The Tower Of The Watchful Eye: The Legend Of Kairu Book 1 (14 page)

I chuckled.
She had been nothing but nice and caring towards me. The least I
could do was make this promise for her. Whether I could fulfill it
or not would be a different matter.

What do you want to bet it will be HE who does all the
saving,
Cathy said.

That’s fine by
me.

“
Are you going to promise?” Mary asked worried.

“
Yes,” I smiled. “I promise to watch out for him.”

“
Thank you,” she said as the front door to the house
opened.

Aaron walked
out with a quiver poking out the top of his pack and his bow in his
hand. “You ready, Mage?” he said.

“
Don’t you still need to grab the tools?” I asked.

“
I packed them awhile back,” he said. “I meant to leave
earlier but there was some trouble that needed to be dealt with
here first.”

“
Good luck,” Mary said as she bent down to kiss Aaron on the
cheek. “Be careful out there.”

“
I know, Mother,” he said trying to hide his embarrassment.
“I’ve travelled the road before. We will have no
problems.”

“
So you say,” she said.

“
Come on,” Aaron said as he walked away. “Let’s get this over
with.”

“
Thank you for the place to sleep and breakfast,” I said as I
started walking backwards so I wouldn’t be too far
behind.

“
You’re welcome, Andy,” she smiled.

“
Bye, Andy!” the girls exclaimed from the front
door.

I waved to
them before turning around to catch up with Aaron. His face was
twisted with frustration as he power walked away from the farmhouse
and onto the trail.

He doesn’t
seem like he’s going to be too chatty so I can ask you a
question.

Ok
, Cathy said.

Last night I
didn’t dream. I figured with both of us in the same mind SOMETHING
would have happened.

I’m glad it didn’t,
Cathy
said
. I doubt any of us would have been
able to control it AND we wouldn’t know whose subconscious it would
come from.

You have a
subconscious too?

Cathy chuckled.
I thought we were
past these stupid questions. I have a conscious mind. Why not a
subconscious?

I guess I
thought because you’re in my mind, we would share the same
subconscious.

Nope,
she said
. I am my own separate consciousness.

So what
happens if it’s one of your dreams?

Ummm, she
said while I could feel
her thinking.
You might be a little
freaked out.

“
You don’t talk much, do you, Mage?” a voice said.

A little
freaked out?

“
Hey! Mage!” the voice exclaimed.

I snapped back
to reality and looked over to Aaron who was giving me a weird look.
“Sorry,” I said. “I was talking to the voice in my head.”

Smooth
, Cathy said
sarcastically

“
Is that a common Mage thing?” Aaron asked.

“
Yes,” I lied. “It’s part of being a Mage. The world sort of
speaks to you.”

Nice one,
Cathy said
impressed
. You’re getting better at
lying.

“
What does the world usually say?” he asked
curiously.

“
Nothing intelligent,” I smirked.

HEY
! Cathy exclaimed.

“
You’d think it would,” Aaron said thoughtfully. “It’s the
world. It knows everything.”

Here we go
, Cathy said.

Shush. He’s
actually talking to me without attitude.

“
Is there anything else crazy I should know about you, Mage?”
Aaron asked giving me a suspicious look.

“
Yeah,” I said sarcastically. “I have this really crazy thing
where I like to be called by my name and not ‘Mage’.”

Aaron chuckled
softly. “Right, Andy was it?”

“
Yes,” I answered. “Anything crazy I should know about
you?”

He gave me a
look.

“
Don’t look at me like that,” I said defensively. “You just
ask me that. It’s only fair to ask it back.”

“
No,” he answered looking forward. “I’m normal.”

“
Where’s the fun in that?” I asked.

He didn’t
answer and just kept walking.

What do you
want to bet one of you will kill the other before sunset? Cathy
asked.

Maybe I should
just leave him next chance I get.

Not a bad idea
, Cathy
said.

We walked in
silence for a couple of hours, following the signs for Riverside.
When I asked about why we were going there, he had sighed and
explained that it was the easiest way to Thurlborn Peak. I was
placing a lot of trust in a guy who wasn’t too fond of me but
Mary’s words rung in my head. Aaron would go to the capital because
it is best for the farm. All I had to do was follow and not
talk.

As we entered
a small forested area, Aaron came to a stop and squinted as he
strained to see something in the distance. I tried to follow his
eyes to see what he was looking at but couldn’t make anything
out.

“
What?” I asked.

“
Can you not see it?” he asked. “The bump on the road up
ahead. It’s unnatural.”

I surveyed the
area again until I saw a small bump in the road up ahead of us. If
he hadn’t used the term ‘bump’ I could have spent hours searching
over that spot and not seen anything odd. He had good eyes. Perhaps
he wasn’t just some farmer using a bow.

“
I see it now,” I said. “What do you think it is?”

He shook his
head. “No point guessing back here. Get ready and let’s move
in.”

He prepared an
arrow in his bow. To make it look like I was ready, I held up my
right hand. I felt silly doing it but Aaron nodded and started
moving forward. As we drew closer the details started to become
clear and we both stopped as we realised what they were.

Bodies. Five
of them. All dead.

We shuffled
forward quickly and I searched with my mind to make sure there
wasn’t anyone in the area that could ambush us.

“
There’s no one here,” I said to Aaron as I finished my
search.

“
How can you be certain?” he asked.

“
Trust me,” I said as I boldly approached the
bodies.

Aaron still
walked warily towards the bodies but as I got closer I could make
out the robes and I stopped. The five dead bodies were Mages. And
by the look of the area, a battle had taken place here.

“
Friends of yours?” Aaron asked as he stopped beside
me.

