CHAPTER 13
Darcie stared at her grandmother in disbelief. Then she shook her head silently, not willing to accept what Celeste was saying.
“What do you mean it’s Vorn?” she asked finally.
Celeste was crying. Silent tears streamed down her cheeks. Darcie reached out a hand to comfort her, making quiet soothing sounds.
“What does Vorn have to do with this?” she asked again, gently.
“Vorn captured me, almost a year ago,” Celeste said finally, her voice catching slightly. “He has been using my knowledge of magic, and using me to siphone more and more magic. He used so much magic that he Extinguished me.”
Darcie gasped, horrified. Celeste closed her eyes tightly in pain, and breathed deeply.
“What does that mean?” Tobin asked quietly, remembering that Darcie had mentioned the term Extinguished to him once before.
“Vorn used Celeste as a conduit to pull magic. It takes almost no effort on his part, because Celeste acted as a buffer against the effects of pulling in too much magic. Magicians can feel if they’re pulling too much magic, and stop themselves before they get hurt. But if Vorn was using her as a conduit...” Darcie trailed off, and her face hardened in anger. Tobin could only imagine what was going through her mind. He barely understood what had been done to Celeste himself and he was sickened by it.
“And you’re absolutely sure he Extinguished you?” Darcie asked Celeste gently.
“Quite sure, Darcie,” Celeste replied, her voice resolute despite the tears streaming down her face. “It was a few days ago. I felt my connection to the magic go out, like a snuffed candle. Vorn felt it too. I know he did. That must be why he captured you too.”
Darcie lapsed into silence, lost in thought.
Celeste turned to look at Tobin, tilting her head to the side. “Are you a magician?” she asked him. “I don’t recognize you.”
“This is Tobin, grandmother. Tobin Wells, and he actually is a magician, but he only just Exposed a few days ago,” Darcie explained. “He’s only pulled magic once.”
“Wait, when was this?” Celeste asked, focused intently on Tobin’s face.
“When was what?” Tobin asked, confused.
“How long ago did you Expose? How long since you first pulled magic?”
“A few days ago. Almost a week, I guess. Why?” Tobin answered, taken aback by Celeste’s sudden intensity.
“Yes, that explains it,” Celeste replied, her voice becoming quiet. “He doesn’t want you, Darcie. Not anymore. And he’s Extinguished me, so he needed someone new. Someone young, and full of untapped power. That is the reason why he brought you here, now.”
“Very good,” said a new voice from the door of the cell. It was a low, cultured voice, almost velvety.
The door of the cell scraped open, and Tobin shielded his eyes quickly from the light. Bit by bit, his eyes started to adjust to the brightness in the cell, so he could finally see their captor.
Vorn had thick hair, so dark it was almost black. His dark eyes were slightly tilted, and his hooked nose gave him a hawkish appearance. He was darkly handsome, but his eyes seemed hollow, and the slight smile that played on his pale lips was mocking, and arrogant.
“Come with me,” he commanded. His tone indicated that he expected obedience; he was accustomed to being obeyed.
Tobin helped Celeste back up to her feet, and they followed Darcie through the door. Two brutish men waited in the corridor, flanking Vorn. Their eyes were strangely vacant, as if there wasn’t a single thought in their heads.
“Take them to my study,” Vorn commanded the guards.
Tobin, Darcie and Celeste followed the two large guards down narrow corridors that twisted and turned in a confusing manner. Tobin lost all sense of direction. The stone walls were lit only intermittently with guttering torches, leaving long patches of darkness. Tobin didn’t even think of trying to escape. He would never make it back out without getting hopelessly lost. And he could never leave Darcie and Celeste to fend for themselves.
Finally, they arrived in a large room. Here the rough stone walls were covered by mahogany bookshelves, and a thick, intricately designed carpet covered the floor. It seemed obvious to Tobin that somebody had spent some serious time and effort making this room seem more like an office than the underground bunker it appeared to be.
In the centre of the room was a mahogany desk that matched the bookshelves. The desk was covered with papers, and small metallic instruments, including what looked to Tobin like a very large Carrier Cube. On a pedestal, in the corner of the room, stood a strange multifaceted instrument. Tobin saw Darcie eyeing it curiously.
Vorn followed them into the room, took a seat behind the mahogany desk in a leather backed chair, and instructed the hulking guards to leave them.
He lounged in the padded chair behind the desk, staring at each of them in turn, impassively. Tobin felt as though he were being weighed and measured, and was certain that those disturbingly hollow eyes could see every small imperfection in his character. He lowered his eyes, uncomfortable under such intense scrutiny.
