by M. D. Grimm
“But that doesn’t matter.” I finished. “You worry about me.”
Aishe met my eyes and nodded. I smiled slightly. “I worry about you too, you know. Your safety is my first priority.”
Aishe’s eyes softened, and he smiled. I held out my hand.
“Come on... mate.”
Aishe’s smile stretched into a grin, and he took my hand.
His cheeks were already rosy from the cold, and his hand was cold in mine. I murmured a word, sending two pairs of gloves to me. I handed one pair to Aishe, who took them with a chuckle.
“No need to pack when you can just conjure anything you want,” he said.
I slipped my gloves on and snickered. “Only when we’re this close to Geheimnis. The farther I get from her, the harder it gets to summon things from home.”
He took my hand again. I could still feel his heat through our thick gloves.
One good thing about the winter was that it discouraged the “heroes” who regularly tried to decapitate me. I was the villain in these parts, and heroes from the north and south kingdoms always tried to make a name for themselves by killing me. If you hadn’t guessed, they always failed. Also, it wasn’t unusual for weaker mages to come and challenge me, trying to seek power through fame. I usually let them go after I’d roughed them up some. I had known from the start that when I’d created my own fierce reputation, others would seek to carve their own into my backside. It was unavoidable.
I had done my own evil deeds to win the title of Dark Mage. I wasn’t proud of them; there were just some things you had to do in your life that were unsavory but necessary.
I wasn’t going to run away and hide in a cave, the way the Council of Mages wanted me to do. I wasn’t going to be ashamed of myself -- or, at least I wasn’t going to let them think I was ashamed of myself -- because of my destiny. I had decided that I was going to flip them the middle finger and carve out my territory in the ground with blood. I was going to show them that I wasn’t afraid of them.
Aishe and I walked on in comfortable silence until we entered a small section of the forest that had strange gossamer webs stretched across the ground. Underneath the webs, there were small mounds, and it was too regular a pattern to be anything but deliberate.
I stopped and frowned. I’d never seen anything like this in my forest before. I studied the mounds, and every so often, one would twitch and some of the dirt would tumble down. There were creatures under those mounds, but what, I couldn’t say. Not yet.
“Stay here,” I murmured to Aishe. But before I could approach the nearest mound, a small squirrel suddenly ran down a tree and got caught in the gossamer, sticky webbing. It thrashed and squeaked, and then out of the mound came a claw-legged, flat-bodied creature with a plated back and two very long antennae. It reared out of its mound, and with two large pinchers, it grabbed the squirrel, cutting its own webbing like it was slicing through tissue paper and sank back into its mound with lunch.
Both Aishe and I jerked in surprise with the sudden attack. I let out a sharp laugh.
“Well, I guess I have some new tenants.”
Aishe stared at me. “What are they?”
“Not sure. They sort of resemble Crawlers, don’t you think?” I approached one of the mounds and knelt down.
My magick rose up inside me when I called to it. It burned pleasantly in my gut like hot embers and streamed through the blood, heating my hands, making my fingers tingle. I held up my hand, stretched out my fingers, and thought a word.
I used to have to say the word aloud, but now that I was older, I could find the focus to think the word, to empty my mind of everything else and only focus on the magickal deed itself. It had been a hard skill to learn, but that had only made me want to learn it more passionately.
Challenging myself with difficult magick kept me strong and prepared.
My magick swept through the mound and formed a bubble around the strange creature. It rose into the air, thrashing its long, flat body, its mouth pinchers snapping in anger. I noticed that it had no eyes and that its antennae were writhing around, trying to find what held it captive.
“I know you can hear me,” I said softly, my voice hard.
The creature stopped thrashing, its antennae quivering.
“I’m the master here. You live here, you follow my orders. And you come when called.” With another word thought, the bubble around the creature fizzled with blue light, and the creature suddenly became rigid, curling into a ball of agony. If it could scream, it would have. I was sending short electrical bursts through the creature, giving it pain, showing it that I wasn’t joking. It would obey me or die.Predators, especially ones like these, only responded to pain. They only understood forceful dominance.
