The Mage's Limits: Mages of Martir Book #2 (21 page)

Darek realized where Jakuuth was going with this. “Please … don't kill me …”

“Why shouldn't I?” said Jakuuth. He patted the gavel's head. “It would only be just. My father would not hesitate to punish a liar like yourself, no matter how valuable you might be normally.”

“I can do it,” Darek gasped. Those four words alone were enough to hurt his throat, but he kept talking. “Please … give me another chance …”

“Why should I?” said Jakuuth, tilting his head. “I did not initially invite you to join the Army. Your jumping in has forced me to put off the invasions for another month at least. If you aren't willing to put in the effort to achieve Limitlessness, then you are less than useless to me.”

Darek glanced at Aorja. She had lowered her wand now, holding it in both hands as she watched their conversation with interest and excitement. She was probably looking forward to seeing Jakuuth kill Darek, so Darek could not rely on her for help.

“Knowledge,” said Darek, looking back up at Jakuuth. “Knowledge of North Academy.”

“So does Aorja,” said Jakuuth. “She has already told me everything she knows about North Academy's defenses. I doubt there is anything new that you could tell me.”

Darek bit his lower lip. He could not think of any major changes that had been made to North Academy's defenses since Aorja's banishment, so Jakuuth had a point.

Jakuuth raised his gavel higher. “I will make this quick so that Aorja and I can return to the surface and begin the preparations to transport the Army to North Academy and World's End.”

Panic rose in the pit of Darek's stomach. He reached out and wrapped one weak hand around Jakuuth's ankle, saying as he did so, “No … please …”

Jakuuth actually hesitated. He looked down on Darek's hand as if he had never seen it before. Not that Darek could take advantage of that. He was much too weak to do anything. Even just grabbing Jakuuth's ankle had taken a lot out of him, more than he thought it would.

Yet Jakuuth still held his gavel above his head. The muscles in his arms were tense, like he was going to bring the gavel down any minute now. His eyes were still locked on Darek's hand, but Darek had no doubt that Jakuuth could kill him in one blow even without looking at him.

Then Jakuuth lowered his gavel to his side. “You have a drive to survive. Even when the odds are clearly against you, you still think you can do it.”

Without warning, Jakuuth lashed out with his left boot. The boot crashed into Darek's jaw, causing him to let go of Jakuuth's right ankle and fall flat on his back. His jaw ached, like it had been smashed by a metal pipe, and Darek's head spun. He couldn't even focus on anything because he was in such pain.

Jakuuth's face appeared above him, looking as solemn as the gods. He reached down with one hand and brushed something wet and hot from Darek's lips, which Darek's sluggish mind realized was blood.

“I will not kill you today, Darek Takren,” said Jakuuth. He held the drop of blood on his finger in Darek's face. “I sense that you will be worth the time and effort I will need to put into training you. But I am only going to give you this one last chance, and if you toss it away like so much garbage, you will see far more than a single drop of blood flowing from your body.”

Then Jakuuth looked up. “Aorja, get Darek to the medical room, where he will rest until he feels strong enough to try again. If there are any problems, you know where to find me.”

Then Jakuuth walked out of Darek's line of sight, replaced almost immediately by Aorja. Her violet eyes were angry, like she was annoyed by the fact that she had to take care of Darek, but as before, she did not complain or object. She didn't ask if Darek was all right or even how he felt, though that didn't surprise him at all.

As Aorja used telekinesis to cause Darek to hover off the floor, Darek wondered if the Ghostly God had sent him on this mission because the southern god believed he could actually complete it or if he had sent Darek here in order to die.

Either way, it looks like killing a Limitless mage who may or may not be the real Son of Grinf is going to be much more difficult than I thought,
Darek thought as Aorja began hovering him away from the ice chunk and toward the exit.
Much,
much
more difficult. Maybe even impossible.

Chapter Thirteen

D
urima did not like the Void metal armor that Hollech had given her. Not that it wasn't practical; oh, it was. It was thick, but not so thick as to be suffocating. It was flexible and covered most of her body. The few spots it didn't cover, such as her armpits, were so difficult to hit that she didn't feel frightened or worried that she could get hurt by leaving them exposed.

