Questing Sucks! Book II (21 page)

As he rejoined the other mages, a single thought stuck out in his mind, a sudden fear that overwhelmed him with dread. What if he would remain here in this crimson hell for all eternity? What if he would spend an infinite number of lives rotting away in this place?

For someone who had tried to live a compassionate life, it was odd that he should end up in hell. He gripped his hands into fists. He wouldn’t let it end like this.

Sehn fought hard not to fall asleep while he listened to Orellia drone on and on about trivial things. For the past few hours, she had been lecturing Sehn on the principles and fundamentals of magic. Every time Sehn was sure she was reaching her conclusion, she brought up yet another topic then launched into a cringe-worthy retelling of some historic event or another.

What a mistake it was for me to allow this
.

Fortunately, after weeks traveling with Cah’lia, Sehn had learned the vitally important skill of tuning women out. He nodded at the appropriate places, gave curt replies when the situation called for such, and whenever Orellia asked if what she’d said made sense, Sehn would respond, “Yes, I understand you perfectly.”

For close to three hours this had gone on, eating away into the early morning. It was now an hour before noon, and Sehn grew relieved when he sensed that Orellia was close to finishing. She wore a broad smile, and she looked skyward while she spoke, as if reminiscing about older days.

“And that, my elven friend, is why all of the elements work together to create the wonders we know as magic. For not a day shall pass when these forces do not reside both upon and within us. They are in the wind, the water, and in every beat of our heart. This is magic, and now, Sehn, you understand it. Now you too have that joy, that gift of understanding, and there it shall remain within you forever.”

Sehn was leaning against a wall in the back of the cell near the window overlooking Magia. He chewed on the lower corner of his lip, confused. He wasn’t sure what the appropriate reaction was, so taking a guess, he clapped at Orellia as he would a street performer.

“Very good, very good, I am glad you have taught me that, woman. It was very interesting. Now, get on with it already and teach me how to blow shit up.”

Orellia frowned. “There’s more to magic than ‘blowing stuff up,’ elf. In fact, offensive use of magic should be a last resort. Magic can create, heal, save, enliven, bring forth the—”

“Mage-boy!” Sehn snapped, interrupting her. He looked over to where the boy, Kellar, observed Sehn from his bed. He lay on his stomach with his chin resting on his palms, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

“What is it?” he asked.

Sehn smiled at him. “Congratulations, for I have just chosen you to be my new memory-reawakener, since this woman over here”—he pointed—“has just spent the last three hours of my time teaching me how to use magic to fucking grow vegetables. My patience has run out.”

Orellia huffed. “I have done no such thing! I am merely explaining to you the fundamentals, because there is so much more to magic than destruction.”

Sehn peeled himself off the wall. He marched across the cell until he stood within grabbing distance of Orellia. The woman showed him no fear; only a bitter disgust that she displayed in the form of a scowl.

Sehn ignored the sidelong glances he received from Cah’lia, who sat cross-legged on the floor, sharpening a lethal-looking shiv she’d constructed from loose bedsprings.

“Now you listen to me, fool,” Sehn said. “I am a being of destruction and carnage. I will not spend another minute listening to you speak about beauty, or life forces, or dandelions, or whatever the fuck you’ve been going on about for the last million hours. I demand power…more power!”

Orellia scowled at him. “Under ordinary circumstances, you would be the last person alive whom I’d permit to learn destructive magic. No, you’d be sent to work in the kitchens until you learned to behave.”

Sehn wanted to reply—and he’d thought of something particularly venomous to say, too—but Shina and Cah’lia shot him threatening glares from where they stood off behind her, and neither of the two appeared happy, especially Shina, who Sehn knew must’ve disliked his tone of voice with her mistress. Of course, he wasn’t afraid of Shina or Cah’lia—let’s not be ridiculous now—but his body ached, and he couldn’t be bothered to deal with the two angry girls, so he grumbled under his breath and returned to his corner of the cell.

