Shadow Mage

by John Forrester

  “I thought you said you don’t know Shadow Magic?” Mara said.

  “That wasn’t Shadow Magic…portals can come in different colors, so to speak.”

  “So I take it you were responsible for teaching them the portal spell?” Mistress Cavares frowned at Palarian.

  The sorcerer waved a hand dismissively. “They already possessed that knowledge, and a shadow portal spell at that.”

  Mistress Cavares raised an eyebrow at Talis. “This day has been strange, indeed. Tell me, stranger, why are you in need of a World’s Portal? You have the smell of the ancients on you.”

  “I long for home.” Palarian sighed. “Alas, I tire of your world, it’s time for me to return, if I can.”

  “Well, I’m afraid to disappoint you. After the war with the Jiserians, their summoned demon destroyed the crystal underneath the temple. Luckily these archives were not damaged, however the power source for the portal was lost. There’s enough residual energy in these small crystals to allow porting within our world, but not nearly enough for whatever purposes you desire. Does this come as a surprise to you?”

  “Indeed, yet not totally unexpected.” Palarian glanced at Talis. “However, doesn’t this one hold the power of the black crystal within his grasp?”

  “Why should he help you? And furthermore, I’m sure he lacks the knowledge of casting World’s Portals. None of the Order possess such knowledge. And I doubt you know of it, either.”

  The sorcerer spread his arms wide in an expression of defeat. “Such a shame, really. I was hoping this would be easier. That my story would bring pity on an old man, trapped on an alien world. But it appears I am wrong.”

  Mara gazed at him sadly, and stepped close. “Isn’t there another way back home?”

  Palarian looked up, holding back tears above a wicked smile. “Yes…I’m sure there is. You’ve given me an idea, dear.” From within his robes he tossed something at Mara that looked like a giant moth. The moth’s wings, black and grey and copper, expanded to a size larger than a man, and enveloped Mara in several flutters. The sickening pattern of the wing wrapped itself around her body, creating a sticky translucent cocoon.

  Though shocked, Talis aimed his hands at the sorcerer and shot out quick bursts of Light Magic.

  The sorcerer cried out in a shrill, hideous wail, and raised his fingers to the sky while falling down on his knees. “Stop…stop, you’ll kill her!”

  Talis ceased his casting after he noticed the cocoon around Mara had darkened and dried, a crust forming around the latticed edges. Mara’s eyes went wide in terror and her hands were clutched to her throat as if she’d couldn’t breathe.

  “Don’t you want her to live, boy?” Palarian pushed himself slowly up to his feet. “The cocoon is wounded because of your spell. Don’t you want to nurture her lungs with air?”

  “Yes, yes! Anything, please.” Talis fell to his knees in front of the sorcerer, waves of terror and confusion rolling through his mind.

  The old man’s wrinkled mouth curled into a snarl. He hurled a ball of silver light from within his sleeve and the cocoon returned to its bright, clear state. Mara gasped, able to breathe now, but she still fought against the cocoon, kicking and punching at the thick shell.

  Talis raised a hand to the cocoon, and placed it near where Mara’s hand was. He mouthed the words be calm to her, and she nodded and lifted her hand over his.

  “Now, that’s better, don’t you think? You all seem in a much more cooperative mood. Perhaps you’ll listen to an old man’s wishes?” Palarian’s yellow-gold eyes glinted with purpose as he studied them.

  “Leave the girl out of this,” Mistress Cavares said, striding forward. “If you need anyone as a hostage, take me instead.”

  “Oh, now really…” The sorcerer puckered up his lips. “I doubt the boy would care all that much about your old pathetic life. Would he? But this young tender one, so very close to his heart. And to the fat one as well.” He glanced at Nikulo.

  “Why don’t we all get comfortable.” Palarian snapped his fingers and four ornate chairs appeared around the cocoon. He motioned them to sit.

  “So I’ve deduced several things. First, these young wizards learned an extremely rare portal spell on their own, which is highly unlikely. Secondly, their experience took them to Lorello and to Darkov, that ancient city formerly ruled by a sorcerer named Aurellia. Since from the stories I’ve heard it sounds as if Aurellia has left this world, am I correct?”

