Felling Kingdoms (Book 5) (22 page)

“I did, but I cannot explain it yet.” Gabriel thought back to the stalwart Arding, the Element of Fire, and the graceful Sofiya, the Element of Water. They had guided him carefully through his journey over the past year. He still waited to meet Spirit, Earth and Air.

Cordis shrugged, used to Gabriel’s secrets.

Robyn looked up as they entered the study, Coal in her lap.

“Evening, Roby.”

“Hello Cordis, how is my kingdom?”

“Standing, blessedly.”

“When can I return?”

Gabriel tossed his hair out of his eyes. “Soon. I need to see how a few things play out first. Ryker will not be happy I killed his Arch Mage.”

Chapter 27

“
How did he get free
?” Ryker bellowed to his gathered Arch Mages. They stood before him uncomfortably. “He just
appeared,
ac Pike was no more! Tell me how he broke out of Glittering.”

He turned his maddening gaze to Maxine, but she did not seem intimidated. “I believe Pike was still working out the details on Glittering.”

“It was always weaker t’an t’ others,” Dorian offered.

Maxine nodded. “Who says he did not break out of it?”

Ryker shook his head and clicked his cheek.

“Pike complained it was weak when he first made it,” Maxine reminded.

“I want him dead.
Dead.
Ac I want it done yesterday.”

“Bargain,” Evony tittered.

They looked at her. Ryker knew that despite her instability, she often had good ideas.

“Bargain peace for his life.”

Dorian snapped his fingers. “Tell him you will trade his life for t’ safety of Jaden.”

“He will not agree,” Maxine interjected defensively, but Ryker was deep in his thoughts.

“A trade par peace. I could agree ne to kill a single one of his Mages if he will surrender the Seat ac his life.”

“You cannot vow t’at.” Dorian stated.

Ryker patted Dorian’s shoulder and smiled.

“He still will not agree.” Maxine said.

“He will if you offer the Mages you have stolen as part of the bargain,” Nolen said from a corner of the room. He stepped closer. “The Mage has a tender spot for women, so throw them into the mix. You will not need them once you take over Castle Jaden anyway.”

Ryker waggled a finger at him. “That’s thinking.”

“He could stand against you if he truly tried,” Maxine inserted.

“He cannot,” Dorian snapped. “He lacks experience.”

“You are but two years older than he is.” Maxine hissed.

“T’at’s
two
years more experience t’an he.” Dorian folded his arms haughtily.

“When do we go?” Evony whispered, pressing her fingertips together in excitement.

“Very soon, dear, I promise.”

Robyn patted the spot beside her on the couch, and Gabriel sauntered into the sitting room. His arms wrapped around the back of his head as he stretched with a sigh.

“What are you doing in here?” he asked.

“Hiding.”

“From whom? You know I can feel you move from my desk.”

“I was hoping you would come find me.”

He flopped into the couch, bouncing her goblet of wine. She reflexively balanced. “I have found you. Are you in distress and need saving?”

“Oh, certainly. I am being held against my will by a man I cannot resist.”

“How devastating,” he smiled. “I hear he hungers after young flesh.”

“
Gabriel!
” she exclaimed and laughed. “Hold your tongue.”

“I fear I have been too occupied today and have given you none of my time. I am yours for the rest of the evening if you will still have me.”

She swirled her goblet instinctively, always creating Water energy around him. “You have been very closed-mouthed about your time with Nolen recently. I think you have not reached the end of your story.”

He tapped the back of the couch. His posture was open to her with his arms wide, one leg bent on the cushions, a sign he was comfortable in her presence. She hoped he had finally forgiven her for abandoning him. “There is one thing…” he trailed off. “I…I’ve killed a lot of people.”

“I know,” she said and put her hand on his bent leg. He stared at it for a while with a distracted expression she had seen Virgil take on when she touched him.

“I once heard Aisling say there was too much blood in the dungeons when she finally entered, that it could not have come out of one person. She was right. There was a girl in the dungeons with me.”

Robyn felt her lips part. This was news to her.

“Nolen dragged her in early on to watch, thinking I would break if I knew someone could see how weak I had become. But it only made me stronger. After a while she began to fear for me, to support and encourage me. It angered Nolen, so he started to hurt her, saying if I broke or at least surrendered myself to him he would let her go.”

