The Fire Mages (26 page)

I slid down the wall to rest on the ground. In the centre of the room, the pillar thrummed and vibrated with energy. Even being in the same room with it energised me, just a little. But I was too sunk in misery to notice. I bowed my head to my knees and wept.

I don’t know how long I sat there, except that it was getting dark when I finally came to. I think perhaps I’d slept a little, I was so exhausted. When I woke, I was aware of – something. I can’t really describe it except as a presence inside me, something clamouring for attention. It made me smile.

“Well, little one, so you’re awake, are you?”

She didn’t answer, of course. She’d been there the whole time, but so many terrible things had happened to me that I’d been too distracted to notice her. Worrying is like an itch that just can’t be scratched – it’s always there, and it absorbs all conscious thought. But now that the worst had happened, the worry had dropped away from me. I wasn’t even afraid of dying any more. If it happened, so be it. And in that still pool of calm, I became aware of my daughter again.

Did I really want to leave her behind, to surrender her totally to Drei? I didn’t mind him having the legal rights to her – being the drusse-born daughter of the Bai-Drashonor’s husband was a fine position for her, I could hardly ask for better. She would have the very best life, the best tutors, the best of everything. She could do whatever she wished. I disliked Drei quite intensely, after all he’d done to me, but he would take good care of his daughter.

But I wanted her to know me, too, to understand something of what it meant to be a village girl. And to do that, first I had to survive.

So I stood up and walked across to the pillar and placed both hands on it, and felt energy surging into me, filling me with power and possibilities. I laughed out loud for joy – it’s impossible to be miserable at a renewal.

Then I walked through the dusk to my house.

As soon as I opened the door, I knew something odd was going on. I don’t know how, I just knew.

I went cold. Someone was in my house. Was it the servants? Unlikely at this hour, they would have left the evening board set out and disappeared. But someone was in the board room.

I walked slowly towards the door, tiptoeing. I didn’t want to use fire magic, but I would, if necessary.

The door was open. I went through it.

And there he was.

I gasped, hands to mouth. It was impossible. Was I dreaming?

He was eating, naturally. He always was hungry. His hair was a little wilder, hanging loose to his shoulders, shimmering golden in the lamplight. He wore odd, flowing clothes, but the same familiar face.

He looked up, saw me, jumped to his feet with a strangled cry of astonishment.

We stared at each other, not daring to believe.

“Cal? Is it really you?”

And then I burst into tears.

I clung to him, weeping, like a vine grasping the tree. Cal held me tight, face buried in my scarves, murmuring words I didn’t hear, couldn’t take in. After a while, I lifted my face and he bent to kiss me, fiercely, hungrily.

Then we went to bed. I had the fire of renewal blazing through my veins, and he – well, I ran to the bedroom towing him behind me and he didn’t exactly resist. It was glorious. All the aching misery of the last half moon was swept away in a scorching hour of passion. Then we lay, sated for the moment, cuddled together under the blankets.

“So where did you go to?” he said. “I’ve been here waiting for you.”

I laughed, I couldn’t help it. The first coherent words he’d said and he was asking
me
where I’d been. I rolled over so that I was half on top of him. He laughed too, running his hands through my hair.

“
You
were the one who vanished,” I said. “I thought you were dead! What happened?”

“I don’t know. I just found myself in a room deep underground, no windows. It was a dormitory, four beds in it. There were two other men there, just staring at me, servants – you know, the ones who wear the brown uniform. And
I
was wearing it too! Well, half wearing. I must have been in the middle of getting dressed or undressed, I don’t know which. I had my vessel in my hand. And I had no idea, not the slightest clue, how I got there or what I was supposed to be doing. They bowed to me, and showed me the way out, up endless stairs. Then I came here, and waited for you to turn up. What’s the date?”

The change of direction bewildered me, but I worked it out and told him.

“So – I must have been down there, doing the Gods know what, for eight, no nine suns. Being a servant, I suppose. But I don’t know how I would have known what to do, where to go.”

I couldn’t make sense of it. How would that work? Were all those who vanished actually working in the city now? Marras? The two guards? That was a cheering thought, for perhaps there would be a way to get them back.

“That’s why they look so – so mindless,” I said. “They’re not really conscious.”

“Well, possibly. It may be some either-or state, servant or non-servant. Maybe when I was a servant I was perfectly aware of what was going on, but that just vanished when I touched my vessel. I probably found it amongst my things down there and thought: I wonder what this is? And as soon as I pulled it out of its cover and had hold of it, I was back in my old state. Magic or non-magic. If you have magic, you get to live here, safe and looked after. And if you don’t...”

“You get whisked away to be a servant. For ever, maybe. Gods! That’s horrible.”

