The mage from nowhere, p.15
The Mage From Nowhere, page 15
Leon might never know if these places really existed, but he did see what happened when one tried to go too far south.
Leon’s captain had managed to convince even Leon that the rest of the trip to Ovira would be just as easy as the trip to Jolrune. The captain also announced that payment would be tripled by reaching their true destination, Ovira, or doubled if they at least brought back evidence of why it was impossible.
They could not bring back evidence, and there was a good reason for that.
Unlike the other continents south of Dorrinthal, Jolrune and Gleymar did not seem to be inhabited by any living souls. There were animals, or, more accurately, creatures, and most were far too large to be hunted. Leon’s captain avoided land and thought the trip around Jolrune would be as smooth as spreading butter on hot bread.
About halfway around Jolrune, Leon started to feel changes to his mana. He warned the captain to turn back, but the stubborn fool had no sense for mana and did not believe Leon’s warning to be made from anything but cowardice. Another mistake. Leon was many things, but a coward was not one of them.
Leon was the first to be sick, but it wasn’t long before everyone needed to spend at least a few moments hurling off the side of the ship.
They sailed into a haze. The sky went gray, then orange.
“Turn back,” Leon had demanded. But it was only when everyone’s hair started to stand on end that the captain began to heed Leon’s advice. Red and blue lightning bounced around the surface of the ocean. Thunder rolled across the deck so loud it felt like they were standing on a drum.
The captain turned the ship around and went back the way they had come. It was only by some miracle they were not struck by this red and blue lightning. Eventually, everything calmed again. They looked back and saw no signs of the deadly scene, but not a single person had suggested they’d imagined it. It was quite possibly the most real thing anyone had felt in their lives.
Not many people in Leon’s circle spoke about these things. Everything the king needed in trade came from their surrounding territories, with more arriving from Hammashar after the recent alliance with the krepps. They were barbaric lizard-men, but at least they always spoke their minds. Better than many people, in Leon’s opinion. Nykal had not only expressed interest but had taken action initiating a similar alliance with the analytes. Let them and the elves travel through dangerous waters to the south and bring back goods to trade. And more importantly, let them worry about getting past the manastorms if they so desired.
Leon imagined these tales were more prevalent in analyte and elven kingdoms in the southern side of Dorrinthal, but here in Lycast, where owning a ship did little good unless you knew how to fish, manastorms were considered more fantastical. Here people were more concerned about other realms and demigods interfering in the lives of men.
Leon and the king had gone over these details so many times that there was no point in discussing any of it anymore. If Jon returned—not if, when—he returned, then these conversations could continue.
The king opened the door. Nykal Lennox had lost so much weight since the end of the war that he could now be considered a thin man. For a while, Leon feared the king was ill.
“Come in, Leon,” Nykal said. “Shut the door.”
Not only had the king lost much of his weight, he had cut his silken hair and trimmed his beard. Never had Leon seen a man gray as quickly as Nykal Lennox had. He looked as if he’d aged fifteen years in less than one. He would be unrecognizable to someone who had not seen him for months, especially considering he often went without his crown or royal robe. He looked no richer than Lord Langston in the brief moments Leon caught sight of him within the keep, which Nykal barely seemed capable of leaving because of constant meetings. He usually wore dull colors, a cape of brown, or a robe of dark blue or red. He appeared tired all the time, and Leon was pretty sure he had never seen the man eat in the dining hall since the queen had gone to Tryn.
Leon shut the door after himself. The king wore a plain brown tunic with a gray belt around his waist to hold up loose pants.
“You look like shit.”
“Keep your voice down,” the king murmured as he motioned for Leon to move away from the door.
“Where did you even find clothes like that?” Leon asked through a whisper. They were too plain to belong to the king’s wardrobe. “And why are we keeping our voices down?”
“I need you to escort me out of the castle, secretly.”
“Airinold’s taint, what’s happening now?”
“I need to meet with someone.”
“So meet with them here.”
The king’s face twisted in obvious frustration. “Leon, can you do this?”
“What are we even doing?”
“I want you to take me out of the castle by the window.”
“Why? This better not be so you can stick your cranny hunter in some woman.”
“Can you cease being grotesque for one night? I need your cooperation now more than ever. Is it possible for you to take us over the castle wall without risk of injury?”
“I suppose now that you’re not fat anymore, but what the hell are we doing going out of the castle in the middle of the night?”
“It is not the middle of the night; it is the beginning. Like I said, I need to meet with someone, and I don’t want anyone finding out.”
“And like I said—”
“It is not for anything like that!”
“Then explain.”
The king exhaled. “I have a daughter.”
“I know, and she thinks she can get away with just about anything—sort of like her father.”
“I have another daughter.”
“What?” Leon exclaimed.
“Keep your voice down,” the king reminded him.
“Oh Airinold’s taint, how old is she?”
“She’s two years older than Callie.”
“I’m disappointed, sire. You were married to the queen then. I could never disrespect my woman like that.”
