Rise of the Citadel (The Search for the Brights Book 2) (15 page)

  She got as
close as she could to Kara, who now lay on top of a stone bed protruding three
feet from the ground. She would have looked like a sleeping princess from a
fairy tale if it weren’t for all the sparks and small flames leaping off of
her. Heat waves rolled off of Kara, making Brandon’s vision blur. He knew it
wouldn’t be long before Kara was engulfed in flames. Brandon’s wielders were
not much use against an ageing fire wizard. Twilix moved back to where Brandon
waited for her. He dared not get too close, in case another stream of liquid
fire burst forth from the sleeping girl.

“I need your
help, if you’re up for it?” She asked.

Brandon nodded
and pushed back the sleeves on his robe.

Twilix nodded in
return, “Create a mound of stone around her so no one can see her. Not a wall
that goes straight up, but is sloped on the inside. You must make it so she is
at the bottom of this stone bowl. Make a way for me to get to the top easily as
well.”

Brandon knew
that Twilix was making a request, however the way Twilix usually made a request
came off more like a command.

The ground
shuddered as the rock bowl rose out of the ground to surround the girl at its
center. A small set of stairs dug its way out of the dirt and ended just at
Twilix’s feet. Brandon opened his eyes to admire his handy work and saw Twilix
staring at him with arms folded beneath her breasts.

She started
berating him, “You just helped me through the castle. I nearly killed myself
several times trying to get down stairs. Yet you make me a staircase. A
staircase without walls or a railing that would be treacherous even if I was
used to my own body. To make matters worse, this particular staircase leads to
an ageing fire wizard who could burn me to a crisp without batting an eye. If
you don’t mind, something that I won’t break my neck trying to climb!”

  “Of course,”
Brandon was a little frustrated that he had rolled over so easily for the girl.
Her new appearance was throwing him off his usual indignation. The stone
staircase smoothed into a ramp and arm rails grew out of the ground to either
side. He decided to get a bit of his spine back, “Watch your step now. There is
some dust on the surface of that ramp, I wouldn't want you to trip.”

She glared at
him a moment before they both started laughing.

  Smiling, she
said, “I’m sorry. I guess there is more that I will have to get use to than
just my new legs.”

They both
laughed a bit more before a silence left them looking awkwardly at each other.

“Well, that
should be all I need,” Twilix said. “If you could, see that a servant brings
some broth to the top of the ramp so that I can feed her.”

  Brandon bowed
his head slightly, ”I will be sure he brings you a spoon and funnel as well.”

Twilix smiled at
Brandon, “Thanks. I will watch over Kara. I will send for you if I need
anything else. Is that okay with you?”

Brandon nodded
and walked away from the changed wizard. He was a little surprised that she
asked if it was okay.

**********

Twilix stood for
a moment to examine her magic abilities. Water was hard to gather so close to
Kara’s heat but she was able to make it start raining outside of the stone
bowl. As it rained, she pushed her water vision farther than ever before. Her
magic strength had doubled during her ageing. She reached into her robe and
found the small leather pouch she always kept close to her body. Brent taught
her long ago to imbue a bead of metal from time to time that she would be able
to draw more power from when she needed it most. Today was the first time she
needed to use this stored ability since the day she started collecting.

The ground was
saturated with water, leaving Twilix’s slippers covered in mud as she walked up
the new stone ramp. The ramp was slick with water and she took care not to slip
and fall . She pulled the braided metal string from her pouch containing her
imbued beads and wrapped it around her hand. She felt the power of water
running through her body and the effects of the magic trying to assault her
mind. She had a brief moment of wanting to go back to the bottom of the ramp
and play in the mud, then she saw Kara start to light herself on fire.

Twilix
rearranged her priorities to control her senses. She knelt at the top of the
ramp, drawing water out of the porous dirt at the bottom and started a small
stream flowing up the ramp and down into the stone bowl. The rain continued so
she could keep the stream flowing. The water boiled at first and hissed when it
touched the heated stone’s surface. Soon, the water overcame the heat and
filled the stone bowl in silence. Kara’s bed was soon overcome with water.

Twilix carefully
slid down the side of the curved bowl’s surface and into the water. She pushed
her floating robe into the water and waded over to the sleeping fire wizard.
The water boiled everywhere the water touched Kara and steam looked like a
column of smoke rising out of a pyre.

The water
surrounding Kara did little to stifle the heat coming from her, but it did
manage to keep it from radiating out so far. Twilix was able to move in close
to Kara, but was still not able to touch the girl. Twilix pushed more magic
into the water to slow its movement. The water stilled and cooled her flames
causing the steam diminish and eventually stop. she continually cooled the
water until she could touch Kara’s skin without being burned. With more water
flowing from the top of the bowl, Kara’s body was easily floated off of the pedestal
and Twilix moved her near the stream flowing down its side.

