Shadow Mage Page 5

  He let out a sigh of relief, amazed he hadn’t died, and looked up wonderingly at the towering cliff and walls. Had he really been crazy enough to jump from way up there? Thankfully he survived the fall, survived the insanity of the gods slaying most of the wizards of the Order, and he now wondered what lay ahead for him….

  As he started for the green hillside capped with the Temple of the Sun, Charna, his pet lynx, padded over to greet him. She yowled like she knew something was amiss. Charna loved the Temple and spent most of her time sleeping in its shady corners, and hunting field mice and rabbits at night in the surrounding meadows. But when Talis came around she devoted herself entirely to him.

  Tired and hungry, he wished he’d brought food. If only he’d kept more supplies at the Temple. But probably the only food around was what Charna hunted. No matter; if it came to that, he’d be forced to hunt for food as well. He had to stay close to the Temple for fear of arrest or attack from House Lei’s guards or even by the Order itself. But no one would dare try to touch him here, with the power of the black crystal, would they?

  Later on that night, after searching unsuccessfully for food in the temple, Talis climbed to the top of the Temple to his favorite spot with a clear view of the stars. He often slept here at night, bringing a blanket to ward off the evening cold. The Huntress, the Great Bear, the Treasure Box. The gods and mythological figures gleamed in the black sky. Were the dark gods pleased with all the mayhem they’d brought to Naru? He couldn’t believe Master Viridian was really gone, and slain in such a horrific way. The night chill sank into his bones and sent a shiver through his body.

  “Thank the gods, Talis…I prayed I’d find you safe here….” Mara hoisted herself up and over the wooden beam and ambled towards him, the air around her seemed tense and concerned.

  “Mara! I can’t believe you made it out of the city. It’s all such a mess…such a sad and horrible day. Your father is furious with me. Are you angry at me…because of your uncle’s death?”

  “Ralakh Lei? He’s was a drunkard and a glutton…I’m not surprised the gods chose him to die. No, I’m not angry at you, surprised yes, but not angry. I’m upset with my father, causing so much trouble, accusing you of killing my uncle. It was an accident, wasn’t it?”

  “Mistress Cavares was teaching me Rune Magic…out in the swamplands.” Talis told her the story, shaking his head in disbelief. “I can’t understand any of what’s happened. Master Viridian dead? We’ve woken something into our midst, something better left alone….”

  “The gods… But how could he die like that?”

  Down in the Temple courtyard, Talis heard grunts and curses that sounded like Nikulo.

  Talis stared down, and spotted Nikulo scratching Charna’s chin. The lynx purred so loud Talis could hear it all the way up on the rooftop. “Need some help getting up?”

  “I’d prefer you coming down. It’s cold outside and I’m starving. My devout parents decided it was necessary to fast to appease the gods. The idea!”

  Talis and Mara spidered their way down the Temple’s beams, and jumped onto the courtyard. Nikulo’s face held a pathetic grin like a sheep dog begging for his fair share of roasted mutton.

  “I might have some food, but we’ll need to hunt in the morning.”

  “Anything, really.” Nikulo rubbed his now round and protruding belly. The rigors of the trip hadn’t lasted long after he’d returned.

  Talis stoked a fire at the hearth in the workroom, and rummaged around until he found some stale bread. Nikulo accepted the gift and crunched sloppily.

  “All this sneaking about isn’t going to work for long. You guys got lucky this time, probably because of all the confusion.” Talis picked up a rune from the worktable. “We need to master the portal spell. Then we’ll have the freedom to move around without anyone knowing.”

  “Did you have any luck with Mistress Cavares?” Nikulo swung his backpack around and withdrew the Tandria Scroll.

  Talis nodded. “I have the missing characters, two from Velletrix, and one from Praellian.”

  Nikulo unfurled the Tandria Scroll. “How’d you manage that?”

  “Powers of deduction and a bit of innocent trickery.”

  They peered over the scroll, and Talis tapped the illustrations of the portal. “Here, the Praellic character meaning to lift. Put them all together, and these are the four characters we need to cast the portal spell. A strong wind and to churn with great force, and to lift and move forward.”

