The Painter Mage: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  He made another motion with his hand, and light and flame exploded toward the Nizashi as he started to stand. Gods, Nik had grown powerful in the time since he escaped the prison, barely alive. He might actually have enough strength to take down the shifters. Could he really have enough strength to kill the Trelking?

  On the other side, it was all about how much power you could pull and whether you could tap into the deeper source. Someone like the Trelking was tied into it much more strongly than anyone else. That was how he had led for so long.

  “Devan wasn’t used to get to me.”

  “Really? She was the one who first met you when you crossed the Threshold. You think that was an accident? With the Trelking, there are no accidents.”

  “She wanted to get away from him, and she trusted me to help her. That’s why she came here with me.”

  “You keep telling yourself that, Oliver. Everything that happens when you’re connected to him is the Trelking’s wish. You should have learned that by now.”

  The Nizashi threw himself with a summoning of great power and speared toward Nik. Nik simply swept his hand in a circle around him—nothing more than that—and the Nizashi bounced off.

  “You’ll have to try a little hard than that, E’shan. The others managed more of a fight before I destroyed them.”

  “You think I have done all that I can against you, Collector? That there’s nothing more I can do against one such as yourself? I have faced far more powerful threats than you in my service.”

  “You lack creativity, E’shan. That has always been the downfall of the Te’alan. You are practical when you could be capable of such power if you were only so inclined.”

  Nik cupped his hands together. His power built rapidly and sharply, grating on my senses. Whatever he intended would happen now.

  If he sought the token given to the Nizashi, I didn’t know how powerful it would make him. It might even give him the necessary strength to face the Trelking, or maybe not. But I didn’t want to take that risk, not knowing what I did of the others beyond the Threshold. Creatures like Adazi and the Druist Mage, powerful beings who had shown something other than the indifference shown me by the Trelking. I had little doubt that these others would attempt to push into our world, to unleash forms of darkness that we simply weren’t equipped to handle. Hell, I’d lived on the other side for nearly a decade, and I wasn’t equipped to handle half of what existed there.

  Given my options, I drew upon the power stored by my father’s protections, using the arcane patterns I’d placed around them, and used it to send a blast toward Nik.

  “I’m sorry,” I said as I unleashed the energy.

  I don’t know if he expected it or simply felt what I was drawing. He turned and looked at me, his face twisted in a surprised frown.

  Nik’s power all but exploded from him with a concussive blast striking the Nizashi at the same time that my attack hit him. Nik was thrown into the air, spiraling away from me.

  I ran to the Nizashi. I knew Nik’s attack would kill him, but he wheezed upon my approach, blood trickling down the side of his mouth. “He will not have what he seeks,” the Nizashi said. “The Trelking must be warned. Tell De’avan.”

  Then Nik’s pattern completed and E’shan started to burn.

  I did the only thing I could think of: I made a quick circle around him with the black ink that I had in hand and infused it with power. As I did, the flames slowly died, quenching to nothing more than a smoldering blaze.

  Something like a freight train hit me, colliding into my side and slamming me back toward the parking lot.

  I let out a grunt as I landed and looked up, trying to get my bearings. It hurt to take a breath and I wheezed, much like the Nizashi as he died. I groped for the charm in my pocket, afraid I might have lost it in the attack.

  “Nik,” I managed to spit out his name, but not much more than that. I tried rolling on my side, but it hurt to do it. “Don’t do it. You can’t—”

  I felt him as he loomed over me. “I thought given what you’d been through that you might be more understanding, Oliver.”

  My vision started to clear, at least enough so that I could see him holding what looked like a circular object in his fist. The Trelking’s token. Maybe it really was a ring. “You can’t kill the Trelking,” I said. “Anything that follows will be worse.”

  “You were isolated too long if you believe that. I’m sorry I have to do this, but I can’t risk you coming after me or warning him that I might be coming. At least this way, you’ll get to see your father again. Sorry about him, by the way.”

  He cupped his hands together, the same as he’d done with the Nizashi. I couldn’t wait for him to complete whatever painting he would do. I triggered the charm. Ink sprayed out from the Agony charm. I pressed all the strength I had remaining into the pattern. After what we’d been through earlier in the day and everything that I had done since finding the Nizashi, I didn’t have much left.

  The explosion was less than I would have liked, once again diminished thanks to my father’s protections. Hopefully it would also prevent Nik from doing anything too powerful, though I’d seen evidence to the contrary. Nik was thrown back, knocked only a dozen feet or so, not enough to keep me safe, only to delay what was now inevitable.

  I started laughing. My father would be the reason I’d die. Here, in one of his places of protection, I’d fall to a man I once thought of as a friend.

  Then the howling started. One after another, each sounding closer. Shifters.

  Thank the gods that Jakes finally found Nik.

  The sound distracted Nik enough that when he pressed out with his pattern, any power he attempted was weakened. It hit me, pushing on my face like some invisible hammer. My skin burned hot and painful for countless moments. Then it faded.

  I managed to push to my knees and looked around. The lot was empty. Nik was gone.

