Fallen Magician (The Magician Rebellion) (24 page)

The chill of night was held at bay as the group ate a light, but delicious meal prepared by Sari and Donovan consisting of rabbit and squirrel stew seasoned with thyme and some other herbs that Sane did not recognize. Full bellies and a warm fire did little to improve the group’s morale as they ate together.

“
That is the fellow that lived in the tower for a time?” Chance asked with a nod to Byrn. He was resting near the fire, but still had not roused.

“
Yes, he is my son, Byrn,” Marian smiled to say those words, but restlessness showed behind her eyes for those who dared to look deeper.

“
Then he is a magician,” Donovan’s eyes darted to Sane for an instant before averting his gaze away just as quickly, “It is a shame he could not have arrived in Everec a little sooner. Having a magician on our side would have been a big help.”

Sane was about to say something to defend himself, but he felt a cold touch on his wrist. He looked down to see Kellen’s plated glove wresting there. The knight shook his head gently.

“
It must have been difficult losing your home like that,” Kellen offered a gentle reminder to Sane that these people were still grieving their many losses. Sometimes it was easier to accept a tragedy if the blame could be placed on a single person whether they were at fault or not. If Sane was to be that scapegoat, then so be it. It would not be the first time and, in truth he did not care what these two thought of him anyway.

However, Sari would not stand idly by while Sane was attacked. In a rare moment of seriousness, the elf’s voice became edged with tough conviction, “Mind your tone, Donovan. Sane stood with us at the start of the battle, or do you not recall that he was single handedly protecting all of us before he became overwhelmed and was taken prisoner?” The bite in her voice sent a shiver up the sorcerer’s spine. Sari sounded very much like her father, the king of the Red Tree Clan, at that moment.

The rest of the evening was spent mostly in silence. Being apparently the only person respected by everyone there, Sari set the watch for the night in pairs of two. The rotation was set up as Kellen and Donovan; Marian and Chance; and Sane and Sari. The elder Aldyd was the only one who would be able to rest through the night.

***

Kellen and Donovan sat in silence for a time, each one watching the other and trying to decide if they were staring at a friend or a foe. Finally, it was Donovan who extended the olive branch. “My uncle was a Kenzai,” he blurted out. “It was a secret. I wasn’t supposed to know being a boy at the time, but I overheard my parents talking about it one night when they thought I was asleep. They were scared for him.”

Kellen made a point of poking at the fire, unsure of what to say to that. Finally, he asked, “Is that why you fear Sane? He is a good man. As long as you do not attempt to harm him, he will not do anything to you.”

Donovan shook his head thinking of his overheard conversation between the sorcerer and the elf. He almost told Kellen of their talk, but held his tongue.

Mistaking Donovan’s silence for thought, Kellen added, “I am a Kenzai too, and there are few people that I trust as much as the sorcerer sleeping over there. He is used to being distrusted as a magician. If you make an effort to be cordial, he will respond in kind.”

“
He is not worthy of trust,” Donovan sneered, “Not if you knew what I know.” Donovan’s eyes got big as he realized he had said too much. “Look, I just want to get to Silvering and we can part ways. Whatever you and your friends have planned is none of my concern.”

“
What do you think you know?” Kellen asked, trying to sound as good-natured as possible. Donovan seemed like he would bolt at any minute- snow and darkness be damned. “I promise whatever you have to say will stay between us,”

“
Before Everec was attacked, I overheard Sari and the magician talking.” Donovan paused before he continued knowing that if he misjudged the warrior and he was loyal to the magician over his own order, then the ranger’s life could be over, but he had to tell someone other than Chance what he knew. “He said that Byrn over there was a prince and Sane wanted to find him so that he could kill the real prince and replace him with a magician.”

Kellen sat dumbfounded. “If this is true-“ he stopped himself. How could this be true? Sane may have decided to turn his back on the kingdom, but he would never betray his king in this way, but how else could this stranger know Byrn was a prince? “I need you to keep quiet about this. Sane is grief stricken over the loss of his sister. He may not be thinking clearly. If he truly intends to follow through on what you claim, then I will stop him. You have my word on that.”

Donovan let out a heavy sigh and visibly relaxed at the knight’s words. “Thank you, sir.”

“
Now, I must ask you to keep a secret,” Kellen told him. His voice was barely audible over the light crackle of the fire. Donovan nodded and Kellen crawled the short distance to where Byrn slept. His glove began to glow as he absorbed Byrn’s magical essence again. Seeing Donovan’s questioning expression, Kellen told him, “This one is a danger. I drained his magic energy. It will keep him powerless for a time and prevent him from waking. If I can get him back to Silvering, then I can arrange for transport and take him back to Baj.”

“
Why not kill him?” whispered Donovan.

“
Maybe I should,” Kellen agreed stoically, “but he saved my life in Everec. Besides I cannot bring myself to kill a man in his sleep.”

“
I could do it,” offered Donovan looking about the camp to make sure no one stirred. “It would be quick, even merciful.” He pulled his dagger from his belt.

“
No,” Kellen told him flatly.

“
You said yourself he is dangerous,” Donovan was almost within arm’s reach of Byrn, “The wizard will not let you take him. He wants Byrn to be king.”

For a moment the knight hesitated torn between honor and duty, then as Donovan prepared to strike he shouted, “No!” causing his voice to echo throughout the cave.

Marian’s eyes flew open. She was lying close to Byrn keeping him between her and the fire. Donovan crouched above her son with his dagger raised about to strike. She only had an instant for the scene to register, but that was all the time she needed. Marian threw her body over Byrn’s so that the knife bit deeply in her back. She cried out in pain as Donovan pulled the blade free.

