The East Gate (Dawnbringer, Book 2)

by Elon Vidal

  "When did you have this dream?" Gael finally asked, making Dawn open her eyes to face him.

  The way they all looked at her made her feel like she had done something wrong again, and she drew her hand back from the Mimic.

  "I've had it a few times since my sixteenth birthday, but the light never did anything to me before."

  "That long? And you never thought it strange that you were having the same dream for so long?"

  Dawn clenched her fists, and as she replied. "I did, but it was just a dream, and nothing ever came of it."

  "You are born of magic, child. Nothing is inconsequential."

  "I also used to dream of my parents leaving me at a train station when I was younger, should I have thought deeper about that too?" she snapped.

  "You will watch yourself while you stand before us," Gael warned, and Dawn’s hands became warmer.

  "You said the light never did anything to you before," Ezekiel asked. "Before what?"

  "Last weekend, when we went on a camping trip with my class."

  There was silence again, and Dawn wondered if they could all communicate telepathically or something.

  "The day of the eclipse?" Gael finally asked.

  Dawn felt the warmth spread along her arms. She was nervous, and it felt much like when the light had wanted to burst out of her.

  "Dawn?" Ezekiel's voice broke through her thoughts.

  "Yes," she replied, then waited anxiously while they looked at her in silence again.

  "Calm down, child," the Mimic said beside her.

  "But the light didn't appear then? Only yesterday at the training center?" Gael questioned after the elders seemed to have concluded their silent conversation.

  "Yes."

  "Do you know what happened yesterday? When your energy took out the system?" he asked again, and she shook her head.

  She had blacked out and been taken to the hospital, surely they knew that much. If anything else had happened besides that, she didn't know.

  "Someone stole a map in the Center vault," he said.

  Dawn felt like she would choke on her own tongue. "What map? And you think that I had something to do with that? I don't know anything about a map or want one for anything!"

  "Have I accused you of anything?" Gael asked calmly.

  It sure felt like it, Dawn wanted to say. But she had the good sense to remain silent.

  "While everyone was distracted trying to fix the power, someone broke into the Vault. Now that map was strongly warded."

  Apparently not strong enough, she thought, wondering where all this was going. She hadn’t heard anything about a stolen map, and the way things were adding up were not in her favor.

  "On the day of the eclipse, another important artifact was stolen, unrelated to the map but still significant. We didn't know until early this morning. Many Pixies lost their lives trying to guard it."

  "Trying to guard what?" Dawn asked, now practically vibrating with anxiety.

  She looked down at her hands and prayed to whatever god was willing to listen that she didn't do anything like burst into her own version of the sun right now. She didn't know to what extent the caging spell was supposed to work but it felt like it was barely holding on. An internal force deep within her was bubbling and any constraints she felt when the caging spell was cast on her seemed to remit.

  "It's of no importance to you right now, but perhaps you can tell us if you know more than you are letting on?"

  "You tell me. It seems you want to link me so badly to what has happened."

  "There are no such coincidences, child,” another elder spoke up. “And perhaps you might not know the answer, but it is locked inside your head. Someone you might have come across and forgotten? Or something you might have seen?"

  This elder was Fae and looked much kinder than the rest. Dawn calmed down a bit and shook her head.

  "I swear I don't know anything about all of this. I was in school, preparing for my apprenticeship application and then all of this happened. I see the same people every day and do the same things. If I'm not with my mom or brother, I'm with Elijah. And the last thing I would play around with is potions and spells, I'm terrible at both and barely pass those classes. The light came to me, I didn't seek it!"

  The Mimic walked back to his seat and they all sat in silence again as they looked at her. Gael finally gave a firm nod and they all rose from their seats.

  "We believe you," he said, making Dawn breathe in relief. "The caging spell will remain until we know more, and a Guard shall be with you at all times."

  The only thing missing now was an ankle monitor Dawn thought, although Damon was pretty much one.

  "And what do I do in the meantime?" She asked.

  "Wait," Gael replied simply.

  Wait? That was it?! She wanted to scream in frustration. Wasn't there some kind of spell they could do to make this go away?

  "You can't remove the light?" she asked, even though the doctor had already told her no.

  "We can't remove the light any more than we can take the magic from anyone and make them human. Our magic is a part of us for a reason, and in all things there is balance. You are centering the light right now, and even if it could be removed, it would have to go somewhere else. Energy does not just disappear, child, and there is no telling what it would do anywhere else that is not within you."

  "I can't go around just waiting to explode," she said, her shoulders sagging.

  "I do not believe the light is there to harm you," the Mimic replied. "Take comfort in that."

  Only that it was somehow involved in bad things happening.

  "You are dismissed," Gael announced before she could say anything else.

  Good for her that the light didn’t want to harm her, she thought with a mental eye roll. She would now have to figure this out on top of surviving house arrest with no clear end in sight and having to train with the First Guard, which she internally resisted.

