Legend of Ecta Mastrino Box Set

by B J Hanlon

  Edin twisted and jumped into a serpent stance with the knife in his hand. It may have been an overreaction and by the look on Arianne’s face, it was.

  Edin lowered it.

  “What’s that?”

  Edin took a moment, “Ask your boyfriend… his thug pulled it on me.”

  “He’s not… stop it Edin.” She took a few steps forward.

  “Don’t,” Edin stood up and slid the knife into his sleeve again. “Listen I…”

  “Nothing has happened with Casitas and I…”

  Edin raised a hand. “It doesn’t bother me any,” Edin lied. “I have to leave. I’m sorry if I ever hurt you. Goodbye,” Edin turned.

  She grabbed him again. “I don’t want your apology Edin…” Her eyes were getting damp. She was fighting back tears… again. “I want you…”

  “Not as much as I thought…” He made a nod toward the stage where Pharont was standing. Edin saw Casitas coming up the stairs staring at them. “Looks like your king wants you.”

  Edin made a rude gesture, a flick of his fingers beneath his chin.

  “You’re not safe. Why do you think-”

  “Of course, I’m not safe.” Edin nearly screamed. “I’m leaving Arianne. I’m getting out of this damned hell hole.”

  “You’re leaving?” She said and slowly it dawned on her. “The island? And going where? There’s no place for people like us.”

  “There’s no place for me here. Don’t you understand? You sit in that tower brushing your hair or sewing blankets. I thought… never mind. You’ve found someone of a higher station to latch onto. So be it.”

  “You say these things like you know my life…”

  She took his hand.

  Edin wanted badly to kiss her as he stared into those beautiful gray-green eyes. He could tell she wanted it too. But Edin hardened his jaw. Everyone he ever loved was gone… she’d be the next and he needed to prepare for it. It took a moment to notice the band had quieted. Edin tore his gaze from her, thinking that everyone was watching them. But no, they were looking around, confused with interspersed chatter.

  “Ahh, thank you…” Pharont called from the platform where the head table had been. “I am pleased so many of you could show up tonight…” His tone was that of the host as opposed to a guest. Casitas was waiving like a fool for Arianne from behind his enormous father’s comet-esque shape.

  “That cratmonger is calling, better go cozy up to him…”

  “I do not love him Edin.” She wiped her eyes. “Please tell me if you’re leaving.” She leaned in and kissed him.

  She turned and began to take her time getting up there. She glanced back as the fat man went on about the greatness of the isles and how ‘fantablous’ it is to be spending time with such fine people.

  Edin had no idea what that meant.

  A bell began to clang somewhere in the distance. He glanced up toward the clock. It was time.

  Edin stepped backward slowly, the shadows of the wall and the pergola began to cover him like a blanket. He took one last glance at Arianne standing next to Casitas, her head bowed like a whipped child and turned toward the gate. He flicked the latch open and slipped through the door.

  It was barely cracked when he heard the voice again, “As you know, Princess Arianne, last daughter of the former King Alcor Bestavienne has returned to her people. And it is my great pleasure to announce the engagement of her…”

  Edin’s heart stopped.

  “And my first-born son Casitas…”

  Some people cheered, some whispered shock.

  Edin bit his tongue to fight back the tears as he closed the door. He took a step and his legs gave way. He dropped to his knees landing hard on the gravel.

  He heard muffled words floating over the wall, but the vines provided a descent sound barrier. She said she did not love Casitas, but she’d accepted his hand.

  Arianne had chosen and it wasn’t Edin.

  11

  The Creature

  “Get up already,” A disembodied voice called.

  Edin looked around. The lights from the party barely made it over the wall. “I know you care for her, but you have to let her go… we have work to do.”

  “Le Fie?”

  He stood from a dark shadowy spot and moved toward Edin, “come now, they’ll be looking for you… that isn’t the only proclamation that Pharont has today.”

  Le Fie grabbed his arm and lifted him as if he were a child’s toy and shoved a cloth sack in his hands. A moment later, he began to drag him down the path toward the castle and the tower.

