The Wizard of Time (Book 1) (28 page)

This all happened in a matter of seconds and a second later, the six Dark Mages went rigid, their heads snapping back as Gabriel raised the sword above his head, focusing the entirety of his will upon the multiple magics he commanded. A moment later the Dark Mage’s mouths opened in synchronous screams as some invisible pain gripped their minds.

Gabriel’s lungs exploded with a yell as he struggled to control the powers he had unleashed. The air burst alive with a blaze of lightning bolts, the ground swayed and rippled like water, the six mages, still ramrod straight, rose into the air and began to spin in place as the sand of the arena swept up into a funnel cloud rising up and beyond the top of the circular walls. Then with an enormous burst of light, the six Dark Mages flew back like leaves caught in a mighty wind and struck the curved wall of the arena, falling limply to the ground, sand raining down everywhere. Everywhere except where Gabriel stood, slowly lowering the sword to his side, holding it casually in one hand.

The Dark Mages lay upon the ground barely conscious. Gabriel looked up to the single Time Mage at the top of the arena wall. The man looked panic-stricken. Gabriel realized that he could easily break any space-time seal the man might create. He could escape the arena now if he wished. The Dark Mage looking down at him seemed to have realized the same thing. He stood frozen, like a rabbit hoping to escape the notice of a nearby wolf. Gabriel looked back down at the six Dark Mages scattered on the ground around him. Some of them tried to stand up, but had little success. Gabriel opened his left hand, and the sword sheath flew to it. Slowly, he resheathed the sword.

“I think our lesson is over for today,” Gabriel said, letting his anger and contempt fill his voice fully for the first time since his captivity in the palace began. “I wouldn’t want to wear you out.”  Turning away from them, ignoring them as though they were too insignificant to be a threat, he jumped through space to the top of the stairs. Pishara and his bodyguards awaited him. They had seen everything. The guards looked wary, concerned Gabriel might continue to take his vengeance out on them. They backed away as Gabriel approached.

“Thank you,” Gabriel said, softly so that the guards could neither see nor hear him as he handed Pishara the sword.

“I cannot imagine what for,” Pishara said quietly as she smiled and bowed her head. “What would you like to do now that your lessons have ended early?”

“I want to have a real breakfast,” Gabriel said, beginning to feel good for the first time in nearly two months as he imagined his victory meal. “Eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, and pancakes with fresh berries and lots of syrup.”

“I believe that can be arranged,” Pishara said. “Please follow me.” She led him back into the palace. He had breakfast on a balcony overlooking a grand garden. It was the best meal he could remember having in a long, long time. It reminded him of the meals in the Waterloo Chamber back in Windsor Castle. His Windsor Castle. He offered for Pishara to join him, but she demurred, insisting that the meal was his and well earned.

“They will respect you now,” she said as he ate. His guards kept a good distance from him after his display in the arena.

“As long as I have that sword,” Gabriel said.

“That can be arranged,” Pishara said, with her usual smile and bow. A messenger arrived shortly thereafter and handed a note to Pishara. She read it quickly and then folded it and placed it in her pocket. “Your meal is finished. The Empress wishes to see you immediately. She is headed to the audience chamber. We will meet her on the way.” Gabriel felt suddenly deflated, the excitement and exhilaration of his victory evaporating like rubbing alcohol in the sun.

He wiped his lips with his napkin as he stood up, trying to hold on to the flavor of the food and the moment just passed, hoping they would not both turn sour. Silently, he followed Pishara back into the palace proper.

As they walked through the corridors of the palace, Gabriel tried to calm his breathing, his body, and his mind. He felt like some invisible demon chased him, his legs weak and unsteady, his stomach churning the recently eaten breakfast, and his breath catching in his throat, unable to make it all the way down into his lungs. Kumaradevi had certainly heard about his defeat of the six Dark Mages, his so-called
tutors
. What if she had learned about the sword he had used?  What would she do?  Would she punish him?  Or worse yet, would he be forced to watch some version of his mother or father being punished for his actions?  How would she respond to what he had done and how could he convince her that it would not happen again? He had been impetuous. He hadn’t thought it through. Displaying too much power had been dangerous. But he had so wanted to give back to the Dark Mages who had tormented him for nearly two months just a little of their own vile medicine. He smiled despite his worries. He had certainly given Malik and the others a lesson they would not soon forget. And it had felt good to wield that much magical power.

