Rank: Grey 2.00%

  Spells:

  Levita [Cost: 1 kinesis elemental]

  Soon I was joined by Siddel, Rosi, and others. A crowd formed around the boy.

  “Move. Now. Get away,” said a mage.

  The group parted for him. It was Cleavon, the clan healer. He was a weird guy. He never joined us at mealtimes, except to fill his dish with stew. He’d retreat to his tent where he slept alone, staying there until daybreak. He could often be found mumbling to himself, lost in his thoughts.

  “Boy will die,” said Cleavon. “With lots of pain.”

  Pendras had joined us. “End his pain.”

  Cleavon took a dagger from his pocket and slit the boy’s throat.

  My stomach bubbled. Bile soured my mouth. I was going to be sick, and I had to turn away.

  A hand settled on my shoulder.

  “Okai, Isaac?”

  It was Rosi, wearing a fur coat five times too large. “Okai?” she asked again.

  I nodded. “I am one who sees the world as opportunity,” I said.

  The sentence was strange, but everyone said it. It was just one word in Kartum language: alreygofar. It meant that everything you saw gave you experience that aided survival. Even the darkest things.

  Cleavon turned away from the boy. “Gai, Siddel. Bring Red to location.”

  The healer had lost some of his cool. I’d never seen him like this, and something told me it wasn’t because of the boy. He was a healer and he was used to blood.

  Rosi patted my back. “Look at boy’s face. In death, one sees answers. Insult to poor Perryn if you don’t.”

  I stepped forward so I could see Perryn’s face. It was then I saw why Cleavon had lost his calm.

  The bloodstained snow was melting away, and something lay underneath. A rune was drawn around the boy.

  CHAPTER 14 – Dark Truths

  Maybe if I’d understood how deep this darkness went, I’d have left. Forged my own way. But I couldn’t have known.

  Back in Red’s tent, Siddel was so exhausted that he had to grip the spine of a chair to stay upright. He cast a spell of light that formed a map of the surrounding area.

  “Hunters find more runes,” he said. “Here, here, and here.”

  Listening from across the tent were Pendras, Red, two old mages, and me. I didn’t deserve to be there. But Pendras explained that I had found the boy and moved the boulder, and this had bought me a stake in learning about it.

  “Runenmer has made a circle of runes,” said Red. “See?”

  “Ah,” said Siddel.

  I saw it now. The runes on Siddel’s map did look like they were in a circle.

  Pendras approached the map. “Bigger,” he said.

  Siddel expanded the light-map by bending his middle and ring fingers.

  “We have to move camp,” said Pendras.

  “East?” said Siddel.

  “Na. Ogres there..”

  “West?”

  “You know danger in west.”

  “Ah. Yap.”

  “We must go south,” said Pendras.

  Red shook his head. “Six runes completes circle. Now, he has five. Just one more means we are trapped inside.”

  I thought I understood. I had seen Runenmer trap the men inside a rune circle before slaughtering them. He was doing the same with the clan, on a grander scale. He only had to place six runes. Once the sixth was placed, they would form a catchment area.

  It meant it was useless to move camp. All Runenmer had to do was wait for us to settle, then place his final rune nearby, forming a trap.

  “Still early,” said Red. “Runenmer still young in this world. Cannot place runes yet.”

  “We already saw him lay his runes,” I said.

  “Not strong enough to place in great distance,” said Red. It was the first time he’d ever spoken to me directly.

  “So we need to kill him before he’s strong enough to place his runes over a great distance.”

  Red looked at me for the longest time and then nodded.

  The most seasoned clansmen decided to scout for Runenmer. That afternoon, Siddel, Pendras, and a few more mages left camp in three groups, each heading in a different direction.

  I didn’t go. I was sure Runenmer had made a mistake, and I wanted to check it out.

  The morning they departed, I headed to the northern forest. I found the first rune, where Perryn’s blood stained the snow.

