Kingdom of Magicians

by Timothy L. Cerepaka

  Chapter Fifteen

  Keo, Dlaine, and Jola left Torgan in a little under an hour through the eastern gate. They faced no trouble with the guards, who let them through after only minor interrogation, and soon were on the road again, Torgan becoming smaller and smaller behind them the farther they walked. They tried to put as much distance between themselves and Torgan as they could before sunset, and by the time the sun dipped behind the western hills, Torgan was no longer within their view.

  Then they set up camp just off the side of the road, near a grove of trees that provided them some privacy, and rested without much conversation, because the events of the day had worn out both Keo and Dlaine too much to talk. The only one who did not sleep was Jola, who, as usual, kept watch, which made Keo wonder if Jola was some kind of spirit rather than a human being.

  In the morning, Keo and Dlaine had a large breakfast of bacon, biscuits, and fruit that Dlaine had bought from the Torgan marketplace. They ate their breakfast quickly and soon were on the road again, heading east toward the Silver Falls.

  As they walked along the road in the early morning light of the rising sun, Keo remembered the events of yesterday and looked at Dlaine and said, “That was unexpected of you.”

  Dlaine looked at Keo, looking a bit startled by Keo's statement. “What was unexpected of me?”

  “Telling Sherf to go and join the Rebels,” said Keo, readjusting the straps of his pack as they walked, “which you told me that you hated.”

  Dlaine shook his head. “I'm still not much of a fan of the Rebels, but I'm a father like him and so I think you should always do what is best for your kid. And if that means taking refuge with the Rebels, then so be it.”

  “I wasn't criticizing you,” said Keo. “Just making an observation is all.”

  “Well, maybe you should do a little less observation and a little more walking,” said Dlaine. He pointed down the road. “We still have a long way to go before we reach Capitika, so let's focus on what's ahead of us and not what's behind us.”

  “I agree,” said Keo, nodding. “But just what are the Silver Falls, anyway? Master Tiram once mentioned them to me a long time ago, but all I know is that they're a large waterfall.”

  “Biggest in South Lamaira,” said Dlaine, nodding. “I've visited them before. They're so named because the water looks like liquid silver depending on how the rays of the sun reflect off of them. And they really do. It's a beautiful sight, definitely something you have to see at least once in your life.”

  “Are there any towns there?” said Keo. “Any settlements we might need to watch out for?”

  “There used to be a big city, called Castarious, built right into it, back when King Riuno was still alive,” said Dlaine. He frowned. “But after his death, the city was torn apart by civil war and everyone left because they completely wrecked the city and no one wanted to repair it.”

  “Why not?” said Keo.

  “Because everyone believes that Castarious is cursed,” said Dlaine.

  “Cursed?” said Keo. “By who?”

  “Some say that one of King Riuno's Magicians laid a curse on Castarious to prevent it from being livable, mostly as a way to get back at the King for some reason,” said Dlaine with a shrug. “The fact that the Magical Council has repeatedly failed to rebuild Castarious to its original glory is proof of the curse, or so everyone says.”

  “Why do you believe that the Magical Council hasn't succeeded in rebuilding the city?” said Keo. “I mean, what do you think the real reason is, if it isn't cursed?”

  “Me?” said Dlaine. He chuckled. “They're too busy focusing on the war with the Divinians and Restorationists to put any serious thought, effort, or manpower into rebuilding Silver Falls. If it won't help in the war effort, then it isn't worth focusing on, or so they think.”

  “I see,” said Keo. He glanced at Gildshine. “I hope I can get Nesma to convince the Council to work with the Divinians and Restorationists against the demons. But if they're that focused on the war effort, then they might not even listen to her.”

  “The Magical Council doesn't listen to anyone except for themselves,” said Dlaine with a snort. “I doubt your friend could get them to listen to her.”

  “But she's a member of the Magical Council, too,” said Keo. “So why wouldn't the rest of the Council listen to her?”

