The Ways of Mages: Two Worlds

by Catherine Beery

  Emeran had been great and proud. Even now it had a noble quality about it; a characteristic that proclaimed dragon architecture. Emeran had been built as the dragons’northern stronghold. Kaishan could, with his mind’s eye, see the human archers scurrying about the battlements. Mages stood on the walls and towers, preparing to defend against the enemy. Dragons, in human and their second forms from which they were named, conversed with their human countrymen. Waves of marana rippled over some of their bodies and splashed high into the sky. Spears of flame lanced into the sky from the horns of the Ucora. Ice and Wind danced in a killing tango directed by the Lvessi witches. Kaishan blinked and the figures of the past disappeared.

  That was what it had been. Now it clung to its rise like a bedraggled old man who could only see the sun in the past. It was a valuable stronghold before the war. During the war it was one of the last things standing between Sheyestiva and the dragon’s throne. Kaishan was amused as he remembered how desperate the dragons had been. The battle they fought had come from nowhere and had caught them completely unawares. They had been great warriors, but at the time of the war, they were use to peace. They considered a bloodless solution trumped savagery every day. Kaishan often wondered how they thought such a goal could last. Leaving your enemy alive was a mistake. The youngest children of Sheyestiva knew that. Granted the dragons kept a strong army incase a bloodless solution could not be found. Their army had been strong, but strong armies are useless when they are against themselves.

  A war was never fought fair.

  ***

  That was true; war never being fought fair. It was war, after all, not a tea party. But it never ceased to amaze Savranious how mortals insisted on there being rules. Nothing was ever fun with rules which was why he was happy with his job. He was Savranious, the Master of Nightmare. A Dark Lord of the Dark Kin Council. There were no rules in the dreaming mind. He rubbed his hands together gleefully. It was time to play with the one that the others had lost.

  The Dark Council did not know he knew her whereabouts, but then they never asked. They never thought he was good for anything in the corporeal world. Savranious rolled his eyes and smirked. Their loss. No mind could hide from him, be it traveling a straight thread of time or a knotted one. Unless it was protected by the Light. In this sundered, shattered part of the world the others, for the most part ignored, there were so few protected by the light. And sometimes those who did know how to block him didn’t. Didn’t because he could offer them something they longed for, even if he did wrap it in a bloody package. After all, he was a helpful sort.

  These people usually had lost someone dear to them. Savranious loved these minds. They were so open and defenseless. They grasped onto any hopeful lure he threw them. Their anguish when he crushed that hope over and over was…sweet darkness, delicious.“Go to sleep, my sweet. I have a present for you…”He whispered to the old woman in the cabin surrounded by cats.

  ***

  The man gasped. His leg was throbbing. His head pounded and he was having trouble seeing through his swollen and blood-encrusted eyes.He had been stumbling through dimly lit back alleys for hours. How he got to be“where he was”or even“who he was”were items lost in a haze of pain and desperation.

  He clutched a small bundle wrapped in fine linen close to his chest. This was his little girl. He would protect her at all costs. An evil was after him. He desperately wanted to rest but he could not. The evil was here. He could feel it. He stumbled and half dragged himself around a corner into a main thoroughfare.

  His eyes darted about as if half crazed. He was, with all the pain.“It is all your fault, Jewel.”A voice whispered. The same one that always kept her from running to the man, the man who was her love.“He loved you and you pushed him into harm’s way…”

  “NO!”

  The voice laughed, but left her alone. She fell back into Gawin. She could feel his pain and confusion. His desperation. He spotted a church perhaps a hundred yards away. The street ran up to the impressive marble steps and ended. He would be safe there. The evil would not reach him.“He was wrong…”The voice whispered. Jewel trembled. Gawin raced as fast as he could to reach the steps. Jewel cried as she watched him painfully shuffle with all his strength to the steps. He crawled up the steps leaving a bloody smear on the white marble. The door to the church was closed. It was inlaid with golden runes, which he could not read. Something was not right. It just wasn’t right. He was confused. There was safety of a sort.“He was wrong…it isn’t a church…”The voice murmured. Gawin beat a feeble fist on the door. Then with the clarity of thought that sometimes precedes unconsciousness, his mind cleared enough to realize…this was a great library.“My sister likes libraries.”The voice offered the information unhelpfully.“You betrayed him, Jewel, to Kaltana The Soul Eater…”

