The Painter Mage: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Tell me what really brought you to Conlin,” I said.

  Taylor shook her head. “I’ve told you why I came. Hard needs—”

  “If your father really needed help, you wouldn’t have come to me. I might be good at a few things, but with what’s gone down between Hard and me, had you really wanted to help him, you would have used someone like Nik.”

  That was what had troubled me the most once I realized how powerful Nik had become. Taylor had the skill necessary to open gateways, so that wasn’t the reason she needed me. And if it were simply about power, well it seemed that she’d made friends in her time away from Arcanus who could serve her better than anything I could do. I tried to push aside the questions about how Nik had gotten so skilled in the time since I saw him last.

  It left only one real answer, but it was the one I didn’t like. It meant that Devan had been right and that I had let the pretty face distract me. Looking at Taylor sitting across from me, for the first time appearing uncertain, I wondered exactly how much I had missed.

  She stared at her hands before setting them on her lap. I didn’t know whether I should feel bad about how hard I was pushing her or not. “I couldn’t use Nik. He made it clear that he wouldn’t help.”

  “You asked him first,” I said.

  Taylor looked up and her eyes flashed with heat. It faded quickly. She looked around, almost as if searching for help, but the diner was otherwise empty. Given that it was nearly nine o’clock, I didn’t really expect anyone else at the Rooster. Maybe a few shifters, but they were probably all off getting debriefed by Jakes.

  At least Nik hadn’t killed any of them.

  “Will she be okay?” Taylor asked, almost as if sensing my thoughts.

  Maybe it was the way I kept looking toward the counter. The shifter he’d stunned had been Kacey, but she managed to come around after things started settling down. She had been a little fuzzy on what happened, but when she learned what Nik had done—how he’d attacked the shifters—she’d been pissed. When Jakes returned after losing track of Nik, it took him a few minutes to talk her down from trying to go looking for him. After what I’d seen from Nik, I wondered if the shifters could really do anything against him, anyway.

  “I think so. Shifters are pretty tough, so it might take more than a little smoke and light to hurt her.” I figured I’d throw the understatement out there in case Taylor knew a little bit more about what Nik had done. The explosions had been damn impressive work, but they really hadn’t packed much of a punch, not enough to kill something with shifter power. Probably not one of the Nizashi, either. Your average human, non-magical person would be another story. I imagined if anyone without any magical protections were hit by the power he had been throwing around, they might have found themselves as dead as the Nizashi we found outside the diner.

  “You think that was only smoke and light?” she asked.

  I glanced over at Devan. She stood in front of the jukebox, either giving me space to talk to Taylor or simply not wanting to be around her. Music drifted out, but nothing I recognized. Tom hadn’t asked her to, but Devan had tinkered with the jukebox when we’d first returned to Conlin. She figured out how it worked and repaired it, updating the music selection with a little magical boost.

  “Well, there was smoke and there was light, so I’m not exactly wrong.”

  Taylor shook her head. “I don’t know where Nik learned that trick, if that’s what you’re asking. He knew how to do it before I met him.”

  “That’s not really what I wanted to know. It’s more about where Nik learned what he did. He was across the Threshold for what, something like six years, and never learned to master the arcane patterns? He’s been back for five, and already, he’s got more power than an Arcanus artist. That kind of thing doesn’t happen.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you, Oliver. I didn’t know Nik then. When I met him, he was a modder. I could tell that he had more skill than the usual painters I’d met since leaving Arcanus, but not much more than that.”

  Tom circled out of the kitchen. A paper hat covered his gray hair, and his thick glasses looked smudged. The lines at the corners of his eyes gave him a weary look, one that I didn’t fully understand. I hadn’t taken the time to understand just what Tom did in Conlin besides run the Rooster, but the kid had referred to him as the warden. There was more to him than I knew.

  “Here you go,” he said, setting a plate in front of me. The meatloaf let off a little warm steam. He set down a plate of eggs next to mine and whistled for Devan. She turned and waved with a friendly smile before focusing on the jukebox again.

  “Where are the others?” Tom asked.

  “They’re back at Jakes’s house.”

  Tom’s eyes tightened slightly. “Nothing wrong, I hope?”

  “Nope. Just a painter with power enough to take down one of the Nizashi.”

  Tom’s mouth pinched slightly, and I realized that he knew what that meant. I hadn’t been certain, but Tom and the Elder were close. Tom likely knew much more about the magical world than anyone else in Conlin. They kept themselves hidden away, protecting their painting ability as if afraid to unleash it on the world.

  “They’re here?” he asked.

  “Yeah. That dead guy out back was one of them.”

  Tom wiped his hands across his apron slowly. “That was one of the Nizashi?”

  “Why?”

  “They were not to come here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  The neon lights from the jukebox glowed a little more brightly. The machine whirred again, as if waiting for Devan to select a song. I wondered which one she’d choose to taunt me with this time. A new song began to play, yet another I didn’t recognize, and Devan made her way back from the jukebox.

  “The Elder. There was an agreement between the Trelking and the Elder. The Rooster was a place of peace. Even the Nizashi were not allowed here.”