  The Nizashi might be dead, all three now defeated, but now I had something worse. Now I had an old friend with enough power to threaten the Trelking, and I had to somehow stop him.

  13

  Devan kept her arm behind me for balance, even though I was only sitting in the middle of the parking lot, not trying to stand. When she reached me, she ran her hands over my cheeks and arms, poking painfully at my skin.

  “What happened to you?” she asked.

  “Nik has some new skills,” I said. “What took you so long?”

  “Someone tried to keep me locked in the diner.”

  “Taylor?”

  Devan waved her hand dismissively. “You think Taylor could have kept me locked in?”

  “Then who?” She flicked her eyes toward the Rooster sign sitting in front of the diner. “Not Tom,” I said.

  “Yeah, and he’s craftier than I would have expected. He thought he was keeping me safe.”

  “What happened to Taylor?” I tried moving, but my skin burned every time I changed positions. Instead, I sat where I was. The cool air played along my exposed arms, suddenly more biting than it had seemed before.

  “Tom again. Knocked her out. He must have overheard what we were talking about and thought that he would take care of the problem for us.”

  “I thought the Rooster was some sort of safe haven. What’s he doing getting involved?”

  “You’ll have to ask him.”

  “Then how did you get out of the Rooster?”

  “He didn’t want to hurt me. I think he only wanted to keep me from getting out here and getting myself killed.”

  “Nice of him to worry about me,” I grunted.

  “Yeah, well you seem pretty good at not ending up dead, so maybe he knew you could handle yourself.”

  Maybe that was it, or maybe there was something more that I didn’t see. I was beginning to think that there might be more connections than I knew. Tom knew my father. My father had known Jakes’s father. Jakes was concerned enough about upsetting the Trelking that he refused to intervene when the Nizashi att
acked, even though our lives might be in danger. And Tom tried keeping Devan safe.

  How did this all tie together?

  I’d have to solve that riddle later. Right now, I needed to figure out what Nik was up to.

  “He took the token off of E’shan,” I said.

  “E’shan’s dead?” Devan spoke without any emotion in her voice, as if she had no sympathy for the loss of one of her father’s men. Given what I knew of them, maybe they didn’t deserve any.

  “Yeah, Nik took him out. E’shan called him the Collector. Does that mean anything to you?”

  “Well, it fits with what Taylor has been telling us about him.”

  “Yeah, but it sounded more like a title.” I stretched, and the pain in my back and neck flared again. “Nik also said that you were set up to find me. That your father used you to bind me closer to him.”

  “And you believed him?”

  One of the shifters howled again, this time close by. “Not particularly. That only would have worked if you wanted to help your father. Help me stand?” I said.

  She lifted me easily, hoisting me to my feet as if I weighed no more than a heavy cat. “I did help him, though,” Devan said. I arched a brow at her and frowned. “It might not have been intentional, but you can’t deny that you were bound more tightly to him because of our friendship.”

  “I wouldn’t change that.” I started to slip, and I grabbed around her shoulders to keep my balance. I ended up holding onto both of her shoulders, looking down and into her eyes. She looked up at me with an earnest expression. We stood like that, staring at each other for a while, neither of us saying anything. Since nearly losing her to Adazi, something had changed between us, at least for me.

  “Even though it meant you spent nearly ten years over there?” she asked.

  “What’s ten years when I owe him nine and ninety?”

  She smiled. For another moment, we stood there, but the sound of Jakes clearing his throat behind us made me turn.

  “What happened here, Morris?”

  “Why does this have to be my fault?”

  Jakes managed to keep a straight face. To his credit, he always seemed to manage keeping a straight face. “Where is the Nizashi?”

  I pointed to the patch of grass near the edge of the parking lot where the body still smoldered. My circle kept the stink contained, about the only thing I had managed to do right so far tonight. “Nik got him.”

  “And the painter?”

  “He’s gone.” Jakes nodded. “Jakes, you should know that he was after, and acquired, something of the Trelking’s. It’s an item that increased the magical ability of the Nizashi and made the one they called E’shan more powerful. A token of sorts.”

  “He’s taken the cerys?”

  Devan was the one to answer with a brief nod.

  “Wait, what is the cerys?” I asked. “And how does Jakes know about it?”

  “They are what my father calls the tokens,” Devan started. “He makes them and they tap into something deeper, some part of him. That’s what makes the Nizashi so fearsome. With the cerys, they can draw on an ability almost like the Trelking.”

  “What’s it mean that Nik now has one?”

  “He might be able to use it. I…I don’t know, Ollie.”

  “Will it make him strong enough to kill the Trelking?” I asked. “That’s what he’s after.”

  Devan shook her head. “Not to kill him. You’ve met my father. He’d be incredibly powerful even here, but on the other side? Regardless of what Nik might have collected, there’s nothing he could do that would end up killing my father.”

  “I’m not sure that’s true.” We turned to where Jakes paced slowly. “He could poison it somehow. This would affect the Trelking. It would be enough to weaken him, but to do so would mean having access to crossing the Threshold, and we have all the gateways covered.”

  I thought about what I’d seen from Nik, how easily he manipulated magic. “I’m not sure you’ve got them as well covered as you think, Jakes.”

