Rise of the Citadel (The Search for the Brights Book 2)

by Aaron Thomas

  The king’s camp always seemed to be in motion, but today would be the first day the king had traveled in at least a week. Lorusk had the pleasure of reporting the arrival of troops by boat, foot, and horse everyday. The camp had swelled to over one hundred thousand men. He knew that the Fire Realm would be crushed with or without the aid of the Elder Wizards. Captain Lorusk ducked inside the tent flaps to see the entire court of nobles and wizards inside. He didn’ have to look around to know most of the nobles were ignoring what was going on and enjoying the spread of cheeses and meats on a table in the back. Each of them laughed loudly and told stories to make themselves seem important. Most of them quieted when they saw the brute of a champion enter the tent shirtless.

  While chewing his food the king spittled the words out, “We leave at first light, captain.”

  “I will ready the camp for travel, my lord.” He clasped his fist to his chest and turned to go.

  “The camp will remain until such time that they are ready to travel. We will be leaving to catch up with Sergeant Crescent. The scouts seem to think that he has run into some sort of trouble.” Atmos started to unroll a map on the table in front of him and placed small figurines on top to hold down the edges. An archer had represented Sergeant Crescent, and a crown to represent the king. Small figurines on the map represented the other troops traveling on the road. The closest was still at least a week’s travel away at the current traveling speed.

  “How many are traveling with us, my lord?”

  “You and the champion, Lord Fustrom, the council, and as many of the mounted troops that can be made ready within the hour.” The King said, pouring himself another goblet of wine.

  “May I ask what kind of trouble the archer has gotten himself into?”

  Atmos pulled his chair close to the table and sat so he could reach parts of the map. Small red men represented the Fire Realms troops and so far there was only one that the captain could see. The council members stepped in close to see a detailed report.

  “We have totally lost contact with the archer. Scouts have not been returning from his camp like they should be. I have the wind wizards on another scouting mission, so we will have to investigate on our own. Either way, the boy has traveled within a couple days of where the Fire Realm has set up defenses. Catching up to him will grant us a more detailed look at those defenses. We will then set up for the best possible attack. Gather the men, I have enough wizards to keep our troops moving through the night. It will only take us a couple days to catch up to the archer. Make sure they are well prepared for quick journey.” Atmos said picking out a chicken leg to slide on his plate.

  The captain clapped his fist against his chest, then waved Chit out of the tent. Opening the tent flap let in a cascade of light blinding anyone who was exiting. Chit was pulled forcefully forward through the opening and sent crashing into a weapon stack nearby. The commotion caused Lorusk to become alarmed and he pulled his sword free, waiting for whatever danger to come through the tent flap. He backed away so he could protect the king as needed. Slowly, his eyes adjusted again to the dim torchlight of the tent. A few more crashes outside were followed by an abrupt silence. The fabric was pulled back from the outside and Alexander stepped in, wrapping his robe around himself as he always had. The wizard showed no signs of aggressiveness so the captain stood his ground. He had imbuements of wind and earth and was ready to give his life in protecting the king.

  Alexander looked into the Captain's eyes just before the tent was plunged into darkness from a swift wind. A crash and cluttering amongst the men inside was again followed by silence. The torches seemed to light on their own and now Mary stood in front of the king with her hands engulfed in flames.

  “Stand down, Mary. I mean no harm to those that mean no harm to me,” Alexander said coolly as he reached for a blueberry on a tray nearby. Holding another berry in his hand, he pointed his finger at the king. “You, however, have some explaining to do.”

  “I am the king. I have nothing to explain to you!” The king pushed his way in front of Mary to face the crazy wizard.

  Alexander ignored him, instead looking at the rest of the wizard council. Brent, Mary, and an earth wizard named Scott remained silent.

  “The Earth Realm King has sent a weapon bearer to negotiate with the Elder Wizards. I am one of those Elder Wizards and I have been for some time. When Atmos found out, he sent my own student and a member of this council to assassinate me.” He paused as he chewed his last bit of fruit. “He sent a wizard council member to kill an Elder Wizard.”

