by B. T. Narro
There was nowhere for him to hide, but he might be able to find sanctuary inside the Academy if he made it to the gate at the center.
He looked up the wall as he ran, hoping to see watch guards but spotted no one. The horses gained on him, the night still too dark for him to make out more than silhouettes.
He pushed himself to his utmost limit, but he tired quickly, even while cycling energy as his father had taught him to do. Desil had to drop his extra sword and his bag or he wouldn’t make it to the gate.
He did so as he yelled to anyone in the Academy who might hear, “Help, I’m being chased by murderers! Open the gate!”
He continued to yell as his pursuers gained on him, but then one of them gave his own shout. “Desil, it’s Kirnich!”
Kirnich? Desil stopped, completely shocked. It really was Kirnich, with Beatrix riding beside him.
Desil screamed in anger, “Why the bastial hell are you chasing me! I thought you were Micklin.”
“Keep quiet. Micklin could still be around.”
Desil caught his breath as he walked back to fetch his bag and extra sword. Kirnich and Beatrix got there first, both dismounting and picking up Desil’s belongings to hand them to him. It did nothing to dampen his anger.
“Why didn’t you tell me it was you earlier!”
“We tried to call to you when you were leaving Kayvol,” Beatrix replied as she got back on her horse. “Didn’t you hear?”
“I might’ve made out my name, but that was it.”
“We couldn’t be any louder,” Kirnich said. “Micklin’s party was probably waiting to ambush us. Yelling to you would’ve alerted them to our location.”
Desil realized something. “You must’ve taken those horses from someone’s farm. Never mind that. I don’t have time to stand here any longer. The sun is coming up. I have to be somewhere.”
“You’re meeting him in the Academy?” Beatrix asked.
Desil started jogging. “No. What are you doing coming after me?”
Kirnich kept up with a nudge to his horse. “We figured out the best way to get to the castle. We need Basen to open up a portal.”
Beatrix followed right behind Kirnich. “So you need to take us to him,” she added.
Desil stopped.
First of all, it was a shock that such a powerful psychic and warrior, although injured at the moment, were too scared of an ambush to ride to the castle. It made Desil realize, if he hadn’t already, just how seriously he needed to take the threat of Micklin. But the headmaster’s portals should keep Desil away from danger. There were a few problems, however.
“You were almost certainly followed by taking—no, stealing—those horses,” Desil thought aloud. Whatever I decide has to be soon.
“It was the only way to catch up,” Kirnich countered. “You run like a damn Krepp, and with no Academy training. You should’ve enrolled.”
Desil ignored the indirect compliment for now. “I don’t know what Basen would do if I brought the two of you with me to the meeting spot. He might leave in a portal before we can get close enough to explain.”
“He won’t.” Kirnich sounded certain. “I know him, and so does Beatrix. He’ll at least have a conversation.”
“You said we don’t have much time.” Beatrix rode ahead and gestured for Desil to follow. “So we might as well go.”
They would follow Desil no matter what he told them, so he didn’t see another option. He wasn’t about to miss the portal if he could help it. Besides, Basen could decide for himself what to do with these two. It wasn’t as if Kirnich was in any condition to force the headmaster to do anything.
“Fine, but take my swords and bag if you’re going to stay on horseback. We don’t have much time and there’s still a ways to go.”
They raced against the sunrise as the last of the night dissolved. When they were a mile away from the small forest, questions came to Desil that he hadn’t thought to ask earlier.
“Whatever you did to the Girgis brother, Kirnich, he wants us dead. What happened after I brought him to you?”
“I gave him the worst punishment for petty theft, ten years in the dungeons, to send a message to him and any other guards who might consider stealing.” Kirnich paused. “It must’ve been Allephon who allowed him out. There might be others after me now that Beatrix’s brother has given permission to kill me.”
