‘What’s that?’ Samuel asked with great curiosity.
The old magician’s face creased with wrinkles as he grinned back towards Samuel. ‘Well, my boy—it’s you. ’
‘Me!’ Samuel said, startled and the Erics and Lomar seemed to share his surprise.
‘That’s right. You can do the one thing that no other person can. You can kill the Emperor.’
‘I have no idea how that could be so,’ Samuel declared. ‘How can I possibly kill the Emperor? I’m not nearly as powerful as some other magicians, even after everything I’ve learned.’
‘It’s not a matter of power, Samuel,’ the old man revealed. ‘It’s a matter of its application. You can approach the Emperor without anyone knowing you are even there, for not even the keenest of magicians can detect you while your magic is unsummoned. Even I was quick to dismiss this facet of your nature, when not even the greatest of magicians could achieve the same through spells. Once you are near enough to the Emperor, you can unravel his protection spell by spell and he can be killed like any man. You are the magician that cannot be found.’
‘The magician that cannot be seen,’ Samuel corrected.
‘That’s another interpretation,’ old Anthem admitted, ‘or it could also be the magician that cannot be felt, or cannot be heard or even the magician that returns by some people’s reckoning.’
‘Samuel has just returned,’ Eric said, jumping on the realisation.
‘But so have you, Eric,’ Goodfellow added.
‘Or so could your brother, Grand Master,’ Samuel concluded. ‘He could return and he could possibly kill the Emperor.’
‘That’s just my point,’ the old Grand Master agreed. ‘Such vague statements can be interpreted in almost any number of ways and are darned next to useless. You see, you have now returned to us, Samuel, just as the prophecy foretold, but so has almost everyone in some way or another. I can bend such words any way I see fit to suit the circumstance. Master Celios’ damn prediction has been the cause of more trouble than it’s worth. Whatever its true meaning, if indeed it has any, I believe we must ignore the finer details and just help the damned thing come to fruition. We kill the Emperor with the help of Samuel’s second unique ability that will help him with the task.’ And the old man looked to Samuel expectantly.
Samuel’s mouth fell open and it took him a moment to gather his wits. ‘How did you know?’ he asked, veritably gobsmacked.
‘I may be old, Samuel, but I’m not an old fool. I have been watching you since the day you first arrived here. At first, I was not sure, and we were so busy minding after young Master Pot here—thinking he was the answer to our prayers—that we couldn’t see what was before our noses. Your eyes follow your spells like a falcon follows its prey. By the nine gods, I only have to cast a quick bit of magic and you blink like you’ve been blinded! I always suspected it of Salu, but he would never tell me for sure, but I know you have the same special gift that he possessed, Samuel. You can see magic. It’s the only explanation for the neatness and quickness of your spells, Samuel. You seem to be an enigma of many sorts.’
‘What does he mean, Samuel?’ Goodfellow asked, full of confusion.
Samuel took a deep breath. ‘What he says is true. Since I can remember, I can actually see magic. I can see it like most people can see their own two hands.’
‘That’s incredible!’ Goodfellow exclaimed. ‘Why didn’t you ever tell us?’
Samuel shrugged. ‘It’s not something I like to talk about. I’ve had enough trouble in my life without having something else to mark me apart from everyone else.’
‘Well, it does make you unique,’ Anthem explained, ‘and now that the focus is away from Eric, it makes you dangerous. I don’t know if the Archmage knows the true extent of your abilities, but he knows enough to make him wary. He knows the prophecy as well as anyone and even suspicion is enough to get a man killed in this city. You’re lucky you haven’t been killed already, with all the damn foolish mistakes you’ve been making.’
‘Even if he manages to kill the Emperor, what then?’ Lomar asked.
‘The Emperor is the Empire. Once he is dead, we will free the nations he has conquered over his wretched lifetime. At last, Amandia can live in peace and freedom as it did before the Empire came into power. The family lines of the old kings still exist. Such descendants can retake their places and the Emperor has no such son to follow him. A senate once used to rule in Turia and I would like to see such an assembly established once more. Even if Empress Lillith does have a boy, there are many things we can do to stop him from inheriting as much power as his father.’
