by Beam, Brian
“You’re joking, right?” I asked incredulously. I’d always thought the number and types of gods and goddesses to be ridiculous, but this was just too much.
Briscott laughed again. “Mostly. He’s actually the god of diseases. Supposedly after an epidemic of gastrism a couple hundred years ago, he became known by the other moniker.”
I rolled my eyes. I’d already known that there was a god of sickness, so the idea of having a separate god of diseases seemed . . . well, stupid. From what I knew of gastrism, though, his name was aptly changed.
“I can’t believe it’s going to be worse next time,” I groaned, pulling the wet cloth on my forehead down over my eyes. “Max better give me a damn warm welcome when I find him, or I may just leave him there.” Of course I didn’t mean that, but I was starting to wonder if we could’ve found a better means of access into the Wizard Academy.
“As long as you get Xalis,” Til’ threw in. “Who knows, maybe Isilla was just messing with you. Maybe it won’t be so bad next time.” I only groaned in response. As much as I’d have loved to believe Til’s suggestion, I knew it was too much to hope for.
Briscott stood from his chair. “Til’, why don’t you go see if they have any leftover bread they’d be willing to part with. We need to get something bland in Korin’s stomach to continue to keep his nausea at bay as well as keep his strength up. Get some more water, too. If they won’t give it to you,” Briscott flipped a copper coin to Til’, who snatched it from the air, “give them this.”
“Okay, I’ll be back. I’m going to see if they have some scrap wood, too, so I can make some woodwork. I can sell it while Korin’s rescuing Max so I can give you guys some money to start off with when I have to head to the Snowy Waste . . .” Til’ continued to talk as he left the room and shut the door behind him. I’m not sure that he actually stopped talking when he was out in the hallway.
My heart had sunk when Til’ had mentioned his leaving to return Xalis to the dragons in the Snowy Waste. I’d known for weeks that we’d be parting ways, but it didn’t make the concept any easier to accept. For years, Max had been my only consistent friend. Before meeting Til’ and Sal’, I’d forgotten just how it felt to have close friends. Well, human friends, anyway. Now that I knew that feeling again, I hated the thought of losing it. Also, though Til’ intended to find us once Xalis was returned, I couldn’t help but worry about him. Traveling through the Glacial Mountains would be anything but safe, and he’d be all alone. And what would the dragons think about him entering their lands?
The sound of Briscott’s chair dragging across the carpet towards the bed snapped me from my reverie. I pushed the washing cloth back onto my forehead and opened my eyes to see Briscott taking a seat beside the bed. He pulled his cloak off the back of the chair and dug through an inner pocket. As he brought his hand out, now holding a tiny leather pouch, I thought I saw a familiar glass vial drop back into the pocket.
“What was that?” I asked, gesturing to his cloak.
Briscott gave me a startled look and quickly threw his cloak back over the chair. “This is dried blueleaf,” he explained, ignoring my question. “I know that Isilla told you the effects of that blighted potion would be gone in a couple hours, but since we have no blighting way of knowing for sure, a pinch of this in your water will help you get some sleep, even if you do continue to feel sick tonight. Your mind won’t be muddled when you wake up either.”
“That sounds good,” I replied. My brow wrinkled as a thought occurred to me. “Where did you get that and the money you just gave Til’?”
Briscott flushed. “I’ve kept a little money stashed away in case of emergency,” he replied. “I know I shouldn’t have kept it secret, but if I’d told you about it, the money would’ve ended up going to blighted Ulys. I just bought the blueleaf out there.” He tilted his head towards the door. “After my little . . . episode, I thought I might need a little something to get myself to sleep tonight.”
I instantly felt bad for questioning him. My sickness had made me forget about what had happened with him when we’d first entered the room. “I’m sorry. After what that potion did to me, I guess I just feel like making sure I have all the information I need from now on.”
Briscott gave a rich chuckle and patted me on the shoulder. “Think nothing of it. Loranis willing, Til’s right and you won’t go through this tomorrow.”
