Breaking Stars (Book 2) (26 page)

Chapter 26

“Y’ play a great blundering fool right well, Prince Nolen,” Ryker sneered. “But y’ brought me the Silex, so I can ne complain much further.”

“I cannot help how fast the Class Ten lays his patterns.” Nolen strode to the window in the great room, casting his eyes out over the frozen landscape. It had snowed the night before, promising a cold winter, and the pines were frosted in sugar.

“Y’ could learn t’ duck.”

Nolen chuckled.
‘I will at that, since now we have an un-collared Class Ten with a vendetta against me.’
“I cannot go back to Kilkiny.”

“Nay, y’ will stay here with me, though I can ne promise it will be safer for y’.”

Nolen turned and put his brows up. “Are your Mages so dangerous?”

“Ne these, nay.” He sat in his usual chair by the fire, a cup of tea beside him, and the Silex on his lap. It glittered in the firelight as harmless as any diadem.

“How do you think he did it—the Class Ten?”

Ryker set the Silex aside. “There are but a few ways to reverse death, ac y’ were carrying one, so my assumption is someone used the Ring of Rebirth t’ trade their life par his. I am quite certain of it, since he rose so quickly after his slaying, ac the Ring only works directly after a death. The question is, who sacrificed themselves par him?”

“I believe it was Head Mage Casimir. I saw him fall before the Class Ten rose, and I did not see him again.”

Ryker leaned forward in controlled surprise. “Y’ don’t think—the Head Mage? By my lady, that is good news. Castle Jaden will be rife with grief.” He tapped his fingers on his lip. “This would be the perfect time t’ strike par the Head Mage Seat while they are without a leader. I wonder how quickly she…. Times’ve changed, boy,” he said and sprung to his feet, “We raise her tonight.”

Ryker made for the door in quick strides with one hand clasped around the Silex, giving Nolen no option but to follow. He rushed down the staircases and out into the attached livery where animals kept for food lived. He selected the largest pig, and with a snap of his fingers the animal dropped to the ground, dead.

“Can y’ carry that?”

Nolen did his best, not wishing to appear weak before his new lord, and hefted the animal over his shoulders. Ryker nodded, pleased, and led him back up the stairs, down the hall, and deep into the manor where no servants ventured. There were dark rooms here of grandiose size judging by the spaces between the doors.

“Are y’ squeamish, Princeling?”

“Not I.” He’d seen enough gruesomeness in his days, most of which he created.

Ryker unlatched a door with a lock-pattern on the handle and snapped a fire-starter into his hand through the Silex. Balls of fire illuminated a number of torches on the walls inside. As they lit up, Nolen saw the room held only four tables down the center. He stepped in to see the two closest tables were covered in cloth, shrouding something slender and long. On the wall across from each table hung a robe on a peg, each in a different color, but Nolen could make nothing of them.

“Throw that here.”

Nolen dropped the dead animal with curiosity and waited.

Ryker threw back the first cloth to reveal a grotesque image of a body, dried and wrapped in cloth, brown bones of the arms broken and crossed over the chest. Thin white hair clung to the leather of the scalp, and the lips pulled back to the tiny nose shrunk into the skull.

Rapid deduction gave Nolen her name. “Is this Maxine Flint?” he found himself whispering.

“Aye, it was. She was mummified by her loving followers when she was slain. She was ne hard t’ find in the end,” he said and moved as though to touch the head but stopped. “It may ne be pretty t’ look at, but wait until we get flesh on her again.”

“So this is what the Silex is for,” Nolen stated.

Ryker looped the Silex on its chain around his neck and pressed it against his skin, making a clicking noise with his cheek. “Are y’ ready?”

“What will you have me do?”

“Watch. This is how we make history.”

Ryker went into Void that turned his eyes and hair white, a look Nolen was almost used to. He set patterns over the body in thin black and white threads. He drew from Spirit to lay long patterns over the bones. Next Ryker pulled Earth and Water and set them deep into the chest cavity. Lastly, he drew Air and Fire and set smaller patterns into the heart and lungs. Holding his hands over the bones, he pulled and twisted the strings together until the body was so covered in colorful lines, it was hard to see the destruction beneath.

“Ah, here she comes,” he whispered as he stared ahead of him, seeing something Nolen could not. With a deep breath drawn, he fueled the multitude of patterns.

