The Kingdom of Eternal Sorrow (The Golden Mage Book 1) (6 page)

Aidric didn’t even crack a smile, which he was sure had been Selwyn’s
intention. “Good,” was all he said, making Selwyn blink in surprise.

As he locked his eyes with Diryan’s again, he felt that same wave of
strong reluctance wash over him, the one that he was not altogether certain
came completely from him.

What are you thinking?
Aidric scolded himself with disgust.
Diryan
would never hurt her, you fool! You
know
that! Sure, he might fear what
she symbolizes. Hellsfire,
I
fear it, but you know perfectly well that
he would never order the execution of an innocent woman!

“
Aidric?
” Selwyn inquired with worry via thought-speech.

That jolted Aidric out of his troubling thoughts, and he turned his
eyes from Diryan’s to Selwyn’s. Worry etched itself across his friend’s usually
passive face, and he no longer fidgeted with impatience in his chair.

“
Sorry
,” Aidric sent back with forced cheer. “
I guess I was
just woolgathering.
”

“Your Majesty,” Aidric voiced suddenly, breaking the uncomfortable
silence in the room and startling the king, though he was trying very hard not
to show it, “you are familiar with all the prophecies of Lamia, are you not?”

“Yes…” Diryan replied slowly.

“So you know the Prophecy of the Golden Mage very well, I presume?”

“I do,” he answered, then demanded, “What are you hinting at, lad?”

Aidric hesitated for a moment, grasping for words on how to reveal his
find to the king as delicately as possible but then deciding that there really
was no sense beating around the bush about it.

“I believe that I have found her, that very Golden Mage, and she is
now, as we speak, lying unconscious in my bed by the sleep spell I cast over
her,” he stated bluntly.

Silence.

Aidric shifted uneasily on his feet. This was
not
the reaction
he had expected from them. He half-expected Selwyn to burst out laughing and
call him a daydreaming fool, but instead, Sel looked completely dumbfounded,
his mouth actually dropping in shock.

As for the king, he had expected immediate questions, even skepticism,
but Diryan expressed neither. The shock and fear that now reflected in the eyes
of the king was enough to almost make him lose his composure.

“Are you certain, Aidric?” Diryan finally managed to ask after a
prolonged silence.

“Almost completely positive, Your Majesty,” Aidric confirmed grimly. “I
would not have pulled you out of an important Council session to tell you of
her unless I was that certain. Diryan, she has hair of gold and more power at
her disposal than all the mages of Lamia put together!”

“Golden hair…” Selwyn muttered under his breath in wonder. “But I
thought the Golden Mage was only a myth, a tale told to frighten children into
good behavior. It certainly frightened me! Now you are actually telling me that
such a person exists?”

“At least
I
am mostly convinced,” Aidric said. “She flattened me
with a single thought, and I had all of my shields up at full strength!”

Rubbing his temples, King Diryan said, “I think you had better start at
the beginning.”

Aidric nodded and began to pace. “I was heading for the Lake of Tears
when my mage senses suddenly alerted me to the presence of a person with more
power than I had ever felt before. I could feel it radiating all around me
without even having to probe to see it.

“It was rather alarming. This was more power than I had ever
confronted, and I didn’t know whether the person behind the power had ill-intent
or not. I sent out a Probe of Inquiry to try to touch the mind of the mage. I
found that it was a woman, and her mind was wide open for any mage to read.
However, before I could scan her thoughts for an identity, something inside of
her head shattered, something mental. Before I knew what was happening, a burst
of power in the form of a mind-scream had struck at my mind, knocking me flat
on my back and instantly shattering every one of my shields.”

Aidric shuddered involuntarily at the memory.

“The screams were horrible! Even now, I feel a shiver go down my spine
at the thought of those screams. Thankfully, they only lasted a few moments or
else I have no doubt my mind would have cracked. Once I had gathered my wits
again, I went searching through the forest in hopes of locating her. I found
her lying sprawled on her face in the center of a small clearing that I never
knew existed.”

“A clearing in the Forest of Illusions?” Diryan interrupted with a
frown. “There are none that I know of except for the ones around the lake, the
path we have cleared centuries ago leading from the edge of the palace grounds
to the lake, and the site of the Mage-field, of course. How strange that we
have never noticed another.”

“My thoughts exactly, Your Majesty. The place contained energy
particles similar to those of the Mage-field. I suspect that there
was
no clearing there until the girl appeared, but that is a matter that should be
investigated at a later date. Our first concern should be the girl, herself.
She was unconscious when I found her, unknowingly reading the minds of everyone
within the Lamian borders.”

“Unknowingly?” Diryan echoed, his frown deepening.

