Born of Magic (Channeler Series) Page 11

  The room was filled with clouds of burning steam, the clanging of hammers, and sparks flying through the air. It never ceased. My lungs were burned with each breath, my eyes watered from the scalding heat. This place was hell.

  By the time we had finished the sixth batch the day was gone. The girl struggled to walk as Caspere dragged us back down the hallways we had taken earlier that day. He skipped all the way. The girl’s skin was like snow and her face was stone carving staring off into the distance, eroded by years of harsh weather.

  Caspere guided the girl and I into a large, brick wall room. There were no bars, no wooden floor, just stone. I figured he kept her here to prevent her from ever burning herself a way out of this nightmare. Two men rolled a giant stone door over the exit and we were trapped in the darkness.

  I rushed over to the girl and pleaded to her, “I’m so sorry.”

  She didn’t say anything, just wrapped her sweaty arms around me and cradled me while she cried. I must have been the first companion she had seen in some time. She was covered in sweat, dried blood, and smelled as if she hadn’t bathed in months. I held her back.

  “Help’s coming,” I whispered to her.

  “Whatever will keep you going,” she replied between her sobs.

  “No, I—” I was about to tell her about Tevon, but she squeezed me. She had been promised salvation before, I could tell, and she did not want to hear it again.

  This girl was now more important to me than anyone else I had even known before. We had bonded over our suffering. It felt as strong as the bond I had made with Edgar, and I vowed I would take her away from this.

  “Helendra.”

  “Thank Etherea you’re okay,” she answered. Her voice was still very faint.

  “There is another girl here. She needs help as well. Will Tevon save her, too?”

  “Of course,” she said—she sounded surprised. “We would never abandon someone in need. Tevon will be there tonight. Be ready.”

  My heart leapt for joy. I pulled away from the girl’s arms and looked at her through the darkness. In Etherea I could see the bruises on her face and arms, the tears streaming down her cheeks. I smiled and wiped them away.

  “They’re coming tonight to rescue us.” I almost shouted the news to her. I stopped and placed my hands over my mouth in fear I would alert someone and give away our rescuers element of surprise. That they may have been the only advantage that they had.

  She rubbed her eyes and looked up at me. “You’re serious aren’t you? Who’s coming?”

  “A mage from the mages academy. His name is Tevon.” A merry smile came on my face that spanned from ear to ear.

  “The mages academy? I thought that was just a fairytale.”

  I was surprised she had heard of them at all. Before Aton had told me, I had never heard of such a thing. “Apparently they’re real, and they’re coming for us.”

  She looked at me and shook her head, “You’d better stop filling my head with dreams.” Her voice was bitter and stern. She curled up into a tight ball and crossed her arms.

  It was no use—she wouldn’t believe me. I sat down next to her and stared at the door, waiting for it to open to a friendly face. “You’ll see,” I said in confidence, trying to reassure myself as much as her.

  The night passed as I stared at the door. Still, no one came. I had no way of knowing time it was, but I could tell in my heart that it was close to sunrise and still no rescue. The girl had slept beside me all night, casting aside my promise of rescue. I was glad she had, I was wrong.

  “This may be harder than we realized, Jasminis,” Helendra said. Knowing her, she had sensed my loss of hope. “Caspere has you well guarded. We are working on a way to get you out of there, but the stone prison you are in makes it difficult.”

  I refused to let hope return to me again. I had been let down enough, and I made no reply to her. She made no further efforts to ensure me otherwise, and I knew I was alone. We were alone.

  The girl awoke after my one sided conversation with Helendra. She looked up at me and could tell I had stayed awake all night in anticipation. “Idiot,” was all she said to me.

  The door opened, forming a small crack, and my heart leapt for a moment, then sank even further after I saw two plates of horrific food come sliding in. The girl grabbed one and began shoveling it down. The smell of rotten vegetables emanated from it. I was beginning to piece together all the different smells that had come together to make that horrific stench of Caspere’s: the sulfur smell from the factory, the snakes from his chambers, and the rotten food from the kitchen. He lived the same hell as us, only his twisted mind enjoyed it.