I noticed that the other creatures had poked their flat heads out of their mounds, all their antennae directed toward me. They were “watching” in their own way, observing what I did. I stopped the electricity, and the creature slumped in the bubble, exhausted and twitchy.
“Do we understand each other?” I asked.
Its antennae came to life once more and slowly stretched forward, caressing the sides of the bubble. I lifted my other hand and poked a couple of fingers through the bubble, and the antennae touched me. They were scaly and wet, but their touch was meek and submissive. I smiled.
I looked at the other creatures. “You come when called.
All of you. Or do I need to demonstrate for all of you as well?”
The creatures cowered in their mounds and disappeared, one by one in the dirt. I lowered the creature in the bubble to the ground, and the bubble dissipated. I stood, and the creature wearily burrowed back under the ground.
I walked back to Aishe, who had a smile on his face.
“What?”
He shook his head. “You seem to do that so easily. I’m impressed.”
“If I don’t show I’m the master fast, it becomes harder later on.” I looked back, and all I saw was mounds and webs, the creatures hidden.
“Let’s go.”
We talked as we headed into a denser part of my forest.
Aishe asked me about the process of making a potion. I was only too happy to answer.
“Ingredients are always the hardest part of a potion.”
I easily sidestepped one of my trees that tried to break my head open. It was their way of showing affection.
Go figure. “Depending on how complex you want the potion to be, you might have to go to the other side of the world to get them. That’s why merchants and traders are so important. Making friends with them keeps a mage from journeying to the ends of Karishian to find a fucking Muleen flower or--”
I stopped in my tracks. I had just realized that Aishe was no longer walking beside me. Swinging around, my heart began to race with panic, and magick pooled into my hands. My fingers tingled as I looked all around me.
“Aishe!” Where the hell was he? What had happened to him? One minute he had been right beside me, and the next...
I suddenly felt something behind me, a heartbeat before something soft, wet, and extremely cold hit the back of my neck. I yelped as the wet and cold froze my skin and slid down my back. Snarling, I swung around but didn’t see anyone. Blue fire licked at my hands as I scanned the area, waiting for the next attack. If that was Aishe... but of course, it was Aishe. Who else would dare to...?
I heard a noise above me. Before I could even snap my face up to take a look, a shower of freezing snow dumped on me. Heavy, cold and wet, it plastered my hair, froze my eyelashes, snuck under my coat and jacket, sending painful trails of ice down my skin. I stilled, becoming like a statue.
My mouth opened in complete shock. The cold settled on me, making me shiver, and my poor coat threatened to drag me to the ground.
Then I heard it. Laughter. Full-bellied, rollicking, insane laughter.
My fingers clenched into fists as the blue flames grew larger, unaffected by the snow. I slowly tilted my head back and saw Aishe. He
was crouching on a large tree branch, his eyes bright with pleasure. His entire body was shaking with his guffaw, and he seemed to be clinging to the branch to keep himself from falling off. Even the tree was shaking.
Pissed, humiliated, and damn it, feeling my lips twitch, I said a word, and my magick flowed through my limbs. It warmed me inside and then evaporated the wet and cold on the outside. In another heartbeat, I was bone dry, my hair no longer sticking to my head. Feeling like payback was in order, I stared at Aishe another moment before shooting my hand up. A bunch of snow from the ground came with it. The wall of snow hurtled through the air, but Aishe had anticipated it. He leapt off the branch, and the snow slammed into the truck of the tree. The tree, not appreciative, swung a branch at me.
I jumped back and swung to face Aishe -- just in time to get a face full of snow. I sputtered and gasped, the cold biting into my flesh, my eyes, my lips. I slapped it away with my hand just as Aishe pulled back his arm to send another one flying. I flung up a shield. The snowball, larger than the last one, smacked against the invisible shield I formed into a half dome in front of me.