Desil took that to mean Kirnich wasn’t the most liked officer of the army. He felt a moment of pity as he noticed Kirnich wincing. The warrior’s life had changed for the worse ever since chasing Basen to Kanoan.
Desil’s shirt was wet with sweat by the time they made it to the small forest west of the Academy. It felt like a year ago that he’d last been here, climbing down into the abandoned Slugari colony to search for clues as to where Leida’s father had gone, but it was probably more like a couple of weeks ago.
Desil felt a dagger in his chest when he came to the designated spot and found no one there. Could he have the wrong location? He looked around. No. Leida had written that it was the same tree that reminded her of her grandfather, where they’d been before. Desil walked over and even found the hidden wooden door beneath his feet. They wouldn’t have left without him, would they?
The sky was blue between the white streaks of clouds; it was certainly past first light now. If Basen and Leida hadn’t wanted to wait, he supposed they could’ve convinced themselves that he wasn’t going to show.
“I don’t sense anyone,” Beatrix said with regret.
“Don’t start worrying yet.” Kirnich came down off his horse with a grunt of pain. “Basen!” he called out. “We aren’t here to arrest you. We just need you to make a portal. Micklin has been after us.” The warrior paused, his voice softening. “He won’t stop.”
There was no response.
The place felt empty. Desil drank from his water pouch to alleviate the dry scratch of his throat.
Beatrix closed her eyes and lowered her head. “There.” She pointed, but the forest was too dark for Desil to see past the first trees in front of him.
A man emerged, cloaked and hooded, just like Micklin the first time Desil had the displeasure of meeting him. Two others came out from the darkness, hoods covering their faces.
The man pulled down his hood first. The headmaster had trimmed his black hair so that it no longer fell past his eyebrows. The sharp look in his eyes told Beatrix and Kirnich he wasn’t happy to see them.
Leida pulled down her hood next with nearly the opposite expression as her father, smiling at Desil in a way that lifted his heart. Adriya revealed herself last, her usual scowl somehow coming as a comfort to Desil, as he was glad to see them all.
But then he caught the headmaster’s look and felt an answer demanded of him. “They were at my mother’s tavern when I came back from my climb,” Desil explained.
“So you brought them here?” Basen complained.
“It’s not that simple, headmaster.” The respect in Kirnich’s voice came as a surprise to Desil. The warrior rolled up his sleeves as he walked toward Basen, both bandages red with moist blood.
“God’s mercy,” Basen muttered. “Are you all right?”
“I will be when I put my sword through Micklin’s chest.”
“We need to get to the castle,” Beatrix explained. “We went to Desil’s tavern first to get a better sense of who sent Micklin after us. If he found us there, which he did, it would mean someone in my family was responsible. They are the only ones who could’ve guessed where we were because only they know I went there to question Desil a while ago.”
“Why didn’t you stay at the Academy?” Basen asked. “You should’ve been safe there with my wife.”
“Not now that everyone else has left,” Beatrix said. “There’s no protection. When Kirnich was able to walk, your wife moved us into a student home to hide us while she continued to give him care. But we knew Micklin would find us eventually—especially without guards posted to watch for him.
We had to move.”
“And why not to the castle?” Basen asked.
“I can’t run yet,” Kirnich admitted with frustration. “Can barely fight. If they found us along the way, they’d kill us.”
“Micklin’s group might’ve followed Beatrix and Kirnich now,” Desil pointed out. “We should discuss this elsewhere.”
Basen lifted his hand. “I’m still trying to decide what to do.”
“What do you mean by Micklin’s group?” Leida asked Desil.
“Two others attacked us at the tavern with Micklin,” Desil replied. “One of them I know from before I met you. He wants revenge on me and Kirnich. The other I’ve never met, but he’s a powerful fire mage. If my mother hadn’t been there to counter his spells with her sartious energy, I’m not sure what would’ve happened. He graduated from the Academy last year. His name is Erwal. Do you…?” Desil didn’t have to finish his question as Adriya and Leida gasped and turned to each other.
