by B. T. Narro
“Jon, I don’t have the authority to end your punishment.”
I let out my breath. “I understand the point of it, but circumstances have changed since he issued it a week ago. I need my sleep to better train…and fight.”
“Again, I don’t have the power.”
“Will you at least speak to him tomorrow on my behalf?”
“I will, but don’t expect him to change his mind. He was livid when you used his daughter against him.”
Yeah, I remember.
*****
I awoke with a startle. “Jon, you’re having a nightmare! Wake up!” It was Aliana’s voice through the wall as she pounded on it.
For a moment, I thought I might have dreamed the whole encounter. But no. It had happened. Cason killed a man tonight.
I’d just relived Greda changing into Cason and a few other details I didn’t care to remember now.
“Thank you!” I shouted into the wall. “I’m fine.”
“I’m coming over.”
“I’m fine,” I repeated.
She didn’t reply.
Soon there was a knock on my door.
I took my extra blanket from the chair and wrapped it around me. Cold nights these days, winter had begun. But I was used to far colder than this and didn’t need the extra blanket while sleeping.
I unlocked the door and opened it. I could only make out Aliana’s silhouette. She stepped in and waited for me to close the door. I could see she had her arms around her to protect herself from the cold.
“Here,” I said as I offered the blanket around me.
“Thank you.” She took it.
I got back in bed, sitting up with the covers around me. She surprised me when she climbed up after me and sat close. I knew she wasn’t interested in me, as she had made that abundantly clear, so what was this about?
“What happened tonight?” she asked.
“Nothing.” I didn’t want to scare her—or myself, frankly—when we both needed to go back to sleep. She could find out tomorrow…when the king had a plan. All of this would sound better coming from him.
Aliana give an irritated sigh. “You were shouting, ‘Run! Run! You have to run!’ I know you were supposed to be trailing Gregory Shaw today, and he used to visit Red’s Tavern when he was still a guard.” Her voice was tense.
I knew what she was really saying. Shaw was one of the people who’d harassed her while she worked there.
I wished I could tell her that he, along with a dark mage, had been brought back to the castle to be questioned and imprisoned. It would’ve been the case had Cason not intervened.
“Jon,” she said forcefully. “I know how much you need to sleep. We all do. Just tell me what happened so I can say what I need to.”
I didn’t understand what she needed to say, but she was right. I was too tired to play games.
“I ran into Cason Clay tonight. I had captured Shaw, one of his cohorts, and a dark mage, but Cason intervened. He killed one of the guards who was with me and let another go under the assumption the guard would quit and tell others what had happened, and unfortunately I think the guard will do what Cason wants. Others might quit as well.” I paused in case she wanted to interrupt, but she said nothing.
“Cason’s men were able to figure out who I was because of my skill with dvinia. It confirms what we suspected. They’ve had some way of gathering information about us. It seems to have stopped some time ago, however, because he wasn’t aware I could heal myself. My ankle was broken, so he figured I would be useless for a while, but I managed to heal it and walk back.”
Just louder than a murmur, she asked, “Did you try to run and that’s why you were screaming?”
“No, I was telling someone else to run. There was a girl there about our age. I watched Shaw and his friend harass her in the tavern before all this happened.”
“And Red did nothing to stop it,” Aliana added. “Right?”
“Right. She followed me afterward. She saw me fighting with them later and fetched the guards. She was still with us when Cason arrived, but she did run eventually.”
There was a moment of silence. I couldn’t see Aliana’s face to read her expression. She was just a shadow of hair and blanket.
“What did you need to say?” I asked.
“That I’m here for you. We all are. I think you forget it, or maybe you’re just too worried about protecting us to think of yourself. I know none of us are as powerful as you with sorcery yet, but we are trying just as hard. And we care just as much. You’re not here to protect us. We’re all here to protect the kingdom, and now each other.”
“I know,” I said.
“Then you seem to forget.” Her tone was friendly.
I appreciated her words. Yes, I was stronger than the others, for now—so the king had relied upon me, and I had relied upon myself even more than the king did—but it wouldn’t be that way for long. During the last week especially, all of my peers had made great progress. I had no control over the elements, but Remi made fire, Kataleya water, and Michael wind. They were strong mages now. Both Michael and Kataleya could even knock over a grown man with their mana, while Remi could burn one alive.
Additionally, Aliana was a good shot with the bow now. She’d learned incredibly fast, surprising me more each day. And I wouldn’t soon forget about her tracking skill. Her ability to use earth to sense weight and movement on the ground could be more valuable to our cause than my skill with dvinia. We were lucky she had been recruited by Barrett.
Aliana’s tone became serious. “At least tell me this punishment of yours is over now?”
“I have to wait until I speak with the king tomorrow to find out.”
She sighed. “Then you really ought to get back to sleep.” She moved off the bed. “You’re safe here. We all are.”
After she left, though, I got up and locked my door just to be sure.
