SORCERER (The Elemental Magic Series Book 1) (19 page)

"Next time, picture it gradually closing and it will get easier with practice. Congrats!
  You just used magi
c on purpose for the first time! Try it on some of your other cuts later." Peter gave him one of his fatherly smiles.

"I will Peter, thanks for the tip."

"Are you ready to get out of here by chance?"

"I am. But they told me to rest after how much power they used."

"How much was it?" Peter frowned.

"It felt like perhaps a quarter."

"You're fine then. Let’s go."

Alec threw on his robe and went with Peter. One of the clerics stopped them and Peter took him off to one side and after a bit they were allowed to leave. As they walked to the tower Peter told him not to try and make himself taller or anything else like that. He might be able to change his hair, eyes or even his skin color as he got more practice but that was about it. Alec liked the idea of changing his skin color, he never seemed to tan like others, and he was always so pale looking.

They walked into the tower and found Christi and Beth sitting and talking to another woman who was older than them.

"Ah Cathy, you made it back." Peter welcomed her warmly.

"Master Peter." She smiled back.

"It's just Peter and you know it." Peter scolded her.

"Yah and I saw the mess you made upstairs."

Peter laughed, and then introduced Alec to her. She was the only fourth year sorcery student. Beth was second year along with a guy named Larry who Peter said wouldn't be coming till mid-winter because of a family death.

Alec went to bed after talking to the girls for a while. Christi said she’d wake him for supper with a wink. In his room Alec shed his robes and just laid in his undershorts as he concentrated on separating a small amount of his power. He pushed it to the largest of the cuts on his right arm laying it over the cut. He pictured the cut slowly closing leaving it without a mark. It was easier this way, he thought. One down, a dozen to go.

By the time he was done with his right arm he thought he could do it fairly quickly and it seemed to be getting easier.

He did the only real cut on his left arm and was about to do the long nasty one on his chest when Christi came in. She knocked softly then slipped inside.

Alec wanted to see what she would do so he laid there pretending to sleep. She came and sat down next to him, he felt her kiss his cheek then take his earlobe in her teeth for a second before whispering, "Time to get up lover boy," in a husky voice.

Alec quickly grabbed and pulled her down onto the bed with him and started tickling her. She let out a little scream and told him to stop then playfully hit him on the chest making him wince.

"Sorry, sorry." She said quickly realizing what she'd done.

That reminded him to heal it and decided to show her what he'd learned.

"Want to see something interesting?" he asked.

"I've already seen it," she responded with a raised eyebrow.

Alec laughed at her joke.

"No, seriously I learned something that I want to show you. Sit up and watch my chest," Alec said closing his eyes. He pulled a bit larger amount of power and pushed it to cover the cut on his chest, remembering how the muscle under the skin worked and felt with light colored hair running over the skin. He pushed the vision of how it was now into how he remembered it, slowly making one become the other leaving his chest whole and without a scar.

"Wow, does Peter know? How?" she asked flustered. She ran a hand over his chest raising goose bumps.

"Yah he does, Peter caught me healing my lip earlier. I saw what the clerics did when they healed my nose and arm. So just experimented going with what felt right and trying different things till I got it right. Peter told me how to do it the easy way when I was done."

"You’re going to give me a better explanation later." Christi told him shaking her head.

Chapter 19

In the Barrier Mountains, a good six weeks ride to the northwest of Kingston, set back in a valley sat the Castle Beckmen. It covered most of the valley and was dwarfed on all four sides by the majestic mountains around it. The castle was all but forgotten to man and invisible to most of the gods. In the past millennium a god had been slain there, creating a veil of sorts blocking the eyes of the other gods. Archmage Paul Stalleen sat before an unlatched window in his room. At first glance one would think he was studying the mountains themselves but his concentration was much further away in actuality.

Somewhere out there a mage had awakened his or her power and was strong enough that he could sense them from almost the full length of the country away.

Paul knew there was two ways this could happen. The first and least likely was someone had been born with an extraordinary amount of power and had awakened it not that long ago. More likely, it was two sorcerers had found the bond and completed it, which was how most of them achieved their greater powers.

The thought of the bond made him subconsciously seek out where his own bond-mate was, Martha. Most bond-mates were male and female pairs that were married or at least in love. Martha was the one to initiate their bond but somehow he was the one to be elected as Archmage. With new mages out in the world and not knowing how to shield their power he knew they would have to send someone soon to bring them back to be trained in the safety of the castle if he didn’t want the gods to kill them.

His thoughts were interrupted by a new presence in the room with him. He stood from his chair and gave the Goddess of Magic a bow to show his respect.

“Lady Silvia, you grace me with your presence. What can I do for you, or is this just a social call?” He asked the goddess with a smile on his face.

“You know how much I dislike all that bowing and subservient behavior Paul,” she told him before going over to take a seat on one of his couches.

“We've known each other quite a while and you know this is one of the few places my brethren won't come to because they can't see it.”

“That I do, which is why we stay here most of the time. And it's why I haven't left in the last hundred some years,” he said. “So, what do I owe the pleasure of your visit to?"

“What, can't a girl just stop by? You said I was welcome anytime and could stay if I liked,” she teased him.

“I know, but you rarely come without reason,” he reminded her.

“Fine. The reason I've come is that there is a boy who was born a mage. I'm sure you have sensed his power even from here. I've found out that one of my brethren has ordered his execution. You need to get to him before the priest do. His fate is wrapped around ours. He must be saved!”

