The Castrofax (Book 1)
Page 29
The men and few women stood where they were, frozen to the floor and chairs. All were still alive, but that would not last long. The specter stepped forward gracefully, and as she picked up her feet, she left pointed shards of ice broken off her ankles and calves.
Ryker felt the sensation of her existence come to light in the back of his head, along with the nineteen others. She stepped from the hop house and out onto the street, vanishing behind the frozen door. Twenty specters was his limit, and he always had twenty in play. If they were not burning lines across the plains or creating sudden nature growth in cities and towns, they were causing gales to break the harvest, spreading diseases of unnatural kind. Each specter was a little different, but each had to be a Mage.
He cracked out of his seat and put a foot on the ground to shift, for shifting could only be accomplished while making contact with the solid ground. The chill of the room was replaced with the temperate air of the spirit world as he made his way home. A hot meal would be waiting for him, and Prince Nolen would want to return home.
The Princeling had proven his worth and earned a little trust, but he was still just a boy and had a lot of growing up to do. He was prideful and hid his pain behind a persona he used to hurt people. Nolen had stayed the night, and Ryker sent two of his favorite girls to him, but they both returned the next morning with bruises and rope burns. Still, all his Arch Mages’ had their own issues he did not concern himself with it. What he needed were allies in this Age, and the Prince was the first of many to come. He had already pledged what was left of his Air Guard to Ryker’s cause.
Prince Nolen was in the great room, dandling a curly-haired Parion girl on his knees as she tried to pour him a goblet of wine.
“How many of mine girls are y’ t’ have before y’ leave?” Ryker asked in a slightly amused tone. He was nearly old enough to be Nolen’s father, but a pretty girl had the same effect when he was the Prince’s age as it did now.
Nolen grinned. “How many more do you have?” The girl gave a squeak as he pinched her and hopped out of his lap. She quickly poured Ryker a goblet and scampered out of the room.
“I am ready t’ take y’ back t’ Kilkiny Palace, but there is something y’ should be knowing about Overturn.” He swirled the wine in its goblet and paused. He had always been very good at the game Divided Kingdoms, and like Tiles, real life had many pieces to play. This piece would put him ahead. “It’s got a limit t’ it.”
Nolen’s face looked a little confused, but as he thought, his expression fell. “How so?”
“A Mage’s power works like a lake that is filled from one end ac drips from the other. Overturn makes the power more like a well. Y’ keep using, but it is never refilled, ac eventually it will run dry.”
Nolen looked disappointed but smoothed his features. “How long will it last?”
“He’ll make it through the wards ‘round the Silex if y’ don’t be destroying any more palaces.”
The Prince’s face became a thundercloud. “I intended on using his power to help me take the throne.”
“Overturn was the most used Castrofax in its prime because it went through captured Mages quickly. Y’ can put another Mage in it when the Class Ten dies.”
Nolen straightened sharply. “He will die?”
“Aye. When his power runs dry it will kill him, par ne Mage can be separated from his Elements.” Ryker thought this concept was simple. “So if y’ want t’ be breaking him, best be about it right-quick.”
Nolen nodded, his eyes far off in the hardwood. “Very well. I despise the Mage anyway.” His eyes were lying, but Ryker did not pry.
Ryker seized Void. “Let us be going.”
Chapter 29
Prince Nolen returned from Atrox Manor with many stories and no one to tell them to. While he was influential and powerful, there was no one he would call a friend. He used his title to distance himself. Many people had tried to befriend him, but he was suspicious of their intentions, and found that after twenty eight years, he had not a friend to his name. The person he was closest to was his cousin Balien, and he despised the man.
When he was younger, he and his sister Kindle had been the best of friends. She had unfortunately taken after their mother being delicate and insecure, and it had been Nolen’s great pride to see she was protected. Twins, they had been brought into the world together, and he felt connected to her more than any other. He missed her.
The revelation of her true fate was troubling since he would have to convince her to tell him where the Silex was. It was not a conversation he looked forward to, but if he knew his sister, she would tell him, especially if he offered her freedom.
Papers had been set out on his desk of things to sign and approve, mostly for the army. The Air Guard had suffered a terrible loss, and he found himself signing each letter that would give explanation for the man’s death, along with a year-long pay for the widowed wife or parents. The death toll would be expensive, as would training new men, but he was not in short supply of them. Some men already came running to the Guard when they heard the sweet call of danger.
