“I have a terrible feeling about going down there,” Mara said, her voice shaky. “I told you this was all a trap. Why would Palarian be down there? Is he a prisoner?”
Talis frowned at the map, his hands trembling from the heat. “And why are there only magenta colored dots in the dungeon?”
“Ask the map if there’s anything to eat and drink around here.” Nikulo slapped his belly. “I’m hungry.”
Mara rolled her eyes at Nikulo. “Didn’t you just eat a few hours ago? You practically ravaged that roast.”
“I’m guessing magenta dots are a bad thing indeed, and I’d rather not go into battle feeling hungry.”
“Maybe there’s a way we can avoid fighting,” Talis said.
“You carrying a magic cloak of invisibility or something?” Nikulo scoffed.
“No, I wish. But if we simply avoid the dots, we’re most likely to avoid fighting, right?”
Talis stared at the map again, trying to figure out how to navigate down to where Palarian was in the dungeon. They were on the ground level now, but the sorcerer was seven levels down in the lowest part of the castle. Talis imagined seeing the map at a top-down yet slightly rotated view, so he could make out two levels at a time. That was exactly what he wanted. With this view he could see all the stairwells and still keep an eye on the enemies walking around.
“Let’s go.” He grinned at Mara, proudly showing her the map.
“That’s amazing!” she said, studying the map. “How did you get it like that? I’ve never seen a map drawn at an angle.”
Nikulo peered over as well. “Maybe we can navigate the dungeon without being seen.”
They stalked towards a side entrance leading down into the first level. The wooden door was old and ready to fall apart. This had to be the servant’s entrance as Talis noticed dropped cabbage leaves and a shriveled potato on the grimy floor. The way down was dark, and the air smelled of garlic and roast.
“I do believe we found the kitchen,” Nikulo whispered, and licked his lips.
The map displayed all orange dots in the next room, so Talis figured they were servants, and hopefully not a threat. As they entered the room, fearful eyes glanced at them, then gazed at the floor. Talis pretended he was there to inspect the kitchen, keeping his back stiff and chin raised arrogantly.
“What’s the garlic dish you’re preparing? Ah…a pot of soup? A sample? Yes, of course, my friend here is hungry.” Talis gestured towards Nikulo.
“Garlic cream soup?” Nikulo opened his mouth expectantly. “How do you make it?”
A tall, gangly man with thinning hair raised an eyebrow at Nikulo. “Sheep’s cream, devil’s garlic, black pepper, diced potatoes, shredded cabbage. And other assorted ingredients I’d prefer not to divulge.”
“Devil’s garlic? I’m not familiar with the term.”
The cook motioned Nikulo over to an old, abused table filled with enormous garlic cloves tinged with a distinctive purplish hue. Nikulo inspected the garlic and sniffed curiously.
“Might I have a taste of the soup? Oh…well…if you insist I try a whole bowl, I certainly couldn’t refuse. And bread? That’s an interesting looking loaf….”
“Flatbread with rosemary.” The cook studied Nikulo, and glanced at Charna, eying the lynx suspiciously. “Are you visitors of the master?”
“You could say that.” Talis flashed the man an honest smile.
“Perhaps the other young master and young miss would enjoy a bite as well?”
Talis and Mara waved the idea away. “We’ve just eaten.”
The other servants returned to their tasks: cleaning pots, kneading dough, cutting vegetables, hacking meat, and placing food on plates. Nikulo belched and massaged his stomach, a warm smile spreading across his face.
“A most excellent soup…my compliments to the cook. And a fine bread, too.”
The cook bowed and the old woman kneading bread tilted her head and allowed a faint smile to lighten her worn face.
Talis motioned towards the far door, and Nikulo brushed off his hands and gave the soup bowl back to the cook. They were close to the door when the old woman cleared her throat.
“Such kind young masters,” she said, her voice melodic and soft. “If only the other young masters were so kind….”
At her words Talis felt pity for these people, so fearful of the ruling house, and perhaps abused by the soldiers as well.