  “Shall we try?” Nikulo traced a finger over the characters.

  Mara frowned. “Do you even know how to cast the spell?”

  Nikulo stared at Talis. “I was hoping you had an idea… You’re the one with the most elemental magic experience.”

  “Me?” Talis didn’t have a clue, he expected that Nikulo knew because he’d already mastered the other spells of the Tandria Scroll.

  “You’re kidding, right?” Mara put her hands on her hips. “All this time and neither of you know? Don’t you remember what Aurellia did when he cast the spell?”

  “He just kind of raised his hands and the earth started sucking the temple inside the world’s portal,” Talis said.

  “Aurellia’s Elders cast preparation spells first,” Nikulo said. “When Aurellia cast the spell, it looked like Light and Shadow Magic combined. At least that’s what I thought.”

  “Same here. He did cast both at once.” Talis glanced at the Tandria Scroll.

  “Rune Magic.” Mara pointed at a clay tablet.

  “What?” Talis said.

  “It’s Rune Magic. The answer to casting the spell lies with the runes.”

  Nikulo raised an eyebrow. “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, look at it this way.” Mara studied Talis’s face. “You said that with Rune Magic you need to inscribe characters onto a tablet, then you cast a binding spell. So inscribe these four characters onto a rune and try binding it. See what happens.”

  Talis laughed, feeling like an idiot for not thinking of it sooner. “And I’d just focus on the portal and where I’d like it to go when I cast the binding spell, right?”

  Nikulo nodded. “Worth a try.”

  Talis selected a clay tablet, making sure it was of perfect proportions, and inscribed the four characters of the portal spell. He glanced at Mara and Nikulo, placed the tablet on the wood floor, and raised his hands to cast the binding spell.

  As he closed his eyes, he tried to picture the swirling portal Aurellia had cast at the old Temple of the Sun. The mist and shadows and the light. A terrific agony took hold of Talis’s heart: a feeling like Zagros, Lord of the Underworld, was staring at him with those cold, black eyes, but Talis also felt the sun warming his skin. Twin feelings, opposing forces. He combined those feelings with the image of the spring under the black oak tree outside the temple. It would be a safe test, and close enough in case anything went wrong.

  When the magic flowed from his fingertips, Talis opened his eyes and watched silver and black energy pour into the rune characters. The rune evaporated into a dark cloud, and the spot where the rune once lay glowed a grey-silver ghost.

  “Who wants to try?” Talis said.

  Nikulo stepped towards the ward, pausing to inspect the ground. “If you don’t mind, I’d like the honors since I discovered the spell in the scroll. And…where does the portal go, anyways?”

  “Just outside the temple…I hope. We’ll meet you there.”

  Talis gestured Nikulo towards the spot, and Nikulo swallowed in response, his face contorted into a grimace. If this worked, they could use the portal spell to transport to anyplace that they’d been before. Nikulo frowned and stared at the space on the ground where the magical ward was set, and hesitantly placed a foot there.

  Hundreds of streams of silver and black mist swirled up and around from the ward, spinning and churning until a portal formed in the air. Thousands of miniature lightning bolts scintillated around the edges. They stared at the portal for a mom
ent, feeling a chill seep through from the other side. Nikulo glanced back at them with a reckless expression, and jumped through the portal.

  Talis and Mara locked eyes, grinned, and Talis took her hand and they ran outside the temple to see if it had worked. Talis spotted Nikulo flopped inside the spring, splashing water on himself as if he was taking a bath.

  “Couldn’t you have made the stupid portal go someplace else besides the spring?” Nikulo flapped his arms in the water and quacked like a duck.

  Mara laughed freely, and glanced at Talis, who was unable to keep from chuckling at Nikulo.

  “We did it, didn’t we!” She flung herself around and gave Talis a warm hug. He couldn’t help but notice she held him a bit longer than normal, and he found himself not wanting to leave. When they separated, Mara’s face was flushed, and she quickly looked away to smile at Nikulo.