“Could it be because of me?” Leida asked her friend.
“No—that would be madness.”
“But he is mad.”
“Why would you think he’s here because of you?” Desil asked.
“We really must be leaving now,” Beatrix interrupted. “Basen, please give us a portal into the castle, as close to my father’s chambers as you can.”
“I can’t teleport into the castle.”
“Why not?” Beatrix asked.
“There’s no exit established for me in there. A lot of bastial energy has to be gathered in the same spot, then I need to familiarize my mind with the location. Your father has not allowed for either to happen. He didn’t want me able to make portals into the castle.”
“Then where’s the closest you can bring us?”
Basen sighed as he rubbed his brow. “There’s an exit established behind the back wall of the castle, but I haven’t made a portal there for so many years that I’m not sure if I can anymore. The next closest exit is at the nearby training center, but that’s in front of the castle where you’re more likely to be seen.”
“Can you try to make one behind?” Beatrix asked.
“I can’t—at least not right now.” Basen pulled back his sleeves to show two large stone bracelets, only one glowing. “I used an akorell stone to return to Kyrro recently. As you can see, I only have one other while I wait a day for the first to charge, and I can’t be stuck here during that time, which I will be if I make a portal for you. All I can offer is to have you and Kirnich come with me, and I promise I will make you a portal as soon as I can, so long as it doesn’t get in the way of what I need to accomplish.”
“How long will that be?” Beatrix asked.
“Probably a few days, and I’ll request your help in the meantime.”
“A few days? Please, headmaster. We have to get to the castle sooner.”
“That’s the best I can offer. Time is just as important to me.”
After a moment of thought, Beatrix asked, “Where would we be going and how would you need our help?”
“It’s important that you don’t know unless you’re coming with me.”
“It’s probably just to gather akorell metal,” Kirnich told Beatrix. “Not dangerous. And I need time for my injuries to heal anyway.”
“I suppose I don’t see another option.”
“Let’s get out of here before Micklin comes,” Adriya said.
Desil suddenly remembered something they needed to know right away. “I saw two Marros earlier tonight. I don’t know where you’re planning to take us, Basen, but I figured you should know first in case it changes your plan.”
The news froze everyone, Basen halting as he reached for the wand on his belt.
“You saw them where?” the headmaster asked.
“Far south of here, over the Sumar Mountains.”
“Do you know what they were doing?”
“No. They must’ve come through the portal you made to get us off Kanoan. Now they’re either lost or they have some sense of how to get home to Kanoan. I hope it’s the former, because they’re probably smart enough to realize that you’ve taken them to the same continent where we’ve escaped. If they still want revenge, they could bring the rest of their kin here to look for us.”
“They might do the same if they want to look for akorell metal,” Leida said as Desil was about to get to that point. “They probably need more of it after what we did.”
After what my father did. Getting himself killed in the process. A storm cloud hovered over Desil as he lost himself in a moment of dark thoughts. He came back alive as Leida touched his shoulder.
“Are you all right?” she asked softly.
“I am.”
Adriya asked Basen, “Does this change anything?”
“It might eventually, but not yet.”
“That’s even more reason to get me to my father as soon as you can.” Beatrix stepped toward Basen with her hands on her hips. “He needs to know about the Marros so he can be ready to fight back if they do come.”
“I told you I’ll get you there as soon as I can.”
“As soon as it doesn’t disrupt your plans, you said. You should rethink that.” She aimed her glare at Desil. “Why didn’t you say anything about the Marros earlier? Did you plan to keep it from me? I can’t understand why. But it’s even less likely that you would forget, so I don’t know what to assume.”
Before Desil could defend himself, Kirnich spoke for him. “Things were busy at the tavern. It’s understandable he’d forget.”
Her expression softened as she closed her eyes and nodded. “Sorry, Desil. I’m exhausted. Let’s get out of here.”