“I just hope he wills me to not need any more urgent trips to the privy,” I joked. I tried to laugh but felt too weak. If I felt worse the next time I took the potion, I’d only have the duration of the potion to get into the Wizard Academy; find Max, Sal’, and Xalis; and get out. I was too exhausted to worry about the prospect of taking longer than that.
I looked into Briscott’s eyes. “In all seriousness, are you okay now? You kind of worried Til’ and me when you rushed out.”
Briscott waved a hand in dismissal. “I’m fine now. Don’t worry about me. You’ve got enough to think about.”
Til’s knock sounded from the door. “I’ve got some bread and water,” he announced. Briscott stood and let him in. Til’ walked into the room with half of a loaf of crusty bread in one hand and a full ewer of water in the other. Under his arms, he carried two short planks of wood and two round table legs that were splintered on one end.
“They were throwing out an old table that a wizard broke with an errant spell, so I got part of the table top and these legs. I’ll make sure you have plenty of money to get started on your way to Gualain,” Til’ explained, glowing with pride. He let the wood clatter to the floor and handed me the bread. After filling the empty mug with water, he brought that to me as well.
I situated my pillow so I could sit up against the headboard while nibbling at the bread. Briscott lifted his pouch with questioning eyes. I nodded and held out the mug, letting him put in a pinch of the blueleaf. He took a second pinch and tilted his head back to swallow it without water.
Briscott held the pouch out to Til’. “Something to help you sleep?” he offered.
“None for me, thanks,” Til’ answered as he dug through his satchel. He brought out a couple of carving tools, eyeing them with disdain as he had with all non-Kolarin carving tools. He set them down next to the scrap wood. “I’ll be working on these tonight.”
Briscott tossed the pouch of blueleaf onto the table. “It’s there if you change your mind.”
“All right,” I started as I chewed on another nibble of bread, “before this stuff kicks in, I just want to go over what’s going to happen tomorrow. I’ll be going into the Wizard Academy alone, so I mainly just want some input on the plan.”
Til’ and Briscott nodded. Til’ came over and sat on the foot of the bed, swinging his legs back and forth over the side. “For tomorrow, we need to decide on a meeting point. How about where we stabled the horses?” We had stabled the horses only a few streets away from the Wizard Academy. We’d all agreed that we didn’t feel quite comfortable stabling them in the Black Magic District.
“That sounds good to me,” Briscott agreed. Til’ nodded.
“If I don’t meet you back at the stable within two hours of heading to the Wizard Academy, you’ll need to make yourselves scarce. Hopefully I won’t take more than the hour the potion lasts, but I don’t want to rush this either. Augril at the stable had a wind-up clock behind the front desk that you can check to keep track of time. By no means are you allowed to attempt to come in after me. Got it?”
“But—” Til’ argued.
“By no means,” I repeated.
“But Max and Xalis—”
“By. No. Means. I understand your concern, Til’, but without the potion, how would you even get in? If I’m caught, we’ll just have to hope that I can convince the Council to release me and then come up with a new plan. It won’t do any good to have us all locked up. Okay?”
Til’ crossed his arms and stuck out his lower lip in indignation, but gave a reluctant nod.
“He’s right,
Til’,” Briscott agreed. “We’ve been in this town a couple of days and haven’t found anything better than this potion to help us, so if he’s caught, we may have to rely on Korin to get himself out.” Til’ still looked unhappy about that idea.
“Til’, if I don’t meet back up with you at the stables, I want you to write Sal’ a letter and have it sent to her at the Wizard Academy. Even if it took the full two weeks to pass through to her, she’d be able to help me if I couldn’t get out on my own. If it does come to that, you’ll have to come up with a way to let her know I need help without blatantly saying so. Her eyes wouldn’t be the only ones to see the letter.” The thought of those ice-blue eyes made me yearn to gaze into them.
I shook the thought from my head and turned to Briscott. “Briscott, you don’t have to stick around for any of this. If things go bad tomorrow, you’re more than welcome to move on to Gualain.”
