Magician Prince (33 page)

Without thinking, Alia smacked him hard
enough that her hand stung like a hundred little needles had just
pricked it all at once. “What kind of a sick joke is this?” she
demanded.

Byrn rubbed his cheek. “It is no joke. I took
Byrn’s body. This may be hard to believe, but there is an ancient
spell that allows a necromancer’s spirit to invade another person’s
body and displace their own spirit.”

Alia turned away from him. She could not look
at him at that moment and stormed out of the dining room. She went
to her bedroom where Avelice slept and rummaged through her
things.

“Are you alright?” asked Kaleb who was
sitting in the corner. No doubt that he was taking his role as
protector very seriously.

“Not now,” was all she said to him as she
found her staff and exited the room as quickly as she had
arrived.

Byrn was not far behind. “Let me explain,” he
begged, but she would hear none of it. Alia pointed her staff and
threw every bit of energy into it before flinging the magic at Byrn
like a mental tidal wave. It was an attack that he was completely
unprepared for and she grabbed his mind so that she could demand
anything from him and he would be forced to comply.

“Tell me the truth,” she screamed out the
words in anger. Alia knew that she had lost control of herself, but
at the moment it no longer mattered to her. If this was some sick
game, then she would have no part of it and if it was the truth-
“Who are you?”

A crowd of the other masters and adepts had
quickly formed around them. None dared to interfere, either out of
fear for their own safety or out of fear of what would happen if
the spell she cast was broken prematurely. Mental suggestions were
a delicate thing.

“I am Xander Necros,” said Byrn and Alia hit
him reflexively with her staff, forcing him to his knees. He was
struggling against her spell, trying to break its hold. It was all
she could do to hold him under her sway.

“Why would you do this? What could possibly
justify betraying me like this?”

“Power,” was his truthful answer. “You have
no idea how much power Byrn had at his disposal. Power that he was
unwilling to use. I took Byrn’s body so that I could make use of
that power and use his name to lay claim to the Aurelian throne.
This is about more than just your feelings, daughter. This is about
the future of our kind.”

“And all it cost you was your daughter,” said
Alia.

“Difficult choices must be made,” said Ryonus
from the crowd. “Let him go,” he added sternly. There was no
pretense of a request in his tone and his staff was in his hand. He
had known about this all along! Ryonus let her think that her
father was dead and said nothing. What of Riona, who reported his
death, but could not give any details? It seemed likely that she
knew as well. Did Tomlin know?

“You have all betrayed my confidence,” she
said, confirming the knowledge to herself as much as to any of
them. Alia suddenly felt like a deer in a room of wild dogs that
were about to pounce. She edged back into her room, keeping
everyone in front of her. Xander was using all of his strength to
counter the spell she had placed on him and Alia knew she could not
hold him for much longer.

She slammed the bedchamber door behind her
and went to grab Avelice out of the crib, but she was already gone!
Alia looked around the room frantically, but it was empty. Her baby
was gone!

“Alia, hurry,” came Kaleb’s hushed voice and
Alia turned to see him signaling for her from outside the window.
He held a bundle in his arms and her heart skipped a beat. She
crawled out of the window and followed after Kaleb as they ran
through the streets of the small town. There was no place safe here
that they could stay. They would have to take their chances out in
the forest.

“That was quick thinking,” Alia huffed when
they could no longer run and finally had to take a short break. “It
seems I was right in making you Avelice’s protector, but why were
you in the room in the first place?”

“Byrn was acting strangely earlier like he
did not recognize me at first,” said Kaleb as he handed over the
crying child. Alia attempted to sooth her with a whisper of magic.
She did not like the idea of casting spells on her daughter, but
she must do whatever she could to guarantee their safety. “I did
not know what to think of that,” he added, “but it made me
feel…”

“Uneasy,” suggested Alia and Kaleb nodded.
“You have good instincts.”

Bouncing balls of fire signaled that the
other magicians were searching for them, using the magic as torches
to see in the dark.

“We must go deeper into the woods,” Alia told
him.

