by Casey Herzog
“This isn’t going according to my plan. I’m not through until every player is off the board.” The only ones in his line of sight were me and the king. He remained motionless beside me. “What you don’t realize is that death does not scare me. I don’t seek it out, but I’m not going to run away from it either.” He was looking at me with his eyes burning bright hot white.
“I would be impressed had you had any chance of winning. This life is over for you and leaving here is never going to happen. You have only yourself to blame for coming here without doing your due diligence. You should have conformed to military thinking. You don’t even have magic eyes, which make killing you less than satisfying. I have played with you long enough. I was curious to see what you were going to do, but it doesn’t look like I have anything to worry about.” He was hungry for the kill and was staring at me, his eyes never leaving me.
“I see one problem with threatening my life. You’re all the way over there and I’m all the way over here. It’s not like I can fight back with any kind of power. Why do you hesitate when I couldn’t be more insignificant than an insect on the bottom of your shoe? I’m not ready to die, but I will for the right reasons.” I was standing strong, but my entire body was shaking on the inside.
“You’re either foolish or you have no idea of what you’re up against. It doesn’t matter; I’m through playing this game. I was hoping for competition, but you have been a mild amusement at best. I know the school has the magic eyes, and there’s no place to hide them from me. I will have what is mine and nobody will stand in my way without feeling my wrath.” He came forward wielding a flaming ax aiming to take off my head.
Chapter Nineteen
I found myself looking at him intensely and not moving from where I was standing. That flaming ax was gleaming with brightly burning fire around the blade. He was getting closer with each breath he took on the battlefield.
I had no plan, and there was no protecting me from what he was obviously wielding with expertise. He swung the ax, cutting down the king in front of me so that we were standing toe to toe.
“Do you have any last words?” I wasn’t expecting Jasper to say that, but it did open up a moment to gloat a little.
“Damien is gone.” Those three words froze him in place as he looked around to see Damien was indeed off the board. “You were too engrossed in me to notice how I maneuvered my players on the board. I found it easy to keep your attention. They surrounded him and drew him back to where he was safe.” He looked stunned, but that wasn’t going to remain for very long without him doing something about taking his prize possession.
“It’s… It’s… It’s not possible. You don’t have any power. Magic was stripped away from you. This has to be some kind of trick. There’s no way you could do this as a mere mortal.” I had him looking around and I was using that time constructively. I just needed a little more time before he decided I wasn’t worth the effort.
“I don’t have any power. I used my god given intellect to lure you into a trap. I didn’t know coming here that I was going to find you, but it doesn’t surprise me. You’ve been a topic of conversation amongst the magic community for a few months. It didn’t take me long to figure out you were responsible for what happened to Damien. Like I said, I don’t have any power, but I recognize it when I see it.” I had him thinking and not paying attention, which was what I needed at the moment.
“What do you mean by that? Who do you think you are to come in here and take away my child? I’m the creator, and Damien will be the first of many to follow in my footsteps. They will all be reborn in my image, and made to embrace the dark side. I’m going to make you pay in unimaginable ways for taking him away from his destiny. The pain you’re going to go through will tear your mind apart from its source.” He was bragging about his power, puffing out his chest, which kept him from getting rid of me.
“It must kill you inside not to know my secret. There’s nothing hard about it and you pretty much left yourself open. I don’t know if you’re ready to know the truth. You seem a little fired up, so maybe it’s best I keep the secret to myself.” His curiosity was going to make it easy to keep him from killing me outright.
“You are a troublemaker and deserve to die by my hand.” He brought the heated blade up to my throat and I showed I could stand up to just about anything. I could feel my skin sizzling. It was painful, but it was nothing compared to the expression on his face.
“Go ahead if that is what you really want to do. I would think it would be more important to know how I was able to get Damien from your grasp. If I were you, I would want to know in case it were to happen again. You could take precautions and make sure all your bases are covered.” I was cringing, and the pain was intolerable, but I was not going to give him the satisfaction of screaming in pain.
His nostrils were flaring, and I still didn’t know who was underneath the armor. I had a feeling I was going to find out, but it wasn’t going to be right now.
He took the blade away from my throat letting me breathe a sigh of relief, which I’m sure didn’t go unnoticed. He stood there thinking about what to do. I knew he would never rest without knowing.
“I hate myself for asking, but how did you do it? I’ve been racking my brain and I just can’t figure it out for the life of me. In here, I’m the one who makes people dance. Here, I make the rules and they follow without question. The one that caused me doubt was dealt with harshly. He will know the next time not to mess with my power. Tell me everything; you’re not leaving until I find out.” He was going to kill me anyway and keeping him centered on me was the only thing preventing my immediate death.
“I want you to look around at what you made here. This is a prison, but what you didn’t account for was the power of magic. It is always within us, and all we need is somebody to come along to fan the flame. I didn’t have to do a damn thing other than bring this with me.” With a little sleight of hand, I was able to bring with me the amulet.
