Hidden Power (6 page)

Crystal Car and—”

“Liar!” Kronos spat. “No mere mortal can see Ythulia. That’s the whole point of the Illusion Spell.”

“She could,” Kayne added proudly. “She said… she said she was just stumbling along in the Wandering Woods and… and… saw the whole city right in front of her.”

Kronos considered this carefully, but not long enough to forget his rage over Kayne’s betrayal. “Now, squire, before I burst your head like a bunion, where is the orb?”

“In the Nayer’s saddlebag!” Kayne burst before sagging back to the floor like a child’s toy just robbed of all its stuffing. 

Kronos chuckled to himself, shaking his head. 

Kayne lay, limp and spent. He was powerless, defeated, at his master’s mercy. And Kronos was a man who knew not the meaning of mercy. And yet… and yet… behind his clenched lips, teeth still chattering from the effort, Kayne fought back a small smile of triumph. He must have learned something as a squire for even in Kronos’ rage, Kayne had been able to hold back one piece of information. 

He hadn’t slid the orb in the Nayer’s saddlebag; he’d slipped it into Aurora’s knapsack. It might not save Aurora when Kronos found out that Kayne had lied, but it might just buy her enough time to escape before he ever found out.

Kronos knelt down, none the wiser, and patted Kayne’s shoulder before clenching it tightly. “Thank you for your… honesty… boy. Even if it was forced out of you by your master’s spell. And now, prepare to—”

“Kronos!” came a pleasant voice, offered in greeting, from behind. Kronos immediately lifted his hand from Kayne’s shoulder and turned, hiding the broken boy with his flowing maroon robe.

“Iragos!” Kronos’ voice was sickeningly sweet as, using the diversion, Kayne sat up and surreptitiously slid out from behind his master’s back, scuttling along the floor like a crab. “What a pleasant surprise.”

Iragos looked down at Kayne, arching one perfectly manicured silver eyebrow as he threaded his long fingers through his flowing beard. “Am I… interrupting something?” he asked Kronos, giving Kayne’s master a knowing look. 

Iragos seemed to float across the floor, the hem of his garnet robe fluttering around his feet much as his silvery hair flowed freely about his handsome, angular face.

The two ancient mages met in the middle of the small room, their combined presence nearly moving the walls of the room itself back a few feet as a ripple of powerful, mystical energy surged through the confined space. Kayne used the diversion to right himself, catching his breath while unbuttoning the collar of his cloak and feeling his pulse return to normal. Or, perhaps, just slightly above.

Either way, he knew he was lucky to be alive. 

“Just a little training on how to resist your master’s spells, eh squire?” Kronos said breezily before looking over his shoulder at Kayne. Pointedly, pinning his young squire with dark eyes, he asked, “Right, boy?”

Kayne, his throat still tight, voice hoarse, croaked, “Yes, master.” Then, as if sending Iragos a secret message, he wheezed, “Of course Master.”  

Kronos ignored him and turned back to his fellow mage, voice dripping with condescension. “I fear my squire was not quite up to the task, Iragos.”

Iragos gave Kayne a sympathetic look. “Then perhaps the master should go easy on the spells for awhile, eh Kronos? We wouldn’t want to wear out our squires before they’re done with their training, now would we?”

An awkward silence followed. Two things Kronos hated more than almost anything else in life were being critiqued on his magic and Iragos himself. So to have Iragos critique his magic must have had his master’s blood boiling, which might have accounted for the weak smile rising to Kayne’s lips. 

“Oh, he’ll have plenty of time to recuperate,” Kronos said, stealing toward the door. “I’ve just given him the week off to consider his… career path.”

With that, Kronos left the small room and, rather than head back to his chambers, strode straight toward the Crystal Car. Kayne shook his head and muttered weakly to himself, deeply regretting his inability to resist his master’s powerful spell.

Iragos knelt down, putting soothing hands on either of Kayne’s sore shoulders. “What’s that, boy?” he asked gently as Kayne felt a cooling sensation speed along his flushed skin. 

The vice grips around his temples lessened, his breathing eased and soon Kayne found himself sitting up, cross-legged, back against the cool crystal wall as his breathing finally returned to normal.

Iragos stood and regarded the humble squire curiously, staring down at him with unblinking eyes. “Now that you’re feeling better, Kayne, perhaps you can tell me what just happened?”