“I don’t want to hear it from you, Leon. You are the most disrespectful person in my employment. If it wasn’t for your talent with sorcery, I’m sure you would still be in my dungeon.”
“Disrespecting someone who’s being an idiot makes me an ass. I’m fine with that, but my woman has opened her heart to me, among other things. Disrespecting her after that would turn me into something much worse than an ass, and that’s a cheater. I could never call myself an honorable man if I was a cheater.”
“It was a single moment of weakness.”
“I don’t know about you, but when I lay with a woman it takes longer than a single moment.”
“Enough, Leon! I have already punished myself plenty. I will have you take me out of the window now. I’m certain you’ve heard of the Ill Tidings Tavern nearby. I hear you frequent it often. That is where we are headed. Can you land in front of the tavern from this window?”
“That will require actual flying. I’m not Jon Oklar. Better not risk it. Best I can do is land just beyond the wall. We can walk from there.”
“That is fine. I am ready.” The king opened his window.
Leon shook his head in disappointment as he crouched in front of his majesty. “Out of all the reasons I thought you might end up on my back, this was not one of them.”
“I am just as disappointed as you are.”
Like most nights recently, a warmth sat in the air as if the sun had never really set. With the curfew gone, there were people on the streets at this hour, but it was too dark to see them from this high up. The only way Leon knew they were there was because, like the king had said, Leon was often frequenting the nearby tavern, usually at the end of the day.
He waited for the patrolling guard on the wall to walk away, then he swept himself up and out of the window with wind, king and all. Nykal clutched him tightly and sucked in air through his teeth as they shot out across the night sky.
“Careful! Be careful, Leon!” the king hissed.
“One cannot be careful with wind sorcery! You must jump into it like a flip, brave and headstrong. Hesitation is death!” Leon tensed his mind and increased the power of his wind, propelling them well above the thick wall below. Now it was time for the hard part.
“We descend,” he warned the king. “We might land hard.”
Leon weakened his spell and let the pull of the earth take them. Then he shifted the trajectory of his wind to fight against gravity, slowing them to the speed of wadded paper tossed off a desk in frustration. Leon would be fine with hitting the ground and repairing his injuries, but he had the most valued person in the kingdom on his back. He attempted to slow them even further, but his wind became too strong, putting them at a dead stop in the air.
They hung there for a moment, neither letting out a breath. Wind was tricky, much harder to control than fire or water. It was especially difficult when used for flight because of the way it bent around anything in its path. It was like trying to lift a man using gauntlets far too big for one’s hands. Everything was awkward.
The sheet of constant wind slipped around the two of them, and suddenly they fell free. Leon quickly made another spell of wind to slow their descent, but it was too little too late, for there wasn’t enough room for the wind to form between them and the ground. They struck hard. Leon twisted his ankle before he fell backward. The king’s bony body protected him, but Leon smacked the back of his head against the king’s forehead.
“Fuck!” Leon groaned as he rolled off the king.
“Goddammit,” Nykal complained. “You said it would be safe.”
“That was safe. You’re alive, aren’t you?”
“You could’ve broken something, and you told me you cannot mend broken bones.”
“It takes a lot more than that to break a bone. Hold still and I will heal you first because that’s how much of a gentleman I am.”
“Gentleman? I could laugh if I wasn’t—”
“Fine, I’ll heal myself first—what?”
The king yanked on Leon’s shirt and pointed behind him.
Leon shot a glance over his shoulder at a young man with a terrified look on his face. He fell to a knee and produced a small knife from a holster near his ankle. “I saw you fly,” he muttered in a shaky voice. “Dark mages…I…I, stay back.”
“We aren’t dark mages, you dolt,” Leon said. “Put that away before you hurt yourself. I’m a wind mage.”
“Then why do you have someone on your back near the castle if not to find a way in?”
“We came from the castle,” Leon explained. “I’m practicing flying and need the extra weight for training, don’t you see? Besides, all the dark mages are gone. Dteria no longer exists.”
Not in its previous form at least, but Leon didn’t want to argue semantics with this boy.
“I suppose that makes sense,” the boy muttered as he walked off but shot looks of suspicion over his shoulder.
“He’s probably going for the guards,” Nykal said. “I do not want to have to explain why we are out here. You can heal my bruise later. Let’s go.”
“Wait. I have to heal my ankle first.”
Leon’s healing spell was not the most optimal one, with only two octaves of F instead of three. He did not have the range to reach Lower F and probably never would. The healing spell had changed since the Deviants left. It was slightly harder to cast, and it wasn’t quite as efficient.
Leon used to feel the spell repairing flesh and accelerating the body’s process of healing. He prided himself on his ability to communicate with his mana. He trusted what it told him, and nowadays it told him that this healing spell did little more than mimicry. It repaired injuries by observing the healthy tissue around the target spot and fixing what was different.