“Nice people,” Mara whispered, and stepped through the door Talis held open.
“And fabulous cooks… You don’t think we could hang around for supper?” Nikulo’s eyes looked hopeful.
Talis shook his head, wishing there was more they could do to help them, but knew they were probably powerless in a direct fight against Aurellia and his army. He felt the tepid power flowing from the crystal in his backpack, and the truth sank deep inside: it wasn’t enough power to win.
“Down here is another stairwell,” Talis said. “I think this is the servant’s way leading to the lower chambers. That should help us avoid well traveled areas.”
They found it easy to sneak five levels down through stone corridors, past statues of gargoyles, angels, demons, and scowling figures of former masters of the house. The lower levels contained prison cells with shackles waiting to bind, iron bars flung open carelessly, and guards who marched as if they were the only ones here.
But once they reached the sixth level, after winding down and around a spiraling stone stairwell, they found a vast earthen chamber, dark and dank, with razor-sharp spikes pointing up, covering every inch of the floor.
“What in the name of Nyx?” Mara said, bending down to inspect a spike.
Talis huffed. “You’d need to fly to get across the room. Be careful, Charna, stay back here with us.” He patted the lynx’s head, and she murmured in response.
“Aurellia said he’d test us,” Nikulo said. “How are we going to get past this?”
“We could tie boards on our feet,” Mara said, and grinned.
“Somehow I have a feeling that wouldn’t work.” Talis glanced around the room and found a stone. He placed it on a spike and nodded as the stone was eaten away by the metal.
“Nasty,” Mara said. “Magic infused in the spike?”
“I’m guessing even flying wouldn’t get you safely to the other side either.” Talis tossed a rock across the room, and the spikes shot up into the air and the stone exploded into dust.
Mara and Nikulo jumped at the explosion. “Maybe we can find another way back home,” she said, her voice uncertain.
“I have a better idea.” Talis summoned a brilliant golden orb and sent it across the room. Spikes shot up towards the orb, but retreated after doing nothing to harm the light. Far off on the other side of the room, the orb shone on a ledge in front of a stone door. Their destination. He bent down and placed a rune on the dry earth, pictured the ledge in his mind’s eye, and cast a binding spell. The glowing rune characters illuminated the dust flittering in the air. He stepped on the rune and a churning shadow portal appeared, beckoning them inside.
“And you’re sure that somehow the spikes won’t get us?” Mara frowned.
“Well, they couldn’t harm the orb… And I think technically we won’t even be anywhere near the spikes.” Talis rubbed his chin, hoping it was true. “I think one moment we’ll be here and the next moment we’ll be over there….”
Nikulo motioned Talis towards towards the shadow portal. “Then by all means…after you.”
“What? You don’t trust me? Oh, I get it, I’m the test subject.”
“You could say that.” Nikulo raised his hands, a doubtful expression on his face.
Talis exhaled sharply, upset that Nikulo expected him to go first. He stared into the portal and took a step forward, then finally decided to jump through.
The ledge where Talis landed was sloped down towards the spikes. He was about to turn and wave at Mara and Nikulo, to tell them it was safe, when he felt something pulling at his
ankle.
A shadowy hand, snaking out from the portal, was dragging him back inside.
22. THE NETHERWORLD
Talis kicked at the shadowy hand, and cast Light Magic in powerful bursts, trying to break free of its grasp, but the thing soon yanked him back into the portal, inside a world of gloom.
Then the thing at his ankle was gone.
He raised his head from the ash-covered ground, trying to make sense of what he saw. The sky was pale like a bone, faint but still blanched white. The trees were the trees from his vision of Rikar, strange and alien, limbs red like blood-soaked blades, leaves listless and flapping in the whistling wind. And the banded bark on the trees was like scale-mail armor, as if the trees were warriors ready to swoop down and strike hordes of invaders.
But the land was barren and dry, silted remains of an ancient fire, as if from the bones of a vast army burned to ash. The remnants of sorrow. And the trees thrived from the pain, thrived from the nutrients of suffering, vivid and stark against the bleak land.