He paused and looked away, biting his lip. She could not tell if his eyes glossed over or if he simply needed a moment to pull himself from the memory. He blinked rapidly, coming back to reality.

“I couldn’t break. I couldn’t simply give over what I fought so hard to keep, and I couldn’t stop him, so I watched as he tortured this poor girl. I have tried to justify my actions a thousand times, but I did it for selfish reasons. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and I could not save her.”

He extended his right hand and drew a line down the center. “After hours—days perhaps—I do not know, Nolen cut me and strapped a knife to my hand. He tied her down and bodily forced me to drive the knife into her.” He shut his eyes. “I will never get her screams out of my head. I tried to angle the knife to strike her vital organs, but Nolen kept readjusting it so it lasted for an hour. The longest hour of my life.

“By the end, she died for nothing. He dragged her out, and I never heard what happened.” He stared at the couch between his thighs.

Robyn touched him again with a sad gaze. Nothing she could say would ease his heart.

“There is just one more thing,” he said slowly and she felt her insides tighten, waiting for the blow. But he stood. “Follow me.”

She rose to her feet, following him to his bedchamber. He shucked off his coat and pulled his shirt over his head. He stooped to unbuckle his boots and unlaced the front of his trousers.

She watched with rapt attention, keeping her quivering lips from grinning. He stripped, leaving her red in the face and wide eyed. She ran her gaze up and down him, having never seen so much at one time. The short pair of tight pants underneath his clothes did little to quell her racing imagination. He was much thinner after the stint in Glittering, but his muscles were far more pronounced and hard.

“If you want to see what was done to me, there is no better way than to show you.”

“
Show
me?” she gasped.

He seized Void and spun his hands. “Every white mark you will see is a wound healed by Spirit.” He paused and fixed his white eyes on her. “Brace yourself.”

She clasped her hands together and steeled her back as he clenched his fist. His body became white.

Her mouth fell agape. Her eyes ran over him in shock. It seemed all of him was streaked in white, dissipating as it ran down his legs. She stepped closer to get a better look, seeing tiny white lines over his face running back into his hair, splitting his lips, chin, and nose. His neck was surrounded by a ring of white. His collar streaked with lines and jagged marks, and his shoulders cut with deep scars.

She traced his chest, standing before him, and recognized the star-shaped wound that killed him. Some were perfectly round, others straight lines that a knife would leave if driven in. They traced down his stomach and hips. Some vanished under his pants and remerged down his thighs in broken lines.

His fists bore defensive marks, and his wrists were encircled with deep white crescents. His left side bore a solid scar through-and-through, while his forearms and upper arms had wrapped coils of white mixed with lines of all different sizes. Robyn did not know whether to weep or embrace him as she traced the lines that wrapped around his thighs, the white marks on his knees, and the jagged marks down his calves.

She circled him, but he raised a hand to stall. “Are you sure?”

She nodded, steeling her emotions. “I want to know.”

He lowered his hand, and she resumed her slow march. His entire back was a mass of white lines, crisscrossing and overlapping in a morbid collection of nets. The only place that was almost spared was the corded muscle in his lower back. It protected his spine, but even that was marred. The lines streaked over his shoulders and arms, around his sides and down his hips. She knew without asking that these were caused by whips.

“How?” she breathed. “How did you endure it?”

He looked back. “I had you to keep me strong.”

Tears came to her eyes, and she covered her mouth.

“Do you want to see more?”

“More?” she gasped. “What more is there to see?” Her eyes went to the only remaining garment.

“No, not there,” he smiled gently. “Deeper.”

“To…your bones?” He nodded. “Very well.”

He flicked his hand and suddenly his skin faded, giving way to the muscle beneath. She had skinned enough animals to know what lay beneath, but it was an entirely different thing to see through Gabriel. His muscles quickly gave way to his bone structure surrounded by his hazy body. She marveled at a moving skeleton.

His white bones were sporadically marred with even brighter white, and she stepped closer to inspect the healed damage. There were lines all over his face, his collarbones, down both forearms, and the left wrist cut from him. His ribs were littered with lines, but his spine and pelvis were left unaffected. Down his legs were several healed breaks, and his knees bore the brunt of numerous falls. Even his fingers and toes had mended breaks.

