The Painter Mage: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  “You think I haven’t learned how to control them? When you learn from the Druist, you learn to control everything under his command.”

  I had to figure out a way to plead for a different reason. “If you do this—if you destroy the Trelking—there’s no telling what will happen.”

  He fixed me with a hard expression. His eyes carried none of the friendliness I’d seen in them before. “I know exactly what will happen. I will finally be free.” The claw statue turned, patterns marking the sides started glowing. “Don’t worry. You’ll soon be free, too.”

  I couldn’t deny that there was a part of me that longed for that freedom. If the Trelking ever managed to reach me, I would suffer. Probably more than the nine and ninety years he promised. It would be worse than that, much worse than I could imagine. And then there was what would happen to Devan. She would be forced to serve at his whim, too. Already, she was betrothed to the Druist, and the gods only know what more she’d be asked to do.

  But the Trelking possessed an unfathomable power, enough to hold off some of the worst things imaginable on the other side of the Threshold. Were he gone, what more would happen? The hunters coming through this gateway were bad enough, but what else might come through?

  I looked over to Devan. Her skin pulsed with color. Yellow and faint green. I’d never seen it do that before.

  The steady thump, thump, thump came from near the front of the park.

  Nik tipped his head. “De’avan. Is that you?”

  He cupped his hands together. I nocked an arrow and fired, forcing him to turn and face me rather than hitting Devan. He managed to slap the arrow out of the air, but his attack was forced out and into the trees.

  “You’re giving me a reason to reconsider my plans for you,” Nik said to me.

  He spiraled his hands, but as he did, I reached for one of my charms. There were only a few left, and this one wouldn’t do much more than fire a single shot at him, but it might slow him. I triggered it and black ink went flying. With a quick infusion of power, it exploded.

  I don’t know what I really expected, but not for Nik to simply stand unfazed by my attack. He must have made a pretty potent circle of protection around himself for that to hold up to my attack.

  He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Oliver.”

  He started with a complicated movement of his hands. I noticed then that the tips of his fingers had been stained red and black, a combination of the colors I was drawn to. Whatever pattern he created would be powerful, more powerful than anything I could do to stop it.

  The only hope I had was using one of my arcane patterns. I traced it around me, adding to the circle I’d created, using black and splashing in brown. If I could split my focus, I might be able to create two separate patterns. That might be enough to keep me safe, but for how long? I wouldn’t have the strength to withstand him attacking me indefinitely.

  Thump, thump, thump.

  This time, Nik turned.

  I looked up and blinked, unable to believe what I was seeing. Two massive creatures stomped toward us. They looked to be made of stone or metal and had thick, blunted features, wide-set eyes, and massive, muscular arms and legs. Both carried long clubs pointed at the end. Trolls.

  I started laughing, unable to contain it.

  This had been what Devan had been hiding from me, the secret to how she scared off the Nizashi when they attacked the house.

  Nik glanced at me. “Is this your work, Oliver? You brought them here?”

  I shook my head. “I wouldn’t even know how.”

  They both converged on Nik, moving with that steady and rhythmic thump, thump, thump. As they did, I realized that I might be the only one to hear it. The sound seemed to come from the medallion, but beat in time with my heart. I laughed again, suddenly understanding Devan’s preoccupation with her figurines.

  Nik attacked the trolls. He used a combination of patterns made with ink on the ground, as well as complicated twistings of his hands. Seeing him in action, I fully understood how he had modded and trained himself into something more than a painter. He was a mage, much like the Druist Mage. Maybe not as powerful, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get to that level. And if Nik could learn, did that mean that I might be able to learn?

  More than anything else, that spurred me to action. I didn’t fear the Trelking, not as Nik did, but I did fear the Druist Mage, especially now that I’d come across two of his men. Both Adazi and Nik had nearly killed me. Both had nearly led to Devan being forced back across the Threshold.

  And eventually, I needed to know how to stop the Druist Mage.

