Squire of War

by M. H. Johnson

  Tonight would be a night of daring and adventure, under the light of a full moon. And Jess just knew that a thick billowing mist would be seeping from the wood, all becoming fuzzy, indistinct. She was coldly certain that even the least imaginative of students would be able to catch the silhouette of an ancient wizard’s tower coalescing out of shadows by the old mound at the forest’s edge, where once it had stood, centuries ago.

  Though whether the tower’s silhouette would solidify out of the mist into an impressive edifice full of magic and mystery, or fade back once more into fog and shadow as one approached, all depended on whether one had the discipline and knack to sense the paths between reality and wonder, and enter that realm of living dream.

  Yet despite the excitement she swore they both felt, her shieldbrother couldn't hide the fear behind his gaze any more than she could.

  She forced herself to say it. “Having second thoughts?”

  Her shieldbrother just smiled and shook his head. “Not at all. By all the gods, Jess, if this mad plan actually works? The world is our oyster, and no chains of duty can bind us. We are well and truly free, with endless realms of reality and dream to explore. Alex and Rens, you should have seen the look on their faces, Lucas as well! Even Josie will be part of the ceremony. It's just, well, weren't we worried about this convergence at one point? That it was a sign of trouble coming?"

  Jess swallowed and nodded. "It is odd. At one point, I thought Alex and Rens were terrified of what would happen if living dream breached Highrock. But now, it is as if they have grown used to the idea, and are filled only with sweetest exhilaration. And I won't lie, as much as I hunger for the chance to prove myself, Mord's words haunt me still. We aren't just exploring wisps of shadowy fog, but a place where stories come to life. And the way Mord said it, death is a very real possibility."

  Jess shrugged. "But it almost doesn't matter. If I ever had cold feet before, I am over it now. Highrock is forbidden to me, and I have nothing to look forward to save years of misery if I dare to go home again." Jess shivered. "With the letter Mother sent me... Honestly, Malek, I know this is an arrow in the dark, and odds are we'll both be stumbling about like fools, but if there is even a chance I can escape the life that awaits me in the Plaga household, I'm willing to take that risk."

  Malek held up his hands in mock surrender. “I understand, Jess, believe me. Even if we don't have the knack for it, and the dean finally sends off that graciously deferred letter, don't worry. We'll leave before your mother makes her appearance like a conquering queen before the walls of our keep, and make our way in the world together, without bowing our heads to anyone save the king."

  Jess gave a relieved nod. "Good. You're my best friend, and I want us to do this together, just you and me. But I can tell you're still troubled."

  Malek sighed. "I was too tired to go into it late last night, but after sharing Twilight's information and finalizing our plans, Alex informed me that the tomes Rens was using as reference for the ritual tonight involve magics alien to our tradition, and in fact show signs of having been used before.” Malek shrugged. “Odds are, it's just a remnant of ceremonies used centuries ago.”

  Jess raised an eyebrow. “But isn’t it a college tome? And surely the elementalist tradition hasn’t changed that much in just a few centuries? And even if it has, how strong was the spell cast, if it is still resonating this many years later?”

  “I don’t have a ready answer to all that, Jess. All I can say is that it looks fine to Rens and Alex, and from what our circle brother implied, those tomes were all sort of liberated from Velheim some years back.”

  “Ah, so we are using raid booty we stole from Velheim.” Jess chuckled. “That’s one way to learn their arts, I suppose.”

  Malek grinned. “As good a way as any. Now come on, Jess. Time to splash some water on your face and don your gear. Because in a few short hours we'll be slipping free of mundus and stepping into living dream."

  Jess smiled and nodded, beginning to feel the exhilarating tingle of excitement already infecting her friend. “Today will be the day, Malek. The first page of the next chapter in our lives. Let’s make it a story worthy of the bards.”

  49

  Greetings, Master Rens.” Jess honored the master enchanter with a deferential bow.

