Chapter 15
Councilman Dagan had been asked not to leave Castle Jaden, but he left anyway, bent for the small city of Brisbane Dale. It was just within the border of Jaden. In the outskirts of town, he sat comfortably in the house of Councilman Kieran. His friend had vanished suddenly in the middle of one afternoon. A moment with his children, and the next he was simply gone with no trail. Councilman Kieran’s young wife was beside herself with grief.
Lilly sat across from him, a handkerchief in one hand as she dabbed at her eyes. Kieran married a much younger woman and fathered three children by her. By all looks they were a happy family. There was no reason for Kieran to leave. Despite being urged to move to Castle Jaden, Lilly remained in her home in case Kieran returned.
Their youngest son Liam, a babe no older than two, sat by the little hearth playing with a doll. The other two children screamed outside playing a chasing game.
“Dagan, tell me truthfully, was he involved in something the Head Mage would no’ let him speak of?” Lilly asked, her eyes red and her lips pert from crying. She was a pretty little thing, though a tad frail of health. An Earth Mage as well, she came from the southern horse country Aidenmar.
“No, Lilly. His status as a Councilman makes him a target. That is all I can offer.”
She nodded and dabbed at her eyes again. “Liam, don’ play with tha’,” she said halfheartedly in her thick Aidenmarian accent and waved a hand in the child’s direction. “What will I do if he does no’ return?”
“Let us not think on that. I have faith he is well and—” He was cut off suddenly by the children’s screaming in the yard turning sharply from playful to terror. With three children himself, he had the protective instincts of a father, and he launched out of his chair in unison with Lilly and ran to the nearest window. The children were nowhere to be seen, but a shriek came from the other side of the house. Lilly tore down the stairs screaming “Jamie! Addley!”
Dagan followed closely behind, darting through the dark house and glancing through every window for signs of distress. They rushed through a salon, and Dagan stopped dead with a gasp as Lilly kept running. Outside the window was Kieran, but it was not Kieran.
The shadowy outline of his friend’s features was held together by a faint blue light that emanated from the man’s body. But Dagan could also see through the man to the road behind him. There was no flesh, no life, only the image of the man. ‘A specter,’ Dagan knew, and felt his skin prickle. Specters were only seen when there was a tear in the veil that held back the spirit world, and it was nearly as rare as a blue moon.
Dagan looked harder and saw the man was wounded, missing an ear and a finger, weeping dark blue blood from a dozen wounds. His clothes were tattered and his hair mussed. A blank expression plastered his face. The specter seemed to be after something, and Dagan heard a little girl scream. He made for the door, and it occurred to him he had not heard the older boy cry recently.
He raced to the back door and nearly collided with Lilly who stood clutching her skirts. He looked around her and saw the little boy standing still, a blank expression on his face, with skin as gray as rock. Dagan skirted around Lilly and grabbed the boy’s shoulders to find they were solid. His body had no give to it; his skin was hard and cold as stone. “Oh stars, Jamie? Jamie!” he yelled, shaking the statue. If there was life left in the boy, he did not show it.
Lilly started running again yelling for her daughter, and Dagan lost her around the house. He followed quickly after and heard the little girl scream again. He skidded around the corner and saw the specter put a kiss on the child’s head. The girl opened her mouth to scream, but rapidly her skin changed from pale pink to gray starting with her thrown-up arms. Before the child had a chance to take a breath, the transformation was complete, and what was once a little girl was now a cold stone statue.
The specter turned towards his wife walking smoothly as though his feet did not actually touch the ground. He extended his arms to her, and she wept uncontrollably, muttering nonsense as she looked at him and back to her daughter.
“Do not let him touch you!” Dagan yelled. The woman made no effort to move as the specter reached for her. “Lilly move!” Before he could lay an Earth pattern to push her away, the specter wrapped her up and kissed her tenderly on the lips. The tears on her cheeks turned to stone as her screwed-up face froze. She had no time to break away as the transformation spread to her torso and down her legs. The Earth pattern Dagan laid fell from his fingers as terror and grief swelled in his chest.
