For once I was grateful that he acted like a gentleman, but my full attention was on the thought whispering in the back of my mind.
You’ll never breathe real air. You’re still in denial. I pushed away the thought, and then with weak legs I followed after Léal.
***
An hour later we reached Schamberg. While the small town was not covered in ashes and soot, it more vacant than any place I had been before. The first three houses we passed were empty, and no one appeared in the street. A faint breeze rustled through the town, but that couldn’t account for the eerie silence. Before I could ask, Léal spoke what I had been thinking.
“I wonder where the people are …” he murmured, though I was close enough to hear him.
“There has to be someone around here. Search to the left, and I’ll search to the right; if we find anything we’ll meet back here,” I said.
He nodded, but I wasn’t any more reassured by what I said. Before we separated, I explained that I knew nothing about Ruald; all we had to go by was his name.
With a ridiculous smile, he asked, “Shouldn’t we have a signal?”
I raised my brow and stared blankly.
“You know, I imitate an owl quite well,” he said. I waited, hoping I could grasp what he was suggesting. Abruptly he started laughing, nearly bringing himself to tears. He glanced up at me while holding his hand against his stomach.
Calmly, I remarked, “I never imagined I’d see a man laugh at himself, but it turns out the impossible can happen.”
Léal wiped his eyes and chuckled softly as he attempted to steady himself. “I’m barely a man at all. A god would be the better choice of word.”
“Lovely,” I said. While he was gathering himself together, I headed west in search of signs of life. Surely there had to be someone in town. However, the longer I walked through Schamberg, the more convinced I became that everyone was gone.
There were no sign of people anywhere, and the houses remained empty with only ruined furniture inside. Mattresses were ripped, blankets were torn to pieces, and glass was broken. I peeked through the windows, but eventually I desired to search further. Seeing no one nearby, I decided there would be no harm in entering one of the damaged homes.
I entered a round house. The door remained ajar, but the moment I stepped through it closed quickly behind me. Shivers crawled up my spine, and as I glanced around at everything, I wondered who could have done it. Why would anyone burn a city or terrorize an entire town?
Glass was scattered across the floor, glimmering with sharp edges. There were peculiar markings staining the walls, but if they were symbols, I did not recognize them. As I searched farther across the room for answers, suddenly black ash covered my surroundings. It blanketed the wooden floor and shards of glass; the entire house became as dark as night. Even though the sun was above the horizon, it made no difference. The house darkened, the walls spoke a dangerous story, and the ash thickened around me.
Unable to walk, I knelt down and picked up a handful of ash. I rubbed it with my fingers, remembering when I had been a little girl. Recalling those times, I thought of the days my sister and I had ran through the field during the hot summers. For the faintest moment I smiled at the memory of the joy.
Then the haunting image of a white butterfly appeared in my mind. Shuddering, I dropped the ash and dusted off my hands.
Abruptly a floor board creaked as a gust of wind entered the house. I jumped, instantly standing up, and I saw a man. I attempted to peer over to my left to see how he entered from the side of the house, but the door remained shut and there appeared to be no other entrance. I observed the man, though he fidgeted. Momentarily I thought he looked strangely familiar, like someone I knew. His black hair and fancy cloak were recognizable. Was it Léal?
Another thought occurred to me: he might be the owner of the household. However, he glared at me and ran off before I could ask him. I followed in quick pursuit, forgetting about the ash, but I stopped as soon as I realized where he was headed. He scurried across the ash and came to a wall. He was cornered, and I slowly moved toward him while there was nowhere else for him to run. Then, without hesitation he stepped through the wall and disappeared without a trace.
The blood in my veins clogged up into one place as I stood motionless. The cracks in my lips bled from biting down too hard, but I could only focus on what I had seen. The image of him walking through the wall replayed in my head, and with each repeat I became more lost in thought. How had he gotten away? Who was he, and why had he been there? Despite his similar appearance to Léal, the man hadn’t shown any recognition when he saw me. I allowed my feet to sink into the thick ash, and the questions continued to overwhelm my thoughts.
“Léal!” I yelled at the top of my lungs; my face was hot as I touched it with my fingertip.
“Celestria, come quick; I’ve found someone!” he shouted from a distance.
What’s going on? I thought, walking to the door.
I turned the doorknob but it wouldn’t budge. After several attempts, I swore and slammed my body against it. Again and again, I slammed my body into the solid wood until it finally opened, and I fell onto the ground. Quivering, I balanced myself and then ran toward the meeting place. Léal repeatedly shouted my name until at last I arrived.
Once I caught my breath, I noticed a middle aged man standing several feet away from Léal. He was tall and thin with shoulder-length, light blonde hair. His formal pants and black jacket might have looked appealing had it not been for the holes in his clothes. With torn pants revealing his bare legs and a muddy tunic, he looked as if he had walked out of a forest.
“Go ahead, I didn’t talk to him yet,” Léal said.
“Tell me, sir, where has everyone gone?” I asked as I leaned on my staff.
He fidgeted with his fingers and stared at my staff.
