by Nichols, TJ
“We can’t refuse to come here. If we do, we’ll be turned over to the college. They were quite clear in their threats. We need to get across the border.”
Angus huffed out a breath. He’d had that thought so many times. “Where to? To the Nations? They don’t like demon magic. I’m tainted, but you might be able to convince them you’re clean. The Mayan Empire kills those who cross their borders.” Yet they understood demon magic and rebalancing.
“There are other counties. We could get a boat and get to international waters.”
“Vinland would kill us before it let us go. We’d never reach the ocean, much less be able to defect. That’s what you’re talking about. It means giving up on our country and believing that we can’t make a difference.”
She gave him a sad smile. “You sound like Jim.”
Maybe he still believed there was a chance for it all to be put right, but he didn’t know how. He didn’t want Vinland destroyed, and yet the sanctions and the ice age would do that. The college’s propaganda had seeped into the hearts and minds of too many. They wouldn’t believe a lone voice that spoke the truth. “Even he sold out in the end.”
“No, he gave his soul to Demonside. He did the right thing at the end. You helped him do that. I’m glad you were able to do it before you were stopped.” She gripped his arm. “Can you open the void from inside the house?”
“No, but I can in the garden,” he said carefully.
“How did you get so fast? You didn’t even walk the circle to contain it. I thought only third-year students could open it without a prop.”
He was about to say practice, but that wasn’t everything. He was becoming more sensitive to magic. He was able to use it better and direct its flow. While he was a long way short of Saka, he was well ahead of Lizzie because Saka was teaching him how to work like a demon, and for demons, magic was always there and ready to be used. Lizzie’s mage was teaching her as a human and not sharing the power of sex magic or blood magic.
“You know the answer.”
“Skitun,” she whispered.
“The worst kind of warlock.” He smiled, but it was spoiled by the bitterness he felt at hearing that word. He was a rogue, and he was having sex with his demon.
“You’re the only warlock I trust.” She held his hand. “If… when this all goes sour, do you have a plan?”
“Not yet.” He glanced at her. She was hoping for something… anything. And he had nothing. “But I’ll die here before I let the college arrest me and throw away the key.”
Lizzie nodded. “Count me in.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Saka knew the moment he woke up that something was amiss. There was a vibration on the air, and a scratching at his brain that meant other mages were trying to contact him. While Angus slept, Saka slipped out of the tent to return their calls. He knew what they were about the moment he reached out to the rest of Demonside. The flow of magic was in turmoil. A sandstorm of massive proportions was coming in fast.
He used the telestone to make contact, and the other mages confirmed what he sensed. Some of the smaller tribes had been hit hard and were requesting assistance. Given that his tribe was about to be hit, he had to apologize and promise to call after the storm passed. He woke Miniti and informed her of the coming danger so she could get everyone to prepare. It was crucial that they store water to last the storm. Saka gathered the mages and their humans to discuss how best to protect the town. He didn’t know if Norah and Lizzie would be able to help, but anything they could offer was better than nothing.
Usi stood opposite him with her arms crossed. There was still a rift between them that Saka had no desire to heal. But she was as ready to help as everyone else. He had to keep in mind that she believed she was acting in the best interest of the tribe. While he didn’t agree with her assessment, he still respected her position. It was easier to see her point of view when he wasn’t being directly threatened. Because she had caused the divide in the tribe, she should work to mend it, and as far as Saka could tell, she wasn’t.
“This storm will take close to a day to pass. Tribes with only two mages have suffered deaths. We are fortunate we can take it in shifts to defend the town, but it will still be hard.”
“What exactly are we going to do?” Angus squinted at the horizon as it darkened with the approaching storm.
“Tapo will make a hard circle.” As second mage, Tapo needed to perform those duties. And Saka needed to split up the mages into shifts. He glanced at their expectant faces. Whose magic was strongest, and whose was weakest? “Wek, you will work with me and Angus and Norah. Usi, Tapo, and Lizzie will be the other shift. When you aren’t holding the dome, you will eat and rest. Understood?” The humans had the wide-eyed expression that hinted they had no idea but weren’t willing to say anything. It was most unhelpful. “Angus?”
“Will we be outside the dome?”
“No. We will be just inside.” Being outside the magical dome was a death sentence.
“Pouring magic against a storm that has flattened other tribes?” It wasn’t a lack of understanding on his face. It was fear. Angus had never seen a sandstorm.
Saka had never seen one that big. “The only reason the other tribes were damaged is because their mages tired.” Saka took a moment to look at each of his mages. “Usi, can you please check on the water depth?”
Water had been known to drop away when a storm approached. They wouldn’t be able to stop and raise it again until after the storm passed. If people hadn’t gathered enough before the storm hit, there would be some thirsty people waiting until someone was strong enough to raise it—which could be a while if they poured everything into protecting the town.
Usi nodded. “Anything else?”
“Not at the moment. Be ready for the second shift.”
When she left, Saka looked at the humans. He didn’t bother to be gentle with them. “Be ready to pour that fear out in your blood. We may need it to survive.”
