The Castrofax (23 page)

Aisling watched the young Princess go with a
sense of longing, wishing she could be as carefree as the girl. The
child grew into a beautiful woman, and anyone other than Miranda
would make a better Queen. If only that day were today. Reality
dragged her back into the throne room, entering to hear the tail
end of a tirade from the Prince. He had Gabriel by the throat and
threw him back a step, but Gabriel was not giving up, and he
slugged the Prince in the cheek, taking him down several
stairs.

“Boys, boys!” Miranda shouted as their fists
flew. Aisling ran up to watch but did not stop them, knowing
Gabriel needed this as much as she did. She silently urged him
on.

The fight lasted only a few punches before
Nolen kicked Gabriel back a few strides. He reached into his coat
pocket and drew out the copper control piece. Gabriel stopped
himself from attacking and waited to see what Nolen would do. Nolen
slipped the conjoined rings onto his left hand and straightened the
fingers of his right to lay a pattern, but stopped, his eyes wide
and unfocused. His mouth fell agape as his fingers pulled back one
at a time to draw a line of each Element from Gabriel’s chest. His
gaze finally sharpened, and his mouth snapped shut as he drew the
lines around him. The fight had gone out of him.

“How do you…how do you handle such power?” he
finally whispered. His hands were shaking.

“Not without great difficulty,” Gabriel
replied, clipping his words.

“Show me a pattern.”

Gabriel snapped two fingers together without
drawing an Element. “Go light yourself on fire.” Aisling smiled,
having seen him lay the fire-starter pattern before.

Nolen passed the comment off without batting
an eyelash. “Show me a
real
pattern.”

Gabriel put both hands against his chest and
drew them away. He pulled two green lines of Earth, and carefully
manipulated them into a simple pattern. Releasing the threads
before they were fueled, he held them long enough to show
Nolen.

“What does that do?”

“It makes a sharp piece of wood.”

“What do you do with it?”

“
You
sit on it,” Gabriel replied and
folded his arms.

Nolen pulled the control piece off his hand,
and whatever wonders he experienced left him with a tight face as
he broke the connection. He snapped towards the main door to the
guards and beckoned them closer. “Escort this man to the
dungeons.”

“No, Nolen, he stays with us.”

Aisling slowly looked at the Queen who stood
defiantly, clenching her fists. Whatever encouraging talk they had
before must have taken root.

“Mother, I have warned you to stay out of my
business.”

“The moment he arrived, he became my
business,” she replied calmly. “Mage Gabriel, would you kindly
escort me to my chambers?”

Gabriel gave a proper bow and left Nolen
looking a fool as he extended an elbow to the Queen. She took it
most graciously and let him lead her out after he fixed Nolen with
a triumphant glare. Aisling smiled, seeing Cordis in the boy. If it
was the only smile she had for a while, it was enough to get her
through another couple days.

Councilwoman Adelaide spurred her racing
charger harder to keep pace with Councilman Galloway several
strides ahead of her. This close to the blaze, they could hear the
crackling of dried brush that burned a winding line across Jaden.
Heat assaulted their hands and faces, making Adelaide’s eyes
water.

From the watchtowers a fire had been spotted
late the night before; a burning ribbon that seemed to stretch
endlessly south-eastward. Fire Mages dispatched to quench the
flames, but as they pulled flames and embers from the earth, more
dispensed from the head of the trail and whatever was causing the
fire.

The fire started in the middle of a field
nearby no homes or towns, and it strangely seemed to move with
purpose. Adelaide had been riding for hours pulling flames into her
hands with a team of four others. The ashes mixed with her moist
skin to leave sooty streaks across her tan face, but she wore a
black coat that hid some of the ash. Galloway rode ahead to see if
there was an end to the ribbon. He was a stocky man in his later
forties with silvery temples mixing with brown hair, but his neatly
trimmed goatee was still dark. A native of the Parion Kingdom in
the far south, he was not the best horseman, but where he lacked in
horsemanship he made up in fashion. The best fabrics and styles
came out of Parion, and today, like every day, he wore a
fashionable hat to match the sturdy brown riding jacket. He met up
with Adelaide much later with a worried face. “There is a town up
ahead.”

