God Mage

by D. W. Jackson

  “You don’t understand,” Bren said in a more direct tone. “I can’t use my magic to protect us anymore, and as long as you and everyone else are with me, they will be able to find us. I think it would be best if we moved in different directions. Once enough time has passed, head back to Torin. I don’t think they will worry much about you. It’s me they’re after.”

  “I think it is you who doesn’t understand,” Cass said in matter of fact tone. “I am not going off and leaving you alone. You can ask everyone else, but if you stop to think, I am sure that you already know their answers as well. Your best choice right now would be to stop thinking in that manner, and get your gear ready so we can leave before the rest of them bust through the grass.

  Bren tried to think of something else to say, but nothing came to mind. Cass was right; none of his friends would simply walk away from him. In fact, most of them would have to be dragged away. Knowing there was nothing more he could say, Bren slung his pack on his back and turned toward the massive glass desert.

  Before starting their trek, Cass wanted to listen for other soldiers that might be behind them. As he said, it wouldn’t do to have a group of archers coming in behind them while they were on open ground. At first, Bren couldn’t hear anything, but after a while, he heard a soft rustling. From the sound, it was still a long ways away. “I think we should go now. I would bet we have less than two hours before the whole Brotherhood army bursts though.”

  “That’s not long, but it will get us well out of bow range,” Cass said turning away from the grass forest.

  The first steps into the glass desert was much easier than Bren expected. There were a few smooth spots, but most of the large sections of glass had been broken and then broken some more, so it was truly a desert of broken glass. Some of the fine pieces worked into his boots and poked at his skin. Bren worried about the others, but knew they didn’t have time to stop and look for a solution.

  The slippery parts caught Bren by surprise a few times and caused him to slip. Bren picked himself up each time and did his best to make sure to help those who were having trouble.

  The most dangerous part of the walk was not the glass below them, but the lightning that seemed to be attracted to it. A few times, it struck so close that Bren’s and the others’ hair stood on end moments before and after it struck.

  When they could barely see the edge of the grass forest, Bren noticed people starting to come through. It was hard to see how many or what weapons they carried but Bren could tell that it was far more than they needed for a handful of people.

  As they made camp, Cass stationed one of the guards to watch for the Brotherhood. It was easy to see them on the open ground, but that also meant they could be seen as well, though not as easily, as twenty people were far harder to spot than two thousand.

  “It is going to be a short night,” Brenda said, sighing lightly. “Thankfully, we had a good sleep yesterday because I don’t think another full night will be coming our way anytime soon.”

  Chapter 17

  The Brotherhood was closing in on them fast. The first few days across the glass desert they were able to gain some distance, but that changed quickly as their feet began to become raw thanks to the small slivers of glass that worked their way into everything.

  To help alleviate some of the pain from the glass, Cass had the idea to line the top of their boots with extra clothing. It worked to a point but it didn’t help heal the places that the glass had already damaged.

  At night they would lay down their bed rolls knowing that they would spend most of the time meant for sleeping scratching at their skin and trying to forget the annoying little grains of glass that were blowing over them.

  Bren was starting to think that it couldn’t get any worse, but he should have known better than to think such thoughts. Now before them, was a large wall of wind and glass, and it was moving in their direction—fast. If he had the use of his magic, Bren could easily block the deadly tornado or destroy it completely, but right now, that wasn’t an option, and everyone was looking for a way out of the open but with nothing around for miles except more glass, it was looking grim.

  As the moving wall of glass came closer, Bren could see lightning coming from inside the tornado. It lit up the glass, sending rays of multicolored light cascading across the ground. If it didn’t mean a sudden death, Bren might have enjoyed the beautiful sight.

  “We will have to bury ourselves,” Cass said when the storm was not more than half an hour away.

  “In the glass?” Brenda asked, her eyes going wide. “Are you insane? That wind tunnel will pick it and us up, and there will be nothing left but little pink clouds.”

  “It’s our only chance,” Cass replied. “We will have to use our blankets to cover our bodies and just hope for the best. We can’t outrun it; the storm is moving faster than a racehorse at a full gallop.”

  “I will be picking slivers of glass out of my hindquarters until I am an old maid at this rate,” Brenda said as she pulled her blanket from her pack and began to use it to dig.”

  Everyone quickly joined Brenda in digging but for every handful they pulled out of the ground half of it slid back in. “Thuraman, is there anything you can do?” Bren pleaded as the winds started to pick up and Bren could no longer see the edges of the tornado.

  I can use a shield to protect you but I won’t be able to stretch it more than a few yards in every direction.

  “Everyone to me,” Bren yelled over the roaring winds.

  Everyone ran to where Bren stood. When he laid down on the ground, the others followed his lead. The first sign they had that the storm was upon them was the small pieces of glass that started to blow over them, then Bren could see a few lifted into the sky then he couldn’t see or hear anything at all. Bren closed his eyes and gritted his teeth against the sound of the roaring wind. When everything died down and Bren slowly opened his eyes he found that he was under a layer of thin glass shards. Reaching up he encountered Thuraman’s shield. Looking to his left Bren was happy to see that everyone was safe as well, though they didn’t seem to be enjoying their glass coffin.

