The City of Wizards

by George Mazurek

  She sat and frowned. “Rodan is a coward with no power. He won't help you. Besides, you can't visit a king like that. It may take weeks or month before a hearing is accepted.”

  I smiled. “I'll give it a try. Someone has to do something. And I have an idea how to get to him.”

  She shrugged. “As you wish. So you're getting accustomed to your new life?”

  “I don't know yet.”

  She leaned forward on the bed; the white sheet fell to her feet. With a tempting smile she put her hands on my chest. “Come back soon, and please be careful...”

  I removed the bandage. The skin looked much better than yesterday. I clenched my fist. The pain was bearable.

  “And what about you?”

  “I'm a woman. And a wizard. I can take care of myself,” she grinned. “I'm going to visit my uncle. Maybe he will find a way to stop the Council. He had some influence once.”

  ♠

  I left Broken Crow and headed toward King's spire in the west through a labyrinth of winding lanes. At one corner, a blind painter sat hunched over with age and gout. His paintings showed signs of a genius.

  I came closer. “I have a proposal for you.”

  The blind man turned towards my voice. “What proposal, my lord?”

  “You paint what I want until it's dark, and I will recover your sight.”

  “Thank you, my lord, but I got used to it many years ago. Besides, my bones are old and aching more each day, I won't be around for long...”

  “Then, I could relieve you of your pain.”

  The old artist thought for a moment.

  “What do you want to paint, my lord?”

  “The city during its glory days and small portraits.” I told him three names, and the old man smiled.

  “You've got a deal, my lord.”

  I waved my right hand, and he sat upright all of a sudden. “Bring it to Quasim's, to the half-breed named Lokmi. But do not hesitate, the clock is ticking...”

  ♠

  If I was a bird…

  With that thought my coat fluttered in the wind and then lifted me into the air. I turned my head to the left, and there was a wing where my arm should be! I turned to the right to see my right wing! I looked down and there was a shadow of a bird running across the pavement.

  I was a sparrow!

  The wind lifted me upwards, and after a while I was circling high above the rooftops. From the air, the city seemed so calm and peaceful. I flew towards the Gatherings spire. At its base a rectangular square with the hundred seats of human deputies appeared. This was the place where voting took place in times of trouble.

  I approached the King’s spire. The golden tower rose from a palace complex, the king's residence. I crossed dungeons, the Royal Stables, and adjacent Queen's Gardens with children chasing around a small pond covered with water lilies. I found Rodan's balcony decorated with royal banners and sat on its window ledge. Behind the glass two men were talking. One of them wore ermine and a crown, the second one the insignia of a deputy.

  “Ver’del ordered a dozen young women, Your Majesty!” he shouted. “It's outrageous! We both know these women are going to die!”

  “We are going to comply with his order, mister Bernal,” the King replied unemotionally. “We will also send him another dozen young women to show our respect.”

  The deputy looked shocked.

  “And what about the Convention! We shall call the Gatherings!”

  “The Convention?” The crowned man mumbled as he approached the bar, his wig and rotund belly shook as he walked.

  “Bernal, your sense of fairness is even more tiresome than lice in my fur coat. You can wipe your ass with the Convention if you believe we will defeat the Council or the Warlock with voting. He has the power to destroy us all, and you know that. We are not going to give him a pretext to do so,” he filled and drank a glass of wine. “The Gatherings comprise of eighteen noble families, is that right?”

  “You are correct, sir.”

  “So, I expect one or two women from each family, in a week. Not a day longer! Notify them about my decision.” He waved his hand impatiently. “And I don't want to hear any objections, Bernal!”

  “I understand, Your Majesty,” Bernal frowned. “What about those kidnappings and murders during the tournament? People are spreading rumors already...”

  “Well, we are going to do nothing...”

  The deputy blinked in surprise. “In that case, I will prepare a formal complaint to the Council.”

  “I remember a complaint addressed to the Council by some merchant last autumn. His head was found three miles away from the rest of his body the next morning...”