  Looking at it, I could only guess one thing: the Runenmer had pinned the boy under the boulder, right on top of the rune. He wanted us to find it.

  But he’d shown his hand too early.

  My idea was to dig up the rune and smash it. If it went right, that might destroy Runenmer’s chain.

  I started digging around the rune using a borrowed shovel. The problem was that the ground was frozen. I smashed the shovel down as hard as I could. The metal clanged, the vibrations shocked my arms. This was going to take a while.

  After a few hours, I had dug five inches into the ground around the rune. I considered lighting a fire to thaw the earth, but there was no point. My plan was a wash-out. The rune went deep into the ground, deeper than the longest roots of the oldest tree.

  Pendras and the others were gone for days. It was no surprise how I spent that time. Chores. Meals by the fire. Spell practice.

  Lots and lots of practice, focusing on the hrr-barrier spellbook Pendras had given me. I didn’t have an elemental to cast hrr-barrier, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t perform the stances.

  By the fourth evening, I had the movements down. The spell wouldn’t cast without an elemental, but at least I was ready.

  And then something strange happened.

  Light shot from my palms, arcing in front of me and forming a blue wall.

  It was eight feet tall, four feet wide. When I moved, the light moved with me. I reached out and tapped it, making a dink sound.

  Discipline Unlocked: Shield

  Spell learned: Barrer

  [Forms a shield of light. Effective against some melee and spell damage.]

  [Shield] discipline improved by 2%!

  Rank: Grey 2.00%

  So Hrr-barrier was a shield spell. The question was, how the hell had I cast it without a shield-elemental?

  I checked my elemental list again.

  Elementals:

  [Fire] x5

  [Human] x3

  The fuse of truth lit, the explosion struck my mind dumb.

  I understood.

  I had picked up four human elementals from the guys Runenmer killed. Now, I only had three. Casting hrr-barrier had depleted one.

  This meant one thing.

  Human elementals could be used on any kind of spell.

  I followed my yarn of thoughts, reaching a conclusion that scared me more than anything I’d seen so far.

  See, to a mage, everything in this world was worth killing.

  But if human elementals powered any spell, then humans were worth killing the most.

  CHAPTER 15 – Better the Devil

  Few words were capable of terrifying the clan, but that morning I heard one of them.

  “Ogres! Ogres!”

  Conversations died. Jugs of water were set down, bison reins dropped. One boy barreled into the stew that Mardak, the clan cook, was stirring. Water, meat, and vegetables splattered onto the mud.

  Two great ogres approached the camp. Ten feet tall, their steps shaking the ground. Muscles made of rock and stone, skin grey as tin. They held chains, and on the end of those chains were people.

  But the ogres weren’t the most surprising thing.

  Behind them were Lonehill mages. Pendras, with his beard blowing in the wind. Siddel, looking exhausted. Six other mages trailing alongside. None of them seemed worried about the ogres.

  They marched into camp. Some of the gathered mages moved out of the way. One ogre, the tallest and most battle-scarred, didn’t stop to let the scared mages get clear. He walked on, jostling into one mage lady to the ground.

  I rushed over and helped her up.

  “Thankie, Isaac,” she said.

  The ogres stood in the center of the camp, holding their chains. Their humans sniffed the air, looking around with expressions devoid of emotion.

  Poor bastards. Their fight had been beaten out of them. The pity I felt was strong and deep.

  “Pendras, come here,” said Red, his head poking out from his tent.

  Pendras led the ogres into Red’s tent, the only one large enough to fit them.

  The camp was silent then. Mages looked at each other, unable to believe what they had seen. I couldn’t, either.

  The ogres were enemies, and Red had cast powerful spells to hide our camp. Why go to all that effort, just to lead the ogres here?

  Only Pendras knew the answer.

  They stayed in the tent all day and all evening, emerging only after the sun had set. First came two humans, straining against chains as they walked forward. Next were their ogre masters. Giant, stone-faced, but tired. One gave a great yawn, revealing a mouth filled with blackened teeth. As they left camp without a word, the mages around the fire looked in any direction but theirs.

