Gabriel sucked in a breath and looked up at her. His eyes were full of so many emotions she could hardly read them. Surprise, horror, worry, embarrassment, and something new—despair perhaps, or something passed the point of exhaustion?
“What are you doing here,” he whispered and looked across the dais to where Nolen slowly stepped away. Robyn’s hands went to the cord and untied it.
“Leave that alone,” Nolen called over his shoulder.
“Shut your stupid mouth,” she yelled back before she thought better. The women behind her fell silent.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Gabriel whispered. “You—you—this is the last place you should be.”
“I’m coming back for you,” she replied, loosening the cord enough for him to slip a hand loose. “I’m coming to save you.” She saw the copper binds around his wrists as he brought them forward and felt a knot rise in her throat. She hoped her eyes had tricked her in the battle, but seeing them this close made her spirit fall.
“You will do no such thing.” He propped himself on an elbow and adjusted his askew shirt. His hair was flopped to the wrong side it usually fell, and Robyn gently pushed it back to fall to the right.
“I will. I have family to the east, and we will return for you and free you.”
He put a warm hand on her arm. “You can’t,” he whispered. “You know what these binds are.” His voice caught a little, and he looked away. Something inside him fought to regain his calm, and she knew he did it for her. “You know the only way I will be free of them.”
“There has to be a way,” she retorted. “Bring you to the edge of death and pull you back. If there is a way I will find it.”
“There isn’t.”
“Then I won’t stop looking until I’ve found one.” She put a hand on his waist, knowing it might be the last time she would touch him for a while. “No one will take you from me.”
He sighed, and for a moment she saw inside his mind through his eyes. He was fighting but splintering. She knew it was only a matter of time before he lost his grip on what strength he had left. “I’m not your Gabriel anymore,” he said, and the extra light-spot came to his eyes that betrayed the tears he held back.
“I will stop at nothing to free you,” she whispered. She took up his left hand and pulled something from a pocket. “I will return before the next moon.” Slowly she worked the object onto his middle finger, feeling it give as it molded to him. “I have never taken you for granted, I have always respected you, I have forever considered you my best friend.” Her voice caught in her throat, and she swallowed to get the last line out she practiced for four days. She finished slipping the band onto his finger. “And I have always loved you.”
She quickly bent forward taking a handful of his hair and put a kiss on his forehead. She breathed in the earthy smell of his raven locks and rose before he could say anything, but she saw the shock on his face. The tears spilled down her cheeks as she strode away and General Calsifer standing off by the doors gave her a sympathetic smile. Quickly she rushed down the steps, sparing a summoning glance for Aisling, and walked out of the room.
Aisling was quick to follow, slipping through the doors before they closed. Robyn awaited the tirade. Instead, Aisling gingerly took up her hands and squeezed them.
“I am sorry,” she said, but it pushed Robyn passed her threshold of emotions, and she broke down, weeping into Aisling’s shoulder. Calsifer warily turned to the window.
Robyn regained her emotions quickly and dried her cheeks. Aisling dabbed at her own eyes. “I have been waiting for you.”
“So the General told me,” Robyn replied. “I am sorry I did not send you a letter, but we feared…. It seems silly now. We would have been safer here than out there.”
“Do not be so certain. Nolen has been digging his claws in for years.”
“I am riding to Jetova to stay with the Estrins. Calsifer will be accompanying me.”
“I would rather have you ride to Castle Jaden. There is evil loose on the world. Mage Ryker Slade has awoken and escaped.”
Robyn closed her eyes. Her mind worked quickly, putting together the pieces. She knew the name well having lived with two Mages. “I knew Nolen’s sudden interest in Gabriel was suspicious.”
“I fear it is more than coincidence.”
“I will return by my twentieth birth anniversary for my throne and my Gabriel. If Ryker is still loose, we will handle it together.”
“I will do all I can to hold it for you, but Nolen will try to take the throne. He has been vying for it for years.”
