Lit candles were placed around the room, and their flames danced on the end of wicks.
“Where were you, Galatia? When all of this was going on, all of these elaborate plans being made. . . where were you?” Blodwyn asked the green-haired beauty. Mykal detected blatant suspicion, barely masked with curiosity.
“In hiding,” she said. “Where I was is unimportant. What is important, is that I remained so. It was when I felt a sorceress stirring the sea a few nights ago that I knew something was amiss. I tapped into the magic and traced the source back to a strong wizard.”
“You can do that?” Mykal asked.
Galatian nodded, smiling. “I can. And I did. It’s a good thing, too. I didn’t let myself get too close. I didn’t want the sorceress knowing that I was listening to her thoughts. There was a lot going on in her mind. She is a torn and angry woman, but not broken. I saw that she and the king planned to attack the surrounding kingdoms. He aspires to be the next emperor, is what she was thinking, and was going to make her his advisor and second in command. Before she could catch me eavesdropping I backed off, certain I knew enough to know it was time to come out of hiding. Only this time, I don’t plan on doing the fighting alone, or on running away.
“It’s why I keep repeating that I don’t know how much time we have. It’s why I keep desperately trying to get Mykal to come and help me call the other three wizards. If King Cordillera can’t convince them to help him, I am certain that he will kill them to prevent their potential opposition to his plans. They are my family. They are vulnerable. If they are called to meet, they will assume it is legitimate and show up. They aren’t fools who would walk blindly into any such meeting, but King Cordillera does not play fair. He’ll have a trap set and waiting. Before they even know what is happening, he’ll have sprung it. I can’t let that happen. We have to call the other three first.”
Mykal set his fingertips on the edge of the table drumming them rhythmically. “I just want to make sure I have this right. You need me to go with you to call the wizards? There are three more wizards out there as old as you?”
“Excuse me?” Galatia arched an eyebrow.
“I don’t mean old. I meant to say, there are three other wizards out there who were alive back when Emperor Rye ruled the lands?”
“Not that much better,” Blodwyn muttered, smiling.
Karyn drove an elbow into his ribs. “I think what Mykal meant to say—”
Galatia dismissed their discomfort with a radiant smile. “I know what he means. I was attempting to lighten the mood. It was starting to feel as gloomy in here as it is outside. The answer is yes.”
“But you don’t know where they’re hiding?” Mykal said.
“The only thing I can surmise is that they are not anywhere in the old empire. If they were, I would have known. I think. . .” she stopped.
“You think what?” Blodwyn asked.
“It’s nothing,” Galatia said.
“You think you’re the only wizard to have stayed in the old empire,” Blodwyn said. It wasn’t a question. It was like he knew the answer.
“Of our group from those days?” She nodded. “Yes.”
“But where? How could you have stayed undetected for so long? Surely the king’s Watch checked under every rock and up every tree,” Mykal said. Galatia had mentioned only three new wizards had been born. He assumed he was one of the three, his mother the other, and this Ida was the third.
“I am certain that they did,” Galatia said.
Blodwyn grunted. The chair he sat on creaked under his shifting weight. “You weren’t up a tree, or under a rock, though, were you?”
“I was not.”
“Plenty of places to hide in the mountains. There are the Zenith, the Muye, the Rames, and the Fjord Range,” Karyn said.
“You, young lady, know your geography,” Blodwyn said. “The learning one receives living with a king has its advantages. Nicely done.”
Karyn smiled, pleased by the compliment. “Thank you.”
“She wasn’t in the mountains though, were you, Galatia?”
“I was not, no,” she said.
“It’s the hair.” Blodwyn snapped his fingers. “I couldn’t put my finger on it before. I just knew it had to do with the hair.” Blodwyn wore a smile like a man who’d fasted for weeks and was finally sitting down to a steak dinner, with unlimited ale to keep his mug full. “So then, it’s true?”
Green hair was unusual, but Mykal couldn’t see how it revealed anything when it came to this mysterious, lovely woman. “What’s true?”
Galatia nodded. It was slow, forced, as if a puppeteer controlled her head with a stick and strings. “I lived under the Isthmian with the mermaids.”