Charlie had predicted that there could be another healing spell in a different tree that worked not by turning mana into flesh but by accelerating the body’s process of healing. Charlie assumed that Souriff, the Deviant responsible for what used to be called dvinia, had connected both healing spells into one. This theory went along with something Leon agreed with, which was that the Deviants simplified most of sorcery by condensing multiple spells into one. By doing this, however, they prevented sorcerers from discovering the forgotten spells—those that were not simplified by the Deviants.
“Let’s go,” Leon said.
They hurried off. It was a good thing the king did not spend much time outside the castle these days. There was little chance he would be recognized by anyone who stayed out this late, as mostly the tavern frequenters were about.
But the same couldn’t be said for Leon.
“Hey Leon!” said a bearded man who’d drank with Leon a few times. “Where you rushing off to? Someone giving away a free drink?” He laughed at his own joke.
“Business.”
“So your lady then, eh?”
“Real business this time,” Leon replied. “Can’t chat.”
Leon took the king down a dark alley where they slowed to a stop. “I can heal your forehead in here.”
“Your lady…are you still seeing Aliana’s mother?” Nykal asked.
Leon gave him a perplexed look. “Why do you care?” It might’ve been the first time Nykal had asked something personal since they’d known each other.
“What you do with the mothers of my sorcerers pertains to me.”
“Not in this case it doesn’t. Don’t think of her as the mother of your sorcerer. Think of her as the woman who’s going to be my wife.”
“How does Aliana feel about that?”
She was going to be pissed off, that’s how. It would be the same reaction she had when Leon had expressed his interest in her beautiful mother, but she would learn to get over it. Gwen Forrester brought out a side of Leon that was taking some time to get used to. He was nice, very nice. Eventually his days of serving the king would be over and he would buy her a mansion. He could already afford one with the king’s generous weekly payments, but the plight of Dorrinthal had gotten in the way.
“Stop distracting me so I can heal,” Leon said.
He fixed the welt on the king’s forehead, as that would be difficult to explain. Then he repaired the slight damage to the back of his own head. Each repair took seconds.
They crossed through the rest of the alley and avoided eye contact with a few people as they finished the short trip to Ill Tidings Tavern.
“Is that her?” Leon asked soon after they entered the tiny tavern, pointing to a hooded figure at the corner table. There were two older men who often drank here and made remarks about foreigners. A couple of younger fellows sat next to each other with an open space between them and the others. Given the lack of conversation, Leon’s entrance should’ve turned every head, but not a single person seemed to give a single fuck about who else had come in. Leon could almost taste the sorrow in the air.
The woman took down her hood, revealing herself as a young lady with a dark look about her otherwise plain face.
“That’s her,” said the king as he stepped around Leon and started to make his way to the table. Leon grabbed his arm.
“The hell are you doing?” Leon whispered. “This could be a trap. We are most vulnerable now. Keep your distance from everyone here and let me go first. Why did you bring me if not to keep you safe?”
“It was a momentary lapse of judgment.”
“Like what created this girl in the first place?”
“Just go.” Nykal gave Leon a push.
Leon trusted he could hold his own against any sorcerer. It was a quick jab from a hidden dagger that he feared the most. The two older men were harmless, except of course toward analytes. They couldn’t seem to stop spewing hate about a group of people who they’d had just about no contact with. Leon usually walked right out if he saw they were here.
He watched for movement from the four men at the bar, but there was none. He pulled out the chair closest to the wall for the king to sit across from the girl. Leon sat next to the king, on his outer side.
“You must be Leon,” she said and offered her hand. “I’m Tienna. I’ve heard you are the most powerful sorcerer in Lycast right now.”
“I’m not here for pleasantries. Put your hand away.”
She put up her palms as she made a face. “All right, but it doesn’t have to be this way.”
The king asked, “What will it take for you to leave Lycast?”
Tienna appeared shocked. “Leave? Why would I leave? I just arrived.”
“Why would you leave?” Leon asked rhetorically. “Maybe because the king wants you gone? Audacious is an understatement, you f—”
“Leon,” the king interrupted. “You are here to protect, and that is all.”
“Yeah, all right,” he grumbled.
She had short hair with bangs, brown and straight. There was no charm to her facial features, but there was something interesting, and that was her eyes. They looked similar to those of her father.
Callie, on the other hand, must’ve taken more after her charming mother. It was not something Leon had noticed before, but seeing this girl, Callie’s older half-sister, made it obvious.
“Tienna,” Nykal continued, “I have already made it clear that we cannot have any type of relationship. I am prepared to send you back to Koluk with twenty gold, paid out in silver. That should be more than enough to keep you sustained for the rest of your life. I will have the letter in exchange.”
What letter? Leon wondered.
“You would send me back to Koluk with the criminals, like you did my mother?”
“Your mother was given all the support she needed to raise you properly.”
“My mother was a fool, and you know it. She wasted your ‘support’ on alcohol. I had to fend for myself because no one cared for me.”
Leon asked, “What happened to her?”
The king shot him a disapproving look, but Nykal had to know Leon well enough by now that he wasn’t going to keep his mouth shut this entire time.
