Shadowguard

by Gama Ray Martinez

  “You may go,” he said. “You all get a neutral grade. If you wish to try for something better, you can come back in a week.”

  “But examinations will be over by then.”

  “Then, don’t come back. It makes no difference to me. Now go.”

  His voice left no room for interpretation, and the students fled. Once the door closed behind the last one, the master strode across the hall. He looked from Jez to Osmund and shook his head.

  “Well, so much for remaining inconspicuous. You just bound three middling spirits and one greater one with as much effort as I would take to bind an imp. Can you tell me why exactly you interrupted my examinations?”

  “I’m sorry,” Jez stammered. “I didn’t mean to. I just knew there were things that didn’t belong here, and I had to send them back.”

  “I don’t suppose you’d care to explain what you mean by that.” Jez considered for a second before shaking his head. Besis sighed. “You’re no limaph.”

  “What?”

  “You’ve bound five demons without even transforming. That’s more power than any untransformed limaph.” Jez started to shake his head, but Besis went on. “We all have the right to keep our own secrets, but if you don’t tell me the truth, I may not be able to help you.”

  Jez glanced at Osmund, but the larger boy shook his head. “It’s your decision, Jez.”

  Jez considered for a second. “You’re right. I’m no limaph. I’m a pharim.”

  It didn’t take them long to go through all the relevant details. For his part, Besis just sat there quietly. When they were done, Besis was nodding.

  “I take it you don’t want this known.”

  “You’re not surprised?” Jez asked.

  “I am, and I’ll want to have a long talk with you once this is all done, but for now, we have work to do. I’ll keep your secret. Why did you interrupt my teachings? I would’ve thought you would want to remain hidden.”

  Jez gave him a sheepish grin. “We meant to wait until you were done.”

  “Well, there’s no point in dwelling on it. I take it there was something you wanted to tell me.”

  Jez related what he had remembered about the wooden slates and what he knew about Marrowit. They showed him the painting and he nodded.

  “Sleep, fear, earth, darkness, moon, and life,” he said. “Those are the other runes. You say there’s some sort of urgency?”

  “Yes, but I don’t know what that is.”

  “Linala will still be in her practice house, but I think this is important enough. I’ll get the document from her officially. My library will have interpretations of these runes.” He waved a hand over them. “That will allow you through the wards holding it closed at night. I’ll meet you there. Try to not to attract much more attention than you already have. Balud will have his hands full dealing with what you’ve already done.”

  Fortunately, the library was close to the practice house, and they made it without anyone seeing. Osmund was more familiar with the organization of the library so he went and retrieved an armload of books, and they sat down at one of the tables near the door. They began flipping through them, and while they found descriptions of each individual rune, neither of the two were familiar enough with the theory to know where to look to find how they fit together. Besis came in after half an hour of frustrated searching. He handed Jez the wooden slate.

  “She wasn’t happy about it. This is one of the oldest documents in the Academy.”

  Jez scanned the markings. They seemed almost familiar. One symbol jumped out at him, and suddenly, he was filled with anger. He pointed at it.

  “Marrowit.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Jez nodded. With that gesture, the mystery fell away, and he could read the writing as easily as if he had been reading it all his life.

  “Marrowit, the lord of nightmares, of the third order of demons.” Besis let out a low whistle. Jez looked up, but the protection master motioned for him to continue. “He delights in keeping mortals in the grip of sleep and feeding off their fear as he gives them nightmares.”

  “Wait,” Besis said and went to a nearby office and retrieved a stack of paper and a quill.

  Jez read through the section on Marrowit with Besis writing it down. A few times, he had Jez stop and repeat a section, especially when he got to the more complex portion dealing with the demon’s attributes. Most of it was over Jez’s head, but by the time he’d finished, Besis had gone pale.

  “I take it this is bad?”

  “I suppose it could be worse,” Besis said. “In theory. The third order of demons are basically minor gods. There hasn’t been one unleashed in over a thousand years, before even the Academy was founded. Given enough time, this Marrowit could take over the entire kingdom. You’ll need at least six major bindings to hold him. He could either come into this world in a form of his own, or he could possess someone. Most of the third order can do either.”

  “Do you know what bindings?”

  “The symbols should help with that. What have you found?”

  When they admitted they hadn’t found anything, Besis looked at the books they were reading. He shook his head and pushed them aside. He went to one corner and pulled out three volumes. He came back to the table and flipped through them. He pulled out another sheet of paper and started making notes. Ten minutes, and two full pages later, he sighed.

  “It’ll probably possess someone. It can’t exist in this world for more than a few minutes otherwise.”

  “Dusan?” Jez asked.

  Besis shook his head. “I doubt very much that the baron hasn’t taken safeguards against that, and Marrowit has a legion of sleeping victims to choose from. Jezreel, do you know how to combine a spirit chain with a dream net?”

  Jez looked at him blankly. “Master, I don’t even know what those are.”

  “A dream web keeps a spirit bound to one state of wakefulness.”

  “State of wakefulness?”

