Kin of Kings (The Kin of Kings Book 1) (39 page)

Basen let them have their fun as he got ready for the next portal. This time he imagined himself back in Worender Training Center as he created it.

The portal was black, but with streaks of light within the sphere.

“The training center’s closed,” Alex said, “but there must be some light coming in from windows of shops nearby.”

“I want to stick my finger into it,” Effie said, “but I know it’s a bad idea.” Basen noticed her looking around for something to use instead. “Should’ve brought a damn stick. I’m not putting my expensive wand in there.”

“Can you make it any bigger?” Alex asked.

Basen heaved, feeling the strain in his mind while it burned in his chest. The sphere went from the size of his fist to the size of one hand wrapped around his fist. He couldn’t hold it for longer than a breath, though, and exhaled sharply as it collapsed and disappeared.

Alex clasped his back. “I don’t know how you’re doing this, but it’s amazing.”

“Thank you. I’m going to try to make a portal that leads to another one about ten yards from here,” Basen said.

He was too eager to let himself fully recover. It took a few moments to get his mind wrapped around the idea. He pictured himself standing at a mirror ten yards away, so that as he made one portal in front of his wand, another would appear ahead of him where the imaginary mirror stood.

He gathered the bastial energy, then quickly pulled open the portal.

“Bastial hell!” Effie exclaimed, and Alex quickly shushed her.

Basen leaned to the side to see that two black spheres had been created, both with images of the sand, the walls, and the starry sky.

Suddenly, something flew out of the one near him. It struck him in the face as he shrieked and tumbled backward, swiping at his cheeks and forehead to get it off him. Effie’s laughter made him stop and realize it was just sand.

“God’s mercy, Effie! I thought bugs from another world were attacking me!”

She snickered as she hopped over and threw her arms around him in an apologetic hug. “I couldn’t resist! We had to test if it would work, anyway.”

“Effie!” Alex chided with a smile.

“I know,
shhhhh
!”

Basen pushed down his palms to seriously request quiet. The three of them listened for any sounds, but the night was dead quiet as it should be around the classrooms at this time.

They walked over and sat together with the training dummies behind them, Basen catching his breath while Effie and Alex held hands.

After a long silence, Effie finally spoke. “I’ve seen many amazing things. The underground Slugari colony, giant Dajriks fighting each other, the chasm of the Fjallejon Mountains, but none compares to this—something so small. You must practice, Basen. This is an incredible skill.”

“There’s one problem with that.”

She fluttered her hand. “I know, you think someone can tell when you make them and wants you dead for it. But we’ve been out here a while now and there’s no one.” She pushed herself up. “See if you can make a portal into the castle in Kyrro City! Imagine if we could get to Tauwin.”

He got up and attempted to make one leading into Alabell’s former quarters, for it was the room he could remember the best. It wouldn’t work. He could feel the heavy energy there in front of him, but it wouldn’t open no matter how hard he tried.

“It needs to be somewhere where bastial energy has been pulled in on itself many times, somewhere mages have practiced in the past.”

“Is that the only limitation?” Alex asked. “Can you make a portal to somewhere you’ve never been?”

“I’ve practiced in Alex’s room many times,” Effie said. “Try to make a portal there even though you’ve never been there.”

Basen lifted his left arm, only to let it fall to his side. “I can’t. I have to see where the portal leads before I can make it.”

“Just imagine your room but with Alex’s belongings in it.”

He tried, but it didn’t work. “I have to be able to see it or remember what it looks like. Maybe I could get it to work if I knew there was a familiar object or person within the space. That way I could just think of them when I make the portal, but there’s something else I want to test first. I’m wondering if I need to have visited the place first before making a portal there.”

“Why would that be necessary?” Alex asked.

“Hopefully it’s not, but I’m getting the sense it might be. Let me explain what I’m thinking. It seems to me that manipulating BE causes effects that we can’t see but are important to portals. There’s a place in Tenred that I’ve seen many times, but I’ve never stood there. Once a year, there was a competition for mages in a stadium not too different from Redfield. I would watch from the audience, probably a hundred yards from the actual arena. Countless fireballs have been cast within the arena, so there shouldn’t be a limitation on creating a portal there. But because I’ve never been inside, the BE my body creates has never been within the arena. This might prevent me from making a portal that leads there. Let’s find out.”

Basen tried to cast the spell but could not open the portal. It felt like trying to unlock a door with the wrong key. He shook his head.

Alex paced as he stroked his chin, a slight smile of excitement never leaving his face. “So you can only make a portal leading to where bastial energy has been used frequently before, and you must’ve been there before.”

Basen lifted his right arm. “But with the akorell stone, who knows how those rules might be bent.”

An ominous silence followed as they stared at it.

“I fear what might happen if we try,” Alex said.

“You’re not alone in this thought.”

Effie folded her arms, taunting them with a disappointed look. “Don’t be cowards.”

“Eff! What if the portal leads to another akorell stone in the possession of the murderer?” Alex argued. “What if Basen cannot close the portal? What if it’s so enormous it sucks us in? We might not survive a trip through it!”

“Wait,
shhh
.” Effie gestured frantically for quiet. “I think I hear something,” she whispered.

Basen felt something then, an added pressure on his mind like a hand on his head, though weightless.

Alex gritted his teeth. “Psyche,” he whispered.

CHAPTER THIRTY

So this is what it feels like to have a psychic latch onto my mind. I know he can’t hear my thoughts, but can he read my emotions well enough to know I want to run?

Their only exit was the absence of a fourth wall ahead of them. Basen drew his sword, holding it with his less skilled right hand so he could keep his wand in his left. Alex, with his own weapon in hand, snuck forward toward the exit. As Effie and Basen followed, their footsteps crunched loudly against the sand.