Her sudden mood shift came as a surprise. Perhaps she’d remembered that he’d recently lost his father. It didn’t seem right to use his grief as an excuse for his shortcomings, but Desil didn’t see a way around it.
“Move back,” Basen announced.
They made room as he opened his arms and tilted his wand. There was a flash—everything bathed in white for a blink, then a crack and a strong gust of air flowing past Desil and into an expanding rip across some invisible wall. A black hole growled as it burst open to reach a size taller than Kirnich, its edges rippling as spears of white and yellow light zigged across.
Desil had lost himself to the beauty and power of the portal before remembering to gaze inside and see where they were headed. All he could make out was a sea of red that looked to be lava. He couldn’t find any ground to land upon.
“Who’s first?” Basen asked, his voice showing the strain of keeping the portal open.
CHAPTER FOUR
The one who trusted Basen the most jumped in before everyone else. Leida disappeared as soon as she entered the portal, the image of red lava unchanging. The portal made a slurp as if devouring her, causing everyone else to hesitate.
“Is there a fall?” Desil asked.
“A short one onto rock,” Basen said. “It’s going to disorient you…and probably hurt. There’s little else I can say to prepare you, so you’ll just have to trust me that you’ll survive it.”
Kirnich cursed as he stepped toward the portal. “Might as will get this over with.” He crossed his arms over his body as if to protect them, then hopped inside.
Desil listened for screams or any other sign of distress, but nothing came. Air whooshed around Basen, kicking up leaves and dirt to carry some into the portal. The current strengthened the longer Desil hesitated. It wasn’t exactly fear that planted his feet but curiosity. He wished to know more about these portals, as well as his own abilities.
This had all started with a wish to meet the mage leaving him memories in Lake Kayvol, to learn more about his limitations and how to break them. Yet it was only during the voyage to Kanoan that they’d had time to explore their abilities…and all of it had been spent training Leida. It was a necessary use of time, but there hadn’t been another opportunity since. Disappointing, to say the least.
Desil wante
d to help stop this war with Tenred, but with his father gone, he wanted even more to figure out just how far he could push the limits of his abilities. Would there be time to focus on this specifically after he took that portal?
Beatrix seemed to be waiting for Desil to go next as Adriya walked off.
“Where are you going?” Desil asked her.
“To fetch our gear now that the portal is open. I’ll be last, go ahead.”
Desil still couldn’t figure out why he was stalling. Perhaps he just wasn’t ready yet. Just like getting on Mmzaza’s boat, there was no turning back once he leapt into that portal.
“Go, Beatrix,” he told her.
“Fine.” She threw her hands over her face as she jumped in.
“What’s wrong?” Basen asked Desil when it was just the two of them.
There were a number of answers, but he couldn’t bring himself to say any aloud. He’d nearly died the last time he’d gone with Leida, and now he would be away from home until they’d accomplished what they’d set out to do—or died trying. The need to help Basen accomplish his goal was still there, but gone was Desil’s yearning for adventure.
“It will be safe,” Basen assured Desil.
Adriya came back into sight carrying a tall ladder that was clearly a strain for her to handle on her own. Desil ran over to help. Together, they shifted it horizontally and started pushing it into the portal. After a few rungs were inside, the rest was sucked in and nearly took Desil with it. Adriya jumped in, leaving Desil alone again with the headmaster, who gave him a worried look.
“You still haven’t told me what’s wrong,” Basen said. His mouth curled as he continued to maintain the portal.
“It’s not so much that anything’s wrong. It’s just that everyone has their own reason for being here this time, and I haven’t had the time to figure out mine.” The only reason he’d come this far was because he couldn’t imagine staying behind in his boring life at his mother’s tavern, but that didn’t make it any easier to jump into this portal.
“I’m certain the reason will make itself known to you soon. There’s no way for it not to. But more importantly, you’re needed, Desil.”