R’Virdi sighed. “You know, you’re really not that good at this.”
Jez let out a breath. “Sorry, I failed the Academy class on reconciling humanity with a race of permanently transformed mages that no one knew existed two years ago. Lina, how did you do in that class?”
Lina, however, was looking at a little girl seated a few tables away. She couldn’t have been more than five or six years old. She had pigtails and a button nose, and her flowered dress identified her as the daughter of one of the more well-to-do merchant families. Lina held her hand closed in front of her, and when she opened it, a purple butterfly fluttered out of her palm. The little girl’s eyes went wide as the illusionary creature fluttered across the room, leaving a trail of sparkles in the air behind it. It landed on her nose, and she crossed her eyes to look at it just as it became a shower of sparks. Others in the room had noticed as well, though the girl’s parents were engaged in conversation with each other and hadn’t seen. The girl slipped out of her chair and wandered over to Jez’s table, her eyes locked on R’Virdi. She stopped in front of Lina.
“Is that a doggy?”
The edges of Lina’s lips tightened in a smile. “No, it’s an otter, but it’s also a man. He likes to swim in the ocean. Would you like to see?”
“Now, just a minute.” R’Virdi started to protest, but when he saw the way the girl’s eyes lit up, his resistance melted. “Well, I suppose that would be all right.”
The entire room had gone silent. The girl’s mother looked up, and she shot to her feet. She practically ran to their table with a horrified look on her face. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I hope Glena wasn’t a bother. I’m sorry, Baron, my lords and lady mage. Glena, come now. Leave them alone.”
“But Mommy...”
“She’s no bother,” Lina said. “Our friend here was just about to give a demonstration of his abilities in the water.” She raised her voice. “Anyone is welcome to come.”
R’Virdi put his spoon down. Annoyance flickered across his features, but it only lasted a moment before he addressed the room. “Of course. It will be my pleasure.”
For a moment, there was utter silence. Jez could almost feel the sense of wonder rippling through the crowd. People started coming in closer, many with a childlike amazement in their eyes. The fear that had been there only moments ago had vanished.
“Right,” Jez said under his breath. “You passed that class.”
Jez left a few coins on the table along with the half-finished meal, and they left the inn, heading for the eastern edge of the city. Most of the inn followed them out, and even more people joined them as they walked through Randak. In short order, a large crowd had gathered at the docks and were watching R’Virdi glide through the water. Children called out for him to do jumps and tricks, and usually, he indulged them. Jez, Osmund, and Lina stood a little ways away from them. Lina was looking entirely too smug.
“Do you think this is really doing any good?” Jez asked.
Lina gave him a sidelong glance. “It’s getting the people used to him. Once they no longer think an otter man is strange, they’ll be more willing to accept the others. I don’t know that we’ll ever get to the point where people will be comfortable with someone like Galine walking down the street, but some of the others might be able to.”
“Not many will want to,” Osmund said.
“What do you mean?” Jez asked.
Osmund rolled his eyes. “Jez, these are people who willingly spent days or weeks in the form of animals in order to escape from their human lives. They are what they are because, on some level, they want to be. Maybe those like Mirous would like to come back, but the others?” He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“Mirous?”
Osmund cleared his throat. “Toden.”
Jez nodded. Over a year ago, Sharim had managed to imprison Aniel, the pharim lord of the beasts. As a result, beast magic had grown erratic, and beast mind, a condition that normally afflicted only those who shape changed for extended periods of time, had infected mages capable of transformation regardless of their form, striking seemingly at random. Toden, whom the beast men called Mirous, had been one of the unfortunate mages and was now doomed to spend the rest of his days as a blending of man and bull.
“Then, why are we doing this?” Jez asked. “If they’re never going to come back, what’s the point? We’re just wasting our time.”
“Aphlel thinks it’ll help,” Osmund said, “and eventually, we’ll have to fight side by side with them. Maybe we can’t get to where people are entirely comfortable around them, but don’t you think it would be a good idea to at least make it so they’re not terrified?”
