by Justin Sloan
“Again, not so sure you’re really nine,” Rhona said.
“By the way you look at me right now, I’d say you know I am, and it terrifies you.” Kia stood and stared her in the eyes, unblinking. “You wish you could have been half this powerful at my age.”
“I don’t even want this power I have right now.”
“Don’t you?”
Rhona felt the little girl’s eyes piercing into her. Damn, she was right after all. The power she felt when using magic was the most amazing sensation she had ever experienced.
“Well, let’s have some fun, then,” she said as she followed Wodain, who appeared again not far off ahead.
He led them through a hall lit with lamps that made it gleam white and then around a corridor that was half-modern, half-polished tiles from the old world. At the other side of the room, he motioned to a door and smiled, then walked right through the wall.
Rhona nearly fell backward in surprise, and Kia let out a squeal.
“Merely a mental projection,” the mystic’s voice said from all around them. Rhona frowned at Kia and asked, “Is that something other mystics can do?”
“I’ve never met one.”
“Ah, right.”
She led the way in through the door, reaching deep down to be ready and pull on her magic should she need it. This little girl at her side didn’t belong here, but leaving her back in the dungeon hadn’t been an option.
While Rhona was too young still to have her own daughter, she often wondered what it would be like and whether that was in her stars. But most of all, she thought about how, if Kia had been her daughter, how badly she would have fought to keep the girl out of a situation like this.
She wasn’t judging Donnon at all—this was, it seemed, Rhona’s fault in a weird way. It was more that the guilt of the decision to allow Kia to fight alongside her was eating at her, even though she knew it was their best chance of survival.
They walked farther into the room and saw a table near the far wall. The sorcerer, Master Irdin sat at the head of a sturdy, oak table. He had changed so that he no longer wore the black and purple robes, but instead wore sleek robes of purple and green, with a symbol on the left shoulder of a six-pointed star surrounded by a circle.
Seeing him there made her wonder what had happened in this place so far, and how much of it was real, even now.
He paused from his eating and noticed Rhona staring at the symbol.
“The North Star,” he said with a smile, then carefully dabbed at his mouth with a napkin. Oddly, his plate was empty, and the napkin appeared clean. Had he really been eating at all?
“Okay, I’ll bite,” she replied, “what’s the significance of the North Star?”
“A guiding light, a symbol of hope. You’ll learn one day, perhaps. But for now, just know that it means I serve a higher purpose, one that you have, until this moment, stood in the way of.”
She shook her head, confused. “How’s that?”
“You resist when you should succumb. You fight against us when you should be fighting with us, for the greater good.”
“If your greater good means dispensing with the lives of people like my brother, or Donnon, or this girl here,” she nodded to Kia, who was still standing behind her sheepishly. “That’s not something I can allow.”
“You mean you’re too weak to do what’s right.” He stood, and unclasped his robes, then let them fall around him so that he was now wearing only his pants. His torso was covered in tattoos of ancient symbols and more, and in their midst, that same six-pointed star. “See that I am devoted, and believe me, if you can find the wisdom to see truth. Sometimes the weak amongst us must be rooted out, but sometimes a new power is born from among the weak. You must often test them to see if the powers emerge. If not, what value do they have to our new society?”
“It wasn’t long ago I served one who saw magic users as the ones who should be purged.”
“Aye, there are plenty of those, too. A healthy balance of purging to be had for all.”
“See, this is why we’re going to be on our way.”
“Exactly,” Kia said, glaring. “But I’d like to purge him first.”
“Kia…”
“Let the child speak,” Master Irdin said, holding up a wrinkled hand. It struck Rhona as odd, as he looked much younger than that hand would lead her to otherwise believe.
Kia held his gaze with eyes fiercer than many grown men Rhona had known.
“What makes you so sure I’m the bad guy here?” Master Irdin asked. “I took you for your own protection, you see. There are those who would cause you harm. Not I.”
“Are you insane?” Rhona asked, stepping between the two. “After everything you’ve done, the people you hurt to get to me, and the remnant you use? Of course, you’re evil!”
The room reverberated, an echo of shadows, and Master Irdin smiled.
“You seem to be mistaken, Rhona,” he said, ignoring whatever was happening. “How many did you see fall? How many of those that may have fallen did you really know… were truly pure of heart? Any that my people attacked were certainly not the good people you were led to believe, and in truth, we meant to retrieve you from them with haste.”
“Retrieve me?” She took another step, the shadows growing darker than dark. “Explain this to me!”
“Your powers are quite unique,” he said, gritting his teeth to resist whatever was happening from the darkness and the effect of Rhona’s magic. “We’ve seen the power of light rise up in this land, a power that is truly different from the elemental magic you see among the clans. It truly terrified us, until now… when we believe we have a way to keep it under control.”
“And that would be?”
“Light and dark. Two opposites, yet how can you have one without the other? You stand with us against the paladins… those same paladins who still roam these lands and stay strong as we speak, and we may yet be able to quench this light.”
