Island Shifters: Book 02 - An Oath of the Mage

by Valerie Zambito

“Nin!” Odawa shooed them away and they ran off.

  As Beck made his way warily through the village, he noticed an old woman sitting cross-legged in front of one of the tents. She was human.

  At first glance, she appeared to be sleeping with her eyes closed and her head hanging on her chest, but as Beck passed, she looked up and offered him an amused toothless grin. Goose pimples broke out on his arms as he looked into the woman’s eyes.

  They were completely white.

  Beck had the unnatural impression that she could read his mind and sense his every fear and desire. Just as he had the thought, she let out a shrill cackle. “Oh, yes, boy. Oh, yes.”

  “Come!” Odawa ordered sternly.

  With difficulty, Beck tore his gaze from the old woman and followed the Malakai to one of the teepees. He gestured for Beck to sit on a hewed tree stump just outside of the tent opening. “This home of Odawa,” he informed Beck. “Must wait until mixture ready, then go training.”

  “Mixture? What is that?”

  “Mage potion must drink before training. Those are rules. Live with it.” Odawa sat as well and picked up a long pipe, lighting the bowl with practiced ease. After blowing the inhaled smoke out through his nose, he handed the pipe to Beck. “Smoke.”

  Beck shook his head politely. “No, thank you.”

  “Not question. Smoke.” He continued to hold the pipe out toward Beck until he accepted it. Beck had seen his father smoke a pipe when he was younger, but had never done so himself. Gingerly, he put his mouth on the wooden stem and inhaled. Immediately, his lungs exploded in pain and he coughed violently, tears streaming down his eyes.

  The other Malakai males in the village pointed and laughed while Beck struggled to catch his breath. Even the children were laughing at him.

  Odawa shook his head. “Foolish.”

  When Beck was finally breathing normally, he turned an angry eye at Odawa. “When will this mixture be ready?” He was anxious to leave this tribe where he felt as foolish as the Malakai claimed him to be.

  “On the morrow.”

  “Tomorrow! You don’t understand. My daughter is missing! We must begin right away!”

  The Malakai opened the flap to the teepee behind him and pointed to a bed of fronds inside. “Rest. Will wake when time.”

  Beck sighed in frustration, but the pipe smoke had made his head dizzy. Knowing he could not get Odawa to move any faster, he entered the small tent and laid down, once again using his backpack as a pillow.

  This delay had probably cost him his transportation from Digby. He could always hail another watershifter, but it would take time he did not have to arrange.

  The need for more information still wrenched at him. He poked his head back out of the tent. “Where will the training be held?”

  The Malakai pointed to the three teepees set away from the village.

  Beck looked over. “In there?” he asked doubtfully. “I don’t even think I will fit inside.”

  “Will fit.”

  “Who conducts the training? The Malakai?”

  Odawa wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Mage do Mage training foolish one.”

  But, there were no more Mages on the island. Did Odawa have any clue what was to happen? He was starting to wonder. He decided to try one last question. “What will I do inside the tent?”

  “Die.”

  Kiernan wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. Where moments ago she was shivering from the biting cold, the air was now thick with humidity. Diamond must have seen the movement because she handed her a handkerchief. Kiernan accepted it with a grateful smile.

  The Divination sorceress refused to be left behind when she learned of their plans and that added another to their party, which was perfectly fine with Kiernan. There were no others she would rather have at her side to help save her daughter than the people riding next to her. Surely, this assemblage of power could defeat one witch? She shook her head. No, she did not kid herself. That one witch was centuries old and with the morality of a Netherworld demon. That made her the most dangerous of all foes.

  After traveling two days through Aquataine and picking up horses at the sorceresses’ castle in Elloree, they started out immediately south on horseback. With a long ride still ahead of them, they alternated between a walk and a ground-covering gallop to save the horses. Sapphire offered to cast a spell over the beasts to free them from their weariness, but Kiernan declined. The spell may have served to mask the animals’ fatigue, but their physical limitations were still very real. The only thing the spell would do is cause them run to their deaths instead of stumble.

