Ink Mage 1

by Dante King

  We waited in silence, in the warm, dim light of the candles, mixed with the purple glow of Veronica’s tattoo. We were so quiet, I could hear Veronica’s soft breathing as she focused.

  Then, I heard a crackle. A sizzling sound burst out, shattering the silence, and an intense purple light flashed across the room.

  Amelia gasped and stared at Veronica’s hand. She frowned. “Where’s the lightning?”

  Veronica’s hand was empty. “I failed?” she asked as she looked at her open palm.

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “There was something. Give it more Mana this time and try to regulate the flow steadily to the tattoo.”

  Veronica nodded and concentrated. The lightning flashed again, but this time I caught a spark of it on Veronica’s body. Except it hadn’t originated where my previous experience suggested it should have.

  “It’s not coming out on your hand,” I said to her. “It’s on your shoulders.”

  “I’ve got it,” Veronica said, suddenly straightening up and smiling. “It took me a moment, but I can feel it now! Let me just adjust the flow…”

  As she spoke, lightning crackled out around Veronica’s shoulders, leaping up and then to dancing over her back and sides as well.

  “What kind of spell is this?” Amelia asked.

  “I have no idea,” I said. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

  “That much is clear,” said Jacques. “What’s this spell good for? Beyond making lightning dance on your shoulders, that is.”

  Veronica looked at her shoulders and sides. “So, this isn’t normal then, is it?”

  The Mistress chuckled. “If I understand rightly, William and Amelia can’t exactly tell you what’s normal and what isn’t right now. You’ve just done something new.”

  I nodded. “The lightning doesn’t hurt, does it?”

  Veronica shook her head. “It feels nice actually. The prickling heat feels good against my skin.”

  Amelia nodded as she observed Veronica. “I have read about something like this before. When elements cling to the skin like this, it’s often associated with defensive skills. The offensive ones allow you to cast the element away from you, but this is behaving differently.”

  “How does it work then?” I asked. “And why would the rune behave like this?”

  “I’m not quite sure,” Amelia answered, “but it should mean that this coat of lightning defends Veronica. Perhaps it’s functioning as a defensive spell, much like the runes that are sometimes inscribed on shields or special armor.”

  “Well, only one way to find out,” said Jacques. Before any of us could respond, Jacques grabbed a knife from one of the benches against the wall and lunged toward Veronica.

  “No!” Amelia shouted.

  A flash of purple light blazed out from Veronica’s side. We were blinded as it exploded against Jacques’ hand.

  A metallic clang rang out as the knife bounced against the bench and hit the floor. Jacques stood there, wringing his hand. “That hurt a bit.”

  “What just happened?” Veronica asked, her face looking bewildered. “I felt my Mana drop a bit when you did that.” The lightning continued to flicker around her neck and shoulders.

  “Looks like it works as expected,” Jacques said. “It defends Veronica.”

  I laughed. “You are such an asshole sometimes, Jacques. Who knows what might have happened when you did that?”

  “What? I was doing it for research,” he said. “Now we know exactly what the spell does.”

  “This is incredible,” Veronica said. “The spell will defend me in battle. I’ve never had a defensive spell before. I could actually feel that knife coming toward me, then my Mana lashed out, without me doing anything.”

  “How much do you think it can defend Veronica against?” I asked, looking at Amelia. “Would it work against spells? Or just blades?” I also wondered how many attacks like the one Jacques had attempted it would sustain.

  Amelia shrugged. “I’ve got no idea.”

  “Only one way to find out,” Jacques announced. “Let’s throw knives at her and see how many she can zap.”

  “That sounds like a terrible idea,” I said.

  The Mistress was laughing. “Your mischief knows no bounds, Jacques.”

  “I’ll do it,” Veronica said. “I’ll do this test.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked, surprised. “What if something goes wrong?”

  “I have to learn to control this, William,” Veronica answered. “Monsters will attack me in battle, and they won’t wait to see if I’m ready. I need to learn how to control this now.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” I said reluctantly.