***

Alia’s grip on Xander’s mind was released a
few moments after the door slammed to her room. He gasped in a
breath full of air as if he had been drowning although he had no
reason to do so.

Ryonus helped him to his feet while another
magician cautiously opened the door to Alia’s room. “She is gone
out the window,” the man said.

“Is the child gone too?” asked Xander.

The man went into the room and confirmed that
the baby was not there. Then Xander turned to Riona and told her,
“Take a group out and find them. Bring Avelice back to me, but let
Alia go if she does not wish to return. No harm is to come to
either of them.”

“Yes, grandmaster.”

Tomlin watched and blended into the
background of the room, hoping to go unnoticed.

Three days passed before Kellen next came to
see Byrn. He had feared that the knight would betray his confidence
to Janus, but since Byrn had not yet been executed he hoped that
was not the case. He also hoped that Kellen’s failure to return
meant that he was considering what Byrn had asked. The knight’s
honor would dictate that he remains loyal to his king, but his best
hope of protecting the king was to help Byrn.

Then there was also the question of whether
Kellen believed that Byrn was really Byrn. He hoped that his
display of Kenzai magic would be enough to convince Kellen, but
again it was too difficult to guess at. As each day passed, Byrn
grew more uneasy. They would be in Mollifas soon and would need to
be prepared for whenever Xander attacked, but he needed to train in
the Kenzai art in order to stand a chance against the
necromancer.

When Kellen finally did return on the third
day, he did so alone. Circles under his eyes showed that he had
experienced some sleepless nights, but other than that his outward
demeanor was unchanged from that of the man who nearly bludgeoned
him with a warhammer. “Tell me something that only Byrn Lightfoot
would know,” commanded Kellen. “What did I say to you when I first
found out that you were a magician?”

That had been nearly six years ago. It seemed
like it was someone else’s life now, but Byrn still remembered.
“You said that it was alright that I was a magician as long as I
was not causing any trouble and I denied that I was one.”

Kellen nodded. “And what was my nephew’s
name?”

It was a strange question, but perhaps that
was why Kellen asked it. To Xander the name of Kellen’s nephew
would not have been something worth remembering even if Byrn had
ever mentioned it to him. “His name was Rallen and he was one of
the city guardsmen.”

“That he was,” said Kellen mournfully. It was
still difficult to accept that Colum had been destroyed. In that
moment, he saw Kellen in a new light. The knight was adrift in this
world. Everyone he loved was dead except for Sane and the sorcerer
wanted nothing to do with him. All that he had left to hold on to
was his honor and duty as a knight.

“I’m sorry,” Byrn told him. It seemed like it
was not enough for the role he played in Colum’s destruction. If he
had not helped free Xander in the first place, then all of those
people would still be alive.

The knight waved off his apology. “Save your
words. If you help to defeat the real Xander Necros and his
rebellion, then I will teach you as much as I can once we reach
Mollifas, but first you must make a gesture of good faith to me.
You must reveal your true identity to King Janus.”

“No,” was Byrn’s immediate reaction, “Look at
this.” He tugged on the collar around his neck. “If not for this he
would have killed me already regardless of who I am or what I have
to offer. Xander is a would-be conqueror that will kill anyone in
his way to take over the kingdom and remake it in his image. Janus
is already king, but his goals and methods are not that different.
Against my better judgment, I trusted Xander in the hope that I
could broker a deal that would result in a peaceful conclusion to
the magician rebellion and this was how I was treated.” Byrn’s
hands gestured up and down the old husk that he now wore as his
flesh and bone. “What do you think Janus would do if he found out
the truth?”

It was a rhetorical question, but Kellen
answered anyway. “He would ally with you to defeat a common enemy.
I can understand why you might be distrustful of him, but he is
still you brother and he would not do anything to harm his
family.”

“Janus would slap a working collar around my
neck at the first opportunity just like he did with Sane.” The
words were spoken in anger and Byrn knew that they would hurt the
knight. Kellen would always blame himself for what happened to
Sane, but he needed to be made to see reason. His next words were
gentler. “Choosing Xander or Janus will do nothing more than
determine whose people rule over the other. We have to forge a new
path.”

