The Ways of Mages: Starfire (16 page)

Terana cocked her head curiously, weighing the bag in her hand
.“
If I do have magic, what will you do
?
”

“
Take you to a place that can teach you to use it
.”
Kadrean said.

“
Where would that be
?
”

“
Razya
n’
s Keep in the Vermillion mountains
.
”

“
Where is that
?”
Terana asked blinking. She had never heard of the places.

“
As far from here as one can get and remain in Marlhema
.”
Zeeve replied.

Terana glanced from Zeeve on the ground to Kadrean who was still near his horse to Liam who was standing on the other side of the horse, stroking its neck to Russy who sat on his hunches, watching all. If she did have magic, she would have a place far from here. If she did
n’
t perhaps they would take her with them. Seeing nothing to lose, Terana turned the bag over. Onto her palm plopped a small stone the size of her thumb nail and shaped roughly like that of a tear. It looked like someone had spilled milk on a drop of honey and then froze it in time.

At least, that was how it was just as it touched her skin.

On contact a golden light flashed brilliantly then the stone promptly
melted
. With a tiny scream of surprise, she flung the stone away from her. The stone landed with a thud. By then it had cooled into a milky slate. Terana swallowed guiltily. She looked up expecting anger or, more reasonably, fear. Instead she was met with the wide eyes and jawless mouths of shock.

Zeeve crept toward the stone. He looked as though it could not possibly be true. But how could a six inch tall man think anything could not possibly have some truth to it?
He
saw it with his own eyes!
Hypocrite
. A small voice in her mind whispered. She had seen the flame in Kadrea
n’
s hand before and refused to believe it.

“
Kade, I do
n’
t ever remember hearing of a
Kadelle
melting
.”
Zeeve said looking over his shoulder at his companion.

Kadrean could only shake his head, his grey eyes staring at the stone.

Terana wished desperately that she could vanish.

“
Of course, I would never hear of such a thing
.”
Liam said, bending to pick up the slate. In his palm it went back to its original tear shape as if whatever had melted it had been removed. Then it turned black.

***

Pershara- South of Sigon Pass

After the freak storm and the even stranger white Tree Gir, Bendon pushed the group as hard as they could go. But it was
n’
t fast enough. Nowhere near fast enough.  Worried thoughts for his daughter snarled at his heels. Perela was a talented, powerful sorceress. Bu
t…
Cold dread washed through him. He remembered the Dragon Wars during the Fall. The Dark had employed the Fires then too. Only a fearless faith in God could save one from becoming damned. Only Go
d’
s hand could protect one from losing on
e’
s life.

The Fires coupled with the Dark Moon would strengthen the Dark Sons to a point where they were nearly invincible. There were only a few spells that Bendon knew that could stop the Dark Sons. Weapons were useless, unless of course, one had one of the Three Swords of Power. But all three were lost. And Perela would be standing at Dunca
n’
s side before the very fires of hel
l
…

“
We need to
hurry
.”
Bendon said forcing his legs to move faster.

“
Arriving exhausted will do nobody any good
.”
Robert muttered
.“I’
m sorry, old friend
.
”

“
Perhaps we could use magic
?”
Tommy suggested.

“
Yes, any of those transport symbols handy
?”
Robert asked brightening.

Bendon sighed
.“
No. The one we used to meet up with Kindra was a temporary stepping stone. The nearest permanent one was at Shenandoah, but someone attempted to use it without permission. It disintegrated. After that is Riverdale
.
”

In the rear of the group marched Toliver. He had been listening closely to the mage
s’
discuss faster ways of travel. Toliver, a good honest soldier, did
n’
t necessarily trust magic, but it sure made traveling easier. In fact, he had started to look forward to a short cut. Learning that such a short cut was
n’
t handy made him grumble. He glanced at Tep who was beside him
.“
It just goes to prove my mother right. 'Life do
n’
t believe in short cuts. Onl
y‘
ard work.' Das what she always said. Yes indeed
.
”

Near the front, just behind Bendon and Robert, walked Kindra and Tommy. The mother dragon reached out to Bendon
.“
Do
n’
t worry, old friend. We will walk with all our strength. We must have faith. We will get there
.
”

“
Yes, I just hope we are in time
.”
Bendon muttered.

