Forgotten Mage (33 page)

“It’s your fault,” Faye said, stomping
up to Bren. The soft look gone from her face was replaced by one
that threatened reprisal. “Ever since you left, everyone has kept
their eyes on me, and no one would tell me anything. When I saw
master Sae-Thae leaving the Tower, I figured that if I followed him
he would lead me to you.”

“I’m sorry,” Bren stammered. “I didn’t
think…”

“When do boys ever think,” Faye said
hotly.

“As much as I enjoy a good show, we
must conclude our business here before the Tower has the same
thought as our young friend here,” Sae-Thae said with a thin smile.
“Bren, I spoke with my god about the veil.”

“What did you learn?” Bren asked,
completely forgetting about his argument with Faye.

“Nothing good,” Sae-Thae replied.
“There is indeed a veil, but my god was very reluctant in speaking
about it. The best I could gather, it is in the valley you spoke
of, and the chances are that your father is trapped in the abyss, a
space between the worlds. It isn’t really the veil, but they are
connect in a manner. I wish I had more to tell, but that is all I
could drag out of my god before his lips sealed tighter than a Rane
merchants purse.”

“It is more than I knew,” Bren said
thankfully. “At least I know that there is a good chance that my
father is still alive. Now, I just have to find a way to bring him
back from the Abyss.”

“You already have your hands full as it
is,” Sae-Thae admonished Bren. “While you deal with the problems
you have stirred up here, I will research a way to break into the
abyss. Phena will be staying with you for a while too. She can be a
good deal of help to you.”

“If that is what you wish master,”
Phena said calmly, but Bren could tell that she was not pleased
with the news.

“I’m staying too,” Faye declared,
forcing everyone to turn to look at her. “If I go back to the
Tower, I am just going to be watched and continue to be treated as
an outsider anyway.”

“That might be a good idea miss,”
Sae-Thae said, his brow furrowed in thought. “One can never go
wrong when he surrounds himself with trusted allies.”

Bren wanted to argue that it wouldn’t
be safe, but after looking at the determined look on Faye’s face,
he knew that nothing he could say would sway her decision. “Well
then, we might as well find you two rooms,” Bren said after a long
drawn out moment of silence.

“I am sure that we can find our own
rooms,” Phena said, grabbing Faye by the arm and dragging her off.
As they left, Bren could see Faye trying to escape the vathari
mage’s grasp, but was having little success.

“Bren, be so kind as to walk me to the
door,” Sae-Thae said as soon as the girls disappeared up the
stairs.

“Sure uncle,” Bren replied, thinking it
odd that Sae-Thae would make such a request.

“This will not go as smoothly as you
believe,” Sae-Thae said when he reached the doors to the inn. “You
are still young and full of your own ideals of how the world should
work. It would be nice if you would be able to hold onto that
innocence, but soon you will learn that the world does not work in
absolutes. I fear that before this is over, you will learn more of
the nature of your fellow men, as well as some of your own that you
keep buried. It is a necessary sacrifice in order to grow, yet I
still hoped that you would have been older before that came to
pass. I just wanted to give you a warning and my blessing. Now, I
must return to the Tower, and I fear we won’t meet again until this
unfortunate business is complete.”

“Until then Master,” Bren said, giving
the vathari mage a deep bow.

CHAPTER XXVII

Within two days, Flynn had found more
than enough people to form a small army. There were a wide range of
races among them and Bren believed that every magical race was
present with the exception of dragons, nadarie, and the fish folk
whom Bren could never remember the name of.

Cass had chosen five out of the ones
that had volunteered for the royal guard. Three of those were
elves, as well as a vathari, and an alienear which looked almost
human, except the bright blue eyes that seemed to spark and the
light blue aura that surrounded their bodies. It was Bren’s first
time seeing one of their race, though he had head a little about
them from Sae-Thae on his visits to the palace.

