God of Magic

by Logan Jacobs

  “Theira asked me if I wanted to come,” I told her with a reassuring smile, “and I’m glad I did.”

  By then, we had reached the Magpie, and we untangled our hands before we went inside. As evening set in, the tavern was already filling up, and we waved at Nesta as we headed up the stairs.

  Lavinia and Maruk had already returned, and they looked up expectantly when Aerin and I walked in.

  “There you are,” the orc said. “We passed through the market on the way back thinking we might run into you, but we couldn’t find you.”

  “Oh, you must have just missed us,” Aerin said quickly.

  “Did you get the map?” Lavinia asked, one brow arched.

  “We know how to get it,” Aerin replied.

  Lavinia frowned. “What are you saying, Aerin?”

  “We met an alchemist who will trade us the map for some ingredients she needs,” the elf answered. “We just have to go to the Diru Wilds to pick them up.”

  “She didn’t want, I don’t know, money?” Lavinia asked.

  “Obviously if she wanted money, I’d have just bought the map,” Aerin said testily as she dropped into her hammock. It creaked gently as it swung. “Look, it won’t be much trouble. We can leave first thing tomorrow and be back the next evening.”

  “We’ll have more money for supplies,” Maruk said with an appealing look to Lavinia.

  Lavinia looked to me, and I realized she was waiting for my input as well. I shrugged. “I think it’s a good trade,” I said.

  The archer pursed her lips and leaned back on her bed. “Alright then,” she said, “We’ll head out first thing in the morning.”

  Chapter 7

  We were up the next morning before the sun rose while Ovrista was still shrouded in a chilly mist and the streets were quiet. Nesta saw us out and gave each of us a freshly baked roll studded with nuts for breakfast on the road as we left.

  We saw no one until we reached the main street, and then we passed a few vendors with their carts who came into the city early to get the best spots in the market and a pair of fishermen who were coming back from a nearby lake with their catch.

  We had brought enough food for a few days just to be safe, but Lavinia had mapped out the most efficient route we could take through the wilds to reach the Dovar-cu’s river. She determined that if we took a detour through a section of the forest instead of following the road, we could cut our journey almost in half. If Maruk or Aerin had any objections to that slight change in our plans, they were too tired to voice them, and as for me, I didn’t see any harm in the idea. We had packed light, so if a short hike through the woods could save us time, I had no problem with it.

  As we left the great walls of Ovrista behind and started for the forest to the south, the sleepy quiet of the city was replaced by a chorus of birdsong and the dew-covered grass glittered in the light of the rising sun. The air was fresh, sweet, and invigorating, and despite Ren’s attempt to sabotage us yesterday, I felt hopeful now. Our guild was smaller, but that meant we could move more quickly, and now that he thought he had the advantage, Ren might not be in much of a hurry.

  I slung my pack over my shoulder and retrieved the slip of paper Lavinia had given me with the details of the Shadow Delves bounty. I had already studied what little information we had been supplied with when I’d read it over the previous night, but I wanted to commit it to memory, just in case. It wouldn’t do for us to go through all that trouble only to return with the wrong items. Thankfully, while it seemed as though there were several languages used in Ovrista, the bounty documents were written in an alphabet and language that I understood. I couldn’t say how, exactly, since I knew it wasn’t English, but I supposed that Theira had gifted me with some knowledge of the common tongue when she’d brought me here.

  The paper showed simply that it was an open bounty for any guild to claim, and that the treasure we needed to bring back to fulfill the bounty would be located in the northwestern section of the cavern network. There was a map that showed where the entrance to the Delves was but, of course, no map of the caves themselves. Finally, there was a written description and a drawing of the chest we were meant to find as well as a list of the various artifacts that it contained, all of which had to be delivered in order to fulfill the bounty. I reviewed the drawings and the list until I was sure I had memorized all of it, down to the decorative design on the chest’s heavy padlock, then folded the paper and returned it to my bag.

