The Painter Mage: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  “What is it?”

  “I’m not sure. I think it’s the Nizashi.”

  “You’re not sure?” I asked. I stood from my chair. Taylor followed me to the door where I twisted the lock.

  “It’s the protections placed here by the Elder,” Devan explained. “You know they limit me a little.”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t know that. It’s nice to learn now.”

  “You can sense what your father put here. He limits painter power.”

  “Yeah. Painter power. I didn’t realize he can do the same to you.”

  “Well, you add that to what happened when I crossed the Threshold, and it gets twisted.” Devan tugged on her shirt, pulling it down. She reached into her pocket for one of her figurines and set it on the table. This one looked something like a troll, but without a club like the other one I’d seen.

  “Do you plan on throwing your toys at him?” I asked.

  She shot me a look. “I’m just trying to be ready for whatever might happen.”

  The lights flickered again, and this time, the ground rumbled softly for a moment. Was the Nizashi trying to shake us out of the Rooster? “Someone better warn Tom,” I said. I didn’t want him caught in the middle of whatever was coming. Tom had nothing to do with this other than giving us a place to meet.

  “I’ll go,” Taylor said.

  When she disappeared into the kitchen, Devan turned back to the door. “What did Nik mean when he said this one would be harder to take down?” I asked her.

  Devan peered out into the night. “They come in threes,” she started. “That’s the way my father wants it. Redundancy. But one of them always leads.”

  “Leads, but why is he so much more powerful than the others?” It wasn’t that the female Nizashi had been a slouch. She had nearly destroyed me. But the one I’d now faced twice could throw around so much more power.

  “The First, he’s called. I recognized him. There aren’t many of the Nizashi that I would, but E’shan has something of a reputation. He was given a token that amplifies his power. It’s part of the gift my father gives them, but E’shan is special.”

  “Like some sort of power ring?”

  “It’s not a ring, Ollie. Not everything is like what you see in the movies.”

  I turned and looked toward the kitchen, wondering if Tom and Taylor were okay. There was the sound of a pot clanging and shadows of people moving around. Maybe Tom was making Taylor something to eat, since she’d passed on food earlier. I thought about what she’d said about Nik, about how he was a collector of power.

  “What is it, Ollie? You’ve got that look on your face.”

  “What look is that?”

  “The one that you make when you’re trying to come up with an answer. You make it when you’re working through patterns you can’t quite master, too.”

  The ground rumbled again, but quickly faded. What was the Nizashi doing out there?

  “I’m just trying to figure out what’s really going on here. If I make it as simple as I can, I start to wonder if there’s something I’m missing. We’ve got assassins from the other side of the Threshold and a painter with more power than he should actually possess. Why are they connected?”

  “The Nizashi are after something. We thought it was me or the cylinder, but now, I’m not so sure. Nik came here for Taylor. Isn’t that what we’ve learned?”

  I shook my head, straining to see into the darkness. I didn’t like how little I really knew about what was going on. I liked even less what I started to suspect. “Is it? As for the Nizashi, we’re still in the dark as to whether they’re really after the cylinder. As for Nik, that’s what he told us, but we know there’s more. And we know that Taylor’s not being completely honest with us.”

  Devan touched the door, and her skin glowed for a moment before fading. The medallion resting on my chest went cold as she did. “I can’t sense him.”

  “Because he’s gone?”

  “I don’t know if he’s gone or if I just can’t sense him. I’ve told you it’s not quite as easy as you seem to think for me.”

  “We need to find the Nizashi,” I said.

  “Find him? I think he’s found us just fine.”

  There was movement outside. That could be shadows or my imagination, or it could be the Nizashi. “I’m not sure we’ve got this right, Devan. We’ve been assuming that the Nizashi came after something here and to take you back. But what if it’s more than that? I’m not sure that Nik knew about the cylinder, so why was he here?”

  “I don’t know. I thought it was Taylor.”