  Siddel left next, taking a seat by the fire. He gazed into the flames as though it was whispering secrets to him.

  I settled beside him. Before I could speak a word, a bowl appeared in my hand, and there was Mardak. Was this guy some kind of stew-feeding ghost?

  “You okay?” I asked Siddel.

  “Alreygofar,” he replied.

  I am one who sees the world as opportunity.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “Sometimes enemies must be friends,” he said.

  I couldn’t think of the word for an ogre, so I strung along some words that seemed to fit.

  “You’re joining with big-grey-beasts-who-pound-ground?” I said.

  Siddel gave a sad smile. “Not joining them. There will be peace, for a while.”

  “So we can kill the Runenmer. The ogres fear him too.”

  “Yap.”

  “But now they know where the camp is,” I said.

  He shook his head. “Na. Elder’s spell blinds memories.”

  “And where’s Rosi?” I asked.

  “Rosi has not returned?” said Siddel, looking worried.

  “Na.”

  He rubbed his hand over his face. “So she is still gone. I do not know, Isaac.”

  This worried me. Out of all the mages, I was closest to Kaleb and Rosi. Sometimes, she’d make me practice my vocabulary by telling me about her childhood. She said it was for practice. Call me vain, but I think she enjoyed talking to me.

  I hated thinking about her out there tracking the Runenmer. But at least she wasn’t alone. She’d be okay.

  The morning after the ogres left camp, I was up earlier than the sun. I even beat Siddel, who trundled out of his tent twenty minutes later.

  “Siddel!” I said. “Good morning. I will hunt with you today.”

  “No hunting today, Isaac. We must prepare.”

  “The Runenmer?”

  “Yap. A different task today. Ogres come with us.”

  “So will I.”

  “Na. Pendras wants some people to defend the camp.”

  What Siddel was politely saying was that I had few spells and even less hunting experience. He might call it defending the camp, but I knew what it really was.

  I wasn’t going to sit on my ass while they were gone. I had a trip of my own in mind, but I needed some things. You know, so I didn’t die.

  First, I went to see Nino, the clan’s inventoryman. He was notorious for how seriously he took his job. People were always asking him for stuff, but most of them left disappointed. He’d only part with an item if it was going to exactly the right person, for exactly the right task. That meant my chances of getting what I wanted were slim.

  “Hai, Isaac,” said Nino, waving. “Need something?”

  I nodded. “New robes.”

  Nino pinched the hood of the brown robes I was wearing. “Na, Isaac. These robes are good! Robes are strong.”

  “I’m going into the woods and I need to blend in with snow.”

  “You need white robes.”

  “Yap. White like wool-boy.”

  “Can’t give you any,” said Nino.

  “What if I do you a favor?” I said.

  “Speak...”

  “Nino can have the meat and pelts from whatever I kill. All I need are elements,” I said.

  Nino thought about it some and then agreed. He gave me a robe as white as bone but with black marks on it. He also gave me a tatty old tent designed for hunting trips.

  Next, I visited Mardak and got a few parcels of dried meat wrapped in leaves. These went into my inventory bag, along with two jars of water with resin-sealed lids.

  Finally, I visited Kaleb and Malin. The teenagers were splitting logs on the east of camp.

  “Hi, Isaac!” said Kaleb. “Need firewood?”

  “Yap.”

  They carried a bunch of kindling and larger logs over to me. While Nino hoarded his inventory like a greedy dragon, the teenagers were more giving. And why not? If there was one thing the clan would never go short of, it was wood.

  Ready for my trip, I left the camp.

  The forest had been fondled by the hands of winter so that leafless trees and frozen turf were covered in snow. It amplified the silence, making me miss the crackle of camp flames and hum of conversation.

  But this was an important trip, and I couldn’t put it off. If I was to protect myself in this world, I needed spells. For spells, I needed elementals. And that meant I had to hunt.

