The Mage From Nowhere, page 14
She screamed as she awoke this time. Fear gave her shivers. She made a ball of fire and looked around her room expecting to find someone, for she was certain that she was not alone. But no, her room was empty. The voice had been in her head.
She was still shivering with fear as she caught her breath. “Oh gosh,” she muttered to herself. “Oh no, oh no, oh no.” Her damn curiosity. She continued to hold in curses as she got out of bed and tossed a robe over herself. She was going to take a trip to the damn armory. “Oh gosh, this is so stupid.”
The door would be locked, she was sure of it. She would leave after checking on it. She would return to her bed and have no more voices in her head, and she would laugh about this tomorrow.
The night was warm, but she was still shivering as she made her way, barefoot, down the cold stone steps. The armory was on the ground floor of the keep, down a few corridors. She almost gasped as she noticed Rick, the head guard of her father, sitting near the impenetrable door of the keep. She became angry with her father. Rick should be sleeping, not guarding a locked door that no one could get through. Even worse, he was going to see her when she walked out from the stairway.
“Princess?” he asked.
“I’ve just come to ensure that the armory is locked,” she said and started toward it.
Rick hastily intercepted her. “I can’t have you walking around the keep at night without a guard.”
“Then come with me. It will only take a moment.”
“Princess, it is very late, and I am certain the armory is locked and the key is elsewhere. I cannot leave my post.”
“Why? What trouble are you suddenly expecting?”
“You might’ve heard that someone stole from the king and this person has shown a capability for flying.”
“So you must stand behind a locked door all night?”
“There is a guard on each floor listening for break-ins.”
“Completely unnecessary.”
“It is not up to me.”
“Let me check on the armory. No one has to know.”
“I can’t allow it. Orders.”
“This is absurd. We could’ve gone to the armory and back by now.”
“Please return to your bed.” Rick almost sounded to be begging. She suddenly realized that she was not making his life any easier, and arguing was getting her nowhere.
She hurried back to her room and decided this was a waste of time. It had to have been a strange dream. What else could it be?
She eventually fell back asleep, only to be yelled at by the voice this time.
“Go to the armory, now! Do not defy me, or you will regret it!”
She screamed again as she awoke. There was no denying it anymore.
“Oh gosh oh gosh…oh shit oh shit.” She gasped for a quick breath. “Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit.”
Should she fetch Leon, maybe even her father? None of them would believe her. They probably wouldn’t even send anyone to the armory. There was only one person who would not only believe her but help her determine what might be in the armory before they got there.
Callie squealed in effort as she dragged her large bed to her window. She yanked off her sheet, rolled it up, and tied it to the frame of her bed.
“Oh shit oh shit,” she muttered all the way down as she climbed out and slowly descended onto the roof of the apartments. She scampered to the edge, then leaned over and knocked on the window.
“Please be the right room, please be the right room,” she repeated.
No one came to investigate the sound, so she knocked a few more times.
The window came open. “Who’s up there?” Aliana asked.
“It’s Callie.”
“What are you doing?”
“Help me into your room.”
“Hold on.”
“Before someone sees me, Ali. I don’t care if you are not dressed. Hurry.”
“Oy, fine.”
Aliana helped Callie down onto her window sill and then assisted her into the room. Callie glanced around the room as she began to tell Aliana what happened.
“You are not going to believe me,” Callie began. Ali wore a robe similar to Callie’s. Her room was tidy except her desk. “I heard a voice in my sleep, and I know it wasn’t a dream.”
Ali put herself in front of the desk as if to block Callie’s view. “Callie, a voice, really?”
“Hang on, what are you writing?” Callie had noticed a lot of words on parchment, far too many to be a simple note.
“It’s nothing. I thought you said you were in a hurry.”
“To enter your room and remove myself from sight. What is this?” Callie reached around Aliana.
“It’s a work in progress!”
Callie took the top page. She read aloud, “Alanna might’ve been known for her unmated beauty, but it was her bow that would bring peace to the kingdom.” Callie lowered the page. “Alanna, hmm?” she teased with a smirk.
“I am bored to tears in here!” Aliana grabbed the paper and stuffed it along with three more full pages in her desk drawer. “It keeps turning to smut anyway. So you heard a voice in your head and you decided to climb on the roof of the apartments?”
“I heard it three times, and each time it was clearer than the last. It was not a dream, I’m sure of it.”
Aliana exhaled sharply. “Then what was it?”
“A voice telling me to go to the armory. Demanding by the end. I wanted to at least check if it was unlocked, but Rick wouldn’t let me through. I came to get you because I thought you would believe me. I figured you would be the only one.”
Aliana sighed. “If we go, will you return to your bed afterward?”
“I promise.”
“Fine, but I cannot guarantee I will convince Rick to let us through.”
“You will.”
Aliana went to put on her shoes. “Sometimes I wonder, Callie, if you are this way because of privilege or there would be no stopping you even if you were a commoner, and you would surely end up in prison.”
“Probably the latter, now can we go?”
“Yes.”
