Shadow Mage Page 12

  He shrugged. “Just playing around.” He looked at her sharply. “So, you’re a… naturalist mage?”

  “Yes.” It was easier. She didn’t feel like explaining that she wasn’t fully human. She already felt like a curiosity. An oddity.

  She stood a few feet away and closed her eyes, feeling in her mind for the burned skin, easing the edges of the wound back together gently. He yelped.

  “Sorry.”

  “That’s OK.” He ran a hand over his shiny pink skin, still raw and red but no longer blackened or oozing. “Wow, thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “Guess I just didn’t realize how big the fire was going to be,” he said.

  “Sure.”

  He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck.

  “Hey, are you busy?”

  “Yeah.”

  He glanced to the waiting area. “Oh, right. Well, when are you done?”

  She chewed her lip. “I’m not sure.”

  “Well, the non-mage showed me around, but he wasn’t super thorough. If I wait around, would you have time to show me the place?”

  Her heart skipped a beat and she really, really hoped he couldn’t tell.

  Five hours later, Kel washed her hands and peeked out into the waiting area and he was still there.

  Smoke looked out while she finished tidying up.

  I don’t know, he looks kind of like an idiot.

  We don’t even know anything about him.

  Except that he apparently lit himself on fire.

  He’s a new mage, they all have trouble in the beginning.

  I don’t know. There’s something weird about him. Did you hear him call Nate “the non-mage”?

  Yeah. She grimaced. He’s met a lot of people in the last few days, though.

  “Was that a ferret?” Illiam asked as Kel joined him in the waiting area.

  “Yeah.” Again, she considered explaining, but it was still too complicated. “So, what do you want to see?”

  He shrugged. “What’s here?”

  She took him up to the battlements, where the sun was just setting, and the shadow of the mesa stretched long across the forest to the east. They climbed a series of stone staircases, up to the overlook where the half-moon beacon burned.

  “Wow,” Illiam said, examining it. “Finn did this?”

  Kel nodded.

  Illiam continued looking up at it. “Magic is amazing.” He turned to look at her. “Are you happy being a naturalist mage?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m glad I’m a fire mage.”

  This was turning out to be less interesting than Kel had thought, but she was still curious about him.

  “So… you’re from the Uplands?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “What’s that like?”

  He gave a noncommittal shrug, then bent to examine the pillar more closely. Then he picked up a bit of loose cobblestone, made a twisting gesture with his fingertips, and a rose made from little red flames bloomed out of it. He handed it to her with a bow.

  “Oh… thanks…”

  “Finn’s a good teacher, I’m finding all this stuff really easy. I thought it would be harder, you know? But it’s not. Of course, Finn says I’m really good.”

  “Right…”

  “How long before mages usually get sent out on pilgrimages?” he asked.

  “It varies. Quite a few years, usually. We’ve only been here—”

  “I’m hoping I get to go soon. I can’t wait to help people. It must be so terrible being a non-mage.”

  “Well…”

  He was looking her full in the face now and had moved closer to her without her noticing. It was amazing to Kel how quickly she’d gone from excited to bored and then to slightly uncomfortable.

  “Was there anything else you wanted to see?” She’d said she would give him a tour and so far she’d only shown him one thing.

  He moved a little closer.

  Kel flapped in the window of her sitting room, folded her wings back into arms, and shook herself.

  How was your Tour? Smoke asked, putting an annoying emphasis on the word tour.

  I froze him.

  Smoke snorted. What?

  He’ll be fine. When he thaws. Wow, you were right, that was awful.

  I told you he looked like an idiot.

  20

  Illiam

  Well, she wasn’t a naturalist mage, Illiam thought, after the ice had melted, collecting in freezing puddles about his shoes. It had been surprisingly hard to warm it, even when he’d surrounded himself with flames.

  He didn’t mind. The difficulty was a good sign. Making the rest like him had been too easy. They had fallen for his good looks and his power. A challenge was exactly what he needed, what he would expect from something this important.

  21

  Kel

  The world was so cold. She felt like she was encased in ice, deep underground, with darkness all around her. The ice had deep cracks running through it, and she felt the heavy layers shift and creak around her, settling in a deeply frightening way. Whatever this place was, it was so much bigger than she was. Infinitely more powerful. If that ice shifted in the wrong way, it would crush her instantly. A pillar near her popped, and spiraling fractures shot through it, the sound reverberating off the mirrorlike walls around her.

  A pinprick of light appeared in the distance, and without thinking she moved towards it, through the shifting, cracking ice. The light grew, and she saw a woman, sitting, looking way from her. She turned, startled, and her face was streaked with tears. It was Ruith, her father’s sister, the one who had tried to kill her when she’d thought Kel would be another Morthil. She hadn’t succeeded, but Kel had lost her hand.

  “Kel?” Ruith stood, wiping her tears.

  She was tall, with a red gown and long brown hair. Her face was pale and sickly, drawn, and her image kept shifting, her legs turning to stone, her face turning to water, before she pulled herself back. She glowed with red light, her image reflecting off shards of black ice around them. Her yellow eyes flickered with flames, then went out.

