Blood on Bronze (Blood on Bronze Book 1) (13 page)

Arjun bowed his head, but he had felt only discomfort
at the praise, as he always did. His mind was focused grimly on what he
intended to do with these magics, and his soul was driven onward by the need to
master them as fast as was possible.

Shirin spoke again.

“Apprentice, I declare you competent to wield The
Lesser Portal of Flame and The Eyes of the Comprehension of Truth. Remember
that your prior training aided you greatly in the former, and your mark or
gift, whatever it may be, aided you in the latter. Your further training may
not be so simple. Now we will move on to begin working with the Eyes of
Comprehension of Darkness, and I warn you again that you will not like what is
revealed. As for the others, continue your studies, but we are far from ready
to test their wielding.”

~

On a particular day, Arjun read a message stone he’d
received from Umrub the G’abudim, who had otherwise had nothing to say to him
this time. In it, Kartam told him that for now at least, Naram dra Zash-Ulshad,
Bal-Shim, and whatever others might be among their friends still found it
useful to keep his father alive, but that their patience was running out. It
also said that Keda was deathly ill; her frail old form unable to bear the
harsh treatment it was being given. Lastly, it warned that through some
combination of fear and promises, some of his father’s old servants were being
induced to aid in the hunt for him, and that others who’d once known him might
do the same.

Arjun swallowed his misery, put on a happier face, and
stepped from his room down the hallway to Lurshiga’s, where she and Inina
awaited him.

Space had been made in the little room by stacking
things in corners or lowering them down the secret shaft. Lurshiga had put on a
long kilt, top, and cloak of red and purple with copper decoration. It was of
finer work than anything they’d ever seen her wear, but looked old, and a bit
tight on her. Inina wore a shorter kilt and top in red and bronze, and the red
shawl with yellow designs and bronze and gold bangles of specific shape, that
women normally only wore on this one day. She wore rings, bracelets, necklaces,
earrings and anklets of Arjun’s bronze, and she had flowers in her hair.

Arjun donned the short red cloak with bronze and gold
fittings that was the garb of men for this day, their wedding day. Most folk
rented the expensive garb of the bride and groom for only the day, but he’d
taken the risk of being noticed to buy them. He stood before Inina, and took
her hands in his. Her eyes beamed radiantly. His heart melted with love and joy
at the sight of her. Lurshiga wrapped a small piece of red cloth with gold and
bronze threads around their joined hands. Then she spoke.

“Normally, a priest or priestess presides over weddings,
but you two should know that the only things actually needed to make you
married before gods and men are the vows I taught you. That said, I’ll admit
the reason I know them so well is that I’m in fact a priestess, a junior one of
the outermost circle, but still a priestess of Lashu-um, goddess of earthly
comforts and pleasures.

The two young people looked at her in surprise, as she
continued.

“In the days before my wonderful husband died, when
you children weren’t yet in the world, I presided over quite a few weddings.
After he… I didn’t really have the heart. Until now. All right you two, turn to
each other and repeat the vows as I taught them.”

Those vows, ancient wedding vows of the Hayyidi
peoples, were long, but Arjun and Inina had learned them with care. When they
were finished, Lurshiga smiled.

“Now my sweets, you are man and woman, husband and
wife. What you’ve joined, no god and no man can break apart against your will,
in this world or the next. Now, go enjoy a little married bliss in that room of
yours, I’ve got an inn to run.”

They smiled.

“Ah, and don’t forget to come down for dinner, but not
dressed like that! I’ve got a few treats for you.”

13.
The Tale of Desperate Measures

When Arjun arrived at the house of Shirin iru Anlil,
disguised as always, the latter was standing in his entry hall, and had a tense
air about him.

“Arjun,” he said, “walk with me.”

Shirin led Arjun to a room he hadn’t seen before, a
library full of clay tablets and strange items. He thought in amazement of how
much knowledge there must be in this place, and his eyes almost stung from the
flicker of the magic. Shirin walked to a stone box carved with glyphs that
glowed with power. Shirin lifted the lid, and inside was a seal stone of red
granite, carved with a pattern he now recognized as that of a planar portal. At
its top was a small ring where a cord or chain might pass. Shirin spoke again.

“This, my apprentice, is a stone that is the stopper
to just such a plane as you wish to create. It is larger than what your first
effort would be conceivably likely to produce, and its opening is larger than
that of the stone that seals it. In fact, you will find it is large enough to
accommodate goods as large as clay tablets, or a weapon turned lengthwise.
However, it is not invisible and undetectable as the portal you wish to make.”

He handed it to Arjun.

“Use it well, and may this be enough for your
purposes.”

Arjun  stopped, and stared at his master, unsure what
to say. The latter, however, continued to a shelf, where he gathered a set of
clay tablets.

