Born of Magic (Channeler Series) (20 page)

~9~

I awoke to find myself surrounded by chaos. Blasts shook the ground from every direction. I thrashed the sheets off of me, stumbled out of bed, and pulled aside the blanket covering my doorway. A wall of heat came rushing in and burned my face. Everything was ablaze. Flames danced off the trees, turning them to burnt sticks covered in ash. Students came from every direction, scattered and frightened. They ran around in a panic as the onslaught closed in from every direction.

Mages encompassed the academy, their eyes glowing white like a ring of stars around us. Each spat out their own fury of magic at the helpless students. I created a bubble around myself as fast as I could, so no magic could reach me. I watched in horror from my safety as all the other students were picked off one by one. There was no sign of Tevon or Helendra, coming to help—they must have been taken out first. The castle was torn apart by a thunderous clash of boulders that had been sent tumbling through the air.

Within minutes there was no one around me, save for a circle of unsettling starry eyes beaming at me. They formed an inescapable barrier around me and stood in silence. The sea of fire became a distant haze as my eyes caught the sight of a young woman in a hood that approached me. She passed through my bubble and walked right up to me. I was defenseless, and there was no hope for any other possible action than my surrender.

The woman lifted her hood, her eyes empty voids from which no light could escape. I stared at my demonic self in horror, my black eyes staring back at me.

I awoke that morning drenched in sweat. My palms were pale and shaking. I released my clenched fists and sat up in my bed. My hair draped the sides of my face like a veil as I hung my head from my shoulders. I stared at the floor as drops of sweat trickled down my cheeks and plummeted to the ground, forming a small pattern of dots in the dry earth. My breath was heavy and my heart beat rapidly.

It was just a dream, I told myself over and over again. It took a few minutes of repeating this until I was able to pull myself out of bed.

After that my day was off to a slow pace. Tevon took me to a couple classes, including the archery class, where the instructor ignored me. He also entered me into a self-defense class that I did find enjoyable—it was a good way to release the festering ball of anxiety that I had welling up in me. The class was held just outside of the castle on a patch of surprisingly soft and thick grass. Tevon probably had grown that specifically for this class. It softened the blow of being knocked to the ground, which happened a lot to me.

The instructor for the self-defense class was much older than I had expected for someone who would be teaching such a subject. While her face revealed minor signs of aging, her eyes gleamed with years of knowledge and wisdom. I could tell that she was even older than she looked.

As the class went on, she paired the students up in groups of two. My heart fluttered when I found out that the only other student with a black uniform had been assigned as my training partner. The coincidence was even more astounding as I had not yet received my uniform, so the instructor likely did not know I was assigned the same color.

Her long black hair sank down to her elbows and was tied into a ponytail that slunk behind her like a snake. She must have been very quiet for most of the class, as I hadn’t noticed her until now. I shot her a brief smile but she didn’t return it. Her expression remained the same: cold and distant—I could tell she was an outcast. It was probably because before now, she was the only student assigned black. Maybe the announcement of my color assignment would help alienate her a little less.

We were paired together to do what the teacher called sparring, where we were to fight one another without trying to actually inflict any pain on the other. I was the newest student to this class and at a great disadvantage, which is probably why the teacher paired me with this girl. We were first instructed to attack with a right hook, followed by a leg swipe.

When it was my turn to try the move against the girl, she barely blocked the right hook in time. I waited a second for her to recover then swiped my leg at hers. She didn’t respond fast enough and my leg caught her feet and knocked them from underneath her. She fell back and landed firmly on her butt.

She shook it off and sprung back up to her feet. Now it was her turn to be on the attack. I was quicker to react, but I too was not fast enough and her punch whooshed by my cheek, and her leg swipe caught my left ankle. It threw me off balance, but I managed to catch myself.

She smiled—it was probably the closest she had come to successfully performing that move. The teacher saw the smile from the corner of her eye and walked over to us. “Well done, but perhaps you two should spend some time after class practicing a bit more. With enough practice your skills will improve greatly and you will catch up this way.”

I found the way the instructor spoke endearing. She hid a demand in her request, making it appear as though it was a suggestion, rather than an instruction, but we knew it was. We both nodded and she left.

“I’m Jasminis.” I extended my hand towards her.

She seemed hesitant at first but then gave me an eager handshake. “I’m Maaryn,” she said with a giddy grin. Her voice was quiet, yet full of glee. In that moment she revealed more character than I had ever imagined she possessed.

“Let’s meet up tonight back here. We can practice when everyone is asleep so we don’t have to worry about being seen messing up.”

She accepted the proposal with a smile. We finished the class in relative silence, only breaking it to compliment one another on our still poorly executed moves.

After class, Tevon was waiting for me. I ran over to him and he held out a handful of clothes folded in a perfect stack. It was my uniform. I saw Maaryn passing by and held my uniform up to her. She looked at me with a wide smile of complete shock stuck on her face as she walked off. A part of me was suddenly glad to be an outcast as well—it made me feel closer to her.

“Glad to see you made a new friend,” Tevon said as we made our way into the castle. He continued to hold my uniform for me. “We’re going to see Felinon for a minute; he wants to check in with you.”

Any joy that I had managed to feel quickly poured out of me, replaced by fear and worry. I tried to hide my discomfort as we walked, but apparently wasn’t that great at it. Tevon placed a hand on my head, not looking at me as he spoke. “You’ll be fine,” he said cheerfully, as though my concerns were ridiculous. With that, he opened the door to Felinon’s office and nudged me inside, not following me in as he closed the door behind me.