Each morning they would all meet to
train, though what the army and the guards did was slightly
different. The guard practiced fighting techniques that were
designed to keep Bren in the center and out of harm’s way, while
the army focused more on the battle strategies.

It didn’t take long for Halona to have
uniforms made up for everyone. She had done it so fast, Bren was
sure that she had most of the work done before they had even
requested it. At the same time, Crusher had already created a mold
for swords and shields and had already outfitted half the troops.
The armor was another problem, one that needed another artisan, as
Bren didn’t want metal, but armor much like Farlan used. Strong
leather with small metal plates that would allow protection, but
still keep from hampering the soldier’s movements. Until the armor
was finished, most the soldiers wore whatever they could find. It
was a little mismatched but it was better than nothing.

It was one such morning as they
practiced that the large wagon train pulled in front of the inn.
Bren, Cass and the others of the royal guard sat down their weapons
to greet the new comers. “Sorry, this is no longer an inn,” Bren
said loudly, to the people riding the wagons.

“We are not looking for an inn,” an
elven lady said, with a bright smile. “We are looking for lord
Farlane.”

“You have found him then,” Bren said
hesitantly. “Is there some why that I can help you?”

The young elf jumped from the wagon and
fell to her knees, placing her forehead against the ground. “Lord
Farlane, I am Lillian and have been sent along with the others here
to be your personal staff by lady Salina.”

“Please stand,” Bren begged as the
others began to take notice of the young elven maiden.

“I don’t ask that anyone prostrate
themselves for me, in fact I would greatly appreciate it if you
never did so again,” Bren said, offering his hand to help the young
maiden to her feet.

She took his offered hand and gave him
a bright smile, her light silver hair bouncing on her shoulders. It
was her eyes that grabbed him though, they looked like molten gold,
and seemed to stare right though him. “You look so much like your
father,” Lillian said happily.

“You knew my father?” Bren asked
surprised.

“Yes, I met him when I was but a small
child. I was so afraid when I first met him that I still remember
trembling in fear, but he was so nice and kind. We were truly lucky
to have him as a master, even though he didn’t spend much time
within the Elven Isle.”

“If you are here at my request, then I
should show you inside. We should have plenty of rooms available
for use,” Bren said smiling.

“I will take care of that Bren,” Faye
said from the doorway of the inn. While her words were soft and
inviting, Bren saw the edge of her lip twitch the way it did when
she as mad about something. Bren wasn’t sure what had her upset,
but he knew that he was responsible in some way. He always seemed
to be, even when it didn’t make any sense. He had learned that it
was just best to agree with her and she would get over it much
faster.

Lillian gave him a deep bow and smiled.
“I will return shortly to see to any needs you might have lord
Farlane.”

The way Lillian spoke sent shivers
through Bren’s body and made the heat rise to his face. Unable to
think of anything to say, Bren simply nodded his head and turned
back toward his guards.

“This is bound to be interesting,” Cass
said laughing. “I thought that Faye was getting a tad boring, this
should liven her up a bit.”

“What do you mean?” Bren asked,
slightly confused.

“You know, you have to be one of the
brightest idiots I have ever met,” Cass said, shaking his head. “I
don’t think it would be fair to tell you, not to mention it
wouldn’t be half as fun to watch if you knew,” Cass added with a
deep laugh that was quickly joined in by the other members of the
guard.

Not wanting to feel completely left
out, Bren gave a shallow laugh before returning to his
practice.

After their morning practice, Bren and
his guards returned to the inn while Flynn and his men broke from
breakfast. As he watched Flynn, he was glad that he didn’t have to
work with the man. He did a good job, but Bren thought that he was
pushing the men too far, too fast.

As they entered the inn, they found a
large feast prepared for them. “Lord Farlane, I figured that you
would be hungry after your morning exercise,” Lillian said, pulling
out the chair at the head of the table for him.

“This look great,” Bren said as he
looked at the large assortment of food that had been
prepared.