  “I have to admit I had my doubts whether we could do it or not.” Nikulo pushed himself up and stepped out of the spring, and wrung the water from his pants. “Now I’ll never have to worry about food again…watch out cake shop, here I come!”

  Mara chuckled. “Sure, let’s use one of the most powerful spells in the world to resort to common food thievery.” She poked his belly. “Your poor, ever hungry stomach will have to starve a little longer. I think you’d do well going on another adventure.”

  “As long as we can find taverns with ale, roasted pork, and apple tarts…you know the kind with fresh cream on top?” The sides of Nikulo’s mouth glistened with drool.

  “What do we do with him?” Talis lifted his shoulders and let his hands flop to his side. They’d succeeded casting the portal spell and it felt amazing, like they’d discovered the key to exploring the world…and maybe even other worlds. “But thanks to Nikulo and the Tandria Scroll we now know the how to cast portal spells!”

  Nikulo spread his hands apart as if to indicate he was the greatest person on earth. “What can I say? I guess I am pretty awesome….”

  Mara cleared her throat and smirked. “Somebody’s head is about to explode with pride. Don’t forget Talis, and I did help out as well. Anyways, well done. But the question is, what are we going to use the portal spell for?”

  Talis opened his mouth to speak, thinking of ways to use the portal spell, but the vision of Rikar being tortured on that planet suddenly flashed in his mind. Why should Talis even think about helping him? After all he’d done to harm them and their city. Rikar had been a friend once, and he did help them along their journey, but still… Maybe Rikar was just unlucky and foolish enough to be tricked by Aurellia?

  “What are you thinking about?” Mara brushed a strand of hair away from Talis’s eyes, and he felt himself shiver in response.

  The wind picked up from the north, a cold wind, smelling strangely of salt and the sea. Talis peered out over the Nalgoran Desert, dimly lit in the light of the four moon sisters. His skin prickled with chills, and he felt anxious about what was out there waiting for them. If the gods appeared so easily at the mention of them, and their anger so swift, then perhaps other ills were soon to fall over their city….

  As Talis gazed across the meadows surrounding the temple and farther out to the desert beyond, a grey figure wobbled towards them in the dark, illuminated by the moonlight. A lone traveler, braving the northlands, and impossibly crossing the Nalgoran Desert on foot.

  “Look over there.” Talis pointed at the figure. Mara and Nikulo squinted, and shielded their eyes from the moons’ glare.

  “Where? I don’t see anything,” Mara said. “Wait, there it is, a shadow moving across the field. What is it?”

  “Not a shadow, a figure.” Talis strode forward to get a better look.

  “I see a shadow as well, a rolling shadow,” Nikulo said.

  Talis concentrated, allowing the power of the black crystal to fill his body. He gazed at the location of the figure and closed his eyes. An old, leathered face appeared in his mind, curiosity and amusement pouring from pale-blue eyes. Those eyes, something hideously familiar, as if they reminded Talis of someone from the party in Darkov….

  As Talis stared at the old man striding across the sands towards them, fire and wind and ice seemed to strike out from his eyes, and sent Talis tumbling dizzily to the ground.

  8. AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR

  Talis pushed himself up, looking uncertainly at the old man who had suddenly appeared in front of them. He wore a black cowl that covered a scraggly mane of silver and black hair, and smelled of pine and lemon and salt. In his mouth he chewed a stick, and every now and then he rolled it around as he studied Talis, Mara, and Nikulo. Instead of shrinking back, Talis stood his ground, feeling a strange familiarity with the traveler.

  “I am aware of a certain young wizard from the lands of the south.” The old man’s nostrils pulled in as he inhaled a deep breath of air. “And I find myself in a precarious predicament. I don’t like situations I can’t control.” His hands flung out wide, startling Talis. “I’m used to a kind of…dominance, a certainty that allows me to prevail in all things.”

  The traveler took a hesitant step towards Talis, keeping his eyes low. He glanced up quickly at Talis. “Do you grasp my meaning?”