“
Not quite,” I answered.

Chapter 12

“
What do you mean, ‘not quite’?” Aaron asked.

“
I know them but I don’t,” I said as I approached the
bodies.

I crouched
down to check on the nearest body. His eyes were blank orbs staring
upwards towards something only he could see. The robes were purple
and bore the mark of the School of the Spiritual. All the bodies
wore the same robes except one. She wore the blue and red robes of
the School of the Elemental.

“
Care to elaborate?” Aaron asked annoyed as he approached me
from behind.

I sighed.
“These are mages from the Order. The ones wearing purple are from
one school and the red and blue girl is from another. But I have
never met any of them personally. That’s how I know but don’t
know.”

“
Alright, alright, keep your robe on,” Aaron said as he looked
through the woods. “So what attacked them?”

“
Each other, it seems,” I said pointing out the burn marks on
the trees and rocks. “The purple robes were ambushed by the red and
blue robes.”

He gave me a
weird look. “Why would they fight each other?”

I stood up.
“Rivalry.”

I could feel
Cathy searching my memories.

This isn’t going to go well in your Order,
Cathy chuckled.
Should
make things more interesting though. I’m sure old Larose isn’t
going to be too happy.

The Ousting
ceremony will be called when he finds out.

We better leave then so it doesn’t look like we killed
them,
Cathy said.

Good idea.

“
We have to go,” I said a little panicked.

“
Why, what’s up?” He asked worried.

“
I’m not in a hurry to be found with five dead mages plus...”
I trailed off as I felt something in my mind. I searched the area
with my mind and felt the presence of six minds coming towards us.
They weren’t human minds and it took a second longer then I would
have liked to figure out what they were.

“
Wolves,” I said. “Six coming at us fast.”

“
Hurry then,” Aaron said as he turned to run back the way we
came.

“
If we run they’ll catch us,” I said searching the trees for
movement. “Ready your bow.”

Aaron drew his
bow and scanned the trees as well. I raised my hands and
waited.

This is a good opportunity to use that Nature Magic you
learned,
Cathy suggested.

I forced some
power through my body searching for the aura of the trees. When I
could feel it, I connected with it and the trees branches started
to move.

Aaron drew a
sharp intake of breath and frantically tried to aim for the moving
trees.

“
Relax,” I whispered. “It’s just me.”

I saw a flash
of movement and commanded a tree to lash out at it. A thick branch
swept the ground where I had seen the movement and a wolf cried out
in surprise. I commanded the other trees to do the same to draw
them out so Aaron could shoot them. Sure enough, a wolf leaped out
into the opening to escape one of the branches. An arrow cut
through the air catching the wolf in the neck. It thrashed and
stumbled before collapsing to the ground.

“
Five more,” Aaron grunted as he drew another
arrow.

Three wolves
jump out into the clearing and faced us with bared teeth. I
released my power from the trees and refocused my energy as they
slowly starting stalking towards us. The one, I am guessing is the
leader, was walking boldly towards us ahead of the two others.

“
Take the leader now,” I said scanning for the other two in
the woods.

The leader
yelped once before dropping to the ground with an arrow sticking
out between its eyes. The other two hesitated for a second before
continuing forward. The last two wolves jumped out of the trees and
assisted the other two in trying to surround us.

“
Take one of them down,” I said.

“
The other wolves will attack though,” Aaron replied
worried.

“
So be ready for the next attack,” I said watching the
wolves.

“
But...” he started.

“
Trust me,” I said. “Far left now.”

Aaron
hesitated for a second before he turned and shot an arrow at the
furthest wolf to the left. The wolf dropped and the one in front of
me lunged forward. I stretched out my arm and a Pulse shot from my
hand and connected with the wolf. The wolf launched back into a
tree and the other wolves stopped when I pointed my hand at them.
The wolf I hit stood back up, shook his head and rejoined his
friends. I looked over and saw Aaron ready with the next arrow.

“
Next,” I said as Aaron released the arrow.

The one of the
left dropped and the centre wolf made another run at Aaron. I sent
a Pulse towards it but the wolf dodged then made a leap. As it flew
towards Aaron, I stretched out my other hand and it grew hot as
flames shot from my palm. The wolf twisted and dropped before
running away yelping.

The one to my
right lunged at me and before I could bring myself around to attack
it, an arrow flew by my head and struck the wolf in the body. The
weight of the wolf crashed into me knocked my off my feet. I held
the head away from my face and felt the wolf’s body shudder as
another arrow hit it in the neck. The wolf went limp and I threw it
off of me.

“
Let’s move,” Aaron said as he helped me to my
feet.

We broke out
into a sprint and ran for as long as we could. With the heavy packs
on our backs, we weren’t going to get very far thought. We slowed
down and watched behind us for anything else. When we were positive
nothing was going to chase us, we stopped to catch our breaths.

“
You did alright, mage,” Aaron smiled while trying to catch
his breath.

“
You’re a good shot,” I started with a smirk while I breathed
heavily, “for a farmer’s boy.”

He chuckled.
“I can’t believe we took on the whole wolf pack.”

Same here actually,
Cathy
said.
There’s hope for you after
all.

Yeah,
thanks.

“
I’m just glad it wasn’t bandits or Mages,” I said breathing a
little steadier.

“
It’s a shame we had to leave the Mages in a hurry,” Aaron
said regaining his breath. “We could have used whatever supplies
they had.”

I shook my
head. “All their packs would have been taken by the other Mages. We
wouldn’t have found anything. I wish Iʼd taken some of the bandit
stuff, though, from your farm. It would have been useful to
trade.”