  “What if it’s not. What if Nik chased the Nizashi?”

  Devan laughed and then died off. “Wait. You’re serious? No one does that. It’s a death sentence.”

  “Not for some collector of power. That’s what he’s after, right? He wants more power. That’s what Taylor said, and after what I saw, I believe her. We’ve been wondering why he came to Conlin, but maybe we’ve already known the reason. The Nizashi need to cross the Threshold to return and there are ways to do that here.”

  “Ollie, you don’t understand. The Nizashi would have been sent here with a purpose. They’re not scouts or spies or anything like that, they’re assassins. And if there was a target—”

  “We don’t know the target, though. For all we know, they’ve already completed their mission and Nik followed them here knowing this was their only way back across. What if he’s after whatever your father gave the Nizashi to increase their power? Would it work for him?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. But it’s bonded to the Nizashi. For Nik to use it, he’d have to connect himself to it. Doing that might even bind him to the Trelking.” She shook her head. “I don’t know everything about how it works.”

  I stared out the window, feeling a growing sense of unease rolling through me. If the Nizashi had something of the Trelking’s that gave them power, I had to keep Nik from obtaining it. I’d seen how he handled the other Nizashi, and now the shifters. Whatever he’d learned in the time since he crossed the Threshold had made him powerful, more than simply modding could explain.

  None of that was what had my stomach unsettled. I wished it was only the reheated meatloaf, but I knew that wasn’t the case. Somehow, I was going to have to protect the Nizashi from Nik.

  12

  Devan grabbed my wrist as I reached for the door. Light from inside the diner spilled out, creating a soft halo of light just beyond the door. “You can’t do this, Ollie.”

  “I don’t think I have much of a choice. If that’s the reason Nik came to Conlin, if he came here after the Nizashi, then I need to keep him from getting anything else that will make him even more powerful. Besides, maybe it will put me in your father’s good graces.”

  “Even if that were possible,” she said, and I choked back a laugh, “not what I mean, but why does it matter if Nik gets it? It’s not like the Nizashi are innocent here.”

  The door rattled. I started to suspect what was happening. Nik must be outside, attacking E’shan. “Not innocent, but I’m not sure he should acquire anything of the Trelking’s.”

  She looked as if she wanted to say something else but clamped her mouth shut. “I’ll keep Tom in the kitchen. And I won’t let Taylor out to help.”

  “Thanks.”

  “And Ollie? Don’t get killed.”

  “I’ll do my best,” I said, then pulled the door open, the bells over it jingling, and stepped outside.

  The Rooster sat on a mostly empty lot near the edge of town. Other than my truck, the lot was empty. Lights flashed in the distance, blooming like the flash of a muzzle. Had Nik taken to more traditional means of stopping E’shan? I knew a shovel worked pretty well, but you had to get close enough to reach him. I suspected the Nizashi had other protections that kept them from something so mundane as a bullet wound, but I could be wrong about that. Mostly, I doubted that Nik would be able to get close enough to make the gun useful. With painting, there wasn�
��t the same need for proximity. If he set his pattern right, he wouldn’t have to worry about how close to E’shan he could get.

  Standing on the Rooster’s lot, there wasn’t much I could do with my patterns. The protections surrounding the Rooster kept me from doing anything more than the most basic of magic.

  There was another flash, this time closer.

  It was times like this that I wished I had Devan’s ability to sense when painters were near. That had uses, much more than I ever realized until I was in situations like this.

  Night had fallen completely, leaving me surrounded by the dark. When I worked for the Trelking, I hated the dark. The Te’alan had better eyesight than I did, and there wasn’t much I could do that would get me to their level of visual prowess. That made me vulnerable at night. In the daytime, they might have better acuity than I did, but there were tricks I could use to compensate for what I didn’t have. Most of the time, I stayed far enough away from my targets that I didn’t need to worry about their eyesight or strength or speed. It had kept me alive.

