Book of Names (Casters of Syndrial 1)

by Rain Oxford

  “That depends on how much power they have. If they’re weak, they might make objects explode or fall if they get emotional. If they’re strong, the consequences are endless.”

  Like they could hurt people they care about unintentionally. “Have you ever taken a child later in life?”

  “Once.”

  “And how did he turn out?”

  “He was even faster than you. He was thirteen when he was sent to us to train, and he was fourteen when he passed his trials. I remember him very well, although that was more than twenty years ago. He picked up every lesson like he was born to it. He was constantly sneaking into the study after hours to learn more.”

  “Why can’t he face the Painter?”

  Keeper looked at me. “He was the Painter.”

  Just fucking perfect. “So because I’ve come into this late and I’m learning as quickly as I am, I could turn out just like him. No wonder everyone is freaking out.”

  “No one thinks that. Everything in the universe is balanced. For every great power, there must be an equally great opposite. The Painter is one of the most powerful casters I have ever seen. That means there is someone out there who can defeat him. The gods obviously believe you are his opposite.”

  “I’m not powerful enough.”

  “Not yet.”

  “Why did he send me here if I can defeat him?”

  “We cannot presume to know his mind.”

  “I thought you read his mind. You read mine and Luca’s.”

  “I read his power, and it was more developed than yours because he had been through more than you. Intentions, however, are not readable.”

  “Did he tell you any of his secrets?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you can’t tell me any of them?”

  “No. As much as I want to, as much pain as it would save you, I am unable to tell anyone his secrets.”

  * * *

  That night, I was preparing to go to the study to find Luca when my door opened. It wasn’t Luca. The kid was about seventeen with choppy black hair and sand-brown eyes. I had seen him around Luca a lot and he’d seemed like a decent guy.

  This time, he looked like he was on drugs. His pupils were hyper-dilated and unfocused, as if he was looking through me. He was also carrying a priest’s staff that had the head of a crocodile.

  I was next to the desk, and the only thing big enough to use to defend myself was the chair. “You’re name is Meto, right?” I asked. He showed no sign of hearing me or his name. “Luca’s not here. You might try looking for him in the dining hall.”

  I really hoped my brother wasn’t in the dining hall.

  “Nathan, I’m sorry, but you have to die,” he said, flatly. His voice was slower and deeper than usual.

  That was not something I heard very often.

  As a writer, I learned everything I could about people, especially their motives. Manipulation and altered mental states were major aspects, so I recognized the symptoms of hypnosis easily. However, regular hypnosis could not be used to make someone kill another person. Hypnosis reinforced with magic was a lot more likely.

  “Who wants me dead?” I asked. My usual tricks to deescalate a situation wouldn’t work on him when he wasn’t in his right mind.

  “You have to die.”

  “Why?”

  “You don’t belong here.”

  I scoffed. “You got that right.” He tried to stab me with the staff and I used the chair as a shield. “Stop!” I demanded. He didn’t. He tried again to stab me and because we were closer, it was more difficult to block.

  I dropped the chair and grabbed the staff, but instead of trying to rip it away, he reached into his pocket with his other hand and pulled out a dagger. I tried to focus my mind on the chair levitating up and smashing into his head. Unfortunately, my concentration was needed to keep Meto from stabbing me in the throat.

  I jumped back, taking the staff with me, and struck him in the stomach with the animal head. He fell to his knees, clutching his stomach in pain with one hand and slashing at me with the dagger in his other.

  “Dje,” I said. I felt magic flow through me as the chair lifted and bashed into his head, and I felt regret when he crumpled to the floor without even a whimper.

  * * *

  An hour later, I was sitting on a stone bench outside of the Healer’s room, waiting to find out if I’d killed the teen. When Healer finally emerged, I was sick with worry.

  “He will live,” he said.

  “Will he keep all of his body parts?”

  “Yes. He may not regain the use of them again, but they will stay attached to his body. You should have let him die, though.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “To harm anyone in the temple is a sin. To harm a steward of the gods is a greater sin. He would have gone straight to the fires of Kradga. You have given him a chance to redeem himself.”

  “How is that a bad thing?”

  “Justice has been evaded.”

  “I’m not a killer.”

  “Why did he attack you?”

  “Someone wants me dead, but it isn’t him. Which priest has a staff with a crocodile head?”

  He frowned. “Trickster. He hasn’t gotten back yet. Why?”

  “When was he supposed to get back?”

  He considered it. “Half a month ago.”

  “How many days are there in a month here?”

  “Twenty-five.”

  “Isn’t it strange for a priest to be missing for that long? Have you had any contact with him?”

  He shrugged. “It’s a dangerous world outside the walls. He probably got killed.”

  * * *

  As soon as I got to my room, I hid the staff in the chest and covered it with clothes. Luca wasn’t back by the time I went to bed and he wasn’t there when I woke. Even though his bed was unmade, telling me he had been in it, I was still worried. Keeper could tell, because he had to swat me five times before he realized it wasn’t going to help. “What has you so distracted today? Was it the apprentice Meto?”