He smelled the coming of winter, of snow and ice and pine, and could feel the cold creep down into his skull. His ears tingled at the sharp wind gusting the ash into a whorl, stinging his eyes until tears dripped down his cheeks. There was a hissing sound, low and shrill, echoing off the trees, coming closer to where he knelt. His body tensed at the sound, waiting for something to strike.
Off in the distance, through the quavering dust, Talis glimpsed a cloaked figure strolling towards him. In quick successive shifts forward the figure now stood ten feet away, face obscured by the shadow of the hood.
“You made a mistake coming after me,” Palarian said, his voice clear and sharp. “And you fell so easily into the trap set to bait you. I left the girl for you, why didn’t you just leave and find another way home?”
“You kidnapped her!” Talis shouted, raising his hands to attack the sorcerer. “Why did you do that?”
“I had no choice.” Palarian’s wrinkled eyes pleaded with him. “You weren’t exactly cooperative helping me leave your world. I had to find a way back home.”
“And this is home?”
Palarian shook his head. “This is the proving land, the Netherworld, a land of shadows and pain. Home is one more step away.”
“Your home…mine is back where I came from.”
“You could have gone home with the girl instead of coming here.”
“How could we? We had no crystal powerful enough to cast the spell.”
The sorcerer wagged his finger at Talis. “But you had the map. You could have searched for a crystal! Why did you come here?”
Talis felt his heart drop down to his stomach. Why had he come here… And why didn’t he think to use the map to find a crystal? He shouldn’t have listened to Aurellia. There was nothing he had to tell him that would help find a way back home. Palarian was right, the answer lay with the Surineda Map. But he remembered, he didn’t know the runes to get back home. Even with a powerful enough crystal he still couldn’t open a portal to his world. His stomach clenched at the thought.
“You’re here now, trapped in the Netherworld, like your old friend.”
“Rikar is here?” The tortured vision flashed in Talis’s mind.
“He’s over there in those hills…in a cave, learning how to be earnest.” A pitying frown crossed Palarian’s face, as if he were really worried about Rikar.
“So there’s no seventh level of the castle dungeon?”
The sorcerer spread his arms wide. “There is a seventh level. This place is something else entirely. You look perplexed…but that’s alright, you don’t need to understand everything. You’re here, that’s all that matters.”
“I’m here trapped in Aurellia’s web. What does he want with me, anyways?” Aurellia had Rikar as an apprentice, so why was Talis so important to him?
“You’ve royal blood…and the gods listen to you. Rikar is just another weapon for Aurellia, but you, having the gods’ ear, well that just might change everything for Aurellia.” Palarian swept off his hood, revealing his old, wrinkled face. “And you have the map. A map that only you can command. Remember? The gods gave it to you.”
“How do you know that?”
“Your friend Mara told me. She’s a gem, that one.” The sorcerer allowed a smile to curve his lips up. “You should value her, cherish her…she cares for you a great deal.”
Thinking of Mara made Talis worry about her stuck in the dungeon, with only Nikulo to help her. “Is she safe? Back in the dungeon?”
Palarian wagged his hands from side to side, as if uncertain. “She’ll be fine…and well taken care of.” His words sent a chill down Talis’s spine as he realized Mara and Nikulo would soon be captured, and there was nothing he could do about it.
“If you treasure her, like I see in your eyes that you do, you should find a way home, and protect her.”
“And you’ll help me escape?” Talis said, his voice filled with disbelief.
A shrewd look cross the sorcerer’s face. “Perhaps, perhaps.”
“How can I trust you? You’ve already betrayed me.”
“You have no other choice.” Palarian chuckled, pushing himself up to his feet. “You’re stuck here, in a world of Shadow Magic, where the rules are twisted, and where no other magic works.” Talis clenched his face up. How could he escape if his magic didn’t work here?
“But you said before that you didn’t know Shadow Magic?”
