The Painter Mage: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Yeah, well, not all painters want to help the Trelking. That was my role. Most were easy to stop, but not Adazi. He is powerful, clever. And basically offers his services to whoever hires him. One time, he nearly destroyed the Trelking’s palace.” Had I not seen the mark, he would have. That was the time I first learned how to remove a painter’s work without damaging the substrate. And that was when I truly bought the Trelking’s trust.

  “And this is the man who’s taken Devan?” Kacey asked. “What’s he want with her? If he hates the Trelking, it seems he’d just as soon kill her.”

  I looked over, forcing myself to keep my eyes on her face. She smiled as if knowing how I struggled. “I doubt he’ll kill her.” I took a steadying breath, hating that I had to keep revealing Devan’s secrets, but if I could get the shifters to help, it would be worth it. “From what I can tell, Adazi often serves the Druist Mage. The Druist Mage has a bargain with the Trelking, but it’s contingent upon the successful joining of the Te’alan to the Druist Mage.”

  Man, all that sounded strange to say.

  “You’ve said this before,” Jakes said. Annoyance surged in his voice. “Why would Devan not want to join with the Druist if it will bring peace to her people?”

  “She almost did.”

  “What stopped her?” Jakes asked.

  “You know the powers of the Te’alan?”

  He nodded carefully. “Some.”

  “Devan has many abilities, much like her father. On the other side,” I began, knowing that Devan had lost the ability on this side of the Threshold, “one of hers is a certain type of prescience. It’s not as powerful as the Trelking’s, but no less accurate. As she made her way to the Druist Mage, she had a vision. It was brief, but powerful. In it, she wedded him. She suffered, but that wasn’t why she turned away. It was what she saw beyond her suffering. Her father tortured. Her people starving. Her realm razed. All by the power of the Druist Mage.” I paused and made a point of fixing Jakes with my eyes. “So Devan isn’t just running from the marriage, she’s running to protect her people.”

  “The Trelking also has this prescience,” Jakes said.

  I nodded.

  “Would he not have seen the same? Why would he have offered Devan if he knew what would happen to his people?”

  It was something that had troubled us both, but neither of us had a clear answer. Either Devan’s vision was wrong—which was possible, considering what it had entailed—or the Trelking knew something else that we didn’t know. “Does it matter? Either way, she couldn’t remain on the other side of the Threshold, not with what was at stake.”

  Jakes crossed his arms over his chest and drummed his fingers on his biceps. “You don’t know what you ask, Morris. What it will do to the balance—”

  “And you don’t know what I’ll do to save Devan, Jakes. Do you really think I care about the balance when it comes to helping my friend?”

  He shifted his gaze to Taylor. “You will help with this?”

  “I’m in,” she said. “Whatever it takes. I want to help Devan.”

  “You won’t summon the gate again?”

  “Once was enough,” Taylor answered. She made a point of looking at me. After this was over, we would have to talk more. I’d planned to return her to Arcanus. Since then, we’d done nothing but search for Devan. After this was over, I still intended to see her returned, even if what she truly wanted was to remain and study my father’s things.

  Jakes studied us for a moment. “Fine. I will help.”

  “I will, too,” Kacey piped up.

  Jakes shot her a look. “No. This is not for you.”

  “Sam,” she started, “don’t you think to keep me away from—”

  Jakes silenced her with something that sounded like a snarl. “I won’t lose you, too,” he said softly.

  I looked over at Kacey, then glanced to Jakes. Had I been reading things wrong? It wouldn’t have been the first time. Maybe Jakes hadn’t been interested in Devan.

  “That’s not for you to decide. You haven’t claimed the Alpha,” Kacey said.

  Jakes stared at her and then nodded, turning away. It was the same argument that Chase had with Jakes. I didn’t know enough about the shifters to really understand.