Nolen slipped the copper control piece over the fingers of his left hand before he wrote, glad to feel the sweet touch of the Mage’s awesome power. He would have to be careful with the amount of power he used. Had the Mage noticed a difference? It would be a heavy blow for the man to learn of his impending death, and certainly a tile to play in breaking him.
There were notes of rumors in the palace which he read. It seemed a whore in the City claimed the babe she bore was his, someone was planning an arson attack on a family of visiting Shalabane, a ship in the harbor reportedly smuggled in illegal Cinibarian Milena blades—wickedly sharp and designed with a spring to break into four pieces once stabbed into a man—someone was stealing the Queen’s jewels—though he suspected she misplaced them herself—and there was the ever present rumor that the Class Ten was still chaste. He sighed heavily as he read on, wishing for a drink.
A servant came and went with his supper as night fell, and he ate as he thumbed through the reports and rumors. As he chased a bite with a swallow of hot wine, his eyes stopped over a new rumor. He reread it and set the mug down.
A well-respected midwife to the nobles died of old age last month, and in her will she stated Queen Miranda has no claim to the throne for she is not the daughter of Queen Gwenin.
He crumpled the paper and tossed it into the fire, watching it crackle and burn. He returned to his desk and wrote a quick note to the man who penned the rumors. ‘Any man repeating that rumor is to have his tongue struck from his mouth for heresy. Find the family of the midwife and have them all killed.’ He would leave it in the rookery where he and all his spies left their communications.
As he returned to his meal and notes, the wind gusted through the crack in his window and with it brought anxious voices. He ignored them and realized it had grown too dark to read. Before he snapped his fingers to create a flame, but caught himself, and instead fetched a firebrand from the fire to light a few wicks.
Returning to his pages, he sat for no more than a minute when frenzied pounding sounded on his door. Balien shoved it open before Nolen could cross the room. The Prince looked worried, and his golden hair fell over his eyebrows, windblown out of its usual disarray.
“Look in the skies,” he said breathlessly. “Quickly.”
Nolen moved to the window and opened it, but he knew what he was looking for. The night sky was dark blue like usual, holding onto the last vestiges of sunlight, and overhead the stars winked along with the moon hanging in the east, but tonight there was something more. High overhead to the south was a brilliant white light that seemed to have two curving tendrils to it. It was easy to tell it was not part of this word, but far beyond. It was brighter than all the stars, competing even with the moon.
“What is it?” Nolen asked as Balien joined him. His cousin smelled of sandalwood and lavender. “It is not a comet.” He could hear people talking from
open windows around him, and in the courtyard below people gathered and pointed skyward.
“No—those have a single long tail. I think it is an exploded star,” Balien replied quickly. “And we have someone in the palace known for breaking them.”
Nolen snapped his head to look down at his cousin who stood a few inches shorter. “You do not think he will be—”
“I do, and people are stupid. You need to protect him since you took his ability to protect himself.”
“Where is he?”
“I saw him leaving his rooms with an Arconian after supper.”
Nolen grabbed his Mage cloak and quickly buckled it as he strode from his quarters with Balien hot on his heels. His cousin had his familiar golden sword Harbinger strapped over his right shoulder. Balien had a soft heart, a softer heart than a Prince should have, and though he used violence sparingly, he knew well how to use the gold-covered short sword.
“Where would he go?” Nolen asked. He was surprised to realize he knew nothing of the man he kept prisoner. Not that he wanted to. He did not even care to say or think his name, calling him Mage to help distance himself from the Class Ten. They ran to the stairs and heard raised voices.
“Follow those,” Balien replied and pushed past, taking the steps two at a time. They raced down the stairs to the bottom level, passing people who looked frightened as they stared out the windows on each landing.
On the bottom floor Nolen paced a quick circle as he looked for any sign of his Mage. Most people stood at the windows talking in amazed tones, but the doors to the outside green nestled in center of the palace were open, and from them he heard a shout. He would recognize that man’s screams anywhere, having been entertained by them for four days. He started racing, Balien right behind him.
The outside air was brisk, but the buildings sheltered the green from wind. The green was more of a lush garden, boasting great old trees and hedges hiding benches. Nolen used to steal away into the rooms created by hedges when he first came to the palace at sixteen to kiss the servant girls. The space was lit by tall lanterns and a few burning torches, casting a little light, but the burst star threw its own blue glow tonight.
