The Mage From Nowhere, page 27
“Then how do you know about it?” Tarak asked.
“From my studies of history. It was that gesture that led to a battle outside of Tryn hundreds of years ago. A human soldier made that gesture to a group of passing elves during a time of high tension. A battle broke out soon after peace had been agreed upon. Thousands were killed on both sides, and neither accomplished a darn thing for it.”
“Safe to say the elves presumably remember the gesture,” Tarak commented. “What about—?”
Leon interrupted, “For someone so intent on returning to training, you sure have a lot of bullshit to get out of you.”
“Leon, I would like to go with them,” Callie requested.
“Why?”
“I could be of use.”
“Ask your father.”
“He would have to hear everything that led up to this point. It would be a waste of his time. I’m asking you for permission.”
“You know I can’t give it.”
“But he will never grant me permission.”
“I’m not going to, Callie. Go on, Tarak and Aliana. Prepare your horses. Arthur, fetch Tarak’s sword.”
Callie protested, “If I were a boy, I would not be forced to remain in the castle. I would be free to leave at my own volition and offer support where I can.”
“Not without a horde of guards, you wouldn’t. Just like it is now. Go, Aliana. Go, Tarak.”
Tarak and Aliana went off to the stables as Callie continued to argue.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Tarak and Aliana rode out of the castle. Aliana’s bow drew a few looks from those they passed, but Tarak wondered if these people might have recognized the ranger, because they did not seem nervous.
They had barely gone anywhere before a young man ran up beside Aliana’s horse. “Where have you been?” he asked.
“It does not concern you anymore,” she replied.
Tarak leaned forward around Aliana and her horse to get a better look at the young man. He had dark hair and seemed friendly enough, with gentle eyes even if he did seem perturbed by something. Handsome devil, he was, though he was probably older than Aliana. He appeared as though he had not worked a day in his life. Probably from wealth, though it could be charm.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “I’ve been worried about you. I sent you letters.”
“I got them.”
“Why did you not reply? I had to ask one of the castle guards just to make sure you were all right.” He noticed Tarak staring. “And who is this?” he asked as if threatened.
Aliana did not slow her mount as she spoke with a cold tone. “Nothing I do should concern you anymore.”
The young man put himself in front of her horse, forcing it to a stop.
“You at least owe me an explanation. What we share…”
“I have tried to end things with you countless times. I now have to ignore you.”
“God…I have never called a woman a bitch before…and I refuse to let you turn me into someone I’m not.” He stopped and warned Tarak, “Watch yourself with her! She’s completely heartless.”
Aliana kept a straight face as they continued riding.
“This will sound sarcastic,” Tarak said, “but he seemed like a nice fellow.”
“He is.” Her eyes glistened, though she made no other indication of crying.
“Then why treat him like dirt?”
“I have tried to be gentle with him, and we always end up in bed.”
“Ye of little control.” Tarak chuckled. “I thought you were immune to the good looks of men.”
“That was a lie.”
“Very revealing, ranger. You had me tricked.”
“Blond men, though, I am immune to them. Always have been.”
There was a long pause.
“Have you tried one with a hat?”
A snort of laughter came from her mouth.
*****
Surprisingly, after a few jests, they were both chuckling by the time they left the city. They stopped, however, at the sight ahead of them.
“Never have I seen that before,” Tarak commented. “What am I looking at, ranger?”
“It must be sorcery.” She stopped her animal and squinted at it. Tarak could not stop Dagaric and did not bother to try, so he was forced to ride in a slow circle around Aliana as he turned his head back and forth and tried to discern what he was seeing.
Rain clouds hung low…very low over streaming rain. They barely seemed taller than the trees of the forest nearby, and yet, a far distance to the north, they came to an end. The rain stopped there as well. Farmers rejoiced under the rain—drenched in water and under the dark shadows of the clouds, they danced, they called out thanks to the gods, and they hooted in celebration. The rain clouds covered as much ground as the entire city of Newhaven, and they moved. They seemed to be heading north.
“It must be the same Deviant who covered Newhaven in rain,” Aliana said. “We should investigate. I might be able to sense them.”
“And do what?” Tarak replied. “If they do not want to be identified, what do you think they might do if you force it? I say we go into the forest, where it is dry and safe, and when I return you safely and my duty is done, then you can think about confronting a Deviant who does not want to be discovered. You can take Leon.”
She appeared surprised. “I did not think of you as someone who would scare so easily.”
“Oh, I am not scared for myself. I would not be the one pissing him off. I just do not want to be thrown out of the castle when I come back without you. I have grown to like it there. The food, Aliana!”
“Yes, I have seen what you call eating.” She seemed to ponder his words as she stared at the moving rain cloud. Then she sent her animal forward, toward the forest, thankfully.
“You must think I am right,” Tarak said as he caught up to her.
“In this case, yes. We should probably wait for the Deviant, or maybe, let’s be honest, the Ancient to approach first. If they are going to kill escaped murderers and provide rain, I see no reason to impede them.”