“
Why do
n’
t we fly
?”
Kairevasigh asked.  She had been pondering what the white Tree Gir had meant by saying they already had the quickest way possible. Flight, she concluded, would be very fast.

“
Cause we do
n’
t have wings, lass
.”
Toliver answered.

Kairevasigh rolled her eyes at Toliver. She stepped closer to Kindra
.“
You are a dragon, are you not
?
”

Kindra blinked at her
.“
I am, but
.”
The blond woman shook her head
.“
I have the knowledge, but I lack the potential
.
”

“
Then who has this
potential
? Kairevasigh asked.

“
I do
.”
Bendon replied
.“
But it takes a lot of power to sustain a shape change. And I will need it when we get there
.”
The group could see the ripping pain that Bendon was in admitting that. He needed to protect his daughter. Needed to get to her side as quickly as he could. But to fly would leave him powerless to defend her.

“
But I do
n’
t understand. Are you not naturally a dragon
?”
Kairevasigh asked confused.

Kindra smiled sadly
.“
Originally, yes. But this is not my original body. Elainia, through a series of unfortunate events, took my place as sacrifice. Some bits of her self are still here. Only recently has she been resurfacing. Her body is pure human. It will take me centuries to accumulate enough potential to attempt shapeshifting
.
”

Kairevasigh listened with wide eyes to Kindr
a’
s explanation. She knew there was more to this story then Kindra had told, but Kairevasigh also knew that it hurt the mother dragon.  Kairevasigh looked down biting her lip as they trudged on. She could teleport. That was by far the fastest way, nearly instantaneous, but could she bring them all safely? She did not know the landscape of Pershara City. She had to be able to picture it perfectl
y…
Kairevasig
h’
s eagle form was
n’
t big enough to carry a man, much less a group. But she did have power, could Kindra use it to shapeshift?    

“
Could you use my magic
?”
She asked Kindra hesitantly.

Kindra paused and turned toward her. Bendon eyes brightened with hope. They had, somehow in the urgency to get to Pershara City, forgot that Kairevasigh had magic. Granted a mysterious kind. But she had some
.“
Take my hand
.”
Kindra said holding her hand out.

The Sheyestivan girl stepped forward and clasped it with both of hers. Kairevasigh closed her eyes and sought the part of her that knew the wind. She felt the shapeshifting magic sti
r…
. It reached for her hand
s…
.

But it stopped short of transferring to Kindra. It balked. It did not know or like the form that Kindra was imagining. It knew not the form of a dragon because it was of an avian image with night black feathers.  Not willing to give up Kairevasigh offered up the other well. The one where most of her power lived. It flowed up and out. Kairevasigh heard the gasps of astonishment from the others, but she still held Kindr
a’
s hand.

Kairevasigh and Kindra opened their eyes at the same time. For a moment, Kairevasigh saw a double image. A copper dragon with emerald wings and eyes stood on the road. It was obvious that the others were impressed. But under the image of the dragon stood the very wingless Kindra.

“
It did
n’
t work
.”
Kindra said.

“
What do you mean? Yes it did! Look at you
!”
Tommy said breathlessly.

“
No it did
n’
t
.”
Kairevasigh muttered in defeat. She let go of Kindr
a’
s hand and backed away. Because she had
n’
t anchored the image the dragon faded away to the nothing that it was.

“
It was worth a try
.”
Kindra said, patting the gir
l’
s shoulder.

Kindra did
n’
t see Bendon sag in grief. Kairevasigh did
.“
I still might be able to get us there quicker
.”
She said quickly. Tommy raised an eyebrow at her. Kairevasigh continued
.“
I just need to be able to visualize where we going.
Perfectly
.
”

“
Wha
t’
cha mean
?”
Tep asked.

