The Rogue Mage (The Age of Oracles Book 1)

by Ben Hale

  “You have no choice,” Raine said, her soft voice gaining a dangerous edge. “The council acts together or we are all lost. No oracle has ever betrayed the council.”

  “Then I am the first,” Alydian said. “I thought Teriah the rogue, but if the council has abandoned its honor than I will gladly stand alone.”

  “You would publicly fracture the council?” she asked, her tone harsh.

  Alydian hesitated, recognizing even without her farsight that she stood on a precipice. To defy the council would send shockwaves throughout the kingdoms, and the people’s faith in the oracles would forever be damaged. But staying silent would permit the oracles to become tyrants, and would require her to break her own oath.

  “I am a sworn protector of the people,” she said. “Even if the enemy is one of my own.”

  Raine measured her response before her jaw tightened. “So be it.”

  Raine reached for the fire and yanked on the heat, sending a blast at Alydian. On instinct she ducked and the flames soared overhead, impacting a bookshelf. Charms lit up as they protected the books but the shelves burned as Alydian scrambled back.

  “I thought you were a sister,” Raine said as she advanced upon her. “An ally that would support me in every course.”

  After all her training Alydian recovered quickly. She accepted the next blast of fire and churned it into a fire golem at her side. It swelled as she poured heat into it, growing to the size of a rock troll. Raine came to a stop when she saw the spell and, surprisingly, laughed.

  “I must say I’m impressed,” she said. “I knew your mother was up to something but I never expected you were training with the Runeguard. She must have shielded you with her own choices to keep you hidden from us.”

  “What do you intend, Sister?” Alydian asked, her voice rigid. “My mother is near death and cannot bear another child. Killing me will end an oracle bloodline. Is my life the price of your empire?”

  “I do not wish to kill you,” Raine said, “but if your bloodline is not ready to adapt, then you leave me no choice.”

  Raine pointed to the golem and Alydian felt a tug through the entity as the woman sought to gain control. Alydian gritted her teeth and willed the entity to step toward Raine. It took a halting step forward, causing Raine’s eyes to widen. She clenched her hand into a fist, her face reddening from the effort to wrest control of the fire entity.

  “Your will has grown in your time as a Runeguard,” she hissed through clenched teeth.

  Alydian poured her anger and confusion into her magic, and the golem took another step toward Raine, extending a flaming arm. Raine cried out but held her ground, and the arm slowly came to a halt.

  Standing ten paces apart with a giant golem between them, they fought for dominance over the entity. Like a war machine battering the gates of her mind, Alydian felt Raine’s power attempt to tear through her control, yet she did not yield.

  “I am no longer a child,” Alydian growled.

  The golem began to tremble, the flames on its body sparking and spilling away. Still they battled, and the golem stumbled to the side, a great foot stomping through a couch, snapping the wood. It’s trembling mounted and the flames brightened, and Alydian realized what was coming. Relinquishing her hold, she dived to the side as the entity detonated.

  Fire blasted into the bookshelves and floor, lancing into the stone like a heated sword. Couches, tables, and chairs were shredded into fragments of burning wood. A pair of aquaglass windows cracked from the heat, and rivulets of water ran in steaming lines into the burning carpet.

  Alydian cast a fire shield about her body and rose to her feet, stunned and dismayed by the damage. Fires burned on all sides, eagerly devouring the remains of the library furniture. A bookshelf groaned as it fell, crashing into the ascender and sending a shudder into Dawnskeep.

  “See what your disobedience has wrought!” Raine shouted, rising into view. Her hair was in disarray and her clothing torn but she held her focus, calling on the air. Twisting in a circle, she summoned a tornado and sent it hurtling at Alydian.

  Alydian cast an entrapment charm. The stone floor rose and snapped shut upon the cyclone, cutting it off at the knees and leaving it to sputter and scatter shielded books. But Raine darted around the pillar of rock and slammed into her, striking a fist into her jaw.

  Backed by a strength charm, the blow was brutal, intended to punish more than harm. Alydian reeled away and just managed to cast an agility charm. She ducked the next blow and called on the surrounding heat to craft a sword.

  “You think yourself better than I?” Raine shouted. “I’ve been training for over two hundred years! No whelp is going to triumph over me.” She cast her own sword and smashed it against Alydian’s blade, sending sparks across both of them.

  “Devkin is stronger than you,” Alydian spat.

  She shoved Raine away and reached out to the stone left from her entrapment charm, knocking it down between the two of them, forcing Raine back. Then she summoned the light, shaping it into a trio of gremlins. They dropped into the flames and charged, scaling the pillar with their claws before leaping over. Three bursts of light signaled Raine had dispatched the entities, and Raine climbed into view.

  “You must have learned that trick in a Requiem,” she said. “But you don’t even understand your power.”

  She reached down and struck the pillar, sending cracks throughout the stone. It crumbled into dozens of stones which grew arms and legs, and then heads. The gremlins howled a grating war cry and charged.

  Outnumbered, Alydian reached to the broken aquaglass window, using the crack to tear it apart. The glass cracked into hundreds of shards that leapt across the gap, pummeling the gremlins and shattering them to dust. Raine strode through the rubble and, flicking her sword.

