The Undying Illusionist: Age Of Magic - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Tales of the Feisty Druid Book 2)

by Candy Crum

  Pissed or not, he was proud of how much she’d improved in such a short time. When she’d requested to train traditionally—with no holding back—he’d wondered how she would handle it.

  That had been a mistake.

  Hard, relentless training had been exactly what she’d needed. In only a few short weeks she’d nearly doubled her speed, agility, and skills. Since going even harder in the last week, she’d improved even more.

  Now, Arryn was able to run and shoot her bow instead of standing stationary. Her accuracy while moving still needed work, but with more training, he knew she’d be just as good moving as she was while standing still.

  The other added benefit had been strength. She was stronger than ever. Not having to hold back her kicks and punches had given her an increase in power, power Cathillian wasn’t even sure if she was aware of yet.

  He sure as hell was. She’d left marks of her improvement all over his body.

  Even after healing, he still felt sore from their match that morning. But he hadn’t wanted to use any more power than needed because he would be helping out his friends later.

  Today, they were heading to the Boulevard.

  Talia had sent word to the Governor of Cella, who had graciously extended the leave of the one hundred men who had helped rebuild the factory. Now that the factory was nearly finished and only a few laborers were needed for what was left, the larger group was helping in other areas.

  Within the last several days, the street had been torn the rest of the way apart, finishing the job that Andrew and his small group of men had started and leaving nothing more than the foundations.

  It would be Cathillian’s job to designate an area for a park of sorts; someplace nice and quiet for mothers to take their children to play.

  The idea had been the druid’s and Amelia had been quick to approve it when word had been brought to her by Andrew, a Boulevard man who was more than happy to have wonderful new ideas to make his home a better place.

  “This is a lot bigger than I imagined,” Marie commented, looking at the area Cathillian had sectioned off for the park.

  A grin broke across the druid’s face. “That’s not the first time I’ve heard a woman say that.”

  Cathillian expected a snide comment in return, but was instead punched in the arm from the other side.

  “Ouch!” he complained, rubbing at his shoulder as he saw Andrew shaking his head at him.

  “You really can’t help yourself, can you?” Andrew asked, his expression a cross between disbelief and amusement.

  Shaking his head, Cathillian told him, “Not really, no.”

  Andrew nodded. “So, ya just open your mouth and out it pukes?”

  Cathillian looked up for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, that’s basically it. And look… Don’t be mad because she complimented the size. I don’t plan to stand in your way. I just accept the compliments and move on.”

  Marie punched Cathillian in his other arm.

  “Ouch! Damn, guys. You have no sense of humor,” Cathillian complained, now rubbing both his shoulders.

  “You know, they say the more you brag, the more you’re compensating,” Marie told him, pointing at his pants.

  “Yeah,” Andrew added. “Ever wonder why I don’t ever mention mine?”

  “Ugh! I’m gonna go play over here. You guys are huge dicks today,” Cathillian scolded, tossing his hair as he spun with an exaggerated movement.

  “How would you know anything about huge dicks?” Andrew shouted after him.

  There was laughter behind him, which brought a smile to his own face. It was all in good fun, and he knew it. He was impressed that Marie had hit him, though. She was usually very timid, but over the past couple of weeks she’d grown used to him and his jokes.

  It seemed like she wasn’t so timid anymore.

  A loud screech cut through the sky, alerting Cathillian. His smile faded as he looked up to see Echo overhead. He knew her calls, and that was a warning.

  Cathillian drew on the magical bond between them, allowing him to wordlessly communicate with her. In moments, he turned to the others.

  “I need a horse. Now,” he ordered, his tone suddenly serious.

  The others’ smiles fell as Marie and Andrew glanced at each other before looking back at him. “There are stables three blocks down on the right,” Andrew answered.

  Cathillian didn’t bother responding. He turned and ran at full speed toward the stables. He had no idea why, but he knew Echo wasn’t wrong. He could feel the familiar presence of nature magic being used.

