I opened my eyes.
“Are you stuck on a big word?” I asked him. But he did not smile, did not even hear me. I hated it when he did this. So I tapped the book. “Faol?” I leaned forward to see the page he was stopped on. Moranda’s handwriting was a dense scrawl. Perhaps he was stuck on a difficult word.
“She’s written…” His frown deepened. “She’s written—” The book was shaking in his hands. I lifted it away and looked at the page myself. Faol continued to stare at his open palms.
“What is it?” I asked, as I scanned the page. There was a long, rambling poem about winter in the mountains, and after that, scrunched up in the bottom corner, was a tiny poem. I read aloud,
“Love is bliss, though never lasting,
Love is ache and friends unmasking.
Love is shock and one last try,
Love is tears that never dry.
Love is raw, a rusted nail
Thrust in my heart.
Love is torture, love is rage, love is…” I stumbled over the last word. “Love is Faol.” I looked up. “Does this mean—?”
“My father,” said Faol. “She’s talking about my father.”
Something inside me sighed in relief. “You mean… Moranda was in love with your father?”
“It makes sense now,” Faol continued, speaking to himself, his eyes a dead-stare on his palms. “He scorned her. She wanted him – who knows why – but he never gave her what she wanted. Bitter. Jealous. And me – the living symbol of my father’s love for my mother, for the love he never gave Moranda…”
I saw where he was going; saw the path of warped reasoning. “No, Faol—”
“She wants me to fail,” he said firmly. “My training…it was all a long plot on her behalf. It all lead me here, where I could rot and she would have the perfect alibi. This castle is a trap, Aideen. Moranda wants me dead.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The peace of a fireside and bedtime story was a distant memory.
“Faol, calm down,” I said. Again and again. “This makes no sense.” I ignored the ache in my bones as I got out of bed. Faol paced around the room, hands flying everywhere as he ranted about Moranda.
“She’s trapped me in this castle out of her bitter jealousy. And all she’s done to hinder me – provide inadequate equipment and surroundings, shut me off unnecessarily – it was all to block my progression! I should have graduated years ago, but she has held me back, laughing at me from the court; and all the other mages will be laughing too. I have been training for twenty years. I imagine there are mages younger than that!”
“Faol—” I caught one of his flailing arms. “Stop and breathe for a moment. If Moranda loved your father, why would she hurt you? She’d do all she could to help you.”
“They say there is no pain greater than a broken heart,” he replied. “It drives a person mad.”
“That might be true, but why would Moranda set out such a long, elaborate plan, simply to kill you?”
“I can’t pretend to understand her twisted mind—”
“Faol!” It is your mind that is twisted, I wanted to scream. “Moranda wants to help you! She’s training you as a mage!”
He shook his head. “Look around you, Aideen. If she is trying to help me, why has she abandoned me here? She refuses to help. I am at the peak of my meagre powers and all I can do is chase the Mage away for a night.” His eyes glistened with tears. “I hate her. I hate her so much I can’t think straight. I have all this magic in my blood and she has purposefully botched my training. I could help someone, if only I could do it! I should be up there with the greats, Aideen! I can’t stand to be me; it’s insufferable!”
I stamped my foot, tired of his tantrum. “Well what about me? I can’t do any magic; I have no money, no prospects, no beauty or talent to elevate me from my situation. No one would ever consider training me. No one would indulge in such a waste of time!”
“If you would like to have a competition of who has it worse, then by all means, let us begin. I will win, Aideen. Hands down. Will we go and chat with my mother about it? Ask her opinion?” He stomped away, and for a horrible moment I thought he was going to whip the sheet from those terrible heads. “And my father—” His eyes darted back and forth, and I feared another outburst. But instead he dropped his hands, and when he spoke, his voice was cold and hard as ice. “She killed him.”
“No—”
“I found him dead. His body was cold.” Faol slumped against a bedpost. “He was so cold. And he just lay there, like he was asleep. She killed him. Because he couldn’t be hers. She destroyed my life… Because her love was never returned.”
“Faol, this is all conjecture—”
“I only wanted to be the best at what I do. I want to use magic to help others, to prevent disease and protect against the elements and demons and all the darkness in our lives. I just… I just wanted…”
I managed to grab him before he sunk to the floor completely. His body was limp in my arms. I hauled him to the edge of the bed, and sat him down. His head flopped onto my shoulder.
“Forget about Moranda, Faol. She’s only a distraction. You have to beat the Mage, and then you can find out the truth.”
“But…how?” he asked.
I kissed his hair. “We’ll think of it in the morning. You must rest too, Faol. You need to be strong.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“You can. I know you have it in you.”
“I hate her.”
“Then put that hate to good use.”
I held him until he fell asleep on my shoulder. I rested my head on his, and tried to sleep as well. But my back ached, and my arms ached too from holding him. I watched the moon pass across the window. With each night it grew, and soon it would grin at the castle with its full face.
The Night Mage growled, right outside the door.
“Go away,” I hissed.
It threw its weight against the door. The hinges rattled.
I froze, gripping the sleeping Faol. We were protected in his room. It was safe here at night.