  Talis suspected his account told to the Order of the Dawn had been leaked to Palarian’s spies. And perhaps Palarian had access to Darkov as well, or maybe he once lived there with the other ancients. Talis caught a glimpse of Mara’s frightened eyes and vowed to do anything to help her.

  “Good. Then my final deduction is that some piece of knowledge passed from Aurellia to these young masters…allowing them to gain knowledge of the shadow portal spell. Am I also correct on this account?”

  Nikulo sunk his head, and the sorcerer took this as an indication of guilt. “Ah, this one knows something of such knowledge. You’re willing to cooperate, are you not?”

  “I’d rather cram a dagger down your throat.” Nikulo glared at Palarian. “But since I find myself at your mercy, yes, I’ll participate in your little game. I did acquire a scroll from Aurellia’s library. The Tandria Scroll.”

  “No!” Mistress Cavares gasped. “Tell me you didn’t touch it! How could you have been so foolish? Don’t you realize the scroll is poisoned?”

  Nikulo frowned, his face twisted in an expression of confusion. “Poisoned? But I’ve not been affected….”

  “But you have.” Mistress Cavares stood and strode over to Nikulo. She shifted his head to face the light from the portal. “Your eyes, tinged grey at the edges. Will thicken over time…get worse. You have maybe a month to live, I’m afraid.”

  Nikulo paled and recoiled from her. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but closed it instead.

  “But we touched the scroll as well!” Mara said.

  Mistress Cavares shook her head. “A magical ward with a poison spell was cast on the scroll. Only the first person to touch the scroll would be affected. I’m sorry…”

  “How do you know all this?” Talis stared in amazement at Mistress Cavares.

  “Aurellia is an infamous runemaster. He sets wards on many objects, doors, entrances, even people. I’ve heard a story about another scroll killing a famous wizard of the Order. The symptoms were the same.”

  Palarian chuckled. “Dabble in Poison Magic and get poisoned yourself. How clever. Sounds to me that if the fat one is to be cured, he must seek out Aurellia. Perhaps the sorcerer intended it that way? Do you have something he desires?”

  The black crystal. Or did Aurellia want Talis himself to train and twist and warp as his apprentice?

  “No matter. Do you possess this Tandria Scroll now?” The sorcerer gazed curiously at Nikulo.

  As Nikulo unraveled the scroll, Palarian plucked it from his hands. “Ah, yes…let me read here a moment… Yes, the master scroll to many Poison Magic secrets. And buried here within, the knowledge of several rare portal spells. As I suspected!” He tapped his finger on the scroll. “The World’s Portal spell. Indeed, Aurellia wanted you to find this spell. Without a doubt, he expects you will come to the world he’s escaped to.”

  “Then it appears we have no choice.” Talis eyed Mara’s terrified expression. “What do we have to do?”

  The sorcerer’s mouth opened in a gleeful expression of victory. “This scroll alone is not enough to cast a World’s Portal. There are many bindings to cast first. Bindings of Shadow Magic.” He glanced at Mistress Cavares. “I believe the archives possess this knowledge?”

  “This is unknown to me, I haven’t mastered portals. I would venture to say Talis is the first of our Order to gain this knowledge.”

  “How typically stupid of your Order. You possess scrolls of ancient knowledge and yet you fail to put them to good use?” Palarian s
coffed in disgust. “I suppose we have no choice but to search your archives. I know the names of the bindings in the ancient language. Do you at least have a key or a method to open the archive cabinets?”

  Mistress Cavares narrowed her eyes at the sorcerer. “Do I look like an utter fool?”

  “Now, now, I was raised to have better manners than that. A simple yes will suffice. Good. Shall we search?”

  As Palarian turned to head up the stairs, the loud clapping of boots against stone could be heard in the chamber upstairs. Talis tensed, was it the guards of House Lei come to arrest him? He fingered a rune in his pocket containing a portal spell to the temple. He would cast it in a moment if he needed to escape with Mara. Perhaps there was a way for him to remove the shell she was encased in.

