The Mortal Mage, page 14
part #3 of The Mortal Mage Series
“Now Elves are involved?” Annah’s voice rose until it squeaked.
“I’m sure they’ve always been watching and waiting,” Desil commented. “They don’t care about the war. They just want akorell.”
“So that’s what you’ve got in your bags,” Kiell said.
“Barely escaped with it,” Beatrix told her. “Is your mother nearby?”
“I don’t know where she is now. She gets involved with the locals and doesn’t usually come back until night, sometimes the next day.”
There was a knock at the door.
“And that means I must be leaving. I am to help a group of the locals hunt in the forest.” Kiell started toward the door.
“Wait,” Desil said as he was starting to realize something. Kiell and her mother were clearly the most powerful people in this town. Desil had felt a portal open somewhere in this vicinity. It had to be one of the two of them.
“I can’t wait.” She walked past Desil. “My help is needed.”
“We just need a portal.”
Kiell stopped and looked over her shoulder. The knocking continued. A voice called out for her.
The way Kiell stared at Desil, as if considering silencing him permanently, was making him want to reach for his dagger.
Without a word, she turned and went to answer the door. “Something important came up,” she told her hunting group. “Give me one hour.”
A man’s voice sounded surprisingly understanding as he said, “All right. We’ll come back.”
Kiell stormed back to Desil, who stood so he felt less vulnerable.
“Who told you?” Kiell whispered through her teeth.
“No one.”
“Annah, is he honest?” Kiell questioned.
“He’s telling the truth.”
“Then how can you possibly know?” Kiell asked Desil.
“I felt a portal open last night somewhere around here. You seem powerful. Common sense told me it was either you or your mother.”
“You felt the portal? Were you hiding under my bed?”
“No.”
“Then how did you possibly feel the portal?”
“It affects the world strongly in another plane. I can feel portals from miles away, it seems.”
“It seems?”
“I’m still rather new at visiting this other plane.”
“You mean the spiritual world, where the dead live?”
“No, only the living are in this plane.”
Her brow furrowed. She turned and started to pace as she spoke to herself too quietly for Desil to hear.
“What’s the spiritual world?” he asked.
“It’s the only other plane I’ve visited. I didn’t know there was a third.” Kiell wore a little smile as she approached Desil again. “Tell me everything you know about this other plane.”
“Wait,” Beatrix said. “So you can make a portal?”
“I have the gift, but I’m still training. I don’t have the same mastery over it as Basen Hiller.”
“Can you make a portal to Kyrro?” Beatrix asked.
“Aye, to a few places in Kyrro.”
Desil didn’t know who jumped in celebration first; him, Beatrix, or Kirnich. But soon the three of them were grabbing each other and hopping up and down.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Kiell warned them, “I haven’t opened a portal to anywhere in Ovira in years. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to open one big enough for you to fit through.”
“We can wait if you need to practice,” Desil said. “We have plenty of akorell. Which locations in Kyrro are available to you?”
“I’ve established exits in Raywhite Forest, the Academy, and Kayvol.” She crouched over one of the glowing bags and reached inside. “How did you get it in bottles?”
“We melted it with a toxic potion. It returned to a solid state later.”
“It looks like much of the akorell lost its ability to absorb bastial energy.” Kiell took out a bottle with the silver metal lining its base. She turned the bottle upright, and the metal leaned against the other side of the bottle.
“It didn’t,” Desil assured her. “The glass of those bottles just didn’t crack enough during our trip to let bastial energy in.”
“Interesting.” Kiell looked through the rest of the bag, taking out cracked and whole bottles for investigation. “What are you doing with all of this akorell?”
“Getting it to a group called the Wind Knights,” Desil explained. “They should be able to keep it safe as we figure out how to use the akorell to build a device that can cause explosions. We’ll use the threat of this power to stop the war.”
Her eyes widened as she looked at the bags again. “You had these near King Karoltow?”
“No,” Kirnich said. “We made sure to keep them behind when we headed to the citadel and did not mention them. But withholding the truth is what got me and Beatrix thrown into prison. Your king was going to rape her. Does this surprise you?”
“No. Don’t call him my king. I’m glad he’s dead.”
“We have to decide where to go,” Beatrix interrupted. “Where will the Wind Knights be now, Kirnich?”
“They have no choice but to fight for Kyrro. Adriya’s probably with them, but I don’t know where exactly. They could still be sieging Tenred, which would mean getting to Corin Forest would be best. But if the war has shifted—if the wall has been taken down—then they could be garrisoned past it. Or they could’ve been pushed back to the Fjallejon Mountains. If things have gone very bad, however, they could be all the way back at the Academy. Or the war could even be over. It’s doubtful, though. It’s been less than a week since we left.”
“So it seems to me that the Wind Knights are most likely on the Fjallejon Mountains or somewhere nearby,” Beatrix said. “We should be able to spot the army from the mountains. That means Kayvol would be the best place to go. Desil can climb up the mountains and figure out where the Wind Knights are.”
“But without being seen?” Kirnich asked dubiously. “The mountains are mostly flat up top. If your brother’s army is up there, then I don’t see how Desil is supposed to get to a Wind Knight without being noticed. Now that I think of it, that will be an issue no matter where we find your brother’s army.”
