Now with filled waterskin, Fia pushed through the woods and set out across the prairie. What would the black mage be doing out here? She thought.
The moon was at its apex when Fia first laid eyes upon the vast canyon. It was so dark and the terrain was so flat, she could have fallen into it if the moon had not revealed its edges. She entered the canyon, following her magical light arrow. When she traveled down into it were the ground no longer was at an incline, her arrow dissipated. The black mage is down in here somewhere. She thought. She took a deep breath and continued on, feeling for her dagger to make certain it was still there and handy to get at. The floor of the canyon radiated an eerily dense fog. She kicked at it with her boots and the swirls of fog went right back into place. Soon she came across a crypt-like entrance with engravings lining it. She looked at the engravings and recognized that they were of the six gods of the six kingdoms. She warily gazed through the dark entrance of the cavern. “I guess this is a fitting place for the mage of death magic as any!” She said out loud.
She found an unlit torch in a sconce on the wall. She took it down and tried for at least fifteen minutes to get it lit by flint and steel to no avail. Finally, she sang it into flame with a fire song. She didn’t like to use such magic because it was difficult and she burned more than she bargained for more than once, but this time she was right on target.
She entered the crypt and true to its name, she passed several sarcophagi inset into and lining the walls. She came. at last, to a double set of stairs, one set on each side of a small waterfall that smelled like it flowed from the bowels of the dead. At the top of the stairs, she took the center passageway out of three because she could see a faint light emanating from somewhere within.
Once she walked through the passageway she emerged into a great cavern lit with torches and braziers. She recognized the statue of the winged god Cassany perched and looming over a throne of some kind. To the right stood man staring off into space. When Fia got a little further in, she could hear the pouting of someone on the verge of crying. She looked down near the left side of the throne and saw a small woman dressed in black kneeling next to a woman lying on the floor. The room was filled with a brownish-looking liquid except for the mound where the throne was sitting.
“She left me here!” The woman kneeling suddenly shouted. “She left me here with you!” She raised up and cast an eerie reddish black bolt of energy from her hands. The woman on the floor began to rise up, twisting and turning until she was standing upright. She opened her eyes and then stiffened like a tree trunk. Her eyes were red and her skin turned ashen before Fia’s eyes.
The woman looked around horrified, “What have you done to me?”
“I need your help. You used to be the black mage. You will now teach me.”
The resurrected woman laughed, “You simple fool. Where has your mommy gone? If he were here she might tell you to never do something as foolish as you have just done.”
Uh oh, not good, Fia thought.
The resurrected woman took a dagger from her belt. She looked as though she might use it on the other woman until she began to laugh again, “This dagger is the onyx-handled dagger of the back mage, useless on you now, I suppose.” She looked around their feet, “Where is that red dagger?”
“You will instruct me. I control you now.”
The resurrected woman stepped closer, “Until I kill you and regain my power. You idiot, You don’t resurrect the former black mage. She grabbed the black mage by the throat, “All I have to do is rip out your throat.”
The black mage pushed the other away and she fell down forcibly to the floor, one leg slipping into the feted water. “I am your master now. I can stop you from your nasty intentions and if you do not, I will take your life force back from you again.”
“All I have to do is wait. You can’t watch me all the time.”
“I may have the solution to that,” Fia said walking up from the entrance. The resurrected woman threw the dagger at her full force. Fia screeched like a psychotic bird and the blade deflected off the sound and fell into the dirty water. “Cut off her arms.”
“What was that you suggested?” The black mage asked.
“She can’t stab you to death without her arms, cut them off.”
“Who in the two hells are you?” The resurrected woman asked.
“I am Fia, the white mage. I would have thought that obvious because, well, I’m wearing white and I just screamed your dagger away from striking me, and you said the black mage here was dumb!”
“If I cut off her arms, she can still find a way to kill me in my sleep. She could use her legs.”
“Hmm, not very likely,” Fia said. “Still I suppose she could learn to grip things with her toes and whatnot. Cut off her head then.”
The resurrected woman was appalled, “Removal of the head will permanently kill the resurrected. It’s one of the only ways to do it.”
“That’s not true at all,” Fia said. “I don’t think it is anyway.”
“I can’t cut off any of her body parts.” The black mage said. “Sarren will just have to learn to obey me.”
“Uh, no, she never will as long as there is hope she can kill you and turn back into the black mage herself.”
“You are evil.” The black mage said. “Look at you with your beauty and blonde hair, you even wear white and you are called the white mage.”
“I don’t see what my color, beauty, or manner of dress has to do with anything. If you want to keep this woman, Sarren is it? And you want her to train you then you have to do some pretty unspeakable things because what was your name again? She will definitely not hesitate to do whatever she has to do to take your life.”
“I am called Thessa, and I never wanted to be the black mage. I should let her kill me.”
“You know, this gives me a great idea. I need your help.” She turned to Sarren, “But first, let me help you. I’ll cut her arms off.”
“Wait, what do you need my help with?”
“The blue mage is our ally, yours and mine. I need you to help me with rescuing him. I need your magic to do it.” She looked at the man standing next to the throne. ‘I’m sorry, I have to know. Who is that man, and what in the hells is he supposed to be doing? He’s just standing there staring.”
