Messenger of the Dark Prophet (The Bowl of Souls: Book Two) (32 page)

He was left with one choice. But how could he go about it? Even if he were able to subdue the guards outside of the stable and somehow awaken her and get her over the wall, he couldn’t imagine her being any more willing to stay away from the school than she had been before. She was too stubborn for that.

Gwyrtha would most likely hang around the school in hopes that he would come and visit her again. She would be recaptured sooner or later. The only way that she would willingly leave the area was if Justan went with her. But if he did that, he would void his contract. He couldn’t throw away any chance of entering the
Battle
Academy
after coming so far. Could he?

Things had changed earlier that day. He was a named warrior and wizard now. Sure, if he left the school at this point, the chances of him ever being allowed into either school again were slim. But finishing his training in either the
Mage
School
or the academy at this point seemed almost pointless. His abilities were so different from everyone else’s that he was beginning to doubt that the wizards here could teach him how to use them.

For the first time since Justan could remember, his sense of purpose was broken. Could he really let go and venture out into the world, leaving his old dreams completely behind? Maybe he could. He humored that thought for a moment. Here in the school, he was just a student, but outside, he was a man. There was a certain amount of freedom associated with that idea.

Justan realized that staying at the school would be selfish of him. The one thing far more important than going to the academy was Gwyrtha. His first priority needed to be freeing her. If that meant that his life needed to change, then so be it.

Justan stood up and strode from the library, fueled by a new purpose.

He ran back to his room, quickly dressed in his traveling clothes, and put his robe back on over them. Then he gathered the things together that he felt he would need for his escape. He packed his few belongings and placed the full pack back into his small closet so that Piledon would not see it when he came in for bed. After that, the only thing left for him to do was
wait
until after the curfew when the school was quiet. Then he would make his move.

He lay in his bed fully clothed until Piledon entered the room. The cadet shuffled in and stood in the darkness looking in Justan’s direction. He stood there for quite a while and Justan’s heart began to race. What was his roommate doing? Usually the guy just ignored him and went to sleep. Finally Piledon sighed and climbed into his bed. Justan forced himself to relax.

While his roommate went to sleep, Justan planned out the escape in his mind. He had long ago figured out a way to raise the portcullis for an escape, but he hadn’t tried it when visiting Gwyrtha in the forest because it would be far more likely to be noticed than climbing out had been. But since he wouldn’t be returning this time, it didn’t really much matter.

He waited for Piledon’s breathing to slow and then he climbed out of bed and doffed his outer robe. As quietly as possible, he opened the closet door, belted on his swords, strung his bow and strapped his pack about his shoulders. As he was about to open the door, Piledon stirred.

 
“Justan?”

Justan swore under his breath. “What?”

“I need to talk to you about something.”

“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

“I don’t think so. I’m scared.”

He was scared? What was this, a joke? “Look, Piledon. I don’t really have time to talk to you about it now.
Later, maybe.
Okay?”

“But I have to tell someone now, or I think I will pop. You see, there is something about the golem that I didn’t tell the wizards.”

Justan was curious, but he didn’t have the time to discuss it. Now was the prime time for his escape.

“The person you need to talk to is Professor Beehn. He is the best wizard I know when it comes to listening to a student. I’m going for a walk now. Please just tell Professor Beehn all about it in the morning.” Without waiting for a response, Justan left the room, pushing his roommate from his mind. He had a friend to rescue.

As Justan closed the door, Piledon shivered in the darkness.

Chapter Twenty One

Justan padded around the side of the stables as silently as he could. The school didn’t normally post guards at the buildings, because they had no one inside the walls to protect themselves from. But this time the circumstances were different. The guards were there to protect the students from Gwyrtha. When he had come by the stables earlier in the day, he noticed that the guards posted were not the academy graduates and he hoped that was still the case.

Justan knew that he couldn’t sneak Gwyrtha out of the stables past the guards, so he was going to have to subdue them. Subduing a man without using lethal force was a difficult thing to do, but Justan had studied quite a bit on the subject and thought that he knew how he would do it.

Oddly, the guards weren’t at their posts. This worried him at first, but he figured that the wizards hadn’t deemed it necessary to leave guards to shoo away students that were asleep. Justan smiled at his good luck. He opened the doors to the stables and snuck inside.

The smell of horses, hay, and manure hung thick in the air and all was quiet except for the occasional snort of a horse. Justan hadn't been inside the stables very often but he remembered the basic layout. It was rather big, with thirty to forty horses present at any given time and room for twenty more. At the very back were the supply rooms and one stone-walled room with a thick door that Justan assumed was the place where Gwyrtha was being held.

It was very dark and Justan couldn't see much of anything. He tiptoed forward with slow, measured steps, his arms extended in front of him, hoping not to walk into anything. He nearly tripped over a bale of hay and almost smacked his head on a
support
pole but, though it seemed to take forever, he made it to the stone-walled room in mere minutes.  

