Prodigal Steelwielder (Seals of the Duelists Book 3) (33 page)

Bayan gestured toward the top, blank seal. “Forgive me. I never answered your question as to the purpose of the top seal. It is the seal representing the rank of hexmage, and it can be shaped to represent whatever the hexmage desires.” The silvery surface of the seal shifted, rippled, took on vibrant color, and sank within itself, resulting in a lifelike three-dimensional image. The view was low to the ground, with small gray stones in the foreground and a meandering creek bed just beyond them. In the distance, hills rose, supporting scrubby trees. The sun was high and bright, and the sky bore only a small swirl of thin clouds.

Baltanarmo smiled as he examined the image. “In such detail! Truly, the skill of your magic is not to be compared.”

Kiwani spoke. “Wait until you see what else he’s done.”

Puzzled, Baltanarmo frowned at the seal. Nothing seemed to move for several moments, then a small, slender red insect skittered into view. It cowered in the shade of a nearby stone and scrambled to the next one. Its antennae flicked constantly, adding to its panicked appearance.

“What is this? What am I seeing?” Baltanarmo asked.

Bayan gave the emperor his full attention. “That little red ant is all that remains of the sint you know as Zahira. She is returning to Corona lands, but as you can see, she is small and short, and it’ll take her a very long time. I hope you’ll keep my generous mercy in mind when you make any decisions regarding my Academy. I do hope I’m being clear.”

Baltanarmo’s tanned skin turned a sickly gray, and his eyes locked onto the terrified little bug. “Zahira. You have seen everything, Headmaster. My soul is laid bare. I… I will consider your advice… She came to kill you. Why did you spare her?”

He honestly loves that crazy sint
. “Because she is alone. She is one of the only sints alive who is not fanatically loyal to the Waarden Empire. In the last moments of the battle, when she did try to kill me, I chose to spare her because, in fact, she and I were, at that moment, exactly alike. Her loyalty is to you. Let it stay that way.”

Baltanarmo’s eyes flicked from Bayan’s to the seal several times. “I… Thank you, Headmaster, for your mercy and your generosity. My offer remains before you. Please inform me at your convenience whether you wish to proceed with any of my offers, or if there is anything else I may provide for you. Again, a thousand thanks. Now, I beg you, let me take my leave, and I shall not darken your door again.”

Baltanarmo’s last words were delivered with more haste than dignity, and the emperor gave Bayan a quick bow before fairly skittering down the aisle and hieing across the great seal.

Kiwani took Bayan’s hand in hers. “Now, that’s what I like to see.”

“What’s that?

“A powerful enemy in retreat is a stronger deterrent than a thousand corpses no one will ever see.”

Bayan took her other hand in his and squeezed. “It seems we may have a very, very long time on this world, Kiwani. Are you sure you want to spend it in these bodies, dealing with people who don’t understand who and what we are, what we can do? Are you sure, beloved, that this is what you want us to—”

Kiwani kissed him gently. “You are what I want. I will stay with you as long as you stay with me. Let’s take our future together. You and me. All of us. We are the next rising wave, Bayan. Don’t you feel it? It’s calling.”

Bayan clutched her hands against his chest. “I do see it. I can see every single instant of our future, Kiwani. I feel it coming with every breath I take. I know what it will do to us. And I don’t know if I want to change it.”

Kiwani stepped into the entrance to the hollow sphere hidden deep in the Shadow Canyons. She stood tall and straight, still, waiting for the sint in the prison to remember her. Or not.

The girl of many skins. You return. Or did you ever leave?

“Part of me was always here with you. You showed me that certain things were possible, when I did not believe. You helped me. Now let me help you.”

No help. The eternity of wanting and never achieving. Such were their last words. I had done too much, too much. I would never do anything again.

“But you did. You changed me. In a way, you showed me I could free myself. Let me free you.”

No. No freedom. I do not understand it anymore.

Kiwani clenched her teeth in frustration. She had hoped that the sint’s gratitude would earn her its loyalty, that she could match Calder's pocket god. But the pitiful creature was too far gone, too afraid of living, after having spent so much time not quite dead. She shifted her feet and took a deep breath. “Then, if you will not accept freedom, take my mercy.”