  Kiernan glanced up at the sun. They had been walking the horses for an hour or so now, and the grueling journey in a land that offered no break from the burning heat was wearing on her. She drummed her heels into her mare’s ribs and the animal took off at a startled run. She did not warn the others. They would follow.

  Kiernan relished in the speed of movement and the wind slicing over her body. With all of her concentration on the ride, it left little room for thoughts of Kenley. Yesterday, she begged Diamond to read her gem for information, but the sorceress informed her that her stone was obscured again, and Sapphire had not had any luck removing the spell this time. Of course, she also reminded Kiernan, as she always did, that a foretelling did not always come true. It was a prediction of a probable event and should not be construed as fact. But, Kiernan knew that was not the entire truth. Diamond was very skilled in her craft of Divination and could easily distinguish between what would happen without fail and those events that were still undecided.

  Racing out in front of the others over the endless sea of rock, Kiernan pulled back on the reins when she heard a shout. It took a few moments for the big horse to come to a complete stop, and even now the animal was dancing restlessly beneath her.

  “Look!” Sapphire yelled, pointing southward.

  Kiernan squinted into the distance but was not sure what she was seeing. A gray, dense mist at least a thousand paces wide was moving their way at a fairly rapid speed. “What is it?”

  “Demons breath,” cursed Sapphire. “Rogan! Airron! Tie us together with rope! Quickly!”

  “What is it?” Kiernan questioned in alarm.

  “Death.”

  The word hung in the air like a dark cloud.

  “Everybody dismount!” Sapphire ordered. “Once that mist descends, it will try to separate us, and it will succeed unless we are tethered.”

  Rogan and Airron immediately jumped down from their horses and removed ropes from their saddlebags. Airron handed one end to her and she wrapped it around her waist twice and handed the other end back to him.

  “It?” Kiernan directed at Sapphire. “You refer to this mist like it is a living, thinking entity.”

  “It is.”

  “Can we ride around it?” asked Airron.

  “No, it has been set on its course, and I fear the course is us. Keep hold of your horse’s bridle. The mist ahead is a conjuration of dark magic. It is called the Sea of Void and it is deadly. It has the power to induce a mind-eating insanity.”

  “Impossible,” Janin retorted.

  Sapphire continued as if Janin had not spoken. “Once the Void envelops us, it will penetrate our minds to discover our deepest fears. Once it has done so, the Void will invoke graphical representations of those fears in an attempt to cull the weakest from the group. Do not be scared and, for Highworld’s sake, do not run! You must remain strong mentally! Everything you see will be an illusion. The Void must remain in motion to exist so it will continue to move past us. If you keep your head down and keep walking, and we are very, very lucky, we can survive this unscathed.”

  “Bloody hell,” muttered Rogan. “Here it comes. Do not let go of my hand, Janin!”

  “I will not, Kal. I love you.”

  “Can we breathe in it?” Kiernan asked abruptly, feeling the need to hold her breath as the mist neared.

  “Yes, just keep you
r head down and walk,” Sapphire repeated.

  Kiernan took a deep breath anyway and held it as the gray sea rolled over them. The hair on her arms stood up straight as the invasive, sinister vapor slithered its way around her. The blackness of the Void was all encompassing, and she held tight to her mare’s bridle as it was the only physical connection she had left in the world.

  Suddenly, a vision appeared before their eyes. It was of Airron’s wife, Melania Shael, in bed and making love to an Elven male.

  Airron grunted. “Thanks, Kiernan, for planting that one there.”

  “Sorry.”

  “That is your deepest fear?” questioned Rogan incredulously. “Are you serious?”

  Kiernan could sense Airron’s shrug. “At this moment, it is all I can think about.”

  The intimate vision went on in detail and in every direction within the mist, no matter where she looked. Even shutting her eyes did not stop the image as it simply continued to pay out in her mind. She did not know how Airron could stand to watch.

