A Dragon Born (4 page)

"What is wrong with him?" Zachary asked. He sat on a stool at the edge of the bed and stared at the young man who lay, barely conscious, inside the room at the inn. The mage had left his bottle of sweetwater downstairs in the tavern and he wished he had brought it with him, but he knew it would not help. The countless bottles he had consumed barely scratched the surface of his power, sometimes making his body wobble and his words run together, but leaving his thoughts unaffected, which made his drinking something of a futile pursuit. He had taken to drinking to numb himself, to escape from the pain of the world and the things that had haunted him for so many years, but now, right in front of him, was his life, come back to face him in a way that was entirely unexpected.

Carly returned to the room with a basin of water and several cloths. She walked around to the other side of the bed and placed the bowl on the table next to it then wet a cloth and touched it to Aaron's forehead, which was hot with fever. Stavros finished laying a magical ward on the room, one that should hide their presence from other mages and hopefully would contain any magic they used. At the very least the spell would quickly dissipate any excess power, sending it out of the room to the ground of the island, much like a piece of metal at the top of a tower would conduct lightning to the ground. Thus far, no black robes had taken notice of the magic he and Zachary had used, but Stavros imagined that it was only because they were distracted by their own activities at Maramyr, which he shuddered to think about, and it was only a matter of time before they would resume their search for the handful of mages who had not yet joined their ranks. Satisfied that the ward on the room was sufficient, he stepped over to the foot of the bed, and looked down at Aaron's unconscious form.

"It is my fault. He's under a spell, a ward that I placed on him many years ago, but something is wrong with it," he explained. "That much I can tell."

"So, remove the ward," Zachary said. "Will that not remove the problem?"

"It would if the spell was as I created it. The magic has changed. The ward has somehow become intertwined with the boy's own power and now I am unsure how to remove it."

"You set the spell, surely it will respond to you." Zachary looked up at the other mage.

"Take a look for yourself," Stavros told him, "but be gentle with your power. The ward tightens when it is near magic. That is part of its construction, to better hide him, but it has now become twisted. It has been pushed from within while being pried at from the outside. The spell was meant to be removed before he came fully into his power, and I made sure to put safeguards in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening but clearly they were not enough."

Zachary reached for his power, carefully taking hold of only the smallest amount of it, which was not something he was accustomed to doing. Unlike Stavros, who worked with intricate spells and subtle nuances, Zachary's natural approach to magic was more direct and much more powerful, the difference between the two mages being like that of a fine pointed dagger and a large battleaxe. It did not mean he could not use his powers with subtlety, only that it was not his preference and he was less adept at such things, just as Stavros was powerful in his own right, for a dagger could be as deadly as any weapon. Zachary's eyes darkened to an inky blackness that flickered and glowed with fire and lightning as he looked beyond the physical realm and saw the seemingly infinite lines of power wrapped around Aaron. He recognized the work of Stavros, the mage's signature style worked intricately into the ward, which was beautifully made and very powerful, and he saw where things had shifted, where they had twisted into something else.

"He has been attacked," Zachary said. "Very powerful magic, but from afar, and more than once. There are also places where he has tried to break free of the ward, or perhaps his own power has built up inside and the pressure has caused some damage. This is worse than a bundle of knots."

"It is, but it is one that must be unraveled." Stavros turned to Carly. "You say he fell unconscious when the storm hit?"

"He was struck by lightning, sir mage," Carly said, being overly polite in the presence of two men who could probably fry her like a fish in a pan if they chose.

"Just call me Stavros," he told her. "And that fool of a mage here, is Zachary."

"Of course, sir mage...Stavros, I mean. It was a thing to behold. One moment he was just fine, walking around, helping on the ship, and then the storm came up and the most blinding flash of lightning struck down from the clouds. It lasted longer than most strikes too. If it had hit the ship, we would have been lost."

"Whether it was an attack or just lightning, you are lucky he was with you. It looks as though he absorbed most of the energy, which appears to be part of the problem we now face," Zachary noted.

"That was the nature of the spell," Stavros said. "In order to hide him, I had to make sure that he would seem invisible to anyone searching, or even to anyone searching at random. In the years before his powers truly began to awaken, the ward would simply absorb magical energy and dispel it. To a mage, looking at him with his power, he would be all but invisible, but to normal sight, he would appear physically. In other words, he would look like a person who had no power whatsoever, thus entirely uninteresting to anyone looking for a mage."

"Stavros," Zachary said. "Once we remove this spell, you and I are going to have a long conversation about why you never told me about my son and why you hid him from the world."

"No, Zachary, we're not. It is a short conversation and I will tell you right now," Stavros said, with an edge to his voice. "If you recall, when you found out about the attack on the family, you went on a rampage and then you disappeared. For years, no one could find you. You will also recall that I did finally manage to track you down and you would not even speak to me. After that, you completely disappeared. I didn't even know you were here, on this island, when I first arrived. As for the boy, he was hidden to keep him safe from whoever attacked the family. Most people thought it was his parents who were the target but, at the time, I was convinced that it was young Aaron they were after, and the more I have learned, the more I believe it to be true."

"He was an infant. Why would anyone go after a swaddling baby?"