They left the apartments and went next door to the keep. Callie pounded on the door. “Rick, it’s Callie…” She looked at Aliana.
“And Aliana,” she said begrudgingly.
“Let us inside,” Callie continued.
Rick opened the slot at eye level. “How in the world did you get out there, princess?”
“I climbed out of my window.”
He grumbled something as he freed the door from locks and bars and opened it. Callie pushed through with Aliana just behind.
“We are going to the armory for just a moment. If you’re concerned, you will come with us.”
“This is madness,” Rick said.
“Better just to let her be done with it,” Aliana whispered, though Callie still heard.
They went down a long hallway. The heavy door to the armory awaited at the end. Callie had begun to wonder if maybe this was madness. Perhaps she was going mad, for she knew she heard the voice in a state of mind that was not slumber.
“It’s unlocked!” she called out triumphantly as she opened the door. Fear struck her as she swallowed past the lump in her throat. “It’s really unlocked,” she muttered.
Rick pushed the door shut. “I’m going for help, and I’m not leaving you here. Come on.”
“Wait,” Callie said. “Do you sense anyone, Ali?”
The ranger shut her eyes. “It’s always difficult in the keep. There are people all around us.”
The door swung open from the other way. Callie screamed as wind pushed everyone into the armory. The door slammed shut behind them.
“Run, princess,” Rick ordered as he took out his sword.
She ran for the door, but wind threw her back. The room was too dark to see much. She had already lost a good sense of where the door was, so she made light and huddled close to the guard.
Aliana seemed to be muttering about how she should’ve brought her bow as the three of them stood with their backs together. “I sense someone in the room, but they feel different than anyone I’ve sensed before.”
“Different how?” Callie asked.
“I don’t know yet.”
“Show yourself!” Rick called out. “You trespass in the king’s keep. If you come out now and cooperate, your punishment will be more lenient.”
The armory was made up of rows of armor and weapons organized upon shelves, with the dark forming walls against sight. Out of the shadows stumbled a man. He moved unlike any person or creature Callie had seen, with jerky movements and even cracks of his bones. He spoke with a scratchy voice, like air pushed through his throat without much help from his muscles.
“Rain comes. Thank God and listen for your next message.”
“Get on the floor,” Rick demanded.
The man stumbled closer. He had short hair as dark as coal and a gruesome scar down his cheek. “Rain comes,” he repeated. “Thank God and listen for your next message.”
“I will cut you down!” Rick warned. “Get on the floor and surrender.”
The man collapsed with a cold slap of his face against the stone.
“What…?” Rick murmured, then glanced back at Callie and Aliana.
The man, or was it a corpse, did not move.
“Is he dead?” Callie asked Aliana.
“I still sense the same person, and they are the only person I’ve sensed since coming in here.”
“How is that possible?” Callie asked.
“I don’t think that corpse was ever really alive,” she answered.
Rick did not shift from his fighter’s stance. “Stay behind me. Aliana, where is this person?”
“Moving toward the door.”
Callie thought she saw movement through the shadows. She was just about to aim light down one of the lanes between the standing shelves when wind knocked Rick into her and Aliana. They fell backward.
By the time Callie was back on her feet, she heard the door to the armory shutting. Rick ran toward it, but Callie grabbed him. “Don’t!”
“We have to stop them.”
“You’re going to get yourself killed,” she warned him. “That is not an ordinary person. I’m sure they were the source of the voice in my head, and they don’t want you catching them. Think about what might happen if you do.”
The guard pulled out of her grasp and ran for the door. “They could be after your father.”
Callie cast a stream of fire in between Rick and the door. “Step back!” she warned.
He stopped, shot her a frustrated look, and stepped back.
“They do not target my father,” she said. “And in the off chance I am wrong, he has plenty of guards between here and his room. You heard the message. ‘Rain comes. Thank God and listen for your next message.’ This person wants us to think they are God, godly, or connected to God in some way, and that the rain coming is their doing. They wouldn’t kill my father after such a display. What would be the point?”
A rumble of thunder punctuated her statement.
“No way,” Aliana muttered. “Can we…?” She motioned at the door.
“Yes, I think so,” Callie said.
They rushed out from the armory and down the hall. They didn’t even need to leave the keep. The patter of rain beat like a thousand tiny drums.
They stopped at the door, which had been left unlocked by whomever or whatever had just lured them into the armory. “I can’t believe this,” Rick muttered, then pushed open the door.
The sound of rain was almost deafening as it poured down. Castle workers left the apartments with buckets and even barrels. They set them down with smiles, some stopping to grab each other and hop around in cheerful circles.
It was a miracle, and yet Callie could feel nothing but fear.
“So the person who spoke to us…?” she asked Aliana.
The ranger gasped. “I know who that is! The dark hair and the scar—he’s wanted for rape and murder. There have been reports of him, but no one had spotted him for some time. We thought he left Lycast.”
Callie knew in her heart what had just happened, but she still couldn’t believe it. “So whoever spoke to me in my dreams is able to reanimate the dead and make rain?”
“There must be some other explanation for it,” Rick said. “I had better go inform the king. The two of you should go back to bed.”