  Bernal turned to the window.

  Our eyes met.

  “A sparrow,” he pointed to me. “What if it's a spy?”

  His broad, blue- eyed face stared at me.

  “You see wizards everywhere, Bernal.” The King gave a bored yawn and drank another glass of wine.

  “Half of the Gathering deputies are wizards in disguise, Your Majesty,” Bernal said and turned to me. “Are you a wizard?” he asked.

  I was tempted to shake my head ‘no’, but I didn't move. I needed to know more. But Elisa was right. If someone was going to help, it was not going to be the man with the golden crown.

  Bernal frowned again.

  “You should be pleased to know someone is killing our most noble ka’tans,” Rodan emptied the next glass of wine with one long self-indulgent gulp. “Martell told me so yesterday evening. Two of his men were sent into nonexistence.”

  Two!?

  I killed one. Who killed the other?

  Meanwhile Bernal smiled. “That's a start at least… They should all die, including Martell himself!”

  I had heard enough.

  I spread my wings and took off to the air with sadness in my heart. From the grim overcast sky ice-cold raindrops began to fall.

  ♠

  Back at Broken Crow I told Elisa what I had heard. She was astonished when I described my metamorphosis into a bird but she didn't comment.

  “You were right. The King is a deplorable man, devoted to wine and his own plots,” I summed up briefly.

  “Well, I wasn't successful either,” she said. “My uncle and I visited my... Martell.”

  Now it was my turn to be completely stunned.

  “What?! Are you mad?”

  “He is not a devil!”

  “He might...” I couldn't find the words.

  She crossed arms over her chest and scowled. “Listen, love, he wouldn't hurt me. I know that!”

  “Hm... So what did he tell you?”

  She sat on the bed, visibly disappointed. “He said ‘li’eree’.”

  “What does it mean?”

  “Something like it's too late.”

  I sat next to her. “That's all?”

  She twisted her braid. “No. He told me something's going to happen in the Arena today, and you shouldn't get involved...”

  ♠

  I sat in the neutral section of the Arena protected from unwanted attention by a transform spell. Almost all of the seats in the wizards' and human's stands were already occupied. The King with his court was not absent. I counted eleven ka’tans, including Martell. Two Councilmen were missing indeed.

  Curiously, the missing couple was the same as the pair that plotted the kidnapping yesterday.

  The ka’tan in blue with carmine stripes limped on his right leg. It was the one who surprised me two days ago at the river and who killed another wizard sent by Martell. Obviously, he had been wounded seriously during the fight too. His name was De’ren. I was not afraid of him anymore.

  The action on the Arena's field was splendid, but I waited for something else. It didn't take long, more precisely; it began during the third truel...

  An experienced wizard with long black hair and a grey headband entertained the audience by letting the spells of his opponents go through his body as if he were transpare
nt. Then he attacked, to the shock and dismay of the crowd, one of the ka’tans in the highest stands!

  In the entire history of the tournament, no wizard had ever attacked a spectator!

  The stricken ka’tan slid to the ground.

  I didn't doubt that the spell was mortal.

  A panic rose immediately, both people and wizards were leaping from their seats. The reaction from the Council section was swift; they attacked the wizard down in the ring. Their spells flashed through the air and some innocent humans in the crowd were struck down. The screams and panic intensified.

  The wizard who started the fight paid for it with his life. I soon realized that he not only sacrificed himself, but that he had wanted to set an example for others.

  He sent a simple message.

  Overthrow the Council.

  I thought the worst was over, when human screams filled my ears.

  “The King's been stabbed!” Someone shouted. “The King is dead!”

  ♠

  I hurried from the Arena and found Elisa waiting impatiently at the door of her room.

  She embraced me tightly. “I have heard already,” she said. “Things are going really badly... There might be a war ahead of us.”

  “I guess so.”

