The Spell Realm (23 page)

“What’s that?”

“Blaise’s house in Turingrad is missing,” she said. “Apparently, there is only a hole in the ground where it used to stand. All the townspeople are talking about it.”

“What?” Larn looked surprised. “Somebody knocked down that sorcerer’s house?”

“No,” Dara said patiently. “They didn’t knock it down. It’s just gone. Vanished.”

“Do you think the Council is responsible for this?” Barson asked, puzzled.

“I have no idea,” Dara replied. “It’s just bizarre.”

Barson frowned, trying to figure out why someone would make a house disappear. It was undoubtedly an act of sorcery, but the motivations behind it were unclear.

“Dara, are you sure none of our new allies will betray us?” Larn asked, changing the topic. “After all, it’s one thing to have ambition, and another thing entirely to participate in killing people they know.”

“Well, it’s not like they’ll be killing with their own hands,” Dara retorted. “They will simply be supplying us with the spells and standing by as backup.”

“She’s right,” Barson said, dismissing the mystery of the missing house. “Besides, they are in too deep at this point. As far as the Council is concerned, they’re already traitors. From their perspective, even if they double-cross us, the Council will execute them anyway, for what they have done thus far.”

Except the Council might not exist soon, he thought. Instead of glee, this idea filled Barson with dread. He should’ve found a way to reason with Augusta after all, to get her to stay behind. But it was too late now. The Council had just departed from the Tower.

Dara nodded, bringing Barson out of his dark musings. “Yes, exactly. They have as much to gain as we do. In the new order, they will be the king’s respected advisors, instead of bending over backwards for the little bit of recognition the Council chooses to grant them now.” Her tone held familiar bitterness.

Pushing all thoughts of Augusta aside, Barson patted Dara’s shoulder in a gesture of silent support. His sister wasn’t unique in her feelings. There were many talented sorcerers who had trouble gaining the recognition and respect they felt they deserved. While the current system was supposedly meritocratic, two centuries of political games and the growing longevity of the current Council members meant that there was little room to move up beyond the senior acolyte level. The Council didn’t help matters by treating these people as their lackeys, either. For every success story like that of Augusta, there were dozens of bitter, disappointed acolytes. For all their supposed intellect, these sorcerers knew little of how to rule, Barson thought with contempt. He had no doubt he would do a much better job.

“I also chose them carefully,” Dara continued, looking at Larn. “Each of our allies was interviewed while on Life Capture, and they had no thoughts of treachery.”

“Still, those cowards might change their minds now that the plan is going into action,” Larn muttered under his breath, looking unconvinced. Barson knew that his friend was fully on board, but it was just like Larn to worry right before a big event. His argumentative nature tended to surface at these times as well.

“They will not,” Dara said, reaching over to take Larn’s hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. “I can promise you that. Besides without the Council, these sorcerers are like children without a parent. They’re not used to thinking for themselves.”

“And by the time the Council returns,” Barson said quietly, “if they return at all—we will be ready.”

Chapter 38: Gala

Waking up in the middle of the night, Gala became aware that her mind was inside her body again—and heard Blaise’s quiet, even breathing. He was sleeping beside her, his long body stretched out on the other side of the bed.

She lay there silently, thinking. None of the books she’d read spoke of anything close to what she had experienced. It was mind-altering in a way—mind-expanding, even. It was as though the incredible intensity of pleasure helped her reach new, as-yet-unknown parts of herself. It was strange, yet exciting, and she couldn’t wait to explore it further.

Shifting closer to Blaise, she kissed him gently on the cheek and went back to sleep, her arm draped over his waist.

* * *

The next time she woke up, it was early morning. Stretching, Gala smiled and quietly got up, not wanting to wake Blaise yet. And in that moment, she felt it.

A sense of danger—of an impending threat.

They had been found.

Her blood froze in her veins. They were coming after her and Blaise. They wanted to hurt, maybe even kill, the man she loved.

She wouldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t stand the thought of putting him in danger, of seeing him get hurt again.

She would protect him at all costs.

Chapter 39: Blaise

Hearing Gala’s movements, Blaise woke up. The events of the prior night invaded his sleep-fogged mind, and a wide smile stretched his lips. The term ‘lovemaking’ couldn’t possibly describe what took place last night. Something transcendent happened between them, something that he had never experienced before. He had felt what Gala was feeling, had joined with her on a level that went beyond the physical. He had gotten a glimpse of her mind, and he saw an incredible depth there, a multitude of layers that were overwhelming in their subtle beauty.

Her getting up interrupted his recollections. Opening his eyes, he saw a naked Gala stealthily heading for the door.

“Where are you going?” he asked drowsily, propping himself up on one elbow.

She gave him a slightly guilty look. “You should sleep some more,” she said, and he caught a strange note of tension in her voice. “I’ll be back soon.”

“You’re going out there naked?” He sat up, realizing that something was amiss.

She paused, then looked down, as though just realizing that she wasn’t wearing clothes. A second later, she was wearing a simple white dress. Then, without saying another word to Blaise, she slipped out the door.

Blaise jumped out of bed and swiftly pulled on his own clothes. He had a very bad feeling about this.

As he approached the door, he felt something strange. Some spell just hit him, he realized, feeling a slight buzz in his head. He wasn’t sure what it was, other than it was some sort of mental magic.

