The Ways of Mages: Starfire Read online

  The snake’s head bent toward the doctor.“Well done, good and faithful ssservant…”The snake said silkily. It glanced at Grim, its gaze obviously mocking. It looked down at the bowing man again“You have sserved me well. And now you will sserve me again, one lasst time.”Before any could react the snake struck.

  Harding screamed as the snake nipped at his back. Teeth penetrated deep enough to be able to yank him up off the deck. His screams were shrill as it tossed him up into the air and caught him in its finely toothed maw. It chomped twice and Grim knew that it didn’t need to. It enjoyed the spectacle. Harding’s scream didn’t stop with his death, though. A faintly glowing mist was caught about the snake’s mouth. It condensed enough to resemble the deceased doctor. With obvious relish the snake made a slurping sound. The screams grew in volume and shrillness until there was nothing left of the mist.

  “Hmmm.”The snake sighed.“Now, where were we? Ah yesss, it iss time to play.”The fragile looking wings wrapped about the ship tightened and what could only be the snake’s tail rose on the opposite side from its head. With lightning speed, the tail hooked around main mast and yanked. The Lucky Blue Wing shuddered. Wood groaned as the main mast was pulled one way and the rest of the ship was twisted the other. Men’s screams were drowned under the screech of rending wood as the ship was gutted.

  Swift as any snake, the serpent plucked men caught in the main mast’s rigging in her teeth. If they came whole or not didn’t seem to matter to the monster. Glowing mist shrouded the serpent’s head. Their screams were too high. Inhuman notes that sank icy fangs deep into the souls of anyone in hearing distance. Done with the main mast, the snake tossed it into the maelstrom. Several things happened simultaneously then. Grim dove for the helm. The snake crashed down onto the crippled ship and dove into the depths. And the main mast came hurtling back around like a spear tipped ram. The stern, which had started to fold toward the bow, was jolted and crunched with the impact of the mast. The chaotic moment slowed for Grim as he braced himself against the helm. Dangling below him, miraculously clinging to his forearm, was JayDee. He was mirroring her clasp. Below her was Captain Willaim. The older man was clinging to her leg. Below him was the roiling sea, red with the blood of good men. Grim reached into his tunic, his hand touching the wooden cross.

  Time sped up again as the serpent resurfaced and struck at the bow. One of its wings bashed into the stern, knocking it deeper into the maelstrom. Grim heard JayDee scream Willaim’s name shortly before the strong currents shredded the doomed ship apart. GrimHolden lost his hold. Cold, black water caught Grim in its perilous clasp. Muted rushing filled his ears as he tumbled about. He couldn’t see a thing. He became conscious of his tightened hold on a soft, fine boned hand. JayDee. She was flailing about too; the maelstrom current was having far too much fun. Grim could hear the monster’s laughter in the depths as the Lucky Blue Wing lost her luck, crew, and existence.

  Grim was quickly running out of breath when something knocked into his back. He reached his arm around and grasped it. The object was wood and it was speeding in a set direction. Praying that this piece of flotsam was on its way to the surface, Grim tightened his hold on both it and JayDee.

  Sputtering, his head broke the surface. He dragged JayDee up with him. Blindly she latched onto their piece of flotsam. It was a fair size considering the bashing the ship received. Large enough for two to three people if they lay side by side with their feet in the water. It looked like it had once been part of the ship’s rail. Coils of rigging were still tethered to its pulley mount. JayDee and Grim pulled themselves as far onto the ship chunk as they could. Around them were other such ship pieces. On a few of them were struggling men. Others were desperately trying to help shipmates out of the water. Those with men were much farther away.

  As soon as she caught her breath, JayDee began screaming for her friend.“Willaim! Will! WILLAIM!”Her voice was hoarse. Tears and sea water streaming down her face.

  “JayDee, hush!”Grim commanded. The snake had resurfaced, picking off hapless sailors. Their cries joined the chorus of inhuman screeching mist. The sailors on flotsam nearest the carnage began to swim as quickly as they could. The snake would laugh and corral them back with a wing…or her teeth.

  “Oh no.”JayDee sobbed.“What are we going to do?”