Nolen watched with rapt attention as the body changed. At first there was a small stirring beneath the wrappings and leathery skin, but it soon grew visible as something grew beneath. Nolen winced as a bone snapped into place, followed by a dozen or more that creaked and groaned and came together without a seam to mark them. Bright red muscle laced with blue veins corded over, rising and lengthening faster as they built and pushed the wrappings free. As the body changed, the pig at his feet withered slowly.

“You use the animal’s resources?”

“Y’ can ne make something from nothing.”

Ryker brushed the bandages and skin off a shoulder, motioning for Nolen to do the same. Though the Prince grimaced inwardly, he dared not show a squeamish expression now. Thankfully, the face began to take shape and slowly coated over with thin layers of skin. From her scalp sprouted a thick mass of blonde hair curled even tighter than Nolen’s, billowing over the table.

She was bare to the waist, her body on the edge of fully formed, and he could not help but lust over her flesh. She was full-breasted with a slender waist and rounded hips. From the length of her legs, he guessed she stood nearly as tall as he, though much longer in the limbs. He could understand why legends of her beauty were still told in this Age.

Her skin seemed to finish forming as tiny pores developed on her face, and her lips creased and plumped. Nolen leaned in to better view her. She was as lovely as her painting. Her skin seemed to rise and fill out over her bones to give her a healthier look and making her far more appealing.

Arch Mage Maxine Flint was stunning. Nolen swallowed and found his hand shaking as he drew the edge of the blanket up to cover her breasts, for no woman so lovely and noble should be woken so immodestly. Ryker paid no mind, looking at something far away still. Nolen’s knuckle brushed her skin as he did so, and though it was a touch above cold, it was as soft as velvet.

“Set a breath of air in her lungs, boy,” Ryker said as he moved two more patterns in his hands. Nolen set a pattern of oxygen to slip through her nose and fill her lungs, and her chest rose. He wished he could have done it with his own lips instead. Ryker clenched a Spirit pattern over his fist once, twice, and color rose to her cheeks and lips as he manually beat her heart. “Once more,” the Ryker instructed. “Ah, she’s ready.”

He took a half step back and motioned to whatever he had been staring at. As quickly as crashing lightning, the body jerked and gasped.

Nolen reeled back as if struck, his heart beating frantically as his mind defied what he had seen. He expected as much, but to see something so unfathomable was quite another thing. Maxine’s slender, small hand flew up from under the blankets and clutched at her chest as she gasped. Her eyes were open and wide, revealing a pale color Nolen could not be sure of at his distance.

“Is something amiss?” Ryker asked her gently.

She pointed a slender finger at him and moved it in a sharp manner to silence him, giving Ryker pause to step back and seal his lips.
‘Oh I see,’
Nolen mused.
‘She might very well be the true power in this group.’

Her breaths came more deeply now, spaced normally, and her grip on her chest relaxed. “How…long has it been, my lord, that…you have been awake and I have not? You seem fa’ too well…rested fo’ it to have been but a few hours.” Her voice was hoarse at first, and she paused to swallow halfway through. It gained in mellifluous beauty as she spoke, becoming trill and feminine. She had a touch of an accent Nolen could not place, but it was nowhere near as thick as Ryker’s dialect, turning her vowels softly over her tongue while sometimes missing her ‘R’s’ completely.

Ryker smiled rather than upbraiding her like he would have had Nolen used such words. “Had I the means t’ return y’ the moment I woke, I would have.”

“How long have I been dead?” She sat up, letting the sheet fall away to pool around her waist. Her stomach was taut under her skin with the definition of muscle well pronounced. Nolen swallowed and looked away, overwhelmed.

“Two Ages,” Ryker replied and took her hand up between his. “But this Age is ripe par harvest, ac we have but one man t’ stand twixt us ac victory.”

“Is it this man?” she said and turned her eyes on Nolen. They were pale, cold blue, that pierced right through him and left him chilled but hot with desire at the same time. “I will finish him in moments.”

“I have little doubt of that, my lady,” Nolen replied, keeping his voice as straight as possible. She chuckled, a high, bell-like tune that sent his spine tingling, paying him an amused smile.

“Who is the pretty, Ryker?”

“This is the man what fetched us the Silex.”

She gathered the edge of the sheet and pulled it to a shoulder. Nolen thanked the stars while desperately wishing she would lower it again. Slowly she slid a leg off the table and turned to face him, baring the slender limb and putting her narrow, pretty foot on the floorboards. “Then I have you to thank,” she said slowly, playing each word on her tongue as if any could be his demise.