“She’s untrained, Your Majesty. I’m certain of it. That’s why I’m so
unnerved. I don’t believe she even realizes that she has these powers because
if she did, she would not have so recklessly left her mind unshielded or
damaged herself so severely.” He paused dramatically, then forced himself to
continue. “What’s worse, I don’t believe that she is of this world.”

“What!” Selwyn exclaimed, startling Aidric because he had forgotten
that he was even there. “What in the name of Seni do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I said,” Aidric huffed, a little uncomfortable under the
scrutiny of the two. “Of course, I could be wrong, but I don’t believe I am.
She was wearing strange garments of materials I cannot even begin to identify.
They resembled undergarments of some sort, though I’m not certain they are.
After all, why would anyone go parading around so indecently clad? Also, her
beauty—well, I’ll allow you to judge for yourselves.”

“Now Aidric,” Diryan began, “I don’t believe that those reasons are
grounds for—”

“There is more,” Aidric cut in as Selwyn gaped at him in shock.

Lamian law forbade anyone to interrupt the king when he spoke, the
ultimate insult, and it always rattled Selwyn when Aidric did it. He had always
been liberal with the king, talking to Diryan as if they were merely friends
and not king and underling, and he often forgot how inexcusable others thought
his behavior to be. He did try to curb that level of casualness when others,
even Selwyn, were present, but he forgot more often than not since Diryan never
seemed to notice that type of impropriety, anyway.

“I managed to heal the damage that she inflicted upon herself in her
ignorance,” Aidric said, “hoping that when she regained consciousness, I could
get some answers from her.”

The king leaned forward eagerly. “You have spoken with her, then?”

“Not really,” Aidric replied with a frustrated sigh. “She spoke a
language that was so foreign to me that I couldn’t even begin to decipher it. I
couldn’t read her thoughts either because her mind had been so severely
traumatized. There was a very good chance she would have gone mad if I had
tried. I had hoped to reveal her existence armed with as many answers to the
questions I knew would be raised, but since that’s not the case, I came here
with different intentions.”

Diryan suddenly looked wary. “Which are—”

“Nothing nefarious, I promise. I need you to give Master Zenas your
permission to have him magick our language into her memory in order for us to
be able to communicate with her.”

Some of the tension left Diryan’s shoulders. “Of course. I, myself,
would have suggested it if you had not. Only the maiden can give us the answers
as to her identity, and if she proves to be who you profess her to be, we must
do everything in our power to prevent the tragedy the prophecy foretells.”

Both Selwyn and Aidric stiffened at the king’s words as Diryan stood up
abruptly, all visible traces of the fear he had sported earlier gone from his
expression, replaced by a look of sheer determination that made Aidric smile
inwardly with pride.

We truly are blessed to have such a king—so ready to take on
whatever problems Seni wishes to throw at us with hardly a blink. If only I
could feel so confident—

“Aidric, thought-speak Zenas. Tell him to drop whatever it is he is
doing and to meet us at your suite immediately.”

As Aidric nodded and instantly obeyed the king’s orders, Diryan’s eyes
unfocused as he lost himself in his thoughts. Again, Aidric wished he knew what
the king was thinking.

If only he could thought-speak, then he might be more inclined to
share them when we’re among others if he knew only I would hear them…

“Lads,” Diryan finally said with a hint of a smile, “I do believe that
we are about to make history.”

***

He opened his eyes and smiled, the vision of the pale girl with the
golden hair fading into the sight of the dusty stone wall before him that was half-concealed
in the shadows of the dim room. Within the darkness of a hood the color of the
blackest night, a pair of saffron eyes flashed in a flare of incandescent light
as he savored the vision. The very air around him seemed to go still.

“At last, she has come,” he said quietly into the gloom. “A mage of
legends, one not born of this plane. So it begins.”

It was time for him to emerge into the world again, time to push those
that were his in the direction that was predetermined. He had waited long
enough, observed the lands from afar with scant interference. The Time was
near. His plan would succeed.

She would be his. The only question was when.

“You are certain she is powerless?” Zenas asked uneasily for what seemed
the thousandth time during the five depths that they had been waiting outside
Aidric’s suite while Aidric dismissed the shield he had constructed earlier.

Aidric regarded the aging linguist with impatience, biting back the
retort he so desperately wanted to spat at him, and said dryly, “For the last
time, Master Zenas, no harm will come to you. I have placed a powerful shield
around her mind to block her ability to use her power. She is also quite
unconscious and will not wake unless I will it so. There is nothing to fear
from her. Now, shall we enter, gentlemen, or stand out here all day cowering
like fools?”