  Jenna was outside the Arcadian walls.

  It didn’t take Cathillian long to reach the stables, and he was fast at coaxing a horse out. Jumping on its back, he used nature magic to will it to do as he asked and was happy when the horse obliged.

  As Cathillian came up to the gates, he was met with a terrible sight. The four guards at the gate had all been killed.

  What the fuck? Cathillian thought.

  “Echo!” Cathillian shouted. The eagle called out in response. “Get Amelia!”

  The golden eagle had accompanied Cathillian to the Capitol building before, and he hoped she’d be able to get in.

  Cathillian stopped his horse at the gate, inspecting the men on the ground only to see he’d unfortunately been right.

  They were all dead.

  Confusion took hold of him as he studied them. Normally, the recently dead still had lingering energy surrounding them, but these men didn’t. It was as though they’d been dead for days, but that was impossible.

  Looking up, Cathillian saw Jenna standing roughly a hundred feet outside the gates, a dark smile on her face. A mix between disbelief and bewilderment gripped him as he began piecing things together.

  Jenna was clad in black leather instead of the normal brown, green, or other earth tones the druids of the Dark Forest generally wore. The magical energy swirling around her was also dark and terrible.

  Cathillian looked at the bodies lying on the ground around him, now realizing why it had seemed that they’d been dead for much longer than they had.

  Jenna had used dark nature magic to suck the life from them.

  At that moment, Cathillian realized that Jenna had joined the dark druids along with her brother Aeris. She'd always been rather slow and weak with warrior training as well as with nature magic, but it had now become very clear that her talents had laid elsewhere.

  When it came to dark nature magic, she had been a very quick learner.

  Cathillian took a few steps outside the gates toward Jenna. He stared her down, but realized that he was at a loss for words. He had no idea how to handle the situation, because it was obvious that she had come there for a fight.

  "What have you done?" Cathillian asked. "How could you do this?"

  Jenna's dark smile grew. "I never thought you'd actually leave the Dark Forest. Especially for an outsider. For an Arcadian."

  Cathillian tightened his fist, doing his best to keep calm, although instinct told him to tear her a new asshole. If she’d crossed the line from nature magic to using magic to drain the life out of innocent men, then in his eyes, she no longer deserved to live. But until he knew what had happened, he needed to keep his wits about him.

  "Arryn spent more time in the Dark Forest with us than she ever did in Arcadia. She's a druid. You and your family were the only ones who didn’t share that opinion. Don't you see that it's you who is the outsider? Can’t you see that you are the traitor?"

  When Jenna laughed, it chilled Cathillian to the bone. This girl was nothing like the one he'd known in the Forest. Even though she'd always been stubborn, rude, and very unforgiving about things she didn't understand, she'd still been one of them.

  Now, she was something else entirely.

  Something darker, far more confident, and far more powerful. He'd never gone against a dark druid before, but he had heard stories. His grandfather told him about dark magic, and what they were capable of. It now s
eemed that he was going to find out first-hand.

  Still smiling, Jenna called, "Cathillian, you are one of the strongest they have. You always have been. You could've been a lot more, but you wasted your time on the Arcadian. You know as well as I do that I was nothing in the Dark Forest. It wasn't until I left that I realized my true potential."

  Cathillian narrowed his eyes as he took a few steps forward, further studying his opponent’s appearance. Her green eyes had started to turn grey, and her beautiful, healthy skin had become lighter in color.

  He and Arryn hadn't been gone very long, so her transformation must have been a very fast one. As the years passed, her skin would turn more and more ashen, and her eyes would become cloudy or smoky in color, only a hint of their original green evident around the edges when she cast.

  "You know, that sounds like a recruitment speech. You've always been rather stubborn and unbelievable, but you must be absolutely brainless if you think the grandson of the Chieftain—the only real Chieftain—would join you."

  Jenna's hands rose at her sides for a moment before falling back down. "Well, you can't blame a girl for trying. I always thought that you and I would be good together, but that Arcadian bitch was always in the way. One day, you'll come to see just how pathetic she is. That is, of course, if you're still alive by then."

