The Akorell Break (The Mortal Mage Book 2)

by B. T. Narro

  Basen looked down as if in thought. Beatrix glanced at him from over her shoulder. “There’s something else that’s been even more difficult for me to admit than that.”

  Basen’s expression softened. “You can tell me anything, Beatrix. What is it?”

  “I divulged to Jimmin that you could get the akorell metal you need from the Dajrik Mountains. I explained that the metal was somewhere Jimmin wouldn’t be able to reach without taking a portal and then climbing, but I doubt he was deterred. Men are probably on their way there. I’m confident they can’t get to the akorell metal before we do, but if we’re delayed for any reason, they might become an issue. I apologize.”

  “There’s no reason to apologize. I’m sure it was necessary for you to tell them.” Basen put his hand on her back. “I’m going to do everything in my power to prevent something like that from happening to you again…but if it does—I’m not saying it’s going to, only if—then you worry about yourself first. Tell them whatever you need to tell them to survive. I can deal with the consequences.”

  Adriya asked, “Should we be concerned that Jimmin knows where we’re going?”

  Basen shook his head. “The plan stays the same.” He looked as if he was going to say something else but he stopped. “It stays the same,” he repeated, though he seemed to be speaking to himself before he addressed them again. “Timing is more important now, though. Let me do a few calculations and figure out exactly when we need to start melting the akorell.” He left the crowded bedroom.

  Beatrix stared at his back as he walked off. She didn’t seem pleased by whatever she felt from his psyche.

  Desil’s took the time to ask Leida and Adriya, “What happened after I left the forest outside Tenred?”

  Both women considered him for only a moment before their gazes fell. They seemed to be lost in a painful memory. Desil regretted his question. Beatrix and Kirnich gave them longing looks as if wanting to support them. Alabell even put her hand on Leida’s shoulder.

  “You don’t have to speak about it,” the healer said.

  “I didn’t realize.” Desil spoke hastily. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, my parents have taught me it’s good that we do speak about it,” Adriya said. “It’s the only way for it to feel normal.”

  “It seems wrong to make killing normal.” Leida looked at her friend. “But you’re right. It has to be this way.” With surprising strength, she told Desil, “Neeko’s troops were victim to a surprise attack. We fought with them. We killed people. We…” She clamped her mouth shut and pursed her lips, as if sucking on something sour.

  Adriya continued for her, “I took an arrow to the leg. Leida took a blade to her back.”

  “I couldn’t believe the pain,” Leida said. “You hear stories of battle, but not what it’s like to be cut with a sword across your back.”

  Desil imagined the pain if his wound had been to his back and shuddered.

  “They killed many of ours,” Leida said. “But we won. Adriya and I needed caregelow for our injuries, but we couldn’t stay there to recover. There was too much risk of Allephon’s men finding my father. We took caregelow, then Beatrix put us to sleep before she rushed to the Tenred wall.” Leida looked at the psychic. “When I awoke, I was here with my family and Adriya. I had no idea what kind of trouble the rest of you were in until my father told me.”

  “How did he know?” Desil asked.

  “Because of Neeko. After the battle, he visited Kyrro’s army outside the wall and learned what happened at the end of the meeting between the kings. He went there to get us out of that forest by organizing a group of trusted men to take us through the Fjallejon Pathway and into the Academy in covered carriages. We were in the same transport as the troops taking the bodies of our allies back to Kyrro to be buried, so there was no need for the carriages to be inspected. My father also managed to get the akorell melting potions from Neeko, who obtained them from the chemist he mentioned a while ago. If it had been discovered that my father was in one of the carriages, everyone privy to the plan could’ve been imprisoned, and yet they helped anyway. It was surprising considering how they blamed him for leaving the Academy.”

  “Eckard said he will do what he can to convince them not to blame us or your father,” Adriya told her friend. “He also explained that it’s only because they’ve lost friends that they look for someone to blame, but they know the headmaster wouldn’t have been able to do anything to prevent that if he’d been with them. It’s just easier to blame him.”

