Welcome To The Age of Magic

by C M Raymond et al.

  “It’s my father. He’s been framed for murder.” She told the whole story, starting with the city guards showing up in the middle of the night, and continuing through her slipping past the guards at the city gates.

  Jarvi looked more and more disturbed as her story progressed. He gripped the metal staff laid across his lap so tightly that his fingers turned white. “And your father told you to come to me?”

  Abbey nodded. “He said you’d know what to do.”

  Jarvi looked down at the metal staff for a long moment before answering. “This was the first thing your father ever sold me.”

  Abbey tilted her head and looked at the metal rod again. It didn’t seem to be made in her father’s style.

  Jarvi held up the staff. “It’s a weapon from his time back in Arcadia. It delivers a fierce shock, a bit like lightning when the blue ember is touched to the skin.” He looked up at her. “There are things you don’t know about your father, Abbey. Things he wanted to tell you, but he never had the courage. He told me if anything ever happened to him, I should tell you the truth. I guess this qualifies.”

  Abbey leaned forward, her heart suddenly beating faster. What was this guy talking about? She and her father told each other everything.

  “You know your father trained at the Academy in Arcadia,” Jarvi continued, “but do you know what he did after he graduated?”

  “Of course. He married my mother and became a magitech smith.”

  Jarvi shook his head slowly. “I’m afraid that’s only partly true. In Arcadia, only graduates of the Academy are allowed to perform magic, and only the rich and powerful are admitted to the Academy.”

  Abbey was still confused. “My father’s not rich or powerful.”

  Jarvi smiled. “He was born both. His father was one of the most powerful men in the city. Benjamin’s admittance to the Academy was a lock. After graduation, he decided he wanted to give back to the city that had given his family so much. So, he became a Hunter.”

  “A hunter?” She’d never heard her father talk of hunting animals.

  “Not like you’re thinking. Hunters in Arcadia track down and punish unauthorized magic users.”

  Abbey’s eyes narrowed. “What?” There was no way her father would punish people for using magic. He talked all the time about how magic should be taught freely to anyone who wanted to learn rather than just those accepted to a school like in Arcadia or taken on as an apprentice like in Holdgate.

  Jarvi held up a hand. “Don’t judge him too harshly. He thought he was doing the right thing at the time. It was your mother who woke him up to the truth.”

  Abbey sat up a little straighter at that. Could it be she wasn’t only going to learn more about her father, but her mother as well?

  “Your mother had secretly been using magic since she was a young girl. It came as a surprise to her as much as anyone when she fell in love with a Hunter. She told him the truth about herself and her magic the night before the wedding, forcing him to choose between turning her in and accepting her for who she really was. It was a difficult decision, but your father loved her too much to turn away from her, and he went through with the wedding.”

  He held up the metal rod. “That was when Benjamin began to question his beliefs. How could he spend his days hunting unauthorized magic users and spend his nights sleeping with one? Then you came along and complicated things even further. As the daughter of two magic users, it seemed likely you would inherit a little of their abilities.”

  Abbey thought of her limited magic skills and chuckled. “Very little, as it turns out.”

  Jarvi smiled at that. “Benjamin began making plans to leave the city. He plotted in secret, knowing Chancellor Adrien wouldn’t allow a graduate of the Academy to run loose without his supervision. Still, somehow, the truth came out. The other Hunters, your father’s friends and co-workers, captured your mother and executed her.”

  Abbey gritted her teeth. This wasn’t the story she’d heard. Why had her father lied?

  “So, Benjamin took you and fled north. He had only the clothes on his back and this shocker.” He nodded toward the metal rod. “His original plan was to settle north of the city, but when he got there, he realized the Hunters were still after him, so he kept going. He showed up in Holdgate penniless and without a plan. Until he met me.

  “He traded me this shocker for help in setting up his blacksmith shop. He’d learned many of the basic blacksmith skills when learning to craft magitech in the Academy, and the rest came easily to him.”

