God Mage (7 page)

As soon as the magic left his body, all of
his friends and their escorts jumped. Cass’s hand went straight for
his sword and had it half released from its scabbard within a
heartbeat. When no threat presented itself Cass removed his hand
from the swords hilt, but Bren could see large beads of sweat
running down his neck as the man’s body slightly trembled.

I think it would be better if you held back
a little next time. That was so strong that I think it could have
killed someone whose heart was weak.

“It can kill someone?” Bren asked, slightly
embarrassed of his actions.

Honestly, I don’t know if it can kill or
not, but I think it is possible. I don’t think the elders will try
such a tactic again though. Even if they got the whole village
together, I doubt that they could compete with your sheer
power.

The one good thing about his new body and his
ability to control himself was that the feeling of guilt quickly
left him. Bren knew that it wasn’t a good thing in most cases, as
it would allow him to do a great many things without any feeling of
remorse. He knew it should scare him, but even his fears only came
when he wanted them to. In truth, it was an odd thing; he would
have never guessed that a person would want to fear, but he found
that his fears kept him in line better than any of his other
emotions. The fear of losing what one cares most about is a strong
motivation to make one more cautious with their actions. Anger, on
the other hand, was a far different feeling—one that made it hard
to think about what his actions would do to those around him.

When they entered the hall where they had met
the elders the previous visits, Bren made sure that he walked with
confidence, each step like a small conquest. Bren looked the elders
directly in the eyes as he entered the room. Unlike the time
before, they didn’t sit behind their desk with the same smug look
as before, now they shifted nervously in their seats.

“Why did you call us here?” Bren asked his
voice still tinted with the anger that had filled him moments
before.

“You…” one of the elders to the right began
to say before the head elder silenced him with nothing but a stern
look.

“I won’t apologize for our actions, but I
believe it would be best if we both let it go for now. If not, then
we will get nowhere, and I must admit that the situation is far
worse than you might surmise,” the elder said with a blank look on
his face. “I don’t know how, but it seems that the Brotherhood has
followed you. Right now more than three thousand soldiers are
combing the woods outside the village looking for something, and we
can only believe that it is you.”

“Nine hells,” Cass cursed under his
breath.

“You have been granted sanctuary in our
village but given the sheer number of soldiers outside, it will
only be a matter of time before they find a way into the hidden
valley.”

“If we leave, I don’t think the Brotherhood
will simply go away,” Bren replied thoughtfully.

“We don’t want you to leave,” the elder said
quickly. “We want you to fight, along with us. It is just as you
said, the Brotherhood will not simply go away, and while we believe
that their best would not be a match for even our younger soldiers,
we are vastly outnumbered. If you were to count every soldier
within our village it would number less that one thousand. What we
need now is help,” the elder’s said, his voice remaining eerily
calm and void of any emotion.

“I see,” Bren replied as his eyes turned
toward his friends. “They have given us a safe haven and much more
during our short stay. I will not agree for everyone but I think we
should fight along with the village.”

“I don’t mind getting my sword a little wet,”
Brenda said with a thin smile. “Honestly, my sword arm has been
itching a little ever since we left. I would have found more action
had I stayed in Abla. At least there I would have had a few
tournaments to fight in.”

“You know how I feel,” Cass said, giving
Brenda an odd look. “My job is to keep you safe, and if you want to
fight in a war then it’s my job to go with you.”

“It has been a while since I got to let my
magic go wild,” Phena said, moving between Cass and Brenda and
pushing herself close to him. “A woman needs to cut loose from time
to time.”

“I am not much of a fighter but I will do
what I can,” Faye said meekly.

The others made their own point, but none of
them seemed to want to leave the village without fighting first.
Bren wasn’t that surprised; everyone with him lived in a country
that had been affected by the Brotherhood. Then again, it didn’t
seem like there were many places that hadn’t seen the hand of the
Brotherhood over the past few centuries. “Looks like we will be
fighting then,” Bren said, trying to sound happy about the
decision.

“I am happy to hear it,” the elder said,
letting his strict demeanor slip slightly. “Then shall we get to
it. We need to learn your specific sills so that you may be used to
your fullest potential.

They were led from the building. It didn’t
take Bren long to notice that they were headed toward the part of
town where he had come across the training youth a few days prior.
Unlike the time before, the large open area was not filled with
energetic youth training but a host of men wearing various types of
bone armor readying for a battle. Their guide pulled another older
warrior aside and talked to him for a few moments then brought the
man over to where they stood.

Most of the men were basic warriors and were
spread among the different groups. Faye, having a unique ability,
was moved to a group of young warriors who wore no obvious armor.
Bren found a slight nagging worry for her safety pool in his
stomach, but he quickly pushed the feeling away.

Bren was told that he would work directly
with the general’s. The only one who didn’t take his orders without
reservation was Cass who demanded to stay at Bren’s side. Once they
learned that he would not be moved from his decision, they
reluctantly allowed him to stay with Bren.

Once the leaders of the different groups were
sure of their roles in the upcoming battle, everyone quickly
departed, leaving Bren feeling more than a little anxious. He had
been placed with the generals, but he knew little of the plan
himself, and he didn’t like the idea of his friends being in danger
without him having a clue as to how much. He still believed that he
had lost a lot of his humanity since his last battle with the
Brotherhood, and he saw his friends as his only link to who he was,
and the fear of losing them made his chest tighten painfully.

Bren forced himself to follow the other
commanders as they moved through the town heading to an unknown
location. Bren began to worry more when they reached the edge of
the village and entered a small cave. Bren had to fight against the
vast urge to produce any type of light in dark recess of the earth.
He knew that the others had not done so in order to keep anyone
from knowing where they were going, but he didn’t like not being
able to see anyone around him. The only thing that he could do was
let his fingers trail along the damp rock as he listened to the
shallow footsteps of those with him.