“He’s my father, Tovo. Sarren used him and killed him when she was the black mage.”
“How did she sue him?” Fia asked.
“She used him to trick my mother and then she killed him.”
Fia’s jaw dropped, “And you don’t want to cut off her arms?” She walked over to Sarren and stood behind her. She began to hum a nice melodic tune into her ear.
“What are you doing?” Thessa asked.
“Hold her still,” Fia instructed.
“She isn’t going anywhere,” Thessa said.
Fia’s tune became a song. As she sang bands of light surrounded Sarren, binding her and then they disappeared. “There, she can’t move except for her legs. She can come along with us but she is paralyzed from the waist up.”
“You wench!” Sarren said.
“And I will paralyze your ugly face too!” Fia said pointing at Sarren’s face. “This will give you time to decide what to do with her.”
“Thank you,’ Thessa said. She looked down at the ground where she had rescued her mother.
“What is it?” Fia asked.
“What did you do with my mother, Sarren?” Thessa asked.
“Nothing, I was too busy dying, remember.”
Fia put her hand on Thessa’s shoulder, “I’m sure there is a good explanation for her leaving. Why didn’t Sarren just kill her too?”
“She’s the red mage,” Thessa said.
Fia swallowed hard, “Oh, I guess that explains it.” She turned to Sarren, “Your plans didn’t go so well, did they!”
Sarren huffed at her.
“Well, Thessa, If you don’t mind. I’m not certain about how much time we have. We had better
get going. I will explain what happened, where the blue mage is, and what I need you for while we travel. I have a boat we can use to go back upriver.”
“We don’t need a boat,” Sarren said. “The black mage has another way to travel over distances.”
“Now, see,” Fia made the dagger that Sarren tried to throw at her come up from the dirty water with a whistle. She held it up to Sarren’s throat, “That wasn’t so difficult, was it. You are already proving your worth.”
When Fia, Sarren, and Thessa left the chamber, all the fires burned out immediately and Tovo collapsed headfirst into the feted water.
Chapter 14 – Convergence
Teoni felt the familiar whoosh of air from the portal as Asleth, the grey mage, popped in nearby. She wasn’t sure how he found her here deep in the mountains but she was not exactly disappointed to have company.
“Why did you do that, Asleth? Take me back, now!” A female voice cried out painfully.
“I can’t. I’m not sure how we ended up here in the first place. I wasn’t planning for us to travel away from the tomb and Thessa.”
Teoni whirled around in surprise at the sound of a female voice. Asleth was picking himself off the ground. It appeared the woman had shoved him down, “Asleth?”
Asleth glanced up at her, “Teoni, what are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere? Did you somehow cause me to port to you?”
“No, it’s just a weird coincidence.”
“Who is this?” The woman with Asleth asked.
Teoni eyed the woman suspiciously. She wore a reddish colored cloak and she had brown hair with a red tent to it. She appeared to be emotionally distraught, “I could ask you the same question. Who is this woman in red you are traveling with?”
Asleth got to his feet, “I suspect you already know the answer. I mean, she is actually wearing red.”
“Well, I’m not wearing green!”
“Point well taken, Teoni, the green mage, I would like you to meet Hana, the red mage.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Hana said. Crocodile tears began to run down Hana’s face and she wiped them aside. She held out something in her hand to Teoni. “Thank you for this. It came in handy.”
Teoni saw that she had the spent Well of Life in her hand, “You keep it, Hana. I made it for you. Here, let me see it.” She reached for the gem and replenished its power. “May it be of service to you again.”
Asleth cleared his throat, “Did you find the blue mage?”
“I did,” Teoni said. She looked at Hana who was now down on her knees. “Enough about me. What happened?”
Asleth took a deep breath, “It is Thessa.”
“The blood feeder?”
“Well, yes, but there’s more. Remember when I told you she was loyal to Hana?”
“Yes, I remember. You said she wasn’t like a normal blood feeder.”
“It’s a long story but it turns out that Thessa was actually Hana’s long lost daughter.”
“So, they’re reunited. That’s great! Where is she now?”
Hana strolled off as if she didn’t want to hear what Asleth was about to say. “That’s just it. Thessa was trying to save and protect Hana and ended up killing Sarren, the black mage.”
Teoni gasped, “Oh no! She is the black mage now then.”
“Yes, she is. I’m not sure how it happened but I just whisked us both away to the mountains.”
“Oh no, poor Hana, she must be devastated.”
“She is for certain. There’s no way to fix it either. Hana and her loyal daughter have to be enemies now. There’s no way around it.”
Teoni put her head into her hands and began to cry. Asleth put his hand on her back.
“I know it’s terrible, but we have to be strong for Hana.”
“No, it isn’t her. I have made a mess of things too. Hana’s story just makes it seem so much more devastating.”
“Two crying women, joy!”
Hana returned to Teoni and Asleth, “I overheard some of that. what is it? What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing so terrible as what you are going through,” Teoni said.
“It must be pretty bad,” Hana said.