  “No. Well, a little. My brother has been busy doing research and I’m worried about how others are treating him. I was attacked because I have magic. I’m afraid he’ll be attacked because he doesn’t.” I didn’t bother telling him about the staff.

  “Would it help you to have him here?”

  “No. He’s a major pain in the ass. I just don’t want him getting hurt.”

  “He knows where you are if he needs help.”

  I nodded and closed my eyes. I could levitate something and set something on fire. This time, I was learning to see into the ground. With magic, I could see through anything made of the planet, like dirt, rock, and even metal. This was a pretty big step from the previous day’s lesson, though.

  I had to imagine what I would see and touch the surface. I practiced this on the ground. Keeper told me I would see shapes, not details or colors. After three more hours of trying, Keeper said we would stop for the day. “Your heart is not in it.”

  After a couple of minutes of awkward silence, I asked, “You’ve noticed the weird shit that happens around me, right?”

  “Yes,” he said easily.

  “It started when I was around five, according to my parents. I don’t remember much, but I know it got worse over the years. Is it possible to hurt people you care about with magic if you don’t control it?”

  “Yes.”

  My heart felt like lead. “Isn’t it more likely that someone cursed me to keep me from coming into my power? Maybe it was the Painter.”

  “Although my gift is to keep secrets, I have always had the ability to detect magic in others. I would have sensed immediately if you were cursed by someone, because that leaves the stain of their magic on you.”

  His tone changed slightly on the last sentence, but I was too distressed over what he said to care how he said it. “Then if I wasn’t cursed, everything that happened to my loved ones was my fault. My magic itself is a cur
se. I don’t want to become any more powerful.”

  Keeper was quiet for a while before saying, “Two days before my fifth birthday, my parents took me and left our home. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I was already developing magic and they didn’t want me to be taken away. We left the kingdom and lived in the wild. My parents forsake the gods in order to raise me without magic.”

  “Aren’t there people outside the wall?”

  “The world is divided into eight kingdoms; one for each major god plus the neutral High Kingdom, which is where we are. Each kingdom has a temple and priesthood for that god. All children with magic are trained in the High Kingdom and this is where they face the trials. The land outside the kingdoms is dangerous because the gods don’t protect it. It’s a vast desert and the only creatures there are monstrous. The people who live there are monsters as well. We call them voska.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Dirty.”

  “You and your parents lived with them?”

  “For a while. We starved and went without water. My mother died of illness when I was eight. By then, they were outcasts and could not return to the kingdoms. My father tried very hard to protect me until after my tenth birthday. He failed. The last thing he said to me was that they were wrong.”

  “Why should they have to give up their children?”

  “The world is full of misery, and that was what the harshness of the desert taught them. I know it is difficult for you to believe, but children with magic have better lives than those without. We are gifted, not cursed.”

  “I had parents and they were taken from me when I was barely twenty-one. I can’t imagine losing them earlier than that.” Like Luca had.

  Keeper pointed up and I looked at the planet. “That is the mother world. It is in our sky every day. Our lives here are short and harsh. If we do well, we’ll go there to live with the gods when we die. If we don’t earn our way out of this life, we are reborn and have to try again. If we anger the gods, we go to Kradga, where we’ll have to fight through fire to earn peace. It’s not in the sky every day and night, though. If someone displeases the gods and dies while Kradga is gone, they have to live in fires until Kradga comes to take them.”

  This world’s mythological history is richer than Bill Gates. “Luca said you guys are particular about your death rituals. I believe in making every day count because this life is the only one I know exists.”

  “Perhaps our beliefs only hold true for our people. Perhaps everyone’s fate rests on their beliefs. In that case, every belief could be true.” Keeper was about to say something else when a jaguar in the temple roared. That was a sound no one could mistake.

  “What’s going on?”

  Keeper stood. “We are under attack.”

  “From who?”

  “The only one who dares to attack us.” He threw open the door and there was the black jaguar who had showed me to the underground room, standing right in front of us. She took off down the hallway and we followed. Keeper didn’t act like this was strange in the least.

  I followed them to the apprentices’ study and saw the flickering light of flames under the door as soon as we got near it. “Luca!” I tried the knob, but it burned my hand. Instead, I kicked open the door. Fire roared back. Keeper tried to hold me back, and if I hadn’t seen my brother at that moment, he might have succeeded.

  Luca was trapped, huddled under a metal bookshelf, which had fallen against another. Behind him was the wall, in front of him was a wall of fire. If this were Earth, there would have been a fire hydrant. Since there was nothing, not even water, I had to be creative. The cause of the fire between us was a pile of books; the floor wasn’t burning. I took Keeper’s staff from him and used it to kick the books out of the way. This worked and created a very narrow passageway, so I covered my mouth and nose, ducked down, and ran through the path. Luca had already seen what I was doing and was halfway to me. I made sure he was safely on the other side before starting through the tunnel again.

  Unfortunately, the smoke was too thick and I couldn’t get enough air. I got down as far as I could, but I couldn’t bring myself to crawl back through the path. I heard Luca screaming for me.

