The Mortal Mage, page 8
part #3 of The Mortal Mage Series
By tomorrow morning, it would be two days and two nights since Beatrix and Kirnich had left for the citadel. If Desil didn’t hear anything from them when he was close tonight, he would have to try again tomorrow night. He didn’t know how many nights he should keep walking around the citadel, listening for them, before changing his plan. But the only other option was to walk up to the door and ask for them. It would be a few days at least before he was ready to risk that. He was not of royalty. He wasn’t even a citizen of Goldram. He was a foreigner. He could be killed, and nothing would be done to the man or woman who killed him. He might as well have been in Kreppen territory.
He waited for sundown, then climbed down the mountain. The nights were dark here. He had to descend mostly on feel alone. It was slow going, ensuring his feet were supported by the softened stone with each step. The ice made the rock slippery, and the wind wanted to pluck him right off. He was glad for his leopard-skin coat.
He stopped halfway down as the wind became furious. No one would ever know if he fell and died here. He was completely alone.
He missed the day when he’d waited for his and Beatrix’s injuries to heal, in the headmaster’s house at the Academy. He remembered helping Leida into her leather armor, even though she didn’t need his help. He could still sharply recall what it was like to be close to her. He would never forget the feeling of his hand over her heart, in that strange yet wonderful moment they shared in the middle of the night.
He took a breath when the wind abated and continued his descent. It was a relief when he made it to the bottom.
Hard snow covered the ground here, making it mostly flat and easy to traverse even in the dark. The citadel was a giant shadow against the night sky. He knew he was walking south, which meant his cave lay on the other side of the citadel. If he did manage to free Beatrix and Kirnich—if they were indeed imprisoned—he would have to take them all the way around the citadel to get back to the cave where he’d hidden the akorell. If they somehow weren’t followed—so many ifs—they should be able to retrieve the akorell, fetch the eppil, and start making their way east toward the sea, where they could get a boat… Desil sighed in frustration. They needed everything to go right. When was the last time that had happened?
Bastial hell, it was cold. He shivered violently, his teeth chattering audibly. He walked along the base of the citadel, slowly so as to listen. The wind was loud, making him wonder if he would hear anything but a shout from within. And why would Kirnich or Beatrix be shouting? That would make it obvious that they expected someone to rescue them.
Desil almost couldn’t believe his ears when, soon after arriving, he heard Kirnich.
“Beatrix! Beatrix, can you hear me?” the big warrior shouted.
Desil ran to get outside the exact location where he heard the other man’s voice. Kirnich seemed to be behind only one wall, the outer wall of the citadel, yet it was very thick. Hopefully Beatrix was somewhere close to him. It concerned Desil that Kirnich seemed to be in a panic as he shouted for the princess, but that only spurred Desil to work faster as he started softening the stone and digging it out with both hands.
He stopped. If he made the hole the wrong size or in the wrong place, part of the wall might collapse, or even the whole wall. He looked around to get a better sense of his location. He was far from any corner, and the base of the citadel was buried under at least a few feet of snow. If he made the hole just large enough for Kirnich to fit through, Desil figured the wall would still be standing when he was done.
He worked quickly, glad for all the practice over the last few months. It was comforting to see how quickly he had improved with his manipulations. Desil did train on his own before joining with Basen, but his progress had plateaued with the removal of his teacher from his life—his father. After Wade was sent to Kanoan, and Desil and his mother had thought him to be dead, Desil had tried to push himself to keep learning, to keep improving. He’d thought his training regimen was strict, but now he realized how casual it really was.
This quest to stop the war had given him purpose, had shown him how necessary his talents were. Lives depended on him now.
The way Kirnich was screaming about Beatrix and honor, and the way the warrior kicked what Desil assumed to be the door of his cell, made it clear that urgency was necessary. Desil scooped out the stone into a pile behind him. He’d gone a few feet into the wall, but he had little idea how much more there was.
His hands burned from the effort. Even through his manipulation, this stone could in no way be called soft. It would’ve been easier to dig dirt out of the ground than this. His fingers ached from jabbing them, his wrist sore from making fists among the claylike substance.
Through all his effort, he still shivered from the nearly unbearable cold. Nights in this place were inhospitable, his foggy breath blasting against the wall. He might’ve frozen by now if it hadn’t been for his new coat.
Finally, he broke through and crawled into a small cell. At the opposite wall, only a few steps away, Kirnich was ramming his shoulder against the wooden prison door.
“I will kill anyone who touches her!”
Desil didn’t know who Kirnich was threatening, but it was clear he was speaking of Beatrix.
“Move away from the door!” someone ordered from the other side. “I’ll kill you myself if you don’t stop!”
“Finally, you reply!” Kirnich did stop. “Do you have any honor?”
“Shut up.”
Desil couldn’t speak over Kirnich to let him know to turn around, or the guard on the other side might hear. So Desil took the risk of walking around in the hope of Kirnich seeing him from the side. He had a finger over his lips as he went into the corner of the cell.
Kirnich started to turn toward him, then gasped in shock. “Desil!”
Desil shushed him.
“Who’s Desil?” asked someone on the other side.