Kayne flinched, awaiting another Confession Spell from the powerful mage towering above him.

“What just really happened,” Iragos continued, tapping one of his feet impatiently.

Kayne struggled with his confession, but had little time to search his soul. Either Iragos sensed that time was wasting or he was simply impatient. 

“Come, come, boy,” Iragos said, waving a large hand. “You know mages are prevented by the Council of Bright Orders from casting spells on squires. If your master has broken any of the Mystical Laws, you’re duty bound to—”

“Tell that to Kronos,” Kayne muttered, but Iragos was close enough, or wise enough, to hear.

“He cast you?” asked the silver haired mage, inching closer to Kayne to hear his answer. “Just now? He could be thrown off the Council for that.”

“I think he’s got bigger fish to fry,” chuckled Kayne humorlessly, testing his sore shoulder by stretching first one arm, and then the next, feeling the cool material of his sleeves caress his skin.

“What does that mean, boy?”

Kayne shivered to hear the mage’s shift in tone. He wasn’t mad, just… intensely curious. “Where did he go just now?” Iragos asked. “When he left, boy, where did Kronos go?”

Kayne thought of Aurora and her small, ungainly Nayer. He thought of the horror that awaited them both once Kronos caught up to them and discovered the Ythra orb hidden in the Below-dweller’s battered leather knapsack. 

Iragos stood, seeming to hover before him, eyes kind but persistent. “Well?” he asked. “I asked you a direct question, Kayne. I demand an answer before I—”

“I must…” Kayne sputtered, interrupting the towering light mage. “I must not betray my master.”

Iragos shook his head. “It stays between us,” he says, pacing impatiently now, arms folded across his chest. “The Council, and your Master, will never know.”

Kayne wasn’t sure he could trust Iragos, but neither could he let Kronos loose on the unsuspecting Aurora without at least warning the other mages on the Council. 

“He had me steal the Orb!” Kayne blurted, burying his face in his arm as he covered himself in shame. “He cast a spell on the guards and ordered me to steal the Orb of Ythra.”

Iragos stood, mouth agape, eyes half-slits. For the moment, standing still, arms sliding to his sides, the light mage was speechless as his silvery hair fluttered around his distinguished face. 

“But I couldn’t give it to him!” Kayne blurted, shaking his head, staring up at Iragos. “I… I was on my way to when you bumped into me.”

“So what did you do with it, Kayne?”

“I hid it in Aurora’s knapsack.”

“Aurora?” Iragos said aloud, as if to himself. He began pacing again, as if jump-starting his circulation might also revive his memory. Then, in mid-stride, his eyes grew wide.  “The girl from Synurgus? The Citizen from Below? How… why did you do that, Kayne?”

Kayne shook his head, confessing, “I thought… I thought if she could get away, I could fool Kronos somehow and, when his guard was down, slip down to Synurgus and find her and hide the orb in a better spot.”

“Hide it?” roared Iragos, advancing on Kayne in the tiny space. “It is not a plaything to be hidden, boy! That orb represents the security of our world, of this entire planet…”

“I know,” Kayne sputtered. “Don’t you think I know that? I didn’t… I didn’t know what to do!”

Iragos turned, suddenly, robe flowing around him as he fled toward the door. “Where will you go?” Kayne dared to ask.

Iragos turned just once before fleeing the room. “I must pursue Kronos and find the orb before he does.” He turned, advancing on Kayne once more. 

Kayne shriveled against the wall until Iragos paused, midway across the room, and held up a comforting hand. “Don’t tell anyone what you’ve done,” warned the tense mage, shaking his head warily. “Or where I’ve gone. Can I trust you to do that, Kayne?”

            Kayne scrambled to his feet. “Yes, yes,” he promised, quickly, dusting off his cloak. “But what of the elections? The Council? What will they do without you?”

Iragos considered the question briefly before turning back toward the door. “If I don’t find the Orb before Kronos,” he said over his shoulder. “There will be no elections, for there will be no Council. There may not even be a me…”

Aurora was amazed that, as the mage had warned her, time had actually stood still while she was in the City of Ythura. The day was still only half done, the early afternoon light occasionally piercing the dense forest as she struggled to find her way to the cabin of her father’s friend, Lutheran, while the day was still young. Mage or no mage, squires or no handsome squires, she didn’t want to be in these woods any longer than she had to. 