  “Don’t kill him,” I yelled.

  The trolls ignored me as they swung their clubs at Nik, but the request wasn’t really for them. It was for Devan. I understood that she controlled the trolls somehow. Knowing how many different creatures she’d carved into figurines, I wondered if she had a veritable army at her disposal.

  Nik spun in place, looking almost like a dancer. As he did, he reached into his pocket and withdrew the Trelking’s token. I felt the power he started to draw, pulling on it through the token.

  “Devan!” I shouted. “He’s going to use the cerys.”

  The trolls surged forward, moving faster than I would have expected possible. Their clubs were up and smashed down, narrowly missing Nik. He flicked ink toward them. The pattern created a tight spiral that landed on the chest of one of the trolls. The pattern exploded, sending chunks of stone and metal outward. The troll barely paused, but neither did Nik. He created another pattern and then another, each one landing on the trolls, each one exploding shortly after.

  The trolls chased him, reaching the circle that surrounded him. They couldn’t press through it, but battered at the invisible wall. Each blow seemed like a physical assault on Nik, and he cowered down. Their attack served to interrupt him from whatever he intended to do with the token, but it wouldn’t last. The trolls might eventually break through the barrier, but would it be too late?

  I took a chance and lunged toward Nik. His attention was turned away from me, still focused on attacking the trolls. Both were missing most of their chests and one had lost an arm. Pretty soon, they would be useless.

  My momentum sent me colliding with Nik. His barrier hadn’t been attuned to keep painters out, at least not those holding a charm powered with an arcane pattern that fired as I crossed. I knocked him to the ground. He reached for me, but I swung the bow around and crashed it into his head. It dazed him, so I struck him again. This time, it knocked him out.

  “Damn,” I said, rolling away.

  Devan grabbed me and pulled me to my feet. “What is it?”

  I looked over to Jakes. He hadn’t moved since Taylor attempted to use the cylinder. “Jakes was right. Sometimes you just have to outmuscle a guy.”

  Devan gave me one of her annoyed expressions. “You’re an idiot.”

  “I know,” I said. Then I leaned toward her and kissed her.

  15

  We grabbed the cylinder, and I brought it over to where Nik lay unmoving. The lights from the park had dimmed, as if whatever power he pulled drew on the patterns there, as well. I didn’t want to wait too long or he might start waking up. I didn’t think I’d get a second chance at knocking him out. I think we’d been lucky the first time.

  I pointed the cylinder at him, and Devan touched my arm. She still had a flush from when I’d kissed her, and her skin glowed a soft yellow. “Are you sure this is safe? Taylor tried using it, but it didn’t work for her.”

  “She said it was attuned to the Elder, but that’s true with pretty much everything else we’ve found. And it started to work the one time I tried using it.”

  “But you said there was a powerful draw from it.”

  “Uh, yeah, what’s your point?”

  “Idiot,” she said.

  Nik started moving, rolling over to face me.

  I pressed power through the cylinder, pointing it at Nik. The patterns carved on it b
egan glowing with a bright light. There was no sound of the humming, nothing like what I’d heard when Taylor had tried using it. A surge of light came from the end and lanced toward Nik.

  He reached a hand out toward me but not in time. The light from the cylinder struck him, and enveloped him.

  Light seemed to race around him, spiraling around his arms and working across his chest and down his legs. His eyes went wide, and he tried kicking, but the light held him frozen in place. Then it started constricting, pulling tight around him, drawing him inward.

  “Shit. Am I going to kill him?” I asked.

  I started toward him, but Devan held me back. “You can’t touch him when this is happening. Let it finish.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I’ve seen something like it before.”

  “Your father?” I asked, thinking of the figurines Adazi had been after and the prison my father had beneath the shed. Devan nodded.

  The light continued to constrict, pulling inward. As it did, Nik began to shrink in upon himself. Any question of whether he felt it happening was answered by the wide-eyed look on his face.

