The Ways of Mages: Starfire Page 6

  ***

  The waning moon night’s uneasiness focused on one point, or rather, an individual. Ryan made it to his quarters before it hit him hard. It was one of those times that he cursed his heritage. He pressed against the door, fighting the pain.

  The pain would not be fought. It drove deeper into his flesh and mind. Ryan thought he managed to lock the door before he was pulled under.

  Fires that smelled of sulfur and screamed like the damned roiled before his vision. Evil laughed in glee. Shadows of men were torn apart by Dark Sons. Ryan saw Duncan fighting valiantly with his men. But they were being separated by the damned.

  An equine face appeared. A face Ryan knew to be long dead. The Ucora was gold white with a flaming mane and a ruby horn. Black eyes met his and a monotone voice spoke.“My son of the Fire, the world is uneasy. The Dark plans something this night. Give warning to the sons of the Light.”

  Abruptly, the vision ended. Unfortunately the pain remained. Ryan gasped and clawed at the stone floor.“Tyé! Atyé! Wav tyé’ou!”He writhed, begging in old Arathin. Mercy! Pity! Have mercy on me! The pain knew of no such thing as’mercy’. It continued, raking its claws through tender flesh. It was times like these that he cursedhis gifts and his bloodlines. It made him feel better as he writhed. But, when he was not suffering under pain’s heavy weight, he understood why he had it. Pain was the price he paid for the warnings of the future. The severity of the pain let him know how soon the event would be. The length after the vision the pain lasted, unfortunately, determined the importance of the vision. The longer, the more important. When he cursed his heritage, it seemed unfair to him that he paid for something he never asked for.

  But when he compared it to the lives he helped to save by getting the warning to the right people in time, the pain mattered very little. It was much worse when he failed to get the warning to the right ears. Many lost their lives last time. And an innocent man felt that it had been his fault. Sometimes Ryan could warn, but the event happened anyway. Some things, regrettably, are stuck in time.

  A timeless moment later the pain finally ebbed enough that he could move on his own accord. He half crawled half dragged himself to the small fire place. The banked coals were too cold. His golden eyes turned black and the coals leapt to life. Ryan crawled into the fire’s warm embrace.

  Chapter Six- The Vanished Town

  Arathin- Plarn, Marlhema

  Zeeve the Moleci, or stupi according to Terana, gulped as she walked under his branch. He was going to return to Plarn, but not yet. He was glad he was going to let Terana cool off. She looked ready to spit fire.

  “What have you done, little moleci?”A voice behind him made him yelp. Zeeve did a one-eighty and stared. Before him was an intelligent eyed Red-Wing Black Bird. The Red wing was large for his kind and spoke perfectly good common marlnaim. There was only one good explanation for over large talking birds. A wizard. It took an immensely talented wizard to shape shift and talk. One an awful lot like Razyan Seithan.

  “Razyan, you did not have to scare me like that.”Zeeve chided the bird, losing the entire third person dialog that he had been uttering for the last week and a half.

  The bird chuckled.“Sorry, moleci, but you did call me, remember?

  “Yes, but you did not have to scare me to death!”

  “Funny, you look very much alive to me.”The Red-wing’s voice held an ounce or so of wicked humor in it. Zeeve didn’t think the comment was worth a response other than a shake of the head.“So why did you call me?”Razyan continued.“You did not get the chance to say.”

  “Yes, well, you can thank Jeremy for that.”

  “Jeremy?”

  “Yes, he interrupted me.”

  “I noticed.”Razyan drawled.

  Zeeve continued as if Razyan hadn’t said a word.“I was going to tell you that I wanted you to come here.”

  “I’m here.”Razyan pointed out.“What can I do for you?”Razyan asked, a little too politely.

  “I think I have found someone with magic.”

  “Who? The girl who you put into such a rage? The same one who called you‘stupi’?”

  Zeeve narrowed his eyes.“You are having way too much fun with that.”

  “I am easily amused.”Razyan agreed, bowing.

  “So I can tell.”Zeeve said crossing his arms as he leaned against a skyward pointing branch.

  “So, you think you have found a girl with magic.”Razyan said bringing them back to their original conversation.“Why?”He asked, cocking his bird head to one side.