  “Do you think it is safe to move yet?” Faye asked meekly.

  “Only one way to find out,” Cass replied reaching his hand up and touching the shield as well. “I didn’t think you could use magic,” Cass commented as he pushed against the invisible wall.

  “I can’t,” Bren replied honestly. “This is my staff’s work.”

  “If you can use your staff, then can’t you fight the Brotherhood like you did before?”

  “It’s not that simple,” Bren replied. “The staff can only work one of two ways. It can use spells that have been etched into it by my father, or I can give it a spell and feed it magical energy. Since I can’t feed it energy, and it has to rely on its own stores, then we are limited to what spells are already ingrained in it.”

  “Are there any ways I can use you to attack?” Bren asked feeling silly for not thinking about it before.

  Not on a large scale, but I can release pent up energy, though with my limited capacity and you not helping resupply me, I would be severely limited in the number of attacks I could use. At the same time though, the magical energy around here is so strong it might not matter that I can’t receive any help from you.

  Digging out of the glass was a lot harder than Bren would have thought. As soon as the shield fell a very heavy glass mound fell upon them. Cass was the first one to reach the top and helped the others pull themselves out. One of the guards got a large piece of glass stuck in his eye, which blinded him on one side. Luckily, other than that, there were no major injuries. Shaking the last of the glass shards from his clothes, Bren lifted up his blanket to find it couldn’t keep a flea warm. Though it was little use to use for sleeping anymore, Bren still stuffed it in his pack in case he could find a use for it later.

  Thanks to the storm, Bren had forgotten about the Brotherhood until two of their soldiers showed up walking t
oward them. Their metal armor was a bit dented but other than that, it looked as if the storm had done little damage to them.

  “Brotherhood,” Bren shouted as he dropped to look for his sword.

  Cass had his drawn well before Bren could pull his from the tangled mess that lay at his feet. The Brotherhood were skilled warriors but compared to the Katanga, they might have been children with pointed sticks, and Cass had been expected to become a Katanga officer.

  As the first soldier approached Cass, he drew back a large double handed sword, but Cass didn’t jump or even move out of the way of the impending blow. As the heavy sword descended, Cass took one step to the side and held his sword up, pushing the heavy blade to land safely to his left. As the soldier tried to pull his weapon back up Cass stepped into the man and pushed him with his shoulder. The heavy armor might protect the soldiers from blades or glass, but when standing on something that slid beneath you, it made it hard to keep your balance. The Brotherhood soldier fell back, and like a turtle, was wriggling in an attempt to right himself. Cass headed toward the man but quickly found the other soldier moving to block his path. Cass started to turn to meet the other man, but Brenda jumped in from the side bringing her sword up and cutting off the man’s sword hand. Cass didn’t stop to watch the fight; instead, he turned to the man who still lay on the ground trying to maneuver himself onto his side so that he could push himself up. Cass didn’t give him the chance.

  Cass calmly walked over to the man and kicked the edge of his helmet knocking it off the man’s head. “Need a hand?” Cass asked the man who answered by spitting at Cass. “Thought so,” Cass said with a grin just before he drove his sword into the man’s skull.

  Bending down Cass pulled the dead soldier’s cloak and cleaned the blood from his sword. After wiping it down three times, Cass gave it one more look and when he was satisfied that it was clean, replaced it in its scabbard. “I think we should run now,” Cass said as more than a hundred Brotherhood soldiers came into view as the fine dust began to settle from the storm.

  Bren quickly gathered his things and tried to run, but running in a sea of glass was not easy. It was much the same as running in powdery sand, yet not only did it slightly suck up, it also cut at your skin.

  While the storm didn’t seem to harm the Brotherhood much, it did cause them to get separated from each other. Given the situation, it wasn’t much to be thankful for, but it was better than nothing. Thankfully, the soldiers were a bit disorientated, giving Bren and the others a chance to gain a little distance but not much.

  Bren was afraid that the Brotherhood would start raining down arrows on their head making him continue to look back at the pursuing soldiers. When they had made more than two miles, it became clear to Bren that either the soldiers didn’t have bows or they were more interested in capture than death. He wasn’t sure which one it was, but he really didn’t care.

  It didn’t take long before everyone began to grow tired of running. Bren still felt as if he had just awoken, but the others were not blessed with his body. Looking back Bren noticed the Brotherhood had also started to slow down and were falling farther and farther behind with each passing mile.

  It wasn’t long before the Brotherhood stopped completely to make camp. Even with the leeway that they had gained over the passing day, they still couldn’t afford the risk of stopping within sight of the Brotherhood. They needed sleep, and knowing the Brotherhood, they would send more than one foray into their camp to keep them from resting. The more distance they gained, the less they would have to deal with them.

  As they pushed forward without a single hint of stopping, no one said a word, not even Brenda who loved to complain. Most of the time she didn’t even mean half the things she said; she just enjoyed getting a rise out of the others. She enjoyed a good row, but she knew when it was not the time to start one. They all knew that they couldn’t stop, and even bringing it up, only reminded them what waited behind them.

