Advent (Advent Mage Cycle) (15 page)

A chill chased its way up my spine. I felt like I was moving around in a haunted area. It was just too quiet—eerily quiet. The cool temperature sliding against my exposed skin did not comfort me. There were no shadowy alcoves or large buttresses for a ghost to pop out of, so the area should have alleviated the feeling. Perversely, the open area only enhanced the notion that something would abruptly appear when my head is turned. Maybe it’s all of the portraits with their eyes looking at me….

“Garth, calm down,” Shad ordered out of the side of his mouth.

“This place is giving me the creeps,” I whispered back with an uneasy look around me. What was it that caused that chill of dark premonition to claw up my spine?

“We’re almost there.” Saroya gave me a thoughtful look over his shoulder. Did he think my unease had just cause; that I was sensing something he didn’t? Or was he simply assuming that I was falling under a case of pre-battle nerves?

I tried to keep a lid on my unease as we rounded a corner. There was only one doorway in this hallway with such elaborate carving and gilt that it had to belong to the royal family. At least, it had the royal crest of a crown superimposed over crossed swords, the ancient Von coat of arms. Saroya motioned for us to wait a few feet from the door. He stepped forward and softly tapped against the wood.

“Who is it?” a faint voice called from inside.

“Saroya.”

As I waited for the door to open, I checked mentally to see past it. The stone flooring under my feet had just enough latent earth magic that I could use it to feel people. I can sense anyone standing on the earth, after all. There were three people on the other side of that door—one of which was magical. He had a firmer, more distinct impression that anyone else. Actually, this close, I didn’t need any earth magic to tell me that another magician is nearby. The strangely familiar power seemed to radiate in the air, warm and enticing. I recognized one as Vonlorisen, but not the other person. I waved, catching Saroya’s attention and held up three fingers.

He looked faintly puzzled, so I pointed at the door and held up three fingers again. This time his face cleared.
Three people inside?
he carefully mouthed.

I nodded confirmation.

The door flung open in that moment, revealing a disheveled Vonlorisen. “Come in quickly,” he urged in a harsh whisper. “Did you find him?”

Saroya held up a hand, bidding his monarch to wait, and stuck his head inside. Whatever he saw satisfied him, and he waved Shad and me inside. It was only then that Vonlorisen saw me. For a second, naked relief washed over his face. Getting control over his expression, he closed it off and gestured us sharply inside.

Only a few candles and a fire lit the room inside. I gathered the faint impression of a large room with expensive furniture, but no details. My focus was more on the people, anyway. Vonlorisen went immediately to the fireplace and the two people sitting there. His thinning grey hair hung loosely around his shoulders. Even by firelight I could see dark shadows under his eyes, and the lines around his mouth were much deeper than usual. The only thing about him that didn’t seem tired and worn were those penetrating blue eyes that even now studied his late night visitors with almost predatory regard.

Sitting in a chair was a man in his early thirties, blond hair pulled back into a simple ponytail, eyes dark with worry and suspicion. I recognized him from my visit last year with King Guin as Crown Prince Vonaudaxen, Vonlorisen’s son. In his lap was a little boy of about six or seven, dressed in very simple drawstring pants and a baggy shirt that looked grey in the poor lighting. Night attire, perhaps? His hair was in natural soft curls around his head, blue eyes almost grey in the dim lighting, with cherub features. I’ve rarely seen a child that beautiful—he’ll be lethal on the female populace when he hits sixteen.

Assuming he lives to sixteen. Even across the room, I could feel the warm power of a Life Mage.

“Magus.”

I looked at Vonlorisen.

“Thank you, for coming. We realize…” he took a deep breath, swallowing pride. “I realize that you have no reason to save one of mine.”

I’ve often thought about this moment, and how I’d feel to see this proud man eating humble pie. I thought I’d feel more…victorious. Satisfied.
Something
. But all I felt was pity. With all of his power, his position, still he wasn’t able to protect the most important thing to him. “Power can be abused in many ways, sir. Withholding my help when it is desperately needed is as much of an abuse as using it to purposefully destroy.”

From the look on his face, he didn’t know how to respond to that.

I decided to change topics. “You were right, by the way. He is a Life Mage.”

