by Guy Antibes
“You are all magicians?”
“We are, of differing strengths,” Pol said.
“You will need all of the strength you can muster to retrieve Holianai’s daughter. I will tell you what I know, but first you all will need rest. I will go out and obliterate your tracks in the village.”
“I will help you,” Shira said.
“That would be kind of you, young man.” The woman turned back midway across the clearing. “My home is your home. Please enter and rest.”
Shira smirked at Pol and left with Pua.
Koakai looked around Pua’s dwelling once they took off their footwear and shook off the dirt of travel and the remaining ashes from the village.
“Pua Haleaku is a magician,” Koakai said. “I am almost sure of it.”
Pol looked at the house and had an idea. He walked out to the center of the paved clearing with his magical sight, looking for patterns and found wards draped around the perimeter. “You are right. I can see wards outside.”
“Wards?” Fadden said. “I never learned much about those.”
“Tesnan monks knew how to make them. Shira can, too.” Pol looked out at the woods. If Pua knew wards, then she might detect Shira’s disguise. He was about to put his boots on again when the pair emerged from the woods. Shira had shed Shro and looked like herself. They were chatting amiably, which settled Pol’s anxiety a bit.
Pol walked out to the wide porch. “When can we look at the Fortress of the Magician Circle?”
“Tomorrow. Get a good night’s rest, and I’ll take you within sight. It is easier to see what you confront rather than have me describe it.”
Pol followed Pua and Shira into the house.
“I will prepare food for you. Rest, for the paths to the fortress are arduous.”
After Koakai got over the shock of Shro turning into Shira, he said, “You don’t need to show us.” He unfolded a map.
“There are defenses that are not shown on that.” Pua lifted her chin towards the map.
“Wards?” Pol asked.
“Did you see mine?” Pua asked.
Pol nodded. Shira walked over and put her hand through his arm. “I told you.” She gave Pua a smug smile and flicked her finger into Pol’s ribs. He now regretted shedding his chainmail shirt on the front porch, but the pain made him smile.
“You like pain?” Pua said.
Pol smiled, but it wasn’t at her comment about the pain. Pol wondered what the two of them had talked about on their walk. “It’s not that. It is what is meant behind it,” Pol said.
Shira squeezed his arm, and Pol looked at her. “I’m glad Shro has left us for a while,” he said.
“Hopefully never to return,” Shira said.
~
They hiked westward through forests and over black, rocky ridges. Pua stopped them just beneath one of the hills.
“There are layers of wards from here on. Don’t remove any, just change their shape so we can walk over them.”
“How do you do that?” Fadden asked.
“Observe, but don’t touch them with your magic if you have any doubts. It’s better if Shira and I do the work.”
Pol remained silent at being left out. Perhaps he would learn something new, or at least a different perspective, since he now knew magicians perceived magic differently.
Shira followed Pua up to the ridgeline, and Pol tagged behind. Once he reached the ridgeline, he detected the ward. It stretched along the ridge in both directions and then bent away from them. The ward glowed green with tendrils of orange undulating slowly within.
Pua looked at Pol. “You can see it?”
“It’s like a bright green tube with orange snakes inside about shoulder high.”
“Hmmm,” Pua said. “We all see the pattern differently. I see a sickly white stripe on the ground with three-foot high crystal spikes. How does it appear to you, Shira?”
“It looks like a huge, light-blue caterpillar.”
Pol could agree with the caterpillar analogy. “So we shrink it without breaking the connection?”
Pua nodded. “Both of you are stronger than I expected. There is some hope for Loa. I am afraid the others won’t be of much help.”
“Even Koakai?”
The older woman looked grim. “Especially him. He probably has less power than he thinks. Most of those pirate magicians do. They think if they can twist a mind or two, they own the world.” She turned to Pol. “But of course, they know all about you.”
Shira flipped her longer hair. “They don’t. We have shield, and Pol is a, a—” She obviously couldn’t think of the right Shardian word.
“I’m immune to mind control,” Pol said. “We learned how to defend against shields last summer.”
“Both of you?”
Shira nodded.
“Then I suppose you have a slim chance. I wanted to talk you out of trying to get in the fortress, but maybe I shouldn’t.”
“Do you want to see if I can shrink the ward?” Pol asked.
“Without my showing you?”
Pol looked at the pattern of the ward and tweaked it down to a thin tube for a width of six feet. “Like that?”
Pua looked at Shira. “Can you do the same?”
Shira nodded. “Who do you think taught Pol?”
The old woman shook her head. “Don’t get overconfident. There are powerful magicians in the Circle. You saw what they did to the village.”
“What happened to the people?”
Pua looked off into the distance. “Slaves. The magicians live an idle life. They saw an opportunity to take some captives.”
“Why did they choose to do it so recently?” Shira asked.
“I don’t know. Perhaps someone saw you traveling through towards the village and deduced you were coming to rescue Holianai’s daughter. I was out for a week gathering herbs and came back to the ashes. You noticed the bones?”
They both nodded.
“The magicians have no need for pets.”
Anger grew within Pol. He clenched his fists involuntarily. “They aren’t good magicians, are they?”