  “Don’t worry,” Veronica said. “I know how much Mana I have, and I can sense the knives coming in. I think I can do this.”

  “As long as you’re sure,” I said. “It is a good idea to get familiar with your skill.”

  “Surely it’s too dangerous!” Amelia protested.

  “I can always heal Veronica,” Mistress Blossom said. “Just make sure you don’t aim at the head or the heart, Jacques.”

  Jacques nodded. “My accuracy is unrivaled in Brightwater. My hands are guided by Loku’s will. You can count on me.”

  Veronica crossed the room and stood against the opposite wall. With her newfound confidence at making her tattoo work, she seemed to have forgotten her shyness about her body. The red leather that held her breasts made an amazing compliment to her tumbling silver hair and smooth, olive skin.

  I stood in awe of her beauty as lightning flickered and crackled around her head and shoulders. She turned to face us, her hands on her hips and a look of fierce challenge in her eyes.

  “Ready!” she called.

  Jacques took aim and flicked a knife at Veronica with barely a twitch of his wrist. There was a loud crack and lightning blitzed out from Veronica’s side. The knife hit the ground with a clang and skidded a few feet, and a puff of smoke lingered in the air. The smell of hot metal wafted over to us.

  Jacques threw another knife, and then another. Veronica knocked them out of the air, one after the other. She was smiling, calmly watching the knives and allowing her defensive spell to zap each knife to the ground.

  After a while, she held up her hand to Jacques. “That’s enough, Jacques. I can feel my Mana getting a bit low.” With a moment’s concentration, she skillfully withdrew the flow of Mana from the spell, and the lightning absorbed back into her skin.

  Jacques set the last blade down on the table next to him, then stuck his thumbs into his belt and rocked back on the balls of his feet, gazing at the Lightning Mage and shaking his head slowly.

  “Never seen anything like it in my life,” he said, then turned to me. “Good job, William. You’ve done well for yourself, lad, and that’s for sure. You’ll be able to deal with whatever life throws at you now.”

  He was looking at me, considering, and I caught a strange look in his eye. He chewed his lower lip for a moment and took a breath as if he was about to say something, but Mistress Blossom’s voice interrupted us before he could.

  “I think that’s enough for one night,” she said. “Great job, Veronica.”

  The mistress was helping Veronica back into her tunic and breastplate. I looked at the two of them and thought that what Jacques had said was true. Tonight, I had created two new Rune Sorcerers. With such an ability, I certainly would be able to meet whatever challenges life threw my way. For all that, there had been something in Jacques’s voice, something odd…

  “I’ll have Sophie prepare some rooms for you all,” Mistress Blossom said as she and Veronica came over to join us. “Shall we go upstairs? How about that drink, Jacques? It’s a while ago you suggested heading back upstairs.”

  We all laughed, but then looked at him and stopped. To everyone’s surprise, Jacques was not eagerly leading the way back to the bar. Instead, my old friend was shuffling his feet, not looking at us.

  “Jacques?” I asked, feeling a m
oment of impending dread. “What is it, buddy?”

  He looked up and gave a helpless gesture with his hands. “You’re not going to like it. When I saw you this afternoon, I resolved not to mention this, but after having seen your new powers, I think you’ll be able to handle it.”

  “Not mention what? Handle what? Come on, Jacques, spit it out!”

  “Well, it’s about Katlyn, you remember Katlyn?”

  Cold fear smote me. “Of course I remember Katlyn. What about her?” I wasn’t sure how Jacques could even know anything about my girlfriend—as far as I knew, she was still in Aranor.

  “Well, you see, she’s. . .”

  “What? What is she?” I could have shaken him, but I restrained myself. He was obviously deeply uncomfortable.

  “I suppose she’s what you might call a slave.”

  My hands clenched into fists, my fingernails biting into the skin of my palm. “What?!” I shouted. “How can you know this?”