But the Mage is growing in power.
The handle turned. And my heart stopped.
“Faol.” I nudged him in the ribs. “Faol. Wake up.”
He did, and the veil of sleep quickly fell away. He looked from me to the door and then back to me.
“It can’t get in, can it?”
He rose from the bed. “I don’t know anything anymore.”
I stayed close to him. The handle turned again, but the door stayed shut.
The Mage howled in frustration, so loudly I jumped back in fright.
Faol pulled his wand from his pocket. It did not offer me much hope. He aimed it at the door. I hid behind him, peeking over his shoulder.
The Night Mage growled, and then – silence.
We waited, barely breathing. When many minutes had passed, Faol said, “I think it’s gone.” He pocketed his wand, and pulled me into him. I clasped my hands behind his back, squeezing tight.
“I’ll never defeat it,” he said.
“No—”
“Listen to me, Aideen. If Moranda wants me dead, and she’s told me to defeat the Mage, then it stands to reason that victory is impossible.”
I squeezed him even tighter. “There must be a way.” I couldn’t lose him. I couldn’t bear it.
“The Night Mage is still a living monster. And though it may be under Moranda’s command, it is not invincible. Nothing is.” He pulled away and held me at arm’s length. His green eyes were aflame. “We must turn this on its head. Moranda has me pursuing a path that takes me directly away from my goal. She wants me to destroy the Mage. But I will do the opposite.”
“What’s the opposite of destruction?”
“I will give it life,” he said. “The Mage is a part of my soul. So instead of destroying that part of me, I will accept it, and join with the Mage. And we will become one.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
/> It was a terrible idea. Truly, truly terrible.
But Faol would not see reason. He believed, fully, that because Moranda had told him to destroy the Mage, he needed to do the exact opposite, and embrace the Mage instead.
“But your mother,” I said. “Look what happened to her when she dealt with a demon?”
Yet he wouldn’t listen to a word I said. And as soon as the sun was up and the castle safe, he locked himself in his study and ignored my attempts to feed him breakfast.
“This is a very bad idea,” I confided to Cal.
“I agree. Definitely his worst. You have to talk him out of it.”
“I’ve tried! But he’s gone over the edge. I don’t know what to do.” Scaly padded up my hand and nipped my arm. “Do you have any ideas?” The little black lizard blinked at me, and then scuttled back onto the kitchen table.
I sighed.
“The Mage will consume him. And then Moranda will come and cut off his head.” And there will be another thread of three heads. Like mother, like son.
Cal bounced onto my lap. She was warm and fuzzy. “There, there. Moranda won’t do it in front of you.”
I threw my palms over my eyes and burst into tears.
“He has a good heart,” said Cal. “If you do this in front of him, he might change his mind.”
“That’s emotional blackmail,” I said through the sobs.
Cal bounced onto the floor. “Better than a shrunken head.”
I dried my eyes and returned to his study. I banged on the door until he finally let me in.
“You must stop,” I said.
He pushed past me. I followed.
“Faol, your judgement is clouded. You have no proof that Moranda wants to harm you. There has to be another way.”
“This is the only way. Are you going to hinder me all day?”
“I’ll certainly try my best.”
I trailed him through the twisting halls of the castle. We climbed another turret, and I followed him up a set of ladders that took us outside. Pots of flowers and herbs lined the battlement.
I could see the wood. But even this high, I could not see my village. I missed my mother and father. I even missed the hills around the village, and the shop, and the steady beat of each day. Adventure was far more stressful than I’d ever imagined.
Faol ripped off flower petals and yanked herbs out of their soil beds.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Preparing potions. I’ll need to protect myself.”
“You protect yourself by abandoning this plan!”
He slid back down the ladders. I clambered down after him, cursing the pain in my legs. He barrelled down the hallways, yanking open random doors, glaring at the inner contents, then slamming them shut before I could see what was on the other side.
“Faol, listen—”
“She wants me dead,” he said. “How many times must I tell you? She’s pushed me to the bottom. She’s thrown everything in my path.” He spun around. I didn’t recognise the face beneath his stormy hair. “I want to be the best! I’ve never been good enough, and it’s all her fault. I cannot defeat the Mage. Yet I’ve been trying for seven years! Have you any idea what that does to a person? The constant failure and frustration, of being blocked at every turn, of being so far behind your peers?”
“I have an inclination, yes.”
“All those years of my life, wasted! I won’t face death without a fight. If I die tonight—”
“Don’t. Don’t say that! If you die tonight then what happens to me? I will be left in this castle forever more?”
“Moranda will set you free,” he said. “She only let you in to distract me. She probably foretold what would happen.” He indicated my scarred face. “She likes to remind me of my failings.”
“How could she have possibly seen that coming?”
He shrugged. “Moranda is a powerful master. Maybe I’d know if she’d trained me properly.”
I was out of arguments. I saw the madness in his eyes, and knew he couldn’t be reasoned with. If Moranda wanted him dead, he was doing all the work for her.
