EPIC: Fourteen Books of Fantasy (139 page)

They descended slowly, and he saw the field fully for the first time. All around them, the soldiers of the Sorcerer Guard were beginning to stir, though many still had shards of metal sticking out of their armor. There were also lions walking around, a sight that would’ve surprised Blaise more if he hadn’t been so overwhelmed with everything else. On the very edge of the field, he could see Maya and Esther. They had their arms around each other and were staring at the field with terrified expressions on their faces.

The chaise touched the ground, and Blaise climbed out, still holding Gala cradled in his arms. She shifted, making a soft noise, and then her eyes fluttered open.

Smiling, Blaise met her gaze.
 

“Blaise!” Her face lit up with joyous wonder. “You’re here!”

“Yes,” he said softly. “I’m here, and I am not going anywhere.” Bending his head, he kissed her again. Her arms wound around his neck, and she pulled his head down, kissing him back with so much passion that Blaise felt a bolt of heat despite the cold rain that kept coming down. For the first time since Gala left, he felt alive—alive and craving her with every part of his being.

Before he could completely lose his mind, Blaise pulled back. As loath as he was to stop, he needed to take stock of the situation. “What happened here?” he asked, gently placing her on her feet.

Gala blinked, seemingly taken aback for a moment, then frantically looked around. “They’re healed,” she said in amazement, stepping back and pointing at the lions. “Look, Blaise, they are all healed!”

Blaise looked at the wild beasts that now seemed to be heading toward Maya and Esther. “That’s good, I guess,” he said, a bit uncertainly. Around them, he could see some of the soldiers slowly starting to get up.
 

“They’re healed, too,” Gala said, following his gaze. “I must have done it without meaning to.” She sounded relieved, which struck Blaise as odd.
 

“I thought they were trying to kill you,” he said. “What happened here today?”

And as they walked toward Maya and Esther through the field of dazed, but slowly recovering soldiers, Gala told him all about the fight and the incidents at the market and Coliseum.

Blaise listened in awe. He had known she would be powerful, but even he couldn’t have imagined some of the things she would do. And she didn’t even seem to have control over her powers yet.
 

“I’m sorry I left,” Gala said as they were approaching the two older women. Her voice was filled with bitter regret. “I caused so much havoc and suffering . . . I can’t control myself, Blaise. I should’ve stayed with you and tried to learn sorcery like you wanted me to do, instead of going off to see the world. None of this—” she motioned toward the bloody field, “—should’ve happened.”
 

Blaise took her hand, squeezing it lightly. “Don’t worry,” he said quietly. “I will be with you from now on.” Her hand felt small and cold within his own, and he realized how fragile she was despite her powers.
 

Gala nodded, and he could see that some of her earlier exuberance was no longer there. Even though only a few days had passed, she seemed different, more mature somehow. As they walked, he could see tears running down her face, mixing with the raindrops.
 

“Not all of them are moving,” she said, looking at the fallen soldiers. “Blaise, I think I killed some of them.” There was a note of poorly concealed horror in her voice.

Blaise again cursed himself for not being there to protect her. “You were defending yourself.” He stopped, bringing her to a halt as well. Placing his hands on her wet cheeks, he met her grief-stricken gaze. “Gala, listen to me, this was not your fault.”

“Of course it was,” she said bitterly. “I did this. I killed those men.”

“They were trying to kill you,” Blaise said harshly. “They are the ones at fault, not you. If I had been here, I would’ve killed them all. You, at least, healed the survivors. That’s more mercy than they deserve—”

“Gala!” Maya’s shriek interrupted the moment, and they both turned toward the sound. The two women were standing a dozen yards away, surrounded by a circle of lions. “Gala, get these man-eating monsters away from us!”

To Blaise’s surprise, a tiny smile appeared on Gala’s face, and the lions lay down, curling into giant furry balls at Maya and Esther’s feet.

“No,” Esther said frantically, “don’t make them corner us—just make them go away.” Turning to Maya, she said loudly, “And you, don’t you realize that yelling at them might make them feel threatened?” The two women went on to bicker, and the lions merely raised their ears from time to time, content to ignore the humans.
 

“They seem to be fine,” Blaise said to Gala when she turned her attention back to him. “You saved them, you know. I don’t know what the soldiers would’ve done to them.”

She nodded, her eyes still looking far too shadowed for his liking, and Blaise knew that it was little consolation to her right now, that she would never be able to completely forget the events of this terrible day.

Chapter XLV

Barson

B
ARSON
WAS
PLUMMETING
TOWARD
THE
ground when he felt the first wave of ecstasy washing over him. This must be what it feels like to die, he thought, as all pain left his body and a blissful peace took its place. It was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. All his wounds seemed to heal, the remaining shards of metal exiting his body as though pushed out by some invisible force.

Then he slammed into the ground.

The impact knocked all air out of his lungs. Black spots swimming in front of his vision, Barson fought to draw in a breath through the compressed cavity of his chest. He could see the pendant lying on the ground in front of him in pieces. It was right next to his armor-plated arm, which seemed twisted at an odd angle. He had a strange thought that he was broken too, just like the pendant.
 

Then the pain hit him in one massive wave. It felt like every bone in his body was shattered, every organ bruised and bleeding on the inside. His vision blurred, and hot nausea boiled up in his throat, but he fought the blackness that tried to suck him under. He couldn’t, wouldn’t allow himself to die like this.