  “NO!”Jewel screamed sitting up and scattering cats in her sudden movement. Her hand fisted the quilt over her heart. Her silver threaded copper hair damp with sweat. It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t. She shook her head. It couldn’t. Gawin was alive. Somewhere, some when. She felt it. She only had to have faith. “Please, Lord, let him be safe. Let him know that I love him.”She whispered. She had to trust, yet her heart still throbbed with longing. It had been so long.

  Was he out there looking for her too?

  ***

  Duncan came to. His mouth tasted like someone had stuffed cotton into it. He head ached. Now that he became aware of it, his body hurt too. Mostly because his hands were tied behind his back and he was kneeling on hard flooring. The room he was in was dark.

  There were footsteps, and suddenly firelight bloomed in the room. Duncan groaned and ducked his head, his eyes tightly shut. He heard Trevor’s curse nearby.

  “My apologies for the rough treatment.”A male, well cultured voice said. Blinking, Duncan risked looking at the speaker. Sitting in a well carved, yet simple wooden chair was a young man, maybe nineteen with long tresses of auburn hair. The hair was loosely braided and tied so it draped over a shoulder. His eyes were gold. The skin of his arms and face were dark bronze. A number of tattoos snaked around his arms. He wore a vest of black leather trimmed in gold. A chain belt held up dark pants. On either side of the young man were two huge braziers of fire.

  “And who…”Duncan tried to croak but his throat was too dry.

  The man quirked a smile as he shook his head.“Again, my apologies.”He snapped his fingers and a young boy ran out with a bucket slung about his neck. The boy offered the bound men a ladle each of some mulled wine.

  “Thank you.”Duncan said softly to the boy. The kid eyed him warily for a second before grinning. The boy scampered away.“Who are you?”Duncan tried again.

  “The name’s Ryan, Ryan Shadehand. But most people just call me Shade.”

  “Look, Shade, we came to talk…”Trevor began.

  “Yes, yes. So the whore said.”Ryan sighed leaning back in his chair his hands curled loosely over the ends of the armrests. “She also said you are friends of Tommy T’s.”

  “We are.”Duncan replied.

  Ryan smiled pleasantly.“How is the old thief doing?”

  “Well, the last we saw. We came to ask the Guild’s assistance.”

  “Oh?”Ryan leaned forward.“Assistance in what, men from the army outside?”

  He knows who we are.Duncan thought before he continued.“The ruling Despot has taken the food into the palace storehouses.”

  “Yes, I do recall him doing that…”Ryan’s voice was thoughtful.

  “Look, can you untie us so we can discuss things like men?”Trevor asked.

  “Ah, but people tend to get to the point faster when they are uncomfortable. What is yours?”

  “We want the Thieves’Guild to steal the food back.”Trevor replied, getting right to the point.

  Ryan laughed and leaned against his left arm, laughing into a loose fist. His golden eyes looked past the brazier.“You want…”He began, rolling his head to look at them again. His l
aughter incredulous, Ryan stood up and began pacing in front of his chair. He glanced again into the shadows and Duncan realized that there were other chairs there, but he couldn’t see their occupants.“They want us to steal from old king Raymond! Let me guess, you figured‘who better than a thief to steal?’”Duncan shared a glance with Trevor.“Honored, are we,”Ryan gave them a flourishing bow, his eyes still danced as he held their gazes.“To be considered useable and disposable by the rebel army.”

  “Sorry.”Duncan said lightly with a twinge of bitterness.“We will look elsewhere, then.”

  “Oh ho! I didn’t say we wouldn’t.”Ryan winked at him. He crouched before the two men. In a softer voice he continued.“Do you know what you are doing?”

  “Feeding the people. Weakening Raymond.”Duncan replied.

