MageLife (40 page)

“Take up your sword, we have work to do.”

“What is it?”

“You need some training. I'm going to provide it as I agreed. My servants have heard my call.”

“What call?”

“Don't question me further. They are coming. No magic. Blade work only.”

I stepped towards him and bent to grasp the hilt of my sword.

I pulled the smooth white blade from the earth, it came without effort and no mark to show that it had been embedded in damp soil. Once I had retrieved it, I turned to look back to where Vesic was looking. I could feel something. A burning on the edge of my senses, nothing compared to Vesic, but I was expecting him. This was something else, and there was more than one. Three that I could detect.

Across the untamed land came three figures from different directions, they were converging. When they arrived they would be together. I couldn't make out details at this distance but their presence on my sense made me tighten my grip on my sword and open my reading up wide.

Night became as bright as day. The normally invisible tangles of magic glowed in all the colour of the rainbow overlaying my normal sight. Threads of light wove this way and that each demanding my attention. The sense of water in the air and earth came strongly, almost beseeching me to call out to it. The land wished more rain, the plants always thirsted. But this was something else, something opposing in the purest sense. Fire, in the camp flames and the roaring inferno that was Vesic stood out like freshly landed stars. That was what made water call to me. In the distance were men shaped things. Golems of a type I had never thought possible, their black flesh dull and flaky. Like ashes and soot. Cracks riddled the surfaces revealing the fire with in.

The threads of natural magic twisted away from them mostly although a few of the darker streams flowed around them, ribbons of darkness tainting each other.

“You made lava golems?” I missed off the words 'you idiot!' It wasn't respectful or clever to call a god who made these things something like that even if it was true

“I called me servants back into the world, they have slept since before you were born. Hunt them Mage prove yourself worthy of my tutelage.”

I looked at the mad god he was grinning with such a savage animistic glee that running into lava golems was starting to sound like a good idea.

I wasn't sure if he would allow me to be harmed, but it would be hard for him to keep his word if I died here and now. I didn't even know if a god could break his word, the oath of a mage places a compulsion to obey it, it’s not irresistible but it’s strong. It also punishes us if we break it. A god, a being made of magic, it made sense that it would bind tighter.

All this went through my mind as I ran over the earth, closing the distance between myself and the closest golem. I held my sword out, crossed over my body. If I fell, it would hurt, probably maim me, but I had other concerns like the lava golem that had noticed me.

It shifted its direction, it no longer ran to its master it ran to me. Wisps of light glimmered between us, my sword shone in my sensitive vision.

My breath came hard, but I ignored it. I locked my arm and flexed my wrist, my sword wavered then lined up.

I stopped moving in a few loping stepped to absorb my momentum, then twisted to the side. I could feel the heat radiating from the golem, its hard shell covering the liquid stone within. My sword slid through the hard crust bisecting the construct. Its face turned to me as its top half slid over my blade. An expression of open mouthed horror warped its features further.

I stepped back, looking at the bubbling pool of cooling magma. I'd never seen it before outside of class, it shifted from a bright orangey red at its most liquid to a less brilliant orange, like fresh forged iron, solidifying and greying. Flecks of ash formed on the surface. The ripples of heat shimmer filled the air, like waves of an intangible sea.

My sword remained unharmed, although a tiny tint of orange and black threaded through it. As I watched it bloomed then faded as if sinking into the stone.

The next golem was fast. It closed the distance rapidly. It’s stretched humanoid form devouring the distance between us.

I took a few steps to the side, away from the cooling stone. Then I planted my feet and steadied my sword.

The lava golem slowed, its burning eyes narrowed. It left marks of soot and burning grass in its wake.

I pulled back my sword arm, reading a lunge.

A clawed hand lashed out.

I raised the blade into the path of the blow. I felt the contact ring out, the sword vibrating like a bell.

The golem hissed, a fire on dry grass sound that sent shivers up my spine.