Aishe was still laughing. “Come on, Morgorth!” He provoked me. “You can do better than that! Come on!
Show me what the Dark Mage of the East can do.”
My eyes narrowed. I dropped my shield. With another word spoken in my head, my magick flowed out of me.
Extreme focus and skill was needed when activating magick without saying the word aloud. There were times in great stress that I couldn’t do it. Or there were times that I was too lazy to focus that hard. But it was a skill every mage needed to learn. It kept your opponent on his or her toes.
Right now, Aishe was an opponent.
I lifted my hands, and all the snow within ten feet of me rose with them. I slowly brought my hands together. The snow, as if it were tethered to the movement of my hands, floated over and began to form a very large ball.
Aishe’s laughter finally died. I glanced at him to see his eyes widen. He took a cautionary step back, and I slowly smiled. He looked at my face, and he shook his head slowly in denial.
The snowball I was forming kept growing bigger. I didn’t pack it too tight -- I didn’t want to hurt Aishe, I didn’t need to harm him to complete my payback. Before long, I had a snowball floating in front of me the size of a trul.
Truls were big, hulking, seven to eight foot tall predators.
While they weren’t the tallest predators on Karishian, they certainly made up for it with their girth and strength.
Aishe took another step back. My smile widened. “You asked for it,” I said pleasantly.
Then I threw the snowball at him.
He was quick, I’ll give him that. And he was agile, limber, light on his feet. But that didn’t matter. I’d used a single hair of his I’d found on my coat and mixed it with the snow. In doing so, I created a link between him and the snowball. It would follow him no matter where he went.
I ran after both mate and snow. I would not miss for the world seeing the snow clobber him.
I really shouldn’t be surprised he would throw snow at me. Since Kayl died, since Aishe came to my home, I’d seen an entirely new Aishe. Or, perhaps I was seeing the real Aishe. A playful one who liked games. He’d actually convinced me to play hide-and-seek in Geheimnis. I cheated of course, using a tracking spell to find him. But he’d become wise to my tactics and kept moving, making me essentially chase him all through my home. I had many trap doors, secret passages, trick doors and walls, which came standard with a fortress of Geheimnis’ size and mystique.
I quickly learned how little I knew of “play.” Harmless, affectionate play. I still wasn’t sure whether I liked it or not.
I swung around a particularly thick tree just in time to see Aishe turn around and face his payback. He stood as the large snowball smashed into him. He was slammed to the ground by the force and became buried under the cold, wet mess.
I laughed. His cringe before the collision had been priceless. He’d closed his eyes, hunched his shoulders, and turned his head away. I had to bend over and grip my knees, I was laughing so hard. Tears welled in my eyes, and my stomach hurt. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever laughed so hard.
Gasping for breath, I finally managed to stand up and walk over to help Aishe out. I heard crunching and saw movement in the mound, and knew Aishe was trying to dig himself out. I pushed some snow away, and then Aishe’s hand shot out. I gripped it and pulled. He stumbled out, shivering, his teeth chattering.
“G-g-g-good one,” he stuttered. He wrapped his arms around himself and looked so pitiful, I felt sort of bad.
I sighed. “You idiot.” I wrapped my arms around him and murmured a word of magick. I not only dried his clothes and hair, just as I had done for myself, but I also warmed the air with my magick. We were in a small pocket of warmth, Aishe clinging to me hard. He sighed, and I knew it was with relief.
“I love you,” he whispered.
I closed my eyes for a moment and stroked my hand over his back. “You -- you used to play with your brothers like this, didn’t you?”
Aishe had been the youngest of four brothers. But he’d also had a younger sister. Amyla. She had died in his arms when he’d come back to find his tribe massacred. How do you recover from something like that? The fact that Aishe could allow himself to play, to love, to live, lent evidence to his strong core. The strength of his character. There were times I was in simple awe of him.