She looked up to his face to see the tracing white lines, but he released Void. His coloring came back in a blink.

She opened her mouth to express her sadness, but fell into his chest soundlessly. He tucked her in tightly and said nothing as she composed herself.

“You know everything now. You are bearing it well.”

“There is nothing left?”

“Nothing of consequence.”

“I do not think I can take any more.”

He smiled understandingly and reached for his trousers.

“No, I can take more of this,” she said evenly.

“One of us can’t,” he smiled and laced them tightly.

Coal sauntered in and sat beside Gabriel. He gave Robyn a possessive look, and began to clean himself.

“Thank you for showing me,” she said sincerely. “I feel like I can finally understand you.”

“Oh, yes, because
men
are complicated.” He grabbed his shirt.

“You can just leave that on the floor,” she whispered.

He snickered and pulled it on anyway. “Did you plan to stay here, or are you going to bed early?”

“Oh, after a day of saying farewell to Aisling, I do not think I could stay up. I have shed too many tears. Tomorrow though.”

He nodded and buckled his boots.

“Going somewhere?”

“I want to go for a walk to clear my thoughts, and I’ve never seen the coast.”

“If you go just south of Port Nassa, it is relatively quiet. But be careful. There are four Arch Mages who want your head.”

“I will,” he smiled and leaned down to kiss her.

His hair and eyes became white, and with a wink he vanished.

“Marry me,” she sighed.

Chapter 28

Gabriel appeared on the coast, cutting his shift a moment before his boots ended up in the water. The black horizon spread out before him in a beautiful ribbon meeting the dark blue sky. The sun sank long ago, leaving only the stars and a crescent moon above. The broken star had finally faded into obscurity, and with it some fears from the population. However, Gabriel’s title as the Star Breaker still remained.

He walked, listening to the crash of the waves to his left. It was cool here, the air heavy with moisture, and other than the waves, it was blessedly quiet. The faint wind brought no sounds of revelry. Save for a few nearby animals, there was little kinetic energy nearby. Finally, he could be one with himself.

The wet sand squelched under his boots as he plodded on, his head bowed as he lost himself in thoughts of his impending battle. He wished to avoid a battleground, rather striking in unexpected moments like he had with Pike. But they would know he was coming now. He would have to stay one step ahead or suffer the consequences.

Something strange caught his attention, and he stopped.

Beneath his feet were tiny blue lights. He took a step back, and lights illuminated under the pressure of his boots. It alarmed him and made him quickly step back again only to achieve the same results.

“What under the st….”

His hands came to his hair suddenly, and he exhaled as if punched as he realized what it meant. “The stars will fall where his feet do tread.”

“I wondered when you would figure it out,” a faint voice said in the wind.

He snapped his head up and looked around him. His hands ready with a doldrums-pattern, but there was no one.

“Do not be afraid,” came the gentle voice. He took a step back as something moved in the sand before him. Wind whipped around him, spiraling up to attain solidity. It dissolved into the figure of a slender woman walking towards him. Her hair was silver and blew around her lithe shoulders. She moved with expert grace, clad in a dress of starlight that slipped off her pale shoulders and split up the center to reveal long legs and bare feet.

She stepped up slowly. Gabriel surveyed her beautiful heart-shaped face, and he sank to a knee.

“My lady.”

“Rise, Head Mage Gabriel,” she said in a smoky voice that sent chills through him, speaking in an accent almost like his. “I am called Liliwen in this Age, but you know me as Air.”

“I have been looking forward to our meeting.”

She smiled. “I have been watching you for some time, waiting for the right moment.” She turned her back to him. “Walk with me.”

He stepped alongside her, watching the stars illuminate with each of his steps, but he noticed she did not affect them, nor did she leave footprints. “Do I frighten you, Head Mage?” she whispered.

“Should I be frightened?”

She chuckled in her throat and turned her pretty face to him with a warm smile. “No, I certainly hope not. I have watched you long enough to know how you have fared with Air Mages. I assure you I am not here to cause you grief. I come with news. Do you know who Mage Barbrielly is?”