  Rens's brooding features lit into a brilliant smile. "Jessica! So good to see you and Malek both looking fit and well. Abe has been assuring you both recieved plenty of rations, I trust? Excellent." He clapped them both on the shoulder. "Though you have ended your tenure at our college more abruptly then we had expected, you may both count me an ally. Should you ever seek referrals as to your martial talents and integrity, you need but send word, and I will make clear the esteem we of the Wizards Wing have for the both of you, magical affinity or no."

  Jess bowed her head, honored for the warmth of his words when she felt so forsaken by so much of her past life. Even if it was only in the form of an occasional letter affirming her worth and integrity, Rens made a fine patron indeed.

  "Thank you, Master Rens," Malek said. "We will stand sentinel, at your service. But tell us how we may assist."

  Rens chuckled. "I wouldn't worry about a thing, children. Just take your ease, and enjoy the show."

  With a final friendly smile, he turned his attention once more upon the multitude of aspiring mages gathering various supplies and artifacts as they prepared the sight of their ceremony upon windswept fields not so distant from the spot Jess and Malek had made their impromptu camp, in direct line of sight as to where Rens had determined the barrier between the realms of mundus and Shadow to be thinnest, and thus where the Regio leading to the Realm of Dreams and the lost tower was expected to manifest.

  Jess inhaled the fragrant night air, the sharp clean scent of birch and pine clearing her head as she tightened the straps of her helm, her bronze armaments as comfortable to her warrior's body as a second skin, fitted securely over her gambeson, tight and snug to her frame.

  “Looking great, my shieldsister," Malek declared as he came over to rap her helm playfully with his gauntleted hand.

  “Likewise, shieldbrother,” Jess grinned, checking the straps of his armor as he did hers, one final time.

  Curious about the magic ritual for its own sake, Jess watched the younger students carefully placing incense and powdered chalk to visually depict the ever-blossoming lines of arcane energies Jess could feel flowing out from Rens and the dozen or so adepts forming a circle with him. Together the adepts had joined hands, gazing up at the full moon, chanting fervently as their combined coiling streams of azure power wrapped about the precisely placed sigils in the chalk lined octagram perfectly.

  Jess couldn’t help but spend some moments admiring the steady pulse and undulation of the overlapping coils. Utterly in balance with each other, their resonances left them in states of constant flux and equilibrium.

  Such a fragile construct, yet balanced perfectly to allow a durability that was fascinating to behold. Jess smiled in appreciation of it, almost able to taste the complex underpinnings of the great masterwork Rens and his journeymen were performing at that very moment.

  Malek sighed, gazing forlornly at the ceremony in progress.

  “What’s wrong?” Jess asked, herself feeling a sweet hot frisson of excitement, barely able to contain herself. “This is perhaps the most incredible night of our lives! What is troubling you, brother?”

  Malek shook his head, his smile bittersweet. “For the most part, I feel just the same as you do, Jess. Who knows what sights we’ll see if Rens actually manages to open a portal to a world overlapping our own? One can only imagine.”

  Malek gazed back at the college, right where his quarters would be if he could see through stone, and Jess instantly understood what was troubling him. “Add to that the possibility that you and I might, fates willing, have the knack not just to glimpse Rens's vision of that ancient keep, but be able to actually travel along the paths of dream and wonder and e
nter that ancient tower lost in Shadow by our own will. That, shieldsister, would be a feat nothing short of amazing. But despite all the beauty and wonder we are witnessing this night, all Jacob cared to say when I snuck in to see him was that our bold venture into the Dreamrealms is frightfully perilous, and you and I are a pair of great big fools.”

  Jess tore her eyes away from the fascinating display of power being harnessed and channeled by Rens and spared her companion a sympathetic smile, hugging him gently. “It’s okay, Malek. He’s just worried about you. He’s not trying to kill your joy out of resentment. He’s just afraid.” She sighed. “He doesn’t understand how badly you and I need to break free. Of all expectations, all demands, all the knots of obligation and fidelity, never allowed to fulfill the wild dreams of our own hearts.”