  And she had no other choice but to leave, with more questions than answers.

  FOUR

  Dawn rubbed her eyes and tried to focus on the training session. Not only had Damon woken her up pretty early but he was assessing her weapon skills so he could help her choose a weapon while she was still fighting off sleep! Seriously, who was that cruel? After her meeting with the council the previous day, she could have done with some extra hours of sleep.

  The space was fit for training, with ample room to move around the central area and equipment placed next to the entrance. Damon unsheathed a sword and handed Dawn one for her.

  "Imagine someone is trying to kill you," Damon said as he aimed his sword at Dawn’s neck.

  She blocked him with a bit of effort. "You mean you?"

  He smirked. "I can make it look like an accident."

  "Can we not use sticks? I am a big fan of breathing!"

  "I learned with a real sword, when I was seven," Damon replied with a shrug before swinging his sword in a striking motion aimed for her chest.

  Dawn took a step back as she blocked another blow. "Exactly what did you spend your childhood doing?" she asked.

  "I didn’t have a human parent coddling me."

  Dawn felt a surge of energy fueled by anger as she attacked him in a fencing motion, surprising him.

  Damon blocked her and smiled. "Impressive."

  Dawn rolled her eyes and fixed her form to try and match his. He tapped her back with the flat side of his sword to make her straighten more.

  “You are angry that your father is human?” he asked, obviously still trying to rile her up.

  “I’m angry that you assume being human is being weak.”

  “Is it not?”

  She narrowed her eyes and charged again. Downward stab, upper slice, spin around, jump towards him. She became overwhelming, moving rapidly and with force, this time continuing until she had him against the wall when he ran out of room to retreat. She pressed her sword against his chest where it rested against his own sw
ord, and Damon smirked.

  “Now who is trying to kill who?”

  “Mention my father again, and I will test how sharp this sword is on you.”

  Damon pushed her away and put the swords away with a wave of his hand.

  “Perhaps something to teach you a little patience and calmness?” he suggested, using his magic to conjure up a bow and arrows.

  Dawn raised a brow. "Did they teach you how to shoot arrows at age seven again?"

  "I enjoyed it, I suppose. The thought of being a warrior. It is all I have ever wanted."

  Everyone born with magic was inclined towards certain things. Damon hadn’t had much choice in the matter, she supposed.

  “Don’t you ever feel like you are living out a life already spelled out for you?” she asked, wanting to hear his perspective.

  She expected Damon to defend his choice and accuse her of always trying to run away from destiny. After a few hours of training with him, she knew enough about the warlock to fill a book. Chapter one, he was boring. Chapter two, he was boring and a stickler for rules. Chapter three and to the end, a repetition of chapter one and two.

  “Are you trying to get into my head again?” he asked, setting up two target boards with another wave of his hand.

  “I doubt that’s even possible,” Dawn scoffed. “I am just saying as the Fae were made of earth magic, and tend to be healers and farmers. Warlocks were made of dragon magic, and they can’t help but fight and protect either.”

  “And Halflings? How would you explain being able to fight so well?”

  “Simple evolution? When you don’t fit anywhere with magic, you tend to hone other skills. I’m sure it just got passed from generation to generation.”

  Damon seemed to think about it for a second, “Maybe you are right. Or maybe you are just looking for excuses.”

  He handed her a bow, and she caught a glimpse of a tattoo on the inside of his left wrist.

  “What is that?”

  She caught his hand and turned it over, reading and failing to understand the small word inked on his skin. “Is that a spell?”

  He laughed. “No.”

  “Must be important then to have it tattooed on you.”

  “Are you prying?”

  “Me? Prying? I would never!”

  Damon gave her a knowing smile and snapped his fingers, conjuring a flame on his palm. He held his hand near a wall, a shadow of the flame appearing. He waved his other hand on top of the flame, making it bigger.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Teaching you a lesson, little one.”

  Dawn rolled her eyes but paid attention, waiting for him to explain.

  “Itxal, is a shadow in Basque. It’s a language in Spain.”

  She wanted to roll her eyes again; of course he would be a languages nerd too.

  “But it also means the power of being. Which means that a shadow is not only the absence of light, but when a shadow is great, it actually means the light we shine is brighter.”

  That was actually beautiful, she thought as she looked at the shadow on the wall. She blinked when he made the flame disappear, then looked at him again.

  “My team and I got it done on our very first mission, just a reminder that the world sometimes is only as dark as you want to see it.”

  If Dawn didn’t know any better, she would think Damon was actually having a sincere moment. There was a hint of sadness in his eyes as he spoke, but just as quickly as she had seen it, it was gone. What that was all about?

  “But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, princess?” he smirked, stretching out his hand and making an arrow appear. He balanced it at the tips of his fingers, and Dawn grabbed it with a huff.

