The Armor of Light

by Karen E. Hoover

  At her last words, he pulled back and searched her eyes. “Truly? You mean that?”

  Exasperated, she answered, “Well, of course! Why would I be interested in the son of a king when the king of my heart is right here?”

  It was a bit melodramatic, perhaps, but it was true. Brant ruled her heart and would forever. That made him smile.

  With that settled, they pulled apart, and Brant circled his horse so they could continue on their way. They rode close beside one another now, their knees occasionally brushing, or one would reach out and touch the other as if to make sure they were still there. It was sweet, really, and exactly what Kayla needed to heal the ache in her soul. No matter what had happened, no matter the mistakes she had made or the pain it had caused Brant or his family, they were together and he loved her, and that was all that mattered.

  They found the perfect camping spot just before lunch. It was a small meadow surrounded by mossy rocks that led to a beautiful waterfall pouring into a bend in the river. It created a small pond where they could see fish swimming in the stony depths.

  “Gah! If only I’d thought to bring a pole!” Brant had always had loved fishing. Kayla didn’t understand why, but she accepted it. It was just part of who he was.

  “It’s a good thing Wendalyn packed us such a lovely lunch then, isn’t it,” Kayla said, pulling the food satchel down from her horse. “Much as you love to fish, I’m not much in the mood for it today.” She glanced up at him from beneath her lashes. “I’m just in the mood for you.”

  Brant took her in his arms and gave her a kiss that shook her to the core. “It’s a good thing. I’m in the mood for you too.” He gave her one final kiss, then took the lunch basket and set it on the ground. They quickly tended to the horses before they ate, removing saddles and hobbling the mounts near grass and water, then washed up in the clear pond before sitting down to eat.

  They spent the afternoon talking and eating and talking some more. The perfect day, in Kayla’s eyes, and all the hurts were healed long before they reached dessert. After a while, Brant packed up the basket and put it back with the saddles.

  Kayla glanced up toward the canopy of trees. The temperature had dropped so that it was almost chilly. It was going to be a cool autumn night. Kayla went to the horses and pulled out the hatchet and the sleeping rolls, then brought them back to the clearing and went off in search of some wood.

  “What are you doing?” Brant called out.

  “Looking for wood before it gets dark. We’ll need a fire,” she answered, then felt the fear and anguish of the ancient woods. She tried to send out a message to the forest, that she would be careful with the flame, but she wasn’t sure if the woods heard. The peace she had felt here before was now replaced with uneasy anger.

  Brant caught up with her. “Give me that,” he said, taking the axe from her hands. “Let me do something too. I’ll take care of the wood. Why don’t you set up our bedrolls?” Kayla almost argued with him about it. She was no weakling and could have collected the wood herself, but then decided he was right. He was the stronger of the two, and she could create a fire ring to keep the flames away from the trees and hopefully calm their anxiety.

  “Okay,” she said. “Just don’t cut any live wood. This forest is ancient and sacred and right now frightened at the mention of fire. Deadwood only, okay?”

  His eyes got big, but he nodded and headed a little deeper into the woods to find dry deadwood. After a few moments, she could hear him chopping away, and she scurried back to their campsite. She decided to create the fire ring first and set their sleeping rolls up around it. She looked at the clearing. She couldn’t put the fire too close to the water. The moist soil would extinguish any flame they started. She also couldn’t put it too close to the tree line. She walked around and found the perfect place in nearly the exact middle of the clearing. There was a large slab of granite with a slight indentation in the center, almost like a bowl of rock, free of weeds, and she quickly cleaned out the debris of leaves and grass, then collected rocks to encircle it, creating height to keep the fire within the pit. Brant returned with an armload of wood and stacked it neatly against one side, then went back to the woods for more.

  By the time she finished, the fire ring was three feet across and three feet high and the trees were calming. Once that was done, she brought the horses and the remaining supplies near the fire pit and rehobbled them so the animals could feed.