  The picture disappeared abruptly and was replaced by a horrifying visual of Janin standing back-to-back with Rogan in the thick of battle. A violent struggle went on for long moments before one of the faceless enemy soldiers lashed out with his blade and pierced Janin directly through the heart. She fell away from Rogan to the ground and clutched her bloodied chest.

  It felt so real that Kiernan wanted to cry out for Janin, but Rogan was already doing so.

  “I am here, Kal. I am safe,” she murmured soothingly, and she heard him take a deep, calming breath.

  Soon, the image faded, and tears filled Kiernan’s eyes when an illusion of Gemini Starr dying in several different and horrifying ways appeared. In the depicted scenes, Sapphire was always running toward Gemini to help, but was always just a fraction of a second too late to save her mother as she died over and over again.

  Sapphire did not utter a sound.

  The Void’s attempt to break Diamond came next in a nightmarish sensation of spiders crawling in a black mass over the sorceress’ body. Kiernan could not stop herself from brushing frantically at her own arms and legs as big, hairy spiders slithered over Diamond’s body and bit down on her exposed white flesh while she screamed, both in the vision and in reality.

  Kiernan flinched when the mental probe of the Void penetrated her mind like the stabbing prick of a pin. Her biggest fear came to life as a simple image yet unbearable to fathom. It showed her sitting on her throne in Grace Hall surrounded by her three children, adults now, and another man standing behind her with his hand on her shoulder.

  Beck was not in the picture.

  Beck had never come home.

  “It is an illusion, Kiernan,” reminded Diamond.

  “I wish I could believe that.” She closed her eyes tightly, but still saw the image clearly in her mind.

  Suddenly, the rope around her waist tugged violently and she fell to the ground.

  “Citrine! Stop!” shouted Sapphire.

  Opening her eyes, Kiernan looked up. The gray mist showed a younger Citrine praying for the death of her predecessor Sect Leader so that she could be raised Leader. The image changed and they were in the center of the Demon War. The sounds, the smells, and the colors assailed Kiernan’s senses. Men were screaming, weapons clashed violently. In the middle of the horror, it was Citrine and not Avalon Ravener who walked to her former mentor and with a glint of glee in her eye, twisted her neck.

  It was obvious that Citrine was carrying an enormous amount of fear that it was her childish, yet appalling, wishes that had caused the woman’s death.

  “Citrine! It is an illusion! Stop!”

  The skin on Kiernan’s knees ripped open when she was dragged on the ground. She screamed out and then the rope became slack. “What happened?”

  “Citrine is gone. She cut the rope and ran into the Void alone.”

  “We have to help her!” Kiernan shouted, getting to her feet.

  “It is too late. Keep walking,” Sapphire instructed.

  Kiernan shook her head. “No! We cannot leave her out there! We have to do something!”

  “You will die if you go after her. You will never find her and you both will die. There is no other possible outcome when dealing with the Void.”

  Kiernan struggled with the rope.

  “You must listen to Sapphire, Kiernan!” screamed Diamond. Then, quieter, “I foresaw Citrine’s death months ago. Do not throw your life away needlessly.”

  “You said yourself that your foretelling is not always accurate, Diamond! We may be able to change Citrine’s fate if we try.”

  “Not this time.” Kiernan could not see Diamond, but the pain in her voice was clear.

  It took a moment for Kiernan to suppress the urge to run after Citrine, but knew Diamond was right.

  Her blood oath had not stirred in the least.

  Kiernan tightened the rope around her waist once more and began walking forward. It was one of the most difficult things she ever had to do.

  The party was silent as they continued through the rolling darkness. There were no more visions. There was no need. The Void had culled the weakest and claimed its victim.

  CHAPTER 22

  A Shout in the Dark

  “Kenley, darling, come over and join me for some hot tea.”

  Since disobedience brought nothing but pain and discomfort, Kenley rose from her pallet in the corner of the room and walked to the table where the Mistress was sitting.

  She pulled out a chair and sat in it gingerly.

  “Still sore, my dear?” asked the Mistress.