“You speak as if you know me, and therefore, I can only assume, you know that my brother is a paladin of the Order of Rodrick.”
“Was.”
“Excuse me?” Rhona shook her head, trying to make sense of all of this. “Was?”
“Your brother has thrown off his armor, turned against his former brothers in the Order, and now? Now he, too, could very well be welcomed as one of us, if you were to think smart there.”
“Why are we listening to him?” Kia asked, turning her glare at Rhona. “He threw us in the dungeons and, before that, led mindless beasts against us all.”
Rhona considered this, remembering how, just moments ago, she had been thinking how wise this girl was. Wise beyond her years.
And that made all the difference.
The man before her saw the fury in her eyes as she looked up, and he acted before her magic flared. His hands moved swiftly, ice flaring up around Kia, moving for her heart—but Rhona smiled.
The fool didn’t know Kia like she did. He didn’t know what she was capable of, and so when she stared with horrified eyes at the oncoming ice while at the same time pushing her hands forward, he was quite surprised when flames appeared around her and pushed through the ice, surging toward him.
Master Irdin froze in confusion, and so Rhona acted. The ripples she felt in the shadows told her she needed to leave immediately. She grabbed Kia and, in the sudden darkness that took over the room and only allowed for her to see, they ran.
“We need to kill him!” Kia shouted as she was pulled along. “He needs to die!”
“It will happen,” Rhona said as they ran along dark hallways, “but his reinforcements were too close for comfort, and we aren’t yet ready to take them all on yet. Not by ourselves.”
Kia stopped resisting and gasped as the lights flickered back on to reveal a door before them. They threw it open and both were amazed to see stairs leading out and down into a castle garden with hedges as tall as walls, fountains scattered among rose bushes, and statues of tall l
ions and unicorns.
They made their way through, breathing the fresh air and the scent of roses, until they reached the far hedge. A wave of cold air came over them, settling into Rhona’s bones and giving her the chills.
Warmth burst forth from Kia’s direction, and Rhona turned at the orange glow to see that the girl had a flame in her hand. Kia smiled and twisted it around her hand, then rolled it across her knuckles like an old coin.
“How is one little girl so brave?” Rhona asked.
“My dad’s a great teacher.”
They shared a smile that quickly faded when Rhona looked around, lost. “We have no idea where we are, or how to get out of here.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” Kia gave her an encouraging nod.
Even in this dire situation, Rhona couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m supposed to be the one comforting you, not the other way around.”
“You haven’t met that many nine-year-olds, have you? We’re tougher than you seem to think.”
“I can’t argue there.”
She held out her hand, and the girl took it while keeping the flame alight in her other hand. Together, they made their way past one hedge after another. At a right turn, they passed a fountain with a statue of a woman standing tall, a staff in her hand and a sword in the other. It was intimidating and so lifelike that it caused Kia to pull back.
“See, I’m not always brave,” the girl said.
Rhona squeezed her hand and pulled her past the statue. “Being afraid has nothing to do with being brave.”
Walking past a small pond with ducks swimming across its surface, Kia’s color returned, and she even paused to watch one of the ducks lift itself up and beat its wings, very uncharacteristically of ducks.
“My mom wasn’t a mage,” Kia said. “I could always see that she was afraid of it, but that never caused her to look at me or my father any differently. The first time we learned I had the magic, they found me in a field surrounded by flames, crying. She didn’t stop to worry about herself or wait to run for help… she ran right through those flames and came for me. She was always there for me like that… always, until she wasn’t.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Rhona offered. “My own mother... I wish I could say she was brave. I’d like to imagine she was, but the memories are all a blur.”
“You lost your mom, too?”
Rhona nodded. “When I was younger than you, aye.” She could feel Kia’s eyes on her as she looked away, but offered no more than that as she led them deeper into the hedges.
At first, Rhona thought nothing of the statue. They passed what she hoped was a replica of the statue a second time, but even then, it wasn’t too strange. The clue that something was wrong came when, having nudged a hole in the grass with her boot the second time through, they came to the statue again after going completely straight, and that hole in the grass was there.
“We’re going in circles?” Kia offered, eyes wide.
“It might be worse than that.”
Rhona closed her eyes and felt the shadows—only they weren’t there. None of this was real, she realized with horror.
“Stay close,” she said, wrapping her arms around the child. The girl was brave, but how does one explain to a nine-year-old that your escape was no escape at all and that you’re somehow trapped in a world conjured up by the magic of a mystic?
Showing her might be the easiest route, so Rhona let the shadows that she could feel, off in the distance, rage. A piercing scream came a moment later, and then everything around them faded.
Instead of the hedges, they were surrounded by walls of stone and brick, glowing purple. Instead of the night sky above, it became very clear that they were still in the dungeon where they had started.