  Raine sneered at her. “I thought you were my ally.”

  “I thought you were my friend.”

  A cracking in the floor signaled a break, and then the section where the fire entity had exploded broke, tumbling into the great hall below. Alydian used the distraction to leap forward and strike, and Raine deflected the blow.

  For several seconds the two fought, their swords cutting through stone and shelf, wall and floor. Alydian drove her back before Raine retaliated in kind, screaming as she struck at Alydian with her free hand. Alydian twisted, and the blast of superheated light reached past her and smashed into the floor, carving another hole. Alydian continued her rotation and swung her sword high, hiding her true attack in her free hand.

  The anti-magic thread streaked from her finger and wrapped around Raine’s wrists. Alydian attached a spike to the bonds and sent it plunging into a burning table, yanking Raine to her knees. Raine smashed into the floor, fighting the bonds that sapped her magic.

  On the verge of victory, Alydian saw Raine’s face. Her features contorted with anger, she hardly resembled the woman Alydian had known. Yet Alydian saw the woman that had taught her, guided her, loved her.

  “You were more than a friend,” Alydian said. “You were family.”

  “Family doesn’t betray each other,” Raine snapped, yanking on her bonds.

  “You’re right,” Alydian said. “But I didn’t betray the council, the council betrayed me.”

  She turned and walked away, leaving Raine bound amid the burning library. “There is nowhere you can flee that we will not find you!” Raine shouted.

  Alydian paused and looked back, and despite Raine’s anger she flinched away from Alydian’s expression.

  “You won’t need to find me,” Alydian shouted. “Because I’ll be coming for you. You and the council have turned against the whole of our purpose, and the next time we meet the line will be clear. Rest assured I will not hesitate to kill you.”

  She stepped onto a set of metal stairs and coiled the steel into a hand that lifted her upward, to the level above. But Raine gathered herself, shrieking as she snapped the anti-magic bonds. Then she reached her hands up to the metal staircase
.

  “You cannot escape!” she screamed.

  Metal bent away from Alydian and pointed downward, but she was close enough to the ceiling to leap. She jumped to where the stairs ascended into the ceiling, relinquishing her hold on the metalwork.

  Without opposition, Raine’s magic whipped the staircase down. The twisted metal came down upon her, piercing her flesh and crushing her to the burning floor. Hanging above the devastated library, Alydian managed to pull herself up to the final step and turn.

  Her breath caught as she saw Raine’s impaled body. Alydian’s strength failed her and she slumped onto the step, her magic faltering. Alydian stared, unable to tear herself from the sight of an oracle dead, an entire oracle bloodline extinguished forever.

  Because of her.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered, wrapping her arms about herself as if doing so would end the pain in her chest.

  Distantly she was aware of a group of Runeguard rising into view through a hole in the floor. She wanted to call out to them but couldn’t find her voice. Assailed by guilt and doubt she didn’t feel the effects of the sleeping charm until it was too late.

  Hands appeared from behind her and caught her shoulders, preventing her from tumbling into the library. She tried to fight the magic but it preyed on her fatigue and guilt, sapping her strength. She was carried up the final steps and laid upon the floor above. Her vision swam into focus and she saw Teriah standing over her, her expression one of horror.

  “What have you done?”

  Tears welled up in Alydian’s eyes. “The council has betrayed the people,” she mumbled. “Raine tried to stop me from revealing the truth . . .”

  Teriah’s expression turned frightening. “I will see your end for this,” she hissed.

  Alydian tried to argue but the sleeping charm was too strong, and she slipped into unconsciousness. The last image she saw was of Elsin and a pair of Verinai Runeguard appearing. Then she was lifted and carried away . . .

  Chapter 47: Lost

  Alydian woke violently. She lurched to her feet and stumbled about, slamming her head into a curved wall before she managed to take in her surroundings. The pain brought sharp clarity—and she sucked in her breath.

  She stood in a sphere, the walls of which were a smooth black. Only a single light orb illuminated the space and sat against the ceiling. A section of one wall curved out and formed a bed, while opposite it was a small table, also extending from the wall. With a start she recognized the chamber for what it was.

  A cell.

  Fighting to control the burgeoning panic, she searched the interior of the sphere for an exit. When she blinked into her magesight all she saw was solid anti-magic, the very walls of the sphere were built with it, making her magesight useless. She searched and searched, forcing herself to look again even when she knew it was futile.

  “Welcome to your new home,” a voice said, startling her.

  She spun about, trying to identify where the voice had come from. Then she noticed a small hole that had been absent before. She stepped to it and looked out, her eyes widening when she saw open air beyond the cell.

  The sphere hung in an underground chasm, with great chains holding it aloft. A guardhouse had been built into the wall of the abyss with a clear view of her cell. Flanked by Elsin and Ciana, Teriah gazed upon her with abject hatred.

  “Teriah!” Alydian cried. “I did not mean to—”

  “Kill her?” she asked. “Yet you did. An entire oracle bloodline, extinguished because of a rogue mage, you.”

  Alydian flinched. “Her own magic killed her.”