  “E’van is going to visit sorcerers of Misty Coasts in the northwest. He brings two fellow wizards with him. People out there are renowned for their magic skills. But he won't be back till the full moon.”

  “That's too late. I have to warn Lokmi. Stay here. I'll be back soon.”

  She nodded.

  I restored my old appearance and rushed to Quasim's.

  Lokmi was having dinner at the bar.

  “Hi,” I took my place across the table.

  “Howdy.” He seemed preoccupied with a chicken wing in potato puree and a mug of beer. “Where have you been for so long?”

  I left the question unanswered.

  “You won't believe what happened to me,” he continued with the mouth full of crispy meat. “I hastened to take part in my next truel, when somebody hit me on the head from behind and I fell unconscious. When I regained my senses, I searched my pockets, and everything was in its place. Isn't that strange? Those robbers took nothing! But I missed the truel and was disqualified. That's a pity, I really expected to do better,” he complained.

  And that was the true reason for the attack, I'm sorry, brother...

  The way he ate his chicken reminded me of our dinners at the old wooden table at home. I suppressed the sentiment.

  “Have you got the paintings?”

  “Yeah. But what...?”

  “Listen,” I interrupted him. “I must tell you something really important. And after that you have to leave the city as soon as possible.”

  He lifted his head finally. He looked confused, but then a sign of understanding showed in his eyes.

  Where to begin?

  ♠

  On the silent antique staircase of Broken Crow I had a premonition. I leapt four stairs at a time and rushed to Elisa.

  I flung the doors open.

  The room was empty.

  The blankets on her bed were crumpled and the pillow was still warm but ripped on one side. My heart almost stopped.

  She didn't leave willingly...

  I felt a draft from the open window. Up in the sky I saw a tiny spot.

  A wizard! The kidnapper!

  Fortunately, Elisa's tephir was under the bed. I jumped out of the window with the tephir in my right hand and just before I hit the pavement, I pushed the tephir under my foot.

  “Where do you wish to go, my lord?” An odd asexual voice resonated in my thoughts.

  I pointed to the sky.

  “Catch up with him!”

  ♠

  I had never moved faster! The wind was so strong that it tore my clothes, and the air filled my lungs so I could barely breathe. The kidnapper in the distance was getting closer...

  “Good job!” I praised the tephir. “Hold on!”

  “I'll do what I can,” the voice replied.

  We grew closer with every heartbeat.

  “You can speak?”

  “Yes, my lord. Among other things...”

  “Hm... Do you consume human flesh too?”

  “No, my lord. Eating human flesh is a mortal sin.”

  “But some tephirs do consume it!”

  “Yes, tephirs of the Councilmen. They will be sentenced when the time comes.”

  The wizard turned and saw us. He leaned to the right and instantly changed his course to Ka’tan spire.

  “He wants to hide there! Go faster!”

  And then I recognized the kidnapper's identity. His hair was grey-red.

  I was chasing Martell himself...

  ♠

  The Ka’tan spire seemed colossal from up close. We drew level with the Burned wizard.

  He was alone.

  “Where is Elisa?!” I shouted at him. “What did you do with her?!”

  He changed course abruptly, his coat and hair waving wild. The maneuver took him behind the spire, but I stayed with him in a fierce chase. The tephir circled the immense tower so tightly that the skin on my left shoulder was rubbed off. We flew around its fifty foot perimeter like a hound and a hare twice, then three times...

  “What did you do with her?! Tell me or I will kill you!”

  I bent to the right and almost fell when the tephir suddenly stopped.

  Martell stood just in front of me, his eyes full of anger.

  “Quiet!” he said. “Are you young Gael, or just a young fool? They can hear us!”

  We moved into the spire's shadow.

  “I want to know where...” I began, but Martell stopped me.

  His gesture was clear.

  Silence!

  He shot himself around the corner faster than I could possibly imagine.

  Damn! What...

  He came back with some other wizard. It was De’ren, the limping ka’tan!