  Another explosion bloomed in the night, this one coming from behind the Rooster. The cool air had taken on a hint of bitter stink from the magic being used. It took a moment for it to register why. The modding. Both Nik and E’shan were essentially modded, using their magic in a different way from anything I could ever do.

  I wasn’t going to get anywhere staying near the edge of the parking lot. If I was going to help E’shan, then I needed to find where he’d gone. That meant putting myself at risk with Nik. As soon as Nik realized what I was doing, I suspected he’d shift his attack to me, at least long enough to slow me down. I was the easy one for him.

  It still felt strange thinking that Nik could overpower me.

  I reached the edge of the lot where the patterns began to fade. Here, the protections of the Elder eased so that if I stepped past, it would be easier to summon my magic. There was still no sign of the Nizashi or Nik, just the occasional blooms of light, still far enough away that I didn’t think they were coming for me yet.

  Was there anything I could do if they did? I’d seen what Nik could do with the shifters. I’d seen how easily he’d managed the Nizashi. The one remaining might be more powerful, but that didn’t mean Nik couldn’t take him on, and even win.

  There was one thing I could do that Nik never had managed to master. Maybe he still hadn’t. With an arcane pattern, I could modify what was already in place, maybe even the patterns that my father had set around here. It would be difficult, but not impossible.

  With a pinch of red ink, I stepped across the edge of the lot and added an inverted swirl. Were someone to look at the pattern, it would appear as if intended to draw the eye outward and inward, an arcane pattern that would focus power. I hurried across the parking lot, reaching what would be essentially a point on a triangle and set down another arcane pattern, this one a series of irregular squares. On the opposite side of the lot, I made another pattern. Joined together, they should give me enough strength to try what I intended.

  As I finished, I heard a sound behind me.

  Standing on the other side of the protections placed by my father was the Nizashi. Dark eyes stared out at me from the darkness. He had a welt where my shovel had hit him. Some dried blood remained caked around it. I should feel bad for beaning him, but knowing what I had at the time, there really hadn’t been any other options. Unlike Devan, his skin didn’t glow as he drew power. I suspected that from the modification made by the Trelking, the power added to him.

  I grabbed a charm from my pocket and pulled it out, quickly depressing the trigger. A circle of black ink surrounded me, and I infused power and will into it. I might need to help the Nizashi, but that didn’t mean I’d be foolish enough to let him attack me first. No, I was a different kind of fool.

  As I filled my circle, I pressed power through the arcane marks around the lot. Like when making my circle of protection, adding magic to these was more difficult here, but not impossible. I squeezed through them, solidifying the connection, and felt it take hold. If it worked as planned, I would be able to invert the energy draining from the Rooster and use it to augment anything I might need to do. It might not give me much more than a single shot, but with Nik, hopefully that would be all I’d need.

  “So this is awkward,” I said.

  The Nizashi stalked forward, just to the edge of my father’s protections, close enough for me to smell the stench of sweat and blood lingering on him. I wondered how long he’d been on this side of the Threshold. The Te’alan didn’t like staying here, mostly because it changed their power in unpredictable ways, but from what I’d seen of the Nizashi, it hadn’t really made too much of a difference. They remained plenty powerful, even after crossing over.

  “Where is it?” he asked.

  “Not sure what you mean, but the way I understand it, you’re not supposed to be here. This place was protected.”

  The Nizashi hesitated. “The Elder is gone. The protection no longer matters.”

  “Yeah, it matters,” I said. “And he’s gone? As in gone?”

  The Nizashi only stared at me. “You do not have it.”

  “You want the cylinder? What is it?”

  “A dangerous tool created by the Elder. It holds power that cannot be brought across the Threshold.”

  “Dangerous to who?” I asked. I’d made the mistake of trying to activate the patterns. I’d felt the surge of power coming from the damn thing. What would have happened had I completed the patterns?

  E’shan didn’t answer the question as he took a small step, as if testing the magic around the Rooster. “She is here?”