Chapter 15
“The seer mentioned some noteworthy places to hide. All good places, mind you, but not good enough. Not for me,” Galatia said. “The king was not going to rest until he had my head. He was after all users of magic, but it was obviously me he wanted most.
“When it came time to hide, I wanted to go somewhere I’d never have to worry; where I wouldn’t have to spend my days and nights looking over my shoulder, therefore I went to live with the mermaids.”
Blodwyn said, “My questions are: How were you able to survive living underwater? How did you communicate with them? How did you ask permission to live with them? I can’t imagine it was as simple as swimming up to them and asking if there were vacancies at the local inn.”
“My question is,” Mykal said, “are we really talking about mermaids?”
“Yesterday you didn’t believe in wizards, or magic,” Blodwyn said.
“I’m afraid the serpent attack may have been my fault, Mykal,” Galatia said. “When I left the network of underwater caverns, I agitated them. They normally protect the cave entrances, and the mermaids. I hope you can forgive me.”
A bit overwhelmed by everything, Mykal closed his mouth, puffed out his cheeks, and shook his head. “No. Forget about it. There’s nothing at all to forgive.”
“Will you be telling us how you came to live with the mermaids, or will the story have to be plucked like feathers off a chicken, one at a time?” Blodwyn saw no reason to hide his irritation. Mykal shared his anxiety.
“I entered the sea by the Fjord Range,” she said.
“At the base of the Rames Mountains?” Karyn said. “Inside Osiris’s Realm?”
Galatia merely smiled at Karyn. “The Isthmian is—”
“Weren’t you worried about the Voyagers?” Mykal said. That motley crew sailed the sea rarely, if ever, coming to shore; stalking the sea lanes. No one ever knew exactly where they’d be. Legends cast them evil as pirates patrolling the water. Few ships ever made it across the Isthmian without encountering them, and even fewer made it across at all. They also ran trade routes along the river. The potential loss was rarely worth the reward such a venture would inevitably bring. However, those were the only way to get goods from the east to the west, and vice versa.
“As I was saying, I went into the Isthmian and swam out to a sandbar. I called to them with my mind. I stayed on the sandbar for nearly three full days and nights before I finally caught sight of one of them. It was at first nothing more than a ripple in the sea. It could have been anything, really, but I knew. I saw eventually its scaled body under the moon’s bright glow. There was no mistaking the tail as it emerged for just a moment before it once again slipped beneath the ocean’s surface. I was apprehensive. In my mind I had prepared everything I’d say, how I’d ask permission to live with them. But none came. Not that night. I was so hungry, and thirsty. I didn’t bring enough provisions, because honestly, I never expected contact to take so long. Two things prevented my leaving. If I went back to land for food or water, I would miss the mermaid answering my call. The other was that, I wasn’t sure I had the strength to swim back to shore, and I’d drown.
“My shoulders and face were burnt red from standing under the relentless sun. I kept dipping under the water’s surface to
cool off. It was so terribly hot. Without water, my lips had chapped. There was no relief for my eventual hunger and thirst. I can’t tell you how tempted I was to drink from the sea. I knew by the end of the fifth day that I was going to die,” Galatia said.
“You couldn’t just zap yourself back onto shore?” Karyn said. “Or conjure up a cup of water to drink?”
“At one point, I could have used my powers to get back safely. But the longer I stayed submerged on the sandbar, the weaker my body became. Magic requires strength, and rest. Using it takes a toll on the wizard. It is powerful, but not without limits. This was one thing Grandeer never fully understood, or refused to believe. I suppose if it was between dying out there or dying on land, I would have at least given, what did you call it? ‘Zapping’? I would have at least made the attempt to zap myself back to the shore,” Galatia said. “But I didn’t have to.”
“They finally responded to your call?” Mykal couldn’t remember the last time his grandfather had spoken. He thought the man asleep with his eyes open.
Galatia nodded. “A single mermaid swam up to me. There is no point in lying, I was frightened. I’d never seen one before. I had only heard stories. The few Voyagers I had met were full of them. It was difficult to sort truth from fiction. Fishermen tell tales that exceed truth, and yet I discerned truth to much of what I’d heard, or overheard as the case may be.