  “Hide.”

  She looked at Grim as if wondering when he had gone mad. Thomas smiled grimly and pulled the wooden cross from his tunic.“Thank you, Lord.”He whispered as he kissed the cross; thankful that he hadn’t lost it in the chaos. He then prayed; thanking the Lord for keeping them alive then asked for his next idea to actually work. There was a spell that the Grimdian Knights used to remain unnoticed by forest game. He prayed that it would work on the open sea. The cross began to glow softly and a small pressure brushed the nape of his neck.

  “What did you do?”JayDee whispered.

  “Hopefully, made it so we would go unnoticed.”

  “Hopefully?”Her voice sounded strained.

  “God willing.”And the Lord did indeed seem willing. The serpent ignored them. They were swept away from the carnage. Grim and JayDee watched the destruction of their friends and prayed that they could save at least one. But they were carried farther and farther away and closer to the curtain of pulsating light. Pressure built on the back of their necks. It was getting very uncomfortable.

  “Look.”JayDee pointed. Coming closer on what used to be a yardarm was a very wet Jingles. When the wet and tired man was close enough, Grim threw a length of rigging to him. Jingles blinked at it, then followed the rope to them. He startled, his eyes very round. “I guess your spell is working.”JayDee said.

  “Grim! Ma’am! Where did you come from?”Jingles asked.

  “We just floated up. Grab the rope, we’ll pull you over.”JayDee replied. Jingles took hold of the rope and Grim pulled him in. “Have you seen anyone else?”She asked, helping to keep the yardarm close as Grim lashed the two pieces together.

  “I saw the captain earlier…”Jingles said looking about.“How come I didn’t see you till the rope came at me?”

  “Magic to keep us unremarkable.”Grim replied. He showed the still faintly glowing cross to the sailor.

  “Not that it really matters.”JayDee muttered.“I don’t see the serpent anymore and I see our death coming for us in two ways. Drowning.”She said nodding toward the center of the maelstrom. “Or the unknown fate of that.”She said staring at the curtain of rippling light. She was right. Grim acknowledged. It looked like the maelstrom was sweeping them toward the curtain of wildly moving magic. He narrowed his eyes.

  “What is that up ahead?”He asked. JayDee, who had been resting her head on her arms, looked up. Jingles barely managed to turn his head to see. There was a bobbing object ahead of them. The current they were in was pushing whatever it was too.“Might that be another of the crew?”

  “Too far to see.”She said.

  “Then let us get closer.”Grim said as he started to kick his feet, aiming their haphazard craft toward it.

  When they were close enough, JayDee reached out and pulled the object closer. It shifted and she cried.“Willaim?”Lashed to a barrel was the old captain. He opened bleary eyes when he heard JayDee’s voice.

  He cracked a smile.“Hi, Lady. I saved a piece of the old gal.”He held up a waterlogged limb. In his hand was a scrap of wood with a solitary barnacle and an etching of a wing.“Unless I miss my guess, it’s a piece of the darn rudder.”

  JayDee, Grim, and a tired Jingles laughed. At that moment the pressure increased to severely painful and the world turned into a kaleidoscope of colors.

  Chapter 1- The Odd One Out

  “I’ve often wondered why people bothered with trying to understand why the world is the way it is. I’ve found it much easier to just nod and then forge my own way.” Ryan Shadehand

  Arathin- Plarn, Marlhema

  Terana lay belly down on her bed. Propped on her pillow was her sketch book. Chin
resting in her left palm; her right hand passed over the paper, leaving behind it long arcs. Upon the paper the eagle took form. Drawing him sent shivers down her spine. She could sense his power. There had been something that teased her senses. It felt cool, like a nighttime breeze. It felt like something that she needed. It was an odd feeling and one that wouldn’t leave her alone. She knew that every time she saw the picture and thought of him, she would feel it. She continued drawing anyway. There had been a beauty about that eagle’s silhouette that she wanted to keep

  “That looks interesting. Miss. Terana draws well.”Zeeve said as he leaned against her left arm. Terana looked down at him. He had his head cocked as he studied the image. His tiny arms were crossed. Zeeve no longer wore his overlarge fur coat. Instead, he wore leaf green shirt and pants. More than ever before, he reminded her of a lvessa.

