Mage's Apprentice (Mages of New York Book 1)

by Sean Fletcher

  “You are now my weapon. We just have to train you to use that magic. How to release it and channel it. Pain should do the trick. Nothing trains better than that.”

  Segur raised one hand. She drew her fingers together until her nails formed a wicked point, dangling over Aspen’s heart. “Let’s begin with the first lesson now, shall we?”

  A bolt of magic collided with Segur, sending her sprawling. The Fae spectators screeched and began scrambling away up the bleachers. Bolts of magic flew every direction as Lucien and Nina charged in. Nina’s knives flashed and a couple nearby Fae fell. Lucien’s hands were a blur of movement as he drew ribbons of broiling energy to himself and cast it out again at any Fae unfortunate enough to be near him.

  “Aspen!”

  Isak was suddenly beside her. He brushed his hands over her bonds and they fell away. He helped her sit up. “Can you walk?”

  She wasn’t sure what she could do anymore. Everything had changed. She felt heavy, weighted down by magic. When she stood, she found her feet still worked but they seemed so very, very far away. She tried to move them and they responded. That was something, at least. Maybe this would be okay after all.

  “Here, raise your—Put your arm over me. Quick.”

  Isak helped loop her hand across his shoulders and they began a slow, staggering sort of walk. Nina was yelling at them to follow her through the chaos of screaming Fae and random bolts of magic. A few of the smaller Fae had recovered their wits and mounted a counter attack. A cluster of them charged at Lucien from across the chamber, screeching, their angelic faces morphed into horrifying visages of blood-red eyes and sharp teeth.

  “Stop her!” Segur pointed a finger at Aspen, looking hauntingly beautiful in the glow of her surrounding magic. “I command you to stop her—”

  She cut off with a sudden gasp. Aspen looked back to see Lucien sinking his fist into her gut. Segur wheezed, collapsing over his arm. Lucien grabbed her hair and slammed her against the wall. The room went dead silent. The Fae who had been charging Nina froze.

  “Don’t you dare touch my apprentice again,” Lucien said, his voice a deadly dangerous pitch Aspen had never heard before.

  “Mage Lucien! Your apprentice?” Segur babbled. “I-I had no idea she was your apprentice! If I had I—”

  Lucien rammed his fist into her again and Segur’s excuses faded to a whimper. “Of course not, Mage Lucien! I will never again…”

  “Never again what?”

  “Never touch her again! She is yours! She is yours, I swear!”

  Lucien raised his hand again but Nina barked, “Lucien! That’s enough. Let’s go!”

  Lucien looked as though he was going to deliver another blow anyway, but after a moment’s deliberation relinquished his grip. Segur slumped to the floor and some of the nearby Fae attended to her, cooing and fanning her face.

  “Lucien—” Nina tried as Lucien approached them. But he brushed past her and continued out of the chamber without a word.

  “Let them pass!” Segur said as some of the Fae looked ready to start attacking them again. “I said let them pass!”

  Continuing to lean heavily on Isak, Aspen limped past the glaring Fae and made her way back out into the sunlight.

  Nina was wiping away tears as they walked, casting wary looks at the rest of Central Park as they made their way out. Aspen could understand her fear at Segur coming after them; but she had also seen the fear in Segur’s eyes. There would probably be a time when Segur would try for her again, but it wasn’t today.

  “Nina,” Aspen said softly as they walked, Aspen still hobbling along beside Isak, back to the street. A few people gave them curious glances, but nobody stopped them. “Nina, I’m fine. Segur didn’t hurt me too bad—”

  Aspen clenched her teeth as a sudden wave of pain crashed over her. The gaping, full feel of writhing magic filled her again, but she managed to bite back a cry of pain.

  “That’s not what she’s worried about,” Lucien said, finally facing her. The furious look on his face had faded somewhat to deep concern.

  “I am worried about her, Lucien!” Nina snapped. “She needs to get medical help. But this is…what’s happened…It changes everything…”

  Aspen got the sense they weren’t talking about the Fae. “Did I miss something?”

  “She needs to go home,” Lucien insisted. “Segur’s done something to her, I’m not sure what. Caretaker will know what we can do to help—”

  “There’s no time! She could be next! You could be next!”