  Edin’s legs barely worked. His heart was left behind on the other side of the wall.

  At the end of the next estate’s fence line, his legs remembered how to walk and Le Fie took off the white cape and let him lag pace a yard or so behind.

  “I hate this damned color scheme, red sticks out on me like a blister on a princess… sorry. Time to change.”

  “Fire mage… I almost forgot.”

  “Yes, fire, water, earth, and wind are common here. Almost everyone is except Pharont and Mersett, they’re lightning magi.” He paused as Edin pulled on the shirt and affixed his sword to the black belt. “And you, Ecta Mastrino…”

  “I’m not…”

  “You hold three talents… that is impossible.”

  His mind was elsewhere, on Arianne looking back at him as she went to what was now her engagement party.

  “Your lightning strike, the way you controlled the tide to save our lives on the river.” There was the sound of a grin in his voice. “You’re strong and precise.”

  Edin shrugged.

  Le Fie took his ‘fancy clothes, stuffed them in the sack and threw them over the wall into Mersett’s yard. The old councilman would dispose of them.

  In his head he heard the ‘engagement of Princess Arianne and Casitas…’ He must’ve looked like he was going to cry because a quick slap crashed into his face.

  “No time for blubbering, you need to be a man… like your father.” Edin shook his head. “Where’d you get the wan knife?”

  Edin looked up shocked, then shook his own head. The words stumbled from his mouth. “That broson whose foot I broke, tried to stick me with it in the back.”

  “How’d you?”

  “Quick hands.”

  “Like a terrin?” A smile came over Le Fie, then he yanked Edin forward, pulling him. At the edge of the path was an iron gate with a guard on the other side.

  Le Fie moved to the grass and sprinted silently toward the stone wall. It was about twice his size but he scaled it and vaulted it like it were merely waist high.

  Le Fie landed on the guard silently and the man went unconscious… at least Edin hoped he was just unconscious. Then Le Fie opened the squealing gate. They were in the shadow of the mountain and the much nearer Boganthean Tower.

  “You remember the layout?”

  Edin nodded, there were circular stairs that headed almost a hundred yards beneath the tower. Different sublevels where ancient magi used to experiment with spells and rituals.

  They stayed low as they ran through the unlocked front gate and up the broken stone steps into the first floor. Le Fie turned toward the basement and pulled out his lockpick tools.

  A moment later, it creaked open and he disappeared into the darkness.

  Edin heard Le Fie whisper ‘Ablo,’ and a small flame appeared above his hand. His face glowing. “Spells do come in handy,” he said and began the descent down the stairs.

  Edin pulled up an ethereal ball and followed descending quietly into the depths.

  As they went lower, something changed. Slowly, a feeling began to come over him, a dreadful, terrorizing feeling. Edin shook it off then bumped into the back of Le Fie.

  In the light, he was ghostly pale as if he’d been caked in flour. “Do you feel it?” Said Le Fie.

  Edin nodded.

  “Something isn’t right… it feels like…”

  “Like a battle…
a war is about to begin. Like we’re about to be invaded.”

  “Yes,” Le Fie said. He took a hesitant step and reached a landing with a closed door. A light was coming through, a greenish glow like a putrid mist in a bog.

  “A spell…” Le Fie said shaking his head. “It’s… I can’t think.”

  “What type?”

  “I… don’t…” He shook his head again as if it was clearing cobwebs from a dusty box. “I found a man who seemed crazy living down by the docks. He had a minder who watched him as he bellowed out wild things, burning bones, stinging bees, and jesters…”

  “Jesters?” The word sounded crazy… he saw one in his mind, long floppy hat, painted face and gooseflesh overcame him.

  “Yeah, that one frightens me the most,” Le Fie said, his teeth chattering as he shivered. “Their sad painted faces, their noiseless mouths… how they can pull things from places where it shouldn’t be…”

  They still hadn’t moved. The light before them was growing brighter, glowing and pulsing. The feeling came back, someone was coming to destroy them.

