Fire Mage

by John Forrester

  “I doubt that will work,” said Nikulo. Talis jumped, turning as Nikulo emerged from the shadows.

  Talis flopped his arms at his sides. Bad enough he’d failed, but worse still that Nikulo had been skulking out here, watching his ridiculous attempts.

  “What are you doing out here?” Talis frowned at Nikulo, and crossed his arms.

  “Relax…we’re not in the Arena.” Nikulo glanced up at the Observatory. “I couldn’t sleep. My dad was furious that we lost the Blood Dagger. All he does is push me to win.”

  Talis raised an eyebrow. “I couldn’t sleep either.”

  “How is that coming along?” Nikulo flourished his hands. Why was he trying to help him?

  “How does it look.” Talis sighed. “Nothing ever seems to work. I just don’t get it.”

  “Keep at it.” Nikulo studied Talis, his eyes black pools of curiosity. “Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy. You and Mara won today…that surprised me. Soon you’ll be casting spells…just you wait.”

  “You think so?” Talis wasn’t as sure. Three years he’d been in the Order of the Dawn and he still couldn’t do magic outside of training dreams.

  “I’ll let you in on a secret. It took me four years before I cast my first spell. And that happened under the strangest circumstances.” Nikulo motioned him over towards the cliff’s edge, and they walked together, until they could stare down out over the vast expanse of the Nalgoran Desert. “I was assigned as a healer on a caravan, and we were attacked by marauders. I tended to a soldier’s wound, but couldn’t staunch the flow of blood. Something just flicked on inside and the next thing I knew my hands were glowing all red and I had this crazy feeling running through me. That was it. I’d used magic to save him.”

  “Sounds so easy.”

  “It’s not like that. I’d been doing training dreams for years with my Master. So when the time came, I think all that training just kicked in…”

  Talis exhaled, more confused than ever. “I hope I’ll figure it out soon.”

  Nikulo crinkled up his forehead and pointed at the sky. “That’s weird.” A slow-moving meteor was flying low. It left an enormous trail of smoke. But the meteor kept getting bigger and brighter.

  It was coming towards them.

  “What’s that?” Talis bent low as the meteor sped faster until it roared over their heads and towards the city. Great bursts and crackles of orange and yellow and blue flame scintillated around the core. With a dull thud it exploded against the vast dome of the Temple of the Dawn. Embers shot into the air like fireflies. He gaped, unable to move. After a few pounding heartbeats, he felt a shock wave strike his chest and a rush of heat knocked him backwards.

  7. JISERIAN INVASION

  Talis pushed himself up and stared at the explosion, his stomach clenched from the shock wave. Several smaller flaming meteors tore across the sky towards the temple dome. These were no ordinary meteors… Talis knew what it was, it had to be Fire Magic.

  Someone screamed down in the city amidst a flurry of shrieks and shouts and shutters slamming open. Footfalls clapped on the cobblestone streets and figures raced through the dark while a plume of fire jetted across the sky. A deep, booming gong thundered out from the towers that kissed the highest point of Naru. The warning…warning of an attack. Why was this happening?

  Talis and Nikulo stood gawking at the rippling explosions breaking out across the city. Overhead a flash of lightning singed the sky, shattering a guard tower. An enormous thunder cracked so loud Talis had to cover his ears.

  As students of the Order, they were sworn to protect the temple at all costs. Talis and Nikulo jolted to action, dashing towards the temple. They reached the street, and snaked down the hill past soldiers burdened with steel armor, past citizens crying in terror at skies aflame, past howling dogs and cowering cats. Nearing the temple, Talis spotted wizards from the Order of the Dawn flying high above. Sprouts of fire erupted from their palms, spiraling across the sky, engulfing a cloud of shadows.

  There, in the sky, were dark sorcerers like the ones from Master Holoron’s stories.

  As Talis craned his neck up, searching the skies, he wondered how he could help. He heard a voice behind him.

  “Over here,” said Rikar. His hair sprung out in all directions under his nightcap. Mara stood next to him, staring at the sky.

  “What are you doing here?” Talis said, frowning at Mara.

