The Allyen (The Story of the First Archimage Book 1)

by Michaela Riley Karr

  The princess scoffed so loudly that I took that as my cue to let them know I was awake. Stretching my arms up above me, a rather loud moan escaped my lips as the cords in my arms straightened and warmed. I didn’t particularly enjoy being an eavesdropper. It made me feel guilty. I sympathized with Mira, I truly did. I couldn’t imagine my father suddenly declaring that I was to marry a practical stranger. Prince Xavier did seem like an interesting person, from the one time I’d seen him in person, but none of us seemed to know him real well.

  Frederick looked up from his spot on the floor. “Oh, good morning, Lina. I’m sorry, did we wake you?”

  I shook my head innocently. Their business was their business. I had no desire to butt in more places than I already had. I looked around the room, most of the lights still out. The weight in my chest, my magic, calmed from thinking something seemed strange. I felt relaxed again, so I brushed off the unusual feeling as nothing more than drowsiness. Mira pulled her dress back on over her light tunic and bloomers while Frederick began the arduous process of dusting himself off.

  I glanced around one more time before asking, “Where are Rachel, Luke, and James?” At least one of them was usually puttering around in the mornings. I couldn’t have woken up so early that they weren’t around yet. That was downright impossible.

  Frederick gave up on getting all the dirt out of his tunic, formerly a new one given to him by the Owenses. The white suitcoat that, after being blasted apart, was no longer white had been deemed lost to all hope. “Oh, James went to be with your family last night, and Rachel said she needed more food. Luke should be upstairs.”

  I tried a little harder, and I found the presence I had been missing before. Luke was the hardest one to sense of the Owenses. The three of them were a little more difficult to pick up on in general, but Rachel always had a warm, strong presence that reminded me of my mother. James’ presence brought to mind games I used to play as a child and the smell of the wind.

  Luke’s was hard to place. It didn’t necessarily remind me of any one thing. Perhaps, I didn’t know him well enough. The only thing I could discern about his presence was the clear smell of rock. Very hard to pick up on out of all the other smells in the world, but it always brought to mind the mountains that encircled Lunaka. And that’s exactly what I envisioned as I now heard a couple footsteps up above, along with the warm, friendly spirit of Rachel reappearing near the stairs. A smile spread onto my face before I could even think it, eager to see my friend and hear any news from home on the Canyonlands.

  Rachel threw open the livery door, her arms laden with multiple packages as always, but we could never complain with how well she cooked. Even though she started with the same mundane food items, Rachel cooked every meal into a feast for flavor. She could be a chef for Royals if she wanted! She could remake the Lunakan staples into edible creations I would have never thought of, although my cooking experience was extremely limited and basic. The room had just begun to fill with the lovely smell of cheese when a little blur quickly fluttered in through the open door seconds before Rachel’s foot came around to shut it.

  Mira squealed and ducked. Rachel dropped her packages to try and grab the small thing. My eyes tried to focus on the flying, squawking creature until I finally made out the familiar form of Birdie, my little friend from home. Excitement at the sight of seeing something from my old life rose inside of me. Yet, before the feeling could reach the top, it got caught in my throat as my newly honed sensing powers took over.

  I was looking at Birdie, but my mind registered darkness. A presence older than time and cruel. Birdie began to make a beeline for me, its beak sharp and aimed to kill, before a tiny blast of wind, the shot of an aeromage, twisted its neck en route.

  As the frail body fell, my former little friend, I could feel myself beginning to hyperventilate. My voice didn’t even sound like my own, morphed by the beginning of tears. “B-B-Birdie! W-Why did you kill it, Frederick?”

  Frederick looked at me like I was crazy, but I was still staring at the still body only feet away from me. “Lina, you can’t tell me that you didn’t sense that. That isn’t a real bird! It’s Rhydin’s creation.” Suddenly, he put his teacher hat back on. “What kind of presence did you feel when it flew in here?”