I left him in the study, and spent the rest of the day in the kitchen, drinking coffee and trying to enjoy it. I was too tired to cry. I gazed longingly out the window, wishing to be there in the mountains with Faol by my side. I wanted to savour the wind on my face, and the cool, clean air. I could have enjoyed both every day of my life, so why hadn’t I? I wanted to go back to my younger self and shake her by the shoulders and cry, ’It’s not as bad as you think!’
As evening fell, I made soup for both of us, using the precious vegetables we had remaining. There was enough flour for a small loaf of bread. I hoped the smell would entice Faol from the study, but he didn’t appear. I left a bowl for him on the kitchen table, and retired to his rooms.
I lit a fire. Sat in a chair and leafed through Moranda’s book of poetry.
Faol returned at the edge of nightfall.
“Here.” He handed me a bronze amulet. “Wear it around your neck.”
“And if I refuse?”
“You will be vulnerable to the Mage.”
“I’m vulnerable already! As are you.”
“Yes. I’m weak. You’ve told me that many times.”
“No, that’s not—”
“I’m doing this, Aideen. Nothing you can say will stop me. If you believed in me, you wouldn’t be so worried.”
“That’s not fair. I do believe in you, but—”
“But you think I’m a fool who doesn’t know what he’s doing. You think I’m biting off more than I can chew. Well that’s all the more reason for me to proceed. I’d like you to look at me with pride in your eyes, instead of pity.”
“You’re being very cruel,” I said quietly.
“I don’t mean to be. I hope it’s not your intention either. Even if it is the outcome.”
I turned my head to the fire, hoping the heat would burn away my tears.
“I’m going now,” he said. “You can watch if you like.”
“I don’t want to watch you destroy yourself.”
“Fine. Sit there and wait for my return.”
He crossed the room to the sky door. I heard the pop of a cork, and the sound of him downing a potion. I didn’t want to think what he’d just consumed; what damage he was doing to himself.
A gust of wind pushed back the flames. I couldn’t help but watch. Faol stood in the doorway, the endless sky reaching out beyond. He stepped into the air, weightless.
I rose from the chair. Faol reached his arms up, his hands bunched into fists. I heard the rumble of the Night Mage. A shadow appeared among the clouds, lumbering towards Faol, growing and growing, until I couldn’t see all of it through the frame of the sky door.
I snatched the amulet and slung it around my neck.
“Don’t do it,” I whispered.
The Night Mage kept walking, and Faol stood still, his arms still raised. The Mage dropped its jaw, bent forward, and swallowed him whole. I let out a sob, but couldn’t look away. I’d watched his mother destroy herself, and was about to witness him follow in her footsteps.
The Mage straightened and roared. A dot glowed in its chest. I clutched the amulet. It burned in my hands.
“Please. Please work.”
The dot brightened, turning white to blue to gold. The Mage swung its horned tail, and beat its hairy chest with its clawed hands.
And it set its eyes on me.
I sprinted across the room as it bounded across the sky, and I slammed the sky door shut. The entire room shook as the Mage threw itself against the door.
I made my decision, and hurtled from the room, ignoring the cries from my legs. “I need a mirror!” I screamed at the castle. “Cal? Help me! I need a mirror!” I rushed down the stairs and into a long corridor. I recognised it immediately, and ran at full speed down its length. Like before, it went on and on and on, and I screamed again at the castle. “Help me! I can’t run muc
h further!”
The walls pressed in around me, forming a room. And there was the mirror. I hammered my fists on the glass and yelled Moranda’s name.
“Help us! He’s trying to join with the Mage!”
With no warning, Moranda stepped out of the mirror, nearly knocking me over. “Where?” she said.
“In the sky. Through the—”
“I know it.” She pulled me into her chest and said, “Close your eyes.”
The floor fell away again, just like the time she’d brought me to the Mage Court. When I stood again on solid ground, I opened my eyes, and found myself back in front of the sky door.
“Stay,” said Moranda, and she opened the door to find a mouthful of teeth.
I shrieked and jumped backwards. Moranda dropped her hands to her side and raised them slowly. My blood rose with it. The bed rose off the floor, and in the corner, the sheet fell away, revealing the shrunken heads.
The Mage roared at Moranda, and the strength of its howl sent me flying backwards into a chair. The fire burned bright red. And still Moranda’s arms rose.
When they reached their peak, the fire exploded in the hearth and red flames sprouted all over the room. I pulled my legs onto the chair and hugged my knees. The table was on fire, the bed, the cabinet, the chair where Faol usually sat. Everything burned, except me and Moranda.
“Let him go,” she bellowed.
I was pulled back to the castle’s heart. And the words I’d heard. Soon you will see.
Let her go.
I’d heard Moranda’s voice. I hadn’t recognised it until now.
Let her go.
“Let him go,” she repeated. The depth of her voice rattled my ribs.
“Let him go,” I whispered. “Please. Let him go.”
The fire licked at the sky door, and the flames leapt onto the Mage. The gold dot in its heart brightened.
“Let him go.”
The flames consumed the Mage, and through the burning scarlet, Faol’s body flew through the air.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The Night Mage Page 11