Mercy? A frail, mortal concept.

“The other sints had no mercy for you. They tortured you for millennia. You are very broken: they succeeded well. But you do not have to remain in torture forever. Let me ease your pain.”

I believe you can, girl of many skins. This hope in me, it burns. End me, then. Make me stop.

Kiwani braced against a sudden sorrow she had not expected to feel. Nothing deserved thousands of years of pain and madness. No sin could possibly be so heinous—and were not the sins of a sint darker than her own? Her heart fluttered at the hint of forgiveness, and she raised her chin, bringing her mind into sharp focus.

A tiny boon? The question, the warning. I may gift, girl of many skins?

Kiwani nodded. “Anything you wish to say, I will hear.”

Our ambitions are twin. To touch the sky is to invite storm.

Kiwani nodded, unsure if the sint was caught in madness or if that was all it wanted to say.

Set me free.

Electric fire shot down Kiwani’s arms. Her neck strained, and her hair streamed back. The walls of the hollow sphere writhed and rippled as she harnessed the magic that had formed the prison millennia ago. The prison resisted her but in such a way that she sensed it too was tired of existing. With a great, final crack, the canyon walls around her rumbled free of their ancient form. A shock wave hurled Kiwani down the tunnel, and she skidded, tumbling. When she came to a stop, she groaned and propped herself on her elbows.

Smooth stone blocked off the tunnel’s mouth. She approached and pressed her hands against it, sensing with her Earth magic that the stone had collapsed and reformed, filling the gap the prison had once occupied, erasing even its shape from the world.

“Be at rest,” Kiwani whispered. She sagged against the stone, pressing her cheek against its cool flatness, and listened to the calm silence beyond.

Free
. The word seemed to echo back in time. Or forward. Either way, it hardly mattered.

Kiwani turned to go. As she willed passage through the maze of canyons, dark, bright thoughts formed in the back of her mind.
The sints must see empires as playthings. The world is merely a beach upon which to scratch castles and maps, then chase the waves over it all and begin again. One day, we will be gods to a new generation of mortals. And I shall be their most beloved.

Kiwani let her feet touch down at the entrance to the last canyon tunnel, where Bayan waited for her.

“Is it done?” he murmured.

“He was not ready for freedom. But he did accept my mercy.” She raised her eyes to Bayan, heedless of the startled expression that crossed his face as their gazes met. “The world is different now, Bayan. Let’s make of it what we can, while we can.”

Her beloved’s arms slipped around her and held her close. “I will go everywhere with you, Kiwani. Even if your eyes are full of darkness and stars.”

Jasmine Giacomo writes from Washington State, where she lives with her husband and two children. She graduated last millennium with a degree in English Literature from a college built atop a volcano.

Though she's been writing since the age of four, she also enjoys history, science and games, and holds a black belt in Danzan Ryu Jujitsu. She particularly enjoys reading and writing fight scenes.

Adrian de Hond
: a warmaster in the First Tuathi War

Akha
: a duelist in Kiwani’s duel den

Aklaa:
a Raqtaaq realm on the eastern border of the Waarden Empire, conquered in battle some twenty years past

Akrestan Scale:
the musical scale used for physical transmutation songs

Akrestan Scale Tower:
the dormitory tower where Tala lives at the Temple of Ten Thousand Harmonies. All six of the Temple’s towers are named after different musical scales utilized in song magic

Akrestoi
: a person from Aeolis, Kallichon, or Pallithea

Alchazzar
: the royal castle of
Yl Senyecho
, imperial ruler of the Corona, located in Enchamanca

Aleida Bogaard
: a member ofTaban’s hex, she reaches the end of her training and receives an assignment to her first duel den. She marries a Tuathi and lives with him and his father, Iulan, in Katacha, a small border town in Aeolis

Alini
: the nearest village to the Temple of Ten Thousand Harmonies, it is nestled at the base of a nearby mountain

Alton
: title for a teacher at the Temple of Ten Thousand Harmonies

Alton Bessia
: Tala’s instructor at the Temple of Ten Thousand Harmonies. She conducts the Solo classes

Amyntas Ithrakis
: the Academy’s Shock Instructor, she holds the rank of Avatar Duelist

Anakna
: the Bantayan word for “daughter”