  I was broken from my trance, staring at Frederick through tear-filled eyes. For some reason, it felt like he had just shot the remains of my former life. But, as I thought harder about the cold, evil presence Birdie had possessed, I began to realize that even though the poor bird was dead in front of me, the presence hadn’t gone away. I stuttered, “If that presence was Rhydin’s, then why can I still feel it? Like it’s further away?”

  During the racket, Luke came downstairs and caught the tail end of my statement. At that moment, the basement became quieter than I’d ever heard it. It was so silent my ears began to ring. I could hear the footsteps and horses traveling outside above us on ground level. I could hear the faint churning of the mines and the belching of their smoke. I could even barely make out the bell tower of the castle chiming its way into midmorning. In that stillness, all of us could feel it. The cold began to creep in, the blackness unmistakable. A presence so old that it could only be one person. One sorcerer. Rhydin.

  “He’s come to Soläna.” Luke spoke slowly, his eyes still trained on the corner of the room in concentration.

  “He’s here?” My voice became tinier than it had ever been. Tinier than a mouse.

  Frederick shook his head. “No. The presence would be stronger if that were the case. He’s still a little far away but definitely within twenty miles.”

  I turned to him immediately, my thoughts beginning to stampede. “What did you mean when you said Birdie wasn’t real? How could it not be real?”

  The prince’s sky blue eyes connected with my own. “Um, it’s called an Einanhi, Lina. The word literally means “puppet” in Gornish. It’s a crystallized form of magic that is given the power of life. The feather around your neck is a prime example.”

  My fingers felt like lead blocks as I touched the beautiful purple shard that hung around my neck. “This is alive?”

  “Not quite.” Rachel chimed in, “It’s a crystallized form of my own magic, but I did not give it the form of a living being or the power of life. Most Einanhis are animals or humanoids. Not everyone can make an Einanhi either. It’s a very delicate process. Rounans can’t make them at all because their magic does not take the form of nature-…”

  “Quiet!” Luke hissed, his eyes still focused on the same spot across the room. His hand raised to plug one of his ears as if it would help him hear something better. All of us turned to face him, the only sound now our breathing. Luke swallowed hard when he returned from his thought. The most emotion I’d ever seen from him was pasted to his face as his eyes flashed the tiniest of bits. “It’s James. Up at the farm. Rhydin is approaching them.”

  With that, the world seemed to stop spinning.

  “What?” Rachel came closer to becoming emotionally lost than I’d ever seen her before. While my mind echoed her sentiments, I couldn’t find the ability to move my mouth.

  “Why would he head for the farm? Birdie just found Lina down here. He knows she’s not up there!” Mira piped up, trying to remain sensible even though the current in the room was deafening.

  It clicked immediately for me. We had this conversation a long time ago when I asked if Evan was experiencing the same things I was. I took a deep breath before I spoke, finding it hard to breathe. My deepest fear was coming true. “He’s not looking for me. He’s aiming for my family!”

  “It’s a trap! He’s trying to draw you out just like he did with me at the festival!” Frederick exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “Or worse, he’s trying to draw the rest of us out to leave you here alone where he can kill you.”

  I whirled toward him, less than six inches from his face. “We need to go! We need to save them! This is about my family, not me! Please, I’m begging you!”


  Rachel began speaking quickly, “She’s right. For all we know, Rhydin is after her grandmother. Saarah is an Allyen too after all, but they don’t have a chance on their own. It’s only safest if we all go together. James is keeping tabs on Rhydin’s presence but he is getting closer while we sit here arguing!”

  After that, time froze. I remember grabbing the long, double-edged sword that I had only just begun to wield in the last week. The five of us charged the stairs of the livery basement, bursting through the door. My head filled with the fresh air and sunlight, the first time in a whole month. I could feel the dankness falling off of me, dispelled by the Middle Summer heat.

  A few people who happened to be walking by turned to look at us, completely confused to see the missing crown prince and his rumored tiny mistress wielding a sword while dashing out of a local livery. We merely turned and ran toward the pulleys. There was no time.