  “You shouldn’t be here, it’s not safe.” Ruith looked around at the shifting, cracking ice.

  Kel looked down, saw only more ice and her own pale face reflected back up at her.

  “Are you all right?” Kel asked. “What is this place?”

  The woman shifted, turned to solid stone for several seconds, then shook herself loose. The ice above cracked, splinters and shards crashed down around them. Ruith turned the full intensity of her yellow eyes on Kel. “Leave.”

  The word reverberated through Kel’s mind, and she gasped, her eyes shooting open as she sat up in bed. For several seconds she had no idea where she was, the warm yellow sunlight conflicting so strangely with the frigid darkness that had surrounded her moments before. She felt small warm paws on her chest.

  Kel, are you all right?

  I’m… I’m fine. But somewhere, she knew, something was not fine.

  22

  Finn

  Finn watched grimly as the wind runner carried Armina Delacroix away from the Table. She was never really going to join the Republic. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and shivered

  He turned his gaze to the Table, to the rest of what he and the others had built. How long will this last without me?

  He barely had time to consider the thought, because he saw Nate running towards him through the trees, a piece of paper grasped in his hand. His face was ashen, his dark brown hair uncharacteristically messy.

  Finn’s heart gave a rapid double beat. “Nate, what is it?” His first thought went to Kel, his second to Morthil.

  Nate’s gaze swept the gardens around them. His voice was low, urgent. “I’ve just gotten a message from Westwend. There’s been a… a disaster.” He ran his hand over his face.

  Finn’s mind whirled. There were still mages in Westwend. Rafe and Cin had settled there, among others. They’d been t
olerated reasonably well, especially with Nate’s influence as mayor. It couldn’t be them, could it?

  “The mages you sent to… to Copper Creek…”

  Merriny? Cris, sure, was somewhat bitter, but his heart was in the right place, ultimately, and Merriny? Who could possibly dislike Merriny?

  “What, Nate? What’s happened?”

  “Something the fire mage did got out of control. She… she’s killed nearly thirty people. They say she went crazy. The other one tried to stop her. And she… she killed him.”

  “What? No. Not Merriny.” The blood drained out of his face. He ran his hands through his hair, looking around helplessly, as if something in this garden would explain what had really happened.

  “They say some men threatened her when she arrived, and she… went crazy, made some kind of fire monster.”

  Finn was shaking his head. “No. No, she couldn’t have. Where is she now?” I’ll get Kel. She and I will go now. Sort this out. Fix this.

  Nate swallowed. “Finn, I’m sorry. She’s dead.”

  Finn gaped at him. No. No she can’t be.

  “They executed her.”

  “But… but…” They were all trained in how to escape without harming anyone, if things went really badly. “She didn’t even…”

  “They cuffed her, manacled her with copper so she couldn’t use her powers. And then they drowned her.”

  Bile rose in Finn’s throat. The last moments of Merriny—tiny, well-meaning Merriny—flashed before his eyes. “But, that’s the first thing in non-mage relations. Never, ever let them get close to you with copper. Always get away. Don’t hurt them, but get away.” He looked at Nate, his eyes pleading, wanting it not to be true.

  “She didn’t fight back. Not after Cris died.”

  It hadn’t even registered earlier, that Nate had said Cris was dead, too. Finn sank to the ground, kneeling. I failed them. They weren’t ready. I sent them out before they were ready. He shook his head. This couldn’t be true. There was no way Merriny had done what they said she’d done.

  He looked up, saw Nate watching him, the grief evident on his face as well.

  “Nate, you knew Merriny. You know there’s no way she did this.”

  Nate rubbed a hand across his jawline. “I… I know there’s no way she meant to do it.” He paused, looking like he really did not want to say what he was thinking. “But… you know how unpredictable magic is.”

  The truth of that fell between them like a stone into a pond.

  Finn stood. “No. No, I can’t believe that. She studied here for six years and never made anything worse than an overly large campfire. She’s not like… like me.”

  Nate folded the paper and turned away, looking up into the now bright sky.

  “I think you should call back the other pilgrimages.”

  “What?”

  “It’s not safe. That whole area is up in arms, now.”

  “But… the whole point of this program is to make things better, to repair the fear and distrust between mages and non-mages.”

  “And it just took a huge step back.”

  Finn shook his head. “If I pull the mages back, then we’re just like Lake Iori. Separating ourselves. The further we pull back, the less they’ll understand about us. The more they’ll fear us. The worse things will get.” Yes, Armina left, but the other ambassadors are still here. There’s still a chance. “Nate, this is the cornerstone of everything we’ve worked for. I refuse to believe this was the mage’s fault. I… I can’t believe Merriny did that.”

  “There are dozens of eyewitnesses.”

  “All from the same town. The town that clearly was already itching to execute mages.”

  “How do you explain that she didn’t fight back?”

