“After you place a stone, you roll the dice. The six-sided die will tell you which ring must move while the four-sided die will tell you how far it must turn. Since there are four sections, a roll of four means the board stays as it is.”
Gabriel watched as Vicaquirao rolled the dice. A three and a three. Vicaquirao touched the edges of the third ring, and Gabriel observed with fascination as he rotated the ring three turns.
“The keys to the game are learning to anticipate and plan for the subtle changes in the board, and how to arrange for minor alterations and use them to your advantage.”
Why is he showing me this?
“I’ve never seen a game like this.” Gabriel picked up one of the green stone pieces and held it before his eyes.
“I can’t imagine you have.” Vicaquirao’s eyes appeared warm and bright. “Why don’t you take a turn? The game can be played by four people, but as there are only two of us, I’ll play blue and red, while you play green and yellow.”
Where are we?
Gabriel looked up from the board and noticed for the first time that he and Vicaquirao sat in the grass along the edge of a swiftly flowing stream.
How did I get here? Is this a dream?
“Your move.”
Gabriel brought his gaze back to Vicaquirao and the board of the mysterious game. He still had the small green stone in his hand. He placed it in the fifth ring in the section nearest himself and picked up the dice. He rolled a five and two, inclining his head in curiosity as Vicaquirao rotated the fifth ring of the board two sections clockwise, bringing his green stone next to Vicaquirao’s previously placed red stone.
Vicaquirao laughed deeply.
“You have a great deal to learn about how to play this game.”
Vicaquirao placed his red stone on the space Gabriel’s green stone occupied, capturing it and setting it aside.
I can beat him at his game. I only need practice.
Gabriel watched as Vicaquirao rolled the dice and rotated the board once more, eager to begin his own next move, his mouth dry in anticipation. Dry as…
Chapter 5: Left Behind
Cotton.
Gabriel opened his eyes, blinking at the sunlight coming through the open window of his room and wincing at the ringing of his alarm clock. He reached out and smacked the clock into silence.
His throat felt dry. He must have slept with his mouth open. He sat up and grabbed a glass of water beside the bed, rubbing his eyes as images from his dreams faded from consciousness.
Vicaquirao. He’d been dreaming of the Dark Mage again. It happened sometimes. Less now than after his ordeals a year ago, however. Kumaradevi and Apollyon were more likely to be the sources of his nightmares. This hadn’t been a nightmare, though. He’d been doing something with Vicaquirao. A game. Yes, they had been playing some strange board game. What an odd dream. He wondered what it meant.
Sema would probably say it had to do with his own desire to gain mastery over Vicaquirao in order to compensate for his feelings that the Dark Mage had gained power over him. That seemed as good an interpretation as any, and he let the thought fade as he prepared for the day.
Gabriel’s days always began, after a hastily consumed breakfast in the Waterloo Chamber, with private lessons from Akikane. These lessons started with a period of meditation, followed by a longer period of sword training, and culminated in an extensive session devoted to learning how to blend and manipulate all six magics simultaneously for both combative and non-combative purposes.
Akikane believed meditation stilled the mind while swordsmanship helped concentrate it. With practice, the sword would become an extension of the will on an instinctive level. Too much conscious thought in the middle of a sword fight could lead to defeat. Thinking about how to use the sword took up precious time that should be used wielding the blade. The same, Akikane said, held true for magic. Just as a master swordsman or swordswoman could react intuitively and purposefully in a fight to defeat an opponent without taking the time for conscious thought, a mage could do the same. Learning to use magic in an instinctive way in combat, particularly all six magics simultaneously, consumed much of their lesson time together.
Mastering that lesson, however, usually involved collecting numerous bruises from the bokken, the wooden practice sword Akikane used to focus Gabriel’s mind. Gabriel also held a bokken, but in nearly a year of practice, he had never once slipped past Akikane’s defenses to make contact with more than air. He was, however, getting better at defending himself from Akikane’s attacks. He’d lasted nearly a minute before one of Akikane’s blows struck his arm.