  Dlaine looked at Keo in surprise. “Hold on. Did you say that your friend Nesma is a member of the Magical Council?”

  Keo nodded as he kicked a rock out of their path as the road inclined slightly. “Yep. The youngest ever, if I remember correctly. She's my age, so she's about twenty-three, though I think she's older than me by about a month.”

  “You're pulling my leg,” said Dlaine, shaking his head. “No one that young could ever get a place on the Council. She could be an apprentice to one of the Council members, sure, but an actual, full-fledged member, with all of the power that title implies? Nah, that's impossible.”

  “But it's the truth,” said Keo. “She joined the Council about a year ago due to her powerful magical abilities and deep understanding of magic itself. She earned her position, though I haven't seen her at all since then, so I don't know for sure how she's doing.”

  “Your friend must be something, then, if she's the youngest member of the Magical Council ever,” said Dlaine. “But that story is almost harder to believe than your story about the demons.”

  “The demons are real, too,” said Keo in annoyance. “You seem to have trouble believing my stories.”

  “Because you keep coming up with crazier and crazier ones every time I ask you about your life,” said Dlaine. He chuckled. “I bet next you're going to tell me that you're actually half-Dracone, right?”

  Scowling, Keo punched Dlaine in the shoulder. “Would you stop joking? This is all very serious. Nesma is the only person I know who has the power to do something about the demons. Whether or not you believe the demons exist or are coming back doesn't matter, because they are and I have to stop them.”

  “Okay, okay,” said Dlaine, rubbing his shoulder where Keo had punched him. “You gotta learn to lighten up a little, Keo. Even if you're right and the demons are coming back, that doesn't mean you have to be so uptight about it, you know?”

  “I know,” said Keo. “But you didn't see that demon that almost killed me back in the Low Woods.” He shuddered. “Creepiest thing I've ever seen, and its threat was even creepier.”

  “Sure sounds like it,” said Dlaine as the road started to flatten out again. “Good thing I wasn't there to see it.”

  Keo nodded, but then a new question came to mind and he said, “You said you've been to the Silver Falls before. Did you see anyone there who went by the name Fallsman?”

  Dlaine shook his head. “Nope. Totally unfamiliar name to me.”

  Keo glanced at the bag slung over his shoulder, where he had stored the letter that Sadia had given him yesterday. “You really have no idea who he might be?”

  “None whatsoever,” said Dlaine, “though if you ask me, I think he might be some kind of Rebel agent. That's the only reason I can think of why Sadia would ask us to deliver a letter like this.”

  “Well, I'm sure he's probably not a threat, whoever he is,” said Keo. “I just wish that Sadia had given us more information about his identity, though, so we knew what to expect.”

  “I personally think that you shouldn't have accepted the letter at all,” said Dlaine. “What if it takes us a long time to find this Fallsman guy? The Silver Falls are a large place, particularly the ruins of Castarious. He could be anywhere.”

  “But Sadia said that we could find him as long as we follow the signs,” said Keo. He frowned. “Then again, I'm not quite sure what that means.”

  “See? That will just delay our arrival in Capitika even further,” said Dlaine. “Let's just go straight through and keep heading to Carrk, which is the next town after the Falls.”

  “No,” said Keo, shaking his head. “I promis
ed Sadia I would deliver the letter. After she helped us avoid getting arrested back in Torgan and her dad helped me find my sword, I feel like this is the least I can do for her.”

  Dlaine sighed. “All right. But let's not linger after we do that, because we really don't have all of the time in the world to do that. Both of us.”

  Keo nodded in agreement. “The fate of Lamaira rests on our getting to Capitika before the demons rise again. And the life of your daughter as well.”

  So the three of them traveled east to Silver Falls, eventually following the Hanuf River, which according to Dlaine would lead them right to Silver Falls. The Hanuf River was a large, wide River that was said to extend to the end of the world, although Keo did not know if that was true or not. All he knew was that the Hanuf River had sparklingly clear water, the cleanest water he had ever seen in his life, and that he appreciated having the chance to use it to refill their flasks and bathe.