  Ka’tan's face screwed up when he saw me. “Tssss... Gael the Young himself! Or should I sssay a Worm from the sewer?”

  Did he spy on us?

  From wizards' face I could read the answer.

  Yes...

  De’ren turned to Martell with a sneer. “Your Excellence, I apologize for disturbing your conversation. I was just flying around...”

  That's a lie!

  Martell rubbed his crimson tinted beard thoughtfully, his burned face hidden in the dark. Then he nodded.

  De’ren interpreted the gesture completely wrong as he moved toward me, leaving Martell behind with death rising from his fingers.

  “Now I must do my duty, Excellence, and kill...”

  He wasn't able to complete the sentence.

  Martell was as quick as a whip. He struck the ka’tan with his ceremonial staff, the wizard lost his balance and fell from his tephir. Martell caught De’ren's tephir with his empty hand, preventing him from diving for his master. Meanwhile, the ka’tan was falling into the abyss, his coat fluttering in the wind. He screamed, but no force or spell could stop his descend.

  A deafening silence followed.

  The tephir in Martell's hand wailed in pain.

  The Burned wizard shook his head and released the tephir.

  “What an unfortunate accident while flying a tephir!” He commented with a gleam in his eyes.

  At that moment I felt a hint of affinity for him.

  “Where is Elisa?” I returned to my question. “Do you want her for yourself?”

  He examined me without a word.

  “What gives you the right to take her away?!”

  “I took her away to protect her,” he answered finally. Suddenly, he seemed tired and his devilish look was strangely familiar.

  “Sure!” I retorted, annoyed truly. “I have seen the mess in her apartment!”

  “As you have mentioned the right...” Martell replied calmly. “Actually, I remember one such entitlement. It's called father's right.
..”

  With these words I became speechless.

  “Elisa is my daughter,” the Burned wizard continued. “I sent her to a safe place out of the city just a few moments ago.” He paused for a second. “You are right, we had an argument. When I told her to leave immediately, she got angry and tore her bedlinen to pieces. But finally, she agreed. Verdel's dogs were sniffing around the corner already, and she knew it too... Here, take it.” He handed me Elisa's amulet. “It will guide you to her. If you're lucky to stay alive that long...”

  I stared at the talisman. When I lifted my gaze, there was only air around me.

  CHAPTER 6

  Day six

  At Broken Crow I was lying in Elisa's bed staring at the ceiling until I realized several points.

  First, Averot’h stood on the brink of war, not only among wizards but also between wizards and humans. Such a confrontation, the infamous Race Wars, took place before the Convention was settled. Spells proved to be powerful, but when it came to a fight between spells and steel blades the latter showed to be an efficient killing tool as well. Magic is repelled by metals indeed, but it is limited by the elementary laws of nature, such as running of time, seasonal cycles, or gravity. Not even a Warlock can deny them completely.

  By the way, there were only nine ka’tans left. One of the Councilmen was hit by lightning after the sunset; though the sky was sparkling clear all night.

  Truly unusual incident...

  Second, wherever Elisa was hiding, she was safe, though I missed her terribly. Something else bothered me more. Elisa's father killed my father. That's why she had said ‘I owe it to you,’ on the first day we met. I found the reason for her harsh behavior as well. She was expecting another Gael, but on the pavement she saw a weakling boy instead...

  A strange sadness squeezed my heart.

  ♠

  I left the inn. It was morning already. People and wizards were milling around as usual, but the atmosphere had changed. They moved in silence, watching their neighborhood closely. Around the corner, I saw a line of people with carriages heading for the southern gate.

  People are leaving...

  I heard a word here and there.

  The humans accused the wizards of killing their king. I was in the Arena, but I cannot confirm that, I didn't see the murder with my own eyes. The assassin could be anybody. Certainly, Rodan the Third deserved contempt, but he didn't deserve to be stabbed to death. Eventually, the King followed the inauspicious fate of his grandfather, who was shot with a crossbow just six months after his coronation.