  It occurred to me how useless magic was when I couldn’t use it to get out of a fire. Then it occurred to me that I should have figured out for myself how to put out a fire as soon as I learned to start one. Even without the words, I visualized the flames shrinking in an attempt to cast magic.

  I was starting to black out.

  “Kerar mortoa!” Keeper called.

  The flames died.

  * * *

  The next thing I knew, I was in the hallway, being forced a cup of water. I coughed and choked, but Luca wouldn’t let up. The water hurt my throat. Breathing hurt my throat. Hell, the pain hurt my throat.

  “God, Nathan, how could you run in there like that?”

  “You know how.” My voice sounded a lot worse than his. Talking hurt.

  “We need to get you to Healer,” Keeper said. Before he could, however, we saw Healer hurrying down the hall.

  “I’m here!” he said. Without another word, he put his hands on my shoulders and I felt a soothing numbness spread from his touch. It slowly reached my throat.

  By the time he was done, I felt a lot less barbequed. “Thank you.”

  “What happened?” Keeper asked Luca.

  “He’s too close to me,” I answered before Luca could. “Everyone gets hurt around me.” There were apprentices filling the hall, but they all kept a five-foot distance. “Where is Traveler?”

  “You can’t go home yet,” Keeper said.

  “I’m not; Luca is.”

  “You can’t send me home!”

  “I damn well can!”

  “I’ll tell Grandma what you did to Mom’s vase!”

  “That was you!”

  “You can’t tell her that, can you?”

  “I don’t care. You have to go home and be safe.”

  “I won’t! This wasn’t your fault. If it happened at home, you wouldn’t have been there to save me.”

  “What happened?” Keeper asked Luca again.

  “It was the Painter. He took Satka.” There were gasps from some of the apprentices.

  “How do you know it was him?”

  “Satka yelled, ‘it’s the Painter.’ He had the body of a black panther, the wings of a bat, and the head of a cobra.”

  “Everyone, go back to your chamber,” Keeper ordered. “Healer, make sure at least three priests are watching over the boys tonight.”

  Healer nodded and left.

  Keeper followed Luca and me back to our room. “Why didn’t you put the flames out before I ran in there if you could do it?” I asked.

  “I didn’t know you were going to run in there.”

  “You should have done it when you saw Luca trapped. Send for the Traveler.”

  “I’m not going home,” Luca said.

  “Then someone take us to Isis, because we’re both going home. The gods can find their damned book on their own.”

  Light filled our room and as I had expected, Isis was back. She was still gorgeous, even when I was furious with her. Keeper dropped to his knees in a ridiculous bow.

  “Please reconsider, Nathan,” she said, not acknowledging Keeper.

  “I didn’t ask for magic and I don’t want it, but I would deal with it. I draw the line at Luca getting hurt.”

  “Nevertheless, I cannot send either of you home until the Painter has been stopped. Your bond with your brother is one of the sources of your power and you are stronger with him. He will save your life before this is over.”

  “I don’t care about your book or the gods. You can’t make us fight for you.”

  “No, I cannot. I can tell you that if the Painter is not stopped, the gods will fall and this world will follow. Are you willing to let millions of people die?”

  “I’m not responsible for them. There are people more suit
ed to it, like the priests.”

  “The priests stand no chance against him. Their names are in the book. Yours is not.”

  “That doesn’t mean I’m the only one who can defeat him,” I said. “You have the wrong guy.”

  “We do not make mistakes,” she argued. She looked upset, like she wanted to say more but was afraid of angering me.

  “Egyptian gods are more human than other gods,” Luca whispered. “They are humble in comparison and they’re not too proud to beg or show their flaws.”

  “No, we are not all-knowing. I do know what I know, though,” she said.

  “Why did the Painter send me here?” I asked. She hesitated, but like Luca said, she didn’t have an emotionless face. “Tell me, or send us home.”

  “I believe he wants to turn you against us. Our ways are not like yours. It would make sense that if you hated us enough, you would not bother fighting him.”

  “And he goes about it by attacking my brother?”

  “Actually…” Luca started, “the Painter didn’t do anything to me. He took Satka. He was so big that he knocked over candles and the bookshelf. I don’t think his intention was to hurt me at all.”

  After a moment of awkward silence, Luca approached her slowly. She let him whisper in her ear, which was not a very god-like thing to do in my opinion. Then she straightened and frowned at him. He nodded and rejoined me.

  “What did you do?” I asked.

  “Isis has something to say to you that you need to hear. It’s imperative and it will change your mind about everything.”

  “Help me, Nathanial Jones-Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”

  Chapter 6

  Dylan’s first impression was that it looked like a giant, scaly cat. However, as the creature stopped under a streetlight, he could see very little resemblance. Its head was flatter and its ears were sharp and to the sides of its head, more like horns than anything else. It snarled, revealing needle-sharp teeth. Its body was slender and reptilian. Its scales ended with sharp edges and glittered black in the rain.

  Dylan was most disturbed by the creature’s realism. As opposed to the fear of the unknown or supernatural, he faced a giant, carnivorous animal that wanted to eat his face. At the same time, it was alien enough that he couldn’t predict how it would attack or what supernatural advantages it had.