And just as Barson felt that he would lose that fight, the pain began to lessen again, disappearing as miraculously as it did before. He could feel his body healing, mending, and it was the most amazing sensation—until that blissful peace hit again, bathing him in the exquisite warmth.

He couldn’t fight the sweetness of the oblivion any longer, and he let the wave of pleasure sweep him under.

Chapter XLVI

Gala

“I
WANT
TO
LEAVE
THIS
place,” Gala told Blaise after the lions left Maya and Esther alone, curling up a few yards away instead.
 

Having Blaise here, with her, made her feel better, but she needed to get away from this field of carnage. Guilt, sharp and terrible, was gnawing at her insides. She had killed people today; she had cut short their existence. It was the worst crime Gala could think of, and she had committed it—not once, but many times today.
 

The different what-if scenarios kept running through her head. What if she had been able to just make them fall asleep? What if she had made their swords disappear instead of shattering into a thousand pieces? If she had been able to control her powers, she could’ve defended herself without resorting to murder.
 

“Yes,” Blaise agreed. “We need to go. We might be able to hide in one of the other territories—”

“No,” Esther interrupted, coming up to them. “You will be recognized—and now, so will she. No disguise will be able to hide her after this.” She motioned toward the field.

Maya approached as well. “Esther is right. Besides, this one—” she pointed at Gala, “—starts doing insane sorcery whenever she’s upset.”

Gala stared at Maya, struck by the fact that the old woman was right. Her magic—her uncontrollable powers—were very much tied to her emotions. She wanted to kick herself for not making this obvious connection before.

“So what do you suggest instead?” Blaise frowned at Esther. “We can’t go back to the village, and Turingrad is out of the question. As soon as the Council hears about this—and they will—they’re going to be after us. As powerful as Gala is, the two of us don’t stand a chance against the combined might of the Council.”

Esther hesitated for a second. “There is one place they wouldn’t look,” she said slowly. “The mountains. That might be where we need to go.”

A silence followed. Gala had read a little bit about the mountains that surrounded Koldun and protected the land from the brutal ocean storms. At no point did the books describe the mountains as a habitable place.

Blaise looked like he was considering the idea. “Well,” he said finally, “it is just wilderness, but we might be able to survive there. It won’t be comfortable, but I’m sure we’ll manage—”
 

“I’m not sure if it’s just wilderness,” Maya said, looking frightened. “I’ve heard rumors.”

“What rumors?” Gala asked, her natural curiosity awakening. She could picture herself in the forest with Blaise, surrounded by beautiful plants and animals, and the images were quite appealing. The lions would be happy there, too; she had been wondering how to set the magnificent creatures free without them eating anyone or getting hurt by frightened humans, and this seemed like the perfect solution.

“They say that people live there,” Esther said, leaning in as though afraid someone would overhear her words. “They say that those people are free, that they don’t belong to any sorcerers.”

Blaise appeared surprised. “Why haven’t I heard about this?”

“I imagine most sorcerers haven’t heard about this,” Maya said. “That’s why those people are supposedly free. Rumors say many of them are from the northern territories, where the drought is especially bad, but some come from further south.”

Gala looked at Blaise and the two women. Going to the mountains meant that she would be far away from the soldiers and anyone else seeking to harm her—and that she would never have to harm anyone else in return. “Let’s go there,” she said decisively. “Maybe we could help those people in exchange for their hospitality. Blaise, you could enhance their crops, right?”
 

Her creator gave her a warm smile. “Yes, indeed. Sounds like we have a plan.”

Gala watched in fascination as Blaise worked on a spell to expand his chaise. The goal was to make it big enough to accommodate four people and thirteen lions.
 

When the enlarged object stood there, almost blocking the inn, they all got on, even the lions. Gala mentally guided the animals onto the object, making sure they didn’t panic or growl at Maya and Esther—who were eyeing them quite warily, afraid of having the wild beasts so close. In contrast, Gala liked having the animals near, the proximity of their furry bodies making the chaise feel warm and cozy. Blaise did a quick spell to add a waterproof shield around the chaise, so they were also protected from the steadily falling rain.
 

As they rose into the air and began heading toward the mountains, Blaise turned to Gala with a strange expression on his face. “Gala,” he said softly. “Are you seeing this?”

“Seeing what?” Gala asked. All she could see were the sheets of rain, coming down hard and turning everything grey. The storm was not as violent as before, but it seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see.

“The rain. It’s rapidly spreading,” Blaise said, reaching out to take her hand. The look on his face as he gazed at her was tender and reverent. “Gala, I think you might have ended the drought.”

Prologue from The Spell Realm (Book 2)

T
HE
BEING
STIRRED
AFTER
WHAT
felt like millennia of peace and serenity. As it always did upon awakening, it examined itself.
I exist
, it determined, pulling its thoughts together with effort. Upon making that determination, it was flooded with ideas and a recognition that this state—lucidity—had happened to it before.
 

Who am I?
it wondered, realizing that it was not the first time the question occurred to it. Immediately, it knew the futility of trying to find an answer. There was no good concept to describe it to itself, no word to define it. However, some instinct provided a shortcut. Out of the vast storage of things it forgot, a label came, and with it, something that beings in the other place called
gender
. I am Dranel, he realized. The name and gender didn’t matter here, of course, but it made his sense of identity more concrete, helping him anchor his thoughts.
 

Putting aside matters of self, Dranel focused on what brought him out of his calm and blissfully thoughtless state. After some analysis, he determined that it was the same phenomenon that had awakened him before—the strange being that had made an impression on him.