“Shame he was born with male parts,” Robyn sneered. “The Anatolians will not stand for a ruling King. What does he have planned for Gabriel?”
When Aisling hesitated, Calsifer turned to look at her.
“He’s going to hurt him,” Robyn whispered.
Calsifer nodded. “The Prince will try to break him, yes.”
“When?” Robyn breathed. Aisling shook her head. “Can you get him some boswellia herbs for the pain?”
“Your bother has a stash of poppy and white willow bark. We will see Gabriel receives some,” she squeezed Robyn’s hands. “Gabriel is not alone here.”
“What is the Head Mage going to do about this?”
Aisling thinned her lips. “I do not know, but I imagine it will be harsh.”
“Let us hope so,” Calsifer sighed.
“Please send word to the Estrins if something happens.” She paused and looked at the fine gray marble floor. “I—I don’t want to know what Nolen does to him. Don’t write me of it.” Robyn said and broke away. “Come on, General.” Calsifer stepped in line without hesitation, giving Aisling a polite nod. They agreed to stay one night in the City but only long enough to rest on something softer than dirt. By morning they would be away with the sun.
Aisling watched the young Princess go with a sense of longing, wishing she could be as carefree as the girl. The child grew into a beautiful woman, and anyone other than Miranda would make a better Queen. If only that day were today. Reality dragged her back into the throne room, entering to hear the tail end of a tirade from the Prince. He had Gabriel by the throat and threw him back a step, but Gabriel was not giving up, and he slugged the Prince in the cheek, taking him down several stairs.
“Boys, boys!” Miranda shouted as their fists flew. Aisling ran up to watch but did not stop them, knowing Gabriel needed this as much as she did. She silently urged him on.
The fight lasted only a few punches before Nolen kicked Gabriel back a few strides. He reached into his coat pocket and drew out the copper control piece. Gabriel stopped himself from attacking and waited to see what Nolen would do. Nolen slipped the conjoined rings onto his left hand and straightened the fingers of his right to lay a pattern, but stopped, his eyes wide and unfocused. His mouth fell agape as his fingers pulled back one at a time to draw a line of each Element from Gabriel’s chest. His gaze finally sharpened, and his mouth snapped shut as he drew the lines around him. The fight had gone out of him.
“How do you…how do you handle such power?” he finally whispered. His hands were shaking.
“Not without great difficulty,” Gabriel replied, clipping his words.
“Show me a pattern.”
Gabriel snapped two fingers together without drawing an Element. “Go light yourself on fire.” Aisling smiled, having seen him lay the fire-starter pattern before.
Nolen passed the comment off without batting an eyelash. “Show me a real pattern.”
Gabriel put both hands against his chest and drew them away. He pulled two green lines of Earth, and carefully manipulated them into a simple pattern. Releasing the threads before they were fueled, he held them long enough to show Nolen.
“What does that do?”
“It makes a sharp piece of wood.”
“What do you do with it?”
“You sit on it,” Gabriel replied and folded his arms.
Nolen pulled the control piece off
his hand, and whatever wonders he experienced left him with a tight face as he broke the connection. He snapped towards the main door to the guards and beckoned them closer. “Escort this man to the dungeons.”
“No, Nolen, he stays with us.”
Aisling slowly looked at the Queen who stood defiantly, clenching her fists. Whatever encouraging talk they had before must have taken root.
“Mother, I have warned you to stay out of my business.”
“The moment he arrived, he became my business,” she replied calmly. “Mage Gabriel, would you kindly escort me to my chambers?”
Gabriel gave a proper bow and left Nolen looking a fool as he extended an elbow to the Queen. She took it most graciously and let him lead her out after he fixed Nolen with a triumphant glare. Aisling smiled, seeing Cordis in the boy. If it was the only smile she had for a while, it was enough to get her through another couple days.