CHAPTER FOUR
The typical nature of the next morning actually put me at ease. A manservant woke me up by unlocking my door and entering with my breakfast. I ate it sleepily as he stood at the door and said nothing. Then he collected the empty plate and watched me until I had gathered my clothes for my morning bath. It was to ensure I did not go back to sleep. The only difference today was that he left a pouch containing forty silver coins on the dresser near my bed.
The day of our weekly payment was actually yesterday. It was concerning that the king had taken an extra day to pay us. He didn’t seem like the type of man to forget. I was, however, very forgetful these days. Even though I had spoken to Michael yesterday about what we might do with the coin, I had later forgotten the king was supposed to give us our stipend.
Neither of us had any exciting plans with the coin, however. We still hadn’t spent all that we’d received the day after we came back from the forest, when we’d fought the dark mages from Rohaer, and I had spent the night in a prison cell.
I assumed most of the other sorcerers-in-training hadn’t used up all their coin either, except maybe Charlie. He was always leaving the castle and coming back with materials for his various projects.
I bathed in the boys’ bathhouse like I did every morning. Recently, however, I had to be quick about it so that I wasn’t tempted to relax and possibly fall asleep in the warm water of the tub. As soon as I was done, I was to leave the apartments for the rest of the day. As part of my punishment, I was not permitted to return to my room, where I might sneak in some sleep. However, my training required the use of a vibmtaer, which meant it was better done indoors where I could set the device on a table. For that, I had a nice large room in the great hall designated for me, and I was allowed to at least sit during breaks.
It was actually Charlie who ultimately convinced me to change my training routine. The metal mage had gotten into spell theory after our instructor, Leon, gave a lecture about it on the day of our last stipend, a week ago…no, eight days ago.
I stopped on the stairs in the great hall and
closed my eyes to steal just a quick moment of standing rest before I started my day. Then I opened them and continued up to my training quarters. It was the same extravagant place where Barrett and Leon had first tested the range of my mana.
I used to enjoy entering the room because of the large windows facing the courtyard. Now, however, I despised this room because there were no curtains. I’d formed a strong dislike toward the sun that I was certain would disappear as soon as I was well-rested again. It assaulted my eyes worse than the time Charlie had dropped his towel accidentally in the bathhouse and bent over to pick it up as I was exiting my bath. I could still see his strangely smooth ass whenever that memory came to my thoughts unbidden.
Fortunately, my mind was still sharp enough to improve each day. Charlie had convinced me to practice the lower octaves. I’d started with the most important one to me, lF, or Lower F. Mastering this single note over the last week was the reason my Heal spell had become so strong.
Later, Charlie had suggested I work on octaves, but I had a different plan in mind. I’d told him that I wanted to memorize the feeling of every note available to me. That way I could cast any spell on the spectrum of mana that I could reach. My range was vast.
“If you’re going to learn every note, you might as well start with octaves,” he’d retorted. “When you’re ready, I believe a few tests will teach us more about mana than Leon has yet.”
Charlie never spoke fondly of our instructor. Perhaps because Leon never spoke fondly of Charlie.
I was glad I’d never promised Charlie I would focus on octaves. After last night, I was eager to empower my spells, not help him experiment.
These days especially, my training was a completely solitary endeavor. Sometimes I was glad for it; the less distractions the better. But often I would look out the window to see the three erto mages training in the courtyard, along with Aliana shooting her bow at the single target available to her. Reuben usually spent his days indoors, and today was no exception. I didn’t know how he practiced ordia, but I didn’t see much of Eden or Charlie either, so I figured all were working hard.
The few times I did catch Reuben on the courtyard were during sword lessons, which Leon seemed to give begrudgingly to only Reuben, Michael, and Remi. Occasionally, Reuben would visit the courtyard to speak with, or possibly flirt with, Kataleya. He’d always seem to arrive when she was taking a break, which made it quite clear he was able to see her practicing from wherever he trained.
While Remi’s fire spells scared me a little, I was often put at ease when I saw Kataleya creating enormous spheres of water even bigger than the hovering fireballs Remi seemed to toy with. Seeing how hard both of the girls worked, always challenging themselves to control more and more of the element they specialized in, usually inspired me to end my break and get back to my own training. Michael, on the other hand, didn’t seem to enjoy the process as much as the rest of us. I often found him leaning against the circular wall of the courtyard when Leon wasn’t around.
Recently I’d been looking forward to meals even more than usual. It was one of the few times during the day I could spend with the other boys, and these moments were usually filled with lots of laughter and loud voices. Even Reuben has loosened up somewhat.
The boys and girls still sat separate from each other, and that seemed to be fine with all of us.
I’d seen Jennava helping various people train in the courtyard, and I’d heard her instructive voice in the great hall at times. The king must’ve convinced her to stay and teach like Leon had said the king would do.
Jennava had come with us back to the castle after the battle in the forest, along with everyone else who had fought. But everyone else had received payment and left, while Jennava had stayed.
I had not seen Calvin and the other sellswords of the Stormeagles in some time. Last I heard, the Stormeagles—along with many other armored soldiers—were looking for signs of Cason Clay. They had been searching in Koluk, however. Soon that would change.