  Abbey stared at the shocker. How many people had her father hurt with that thing? People whose only crime was using magic without the approval of some self-proclaimed authority. The idea of it angered her. But, on the other hand, he’d learned the error of his ways, and he’d risked his life to take her away from that world.

  She looked at Jarvi. “You helped him in his hour of need. Maybe that’s why he sent me to you. He’s hoping you’ll do it again.”

  Jarvi thought about that for a moment before responding. “Perhaps that’s part of it. But I believe there’s more happening here. He knows that to prove him innocent, we’ll need to find the real killer. And I have a pretty good idea where to start.”

  Abbey opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, the device in the corner began flashing.

  Jarvi’s face went pale. “Someone’s here.”

  The device flashed faster and faster.

  “No, not someone.” Jarvi set the end of the shocker on the floor and used it as a cane to push himself to his feet. “Lots of someones. Abbey, I believe the city guard has found you.”

  9

  Dustin stood on the deck of The Foggy Day. After a lifetime of dreaming about this, he was finally on the bow of his own ship. Yet, for some reason, he was staring back at Holdgate instead of out at the sea.

  He’d been aboard for nearly two hours. He’d met the crew, who seemed like an honest, if not overly ambitious, group. He’d seen his modest but pleasant quarters below deck. He’d stood on the foremost deck and placed his staff in the slot where he’d rest it when he was calling down the winds that would carry the ship on its journey.

  The captain had given him a tour of the rest of the ship from bow to stern. He’d even seen the ship’s boat, the small dinghy carried by the ship and used to carry small groups of sailors to shore or to other ships. Now that he’d seen it all, he was back where he’d started: standing on the bow in his position as Storm Caller.

  He glanced up at the sail, now hanging limply. He’d be in charge of filling that sail and sending this ship gliding across the water.

  So why was he thinking about Abbey?

  He’d searched the city for nearly an hour, checking out her father’s blacksmith shop, now empty, the door left unlocked and the signs of a struggle evident to anyone bold enough to step inside. He’d checked the other places he knew she’d liked to hang out as a child, like the market, but to no avail. He’d finally seen her near the east gate, spotting her just in time to watch her slip through and into the woods beyond.

  And that had been that. There would have been no use in going after her. He’d barely set foot in those woods, and she was in them all the time. He’d never catch her. And the city guard wouldn’t either. If she were smart, she’d get deep into those woods and then cut south. Never come back to Holdgate. If she did that, she’d be safe. Still, he couldn’t stop worrying about her.

  Part of it was that he knew she’d been right when she’d accused him of ignoring her. It hadn’t been intentional…mostly. He’d just been busy. But he did have to admit there had been one or two occasions where he’d been with someone important and seen her. In those cases, he’d done his best to avoid making eye contact with her.

  And now she was in real trouble, and he was getting ready to ship out tomorrow morning. But he wasn’t sure what else he could do.

  “She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”

  Dustin turned to find Roy standing behind
him. “What?”

  He gestured up at the sail. “I saw you staring. No shame in it. This ship is yours as much as it is mine. Take pride in it. Even if it isn’t Thunderclap.

  Dustin nodded. Now that he was aboard, he saw the elegant design of the vessel. The way it was laid out so carefully, so precisely. They’d be shipping out with a crew of fifty men and women, and each of them would have to know his or her job and perform it well if The Foggy Day wanted to keep pace with the larger ships.

  “Do you know much about shipbuilding in Holdgate after the Mad Days?” Roy asked.

  Dustin shook his head, surprised at the question. Harald, his old mentor, hadn’t wanted to talk about the way things had been before the time of Storm Callers. Dustin knew some sort of plague had washed over the land, causing men and women to go crazy with anger. They’d destroyed not only each other, but much of the world that came before. Dustin wasn’t sure how long the Mad Days had lasted, but there were still some alive who remembered it. Probably like that old Storm Caller who’d nearly drowned him.