“I heard shouting as I was returning to my family, and before I knew it, the entire town was involved in a riot. People were shredding pieces of furniture and throwing rocks through windows. It was like everybody went mad!” he wailed with a slurred Serbian accent.
“Were people killed? What happened to everybody?”
“I don’t know. Please, let me pass; there are men who wish to pursue me,” he said.
Léal shrugged when I looked to him for assistance. Since the man continued to prance from one spot to the other, I decided to return to information that was relevant in my search.
“I’m not finished yet. Do you know what happened in Iacobs dorff?” I asked.
He scratched his head and looked up at the sky.
“Iacobs dorff? I haven’t been there recently,” he said, hitting the dirt road with his shoes. He refused to look directly at me, seemingly more focused on the staff in my hand. All the same, his responses weren’t helpful, and it seemed journeying to Schamberg had been a waste of time.
“Curse it!” I threw my hands up in the air.
The man backed away and cowered as if I was a dangerous animal. Léal advanced toward me and abruptly involved himself in the conversation.
“Easy, Celestria,” Léal whispered. Since he wanted to remain calm, I decided to allow him to do the talking. Surely the smart and handsome Léal could figure out anything.
Yeah right … I thought while watching him.
The man’s focus remained on me. With pleading eyes, he said, “I fear for my life, and I must be reunited with my family. Please let me go before I’m discovered.”
“Why do these men pursue you? Do you need help? I’ve been in fights before,” Léal said, winking at me.
I couldn’t help but smirk in return, even though I remained on unstable terms with him since I had not explained the incident from earlier.
“No, I merely need to get away,” the man responded.
As he started to walk away I remembered one last important question.
“Wait!” I shouted.
He stopped and turned around, though he moved his feet in plac
e while standing.
“Do you know Ruald Vinctor? He’s a magician from around these parts,” I asked with an ounce of hope left.
“Sorry, I have not heard of him.” He shook his head and left in haste. I watched as he disappeared into the horizon.
“I can’t believe this!” I shouted as soon as he was gone.
Léal rubbed his chin with his hand, though I couldn’t imagine what he was thinking. He was calm; a bit too calm for my taste. I watched him in envy, but at the same time my eye twitched at his behavior.
“Have you been here the entire time? Did you enter any of the houses?” I asked as my free hand once again formed into a fist.
His face remained blank.
“I did as you asked me, and I actually am sane enough to avoid destroyed homes,” he said.
“Let me show you something,” I said, gesturing for him to follow me.
I walked back to the house I had entered and opened the door, allowing Léal to enter first. I stepped in after him, and immediately I felt the ash pouring over my sandals.
“What is this?” he asked.
“When I was here a man appeared, and before I could request any information from him, he disappeared into that solid wall,” I responded, pointing to the far wall.
Léal dragged his feet through the ash and reached the wall. He pounded on it with his fist, but several attempts later he winced and returned to where I stood.
“How can a man disappear through that? I’ve never known anyone who could perform magic to evaporate into thin air. It doesn’t make sense…” he said.
While he caressed his chin and led me outside, I thought about his warning. Léal said I couldn’t trust anyone, that people would prove to be unfaithful. What was I to think of him?
At the very bottom of my heart, I desired to believe in him. However, I was not ready to talk about trust and loyalty. I knew little about the magical world, but if someone was accompanying me we had to trust each other. The decision was left to be determined: either I could trust him or give in to my doubts.
Chapter Six
Departure
“Léal?”
He raised his brow and stared at me. His piercing blue eyes seemed to be searching into my soul, and I felt goose bumps rising as that thought occurred. Suddenly a spark lit in his eyes, and his frown curled into a smug smile.
I tried again to confront him, but before I could he interrupted me.
“What’s the name of the magician we’re searching for? Here,” he picked up a stick and handed it to me. “Write his name in the dirt.”
I blinked, waiting for him to explain.
“Do it!” he barked.
Shaking my head, I knelt down and wrote out Ruald’s full name in the dirt road. Once I dusted off my hands and stood up, Léal’s expression changed entirely. His jaw dropped, and his face turned extremely pale.
“Good god, Celestria.” He spoke slowly, and then abruptly he grabbed hold of me.
“What is this? Has your ego gone to your head?” I asked, though he ignored the insult entirely. He continued clinging to me, and a bead of sweat dripped down his temple.
“Ruald Vinctor… Oh, why hadn’t I realized it before?” He murmured something else under his breath, but I couldn’t hear what he said.
I trembled, wondering why he was agonizing over a name. Carefully, I tapped his shoulder to regain his attention.
Léal’s firm face looked down at me. “I warned you I can’t tell you about my work. I don’t know how, but Esmour had contacts. He knew who was dead or alive in the magical world. T-there was a list…”
“A list of magicians? Are you trying to tell me—” I began.
He released my shoulders and held my face with his cold hands. I shivered, though his touch was strong yet tender.
“He’s dead. I remember now… His name was on the list; Ruald was one of the magicians reported dead. Curse it!” he cried, dropping his hands and turning away.