  It was a couple of days later that Keo first heard the sounds of a massive waterfall somewhere in the distance. Having never heard a waterfall before, Keo initially thought that the loud noises belonged to some kind of large beast, but Dlaine assured him that it was no massive beast at all, but rather the sounds of the Silver Falls. Keo tried to see if he could spot the Silver Falls from a distance, but because it was around night time when he heard the sounds, the darkness of the night prevented him from seeing very far.

  It was in the morning, after breakfast, that Keo saw the massive Silver Falls in the distance, but it wasn't until after lunch that they reached the Silver Falls themselves. Even before they arrived at the Silver Falls, however, Keo was amazed by what he saw.

  The Silver Falls were gigantic, towering well above even Magician Skran's Tower and the tallest trees in the Low Woods, which were the tallest objects Keo had see until today. It was almost as big as a small mountain, looking like the throne of a god.

  Gallons and gallons of water crashed into the river below. The Falls shone in the light from the summer sun, looking just like silver liquid, as Dlaine had described them. And even from a distance, the Falls were deafening, like millions of buckets of water being poured all at once over and over.

  But besides the Silver Falls themselves were what appeared to be the ruins of a massive city. The ruins started from the bottom of the Falls, went way up the massive cliffs on either side, and then stopped at two massive whitish-gray towers that looked like even larger versions of the normal Magician Towers. The two towers were connected by a massive bridge between them, a bridge that seemed to be holding strong despite its obvious size and weight.

  “Wow,” said Keo, stopping on top of the hill they had climbed, staring at the Silver Falls with his mouth hanging open. “I have never seen that much water in one place before.”

  Dlaine also stopped and looked at the Falls, though he didn't look nearly as amazed as Keo. “Yeah, they're pretty impressive all right. And those are the ruins of the city, Castarious, that I was telling you about earlier.”

  “And it is so loud even from a distance,” said Keo. “It must be deafening up close.”

  Dlaine nodded, but then snapped his fingers. He looked down to his right and said, “Oh, right. Jola, the spell, remember?”

  Keo was about to ask what 'the spell' was before he felt a sudden coldness seep into his bones. It made him shudder and hug himself, although the coldness vanished as soon as he felt it, leaving Keo feeling the same as he had before he felt the coldness.

  “W-What was that?” said Keo with a shiver. “What did Jola do?”

  Dlaine gestured at his ears. “She protected our hearing from the Falls. The Silver Falls are incredibly loud up close and, while they haven't been known to take away anyone's hearing, I want us to be able to hear each other when we go there. Just to be safe.”

  Keo rubbed his ears. “My ears don't feel any different.”

  “No surprise there,” said Dlaine. “They aren't supposed to. But you'll notice the difference once we get to the Falls. Now let's keep going. I want us to reach the Falls before dark.”

  Keo nodded, and soon the three travelers continued their trek along the Hanuf River to the Silver Falls and the ruins of Castarious. It took them a couple of hours of walking across hills and the remains of what appeared to be a stone road that might have once connected Castarious to the main road before they finally arrived at the foot of the Silver Falls. By then, the sun was higher in the sky than before and hotter as well.

  The path they walked upon took them to the walls of the ruins of Castarious, which, despite their age, were in very good condition. They appeared to be made out of brick and metal and were three times as tall as Keo. Their metallic plating was rusted in several places, probably due to the moisture from the nearby Falls.

  Now that they were practically on top of the Falls, Keo listened hard to see if he could notice anything different. The strangest thing he noticed was that the Falls were unnaturally quiet despite their proximity, which he supposed was Jola's spell at work. Even so, now that he noticed it, he found it hard to ignore the nagging feeling that the Falls should be much louder than they were (but Keo decided not to get upset about it because he liked being able to hear Dlaine) because he knew that the loudness of the Falls would make normal communication between them impossible.

