Cave of Nightmares

by V. St. Clair

  The Broken Prism:

  Cave of Nightmares

  V. St. Clair

  It was sunny, with a slight breeze.

  In the years that followed, that would be the only thing he remembered of the day that changed his life forever. The feel of warm sunlight on his face as they carried him away from the rubble, the wind that tickled his skin; those were his reality. The rest of it had fallen somewhere into the gaping hole in his memory: the fiery explosion that decimated his home and claimed his mother’s life, the irreparable magical damage that was done to him, the sudden disappearance of the most hated, feared mage in the Nine Lands at the height of his reign of terror.

  As they extracted his small body from the rubble and carried him to safety, only one thing resonated in his mind.

  It was sunny, with a slight breeze.

  1

  The Hidden Frost

  In a few hours I’ll either be free, exiled, or dead.

  Hayden was sitting upright in bed, fidgeting with his lead bracelets on the morning of his hearing. He slept poorly the night before, too nervous about the outcome of the trial to get more than an hour or two of rest, and unable to decide whether he could actually be put to death for someone else’s crimes. Morning sunlight illuminated the first snow of the new year, and from his room on the fourth level he had a clear view of the white blanket that covered the sleeping city of Kargath. The largest city in Junir, Kargath was also the capital, and even squinting, Hayden couldn’t see an end to the shops and houses and trade markets that surrounded the capitol building from his vantage on the hill.

  He made the mistake of resting his wrist on the stone windowsill, which immediately chilled the lead bracelet circling it and made him shiver. He withdrew his hand and pressed the thick, cold metal bracelet against his body instead, where it could draw heat.

  Even if they don’t kill me, I might have to wear these for the rest of my life.

  In a few hours he would know for certain. Hayden had been brought to Kargath two days ago, and the ten members of the Council of Mages were summoned from all over the Nine Lands for the hearing that would take place this morning. It was the first time he had ever visited the capital city of his homeland, and he hated that the occasion was marred by his upcoming trial. His twelfth birthday had come and gone just yesterday, completely unremarked upon by any of the indifferent workers in this building, though it was hardly the first birthday to pass without celebration.

  I haven’t even gotten a present since Mom died.

  A knock on the door ended that depressing thought, and Hayden’s heart began to race in fear of what was to come.

  It’s finally time. Two years of waiting and this is it…

  He hopped out of bed and went to answer the knock, plodding across the dark wooden floor in his socks and exhaling in relief at the sight of Anna on the other side of the door. The twenty-year old caregiver had been dispatched from the orphanage to accompany him to the capital, and was the only person in the Kargath that he trusted or liked right now. Even at the orphanage in Merina, she was one of the few people who were consistently nice to him, even after everyone found out whose son he was.

  Anna was wearing a simple grey dress with three-quarter-length sleeves and a white apron pulled over the front of it. Her long blond hair was in its usual style, drawn into a low ponytail at the nape of her neck, making her look older than she was. She had a narrow face with close-set features, and the encouraging little smile she gave him didn’t quite reach her warm brown eyes, the only sign of her nervousness on his behalf.

  “Oh good, you’re already dressed,” she greeted him pleasantly, taking in his general appearance. He was wearing borrowed clothing from the orphanage today: a grey pair of pants and a shapeless black tunic that was made for someone broader. He remembered when he used to have his own clothing, but after his mother died and he outgrew his apparel, he donated most of his things to the younger children and took the hand-me-downs that he was given from the older boys. That was how things worked at the orphanage in Merina.

  “Is it time for the hearing?” he asked in a soft voice, suddenly glad that he hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. He was feeling a bit queasy.

  “Yes, it is.” Anna reached out and smoothed an unruly bit of his brown hair, trying to look calm for his sake. “Just think, in a little while you might be free of those awful lead bracelets forever.”

  Hayden swallowed and tried to share her optimism, but he didn’t have the feeling that the Council of Mages was going to like him very much. No one else seemed to once they learned his last name. For a horrible moment he was tempted to mention the things Bil told him before he left Merina, how the Council would probably hang him from the gallows to prove a point to evil mages who were plotting treasons. He knew Anna would just tell him he was being silly and that he shouldn’t listen to the things the other orphans told him, so he held the thought.

  She rested a comforting hand on his shoulder as she led him down the hall, pointedly ignoring the few people they passed, who stared at Hayden like he was an animal on display. He tried to look calm and brave, but his legs began to feel wobbly as they navigated a wide stone staircase that led to the ground floor.

  It was colder here than in his bedroom upstairs, and he shivered a little as Anna led him past half a dozen closed doors to the chamber where the hearing was scheduled. They didn’t pass many people in the hallway, which surprised Hayden only because he expected the capital of Junir to be busy at all times, especially inside the mayoral compound. Then again, it was still early in the morning, and maybe the mayor and his staff liked to sleep late.