  “Lean on me,” Isak insisted. Aspen forced herself to push off him and stand on her own.

  “I need to—I’m fine. I can walk.”

  Her strength was returning in fits and starts, like she was the pilot of an unruly robot that she still hadn’t learned how to control. First her arms, buzzing with the magic Segur had pushed into her; then her legs, coming down too heavy in clopping footsteps.

  “We need to get you back to my house,” Lucien insisted.

  “I said I’m fine,” Aspen said, brushing away Isak’s offered hand. “What happened, Nina?”

  Lucien glared at her, but Nina ignored her, another tear tracking down her cheek. “One of the Mages…Gurk. He…He’s dead, Aspen. Someone’s killed one of the Mages.”

  The Verdict

  After wasting a few more minutes arguing with Lucien, he relented and they rushed toward the Mage’s Council. There was no flirting with Sibyll at the information desk in the terminal, no idle chatter as they hurried down the narrow passages to the chamber. Nina filled them in a little as they went.

  “They found Gurk’s body this morning,” she said, her voice still thick with crying. “He was murdered, Lucien. He was one of the strongest of us and even he…even he…”

  “Was he drained?” Aspen asked, still trying to process the whirlwind of events, trying to keep her magic-buzzing mind from distracting her. Nina gave a fearful nod before turning to wipe the tears off her face as they approached the Council chamber. Her mind whirled. She hadn’t told anyone about Hugo’s death or that she’d been there. She had a feeling Lucien suspected, but he was staying tight-lipped. Hugo dead, and now Gurk…right around the time the Fae took her. It was too much of a coincidence. Everything was happening too fast. The Fae…they’d been at Hugo’s house. It was even possible they could have taken down Gurk if they’d caught him by surprise.

  The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. The Unseelie Fae wanted power, and they were making their move to seize it.

  They entered the main chamber and Lucien immediately strode up the steps to his place among the seats. All the Mages were present this time, their attendance making Gurk’s empty chair stick out even more.

  Simshar held up a hand to stop Aspen and Isak before the Council as Nina took her seat. Aspen tried to subtly catch her breath. She had lied to Lucien; she wasn’t doing as well as she’d said.

  “So nice of you to join us, Mage Lucien,” Xavier said. “I heard Mage Nina had trouble finding you to give you the news of Gurk. I wonder why that could be? Perhaps you had…gone out of bounds?”

  “There were no specifications on where they could go for the assessment, Xavier,” Nina snapped, her usual assertiveness returning despite the lingering tear stains on her cheeks. She furiously wiped them again, her face set, all business.

  “But there were specifications on whether a master could help the apprentice,” Xavier said. His eyes lingered on Isak, whose jaw clenched. “And I believe that rule has been—”

  “Is this really what we should be discussing right now?” Nina said. “Mage Lucien and I just had to rescue Aspen from the Unseelie Fae. The Dark Princess had kidnapped her!”

  This was met by silence.

  “I’m sorry, Nina,” Simshar said slowly. “Are you saying Segur had kidnapped this girl?”

  “Yes!” Nina snapped. “She tried to—”

  Lucien gave a sudden jerk of his head and Nina stopped mid-sentence. “Yes,
she did,” she finished lamely.

  Simshar was silent again. He didn’t look particularly shocked; if anything, he appeared as if this confirmed something he’d suspected for some time, though what that was, Aspen had no idea.

  “I’m…sorry that happened. Aspen, did she do anything—”

  “Enough of this! What happens in your borough is your business, Simshar,” a Mage Aspen hadn’t seen before said. “The matter of Gurk’s murder is the threat to all of us, not just this…this girl. I’m confident you’ll handle issues with the Fae in a way you see fitting.”

  He leaned forward, more into the light. He was short, bald, and round, with a weak chin and watery gray eyes. He wore a tweed jacket a size too small, so that it hugged his bulk, making it bulge in all the wrong places. Without being told, Aspen already knew this was Don Jones, Mage of the Necropolis. It was an easy guess: the man looked half-dead himself.