  Leida nodded. She told Desil, “I’m sure if my father had been there, he would’ve risked capture to keep the three of you from being taken to the castle. He heard about what happened from Neeko too late. Even Neeko might’ve done something if he’d been closer when Beatrix accused Allephon of murdering their father and attacked him.”

  “I attacked Allephon?” Beatrix seemed in disbelief.

  “You don’t remember?” Kirnich asked.

  “I can’t recall anything after putting Leida to sleep, except arriving at the castle.”

  “The bastards beat you more than necessary,” Kirnich said angrily. “You didn’t attack Allephon, though I could see how someone might’ve believed you were going to.”

  “I should’ve kept my mouth shut.”

  “Aye, for your own safety, but then we never would’ve known it was Jimmin who was behind your father’s murder.”

  “Desil, I have to know something,” Adriya said. “How the bastial hell did you get Beatrix out of prison?”

  “It wasn’t just me,” he felt the need to point out. “We wouldn’t have made it without Kirnich.”

  “What happened?” Leida asked.

  Kirnich seemed eager to share the tale. He didn’t spare any details, sharing how worried he’d been when Desil started to soften the stone to dig his way out of his cell. Leida and Adriya seemed surprised about this ability, which made Desil realize something. If two people who knew him well were surprised he could move that much stone, it was no wonder that more precautions weren’t taken to prevent him from escaping in such a way. But there was still a detail that went against that thought.

  “They must’ve seen the hole I made in the roof of the castle to get through the first time. Didn’t that make them realize there was a mage who could get through stone?”

  “My brother thought I did that with some tool,” Beatrix answered. “He figured we climbed up and broke through.”

  “Well, now they must know the truth from the hole I left under my cell and under the door of the torture chamber,” Desil said. “If we’re captured again, there’s no escaping.”

  “In that case, we’ll fight to the death,” Kirnich answered a little too quickly for Desil’s taste.

  No one offered a better alternative, which troubled him even more.

  Kirnich jumped right back into the tale, describing exactly how Desil had hesitated to kill Girgis and nearly died because of it. As Kirnich described watching Desil stab his sword into Girgis’ chest, Desil felt sick. He took on a blank stare as his mind seemed to separate from his body. He didn’t hear much of the other details of the escape until the end.

  “We were running around the castle,” Kirnich said, now giving the story as much respect as a bard would, with emphatic gestures and dramatic inflections. “I’m thinking there’s no hope. We’re going to die behind the castle if Beatrix doesn’t bleed out first. And Desil starts to slow as if he might fall. He regains his balance and stumbles along as I reach out to help him. Is he about to pass out before Beatrix? He seemed fine a moment before, so I asked him what he was doing and he told me he was speaking with Leida! I figured he’d gone insane. As I prepared to fight my traitorous men to the death, I thought of my mother. News of my betrayal must’ve reached her at Trentyre by then. I thought of that too.”

  Kirnich slapped Desil on the back. “You could’ve told me earlier what you intended to do! Instead I had to watch you run, half conscious and panting, aroun
d the castle. Finally, we reached the same place as before behind the castle, but there was no sign of a portal. It opened on top of Desil, sucked him right up as well as my arm! I jerked it out just in time. I don’t know if Basen has ever tested sticking a limb into a portal without going in, but I wouldn’t recommend it.” The warrior rubbed his forearm. “I think it nearly pulled a bone loose.”

  “He hasn’t tested it,” Leida said with a giggle. “You really thought Desil had gone mad?”

  “I did!” Kirnich put his heavy hand on Desil’s shoulder. “Why didn’t you say anything before we got behind the keep?”

  “I was too busy concentrating.”

  “What about when we were running out of the dungeon?” Kirnich asked. “You were only following the two of us. You could’ve told me then.”

  Desil admitted with some embarrassment, “I had my doubts we would get out of there, and it seemed even more unlikely I could tell Leida we needed a portal.”