Vorn stared at Darcie the longest. She didn’t flinch at all, but returned his gaze with a fierce stare of her own, until finally she broke the silence.
“Vorn! Why have you done this?” she challenged him, her voice filled with uncharacteristic anger.
Vorn just looked at her calmly; a small smile hovered on his lips. “I should think it would be obvious,” he replied finally. “I wanted more power.”
Darcie looked at him in disbelief.
“Why would you need power?” Tobin interjected, confused. “Darcie told me you were already a very strong magician the last time she saw you, when you were a teenager. Surely, you’re even stronger now?”
Vorn’s smile increased by a fraction, but it still didn’t reach his cold eyes.
“He’s not a magician anymore,” Darcie said, her voice suddenly dull, as she continued to stare at her childhood friend.
“But you said – “
“He kidnapped Celeste, held her against her will, and used her as a conduit to pull magic, without her consent. No magician would do that. I told you that there are lines a magician will not cross. If anything, he’s a sorcerer now.”
Vorn’s smile had turned into a sneer at Darcie’s words. “Maybe the magicians you keep company with just didn’t have enough imagination,” he said to Darcie, raising a mocking eyebrow.
“How did you kidnap Celeste?” Darcie asked abruptly.
“Shall I tell you the whole story?” Vorn asked. His deep, melodious voice was so incongruous with the arrogance of the pale young man seated in front of them. Tobin could tell Vorn had wanted them to ask how he’d done it. Tobin was forcibly reminded of a little boy seeking validation from someone he greatly admired.
“I built this,” Vorn gestured to the strange device in the corner, “almost two years ago. I’d been working on the design for several years now, and I finally perfected it.”
“What is it?” Tobin asked, knowing Vorn wanted to be asked. Vorn smiled in appreciation. This time, Tobin was forcibly reminded of a cat, preening in the sunlight.
“This device is called a Volitioner, and it allows me to control other people’s minds,” Vorn replied, his lip curling in derision. “I used it first on those useless idiots who were guarding you. They were weak, and very susceptible to suggestion. Their minds were already receptive to cruelty, and so they were more pliable, malleable. Once I had them under my control, I sent one of them, Johal, to the castle. He found employment in the stables, and waited for weeks until he was able to gain access to Celeste’s quarters. And there he concealed a Carrier Cube. I waited until nightfall, when I used the Carrier Cube to translocate Celeste to my location.”
“Wait a minute,” Tobin interrupted. “I thought Carrier Cubes only worked over small distances.”
“That’s true,” Vorn replied, “and since I was quite close to the castle at that time, it wasn’t a problem. Alth
ough I did burn out the Carrier Cube. It overloaded. No doubt, because I hadn’t been able to precisely calibrate it to accommodate Celeste.”
Darcie let out in involuntary gasp of air. “You didn’t even bother to calibrate it properly?” she demanded. “You could have killed her! She could have translocated anywhere!”
Vorn ignored Darcie’s interruption and continued with his story. “Since Celeste was already asleep, it was much easier for me to subdue her mind, and wipe her will away. She was almost instantly under my control. I moved her up here, to my laboratory, and began probing her mind for any unusual magical information it might contain. She was, after all, the best of all the magicians in Elden. When I had gleaned everything I wanted from her mind, I began using her as a conduit to pull magic, in ways it had never been pulled before.”
Tobin saw silent tears running down Celeste’s face. He moved closer to her, and took her small, withered hand in his own, hoping to comfort her. She squeezed his hand, reassuringly, but her eyes were still fixed on Vorn.
“You were using Celeste to conduct experiments with magic that you were too cowardly to try yourself!” Darcie cried accusingly.
“Why take unnecessary risks?” Vorn replied calmly, leaving Darcie gaping.
It occurred to Tobin that Vorn was quite insane. He seemed to have lost all touch with reality; obsessed with gaining power. Consequences, and the ramifications of his choices seemed to be absolutely foreign to him.
“The more I explored Celeste’s mind, the more I realized that there were considerable gaps in her knowledge. Oh, she’s brilliant, of course, but she did not have the breadth of experience I was looking for. But her mind gave me a clue as to who would have the information I sought. And that was when I began planning my acquisition of you,” Vorn said, staring up at Darcie intensely.
“This was all about getting to me?” Darcie asked, suddenly taken aback.
“Initially, yes,” Vorn replied. “You’re every bit as talented as your grandmother, but your knowledge of magical theory is far more extensive than hers. So I wanted the pair of you. That was why I sent the first copper orb to the castle, knowing that the detonation and subsequent destruction of the Travelling Mirror Network would force you to return to the castle.”
“But you didn’t actually want me at the castle?” Darcie asked.