The other one was coming closer, I saw it out of the corner of my eye. My othersense flaring with information to tell me that I didn't have time to process.

I shifted my wrist, my sword flicked around to cut into the leg of the golem closest.

It moved out of the way. Its mouth twisted in a caricature of a smile.

I reached for my power to wipe the smirk off its face.

“Hold!” Vesic called from behind us.

I didn't turn, but both the golems stepped back. They looked over my shoulder.

“Turn and face me mage. They will not harm you now.”

Both golems knelt in front of me, not for me clearly, but I knew I could turn.

So I did.

Vesic was striding towards me, his cloak of embers flapping in the wind as if it was a real cloak.

My othersense flooded me with information.

His cloak wasn't real, it was a projection of his essence. Strands of which coiled through him and out, touching all around him. Threads tangled between him and his servants, to me and one that wove between Vesic myself and wound about before heading off towards Westhaven. None of this helped me deal with the angry god that was getting closer.

“I told you no magic. Did you think I was jesting?”

“No, I heard you and I tried, but-”

“No you fool, they are my creatures. They follow my orders. They wouldn't harm you more than necessary. You disobeyed my command. I can't teach you if I don't know what you can do. And I can't teach someone that won't do as they are told. Release me from my oath if you have no desire to learn.”

“I do want to learn, but I've barely even held a sword before and you set three, yes three, fucking lava golems on me,” I turned to point at the kneeling constructs. “How am I supposed to learn to face that if that's what I'm starting at?”

“You were supposed to learn that you are always going to be over matched. You are powerful in magic that is not a good thing. You have neglected the physical side. You don't even have much subtlety in your thoughts and actions. You are arrogant and fierce and as proud as a kicked cat. None of these things serve you well. You have unmatched sensitivity that I felt you use, but you never took advantage of it.”

“Took advantage of it how? It’s blinding. It’s overwhelming. It helps for little things the rest of the time, it give me a headache.”

“So? Excuses help no one, you want to live? To get back to your master? To whom ever else you have left behind? Then you need to focus on learning everything you can.”

I stood in front of him, my heart was pounding my senses still on overload.

(Beat)

A thrum went through the magic, so very slight that I wouldn't normally have noticed it, but my attention was drawn to my senses.

(Beat)

Another one. Each thread pulsed ever so faintly.

“What is that?”

“Never mind that. It's not part of my oath.”

“But you said I needed to learn. I want to learn this.”

“Not this. Never this. It's not for you to know. That way lies something you aren't ready for.”

(Beat)

“Fine, for now. I will let this go, but how am I supposed to learn if you won't teach me?

“I will teach you, go back to the fire. Set up camp while I dismiss my servants and revive the one you dispatched.”

I walked back toward the fire, my own fire gone. I felt cold. My sword hung limply in my hand, dragging along the ground. A thin line of broken earth followed in my wake. I couldn't bring myself to care.

The night had settled firmly on the land, the changes in the nature of the magic would have filled me with excitement at another time but now in the midst of training my enthusiasm waned. It always did. I love learning, I just hate being taught.

I sat heavily on the raised mound of earth I'd made before, rested the sword against it and closed my eyes.

The double vision of the solid and the magical worlds vanished taking a large chunk of the overwhelming information with it. My head eased and the tightness that id barely noticed loosened.

The tangle of Vesic and his creations remained where they were off to the side of my central focus. I concentrated, pulling threads of power free from their flows, I raised my hand slowly, smoothing the earth of our camp. The movement released a cloud of moisture laden scents: rich soil, dry leaves and the warmth of early night. The rustle of leaves as they moved to my will filled the air. Under the fire I made a hollow to contain it. Small stones from deep below the surface rose up to my call, to circle the flames. A slight ridge formed twenty paces from me, a boundary I could lay a warding on.