  Then, one day the madness had simply stopped. The people had woken up one morning, suddenly sane and forced to face the consequences of years of destruction.

  “The first boats after the Mad Days were crude things,” Roy said. “They didn’t even have decks. They were empty vessels, and men sat on long benches at the bottom, rowing with mighty oars. But the sea was crueler then, and with that design, even a hard rain would cause the ship to take on water. It was a difficult, slow way to travel. My granddad rowed on one of those ships, and the stories he told… Let’s just say they didn’t give the rowers bathroom breaks, if you take my meaning. They’d row for days, nodding off for an hour or two here and there, resting in their own filth.”

  “Wow. That must have been horrible.”

  Roy shrugged. “That was the story my grandad told, anyway. Who knows how much of it is true. He also said he walked up a mountain to get to school and up another one to get home.” He chuckled at the memory. “Truth or not, everything changed when the first Storm Callers came and made peace with the sea. They talked the sea into letting us borrow her wind, and ship design had to change.”

  “How so?” Dustin asked.

  Roy pointed up at the sail. “Harnessing the wind was suddenly the priority. We had to build massive sails and ships capable of supporting them.” He stomped on the deck with a heavy boot. “We’ve gotten pretty good at it, too.”

  The timber made Dustin think of the woods. Which made him think of Abbey. His eyes drifted back toward Holdgate.

  “Ah, I see what this is.” Roy leaned in close and nudged Dustin. “You’ll be leaving someone behind?”

  “Yeah. Something like that.”

  Roy chuckled again. “I’ll tell you a secret. Whatever she feels for you now? It’ll grow tenfold when you’re away, and she’s home imagining you out on the open sea defending the world from Barskall Warriors. When you come home, she’ll hug you so hard you won’t be able to breathe. She’ll be wanting to do a might bit more than hugging, too.” The captain passed him a wink.

  Dustin felt himself blush. He thought about explaining that it wasn’t like that between Abbey and him. They were just friends. Well, not even that, really. Former friends.

  His eyes drifted toward the city, and he swore to himself that if he ever got the chance, he would help her.

  A heavy fist pounded on Jarvi’s door so hard that the floorboards shuddered.

  Abbey leaped to her feet, sword in hand. She’d led the city guard right to Jarvi’s home! She wouldn’t allow him to get in trouble because of her. She’d fight to defend him all the way.

  Jarvi held up a hand as if reading her thoughts. “Easy. They may not know you’re here. If they’d followed you, they would have been at my door sooner.”

  “Then why are they here?” she asked. “Did the city guard just happen to show up the same morning as a wanted criminal?”

  “You and your father aren’t the only ones who know I live here. I try to keep my location as private as possible, but the Magistrate and his tax collectors always seem to find me. It’s well known that I often do business with your father. You were seen leaving the east gate. It only makes sense that they’d check here.”

  Abbey relaxed slightly. “What do we do?”

  “I’ll greet them and pretend I’m alone. You hide in the back and try very hard to keep quiet. I know that isn’t exactly your strong suit.”

  “Damn right it’s not.”

  Jarvi shooed her toward the back of the house. “Get going. The longer it takes me to open the door, the more suspicious this will seem.” He leaned the shocker against the wall and headed for the door.

  Abbey trotted to the small bedroom at the back of the house. She shut the door behind her, then crouched down next to it, trying to hear what was going on out there. The door was solid oak, and all she heard was muffled voices.

  Everything Jarvi had told her was running through her head, clouding her thoughts. So much of what she’d thought to be true wasn’t. Those city guards hunting for her? Her father had been Arcadia’s version of those men. And her mother hadn’t died during the journey to Holdgate; she’d been executed.

  Abbey took a deep breath, trying to center herself. With so many truths and lies swirling in her head, there was one thing she knew for certain: her father hadn’t killed the Magistrate’s son. Even if everything else she knew about him was false, he was still being held for a crime he didn’t commit. And she wouldn’t let that stand. She’d fight to see him freed.

