Spells of the Curtain: Court Mage

by Tim Niederriter

  The fist dried out and fell apart, drained of all power. He reared to his feet, but Edmath closed with him again. He scooped up the pain blade still slick with his own blood as he went. He put the tip of the weapon to Ursar’s throat.

  “Surrender, honorable Roshi.” He gasped the barely remembered line Brosk had taught him only a week ago.

  Ursar Kiet grinned broadly, though still half-gagging from the blow to his throat.

  “I surrender Saale. Well fought.”

  Someone in the crowd cried out.

  “He surrenders!”

  Edmath tossed the blade of agony to the ground at his feet, eyes watering the pain of his broken hand as the adrenaline fading. He touched the wound on his shoulder, where his tunic had been opened by the blade. He looked at the blood that came away on his fingers. Dizziness overwhelmed him. He sank to one knee even as Haddishal and Marnaia declared the end of the duel.

  Razili came toward him, along with Brosk. Tusami approached at a distance. Edmath looked from them to the tree beside the path, and then down at the grass which would be drinking up his lost blood. It thought him no different than anyone else.

  He fancied he could hear the voices of each individual plant murmur as their roots claimed his rich nutrients. He knew that wasn’t true. Plants did not speak. His friends approached him. He imagined he grass whimpering as they trampled it. Usually, he could ignore the feelings of the little plants easily but now he heard them clearly.

  “Abide we must. Abide we must.” The grass couldn’t talk. He knew it couldn’t.

  Edmath staggered.

  “Abide we must,” he said.

  He had won. The blood weeping from his left hand splashed on the stones of the path. Ursar climbed to his feet off in the corner of Edmath’s vision. He approached Edmath. The sinister look he had worn during the fight was gone, and he offered his hand.

  “Calm down Saale Donroi. You just need a little help.”

  Edmath’s wounded hand touched the ground and another torrent of pain flowed up it. His world swam and he felt tears on his face. The cursed wounds sent waves of agony through him, burning and chilling him at the same time. His earlier dizziness grew and his vision went dark.

  The dreams Edmath had in his darkness were not pleasant, but full of pain and salt, heat and blood. As he woke, he tore from the sheets of his bed and slammed his head on his pillow gasping for air. He looked for his left hand. It was covered in white pads and canvas and leaf bandages. Red stains on its inside showed through. His throat was dry and he felt sick to his stomach. The hand looked wrong, somehow misshapen and distorted.

  Turning away from the sight, he fell back against his pillow and looked up, seeing Chelka’s face and shoulders framed by the windowpane near the bed. At the same time, she gently touched his shoulder.

  “Ed. Calm down, please. The bandages might not hold.”

  The pain of the shallow cut in his chest pulsed like a second heart-beat. Edmath stopped thrashing. He turned to look at her and saw her flushed face on the verge of bursting into either tears or fury. For Chelka either was a possibility.

  “Chelka? I thought you were in Sizali.”

  “I just arrived. Dawkun Kiet told me what happened, what he did. He thought you might be dying. I wasn’t so certain.” Chelka squeezed his shoulder.

  “Ursar Kiet told you? Why him? Where is he?”

  Edmath sat up, covers falling from his bare chest. He found his glasses, still on and pushed them up his nose. Not much time could have passed since the duel if no one had taken them off him.

  “He was waiting outside with Yezani Rumenha, Brosk, and Razili Nane. Most of them had to leave a few hours ago, but he’s still here.” Her eyes grew fierce again. “So is Yezani.”

  “Don’t worry about Yezani. She may be here to thank me for protecting my second. But Kiet?” Edmath shook his head in disbelief. “Say, Chelka, how long was I in the dark?”

  “I arrived last night and found them carrying you here.”

  Edmath gave a sigh of relief, staring at Chelka’s face even as he lay back down.

  “Good news. I couldn’t miss tending my Orpus tomorrow.”

  “It’s lucky I’m here then. Emperor Rumenha says you’re not to move for three days. Obviously, he didn’t know you would wake, after what that cursed Roshi did. I won’t let them hurt you again, Ed.”

