by Paul Sobol
The Gift of Magic
Tome One of the Shadowmage saga
P.J. Sobol
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or used factiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, my not be reproduced in any form without permission from the author. The scanning uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the author is illegal and punishable by law.
© 2014 Paul Sobol
Dedicated to my parents Meron and Janet
Chapter One
Magic filled the air, but not in a good way.
Storm clouds blotted out the lights of heaven, and lightning pierced even the darkest of shadows, turning night time into day, if only for a brief moment. For some, the light held promises of hope, of good times ahead, but for others, it simply burned.
The city streets had quickly become deserted once the threat of imminent rain was heralded by peals of thunder, following in the wake of mighty bolts of light lancing towards the earth seemingly at random. Zeus, the thunder god himself, would have been proud.
But not every brief flash of illumination was created naturally. The tall buildings of steel and glass reflected colours spanning the entire spectrum – from brightest blood red to the darkest near-black indigo, the colours of magic spoke volumes. In the space between light and dark, a moment of respite during the storm both in the sky and on the ground, a figure appeared.
“Agent Carlyle, status of the current situation.”
Jason Carlyle, of the Paranormal Investigations Unit, turned to the newcomer. For a moment the shadows hid any discernible features, but a sudden burst of fire nearby lit the surrounding area and Carlyle could see who was approaching. “Silver, good you could make it.” The two men shook hands.
“I wouldn’t have missed this for anything,” said the man addressed as Silver. “It’s incredible. How is the child?”
“In the hospital at the moment. Agent Moore has made contact and is providing localised protection. Paranormal Investigations was on site first, so we’ve coordinated with members of the Order to secure the area within a three block radius. It’s been one hell of a fight so far and I believe we’ve managed to keep them back.”
Them.
Dark mages.
Every black-hearted magician, soulless vampire, and demon spawn within a hundred miles was here, fighting for the ultimate prize. For the past twenty minutes or so, several dozen denizens of darkness had been kept at bay, thanks to the efforts of local magicians who recognised the severity of the situation.
A new magician has awoken. That is to say, someone’s ability to use magic had manifested, and for a short time, unable to suppress the amount of power he or she controls. Power, known by many names, but most commonly amongst magicians called mana, is the very essence of life’s energy. It exists everywhere, within everything, and for a rare gifted few, used to create magic.
Silver looked in the general direction of the hospital, to where he had last sensed the newly awoken magician. Now though, he sensed very little arcane activity in that area, but that was to be expected. Another magician was cloaking the child’s magical ability, so others, like the dark magicians who even now traded spells with those acting as temporary guardians, could not find and subvert.
Had the situation been reversed, the battle would have been a lot more intense. A lot more bloodier. Silver had no illusions about this, which is why he had personally sent for every member of the Order to make their way here and help stop the dark ones from reaching the greatest prize ever.
This was no ordinary magician they protected; the child’s ability, when first felt echoing through the Aether, was like nothing ever felt before. Magicians, both light and dark, and every manner of magical creature in the world, sensed the tremendous amount of power this new magician could potentially wield. For Silver, it was almost a humbling experience, and no doubt there were many magicians fighting next to him who felt the same way.
A purple bolt of energy sped past and demolished the entranceway to a nearby building. The dark energy of the spell made even the stone facade and concrete steps bubble as though splattered with black tar. It had been a close call, another foot or two and Silver would have been sorely vexed. As it were, he was merely annoyed at the moment. Turning around to face the dark magician hiding across the street, Silver raised a hand, and from his open palm a bolt of pure white energy shot forth. Unfortunately it missed its intended target, but luckily, an upper part of the building had been damaged and the dark mage was crushed beneath bits of falling masonry.
“Now, where was I?” The question was rhetorical. “Yes. The child. Do we have any more information? Who is at the hospital?”
Agent Carlyle stopped another purple bolt of acidic energy from reaching their position. “My partner in crime, Agent Moore, is there with him; however, the situation isn’t what he first expected.”
Silver glanced sharply at Carlyle. “Explain.”
“Well, it isn’t a child. The new magician is an adult, brought in about half an hour ago by ambulance. There was some kind of explosion just outside the city. He was found amongst the debris.”
“Unexpected, but interesting. I’ve heard of a case where a magician’s ability was awoken in response to a critical situation. Maybe this person was able to save himself using untapped pure raw potential and an overwhelming desire to live.”
“It is a possibility, however...” Agent Carlyle suddenly stopped midsentence and looked towards the hospital. “There’s something wrong. Moore needs help! There are two dark magicians and several vampires in the hospital!”
“Go!” Silver urged. “I’ll get some more backup. Hold them as long as you can.” Carlyle vanished in a flash of energy as he teleported to join his partner in the hospital. Silver on the other hand went looking for any magician not vitally needed in maintaining the outer perimeter. Seeing another member of the Order he motioned for the magician to follow and within a few more minutes managed to conscript another two. He gave quick instructions and soon the three disappeared into the night towards the hospital. Without a point of reference they were unable to teleport there straight away, so instead they did the next best thing – fly.