“That doesn’t make any sense. I don’t feel anything from the amulet to warrant having the power to take Damien from this place. You’re stalling for time and it’s not going to work.” He raised the ax and the fire exploded and consumed the blade.
I wagged my finger back and forth with a smile on my face. He seemed genuinely surprised by my reaction. “I haven’t told you the best part. You really are impatient. I would suggest you work on that. The amulet wasn’t for me. I certainly couldn’t get anything from it, but those with magic could be given a jumpstart. You look confused. Is it necessary for me to give you a blow-by-blow description? I took a chance and it paid off. The amulet doesn’t give me any power, but it does return what you took from others. Damien was still weak after fighting you off, but the soldiers you put on my side were given a gift.” I could see he understood, but to give him that information made it necessary for him to get rid of me in the most extreme way.
I felt like hands were pulling at me and I only had to let go, which was exactly what I was going to do. I closed my eyes with the ax swinging in my direction.
It went right through me without making a mark. It flew from his hands and my smile only infuriated him further.
I came to life on top of a table with Damien and the others putting their hands on my body. Together, they were able to use their combined force to bring me out before it was too late.
“It’s about time; you really do know how to cut it close. I could only keep him talking for so long before he was going to act. He really does have a big ego. He has every reason to believe he is stronger than one. That is where we will be the strongest. I’m not foolish enough to think I can take him on my own.” Both soldiers who had fallen in my name were weighing heavily on my conscience. I would always know how I was instrumental in their final and last breath.
Damien was wobbling and fell back to land safely in a chair. He looked white as a ghost and any energy he had to fight back was torn from him. He would need time to recharge, bu
t I wasn’t sure time was on our side.
“I see it, but I don’t believe it. You were only gone a few seconds before these four emerged to tell me you needed help. I went to find the amulet and found it was missing. I had to believe the reason you took it was to give yourself a fighting chance. There was no way for you to know you would have an opportunity to use it. You took a bigger chance than was necessary, but with big risk comes big reward.” Professor Bethesda helped me to my feet.
“I had nothing left to lose, and my life was hanging in the balance. Your words of wisdom gave me the idea I was acting impulsively, but I sensed the way the amulet worked.”
A few the students came in to collect Damien. He looked at me with a meek smile of encouragement, but I knew he was hurting inside.
Jasper was the hunter, and I still didn’t believe it. He had done what he had intended, and I had done what I could to stop him from feeding on Damien. The one thing I kept going back to was his comment about Damien being his child. It could’ve been an innocuous statement, or was there something more about Damien? That was a scary thought.
“I’m going to need the amulet. I need to put things right, and then you can have the magic eyes.” Professor Bethesda took the amulet and put it back on the shelf where it belonged. It disappeared from view, but I knew how to get to it if necessary. The magic eyes returned to me with force.
“I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. I was lucky to be able to get to Damien before there was nothing left. He was close to losing it, and I’m sure he didn’t feel very good about being used as a puppet. I was hoping that I was wrong about the hunter being responsible for taking Damien. When Damian made himself phase out of existence to escape detection from the Guardians and Mr. Black, the hunter seized the opportunity. There was no way he was going to turn his back on the possibility of joining forces with Damien’s power.” William was out there fighting on our behalf even though it was going to cost him his life.
There had to be a way to prevent that from happening. Even though he betrayed me, I still felt like my heart was breaking all over again. I wanted him to be the man I fantasized about. I wanted him to be above reproach, but everybody makes mistakes. It’s what they learn that signifies the true character underneath.
“I know it’s not easy thinking of William as being responsible for giving the Elders powerful information against us. There’s no way to know for sure if he’s going to tell them what’s going on. Sometimes, you have to go on trust and faith alone. You need to take solace in his ability to see what he was doing was wrong. You brought that out in him and you have the power to unite the magic community.”
I wasn’t sure how the Professor could say that until he motioned for me to follow him into an assembly. There were murmurs of dissension, but I sensed what they needed the most was a leader.
I was still feeling the effects of my battle with the hunter. I didn’t want to think of what the result would have been had I not been able to time things perfectly.
“They need you to say a few words. Your father was big on public speaking and I’m hoping that trait has been passed down to you. Some are on the fence and others are hell bent to be of any good to anyone. Running headlong into battle is only going to get everyone killed, so there has to be a semblance of some kind of plan in motion. They don’t know about William, and you need to be the one to tell them.”
I wasn’t sure if I could sacrifice his good name, but they needed to know corruption was everywhere. “This is harder than fighting the hunter on his own turf. By his own admission, the world I stepped into was his to mold in his image. He could’ve easily killed me, but I made it impossible for him to take action. His curiosity was too strong, and he had to know how I had gotten to Damien under his nose.”