The specter broke away from her and turned towards the house. Dagan quickly dashed back inside. Liam was still playing by the hearth, griming his fingers in the ashes. Dagan snatched him up and held him closely as he pounded back down the stairs and out the front door. His horse was in the stable, and he had just enough time to throw a bridle on the mare when the specter glided through the doors. Dagan dragged the horse out at a trot and clambered atop, still holding the little boy. Kicking her hard, he bolted through the doors before the specter could reach Liam. He steered her towards Jaden, a half-day ride at a canter, and did his best to stay on without a saddle.
That settled it. Kieran was not only lost to them, but Ryker Slade’s unmistakable fingerprint was on this death. Legends said the Mage had an unnatural hold on the spirit world. He could channel it to bring horrors into reality. Dagan had his suspicions on how the man was capable of such things, but if anyone knew, no one said. The revelation of the specter proved Slade was up to his old games. The Councilman suddenly felt very vulnerable.
Chapter 16
For a moment everything slowed. Sound faded to a dull hum, pain ceased, and the lights of the fires blurred to indiscriminant bobbles. Gabriel could hear only his breath in his chest as he inhaled sharply and promptly forgot what to do next.
His Elements, once powerfully coursing through his veins, reduced to a faint prickle in his chest. His eyes remained wide open as his body and mind fought to find the Elements. The energies of the world ever present were now but a faint trickle through his skin. He extended his conscious to grasp hold of the energies only to feel them slip away like smoke. His held breath began to fight for release, reddening his face as his body tensed every muscle. He remembered to exhale.
Everything rushed back at him at once. Vision sharpened, pain shot through him, and sounds of battle and screaming filled his ears. He was not sure if it was he who was screaming.
“Let him go, he’s harmless now,” Nolen’s voice said above him. The hands and bodies on him released, but Gabriel remained where he lay. His mind kept him in a state of shock as he processed the last few moments over and over again, trying to change the outcome to no avail. Overhead the stars blurred in fuzzy pinpoints.
“Spirit Mage!” the Prince yelled. Voices sounded around him and people shuffled in and out of his vision, but he lacked the strength to move. His lips parted wider as he sucked in a shaky breath and tears slid down the sides of his face.
An older man in a yellow mantle came into his vision, a face he did not recognize. By his mantle Gabriel knew him to be a healer. Battle Mages always accompanied legions to help heal the wounded.
“Fix him up. Make him ready for travel,” Nolen commanded, standing off to the side of Gabriel’s vision.
“He’s far gone, m’Lord,” the man said in a thick backwoods accent. “He’s lost a lot o’ blood.”
“Fix him quickly then,” Nolen snapped.
The Mage quickly began sealing the wound to his leg. “M’Lord, Mage Aries was killed in the foray, and Mages Dareis and Melen dispersed to heal. I cannot heal him fully and still have stamina to tend to the rest.”
“Stitch him up and leave the rest for Lady Aisling.”
The Mage nodded and lifted his hand from Gabriel’s leg sealing the long gash on his hip. “This will hurt,” he said as he put a palm beside the quarrel. Quickly he yanked it free, but Gabriel did not scream. The quarrel had pierced deeply, and the work to repair
it would take a while, but as the Mage worked, Gabriel realized he was only patching the skin.
“I ain’t never seen such a thing in all my life,” the Mage whispered as he worked. Gabriel judged him to be a Class Four by his handle of the patterns. “Falling stars. Bless me! The bards’ll sing o’ that for Ages. Nah I don’t know Lady Aisling’s skill in healing, so you must tell her to mend the bones in your leg and ribs. The ribs aren’t broken bad, but need some patching. I’ll need to roll you to your side to get the shaft, so stay with me.” He had a pleasant voice through the chaos in Gabriel’s mind.
The Mage rolled Gabriel to his right side and pulled the shaft free slowly. “It just went through muscle, yer a lucky man.” Gabriel inhaled and felt the pain with every breath. “I can’t mend it fully. You must understand I have other men to tend to. I’ll stitch the edges together, just like that.” He finished sealing the shoulder and rolled him back taking up Gabriel’s hand and leaning forward to meet his gaze. “I’m…sorry.”