Jez lowered his head. “I guess. I just wish we could do something a little more useful.”
They were about to turn back to the dock when Jez noticed a soldier running toward them. He pointed the figure out to his friends, and after a second, Osmund smiled.
“It’s Narva.”
Lina let out a bark of laughter. Osmund glared at her, but she ignored it. Jez took a few steps forward to greet her. The captain stopped in front of him and bowed deeply. Briefly, her eyes flickered to Osmund, and a smile touched her face before her gaze settled on Jez. Her words practically tumbled over each other.
“Baron, you have to come back to the manor!”
“Why?” Osmund asked, stepping in front of Jez. “What’s going on?”
She started to speak but stopped herself. She threw the crowd behind Jez an uncomfortable glance. Jez looked over his shoulder. No one seemed to be listening, but it was better to be sure.
“Lina, would you...”
Lina was nodding before he said another word. There was a gentle surge of power, and when she spoke, her voice had that odd echoing quality to it. “We’re private.”
“Go ahead.”
“It’s Lord Aphlel. They found him in the garden unconscious. We can’t wake him up.”
CHAPTER 5
Jez gaped at Narva for a second before taking off in a run. It was impossible. Aphlel was the pharim high lord of healing. In a way, he was healing. He simply couldn’t be sick or hurt. Before long, Narva caught up and began running alongside him. Jez found himself drawing on Luntayary’s power, not enough to damage himself, but only to keep from slowing. He chided himself for relying on that for something as mundane as running, but this was hardly a normal situation.
“What happened?”
Though in excellent shape, Narva didn’t have the power of a pharim to draw upon, and running at that speed while talking was difficult for her.
“Don’t know,” she said between heavy breaths. “Servant found him. Tried to keep quiet, but the whole manor knows. Haziel sent me.”
“This won’t be easy to contain,” Jez said.
He considered transforming fully to fly ahead of them, but he almost immediately rejected that idea. He had no strength in healing, and even if he got there quickly, there would be nothing he could do. In fact, there was no real reason for him to be running, but he didn’t let that slow him.
It only took them a few minutes to reach the manor grounds. They dashed past a pair of bewildered guards and into the large house that had once served as the home of the evil mage Dusan. No one tried to get in their way as they darted through the marble halls, though when Jez rounded the corner and stepped into the hall that contained the entrance to the garden, he found a dozen guards standing in front of the large stained glass door. He and Narva skidded to a stop. Haziel and Istar stood at the entrance. The queen looked at Jez with cold fury. She rested her hand on the hilt of her sword, though she didn’t draw. They stared at each other in silence for several tense seconds.
“We tried to prevent this, Baron,” the queen finally said, “but you insisted on letting those creatures go free.”
Jez resisted the urge to seize her sword with his power and move her aside. “The beast men? What are you talking about?”
At that moment, Osmund and Lin
a came around the corner. Lina’s face was flushed, though Osmund seemed fine. They both glared at him, but he didn’t respond.
Fury painted Haziel’s face. “Who do you think did this?” He waved a hand toward the garden, though in the evening light, Jez couldn’t see through the glass. “Your beast men are in there.”
The air around Osmund shimmered with heat. “The beast men couldn’t do this if they wanted to.”
“Why don’t we see what exactly happened before we start assigning blame?” Jez asked.
Before Haziel or Istar could respond, he waved at the guards. They parted for him without so much as glancing at the king, and Haziel’s face grew even redder. Jez stepped into the garden, not bothering to check who followed, though he could only go a few feet in. The trees had grown wild since the last time he’d seen them. Those that had started giving way to autumn were now vibrant and green. Every branch that could bear fruit hung low under the weight of its yield. It was a veritable wall of green. He would never be able to get through without a major effort or mystical intervention.
“Osmund,” Jez said. “We need a path through this.”
Osmund stepped forward with Lina at his side. Jez glanced over his shoulder. Haziel and Istar stood behind him, but Narva had chosen to stay with the guards.
