Silver Mage (Book 2)

by D. W. Jackson

  Bren sent Hayao to find suitable lodging for them, while the rest of them moved around the town to see what information they could garner from the people. To Bren’s surprise, the Brotherhood was not well liked even this close to their camp. From what Bren could understand, they had rounded up all of those who could use what they called mystic arts and killed them. Just as Bren had thought there were magic users in the north, they were just seen as something else.

  “My lord,” Hayao said starting Bren. “I have found a place for us to stay for the time being.

  “Could you please announce yourself instead of trying to scare me to death,” Bren said holding his chest.

  Hayao led them to a temple that sat in the middle of the town on a large hill. It was smaller than the one they stayed in during the Aoi festival and was in a lot worse shape. Bren approached the alter, where he found that one of the stone guardians had been destroyed. It was there that he noticed a faint red stain on the ground.

  Inside the house he found more evidence that something had taken place here. The stray mats that covered the floor had been ripped and torn in some places and he could tell that people had walked across the floor without taking off their shoes, and that was something only someone not accustomed to the customs of this land would do. “What happened here?” Bren asked turning toward Hayao.

  “A young group of Miko lived here. They were renowned throughout the land for offering healing to any of those who wished it. It was said that there was no disease that they couldn’t cure,” Hayao said his voice quivering ever so slightly in suppressed anger. “The Brotherhood soldiers arrived here one night and dragged the women from their temple and slaughtered them.”

  “I know why everyone looked at us with those hate filled eyes when we asked about the Brotherhood,” Cass said sadly. “Why go out of your way to kill people that have never brought anyone harm.”

  “They have no shame,” Arashi said, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword tightly. “Just as the lord of this land has none. If this continues one of his own retainers will take his life even though it would cost him his own.”

  “Hayao can you learn everything you can about the Brotherhood and their camp?” Bren asked.

  “I will see to it my lord,” Hayao said before disappearing from the room.

  Bren moved away from the rest of the group and found a quiet place in the center of the building where the statue a woman holding a water jug. Hayao had said that all the women here healed people. It was odd that so many people with the same skill could be found in one place. Even if they had searched them out, there was bound to be different kind of mages here, and why only women?

  Sae-Thae had once said that the nature of a person’s magic depended greatly on who they were as a person. Could it be that the northern mages were really different? Could their culture and upbringing affect how they used magic? He was sure that some still used magic like they did but they were branded as outcasts among their people. If such a stigma existed, then maybe their mind and the natural elements of the magic worked in their own way. There were too many questions for Bren to answer on his own and right now that was not his purpose, but he still couldn’t help but want to know the answers. Knowing the answers could change so much. If it was true that a mage could be raised up in a specific manner in order to wield magic in the same way as the others. If that was possible, then even rare gifts such as enchanting could be ingrained in someone at an early age. Not wanting to forget what had entered his mind Bren called for Phena.

  Phena entered the room having dropped her disguise. Over the past month Bren had almost gotten used to the blond hair pale skin version of Phena that seeing her once again with her ebony skin startled him. “Did you need something?” Phena asked in her normal haughty tone.

  Bren explained what he had thought about the magic system here in northern Kurt. Phena listened with rapt attention then began to nod her head as he finished. “It makes sense,” Phena said with a look of intense concentration on her face. “It is common that people in a family have common skills. In the past that was believed because it was passed down in a bloodline but it is possible because they were raised in similar manners. Any way that it goes, it is well worth looking in to.”

  “That was why I asked you here. While I plan to send a note to Sae-Thae using the chest I don’t know if he will take it seriously. I don’t know what will happen over the next few days but should something befall me I hope that you will research this once you return to Torin,” Bren said his voice even and calm.

  “Why are you so interested in this?” Phena asked giving him a concerned look.

  “I have been thinking about my father and the veil,” Bren replied honestly. “If I can bring down the veil and save my father, no one knows what will happen. It is very possible I could cause everything to be destroyed. I honestly don’t know, and I am more than a bit afraid of what will come to pass.”

  “Knowing that you will continue to push yourself forward,” Phena said with a hint of respect in her voice.

  “Yes,” Bren said, his voice hard sounding more as if he was trying to convince himself than the Vathari mage.

  “Then you have my word that if something should happen to you that I shall follow this matter once I return to the tower,” Phena replied.

  That night passed without incident though Bren found it hard to sleep in a place where he knew countless others had been slain in. A part of him felt as if he could hear the voices of the ones who had once lived here and it made the skin on his body crawl.

  It wasn’t until later the next afternoon that Hayao returned with news of what he had learned about the Brotherhood. “My lord,” Hayao said kneeling at Bren’s feet. The man’s body and voice sounded past the point of exhaustion. “Though I do not have an exact account of their numbers, more than five thousand soldiers and workers are camped in the valley. At night they have a few guards posted but it would seem they feel secure in their position at the moment so it would be easy for a small group to enter their camp unnoticed.”