He didn’t look surprised. “I thought as much. Nolan.” With the ease of long practice, he lifted the boy from his father’s lap. “This is the man I’ve been telling you about, the Advent Mage.”

Why does everyone insist on introducing me that way? “Garth,” I corrected with a smile at the boy. “I’m not a formal person. It is a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness.”

The boy smiled, and it was filled with such true delight that it seemed to light the room. “Thank you for the gift of your name. Will you call me Nolan?”

I blinked at this request, surprised. “If you wish.”

Nolan squirmed out of his grandfather’s arms and crossed the carpet over to Shad. “You feel good too,” he informed the Chahiran Captain with a pleased expression. “What is your name?”

“I am Riicshaden, Your Highness.” Shad gave him a proper bow. “But please call me Shad.”

The young prince bowed politely. “Thank you for the gift of your name, Shad.”

Vonaudaxen stood, eyes anxious and suspicious. “Captain Riicshaden of Jarrell, by chance?”

“The same, Your Highness,” Shad confirmed easily.

Even Saroya was taken aback by this. Apparently he hadn’t known who exactly Shad was. “I was informed you were trapped in crystal,” Saroya stated slowly.

“I was.” Shad jerked a thumb in my direction. “He got me out.”

I flushed slightly under the incredulous looks that got me. “I
am
an Earth Mage,” I pointed out. “It wasn’t difficult. But let’s get back to the topic. Is the boy ready to leave now?”

Vonlorisen nodded, eyes pained.

“Father, I still don’t think this is wise,” Vonaudaxen protested, hands spread pleadingly. “Do you trust this man enough to take your own grandson?”

Vonlorisen raised his eyes to mine. I held his gaze unflinchingly. “Yes, Audax. I trust him that much. This man holds the power to destroy us outright, if he so wished—and yet he stands here, waiting. That alone should tell you enough of his character.” Vonlorisen dropped down to one knee, gathering Nolan up for a tight embrace. The little boy hugged him back immediately. “Nolan, it’s time for you to go. Remember what I told you?”

“You said that you’d make it safe for me to come back home,” Nolan whispered. His voice was thick with unshed tears.

“Yes, and I will. Your father and I both will not rest until this is done. You can trust Magus Rhebengarthen with your life.” He passed the boy up, allowing Vonaudaxen to embrace him tightly as well.

My heart went out to these two men. If the situation was reversed, if it was me that had to surrender my child to a strange Mage for an indefinite time, I’m not sure if I would be strong enough. I allowed them a few moments to say goodbye.

When Nolan was finally released, Vonaudaxen gave him directly to me. I pulled Chatta’s amulet out of my pocket and dropped it around Nolan’s neck.

He picked it up, turning the simple blue stone over curiously. “This glows.”

I nearly dropped him. “Nolan…can you see magic?” I choked out.

He gave me a puzzled
shouldn’t I?
look. “Of course.”

There was a part of me that really didn’t want to believe that. “What color am I?”

“Brown, with some green.”

Busted
buckets
. “Nolan, how old are you?”

“I just turned six,” he said proudly.

Busted brass
buckets!

Shad caught my arm, peering at me intently. “Garth, what has you so spooked?”

“It’s too early,” I groaned, rubbing at one temple with my fingertips. I could feel a headache coming on.

“Do I have to strangle answers out of your cryptic little throat?” he demanded. “
What’s
too early?”

“Magical children shouldn’t start seeing magic until they are ten or so years old. Mages usually don’t develop until fourteen or fifteen. Any younger than that, and it causes…complications.” Such as having fully developed child Mages.

“But Trev’nor is five, and he sees magic!” Shad objected.

“Trev’nor is the exception,” I corrected sharply. “He’s a prodigy in a world where there
is
no prodigies.”

“So what does this mean?” Vonlorisen demanded.

“It means you don’t have much time, if you want to welcome your grandson back as a fully trained Mage.” I looked both men in the eye, trying to imprint my words into their brains. “By the time he is eleven, perhaps twelve, this boy will be a Mage, with all of the training he needs.”

Vonlorisen looked like he’d had the breath knocked out of him. “Five years…”

“Maybe six,” his son winced.