  “Because Merriny wouldn’t. She wouldn’t even raise a hand to defend herself. That’s what she was like.” Was. He shuddered and found himself blinking back tears. For the first time in a long time, the fire burning in his chest raged up, straining against his control on it. After all we’ve done. After all the inroads we’ve made, all that we’ve given, asking nothing in return. He shook his head, taking a deep breath. No. I’m not going to get angry. I’m not going to retaliate.

  Nate was watching him seriously. “Finn, I admire what you’re trying to do. You know I do. And I share your vision. Montvale is already encroaching on our territory, as are the Baharrans. I’ve heard rumors the Montvans might even have mages now. If we don’t unite, sooner or later we’re going to be living under a different banner. But you can’t make people do what they don’t want to do. You can’t force them to come together if they don’t want to.”

  Finn stood up, straightening his shoulders. “Maybe not. But I’m not going to give up.” And I have only a few weeks.

  Nate was about to say something more, but his eyes locked on something behind Finn. Finn turned and saw the Baron, walking through the garden, swinging his arms. He froze when he saw them, but immediately forced a smile and approached, hooking his thumbs into his tunic.

  “Ah, morning, gentlemen!”

  “What are you doing up here?” Nate asked.

  The Baron spread his hands and looked around. “Just enjoying the gardens.”

  Finn noticed a slight tic in the corner of Nate’s eye. He stepped between them, clapping the Baron on the shoulder.

  “They are amazing, aren’t they?” He glanced up at the sky. “I believe it’s about time for breakfast. Why don’t I walk you down?”

  “Fantastic idea, my boy. As we go, how about you tell me more about these wind runners? Do they have a top speed?”

  Finn felt Nate’s eyes on their backs as they moved off through the gardens, towards the dining hall.

  23

  Illiam

  Illiam watched her lock the door and move through the gardens alone. As usual, she was too preoccupied to notice him.

  None of it was working. He’d tried gifts, flowers, compliments, offers of assistance. He’d tried talking to her, ignoring her, and insulting her. None of the usual strategies worked.

  Illiam wasn’t worried. This was exactly how things should go. This was the challenge. This was the way things should be. He would win her over eventually, he knew he would. They were meant to be together. Just like he was meant to be the most powerful mage who ever lived, and just like there was something great and important that he was destined to do.

  He would try again.

  24

  Kel

  It was evening, and Kel stood on the battlements, her hands resting on the rough stone of the wall, her eyes closed, a thin crease between her brows. Dark clouds hung heavy overhead, making the growing darkness thicker.

  The problem was getting worse.

  There was no emotion in the millions of little minds as she darted through them, only the practicalities of eating and laying eggs. There was no malice, no bad intention, but the forest withered. Here and there were bright orange patches where trees had died, their needles drying on their branches. And these dead patches grew. The beetles were unaware, they simply moved from tree to tree, eating and leaving death in their wake.

  Kel gripped the battlements harder, feeling the sandy roughness with her human hand, the vines fingers of her other hand curling and snaking out unconsciously over the rock.

  Just bring in some birds, Smoke said from her pocket, yawning and readjusting.

  Kel winced.

  Remember what happened the last time? With the moths? Smoke insisted.

  Kel remembered. She remembered the tiny white moths, with their delicate lacy wings. Their larvae had decimated their wheat crop one summer. Kel had painstakingly moved thousands and thousands of them miles away, but it had taken so much time that she’d been able to do almost nothing else. And there were too many visitors asking for her help these days to do that. And still, she had saved only part of their wheat crop.

  I don’t want to kill them. It’s not their fault that I made this forest.

 
She felt a sympathetic, if slightly exasperated smile from Smoke.

  The first time something like this had happened, it had been an infestation of water lilies in some of the ponds of the forest. They’d choked out the sunlight, killing the algae that lived in the lake that the fish ate, and the fish had started to die. She’d tried just making the lakes bigger, so there would be more room for all, but the lilies took that over, too.

  Things die, Smoke said. Things eat other things.

  I just don’t want—a footstep on the battlements behind her interrupted her thoughts.

  “Excuse me, Kel?”

  She sighed in annoyance, opened her eyes, and turned, the vines of her hand curling in on themselves.

  Illiam stood a few feet away, his blond hair artfully tousled over his forehead. It was strange, thinking back to how handsome she’d thought he was when she’d first seen him. Now he only looked… symmetrical. There was something off about him. Something cold in those blue-grey eyes. Despite how he often said the correct things.

  “Hi, Illiam,” she said. “Do you need something?”

  He looked down at his feet.

  “Can I talk to you?”

  He looked like something was really bothering him, and Kel softened a little.

  “Of course.”

  He looked out over the woods, illuminated by the red and orange light of the sunset. “I don’t want to interrupt, though. You look busy.”

  Her mind flickered over the beetles, even now crunching away at the forest, and she thought about the decision she had to make. Illiam had picked a good time. This was the one time she might actually prefer talking to him.

  “That’s all right. It can wait. What would you like to talk about?” She eyed him.