The Making of a Mage King: White Star (33 page)

The fierce downpour ended shortly before midnight, leaving behind an icy wind that tugged at the tents with persistent fingers, sending tiny shards of ice flying everywhere. Laon let the fire die out before the coals could be blown away where they might cause unwanted problems, despite the ice coating everything.

Sean made himself sit still until he could distinguish a thin line of light at his tent flap before he allowed himself to light a candle and dress. When he stepped outside, his grim mood was covered by packing, saddling, and then leaving.

The rain had turned the pulverized rock into a gritty mire that refused to freeze because of their traffic, and it was a relief to get beyond it. The wind tore at their cloaks as well as their horses, and Sean could see the sense of Seth’s insistence in taking the time to work on them with regard to flapping things in their packs. No matter how well packed they were, this wind found even the smallest thing to flip around. With their hoods flapping and stinging in their faces, it was almost a relief to step into the rain again on the other side of the gate.

They had traveled less than a mile before Sean brought them to a halt just short of the tree line. Under the pounding rain that threatened to freeze everything it touched, he had missed the wrongness of the place. Signaling the rest to stay where they were, he rode ahead down into the trees, and the wrongness nearly turned his stomach by the time he had covered half a mile. He went back to the column at full speed, sliding to a halt beside Mattie and waving Jenny over to join them.

“You two are not going any closer. Mattie, hand your bag over to Lyra. We’ll take care of your other things. I’m sending the two of you back to the palace where you’ll be safe.”

Mattie gave her husband a look of puzzled fear and did as he asked mutely, but Jenny protested. “Why?”

“There is something wrong here. It’s earth magic. I’m not sure what’s been done, but it’s dangerous and I don’t want to risk you.”

“But what about…” Jenny continued indicating the others.

Sean followed her gesture, considering. “Maybe you should take the kids with you.”

Larry risked the temper of Sean’s horse and pushed him aside a few feet. “What’s wrong? That old lady warned you that you needed to keep us with you, both of us. Can’t you protect Jenny? What are you trying to protect them from?”

“I didn’t stay long enough to figure it out, Larry. It made my skin crawl, like I had a million fire ants under my skin. The girls are pregnant and I feel a threat there, especially there, but I don’t know what the threat is; it’s lesser for the kids, but a threat to them, too. We’re all in danger from it. I hope I can figure it out soon.”

Larry looked puzzled, but horrified.

Jenny saw the look on Larry’s face and pushed over as well, forcing Sean to prevent his horse from snatching at her horse’s flank. “Tell me, or I’ll take a page out of Mattie’s book and box your ears.”

“Mattie never hit me,” said Sean, avoiding the issue on purpose as he argued with his horse over their close proximity.

“No, but she had Laon do it; don’t push it.” She leaned in, and if she had been standing on the ground instead of sitting on a horse, she would have had her fists on her hips.

“I’m afraid for your pregnancy, Jenny,” Sean said bluntly. He didn’t bother to tell her that Laon had promised never to hit him again.

“Why?”

“Come on, Jenny, I don’t have time to dither,” pleaded Sean.

“Dither? Where on earth did you find that word? Are you telling me the big, strong, magic man isn’t strong enough to protect little old me?” she said. Her words were heavy with sarcasm, but she meant them just the same.

Sean opened his mouth to argue with her some more, but Paddn rode up to join them. “Larry, talk to her; it’s your decision. Paddn, if you and the others stay with me, it could be life-threatening. Choose, but choose quickly.” He toed his horse around, away from the gathering and moved back by Cordan, who was saying his farewells to his wife. To spare himself the distraction of arguing with his horse, Sean dismounted to go over to them. “Are you ready?”

Mattie pulled herself away from Cordan and Sean noticed her eyes were reddening. “Is Jenny coming?” she asked.

“I hope so. I have reason not to force her, though.” Her head came up. “I don’t have that reason with regard to you,” he said before she could voice her protest. It was obvious that Cordan wasn’t willing to risk his wife, or their growing family. He looked relieved that Sean was going to send Mattie back no matter what she said.