“Arjun, these contain the methods of wielding the
simpler forms of the magic you wish to master, as well as a few others that you
might have some chance of learning without destroying yourself. Do not worry
that I might miss them; they are all books I have memorized from beginning to
end. It is not safe or wise to give you more. Nor do I have time to explain the
safe operation of other things I might give you, and some I will need myself.”

“Master!” said Arjun, now disturbed, “what do you
mean?”

“Arjun, watch now the gesture and command word I use
to open the seal stone,” said Shirin, who with them opened a strange blue-black
space in the air behind the stone, its edge rimmed in magic. He put the tablets
inside. Arjun watched carefully. Shirin closed the portal.

“Now repeat them.”

Arjun did so, just as he had seen, and the portal
opened.

“Well done, now, come with me to the training room,
and we will speak as we go.”

They went through a hallway and down a different set
of stairs to the lower level, and from there to the way that Arjun knew. As
they went, Shirin spoke.

“My apprentice, our time has run out sooner than I
would have chosen. Even now I can sense the powerful magic being worked that
will soon send foes upon me that, in numbers, I cannot overcome, and even if I
did, more would come, and then more. Therefore, as I warned you when we began,
I will have to flee if I want to live, and must prepare. There will not be time
to do much more for you.”

“But master, I can help you!”

“Apprentice, you are as yet but a mouse to the hungry
leopards that come my way. It will not just be warriors and mages, but things
from the realms below. Count yourself lucky that they have not found your
hiding place, and that you do not as yet merit the risks they must take in
summoning evil spirits. You may, if you wish come with me, and with you, the
girl you’ve mentioned, but if you do so, you may not return to Zakran for a
long while. I intend to remain hidden, very far away, until the time is right,
or until death catches me.”

“I… master, if that is the choice, I will stay here,”
said Arjun, furious emotions choking his speech.

They entered the training room, and instead of taking
his seat, Shirin stood beside Arjun.

“My apprentice, now is time to cast The Eyes of
Comprehending of Darkness. I will provide you guidance on anything you may have
missed. You may also cast the Eyes of Comprehending Truth, and if you wish I
will add an enchantment to make it permanent upon you, as most elder magi have
done for themselves. I regret there is not time to teach you the method”

“Master, I wish them both made permanent upon me.”

“Arjun, you do not fully understand what you ask… ah!
Time is almost out. I will do as you ask, but forgive me!”

Arjun cast the magic, and felt a strange and
uncomfortable change behind his eyes, though he knew it was not visible from
the outside. The room looked the same, yet indeed somehow different. The
shadows had reality and shape of their own, and depths independent of the light
whose absence they represented, or the walls on which they stood.

“Before I make this permanent,” said Shirin, tension
cracking in his voice, I give you one more time to reconsider. Turn your head
and look beyond the protections of this room and into the hallway beyond.”

Arjun did, and there in the hallway were faint things
visible in the dark, spirits or creatures unknown that were both there and not
there. It seemed they could occupy the same space, like layered shadows. They
watched with varying expressions of interest, hopelessness, or hunger. He
steeled his mind and will.

“Are you SURE?” asked Shirin.

“Yes Master.”

“Then follow my words exactly.”

Together they repeated the incantations and made the
gestures. When it was done, he knew he’d gotten them right, and felt in his
spirit the permanency of what he’d done.

“Arjun, there are ways to undo this, but they are not
easy. Someday perhaps we will meet again and discuss them. I am so sorry that I
must leave your apprenticeship unfinished, I therefore release you of all oaths
to me… however I beg of you that you don’t attempt the Forge of the Least of
Worlds on your own.”

“But, master Shirin…”

“Now go, I have much to do and almost no time left. I
must send you away. Good luck!”

There was a glow of magic that blinded him, and when
it cleared, he was standing in a dark alley. He walked to the end, and then
around a block trying to orient himself. After a moment, he recognized the
place. He was far across the city, near the western bazaar.

He was very grateful that things of shadow were not
thickly crowded as they’d been outside the door of Shirin’s training room, but
there were some about. They varied in form and size, some frightening, others
not. Some of them watched him, others ignored him and acted on strange impulses
of their own. It occurred to him that they’d always been there, just unseen,
and that whatever harm they might do, if any, they could always have done it.
Now, in a way, he had an advantage, he could see them. With that, he feared
them no more.

As he headed towards home, he was grateful for what
he’d learned, but fearful for his former master. Then he realized strange new
desperate hopes. He’d been released from his oaths, and with that, had choices
to make.

~

The next evening, Arjun read a message stone from
Kartam dra Argesh. It had black tidings. First, Kartam told him that his
father’s execution, and Keda’s, were now scheduled in two day’s time. Second
was the news that Kartam had been forced off the council, and that though he
thought his enemies wouldn’t be so bold as to openly strike at him, because it
would lead to a rebellion, he would have to watch for subtle means to bring
about his death. As a result of all of it, it was unlikely he’d get further
messages to Arjun. Lastly, Kartam warned of new and harsher laws in the works,
laws that would make it harder to hide in the city, but which might appear
slowly over time.