  "Why are you here, Jenna? Why did you kill these men?" Cathillian asked. His urge to punish her for what she'd done was rising, but he had to know more first. There was a reason she had come to Arcadia, and he feared she wouldn't be the last dark druid to do so. He had to know if the city was in danger.

  "I had to see for myself. I had to see how far the almighty grandson of the Chieftain had fallen. The future Elder of our tribe."

  Cathillian shook his head. "Not our tribe. Not yours anymore, traitor."

  Jenna glanced at the ground before looking back at him. "I suppose that's true. Fair enough. But it's not like you'll have a tribe to go home to soon. And don't think that Arryn's precious Arcadia is safe either. Well, I guess I should say your precious Arcadia, Arcadian."

  That was all Cathillian could handle. Not only had she threatened the Dark Forest and by proxy his family, but she'd also threatened Arcadia and Arryn. Given the damage she had already caused, the lives she had already taken, he didn't plan to stand for any more.

  "I'm sorry to hear you say that, Jenna, but I can honestly say I'm not surprised. You always were a piece of shit. You and your family."

  Cathillian’s hand was a blur as he pulled the knife from his belt and threw it at her. Jenna only narrowly missed getting hit in the throat when she dodged at the last moment. Apparently, whatever she'd been learning had made her even faster on top of being more skilled in magic.

  Jenna ran toward Cathillian and he toward her, quickly closing the distance between them. As he ran, Cathillian jerked a hand through the air, causing a large chunk of dirt to break free of the ground and hit her directly in the chest. The newly-turned dark druid was thrown backward onto the ground, but she was quick to roll over and get back to her feet.

  Just as Cathillian was about to make contact, she spun out of the way, yanking the sword out of the sheath on his hip as she moved. She hit him in the back of the knees with its broad side, taking him to the ground before kicking him hard in the throat and collarbone as he tried to rise.

  Cathillian fell back, coughing hard as his hand involuntarily reached for his throat. Before he could reach it, Jenna had straddled him, knocking his hand out of the way and wrapping her hand around his throat instead.

  It had been hard to take him down, especially for Jenna. There were a handful of warriors in the tribe that were stronger than he who could take him down with little effort on their part. They were the warriors he loved to train with most because they made him better.

  Jenna had never been one of them.

  In fact, she had always been the weakest. But there he laid, flat on the ground, barely able to breathe, Jenna straddling him with her hand wrapped around his throat. He didn't want to be bested by the likes of her, but he very quickly found himself unable to move.

  As he did his best to throw her off, he felt his body growing weaker and weaker. Just as a druid of the Dark Forest connected to nature and used their power to push that pure energy toward their target to heal them, Jenna was using her power to pull energy from him.

  Soon, Cathillian was unable to move, forced to lie there staring into her cold grayish-green eyes as she looked down at him and smiled.

  "I always wondered what it would be like to get you in this position. Well, with a little less clothing and a lot less dark magic." Jenna shook her head, her eyes never leaving his. "Unfortunately, we don't always get what we want, do we?"

  Cathillian swallowed, the pain of that action terrible from both the kick to the throat and the dark magic flowing through him. Still, he found the energy to speak, unwilling to let her take him without some sort of fight.

  "I always knew you were capable of treachery, just like your brother. In case you hadn't noticed, I was raised by the strongest woman in the entire tribe. There's no way in hell I would've chosen the weakest in the tribe to bring home to her. It would've been an insult to her and myself."

  Jenna turned angry then, her expression revealing her rage as she leaned forward, her face only a breath away from Cathillian's. "You have no idea how sorry you are about to be. I would kill you, but you're my messenger. I need you to live."

  Though it pained him, Cathillian forced a smile. "That's too bad. I guess that means I'll have to suffer through seeing you again. On the other hand, it also means I’ll get the privilege of seeing Arryn again." He threw that last bit in just to piss her off even more, though he knew it was a bad idea, given that she literally had his life in the palm of her hand.