Nolan obviously didn’t see the problem. “So I can come home soon?”

Vonlorisen took a deep breath, and drew himself up straight. “One way or another, Magus, I’ll hold to my promise.”

Strangely enough, I believed he’d do just that.

Shad sent a worried look toward the doors. “We need to go, we’ve been here too long.”

I slung Nolan onto my back, his arms gripping around my neck. “Nolan, I want you to hold tight and don’t make a sound—that amulet will encourage people to ignore you, but if you make noise, they’ll realize something is wrong. We want to be sneaky, okay?”

“Okay,” he agreed with a slight waver in his voice.

Saroya went to the door, head cocked as if he were intently listening for something. “Magus, can you detect anyone approaching?”

I sent my senses out, searching the immediate area. “No one from the direction we came in…” I froze when I went the other way. “Three Star Order Priests are coming from the opposite direction. I think they’re headed this way.”

Saroya swore under his breath. “We need to go now. Hurry!”

We darted out the door, practically on each others’ heels. Saroya didn’t slow until we were in a different hallway. Running in the Palace was a sure sign of something going wrong—a walk was better to divert attention. I really wanted to keep running.

It was late at night, but it was obvious that the Palace never really slept. There were some people up and about. Mostly servants cleaning or doing preparations for the next day. Although I did see a few people stagger out into the hallways, listing sideways as they left some midnight drunken soiree. The Palace in Del’Hain was the same way. Actually, all of Del’Hain never really slept. There was always some activity going on.

My attention was divided in three ways: trying to keep track of our immediate surroundings, the little boy on my back, and all of the Star Order Priests in the immediate vicinity. I’ve always been fairly good at multi-tasking (as a Mage you have to be) but even then if it wasn’t for Shad, I might have blundered into the wrong hallway by accident.

“Will you pay attention?” he growled in a low tone.

“Sorry. I’m trying to keep track of the Star Order Priests in the Palace.” I detected two not far away, perhaps another hallway or so. At the moment, they were eating up most of my attention.

Shad blinked, understanding dawning briefly over his face. “Got it. In that case, I’ll keep track of you, you keep track of them.”

I nodded back confirmation. “We have two dead ahead of us, perhaps another hallway or so away.”

Shad hissed out a curse under his breath. “Saroya, is there another way out?”

Saroya gave a grim shake of his head. “Not without backtracking halfway through the building. And doing that will take us right by the main Star Priest Offices.”

I winced at just the thought. No way did I want to tempt fate and saunter by
that
doorway.

Shad apparently agreed with me. “Garth, how much trust do you have in that glamour amulet?”

“A glamour, no matter how strong, won’t hold up to face-to-face scrutiny with another magician,” I denied, heart sinking into my stomach. “If they pass by us, they’re sure to know that something is wrong. They probably won’t be able to detect what, though.”

“You’re in Special Forces uniforms,” Saroya pointed out flatly. “You’re not supposed to have any sort of magical affiliation whatsoever. Just seeing a magical aura on your back is going to bring down a lot of questions.”

Shad nodded, unsurprised. “I thought as much. Well, then, I guess our options are obvious. Saroya, focus on getting them out. I’ll clean up the small fry.” He disappeared around the corner at a fast sprint before we could say anything more. I was grateful that we were temporarily alone in the hallways otherwise we’d have to explain why Shad was taking out Priests.

Saroya took the lead, going at a fast walk. I had to scramble a bit to keep up with him. I tried not to feel oppressed by the eerie silence of the hallways. This hallway seemed newer than the first one we’d used to access the palace—or at least, the white plaster walls, carpeted floor and austere brass lamps jutting out of the wall spoke of another era. The fact that this place had nothing in it, no bric-a-brac or paintings or even any buttresses, just made the walk more surreal. From my vantage point, the hallway just seemed to go on in either direction for eternity without beginning or end. If Saroya had turned to me and announced that we were in some different dimension where no other people existed, I would have believed him.

After several interminable minutes, Saroya shot me a questioning look. “You’ve fought with Riicshaden before, haven’t you?”

“Yes.” And why are you asking me that now…?

“Is he as good as legend says?”

Ah, that was why. I couldn’t quite help but smirk a little as I responded. “Better.”