“Is that your name?” Kirnich yelled. “Someone told me that Desil guards these cells. I must know the name of the man I am to kill if he doesn’t stop what’s happening to the princess!”
Kirnich stumbled over to Desil and whispered, “She’s on the other side of this wall.” Kirnich suddenly grabbed the wall for what seemed to be balance. Desil made some light, concerned for the warrior. He looked horribly pale. He shivered from the cold, for he had nothing but a cloak over his battered leather armor.
Desil handed off his leopard-skin coat. “Put this on, then take this.” He tried to hand off his full water pouch, but Kirnich didn’t accept it. “I’ve had water but no food for days.”
So Desil handed him a hunk of icy leopard meat from his pocket instead. “Then eat this now. We need your strength.”
Desil started working on the wall as Kirnich got his teeth into the meat with a cracking sound. It was half frozen. With his other hand, Kirnich started swiping away the stone as Desil softened it.
“Higher,” Desil instructed. “We don’t want the wall to come down.”
A moment later, Kirnich was helping with both hands, the entire chunk of meat in his mouth. He sucked in air and blew it out violently through his nose, like a wild boar.
This wall could not be nearly as thick as the one Desil had just gotten through. He asked Kirnich, “What should we expect to see on the other side?”
Kirnich tried to speak, but he couldn’t say anything through his full mouth. His nose, however, spoke volumes. He pulled the air in and out sharply, though Desil knew him not to be fatigued. Finally, he swallowed and answered.
“A dead man with no pants.”
Soon enough, Desil felt his hand break through to the other side as he pulled away stone. He held his fingers up to his lips for Kirnich. The warrior nodded.
They quietly moved the last of the wall out of the way. Desil started to stick his head in to go first, but Kirnich took his shoulder and pulled him back. He shook his head at Desil, then pointed at the sword in the sheath on Desil’s belt as if he wanted it.
Both men stood, and Desil transferred the sword into Kirnich’s hands. He could hear someone in Beatrix’s cell.
“A pretty little princess.” The man hummed in delight.
Desil watched Kirnich wiggle through the small knee-high hole. Desil followed. He stayed close behind as Kirnich came up on someone kneeling over Beatrix. All her clothes had been removed, set neatly on a straw bed.
The man positioned himself over her and undid his belt. He slid down his pants, his fat rump glowing yellow from the lamp beside him. Kirnich edged closer, lifting the sword. The warrior was quiet on his feet. Desil stood still so as not to make a sound and watched Kirnich drive the sword through the back of this portly man.
He started to scream, but Kirnich let go of the sword to wrap his hands around the man’s mouth from behind, muffling the scream instantly. Kirnich pulled the man off Beatrix, both of them on their sides. The man tried to scream again, tried to elbow Kirnich. It was difficult for Desil to tell just how loud the sounds were, for he lost himself in a moment of shock.
“I missed his heart,” Kirnich said in a raspy whisper. “Desil!”
Desil edged closer.
“I missed his heart!” Kirnich said again. “Use your dagger. Come on.”
Desil knew what was being asked of him, but he couldn’t bring himself to draw his dagger. He took tiny steps toward Kirnich and the thrashing fat man with a sword poking out through the top of his stomach.
Desil finally got the dagger out if its sheath. He presented it to Kirnich.
“Do it,” Kirnich said instead of reaching up to grab it.
Desil already knew Kirnich would say that, and yet still he had offered it. The fat man’s eyes went wide as Desil knelt down.
“Hard,” Kirnich instructed him.
Desil wished he could be far from here, but he was wholly within his body now. Every movement was his choice, as he shifted the dagger and cocked his arm.
He thrusted the dagger into the man’s cushiony chest, then immediately shut his eyes and stepped back. He cringed as he felt the memory forming—the sensation of the blade breaking through bone over and over just as it had when he’d killed Girgis.
This time wasn’t any easier, as he listened to the last bit of life slipping out through muffled screams. In fact, it was even harder, for he knew what to expect.
He felt weak, wanting to go down to his knees. Nausea overcame him. But then he glanced over and saw Beatrix, stark naked and unconscious. Something snapped within him, and he was himself again. He grabbed her undergarments off the bed as Kirnich let go of the dead man to take hold of Beatrix. He and Desil got her dressed as Kirnich said her name quietly in the hope of waking her.
“What happened to her?” Desil asked.
“They didn’t give her water for days, then they must’ve mixed a sleep potion into the water they finally gave her. You can see what they intended to do with her. Help me get her out of here. I’m weak—the bastards never fed me.” Kirnich supported her head and torso, leaving her legs for Desil.
“Her skin is so damn cold,” Kirnich said, touching her arm. “Wait.” He took off the fur coat Desil had given him and wrapped it around Beatrix.
They hastily carried her toward the hole. Desil hoped she would wake soon, as they might need to run.
“Who did we just kill?”
“The king of this place.”
Desil almost dropped Beatrix out of shock.
“Keep going,” Kirnich urged.
Desil was speechless as he wiggled through the hole first. It was difficult to push and pull Beatrix through smoothly. He imagined she suffered a few scrapes, though it was too dark to see.