  Fresh oxygen filled my lungs and hurled me forward. I was so focused that I didn’t even see Sam as we passed him on his way to visit us. He immediately turned on his heel and followed, six of us now, headed for the Canyonlands.

  Headed for Rhydin.

  Grandma Saarah’s heart stood still when she sensed the dark presence on the horizon. It had been nearly twenty years since she had felt it last, yet it was unmistakable.

  Her two granddaughters were cleaning up from supper, the aroma of carrot stew still lingered in the air along with the sound of clanking dishes in the washbasin. Rosetta had really stepped up in Lina’s absence, trying her best to keep the house clean, while Keera would help where she could both inside and out.

  It had been a month since Saarah moved up to the Canyonlands, and while in the beginning she looked at every shadow twice, she had begun to feel like everything was going to be okay. Yet, in that moment of sensing Rhydin for the first time in two decades, any sense of safety was swept away.

  Saarah stood from her chair and cleared her throat, trying to ready herself to no avail. She had little time. Wringing out her fragile, wrinkled hands, Saarah began to focus on the little strength in her chest, building upon it until a small light darted across the cold, wooden door.

  Without the locket itself, Saarah’s magic wouldn’t be strong enough to defeat Rhydin. Knowing this, she mustered every ounce of strength she had left in her elderly body to create an invisible barrier, which fell like a curtain upon the old, rickety house.

  Before the curtain fully reached the ground, the shaggy-haired Owens boy slipped through the door so quickly that he startled Rosetta and Keera. Saarah expected him to look frightened for his age of fifteen, but the boy’s face was all business as he turned to greet her and her two clueless granddaughters. Saarah allowed herself one small sigh of relief once her barrier was completely sealed.

  That was when the rumbling began. It was as if the entire world shook as Rhydin’s presence got closer. Rosetta gasped as the tremors caused her to drop the tin plate she was holding. It clanged onto the floor. Grandma swallowed hard as James braced himself, one of his fingers in his ears as he muttered to himself.

  At that moment, someone began banging on the door, scaring them all out of their wits. Keera’s ice blue eyes penetrated Saarah’s, but then a different voice began calling, “Hey, open up! I’m scared. Please let me in!”

  Rosetta flung herself toward the door faster than Saarah could process, opening it immediately. “Mikael! Get in here, what are you doing out in an earthquake?”

  “It’s no earthquake.” Mikael said almost inaudibly as he entered the house. The boy was barely seventeen, Saarah knew, but the boy’s freckled face seemed older now.

  James tried to shut the door after Mikael, but it stopped about six inches from the wall. No matter how hard the boy pushed and shoved, it remained open. His eyes betrayed his true fear as he said, “Allyen Saarah, c-can you get the barrier back down?”

  The old woman strained as she lifted her hands, trying with all her might to reestablish the barrier, but it was of no use. Rhydin’s magic had found a foothold in those six inches, and before Saarah could think another thought, the black presence became overwhelming. The timeless man himself walked through the doorway, the old wooden door blown off its hinges in his wake.

  Saarah’s ears barely registered Rosetta and Keera’s screams as a final rumble shook them to their knees. Her full attention was on the young sorcerer in front of her. He has not aged a day, Saarah thought, even after all these years.

  A slight, smug grin parted Rhydin’s pale lips, his flashing amethyst eyes bright underneath a curtain of hair as black as midnight. His jaw was angular, yet his face was still tinted with roundness, boasting of his youth. Saarah knew better, though. This man was centuries old, and his sorcery was more powerful than all the Royals combined.

  Saarah could feel the color draining from her face as she moved in front of the girls, readying herself for anything.

  The sorcerer spoke, his voice deep and lightly accented as in the days of old. “Good work, Mikael.” He said to the no longer frightened boy before turning to face the old woman. “My, my, Allyen Saarah. How many years has it been?”

  Saarah’s heart dropped as she turned to where the boy they just “saved” stood. His once terrified expression and voice were no longer, only replaced by loyal eyes and steady words, “Thank you, Master.”

