Born of Magic (Channeler Series) (27 page)

I wondered if word would spread to the General of what we had done for the farming village we had stopped
at. Surely our deeds would reflect well on our intentions, even if they did fall upon his unwilling ears. For a respected leader of the greatest kingdom in the land, I found him less than open minded and wondered how the people truly felt about him.

Our cells all contained a bucket of water and a couple blankets. The blankets were dark and covered in stains, their smell reaching me from across the cell. The idea of sleeping in those seemed less than appealing.

As time went on, the guards grew bored and eventually sat down with their backs against the wall, anxious for their shift to end. After some time I felt comfortable enough to calm myself, certain there was nothing else to do but relax and wait. However long we may be waiting.

“This could have gone better,” Tevon
said with a humorous tone. His voice trickled over to me, reaching my ear with a faint sound. “We’ll be out of here soon. The Southerners are very close. Our biggest concern should be what to do with the little time we will have between the first attack and our being released.”

“Jasminis, I’m sorry to say but we’re going to have to push your abilities well beyond your limits it seems. The mages will likely tear through their soldiers, as their shields and weapon will be of little use against magic.”

I tried to imagine what a battle between thousands of armed soldiers against an unknown number of mages would be like. I could see bursts of fire and explosions shooting across a battlefield before the mages are even within range of their archers.  The image terrified me. I was not ready for this war. At least not yet, but when the time comes I would have no option.

With no windows and no further conversation, my awareness of the passage of time slipped away from me. Every little sound danced around in my head. Yurios’ continued pacing revealed a pattern, five steps, spin, five steps, spin. I began tapping my fingers on my leg as I tucked my knees into my chest, matching the beat. It did not take me long to form a song in my head that I sang to myself:

“Jasminis the mage,

Cheered across the land,

Everywhere she goes,

Good times will be had.

Then out of the South,

Enemies prepare,

Little do they know,

Jasminis is here.”

I repeated the melody to myself several times, until Yurios finally stopped and sat down. He was still jittery as he tapped his foot against the hard stone floor. He glared at the guards but they paid him no attention, which seemed to just anger him further. Yurios has anger issues, I thought to myself.

I realized that this time around I was a little more accustomed to being confined in a cage. Though that knowledge bothered me, it was useful. Compared to dealing with Yurios
, this was a breeze for me. After what I assume was several hours, I was in much higher spirits than he was as he grasped up wads of the cloth in his pants with a tight grip and then let it go. He repeated this over and over. Tevon still remained seated. I could only guess that he was still talking to Helendra.

Time became a contemptuous beast that
wreaked havoc on Yurios’ mind. I could see in his eyes that he had lost patience a long time ago, though he had little or no other option. We were stuck in here, only able to hope the General would stay true to his word. He had no obligation to, as there was nothing we could do. Our combined abilities were worthless in the given situation. With no soil Tevon had nothing to grow. He could conjure a bolt as he had at me before but it would do little good for us to kill the two guards. Yurios could flood the room which would only serve to worsen our situation.

When what we assumed was nighttime came, Tevon fell asleep. Yurios had yet to move from his spot, his foot still drumming against the ground. The guards would have grown tired of it after some time
, but they had already changed shifts. It would take a while until the new guards grew tired of it enough to intervene.

“How’s Edgar?” Yurios asked me much to my surprise.

I was a little unsure what to say at first. “He’s fine. How did you…”

He interrupted, “I saw you two talking in Saltren. Denarah also mentioned you and someone named Edgar. It didn’t take much to figure that out. How long have you known him for?”

“Most of my life, we grew up together on the streets.”

There was
a hint of sadness to his voice. “Yeah, our father was furious with me for leaving them to tend to the farm by themselves when I left for the academy. He often took out his frustration on Edgar. I didn’t know he would be so hard on him, other wise…” He stopped, tears built up in his eyes, he fought them back as much as he could. He reminded me of Edgar in some ways, with his stubbornly strong spirit.

“You knew the money you paid me with would somehow help him
, didn’t you? That’s why you chose me back in Saltren?” I then realized a few things from that day. “You are why he kept stepping in random puddles aren’t you?”

A
brief snicker came from Yurios’ tightly sealed lips as he nodded.

“Why didn’t you want him to see you?”

“It had been so long, and I’d just recently learnt about what had become of him. I was scared to find out what he thought of me.”

“He has never seemed bitter about you. He actually has never mentioned you before
, to be honest.”

Though I had not intended for them to be, my words
seemed like an icy dagger to him. “I imagine he wouldn’t. For a while dad constantly placed my shadow over him, because I was special. Edgar was special too, just not in a way our father preferred.”

“What do you mean special?”

He allowed a laugh to escape his lips once again. “His acting. Don’t tell me he’s stopped.”

A splurg
e of memories came into my mind. I couldn’t help myself as I laughed. “He still does. That’s one of his best methods of survival actually.”

It was nice to see Yurios open up to me, and I hoped this newly found friendship would last. It had surprised me how much he changed in such a short period of time, but he needed someone
here and it was probably easier for him to make a friend than hold a grudge right now. We spent most of the night reminiscing about Edgar, which made me miss him even more.

I couldn’t help but feel my heart ache at the thought of him. He was always there in my mind now. Though it was painful at times, I also found it comforting. After a very long conversation
, Yurios began to sound less coherent, his words slurring together.