“I am sure that the cooks will be
overjoyed to hear that my lord,” Lillian said, handing him a small
silver goblet filled with a dark red liquid.

“Isn’t it a bit too early to be
drinking?” Faye asked, coming up behind them.

“There is nothing to worry about my
lord, this is just a grape juice that has been sweetened with honey
and spices. It is good for rejuvenation after hard labor,” Lillian
said with a smile.

“Sounds great,” Bren said, taking the
offered goblet. Bren tried to fix his own plate, but Lilian
insisted that she would do it for him. When she put some of the
greens on his plate, he protested.

“My lord part of my job is to make sure
that you are healthy,” She said, stacking twice as much on his
plate. “If it would make it easier, I could feed it to
you.”

“He can feed himself,” Faye said, her
eyes nearly burning red with anger.

“I don’t see why you are so upset lady
Faye,” Lillian said with an innocent smile. “I am just trying to do
my job.”

“Job…” Faye said through greeted teeth.
“What kind of job is it where you simply throw yourself at a man
without regard for yourself?”

“I am not throwing myself
at lord Farlane. I am not a noble, so it is not as if I could wed
him. I am just doing my job as a personal servant, and that
includes taking care of
any
needs that he might have,” Lillian said,
emphasizing the word any, leaving little doubt, even to Bren, as to
what she meant.

“Bren if you so much as lay a finger on
her I’ll…I’ll,” Faye said, her face turning so red Bren thought it
might burst into flames.

“I wouldn’t,” Bren replied, his own
face starting to turn bright red as the whole table began to burst
into laughter. Burying his face in his plate, Bren began to eat his
food at a rapid pace, wanting nothing more than to be able to
disappear the way that Faye could.

“Lord Farlane, I have had a bath
prepared for you in your chambers for after you have eaten,”
Lillian said as soon as he swallowed his last bite of food, causing
him to cough as the food caught in his throat. “If you wish, I
could help wash your back.”

A loud bang could be heard throughout
the common room as Faye slammed both her fists down on the table so
hard, Bren was surprised that the wood didn’t splinter and snap.” I
think that I am more than capable of washing my own body,” Bren
said, his face turning a deep scarlet as he ran from the table to
the sound of laughter.

“Women,” Bren mumbled to himself once
he was safely hidden away in his room. As he readied for his bath,
he remembered what Sae-Thae had said about women. “It is easier to
predict the path of a leaf in a windstorm, than the mind of a
woman.”

As the hot water rushed around him,
Bren felt a great deal of the stress that had built up throughout
the day started to fade away. Bren was so immersed in his bath, he
didn’t hear the sound of his door creek open, nor the soft
footsteps as they moved across the wooden floor.

“Bren, do you want me to wash your
back?” A soft and nervous voice said from behind him.

“Faye?” Bren stuttered, his face
beaming bright red as he quickly turned his back to her. “I can
wash my back myself.”

“Faye didn’t seem to listen to his
words as she picked up a small rag that hung on the side of the tub
and dipped it in the water. “You haven’t talked to me much sense we
reached the Tower,” Faye said as she started rubbing the soap
against the rag, building up a thick lather.

“It has been really busy, and you have
different methods of study than I do,” Bren said, his voice still
shaky and nervous.

“I thought we were friends,” Faye said,
her voice sounding slightly hurt. She remained quiet for a few
moments as she pressed the rag against his back and began
scrubbing. Bren had to admit that it felt good, though it tickled
slightly. “Is it true that you can only marry a noble?” Faye asked,
her words coming out rushed.

“Not really, Farlan never had such a
rule,” Bren replied causally. “For the past hundred years or so,
the nobles didn’t even get married. I think my mother was the first
queen in three generations to have a husband. Not to mention, I
don’t really matter as far as Farlan goes, unless my mother want to
marry me off for political reasons. She has talked about it in the
past, but now that I am the king of my own country, no matter how
small, it gives me a little more freedom to choose.”