Justan sensed that Gwyrtha was near. He ran his hands along the wall, trying to find the handle to the door where she was being kept. Just as he reached what he thought was the correct door, a light flared behind him.

“Hello, Edge. I thought that you might show up here.” The lamp Valtrek held in front of him gave off a surprising amount of light. The wizard's short black beard framed a knowing smile.

“Professor Valtrek,” Justan said. This was the last person that Justan wanted to see.  A sour feeling tugged at his heart.

“I had my suspicions this afternoon when you were named so unexpectedly, but it wasn't until you showed up here that they were confirmed.”

“I just wanted to see the rogue horse again,” Justan said lamely.

“Dressed like that? Fully armed? We both know that you're smarter than to think that I would be fooled by that excuse.”

Justan knew that his plans were ruined, but he pushed his fear away. He had to save Gwyrtha, and if he had to take the wizard down to do it, he would, no matter the consequences. Justan knew that Valtrek was a powerful wizard and that he didn't stand much of a chance of overcoming him, but it didn’t matter. He had no choice but to win. Perhaps those lessons in magic defense would come in handy.

Valtrek noticed a desperate look crossing Justan’s features.

“Before you do anything rash, Edge, here me out,” he said and Justan winced at the sound of his new name coming from the man that he so despised. The wizard reached into his robe and pulled forth a scroll. “When you left the council room today, I announced that I was taking you on as my apprentice.”

“No!” Justan snapped. He felt like there was a vise slowly closing on his throat. “You can't do that. I refuse!”  There was no way that he was going to give this man so much control over his life.

“You can't refuse. A student has no choice in the matter.” He unrolled the parchment and held it out for Justan to see. “I have the council's signatures.”

Justan ignored the scroll. “When you are around, I never have a choice!”

“I am here to help you.”

“Sure you are. You always say you are here to help me, but somehow I don't feel much gratitude when you push me around against my will.”

“Understandable.
Completely understandable.
I realize that when I took you away from the
Battle
Academy
I used some underhanded tactics, and I feel terrible about it. I really do.”

“No you don’t.” Justan snapped. “You are one of those people who think that the end justifies the means.” The wizard flinched at that remark. Perhaps it came too close to the truth.

 “But Edge, surely you understand by now that what I did was in your best interest. Look where you are.
In the greatest school of magic in the known lands.
You have had great opportunities to gain knowledge and hone your magical abilities as well as your physical ones. You couldn’t have accomplished that at the academy.”

Justan had to acknowledge that Valtrek was at least partially right. “For some reason I don't feel too blessed by it right now.”

“Edge, I am not saying that what I did was right. It wasn’t. And if I had the chance to do it again, I would have approached the situation differently,” Valtrek said. Justan realized that the wizard was beginning to succeed in diffusing his anger again and he steeled himself.

 “Look, it doesn't matter. I need to leave here tonight and I need to take the rogue horse with me. If you stand in my way, I will fight you.”

Valtrek looked at the determined face of the young man in front of him and nodded. “I knew I made the right decision. Edge, when I told you that I was here to help you, I meant it. You see, I know what you are.”

“What do you mean?” Justan looked at the man guardedly.

“I have figured out the nature of your magic ability,” Valtrek said with a sparkle in his eyes. “You have bonding magic.”

“Bonding magic?” Justan had studied for countless hours in the library trying to figure out his powers, but he had never heard of bonding magic.

“Yes,” said Valtrek. “It is a very rare power, so we don't know very much about it. Fortunately, I have had personal contact with two wizards that have that talent to some degree and I know more about it than most. You see bonding magic is interpersonal magic. It's
an ability
to bond, to link with another being on a level far deeper than we could ever achieve with standard magic. Once you have bonded with a being, you are linked with it soul to soul forever.”

Justan digested the information. He had thought that his link with Gwyrtha was strange and he had never been able to explain it, but he had assumed that it had something to do with the magic within her. Justan never imagined that it was a special skill that had come from him. It seemed obvious now that he thought about it.

“But how does this bonding work? I look with my mage sight and I don't see any link between me and Gwyrtha.”

“Gwyrtha?
That's the beast's name? Hmm . . . Well, to answer your question, bonding magic is different than any other form. It doesn't use the standard mix of elements. Like the magic of the Bowl of Souls, it is invisible to a wizard's eye. We don't completely understand why.”

 “But how did you know that I had this kind of magic?” Justan was so interested in what the wizard was saying that he had let his guard down again.

“You have been giving off clues about it ever since I watched you battle Sabre
Vlad's
son, Qenzic, in the arena. During the fight you were pulling energy from everyone in the crowd and using it to help you.”

“But how?”

“Remember what I told you earlier. Bonding magic is an interpersonal magic. It acts on its own, sending out magic feelers, influencing the people and creatures around you. It isn't a magic that you can completely control consciously. It might even be why the Scralag was drawn to you.

“I think that it was that day in the arena that your bonding magic came into full bloom. In the past, you were always a loner, pushing people away. But during the journey here it was like you were a different person. You started pulling people towards you.”