What she didn't like about it was how it had clearly been designed for someone smaller than her. As flexible as the armor may have been, it was still tight against her body and limbs—nor was it padded, either, which only added to her discomfort.

She glanced at Gujak, who walked beside her. His armor seemed to fit him much better than hers did. He looked less like a walking tree now and more like a warrior heading off to battle against the enemy army. Of course, it was hard to see him well due to the darkness of the Void, but she had seen him back in Castle Hollech and so remembered exactly how he had looked with the armor on.

Ahead, Hollech led them like a general of an advancing army, although quietly so. He walked so silently that Durima sometimes feared she would forget him if she stopped or looked away. Like Gujak and she, he wore Void metal armor, although he didn't wear as much as they because he seemed to believe that he didn't need it due to his divine nature.

The three of them had been walking through the Void for quite some time now, although again Durima had no idea how much time had passed exactly. Hollech had said that he was leading her and Gujak to the 'nest' of the half-gods, a canyon located not far from Castle Hollech that he had once visited years ago after a half-god attack convinced him that he needed to learn more about them in order to survive.

That was why Hollech had given her and Gujak the armor they wore. After the half-gods' earlier attack, Hollech had shown Durima and Gujak a cache of armor and weapons that he had found stashed away in one of Castle Hollech's hidden rooms. He had claimed that he did not know who or what had put that equipment there, but that he had been keeping it safe in the event that he would need it. He had muttered something about his useless servants not being able to wear any of it, which Durima had chosen not to comment on.

Durima saw the logic behind Hollech arming them. Their equipment was made out of Void metal, a substance that was exceedingly rare in Martir, known for the simple fact that none of the gods, not even Grinf, could break it. Durima had only seen Void metal in person a handful of times over her three centuries of life, so she had been quite shocked when she saw the piles and piles of swords, axes, helmets, shin guards, and other equipment in that room in Castle Hollech. By wearing armor made of the substance, Durima and Gujak were guaranteed a certain invulnerability that they would otherwise not have.

Still, even with their Void metal armor and weapons, Durima wondered how she and Gujak could possibly help Hollech kill these half-gods. Hollech had assured them that half-gods could be killed by non-divine beings such as katabans, but she didn't see how Hollech could know that, seeing as it was unlikely that he had seen a mortal kill a half-god in the Void.

And of course, Hollech is also completely nuts,
Durima thought, eying the back of the banished god as she followed him.
I wouldn't be surprised if he starts to tell us that the secret to defeating the half-gods is to feed them week-old cake.

For that matter, Hollech had not told them how many half-gods there were. He had said that the half-gods were numerous, but whether 'numerous' meant twenty, thirty, fifty, or even one hundred, Durima didn't know. She suspected that Hollech didn't know, either, though he obviously was not going to admit that.

Every now and then, Hollech would hold up a hand signaling Durima and Gujak to stop. They would do so, and then the three of them would listen for whatever Hollech had seen or heard. Most of the time, it was nothing, although once Durima heard what sounded like a giant grasshopper walking nearby, no doubt one of the Scavengers that Hollech had mentioned earlier.

Aside from the sound of the occasional Scavenger and their own footsteps and breathing, Durima heard no other noises or sounds in the Void. There wasn't even a light breeze blowing through, although that didn't mean that it was warm. On the contrary, the Void was icy, almost as cold as the Great Berg, or perhaps as cold as a long-dead corpse.

Regardless of the climate, Durima was almost certain that she, Gujak, and Hollech were going to be attacked at any moment. While Hollech moved with the silence of a thief, Durima and Gujak, in their Void metal armor, were more like crashing piles of pots and pans, even though both of them were trying their best to be as stealthy as possible. No half-god or Scavenger emerged from the shadows to claim their lives, but that hardly made Durima feel better.

It reminded her of the War, when she and some of her fellow soldiers had been traveling through enemy territory at night. Of course, the King's Desert had been much louder than the Void, with scorpions scuttling across the sand, dune wolves howling at the moon, and the ever-present sound of the sand shifting beneath their feet—not to mention hotter as well.