A servant looked
down from the top with a covered tray. Twilix motioned him down. He carefully
climbed down with the tray in one hand. He kept his feet from entering the
waist high water and handed the tray to Twilix. The servant left her to work in
silence.

The water on one
side of Twilix became a sheet of ice and she placed the tray on top. While
holding Kara, she carefully spoon fed the unconscious girl and helped her
swallow. She continued until the bowl of soup was finished.

Twilix needed a
way to keep Kara cool while her body expended magic in the process of ageing
into a woman. Twilix was happy that Kara wouldn’t have to endure years of
childhood treatment in a little girl’s body with the mind of a woman. She
smoothed the black wet hair away from her face and moved her back to the
pedestal she had been resting on.

Twilix turned
the flow of water coming into the bowl to run around the lip. Once it reached
the far side, it began to freeze and climb towards the sky. In a moment the
entire bowl was encased with a dome of ice. She reinforced the new ceiling
using the water already inside, uncovering the stone pedestal that held Kara.
The thickness matched that of bricks used to make the castles towers. The water
drained away from the stone surface and allowed Twilix to walk freely on the
ground.

Making a small
chair of ice, she sat down and looked at the small room she had made. The
summer sunlight split when it hit the smooth ice surface and sent infinite
colors spreading around the inside. For a while Twilix watched as the light
moved and changed inside the dome as clouds moved along the sky outside.

Twilix
remembered why she had come and looked at the ceiling for what it was; a way to
help her friend. She hoped her plan would work out well. The dome would
eventually melt when Kara became hotter; she noticed it already was melting.
The water that melted would drip down and fill the bowl until it climbed up the
pedestal. The rising water level would then cool Kara with ice cold water. If
it worked the way she hoped, she would only have to come back every few hours
and reform the roof.

She had promised Kilen that she would look after Kara, so
she would. Putting the beads imbued with water magic back in her pouch, Twilix
formed a bed of ice near the dome’s edge and lay down to get a bit of rest
before she would need to reform the ceiling. The sunlight cascading into the
room caused her to smile as she drifted off to sleep.

The road had
been empty for the last couple days. In that time, Bowie had waited for the
king’s army in the remnants of his camp. The cart he now sat on contained the
arrows his troop made. More importantly, he had a message from Wizard Alexander
he was supposed to personally deliver. Left with time, he had nothing to do but
practice his new bow and to try to teach himself magic.

He ran his
fingers over the details that Ria put into his new black bow. The white veining
was in the shapes of vines, flowers, and birds. Each flower or leaf had such
great detail, he found leaves in the area he could match to the ones on the
bow. He strung it and tested the tension. The bow he purchased in Deuterium was
nothing compared to the quality of this one. Ria said she would try to improve
the quality with each one she made. Any hunter or archer would be more than
thrilled to hold one similar to the one he now held. He put in an arrow from
his personal stock and found a knot on a tree some distance away. Pulling the
cord to his face, he felt the wind pushing on his arms, cheek, and hair. He
released the arrow and it struck securely into the knot on the tree, but the
wind on his face reminded him of the magic imbuement he had in his armguard.

He tried a few
times in the days since he talked with Alexander to see the wind. He was
unsuccessful in seeing or using the wind to do his bidding. He had learned to
do a couple basic tasks with water magic when he traveled with Kilen and Brent,
but that skill seemed to have no correlation to using wind magic.

Bowie just
wanted a few minutes with a wizard to learn to make a small breeze. He figured
if he could change the direction of a breeze, he would be able to teach
himself. Retrieving his arrow, he looked up at the tree’s leaves. He thought it
seemed to be a particularly windy day. Today was one of the only days he had
been able to feel the breeze.

The symbol for
wind was a chaotic cloud with lightning coming from it in all directions. He
always felt a little unusual when holding it, as if he wanted to go anywhere
but where his feet were. His mind would drift on to many different things. He
compared it to when Kara was little and would get distracted by a passing
butterfly. He pondered the memory of Kara doing just that, then snapped back to
reality. He didn’t like getting carried away by random thoughts.

He tried to
focus on using the wind magic again. Doing as he was told, he concentrated on
the sensation of the wind on his skin. Bowie sat down next to the tree he tied
Charger to. Pulling his hat low over his face, he tried his best to
concentrate. He wondered what it would be like to be a wind wizard, flying high
over the treetops. He imagined himself looking down on the village of
Humbridge. He wondered if he could track herds of deer easier in the air.
Thinking of deer lead to turkeys, which lead to shooting his bow in the air.
Then his mind turned to catching the turkeys in flight with his bare hands. His
mind was so filled with the possibilities linked to flying, he almost didn’t notice
Charger stomping and whinnying. Pulling up his hat, he found the king’s wind
wizard standing in front of him. The wind had died down, letting the wizard’s
robes fall to his side.
            “Good afternoon, archer. Taking a snooze in the middle of the day,
were you?” He said, gathering his robes into a sash around his waist.