 He turned to Inina, his heart cold with the path he
knew he must take.

“My love, I’m going to try to cast my spells, the spells
Shirin didn’t have time to finish teaching me. I need to go alone to somewhere
no one else will get hurt if things go wrong, probably one of the empty
warehouses in that area south of the western bazaar.”

“Not without me you aren’t.”

“Inina, you can’t risk…”

“I’ll take my chances, but our baby won’t have much of
any if you are dead. I can at least try to keep you alive if something goes
wrong. I don’t know much about these things, but will it help if I stay back
some distance?”

“From what I know so far, yes, I can point out how far
when we get there.”

“See! Then I’ll stay back far enough to protect the
baby, but close enough to do something if I need to protect you.”

“Very well,” he said glumly.

~

An hour later, they stood inside a deserted empty
warehouse. Inina knew the owners had died and there was some sort of
uncertainty over who owned it now. This was a poor and dangerous area, and the
courts were unlikely to hurry. In the meantime it had been secured. The doors
had been barred from the inside by someone who Inina thought must then have
left through a hidden trap door above or below. In any case, Inina had no
trouble opening the bars, and they were sitting safely inside with the doors
barred again and wedged.

Arjun drew out a protective circle like ones he seen
in his new tablets, and a little like the far more powerful one Shirin had used
in his training room. In this case though, the projections faced in. He hoped
he’d gotten it right. He motioned to Inina, and she stepped back twenty feet,
holding a lamp.

He then prepared in his mind another circle, a portal
circle. With his hand he began to draw it in the air. With practice he could
dispense even with that, but not yet. As his hand passed through the air, it
left traceries of faintly glowing magic. He completed the outer circle, then
made the glyphs, and finally the inner. A portal began to open.

But something was wrong.

Instead of blue-black, still and silent, there was a
flickering greenish glow, and strange unearthly noises, like howls, seemed to
come through the portal from far away. Arjun moved to break and dispel the
circle, but he was too slow.

Something crawled out of it. It looked like shadow
within shadow, and flickering green in impossible depths within that. It was
small, perhaps the size of a cat, but it had long arms of unequal length, like
a deformed parody of a man’s, and a head that seemed to be upside down, or if
not, then its jaw opened on the top rather than the bottom. The leering
distended mouth opened hideously wide, and the eyes, of which there was one
large on the left and many small on the right, boggled at the new world before
it.

Arjun recoiled, only for a moment, but a moment he
regretted. He completed his motions to dismiss the circle, but the thing bolted
out, ignored his protective circle, and skittered along the floor. Inina looked
disturbed, but also hesitant and strangely inactive.

“Inina, I’ve got to catch that thing!” he said as he
ran after it.

Inina got up and followed, still seeming unsure. She
kept tilting her head as if trying to see what he saw. Without warning, the
thing leapt straight up like a monkey, grabbed at the rafters above, pushed
aside a hidden panel of wood on the ceiling with a crack, as if a seal above
had been broken, and darted out into the night. Arjun had no hope of imitating
that, but instead made for the door. He noticed now as he ran that he could
see, faintly, a trail of magic left by the passage of the thing.

“What do you see!” said Inina in a frightened voice.

“You didn’t see it?” he replied, as he reached the
door, tossed the bars aside, and pulled it open.

“No, I just saw, or thought I saw, a flicker of
shadow, then you closed the circle. I did hear some strange noises just before
that, but it was only for a second,” she said, as she followed Arjun outside
and around the building.

As they ran, the lamp blew out. Inina stumbled as her
eyes adjusted to the dark, but to Arjun’s altered eyes, the light and dark were
now equally clear, if not equally pleasant.

Arjun could see the magical trail left by the thing
even far away, like a flickering path in the night. Unlike most magic he’d
seen, there was an unpleasant, sickly greenish glint to that left by the
creature. As he raced after it, Inina followed, still trying to make sense of
what was going on. He also noticed that shapes of darkness gathered and joined
him following the wake of the thing, curiosity in the voids of their eyes.

He followed the trail down a dark back street, then
into an alley. At the alley, something different and horrible had happened.
There, on the ground, the trail twisted and turned, circling about, and in the
center of that circle was the body of a beggar. The smell of freshly spilled
alcohol mingled with freshly spilled blood, but the body looked withered, as if
it had been dead in desert sands for weeks.

“What…” said Inina, whispering in horror.

“A thing, something I unleashed when I failed in that
spell,” said Arjun, as he cursed his haste and stupidity. As he considered an
innocent man was now dead because of it.

He raced onward. Inina now moved with more surety, her
eyes adjusted fully to the dark, but not so surely as him.

The trail followed the alley around a corner, and then
into a small back courtyard containing a well, crossed it, circled it for some
reason, and then entered another alley. There was a shriek.