  “It is actually fortunate for Lucien that he was away,” Mage Don Jones went on, casually dismissing Aspen’s attack. “Perhaps if he had been here he would have been the victim instead of poor Mage Gurk. Whoever has done this had one less target.”

  “And what is this, exactly?” another Mage said. Mage Etienne, Aspen remembered Lucien telling her. Mage of New Salem and the succubus, incubus, and the Coven. She was ancient looking, with so many wrinkles Aspen might have guessed she had been sucked dry of magic herself if she hadn’t moved. Her head bobbed a little as she talked, making the multitude of jeweled necklaces around her neck clack together. She wrapped her gnarled hands around one another to steady them as she craned forward.

  “First I get word that this ridiculous girl standing before me is now somehow a Mage’s apprentice. Then supposedly she’s special enough that the Fae have taken an interest in her. And if that wasn’t enough, now I’m summoned from my very important work and expected to believe that someone has…has murdered Gurk?” Etienne sniffed. “Preposterous!”

  “And unfortunately true,” Simshar said. “Mage Xavier was alerted to Gurk’s death by some Elven members of Rivendell early this morning. They took Xavier to Gurk’s body and Xavier confirmed he was in fact dead.”

  “Without telling any of the other Mages,” Lucien muttered.

  Xavier rose slightly from his chair. “Perhaps I misheard you, Lucien?” He said in a dangerous whisper. “Do you have a problem with my methods?”

  There was a whip crack of magic in the air. “For once you two will you stop this petty rivalry!” Etienne said. “Xavier, what did you find?”

  Xavier continued glaring at Lucien a moment longer. Then his mouth slid into a sly smile as he lowered himself back into his chair. He once again took a slouching posture of regret, as though painfully remembering the events of Gurk’s demise. “Yes, some of the Elves of the Rivendell borough alerted me that they had found Gurk’s body outside of his home. I arrived and, after clearing the crowd, began to investigate at once. Nothing was missing from the house or on his person. It seems there were no signs of struggle—”

  “None?” Nina said.

  “None,” Xavier repeated, more forcefully.

  That sounded wrong. Judging by Lucien’s expression, he thought so too. No signs of struggle…that meant Gurk had been completely caught off guard.

  Or he believed whoever had attacked him was a friend.

  “I found Gurk’s body completely drained of magic,” Xavier went on. He paused. “Now that I think about it—things were so tumultuous this morning it hadn’t even occurred to me until just now—but there was another supernatural being found drained yesterday. I’d completely forgotten.”

  “Someone else?” Simshar said.

  Xavier’s eyes flicked to Aspen. “Yes, someone else. Late yesterday I was alerted that a well-known criminal had been found dead and drained in his home, along with some petty thieves of his. This criminal was a powerful djinn. I believe his name was Hugo.”

  Aspen’s insides went cold almost as fast as Lucien’s fingers ceased drumming on the arm of his chair. She could see the dominos now, see how Xavier had lined them up. And now she could see him reaching out and making the first one fall.

  “No,” Aspen started, horrified.

  Simshar’s eyes flicked to Aspen, suspicious. “Did you know this djinn, Hugo, girl?”

  “I did, but—”

  “It’s no secret that Gurk disliked the girl,” Xavier said. “Quite a lot. Maybe even enough that, were she to somehow win the assessment, he still wouldn’t have voted her onto the Council.”

  Aspen took a step back. She felt as though the very air was closing in, seeking to choke her.

  “And it’s clear the girl had some kind of relationship with the other deceased, Hugo,” Xavier went on, his voice dripping with triumph. “In fact, just before we convened, I was sent word that she was seen at his place of residence only a few hours ago. Perhaps looting whatever she could find after the crime? Maybe she’d been scared off the first time and had come back to claim what she wanted. It’s possible the entire story with the Fae was concocted to provide a convenient alibi for where she really was.”

  “It seems Xavier has an answer to everything,” Lucien said, his voice rising. But the Council wasn’t paying attention to him. Don Jones and Etienne were staring at Aspen, as though trying to read her mind.

  Aspen took another step back. Isak turned slightly to look at her, confused.

  “Aspen?” he whispered. “What are you doing?”