  I forced the food down my stomach, my body aching for the nourishment. We spent the day sitting in separate corners as the day inched along. The girl seemed to enjoy it, as she did not have to return to that factory that scalded her face and melted her lungs. Sitting in a dark, uncomfortable cell all day was how she relaxed.

  There were no thoughts I could find for comfort as we passed the day away, only wishing for this time of peace to last as long as it could. There were no visitors or rescuers, only the two meals and bucket of nasty water that were tossed in to us.

  As we both grew tired, I could tell night had come again. The girl was now sleeping in the corner; likely frustrated with the false hope I had given her. We didn’t speak to one another that day, and with night here now, I found it a good idea to get some sleep. There would be no knight in shining armor tonight.

  The silence lulled my eyes shut. Then the girl sat up from her restless sleep. “You know, together we could end this.”

  I looked over at her. Her eyes were focused on the ground in front of her as she sat against the cold brick wall.

  “What do you mean?”

  She trembled as she spoke, “Together—“ she stopped and tugged at a loose strand of her tattered hair. “We could heat this room enough to where we wouldn’t have to spend any more miserable days here. We could find peace.”

  My jaw dropped and I gasped. She had lost all hope, any will to live. At that moment I remembered the vow I had made to myself to save her from this. She may have been strong at once, but now she needed me to be the strong one. “No, I’ll get us out of here.”

  She sighed in exasperation, “I don’t know why you keep lying to yourself—”

  Before she could finish, a rumbling came from the door. It was opening, but much slower than it usually did. It budged open several inches, but then it stopped. Grunting could be heard from the other side, followed by heavy breathing. I jumped to my feet and rushed over to it.

  “Help me. We need to open this door,” I said.

  She shook her head at me, “You don’t want to know what’s on the other side.”

  I didn’t care; some hope was better than nothing. Even if this led to another disappointment, I knew that I had to keep hoping, for her sake. I placed my hands against the hard stone door and tried to roll it to the side. I pushed with all of my meager might, trying as hard as I could in desperation to open this gateway to freedom. It took a moment, but it finally budged open just enough for me to squeeze out. I looked to the opening and my heart nearly stopped from the shock.

  Aton’s face peered in. “There you are. Come on, we have to go now.”

  While I didn’t trust him, he had come back for me, and he was a way out. The girl jumped to her feet and bolted over to the door with me. I crawled out after shooting her a smile that just screamed, “Told you so.” She tried to follow behind me, but could not squeeze through the small gap as I had. Aton began to run out of the room.

  “Wait,” I whispered at Aton.

  He turned back to me, “There’s no time. We must go now.”

  “I’m not leaving her.”

  Aton shot me a frightening glare. He grabbed my arm and dragged me along. I slid my tiny wrist out of his firm grip and stomped a foot on the ground. “You only get me if we take her with us.”

  Aton grunted.
His eyes looked like they were filled with fire and he was going to scorch me into a pile of ash. “We don’t have time for this.” He walked back over to the door and used every ounce of strength he had and pulled it open just enough for the girl to slip out with us. She wiggled her way through the opening and hugged Aton. He pushed her away. “Now let’s get out of here,” he said.

  We followed him down a long, dark hallway. Shadows lurked around every corner and crevice, waiting to reach out and grab me, keeping me trapped here. Aton stopped dead in his tracks when we saw the outline of a person moving towards us. He signaled for us to wait and sprinted off towards the figure. The man stepped out from the shadows and came into view, one of Caspere’s guards; he looked past Aton and right at me. Aton jumped onto the man’s chest and knocked him to the ground. There was a short cry of pain, and then silence.

  The girl and I watched the event in horror—we knew what Aton had done. There was no time to recover from what we had seen. We continued with our escape, stepping over the body, trying to avoid it as much as possible. Aton led us into an empty room and we climbed out a window and into an alleyway.