“Archer!” he said, approaching a beautiful woman covered by a plush, long brown cape. The rain wasn’t even leaving a mark on the fabric. She had her hood thrown back, and in the light of a nearby street lamp revealed long tresses of golden hair and the unmistakable tapered ears of the elves. To be more precise she was a half-elf – gifted with every attribute of her full-blooded people, except with a slightly lower life span. This meant she would probably live to be at least a thousand years or so, instead of the usual five thousand.
Silver nodded towards the enemy. “Hold them off as long as possible, at least until I can get this new magician out of here. He’ll be safe at my place, send word to Destiny we’ll see her tomorrow.”
The half-elfin beauty drew the string of her bow back and loosed an arrow without commenting. In the darkness the arrow shone like a small comet, streaking from her bow to embed itself into the eye-socket of an approaching zombie. The rotting corpse twitched violently for a few moments before simply falling face down onto the street. It attempted to rise, but soon gave up as the fiery arrow burned away what was left of its brain. No brain, no zombie.
Silver spared a brief moment to count the number of zombie corpses littering the wet streets. In all there were about ten, every single
kill had been a head shot too. Before he left the carnage he spotted a furtive movement in the darkness a street away. Seems something didn’t want to be seen, and Silver had a hunch it would be bloodsuckers.
Vampires weren’t exactly like those in the books or movies. Common folklore has a few things right, but then it took centuries of trial and error to undo the other misconceptions surrounding the ‘undead’. Transforming into a bat-like creature, flying, turning into fog, an aversion to sunlight and silver, these were true. Garlic and crucifixes won’t help at all, especially against superior strength and the ability to regenerate damaged flesh.
The ‘undead’ get power from drinking blood which carries a lot of a human’s life essence – mana. When a vampire gorges themselves on blood they’re able of withstanding even the sun’s smouldering effects, allowing them to temporarily move about during the day.
Assuming the vampires’ target was the hospital, Silver decided a different point of perspective might give him a better view. Gathering a small amount of mana to himself, Silver wordlessly cast the spell that would allow him to jump higher than humanly possible. Much higher. A few moments later he gently landed on the roof of a nearby building, twenty floors up. The next jump took him even higher, and after two more he was standing on the tallest skyscraper in the city. One of the more terrible ideas to have been passed by the building committee, it was a monstrosity of glass, steel and concrete. Although at least it provided a perfect birds-eye view of the city below.
The lightning that flickered from the heavens turned everything white, and for a moment it seemed the world was no longer the same. Reversed. Negative. Rain splattered down in fitful bursts over the city. Perched precariously on the edge of the tallest building, Silver could see the entire city beneath him, and tonight it was experiencing an event never felt before. It had all started several hours ago; an unnatural occurrence within the Aether, and this was nature’s way of saying something was horribly wrong. The aetheric disturbance had been felt only by those attuned to such things, but of a magnitude like nothing felt before.
As another flash of lightning illuminated the city, a brief chill raced down Silver’s spine. This had nothing to do with the rain or cold weather. His shield protected him from the elements, and if anyone were to look closer they would notice his black clothes were completely dry. Silver spotted movement far below, his unnaturally keen sight zooming into a small dimly-lit alleyway where another figure, drenched and wearing little besides a hospital gown, staggered against the storm.
As Silver watched he spied more movement along the alleyway. In the shadows he made out two figures, making their way unhurriedly towards the stranger who seemed oblivious as to what was about to happen. Intrigued, Silver looked down at the imminent confrontation between the forces of darkness and the newest member of the Light.
Chapter Two
Staggering against the brick wall of the alleyway, Alex paused to wipe the rain from his eyes. He had been wandering, seemingly endlessly this cold and dark night, having little idea where he was heading or why. There wasn’t much he remembered of the last few hours, it seemed like one long nightmare after another. The large gaps in his memory should have warned him that something bad had happened, and most likely he should have remained in hospital.
Something felt different with the world around him, but he couldn’t explain in what way. The doctors at the hospital had asked too many questions, questions he had no answers for. They had said he had been in some kind of accident, and wanted to know more about what had happened and who had been involved. MRI scans ruled out the possibility of brain damage or head trauma, and blood tests for toxicology revealed nothing conclusive. They thought it could be a case of PTSD – post traumatic stress disorder - which could account for the short term amnesia.
Exit doctors, hello shrinks.
The police were there too in the background, taking notes, and eventually had their chance at interrogating the only surviving witness. But with nothing concrete to go on they decided to try later, at least after the psychiatrists had come to visit.