  “Talis!” shouted his father, Garen Storm. He was flanked by his captain of the guard and Master Grimelore. After he paused to catch his breath, Father grasped Talis’s arm. “They’ve gone to destroy the Temple…House Lei and many of the Order, and all their guardsmen.”

  Without hesitation, Talis placed the rune and cast the binding near Mara.

  “I’ll stay here and search the archives,” Palarian said. “For the sake of the girl’s life, do not attempt to damage or open the cocoon. Only my magic can remove it without killing her.”

  Talis scowled at the sorcerer, then stepped on the ground where the ward had been placed, and Nikulo helped him tug Mara’s cocoon through the portal. Thunder rumbled from inside.

  12. UNDER THE TEMPLE

  Talis could hear the patter of hail and the booming of thunder strike the temple roof. Why were his own people trying to destroy the only thing that could save them? Lightning flashed outside, striking the beams and rafters, sending a shower of dust and smoke over their heads. Nikulo covered his mouth and coughed, and motioned Talis outside.

  “She’ll be safe in here,” Nikulo shouted.

  Talis studied the heavy wooden beams above, then nodded, and followed him outside. Charna yowled when she saw Talis approach.

  “Go inside with Mara, keep her safe.” Charna padded inside the temple.

  Talis rushed around a corner and ran headlong into a Lei guardsman wielding a broadsword. Talis dodged the man’s quick thrust, and shot a burst of focused wind at the soldier’s chest, catapulting him a hundred feet back into the arms of several wizards casting spells outside.

  A band of guardsmen fell to their knees and raised their shields defensively.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” yelled Talis. “Just leave the temple and go home!”

  Archers from the rear flanks sent a barrage of arrows at Talis and Nikulo’s position. Talis inhaled the breath of fire and cascaded a wave of flame into the sky, incinerating the assault. The guardsmen wielding shields had edged up during his casting, and were now dangerously close. Talis shot another windstorm at the men, but their shields deflected most of the power until they could bear no more and the force of the wind yanked them upwards and back over fifty feet down the hill.

  “Watch out!” Nikulo shoved Talis aside as a lightning bolt struck the ground near where Talis had stood. The bolt singed Nikulo’s leg and he cried out in pain.

  Talis glanced around. There were wizards positioned everywhere, most cast spells directly at the temple, and only a few targeted Talis and Nikulo. Talis didn’t want to kill his own people, but he couldn’t have them destroying the temple either. Smoke billowed out from the rafters above.

  “We have to retreat…under the temple.”

  Nikulo nodded, his eyes filled with despair. Why had it come to this? Mara’s own father ordering this destruction? If he only knew his daughter was here. They ducked inside the burning temple and darted around to where Mara lay trapped, her eyes screaming as she glanced up at the beams aflame.

  Talis motioned Nikulo to grab the other side of the cocoon, and they hauled Mara deeper into the temple, where a stone stairwell descended underneath. Charna darted down the stairs in front of them.

  In the forming of the temple complex, Talis had ordered something different: twenty-two layers of five-feet wide stone blocks, and a stairwell that wound down and around until reaching the secured chamber housing the black crystal.

  There was only one way in and out. And no guardsmen or wizard could enter without facing the power of the black crystal.

  “Now we wait.” Talis mouthed the words it’s okay to Mara, and placed a hand on the cocoon. She smiled and responded back, her eyes calmer now.

  Nikulo limped over to the side, and sat on a stone block. He withdrew a vial from his backpack, and dumped the contents onto the burn on his leg. He winced, and placed a hand over the wound. The area around his leg glowed golden for a moment, and his face relaxed as if the healing had worked.

  “Better?” Talis said, and Nikulo nodded feebly.

  After awhile the smoke wafting down the stairwell intensified, and Talis occasionally sent bursts of wind up the stone hole, pulling in fresh air from vents built into the sides of the stone room. They allowed air inside the deep chamber, but were small enough to bar entrance.

  “We’re vulnerable down here…I don’t like it.” Nikulo sniffed, glancing around the enormous chamber. The black crystal seemed agitated, and pulsed with fine lines of iridescent light.

  “This gains us some time at least. We’d be dead trying to fight above.”

  “Unless you killed them all first.”