After a while we made love again, and by then my energy levels were damped down and I was hungry. Over evening board, I told Cal everything that had happened to me since he’d disappeared. It took a long time. His eyes were wide. Even though I didn’t embellish it at all, it sounded far too melodramatic even to my ears. Kidnap? A magical escape? A terrifying ride to freedom? Then facing Drei and Yannassia again, and finally the accusations of illegal magic use, and my frantic race to reach the city. And then there was my pregnancy.

He chewed his lip thoughtfully. “Could it be mine, this baby?”

“Could be. I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see whether it has dark hair or blonde.”

“Or red,” he said affectionately, running his elegant fingers through my tangled locks. Then he touched my earrings, his expression more serious. “But you’re his drusse again.”

“Not yet. We’ve agreed terms, but the contract’s not signed yet. Daresay it won’t be, now.”

His face lightened. “You can’t go back there now, can you?”

“No. But I can’t stay here for ever, either.”

“Why not? We have food, clothes...” He waved a hand over his own outfit with a wry smile. “Well, all right, it’s a bit eccentric, but it serves. We’re safe here.”

I noticed that he said ‘we’, and I glowed inside. I had a true friend at last. “The Drashon will send more people after me. He won’t be able to ignore this. I’ve made him look foolish.”

“If he sends guards, the birds will get them,” he said. “Mages – well, you have more power than any mage. If they can’t bind you, they won’t be able to do anything to you. And you have something they don’t – you know, the whole fire-from-the-fingers thing.” I popped a little flame from one finger, then winked it out again, grinning at him. “Yes, that. It’s quite scary, you know. I wish I could do that.”

“Maybe you can.” And I told him about the belt of jade, and how if he wore it next to his skin it would store far more power than any single vessel. “You may end up more powerful than me or Drei.”

Needless to say, he wanted to try it straight away. He was always volatile, Cal, swept by enthusiasm one minute, weighed down by gloom the next. This was one of his high times.

Most of the belts were too big for him – he was very skinny round the middle. A couple were too small. Then he found little clips that adjusted the size. So clever, the people who invented these, they thought of everything. He chose a belt with eight jade pieces stitched into it, the belt soft and comfortable, yet stiffened somehow so that it fitted his form exactly.

I couldn’t help stroking his chest while he had his shirt off.

“Now don’t get me started again,” he said, but he reached to kiss me all the same, making me giggle. I so much enjoyed sex with Cal.

With all the distractions, it must have been close to midnight before we set off for the pillar. The moon was a distant flush on the horizon, but the city was never dark. Many walls glowed with their eerie yellow light, and elsewhere there were lamps that puffed to brilliance as we approached and faded after we passed by. We took a small lamp up the stairs of the scribery, though, for the walls here were dark and lampless. As soon as we got to the pillar room, Cal strode across and placed both hands flat against it, throwing his head back as the magic poured into him. For a moment his whole body seemed to light up, but then gradually it dimmed as the energy he drew settled into the vessels. It seemed to take for ever, and he howled with ecstasy the whole time.

At last he quieted and rested his forehead against the pillar.

“Are you all right?”

He nodded, and when I went closer he was shaking so violently his teeth were chattering. But he turned a radiant face to me. “Gods, Kyra! Gods!”

And inevitably we ended up making love again. He had too much energy spilling out of him.

As soon as we’d finished, he jumped up. “I want to try it! Show me what you do.”

“Erm – what?”

“The fire thing – I want to see if I can do it too.”

“Oh. Just hold your hand out and imagine it. Look.” I cupped my hand and created a small glowing ball.

He took a step back and held out his hand, and flames the height of a man shot across the room, filling it with smoke. The hair would have been crisped off my head if I’d been standing two paces to the left.

Cal roared with laughter, and did it again. He was far better at it than I was, with my barely visible glow-globes and timid finger flames. He could create surging jets of flame without any effort. I wondered if it was a male thing, for Drei was pretty dramatic with fire too.