  “Well, they didn’t necessarily come here, like inside. They were more around here.”

  Tom gave me a sharp look. In that moment, he reminded me of my father. It was strange, I hadn’t seen him in over ten years, and that one look brought back memories of when he’d get angry with me for throwing off his latest work, or goofing around while eating, or my terrible grades in school. Math is important, he’d say. Everything comes from math. I didn’t really understand until I began to see the patterns to it. Now I got it. Math was simply another pattern to be used. It was the same reason my father took to the piano. Music was patterns, too. I’d never learned to infuse will into sound, but I wondered if my father did.

  “Why would the Nizashi risk breaking the agreement with the Elder?” Tom asked.

  “Probably because the Elder has been gone for the better part of a decade?” I suggested. “Maybe because the Trelking is pretty pissed with the Elder’s son for running off with the daughter he intended to marry off to the Druist Mage. Or maybe because somebody led them here.”

  “You did this?” Tom asked me.

  “Not all of it. I’m responsible for what happened with Devan, but that’s it.”

  Tom looked at Taylor. “What do you know about this? How much of this did you have a hand in?”

  “Not her, Tom. There’s another painter. One who used to work for the Trelking, and now he’s back, running around Conlin, stirring up all sorts of shit. He even managed to get the shifters after him.”

  “How would he manage that?”

  “When you attack one of the shifters, you’re pretty much guaranteeing there will be a pack after you.”

  It still didn’t make a whole lot of sense why he would have done that. There wasn’t a real advantage to getting the shifters to come after him, unless it was one I couldn’t see. I looked over at Taylor, studying her. What was I missing? What reason would Nik have for wanting the shifters to come after him? Would it have something to do with why he was here?

  Taylor might know some of the answers, but I suspected ther
e was another person who knew more than he let on. And now Jakes was busy with the shifters, probably out hunting for Nik, chasing him down…and maybe not guarding the other gates around Conlin.

  Could that be the reason? Could he be so stupid as to try to reach one of the gateways?

  But would it be stupidity? I’d seen the power that Nik managed. With the way he held off the Nizashi, he had strength. Crossing the Threshold now wouldn’t weaken him, not like it would the Nizashi.

  “What’s he trying to do?” I asked aloud. Tom looked at me strangely and shrugged. Taylor continued to stare at her hands. She knew more than she shared. “How much did you tell him about my father?”

  “Nothing,” she said.

  “Nothing. Then how did he know about the shed?”

  “Oliver, I didn’t tell him—”

  “You were pretty eager to show him the park,” I reminded her.

  Taylor glanced down. “He already knew about the park, and about the statues. How do you think I knew? Why do you think I came to Conlin?”

  “I guess I don’t really know, Taylor. If not for Hard, then what?”

  She shook her head. “I came searching for something that I’d lost,” she said softly. “I thought the Elder could help me find it.”

  Now I understood why Taylor had gone straight for the statues when she showed up, if not how she’d mastered the patterns so quickly. Maybe it was something more than her being an artist.

  “Why would he attack the shifters, then?” I asked, bringing it back to Nik. “He had no reason. The Nizashi was gone, and we’d already told him that we knew the shifters, that meant he wanted to attack them.” I looked at Taylor. “What did he tell you? You were in that circle with him. You know something, don’t you?”

  Taylor shook her head. “I haven’t seen Nik for months.”

  Devan barked out a laugh. When I looked over at her, she raised her hands. “Didn’t you hear what she said? Come on, that was funny!”

  Tom nodded to Devan and tapped the spot on the table in front of her plate. Then he turned back to the kitchen, leaving us.

  “You’re so childish,” I said as Tom disappeared.

  “Look at her. She’s the reason this all happened, just because she let him get all over her.”

  Taylor has a pretty dark complexion, so for me to see her blush means that it must have been a pretty bright shade.

  “Damn, Nik,” I said to myself. “Dude really has changed. First the magic, and now the ladies.”

  “It wasn’t like that,” she said.

  “So you weren’t with Nik?”

  “Not in the crass way you’re implying.”

  Devan started in on her eggs, sweeping the overly browned toast toward them and scooping them onto her fork. She chewed quickly and smiled. “What’s crass about it? You’re a woman. You’ve got needs. You found yourself a pretty little painter.” She took another bite and shrugged. “Can’t say that I blame you.”

  “You think Nik is pretty?” I asked.

  “Well, he ain’t ugly. Maybe it’s the hair,” she suggested.

  I touched my head. My brown hair was coarse, and I had to keep it cut pretty short or it would curl up like I’d gotten some seventies perm. Not necessarily a cool look, but then again, I could comb it out into a pretty awesome fro.

  “Like I said, it wasn’t like that. We got close.”

  Devan snorted.

  “Nik can be…passionate,” Taylor went on. “But I wasn’t after passion.”

  “You just wanted to get yours,” Devan said.

  I nudged her. “Come on. You’re being disgusting.”

  “Coming from you? I’m pretty sure you can’t say anything, Ollie. I’ve known you too long for you to start taking the innocent road. Remember that time when you first came to Te’alan and you met the—”

  “All right,” I snapped. This time, I think I might have flushed. And I shouldn’t have. When the healer had come to me, she’d seduced me, so that hadn’t really been my fault. I focused on Taylor. “If you weren’t after romance, then what were you doing with Nik?”