  “Certain spirits can exist in this world and the various worlds created by dreamers. Marrowit can exist in multiple of these worlds at the same time. A dream web keeps the spirit in this world, but it was never meant to hold something as powerful as Marrowit. He could rip through it like it was made of paper. A spirit chain is used to keep particularly strong spirits from fleeing into the spirit world. As long as you pour enough power into it, it’ll keep getting stronger. It could hold even something like Marrowit, but dream worlds aren’t the spirit world. You’d need to combine them. He’d still break out eventually, but it’s a start.”

  “Why can’t you do it?” Osmund asked.

  “I don’t have nearly enough power to make a spirit chain for a demon of the third order. No single binder does.”

  “Then gather more,” Osmund said. “Use a full contingent.”

  “There’s no time.”

  “A contingent?” Jez asked.

  “A circle of multiple mages working together,” Besis said. “It’s difficult to set up, and we’d never get it done in time, not if we also have to travel anywhere.”

  “Do you know how much time we have?”

  “You painted the runes for darkness and moon. Together, they work best under an eclipsed full moon. The last time that happened was fourteen years ago.”

  “When the last sleeping sickness ended.”

  “Exactly. The next time is in eight days. If he’s going to be stopped, it has to be by then.”

  “Eight days?” Jez asked. “But we don’t even know where Dusan is going to summon from.”

  “We know something. Osmund was right. He has to be on a mountain, high enough for the air to be thin, but he can’t be so high that he’s above the peaks around him, and he has to be standing on stone, not snow or ice. There also has to be an abundance of life. Those conditions together aren’t terribly common. More than that, the location has to be close enough for Dusan to make there from Randak in time. That leaves only three possibilities.”


  “Red stone,” Jez said.

  “What?”

  “In the painting, Dusan was standing on red stone.”

  Besis thought for a second. “Kunashi. It’s an iron mining village in a lush valley. The stones there are red from the iron. If we leave now, we can make it there in six days.”

  Besis gave them a list of books to gather from the various libraries along with a note with his personal seal that would convince the other masters to give them the items. Besis himself went to prepare supplies and get Master Fina. The other masters wouldn’t be a great deal of help in this type of conflict, but he didn’t want to go without the destruction master.

  They met at the base of the central spire after an hour. Balud was with Besis, but Fina wasn’t with them.

  “I don’t know how Dusan learned you were here, but he gave me new instructions,” Balud said. “I’m to have you arrested.” Jez took a step back, but Balud shook his head. “You should be glad I don’t intend to fulfill that order.”

  “Chancellor...”

  Balud waved him off. “I don’t know how you got in the middle of all this, but it’s obvious there’s more to you than meets the eye. We all have our secrets, and I’ll respect your right to keep yours. I suspect you may be able to do what no one else can, so I’ll give you what aid I can.”

  “What about Fina?”

  Balud shook his head. “We couldn’t wake him. Can you do anything about it?”

  “I don’t know,” Jez asked. “I’ll try.”

  The destruction master lay on his bed, unmoving. Unlike Jez’s father, Master Fina’s body still retained his strength. He had arms like stone pillars and calloused hands well used to the sword. A man like that looked like he should be able to wake up in an instant and be ready for danger, but he remained unmoving in spite of their efforts to wake him. Jez breathed deeply, looking for that sulfuric scent that had always triggered his uses of the abilities, but there was nothing. He splayed his fingers and ran them from the master’s head to his heart as he done with his father, but Fina remained asleep. Jez turned to Besis.

  “This is how I woke my father.” He repeated the gesture in the air. “Do you know this binding?”

  “Besis shook his head. ““It looks like the one used to remove a possession, but I’ve already tried that. At least it tells me I was on the right track. Given enough time, I’m sure I could figure it out, but chancellor, I can’t do it in eight days. I wish we could take him with us, but we just don’t have time.”

  Balud nodded. “Very well. You’ll leave in the morning. Meanwhile, I’ll prepare things in case we have to deal with the cataclysm here.”

  “What’s happening here?” Jez asked.

  “I’ve looked through some of the archives. Dusan may be performing the ritual to free Marrowit from Kunashi, but the demon is imprisoned inside of this mountain. If he’s freed, the mountain will erupt.”

  CHAPTER 31

  They left the city an hour before first light. The moved slowly until the sun rose enough for them to walk more quickly. It took a few hours to reach the bottom of the mountain. By then, the packs they were carrying felt like lead weights. At Besis’s instruction, Jez and Dusan dawned hooded cloaks before heading into Hiranta. Dusan had contacted the officials of that city as well, and they were on the lookout for them. The heat made it almost unbearable, and after a few minutes he was soaked in sweat. Initially, Jez was sure he’d be discovered, but apparently, no one wanted to interfere with a master at the Academy. The few times anyone approached, one look from Besis turned them away.

  They only stayed in the city long enough for Besis to find them horses. There was no road that would take them directly from Hiranta to Kunashi, and the quickest path required them to go cross country for a day. They went to the Academy stables at the edge of town, and Besis wasted no time in picking three of the horses. The stable master bowed several times to Besis and ordered the horses saddled. Osmund mounted the largest creature, but Jez just stared at his. The horse’s black coat gleamed in the afternoon sun, and the animal seemed to be made of muscle. Jez stepped forward with a hand extended. The horse snorted, and Jez yelped and jumped back.