  “What are we doing here?” Edin asked.

  “I ah… don’t know.” He pointed at the door, “I think we need to go inside.”

  Edin didn’t want to. Not even a little bit...

  Le Fie tested the door, locked. He dropped to his knees and stuck his lock pick set in. A moment later, Edin heard the latch give. Le Fie threw open the door and leapt in. Edin followed and shut it.

  Inside, were four men… all magi. Edin could see the fire around one, chunks of earth another, water balls a third, and a tornado around the forth.

  They didn’t notice the intruders as they were chanting over an odd symbol in the floor.

  “What are they?” Edin asked.

  “Mind spell… break it...”

  Edin didn’t know what to do. He felt confused, lost even. Then the room began to spin and from somewhere he heard a scream… maybe it was his. Edin saw flashes of fire, the flames of the justicar, he saw his mother and Kes next to him, Arianne crying. Then the flames engulfed him in a sheet of white-hot pain. He knew blisters were leaping up. Edin couldn’t breathe, they torched his skin, flailed and peeled like a scraper on a potato. Edin screamed. Blinked and looked back.

  His mouth went dry.

  Spiders, small ones were crawling up his boil covered arm, he flung them around trying to get the spiders away. Nothing worked.

  One pinched, and dove under his skin and began crawling. Edin tried to control himself to slap it. He missed and fell and nearly vomited.

  “Steel yourself,” Le Fie called, “It’s not real.” But his voice seemed far way. Then a moan, a scream from Le Fie.

  Not real, not real… Edin thought. It kept playing in his head.

  Edin tried to remember what Dorset had told him to counteract these.

  “Concentrate on reality, what is here, now.”

  But his mind was jumbled. He was outside on the pyre… then inside the manor. Other flashes, the Reaches, Arianne’s keep. Arianne. He held onto the picture of her face. Her turning away from him. Flames burst between them and Pharont stepped in his path. The fat man was bellowing about something… Edin heard the word. “Engagement.”

  “No!” he screamed and then he received a moment of clarity. He knew where he was. The tower. His mind cleared a bit and he saw Le Fie struggling to his feet. His head in his hands as if he had a powerful headache and there was the droning chants of the men.

  Edin reached into his tunic, he felt the warm wan stone dampening his power… but. He pushed himself to his knees his fingers felt numb as if he were still in the freezing Crady Mountains. The blade dropped.

  The pain roared back, with a vision. Now he was kneeling over a wooden bar with another around his neck. He felt no pain but he was looking out over a crowd of people. More than he’d ever seen, thousands, hundreds of thousands maybe. They were screaming, throwing things. Edin turned and saw Arianne next to him, tears running down her face. She was in the same position Edin was. Above her, was a large man with a black hood covering his face. He stepped up next to her. A headsman. Edin watched as he hefted a giant axe above his head. Sharp as anything, eluvrian steel.

  Edin screamed as the blade came down. “No!” He screamed and tried to summon a culrian over her. But he had no strength left. Nothing.

  Time slowed, and he locked eyes with her.

  She screamed, it was a long, terrified scream.

  He tried to tell her with his eyes, it’d be alright. But the blade cut through with an almost noiseless thwack. The light in her eyes dulled as her head disappeared into a basket.

  Edin roared, tears filling his eyes. This wasn’t real. He thought. He could feel the blade of the wan stone around him, suppressing him.

  His eyes snapped open. The weapon, sat only a few inches from his hand.

  Without thinking, trying to push everything out he grabbed it by the blade and pulled back. Fear tried to push itself in again. He felt it trembling on the outskirts of his brain like a flood against a levy.

  He flung it forward with all his strength. The weapon made no sound over the cacophony of chants and elements.

  A moment later, Edin felt the surge of energy. The talent flowed into him like a dam had just been demolished and Edin shouted a pained grunt he could neither hear nor feel.

  Power pulsed around him and the terror dissipated. He could feel the electricity in the air, his hair stood on end.