  Ryan grinned and patted his cheek.“So noble. I commend that.”Ryan stood. He looked into the shadows again.“What say you? Do we hoodwink King Puppet?”

  Someone rose from their enshrouded chair into the light. A mask of a fox peered at the two bound men.“I say yes.”A woman’s voice said.

  Another rose and agreed. Several others did the same. The final one, wearing a crow mask, stood and looked straight at Ryan Shadehand.“You spoke truly, Shade. I shall inform our teams.”The man bowed and left, disappearing into the shadows. Duncan could hear the grinding of a door. The other masked figures left as well.

  Ryan turned to them, his eyes thoughtful; all mirth gone. He walked behind them and cut their hands free. The two men rose painfully to their feet, rubbing their wrists. Duncan turned toward Ryan, who turned out to be shorter than he by half a head. Ryan tucked his knife back into its sheath on his hip. He looked between the two older men.“Do you know what you have done?”he asked softly.

  “Completed our mission.”Duncan replied simply.

  “What can we do to assist the Guild in this venture?”Trevor asked.

  Ryan smirked, but the mirth didn’t reach his eyes.“Ah, naiveté. How rare it is here.”He said turning his back on the men. He glanced over his shoulder,“Strange though it is to come from a seasoned man such as yourself…follow me.”

  “Why would you say I am naïve?”Trevor inquired.

  Ryan shook his head.“Not you.”He looked pointedly at Duncan.“And for no reason.”He led them through twisted and narrow tunnels. Some points were so narrow that Duncan had to walk sideways. Neither man asked Ryan where they were.

  “Why did the crow say you spoke truly?”Duncan asked.

  The auburn haired man shrugged.“He and I had a bet about why a knight and a man of the unofficial rangers would be here.”Ryan winked at him.“He owes me twenty gold.”

  Duncan raised an eyebrow, sure there was something more to the story. Ryan led them for a long time, eventually coming outside past the wall. Dawn was about to make an entrance. Ryan studied the sky for a moment.

  “Finger tips of rose…”Ryan murmured as he waved the two men outside.“Go on your merry way and let us thieves ply the skills the Lord gave us. We thank you for your offer of assistance, but let a master do what he does best.”He bowed again. He turned to enter the passageway and paused. In a soft voice he spoke over his shoulder.“Power is held by those who hold all the trump cards and the most important commodities. Think on that.”And Shade disappeared into the darkness; leaving the knight and the woodsman looking at each other.

  Chapter Seventeen- The Isle Kingdom

  "Land Ho!" Jingles yelled from the crow’s nest.

  Grim followed man's gaze. He couldn't see anything at first but after a few minutes he began to see the telltale signs of chimney smoke.

  "That would be the coke factories at Brisbin Bay," JayDee said pointing towards the smoke. "We use the coke to fire the foundries that make our steel further up the coast."

  "That smoke is white... Our coke factories produce a lot of black tar-filled smoke."

  JayDee smiled at the big man. "Ours did too until we learned how to make scrubbers."

  "How the hell do you scrub smoke?" Grim said in amazement.

  "You have barely known me for two days and already you want me to give up state secrets?" The young woman said in mock horror.

  "NO! I just..."

  JayDee stopped him with a finger to his lips and a coy smile. "I was kidding. We run a high pressure hot water spray and force the smoke through the water vapor. The water is then cooled and condenses on a ground limestone filter which cleans the water which then cycles back to start the process again."

  "It seems like a lot of effort to clean smoke." Grim observed.

  "True, but the benefits far outweigh the effort. We found that the number of people getting sick from the smoke was greatly reduced. The surrounding structures and buildings remains clean and we can collect a number of valuable compounds by processing the limestone filter material. By far the most important reason though is the general health improvements in the population... People are always a kingdom's most valuable asset."

  "I couldn't agree more" Grim said. "I hope when our current business is done you would consider teaching us how to adapt this technology for our use."

  "My father has already offered, but your uncle would have none of it."

  Grim gritted his teeth. "I didn't know..."

