Star Mage (Book 5) (30 page)

Talis had sidled close to Rikar and now pointed at the figure of a Starwalker descending from the sky.

“I recognize him,” he whispered. “He was in Illumina that day. Can it really be Jared?”

“Why would they send him?”
 

Rikar felt a faint whisper of wind behind him, and he turned to see Mara appear. “Jared knows us. Of course the Starwalkers would send him after the Nameless killed the first quad in the desert. But I’m guessing that Jared doesn’t know that they’re dead, otherwise they’d likely send more quads to fight. Look at them, they’re not even thinking of fighting, they’re just singing a song to find their friends.”

Mara was right. The more Rikar studied the sky where the Starwalkers searched, he realized that they were confused somehow, likely perplexed because they could sense their friends. They waited as if wondering why they didn’t respond to their song.

“We should go to them,” Talis said, “before their confusion turns to frustration and indiscriminate anger.”

As Talis turned to fly, Rikar seized him by the arm and shook his head. “No, it should be me that goes, it’s me that they want.”

“We’ll go together. I know Jared and he’ll listen to me.” Talis raised a palm to placate Rikar. “They don’t want you, they’ve only come to find out what’s happened to their friends. We need to talk to them, or they’ll certainly start blasting this city to bits.”

With the renewed intensity of the Starwalkers flying across the city, and their song changing to a frantic rhythm and shrill tones, Rikar knew that Talis was right. So he flew up high above the red buildings and black, billowing smoke and hovered there waiting as Talis and Mara joined him.
 

Soon the nearest Starwalker sighted them and slowly flew over while two others of his quad joined him, women with long, billowing golden hair and the same silver and black shimmering robes that Rikar had remembered from Vellia. Another man flew over to Jared, a youthful, fierce-looking man with silver hair and dark skin the color of chocolate, and his alien eyes surveyed them with curiosity.

“How is it that find myself once again in the presence of these three young humans?” Jared spoke to the other Starwalkers as if explaining an unknown story to them. “Two of them loyal and true and pure of heart, and one a murderer, but is it really him?” The Starwalker flew close and Rikar found his hands twitching nervously at the man’s quick advance. “You look very different from the last time I saw you in Illumina. Your hair and skin has changed. Some mystical force has completely renewed your body? A familiar energy now courses through you and radiates like the stars…”

Jared gasped in shock as his eyes went wide and he wailed a mournful exhalation and shook his head in disbelief. “Can it really be true? That the essence of my fellow Starwalkers resides within your cruel body?” He came so close that Rikar flinched as if worried the man would strike him down in an instant, but the Starwalker only sniffed. “Your skin even possesses the smell of the Starwalkers? How is this possible?”

Rikar tried to retreat from the uncomfortable distance between himself and the Starwalker, but Jared narrowed his eyes and Rikar felt woozy and delirious in an instant. Jared came very close to Rikar again and small, spindly snake-like cords shot out from his fingertips and attached themselves around Rikar’s wrists like an octopus latching onto its prey. To Rikar’s horror, the green strands clenched tight and he could feel something sink into his skin and caused his arms and fingers to spasm uncontrollably.
 

“How, how, how?” Jared shouted, and his bull eyes glowered at Rikar, a wrathful agony twisting up the once beautiful features of his face into a horrific scowl. “You have all four inside you? As if you ingested their blood and ate of their flesh? But, no, not in your stomach…in your blood and in the cells of your body, in your mind, in your energy. Somehow you have been remade with their very essence? What kind of foul blood magic is this? Jeremiah tampered with the dark arts, but nothing so cruel and nefarious as this…”

“A cruel deed has been done to Rikar by the one called the Nameless,” Mara said, her voice soft and sad, and Rikar was surprised that she spoke up for him. “It is the same being that has slain your Starwalker friends, deep in the black heart of the ancient Ruins of Elmarr. But by what dark method, none of us know.”

The Starwalkers stared at each other with sorrowful expressions and the women whimpered weakly and darted their tear-filled glances at Rikar, their eyes like long needles of hatred stabbing into him.

“Must we accept the words of these mortals as truth?” The dark-skinned Starwalker aimed a finger at Mara. “How do we know they are not simply leading us away from finding our brothers and sisters?”

“Janesh, I understand your concern, but it is undeniable that bits of the essence of all four members of the quad now reside within this young murderer.” Jared studied Rikar with doubtful eyes. “Though I am quite certain he doesn’t possesses the power to kill them. This causes me to believe that likely the girl’s story is true. And if it is true, then we are in grave danger remaining on this world. We must consult with the high council. Especially since a fragment is now in the hands of an enemy.”

“But what does this mean for us?” Mara’s forehead creased in worry as she glanced at Talis and back to the Starwalker. Rikar felt like something terrible was going to happen, and the voice of the Nameless was shrieking frantically in his mind, warning him to leave and fly away. He knew that if any more prodding pressure pushed his mind he would fall off into the black emptiness and go insane.

Almost in unison, the sky around them filled with sorcerers and necromancers rising up from the streets of Ishur. Jared wheeled around slowly and surveyed the threat, his amused face forming a grin.
 

“Why look, have we guests come and worship us?” A look of humor passed between the Starwalkers, but their bull-like eyes retained the alien coldness that sent chills prickling along Rikar’s arms.

“I imagine these robe-wearing magicians are loyal to the one you call the Nameless?” Janesh fixed a fierce scowl on Mara.

Rikar cleared his throat and forced himself to concentrate. “I sense the Nameless is furious and he now commands his loyal servants to protect us.”

Janesh spread his arms wide. “These insects dare challenge gods?”

The image of Rikar slaying the Starwalker woman played out in his mind, but he forced himself to remain quiet and expressionless for fear of invoking their wrath. Though they were certainly powerful, they were not gods, nothing like the power and fury of Zagros.