Pua gave Pol a warning look. “Don’t go into the fortress thinking to right wrongs. There are too many magicians for that. Just bring Loa out, and then all of you run for Wailua and take a ship north. Even if you were successful in destroying the Circle, the High King would think up something just as cruel to collect his taxes. Maybe he would start impressing commoners for a larger army.” She raised her hand to forestall any objections. “Get Loa and get gone,” she said.
“We will,” Shira said. “I’ll let Pol do most of the work, and then I’ll help him with Loa.”
“If you get that far,” Pua said. She looked in the distance. “Two more ridges, and you’ll be able to see the fortress with your own eyes.”
“Aren’t there other patrols?”
Akonai’s mother shook her head. “They rely on their magic.”
“Maybe we can turn that into our advantage,” Pol said. He waved to the others sitting below them. Pol had to tell them where the ward was so they could gingerly step over the shrunken ward.
An hour later they peeked over the last ridge. They could see most of the fortress between the next ridge and one beyond. The fortress itself looked like a castle, clad in the dark stone of the ridges. Instead of towers, Pol noticed a number of elevated columns with rounded roofs. They looked like a cluster of mushrooms from his vantage point.
“I don’t see a problem getting to the fortress,” Pol said, “but it’s Shira and I.” He looked at Fadden, Paki, and Kell. “You’ll have to stay here while we are inside. From here there are more wards, and if you can’t see them, you’d be sure to trip on one.”
Koakai looked frustrated. “I can’t see a single ward.”
“You probably could if you practiced,” Shira said, “but we don’t have time for that.”
The magician didn’t say another word.
Pol took another look at the fortr
ess. He could see lines of color with his magical sense, and that meant more wards, but he could see definite gaps to exploit. “How do the magicians get their supplies?”
“Wagons from a port. Most of their provisions are shipped in from the Big Island,” Pua said.
“Maybe we could hitch a ride. That would get us in, but I think we’ll have to run out. Donkeys aren’t very fast.” Shira covered her eyes from the afternoon sun and stared at the fortress. “I hope Loa’s still alive.”
“And is willing to come with us,” Pol said.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Koakai said. “She always wanted to go to the Circle to learn more magic—”
“But not to get sacrificed.” Fadden pressed his lips together. “What happens to the others if Loa is gone?”
“They will select another. There are others, but Loa is the strongest of those young enough for the ritual.”
“And you aren’t?” Fadden said.
Pua sighed and shook her head. “My parents hid me well and married me off before I came into the full strength of my magic. Akonai would have been taken, but his father dragged him to Fauali and paid handsomely for his son’s passage to Eastril and the Empire.”
“I’ll bet that was expensive,” Paki said, after searching for the word ‘expensive’ in Shardian.
“Dear enough. He died a pirate, and I was left alone.”
Fadden put his hand on her shoulder. “Does Akonai know that?”
She nodded and bowed her head, taking a deep breath. “My husband saved me and my son both with his act of sacrifice. Holianai paid me a death benefit, which I used to build my house. I bought what few books were available on magic and spent the rest of my time immersed in healing others.”
“Can you treat patients magically?” Pol asked.
“Not particularly well. I’m untrained, but I did what I could. As you saw, the Circle has taken my patients.”
Pol felt sorry for the woman. She had sacrificed her husband for her son’s freedom. He’d certainly talk to Akonai when he returned to Eastril. She belonged with him more than she did now that the villagers were gone.
“It’s past time to return. We’ll be walking in the dark,” Pua said.
They turned around. Pol made sure that the shrunken wards were expanded to their normal size after they had gone past. He found it easy to change the pattern of the wards, but only because he could see them so well.
The air became chilly as they traveled in the twilight. Pol could see the house through the wards, but Paki and Kell walked right past the path.
“My wards,” Pua said. “They hide the house.” She turned to Fadden. “Can you see them?”
Fadden and Koakai walked together, and they both shook their heads.
“Perhaps with practice,” she said, “as Shira said.”
Pol looked at the woman’s back as they followed her through the wards to the clearing that they could barely see as the light began to fade. He didn’t think anyone else in their group would be able to detect wards, even with practice.
“Can I use a magician’s light?”
Pua looked at Pol without comprehending.
“This.” He produced a light.
“I should be able to do that. My books taught advanced magic, but that is probably a basic spell. Can you teach me?”
“We all can do the lights. I can help you with testing for healing. I can’t cure sickness, but I am adept at injuries.”
“What can’t you do?” Pua said.
“Be humble and gracious,” Shira said, pinching the skin at Pol’s wrist. “He thinks he doesn’t have a big head about his abilities, but he’s constantly showing people up. Except for me, that is.”
Pol knew enough about being humble and gracious to keep his mouth shut.
~~~
Chapter Fifteen
~
“We need an inventory of capabilities,” Fadden said. “Some of us can learn spells and patterns that we don’t know, and perhaps that might help us to craft good alternatives for extracting Loa from the fortress.”
That sounded like a good idea, something that an experienced Seeker would come up with. None of them had really talked a lot about their magic. Paki and Kell had some ability, but Pol had a better understanding of their limitations than they did.