“Well, this is a good sign,” Osmund said so only Jez and Lina could hear.
“How can this possibly be good?” Jez asked.
Osmund shrugged. “Plants and herbs fall into the dominion of healing. If things are growing like this, it’s a good sign Aphlel is well, or at least that he’s alive.”
Jez grunted. “I’ll take any good news I can get. Can you burn through this?”
Osmund nodded and thrust his hands forward. The plants immediately before them steamed and shriveled before turning to ash. No doubt Osmund could’ve done more at once, but that would’ve risked hurting anyone in their path, so they kept their progress slow. To Jez’s surprise, no sooner had the fires vanished than the plants started growing again, and they found themselves walking amidst thorns that would constantly reach out and snag at their clothing. After a quarter hour, they reached a clearing in the center of the garden.
Five of the remaining pharim high lords stood around their fallen companion, while the last, a man in deep purple robes, with a face so obscured by shadows that distinguishing any features was impossible, knelt by Aphlel. In spite of the night, Jez could see the high lords perfectly clearly. Someone, Sariel most likely, had raised a stone slab for Aphlel to rest upon. A small stream parted around the fallen lord of healing, which was odd because there hadn’t been a stream in his garden before. Apparently, the pharim lords didn’t concern themselves with such trivialities. As soon as Jez approached, six of the most powerful beings in the universe turned their eyes to him.
“You do not belong here,” the scarlet-robed Manakel, high lord of destruction, said.
“This is his home,” Daziel said. “He has as much right to be here as anyone, and the king and queen should certainly not be denied knowledge of this, though perhaps we should send his friends away.”
Lina stepped in closer to Jez, but other than that, neither she nor Osmund gave any response. The shadowed figure, who had to be Leziel, the lord of secrets, let out something that might have been a chuckle. Jez stepped forward.
“What happened here?”
Manakel’s eyes blazed with red flame. “What does it look like? In your home, where we were supposed to be safe, Aphlel was attacked.”
Haziel glared at Jez but his eyes wandered to Daziel, and he kept silent.
“We do not know that,” Sariel, lord of protection, said. “It could be some sort of illness.”
“What illness could lay him low?” Manakel asked.
“What wound could, if you are so certain he was attacked?”
Manakel glared at Sariel. A red aura sprang to life around him just as a blue one appeared around Sariel. It almost seemed like their auras clashed in the night air.
Jez cleared his throat. “So, you have no idea?”
“What do you think?” Haziel burst out, heedless of the potentially volatile situation he was stepping into. He retreated a few steps when the high lords looked at him. His next words were spoken with less confidence. “It was those animal men.”
Aniel clenched his fists, but Sariel shook his head as his aura and Manakel’s both vanished. “We do not know. So far as I knew, Aphlel could recover from any wound almost instantly. Our power has been bound by Sharim, but our essential natures remain the same. Nothing I know could do him lasting harm.”
“But still...” Jez spread his arms to encompass the garden.
Sariel inclined his head. “So it seems.”
“Can you help him?” Jez asked.
“Me personally? No. Leziel is trying to touch Aphlel’s mind.”
“Trying and failing,” the lord of the Darkmasks said as he rose. His voice was quiet, as if it were a whisper, though Jez had no problem hearing it. “If his mind is there, it is hidden too deeply for me to find.”
“What about other healers?” Jez asked as he glanced at Istar and Haziel. “There’s a talented one among the beast men.”
“As I have been trying to tell them.”
The voice had the well-spoken manner of someone who had spent their life among the nobility. Jez looked up, squinting to see in the dark. Lina sent a ball of light floating toward the sound, and Jez was somewhat surprised that there had been an element of truth to Haziel’s rant. A brown feathered hawk, no more than a foot tall perched on a branch. It stared down at Jez and fluttered its wings so that Jez caught a glimpse of the tiny arms under them. Jez smiled.
“Penar, what are you doing here?”