  She squeezed his shoulder gently, and could tell by the haunted look in his eyes that he felt the same as she did. “You especially need to break free. Free to live and love as you will. Beholden to the expectations of no one. Jacob doesn’t understand the pressure you are under. You, my friend, feel even more trapped by your title than I do my own. You've revealed your heart to me, Malek, and I will always keep your trust. Your father was a monster, and I would wish for you to always have the means to free yourself from him.”

  Malek nodded mutely at her soft words, none overhearing the heartfelt intensity with which they spoke.

  Jess gently touched his cheek, forcing his brooding eyes to meet her own, and spoke on. “You and I both need this, Malek. Even if nothing happens at all, even if all we do is chase shadows by moonlight, at least we can say we strove forward and tried to bridge the gap between mundus and story. Whatever happens, whatever life’s demands, at least we have shown ourselves having the courage to struggle, to strive, to break free.”

  Her face breaking out in a sudden grin, Jess gazed upon the great stone fortress of a school that she loved so dearly, her heart bursting with emotions she could scarce describe. "Whatever happens, shieldbrother, we have our friendship, and we will get through this night together."

  “Hear, hear, shieldsister.” Malek and Jess clasped hands, feeling a fierce sense of resolution and camaraderie, just as Rens' voice cracked and the Octagram flared to life.

  Jess and Malek turned as one to gaze at the brilliant silvery ball of energy that had formed between Rens and the journeymen under him. Their arms were raised wide as they chanted in a low, solemn uniform chorus, doing all they could to focus their combined power in stabilizing their summoning into a mystic lens that would, in theory at least, allow them to peer into the heart of Shadow itself.

  Jess quickly noted all the apprentices that had helped to prepare the Octagram, bleeding their own power into their masters' channeled spell, most of them panting with exhaustion. She was not surprised at all to see her dear friend Alex among that select handful standing by Rens' side, his status as a greater Journeymen now obvious, fiercely focused on helping Rens shape and control the energies they had spun forth into a great web of crackling power. That Jera also stood among that inner circle, hand firmly clasped to Alex's as she added her energies to his, told Jess that Jera was no small power in her own right, even if she was less overt about her talents, content to stay snug in her lover's shadow.

  But what was most remarkable was the presence of Josie herself, graceful features set in a mask of grim determination, silken blond hair seeming to billow upon ethereal winds she alone could feel, channeling energies alien to elementalists arts into the heart of Rens's spell. This like nothing else gave Jess pause, for the working Rens thought to harness was unlike any other Jess had ever witnessed before.

  Jess smiled happily for her friends, already such adept students, all of them favored protégés of their respective masters. It was nice to know that their futures, at least, were assured.

  It was then Jess noted a certain young man waving happily at her, totally at odds with the decorum of the others. Jess couldn’t help but cringe as Abe, lacking all solemnity, gazed at Jess like a happy puppy, nearly jiggling with excitement. He was about to call out to her, but a fellow student quickly grabbed his arm and shook him to silence, just in time. Putting a finger to mouth, the angry upperclassman fiercely gestured to their master and the dozen or so students literally risking their lives channeling such a complex and potent weave of arcane power.

  That senior student then glared at Jess, as if Abe's puppy-like enthusiasm was somehow her fault, and sharply gestured for Abe to leave. Abe sighed, suddenly crestfallen, but complied. For the apprentices were, in truth, done with their share of the work, having set up the circle and given forth their reserves of power. At this point they were there only as a matter of propriety and courtesy, bearing witness to the masterwork ritual manifesting before them. Evidently Abe’s overenthusiasm was deemed highly out of place.

  It was then that the cloud cover finally broke, and Jess could feel the light of the brilliant moon caress her skin. Simultaneously she felt a certain comforting presence gently settle himself upon her shoulder, gazing contemplatively at the scene before them.

  "And so it begins," Twilight said.

  Jess turned her head, peering curiously at her enigmatic cat calmly grooming himself upon her shoulder, when her attention was captured by a sudden flash of silvery light.

  “I think it's happening, brother," Jess whispered softly, even as the great spinning orb that Master Rens and her friends were focusing on so intently began to emit a silvery glow of its own, the entirety of the shimmering magical sphere becoming translucent, and Jess thought she could almost make out the blurred wavering image of a chamber deep within, as if gazing down into the depths of her favorite lake for fishing.