  “I’m sorry, Nik,” I said.

  The transformation finished with a soft pop. The light shrunk to little more than a ball, and when it cleared, all that remained was a tiny statue standing about three inches high in the shape of a little Nik.

  I picked it up carefully off the ground. Frozen as he was, one hand stretched out toward me as if to use some pattern he prepared, his eyes wide and looking frightened, he didn’t seem nearly as impressive as he had only moments before. I handed him to Devan.

  She held her hands out and shook her head. “I’m not touching him.”

  “Why? Will it doing anything to free him?”

  “No. It’s just gross.”

  I laughed and stuffed him into my pocket and placed the silver cylinder in the other. It was kind of gross, but if it kept him from hurting someone else, then it was worth it. I finally let myself relax and looked over to the trolls. They were scattered, half broken, and stood otherwise motionless.

  “That’s what you’ve been doing with your figurines?”

  She whispered something softly, her skin glowed again, and the trolls began shrinking down into nothing. Devan went over to them and picked them up off the ground before pocketing them. “Sometimes, you need protection, Ollie. You get a little careless.”

  “I get a little careless? Don’t you think you could have told me what they were?”

  “Would it have mattered?”

  “Well, yeah. How many of those do you have? I know I’ve seen nearly a dozen different ones. We could’ve sent your little army after Nik, and none of this would have been necessary.”

  “It doesn’t work like that,” she said.

  “How does it work?”

  “Not like that.”

  She wrapped her arms around the obelisk and picked it up. I suspected the statue was incredibly heavy, but Devan lifted it as if it were nothing. “I’ll move these back into place. You’ll have to trigger the pattern to seal them.” I nodded. “Will you check on the others?”

  Devan turned and made her way to the front of the park. There was something that bothered her, but I couldn’t tell what it might be. Her skin glowed softly as she walked, slowly fading into the night.

  I stopped in front of Jakes and crouched down. He didn’t move. Using a pinch of green ink, I made a series of overlapping circles around him. When completed, I pressed energy into them, letting the healing pattern wash over him. I didn’t have as much strength as some did with this pattern, but it should work to bring Jakes back, drawing on the magic running through him to heal.

  Jakes took a long breath and looked over at me. “Is it finished?”

  I patted my pocket. “Little Nik won’t be bothering anyone for a while.”

  Jakes grunted and pushed away from the ground. His eyes strayed over to the other shifter lying nearby, the one with the neck bent awkwardly. “Is there anything you can do for her?”

  I could hear how difficult it was for Jakes to ask. “Look at her, Jakes. I’m not sure there’s anything anyone could do.” He glowered at me, and I raised my hands in a placating way. “Fine. I’ll try.”

  I made a similar circle around the shifter. I suspected it was Kacey, but couldn’t be sure. When it sealed closed, I pressed power into it, but nothing happened. I glanced back at Jakes and was about to tell him that I couldn’t help, when I decided to add an arcane pattern to it, turning every other one of the interlocked circles in such a way that it would appear to float. Arcane and traditional patterns, woven together. I still didn’t expect it to work, but tried anyway.

  The draw from me was enormous. My legs quivered as I tried to remain standing while powering it. Then the shifter gasped. Its head snapped back into place and it took a deep breath.

  Jakes dragged himself across the ground and lifted the shifter’s head into his lap and began stroking the fur. He didn’t look up as he said, “Thanks, Morris.”

  I swallowed back the smart-ass comment that came to mind. There was no point in saying anything more, not after what we’d all been through. I didn’t know for certain, but hopefully none of the shifters had been seriously hurt.

  “What…what happened?”

  I turned and saw Taylor weaving away from the tree. Her eyes had a glazed-over look, and she tottered as she walked, but she was alive.

  “What happened to Nik?”

  “He’s gone,” I said.

  “Oh.”

  “You should have told me this was part of the reason you’d come.” I waved the cylinder at her.