“Then we are agreed.”
They were silent until they breached the dense line of trees.
“Can I ask you something?” Aliana inquired.
“You may.”
“What’s the hardest thing you’ve done?”
“Err um.” He scratched his head. “I am not sure. The question is new to me. Why do you ask?”
“I’m wondering if your experience in the castle might be it.”
Tarak thought back to his period of time. The hardest thing he’d done was court Oreca. He had never tried harder for anything in his life, but then again, it hadn’t taken very long to win her over.
Aliana continued, “My mother believes we should be kind to everyone because there isn’t a single person going through life without a battle, but I think she’s wrong. First of all, there are some people who don’t deserve kindness.”
“I believe you are correct in that.”
“And second of all, I think there are some people who don’t know what a hard day is really like.”
“I have gone days with little food and less sleep, felling trees in the night and hauling wood for a thousand paces. I know what hard work feels like, and that is why I try to avoid it as much as possible. Now may I ask you a question?”
“You may.”
“A good friend of mine once said that some people put up walls to keep people out. Others put them up to see who will knock them down.”
“And which are you?” Aliana asked.
“I have no walls,” Tarak replied. “I barely have pants.”
She chuckled.
They rode for a while. Tarak forgave Aliana for not answering his question, even if she didn’t ask for forgiveness. It was easier than being bothered by her silence. Being bothered was so much work.
Eventually Aliana made another comment. “It seems like you go through life dancing to a song that no one else hears. Are you really as carefree as you appear?”
“I could take a job I despise. I could surround myself by rapacious fools who have power and coin, licking their arse until I have something I can call my own. But why? I have a life that is worth living. I was blessed in that way, and I have worked toward keeping it that way. Until recently, however. I suppose I am no longer carefree. There are now things I would like to accomplish, and those take hard work. I have seen hard work take a man’s soul, though. I refuse to let that happen.”
“I think I understand you better now.”
“I hope to one day say the same about you. Why are you so…?” He fluttered his hand. “The way you are?”
“And what is that exactly?”
“Arrogant. Look at me. I am beautiful like you are, and yet I am humble.”
“Humble, right. I have met plenty of boys more handsome than you, and none have ever mentioned how beautiful they are.”
“Because doing so would not lure you into their bed. But I do not care about that. You are lucky. This might be the first time you can see what boys really think of you.” There was a tense silence. “And you are a pain in the arse.”
She tossed her water flask and struck him in the forehead.
“That hurt, you witch! That thing is mostly full!”
She stopped her horse and pointed at the flask on the ground, now behind them. “You have to pick that up for me.”
Tarak did not stop his horse. “You know I cannot dismount so easily.”
“Which is doubly why you must fetch my flask for me. Your punishment.”
He grumbled, “You are proving my point.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” He tumbled off his horse and struck the ground. “Ow,” he muttered, lifting up his arm to find a small twig stuck in his skin. He yanked it out.
He fetched Aliana’s flask and handed it back to her.
“So why are you the way you are?” he asked as he got back on his horse.
“Because people are terrible.”
“That cannot be the reason. They are terrible to me as well, and I am nothing like you.”
“Then I don’t know.”
“Know thyself, ranger, or you are destined to learn things about yourself the hard way. Through mistakes.”
“You sure have a lot of wisdom for a tavern rat.”
“What do you imagine me doing all the nights I am drinking?”
“Singing, dancing, chasing after a girl.”
“I am a study of life, of emotion. Singing gets old. Dancing is tiring. And I had no need to chase. I caught one. She was beautiful and chaotic, complex and as deep as tree roots. And now she is gone, dead centuries ago, and probably had forgotten me long before she passed.”
Aliana didn’t respond. Tarak didn’t care. He wasn’t looking for empathy. He was glad for the silence, in fact. It allowed him to remember fond moments with Oreca, but that was a double-sided blade, because he could not think fondly of her without feeling the stab of missing her.
They rode in silence for a while. Tarak almost forgot he was leading Aliana to Illia’s portal location, but Dagaric seemed to know where they were headed. The animal plodded onward without Tarak needing to do a thing.
“Maybe people aren’t as terrible as I think,” Aliana said.
“Not all of us, at least.”
“I’ve been very angry.”
“Shocking,” he replied with sarcasm.
“I realized I could be more than just a sorcerer to the king. I have been trying to prove that to him by upholding his laws better than anyone else in his staff, and what do I get for it? I was almost killed by a small group of men. It is frustrating.”
“Now I understand your behavior toward me. You thought I ruined your chances at proving you could be trusted for more important tasks.”
“Yes.”
“Is that why we are out here, Aliana? You are looking for some way to prove yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Is it not enough that you are stopping crime?”