  “Why? Did you not feel it earlier? There is a pool of magic that surrounds this place.”

  “It’s faint.”Razyan remarked.

  Zeeve nodded.“I know, but there is something that Brightens it. I believe it is the girl. For the last week I have been living at her home and I can almost see the tiny ripples whenever strong emotion grips her. Or a wish.”Zeeve added thoughtfully. His brown eyes focused upon Razyan again.“But I can’t really be sure. Do you have a stone?”

  Razyan snorted.“I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t have one. You know that I tell all of the mages at the Keep to carry a stone.”

  Zeeve looked apologetic.“Sorry. Can I use it?”

  Razyan smiled.“Take it.”From seemingly no where Razyan produced a glossy black velvet bag.“You remember how to use it, yes?”

  Zeeve nodded.“Put the stone in her hand. If it glows she has magic. If it does not...”

  “She doesn’t.”Razyan finished.

  “Razyan, there is just one problem.”Zeeve said, letting the bag settle on the branch. Razyan cocked his head.“This bag is a little too big and cumbersome for someone like me to carry down this here tree, through the forest, and to her house. Not to mention being undiscovered. She will be most unhappy if I was caught again. And frankly, I had enough fun being tossed around.”

  “Tossed around?”Razyan asked, his eyes glinting.“This I must hear.”

  “Ask Kadrean. Now, are you really going to force me to climb all the way down this tree and scramble through the forest and somehow survive the town?”Zeeve asked with puppy eyes.

  Razyan rolled his eyes.“If you want a ride, just ask.”

  “Fine, can you carry me back?”If the bird could it would have raised an eyebrow.“Please?”

  “Very well, I shall.”Razyan said bowing his head over one wing; much like a gentleman bowing to a pretty dame.

  “Quit being such a gentleman. I’m not a woman.”Zeeve grumbled as he scrambled onto Razyan’s back. He didn’t see the twinkle in Razyan’s eye that marked the beginning of a teasing storm.

  “Really? I never knew. Ow! Hey! No pulling the feathers!”

  “Ha!”Zeeve shouted triumphantly, waving a feather in the air.

  “I can’t believe you!”Razyan cried.“Ow! My feather! My poor feather! You monster! Ow, that hurt. You have no ideahow much that hurt. OW!”

  “So dramatic, are you done whimpering?”Zeeve asked the bird’s head.“You know,”Zeeve said stroking the glossy black feather.“it is hard to believe that you are a powerful wizard when you act like this.”Zeeve scolded with a shake of his head.

  “It is because I am a powerful wizard that I canact this way.”Razyan pointed out.“If I am to lug you back to the town we need to have an understanding. NO PULLING FEATHERS! Understand?”When no reply was forthcoming the Red-wing took the silence as an affirmative and took wing. Razyan was immensely, wickedly so, satisfied when he heard Zeeve yelp at his sudden movement.“You can hold on, just no yanking the feathers.”He informed the Moleci patronizingly

  “Okay, okay.”Zeeve hissed between clenched teeth.

  “Besides.”Razyan said thoughtfully.“You did give me an excellent opening with that woman comment. I just couldn’t resist.”

  “It is truly amazing that you are alive right now. One would think that you would have angered someone and ended up as a pile of ash.”Zeeve remarked.

  “That is why I am only easily amused when
I am around people I love.”

  “I feel the love.”Zeeve replied dryly.

  “You should. You are many people’s favorite one to tease.”Razyan informed him as they approached Plarn.

  “Is that why I am teased by everybody?”Zeeve shook his head.“Being who I am, you would think I would get more respect.”

  Razyan cawed his laughter.“Consider it a balance, my tiny friend. Your people treat you with all the pomp and circumstance you can take, plus extra. Among the people you escape to, you are treated to all the teasing you can take. It helps with your ego.”

  “Hmm.”Zeeve growled.“Why do they always call me tiny? I’m not!”He muttered into the Red-wing’s feathers.

  “It’s fun and you are.”Razyan answered helpfully. As they flew over Plarn he asked“Which house?”

  “That one there, near the square on the forest side.”Locating it the bird lifted his wings and dove. All the while the little Moleci screamed curses into Razyan’s feathers. Seconds before they could splat into the roof, Razyan pulled up and landed in a flourish.“Show off, you could have killed me!”The moleci whimpered as he tumbled from the bird’s back.

