Prophecy of Light - Unleashed

by RJ Crayton

  Nigel shook his head. “I want to go,” he said. “I want to know if there’s anything important in your house. I mean, if I can help you find the people who took your aunt.”

  “We know where they are,” I told him. “We can’t go there because it’s dangerous. Like that house.”

  “But I think it’s only dangerous if you try to go,” Akilah protested. “I think there may be something there, something that will help you unlock your problem.”

  Akilah was being purposefully vague around Nigel. I’d told her about my problem — that I couldn’t remember anything from the time before I was four years old. Not that I think I would have had tons of toddler memories, but were it not for the lock on my mind, I would have had at least one or two. Instead, my mind always drew a blank. Pylum said it was because my aunt locked both my memories and my magic deep inside my mind. Pylum thought her capture would allow my magic to come out. But what has come out has been very limited. My magic appears when I’m not thinking about performing it. Whenever I’ve tried to call my powers, they’ve ignored me. I hated it.

  I was about to tell Nigel again that I thought it was a bad idea when he ran off. In my mind, I heard him say, I’ll be at your old house in a few minutes. I’ll talk to you again when I arrive.

  I looked at Akilah, biting my lip in worry. “He went.”

  She clicked her tongue and flashed a cocky smile. “You worry too much, little one. Things will work out.”

  Chapter 3 - A Message

  Things did not work out. At least not in what I’d call a good way. Nigel spoke in my mind as he arrived at the house, showing me the image of the bakery’s rear door. That mottled doorway was so familiar to me, I warmed inside. This was the one place I ever remembered really feeling like home.

  A surge of sadness overcame me as I thought of the last time I was ushered through that doorway, in a haze of dust as Zygam attacked our home and forced us into the night.

  I grimaced as my mind watched Nigel push the door open and step forward. And then — nothing. Everything stopped. Not everything, per se, but my connection with him. Something about him crossing the threshold had severed our link. Even though I wasn’t sure why his images disappeared, I felt certain he hadn’t stopped trying to connect with me. Something or someone else had caused him to disappear.

  I turned to Akilah. “Something’s wrong,” I croaked out. “I can feel it. The second he walked in, everything went dark. By a spell.”

  Akilah put a hand on my arm and furrowed her brow. “How do you know?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know how. I just do.”

  Her face hardened and she sucked in a steely breath. “Stay here,” she said, stepping away from me. “I’m going to go after him.” She looked toward the market, as if assessing something, then back at me. She reached into her bag, pulled out a small round stone, and pressed it into my hand. “If I don’t come back in twenty minutes, call for Pylum.”

  I looked down at the stone she’d just forced upon me. It must have been a trace stone. The first time we met, she’d given me one. When I’d called her, she and Pylum had come almost immediately. I didn’t want to be in a position of needing help again.

  Akilah bit her lower lip and muttered a curse. “If someone comes here looking for you, someone you don’t know, call Pylum. Or try to port back to the temple.”

  Port back to the temple? Was she crazy? “Pylum said portal magic was dangerous if you didn’t know what you were doing.

  She nodded. “He’s right,” she said. “But he also said you were very gifted, that you’d created a portal at two years old. If he’s right, that knowledge is locked in there somewhere, and you’re able to access it in an emergency, so if you have an emergency …”

  She didn’t finish her sentence. Instead, she turned and darted into the market, leaving me alone.

  I paced the little alleyway, wondering what was happening. I tried to reinitiate my psychic connection with Nigel, but I didn’t know how I’d done it in the first place, so doing it again was pretty much impossible.

  I was becoming frustrated enough that I was considering checking on them myself when Akilah returned. Alone.

  “Where’s Nigel?”

  She shook her head. “He left. He wouldn’t talk to me, just gave me this,” she said, thrusting a note forward.

  I took the brown parchment and looked at it. Printed in black ink were two short sentences.

  Dirah,

  I will gladly return your aunt. You just need come to me.

