Spellsmith & Carver: Magicians' Rivalry

by H. L. Burke

  Jericho cleared his throat. “There’s a time and place for everything, even violence, I think. I just didn’t happen to need it at this moment.” He opened his hand, releasing the charred remnants of the paper. The energy of the sleeping spell had consumed yet another quire. A couple more, and he’d be magic-less. “From here on out, you should use your wax tablet for as much as possible. Including that.” He nodded towards the gate.

  “Oh, right!” Auric performed a simple unlocking spell. The gate swung open with an ominous screech. Beyond lay a garden of twisting green vines and vibrant pink flowers that hung like bells over a mossy path. The two men strode through, and Auric scratched another spell into the wax, closing the gate behind them with a clang.

  Warmth rushed to greet them. It swirled around Jericho, making his eyes heavy and his muscles soft. He shook his head to clear it. “This climate seems out of place on top of a mountain.”

  “Like you said, everything here is an illusion. Someone wanted a tropical paradise in the mountains, so that’s what they got.” Auric pointed towards his father’s footsteps which disappeared under drooping ferns. “Whatever the reason, Father came through here.”

  Jericho shifted his pack which was a lot lighter now than it had been at the beginning of their journey. Above the garden, a ceiling of blue crystal refracted a soothing light. He could imagine spending a lot of happy hours exploring such a place, if not for the gnawing magical forces and the fact that everything in this damned world was trying to kill him. The space behind his eyes grew tight with an impending headache. The Fey energies were breaking through the rosemary oil again. He reached into his pack for one of the bottles, but before he could withdraw it, a shriek pierced the garden. A shriek in a familiar voice.

  Auric stiffened. “Father!” He bolted at full speed through the foliage. Jericho’s heart leaped to his throat. Auric could be rushing right into a trap.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Auric pushed through the face-high ferns, ignoring the glowing footprints beneath him, focused only on the sound of his father’s voice.

  “Father?” he shouted, then paused. Another cry, faint, breathy.

  A hand clamped down on Auric’s shoulder. He whirled, fist swinging.

  Jericho ducked and grabbed him by the wrist. “Settle down!” he snapped. “Look, I know you want to get to him. I do, too, but you have to consider this might be a trap.”

  Auric’s hands shook. He yanked away from Jericho and dropped his eyes. “What do you suggest?” he asked, forcing his voice steady. His father screamed again. Auric winced.

  “Follow the sound, but not rush in blind.” Jericho took out a wooden quire. It had to be one of his last. “We won’t do your dad any good if we’re caught by whatever is doing that to him.”

  Gripping his stylus in one hand and his tablet in the other, Auric nodded. Shoulder to shoulder, the two men sneaked through the overgrown garden. Blade-like leaves swiped against Auric’s neck, grating on his already frayed nerves. Father’s cries grew weaker and further apart, but closer, definitely closer.

  They pushed through a veil of willow branches to reveal a mirror-like lake. Blue, translucent beings, about the size and shape of small children, skidded over the surface as if it were frozen. In the middle, wrapped in streams of water that twisted like chains, writhed Hedward Spellsmith, his face drawn, his eyes squeezed shut. The watery children giggled and pranced about him. Then as one they slid to his side and poked at him. At their touch, Auric’s father arched his back and let out a rasping cry.

  Auric swallowed. “They aren’t very big.”

  “Yeah, but there’s a lot of them.” Jericho rubbed the back of his neck. “I count fifteen, though I could be more confident of that number if they’d stop dancing about like panicked water striders.”

  “Fifteen, sixteen, twenty, does it really matter?” Auric squinted at the surface of the pond. “I have an idea.” Like everything else in this world, the pond had to be made of Fey energy, which meant it could be manipulated. The bonds about his father appeared to be an extension of the pond. “All right, listen. I’m going to do a spell. The moment I activate it, I need you to run out there and grab Father. Then once we have him in hand, we’ll use the homing spell and get the hell out of here.”

  “Sounds good.” Jericho nodded. “I can’t really run across water, though. I’m assuming you’ve included that fact in your calculations.”