“Be wary of these insects, brother,” Jared said, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he studied the threat. “You may find some of them scorpions.”
 

The Starwalker clapped his hands and a white, shimmering star portal flowered in the sky and caused the crowd of sorcerers and necromancers around them to cringe in fear at the power and glory of the portal. Jared snapped his fingers at Talis, Mara, and Rikar, and they went woozy and the world went bleary from the spell. Rikar tried to fight against the power of the Starwalker’s mind, but he found the effort like swimming upstream against a raging river, and he gave in and allowed himself to be flung along the swift current until blackness overtook his mind.
 

When Talis woke he found himself alone in a glittering, glassy world like the view of a sun-filled day staring through a faceted, clear crystal. Glancing around, he discovered he was lying on a low bed in a room made completely of glass or crystal or perhaps even gigantic diamonds. Some light outside the room or within the crystals illuminated the facets and sent light beams across the whitewashed floor. One entire side of the room opened to a tropical garden with a low waterfall spilling into a lily pad covered pool. The foliage reminded Talis of the jungles of Lorello.

In a fright he looked around and soon discovered his backpack beside the bed and the Surineda Map case still safe inside. Wanting to find Mara, he withdrew the map and felt the familiar force of fire magic slither up his hands as he closed his eyes and sent the map his command to locate her. The map immediately came alive and drew a shimmering point of light in a room next to his. He sighed and strode over towards the garden and heard a hiss as he passed through the edge of the building.

 
Outside, he glanced back at the building and saw a scintillating shield covering the room’s face. Strange, was this some kind of a magical barrier protecting the room from the animals and insects outside? He heard monkeys chattering high in the trees and the chanting of birds and cackling of parrots as he followed a footpath through exotic orchids. Rounding a guava tree, he found another shield covering the room next to his. In a movement of curiosity, he raised his hand to the shield and found that it melt away at his touch, and to his relief, revealed Mara’s sleeping form curled up inside.

He sat next to her and could see the gentle rise and fall of her chest as he admired her pretty, sleeping face. Her eyelids fluttered as if she were having a dream. She smacked her lips like she was nibbling on something delicious, and Talis stroked her long, auburn hair illuminated by the velvety, crystalline light, and was enraptured by the smooth silkiness of the feeling. He thought that she was the most beautiful girl in the whole world and worried whether she still cared for him as before.
 

She stirred from her sleep, and startled, he smiled and met her eyes as she squinted and glanced around the room.

“Where are we?” She pushed herself up and stared at the curved crystalline ceiling that arched down and around into walls. Her head swiveled around and she squealed in delight as she caught sight of a strange peacock flaring its beautiful, green feathers as two smaller females pecked around at the ground.

“I’ve never seen such beautiful feathers before!” she said, and stalked over towards the gardens, keeping herself low and her movements still to prevent them from being frightened. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “They’re some completely different species, like we’re on another world?”

“The Starwalkers must have mesmerized us and dragged us off through the star portal.” Talis pointed at the gardens. “I found your room using the Surineda Map. It turns out they put us right next door. It’s an amazingly beautiful jungle outside. Want to see?”

“I want one of those feathers.” Mara chewed her lip in excitement and seized her daggers and went invisible as she stalked towards the shield. Soon the proud peacock shrieked and darted away, surprised at having one less feather in its plumage. Mara reappeared and smiled devilishly with the long feather in her hand. “It’s so light and iridescent and green! Do you know how rare it is to find such a beautiful, green feather? Only in the south and I saw a few in the jungles of Lorello. But we were so rushed I didn’t have the time to go feather hunting.”

She narrowed her eyes as if remembering something morbid. “Where do you think the Starwalkers have taken Rikar?”

Talis pictured the horrified face of Rikar as Jared cast the spell that lulled his mind into submission. Were they torturing him for information? Conducting some strange experiment to understand how the Starwalker essence had been infused into his body? From Rikar’s story of the blood magic spells the priest had cast over him to bring him back to life, Talis guessed the Starwalkers might be worried at the possibility of being vulnerable against the Nameless and his followers. But how could they ever follow them here?

Then the memory of Rikar following Talis through the worlds portal filled his mind. Was it possible for one of the sorcerers to sneak after them into the portal? Did the Jiserians possess the ability to cast spells of invisibility? From his memory of the Order of the Dawn, Talis never recalled such a spell. But Rikar had followed them through two worlds portals unseen, so it was highly likely that the Jiserians knew such a spell.

“I’m guessing they are examining him, maybe trying to understand how the priests cast the blood magic spell? I still don’t know what it means for us, though. And I just want to go home.” Talis sighed and scanned over the beautiful rainforest, wishing he could just enjoy his time here with Mara and ignore all the craziness surrounding Rikar and the Nameless. He wished he had more time with her like the time they’d spent together at the smuggler’s cove.

“With the Surineda Map we have an advantage, right?” She ran her fingers through his hair and he shivered in response. “Don’t worry, we’ll find a way back home. At least it’s likely that Naru is safe. With the Jiserians fighting, and the Nameless after the Starwalker’s fragments, they’ll be too busy to bother with Naru, don’t you think?”

You’ve forgotten that you murdered Emperor Ghaalis and killed Princess Devonia’s brother,
Talis thought. It was better that Mara remained calm and believed that their city and families were safe.

“They’ll be fine, I don’t think we need to worry about Naru.” He held her hand and strolled along the path towards the waterfall and pool, savoring the sweet scents of fruits and flowers in the air. “Wherever we are, this is a strange and beautiful place, and it feels very peaceful and safe. The Starwalkers have a really advanced civilization; I’ve never seen anything like how this building is constructed. Do you think those are diamonds?”