“
I’m sorry!” he shouted over and over as Kellen pulled him off of Marian. “I didn’t mean to!” Kellen tossed him to the other side of the cave like a doll.

The entire camp was up and in a commotion. Sari was putting pressure on Marian’s wound and calling for strips of cloth to use as makeshift bandages and gauze.

Aldyd was quick to comply ripping strips from his cloak and pressing on the wound as Sari prepared the bandages. It only took a minute for the elf to stop the blood loss.

Sane took off the ring he was wearing and slipped it on Marian’s finger. “It is a healing ring,” he said in explanation, “It is not very strong, but it might help.” Kellen came forward and pushed some of the magic he stole from Byrn into the ring hoping to strengthen its charge. The act was not lost on Sane and Kellen shook his head. They would discuss it later.

“
That is the best I can do for now,” Sari told them. “This region is not known for its healing herbs. We need to get to Silvering soon.”

Looking to where he had tossed Donovan, Kellen saw that the man was gone and so was his friend, Chance. “Donovan and Chance ran off.”

Tomlin’s hand-cannon rang out with a loud explosion as he fired it at one of the Kenzai guardsmen who had gotten too close. It was a marvelous contraption and now that he finally had the opportunity to use it, he was glad that he “liberated” it along with the control collar all those months ago. The hand-cannon consisted of a steel barrel attached to a wooden handle that he held in his hand as the name implied. All he had to do was load it with a small amount of igniting powder, commonly used for mining, by pouring some down the barrel. Then he could put in a tiny lead ball no larger than the end of a man’s finger. Once the ball was in place, it required a little more powder in the pan on the side of the miniature cannon. Lastly, it was a simple matter of pointing at what he wanted to kill, pulling the trigger that would ignite the powder in the pan with a spark, wait a few seconds, and then BOOM! The cannon would erupt. It was not as impressive as an elementalist’s powers and occasionally failed to fire, but for the young enchanter whose only other weapons were a dagger and a finely tuned lute the hand-cannon was an amazing weapon to add to his arsenal.

Seeing his wild grin as Tomlin hurriedly tried to reload the weapon that only fired about once every thirty seconds made Alia smile despite the danger and growing chaos around them. She was the one that managed to figure out that the secret to making it work was the dwarven powder and it pleased her to find the solution for her apprentice. It also pleased her, because she learned that the weapon had several weaknesses that could be exploited by a magician such as dousing the weapon with water or sending a strong gust of wind to blow the powder out of the pan.

“
Don’t grow too reliant on that thing,” she warned.

Tomlin gave her that wolfish grin of his that the young girls found so charming. “Don’t you have an army to be leading?” He was right, of course. They were in the middle of an assault on Ilipse, one of the kingdom’s domains for magicians. Domains- that was a laugh! They could call it whatever they wanted, but a prison was still just that and it was all the worse, because these people did nothing wrong except to be born with the talent for magic. To hear Byrn tell it many of these people had never even cast a spell.

The Collective attacked Ilipse from all sides at once. Their numbers were few compared to the Kenzai that guarded the domain, but they could cover a larger ground per person than the Kenzai were capable of so that they could determine the kind of battle that the Kenzai would be forced to fight. The trick would be to break down the walls and then move in from multiple entry points. Unlike many cities that had walls erected to protect its citizens Ilipse’s walls were built to keep its populace in rather than to keep attackers out. On the inside of the walls and on the streets were carved massive anti-magic runes. The Collective’s first goal was to knock out the runes on the walls. Alia hoped that once the walls came down Ilipse’s citizens would flee on their own into the Collective’s open arms, but she also had a plan for taking out the Kenzai guardsmen if it came to that.

There were only a few elementalists among the Collective magicians and none were masters, but they worked in pairs on the wall. One would attempt to shift the dirt away from the walls at the base while the other would hurl fire, water, wind, or whatever they could manage to try and knock the walls down. Those who could create magical barriers against arrows and summon spirits to keep the Kenzai engaged protected each pair of elementalists as they did their work.

At the front gate Alia, Tomlin, Riona, and a handful of other magicians faced off against two-dozen Kenzai who foolishly decided to ride out to face them. Alia hoped that more would make the same mistake. It would make taking Ilipse far easier if they could whittle down the defenders outside of the domain.

Not to be outdone by Tomlin’s new toy, Riona and Alia summoned a trio of mounted war wraiths each to meet the Kenzai warriors. The Kenzai weapons glowed as they fought the wraiths on two fronts; one was a battle on the physical plane and the other was of a magical nature as the warrior’s weapons drained the energies that kept the wraiths anchored to this world. Left to their own devices the wraiths would not be able to best the Kenzai, but it did not matter. The wraiths were meant to be a distraction so that the magicians could cast their spells uninterrupted and keep the guardsmen from getting too close with their magic nullifying weapons.

Alia shot a short volley of fireballs and was backed up by other magicians causing flames to rain down on their enemies. The rain of fire spooked half of the Kenzai horses, bucking their riders and forcing them to fight on foot, making cutting the distance prove to be a nearly impossible task as the guardsmen were forced to dodge a seemingly endless barrage of magic to have any effect on the Collective’s magicians.

A flurry of arrows came from Ilipse’s wall, but none reached the magicians through their magic shields.

The secret behind the Kenzai’s dominance in Aurelia was that they could attack small groups of magicians using vastly superior numbers, but against a large group of organized magicians trained in how to fight against them, the Kenzai warriors found that advantage was taken away. The magicians on the other hand could react to any situation on the fly using whatever spells would benefit them most at the moment.