“No, I’m blighting sticking with you. Once we have your wizard friends on our side, we can do a lot more damage against Gal . . .” Briscott trailed off, not wanting to mention my father’s name. I tried not to let the painful stab to my heart show on my face. “Against those blighted undead,” he amended. “Going alone would just be suicide. Going with you may be as well, but at least I’d be with friends.”
“I don’t like any of this,” Til’ chimed in indignantly. “How can we just let you stay in there if they catch you?”
“Til’,” I said through a yawn. The blueleaf was already hitting me. “We don’t have a lot of options right now. Hopefully I’ll get in and have Max, Xalis, and Sal’ before the potion even wears off.” I didn’t want to think about what would happen otherwise. “Like I said, just send Sal’ a letter if I don’t make it. That’s all you could do without risking your own safety.”
Til’s eyes were wet as he turned them away from me. I knew he was worried about me, but there was little else we could do. With the Wizard Council not seeing petitioners and letters taking two weeks to reach important wizards, we were sorely limited on options. I wasn’t going to leave Max to the laboratory wizards any longer than I had to.
I covered my mouth, yawning again. “If I don’t come back, I want you two to take rooms at that inn we stayed in our first night in Auslin, Idrolin’s Den. Til’, with your woodcraft, it shouldn’t be a problem to keep rooms there for an extended time, right?”
“I guess,” Til’ replied poutily.
“It’s going to be okay, Til’,” I assured him with a tired smile. “We just—” My head jerked up. I must’ve fallen asleep for a split second in the middle of my sentence. “We just need to keep our heads up. We’ve gotten through bad situations before. Maybe Thilis will shine his godly luck on us again.”
“Loranis will see us through this,” Briscott added through a yawn of his own. His head lulled downward against his chest and his eyes closed.
Til’, still looking a bit put out, went over to my backpack and pulled out my spare blanket and, after shaking out shards of the broken lantern, laid it over Briscott, who was already snoring, slouched in the chair. He then pulled the blanket on the bed over me as I slid down from the headboard, my eyes lead weights.
“I sure hope you guys are right,” he said. “Good night, Korin.”
“Good night, Til’,” I answered drowsily as my eyes shut. The blueleaf was certainly going to make sure that the myriad worries about the next day weren’t going to keep me awake. Before sleep consumed me, I felt a spark of excitement at the prospect of being reunited with Sal’ the next day.
Chapter 25
Here Goes Nothing
“Korin, help!” Sal’ screamed in pure terror as she was carried away by two rotting, undead. Her ice-blue eyes were wide, her pouty lips trembling. Errant strands of wavy hair, drenched in sweat, were plastered across her face. Her blue robe was ripped and torn, the fair skin of her slender body visible underneath. The world was dark except for the sourceless light illuminating her and the undead.
I tried to run towards her but couldn’t. It was as if I were merely having a vision of the scene, not physically standing there. I couldn’t speak. All I could do was watch helplessly as Sal’ was dragged away, screaming the entire time.
****
“No!” I cried as my eyes snapped open. I sprung upright, my clothes clinging to my sweat-slicked body.
It took a few eyeblinks to realize I was still in our room at the Lost Wizard. The lighted orb on the table still illuminated the room, but cast a dimmer light. Til’ was curled up on the floor with his cloak thrown over him, a stack of detailed woodcraft and piles of wood shavings beside him. Briscott had slouched further in his chair, just a hair’s breadth from falling on his ass to the floor. His blanket had dropped to his feet at some point. Given the volume of his snoring filling the room, it was no surprise that my nightmare-induced shout hadn’t woken either of them.
Thankfully, Briscott had been right about the blueleaf. I felt well-rested and not the least bit groggy. More importantly, Isilla also must’ve been right about the duration of the potion. I no longer felt weak or sick to my stomach. I hoped that how good I felt was a favorable portent for the day to come.
With that thought, and the fact that I felt completely refreshed, I knew I wouldn’t be going back to sleep. I kicked off my blanket and swung my feet off the bed, the remains of the bread Til’ had brought me rolling onto the floor. Though I felt rested, my stomach ached with hunger, so I made short work of the bread and walked to the table to finish off the remaining water in the ewer.