“I can go at night,” Desil said. “I’ll climb the mountain while the two of you keep the akorell safe. Depending on where the Wind Knights are, we will develop a plan to hand off the akorell to them.” He felt butterflies in his stomach as he realized how close they were to getting rid of the responsibility for this akorell.
“Then it’s settled. We’ll go to Kayvol,” Beatrix decided.
Desil would love to see his mother in their tavern, but the risk was too great. Allephon probably had people watching the place. In fact, Allephon probably had people watching most places Desil and the others would want to visit in Kyrro, the Academy as well.
“We should plan to arrive by sundown,” Kirnich said. “Kiell, where in Kayvol can you make a portal?”
“Near the lake, on the Fjallejon Mountains side.”
“The northern side, good.”
“Ovira is east of here,” Desil noted. “It will be later there than it is here, but I don’t know by how many hours.”
“It’s probably night already,” Kirnich said. “We could leave now.”
“Then let’s do that.”
Kiell had just uncorked a cracked bottle when she glanced over at the three of them waiting for her. “Let me practice a few times at least.”
“Hurry,” Beatrix told her, then turned to address Kirnich. “There’s an issue. None of us has had anything to eat, and Desil hasn’t slept in a full day, like we have. We need a place to rest in Kayvol.”
“What about here?” Annah said. “We don’t have much food, but you can stay and leave tomorrow.”
“If they killed the king, they are criminals,” Kiell said as she took a wand from her pocket. “It’s best they leave as soon as possible.”
“And we would hate to take what little food you have,” Beatrix added. “There is one place we should be able to go in Kayvol, where the akorell won’t be at risk of being stolen. Desil, why am I the one suggesting going to your mother’s tavern? I figured you would by now.”
There was a pang in his chest. “Of course I want to, but it’s too risky. Your brother probably has men watching the place.”
“So we’ll go in at night. Where else are we going to sleep and eat if we have six bags of akorell with us?”
“I figured we would hide it in the mountains.”
“And then what?” Beatrix asked. “The only place we can purchase food in Kayvol is your mother’s tavern. Otherwise we’d have to walk miles to get to the capital, where any number of city guards or troops loyal to my brother could see us. We couldn’t make it there before daybreak, and we especially couldn’t wait at an inn a whole day and then return to Kayvol the next night. It’s a risk to go to your mother’s tavern, but it’s the lowest risk of our options if we’re going to eat.”
Kiell opened a black portal no bigger than her hand. “Ah,” she grumbled. “My mind isn’t quite there yet.”
Desil looked to Kirnich. “I can’t argue against seeing my mother.”
Kirnich shrugged. “And I can’t argue with Beatrix’s logic.”
Desil’s hunger returned as he realized how soon he would be home. The visit would be too short, but it was far better than no visit at all.
Kiell practiced a few more times, pulling bastial energy out of glowing akorell in the cracked bottles. After four attempts, she said, “I feel the connection strongly enough. This should work.”
“We’re ready,” Beatrix answered for them.
But Kiell looked down at the open bags. “I don’t think you are. I’ve heard that the Academy headmaster can keep a portal open for a few minutes, but I’m lucky when mine last more than a few seconds. Collect the bags and stand close.”
They took her advice. “Thank you,” Beatrix said. “I’m not sure if we would’ve made it back to Kyrro without you.”
“I’m happy to help anyone who has a chance at stopping war. Now let me focus.” Kiell cleared her throat and furrowed her brow. She snapped her wrist, and a portal opened in front of her shaky wand.
“Kirnich, you first,” Desil said. “Have to make sure you can fit.” The portal was about half the size Desil was used to jumping through. It hovered high, its base at his knees and its top at his head.
Kirnich groaned from the strain as he lifted the two bags of akorell in front of his chest and jumped into the portal with one on his back. It didn’t look as if he’d gotten his legs high enough, his boots remaining below the portal. But as soon as he entered, they were sucked up into it. There was a gruesome bend of his shins. Hopefully it was only the way the portal twisted images.
Beatrix seemed paralyzed by fear at what they’d seen, so Desil said, “I’ll go next.”
It was difficult to jump high with an akorell bag in his arms and another on his back, but he tried his best. He felt his feet stretching painfully as he leapt into the portal, but the sensation was gone as he tumbled out through the other side.
He rolled as vertigo attacked him. The glass bottles in his bags cracked against each other with a deafening sound. There were spinning shades of black and gray combining with one another before they expanded and swirled apart to make the familiar shapes of Desil’s hometown. The portal had spit him out on one side of the enormous lake near the mountains, with Kayvol on the other side of the water. There was a good chance no one would hear the portal.
Desil checked to make sure his feet were still attached as Beatrix came tumbling through after him. His limbs seemed to be in order. He could still move them, and there was minimal pain. He looked over at Kirnich rising and shifting his weight back and forth as if to test his own feet.
“That did not feel right,” the warrior said as he lifted a leg and turned his ankle. He grimaced.
“Can you walk?” Desil asked.
“Yes. You good to climb?”