  Brant returned with another load of wood and stacked it neatly with the other, then went into the woods a third time. She took the bedrolls and put one on each side of the fire. She may be engaged to her best friend, and they may have slept together in innocence over the years, but things were different now. Even in the woods, they had to keep things proper.

  About the time she got their bedrolls spread and the cooking equipment out, Kayla heard a splashing from the stream behind her. She turned, and her stomach sank. There in the pond were the two water horses, and standing on the shore, smirking at her, was Jihong.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  C’Tan inhaled the sweet smell of orange roasted chicken as it wafted beneath her nose. And did she detect a hint of rosemary? She leaned over her plate and shut her eyes to enjoy the scent. She rarely took the time to sit down and eat a meal, but this one was worth it. Fork and knife in hand, she sliced through the chicken and balanced it perfectly on the back of her fork.

  She had just lifted a bite of baked sweet potato to her lips when a familiar sensation crackled up her spine. She stilled, stopping mid chew, every muscle in her body freezing as she felt him step from behind her and make his way around her side to sit in the chair opposite her. A duplicate of her meal suddenly appeared before him, and he began to eat. Within seconds, Kardon had joined them at the table. Her table. Her appetite was completely lost in the presence of the man who had once been her master and The Guardian who enslaved her. She set her fork and knife down across her plate and waited for the men to finish.

  C’Tan’s stomach boiled at having to share her space with either man, though she could not take her eyes off her master as he ate. He didn’t need to eat, not really, but still, she watched the muscles in his jaw with fascination as he chewed. She watched his larynx bulge as he swallowed. She hated that she couldn’t help the admiration she felt for this man, this pit of darkness who ate at her soul. But she did. She both loved and hated him, but then, how could she not? He was divine, and she, a mere mortal.

  The man and The Guardian finished their meal about the same time and shoved their plates away. C’Tan watched in silence, waiting for the words of S’Kotos. He would not be here without reason, especially after their last meeting on the bottom of the sea. She had nearly lost her place as his favored servant when Kayla left her locked behind a wall of ice and Kardon had been pulled into the scene by the master. She was not sure she cared to hear what S’Kotos had to say.

  Beginning the conversation in his own way, as usual, S’Kotos didn’t bother to clear his throat or look at her, he just began to speak as he toyed with his knife. “I have a task for you. For both of you, and you must set aside your hatred of each other to accomplish it.”

  C’Tan glanced at Kardon. He turned slowly toward her and gave her a slight nod. She didn’t deign to respond. Not until she knew what S’Kotos was asking of her.

  “Another of the keystones has manifested itself,” S’Kotos said, his voice showing no emotion but bored interest. “And strangest of coincidences, it is at The Academy of Magi. With Ember Shandae. Who should be in our power by now.” S’Kotos stabbed the knife entirely through the table with that word. C’Tan didn’t dare move.

  S’Kotos continued. “The Armor of Light has come to life, and the fact that it is anywhere near Ember says the collecting has begun. This is why I wanted her sealed as a babe. The keystones are going to be naturally drawn to her until she has them all.” S’Kotos slowly pulled the knife from the wood and laid it across his plate.

  Neither
Kardon nor C’Tan responded. They sat awaiting their Master’s plan.

  Still he did not tell them what he wanted. “The Sapphire Flute will soon arrive at The Academy,” he said. C’Tan’s stomach churned. That she had assumed. The master was right. The keystones were collecting around Ember. She finally dared to speak.

  “What do you wish us to do, Master?” she asked, her head bowed. She wouldn’t look at him directly, though she could still see him out of the corner of her eye. He smiled.

  “I wish for you to destroy the mage academy and bring the keystones and Ember into the open so we can claim them.” S’Kotos balanced his fork on the tip of his index finger.

  Kardon finally spoke. “And how do you propose we do that, Master? We can’t access the academy directly, and have so few agents in place, they would be destroyed before any major damage could be done.”