  The first thing he thought upon entering the meeting room was that it was much smaller than he expected. In his dreams he was always in a large hall with vaulted ceilings and hundreds of people who showed up to watch his sentencing. In reality there were only ten other people in the room with him, the chief members of the Council of Mages, and the room was barely large enough to accommodate them all. The room was no different than any of the other small wood-paneled conference rooms he’d passed in the last two days: unadorned stone walls on all sides, no windows, and furnished only with two large conference tables and accompanying chairs, as well as a potted tree in one corner. The tables were presently rearranged beside each other so that all ten members of the Council could sit on the far side and face him, and a chair had been left directly in front of him, a few feet removed from the tables.

  The mages were wearing golden robes over their black pants and shirts, and each of them wore a pin on the front of their clothing that had something to do with their magic, though Hayden didn’t know enough about magic to understand what the pins meant. He felt small and helpless when those ten mages turned their gazes towards him, and took his seat in the lone wooden chair in front of the table that faced them.

  He hoped Anna was going to be allowed to stay with him, but she gave him a quick pat on top of his head for luck and left without a word, shutting the door behind her and sealing him in this stone tomb with these strange men and women.

  For a long moment there was silence in the room while they all got a good look at him. Finally, the man in the center of the table addressed him directly.

  “You are Hayden Frost?”

  Hayden frowned, wondering if he was allowed to correct an important mage or if it would just make him sound insolent.

  “I was Hayden Cohen until I lived at the orphanage. Then people started calling me Hayden Frost.”

  Another moment of silence.

  “It is customary for mages to take the surname of their gifted parent, in this case, your father,” the man explained patiently.

  “I never even met him though. My mom said he died before I was born and she never
talked about him much when I was little.”

  One or two of the mages didn’t look like they believed him. The rest seemed curious. The woman on the far left leaned forward slightly when she spoke to him, brushing a stray lock of blond hair out of her face.

  “You were there on the day he disappeared. You were found in the ruins after the explosion that claimed your mother’s life.”

  “I don’t remember anything about that day,” Hayden insisted, fighting back tears of frustration.

  He had been trying to convince people for the last two years that he had no memory of the explosion. All he remembered from that terrible morning was walking to the kitchen to get breakfast. The next thing he knew, he woke up in an infirmary days later and was told that the house he grew up in had been reduced to rubble, sitting in a mile-wide crater that had been caused by some magical explosion. They told him his mother was dead, and that he would be tested for magical ability since he was the sole survivor of the horrific event and magic had clearly factored into the incident.

  No one had expected what happened when his blood was analyzed and his lineage traced. They confirmed that he was the son of Aleric Frost, the monster who had been steadily taking over the world for the last ten years. Dozens of mages flooded the wreckage of his childhood home after that, and were able to determine that Aleric had been present when the explosion occurred, though there was no sign of him afterwards.

  Hayden gained instant fame when his hated father was never heard from again. Everyone credited him with killing the man who had terrorized the Nine Lands for the last decade, despite Hayden’s arguments that he wasn’t magical and had certainly never killed anyone. Though no one was even remotely upset over the loss of Aleric Frost, Hayden was forced to wear lead bracelets for the last two years to suppress any magic he might possess, while they figured out what to do with him.

  “You’re telling us that you had no idea that your father was Aleric Frost until your blood was tested?”

  Hayden shook his head.

  “Do you know why you’ve been brought before us today?” the woman at the end of the table asked again, not unkindly.

  Hayden nodded.

  “You’re supposed to decide whether I’m allowed to take my bracelets off and learn magic, or if I have to keep them forever.” He didn’t mention his worries about being hanged from the gallows that overlooked the city of Kargath; he didn’t want to give them ideas.

  The mage in the center nodded curtly.

  “And what do you think should happen?”

  Hayden was surprised to be asked for his opinion on the matter.

  “I don’t like the bracelets. They’re heavy and they get cold or hot really easily. And—and I didn’t do anything wrong to deserve them, sir.”

  The man’s face gave nothing away when he replied, “Some people are very nervous about letting the son of Aleric Frost learn magic.” He glanced at Hayden’s bracelets. “I’m sure you’ve heard of the things your father has done: burning cities, murdering the innocent with his corrupted magic, and raising an army of dark mages to name a few.”

  Hayden had heard those things, both while he lived with his mother and at the orphanage later. It was impossible to grow up in the Nine Lands and not hear news of Aleric Frost’s evil doings.

  “But I’m not him, and I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Hayden argued. “I’ve never even seen him, so how could I be like him?”

  In fact, no one had even known Aleric had a son until after the explosion, including the man himself, so how could he, Hayden, be a threat to anyone?

  “If you’ve got his blood in you, then you’ve surely got a bit of his mind in you as well,” a brown-haired mage spoke for the first time, frowning at him.

  “Come now, we can’t blame the poor boy for the things his father did. He didn’t even know the man,” the woman at the end of the table argued.

  “If he’s anything near as powerful as his father, then I’m not anxious to let him follow in his footsteps,” her colleague countered.

  “So now we’re going to punish people before they commit a crime, on the off-chance that they might someday do something wrong?” she huffed angrily. “The boy shows none of the arrogance or malice of his father.”