“I will be after I see my mother.”
Kirnich nodded. “You must be looking forward to that. Even I look forward to seeing my mother when this is over, and she isn’t as nice as yours.”
Beatrix took in a loud breath as she looked down. It reminded Desil that she had recently lost her father, more recently than he had, and she didn’t have a mother to return to like he and Kirnich did.
“How come you didn’t ask Annah if she knew anything about your other siblings?” Desil wondered as they collected the bags of akorell. “Didn’t your brother tell you they were in Greenedge?”
“Before he let Jimmin torture me, yes he did tell me that,” Beatrix replied. “I didn’t care to ask Annah about my siblings because they wouldn’t do anything to help us if we found them. My older sister and younger brother are cowards. They’ve always done what’s easiest, like running.” Beatrix carried the bag of akorell toward the sloping leg of rock of the Fjallejon Mountains in front of them. “Let’s hide them here. We have to leave your tavern before sunrise, and I have little idea of how long that will be from now.”
Desil looked to the night sky. It was clear, speckled by bright stars.
Beatrix and Kirnich helped him pull out the softened stone and store the akorell bags in the small holes they created. If anyone came close, they would see what looked to be melted rock. Someone really inquisitive might decide to chip some away, but that was unlikely. It was even more unlikely for anyone to come close. There was nothing for anyone on this side of the lake.
The water was a serene silver, reflecting the trees around the rim of the lake. This wasn’t far from the spot where he and Leida took turns leaving memories for each other in the water, months before they ever met.
Desil felt as if he could leave long-lasting memories now. He was certain every sense and feeling would be as clear as reality. Why shouldn’t he? There was no one who could read memories besides Leida and Basen. Yes, he would leave one for Leida now.
Desil couldn’t remember the last time he’d left a memory, but he remembered how to begin. He started the process by going deep into his mind, past the black wall and into the other plane where he hovered over the ocean of energy. He would be able to make the memories without going into the ocean, but doing so would make them much more powerful.
What was he doing? This was a poor idea. He’d lost himself in trying to relive the past. He pulled himself out of the other plane and got back to work storing the akorell bags. For all he knew, Fatholl had an Elf roaming Kyrro, searching for memories. Fatholl himself might be on the hunt. It was foolish for Desil to make one. It was even more foolish for him to visit the other plane. Doing so could alert Fatholl to his location, not with any accuracy unless they were close. But it would be clear that he was no longer in Greenedge.
Desil let out a long sigh. He didn’t know when he would be able to practice in the other plane again. If Fatholl wanted him dead for what he could accomplish there, it would be a waste if Desil didn’t figure out what he could do with that plane.
When the akorell bags were hidden, they made their way around the lake. Beatrix and Kirnich let Desil take the lead. It seemed wrong to come home before they were done with their mission and when there could be men or Elves waiting for them, but there was no stopping now. The familiar scent of the water, the sight of his town asleep—he’d taken this same walk hundreds of times after his night climbs or swims, and nothing was going to keep him from at least seeing his tavern. He had to make sure it was still there, with his mother inside. And if there was no one waiting to capture them, all the better.
“Do you remember where it is?” Desil asked his comrades.
“Yes,” they answered.
“Then we should split up to take different paths there. Check roofs and alleys. If someone spots you…” Desil stopped as he realized there was no hope of running or taking a portal to escape. They could only fight.
Kirnich must’ve realized the same thing. “Just make sure no one sees us.”
They separated as they came into the town. Desil took the most direct path to his tavern. He would get there first, for he had the best idea where anyone could hide to spy on the place. Kayvol was a quiet town, yet eerily silent at night. Everyone knew that their neighbors could hear anything they did after sundown, so most people spoke quietly. Desil had heard husbands and wives screaming at each other, but this was a rare occurrence. There were no children here to cry during late hours, at least not anywhere near Desil’s tavern.
When the late king first decreed that a new city would be built around the lake here, he put rules in place. No one with children or with plans to conceive would be permitted to settle here, not until they were done digging the river and constructing the water mills.
But many of the people who lived around the entrance to the town were either old, alone, or didn’t want children anyway. These were the type of people who had been attracted to moving to Kayvol in the first place, because they would be guaranteed work for their lifetime.
Desil supposed that rule could be overturned as well, with the death of Beatrix’s father and now the war. A dead man’s promise held no weight. That’s why the current king of Kyrro and the current king of Tenred had so much trouble agreeing to peace. A future king could always come along and find a reason to fight. The only way for a king to keep his people permanently safe was to conquer the other territory. But if a power-greedy king controlled both territories, then the people might be better off going to war.
Desil figured that Leida’s father knew King Hawthen of Tenred well enough to tell that giving him control over Kyrro was not in everyone’s best interest. Otherwise Basen would’ve opted to give the akorell metal to Hawthen to use to end the war.
Desil met Kirnich down the road from his tavern.
“I didn’t see anyone,” Desil whispered.
“I didn’t, either.”
They waited there for Beatrix. Desil started to worry when she didn’t show up. Eventually he spotted her making hand signals. She showed her palms, as if asking them to wait. Then she snuck off behind a home.