He let Gabriel’s hand go and stood, giving the Prince a short report before running off to tend to the worst. Gabriel had still not moved or said a word, grappling with his mind that challenged reality to substitute his own. “Fetch the wagon and load him up,” Nolen stated.
Slowly Gabriel raised his wrists to look at the copper bands, cold against his flesh and glimmering in the firelight. He stared at them for some time while hoof beats sounded through the cries of the dying.
“What did you do to him?” a voice shouted, and for a moment Gabriel hoped it might be Robyn, but the voice was too deep to be a woman’s. He parted his wrists to look at the newcomer on a palomino palfrey.
“Balien?” Nolen’s disbelieving voice asked sharply. “What are you doing here?”
It had been years since Gabriel saw Balien, but the face was the same though he had grown into a handsome man with slender legs, waist, and a thick torso. The golden hair was almost the same as Robyn’s. The Prince wore a red coat to blend in with the men, but the sword belted around his right shoulder was unlike the simple swords soldiers wore on their left hips. Balien kept a firm hold on his palfrey and looked down at Gabriel. “I asked what you did to him.”
“And I asked what you are doing here.”
Balien side-stepped his palfrey a pace towards Nolen and backhanded the Prince as hard as he could before smoothly dismounting. Nolen reeled back and flicked together a rod of Air, clubbing his cousin. Balien remained unbothered by something it looked like he was used to. He rushed to Gabriel’s side.
“Brother? Look at me. What is wrong? Stars above, you are covered in blood. Can you hear me?” He struck a high cord as his voice inflected concern. “What is wrong with him?”
“Shock, I imagine,” Nolen replied and turned to a soldier. “Where is that wagon? Go find it!”
Balien gripped Gabriel’s shoulders and gave him a shake. “Brother, look at me.” Gabriel met his eyes slowly. “Talk to me. Are you weakened? Have you lost so much blood? Did he do something?”
Gabriel put a hand on his neck, feeling the neckpiece for the first time. “He’s…gelded me.”
“Wha…?”
“My Elements,” Gabriel choked out and felt the tears fall anew. “They’re gone.”
Balien took a moment to sink in his words before he marched over to Nolen, and punched the man solidly in the jaw. Nolen managed to dodge the worst of it, but Balien’s signet ring left an impression. “You star-crossed fool, are you so blinded by greed? Remove those things at once!”
Nolen chuckled and wiped his cheek. “Not without killing him.”
“Explain.”
“The only way a Castrofax can be removed is if the Mage within dies.”
Gabriel closed his eyes as the truth sank in. ‘Trapped. Trapped forever.’
Balien stood there stupidly, staring wide-eyed at Nolen before he pointed at the Prince. “I will make your life a walking nightmare.”
Nolen took a threatening step forward. “With the power of a Class Ten at my fingers I am the strongest Mage alive, and by right I stand above your hierarchy. You would be wise to stay out of my way.”
Balien leaned forward. “You have no power over me.” He turned back to Gabriel and took a knee. “Brother, I will ride for the City and make ready for you.” He gripped Gabriel’s shoulder for a lingering moment, his face unsure.
“Go,” Gabriel whispered. Balien nodded and jumped into his palfrey’s saddle. Kicking her sides, he sped northward out of Gabriel’s vision.
“Why?” Gabriel suddenly spat out, his voice heavy with emotion. In the momentary lapse of his focus, his mind reached out to seize Spirit, and he was cruelly reminded of his fate. For a moment he latched onto the Element, but in his fatigue it slipped loose, and he grunted as though punched. Nolen smiled a little.
A lumbering carriage pulled up close by but could not reach them for the piles of bodies. The carriage looked like a moving prison painted black with two small barred windows and a well-locked door in the back. The driver jumped down and unlocked the backdoor.
Nolen pointed to several waiting soldiers and snagged a passing forth with a raw burn to the side of this face. “Get him up and in the carriage.”