  “There was a time when Aleric was well-liked, in case you’ve forgotten,” the man said with obvious disgust.

  Hayden didn’t know what else to do but watch the adults argue over whether he was a menace or not. He felt like he should say something in his defense, but didn’t think he’d be able to get a word in edgewise, and anyway they might yell at him for speaking out of turn.

  “I see his father looking out from behind those eyes,” another mage interjected with a frown. “He’s beginning to look like him already.”

  “So what?” his neighbor snapped. “You look like a horse’s rear, but I don’t hold that against you.”

  Hayden clapped a hand over his mouth to stifle a laugh. The argument between the mages soon turned ugly, and they were all name-calling and shouting at each other within five minutes. Hayden had the feeling that he could get up and leave the room and no one would even notice, but decided not to test that theory.

  One of the mages drew a thin strip of wood—a wand—from his belt and pointed it at another. Hayden reflexively covered his head in preparation for some kind of explosive magic, but the mage who was in charge shouted something and everyone else went silent and still. Hayden felt a ripple of magic pass over him, and suspected that the mage had done something to force the others to calm down.

  “Everyone will be seated and silent,” he led by example, returning to his chair at the center of the table and waiting for the others to follow.

  Hayden straightened in his own seat, sensing that the attention was about to turn back onto him.

  When everyone was settled the mage addressed him directly. “Is there anything else you would like to tell us before we proceed to the vote?”

  Hayden’s eyes widened in surprise. He didn’t know they would be voting so soon, and wasn’t at all sure that he had made a good impression. Some of the mages watching him still looked like they had been talking to the children at the orphanage and wanted to send him to the gallows.

  “I don’t care if I’m not allowed to study magic,” he explained, his voice shaking in desperation. “I didn’t know any mages growing up, and it doesn’t matter to me if I’m ever allowed to be one. I just don’t want to wear these stupid bracelets any more, please. People won’t talk to me because they think I’m an exile, and I want to be free again.”

  A few of the mages looked stunned and pitying, though Hayden had no idea why they should be. They were the ones who did this to him, after all. The one in charge answered him slowly.

  “The Binders are the only thing preventing you from using your power. If we remove them you would have to be trained properly, or else you are a danger to those around you.”

  Hayden frowned and stared down at his feet, a sinking feeling settling into his stomach.

  They’re not going to take these off of me, not ever.

  The man called for the vote, but Hayden couldn’t bring himself to look up as the mage asked his colleagues to raise their hands if they thought he should be free of the lead Binders.

  It felt like a long time passed before the voting was finished, and Hayden closed his eyes as they told him the outcome, preparing himself for the words he’d been dreading for weeks.

  “On this, the first day of Shemm, Hayden Frost is hereby released from his Binders and will present himself to Mizzenwald for formal magical training.”

  The only part that his brain registered immediately was that he was going to get his bracelets taken off at last. He snapped his head up so fast that it hurt his neck, and barely refrained from jumping up and down and cheering as the meeting concluded.

  The head-mage approached him while the others filed out of the room, motioning for him to hold out his arms.

  Up close, Hayden could see t
hat the pin on the man’s chest was a wand sticking out of what looked like a pile of blue sand. He still didn’t understand what it meant, but he was too overwhelmed to ask.

  The mage reached into his golden robes and removed a short wand that was made out of black wood. Hayden could see a dozen other wands in various colors and lengths lined up along his belt, which looked like it was designed specifically to hold them. The mage tapped the wand sharply against each of the lead Binders and they crumbled like dirt as they fell away from his hands.

  Now Hayden did allow himself to smile, rubbing his wrists with relief. Free of the bracelets, people could stop asking him what he did to get banned from using magic or staring at him like he was an exile. Life might finally go back to some kind of normal…

  “You will present yourself at Mizzenwald within a week.” The mage was still watching him with an unreadable expression.

  The rest of his earlier announcement finally registered in Hayden’s brain.

  “But sir, I don’t have any money….I can’t afford school.”

  The mage was studying him carefully as he answered.

  “Primary schooling for mages is done at the institution’s expense; it is the right of every mage to learn magic. Mastery schooling will have to be paid for out of pocket, should you choose to continue that far. The cost of your admissions exams will be covered by this Council.”

  He walked past Hayden to exit the room, but stopped in the doorway and turned around one last time.

  “Until you arrive at Mizzenwald, you should take care to contain your power, or you will end up with worse than Binders to contend with.”

  Hayden took a step backwards, terrified by the threat.

  “I know it seems cruel, but you share the blood of the most dangerous man the Nine Lands has seen in hundreds of years. Do not give people a reason to doubt your integrity.”

  On that somber note, the mage left him alone.

  Hayden entered the hallway and was relieved to find Anna waiting for him. She glanced at his wrists and immediately gave him an excited grin, hurrying forward to embrace him. Being hugged like this reminded him of his mother, and Hayden swallowed a lump of emotion with effort.