  “Thank you Hayao,” Bren said dismissing the man so that he might find some rest.

  Five thousand, that was almost twice the number he was expecting. It was far more than had been reported to King Killian. That would mean that more and more members of the Brotherhood had been surfacing. It was amazing that so many still walked the land after the battle for Rane which was still a fresh memory in the minds of many.

  “When do we make our move?” Cass asked forcing Bren to look up to see that everyone had gathered around him, each one eager to hear the answer to the question.

  “Tomorrow night,” Bren said after a few moments of thought. “We are all weary from the journey and another night of rest will make it easier when it comes time to make our escape. I fear that soon we will be running with a large army at our backs.”

  “That does seem likely,” Cass said in a matter of fact tone that didn’t seem bothered in the least by the news.

  After talking for a short time of the plan Bren moved away from the others to seek his own solitude, so that he could make his plans in private.

  “Bren is something wrong?” Faye asked grabbing his arm. “You look as if something is weighing heavily on your mind.”

  “Just nervous,” Bren replied trying to keep himself from shaking. “There are some things I have to prepare, don’t worry it’s almost over.”

  Bren could feel Faye’s eyes still on him as he moved back to the room with the statue. She knew him too well. He hoped that she had not picked up on what he was thinking, but he knew that no matter how intuitive she was, there was no way that she could read his mind.

  Bren carefully collected his gear and placed it in his pack so that he could retrieve it at need. It wasn’t a hard task since the pack did most of the work for him, but it helped settle his mind to have his hands moving.

  Bren continued to rearrange his pack until Avalanche moved up next to him nudging his leg. “You plan to go with m
e?” Bren asked and Avalanche responded by giving a low growl. It was easy enough to trick everyone else with words, there was no way he was going to make it out of camp without Avalanche noticing. “Maybe you really are a guardian…The gods know that without you, me and my father would have never lived past childhood,” Bren said feeding the rock hound a large crystal which she gulped down quickly.

  I thought that your mother had influenced you enough that you did not carry your father’s same reckless tendencies. It looks like I was wrong. Why would you leave behind those that could protect you?

  “The truth is that I believe they know I am coming,” Bren told Thuraman. “I can feel it. Ever since we left Torin I have felt a set of unfriendly eyes watching me.”

  If that is true then why are you going at all? Would it not be wiser to raise an army using the daimios who have already shown their distaste for the Brotherhood?

  “That would be a waste of life and in the end would not yield much. The Brotherhood know that I am here and why. This is a trap set for me and if I do not take up the challenge then the map to the veil will most likely be destroyed. It is a gambit on both sides and one I must take, and take alone.”

  Why alone? Even if you just take one of the women it will be one more blade that can aid you. It is beyond idiotic to walk into a camp of five thousand with only a single blade.

  “Because the only hope we have of surviving is my magic,” Bren said clenching his fists. “But that same magic is a double edged sword. I have learned to control it but only to a small degree. There is still a chance that it will go out of control and I cannot risk that with my friends nearby. Knowing that then my best chance is to enter the camp alone and escape alone.”

  It is still foolish.

  “Most things that humans do are foolish,” Bren said laughing. “Haven’t you learned that yet? We are foolish and selfish creatures.”

  Selfish is that some sort of joke? If you were truly selfish then you would use those that you consider friends as shields so that you could accomplish your goals. Foolish I can agree on, but I wish that you were selfish at times like these.

  “You just don’t understand,” Bren said as he picked up his staff and looked out the small window to watch the sun as it rested on the horizon. “I am selfish because I don’t want to use them as shields. Cass, the other guards would all willing go along with me even if they knew it meant their deaths. The same is true of Faye, Lillian, and the girls. In all honesty this should be there choice to make but I am making it for them. That is what makes me selfish.”

  Bren was left undisturbed for the rest of the evening and once the sun sat far enough that he could no longer see the orange glow over the hills in the distance he crawled out the small window and snuck down the hill and into the city below.

  As Bren walked through the night he studied the small map that Hayao had made of the Brotherhood’s camp. The hills surrounding the valley were not large but they had steep sides making it nearly impossible to scale them quickly. That meant that there was only one way in and out of the valley and that was a large opening on the eastern edge.

  Bren had to admit that the Brotherhood had picked a perfectly defensible spot for their camp, and ambush. Even if he got through unnoticed which he doubted, as soon as he was spotted he would have to fight for his life. If the others he talked to had been correct, as soon as he got within five hundred yards of a member of the Brotherhood then their medallions would tell them that he was approaching.

  For most mages, being surrounded by more than five members of the Brotherhood with their white swords would have been a death sentence. Bren was not most mages though, and after what had happened with the medallion he had an idea, though he was not sure if it would work. It was a two hour walk to the entrance of the valley meaning he had plenty of time to test his theory.