  “No, I just assumed anyone as perfect as you could perform the miracles of the Christ,” Auric scoffed. “Give me some credit, Jericho.”

  Jericho chuckled, and Auric smiled. Somehow the exchanges with Jericho no longer felt malicious. For the best, he supposed. After all, they needed to depend on each other if this was going to work.

  “Ready?” Auric wrote out the line of symbols but paused right before the activation spell.

  Jericho returned his quire to his pack and hunched down in a racer’s stance. He nodded again.

  “Go!” Auric dashed out the last symbol. The lake shuddered then exploded, splashing over the gathered sprites and his father. The water fell back into place, taking the sprites and his father’s bonds with him. Father collapsed onto the surface of the pond which held him like solid ground.

  Jericho sprinted forward, hoisted Hedward over his shoulder, and bolted back. As Jericho lowered Hedward to the grass beside Auric, the older man’s eyes snapped open.

  “Auric? Jericho? What on God’s good earth are you doing here?” he growled.

  Auric recoiled at the anger in his father’s voice.

  “Saving you, sir.” Jericho frowned. “I’d think that would be obvious.”

  Father’s mouth opened and closed, his eyes wide, his face red. “But Rill! You left Rill alone?”

  Auric and Jericho exchanged a glance. Jericho shrugged.

  “Rill will be fine, Father,” Auric said, managing to keep calm. “You were trapped in the Fey realms being tortured by tiny water people. Didn’t you think we’d come after you?”

  “I told you to look after your sister!” Hedward leaped to his feet but nearly toppled over. Jericho and Auric reached out simultaneously to steady him, but the old magician slapped their hands away. “You left her alone and unguarded. That’s exactly what he wants!”

  “He?” Jericho’s brow furrowed.

  “Janus! The one who took my wife!” Hedward covered his face with his quivering hands. “He’s going after Rill! We need to get home now!”

  Auric’s stomach twisted, his heart pounding painfully.

  Jericho’s face hardened. “Grab onto me.” He withdrew the homing spell from his pocket. Auric and Hedward clutched Jericho’s shoulders. The apprentice finished the final symbol. The air about them shimmered then swirled into a blaze of colored light, blues, greens, violets, in a dizzying blur. The earth turned to gas beneath their feet, but before the sensation of falling could fully capture them, they landed with a jolt on solid ground … no, not ground, wood. The colors faded revealing the shadowy confines of the workshop at twilight, minimal light seeping through the glass windows.

  With the sudden lack of Fey energy, the air felt like cool water against Auric’s skin, and relief coursed through him. Before he could revel in it, however, Hedward wrenched away and ran towards the stairs, screaming for Rill.

  Auric shook his head in bewilderment.

  “Look!” Jericho pointed.

  Squinting through the half-light, Auric saw random objects scattered in the corner. A quick light spell on his tablet revealed one of his father’s stone wards, cracked into a half-dozen pieces. Auric swallowed. What could’ve done that?

  His heart jumped into his throat then plummeted to his gut. He darted after his father, shouting his sister’s name.

  Their calls echoed through the house. No one answered. Everything was dark and cold, no lit lanterns or fires, no voices from the kitchen. “Rill?” His feet pounded up the stairs to her room. He wrenched the door open. It was empty, but all seemed in orde
r, the bed made, her books stacked neatly on the side table.

  Telling himself he was panicking over nothing, he descended the stairs. The parlor door stood open, firelight glowing from within. He entered, and his knees weakened. Jericho knelt in the center of the room, his back to Auric. The couch had been upended. The lamp lay shattered on the floor beside it, and a sharp whiff of Fey energy burnt Auric’s nose.

  “Rill?” Auric whispered, even though she was obviously nowhere in the room. He stepped closer, glancing over Jericho’s shoulder. Clasped in the apprentice’s hand was a broken wooden embroidery hoop and a torn white cloth.

  Jericho’s shoulders shook. “I shouldn’t have … Why did I leave her alone? What was I thinking?”

  “It’s not your fault,” Auric breathed. No, it was Auric’s. Auric had been the one to ignore his father’s written warning, to disregard his request to protect the treasure that was Rill, and now?

