Born of Magic (Channeler Series) (16 page)

She pulled away and forced a smile, revealing her yellow-stained teeth. It was the first time I could also see just how chapped her lips were. “It’s okay, I’d endured worse at Caspere’s hands. I’m free of him now.”

“The academy will help you with moving on from that, Denarah, and we’ll see to it that Caspere is stopped, soon. First we must get you both out of here and give you some time to rest and recover.” He stood up and raised his arms to the trees, letting out a loud growl as he stretched. “Time to build a shelter for the night. Jasminis, I hope you don’t mind, but could you lend me a little power for this?”

I was nervous about hurting him, but did as he asked and began to channel power into him. He stood at the middle of our camp area and held up his hands. The ground trembled as branches began to sprout up and weave together. Each branch rose to the sky, darting back and forth as it wrapped around its neighboring branches. I didn’t recognize what type of tree they were from. They were dark green and very smooth, with small chunks of bark falling off as they rubbed together.

Any breeze I had felt was cut off as the plants formed a dome around us and met at the top, wrapping their ends together to form a roof. The branches bonded together so tight that they formed a solid wall. There were only two openings: one was small but allowed for the moon to shine through, and the second opening acted as an exit, but a giant leaf covered it like a door.

Tevon smiled and winked, and then hundreds of white flowers blossomed from the branches all at once, releasing a thin cloud of yellow pollen that filled the area with a sweet honey scent. The beautiful white flowers covered the walls like a blanket of petals. He finished his show of magic by making four giant leaves sprout out. Tevon stopped and walked over to the leaves, plucking them from the branches where they had grown, and handed them to each of us to be used as blankets. The plant structure didn’t budge from the force.

With all the magical things I had seen so far, this one was truly my favorite, but I did not allow myself to dwell in the moment; I was too concerned over how it may have affected him.

Tevon sat down and prepared himself a bed, a small bead of blood hanging from his nose. He saw the concerned look on my face. “We can take care of that Jasminis. Now get some rest.”

I lied down on the ground and pulled the leaf up to my shoulders and watched as the occasional white petal would fall from a flower and float down in a graceful dance. I looked over at Denarah, who was staring in awe with a wide-eyed look stuck on her face. A couple petals landed on my leaf before I finally fell asleep. Good dreams welcomed me for the first time in many unpleasant nights.

I awoke as light beamed in from the round opening in the roof. Tevon removed the leaf door, allowing more light to enter and fill the dome. The scent of flowers blended with the typical morning forest smell of dew and wet bark.

It was like music watching Tevon, Denarah, and Yurios use their powers to make an amazing breakfast I never would have considered possible while traveling. Tevon grew a small patch of potatoes, carrots, and onions along with some very powerful and inviting spices. Yurios created a pot of water that Denarah brought to a boil in no time.

Tevon tossed me a pocket knife and I began cutting up the vegetables at his instruction and placed them into the pot. With the constant heat Denarah applied to the pot, a delicious stew was prepared in a relatively short amount of time.

We shoveled up spoonful after spoonful directly from the pot, proud of what we had done together.

“The powers of magic sure can bring us a good meal,” Tevon said as he stuffed another bite into his mouth. Drops of the broth collected on his bushy red beard.

Yurios, apparently accustomed to Tevon’s eating habits, handed him part of a leaf to wipe his beard with. Just as soon as Tevon had cleaned his beard, the next bite left more broth on it. The three of us laughed as we watched Tevon continue to wipe his beard every other bite.

Once there wasn’t a single morsel of breakfast remaining, we packed up and exited the house Tevon had made. He left it up for the next traveler who passed through here to find. I laughed inside as I thought of the reactions of someone stumbling onto our magical shelter we had left behind. I could have lived in a place like that, instead of an alleyway.

“It’s a few days walk from here. However, we have two horses stabled at a small farm town close by. We’ll have to pair up and share horses,” Tevon said.

I could see Denarah’s excitement at this opportunity. “I’ll share a horse with Yurios, if you like,” she said, almost begging.

Tevon looked back at her; he must have caught on to her obvious intentions. He grinned when he noticed Yurios blush. “That sounds like a marvelous idea. Before we mount up however, it’s best we all stop and clean off before subjecting the horses to our odor.”

It didn’t take us long to arrive to the farm town where Tevon traded with a farmer for the use of his bath. A couple weeks’ worth of growth on his crop was all that the farmer needed to be more than obliging to us. Yurios supplied the water, and Denarah heated it for everyone, both with my help as it took a little more magic than they were normally capable of—I took a long shower.

Denarah cleaned up nicely. Her grassy green eyes now vibrant against her pale, aside from the bruises scattered throughout her body. Her hair, which had looked brown not too long ago, was now blond and wavy like a crop of wheat before its harvested. Yurios took quick notice of her. Tevon even supplied us with some mint to include in our bath, leaving us smelling like a sweet cup of tea.

Now clean and smelling wonderful, we mounted the two horses Tevon had left at the town, and made our way down a long trail that headed into the central mountains that divided the East from the West.

“Now that’s more like it,” Tevon said. He glanced at Yurios with a devious grin, who was struggling to maintain his composure as he helped Denarah onto their horse. Tevon climbed onto his horse first and then reached down and helped me up.

On horseback it didn’t take us long to reach the plateau where the academy was built. The longest part of the trip had been spent climbing high into the mountains. The path leveled off to a giant valley between two mountain ranges that met together somewhere way down the valley. At the Western edge of the valley there was a cliff that dropped off farther than I cared to imagine.

The valley was filled with a thick forest and a large river that came down between the two mountain ranges. It flowed at a peaceful pace until it neared the cliff, where it turned into a violent yet steady waterfall that misted the forest below. I caught a glimpse of a rainbow glistening halfway down, when I dared for a moment to look down the cliff. The path we had taken led us along the base of the cliff, so I knew how high up the valley was.