“She bobbed in the water, not far from me. If I had reached out an arm I could almost have touched her. Like I have now, her hair was green. Her face and facial features were smooth. It’s hard to explain, really. It was almost like she didn’t have cheekbones, or they were so thin and high set they were nearly undetectable. Her eyes were large. Too big for such a small face. She didn’t blink. Ever. Her nose was narrow and pointed at the end. Not long, not big, but narrow, and pointy.” Galatia touched the tip of her own nose. “Below her breasts the scales started. They were green and white and pink. Beautifully blended.
“I’d been calling out to the mermaids with my mind, summoning them to come to me. Now that one was in front of me, I wasn’t sure how to proceed. It would be foolish and naive to think we spoke the same language. Still, I tried. My words made her face wrinkle, and she tilted her head to the side. For whatever reason, they had heard and responded to my summons. Therefore, I tried using my mind to communicate with her. I didn’t realize how truly weak I had become. It took the last of my energy to tell her I needed a place to hide. And then, I just dropped, sinking into the sea. I remember thinking I was going to die, that the confused mermaid was just going to watch me drown.
“When I woke up, I was inside a cave inside the Fjord Mountains. It looked like a small island surrounded by placid sea water. At times there were cracks of sunlight that streamed through crevices during the day and some moonbeams at night, but not always. I was lying down on a bench of seashells. There were smooth stalactites that littered the cave ceiling, water dripped from their ends and splashed into the sea. The drops echoed inside the cave, and the ripples slowly made their way to the shore. Tiny waves caused by the droplets that fell. Stalagmites grew like giant cones from the ground. They were thick, and rigid, and sat like stone guardians. At the time I didn’t know where it came from, but there was a purple glow that permeated the entire space.” Galatia lifted her necklace, and turned the violet gem in her fingers. When she held it up to her face, her eyes matched the color of the stone. “Below the Isthmian, inside the cave there were many smaller caverns. One is filled with amethysts. The gems glow so brightly, entering the cavern is almost impossible without risk to your eyesight. The entrances allow the light to illuminate everything under water.”
“Well, I’ll be. You actually lived with the mermaids. They took you in,” Blodwyn said.
“Not sure I would describe it as taking me in. They left me on that shore for months without much interaction. Once in a while I’d see them looking up at me from beneath the water. A few seemed rather taken by me. I suppose I was as alien to them as they were to me? And when those particular mermaids came around, I’d meet them by the water and toss in stones that they’d retrieve and toss back. It passed the time, and I made it so I didn’t feel so all alone.
“When they knew I’d seen them, they’d swim away. Mornings, or what I took as mornings—without a sunrise or sunset, and only the glowing amethysts for illumination, I lost track of the world’s cycles—they regularly left fish for me to eat in a small pile by the water, and collected rain water in seashells for me to drink, but it took a long time before they actually made any significant contact.”
“Mermaids.” Mykal shook his head. There had always been stories of the merfolk, just as he’d heard stories about the sea serpents, and of magic. “In time you became friends with them?”
“We became friends, but that’s a story I’ll have to share another time. The point is, that’s where I was. That’s where I’ve been. For all of the centuries that have gone by I’ve been beneath the surface, living inside a cave.”
It wasn’t clear from Galatia’s tone of voice how she felt; she had masked any emotion, keeping it flat and without infliction. It might have contained a bit of regret mixed with gratitude, as if surviving the king’s wrath was counterbalanced by the lack of contact with her own people.
“You could have returned once the king died,” Karyn said.
“I didn’t know when the king died.”
Blodwyn said, “The Watch are still in existence. King Nabal shares a good portion of Grandeer’s feelings towards magic users. If word of your existence spread, they’d be after you, of this I have no doubt.”
“I’d be on the run again. And I am certain the mermaids would not allow me to live among them a second time. I am still unsure why they allowed me into their caves at all. Except, as I’ve said, I’m not running. Not this time.”
A silence fell over the room. It lasted several minutes, until it became obvious Galatia had finished her rendition of events.