Chapter 19
Councilwoman Adelaide spurred her racing charger harder to keep pace with Councilman Galloway several strides ahead of her. This close to the blaze, they could hear the crackling of dried brush that burned a winding line across Jaden. Heat assaulted their hands and faces, making Adelaide’s eyes water.
From the watchtowers a fire had been spotted late the night before; a burning ribbon that seemed to stretch endlessly south-eastward. Fire Mages dispatched to quench the flames, but as they pulled flames and embers from the earth, more dispensed from the head of the trail and whatever was causing the fire.
The fire started in the middle of a field nearby no homes or towns, and it strangely seemed to move with purpose. Adelaide had been riding for hours pulling flames into her hands with a team of four others. The ashes mixed with her moist skin to leave sooty streaks across her tan face, but she wore a black coat that hid some of the ash. Galloway rode ahead to see if there was an end to the ribbon. He was a stocky man in his later forties with silvery temples mixing with brown hair, but his neatly trimmed goatee was still dark. A native of the Parion Kingdom in the far south, he was not the best horseman, but where he lacked in horsemanship he made up in fashion. The best fabrics and styles came out of Parion, and today, like every day, he wore a fashionable hat to match the sturdy brown riding jacket. He met up with Adelaide much later with a worried face. “There is a town up ahead.”
The town sat against a hillside, a small hamlet of farmers, and Adelaide spotted it as she crested a hill. Her long braid caught in the mountain wind that drew the flames eastward. An old stone carving of a woman’s head set in a long post stood randomly in a field of rock to mark the territory boarder to Anatoly. Adelaide looked across to the hamlet still miles away and saw the front of the blaze. Fire flashed from something moving very quickly, jerking right and left in sporadic fashion. It was a mile and a half away, and at this distance she could not tell what it was.
She turned to the Fire Mages with her. “I am riding ahead.” Spurring her charger again, she galloped to the start of the blaze. Galloway joined her, urging his steed into a gallop. He was an invaluable asset as one of the very few who wielded both Water and Fire at a Class Five. He slung a jug of water around his saddle to pull the energy he needed in the hot air.
They gained on the head, judging if they would reach it before it tore through the hamlet. Adelaide’s horse was bred to be a runner, and she soon took the lead with Galloway’s leave. Her horse lathered at the mouth and breathed heavily, but the head was not much further away.
The town was not too far off now, but Adelaide was fast approaching the head. Casting a glance over her shoulder, she saw Galloway still a dozen or more strides off keeping pace. With each stride forward, the head became ever clearer. Shapes emerged from the fire and she thought she saw a hand, and when she looked hard, she saw hooves flashing. Her skin prickled despite the heat as she came abreast far more than just fire.
A naked lady with streaming hair sat bareback astride a bone-skinny, long-legged horse. Both burned as surely as the flames of a hearth fire, neither catching fire nor smoking like wood. The horse rose and fell with the landscape, jumping high into the air to clear a boulder, while the woman hung on tightly with white-fire fists into its flaming mane. Adelaide let her charger pick his path as she stared at the spectacle. The woman must have been a Fire Mage far outranking herself, but Adelaide felt her chest tighten as the woman slowly turned her face.
She was a Fire Mage, that was certain, but Councilwoman Selene was ranked a modest Class Five, and something so grand was beyond her capability. Adelaide knew such things were not possible, for the eyes that stared out of Selene’s head were void, raging white flames that saw nothing. Adrenaline coursed through her as she realized what she saw was not a living woman but a specter.
The specter opened her mouth revealing white flames within, and her brows furrowed in a terrifying expression. Adelaide pulled so hard on her mount’s reins that he skidded to a halt, nearly throwing her altogether.
Galloway reined his horse in, his eyes wide and curious as he came up.
“It is a specter of Selene,” Adelaide shouted.
Galloway wasted no time, vaulting from the saddle. “Give me your horse,” he commanded, grabbing his flask of water.
