Born of Magic (Channeler Series) (18 page)

The elderly mage turned to Helendra with a thoughtful look. “We must, if the people of the North are to survive. This storm that approaches is not like anything you could imagine. These mages know magic. They know it well.”

Another mage then joined in the debate, “The people may not even accept our help, let alone believe us when we say an unknown enemy’s coming to rage war with them.”

Helendra changed her attention to me with a confident smile, “They’ll accept our help if they know what we can do. Jasminis, will you join us in our efforts to save the people of the North?” As she asked, all eyes turned to me as well in anticipation.

Things were moving much faster than I had expected since my arrival here. It was not long ago I was a prisoner in Caspere’s cage, and now I was a student at the academy. Now I had the most respected mages in the North asking me to help them in a war I knew nothing about before I had even started any classes or settled down. The pressure came down on me like a ton of bricks and knocked the wind from my chest.

My bind raced with a thousand rampant thoughts. With Aton my challenges had never been on this scale. It was just the two of us dealing with a few people here and there, not entire cities. Then I realized the difference between Aton and the mages here. With Aton it was always about the self—about him and me—our scope was small and inward focused. With these mages, however, it wasn’t about them at all—at least not solely—it was about all of the people in this land, about something bigger than them or me, something more important than just my needs and wants.

They waited patiently as I debated to myself. I was unprepared for anything of this nature. I had been through much, and come out all right, but that was because I had others there to help me. Then I realized, I wasn’t going to be fighting this war, I would be helping those that have been kind to me fight it. I would be helping mages like Tevon, Helendra, and even Yurios.

I stood up, nervous and shaking. I could find no words. Instead I nodded my head and the room filled with a trickle of applause from all of the mages, all but Felinon. He gazed into me from across the room. I could tell he still did not trust me. Not for anything I had done, but for what he thought I was, whatever that may be. I brushed off his untrusting glare and sat back down. The clapping died out and they returned to debating about the best courses of action regarding the war.

One central topic they covered in great detail was allowing some of the older students to assist. While none wanted to force them to join in, there was a heated debate about whether the students should be allowed the option at all. In the end it was decided that they would be allowed to join if they volunteered, but only when it was absolutely necessary would this option even be presented.

Tevon and I both remained silent for the remainder of the meeting. I could tell he was respected by the other mages, even though he only spoke on rare occasions. He seemed to relate more to the students than the faculty. Once they had reached a stopping point, Tevon and I were excused. The rest remained there to continue on with their debating and planning.

Once we were a good distance from the room Tevon began to speak. “We’re going to need to train you in self-defense if you’re going to join in this war.”

“What good is self-defense going to do for me against mages?” The idea of me being a threat to anyone in a real battle was laughable, I thought.

“When we were in the alleyway, you were able to cut off the flow of magic to Aton. If you can do that to these mages from the South, then their powers become useless and it turns to combat.”

I remembered how difficult it was for me to do that to Aton. I wasn’t even sure how I did it, but it had taken a lot of my strength. If it was that difficult to do on one mage, how could I expect to do it to an entire army of them? I was going to need to practice using my magic a lot before I could even control that ability at all. “So when do I begin training?”

He smiled as we exited the castle. “I’m going to assign you to a class for now. Have some fun, relax, and meet some of the other students. We’ll focus on the other stuff a little later.”

“What class will I be taking?”

He pointed to a field not too far from where we stood. There, several students were shooting bows at a series of targets that were set up about twenty yards down the field from them. An older man paced behind them, giving instructions on occasion. Tevon walked me over and introduced me to the instructor.

“Hello,” the instructor said, his brown eyes shaded by his short bushy hair as he leaned down to my level. “Have you ever shot a bow before?” He asked. His voice was very matter-of-fact, with no condescension or any discernable emotion.

I shook my head, nervous at the idea of wielding any type of weapon. He gave me a small bow and a fistful of blunt tip arrows and walked me over to a spot next to the other students. Tevon followed.

“She doesn’t have a class schedule. Just send her to the dining hall when she is done, please,” Tevon told the instructor from over my shoulder. He then walked back towards the castle.

I had seen some of the hunters play with their bows as they sold their pelts in town, drawing the string back and then showing the arrow path with their hand. I held the bow with a firm grip in my left hand, taking the string into my right hand as the instructor told me to. He stood next to me with his own bow and showed me how to pull back on the string. His muscles tightened and flexed as he drew the string back, but his motions were fluent and steady.

“This is called drawing the bow. I want you to practice doing this several times.” He spoke to me with respect in a way that made me feel confident in what I was doing.

With each full drawing, my arms started to burn more and more. What had started out as an easy task had turned into an increasingly daunting struggle. After I had mastered pulling the tight string back to my cheek in one slow motion, he had me release it, allowing it to spring back so fast that the force knocked my left hand around a bit.

“Not bad,” he said. He patted me on the shoulder and walked away to tend to the other students. They were far more advanced at this than I was—many of them were able to hit the center of the target.

I decided I was comfortable enough with drawing the bow, since my arms were exhausted and I didn’t know how much longer I would be able to do this. I was determined to at least hit a target today. I watched as the other students would place an arrow on the string of their bow, then pull back and release.

I placed an arrow atop the thumb of the hand holding the bow, and then slid it back until the small groove at the butt of the arrow slid over the string. I took in a deep breath and pulled the arrow back until my hand was pressing against my cheek. The swoosh of the arrow brushed against my lips as I released my grip. The tip of my index finger caught on the string as it sprung forward and the arrow fell to the ground.