  “Well, if you’re on board,” I said, trying to break the tension, “then I have an idea, but I don’t think I can do it without your help. For now, I need some rest. I don’t like the idea of Devan hiding out with Adazi any longer than necessary, but I can’t do what I need while tired. You’ll find me in the morning?”

  Jakes stared at me a moment, and then finally nodded.

  12

  We stood in Devan’s workshop. Early morning sunlight drifted into the garage, and I rubbed my eyes. The few hours of sleep I forced myself to get had helped, but not nearly enough. My head throbbed from fatigue, but I pushed away the sensation. Devan might be dealing with that and worse right now.

  Taylor leaned over the bench. She’d been up before me and had come out here. Her hair had a deeper shade of blue than last night, as if she’d died it again. I didn’t know how she used the color in her hair, only that it helped her somewhat. She fumbled with something small on the counter, though I couldn’t see clearly what it might be.

  “You’re up,” she said without turning toward me.

  “Yeah. Figured it was time.”

  “What do you think she meant to do with this?” Taylor asked, turning with a small metallic shape in her hand.

  It looked like the start of one of Devan’s figurines. I don’t think Taylor knew about them yet, just like I didn’t know what motivated Devan to keep making them. Maybe it was something soothing, a way to challenge herself and keep her mind off the other issues we faced, but knowing Devan, that wasn’t likely. More likely, she used them for some magical purpose, but I’d yet to figure out what that might be.

  “She likes to tinker,” I said. “Things like that. The charms. Other stuff.” I shrugged. “She’s always done it.”

  “Always?”

  “Well, definitely since we got here. She did some on the other side. I have a bow she made for me that has a very particular shape at each end.”

  That brought a smile to Taylor’s face. “You have a bow? Did you learn to shoot it?”

  “The Trelking demanded it.”

  “So you became something like Robin Hood?”

  “There was no stealing, if that’s what you’re after. More for protection. I placed some patterns on arrows and…”

  I trailed off as she started to laugh.

  “Whatever,” I muttered. “Wish I had the bow now.”

  “What would you do? Hold me up at bow point?”

  I gave her my best condescending look but probably failed miserably. “Why’d you come into the garage?”

  “From what happened at Sam’s house, I take it you saw the orb that he wants.”

  She didn’t hide the eager tone. It was an object of the Elder. I didn’t blame Taylor for wanting to study it. “I did. It’s still in the shed.”

  “And you decided you couldn’t give it to Adazi.”

  I took a deep breath. “Jakes convinced me it wouldn’t be a good idea. If that orb will free creatures worse than the hunters, I don’t want to be the one responsible for it.”

  “You trust him?”

  I started past her as I made my way to the back of the garage. She grabbed my arm and turned me toward her.

  “Do you trust him?” she repeated.

  I took a deep breath and stared into her dark eyes. I could get lost in those eyes if I somehow managed to forget how dangerous she could be. Devan was right about me. I had a tendency to let beautiful women drag me into their schemes. But with Devan, I was the one who had forced my way into her schemes. Not the other way around. It was a good thing, because I wouldn’t want romance to ruin our friendship.

  “Yeah.”

  “Why?” Taylor asked.

  A strange thing that Taylor would ask a
bout trust, especially given the deception she’d laid upon us since arriving. “Three reasons. I have no reason not to trust him. I’m convinced my father trusted his father. And what other choice do we have?”

  Taylor considered a moment. “You don’t think he’d lie to you to get the orb?”

  The thought had crossed my mind. Jakes seemed surprised that I had the gold key, but it seemed more about the fact that my father had entrusted it to me rather than desire to claim something for himself. “I saw the look in his eyes,” I told her. “There’s something he genuinely fears. And if a shifter fears something, I think it’s a good idea for us to fear it, too.”

  Taylor laughed softly. She still hadn’t let go of my arm. “That’s sound advice. But if we can’t give the orb to Adazi to trade for Devan, what are you planning?”

