Born of Magic (Channeler Series) (15 page)

“Wait,” I whispered at Aton.

He turned back to me, “There’s no time. We must go now.”

“I’m not leaving her.”

Aton shot me a frightening glare. He grabbed my arm and dragged me along. I slid my tiny wrist out of his firm grip and stomped a foot on the ground. “You only get me if we take her with us.”

Aton grunted. His eyes looked like they were filled with fire and he was going to scorch me into a pile of ash. “We don’t have time for this.” He walked back over to the door and used every ounce of strength he had and pulled it open just enough for the girl to slip out with us. She wiggled her way through the opening and hugged Aton. He pushed her away. “Now let’s get out of here,” he said.

We followed him down a long, dark hallway. Shadows lurked around every corner and crevice, waiting to reach out and grab me, keeping me trapped here. Aton stopped dead in his tracks when we saw the outline of a person moving towards us. He signaled for us to wait and sprinted off towards the figure. The man stepped out from the shadows and came into view, one of Caspere’s guards; he looked past Aton and right at me. Aton jumped onto the man’s chest and knocked him to the ground. There was a short cry of pain, and then silence.

The girl and I watched the event in horror—we knew what Aton had done. There was no time to recover from what we had seen. We continued with our escape, stepping over the body, trying to avoid it as much as possible. Aton led us into an empty room and we climbed out a window and into an alleyway.

I felt a bit of relief as we exited the place that had become our hell. Thinking this experience couldn’t get any more complicated, there stood the red bearded mage at the end of the narrow alley.

“Go with Tevon, he is there to help. You must trust him,” Helenda said. Her voice was a little stronger this time.

Aton began to run towards the red bearded mage, Tevon. Aton grasped his dagger with a dead-tight as he ran towards him. I could see that he had removed himself from Tevon’s view.

“No, stop,” I shouted.

He ignored me and I realized that Aton didn’t care for me, or anyone. The entire time I had been with him, he had taught me nothing more than how to help him, not how to take care of myself, or about what I truly was, or the way of the world. A horrifying image came into my mind when I realized what had always concerned me about Aton. He was the man I had been hired to follow when I first entered Etherea. The night when my life changed, he was the man I watched stab and rob an unarmed man. He had been hiding his true identity from me somehow, but I could see past it now. I had to stop him before it was too late.

I watched the mists of Etherea go into Aton and allow him to hide himself from Tevon, leaving Tevon defenseless. I concentrated and somehow felt as though I could do the opposite of my power. I concentrated on the mist, warning it. Leave him, he’s evil, I thought. To my amazement, the magic began to flow away from him, a bubble now around him that was void of any energy. I had managed to cut off magic from Aton. He no longer could mask who he was from me, or hide himself from Tevon.

Tevon smiled and dodged Aton’s first strike with ease, then grabbed him by the arm and stepped to the side. He used Aton’s momentum against him and threw him to the ground. Aton rolled a couple of feet, bouncing against the hard cobblestones. Aton jumped back to his feet and took another stab at Tevon like a drunken madman—it was apparent that he hadn’t had to fight a real fight in some time.

Tevon clenched his fist in a tight ball and punched Aton in the nose. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground unconscious, blood pouring from his nose. Tevon looked to us and smiled, “You did the right thing, Jasminis. Now, come you two, we must get you out of here and to safety.”

I saw Tevon in a new way now. He was forthcoming, kind, and his eyes twinkled in the moonlight as he held his hand out to us. We ran to him and we began to make our way out of the city. All around us we could hear guards storming through the streets, looking for us.

We were close to one of the town’s exits when a group of guards bearing Caspere’s marking stood before us. We stopped running as the four of them blocked our escape. The handsome boy that had hired me to follow Aton back in Saltren appeared behind the guards. He placed his hands on the ground and a large puddle of crystal clear water sprung up underneath the guards. They slipped and fell to the ground in a pile of steel and stupidity, struggling to get back up. We wasted no time and ran past them, the handsome boy now joining us as we all disappeared into the forest.

~7~

Every muscle in my body ached and felt weak, but we continued to run through the forest, placing as much distance as possible between that horrid city and us. I looked over at the girl; there was a smile on her face as she ran next to me, free for the first time in what I could tell was a while.

The night was still young when we stopped, all of us now out of breath except for Tevon—he didn’t seem to grow tired. Tevon threw together a pile of kindling for a fire. The girl with us took the opportunity to reveal her power by igniting the collection of dry twigs and leaves.

Tevon laughed and clapped. “Delightful,” he said as he smiled at her.

The girl’s face lit up; she probably hadn’t received any sort of compliment or kind gesture in some time. Unlike when I had first met Aton, I was filled with the overwhelming feeling that I had made the right decision. These people were whom I should be with.

Tevon sat down across from us. The handsome boy was off collecting some more kindling—he hadn’t talked much yet and seemed content being off on his own. The night sky was a welcoming sight; one that I didn’t realized I had missed so much until I was beneath it again. The crackling of the fire drowned the subtle chirping of crickets out. Small puffs of steam rose from the burning embers. I knew it was because some of the wood was damp, but it brought back a brief memory of the weapons factory. The nightmare was short and fleeting, and scared away by Tevon’s warm voice.

“What’s your name?” Tevon asked the girl with a cheerful smile.

“Denarah,” she answered comfortably.

I had once again forgotten to ask someone’s name. I needed to get better with that, I reminded myself, again.

“Do you have a home that we should be taking you back to?”

She looked down at the ground, taking her time to respond, “You just rescued me from my only home.”

Tevon walked over to her and sat down on the large flat stone that she was sitting on. “Well, there’s room for you at the academy, so long as you pass the trial.”

Denarah and I asked in unison, “Trial?”