‘Is there actually some kind of plan, or am I just expected to run up to the Emperor and stab him in the head?’ Samuel asked.
‘Don’t be smart, boy,’ Anthem told him. ‘We need all the help we can get. I have summoned the Lions and they will arrive soon. After they were sent to kill me, they could not return to Cintar empty-handed and they, too, have been in hiding. Together, we will overcome the Emperor’s bodyguards and then Samuel can go to work. I will need to teach you what spells are guarding him, and how each one can be undone. I have spent years scrutinising and memorising every trick in Ordi’s book. Your timing will need to be precise, for the Emperor’s protection is also riddled with traps and misdirection. At the same time, we will need to keep the Archmage busy, for you cannot defend against the Staff of Elders and deal with the Emperor at the same time.’
‘So we wait for the Lions to return?’ Lomar asked.
‘That’s right, but they should only be a day or two behind me at the most. Now, why don’t you tell me everything that has been happening since I left this miserable city?’
Samuel absentmindedly rubbed the deep scar on his left arm and listened carefully as Lomar told the old Grand Master of all they had done up until that time. He was not at all sure about the old man’s plan to kill the Emperor, but these days, he was not really sure about too much of anything.
That night, while the Erics had sneaked out into the markets to fetch them some hot dinner and Lomar had gone out to meet with Master Glim, Samuel talked idly with Grand Master Anthem as they both browsed over their piles of stolen books. The patrols searching for them had somewhat thinned. Still, Anthem warned them all to be wary of agents of the Empire.
‘Pah!’ the old magician spat, reading over some pages. ‘Half these books are nonsense! This one is clearly written by a lunatic!’
‘It seems many of them were,’ Samuel agreed.
With that, Anthem tossed the book over his shoulder onto the carefully placed pile of unwanted books. Then, the old man sat opposite Samuel and gave him a level look that made Samuel sit up and pay attention.
‘So tell me,’ Anthem began. ‘I feel you have changed much since you left Cintar. I remember you as a happy and enthusiastic young man and yet you return with a thunderstorm over your head. What happened to you in Tindal to make you so dark and troubled?’
Samuel swallowed nervously as he prepared to tell his tale. ‘I learned many hard lessons. I fell in love…I lost my love. I felt a magic inside me that seemed able to tear the stars from the sky and throw worlds to their ruin—when it felt the compulsion to actually come when I called it. I learned many great new spells, but I also learned to fear my own power. I killed men with such an untempered rage that I felt some unholy beast had taken hold of my mind. All these things I learned and I would give them up in a moment for the return of my beautiful Leila for, since she has gone, I have become a hollow and empty shell and my life has no meaning beyond avenging her death.’
Anthem nodded solemnly. ‘You are still young, yet you have already learned some of the harder lessons of life. These things of which you speak are the costs of becoming a man. Do not think you are alone in your misery, Samuel. Life is truly hard and we have all experienced loss and suffering. I would not be here at all if not for the death of everyone I loved at the hands of the Empire. My entire family—my mother and fathe
r, my sisters and brothers, all my uncles and aunts and cousins; my entire town, in fact—was slaughtered by the Emperor’s forces. Only my brother and I were spared, simply because we were in Qaldar at the time learning to be magicians. Everyone you meet has a tale of tragedy to tell, for these are hard times, Samuel.
‘Remember that you alone have a rare talent that can bring about a time of restoration to the world. Keep hold of your fears and your anger, for they are a passion which you can use to drive you, but don’t let them overwhelm you. Don’t obsess over the darkness in your life—remember the love you felt on those warm sunny days on the grass, lying in the sun with your woman in your arms.’ Samuel looked to the old man with surprise. ‘Yes, I too have felt love, long before I was a magician. I have not always been such a tired old man, and she, too, was taken away by the Empire, defiled and murdered like so many others. Yes, use your passions. Use them before they fade.’ The old man then looked up to the corner of the room with reddened eyes.