‘Oh sweet stars, please.’
He gave a bow of his head. “To see you alive is reward enough.”

She trilled a laugh again and stepped off the table, leaning against it as she found her feet. “You have a handsome accent.” He imagined she was still weak, though she managed well enough. The sheet draped itself down her center, revealing her bare curves.

“Do you have a name, o’ shall I call you Pet?”

“I am Mage Prince Nolen Novacula of Anatoly,” he said, holding her gaze as she rose to meet him almost eye to eye. Her curly blonde hair hung about her shoulders to her elbows, tickling her pale skin to make it prickle.

“Then, thank you, Mage Prince Nolen,” she replied, still toying with her words and his heart. “Tell me, Ryker,” she said without turning away from Nolen. “Will we be doing this alone o’ with the whole?”

“We will need everyone par this man,” Ryker replied. “I will raise Pike ac continue t’ look par Dorian ac Evony. We will strike as soon as y’ have your strength.”

“I dare say,” she whispered and lifted finger to touch Nolen’s jacket, pulling at the embroidery to look at it curiously, “I have it back already.”

“Contain yourself par a moment. We have a great adversary to tackle.”

“Then tell me of this man,” she said and turned to face Ryker. Nolen stole a glance down, satisfied that the back was just as appealing as the front.

“Mage Nolen can do that.” Ryker clicked his cheek and walked stiffly to the far wall where a red robe hung. He held it out as he came to Maxine. She released the sheet to slip her arms into the slender sleeves, belting it around her small waist. She looked as regal as any queen, bathed in deep red with her pale skin and cold eyes surrounded by a mane of blonde curls.
‘The Leopard of Luxantine they called her once, before she caused it to fall.’

She pivoted to face Nolen with a gaze that demanded all his information. “Tell me of this man,” she whispered. Ryker kept one hand on her elbow, keeping her new body steady.

Nolen gritted his teeth. “He is a Class Ten Anomaly of Anatoly wielding Water, Fire, Earth and Spirit, and I have heard he is a Creator.”

“This is not so wondrous,” Maxine replied quietly.

“It is in a Class Five-average world.” Nolen answered. “He is the last of his kind, the only Class Ten born in hundreds of years, and he spent a month in the Overturn Castrofax before dying and somehow rising afresh.” Maxine’s eyes glittered as he spoke, her little lips parting in amazement making her somehow all the more beautiful. “He is smart, cunning, and spent the last handful of years protecting the heiress to the throne of Anatoly before I captured him in battle. He created a pattern so terrifying and amazing that people call him the Star Breaker.”

“Is he beautiful?” she breathed.

“He is fair.”

“And youthful?”

“Younger than I.”

“Strength and youth and vengeance in pretty wrapping.” She smiled to show her straight white teeth. “And his name? What do they call him?”

Nolen clenched his fists and met her waiting eyes. “They call him…. His name is Gabriel.”

Chapter 27

Gabriel sat perched on the lintel above the door to his balcony, his paws folded and his chin resting in them. One hind foot hung over the edge. The night was unnaturally warm for autumn, and his golden fur was plenty warm enough against the slight breeze blowing in from the north. Scents of the kitchens below played on the wind mixed with the sounds of practicing soldiers, horses on cobblestones, boots on dirt paths, and the occasional chatter. The City from this angle was pinched into a small section between a grove of trees, but far across it, he could see people moving and smoke rising from chimneys.

He preferred the tiger form the longer he stayed in it, for not only could he feel the energies of people as they passed around him, he could see and hear them long before they arrived. It gave him some peace knowing he was aware of his surroundings, but his eyes and ears still flicked in every direction to be all aware. He expected an attack at any moment and was determined to be prepared, even if it meant not sleeping at all. He closed his eyes at the thought of it. It had been three nights since his release from the Castrofax, and he had not slept through one.

‘The Castrofax,’
he growled. Lael had it stashed away somewhere and said it was property of Jaden, but Gabriel wanted it. It had been rumored that no Castrofax could be destroyed, but he learned everything had a breaking point, and he would find it in the metal one way or another. As Head Mage he would have certain privileges and would obliterate Overturn. The thought of the cold metal on him made him shiver and flex his claws.
‘Never again. Never again will I wear a Castrofax.’