Kairevasigh glanced at him before picturing the spot just behind him
.“
I mean this
.”
She said tapping his shoulder. The boy yelped and whirled around. Toliver had his hand on his sword. Kairevasigh backed slowly away with her hands raised.

“
That is how you got out of the tree
.”
Robert mused.

Kairevasigh nodded
.“
If all of us hold hands I could jump us to a point nearer to the city
.
”
 
Hope kindled in Bendo
n’
s eyes as he and the rest formed a circle. Tommy described a point of destination in astonishing detail. She soaked all the details up, painting the image as an illusion in the center of the circle
.“
Like this
?”
She asked. Tommy made some minute corrections before nodding. Kairevasigh took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Truth be told, she was scared out of her mind. She had never teleported a group before. She was
n’
t quite sure she even could. But the devastation in Bendo
n’
s eyes was something she never wanted to see again. Hopefully her well of power would be enough to get them close. Needing to trust that another would assist her, she prayed.

Kaizir says that you are a god of miracles. I desperately need a miracle right now.  I am sorry if I have no right to ask something of you when we do
n’
t really know each other, but please give me the strength to get them where they need to be. Please.
With that Kairevasigh teleported. 

Arathin- Niram
i’
s Grave

Thunder crashed about him, reverberating through his bones. Kaishan never saw it coming. Not a minute ago, the sky had been clear night. He had been returning from his five day scouting trip. One could
n’
t stay long from on
e’
s people; definitely if those people were a power hungry lot.  He could
n’
t believe it now. The storm had him and it was a cruel master. He should have remembered the Niram
i’
s storms. He should have focused on his surroundings and not his memory of the rider he had attacked. Wrong. The memory of the rider was but a passing thought. No, what had occupied his mind was the location of the dragons.  Blood lust had risen in him at the wrong time. It would be a costly mistake, for
no one
took the Grave lightly.

Sound crashed about him, pelting him with rain. He gasped. He had seen the boiling puddles of the Niram
i’
s Grave. He had thought that they boiled because the rock was hot.  He was greatly mistaken. He knew that now as the rain beat upon him. It itself was hot,
burning
hot. 

The pain became his enemy. Kaishan struggled against his bod
y’
s traitorous wish of turning to its human form. His flesh was provided with a tiny bit of protection by his thick feathers. Scant protection against this enraged storm, but they were better than clothes and bare flesh. Shame beat at him. His body was used to flying through storms. Be it weathe
r’
s rage or arrows and magic. Never once had his body weakened enough to want to change. Never. What was it about this storm?

Wild magic.

Even now he felt the wild magic buzz around him. Like a kid with a bug, it tormented him. It played with his
shiana
, trying to induce a change.
No!
He thought at it. The magic only hissed its laughter.

The howling wind played with him, tossing him like a feather. It buffeted him, trying to slam him into something hard and unforgiving; like the ground. He had to clear the storm before it killed him.  Pulling with his wings, Kaishan climbed desperately toward the sky above the storm. The air thinned greatly as he struggled.

The storm had other plans.

He felt the air charge and heat. A crackling burst and lighting zinged past him. He shrieked as a small part of it struck him. Blue-white flashes rippled through the water upon his body before it arced into clouds beneath him. A tiny spark of it bit into his flesh. Stunned, he fell. All the scant progress he had made vanished.

NO!
His mind wailed. With a surged of will he commanded his wings to halt his fall. It was agonizingly hard. Flying through a cloud of arrows had been easier than this. They hurt a lot less too. Energy creaked around him. It was like the storm watched him. Defiantly, Kaishan challenged it. He was the High Prince of Sheyestiva! He
would
live through this storm.  He
would survive
. He lived through his battles.