  Now Rill was gone.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Auric slumped into the parlor. Jericho had restored the couch to its original place. However, he now sat with his face in his hands, Rill’s embroidery over his eyes. Auric cleared his throat. “You all right?”

  “Did you find anything?” Jericho asked.

  “Annie, Will, and Mattias, all asleep in their beds as if nothing had happened.” Auric sighed and ran his fingers through his beard. His head ached. “Looks like they are under a basic sleeping spell, but it will likely wear off by morning. I doubt they saw anything. Father said he’d check the gardens. I’m not sure what for … or what this is about. Do you have any idea?”

  Jericho stood. “No. I mean, I thought your dad was paranoid, all the security measures, the worry about Rill and magic. It seemed a harmless mania, but now?” He waved towards the shattered lamp and upended side table. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe Father can explain.” Auric sank onto the couch. “He mentioned someone called Janus. Have you ever heard him speak that name before?”

  “Never.”

  Auric shook his head. So many secrets. Yes, he’d disobeyed his father’s wishes, but his father had left him open to it by not telling him what this was all about, why his mother had really disappeared, who this Janus was, how Rill was involved. If Father had just trusted Auric, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.

  “We’ll get some answers,” Jericho said. “Your father obviously knows what’s going on, and he’s going to tell us.”

  “You seem pretty sure of that?” Auric eyed the apprentice.

  “Because I’m not letting him out of my sight until I know exactly who took Rill and how to get her back.” Jericho’s hands clenched at his side.

  Footsteps echoed through the foyer. Hedward hurried in to the parlor, clutching a bulky, metallic object that glinted in the firelight. He placed it on the hearth and drew his stylus.

  Auric sat up. “Is that Jaspyr?”

  Hedward nodded. “I found him in a Fey trap at the edge of the gardens. I knew something had to have incapacitated him or else he never would’ve let Janus get close to Rill. I enchanted him specifically to recognize and deter Fey.” He traced the symbols along the metal fox’s spine. Sparks flew from Jaspyr’s bronze plating and his glowing eyes snapped open. His tail twitched with a gentle ticking noise then he crouched, growled, and darted under the side table. “He smells the Fey energy on all of us.” Hedward leaned against the jamb of the fireplace. “It’ll take a while to fade. I know you two meant well, but you shouldn’t have come after me.”

  “Yeah, we should’ve let you die in there.” Auric snorted.

  His father scowled. “I told you to stay and protect Rill.”

  “Yes, but you gave me no idea what I was supposed to protect her from, no indication that she was in any real danger.” Auric’s fingers tightened on the edge of the couch. “Safe from what? Who is Janus? What really happened to Mother? All of this could’ve been avoided if you’d just been honest with me.”

  “You weren’t ready to know.” Hedward crossed his arms. “A fact made obvious by your inability to follow simple instructions. You even dragged Jericho into your idiocy—”

  “Actually, sir, I’m on Auric’s side in this,” Jericho said.

  Hedward’s jaw dropped.

  “You need to tell us everything. I’m not above obeying orders when I understand what I’m getting into, but you kept me in the dark.” Jericho’s eyebrows drew together. “You want me to play along? Tell me the game.”

  Hedward’s gaze darted from Jericho to Auric like a cornered rabbit. The anger drained from his face, and he hung his head. “I’ve made so many mistakes. I … I didn’t want you to know, Auric. If you … so many mistakes.”

  Auric’s throat tightened. “I think we’ve both made our share. Maybe I can help you start: when we were in the Fey Lands, a being told me I wasn’t quite human. Does that have something to do with what happened?”

  Hedward’s eyes squeezed shut. “Everything, unfortunately.”

  “I don’t understand. Auric seems plenty human to me.” Jericho sat beside Auric on the couch.

  “Fey traits are less likely to be passed down from mother to son than from mother to daughter. That’s why I wasn’t as concerned about guarding him as I was Rill,” Hedward said. “I observed his interactions with Fey energy early on and determined it was improbable he’d be a target. However, even as a half-breed, Rill has her mother’s knack, that natural ability to interact with Fey energy like an extension of her being.”