  JayDee put a hand on his and laid her head on his shoulder as she watched the shores of her homeland approach. "You do now," she said softly. She was truly falling in love with this man from the north. He seemed to genuinely care for his people.

  Grim wrapped his arm around JayDee's shoulder. It seemed right and natural. She did not resist but instead nestled closer still. He responded by kissing the top of her head. "Thank you."

  She smiled and said simply "...for?"

  "I know it can't last... I have an obligation to my people... But I have been happier these last few days than I have been in a long time."

  She snuggled in his arms, enjoying the closeness. "That bar's not high! You were in prison facing certain death," she quipped.

  "True... But it was a very nice prison." he teased back at her.

  ***

  Xavier DeCotes stood on the balcony of his chambers facing the harbor. Jacquelyn's ship had docked twenty minutes ago. He had left word that she was to be admitted the moment she arrived. He missed his daughter. She was the spitting image of her mother in both mannerism and appearance. He wished his wife had lived to see the daughter she had brought into the world.

  As a father, he could not possibly be prouder of the fine woman Jacquelyn had become. His biggest concern was the certain knowledge that the day would come when she would leave his household to begin one of her own... Such was the way with children. Such was the way of the world.

  A knock on the door to his chambers interrupted his musings. "Come," he said while moving in the general direction of the door.

  It flew open. A blur of blue silk and brown leather raced into the room. "Daddy!" JayDee yelled as she raced to embrace her father in a tight hug that threatened to topple him.

  "Whoo... young lady... My old bones aren't as young as they used to be!"

  "Oh hush you old bear... You're glad to see me and you know it," the young woman said while mussing his hair.

  Xavier hugged her back and straighten as he saw another very muscular man enter the room. The man bowed respectfully. When the big man stood straight, Xavier saw the trademark Holden eyes. The man was the older image of his long dead friend Randolph Holden. The man had also been a friend of his, he just hadn’t seen him in a very long time.

  Xavier disengaged from his daughter and reached an enthusiastic hand forward... "Thomas?"

  "Ziggy!" GrimHolden said as a broad smile split his face. "My brother considered you the best of friends..."

  "...and rightly so. Oh the visions for this world he and I had. What a waste that accidental fire that took his life."

  Grim's handgrip tightened for the briefest of moments before he released the Grinlean King's hand. "Would that I still believed it
an accident."

  "This is no way for friends to talk". JayDee said while pulling both men by their hands into the sitting room. Servants had already brought in tea and a cheese selection.

  "Tea?" GrimHolden said looking at the pot on the table.

  "I'm afraid so... Herbal tea no less. My physician insists. Coffee makes my heart race too much."

  JayDee's face brighten as she poured a liquid that was much darker than either of the men were expecting from the tea pot. The aromatic smell of coffee filled the room. "I have a surprise for you, old bear." she said while adding a sugarcane stir stick to the cup she handed her father.

  Grim leaned forward on the small couch he sat on to take the cup she offered him second. When she had poured a cup for herself she sat right next to the big man she had spent the last several days with... despite a free chair next to her father. This simple fact was not lost on the man she called 'Old Bear'.

  "I had the academy of culinary sciences look for a way to remove the component of he coffee that gives one the jitters. Once they knew it was for you they eagerly embraced the challenge."

  Xavier sipped his coffee and closed his eyes in ecstasy. "How? Some form of magic?"

  "Not all problems are solved by magic," JayDee said with the gentlest of smiles. Grim would later learn this was a favorite saying between the two. "They used simple chemistry."

  "I'm intrigued," the older man continued. "How did they do it... This is fantastic."

  JayDee absently grabbed Grim's hand as she shared with her father how this culinary innovation came about. "My understanding is it is a two step process before the beans are roasted. They are briefly boiled while still green. The component that causes the heart to race is called caffeine. These beans are actually thrown away. But the liquid is saved and run thru an activated carbon filter. The filtered water is then used to boil a second batch of raw coffee beans. This removes the caffeine while preserving most of the bean's flavor profile. The second batch of beans is then roasted as per normal. They keep saving the liquid and re-filtering it."