Kaishan could
n’
t help but wish that the storm had been alive. If only it had been alive! He could have had a chance. His wild hunger screamed. He could have torn it apart. His claws could dig deep into the flesh of the storm and he could have tasted its sweet blood. His ears could have heard its scream.

Thunder roared again, demanding that he yield to it. Kaishan laughed mirthlessly. Fear had turned to anger. Anger led to blood lust. Blood lust awakened the Coldness. The Terror of Sheyestiva awakened to a force with as much pity as it had. None. It shrieked its challenge to the storm. It thought of ways It could conquer its enemy. Its enemy was the weather. Flesh it could rip and rend to nothing. But weather could be controlled by the elemental magics of
marana
. A mind. The Coldness
lashed
. Kaishan, buried beneath the Coldness, had a moment of surprise, not only was there a mind, but there were two. One was wilder then a Cursed; driven and crazy. It was
n’
t exactly a mind, per say, but more of a presence. It was like a wounded animal wanting to tear apart its torturer. Or, if not its tormentor, something else. Something like him.

The other mind was calmer, more mind then presence. It had a sense of command about it. The Coldness lunged for this mind, but before it could get a good grip the calmer mind fled.

The storm, apparently, had been held in check.
Had been
. Past tense. Now it tore into him; thunder, lightning, wild magic, wind, and boiling rain. Kaishan lost control over his stronger shape. Like a puppet with its strings cut, he tumbled, losing his strong eagle form for his natural one. One with no wings. Down, but not as far as he had feared.

His fall stopped abruptly against cold ground. Impact jarred a cry from him. Kaisha
n’
s body was like one huge burn atop a bruise. It cursed him in all the tongues of the body. He was burned by the rain, frozen from the ground, made deaf by the thunder, smarting by the lightning, and abused by the magic. It was amazing that he felt the tongue of heat that lapped at his naked fingers. Instinctively he pulled his hand from the tiny stream of water.

Lighting lanced down making the little stream crackle with energy. With cold clarity, Kaishan knew that death would find him if he did
n’
t find shelter soon. Kaishan tried to stand, but the wind was too strong. The High Prince of Sheyestiva was made to crawl. It was something unheard of, but at the moment he hurt too much to care about appearances.

Finding shelter was difficult in a world of bare rock and tempest conditions. But a miracle awaited his attention.  Amidst all the turmoil, Kaishan eventually realized that there was firelight in the darkness. It came from a cave farther up the slope. Hope of survival drove Kaishan toward the light. He vaguely wondered if it was an illusion. He was so out of it that he could be tricked by a child. Illusion or not, it offered hope.
             

The punishing rain soon stopped its pounding, announcing his arrival to sanctuary. Kaishan crawled farther into the cave that was really there. He kept his eyes closed, because it was simpler then opening them. It was his sense of touch that told him of more relief. Softness made itself known to his hands and knees. With an exhausted, pained shudder, Kaisha
n’
s arms gave out under him. A grunt of pain escaped him as the soft whatever rubbed against his tortured flesh. His ribs did
n’
t like him either. He knew that at least one was cracked. Kaishan let himself relax. It took too much to keep crawling.

“
So, you survived
.”
An old woma
n’
s voice observed. There was a cool command about the voice
.“
Not many would have. You are strong
.
”

Kaisha
n’
s mind searched out for this woma
n’
s. He needed some way to defend himself. Briefly he touched it and found it calm. Just as he was working his grip around it, he was batted away and chased back to his own mind.

“
You are strong; Prince, but you should
n’
t try me
.”
Her voice remained quite. He heard a rustle of cloth
.“
It is rude to challenge on
e’
s host
.”
He felt her fingers twine into his pale blond hair. She forced his head up. The pain made him open his eyes. Her eyes were clear blue with black and silver veined irises. They dominated his vision. Kaishan knew more than anybody that to look into the eyes of a
telecer
risked giving them access to on
e’
s mind. Sure enough he felt her min
d’
s touch. He felt her mind reach into his and he had a moment of pure panic. Typically no one could do this, but she had followed him using his own bridge. Kaishan raised his shields, but she pushed them effortlessly away.
I do
n’
t like rude people.
Her mind whispered in his. With no warning she slammed him into a void. He could
n’
t even scream.