At the center of the valley was a large clearing with a giant cobblestone castle surrounded by countless giant tree stumps that appeared to have been hollowed into homes. Kids of all ages ran in and out of the homes as they all played together in a giant cluster of laughing chaos.

The homes fanned out in front of the castle and were separated in a random pattern. The castle itself had many towers and walls, and at the center there was one tower that was wider and taller than the rest.

Out past the homes were many large fields of wheat, oats, and vegetables. Ditches had been dug to each one, routing water from the river. While we were a good distance from it all, I could make out large bridges that were evenly divided along the river. There was even a large channel that diverted water into a small lake on the other side of the city next to the homes. There appeared to be kids swimming in lake, splashing around like a bunch of bathing birds.

Tevon looked at the castle. “It must be their day off,” he said with a warm laugh.

As we rode into the town, I could see every single person there in Etherea. They were all mages, every one of them. I had never seen so many mages before, and my mind raced as I imagined what all of their different powers could be.

They paid little attention to us as we made our way to the castle. There were no gates around the castle, just a single road that led to the main archway into the castle. We dismounted and Tevon instructed Yurios to stable the horses while we met with some of the elder mages. My heart leapt for joy when Yurios told me Helendra was here as well.

“They’re eager to meet both of you,” Tevon said in a soft voice as we walked down the long tunnel to the center of the castle. The walls were covered with patches of beautiful flowers that were watered by small ducting that feed small streams of water.

We moved at a slow, quiet pace. Denarah and I walked close behind Tevon. It was obvious she was nervous, unsure of what to expect from the elder mages—I was too. To my surprise, they were all sitting at a round table with several open seats on the side closest to the door we entered through.

The table was made of a dark red wood with thin and elegant legs, the shapes of beautiful arrangements of flowers carved into them with great intricacy and care. Each chair was unique from the others. Some were tall with a design carved into the top, and others were short and basic. I realized this was to represent the unique types of magic everyone possessed. Of the several open chairs, I chose the dark red one with two beautiful birds holding a twig in their beaks.

Tevon and Denarah sat on either side of me. All eyes were on us and it became a little unsettling, until I recognized one of the mages. She had been at the castle the night Aton attacked them. The way she looked at me, I knew who it was, and just then she came into my mind.

“We truly meet at last, Jasminis.”

I smiled over at her and she bowed her head to me. Helendra then stood up, “Jasminis and Denarah, we welcome you both. It is our understanding that you wish to join our academy. Is this correct?”

Tevon nudged us both to stand, so we both stood and replied in unison. “Yes ma’am.” We looked at each other and laughed.

One of the younger mages at the table, still far older than us, grunted in frustration with our laughter and we fell silent. Helendra continued with her elegant voice I recognized so well, “Stupendous. New students are always welcome and the faculty is excited to meet you. Before you both may be admitted you must undergo a short… examination, if you will. Jasminis, would you please go first?”

As Helendra asked, the younger mage who had expressed his discontent for our behavior stood up and walked over behind our chairs. I then stood up and turned to face him. He held out his hands while his dark gray eyes gazed into mine, like I was a book he had opened to read. When our hands met, his eyes were suddenly filled with dark clouds drifting downward like a storm bellowing in from the sea, and my heart grew cold.

I found us standing in an empty room now. Time felt long and drawn out, and there was only one bright light that shone down directly onto us. I looked at the ground, through the darkness, and saw millions of snakes slithering around. The moment I became aware of them, they began to encircle us. I looked to the mage, but he now had the tongue of a snake.

My first reaction was to leap back, but I knew there were only snakes behind me. He hissed at me. “Decide,” he said with a slithering accent.

The snakes drew near and lashed out at my legs. Gusts of wind hit my ankles as they drew closer to biting me. They sounded like a fire raging through a forest. I screamed for it to stop, but the sound of their hissing drowned me out. Then, the noise died down. Aton appeared behind me, holding out his hand with a clear pathway behind him, a way out. I was about to follow him when the mage tugged on my sleeve, his snake tongue now gone. Behind him was a clear path as well.

They both grabbed me by the arm, beckoning me to follow one of them. I was torn, Aton had used me and betrayed me, but he always came back for me. The other mage had brought me here, and I barely new him—our first interaction had yet to be pleasant. I shook my head and knew I could not trust Aton again. He must be out of my life now. I grabbed the other mage's hand and he led me to safety.

My heart rate steadied as we were now in a grassy field with nothing as far as the eye could see. The mage still kept his eyes locked on mine. “Sorry about that. It’s not normally part of the test, but we had to make sure you were free of him. We’re all aware of what he meant to you and what had happened. He cannot be a threat to you anymore.”

It became clear to me now what the test had meant. I had chosen the arms of a stranger, who I did not like all too much to begin with, rather than the man who had deceived me and used me for his bidding. I had proven that now anything seemed better than going back to Aton, and that he meant nothing to me. I was still upset about the nature of the test.

“Let’s begin the real test. Just relax and try to clear your mind as much as possible. I can’t have any thoughts getting in my way now.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the location changed again. This time we were on a small raft going down a river. The water was calm and tranquil and the raft floated along it like a leaf caught in an irrigation stream. Ahead of us was a fork in the river: one path led to calm waters and a small pond, and the other led to a waterfall. I grew uneasy and reached down into the water to change the course of the raft, trying to take us to safety in a panic. My hand went right through the water with no effect.

“The path we take represents the path of your choices. The river is your essence. You cannot hide who you are so easily, just as you cannot change the course of this raft right now. Your decisions and inner desires are your only paddle.”