The feeling I had about a war coming was stronger than ever. I had deluded myself into thinking I was the one who was going to make the difference. However, I could only be the voice of reason; the rest was going to fall on the shoulders of novice students in the prime of their lives.
I took a few tentative steps towards the podium overlooking the crowd waiting for words of encouragement. I felt faint and I had to center myself with meditation techniques. It was daunting to stand in front of them, ready to rally the troops into action. I was terrified of the words that were going to come from my mouth. It was hypocritical of the Elders to speak against magic when they were using the very same thing to fight against it.
“You have it inside you. Let yourself speak from the heart, and I’m positive the rest will follow. You can be the beacon of light if only you believe in yourself. Your issues with your father held you hostage and kept you from seeing the truth written in bold letters in front of you.”
Professor Bethesda was holding me to the same standard as my father. Standing in the center of attention, I was being judged by the many eyes peering back at me. They were confused and needed guidance, and I was going to give them what they needed. They were expecting me to show them the way like my father did. I couldn’t be my father, but I felt obligated to pick up where he left off.
Chapter Twenty
I looked out at the sea of impressionable faces. Nothing came to me. There were no snippets of wisdom to give them the fighting spirit. Not all of them were going to survive what was coming. It wasn’t fair when they had their whole lives ahead of them. To ask them to stand against the Elders and the hunter was going too far. This would have to be on a volunteer basis. It wouldn’t work to force them into something they didn’t believe in.
“I stand here in front of you humbly asking for your assistance. The Elders will never openly welcome magic back to the community. The only way it will happen is if we make it happen. I would love to tell you everything is going to be fine, but I can’t do that. You are the next generation of magic. You have learned from some of the masters, including my father.”
I felt like he was behind me whispering these words into my ear. I took a moment to let them digest what I was saying. There were many at the edge of their seat and others not so impressed. They needed more than just what I was saying. They needed to hear there was a way. I’d already put things into play, but all of my plans hinged on William.
“There is no freedom gained by standing idly by and doing nothing. There is something in all of us fighting to remain free. You feel it every day when you use magic without feeling persecuted. You feel it when you wake up in the morning safely in your bed knowing that the Elders can’t touch you. That is a falsehood perpetrated unfairly by all of us here in the school. This might be a safe haven, but it’s temporary. Those who ventured outside of this phase of existence learned a terrible truth. Jasper found himself overwhelmed and pulled into the asylum for rehabilitation, and it will happen to all of you unless we do something about it.” I put both hands on the podium, slapping them with enough force to echo my conviction across the room.
Those who thought it was a joke were now convinced otherwise. They were still hesitant, but at least they were listening to every word I was saying. This was the first time somebody told them the truth without trying to sugarcoat it. They may have been young, but they were strong, which would lead them to salvation.
“A revolution starts with one voice and then grows until you can’t hear yourself think. You are all lost in confusion, and I’m here to set things straight. You can hide here, but the real world is begging for you to take a stand against something larger than you. There is magic all around us, and the older generation have taught us wisely. If we give them a fight, then it’s entirely possible others will pick up that same sword.” I had them eating out of the palm of my hand.
“Who are you trying to fool, us or yourself?” Damien made his voice loud and clear. I didn’t blame him for having misgivings. He had gone through hell, and had come out on the other side. “We are only kids and you make it sound like we have a chance. I’m here to tell you that the hunter is strong. He is ferocious, tenacious and he has the Elders backing him all
the way. We don’t stand a chance to get even close enough to make a difference.”
He had me at a loss for words. I hadn’t told them everything, and this next part was going to have them wondering if I had lost my mind.
“Damien is right. I don’t have all the answers, but I’m not doing this for myself. Like you, I was content living by their rules, but the day to do something is upon us. You can’t sit there and tell me you haven’t felt it in the air. Change is coming and we can be instrumental in bringing the world back to what it once was. Magic does not need to be feared.” Damien, debating on the other side, gave me a greater need to rise above any hesitation. They wanted answers, but the question remained if they were ready. They had no choice. It was their birthright.
“You make it sound so simple, but we both know it’s not. I mistakenly thought I was strong, but I’m nothing compared to the hunter. He made me do his bidding and I had no will of my own to fight back. If it were just the Elders, we might be able to storm the castle. They have surrounded themselves by magic, which goes in the face of everything they stand for.” Damien was bitter and he didn’t mind letting others know how he felt.
“I’m not going to lie to you and tell you this is going to be easy. I found out about a spy within the school. He is somebody you know very well. To say his name will send shock waves through all of you. He believed he had no choice. Hearing his story changed my mind and I decided to use him against them. I thought I was going to have a bigger fight convincing him, but he was through feeling like he was letting all of you down.” I was building things up, not expecting the kind of response of total silence.
They were looking around trying to figure out who was against them. Some would be able to uncover the truth before others, which included Damien. He had taken an inventory, and I could see him glancing around the room. There was recognition in his eyes. He had figured out what I was trying to say.