  “Thank you.”

  “Where’d Terana get idea? Zeeve want to know.”He asked looking up at her with soft brown eyes.

  She shrugged.“It is something I saw the other day.”

  Zeeve eyed the powerful hunter and raised an eyebrow.“Why does Zeeve get the idea that thing is huge?”

  “It seemed that way…”

  “Terana!”Came a muffled call. “Dinner!”

  Terana scrambled off her bed.“Coming!”She called. More quietly she added to Zeeve.“Now, remember what I said; you are to stay in here. No doing what you did yesterday.”Terana shook her head remembering. She had learned then that food attracted Zeeve far better than it did dogs. Yesterday he had somehow found his way to the kitchen. Terana counted her lucky stars that it had been she who had entered the kitchen first. Zeeve had been sitting on the edge of the pot containing Mother’s mutton stew; his face and hands covered with broth. If she hadn’t known who he was she would have screamed. As it was she had almost dropped the dishes she had been carrying in surprise. She had only just stuffed him in an apron pocket when Mira came in. That had been way too close for Terana’s comfort. “Definitely don’t do what you did yesterday!”Terana continued.“Promiseme you’ll stay in here! Please! I’ll bring you something, okay?”

  Zeeve slumped, but nodded.

  “Thank you, you’re a dear.”She said, gently patting his head. Before she left, she glanced once more at drawing. There was something missing still…she would have to fix it later.

  Zeeve watched her go with sad eyes. His stomach grumbled its remorse and begged his mind to reconsider the promise. Before his mind and stomach could come to a consensus, a whisper caressed his ear. Zeeve looked around before he realized something was off with Terana’s drawing. His little feet drew him toward the drawing, his gaze transfixed. In an hour long second he watched the drawing. A slight pressure touched his nape. The pencil lines shimmered with a silver fire and color bled into the picture like rain. The eyes of the eagle were an intense shade of blue that contrasted greatly with the black shadowed feathers. Power emanated from the eagle. So much power that it stunned Zeeve. There was another shimmer of silver and a wavy edged dagger flanked by two wings appeared behind the eagle in a ghostly gold. Zeeve blinked and the whole image reverted back to how Terana had left it. Zeeve shook his head. He eyed the picture, but it did nothing more.

  Did I see that? He thought as he turned his head to the doorway, listening to Terana race down the stairs. Feeling watched by the drawing, Zeeve hurried to the edge of the bed. I’m getting out of here. He thought, climbing down the blankets. His stomach grumbled with happiness because it had won in a roundabout way.

  Terana raced down the stairs and into the dining room. The entire way her lilac dress flapped. The rest of the family was already seated around the rectangle table. Father sat at the head and Jeremy sat opposite him. Mother sat nearest to Father and Mira sat opposite her. Next to Mira was a place setting for Terana herself.

  Terana started for her seat when Father made a throat clearing noise. She blushed. She had forgotten again. Plarn had very uptight traditions. One of which was that when a woman or young girl entered a room already occupied, she was to curtsy. This was especially true when the occupants were adults. Terana instantly dropped into a deep curtsy. Then she sat in her spot. She avoided both of her parent’s gazes. Both of which were cool. Ever since the night she had come home late she had sat in ill favor with her parents. She had also received the mother and father of all tongue lashings. If she had thought farmer Trellis’s reprimand couldn’t be toped in the amount of blood pouring from the ears that it caused, she had been seriously mistaken.

  Both parents had been worried that she had left or was seriously hurt. Who knew if bandits had come and stolen her away? Sometimes parents worried far too much. Worried and somewhat vexed parents had sword sharp tongues. This fact Terana learned relatively quickly as her ears not only bled, but were loped off. Since that day she had been restricted to the house. Which meant no wild romps about the forest in men’s clothing. It was one of those punishments you could live with. It just made life really dull.

  As dinner began, Terana watched her family eat through her lashes. Her gaze slid from one to the other and she could not shake the feeling that somehow she did not belong. Her family all had chestnut to dark brown hair. Her own was copper; the only copper hair in town. Hazel and brown described their eyes. She had blue.