Rushing toward the door, he suddenly stopped when he reached the doorway. It was as if a block had formed, not letting him get through. His body felt heavy and unwieldy, outside of his control. Someone—most likely Gala—had cast a spell that prevented him from going outside. She must’ve done it to protect him from whatever was out there—a protection that he did not need or want.

Furious, Blaise tried to leave again and again, only to be met with the same results. He simply couldn’t take a step beyond the room; his mind refused to let him.

And then he heard the first loud noise. The house shook from the impact, and he almost lost his footing. His stomach clenched with a mix of debilitating fear and rage. Whatever the danger was, Gala was facing it on her own, while he was stuck in the room like some helpless acolyte.

Turning, Blaise cast a frantic glance around the room, searching for his Stone. It was nowhere to be seen. He hadn’t brought it with him into the bedroom last evening. Cursing under his breath, he hurried to the window, desperate to see what was happening. The tinted glass made everything appear hazy. His frustration growing, Blaise grabbed the nearest nightstand and smashed it against the window, shattering the glass into bits.

Now he could see outside. His vision was still sharper than usual from the enhancement spell he’d used during the storm, and as he peered into the canyon, a flash of colorful light in the distance caught his gaze. Frowning, Blaise tried to figure out what it was, and at that moment, he saw a familiar figure on the other side of the canyon.

It was Moriner, one of the Council members.

The Council had found them—and Gala was facing them on her own, having locked him in this room for his own protection.

Fury and dread coiled in his chest, making Blaise feel like he was suffocating. He needed to get out of the house, and he needed to do it now.

Approaching the bedroom door again, Blaise tried to clear his mind in an effort to get rid of whatever mental block Gala had placed in his way.
Don’t think about it, just walk out
, he told himself, stepping toward the doorway.

It didn’t work. He had a sense of pushing against a physical barrier—a barrier that was as impenetrable as any wall.

Seething, Blaise began to pace, occasionally pausing to glance outside.

Suddenly, he had an idea. Gala had prevented him from walking out, but had she thought far enough to prevent him from teleporting out? Looking outside, he tried to calculate the distance. This spell would be dangerous, particularly since he was going to have to do it the old-fashioned verbal way. If Gala hadn’t been in trouble, he wouldn’t have risked it.

Inhaling deeply, he forced himself to concentrate on remembering the complex arcane code necessary to implement the spell. He’d had it memorized before, for voting purposes on the Council, and now he was glad of that fact.

Once he had done some preliminary calculations, he began reciting the spell. He wished he had hours to triple-check everything, but there was no time for such caution. He had to act now.

As he was getting to the end of the spell, just as he was about to say the coordinates, his tongue froze. Blaise nearly growled in frustration. Gala’s spell must have been thorough enough to account for the teleporting possibility.

An even louder sound came from the outside, causing his chest to tighten with fear. Were the mountains breaking apart?

Grimly determined, Blaise tried the teleportation spell again. This time he changed the coordinates from a spot just outside the house to inside the downstairs hallway.

It worked without a hitch. Just as he finished the Interpreter litany, Blaise found himself downstairs.

His intuition had been right: Gala’s spell was not nuanced enough to prevent him from teleporting within the house.

Without much hope, he ran to the front door. Opening it, he tried to step outside, but the same force as before halted him in the doorway. He was still condemned to be inside after all—but at least now he had access to his Stone and much greater visibility into what was happening in the canyon.

And what was happening was his worst nightmare.

Chapter 40: Gala

As Gala exited the house, she assessed the situation at hand. While the canyon itself appeared empty, she was able to spot a few small figures at the top, positioned strategically all around the canyon walls.

They were surrounded by the Council.

Gala’s heartbeat accelerated. She had to lead them away from the house—and from Blaise—as fast as she could.

Their first spell reached her as she half-ran, half-teleported toward the other end of the canyon. There was a powerful rumble deep within the earth, and a huge chunk of rock under her feet became liquid lava. For a moment, all she could feel was searing pain, accompanied by the sickening smell of burning flesh, but then Gala’s mind reacted defensively, changing the rocks back to their original cooled state.

She was now standing on a patch of solid lava, her feet already beginning to heal.

Panting, she looked up at her attackers and saw the light of the morning sun glinting off several Interpreter Stones. She felt both angry and resolute. She didn’t want to be responsible for any more deaths, but this was not a confrontation she could run from. The Council would come after them, again and again, no matter where they went. The only way to end this was to show them the futility of violence. Gala just needed to make certain she didn’t lose control in the process.

She started relaxing the way Blaise had taught her. As her mind began clearing of worries, the next attack reached her.

This time, it was heat energy. Gala felt it gathering around her, about to be unleashed in a brutal explosion, and she stopped it, dissipating it with ease.

At the same time, she realized that she needed a strategy. A spell idea came to her. She would do unto them what they did unto her. Whatever someone cast upon her would get reflected and redirected toward its source. The beauty of the spell was that she would not be personally responsible for any harm that came to her attackers; they would be hurting themselves by trying to hurt
her
.

Quickly figuring out the logistics of the spell, Gala put it in place around her, like an offensive shield. She would still need to be vigilant, but now she could focus on remaining calm.

She was immediately glad she took this precaution. The next spell was as unfair of a move as anything she could’ve expected.

A swarm of birds blocked out the sky. Of numerous different species, from pigeons to hawks, they were all flying her way. Gala was not sure what she would have done without her reflective spell, as she would’ve been loath to hurt these innocent living creatures. Now, however, whoever controlled these birds’ minds was in for a surprise.