  Saarah turned back to Rhydin, trying to be as calm as possible as she pleaded vainly, “Nearly twenty years, Rhydin, and it was not long enough. You may have tricked the boy into following you, but you’ll gain nothing here. What you’re searching for is not here, leave us alone.”

  Tears began welling up in Rosetta’s eyes, her wrist locked firmly in Mikael’s grip at this point. She had absolutely no clue what was going on, and yet anyone could tell it was bad. Mikael had betrayed them all. Keera was trembling in the corner next to them, Grandma was doing everything she could to keep a strong face, and this man in front of them seemed to be the utter definition of evil. Rosetta looked up at Mikael, his hold on her becoming painful, confused as to what happened to the boy she had fallen in love with.

  Rhydin chuckled menacingly, pulling off his black gloves as he did, revealing thin, pale fingers. “I have no need of the locket today, Saarah.” His smirk fell from his face, and his black brows came to a rest over the purple fires in his eyes. His cold voice turned hard as stone. “There are too many Allyens in Nerahdis, and I intend to rid the world of one more. Linaria and Evanarion shall be alone.”

  Saarah’s countenance began to falter. She knew her time was coming, but… As she peered behind her at the inconsolable Rosetta and cowering Keera, thinking of Lina and Evan as well, she knew that she could not leave her grandchildren defenseless. She turned to James now, who had been lurking in the shadows of the room watching Rhydin’s every move carefully. She took a deep breath before she spoke. “You told your brother?”

  “Yes.” James answered, coming out of the shadows to ready himself, his hand tight on his sword as he drew it and assumed the proper stance.

  “You.” Rhydin glared purple daggers into James, his pointed, pale nose raising into a snarl as if James disgusted him. “You are one of those strange creatures who kept me from stealing Linaria as a child. Tell me why I cannot sense you!”

  Saarah seized the moment of Rhydin’s temporary distraction to immediately charge the fastest attack spell into her hand and hurl it at the man in the billowing, black cloak, catapulting him out the front door. She turned for a split second, her arms braced in a magic shield for the heavy retaliation that was coming. “Run girls!” Saarah screamed, until she saw more figures in black outside in the glaring sun. “James, take the others!”

  As Grandma exited the building with her shield in place and her movements strengthened by magic, Keera jerked into action. The twelve-year-old jumped to her feet and grabbed Rosetta’s hand as noises as loud as thunder came from outside, the sounds of magic being exchanged. Keera dragged her, unintentionally bringing along Mikael since h
is hand was like a cuff on Rosetta’s wrist, through the house to the bedroom. She released her to open the one meager window since the front door was not a choice for escape.

  Keera shoved Rosetta toward the window, and then, she did something she had never done before. She dodged Mikael’s punch and kicked him in the pants, causing the boy to grunt and fall while she flew through the window, so that he could not follow. As far as Keera was concerned, it was all Mikael’s fault that Rhydin found them. He made them open up the door for him, and then they couldn’t get it closed again. Keera knew none of them stood a chance against Rhydin, and whatever happened today was all on Mikael’s head.

  Rosetta was right outside the window when Keera came through, but before Keera could take more than two steps toward the tree line opposite the battle, a woman clad in black appeared in their way. Keera recognized her instantly as the one of Rhydin’s people who kept tabs on Evan, just like how Eli and Terran always seemed to be watching Lina. She was extremely tall with deep blue eyes, bright red lipstick, and a generous bosom. Half of her face was hidden by deep brown hair with blonde highlights, but Keera could not remember her name.

  In that moment, as the sounds of the magical duel in front of the house plagued their ears and Keera tried to grab Rosetta to move around this evil woman, Keera felt a deep searing pain enter her side. Rosetta screamed, and it was the ugliest sound Keera had ever heard. Keera gasped as her ribcage continued to burn, falling to her knees, and when she pulled her hand from the area, it was soaked with crimson. It was all Keera could do to drop to her back and try to breathe through failing lungs as she watched helplessly.

  “Come Mikael, we must get out of here now if you want this to work!” The evil woman screeched as she tossed her chin at Rosetta, her voice like fingernails on a chalkboard.