  She pushed her ear harder against the door, straining to hear.

  She caught the sound of heavy footsteps, and they seemed to be getting closer. Now she heard shouting.

  Enough hiding. She reached for the doorknob, then paused. She had no idea what she was jumping into. There could be one guard out there or fifteen.

  Either way, she wasn’t going to let Jarvi face them alone. She took a deep breath, gripped her sword, and threw the door open.

  She sprinted toward the sitting room, sword held high, taking in the situation as she ran.

  There were three city guards. They stood around Jarvi, who was down on his knees. Abbey could see his lip was split open, and blood was running down his chin.

  Abbey didn’t stop to consider the fact that she’d never fought three men at once, let alone three city guards. She was so filled with rage at the sight of her friend’s blood that she didn’t stop to think about much of anything. She just charged.

  The three guards looked up, their eyes wide at the unexpected sight of a sword-wielding woman sprinting toward them. Abbey knew she’d only have a second or two before they recovered, and she intended to take full advantage of it.

  Holding the sword in one hand, she grabbed the shocker leaning against the wall with the other and thrust it toward the nearest guard. It touched his neck, and he let out a scream that was abruptly cut off as he began to convulse. He fell to the ground a moment later, unconscious.

  One down, she thought. These next two would be much more difficult. They’d recovered their senses and were drawing their swords.

  She swung her sword, hitting the taller guard in the forearm with the flat of her blade. A tremendous thwack rang out as the iron connected with flesh, and he howled in pain.

  Abbey spun to her right, turning her attention to the final guard. He had his sword held at the ready.

  “Let’s see how good you are against a real swordsman.” The guard’s voice was full of bravado, but his eyes kept wandering to the shocker.

  “I’m still trying to figure that out myself,” she said. “If you and your friends see a real swordsman on your way back to town, could you send him my way?”

  The guard grimaced with anger. Abbey used the moment to stab the shocker toward him. He stepped back, just as she’d hoped. Using the opening, Abbey attacked with her sword.

  The guard was quicker than she’d expected, and he managed to deflect her blow. Howev
er, that created an opening on his right side. She jabbed him in the neck with the shocker, and he fell to the ground, shaking.

  She saw movement out of the corner of her eye, and she ducked just in time. The remaining guard’s sword missed her by only a few inches. She spun and raised her sword, facing him.

  Abbey nodded toward the bright red welt on his forearm. “I’d suggest backing off if you don’t want more of those, numb nuts.”

  The guard opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, something hit him in the back of the head, and he dropped like a bag of rocks.

  Jarvi stood over the fallen guard, a club in his hand.

  “Wow,” Abbey said. “Where’d you get that thing?”

  Jarvi wiped at the blood on his chin with the back of his sleeve. “I used it to club wild animals back when I was blazing trading routes after the Mad Days.”

  “Looks like you’re still using it to club animals.” Abbey nodded toward the fallen guard. “Jarvi, I’m sorry about bringing them here. You don’t need this kind of trouble.”

  Jarvi smiled. “Who does?” He stepped toward her and put a hand on her arm. “There’s no time for apologies. You need to get out of here before these men wake up.”

  Abbey knew he was right, but she didn’t relish the thought of going back out there and being hunted again. “Where can I even go?”

  Jarvi looked at her for a long moment before answering. “Answer this question honestly. Do you want to be safe, or do you want to help find justice for your father?”

  Abbey was taken aback by the question. “How could you even—”

  “I’m serious, Abbey. Really think about it. Because if you want to be safe, I can see you to Arcadia. Or Roneland. Or any of a hundred other places.”

  “I sense there’s another option coming, and that’s the one I want to hear. I’m not letting my father be executed for something he didn’t do.”

  Jarvi smiled. “Good. I just needed to give you the option. Listen, I believe Bronson’s murder wasn’t about Bronson at all.”