by Kara Jaynes
But if not him, who, or what? My thoughts drifted to the demons. They had been imprisoned, but were now free, wreaking havoc on my old world. Was it them? Was their reach beginning to extend as far as this realm? I didn't like the thought of that, but it seemed far more likely to me.
But how could they reach this far?
The darkness in the fog. I shuddered, banishing the memory. I hoped matters would become clearer in a few hours. In the meantime, I needed to sleep.
18
Glacia
When I got back to the inn, I stopped by Taloos’s room. The beast tamer was crouched on the floor, rifling through his pack.
“What are you up to?” I asked.
Taloos flinched and closed the pack. “Nothing,” he said. “Just going through my belongings. How are your studies coming at the library?”
I shrugged. “I think I'm making progress.”
“Really?” Taloos looked skeptical. “That's good.”
“Well, I had to make some headway sooner or later,” I said. My stomach twisted. I wasn't lying by leaving out my encounter with Elymas, was I? “Anyway, I don't think you need to worry about Elymas,” I said. “I know you don't want Silvan's help, and that's fine, but rather than trying to fight Elymas, I think maybe we should try to talk to him first.”
Taloos snorted. “I doubt talking will do a whole lot at this point.”
“No, but it could help,” I said. “Try it, first. Please.”
Taloos didn't reply. He nabbed a book off his nightstand and, flopping onto his bed, began to read.
I stared at him for a moment, before sitting on the edge of his bed. Taloos cast me a questioning glance.
“I want to help you,” I said. “With Elymas.”
Taloos’s expression softened. “How?”
Heat rose to my face. “I don’t know.” I didn't.
Taloos nodded. “Thank you. I will let you know if I need help.”
He didn’t say anything after that, his gaze skimming the words on the pages. He could read printed words quite well now.
I sighed, frustrated with the situation, and went to my own room.
Stretched lengthwise across my bed, I thought about my encounter with Elymas. I had been foolish to leave. I could see that, now. The desire to unlock my magic was becoming greater. I exhaled heavily, annoyed with myself for not taking care of that when I was still with the mage. My wrist still throbbed. Part of my mind said I should worry about it, but I couldn’t. It seemed so inconsequential to my growing need for magic.
Flopping onto my stomach, I reached for the book Elymas had left, and began to read for the remainder of the morning, and into the afternoon. It spoke of the fae. Magic infused beings: not quite human, but with very human emotions. Lightning-quick to anger and slow to forgive, they made terrible enemies. However, please one, and you had a powerful ally, sometimes for life.
Demons were another matter. Most were human, it seemed, with varying degrees of fae blood running through them. But they allowed themselves to become consumed with hate, lust, and desire for power. Always a desire for power.
Sometimes, when a demon came together with a fae or human, their offspring carried demonic magic. They were called rift children. They were human, but with dark magic running through their veins. They had the ability to hurt. To destroy.
I shivered, wrapping my arms around me. It sounded terrible. Very different from most of the fae, who were harbingers of light and life. Some fae were evil, like vampires, kelpies, and witches.
I learned from this volume that many years ago it was not uncommon for the fae and humans to mix. So fae blood was constantly manifesting itself in the form of magic and special abilities.
Beast taming was a fae ability. That didn’t make Taloos a fae—I snorted at the thought—but it almost certainly meant he had fae ancestry.
What did this make Silvan?
Sonia had called him dragonblessed. He was a shifter. Probably fae magic as well. Hmm. I flipped through the pages, hoping to find something about shifters. It took me several minutes, but I found something.
Dragonblessed. These individuals are extremely rare, their power bestowed upon them as spirits before birth. Bound to serve the Defender beyond the grave, for eternity. Be wary in any matters when tying yourself to one marked by the Defender. When bound to the Dragonblessed, one is also bound to the Defender.
Eternity is forever.
“That sounds serious,” I said aloud, frowning at the page. Did Silvan have any idea what it meant? Was dragonblessed a real thing? Did he have any idea if the Defender was actually real?