  When she was depressed she would wonder if she was too different from them to really be part of the family. The whole town seemed to think that she didn’t belong, but her family assured her that she did. Now, after seeing that eagle, she wasn’t quite sure if they were right. She had never felt so out of place. Or so confused.

  Jeremy, who was two years her elder at twenty one, acted as a young man should; hard worker and father’s inheritor. Mira, who was four years younger than Terana, was what everyone else called a‘proper young lady’. Around most people, Mira acted with courtesy. Around Terana, she stuck her nose up in distain. Mira joined the towns’people in snubbing Terana.

  Terana herself was the odd ball and the town’s folk told her parents how sorry they where that they were stuck with her. They made it seem as if her parents had a choice. How did a parent have a choice? Terana guessed that a parent could decide to rid themselves of a child, but why would they? Was she somehow not Chris and Sharon Carpenter’s daughter? Terana shook her head, barring the thought from her mind. Of course she was the Carpenter’s first daughter.

  Dinner continued as it normally did; the usual family get together with quiet conversation between the rest of the family. Terana kept to herself, thinking. That was, of course, until something happened. Something having to do with an object going plop into the gravy. Something that looked an awful lot like Zeeve.

  The silence was deafening.

  Terana glance around nervously and swallowed. What was he thinking! Her thoughts panicked. If they didn’t see him just now I’m a dragon!

  “What was that?!”Mira cried out.

  When I get my hands on him… Terana thought as she stood.“It must have been a spider.”She said quickly as she picked up the pitcher.

  “That was one very big spider.”Remarked her father.

  “Well, father there are big spiders in the mountains. Especially in the caves.”Terana said trying to sound respectful, yet matter of fact.

  “I could have sworn it looked like a man.”Jeremy thought out loud. Helpful as ever. Couldn’t he just keep quite?

  “Whatever it was, it yelped.”Mira added.

  “Sister dear, there are‘yelping’spiders.”Terana told her in a tone of one speaking to a slow student. Jeremy frowned in a way that warned her that he knew she was making it up.“I’ll take care of it.”She rushed into the kitchen before Jeremy could say anything else. And there she dumped the gravy out into the sink.

  “Wee!”Zeeve cried as he slid out.

  “Shush Zeeve!”Terana whispered urgently.“You could have been caught! And I thought I had your promise that you would stay in my room!”Terana fumed. A spark of resigned curiosity made her ask
how he ended up in the gravy.

  “Zeeve fell.”He answered blandly.

  “Obviously, but from where?”

  “Rafters.”Came another bland answer.

  “What, if you don’t mind my asking, were you doing there of all places?”

  “Watching steak.”He said licking his lips.

  “Why?”She asked in a high voice.

  “Because it smelled so good.”Zeeve replied.“It teased Zeeve with its heavenly aroma.”He said dreamily.

  “You’re hopeless.”Terana said despairingly.

  “No, Zeeve just hungry.”

  “You’ll have to wait.”Terana informed him as she turned on the sink to give him a quick soak. As she scrubbed him dry she continued.“Maybe I shouldn’t even give you any food.”

  “What!? Why not?”

  “Why should I? You broke your promise.”

  Zeeve’s eyes got big.“Zeeve swear Zeeve won’t ever break promise again! Just feed Zeeve!”

  “Hmm. Get back to my room and stay there!”

  “But Zeeve will die of tummy gurgles!”Zeeve protested.

  “Your fault. Now go there and I’ll thinkabout feeding you.”She carried Zeeve in an apron pocket and only when she was seated again did she let him out. She watched him scurry out through the corner of her eye.“Sorry about that.”She said shaking out her napkin.

  “What did you do with the yelping spider?”Mira inquired.

  “I threw it out the window.”

  “Who where you talking to?”Jeremy asked as everyone else settle down to eating again. Why did he keep things going when it could have been forgotten?

  “I was telling the spider to go back to its home.”Terana said putting a bite of steak into her mouth. It was somewhat true after all.

  “YOU TALKED TO A SPIDER?”Mira asked dumbfounded.