Another worry crossed his mind. Had the use of the tainted imprints begun to change him?  Had they begun to alter who he was and what he might do? Had the constant embrace of evil contaminated him? Had he been absorbing some of their effects? Could that happen? 

It had felt very good to smash the Dark Mages against the arena walls. It had felt good to let his anger explode and lash out at those who had abused him. But would it stop there? What would happen if he began to enjoy the feeling of the power and anger as much Kumaradevi did?  Maybe that was her plan all along. Maybe she told Pishara to give him the sword with the mixed imprints. There were too many questions again and too many worries. Gabriel barely managed to get his breathing calmed before Kumaradevi strode across a wide garden courtyard.

As they approached, Gabriel sank to his knee and bowed his head in unison with Pishara and his guards. Kumaradevi barely slowed as she said, “Follow me.”

“Yes, Empress,” Gabriel said, rising quickly to his feet and walking behind Kumaradevi and her entourage of attendants.

“At my side,” Kumaradevi said, and Gabriel quickened his pace to walk next to her. “I hear that you have taken to declaring the hours of your instruction.”

Gabriel wasn’t sure how to respond, so he went for the middle ground between truth and apology as he said, “Only this morning, Your Grace.”

Kumaradevi favored him with a smile. Gabriel almost smiled back in response, it was so glowing. It was the first smile she had offered him since his initial day of imprisonment. “I am pleased that you have finally begun to show the potential I had hoped you possessed,” she said as they walked down another corridor. “As a reward, this afternoon you will accompany me to a special audience with the eight kings of my empire. Now that you have begun to show some promise, I want to make sure that my subjects are familiar with you.”

“Thank you, Empress,” Gabriel said, stifling a sigh of relief. He wasn’t going to be punished. He should have known. Kumaradevi always rewarded conquest.

“Tomorrow you will be given new tutors,” Kumaradevi continued. “Tutors who will have two concatenate crystals rather than one. You will be granted one crystal to use for training. Your old tutors will become your servants. You must learn to be a lord, and a lord must have servants. They will see to washing your clothes and sheets from now on. Pishara will continue to bring your food, however. It might not do to trust them with your meals.”

Gabriel closed his gaping mouth. Again, he should have known. He began to see the glimmers of an escape plan. If he defeated enough tutors, he might be trusted enough to be given freer reign of the palace. Freedom that could lead to escape. How many tutors and how many years might that take? He had no time to consider these thoughts. They had reached the audience chamber.

“The kings will arrive shortly,” Kumaradevi said, the enormous doors seeming to open of their own volition as she waved her hand before them. “The royal person must always be seen on the throne when her subjects enter the chamber. This way they are more aware that it is
they
who come to
me
. Possibly, I shall make them crawl the length of the chamber. That always helps them remember their place. Sometimes kings begin to believe they are more than pawns.”

A loud crash erupted behind them, shaking the room and sending vibrations along the floor and up Gabriel’s legs. He spun on his feet to see that the enormous chamber doors had been slammed closed. He glanced at Kumaradevi and saw that she was just as surprised as he was by the closing of the doors.

“What is the meaning of this?” Kumaradevi shouted at her attendants, her face contorted with rage.

“I have come to settle the check for my stay,” a voice said, ringing throughout the chamber so loudly that Gabriel threw his hands over his ears instinctively as he looked around for the source of the voice. A woman’s voice. A voice he remembered.

“No!” Kumaradevi screamed, and Gabriel followed her gaze back around to the carved throne of bones at the front of the chamber. There on the throne sat Nefferati, holding a small crystal, cupped gently in her hands.

“The bill is due,” Nefferati said, her voice still echoing throughout the chamber like a clap of thunder, “and I intend to pay in full.”