So many questions.
I yawned, and put the book aside, letting my eyes close. I hadn’t slept well the night before. My wrist still felt funny, giving out a pulsing heat.
“You resisted longer than I thought you would, my feisty little snow-sprite.” Elymas stepped out of the shadows.
I was standing next to the stone table of his, in the same dark room where hidden things lurked.
“What is wrong with me?” I held my arm up, startled to see a ring of pale, pulsing red. “What’s this?”
Elymas held his arm out, pulling back the dark sleeve to expose an identical bracelet of throbbing enchantment. “It’s a beacon of sorts.” He smiled. “Don’t worry. The discomfort will fade soon, leaving us with simply the instinctive knowledge of each other’s location.” He smirked. “There might be a mark, when all is said and done, but nothing serious.” He inhaled, half-closing his eyes. “Your magic, Glacia, dear. It calls to me like one of the sirens. It’s stirring, beating against your block. I want to be there when it roars into full strength.”
“How did I get here?” I looked around the room, the vaulted ceilings swathed in darkness. “I was in my bed a minute before.”
“You still are.” Elymas crossed the room, closing the distance until we almost touched. He looked down at me, his green eyes intent. “You are here in your mind only.” His mouth twisted in a smile. “Unfortunately.”
I didn’t smile back. My arm ached, and I was in a foul mood over it. But I was also eager to digest new information. “So, I’m dreaming.”
Elymas’s eyes widened slightly, expressing surprise. “No. That would be something, wouldn’t it? I’ve never heard of entering dreams. You are here in your mind.” He tilted his head, a line creasing his brow. “You are . . . divided, in a way. You haven’t actually separated mind and body, or you’d be dead. Rather, one of the layers of your consciousness is here, connected through this bond of magic.”
My gaze flitted over to the open book laying on the long table. “You used spells to cast it.”
He inclined his head politely. “Yes, my lady.”
“Silvan says that’s dark magic.”
Elymas’s eyes brightened. “Ah! The elusive Silvan. Do tell. I’ve been very curious about him. He’s a shifter. I can tell that much. What animal form does the silver-haired boy choose? Is he a horse? A cat? Or maybe he’s something fiercer, like a wolf, or a winter bear.”
I opened my mouth to tell him, but held back. An instinct to protect Silvan stopped me. I didn’t like the thread of contempt threaded in Elymas’s words when he spoke of my silver-haired friend. “You’ll have to ask him.”
“You still don’t trust me.” The mage tsked, aloof disapproval etched in his face. “My cold-hearted sweet. Even after all the trouble I’ve gone through for you.”
“How do you know Silvan is a shifter?” I asked.
Elymas’s eyes glinted. “Because I’m a shifter, too. Would you like to see?”
“Yes.”
Elymas stepped back, widening the distance between us. His form wavered and changed. His lean muscles bunched and grew. Midnight fur covered his body, horns sprouting from his head.
Elymas was a bull. Massive and powerful, he stood before me, pawing the ground with a hoof.
A memory stirred in me. Sitting in a cramped tent, with a fortune teller studying my palm. When you m
eet the dark bull, run. Run as far and as fast as you can.
Elymas was the dark bull. I just knew it.
Did I care? Fortune tellers were tricky sorts. What if I was supposed to do the opposite, to stay with him?
“That’s . . . very impressive,” I said. “You must be very powerful, to have such a form.”
Elymas shifted back, clad in his customary black trousers and open jacket, his shirt a green that complimented his eyes. He inclined his head, a satisfied smirk tugging at his lips. “Quite powerful.”
I didn’t run. I didn’t try to break the connection. I looked over at the open spell book again. “What kind of spells can you cast?”
“Anything,” he replied, pride tinging his voice. “I can stop armies with the flick of my wrist, turn people into animals, and even control the elements.”
“The fog.”
He nodded. “Yes.”
“Can you show me?” The words were out before I could stop them. I shook my head hastily. “Actually, that’s a bad idea. Never mind. I shouldn’t.”
