Magician Prince
Authors: Curtis Cornett
Tags: #curtis cornett, #epic, #magic, #fallen magician, #dragon, #fantasy, #rogue, #magician, #prince
The Magician Rebellion:
Volume Three
By
Curtis Cornett
Magician Prince
The Magician Rebellion: Volume 3
Copyright: Curtis Cornett
Published: 9th May 2013
Publisher: Curtis Cornett
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2013 by Curtis Cornett
Cover design by Curtis Cornett
Book design by Curtis Cornett
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means including information storage and
retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author.
The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts
in a review.
Curtis Cornett
Printed in the United States of America
A Final Word on The Magician
Rebellion
The first time I met the sorcerer called Byrn was
when I caught him stalking about in the lower reaches of Cardamon.
Humans were not a terribly unusual sight in the underground city,
but my mother did not raise a fool and it was plain to see that
this tall human was following me about town. To be fair, I was
being overly cautious of those around me, because I was sneaking
about too and that may have played a role in my success at
identifying my pursuer. I thought I was being particularly clever
with the spell I had draped over me like a coalman’s coat. My
disguise was that of a handsome young dwarf. I suppose it would
have been wiser to pose as a more mature and less striking looking
fellow, but it is the province of those that are very old like
myself to want to relive their younger days and I must admit that I
do enjoy the lingering glance and smile of a young lady sporting a
full beard on occasion.
I digress, this human had seen fit to follow me and
I had to get rid of him before my rendezvous. At first I tried to
lose him in the twisting corridors of the city. I assumed he was a
newcomer to Cardamon and thought that losing him would be easy
among the cramped streets and twisting passageways, but every time
I thought him lost the human turned up a few minutes later.
Finally, I had no choice except to confront him or miss my
appointment and I was not about to miss the magi convocation.
After a few more sharp turns I managed to lose the
human for a minute and circled back behind him. I drew my fisher’s
knife. I had no intention of using it, of course. I just thought to
scare this nosey human a bit and get him to leave me be, but when I
jumped out behind him and shouted, “Ah ha!” he whipped around like
lightning and with no more than a glance at the wall beside us a
small block of stone shot out and hit my hand, knocking the weapon
out of my grasp. My yelp was like that of a ratting-dog and the
human laughed at me, but it was not a cold or callous sound and I
found myself apologizing for coming at him with a knife. He was a
likeable human and I quickly learned that this Byrn was a powerful
sorcerer with a particularly unique ability. He could see magic and
not just the spectacle of a fireball or the shimmer of a ward, but
he could see the subtler magics and its natural flow around him and
in that way he could manipulate that flow to serve his will. That
was how he began following me, because he caught a glimpse of my
spell and it was unlike any enchantments he knew in his homeland of
Aurelia across the Great Sea. It was that ability that prevented me
from losing his tail despite all of my craftiness, because he could
always track my spell even if I was out of sight. As intriguing as
Byrn and his peculiar talent was I still had a commitment to keep
with my magi brethren and had to bid the human adieu, but we agreed
to meet up the next evening at my favorite tavern, The Shaving
Axe.
The next evening could not have come soon enough for
me to meet with this master of magic. The cogs turned in my head as
possibilities danced before me. What could I learn from a magi like
Byrn? He obviously seemed interested in learning more about the
differences between our culture’s magics and I must admit that the
more I thought about it the more I found it difficult to contain my
excitement at the idea of some scholarly discussion with a magi
from another culture.
I had been waiting for no more than a few minutes
when a burly dwarf sat down across from me. He landed in the chair
with a harrumph and demanded a rock-ale loudly from the tavern
matron. My illusion was not active and I drank with my usual aplomb
as a grey-haired, old dwarf, “That seat is saved, friend.”
The burly fellow looked at me with a sidelong glance
and actively ignored me. His fingers strummed on the table as he
waited on his drink and he gladly took it from the matron. “Put it
on his tab,” he said and gestured to me with a cock of his head. I
was about to object when he took a drink of his rock-ale and
immediately gagged on it. “This is awful. How can you drink
this?”
“
If you don’t like it, the door can hit your ass
on the way out,” declared the tavern matron, but I thought that I
had the game figured out and told the matron that my friend would
behave himself.
“
Byrn?” I asked, incredulous. He nodded. He was
wearing an illusion cloak just as I had done the day before.
Apparently he was able to analyze just about any magic spell that
he saw and replicate it!