  By then, the sun had truly risen, and the road had taken us to the edge of the forest. Maruk and Aerin had perked up at last and chatted quietly behind me while Lavinia set the pace a few steps ahead. She’d been her usual quiet and determined self all morning, but I noticed that there was something subtly different about her now that we were away from civilization, a slightly more relaxed set to her shoulders, like she felt more at home here beneath the swaying green canopy of leaves than in Ovrista’s streets. I remembered what the beautiful dragon-woman had told me that first morning about how she’d been rejected by humans and elves throughout her life, and it made sense that she would be more at ease out here.

  Suddenly the archer stopped and turned back to us. “We should break off here,” she said, “and head southwest toward the river.”

  The forest on either side looked exactly the same to me as it had the last few miles, but Lavinia sounded confident that this was the best place to make our detour, so I didn’t object.

  Now that he was fully awake, however, Maruk seemed less agreeable to the plan and eyed the undergrowth warily. “Are you sure this is a good idea? The roads were built for a reason after all.”

  Lavinia frowned. “Oh, come on, Maruk,” she said, “don’t get cold feet now. I know exactly where we are. There’s nothing out here but rabbits and squirrels.”

  “We don’t have any time to waste,” Aerin added. “This way is faster.”

  The orc looked between the two of them and then, beseechingly, to me.

  I shrugged and glanced to Aerin. “I agree, we should take the shortcut.”

  Maruk sighed. “Very well, let us trample through the wilderness like mindless savages without a care for the condition of our clothing, hair, or footwear, then,” he grumbled as he adjusted his pack on his huge shoulders.

  “See? I knew you’d come around,” Lavinia chuckled, and then she moved as silently and easily through the undergrowth as she had on the road. I went next, and although I tried to follow Lavinia’s path exactly, I lacked the ranger’s natural grace and had a harder time in navigating the twisting roots and clumps of ferns in my way. Aerin and Maruk followed after, and by the sound of it, the two of them were having an even more difficult time than I was. Every now and then, Maruk would mutter something under his breath about treacherous vines or ticks, but he carried on nonetheless.

  The forest grew denser the further we got from the road, but even with the shade provided by the thick canopy overhead, my shirt soon clung to my back because of the sweat, and I couldn’t imagine how Aerin and Maruk must feel in their armor. I was grateful when we reached a small clearing and stopped for a rest, but while the rest of us sat in the grass and passed around a canteen of water, Lavinia paced and consulted her map.

  “Two more miles to the river from here,” she reported with a glance over her shoulder at the three of us. A small smile quirked up at the corner of her mouth. “If you think you can make it.”

  Aerin poured a bit of water into her cupped hand and splashed it over the back of her neck. Instead of responding to Lavinia, she turned to me with a tired smile.

  “Ignore her,” she said, loudly enough for Lavinia to hear. “She thinks she’s being funny and forgetting that she shouldn’t tease the person who heals her.”

  I accepted the canteen when Aerin offered it to me and took a drink. Between the warm sun overhead and the steady drone of insects all around, I wouldn’t have minded a nap right here in the grass, but I made myself stand instead.

  “Speaking
of healing,” I said, “how dangerous is this Dovar-cu?” One of the books I picked up the day before was an illustrated guide to many of the magical creatures in the area, but when I checked last night, it had no mention of the creature Magdalena has sent us to find.

  Aerin shrugged. “I’ve never seen one, only heard stories growing up,” she answered. “They say it’s as big as a pony and has rows of sharp teeth and glowing eyes, but that’s just the sort of thing parents tell their children to keep them from playing in the river alone, you know? It’s probably some kind of water rat.” She stood and stretched. “Nothing we can’t handle, anyway.”

  Maruk got to his feet as well. “Ah, wonderful, more rats. I really didn’t see enough of them at Kildon.”

  “Let’s just get this over with so we can get that map,” Lavinia said.

  As before, the archer took the lead through the forest while the rest of us trailed behind. I wasn’t sure exactly how far we had gone though I didn’t think it had been two miles when Lavinia stopped short and swiftly and silently drew her bow and nocked an arrow. When she looked back at us, the light in her red eyes was intense.

