Inherited Magic (21 page)

Chapter 65

John woke up lying on something rock-hard with a sandy grit to it and sweating. He sat up and tried to figure out if he was dreaming again. There was a small fire blazing a few feet away. He was lying on some sort of rock outcropping that overlooked harsh terrain dimly lit by the moon and stars. There was not a single artificial light to be seen. His arm ached, so he knew he wasn't dreaming and he had an idea who had brought him here.

“Are you going to tell me your name this time? Or are we gonna play the secrets game till we get bored with it.”

“No, the secrets are over.” The stranger/tribesman walked towards the fire out of the gloom and with an arm-full of small sticks and branches that he piled near the fire. He was back to his ragged cutoffs and spear. “My name is Augustus; most people just call me Augie though. We're in the Australian outback, to answer the next obvious question.”

“What do you want?” John looked around again and wondered what his odds were of finding his way home without help.

“As I said, I want to know how you came up with that pattern.”

“And?”

“I want your Primer.”

“I came up with it in a dream.” John smiled, knowing that it would sound like a lie. “And, you can't have the Primer. I'm not done with it yet.”

“You're limiting my options on what to do with you.”

“Is that another threat?”

“No, just a fact.” Augustus sat down and leaned against a rock. “You know, I used to be a banker, lived in London, and had a wife and everything. Then my uncle died and left me a wooden puzzle box with his estate. I've always loved puzzles, and this one was a challenge, took me weeks to open it. Guess what was inside.”

“A Primer, and a key.”

“Yep. Screwed my life up proper. I started seeing things and crazy things started happening around me. I never found a teacher, so control was hard to learn. Before I learned it though, my wife left, and I lost my job. I was losing it. I decided that it would be better to die than face a lifetime of madness. I packed the Primer and key back into the puzzle box and took it with me when I left. I had visions of throwing myself of the cliffs of Dover. Real dramatic and foolish.” He sighed. “I got there, and there was a group of people waiting for me. They all had Primers and offered to teach me. So I left with them. No one ever found my body, but my suicide note convinced everyone I was dead, so it was easy to vanish.”

“I don't want to vanish.”

“I know.”

“I assume that one of the remaining options is to kill me.”

“Yeah, you keep proving to be unpredictable and troublesome. A combination no one likes.” Augustus threw a few branches into the fire.

“Then teach me. I don't need the constant attention I've been attracting, but you have to admit, I was kinda screwed.”

“Some of us agree with that; it's what kept you alive. We are still worried about what you are going to do next.”

“I want to try and get Radha back one more time. After that . . . I want to live as quiet as possible and be ignored by the world. Finish school at least.”

Augustus laughed gently. “What is with you and that girl? She was pretty clear on never seeing you again.”

“I know.” John sat down on the hard stone and felt defeated. “So teach me, show me how this all works. But you can't have my Primer.”

“You can't use it to help anyone else see.”

“Why would I?”

“We are not going to be as easy on you as Owen was. A lot of what we have to teach has nothing to do with patterns and magic.”

“I'm good with that.”

“All right, then. I haven't had a student in a long time. I could use the challenge.”

“When do we start?”

“I'll be in touch.”

John watched a pattern wrap itself around him and felt dizzy briefly. As he watched the fire, Augustus shrank from view and his hotel room zoomed in around him.

“I have got to learn that trick.” John chuckled as he walked to the bathroom to bathe.

Epilogue

John’s arm was still in the sling, Eric had told him to wear it for at least another couple of weeks. He was going to have a nasty scar running almost the length of his upper arm, but he was alive. He was anxious and tried not to fidget in his seat as he waited. The coffee shop was almost empty, and that would make things easier for John, but she was late and even though he knew she was always late it made him nervous. He wondered if she was going to show or not and tried not to stare at the door. She did show though, and it did nothing to ease his anxiety. She didn't buy tea or anything; she just sat down across from at the corner table he had chosen.

“John, I don't want you stalking me and being creepy.” Radha was as pretty as ever, and for a moment John was speechless.

“I'm going to leave you alone after this. I just wanted to explain everything.”

“Like how your arm ended up in a sling? What? You got shot?” Her gaze was icy, and John couldn't stand the idea that she thought he was some sort of low-life criminal.

“No, I got cut badly while I was defending myself.”

“John . . .”

“Radha, its crazy, and you won't believe me, but I've been fighting to stay alive against a power-crazed mage. I learned magic by accident and got sucked into this whole nightmare that almost killed me. The only good thing that came out of it was that I met you, and you're the most amazing woman I've ever known. I don't want you to walk away and think I'm a criminal or crazy, I want you to know the truth and that I would do anything to protect you.” John stopped and knew he sounded crazy. Radha agreed without saying a word, by getting up to leave. “I can prove it! Please give me a chance,”

“John . . .” Her voice was full of sympathy and fear, but she hesitated then sat down again. “Fine, prove it.”

John looked around to make sure there was no one watching, used a simple pattern to very quietly fry the camera behind the counter. Using his body to shield his hand from the rest of the coffee shop he brought a flame to life in his palm. Radha gasped.

“It's a trick . . .”

“Wait.”

John gently tugged the pattern altering its outline and shape. The flame obeyed, changed shape and, got larger. He sculpted as he had practiced and hoped that she wasn't too terrified. After a few adjustments and a quick clean-up of the pattern, the flame grew to about the size of a tennis ball and changed shape to a perfect smiling copy of Radha's face. It only flickered at the edges and produced almost no heat. It was John’s best effort to date.

Radha gasped and stared at John in shock, glancing back at the flame sculpture several times before seeming to breathe again. “Is it real fire?”

“Yeah, but I'm keeping it from giving off too much heat.”

“John . . . How?”

“It's a very long story.”

“You really were protecting me?”

“Yes.” John closed his hand and the flame vanished.

“I'm sorry I was so mean . . .”

“You had no idea, and I couldn't tell you till now.”

“So tell me.” She smiled, and John’s heart melted. “Start at the beginning and don't hold back on the details.”

“It started when my father died . . . .”

The End.