Kumaradevi raised her hands, and Gabriel could feel the power she began to focus through the seven concatenate crystals around her neck, but before she could fully grasp that power, an enormous explosion of light filled the chamber and he flew through the air. As he landed, he rolled and came to his feet in a crouch. He had received plenty of practice recovering from explosions in the last few weeks. Kumaradevi and the others did not recover so quickly. In fact, he and Kumaradevi were the only ones to get to their feet. The others seemed unconscious. Without thinking, Gabriel scanned the unconscious forms looking for Pishara. He didn’t know what would happen next, but he did not think she deserved to be trapped here in the middle of a battle.

Nefferati walked down the central aisle of the audience chamber now, and as Kumaradevi brushed disheveled hair from her face, the room erupted in bolts of lightning and fireballs. Stones fell from the ceiling and rose from the floors. The windows exploded, and shards of glass flew through the air like a mad flock of glittering birds.

Gabriel spun and ran. He heard Kumaradevi screaming behind him as he dashed down the aisle, trying to stay low and avoid the flying glass, leaping this way and that to avoid stones as they burst forth from the floor or came crashing down from above. He could hear Nefferati shouting curses, swearing in a rage of anger that had been kept boiling for years while she had been trapped in Kumaradevi’s prison of warped space-time. As he ran, he noticed a man running beside him. As Gabriel looked, his heart constricted in his chest and he nearly stumbled. Apollyon.

“Come with me,” Apollyon said, reaching out his arm. “To safety.” 

Gabriel did not hesitate, he ran for his life, ignoring the falling stones and the flying glass, running as fast as he could, away from Apollyon.

“Well, it was worth a try,” Gabriel heard Apollyon say behind him. Then he flew backward through the air, his mind falling into darkness, into sleep. His last conscious thought was to wonder why Apollyon’s hands seemed so gentle when they gripped him about the shoulders.

Chapter 20: Out of the Fire and Into…

The sound of birds chirping.

Insects buzzing through the air nearby.

A soft breeze caressing his face.

A gentle swaying motion that seemed to rock in time with his breath.

Gabriel was awake, but he did not want to open his eyes. Once he opened his eyes, it would begin. It would begin all over again. His captivity. This time at the hands of a man he feared as much, if not more than Kumaradevi. He had fallen from the frying pan to the fire to the jaws of the wolf. But his captivity wouldn’t really begin until he opened his eyes. Until then he could pretend he was somewhere safe. Somewhere like the castle. Or his old house. He could pretend he was lying on the grass in the backyard, dozing beneath the twin hickory trees that draped their branches over the back of the house.

“Ah, good, you are awake,” a man’s voice said. It was a lighter voice, not the gravelly voice of Apollyon that Gabriel had expected.

Gabriel opened his eyes and saw a brown-skinned man with close-cropped gray hair and dark brown eyes setting a tray with tea down on a small wooden table. The man was not tall, barely taller than Pishara, only a little taller than Gabriel. The man smiled as he poured two cups of tea and sat in one of two wicker chairs. Gabriel looked around his surroundings. He was lying in a hammock, which explained the gentle swaying motion he had felt. The hammock hung from the support posts of a spacious wooden porch that wrapped around a large log cabin.

As he rotated his head, Gabriel saw that the cabin sat on the wide plateau of a mountain. A long valley, surrounded by deep green a forest of pine trees, spread out below the mountain range. The sky above was a vast azure blue, spotted here and there with small white clouds. He wondered where he was. Moving slowly, he eased himself around in the hammock and lowered his feet to the floor. The man with the gray hair was smiling at him again. He was handsome, but the smile wasn’t like Kumaradevi’s smiles had always been. This man seemed genuinely happy. But happy at some success or because of someone else’s suffering? That was the question. Gabriel stood up from the hammock and walked over to the empty wicker chair.

“Sit,” the man said. “Please.”

Gabriel sat down, keeping his back straight and avoiding the cup of tea. He noticed that his aches and pains were gone. So too were the bruises on his arms. Someone must have healed him while he slept. He also noticed now that the serving tray held two sandwiches and a cup of blueberries. His stomach gave a grumble, but he ignored the food. He wondered how long he had been unconscious for his stomach to be so empty. He had eaten only a few minutes before accompanying Kumaradevi to the audience chamber, the thought of which brought back other thoughts as well.