by J. J. Green
Harmon was out cold, but Carina didn’t know for how long. The man’s skull was probably extremely thick. She ran lightly along the hall to the suite door, leaving Reyes to do whatever he wanted. She tried the door but it was locked, of course. With plenty of elixir on her, that wasn’t a problem. In a few moments, the Unlock Cast had done its work. A quick glance at Harmon told Carina he remained dead to the world. She went inside the room. Her plan had nearly succeeded. Her heart lifted.
The lounge of the suite was exactly as she remembered. It was empty, so Parthenia was probably in the bedroom, asleep. No problem. Carina could Transport her sister without waking her up. Swallowing another mouthful of elixir, Carina opened the bedroom door.
She was surprised to see that the bed was empty. Had Reyes misunderstood and directed her to the wrong suite? A muffled whimper drew her attention.
Carina swung around and nearly froze in shock. In a white nightgown in a far corner of the bedroom, Parthenia stood. She was gagged. Even more of a surprise was the person standing by her side: Castiel. Carina reacted instinctively. Castiel’s presence didn’t matter. Now that she could see Parthenia she could Transport her. Carina closed her eyes. With a great effort of concentration, she Cast.
Almost immediately, a shockwave hit Carina, knocking her from her feet. The wave was so intense, so reeking of evil, she was momentarily dazed. She was on the floor. Parthenia was staring at her, eyes wide and panicky above her gag. Then Carina figured out what had happened. As she’d Cast Transport, someone else had Cast Repulse, throwing the force of Carina’s Cast back at her.
Parthenia wouldn’t have sent the defensive Cast, which meant only one thing.
Castiel was smiling triumphantly. “You have no idea of the satisfaction that gave me, Carina. I have finally demonstrated my natural superiority over you. All our brothers and sisters thought you were so wonderful and so powerful and wise, just because you’d learned true Casting, not the watered-down version Mother taught. But I knew I was the one who truly deserved their respect and awe, not you. Now my gift has finally arrived and my chance has come to receive my due, from you and all the others. The things I’ll do, Carina, the victories I’ll achieve with me leading all of you.”
Carina was barely listening to Castiel as she went over her options. Of all the obstacles she’d imagined she might face in rescuing her sister, this one had never entered her mind. She couldn’t Transport Parthenia while their brother was there to stop her. Though the power of his Repulse had surprised her, she thought she could probably defeat him at Casting. However, she was entirely unprepared. She would need time to think up a strategy and tactics.
A sound came from the other room. Carina saw with relief that Reyes had come into the suite. Maybe he could pin Castiel down or otherwise distract him and Carina could retrieve Parthenia. She rose to her feet. “Reyes, quick, come here. Grab that boy.”
“Oh, no,” Reyes said, advancing. “It isn’t him I’ll be grabbing.” He lunged at her. Carina stepped aside just in time, and his impetus carried him past her. What was Reyes doing?
Then she saw it all. Right from the beginning, the entire escapade had been an elaborate trap set by Langley and her son. They’d allowed her to escape and since then they’d been stringing her along, hoping to find out more about Casting and her connections with other mages.
Reyes lunged for a second time. Carina kicked out at him, catching him in his stomach. That stopped him, momentarily. He bent over, coughing.
Carina had to act fast. Harmon would be returning to consciousness any minute and Castiel could Cast at her. She would be entering into a battle she might not win. If she remained there, both she and Parthenia would be trapped. Carina only had one choice, though it broke her heart to do it. She tipped the elixir bottle into her mouth and swallowed. “I’m sorry,” she said to Parthenia. “But don’t give up hope. I’m coming back.”
With that, she Cast Transport and was gone.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Carina appeared in the street outside the temple. Luckily, it was the middle of the night so no one was around. She hoped the twins had done exactly as she’d asked and Transported themselves and Darius to the same place not long after she and Reyes had left.
The Dirksen kid had betrayed her after all. Just when she’d begun to trust him. For a while, she’d believed he might be different from the rest of his clan. But he’d only been pretending so that he could be around her and learn about Casting. He and his mother had probably wanted to see if she knew other mages—maybe they were hoping she was in contact with Darius. The Dirksens had known about his existence for a long time. Carina was glad she’d taken the precaution of telling her siblings to leave the apartment. Reyes had probably arranged for his people to go there and kidnap her sister and brothers as soon as she was gone.
And Castiel… Her brother’s reappearance had been even more of a surprise. His Casting ability was a serious concern, especially the nature of his Casts. The Repulse that she had experienced had felt wrong. And the fact that his ability had shown itself so late in his development was odd too. What it meant, Carina didn’t know. Not for the first time she rued the fact that she’d been so young when Nai Nai died and that Ma had been so sick and with so little time to live while Carina had known her. As a result, Carina’s knowledge of mage lore was sparse.
She walked through the quiet courtyard that lay in front of the temple and passed across the doorless threshold. The temple had been the only place she could think of to send her siblings where they would be safe, and then it would only be for a little while. Dirksen thugs would probably search everywhere Reyes could think of that she might go. She would have to take her siblings somewhere else soon.