Just as Durima was about to ask Hollech how much farther the canyon was, Hollech stopped and said, in a short, harsh hiss of a voice, “Stop.”

Durima and Gujak did so. Durima reached for the short sword at her side. She technically didn't need it, seeing as her claws were more than enough for dealing with most enemies. But it was made of Void metal, so she thought it would give her an advantage over any half-gods they ran into.

“What is it, sir?” Gujak asked, his voice almost too low to hear.

Hollech pointed. “Light.”

Durima blinked and looked around Hollech. He was right. Coming from down below them was a small light, like the glow of a campfire in the middle of the night, though unlike a campfire it changed colors rapidly. Every now and then creatures would dance past the light, briefly obscuring it, but never for very long.

By her side, Gujak trembled, his Void metal armor clanking like tin. “What is—”

“Shush,” Hollech snapped. “Or do you want the half-gods to find us?”

Gujak gulped, but for once he kept quiet.

“That's the group of half-gods that's been giving me hell ever since Skimif banished me here,” said Hollech, gesturing toward the light. “Has to be. This is their canyon. But I don't understand the light.”

“What do you mean?” Durima asked, keeping her voice as low as a whisper.

“The half-gods never create light,” said Hollech, shaking his head. “They are creatures of the Void, which means they despise light. It's how I've been keeping them at bay for so long. I didn't think they even knew how to start a fire.”

Gujak looked over his shoulder. “Are there any trees in the Void you could use to make a fire out of?”

“No,” said Hollech. “I don't like this, not one bit. Someone taught them how to do it. I don't know who or why, but I am going to get to the bottom of this regardless.”

Hollech took off toward the light, still silent, although much more quickly than he normally did. Durima and Gujak increased their speed to catch up with him, although they ended up making more noise than Durima liked.

Despite the absolute blackness of the Void, Hollech managed to lead Durima and Gujak down into the canyon without any trouble. Soon they reached the bottom of the canyon, at which point Hollech began leading them from boulder to massive boulder so they would not be seen.

The closer they drew to the light, the better Durima saw of the canyon. Half-gods were still dancing around the light, but there was no music playing, except for the occasional growls and screeches of the half-gods themselves. From their position behind a boulder, Durima counted about a dozen half-gods visible in the light, but she heard more dancing in the shadows like puppets.

The sounds of their dancing was a terrible farrago of noise. Durima picked out the sound of sludge slopping against the earth, metal boots clinking against each other, and wooden shoes tapping against a rock. There was no unified method to the dancing, at least none Durima could see. It was a free-for-all, each half-god dancing as he or she saw fit.

“Oh my gods,” said Gujak, peering from around the boulder with Durima. “Why are they all dancing? Master Hollech, is this normal behavior for the half-gods?”

Hollech was also peering around the boulder, but on the other side, so Durima could not see his expression. “No, of course not. The half-gods never dance. I didn't even know they knew how to dance … well, they clearly don't, considering their dance moves, but you know what I mean.”

Durima squinted at the light. It looked like a normal fire, but every now and then its color would change. Not only that, but Durima thought she saw faces in the fire or images of beautiful crystalline buildings that she had never seen anywhere in Martir. Every time the color or image changed, the half-gods would let loose another chorus of their chilling song and dance even more frantically, as if this was the last day of their lives.

She caught the expression of one half-god, who looked like some weird cross between a wolf and a golem. There was no mistaking the sheer look of terror on its face, as if it was being forced to dance against its will.

“Someone is behind this,” said Hollech's voice, which was right behind Durima.

She pulled her face from around the boulder and saw Hollech standing behind her. The light of the fire did not extend to behind this boulder; nonetheless, Hollech's luminimancy provided enough light for her to see his angry equine face.

“We know that, sir,” said Durima. “But who?”

“I have no idea,” said Hollech. “But once I find out who it is, I will force him to tell me how he tamed the half-gods and then kill him and become their king.”