“No thought, no thought.” Akikane disappeared and reappeared behind Gabriel, sword swinging. Gabriel rolled and disappeared himself, appearing behind Akikane, his back to his teacher. Akikane appeared facing Gabriel, sword already outstretched to block the blow from Gabriel’s attack.
“Good, good. More surprise.” Akikane disappeared again. Gabriel leapt through space to the other side of the room, sensing where Akikane would appear next. He swung his bokken at the spot where he felt certain Akikane would soon occupy and felt a slap along his back, sending him sprawling to the floor. Looking up, he saw Akikane’s smile, floating in midair like the Cheshire Cat, as his tutor hovered serenely above the ground.
Gabriel rolled and leapt to his feet, throwing his sword at Akikane’s chest. The wooden blade burst into flame as it flew toward Akikane, guided and accelerated by Gabriel’s magic. Akikane disappeared before the flaming sword could reach him, jumping through space to appear, once again, behind Gabriel, who spun and reached out with his magic, grasping and twisting space-time to deliver the bokken from Akikane’s hand and into his own. Gabriel swung the bokken at Akikane even as the wooden sword materialized in his hand.
A look of beatific joy flashed across Akikane’s face as he threw himself at Gabriel with incredible speed, managing to get inside the arc of the sword’s trajectory, block his arm, turn into his body, and swing the young mage over his shoulder to the floor, simultaneously twisting his wrist to relieve him of the sword. To his credit, Gabriel rolled from the fall and jumped to his feet to face Akikane again, arms raised in defense — swordless and annoyed with himself.
“Wonderful, wonderful.” Akikane raised the sword point to Gabriel’s heart. The burning sword on the floor behind him extinguished itself in a small puff of smoke.
“What’s so wonderful?” Gabriel tried to keep from panting. “I lost my sword!”
“True, true, but now comes the best lesson of all.” Akikane’s smile grew so dazzling, Gabriel nearly smiled himself.
“What lesson? How to lose?” Gabriel knew the point of the lesson — allowing subconscious thought to guide action — but he couldn’t stop consciously thinking about how he might gain the upper hand again. Taking Akikane’s sword had seemed like an act of inspiration. Now he’d have to settle for an act of desperation.
“No, no, you have already lost.” Akikane stepped closer. “What options are available to you now?”
“Fight again?” Gabriel wiped the sweat from his forehead as he tried to discern the intent behind Akikane’s words.
“Fight to lose more?”
Gabriel considered this. The absence of repetition in Akikane’s words lent them more power. The answer was simple, but Gabriel didn’t like it.
“Surrender.”
“Exactly, exactly.” Akikane lowered the sword. “With surrender comes the possibility of peace.”
Gabriel frowned as he tried to figure out the meaning of Akikane’s words. “But if I don’t want peace…”
“Then you must fight,” Akikane said. “Fight until you lose.”
“And if neither of us wants peace?” Gabriel thought he saw where this line of reasoning might lead.
“The same end, the same end.” Akikane stepped closer, swinging the wooden sword over his shoulder.
“You’re talking about the war.” Gabriel let his arms drop to his sides.
“The more skillful opponent can force the other into surrender.” Gabriel took the sword from Akikane with a slight sigh. “And you’re more skillful than I am, even without a sword.”
“Just so, just so.” Akikane held Gabriel’s eyes.
“You think that if we are strong enough, skillful enough, we can force the Malignancy Mages into peace.”
Gabriel bit his lip as he considered the notion. He, like nearly every other mage, had assumed the war would be eternal, with neither side ever clearly losing nor winning.
“Not us, not us.” Akikane’s eyes still had not left Gabriel’s.
Gabriel thought he might draw blood if he bit down any harder on his lip.
“You mean me.”
“A leader must be strong enough to fight, and to make peace.” Akikane looked at the sword in Gabriel’s’ hand. “Most importantly, a leader must know when to fight and when to make peace.”