Elymas took my hand. I jerked in surprise when his fingers closed around mine. “I thought you said I was only here in my mind.”
“We’re connected through magic,” Elymas said. He pulled me over to the table and placed my hand on the pages of the open book. I shuddered, feeling a familiar darkness emanating from the paper.
“Something’s wrong with this enchantment. It’s dark. Evil.”
“Sacrifices must be made if you want to achieve greatness,” the mage replied. “I don’t believe in good or evil. Things just are.”
Clenching my teeth, my breath was a hiss when something shuddered through the book, vibrating up into my hand. My wrist hurt even more. I had to learn this. I had to seize and control my magic. I shook my head, trying to clear it of the overwhelming desire. Something was wrong.
“What do you want to learn, my little snow queen?”
“How do I find you?” I asked. “In real life?”
He arched a dark eyebrow, and I looked at the floor. “I spoke hastily this morning. I would appreciate it if you helped me break the shield over my magic.” Part of me felt guilty asking, but Silvan hadn’t been able to help me. I doubted he would be able to find the time with his new schedule, anyway. What if this was my only chance? “I want to do this.”
“You already know how to find me, dear girl. I’ve connected us. You can find me when you go back to full consciousness, if you so choose.”
“Taloos would like to meet you.”
He laughed. “I’m sure he would. That fool, Dubauer, has paid him to dispose of me, hasn’t he?”
I didn’t see any point in lying. “Yes. But Taloos will only do that if he thinks you are a threat.” Which he does.
Elymas’s smile looked more like a snarl as he read my thoughts from my expression. “He could try to fight me, my lady. But I think both the beast tamer and your shifter friend would find I’m a trifle more powerful than they realize.”
“Don’t hurt them, please,” I said. He was right. I could feel his power: in the air, shadows, in the very rock of this place. “Please.” I touched his arm anxiously. Was he more powerful than Silvan? He very well could be. I couldn’t tell. His power echoed about the chamber, making it hard for me to see it clearly.
Elymas’s eyes were very bright, and there was a focused intensity in his face that I hadn’t noticed before as he leaned over me, his gaze searching mine. “As my lady commands,” he murmured, a mocking lilt to his voice, “so I must obey. I will not harm your beast tamer friend.”
I blushed and looked away. “Thank you.”
I moved as if to walk further into the room, wondering how to leave, when the mage’s arm snaked out, digging into my shoulder. “Your next lesson,” he said, “is how to sense me.”
“Can’t I only do that if I awaken my magic?”
Elymas laughed. “It has awoken, my sweet. It has been awake this whole time. It's trying to batter the shield around it. Remember that there is a difference. Close your eyes. Breathe.”
I did as he ordered, inhaling deeply. My breath caught when I felt a tug at my . . . essence, was the word that came to mind. I didn’t know how he did it, but I could feel it. Even when he stepped away, walking from me, I could feel where he was. In the front, several feet to the side, behind me.
“I can sense you,” I said, opening my eyes. “That is very strange.” I tilted my head, an alarming thought coming to me. “How do we break the connection once my magic is learned?”
I didn’t like the smile that played on the mage’s lips. “All in good time, my dear,” he said. “We’ll discuss that later.” His expression turned urgent. “You must come to me, though,” he said. “As soon as possible. Tonight, if you can manage it.”
I nodded eagerly. I could feel Elymas’s urgency. “I will come, Elymas, as soon as I can.”
I blinked, and found myself in bed, looking up at the inn’s rafters, cold bleeding into my bones.
It was dark out. How long had I slept? I felt like I’d just finished talking to Elymas.
Even now, I could point exactly in which direction the mage was.
East.
And I needed to go to him. The importance of that seeped into me. I had to.
My future in magic depended on it.
19
Silvan
“No barricades?” I asked. “Nothing to separate the east side from the rest of Stagfort?”
“It wouldn't make a difference,” said Devan. He was the guard that Ehric had put in charge of this excursion; Ehric’s secondhand man. “None of the guards know where to put a barricade, as the streets get strange here. You'll see.”