  I felt a bit of relief as we exited the place that had become our hell. Thinking this experience couldn’t get any more complicated, there stood the red bearded mage at the end of the narrow alley.

  “Go with Tevon, he is there to help. You must trust him,” Helenda said. Her voice was a little stronger this time.

  Aton began to run towards the red bearded mage, Tevon. Aton grasped his dagger with a dead-tight as he ran towards him. I could see that he had removed himself from Tevon’s view.

  “No, stop,” I shouted.

  He ignored me and I realized that Aton didn’t care for me, or anyone. The entire time I had been with him, he had taught me nothing more than how to help him, not how to take care of myself, or about what I truly was, or the way of the world. A horrifying image came into my mind when I realized what had always concerned me about Aton. He was the man I had been hired to follow when I first entered Etherea. The night when my life changed, he was the man I watched stab and rob an unarmed man. He had been hiding his true identity from me somehow, but I could see past it now. I had to stop him before it was too late.

  I watched the mists of Etherea go into Aton and allow him to hide himself from Tevon, leaving Tevon defenseless. I concentrated and somehow felt as though I could do the opposite of my power. I concentrated on the mist, warning it. Leave him, he’s evil, I thought. To my amazement, the magic began to flow away from him, a bubble now around him that was void of any energy. I had managed to cut off magic from Aton. He no longer could mask who he was from me, or hide himself from Tevon.

  Tevon smiled and dodged Aton’s first strike with ease, then grabbed him by the arm and stepped to the side. He used Aton’s momentum against him and threw him to the ground. Aton rolled a couple of feet, bouncing against the hard cobblestones. Aton jumped back to his feet and took another stab at Tevon like a drunken madman—it was apparent that he hadn’t had to fight a real fight in some time.

  Tevon clenched his fist in a tight ball and punched Aton in the nose. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground unconscious, blood pouring from his nose. Tevon looked to us and smiled, “You did the right thing, Jasminis. Now, come you two, we must get you out of here and to safety.”

  I saw Tevon in a new way now. He was forthcoming, kind, and his eyes twinkled in the moonlight as he held his hand out to us. We ran to him and we began to make our way out of the city. All around us we could hear guards storming through the streets, looking for us.

  We were close to one of the town’s exits when a group of guards bearing Caspere’s marking stood before us. We stopped running as the four of them blocked our escape. The handsome boy that had hired me to follow Aton back in Saltren appeared behind the guards. He placed his hands on the ground and a large puddle of crystal clear water sprung up underneath the guards. They slipped and fell to the ground in a pile of steel and stupidity, struggling to get back up. We wasted no time and ran past them, the handsome boy now joining us as we all disappeared into the forest.

  ~7~

  Every muscle in my body ached and felt weak, but we continued to run through the forest, placing as much distance as possible between that horrid city and us. I looked over at the girl; there was a smile on her face as she ran next to me, free for the first time in what I could tell was a while.

  The night was still young when we stopped, all of us now out of breath except for Tevon—he didn’t seem to grow tired. Tevon threw together a pile of kindling for a fire. The girl with us took the opportunity to reveal her power by igniting the collection of dry twigs and leaves.

  Tevon laughed and clapped. “Delightful,” he said as he smiled at her.

  The girl’s face lit up; she probably hadn’t received any sort of compliment or kind gesture in some time. Unlike when I had first met Aton, I was filled with the overwhelming feeling that I had made the right decision. These people were whom I should be with.

  Tevon sat down across from us. The handsome boy was off collecting some more kindling—he hadn’t talked much yet and seemed content being off on his own. The night sky was a welcoming sight; one that I didn’t realized I had missed so much until I was beneath it again. The crackling of the fire drowned the subtle chirping of crickets out. Small puffs of steam rose from the burning embers. I knew it was because some of the wood was damp, but it brought back a brief memory of the weapons factory. The nightmare was short and fleeting, and scared away by Tevon’s warm voice.