"Night is coming tonight sleep we.... will... night...." Yurios said as his eyelids closed shut like a petal falling from a flower.

He had lasted as long as he could until he passed out. I followed shortly after.

Though I dreamed of nothing, that peace was soon interrupted. My red eyed friend soon entered my mind a
nd disturbed my rest. “I’m back,” he said with his usual devious grin.

“I will not be kind this time…”

“I'm here to deliver a warning.”

His game had grown old the first time he played it.
“Isn’t that all you do?”

“This one's for you. Take our offer, or watch these lands burn. You have one day.” He gave me no time to respond and disappeared once again.

His words rang in my head. We now knew how long until they would be here, though it was not comforting news. I debated about waking Tevon to inform him, but decided it could wait until tomorrow. The information wouldn’t change our situation any. I stayed in my once again peaceful dream.

The following morning I awoke to a plate of cold mush sitting before me. It had no smell, but the flavor was what I imagined mud would taste like. It crept down my throat with each painful swallow, drying my mouth as I ate it. The only option to quench my thirst was a bucket of stale water that had been sitting there for longer than I
cared to think about.

Tevon and Yurios were already awake, forcing their breakfast down as well, disgusted looks on both of their faces.
I found the treatment we received very unusual, as we had done nothing wrong as far as I was concerned.

“Why does he treat us like this?” I asked
.

“As you know, their king was assassinated by mages. Mages the king and him trusted greatly. Since then, any mage he crosses receives similar
or worse treatment,” Tevon answered. His mouth sounded dry as his lips smacked together with each word.

“The dream mage came to me
again last night.”

As soon as I spoke they both stood up and came as close to my
cell as possible. “What did he say?” Yurios pleaded.

“He claims they’re coming
tomorrow. I’m not sure how many, he just said that these lands would burn.”

“Well, hopefully we’re released before it’s too late. Did he give any hint as to how they planned on attacking?” Tevon asked.

I shook my head, “No, he never reveals anything I want him to and leaves before I have a chance to make him.”

Tevon laughed.
“Vicious little bird, aren’t you? At least now we know we have roughly one day left in here. Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do right now other than find a way to pass the time. Any ideas?” He sounded as though he was bored and wanted to play. He had the attitude of a kid sometimes.

Unable to think of anything, I found the
idea of conversation comforting. “When did you join the Mages Academy, Tevon?”

He scratched the back of his head, “I think when I was about nine. It was much smaller back then. That was when we were able to fit all of the students inside the castle. When I was twelve I started growing the trees that we would later turn into houses for all of the newer students that joined. That took me many years to do, however.”

“Who started the academy?” Yurios asked. I found it a little unusual that he did not already know this.

“No one really knows where the castle itself came from, it’s been there for so long and whoever first built it left no record. It was stumbled upon by a traveling mage who decided it would be a good place to take other mages to. He had been ridiculed and treated differently for his powers as he was one of the first to show any sign of magic. He found that many of the other mages were being taken advantage of, similar to how Caspere had treated you.”

“The history of mages here did not start out well. There were many years of darkness for us. Mages were often enslaved or executed because of their powers. Helendra’s father, the founder of the academy, is largely responsible for the end of that.”

“How old is Helendra?” I asked, having always thought she seemed to have much more wisdom behind her eyes than her skin showed.

Tevon laughed. “She’ll never say. If you find out, let me know. I have a couple bets going about that.”

“When did you first discover your power?” I asked, remembering how I had first entered Etherea.

He sat down, a look of grief on his face. “My brother and I were lost. We were out camping together when we couldn’t find out way back. We wandered for days aimlessly. Our father hadn’t taught us much about survival yet, but enough to actually make it. We thought we knew what we were doing, but then my brother ate some berries, and they made him sick.”

His v
oice grew shaky. “We were both starving, and he was dying. I set up a place for him to rest and watched him. I remember being terrified that he may die. I grew so scared I could barely stand it. That’s when I found myself in Etherea. My power came naturally to me, like it was something I always had, and I managed to grow enough food for us to survive. Eventually my father found us. He was an excellent tracker.”

His story was worse than mine, I thought. He was about to ask me to tell my story but I think he could tell from my
face that I wasn’t ready yet to talk about it.

Yurios joined in.
“Our crops were dying, it was a dry season, and our dad couldn’t get enough water for our farm. He grew angry, and became abusive. One night when he was yelling at us in frustration I could see he was near that point. He would always have this look in his eye. When he got it, we knew it was time to get out. This time though, he blocked the door. We both grew scared. I didn’t realize I was in Etherea at first; water just began collecting in the middle of the room. It took me a little while to realize it was my doing.”

“Our father saw what I could do
, and I saved the harvest that year. He never let Edgar live that down.”

I made a mental note to myself to never ask someone else this question again as it
seemed to always be accompanied by a depressing story. We had managed to talk our way through to lunch, which was, much to my dismay, a repeat of breakfast. We once again forced it down to our stomachs so that we wouldn’t starve. Yurios filled our buckets with fresher water. When he used his power the air became less damp and it became a little more bearable to breathe.

To pass the rest of the day, Tevon
picked up a small stone and we then made a game of trying to pass it through Yurios’ cell without him grabbing it. While it did annoy him somewhat, he played along as it passed the time for us. I wondered what someone sentenced to a lifetime in prison would do. How would they manage to stay sane? How had Denarah managed to stay sane?