He chuckled at our response. “Yes, it’s nothing to fret over. One of the mages at the academy has the ability to look into your heart and see if you’re of good nature or not. I’m sure you’ll both pass. But I must warn you, the trial will leave you feeling a bit uneasy.”

The boy returned and set a heap of wood down next to the fire, then pulled some bread from his pack. Denarah’s eyes grew wide. “I’d love some,” she said without being asked. Her voice was giddy and eager.

I could tell now that I had competition. The boy then shot me a hateful glare—maybe I wasn’t even in the running for him after all. Tevon took notice. “You’ll have to excuse Yurios, he’s a little disgruntled with the current state of affairs,” he said, and gave Yurios a stern glance.

“State of affairs?” Denarah asked. She sounded concerned for her apparent new obsession.

“Well—“ Tevon started.

Yurios answered, cutting Tevon off, “With the discovery of this new channeler,” he pointed over at me, “I'm losing my place as Tevon’s apprentice, and being replaced by her.”

“Yurios is going to be given a new master to continue his training, while I tend to some very pressing matters that will require the assistance of the channeler, should she choose to help us, that is.”

I enjoyed being given the chance to choose my path. “What should happen if I choose not to?”

Tevon looked at me and tilted his head—he seemed thrown off by the question. There was a somber silence while he stared at the ground. “You’d be taken wherever you like. But, I can’t stress just how much you are needed right now.”

A cloud of soot and tiny pebbles shot into the fire, sending the flames into a short chaotic dance. Yurios grumbled to himself as he glared at me through the sparks. “We don’t even know if it’s true. Either way, we could handle this war without her.”

“War?” Denarah asked.

Tevon stood up and moved to a position an equal distance from all Denarah, Yurios, and me. “There’s word of a great war coming, one that will ravage through these lands.” He looked over to Yurios, “And yes, we will need the help of a channeler if we’re to save as many lives as possible.”

Yet another dangerous path for me, I thought to myself. My gift came with a cost, and in order to earn the fame and greatness that I wanted, I was really going to have to work for it. It seemed as though my life would be in constant danger. “Why you? Why not—”

“I’m sure you’ve grown close to Helendra. She’s told me about your conversations with her. I’ve been chose to teach you because I am one of the most experienced masters, and because when you pair your ability with mine, there’s much we can do together. Together we can help meet the needs of the people that will soon be facing the dangers of this war.”

Yurios snickered. “By herself she’s useless.”

Tevon kept his focus on me and winked as a branch from a nearby tree whacked Yurios on the head. The little trick gave me a glimpse as to what the extent of Tevon’s powers were. I thought about the different things he could do with the power I could give him. He had grown trees from nothing when he ambushed Aton in the mountains. He could probably create an entire forest with my help, or feed a city with a crop grown overnight.

The possibilities made me excited. “I’m in.”

Tevon released a burly cheer at my answer while Yurios stormed off, away from the camp. Tevon chased after him into the forest a ways—too far for Denarah and I to hear what he and Yurios were talking about when Tevon managed to catch up with him.

Denarah turned to me, “You sure got him worked up.”

“Yeah, I’m already making friends,” I said.

“Guess that means he’s mine,” she said with a grin. “I hope you don’t mind; I saw the way you looked at him.”

“I don’t really know anything about this anyway.”

“You have someone else, don’t you?”

“Me? No.” Why would she ask me that?

“Yes you do, it’s all over your face. Don’t worry, I won’t say anything.” She paused a moment and looked up at the sky. “You really did get me out of there. That’s the first nice thing someone has done for me in a long time. And now, thanks to you, I even have a home.”

“Told you so.”             

She bunched up a ball of dirt and threw it at the ground near my feet. “I know. I’ll never forget that.”

We fell silent when Tevon returned with Yurios, who still looked annoyed. “Yurios has a bright future and I’ve taught him much, but he still acts out sometimes. One of his better qualities, annoying though it may be at times.”

They both sat down across from us, and Tevon continued, “We’ll rest for a bit here. After this, I think it’s time we all go to the academy. You two girls can face the trial and get comfortable in your new rooms that we’ll assign you, and Yurios can relax while he waits for reassignment.”

“We get our own rooms?” Denarah asked, nearly jumping in excitement.

“Yes, all students get their own rooms. If Jasminis would be so kind, she can assist us with creating a few new ones.”

How could I help with construction? Tevon could probably see the question riddled on my face. “I’ll show you once we get there,” he said.

Yurios pulled out four small, dark brown rolls from his bag and handed them out to us. They were coated with flour and smelled sweet. It was a little stale, but after two days of rotten, foul smelling globs of vegetables, it was heaven in my mouth. I took each bite in my mouth and let it soften up before I ate it. This process dried my mouth out, fortunately, just after we had started eating, Yurios pulled out a pitcher and filled it with water from thin air. A small breeze whirred past my head towards him as he did this.

I realized his power was to create water by collecting the moisture in the air. I wondered what he could do if I were to give him a large amount of power. Could he create an entire lake? Or move a river? This game of guessing what mages could do with my power became a fun hobby. Then I remembered what it had done to both Denarah at the factory and Aeden from Laharah. I debated about asking Helendra but decided I should start talking to Tevon about these sorts of things, since he was going to be my teacher.

“Tevon, when I used my power on Denarah and on another boy back in Laharah, it hurt both of them. Is that always going to happen?”

Tevon thought about my question for a bit in silence. “Helendra and I have talked about this, and while we cannot give you a real honest answer, we don’t feel that it will always be this way. It will just take time for both you and those you use it with to master that interaction. I can assure you any pain I may endure with your ability, I do so willingly.”

I saw Denarah shudder from the corner of my eye. She had her arms wrapped around her waist and was staring at the ground. I gave her a long hug and said softly, “I’m sorry about what happened back there, Denarah.”