  She turned away from him, knocked her arrow, drew it, and released. She could almost hear Damon’s jaw dropping to the ground when she hit the bull’s eye without breaking a sweat. The sound of clapping made her turn, and she saw Elijah walking in with a proud grin.

  Damon still stared at Dawn, the disbelief written all over his face. Elijah clapped him on the shoulder.

  “She was top of the class in weapons fighting,” he said.

  Damon turned to face her. “I don’t understand, why didn’t you join the First Guard?”

  “Because I had other things I wanted to do. First Guard is not the only career a person has to pursue just because they can shoot an arrow, you know,” she replied.

  Damon looked like he wanted to argue but thought better of it, instead just shaking his head and looking away. It must have been so hard for him to comprehend, Dawn thought. People like Damon only wanted one thing in life, being the best at everything magic. Memorize the highest number of spells, wield the highest number of weapons. It was a legacy they had to continue, and nothing existed out of the world of magic. But Dawn was half-human, and she had never really felt like she fully belonged in either world. One thing that she knew for certain was that she loved botany, and she wanted to pursue it as more than a hobby. All she wanted was a chance to try but seemed like it was too much to ask for.

  “Well, seems like the fates had other plans in mind. Because you are here after all,” Elijah said, throwing her a staff.

  Dawn caught it and frowned, “I am not carrying a staff around. I am not eighty!”

  “Well, you need to choose a weapon because official training begins tomorrow,” Damon said in his know-it-all voice.

  “I still don’t understand why I have to train. I am not joining the First Guard.”

  “Again, because you need protection and the safest place for you to be right now is surrounded by the best fighters we have. And since you are here, you might as well learn a thing or two.”

  “He’s right, stop sulking,” Elijah added.

  Dawn glared. “Whose side are you on?”

  “Yours, always. And I can only be on your side if you are alive, which means being here and learning how to protect yourself better in the process.”

  Elijah had a valid point, but she wasn’t about to admit it to him out loud.

  “Besides, being here might allow us to find out more about what’s going on,” he added with a wink.

  Again, a very good point her friend was making, although she had no idea where to start.

  “Do you always need a pep talk to get you to do anything?” Damon asked with a raised brow.

  Dawn smiled sweetly before replying, “Not to punch you in the face, I don’t. I’m properly self-motivated for that one.”

  “You are such a child,” Damon said with exasperation. “Follow me, maybe we need to try something different.”

  Dawn and Elijah looked at each other in confusion when they followed Damon into an empty room. Damon then raised his left hand and chanted a spell before doing the same with his right hand and crossing his arms. The walls began moving inwards, causing Dawn and Elijah to take a step towards Damon. The movement stopped after a few seconds, revealing rolls of weapons neatly arranged on shelves.

  “Whoa!” Dawn exclaimed with wide eyes, rushing towards one row.

  She slammed right into an invisible force, groaning at the slight discomfort of the collision.

  “Don’t touch anything,” Damon said sternly, in true Damon fashion.

  Dawn looked at his clenched fist in frustration, “You could have just said that.”

  “But where’s the fun in that.” The annoying warlock grinned, revealing the dimple that most likely made all girls swoon.

  He would have been so good looking if he wasn’t so arrogant, Dawn thought. He released his fist, and she felt a small breeze as the wall disappeared. She put her hand in front first, testing the space. When she didn’t meet any obstacle, she proceeded.

  Every weapon she could think rested on the racks in front of her, and she felt like a kid in a candy shop. Her weapons teacher had always said that if a weapon was truly meant for a warrior, it would reveal itself to them. She didn’t know how that was possible when there were so many options to
choose from. And so many variables to consider too.

  “This is amazing,” Elijah said beside her.

  “I know right! This place is so cool.”

  “Cool enough to make you change your mind? You know, after shadows stop trying to kill you and all that.”

  Dawn laughed and bumped shoulders with her best friend, glad that at least he was with her as she went through all this. Seeing all these weapons made her situation feel even more real; she really needed to protect herself. There was someone out there killing Pixies, and she had been marked too. But was it enough to make her reconsider her plans to leave magic behind? She didn’t think so. She might have missed her interview and chance to join the program this year, but there was always next year.

  “Let’s just find me a weapon first or maybe...” Dawn paused as her eyes landed on two Sai daggers.

  “Maybe what?” Elijah asked.

  “Weapons,” Dawn finished and reached for the beautiful pair of daggers in front of her.

  “No touching!” Damon’s voice startled her, making her take a quick step back.

  She couldn’t explain it, but there was something about the daggers that called to her. There was nothing extraordinary about them, just the standard triple-pronged weapon she had trained with before. The steel was polished, and the handles were a rugged gold that looked like it had seen better days. But they were…perfect.

  “I want those,” she said softly, not able to take her eyes off them.