“Since we are short on time,” Orellia said, “and since I’m not doing much in the way of helping, perhaps you should indeed ask Kellar for further instruction. To be honest, I knew from the start what kind of spells we needed to teach you, but I was uncomfortable imparting such powerful knowledge onto someone so…well, you know. My point is I merely wished to give you an appreciation of magic. If you’re only going to be experiencing one side of it, then I felt it especially important for you to understand the beauty behind the forces at your command.”

Sehn laughed. This woman knew nothing about him. “The Great Sehn appreciates only himself. Now, if I don’t learn how to destroy something soon, I will sentence everyone here to community service. You, mage-boy, let us begin.”

Kellar laughed and pushed himself up on his arms, then forward rolled off the front of the bed, springing up into a standing position just in front of Sehn. His childlike energy reminded Sehn that, despite his apparent maturity, he was still a boy, only half a dozen or so years older than Nero was. He held out his hand, and Sehn stared at it in confusion.

“What do you want, boy?”

“We’re gonna make you ridiculously powerful, Sehn. Let’s shake on it.”

Sehn knew better than to refuse. If there was one thing he’d learned from Nero, it was that when a boy wanted to do something stupid like shake hands, bump fists, or high five, Sehn wouldn’t hear the end of it until he’d obliged, so he grabbed Kellar’s hand and squeezed. The boy grinned.

“All right, now let’s get to the fun part.”

Sehn returned the grin with one of his own. “Good, I like the fun part.”

Kellar opened his mouth, but before he could speak a word, Orellia cleared her throat. He turned around and looked at her. She and Shina were by the cell’s entrance, standing lookout against the possibility of being discovered while practicing magic in an area where the use of such forces should’ve been impossible.

“Yes, Mistress Orellia?” Kellar asked.

“Make sure you teach him to use low frequency spells until he’s ready to launch a spell big enough to free everyone. We don’t want to get caught rehearsing our escape.”

“Speaking of which,” Iona said. She’d been quiet until now. Iona and Benjamin had grown close in the short time Sehn had been with them. They held hands and sat together on the same bed. “Do we have a plan for what we’re supposed to do after we escape?”

Orellia nodded. “Once Sehn can break through the door, we’ll free the rest of the prisoners and head straight for the Hall of Governance to inform the other councilors what Archmage Duncan has done. Afterwards, I will explain to the council everything that Princess Saerina has told me. I’m sure they will immediately order Sehn to the capital city of the Kingdom of the Seven Pillars, along with an escort of a thousand mages, to retrieve the Item and end this threat once and for all.”

Cah’lia stirred from where she sat on the floor, her shoulders tightening. “So, you really think that a bunch of high-ranking mages could be ignorant of our presence here? Are you positive they’re not in on this—whatever
this
is?”

“Absolutely,” Orellia said. “I understand that you’d be skeptical, Cah’lia, but I assure you that the ruling council is filled with well-meaning people who only desire what is best. And we need to get Sehn over to the Kingdom’s capital at once.”

Why do they always call it the capital
?
Sehn wondered. He wasn’t much one for names, but he couldn’t recall a single instance of anyone mentioned the capital’s name, if it even had one. He decided to ask about it later; for now, something else was bothering him. He grunted, drawing Orellia’s attention.

“I will go nowhere until my home is safe. I know that this army means to attack Elvar.”

Everyone except for Kellar and Cah’lia glared at him, even Shina. “Cease such foolish talk,” Orellia demanded. “You must perform your duties as a Cursed and retrieve the Item before the Hawk gets to it first. That responsibility outweighs all others. All the world’s problems are trivial compared to your task.”

Sehn wasn’t sure whether to be more outraged or confused; he went with confused. He turned her words over in his head a second time before deciding they made no sense.

“What do you mean by ‘Cursed’, mage-woman? Cursed with what?”

Orellia stared at him dubiously a moment, then her eyes widened in surprise. “You mean…you don’t know? I’m not sure how this is possible, but—ah, forgive me, then. I’m not sure how it is no one has told you, but I fear I have some troubling news. I didn’t expect to be the one to say this, but there’s little time for sensitivity. Sehn, in just a few months’ time, you are going to—”

For some reason, Cah’lia ran to Orellia’s side and grabbed her sleeve, whispering frantically into the mage-woman’s ear. Orellia tilted her head to the side. She looked perplexed, unsure, but as Cah’lia continued to speak, she let out a low groan.

