Island Shifters: Book 02 - An Oath of the Mage (4 page)

She giggled, but then he detected a frown in her voice when she said, “I don’t think Maman is happy.”

“Why, Ken?”

“She doesn’t like my magic.”

“Of course, she does!” he said and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “She is just worried for you since we don’t know that much about airshifting right now.”

“I can do really fun things with it, Daddy! I want to show you all I can do.”

The excitement in her voice reminded him of the day he discovered his own magic. “After Uncle Rogan’s wedding, we are going to come back here and see what you can do. Just think, Kenley. You are the very first airshifter on the island!”

She seemed happy with his words and sat up a bit straighter in the saddle.

When an unexpected drizzle began to fall from the sky, Beck pulled the hood of Kenley’s cloak over her head. He could not see from his position behind her, but his daughter’s eyes had turned black.

Baya!

I am right here, Princess.

She looked over the side of her Daddy’s horse and saw the white cat loping gracefully alongside them.
Will you go into the Grayan to feed?

Yes, soon. I am enjoying the outing right now.

Even in the rain?

Yes, even in the rain.

I could get rid of it, you know. Blow all of this rain right away from us.

No! Absolutely, not. Remember what happened the last time?

What? That little funnel of air?

Little? It was a tornado of considerable size and you broke out two windows in the palace.

Kenley giggled.
Miss Belle is still trying to figure out what happened.

You must be careful when you use your magic, Princess.

I know. It is hard to control sometimes.

Sometimes?

Fine, all the time. I just hope that soon I can learn how to use it properly.

For all of our sakes, I hope so, too.

Unlike the pageantry of their arrivals or departures into Nysa, a few waves and shouted greetings were all that was offered by the citizens of Bardot.

Home to approximately two hundred earthshifters to cultivate and nurture the grounds, Bardot was a city of magnificence wherever one looked. Colorful landscaped terraces surrounded a public park of comfortable wooden benches and gigantic shade trees. Stone walkways in a variety of patterns bordered a central city square and a highly wrought, three-tiered fountain of scalloped basins through which crystal blue water flowed.

Directly north of the square was the royal palace and a few blocks to the west, the most prominent building in the small city, the Bardot Academy.

Diamond, one of the Gem Sect Leaders, was the first to approach and greet them. “Welcome back.” The beautiful blonde sorceress lifted her arms to help Kenley down.

“You do not know how good it feels to be back, Diamond,” Beck admitted honestly.

“Oh, I think I do,” she replied knowingly.

He turned to Kiernan. “I am going to the Academy to check on things. Why don’t you see if you can get some rest before we leave?”

His wife offered him a tired grin. “I will do that.”

Beck turned Chasin onto the western boulevard and as he rode alone, he suddenly realized what was out of place. His personal guard, Roman Traynor, was not by his side. Roman was a member of the troop of Sabers that left a week ago to be in position to meet up with them at the grate in Kondor. Although still not in support of the constant shadowing, Beck liked to think that he and Roman had become friends since the Saber’s appointment. As friendly as their statuses allowed anyway. Protocol was very strictly enforced in Iserlohn and, if not always by the nobles, by the people themselves. To their way of thinking, the rigid hierarchy was in place to provide for their well-being and protection, and any breakdown in those traditional roles left them feeling vulnerable and afraid. That is why it was so devastating that Lord Etin misplaced the people’s trust the way he did.

Beck shook his thoughts away. Feeling at peace for the first time in a week, he decided to enjoy this solitary ride to the Academy. Making his way along the street, it made him smile to see earthshifters using their magic openly to assist in the beautification of the city. Large, muscled men moved enormous boulders as if they were pebbles while others waved their hands over the dirt to open up furrows for planting.

Beck involuntarily ducked when an airstream passed by overhead, and a bodyshifter came out of the sky and shifted out of his hawk form on the run and dashed into a building built for this purpose to cover his nakedness. He emerged a moment later dressed and with several rolled parchments clutched in his hand to deliver to their intended recipients. The bodyshifters had become indispensible in recent years in relaying messages between folks from all over Iserlohn, and he could easily see their services expanding to the other lands in the future.

Inside the open doors of a forge, a fireshifter assisted one of the blacksmiths in keeping his hearth hot with summoned fire.

Magic.

Wherever one looked.

Bardot was an enchanting way of life and left him feeling that all things were possible.