“The woman who destroyed Roshenin, but I think there is more to her than that.”

“You are correct. It is time to understand one of the reasons we made you. Barbrielly is the Element of Earth.” Liliwen paused so he could draw in the revelation. “She has been trapped in her stone coffin for Ages. She put herself there along with Mage Tollen. It must be strange for you to think a woman as powerful as Earth would incase herself and her lover in stone. She had but a moment to save him.”

“Save him? He was on the edge of death.”

“No, Head Mage, he died in her arms, but she knew if she could preserve his body, she could find a Mage to put him back together and summon his spirit. She incased the both of them with the intention of saving him.

“The problem was, in her anger she destroyed Roshenin and blotted it off the map. It was hundreds of years before anyone found her statue.”

“Why did you not revive her yourself? Why did Spirit not help?”

She raised a slender finger. “A noble question. Long ago when Spirit killed Void, we all took a vow never to alter each other’s plans, never to help nor hinder. Spirit would have hindered her, and even though we pleaded, he refused to help. He is not like Sofiya or I. If he sees no profit for himself, he will not aid.

“We needed a Mage who could break stone, free Barbrielly, put Tollen back together and summon his spirit. To do that we needed an Earth, Spirit and Void Mage. But to fully restore a body one needs all the Elements at a Class of Ten. I fear when we made you, we were not able to give you everything you needed.

“What I mean to say is, we created you to restore Barbrielly to life and mend Tollen.”

He walked silently, watching the light dance under his feet.

“What causes this?”

She looked down. “Tiny clams.”

“How am I to restore Barbrielly without Air?” he asked after a moment.

“Ryker has the Air Silex piece. I suggest you bargain for it.”

Something slowly rose out of the water beside him. The lovely Sofiya lifted from her Element and glided out of the surf, her dress of smoke trimmed in froth. “Greetings, Head Mage. Restoration of Barbrielly is not the only reason we raised you,” she said in her beautiful sing-song tone. Her face glistened under the starlight and her red hair sparkled.

Gabriel stopped, and Liliwen wove her long arm to the forest to bring a spark of fire from a faraway camp. As soon as it touched the ground, Arding appeared in a flash of fire, striding towards them as flames licked around his boots. “You stayed behind Jaden’s walls too long, my lad.” He smiled warmly behind his neatly trimmed beard, his eyes dancing.

“He knows of Barbrielly, but not Spirit,” Liliwen said quietly.

Arding stepped closer, standing before Gabriel. “We raised you for three reasons. One, our children are dying. Our race of Mages has become weak thanks to Ryker starting the Mage Wars. It was always his plan to break our children down so he could take over them. You have already strengthened it, as you will continue to do.”

“Secondly,” Liliwen said gently. “You were created to revive Earth and her lover. Without her, the line of Creators falls away. It took all the energy we had to make you one. Thankfully you came from an Earth line. Without her, the land is untamed, and her children have no direction. Patterns are lost with every generation, and few are capable of replenishing them.”

“Lastly,” Arding whispered as he stepped closer. “Lastly may be the most important. I am sure Liliwen explained we cannot interfere with each other’s plans, no matter how dire or terrible they are. That is why we cannot fight against Spirit and his plans.”

“Spirit?” Gabriel asked, then slowly felt the color leave his face as he realized.

“Ryker is Spirit.”

Gabriel opened his mouth but found no words until, “I cannot fight an
Element!
” sputtered out.

Arding smiled fatherly. “We gave you everything you needed to succeed. Influence, power, intelligence, every Element we could manage, and a Creator’s talent.”

“Why not Air?”

Liliwen sighed. “We had the opportunity to give you either Earth or Air, and we chose Earth. Despite your bloodline coming from two powerful families, you could not handle all six Elements. It would have driven you mad before you had a chance to fight Ryker.”

“This is why you need the Silex Air piece,” Sofiya replied.

“What if I recruit a Class Ten Air Mage?”

They shook their heads. “You can never trust an Arch Mage.”

“What of Mage Shaun with the Excellyon?”

Sofiya shook her head gently. “The Excellyon does not make him a Class Ten.”

“Do the Arch Mages know who Ryker is?”

Arding shook his head. “No, they do not.”