  “Oh just get on,” Besis said. “Shadow is a tame animal.”

  Jez eyed the horse. “Are you sure? I think it wants to eat me.”

  Osmund rolled his eyes and hopped off his own brown stallion, though his size made it look more like a pony. He lifted Jez in one arm.

  “Let me down,” Jez said, kicking at the air.

  “I’m about to,” Osmund said just as he deposited Jez on the horse. The animal looked back at him. Jez could’ve sworn it smirked.

  “That’s not what I meant. Can’t we just hire a coach like last time?”

  Besis climbed on his horse, a gray animal with a bushy mane. “A coach can’t go cross country with any appreciable speed, and there’s too great a risk of it being damaged. We don’t have time to deal with it.”

  “We don’t have time for me to be picking myself up off the ground every couple of feet either.”

  “It won’t be that bad. We’ll take it slowly at first.”

  Jez worked the reigns trying to make the horse go forward, but instead, it took a few steps back. Nearby, the stable master laughed, and Jez glared at him but turned away before the man recognized him. He threw his arms up frustration.

  “If we’re going to go slowly anyway, why don’t we just walk?”

  “We’re only going slowly at first, Jezreel,” Besis said. “You’ll learn as we go. Come on. Follow me.”

  Fortunately, the horse seemed perfectly willing to follow others, and they walked out of town. The first day was miserable. Jez bounced up and down throughout the journey, though he didn’t fall. They walked for a while before bringing the horses to a trot. As increased their speed, Jez maintained a death grip on the horse’s reins, and when they slowed again, he was sure Osmund was smirking ahead of him. They ate a dinner of bread and meat while they rode and didn’t stop until the sun disappeared behind the mountains. They made camp near the side of the road. The night was warm and with the half-moon shining brightly, they didn’t bother with a fire. As the other two fell asleep, Jez worried that they wouldn’t wake up. He was afraid to go to sleep, but the trek down the mountain was long and difficult. Added with everything else that had been going on, Jez was utterly exhausted, and before long, he fell into slumber.

  He awoke to pain in his legs, and it hurt to walk. Besis laughed and told him it was normal for those unused to riding. He gave Jez a few suggestions on maintaining a better posture, and they moved on. The next couple of days passed without incident. Except for the dreams. Jez’s nights were filled with images of fire and sulfur, though he couldn’t say for sure if they were memories or more ordinary nightmares. The others tried to draw him into conversation, but Jez felt like he was perpetual daze. Osmund tried to instruct him in battle magic and Besis tried to bring his unconscious abilities under his control, but Jez couldn’t focus, and he made little progress. On the third day, they turned off the road and headed into the Korandish plains. The ride wasn’t as smooth as on the road, and at every second, Jez worried he’d fall off, though he never did. On the fourth day, the horses didn’t wake up.

  “It’s no use,” Besis said after half an hour of shaking the animals.

  “I didn’t even know horses could catch the sleeping sickness,” Jez said.

  “This was done deliberately,” Besis said

  “What do you mean?”

  “By now, Dusan has learned we’ve left the Academy. He’s attacking us.”

  “But why come at the horses. Why not attack us directly?”

  “I think it’s you,” Besis said.

  “Me?”

  “You are a Shadowguard. You have more ability in the dominion of protection than anyone living. I’d wager you’ve been worried about us catching the sleeping sickness?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “And you’ve been distr
acted ever since we left the Academy. You’re probably guarding us without realizing it.”

  A gust of wind blew across the plain, and one of the horses snorted. They all looked at the animal, but it remained asleep. The slumbering animals made Jez uneasy, and he stepped away and turned his back to them. The others moved in front of him. Osmund raised an eyebrow, but Jez only shrugged.

  “Do you really think I can do that?” Jez asked.

  Besis shrugged. “It makes sense.”

  “What do we do now?”

  “Can you wake the horses?”

  Jez splayed his fingers and dragged them from the horses head to its chest, but nothing happened. He breathed deeply looking for any sign of sulfur, but there was nothing. He tried the gesture again, but the horses remained still. He shook his head. “Can we make it to Kunashi in time without the horses?”

  “No. Even if we could run the whole way, we still wouldn’t make it by the eclipse.”

  “What if we went Between?” Osmund asked.

  “Between what?” Besis asked.

  Osmund looked at Jez. “You know, that place Sariel took us. By going through there, we went from Randak to the Academy in a few seconds.”

  “Osmund, that wasn’t mortal magic.”

  “You’re not exactly a mortal.”

  “I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

  Osmund bit his lower lip. “I would.”

  “Ziary would, you mean.”

  Osmund nodded. “We’re not doing anything wrong right now. It should be safe to summon him.”

  “Would he even know how to get us there? Sariel said even most scions have never been there.”

  “Osmund may be right,” Besis said. “He’s the strongest limaph I’ve ever heard about. Master Rael thought he might be the purest one in twenty generations. Most scions may not be able to get there, but if there are any who can, it is Ziary.”