The town sat against a hillside, a small
hamlet of farmers, and Adelaide spotted it as she crested a hill.
Her long braid caught in the mountain wind that drew the flames
eastward. An old stone carving of a woman’s head set in a long post
stood randomly in a field of rock to mark the territory boarder to
Anatoly. Adelaide looked across to the hamlet still miles away and
saw the front of the blaze. Fire flashed from something moving very
quickly, jerking right and left in sporadic fashion. It was a mile
and a half away, and at this distance she could not tell what it
was.

She turned to the Fire Mages with her. “I am
riding ahead.” Spurring her charger again, she galloped to the
start of the blaze. Galloway joined her, urging his steed into a
gallop. He was an invaluable asset as one of the very few who
wielded both Water and Fire at a Class Five. He slung a jug of
water around his saddle to pull the energy he needed in the hot
air.

They gained on the head, judging if they
would reach it before it tore through the hamlet. Adelaide’s horse
was bred to be a runner, and she soon took the lead with Galloway’s
leave. Her horse lathered at the mouth and breathed heavily, but
the head was not much further away.

The town was not too far off now, but
Adelaide was fast approaching the head. Casting a glance over her
shoulder, she saw Galloway still a dozen or more strides off
keeping pace. With each stride forward, the head became ever
clearer. Shapes emerged from the fire and she thought she saw a
hand, and when she looked hard, she saw hooves flashing. Her skin
prickled despite the heat as she came abreast far more than just
fire.

A naked lady with streaming hair sat bareback
astride a bone-skinny, long-legged horse. Both burned as surely as
the flames of a hearth fire, neither catching fire nor smoking like
wood. The horse rose and fell with the landscape, jumping high into
the air to clear a boulder, while the woman hung on tightly with
white-fire fists into its flaming mane. Adelaide let her charger
pick his path as she stared at the spectacle. The woman must have
been a Fire Mage far outranking herself, but Adelaide felt her
chest tighten as the woman slowly turned her face.

She was a Fire Mage, that was certain, but
Councilwoman Selene was ranked a modest Class Five, and something
so grand was beyond her capability. Adelaide knew such things were
not possible, for the eyes that stared out of Selene’s head were
void, raging white flames that saw nothing. Adrenaline coursed
through her as she realized what she saw was not a living woman but
a specter.

The specter opened her mouth revealing white
flames within, and her brows furrowed in a terrifying expression.
Adelaide pulled so hard on her mount’s reins that he skidded to a
halt, nearly throwing her altogether.

Galloway reined his horse in, his eyes wide
and curious as he came up.

“It is a specter of Selene,” Adelaide
shouted.

Galloway wasted no time, vaulting from the
saddle. “Give me your horse,” he commanded, grabbing his flask of
water.

She slid off one side as he mounted the
other. Galloway was off before her, one hand out as he searched the
area for water. The hamlet was a quarter mile off now, and the
specter had gained distance. As Selene reached the town, Galloway
diverted around it. Adelaide reached the town only a minute later,
but already the fire began to spread. People ran screaming,
throwing soil on everything burning.

Dropping the reins, Adelaide threw out her
arms and drew the flames into her hands. The amount of flames
quickly doubled and sapped her waning stamina, but she reached to
every ember to pull it in. Her eyes closed, and her head slipped
back as all her energy drained the flames. Her horse slowed to a
canter as it reached the center of the hamlet, and a flock of
frightened sheep ran about. She opened her eyes to see the specter
not far off.

A rain bucket to her left suddenly burst,
spilling water into the ground followed by several barrels. The
water vanished into the ground quickly, and Adelaide knew Galloway
was mounting an attack. As the specter reached the end of the
hamlet, Galloway suddenly appeared with a hand held high.

Water erupted from the ground and seared
through the specter. Either Selene or the horse let out an
unearthly screech, and the steed skidded to a stop and reared.
Selene’s fiery arms flung out as the water enveloped them,
quenching the flames. Ever so slowly the horse sank into the water.
It screamed and clawed at the air, its hooves catching fire as it
dried. Selene, now a pale blue outline, clenched her legs onto the
horse’s belly and fell backwards across its bony spine. As she hit
the water, she began to sink.