  “Are you…accusing me of killing them?” Aspen said to the Council.

  “You’re an idiot, Xavier,” Lucien said. “The girl is a Null. She can’t use magic.”

  “But can she take it away?” Xavier said.

  This was met by silence.

  “She’s a Null. Nobody knows exactly what she’s capable of,” Simshar admitted.

  “Oh yes we do!” Etienne said, her fingers curling. “If the brat isn’t lying, if her story is true and Segur took interest in her, if she truly filled her with magic and awakened this…dormant power, who knows what she can do now? Don’t you realize what this means?” she crowed to the rest of the Council. “The Fae want her as a weapon and they created her to be one! We don’t know what she can do. No magical being is safe now!”

  Aspen tried to step back again but her feet had frozen in place, as if iron chains had locked around them. Don Jones lowered his fingers, his eyes narrowed. “You seem awfully nervous, Aspen. Is there, perhaps, something else you’d like to tell us?”

  “I’ve been with her the last two days,” Isak said. “Hugo attacked us and Aspen fought him off. She hasn’t been anywhere near him since! And I was there when she was kidnapped, but what the Fae did wasn’t her fault!”

  “Silence!” Xavier said. “You are my apprentice and have already proven your loyalty to the magic arts and worth to this Council. You are above reproach!”

  “But she’s being falsely accused! She’s the victim!”

  “I said silence!” Xavier roared, and Isak’s protests were cut off at once, as if a giant hand had clamped over his mouth.

  “It’s too coincidental, all this,” Etienne said. “These deaths…the Fae…they are so sudden, we haven’t had the chance to go over everything. And with no idea how strong she is now, I recommend she be put under house arrest until we can get to the bottom of things.”

  “That isn’t how this works!” Nina said. “We don’t just arrest people for being who they are! And the evidence has to be stronger than just a couple eyewitness!”

  “Eyewitnesses who are Mages,” Don Jones said. “And I think we’ll all agree these are more than unusual circumstances. My residents are scared, Mage Nina, as I’m sure others are. They want this to stop. They want answers, and with a Norm and a Null taking part in a high-level magical competition, I think we have every right to be suspicious.”

  “I for one was wary of a Null from the very beginning,” Etienne said. “When I heard…it is so like you to snub us in such a way, Lucien. To th
ink, you would bring such a potentially dangerous creature into our midst. She always had a chance to make our magic useless against her, and now look. The Fae have created her and unleashed her into our midst to destroy us!”

  “Then it’s decided,” Simshar said. “The girl will be kept under guard until we figure this out—”

  “It wasn’t her!” Isak blurted out, the spell silencing him apparently having worn off. “Aspen didn’t kill Gurk or Hugo or anybody else.”

  Xavier rose from his chair again. “I’m warning you, boy…”

  “It was Maladias.”

  Don Jones gave a nervous laugh. Xavier’s eyes narrowed.

  “What childish nonsense is this?” Etienne said, her eyes narrowing.

  Isak refused to back down. “He’s a planes walker, or High Fae, or something like that—”

  “We have all heard of Maladias,” Simshar said tiredly.

  “One of his followers is gathering magic to lower the wards around New York and let him in. That’s why all these beings are winding up drained. Aspen,” Isak pointed at her, “can’t be the one doing it. I told you, she’s been with me during Hugo and Gurk’s death.”

  Xavier stood. “I apologize, Isak. I have failed you. I’ve let Lucien and his apprentice corrupt your thoughts with fantasies and delusions. And I say to the Council,” he swept a hand toward Isak, “take a look at what my most promising apprentice has amounted to: blathering about enemies that haven’t been seen in centuries. An enemy that, ten years ago, we forever barred from entering the city and haven’t heard from since. Now we have a few murders and suddenly he’s returned to seek vengeance?”

  “But Isak could be on to something,” Nina said. “Lucien—”

  “Has been nothing but disrespectful, arrogant, and disobedient to this Council and his position.”

  “I’ve shown the Council all the respect it deserves,” Lucien said coldly.

  Don Jones’ face purpled as he sputtered, “How—how dare you say that, you ingrate! We, who took you into our ranks when we clearly should have turned you away!”