  Her eyes widened as she sat back a few inches. Once the disbelief faded, her eyes narrowed again. "Let your mother know that we’re coming. You have a choice, Cathillian. Stay with your precious Arryn in Arcadia, or save your family and the Dark Forest. Goodbye for now."

  With that, she leaned back, her power increasing as it flowed through her hand and entered Cathillian, draining him. Within seconds his eyes fluttered closed and unconsciousness overtook him.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Arryn decided to take the box of Adrien's things back to Amelia, but only the things that had no meaning. Arryn had been rifling through them for a couple of days, but she'd not found much.

  There were a couple of ledgers and some other things that she kept, but most of it was useless. There were also designs for a beautiful box with a magitech lock on it. Something far too pretty for Adrien to ever have possessed.

  She’d hoped something would jump out at her, but she knew better. Adrien wasn't that stupid.

  Other than seeing Amelia, Arryn wanted to finally talk to Elon. She'd waited long enough, having given Amelia enough time to question him about his whereabouts as well as the mysterious person that Doyle had mentioned.

  Amelia still wasn't certain she'd heard it all, but that wasn't going to stop her from looking into it, which Arryn found to be a relief.

  Cathillian had left early that morning to work in the Boulevard, taking a break from his normal classes just outside the walls. Since he was up early, she had decided that she should be as well. It was the perfect time to get everything delivered to Amelia without having to bother her at home.

  When Arryn got to the Capitol building, she found that Marie was out and decided to just let herself in. Amelia smiled as Arryn walked through the door, box in hand.

  "What's the verdict?" Amelia asked. "Did you find anything good in there?"

  Arryn made her way over to the desk and set the box down with a grunt. "I guess I found just about as much as you did. Shit. I kept all of the ledgers, some plans for a lockbox, and a few envelopes because I thought I might find something in one of those, but other than that, no. I found a whole lot of nothing."

  Amelia sighed and nod
ded, her smile fading a bit as she looked at the box. "I was afraid of that. Not unlike you, I can't seem to get this whole thing out of my head, and it only seems to be getting worse."

  Arryn snorted. "At least you don't have someone telling you that you’re crazy. I’m here, and I think you're right."

  With a laugh, Amelia remarked, "You want it to be true because you want to blame everything on Talia."

  Arryn grimaced for a moment. "That may be the case, but it doesn't make me any less interested in helping you find the truth. Speaking of which, I came for another reason."

  Amelia took the box and set it just off to the side of her desk before sitting down. "What can I do for you?"

  Taking a deep breath, Arryn took a step closer to the desk. "You mentioned a while back the possibility of talking to Elon. After everything that happened with Doyle, I wanted to give you the time you asked for. It's been a couple weeks, so I wanted to see if it was possible to speak to him now."

  Sitting back in her chair, Amelia exhaled heavily as she stared at the wall, obviously deep in thought. Finally, she turned back to Arryn and nodded. "I don’t see a problem with that. You've been very patient, and I appreciate it." Amelia checked the time. "Do you want to go now? You still have plenty of time before school starts."

  Arryn's eyes lit up, not having expected to be able to speak to him so soon. "Yes! That would be great. Thanks."

  Amelia waved a hand in the air before she stood. "Don't mention it. You’ve done more than plenty to help the city. I made you a promise to help if I could when you first came here; I've been the one slacking on my end of the deal. You've more than held up your end."

  Arryn followed Amelia out of the room and down the hall to the stairwell. As they walked downstairs, Arryn decided that since luck was on her side, she should bring up another topic she'd been wanting to discuss.

  After throwing her long hair back over her shoulder, Arryn said, "I've been getting my head looked into on a daily basis at the Academy. Before you argue, I honestly have no idea if I even think it's Talia. Of course, it had occurred to me. Regardless, someone in the school is using mystical powers, and I can feel it. Do you think you can teach me how to guard my mind?”