“Galine sent those of us capable of flight to you once we were captured. We were supposed to get help. As it turns out, it wasn’t needed, but here we are.”
The leaves of a nearby tree rustled. Lina’s light brightened, revealing a being that looked like a man covered in coarse black feathers and with wings for arms. It took Jez a second to remember his name. “Vulen.”
“Jez.” His voice was almost a squawk. “It’s good to see you again.”
A quick glance revealed other exotic birds and people that looked like birds in the trees. In most, he could only make out the shadows, but they were everywhere. It was only then that Jez realized that Istar had her sword drawn. Manakel had both arms shrouded in fire, and he held a sword of white hot fire in his right hand.
“They came, and Aphlel was struck down. You cannot seriously expect us to believe that is a coincidence.”
“Be serious, Manakel,” Aniel said, shedding his human form for that of a humanoid covered in brown fur, with cloven hooves and curved horns. Six wings emerged from his back, and a curved sword of bone appeared at his waist. “My people hardly have magic to speak of.”
Manakel caught on fire. At least that’s what Jez thought at first. His robes became flame, but rather than burn the lord of the Shadeslayers, his skin absorbed the fire. He became a container for it, leaving orange and red patterns dancing across his skin. Like his counterpart, he grew six wings, though they seemed to be made of liquid light.
“Was one of your people not recently asking to help treat Aphlel?” Manakel’s voice reverberated through the air, and Jez found himself looking for a place to hide. “A curious thing to do if they have no magic.”
This was much more overt than what had happened between Sariel and Manakel, and the sudden hostility caught Jez off guard. He wasn’t the only one. The branches had gone silent, and Jez could see no sign of the beast men. The king and queen had retreated to the trees. Istar held her sword ready, though what she expected it to do against the pharim high lords, Jez had no idea. Instinctively, he prepared the bubble binding that he’d used against pharim in the past, but after half a second, he realized how ridiculous that was. His binding had barely been enough to hold a pharim who wished to be held. One of the high lords, eve
n limited as they were, would be able to take apart his working like it was paper.
“That’s enough.” Sariel’s voice cracked through the garden as he whipped his hands forward. A band of blue light shot from his left hand and wrapped itself around Manakel’s waist while another entangled Aniel. The lines glowed brightly, and the pharim lords shrank back to normal proportions, their otherworldly forms melting away as their swords vanished. Both Aniel and Manakel gaped at him.
“You bound us,” Manakel said.
“Only temporarily.” Sariel opened his hands, and the bands of light evaporated. “Do you two have any idea what you were about to do? High lords of the pharim, doing battle in the mortal realm.”
The pair actually looked ashamed. Aniel’s form shifted to that of an owl, and he flew among the beast men who had returned. Manakel moved to stand by the spot Jez and his friends had entered the clearing from, as if to guard it, though the plants had regrown, hiding the path. Istar and Haziel quickly moved away from the lord of destruction. In spite of their previous confrontation, they went to Daziel, who spoke quietly. Sariel shook his head and motioned for Jez to come close. He waved a hand and spoke with an odd resonance that wasn’t quite like that of someone under a silence working. It was close, though.
“Once they’ve calmed down, they’ll be fine.”
“A ward against sound?” Jez asked. Sariel nodded. “I never got the hang of that.” He glanced at Manakel. “What’s wrong with them? It’s almost like they’re children.”
“You do not truly understand us, do you?”
Jez laughed. “Is that a joke? Does anyone?”
Sariel gave him a smile, though it faded after a second. “If I were to bind your power permanently, what would happen to you?”
Jez shivered at the thought and took a step back. “Why do you ask?”
Sariel waved off his concern. “Have no fear. I have no intention of doing so, but if I did, what would be the result?”
“I’ve had my power for three years. That’s probably long enough that if I lost it, I would be mentally damaged. They say those that lose it lose a part of themselves.” A chill ran down Jez’s spine. “It’s not something I’d ever want to experience.”
Lifebringer (Pharim War Book 6) Page 3