Two men grabbed Gabriel’s arms lifted him. Gabriel made a pitiful attempt to resist but lacked the strength. Nolen followed them, twirling a set of three conjoined rings around one finger with a dark smirk. The men hefted Gabriel into the carriage and laid him on the bare and comfortless floor.
“You,” Nolen said to the man with the burn. “Ride with him. Make sure he does not try to kill himself or escape.” The man swallowed and gave a small nod. The doors shut behind him, locked by several deadbolts, and darkness fell on them. Blessedly, it was quiet inside.
The carriage lurched to a start, bouncing over several large objects that could only have been bodies. The soldier took a seat; his burned side turned towards Gabriel, and draped over his bent knees locking his fingers together. Gabriel watched him not sure what to say, and noticed the man’s fingers trembled. He looked again at the face. He was young and average-looking with ears a little too wide and a nose too bold. The burn scarred well up into his hair line, melting his left ear and probably leaving his eye without use. When he blinked, the lid did not fully close. Blood still seeped from his cheek and ear, and his lips trembled a little in the dark.
“How much pain are you in?” Gabriel asked softly. His mind slipped loose from the shock as it fixated on something else. For a blessed few breaths, he forgot his fate.
The boy licked his lips. “I’m not to converse with captives.”
“Then grant me your name, and I will say no more.”
The soldier gave a moment’s pause. “Lieutenant Lex Shepherd.”
Gabriel raised his hands and focused all his energy finding Spirit. Deep inside his chest, it stirred weakly, like a fluttering bird buffeted by storms, but he could still feel it. If his power was not completely gone, then at least he had some hope. He lay there for some time, struggling to seize hold of the Element he knew so well, waiting for strength to return. Finally he pulled the strings from his chest with a triumphant feeling and laid a healing pattern. ‘Let us see which Castrofax this is.’
He reached out a hand and snapped to get the boy’s attention. Lex looked like he would resist, but finally leaned to the side and raised his good eyebrow. Gabriel could usually apply a healing pattern without touching a person, but in his weakened state he did not think that possible. He touched a finger to the boy’s neck, and before Lex could pull back, Gabriel fueled the pattern.
The boy jerked back and raised a hand to his face as the skin mended, lifting the burns and scrapes to renew flesh, rebuilding the ear and eyelid, bringing light to the eye. The only thing that could not be rebuilt was the hair. Before Lex could run a hand over the new skin, Gabriel gasped and let out a silent scream as pain ripped through him.
The previously healed wounds tore back open, stretching wider this time and dig
ging deeper. As he gasped in another breath he felt the weakened ribs give, flexing as he exhaled. Pain took vision from his eyes. The scream finally found its way to his lips, and with its dying note he lost consciousness.
Chapter 17
Robyn watched the battle from Araybiatt’s saddle, clamping her legs so tightly to the destrier that Calsifer had to keep him tightly reigned. Her hands gripped the General’s shoulders as she watched volley after volley of men swarm forward only to fall back. The sounds of war filled her ears, battle cries followed by death throes. Some men even turned and ran when lightning began to fall from a cloudless sky, while others stopped to watch in horror.
After some time it occurred to her Gabriel had not used his Water Element and she knew he must have not been able to find its energy. Slipping from the saddle, she snagged Calsifer’s water canteen, dashed to the edge of the rock and shook it.
“Majesty, please get down!” Calsifer whispered and grabbing her shoulders, pulling her to a knee. “If they take him, you will need to lie convincingly that you did not know his identity.”
“They will not take him,” she replied defiantly. She had long ago lost track of the numbers dead, and at this distance, the piles of bodies could be anything from three to eight men each. She knew Gabriel’s skills, knew him well enough to have faith he would slay every man. He suddenly doubled over with an arrow in his right leg. That was right about the time the stars seemed to fall from the heavens in a terrible and wonderful display of his might. She had never seen such a thing, and her respect for him grew. The battle felt like it raged for hours, but no more than twenty minutes passed.
The smile on her lips slowly slipped as a rider broke through his defenses and Gabriel cast the man to the ground. As the horse skittered about the enclosure, to her surprise Gabriel went to the man. “What is he doing?” she whispered.
The Castrofax (Book 1) Page 14