Paddn led eleven of the child mages up to them. “They say they all feel it, my lord. They are afraid to continue.” Paddn himself looked uncomfortable, but he said, “I’d rather stay.”

Sean noticed that all of them had at least some green magic. That was probably why neither Ferris, nor Laon, had noticed anything. It was green magic, earth magic, and only someone who used it would readily feel its workings. He nodded and they all dismounted and pulled their saddlebags from behind their saddles.

While they prepared to be sent to the palace, Sean turned to look back over the valley, which was only just becoming visible under the lifting rain. He couldn’t see much through the thick trees that reached farther still below him, and yet the wrongness made him itch. He turned to see what Larry and Jenny had decided. Jenny was stiff and Larry looked worried; she wasn’t going. He strode to her horse.

“I’m staying, Sean, and you can’t make me go,” Jenny said defiantly. “Your success is more important.” Larry sagged in defeat.

“Fine, Jenny, you can stay, but you won’t get off your horse. You’re not to eat or drink anything that comes from here. I don’t care if it’s the prettiest flower you’ve ever seen, you’re not to touch anything here, not
anything
.”

She tried to protest the absurdity of that order, but Sean didn’t give her the chance.

“Larry, you’re to see to it.” He turned to Cordan. “Cordan, I want you to assign two men to Jenny exclusively, Larry will give them their orders.”

Cordan nodded, kissed his wife again, and went to carry out his orders.

Sean took his place and looked over the small group. “I’m sorry, Mattie, but you’re just too valuable. I won’t risk you. Take care of Armelle for me and give her my love.” They were gone before she could offer another argument for staying.

Sean handed the now-riderless horses to men who led them back to Seth. Like others, they would carry their gear; there was no other place for it. Once their new marching order was established, Sean moved them forward again, going much slower than they had been, as he struggled to understand what had been done here, and why.

They made their way down out of the hills, past still-quiet homesteads nested among the trees, and as they did so, the wind tried to follow. The narrow road they traveled wasn’t put there for the scenic view; it was there because it was the best route over the low end of the mountains. It was an odd contrast to the road on the other side of the mountain ridge. Back in Lorraine, the road had been well traveled, but here, closer to the mountains, it was little more than a trail wide enough for two horses abreast, let alone a wagon. They had seen no one on the road for an entire day before passing the last goat farm, but still the road was maintained well enough. Here, though the recent rain had washed away any tracks, there was enough dead grass to say that the road was seldom traveled.

Their current surroundings were heavily forested, and yet there was no evidence of any logging. The trees broke most of the brunt of the wind, but it was still biting and it caused the ice-laden trees to sway and creak alarmingly. Sean was forced to divide his attention between them and the mysterious magic; he didn’t want to be taken by surprise by some tree, whose branches were heavy with ice, was uprooted by the wind and fell in their midst.

His feeling through the earth magic made Sean think of Mountain-Wave. Theirs had been earth magic, though different; he could do that kind of magic now too, but that didn’t make this was any easier to understand. “Mountain-Wave, can you hear me? Can you even understand me this way? Could you answer me if you could?”

A wave of gentle humor and warm greetings washed over him, along with the touch of sun-kissed grasses, mountain dew, and rain-washed breezes. There were no words, though there never really had been with them.

Sean sighed under the earthy touch and asked his question, hoping that Mountain-Wave would be able to understand it and hoping he would be able to answer it. “Something is wrong here. Can you tell me what it is?”

At first Mountain-Wave was puzzled, and then his seemed to understand, but his answer left Sean just as confused as before. All he did was repeat his name, changing it from the picture of vast mountain ranges heaving over eons, and scrunching them down into this valley, making it feel like a thimbleful by comparison, forcing the expanse of time to fold over on itself in order to fit. Satisfied that he had given him the best answer that he could, Mountain-Wave left him to puzzle out the meaning.