  Your Alab.

  * * *

  Akilah sat and listened without really listening. She knew she’d messed up. Pylum’s — well, for lack of a better phrase, piling on, didn’t help.

  “You promised me you would be safe. You promised me it was just to help her get some familiarity, to relax. And instead you went the one place you promised me you wouldn’t go.”

  Technically, Akilah had promised not to take Kady to the house. And she’d kept her word. Kady hadn’t gone there. But she wasn’t sure that pointing out that distinction again was going to help her case. She fiddled briefly with the chain at her neck, a gift Pylum had given her not long after she arrived at the temple. At the time, he’d told her the necklace with the rocky pendant on the end was a sign of trust to show he had faith in her.

  She let go of the chain and leaned forward, deciding to remind him his faith in her was not misplaced. “Master Pylum,” she said softly. “I understand how upset you are. It was not my intention to disappoint you.”

  “Your intention matters not. What matters at the moment was the result. The result is that you put Dirah in danger. I expected better of you. I need to be able to trust you.”

  Akilah felt a lump in her throat with that. She hadn’t wanted to disappoint Pylum or lose his trust. Though, truth be told, despite what he always said about trusting her, he didn’t really. Yes, he sent her on important errands, sometimes, but he never sought her advice. When she offered it, he discounted it. If you trusted a person, you valued their opinion. Yes, she was young. Yes, she knew she didn’t know everything. But nobody knew everything. She still had thoughts that were valid. Everything she said should not have been disregarded or considered unwise.

  “I’m sorry, Master Pylum,” she said again. “And I realize now it was a mistake, but at the very least, we are aware of Zygam’s demands. That must be helpful. Before, we didn’t know.”

  Pylum stared at her for a moment. In those few seconds when his eyes met hers, two things became very clear: First, that Pylum had known Zygam’s demand. He’d known it before she’d shown him the note. And second, that Pylum had had no intention of telling Kady about it.

  “You are restricted to the temple for the next two weeks,” Pylum said. “Return to your quarters.”

  Akilah nodded and left Pylum’s office. She quickly wound her way through the temple, passing a few students in the halls and hearing a few whispers as she passed. It wasn’t the first time she’d been whispered about, so she pushed it from her mind. She didn’t care what others thought. That had never been her thing. Some people were like that, always wanting everyone to love them, wanting everyone to approve. All she wanted was a place to call home. Friends and family were a plus, but mostly she wanted to be accepted as she was. And the people who didn’t, well they could go leap into a pit of vipers. She was who she was, and there was nothing to do but live with it.

  She arrived in her room and found Kady sitting on her mattress. The rooms weren’t tiny, but they weren’t enormous, either. They were big enough to accommodate two mattresses and personal space for each person’s things. The mattress could be rolled and tucked away if a person wanted more space, but Akilah tended to leave hers unrolled at all times. Kady had the same habit, but Akilah wasn’t sure if Kady had been following Akilah’s lead or if this was also her natural tendency. At the moment, Kady was reading a book, one of the ones on the basics of magic.

  Kady looked up from her book and w
atched Akilah for a moment before speaking. “Was he really angry?”

  Akilah shrugged. “He was angry, but he’ll get over it.” He would. Pylum was, at heart, a reasonable man. She’d tested his limits before. She had straddled a line, but not crossed it. Kady looked expectant, as if she wanted more. But Akilah had nothing else to say.

  “What does he plan to do about the note?”

  “Nothing,” she said. “I think he already knew about it.”

  Kady closed the book. “What do you mean he already knew about it? Why didn’t he tell me?”

  That seemed obvious, so Akilah wasn’t sure if Kady wanted an answer. After the girl offered her another expectant look, Akilah said, “Because he doesn’t intend to accept the offer. So why mention it?”

  Kady bit her lip. “But if I went there, I could escape after he let Auntie go.”