  He glanced up and saw the water mage had dropped, blood trickled from a wound in his lower back. A magi with green robes dropped by his companion and pulled out the blade with a sucking sound. Then threw it back as if it were on fire. A moment later they turned on Edin and Le Fie.

  “Interlopers!” the wind mage shouted. A fiery cyclone spotted with chunks of stone appeared between the three. A triumvirate of combined power. It raced toward them, howling and cackling like a loony man.

  He saw Le Fie was trying to recover his feet; he was wobbly as was Edin. A moment later, he summoned the culrian shield. The white bubble covered them as the impact threw them back.

  He landed hard and felt his ankle tweaked but he kept the shield. The cyclone circled them. The roar was so loud, he couldn’t think, couldn’t know what was happening.

  Le Fie and he knelt in the center like children hiding in a cupboard to escape their abusive drunk father.

  Wave after wave pounded into the shield weakening him... he was just about empty.

  Sweat poured down and he felt the culrian collapsing with too much pressure. Edin couldn’t see through the madness, he couldn’t feel anything.

  Le Fie yelled something, Edin couldn’t hear. All he knew is they didn’t have much time.

  Slowly, he got to his feet, Le Fie was doing the same. Together, they stepped forward, Edin forcing the shield to move with them. He felt the resistance, as if he were wrestling a giant.

  Another step. Using all his body weight and his will. Every bit of strength he had.

  He’d beaten a crillio, dematians, a terrin, the Por Fen… So many people tried to kill him… he wouldn’t let three magi.

  Another step. Le Fie was still next to him, pushing with his hands. He could sense a puddle of water on the ground near where the glasorio lay.

  It wasn’t huge and was seeping into the stone. He stepped back and felt the water, he pictured it flowing out of the stone and forming on the ground. Then he raised them, floating orbs of water. He couldn’t, didn’t have the ability or the strength to turn them into ice.

  Edin sent them forward in a wave that grew. The tornado stopped for a moment, Edin let loose the shield and screamed. The electricity in the room was metallic and buzzing.

  Without thinking he raised a hand, let an arc of electricity shot forth from his palm striking the earth mage and bouncing to the other two. Their eyes snapped open, their bodies seized and they dropped in the glowing circle.

  Edin collapsed but Le Fie caught him. Edin felt col
d and drained like someone had stuck him with a needle and was letting out all of his life blood.

  “The room is filled with energy…” Le Fie said. “Can you use it?”

  Edin’s eyes were closing, he wasn’t sure what the man was talking about for a moment then he did. Grent had taught him. He felt it all around him, reaching out and touching it with his mind. The energy was like a cloud of insects that healed. He pictured that, as creepy as it sounded, but then had them all land on him.

  His eyes opened and the room came into focus.

  “Gods, you are strong... but they…” he looked over at the men. Steam was rising from three of the bodies while blood still trickled from the forth. “I’ve never seen an attack like that…”

  “Who were they?”

  “Pharont’s men… I knew one of them.” He walked over toward the wind mage. “Veclan was in my class at school, smart and pompous but weak minded. Seems he grew very strong in the talent...”

  Edin looked around, though he didn’t want to be in there anymore. The glowing green symbol on the floor was gone. The perimeter of the room was studded with tables and bookshelves covered in many curious objects that didn’t make any sense, ropes, bricks, casts of bricks, huge clear glass mugs with a viscus red substance in it; animal hair and what could’ve been a human bone.

  “These are all alchemy and spell books… I’d love to know what my uncle was working on, but I have a feeling, someone will come by soon. We need to find the creature.”

  Edin nodded, he was tired but followed Le Fie back out into the stairwell and down. The air grew cold and damp and he was reminded of Arianne’s and his days in the long escape tunnel.

  They reached another door and Le Fie took out his lock picks and snuck them in. Then he stopped, “it’s warded.”

  “So we can’t get in?”

  “Well, I don’t know what type of ward. It could be any number of things…”