I stood silently as I attempted to grasp the news. We had spent all this time searching for him, but he had been dead all along. Ruald, one of the greatest Dark magicians, had been killed off. I gulped the saliva that was forming in my mouth; it scraped down my throat like a rock.
“You’re certain?” I asked with an ounce of hope left.
He turned around. “I swear on my life.”
My heart dropped, but I remained motionless while Leal kicked away Ruald’s name, reforming the integrity of the dirt path. I was certain he would drive me mad. Despite a desire to believe him, there were too many negative thoughts warning me otherwise. He refused to talk about Esmour, and he wasn’t forthcoming with answers. For all I knew, we would be traveling one night and he’d stab me in my sleep. Even so, something led me to ask him for his opinion.
“What should we do? Maybe there’s someone else we can contact, someone who would know what’s happened to us,” I proposed.
“There is no one else; it’s just you, me and the three others if they’re still alive. We have to take this into our own hands and make the responsible ones pay. That man we talked to… He could be one of them,” Léal said.
Calmly, I asked, “Them? You don’t believe he’s a White magician, do you?”
He stepped toward me and his expression changed entirely. Frowning, he said, “Wait a minute; you honestly are clueless about all of this, aren’t you? You have no idea what the White magicians have done to our kind.”
I stared in awe. He talked about White magicians like they were animals we had to hunt down, and then he had the nerve to say I knew nothing about them.
“The White magicians have been accusing our kind of crimes for centuries. The Black Plague, the famines, the diseases—all of it they blamed on us. We haven’t done anything wrong, but let’s not turn to their tactics of accusing innocent people.”
Léal glared at me, and then he kicked the dirt with all his might.
“These people aren’t innocent!” he yelled. “Tell me, how long have you lived among humans to believe everything is fair in the world? Our kind was kicked off the Magic Council long before we had any voice to defend ourselves with. How is that for fair?”
I trembled, noticing how heated his face was. I snuck a glance at the horizon, and the sun would be setting in a matter of hours. It seemed once again we were right back where we started.
“Why are you acting this way? We cannot attack people unless we know for certain that they are a threat. That’s how I’ve always done it with my sister, and that’s how I plan to do it now,” I said, trying to keep my voice low. It baffled me why he refused to let anything go. God forbid I disagree with him…
He wrung his hands together. I watched, though when his eyes glanced up at me I looked away. When he spoke again he spit the words out of his mouth like they were poison.
“I’ve done this my entire life, so pardon me if I only see two options here. We can either seek revenge or we can play nice. Personally I’m sick of playing nice, and to them all we are is rats,” he snapped.
Tapping my foot, I responded, “I’m not in this for revenge, Léal. Perhaps I don’t know everything about the magical world, but I do know that revenge is a magician’s worst enemy.”
It was common sense. By focusing on revenge, one can never be satisfied with the outcome. For a magician to be fighting simply because of it was like playing with fire; one wrong move, and he would be burned.
“Actually,” he corrected me, raising his hand with his index finger pointing up, “if you let go of your feelings vengeance can be your greatest advantage. Let go of those loose ends you’re holding onto.”
My voice cracked as I asked, “Loose ends? Like the sister I lost because she became too caught up in magic to remember what it was like to live an ordinary life?”
Once he nodded, my muscles tensed.
“This isn’t going to work. We can’t be arguing at every turn simply because we disagree. You have to decide what you want more: to find out who that
man really is or accompany me,” I sighed.
He glanced at the dirt. His shoulders dropped, and I knew at the moment that he had made his decision. Perhaps he decided long before our paths crossed, but if his actions were directed toward revenge then nothing I could say would convince him to stray from that.
“It may be better if we spend some time apart. I’ll track down the man, and meanwhile you can continue on. There’s another town, Agnetlin, that’s a short distance from here; see to it that you find a safe place to hide for the time being,” Léal replied at last. He advanced toward me.
Shaking my head, I asked, “What are you asking of me? Am I supposed to wait for your return?”
Walking forward until our hands brushed against one another, Léal gleamed.
He chuckled and said, “No, of course not. You can’t stay in one place too long or someone might see you for who you are. Once it’s safe, I promise I will return.”
My jaw dropped before I could stop myself. After the short amount of time we had been together I couldn’t imagine a reason he had to ever return. I had heard the “return” speech before, and so far someone still had yet to prove to me that they meant it.
“How do I know you’ll come back for me?”
Realistically, I did not see how it was possible. While he was following after the stranger, I would be traveling in a different direction from him. The chances of us ever meeting again would rely on luck.
Léal combed back his black hair and let out a long sigh.
“I may be a fool, but I’m certainly not heartless. I am a man of my word, and besides you stick out like a sore thumb. Any magician who’s been hunting for years would be able to see the innocence in your eyes. If I had to, I’d pay every man to find your pretty red head,” he said. A smile curved across his face, and for an instant I admired his dimples.
A thought occurred to me, and I said, “You realize it’ll never be safe again? We may be separated, or one of us could be killed.”
“I know, but I promised to protect you from the shadows and I plan to do just that. We’ll see each other again, I guarantee you that,” he replied, refusing to drop his ridiculous smile.
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