“This is so much fun!” he shrieked, blazing from both hands at once. “You must teach me everything! And I’ll teach you how to defend yourself against the mages. Then when they come for you we’ll be ready.”

~~~~~

It was five suns before anyone came.

By then we’d had plenty of time to practise and experiment and find out what was possible. We discovered that spells rolled off me like rain on oiled wool. Cal tried to spell me to sleep or to stand immobile or to fall to the ground, but nothing worked. He even tried to bind me, but all I felt was a slight warmth washing over me and then it was gone. The mages might come up with something more complicated, but the simple spells were ineffective and we were reasonably sure they wouldn’t try anything harmful, like a bleeding spell or a death spell.

Cal’s jade belt gave him a huge boost in power, enough that I could see the vessels in a ring around his waist, miniature auras in orbit. When I tried to transfer power to him, as if for healing, only a trickle passed across, suggesting that his power almost equalled my own. None of the mages could come close to it, each with their single vessel. What he couldn’t do was to create anything out of nothing. While I could create a wine glass or the wine but not both, Cal could change a beaker to a glass and water to wine, but he needed something to start with. He still couldn’t see my aura very clearly – “Is it a bit hazy, like rippling water?” – but he could see the blue flares that betrayed lies.

“There’s no need for anyone to know about the belt,” Cal said. “Let’s keep my new abilities in reserve, in case you get into trouble. Like stationing an archer behind the rocks, you know? Surprise them.”

“All right, but I don’t want you to really hide. It’s better if you’re there with me, just keep the extra magic in case we need it. Anyway, it will be a distraction – they must be wondering where you are.”

“If they’ve even missed me,” he said gloomily.

Each sun we went to the pillar to keep our energy topped up, because sooner or later they would come. And eventually, they did.

I was aware of them as soon as they came out into the open. I suppose my magic was getting more sensitive the longer I stayed in the city, where magic oozed from the very walls. I was vaguely aware of something in the tunnels, dim and wavering like a dream half-remembered, but when they emerged from underground, I knew at once.

“The mages are here!”

“Then we’d better go and meet them.”

There were five of them, creeping through the streets with cautious steps, vessels held in front of them. They wore their robes, which I thought was sweet but impractical. I recognised Krayfon, leading with a touch more confidence than the rest, and one of the others had also been at the hearing, but the other three were strangers. 

We cornered them at a tight walled square where three streets met. There was a gnarled tree there, covered with a haze of tiny white blossoms, with ivy twining round the trunk, and a couple of stone seats set into the wall, but nothing else. It was not a large enough space for Cal’s fireballs but I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Krayfon stopped when he saw us, registering relief as he looked at me, and puzzlement when he caught sight of Cal. Probably they’d never met. I stood in the middle of the square, Cal a little behind and to one side, while the mages formed a semi-circle around me. They were not quite near enough to touch, but close enough.

“You’d better leave,” I said.

Krayfon laughed. “Not without you, Kyra. I hope you will be sensible and come quietly. We have no desire to hurt you. We mean you no harm.”

“You mean to kill me, eventually, and I can’t allow that. I advise you all to leave quickly, before the birds find you.”

“Birds? Is that some illusion? I assure you...” One of the others hissed at him, and he nodded. “Very well. You leave us no choice.”

They began to chant, and I have to say, it was quite impressive, with the robes and the vessels and the drone of their voices, all in unison. I recognised it as an immobility spell. They intended to stop me working any magic of my own. Unfortunately for them, my magic didn’t need incantations, so it was a lot quicker.

I didn’t have to so much as raise a finger, just concentrate. They carried on chanting, but that was because the tree with its vine was behind them, and they couldn’t see tendrils snaking across the paving slabs, stretching out for them. It was only when the first shoot reached a foot and wrapped itself round an ankle that the mage screamed, and for a few moments there was chaos as they all jumped to disentangle her, to stamp on the vine and skate out of reach to the far side of the square.

“Sorry,” I said. “I think your spell got broken. You’ll have to begin again now.”

Krayfon growled at me. “At least we have proof of your magic, witch.”

“Have you? This whole city is magic. Maybe the vine just doesn’t like you?”

“From the beginning!” he snapped, and they began to chant again.

“Better hurry. The birds are coming.”

They never did finish their spell. Within moments shadows slid silently over the square and the chanting died away. They watched the sky as the great dark shapes spiralled lazily down. In that small space, the five birds loomed overhead like the lid of a box. None of the mages broke and ran, but there was fear in their eyes.

“A dispersal spell!” one of the mages shouted.

“No!” I cried. “Don’t try anything against them. Just stand still and hold onto your vessels.”

“Protection charm!” Krayfon said, and despite my protests they began chanting again, more rapidly this time, and out of rhythm, each of them rattling through the words as fast as they could.

This didn’t seem to anger the birds, though. Maybe it was only violence that annoyed them, not magic. They circled closer and closer, until we could all feel the rush of wind from their wings as they passed by. One by one, the mages fell silent. Krayfon held his vessel higher, as if to ward the birds away. One mage stood with head bowed, shaking. Then one screamed, a piercing wail of pure terror, and slapped at the nearest bird with his staff. The bird shrieked, and if the sound had been terrible in the open space of the main street, here between the high walls of this little square, where it echoed and crashed all round us, it froze the blood. The staff flamed and burned and turned to ash in a moment, and the man screamed again and ran.