  “That’s surprisingly true,” Beatrix said. “Then why did you escape at all? You could’ve stayed in the cell like Kirnich advised you to do. They wouldn’t have hung you.”

  “Because I knew I could do something to help you. Even though there was a small chance of success, I had to take it.”

  “Wait, Beatrix…” Kirnich held up his hands. “You don’t know, do you?”

  “What?”

  “Desil planned this all from the moment he saw us taken down at the wall. He joined the brawl so they would take him too. He didn’t get himself arrested by accident, like I did out of anger. It was calculated.”

  Both Leida and Adriya gasped while Beatrix gaped at Desil in surprise.

  “I should’ve led with that!” Kirnich said. “I thought all of you knew.”

  “You did that just for the two of us?” Beatrix asked.

  “I didn’t see how else you would get out of there alive,” Desil replied.

  “I figured you broke me out because you were already going to escape.” She was shaking her head for a reason Desil didn’t understand. “That’s too much, Desil. I would’ve never asked you to do that.”

  “He is mad.” Kirnich laughed. He seemed to be the only one still entertained by this as the others looked at Desil with shock. “At least half mad. The rest of you should’ve heard him on caregelow. He was one step away from insanity, making up nonsense and calling it poetry.”

  Now Kirnich was exaggerating for the sake of amusement. Desil hadn’t exactly been himself on caregelow, but his thoughts were all sincere, as were his intentions. He glanced at Leida to ensure she knew this.

  She already was staring at him but looked down to avoid his gaze.

  “It didn’t affect me that—” Desil began to say, but Basen returned and spoke over him.

  “We should leave now for the timing of this to work. If something goes wrong and we must separate, then bring the akorell metal to the Wind Knights. They’re meeting us at the abandoned Kreppen encampment outside the mountains. They should be there in a few hours, just enough time for us to melt the akorell metal and collect it. I hope all of you are ready.”

  Desil was still so focused on how to undo Kirnich’s exaggeration that he missed half of what Basen said and asked him to repeat it. By the time the headmaster was done saying it a second time, Desil remembered he had a lot more to worry about than Leida misunderstanding his intentions.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Two enormous sacks clanked as Basen set them on the floor. He opened one sack and took out tall, empty bottles, with corks in the top of each of them, and started handing them off. “Clear your bags. Leave your belongings here. We’ll return for them after we get the melted akorell metal to the Wind Knights.”

  “What about our water?” Adriya asked.

  “My wife filled each of your pouches. She’ll return with them soon.”

  Desil hadn’t noticed her leaving, focused instead on Leida. She continued to avoid his gaze. He knew he should direct all his attention to Basen’s instructions, but he couldn’t help look for an opportunity to explain to her how Kirnich had exaggerated.

  Basen announced, “Fill your bags with as many bottles as you can fit.”

  When the two sacks were empty, Basen brought out two more. Desil’s bag was full before they ran out of bottles, and soon no one had any room left.

  Alabell returned with everyone’s water pouches. They’d been cleaned, Desil saw, droplets of cool water dripping down their sides.

  “Follow me,” Basen said as he headed toward the door. They marched after him, all in light leather armor, matching in tan color. Desil felt ready for anything, except what he would say to Leida when he finally had the chance. It was easy to tell her Kirnich had exaggerated, but then what? He couldn’t explain why he had stood in the doorway of her bedroom until she woke. It was some sort of need to see her, but he didn’t like the way that made him seem. What else could he say? He felt worse lying, though.

  Why had he gone there during the night? Perhaps Kirnich was right after all and Desil was far from his usual self.

  “I have small bags for all of you,” Basen said as they went around behind his house and spotted smaller sacks on the grass. “Take one each. They contain more bottles, and these are filled with the potion that will melt the akorell metal.”

  “What’s it called?” Leida took out a bottle from her sack to inspect it. The substance within was as clear as water.