Callie wasn’t sure she wanted to sleep anymore. What if there was another message? Did she have to oblige?
“Aliana, will you stay with me tonight?”
The ranger nodded. “I will.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Leon had received a request to meet with the king at night. It was not their usual time. Leon figured powerful sorcery would be needed somewhere in the city, but where, and what for? He had been on the way when the king’s daughter had jumped out of her room and nearly scared the shit out of him. Now Leon was knocking on the king’s door as the cousin of the head guard appeared surprised to see Leon. Randy was younger than his cousin Rick by about a year.
Years ago, when Leon was rotting in prison, these cousins were supporting the efforts of the king to overthrow the corrupt leadership of Oquin Calloum. Leon knew they could be trusted. But did the cousins trust Leon? He could see the question in Randy’s eyes.
Leon always won his shouting matches, except once against the king during the war, and that was the most public of them all. He had proven himself since then, but it had taken a long while to earn King Nykal’s trust again.
“I received a summons,” Leon said as he showed the note with the royal seal to Randy.
“I see.” Randy knocked and called, “Leon is here.”
“Give me a moment,” replied the king from within.
Leon stayed back and gathered his thoughts. Even though Nykal was a good king, he had made plenty of mistakes. The worst thing he had done recently was to allow that rich bastard Reuben Langston II to be his primary advisor. There was a reason that Lord Langston’s efforts to help during the war had been limited to lending coin. Leon suspected the man had played both sides and did not want to show himself meeting with anyone until the dust settled.
Leon had expressed his concerns to Nykal, but Nykal—always practical to a fault—explained how powerful Lord Langston was within the walls of Newhaven and how much coin Nykal, and therefore the people of Newhaven, now owed to him. The fastest and painless way of resolving that would be to empower Langston rather than taxing the people, who had suffered the most because of the war.
“Painless for them,” Leon had said, “but what about for us?”
“He will advise me for now, but we will keep an eye on his business,” the king had replied.
That was months ago, and Leon had heard nothing from Nykal about Lord Langston since. They had discussed many other things. Nykal wanted to be prepared for anything. For issues residing in and around the capital, Lord Langston was Nykal’s man. But for other matters that required knowledge from someone more traveled, Nykal often referred to Leon’s judgement. One topic kept coming up.
A few sorcerers had left the castle after the war. Kataleya, a water mage, was now Lord of Livea. She was a big reason so much grain made its way from there to here. Remi, a fire mage, had no destination or goal and had left in hopes of exploring and figuring out what she wanted. Leon was upset by her leaving, but honestly a fire mage had little purpose these days. Besides, Leon had done the same when he was younger. He had gotten into heaps of trouble, but he had learned more than at any other point in his life. He might expect the same out of this fire mage. She certainly had the personality for adventure.
The last sorcerer to leave could not be described as succinctly as a water or a fire mage. Jon had several titles: bladedancer, healer, or as Leon thought of him, a lucky bastard who at least put in the work to earn what he deserved. He had the widest range of mana of any of the sorcerers employed by the king, and he had taken good advantage of it. He’d left to explore.
Jon deserved time off more than anyone, but that didn’t make him any less needed. Leon would love to see what someone with his range of mana might be able to cast now that sorcery had become free again. One day of testing with Charlie, and Leon figured a whole plethora of books could be written. Or perhaps Jon had already figured out a number of new spells and would return with the books practically written already.
Jon’s biggest problem? His “I can do anything” attitude might get him killed one day. Seeing as how he was from shit-in-a-bucket Bhode, he probably knew nothing of the world past Dorrinthal. Word from Rohaer was that his better half was with him. At least she had some sense. She should have been able to talk him out of taking a ship southeast or southwest. They could go straight west, to Oppol, and find themselves lost in a world of very different people and languages. Leon was not sure what they might do there, but at least they could survive the trip there and back, and Leon might see them again in the near future.
They could also have gone straight south, to Vandav. These were islands where trading with Dorrinthal was common, though the elves mostly dominated that trade, seeing as how Evesfer was located on the southern side of Dorrinthal and made travel much easier than for anyone in Lycast.
It was in Jolrune or Gleymar where the mysteries dwelled. Leon had traveled southwest many years ago. The oceans were filled with giant beasts capable of destroying ships. They chose the deep to stalk their prey. The fishermen knew how to avoid them, but explorers couldn’t skirt the deepest waters forever.
In another life, Leon had been paid well to safeguard a ship’s travel from Rohaer. Their direction, southwest. Their destination, Jolrune. Their captain, a man who Leon thought to be brave but turned out to be an idiot. The journey was supposed to take sixteen days. They made it in fifteen. The captain knew how to manage a ship. What he lacked was knowing when to count his blessings and turn back. He kept the true purpose of the voyage a secret. He had been paid to determine why no ships seemed capable of making it past the southern continents, Jolrune, Vandav, or Gleymar. There were maps, stories, and an abundance of information about faraway places called Ovira, Greenedge, and Aathon. How could it be that people knew about them, only for them to be impossible to reach?