The Mage with his midnight locks stood off to one side of the green, backing up through rosebushes with a pinched face. The sheen of sweat on his face said he had run, and the edges of his shirt untucked said he had already been assaulted. A woman hung off his right arm holding a broad silvery shield of ice over her forearm. Before them was a gathering of palace folk, mostly servants, but Nolen recognized several of the upper class who socialized within the walls.
“What is the meaning of this?” a man yelled. “Why break more?” shouted another. “He broke the stars once, he will kill us all!” “It is an omen! The skies are fighting against him!”
The crowd surged forward and the Mage went down, pushing the Arconian off his arm and out of the way. Nolen raced into the thick of it.
“Get off!” Nolen shouted, pulling a man out of the way. Balien positioned a woman soundly onto a bench with a grip on her collar. “Unhand him!” Nolen was hesitant to use the Mage’s ever-present power.
“DID YOU NOT HEAR YOUR PRINCES?” Balien shouted above the cacophony. That seemed to get attention, and as people paused to look, Nolen pushed into the heart of the crowd.
The Mage lay on his back, his vest torn open, his shirt ripped around the front laces and soiled with dirt. He had a black smudge across one cheek, leaves in his hair, and there were three claw marks across his neck filling with tiny spots of blood. He kicked a man off his leg and scrabbled with another who reached for his throat, but Nolen shoved the man to his backside.
“This Mage is my property, and you will do well to remember that!” Nolen bellowed. “He has no control over his Elements anymore, so he did not do this,” he pointed to the burst star, “and neither did I. Mages do not have the capability of touching the skies.”
“Ages ago when they were stronger they could! This Mage was born out of his time to bring an end to us!” a man shouted.
“It is an omen, my Prince,” a noble argued. “Something terrible is going to happen.”
“Return to your houses!” Balien yelled. “This man is not to be molested again.” He had unsheathed Harbinger in the fray, and in the silver moonlight and gold firelight looked a true Prince of Anatoly.
The woman who had been on the Mage’s arm stooped to brush him off, and Nolen had to help him up. The Mage muttered his thanks and let the woman dust him down; she was very thorough.
“I didn’t do it,” he said quietly, as they looked to the massive star between two towers. Once finished, the woman looped her arm through his again and held on tightly with long fingers.
“Do you know what it is?” Nolen asked as Balien joined them.
“A burst star I imagine.” The Mage pointed a finger and traced a circle. “That grouping is the striking serpent, and I think that star was in the end of the tail.”
“What is a burst star?” the woman asked.
“Sometimes brilliant stars fade to a faint red, then explode.”
“What else could it be than a star?” Balien said quietly.
Nolen sneered. “The populous will come up with a thousand-thousand answers.” He looked at the woman who gave him a sultry smile. “Are your rooms close by?” She nodded. “You will stay there the night,” he said to his Mage. “See he finds his way,” he looked at the woman whose grin broadened.
Hateful eyes watched them go as the crowd buckled around them, warily keeping an eye on Nolen. Balien stepped up to Nolen’s side and folded his arms.
“Do you know what you have got yourself into, cousin? I think you will find this is beyond you. His power was meant for him alone. You do not know how to use it.”
“I just said I did not do that,” Nolen gestured to the skies angrily.
“No, Nolen. Gabriel was shaped and trained not only in body but in character to use his Elements. By taking them from him you have upset the balance of a Class Ten and therefore the very world in which you stand.”
“This is rich coming from a non-Mage.”
Balien fixed him with an indignant glare. “I would have to have my senses taken from me to not see the upset. Someday soon you will have to answer to the Head Mage and all of Jaden, and I warrant Casimir will take him from you.”
“It will never come to that.”
“You fool yourself if you think that, cousin.”
“It will not, because soon I will break him.” Nolen rocked on his heels. “And then I will kill him.”
-End
Continue the story here with book two:
Breaking Stars
Other Books by Jenna Van Vleet
The Father of the Fifth Age series
The Castrofax
Breaking Stars
Unlocking Void
Chasing Bloodlines
Felling Kingdoms
About The Author
Reality is boring, and Jenna realized that very early on. If she was not reading fantasy, she was writing it. As an artist she dabbles in everything from costuming, portrait art, and leather crafting. She currently resides in Utah with her husband, and is 15 cats away from being crazy.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
About The Author