Another try. This time when I released the string, the arrow was sent soaring through the air for twenty feet and plummeted into the dirt. It had only made it a third of the way down the field, and in the wrong direction, but I was still very proud of myself.

Three other students snickered and pointed at me. One of the girls looked at me snidely then shot an arrow that easily went five times farther than mine had. She could continue thinking she’s better than me all she wanted, I’d get better than her soon enough I decided.

The changes I had undergone since I left Saltren were becoming more apparent. Most of this was due to all of the traumatizing events I had endured, and I was changing. It had been some time since I even stopped to think about Edgar or my other friends, and I was growing more ambitious. I wanted to prove Yurios wrong, that by myself I could be useful as well. I wanted to be powerful and help save the North. I wanted to be significant. Though I had always felt this way, I was starting to actually believe that I could.

I stood with the bow drawn in my hand for some time while I tended to my thoughts. There had been times where I would have only dreamed about a night in a comfortable bed, and now it was a regular thing for me. I had even started to notice the difference between the levels of comfort I could now recognize with some of the mattresses I had slept on. Before, a mattress was a blessing, no matter how comfortable it was.

As long as I remember where I come from I should be fine, I decided. I must never let go of where I am from or who my friends were before I knew I was a channeler. One day I would go back and see them, Edgar most of all, and take them to a better life. I vowed this would happen, just as I had vowed I would do the same for Denarah when I first met her.

For the remainder of the class I stood in silent contemplation with the bow drawn, not releasing a single arrow. The troublesome thoughts pulled my mind away from the soreness of my arm.

“Time to head on to your next class,” the instructor announced, and all the students then placed their bows on a rack that was designed to hang them all. I followed in their example. The instructor was waiting for me with a contemplative stance and his hands behind his back. “Jasminis, I’ll show you where the dining hall is,” he said with a smile. Without waiting for a response, he turned around and started walking.

His pace was brisk and precise; everything he did seemed to be one fluid motion of precision and decisiveness. The heels of his boots dug into the ground and released a small cloud of dust with each long stride. The sides of his shoes and bottoms of his pants were orange from the rusty earth here on the plateau.

“We’ll have to spend a little extra time with you,” he said. He kept his eyes on me while he spoke, walking without looking at where he was going. His senses appeared to be well honed, I noticed. He stepped over a fist-sized rock without even looking. “You know, to get you caught up with the others. Meet me here later today, an hour before sunset. We’ll do a little extra training then.”

I nodded in excitement, my heart set on out-performing the students that had laughed at me today. The instructors and faculty here were very kind to me. Were they this focused with the other students, or just me because of my ability? I stored that idea to the back of my mind for now. It was one that had concerned me since I first learned that I was taking Yurios’s apprenticeship.

The instructor led me down another series of seemingly never ending hallways and into a large dining room. The ceiling was held up by towering logs that were easily three times bigger than me in width. The walls and center were lined with far-stretching thick tables made of a dark red wood, similar to that of the round table in the main hall, with sanded down knots protruding out of the legs. Giant chandeliers were hung from the center support log, with hundreds of candles covered in a frosty glass dome. An ocean-like, polished blue rock covered the floor of the entire room. I couldn’t help but stare at the ground, tracing the white streaks that flowed through the rock like schools of fish swimming in a blur, as I was walked over to the table where Tevon sat.

Tevon was busy digging through two of the three mountainous plates of food that were in front of him. “I got you some food,” he blurted out between his heaping mouthfuls. He slapped a fork on the table next to the third plate, which looked untouched. “You’ll need your strength, Jas. Eat up,” he continued. He breathed heavily as he forced more food than air down his throat.

I sat down next to him. The intimidating mountain of food made me weary—there’s no way I could ever consume this much in an entire week, though there was a time when I would have run off with the plate and shared it with my friends, and it would have been cleaned in a minute. The plate was stacked full of mashed potatoes, baked vegetables, sweet bread rolls, and a halved roll of firm bread filled with a sweet strawberry sauce. The food was wonderful and delicious, but filling as well. Before long each bite was a struggle, my fork returning with less food each time.

“We’ll work on your appetite,” Tevon said as I grudgingly ate at a snail's pace. “You’re going to need the energy and nutrition for what I have in store for you.” There was a bit of excitement in his voice, as though I should be enthusiastic about cramming my belly to the point of eruption—I had gone from one extreme to the other.

“What do you have planned?” I shrugged away the remaining heap of food on my plate.

“We need to get you into shape. I want to make sure you can defend yourself so that you don’t run into another situation like you did with Caspere. I’ll always be there for you, Jas, but I want you to be able to feel safe even when I’m not around.”

This was a significant difference between Tevon and Aton: Tevon wanted to teach me how to defend myself and be independent, while Aton ensured I remained dependent on him. I knew here I was cared for. With a thankful smile, I nodded back at him and pushed away my plate.

“May I save the rest for later?”

He laughed, his voice echoing throughout the dining hall. “We give the scraps to the animals. They love the baked vegetables.”

“What kind of animals do they have here?”

“Mostly horses and dogs, although there are a few tamed cats as well. We don’t have any livestock here; there is a strict policy at the academy against that, though there are a few cows for milk.”

“Why is that?”

“Some of the head mages have a tender spot for animals, and we are capable of providing enough nourishment without them. It’s actually a little more efficient this way as it is. All of our crops go to us, not us and livestock.”