  “He managed to surprise Kacey the first time. It will not happen again.”

  I looked down at Devan and wondered if Jakes could really guarantee that. I’d seen what Nik was capable of doing, and if this cerys somehow made him even more powerful, then I didn’t like the fact that he might end up hurting friends of mine.

  “Ollie, he can’t cross the Threshold without a trigger,” Devan said.

  There was that. Reaching a gateway wasn’t enough. I knew of two around Conlin, each needed to be triggered in the right way. From what I’d seen of Nik, he still didn’t use arcane patterns. Maybe he didn’t have the skill needed to open either of them. That didn’t mean he couldn’t get help, but seeing how he’d just nearly killed me, I didn’t think help was what he had in mind. Devan could open them, but she wouldn’t do it even if forced.

  “Oh, shit,” I said. I looked at Jakes. “He spoke to Taylor. She showed him the patterns in the park. He’s going to try and open the gateway in the park.”

  Jakes tensed. The last time that gateway had opened, invisible nightmare creatures from hell had come through. We call them hunters, and they feed on painters. Does Nik know about them? Will he care? If his plan is to reach across the Threshold, he might only need a moment with the gateway open, barely enough time for the hunters to make a push at coming through. And then?

  “We need to get to the park,” I said.

  “You’re in no shape to go there,” Devan said. “Even if you were, there’s not anything you can do to stop him. And, yeah, I know how strange it is that I’m saying that about Nik.”

  “We can’t let him open that gateway,” I said, “and we can’t let him attack your father. The Trelking isn’t the nicest of guys, but he’s better than some of the alternatives.”

  “You won’t do this alone, Morris,” Jakes said.

  “Good, because I’m not feeling like I could. I’ll meet you there. I just need to make one stop.”

  Jakes stared at me with his blank expression before shifting quickly and darting away.

  “You know, that’ll never get easier to watch,” I said. “Though I’m sure you liked it just fine.”

  “You’re an idiot, Ollie.”

  “I know.”

  “Where do we need to go?”

  I started toward my truck. Each step was painful and slow, but I managed to drag myself along. Devan kept her arm around me, supporting me more than I wanted to admit. The medallion chilled against my chest, and I glanced over to see her skin glowing softly.

  “What are you worried about?” I asked.

  “Not worried, just not sure whether we’re going to have trouble with your artist friend.”

  I studied the front door of the Rooster, the way the glass filtered some of the light from inside. There was no movement through it. “So now she’s my friend?”

  “Right now, if Tom’s doing what he’s supposed to, she’s your sleepy friend.”

  “You said he knocked her out.”

  “Yeah, pot to the head, cartoon style. It was pretty awesome.”

  “A pot is nothing. I shoveled a guy tonight.”

  * * *

  The lock on the shed looked so puny compared to what was inside, but I doubted anything short of a magical nuclear attack would manage to get it open without the gold key. At least I still had it. After all the shit we’d been through tonight, I wasn’t sure whether I would have managed to hang onto it.

  Devan lit the way once we were inside. “Are you sure we should be here instead of the park? I thought you were so worried about Nik getting through the gateway.”

  “I am, but I’ve got to think Jakes can hold him off for a little while.” I wasn’t sure how long it would last, but the shifters knew not to underestimate Nik now. That they had in the first place was my fault.

  “What’s down here that can help? You’re not going for the orb—”

  “Gods, no. That’d be stupid.”

  She look
ed over at me. “So what you’ve got in mind isn’t stupid?”

  I gave her my best smile. “We need a way to slow him down. I left the cylinder safely hidden here before we were attacked.”

  “How do you know what it will do?”

  “I don’t, but something the Nizashi said makes me think it’s more dangerous than Nik realizes.”

  My strength was slowly returning. Maybe by the time we reached the park again, I’d be strong enough to use the damn device. Or maybe Nik would already have overpowered the shifters and thrown open the gate.

  At the bottom of the ramp leading toward the lower level of the shed, the air still held some of the bitter, poisonous stench from when the Nizashi first attacked. “They were willing to risk you like that?” I wondered.

  “Maybe they were willing to risk anything to get the cylinder back.”

  “And that would have gotten them on your father’s good side.”

  I stopped at the first shelf. The tiny figurines that stood as if staring at me made me uncomfortable, especially knowing what they were. The orb held them frozen in place, their magic contained. From what Devan had said, they were held like that to contain their magic. Were they killed, their magic would pass on to another. In this way, my father had contained them, kept them from doing any more harm.

  “Where did you put it?” Devan asked.

  I pointed toward the long shelf at the end of the wall nearest where the orb was hidden. It should have been there, but it wasn’t.

  “Where is it?” Devan asked.

  “Considering there were only the three of us down here, I’m guessing it’s back at the Rooster,” I said.

  “Why would Taylor take it? What would she do with it?”

  There was only one reason I could think she would have taken it. Maybe it was the same reason E’shan had come for us at the Rooster rather than trying to get Nik. They wanted the cylinder, and they knew Taylor had taken it. “You don’t think that she wants to use it against Nik?”