Fadden had seen Pol do some advanced magic, but he didn’t know what Pol knew and didn’t know. To a lesser extent, he was more like Pua, who had more potential than she did learning. They still had weeks before the sacrifice, and Pol knew the group would benefit from preparation.
Pol took Pua aside. “Do you want to learn more techniques? I don’t know how much Fadden knows, but Shira knows little about magical healing other than the basics.”
“Do you really think I can learn? I’m an old lady.”
“Not that old,” Pol said. He held out his hand. “Have you ever looked past the skin of a person?”
She gave Pol a blank look.
“Let’s have a class right after our midday meal,” Pol said.
After atypical tasty renditions of the bland food they had experienced in The Shards, Pol took Fadden, Pua, and Shira out on the porch. Koakai poked his head around the doorframe.
“You can join, but this might be a bit intense.” Pol didn’t have any expectation of teaching the pirate magician anything.
“I can heal,” he said, with a little petulance in his voice.
“Then join us,” Fadden said, scooting over to make a place for the magician.
The four of them looked on as Pol stood below them on the stones.
“You can heal using what you observe with your eyes, but true magical healing occurs when you can see beneath the skin and observe the workings of the body without opening it up.”
Fadden chuckled. “You can do that?”
Pol nodded. “Searl Hogton taught me.”
“The minweed healer?”
“I found him along the spines in the Duchy of Hardman. I helped him end his addiction, and along the way he healed me and taught me some of what he knew. There is more to healing than growing bones and blood vessels.”
Pua clapped. “Then we have something to trade. I use herbal medicine more than I do magic, and I suppose you do just the opposite.”
Pol nodded. “I do. That gets us back to seeing into a body.”
“Can that be taught?” Koakai said.
“I learned, but I already knew how to look beneath the surface.”
“Like locks.” Shira said.
Pol pulled out a basket of fruit that Pua had helped him with. “We will try with these. Look beneath the skin and detect the seeds.”
Fadden failed, but surprisingly Koakai could. Pua and Shira had a harder time.
The next day, Fadden still failed, but Pua and Shira admitted they learned how after a long night helping each other.
The lessons progressed, and although Fadden couldn’t look through the skin, he could tweak patterns as well as the others. Pua slaughtered a pig for the next week’s worth of meat, and they all practiced on bones, blood vessels, and sealing skin. None of them were as fast as Pol.
“I don’t know how you do it,” Koakai said. “I can close the wounds well enough. I’ve had enough experience already, but working underneath the skin wears me out.”
Shira nodded. “Pol has fainted before. Now I can see why. I’ve never felt so drained.”
Pua shook her head. “Something to be used as a last resort, but I could have saved a few lives had I known this before.”
“Practice will make it easier, but only so much.”
Shira pulled at her lower lip. “I still can’t see through iron to fix a lock.”
“But you can tweak a door to lift up the bar,” Pol said.
“I can,” she said. “Oh, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.”
“And we all approach magic a bit differently. Shira, Pua, and I don’t perceive wards in the same way. Do your best and understand your strengths and limi
tations.”
“My biggest limitation is still speaking Shardian,” Fadden said.
“I’ll help you with that,” Koakai said.
Suddenly the healing classes were over for the day, and Pol sat by himself after Pua and Shira went to gather herbs for the natural healing session.
Pol walked over to the bag of knives he had lugged all the way from Fauali. He pulled out one of his Shinkyan throwing knives and peered within, perceiving the grain of the steel and the pattern of the shape. He sat on the porch and thought about the patterns of the throwing knife.
The first thing his did was strip one of the new knives of its wooden grips. Pol took a Shinkyan knife in one hand and the Shardian blade in the other. He tweaked the metal shape in the Shardian knife to match the other, and the blade became hot in his hand.
He had to drop it, but as it cooled on the rock pavement, Pol could see the shape that he had missed. He placed the Shinkyan blade next to it and began to tweak. In a few minutes, the Shardian knife looked the same as his blade. He waited for it to cool and picked it up. The balance wasn’t quite right, so Pol grabbed a leather patch and held the knife in his hand as he adjusted the balance.
The task hadn’t taken too much out of him, so he proceeded until he could feel his strength begin to fade. Pol spread eight knives out on the porch and evaluated his work. Some of the steel wasn’t up to Shinkyan levels, but he had duplicated the balance.
He walked to the edge of the clearing and began to toss knives into a tree trunk. They all worked well enough. He suspected that the Shinkyan blades would hold their edges longer, but Pol no longer had to worry about running out of the Shinkyan throwing knives that he had become used to.
“What are you doing?” Paki asked.
“Making knives. I’ve converted those Shardian knives into the same shape as the Shinkyan throwing knives.”
Paki shook his head. “I can throw those, but I like the feel of a handle. You can’t do any hand-to-hand fighting with those Shinkyan-style knives.”
“Have you ever seen me do any hand-to-hand fighting?” Pol asked.
Paki narrowed his eyes. “You’ve always been too runtish, but you’re not particularly runtish anymore,” Pol’s friend said. “Maybe if you took a handled knife and practiced pattern master techniques, you could fight with a knife as well as you do a sword.”