“But…” Gabriel didn’t like where this lesson had lead and didn’t want to know the answer to the question it left singing in his mind. “How will I ever be that strong?”
“Strength is not here.” Akikane touched a finger to the wooden blade. “Strength is here.” He moved two fingers to touch Gabriel’s head. “And here.” He placed his fingers above Gabriel’s heart.
“Do you really think peace is possible?” Gabriel felt a pleasant, powerful warmth radiate through him from where Akikane touched his breastbone.
“Possible, possible.” Akikane lowered his hand. “But likely? Who knows?” Akikane chuckled. “Now let us practice fighting when our opponent has a sword and we do not.”
“I thought I already practiced that,” Gabriel said with a laugh. Akikane laughed as well, then stopped and frowned as he turned to the door of the dojo training quarters.
Elizabeth strode through the door and headed toward them.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have something I need to discuss with you both,” Elizabeth said.
Gabriel lowered the wooden sword. She had never interrupted their lessons before and had never summoned Gabriel in person to discuss something. She usually sent someone to bring Gabriel to her office. He suspected why she would choose to come to them herself, but the fact that she did so made him worry about the reasons.
“Indeed, indeed,” Akikane said as Elizabeth stepped before them. “We should take a break. Someplace with some more air, perhaps?”
“Yes, that would be ideal,” Elizabeth said, waving gauzy remnants of burnt sword smoke from her face. “I know exactly the spot.”
A moment later, the three stood atop the King Henry III tower. A magical sound barrier slipped into place as Elizabeth looked around.
“I have important news.” Elizabeth seemed content that no one on the castle grounds had noticed their appearance on the tower and turned back to Gabriel and Akikane. “One of our informants believes the Apollyons will attack the Dresden outpost.”
“When, when?” Akikane’s joyful continence evaporated, replaced by a stern curiosity.
“The informant has provided a date and a time,” Elizabeth said. “I believe we should mount a defense and use the opportunity to reduce the number of Apollyon duplicates as much as possible.”
“Yes, yes,” Akikane said. “We must act quickly before his own informants can alert him of our plan.”
“I agree,” Elizabeth said. “I want to assemble a strike team within the hour. Secretly. And I think you should lead it.”
“Certainly, certainly,” Akikane said. “We could have twenty teams ready to go that quickly. Maybe thirty.”
Gabriel gasped slightly at the number. There were only around a hundred teams in total, and a third of them were out in the field at any given time. An assault force of thirty teams of mages would be half the complement of the castle.
“I’m glad you agree,” Elizabeth said. “I’ll inform the council privately. One at a time to avoid suspicion. I think it best if the teams leave at the same time and rendezvous for instructions.”
“Nanjing, Nanjing,” Akikane said. “The outpost there has room to hold them all for a time.”
“Perfect.” A glint of fury and determination filled Elizabeth’s eyes. “We should begin immediately. Remember, ears could be anywhere.”
Gabriel looked between Akikane and Elizabeth, feeling awkward and childish to still be holding a wooden sword while plans for the most dangerous and daring assault of the war unfolded before him.
“What about me?” Gabriel’s voice brought the attention of both senior mages.
“You and I will stay here.” Elizabeth’s gaze softened as she spoke. “This may be a trap. I won’t send to you face the Apollyons when you have only just recovered from the last encounter. That too may have been a trap. I’ve been looking into how we discovered Marcus Aurelius, and it seems altogether too convenient.”
“But I can help.”
“No doubt, no doubt.” Akikane’s joyousness had returned. “However, the war will not end today. You will see plenty of battles before it does.”
“If it ever does.” Elizabeth regarded Akikane with a hint of sadness.
“Faith, faith.” Akikane slapped Gabriel on the shoulder. “We must have faith.”
“I prefer certainty, but I suppose I’ll take what I can get.” Elizabeth waved her hand and the sound barrier vanished, the noises of the castle returning to their ears. “Well, then, we should be about it. You know what to tell Ohin and your team?”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Gabriel flipped the wooden sword to his shoulder in what he hoped looked like a supremely confident gesture. “I’ll let them down easy.”