***

Ari
té
stared at the limp form of Kaishan. His clothing had been ripped by the thrashing h
e’
d received. His once pale skin was the red of second degree burns. She knew he had gotten off lucky. The Grave was never kind. Ari
té
sent her senses into him and found several of his ribs were cracked. He had been terribly lucky.

With the gift of
telecy
, she lifted him and placed on her bed.  Humming softly a forgotten song, Ari
té
shuffled to her garden. It was a song of hope in life. She hummed it as she picked out the herbs she needed. She returned to her chambers with the batch of leaves. Going to a work table, she dumped the herbs into her mortar and began grinding them to a powder. While she worked, she called to the water in the air. It condensed at her command and pooled into a large bowl beside her.  Once she was satisfied with the fineness of the powder, she stirred it into the water. Ari
té
heated the bowl as she stirred. Finished heating and stirring, she let the bowl sit.

Ari
té
shuffled over to Kaishan. He lay like one of the dead, but for his shallow breathing. The healer within her had hated calling the storm to him but she needed to know how he ticked. During the Shadow War she could
n’
t get him alone. Her heale
r’
s constitution was
n’
t thrilled with the prospect of intentionally hurting a creature. But to make a secret bridge to his mind it was the only way she had left. He was too well guarded to succeed when he was conscious and his shields were well fortified while he slept. He was
n’
t terribly careless either. Only unconscious would all his guards be down. Only harrowing pain would knock him out. 

Kaishan had never flown back through the Nirami once the troops had crossed. He had been out of her reach. Then the Marlhemans released their spell and that was that. She had only had her chance now. When Kaishan had crossed south she had been somewhat surprised by his apparent lack of aging. Ari
té
had
n’
t tried her plan because she had been curious of his activities. When he returned north was when she had decided to capture him.

Now that she had him, she had to keep him unconscious. Which meant that she needed to keep him in enough pain to keep him out of it. She gritted her teeth at the thought as she observed his condition. She wanted to relieve him of all his pain, heal him back to a calm, easy sleep, but that would mean his guard would be up. Again.

Angry at the circumstances, Ari
té
sent her healing senses to see if there was anything mortally serious; such as internal bleeding, or too much blood loss. His ribs were cracked, but had not pierced his lungs. His lungs were a little bruised and so she sent her abilities to clean those up.  Next she checked for any infection. She burned away the little that was there. A few other organs were bruised so she healed those and the little internal bleeding she had found. Ari
té
opened her eyes from her healing trance. She was amazed. He truly had been lucky if that was all his internal body had suffered. Now it was only the terrible burns swathing his body and the cracked ribs.  Ari
té
called for her slav. Obediently the bowl floated over. Eyeing her patient, she dipped her fingers into the soothing substance and began to spread it over his tortured skin. It would dim the pain only slightly and it would stop up the wounds so there was no more blood loss. And that was all she could do for him till she learned more about him.

She had to keep telling herself that.

While she applied the substance she noticed many old scars. They were a different color from the rest of his skin. Most of them looked to be lucky scores by whoever he had been fighting. Others looked like the kinds of things that one got during combat training. Ari
té
shook her head.
When a kid should be playin
g
…
But if the kid did
n’
t combat train they did
n’
t have a chance in the world of Sheyestiva. All the male children went through some kind of training. Being the heir, Kaishan had undergone more than normal. Ari
té
knew he had an aptitude for it; he was the Winged Dagger after all. There was only one person who was more skilled with a blade and that was the emperor. 
What was that like?
She wondered. Ari
té
wondered what sort of man the Sword was like. Kaishan did not seem to her to be teetering on any edge of anything.  Curious, Ari
té
reached into his mind and looked at the first memory she found.