Heir to the Sundered Crown (3 page)

“N-no. I won’t leave you. I’ll stay at your side.”

Luxon clapped his friend on the shoulder, “Your funeral.” He said wryly. Both lads turned to face their tormentors.

Accadus stood a full inch taller than Luxon, his broad shoulders hinting at his physical strength. His dark eyes were full of malice; his large nose dominated his face. He too wore a blue students cloak except his had the emblem of his father emblazoned upon the breast. The crossed axes and the red crow of Redbit stood out proudly allowing all to see that he was under the protection of one of the most powerful lords in Delfinnia.

Standing at either side of him was Douglas a tall skinny lad with shifty eyes and on the other was Rudak a large brute of a boy with a look that said that the lights were on but nobody was at home. Neither of them studied at the schools, instead they were in service to Accadus.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the son of the liar and his fat oaf of a lover.” Accadus said snidely eliciting chuckles from his goons.

“That’s funny coming from the son of a traitor and a liar.” Luxon replied calmly, his steely grey eyes bore deep into his foes. Accadus false smile immediately dropped, his face reddening with rage. Without warning he lashed out connecting his fist with Luxon’s nose.

Bright white pain shot through Luxon blinding his vision and causing him to stagger backwards. Yepert cried out but Accadus’s thugs quickly silenced him. Rudak grabbed the fat lad, putting him into a headlock and muffling his cries with a large hand over his mouth. Accadus gestured to his friends as he and Douglas gripped the dazed Luxon under his armpits and hauled him and his struggling friend down a nearby alleyway.

Panic started to swell in Luxon’s mind. Out of sight of the public he dreaded to think what Accadus had planned for them. Perhaps calling the bully’s father a traitor was a step too far he thought as his wits slowly collected themselves. Accadus had a mean right cross.

“You snivelling piece of scum. My father is the rightful king. He is the strongest Baron in all of Delfinnia; the crown is his through strength of arms.” Accadus snarled pinning Luxon to the alleyways wall, an arm pressed against his throat. “You think that just because you are skilled in magic that it will save you? Magic is dead in this world, if you use it outside this city the knights of Niveren will gut you like a fish.” He raged.

Luxon was scared. He had never seen Accadus so angry. Out of the corner of his eye he could hear Yepert’s muted cries as the two thugs beat him yet again.

“Your father may be the strongest’ he wheezed, ‘but he is a liar.”

He winced as he awaited another blow. Perhaps Master Ri’ges was right when he said that he was too foolhardy.

The blow never came. Instead Accadus was on the ground his hands around his throat, his face tuning blue. Luxon stared in confusion, noticing that Yepert had gone quiet as well. The thugs who had been beating him just moments before were also on the ground. His friend was on his feet a look of stunned disbelief on his face. The two thugs were in a similar predicament as Accadus.

“What the? What’s happening Luxon?”Yepert asked worriedly.

By now Accadus had gone an unnatural colour as he gasped for air. Luxon gasped as he realised that his hands were tingling with energy. With horror he realised that somehow he was responsible. He wracked his mind desperately trying to think of a way to break the spell he had somehow cast. He faced his friend.

“YEPERT HIT ME!” he shouted in panic as the three bullies began to thrash ever more desperately. His friend hesitated.

“Dammnit Yepert if you don’t hit me then they will die. I don’t know how but I’m causing this, I can feel it. I need something to break the spell and physical harm is one of the most effective ways.” He said frantically. Accadus had now turned a livid purple.

He shouted out in annoyance as his gentle friend stood there stunned like a frightened rabbit. Spinning, he faced the wall gritted his teeth, and ran head first into the stone wall where moments before he had been pinned against his will.

His head connected solidly with the hard stone and the world went black.

*

“It isn’t possible. No one has that ability.”

Voices drifted into Luxon’s conciseness.

“They have...” responded another. A higher lighter pitched one compared to the first’s gruffness.

“Nonsense. If you compare this boy, this child to him, then I seriously question your sanity.”