  “It’s not an easy name to remember. I didn’t bother to learn it, as I don’t see us using this again after today.”

  “Arisalithan,” Alabell said. She had her own bag with her, but she hadn’t filled it with any bottles.

  “Yeah, that’s it.” Basen cocked his head. “How do you know that?”

  “I researched the potion after I found out what you were planning to do with it. I wanted to ensure there wouldn’t be any dangers to using it that Steffen might not have mentioned. You know how he can be when he’s excited about someone testing a new potion.”

  “Yes. Now I’m not sure I want to know this…but did you find anything?”

  “Many things. It’s an alcohol-based substance, very toxic. Don’t breathe it in, wear gloves, and turn your face away to protect your eyes.”

  “He told me most of that except for the part about gloves. Knowing Steffen, he probably assumed I would come to that conclusion on my own. Do all of you have gloves?”

  “No,” Leida and Beatrix said at the same time.

  “I don’t know where mine are,” Desil added. He didn’t see them among his possessions he’d just removed from his bag. He’d figured he would worry about that later. The caregelow had healed all the cuts on his hands, so he didn’t fret much about them at the moment, but now—looking at Basen’s worried expression—he felt a small panic settling in.

  “Mine seem to be missing as well,” Kirnich said.

  “I had all of your gloves washed and dried.” Alabell spoke proudly. She opened her bag and started handing them off. Noting that she had neither armor nor another bag, Desil realized she was definitely staying behind. She didn’t seem perturbed by this as she handed Desil his still warm gloves. A mage must’ve dried them with hot bastial energy. He thought for a brief moment of all the luxuries the headmaster’s family had while living at the Academy, and still they’d risked losing all by leaving to go against the late king.

  “Thank you,” Desil told Leida’s mother. “I hope no trouble will come to you because of your help.”

  “The one hundred guards left at the Academy are loyal to my family more than Fernan’s son, Allephon, so I’ll be fine.”

  “Why would Allephon keep so few men here to defend the school?” Desil asked.

  “One hundred men within the Academy can fight off a thousand trying to get past the wall,” Basen explained. “And there’s little chance that more than a hundred men could reach the Academy before being stopped. I heard that King Hawthen had proposed taking half of the Academy in exchange for pea
ce—is that right?”

  “Yes,” Desil said. “And now I’m curious what the headmaster thinks of that arrangement.”

  “What do you think about it?” Basen asked to Desil’s surprise.

  He was reluctant to answer as everyone listened. “I haven’t given myself time to ponder all the options. Why ask me?”

  “Your opinion of Hawthen’s proposal is probably held by many citizens of Kyrro. I would like to hear what that is. Do you believe sharing the Academy with Tenred is the best way to stop this war and all future wars?”

  Desil thought through which he would prefer, delivering the power of an explosive to the Wind Knights or splitting the Academy. He had to be honest, with Beatrix here.

  “Hawthen did convince me that would be best, yes.”

  “I see.”

  Basen spoke no more on the subject as he distributed the rest of the akorell melting potion. It left Desil bemused as to whether he’d disappointed Leida’s father. Basen’s expression seemed indifferent, then focused as he discussed something with his wife away from the group. It seemed to be a goodbye between them, as they soon shared a hug and a kiss. Desil prepared himself to leave, still distracted by Leida, though. She finally met his gaze again when he glanced over. He gathered his courage and approached. Adriya standing beside her would make this awkward, but it had to be said.

  “Kirnich exaggerated,” Desil led with.

  “Exaggerated what?”

  “How the caregelow affected me. I wasn’t out of my mind.”

  Adriya walked off. “I’ll let you two speak.”

  Desil was surprised at first, half expecting her to try shooing him. She’d always been very protective of Leida.

  “I told her what happened,” Leida said.

  Desil craved to hear more. What had Leida said exactly? Was it a mistake, or was it as strangely yet wonderfully fulfilling for her as it had been for Desil?

  Leida seemed embarrassed as she looked down.