Rogue Magician (The Magician Rebellion) (30 page)

Laughter
came from the boys as the balls began to spin wildly on their fingers never
moving from their centers of gravity atop the small fingers. The boy called
Rion dropped his ball for a moment, but quickly scooped it up and returned it
to his finger where it promptly began a new spin. Not long after that all three
boys were dropping their balls and laughing as they raced to replace them as
quickly as possible.

This
went on for some time until the trio got tired and decided to go outside to
play a more traditional game of hide and seek leaving Byrn alone... except for
his silent watcher. Byrn got up from his seat to watch the boys from the window
and once he was assured that they were staying near the cabin he went back to
his seat and opened an old leather bound book he had been paging through.
Tannys looked over his son’s shoulder to see strange words and drawings mixed
in with the language of the kingdom. It was a spellbook.

“
Byrn,
can you hear me?” Tannys asked putting his face in front of his son's so that
they were eye-to-eye, but if the young man had any inkling that he was not
alone he did not show it. “Byrn, answer me!” the spirit now shouted, but still
failed to get a response.

Tannys
looked around for something he could do to get his son's attention. Seeing a
cup on a nearby table, he attempted to pick it up and throw it across the room,
but found that like with the priest his hand simply passed through it. Then he
tried to knock the spellbook from Byrn's hand hoping he could interact with
whatever magical power the book possessed, but the results were no better.

“
Byrn
must be the one to summon me,” Tannys said to himself, “but when will that be?
It could be a day from now or a month and by then it would be too late for
Marian.”

“
It
is frustrating not being able to communicate with the living. Is it not? There
are few humans that are receptive enough to hear a call from across worlds.”
Tannys turned to see the exotic beauty of the goddess of life, Ashura, standing
before him. He knelt before her and she commanded him to rise saying, “In death
you serve my twin sister, Kassani, not I, but I appreciate the thought.” The
goddess smiled kindly.

Tannys
rose slowly not wishing to offend the most revered god in all of Aurelia. “It
is an honor to meet you once again,” he said with a low bow to show her the
proper respect. “I mean no offense, goddess, but why are you here?”

“
You
speak well for a human,” Ashura's smile was disarming, “speaking plainly but
with respect for your superiors. I will do you the honor of speaking plainly as
well. I am here to help you. The murderer, Mantellus Firekin, is using not only
the guise of a priest, but the magic of healing to prolong the suffering of his
victims. I hate for any life to be ended prematurely, but this man’s
destruction is for the greater good.”

“
It
was not so long ago that you put a curse on my son to prevent him from killing.
Can you not simply curse this priest as you did Byrn? This Mantellus Firekin
has surely done more harm in this world than Byrn.” Tannys looked to his boy
lazily reading his magic tome still unaware of their presence.

“
The
ability to take a life is beyond my means. Kassani is the reaper of souls, not
I. It was only with my sister's agreement that your son's punishment was
carried out, but he is not cursed. He is being educated. Look at him. Deep in
his soul he still hurts. The deaths he caused in Colum still eats at him, but
he has learned to control his anger and hence his magic. He looks for peaceful
solutions to confrontations when possible and restrains himself when peace is
not promising.

“
The
power at his disposal is immense. If left unchecked he would have been
corrupted by his power like so many magicians before him. Byrn has a greater
destiny laid out before him and he must be willing to seek out peace to bring
it about. That is why Kassani agreed to help me with Byrn, but she views the
affront of Mantellus Firekin as being none of her concern.”

“
But
it is my concern,” Tannys pointed to his son, “and it is his as well.”

Ashura
smiled conspiratorially, “That it is and so here I am. To help you contact your
boy.” The goddess moved to the window and watched the children outside playing.
The boys were chasing a roque, a creature from another realm similar to a
medium sized dog, but with pointy ears and no hair save for a mane that went
down the animal's chest.

“
When
he sleeps his mind is more receptive,” Ashura said, “All you need to do is
place your hand to his head and concentrate. You cannot speak to him even in a
dream, but you can place your thoughts in his mind as images. It is possible to
show him events that have occurred or that you believe may come to be... like
the image of your wife being decapitated by her captor.”

Tannys
bristled at the thought. “That is a gruesome image.”

The
goddess turned facing him and nodded, “Yes, it is.”

Byrn
stared at the ceiling in surprise as he pieced together what he had just
witnessed. The shock was so great when he woke up that it took a minute for him
to remember where he was. Turshyn lay in the bed next to his, sleeping
peacefully, and the older boys, Rex and Quevine, were against the wall opposite
them, also sound asleep.

The
nightmare had been intense. It was like no dream he ever experienced before. He
was standing in the school's courtyard when suddenly his body felt weightless
as if he was transporting somewhere else. Instead he flew up in the sky and
moved northward faster than any bird could hope to go. In a matter of moments
he passed over Ilipse followed by a lake and then a great forest that could
only be Blackwood. Then he saw cities and he knew he was flying over the more
heavily populated North Lands. Baj and Colum passed in the blink of an eye and
Byrn was descending on a city larger than any he had ever seen before. There
was a castle reaching into the sky in the north, but it was only a passing site
as Byrn descended into a mass of temples. As he reached the street level he
realized he was standing in front of one of Ashura's temples. He did not land
in front of the building, but instead his body continued to float as it was
moved of its own volition through the streets past a square, then shops and
inns until storage buildings surrounded the elementalist and his feet finally
touched the ground.

Byrn
stood before a small building with boarded windows and he entered to find the
interior was bare except for some dusty boxes in one corner. Then a door opened
in the wall at the far end of the warehouse where there had been no door
moments before. A bright light emanated from it that seemed to call out to
Byrn. The magician approached the light. As he came closer, it grew brighter
and Byrn had to cover his eyes to shield them from the intensity. Dread filled
his heart making him want to turn back, but he was compelled forward into the
light by unseen hands pushing him.