  Brent spoke for the council as he was the most senior member left, “What do you suppose we should do about that? What do the Elder Wizards advise?”

  Alexander let a small grin touch his face as he continued to ignore the king’s furious stare. “Nothing. I wanted to make you aware that he tries to kill those he requests help from. He sends weapon bearers and wizards to their death with no foreseeable reason. I wanted you to know so that when your wind wizards do not return, you will know the reason for their death.” He stepped closer to King Atmos and spoke in a whispered warning, “You have made it possible for a True Weapon Bearer to be raised. He rides now, once again to do your bidding. The Elder Wizards have given Kilen their blessing to prevent this war and the deaths that it will surely bring. Kilen, once again, does exactly what you ordered him to do. He is now a weapon bearer raised by the elder wizards and his judgement is above question. I hope that you are able to make decisions that don’t draw his eye more than it already has, lest your head be cleaved from your body.”

  “The boy does not scare me!” Atmos shouted.

  Alexander turned to leave, “He doesn’t have to scare you to remove your head from your shoulders or your cushioned backside from your seat. Remember that he is the eldest son of Dylan, your father’s scout, trained by Kapal, your wizard’s council, and accepted by the Elder Wizards. He is no mere “boy” anymore.”

  The tents stakes were ripped from the ground as the tent rose into the air. Alexander following, disappeared on the other side of the tent to obscure any shot from archers. The king, council, and his nobles steadied themselves unsure what to think of Alexander’s warning.

  Lorusk knew he needed to learn to kill wizards if he was to keep his king alive.

  Chapter 16 - Sunset

  Max kept moving along the shore line away from Kesterton with Kilen weakly hanging on. Despite the pirates not being seen, Kilen was sure they were in chase. Jace said their speed by sea would help them pursue as long as they felt necessary. Joahna would have flown back to investigate, but Kilen’s body was still being attacked by the poison. He needed to be healed often to keep him in the stone, moss covered saddle.

  “This is far enough, Max. We need to stop and let him recover.” Joahna commanded in his normal voice while riding on Max’s head as a small bird.

  A voice on the wind howled, “We must be back on the trail as soon as possible. How long will it take for you to heal him?”

  “I heal him to full strength every hour, and Max helps him with energy. Both the healing and the energy do little to keep the toxins at bay. We need to get them out of him.” Joahna cried out to the wind.

  Max stopped and added his knowledge. “We need to use cupping to get the poison out. Just like extracting the poison from a scorpion's sting.”

  “Of course!” Joahna exclaimed. “Why hadn’t I thought of that? We need to get a fire going. A very hot fire.”

  Max took the form of a man and put Kilen down easily on the ocean bank out of the reach of the waves. Max searched for pieces of dried wood and grass that would catch fire easily.

  Joahna kept watch over Kilen, healing him to the point he was able to move on his own. “How are you feeling?” The icy man asked.

  Kilen clutched his head with one hand and held the other up to block the sun. “I feel like I drank the entire inn’s stock of wine,” Kilen replied.

  “We will have that poison out of your body soon en
ough. After that you can search your book to see if Leroy left you a poison hangover remedy.” Joahna said, laughing to himself.

  “It’s about time. What can I do to help?” Kilen asked.

  Joahna’s icy face smiled. “You need to start a fire when I say. Jace will make it a bit bigger and Max will make the necessary tools to get the poison out.”

  “How is it done?” Kilen asked.

  Joahna took a moment, looking at the large stack of wood Max brought back and tossed onto the beach.

  “First, we make some glass cups using the sand here on the beach and a very hot fire. Then we cool the edge of the glass cups so they can be placed on your skin. We will reopen the wound on your leg and place the cup over it. Using magic, I will pull the toxins to the surface of the wound and the glass bowl will suck out the poison as it cools. It is a process called cupping.” Kilen nodded his head in understanding.