Grandfather said, “Like you, we’re peaceful people. You’re talking about King Cordillera, and wizards, and war. You don’t need my grandson to help you find the other wizards. You found him. You can find them. We don’t want any trouble. There’s been no proof he’s a wizard, no reason for anyone else to come here looking for him.”
Trouble was unavoidable. Mykal either thought it, or Galatia said it out loud. One way or the other, the phrase swam inside his head as if echoing of the sides of his skull.
Galatia leaned onto the kitchen table. She spoke in a whisper. “This is what I know. King Cordillera has a wizard. Her name is Ida. She is roughly the same age as your mother, Mykal. She was born in the Osiris Realm. I am not sure who her mother is. Her father is one of the three wizards in hiding. You and she either share a bloodline, or Osuald is her father.”
“Share a bloodline?” Mykal said.
“How do you know this?” Blodwyn said.
“Mykal’s grandmother was pregnant with Anna when the wizards went into hiding. Your grandfather, Matteo, is one of the wizard’s in hiding. The only other male wizard is Osuald. Pendora was not pregnant, and neither was I. That means Ida’s father is either Matteo or Osuald.”
“Wait,” Mykal said, and set one hand to his forehead. “My mother was born about the time you went into hiding? And so was this Ida wizard?”
“That’s right.”
“That makes my mom, what? Like two hundred years old?”
Grandfather’s mouth opened wide, and then he shook his head violently. “That’s preposterous. All of this is crazy. I think we’ve heard enough. I’ve been a gracious host. I’ve allowed you into my house. Everything you have said has been upsetting. You have no proof, no evidence to give us. You might be a wizard. What you did with the blue fire was impressive, but as you’ve said, magic is simple. Though I don’t like to admit it, I’ve seen magicians do similar tricks. And that’s all they are. Tricks. Parlor tricks. That’s all, just parlor tricks. My grandson was right befor
e when he asked you to leave—”
“Grandfather,” Mykal said.
“Silence!” Grandfather shouted. Mykal could not recall a time when his grandfather raised his voice. “We’re not going to entertain such nonsense. Her mere presence places our entire farm in jeopardy. And for all we know this lady over here is a spy for the king!”
“I assure you, I am not,” Karyn said.
“We don’t know that, though. Do we?”
Blodwyn remained silent for just a moment longer, but continued lightly tapping his staff on the porch. Ignoring Grandfather’s outburst, he said, “We’ve listened to everything you’ve had to say, Galatia. Fantastic as it is, I find myself believing you. That being said, I’m not sure what role you see Mykal playing. If anything, I am more interested in getting him somewhere safe and hiding him from the Mountain King.”
“You want him to hide the next two hundred years in some dark cave? Is that any way for anyone to live? Unless you can guarantee he never uses magic, it won’t work anyway. Ida is something of an unknown. She is clearly a powerful wizard, the way she commanded the storm is proof of her ability, but the king keeps her locked inside a tower. Somehow he’s managed to enchant the room. She cannot leave. This makes her loyalty less than clear, though while held prisoner she is doing the Mountain King’s bidding,” Galatia explained.
“How do you know all of this?” Blodwyn said, as he leaned forward, with his jaw set, and brow creased.
“I can feel her at night trying to unweave the web that has her barricaded. She wants out. When she uses her magic, I can reach out and touch her mind. I see thick strings of color. They billow as they stream from her to me. I follow those ribbons and when I am close enough her mind is open to me.”
“And you use your magic when you do this?” Blodwyn said. “Then what prevents her from doing the same thing back at you?”
Galatia pursed her lips together, but didn’t respond.
Mykal said, “How can she find me?”
“As I did, she must have sensed when you were born, but could not pinpoint your exact location. For ten and seven years she’s used her magic to keep the pulse of the land, hoping she’d find you. Until the other day you’ve never used a shred of magic. Powerful magic, I mean. If you had, she would have been able to locate you in a heartbeat. When someone uses magic it creates a ripple. It can possibly be felt by other wizards across continents depending on its size. The size of such a wave is dependent on the strength of the energy wielded just as the size of a stone tossed into water alters the force of the waves it creates. Does that make sense?”
Severed Empire: Wizard's Rise Page 11