“You say all that power is in one boy? I have just recently noticed him and was planning on calling the others to a meeting so we could decide who would go.”

“I would suggest a sooner than later decision.”

Martha walked into their parlor having heard the last part of the conversation. She knew the voices coming from the room well before entering.

“Silvia, it’s nice to see you again. You'll stay for a while won't you?” she asked as they gave one another a hug.

“I'm sorry I can't this time, dear. I am trying to find the one a priest has hired to do his dirty work. Perhaps when things settle down I'll come back for a vacation of sorts,” Silvia said.

“You must! If I have to, I'll come looking for you if you don't,” Martha warned.

“I will dear, I will.”

The goddess left a short time later after catching up on all the gossip with Martha.

“I take it we need to call for a council?” she asked her husband.

“Yah, a boy is out there, a born mage, too.”

“Oh my, he must be strong then. I was heading downstairs anyway, so I'll round up the others and meet you in the main room then,” she told him as she kissed him on the cheek.

Martha left Paul to make himself more presentable. The other mages and few sorcerers they had at the castle would expect him to look the part of Archmage. As he got into the appropriate robes he felt Martha's call go out. It wasn't really a call in the typical sense of the word but more of a feeling of the elements clashing. It was felt by the senses instead of one’s ear. This meant that only those with enough power could feel it and those people knew that it meant someone had called a meeting.

Paul took a quick glance at himself in the mirror before heading downstairs. The climb down wasn't that hard for him even with his great number of years. He neared the main hall seeing a couple sorcerers straggling into the hall before him and proceeded to follow them in.

All of the mages were in attendance, six pairs not including Martha and him. The rest of the people were sorcerers and a couple of servants handing out drinks to those who’d asked for them. Paul took his place at the head of the table and raised his hand for everyone to quiet down. As they took seats and the voices trailed off he began telling them of the power he and some of the others could feel off in the distance. Paul then told them of his visit with the goddess Silvia. When he told them that the power was from one boy and that he was a born mage the hall erupted in shouts of denial and soon into arguments.

Paul repeatedly slammed his hand to the table getting everyone’s attention. People turned back to him as he told them it didn't matter if it was one boy or a new couple. What mattered was that they needed to be brought back here to safety.

The discussion went fairly well when Sherry and Robert volunteered to go retrieve the person for the council. After closing the meeting Paul spoke with Sherry and Robert alone.

“I think Silvia is correct in that it is a lone boy with the power. You need to be very careful with the temples already being aware of him. They may have set in motion a way to get rid of the boy,” he said.

“We've both been through this before and we know how to take care ourselves Paul,” Sherry told him.

“Besides we'll be back before you know it, having pulled the boy right out from under their noses,” Robert said.

They told him they were planning to leave first thing in the morning. They planned to ride south to Panthis harbor and take a ship around the peninsula and up the coast to Cantor. From there they should be able get a better reading on where the kid was.

Paul agreed it was probably the best plan, getting them to the boy in less than a week. The total trip would take less than a month if they could find him quickly.

Paul headed back to his quarters and began looking through his personal collection of books on prophecies. If he remembered correctly there was one about a mage saving the gods and from what Silvia had said it could be the right time for it to come to pass.

Chapter 20

Alec ate a light supper not wanting to overdo it after being hurt. He then went to his room to write his letters to Karen and Jake, saying good night to the girls as he headed upstairs.

After writing the letters, and not sealing Jake's, he needed to know if it would be just Christi and her mother going with him to the wedding. He lay down in bed hearing twelve bells.

He was about to blow out the lantern when he heard knocking, followed by an "Alec are you still up?"

"Come in Christi," he said.

Opening the door and seeing him in bed a little smile crossed her face. "I could get use to this," she said crossing the room.

"Sorry, I was just lying down it’s been a long day you know."

"Mind if I talk to you for just a bit?"

"Sure, have a seat."

"I see a better spot." She said as she wiggled onto his bed but above the blankets. That's when he realized she was wearing something other than robes.

"What are you wearing?" he asked running his hand up her side feeling the fabric slide against his fingers making her giggle and squirm against him.

"A night gown, why? Like it?"

"Yah, it's soft. Do you always wear these?"

"I have several, do you like it?" She snuggled closer to him.

"You had a question?" he reminded her.

"Oh yah. Well, I was going to ask about how you healed yourself but I’m wondering if I shouldn’t wait till Peter explains it first and I like just doing this."

When Alec woke he realized Christi had fallen asleep too and that it was morning.

Holy crap. He was sleeping with Christi. Nothing had happened but "wow", he thought to himself. He had a bad feeling that something was wrong or going to go wrong. Alec gently shook Christi. But she continued to sleep. After a while he decided he really needed to wake her up.

"Hello beautiful, time to wake up." He shook her harder.

Her eyes flew open along with her mouth. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep. I had better go to my own bed."

Alec realized she didn't know what time it was so decided to let her in on it. "Christi, I just heard four bells."

"Oh, we... Oh my!"

Alec stopped her. "I was here too and nothing happened,” he reminded her. "Now I need to go take a shower."

She got a devilish smile on her face. "I'll wash your back if you wash mine."

Alec looked at her. "You serious?" something wasn’t right and it was starting to put him in a bad mood.