“You love your daughter and now you have to find the strength to carry on as the red mage. Well, I sought the blue mage to find and exploit any weaknesses so I could have an advantage over him. I didn’t expect that he would be the way he is. Sweet, kind, and selfless. I switched places with my own sister by stabbing her so I could be the green mage. She should be the tourney master apprentice.”
“You what?” Asleth said.
“I know, it’s horrible. I wasn’t even sure it would work. I still have not talked to her.”
“Your sister is Marlee?” Asleth asked.
“Yes, she is my sister. Do you know her?”
“Not on a personal level but I know she is alive and well. I have met her.”
“It still doesn’t excuse what I did. Now, I think I love Arran, the blue mage. How are we going to do this now? Hana can’t fight her daughter and I can’t go against Arran, the man I love!”
“It’s simple, someone else will have to be the red mage,” Hana said. “I will just have to find someone willing to do the deed and become the red mage in my stead. I can’t fight my daughter.”
“I can’t allow that,” Asleth said.
“It isn’t your choice,” Hana said.
“It certainly is. I won’t allow harm to come to you.” He looked at Teoni, “To either of you. I am not called the protector for nothing.”
Teoni bowed her head, “That’s what I must do as well.”
“Didn’t you hear what I just said?”
“I must find another to take my place. But first, I will go to Arran and tell him who I am. I’m sure he thinks I abandoned him by now. I hope Fia is with him again.” Teoni stiffened and she looked Asleth in the eye when she realized she had just said Fia’s name. How would he react if he knew Fia was almost a friend?
“Fia? Who is Fia?” Asleth asked suspiciously.
“The white mage,” Teoni said. “I can tell you about her if you wish and where she is but she has never really done anything to me. I would feel bad even though she is kind of…I don’t know…off somehow.”
“Don’t worry about it. I will find out who she is soon enough.” He turned back to Hana, “Before this gets too out of hand with the suicide pacts and all, let me see how close I can get us back to Thessa. Maybe we can find her and talk. Judging by how close Teoni has gotten to the enemy, I doubt Thessa is automatically set against you.” He sighed, “So please, no one do anything rash until we can find a way to talk this out. agreed?”
Teoni nodded and so did Hana.
“All right, come on, Hana.” He said. In another whoosh, they were gone. Teoni stared at where they were standing for a long moment and then started off south. She briefly wondered if she should return to Arran. Fia had admonished her for not trying to help him even though she knew Fia could rescue him just fine without her help. After a few more steps, she turned into a hawk and took flight.
Chapter 15 – Redirection
After what had happed to Flamina, Arran sidestepped her and sneaked out of the cell and carefully surveyed the front room. It was empty. Apparently, Ravin thought Flamina would be enough to keep him occupied. He found Fia sneaking into the front door as he was trying to sneak out.
“There you are,” She said. “The magistrate and Danton are at the inn. Now is our chance to get you out of here.”
“Where is Teoni?” he asked.
“She said she had something to go take care of and she left.”
“She left?”
“She knew I could handle getting you out of here myself. We will catch up with her later. Right now, just worry about getting out of here. I found someone you need to meet and I have a plan as to how to get rid of Danton forever. Come on, aren’t you ready to get out of here?”
Arran nodded. We need to keep traveling south. I a
lso have a plan for the magistrate if he should continue to follow us.”
Fia smiled, “All right. This way.” She led him out of the magistrate's office. They skulked along the darkest sides of the nearby buildings until they were on the verge of town unseen. Then Fia showed him a way south and out of town.
“I still don’t understand why Teoni felt the need for us to split up,” Arran said when they got safely away from the village. “I realize that Danton and Ravin are going to be following us and a split may confuse them but ultimately they are only after me. They won’t care at all about following her in a different direction if they realize that I’m not with her.” Arran said.
Maybe she doesn’t trust you!
Arran froze, “I thought you were gone!”
Fia looked at him, “I’m not gone. Why would I leave?”
“Not you, the voice in my head,” Arran said. “The fire demon’s voice is back! I thought he left me for the witch in the cell!”
Fia shook her head, “We have to get you some help with that voice.”
“I am open to suggestions!” He responded. “Maybe that’s why Teoni left. She must think I’m nuts.”
“Stop it! You’re obsessed with why Teoni left. She may not have left for the reasons you think,” Fia said, cocking an eyebrow.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I can’t tell you. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Arran stopped and Fia was forced to stop too, “What is it?”
Fia appeared exasperated, “I have seen you two together. It isn’t my place to tell you. Then again, when I think about it and our tournament alliance, it might actually be my duty to tell you.”
“You’re not making sense. Just tell me. I promise not to hold it against you.” Arran said.
“She left because she never intended to fall for you. It was her plan originally to keep you from training up and becoming a threat. Only, I think she has re-thought that plan now. I think she has finally seen the frivolity of falling in love with a direct rival.”
“Huh? What are you talking about? She’s been a big help to me over the past few weeks. She hasn’t once tried to hamper my training, she has been encouraging me. What do you mean she is a direct rival?”
Blue Mage Equinox: Book 2 of Tournament of Mages Page 7