  Bren reached into his pack and pulled one of the medallions they had recovered from the group that had attacked them almost a fortnight prior and held it into his hand. When he had held the first one in his hand he had felt pain as it tried to drain him of his magic but he had also felt something else on the other side. If that was true then the medallion was nothing more than another enchanted item, and that meant that it worked by way of a spell. Bren focused his mind and sent out a small wave of energy that was meant to scatter energy. It was a spell that Sae-Thae had taught him to counter other mages. It was simple enough and while it did no damage it could be used as a shield, but that was not how Bren used it now. Just as he expected, as soon as the energy touched the medallion the metal turned black and crumbled in his hand.

  While Bren had suspected that this was the case, it created many questions. Bren knew that the white metal was somehow connected to the abyss where his father was now at, but now that he knew that it was a spell, it meant that there was someone on the other side casting it.

  Bren pulled out another medallion. If it was a spell then he could trace it back and figure out how it worked but only if he could do so without destroying the spell or overcharging it. It was a perilous line and one that had a hint of danger, because should he overcharge it, that would mean that he would most likely find himself pulled into the abyss alongside his father, where he would be of little help to his father.

  Bren didn’t pull in magic from the surrounding area, instead he focused all his attention on the medallion. Just as he suspected, Bren could feel a slight pull from the other side of the metal. Bren put all of his effort into pulling magical energy from the other side as he probed the medallion for information.

  In the end, while he could see workings of the spell, he didn’t know enough to understand how the spell worked. After he was sure that he could learn nothing else, Bren cut off the connection to the other side and let the metal turn to dust in his hand.

  Bren felt frustrated, but he knew that there was little that he could do about it. Without knowledge, he couldn’t understand how the spell worked. That was one of the downsides to magic. You could have all the power in the world but unless you understood how things worked you might as well be a man with a forge, and metal but no hammer. People always thought that mages were intelligent because of their magical abilities, but in truth it was because to use them correctly, one had to have knowledge of all things.

  ****************************

  Thad watched as son held the medallion in his hand. For a father there was no prouder moment then when he watched the metal turn from white to black and crumble into dust. Thad had tried for years to learn the secrets of the white metal and had never even scratched the surface, but he was going after it the wrong way. For his son to surpass him made him felt proud.

  As Bren took out the second medallion Thad watched with some amusement. A few moments later a large scream filled the air and Thad turned to see Humanius clutching his head in pain as he screamed out. Thad turned back to watch his son until the medallion turned black and fell through the boys fingers.

  “Your son is strong,” Humanius said with a pain filled voice.

  “What happened?” Thad asked with a covered grin.

  “Your son ripped the magical energy that I had painstakingly acquired out of me,” Humanius said his voice holding the first real edge of anger in it since Thad had met him.

  CHAPTER XXVIII

  Just as Hayao had said there was little in the way of guards around the entrance to the valley or moving around the camp but Bren couldn’t help but to think that was for his benefit. They were trying to draw him in.

  Moving as quietly as possible, Bren moved to the edge of their camp and watched as the few soldiers milled about the few buildings. Sticking his head into one of the tents he saw two men sleeping soundly. “Maybe I was being paranoid,” Bren said to himself in a whisper.

  In the center of the camp Bren found a large building that had been mostly completed. The building looked a lot like a southern palace though it was built to showcase grandeur. Bren never thought of the Brotherhood as being ones to show off
power and wealth but it would seem that he was wrong.

  Once inside the building Bren moved from room to room looking for what he had been shown. A room full of maps and books with one particular one hanging on the wall showing the location to the veil doorway. Nothing else matter to him as he crept down the hallway.

  In the center of the building in a large room Bren found what he was looking for. It was in a large building with a winding staircase that lead up to three different levels, but what he wanted was on the first floor hanging on the wall. Unable to control himself Bren walked straight over to the tapestry and ran his fingers over the map.

  “I can’t read it,” Bren said cursing himself. With no other option Bren pulled the entire tapestry from the walls and started shoving it into his pack.

  “I am glad that you could make it,” A soft voice said from above him.

  Bren pushed the last of the map into his pack and turned around to see soldiers of the Brotherhood lining the upper levels of the library as well as standing four ranks deep in front of the exits. “I thought you would have appeared earlier.”

  “You don’t seem very surprised to see us,” A soldier wearing fine armor said as he walked down the steeps with his white sword in his hand.

  “Not at all,” Bren said raising Thuraman high into the air. The Brotherhood soldiers didn’t look worried as each of them held their swords into the air in front of them. The area around him was thin with magical energy thanks to all the white metal that surrounded him but he didn’t need any more than what was stored within his staff. Sending out a shockwave Bren scattered the elemental energies causing the swords to turn black and shatter as if they were made of nothing more than packed dirt.

  The look of surprise on the soldier’s faces gave Bren a boost of courage. Seizing on the moment Bren started pulling in magic though there was still little available. Once he had pulled in everything that he could Bren let loose a torrent of wind that pulled at the structure of the building, pushing it until it exploded outward like a glass orb dropped on the ground.