  “What, you don’t trust me?”Razyan asked innocently.

  “It’s hard to trust anybody when they are diving head first to a hard roof.”Zeeve grumbled.

  “Would you prefer I barrel rolled?”

  “Shut up and good bye.”

  “Wait moleci,”Zeeve stopped moving toward the chimney.“You mentioned Kadrean was here. Where?

  “At the headman’s house. There.”Zeeve pointed.

  “Thanks.”

  “Hmm.”The little Moleci hauled the bag and himself to the chimney and disappeared from sight.

  ***

  Kadrean was in the room he had been given. It was simple with its furnishings. There was a window across from the door. A bed rested next to the window. A closet was stationed to the right of the door and a small writing desk was right inside the door to the left. He reclined on the bed, thinking. This town, Plarn he believed it was called, was strange.

  What he had told the headman about being on his way to Ronair had been true, but what he didn’t say was he was taking a detour. He had passed the Teheadrillion Mountains for years, but never once along those trips did he notice Plarn’s Pass road. It was not well used, that was clear, but neither was it taken over by forest. Granted, there were other roads leading to mountain villages, but on resent maps, there were none that came to a town called Plarn. Plarn wasn’t even on the maps. He knew, he was studying one!

  Tap…Tap Tap…Tap…Kadrean looked up, searching for the noise. Tap. He peered at the window. There on the sill was a Red-wing black bird. It eyed him impatiently. Kadrean walked over to the window, unlatched it, and let the bird in. In a flurry the red-wing swept in. He flitted about the room once. He passed the desk, the closed door, the closet, and then settled on the bed next to the map. Kadrean closed the window.

  “Hello Razyan.”The Red-wing blinked. An emerald haze blanked the bird. When it lifted, Razyan the man was there.

  “It still puzzles me how you can tell.”Razyan said with a slight frown.“I didn’t talk or anything.”The thing was, Kadrean could tell a mage-animal from a true animal. He always had the ability; even before he knew he was a wizard. Razyan, who was a scientist/ scholar by nature, had been trying different experiments to see what exactly Kadrean’s magic used to tell mages from animal. So far, he could only say that somehow, Kadrean could feel another’s magic without concentrating like other mages. That answer was too vague for Razyan. He wanted to know exactly how it happened. Kadrean, on the other hand, didn’t really care. It was a nice ability to have and it had saved him from a few embarrassing situations.

  Kadrean shrugged.“I couldn’t tell you. I just know.”

  “Really?”Razyan asked raising a thick black eyebrow. He crossed his arms, capturing Kadrean with his dark green eyes.

  “Well, it could be I have seen you change so many times that I can just recognize tiny details that most people would miss.”Kadrean said with another shrug. That was Kadrean’s only explanation.

  “Hmm.”Razyan looked down at the map beside him. He picked it up.“Trying to plan where you are going next?”

  “No.”Kadrean replied.“I’m not.”

  Razyan looked up at him with a question in his eyes.

  “Do you see a town called Plarn anywhere on that?”Kadrean gestured for Razyan to read the map.“Do you see any town where this one is supposed to be?”

  Razyan studied the map with a frown.“No.”He said at last, returning his gaze to Kadrean.“Is this the most resent one? The one made earlier this year?”

  Kadrean nodded.

  “Odd.”

  “Indeed. Do you make anything of it?”

  Razyan snorted.“Make anything of it?”He repeated.“What am I to make up? A town pops out of nowhere and Zeeve claims there is a girl with magic here.”

  “Is that why you are here?”Razyan looked up a Kadrean with a frown.“Zeeve called you. I know I didn’t. Why else would you come to a town that‘popped’out of nowhere?”

  Razyan rolled his eyes.“Aye, he called me, but as soon as I answered him the link failed. I became worried that something terribly wrong had occurred. I traced the spell all the way here. And after all my trouble, he just wanted a way to test if someone had magic. He could have asked you for a stone.”

  “He could of, but I just arrived myself.”Kadrean shrugged.

  Razyan’s eyes glinted.“He told me earlier that he had been tossed around. Is that true?”

  Kadrean nodded.“The whole thing happened just after I arrived around noon.”Kadrean shook his head slightly. “Zeeve must have been really upset to come out into the open like he did…Say, who did he think has magic?”