  Jess noted not a few gasps of wonder, as various students attempted to get a closer look without breaking the links.

  “Jess, do you see that?” Malek’s urgent voice quivered with excitement, shaking Jess free of her reverie even as a crestfallen Abe approached them.

  “What is it, Malek?" Jess followed his shaking fingers and gasped in awe. For at the crest of the forest covered hill, right beside the cliff face of Highrock, where there had once stood a pile of broken rubble amidst the trees that Jess had more than once fantasized could have stood a great tower many centuries ago, was a sight that caused Jess to shake her head with wonder.

  The ancient pile of moss covered rubble was gone.

  In its stead was an ancient tower radiating a terrible presence and majesty to any who could see it. Yet what struck Jess the most was that it looked exactly as she and Malek had imagined it to be, in every exquisite detail, in those flights of fancy they had shared while exploring the woods together, seasons ago. Vast and mighty it stood, rising far above the surrounding trees, walls shimmering constructs of marble laden with mother-of-pearl and brilliant flecks of gold, glistening in the brilliant moonlight.

  Curiously, whatever else they had argued about while forging their stories during their rambling walks through the woods, they had never once disagreed about the appearance of their imagined tower, and now that very structure rose mightily before them, accurate in every detail to their shared memory, like a dream given flesh and form.

  “By all the gods, Jess," Malek hissed in awe. "It looks exactly the way we had imagined it to be. Exactly!" Jess's gauntleted hand found Malek's own and she squeezed tight, letting go only when she saw him wince, such was her strength at times.

  "I thought I'd be afraid," Jess confessed, "I had nightmares about this moment. About losing myself to the horrors of living dream." She gave a breathless laugh. "But all I feel now, that the moment is actually before us, is wonder. Wonder and awe."

  Malek grinned. "It is just like girding ourselves for Eloquin's missions. When first we trained, it was with fear of death as a constant companion, but once we found ourselves charging at live enemies with Neal and Eloquin roaring in our ears, all we felt was a mad rush of excitement, glorying as we looked death in the face, feeling more alive during those moments t
han we had ever felt before."

  The pair bumped fists and grinned like a pair savoring the first crush of love, and with a single nod they began striding toward the gently wavering tower at the crest of the hill before them. The eerily shifting structure seemed simultaneously but single stride away, and a thousand leagues distant, all at once.

  Instinctively, Jess kept her hand gently but firmly clasped to Malek’s own. She fancied she could almost feel the gentle currents of reality and dream forming riptides at the borderlands between the realms of Shadow and Dawn. Dizzy with excitement, she felt almost as if she was preparing to plunge into the deepest waters imaginable as she took a deep breath, smiling as she saw Malek do the same, and together they strode boldly forth into the ephemeral waves of reality and dream flowing between the realms.

  “Jess, Jess! I see the tower! Do you see the tower? Wait up, I want to go with you guys!” This from Abe, and Jess felt a sudden prickle of dread, though she knew not why. She could see Jera gazing quizzically at Abe, then back at the magical images formed in Master Rens’s great orb of divination, though even this close to the realm of mundus, Jera and the other mages were shimmering slightly, as if seen through a shallow lake. None of the mages save Abe seemed to have noted the tower, though Jera seemed alarmed as she glanced at Abe.

  Jess’s eyes widened as Abe raced to catch up to her and Malek. He had only been a few feet away, yet by some trick of perception, it suddenly looked as though he were a thousand yards behind them.

  “Jess, wait up!” Abe’s excited cry twisted into a gurgled scream.

  His eyes bulged in sudden surprise. To Jess’s horror, she saw his outflung arm desperately reaching out to her, twisting oddly through space, and she instinctively caught his grip with her own. Malek, sensing something amiss, began to turn around, but time had slowed to a horrific crawl.

  For all that Abe’s hand was clenched firmly in Jess’s strong grip, his body had been horrifically twisted and rent, as if he were but a few paces distant, yet stretched, hideously, as far as the eye could see.