Anima magic
: a forbidden magic involving the control of living creatures. The Tuathi employed anima casters in their wars against the Waarden, but anima magic is believed to be untenable within the borders of the empire after so many centuries of elemental spells, as if elemental spell residue builds up and prevents the anima magic from coalescing

Anneke
: a noble girl a class ahead of Kiwani

Antoon de Hond
: a warmaster in the Second Tuathi War. His Natal Day is a midsummer Waarden holiday

Anuq
: an Aklaa rebel who was hunted down after his men failed to assassinate Emperor Jaap

Ashawi
: Kiwani’s brother, one of many siblings she didn’t know she had

Autoglyph
: a thumbprint in wax, a memento collected from celebrities by their gushlings

Avatar
: a magical creation formed from a single element. Once summoned into a form of the duelist’s choosing, the avatar will assume that shape every time it’s summoned. It can cast its own set of avatar spells at a duelist’s direction, more powerful than the elemental spells a duelist can create alone

Avatar Duelist
: the second rank at the Duelist Academy, achieved by less than half its students. Avatar Duelists can manifest all six elemental avatars and use them to cast spells, battling other duelists’ avatars instead of fighting directly with their own spells like Elemental Duelists do

Avilacha
: a
valio
in the northern Corona

Azhni Bikonya
: a Shawnash chanter, formerly in the employ of Wateyo tes’Eshkin

Balanganam
: Bayan’s homeland, containing mountainous uplands and broad, humid river deltas. Balanganam joined the Waarden Empire seven years ago, in 2005 IC, but most Balanganese still consider themselves independent of the empire

Balang
: common term for a person from Balanganam

Balear
: capital city of
Valio
Avilacha, home to the Altatura Museum

Baltanarmo
: given name for the emperor of the Corona

Bantayan
: a hardy, social culture, spread across two realms: Balanganam and Pinamuyoc. Its people are characterized by their relatively short stature, social ties, love of food, and tenacity. In Bantayan culture, it is considered the act of a rude little child to tease or insult someone in any way

Barbarian
: common term for a Dunfarroghan, referring to their Tuathi ancestry

Bas
: a Potioneer Savant in Odjin’s cohort

Battle of the Kheerzaal
: a failed assassination attempt on Emperor Jaap by Hahliq and his men—including the emperor’s younger brother, Caspar—on Savitu’s orders. Bayan and his hexmates alerted the palace to the impending attack and were instrumental in saving the lives of Emperor Jaap and his family

Battle pennant
: a long, thin white cloth given to survivors of a duelism battle to mark them as having seen combat. It is attached above a duelist’s sigil flag on the flag stave

Bayan Lualhati
: Bayan is secretly a Duelist Savant. His pursuit of answers on how to handle his unusual magic lead him to further questions about his magic. Duelism’s lost history brings him and his friends both hope and sorrow, resulting in his exile. In the Corona, Bayan takes up with a circus, where he can showcase his exotic magics and meet other “freaks” of magic who challenge his already powerful skills

Bayan Lualhati Day
: the day of the Battle of the Kheerzaal, formalized into an annual holiday by Emperor Jaap to honor Bayan’s courage and heroism. Cancelled before its inaugural appearance on the calendar

Bayan the Wanderer
: Bayan's title as a performer at Cresconio’s circus, because he lost his last name in being exiled and literally wandered into the circus camp

Bermudo dy Chixal
: legendary Corona general, victor of a thousand demon battles, who rejected Queen Ranguela’s offer of marriage and was subsequently ordered to his doom at the hands of the sea pirate known as the Red Hound. Instead of dying, he found redemption and love in the arms of the sea witch, Erramela, cursed by the Red Hound at the moment of his death. Dy Chixal and Erramela built a kingdom of their own, forging what would grow to become the Corona

Bhattara
: god of the Bantayan. He lives in the sky and can see all things

Bhattara na
: “Bhattara wills”, an expression of acceptance or fatalism

Bituin
: a seerwine pitcher plant on the Academy campus, mature enough to produce raw seerwine sap. Bayan brought it from Pangusay as a gift when he arrived

Blessed Ward of the Empire
: a godchild of the emperor, representing a bestowment of favor and political alliance upon the child’s family. Kiwani was given this honor by the previous emperor, Hedrick