  I’d lain awake most of the night working out the details of what to do. There seemed no way to get Devan without giving Adazi the orb. I thought about giving him a fake, but I had no idea what the orb actually did, so if he demanded some sort of test, it would inevitably fail. Then what would happen to Devan?

  I could simply give him the real orb, trusting he’d return Devan. I’ll admit, a large part of me felt tempted. Then, with Devan safe, I could chase Adazi and reclaim the orb. But there was no guarantee that would work, either.

  The easy out was to let him keep the orb and cross the Threshold with it, leaving whatever trouble he intended to those on the other side, but I didn’t like that idea, either.

  So I was back to my first idea, but the one that seemed the least likely to succeed.

  “I need to make a fake,” I said.

  “Can you make a fake?”

  “I’ve held the orb. Studied it. So I know what it looks like. Maybe enough to fool Adazi.”

  “You don’t sound too hopeful.”

  “I’m not sure I’d know how to recreate the patterns on the orb to be close, but not exact. And even if I could, I don’t know how to trap them in the glass.”

  “Why can’t you copy it?”

  “Taylor—I told you the orb is dangerous.”

  “Yeah. To the shifters.”

  “And if the shifters are injured, what happens to us? What happens with the hunters? Besides, do you really want to tangle with something shifters are afraid of?”

  Taylor released me and tucked her hands under her arms as she started pacing around the garage. “I could help with the patterns,” she said, thinking aloud. “But you’ll have to tell me what you mean by the patterns being under the glass.”

  Taylor offering to help was welcome, but I wasn’t sure what her motivation actually was. I know that she wanted to study anything that might have been the Elder’s, but could I use that motivation to get real help? I’d be every bit the idiot Devan always called me if I didn’t try.

  “It’s a sphere,” I started, still not certain that I could trust her. “The patterns from Adazi’s drawing were on it, but I couldn’t feel them on the glass. It was like they were encased beneath a coating overtop of it, leaving the whole thing perfectly smooth.”

  Taylor stopped. “Do you think Jakes would give you back the page with the patterns?”

  “Well, he offered to help, so if he hasn’t destroyed it—”

  “I did not destroy it, Morris.”

  I turned to see Jakes practically blocking out the light coming into the garage with his massive frame. He was dressed the same as last night, only this time, he wore a pistol holstered at his waist. “On duty or off?”

  He held out the folded sheet of paper we’d gotten from Adazi. Lines from where Jakes had crumpled it left it wrinkled, but it was otherwise still legible when I unfolded it. Taylor leaned into me as she peered at the page.

  “Why don’t you just take it?” I suggested.

  “I’m fine,” she said.

  I couldn’t argue with that. “Look here. See how these work around the top of the orb? You can’t really tell from the drawing, but this pattern”—I pointed to a series of stars surround the points of tiny squares—“works all the way around the top and the bottom.”

  Taylor frowned at it. “That would make it some sort of containment,” she said. She looked up at Jakes as if expecting an answer, but he stared at her blankly.

  Now that she said it, I realized she was right. “You see these here?” I went on, pointing to where a basic pattern, repeating triangle and squares and circles, made its way up and over the orb. Basic patterns were weaker, but with the repetition, I suspected it concentrated everything.

  “Then there’s this,” I said, pointing to irregular curved marks that practically writhed across the page. They were arcane patterns, the only ones I’d seen on the orb, though I had no idea what they were intended to do, if anything. Maybe simply help it draw more power. Arcane patterns were good at that. “These work around it like this.” I made a motion with my hand.

  “And this was entirely smooth? You didn’t feel the patterns?”

  “Nothing. It was like glass. The rest of the orb had a frosted appearance.”

  Taylor laughed and Jakes shot her a glare.

  She smiled at me, her eyes arched with her laughter. “You’re saying it’s a crystal ball?”

  “Well, yeah. But not just any crystal ball. The Elder’s crystal ball.”

  Taylor laughed again.

  Jakes covered the page with his massive hand, forcing our attention to him. “You would disrespect the Elder?”