Her pale blue eye sockets widened as she
scrabbled at the water, reaching a hand out onto the soil that
abruptly caught alight. Her mouth opened in a scream before her
face vanished into the muddy soil. The horse was quick to follow,
its mane catching alight, and it sank into the soil with a hiss. As
inexplicably as it appeared, it vanished.

Galloway sat slumped over his saddle, wiping
a shaking hand across his brow. The effort must have drained his
stamina, for he lacked the strength to sit straight. His mount
slowly picked its way towards her horse as she continued pulling
flames from the road.

“Was anyone wounded?” Adelaide called out,
straightening her braid with one hand as she drew the last of the
flames up from the road.

A gathered group of people at the far end of
the town parted, and a wail reached her ears. Someone had been
killed. She urged her mount to a trot and dismounted upon the
group, pulling a sheepherder out of her way. A slender older woman
knelt on the ground, her arms wrapped around a boy no older than
fourteen. His head had been kicked in, and the skin around it
horribly burned.

Adelaide knew condolences would be wasted
coming from a woman the farmwife did not know, so put her hands
over the boy’s wounds, drawing the last of the heat from them, so
they would not smolder or fester.

The weeping woman looked at her. “Who will
answer for this?”

Adelaide put her hand over the woman’s knee.
She chose her tone carefully, making sure the woman knew revenge
was imminent, and she was not speaking figuratively. She narrowed
her eyes and hissed her reply.

“A
dead man
.”

Gabriel felt as though the world had paused
while he kept moving. His mind kept retracing the battle, writing a
different ending, and trying to believe it. With every drawn breath
the Castrofax around his neck shifted, pressing never-warming metal
against his skin in a cold reminder of his fate.
‘How could it
be that a simple object could hold back such a great
power?’

The Elements in his chest pulsed so faintly,
and if he did not think about them, they vanished completely. He
kept going back to them, anxious for the familiar touch that seemed
just out of his reach. He had not used them since the incident in
the wagon, but oh how desperately he wanted them. He felt like he
was holding a breath, and when he exhaled it would be back to
normal, but that exhale never came.

Nothing was the same anymore. He used to
change the temperature of a bath with a wave of his hand, burn a
fire long past what logs allowed, and shave without the use of a
blade. Everything seemed so dull now, like he was looking through a
foggy pane of glass. He had to relearn everything overnight.

When he was alone and undistracted, the
desperation came on more strongly. His world had been taken from
him forever, but his mind kept him in a solid state of denial.
‘Perhaps there was a way out of it like Robyn said. Perhaps I
could be brought to the edge of death and revived.’
Countless
others had worn the Castrofax and died in them.

Thought of Robyn brought him out from the
blackness of his mind. He stood outside his room on a small balcony
set with a table and chairs. Overlooking the City, it was a chilly
night. He denied the pleasure of a cloak, staying instead in a
cotton shirt and trousers with the handsome boots fashioned for
him. He leaned forward on the stone balcony and watched the people
below, servants mostly, hustling about with bundles.

He looked east and thought of Robyn again.
Around the middle finger of his left hand rested the band she
slipped on. It was a beautiful golden ring with tiny braids
interwoven, but only upon touching it would someone realize it was
made of her hair. Aisling had slipped a strengthening pattern in
it, so it would not fray. He hoped Robyn was safe, under a warm
roof, and as much as he wanted her to stay there, he wished her to
return. Her last words echoed in his memory, giving him strength
but taunting his helplessness.
‘Why was it now she told me she
loved me when I am at my weakest?’

Nolen had not made due on his threats to
break him. Gabriel knew it was a matter of time before the Prince
distracted the Queen and Aisling long enough to spirit him away.
Certain it would come in the dead of night. Gabriel had taken to
wearing his clothes to bed. The Prince stayed away from the prison
Gabriel now called his bedchambers, and Gabriel never left. He
could not bear for others to see him subjected to the copper bands.
He knew the workings of a manor and expected the same of a palace,
and he was certain the servants gossiped over the leash. It doubled
his shame.