Zenas glared at Aidric, clearly insulted, but Diryan only smiled mischievously
and nodded. The Linguist often annoyed the king as well with his constant
whining. Aidric winced to think of what the old man was like when he was a
child if he whined this much now.

However, despite his calm appearance, Diryan hesitated at the door and
held his hand out as if to say “after you.” Aidric sighed, taking the cue from
the king and led the way into his suite, followed by Diryan, Selwyn, and a very
unhappy Zenas bringing up the rear.

When Aidric noticed that no one followed him inside his bedroom but
lingered in the doorway, his temper flared, and he whirled around and snapped,
“For the love of Seni! She’s
unconscious
! You are all acting as if
you’ll be struck dead the moment you step into the room!”

As he glared at the three men, they shrank back in the face of his
angry words, looking sheepish. Even Zenas, who, by Aidric’s standards, was a
stubborn old goat, flinched under the force of his words. People were always
quick to comment on how formidable Aidric appeared when in a rage, and not for
the first time, he wondered if people really did fear he would snap and cause
them harm.

Diryan cleared his throat, breaking the uncomfortable silence that
followed. “We have every reason to be hesitant, lad,” he admonished. “In that
room lies a maiden who could very well level the entire kingdom just by lifting
a finger if the words of the prophecy hold any truth. We
do
have much to
fear from her.”

The venom in Aidric’s eyes died down. He was right, of course. They
did
have much to fear from the girl, and he shouldn’t be cross with them because of
their natural hesitation. So why was he still annoyed?

“I assure you, Your Majesty,” Aidric said in a more even tone, “she
cannot
harm you. I have blocked her channels completely. Besides, if to do ill had
been her intentions all along, then I would have been struck down the moment I
first found her in the forest. When she awoke here, she was only confused and
frightened, and yet, she didn’t once try to attack me either magically or
physically. Now come. We have wasted enough time as it is.”

The moment the three men entered the room, they released simultaneous
gasps of shock. Undeniably, the first thing that they had noticed was her
golden hair. It radiated like pure sunlight in untidy strands on the pillow, a
shocking contrast to the stark whiteness of the fabric. She appeared as small
and innocent as a child lying tucked into the large bed.

So beautiful
, Aidric thought wondrously as he gazed down at her
peaceful face.
How can anyone fear such a maiden? How can I?
Despite his
reassurances to the others, this maiden stirred a fear within him that he had
thought long dead and buried in the past.

“It
is
true,” Diryan whispered suddenly, breaking the shocked
silence. “By Aidius, the Golden Mage has come at last!”

“Her hair—it really does look like strands of gold,” Selwyn said
faintly.

Aidric turned his gaze from the girl to Selwyn in alarm. Selwyn’s face
had become suspiciously pale and he looked as if he was about to swoon. Sure
enough, as Aidric called out his name sharply, Selwyn’s eyes grew vacant, and
he pitched forward. Aidric rushed forward to catch him.

“Typical,” Aidric remarked with some amusement as he carefully laid his
friend onto the marble floor. “He never could handle shock very well.”

He laid his hand onto Selwyn’s forehead and with a slight exertion of
power, commanded him to awaken. Selwyn’s eyes immediately flew open, and for a
few beats, he merely stared up at Aidric blankly before sense finally flooded
back into his eyes. Selwyn’s gaze shifted between Aidric and Diryan in
confusion, but then, a moment later, he groaned and quickly shut his eyes
again, no doubt seeing the irritation in the king’s eyes.

“I did it again, didn’t I?” Selwyn moaned, his cheeks coloring in
embarrassment.

“I’m afraid so, my friend,” Aidric replied with a smile. “That Empathy
of yours does nothing for your nerves.”

As he hauled his friend onto his feet again, Aidric glanced over at the
faces of the king and Zenas. Everything in Diryan’s stiff posture and benign expression
told him that he was impatient but trying not to show it. Zenas, however, wore
a very open expression of disgust at Selwyn’s unexpected behavior.

Sighing inwardly, Aidric turned back to Selwyn and forced himself to
say sternly, “Sel, if you feel that you can’t handle the current situation, I’m
afraid that I’ll have to ask you to remain in the sitting room until we finish
here. We must have
no
distractions while we are interrogating her. It
could result in a disaster in this already delicate situation.”

Selwyn swallowed hard, hurt briefly flashing in his eyes, but before
Sel could reply, Aidric hastily added, “Sorry for sounding so brusque. I
do
wish for you to stay. Your Empathy is easily ten times more powerful than mine
and could be very helpful.”