  Kenley nodded.

  “Well, that lesson was absolutely necessary, young lady, but if you do not try to use your airshifting again, you will not have to learn it twice.”

  “Yes, Mistress.” Kenley tried to press the Mistress up against the wall with air the previous evening, and the welts where her kidnapper had taken a strap to her backside still throbbed painfully. No, she would not use her airshifting again unless she was sure it would allow her a better chance at escape.

  “I am much, much stronger than you, Kenley. Remember that always.”

  “I will.”

  A shadow fell over the table and Kenley turned toward the cave entrance. It was the guard that the Mistress called Cyrus.

  “Well?” demanded the Mistress impatiently. “With the Dwarves out of Kondor, we cannot waste this opportunity, Cyrus!”

  “They ‘ave returned,” he told her. “Still a few leagues away, but I can see them on the ‘orizon.”

  “Did they succeed?”

  Cyrus nodded, and Kenley recoiled when the Mistress clapped her hands in delight. “That is good news, Cyrus! The earthshifter may have gotten away, but as it turns out, I did not need him after all.” She turned toward Kenley and put her fingers under her chin. “I got what I wanted without his help.” She glanced over her shoulder and muttered, “I guess these wings are good for something after all.”

  Kenley remained silent. The Mistress often talked to herself and it was best not to draw attention her way while she did.

  The Mistress tapped her fingernails on the stone table while she poured tea. “Kenley, the Cyman scouts tell me that your father is not with the others that are traveling this way. Do you know where he might be?”

  She shook her head. “No.” Then, she dared to ask. “Who is coming here, Mistress?”

  The woman waved a hand in her face. “Nothing for you to concern yourself about…yet.”

  “When can I go home, Mistress?”

  The disappointment on the Mistress’ face was unmistakable.

  “Kenley, how old are you?”

  “I will be six years very soon.”

  “Then you are old enough to stop asking childish questions. I told you, that part of your life is over.”

  Tears welled in her eyes. “But, that is where I belong, with my Daddy and Maman and new brothers.”

  The teacup in the Mistress’ hand fell
to the stone table and shattered. “You have brothers?”

  Kenley backed away from the advancing black liquid. “Yes, twin brothers. They were just born.”

  “Two more pureblood unmarked boys!” The Mistress stood and began to pace the chamber, her tea forgotten on the table. “With this news, I may have to change my plans.” She was talking to herself again. “Maybe we will not return to Nordik. With that many purebloods by my side, I could stay right here and rule. Where Adrian failed, I most certainly will not now,” she declared fiercely. She turned back to Kenley. “Do you realize how powerful we can be together, Kenley? Once the Savitars are gone, nobody can stop us!”

  Kenley was confused about what the Mistress was saying.

  “First things first. Kenley, I will need your help.”

  “My help?”

  “Yes, and you will be a good girl and do as I say, won’t you? You remember what happens when you do not?”

  Kenley swallowed. “Yes, Mistress.”

  Another Cyman guard returned. It was Arlen, and Kenley smiled at him. He was very nice to her and always made sure that she had something soft at night to pillow her head. He even rubbed her back at night when she cried herself to sleep.

  She liked Arlen.

  “The Sea of Void is gone, Mistress.”

  “Did it work?”

  “It took one of their members. A female.”

  “With any luck, it was…,” she turned toward Kenley. “Finish your tea, darling, I must speak to Cyrus and Arlen.” The Mistress went into a corner of the chamber to talk with the guards.

  Who was coming? The Mistress mentioned that it was not her Daddy, but could it be her Maman? As she glanced at the three adults deep in conversation, she briefly thought about using her airshifting to shove the Mistress out into the night air, but then quickly dismissed the idea. The woman would only turn into a bird or, worse, the winged creature that brought her here. If that happened, her punishment would be far worse than a strapping. She was sure of it.

  Princess!

  Kenley gasped aloud at the mental shout. The Mistress turned her way. “What is it?” she asked, angry over the interruption.