Samuel was thoughtful in the quiet, for the old man’s words rang true in his mind. He had been obsessed by his own desire for revenge, while Anthem had spent nearly all his life seeking his. The Empire was probably filled with such stories. After long moments, the old man’s words broke the silence one more.
‘Sometimes, as you say, our magic can feel so powerful that it begins to control us. When we lose control, we are not our own masters, but slaves to our primitive instincts. Only intelligence and intellect are pure and free from the stains of emotion. You must practise and learn to control yourself when you most want to let go. There is a time for such intense feelings as love and hate, as much as we magicians are capable of feeling them, but it is not when you are spelling. You should be free of these feelings and be a channel for the energies of the ether to accomplish the task at hand. When overcome by your emotions, magic can flow through you at a greater strength than you can control, dangerously so. Your spells can be incredibly powerful at times like this, but you cannot control them as you may think and it may damage you irrevocably. Do not overtax yourself, for the price of doing so must eventually be paid—as you well know. If you exert your body too much, you will simply die, for magic is by far stronger than any mortal flesh.’
Samuel nodded his head. ‘I understand.’
‘Really? Perhaps you do, but mastering oneself is one of the greatest challenges we can face. This is the true goal of any magician and one very few of us will actually reach.’
‘Do you think I will feel better once I kill Ash?’ Samuel asked.
‘I cannot say. I have always blamed the Emperor himself for my woes and when he is dead, I am sure I will feel a great weight lifted from my chest; but I do not think all the scars of such emotional burden can ever be entirely removed.’
‘And what of Ash? Do you think he is just another pawn of Lord Jarrod’s or is the Emperor or the Archmage ultimately in control?’
‘I cannot say. I am sure all of them have their own agendas, but who is to say which of them will end up on top? But if Ash’s aura is, indeed, tainted, as you say, then the dark arts may have already begun to foul him. If he has already been taken too far then he must be killed, lest he becomes a conduit for dangerous things.’
‘Do not fear, Grand Master,’ Samuel stated. ‘I will soon kill him whether he is tainted or not.’
The old man nodded. ‘It will be better when you have put your vengeance behind you. It sends shivers up my spine to hear you talk like that.’
‘It keeps me going,’ Samuel replied as way of explanation. ‘I have a question for you, Grand Master,’ he then announced. ‘I saw you challenge the other Grand Masters one time in the Great Hall. You cast a spell that drained their strength into your own. How do you work such a spell?’
‘So you know about it? Ha, ha! Of course you do! I forget you can see magic as I can see this table…or this chair,’ and he tapped on each to illustrate his point.
‘I’ve tried to emulate the spell many times, but I cannot.’
Anthem laughed aloud as the Erics were coming in through the door with a steaming hamper full of sweet-smelling food between them. ‘Ah my boy,’ Anthem said, still filled with mirth, ‘you cannot be master of everything! Allow me to have my one little secret, please! Perhaps I can teach you another time. Now, I’m starving to death. Let us feast.’
Samuel nodded solemnly as the old man snatched up the food that Goodfellow had set down and began to wolf it down like a ravenous hound.
Old Anthem sneaked in and out several times the next day, and he finally announced that the five other Lions had arrived. A meeting had been arranged for the next morning. All their trusted contacts within the Order would gather, and their plan to assassinate the Emperor would be made.
They awoke early and went to one of the many inns down near the docks, in a private room on the second floor. It was quite a tidy inn, not nearly as stinking and rancid as most of the establishments for this part of the city, stuck at the end of a winding alleyway without any sign or notice as to its name, called only after its owner—Stocky Tom’s. It was a place where merchants would meet, sailors got drunk, and harlots lingered in the smoke haze; a place where, for the right fee, your secrets could remain secret and so it was just right for the kind of meeting they were planning. At this early time of day, it was also completely empty, which was exactly what they needed for such a meeting.
Grand Master Anthem, Samuel, Lomar and Eric waited at the long beer-stained table, while Goodfellow stood out across the street, keeping watch. Goodfellow had remained in his commoner’s clothes, but the others had changed back into their black garb to give them some credibility for the meeting. Master Glim was the only one not to attend, as his presence was still required at the School for Magic and he had found no excuse to slip away unnoticed.