When she was through, Desil set her down. He told Kirnich, “Get the king’s lamp, in addition to my sword and dagger.” It would be difficult to carry the lamp along with Beatrix, but they would be grateful for it later. “And search the king’s pockets for matches and coins.”
Kirnich went through the hole, then eventually returned. “Matches and coins, as you predicted.”
“How many coins?”
“Just a few silver ones. I don’t know what they call them here.”
They carried Beatrix over to the last hole, where Desil went in first, backward. This one was more than a few feet long, so they had to drag Beatrix through by Desil pulling on her arms and Kirnich pushing her feet. Desil tried to support her head without hitting his own against the top, but he still bumped it against the jagged stone several times.
When they were through, Kirnich said, “I wish we knew if we had time to patch up these holes. Imagine what they would think when they came in and saw their king dead, with Beatrix and I missing, if there were no holes in the stone.”
Desil could hear some hatred for these people in Kirnich’s voice. “I see your visit didn’t go very well,” he teased.
“Never should’ve come here. Get her on my back.”
Desil took the lamp from Kirnich as the warrior knelt down. Desil positioned the arms of the unconscious princess over Kirnich’s shoulders. She slumped over his back. Kirnich stood, shivering, as he took hold of her legs. Desil felt his own shivers coming soon.
The cold was unbearable against his skin. It almost felt like he was being burned, especially when the wind picked up.
His shivers attacked with so much force he nearly bit his tongue. Kirnich said, “Can’t see a damn thing!”
“The ground is flat the whole way there. Just follow me.”
“I don’t know how long we have until they realize their king is dead. Someone will probably check on him after the better part of an hour.”
“If we’re lucky, he might’ve requested privacy for a few hours.”
“I don’t know if lucky is the right word for that.”
They trudged on silently for a moment.
“I saw you hesitate to kill him, Desil. You need to stop hesitating or it will get one of us killed.”
“How do you expect me to get more comfortable with it? I’ve killed two men, and I can’t imagine the third will be any easier.”
“He was trying to rape Beatrix! I don’t understand it, Desil. I would kill my own father without hesitation if he were about to rape her. You should want to kill him, and you should be glad he’s dead. The people of this territory are better off now that he’s not in it.”
“I am glad he’s dead, I’m just not glad I killed him.”
“He wasn’t just a rapist, this king. He took from his people rather than provide for them. Did you see that he sent them away from sanctuary and better land if they didn’t have payment?”
“I saw,” Desil said.
“There are many who will be happy to find out he’s dead. Maybe no one will come for us after all.” Kirnich groaned as the wind howled. He stopped and wavered as if he might fall.
“Let me take her,” Desil said.
Kirnich set Beatrix down. It was awkward getting her on Desil’s back with the two of them shivering, but they managed it eventually.
“How far now?” Kirnich asked.
Desil could only make out the mountains to get some idea as to where they were.
“It’s still a ways farther to the cave.”
“You got any more of that meat?”
“You finished the last of it.”
Kirnich cursed. “I won’t be of much use if I don’t eat something else soon.”
“You’ll eat febeetles when we arrive, and you shouldn’t expect to enjoy it.”
They were silent for a long while. With the wind against them, and with a constantly slipping Beatrix on Desil’s back, he could go no faster than a walk. Kirnich checked behind them several times, but he reported no search parties.
The nights were long here, Desil knew from last night. It was still dark when they finally reached the cave. It was a surprise Kirnich hadn’t offered to take Beatrix from Desil. He really must be weak. Desil said nothing of it as he set Beatrix down within the cave to great relief, propping her up against a wall where he’d hidden the akorell. His knees ached, but the worst was his lower back. He nearly collapsed beside Beatrix.
Kirnich lit the lamp. He put it close to Beatrix, then he and Desil huddled nearby for the small bit of warmth it provided. Desil gathered his breath, then condensed the bastial energy in the air around them into a single point. The energy seemed as if it fought hard to escape, because of his fatigued state, but the heat it made for his party was well worth the effort. Soon he and Kirnich stopped shivering.
The warrior asked, “If killing a rapist doesn’t make you happy, then what does?”
“I’m happy to see you and Beatrix again. I’ll be happy to see Basen and Leida, though I’m not sure how that’s going to happen. I’ll be happy to know Adriya is all right, but I might never hear from her again. I’ll be happy to see my mother, to eat well, to sleep comfortably.” He paused, unsure why his emotions were getting the better of him as his eyes teared. “I’ll be most happy to put an end to this war.”
“All right, well said.”
They were silent and still for some time, then Kirnich patted Desil’s leg.
“Well said,” he repeated. “Thank you for coming for us.”
“Of course.”
Beatrix groaned.
Kirnich crouched in front of her. “Do you feel all right?”
“No. Where am I?”
“The cave. Desil got us out.”
Only one of her eyes opened. Her gaze drifted from side to side, then eventually focused on Desil. “Oh,” she whispered as she smiled. “Oh, thank you, Desil.” She coughed, then groaned again. “Have any water?”
Desil felt like a fool for not having it ready. “Of course.” He rushed to get the pouch out of his pocket. Kirnich took it from him and put it up to Beatrix’s lips. She tried to drink.
