Born of Magic (Channeler Series) (13 page)

A little later, Aton returned with something that smelled delicious. I recognized the scent—it reminded me of what I had eaten in Laharah. There was a very distinct scent to fish that made my spine shiver as it reminded me of the cold nights in Aldred’s hospital. I wondered if I would always have this association. Aton threw a wad of paper with something heavy wrapped inside of it. I caught it, looked at him with a small grin, and threw it back at him. He caught it and laughed. Being difficult at times seemed to amuse both of us.

We threw it back and forth again. When he caught it again he shook his head. "This is just as bad as knocking on a door with you. Now, eat." He smiled and threw it back to me one last time. "I'm going to be gone for most of the night. Stay in here and get plenty of rest. If all goes well tonight, you might to need it. If it doesn’t go well, you’re definitely going to need it.”

Aton grabbed a couple items from his bag and then locked the door to his room, then the main door. The comfortable room had become a comfortable prison for the night. I was not accustomed to being so confined, though it had not bothered me until I remembered the last time Aton had done this. Last time we were in Saltren, where he kept me trapped in case I betrayed him.

Rather than using Helendra to save me from my boredom, I chose to go to sleep early, taking Aton's advice. I thought to myself as I pulled the blankets over me,
"Good night."

A couple moments later there was a very soft response,
"Sleep tight."

I imagined this was, in a very unconventional way, what it must be like to have parents. Aton would be the stern father, and Helendra the loving and forgiving mother. It was comforting, but eerie at the same time, considering they were enemies to one another. Then again, based on a few conversations I had heard between some of the farmers in Saltren, this wasn't too far from ordinary.

While it wasn’t nighttime, my room had no windows, and it was easy to ignore what time it was outside of the confining walls. My eyes were nearly shut when a creaking noise echoed through the door from outside of my room. Then I heard heavy footsteps. My heart pounded against my chest as I pulled the blanket closer to my face in a failed attempt to comfort myself.

The footsteps didn’t belong to Aton—they were too heavy. I listened from the safety of my bed as the two clumsy feet stumbled around. It sounded as though they were rummaging in search of something. I could something falling to the ground after being tossed across the room.

A few hundred painful heartbeats later, several more sets of feet made their way in. The door to my room inched open. I trembled beneath my blanket, hoping I would somehow go unnoticed. I knew it was useless, but I had no other idea of what to do. An eternity seemed to pass, as the steps grew closer. A large hand grabbed the top of the blanket and pulled it down to reveal my face.

He called out to the others, "The girl's in here!"

The man stood what seemed like twice my height. He was dressed in black robes with orange lining. Etched into the chest of his robes was Caspere’s mark. He kept his eyes on me as he sat at the foot of my bed. I didn’t try to run. He didn’t restrain me. I preferred it this way, and I think he did too.

Just as soon as he had announced my presence, the room was filled with two other men. They both carried lit torches that filled the room with dim, unsettling light. The eldest of the three approached me, "What do you think you’re doing?"

I debated about responding with "Trying to sleep", but decided that would be less than helpful to my current situation. "I am staying here with my friend."

He leaned closer, gazing into my eyes, watching every minor movement I made. "Where’s this friend of yours?"

"I… I… I—" Forming simple sentences became a near impossible feat as he stared right through me, "I don't know.”

He backed away, "Take her with us. Caspere wants her."

The two men grabbed me by my arms and carried me off. I made no effort to resist. It only would have aggravated them. I was carried down the street, my toes gliding across the cold cobblestones, dancing along them as my feet dangled. It didn’t take the men long to take me to the building where I was to be held.

"Put her in the cell. The lord will speak with her soon," The older guard commanded.

The two other men obeyed, and threw me into a small cell that was in the corner of a large room.

The building appeared large from the outside. There were guards posted everywhere, and they watched me as I was brought inside, helpless. Some of them laughed at my situation. The room where I was being held was large and almost completely empty, aside from a collection of pillows near the center that lay scattered across the floor. The dark corners of the room seemed to move, shifting around, but I couldn't tell what made them do so. My eyes were still adjusting to the dimness, after being blinded by the light outside.

There I sat, no longer surrounded by four comfortable walls that had felt like a prison, but now by four walls of steel bars that were a real one. The bars cast a series of striped shadows across my face. The three men left me in the room, by myself, without another word to me. I leaned against the cold steel. They were uncomfortable against my back, but the cage was not tall enough for me to stand.

Across the room stood a dar
k figure. It was hard to see at first, but when I looked in Etherea, I could see that it was a mage. As he came closer, his features became more noticeable. He looked very old. His skin was pale and wrinkled, except on his baldhead, which seemed to shine even with the little lighting there was in the room. His eyes focused on me like a painting on a wall, never moving, as he seemed to float over to me, each step was masked by the grace of his walk and the overhang of his robes.

A thick stench filled the air as he approached. Each breath I took became painful, stinging my nose and making me nauseous. I didn't recognize what the smell was, which I was glad for, since I never had to endure such an odor before. My eyes began to water more from the smell than the situation I was in.

His nearly unnoticeable steps came to an eerie halt as he now hovered over my cage. While he was short, my cage was shorter. "It appears I get the better side of this deal." His voice bore an unrecognized accent; it was slurred and difficult to understand. Each word blended together with a roll of his tongue.

I shivered as I gazed up at my captor. It was nearly impossible to think between the crippling fear and powerful smell that made my nostrils flare with pain. "You no speak, this makes our conversation difficult. Perhaps—" he paused, leaning in to smile and reveal his brown cracked teeth. They reminded me of a collection of boulders stacked together and covered in moss, "It is the smell." As he spoke, his breath felt as though it would melt my eyes.