  Edmath smiled and closed his eyes for a moment to better feel the warmth of her hand on his skin.

  “I know you won’t. Of course it’s a good thing you’re here.”

  Even with his eyes closed, Edmath noticed the sun rising outside the window, brightening the place beneath his eyelids more and more with every passing moment. He returned his eyes to where Chelka sat in her blue cloak and rega. She gazed back at him with the same passion she had shown at Lexine Park.

  With Chelka present, everything could be alright, even if Sampheli was suspicious and Zuria was afraid. His mother and sister only worried for him. Chelka’s arrival convinced Edmath that the two of them wanted the same thing. Chelka leaned over his bed.

  “Edmath, what are you thinking about?”

  “Happiness, Chelka. I’m thinking about it hard.”

  Chelka grinned. She must have remembered what he remembered. Their old conversations about the future remained clear to both of them.

  “So, you think you’ve got the Benisar formula for happiness down, don’t you?”

  Water made the first ingredient, and the second was love.

  “Of course. I doubt I’ve got it perfect yet, but yes, in a way.” Edmath traced her cheek with his finger.

  She closed her eyes and took his hand.

  “Thirsty?”

  He smiled.

  “Yeah.”

  The sun dawned in a clear sky with no visible clouds. Chelka kept Edmath company for a few more hours before she went to meet her father and the High Emperor. Zemoy would have understood if she was late, but his Grace was not as likely to be tolerant. She and Edmath agreed that she should be punctual. After Chelka left, Yezani Rumenha stepped into the doorway, though she only gave Edmath a satisfied nod before she too left. Ursar Kiet, who looked none-the-worse for wear after spending the night following his duel in the hall outside, came in, grinning at Edmath.

  “I heard from the women that you were awake. I’m honored to speak to you, Sir Saale Donroi.”

  “It’s just Saale, not Sir Saale. Doesn’t the way you said it sound strange, regardless?” Edmath felt nervous being in the same room with Kiet, in case the Roshi held some sort of grudge for the duel. His hands fidgeted. This situation could be dangerous and he had no way of getting out of it if it was.

  “Forgive me. I have never been to Zel before, and I have never fought a Saale before either.”

  “Of course, that is no excuse for losing to me.” Edmath couldn’t believe the words that had just come out of his own mouth, given his desire to survive.

  “I suppose not. Not a very good one, anyway.” Kiet paced across the room to the head of Edmath’s bed. “I’m just pleased to say I have some experience now. Besides you seem like a decent fellow.”

  “Is that so?” Edmath said, feeling no similar satisfaction for having fought a Dawkun. Of course, this hadn’t been the first time. “Strange.”

  “Not so strange.” Kiet back across the room and looked over his shoulder. “You see, I am running out of things to entertain me in a duel. I hope to spend more time with people with your fascinating talents in the future.” He grinned in a way that Edmath did not like.

  “Do you enjoy killing people?”

  “Not enough to make a living out of it. No, I enjoy fighting.”

  “You’re rather good at it.”

  “Thank you for saying so. You still won.” Ursar sighed. “Like I said, you seem decent enough. I’m not angry.”

  “But you are the one still standing.”

  “Only because you showed mercy,�
�� Kiet said and turned back around to face Edmath head on. His sandaled footfalls sounded heavy against the floor. “That’s alright. You have never killed anyone before.”

  Edmath thought of the dead boy, Yot, and how he’d fallen still. He knew what Kiet said was true.

  “Yes, and I don’t plan for that to change.”

  Kiet nodded and then bowed. “I will not be returning to Roshi for some time. I have Akalok and the Ambassador to thank for that. The sad truth is that he will not give up. Now that I have failed to avenge his honor he will simply find someone who won’t. I’m ashamed to say it, but you must beware of him.”

  “Thank you for the warning.” Edmath felt a pinch of frustration with the Roshi. Fighting duels like this was pointless. It would not help Akalok, or anyone else move on. The deeds of past generations should be left behind in the cycle of growth. He glared at Kiet. “I doubt it will make much difference, though.”