  Her eyes caught on the cylinder and widened slightly. “I thought it was lost.”

  “Where did you find it?” With something of my father’s, I had a pretty good idea, especially now that I knew Nik had stolen it from Taylor in the first place.

  “Arcanus. It’s the reason I came looking for help from the Elder.”

  The cylinder hadn’t been in Arcanus after he’d disappeared, before I crossed the Threshold the first time. At least, I didn’t think that it had been. It was one more reason for me to think he had been alive after the masters of Arcanus thought him dead. But why would he have left it in Arcanus? And how would he have taken it there without anyone knowing?

  “Did you know what it did?” I asked.

  She took a wavering step forward. “No. It’s something of the Elder’s, and where I found it told me it was important, but I’ve never been able to activate it. Then it was missing…”

  “Did you know Nik took it?”

  “Nik couldn’t activate it, either. He tried, and he got farther with it than I did, but it didn’t do anything.”

  That meant Nik hadn’t known what it could do. Maybe the Druist Mage didn’t know, either. It was a slight advantage, but we had to use every one that we had.

  But why had he brought it to Conlin? Had it only been about the Nizashi, or had he thought the answer to using it might be here? Nik hadn’t been all that surprised to find me, and the couple had come looking for me specifically.

  I patted the pocket where I’d stuffed little Nik. More questions to be answered later.

  “Thanks for not telling him everything you’ve learned here.” I didn’t know why she hid from him what she’d learned of the Elder—not yet—but I would find out. The fact that she’d shielded my father’s collection from Nik had saved us even more, I think. “Hey, what did you do to Tom? I thought he gave you the old frying pan to the head?”

  Taylor touched a hand to her head and winced. “He did. I stunned him.”

  I nodded. At least she hadn’t done anything more stupid than that. I could only imagine what Jakes would do to her had Taylor attacked Tom with a little more force. “Why don’t you sit down and rest, Taylor.”

  She nodded and dropped to the ground.

  Devan returned for another of the statues. She lifted it and started away, moving toward the opposite
corner of the park. I followed her and took the end of the child statue.

  “This isn’t going to end, you know,” she said as we set the statue back into the ground.

  I had been having the same thought. “I know.”

  “You know what he said.”

  By he, she meant her father. The Trelking had told me that before I finished serving him, I would kill the Druist Mage. It had been part of the reason we had run. There was nothing I could do against a power like that.

  “I would have done more, Ollie, you know that I would, but I’m not allowed. There’s only so much I can do. But I can’t stand the idea of losing…of losing—”

  I took her hands and pulled her toward me, wrapping her in a hug. We’d known each other ten years, and in that time, I’d never considered her as anything more than a friend. Even thinking about it now felt strange and fantastic, but I had to admit the fear was real, too. I didn’t want to lose her, either.

  She looked up at me and started to say something more. I stopped her with another kiss. My lips tingled as we did, and I felt the medallion go cold while her skin glowed.

  “I can’t lose you, either.” I took a deep breath and looked toward the center of the park. “We came to Conlin looking for answers to what happened to my father. If both the Nizashi and Nik say he’s gone, maybe it’s time I start believing it. And after this attack, now we have even more reason to see the Druist Mage dead.”

  Devan let out a long sigh and squeezed me a little too hard. I grunted.

  “You’re an idiot, you know that, Ollie?”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “You think you can use Nik?” she asked.

  I didn’t know if I could, or if I wanted to try, but if it would help me find a way to stop the Druist Mage, I might have no other choice.

  * * *

  Book 4 of the Painter Mage: Stolen Compass

  My name is Oliver Morris, and I’m a painter. I can use color and shapes and patterns and infuse them with power. And somehow, the Trelking claims I’m destined to kill the Druist Mage.

  After defeating my old friend Nik, I now have a teacher, but first I have to figure out how to animate him and then I can try to convince him to teach me how to defeat his master.