Luxon stirred. Slowly he opened his eyes and immediately regretted doing so. Once more he was lying in the bed chambers of the school. The same painting of Zahnia the Great greeted him except this time there was no friendly voice to set him at ease. His head throbbed and he tentatively touched the spot where it had connected with the alleyways wall. He winced as pain radiated from the wound. Glancing around the room he could see his robe hanging from the back of the high-backed chair that master Ri’gis had sat in during his last visit.

The voices were coming from the hallway outside of the room. Gingerly Luxon sat up. Stars exploded before his vision causing him to cry out. The voices stopped and the door opened.

In walked a woman, whom Luxon guessed must be the owner of the second voice that had drifted into his consciousness. Her long blonde hair framed a delicate face; deep blue eyes looked at him causing his breath to catch in his throat. She was beautiful.

“So, you’re finally awake.’ The woman said walking over to the bedside. ‘My name is Hannah, I am apprentice to Master Enil” she explained as she checked Luxon’s bandages. 

“The Master healer?” Luxon asked his mind racing to recognise the name. 

Hannah gave him a wide smile, her perfect teeth shone like polished ivory causing Luxon’s heart to beat quickly. From the youthfulness of her skin Luxon mentally guessed that she must have been only a few years older than him-self, he took a wild stab in the dark, she was around eighteen.

“That’s right’ she answered. ‘You took a very nasty knock to the head. According to your friend you deliberately knocked yourself unconscious.’ She raised an eyebrow questioningly. ‘He was much shaken up when he sought help.’

Luxon simply shrugged his shoulders. “I had to do it. Something happened...something that I couldn’t control.’ He added miserably. The memory of what occurred flashed into his mind, a dreadful thought struck him.

“Accadus! The others! What happened to them? Are they ok?” he blurted out, sitting up in panic. His head swam again as the concussion threatened to drag him back into the realm of sleep once more.

Hannah gently eased her patient back down into the pillows beneath him. She turned to face the door to see that the man she had been talking with earlier had now stepped into the room. The man wore a black cloak with the hood up; it was drawn tightly to cast his features in shadow.

“Your friend’s live” The man answered with not a shred of kindness in his deep gravelly voice. ‘However, you have broken the law and have been charged with attempted murder under the act of the sacred flame.”

Luxon gasped, he tried to speak but this time the darkness took him and he once more fell into unconsciousness.

Hannah rounded on the cloaked man. “Why did you say that? Could it not have waited until he was feeling better? Whatever this lad has done it is decreed by the law that he remains in a healer’s custody until he is fit and able to stand trial.”

The man shrugged nonchalantly. “It matters not. Either way he will be judged.”

*

Three days passed before Luxon was able to stand without being struck by nausea or the world spinning before his eyes. On more than one occasion he had attempted to walk but had collapsed into a painful messy heap. The healers apprentice had looked after him throughout his time of incarceration.

At first he hadn’t realised that he had been arrested but it dawned upon him when Hannah had not allowed anyone to visit him. He had heard Yepert enquiring about his health before being gently turned away with a polite refusal, even Master Ri’ges had not been allowed entry.

Luxon was afraid.

On the second day Hannah had told him what he had been charged for. Aside from the claims from Accadus for attempted murder he had been brought up on the serious charge of uncontrolled magic use, a crime that since the days of the fall of the Golden Empire meant death for anyone that committed it.  

Magic wielders were feared in all the corners of Delfinnia, except for Caldaria. For over a thousand years magic had been strictly controlled. It had been magic users that had caused the Empires fall and brought the world to the brink of annihilation in the magic wars. Witch hunters and the knights of Niveren scoured the realm in search of those who abused their power and the remnants of the wicked things conjured into the world during the wars. Fell beasts, spirits and other abominations had been unleashed as mage battled mage, and wizard waged war upon wizard.

