stronger. “I want you to let Ty out of your sight forever. I want that bracelet off his wrist.”
For a minute there was no sound except the pained panting of the younger magni and the crackling of fires caused by the battling mages.
“And where do you think he’s going to go?” Toln demanded. “He’ll have nobody and nothing without the mages, without the magni,” he added hastily, tipping his head to Cylas.
“He’d be far worse off with the mages and the magni than without them,” Kris retorted evenly. “And he won’t have no one.”
Jal came slowly out of the trees across from Nolan, looking warily between the mages, not one of whom was speaking a language he could understand.
“Tylan will never be alone,” Nolan said clearly, his eyes on Jal.
“No, he won’t be,” Jal agreed slowly, looking back in Kris’s direction. “Tylan will have Nolan and me as long as he needs us.”
“I want Ty, Nolan and Jal to walk out of here together,” Kris said. “I want you to forget that all of them exist.”
“These mundanes attacked us!” The younger magni snarled. “You think we’re just going to let all three of them walk away?”
“We don’t let our children simply disappear,” Cylas commented more calmly. “Nor do Magni Belen or I look lightly on those who assault us and our mage brethren alike. What exactly do you have that’s worth letting two other-world mundanes and your brother simply disappear?”
“I’ll turn myself in if you let them go,” Kris said with quiet strength. “Keep fighting me and let your ‘children’ suffer and die to fight me—”
“You haven’t killed yet,” Belen pointed out.
“I will if I have no choice,” Kris answered. “Or you can take that bracelet off of Tylan and let him, Nolan and Jal go now while I go with you.”
Cylas tapped his lips with a forefinger. “Your bargaining position is rather weak, my dear. You will come with us regardless. You can’t have that much strength left, and Toln and Lenit are still fresh.”
“You’d rather risk using them up too, just to hang on to three mundanes? What are they possibly worth to you compared with a mage?”
Tylan flinched.
“The question is rather what they are worth to you. You risk killing them if you keep prolonging this unpleasantness.”
“You risk me escaping every minute of every day if you don’t let them go. If you get that bracelet off of Tylan’s wrist and never harm them…I’ll go with you. And I’ll stay.”
The magni exchanged glances. “And you’ll serve?” Belen demanded. “I remember you, Flynn. We don’t want a mage that just sits there like a sullen child. You’ll have to do your share.”
“And you’ll have to swear it,” Cylas added. “I want a formal vow from you.”
Nolan didn’t know what that meant, but he saw Tylan shiver and start shaking his head.
“Kris, don’t,” the Rusamite boy whispered. “Don’t,” he called more loudly, his voice breaking.
“Be silent,” Belen hissed.
“I’ll do it,” Kris called down. “If you will.”
Again a glance flicked between the magni. Belen shook his head furiously; Cylas’s lips quirked in amusement.
“I’ll do no such thing,” Belen whispered fiercely.
Cylas shrugged. “She’s worth more. I’ll do it. I will swear on it, girl,” he added more loudly. “Come down here and see us face to face. There’s no more need for this kind of unpleasantness.”
“Swear first.”
Cylas raised a salt-and-pepper brow, but raised his right palm skyward obligingly and nodded to the mage woman gripping his shoulder. Cylas spoke carefully, as though considering each word. “If you agree to come with Magni Belen and I to aid us as we see fit, on this world and our own, without making any effort to escape from us, I give my assurances that this boy, the old man, and Tylan here will be safe from all harm by mages or magni.”
Kris gave no answer.
Cylas sighed. “I will also remove Tylan Flynn’s identification bracelet. He and these two mundanes will leave here and not be followed by us directly or indirectly.”
Still Kris didn’t answer.
“May my blood boil if I lie,” Cylas drawled. A small spark left Cylas’s raised palm, circled him, and returned to his hand. He nodded to the mage again, and she dropped her hand to her side. “You really must learn to be more trusting, my dear.”
Tylan began to shiver. Nolan felt his own heart begin to thunder. He didn’t need to be a mage to know a magical contract when he saw one. This looked deadly.
Snapping twigs and rustling underbrush hailed Kris’s ungraceful descent down the hill.
Cylas smiled. He nodded to the other mages. “Tend to the wounded.”
They moved off silently.
“Kris, Karisa, don’t…” Tylan said in a choked voice.
Kris emerged from the trees looking only at Cylas. “I’ll be fine, Ty.”
Nolan didn’t think she looked fine. She lurched and swayed slightly as she walked over the uneven ground, as though she were struggling to keep her balance. Kris stopped in front of Cylas with her chin was raised defiantly, but her hands were trembling slightly. A muscle in her left cheek quivered. She looked on the verge of collapsing.
Nolan started towards her, but both Cylas and Kris raised a hand to stop him. Kris turned her palm up.