Vorn smiled. “Of course not, but you were quickly becoming a nuisance. You may have thought you were searching vainly for Celeste, but you were coming uncomfortably close to my laboratory. I wanted to capture you in a place where I was in control.”
Darcie rolled her eyes. “Yes, you seem very fond of control.”
“But the orb bomb went off early!” Tobin interjected.
“Yes, that was a surprise. I now believe that the orb responded to your latent power as a magician,” Vorn replied, frowning at Tobin, echoing what Darcie had surmised as well. “That was very unexpected, and quite inconvenient. However, the orb still retained enough magic to do some serious damage to the Travelling Mirror Network. Once the copper orb had detonated, I needed to lure you somewhere else. I stumbled across a memory of the manor house hidden in Celeste’s mind. It was perfect; secluded, and abandoned, and I had almost forgotten about it. Who would remember that it had been my childhood home?”
Darcie looked startled. “That’s why I recognized the house. I had been there once, before you and your father moved to the castle.”
“Yes,” Vorn replied, shifting his glance to Darcie. “I was hoping you wouldn’t remember it. We kept the house even while we lived at the castle, but after I left, and my father died...”
Vorn trailed off for a moment, and then his hawkish gaze returned to Tobin with even more intensity. “When you touched it, the copper orb released its magic and established the force shield around the manor house. And that is when I became aware of you, Tobin. I knew it hadn’t been Darcie who touched the orb. She has no magical abilities. I also knew at that moment that you were a magician. The orb responded to you much differently than it would have to anyone without the ability to pull magic.”
“But we were able to escape the force shield, using magical artefacts,” Tobin said. “Did those belong to your father?”
Vorn’s eyes narrowed. “Yes they did, although some of them belonged to Celeste. She was still able to hide small tidbits of information in her mind away from me, and shielded her knowledge of that trunk full of magical artefacts. She knew my father had kept them in his possession, hidden for many years. It doesn’t matter though, since they are now also in my possession.”
Vorn got up from behind the desk, and went to a small cupboard beside Darcie. He pulled it open, and Darcie’s rucksack, filled with artefacts fell out, spilling carelessly across the floor.
“These all belong to me now,” he told them, his voice triumphant. As he turned away, Darcie moved lightning fast, and snatched something from the pile of artefacts.
“So did you set that ogre on us then?” Tobin asked Vorn, to distract him.
Vorn turned to look at Tobin, his eyebrow raised. “Ogre? No that wasn’t me.”
“It was probably attracted to the magic released from the copper orb,” Celeste said suddenly. Tobin was startled to hear her speak. She looked wan, and tired. Tobin didn’t think she’d be able to stand for much longer.
“So since the first trap didn’t work, you set the second one for us?” Tobin asked Vorn.
“Yes. Only this time I had to conceal the copper orb, since you were now familiar with that method. Once the pit collapsed, and the null shield enveloped the mouth of the hole, I was sure you would stay trapped. Initiating the null shield was supposed to prevent you from using the magical artefacts. I was... upset when you escaped yet again.”
“So sorry to spoil your plans,” Darcie said.
“Then something unexpected happened,” Vorn continued as though Darcie hadn’t spoken. “You used the knot of magic released from the second copper orb and translocated yourself to the other side of Elden.”
“I didn’t really know what I was doing,” Tobin said quietly. “I wasn’t supposed to touch anything.”
“Well, you did, and I am very glad for it, because it allowed me to measure your strength, which is considerable. And suddenly I had a new acquisition in mind. Celeste is very strong, the strongest magician in centuries,” Vorn said. “But you are stronger. Quite a bit stronger, actually.”
Tobin stared at the floor, not wanting to meet Vorn’s empty eyes. He didn’t like the hungry tone in Vorn’s voice.
“All of this explains how,” Darcie said wearily, “but it doesn’t explain why. I don’t understand what I could have done to make you want to hurt me and family like this.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Vorn replied, suddenly sounding bored. “It was always about you; Darcie Dannett. You were always lauded and applauded for your brilliant mind, your clever insights. You, who couldn’t even use magic!” his eyes flashed in anger; it was the most emotion Tobin had seen out of him.
There was a long silence.
“That’s it?” Darcie asked quietly, an edge of derision in her voice. “You were angry and jealous because I received attention, even though I wasn’t a magician?”
Vorn’s face hardened. “You have no idea what it was like,” he said, his voice ice. “I worked so hard, trying to keep up with you, and yet I did not receive one fraction of the accolades and admiration that you did.”
Vorn moved to the mahogany bookshelf and began tearing papers out of the bookshelves, throwing manuscripts carelessly on the floor.