  Talis frowned. “Are you serious? I can’t do that to my own people. They’re just deluded.”

  “And intent on killing you and razing the temple. That’s enough cause for me to fight back…for the good of Naru.” Nikulo glanced over at Talis, then exhaled a heavy sigh. “Why do we even bother helping a people that obviously cares little about being helped?”

  “My family and yours care. Mara cares.” Talis smiled at her. “It’s just her family.”

  “It’s all a plot by House Lei. The king is dying, the healers fail to treat him properly, and Viceroy Lei will try to take over Naru. The common people will lose.”

  Talis stood suddenly, realizing it was quiet upstairs. Had they stopped?

  Then the fresh smell of rain and wet smoke came wafting down the stairwell.

  “Perhaps the others of the Order have stopped them?” he said, and peered up into the stone stairwell. Or had father sent his troops to rescue them?

  A trickle of grey water crept down the stairs. Why was it raining over the temple? Sun always fell over the temple, despite any storm that assaulted Naru. The trickled bubbled up to a gush of smoke and ash-tainted water, spreading over the stone floor. Then it came to him at once. The wizards were casting Water Magic, summoning storm clouds over the temple.

  They were trying to drown them.

  Soon the water turned to a flood and the floor was covered in water up to their ankles.

  “Any ideas?” Nikulo said, stepping up onto a stone block.

  “I do, actually.” Talis chuckled. “A truly hideous idea.”

  He retrieved a rune from within his vest, and placed it on the ground in front of the stairwell. As he closed his eyes, he pictured Viceroy Lei’s office, cast a binding spell, and stepped on the magical ward. A shadow portal appeared, and the water slowly poured inside.

  “Where does that go?”

  “I’ve been very bad… I fear Mara’s father won’t be pleased at all.”

  The water kept gushing stronger until it poured a river down the stairwell. But the portal kept funneling it all away.

  “That’s enough water to flood a city. How long can you keep the portal open?”

  “Longer than all those wizards of the Order can keep it up. They have no crystal to power their magic. I do. Viceroy Lei is going to be so angry when he hears his office and first floor is flooded.”

  “You didn’t!” Nikulo grinned, and glanced up the stairwell. “He’s going to jump like he’s shat fire!”

  “I’d pay gold to see that.” Talis glanced over at Mara. “I hope she c
an’t hear us.”

  Mara raised her hands as if to say, What’s going on?

  “Better to let her hear about it later, I think.” Nikulo waved to Mara.

  The water slowed back to a trickle, and Talis could hear shouts echo down the stairs. Some unlucky guardsman had probably been ordered to scout the damage. Boots clapped tepidly against stone. Talis and Nikulo dragged Mara’s cocoon off to the corner, away from the line of sight.

  “Let them think we’ve gone through the portal,” Talis whispered.

  “Then what do we do when they come down in force?” Nikulo frowned.

  “I’ll think of something.”

  Nikulo shook his head and muttered something that sounded like pig’s arse. Talis gave Nikulo a two-fingered marching man’s salute (also known in some parts as beggar’s rear gushing revenge). Nikulo displayed his tongue and made an obscene gesture. Talis was about to up the insult ante when he caught sight of Mara’s disgusted face. She pointed behind them.

  A quad of elite guardsmen with banded leather across broad bare-chests marched around the shadow portal. One spotted Talis, and whistled for the others to flank around. Talis grinned and motioned them closer. He was feeling feisty.

  “We’re not here to kill you, young master.” The first guardsman hefted a dual-bladed great axe, and twirled it around like he was anxious to use it.

  “Well then put your weapons down and find some ale at a tavern to nurse your problems.” Nikulo fingered his temple, and the guardsman’s face struggled for a moment. His eyes flipped around in his sockets and he spun around and tackled two of his allies, and they all went tumbling inside the shadow portal. The remaining guardsman fled up the stairs.

  “Do you think they’re getting tired yet?” Talis contorted his lips in a gesture of doubt.

  “The wizards are certainly spent. And I imagine after seeing that last guardsman flee like a donkey’s fart, the rest will find their paltry egos crushed.” Nikulo bared his teeth and clapped arms with Talis.