“Are you serious? I find that cruel. There are some things a person should be entitled to know.”

“It is as it must be,” Cah’lia said. “Not as I want it to be.”

They whispered back and forth a short while. Sehn had no idea what they were talking about. They were having an argument of some kind, but it was quickly settled, and then the two broke apart, all smiles.

Sehn laughed and nudged Kellar in the side. “Bitches, huh?” he asked with a chuckle. “They’re crazy.”

Kellar shrugged. “No comment.” Then his face turned serious. “All right, Sehn, let’s do this. I can’t wait to get out of here and give that Archmage a piece of my mind, especially after the way he hurt Shina.”

As if Kellar’s words were some kind of emotional trigger, Sehn lost all control. He grabbed the boy’s arms and shook him. “What did you say?” He had no more control over his sudden, unexpected rush of emotion than he did the weather or the time of day.

“Oh,” Kellar said. “You and Cah’lia don’t know.”

“Know what?”

“It’s another thing we’re gonna need to bring up with the ruling council after we get out of here. So, umm, when we returned here after Hahl, the Archmage asked us to tell him what happened, and we did, but he didn’t like what we had to say. So, he hit Shina really hard, hard enough to make her bleed.”

Sehn could feel the blood drain from his face as he looked at his sister. “Is this true?” he asked in a whisper.

Shina lowered her eyes. “It wasn’t as bad as Kellar’s making it sound.”

Sehn gripped his fists together so tightly that his nails dug into his skin. “This man hit you? He put his
filthy
hands on you? I’ll fucking kill him! I’ll rip his head off and crap down his throat for touching my sister. Not that…not that I care, but…but…
fzzhmshsmmph
!”

Sehn became too angered to form words, so he bent down and, ignoring the many aches and pains coursing through his body, lifted up one of the cots that had been brought into the cell, and then he threw it against the cell door. Orellia got out of the way as it crashed into the place she’d been standing.

“Cut it out,” Cah’lia demanded. “You’ll have your chance at revenge, but only if we manage to get out of here alive. Quit doing stupid things.”

Sehn ignored her. “Mage-boy, what do I need to know first?”

The boy grinned. “First? My name. And it’s Kellar, not ‘mage-boy’.”

“Very well…Kellar…tell me, why didn’t my spell work before?”

“Hmm?” Kellar tapped his chin theatrically. “I seem to remember you saying it was because I gave you the wrong words.”

“Forget whatever I said! Why didn’t it work? I need to know.”

There was a glint in the boy’s eyes: a sparkle reminiscent of deep intelligence concealed behind playfulness, much like Commander Alan Marshall. Sehn didn’t like the way the boy stared at him.

“Because you didn’t try.”

“What do you mean ‘I didn’t try’?”

Kellar shrugged. “I don’t know. You tell me.”

Sehn growled. Why was this boy, this Kellar, making him think in circles? Sehn took a deep breath, calmed only by the thought that if he persevered, he would bust out of here and murder this Archmage who dared lay a finger on his sister (but only because it was a disrespect to his family’s clan and not for any other reason).

“I have no idea what you’re on about,” Sehn said. “I thought you agreed to teach—ah, help me re…rememberize what I’ve forgotten.”

Kellar pointed to Sehn’s chest. “And there’s the reason.”

“What? Speak words that make sense, boy.”

“Your heart.”

“My heart?”

“Yes, your heart. While you were asleep last night, I asked Cah’lia what spells you’re best at casting, and she told me you only know two of them.”

“
She did, did she?”

Sehn tried to play it off cool, hiding the overwhelming panic that made his knees go weak. Though he maintained a neutral expression, he fumed on the inside. They were on to him! He kept his voice calm and his posture straight.

“Pssht. What does she know?”

“I’m gonna be honest with you, Sehn,” Kellar said. The boy shook his head with disapproval. “I don’t believe you. I’m not as good as Shina when it comes to sensing stuff about people—she’s a sensor, after all—but I get the impression that you’ve got more potential than any mage living, perhaps any mage in all of history.”