  After a few hours' walk, I reached the denser part of the woods where the trees grouped tighter.

  I made a few snares using a method Siddel had taught me, utilizing stringy tree bark, plant fibers, and a bunch of ready-made triggers. After placing a dozen in a two-mile-wide area, I could only wait.

  A few hours later, I checked them.

  Damn it!

  Empty.

  At midafternoon, I sat around a small fire. While I was heating some stew Mardak had given me, I heard movement. The crunch of snow. A twig breaking.

  I took my poker from my bag.

  It was a few moments before I saw it.

  There, maybe fifty meters away, was an animal. Tall, with skinny legs and a coat marked by snow. Its fur had a golden hue, as though sunlight were spreading over it. Maybe a deer, but I was too far away to be sure.

  Two words sprang into my mind.

  Meat and elementals.

  Siddel had taught me ways to creep up on an animal. First, you had to clear your mind. Calm your body. We give off waves of emotion all the time, and animals are perceptive of it.

  I crept forward in the hunter’s way, kneeling so that I was almost level with the ground, my head hunched. Ten feet away, I saw that the deer was munching on a patch of grass it had uncovered.

  I could hrr-chare this thing, but that would be a waste of precious elementals. Or I could rush it, plunge the poker into its neck, and hold it tight while it struggled. Neither way seemed optimal.

  Before I could choose my attack, the forest decided for me.

  Four white creatures sprang up from the ground and surrounded the deer. Lizards with snow-white scales and icy claws. Their eyes wine-red, their snarling mouths revealing rows of needle-like teeth.

  They closed in, claws tensed, ready to steal my kill.

  If it was four against one, my options narrowed to just one. Hrr-chare. But I’d need to stand up to cast it, and they’d see me as soon as I did. I had no room for mistakes.

  Clear my mind.

  Remember the stances.

  Focus.

  One lizard noticed me, letting out a growl and tearing away from the deer. It closed the gap until it was six feet away.

  I used my stances to cycle an elemental through my body.

  The lizard jumped, claws outstretched, blood-red eyes fixed on me.

  “Hrr-Chare!”

  My fireball sailed forth, flames crackling, surging toward the lizard.

  And then it curved right, just as I’d planned.

  It smashed into the three lizards surrounding the deer. Flames burned over their scales, scorching their icy bodies and spreading from head to toe, engulfing them.

  They gave high-pitched screams, animalistic ones full of pain and hard to listen to, the sound echoing all through the forest.

  The lizard nearest me clawed my cheeks, sending a searing pain over my skin.

  I swung my poker, connecting with the lizard like it was a baseball. It smashed onto its back, wheezing. I hit it again and again, spraying blood over the ground.

  Satisfied it was dead, I focused on the forest ahead.

  The three lizards were a charred mess, their bodies still and blackened, steam rising from them. That confirmed something for me: a fire spell hurt creatures of the ice elemental.

  The deer was hobbling away on wounded legs. Blood streamed from claw wounds on its side.

  It was no problem for me to get close to it in that state, and I took a deep breath, held my poker tight, and ran it through its throat. One deep, clean stab ended its life.

  Then I collapsed onto the ground.

  I let my breaths catch up with me, let my pulse settle, and I savored the fact that I was still alive. I had won. Every day in the wilds was a battle to survive, and I had emerged victorious. For now.

  CHAPTER 16 – Remains

  When my face stopped bleeding, I checked the dead lizards and deer, scoring four ice and one speed elemental.

  With that done, I had a problem. I hadn’t expected to kill something as large as a deer. Even though my inventory bag held more than it should, I couldn’t cram a whole deer carcass in there. Even cutting it into pieces wouldn’t work.

  I could leave the deer here, grab Kaleb and Malin and have them help me cut it up and take it back to camp. But leaving a fresh kill in a forest was like opening a dining hall for scavengers.

  The only thing I could do was drag it a little closer to camp, then bury it. If I piled enough snow on top, it’d keep the meat fresh for long enough.

 

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