  S’Kotos stabbed his fork down into Kardon’s hand, pinning him to the table, then released it and let the fork vibrate with the force of his thrust. The master steepled his fingers beneath his chin and ignored C’Tan’s servant. Kardon paled, but didn’t cry out. He reached and pulled the fork out with a jerk. Four dots of blood immediately appeared and spread from the injury, pooling between the tendons on the back of his hand. The old man put his left hand over the wound, hovering just inches from it, his hand glowing a pale green as he healed the punctures. He looked at his master as if nothing had happened while wiping the blood away with his napkin.

  “I assume you know about the explosion of Devil’s Mount, near Karsholm?” S’Kotos asked, using the dinner knife to trim his fingernails.

  C’Tan and Kardon nodded. Of course they knew. C’Tan had fed the mount to create the explosion.

  “And you are aware that the caves which house the mage academy are full of fissures that lead directly to that mount?” he said, glancing at C’Tan.

  She began to see where he was going. “You want us to direct the flow of magma into the academy?”

  S’Kotos beamed at her. “Ah, you catch on quickly, my child.” He stood. “Open the fissures slowly. We want to chase them out, not blow them up.” He came around the table and placed a hand in benediction on each of their heads. “And do it now, my children, before The Sapphire Flute and Armor of Light have time to settle in with The Chosen One.”

  S’Kotos disappeared in a flash of red. C’Tan and Kardon looked at each other, Kardon’s face a mask. C’Tan was filled with revulsion for what she had to do. What a waste. She knew what lay in those mountains. Forcing magma into the area would destroy so much magestone, specifically the birthplace of the keystones.

  But she could not say no to the master. She pushed back her chair and stood. “Come, Kardon. The master has made his desires known. It’s time to chase the rabbits from their hole.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The light still bobbed in the distance, definitely leading Ember onward through the stone. She followed it like a lifeline. Every time she stopped to think about what she was doing, she found it hard to breathe. Not that the stone was choking her airway, but she felt like she shouldn’t be able to breathe, and it was that which strangled her.

  The light got brighter and Ember sped up her pace, curious now as to where it might take her. The panic and fear that had made her race from the dining hall left as she focused entirely on the white light.

  She came out of the rock suddenly, passing through a thick vein of quartz and coming into a perfectly spherical room that took her breath away with its beauty. The white magelight glowed from the exact center, showering light on the ribbons of magestone that lined the entire room. Not one surface, one single inch, wasn’t covered with some color. Emerald and blue sapphire, yellow and orange and purple sapphire, ruby and clear sapphire. Magestone. Sapphire wasn’t just blue. She’d been taught that when she was a little, and now, she remembered. Sapphire was all colors, and somehow, its construction made it ideal to store magic.

  But she had never in her lifetime imagined a room like this. The floor curved, being spherical, and made Ember actually glad she was still in wolf form. Four feet let her pad around, examining the walls. The room was free of rubble, surprisingly, except for small bits that did not seem so much like random debris from the walls as remnants from carvings left purposely behind. The blue sapphire vein was as wide as a doorway and had a long, cylindrical shape cut from it, and below that was a long, blue rod and several round plugs, almost as if an instrument had been pulled from the stone. She sniffed, sneezed at the power vibrating from the remains, then stepped forward to the next color. To her left was green sapphire, almost emerald in color, with a reverse image of a wolf’s head missing, but it was small enough to hold in her hand—or it would be if she were currently human. There were bits on the ground below it as well, as if the detail carving had taken place once it was pulled from the magestone.

  Next to the green was yellow, and Ember’s heart sped up as she recognized what this was. The image of a breastplate had been taken from the yellow sapphire, and Ember was absolutely sure it was the same breastplate DeMunth wore now. There was a larger amount of debris below the yellow than there had been any of the others, but then, there would be, if it had to be hollowed out. She pawed at the remnants and felt power buzzing at her fingertips.

  The orange held only a small, round, flat void, almost as if a coin had been taken. The red was an odd shape, and Ember could not for the life of her figure out what it might be. The purple looked like a ball had been taken from the stone, but the shards said something more had been done to it. And that led her back to the blue.