The purpose of this mission was to discover why the guards couldn't find Elymas’s home. The logic was that I would be able to see if spells were put up that changed the streets, or if the fog thickened. I didn’t know what to expect.
I nodded. “Fair enough.” I peered through the shifting gloom. “Does anyone know the purpose behind the fog?”
“To annoy the ever-loving soul out of us?” Bleke suggested.
Devan snorted. “I suspect that is just an added perk. But the real reason why is beyond me. I'm just a simple soldier. Who knows the reasoning behind a magician's spell?”
“Let's find out,” I said.
“Right.” Devan motioned us to follow as he strode down an alley, taking a back route to the east side of Stagfort. We followed, my companions looking like ghosts in the night in the roiling mist.
“We're in Crow’s Alley,” Bleke muttered. “It's supposed to come out on Antler Way.”
Except it didn't. We stepped out of the alley to see a signpost that read Iceford Lane.
“So, he's transporting us,” Devon muttered. “We're on the north side of the city, now.”
“Crow's alley is still behind us,” said Bleke.
“None of this makes any sense.” Devan frowned, stroking his mustache.
“Dark magic,” one of the guards muttered, and a murmur of agreement swept the small group.
My eyes narrowed as I peered at the sign. Could it be that simple?
Reaching out with my senses, I probed at the sign. “It's not teleportation,” I said. “That would require an insane amount of magical energy to move all five of us, and more still to have a spell set in place for that express purpose.”
“Then what is it?” Devan pressed.
I yanked at the magic that enveloped the sign, and the air around us rippled, houses changing in appearance, the street becoming more pitted and worn. The sign now read Antler Way. “It's an illusion.” I recognized the magic. It was similar to the magic that the seven-headed dragon had cast to trick me, in Taloos’s village. Glacia had almost died because of my carelessness. I glowered at the thought.
“Land quake,” Devan breathed, a grin lighting his face. “That’s incredible. No wonder we always got turned around.”
My stomach clenched at the ripple of enc
hantment that skittered across me. “I think I just activated a trap.”
Devan’s smile dropped. “What?”
“What do you mean?” Bleke asked.
A groan rippled through the air. Something was behind us, in the alley. Hair standing on the back of my neck, I spun to look.
A woman glided toward us, dressed in a white shroud. As she drew closer, she moaned again, her skin a ghostly green as she stretched her hands toward us, fingers extended like claws. Her pale face contorted, exposing rotten teeth.
“Attack!” Devan leaped forward, his sword slashing.
The woman disappeared the instant his blade thrust through her heart. A shriek sounded above us. Peering up overhead showed more pale figures, floating through the fog.
“The city is cursed,” one of the guards breathed.
“Quiet,” Devan snapped.
“It’s cursed!” the guard shouted. He ran back down the alley. “I’m done. I’m going to protect my family and get them out of here.”
“Kyle!” Devan shouted, but the guard ignored him, the fog swallowing him up.
Bleke began muttering prayers under his breath. I peered at the ghostly figures swooping through the mist. “I think those are illusions, too.”
“They don’t look like illusions,” Rone snapped. His face glistened with perspiration in the dim light. “Hang it all; we should have left the mage alone.”
“We move forward,” Devan said, his face grim. “Come on.” We all moved down Antler Way, weapons held at the ready. My gut soured with anxiety and confusion. What could we expect next?
The answer came almost immediately. A dragon burst from the shadows, it’s scale glittering green in the dim light, jaws gaping in a roar. My feet moved to a defensive position as I prepared to shift.
It wasn’t real.
The guards scattered like quail, running in every direction.
“Come back!” I shouted. “It’s not real!”
Skidding to a halt, Bleke shivered uncontrollably as he stared up at the approaching creature. “Are you sure?” he asked. His teeth clacked together.
I reached out with my enchantment, and tugged at the threads that held the dragon together. It dissipated in a dramatic shower of sparks. I rolled my eyes. “See? Fake.”