Beneath her, Boer strode clumsily through the uneven forest. She patted him gently, guiding him onward, whispering encouragingly in his ear. The steed was frazzled, and she knew just how he felt. Aurora’s heart still pounded from her visit to Ythulia. Behind them, the little Nayer stumbled along on its four hooves.

She could still feel the crystal floors beneath her feet, hear the echoes of her leather shoes in her ears, and blushed to think of Kayne in his striking white robe with golden threads and sagging hood. He looked so regal, so young, so… handsome.

She rarely had time to think of boys, and few at her place of learning warranted much thought in the first place. She was deeply smitten by Conner Griffith, who was a year above her in Learning and barely knew her name. 

Not much to think about there.

Then there was Zacharia, the farm boy she’d dated last harvest, but they’d barely kissed and he’d always smelled like root vegetables. Plus, he’d thrown her over for Grimelda Hopper, so there hadn’t been much to think about there!

Of course, there wasn’t much to think about here, either. Kayne was a squire; a mage in training. He wore soft sandals and a flowing white cloak embroidered with gold thread and lived in a crystal tower, far away from where most could see. 

He would spend his life protecting the planet of Synurgus from the dark forces that prowled the universe, eager for her planet’s rich store of resources, its gems and riches and soil and water and air and land.  

His future had been decided the day he entered the Crystal Car and ridden it all the way up to the top, and hers was no less definite. Aurora would go to the Learning Place until her eighteenth year, then either find a mate whose farm she would help run, or help run her father’s farm until he and mother were too old to run it themselves; then it would become hers.

Either way, this was probably the first and last time she’d ever see Kayne. Might as well—

A sound in the brush made Boer stop in all six of his tracks as Aurora herself craned her neck to find its source, the leather saddle beneath her creaking with every movement. They were still in the Wandering Woods, the light dimmer now, the sky overcast and crowded with a thousand trees, each more sinister and gnarled than the next. 

The Nayer ground its front hooves into the rich, black dirt and flared its nostrils. Aurora slid from Boer, reaching for the knife that hung in a homemade sheath from around her waist. Her new leather jacket creaked with the movement as she stood between the animals, peering into the near darkness of the brush, looking for danger.

The brush exploded in a flurry of color as three Wingers took to the sky, gnarled beaks yellow and hooked, blue and green and violet wings flapping as they soared just above Boer’s ears.

The steed whinnied and the Nayer bolted, rushing to the left. Its rope dragged along the ground and she reached for it, desperately, but only caught up at the last moment. With the frayed end of the rope just out of reach, the Nayer dashed and disappeared, scattering leaves and brush as it made its wild escape.

Boer snorted, perhaps out of relief. Aurora turned back, shoulders slumped in defeat. She was suddenly tired, not up to the challenge of hunting down the stray Nayer. 

“Guess it’s just you and me, Boer,” she said, patting the long, brown neck of her loyal steed and walking him toward the edge of the Wandering Wood. The day was waning, and she still had to find her father’s friend’s cabin before dark.

Hilliard Turnleaf looked up from his morning tilling at the sound of a steed’s advance. “Aurora!” he cried, dropping his tool to the ground and racing toward the road just outside the farm.

His daughter looked pale and hungry, hair limp and face drawn from her travels. “Where have you been, child?” he asked, grabbing Boer’s reigns and helping her down off her trusty steed. “Your mother and I have been worried sick.”

Aurora leaned against his hip as he led her inside. “I was out searching for your friend, Lutheran,” she explained as he poured her into a wooden seat at the breakfast table. “I… I’m sorry, father. I got lost and never did locate his cabin.”

Hilliard shook his head, chuckling. “I hope you weren’t out all night looking for his cabin, Aurora,” he said. “He’s just a friend who could help me refurbish the barn. I’ll find him on my own.”

As his wife, Majorca, fussed over the girl with a cup of tea and a plate of fresh biscuits smothered in salt flower butter, Aurora smiled weakly up at him. 

“The seamstress in town told me where to find his cabin, father,” she explained, slipping her knapsack over the edge of her chair. “It’s at the edge of Wandering Woods.”

Majorca gasped, wagging a finger at her careless daughter. “Wandering Woods? Is that where you’ve been all this time? And where did you get that fancy new jacket? I thought you were going to get clothes for learning?”