Sean looked closer at his surroundings, trying to fit it all into the ‘valley-wave/time-fold’ the Yeti had tried to convey to him; it made no sense.

They got their first clue of what was wrong late that afternoon when they came across a small cerfin near the edge of the road. It was not grazing; it only looked at them dully when they came into sight. It moved off slowly as they approached, but before it reached the trees, it dropped to its knees then rolled over on its side.

Taking its behavior as highly unusual for the normally lively creatures, Sean dismounted and walked over to it. Only Laon was willing to step down and accompany him, with Lyra following reluctantly. The creature was afraid, but it made no attempt to jump up and run away.

Lyra touched the faded speckles on its flank, then turned away abruptly, throwing up in the bushes a few steps away. Sean watched her with alarm, then turned back to the cerfin. It watched him passively, its eyes already glazing over as it resigned itself to death. He touched the faded spots like Lyra had done, and felt this somehow ‘belonged’ to the explanation Mountain-Wave had given, but he didn’t quite understand how. The fawn was breach, it was still, and the mother was dead. There was nothing he could have done, but why had this happened, and why had Lyra gotten sick? “Lyra, are you all right? What happened?”

Near tears, she gestured to the cerfin. “Couldn’t you feel it? Look at the spots. The poor thing was only about three or four months old and it was already pregnant, and it’s
winter
.”

She fled to her horse, leaving Sean to grapple with her words, feeling as if he was missing something. He looked at Laon who looked pale, then he looked back at the others, especially Larry and Jenny. Could he protect her from this? What was
this
? He
had
to protect them, somehow.

Redoubling their previous pace, he led them on until they were out of the woods completely. Only then did he stop and have the men portion out rations. There would be no camp tonight; the screaming wind wouldn’t have allowed much rest anyway. In the relative silence of lunch, Jenny’s voice could be heard arguing with Larry, so he went over to find out why.

“I have to get down, Larry. I have to…take care of…things.”

“I told you, Jenny, that you wouldn’t be getting off this horse, not here,” said Sean, as he came into their group. “If you have to take care of ‘things’, you can do that back at the palace. I’ll pick you up in the morning. Larry—at dawn.” He sent all four of them, horses included, back to the stable courtyard, and strongly considered leaving them there until he was well out of this valley.

As he listened to the echoing vacuum of their absence, he remembered the first time he had teleported anything of any size. He had taken Cisco and himself back to New York City for clothes and supplies. The task had left him weak and shaking; now, he moved people as easily as one might toss a coin onto a table. He took a breath and accepted jerky from Laon. Cordan passed a bag of dried apples around and Paddn, Lyra, and Sicily handed out flatbread.

With their meals in their hands, Sean moved them on with permission that they could take turns sleeping in the saddle.

Throughout the day, the storm clouds had moved on or dissipated, so when night came, they had the moons to move by. That reminded him of Soran, his ancestor, which led his thoughts to the blackened sword rolled up in his bedroll. He shook his head and forced his thoughts back to the problem at hand.

Somewhere between midnight and dawn, the wind finally died down and the temperature began to drop to be replaced by fog that billowed up from the many rivulets of water that was warmer than the air, slowing their progress once again and obscuring their view of their surroundings every bit as effectively as the trees they had left behind. The farther out into the valley they went, the thicker the fog became.

As the fog swirled and curled, Sean was able to get brief views of farms and fields that lined the road. Crops had been harvested. The homes he saw were noticeably rundown. Fences of wood or stone were in disrepair. The people he saw were fewer than he expected, and they were old; he saw only one boy younger than middle-age playing with a hoop and stick, and there were almost no women at all. Livestock was scarce, too. Where there should have been oxen or horses to till the fields, cows or goats for milk, chickens, pigs or sheep, there was almost none. During the entire day of traveling through the valley, passing dozens of homes, he could only pick out a handful of chickens, and one pig.