A check showed a power that she guessed to be the mystic was still nearby, but, at least for now, he wouldn’t be strong enough to use his magic on them. Unfortunately, Rhona realized as she pitched forward and caught herself on her hands and knees, wanting to vomit with the clenching in her gut, her powers wouldn’t be much help either.
“Again?” Kia asked, catching on to the situation quickly.
“If you have it in you, aye.”
Kia stepped forward and began applying the fire to the door hinges once again. They couldn’t know if it would work this time, or how much of what they had seen the first time was real, but they had to try.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Water rose up on both sides of the village entrance, forming spirits that looked like men with spears of water. The spirits considered them, but turned their focus on Donnon. Both men lowered their weapons. The spirits nodded, then returned to the moat that surrounded the village walls.
Alastar looked to his companion for advice on what to do here, but Donnon just stared forward, waiting. Finally, the gates opened to reveal a stout woman clad in blue, flowing robes.
“Water magic?” Alastar asked.
Donnon nodded. “And they would’ve attacked if they judged us to be here for nefarious reasons.”
“They know we’re not?”
“They suspect we’re not, based on my coming here without my clan at my back, I’d imagine.”
The woman was walking toward them, hands spread out majestically so that she appeared to be a water spirit herself. Her eyes were fading back from black, a smile forming on her face.
“You, Donnon, are welcome here,” the woman said.
“Just like that?”
She smiled, now clasping her hands behind her back. “There was a time when I would’ve turned you and all fire mages away, but… perhaps you haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?” Alastar asked, growing curious, as he peeked past her. All he could see were several others in blue, hands out at the ready should he or Alastar try anything.
“And who is this?”
“He’s with me,” Donnon replied. “A friend.”
Alastar nodded his respect, regretting speaking up before being introduced, but the woman simply nodded back and seemed to move on.
“The Magic Wars are in full effect,” she said. “The paladins have begun their siege on the clans, as we’ve always known they would. Clans that have already been overrun have found our position to regroup and strategize retaliation, so we naturally welcome you to those numbers. But…”
“But?”
“Your companion… He doesn’t strike me as a clansman.”
“That’s because I’m not,” Alastar said. “But what I am, even I do not know. A chance for success against them, for one. Donnon’s companion, of course. And… a former paladin.
“A former paladin?” She scoffed. “Am I wrong in the knowledge that you are a paladin from your devotion ceremony to death?”
“So the saying goes,” he admitted. “Do I believe the paladins can return to the light? Aye. They don’t understand the clans or magic, and so they attack. But I also know that what they’re doing now is wrong. That the war on magic cannot continue, and that someone has to show them the error in their ways.”
“And that someone would be you?”
“Yes,” he said.
“You’re lucky we don’t require humility to enter these gates, or you’d be long gone.”
Donnon cocked his head. “I’ll assume that means you’re letting him enter.”
“He’s with you, and he seems to speak truthfully, from his heart.” Her eyes narrowed as she lowered her voice. “But should there be even the slightest thought of betrayal, he will have the water spirits to answer to.”
“You still haven’t introduced yourself,” Alastar noted. “I should like to know whose patience I rely on to keep my life.”
She laughed. “Layla, of Clan Lockmire.” For the first time, her eyes softened as she turned them back to Donnon. “It’s been a long time. Gordon will be excited to see you.”
“Excited?” He looked skeptical.
“Well, as much as can be expected,” she replied with a smile that was hiding somethin
g. “Go on, you’ll find him in the great hall, tending to the wounded.”
They expressed their appreciation and headed on through the village. Most of it was surrounded by a fence of logs, the tops of which had been carved into points, with rows of sharpened sticks poking through to keep off invaders or straggling wild animals. Huts were built in much the same way, and the rear of the village went right up to the cliffs on one side, surrounded by trees on the other two. Alastar saw why it would be easy to miss if not for the smoke or, unless you were close enough, the enticing scent of cooked lamb.
But his attention was on the interaction between Layla and Donnon, and he had to know.
“What are we walking into with this Gordon business?”
“He was my best friend until they caught us. Introduced me to my wife, may she rest in peace.”
“But…?
“We were of different clans, and they told us we couldn’t be in contact anymore. If that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had ended up with him instead of me. That would’ve saved me a lot of heartache, but heartache I would never give up for all the world.”
“Because of Kia?”
“Her and all the moments shared, all the memories. The statement holds true, you know, about it being better to have loved and lost.”
“Yeah, well, paladin here, so…”
“Wait, that rumor about you all taking a vow of abstinence is true?” Donnon burst into laughter. “What the hell’d you do that for?”
“We are required so that we might focus on our duty. Defend the lands.”
“From people like me, right?” Donnon chuckled again, but gave him a disappointed shake of the head. “Good job there, buddy. Kept yourself dry so you could fight an enemy that never should have been an enemy to begin with.”
“It’s not just you all,” Alastar countered. “With these new sorcerers, and anyone who disrupts the peace, really, we—”
“So, it’s we again, is it?” Donnon raised an eyebrow.