  Keo, Dlaine, and Jola entered the ruins of Castarious via the gates, one of which stood open, while the other lay inwards like it had been knocked over by a giant. As they walked beside it, Keo looked at the gate and saw that it had an old rusted engraving on the front, an engraving of a dragon's head breathing fire.

  “What happened to this gate?” said Keo as they walked past it. “Who knocked it over?”

  Dlaine shrugged. “Who knows? I wasn't here when the city fell. Might have just been the people trying to escape.”

  “But it looks like it was knocked inward,” said Keo. “Like someone was trying to get in, not out.”

  “There was a lot of chaos in the initial days after King Riuno's death,” said Dlaine, scratching his chin. “Could have been a band of mercenaries and brigands that attacked the city. It was sacked several times, if I recall correctly, because the King's Army abandoned Castarious about a month after his death.” He gestured at a broken sword lying on the street nearby. “See? That sword probably belonged to one of the brigands who attacked the city.”

  Keo nodded and did not say anything else, because when they passed through the gates, he looked around at the ruins of Castarious itself. He did not know what to expect.

  The ruins of Castarious were some of the largest buildings Keo had ever seen; not quite as large as the two towers at the top of the Falls, but definitely bigger than anything you could find in New Ora or Torgan. Many buildings reached three stories high easily, while even the smaller ones looked grander than other buildings Keo had seen in the last two towns they had visited. The streets were wide and paved with cobblestone, giving plenty of room for the hundreds of people who had no doubt lived here to walk around in.

  Yet despite the ruins' magnificence, Keo did not like how Castarious felt. It was hard to describe, but it was like they had walked into a city of ghosts. The streets were silent, with no life anywhere except for a rodent that darted across the street too quickly for him to follow. Aside from himself, Dlaine, and Jola, there were no other people in the city that he could see, yet he felt like someone was watching them at all times, like the spirits of the former inhabitants of Castarious were still here, watching the three strangers who had entered the city's walls. That parts of the city glistened in the sunlight, probably due to the water that fell from the Falls (droplets of which fell on Keo's head and shoulders, although it wasn't enough to annoy him), did not help; if anything, the glistening buildings and streets made him feel even less welcome here.

  “Do you feel that, Dlaine?” said Keo with a gulp, looking around the wide streets of the ruined city.

  “Feel what?”

  “Like we're not supposed to be h
ere,” said Keo. “Like we've broken some kind of law.”

  “Rumor says that Castarious is haunted by the ghosts of the people who used to live in it,” said Dlaine, gesturing at the towering buildings before them. “Some say that that's part of the curse put on it by the King's Magician, who bound the spirits of the people here to keep anyone from populating the city again. Some call them the black ghosts.”

  “Are there ghosts here?” said Keo with a gulp.

  “I doubt it,” said Dlaine. “I've passed through here a couple of times since its fall and I haven't seen even one ghost. I've met people who have told me that they have seen ghosts, but they're usually crazy, so I don't listen to 'em. Don't worry about it.”

  Keo nodded. “All right. But why are we even going through Castarious at all? Isn't there another way to Capitika that is a little less frightening?”

  “There is, but this way is quicker,” Dlaine said. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder toward the gates. “If we took the main road, we might run into some of the Road Enforcers, the guys who patrol the roads of South Lamaira. And since we're both wanted criminals, they would probably arrest us. Or, assuming they didn't recognize us, they would instead force us to pay a road tax to keep going.”

  “Road tax?” Keo repeated. “What's that?”

  “'A voluntary fee that contributes to the betterment of our society,'” Dlaine said. He sounded like he was quoting someone, albeit mockingly. “The truth of the matter is that it's just a way that the Road Enforcers enrich themselves at the expense of the people.”

  “I don't understand,” said Keo. “How?”