Selwyn nodded. “I’ll be all right. I’m sorry. Sometimes I’m so
concerned about the emotions of others that I ignore how over-sensitive my own
can be. I promise I’ll keep it together.”

“Fine,” Aidric said as he walked over to the bed to position himself for
the upcoming interrogation.

The others followed his example and arranged themselves in a line at
the foot of the bed.

“Now remember,” Aidric warned, “she’s extremely confused, and I don’t
believe she knows where she is. Although I did the best I could to calm her,
she will probably wake frightened, so don’t make any sudden movements that
would alarm her further. I don’t want to have to paralyze her again.”

“You said she could not harm us,” Zenas interrupted accusingly.

“She cannot!” Aidric snapped back, his patience thinning.
Insufferable
old goat!
“I say this for her benefit, not yours! Do you not trust me? Is
my word no longer good enough for you, Master Linguist?”

“Enough,” Diryan commanded sharply.

He turned to Aidric and regarded him with a critical eye.

“You surprise me, Aidric,” Diryan said. “You usually do not lose your
temper quite so easily…” He trailed off and looked at Aidric with a raised
eyebrow.

Aidric stiffened. He knew very well why he was so on edge, and bringing
up that particular fear was out of the question in present company. He didn’t
want to add any more preconceived biases to the situation than they already
had. She had yet to even open her eyes, and the fear already in the air was
enough to choke even a non-empath.

“Forgive me, Your Majesty,” he apologized softly, bowing his head. “This
whole situation—I guess I’m more unnerved by everything that has happened than
I had thought. Then to have my words so questioned—”

“Have you forgotten
who
she could possibly be, boy?” Zenas interjected.
“We would be remiss not to question
everything
, even the assurances from
a mage of your knowledge and power.”

“No, I haven’t forgotten,” Aidric replied flatly, bristling at Zenas’s continuing
refusal to address him with the proper honorific. “I wish that I could, that
she was just an ordinary maiden I found passed out in the forest, but she is
not. Even if she proves not to be the Golden Mage—which I seriously doubt—you
can all plainly see that she is of a race that is alien to our own. She is, by
no means, ordinary, but that does not mean she should automatically be treated
as an enemy of Lamia. Now, I do believe that we have wasted enough time on this
petty nonsense. Shall we proceed?”

Diryan nodded, the barest hint of a smile on his lips as he turned to
Zenas and said,” You heard the lad, Zenas. Magick our language into her memory.”

“As you wish, my liege.” Zenas’s face went utterly blank and his eyes
unfocused until he appeared to be as lifeless as a statue.

Aidric’s mage senses could detect the faint whisper of magical energy
that Zenas projected from his mind and into the mind of the girl. It always
puzzled him how Zenas actually transferred memories from his own mind and could
permanently implant them in the minds of others. It was a form of thought-speech,
but unlike the thoughts being sent by a thought-speaker, Zenas was able to
alter a person’s memory banks with the thoughts he projected from his own
memory. However, his ability was limited to the transferring of languages, and
nobody could discern why.

It was a rare ability. Usually only one with the potential of becoming
a Master Linguist was born in a generation, and sometimes there would be none
for a couple of hundred years.

“It is done,” Zenas announced a few moments later, his sharp voice slicing
through the tense silence.

Aidric’s heart began to race with both trepidation and rising
excitement. He only hoped that she would do nothing that would alarm the others.
Having to restrain her with magic again was definitely not the way to earn her
trust.

He reached out a hand and gently rested it onto her forehead, all the
while feeling three pairs of eyes boring holes into his back.

He then abruptly turned to Selwyn and said, “Sel, if she shows any
signs of distress, I want you to use your powers to soothe her. The last thing
we need is for her to refuse to speak out of fear and suspicion. She shouldn’t
be able to, but if she does start to push back at you, thought-speak me
immediately
.”

Selwyn nodded curtly, his entire demeanor stiffening with sudden
alertness.

Satisfied, Aidric turned back to the golden-haired girl.
“Awake,”
he sent into the bowels of her unconscious mind.

Her eyes instantly flew open, and he could feel everyone tense behind
him. At first, she appeared only confused, blinking alluring green eyes the
color of peridot stupidly up at him. Then those eyes widened in shock as they
darted from him, to the others, then back to him. She let out a small sound of
fear and promptly backed up on the bed until her back slammed into the headboard,
trying to unsuccessfully meld into the wood.

“Don’t be afraid, milady,” Aidric said gently in Lamian. “We mean you
no harm.”

Instead of the reassurance his words were meant to give her, they only
seemed to increase the panicked look in her eyes.

Why is it that nothing can ever be easy
? he thought in
exasperation as he watched the girl cower in his bed, unsure of how to proceed
next.