With a smile, I crouched next to Til’, taking up one of his pieces of woodcraft. From part of a table leg, he’d somehow hollowed out the middle, a thin layer of impossibly delicate swirls and loops encircling both the inside and outside of the wooden tube. I placed it down carefully, trying not to break his fragile work.
Another section of table leg had been carved into a picture-perfect horse, its mane detailed with individual hairs. It made me think of the wooden sculpture of Bhaliel that Til’ had crafted for me to give to my adoptive father. That sculpture rested within one of the saddlebags that had been with my horse, Telis, who’d been taken along with Max and Sal’. I wondered if it would be too much to hope for to find Telis and all of my belongings at the Wizard Academy. Telis was like family, and the thought of having lost him forever set my heart to aching.
I was about to stand when I noticed a small square of wood about half the size of my palm sitting apart from the other pieces of woodwork. There was a thin string tied together at the ends threaded through a small hole through its top. Taking it in my fingers, I flipped it over to reveal a perfect engraving of Vesteir’s sigil, the same sigil from the hilt of the shortsword Chasus had given me. The sigil wasn’t the simple version from my sword hilt, though. The crossed sword and spear were exquisitely detailed over a circular shield that showed signs of wear as if it had withstood countless battles. Below the sigil, “KORINALIS KARELL, MAY VESTEIR WATCH OVER YOUR SWORD” was carved in beautiful, flowing script.
My eyes started to tear up as I looked back to Til’. I absolutely hated that I was making him worry to the point that he’d make such a thing for me. Assuming that Til’ was planning on gifting the piece to me, I held on to it. I hoped that my sword wasn’t going to be necessary—I planned on leaving it behind with Til’ and Briscott so I wouldn’t have to worry about keeping it invisible—but I would use Til’s words as a general prayer to the only god I truly believed in to watch over me on this day.
Suddenly, a series of booming crashes sounded against the door. The door shuddered in its frame, the wood lucky to not splinter. Til’ and Briscott jerked awake and scrambled to their feet. I’d already stepped over to the table and grabbed my sword, ready to unsheathe it at a moment’s notice.
“You have less than an hour to get out of here,” a gruff voice announced coarsely. “You hear me?”
Letting out a relieved breath, I called back, “Yes, we’ll be out on time.” The dim light of
the windowless room had fooled me into thinking it was earlier than it was. Resisting the urge to yell some choice words at the man who’d just about scared us all senseless and whose resounding footsteps were fading back down the hallway outside our room, I dropped my sword back onto the table. I’d take a false alarm over a Wizard Guard raid anytime.
“That was a nice blighted wakeup call,” Briscott mumbled, wiping his eyes as he yawned. The fact that Briscott was only just waking didn’t hamper his ability to curse.
Til’ stretched as he yawned as well. “Hey, Korin, I made you something,” he said as he started sifting through the woodcraft piled on the floor. “I know it’s here somewhere . . .”
Holding up the wooden square, I gestured to it with my free hand. “You mean this?” I asked.
Til’ beamed with pride. “You got it already? Good. We Kolari sometimes carve sigils of gods onto square pieces of wood for those in need of special prayers. We call them fortune blocks, or prayer blocks. I thought you could use a special prayer for today.”
“Thank you, Til’. I can’t tell you how much this means to me. I’ll feel much better with this on me.” I slipped the fortune block over my head, tucking it into my shirt so that when I took the potion, it would be invisible from the contact it made with the skin of my chest. Til’s smile nearly split his face in two.
Briscott had stared at the fortune block with reverence, his eyes turning to Til’ as I tucked it under my shirt. “Til’, do you think—”
Before he could finish, Til’ pulled another square piece of wood from his satchel, this one with Loranis’s sigil of the rising sun over a rounded horizon. I couldn’t read the words below the sigil, but like mine, the fortune block was beautiful. Briscott threw his over his head as well, smiling fondly at the proud Kolarin.