Standing at the edge of the circle and feeling the wind pick up always filled Saka with nerves. He wouldn’t call it fear because it wasn’t that developed. He faced the storm. Angus was a quarter of the way around to his left and Wek was to his right. Norah was on the opposite side, where the storm would be weakest.
The hard circle was a line of sand that Tapo hardened into a small ridge of stone no higher than the length of a finger joint. Having a physical focus would make it easier to hold the dome when they started to tire. The sand had already started to build up along the edge. Sand danced across the surface and was flung into the air, stinging his skin. He didn’t want to raise the circle to early or too late. So he waited.
He narrowed his eyes to protect them from grit. The sky was dark, and the storm towered over them. They would survive. Miniti had made sure the village was made as small as possible. Tents on the edges had been brought down, and all the livestock had been brought to the center. The tribe wouldn’t clean up afterward. They would spend the day packing. By the time the storm passed, they would be ready to move.
And he’d be ready to sleep.
The wind grew stronger, and the sand more furious. Saka exhaled, brought up the circle, and snapped it closed at the top. Angus, Norah, and Wek pushed energy into it.
It wasn’t a perfect barrier, but it would break the force of the storm. The sand would fall on them, but not wipe them off the surface of the world. All they had to do was hold the circle while the storm was within touching distance.
He could’ve sat in the middle of the circle, hiding among the tents, but the magic wouldn’t have been as effective. He needed to read the storm and feel its rage so he could adjust the dome. The side that faced the storm was the strongest, the other side weakest. That would change as the storm hit and swallowed them.
Sand and wind hit the dome and pressed against the magic as though the storm wanted to destroy them. The energy of the storm was too wild to draw up and use, but Saka could reach the edges. He coul
d pull from the ground. Sand drifted across the magical barrier and settled. He couldn’t hold back every grain. No one could.
Sand had piled against his shins, and his mouth was dry when Usi came to stand beside him. Without a word she took over, and Saka stumbled back. He’d been still for so long that his legs needed to remember how to move. His body ached, but before he could rest, he needed to make sure that Wek, Norah, and Angus had been relieved.
They had been, and the three of them were given a meal in Saka’s tent. Angus had three new cuts on his arm. Saka wanted to check his eyes, but Angus stared at his bowl and shoveled down the food without looking up. For the moment, Saka let him be.
Wek put her bowl down. “The center hasn’t reached us.”
“No. It won’t for a while. Do not be fooled by the lull.” Saka tapped Angus on the knee.
He nodded without looking up. “Eye of the storm is always quiet. I know.”
“Get some rest. I will get you before we need to take over.” Saka hoped that Tapo and Usi would be all right. He hoped that Lizzie wouldn’t crumble, and that if she did, the mages could fill the weakness. The strongest mage always faced the storm, so that if the others weakened, the village would still be mostly protected.
When Wek left, Saka put his fingers under Angus’s chin and tilted his head. Angus didn’t resist, and his eyes were still blue—though Saka would swear they weren’t as dark as they had been.
“I’m okay.” He didn’t sound all right.
“If you need to step away, then do it. I do not want you dying out there.” The wind screamed, and the sound of sand falling on the tents was a constant rustle. Saka hoped they wouldn’t be buried alive.
“I’m going to lie down.” Angus got up and lay on the bed. He was asleep almost immediately.
Saka didn’t sleep, but he did close off his connection to the magic so he could block it out for a little while. He didn’t like being blind to the magic, but sometimes it was a relief, and he needed the rest. Too soon he’d have to stand against the storm.
On Saka’s third shift, the storm trailed off. Sand drifts pressed against tent walls, but no one had been swept away, and no animals had been lost. They had survived, but it didn’t feel like a victory.
Wek, Angus, and Norah had wavered for much of the shift, and their contribution was uneven. It was a relief to let the dome fall. Saka bent over and rested his hands on his knees and tried to muster the strength to step out of the sand piled against him and then the energy to check on the mages and humans.
There was still the stronger wind to contend with, but none of the mages had more to give, and he couldn’t ask them to do more than they had. It was easy to see why so many tribes had succumbed.
Saka ate and drank as he walked. Wek and Lizzie were still at their places, but Angus had already left his place by the time Saka got there. He made his way back to his tent, but Angus wasn’t there either.
The wind had almost blown itself out by the time he found Angus. He was standing at the riverbed, stripping off his clothing. The riverbed wasn’t dry anymore. Water glistened in the evening sun. How had he raised so much water?
Angus walked into the water and disappeared beneath the surface.
Saka forgot how tired he was and ran over as Angus resurfaced and floated on his back. “You shouldn’t be in there.”
“I have been fantasizing about a bath since the first ten minutes of the storm. I have sand in places where there should most definitely be no sand.”
Didn’t everyone? “So use the showers.”
“No.”
“What did you do to raise the water?” Saka stood at the edge of the very small lake. The edges were made out of the sand deposited by the storm.