  I frowned, reaching for another charm. The Agony charm had been reloaded with ink and would help here, but I hoped I didn’t need to use it. That would create a massive blast radius, maybe enough to damage part of the Rooster, though honestly, I didn’t know if anything I could do would damage it. Maybe it was more like my house, protections woven around it so tightly that it would take an attack by something of unimaginable power to do anything to it. And here, the protections placed by the Elder diminished power so maybe it wouldn’t even work, but I probably shouldn’t take that risk.

  “There are lots of people here, you might need to be a little more specific.” Being an ass to him probably wasn’t in my best interest, but I needed to figure out what he wanted, and maybe encourage him to return across the Threshold.

  “De’avan. She is here.”

  I had no intention of handing Devan over to the Nizashi. “She’s not going back with you. I promised her my protection.”

  “Your protection? That of the Painter? The Trelking speaks highly of you, Sorcerer, but you cannot keep her from one of the Nizashi.”

  “Do I need to get a shovel to prove it?” I asked.

  The Nizashi stood unmoving.

  “Why do you want her? She doesn’t intend to return, and whether you think you can take her back or not, she is the daughter of the Trelking.”

  “I care not whether she returns, only that she opens the gate and sends a warning if I fail.”

  “Why would you need her to open the gate? And what kind of warning?”

  “The way is closed. De’avan can open it. She must warn the Trelking.”

  “Of what?”

  A bloom of light struck the Nizashi. He staggered slightly and turned to look out into the darkness. I wondered what he saw with his impressive sight. Could he see Nik out there? Now that he was close, I could sense him. I knew that he was there. I needed him to come a little closer, at least close enough for me to restrain.

  The Nizashi waved a hand, and a wall of power pressed out from him. In the night, I could see it. The ability to pull on that much power was impressive. Even more impressive was the fact that Nik simply walked through it.

  “E’shan,” he said as he approached.

  “Collector,” the Nizashi said. “You are foolish to seek death like this.”

  Nik set his f
eet, the pattern allowing him to draw more power. It was different from the pattern I used, and probably more potent because of it. “I don’t seek death, but it will come to you. For that, I am sorry, but I needed to draw you here so that I could acquire the last piece.”

  “You aren’t the reason we came here.”

  “No? You didn’t come to Conlin in pursuit of my young friends because they were in possession of some harmless trinket of the Elder’s that I had stolen? Word wasn’t sent across the Threshold that the device was dangerous to the Trelking? Did you not, indeed, kill said young couple in your attempt to retrieve the cylinder? And that whole house-moving thing… Very impressive. But to no avail.” Nik smiled at E’shan. It was a terrifying thing to see him so comfortable in front of one of the Nizashi. “I thought my people might slow you down more than they did, but at least they managed to reduce your number by one.”

  Questions suddenly raced through my mind. Nik had sent the couple? And the cylinder was harmless? I thought the Nizashi said that it was dangerous. And I’d felt the power the cylinder generated. Whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t harmless.

  The Nizashi seemed to hesitate. “Even if you were to defeat me, you won’t be able to destroy him. He is too powerful.”

  Nik made a flicker of a movement, and the Nizashi was thrown backward, back out into the night. “You underestimate what I’ve acquired. And you overestimate the power of your master.”

  “Wait,” I said, my mouth coming unfrozen, but shock still coursing through me. “You’re doing this so that you can attack the Trelking?”

  Nik didn’t look over at me as he answered. “You were there, Oliver. You know what he did. All I seek is justice.”

  “Listen, I’m down with justice, too, but what you’re talking about has more implications than you realize. The Trelking is bad, but there are others who are worse, much worse. He’s the only thing that stands between them and the Threshold.”

  Nik turned then and gave me a patronizing smile. “Is that what the Trelking told you? You served him well for many years, Oliver, but there are things you never understood. You got too close. I think that’s what he wanted, why he used Devan to get to you.”