Felinon sat at his desk, which was directly across from the door. His eyes scanned me with a puzzled expression. He waved an arm towards the chair across from his desk and let out a long sigh, as though I should have known to sit there already. I walked over to the rickety brown chair and sat down. The chair let out a long creek that echoed throughout the room, refusing to let the awkward tension die.

“We will solve this riddle,” he declared, raising his arms in one rapid motion to pull back his sleeves. He stood up and walked over to me, sitting on his desk in front of me now. “Give me your hands, please.” He spoke with a sharp burst of words. His authority was exerted with the swiftness of his tongue.

I placed my hands in his opened palms and he wrapped his long fingers around my wrists, holding them in place. In an instant I was whisked away to the top of a volcano, lava shooting up from the mouth. Gusts of heat slapped my face, reawakening horrid memories of Caspere’s factory. The sword that was now in my hand grew red-hot as its metal soaked up the heat like a sponge, even the hilt was painful to wield.

The pain became too much. I was about to throw the sword to the ground when Aton came charging at me with his—I hadn’t noticed him until now. I could see in his eyes that he was determined to kill me, so I held my sword before me and our blades met inches from my face. How did I manage to block such a strike? He pushed his sword down towards me, the sharp blade inching its way towards my cheek.

His blade sang as it neared me. I summoned what strength I had and pushed him back, and while he was off guard, I swung at his sword with a fierce thrust, knocking it from his hand. A look of astonishment was on his face as I held my blade to his neck. I had never held a sword before, and my ability to do so with such ease and proficiency reminded me this was a test by Felinon. The intention of which was still not clear to me, nor did I know what to do next.

With a feral grin Aton winked, and then disappeared. I should have been more prepared for him to pull that trick on me—he hated fighting fair. Unable to see where he was, I created a giant void of any magic around me. I could see Aton again, just as he grabbed his sword and lunged at me again. I wouldn’t be able to both keep the bubble up, and fend him off. My head grew light and dizzy as I struggled to parry and dodge his violent strikes.

“You can’t keep this up forever,” he shouted at me.

Our swords met time and time again. With each blow it weakened me. I could feel my strength fading—if I was going to defeat him, I would have to do something soon. In a desperate move I dropped the bubble and the flood of magic overwhelmed Aton. With one frantic swing I knocked his sword from his hand and then swept his feet from under him. He fell back and tumbled towards the mouth of the volcano. One of his hands caught the ledge.

Chaotic tendrils of heat reached up and singed his feet as he struggled to climb up. He swung his other arm up and managed to grab on. Both of his hands clung to the stone cliff before me—desperate and vulnerable, just as I had once been. He dug his fingers into the dirt and gravel and cried for help. While I tried to assure myself this was only an illusion, his blood curdling screams sent chills down my back.

Illusion or not, I couldn’t deal with the inner torment I would face if I were to let him die. I dove for him and grabbed onto his right wrist with both of my arms. As I used every ounce of strength in me to help, he inched his way back up, rolled away from the edge, and sighed with relief.  Both of us were out of breath from the exertion.

Aton stood up and bowed to me, then disappeared. Felinon smiled as he now stood before me. “I learn much of you from these tests, just as you learn much of yourself from them.”

I ensured an expression of distaste was on my face as I looked at him, “May I go now?”

“Yes, you’re doing better, so far. I’ll see you again in three days.”

As fast as my legs would carry me, without tumbling to the ground, I fled from his office. I found Tevon on the other side of the door and wrapped my arms around him, burying my face into his robes as a few tears ran from my cheeks. I never wanted to go back there again, but I would have to in three days.

“It’s all right, little one, it’s all over.” I could tell he wasn’t very accustomed to comforting students in this way, though he was good at it.

By the end of the school day I had managed to get through several more classes. At lunch I crammed a pile of food down my throat with Tevon as he continued his campaign to increase my appetite. When the day was done and I was on my own again I sought out Denarah after I realized that we hadn’t spoken since we first arrived here—I still felt attached to her.

The academy was large, and somewhat scattered, but I just had to look for a beautiful girl in a red uniform. After some time searching I found her nestled underneath one of the trees that still stood in the housing area. She stared up at the stars, content with just being there. I was on my way over to her, but Yurios beat me to it. She had worked her charm on him already, it seemed. It was night anyway and I needed to go meet Maaryn for more self-defense practice, I told myself.

She was already at the sparring area, waiting for me. I had changed into my uniform before going over there so that she would feel less alone at the academy. Her face brightened up when she saw what I was wearing. We wasted little time and began sparring. We had much catching up to do.

We were comfortable around each other and our skill levels were pretty close, so we seemed to make quick improvements. As we sparred, we exchanged playful insults back and forth. “Nice move.” “Too slow.” “Can’t it me.”

We continued practicing until the cold night air made our lungs sting as we gasped for air. By the time we decided to stop, we were both sore and exhausted, and I was certain there would be at least several bruises from some of our better-aimed blows. We sat down on a bench just outside of the training area—there were many benches spread throughout the academy, especially near the various class areas.

“What’s your power?” She asked. I could tell that she had been waiting to ask that question all night.

“I’m a channeler. Do you know what yours is yet?” I asked, revealing I had heard about her before.

There was a twinge in her expression for a moment—probably thrown off by the fact that I was a channeler. “I’ve known what my power is for some time; I just don’t like others to know.”

She could have told someone and been assigned a new, more common color, alienating herself less. Why hadn’t she? What was so terrible about her ability? I had to know.

“What’s your power, then?”

She placed a hand on my shoulder and a chill went up my spine, not sure if she was about to reveal some evil power that lurked in her. Instead she pulled me close, her eyes darting from side to side. “You must swear to never tell anyone,” she said, and then waited for me. I nodded, and she drew in a deep breath. “When I was gone for a week, as I’m sure you heard about, I was in the dream world.”