In the training field, a block before the Academy, Beck noticed three young earthshifters practicing their craft, their over-developed chests gleaming with sweat. When they saw him, they waved him over. “Prince Beck!”

He rode over to the trio whose names escaped him. Over the past year, he had to abdicate more and more of his teaching duties to other instructors due to his royal commitments in Nysa, and he did not know the students as well as he used to.

“Working hard, boys?” Beck asked, leaning from the saddle.

“Yes, Your Grace,” said the boy in the middle. “We were just running through some defensive moves, but need somebody to practice on. Would you care to give it a go?”

Beck noticed the young man elbow the friend next to him. Was there a hint of a challenge here? Beck shook his head. “Wish I could, fellows, but I really can’t. Another time?”

The shifter in the middle nodded, but as soon as he turned Chasin around, Beck heard him say under his breath, “I think his royal duties are making him soft.”

“Or maybe he is just getting too old for his sort of thing,” another whisperer suggested.

Beck stopped.

Too old? The young men were only a few years younger than him.

He turned back to the trio and dismounted, leading Chasin to the fence surrounding the field and tied the reins to a post. “You know, maybe I do have a few moments after all.” He vaulted the fence. “What are you boys working on?”

“Thinking up the best way to disable a bad guy, but it really wouldn’t take much for shifters like us,” the middle boy declared smugly.

“Just one bad guy? Against the three of you?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Why don’t we say you are the three bad guys and I am the one good guy?”

One of the boys laughed derisively. “That wouldn’t be fair.”

“For you or for me?”

“You can fight three shifters at once?”

“Sure. I once fought one hundred sorceresses at the same time.” It was more like twenty and he did not even come close to winning that one, but he did not tell the boys that. He was trying to make a point after all. “So, you agree that you are the bad guys?”

“If you’re sure,” the middle boy stated, the tone in his voice suggesting that Beck better think twice about it.

Beck walked a few paces from the boys and then turned to face them. “Give me your best shot.”

Immediately, a good-sized ball of dirt erupted from the earth in front of the middle boy, and it whirled toward Beck’s face. Beck overrode the summons with a flick of his hand and sent the ball crashing harmlessly to the side. Undaunted, the boy shifted an earthen suit of armor and a cloud of dust misted the air as the dirt and stones on the ground rolled up and over his body until he had a thick protective layer covering him.

He rushed toward Beck.

With no time for armor, Beck reached down, summoned a fist of stone from the earth, and cuffed the boy as soon as he closed, sending him sprawling. With a wave of Beck’s hand, the tree behind another boy groaned as it reached down and sucked the youngster up into its boughs, holding his struggling body fast and silencing his shouts in a leafy cocoon. The last boy standing screamed out when the earth pulled at his boots, and he started to sink into the ground.

“Keep yelling,” Beck told the boy as he walked away. “Someone will hear you and dig you out.” He jumped over the fence and remounted Chasin. “Don’t forget, gentlemen! The good guys always win!”

C
HAPTER
3

Another Star Fades

When Beck arrived at the Academy, no one approached to take his horse and this pleased him immensely. He took a few moments to rub down Chasin and provide him with feed and then left the stables and headed for the entrance to the Academy.

Larger and more imposing than the royal palace he shared with Kiernan, the building was an extensive mélange of fanciful stonework and brick. Tall and graceful twin towers graced the east and west ends of the Academy, and the pennants mounted on the peaks with the imprint of House Everard’s Golden Lions flapped in the wind.

He strode underneath the open-arched wall surrounding the courtyard. Students of all ages were hurrying to and from classes, and he smiled at them as he made his way to his study on the second floor. When he arrived at his office, he shut the door quickly behind him to forestall any interruptions, anxious to spend the hour before his trip studying The Protetor, the last recording of Mage wisdoms. The book was bequeathed to him by his very great grandfather, Galen Starr, on his deathbed with the intention that Beck study to become a Mage. Today, none existed on the island and, due to the devastation caused by Adrian Ravener six years ago and the Mage War before that, this was thought to be a very good thing by most people. Including his wife. In fact, she became unreasonably angry any time he brought it up, so he had learned not to broach the subject with her.

Beck felt differently. He knew that there was much to be learned in sorcery and was eager to explore its secrets. The Gems, phenomenal sorceresses though they were, were limited in their powers to the energy harnessed from their gemstones. A Mage’s powers had no limits.