  After seeing the breastplate, and coming back to the blue, Ember was beginning to wonder if the long, cylindrical shape hadn’t been that of a blue flute. A sapphire flute, just like in her dreams.

  Her mind went back to something Ezeker had said earlier. He told her that the keystones had been birthed in these very mountains by the Guardians themselves. Was this that place? Could she really be standing in the birthplace of the keystones? And if so, where was the white keystone? Was there one?

  She stood in the center of the room, directly under the magelight, and glanced upward. The ceiling soared high, and there above her, she saw it. The void looked much like a large mallet pulled from pure white sapphire. The white keystone. Ember’s heart suddenly yearned for it. Where were all these keystones? Was she responsible for bringing them together? Was that part of her job in helping heal the world?

  She looked at the magelight, suddenly feeling there was more to it than just a magicked item. She looked beyond the orb to see what was guiding it, and asked a question. “Why did you bring me here? What am I supposed to do? None of the keystones are here,” she asked in mindspeech, pleading, and a little angry at feeling so helpless.

  The magelight suddenly pulsed and grew so bright, Ember had to look away. She covered her eyes and crouched down on her belly to cover her eyes with her paws. The light caught all the magestone and sent colors reflecting back and forth across the room to the point she felt bathed in light, washed clean, in a way, by light alone.

  When the brightness dimmed through her covered eyes, Ember took her paws away and looked up. A man in white stood in the air and looked down at her, a soft smile on his face. “Hello, Ember,” he said aloud, his voice resonating in the crystal as if it recognized him and vibrated with his tones. “I’ve been waiting for you for a very long time.”

  Ember forgot she was wolf for a second and tried to speak to him. As usual, all she got out was a series of yips and growls. It always frustrated and embarrassed her when she forgot her species, but she felt odd shifting in front of this man, this Guardian. She was awed by his presence and had so many questions to ask, but in order to ask them, she had to change.

  She decided to do it quickly and have it over with, despite the pain, and within moments she was back in her human form, on her knees before the Guardian, for she knew him to be so.

  “Sir, it is an honor to meet you,” she said fr
om the ground, her eyes lowered. “But why did you call me here?”

  The Guardian chuckled. “You’ve prayed for a teacher, haven’t you?”

  Ember nodded.

  The Guardian settled to the earth. “Well, here I am. This is the only place on Rasann I can stand and not have her rebel against me. My brother and I battled long ago and nearly destroyed her. Oddly, she will tolerate his presence, but not mine, though he was the one who did the most damage. Perhaps it is because I hold the remainder of the white magic and he holds only the red. Regardless, that does not matter. You prayed for a teacher, and I have come.”

  Ember looked up, stunned and thrilled all at once. “You will teach me how to be a white mage?”

  He nodded. “Yes, my child. I am Mahal, leader of The Guardians, and the only one left who holds the wholeness of magic.” Her mind reeled. She was speaking with one of the creators of Rasann, and he knew her by name. It seemed a dream. This was the man her father served. She was about to ask about her father when Mahal distracted her with his words. “Magic works differently when used together in the white than when separated, as I’m sure you’ve discovered.”

  Ember remembered the seedling suddenly becoming a six-foot bush, and the stone carving that ended with her hand embedded in soapstone. “Oh, yes, sir. I’ve discovered it all too well. I seem to be able to do things that are near impossible, yet not manage the most simple of tasks.”

  Mahal nodded and sat back on thin air as if there were a stool beneath him. “That is because you are a binder. You cannot use just one color of magic. You must bring them together and bind them through you in order for them to work. Tell me about your experiences. Let us begin there, and then we shall practice.”

  Ember was thrilled to share. She started at the beginning, when magic first manifested for her, and ended with the day the Shadow people attacked—when she’d nearly torn the man’s throat out, then healed and bound him at the same time. “He was on the verge of death,” she said. “But I couldn’t let him die, and yet he can no longer do his magic. He’s a prisoner here, somewhere.”