  Talis flushed with irritation, then composed himself when he thought how it might apply to himself. “Actually…I suppose I do know what you mean. I too am used to dominating….” His voice trailed off as he glanced at the Temple of the Sun.

  “You see, the problem with most sages is that they have too much knowledge and too little imagination.” The old man cleared his voice. “Day is day, and night is black. And…bad things lurk behind the curtain of night. Don’t they now?”

  “The stars shine beautifully at night.” Mara lifted her eyes to the sky.

  The traveler tilted his head, as if considering her words. “Or the fury of the black universe chokes the stars into submission, until only a meager portion of their brilliance shines through. Which is it?”

  “Neither,” Talis said. “Half-truths for halfwits.”

  “Hah! Oh, I like this young wizard, truly I do. Ahhh, at long last I can rest these weary feet and enjoy fine wine, roasted…oh, what is it you hunt around here?” The old man flung aside his animal-skin backpack, and let it thump to the ground.

  “Deer, quail, boar, if you’re good.” Mara grinned at the old man.

  “Boar…how I long for the taste of roasted boar and red wine.”

  “Ahem, we seem to have the problem of not possessing said game and wine.” Nikulo rubbed his stomach. “I don’t recall ever trying to hunt in the dark.”

  “Hunt indeed!” the traveler interrupted. “A fine idea, my boy. Fine indeed.” He glanced around the air liked he’d spotted moths fluttering about in the night. Quick as a falcon, he grabbed something from nowhere, and pulled out a long spear. Talis choked back his surprise, and coughed.

  “Here we are, a mighty fine spear to go hunting with, don’t you agree?” Then the old man stumbled forward, like a drunk or a man possessed by demons, and aimed his spear at the ground like he was hunting for snakes.

  He jumped back suddenly, as if startled by something approaching. “There, there! Can’t you see how magnificent he is? What a specimen. You don’t see many like that these days… A real prize-winner, he is.” If it weren’t for the fact the man was obviously a sorcerer, pulling spears out of thin air and talking in riddles, Talis would probably have judged the man mad.

  “Move out of the way! Here he comes,” the old man shouted. He took several confident steps backward, and deftly threw the spear at the place where he’d been staring all along. Just when Talis thought the spear would fall onto the earth, brilliant white tusks and a massive boar’s head appeared from a kind of blur in the air, and met the full force of the spear as it penetrated at the crown of the creature’s chest. A direct strike. The creature squealed in pain, and writhed around with the spear still stuck inside its body.

  The boar toppled over, panting last breaths, eyes open
in fury.

  “I had no idea you’ve such fine game here in the south! To think I’ve spent all these long years on Tarasen and never ventured to your city before…” He withdrew the spear from the boar’s chest, and let it slide down into the sleeve of his robe where it disappeared. Talis found himself gaping at the old man’s feats of magic, so strange and unconventional. No one at the Order had performed such magic, it would’ve been deemed low and useless, like common street performers and court jesters.

  “You’re from the Tarasen Isles?” Talis jutted his chin towards the man.

  The traveler covered his mouth and coughed slightly. “I rule the Tarasen Isles. Much like you rule the land surrounding this fine Temple of the Sun.” He shifted his head towards Talis. “Thanks to the immense power of the crystal planted directly underneath our feet.”

  Talis took a step back defensively, and had to force himself to keep his hands lowered. But he stared at the old man, refusing to let his concentration waver.

  “You may relax, young wizard…I’m no threat to you, especially not here on your stronghold. I’ve merely come to pay my respects and to see you and this fine temple with these old, tired eyes. I’ve been rude…please allow me to introduce myself, I am called Palarian by those close to me. To the inhabitants of Tarasen, they know me as The Shelterer, the protector of their lands. Kind and cruel master of Tarasen.” Palarian took a low, elaborate bow. “At your service.”

  “Welcome… It seems you know much about the temple and about me.” Talis glanced at the man hesitantly. “You’ve traveled a great distance to visit Naru. As you said, food and drink is in order. The food”—Talis gestured at the boar—“you’ve provided, as to the drink, all I have to offer is water from the Temple’s spring, which is fine, I can assure you.”