  “The explosion woke me up…I know you’d be here—”

  “But your parents will kill you if they know you’re here…”

  “Who cares! Our city is under attack. Let’s do something to help.”

  Talis shrugged and motioned towards the entrance. “Let’s go up and get a better view.” They climbed broad, marble stairs leading to the top of the temple. Torches lined the stone walls. As they neared the exit, brilliant flashes of orange and blue and golden light flooded through the shafts.

  Outside, a shriek stopped Talis in his tracks. A wizard from the Order stood paralyzed, a shadow mist enveloped her form. Faces of demons rose and fell inside the mist, and when she sank to her knees, he spotted a dark sorcerer hovering in the sky fifty feet away from them.

  “Over here.” Rikar tensed his fingers and a luminescent blade, as long as a man, appeared near the flying sorcerer. As Rikar swung his arm around the blade lopped the man in half. The cloud of shadows evaporated, and the two halves of the sorcerer thudded on the streets far below.

  “Help her,” Talis shouted, and bent down next to the woman and held her wrist. She still had a weak pulse.

  Nikulo pushed Talis aside and lifted her up so she sat. Placing his hands on her upper back, golden light filled her body in waves. Her eyes surged open and she gasped.

  “She’ll be alright,” Rikar said. “We have to keep going.”

  They stalked towards a group of young apprentices clumped together, facing the sky. Fireballs and lightning and wind shot from their palms.

  “Cassis!” Rikar raced towards the group. Cassis turned and flashed him a terrified smile.

  A thundering crack singed the air between them, pulverizing a twenty-foot stretch of wall. Talis smelled electricity and sulfur. When the dust cleared, he noticed the wizards huddling together.

  Rikar stretched his fingers towards a sorcerer flying above the group. A shimmering hammer formed in the sky, and he swung around to strike him, but it reflected off some invisible shield, and knocked Rikar back ten feet, slamming his head against the stone wall.

  Nikulo darted towards Rikar and bent down, lifting his chin. Rikar shook his head, staring bleary-eyed around.

  “Behind you!” Mara tapped Talis on the shoulder.

  Whirling around, Talis noticed an invader diving at him. Cassis reacted, sending blast after blast of fireballs at the sorcerer. The sorcerer turned, palms facing her, pressing the fire back. Her body lit with a orange glow.

  “Be careful, Cassis,” shouted a boy next to her.

  She stopped her casting and the enemy used the pause against her. He fired off a wave of shadows and electricity, and the blast sent her tumbling across the ground. She swung her arms around, repelling the attack, igniting the air in front of her. Locked in battle, Cassis and the sorcerer pushed against each other until her face glowed red. Steam swirled above her long, black hair and her body pulsed with some tremendous internal fire.

  “Stop…stop it!” yelled the apprentices. One grabbed her arm but recoiled in pain. She was burning.

  When Talis saw the fire running through her, he could feel it circulating inside. Sweat flushed from his pores. Hot as an oven. Raging. He gazed at her, palms feverish. He wanted to help, so he kissed the amulet dangling from his neck and made a prayer to the Goddess Nacrea.

  The sky suddenly paled to a silver gray. Cassis’s eyes were locked in terror. The cowering apprentices frozen like statues. The sorcerer’s face was fixed in a hideous scowl. The explosions and shouts and cries stopped. A crack formed in the sky and a golden light blossomed
amidst the blackness. Now the fever inside Talis rose into a maddening intensity. It was too much. He stared at the sorcerer, knowing he had to release it.

  With a hissing breath, he shot a powerful blast of fire from his palms. Since the invader had focused on Cassis, the attack sent the man somersaulting through the air. Smaller streams of fire had shot near Cassis and the apprentices. Talis gaped. Was that magic? Had he done magic for the first time?

  “What did you do?” Rikar yelled, fury spilling from his eyes.

  Cassis screamed, panting, flapping her fingers wildly, like she was trying to cool down. Her face gleamed red like embers.

  “Water…water,” she gasped, glancing around. The scintillating glow of fire raged inside her body.

  Talis shielded his eyes from the intensity of light pouring from her. The sorcerer flew back towards them, and scowled at Talis. He curled his fingers, ready to strike. Cassis lifted her hands as if in a grave struggle.