"Ask yourself? He has your power, possibly more now that he is older, and from what I could tell, he was nearly as powerful as you are, the day he was born. Though his ability was largely dormant, some people might consider that much power to be something of a threat. You remember how things were. Mages were being murdered, assassinated by those who wanted us gone. Wouldn't it be that much easier to kill them when they are young? Luckily, most mages don't begin to show their abilities until they are older, but Aaron was like a beacon, too young to be taught how to cloak his power, unable to hide from other mages, and now we know it was mages who were behind it all, members of the priesthood, rooting out those they could not control. That was why the ward I put on the boy was such a strong one. It was the only way to keep him safe until he was of an age that he could be taught."

"How is it even possible that his powers would awaken so early? Most mages do not come into their full power until they are of a certain age, usually some time after they start fancying other people their age and experiencing the urges of the young. I know there have been some who show glimmerings of power when they are still children, but only moments, here and there, and their powers remain weak until they are grown."

"That's the point, Zachary," Stavros said. "He is grown now, and if he was as powerful as you when he was merely an infant, there is no telling how much more power resides within him now. The ward I set was not meant to stay in place this long. The spell was also suppose to call out to me if something went wrong, but it did not happen as it should have and, as you can see, it's a mess."

"Why didn't you track him down? Why not visit the place he was being raised before the ward became twisted? Why leave it so long?"

"I have been in hiding, Zachary," Stavros told him. "As I am sure you know, the mage priests have been relentless, tracking the few remaining mages who continue to elude them. And for most, all it has taken is one look at that infernal book of theirs and they fall under its influence, falling in line and gladly donning the black robe."

"I have seen the book. It had some power but it was nonsense."

"Perhaps it could not affect you," Stavros said. He had come to believe that powerful mages might be able to resist the charms of the book. Even so, those mages had gone into hiding, for their numbers were small compared to the hundreds of black robes who hunted them and few wished to test such a theory against the power of the book.

"Fine. I will concede that the priesthood has been a pain in the backside and they do have a knack for tracking other mages. I have certainly had to teach a few of them to leave me alone. But if he was hidden by this ward, how did you find him?"

"I've been tracking him for almost a year, and I had the good fortune to run into a young mage named Calthas, who discovered the ward, which was only possible because young Aaron sought him out, looking for help. Luckily, he was not one of the black robes or things could have gone very wrong. I don't know if you've been paying attention, but the priesthood did something today that caused a major shift in the power of the world."

"Yes, it was giving me a headache," Zachary said. "I'm glad they've stopped, whatever it was they were doing."

"Those of us who remain independent have been investigating the priesthood and we believe they planned to open a pathway, Zachary, to Etherium."

"What? Why would they do that?" Zachary frowned. The paths to the ethereal realm had been sealed long ago, and for good reason. Had he known that was the priesthood's plan, he might have done something about it.

"You really haven't been paying any attention, have you?" Stavros said, his irritation evident in his voice.

"No. I haven't," Zachary growled, standing from his chair. "But I might have if I knew that my son was alive."

"You were gone, and you were raging around abusing your power," Stavros told him sharply. "You do remember that when I tried to talk some sense into you, you nearly blasted me into a thousand pieces."

"Would the two of you please stow your bickering?" Carly interrupted them. "If you want to have an argument or blast each other to pieces, or whatever you mages do to each other, please do it after you help Aaron and fix whatever mess you created."

"You're right. This is our mess, and it is our responsibility," Stavros said.

"True," Zachary agreed and sat back down.

"The mage I spoke with was able to describe what the ward looked like, a lot of the changes that had happened to it, and I was able to begin tracking him again," Stavros continued. "I was still a few days behind when that blast came out from the rift the priesthood opened at Maramyr and, for just a moment, the lad lit up like a beacon. That was probably when the lightning hit him."

"Won't that mean the people you were hiding him from would be able to find him as well?" Carly asked.

"I don't think so," Stavros replied. "It has been so long that it is unlikely anyone is actively looking for him at this point, though had the priesthood found one such as Aaron, they would have quickly become interested. Thankfully, very few people even know he exists."

"I'm his father and I didn't even know he existed," Zachary said, throwing another accusing look at Stavros.

"You didn't ask," Stavros said.

"So, where has he been all this time? Living in a cave?"

"No," Stavros said. "He's been living in a very nice, quiet, idyllic little cottage out in the country, near the eastern borderlands of Maramyr, with my brother."

"How is Tarnath?"

"Sadly, he's dead."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Zachary said, with a frown. "You and I may have had our differences, Stavros, by I always liked your brother. What happened to him?"

"From the signs I found, he was killed in a skirmish with some of Cerric's men, under the banner of a petty baron named Mandfred. Aaron would know more about it since he was there, and I believe he killed the lot of them."

"He's got a vengeful streak then, like his father," Zachary said.

"I don't honestly know his character. I've never met the boy, except for when he was an infant when I set the ward. I didn't want anyone following me to him, so I have kept away at a safe distance all these years. The few times I spoke with my brother, Tarnath told me he was growing up to be a fine boy, and the mage who met him at Maramyr also thought him to be honorable, but that's all I know."

"He's a good man," Carly said, considering what she knew about Aaron. "He's young and maybe a little naive about the world, but he's a good sort. I met him at Rivergate when he was protecting the princess. That's how we came to be here, running from Cerric's men and those black robed mages."

"The princess, Ariana? So she's alive." Stavros was pleased to hear it.

"No," Carly told him. "She was alive at Rivergate, but that mage, Dakar was his name, knifed her and dumped her into the river. I saw it happen, and it was a bad wound, so I figure she's probably dead. Aaron says she's still alive, but he's probably just thinking wishes out of love."