“All of these are your publications! All your great works!” he ranted, his back turned to them.
Seeing a narrow window of opportunity, Darcie darted to Vorn’s Volitioner, fiddled with the machine for a moment, and then quickly darted back to Tobin’s side, as though she had never moved. Tobin stared at her questioningly but she didn’t look at him. Vorn, still ranting, was almost incoherent now.
Tobin looked clo
sely at the strange multi-faceted device. Darcie had placed one of the artefacts that they had found in the manor house on the top of Vorn’s contraption. It was the little bear figurine. Tobin wondered what she could possibly be thinking. As far as he knew, Darcie had never been able to figure out what magical function the bear figurine performed.
“Have you quite finished?” Darcie called, interrupting Vorn’s rant.
An icy silence fell over the room as Vorn turned to face them. The mocking, arrogant smile returned to his lips. His cold, collected facade was back.
“I have finished, thank-you. I have what I want,” he replied, his voice velvet again. “Very soon, it won’t matter for any of you, since you’ll be under my control.”
There was a strange hissing sound, from the corner where Vorn’s Volitioner stood. Although the little bear figurine still rested on top of it, the corners of the device seemed to be sagging. It appeared as though the Volitioner was melting.
“What have you done?” Vorn hissed in rage.
The melting instrument was beginning to drip liquid metal onto the floor, and was pooling noticeably on the pedestal.
“It’s over Vorn,” Darcie said boldly. “You cannot control us anymore, and as you yourself said, Tobin is more than a match for you.”
“He’s only pulled magic once,” Vorn replied, but his nostrils flared dangerously, and he looked a little wild around the eyes.
“Do you really want to test him?” Darcie asked softly.
Vorn looked around the room, seeking a way out. Darting forward, he grabbed the large Carrier Cube from his desk and threw it down on the floor. A cobalt blue nimbus of light opened up around the cube.
“No!” Darcie gasped, as Vorn stepped up into the blue shaft of light. His face appeared dangerously distorted. “It’s not calibrated Vorn! You could translocate anywhere!”
Vorn’s smile didn’t reach his cold eyes. “Anywhere but here,” he answered.
“You could die! The Carrier Cube is not properly calibrated! It could overload, and kill you!”
Vorn stared down at Darcie, silent. His eyes held a pitying, contemptuous look. Tobin knew with certainty that Vorn was absolutely convinced of his own invulnerability. No amount of pleading on Darcie’s part would convince him.
“Just let him go, Darcie,” Tobin said quietly. He watched as the sorcerer turned the translocation device around in his hand, slowly.
Suddenly Vorn looked up, and his eyes met Tobin’s. In that instant, Tobin understood that if Vorn survived this translocation, he would be coming for Tobin. Vorn had marked him out as an equal, as a worthy adversary, and he wanted Tobin’s power for himself.
There was a flash of blue light. Tobin, Darcie and Celeste watched in silence, as Vorn’s body dissolved into the blue nimbus.
He was gone.
The column of blue light remained for a moment, and then it appeared to ripple. Tobin didn’t need Darcie’s alarmed cry to know that the field was destabilizing.
Darcie grabbed for the bag of artefacts, and her own leather case. Tobin was still holding Celeste’s arm, and he led her out of Vorn’s laboratory, and down the stone corridor, but they weren’t moving fast enough. Glancing over his shoulder, Tobin saw the shockwave from the Carrier Cube headed for them, and he braced himself against its force.
The blast knocked them both off of their feet and flat on the ground. Tobin felt an intense heat, as though his skin was being seared off, and then just as suddenly, it was gone.
A great rumbling sound filled the air, and the stone walls shook. Small pieces of plaster and dust tumbled down. The air was filled with particles of debris, making it difficult to see, and breathe.
“This whole place is going to collapse!” Darcie cried. “Come on!”
She led the way through the complicated corridors, up and down stairs, and through narrow rooms. Tobin only had a moment to marvel that Darcie could find a way out through the tangled corridors, and then suddenly they were outside.
The sun, glinting off the snow, half blinded Tobin. He threw his arm up to shield his eyes, following Darcie until she stopped running. They turned to look back at the ruined building from which they had just emerged. It was no more than a pile of rubble.
Tobin stood half stooped, trying to catch his breath. Celeste was crying again, this time in relief; her sobs were ragged and uneven. Darcie pulled her close, and hugged her grandmother.
“It’s okay,” she murmured into Celeste’s hair. “It’s over.” She held Celeste’s hand, walking away from the ruin behind them.
“It’s over. For now,” Darcie said so quietly that only Tobin could hear.
Magician's Mayhem Page 13