  “He didn’t say a name.”Razyan thought a second.“But I did see her. She actually passed under the branch that I met Zeeve on. I’d say she was five-foot-five. Coppery-red hair…eyes I couldn’t tell you because of the angle, but she was young. Nineteen or so I’d think.”Razyan replied thoughtfully.

  “There is only one that fits that description here.”

  Razyan raised a brow.“How long did you say you’ve been here? Not even half a day? How do you know there is only one?”

  “Razyan, the whole towncame out to see me. There was only one redhead. Besides, she was the only one Zeeve talked to.”Kadrean’s eyes shadowed.“It was disgusting to watch. Some boys, twins by the look of them, started tossing Zeeve between them like a rag doll. It…”Kadrean shuddered.“And the worst part is you would have thought the adults would have done something about it. But they didn’t. They…they seemed to enjoy their children’s antics. I caught Zeeve and she took him back. When she left…I thought I saw steam rising from some of the buildings. One building was giving off quite a bit. It had a little garden in front. I think it might have been the twin’s house.”Kadrean snapped out of his reverie.“If anyone in this town has magic, I agree with Zeeve. That girl seems the most likely.”

  “Do you know her name?”

  “No. I…” There was a soft knock on the door. Razyan instantly shifted into a wolf, shook his head as if to say‘this won’t do’and changed into the Red-wing. He then disappeared under the bed.

  “Sir?”It was a woman’s voice.

  “Just a second.”Kadrean called. He made sure that Razyan was out of sight before he opened the door. Lila, the headman’s wife, was wringing her hands. She was a short, plump woman; a head or so shorter than he was.

  “I’m sorry for disturbing you, sir.”She said shyly. She took a breath before continuing.“But if you want dinner, it’s ready.”

  “Thank you; I’ll be down in a minute.”Kadrean shut the door. It unnerved him to be called‘sir’all the time. The Red- wing had come out from under his bed.“Do you want me to bring you anything?”The bird nodded.“I’ll bring you something, then.”

  Chapter Seven- In Three Night’s Time
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br />   Down in the dining room the Seedman family had gathered. There was Mrs. and Mr. Seedman, an older woman who had to be a mother-in-law to someone, and a man who was about thirty or so. His hair was a mud brown with flecks of gold; a mix of the Headman and his wife’s own hair leaning toward the headmen’s. He could have been well built, but for the thinness of his body. He looked almost like he was sick. Resting against the table near him was a crutch.

  When Kadrean entered the room, Sean Seedman and Lila stood. Lila gestured for him to take the seat near her son.“Sir, welcome.”She smiled.“Please sit. I think there are some introductions to be made.”Lila remarked, tucking a gold strand behind her ear.“You know my good husband. The older woman sitting beside him is my mother, Lily. And this is my son, Liam. Forgive him for not standing. You see, his leg has been paining him greatly recently.”

  Kadrean nodded understanding. That explained the crutch. “Thank you for troubling yourselves on my behalf.”He said before taking the offered seat.

  “There is no trouble.”Sean remarked as he and his wife sat.“We are honored. It has been so long since we have seen anyone from outside the town. Nineteen years in fact.“

  “Nineteen?”Kadrean asked, surprised.

  “Aye.”Liam added.“Nineteen years; ever since that woman stumbled into town.”

  “Liam!”Lila protested.“Do not trouble our guest with such talk!”

  “Trouble?”Kadrean asked puzzled.

  Lila glanced at him with her mouth slightly open. “Sir, it is not a story for polite conversation, especially at the table. Besides, it couldn’t possibly interest you.”

  “It might.”Kadrean returned his gaze to Liam. Liam’s eyes had a dreamy cast that seemed lost in the past.“A woman stumbled into town?”He prompted.

  “Aye. A pretty lass, even under all the dirt and leaves and blood. Pregnant too. Something had sliced the poor thing to near slivers.”Liam shook his head as he recounted.“She was pale as fresh snow from the loss of so much blood. Exhausted too. Couldn’t keep her feet under her when Chris and Sharon dragged the poor thing to the healer’s home. Kept mumbling nonsense, the only things that a person could understand were the words‘seith’and‘shadow’.