  By the time Cass finally decided that it was time for them to stop, Bren noticed that everyone was starting to drag their feet, creating shallow grooves in the glass. Though Bren’s body didn’t need a lot, he still needed to sleep. It would seem that his brain was the one thing that didn’t get stronger after the change. In fact, the more magic he used, the more sleep he needed. The urge to resist the call of the large amount of magic flowing around him was even more tiring so he felt as if he had not slept in a year.

  Bren searched for his bedroll but quickly remembered what had become of it. He searched through his pack for a spare but he knew that he hadn’t brought one. Sighing, Bren looked at the glass covered ground and let out a heavy sigh.

  “You could crawl into mine,” Faye said with a slight blush.

  Bren and Faye had spent a few nights together in inns but each time the bed had been rather large giving them plenty of room. Her bedroll would mean they would have to hug each other close just to stay covered, and with how cold the wind got at night being covered was very important. “Okay,” Bren said weakly as he tried not to let his emotions go wild, knowing that if they did he would lose control and the magic inside him would take over.

  Faye let Bren lay down first then she crawled in behind him pushing in so close that he could feel her heartbeat pulsing against his back. When she wrapped her arms around him clutching on to his shoulders Bren let out an audible gulp.

  As cold as the night air was, Bren soon believed that sleeping on the open ground would have allowed him to sleep easier. Within moments he could hear Faye’s rhythmic breathing as she drifted off to sleep, her warm breath tickled the small hairs on the back of his neck. Closing his eyes, Bren tried to think of when he was smaller and his sister used to crawl into his bed. As he thought about his sister, Bren felt slightly homesick for the first time since he had left Farlan, but it did help him drift off to sleep.

  As Bren finally slept, he felt something touch his mind and instantly he knew that it was his mother. He thought it a bit odd that he had thought about his sister then his mother started calling him in his sleep. Letting the irony slip out of his mind, Bren allowed the darkness to surround him and pull him in. As always, it was an odd feeling, like being dipped in thick lukewarm oil.

  As the darkness cleared, Bren found himself standing in his own throne room in Torin. Finding the choice of location slightly odd, Bren walked up and took a seat on the raised oaken throne that sat in the middle of the room. For most kings, the chair wouldn’t pass for a dinner chair, but for Bren it was the best in the whole building.

  “Hello mother,” Bren said turning to find his mother standing in the center of the room. “I figured I would find myself in Farlan.”

  “You are not just my son anymore,” Maria said sounding slightly insulted. “You are a king by your own right, and weather I like it or not, I should follow the rules. That means that if I call upon you, then I should enter your house, not force you to come to mine.”

  “I see,” Bren replied.

  “My spies have told me that you have not been in Torin for quite some time,” Maria said with her eyes slightly squinted. “I hope nothing has happened to dispose of you for such a long time.” Maria moved closer and took a good look at him. “Is the silver coloring my fault or is it some new look you are trying on?”

  A hundred things flashed through Bren’s mind in the matter of seconds. In the end he decided that hiding things from his mother at this point would be rude, not only as a son but as a fellow monarch as well. Torin needed Farlan to survive, but Farlan had survived without the mages for centuries and could continue to do so. “It is a long story,” Bren said, lowering his head slightly. “If you wish to hear it, I am willing to tell though.”

  “So easily,” Maria said the look on her face, one between curiosity and concern. “If you are going to be so willing, then I will have to take you up on the offer.”

  Bren started by telling his mother why he had left Torin. She was a little mad at him at first, but when she le
arned that Thad might still be alive, her face lit up slightly but quickly cooled to its normal cold and emotionless demeanor. When he got to the part in the story where he rushed the Brotherhood camp alone, she became furious, but seeing that he was still alive, it was short lived. When he reached their current situation, all she could do was shake her head.

  “It seems that you have the same ability as your father to find yourself in trouble,” Maria said, her voice cold and with just a hint of concern. “It is too late for me to tell you to turn back, but…” Maria said her voice breaking slightly. “I know I don’t say it much, but I do love you dear…. I do wish to see your father again but…just don’t risk your own life…. Neither I nor your father would want that.”

  Bren gave a wilting smile as his mother’s words struck him hard. Bren couldn’t remember the last time his mother had said such words, or allowed her emotions to show to such a degree. Bren thought of many things he wanted to say, but the darkness started to close in around him signaling that his meeting was soon to come to an end. “I miss you mother,” was the last words he said as the darkness came rushing in around him.

  Bren opened his eyes slightly as he woke and found that the others were still asleep. Taking a deep breath, Bren closed his eyes again and tried to go back to sleep but found that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t. After what felt like hours, Bren gave up and carefully removed himself from Faye’s grasp and walked over to where Cass had a small fire going.

  “Don’t you ever sleep?” Bren asked his friend.

  “I already got a few hours of sleep. I was planning to wake you for the next watch if it makes you feel better,” Cass said with a short laugh.

  “Go ahead and get some sleep,” Bren said, pushing his friend toward his bedroll. “I don’t see myself going back to sleep tonight.

  Cass didn’t argue and quietly went to his own bedroll to get what sleep he could before it was once again time to start their tireless trek.