Aishe nodded at my question. “You never played like this, did you?”
I shook my head. Play? Play with my brothers? Polka-dotted trees had more chance of growing on the moon.
“We should go.” I pulled back, and the warm pocket of air died. The cold bit at us, but I ignored it.
Aishe suddenly cupped my face and closed his eyes.
Then he kissed me. It was light, sweet. I realized he probably closed his eyes to keep from seeing the way the potion had visibly changed me. The kiss was quick but beautiful.
Then he pulled back, and his eyes glittered. “Race you the rest of the way.”
I grinned, immediately deciding to cheat. “You’re on.”
Chapter Two
I did cheat. I used my magick speed and had to stand waiting for him to catch up. Aishe arrived panting, his cheeks and nose rosy. His breath formed small puffy clouds as he exhaled. He pouted.
“You are such a...” He couldn’t seem to find the right word.
I sniffed and shrugged. “Hey, you didn’t say no cheating.
You just said race. I raced. I won.”
Aishe punched my shoulder. I snickered.
“I love you,” I said. Aishe glared at me, but I could see his lips twitch and the softness in his eyes. I could play too.
Aishe and I walked down the slope of the hill that separated my forest from Happy Valley. There was snow here as well, but the amounts differed from what I saw elsewhere. The roofs were covered in a thin sheet, and the crop fields that I could see in the distance were already harvested and their contents stored. But even there, the snow pile was thin.
I shook my head in wonder and confusion. How did they do it? Why did it seem like this little village was blessed?
A herd of flayns flew over us, and I looked wearily up at them, hoping none of them had to relieve themselves.
I let Aishe take the lead as I once again gazed upon my humble neighbors. There were many different creatures who lived in Happy Valley -- seelas, who were human-like and non-magickal, flayns who were horse-looking things with wings, and dialens who had been banished from their tribes. There was also a herd of vasily, who were about five feet tall with hooved feet, hairy legs, and oddly backward knees. They had bulbous noses, pointy ears, and dinner-plate wide eyes. They usually preferred open plains or rolling hills, but a small herd had made Happy Valley home. They didn’t wear clothes because the fur covered... well, you know. The female vasily didn’t cover their breasts either -- and they had four each.
They were green little thieves who were experts at fire magick and finding water in the desert. I couldn’t say what they found appealing about Happy Valley, except that the place did offer a year-round rainbow.
That’s right -- for some inexplicable reason, Happy Valley could boast its very own stationary rainbow. Didn’t make sense to me, but there it was.
Happy Valley had grown steadily since I claimed it as part of my territory. While my forest bordered it to the south, there were kirons of land to its north, east, and west that offered friendlier routes. There were numerous cottages, domed structures, and square pubs that were packed nearly on top of each other. I suppose they didn’t understand the concept of building out. They had plenty of space to build, but like I’ve said -- they were simpletons.
Community gardens, a small field that catered to the local sport of Durza (which consisted of three balls, thirteen players, and three hoops on top of long poles), and a large building that held town meetings at the far east side of the village were the most notable. It was interesting to note, however, that while the few other towns and villages which catered to a couple of species (there weren’t many) always had split up the town into sections, Happy Valley didn’t do that. Instead of having a flayn section and a seela section, they were all meshed together.
It was a community that didn’t understand the words “prejudice” or “segregation.” As long as I’d lived here, there hadn’t been any strife or civil war, and I found that impressive despite myself. Whatever these simpletons were doing, they were doing it right.
We entered the village, and most of the snow had been disturbed by the tracks of the citizens. That was another reason I voted against becoming invisible; my footprints would have given me away. And, honestly, no one in Happy Valley was smart enough to think that I would use a potion to conceal my identity. They wouldn’t even know that was an option. Even though I was with Aishe, and already, I saw some citizens recognize him, they wouldn’t leap to the conclusion that it was their resident dark mage.