From the uncertainty on Kellen’s face, Byrn
knew that he was reaching him. Then he looked away abruptly. “King
Janus already knows. He has allowed me to make you this offer of an
alliance and I suggest that you take it for your own sake.”

At that moment Byrn had to suppress the urge
to call Kellen any number of colorful names that sprang to mind.
Instead he did as he was asked and followed Kellen back to Janus’
cabin of his own free will. He should have known better than to
trust Kellen. Once again the knight chose his vow of duty over
doing what was right on a personal level. Byrn knew that there was
a chance that this would happen, but he was desperate and thought
that it would be worth the risk.

This time when he was brought before Janus
the meeting was less formal. There was no greeting and Janus’ face
wore a grim expression as he looked down on Byrn. “You might as
well take that collar off. Let us be done with false pretenses,
brother
. It is interesting. I have never had the opportunity
to address you as such. My baby brother in the body of an old man.”
Janus mused at the idea. He was nearly impossible to read as his
voice lingered somewhere between threatening and a dark humor. Byrn
took off the gold collar and let it fall to the floor. “Kellen
tells me that you wish to serve the crown.”

“I wish to stop Xander Necros and get my body
back,” Byrn told him.

“That is not exactly the same thing,” King
Janus answered. “Make your plea.”

The blood in his veins boiled, begging to
strike out at the king. Not only was this man responsible for
killing hundreds of magicians and enslaving hundreds more, but also
he was arrogant in his smug superiority. It manifested in the way
he sat, the way he smiled, and in the way he spoke with people.

“No, it is not,” Byrn agreed, “and I would
not swear my fealty to you… at least not without getting something
in return.”

“You still draw breath,” Janus warned. He
wanted Byrn to be certain that Janus was the one in control, but
when the magician did not say anything, the wondering became too
much and Janus asked, “What more would you ask of me?”

This was an opportunity for Byrn to get what
he most wanted out of this trip. It was the only reason he had
stayed aboard the ship for so long in the first place. “I want you
to free all of the magicians that you have in custody. If you do
this, then I will serve you faithfully.” Byrn bent his head down in
a half bow.

“I should trade forty magicians for one?”
Janus laughed at the incredulity of the offer.

“You should trade forty magicians for one
that can defeat Xander Necros.”

“No!” It was Kellen from behind him. Byrn
turned and saw the knight grappling with another man- one of Janus’
royal guards. The gleam of a new control collar in the man’s hand
caught his eye.

The room erupted in chaos. It was normally a
spacious cabin, but the half dozen guards in there with Janus,
Kellen, and Byrn made the room below the dais Janus sat on feel
cramped. Weapons were drawn and anti-magic light grew around them.
Hands grabbed at Byrn from either side and almost immediately let
him go as a cloak of flame wrapped around his body.

“Get out! Get out!” Someone shouted as the
room began to fill with smoke and the heat grew intolerable. A door
opened and daylight streamed in from the deck.

“Kill him!” It was Janus. “That is an
order!”

Kenzai swords stabbed at Byrn from all sides
at the king’s command and glanced off of Byrn’s magical armor
beneath the cloak. The blades withdrawn were red with heat from the
fire cloak, but quickly plunged at the sorcerer again, taking a bit
of his magical energy with every strike. He wanted to launch an
offensive against the guards, but it was all he could manage to
manipulate the two different magics at once.

He was suddenly aware that Kellen had been
struck unconscious by one of the guards and was being dragged from
the room. Byrn tried to follow, but could not get away from the
stinging blades. Instead he ran deeper into the cabin toward Janus.
The king was surprised to see the flaming man charging him and
recoiled behind his throne as two of his guards stepped between
them and swung their blades at Byrn. They bit through the magic
armor and cut Byrn’s chest, but the cuts were not deep enough to
cause him worry. However, it was enough to stop his charge and
knock him down. Several stabs from other guards caught him in the
arms and hands until Byrn could no longer maintain the dual spells
and they collapsed.