  “A shame, indeed.” Kiet turned and strode out the door, letting it close behind him. The Roshi had some odd customs and ways, but Edmath was fairly sure not saying goodbye wasn’t among them. Edmath realized with some surprise that the duelist from Roshi must simply be untutored in manners of any kind.

  Brosk visited him at lunchtime, along with a servant bearing a platter of oysters and vegetables. The two of them ate and Edmath gathered from what Brosk spoke of, that the duel had been well-received by the High Emperor.

  “It sounds as if he is glad you didn’t die,” Brosk said.

  “That is surprising.” Edmath remembered the old man’s expression when he’d first met him. The most powerful emperor of Zel, the attendant of the Sphere of Humanity, had seemed entirely bored and disinterested.

  “I’ve heard the same from Emperor Benisar. He thinks that Emperor Loi is happy because he finally put one over the Minister Regent, they know each other personally.”

  “Everyone knows they are personal rivals, just as their nations are rivals.”

  They talked a bit longer, but Edmath didn’t remember much more after he fell asleep a few minutes after Brosk left, to wake again late in the afternoon. Two cats were prowling the hall outside, talking softly about the mice they hunted.

  Edmath managed to climb out of bed an hour later and made his way to the desk across the room. His left hand hung limp in its bandages, but he could still turn pages, however slowly, with just his right.

  He studied an old bestiary he’d left on his desk the previous day. He searched for the mirache and found it. The creature turned out to be one of the most exceptional of all the Roshi creations, as it combined the animals of two tribes and a significant amount of manipulation by Dawkun, especially to create the creature’s bizarre wings.

  Edmath marveled at the way a magician without as strong a tie to life force as a Saale could have created something so beautiful and powerful. Of course, the terror he’d felt when he had first seen the beastly thing had only gone now because he no longer dreaded the duel he had somehow won. It all still seemed impossible. He knew that if he ever fought Ursar Kiet again he would probably be less lucky.

  He put the book aside. If he was to fight again, he decided not to do it alone. After all, he was a court Saale and had friends to call upon. He furrowed his brow at the bright sky outside his window. Eventually, he went back to reading.

  Edmath will Return.

  Author’s Note

  Good reader, I hope you enjoyed this first part of the larger story to come. I am hard at work on later books as you read this, and can’t wait to share them with you, but linear time is a harsh companion.

  This first portion of Edmath’s tale was originally written about ten years ago. Time has flown, between the other projects I let distract me and the drafts I put this work through. Something kept calling me back to the story. In particular, a conversation with fellow author Zig Zag Claybourne led me back to these pages and this story. I know it’s odd to feel this way, but I fell in love with the world and the characters all over again. Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll be back for another round when book two, Battle Mage, releases next week. This series is going to be an epic fantasy told in small pieces. Allow me to quote a favorite line from Douglass Adams’ great Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

  Share and enjoy!

  Leave a review to let others know what you think of the book. It really helps support me. I appreciate every reader and every kind word.

  Tim Niederriter, July 2018

  Also by Tim Niederriter

  Spells of the Curtain Series

  Court Mage

  Battle Mage (August 7th!)

  Winter Mage (August 14th)

  Garden Mage (September 1st)

  Traveler Mage (September 19th)

  Fire Mage (October 7th)

  Protector Mage (October 25th)

  …and more to come!

  Tenlyres Series

  Ilsa and Blue

  The Gray Lector

  The Lyre War

  The Root Conspiracy Series

  Memory Lost

  Mind Chase

  Image Storm

  Cell Cycle (August 21st)

  …and more to come!

  Other Books

  Rem’s Dream

  Find out more at http://mentalcellarpublications.com

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  Tim Niederriter has been reading fantasy and science fiction since he was five years old when his parents introduced him to the hobbit.

  These days he writes stories in science fiction, fantasy, and combinations of the two for himself and for others. When not writing fiction or losing at cards, he maintains a blog at dwellerofthedeep.wordpress.com, and you can find his personal website at timniederriter.com. He also talks on the podcasts “Of Mooks and Monsters,” and “Alive After Reading” available at mentalcellarpublications.com and wherever podcasts are downloaded.

  He lives in Minnesota for as long as the corn decides not to eat him.