For the next week Byrn and I met every day. We
traded stories and discussed magic with such frequency that those
days were a blur of intellectual stimulation. Byrn came to Cardamon
with a group of elves seeking passage back to his homeland, but
with winter being in midseason there were no ships sailing from the
overdocks and as powerful as the sorcerer was he was still going to
be stuck in my fair dwarven city for the next three months. He had
been away from his homeland for nine months already and was
desperate to get back to Aurelia and to his woman. To hear him
speak of her, Alia Necros was a goddess come to earth. It was clear
that he was in love with the woman and that only fueled his need to
get back home.
Byrn also told me of some great troubles facing his
homeland. Human magi were being imprisoned without cause and magic
collars were being used to control them and thwart their wills.
Worse, a friend of Byrn’s called Sane, who was once a royal
sorcerer, was now a slave and in need of rescue.
It was then that I decided to impart some sad news
to my new friend. Aurelia was in a state of turmoil and civil
unrest since he left. Every day until the ships stopped sailing due
to the coming harsh winter there were stories abound of their magi
attacking all over the human kingdom and the populace was living in
terror as the fighting grew worse. If I thought that this news
would dissuade Byrn from going back to Aurelia, then I would have
been dead wrong. If anything the news only served to make him more
adamant about returning as soon as possible.
We also spoke of the troubles facing magi in Ghant
and more specifically in Cardamon. Unlike the human kingdoms that
have notoriously treated their magic wielders harshly, the dwarven
kingdoms generally took a more cooperative approach to their magi.
Our magi were adept at enchantments and used our skills in the
creation of magical goods that were sold all over the world.
However, our noble families and elected representatives wished to
pay us so poorly that we would be akin to slave labor so that they
would get rich from our work while we lived in poverty. They
thought that they could get away with it, because we were such a
small segment of the populace and no one would care, but we went on
strike and not long after they started rounding up all of the
dwarven magi and imprisoning us or slapping the wealthier among us
with hefty fines under the threat of draining their family
fortunes.
I don’t recall how exactly we got on the subject of
myths and legends one semi-drunken night, but I told Byrn and his
elf companion of the firehawk, a dwarven heroic figure from the old
tales. The elf was a tall woman with no chin hair to speak of that
always made me think of a newborn baby, but Sari was congenial
company and never refused a drink. The rest of the elves that
traveled with them had left for their forests, having delivered
Byrn safely to our fair city. Anyway, we got to talking one night
and I told them the story of the firehawk- a bird born of fire and
magic that gave its life to save the dwarven people from our
ancient orcen enemies. It was said that the firehawk would rise
again one day when the dwarves were next presented with a crisis
too great for them to face alone, but that day never came. Byrn
told me that there was a similar bird in Aurelia called the
phoenix, but that they were supposed to have all been destroyed
hundreds of years ago as they were believed to be the servants of
magicians.
Then Byrn had an idea that would change the fate of
magi in the dwarven realms. He spent days studying bestiaries and
going above ground during the daylight hours. When I asked him what
he was up to he would reply that he was “bird watching” or “working
on something new.” Working on something new? I’ll be honest and
admit that I was excited to see what Byrn was planning. It seems so
obvious looking back on it now, but at the time I could only wonder
at what this magician, who seemed to have near limitless energy and
could replicate any spell that he saw, was trying to
accomplish.
Finally, Byrn came to me and announced that he had
something to show me. I watched him with rapt attention as he bent
down, bracing his back for what was to come. It happened nearly in
an instant as a bright red burst of fire shot from his back. I
literally fell out of my chair as I watched the flame grow, then
take shape. The fire spread out to either side of him at twice the
length of a human. At first I thought that something had gone wrong
and his spell was out of control, but the flames began to coalesce
and take a definite shape before solidifying as a fire construct.
Byrn had made himself a pair of fiery wings. He flapped them
experimentally and looked to me with a grin that reminded me of a
child that had just learned his first spell.
“
The firehawk,” I stammered,
flabbergasted.
Even having seen it, I did not comprehend what Byrn
was intending, but the full gravity of what he planned became
apparent a day later when he broke into a work camp and freed a
dozen magi that were arrested for peaceful protests. Among them was
my son, Nikare. During their escape Byrn donned his fire wings and
masked his appearance with my illusion cloak before declaring from
atop a building in a most dramatic fashion that he was the firehawk
and that the magi had his favor.
The city was in an uproar over the news and in the
weeks to come Byrn played the role of the firehawk at every
opportunity to promote magi rights. He never set out to hurt
anyone. That was not what our protests were about, but his
appearances brought attention to our plight with the commoners and
more importantly it got the attention of the governing council, but
I always got the feeling that Byrn was always thinking about his
home in Aurelia and the woman he left behind.