He snapped his fingers and several snakes came out from the dark corners. They were bigger and fiercer looking than any I had ever seen before. They slithered together in an intricate weave, making it impossible to tell where one began and the other ended. They gathered around the pillows and pushed them over to the old man, sliding them underneath him just as he was about to sit on the ground.

The old man sat atop the pillows with his legs crossed and I realized who he was, "Caspere," I uttered under the trembling of my shaking jaw.

A grin that stretched nearly ear to ear grew on his face, "Yes, I'm Sir Caspere. You, my dear Jasminis, may refer to me as 'master'."

He knew my name. How could he know that? I would definitely remember if I had ever met him before. If he knew what I was, I would be in danger. I needed help. I called out to the only person who could possibly hear me,
"Help me."

"What is it dear? Where are you?"
Her voice appeared only seconds layer. She was faint, meaning she was probably far from me.

"I don't know. A man has me in a cage."

"What happened? Do you know his name?"
She pleaded to me in desperation.

I should look to Aton for help, but I didn't know where he was or if he even knew I was missing yet. I would be forced to trust Helendra.

Caspere seemed to tell I was focused elsewhere. He coughed loudly. "How do I know that, I am sure you are wondering, yes? It is simple you see, I heard someone was around asking questions about me. Questions that I did not like being asked, so I went to silence them. When I found him, he offered me you as trade for something of mine. Normally, I wouldn't offer up such a treasure, but I simply had to have you, once he told me what you are."

"He lied," I cried out. It was the only thing I could think of responding with, my mind now blank, wiped clean by this betrayal.

"You do not fool me, girl. I see the energy flow around you like flies to a horse," he said with a snicker. He knew what I was and there was no denying it.

I lowered my head and admitted defeat, at least for now.

"Jasminis, what is his name?"
Helendra begged again.

"Caspere."

"Tevon is nearby, he will be there soon, I promise you. Keep in communication with me as much as you can."
Her voice was riddled with concern and dread—that name must mean something to her, I feared.

Caspere snapped his fingers. "Pay attention, girl! I do not like my property ignoring me. There's much you will be doing for me." That same creepy grin came onto his face again. "For now, get comfortable. I have planning to do. As you prove yourself loyal, that cage will get bigger." He arose and walked away.

I was now alone in the snake-ridden room. The only light I had was weak and flickering. How long would it be until Tevon showed up? Would he even be able to help me? Have I trusted the wrong person this whole time? Aton had put faith in me without even knowing me, or had he?

This magic had taken my mediocre life and torn it apart. I had not become some great person capable of powerful things, but a prisoner. Every step I took I was someone’s new toy, their tool for power, a puppet. I decided if I were to ever escape from this, Saltren would be my home once again for the rest of my hopefully meaningless days. My pain and abandonment was felt.

“Jasminis, don’t give up just yet. We will be there for you. You must hold on, we will take care of you.”
Her voice no longer yielded that feeling of comfort it once had, her words bounced off me like rain hitting the stones of the cobbled streets in Saltren.

Aton had betrayed me. Whether he intended to or not, he had yet again put me in harms way and failed to watch over me. I understood that this life would be dangerous, and I would need to defend myself, but this was different—he had set me up to fall. Caspere knew my name, and the only reason that he could have know that, as well as where and what I was, was by Aton.

“You have been betrayed and taken advantage of, I know. I can feel your pain. This will be the last time someone takes advantage of you, I swear. Tevon will be there soon. He will get you out of there and take you wherever you wish to go.”

My reply was short and bitter,
“We’ll see.”

The cold night came seeping in through the windows and rolled along the ground like a rising pool of water during a flood. I sought to warm myself but my body heat seeped out into the night. There was nowhere to seek shelter, no blanket, no warm group of friends, just the heartless steel bars that contained me. Sleep came far too late, as the air had finally started to warm from the rays of the rising sun that pierced their way into the room. It was morning when I started to close my eyes.

Caspere entered from across the room once again. This time, he was not graceful with his step. He skipped over to me like a gleeful child at a candy store. His breath was even harsher in the morning. “We have big plans for you. I hope you will make this easy.” He stopped and ran his bony fingers across the top of his shiny baldhead. “I hate when things aren’t easy.”

He snapped his fingers and an older girl came in. The look on her face told her story—she was cursed with a gift, like me. Something that had once seemed like a blessing had betrayed her. She too, was someone’s puppet. Her wrists were shackled together and purple bruises lined her arms around the cuffs, with spots of dry blood where her skin had been worn through.

He summoned her over to his side, and two men followed. They were the men from the night before. They took me from my cage and slapped some shackles on me as well. They then took a chain and linked the girl’s cuffs and mine together.

Caspere grabbed the slack and pulled us along by it like a leash. “We're going to the factory today. Much work to be done. Much for you two doggies to do.” He hummed as he dragged us along through a series of hallways.

The building was even bigger than it looked from the outside, it seemed as if there were no end to it inside. We arrived at a giant room made of red brick walls. There were fires blazing and anvils clanging in every corner. Waves of heat blew over me and scalded my face. I could see that the girl next to me knew this place all too well.

Caspere walked to a small box and stood atop it. His voice carried farther than I expected from a man his size. “We have work to do, bring in the Stalamite ore! Prepare the furnace for a blaze the likes which we have never seen!”

He stepped down and beckoned us to follow, as if we had some other choice. He yanked on the chains and we followed. The air grew bone dry and hotter than an oven as we approached a giant furnace at the heart of the factory. Caspere forced us to stand in front of it. Above the furnace was a giant stone pot. Men began dropping giant green stones into it until it was filled to the top.