“Does…Ryker know who he is?”

Liliwen tittered a happy tune. “He is not as mad as he appears, dear Gabriel.”

“Why
now
? Why not destroy him when the Mages were powerful?”

“We could not launch an attack until he was released from the Excellyon’s pattern. Hibernation stops everything. That is why he speaks differently than us. We have adapted over the Ages, but he remains trapped in the Second Age.”

“What about a fourth reason?” Gabriel asked with his brows furrowed. “What about leading as Head Mage for a prosperous life?”

Arding glanced at Liliwen with a sad expression. She looked to Gabriel.

“Ryker will claim your life.”

Gabriel gulped as if he always knew, “You know this?”

“We see pivots. We do not know for certain, but Ryker plans to ask for your life in exchange for the safety of your Mages. If you live, it will be by a force we do not yet see.”

Gabriel closed his eyes. This was what he suspected from the beginning. “Why is Ryker doing this?”

“He wants to rule this land. Tintagaelsing and Cinibar have fallen, and Arconia may soon collapse once knowledge of Virgil’s treachery spreads. Next will be Aidenmar, then Parion. Once he has conquered all, he will go across the ocean and take Shalaban, Desuldane, Bodelane, and the hundreds of small kingdoms that span between here and Tintagaelsing.”

“What of Anatoly?”

“As long as the Queen lives and Nolen stays off the throne, she will stand. Keep her Grace alive at all costs. The other kingdoms will crumble if the greatest falls. Also, Queen Robyn is bending too easily to the desires of her people. She wants to make them happy by giving them all they ask, but they will ruin the land if she continues to please them. It is exactly what Maxine did in Echoveria. Give people everything they desire, and they will become fat with dissatisfaction and turn on her,” Arding explained. “Maxine has already been stirring the people of Anatoly to ask for things they never knew they wanted.”

Liliwen put her cool hands on Gabriel’s arm and held it tightly. “Do not think this will be the end of you. We do not see the future, for it is ever changing, nor can we guarantee your life or death. You very well may succeed in not only vanquishing Ryker but also saving your own life.”

“Wait,” Gabriel cut in. “I cannot kill him. When he killed Void, all the Void wielders died with him. I would lose every Spirit Mage in a moment.”

“That is true. You will not be able to kill him. We are the only ones who can kill each other,” Arding nodded. “You will be able to damage him enough to capture him.”

“In a Castrofax,” Gabriel whispered. “They have a failsafe built into them.”

“Have you ever read of a Mage being put in more than one Castrofax?”

“I was.”

Liliwen tittered. “No, at the same time. It renders them comatose, as it would with Ryker.”

“What do you mean by your previous comment?” Arding asked him.

Gabriel remembered they could not enter Jaden. “I was put in Glittering over a week ago, but I broke it off.”

Liliwen’s grip on his arm tightened. “I wondered why your body has been so altered.”

“Pike and Dorian broke in and killed three Council Members, which compounded on Prince Virgil coercing Queen Robyn to marry him unwillingly. I broke out when I could no longer take it.”

“We are grieved for you,” Sofiya said quietly. “Whom did you lose?”

“My mother, and Lewis and Penny.”

“Stars,” Arding breathed. “We wondered why you suddenly attacked Pike. That was quite cunning.”

“Dorian is next. What if I fail to vanquish Ryker?”

“You cannot,” Liliwen said ardently. “We have placed all our tiles on you. If you fail, the world will fall. It will take another twenty years to create another Mage to match you, and by that time Ryker will have become too powerful.”

“I have ten children that have yet to be born. You could start with them.”

“Creating a Mage as great as you is no easy work. We were weak for years after your conception,” Arding answered. “We will need to be as strong as possible. Even then, we will have to be careful not to go against Ryker’s plans.”

“Can you not break your vow?”

“It is not possible. We are bound to a higher level than Mages. It is physically impossible to break the vow.”

Gabriel’s mind reeled. Barbrielly, an Element within his own walls waiting to be freed. Ryker, an Element raging outside who needed to be vanquished. A Silex piece to be retrieved, and three Arch Mages and Nolen to kill.

He stood a little straighter and looked each one in the eyes. “When do I begin?”

-End

Book six coming soon!