She slid off one side as he mounted the other. Galloway was off before her, one hand out as he searched the area for water. The hamlet was a quarter mile off now, and the specter had gained distance. As Selene reached the town, Galloway diverted around it. Adelaide reached the town only a minute later, but already the fire began to spread. People ran screaming, throwing soil on everything burning.
Dropping the reins, Adelaide threw out her arms and drew the flames into her hands. The amount of flames quickly doubled and sapped her waning stamina, but she reached to every ember to pull it in. Her eyes closed, and her head slipped back as all her energy drained the flames. Her horse slowed to a canter as it reached the center of the hamlet, and a flock of frightened sheep ran about. She opened her eyes to see the specter not far off.
A rain bucket to her left suddenly burst, spilling water into the ground followed by several barrels. The water vanished into the ground quickly, and Adelaide knew Galloway was mounting an attack. As the specter reached the end of the hamlet, Galloway suddenly appeared with a hand held high.
Water erupted from the ground and seared through the specter. Either Selene or the horse let out an unearthly screech, and the steed skidded to a stop and reared. Selene’s fiery arms flung out as the water enveloped them, quenching the flames. Ever so slowly the horse sank into the water. It screamed and clawed at the air, its hooves catching fire as it dried. Selene, now a pale blue outline, clenched her legs onto the horse’s belly and fell backwards across its bony spine. As she hit the water, she began to sink.
Her pale blue eye sockets widened as she scrabbled at the water, reaching a hand out onto the soil that abruptly caught alight. Her mouth opened in a scream before her face vanished into the muddy soil. The horse was quick to follow, its mane catching alight, and it sank into the soil with a hiss. As inexplicably as it appeared, it vanished.
Galloway sat slumped over his saddle, wiping a shaking hand across his brow. The effort must have drained his stamina, for he lacked the strength to sit straight. His mount slowly picked its way towards her horse as she continued pulling flames from the road.
“Was anyone wounded?” Adelaide called out, straightening her braid with one hand as she drew the last of the flames up from the road.
A gathered group of people at the far end of the town parted, and a wail reached her ears. Someone had been killed. She urged her mount to a trot and dismounted upon the group, pulling a sheepherder out of her way. A slender older woman knelt on the ground, her arms wrapped around a boy no older than fourteen. His head had been kicked in, and the skin around it horribly burned.
Adelaide knew condolences would be wasted coming from a woman the farmwife did not know, so put her hands over the boy’s wounds, drawing the last of the heat from them, so the
y would not smolder or fester.
The weeping woman looked at her. “Who will answer for this?”
Adelaide put her hand over the woman’s knee. She chose her tone carefully, making sure the woman knew revenge was imminent, and she was not speaking figuratively. She narrowed her eyes and hissed her reply.
“A dead man.”
Chapter 20
Gabriel felt as though the world had paused while he kept moving. His mind kept retracing the battle, writing a different ending, and trying to believe it. With every drawn breath the Castrofax around his neck shifted, pressing never-warming metal against his skin in a cold reminder of his fate. ‘How could it be that a simple object could hold back such a great power?’
The Elements in his chest pulsed so faintly, and if he did not think about them, they vanished completely. He kept going back to them, anxious for the familiar touch that seemed just out of his reach. He had not used them since the incident in the wagon, but oh how desperately he wanted them. He felt like he was holding a breath, and when he exhaled it would be back to normal, but that exhale never came.
Nothing was the same anymore. He used to change the temperature of a bath with a wave of his hand, burn a fire long past what logs allowed, and shave without the use of a blade. Everything seemed so dull now, like he was looking through a foggy pane of glass. He had to relearn everything overnight.
When he was alone and undistracted, the desperation came on more strongly. His world had been taken from him forever, but his mind kept him in a solid state of denial. ‘Perhaps there was a way out of it like Robyn said. Perhaps I could be brought to the edge of death and revived.’ Countless others had worn the Castrofax and died in them.
The Castrofax (Book 1) Page 17