  Dlaine stopped and turned to face Keo. “It's pretty simple. The Road Enforcers patrol the roads for any travelers they can find. When they do find potential victims, they tell them that they have to pay a 'road tax,' which allegedly goes toward maintaining South Lamaira's roads, or else.”

  “Or else?” said Keo, tilting his head to the side. “What does that mean? Do they arrest them and take them to jail?”

  “Sometimes,” said Dlaine. He looked up at the sky, as if remembering something bad. “Most of the time, though, they beat the hell out of them, take whatever money they have on hand, and leave them to die. Nearly happened to me once about five years ago, but I managed to defend myself.”

  “That's horrible,” said Keo, shaking his head. “But how come I've never heard of these Road Enforcers before?”

  “They tend to stick around the larger towns and cities, the ones that get the most traffic,” said Dlaine. “It gives them more people to steal money from. They usually ignore little towns like New Ora or Torgan, especially the more crime-ridden parts of the country.”

  “And the Magical Council is okay with this?” said Keo. “Nesma is okay with this?”

  “I don't know if your friend approves, seeing as the Road Enforcers have been around much longer than her, but I know for a fact that the Magical Council doesn't care,” said Dlaine. He scowled. “The Magical Council is supposed to get a cut of the 'tax,' so they probably encourage those damned Road Enforcers to take as much money from travelers as they can. Just to line their own pockets.”

  “I should bring this to Nesma's attention when we get to Capitika,” said Keo. “If what you say is true, then these Road Enforcers need to be stopped right away.”

  Dlaine chuckled and turned around again. “Good luck with that. Even your friend might not be able to do anything about them if the rest of the Council doesn't.”

  Keo wanted to say that Nesma would be able to put a stop to it, but if Dlaine was telling the truth, then Nesma probably got a cut of each tax that the Road Enforcers collected as well. And considering she had been a member of the Magical Council for a year already and had apparently not done anything about it, then maybe she actually approved of it.

  Or maybe Nesma doesn't know about what they're doing, Keo thought. Nesma is the newest member of the Council, so maybe the other Council members haven't told her about that yet.

  Even Keo knew that that was about as likely as actual liquid silver flowing from the Falls. Yet the idea that his best friend in the world might be participating in blatant government corruption like that was simply too depressing a thought to think about.

  I need to focus on the present right now, Keo thought. Maybe I will talk to Nesma about this when we get to Capitika. For now, we must find the Fallsman.

  Aloud, Keo said, “Well, now that we're here, I think we should start looking for the Fallsman.”

  Dlaine stopped again and looked over his shoulder, a frown on his face. “You mean you were serious about delivering that letter a couple of days ago?”

  “Very,” said Keo. He patted his pack where he kept the letter. “It's only fair. Sadia helped us and now we're going to help her.”

  “All right,” said Dlaine, the reluctance in his voice obvious. He looked around at the tall buildings around them. “But where are we supposed to look? Castarious is a huge place, not even counting the half of the city on the other side of the Falls. This Fallsman character could be anywhere.”

  “Sadia said to follow the signs,” said Keo. “You've been through here before. Do you know what 'signs' she might have been talking about?”

  Dlaine shook his head. “No.” But then he suddenly looked down to the left and said, “Jola, what is it?”

  Keo looked at where Dlaine looked as well, but he still didn't see anything, nor did he hear Jola speak. That frustrated him. Keo didn't know why Jola still had not shown herself to him or why she never spoke to him directly. It was like Jola didn't trust him, which was not entirely irrational, seeing as she had not known him long, but Keo still disliked not being able to see or hear her.

  Dlaine nodded once or twice and then looked up at Keo again. “Jola says she's been thinking about what Sadia said back in Torgan and thinks she knows what 'signs' Sadia was talking about.”

  “Really?” said Keo. “Well, that's convenient. Where are they?”

  “Jola will show us,” said Dlaine as he started walking up the street. “Come on. She knows we don't have time to lose, so she's says we've got to go quick.”

  ***