“Hah, do you expect people to tell the truth? I’ve lived over thirteen-thousand years. How could I not know Shadow Magic? When you live that long you learn many things, things you wish you’d never learned.”
Thirteen-thousand years? Talis gaped at the man, wondering about all that he’d seen and experienced during his life. What were the ancient kingdoms like? His imagination exploded, thinking of all the stories he’d read of history, of civilizations long ago, of people and places buried in the fabric of time. He held his tongue, despite wanting to ask Palarian a million questions.
“One day I’ll share stories of times long gone, of better days and memories that harass your heart. I’ve seen it all, the proud City of Urgar crumbling under ten thousand dark spells and countless undead hordes, the creation of civilization on your planet, the very first spark! My father’s eyes as he gazed at me, for the last time, hope passed into my heart, even as his enemies captured me and forced me to master their dark arts.
“These are the memories that plague the ancient mind. Of love and love lost. Of never returning to the place in time that felt like it would never go away. Immortal youth.”
Palarian sighed and inhaled a great gulp of wind. “We were all banished to your planet, Aurellia and his followers, by those of our world, the world known to us as Vellia, our home, the world of shadows and light. A world of infinite beauty.”
Talis could see the sorcerer caught in a rapturous picture, his face gleaming pure as a child’s, as if he were there back home. Now he understood why Palarian did the things he’d done back in Naru. Talis was certain he would do anything to bring Mara and Nikulo back home. Did he even care about helping Rikar? Talis frowned, thinking Rikar probably didn’t even want any help.
“By now your friends are in the comfort of the master’s captivity.” Palarian slapped his hands together and inky clouds formed, bubbling together in the air. “And I am tasked with your training. We’ll see if you survive or go mad like many of the others.”
“Training?” Talis scowled. “But I want to escape. You said—”
“I said perhaps. But my orders are to train you in the ways of Shadow Magic. And not the weak magic of the Jiserians you faced in battle. Light Magic is devastatingly brutal against such enemies, but powerless against what I’ll be teaching you. Even if you possess a crystal given to you by a Goddess.”
Talis was tempted to try and cast a shadow portal, thinking that it might work here, but he remembered the shadow hand that had dragged him here and thought he’d better not try.
Palarian pushed the bubbling cloud out thousands of feet in front of him, through a hole in the eerie forest.
“This world is troublesome to walk across, so the first lesson is always travel. A Shadow Blink is a spell that lets you leap forward instantly across visible distances, as you could with your portal spell, but much faster and consuming less energy.”
The sorcerer shook the inky cloud until it wound around and resolved down to a fibrous cord of black energy. “I’m showing you what is normally invisible. Here in the Netherworld shadow things are much more easily seen and controlled. I’ve shown you a shadow cord, billions of which exist throughout the universe. To cast the Shadow Blink spell you simply feel the shadow cords with your stomach and attach your own energy cords to the shadow ones, and the shadow cords pull you off to your destination.”
Talis stared in horror and fascination at the area in front of Palarian’s stomach. Hundreds of luminous living fibers stretched out from his robes, undulating, probing, until they attached to the shadow cord that stretched out for thousands of feet through the forest. The shadow cord bound itself to Palarian’s fibers, and instantly the sorcerer blinked off into the distance. A moment later Palarian appeared back to where Talis gaped at the strange sight.
“Who needs to fly when you can do that?” The sorcerer’s eyes crinkled up in amusement. “And if you do know how to fly”—Palarian soared twenty feet up into the air—“you fly so much faster.” And he was gone again, and back in a flash.
“Now it’s your turn.”
How am I supposed to do that? Talis thought. Palarian picked up on his doubt and motioned him over to where he stood. “Breathe naturally, inhale by pushing your stomach out, and exhale slowly.” With a quick strike, Palarian actually reached inside Talis’s stomach and pulled a bundle of luminous cords out from within his body. Talis felt instantly sick to his stomach and fought the urge to vomit all over the sorcerer.
Shadow Mage Page 15