“I was trying to
concentrate on learning to use my wind magic. It appears I don’t have the knack
for it.” Bowie stood and brushed the dirt from his pants. “Might I get your
name, Wizard?”

“My name is
Mica. I took over for Alexander as the Wind Seat on the wizard’s council.” An
apple fell from the tree and landed in Mica’s hand, he promptly started eating
it.

“It’s a pleasure
to meet you Mica. Would you know how long it will be before the King arrives
here. I have a load of arrows and a message to deliver from Alexander.” Mica
continued to chew his mouthful of apple while looking down at the pile of
arrows.

Mica spoke with
apple spittle coming from his mouth,“It won’t be too long now. The king was
getting close to the ferry when I left him last. He sent me to see how far
ahead you had gotten. Only, when I found your troop you weren’t with them. They
told me where to find you.”

“Our troops were
running out of resources and I was told the king would be here a lot sooner.
Thank you for your update, I will get myself ready to see him. Wizard Ria and a
few of the king’s scouts have been growing this tree for the last few days. We
attempted to make this a good spot for setting up camp.”

Mica spoke while
looking over the arrows in the stack, “I do not council the king on where to
set up camps. Nor do I teach the rejected armor bearers of my predecessor.”

Bowie felt a
small sting in Mica’s words but decided to hold off trying to get a small bit
of retaliation. “I wasn’t insinuating that you should teach me.” There was a
long silence before Bowie noticed some dust coming from the road near the
ferry. Some of the king’s troops made it across.

Dozens of
wielders galloped up the road, approaching Bowie as they rode. He watched as
several men broke formation to take the road into town. Men, holding tall
lances bearing flags of the Earth Realm, fanned out and formed a circle to what
Bowie assumed would be the edge of the inner camp. The king’s horse was black, except
for the white star on its face. The horse and the king were both drenched in
layers of armor. The horse pranced as if it was light as a feather. Behind the
king, an all too familiar face followed with the same grimace as always. Chit
was only happy when he had a girl on his lap and a drink in his hand. On the
king’s other side was Captain Lorusk. The captain looked as stoic as he
normally did, barely noticing the bouncing of the horse.

The king rode
just short of stomping on Bowie. He dismounted and made his way over to the
pile of arrows Bowie’s men had crafted.

The king did not
bother to look at Bowie when he spoke,“It’s a start Sergeant. Where are my
archers?”

Bowie took off
his hat and bowed low to the king, “My lord, the archers departed two days ago.
This area was stripped of its resources for arrows and the fletchers needed to
move on to make more.”

“Very well. Make
sure you do not go too far from my protection. How soon would we expect our
next set of arrows?”

Bowie responded
with an air of pride in his voice, “We should have three times that number a
week from now. It all depends on the supplies we can buy from the towns down
the road.”

Atmos grunted,“I
was hoping for a bit more than that. We have to eat, and most towns cannot
supply the meat we need to feed our men. We need those arrows to hunt. Your men
will have to move quicker, Sergeant.”

Bowie replied
with as much respect as he could muster, “My lord, my men- I mean the archers
assigned to me, have been hunting every day since arriving. We’ve done some
trading with the town here and they’ve been stocking some salted meats for your
larger force. In doing so, we spent most of our money buying supplies for
making the arrows. I even asked for donations from the archers’ pay to acquire
equipment for them to accomplish their task. I think if you went into town you
would find a good supply of meat.”

A few wizards
rode up behind the king and started to dismount to join the conversation.

The king turned
to watch Bowie a moment, “I suppose that will keep us for a few days.”

Bowie nodded his
head, fishing a scroll out of his jacket, “Wizard Alexander also came to me and
wanted me to deliver this message to you personally.” Bowie handed the scroll
to the king and kept talking, “My lord, our men spent all of their own money in
order to buy supplies and equipment for making these arrows. I was wondering if
I could get their week’s wages so we can continue to work.”

The king picked
up arrows randomly from the pile to examine them closer.

“Your bow,” the
king said, holding out his hand.

Bowie
reluctantly handed over his new wizard-crafted bow.

The king seemed
shocked when he looked over the bow. He let go of the arrows and snatched it
up. “Well now, a bow fitting of the name Crescent, I see. The last one you
handed me was nothing compared to this. Where did you get this?”

“Wizard Ria was
able to make it with the direction of the fletchers. They both agree they have
some improvements to make, but it is by far the best bow I’ve ever owned.”