  Akilah shook her head. This girl was not thinking. “Your aunt closed your mind for a reason, dear. Zygam is a powerful mage. Perhaps once he had you within his reach, he could force you to stay, force you to think the way he thinks.”

  Kady shook her head. “He can’t do that,” she said. “My mind isn’t weak.”

  Then why lock it? Akilah kept her mouth shut. There was a reason Kady’s aunt had locked her mind. Actually, there were probably multiple reasons, and a weak mind struck Akilah as a decent possibility. She liked Kady, but her naiveté was something that Akilah both envied and reviled. On the one hand, Kady’s lack of knowledge of the wickedness of the world, her desire to do good, to be good, was admirable. Akilah wished she were able to see the world in such a way. But that naiveté also led to Kady not realizing certain things. Like that her aunt’s good intentions were because of Kady’s own weakness. Though if Akilah had learned anything here at the Hakari Ahet, it was not to speak your mind when what you were thinking was destructive. “Your mind is as strong as you make it,” she told Kady. “If you believe it is unbreakable, it will be.”

  She hoped that were true. Pylum had told her that mages had the ability to transform their worlds. And that is what Akilah had striven so hard for since she’d been here. Her life before had been darkness and pain, but she’d managed to hold onto some light and survive. It was why Pylum had been willing to take her in when others had suggested he not. She remembered his words — “Let the light lead you.” She tried. And she would continue to try. The light was really all she had left.

  Chapter 4 - Acclimating

  Zygam stood in the dark room of the temple. The moon would be out soon, and he could draw strength from that. He assumed that was why he’d made the connection with Dirah that one time.

  No, he was lying to himself. She’d made the connection with him. She’d always had that ability to invade his mind, even when she was little.

  He used to think he’d forged the connection between them, but it hadn’t been him. It had always been her. And she’d been silent since that night a week ago. He’d tried to make contact with her several times, but nothing. He needed her to come to the temple. He needed her to take her place. The prophecy pointed to Kadirah. The child of light would enchant the amulet as a babe. The child of light would have light within that was bright enough to tame Elpida.

  He needed her to tame the amulet, to allow him to channel all of its power. He needed full use of the stone, and she was the only one who could give it to him.

  The skylight above still let in sunlight. He looked down in front of him. Talitha was still and quiet laid out before him. She’d been dressed in a white moon robe, and her face had been coated in powdery white moon dust. In the inky black of the night sky, they’d painted glyphs meant to keep her power contained, but to project her essence.

  Sometimes his own brilliance amazed him. With Talitha like this, it should keep Kadirah’s magic fairly contained, too. She should feel enough of her aunt’s essence that the charm to hide Kadirah’s power would stay in place. At the same time, the fact that Talitha was actually not with her niece would drive the girl to seek her aunt out. She’s here, Kadirah, waiting for you.

  Zygam had contacted Pylum about making an exchange, an attempt to get her near enough so that he could make her stay, but the dwarf was no fool. Still, Zygam thought Pylum might let it slip to Dirah, which was all he needed. He knew from experience that you couldn’t spend years depending on just one other person and not be committed wholeheartedly to them. Kadirah would do anything for Talitha, he was sure. The note had been a backup plan. But it worked. She’d gone for it. Not quite her, but she’d sent someone for it, and she’d seen it. He knew she would come.

  He looked down at Talitha, so still, so unmoving, painted in the colors of her enemies. He smiled with vengeance as he spoke to the woman he’d trapped in stasis. “I searched for her for ten years, so when all is said and done, you will spend ten years in agony.”

  * * *

  Getting used to life at Hakari Ahet was a bit of an adjustment. For so long it had been only me and Auntie together. I really only talked to her for any extended conversations. That was a way for us to keep hidden. But here, people didn’t hide. They basked in the light and smiled and said hello and wanted to chatter. These were all the things I’d been told to avoid.