  “I wanted to learn. I told you how I’d left the monastery and went looking for other painters. He had power. That much was clear. And what he could do was so different from anything else I’d ever seen in Arcanus. It wasn’t his technical skill, though that was significant.”

  Devan smirked and I glared at her.

  “It was the creativity he showed. I wanted to learn that from him.”

  “So, what did you learn?” I took a bite of the meatloaf. It was warm, not hot, and tasted reheated rather than fresh. Maybe Tom didn’t like the fact that we’d shown up at his place so late.

  “Nik was secretive with what he knows. For good reason. I suspect I’m not the only painter who has gone to him looking for instruction. It wasn’t until I was nearly ready to leave that I managed to get anything useful out of him.”

  Devan finished the rest of her eggs and leaned back in the chair. “It’s about the Elder,” she said.

  Taylor lowered her eyes, but couldn’t hide the fact that Devan had hit on something. Devan was intuitive. Often frighteningly so. I should have listened to her when she first warned me about Taylor, but I was too focused on the other parts. Not the beautiful woman, though admittedly that had captured me, too, but the intrigue. If I were being completely honest, it was something I had missed.

  “That’s not why I’m here. I’ve told you why I came to Conlin.”

  “Yeah. You’ve told me it was for Hard. I’m getting the sense that it had nothing to do with Hard. Devan is right. The common theme here is the Elder. What is it you’re after?”

  Taylor looked from Devan to me before resting her head on her hands. “It was the book. You knew that, Oliver. That was why I’d come.”

  “Not Hard?”

  She looked back down at the table. “For all I know, he’s gone. When he went through that doorway in Arcanus and didn’t return, there was nothing I could do.”

  I noticed that she spoke pretty dispassionately about her father. Maybe their relationship was as bad as the one I had with my father. “That’s not what you were saying before. You said you wanted to find him, that you wanted to search through the gateways to get back to him. That was what you claimed when you came for my help.”

  “You wouldn’t have helped me otherwise.”

  “Why, because asking for my help finding the man who expelled me from Arcanus would work? I think I’ve been pretty damn accommodating with my willingness to help, Taylor. I might not like Hard, but I was willing to help you find him.” Devan touched my arm, and I turned to her. “What?”

  She had a funny smile on her face, one that I didn’t fully understand. “I think we’ve been going about this the wrong way, Ollie. What’s the common thing about everything Taylor has done?”

  “You’ve already said it. The Elder.”

  Devan turned and stared at Taylor. “Yeah. The Elder. Maybe she’s searching for him, too.”

  As soon as Devan said it, I wondered if it was true. Why would Taylor have gone searching for my father? If I believed anything about Taylor, it was that she studied in Arcanus. There wasn’t anyone there who believed my father still lived. I might be the only one who believes that he didn’t die the night he disappeared. Even Hard, the one who knew the most about the doors other than my father, had thought he was gone.

  “Ah, shit,” I said. “Is it true?”

  She looked from Devan to me. “I needed to find you first. You were always the key, but you were gone. There wasn’t any way of finding you. None in Arcanus knew where you would have gone.”

  And none would really have cared, but Taylor didn’t say that.

  “When I learned of Nik, I knew I was getting close. It was by accident, mostly. By the time I found him, I knew there was more than what Arcanus taught, but not quite how much. Nik was reluctant to open up and share what had happened to him, but I managed to get him to.”

  De
van smiled and I elbowed her.

  “He told me about this painter, one with arcane painting skills. I didn’t know he meant you. He spoke of the Trelking and the length of your service. I still don’t know what that means.”

  I focused on Devan. “It means that the price for my life was service. When you cross the Threshold, you either have to have enough strength with magic or you must serve. I hadn’t the strength. I was the token painter, able to use a different type of magic. Sort of a blunt wielder of power, nothing like the Te’alan, but that was what the Trelking wanted. What he needed, I think. I wasn’t the first painter to serve, and I won’t be the last. I had uses, but only if he trained me. The price of that training was service.”

  Devan shook her head slowly, mouthing the words, “I’m sorry,” as she did. I didn’t blame her for what happened. I’d never blamed Devan.

  “That was what Nik wanted to free you from?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he thought he owed me since I helped him escape. But if that was the case, why has he come to Conlin now that I have escaped? What’s he after?”

  “Probably the same thing as me. He wants to use the Elder’s power. That’s all Nik has ever wanted since I met him. I told you that he’s a collector.” I nodded. “Well, he’s a collector of power. I don’t know how he does it, but each time he finds something magical, he grows more skilled, more powerful. You’ve seen what he can do.”

  “About that. How was he able to withstand the shifter attack?” I suspected Kacey hadn’t really attacked, merely tested what Nik could do. At least I hoped that was the case. If Kacey had really attacked and Nik stood there like it was nothing, then I had a lot more to learn about what he was capable of than I realized.

  Taylor started to answer when the lights flickered.

  Devan tensed in her chair, turning to the door. “Um, Ollie?”