  “It matters not,” Teriah said. “You may not have landed the blow, but you bear the burden.”

  “You have betrayed our oath!” Alydian shouted, her guilt burning into anger, “After what you’ve done I could not sit idle.”

  “Yet that is what you shall do,” Teriah said. “Four oracles built this prison and I assure you, there will be no escape.”

  “Why not kill me?” Alydian asked, trying to keep her voice from faltering.

  “The bloodline must continue,” Teriah said. “And when this war is over you will either join me . . . or perish in your prison.”

  “I would have killed you,” Ciana said coldly.

  “You cannot do this!” Alydian shouted. “The people will not kneel before an oracle. They will not bow to your Mage Empire.”

  “They already do,” Elsin said with a sneer. “Griffin and the elves yielded their thrones days ago, and the dwarves will fall in time.”

  “None can stop those who see the future,” Teriah added.

  “My mother will stop you.”

  “She is too weak to rise from her bed,” Ciana said. “And will likely die before you ever see daylight again.”

  “You cannot trap an oracle!” Alydian said, her fear seeping into her voice. “I will escape!”

  Teriah swept her hands wide. “You are welcome to try. The only source of energy in there is your light, and it isn’t enough for you to even scratch the walls. I would say enjoy your solitude, but I honestly hope you don’t.”

  The hole in the sphere began to close, a dark liquid filling the opening with shocking speed. She tried to reach through it but it pushed against her, forcing her back. With barely a whisper it shut, leaving her in the sphere alone.

  She shouted and screamed, searching the sphere again and again, her fury driving her to strike at the walls with her bare fists. But she was helpless. She sucked every ounce of power from the light orb into her hand, plunging her cell into darkness. Then she cast a tiny asunder charm, blasting the sphere with every morsel of her strength. When the power faded she stumbled to the spot and rubbed her hand across it, but the wall remained smooth and cold. It took several hours before the orb began to brighten.

  Her chest heaving, she slumped to the floor, struggling to control the panic constricting her chest. The sound of her ragged breathing marred the silence, and calm refused to come. When she managed to contain her emotions she closed her eyes and slipped into her farsight, pushing past the circle of anti-magic to see the familiar forest. The trees of Raiden, Elenyr, and her other friends remained. But hers had changed.

  Every branch, every fork, every decision, gone as if it never existed. The sprawling tree that showed a life of hundreds of years had become a withered trunk rising into darkness. Four oracles had built a cell that would take her future, and her remaining life would now be spent shackled until she joined Teriah, or death claimed her.

  She blinked back to reality, sending tears down her cheeks. It took three days before she was willing to try again, but still saw the same haunting tree. She fought against her fate but no decision altered the tree, proving that her cage was impenetrable.

  Each day a small trapdoor opened in the ceiling, allowing food to enter. She expected Elsin or the oracles to gloat, but days passed without a word. Then a week. By the end of the second week she began to question her sanity, and it took all her willpower not to succumb to fear and madness.

  They had taken her magic, her farsight, and her freedom, but there was one thing they could not steal. Trapped in a cell built to contain an oracle, she was like any other magicless, like Raiden. But he’d survived against powerful foes, demonstrating time and again that it wasn’t power that defined a person. It was their will.

  She began to laugh, the sound reverberating off the walls of her sphere. The trapdoor opened and food fell unnoticed, her laughter rising as she clung to the tiny sense of strength. She didn’t have magic, but she was far from helpless.

  Alydian’s humor subsided, her emotions hardening into a singular focus. Her allies had betrayed her, locked her in a cage and robbed her of her birthright. Those she loved fought alone in a war they could not win. She thought of escape, but deep inside another thought dominated her soul.

  Vengeance.

  The Chronicles of Lumineia

  By Ben Hale

  —The Age of Oracles—

&nbs
p; The Rogue Mage

  The Lost Mage

  The Battle Mage

  —The Master Thief—

  Jack of Thieves

  Thief in the Myst

  The God Thief

  —The Second Draeken War—

  Elseerian

  The Gathering

  Seven Days

  The List Unseen

  —The Warsworn—

  The Flesh of War

  The Age of War

  The Heart of War

  —The White Mage Saga—

  Assassin's Blade (Short story prequel)

  The Last Oracle

  The Sword of Elseerian

  Descent Unto Dark

  Impact of the Fallen

  The Forge of Light

  Author Bio

  Originally from Utah, Ben has grown up with a passion for learning almost everything. Driven particularly to reading caused him to be caught reading by flashlight under the covers at an early age. While still young, he practiced various sports, became an Eagle Scout, and taught himself to play the piano. This thirst for knowledge gained him excellent grades and helped him graduate college with honors, as well as become fluent in three languages after doing volunteer work in Brazil. After school, he started and ran several successful businesses that gave him time to work on his numerous writing projects. His greatest support and inspiration comes from his wonderful wife and six beautiful children. Currently he resides in Missouri while working on his Masters in Professional Writing.

  To contact the author, discover more about Lumineia, or find out about the upcoming sequels, check out his website at Lumineia.com. You can also follow the author on twitter @ BenHale8 or Facebook.

  Table of Contents

  The Chronicles of Lumineia