  “No, Cassis, stop!”

  Rikar ran towards her.

  She released an enormous fireball at the enemy, incinerating him into a cloud of ash. But she couldn’t contain the power. It burned stronger inside. The light rose to a frenzied brilliance as many apprentices around started running away from her.

  Her neck dropped. Her flaming, brilliant body exploded in a powerful wave, burning chunks of fire and flesh searing everywhere.

  Those fleeing were cut down by the blast. Some were knocked against the stone walls. Some catapulted over the edge and plummeted to the ground far below. The ones refusing to leave her side were incinerated where they stood. Talis felt his stomach twist and flip around, and he vomited, coughing, choking on his own bile.

  Gasping for air, for life, he tried to expel the image from his mind. A primal fear burrowed its way inside. What had just happened? Was this the terror of magic? He still felt the fire burning inside. Why would he risk his life and the lives of his friends? The power roared so strong. Could he ever learn to contain it?

  Rikar balled up his fists and pounded the ground, sobbing. Nikulo came close and tried to comfort him, but Rikar just pulled away and curled up. A lightning bolt shattered a nearby tower, jolting Rikar to attention. He raised his head and stared blankly in the direction of the blast.

  “She’s gone,” he whispered.

  “We’ll be dead too if we don’t get out of here.” Mara pulled Talis back.

  “Why of all times did you choose now to practice magic?” Rikar glowered at Talis, crawling towards him with murder in his eyes.

  “It just happened—”

  “Just happened? You just cast a wild spell and hit the sorcerer and your allies? Your inept, ill-targeted spell caused Cassis to lose her concentration, killing her and her friends? How does that just happen?”

  “I didn’t mean to hurt her…I was trying to help.”

  Mara turned Talis away from Rikar. “That spell you cast was amazing! I can’t believe you actually cast Fire Magic. Just ignore Rikar, it wasn’t your fault. Cassis went too far and lost control. Let’s get out of here.” She pointed at hundreds of black shapes charging across the sky. “Every moment more come—we’re outnumbered. Let’s go.”

  “Cowards,” Rikar said, “I’d rather fight and die then run away like a dog.” He motioned to Nikulo and they jogged off towards the tower where a group of wizards were fighting a larger group of invaders.

  “We can’t compete against that kind of power.” Mara sighed. “Let’s at least try to find Master Viridian or one of the other masters.”

  But as they turned, a sorcerer with flame-red hair flew towards them, his long black robe fluttering behind.

  “Let’s go!” Talis dashed after Mara and they raced towards the stairwell.

  “Little mice, don’t run away,” the sorcerer said. “The Master has sent me to collect you.” He pointed a ruby-tipped staff at Talis and issued a flood of black tangle-vines.

  8. THE SURINEDA MAP

  Talis leapt out of the way and tumbled down the dusty stairs. He regained his footing, and Talis and Mara wound their way around to the bottom. He could hear the sorcerer’s laughter chasing after them.

  “Oh good, a game of hide and seek…I always love a good game,” the sorcerer said, his shrill and booming voice echoing down the stairwell.

  Instead of going through the door leading out to the streets, Mara jumped back, shrieking, trapped as a female sorcerer entered from the bottom. Talis shoved the woman’s back and she went sprawling onto a vase filled with peacock feathers.

  “Down here.” Mara shot into a dimly lit corridor that led to the temple crypts. Why weren’t the sorcerers attacking them? And who was this master that was trying to capture them?

  Up ahead Talis could see eerie shadows dancing from the magical blue lights mounted on the walls. The crypts. The place of burial for thousands of departed wizards of the Order of the Dawn. Mara stopped at the bottom, and a luminescent face, the Door-Guardian, hovered in the air in front of a black iron and wooden door.

  “Who goes there?”

  “Mara Lei, of House Lei.” Mara pointed at Talis. “And Talis Storm, of House Storm. We seek refuge and safety inside the crypts.”

  “Refuge?”

  “As in now!” Mara shouted. “We’re being chased.”

  The guardian looked perplexed, as if trying to solve a puzzle. “How strange…trouble here inside the temple?”