  “After the poison is out, I will heal you again and Max will energize your body so you can hold yourself up in the saddle. We cannot continue to fight the toxins and expect to be able to fight a war as well,” Joahna said.

  “Hopefully we will not have to fight a war,” Kilen replied groaning as he tried to move.

  Joahna let out a small laugh. “We will do our part as promised. If there is any hope of us getting our bodies back, we need to end this war to find out how.”

  Kilen laid back to relax on the warm sand, “I am not sure that I am ready for you to leave me on my own. I will need a lot more lessons in the use of magic to be able to do the things you do.”

  “Kilen, you will never be able to do the things that we do. You won’t be able to heal yourself or to melt yourself into a tidal wave. You will never be able to travel the world as the wind or turn yourself into a horse that doesn’t need to stop moving. I may only speak for myself, but I for one, will stay with you as long as there is a cause to fight for justice. I will continue to be a member of your council until the elemental realms are balanced again. I will remain with you even with a new body,” Joahna’s icy form stood and crossed his fist to his chest.

  “You would risk losing your body again to fight by my side?” Kilen asked.

  “What risk, Kilen? To fight for you means to fight in a body, or as an elemental for as long as you live. If you live, I cannot die. I will have a body one way or the other.” Joahna stood and started to arrange the logs into a pyre. Max made two more trips and nothing was said amongst the group as the stack of wood and dried grass began to grow.

  Every few minutes Kilen felt a strong breeze curl past his body. He often wondered if it was Jace, but no words were spoken. It was strange to think that every breeze could be a wizard’s elemental spying on him. He could see why wind wizards would be driven crazy by paranoia. He knew as long as he had Jace around, his secrets were safe. His limbs began to lose feeling again. He noticed by the lack of wind on his toes as foliage swayed heavily around them. He could feel it in his hair and cheeks but not in his fingers.

  “I hope this cupping works. I am already starting to lose feeling in my fingers again,” Kilen said, stretching his fingers.

  Joahna returned to Kilen’s side and took the water skin from his bags. “Drink this. We need as much water in your body as we can get.” Joahna poured the water into Kilen’s mouth as he couldn’t grip the water skin by himself. Kilen knew he would have died many times over if it wasn’t for his elemental friends.

  After a fourth load of driftwood, Max and Joahna made Kilen as strong as they possibly could with the poison still in his system. The pyre was stacked twice as tall as a normal man’s height and packed tight as to concentrate the heat.

  Max was walking around to make sure he had done all he could for the large stack of wood. “I think that’s about it. Unless you want me to get some more wood, Joahna.”

  “We will try and make do. I don’t want to be here long. Gather some sand into a sphere and put it in the center of the fire. We need it to be hot enough to melt the sand together. Max, here is the shape of the glass vessel I want you to make.” Joahna formed a small round bottom cup of ice and handed it to Max. Only this one had a rounded bottom that wouldn’t allow its user to set it down without spilling the contents. The mouth of the cup was a circle that was extended about a fingers length above the rounded bottom. Kilen had seen something similar to it in the healer’s house once, but had never seen it used. “Max, you will need to keep the sand moving and pushing it into a tight ball until it becomes one liquid. Jace, are you here?”

  A disembodied voice spoke out, “I am here. What do you need me for?” Jaee asked.

  “Keep the fire hot. You will have to let it get started but once it does, I've found it's best if you used the already heated air to feed the flames. Be careful though, if you use too much smoke the fire will go out.” Joahna replied.

  No response came from the wind.

  “Are you ready Max?” Joahna asked.

  Max gave a nod of his head as he squatted to look at his sand sphere in the center of the stack of wood.

  “Kilen, can you start the fire?”

  Kilen was actually happy that he could help with something. He stared at a patch of the dried grass inside the large stack of wood. He focused and felt the heat of the midday sun on the beach. It didn’t take long for the pieces of grass make a pop and start being consumed by a small, hungry fire. The flames started slow but it only took a few moments to engulf the stack of wood once Jace invigorated the flame with his wind.