  Taylor shook her head. “Not at all. I know how capable he was. And if I didn’t, everything I’ve seen since coming here has told me just what he could do.”

  Jakes fixed her with a level stare. “You have seen nothing of what the Elder can do.”

  What more did Jakes know about my father?

  “Okay,” I said. “Let’s get back to figuring out how to make the crystal ball. How do we get these patterns trapped inside the glass?”

  “Heat,” Jakes said simply.

  “That would distort the patterns,” Taylor answered, already composing herself.

  “Not necessarily,” I said slowly, thinking about how to make it work. “If I hold power in the patterns while adding the heat, I can force them to maintain their shape.”

  “There are too many patterns here to hold them in place,” Taylor said. “Why can’t you just make the patterns, then coat them in something clear to make it look the same?”

  “We need to fool him long enough to get him to hand over Devan,” I said. “Anything we do that alludes to chicanery, and who knows what will happen. Will he take her back across the Threshold without giving us a chance?”

  “Chicanery?” Taylor asked. She kept her focus on the page, not turning away from the patterns marked there.

  “Yeah. Thought I’d fancy it up.”

  She laughed again.

  “Anyway,” I started. “I don’t have to do anything more than hold the patterns, not trigger them. It should take less power that way.”

  “But there are at least three distinct patterns on the orb,” Taylor pointed out.

  “I think I can probably hold those three. It’s this one that I don’t think I can add at the same time.” I pointed toward the single repeating pattern of basic shapes that she had drawn. Often, basic shapes took more energy from a painter than anything complex. That was because the more complicated the shapes, the more they augmented the power of the painter.

  “You can split your focus three ways?” Taylor asked.

  “Not easily. And I’m not saying I can make these patterns, only that I can hold them in place while we heat the orb. But we’re going to have to heat it smoothly and symmetrically. I don’t really know how to do that.”

  “That will be me,” Jakes said.

  “You’ll do this?”

  “I said I’d help. If this is what you intend, I will do what I can.”

  I clapped him on the shoulder. “Perfect. Now if only Taylor can get to work on the patterns.”

  “But you
don’t have anything to use as the crystal ball,” Taylor said. “What do you expect me to make the patterns on?”

  I arched a brow toward Jakes. “Shifter magic again.”

  * * *

  Jakes managed to make the cloudy orb, recreating it out of scraps of metal, glass, and probably fairy dust as he applied his power to it, shaping it into a perfect sphere. I wondered if that was how my father had made the first orb. When he was done, a replica of the orb that I’d seen in the shed rested on the bench.

  Taylor studied it. “It really does look like a crystal ball,” she said, waving her hands over top of it. “If I look into it, will I see my future?”

  “Be careful about the jokes you make when dealing with items of power,” Jakes warned.

  “Wait—the orb can tell the future?” I asked him.

  “There are many uses for the power stored in the orb.”

  I wondered if we could use it to figure out whether we’d be successful getting Devan back. Probably not without risking releasing the creatures Jakes feared.

  “How do you know that we’re not actually recreating an orb that carries the same power as the original?” Taylor asked. She’d started to make tiny marks on the top of the orb using a permanent marker. She had a steady hand, and each mark was perfectly placed. “What if we hand over the orb to Adazi, and he can actually use it?”

  “I’ve thought about that,” I admitted. “That’s why it can’t be exact. I think we have to leave out parts of the arcane pattern.”

  Taylor glanced down at the page lying folded open next to her. “Good. I’m not sure I could make those marks exactly right, anyway.”

  “I’ll do those,” I said.

  She turned, and for a moment, I thought she might argue or tell me that she was better trained to create patterns, some typical artist comment, but she only nodded.

  Taylor worked quickly. I paced behind her, thinking of the passing of time. We had today and then tomorrow. If this didn’t work, that meant we’d have to take Adazi the actual orb, which I really didn’t want to do. And if it did work, then we still had to deal with Adazi once we got Devan back.