“If Tylan goes free without the bracelet, and is not followed, and no magni or mage harms him or Nolan or Jal, I will obey your orders, here and in Rusam.” Kris took a deep breath, but continued with no prodding. “If these conditions are kept I will never try to escape. May my blood boil if I lie.”
Just as with Cylas, a small spark left her hand and circled her body before returning to her palm. Kris released a long breath, her eyes locked on Cylas.
“Now get that bracelet off of Tylan’s wrist, and let them go.
”
Smiling broadly, Cylas walked the few steps to where Tylan was immobilized. He took Tylan’s arm, touched the bracelet on his wrist, and murmured a few words. The piece of metal fell off like a broken toy. Cylas pocketed it, then cut the cord around Tylan’s wrists. The boy stumbled away from him, his gaze darting from Cylas to Kris to Belen and back again. He breathed in short, gasping breaths, with both fists clutched at his side. Nolan half-expected him to pounce on Cylas.
Kris hadn’t moved, but now she at last looked in Tylan’s direction. She shook her head ever so slightly, smiling weakly. Her eyes roved over every inch of him. “Don’t, Ty. It’s all right. Say goodbye.”
With a hiccup, Tylan clutched his sister to him. Kris murmured in Tylan’s ear, though Nolan couldn’t guess what she had left to say. To Nolan it looked as though she were trying to breathe the boy in.
Nolan finally remembered to breathe himself. He couldn’t take his eyes off the siblings’ embrace, though he felt like he was witnessing something far too intimate to be watched.
“Be quick about it,” Belen snapped.
Kris sniffed and stepped back, though one hand stayed on Tylan’s shoulder. She scanned the trees and found Jal. He came forward and took her hand gently, confusion and pity written across his face. He couldn’t have understood all that had been said, but he had clearly followed what had happened well enough.
“Take good care of him,” Kris whispered, stroking Tylan’s shoulder.
“You can count on it. He’s a home with me as long as he wishes,” he promised solemnly. “Make sure you take care of yourself now, Kris.”
Kris nodded absently. She hugged Tylan once more and released him completely. “You’ll be fine now. You’re safe,” she whispered shakily. Jal put his hand on Tylan’s shoulder where Kris’s had been. Kris finally looked at Nolan.
Nolan’s heart was drumming so hard against his ribs that his chest actually hurt. He stepped forwards—to take her hand, to hug her, to pick her up and carry her away—he had no idea. But there was still a bloody knife in his hands, and magni watching them both critically. She only stared at him. He stopped.
“Kris…” he started to say.
“Take care of them all,” she said meaningfully in Surian, her eyes bearing straight into his. “You’ll make it, I know it.” A ghost of a smile crossed her face for the briefest of moments, but it did nothing to change the gravity in her next words. “But whatever you do…make sure Tylan stays here. Please. For me.”
“Kris I can’t let you—”
“Promise me.”
Nolan swallowed. “I will.”
Her eyes stayed a moment longer on his face. Though they glistened, no tear escaped to her cheeks. Nolan swallowed hard again. He wanted to say something, but no words would form in his mind. Kris looked down.
“Goodbye.” She turned and raised her chin again to Cylas. “I’m ready.”
Cylas raised his hand to Kris’s head and touched her gently on the cheek. “Welcome home, child.”
Kris collapsed into Lenit’s arms like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Nolan gave a yell and reached for her, but a hand touched his head from behind, and he saw nothing more but darkness.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
From the Tales of Gavin Gaynesworth
…When Gavin returned from the Dawn Caves with his gift, he went at once to his love’s tomb. With a touch, Amelia opened her eyes and arose as though from a long sleep. She blinked her lovely blue eyes at Gavin, and his heart warmed with happiness. If you think, listeners, that you have felt love before, I assure you that you’ve not felt a tenth what Gavin felt in that moment, for at last his lady love was his to marry, though he’d gone to the ends of the earth to keep her.
For a month after their wedding, the two lived in bliss. Never were two people happier to have won one another. Despite Amelia’s scars, there were some who would say a bride was never more beautiful, so brightly did she glow with happiness. Certainly there was never a man as well-contented as Gavin in those fleeting days.
Then one day Amelia posed a question to her new husband. He had brought her back from the dead, she said. Could he not do the same for her sister, who had died three years before as a girl of ten?
‘To give a child a second life’, Gavin thought, ‘is surely a worthy use of the gift I’ve won from the Dawn Caves’. And it was done. And a prettier, more joyful child never set foot to this earth as Katrin when she awoke to live again.
The story of the great sorcerer who could awaken the dead quickly spread through the land. Bereaved parents, siblings, children, lovers, and friends traveled for miles to kneel at Gavin’s feet and ask his help.