  “Half-breed?” Auric swallowed. “Mother was—”

  “A Fey. Yes.”

  Jaspyr slunk out from under the couch and curled up at Auric’s feet. The fox’s ears drooped, perhaps because he missed Rill.

  “But how?” Auric asked. “I mean, she would’ve had to be in our world before I was conceived, and that was at least five years before the city magicians opened the first rifts. Before that they didn’t grow big enough for a human to pass through.”

  “No, they didn’t … except for ones opened by an ambitious young fool who wanted to see the Fey Lands.” Father laughed bitterly.

  Auric’s heart skipped. “You?”

  “I figured out how to open Fey rifts at least a decade before the capital magicians.” Hedward smiled. “I’m not incapable of advanced and theoretical magic, son. I just know too well the dangers of it. What it can cost—” He sighed, his expression turning dour again. “I opened many rifts in those early days. Some to power spells, some just to explore the Fey Lands. I became an expert at ‘crossing over’ and even befriended some of the lesser Fey creatures, at least to the extent that is possible. Little did I know the damage I was doing.”

  Jericho leaned forward. “Let’s skip to the relevant part. Why did they take Rill?”

  “If you don’t understand this, you won’t understand that.” Hedward wagged his finger. “Really, Jericho, my son has been a bad influence on you.”

  Jericho’s jaw clenched, his eyes flashing.

  “Steady,” Auric whispered.

  “I didn’t realize that the rifts I opened were creating cracks in the barrier between Fey and mortal realms. Eventually I was captured by a pair of Fey siblings, Janus and Iris.”

  An electric shock cut through Auric. Iris. He knew that name.

  Hedward avoided his son’s eyes. “They informed me that the rifts put everything within ten miles of Spellsmith Manor in danger from uncontrolled Fey energies. Janus wanted to execute me for my crimes then and there, but Iris spoke for me, convinced her brother they needed me to undo the damage, and for a time we worked together, closing the cracks.” Hedward cleared his throat. “In that time, something unexpected happened.”

  “Iris was Mother’s name, wasn’t it?” Auric whispered.

  Hedward nodded. “We fell in love. I later found out that when a Fey … lies with a mortal they lose their Fey essence. She didn’t tell me that until we’d already—” His face reddened. “I don’t know if I still woul
d’ve had I been aware of what it would cost her, but she kept that choice to herself. She said she didn’t wish for me to feel I was stealing something from her. She would’ve always been forced to choose between our love and her homeworld.”

  “So Rill is half Fey until she—” Jericho cleared his throat. Auric’s neck warmed under his collar. He did not feel comfortable talking about Rill like this. Especially in front of Jericho.

  “Essentially.”

  “But not Auric?” Jericho tilted his head.

  “I … Even if I … barmaid, about two years ago.” Auric coughed.

  Jericho narrowed his eyes at Auric.

  “Oh, don’t give me that self-righteous look, especially not with how you salivate over my sister!” Auric snapped.

  Hedward’s eyes bulged, and Auric froze. He hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

  Jericho shifted in his seat. “Back to the matter at hand?”

  “Yes, that would be best.” Hedward gave a slow nod though he angled away from Jericho slightly. “When Janus found out that I was romantically involved with his sister, he tried to kill me. Obviously, I escaped, but the attempt drove him and Iris apart. We closed up the last of the rifts with Iris and myself on one side and Janus on the other, and I thought that was the end of it.” He rubbed his forehead. “We were so happy in those days. We worked together in the shop. Within a year, you were on your way, then your sister. The rifts were supposedly closed, so I got careless. I stopped worrying that Janus would return, but then one day, I saw him, lurking at the edges of our lives. Mere glimpses at first, so quick I let myself believe I’d imagined him, but soon it was undeniable that he was stalking your mother. I did everything in my power to keep him back, made your mother swear not to leave the safety of the manor and to keep you and Rill near her at all times.”

  “It didn’t work,” Auric murmured. He closed his eyes and remembered his mother’s haunted face, his father’s nervous paranoia, the feeling of being a prisoner in his own home. Had that really all been to protect them?