The ancient frieze on the wall of the temple’s antechamber seemed to greet her. What had the priestess been telling her about the painting when Reyes had stuck his head in the door? It had been something about how each Element in the scene represented a sin. Carina couldn’t remember which material represented which sin, but the priestess’ explanation had seemed very strange. It was nothing like Carina’s understanding of what they meant, based on the knowledge Nai Nai had passed down.
Yet in the morning ritual, Carina had seen a priest burn a character. The other acolytes may have been burning characters too. She hadn’t been paying attention. However, the final scroll to be burned had displayed only dots and figures. The religion of the temple seemed to be tied up with magehood but Carina didn’t understand how.
She also didn’t have time to figure it out. Quickly, she went down a passage to one side of the central statues of deities and emerged in the larger, rear room where she’d spent a night sleeping on a bench. The room was empty. Where were Oriana and Ferne and Darius?
Cariad’s stomach clenched. Had her siblings Transported here or not? Were they still in the apartment or, more likely, in the custody of the Dirksen clan by now? As she stood hesitating about what to do, the young priestess who had helped Carina the last time she was there came out of the door at the rear of the chamber.
“I believe you’re looking for some children?” she asked.
“Yes, I am.”
“They’re waiting for you in here. Please come through.” The hooded figure returned through the door.
Carina hesitated again. Was this another trap? Had the Dirksens arrived there before her?
Darius popped out. “Carina!” He called behind him, “She’s here, everyone!” before running over to her and grabbing her hand. Then he stopped. “Where’s Parthenia?”
“I’m sorry, Darius. I couldn’t get her.”
The little boy’s expression fell.
Carina continued, “But I’m going to go back.” Just as soon as she’d figured out how to free her sister.
Darius’ face brightened. “You’ll get her. I know you will. Come on. Everyone’s waiting for you.”
He pulled her through the doorway into a small, dingy room lit by nothing but an old lamp and a small
fire burning in a grate. The priestess was nowhere to be seen. Oriana and Ferne were there, however, sitting down facing Carina as she came through the door. Someone else was there too. A man was sitting opposite the twins, his back toward Carina. Her hand gripped Darius’ tighter. Who had infiltrated her family this time?
The man stood up and turned to see her. At first she didn’t recognize him. Then Carina took a closer look and nearly fell over. It was Bryce.
“Carina.” He strode over and enveloped her in a hug.
Through her surprise, she hugged him back, but then she pulled away. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d gone back to Ithiya.”
“Why would you think that?”
“You have to run your family’s business.”
He frowned. “Yeah, I remember that’s what you thought I was going to do the last time we were separated. You were wrong then—what made you think you’d be right this time around? Carina, don’t you get it? I want to be with you.”
Ferne put his hand over his mouth and snickered. Oriana elbowed him in the side. Bryce glanced at the twins over his shoulder then returned his gaze to Carina, mildly embarrassed but not really caring. Before Carina could think of a suitable reply to his declaration, Bryce went on, “Wait. Where’s Parthenia? The kids said you’d gone to rescue her from the Dirksens.”
“I couldn’t,” Carina replied, entirely forgetting her surprise at Bryce’s appearance as she recalled the scared eyes of her sister. “Everything’s worse than I thought. Castiel has her.”
“Castiel?” exclaimed Ferne and Oriana in unison.
Carina told the story of her failed rescue attempt. When she finished, she said, “I think he must have decided to ally himself with the Dirksens. Then he set about trying to find us so we can be his acolytes. I have to try again to get Parthenia out, and soon. They might move her somewhere else and I don’t trust Castiel not to do something awful to her.”
Carina knew that if her oldest brother was anything like his father, there were no depths he wouldn’t sink to, though she didn’t want to go into details in front of the children.
“Why is Castiel helping the Dirksens?” Oriana asked. “He’s a Sherrerr. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“He probably has some deluded idea about lording it over them,” Carina replied. “Idiot. As if any of the Dirksens are going to allow some kid to boss them around. He’ll receive a wake-up call soon enough. But I plan on us being long gone before that happens. I just need to get Parthenia first.”
“Well I’m here to help you,” Bryce said.
Carina studied her friend. Though they’d only been apart for a short time, he seemed to have changed. His beard was thicker and he’d filled out a little. That was why she hadn’t recognized him immediately. “I don’t understand. How did you find us? Is it just a coincidence you were here when the children arrived?”
“No. No coincidence. When you Transported me to the planet—alone… ” He glared at her. “I appeared in this city. I nearly frightened the life out of a tramp. He ran off shouting something about ghosts. You ran out of elixir, didn’t you? That was why you sent me here by myself.”
“Yeah,” Carina replied. “I’d used it all up. I only had enough left for one person.”
“So whoever was boarding the shuttle—you decided you were going to face them alone? Don’t do that to me in the future, okay? I would have stayed with you if I’d known the situation but you didn’t give me a choice.”
“Okay.” Having Bryce with her when she’d been captured by the Dirksens would have complicated matters tenfold, but her friend did have a point.