  “I saw her in a wagon, passing through Brightwater.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Two days back.”

  “And you didn’t think to mention this when you first saw me?”

  He held up his hands as if to ward off my anger. “Hey, think about it from my point of view! For all I knew you were just a simple farm lad still, with no more magic in you than I had. You showed up in Brightwater, the last person I expected to see, and at first, I thought, well, what’s he going to do about it anyway? He can’t exactly go up to the mines and start freeing slaves single-handed. Better to not mention it. Less painful for you, you know?”

  I glared at him. “And now?”

  “Well, now, I see that you might be a man able to handle such a task as taking on a whole mine full of slavers, overseers, monsters, and gods only know what else. On your own, I’m not so sure, of course, but with Amelia and Veronica at your side, well, I can’t think of anything you three couldn’t handle!”

  So deftly he managed to turn his confession into a series of careful compliments. Amelia and Veronica were looking pleased with themselves and smiling at each other at his compliments, but Mistress Blossom was frowning at Jacques with her arms crossed on her chest.

  “Anyway,” he continued, a mischievous glint in his eye, “we were having such a pleasant time; I didn’t want it to end prematurely.”

  “Jacques, I feel like using my magic to burn you to a crisp right now.”

  “I can understand that. But there was nothing we could have done, even if I had told you earlier. And how could I have known you were now a powerful Ink Mage, with beautiful and magical companions…”

  “All right, all right,” I said, interrupting his sweet-talking of the women, “how do we find out where she’s gone? I have to try to rescue her.”

  “Of course you do. But Governor Arnold is the only one who has access to the records of the people contained in the slave caravans. There are dozens of mines. Katlyn could have been transported to any one of them. We’ll need a look at the records first.”

  “Then we’re going to find the Governor and make him tell us which mine.”

  “It’ll have to wait until tomorrow,” Jacques said.

  “Why is that?”

  “He’s out of town. Out north on an inspection. That Arcanist, Maximilian, he’s furious because the Trade House won’t give him his taxes without the Governor’s personal approval. Messages have been sent, and the gossip is that he’ll arrive back tomorrow.”

  “We can’t break into the Trade House and steal them?” I asked.

  “As much as I don’t like thievery, that does sound like it would be up your alley, Jacques,” Amelia said.

  “I’ve tried to break into that damned place, and I’ve succeeded a few times, but I’ve never been able to access the room where the records are kept. Besides, that bastard Maximilian is staying in the lodgings above the Trade House. I don’t want to step a foot near the place with him in there, and breaking in right now is a death sentence that even Loku’s luck couldn’t prevent. Like I said, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to ask Governor Arnold about the records.”

  I growled under my breath. “Well, as soon as the Governor enters Brightwater, we’re going to have a word with him. I’ll rescue Katlyn from the monster mines whatever it takes.”

  Veronica and Amelia stepped up and stood on either side of me, and I knew Amelia was speaking for both of them when she said, “We’re with you all the way, William.”

  I looked at them both. Jacques was right. With these two at my side, there was nothing I couldn’t do.

  Chapter Eighteen

  There was nothing we could do until the Governor returned, so the best thing to do was to get some rest. We headed upstairs. Mistress Blossom led the way, closing the secret door behind us once we’d passed through.

  After Jacques’ revelation, I wasn’t feeling in the conversational mood. I wanted to think about how we were going to meet this challenge. Rooms had been prepared for us, and soon I found myself sitting alone in my chamber; Amelia, Veronica, and Jacques had been given rooms further down the hallway.

  My thoughts turned to Katlyn and how we might go about rescuing her from her captivity. I had rescued Amelia from the worst of it, but if Katlyn had passed through Brightwater two days ago, as Jacques had said, then she was likely at the mines now.

  Whether I liked it or not, I had to remain here, in the tavern, until the Governor returned. He was on his way back, but it looked like he wouldn’t return at least until the next morning.