“I used the end of the storm. I realized it was fading and that there was magic in it. It’s not very deep.” He moved, and his head was all that was visible. “I can sit on the bottom.”
“You used the storm to draw up water. Do you not realize how dangerous that is?” Not that splashing around in a lake tempting any lurking riverwyrms into taking him was any safer.
“The end of the storm. I stood there for hours feeling it, getting to know it. The end of it seemed pretty safe. It lacked the sting of a scarlips’ tail.” He ran his fingers through his hair and floated up onto his back again. “It took from me, and I took something back.”
Angus drifted closer so he could look up at Saka. It was then Saka saw that Angus’s eyes were completely white, and the void would not be opened for days.
“You don’t have to watch me. I’m not going to drown,” Angus said as though nothing were amiss.
Saka squatted down, and the water lapped at his toes. “You should’ve stepped away instead of drawing on yourself.”
“It kind of slipped out. There’s still more there. It bubbles in my blood.”
“But your eyes….” He brushed Angus’s cheek with his fingers.
“I think that’s just the first sign.”
That made sense. Clearly Angus was still strong enough to work some magic, and he seemed to be aware of when he was rebalancing and how much he had to give. That was progress. “What’s the second one?”
“Thirst that can’t be quenched.”
How long before death followed?
Saka didn’t want to watch Angus wallow in a lake of his own making. And Angus should have let people refill their jugs before he waded in.
As head mage, Saka needed to check on the water level near the spike, but he couldn’t leave Angus alone out here either. He was too tasty a meal to any predator who had survived, though Saka didn’t sense any nearby. “I’ll send a hunter to watch.”
“You could join me for a swim… well, it’s more of a splash.”
He could, but all his life he’d been told not to go in the water because of riverwyrms. “I’d rather not get eaten.”
Angus reached up to grasp Saka’s hand. For a moment he thought Angus was going to pull him in, but he didn’t. Angus grinned. “I used the storm to do this. I didn’t draw from me. Imagine being able to control a storm like that, to use the magic and redirect it.”
“You can’t harness a storm.” But it was possible to use the tail end or the magic at the edges.
“But if there were more than one mage and you all worked together….” He released Saka’s hand and drifted away.
Saka stood. Angus clearly wasn’t ready to come back to the tent yet. “What would you do with that magic?”
“I don’t know. Send it through the void the next time the college makes a tear and strike them all down?”
“That would just take more magic from us.”
“Then I’d learn to control a blizzard… a snowstorm over there. Or I’d harness the people’s fear about the ice age.” He circled closer. “We will have to make a strike at the college soon, before the underground reveals itself as just another branch of the same toxic tree.”
“And if you act too soon, you will pay the price.” The demons couldn’t win a war against the college. Last time there had been no college, only a loose collection of warlocks.
“I’m already paying. I have been since the day you dragged me across the void and showed me that magic is so much more than what they were teaching.”
Saka looked away. He had dragged Angus in. The demons needed warlocks on the inside, people who could be shown the truth or at least used for information. Saka got more than he expected.
He left Angus to his swimming and sent a hunter to watch over him. Then Saka checked on the water level. Only then did he allow himself to lie down. His ears strained to hear Angus walking into the tent, but sleep overtook him before anyone slept next to him.
The bed was still empty when he was awakened by shouting. Something had happened to Angus. He created a light on his palm, pulled on pants, and went out expecting the worst.
Amid the shouting there was laughter as the demons praised a great hunter. Saka went toward the noise. Laid out in the center of the
village was a riverwyrm. It was as long as two demons, and its head was broad enough to swallow a child whole.
Angus was no hunter, but that appeared to be part of the joke, as the real hunter, the winged demon he’d sent out to watch Angus, patted him on the back.
“What happened?” Saka asked the demon next to him.
“Angus makes good bait. He should go hunting more often.”
People were already lighting fires to cook the riverwyrm. There would be a feast to celebrate surviving the sandstorm, and tomorrow they would walk to a new location. They should’ve started that night, but Miniti had seen how drained her mages were.
Angus’s cheeks colored as he caught Saka’s gaze, and he mouthed something that could’ve been “You were right.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
It took three days of being back in Vinland for Angus’s eyes to return to blue. And he was sure they only changed back because he went outside, away from the magical dampeners. He’d been worried that the blue was never going to come back and that he’d be forever marked.
Angus ran his hand over his stomach. The scar that had been there was completely gone. He’d spent days working to heal that reminder. There was no longer any sign that his father had tried to kill him, just the occasional dream.
Magic couldn’t heal everything.
As the Winter Solstice drew closer he wanted to call his mother to find out how she was doing, but he wasn’t brave enough to make the request. She would’ve been told he was dead or believed him to be rogue and responsible for his father’s death—and she’d be right about the latter.
The underground hadn’t made him a criminal. He’d done that himself, but they were using it to keep him safe and keep him isolated. At first he’d been glad he could come back and be safe. But he’d come to resent it. He and the other trainees were all chafing to get out and do something instead of waiting.