King Atmos
hefted the bow and pulled the string a few times to test its strength. He then
pulled an arrow from the pile and shot it at a nearby tree. The arrow was
released at a tremendous speed, burying itself into the trunk.

“So she’s making
you bows instead of helping with arrows. I sent her to you for a specific
reason. If she is making these bows, I will need all of them,” Atmos said.
            “She has made only the one bow. I did not ask her to make it. She
said she will be making more when she gets the chance. Ria does what she wants.
” The tone in Bowie’s voice had a hint of venom in it.

The king laughed
as he handed back the bow, “She does, doesn’t she? No matter, my men have bows.
Their quivers however, are empty. I see you have started to complete your mission.”
He pointed to the pile of arrows, “I will expect more on the next delivery.
Captain Lorusk will see to it that you get your coin returned. Your spendings
will be reimbursed. The Black Hats, however, will receive their pay when the
battle is over. It discourages looters on the battlefield if we only pay when
they return to the castle, and I don’t lose the money to looters.”

Atmos opened the
note from Alexander and his face turned visibly red. “Mica, your position as
wind seat on the council is now permanent. It seems Alexander is a Elder
Wizard.” He turned back to look at Bowie, “Apparently, his weapon bearer also
belongs to the Elder Wizards.”

The king walked
towards the unmounting wizards, “Council, the Elder Wizards have denied us
their presence in this battle. They did say they will be sending a diplomat to
the forces amassed by the Fire Realm. They will continue to discourage this war
by means of peace talks.”

Bowie had a
feeling the king wanted to stomp away, but he had nowhere to stomp to. Instead,
he started to bark orders about getting his tent up and called for scribes and
servants.

Bowie bowed and
moved to talk to Captain Lorusk.

“Follow me,
archer, I will see you to your gold,” Lorusk said before Bowie could ask.

Bowie followed
the Captain through the busy throng of servants and soldiers setting up a sea
of tents. Horses ran in and out of camp and tents were pulled out of wagons.
Chit followed after the Captain like a trained dog. He even growled at anyone
that came too close to him. The veterans shrugged off the so-called champion.
They had seen him in action and they were not impressed. Chit had obviously
made an impression on the newer members of the army. They jumped from his path
and pulled the others out of the way that didn’t see him. A large sword stuck
up over his shoulder gleemed in the sunlight and the bracer on his right
forearm matched. Everyone knew who he was, whether veteran or not.

Lorusk pulled
the canvas top back from a wagon and hauled a chest out from inside. He took a
key off his belt and opened it. “How much then, archer?” the king asked.

“Twenty two gold
is what we spent,” Bowie replied.

Lorusk counted
out the twenty gold and handed it to Bowie.

Chit snatched up
the arrows in Bowie’s quiver, “With all that gold, you will be able to make
more of these. I will just take them off your hands.” Chit was staring at Bowie
obviously waiting for Bowie to react.

Bowie looked
around and saw all the veterans watching, eager to see his response.

Bowie reached up
to adjust his hat, “Yeah. I won’t be needing them with all the archers watching
my back.” He started to walk away through the massing of troops in the area.
“Chit, the pointy end with the shiny thing goes
towards
the enemy,” he
yelled over his shoulder.

He heard Chit
say something but it was drowned out by the crash of men holding the so-called
champion back. Bowie had what he came for and decided it would be best to
depart before Chit could get loose.
            Charger was more than ready to depart the cramping campsite. He
pranced as they moved through the crowd and onto the path heading south. He
figured with resting Charger and stopping to eat in towns along the way, he
would be able to catch up with the rest of his men. He was in for a long ride
and wished he had Kilen with him to heal the fatigue he would feel.

The thought of
Kilen made him think of the note Alexander left for the king. Alexander was an
Elder Wizard and now Kilen belonged to them. Bowie knew he was now Kara’s only
hope of surviving.

**********

  The days were
longer in Idleton than in the castle. Kilen pushed himself everyday under Ray’s
direction. A day after Kilen arrived, wielders were being sent out of the Elder
Wizard’s camp on secret missions. He practiced with each of the crusty wielders
in turn, but now only Ray and himself remained behind. Ray seemed to never get
tired of swinging the sword; it seemed to be a part of him. When he moved, it
was silent and smooth, as if the sword was a key component of each step.

  The veteran
weapon bearer tossed down a plate of food for Kilen, which he promptly
consumed. The sweat-drawing work didn’t seem to stop in the elders camp. He
wondered if it was the summer heat or the continuous work the community
performed. Wielders seemed to be the labor force of the camp. Now that only two
weapon bearers were left, Kilen and Ray were being worked hard to keep up with
chores. Kilen was scraping the bottom of his plate and saw Alexander walking
through the camp, towards the center of town. He darted after the wind wizard
dropping his spoon on the table.