“Good.” Elizabeth turned to Akikane. “Good luck.”
“And you.” Akikane nodded to Gabriel. “And you.”
Akikane disappeared, followed a moment later by Elizabeth, leaving Gabriel alone on King Henry III’s tower. He paused a moment to look out beyond the castle to the primeval world of dinosaurs surrounding their little fortress in time. It seemed so peaceful but really wasn’t. Massive reptiles running, hunting, slaughtering, and eating each other in an endless cycle of conquest of survival.
Thinking about the battle his fellow mages were about to embark upon, it dawned on Gabriel that mammals hadn’t changed the nature of life on the planet much when the dinosaurs became extinct. Different actors, same play. He wondered briefly if he might be able to rewrite one short act of that drama, but knowing he wouldn’t know until he knew, he instead focused on the task before him.
He teleported from the tower and returned his bokken to its rack in the practice room, grabbing the Sword of Unmaking before heading off in search of Ohin and the rest of the Chimera team. They took the news of the impending assault, delivered discretely under and elm tree in the Lower Ward, with the usual dispassion.
“Bloody foolish leaving the best team in the castle behind on a mission like this.” Marcus rubbed his hand over his bald head in annoyance.
“We always get stuck with guard duty.” Teresa kicked at a rock. It tumbled through the grass, landing on Ohin’s foot. Teresa blushed.
“We can find a way to be useful here.” Ohin kicked the rock back to Teresa with a frown.
“There’s useful,” Ling spat, “and then there’s useful!”
“It does seem like a sensible plan.” Sema looked at the bracelet of small stones around Gabriel’s left wrist. “We only narrowly escaped our last encounter with the Apollyons.”
“But we know his weakness now.” Rajan laughed aloud. “He can’t swim.”
“We’ll meet at the usual time.” The serious tone in Ohin’s voice ceased any desire to bicker or complain. “If we are not part of the mission, we can at least continue training for other operations.”
The team dispersed to continue on with their normally assigned tasks. Gabriel would usually have spent the rest of the morning training with Ak
ikane. To keep himself occupied, he wandered around the castle grounds, trying to burn off his nervous energy. He always felt like a kettle boiling over with excitement before a mission. Even though this wasn’t really a mission involving him directly, it might turn into an important day and a turning point in the war.
While walking along the path in the Upper Ward, he came across a man sitting on a bench beneath a maple tree. The man looked much healthier than the last time they had met.
“Aurelius.”
The former ruler of the Roman Empire looked down from the cloud he stared at. “You?”
“Gabriel.” He sat down beside Aurelius, leaning the Sword of Unmaking against the bench. It was unusual to meet famous people from history. The possibility of creating an alternate branch of time usually forbid any sort of interaction with people in the past. Occasionally, though, a famous person also turned out to be a mage. It was rare, both for Grace and Malignancy Mages. There were only a few dozen people living in the castle who history books had recorded in some fashion. Marcus Aurelius turned out to be most famous person ever identified as a Grace Mage.
“They tell me you saved my life.” Aurelius stroked his chin. The gray-and-black curly hair of his beard matched exactly the short hair on his head. “I owe you a debt of gratitude. I suppose.”
“You may change your mind about thanking me.” Gabriel knew something of the inner turmoil and pain Aurelius felt. He hadn’t been an emperor, but he had left behind his family to become a mage in an endless war. “It will get easier as time goes by. The first days are the worst.”
“I hope you are right.” Aurelius folded his hands in the lap of his gray tunic. “I was an emperor of a vast nation. A leader of millions. My laws and edicts shaped people’s lives and defined justice. I led campaigns with tens of thousands of soldiers at my command. I died knowing I had done my duty and fulfilled it to the best of my ability. I died in peace, with the knowledge that my successes outweighed my failures, both as an emperor and a man.”
The Wizard of Time Trilogy (A Fantasy Time Travel Series) Page 36