Before the war of succession had begun, mages and wizards had kept mostly to themselves choosing lives of seclusion in Caldaria or using the skills learnt at the city’s schools to help the peoples of the realm. Wizards and mages were often used as court advisors to the King and barons, but now even they had been forced to return to Caldaria. Those that left Caldaria were not allowed to use any magic, to do so would mean certain death. Nightblades however were the exception. Often employed as bodyguards or agents the Nightblades used their skills to do the deeds that a normal person could not. Their main purpose however, was to hunt the beasts of the void that stalked the realms dark places.

Luxon sat in the room’s high-backed chair wracking his brain to figure out what had happened. He had asked Hannah to scour the great library for any tomes that could answer the mystery but none had contained the information he sought. A tome he had not yet read lay on the small table at his side,
‘the history of Magic volume 47’
was emblazoned on the cover. He sighed in exasperation and settled into the chair to read the massive tome.

***

3.

Dungeons of Retbit, Barony of Retbit

Kaiden wasn’t very comfortable, not one bit. His hair was long and unkempt and his clothes stank with several days’ worth of dirt and sweat. The smell of the dank damp dungeon added to the foul aroma. The fact that he was chained to the small cells wall meant that he had very little room to manoeuvre, a fact that had resulted in several unpleasant instances when it came to relieving himself. His once spotless mantle was covered in filth. The Gold seven-pointed star on his chest was faded and muddy.

Kaiden was a knight, a member of the order of Niveren, sworn to defend the weak and to root out heresy. The order had been founded after the end of the bloody war of magic, a war that had seen the ruin of an empire.

Kaiden had been proud when he had finally been ordained as a knight at the age of twenty-five. Now four years later he found himself in the flea ridden dungeons of the Baron of Retbit, the ruthless warlord who laid claim to the throne. His mission had been relatively simple; the people of the county of Retbit had asked the Knights to intervene in a dispute between the baron and his eldest son over the rights to conquered territory. Murmurs were growing that the Barons eldest son was planning to overthrow his father. Unfortunately for Kaiden he had sided with the son and in his temper the baron locked him away in the stinking hole that passed for a dungeon. That had been three months ago with no release looking likely. Outside the war was raging.

He scratched himself, finding another flea and crushing it between his fingers. Several times he had tried to send a message to his brother knights at the preceptory, but every time the baron had found out and increased the jail sentence. Kaiden had eventually given up. At this rate he’d never get out of there.

He longed to breathe fresh air and bathe. To trim his itchy greasy beard and to make him-self feel like the man he once was, respected and feared in equal measure. If his fellow knights could see him now they would probably all collapse from laughter. He knew he was a good swordsman and was skilled in the ways of combat, but now it seemed obvious that he had to work on his powers of diplomacy.

The voices of the jailers broke into his thoughts as they came closer to his cell.  They stopped outside. Being roughly manhandled and leered over by the two wicked men was a young woman. She looked no more than nineteen years old, her once golden hair was covered in filth and she looked as though she had been through a very tough time. Kaiden could appreciate that.

“Here Sir Knight, we’ve found you some company” laughed the fat bald jailor. His thick beard hid the menacing smile underneath, “A pretty little whore for you to play with. The other cells are full thanks to the Baron’s crack down on beggars” he cackled.

The skinnier jailor took a set of keys from his belt and unlocked the cell door and unceremoniously pushed the girl into the cell causing her to fall into the slop bucket in the centre of the tiny room. She clambered to her knees coughing and gagging at the smell. Kaiden watched her with interest, the fire in her eyes was mesmerising. She rounded on the jailors and tried to force her way past them, but the bigger man simply pushed her back to the ground. With a click the cell was locked and the two jailors walked away cackling to one another.

“Bastards!” screamed the girl.

“Let me out of here!” Another twenty minutes passed with the girl screaming obscenities at the jailors.

Finally Kaiden had had enough. “They won’t listen to you and where in god’s name did you come up with such foul words.”

The girl jumped only just noticing the chained knight on the far wall of the cell.