  The temple was a fairly large building with lots of archways, conical towers, and crevices. It was surrounded by many gardens, and inside it teemed with people of varying ages and purposes. There was a family wing where families stayed. I didn’t go there. A student wing held those of us who were students. Some students stayed with their families if they lived here, but most seemed to stay in the student wing.

  Akilah had gone to see one of the teachers here, Master Shanzu, who taught glyphs — the magical symbols that glowed in the air. My aunt had used one to create a hole for me to hide in on the night that Zygam captured her. Zygam and Pylum had fought with glyphs the next night. I was not adept with glyphs, but Akilah was very good with them.

  Presently, I was on my way to the healing room, where Master Yaritza waited for me. She was the lead healer here. The day after Pylum brought me to the temple, he asked Master Yaritza to give me a checkup and make sure I was in good health. He wanted to confirm there was no physical cause for my lack of magic. My initial tests had shown I was well, but Yaritza had said there were a couple of long-term tests she wanted to do.

  I arrived in the healing room, a spacious section on the first floor with many windows. The room was sectioned off by curtained areas that held beds. Only one of the curtains was closed, so I assumed someone was in it.

  Master Yaritza was looking over some sheets of parchment at a desk in the corner when I came in. She looked up and smiled at me. Today she was wearing a sunset orange-colored tunic. I noticed the people here tended to like colors that were shades of the sun — yellows, reds and oranges. Sometimes, people wore browns, too. Pylum liked dark browns and sometimes black. Though on the night that he’d come to my rescue, he’d been in yellow.

  “Kady,” Master Yaritza said. Rising, she grabbed a handful of papers and walked over to me. “You’re here for your results?”

  I nodded. She smiled and she looked really pretty. She had olive skin, like a lot of the people here, but her hair was a beautiful rich red. It seemed as if she had been kissed by a sunset. She had hazel eyes that seemed to change colors slightly with the right angle, switching to a hint of green. Her disposition was warm and kind, and I could see why she’d decided to become a healer. You automatically felt warm around her.

  “Follow me,” she said, turning and leading me over to one of the areas sectioned off with a curtain. Once inside the area, she closed the curtain.

  “Aus-malt” she said softly, and above us a golden shower of sparks created what sort of looked like a net and then disappeared.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “Just a privacy incantation,” she said with a smile. “There’s another patient, so I just want to make sure only you can hear our conversation.”

  I frowned. People only
told you bad stuff in private. “My tests weren’t good.”

  She shook her head. “No, your tests were great,” she said, smiling. “I was quite pleased to find nothing wrong with you. Your first tests showed you were quite healthy, but I did a couple more just to see if there’s anything that could be preventing your magic. Nothing that I could tell. No lepronschy, no falsoop, and I even did the Ghazer test. That was negative, too. So nothing for you to worry about there.”

  “So those tests mean no disease is stopping me from using my magic?”

  Master Yaritza nodded. “The lepronschy and falsoop are diseases that can rob you of magic, but they’re pretty rare. Ghazer is an illness that’s also decently rare, but it’s deadly.”

  Deadly. I was surprised. “Why was I tested for that?”

  Master Yaritza stared at me a moment, then looked down at the papers in her hand. “Master Pylum asked for me to test for it,” she said, looking up at me and offering a reassuring smile. “I think he just wanted to make sure you were completely healthy. Ghazer is a disease similar to the tumors the nonmagical people get. It spreads quickly through the body, and if we don’t catch it early, it can’t be cured.”

  I was going to ask her something else when she spoke again.

  “Are you getting along well enough here? Are you starting to feel at home yet?”

  Was I? No. No place felt like home without Auntie. “I’m doing well enough,” I said, trying to sound positive. The people here seemed to like positivity. “I’m really just trying to focus on getting my magic to work.”

  She nodded and then stood. “I think it will come. It just needs time, and you need to relax. Trying to compel magic never works. Relax and it will come to you.” She opened the curtain. I supposed that was the cue we were done.

  “Thanks,” I said, and with that, I left.