As Head Mage he would be better protected within the walls of Castle Jaden and could find a good night’s rest. Nothing could get through the wards, and he would not have to worry of attack, though he would have plenty more to worry about.
‘I don’t know the first thing about fighting a Class Ten, let alone five of them.’
The idea was daunting, but he would have fought them as Head Mage or Mage Gabriel regardless. It was his duty to protect, and his purpose as the only Class Ten of the Age to fight them.
‘But if I fail…everyone will suffer for it. I need a plan should all else fail. With an entire people under my protection, I must be prepared to do whatever it takes to defend them, including die.’

He mind lapsed into other concerns weighing heavily on his thoughts, and slowly closed his eyes in shame.
‘I lied to Robyn. But she can never know. It would destroy her.’
He turned his focus to the yard below as people milled by slowly.

As he mused darkly, he heard male footsteps in the anteroom and waited until the energy brushed his conscious. He once read that some Spirit Mages could identify a person by their energy, but he had never been able to. A knock sounded on his door, and the latch turned before he heard Secondhand Lael call his name. Lael stepped out to the open balcony doorway.

Gabriel rose and stretched, bounding down from the door away from Lael to not startle the man, but Lael heard him and gave a start anyway.

“Bless me,” he breathed and put a hand on his chest. “I had forgotten you take that form.” He sat in a chair and brushed his hair back as Gabriel transformed to human garbed in gray trousers and blouse.

“Forgive me,” Gabriel said and took his seat. “Would you take some wine?” he asked and gestured to a bottle and stack of cups always left out for him.

“That would be most kind,” Lael nodded. He wore a dark blue coat with white lilies stitched on the high collar. “We should have it warm. Would you light me?” he asked and held out his hand.

Gabriel snapped his fingers and produced a flame which Lael took. “I can see this arrangement working out well. I always need to be within yards of a flame to gather it,” Lael said as Gabriel handed him a mug. “I did not mean to intrude on you to drink your wine.”

“It is no intrusion, Lael,” Gabriel corrected kindly. “You and I are to be close in the coming years, so please see my quarters as your own and my time as yours.”

Lael gave an honest smile. “That is—very kind of you. I came to ease your mind.”

“You must have a lot to say then.”

Lael’s smile deepened. “I can only ease your mind on one thing: Casimir’s death.”

“It was irrational for him to give himself up for me.
He
was the leader people needed to get them through the Arch Mages.”

“He was dying,” Lael cut in. “He had been for some time. His health began failing him early last year, and Councilman Lewis deemed it a sickness of the blood that he could not cure. Few people knew of his condition, but he was losing weight and had trouble sleeping.”

‘Sounds like Nolen tortured him.’

“About two months ago, he started passing blood, and we feared we would have to begin the search for a new Head Mage. I will not lie in saying you were top of his list, and he had given it great thought since discovering his condition, but as news reached us of Ryker, Casimir began to plan for you to take his place. You can imagine our distress when we learned of your fate, but even in the moment of grief, Casimir knew what he would do concerning the Ring of Rebirth. Had we obtained the Silex, it would have made no difference. The patterns to reverse death require Void, and Casimir never unlocked it. He planned to die that day. I know it is not the life you wished for yourself.”

He looked up. “It is not a bad life. I would be foolish to think so.”

Lael nodded with a satisfied look. “What will you do as your first action as Head Mage?”

He took a heavy swallow of his wine. “Where are the Castrofax?”

Lael turned his mug in his hands. “This is strictly between you and me. Castle Jaden has, along with Overturn now, two others, Eraser and Quixotic. This means there are three more that have never been found.”

“I will never feel safe until I have them all. I would like to see them all destroyed.”

Lael sighed and swirled his mug. “There…there are stories that the silver Castrofax known as Lady Misery was in Ryker’s possession when he slipped into hibernation. Of the remaining two, there is a good chance Ryker has them.”

Gabriel felt his throat tighten as he held his breath.
‘It is as I feared.’
He inhaled as the cold feeling of color left his face dripped down his neck. “Do you think he would try a second time?”

Lael lowered his voice and leaned in. “You are the only man who stands between him and the Head Mage Seat. Mage Gabriel, I would think it likely he will try again.”

It is a rare kind of pain to think death would be a better fate than reality. It is rarer still to come to this conclusion. Gabriel once had and come away from it with strength greater than something he could read about. He had to be deconstructed in order to be built up a stronger man, someone who could resist the dangers now and the too soon future. In trying to destroy him, Nolen and Ryker had created the man to vanquish them. He clenched his fist and pushed the fear back where he could not feel it. “What can they do to me that I have not already overcome?”

-End

Continue the story here with book three:

Unlocking Void