“When I realized you hadn’t Transported yourself too,” Bryce continued, “I thought I would try to find you and your brothers and sisters. From then onward I’ve been wandering the city, visiting places where people might go to lie low. A couple of days ago I came here. It was the only place I’d been where someone who fitted your description had been seen. The priestess said you’d been interested in the pictures out in the front, so I guessed you might return. Since then I’ve returned two or three times a day, hoping you would show.”
“Bryce was just leaving when we Transported to the courtyard,” Oriana said. “We made him jump.”
“You certainly did,” he said.
Carina smiled. She was relieved that Bryce was okay, though she was also somewhat alarmed by his feelings for her.
The priestess returned to the chamber. “Will you be spending the night here?” she asked. “We have a small room for the homeless, though it only holds two beds. However, you’re all welcome to stay.”
“Yes, we are,” Darius said. “I’m tired.”
“No,” said Carina. “Thank you, but we’re leaving now.”
“Why?” Oriana asked.
“Yes, why can’t we stay?” asked Ferne. “I’m tired.”
“It isn’t safe for us,” Carina replied. “Other people might guess we’re here. People who want to hurt us. We’ll have to find somewhere else to sleep tonight.” She paused. “But… ” Carina didn’t know when she would return to the temple, if ever. She might never have the chance to find out what link the religion had with magehood. “Before we go,” she said, “could you tell me more about your religion? Or do you have anything I could read about it?”
Chapter Thirty-Four
After finding a hotel to stay at that night, Carina opened the room’s interface to find the religion’s database while the children settled down to sleep. The holy book of the religion was too old and fragile to be handled, but each page had been copied onto a database that was free to anyone to read. The priestess had given Carina the name of the site before they left. Bryce sat down beside her as she studied the pages.
The pictures of the holy book were in the same style as the friezes that decorated the temple, only much better quality and in greater detail. Carina hadn’t seen much art in her life, but the images in the religious text looked well-painted to her. Though the figures were tiny, their facial expressions were naturalistic and nuanced, and the landscapes and buildings represented looked realistic, though they were unfamiliar and archaic.
“I wonder why they put all this stuff in a book?” Bryce asked. “Why not create it on an interface? A file wouldn’t suffer the same wear and tear.”
“I guess they thought a book would last longer,” Carina replied.
“They thought a book would last longer?” said Bryce. “From what I can tell, the thing’s falling apart.”
“Yes, but the priestess said the book was thousands of years old. Do you know of any files that are that old? I don’t.”
“True enough,” said Bryce. “What does the writing say?”
The text in the book had been printed onto the pages but though it was legible the language was indecipherable. “Oh, look. There’s a translation.” She opened the relevant page.
In the beginning, the People came, arrived from the stars that gave them birth. They traveled in celestial vessels that were filled with every food they might desire in an unending supply, provided to give them nourishment throughout their long voyage.
First to set foot on the Given Planet was Lomeq. She brought with her two sons: Sear and Sorn. Sear and Sorn brought with them their wives, Lani and Pirlu. Sear and Lani brought with them five children…
“Do we have to read this?” Bryce asked. “It’s just a long list of names.”
“You don’t have to read anything,” Carina retorted. “Go to bed if you like. But you’re right. I don’t think I’m going to learn much here.”
“What are you looking for anyway?” Bryce asked. “I didn’t know you were interested in religion.”
“I’m not.” Carina explained what had prompted her to investigate the religious beliefs on Ostillon.
“You think it might have something to do with mages?” Reyes asked. “I would have thought you would know all about them, considering you are one.”
In the time that she and Bryce had spent t
ogether on the shuttle after escaping from the Sherrerrs, Carina hadn’t told him much about her past. She’d been careful to keep the conversation about him or other, neutral, topics. But she guessed that Bryce had proven his loyalty and trustworthiness enough for her to tell him about mage lore.
“I only know what my grandmother told me,” she explained, “and she died when I was young so I don’t remember everything very well. Mage history, how to Cast, everything in fact, all that we know about being a mage is passed on orally. Nothing is ever written down, and we don’t have family photographs or anything else that might link us to other mages. It’s the only way we can remain safe.”
“So you don’t know any other mages apart from your family?”
“That’s right. I didn’t even know them until I happened to rescue Darius from the Dirksens. And then I didn’t find out he was my brother until Stefan Sherrerr found me and reunited me with Ma.”
“Wow, that must have been a lonely life.”
“Yeah.” Carina paused, thinking that Bryce was one of the few people she’d met who had some idea of what she’d been through. “Anyway, if there is something in this religion that has to do with mages, I want to find out more if I can.”
“Okay. What else does it say?” Bryce asked. He swiped to the next page.
The initial chapter of the holy book went into a lot of detail about the first settlers on the planet. It also explained that the world was a paradise provided for the colonists by their deities. The information was quite interesting, but it wasn’t until the second chapter that Carina saw anything that seemed significant to her.
In the second year, the People tilled the fields, grew crops, and harvested them. The People hunted in the woods and brought home meat. They birthed more children and their numbers swelled. All was good and the People lived in peace and prosperity.
But then they discovered that their new world was blighted. An alien race had arrived before them and stolen their rightful home. These others were not People. They had disguised themselves to resemble People so they could walk among them and befriend them.