  Footsteps rapped on the stone steps behind them, and voices chuckled fitfully. “Where have the little mice scurried off to? A game of hide-and-seek in the dungeons? Come back, little ones, our Master only wants to talk to you.”

  “I said let us in,” boomed Mara. “Our lives are in danger.”

  As Mara pushed at the door, the portal bowed and blew golden dust towards the door, illuminating the black iron on the surface, revealing a complicated geometric pattern of overlapping triangles and circles. The shapes moved and finally came together, then the door went click and opened.

  They rushed inside and pounded down a stone ramp that led into a vast gloomy room, faintly lit by floating candles that spilled out orange light. Shadows flickered across grotesque faces, hundreds of stone figures, standing as guardians over the countless crypts of the fallen masters of the Order. Throughout the crypts, Talis could see countless silvery spider webs tangling the air. The smell of mold and dust and embalming fluid pressed heavily like a choking hand.

  Instead of the door slamming shut behind them, the voices following them got louder. “Of course we’re allowed to enter,” a sorcerer yelled. “No, no, we’re not chasing them. Yes, we’re friends. Be a good guardian and let us pass, now will you?”

  Talis and Mara ducked behind a crypt statue and stared back at the door. They were going to take them away from Naru, Talis had heard stories like this. Dark sorcerers stealing children and raising them to study their nefarious arts.

  “Only royals and members of the Order may enter,” the guardian said. “You’re uninvited guests.”

  The door attempted to swing shut, but one of the sorcerers summoned a meaty hand the size of a man, blocking the door from closing. The giant fingers flexed, snapping the door hinges.

  “No,” the guardian shouted, “you’re not allowed to do that!”

  “As if you can do anything about it,” mumbled the red-haired sorcerer. He stepped inside the crypt. “Such flimsy magic here in Naru. One wonders why the Master allowed this pathetic city to remain neutral.”

  The other sorcerer, a tall, spindly woman in a silver robe, cast a spell, illuminating the crypts in a garish white light. “Do remain diligent, Calasar, these children must have some power if the Master has sent us after them.”

  “Mice? Oh little mice?” Calasar said, “A bit of cheese, a bit of bread, a bit of red from your bloody head….”

  “Don’t scare them,” the woman whispered. Then loudly, “We’re not here to hurt you.”

  “Are we really only collectors then? While the others are marauding the
city, setting fire, sizzling innocent pets with lightning bolts, we’re stuck down in all this gloom looking for a stupid boy?”

  A boy? Talis thought. Why were they looking for him? He pointed towards a mausoleum far off in the corner. Mara nodded, following as they stalked away from the sorcerers. The white light disappeared and Talis stopped, waiting for his eyes to adjust. Instead of voices, they heard only the lonely hiss of steam from an air vent. They crept along, staring at carvings of bulls and eagles and lions along the stone walls of the mausoleum.

  At the base, he looked up and read the inscription: Master Baribariso, Legendary Wielder of the Kalashi Sword, Undefeated in Battle, Yet Defeated by Old Age…

  “I’ve heard of him,” Mara whispered, tracing her fingers over a carving of a lion with long fangs.

  “Champion from an age past. Do we dare hide inside?”

  “This is a place of refuge.”

  “Mice chattering away…so easy to find you.” Calasar lifted his fingers and aimed at Talis. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

  “He has a bad temperament,” the woman said, “you’d best do as he says.”

  “Leave us alone…” Mara thrust her dagger out.

  The sorcerers broke into laughter, wide smiles stretching across their faces, as if they were in pain.

  “You expect us to be scared of a little mouse with a dagger?” Calasar said.

  Talis tried to remember what he’d done to cast the fire spell. If he could only cast it again. He raised his hands towards Calasar, then stopped. Calasar had a long, nasty scar that stretched across his face. When he grinned, it was more like a snarl. Talis knew he didn’t stand a chance of defeating them.

  “If you’re thinking of casting a spell, beware,” the woman said. “He’ll make it very painful for you. You’ll stay alive, and yet Master Calasar has an amazing knack for delivering excruciating pain, especially to the toenails and fingernails. Imagine! An electrical spell that only inflicts pain to the tips of your fingers and to your stubby little mouse toes. Simply genius.”