  “There’s someone up ahead,” she mouthed.

  It took several seconds for me to make out the vague shape of a person far ahead through the trees as they were clothed in robes of mottled green that blended almost perfectly with the surrounding foliage. To my surprise, they hadn’t appeared to have noticed us yet, though, except for Lavinia, we hadn’t been exactly stealthy.

  Lavinia crept forward again with her bow at the ready, and after a moment, I followed as quietly as I could.

  We had only gone another few yards when the stranger turned to us. Their face was covered in a sort of mask fashioned from the skull of a deer, and a mass of willow branches hung about their shoulders like hair, and the light of their mana glowed purple in their chest.

  Although I couldn’t see the person’s face, there was no question that they had seen us, and I could see the rigidity of fear in their posture as they took in our weapons, but after a few tense seconds, they raised one hand in greeting.

  Lavinia kept her fingers on her bowstring as we made our way over to the stranger. I wrapped my hand around the hilt of my dagger beneath my cloak, but as we approached, the stranger lifted their mask and smiled at us. The man beneath the mask had a long, pale face and a scraggly brown beard. Waves of unruly brown hair shot through with streaks of gray fell around his shoulders, but there was something distinctly youthful about his green eyes.

  “Well met, travelers,” he said warmly, and he spread his hands in a gesture of greeting. The willow branches attached to his mask trailed on the ground as he did so, and I realized that the dark soil had been turned up all around him like he’d been kicking it up. “It’s unusual to see anyone out here, much less...” he trailed off as he searched for an appropriate description, “adventurers such as yourselves,” he finished finally.

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Lavinia replied. She didn’t return the man’s smile. “Who are you?” Her gaze flicked over the dozens of tiny mounds of earth behind the man. “What are you doing out here?”

  “My name is Allowen,” the man answered patiently. “As for what I am doing--” His smile became somewhat sheepish, “--I lost something around here some time ago. A ring. It belonged to my late wife. I’d hoped I might find it at last, but it seems such good fortune alludes me.”

  “You lost a ring out here?” Aerin asked with a suspicious frown.

  If Allowen noticed the elf’s wariness, however, he didn’t show it. “I live nearby,” he explained. “This used to be my wife’s favorite place to gather berries. She insisted they grew sweeter here than anywhere else in the forest. I thought perhaps I might have lost the ring when I visited a few days past.”

  His brow bent in a mournful expression, and he sighed. “It appears I was wrong, but how may I help you four? If you’re lost, I’d be more than happy to show you the way back to the road.”

  “We’re not lost,” Lavinia replied. “What’s with that mask?”

  For the first time, the man seemed startled by her abruptness, but his smile was quick to return. “Ah, that’s nothing more than the superstitions of an eccentric old man. It’s meant to keep the puca away. I am sorry if I frightened you.” His eyes flicked to Lavinia’s bow and the arrow that was still trained on him. “If you’re not lost, perhaps there’s something else I could help you with?”

  I didn’t know what a puca was or if a mask like that could effectively keep it away, but Lavinia lowered her bow and relaxed her arm.

  “We’re looking for a Dovar-cu,” the archer replied. “There’s supposed to be one around here.”

  Allowen looked pleased. “There is indeed. The river isn’t far from here, but you must have traveled far, and that’s an elusive little beast. Why don’t you come back with me to my home first? You could rest for a spell, and I believe I have something that could help you lure your quarry to shore.”

  “Thanks, but we are on a deadline,” Aerin replied. “Time is money, money is gold, gold is great, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I think we’d better just go to the river.” Her tone was oddly forceful, and Lavinia gave her a curious look.

  “To do what, simply wait for the thing to show up?” the archer asked. She turned back to Allowen. “We could use the bait if you have it.”

  “And I wouldn’t mind a cup of tea,” Maruk put in, “if you’d be so kind.”

  “Of course, of course,” Allowen said. “Follow me.”