Gavin, ever kind, pitied each of these people sincerely. He had only to think of his feelings when he’d lost Amelia to recognize these people’s pain. Though wary of abusing his gift, he could not deny them. One family after another was joyfully, tearfully reunited by his hand, until hundreds of the once-dead walked again among the living.
At first the Mother rejoiced in the reunited families, home and hearth being her first interests. As Gavin stole more and more people from the gods’ Peaceful Lands, however, the Mother, the Sun Lord, and the Night God all grew jealous of the souls lost from their common care. The mortal Gavin, they all agreed, was stepping well beyond his place.
The great gods united, and in one stroke they touched Gavin with death. A healthy young man, Gavin died instantly by the gods’ will, and from death he could not save himself. One by one, the three great gods touched each of those Gavin had taken from the Peaceful Lands. All died quietly, returning peacefully to the realm of the dead. Only Amelia was spared. Although Gavin had not led a wicked life, his prideful use of his power earned him the punishment of separation from his lady once again.
Gavin recognized his wrongs. The power of life and death had not been meant for him, he knew. That power rightly rested with the great gods. He wept, but he did not rail against the gods’ punishment. ‘I have been patient before’, he thought. ‘For Amelia, I can be patient again.’
For fifty years he waited. And at last, once more young, once more the most beautiful girl in the city, Amelia joined Gavin for ever after.
~~~
“She did what she thought was best,” Jal sighed later that day. “We have to respect her judgment and do the best we can.”
They had all slept through the Rusamite mages’ departure with Kris, waking in early evening in a completely unfamiliar part of the forest. They hadn’t been left to be burned by the battle’s embers or crushed by weakened trees. It seemed the magni were prepared to stay true to their word to a point. Or they hoped that Nolan and the others would get lost in the forest.
The first thing Nolan had done upon waking was check his bag for the star-jar. The jar’s brilliance had softened again, making more stars visible, but he saw no obvious harm. He ran his fingers over the smooth glass, reassuring himself that the jar was still intact. With great care, he nestled the jar back between his shirts and shut his bag. A small part of his brain numbly thanked chance that the Rusamites hadn’t bothered to look through his things.
He, Jal, and Tylan hadn’t bothered to stir from where the Rusamites left them. It was too late in the day to move on. They were too numb with shock to move. Jal was the first to rise to his feet, to light the fire.
“I can’t believe she did that,” Tylan whispered simply.
“She loves you,” Nolan said softly, though his mouth felt as dry as sand. “She wants you to be safe.”
“She hates the magni.”
Jal cleared his throat and knelt down face-to-face with Tylan. “She knew what she was doing. She’s giving you a new life, and…with luck she’ll have a new life for herself as well. A chance to start over while she’s here, until Nolan gets the stars back where they belong.”
Tylan continued to stare at the ground. “If I hadn’t been caught—”
“We would never have won that fight,” Nolan said heavily. Horri
ble as he felt, he knew where blame lay here, and Tylan had nothing to do with it. “You saw how exhausted Kris was. She was buying you time, Tylan. When that didn’t work…she did what she thought was best.”
“It was her choice,” Jal explained seriously. “No idea or fault of yours, you understand me?”
Tylan looked only faintly convinced.
“I know it’s hard, but things may be better for both of you now. You’ve found your calling as a bard, and she…I’m sure she’ll make the best of things. Maybe things will be different now.”
Nolan blinked at him in disbelief. He couldn’t believe Jal thought so lightly about Kris returning to the magni after everything she’d said about them. .
Tylan shook his head. “She’ll be unhappy for the rest of her life.”
“I’ll save her.” An incredible clarity settled over Nolan. Of course he wouldn’t simply let her sacrifice herself. Of course he would save her.
“But you can’t. She gave her word she wouldn’t try to escape. She’ll die if she tries—”
Nolan’s mind was racing. “She’ll die if she breaks her word…whatever that spell was…” he said slowly, glancing at Tylan for confirmation. “But if there was some way where she’s not breaking her word then nothing happens, right? And the magni have to keep their word.”
“Cylas does at least,” Tylan agreed, a desperate hope coming into his eyes. “If we can make him break it….”
Jal frowned at Nolan. “Something like this shouldn’t be rushed into. You’re playing with things beyond your knowledge.”
“You don’t think I know it’s dangerous after this morning?” Nolan demanded hotly. “The longer we wait the farther they’ll get without us.”
“Rash action will hurt more than just you,” Jal said severely. “Know what you risk. Let’s eat and get some rest. Things will be clearer in the morning.”
Nolan glared back mutinously, but Jal set to going through their dinner stores without further discussion.
“Do you think they’ll hurt her if we follow? Is that what you mean?” Tylan asked.
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