  I was deep in thought about how I might use my powers to free Katlyn when the door creaked open. I expected to see Amelia standing there in a nightshift. Instead, it was Veronica’s silhouette outlined in the doorway.

  “Do you mind if I come in?” she asked.

  “Sure,” I said. It was good to see her. I’d thought things through as much as I could on my own.

  She entered the chamber and closed the door quietly behind her. The flickering candle beside the bed cast long shadows over her shapely form. It was only as she came to sit next to me on the bed that I noticed she was only wearing a simple blue gown. It was mostly untied at her back, revealing the tattoo I had drawn not more than an hour ago.

  Rather than speak, for which I was grateful, she placed her hand on my thigh. For a few long minutes, we didn’t talk.

  “I need to find her,” I finally said when I was ready.

  “We will find her,” Veronica said. She sat silently for a long moment as if considering what to say next. After a while, she said quietly, “When I was twelve, my sister was taken.”

  “By slavers?” I asked.

  “No. By an unwanted suitor. He was a Duke’s son who lived far from my family’s estate. My father wanted the dowry, and he wouldn’t listen to my sister’s pleas.”

  “That’s terrible,” I said.

  “I should have done something.”

  “What could you have done?”

  “Probably nothing, but I still ought to have tried. I live with that guilt every day. It’s why I went to train as a Mage. I thought that maybe I would have been able to find my sister and break the bond of marriage. When I discovered that Mages don’t have the political power I thought they had as a child, I broke away from my training and left Astros. Filled with rage, I came here, to the north, hoping I could channel that wrath into killing monsters, or maybe even a few slavers. My sister’s plight was not dissimilar to that of a slave. She was taken against her will. I couldn’t kill my father, but perhaps I could kill a few people like him.”

  I glanced up at Veronica’s face. “So, by helping me rescue Katlyn, you’ll be dealing with what happened to your sister?”

  “Partly,” she said. “Maybe I’ll never forgive myself for not trying to do something, but at least helping you will mean someone else doesn’t end up enslaved.”

  “Maybe, once we’re done in the north, we can figure out some way to rescue your sister.”

  “I’ve almo
st given up hope of that, but it means a lot to hear you suggest there might be a way.”

  “Never give up hope,” I said as I took Veronica’s hands and faced her.

  Veronica leaned in toward me, her lips parted. Her breath was warm on my neck, her eyes stared into mine. It had been an intense day for both of us, and I sensed that she wanted the comfort of physical contact with me as much as I wanted it with her.

  I allowed my lips to brush against hers, the smooth fullness of her mouth sending a tingle through mine. Veronica exhaled, longing and desire in her breath.

  Our lips pressed together as she fiercely kissed me. I put my hand to the side of her neck, supporting her head, my fingers caressing her soft, fine hair.

  Her mouth opened wider, and our tongues met, exploring the sensitive regions of each other’s mouths. We both inhaled through our noses simultaneously, unwilling to break the kiss to draw breath.

  At length, I broke the contact with her mouth and moved to kiss her neck. She raised her chin, exposing the graceful curve of her throat. She let out a soft moan as I kissed her neck, her shoulders, then the swell of her cleavage.

  She reached her long slender fingers up to the collar of her gown, pulling the thin blue fabric away. She pulled it off her shoulders and down below her breasts, which shone in the moonlight coming through my window. She wasn’t wearing the leather garment she’d had on earlier. She’d come prepared.

  She smiled shyly at me and let out a gasp as I cupped her breasts in my hands. I kissed their full round surface, one after the other, and allowed my tongue to play around her light brown nipples. She moaned again, louder this time.

  Holding Veronica’s back near the waist with my left hand, I slid my right hand down to her thigh, stroking the smooth firm flesh through the thin fabric of the gown, which gave way to lace, barely concealing her sex.

  Veronica moaned again, louder. She put her hand on my shoulder. “William, wait.”

  I looked up at her. “You don’t want to continue?”

  “I do.” She was panting slightly, her eyes wide with desire. “But what if the others hear us?”