One by one, the men came in, various mages who had each received word from Anthem, all long time friends of his and known empathisers to his cause. All wore their long robes and each black hem was personalised with a little coloured braiding.
Tulan Goodwin came in and seated himself last, nodding to Samuel and the others, making thirteen men crowded around the table. Samuel and Eric were easily the youngest, with nearly all the men showing a good deal of grey in their hair.
They waited a fair length of time and the five Lions had still not appeared. Anthem kept glancing towards the door, but the room was getting restless.
‘Where are the Lions?’ Samuel whispered beside Anthem.
‘I’m not sure, lad,’ Anthem replied, ‘but I don’t like the feel of it. I was counting on their presence to add weight to our argument. We may have to play this by ear. Anyway, we need to start this meeting now or these old codgers will start falling asleep. I’m sure the Lions have their reasons for being delayed.’
Samuel nodded in response and sat back against the back his chair.
‘Welcome, friends,’ Anthem began and the men all became quiet and turned their attention to him. ‘It is a pleasure to see you all again. Know firstly that your lives are in danger just by being here. Such a fact represents just one of the terrible injustices the Empire has imposed upon us and, indeed, all the peoples of Amandia. At last, the time has come, after many, many years, when we can move to action.’
There was murmuring among the men, and they all looked at each other.
‘All his life,’ Anthem continued, ‘the Emperor has been set on drawing every square of Amandia into his Empire and he has nearly succeeded several times. We have spent our lives living beneath the Emperor’s tyrannical gaze, and now we have the opportunity to finally end his accursed reign.’
‘You had better explain yourself quickly, Janus,’ one old magician spoke out. ‘I’ve better things to do than listen to more fairytales of freedom and equality. And you have some nerve summoning us here at a time like this! Palace agents are all though the city. It was no trivial task for us all to get here unnoticed. When we do get back, there’ll be some answering to do.’
‘All in good time, Master Quimbus,’ Anthem responded. ‘Suffice to know that this time, things are different. We now have an assured means of circumventing the Emperor’s magical defences.’
At that, there was a good deal of murmuring amongst the old men.
‘We’ve been searching most of our lives for a way to get past those spells, and you are telling us that you have now finally stumbled upon one?’ one withered old magician asked.
‘That’s right, Beanald,’ Anthem responded. ‘We now have a method of doing just that and believe me when I say it is remarkably reliable. I am confident of its abilities.’
‘Then what are we waiting for?’ a third Master called out. ‘Let’s go kill the bugger now!’
Anthem held up his hands to calm the man’s enthusiasm. ‘Eager as always, Master Vomer, but we need a slightly more sophisticated plan than that. We still need to take care of the Archmage and the Emperor’s bodyguards. We should also be careful to avoid the Royal Guards.’
‘And his armies, too, Grand Master?’ Master Quimbus asked sarcastically.
‘No, not his armies,’ Anthem replied slowly. ‘I understand that the task still has its challenges, but that is why we are magicians, so that we can use our intellects to overcome our problems. We need to find a way to take care of these obstacles and it should not be too difficult if we put our heads to it.’
Just then, there was a noise from outside—people shouting and calling out. Everyone stiffened and looked about nervously, but after another moment, the ruckus quietened down again and the men relaxed back into their seats. Samuel took the opportunity to whisper to Anthem.
‘What of the Argum Stone?’
‘Not here, lad,’ Anthem whispered back. ‘We don’t want to complicate matters any further. Let us continue,’ he then called aloud to the gathering. ‘To take care of the Archmage, a simple diversion should be enough—just something to keep him away from the Emperor while we begin our work. The Emperor’s bodyguards will need to be dispatched quickly and quietly. If the palace is alerted, the Royal Guards will be upon us like ants at a picnic, and I don’t need to tell you how bad that would be. The best place would be somewhere small and quiet, with four square walls around us to prevent his escape.’
The Young Magician (The Legacy Trilogy) Page 55