  Lavinia and Maruk fell in behind the man at once, but Aerin grabbed my arm before I could join them. She let them get a few steps ahead and then lowered her voice to an urgent whisper. “He’s not who he says he is.”

  “What?” I whispered back. “What do you mean?”

  “He was lying from the start, about his name, about what he was doing out here, and about helping us.”

  He had seemed friendly enough if a little strange, but the conviction in Aerin’s voice put me on edge.

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “I can just tell,” Aerin replied. “People’s auras... they look different when people lie.”

  “You are probably great at cards,” I whispered back to the redhead as I studied the old man’s walk. I’d already guessed he was full of shit, so I felt vindicated at Aerin’s words.

  “I would be, except I get all nervous when I think about losing money and then everyone knows I’m lying,” she hissed. “Anyway, we shouldn’t trust him.”

  “I don’t,” I replied.

  By then, Maruk had realized we weren’t following and glanced back at us, his eyebrows raised.

  I waved him on. “What’s the plan? We can’t simply go with him.”

  “I said we should just go to the river,” Aerin answered. Her voice was strained with obvious annoyance. “Look, he might be dangerous, there are a lot of rogue mages that hide out in the wilds. I didn’t think we’d come across any of them this close to Ovrista, but we need to be careful. We can’t attack him outright without knowing who we’re dealing with.” She bit her lip. “Just keep an eye on him, alright?”

  I nodded, and we jogged to catch up to the others.

  Allowen fixed us with another smile. “Careful, now,” he said kindly. “I’d hate for any of you to get lost out here.”

  He led us through the trees to a small cabin nestled in a clearing. The rough-hewn wood planks and the thick carpet of moss that covered the roof made the structure seem as though it had grown up out of the ground like the trees around it. There was a little garden plot on one side of the cabin where neat little rows of freshly planted vegetables were arranged carefully in the rich, dark earth, but on the other side was a different type of plot. Stone grave markers of varying sizes stood solemnly in rows of their own, some only a few inches high, some almost as tall as a man, and I realized with a twist of unease in my gut that the earth before several of them appeared to have been freshly tilled.


  Allowen was all smiles as he opened the door and ushered us inside, but my hand was slick with sweat around the hilt of my dagger. It took several seconds for my eyes to adjust to the dim light inside the cabin, but what I saw when they did wasn’t any more comforting than the darkness had been.

  A few things were normal. A small stone hearth was set into the back wall, four chairs surrounded a wooden table in one corner, and a bed was tucked against the opposite corner. Shelves lined the walls, half of which were full of books and clusters of colorful glass bottles and dried herbs. The other half of the shelves were full of bones. Bleached pristine white, they almost glowed even in the gloom, and they seemed to be arranged according to some kind of pattern. Several skulls stared back at me, some animal.

  Some human.

  I knew Lavinia had seen them too when she whipped around and aimed an arrow at Allowen, who still stood on the other side of the threshold, her eyes wide with alarm and anger.

  “You’re a rogue mage!” she snarled, and she didn’t wait to let her arrow fly.

  Allowen was a hair faster, however, and slammed the door closed between us just in time. Lavinia’s arrow shivered as it stuck into the wood. That was the end of Aerin’s plan to try to figure out what he was, then.

  Lavinia drew another arrow and shoved the door open with her shoulder as the ends of Allowen’s tattered green robes disappeared around the corner of the cabin toward the graveyard. Lavinia cursed and began to run after him while Maruk, Aerin, and I rushed back outside.

  Maruk struggled to strap his shield over his arm while Aerin called for Lavinia to stop, but the archer ignored her and shot another arrow. That one, at least, must have found its mark because there was a howl of pain from around the corner.

  “Go, I’ll keep an eye on you,” Aerin told Maruk after she helped him fix the strap of his second shield.

  The orc nodded and edged along the wall to the corner of the cabin, and Aerin and I followed. When I looked out across the grave markers, Allowen was nowhere to be seen, but there was a broken and bloody arrow lying in the grass by one of the taller stones about twenty feet away from where I stood.