The blaze that was Vesic shifted, coming closed. The burning in my mind that accompanied him intensified, demanding subservience. It was easy to block out now that I knew what it was, an intrinsic part of being a god. But what confused me was the simplicity of his threads, each was strong and clear, bright and hot. But underneath it there was an absence that felt wrong. He was less complex than a man, stronger, clearer, less conflicted maybe. But it was worrying.

I heard his steps and his grunt as he reached camp.

“You used the time well.” he said.

I opened my eyes to look in to his eyes. Flickers of flame reflected from his gaze but his earlier anger was gone. Weariness was in his every line.

A tired god, strange.

I nodded to him, keeping my mouth shut.

He stepped around the fire pit. His steps left marks in the magic and the earth.

I pushed back my reading, I couldn't keep up with it anymore. I felt momentarily without all sense. A blankness that was frightening after all the light and colour.

“What have you learnt?”

I remained sat on the mound, thinking.

“I have learnt that this was a testing exercise, you wished to see how I handled myself in a combat situation. To build a lesson plan, maybe.”

“Very good. So you aren't entirely ignorant. Yes. I wished to see what you could already do. I needed to see how you handled being without your power. Magic ruins the balance of things, you can't determine skills with a glance, but combat can strip it all down. Show you the true core of a man. Out there you reminded me of someone I knew once.”

“What happened to him?”

“He died. He was mortal. He was my friend.”

An air of sadness around him stopped me from asking any more. Even his cloak dimmed, the tiny sparks lessoning in number. He sat on the edge of the mound.

“I'm sorry for your loss.”

“It was long ago. But I thank you. Now that I have an idea of your skills I know what I need to teach you and how. We should rest. You and Brendon have a long day tomorrow.” The fire cast deep shifting shadows on his face, he looked ancient and tired. Mortal. He looked towards me a strange expression on his face as if he wanted to say something else.

I picked up my bag and pulled out the blanket I'd packed. I laid it on the earth.

As I lay there looking up at the stars, I thought about what I had learnt already. Not much in solid terms but being open to information for combat was new.

“Thank you for coming with me.”

“I pay my debts. Sleep,” Vesic said as he stared into the flames.

I drifted off counting the stars.

Chapter 34

Light around me. Soft earth beneath me. Bright light, glimmers, ribbons of magic. I felt the smooth slide of the ribbons on my skin as they drifting through the air.

My eyes focused on the distance.

A tent of shadows and slivers of silvery light sat of the horizon of the open plain before me. The land between it and me was flat and dry, almost sandy but soft. My uniform was nowhere to be seen, but I wasn't naked.

I was clothed in an airy thing. I don't know what it was, but it hung on me as a shapeless, weightless mass. It didn't restrict or do anything really.

Shades, maybe reflections of other places, passed through the landscape. Images of buildings that I’d never seen. People milled around. Different to any I had known. There were dressed in hides and leathers. They carried small tools on them. They all had a hardened look to them as if they could live in the wilds for all time. Their eyes shimmered with colour, not mage eyes but not mage eyes either. They were as if someone had made eyes out of glass and stained them with glowing colour.

I looked up at the sky, clouds of blues and greens scattered the starry night. The stars were large, far larger and brighter than normal.

A wash of heat filled the air.

I looked around.

The tent was changing. Flames were curling through the shadows, smoke rising into the dark sky.

I could see as if it was day, the night sky and lack of a sun didn't change the fact that shadows were showing it was noon.

The smoke drifted on the breeze, bringing with it sounds. Voices.

“Vesic, you can't mean to do this.” a woman's voice, sobbing could be heard underneath the words.

“Kneel, you will show respect to your king. You may be my sister but I'm still your king.”

“Mage-King Vesic, you can't unleash them. They are indiscriminate.”

“I must if we are to grow as a people then we must conquer. We must unite. The clans are ended, and all opposition must be wiped away. Fire will burn away the past and give us a future beyond living in the moment.”

“Sire, I beg you, choose another weapon. These things are wrong. They leave nothing alive. We can't thrive in a land of ashes. The chiefs don't want this.”