Blood type
: citizens of the Waarden empire have one of three different blood types: Waarden, Northern Common, and Southern Common, with Waarden blood being the dominant type, always manifesting in children with only one Waarden parent. A chanter’s healing crystal contains one drop of blood belonging to one of these three types, allowing the healing of anyone possessing that type of blood. Therefore, chanters always carry three crystals with them, one containing blood of each type

Bloodcrown
: the imperial crown of the Corona, fronted by a hollow golden sword into which the current ruler pours a portion of his blood to signify his willingness to sacrifice for his people

Braam vander Broek
: a minor noble who was potioneered for fighting an illegal duel on campus. Former member of Taban’s hex

Caharta Valley
: area west of Enchamanca, toward the Waarden Empire

Calder Micarron
: A Dunfarroghan from Marghebellen. Previously indentured to the Firedust Guild, he was injured in an accident that revealed his magical ability. His guildmaster took him to the nearest chanter, but the three-day journey left a permanent flame-shaped scar on Calder’s cheek. Because Calder is afraid of fire, and bonds his fear to his magic, he becomes a Flame Savant. He’s stationed at the duel den in Muggenhem following Bayan’s exile, and feels vastly out of place amongst the vacationing elite. He and Tala Salunga have become lovers

Caolan, Lady
: a noblewoman who washed out of the Duelist Academy for falling in love, and who has since become the most famous potioneer in the empire, catering to the whims of the nobility in Akkeraad

Cassander
: one of Philo’s Kheerzaal eunuch assistants

Casts
: various element-specific versions of the same spell. A duelist determines which cast of a spell is released by which element he or she invokes before performing the spell’s motions. For example: the Watercast of Stormwave releases a wave of water toward one’s tegen, while the Flamecast of Stormwave releases a fiery fog that spawns miniature flame tornadoes. A spell’s motion set must contain the sacred motion for a particular element in order for that spell to have a corresponding element cast

Cavan
: Head Duelist at the North Keenaght duel den in Renallen

Cazan
: a Corona term of endearment

Centineles
: members of the Corona’s imperial law enforcement

Cetechupes
: Corona citizens who have trained in the ancient Corona magics. They are controlled by
Yl Senyecho
himself as a segment of his armed forces

Cetechupil
: the study of ancient Corona magic, involving exacting formulae and learned focus. Unlike the innate magics of the Waarden Empire, anyone can be trained in the ways of
cetechupil

Chamerta Plains
: an arid, flat region occupying the northwest portion of the Corona

Chanter
: one who possesses song magic, but not the ability to sing, due to injury, tone deafness, etc. Chanters can perform healing magic, which requires only toneless rhythmic sounds and a crystal containing a drop of blood matching the patient’s blood type. Because of their ability to heal wounds quickly, most chanters are assigned by the Temple of Ten Thousand Harmonies to duel dens across the empire. Others find employment in the private sector, or travel the High Ways as itinerants

Chantery
: headquarters on the Academy campus for all chanters assigned duties there. It lies in the center of the campus

Chigulan
: a small town on the eastern edge of the Corona

Choral Hall
: the center area on the Temple campus where the Full Choir assembles at the Temple. It is the lowest outdoor point on the grounds, and all sound created there carries perfectly throughout the bowl of the Temple and its walls

Choralist
: title for an advanced teacher at the Temple of Ten Thousand Harmonies. Members of the First Singer’s Octet must be choralists

Corona
: the empire to the east of the Waarden Empire. It is made up of several
valios
, or provinces, each considered a jewel in the emperor’s crown. Its citizens are called coronales

Coronàl
: adjective referring to anything of the Corona

Coronàles
: citizens of the Corona

Cozenwar
: a last-ditch push during the First Tuathi War, led by Warmaster Adrian de Hond, which turned the tide and enabled a Waarden victory

Cresconio
: owner of the government-sponsored traveling circus in which Bayan has found employment since his exile from the Waarden Empire

Cricket
: term used by eunuchs to refer to other eunuchs, in reference to their high voices

Dakila
: Bayan’s sparring partner, defense instructor, and friend. His Waarden uncle by marriage was Bayan’s school teacher