When the electricity went out it only lasted a few moments before the backup generators kicked in. That was more than enough opportunity to escape from the unguarded hospital room. Making his way through the emergency department as the backup emergency lighting came on made it easy to avoid detection. Stumbling outside into the chill wet night, Alex wandered aimlessly away from the hospital with no memory and without a clue what he was going to do now.
Pausing in a nearby alleyway, Alex felt as if someone was watching him. Looking around he could see no one, but with the heavy rain and occasional lightning it would have been easy to miss someone nearby in the shadows. For what seemed like a cold, empty eternity, Alex wandered through the deserted streets of the city. The tolling of a nearby church bell announced it was one in the morning.
That’s when the Voice called to him.
At first it was barely audible, a mere whisper, hinting at the possibility that they were actual words, yet just soft enough so as to be unrecognisable. Straining with all his senses to grasp the sound, Alex thought he could understand the words. They stirred within him an urge, something primal, bestial, and not human. The Voice was telling him to submit, to surrender, and to die. Like a fog descending over his mind, Alex lost track of where he was or what he was doing. The voice that called was so compelling that it drowned everything else out.
From the shadows of the alley a young woman appeared, dressed in artfully torn black jeans and a skin-tight shirt sporting the lurid flaming skull of Angel of Death, a band the local death-head kids were into. Her short purple hair was spiked in every direction. Beneath a dirty flickering light Alex could see numerous studs and piercings on her face, most looked very painful, but it was her voice that he felt drawn to – it was a siren’s call. She was suddenly the most beautiful, sensual woman he had ever seen, and a fire raged through his veins as his consciousness was finally overwhelmed with burning lust for this dark goddess.
Drowning in the young woman’s liquid eyes, nothing else mattered. So mesmerising was her voice that Alex was completely unaware of the man silently coming up behind him. Had he the free will to look, he might have even been startled to see the man’s canine teeth turn into fangs.
Chapter Three
From his perch high above, Silver looked on as the two vampires appeared out of the darkness. This was their usual modus operandi: pick lone, easy targets, and lure them to a secluded place with the Voice. Once under this spell the victim had no chance of resisting.
Silver leapt off the building’s ledge to land gently on the roof of a nearby building, and taking a running leap crossed the impossible distance to yet another roof. With cat-like agility he leaped from rooftop to rooftop until he was above the alleyway and, silent as a ghost, dropped down several storeys to land softly on his feet. The gentle slap of his shoes against the pavement alerted the vampires to his presence, but before either could react, a shard of blue light sped from Silver’s open palm. With no time to even scream the male vampire began to burn and quickly disintegrated into ash. His companion, surprise and fear clearly visible in her features at this unexpected ambush, hissed and bared her fangs in what she hoped was a menacing gesture before jumping for the roof above. With supernatural speed she fled upwards into the night leaving the male vampire to burn away, a smouldering pile of ash the only visible remains.
Silver approached slowly. The water-drenched stranger he had saved, who only now was beginning to come out of the fugue left behind from the Voice, eyed him carefully. As his eyes began to focus, thoughts clearing, Alex took stock of himself and his surroundings. Whilst under the siren’s spell of the vampires, the recent events had seemed distant, like they were happening to someone else and he was observing from afar. But with the mind fog gone he suddenly realised what had almost happened.
Alex stumbled backwards, landing next to the pile of ash that moments ago had been something trying
to bite his throat. There was only one thing, ridiculous as it seemed, that would do that – a vampire. The living dead. He was having difficulty rationalising the existence of these creatures, everyone knew vampires were not real, pure imagination. They lived only in stories to frighten children and the gullible.
There was one other thing nagging Alex; and it stood before him, cloaked and hooded like someone had just stepped out of the Victorian era and into the present. For a moment Alex wondered if his sanity had finally broken, and not for the first time tonight wished he was back in the hospital getting analysed by some cute shrink and afterwards pumped full of antipsychotic medication.
This man standing before him had thrown a bolt of light from his bare hand, causing a vampire - that shouldn’t actually exist - to burst into flame and disintegrated to ash. Those meds began to sound even more enticing. Alex wondered if he closed his eyes really hard and counted to ten everything would go back to normal and he would find himself warm and safe in the hospital. Most likely under arrest, but that was a minor technicality.
Alex managed to find his voice, trembling though it was, and stumbled past the thousand questions he wanted to ask, such as: “Who are you? What are you? And what the hell were those things?” But instead all that came out was, “Is it Halloween?”
Silver levelled an unreadable gaze at him. “Not for a few more months I’m afraid. Please, let me introduce myself, my name is Aldèric Chevalier the Fourth. But for the most part I am known as Silver. I mean you no harm and wish to extend to you the courtesy of my aid, humble though it may be.” Silver reached down and helped Alex to his feet.
“Well, Mr Silver, either you need the hospital more than I do or something has definitely gone screwy with the world. What just happened and what were those things?”