Bren let out a sigh of relief when he noticed
a thin stream of light coming from the end of the tunnel. As he
stepped though the opening in the earth, Bren found himself
standing on a large cliff overlooking the forest. He was so high up
that he could even see the edge of the forest and the Brotherhood
soldiers, who looked like small specks in the distance.

“Why have we come here?” Bren asked the man
standing closest to him.

“Our task,” the man said quickly, his
attention staying focused on the forest below.

“And what is that?” Bren asked slightly
frustrated.

“To watch and help when we can,” The man said
returning his frustrated tone.

“Can you at least tell me when the battle
will start?” Bren asked sounding defeated.

“When the sun has set, our men will move out.
We do not have the numbers for a direct conflict so we shall do
what we do best and take them out in the silence of the night.”

The news didn’t set Bren’s nerves at ease,
but he knew that it was the best he was going to get. It was easy
to tell from the man’s aura that he held little faith in Bren and
saw him as more of a hindrance than a help in the current
situation. Bren was sure that he wasn’t the only one that thought
that way either. Most likely most of the soldiers that would be
risking their life would much prefer if Bren and his friends were
cast out from the village. Why should they risk their lives for
strangers? Bren forced away the thoughts, knowing it was his own
weakness pushing through. They had offered their aid, and any
deaths that came about would not be his, nor his friend’s fault.
No. Those deaths would fall squarely on the Brotherhoods
shoulders.

I half thought you would leave on your own
again in some vain attempt to lead the Brotherhood away.
Foolishness always ran in your father, and given your past actions,
I thought it had run true in your blood as well. I am glad that for
once I was wrong.

“If I left, my friends would follow, and
their risk of capture would be even greater,” Bren replied. “The
best chance for all to survive is to work with the village, so that
is what I will do.”

It seems that you have finally grown out of
your naivety.

“I don’t think I have grown out of anything,”
Bren said with a hint of remorse. “It has been lost along with many
other things.”

“What has you looking so sullen,” Cass asked,
bumping into Bren. “Well, other than the few thousand soldiers that
have come to separate you from your head.”

“Nothing really,” Bren replied, giving his
friend a weak smile. “Just wondering if this trip was really worth
it.”

“No use to worry about that now,” Cass said
encouragingly. “You sought your goal and followed that path with
single determination. Even should you fail, there is no shame in
that.”

“Even if others have to pay the price for my
path?” Bren asked looking at his friend worriedly.

“We each had a choice, and we all made it,”
Cass said, shrugging his shoulders. “When I was young, my mother
often said that I should always strive for perfection but wallow in
sadness when I didn’t reach it. There is no point in life if you
can’t find happiness, even if it is in failure.”

“I don’t know if I can live a life like
that,” Bren replied honestly.

“Then I pity you, my friend,” Cass said as he
looked down at the forest below.

A
s the light began
to fall, Bren shut off his normal sight and hearing and used his
magic to search for his friends. Brenda and most of the guards
waited near the hidden entrances to the village while Faye, Jin,
and Phena moved among the woods below. Bren could understand Faye.
She grew up on a small farm and seemed at home among the trees, not
to mention that she could make herself completely invisible to the
naked eye. He still worried about her safety, but it was Jin that
truly worried him. As far as Bren knew, Jin had no great magical
power. He had grown up among the merchants of Rane and had not
spent much time outside of the large cities of his country. Why he
would be among those foraying into the forest, he didn’t know, but
Bren found himself following the young man with a sense of dread in
his chest.

From his count, slightly less than fifty
people had moved out among the woods to strike at the enemy, and
that number seemed incredibly low given the number of soldiers the
Brotherhood commanded.

Bren was surprised when Jin’s aura changed.
It wasn’t a dramatic thing, like when Faye used her magic, but a
very subtle thing, so much so that had he not been watching the
young man, he wouldn’t have noticed it. Using his magic Bren
allowed his eyes to focus on where Jin’s aura was coming from, but
what he saw was far different than he had expected.

Instead of the young man he had left with
from Rane, Bren saw a large mountain lion, twice the size of a man
with fur the color of the night sky. A part of him knew that the
cat was Jin, but Bren still looked around for his friend;however,
when he found nothing, he went back to following the large animal
as it stalked through the thick underbrush. “What is that?” Bren
asked himself as he watched the beast.

You didn’t notice. I guess I shouldn’t be
surprised you haven’t met a shifter yet. Jin and his father are
shifters. They are a type of internal mages who can change into
beasts when they feel threatened. From his aura, I would guess that
the young man has not used the ability much. I would suggest that
you keep your distance for a few days.

“Why?” Bren asked Thuraman as his eyes were
glued to the large black cat as it moved toward a small encampment
of Brotherhood soldiers.

Shifters are different that other magic
users. They don’t just change their form, but their minds also
shift once they change, and some of those changes become more
pronounced the more often and the longer they stay shifted. Your
father once said that shifters were neither human nor animal but a
mixture of the two, so they should be treated with the same caution
one would use with a wild beast.

“Weren’t father and Jayden friends though?”
Bren asked, watching as the cat crouched behind a large bush only a
few feet from the resting group of soldiers.

He treated Jayden as a friend, though in
honestly, he was one of the few people that your father was truly
afraid of. There was a reason that your father seldom visited Rane
and that Monique rarely visited Farlan with her husband and child.
Thad might not have voiced his dislike of the man, but it was
obvious to anyone who knew your father.