  “What’s your name?” Tevon asked the girl with a cheerful smile.

  “Denarah,” she answered comfortably.

  I had once again forgotten to ask someone’s name. I needed to get better with that, I reminded myself, again.

  “Do you have a home that we should be taking you back to?”

  She looked down at the ground, taking her time to respond, “You just rescued me from my only home.”

  Tevon walked over to her and sat down on the large flat stone that she was sitting on. “Well, there’s room for you at the academy, so long as you pass the trial.”

  Denarah and I asked in unison, “Trial?”

  He chuckled at our response. “Yes, it’s nothing to fret over. One of the mages at the academy has the ability to look into your heart and see if you’re of good nature or not. I’m sure you’ll both pass. But I must warn you, the trial will leave you feeling a bit uneasy.”

  The boy returned and set a heap of wood down next to the fire, then pulled some bread from his pack. Denarah’s eyes grew wide. “I’d love some,” she said without being asked. Her voice was giddy and eager.

  I could tell now that I had competition. The boy then shot me a hateful glare—maybe I wasn’t even in the running for him after all. Tevon took notice. “You’ll have to excuse Yurios, he’s a little disgruntled with the current state of affairs,” he said, and gave Yurios a stern glance.

  “State of affairs?” Denarah asked. She sounded concerned for her apparent new obsession.

  “Well—“ Tevon started.

  Yurios answered, cutting Tevon off, “With the discovery of this new channeler,” he pointed over at me, “I'm losing my place as Tevon’s apprentice, and being replaced by her.”

  “Yurios is going to be given a new master to continue his training, while I tend to some very pressing matters that will require the assistance of the channeler, should she choose to help us, that is.”

  I enjoyed being given the chance to choose my path. “What should happen if I choose not to?”

  Tevon looked at me and tilted his head—he seemed thrown off by the question. There was a somber silence while he stared at the ground. “You’d be taken wherever you like. But, I can’t stress just how much you are needed right now.”

  A cloud of soot and tiny pebbles shot into the fire, sending the flames into a short chaotic dance. Yurios grumbled to himself as he glared at me through the sparks. “We don
’t even know if it’s true. Either way, we could handle this war without her.”

  “War?” Denarah asked.

  Tevon stood up and moved to a position an equal distance from all Denarah, Yurios, and me. “There’s word of a great war coming, one that will ravage through these lands.” He looked over to Yurios, “And yes, we will need the help of a channeler if we’re to save as many lives as possible.”

  Yet another dangerous path for me, I thought to myself. My gift came with a cost, and in order to earn the fame and greatness that I wanted, I was really going to have to work for it. It seemed as though my life would be in constant danger. “Why you? Why not—”

  “I’m sure you’ve grown close to Helendra. She’s told me about your conversations with her. I’ve been chose to teach you because I am one of the most experienced masters, and because when you pair your ability with mine, there’s much we can do together. Together we can help meet the needs of the people that will soon be facing the dangers of this war.”

  Yurios snickered. “By herself she’s useless.”

  Tevon kept his focus on me and winked as a branch from a nearby tree whacked Yurios on the head. The little trick gave me a glimpse as to what the extent of Tevon’s powers were. I thought about the different things he could do with the power I could give him. He had grown trees from nothing when he ambushed Aton in the mountains. He could probably create an entire forest with my help, or feed a city with a crop grown overnight.

  The possibilities made me excited. “I’m in.”

  Tevon released a burly cheer at my answer while Yurios stormed off, away from the camp. Tevon chased after him into the forest a ways—too far for Denarah and I to hear what he and Yurios were talking about when Tevon managed to catch up with him.

  Denarah turned to me, “You sure got him worked up.”

  “Yeah, I’m already making friends,” I said.

  “Guess that means he’s mine,” she said with a grin. “I hope you don’t mind; I saw the way you looked at him.”