How much was King Nykal spending each day in hopes of keeping the capital safe? I worried he did not have the coin he needed to keep this up much longer.
The other sorcerers in this castle were the only people who were paid a weekly stipend, not for each task. It was for this reason he had relied on us, especially myself, when doling out duties that weren’t exactly dangerous, but weren’t quite safe, either. Something like fetching the krepp, Grufaeragar, from the stockades.
I found myself missing Grufaeragar, though I didn’t know why. He wasn’t pleasant company, but it still felt better having him in the castle than it did with him gone. He had left the day after the battle in the forest, but he did so with the promise that he would convince his fellow krepps that we humans in Lycast were honorable and that our enemies in Rohaer were dishonorable. He’d also excitedly told me that he and other krepps would be back soon to trade with us. I didn’t know exactly what that trade would entail, but it wasn’t my duty to worry about it.
My duty was to train, and so I trained as I started to wake up. After a short while, I heard multiple footsteps on the stairs.
I wiped a sheen of sweat from my forehead. I’m perspiring just from holding my mana at lower frequencies. I really need more rest. The king stepped up onto the last step, and a man I had not seen before came up just behind him.
“Sire,” I said with a bow. “I assume you heard from the councilman about the incident last night?”
“Yes, that is why I’m here. First let me finally introduce you to Byron Lawson.”
Byron was younger than I’d imagined. I’d always pictured him as a mentor to my father because my father had joined his service when he was about my age of eighteen. But Byron was not an old man, not at all. The only gray hair on his head was mixed into his salt-and-pepper beard. He had lush brown hair, a little messy, but it did nothing to detract from his handsome face. He had kind eyes and an approachable smile. If I hadn’t trusted him already from everything my father had said, his friendly demeanor probably would’ve done it alone.
He must’ve been a young man when he started acting as lord of Tryn. Perhaps his father had died young like mine, like Michael’s…and like so many others boys’ fathers, especially given the recent rebellion in Lycast that had led to the coronation of Nykal Lennox.
“It is an honor to meet you,” I said as I bowed in front of Byron.
“Please, Jon,” he said as he stuck out his hand. “I would much prefer a handshake.”
I gladly shook his hand. I used to have so many questions for him about my father. Though after the recent encounter with Cason, my curiosity seemed almost pointless.
My father had kept a few things from me, I’d discovered from Leon, who had actually met my father in Tryn many years ago. Father had never spoken of dark mages or of Leon—a sorcerer who wanted revenge against these dark mages for stealing all his hard-earned coin, yet Leon ended up in prison. It was an interesting story even if I had never met him. There had to be a reason Father had kept it from me when he’d shared many other tales of his work.
He’d also never told me how he wanted the lord of Tryn to do more to stop these dark mages. It was most likely the reason he had decided to leave Tryn with my mother when she was carrying me in her womb. He didn’t trust the lord of Tryn or the king at the time to stop the growing corruption that now infested Lycast…and threatened the good people who lived here, along with the new king.
But I could feel no bitterness toward Byron, who seemed pained as he looked at me. I felt like I knew him. He’d always tried to do the right thing; my father had said this. Even if Byron had been wrong and my father right, I could not hold a grudge against someone for trying their best.
“I’m very sorry we couldn’t meet sooner,” he said.
“The king explained to me how busy you are. It’s not a problem.” With the help of Barrett Edgar, the king’s harbinger and councilman, Byron had been relieving every guard from service who did not agree to t
he new contract. New men vowing to surveil and protect must first pledge to end the spread of dteria and stop abuse in all forms. Barrett bound each new constable to this pledge through ordia. The seven other sorcerers and I were also bound by a contract of ordia, this one ensuring we’d protect the king against all harm. Apparently, it was possible to act against such a contract, but it required so much willpower that it would have to be the most important thing in the world to violate such an agreement.
It reminded me of the guard who said he would leave service because of his worry for his family. Violating his contract really did involve the most important thing in the world to him—keeping himself and his family safe. I figured Byron had spoken with this man last night, as well as dealt with the body he had delivered. We couldn’t have dead guards lying in the street.
“You did well last night,” King Nykal told me. “What happened after you apprehended those three men was not your fault.”
I lowered my head in gratitude but could not say the words. I still felt like I might’ve been able to do more.
“What’s the plan now, sire?” I asked.
“Cason will be found as soon as he makes himself known. Once we have him, the entire organization of dark mages should crumble. According to Jennava, all of them rely on Cason. There are other dark mages ready to take his place as leader, but none with the same skill of sorcery.”
I wondered if that meant Cason’s plan largely relied upon his strength. There were things he did with dteria that I didn’t know were possible. But dvinia was similar. I figured that meant I might be able to one day lift someone off the ground.
Can I even lift myself? I didn’t see why not. It was just a matter of enclosing the force of mana around my body strongly enough to hold me and then directing the mana upward.
“Are there any leads that might point us toward Cason’s whereabouts?” I asked.
“Many after last night,” the king said. “I expect him to be brought to the castle today if he is not killed outright.”
I wondered if the king’s attitude was just an act, or if he really was not afraid of the warlock.