“No. I want to do more. I want to oversee the entire kingdom of Lycast. I want to know everything that is happening here, and I want the king to listen to me when I offer advice. I can feel something changing. I have spent hours among these trees trying to figure out what it is, but it seems to extend past the trees even if it has origin here. I thought the portal might be a sign of what it is.”
“It is not far ahead, so we will find out.”
*****
They approached the crater. “Easy, Dagaric,” Tarak tried. “Slow down. I do not want to jump off you.” He tried to give the horse the command to stop, but Dagaric snorted and whipped his head from side to side. “Damn you,” Tarak muttered. “Why stop for Illia and not me?” He gasped as he realized something he should have thought earlier.
“What?” Aliana asked as she hopped off her stopped horse with ease.
Tarak couldn’t concentrate with Dagaric fussing, so he jumped off and plopped to the ground. “Ow.” He spat out some dirt. “Illia must be a witch after all! She used her spell to stop Dagaric. That is the only explanation.”
Aliana stared at him blankly.
“Well?” he asked.
“Well what do you expect me to do?”
“Maybe…something?”
Aliana shrugged. “I’ve met a witch before. The king employed one. She was good, kinder than I am.”
“The king employed a witch?” Tarak had only heard nasty things about witches. They boiled children and ate them. They destroyed relationships out of jealousy. They could even curse a man to be impotent for the rest of his life.
“You’ll probably meet her one day if you’re around long enough,” Aliana said with a shrug. “Come on, I want to investigate this crater.” She headed toward it ahead of him.
“So…no one seems concerned about Illia.”
“We are all concerned about an analyte taking a portal here. The metal she brought is being investigated. Her being a witch, however, is not so scary.”
“I do not believe she brought the metal.”
Aliana was trying to crouch at the edge of the crater when she looked back. “Are you saying she found it in the crater?”
“That is exactly what I think. You had better make sure the king considers this possibility.”
“I will when we get back.” Aliana looked into the crater.
“But Illia—”
She whipped around. “Why are you so curious about her?”
“She is showing a romantic interest in me!”
Aliana rolled her eyes. “Sure she is. Curses don’t seem to exist in the form they once did. Whatever she’s doing, it’s probably not witchcraft. Let’s worry about that when it’s actually something to worry about, yeah? Now, help me down here. Oy, this is steep.”
Tarak helped Aliana climb down as she continued, “No wonder I felt this from the castle. I can’t imagine the power needed to create this crater.”
“Do you feel anything now?” he asked as he helped her set her feet down.
“Yes.” She crouched and took some loose soil up in her hand. “There is the same type of energy that I felt from the metal Illia brought to the castle.”
“And what does that feel like?”
“Like nothing else, Tarak. Be quiet and let me focus.”
“You are the one speak—!”
“Shhh.”
He grumbled and waited as she paced around, crouching here and there, pulling up more soil, shutting her eyes, extending her palms, pacing around some more, crouching again…it went on for a while. Tarak grew bored.
I should be using this time to practice my light spells. He had been so focused on gravity that he had almost forgotten them. It was an exciting time to be using sorcery, because many spells were not just new to Tarak but to everyone alive.
It was also frustrating.
No one could tell him what to expect. He really had almost killed himself with gravity and was a little nervous about what he might accidentally do with light.
Charlie had felt heat from Tarak’s spells and even showed a red arm as if it had been burned by the sun. What did that mean about Tarak’s capability? There was more to it than light, something invisible, like heat, he figured, but different in some way.
If even Charlie didn’t know, then Tarak had little hope of figuring it out without experimentation. He shut his eyes and tried to connect with his mana. He spoke to it.
What can you do if I cast the octaves of C?
He could almost feel it trying to answer, or perhaps it was his imagination. It was like a distant voice that he could barely hear. He tried several times, but the voice never became clearer.
“Tarak!” Aliana shouted.
It startled him. “What?”
“Oy, you scared me! I thought you had left. I’ve been calling to you.”
He crouched over the side. “I was distracted.”
“What could be so distracting that you didn’t hear me calling to you? Did you think you saw Callie? I’m ready to get out.”
“So you know about my feelings toward Callie?”
“You are not exactly subtle.” She lifted her hand.
He helped her up. Like Illia, Aliana seemed shocked at the ease with which he yanked her all the way up using only one arm.
“I forgot how strong you are,” Aliana said as she brushed dirt off her hands and clothing. “I hope you use that for something useful one day.”
He was becoming tired of her tone. “Are we leaving? It will be supper time soon at the castle.”
“No, I want your help to uncover the dirt. I believe there is something in the ground.”
“We did not bring a shovel,” Tarak complained.
“Your gravity spell is better than any shovel.” Aliana stepped back and pulled Tarak away. “Cast from here. Pull up as much soil as you can without taking down the walls of the crater. Whatever it is cannot be too deep or I wouldn’t feel it.”
“You ask for accuracy when I have displayed none. I will start with a weak version and work my way toward a more powerful spell, but I only do this because it seems like a good opportunity to practice without Leon breathing down my neck.”