“He’s somewhere nearby,” Alex whispered, “sensing our presence.”

“I’m going to scream,” Effie whispered, “then we run.”

“I agree with that plan,” Basen said.

Alex halted and grasped the throwing dagger from his belt as he now stood halfway to the opening in the training area. “But he might know who we are now. If we run, he’ll come kill us while we sleep.”

“He probably doesn’t know!” Effie spoke in a hurried murmur. “Even Reela has trouble figuring out who she’s sensing unless it’s someone she’s spent a lot of time with.”

“I say we run,” Basen whispered. “We go to the headmaster’s apartment and figure out what to do from there.”

“I agree,” Effie said. “Ready?”

At that moment, a figure shrouded in black darted around the corner ahead of them, a dagger of pure silver in his right hand, just like the one that had killed Nick. A hood shrouded his face, two holes in it for eyes and one to let in air at the bottom. The three of them didn’t have time to make a sound before he lifted his arm, striking them with a psychic spell of pain.

Basen had never felt anything so agonizing as he collapsed, nearly impaling himself with his own weapon as his hands flew to shield his body. He couldn’t even scream, the pain too immense. It felt as if every muscle were being ripped apart. He could feel nothing but the tearing sensation, not even fear as the psychic ran at them without hesitation.

“Fight it!” Alex grunted as he got to a knee and somehow managed to hurl a dagger at the attacker, who rolled to avoid it. The bastard was agile.

Basen felt as if he would pass out from the pain any moment as his vision blurred. No way did he have the fortitude to resist the spell when it took all of his strength just to stay conscious.

Just get one foot up at a time.
His left came up first, but it shook so severely when he tried to put weight on it that tremors ran all the way up his body.

He tried to reach for his wand that he’d dropped with his sword, all the while watching Alex fend off the psychic from his knees. Though nearly disabled from the pain, the warrior swung his sword to keep the murderer back.

“Effie! Shoot him!” Alex choked out.

“I’m trying!”

She’d gotten onto her knees, too, and now aimed her wand. Then she let out a shriek as she fought against the pain to gather bastial energy. Basen could feel it moving toward her.

But the psychic turned and stomped a foot toward them, and a massive wave of pain knocked them flat. Basen writhed on the ground, his heart pounding as panic brought on the urge to vomit. If it was only him, he would’ve given up and accepted death. Then he wouldn’t have to endure this another moment. But Effie and Alex needed him.

Shaking and sweating, he grabbed his wand and screamed to focus. Bastial energy obeyed his will, but Alex couldn’t hold back the agile attacker any longer, taking the silver dagger in his shoulder with a shriek.

“Duck, Alex!” Basen screamed, noticing that Effie had her wand pointed in the same direction.

Moving even slower now, Alex rolled away from the psychic. Basen and Effie fired at the same time, the double explosions against the darkness of night almost too bright to watch.

Rather than dodge the fireballs, the psychic waved a hand, bringing it into a fist. As the burst of light faded, there was no fire to be seen, just streams of yellow and orange as if a sun had simply come apart.

Basen smelled the same thing as he had when Nick was killed, and as he tried to gather energy for another fireball, he could feel none around him. This was the destruction of bastial energy he’d suspected. Even the akorell stone no longer produced a glow.

But at least the pain had dulled. The psychic spell was over, though Basen felt worse than he had when he’d finished three laps around Warrior’s Field. He struggled to get to his feet, his heart still pounding.

He and Effie struggled toward Alex, but the gash in the warrior’s shoulder was deeper than Basen first realized, forcing Alex to move his weapon to his left hand. Before he could attempt an attack, the psychic easily maneuvered around behind him.

In one swift motion, the psychic ripped the blade across Alex’s throat as he tried to turn around. Alex dropped his sword as Effie screamed his name and ran toward him. His hands came over his gaping wound as he collapsed onto the ground.

Basen hurried to get in front of Effie, his sword ready. The pain was gone, adrenaline readying him for battle. Basen charged as the psychic took Alex’s sword from the sand. Basen didn’t know how long the disruption of bastial energy would last, but he needed to kill the psychic before he could cast another spell.

He was vaguely aware of Effie yelling Alex’s name, screaming for him to hold on for help. Basen’s first attack was narrowly dodged, and he easily blocked the psychic’s counterattack. Already he could tell he was the stronger swordsmen. He just needed to act quickly.

But the psychic backed away as he fought, soon focusing fully on defense as if realizing he wasn’t Basen’s equal.

The psychic made a quick strike at Basen’s stomach, the first sign of offense, but Basen swatted it away hard enough to take the weapon out of his opponent’s hand.

Then the psychic turned and fled.

“He’s here!” Basen yelled as he ran to catch up. “The murderer’s here!”

“Basen!” Effie’s ear-piercing shriek stopped him. “Help me!”

Basen ran back to the training area, realizing then it would’ve been foolish to chase the murderer. Soon the psychic would’ve been able to use bastial energy to disable Basen again.

“Help me get him to the medical building!” Effie screamed.

But the petite mage wasn’t as strong as Sanya—terrible memories of carrying Nick came flooding back. Alex was heavier than Nick as well. Effie could barely keep hold of his bottom half, giving Basen no good leverage to hold the rest of Alex’s body as his feet dragged.

The warrior was still alive, his hands clasped around his neck. Basen ripped off his shirt and pressed it over the wound, and Alex put his hands over it. Basen took the taller man fully in his arms, carrying him like a bride.

“Stanch the bleeding as much as you can,” he told Effie, who helped Alex hold the shirt over his wound. “You’re going to live, Alex!” Basen screamed as he ran. “The medical building is close.”

His speed was almost too much for Effie to stay with him, so he slowed just enough so she could maintain hold of his shirt. The freezing night air ripped at his skin as Alex gasped and choked and then gurgled.