  The flames grew and with an imbuement of fire, Kilen welcomed the heat of the blaze. Soon after Kilen was starting to enjoy the flames, the heat became too much. Even with the imbuements protecting him, both Joahna and Kilen were starting to back away from the heat. Being made of stone, Max held his ground easily. The flames roared with the wind being pushed into them. They twisted and formed a funnel that kept the heat inside the blackened wood tower. Melting away, Joahna did his best to pull Kilen up the beach away from the blaze. The farther they moved the faster Joahna started to move.

  “It’is almost time to remove the poison. I need to move it to one location in your body and your wound is where most of it is gathered. This may hurt a bit.”

  His warning made Kilen even more nervous about what was about to happen. The normal cold of healing moved throughout Kilen’s body in waves, creeping ever closer to the now pulsing, closed wound on his leg.

  Max walked away from the still burning fire on the beach, carrying a glowing glass bulb. Joahna took a moment to examine the bulb and slowly cooled the air around it using the moisture around them. Slowly, the glowing instrument's color dimmed as it was in its final stages of preparation. Without notice Joahna’s finger turned into a small ice dagger and sliced into Kilen’s skin. Kilen tried to pull away from the sharpened icicle splitting open his leg as it slowly drew open the old wound. Max held him firmly in place. Blood mixed with tiny black bubbles that oozed from the wound. Kilen screamed in pain from the sudden attack to his recently healed flesh as Joahna squeezed the wound.

  Max laughed a little, “I’ve heard of opening old wounds, but was that necessary.”

  “You’re about to see the reason we made this instrument.” Joahna used ice and water to cool the rim of the bulb of glass. It hissed as the rim cooled enough to place on Kilen’s skin. The glass rim was placed around the wound’s opening. Joahna cooled the outside of the rounded bottom. Kilen screamed out as his wound and surrounding skin were slowly sucked into the glass bulb.

  He watched as the wound was pulled open like a blooming flower that sprayed blood against the glass surface. Kilen watched the globe slowly fill with blood and black bubbles of what he thought was poison. As the blood level rose, the skin and wound lowered in the glass. When the skin lowered so did the pain associated, allowing him to take in a breath.

  Soon only the blood and flakes were left inside. Joahna slide the bulb from his leg and let the infected blood drain into the sand. Twice more Joahna heated the glass a
nd cooled it while on his leg. Each time pain was made anew, along with the screams that filled the night sky. The blood that came out the third time was what Kilen would consider the normal red color it was supposed to be.

  “We should be able to fully heal you now,” Joahna said carefully placing the cup on the ground to cool completely.

  Kilen watched as water and earth magic assaulted his body by direction of his elemental friends. The wound was soon closed with fresh pink skin. He stretched and felt where the arrow had struck. The poison had been in his body for over half a day and he hoped that it hadn’t caused any permanent damage underneath. Testing his limbs for strength, Kilen stood and eventually pulled his sword free. After a few quick movements and dodging of the blade on Max’s part, Kilen felt whole again.

  “Let’s get moving.” Kilen commanded. Max melted himself into the form of a horse and Kilen loaded the pack onto his back as he would any other horse.

  Before Kilen mounted he walked closer to the still burning pyre. “Give me a moment.” Kilen held out his hand and felt the fire moving with his eyes closed. He opened himself to feeling the flames that waved and flickered amongst the wood.

  Joahna knew what Kilen was trying to do, “You have enjoyed welcoming the warm on your skin. You have felt its power caress you now that you have an imbuement. Taking in that magic is different than feeling it on your skin. If you can draw in that power, you must do that; pull it. Feel the magic in the flames and tug it into your very heart. Let the flames be absorbed into you.”

  Kilen felt the flames and felt the magic inside. He could see the flames in his mind as they consumed the wood, reforming the earth energy into heat. Kilen was wondrously watching the fire turn the wood’s earth magic from green to the red magic energy of fire. Kilen did not try to manipulate it as Joahna had wanted, but instead he watched the energy change on its own from one form to the other. The colors of the magic moved and flowed amongst the burning logs.