Once
he passed through the doorway's threshold, Burn found that the light was gone
and he could see clearly again. The room was plain, but its contents were
anything but that. He watched helplessly as his old cellmate, Mantellus
Firekin, tortured his mother. The psychopath stabbed her with a sword of fire
protruding from his hand like an extension of his arm. He laughed with glee at
her pain as Marian screamed and her body burned from the inside out.

Then
Byrn noticed that there was another person in the room. It was a girl in her
teens. She was pretty with dark hair and a yellow, ruined dress, but Byrn did
not recognize her. The girl was strapped to a bed forced to watch the gruesome
scene play out with a level of horror on her face equal to Byrn's own.

Eventually
Marian feinted from the pain and for a brief moment Byrn felt a little bit of
relief that the torture might be over, but Mantellus suddenly swung his flame
sword into Marian's neck separating her head from her body. The head of Byrn’s
mother fell to the floor and rolled to a stop against his foot. Marian stared
at him with a lifeless glaze in her eyes shocking Byrn back to a waking state
of panic.

Sane
told him once that he sometimes saw visions of things to come. Was it possible
that he was now experiencing them too? Byrn sat up and swung his legs over the
side of his bed. He reached over to Turshyn and shook the necromancer awake.
Turshyn rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked at his roommate
questioningly.

“
Are
you awake?” Byrn asked in a whisper to avoid waking the teens. The room was too
small to reasonably accommodate four people, but with ten magicians living
there space was limited. Only the headmistress, Avelice, had her own room.

Turshyn
groaned at the foolish question and rolled over so that he was no longer
looking at Byrn. “No,” he replied flatly and buried his face in his pillow.

“
Turshyn,
this is important,” Byrn whispered again, but a little more urgently. Turshyn
rolled back over and looked at Byrn, visibly irritated. “I had a nightmare,”
the elementalist offered in explanation.

Now
angry the necromancer rolled back over and muttered, “When we move to the new
school I want my own room.”

“
I
am serious,” Byrn said pressing on Turshyn's shoulder to turn him so that they
were facing each other, “I think I had a vision of the future.”

“
Listen
to me,” Turshyn said, sitting up, “That is not possible.”

“
It
is. I assure you,” Byrn told him. He crossed to the clothes chest at the foot
of his bed and grabbed a pair of trousers and a tunic in the dark. “My old
master, Sane, told me he had visions of things before they happened. I dreamed
that my mother was being murdered by one of my old cellmates from Baj.”

Turshyn
exhaled heavily. “Let us say that your old cellmate did escape from an
inescapable prison...”

“
I
am proof that it is not inescapable,” Byrn interrupted.

“
Very
well. What if this is true and you had a vision of the future. What then?” the
always-pragmatic necromancer asked.

“
We
save my mother,” Byrn told him knowing the answer was a foregone conclusion. He
pulled his brownish red cloak from his trunk. “She is somewhere in Mollifas. I
saw the castle in my vision.”

Turshyn
went to his own chest and got dressed as well in similar clothing and a black
cloak for travel that lacked the customary red skull that would identify him as
a necromancer. “We need runes to Mollifas and back, but when you wake up
Avelice I hope you do not mind if I wait in the hall.”

“
Of
course,” Byrn agreed.

Fully
dressed, the magicians walked the short hallway to Avelice's room at the end.
Byrn knocked lightly at first, but not hearing a response began to knock more
loudly until he heard the usually calm woman say, “Someone had better be dead,”
with a low growl. Apparently necromancers were cranky when woken up
prematurely.

“
It
is Byrn,” looking to his friend and added, “... and Turshyn.”

“
Thank
you for that,” Turshyn whispered.

“
Wait
a moment,” came the voice from the other side of the door. A minute later a
tired Avelice with disheveled hair opened the door. Her nightgown was barely
hidden by a hastily put on robe. “What is this about?” she asked looking at
each of the men in turn.

Byrn
told her of his vision and his need to travel to Mollifas. When he finished
Avelice confirmed his hopes for aid. “I do have a rune to the capital city and
another that can return you to the temple in Lion's Landing. You dare not use one
that leads directly to the school. If what you say is true, then a rune here
would be catastrophic in the wrong hands. Above all else we must take every
step to insure the safety of the school.”

“
How
soon can we leave?” Turshyn slapped Byrn on the shoulder.

“
I
must go alone,” Byrn decided. “I am sorry, Turshyn. My first instinct was for
us to both go, but it is only possible to travel with one other person at a
time. You can come with me, but I plan to return with my mother and I cannot
bring you both back. This will be the last time that I leave her unprotected.”

Turshyn
nodded dejectedly and not knowing what else to say punched Byrn in the
shoulder. “You should get your grimoire,” he said finally.

Byrn
ran back to his room and rummaged through his chest looking for his grimoire.
He yanked it out and then returned to meet the necromancers in the study.

“
Good
luck and come home safely,” Avelice told him as she crossed the room. “My
brother also has visions. Be wary. Sometimes what you see may be real events
and sometimes it is merely a collection of symbols for you to interpret.” The
boys looked at each other with the same question on their minds. Despite
knowing the master magician for years neither of them had heard mention of
Avelice having a brother.

Avelice
took Byrn's hand in hers and dropped two wooden rune discs in it. She pointed
to one and said, “The temple in Mollifas,” and pointed at the other, “The
temple in Lion's Landing.” Byrn nodded and she rolled his hand closed. She told
him again to be careful, but this time hugged him too.